Transformational Technology is a way to use assistive technology in the classroom. In our eyes, it is not a specific type of tool, more of a style of using the tool. As a grade eight teacher of students with severe learning disabilities, one of my jobs is to enhance student understanding of assistive technology.
Over the last few days we have been talking a lot about why we are here. All of the students know there are three main reasons... three GREAT BIG reasons! First, is reading. Students are emersed in reading and we utilize many different strategies to teach reading. The second reason is self advocacy skills. Students, not just students with LDs, need to know how to get what they need. The last reason we are all here is to get better at using our technology. What does all of this have to do with transformational technology?
If you have been reading our blog, we have been posting mainly about the different ways we use technology to our advantage. As we have been talking with and listening to, George Couros, we are trying to become "creators of digital media" rather than always being "consumers of digital media". The principal here at Sagonaska posed the question, "Could the students here at Sagonaska have completed the task without the use of their technology?" This is the driving question for transformational technology.
Can students express their learning without their technology? If teachers OR students answers yes to this question, they are not using transformational technology. Simply put, transformational technology is a way for students to express their learning in a way that they couldn't have without the use of assistive technology. In a time when the internet makes the classroom a global learning space, is it okay to simply consume content rather than create it?
As a teacher, I do not think it is enough to be a consumer of content all the time. Personally I think that it is very important to take information in, consume it, then think about it and add your own ideas to it and present it in a different context. Teachers would call this synthesizing information. I believe this is how we raise the bar, and come up with new ideas.
ReplyDeleteSharing is extremely powerful. Through sharing we can learn new things, connect with others and develop new perspectives. I think sharing works best when it’s reciprocal. As long as sharing comes from an honest place, regardless of how the message is conveyed, then sharing is a beautiful thing.
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