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Posted by:
Jeff Sun
Research/tech assistance org
Lowell, MA
Topic:
Immediacy of Technology-Mediated Communications
Message:
This is a technology-enhanced project idea from about 7 years ago, when the Internet as a tool for K-12 learning was more or less in its infancy. But I think it stands the test of time as a powerful teaching and learning strategy that offers real-time immediacy ...
A high school social studies teacher had her students working on projects related to South Africa. Students were doing basic library research on various topics, including the rise and fall of the apartheid system. Given that activity occurred some time ago, there really was not much use of technology in the initial student research (perhaps a CD ROM encyclopedia, but this was before the WWW was in most schools). Nevertheless, the teacher did know how to find classrooms around the world that had an interest in email communication with other classes, and the teacher I observed located a class in South Africa.
The teacher asked some of her students to communicate with some of the South African students. At first, they shared typical high school student concerns and interests. Then, toward the end of the curriculum unit, some of the US students chose to send their (now) completed research papers to their key pals in South Africa. The response from the South African students was where the learning occurred.
After reviewing the papers from the US students, the South Africans made comments. It turned out that while the US students had not exactly gotten their research "wrong" they had managed to overlook certain key issues and nuances in the social structures and impacts of apartheid. They also found that many of their sources of information were out of date...something very possible in a rapidly changing political situation. To make a long story short, what the US students discovered was a first-hand lesson on the value of primary sources in research and the limits of media reporting (most students had used mass market news publications for their sources).
The students would never have had this learning without the immediacy of technology-mediated communications. What technology accomplished in this classroom -- i.e., the value added by technology -- was in its ability to facilitate communication. Not as a production tool, nor as a curriculum subject in itself, but rather as a way of bring people and ideas together.
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