On May 6, Radnor High School students joined more than 200 high-school students from 36 school districts in Harrisburg for Classrooms for the Future Student Capitol Day. These students shared innovative projects that were created using technology provided through the Classrooms for the Future grant.
The Radnor Education Foundation has helped further supplement Radnor Township School District's technology with its own grants, helping more Radnor classrooms receive laptops, interactive white boards and collateral materials.
RHS CFF English teacher Abby Daniels and CFF technology-integration coach Andrea Brothman applied for the chance to travel to Harrisburg to meet with legislators to showcase the great learning experiences that are taking place in Daniels' classroom. While there, the group from Radnor met with state representatives Bill Adolph and Brian Lentz.
Daniels' two courses, Global Issues and World Literature, integrate technology to enhance and amplify classroom learning. With the help of Brothman, she created an online social network - a Ning - for each class.
Students have spent the year engaging in literature responses through the Ning site, which allows for online blogging, discussions, and multimedia sharing. To maintain student safety, the site is secure - the teacher retains control over who can access it and what images, videos and discussions are posted to the site.
Some of the 21st-century skills honed by integrating this technology are creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem-solving, productivity and digital-age literacy.
Integrating social networks in classrooms builds on students' familiarity with connecting with others online, but places it in an academic context. In the Global Issues class, an integrated English/social studies course, each student used Ning to blog reflections on chapters of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Minstry. Students responded to classmates' posts with clarifying questions, making connections among the plot, history, politics, geography and themselves. Any controversial topics discussed online were then addressed in class, allowing everyone to share thoughts and opinions. This activity allowed students to process the information they were reading and allowed them to gain understanding of the author's purpose, use of literary devices, and cultural mores.
Student thinking is deepened through this interactive network as they are compelled to digest, analyze and synthesize what they read, rather than read a work quickly without purpose. A written response, as opposed to oral, allows students the time to adequately reflect and formulate questions.
Blog responses require analysis, reflection, textual connections and prediction that demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills.