I try and use as much as I can from current and advanced technology resources online or in trade magazines. I teach English, Technical Theater, and Mass Communication. The majority of my curriculum provides me the opportunity to use advanced technology as a necessary part of my instruction. I find that collaboration between members of my professional learning community provides a much greater breath of knowledge that I would never have the time and opportunity to read and watch. The group of professionals rely on going to conferences, reading journals and professional publications and district and state professional development to provide the pathway for new ideas and best common practices. I feel very fortunate that my building has such great professionals that contribute and collaborate effectively.
The main challenges that faces the school and my individual classroom is availability to technology and resources. This past semester I began a project that enabled the opportunity to utilize any type of technology they wanted in the creation of a documentary that supported a research paper they wrote. The tech support that would facilitate this project was not available in house. The students had to use their own devices without any school supported options. The best thing about this challenge our classes faced were that the students worked together and supported one another on their individual projects. Finding solutions to what software was free and easy to use. Communicating digitally and effectively without adult oversight. I was very impressed with the quality and effective use of their technology. I shouldn't be surprised. The iphone5s has better capabilities than my college studio in most respects. Keeping up with all of that is much easier for the kids than some of my coworkers. I sometimes feel it slipping away a little bit.
Hi John!
ReplyDeleteI teach 4th grade and I would be interested to see if a project like the one you used with your students involving the use of their own technology would be feasible at their age level. A few questions in regards to the project:
Did the students complete the project solely in class or were they also responsible for working outside of the classroom?
If working in the classroom, did you have to set up something with your tech department in order to allow them to use the WiFi?
I am curious to hear more about this! If possible, this type of project would allow for more opportunities to use technology in the classroom with limited school resources.
John,
ReplyDeleteThis is the second time that I am trying to comment on your blog. For some reason the first attempt did from earlier in the week did not publish, but I think it is because I wasn't logged into my Google account. My response here is not exactly as my first, but I think it includes the same gist.
Doesn't the best learning come when students take the initiative and run with it. It sounds like their intrinsic motivation was in overdrive. I also like to call this learning from a felt need, which is one of the 10 principles of highly effective classrooms according to the IDE Corp's learner, active technology infused classroom philosophy. The students learn best when they really feel the need to do so. Your students felt the need to learn about free software and software that they could use to be successful and make the project work. Any suggestions from the software that they used?