Wired to Learn – Inside Classroom 213

<div id=”content_header”>     <h1><span style=”font-size:78%;”>Article from: HWDSB Website media</span>
<span id=”title”></span></h1><h1><span id=”title”>Wired to learn: Inside Lawfield classroom 213</span><img src=”file:///Users/zpipe/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-2.jpg” alt=”” /><img src=”file:///Users/zpipe/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.jpg” alt=”” /></h1>    </div>    <!– This is related to the Virtual blackboard signup –>    <center><span id=”lbl_error”></span></center>                        <span>                <span id=”news_date”><span>Monday, April 27, 2009</span></span>      </span>      <span>        <span id=”back_button”></span></span>
<span id=”news”>Wikis, blogs, Twitter, podcasts: the students in Zoe Branigan-Pipe’s Grade 5 class at Lawfield elementary use the kind of cutting-edge tools that set them apart from anyone unfamiliar with the collaborative, interactive applications people now call Web 2.0.

Walk into classroom 213, and students in groups of about four huddle around laptops. They research projects using the web. They find places with Google Earth. They map concepts with SMART Ideas. They record their voices for a podcast using GarageBand.

And yes, room 213’s podcasts – mini radio shows – are free on iTunes.

“I’m not a technology teacher,” explains Branigan-Pipe. “I’m a teacher who uses technology to give students the most up-to-date tools.”

It’s a distinction she’s firm on.

Yes, Branigan-Pipe carries an iPhone, is a familiar educational voice on the micro-blogging site Twitter, and recently received accolades as an innovator from FrontRow, the makers of the sound system that wires her classroom, laptop and iPhone.

But she says it’s not about the tech; it’s about finding an effective, engaging way to teach, that will keep her students on top of what the 21st century will expect of them. It also lets the class tap into a network much larger than their classroom walls.

Watch a classroom video <a href=”http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/media/videos/index.aspx?id=74″ target=”_blank”>here</a>.

They have connections to Thailand, Alberta and elsewhere, thanks to tools such as Skype.

“I recently asked some educators how many people are in their network at work who you can go to, ask a question of, and get support on something. Most people said two or three,” Branigan-Pipe says.

“I went to Twitter and asked the people who are in my professional network for SMART Board resources related to Earth Day. Within 20 minutes, I had 42 responses.”

Another example of global networking occurred as five Hamilton-area men raised funds by travelling to the South Pole. Branigan-Pipe had the men call her cell phone; she plugged it into her FrontRow sound system so the class could hear, and could record a version to podcast. They had an experience – and invaluable audio notes to remember it by.

Many of the adventures in learning with technology are captured on her website, <a href=”http://web.me.com/zpipe/” target=”_blank”>www.me.com/zpipe</a>. Originally intrigued by the web’s global reach during the 1990s crisis in Yugoslavia, she explains that her speciality is drama, not computer science.

“I want the students to be able to ask questions and to be critical thinkers while using the technology,” she adds, as room 213’s interactive whiteboard lights up with a concept-map students have created about Earth Day events at schools around the world.

You realize that it’s about the content, not the technology.
One irony, as you make the rounds, is that one cluster of students are actually studying the demise of the ancient civilization on Easter Island… using 21st century tools such as Google Earth, which allows them to zoom in on satellite maps of the South Pacific with pinpoint accuracy.

“They are a lot like us, in terms of climate, and if it can happen to them it could happen to us,” Grade 5 student Angela says of the Easter Islanders, who died out mysteriously hundreds of years ago, leaving little more than the iconic giant head sculptures.

“If we cut down all our trees, we would use up all our resources. We wouldn’t be able to write because we wouldn’t have very much paper, we wouldn’t be able to build strong houses and we wouldn’t have very good air because the trees (produce) oxygen,” adds Alma.

Hmm, paper. Next year, Branigan-Pipe is thinking about a paperless classroom – and it could work, if her students have anything to say about it.

</span><span id=”news”>Have a great story? Email <a href=”mailto:robert.faulkner@hwdsb.on.ca”>robert.faulkner@hwdsb.on.ca</a>.
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