In the public school system, many argue there’s a disconnect between teachers, students, and technologists. Educators and students don’t have enough tech training, and those who create the technology to be used in schools don’t work closely enough with teachers and students. To close the loop, a newly launched program in Baltimore will bring together a network of students, technologists, and educators linking teacher professional development to student after-school programming.
Through Digital Harbor Foundation’s EdTech Link program, teachers will be trained by volunteer technologists, then teach their new skills to students in after-school programs. Continuing the cycle of learner-as-teacher, students who attend the after-school program will, in turn, take their own training to educators in other schools. And volunteer technologists will get to experiment with new ideas directly by working with their users.
It’s a model that Andrew Coy, co-director of the new foundation, has been piloting at Digital Harbor High School in inner-city Baltimore. Once a week after school for the past year, Coy, who’s a ninth-grade technology teacher, has been taking four of his high school students to nearby Liberty Elementary School, where the students coach teachers on how to implement their one-to-one iPad program.
“We want to connect students to a vision of themselves as technologists, and pull them into that trajectory.”
Students help teachers figure out how to do things like use Google forms, Khan Academy videos and dashboards, and apps like Class Dojo in the classroom. They’re paid $20 per hour for their time and expertise by Liberty’s principal. And although Coy says only one out of the four students has an iPad at home, they’re fearless when it comes to playing around and figuring out how to use it, and showing educators too. “Kids look at things differently,” Coy said. “They can download an app and figure out quickly how to use it and show teachers how to use it. And what the teachers love about it is they get to work
Student Jean Cedre holds his first check from a paying web client.
with these great kids and develop relationships with them. It’s just a much more comfortable way to get professional development.” Students have also helped with everything from I.T. support for the high school’s annual scholarship fundraiser to the creation and deployment of Web sites for non-profits and startup businesses. With the EdTech Link program, students and teachers will learn everything from learning how to code to understanding the premise behind 3-D printing. And they’ll participate in Startup Weekend-type events, where students conceptualize and create apps and software for classrooms with help and guidance from local programmers from local tech companies.
Organizers believe the program has potential to be a national model, with partnerships with community businesses fueling and funding the effort. Part of the plan is to re-purpose former recreation centers, underused library spaces, and other public spaces into non-profit community tech centers directed and developed by teacher fellows in the EdTech Link program.
The first step in the process is for teachers to apply to the Digital Harbor Foundation’s $5,000 fellowship to 20 educators, which includes a trip to the ISTE conference in June, where they’ll begin their technology immersion. The rest of the summer will be spent prepping teachers to become tech trainers during the school year. Teachers will receive $500 per month to run the after-school programs.
“We want to demystify technology for those who are scared because they haven’t taken it apart,” Coy said. And for students, the program is meant to “connect them to a vision of themselves as technologists, and pull them into that trajectory.”
http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/?iid=hl-main-feature
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Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read?
Digital books are lighter and more convenient to tote around than paper books, but there may be advantages to old technology.
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/14/do-e-books-impair-memory/?iid=hl-main-feature#ixzz1pUB2q9tq)
Research on the brain's response to electronic media is fascinating, and not a little disturbing. On the plus side, it suggests that digital natives have higher baseline activity in the part of the brain governing short-term memory, the sorting of complex information, and the integration of sensations and thoughts — so, in certain respects, computers make you smarter. As if to underline that point, IQ scores are on the increase in the United States as the number of digital natives rises, and people's ability to multitask without errors is improving.
But other research suggests that excessive, long-term exposure to electronic environments is reconfiguring young people's neural networks and possibly diminishing their ability to develop empathy, interpersonal relations, and nonverbal communication skills. One study indicates that because there's only so much time in the day, face-to-face interaction time drops by nearly 30 minutes for every hour a person spends on a computer. With more time devoted to computers and less to in-person interactions, young people may be understimulating and underdeveloping the neural pathways necessary for honing social skills. Another study shows that after long periods of time on the internet, digital natives display poor eye contact and a reluctance to interact socially.
Are digital natives really lacking the interpersonal skills necessary for certain types of jobs? An executive of a U.S. wealth-management firm told me that after the financial collapse in 2008, some of the bright young advisers were communicating with wiped-out clients via emails that said, essentially, "Sorry, we can't help you." Those who did meet with clients had little time for them and gave the impression that they weren't interested in hearing clients' stories. They seemed unable to empathize. So the firm let these employees go, replacing them with older advisers who were willing to sit down, look clients in the eye, and discuss matters face to face. That's just one anecdote, but it resonates with HR executives I've spoken to in a variety of businesses that rely on building trust with customers.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/digital_natives_are_slow_to_pi.html?awid=6067800649934608188-3271
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