Learning, Teaching & Technology

This session is just what I needed as I take on the adventure of working two days a week as an Instructional Technology Integrator at our high school for the first time. Our 7-12 students all have 1-1 laptops and there is a need and interest in more support for learning with technology at grades 9-12. I am concerned about one of the initial points that Sylvia makes that students want the “socially connected experiences” that they engage in outside of school; teachers need to learn how to incorporate that into classroom learning. Alice Barr and I will be working together on ways to have students as our “allies” as we help teachers to face the obstacles and opportunities of adding web 2.0 tools.

Working at the elementary school level I have asked students to take responsibility for oversight of laptop carts (somehow classes never put them away the right way or make sure they are charging) in classroom wings and more and more I ask them to share learning and teach each other at the projector during classes in the lab. Some of the students who were innovators when I had them in 3rd or 4th grades are now the high school students who help us teach courses to faculty (imagine our surprise when students did all the reading assigned to the teachers!) and who are in the process of forming a student tech team. They are asking the right questions about what student tech team should have as it’s mission. Lately they have wondered if they should be offering a web 2.0 class for their peers as they find that many students don’t seem to be exploring the way they are. These seem to be along the lines of what Sylvia talks about as authentic learning and real life problems.