Blog Post #3: Student Centered Technology

Student Centered Technology

Introduction

     According to Scholastic.com, when a teacher differentiates instruction, they "observe and understand the differences and similarities among students and use this information to plan instruction." (Robb, n.d.). More simply put, differentiating instruction is teaching the same idea in different ways for different students. Integrating technology into today's classroom is just as important as teaching to different knowledge levels and learning styles. Fortunately, these two objectives can melded together in a way that benefits all students. Differentiating instruction is can be done through technology by using programs designed to work specifically with students of all ages and skill levels and this will help to reach more students.
Technology to Differentiate Instruction

Google “Docs”:    

Google Docs is a word document, slide presentation, and spreadsheet creator powered by Google. All programs are free to use and because they are stored online, students can access their work from any computer with internet access and can easily work in groups to simultaneously edit the same document on separate computers. I can use this program in my own classroom to differentiate instruction by allowing students to either write an essay or create a multi-media presentation for the same assignment. This allows for students to prove their understanding of the concept regardless of their writing skills. This matches Section 2.b of the ISTE standards for students; "Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats" (ISTE Standards: Students, 2007).

Read, Write, Think (.org): 

Part of understanding student differences is understanding that students have different levels of understanding of certain concepts. One site that I would use in my classroom is readwritethink.org because it has a multitude of tools available for varying grade levels that assist students in organizing their thoughts or writing something that is meant to be formatted a specific way. This tool is student-centered because it has tools available to help every grade level with even basic things like correctly formatting letters. If students need to, they can use these tools to go down to the basics and more advanced students can use the more advanced organizing tools. This site correlates to the ISTE Standard for Students section 4.b; " Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project" (ISTE Standards: Students, 2007).

Figment (.com): 

Figment is a site that allows students to take part in community discussion and critiquing of the writing of students their age and grade level. The site is student centered because it focuses on students reading the work of other students and giving and receiving feedback from their peers. As children from the same grade level typically have similar writing skills, they are all able to learn from each other. This aids in differentiated learning, and I will use it in my classroom in the same fashion, to help those who are better writers learn to give efficient feedback and to help those who have lesser writing skills learn from those who have more ability. This correlates with the ISTE standard 5.b; "Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity" (ISTE Standards: Students, 2007)

Pros and Cons

As with any other pedagogical system, the idea of differentiated instruction has both pros and cons and using technology to differentiate technology is no exception. On one side of the argument, the upsides include the fact that using technology in a multitude of different formats in class will provide students with invaluable experience with the technology they will use as working adults. It is also very easy to make lesson plans with differentiated instruction using technology because the internet provides hundreds, if not thousands, of helpful instructional sites. The downsides of using technology include that not all students will have the same level of knowledge regarding the use of it and this will require more instruction time. Another downfall of this form of differentiated instruction is the fact that teachers will need to spend even more time composing lesson plans that align with both technology and curriculum standards as "the act of individualizing instruction by targeting every learner is an immense planning challenge." (Hamilton, 2015).
Concluding Paragraph

Differentiating instruction is a very effective and highly considerate form of pedagogical thinking as it takes into account all students learning styles, interests, and abilities. Teachers compose several similar lesson plans that allow students to learn and demonstrate the same material but in different forms that allow students to best absorb the information based on their learning styles.  Like all other pedagogical systems, using technology to differentiate instruction has both its perks and pitfalls. Ultimately, however, using technology in different ways to cater to student’s individualities will allow students to gain invaluable experience with the technology they will use as working adults while allowing teachers to expand their lesson plan horizons and liven up outdated or tired material while still teaching the curriculum that must meet common core state standards.

References:

Hamilton, S. (2015). Pros and cons of differentiated instruction. Para 4. Retrieved from: www.ehow.com/info_7974427_pros-cons-difrentiated-instruction.html

ISTE Standards: Students. (2007). International Society for Technology in Education. #3 &4. PDF Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-students

Robb, L. (n.d.). What is differentiated instruction? Differentiating Reading Instruction. Para 1. Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-differentiated-instruction