Tech Gadgets Etc. June 22, 2008

Since I was unable to be in class for the last session, I have decided to write about experiences I have had using emerging technologies in the classroom and for instructional purposes. I have tried many new emerging technologies this pst year in my classroom and some were more successful than others. The first technology I tried using was Garageband.

Last year when I had gone to T.I.E., one of our UCD colleagues had hosted a session on using Garageband to record kids reading various books to monitor their fluency. This particular teacher presented an example of an ESL student whose English fluency was very low. This teacher recorded the student reading various literature aloud, recorded with a small device plugged into the bottom of an iPod. The progression of the students fluency from the beginning of the year, to the end of the year was pretty remarkable. I thought to myself, what a great tool to use for conferences to show progression of fluency with students. Then I asked myself, how could I use this with 5th Grade students?

I decided that for spring conferences I would record students reading a picture book of their choice, below their attained reading level, to practice fluency, and demonstrate their ability to add intonation and fluctuation to their voice, to match the particular genre of text that they were reading. I found that this was an awesome tool for parents to listen to. They couldn’t deny any suggestions I had for improvement, and were surprised by what they had heard. The students also were able to sit with me and listen to their recording, and we could conference about suggestions for improvement, which were often caught by and pointed out by the student before I could point them out myself. I am thinking that next year, I will start this process at the beginning of the year, and then be able to show progress throughout the year at spring conferences. This tool proved to be useful, so I will try to incorporate it into next years curriculum.

I had a student form England visit my classroom last winter. He attends a semi-private all boys school in England, and while he was visiting, I kept asking him questions about how his schooling experience differed form that which he is experiencing in my classroom. This sparked a great idea! Pen-pals! Long lost are the days of old pencil and paper writing letters to be sent overseas. But what a cool experience that is to hold a conversation with someone from another country, and the anticipation of waiting for that next letter to arrive in the mail is priceless. So, I sent him back to jolly old England with a note for his english “tutor”, to ask if they wanted to participate.

Soon enough, we had new friends in another land to communicate with. I found out through talking with my new friend, the english tutor, that they are suing technology in many similar ways across the ocean for instructional purposes. So after several exchanges of letters, we decided to exchange videocasts. My students created a videocast telling our pen-pals about Frontier Valley Elementary in Parker, Colorado. They highlighted facts about our year-round calendar, how the school is set up, and various educational activities they participate in throughout the day. We are awaiting the arrival of the return videocast from our friends in England.

The videocast was a lot of work. Essentially, it was creating an iMovie. Students were responsible for writing a script, recording their script, and taking photos of the school to match the content of the script. Although this was a very cool experience, I sometime feel that these projects are more work on my part, than they are educational for the students. What I do know, is that it will be very rewarding to receive a return videocast from our pen-pals. I will let oyu know how it all turns out!