CSLC '99 Conference
Stanford University, December 11-15, 1999
Interactive Session 1 Panel Presentation:
Technology-Supported Innovation in Real World Classrooms
"Children Reading and Writing the World: Launching Literacy Learnings Through Local to Global Telecommunications"
Presented By
Kristi Rennebohm Franz, Primary Classroom Teacher & I*EARN Lead Teacher, Sunnyside Elementary School, Pullman, Washington, U.S.A.
(The following slides were used in the presentation.)
Children
Reading and
Writing the World:
Launching
Literacy Learnings Through Local to Global
Telecommunications By
Kristi Rennebohm Franz
"Children
develop language through interaction... they
learn to talk by
talking to someone who responds…
They
must therefore learn to write by writing to someone who
responds.
in
which writing matters because...
by
real writers who
ache with caring for real response." (Radical
Reflections by Mem Fox, 1993)
Our
Ronald McDonald House Children's Hospital
Project
|
Writing/Reading
about Caring and Caring About Reading/Writing
telecommunications
used in meaningful curricular projects that make a
difference in the world
*teachers
designing curricula based on standards *State
Superintendent using exemplary innovative teaching as models
for reform *K-20
VTEL Video Conferencing Network for collaborative teaching
and learning & Funding for Implementation of Technology
by Washington State Legislature
*district
ownership in defining the educational journey with
technology *
teacher leadership from the classroom *technician
support *parent
volunteer & community support
*Ongoing
qualitative and quantitative research: What's happening?
Why? *Ongoing
designing of qualitative and quantitative assessments to
inform teaching and learning *Continually
generative curricular design based on State & National
Education Standards *Ongoing
visions of possibilities *Collaborative
multiage classroom community *Teaching
and learning content embedded in real world
contexts *
Honoring children as learners *Children's
voices continually informing direction & content of
curricula
Lev
Vygotsky Pablo
Friere John
Dewey Herbert
Kohl Vera
John-Steiner Howard
Gardner Paul
Graves Louise
Rosenblatt Mem
Fox Harvard
University Teaching for Understanding
Framework
*with
energy in sync with turbo time of technology!
*unencumbered
in assuming technology as a way to learn
1
Classroom Mac LC II 1
Stylewriter Printer 1
5400 Modem I*EARN
Telnet Connection Microsoft
Works
KidKeys
& Type to Learn Kidworks
2 Microsoft
Works & Office 98 Claris
Homepage Netscape,
Eudora, First Class Graphic
Converter/Photoshop Avid
Cinema
1
CMac G3 (with
T1 Connection) 1
Mac 5260 (with
T1 Connection) 2
Mac LC IIs & 1 LC III 1
Mac SE Mavica
Digital Camera Sony
HI8 Video Camera Iomega
Jazz Drive IBM
Disks for Digital Images Student
Mac Disks
27
Mac 575 (with
T1 Connections) Power
Mac Teacher Computer Averkey
(connecting
Teacher computer to monitor) VTEL
Video Conferencing Unit
"What is the
gestalt of the classroom pedagogy and learning
environment... where meaningful curricular experiences using
technology... are unencumbering
and the processes of children meeting the challenges of
understanding and... are enhancing
their progress towards essential learnings in ways not
previously possible?
*Classroom
Teacher *1st & 2nd
Grade Children *I*EARN Teaching
Colleagues *District
Teaching Colleagues *Parent
Volunteers *Principal &
Curriculum Administrators *Pedagogical
Technician *University
Colleagues
First,
most children in the primary years have an innate sense of
wanting to share what they know with others and learn about
their world. When children have an opportunity to
communicate with local to global peers as way of making
connection to and learning about their world, they are eager
to work on the necessary reading and writing skills that
enable them to participate in that
communication.
Third,
when
children are communicating through email to build curricular
understandings with local to global peers, the speed of
telecommunications enables them to have "intact, cohesive
cognitive" holds on the context and the content of their
collaborative communication efforts. There
is a synchronization and synergy between the tempo of
telecommunications and the tempo with which children like to
have communication happen and their need to have
communication happen within a time frame that enables they
to readily make integrated informational and conceptual
connections!
Fourth,
when
the children receive an email reply, it increases their
motivation and understandings that the purpose of working on
reading skills is to be able to read the messages they
receive. They want to know what their peers have to say.
Because
they know the email text is going to be about a curricular
context in which they have ownership and experiences, they
access that prior knowledge to meaningfully predict words in
the text. As
they read the email messages from peers, they more readily
recognize writing traits (Ideas,
Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency,
Conventions) than
they are able to do when reading their own writing. This
better enables them to understand how good use of these
writing traits powerfully enhances communication and, thus,
helps them begin working on using these traits in their own
writing efforts.
Fifth,
when
children receive a reply from peers, those peers often tell
them how much they learned from the messages that were sent.
The reply email often affirms for children the information
and ideas that they have communicated online is valued by
others. The children realize that their efforts to write
about what they know are appreciated and important to others
beyond their classroom and community. The children come to
realize that their writing makes positive contributions to
the knowledge base of others.
Sixth,
the reply messages often invite further inquiry that
inspires motivation towards ongoing written responses and
inspires further research in order to respond to questions
of inquiry.The curricular learning experiences become
exponentially generative with the exchanges of email.
Seventh,
the online collaboration among local to global peers in the
process of doing a meaningful curricular project often leads
to taking positive actions with what they are learning and
the knowledge/understandings they are building.
Eighth,
when
primary children learn that the literacy skills they are
learning and using in school lead to actions that make
positive differences in their local to global world, they
realize that writing and reading are ways that they can make
the world a better place.
Ninth,
When
children realize they can make positive differences in their
local to global communities, they develop a sense of hope
about their world! "Literacy is
about empowering people...to write and read about their
world...to use literacy to be shapers of their world with a
sense of hope." (Pedagogy
of Hope. Pablo Freire. 1994) "One of the tasks
of a progressive educator is to unveil opportunities for
hope…" (The
Discipline of Hope: Learning from a Lifetime of Teaching.
Herbert Kohl.1998) In
today's classrooms, providing hope to young people is one of
the major challenges of teaching. Through engaging minds and
imagination of children through meaningful uses of
telecommunications, children are developing the strength,
intellect, and sensitivity they need to shape their world in
positive ways.
The
journey is one of continually creating
generative
visions of possibilities
in
education
through telecommunications within local to global learning
communities... with a passion
for finding ways to
make those visions become reality for all children
!
***All
documents on this web page are copyrighted. The text and
images are for educational use only. Please honor the
integrity and original ownership of all text, design and
images. It is requested that you not replicate the webpage
designs nor publish the images and text without permission.
For permission contact Kristi
Rennebohm Franz at kfranz@psd267.wednet.edu