| Throughout this year the Digital Classroom will continue to focus on the
requirements of the third section of the Interim Technology Program of Studies:
Communicating, Inquiring, Decision Making and Problem Solving which specifies how the
productivity skills should be integrated into all subjects areas. Last month we
looked briefly at the four ways computers can be effectively integrated into the classroom
methodology to enhance learning: Communicating (and collaborating), Researching,
Organizing (analyzing) and Presenting. This article will focus on communicating and
collaborating.
Get Ready!
As I suggested last month, we can begin by taking the processes and methodologies that
we have successfully used in the past and begin to integrate the use of computers and a
focus on developing the higher level thinking skills that students need to acquire. There
are other equally valuable and different approaches that we may consider. But let us begin
by examining the kind of attitude and mindset needed to facilitate this kind of
learning.
Al Rogers - The Executive Director, Global SchoolNet Foundation in his article titled
"The Failure and the
Promise of Technology in Education: Classroom Teachers Take Control of Their own
Professional Development" shares his insight regarding the attitudes
required by teachers preparing to include technology into classroom instruction as we
approach the new millennium. The excerpt below summarizes some of the attitudes that will
help teachers undertake these new challenges:
| Today, more than ever, we need teachers who are able and willing
to become side-by-side learners with their students. Teachers who are not afraid to
acknowledge, "I don't know," and then can turn around and say, "Let's find
out together." These teachers need to know how to use various technologies to shape
and process and manage information, to look for relationships, trends, anomalies, and
details, which can not only answer questions, but create questions as well. We need
teachers who understand that learning in today's world is not just a matter of mastering a
static body of knowledge, but also being able to discover the rapidly changing ideas about
that knowledge itself. In fifteen years of
teaching teachers "about" technology, I have found it far more effective to show
teachers how to teach writing using a word processor, rather than teaching them how to use
a word processor, how to use a spreadsheet or database to collect and plot census data as
part of a social science unit, rather than how to use the tool; or how to use the World
Wide Web to develop incredibly rich professional dialogs between students as Web authors
and their audiences around the World.
Al Rogers, Executive Director, Global SchoolNet
Foundation
http://www.gsn.org/teach/articles/promise.html
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I agree wholeheartedly with this viewpoint, only I would take it a step further. It has
been my experience not only is it effective to show teachers but that it is even
more effective to teach students how to develop their writing
using a word processor, how to use a spreadsheet or database to analyze, organize and
present data, and how to create web page presentations rather than just learn about the
tools.
Get Set!
Although the Internet is vast with innumerable resources, there is one place that
stands out as being the most valuable for Alberta Teachers: the TLC
site! The Telus Learning Connection site contains over 2000 links all collected by Alberta
teachers in support of Alberta Curriculum. 2learn.ca provides tools and directions for
developing collaborative telecommunication projects deeply rooted in the Alberta
Curriculum that make excellent use computers and the Internet. This site provides the
opportunity, expertise and step by step guidance to enable you to "learn by
doing" an Internet project with your students.
The 2learn site is organized into several main strands. The first two strands: Research Skills and Curricular Resources Links
help teachers guide students in using the Internet to research for relevant curricular
information. The third strand, Telecollaborative
Project Centre, focuses on using email to expand communication between students
across cities, countries and even different continents. The fourth
strand have recently been revised to provide planning guidance for Professional
Growth and the final strand focuses on technology Teacher
Tools and skills.
The Research skills strand has recently been moved from the main
menu and replaced by the Constructing
Knowledge strand which focuses on resources to support the
learning process.
And Go!
Follow these steps to begin an Internet Project with your students:
- Preview the current fully searchable database of Telecollaborative
projects hosted at
the Project
Registry @2Learn.ca. (You do not need to register for these first 2 steps.)
- You do need to register if you want to join or create a project. Once registered, you
can
- join an existing project.
- access the Project Registry @2Learn.ca to create a new project
- enter the Collaborative Conversations CommCentre@2Learn.ca, as a project participant.
- Apply for Grass Roots Funding. Awards range from $300 for a single project to $600-1200
for group projects involving 2-4 project leader teachers.
This is not just another curriculum to add on to the existing curriculum burden. It is
another more exciting way to accomplish our curriculum objectives. It is a new process of
learning which uses new tools and it is highly engaging! It also just happens to be a great deal of fun!
Other valuable TLC Links:
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