Digital Learning in a School
September 25, 2012 5:33 AM
Educators of MeFi, help me find some great digital learning techniques and resources.
I've recently started a new role working in a secondary school (ages 11-18) in the UK, quickly and accurately pigeonholed as a geek I've been invited onto a committee group looking at integrating digital learning techniques into the life of the school.
The school has had a lot of investment in the last few years with comprehensive wifi coverage, widespread interactive whiteboards, extensive stores of laptops, digital cameras and camcorders, a few tablets and a couple of dedicated IT support guys. Thanks to Current Government Policy we can't guarantee this level of investment going forward so are looking to use our current resources efficiently and innovatively.
Staff are all computer literate but there are many varying levels of enthusiasm for using new techniques, easily demonstrable things will go down well.
A few areas I'm particularly interested in -
1) Ways of using students own devices to help in the classroom, teachers are particularly interested in widespread use of ebooks (including collaborative ebook writing) but have found it hard to use them across many different platforms.
2) Apps/webapps which can encourage collaborative working
3) Ways of using devices and the web to enthuse the kids and encourage them to learn while outside of the classroom
I've recently started a new role working in a secondary school (ages 11-18) in the UK, quickly and accurately pigeonholed as a geek I've been invited onto a committee group looking at integrating digital learning techniques into the life of the school.
The school has had a lot of investment in the last few years with comprehensive wifi coverage, widespread interactive whiteboards, extensive stores of laptops, digital cameras and camcorders, a few tablets and a couple of dedicated IT support guys. Thanks to Current Government Policy we can't guarantee this level of investment going forward so are looking to use our current resources efficiently and innovatively.
Staff are all computer literate but there are many varying levels of enthusiasm for using new techniques, easily demonstrable things will go down well.
A few areas I'm particularly interested in -
1) Ways of using students own devices to help in the classroom, teachers are particularly interested in widespread use of ebooks (including collaborative ebook writing) but have found it hard to use them across many different platforms.
2) Apps/webapps which can encourage collaborative working
3) Ways of using devices and the web to enthuse the kids and encourage them to learn while outside of the classroom
I read a few blogs where these topics come up from time to time. You might find useful stuff here:
Stephen's Web
Educational Technology and Life
Educational Technology
posted by SuperSquirrel at 9:33 AM on September 25, 2012
Stephen's Web
Educational Technology and Life
Educational Technology
posted by SuperSquirrel at 9:33 AM on September 25, 2012
Really basic (awesome) use of technology I saw in a classroom-- a wireless mic (routed to the classroom speakers) that the kids (voluntarily) read into when called upon to read from a text or chart or whatever. Made it so everyone could hear and the quietest readers didn't have to suffer through the teacher/other students repeatedly asking them to speak up.
Also: website specific: Nasa's website has excellent websites for kids and teachers (the quilt). Though it specifically aligns with California state standards, I don't see why it couldn't be used for UK standards as well.
Additionally: FOSS has a website with games and interactives for kids organized by learning "modules". Though it is designed to go along with a set of books and materials for the classrooms, again, there is nothing stopping you from using it without these other resources at hand. The FOSS website also has the heading "Resources for Teachers" that goes with each module, which tells you even more good quality science websites to link to.
Finally: have you checked out Inspiration software? It is a tool for teachers (and kids-- the kid version is called Kidspiration or something similar) that allows you to easily construct concept maps for classroom use or as part of an interactive language arts lesson.
Hope this helps!
posted by Temeraria at 11:20 AM on September 25, 2012
Also: website specific: Nasa's website has excellent websites for kids and teachers (the quilt). Though it specifically aligns with California state standards, I don't see why it couldn't be used for UK standards as well.
Additionally: FOSS has a website with games and interactives for kids organized by learning "modules". Though it is designed to go along with a set of books and materials for the classrooms, again, there is nothing stopping you from using it without these other resources at hand. The FOSS website also has the heading "Resources for Teachers" that goes with each module, which tells you even more good quality science websites to link to.
Finally: have you checked out Inspiration software? It is a tool for teachers (and kids-- the kid version is called Kidspiration or something similar) that allows you to easily construct concept maps for classroom use or as part of an interactive language arts lesson.
Hope this helps!
posted by Temeraria at 11:20 AM on September 25, 2012
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- Center for Digital Education
- THE journal
- Digital Is (National Writing Project)
- DML
- Edutopia's tech integration section
- Education Week's Digital Directions (some content is behind a paywall)
This is off the top of my head; I'll come back with any other thoughts. Good luck!
posted by smirkette at 7:25 AM on September 25, 2012