Using Technology to Teach Skills

Taking an education technology class while learning onsite to teach is an interesting experience. The school I work at has a big focus on teaching skills. If children have skills they can learn "core content". If all they ever learn is "core content" that's all they have. So as I've been working on class projects I've been trying to work on how can I use these tools to enhance lessons and teach skills as opposed to using technology just for the sake of using technology. I'm a fan of technology - after all I'm a computer scientist - but there has to be a purpose behind it otherwise it's just busy work. That's one of the reasons I've become attached to hypermedia tools. If you take the focus away from learning HTML/webpages and focus on the work that will be linked it's so fascinating and engaging for the students. It's a great inquiry based model for learning! I suggested visuals being combined with data analysis; skills with organizing information in a logical, asthetically pleasing, coherent and relevant matter. If there's one thing I'm learning about high school students is that few of them have learned how to organize (or have been introduced to different styles that might work for them!).

I don't want to make too light of of the HTML/webpages part of this though because many people don't have access to a SmartBoard or other technological/programming tools that would allow them to link documents/programs/etc. Learning HTML and creating webpages can be challenging. If the software is available it might be best to use a program that lets the kids focus on layout, colors and so on where the HTML/XML is all in the background. There are also places online, such as Angelfire, where free sites can be made with a minimal of HTML coding/understanding/experience that might be a good place for high school age students to work with. If the technology isn't available or isn't the right skill level for the class (for perhaps say upper elementary school age students) it might be interesting to have them design what goes on each page, and then graphically (kind of like a storyboard for a movie) layout how they would link pages together, would you have to go through certain pages to find a set of information (for example you couldn't go from the Arts page for that generation to the economic analysis - there'd have to be some middle ground where it would logically branch off). Perhaps next time I'll pick something OTHER than Hypermedia to discuss but the concept really intrigues me because it can be used for ANY content and can be used in so many different forms and can go in so many different directions.