Technology Coach Three Phases of Educational Technology
In helping others to understand the vast world of educational technology, I have found that it is often helpful to break different types of activities into one of three phases that typically exist in educational technology. Often, teachers will begin at phase one, and may or may not move through the other two phases when planning lessons. It is also important to understand that each phase is not exclusive to itself, but rather is a scaffold or support to another phase. All three phases can be readily seen at Jonas Salk High-Tech Academy. Phase I – Using Technology to Present Dynamic Lessons
This is arguably the most popular and widespread of the three phases. There are many reasons for the popularity, first of which is often a limitation of equipment. Not every classroom is equipped with student workstations or mobile labs. It is becoming more common, however, to find a laptop (or desktop) and a presentation device such as an LCD projector in today’s classroom. In addition, many teachers have document cameras, interactive white boards, and sound amplification devices at their fingertips. It follows that teachers often begin their journey with educational technology by presenting information in a new and dynamic way. Presentation software such as Microsoft Power Point and Apple’s Keynote are powerful multimedia engines capable of presenting still images, full motion video, sound, and animations. These presentations are in the language of the digital native and many teachers report more engagement and “buy in” when this type of lesson is presented. Additionally, utilizing technology in this fashion still leaves the teacher in control of the classroom and lesson while they are learning to use these powerful tools. Finally, dynamic multimedia presentations are becoming more integral to distance learning. Most popular presentation software tools now allow some sort of exportation to a web based format thus allowing students who have outside access to view the presentation as many times as necessary.
Phase II – Using Technology to Access Information
This phase naturally occurs when students begin to take an active roll by touching a keyboard. This is a wide category and can include everything from “web-based research” to using a software application to work on certain skills. Cyber scavenger hunts, webquests, and simulations, such as tracking one’s stocks, can all fall somewhere into this phase. In some cases, students may finish an activity in which nothing was “produced” yet information was accessed and possibly manipulated. It is also possible that Phase II simply acts as a support mechanism for the more involved Phase III.
Phase III – Using Technology to Produce and Share Products
Whereas Phase II is mostly the realm of “web 1.0” or a read only web, Phase II falls squarely into the world of “web 2.0”. The biggest difference with Phase III lessons are that they ask students to finish with some sort of product that others can view. Clearly, it is difficult to work into Phase III planning without utilizing some Phase II methods, although it is possible for students to produce authentic works without traditional types of research. In this case, students are not simply consumers of information. They are now creators of information. The key in this type of activity is that students have left a mark somewhere on the world of cyberspace. It can be as simple as responding to a forum, or as complicated as creating a web-based project to present content to others. The most important aspect to realize is that Phase III involves students publishing some type of work to a larger-than-traditional audience. To complete the circle, it is often advisable to offer feedback from the authentic audience in an age-appropriate way.
mov file: This is a "movie" or multimedia file and can be opened with an multimedia player such as QuickTime. Download the free QuickTime Player for PC or Macintosh.
.kmz file: Google Earth delivers a 3D digital model of the entire Earth via the Internet. The .KMZ file is a standard .ZIP file that can be opened with any unzipping utility. Free download is available at http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html.
