Kidcast #58 - The Medium Is Not the Message by dschmit

I was very excited to listen to Dan's message (again :o). This is one of the most powerful reasons I am very excited about my new job next year. For the last 3 years I have been teaching "computer" or "technology" to K-5th graders in a pull out specialist classroom. There has been very little colaborative work between me and the regular classroom teachers. I have a good idea of the concepts they are teaching in class and I have designed "projects" centered around those curricular areas. And that is what I called integration.

However, I focused mainly on teaching the software and a key element of technology education was missing from what I was teaching. Making it real. Sure they had a pretty neat project by the time they were done. But because of time we never got to the important part. Now that we created it, how do we present it? How do we share it? Why do we share it? The only audience my students performed for were me and themselves. In many ways we were just mass producing projects. The focus wasn't the content, it was creating the projects.

Next year I have the opportunity to work in collaboration with teachers on using technology in the classroom. This brings a fantastic opportunity for the content to be the focus and the technology skill acquired are secondary. They will learn how to use technology how I have learned to use technology. By doing.

Having the ability to have the time and an audience will be powerful. Teaching presentations skills with technology as a tool to enhance the presentations will be a huge shift in how I work with students and what I work with them on. Podcasting is one of those things I would like to do.

http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/index.php?s=58&x=0&y=0