aisbit

Interesting to me that as tech is more effectively used, the less apparent it becomes. This speaks to the power of the user of a tool. You don't usually think of a plumber as being good at a wrench, you just know he has the knowledge and experience it takes to get you out a bind when it comes to a plumbing problem. The more our 6th graders use their laptops this year, the less the teaching and learning seems to focus on the laptop itself. An example of this is the 6th grade trip to Budapest for the Fall of The Red Star and '56 Hungarian Revolution against the Russians. Tech was not the focus, but was a powerful tool for collecting pictures, pooling discoveries, and getting feedback on writing and thinking. The final product created from these things was a 1956 student lead assembly. The assembly itself was not tech heavy. Students read reflections, personal poetry on the subject, and a only a few tech elements were outwardly visible during the assembly. Student thinking became the focus and the power of this production. The more I reflect on this assembly the more I am convinced that if tech was not a part of these students undertakings, this program would not have been as much as success. The ability Ms. Herbert and Mr. Valezy had in giving feedback on student writing and questions for the Hungarian guest speakers. The videos posted to YouTube and pictures students viewed of each others experiences in Budapest, the map Mr. Farren and Mr. Valezy created to help support the student's inquiry of Budapest in 1956 were all invaluable tools that supported student thinking. This doesn't mention all of the many ways we don't see students using tech. They might be communicating outside of class using Skype or G-chat, giving each other opinions or ideas in a comment in a Google Doc, or using cell phones to collect and share experiences behind the scenes. In the end we saw the culmination of a plethora of techniques some tech heavy and some not as much