Deeper Explorations in English Integrating Technology Into the Classroom
Modified Socratic Classroom Discussion instead of Writing
In Class at the end of February, and then, Online when all classes were converted to Blended Learning Classes, March 14th and 15th.
Technology Integration First Steps
Integrating Technology - Will it help, and What's the advantage:
I have students with ADHD and other academic difficulties. Having more hands-on or constructivist type activities in class would be advantageous for my students.
Do I have the required skill and resources?
Skills:
An ability to read at/near grade level - students.
An assignment that has enough material for a discussion.
The abilities of the teacher to be a moderator.
The abilities of the teacher to observe student responses and their depth on the fly.
This assignment is in class - no technology.
I have students with ADHD and other academic difficulties. Having more hands-on or constructivist type activities in class would be advantageous for my students.
Do I have the required skill and resources?
Skills:
An ability to read at/near grade level - students.
An assignment that has enough material for a discussion.
The abilities of the teacher to be a moderator.
The abilities of the teacher to observe student responses and their depth on the fly.
This assignment is in class - no technology.
Design and Implementation
- Students will respond to each other's deep analysis with questions and responses that show their depth of understanding and clarification of the topic. Deeper understanding was my outcome.
- Move this discussion to online (Hangouts Meet)
- Create hangouts and set the expectation for the assignment. Review with students prior to discussion.
Reflection and Review
There is no question that having the discussions in class or online deepened the exploration of the topics that we chose beyond what students would normally write. Normally, they would have discussed one or two of the topics with little depth, attempting to write as little as possible for maximum points. The dynamics of instantaneous expectations helped even my slow processing students to go deeper when they realized that they could respond in their own time when there was an opening.
The real question is how did technology change this from an in-class, hands on discussion to an online, hands on discussion. I was able to implement more of a hands-on approach with this lesson in class. It was easier to have the students’ study when they were in class, then, talk about the topic. However, online, classroom behavior management issues with my bigger class was not as much of a problem. Students didn’t study for the online discussion, and it was an obvious limiting factor. People took turns better online. Some explicit online behaviors and expectations need to be taught.
The real question is how did technology change this from an in-class, hands on discussion to an online, hands on discussion. I was able to implement more of a hands-on approach with this lesson in class. It was easier to have the students’ study when they were in class, then, talk about the topic. However, online, classroom behavior management issues with my bigger class was not as much of a problem. Students didn’t study for the online discussion, and it was an obvious limiting factor. People took turns better online. Some explicit online behaviors and expectations need to be taught.