Green Park students use technology to learn about state

Green Park students interact with students around the state via video conference

This week Green Park Elementary fourth grade students in Jean Tobins class visited the central office to use the video conference center in support of their "Where in Washington" project.

In the project students created a presentation about Walla Walla, giving nine clues about where they are in Washington state. Green Park shared the presentation via videoconferencing with seven other "mystery schools" located around Washington. Some of the clues included: direction from Olympia, terrain, local geographical features, important historical events. The other schools also gave presentations about where in Washington they are located.

"I had wanted to do this as a powerpoint - some of the other schools did, but we dont have the technology to use it during video conferencing," Tobin said. "We made posters and dressed up instead - and used the internet to learn more about the information we wrote on the posters."

During their presentations students took notes and then had 30 minutes to try to identify the name of their city based on the information they provided. Students used maps and the internet to link the clues. Then the students shared where they were from and their guesses as to the location of the other participants.

"It is not a competition, but more a game," Tobin said. "I wanted my students to appreciate how interesting it is to study geography and learn about other places. I also wanted them to become more comfortable using the internet to access information."

Tobin has had her students practicing reading maps all year. Technology Director Janis Barton sent Tobin information about this project, and it seemed like a great culminating experience according to Tobin.

Tobin says she is slowly becoming a supporter of using technology in the classroom. She strongly believes in teaching the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. She also in the past has had concerns about the difficult reading levels often found on the internet and the ability to simply copy information. However, the advancements in technology are tempting her to keep pursuing these new learning tools.

"Technology and the internet have come so far that now I think that using technology to teach and learn produces a qualitative difference in childrens learning," Tobin said. "With computers and the internet you can access SO MUCH information so quickly - it is wonderful for teaching content. And there are so many more visual images on the internet - it really helps my kids -- especially my second language learners -- understand what they are reading."

Tobin points out an example of how technology helped with a research project.

"When we were studying Native Americans, we could quickly find pictures of the "camas root" plant that was so important to many tribes in our region," she said. "There are a lot of amazing projects available for free that allow us to interact with people and students from all over and learn to think critically and analytically. Last year I was involved in a national project that studied whooping crane migration - and my kids loved it, although we were more passive learners in that process."

Tobin said she liked the way the "Where in Washington" program used technology. Her students had to learn to identify important clues quickly, and then use the search engine to locate additional information. According to Tobin this was hard for the students because it was difficult for them to understand which clues were more useful in identifying a place. Then they had to scan large amounts of text written at a higher reading level to locate the name of the place.

"It was not just word processing, but involved learning to think analytically and find and use appropriate information," Tobin said. "And those skills are so important in our world today.

"I had never done it before so I was very nervous," she said. "I will definitely do it again. My kids left very energized - I actually had kids thank me because they had so much fun. I have never had that experience before - even after great field trips! I think what they liked so much is that they got to see other kids from around the state, it was a challenging project that made them feel like they were doing something important, and they were proud of how good their presentation was  it was clear and informative."