How do we stack up

...evaluating our technology integration

by Layne Henn

I received some good feedback from the last article about not going to "gadget crazy" in our classrooms.

It raised a couple questions for me. What is good? How do we interpret if what teachers/kids are doing in the classroom with technology is really making a difference.?

Below are a couple of good articles that help to ask some simple questions about how and why are we integrating tech.
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/03/evaluating_technology_use_in_t.php
http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt

Here's a excerpt from the Jeff Utecht article on the TechLearning Blog:

I remembered a Marc Prensky article in Edutopia in which he talks about the typical process of technology adoption:

Dabbling with technology
Doing Old things in Old Ways
Doing Old things in New Ways
Doing New things in New Ways

What if we turned these stages of technology adoption into questions that an evaluator could use during the evaluation process?

Is the technology being used “Just because it’s there”?
Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in Old ways?
Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in New ways?
Is the technology creating new and different learning experiences for the students?

This could be a simple list that any evaluator can use to decipher how the technology is being used in a particular lesson.