I see some great assumptions in this question. First, we are looking to enrich and enhance learning opportunities. That would assume that a) there is learning going on and b) the learning going on is in need of enriching and enhancing. What do we enrich and enhance? We enrich and enhance basic knowledge. Knowing basic geometric formulas is basic knowledge. The use of technology should be geared towards enriching the students’ understanding of how those formulas play a role in their lives. For instance, if a new building is going to be constructed on campus, are students given the opportunity to design the facility digitally, both inside and out, to enhace their understanding of major architectual features? This would leverage technology in an appropriate fashion for college level students. Online collaborative environments through Gmail or other web-based systems could be created that would include discussion, collaboration, and competition. The other assumption is based on a qusiteon can technology actually create an opportunity? No, by itself, it is a limited creation. Someone must creatively understand the power of technology and the role it MAY play in enrichment and enhancement. Educators with diversified abilities create the opportunities for technology to be used as an effective device. Twitter is inherently worthless unless a teacher knows how to use it to make a video interactive by allowing the students to post comments on a live feed during the video or presentation. Creative writing is much more enjoyable when a Google doc is used and five people are asked to write on the same document at the same time and create a coherent piece of writing. These things encourage higher thought processes, at both the individual and cooperative level. I do these things with 7th graders in a pubic school with relatively good access to technology. Just last week my students created Google spreadsheets as a class that contained population density information from each student’s ficticious country. Then, students discussed via Google chat the pros and cons of living in a country with various densities and finally as a class answered quesitons on a document I created for them and shared via Google docs. Who needs a test when I do this instead?
Normally I’m against killing but this article slaugthered my ignorance.
I see some great assumptions in this question. First, we are looking to enrich and enhance learning opportunities. That would assume that a) there is learning going on and b) the learning going on is in need of enriching and enhancing. What do we enrich and enhance? We enrich and enhance basic knowledge. Knowing basic geometric formulas is basic knowledge. The use of technology should be geared towards enriching the students’ understanding of how those formulas play a role in their lives. For instance, if a new building is going to be constructed on campus, are students given the opportunity to design the facility digitally, both inside and out, to enhace their understanding of major architectual features? This would leverage technology in an appropriate fashion for college level students. Online collaborative environments through Gmail or other web-based systems could be created that would include discussion, collaboration, and competition. The other assumption is based on a qusiteon can technology actually create an opportunity? No, by itself, it is a limited creation. Someone must creatively understand the power of technology and the role it MAY play in enrichment and enhancement. Educators with diversified abilities create the opportunities for technology to be used as an effective device. Twitter is inherently worthless unless a teacher knows how to use it to make a video interactive by allowing the students to post comments on a live feed during the video or presentation. Creative writing is much more enjoyable when a Google doc is used and five people are asked to write on the same document at the same time and create a coherent piece of writing. These things encourage higher thought processes, at both the individual and cooperative level. I do these things with 7th graders in a pubic school with relatively good access to technology. Just last week my students created Google spreadsheets as a class that contained population density information from each student’s ficticious country. Then, students discussed via Google chat the pros and cons of living in a country with various densities and finally as a class answered quesitons on a document I created for them and shared via Google docs. Who needs a test when I do this instead?