technology+integration

For this assignment I watched the video below, "Project Learning: Expeditions in Portland, Maine". It featured a school that used goal/project based curricula to teach children real world applications for the things they learned. I liked the idea of using education in practice and not just theory. One of the biggest problems I had with high school was how inapplicable most of the things I was learning at the time seemed. Especially Math and History. I love History now, but that's only because it became useful to me as an adult. The verdict is still out on Math, though... Through the video I learned that technology is a really good fit for expeditionary, project based learning. The children in it were asked to use internet-based applications in their projects, like Google Maps, document their work with digital cameras and present some final products as interactive webpages. One of the points raised in the video had to do with the symbiosis of expeditionary learning and digital technology. The teacher being interviewed commented that he felt one really needed the other in order for either to be effective in a education system. Using technology in the classroom for things like distance learning or lecture aids are valid applications but being able to take things away from the desk or the screen and into the real world seems to help build a sense of personal investment in the learning process. I love the idea of giving each child in the classroom a laptop and the latitude to combine several academic subjects into a project or two throughout the year. Not only do they develop real world skills in technological applications, but they also get to blend things like math and art and history, getting a sense of how each needs the other to function completely as a whole.

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