Christian Arel

11/29/21

Philosophy of Teaching and Learning with Technology

In many cases, I believe that it is just as important to teach students how to learn and think critically as it
is to teach specific content. Because of this, I’m a believer in utilizing Bloom’s Taxonomy while
constructing lesson objectives. Building student creativity, evaluation, and analysis of the content can
help with the goal of inspiring students to become lovers of learning. Thoughtful and deliberate tech
integration can help tremendously with these goals. All teachers integrate different forms of technology,
whether they know it or not. The most important skill for teachers to have in relation to tech integration
is a system of evaluation for different technological tools as they relate to the goals of learning.

For this evaluation process, I like to utilize the PIC-RAT Matrix (I’ve included the PIC-RAT Matrix for
reference at the end of this document). The matrix helps to evaluate the function of tech integration in
the enhancement of learning goals. It incorporates concepts from Bloom’s Taxonomy and the tech’s
relationship to the learning goals on the vertical axis. The horizontal axis helps evaluate how the tech is
integrated in practice. In essence, we want to strive for the top right box when considering tech
integration. However, there is space in the classroom for boxes fading to the bottom left part of the
matrix. Sometimes simply replacing paper documents with digital ones can help with efficiency for both
teachers and students and there is room for lessons in every box.

Furthermore, we often expect students to passively wait until we present opportunities to create, and
then we expect them to turn on that creativity like a faucet. We should find ways to foster ongoing
inspiration and creativity. We should explicitly teach and emphasize process over product, growth
mindset, and metacognition. We need to cultivate risk taking, failing, and perseverance, all essential
aspects to the creative process, and we can’t do this if we repeatedly demonstrate to students that the
most important part of class is a neat, standardized product. We need to dissolve the "me vs. the
teacher" mindset and build an environment where genuine learning and growth are the goals. This
involves asking students for feedback on how they use and would like to use classroom resources. Giving
students say in the types of technology incorporated in the classroom is very important to accomplish
the goals stated above. I think teachers should always give students some level of choice in their work.
This is especially important with tech integration, since students know best what tools are most
effective for their individual learning processes. Stated differently, careful considerations in tech
integration can play an important part in effective differentiation.

Technology allows students more choice in their expression of themselves through their work. When
students create through mediums of their choice, it can help teachers understand their students better.
I also think that if teachers allow students to use multimedia presentations and integrated technologies
for their summative assessments, it can create more buy-in, and alleviate some of the disparities that
we run into when summative assessments are all in one format.

To conclude, I believe that incorporating guided, collaborative, and creative work in the classroom is
important. There are many technological tools available for teachers today to aid in this goal. Teachers
need a framework for evaluating the potential that new tech has to transform the learning experience in
new ways. I find the PIC-RAT Framework the most useful for this purpose.
PIC-RAT Matrix: