I’ve always loved elegant learning theories, and the SAMR framework developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura is powerful in it’s simplicity and straightforward in its application. It is I feel, a model that is particularly needful at present as teachers reflect on their use of technology while teaching online.
The Simple Tools approach encourages the use of purposeful digital tools that ‘do one thing well’ in concert within a learning sequence.
Employing digital tools with a clear independent purpose, allows the teacher and student to better clarify the intent of the role of the digital tool in a learning sequence. It provides a clearer path in identifying the right digital tool or combination of tools to achieve a learning outcome.
It struck me today, that the SAMR model, often also aligned with Blooms, might also be purposefully aligned with Simple Tools. Clarity in the purpose of the digital tool encourages greater understanding in how you might align it within a pedagogical approach.
As you climb the SAMR ladder toward greater student agency and meta-cognitive understanding, students must also have greater clarity in the purpose and use of the digital tools they employ. They must also take advantage of greater cross contextual use of digital resources, with a strong focus on the particular benefits of employing each tool. It is through this deeper understanding of the purpose of each tool that students gain greater efficacy in their learning.
This understanding of the purpose of digital tools through the curated selection of online resources that have a clear purpose, clean design and a clearly understood role in the learning sequence is what the Simple Tools approach is all about.
To reflect this greater meta-cognitive understanding of the digital tools we employ, I drew up the model below. It’s a draft of my thinking and no more, but it did help me to refine my thoughts about how students can best gain agency through meta-cognition, and how SAMR and Blooms might align with the Simple Tools approach.
I’ve introduced blue boxes to indicate an increasing complexity of use as you rise through the ladder toward greater agency and understanding. I also made the top box a single line, indicating the blurred nature of that greater level of understanding, and to acknowledge that you may well use one digital tool or a host of them to achieve a learning outcome that involves extended thinking.
Update: I’ve also created this simple template for teachers to employ when they wish to reflect on the depth of their technology use with SAMR.
