5 minute read
Students Empowered through Tech Club
Meg Ormiston
Article
Students Empowered Through Tech Club
Embracing innovation during difficult times was child’s play for the Lincoln Tech Club team as they embraced innovation throughout the challenging school year of 2020-21. This dedicated team of fourth and fifth graders persevered through remote learning, pivoted during hybrid learning, managed through quarantine, and celebrated masked in-person fun as a student-led Tech Club. Their creativity and can-do spirit serve as an inspiration for all of us.
This mighty group tackled every challenge with creative problem solving following a clear vision that their work was helping everyone. Nine- and ten-year-olds are our future leaders for innovation using all types of technology tools from Zoom chats, green screen videos, editing, scriptwriting, virtual interviews, weekly news shows, on-location filming, and much more.
As one of the teacher sponsors of this group, I was the behind-the-scenes support and supervisor, but the students were empowered to do the planning, visioning, leading, and organizing. Along this journey, this group taught me so many technology tools and creative solutions to the complicated daily changes from the student perspective. These students are the rock stars, I just made
sure they had the technology tools and the resources they needed to shine.
The future of the school is empowering students to learn how to learn inside and outside of school seamlessly using all types of technology tools. This Lincoln Tech Club is a model of innovation that can be replicated in any school online or blended, and these students crafted an expansion plan all on their own by selecting leaders and getting to work.
The leadership team worked throughout the summer to create a new website and to archive past projects, to create the agendas for the first few meetings, to create a commercial and to recruit new members. They created a sign-up form and launched year three of Tech Club All this work was not for a unit or lesson, a class, or a grade; yet they continue to lead and give up recess one day a week. Imagine the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills these students are developing as they work on their social skills and provide an opportunity for their peers to have fun! This fun was part of the much-needed social-emotional learning (SEL) for everyone involved. Now, what can we learn from this group of student innovators? A lot!
What we witnessed was empowering, and the need to get out of the way of students doing work that is important to them and can service of the rest of the school.
Creating
First and foremost, these students are creating, producing, and publishing their
Imagine the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills these students are developing... This fun was part of the much-needed socialemotional learning (SEL) for everyone involved.
2021-style. These students did all this work on their own, collaborating and powering right through the pandemic. Periodically we would have Zoom calls to check on progress, or they would chat with me on Zoom; but these student leaders planned and organized everything. original work using all types of technology and other resources, even paper and pencil. As a group, they agreed that their best video work needs a team and always a script. If a student did not want to be the on-camera reporter there were other roles in the school newsgroup.
Everyone is welcome to join, having a voice and choice in what role or task they want to try. Students are free to move around and try something new or even suggest new ideas. The students give up recess once a week to participate, and there is no pressure if it is a nice day, go out and play. Often, we found that students continued to create long after the school day has ended, because their project was meaningful to them. from other groups. The groups moved at their own pace and the teacher was available to work individually with “checkin” groups.
Critical Thinking
Problem-solving and thinking critically inside and outside of the classroom empowered these students. They switched gears from passive consuming of lessons to active learning in the classroom
Collaboration
These students learned how to collaborate without a teacher micromanaging the process. This online and offline collaboration boosted confidence in the Tech Club leadership and membership, as teachers saw this confidence carry over into the classroom where the collaboration continued.
In a brief pre-pandemic study of test scores, we found the students made significant gains, particularly in math when they worked in groups to clarify and solve problems. Like the Tech Club, the math groups were open to all students regardless of their math level. Through coaching, we limited direct instruction, so the math students had time to work together, make mistakes, and seek help or in the library where Tech Club was held. Because of the pandemic, critical thinking was needed in all learning sessions, from remote learning to a return to the masked socially distancing learning space.
The Tech Club used the outdoor classroom when they returned to school in the Spring of 2021 because there was a limit to the size of indoor gatherings. Critically thinking about activities that could be completed outside with their iPads; accessing Wi-Fi, lighting, noise, and of course being dependent on the weather, these students continued their learning and they continued to thrive.
Communication
Technology was the lifeline for these students inside and outside the classroom
and they created all types of systems. Many used the chat feature in Zoom to stay connected while others used email and Google Classroom. I set up Google Classroom, but the Tech Club leadership took it from there to make announcements, sharing resources, and collecting projects.
This group had personal devices since third grade, but our initial observations had students using iPads to consume information from websites or apps. Tech Club brought about change, and began creating and publishing projects so the whole school could see their work. The school news quickly became a weekly hit with the student body with student groups doing everything from planning to editing using their iPads. This type of Tech Club can be replicated in any school—please reach out if I can help you get started. This continues to be successful because the students take ownship, thriving as they create, communicate, collaborate, and think critically. Their creativity and can-do spirit should inspire all of us.
Meg Ormiston is often called “The Teacher of Teachers” as she delivers professional development locally, nationally, and internationally. Meg is also an awardwinning author/co-author or 12 books focused on teaching and learning using digital tools. Meg has been teaching in the classroom, in auditoriums, at tech camp, and online for many years and her upbeat presentation style will have you laughing and learning practical skills you can start using immediately.
