Marzano, R.J. & Magana, S. (2014). Enhancing
the art and science of teaching with technology. Bloomington, IN.
MarzanoResearch.
Robert Marzano, PhD is the author of multiple books in his
award-winning series of teaching collections entitled The Classroom Series. In
this book he teams up with his vice president of operations at Marzano Research, Inc. Anthony “Sonny” Magana, EdM, who is the mastermind behind the Educational
Technology Division of the firm.
Together they have collaborated an effort to combine proven classroom
lesson strategies with powerful and supportive technology strategies that
support student achievement and bring learning into the 21st
century. Dr. Marzano has worked in the
field of education for over 40 years, while performing and authoring over 150
articles relating to education, along with the acclaimed series of books that
support both teacher and student development.
He is globally known for his practical translations of teaching research
and classroom activities theory with emphasis on creatively involving
differentiation and diversity of learning styles.
Annotated
Bibliography
Marzano and Magana break down the components of effective teaching
first and then explain how to involve technology to improve upon the lesson
strategies. They clearly define the importance of educational technology
to enhance both the ability to learn more efficiently, and also how to assist
teachers and students in displaying quality-learning products. They then
follows up each chapter with visual narratives of how it should look and be
displayed in a classroom setting. Much of the books emphasis is on
engagement through the use of Interactive White Boards (IWB) that engages the
connection between teacher and student.
They provide many visuals that promote effective step-by-step
examinations of ideas and lessons that are clearly outlined and are proven to
work in multiple curriculum settings. There are many displays that are subject-specific,
but as usual, Marzano gives you insight into how to transfer the ideas for
cross-curriculum value. And finally, he provides structure to the ideas
by adding a way to assess whether or not the strategy was effective. And
if not, he even gives ideas that mash-up with other lessons to be more
effective in delivering technology to group settings. They have combined
diverse teaching styles that model higher-order thinking skills that help
students synthesize technology easily into any curriculum without stifling the
advancements of technology. The
technology portions are woven into the activities seamlessly and do not over
shadow the base learning objectives. It
is essential to make students today aware of the resources available to them in
technology development and create accessibility to these resources for teachers
to enhance and expedite learning. This
book truly inspires the philosophy of supporting leadership and achievement
through the use of technology as a valuable tool for any classroom
setting. Marzano outlines this
philosophy stating, “We believe that educational technology is best used in
conjunction with research-based and project-based learning instructional
strategies that already have a high probability of enhancing learning outcomes”
(Marzano & Magana, 2014 p.10). The
book teaches how to translate the research into applications that improve with
the use of technology.
What I have personally taken from this book is the recurring
theme of engaging students in purposeful learning activities that can be
enhanced by technology. I see the
connection of how to use tools like IWB’s that efficiently and quickly assess
the quality of learning goals and objectives.
Whether it’s involving students in service oriented tasks or connecting
them to global citizenship with skype and other global communication tools, the
forethought is how to be a more effective teacher on a technology based
pedagogical scale. The lessons and the
technology outlines show how we can equip our young people with developmentally
sound connections to a global diverse world on the web and in the business community as well. Many lessons begin by
getting students to think outside the classroom and then provide them with the
technology to support this type of connection.
At the end of each chapter in the book the authors explain how to
incorporate the many different types of Internet based connections that both teach
and assess learning with technology.
Check out the many amazing books and articles in the collection of works found at:
