The True Goal of a Wired Classroom?

I’ve been teaching long enough to be comfortable with the fact that I’m often wrong. A lot. All the time. Daily. Yet, I’ve grown to enjoy such moments because they represent chances for me to reflect and grow. Thankfully, using technology in the classroom seems to make such teachable moments more and more frequent.Because I believe—as I’m sure you believe—that teaching effective communication in today’s classrooms means helping students navigate multiple modes of expression, I often create assignments where students must express themselves using a variety of media. The added benefit of this variety is that I gain a more authentic, developed sense of my students’ communication skills. A recent encounter in one of my American Literature 10 classes illustrates the point well.To take the course at the honors level I require students to submit an application essay where, without much guidance from me, they explicate a poem of my choosing. I use their responses to help me gauge whether or not they can handle the more complex work. After reading one boy’s response, I had real doubts. His essay demonstrated original insight but was poorly organized and riddled with language errors. While meeting with him, however, he assured me that writing has always been “tricky,” yet he was confident he could do well. He would work hard to improve his essays, and he knew he was good “with other stuff.” When I first started teaching, there wasn’t much “other stuff” in my classes. This particular student would have been in trouble. I believed writing well was the most important focus of my classes. I still do, actually. Yet, over the years, I have learned that if students are given multiple modes of expression, I gain a more accurate sense of their skills as communicators.

I began this school year with a Modern Slavery Project. I’ve written extensively about this unit at EdSocialMedia and encourage you to visit that post if you’re interested in the details: Modern Slavery Project.

Essentially, students research an aspect of modern slavery and draw connections between this research and Harriet Jacob’s INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL. The students and I develop other aspects of the project as well, and this year the students decided to create video PSAs and write a call to action letter to someone within their own circle of influence.

Here is the video that was produced by the student who—just two weeks prior—I was a bit worried about. Words fail me.

Do you see my point? By only looking at one literary analysis essay, my view was myopic. Yet, by allowing communication skills to be expressed in multiple forms—in this case a video—this student’s stage was widened. In a relatively brief time, I was able to understand, more acutely, what a deeply critical, artistic mind he has. In truth, I was able to understand that depending on the medium, this student is a more skillful communicator than me.Now, this isn’t to say a video replaces an essay. It doesn’t. (By the way, this video is accompanied with a heartfelt letter that shows a sophisticated, organized analysis of slavery and how to combat it…and we’ll spend considerable time this year in traditional essay mode.)

Check out all the Modern Slavery Projects here.

Yet, because my classroom integrates various technology tools, this student’s voice is much, much louder, and my assessment of his ability to communicate with passion and precision can be much more accurate.I’m really interested, then, in your stories. In what ways has technology “widened the stage” for your students…and you? It’s my belief that in sharing moments like these we illustrate the true power of technology in the classroom.