Giving Everyone a Voice

This week the ASPIRE 5 class integrated two apps that have similar benefits.  First, the students participated in an online book discussion hosted by Today's Meet.  After a question was posted, students typed their answers of 140 characters or less for everyone to see.  No one could talk, as all answers and ideas had to be posted online.  After eight analysis questions, we had a sixteen page thread of responses and opinions!  

The second app we used this week was Quickvoice.  After students researched a significant colonial figure, they recorded a podcast with the app and emailed it to me.  When all of the podcasts have been submitted, I will upload them to Google Classroom, and the students will have the opportunity to learn about the other figures from their classmates.  

Together, these apps show how our digital classroom allows students to collaborate in order to achieve a collective goal.  They give everyone in the class a voice, even if they have passive personalities.  In addition, these apps provide a window into the future of education.  Instead of snow days, students can collaborate with their teachers with an app such as Today's Meet from the comfort of their own home.  Quickvoice and Youtube could be used to record and share mini-lessons, discussion questions, or interviews, which would allow teachers to flip classrooms and spend more time on analysis and application activities.  

As a digital classroom, we will continue to implement apps that help meet the needs of gifted students.  The goals are to provide opportunities to collaborate in order to solve complex problems, and to differentiate instruction so that students can work at their own pace and ability level.  As a result, they will have the potential to "thrive in an innovative environment" and become better "prepared for the world that awaits them in ten years and beyond." - LEAD 2021