Learning, Teaching & Technology

I have read or viewed some of the materials Dean Shareski refers to by Daniel Pink and Sir Ken Robinson. I haven’t really used “design learning” as a premise for all my instructional planning for grades 2-4 who use the lab and iBook carts. I have always aimed to teach our students to be the creator of what happens on the screen as the primary focus of learning, from back in the days of “Delta Drawing” on Apple IIe computers (see NYTimes 1983). Dean stirred my curiosity at the beginning by holding out the prospect of some key techniques that I could apply to teaching design. Indeed they make sense: 1. Planning (focus) 2. Imagery (visual literacy) 3. Transitions & White Spaces 4. Constraints (less is more) 5. Innovation (significance). I enjoyed reading Bob Sprankle’s project for this course of having students learn design principles while designing a logo for Wells Elementary School. Our high school students have done real world projects along this line, but there might be a way to use these ideas for a product that would be meaningful for our elementary students. Like Bob, I responded to Clarence Fisher’s thoughts of designing a classroom as studio. I have two options at the elementary level: a lab where we can introduce students to writing, creating and communicating and laptops that are in learning centers in classrooms or on carts to provide a 1-to-1 environment.

I will be using this session as a basis for planning my classes and projects with teachers this year. There is so much to talk about during Shareski’s session that it will make a terrific faculty meeting focusing on our uses of classroom web connections to share with parents and ways to teach our children to tell their stories using digital photography.