Learning Together

Purpose & objective

Our project proposal looks forward to benefit students from all ages starting with the first grade. It allows them to share their knowledge and skills learned at school with other students that for some reason are not able to attend school for a long time period of time. It will allow students to be more aware and thankful for the education they are able to receive and at the same time a social impact in their communities which then can transcend to benefit pupils worldwide.

This project benefits and helps develop the pupils’ social and cognitive skills. They will learn to work as a team, to show their technology skills and will be motivated to learn as well as boost their self-esteem. They will be stepped out of their comfort zones for a greater cause. The project is aiming to be first tested and implemented at the local Children’s National Hospital on their oncology ward (which is where children spent the longest time).
By creating this new model of learning through the APP (Application) students around the world can soon follow, making education widely available for children eager to learn.

As education is changing, a new trend is appearing. Teachers don’t take the lead anymore. Students do. Teachers are more aware of what students have to say, taking the role of the teacher and teachers working hand in hand with their students. Here is where our project comes to life. With the help of this APP, the students will become real life teachers to other students who can’t have access to education for a period of time for whatever reason, in this case, being patients in a hospital.

Students will be the ones creating the digital content with the help from their teachers, by replicating what they learn on class, specifically with their preferred method of learning and creating a whole experience for the student on the other side of the screen.

With the creation of this project students will be able to learn and achieve these skills:

-Team building
-Brainstorming
-Creativity
-Development of multiple intelligences
-Problem solving
-Critical thinking
-Collaboration
-Problem solving

The teaching app will be developed with the help of our school’s Technology Coordinator. The students will be involved in the process of designing, programing and will pitch in ideas on how to make the app more user friendly, keeping in mind that they are their own target and will be ones uploading the content.

School will donate past generation iPads to the Children’s hospital where they will be accessible to the long-term patients in the Oncology unit. The App will serve also as a distraction, which is an effective technique to provide comfort and reduce pain and anxiety in kids, and at the same time they will be getting their education.

LEARNER OUTCOMES

Students as well as attendees will learn that a classroom is not only inside four walls and in a desk. That it doesn’t always involve a textbook, or a quiz. They will learn that they can obtain a new role, by contributing and collaborating through the use of technology.

Supporting research

The Impact of Student Created Apps
https://www.edutopia.org/article/impact-student-created-apps

Hospital-based school for children with chronic illness in Taiwan
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929664613004531

How Phoenix Children’s uses iPads.
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/how-phoenix-children’s-uses-ipads-deliver-patient-entertainment-education-one-package