Over the past many decades, schools and school boards have been focused on providing students with access to technology. Educational leaders have focused on campaigns for building computer labs and on the development of one-to-one computing programs, while also securing learning environments that are connected to the online realm. While these steps have significantly increased access and connectivity for our students, research is showing that educators need to turn our attention to best practices in technology integration in order to realize gains in student achievement.
Our librarian, Mrs.Tarulli, has been working across the grades to further a rich student experience. She visited with grade 9 classes to inform students of good practices in research using databases and library resources, worked with students in grade 10 on research strategies and on developing sound research questions for a specific class project, and ran a session for students in Grade 12 on the use of Boolean Logic in research as well as full text/natural language versus subject searching. Her teaching also included education around academic integrity and strategies to avoid plagiarizing the work of another. We are excited to see the growing body of resources that are available through the virtual and physical library and value the importance of preparing students to excel in an academic environment.
Mrs. Tarulli’s approach to the development of digital research skills exemplifies our ideas for the thoughtful integration of technology. Students are taught to utilise technology in a purposeful, meaningful way that allows them to further the learning objectives of a subject-specific lesson or project. You may have read research released earlier this fall from the OECD, in which the authors question whether technology use in a classroom setting correlated with improved results. According to Professor Slotta, of the Centre for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education at OISE: “Technology is most effective in the classroom when it is used to develop skills similar to those that adults are using in everyday life, such as finding resources, critiquing arguments, communicating with peers, solving problems and working with data.” And while the researchers did conclude that there were no appreciable gains in basic scores for reading, mathematics and science as a result of technology availability in the classroom, they also concluded that the targeted application of technology to the enhancement of a specific lesson promoted learning. The authors championed the pursuit of powerful technology integration over the pursuit of ubiquitous technology access.
