I was reading a November 13, 2013
Lucacept blog post today, and it started me thinking in two directions. First Jenny talks about Programming Challenge 4 Girls, which got me thinking about merging that idea with a spelling bee format, and couldn't we make a fun event that supported the curriculum while promoting technological savviness? As the blog post continues, Jenny talks about how Victoria, Australia is gearing up for a curriculum shift, and they're using Google Hangouts and Google + to form a learning community. She reflects on how this is a good way to train everyone when the number of trainers available isn't up to the task of covering that much geographical territory, and how bringing someone in digitally is a great way to serve the students when the expert they would benefit from simply isn't available locally. This last bit made me wonder if she's discovered Skype in the Classroom yet, because that looks like a fantastic clearinghouse of experts willing to digitally visit classrooms for free.
Holding a Tech Bee
Ok, so maybe a "bee" format doesn't make sense, but what if there was a contest where kids used computer programming to move an avatar through an obstacle course - and the first avatar to cross the finish line won? I can't find any justification for this sort of an event in the Common Core, but this seems like a fun way to encourage kids to learn a programming language and gain a high level of comfort using computer systems -- skills they will likely find useful as adults.
A fun idea, but how can we modify it to suit the Common Core? I looked at how Howard County is implementing Common Core, and found something in the
High School Educational Technology curriculum description. On page 3, one of the standards is to troubleshoot hardware & software problems such as error messages, as well as being proficient in the use of computers and their accessories (page 1). A competition to support this might be to have several heats where kids race to complete progressively harder tasks -- from successfully setting something up (wirelessly link this laptop to that projection system and start the movie playing in such a way that an entire classroom should be able to hear the audio) to fixing a known error (find out why this computer won't print - winner is the first to discover that the printer is out of paper, refill the paper tray, and print a test sheet.) Students in different schools can compete either between each other, for a school champion, or compete between schools by having the best times collected on a common webpage. And there's really no reason why you couldn't do both.
An unfair, but highly practical, version of this competition would be to use real malfunctioning computers. This is unfair because the errors could range from, "I don't know what was wrong, but it's working now -- I just turned it on" to "It's dead Jim," (completely unfixable). Such a variation in challenge difficulty (and the difficulty of determining if the student's right about a system being officially dead) wouldn't make for fair time trials - but it would help keep an aging technology fleet running.
One variant of this could be that students who rank highly in the repairs contest gain the opportunity to attempt repairs on real broken computers. Attempting repairs should be done in a designated area, during designated times, and successful repairs can be rewarded with repair points (person with the most repair points gets hailed as "master fixer" - rather like the Scare Board on Monster's Inc - or some school treat like a free ticket to something or a free snack in the cafeteria). On the one hand, these students would gain real world experience in computer repair, but on the other, they could damage the machines further or access data that they really shouldn't have access to (especially if it's a teacher's computer.)
The idea's far from perfect -- but maybe it can evolve again, growing into something that really can be implemented.
Digital Experts
As for the second topic for today... well, topic one was long enough so lets keep this short. Video conferencing with real experts is an excellent idea, particularly on the last day before a break or another time when something is distracting the kids. You've got a pair of half days just before Thanksgiving break? Skype a marine biologist into your science class. Maybe they're so excited that sitting and reading is difficult, but they can video conference with the author of that book you're reading in Language Arts. Our textbook,
Meaningful Learning with Technology (Howland, Jonassen & Marra, 2012) discusses a variety of video conferencing ideas and programs, but my favorite is Skype in the Classroom -- which is the technology I presented to my technology in the classroom class a couple of weeks ago.
The video conferencing that Jenny was primarily talking about in her blog, though, was for professional development -- and why not? It's a great idea that is used in many fields of work! If you don't have the expert you need locally, then bring them in remotely. Whether it's teaching the teachers across entire state (or province) about the new curriculum standards or having a professional artist explain to a high school art class about her painting technique, a live encounter (even when delivered digitally) will have a greater impact on learning than something pre-recorded and non-interactive.
So... What's out there?
Technology opens many doors to us, but if we aren't careful, we may find ourselves reinventing wheels when we could be using them instead. Do any of you readers know of a tech competition in your area? Have you participated in a professional development video conference? I would love to hear about it! Collaborating as professionals, we can enrich the learning experience for our students.
