I found that to be one of the most inspiring videos I have seen in some time. I hope you enjoyed it.
I wanted to share something with you other than news about what is happening in the high school. My belief is that this blog can become a place where we can share ideas about education. I have a lot of ideas about educating kids and I spend a lot of time thinking about what we do as educators. I read lots of books on education, and it is my firm belief that how we educate kids is an endless work in progress. Reflect just for a minute on what the world was like 10, 20, and 30 years ago. I graduated from high school 35 years ago and from college 30 years ago. My experiences were vastly different from the experiences of the children I see every day. When I come to work I am reminded of those differences, and I need to keep them in mind as I talk to kids, solve problems, consult with teachers, and make decisions.
Here is my first insight regarding the use of technology in the classroom. I know there are many people who are not convinced that technology necessarily improves education. I believe it does and I hope to share with you some of the reasons why I think technology plays an important role today in educating kids. My first insight has to do with the Ning Mr. Katz created. Two teachers, Mrs. Smith and Dr. Lynch, created groups for their respective classes in the Ning, and both have created assignments where kids can post their thoughts and responses.
My first reaction to Dr. Lynch’s assignment was: well, this is a journal assignment that is simply being done on a computer rather than with pen and paper. She posted a question and asked students to answer the question. Then I read the responses. As a former English teacher, I have to admit that the quality and depth of the responses surprised me. I don’t recall receiving these kinds of responses in the journals I assigned. But do we attribute the quality to the medium? What was different about this and why the improved quality of responses?
I thought about this after I posted my own comment on the site and then it hit me. As a teacher, I had always been the only audience for the journal. English teachers always lamented this fact, more specifically the fact that formal writing was essentially audience-less and directed at the teacher. I cannot name an English teacher who didn’t say, at some point in his/her career, “pretend you are writing to an audience.” Also, to legitimize journal writing we often told the students, “I won’t share any of this without your permission. Feel free to express yourself candidly.” Rarely did any kid take advantage of that trust and use the journal to express deeply held convictions or secrets, but more importantly rarely did the writing reflect a voice or tone that suggested awareness of an audience. When the writing was particularly insightful I would have to get permission from the student, make a photocopy of the writing, make sure I had an overhead projector, or kill more trees and make copies for everyone in class, just to create a teachable moment.
As I was reading the student responses to the prompt, I was aware that others were reading those responses as well. In fact, they were referring to each other and responding to points someone else had made, in addition to commenting on the prompt. They were arguing, confirming, and participating in a discussion. The teacher didn’t need to weigh in on each journal response (as I often did with such lame comments as, “Very interesting…” or “thanks for sharing…”) because the students were reacting individually AND responding to each other. That is not just “doing the assignment differently” that is a completely different–and improved–writing activity. Insight: this writing activity acknowledged audience, encouraged voice, and the improvements in the quality of writing were a direct result of the use of technology.
Another fact of pen and paper journal writing for most kids was the essential problem of the journal itself. I hated assigning them because i had to collect 60 notebooks and then I had to either grade them in the classroom or lug 60 notebooks back and forth between home and school. I tried having them keep binders and turn in only the loose leaf pages, but they got lost…More important than my convenience, though, was something profound: the convenience for the kid. Journals were simply not convenient. The kid has a journal assignment–and parents, tell me this hasn’t happened to you with your child–but can’t do it because: a) I left the prompt at school; b) I left my journal at school…just write it on a piece of paper and stick it in your journal…I can’t…I wrote the prompt in my journal and I can’t remember the prompt which is in the journal at school…ETC.
The Ning is on the computer. And where are kids who are home…on the phone or on the computer…just finished on Facebook so I think I’ll go to the Ning and do my homework. The Ning brings the assignment to the student’s world. That is a huge change and a huge advantage, not just a change from pen and paper to computer. Does that improve the quality of writing? Perhaps not dramatically, but it might mean that more writing gets done. The main purpose of journal writing–any English teacher will tell you–is not the quality of the entry, but the mere practice and habit of writing. Kids become better writers by writing. They have to do lots of it. They need lots of low-stakes opportunities to practice writing. If we can take the writing to them, remove the inconveniences of the task, and get kids to do it as part of their own world/routine, then we have significantly improved the task.
Ok, that’s a long post, but it was a profound discovery for me. And I didn’t even mention that Mrs. Smith’s prompt was a video: Watch this and respond…I remember once asking kids to watch 2 minutes of TV one night…in order to respond in their journals: I forgot…my sister was watching some lame show…it wasn’t on…it was? I don’t get that channel…It is a different world and our teachers are engaging our children in ways we never dreamed of.
