“It is truly amazing to watch education change as technology opens new learning experiences for eager students and staff,” said Dr. Jared Bloom in the Superintendents Weekly Newsletter. “In fact, recent innovation has provided us the opportunity to connect with young learners and teachers clear across the world as we share experiences and benefit from collective creativity and expertise.”
Fortunately, this phenomenon was on full display last week when our intermediate school students interfaced electronically, and conducted virtual learning experiences with science classes and teachers from Australia. Ms. Janine D'Elia, our Instructional Technology Specialist, set up the Cisco Tele-Presence video conferencing system, which brought our third-grade students and their teachers face to face with learners from a distant and mysterious part of the globe.
At Maplewood, Christine Columbano and Theresa Gillan’s class were inspired to share their experience. “During this one hour Q&A, Ben Newsome, an Australian scientist/teacher, spoke with the students and used pictures and maps to enhance his responses," said Ms. Columbano. “The students were excited about the chat and enjoyed speaking with a real Australian.”“It is nice to meet an Australian and have a real experience,” said Lauren, a student at Maplewood. Classmate Colton agreed saying: “the whole experience helped us learn a lot more about Australia.” “He was able to show us pictures in order to answer our questions,” said Tashou, who thought the Tasmanian Devil was pretty cool. “We will continue to 'push the envelope' of instructional experience as we look to motivate our students to success in the 21st-century,” added Dr. Bloom.
Photo Gallery(Birchwood)
Photo Gallery(Maplewood)
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