cc licensed flickr photo shared by Tony the Misfit
For the last two days, I have been working on education planning at our school division and have been out of the building. Today, it totally slipped my mind that our grade 5 and 6 students were connecting with another class in Calgary and listening to the mayor and other distinguished guests. This was the first Elluminate session for our students, and our teachers ran it on their own.
I totally forgot.
Something like this a year ago would have been something that I would have not missed in a million years because of the uniqueness of the project. This is something that we would not have done before. Although using Elluminate with our students was new, our students have done a lot with innovative learning this year that it is becoming more and more invisible. The students are focusing more on the learning using this technology in innovative ways, as opposed to learning the technology.
Take for example this student post –> Spaghetti Building Contest
Are we there yet? Absolutely not. Learning is messy and a process. We are however on the right track. When technology becomes ubiquitous, the learning is the focus. I love it!
Hi George,
This is simply amazing!
I checked the bridge and I was impressed with the complexity of the blog entry – aside from the well-written part, the focus is on the PROCESS and REFLECTION (she talks about what she would change, what she liked about the bridge etc).
This is authentic learning and I can only applaud you and your stuff for such commitment and results!
It is fantastic to see what our kids are doing. The best part is that we are continuously getting data of how this process works! What a great day
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Great post. I also think the same can be said about effective leadership (which is evident in this example). I like the idea that effective leaders are like officials in sports, they are most effective when you don't notice them.
George, I love this post of yours as well as the student post that you linked here. This is one very reflective student.
It's funny that you blogged on this subject, as I was just talking to my principal about the very same thing the other day. Last week, 10 teachers, administrators, and consultants visited our classroom to see how technology could be used with younger students. My students love to show off what they do, but when the visitors left, one of my students commented, "Miss Dunsiger, this really isn't that amazing. This is what we do everyday." He went onto explain that he loves using these tools, but that he's surprised when other's are amazed by how we use these tools. The tools almost start to become "invisible." As you said in your post, the students have all learned how to use this technology, and now they can focus on innovative ways to use this technology. It's amazing to see what they can do!
What your students and teachers are doing is incredible, and I love following along with their blog posts and with yours to "see" this learning in action.
Looking forward to the next post,
Aviva
Your students blog post inspired me to work with my students on making their blogs more complex and more reflective. It's a great example of how a blog can really document a student's thinking!
You can thank Tanya Paterson for that. You should definitely connect with her on Twitter (@paterson_t).
Here is to more invisible technology! Such neat things that your kiddos are doing there!
Again, just what I needed to hear. My school keeps getting hung up on the technology part, rather than seeing it as a way to get to the learning … and we disagree on what constitutes learning. Tall and short of it, due to some behavior issues we're backing up and going more traditional. (Will blog about that soon- still processing it.)
Thanks for showing that this can and will work, but that it can be messy. I needed the encouragement this evening.
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