Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Response to Laptops on Expedition

It’s truly amazing what children are capable of creating when given access to technology and the freedom to explore. Watching Laptops on Expedition was an inspiring reminder that learning should be interactive. Learning does not have to be a process in which knowledge constantly flows from the teachers to the students. Teachers can learn from their students as well. In viewing this short documentary, I saw 7th graders take the lessons they learned from a Unit on endangered species and create a wonderful documentary and presentation. The teachers at the school worked closely with one another to connect the academic lessons being taught in each class. The students were able to go far beyond what they received from class lectures and effectively demonstrated to the teachers what they learned without a formal test or essay. I thought it was fantastic that a mixed-income school with so much diversity could improve that significantly in a short period of time. The experiences those children were gaining through the use of laptops in the classroom will be valuable knowledge for their futures.

There were so many times in my own educational experience when my teachers underestimated my abilities and those of my peers. Looking back on my middle school and high school days, I recall very few opportunities when I was given the reigns over my own learning. I would have really enjoyed an activity such as the one carried out by these middle school children. For this reason, I hope that I will be able to lead my own students in projects similar to Laptops on Expedition one day in the near future.


http://www.edutopia.org/video/frame.php

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I can't wait to see how you will unleash student passion in helping them complete their educational goals.

Blog on!

Sheryl

MeganMc said...

Your entry sounded so interesting that it made me want to watch the video too. I agree with you about how cool it is to have students learning more then they could ever learn in a classroom by incorporating technology even in a mixed income student population. This sounds like something to strive for educationally all students from different backrounds coming together with technology to create things that we weren't able to do in our days in middle school.

jcam said...

I must say that I find blogging very liberating. It's nice to be able to share my thoughts with my peers and recieve great feedback from experienced educators. I only wish I had more time to write because there is so much going on in my life right now!