Canvas + SAMR

In the second week of my Canvas Certified Educator (CCE) course, we looked at how SAMR can be used in conjunction with Canvas.

If you’re not familiar with SAMR, this is a strategy used for understanding technology integration created by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. The four tiers of SAMR are presented roughly in order of their sophistication and transformative power: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition.

We first took an assessment of our Canvas skills and how we utilize Canvas through the eyes of SAMR. I had to be careful as I went through the self-assessment to select how I use Canvas in my own practice, rather than how I would assist a teacher. I have my own course that I use for providing professional development and technology news to teachers in my building, but I don’t (or haven’t yet) used some of these tools in the same way I would tell a teacher to use it with their classes.

Having this context, I was surprised that the results of the assessment showed that I am using Canvas at a variety of levels; I assumed my use would be lower on the SAMR scale in general.  I use both Quizzes and Modules at the Redefinition level and use Assignments and Pages, as well as the Collaboration tools at the modification level, while discussions are at the augmentation level.  I was probably the most surprised by the discussions!  I do utilize this feature quite a bit and would have thought this would have been higher. 

So I definitely want to look into how I can utilize the discussions more throughout my course, which made our next activity very helpful to me! The instructors (or Canvas, I’m not sure which) created this AMAZING HyperDoc showing the ways each tool can be utilized on the SAMR scale.

My very first thought in reviewing this document had nothing to do with the course. I run 8 week coaching cycles (what we call Collaboration Cycles) with teachers in my building and this immediately made my wheels start spinning in excitement. Canvas is a topic that comes up as a goal or challenge area for teachers often, so I think this will help in assisting them with developing assignments within Canvas, as well as doing a self-assessment similar to what we did.   What a great resource to have teachers explore and grow their own use in Canvas! 

As I further explored the HyperDoc, I became especially intrigued by the Communication and Collaboration features. I wouldn’t have thought to use announcements as a response tool with students or to use Speedgrader with SAMR. Just giving grades falls under substitution, but giving grades and feedback becomes augmentation and so on. There are definitely ways to use these tools that I hadn’t thought about (and I know my teachers aren’t thinking about too) and want to further explore these sections.  Exploring these two areas could be a whole professional development workshop in itself! 

Overall, I think the HyperDoc is going to be a very valuable tool and am eager to implement it within my Collaboration Cycles. In our reflection discussion for week 2, I very much agreed with another Instructional Technology Coach who wrote, “I think I need to look at how these features can be modeled for teachers in Canvas trainings and other PD sessions. By utilizing the very features we want them to use, we show them examples they can take away and use right away.” Many more of my professional development sessions are moving online into an asynchronous format within Canvas, so it will be important for me to rethink how I design these opportunities and use the features as effectively as possible.

Are you familiar with SAMR? Even if Canvas isn’t your LMS, how do you feel you use would rate on the SAMR scale?