Here's an interesting discussion of the classroom of the future (http://voicethread.com/#q.b42094.i220636) using voicethread as the medium. The many comments bring up such issues as the roles of teachers and students, structure (and lack of), and digital equity. I like the irony of the tool being used to discuss the value and relevance of the tool.
As with much of this technology, from a secondary librarian's point of view, there are challenges:
- We have to get our teachers on board so will bring their students to experiment and explore the tools. This means working on collaboration and creating relationships with our teachers.
- We have to have the hardware available, and there has to be enough so that students have access.
- We have to have enough expertise to be able to instruct, troubleshoot and understand how to optimize the tools. That said, if we wait until we are experts, then we'll never get anything done.
- We have to be able to let go of control and let those teachers and students explore and experiment.
3 comments:
Ah, the never ending struggle to find the balance of I know enough to do this and Can I let someone else, especially the kids, take over the "experts" job. I'm not sure that I have mastered that one yet. I checked out the VT you mentioned. What a great example of using the tool.
Ann
Suzanne,
I see the value of this but am wondering about elementary school. I have very limited time in the computer lab and a lot of the time half the computers don't work. I suppose if I could talk the teacher into letting me have small groups I could handle it. Tessa and Trevor - my 20year old and 23 year old college students didn't know what it was.
Voice thread is an interesting tool. We always have the challenges of computer space and computer lab time. But is see this as a great way to get students to talk about a subject whether it is a book they like or response to an essay for language arts or taking about a historic event. I can see the usefulness here. But as with all of the tools it provides its challenges and confines.
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