Digital Translation
We talk about how technology can enhance learning. It can be a big part of the shift in moving how we focus on learning as opposed to teaching. While some teachers for various reasons can be uncomfortable trying new technologies, I would like to share some examples of how going digital makes our lives easier, more productive and frees up time to do the planning to design lessons that helps us make the real shift to discovery learning by our students. Here are just a few ways to be more efficient by going digital:
Video Lab Report: Brent Loken, our Director of Curriculum & Innovation and teacher at Hsinchu International School shared a couple student e-porfolios with me the other day. While we promote writing across the curriculum, Brent decided to offer his students a multimedia way to report their laboratory results. As we are an Apple 1 to 1 school, the students just used the internal video camera on their laptops and recorded into iMovie. They could “show and tell” exactly what happened in their respective lab experiences. This is a nice alternative for our ESL students who are moving along with spoken language and sometimes need an outlet other than writing.
The Writing Process: My students recently spent several weeks going through the writing process to produce personal narratives.
The students did their writing in Google Documents and shared their work with me and classmates who helped them as peer editors. It was so easy for me to go through each draft adding comments and questions into each student’s document. I enjoyed seeing the comments by their classmates as we formed our learning teams to help one another with the writing.
What I also liked was that we were not in the documents to edit the words, grammar, etc. as so many Language Arts teachers do. We were partners using the language of the 6 Traits offering guidance but not taking over the writing. Once the students completed their final draft, they went in and deleted all the comments. I could then go into the history of the revisions and see the progress and thinking of the students as they worked through the writing process.
I also enjoyed saving time! We saved so much time not dealing with paper. Access is instantaneous and no papers are lost on the way to school. 
Mind Mapping 2.0: My wife Margaret and I have been big proponents of using mind/concept maps for a long time. Our tool of choice in our last school in an elementary environment was Inspiration.
We really enjoyed the power of using visuals with our elementary and ESL students. Now that I am working with MS and HS students looking to help them collaborate, I am moving on to 2.0 mind mapping tools. There are many choices but at the moment, I am using Mindmeister. It doesn’t offer the graphics but I am guessing that they would not use them much if offered. The students create their mind maps for various research, writing or just reflective purposes and then they share them with me. I can monitor their thinking and add comments. My 7th graders are starting a WebQuest on Africa where each student with a partner shares a common Mindmeister mind map. They are diagramming their questions and using the note tool to record their research and potential answers to their questions.
MacBook Camera: While I am pushing my students to make sure they have a camera that can take still and video recordings, we are finding that their MacBooks can be pretty versatile photography tools. As Brent Loken’s science students use their cameras and iMovie software to record their science lab reports, we are finding numerous other ways to enhance learning via the MacBook camera.
A part of the Hsinchu International School culture is that students should be sharing and presenting their learning to the school community as much as possible. As they complete their work in the second year of their “Institutes” (Institute I is grades 7-8, Institute 2 is grades 9-10, Institute 3 is grades 11-12), the students are required to present their efforts to reach the five student learning outcomes that are central to the school. The advisors for the institutes work with the students to document their learning and to then prepare their presentations. As we get closer to the end of the year, each student will practice his/her presentation in front of the other institute students. We will have them bring their MacBooks to the podium to record their efforts. They will then have the videos to review at home using the provided presentation rubric. We won’t be dealing with the hassle of using a camcorder and having to transfer footage to each student in some form or other. The footage will already by on their hard drives. Going digital leaving out the normal in this case digital tool for the more flexible laptop will save lots of time and energy.
