Our school is again looking to scope out what students learn related to technology skills from PreK – 12. Over six years ago I wrote a comprehensive scope and sequence that was based on ISTE NETS and Mountain Brook School . I do not want to repeat the same script of when and where a student learns what as I believe that technology changes too quickly and that the pigeon hole you put yourself into limits your thinking and teaching. Technology skills are needed when they are needed. While we can map a course so we are on chartered waters, the wind will blow us in directions we can not predict. We must pack accordingly.
For instance, today I once again introduced the iTouch to a class. The goal was to have them use the Dictionary App to look up some spelling words and write down a definition, parts of speech in a Moodle Online Text Assignment. The goal was to have students use a small device to interact with our school’s Interactive Learning Environment. As we started, students got their worksheet and many started to record the definitions on the worksheet as that is how they usually do it. No big issue as that is how the wind blew them today. I adjusted the lesson to have them listen to the word in the Dictionary app as that is something that no paper dictionary can do. The other parts of the online assignment were to use other Touch Apps as it relates to English. (SAT Vocab, Blanks, Word Warp, and others).
How do I write a scope and sequence to include a device that did not exist before September 5, 2007? What will be released in 2010? The technology took 2 years to get into the school and would a scope and sequence keep the next tool out for two years while we study the educational use? Good questions and I will keep chewing on them.
Now, to the whole lost and found title. Another question that comes up is when students should be able to do skill X where X is any skill that the teacher wants to have the student know before they go to the lab or that I think they should know based on the afore mentioned ISTE NETS. I mentioned this to Dr. Sid DuPont our interim director and he pulled out his desk drawers to reveal items found that students have lost over the school year. Why get hung up in when they should know something as they need to know it when they need to know it just like teachers and administrators.
Not Official Lost site as these items were left in the Computer Labs the last two weeks.
One of our holding areas – note we have a plan B
We loose stuff all the time and middle school students loose things at a faster rate since they are, well, in middle school. We have a system for collecting the lost and found items although truth be told most things are lost permanently as the students just do without or I suspect the parents buy new ones.
Will a scope and sequence be the lost or the found part of a similar equation? Or will it only be my time that is lost when I could really be working on finding the time to work with teachers to infuse their teaching with new tools. Is my answer obvious?
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