2013 Award Winners

The Invisible Influence

Grade 10

Susan Steidl and Michelle Luhtala

New Canaan High School, New Canaan, CT

Using student and school-owned mobile technology, students critically analyzed visual media spanning decades to evaluate the influence of visual media on social change. Students used a Facebook group as a discussion forum which allowed them to incorporate both print and digital images in their analysis. Combining face-to-face and online collaboration with peers and a team of teachers, students developed, reflected upon, and revised a thesis, a body of visual evidence to support their thesis, and an analytical research paper. As a class, each section collaborated through Facebook and Google Drive to polish their essays and publish the final project online with embedded images in an digital anthology.

Virtual Vistas: Connecting our Classrooms to the World

Pre K, K, 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5

Kathy Hardesty

Florence E. Smith STEM School

West Hartford, CT

Using video conferencing in our school students, faculty and families will have the opportunity to interact directly with subject matter experts from museums, research and science centers and other classrooms across the globe. The communication and exploration that this high definition, real-time connectivity provides for learners covers all areas of the curriculum. Our focus will be, in particular, scientific inquiry, which will enable students to explore and learn about the world in which they live. Students will speak with scientists, explore ecosystems, share face to face experiences with classmates from other schools and use video conferencing experiences to inspire reflection, writing, and action.

Bring Your Devices Blogging

Grades 7 and 8

Michelle Jeff and Anne Haling

East Lyme Middle School

Cell phones, kindles and iPads and laptops are just some of the internet accessible devices our students brought to school but were not permitted to use during the school day. However, as teachers we saw their BYODs (Bring Your Own Devices) as an opportunity to create a meaningful classroom learning environment, where our students would use this dormant technology.Blogging is a form of discussion that is increasingly being used at high school and college level, and we saw this as a perfect marriage between cutting-edge technology skills and our desire for our students to use their BYODs in class allowing us to conquer the issues of BYODs.