A student explores technology in Josh Burker's Lakeridge Tech Club
View examples of LR Tech Club student photography:
Photo 1 | Photo 2 |
Tech Club at Lakeridge Elementary:
Here Comes the Next Generation
On a Tuesday afternoon at Lakeridge Elementary School, during
the regular lunch time recess, six of the 45 students in Tech
Club are working at individual laptop computers on the project of the
week – digital still photography. Each student gets to use
one of the 7 school cameras for 15 minutes at a time. They go out
and take pictures, then learn how to download them to the computer,
crop them, create captions and finally build their own web page.
The project is an applied lesson in technology skills and also
a chance for students to capture the world through their artistic
vision.
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Jasmine, age 10, is says it’s “totally worth it” to
give up recess to come to Tech Club. “I have a digital camera
at home, but here I get to learn how to really use it.” Sam,
also a 4th grader, is excited to be able to create his own web
page with his photos. First he selects the photos and places them
in his own folder. Then he creates the background and print color
to label the photos. “When’s the next Adobe contest?” asks
Sam.
Josh Burker, Tech Specialist at Lakeridge, started the Club a
few years ago at Principal Ralph Allen’s request. “We
had a student who was having difficulty in the traditional classroom
environment so we created the Tech Club as another way to engage
him in learning. I actually put him to work helping me troubleshoot
computer problems. It was great!”
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 Burker
works with a Tech Club student
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These
days more and more students are discovering that technology is
much more than fixing computers. “Technology by itself is
not the emphasis,” said Burker. “We are really a multi-media
production club where students learn to create, collaborate, communicate
and share their work. We are all discovering what technology can
do for us.” Josh earned his Master’s in Educational
Technology through Pepperdine University last year, concentrating
on how he could make Tech Club more inclusive for girls and students
on the Autism Spectrum. De-emphasizing technology in favor of projects
that emphasized collaboration and communication got more girls
involved. The technology-based projects, such as stop-motion animation,
were engaging for Autistic students and provided them opportunities
to collaborate with their peers.
The final outcome of the digital still photography project is
a class web site to be shared on the internet. The students share
their individual web sites on the intranet or internal school web
site, then act as “curators” to select the best photos
for the external site. The project is ultimately about communicating
individual visions of how students perceive the world around them.
Students build technology skills in the process, but the goal is
for the student to create and share art.
Next week, students in the Tech Club might learn how to create
an “Animated GIF”, a Podcast, or stop-action movie.
Or, they might learn from Steven, a student in the Autism Spectrum
program, how to use Google Sketch-Up to build 3D models of houses,
road systems, or whole communities – skills they could easily
use as a real life architect or civil engineer. If this all seems
like a foreign language, there is no need to worry -- it’s
all in a day’s work for these “digital natives” – truly
our world’s next generation of problem-solvers.
Tech Club provides a diverse group of students opportunities to
hone the digital skills they have built since childhood and to
collaborate on projects that engage their creativity, individual
interests, and abilities.
Dr. Gary Plano, Interim Superintendent, stated, "Planning
for the 2008 Technology Levy includes funding for additional staff
at each school to help create more exciting, student- centered
experiences like the ones that Josh Burker has created for our
students at Lakeridge Elementary."
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