Nowadays technology seems to be a familiar tool in the classroom. But, are we using it in a successful way? Or, are we using it just to replace the old model without bringing any profits to the teaching?
Sometimes when we plan our lessons we include the use of technology as a way of simplifying our work that can easily be done in the traditional way, for example, showing a text in a Power Point presentation, instead of giving to our students a printed copy of the text. However, there is a growing tendency to change that perspective that tries to use technology in a more profitable way where we can achieve a significant improvement in our teaching. So, instead of showing the text in a digital presentation, why don’t we upload it to a shared platform where students can write comments and give opinions about the topic?
This new thinking is expressed in the SAMR model, being the acronym of Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition.
The following image describe the SAMR model with an analogy to coffee, which we think it can help to clarify the concepts.
For instance, let’s analyze a didactic sequence that we designed for a group of 1st year students at a secondary state school with an A1 level of English, where we included a Prezi presentation. (You can access to the presentation here). The students’ final task is, in groups, to design and describe their “ideal house” and present it to the whole class with a Prezi presentation.
In this presentation, there is a pre-reading task in which we will show them four pictures which illustrates rooms of famous families’ houses so they can hypothesize. We will ask them questions as guidance.
After that, we will show them two texts and they have to match them with the correct picture shown before. Finally, as a post reading task, students have to reconstruct two texts.
The aim of the presentation is to provide the students with the opportunity to practice the language, focusing the attention especially on the features of the description (there is/are, vocabulary related to furniture and prepositions) and, hopefully, will help students with their final task.
We consider that our presentation is at the level Modification since the use of Prezi allowed us a flexible movement between slides (it breaks the mold of the linear display of slides, typical characteristic of PowerPoint presentations), and it also gives the possibility of zoom in and out. Moreover, the reconstruction of the texts are more interactive with the aid of technology and the instant possibility of feedback. Besides the practical features of Prezi, including this kind of presentation shows our students that we are trying to use current tools that will not only help their learning experience, but also bring something new and interesting to the table.
SAMR model is a useful parameter to take into considerations whenever we plan to incorporate technology in our teaching, without falling to adopt the “law of minimum effort”. As we have said in previous posts, technology runs our lives in a substantial manner, therefore it is imperative that we should try to include it in our lessons in the most successful way we can.
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