The Heart of Tech Integration

Last week was eye opening, enlightening, and thought provoking for me. It all started at a district level technology committee meeting. Our Superintendent came to speak to the committee about his vision for technology usage in our district. There were things that I could not believe I was hearing...in a good way. To hear the words "game based learning" come from the number one in your district was shocking...again in a good way. Game based learning seems like a forward thinking concept and not something that is mainstream. But to me, this was something minor. It was everything that followed that got my attention.

He then talked about BYOD and all the possibilities it represented. Again, this was great to hear district leaders talk about this but it was not the highlight for me. I became excited when all these buzz words and hot topics came together to talk about student learning. When talking about devices, game based learning, connectedness, etc., he showed that he understood our students and the world in which they live. This world of information at your fingertips and the possibilities of unlimited connections is where our students thrive and where we need to take instruction.

So in the tech committee meeting where we could just strictly talk about the technology, the discussion was brought right back to student learning. That is the heart of technology integration. All of the technology components are important but none are more important than the product of student learning. Student learning should always be the focus with technology just being a component.

I am excited to see where this will go in my district. You beat the drum and keep pushing for change but it takes buy in from the top. It looks like it could be there and I hope we are all ready for some positive change.

I think this video that was shown at the meeting sums things up pretty well.