As a classroom teacher with a technology staff development history, I often heavily stress to other teachers that we don’t use technology in teaching simply for the sake of using technology. We should use technology to TRANSFORM our students’ learning.
An example from my own classroom:
Currently, my 4th and 5th grade students are setting poems about autumn to music they compose in small groups. We are learning about different types of scales (note patterns) in music and how the words of poems naturally have their own rhythm.
In a typical, non-tech lesson, I would distribute staff paper to my students (assigned to small groups), ask them to record the rhythms they discovered in their poems, and then creatively decide what the melody should sound like. They do have rules- they have to stay within the scales we’re learning about in class, and certain notes are more “important” within the scale than other notes. Other than that, they don’t really have any boundaries. After they finished, we would all sing the poems together, but I would probably have to play them on the piano first.
It’s a good lesson– they learn that there are many options for their melodies, and there isn’t one “right” answer. Additionally, they have problems to solve. Within their scales, the melodies have to flow together, and the end of the song has to sound like it’s “finished.”
To transform this lesson, I ask the small groups to continue this process using Apple’s GarageBand software. Students can input their melodies through multiple modes, and then play them back to listen and revise. There is immediate feedback about their choices for notes. Also through this method, they can choose nearly any instrument they want to hear play their melodies (not just me playing them on the piano). These are more problems to solve- what instrument would be the best to “tell the story” of their poems? After this option is set, they can then go into the instrument bank and add additional instruments to accompany their melodies.
Finally, we can save their final compositions and burn them to CD, send them to iTunes, or use them as background for a podcast. These students have taken a simple paper and pencil exercise that could be played and sung in a classroom setting and transformed it into something they can use again and again.
Do you have to be a music teacher to use a lesson like this? Absolutely not. What if your social studies class wants to record a podcast about this week’s topic of study? Some of your students might be writing the script, some might be the podcast recorders or producers, and some might compose the background music that is appropriate for this podcast.
What I love about teaching and learning with technology is that our lessons can become so much more than they were before, allowing students to make decisions, be creative, and find answers no one else knew existed.
What are you doing today to TRANSFORM your students’ learning?
I agree, there are so many paper and pencil or desk activities we are familiar with but we should move beyond those typical activities. We should touch on a wide variety of learning styles as each of us learns differently.
My “students” are usually adults, although I do love being invited to the classroom to help with younger students. Especially elementary students – seems they have not lost that sense of being able to do anything! Anyway, this afternoon we are having Math teachers in for a workshop. As I reflect on my sophomore’s math conferences two weeks ago, I was astonished the teacher used no technology and never even got them out of their seats to learn different concepts. This was very discouraging.
I will be presenting GPS technology to this group of Math teachers and I have several activities that will get them thinking, moving, sharing, and ultimately, learning (or how they can teach) about math and GPS. I am excited to have them work with these devices as I am sure their students would be also. Other teacher we have worked with just love getting out and using the GPS units. They can touch on every curricular area and are great tools for doing cross-curricular activities.
Borrow one from a friend (or your local extension office) and check out how you might use one in your class. I think you’ll find they do more than just talk to satellites! They will help transform learning.