Image from Techandlaw.net
The Vision.
( Cue: dramatic movie-trailer voice)
In a world where students live online and learning lives in the classroom, one teacher will dare to “connect”. Will she succeed in incorporating online life, content learning, and sound pedagogy? Or will she and her students fail miserably and descend into an abyss of disconnectivity and despair?
Ok. Is that too much drama for you?
The Dream, The Nightmare, The Wakeup Call.
Picture this: a quiet night at home. Ms. Bailey diligently adds students to her Google+ network so they can participate in a Google Hangout English tutorial the night before the December exam. She can’t do On-Air, to protect the students’ privacy. Instead she figures about 10 keeners will come to tutorial, which is perfect for a regular ol’ Google hangout. 7:59 pm … anticipation mounts as the hangout is about to begin.
Does it go as planned?
Of course not.
No, 21 students show up for the tutorial. Too many for a Google Hangout (in many ways, a wild success!).
Additionally, despite her microphone working on the computer, and being turned “on” in the hangout, no student is able to hear her (in many ways, my bad).
Finally, the keen students suggest a technology which is native to them : Skype. YES! Skype! While 21 people would make video-conferencing slow on this app, the chat function and audio functions of Skype would work well, especially if Ms. Bailey can paste links into Skype chat (which she does).
SO, they move the whole party over to Skype. Since they all know how to use it already, and all have each other on Skype – save, of course, courageous Ms. Bailey- , this new venue takes about 3 minutes to get going. The evening is saved, and they all have a productive 45 minute tutorial.
The Action!
This brings me to a recurring theme in my investigations : can we reach students more effectively by teaching them using technologies that are native to their quotidian experience, than by introducing newfangled technology they have no non-scholarly applications for?
My Action Plan involves teaching students literature using “technology.” I want them to collaborate to create knowledge and experience of the texts we are studying in ways that are most relevant for them. For their high-stakes exam in May, they’ll need to recall details from texts all the way from the beginning of the year. Are there accessible ways for them to establish this content as they learn it, and access it instantly throughout our course?
I hope so. I’ve already started my investigation through google docs — which students also don’t seem to be using outside the classroom. It hasn’t been too effective thus far. Instead, I’ll continue by investigating Vine, Ask FM, and other social-ish media they already use daily to see if it’s more effective in their “out of classroom” hours.
The Matrix !!!
Yeah, prepare for a bajillion matrix jokes, quotes, and photos next post. That’s really why I chose the Technology Integration Matrix – makes for good writing.
TIM has, in my humble opinion, the coolest aid for implementation, in the form of a — wait for it — integration matrix … .
But wait, there’s more!
This matrix has not only descriptions of each level of integration, for different essential classroom skills (e.g. collaboration), but has examples of each for each subject one might teach (helpful for those of us who like concrete models for achievement). Also, there’s this rubric with general descriptors!
My favourite part is that I can measure my progress based on how natural it is for students to engage using my own tools, while effortlessly tracking my movement through the matrix. Exciting.
To Be Continued…
Digital Natives have their own “native” uses for technology and social media. To use an analogy, are we trying to colonize and convert our students to “appropriate” uses of technology? I’m hoping to conduct a brief ethnographic study, and then use students’ technologies in their ways to enhance classroom learning for our collective purposes – starting this month! We start Hamlet this week, so stay tuned to see whether my visions for Shakespearean Vines and Tumblr posts will work, with the guidance of the Matrix.
(A note on Google Hangouts: I really LOVE Google Hangouts, and all the possibilities for the classroom – the school I’m at has an elective Gmail account for students, and optional Google apps participation, which is part of the issue with making students Google apps “native”. I’m looking for something that can be seamless and natural for me and the students – hence, going towards what they’re already doing. In my case that just happens to not be Google Hangouts right now. )