This a very engaging u-tube video. The creativity is very captivating, but I hope that the message comes across. This has been one of my themes with our staff this year:
Are we teaching our Millennial children how to survive in the Industrial Age?
Watch this and leave a comment:
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
1-1 Computing Part 1
1-1 Computing
As most of the MFL MarMac High School staff knows, I am a big supporter and advocate for 1-1 computing. Several of us were at a webinar the other day and the comment was made, “What do you mean by 1-1?” I thought about this and decided that I have been assuming that all staff members understand this. I decided that I had better back up and answer a few questions.
1) What is 1-1 computing?
This term basically means that every student will be given a laptop computer to use both at home and at school for the entire school year.
2) What are the expectations of students and teachers?
I expect that all teachers will use this “tool” in their classrooms in different ways. All of our teachers now teach differently. That is good. The 1-1 will not change this. I taught math for 25 years. When the graphing calculator came along, it totally transformed not only the way I taught, but the way students learned and grasped mathematical concepts. I expect that this will have the potential to do the same for all curriculum areas. Some teachers will start with having the students take out their laptops to take notes instead of paper and pencil. Some teachers will send the notes to the students and spend more time analyzing and discussing the general concepts. All teachers will have access to a computer “lab” every day in their classroom instead of picking up and moving to a lab and hoping that it is not being used by another teacher. I expect that this will allow our teachers and students to focus more on analyzing and creating instead of remembering facts and spitting them back on a test.
We have focused our professional development on higher order thinking skills for many years. This is the best initiative to allow teachers and students to focus on this area. Some teachers will totally revamp the way that they conduct business. Some will only change a little. I expect that all of our good teachers will remain good teachers whether they change or not.
In the future, I will discuss:
2) What have we been doing to help make this decision?
3) What will it “possibly” look like?
4) Why do I want to do this?
5) How will we fund this?
In the meantime, I would be willing to talk to anybody at any time about this. I will post this on my educational blog; berryedblog.blogspot.com, where you can leave any comments.
As most of the MFL MarMac High School staff knows, I am a big supporter and advocate for 1-1 computing. Several of us were at a webinar the other day and the comment was made, “What do you mean by 1-1?” I thought about this and decided that I have been assuming that all staff members understand this. I decided that I had better back up and answer a few questions.
1) What is 1-1 computing?
This term basically means that every student will be given a laptop computer to use both at home and at school for the entire school year.
2) What are the expectations of students and teachers?
I expect that all teachers will use this “tool” in their classrooms in different ways. All of our teachers now teach differently. That is good. The 1-1 will not change this. I taught math for 25 years. When the graphing calculator came along, it totally transformed not only the way I taught, but the way students learned and grasped mathematical concepts. I expect that this will have the potential to do the same for all curriculum areas. Some teachers will start with having the students take out their laptops to take notes instead of paper and pencil. Some teachers will send the notes to the students and spend more time analyzing and discussing the general concepts. All teachers will have access to a computer “lab” every day in their classroom instead of picking up and moving to a lab and hoping that it is not being used by another teacher. I expect that this will allow our teachers and students to focus more on analyzing and creating instead of remembering facts and spitting them back on a test.
We have focused our professional development on higher order thinking skills for many years. This is the best initiative to allow teachers and students to focus on this area. Some teachers will totally revamp the way that they conduct business. Some will only change a little. I expect that all of our good teachers will remain good teachers whether they change or not.
In the future, I will discuss:
2) What have we been doing to help make this decision?
3) What will it “possibly” look like?
4) Why do I want to do this?
5) How will we fund this?
In the meantime, I would be willing to talk to anybody at any time about this. I will post this on my educational blog; berryedblog.blogspot.com, where you can leave any comments.
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