The S part of SAMR or substitution, I do almost everyday teaching. Substitution is the easiest to integrate into the classroom. If a teacher have an online text book, or uploads a worksheet onto a device for a student to use instead of physically printing or having a book, they have substituted in the classroom. I use PDF's from land grant colleges as readings in my class. I upload them onto Google classroom for students to read.
The A part of SAMR is augmentation. Augmentation is something that I struggled to understand, until I watch this youtube video ( SMAR vs a Latte ) comparing the SMAR to a cup of coffee. Augmentation is still substituted, but the functional aspect of the task is enhanced. After thinking about it, I do this everyday as well. Online gradebooks, where my students and parents get automatic feedback of a student's work, and whenever a student asks an "off the wall" question, we can all just google it, I do this everyday.
Modification is the M part of SAMR. In modification, students can make an assignment their own, and work at their own level. I do this with final projects. This year in my Natural Resources class, my students are creating wildlife habitat development plans. They get to pick an area of the world they are interested in, find it on google maps, screenshot it, and then draw out what they need to add to an area in order to attract certain species. They also need to research about each species, create an objective for the plan, a way to implement the plan, and how to evaluate it. They do all of this on their iPads and send them to me.
The last sections of SAMR is R, for redefinition. This is where a teacher is the facilitator, and not main source of knowledge. I somewhat do this now. Since I do not have textbooks for my classes, we rely on google. I will give students an outline of the lesson objectives and have them look it up for themselves. Then I debrief what they should have found and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Next school year we will have eLearning days for our students. This is where I need to focus the redefinition. I need to figure out how to create lessons where I am only the facilitator and my students can do completely on their own. Even though I attempt redefinition in my classroom, I find that I have to explain things to students or walk them through it still. I need to figure out how to make interactive online lessons. This summer I am going to do some more research and look up lesson examples to see how they work.
