Final Project - Technology Integration Matrix

We all know of the teachers who, if asked, could not explain why they have integrated a specific technology into their lesson or classroom. Usually, they just go on the assumption that it will directly compliment the material; however, this may sometimes not be the case. For situations like these, a Technology Integration Matrix would solve all problems by directly relating the selected technologies to standards and teaching strategies, thus creating a flow of learning from right to left. 

I chose to integrate such a matrix into my lesson on Pendulum Motion, with a specific focus on the experimentation (lab) aspect, to map out the use of technology in my lesson. This matrix can be found here. As you can see, I have addressed three Science (Physics) standards and one Math standard in the first column. In addition to the core standards, I have also integrated some of the NETS-S student standards as well. In this lesson, the NETS-S standards will draw more focus to the use of technology to find, evaluate, process, communicate, and understand data found via electronic sources.

The 'Strategies' column is where the matrix all comes together. In this section, varies teaching strategies are listed and implemented, and also organized into Teacher, student, or assessment based. This section I found to be extremely helpful on breaking down where and when I will assess my students, and also how much freedom they will be given during the lesson. In this matrix, as you can see, students are given the majority of the lesson to learn and discover on their own. The exceptions are during classroom discussion (such as instruction, lecture, and directions), note taking during lecture, and any formative assessment strategies that I will place into the lesson.

Mathematica and Maple are two mathematic computation applications that can solve even the hardest of problems (given enough time and processing power). Students can enter their experimental data and draw equations from the relations (much like excel), and then formulate very detailed and specific graphs based on the generated equations. Although these are, by definition, technologies, they are also very strategic ways to analyze, present, evaluate, and organize data and equations.

The third column is a list of technologies that will supplement the correlated strategies and standards. For the most part, an active internet connection is necessary for the use of the strategies, especially with the rising popularity of cloud computing. Likewise, Microsoft Excel also shows up in nearly every row, simply because it is such a versatile program for anything involving data. For the students who do not know how to use Mathematic or Maple, Excel is a suitable alternative.

Although the content in the columns is very important, the main focus of the matrix is row-centered. In order, the rows are Access, Analyze, Evaluate, Produce, and Communicate. Each row is a microcosm, which when combined together, form a complete lesson that is infused with assessment and technology.

In my lesson, the Access row concentrates on the gathering of data via various information streams, such as in class discussion and note taking, lab group work, experimentation, and any internet sources. Class discussion and note taking are the only strategies that the teacher will be directly involved in, all of the others are extremely student-centered. During lab work, students will be able to develop their own sets of data by the manipulation of various apparatuses. When they are finished with their experiments, they are able to compare their data and findings with that of data listed online from similar experiments. Students are then able to assess what they did right or wrong during the lab, and adjust their apparatus and approach accordingly.

The Analyze section is where the students are able to look at the data and calculations they have acquired and develop a hypothesis. This is a section of the lesson that students may have to repeat several times, should their hypotheses not be correct or (reasonably) provable. This section is very similar to the previous in terms of strategies and technologies; however has the addition of YouTube and multimedia.

Evaluate is a very important part of the experimentation and lesson process. It is here that students will gather and assess data that is relevant towards their hypothesis. During this time, students will have access to various computational and experimental technologies, such as calculators, computer simulations, Mathematica and Maple, and also peer analysis and discussion. In my findings, it is not uncommon for students to coordinate between different lab groups and compare their findings and data.

Produce is where students use their findings to defend or prove (or in some cases, disprove) their hypothesis. Here they can propose alternatives to today’s accepted hypotheses, explore different ways to solve problem sets, and experimentally prove any theorem or phenomenon. There are many interactive simulations that can be found online that can be of assistance during this process. For example, if students are trying to figure out how frequency affects the visual appearance of a wave, they can find an applet, such as this one, that will allow them to isolate frequency as a variable, and experiment with its affects.

Communicate, as far as the teacher is concerned, is perhaps the most important of the rows. In this section of the lesson, students present their findings to the rest of the class. The technologies and pathways in which they can utilize to aid them is endless, they can use anything from a poster to an elaborate PowerPoint that is cluttered with Mathematica coding.

Overall, this technique for mapping and analysis of a classroom is extremely efficient; it takes nearly half the time that a lesson plan takes to make, and can be used as an outline to formulate a lesson plan, or even a whole unit!