Reflecting on my teaching through the SAMR lens.

This week, due to a workshop being held on the SAMR model at Jakarta International School, I had the opportunity to reflect on how I am trying to transform learning through technology. Although I had heard of the SAMR model before online and at a recent conference, I had never really taken the time to reflect on my own practice through the SAMR lens. 

Here is a brief introduction to the SAMR model from a fellow MSU Ed Tech alumni Candace Marcotte:

First of all, I tried to work out what SAMR meant to me and I tried to brainstorm some of the learning engagements I had used in the past and see where they lay on the SAMR continuum. 

For the past 6 years I have been teaching a unit related to Landforms and Natural Disasters. Some were earth science based whilst others were social studies and some a mixture of both. With the SAMR model in mind I reflected on how I have, and still am trying to ensure that my learning engagements are moving from the enhancement stage to the transformational stage. In this table I have shown learning engagements I have previously used when teaching these units and then how I have tried to step IT up to the transformational stage by using more creative and collaborative engagements to enhance student motivation, engagement and success. 

 For me some of the key ideas for transforming learning seem to be creating, collaborating and publishing to a global audience. Obviously, for elementary students we have to take privacy laws in to account even more so, they are not legally supposed to be posting on social media sites so this does restrict access to a global audience and to global collaboration. With that said though, elementary students can still strive to create products that can reach a global audience. They can, under teacher supervision, collaborate globally and thus  transform their own learning making it more meaningful and engaging for them. One example of this was when my class produced a one minute peace video for a global peace project. This impressed my students so much that this could be done, that sitting in Accra, Ghana we could create a video with schools all over the world. Equally engaging for my students was when we were able to Skype the author Cornelia Funke. Although this wasn't redefining learning it is definitely something that was not possible before, Skyping an author in L.A. whose book we are reading in Jakarta, Indonesia.

  One of the most exciting ways I think for elementary students is to create e-books using Book Creator or iBooks Author. My students have found the idea of publishing e-books highly motivating and really makes them really think about the quality of their work, and are a lot more engaged as they realise they really do have to act like writers,  proofreaders and publishers.

I'm going to keep the SAMR model at the forefront of my planning as I get to grips with the opportunities that my new 1:1 laptop class avail to me, and how I and the students can transform learning in my class.  

Here is an excellent graphic that was shared during the workshop at JIS which can help see how different apps can help in leading us all to transform our learning as we move from substitution and augmentation and users of content , rather than modification and redefinition of learning and become creators of content for a global audience. 

http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/padagogy-version2.png