DHAHRAN, 10 May 2005 — Last Wednesday, students at the Dhahran Elementary Middle School (DEMS) invited their parents to a “Student-Led” Conference Day. For this occasion, the students presented portfolios of work and reflections to their parents, and, with their teachers, celebrated the achievement of their goals for the academic year.
A wide variety of technology went into both creating the portfolios and recording the conferences. Portfolios of the older students were completely electronic, with the subjects presented as web pages. The younger students used more traditional techniques to create scrapbooks of their work, but even here photography and word processing skills were in evidence. The parents of the youngest students brought still cameras and video cameras to capture their children animatedly explaining all that they had learned during the school year. It was fascinating to witness the ways in which technology is being used to supplement traditional education.
At DEMS, technology is a part of the learning experience from the very beginning. Preschool students have computers available in their classrooms and every week the youngsters take a technology class at the school’s Computer Lab. The preschoolers do a special jump start program which familiarizes them with the mouse and keyboard and helps build their hand-eye coordination.
DEMS students must attain new technology goals annually. Kindergartners are taught the actual parts of the equipment and start to use all the basic functions of the computers. Third graders work with MS PowerPoint. Fourth graders create their own brochures. Frequently, for the younger students, an attempt is made to couple the activities in the Computer Lab with the students’ classroom lessons.
“In 4th Grade they learn about different countries and so they study a country. During their tech class they’ll make a brochure that could be given to someone who was going to go and visit that country,” said Tracy Bosch, the DEMS Technology Coordinator.
The Middle School students study advanced applications in their tech classes. They learn to combine different digital formats. They create digital portfolios of their work. They master various presentation applications. Their new technology skills enable them to be innovative in their other classes.
“In science class the Middle School students were learning new information that had to be organized in a presentation,” explained Bosch. “In their tech course they had already learned how to create online electronic portfolios so a lot of the students chose to present the science materials as a mini-website on the topic.”
At DEMS it’s not just the students who are required to grow their tech skills. This year the teachers were also given the opportunity to learn how technology could add value to their teaching skills.
“Teachers know how to teach but they don’t necessarily know how to use the special features of programs and other technologies to enhance their teaching. Also, being able to use basic equipment such as scanners and projectors is important. Being able to fix a paper jam or change a toner cartridge is essential, too. Helping our teachers become familiar and comfortable with the available technologies has been a goal for the past year,” remarked Bosch.
And learning how to use technology requires learning not to misuse technology. DEMS has strict respect for copyright issues. What this means is that students are informed that the work they submit must be their own or the source of the work or information must be cited.
“We present the issue in a discussion format,” explained Bosch. “We tell them, ‘What if you had written an ‘A’ paper? Would you be happy if I just came along and took that ‘A’ paper and got the ‘A’ after you put your hard work into creating it?’ All the students say that they wouldn’t want to share their work. This holds for all sorts of work such as photos and computer code, too. The students want recognition for the work they do and so they can understand how others want credit for the work they do too.”
The students are advised that they may use the Internet as a knowledge resource but that cutting and pasting information from the Internet without citing the source of that material is forbidden. For Bosch, using technology is all about enhancing students’ creativity, not taking away from it.
“As one of our electives in our publications class the students must make a mini-website informing people about holidays,” Bosch said. “They have to choose five celebrations from anywhere in the world. A lot of students then choose a celebration that they don’t know anything about. It would be so much easier to just copy and paste the information for that celebration. But we tell them that unless they cite the source of the information they will get a zero. I am quite happy if students read information from many places and talk to people about the celebration and then put what they’ve learned into their own words. But other than that, it’s not fair.”
The teachers at DEMS believe it is important that children be computer literate but some parents think that technology is taking over their children’s lives. Bosch frequently gets complaints from parents that their children spend large amounts of time at home on the computer. She acknowledges that this has its positive and negative points.
“It’s true that children don’t play outside as much now as in the past and physical activity is essential,” said Bosch. “On the other hand parents can use the computer to encourage their children to learn. Some of the kids are not good students. However, if you give them an option of doing their work on the computer they become enthusiastic and motivated. There are students who hate writing things down but if you say, ‘Go and do it on the computer,’ they will willingly get the work done.”
She added, “Parents interacting with their children on the computer can be wonderful, as well. Parents should let their children have the chance to show them what they can do. I tell parents, ‘Yes, you might know more than your children but they will only gain self-confidence when they can show someone else what they know and what they can do.’ It’s a big boost for a student when they feel they have taught their parent something new. Hearing a parent say ‘Wow’ about a student’s work is very important for that child. Even fake your ‘Wow’ if you have to, but students need encouragement. Sometimes too we ask students to do work at home and some parents won’t let the child use the computer. They say, ‘No, you’ll break it.’ Parents should keep in mind that children must try things for themselves in order to grow their skills. This means that to learn about using a computer, children need to be given the opportunity to break it.”
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