Growing in the SAMR Model

My school has a one to one MacBook program.  Every student that I teach brings a school issued lap top to class, and we do many different kinds of things using technology.  There are good ways to do this, and there are bad ways to do this.

The first year of our program (four years ago) was amazing.  We all learned new tools and how to express the same material in new ways.  Kids were making videos left and right, and it was all new and exciting.  As happens with many projects, we reached a plateau.  In the second year, we reverted into what was comfortable while keeping a sort of veneer of technology over it.  This is the way to fail with technology.  Our awesome technology team recognized this and made sure that we would keep growing.

Enter the SAMR model.  If you are in education, you probably know what the SAMR model is and can skip this paragraph.  For the uninitiated, SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.  As you move from one level to another, you increase thinking level, creative skills, 21st century tool usage, etc.  An example of Substitution would be taking notes on the computer.  It is essentially the same as taking notes on paper with some slight improvements (search ability, the ability to input pictures, etc).  Augmentation means that the technology provides a feature that couldn't have been done to the same project (e.g. inputting links to youtube videos to augment written work).  Where you want to be is called "above the line" because the M and R portions of the model bring you into the good pedagogical places.

That first year of the program, we had jumped from nothing to the S and A levels of the scale.  It was exciting because it was new.  Jumping straight to M and R would have been overwhelming for everyone, so it was appropriate that we were at that level in the first year.  After that plateau, our awesome tech team (Can you tell I like them?) encouraged us to LEVEL UP!  They made it fun by inventing "missions" that we could earn badges for completing.  The missions involve using new tools, watching TED talks on education, speaking at a faculty meeting about technology, etc.  We earn the badges by doing discussion board posts.

Another addition was the technology integration meeting.  Each quarter, we meet with the media/tech specialist to discuss how we would like to implement technology and how she can help us do it.  At our first meeting this year, I wanted to hit the R on the SAMR model.  R means Redefinition.  It means accomplishing something that was unthinkable before we began using technology in the classroom.  We decided that we would have my 8th grade make their own website about the chemical elements.

In my next post, I'll tell you how that website is going.