To integrate or not to integrate......
I think that tech skills should be taught in isolation before they are used in an integrated lesson.
More so, I think that integration of anything in the classroom always leads to a greater learning experience. Using a computer does not necessarily mean that a lesson has been integrated. If you want to truly integrate technology, you have to think about the two skills and how they fit together. Most of the time the technology will be the mode for expressing or presenting the knowledge gained in the other subject area. However before you can express that knowledge clearly, the technology has to be taught explicitly. Not only does the technology skills need to be taught but to be truly integrated there needs to be some technology objectives for the students to meet as well as the other curricular area. Lastly, I think the assessment should assess both sides of the lesson as well.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech146.shtml: Education World
http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction: Edutopia.org
http://fcit.usf.edu/matrix/: University of South Florida
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I agree that the tech skills should be taught before they are used in an integrated lesson. This can be done with a mini lesson that teaches the basics and then brings in the content. Often time constraints keep me from being able to get too in depth with a tool before the students have to use it but at the same time, they pick up on some things so fast that they are ready to go and get to the meat of the project pretty quickly.
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