A post called Evaluating Technology Use in Classrooms got me thinking again about what I struggled with when I did my Masters. How do you use the Internet, and now Web 2.0 applications, to make student learning new and unique from traditional methods? The article was for administrators to think about how they evaluate teachers who use technology and the four following questions were given:
1. Is the technology being used “Just because it’s there”?
2. Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in Old ways?
3. Is the technology allowing the teacher/students to do Old things in New ways?
4. Is the technology creating new and different learning experiences for the students?
I think that there is a natural progression through the first three steps above. I'm thinking of my own journey, which is ongoing, with student blogs. Initially I started them because they were there (step one). Then it became a way of publishing student work whereby instead of printing it out the students posted it to their blog (step two). I am currently working my way through step three whereby the students are publishing their work and having the students comment on each other's writing. They are now typing their comments rather than telling the person what they think, face to face. The fourth step is of course the biggest leap. I am working towards step four by publicizing the fact that my students are publishing their work on a blog. I have started by letting parents know and I have found another grade three class which blogs and I think it would be great to communicate with them and get their feedback on our stories. Inadvertently this has already happened to one of my students who received a comment on one of her stories from someone in France.
I am hoping that I will also be able to reach step four in some of my student's French projects. Sometimes the students' biggest complaint is that we always seem to do computer projects in French, which since I teach Computers and French, to every grade, is a natural fit. The students all learned numerous ways to use Word, Publisher, and PowerPoint by doing French projects. I'm excited about using many of the new applications I've learned about, such as Photo Story and Voice Thread, for upcoming projects, and I hope that my learning curve will allow my students and me to go beyond the first three steps.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Way to go, Morag! I used to teach French ... and started many many (many!) moons ago. Even back then (in the late seventies) I started doing slide/tape presentations with regular cameras and tape recorders (anything we could find!) It was a blast, and gave me an idea of what I wanted to do "when I grew up". !
Post a Comment