In the past she would ask her teachers for all the assignments she needed to complete while she was gone. This did not always work very well. The teachers had to prepare what they planned on covering during this time. This was a large amount of information for teachers to pull together and prone to errors. Resources might be missing, assignments might be confusing, assignments might have changed based on what happend in class. If the student got confused about what was required she might not be able to complete follow on assignments.
This year was very different for her. She took her laptop with her during her travels. Teachers emailed her information about the class or when assignments needed to change. She was also able to keep in contact with the class and ask questions of the other students in class in addition to the teacher. She was able to access the class moodle sites and pull additional information as needed. In past years she needed to make sure she had every possible resource with her, which was not always possible. This year if she was missing something she was able to use the internet, her classmates or the teacher to get those resources when she needed them.
This also had an interesting affect on teachers. In the past they needed to prepare everything that the student might need. This year they could send the information in real time to the student as if she was in the classroom. This year when she returned to school she only had a couple of assignments that she needed to make up. Her stress level about returning to school was much lower.
Technology had enabled her to extend the classroom walls and include her in the work that was happening in school.
One final thought/question.
- How does this impact the "seat time" requirements of the traditional classroom?
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