Page 173 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Small Changes and the SAMR Model • Chapter 6

your toe in the pool with technology. So although we don’t want the learning
to stop there, it’s always encouraging to see teachers thinking in that vein.

For the next part of this chapter, I’m going to share three examples of both
enhancement and transformative thinking about learning with mobile
devices. Many of these examples are pulled from classrooms in my district
or from districts I have visited over the years. Although I delineated the
difference between elementary and secondary in the previous chapters, I’m
not going to do that in these examples, and here’s the reason: An idea that I
share from an elementary classroom could easily be adapted or changed for
the secondary classroom with some slight tweaks to content or expectations.
The same can be said for a secondary lesson or concept being used at the
elementary level.

Remember that at the Enhancement level, the technology is really enhancing
the learning activity taking place. In some ways you can do the same activity
without technology, but using mobile devices might create a slight uptick in
engagement, interaction, and outcomes. With that out of the way, let’s look at
some examples.

Enhancement Ideas

1. Reading
As I stated earlier, one of the most common and natural ways to introduce
learning with mobile devices with students is reading online. Let me start
off by saying I believe that reading a physical book is still a valuable learning
experience and should be a part of every home and classroom. While in some
ways reading a digital book is directly substitutive (you could have students
read a regular paper book), there are some features of ebooks that raise the
level of learning to that of augmentation.

For example, many ebook applications allow students to highlight a word
and have it defined, or read back to them to teach the pronunciation. This
is a powerful tool not only for early readers in elementary school, but also
for students taking on harder-to-understand text (like Shakespeare) at the
secondary level. Having the book give you some context or understanding
while you read it can be powerful.

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