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Class 4: Using Technology To Support Assessment And Instruction

Technology is not an end in itself. It is merely the highway or the car or the airplane, which takes you where you want to go.

Successful districts put student learning at the forefront of their planning, and then they design a technology project, which combines the best of staff development practices with curriculum development and network installation.

How Teachers Learn Technology Best. Jamie McKenzie, Ed.D., FNO Press, Bellingham, Washington, 1999, p.3.

In class four, we will look at how to differentiate for content, process, or product, and how technology can be used as a tool to support assessment and instruction. As you read the case studies in The Differentiated Classroom and view the video clips, consider:

• the role assessment played in each one
• evidence of differentiation of content, process or product
• ways that teachers in a differentiated classroom maintain rigor and challenge for all students
• examples of technology integration and how such integration can enhance instruction and maximize student learning

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Technology can be a powerful tool to support instruction. Spreadsheets, word processing, database programs, graphic organizers, the Internet, web-enabled lessons (webquests), and a variety of other technology-supported tools are available for teachers to integrate into their instructional program.

Differentiated classrooms feel right to students who learn in different ways and at different rates and who bring to school different talents and interests. More significantly, such classrooms work better for a full range of students that do one-size-fits-all settings. Teachers in differentiated classrooms are more in touch with their students and approach teaching more as an art than as a mechanical exercise. (p.7-8. How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, Tomlinson)

Technology can be the tool that gets the teacher beyond, "one size fits all."

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