Where do I fall on the Technology Integration Matrix?

Click here to see the Technology Integration Matrix

I would like to preface this first by stating that there are so many activities that I would love to do with my high school students that are currently blocked at school. Anything that can be classified as social media or blogging cannot be accessed. I’m hopeful that this will change, and the examples on the Technology Integration Matrix have given me a lot of ideas. I also only have access to computers and a language lab once every two weeks. Other than that, I just have an LCD projector in my room, so…

It’s difficult to rate myself on this rubric because I spend so little time in the lab. It’s also difficult because I have done activities that fall into almost all of these categories. I would say that I am more consistently on the adaptation level, but again I do have some projects that could be rated higher. For example in the active section I would rate myself as adoption because many of my activities are still heavily teacher led. In the collaborative section with some projects I could rate myself very high. For example I have a video project at the end of the year in which students create a product via their choice of technology.

I would say it would be easier to rate myself on this scale perhaps if I taught a class that used project based learning. Then I would have a more consistent idea as to where my teaching generally falls on the scale. By the end of this year, I don’t really see much of a change happening due to finals. Essentially in the month of May we can’t evaluate our students because they have so many standardized tests. Having said that, I do think that this scale is valuable and could be a great resource when designing projects for future years. If (and when) I gain access to the appropriate technological tools to make some of these activities a possibility, I would not hesitate to give these ideas a try. I’ve been dying to have my students create a blog that features podcasts or short videos. I even really liked the idea of Padlet, but today when I tried it at school it was blocked. That could be so useful in my classroom.

In order to make growth happen (without adding more technology or access), I would really have to sit down and modify a number of my projects with this scale in mind. It’s difficult with limited time in the lab, but I do think that some of these more advanced ideas could be possible. I loved the examples given in the Technology Integration Matrix, and they have given me a lot of ideas for future years.   

rating: Active - adoption, Collaborative - adaptation (sometimes infusion), Constructive - adoption to adaptation, Authentic - adaptation, Goal Directed - adaptation