A particularly interesting technology moment occurred during my second year of teaching. I had petitioned to create a programming class. Being my first technology based course, I selected the Python programming language as it seemed relatively straight forward. Then I saw the class list…. It was perhaps the biggest group of hooligans in the senior classes I had ever seen put together at one time! There was only one quiet/calm/focused student in the group. On the first day, we sat down and went over some basics of how to get the language to produce sections of text and how to ask the user for inputs. The vice-principal walked into the class half-way through and, rather than the pandemonium we both expected, joined me in slack-jawed amazement at what we were witnessing. The students were, without prompting, writing stories using the new tricks they had learned. Every single student was glued to the task. And the quiet, reserved kid in the back of the class… turns out he is the son of an IT professional. Students who had largely ignored him were lining up for his advice and assistance. This continued through out the course, regardless of the technique of the day. The students wove all of their new techniques back into interactive stories.
For me this situation raises several questions about teaching with technology such as: What is it about technology is so profoundly attractive to middle school students? How can story telling scaffold technology learning? and how can social-constructivist approaches be applied to STEM topics?
That’s an inspiring story Daniel! I had goosebumps! I too wonder about the first question you’ve raised about this innate attraction to new technology. A great example being the release of the original iphone and the invigoration it brought to the mobile industry, or the sheer lure of HD TVs for example. In educational settings, new technology is marketed to teachers with key points like ease of use, ease of migrating existing materials into this new context, ease of assessing student progress etc and as teachers we’re attracted to the new innovations. I too wonder what is so inherently attractive about technology or rather new technology!
Thanks!
Vibhu
Daniel,
I think this is one of the most powerful (and often underused) teaching tools we have – allowing/encouraging our students to be the experts. I also run a special program for students who want to learn programming (as well as 3D design/printing, creating mobile apps, robotics etc.) The catch? I am essentially of no help. However, within a few days of each school year, expert begin to reveal themselves – one kid is great at mouse control functions, one kid can make arrays, another is good at debugging. After a while, it actually looks a lot like a community of learners. The best part is they start treating me less like the wellspring of all knowledge and more like a facilitator, asking questions like, “hey Mr. E…do you know who is good at draw functions? I can’t make mine work.”
Are you still running your course? If so, how has it changed since you began (lessons learned, etc.)?
Josh
I don’t get to run it much any more as my outdoor education class now takes up all of my spare elective course blocks. It is now run by other teachers. We did end up moving to a rotation where one year we offered text based python programming and the next we offered graphic, drag and drop, scratch programming. Students liked that they could make some really slick looking programs and animations in scratch but also appreciated the rigour of doing “real” coding with python.
Hi Daniel,
What an awesome story. I love when our fears and concerns are squashed by students. They never cease to amaze me. Our misconceptions often colour how we expect a lesson or unit to go. When I think back on my a ha moments and reading your reflections I am not sure it is just the technology but rather what we do with the technology. Our lessons seem to be more student directed. Your example is perfect. You did not lecture at them to have them learning the programming concepts you got them busy doing the programming. My example is similar but it was not my planning that lead to the students skill developments. It was a simple math lesson on surface area of a rectangle for grade sevens. Some got using the formulas right away ( or so I thought) some struggled but got the right answer ( but I am not sure they had the concepts) and the group who had no idea what they were doing. To try and reinforce the concepts I brought in different 3D boxes and asked them to find the surface area, they were then expected to explain what the did, why and how it applies to the formula.
Group A used the formula, got the right answer but could not explain why it works
Group B muddled along had some good concepts but still not where I thought they should be.
Group C embraced the manipulative, they found large chart graph paper, covered each side in the graph paper and counted squares. I was happy with that, but they went on to then understand how the basic area formula works…wow, then they went on to show how the surface area formula worked. I was dumbfounded. They got it, and their presentation allowed the whole class to actually understand the concept not just plug numbers into a formula. Allowing for discovery and actually doing active learning is what I realize the students need.
Thanks for reminding me of this.
Catherine
Daniel,
I am sure many of us teachers will be nodding to this memorable experience. The backdrop of the type of students in the class; introducing new concepts, and computing, will be a familiar context for some of us. Reciprocal teaching, where the student shares what they know, can be an incredibly powerful experience as your biography attests, Samia