Had a visit today from one of my students who has just heard he has a place at Uni to study Information Software. This, on the day that our school celebrates the ‘high achievers’ at a formal assembly.
Whilst achieving 90+ is nothing to sniff at, and over all our school came just after Kings and James Ruse, 2007 was a very positive year.
I can’t help but think that Digital Literacy in year 12 greatly assisted students in their assessment tasks and preparation for the HSC exams. Many teachers had introduced digital media as key technologies in their curriculum and has definately contributed to the 2007 cohorts outstanding success.
Vision and innovation, especially in Computing (IT, SDD, IPT) and English thrust students into participating in Web2.0 activities. At the basic level, this pushed the boys to write. Given we are a boys school, the challenge is to encourage them to write notes, practice answers and share information.
The boy who came today is an excellent example. He used blogging, delicious, slideshare to develop comprehensive notes in all his studies. We has writing, and writing all year.
He was a typical computing kid who knew his stuff. He could build, he could show you how to solve problems, he could make software and cut code. What was always going to be his biggest challenge was his basic literacies under examination. So much so, I lost count of the time he came to me and talked about ‘being a trainee’ or ‘going to TAFE’. He was convinced that he could not cut it at Uni. That he’d struggle with lectures and essays.
Web2.0 exposure has provided him with a range of ways to learn, and to prepare assessment tasks. Along the way, he has written model answers, practiced online tests and more. I never saw his take a pen and paper notes, but his blog was an ongoing evolution. It demonstrated a growth in knowledge and literacy over the year.
This kid knew where he needed to boost his marks (in computing) and it was great to hear him reflect on what he thought gave him the boost he wanted. It was fantastic to see how confident he has become. No more talk of TAFE, he was confident that he will do well. He knows how to collaborate with his peers, he knows how to undertake deeper searches for information and has a range of skills to publish, to take notes, to create multimedia.
So in a day we celebrated the 90+ achievers, my day was made when one student who I have seen work so hard on his literacy, went beyond his own expectations. I am sure that there are others out there, my class averaged jumped 20 points this year. The students were the same ability and same background as 2006, but the focus on using Web2.0 as a literacy focus has definitely improved results for them.
They simply wrote, wrote and wrote all year, so when it came to revision they had their work organised, linked, shared and tagged. Being digital native, they re-read their work online and used it to prepare for their exams. As a teacher, it assisted in provide a more one to one communication, a way of saving time – by sharing information – and to evidence the work they had done.
During the year, I was not sure that Web2.0 sat as well with year 12 as it did with year 9. They often seemed to use it purely as a digital notepad. After hearing from a few ex-students over the Christmas break, seeing many of them getting into IT related TAFE, Uni and traineeships … I think that the Web2.0 journey has been the catalyst for the improvements I have tried to implement in class.
I also have a range of people to thank for that in EduBlogger land for their influence and support.
As I start 2008, I have a clear vision of where I am going, so I start with far greater confidence.
Looking forward to refining and sharing my experience with like minded teachers in 2008.
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