Students Use Tech to Learn

I had a teacher in my office a couple days ago wondering how to share his PowerPoint presentations with students in a better way than just standing in front of the class and delivering or just passing around a USB drive. He has a classroom website, so the solution was to load the presentations in Google Docs, share them out, and then link them to his website. It made it so easy for students to access the PowerPoint tutorials, for independent use in the classroom, as well as for access from home for those who have Internet access.

I had a conversation yesterday with the second year teacher that I mentor about the web sites that his eighth grade students are making. He's hoping that by the time they are through, they will be a kind of portfolio for them. We also visited about how he makes sure that students know that when they use technology to present to a group, there are choices, including PowerPoint, Google presentation, and Prezi. He knows that it's usually wrong to assign a student a particular tech product when the product is merely a tool for learning.

I worked with a science teacher a few days ago as he got students logged into our Google Apps domain, so they could collaborate on Google Docs.

I met with a group of staff members at the elementary school yesterday to visit about their plans for reinforcing and expanding the learning of their teachers when it comes to the technologies they have available in their building for student use. Their focus on blogging as a way for students to improve their writing is exciting. The options it opens up for collaboration and learning outside the walls of the classroom is remarkable. The fact that they shared their student technology use with the parents who came to parent night last night makes my heart sing!

I saw a trouble ticket for one of my techs go by asking for access to Rosetta Stone in a different lab than where the students are currently using it, because it would be more convenient for the adult learners that are coming into the building after hours.

When I requested that teachers send me some examples of student use of technology in their classrooms, one PLC shared their Google spreadsheet with me, where they personally track their student technology use!

I will be sharing more specifics of student technology use as teachers send me their reports. I'm just so proud of the work our teachers are doing with technology. There's no doubt that our teachers are taking very seriously the use of technology to increase student learning.