Journal 4

"Infusion or Integration" by Kimberley Ketterer

Ketterer, as an instructional technology coordinator, has gone to a lot of conferences and interacted with a lot of educators over the years. She heard the words "infusion" and "integration" thrown around in various contexts, and she decided to nail down the definitions of these terms, in terms of technology in the classroom. To her, "infusion" is the insertion of something totally new (in this case, hardware/software) into the learning process, such as copy machines, tape recorders, MP3 players, subscriptions to magazines. Her definition of "integration" is taking previously segregated resources, and using them in concert as a tool for learning. For example, you could integrate video into science class by showing a film about mitosis, or integrate MP3 players by playing a recording of a story.

I saw a perfect example of integration at one of my observations for EDUC 350. A young male was teaching AP Language to 12th graders, and using his Mac laptop, he played an MP3 of a man reading aloud an excerpt from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. They had already read the excerpt, studied it, and discussed it, but something about listening to it recorded and played through iTunes hooked their attention.

1. How does the example of the "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" this demonstrate infusion or integration?

Infusion in the classroom would be if the teacher just used the MP3 player for his own purposes or listened to it during a break. Integration occurred because he used it to bring in material that would enhance the lesson. A few years ago, teachers didn't use MP3 players for instruction at all (it was "segregated" from instruction), but now that they are finding new uses for them, MP3 players have been integrated into learning in many classrooms.

2. How would you integrate new technologies into your classroom?

I would definitely use MP3 players to bring in recordings. There is a great video recording of Jack Kerouac reading Alan Ginsberg's "Howl" that high school students would probably enjoy. I would probably use PowerPoint to teach lessons - perhaps if we were studying animals, I could project a PowerPoint that contained pictures of different animals, perhaps an animated diagram of the animal kingdom, and an embedded video of animal behavior. I would also have students learn to publish documents on Word, such as creating a class newsletter, writing poems and illustrating them in Paint, etc. There are a lot of ways I could have fun integrating technology into my classroom.