Assignment #1: Intentional Use Matters Most

I must start by admitting that I am a skeptic of all educational ideas that advocate for the adoption of a singular method of teaching or style as a means of reaching all learners. To me, it is the intentionality behind any method that determines the effectiveness it will yield with students. With this admission in mind, I found the articles (and the progression I read them in) to further enhance these beliefs.

In my opinion there are many valid reasons for which instructional designs should incorporate "gaming-like" atmospheres for students (as Prensky describes). However, simply adopting this method of teaching completely and ignoring the social collaboration and face-to-face interactions among students (dangers of technology alluded to by McKenzie), I believe to be a mistake. I return to my point about intentionality. As educators it it is not enough to be aware of  simply "what" or "how" we are teaching something, Rather, it is incumbent on us to be fully-purposeful in knowing"why" we have chosen to teach something in the manner we have planned to teach it. This includes both using technology to support the purpose of a learning experience instead of just using it for the sake of using it. I found the ideas below (from the Reeves article) to connect nicely with the kind of instruction I'm talking about:  Instead of worrying about whether Boomers, GenXers or Millennials will learn more from direct instruction or virtual reality games, instructional designers and educational technology researchers working closely with practitioners and subject matter experts should begin by identifying the needs of any given set of learners, design the best possible prototype learning environments in situ, and then conduct iterative cycles of formative evaluation and refinement to optimize the solution and reveal robust design principles.

As a future principal I feel it will be my duty to ensure teachers and students have access to technology that supports all students in all learning situations. However, access alone is not enough. It will also be my duty to model, teach, and support teachers in understanding "what" tools (technology and otherwise) they can use for student learning, but also in supporting their reflective mindsets about each tool's use.  Cultivating mindsets that helps teachers unpack the intentional thought process of "why" they are using "what" they are using with students. It is my hope that this same intentional mindset will be one that teachers will cultivate within their students.