“In the 21st Century we are not teachers of content, but teachers of context…If all we do is teach content then there is no meaning.” - Ewan Macintosh
As the model of education continues to evolve, so do the tools that teachers and students use in the learning process. Expectations change with new technologies and resources. How those resources are used in lessons is one matter, but the changes that take place in learning can be an exceptionally exciting dynamic.
The Ruben R. Theory defines four ways in which technology can change the learning environment.
Substitution: Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change. (Replacing a book for an ibook.)
Augmentation: Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement. (YouTube videos, spell check.)
Modification: Technology allows for significant task redesign. (Google street map.)
Redefinition: Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable. (Wikis, chat rooms, blogs, video conferencing.)
How does the British School of Boston apply technology in the classroom? Below are excerpts from a few of our teachers, and their answers will cover the spectrum of the Ruben R. Theory.
“During this year’s ICT lessons at BSB we have been extending the curriculum beyond the development of databases, spreadsheets and publications; looking into game making, multimedia and much more advanced web design. Acquiring the use of Adobe Master Collection 5.5, a group of cutting edge software packages, has opened up advanced opportunities for students at BSB to use industrial standard software and extend the relevancy of their learning in the 21st century. We are also excited about introducing the ‘making Apps’ module into the curriculum later this year.” - Mr. Jones
“Years 9 and 10 have been working on Global Perspective projects in Geography where they’ve been investigating the Global Perspectives of an issue they’re interested in. Some students created websites to inform and collect opinions: http://globalperspectivesy9.weebly.com/index.html. Also, Year 12 Geographers have just been investigating inequalities in New York City by using this website: http://envisioningdevelopment.net.” - Miss Andrews
“Year 9 students have used Coach’s Eye on the iPad. This is a movement analysis application that allows each student to watch their gymnastics vault/flight back, freeze frames, and annotate on the screen to improve the skill. Students have used this app while performing the following vaults/forms of flight: gate, straddle, through vaults, somersaults, dive forward rolls, box jumps and more. Skills learning is better with a digital coach!” - Mr. Dunster
“Year 4 are preparing an information leaflet about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake for their Active Planet unit. They worked together with a learning partner, one person preparing the document to publish, the other using the internet to gather facts and information. We learned how quakes and natural disasters affect people’s lives.” - Mr. Langley
“In Year 2 the children do a lot of research on laptops and iPads, particularly for their IPC learning. We use the interactive white board as a teaching tool for learning activities and games.” - Mrs. Davies
“We have used iPads in IGCSE drama to record work for peer and self assessment. We use data loggers in science to do measurement of temperature, pH, light, humidity. Students photograph/record experiments on their phones. We also use many online animations and lab simulations.” - Miss Wall
“In nursery, we use a digital camera to take short videos of children re-telling a story (Three Billy Goats Gruff) with puppets, which the children then watched and commented on and got ideas for their own re-telling of the story. We also used IWB to play a Letters and Sounds game on Education City, identifying objects that begin with the letter C, and word building using CVC words by dragging letters into correct place.” - Miss Bradbury
“We Skype the UK and France to start learning our time zones! My brother and I stage a mock argument about what time I should call, and the Year 3 children have to sort it out for us.” - Miss Yeardley
“I encourage my students to use their phones for flashcards. IB students use their laptops everyday, I use my iPad to take photos. YouTube is a great resource for showing short clips of experiments.” - Mrs. Dolan
“As a teacher I use Twitter to keep in touch with other teachers around the world to share ideas, resources and develop lesson ideas which inspire learning.” - Miss Thomas
“In maths, Year 5 have been practicing mental addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, using quizzes on the iPads. We’ve been cooperating in teams to improve our scores.” - Miss Ratcliffe
“Year 6 uses bubbl.us to create digital mind maps. We have also used the site for our Knowledge Harvest on the new IPC theme of An Historical Overview. Last week the students created their own audio newspaper reports using Microsoft sound recorder.” - Miss Grimmer
“Students in Years 7 to 9 use the internet to research a project on a Spanish/French speaking country. In the second half of the term there is the PenPal initiative, where some BSB students will be engaging in email exchanges with Spanish students to practice foreign languages. Finally, Year 9 students use camcorders to go around the school and present their student life by speaking Spanish. They then use editing software to edit the scenes they record.” - Mr. Fiol
As we go forward at BSB we will continue to expand our resources, and we believe it will be very exciting. A new digital future for the British School of Boston is very much on the horizon, starting with the introduction of an ipad/ipod touch pilot program later in the year.
