Meaningful Task + Choice = Tech Wizardry

Alex created this website to showcase her fitness plan, goals, and resources.  

Without being asked.

Sometimes, the most authentic use of technology comes when you don't require students to use it -- but instead, when you leave it up to students to find the absolute best way to get something done.

Ann Smith decided to innovate in her health class, simply in an effort to make her content more real for students -- but her students responded, not only by creating relevant, meaningful work, but also by using technology in innovative ways.

Ann's students were learning about exercise and physiology, and she didn't want to have students merely stand and present their declarative knowledge -- enduring yet another PowerPoint.  So, she created a project which demanded that students create their own fitness improvement plans -- in which they set their own personal goals, predicted obstacles, laid out a plan of rewards and recognition, and built in systems for social support (all of which are shown by recent research to help people achieve goals that require self-control).

How they would do it, and what form it would take, was up to them.

And students responded, spontaneously, in a variety of ways -- integrating technology where it made sense, and not when it didn't.  Several students used Prezi or Google Docs and added graphics, charts, and tables to their project. One student composed and narrated a video that included photos and video clips. Alex, a junior in Ann's class, decided that the best way for her to organize and compile all of her materials was to create a website, in which she could embed relevant videos and resources.  (Her website is pictured above.)

Not all students chose to approach the task in the same way -- but since the content learning was the primary goal, Ann could compare all the various products fairly, based on how well they showed they could understand and apply the content, and how professionally they could present it.

And was it meaningful?

Well, according to Ann: "one student actually came up to me last Wednesday at our track meet...after his race he ran up to me and said 'Ms. Smith, I reached my SMART goal!' He was so excited that he reached his goal. It was very exciting to see him make the connection. Those are the moments I live for."

So, what does mean for the rest of us? As teachers, we are usually very good at specifying exactly how we want student work to look -- from headings on the top of papers, to the specific details of a particular assignment or project. Many times, this structure is good, because students do need to learn how to create work following the conventions of a discipline. 

But we may be depriving students of a crucial chance -- to think about purpose and audience, to innovate -- when we specify the form of an end-product. Because deciding when to use a particular piece of technology is just as important as knowing how to use it.

After all, when students work, we don't want them to ask themselves, "am I doing this the right way to earn points?" We want them to ask, "is this the best way to do this?"

Just like we do.

What's next for Ann and her health students? 

She's already thinking: "The project I am having students work on now is they are designing informational brochures on mental illnesses. Even though I am creating the structure, I am using a more authentic audience. I am asking the counseling office as well as the health office to look at the brochures. They will then pick out ones they feel are the most accurate and relevant to teens. Those brochures will then be made into several copies for the counseling office and health office to use."