Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 158

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
approach to teaching in a classroom. In a section which follows I introduce the ‘SAMR’ approach as a
strategy for achieving such a goal.
On a related plane, Prensky predicted in 2001 that students would not tolerate lessons dominated by “chalk
and talk”. Indeed many older teachers have reported in numerous studies that they think students want to
be amused rather than learn. O’Bannon and Thomas in their 2014 article:
Conversely, recent research suggests that teacher support for the use of mobile phones in the
classroom may be shifting (Johnson et al., 2012, Thomas and McGee, 2012, Thomas et al.,
2013 and Thomas and Orthober, 2011). One reason for this shift could be the growing number of
digital natives entering the classroom as teachers. Prensky (2001) suggests that digital natives, who
were born after 1980, have grown up surrounded by digital technologies and, consequently, are more
comfortable using them than those born prior to 1980, whom he labels digital immigrants. Prensky
alleged that as this younger generation of educators replaces older teachers in the classroom,
technology integration would no longer be an issue. (O'Bannon, Thomas, & Bolton, 2013)
Although this report specifically concentrates on mobile phones, the argument could be applied to ICT’s in
general as the digital natives entering schools to teach are comfortable with all forms of ICT, not just mobile
phones. O’Bannon and Thomas state that mobile phones are now “small mini-computers, which offer a
variety of features and functions that are beneficial to both students and teachers in the classroom.” Thus,
the mobile phone gives students the ability to access the internet, film via built-in digital cameras, audio-
record, take still photos, Skype, network with fellow students and publish directly to the net, all on the one
device. Even more exciting for the teacher with imagination in using ICT in the classroom is the ability to
combine these facilities in various combinations to create lessons that more readily engage modern students.
SAMR
The SAMR model (Substitution >> Augmentation >> Modification >> Redefinition) for
integrating technology into the classroom curriculum is a four step approach developed by Dr Ruben
Puentedura.(2011) The model is designed so that a teacher can introduce technology into their lessons at a
level they feel comfortable with. This will encourage teacher to develop technology lessons in a way that
does not seem threatening to them. SAMR is an acronym of the initials of each step in the process
Stage 1 Substitution: Teachers simply introduce the technology as a substitution for one or more parts of
a lesson they have designed and used before. For example an English teacher may have students type a story
with a word processor application rather than write by hand. A Science teacher could use spreadsheets to
record data from student research. In fact, in any subject, students undertake internet research rather than
text book research in a library. In these three examples the lesson has remained the same; the student is
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