Sometimes they just don’t know what they want.

“I want to do something fun with the computers” is a standard request in my job. So what do you make of that?

My first question back is “Well, what are you doing in your curriculum?” And more often than not, the teacher looks perplexed…the curriculum?

It isn’t the computers that make the learning fun. You know that right? It is the lesson created that should make the learning interesting and connected. The computers or laptops or minis are just a tool to extend that learning. Sometimes teachers just don’t know what they want.
Now let me take what you are actually doing in the classroom and make it 100% better, 100% related to the real world, 100% global if possible. Share your work. Collaborate and learn from someone else. Give up the power of instruction!

What happens when students generate their own problem and then solve it? They absolutely learn the objective of the lesson. They take creativity to a new level. They have the ability to design and implement if we give them the chance to do it. Don’t give them every requirement for a project. Give them only the means to achieve that product. Show them how to use some technology…how to collaborate on Google docs or edit a wiki or film a video and edit it in some software. Then let them choose how best to represent what they have learned. Would you rather grade 30 essays answering the same question in the same manner or would you rather grade projects that demonstrate an expansion of learning beyond the standard presented?
The idea is that if you are creating something that will represent your knowledge and understanding beyond the classroom that the end product will be better than what is produced for a rubric to be assessed by one person.

You don’t really want something fun to do on the computers, you want your students to enjoy learning and producing something that represents their skills and understanding beyond your classroom walls.

So what are you doing in your curriculum that expands your students’ learning experience?