Enhancing the Art & Science of Teaching with Technology

Marzano, R.J. & Magana, S. (2014).  Enhancing the art and science of teaching with technology.  Bloomington, IN.  MarzanoResearch. 

 www.marzanoresearch.com 

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 21^st 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: 

www.marzanoresearch.com