Anthropological assessment of Thunder Mountain's technology culture

How will this project impact me as a teacher?

Technology will have a huge impact on my teaching this year in Thunder Mountain. Through this project I have investigated the technology that will be available to me, and discovered some technology that I didn't realize existed in the school previously. I have an increased awareness of the technological resources that I can have access to as a result of my interviews with teachers. I have become less apprehensive about utilizing technology in the classroom as I have seen how effective digital projectors and Interwrite pads are as communication tools and am impressed by the capacity of a projected image to capture the attention of a restless class of freshmen.

The new knowledge that I have acquired in relation to the technological capabilities of the school will definitely impact my lesson plans and my teaching methods during the year. I plan to use many electronic images as visual aids to illustrate the theme of a lesson, and to show relevant clips from documentaries and films. I hope to broaden the horizons of my students as I experiment with new methods of presenting educational material through technology.

Through my observations of the incorporation of technology in the classroom, I have firsthand experience of how beneficial the Internet can be as a teaching tool and as an educational resource for students. I am impressed by how open-minded the teachers at TMHS are to the use of technology in the classroom and how eager they are to utilize the technological capacities of the school to benefit the students.

For more information, please view my complete technology assessment.

Article Assesment 1

Listen to the Natives, Marc Prensky

OVERVIEW

This article emphasizes the generation gap between digital immigrants (often teachers), who are struggling to grapple the basic requirements of technology, and digital natives (many students), those who are self-educated and fearlessly immersed in the ream of technology. "Digital tools are like extensions of students' brains." Prensky speculates that it is impossible for digital immigrants to become as technologically savvy as digital natives, but he believes that they should strive to follow their progressive lead. The article outlines the disparity between what students are capable of as programmers and experts using digital tools, and the lack of opportunities for them to display and advance their capabilities in the classroom environment. Prensky indicates that technology is the one area of expertise that most students would love to be challenged in and to improve in, and yet schools and teachers are failing to provide a sufficient platform for growth and development in this integral area. Prensky points out the irony of schools that are scrambling to introduce a 21st century curriculum, before the close of the 21st century.

REFERENCE POINTS

• Educators must learn from students' 21st century expertise and abandon their predigital instincts



• A combination of desirable goals, interesting choices, immediate and useful feedback and opportunities to see their improvement engage kids in their complex video games.



• Engagement is superior to content, therefore adopt new systems for communication in class



• Encourage students to provide input and share their expertise; give them opportunities for involvement and make major changes based on their valid suggestions.



• Students should be treated as a resource, suggesting technology that they would benefit from in the classroom



• Students could feasibly invent technological solutions to streamline homework submission and correction.



• Adaptivity, along with connectivity, is where digital technology will have it's greatest impact on education.



• Students deserve to receive quality content through 21st century tools that are powerful, programmable, and customizable - through tools that belong to them such as cell phones.

APPLICATION

As a teacher I should strive to incorporate information that students have already acquired outside of class in their digital lives in order to make classes more engaging. I strive to make material relevant and often reflect on how I can engage my students and persuade them to enjoy literature with power points, document readers, CD's and DVD's. If I increased my expectations of students' technological contributions to class the responsibility of contributing to class discussions, presentations and to every facet of learning would be shared rather than monopolized by my great intentions.

Another personal paradigm shift would be to challenge myself on the digital relevancy of my classes.

On a practical note, I could ask students to search the internet for resources, clips or recent statistics that are relevant to our class discussions. Students could share their digital expertise by producing digital versions of their homework or project-work. If options and choices appeal to students in their interaction with video-games, I could strive to provide more options for assessment, give and receive frequent and useful feedback, and offer appropriate rewards.
I have often heard teachers describe themselves as entertainers who wear themselves out trying to keep students' attention with lively and dynamic presentations. I could give my students more responsibility and input through digitial presentations so that the onus of creating relevant classes is shared, and students would inevitably utilize available technology.

How to Animate a Rolling Ball

Aim of production: To understand the mathematics of a rolling ball and to demonstrate the new skill in an animation. What is the Product? Students have learned a digital-age skill and have a permanent record of their memorable lesson.

Prior to embarking on a similar project with my students I would weigh the following:

• Trade-offs: What material will I have to cut in order to facilitate this project?


• Options: Are there alternative, time-efficient means to assess student learning?


• Practicality: Availability of resources such as computers to complete the project.
  

I appreciate that the students included their mistake, showing that meta-cognition is as valuable as a finished equation. I could do a similar short with ESL students, to help them recognize that making mistakes is inevitable in the process of language learning, but that they should be rectified so that they do not become ingrained.

Futuring

a. How would you “grade” or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person, and School Train?

School Train

The students who worked collaboratively to produce School Train definitely deserve full marks. It is evident that they not only grasp the meaning of metaphor, but that they can utilize the concept in a practical setting to communicate their feelings about school and contextualize what they have learned in a way that is relevant to them. In addition to participating in and contributing to the production they have effectively used role-play, a method of learning that will help them remember the unit. The fact that it is difficult to get the repetitive chant of your head will probably serve as a memory-aid also. They also translated the train metaphor into Spanish, showing their ability to be culturally inclusive.

Fox Becomes a Better Person

Hannah is a natural storyteller and narrates a culturally rich story extremely well. Her original artwork forms the backdrop to the narration. The finished product provides Hannah with a digital recording of a production that is entirely personal. She certainly deserves full marks for her animated and memorable storytelling style and for her talented artwork.


b. What impacts could the developments portrayed in epic2015 have on your classroom, particularly with respect to things like podcasting?

If EPIC (Evolving Personalized Information Construct) existed, a personalized version of current affairs and historical data could be created for every class. The students' blogs, MySpace pages, schoolwork and contributions that compile the class website would be screened for group preferences and interests that the students have in common. Reading materials, movies, trivia and news items that are relevant to topics covered in class could be highlighted to generate a custom-made information package tailored specifically to content that would benefit the class.

Podcasting could be used for G.P.S. tagged school-wide broadcasts. School-wide podcasts could be used to:

• Inform students where their art class is located


• Locate students using G.P.S.
  
• Alert staff and students to the danger in a lock-down situation


• List electives that are available with feedback incorporated from students who have taken the classes


• Recognize student achievement and announce it to the school
• Create cross-cultural communication with students from other countries during a unit about culture, or for foreign language practice.

News would certainly be more interactive if students could give their input, make comments and give each other feedback on items that provoke their response. The ability to enter meaningful dialog with the news would validate the personal contributions of the students.

c. How might you use Sabrina’s piece as a model for something you would do with your own students?

Sabrina Journey is a useful model of a video clip that combines photographs and a voice recording to tell a personal story. I could play my students this piece to provide them with a non-threatening context to introduce themselves to other students in their school in a meaningful and personal way. They could choose what pictures to include in their own version, and create a monologue that they are comfortable with. A piece like this would be particularly useful at the beginning of the school year when many students don't know the names or backrounds of their classmates. If each student prepared their own production and was expecting to broadcast it in front of the class, they would make an effort to produce a polished and presentable finished product. The individual pieces could be combined into a DVD that includes a representative narrative from each of the individuals in the class.