How to use technology to connect your students to a larger world
Schachter, R. (2011). Kid2kid Connections: How to Use Technology to Connect Your Students to a Larger World. Instructor. 120(5), 46-52.
Summary
This article details six ways the elementary school teacher can utilize technology in the classroom in order to connect students to broader communities to both share and gain knowledge. The technology tools mentioned include iPads, EdModo, Twitter, SmartPhones, Skype, and Shutterfly. All of the sites and applications mentioned are free. The article used as examples a 5th grade class in New York and a 3rd grade class in Oregon where the students are using iPads every day. Students in these classes are connecting with classrooms as far away as Korea and Brazil. More instructional time is being used; for example, students use a quick two minute math app to refresh their skills as they transition from a class to recess. Students are excited to share Keynote addresses and other projects they have created, one principal noting that this kind of excitement is something new due to the empowering capabilities of technology.
EdModo is described as a tool that allows students to comment safely on uploaded content as well as enable them to make friends in the process. Teachers read what students have posted and encourage them to think deeper. They also note the enthusiasm students have for this forum, which makes learning enjoyable. A third grade class in Virginia has a Twitter account for tweeting about field trips, books, and what they have learned. A tech coordinator shares that she is always on the lookout for new ideas from both students and teachers via Twitter.
At two Catholic schools in Ohio, students grades 3-6 use their cell phones (with texting/voicing turned off) to beam problems to each other in math and then beam back the answers. One writing teacher has a student start a story and then beam it to another, and one by one the entire class adds their own sentence to the story. These teachers noted that work tends to be more student centered, and quieter students are able to participate more fully with SmartPhones. A school in Birmingham regularly uses Skype to talk to other students from K-2, allowing them to share things unique to their natural environment like a cotton tree seedling or handful of red dirt, things which classrooms in other regions have never seen before. Other classes use it to converse with authors. A site is included where teachers can go to find other classrooms and the topics they want to Skype about. Students first create questions on index cards in advance of the author conference, so each student can ask a question. A stand up microphone for students was also recommended for the Skype call.
Still another classroom created alphabet photo books, taking pictures of each letter, uploading them to Shutterfly, and creating a digital book online. The librarian then ordered a hardcopy of the book for the school library.
Reflection/Application
Coming from a school outfitted with a good supply of iPads and Mac laptops, all of these technologies could be implemented. Using the smartphones in the classroom is a good idea with older students, but not every primary student has a phone. What is being done with smart phones--beaming problems and solutions, creating a class story--these are indeed activities that we could do at our school right now in other ways, via Air Drop or Google Drive on the iPad, for example.
I really love the idea of students bringing their device on a field trip and sharing what they have discovered before they have even arrived back at school. At some point on the field trip you could build in time for kids to reflect on what they are seeing and learning.
I took part in a Chicago Foundation for Education study group last year, on implementing technology in the K-2 classroom. The group leader, a phenomenal preschool teacher at Burly Elementary in Chicago, frequently used Shutterfly in her class, not only for creating picture books, but also for sharing a private forum complete with a calendar, messages, and photos for parents. This article brought that all back to me...and I have emailed our librarian and a 2nd grade teacher the Shutterfly section of this article to talk to them about it. We are working on a book club project, and I am thinking at the very least we could take pictures and create a picture book about the process, or we could have a group of students do this! Even better! I plan to share Shutterfly with faculty this Thursday. I get five minutes to share a tech topic, and this is very worthy. Re: EdModo, I appreciated one teacher's comment about kids feeling safe and social in this forum, as well as her responsibility to push their thinking deeper. I am helping a class utilize EdModo in February and am very excited about it! Re: Twitter, I like the idea of a whole class account. I did create a Twitter account for myself when I got my job--I noticed my other two counterparts both had Twitter handles as part of their email signatures. So I have an account, but I am not fully utilizing it. This article reminds me that as my school's tech specialist, I need to get more comfortable with Twitter so I can share its benefits with interested teachers as well as stay abreast and connected in the ed tech world!
