Examining Practice

Integrating technology tools facilitates a number of instructional strategies that support students in knowledge construction and creative thinking. Although some of these strategies can be used without technology, the available tools can extend teaching and learning in ways not possible without them. Authentic, “real world” projects that make room for student choice can motivate and engage students by allowing them to pursue their own interests in a given content area. The ability to easily publish their work on the Internet motivates students to crete products worthy of a worldwide audience. Allowing for flexibility in the products that students create gives them an opportunity to express themselves in ways that traditional linguistic or written work will not. Allowing students to explore concepts through multimedia, visual images (original or compiled), music or physical activity gives them a chance to explore multiple intelligences that may be stronger in some than others. These modes of learning can also help students tap creative energies that are often left idle in mainstream classrooms. Teachers who are open and flexible in their expectations for “product” may find that students demonstrate their understandings at a much higher level than they would through written or oral assignments. Making learning goals clear, possibly by publishing them on class web pages, helps students recognize what they need to demonstrate and challenges them to find their own ways of doing so. Using formative assessments like blogs, project checklists, graphic organizers and collaborative documents gives teachers and peers the opportunity to track student progress during a unit or project, allowing them to provide feedback through comments as well. The use of graphic organizers in particular encourages students to expand their thinking by creating relationships between concepts, organizing information into key areas and “seeing” how the pieces fit together. These tools benefit visual, concrete and abstract learners alike and have a wide variety of applications. Publishing standards-based project or unit rubrics and having students self-assess their own products makes assessment goals clear from the start, and give students the opportunity to make their work the best it can be.

As I collaborate with teachers to develop technology-based instruction, projects and assessments I hope to incorporate these strategies as often as possible. I anticipate that the level of implementation will correlate with teachers' understanding of these pedagogical concepts, and I will share the research, tools, and examples with my colleagues through our web-based “Teacher's Corner” as well as through social bookmarking for those who participate in the Diigo community. As I work on unit and lesson plans I will model the use of graphic organizers and shared Google Documents with my colleagues, helping them see the value of these tools as we work together to develop curriculum.