Making the Rounds: The SAMR Model

I first began using technology in my classroom right around the time I first began teaching. Web 2.0 was just beginning to make an impact in educational settings, and rather surprisingly, I was poised as an early adopter. With growing confidence I realized this new “niche” I had stumbled upon would be marketable and meaningful for my professional growth. And yet, I had the whole “thing” backwards.

Creatively redesigning lessons to integrate technology tools helped me to achieve new possibilities in the classroom. However, my planning process typically began by selecting a digital tool/device and then brainstorming when, where, and how I might use it in my class. Later while studying for my Master’s, I realized that this process should be reversed–beginning with my students and their needs and then selecting digital tools that could be repurposed to transform the learning process and experience for students, while also allowing them to explore 21st century skills.

Regardless of my process, an important question I always asked myself was, “how does this technology infused redesigned lesson actually impact/improve/reimagine the content/skills/experience of students?” While there are times when we all turn to technology to aid in ease, communication, or productivity of tasks, it was important to me that revamped lessons “do something more.” Now I finally have a vocabulary to articulate this feeling.
Enter the SAMR Model (Ruben Puentedura; hippasus.com)

Unknown to me before this year, the SAMR Model is making the rounds quickly (and if you haven’t heard of it yet, it is probably on its way in some upcoming pd session). The framework has provided a useful vocabulary and model for discussing and analyzing the role of technology integration in lesson design–an important topic for preservice and practicing teachers alike. There are times when Substitution and Augmentation are strong beginning points–especially for new teachers or new tools–when insecurities might hold back creative risk-taking until greater confidence is built through early successes. It is then that brainstorming ways to move beyond enhancement and towards transformation should become new goals. The stages of Modification and Redefinition help us to analyze exactly what and how our use of technology is impacting/improving/reimagining the content/skills/experience for our students. Framing these stages as a progressive model, one that need not be worked through sequentially but can be visited and revisited at different points as different needs arise is an encouraging and empowering point of view.
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Thank you SAMR Model for helping to clarify and present these important perspectives in such a non-threatening way