Tech Literacy: Exploring Tools Through Content (Transcript)

Students: Ready? Three, two, one, go!

Mary Krenke: I feel like I have seen a difference. The kids are more confident in using the technology when they bring it back into the classroom. The students can see it all relates together.

Donna Barrier: The way we use our technology is very purposeful. We try to make that integrated as much as possible so that everything students do is pushing them towards a goal.

Brooklyn: We learn how to, like, edit pictures and make slides.

Lily: And if we want to make, like, a presentation or a doc, then we hit the apps button.

Michael: Well, we get to videotape ourselves on green screen or use “wevideo”.

Donna Barrier: Last year was the first year that we actually had a technology teacher in the building and at that time our focus was on exposing children to different apps, but it was still a little bit in isolation from what the teaching was in the classroom.

Jeff Dahl: What we’ve been working on this year in the second year of the program is we’ve been trying to integrate more of the classroom curriculum into our tech time. So, I’ve been meeting with grade-level representatives and talking to them about what are they covering in class.

Mary Krenke: In fact, we have a Google doc that it basically is just a communication way of “This is what’s coming up in our curriculum and what can you do?” or “Can we have some ideas that maybe you’re able to add on in technology?”

Beth Rickerman: For example, if they’re working on stories in writing, to have that flow into, you know, his technology time as well.

Jeff Dahl: Okay, we’re gonna start a new project. We’re gonna start working on scar stories. It’s non-fiction, it really happened, and it’s story that belongs to you. A narrative is a story, a personal narrative, your story. We want sensory words, feelings, touches, tastes, smells, sounds. Action is key! And then the “So what? Who cares?” You crashed your bike; so what? What did you learn from it?

When they have a contextual tie to what they’re doing in class I think it lends validity. I can take those opportunities, teach them a tool, and hit content information at the same time.

Okay, are you doing green screen?

Yeah.

All right. Come on. Let’s do it.

That’s good. Perfect.

Cassidy: When I was little, like three or two, I hit my eye on something sharp in my kitchen. I had to go to the emergency room at the hospital.

Jeff Dahl: We purchased a green screen set this year and we’re looking at color keying technology in some of the video apps that are available online.

Great job. Nice job, Cass. Hey, start thinking about what are the images you want behind you.

Cassidy: The green screen’s gonna change my background. It makes it look a little bit more real and interesting.

Brooklyn: We’re making slides of different pictures of what happened and then you can either edit your face in by doing the green screen or you can just, like, voice do it so you don’t have your face on it.

You’re gonna go voiceover?

Yeah.

Yeah. What was the accident? Think of one that really stands out, because those are the ones that you’re really gonna have good details on.

Mallory: Well, I was in a car and there was a motorcycle behind us and then there was a car with a trailer. Then the trailer got out of control and.. crash! There was glass everywhere and it scratched me a lot.

Jeff Dahl: That’s awesome action. Go into presentation mode and see what it looks like.

Donna Barrier: It’s not just about substituting programming for something that we could’ve done in writing. It’s to be able to give students additional ways to express their learning, to go out and find information, pull that together, use their own voice.

Jeff Dahl: You’re the author, if you don’t like the way it looks, put it back.

Donna Barrier: We want all of our students to learn the content, of course, but we want our student to learn how to be learners for the rest of their lives. That ownership just pushes them to work even harder to produce that good end product.

Schools That Work

Meyer Elementary School