Think Big

Troy Hicks argues that English teachers must embrace a new role, they must advocate for digital literacy, not just technology, in a way that re-conceptualizes discipline. Teachers should use cool technology to deliver a planned lesson. Polling tools is an effective way for students to learn and interact, surveying students to find out their needs is also a good way of learning. Also creating interactive graphs for them to work on is also a good way for students to communicate and get engaged amongst the classrooms. Now if a teacher uses power point or gives out a handout its not that proactive. Due to things like this the students will fail to put input and give their thoughts since the teacher already gave all the information to them. With handouts and old fashioned presentations there's little collaboration and creative thinking being done. Now as a teacher you would want to use more advanced technology in creative ways so that the students have the ability to fully interact. In the end I found that the article was very interesting and this particular paragraph about Using "Cool" technology  to deliver a Planned Lesson, stood out to me the most because of how it explained the different types of technology and how one can get students to interact the most. As well as showing the downsides of other forms of teaching such as power point, handouts,... etc. Overall I would agree with Troy Hicks because by creating new ways of teaching and learning, students can develop a better understanding of the material as well as being able to interact and think BIG.

Troy Hicks summary on digital literacy and the technology that should be used relates to the SAMR Model because he talks about the different concepts that can help students get engaged and test their critical thinking. The SAMR Model shows how things are taught through the first step being the class task which is basic information with very little use of technology, where as you have substitution which is that technology acts as a direct tool with no functional change. This is where technology comes in just a little but doesn't change anything major. Then there's Augmentation where technology acts a a tool with improvements. Then there is modification which is where technology allows for significant task redesign. Now no the last concept which is Redefinition and that is where technology allows for the creation of new tasks and presents very high amounts of technology. Now looking back to what Troy Hick explained it can be noticed that he agreed with the last two steps of the SAMR Model and believes that teachers should basically redesign their way of teaching into a more modern tech way in so that allows students to get engaged and put their input in rather than basic class tasks where they would just be taking notes of filling out a handout. The redefinition step of the SAMR model explains that students have a whole new and developed way of learning and that relates back to my review that explains what Troy Hick wanted to promote and thought was the best approach for teachers to use in terms of having students being able to critically think.