Digital Media Resources
Half of the focus group had reliable (i.e., usually available and functional) access to a LCD projector for their classrooms. Two had reliable access to carts, and 11 teachers had access to a lab, though several teachers complained that the labs were often booked by other teachers well in advance. Most of these teachers were using technology in their classrooms, although one of the teachers with more than 30 years of experience admitted to being “relatively new to technology.”
The two urban teachers had experiences that differed from their suburban counterparts. One of the urban teachers told the group that she had “tried a lot of [technology] things over the years, and nothing has really worked that well for [her] students.” Another teacher who had worked at an inner-city school in Los Angeles noted that when his students used markers and glue sticks to create posters about the Enlightenment thinkers, “It was like they had the best time doing the most simplest, low-tech thing … it doesn’t have to be complicated, but we didn’t have the technology in a classroom like that.” The hands-on learning activity and the use of resources is central, but it is not completely dependent on technology.
The intent of the focus group was to discern from the teachers’ everyday practice what types of technology and curricular support are currently in use and what teachers would like to have accessible in order to provide input on the design of the video, accompanying curricula, and Web components. When teachers were asked to share some of the technology projects that have worked with their students in the past, their responses fell into two broad categories, with some projects overlapping both: using Internet resources and digital video/imagery projects.
Using Internet Resources
The Internet was widely used by the teachers in the focus group. Teachers used the Internet for group work on the United Streaming video website (Discovery Education, 2008) and to find information on Colonial life to report back to the rest of the class (see http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/). They also used the Internet to Web research different points of view and propaganda on the Holocaust. Several teachers made use of the Internet with websites that allowed students to make their own contributions to a wider audience. The Governor of Connecticut has a website called “One Thing,” (see http://onethingct.com/) where students can do a question-based navigation of the website to come up with their own “one thing” they might do to conserve energy. These were presented to the class and submitted to the website. Students used the PBS POV (Point of View) website (American Documentary, Inc., 2008) to see different views of Americans from around the world, and they submitted their own views on Americans to the website (see http://www.pbs.org/pov/).
| Teacher: |
I just put the use of a website on PBS, it’s called POV, Point of View. The kids get to see different views of Americans. It’s kind of good to kick off the year that way, and they can also – they watch little video clips on there of people that don’t live in America, kind of speaking about Americans. Then they get to choose their own words to describe America, and they can submit them right on the site, and it shows them where they rank, who else kind of added those. So this idea of contributing to something bigger, I think that’s important for kids. |
| Facilitator: |
And they get to see their own words. |
| Teacher: |
Yes. |
| Facilitator: |
And are they interested in doing that? |
| Teacher: |
They are. Yeah, they see where they rank and how many times it was submitted. |
Most of the projects teachers cited as engaging had some collaborative component, such The Virginia Center for Digital History’s Valley of the Shadow (Ayers, 1998) website (see http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/) with its rich Civil War primary sources database. One Social Studies teacher collaborated with the English teacher when having the students read Civil War diary entries: “That made that personal connection, and you could have heard a pin drop. It’s really engaging for them.”
Teachers employed WebQuests (see http://webquest.org/) with students working collaboratively to collect data, analyze data, and draw conclusions or make decisions based on that data. One teacher stated, “Two kids have to figure out questions, they’re not allowed to ask the teacher a question until they’ve discussed it further with each other, trying to problem solve.” These student collaborations embody the type of “distributed learning environments” described by Dede (1996) as new landscapes of learning with technologies. Students were developing digital stories, podcasts, and Web-authored products based in the use of resources from these sites.
Digital Video/Imagery Projects
A digital video or digital imagery project allows the students to become authors and provides opportunities for alternative assessment. These teachers identified a number of engaging, student-authored projects:
• Students use digital cameras to take pictures of themselves exercising their day-to-day rights from the Bill of Rights, narrate the photos, and show them in the cafeteria.
• After doing Internet research on the 1960’s, students create a three-minute news broadcast using Windows Movie Maker or Photo Story 3, and show them to the rest of the class.
• After doing Internet and library research on a person from Latin American history, the students video themselves interviewing each other role-playing these historical figures and create an iMovie to share with the class.
• Students research pirates, create statistics and take a photo of themselves dressed as the pirate to create trading cards.
• In previous years, a teacher had students create posters for a pop culture decades project. Recently he has discovered that using iMovie has been extremely beneficial. Each group chooses a decade between 1950 and 1990 and answers the central question of how an event from that time period changed or impacted society in a three to four minute movie. Research is conducted using databases, United Streaming video website, and interviewing parents.
• Student groups create a Civil War newscast on different battles. Students do research on the battle, create a script or summary of what they learned. One teacher said
I give them a video camera and I let them go. They have an anchor, they have interviewers, they have guest analysis … and it really teaches the kid–I’ve become more of a skills teacher than a content-driven teacher, and the skills that the kids learn in a project as simple as this: research, writing, critical thinking, and then working together as a group, it’s invaluable at the end of the year.
One of the added benefits of a video project is the opportunity for students to collaborate with one another and show their projects to an audience. Several teachers described their use of iMovie. These projects are not only shown to classmates, but they serve as exemplars for future classes. Several of these projects use Internet research as a basis for the content knowledge that will be assessed by a movie or imagery project. One teacher stated
One of the great things about something like iMovie or something like that is it allows those kids who may not be the shining stars in the class as far as academics, they are unbelievable whizzes. And they’re the ones who become the experts, so in terms of collaboration and allowing kids to really find their spot, it’s great.
This sentiment was echoed by another teacher
[iMovie] been a nice way to sort of integrate technology into the curriculum as opposed to the old days where we have poster boards and everyone would get up, make a presentation, and sit down. And that way really, what I like about the iMovie is kids are involved. And they’re into it and–you might have a child who is learning but not participating on a regular basis in class, but they’re the leader when they’re doing that.
