One on One Reflection
I am a visual learner, so at times I struggle with lengthy directions. However, the instructions for 329 are pretty straightforward and that is encouraging to me, because I am in a place where we don’t have too many computer techs. My children all know this “iphoto” MP4 stuff, so I’ve gotten some information from them. If it is okay with the people that made this One to One dvd I would like our principal to see it.
I enjoyed this video. Aside from someone coming in and setting up the equipment (whiteboard for distance ed) I think any school can do this. Our problem would be; the students here are not very respectful of others as they should be (we have a meeting with our son’s teachers today) and my worry would be inappropriate use and talking back if asked to go back to assignment. I guess we would have to get the discipline aspect down first. How nice it would be if my son could write out his research paper and have access to resources and cite those references accurately. If we could get our students to choose a favorite topic and using what they could find on the internet write a paper and email it to the teacher. The students all have been posting pictures and info on myspace or myfamily and who knows where for a while now, but it would be great if they could extend that learning to making movies or documentaries about our culture or stories from elders or even seasonal activities, not only would they be learning new technology that will instantly upgrade resumes but they will be perpetuating our traditional beliefs and lifestyle. How nice it would be if students, while doing a course assignment, find that they are really interested in the field of Journalism or the movie industry. I know for myself I would never go back to writing papers by long hand. Before I do a paper I still write out all of the points I want to cover and make a t-sheet, which we learned in Creed/Andrews classes, which is to put down facts on one side and then my own thoughts or ideas on the other. I have found that this cuts my writing in half. It would be great if our students could do these applications on a daily basis. All of these “simple” computer tools would enhance writing skills and possibly even make writing a fun activity. Our rural schools would benefit from technology courses and I can see where they would boost the reading/writing levels of middle or highschool students.
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First things first--Don Peterson and I shot that video and I edited it, so you are welcome to show it to your principal, PTA, or whoever you think will benefit from it. It would make me very happy to hear that it did some good.
You raise some very interesting and important points in your blog post, particularly with regard to respect between students and teachers and with respect to student engagement. I suspect you noticed that the students in the video were engaged in their work, self-directed in their studies, and respectful of their teachers. I truly believe that this is because they have a system of education that works. The students have individual education plans that allow them to work at their own pace and get the individual help that they need. They have equipment that lets them explore and get their work done efficiently. They do assignments that are not just reading the book and writing a report. I think they know they have a good deal, and they respect that. That's largely why you don't see much in the way of discipline problems in DBSD.
You mention some of the great things that could happen in Allakaket--exploring individual topics, making documentaries of the area (if we're not telling those stories, who is?), and even using technology to perpetuate traditional beliefs and culture. A thoughtful application of technology--coupled with good teaching--could certainly help out.
I hope you get to show the video to your principal and get this conversation going in Allakaket.
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