Writing all over the world
There has been a rising problem in schools across the United States and the world on ways to get technology integrated effectively into the curriculum. How can technology be brought into a class and enhance the learning that would otherwise be taking place? What new ideas and projects can be introduced that will not only engage students but also introduce new concepts and viewpoints? What technology should be doing is creating a stronger more effective education, and some new, creative ideas have been introduced into classrooms across t he globe that do just that.
An article entitled Go National from the education blog edutopia.org talks about different capabilities that a tech circle brings to students. Tech circles have
“students from far-flung locations collaborate using the Internet, video, and other distance-learning technologies.”
In this article, three different classrooms from schools in Oregon, Michigan, and New Jersey connect to one another in order to write, produce and share plays with each other through a program called TheatreLink. The article goes on to say that there are only a few things that tech circles need to be effective: computers with internet capabilities and word processing, a digital camera and/or scanner, and a video camera. Almost any school will now have those basic elements, so joining a tech circle would be easily doable and an amazing experience.
“Technology routinely opens doors for students. The tech circle leaps all remaining barriers and generates interaction among groups in various environments. Geographic, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences turn out to matter less than individual creativity and collaborative work.”
Tech circles can take place in any type of classroom, whether it be a history class, a biology class, a government class, or an English class. What I thought was most interesting was how tech circles make it possible to connect with classrooms from around the world and bring them directly into your own classroom. So let’s say my class were doing a project where they had to interpret Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar play (which is known to be hated amongst high school students) and they had to make a modernized version of it. They could connect with students from other parts of the country, or even in Britain or India, and collectively analyze the text and write a version of the play together. Or each class could write their own version and then share them with the other classes; it would bring in varying viewpoints from around the globe. Different cultures and beliefs and ideas about the text would be shared and through this, the students are not just learning the standard version they would have learned in a traditional class. Instead they are learning globally — which would be a completely different take on the same old thing. The Go National article comments on this same idea as it was used in the TheatreLink collaboration:
“The outcomes of the playwriting project may not rival the work of Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, but they are powerful nevertheless. Students from various cultures collaborate with others who have different viewpoints on common projects. Not bad for a day at school.”
Not bad indeed. Writing and sharing information with students, teachers, and anyone else you can think of can happen at any moment. It’s really boggling to know that these ideas are no longer for classrooms of the future, but for classrooms today. My own classroom will have these capabilities and it will be up to me to utilize them…to get as creative as I possibly can; we really can have fun, sit in a class, and learn, all at the same time. Who knew?
“Go National” Full article
