EDUC 7105 Module 5 Blog Post

As I have learned more about educational technology, I have taken a deeper interest in encouraging other educators to use new technology in their classrooms. In a previous course, I surveyed the teachers in my school on their use of the existing technology we have in our school and their feelings towards applying them with students. As technology has become an integral part of our curriculum, more teachers seem to want to use it with students but do not have the confidence or proper training and knowledge to use it effectively.

One of the newest technologies we have integrated into our classrooms are student SMART response clickers. These can be used for assessing student knowledge with instant results, which allows for immediate feedback and whole group review. The students seem very motivated to learn and participate using the clickers, but the teachers have expressed that they would like more training on how to use them and create assessments. With the overwhelming amount of work already required from the teachers, they are having trouble finding the time to create meaningful assessments and get students’ full cooperation in learning how to properly use them. This has resulted in only a few teachers using the SMART response clickers on a daily basis, some using them on a weekly basis, but a good majority not using them at all.

According to Keller’s ARCS Model, in order to motivate learners the instructor must focus on attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (Driscoll, 2005). In my school’s current integration of our new technology, we can gain and sustain teachers’ attention towards their daily use by varying training and instructional presentations of the clicker functions. Each grade level could receive specific training on how to apply their curriculum content towards assessments using the clickers. Their use is already relevant to the teachers because of the ease of getting results of student assessment and having the ability to do an immediate review with students of the concepts that they do not seem to grasp. To build teachers’ confidence in using the SMART response clickers with students, they can create their own goals and guidelines for instructing students on what is expected from their use. As teachers practice creating assessments and using their results, they will become more confident in using them as an instructional tool. Student learning will continue to improve and teachers will see results from the assessments that they create, becoming satisfied and more likely to continue using them.  

Reference

Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.