Storytelling is about discovery; discovery of oneself, discovery of our relationship with the world, discovery of questions within ourselves. Purposefully and intentionally immersing technologies that are simple to grasp, amplifies the discovery allowing the power of voice to lift off.
This year’s joint project between Learning Technologies and Literacy accessed the collaborative nature of Google Classroom to strengthen writing, voice, and empowerment in every student. The simplicity of the environment made it the best alternative to focus on writing communication, not learning the tool. Pre-assessment set the groundwork in maintaining the focus. Activities ranged from heart maps, personalization to self-reflection of goals. All classes learned and accessed the many tools embedded to support inclusion (eg. audio, voice-to-text (sometimes it’s easier to speak and watch it flow out on a page), dictionary with images, integrated web research (no leaving your page), auto translation (ELL inclusion from day one), text-to-speech, word prediction…). Again, these were done purposefully when need arose and all students engaged when they felt the need or wish. Immediate timely support through teacher and student comments provided opportunities to focus on growing the writers voice. The values of core competencies were evidenced throughout their writing process.
These stories of learning are captured in the words of students and teachers.
More stories are on their way and will be posted as our project teams round off the year.