Journal #9: "Lessons from New Zealand; Developing Student Voices With Technology" NETS-T 1, 2, and 5

Journal #9: “Lessons From New Zealand; Developing Student Voices with Technology” NETS-T 1, 2, and 5

Charles, M., Burt, D., & Williams, M.K. (2010). Lessons from New Zealand; developing student voices. Learning and Leading With Technology , 38(2), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201012#pg24.

Summary:

This article is about Thirteen member of ISTE's Special Interest Group for Teacher Educators (SIGTE) who embarked on an adventure to Auckland, Rotorua, and Christchurch, New Zealand. While here they visited seven schools. In these schools they observed how technology was used to develop student voices in the classroom, in the community, and across the world. They also observed students that were engaged in peer listening and sharing activities and teacher student cooperative practices. In which valued the student's as co-researchers and developers. In their observations they recorded, when students learn something important from their lessons, they illustrate and write about what they are learning so that they can share it with a broader audience. They SIGTE mentions that Pt. England as well as the other schools that they observed in New Zealand describe this as a quality teaching of the traditional concepts of literacy. They also mentioned that the staff there believe that technology makes a contribution to the literacy cycle. In other words, technology-facilitated activities create interest and enthusiasm in students, so they can participate in class. In their observation they also mentioned that the students learn to efficiently read and write better by using this type of process. For instance, the students worked on drawings on the paint program KidPix and animated drawings on the multimedia authoring program HyperStudio. They also added titles and voice overs using a video editor (iMovie). Once they were done they shared their mulitmedia stories with their teacher, classmates, and also with the world through the use of their class blogs on Blogger. The main purpose of sharing their multimedia stories with the world is to ensure their development of student voice is reinforced by an authentic audience. In other words, the educators believe that by having their students leave open for the world to comment on will partially help their students view themselves as; confident, connected, and actively involved lifelong learners.

Questions:

Q1: In regards to different learning styles, do you think that all students will benefit from using the technology-facilitated activities?

A1: Yes, I think that students of all learning styles will benefit from using the technology-facilitated activities. I believe this to be so because the technology-facilitated activities will be visually presented. In addition, there are several quick start guides for those students who do not know how to use a web tool efficiently.

Q2: As a future teacher that lives in the U.S., do you find the quality teaching of the traditional concepts of literacy to be effective?

A2: Yes, I find that the quality teaching of the traditional concepts of literacy can be effective in some cases. However, in my classroom I would not use this method. I say this because I find that some people do not know the rules of proper netequitte. That said, I would not be open in wanting my future students to allow their class blogs to be readily open for the world to comment on. I still have some doubts about this concept, and I am not sold on this idea.