I don't know about anyone else, but this week's readings and videos on collaborative inquiry has really inspired me to think of more opportunities for my students.
Will Richardson's video on how his daughter learned to play Journey by using YouTube and the example of the film making student from Canada gave me some great ideas.
My school is a magnet school in New Haven and part of our magnet theme is technology. The primary focus of the technology theme has been robotics for the past few years at our school. I love robotics and I have been involved in the after school program, but I do feel there is so much more that we can do to prepare our students with regard to technology.
The woman who held the position of the technology enrichment teacher during the school day focused her classes on robotics. She just recently retired from the school district and our principal has been discussing what to do next with her position. Boy do I have some ideas thanks to this week's module that I cannot wait to share with her.
The readings and videos from this week's module about creating a digital footprint makes me want to create a curriculum based on that thought alone. I want to teach my students how to, as Ian called it, create and curate their digital footprint. They need to know how to do this, because it will matter in the future as we saw from the video of the young man sitting for the interview while the interviewer was viewing his Facebook page.
How amazing would it be if there was a class for students where they could create personal blogs and learn how to build a professional digital footprint? If this was an enrichment class it could grow from year to year. In 6th grade the students could work with setting up their blog and creating their digital resume. Then in 7th grade they could be given an assignment to learn, which they must use the Internet to research and blog their experiences and demonstrate their progress, similar to the ED 714 Networked Learning Project. In 8th grade they could be given a freedom of choice project where they decide what they want to learn for the marking period. They could be like the Canadian student who learned from a variety of teachers to make films. If they start in middle school, then it gives them a good basis of knowledge of how to use technology to educate themselves on all levels.
I have so many ideas running through my brain on how I could implement this at my school. I was approached to take over the robotics enrichment classes next year and I said I honestly did not want to do it yet. I wanted to go through this program and learn about different things that I could use to enhance the curriculum and take the technology enrichment class to the next level. These readings and videos have really inspired me to have a conversation with my principal and look at possible opportunities in the future.
I can feel your excitement! I really like the idea having students setting up their blogs and digital resume, then revisiting or I should say continuing on to a somewhat "structured" assignment and then giving them the choice of what project to do in 8th. I have seen my students do very well when given leeway as to how they want to go about doing and presenting project. I think that our readings and videos support the thinking that students will rise to the occasion if given the opportunity to do so.
ReplyDeleteI'm also very excited. There are so many ideas that came from this week's module. I'm also glad that we are creating a community so that we can support each other and share ideas throughout the school year. Once school starts it's easy to get bogged down in all the things we have to do, so this community will be a great help.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. It is an exciting time..and we can do all of these things. Sadly it often is a case of "hacking together" technologies and permissions to build up this sort of ability in our classrooms. Whether it's re-writing a school's AUP, or writing grants to purchase tablets it's all very necessary.
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