Friday, March 21, 2014

Students Teach the Teachers

At Cerritos College we have an "iPad work group" made up of faculty members and an IT guy who all received an iPad with the exhortation: "Go explore."  I just love the attitude of the folks at my school.   The work group is sort of like the old "skunk works" research group that engineering firms used to test and innovate new ideas.  In February we met on a Friday for a workshop.  this workshop was quite different from any I had attended, because it was run by students!
I have learned by working with iPads that the students come in with very little iPad skill.  But after a couple of digital lab reports  using Explain Everyting or screencasts articulating difficult chemistry concepts using Educreations the students become way more adept at using iPads than I am.  So because they know it so well I invited two students to come in and teach us how to use these tools.  It is also way more powerful when the students explain how the technology has transformed their learning.  For this workshop I chose Lily to present how she uses Educreations and Cristina demonstrated Explain Everything.  Then they had us faculty try to create our own presentation and then share with the group.  It was really inspiring to see these students teach us.  And I think it was really empowering for these two young ladies.  A week later I told my colleague from Cal State Long Beach, Laura Henriques about the experience.  She said, "Would you please submit and article for the California Science Teachers Association Newsletter? And have the students write the article."

What Cristina and Lily wrote really moved me to think about the power of iPads and it challenged me to think about my role as a teacher and how I can be that role better.  Here is a clip from their wonderful article:



Continue reading article on CSTA Website


It is really powerful when the students are "allowed to drive."

I wish were my first instinct to hand off more control to students, but usually I don't think to let the students lead. But when they do lead everybody wins.



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