Education is Changing

How Does Technology Enhance Learning?

Our school has recently implemented a 1:1 iPad programme in the primary school. Every student from Nursery to Grade 5 has their own iPad to use at school. This is a wonderful tool for students and teachers to use as we are now able to access a device at any time. Our school management team have asked for teachers to provide some feedback of how our 1:1 programme has impacted on learning. They are hoping to gather evidence to provide a technology update to our wider school community. I decided to use this as an opportunity to create a digital story of how I have been using technology in my Grade 5 classroom.

Presentation Zen

I decided to follow the guidelines from Presentation Zen by planning on analogue. I began drafting ideas in my new ‘Presentation Zen Sketchbook‘.

This helped me to shape what I am hoping to say. I want to take this opportunity to educate our school community about how technology is changing education. I decided to begin with our school mission statement. I wanted to remind our school community of our purpose as a school.

I then considered the core point of my presentation. I asked myself the two questions recommended by Garr Reynolds.

1. What is your point?

Classrooms today are redefining what learning looks like. 

2. Why Does it Matter?

We can’t measure today’s learning by yesterdays standards because today’s skills are immeasurable. 

iMovie

I then began collecting photographs and movie clips whenever we used technology. I also took lots of photographs of our school grounds to use as background images as I realised I can’t just add text without a background. As I also run the school PYP code club I included pictures of this too. I then added the text to each image. I wanted the text to explain the learning that was taking place and not the technology that was being used. I used the ITSE standards for teachers to help explain the learning outcomes. The editing stage was very time consuming but the more I use iMovie the faster the editing process is. I’m starting to see the limitations with the app (can’t adjust text size or colour) and have began to research other video editing software.

YouTube

As I have progressed through course 3 I have begun to use a YouTube channel. My class have responded very positively to my short movies and are constantly asking for more. They have plans to film lessons so that they can refer back to them later. So my next step in my project was to save my movie on my YouTube channel. The iMovie soundtrack is quite limiting so I decided to use use a YouTube soundtrack.

Presentation Time

And now I have the finished product which is ready to be shared with our school community.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oun66Sa4Zh8[/youtube]

Reflection

Digital stories and/or short movies have become part of my classroom practice. Although they are time consuming to put together they make an instant impact. I’m pleased to finally have a YouTube channel up and running and hope to encourage other teachers to do the same. I hope that my digital story helps our school community see the value in the education we are providing, including how we are using technology to enhance learning.