Developing meaningful and technology-rich learning experiences for girls
Warwick Noble and Kerrie Wilde
Abbotsleigh
Australia
Paper: 1/2 hour
Empowerment, Enhancement, Enrichment
With consideration to the different learning style needs of girls and equity issues associated with computer use at home and at school, the development of skilled and meaningful use of technologies, present quite unique challenges to teachers of girls. This presentation will focus on two recently developed technology-rich learning projects for primary and secondary girls at Abbotsleigh, School for Girls, Sydney, Australia. The motivation, design and delivery of these programs differed quite significantly yet both resulted in marked student progress in areas relating to skill acquisition, interpretation of visual meanings, motivation and confidence to use technologies. This has been attributed to the meaningful integration of technology in a relevant learning framework underpinned by Experiential Learning principles. Qualitative and quantitative data will be used to illustrate the benefits of these two projects - with specific reference to empowering girls and enriching their education through technologies.
The Year 5 Author-Web site project
The project centred on the development of a class maintained website
for the children's author and Year 5 class teacher, Jacqueline
Harvey. As part of the design and production of the website, students
in project teams were engaged in individual website design and
planning, website critique and evaluation in addition to technology
skill development.
The Year 10 Pastoral Care Program
This year, in order to meet mandatory technology competency
requirements, the Director of Technology and Director of Teaching and
Learning designed a new Pastoral Care Program for Year 10
students. The program linked Pastoral Care objectives and computer
competencies through a series of meaningful and relevant learning
activities. Essential to the success of the program was 150 students
having 1:1 access to computers during their programmed Pastoral Care
session and 24 hour access to resources placed on the school's
Intranet. It was anticipated that student motivation and the content
of the Pastoral Care program would be enhanced through this type of
delivery and engagement with technology.
