Wow factor in using technology

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I am not sure where this question belongs, but as some of the answers may involve software, this is where I have put it.

I am looking for ideas that will encourage ‘risk averse’ teachers to get over their fears and adopt better technology practices in the classroom.

I am specifically dealing with teachers who cover k-6 and who have been through the ‘Office training’ the ’email training’ etc, but who have just not caught the bug. I don’t mean to suggest that they have to be geeks at the end of the projects but I want them to find whatever it is that will turn them on to technology.We know that children learn by copying behaviour modelled by adults. I want to guide the teachers to find the ‘wow’ factor that will give them cause to turn more often to the computer and therefore model to the children. Make sense?

So far I have developed projects using Photostory and Movie Maker, but I don’t just want to focus on specific software. (My thinking on this is that, for example, learing to use Word has not made these teachers any more inclined to do any word processing). I want to find whole projects that use a variety of skills.

So one is: we have used Word to create a maze (tables with various borders in cells), created an image from this and added a ‘mouse’ (any creature will do) that will traverse the maze. By producing a range of images that show the progress of the mouse, we can use Photostory to produce a movie that shows this progress. We then display this in the school reception area on a monitor we have mounted. So there’s a whole raft of planning and preparation skills as well as using technology to produce a result.

Does anyone have any other ideas or know of websites or organisations that do this sort of stuff?

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>>>> want to guide the teachers to find the ‘wow’ factor that will give them cause to turn more often to the computer and therefore model to the children.
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Just turn them loose on a Google search or Google Earth.
Theres a lot of WOW there!

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Thanks Bob,

Google maps have got me thinking. Search I am not so sure about. I am looking for ways to USE, not just the product. I’ll keep thinking

Johanna

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I fear there is unlikely to be a single WOW factor that will unlock the unwary but you are correct to search for such things.

In previous life back in the 1980s I was a school teacher (chemistry, ages 13-18). I had a colleague then who just couldn’t see the point of PCs. Her conversion came quite dramatically when she at last found the computer enabled her to do something she really wanted to do AND, crucially, this thing was something she couldn’t have done without the PC.

I can’t remember what the particular task was, something with a word processor (probably Word for DOS v3) maybe but the key was the beast became usable. Once it was a valuable tool that made her a better teacher there was no stopping her.

Ken

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Ken,

Thank you. I am completely with you on this. I dont believe that there is a single thing that will create the response that I want, that’s why I am looking for a range of ideas.

What turned me on was the internet. In 1992, the librarian at the TAFE college I worked at showed us the internet via Mosaic. It ‘blew my mind’ and I still dont have it back in one piece

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We have been able to get a lot people interested by having them do “Family Research”. This opens two new worlds for a lot of people.

Have them check out http://www.rootsweb.com[/url%5D. It is a site owned by “http://www.ancestry.com[/url%5D“, but is the “Grandmother” of all family research sites.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Thanks for the suggestion , Dave

I will put my thinking cap on about this one

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The hobby of “Family Research” is not just recording a bunch of names and dates. One needs to dig deep into the history of the locations, why did people leave from area to another. Many a student has attended our Family research group’s meetings as they (the student) are doing a class assignment. Digging through the birth, marriage and death (BMD) records one will learn all kinds of stuff.

I believe that you are from the “Down Under” and there are a lot of people doing family research down there.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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I am back after a weekend camping (a Monday holiday in honour of our Head of State’s birthday – or that of a long distant predecessor) and am overwhelmed at the responses. You have all given me a lot to think about and work on.

Thank you.

My project is to teach the teachers. I will make it available here when it is ready, if anyone is interested.

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Hi Joh

I have been interrogating young Miss Jezzarette 2 and asked her what they have used from ages 6 – 11 years and it seems they had a great range of things. A lot of it was gadgets such as

1) Meteorological eqpt ( wind speed, hygrometer, temperature, air pressure)
2) Drum kits
3) Robots
4) Smart boards

All the above were pieces of kit that connect via USB and were fun curriculum projects which was used by all year groups and the lesson plans and learning intentions were defined by the teachers. I was amazed that the equipment was quite cheap

Towards the end of the year 6 they were putting the data in to Excel to create a database of the monthly temperature changes (for example) and graphing it.

One thing maybe to change the way they think and by removing various printers and make them have USB memory sticks with there lesson plans and learning intentions, get them to have electronic registers on a shared drive, get them to have learning resources in a shared area so they are downloading it. I use an application called WebCT at the university where I have all my presentations and examples…OK, it is an IT course but the students very quickly get used to the concept of shared resource areas.

Just some ideas

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Ultimately, the intent is to infuse the students with this interest in technology. Hence, unless the students have access to a computer themselves (even if shared) it can be a challenge to retain their interest. Nonetheless, here are some thoughts…

Assuming the students do not have access to a computer but teacher does

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Great ideas here, Don.

I need to find something for Garbette to do since idle minds are the you-know-what’s workshop. Just yesterday, I found she had been vegging in front of the tube all day…

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