Wow! I was impressed by the development of the technological and student production program at Mabry Middle School. MabryOnline.org. The school was a successful middle school before the introduction of the project-based learning. After, the students produced high quality podcasts and vodcasts of their learning. This is extremely impressive as this started nearly ten years ago at the infancy of podcasts and vodcasts.
This is an example of a school that is ahead of its time. That is what is important as we move further into the 21st century. Schools that adopt new technologies and use them in new ways will be helping their students to be successful in their future. I think that the future of introducing students to and using technology for learning is coding. Students who learn to code will be able to not only troubleshoot computer issues, but they will be able to use their creative abilities to develop new Apps, tools, and skills.
Some places for kids to learn coding today are: CodeCademy, Scratch, KhanAcademy, and Code.org. There are some other paid options, but I haven't included them.
David...interested in your comments about coding as the future of tech in schools. I agree that we should be doing much more with that as well as much more. You are familiar with Maine's laptop program (MLTI) and that has had a profound influence on learning in the last 12 years. Are your students in Job Corps tech-savvy on any level when they come to you?
ReplyDeleteMy students vary greatly in their levels of tech knowledge. I can say that students from Maine more often have better skills because of the MLTI program in Middle school. In general though, students that come to Job Corps as young adults tend to not have computer skills that are at levels I would expect from the Millennial generation.
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