the teacher, students, and coach can
learn just enough about the technology they want to use, just in time to
use it in the project.
Coaches might ask teachers the following types of questions and offer a
few examples to help them determine
how technology could better support
their learning:
Communication. Does the learning
activity encourage students to communicate with peers? Are the students
reaching beyond the classroom to get
ideas or suggested solutions to problems? Are they seeking input from
subject-matter experts?
The coach might, for example,
suggest to her collaborating teacher
that he use a website such as iEARN
( iearn.org), where educators can find
students from around the world who
are working on a project similar to
the one the teacher is planning for his
students.
Collaboration. Does the task ask students to collaborate with others in
their local or global community to
solve real-world problems or get feedback on their proposed solutions?
A coach might suggest to a peer that
students who are studying the impact
of fracking in nearby natural gas fields
use Skype to discuss their findings and
solutions with an outside expert, such
as a chemist, geologist, or petroleum
company executive.
Information gathering. To complete
the learning task, do students need
to gather information to draw conclusions and create knowledge? How will
students be assessed on their ability to
gather useful, relevant information?
A coach could help the collaborating teacher create a Google Form so
his students could collect water-quality
data from other students who live in
cities along a river for a project to improve water quality in their own town.
Information organization. Is the task
shaped in ways that require students
to organize, analyze, and synthesize
the information they have gathered?
A coach may help a teacher and
students find online resources about
environmentally friendly practices
and then design a webpage where they
can organize and share what they have
learned more broadly.
Expression. Are students demonstrating their learning by sharing their
solutions with authentic audiences?
Does the task encourage students to
present their work in creative ways
that are meaningful to them? Is the
ability to include images, video, music,
or dialogue important to expression?
If a teacher asks her students who
come from families that recently immigrated to the United States to draw
on the immigrants’ experiences to
reshape and retell John Steinbeck’s The
Grapes of Wrath, her coach can help
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