Ask what the device is doing for the learning.
SAMR is a four-level model for noticing how technology changes a task. It is about the task, not the tool. Start from zero and you'll have it in about two minutes.
Four levels, rising
Each level asks more of the task than the one before it. Click any step for the full definition and an example.
Did the device replace paper?
Same task, new surface. A worksheet becomes a screen, a notebook becomes a doc. Nothing about the learning moved yet, and for plenty of lessons nothing needs to.
The tell: you could hand back the paper version tomorrow and the lesson would not change.
Watch one task climb
The fastest way to feel the model is to watch a single task move through all four levels. Here is a fifth grade weather unit. Click through the letters.
Students log the week's temperature in a doc instead of a printed chart.
What changedPaper became a screen. Nothing else moved.
The line that matters
Notice where the weather task stopped being recognizable. Between A and M, the assignment itself changed. That line splits the model in half, and it is the only boundary worth memorizing.
Below it, a teacher from 1985 would still recognize the assignment. The device just makes it faster or cleaner. Above it, the task is different: students working on one shared artifact, or sending work to a reader who is not the teacher.
Quick test: describe the lesson without naming any technology. Still makes sense, you're below the line. Stops making sense, you're above it.
Try your eye
Three real activities. Pick a level for each and see how your read compares.
Students take the weekly spelling quiz on their devices instead of on paper. It grades itself and shows each student which words they missed.
Students read a chapter on screen instead of in the paperback and answer the same eight questions in a doc.
Students record a podcast interviewing a local veteran, publish it for families, and release a second cut after listener questions come in.
A lens, not a ladder
The staircase shape suggests climbing, which turns the model into a scoreboard. The learning is the goal. The level just describes how you got there. Three questions to ask before you plan around a device.
If you can't write the goal without naming the technology, the tool has become the assignment.
"Nothing, and that's fine, it's a warm-up" is a valid answer. An answer you can't give at all is the signal to stop.
Count the minutes of logging in and troubleshooting against what you get back. Sometimes paper wins, and choosing it is good teaching.
Where the model falls short
Four levels in a row read as a climb. The level should follow the goal, not the shape of the chart.
A Redefinition project can rest on a weak prompt. SAMR describes the move, not the quality of instruction.
Two teachers place the same activity differently, especially near the A to M line. Treat any label as a starting point. The evaluator on this site gives its confidence for the same reason.
SAMR model by Dr. Ruben Puentedura. See also TPACK and the Triple E Framework.
You know the model now. Put it to work.
Describe one of your own activities and get a level, the reasoning, and a specific move toward each level above.