Technology Gets to the Heart of Student Learning

I recently watched a pre-service teacher’s eportfolio presentation. She started each unit (Social Studies, Math, Science) with a book. I was amazed at how powerful each book was in getting to the heart of the learning and, at the same time, being very engaging. The book served as a wonderful springboard into related activities that built on the learning.

I wonder how many teachers use technology to get to the heart of learning through technology. A PowerPoint of bullet points doesn’t do it. Maybe the teachers use a short movie clip to highlight the critical part of an issue. Maybe they have a photo or image (or a short series of images) that clearly shows the essential part of the topic. Maybe they have a brief podcast in which an expert succintly talks about the problem. Maybe they videoconference with a person who tells his/her story. Maybe they have a graph that demonstrates the drastic changes. Maybe they do a quick experiment with digital probes to pose a problem.

How do your teachers use technology to get to the heart of the learning in an engaging way? How do they use technology to springboard into related learning activities?

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2 Responses to “Technology Gets to the Heart of Student Learning”

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1 realstrings May 24, 2007 at 10:58 am

I wonder if I might ask your advice? My students (Further Education in the UK) will be completing their music course in the next few weeks. They have generated work (text, video and audio) which resides in our institutions moodle and I want them to port it (or copy and paste) to an eportfolio. They will most likely use myspace for audio and video, but can you suggest a suitable web 2.0 application they should use for text assignments, so they can take their work on to higher education or employment? Many thanks.

2 hgtuttle May 24, 2007 at 4:19 pm

RealStrings,
I’m a big fan of using blogs not just for classroom discussions but as webpages to show student work. They could put each text assignment in as an individual blog and then link them all to the main page (the last page submitted to the blog).
We are fortunate that our eportfolio system (SAKAI/OSP) has a place to storage all the various media until the students move them over to their eportfolio.
H

Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle