A Lesson to Remember from the Business Community

The education community can learn a lesson from the business community in the way we integrate technology into what we do in the classroom. Too often, our model in education is like the diagram below. We find or get a tool and then try to find a "problem" or a place to make it work.




Instead of putting the cart before the horse as is common in the education community, the business community starts with a problem and then either finds a tool that will solve the problem or makes the tool that will solve the problem as in the diagram below.




Granted, my examples may be a bit oversimplified, but in the big picture of things, this is actually the way things should work when looking at integrating technology. While working on my Master's degree in Computer Applications in Education from the University of Northern Iowa, the emphasis was not on computers or software. The emphasis was on Instructional Design. Before integrating technology or any tool you may wish to use, it is important to have the purpose, goals and objectives outlined for what the student needs to know. Only then can one begin to integrate the technology. the teacher needs to know his/her content and pedagogy before adding the third component of technology