It was another great Parent Night with people from both East and West Wings coming together with great food and drink and friendship. Thanks to all of you who were able to come out to learn and share with us. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s a brief recap of the evening that began with a presentation from Amy and Jen:
Parent Reflections:
The thing that’s stuck with me from that night was the idea of demystifying technology for the children.
Helping them see that computers and all these other technological marvels aren’t immutable. That they have agency over these devices and can change how they operate. I’m glad that NSW is helping the children to see it that way.
Thanks for organizing the night! Tobias (Jude and Ozzy WW)
I think it was one of the most tangible discussions I’ve been part of at NSW. As someone who loves technology, and knows how integrated it is in my life, I want to be sure my kids are exposed to technology and know how to use it to their benefit. At the same time, I don’t like the passive nature of so much screen based content, or the addictive nature (by design!) of games. So, the guidelines that the school is using when introducing & incorporating technology are a great way to figure out how to let kids explore and use technology (and yes, I think it is worth repeating from the earlier blog post!)
- Must have real world relevance (no cartoon colored bubbles you have to pop)
- Interaction with the item must be a social construction (no isolated interactions)
- The technology must be used to illustrate children’s thinking (not for entertainment, but to make ideas visible).
The examples from the evening were fantastic – taking pictures of nature and then drawing them off the digital image (rather than disrupting nature), creating an evolving human body out of paper scraps and stop-motion animation, identifying how emotion is conveyed with slow motion video, etc.
I think it’s worth sharing the presentation (even just in ppt form) for those who couldn’t attend to help further ideas. Tamra (Isaiah EW)
I always love coming to school nights because it reconnects me with what the kids are doing and I often go home with a few different ways to engage with Mika. I think what was most helpful was expanding my definition of technology and my association with it from “screen time” and “lazy parenting” to if thoughtfully and mindfully used, a tool for connection and active engagement. I myself don’t use or really like technology much— not just the computer but I’m the gal who looks up a map and write directions on a post-it rather than use google maps. I often distrust technology and if I’m honest am scared of it. It was useful to remember that Mika and I can really learn together, because we are basically at the same developmental stage. And that it isn’t something to be feared or seen as a negative. I appreciate the teacher’s honesty in their own feelings and look forward to the continued conversation.
Thanks again for hosting these nights for us.
Maya (Mika WW)
The night taught us learning context that harmonizes with the world. Justin (Hendriks WW)
I was most struck by the way the presentation helped me step back from technology-as-device/distraction/numbing agent and see that kids can really experience it as something to use; changing the question to can we learn how to use this to be creative, learn, develop new strategies and ideas rather than only can we avoid becoming subject to the technology/infected by the technology. I’m surprised by how commonly that is our first (and slightly helpless) reaction. –Sammy (Clemmy EW)
Thanks for the great event last week – I was half dreaming of ideas later that night so I think that means it was a hit for me :).
One thing that I keep thinking about is the idea of sensors/measurements. So what are the things that kids can’t quite see, or they can see, but they have a hard time understanding the difference or what is going on. Some specific ideas on that
- iphone app to measure lengths & calculate area – this is a like a first step in to AR, because you open the app and you can see the tool to take measurements
- Visualizing sounds – when you talk in to a microphone and use pretty much any audio editing app, you can ‘see’ the sound in the form of wavelengths. So taking the spooky sounds one step further, how do spooky sounds look different than happy sounds?
- Visualizing temperature differences – the camera app on ipads & iphones has this built in – you can see the thermal gradient on things. You can see warm bodies and colder noses. You might be able to spot insects this way too?
I was also trying to think some about circuits and how to make them more approachable, since they are something that is also harder to see. Maybe incorporating them in to the ramps & pulleys, so that electricity causes movement through a motor, that then drives other mechanical things? Or a more general – technology has hardware & software – electricity is what is driving the software. Tamra (Isaac EW)
You have us all thinking! A lot of what you mentioned this night was implemented and we’re organizing a follow up evening to share what thinking the children brought to the process. This is only the beginning so let’s keep talking!! xoxR