I actually teach in the ATM academy at my school – Applied technology magnet, and have been complaining for years that we are far from a platform in which we apply technology on a consistent basis. I graduated from the high school I work at now in 1998, and the ATM academy has all the same electives today as they did when I attended the school as a student. Our claim that we provide current and cutting edge access to technology is far from true. I have been patiently working with a group of three other teachers to really achieve that vision.
I have moved much of my curriculum online, to provide my students the chance to interact with their work more. All my Power Points and lessons can be accessed online as well as tests, quizzes, homework assignments and various other materials. Currently, I have been building an LMS to facilitate my curriculum in conjunction with my action research project. I have brought in online forum discussions, Wikis, chat rooms, podcasts, videocasts, and other collaborative functions. I constantly introduce web 2.0 tools and other free applications such as Photostory, Udutu and googledocs to allow students opportunities to be creative, interact with their learning and become better organized.
I recently got headphones and microphones donated to my classroom and next year will have students creating podcasts for many of their assignments. I am also the journalism teacher and this year moved the school paper from the traditional newspaper to an online website. The teachers I am working closely with teach digital arts and web publishing and we are trying to create new electives that better align with today’s world. One of our biggest pushes is to create some medical field classes that would begin to teacher students how future technology will impact the skills they will need in medical careers.
Our goal is to create curriculum that is ever changing, so that we can continue to adjust as the technologies adjust. We don’t want to just spend money on computers and equipment, but rather teach students how to really get the most out of technology. A lot of what we want to do focuses on allowing students to set self-exploration goals and teach the classes as independent studies.
I used to teach in an ATM program in So Cal (LBUSD) which had previously meant Aerospace Tech magnet back when there was aerospace in So Cal... sad. Then it was translated to "Applied" before I taught the course(s). I was part of a three-year middle school program that fed to a couple high schools... wow, ATM... i'd forgotten that term.
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