Skip to main content

Paper Clips

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I watched a movie entitled "Paper Clips" To me, this movie embodies what technology integration is all about. The movie is a documentary about a rural Tennessee school that starts to collect paper clips to represent the 6,000,000 Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Now the premise of the project has nothing to do with technology. However, it is technology that connects this community with the world and creates a learning experience that will affect these students forever. By posting information about the project to the web, they attract the attention of some people around the world. Many famous people began donating paper clips. Holocaust survivors from New York came to visit them and share their experiences. German journalists get involved and help ship an authentic World War II German rail car used for shipping people to concentration camps. The rail car now houses a museum at the school that documents the project.

Now this would have been a powerful learning experience without the use of technology. The visual of 6,000,000 paper clips would certainly demonstrate the huge impact of the Holocaust. However, through the power of technology, this lesson transcended the walls of the school to include many people around the world. Some shared their experiences, others listened.

Can you imagine how your lessons could be transformed simply by inviting the public into them?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Metamorphosis revisited

I posted before about metamorphosing in an evolving world. I want to revisit this idea. It has been bothering me that change seems to come so slow. There are many reasons for this, including leadership, state testing, resistance to change, resources, etc... But despite all of these factors, I truly believe that we can bring about more significant change. I'm not talking about technology, so much as I am talking about rethinking what we teach. While I see many teachers evolving (including myself), I think we are too painfully slow for the kinds of changes that need to take place. Photo by Morti Riuuallon http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultimorollo/2520525316/ The best way for us to metamorphose is to follow the example of the butterfly. The caterpillar starts by eating constantly. We, as teachers, need to consume information as if our future depended upon it. It does. We are becoming obsolete and our only chance of remaining relevant into the future is to understand it and adapt to i
3 comments
Read more

The Wonderful World of Updates

As a SmartBoard district, we have many teachers using SmartBoards, Airliners, and, of course, Notebook software. So as a Notebook user, I am very excited about the new version 10 that has recently been released. It has many great new features which I will be sharing in later posts. However, as the primary trainer for users of Notebook software, this transition raises many questions about the value of updates. Many of our users are new to Smart Notebook software. I have trained about 100 people this year alone. Now I need to go back to them and tell them that this great tool I showed them is about to look quite different. To a third of them, this will be welcome news. They want the updates. They want the new features. They will pick it up quickly. To a second third, this will raise trepidation. Just when they are getting the hang of it, they go and change it. They will require a fair amount of support to bring them up to the same level of comfort with the new version. That leaves the re
2 comments
Read more

Teaching for Tomorrow Part 1

A group of teachers are reading Teaching for Tomorrow by Ted McCain as a summer book group. As we read we will be sharing (I hope!) our ideas about the book. If you are not part of our summer book group, feel free to join in the discussion. All ideas are welcome! If you have any thoughts about Section 1: What Skills Will Students Need for the 21st Century?, please leave a comment on this post. Hopefully this will lead to a discussion on this topic. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
3 comments
Read more