Teaching an important life skill
Profiles in Success: The Armidale School
As the use of Apple computers and iLife software continues to works it way through the school's curriculum, the teachers are discovering that co-operation between students is becoming a major factor. Ms Seonia Wark, a TAS Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) teacher relates: "A recent area of study was the effect natural disasters can have on society.
"Instead of giving it to the students as an individual project, I had them use iMovie to create a LegoMation [stop frame animation using Lego blocks] story. For many of the students, who would normally pull an all-night study session leading up to a test, they found themselves much more involved because of the teamwork requirements.
The important result - aside from the fact that it was a great learning experience - was that the students worked together, learning to co-operate with and rely on each other. That's something that is a very important life skill, but has traditionally been hard to instil in students in the academic environment.
— Martin Levins, TAS Head of Technological and Applied Studies
Adding further to the collaboration between students is the broad use of iChat, the audio and video conferencing software built in to Mac OS X. Interestingly, Levins notes that iChat's primary use with students is for file sharing. "When students work on projects together, they're constantly swapping and sharing files," he says. "Even though they have the use of shared storage on the network, they've found out for themselves that simply dragging a file into a chat window is much faster and more efficient.
"One of the great results of this iChat file sharing is that when students are away from class due to illness or other commitments, their project team mates can carry on working regardless."
Next Page: The team teaching concept