Seize the Day!!



Gourd allowed
to grow unencumbered.

Seize the Day!! Grab the chance and don't let it pass! Many students would seize learning pro-actively if they could move at their own pace and learn lessons about topics of personal interest. Therein rests the joy of Montessori education, ability grouping, and successful gifted education. Like students, any gourd will take the shape of a tight environment when it is placed in a mold to grow, but give it space for expansion and the fruit becomes beautiful!


Mimeographing practice handouts.

Practicing with a SmartBoard.

There are various paths for teaching and learning using the new mobile technology that students are surrounded by and live within. It can be used to drill facts that get spewed back, used to spur curiosity like any of the previous technologies (chalkboards, mimeographing, SmartBoards), or a combination. In any event, technology gets smaller, more portable, and more immediate. Writing facts on a chalkboard 20 times has the same mind-numbing effect and touching a SmartBoard 20 times to prove knowledge. The only difference is the eye/hand coordination and the parts of the brain activated.
Mobil technology combines 'doing' with learning, making it more dynamic and immediate reflecting how information is accessed outside of school. Whether information and learning accessed at school is shallow (lower order thinking -- drilling facts) or deep (or higher order thinking -- critical evaluations) depends on the education goal and use of the technology. The thinking skills accessed make a difference when learning: repetition and critical evaluation is vital, but not exclusively one or the other. Gifted students generally get a concept in one, maybe two, repetitions. Anything over that is counterproductive. Mobil technology can empower students in new and expansive ways by sidestepping the drill overkill. However, if questions don't inspire thinking, why bother? Will technology be used as the teacher or the tool?

Online public schools such as Carpe Diem Schools offer middle and high school education as an online experience on a main campus, or through the Student Support Centers. For gifted thinkers, this allows individual pacing. Since there would not be a 'classroom of students', individuals would not be held back so everyone can catch up. On the other hand, images of classrooms at these schools show students working individually...hardly indicative of personal, collaborative learning but more solitary in nature.

At St. Mary's in Ohio, students use Smartphones to use programs to sketch, write daily learning blurbs, investigate quick answers, and access flashcards. Small, portable, and easy to use, Smartphones technology is fast, efficient, and accessible as a tool in addition to the hands-on paper and pencil activities. Students engage in immediate answers, can work together in groups, and keep technology with them as they move through the day. But what if someone needs a little more drill? At what point does student learning get assessed so he/she can be stopped, backed up, and given a little extra practice?

In both scenarios, drill-and-practice or inquiry, there is the potential for classroom distraction since the very reasons that make computers helpful and SmartPhones efficient and portable can also provide opportunities for activities apart from educational purposes. Trust and responsibility must become part of education.

I feel prepared to engage in teaching with technology. I never used the SmartBoards much because of the 'toy-factor' -- even my students said they were nothing more than fancy white boards. Currently, I use Word extensively, online search engines and databases strategies, and assisting students with moving at a personal pace. We use the oldest laptops in the school system--ones that do not hold a charge anymore so there are cords wrapping around the tables and across the floor, keyboards with missing letters, two have duct tape holding the guts in the body. Word is currently expiring on the laptops, and being replaced with Apache Office Works. Yet, we move forward!

The students use the Index Card System for making notes--coding source cards to match the note cards. They learn how to write a survey: introduction, question organization, type of questions, differences between types of responses, and placement of demographics. They tabulate the results and prepare charts and graphs illustrating the results. The process takes about 3 weeks....using Google Forms would cut that time down to days and allow for additional surveys or further research!

The students currently keep a daily journal that keeps their reflections, daily summaries, and
key information about their topics. The binder is kept at school, or sometimes taken home depending on what is due or when extra time needs to be given to the project. Blogger could replace the journal, especially when combined with other tools and links. DropBox would allow written work to be accessed from anywhere!

An combination of what I've been doing and updated technology could turn a research class into a higher level thinking course that is in keeping with what happens in the world...certainly what is happening in the students' world. Using Google products would be an exciting avenue of learning and, for me, teaching.  So, to that end, this is what I've done:

I applied to the Frederick County Education Foundation for a grant to fund a pilot program to have 17 PRISMS students (my research students) use ChromeBooks next semester to have an almost completely online class. I'll finish the class site I built here during my GourdGracious days for the handouts, calendar, and course information. Instead of journals the students will keep blogs, build surveys with Google Forms, take quizzes, collaborate with each other, utilize DropBox, access their Smartphone apps on field trips, and generally move through their topics using the technology this old gourd learned this semester. IT is thrilled and figuring out the approvals we'd need to access the software and apps. The grant will pay for the equipment [I'm working gourd magic on this one!]

At the end of the semester, I'd assess the level of success with a survey. Of the 17 students, 8 have taken PRISMS twice before so not only will I get data from middle school students who have never had an online course before, I will get information from students who can make clear comparisons between the online and not-online class strengths and weaknesses.

As a pilot program, the results can be used to promote the use of technology, or parts thereof, with administrators and other teachers.  What starts as a gifted education experiment can expand to other areas. While it is true gifted thinkers need space to explore learning at their own pace without being slowed down by classmates, all students can be encouraged to learn to their ability. Mobil technology, or the sharing technology, could be a valuable tool to that end.