Albuquerque Academy
At Albuquerque Academy we are excited about creating opportunities for students and faculty to engage with digital technologies. The importance of participatory learning is at the forefront of several projects currently underway at our school. Every project is a learning process and constant refinement is a goal. As our students learn from feedback, so do we as faculty and the learning process continues.
Here are a few examples of collaborative teaching and learning at Albuquerque Academy:
ePORTFOLIOS & COMMITMENT TO SERVICE
ePortfoilios for Community and Global Citizenship Program: The community service program at Albuquerque Academy provides a springboard for action where students are required to integrate community service into their educational journeys. This year the Community and Global Citizenship Program introduced the creation of ePortfolios using Google Sites within Albuquerque Academy’s Google Apps for Education. Every tenth grade student is given access to their own ePortfolio, which they design and use to journal, reflect and track their progress through their commitment to service project. You can see a picture of the blank site here. We are very excited to watch the growth of students as they take charge of their own learning!
REFLECTIVE FILMMAKING
INFOGRAPHICSLast year we investigated the exciting world of infographics and created a project that is moving into its second year of implementation. Eighth grade science students studying alternative energies work in pairs using Livebinder to manage group research, follow assignments and track and record data on a chosen alternative energy. When research is complete the students take the project a step further and create infographics to turn their findings into visual representations of data. Once students get the concept of infographics down, the work they produce is very cool indeed. Students use Word, Pages, and Excel to create the infographics, graphs and charts, and through the process learn about information literacy, online searching, and website evaluation.
A project that has been quite successful is where 11th grade English students prepare for autobiographical college entrance essays through a process of writing and filmmaking. This month-long project moves through writing and sharing reflective essays, offering feedback, then revising and sharing a second time. Then each student turns their narratives into a digital story, some students make films, some use photos, and some create animations. The results overall have been fantastic and the students become very involved due to the creative nature as well as the sharing aspects of the project. During the project students not only hone their reflective and writing skills, they also learn how to use several pieces of software, learn about digital literacy, intellectual property, and online searching skills.Submitted by Suzanne Feldberg, US Librarian @ Albuquerque Academy <feldberg@aa.edu>
HANDS ON DEMONSTRATIONS OF LEARNING
Students in a Molecular Biology class demonstrate their understanding of Mitosis and Meiosis through the creation of collaborative video projects. Students used pipe cleaners, beads, yarn, their own drawings and other creative items to demonstrate their knowledge of fundamental concepts in Biology.
LOW-TECH MEETS HIGH-TECH
Students in a Geometry class learn as low-tech, meets high-tech in a lesson demonstrating Triangle Sum Theorem. Through the use of a document camera, projector and Interactive White Board all students in the room can clearly see how a physical triangle manipulation demonstrates how the sum of the measures of the angles in a triangle = 180⁰. And the image and class notes are saved and shared in their online classroom learning management system for additional homework and test preparation support.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Through the use of a set of classroom clickers, projector, textbook software and Microsoft PowerPoint students in a Biology class review for an exam. Individual students answer the review questions posted by the teacher and then the class discusses the correct and incorrect answers. Research shows a correlation between the effective use of these devices and:
a. increased student engagement because students are individually accountable for their answers during class
b. maximized use of classroom time and immediate feedback, allowing teachers to move on if concepts are well understood or stop and provide additional instruction for those concepts less understood
c. increased student achievement
(http://legacy.einstruction.com/support_downloads/assessment/pulse/CPSPulse-Research-Whitepaper.pdf)
Submitted by Jill Brown, Director of Educational Technology @ Albuquerque Academy <brownj@aa.edu>