There are many people on forums, twitter and elsewhere discussing the importance of using technology in the classroom to enhance learning. I find there is generally two camps out there in regard to technology, not mutually exclusive; one belief is that technology should be used to transform teaching and learning to become ‘more than the sum of its parts,’ the other belief is that as technology is adopted effectively, it should become transparent and not the focus of the activity.
So what’s a teacher to do in the classroom that fits with these important perspectives on technology? Today I am going to stretch my brain and come up with five brand new tech-infused activities (to me at least) to share with all of you. I have mentioned some others before, but I want to be creative this morning, and perhaps come up with something I can use next week in my classes.
- Start an Action Group – Whatever your subject matter or level, there are many points of contact with the outside world that students can become involved in. In the past, these connections could be difficult to forge, a teacher had to have a great knowledge of the community or a particular subject area. Today, students can research electronically what is being done in the community, use social networking to gather support, and even put ideas into action without having to leave the classroom. I am all for leaving the classroom from time to time, but when we are able to effectively create community or worldwide connections with students from inside the classroom, it creates the ability to do more of the authentic work we need students to be involved in.
- Social or Scientific Experiments – Whether it is eye colour of parents, beliefs on government, or a myriad of other concepts, social networking offers students and teachers the ability to leverage their learning in ways we are just starting to utilize. I will admit that I have used this strategy minimally up to this year, but seeing some of the great ideas and feedback students and teachers are getting from Twitter and Facebook, it is an area I see many more teachers working with in the near future.
- Digital debates – I am nearing a point where I will allow students to see other perspectives on an issue by connecting them directly with others who are studying the same material, or living in the area being studied. Another way to utilize digital technology for debate is to let the students loose on the debate in a closed or open internet forum. The debate can occur over a weekend or holiday, and upon return to the classroom the results can be discussed and analyzed. Ultimately this would take some strong teaching beforehand about debate etiquette, but the realization that posts are a digital record generally keeps students appropriate in this kind of forum. Once the students have returned to class, the discussion then centers around the debate as an artifact, with key issues, faults in logic, and additional learning and refinement.
- Paying it Forward (Creating Learning for upcoming students) – This is a vision that I need to set up, as it has been bouncing around in my head for some time, and I have only started to use it. Having students create work for future students. I am thinking in particular as a course review for English, where students create a guide of the essential learning that students need to be successful in the class. While this could be done individually and on paper, I think a wiki form where students can add, change, adapt and put their own ‘stamp’ on it year after year would be astounding. Each student could revise or write an entry, and the wiki could become a compendium of that course.
- Publishing (for real!) – I want to see classrooms publishing viable, sellable work that can be found on Amazon.com or any of the online stores. The process is easy, as there is a plethora of online publishers, I believe I have mentioned Lulu.com in the blog before. Here’s why we need to publish:
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
