Specific Recommendations for Technological Integration

We can all agree that simply introducing a new tool (iPads or Populi for example) will not enhance education without a corresponding change in approach and strategy designed to harness the strengths of the new learning medium. That's why we can mandate a tool like a learning management system, i.e.: "All teachers must use Moodle..." without seeing any real improvements in student performance, for example. Simply swapping paper for online assignments is represented by the lowest rung on the SAMR diagram - substitution. We simply do whatever we did paper and pencil but in a new format.

We can probably all also agree that technology must be aligned to learning objectives and desired outcomes at the course and program levels. In other words, technology must always fulfill an educational need. That's why, rather than planning my course on the assignment/lecture level, I try to begin on the learning objective level so that strategies for instruction, assessments, and follow up (corrective teaching, for example) flow from what I want students to accomplish in a course. After the course is carefully mapped out in this way I ask myself, "What technological tools exist might that could accomplish these goals more effectively than the methods I'm currently using?" 

Here is an example. Let's say my learning objective states, "Students will demonstrate a deep, personal empathy for the unique needs of lost tribal people and express a desire to see tribal people reached with the gospel."  Based on this objective:

• I could ask students to watch a video from Ethnos360 briefly explaining some of the barriers to tribal work (language, geography, poverty, whatever) and then discuss in a forum on Populi whether or not students feel it is "fair" that tribal people have so little access to the gospel. 

OR

• I could ask students to clip pictures and video from the Ethnos360 website for a digital scrapbook using Pinterest and then share their Pin boards in small groups, explaining why they chose the pins they did and how those pins express the needs of lost tribal people. 

OR 

• I could ask students to brainstorm possible barriers to the gospel faced by tribal people in a mind mapping software like Coggle.it based on original research conducted in a database such as ALTA. I could then have students write an MLA paper based on their research and present their papers on Populi. 

So the short answer about how to integrate technology into assignments is that it depends. Always make sure that the technology serves a real educational purpose in a more effective and engaging way than simply having students read it in a book. Remember that whatever technology you choose will need to be tested before use and evaluated after use to make doubly sure it accomplishes the targeted objectives.