Best Practices for Promoting Learning in a 1:1 Environment

[Jessica Bishop]

I am growing as a teacher in the 1:1 environment by implementing a variety of assessment techniques into my instruction.  Examples of technology-based learning tools I've used to measure student understanding of material include: Glogster, Kid Blog, Blogger, Evernote, GoogleDocs, Moodle tools, Key Note, Power Point and a few others.  I think that my students are growing as learners because they're excited to use these learning tools and they apply themselves when completing assignments.  In group projects, I believe they take pride in completing their share of the project and they also learn the importance of communicating and collaborating in order to achieve the objective.  For example, on a recent assignment in 6th grade social studies, I was very happy to see students assigning one another "homework" (tasks) for the night in order to complete their project in a reasonable amount of time. 

 

Something new that I've done this year is communicate with my students via e-mail, which I did not do at my previous school, in order to clarify their understanding on homework assignments or simply provide extra assistance.  It's been effective because their questions are answered before they arrive to school the next day, and as one student gratefully reflected, "Thank you Miss Bishop, I will now be able to sleep in peace."

 

I believe I've helped students organize their work and classnotes on their computers when they've come to see me, but I believe that I need to spend more time on this during class.  (Especially in the beginning of the year.)

 

Like I said, I think that I've failed to clearly explain how I want notes organized and how I want them to be titled.  I've probably relied too much on the assumption that students just "know" how to do this.

[Angela L. Neff]

How do you use Glogster as an educational device?

[Jessica Bishop]

We used it in our unit on ancient Rome.  The students were asked to select an important legacy from ancient Rome (i.e. aqueducts, the Colosseum) and compare it to something in the modern day.  They posted visual representations of what they compared on Glogster, along with a summary comparing their selections.  It's a really great learning tool--essentially the equivalent of creating a poster, except on the computer!