Learning, Teaching & Technology

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The day has come when using a 2001 Mac in the Lab at the elementary school isn’t working. We have been fortunate that up until very recently we were able to use these computers to access online sites and create student products using older software. This spring we have run into several realities related to the age of these machines. They are running OSX.3 (Tiger) as they have limited RAM and processing capabilities. This means that we are unable to use the current version of iWork that is owned by the district. Students are creating multi-media presentations using Keynote and they are unable to work on them in the lab if they have ever used a G4 iBook and a newer version of Keynote.

We refer students to http://pbs.org/cyberchase for learning activities, but that site is only one of several where videos and the newest learning games posted online aren’t available in the lab. Google Earth is a wonderful learning tool as we introduce our students to world geography, but it is not available in the lab. There are online sites like http://wordle.net that we have used with older students to view their writing in this visually enhanced way, but the plugins in the lab don’t work with the site.

We have been incredibly fortunate to be able to use the equipment no longer needed at the middle school or the high school for as long as we have. Now it is time to upgrade the lab so that our youngest students can explore multi-media posted online and create their own projects that dislay their learning and introduce them to being knowledgeable consumers of our multi-media world.

This week I have been teaching 4th graders to use Scratch from the MIT Media Lab. It’s GREAT! I can’t remember when I’ve had this much fun teaching and the room has been full of kids who are empowered, active and creating. I used the videos from the Scratch site to introduce the concept of the program to the students and gave them a few starter commands from the Scratch Cards. Within twenty minutes the students were recording their own voices, “whirling” sprites, adding sound effects, creating speech clouds, and creating iinteractions between sprites. It has been fascinating to see some students focus on sounds, others on motion and others on looks and paint features. Doing this with several classes has given me the opportunity to see teachers who have supported creativity and innovation in their classroms and are cheerleaders as their students explore this entirely new realm. Where does this fit in the curriclum? To me it teaches thinking, problem-solving and feeds the “dessert brain” referenced in Edutopia magazine by Hugh Osborn.