Technology Integration Matrix - A Boffo Meta-assessment Tool

A colleague recently brought this extraordinary tool to my attention; it's clarity and careful development are excellent models for work any school might do as it considers how best to measure the effectiveness of all 21st century skills in curriculum development.

Having developed more than a handful of rubrics over the course of my career (who amongst us hasn't done so?), I was struck by the simplicity and clarity of descriptors that the matrix uses to measure levels of technology integration in the classroom: entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion and finally transformation. Directly citing the matrix, they define the terms thus:

Entry - "the teacher begins to use technology tools to deliver curriculum to students."

Adoption - "the teacher directs students in the conventional and procedural use of technology tools."

Adaptation - "the teacher facilitates students in exploring and independently using technology tools."

Infusion - "the teacher provides the learning context and the students choose the technology tools to achieve the outcome."

Transformation - "the teacher encourages the innovative use of technology tools. Technology tools are used to facilitate higher order learning activites that may not have been possible without the use of technology." 

It further posits (from an excellent research source) five characteristics of the learning environment: active, constructive, collaborative, authentic and goal-directed. These qualities speak highly of this tool as a rubric by which we might measure educational success (and in fact, points directly to qualities we should be both valuing and measuring in education in 2012). I have argued in a previous post that students learn best when doing. This is especially true when considering the use of technology in schools and classrooms. Technology is just a tool, after all. How are we helping our students develop thoughtful mastery of the tools? I particularly value that the rubric is looking for active and collaborative learning. Collaboration remains something difficult for educators to measure (how does one assess group work, for instance...); this matrix gives us a model to use to build other collaborative measures.

Even more important is the rubric's attention to student work in technology being "goal directed." The matrix says that students should "use technology tools to set goals, plan activities, monitor progress and evaluate results rather than simply completing assignments without reflection." This is the critical component of knowing whether the work that students do (again, not just with technology but generally) gives them the capacity to better understand themselves, their growth and development and to help them become better able to make decisions about their future.

Not bad for a rubric designed for technology purposes! Go have a look at it...