A friend in the US recently asked me for some help with how to get started with integrating technology in a school which offers the IB Diploma Program. She observed that the faculty were very well versed in the IB Diploma and were very experienced teaching their courses, but there was a lot of reluctance with integrating technology in their classes. She was looking for some examples, particularly in Math and Science, for how teachers are integrating technology in Diploma courses, and was also looking for some recommendations for US-based trainers who might help to move the school forward. My response to her ended up being pretty long and detailed, and seemed worthy of posting it here for others to read and take ideas from. So here's most of what I wrote . . .
Another project that I have been working on with the IB has been the "Role of Technology in the IB". A pre-publication version of the guide is currently available on the OCC. In addition, some of us who were part of the small working group in the summer also presented a mock-up of the tech integration "AID lens" at the recent ECIS ICT conference in Munich. A copy of our presentation "Thinking More Deeply about the Role of Technology Integration in the IB Programmes" is here, and the short video that has been prepared by the IB is shown below:
What is important to consider with all of this, is that some IB Diploma teachers are reluctant to engage with technology integration as they do not see how to incorporate technology into their lessons or units, and they do not have the time to devote to learning and using some new tools. But tech integration shouldn't be focused on just tools - it should have a broader view of technology and the integration of technology. The more I think about the "AID lens", the more I like it, as it has this broader view of tech integration leading towards tech literacy.
Remember those reluctant teachers who don't use any technology in their class, at all? Are they really not doing anything for tech integration and building technology literacy? Depends on how you measure or look at it. Take for example, two History teachers who have assigned a research project focussed on different aspects of WWI. Teacher A has made the final product a 2000 word essay, while Teacher B wants students to be creative and produce a short video using a green screen as a news cast from the trenches. With the SAMR model, does the essay extend into the transformative levels, or does the news cast video? Many people see the video project as incorporating more tech, so it must be higher up the SAMR scale. Through the "AID lens", both projects come out about even as they both contain essential elements of Agency (ways of Being), Information (ways of Knowing) and Design (ways of Doing). Both projects are building tech literacy, just with different student products. Don't get me wrong here, I am not against the SAMR model (it certainly has its uses and it is really good for helping teachers think about tech integration). But how do you measure if something is transformative? Why would the video project be better for student learning? Just because it's flashier?
I have been struggling with this for awhile now, but I am beginning to see how the "AID lens" brings a different perspective into play (which I think is worth considering). Have a look at the "AID lens" and think about how it could be used in curriculum planning . . . what do you think?
Some after thoughts . . . here are a few more IB applicable tech tools to consider:
To get to your question about integrating technology into the IB Diploma, you are correct in your observations about some teachers being very reluctant to consider technology in their classrooms, especially when it comes to teaching IB Diploma courses. I treat all of the HS faculty as specialists in their fields because they are experts, and with a school the size of ASW (the HS is about 275 students G9-12) the faculty all teach predominantly stand-alone courses (there are very few courses in the HS let alone the DP, that are shared between 2-3 teachers). HS faculty often cite not having the time to integrate technology, often talk about the deep and wide curriculum to get through, or intimate that they just don't see how something might be used in their course. Seeing some piece of technology or a tool used within the context of a specific class can really tip the balance here, but finding those examples or the people who are actively "doing it" is the challenge. Moving people along is tough when they don't want to move, so employing peer coaches/tech leaders within your school, getting faculty to expand their professional network to connect with people outside of their school, and exposing your staff to new ideas/tools/pedagogy has worked for me here (but it is a slow process). One of the parts of all of this that we continue to struggle with is whether faculty "have to integrate technology" rather than just use it in class, as technology integration is not connected with teacher evaluation in any way. As a result, we are a school which is technology rich and has lots of great things going on, but we still have teachers who actively resist tech in their classrooms because "they are doing just fine without it, and their IB DP scores are pretty good."
With all of that in mind, here are some things/tools/ideas/projects/links for stuff that we are doing here at ASW in IB DP courses, which have grown out of our 1:1 Laptop Program (mostly since I changed our program to Macs three years ago). Much of this has developed from encouraging teachers to allow students to demonstrate/show/share their understanding in more creative ways using digital tools. Also note that I have tried to list things here which are beyond stuff which would fall within using Moodle or GAfE for communication/collaboration/ organisation:
- Teachers flipping their classroom by creating their own short instructional videos (Visual Arts, Economics, Math) or by using online resources with students (Khan Academy)
- Digital audio recording and podcasting/vodcasting for Languages
- Using digital simulations for abstract concepts or experiments (Explore Learning gizmos for Math and the Sciences)
- Students creating video products which demonstrate their learning/understanding in creative ways, such as for their Group 4 Project, using green screens for making History news casts from WWI, creating short visual summaries for acts from a play or chapters from a novel, or creating short animations to demonstrate/summarise a concept or process
- Apps and other specialised features for supporting EAL and Learning Support students (i.e. OpenDyslexic font and browser plug-in, or using text to speech features)
- Providing online databases for students to access scholarly journals and other peer reviewed research
- Connecting and collaborating with experts/students/classes remotely (i.e. our G10 English classes worked with classes in Colorado - https://ahsthisibelieve.
wikispaces.com, and our History classes recently participated in some online talks with historians from the UK)
- Graphing calculator simulator (Ti-Smartview) for better instruction and classroom use of the graphing calculators for Math
- Using an iPad with a fine-tip stylus as both a document camera and as an annotation device (instead of an interactive whiteboard)
- Pixton for creating graphical/cartoon summaries which demonstrate a student's understanding (this has been used with Languages and the Sciences very successfully)
- Online and free apps as resources (i.e. interactive unit circle for introductory trigonometry - http://www.touchmathematics.
org/topics/trigonometry, Quia.com for online quizzes and review, Videonot.es for annotating online videos, Piktochart for creating infographics, World Newspaper Map - http://newspapermap.com/ for comparing different perspectives on world/current events)
- Using Google Sites to document their CAS projects - all G11-12 students are now doing this, as of this year
- Using Google Docs to document the research process as G11 gets started with their Extended Essay, which can be shared with the IB DP Coord, HS Librarian and their EE Supervisor
This list has a few things which all IB DP students are doing/using, and I hope there's enough Math and Science stuff here to get you started. In terms of an American trainer that might be good for you, we brought in Tom Daccord (http://edtechteacher.org/
- ToK Google Site collection/aggregator using Scoop.it for current events and articles pertaining to different ways of thinking
team/tom/) and also sent some of our new staff to his summer institutes in Boston over the years, which have been very good. This helped to jump start some of the faculty, to get the ball rolling.
Another project that I have been working on with the IB has been the "Role of Technology in the IB". A pre-publication version of the guide is currently available on the OCC. In addition, some of us who were part of the small working group in the summer also presented a mock-up of the tech integration "AID lens" at the recent ECIS ICT conference in Munich. A copy of our presentation "Thinking More Deeply about the Role of Technology Integration in the IB Programmes" is here, and the short video that has been prepared by the IB is shown below:
Remember those reluctant teachers who don't use any technology in their class, at all? Are they really not doing anything for tech integration and building technology literacy? Depends on how you measure or look at it. Take for example, two History teachers who have assigned a research project focussed on different aspects of WWI. Teacher A has made the final product a 2000 word essay, while Teacher B wants students to be creative and produce a short video using a green screen as a news cast from the trenches. With the SAMR model, does the essay extend into the transformative levels, or does the news cast video? Many people see the video project as incorporating more tech, so it must be higher up the SAMR scale. Through the "AID lens", both projects come out about even as they both contain essential elements of Agency (ways of Being), Information (ways of Knowing) and Design (ways of Doing). Both projects are building tech literacy, just with different student products. Don't get me wrong here, I am not against the SAMR model (it certainly has its uses and it is really good for helping teachers think about tech integration). But how do you measure if something is transformative? Why would the video project be better for student learning? Just because it's flashier?
I have been struggling with this for awhile now, but I am beginning to see how the "AID lens" brings a different perspective into play (which I think is worth considering). Have a look at the "AID lens" and think about how it could be used in curriculum planning . . . what do you think?
Some after thoughts . . . here are a few more IB applicable tech tools to consider:
- Desmos online graphing calculator is wickedly good and you can get it on your iPad too
- Wolfram Alpha - online computational knowledge engine is very good at math . . . try entering an equation into it and getting it to solve it for you . . . and then walk through the steps for solving the equation one by one . . .
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