IT’s Elementary! by Boni Hamilton

I received the ISTE book “IT’s Elementary! Integrating Technology in the Primary Grades” by Boni Hamilton a few days ago and am feel like I have hit the jackpot.

Every page is full of information, resources and ideas for the Elementary School Technology Integration Facilitator. The author addresses many of the issues, I am going to be dealing with the next year. Mainly the process of educating our administration and faculty, that “Computers” will cease to exist as a Babysitting drop-off to allow classroom teachers to do their planning. To reach a true Integration many things need to happen, but a shift towards understanding that technology integration has to come form the classroom teacher and not from a computer lab attendant or teacher has to be a primary goal. The book gives concrete examples of the author’s progress at her school and includes sections about the administrator’s, classroom teachers’ and technology teacher’s role in the process.

The term Technology Integration is still under a dense fog among many. It is a mystery what it actually means and how to achieve it. The main opinion seems to be that technology is a separate subject with its own curriculum. It is a big shift to move away from the question “What programs will you be teaching in “Computers” and towards “What tools can help the classroom teacher teach in a different way, from a different angle, connect to the content that would not be possible any other way, etc.?”

Integration is NOT the use of managed instructional software, where the computer delivers content and tracks students’ progress. Integration is NOT having students go to a computer lab to learn technical skills while the classroom teachers stays behind to plan or grade papers. Integration is NOT using the Internet to access games sponsored by toy manufacturers or popular TV shows. Integration is NOT using specialty software for drill and practice day after day. Integration does not replace a teacher with a computer. Integration is when classroom teachers use technology to introduce, reinforce, extend, enrich assess and remediate student mastery of curricular targets.

I am thrilled to read that Boni Hamilton also advocates the dissolution of the computer lab as part of a special rotation. Although I was hoping for “Computers” to be dropped from the Resource Rotation at our school this upcoming year, we compromised and gave each classroom a designated time it would come to the “TechConnect” space. This weekly time slot will allow each teacher to have a “designated opportunity” to use a space with 23 computers and an LCD projector (already set up and ready to go) as their students’ “additional learning space”.

…the computer lab has to become an extension of the classroom. Teachers refer to them as a “additional learning space”.

Classroom teachers will not leave the classes with us, but will actually continue to be the co-teachers, who will have written lesson plans in weekly tech planning times in conjunction with the Tech Integration Facilitator.

Unless classroom teachers accompanied their students to the computer lab, no one would integrate technology with classroom content.

The example lesson plans and a suggested template for “Collaborative Unit Planing Sheet” are coming in just in time to have some guidelines while we prepare for pre-planning, getting ready to start THE SHIFT!!!
I highly recommend you checking this book out, if you are remotely connected with technology in an elementary school. To download the chapter excerpt, look at the table of content or to order, go to the ISTE site.