TechED-nnials: A New Learning Generation Podcast by Preschool Students

Purpose & objective

Our country, Mexico, is facing an educational crisis due to COVID-19 Pandemic. Our schools have been closed since March, and will be for months. We believe that education will continue to change through out the years so we need to evolve to keep learning as a priority at uncertain times and the years to come. As a result, we have a new generation of students in our classrooms: TechEd-nnials. Join this session to discover how Highlands International School México Preschool students recorded a podcast documenting their learning experience from month to month to help teachers from around the world redesign their learning strategies as they adapt to a disruptive way of learning. Our students used their 1:1 iPad to connect with their teachers and classmates. They worked with Apple Productivity and Creativity tools to enhance their reading and writing skills developing their Cognitive Functions. All of this taking into account the development os socio-emotional skills addressed transversally in small teams of students who were connected in collaborative documents enhancing human interaction. After each activity, students reflected on their learning process answering questions from their teachers to record their classroom podcast. Our classroom Podcast was uploaded monthly to our blog together with articles written by our teachers to share our experience. The main purpose and objectives for this presentation are:
- To share with the audience successful reading and writing teaching strategies in a 1:1 instructional program.
- To share how Storytelling and Challenge Based Learning were implemented through technology to enhance reflection and metacognition developing critical thinking and autonomy in our students.
- To share with the audience student and teacher creations and proposals that contribute a better world.
- To give our students an international platform to share their ideas.
OUTLINE:
Content and activities:
- Students and their teachers will share with the audience their experience, strategies, and learning process. The audience will participate by listening and sing questions to broaden the perspective of the project. Also, by sharing ideas that leverage our experience and learning.
- Time - each participant will be able to stay was long as they want in the stand to, but, in general, they will take about 5-10 minutes to listen to how the project developed, the challenges faced, and to share the ideas.

Supporting research

- Thinking routines: https://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines.
- Nation P and Macalister J (2008). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. United Kingdom. Routledge.
- Herold Benjamin (2016) Technology in education: an overview. Education Week. Recovered from: www.edweek.org/ew/issues/technology-in-education/index.html
- Sophia Nguyen (2015). Computing in the classroom. Harvard Magazine. Recovered from: https://harvardmagazinee.com/2015/03/computing-in-the-classroom