NOT Easy BUT Not Impossible

Actively engaging in ICT for Reading has caused me to reflect on the degree of ease for technology integration in our classrooms. I’ve determined that in spite of all the evidence that it can help learning, technology integration in schools is not easy to achieve. Now I said “not easy”, but I did not say not possible. It's important to integrate technology appropriately. I advocate considering what is known about how people learn , the role technology may play in their learning and how that knowledge might provide guidelines for appropriate uses of technology that can help students and teachers. In preparing my lesson plans and my Web 2.0 thought paper, I conceived of a theoretical framework for thinking about how technology can support Reading instruction. This framework is based on four broad principles but, in this post, I choose to focus on two.

* Learning occurs in context.

Read the following sentence: "The notes were sour because the seams split."Although the words in the statement are common and familiar, it is quite likely you still found the sentence confusing. If you consider that the sentence is describing bagpipes , I suspect it would then make much better sense. My point here is that without an appropriate context, comprehension and learning, generally, are difficult. Keep in mind, however, that learners will attempt to make sense of anything unfamiliar, just as you attempted to make sense of that sentence. When they do so, they draw upon prior understandings and experience, but the meanings they construct may be quite different from what was intended if they cannot activate an appropriate context for learning.

* Learning is active.

A Chinese proverb says “Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand.” This speaks the importance of getting learners mentally involved in learning activities, generating connections between what they already know and what they are being asked to learn and constructing meaning from their experiences. Scardamella (2002) states that the focus of learning shifts from covering the syllabus to working with ideas when students become active participants in the knowledge construction process . I believe that using technology tools "to think with" facilitates working with ideas and learning from that process.

Lemoy Petit-Hunte