My blogs (and feelings) tend to be cautious and perhaps skewed towards a discussion of the hurdles rather than victories resultant from my growing use of technology in my high school ESL and science classes. I decided at the end of this, our last of five COETAIL courses for the ISB Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy Program, to share some of the victories along the way in my 15-month journey. My goal and the goal of the program is to enable students with the skills, knowledge, understandings, and habits of mind they need to become more effective learners, communicators and creators, and global collaborators in today's digital world.
Reflecting on these three goals, I would say the embedded use of technology in my class units and lessons has allowed my students to first and foremost become better global collaborators and creators, followed by better communicators, and then learners. I feel this ranking shows a key benefit to students of embedding TAIL standards in our high school curricula. It fills in gaps and provides a necessary balance of skills, knowledge, understandings, and habits of mind needed by today's digital natives. While I feel our ESL (and science curricula) is already strong in its ability to create effective communicators and learners, drawing upon and embedding TAIL standards into these curricula provide greater opportunities for students to develop into effective global collaborators and creators.
Effective global collaborators and creators...
The other day in class, students were working in groups of two to three on revising a drama they had jointly created. Not being a digital native as are my students, I had asked for printed copies of their scripts and had provided feedback in written pen on the printed page. (It's still easier on my eyes than the computer when there are many papers to mark.) Given 40 minutes at the start of class to revise their five-minute scripts, students in one group, then the next and the next said "Google Docs! Let's use Google Docs and we can get it done twice as fast. You work on page ... and I'll work on page ..." and they were off. Having introduced Google Docs to the students early in the year, it had now become part of their personal tool set—they knew what it was, its benefits, how to use it, and the appropriate time to use it. As the drama developed and the writing process utilized, students used Google Docs to collaboratively share, work on, and save the dramas they created both in and outside of class.
Effective global collaborators and creators...
Another class. Another day. Setting up a shared online glossary of high frequency words with my beginning ESL students I wanted each student to link their Word Maps to the glossary entry they created for each word in order to share with each other additional information they had learned about each word while working on, revising and finalizing their Word Maps. I came to class prepared to show the students how to use Google Docs. To my surprise, students had already used Google Docs in another class and with a quick review of the basics and new instructions on how to share and link documents uploaded to Google Docs, students were quickly posting and sharing their Word Maps as a Google Doc link through our online glossaries.
Effective communicators and learners...
Online every day. Emails from students arrive nightly. Seeking clarification on assignments and content material. Asking for feedback on their labs and classwork. Turning in work and sharing information. Students know how to "find and use information to construct meaning and solve problems". Students must "communicate effectively and responsibly"
Effective communicators and learners (and creators)...
PantherNET. Student resources. Assignments. Forums. Glossaries. Wikis. Latest News. We have tried them all. Place for sharing information and resources. Creating, discussing and posting evidence of learning. Connecting and learning from each other during class and at home.
My students and I have crossed one arbitrary finish line together—the conclusion of the ISB COETAIL Program—as better global collaborators, creators, communicators and learners. However, the end of the course is not the end of the race. For the race continues. The goal of preparing students to meet the content and TAIL standards essential to become fully functioning members of today's digital world will always remain unmet as it is a moving goal on a continuum of students' developing knowledge, skills, understandings and habits of minds. More hurdles and successes are expected. But the path we must take is clear if our goal is for our students to become effective learners, communicators, creators and global collaborators of the 21st Century. The path for my students and I must be one of integration and synthesis: a curriculum that draws upon and links the standards of scientific literacy, linguistic literacy, and education technology and information literacy.
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