video technology and learning

Scott Hacke from Beaverton School District shared some great information about student video productions and how it has fit into learning.  One of these examples was the Signal-to-Noise contest and festival.  What a fabulous showcase and celebration of student learning.  The use of technology itself is often a source of motivation for students, but the addition of the contest portion adds another layer of motivation for students.  The competitive spirit comes through.

Video productions certainly provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate student learning.  Creativity is wide open and I'm sure products are produced that no one imagined possible from a student.

I think the actual production itself improves student learning in a variety of areas.  An individual couldn't produce these type of products without planning, organizational skills, and writing abilities.  Is there a correlation between successful video productions and successful students in other academic areas?  I imagine there would be, but only if there was student choice in demonstrating their knowledge.  Of course if the student is successful in this medium,  maybe they can have a future with this alone.  Something to ponder......

Sugata Mitra on Ted.com

This presentation comfirms where our students are today. Many of them need little direction to be able to figure out technology. For instance, how many of them do you think have read the instruction manual for their video games. (Do such things even exits anymore??!) They just start playing. Soon they are addicted experts working they way up the top of the video game pyramid. A little bit of exposure goes a long ways -self taught and they can figure it out.

Contrast this to adults. We have a lot to get in the way of learning technology. We have to be shown every step, every click, every button along the way. Many times we over analyze every step trying to figure out the right way to do something.

Is this just the nature of adults vs children? The "No Fear" factor? Maybe it's not just technology, but every aspect of life. Or is it the teaching an old dog new tricks philosophy?? Probably all of the above. I think everything else in life gets in the way of devoting time to understanding technology. The younger generation hasn't had their brain clogged yet.

Technology love/hate relationship

Technology has provided access to so much more information. Personally, it has assisted in travel planning by researching as well as booking and finding the best bargains. Professionally, I have information easily attainable without as much work. For instance, tracking student assessment data is becoming faster and more detailed all the time. We are able to use this data to immediately inform instruction instead of waiting for the autopsy report after the fact. At a basic level is the cell phone itself. Just being able to communicated in open space is huge. Now adding all the other extras to it is amazing. (internet access, and others I don't even know about) Ease, access, new frontiers.....all things to love about technology. (where does shopping fit into this???? That's easier, too )

The frustrating part of technology is that I don't know enough to deal with things when they go wrong. While I can navigate through programs and do incredible things with data, if the basics of the computer go down, I'm lost. I don't believe it is anything you can keep up with either. Everyday there is more to learn. The only satisfying thing is that experts become frustrated, too.