Digital Stories

I was surprised to read this weekend in my hometown paper that a teacher at my former middle school had her students create digital stories for elementary schoolers.  What a great use of technology! The eighth graders were excited to use the technology to animate their stories and make them come to life, and the first graders were thrilled to read a story that was interactive.
This project, done by a teacher I remember as always being happy to experiment with technology, shows what the future can look like.  It is difficult to get students to read and write in an age when playing video games and surfing the internet are much more entertaining.  Making reading and writing digital helps to grab the attention of more students.

Google Docs

I was first introduced to Google Docs three years ago after my computer crashed during finals taking my English paper with it.  I now use docs to back-up everything I do, but I've been thinking lately about how I could have used it in high school.

When I was in high school my school's idea of being technologically advanced involved getting new computers (not good computers, but new) every year, and having two laptop carts stocked with thirty laptops for classes to use.  The only thing these laptops were ever used for in my experience was typing documents in class. Personally I hated this practice, it meant I had to spend the last five minutes of class saving my document to a flash drive to complete at home, or sending it to myself.

With google docs this wouldn't have been a problem.  I could have typed my document in google docs and accessed it on any computer later on. This advantage (probably the most simple of everything google docs has to offer) is also great for students who do not have access to computers at home.  There is no longer any fear of losing a flash drive, no hassle of e-mailing documents, everything is online with easy access.  Students can start a document at school and finish it later at the library.

Docs also makes editing easier.  I used to have a parent read through all of my papers in high school, but students today can simply share the document with a friend (someone familiar with the assignment) to have them check it over for completeness. Or the teacher could review the paper before the deadline to make sure the student is on the right track. In fact, the student could turn the document in online to avoid fear of forgetting deadlines or losing hard copies.

There are so many more ways that google docs can improve the paper (and presentation) writing process.

The Calculator Issue

I recently ran into a family friend at church that I haven’t seen in years.  Like all long lost acquaintances, she asked me where I was in my schooling.  Upon hearing that I would be a teacher in two short years, she proceeded to lecture me on the importance of making students to mental math, something she feels her granddaughter doesn’t do enough of.  “She’s always reaching for her calculator,” she told me. 

Like usual, I nodded, smiled, and changed the subject.

I understand the importance of doing some math in your head.  Obviously, basic math skills are important, but if I have a tool I want to use it.  I have terrible memories of struggling through “no calculator” portions of AP Calculus tests (and I can’t think of a real life scenario when manually finding a derivative would be necessary).

I like the logic of my college stats professor, who told us that there was never a time when he was solving a real-life problem where he would not have the opportunity to use as many resources as he could find.

If we want progress in education, why don’t we allow students to use every opportunity available?

Would Technology Help?

I have a student in a class I work in that is a frequent behavior problem.  "Dave" constantly disrupts during group time; he can't keep his body still and his mouth is always running.  But Dave does pay attention, he can always repeat the directions to the teacher when asked, even though throughout the lesson he is usually half upside-down.  Dave is obviously bored, but he needs the information being taught in the lesson.  It is not the content that Jack finds uninteresting, it is the medium.  Technology would be an asset to Dave, but the school uses very little.  I can foresee this attention problem plaguing Dave throughout the rest of his schooling.