Day: January 19, 2009

This is a commentary on a video interview with a teacher who uses technology:

Case 5 is a middle school science teacher who’s been teaching for 12 years. Seems fairly technically inclined.

They have mostly been using podcasts, webquests, digital photos, and PowerPoint. They also made a song about science and drugs …

Interesting; used a mix of school & personal equipment … had to go find the equipment all over the place. If this teacher was not resourceful, they would not have the technology.

He involves parents and students electronically: emails marks, h-w, and reminders regularly.

He’s noticed that publishing online encourages kids to increase the quality of their work.

There is a big learning curve for teachers, but they need to be open to not knowing everything and exploring it with kids. “Makes the class interesting and I’m learning also.”

Kids: they like it better than learning out of a textbook, which is “boring.” They say “we’re actually doing it – it’s more exciting.”

Substitute teacher:
“When students have to present something, they put a lot of energy into making sure it’s correct. Also, projects and group learning helps.

* Underlying issues
– group learning: more interactive, more social, more interesting
– publishing (online and offline): kids put more effort into their work

* Further questions
– these are very simple technologies – is there more that can be done?
– how willing are teachers to be somewhat ignorant … to learn with the kids?

This is a commentary on a video interview with a teacher who uses technology:

This teacher and his class use graphing calculators as:
– mini computers
– graphing machines
– programming platforms

Computers are too expensive, and there are too many classes wanting to use them, according to this teacher. Graphing calculators are much cheaper and every student can have one.

Students get used to the graphing calculators, so training sort of happens over the course of a number of years.

Interesting note: I found the PA system intrusive and annoying! Obviously, the teacher was used to it and just waited patiently until it was finished.

Also: he was using a very old-fashioned overhead projector. Hey … if it works …

The technology helped students get passionate about learning … trying things … understanding … experimenting. He said: “the technology made them comfortable.”

Teachers need to be comfortable with the technology to ask the right questions, and to ensure that kids use the technology for more than the simple answer … find the new questions that address math, not just calculator functions.

The teacher builds table teams and sprinkles kids who know the technology throughout … so they can help themselves.

Interesting: reverse gender equity via technology … girls are typically better students, but boys are learning better because they get more engaged with technology.

* What are the underlying issues?
– accessibility: all kids being able to have the technology
– resourcefulness: getting the most value for every educational dollar
– learning: the technology must be used to further the learning; it’s tempting to use it just to make things easier, but then learning may not actually occur

* Further questions:
– if laptops were as cheap as graphing calculators, would they be better?
– is it possible that less functionality is sometimes better?