Teaching with Technology

Imagine visiting the Louvre on Monday and the British Museum on Tuesday, hearing WWII internees from Manazanar speak about their wartime experiences, and traveling back in time to Colonial Williamsburg to learn about the first woman newspaper publisher in America. These are only some of the rich educational experiences our middle school students have participated in this year. Video streaming brings experts and films from around the world into the classroom to enliven social studies. Science animations and demonstrations supplement the standard textbook. Digital microscopes let students capture images and import them into documents and presentations.

Even dull, but necessary subjects, like grammar, become more fun to learn when the teacher is an animated cartoon or a wacky group of young people known as the Standard Deviants. In Math class, students become experts at presenting data with Microsoft Excel. Individual needs, whether for enrichment or remediation, are more easily met through the magic of technology. “Guest Speakers” reinforce the lesson through video streaming segments. It has been said that our children are the true “digital generation,” and in order to reach and engage them in learning about their world, we need to use a language that they understand— that language is TECHNOLOGY.