Techquest proposal

Reproduction is a topic that some Middle School/Upper Elementary teachers can find challenging. Students either seem to be inquisitive with endless questions or too shy to admit to their curiosity. Unfortunately, the shy/embarrassed ones can often over influence the classroom climate, which can limit learning opportunities. In a previous school I worked in, I thoroughly prepared a unit for students in Grade 5. This was the first time I had done this and at the end of the course the students had developed very healthy and respectful attitudes. As I am an International school teacher, I travel from country to country and am not able to take all of the resources I need. I end up keeping the great ideas, but not having enough backup to expose students to the issues, attitudes and thinking that I would like to so they can be mature and responsible with their new learning. I find this lack of resources directly affects student learning negatively. The need is to provide interactive resources for end of Elementary/Middle School to independently explore reproduction, sexuality and healthy relationships at a basic and appropriate level. A more useful tool to use school wide, would be aiming at something for Grades 5-8. The resource would need to cover broad objectives in the subjects of Science and Health.

Some of the reasons why addressing this issue with technology will make a significant difference are: parents can talk through issues related to the topic at home, teachers can inform parents of the content, parents could peruse the material before the course starts and voice any concerns. The most important goal though, is for students to have access to information to answer questions they have, so that they can lower their anxiety about changes and be informed about their choices in the new stage of life they are moving into. If the resource is appropriate and has been thoroughly investigated, then teachers and parents can feel confident about the content, and allow students to learn at their leisure what they want to know. The reality for most young students is they are often under exposed to helpful information and attitudes, and over exposed to inappropriate sites for their age. This problem creates a vacuum for unsupported learning about very significant issues.

In looking at the 4 common areas:

There would be a need for mentoring both teachers, students and parents through the use of the new technology, as well as how to use it in the context of discussion so it is not used as a stand alone resource. This would be counter productive to the goals of the topic. Teachers could use a guide on the side, or sage on the stage approach, depending on how comfortable they are with the content and technology. Planning group work would be very beneficial for students to learn to discuss content appropriately and respectfully; setting norms for healthy lifelong discussions. To generate conversation about the new technology we could use a blog, however knowing the parents who are mostly people people and are not so familiar with technology, they would probably prefer a face to face evening where they could raise issues, ask questions and be taken through how to use the technology.

The pedagogy would hopefully be from multiple angles. I would be looking for a resource that allows investigation, and didactic teaching, and possibly idea based teaching if I can find some as I believe this would be very effective. The teaching would mostly occur through the resource, set in the context of class discussion and some didactic teaching initially from the teacher so as to reduce the embarrassment for students and model inquisitive, positive attitudes to reproduction, sexuality and relationships.

Students would have access to computers in the classroom, during discussion sessions and at home. Parent are wealthy and all have computer access at home. Many have more than two computers at home, so access will not be a problem for students. The teachers, administrators, parents ands students in our learning community all have positive attitudes to using technology, but differing levels of comfort with it. As long as the use of the technological tool has a strong beneficial justification, our community would be happy to try it out.

Learners would be somewhat familiar with accessing information through technology, however their prior experience with interactive programs would be difficult to determine, so a user friendly, and possibly self guiding one would would be the most helpful. Demonstrating during class how to use the technology, and possibly having a time of practise would support students in their use of the technological tool. I believe from past experience that all students will be motivated to learn the content and the technology. Tools that are interactive (bodily kinesthetic response) in visuals (for visual learners) and include voice and sound will cover the majority of learning styles. If possible, some music that included helpful lyrics would be beneficial too.

I cannot seem to find any resources to purchase but I intend to keep looking, as I am dissatisfied with the free ones on the internet because they don't seem to be aimed at students; they are very adult friendly but the language and content would inhibit student access.

http://www.avert.org/ is a site who's focus is averting hIV and AIDS. It is particularly interesting it has an international perspective which is very useful in my teaching context. It also has lots of easy to use tabs to find information. However it looks a little adult for my intended audience.

The parents of the school are mostly Muslim or Christian and so may have conservative approaches to this content. Added to this, the school is British and so after speaking with the Headteacher and other staff I found that they are more reticent to discuss this subject matter than I have found in previous schools. I have found an interesting website that discusses pertinent issues to our community. These would be worth raising with parents.
http://www.advocatesforyouth.orgindex.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=450&Itemid=336
The resource center tab would be especially helpful. As I investigated the resource, this had a section for homeschooling, but again it was all through the parent/teacher so students cannot freely access the information they want to know.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ448260&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ448260 is a site that shows student feedback about the usefulness of sites so this will broaden my perspective. www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/.../06122007-153424.PDF gives a parental perspective on programs.

To find out more about what parents would like their children to know I could use this site as a resource. It would be worthwhile discussing with parents their ideas and possibly bringing in the information from the site. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2004/01/What-Do-Parents-Want-Taught-in-Sex-Education-Programs

Faith based settings are addressed in http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/ProgramsAreas/FaithBased/index.htm so this resource would be helpful again for preparation for the technological tool.

I am not sure what I will end up finding, already just with this time given to finding resources, I was able to find some very helpful ones. It may be the case that I have to create one myself, which would be much more time consuming than finding an appropriate technological tool. So at this stage of the task, I am not sure how long it may take to complete the project. If I was to find the resource today, implementation would take a few weeks at the very least because I want to discuss it with my Headteacher, especially if it has a cost. I would also like to introduce it effectively in the context of the unit to students as well as give parents time to feel they understand and feel confident about the tool before we introduce it to their children. The timeline for implementation and finding/creating the resource, could very well extend beyond the course.