Using Technology to Bring Schools Together
Fingal, D. (2010). Making school a little less painful through technology. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(2), 47. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-september-october.aspx
In this article, Diana Fingal profiles Jason Schrage, a social studies teacher from New York, who uses technology in order to make otherwise uninteresting material interesting and engaging for his students. Schrage admits that he hates teaching towards what is on the standardized tests, but at the end of the day that is what his performance is judged on so he must help his students prepare for them. In order to change things up, Schrage set up a video conference with his cousin, who teaches the same social science class, who lives over two hours away. The two classrooms competed in a virtual class game and responded to questions using a clicker. The class that had the highest percentage right on a particular question would earn the point, and the two sides exchanged friendly, competitive banter throughout the games.
This was one example Schrage highlighted, but he also believed in using twitter in order to reach out to other social studies teachers for ideas in how they go about teaching their respective lessons. Overall, this lesson models relate to NETS-S standard 2, in that, “Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.” This lesson that Fingal highlights allowed students who live two hours away from each other to communicate and review for the same test that would have otherwise been a boring in class review.
Overall, I think Fingal does of fine job of showing how technology can be a good way to make repetitive content interesting again. Schrage’s game is the perfect way to incorporate technology while still creating an environment conducive to learning. In terms of how I would be able to use this in my classroom, I think a great way would be to use the same video conferencing system to go over a book that another class at a different school had also just read. The two classes could compare and contrast how they interpreted the book, and it might help them to realize that different cultures relate to the same book in a different way. Developing a cultural awareness through technology is a very important skill for students to learn.
That's a pretty neat idea that Schrage had. He made a combination game show-pen pal-book club. That's an excellent way to share different perspectives. I could see myself using this approach with lots of different subject matter. It could be an effective tool in a foreign language class. The hardest part of the whole process is probably making the connection with another teacher and classroom. Schrage had the advantage of having a cousin who taught the same class. I have a cousin in Mexico who could hook me up with a teacher, but I don't know if they have the technology there to interact. Maybe it would have to be a high school class here communicating with a college-level class in another country. That could work though. I suppose I'll meet other teachers at conferences, but maybe the best source for connections will be a Ning group, like Educators PLN.
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