Kansas State Class Harnesses the Power of Tech Tools

When Sha-Ree' Castlebury started taking Technology for Teaching & Learning this semester, she had never built a personal Web site because she was clueless about technology and electronics.

But now, the Kansas State University pre-service teacher has built an online portfolio and learned how to create interactive, engaging lessons with tools such as Animoto and VoiceThread. After she graduates, she'll be able to point principals and other potential employers to her site so that they can see what skills she will bring to their school districts.

"I'm so excited because I feel like I'm learning all these things that I was always scared to do before," Castlebury said, "especially the whole making my own Web site thing."

Learn the concepts

Most of the students who take this class don't have a clue that all these online resources are available, faculty member Cyndi Danner-Kuhn said. That's why she's been exposing them to tech tools and teaching them how to mix the tools into their lesson plans, but she emphasizes that they should understand the reason for the tools and the ideas behind them.  

"They're learning the concepts, and that's the most important thing," Danner-Kuhn said, "so if they get a job in a school, and the school district's using something different, it won't be a big deal to switch over to something else 'cause they'll understand the concepts of how to make it."

The majority of the 180 students she teaches have Mac laptops, but the ones who don't can grab one from the laptop cart. During the two-hour classes, Danner-Kuhn might demonstrate a technique and then give them time to try it.

She has them join Twitter so they can network with other educators, sign up for Delicious and Diigo to keep track of teaching resources, and build a Web site with iWeb. Throughout the semester, they use VoiceThread and Animoto to create videos, and they also create podcasts, among other projects.

In class, Danner-Kuhn answers questions, steers them in the right direction and talks about how they can incorporate the tools in their curriculum. The students are each preparing for different content areas and grades, but she wants them all to leave the class saying, "That's a really cool tool," and feeling like they can use it when teaching a particular subject.

"It really shouldn't be about the tools," Danner-Kuhn said, "it should be about the curriculum and what they're teaching."

Make lessons exciting

Pre-service teacher Alex Hirbe plans to teach social studies on the secondary education level, and after he took Danner-Kuhn's class last semester, he discovered that incorporating Internet-based tools and applications into lesson plans was important in order to engage students in his future classes.

"They're going to achieve a lot more and they're going to learn a lot more because they're doing it on their own and they're finding out the answers for themselves in a fun way," Hirbe said.

Instead of banning cell phones and limiting computer access, schools need to embrace them, Castlebury said. And teachers should too so that their classes will engage kids who want to learn in a new way instead of listening to lectures and filling out worksheets.

"Students should be able to see technology as a learning tool, not just as something that is forbidden within school," said Castlebury, who plans to teach English in elementary schools.

One of her favorite tools is Animoto, which allows her to create videos with photos, video clips and music. When she has parent-teacher conferences in the future, she could project the student's videos in the background to show what they've done.

Animoto gives Danner-Kuhn a code for the semester so that she can show her students the tool and allow them to use it.

Open learning options

If her pre-service teachers don't learn the importance of these tech tools, they'll be left behind, she said. In her class, they learn to be brave and willing to experiment with the tools, but they also learn to use them appropriately so that kids will become excited about learning.

"We have to find the right tool for the right task, and that's probably the most important thing is to let them know that there is all this stuff available, and they can use it, and it's going to do nothing but engage their students in the learning," Danner-Kuhn said. "We can't just have lecture, sit and get anymore. We've got to be active learners and active teachers."