Using Technology to Learn and to Connect

Technology has put the world at our finger tips – and also made the world our audience. It is as simple to go and talk to a friend next door as it is to share an experience or a nugget of wisdom with your PLN—people from anywhere in the world, and people that you have never met—on Twitter. This opens incredible opportunities for us and also for our students. As Laurence Peters says in his book Global Education: Using Technology to Bring the World to our Students, “An important reason for the unique effectiveness of social learning, unlike traditional methodology, has to do with the fact that learners in such settings are never passive; social situations are always dynamic, demanding that students be alert as the conversation changes course and participants are forced to take on the new roles of teacher, student, or skeptic.”

The power of these tools—blogs, podcasts, cell phones, social media, and the many others—is not in the technology itself. The power lies in how it is used: to learn, to teach, to communicate, to share, to discover. I thought I would take this Friday to share some of the tips and ideas from ISTE books on how to harness and integrate technology tools that not only help students learn, but connect them with the world outside the classroom.

Twitter
• Set up a homework or study group where students can work together and get help from the teacher. (Toys to Tools, Kolb)

Cell phones
• Have students record a weekly radio broadcast. This can be done at school or at home for homework. Set up an RSS feed for the broadcast to keep parents informed. (Toys to Tools, Kolb)

Digital Storytelling
• Give students experience with online publishing by requiring them to post their digital stories on sites such as TeacherTube or Slide Rocket. (Digital Storytelling Guide for Educators, Frazel)

Podcasting
• Show students the importance of different mediums, and the power of audio as a medium by having students create sound effects or Foely art. Students can even go to Free Sound Project to practice with other people. (Student-Powered Podcasting, Shamburg)

Blogging
• Have students interview other students from around the world about the physical or economic environment in their country and then share the information on a blog or wiki. A service such as ePals can help facilitate. (Global Educaton, Peters)

Similar Posts:

• ISTE Casts – Interviews with ISTE Authors
• The Fear of Change – it’s Nothing New
• Digital Textbooks – An Economical Option?
• Technology to Enhance Differentiated Instruction
• Your Brain on E-Books

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