This week the world´s leading education technology event, Bett Show, is taking place in London. Ann Michaelsen, teacher at Sandvika High School, is one of the speakers.
With examples from her book “Teaching using web tools”, she shares lesson plans and articles about learning with technology.
– It all started when I was working in my English class for first-year high school students. I had been teaching without the use of a textbook for several years, using social media to connect with teachers and experts in different countries. It occurred to me, why not write a book for teachers describing how we work in our class? Why not have the students to write about how they like to learn, as a change to all the books written by teachers and educational experts. I think too many conferences have the voice of an expert, and I wonder, where are the students?
According to Michaelsen technology is important in school, but too much time is spent on PowerPoint and taking notes.
– When discussing topics like environmental issues connected to the curriculum, I´d contact my network and invite students and experts into the classroom. When you stream the conversations on YouTube, the students will be able to go back and listen to the conversations as many times as they need to take notes and write about the topics on their blogs.
– Writing blogs gives students the opportunity to enjoy a broader audience, and to engage in interesting conversations. This fall my students have been discussing the topic “technology in school” with students in South Africa, Australia, Greece, and Alaska.
Michaelsen´s favourite quote at the moment is; “Anything short of a vision of educational technology use that allows students and teachers to inquire more deeply, research more broadly, connect more intensely, share more widely, and create more powerfully, sells short the power of these tools—and more important, sells short the promise of learning and of school for our students.”
And by that, she believes that we need to look at how new technology is being used in class, and ask ourselves if we are using it to its full potential.
INNOMAG will continue to cover the Bett Show 2016 from UK this weekend.
