Article taken from: http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/628451 accessed May 11, 2009
Students help instructors navigate computer techniques, blogging, multimediaMay 4, 2009
Kristin Rushowy EDUCATION REPORTER
The teachers at Don Mills Collegiate Institute are now the students.
Faced with teens who know more than they do about technology, the Toronto high school began an "adopt-a-teacher" program where students teach the adults how to create blogs or interactive graphics, edit video, or even just improve their PowerPoint presentations.
Half the school's teachers signed up for the tutoring, says Sharron Forrest, program director of the Toronto high school's renowned CyberARTS program, from which the student experts were drawn.
"First, we were going to limit (training) to eight people on staff, that's all (fellow teacher) Blake McAlister and I could do," said Forrest. "Then, when we saw how many teachers were interested, that's when I came up with the idea to put them up for adoption.
"We work so well with our students, and they are our best resource, it just made perfect, practical sense."
Students and teachers meet once a month for two hours, and this month, teachers will make presentations during a staff meeting, explaining what they've learned.
"It's such a neat concept because it breaks down the walls and it's so logical, that we get to play and learn along with our students," said Forrest.
A report released last week by the Ontario Public School Boards' Association warned that schools need to embrace technology or risk losing students' interest.
It noted today's youth "have no memory of a world without the Internet, without instant access to information, without an array of media at their fingertips.
"Many students feel that when they come into school they have to `power down' to fit into an environment that offers fewer options for learning than are available in the life they live outside of the school."
The association has said technology is the key to boosting student engagement as well as the province's graduation rate, which sits at 77 per cent of students.
The report also noted technology has created an "inversion," where teens know more than teachers, who need support and training.
"I'd done PowerPoint before, but I wanted to fine-tune it a bit," said Don Mills teacher Yvonne Nunes, who has taught for 23 years.
In the last decade, Nunes says she's noticed how students' technological knowledge has surpassed that of adults.
"It's something we know, that they know more than us in some areas," she said.
"It's a different generation, and we try to keep up but they are doing it 24/7."
David Yu, 18, taught Don Mills teachers how to blog and even gave them assignments.
"I had to breathe down their necks to get them to finish," he said, laughing. He had to remind them to update their blogs regularly, or what's the point?
Student Carl Ren, 17, explained wikis (collaborative websites) and websites; Jovana Randjelovic, 18, worked on iMovie.
The program also presents a learning curve for students, Randjelovic said, as they create lessons and develop presentation skills.
Even tech-savvy CyberARTS teacher Amrit K. Dhillon learned something – how to make interactive presentations and animation.
High school students in the CyberARTS program take a few "cyber" courses a year, in fine arts and communication technology, or geography, history or civics.
The regular curriculum is enriched through creativity and technology. In cyber-history, for example, students who learned about World War II put old photographs into Photoshop, exported them to Adobe Illustrator, turned them into paper cut-outs, which they printed, framed and mounted.
Toronto Star
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