The Dalton School

The advances of technology in the Digital age have permeated every area of society, from interpersonal communication to the way information is disseminated. Today's children are able to manipulate sophisticated software, search the Internet, and download information without being aware of the cognitive process involved. For instance, most children download and listen to music on the Internet, and in the very near future will not have notion of what a CD is. Our students at Dalton fit this profile quite closely, with just a few exceptions. Adults, on the other hand, tend to regard technology as a useful intruder that permits instant, and cheap, communication; a tool for shopping for certain things, such as books, airline tickets, and perhaps tickets for a show, or an instant way to check news, read periodicals, or to get directions. Blogs, wikis, and other networked applications are usually the realm of those who grew-up in the last decades.

As educators of today, we must overcome any fears of technology because it is here to stay. More than thirty years have passed since Nam June Paik coined the terms "Electronic Super Highway" and "the future is now." Notwithstanding that as product of the Industrial era our educational system continues to impose schedules, bells, and regular chunks of time devised during a time when it was expected that most students would work in factories, we are enormously fortunate to have lived in two very different moments. As Sebastian Mary, a young British writer puts it: ".... many of us live now in a networked, post-industrial era, where many of the things that seemed so certain to a Dickens or Trollope no longer seem as reliable. And, perhaps fittingly, we have a new delivery mechanism for content. But unlike the book, which is bounded, fixed, authored, the Web is boundless, mutable, multi-authored and deeply unreliable."

It is here where we must be extremely careful when using technology. Computers are not a substitute for books, smartboards are not a substitute for blackboards; they serve very different purposes. I have come to this realization throughout the many years I have used technology in, and outside, the classroom. I will never substitute pencil and paper for a computer, but I will always take advantage of what technology has to offer that cannot be replicated by other means. With that in mind, I have created multiple e-assignments at Dalton, from Spanish I in the middle school to e-books produced by the Hispanic Literature students in the high school.

I created a series of e-assignments for the middle school (Spanish I, grades 6th, 7th and 8th), compiling all the resources that the method we use offers in isolated, and often clumsy, fragments. Students receive a multimedia assignment comprising grammar, culture and vocabulary, contained in audio-visual materials (short videos, grammar explanations and vocabulary lists with hot links to images and pronunciation). It also includes oral and written homework. The assignments are presented in a TK3 e-book whose five chapters correspond to the five traditional paper assignments that are covered during the second semester of the school year. This is delivered on a CD that contains all the technical elements necessary to run the program. Students have to do a little bit of installing, an easy task for the majority of them. The problems some encounter usually have to do with the hardware they have at home, and they will disappear once the laptop program reaches all middle school levels. We do not deliver these assignments online due to copyright issues pertaining to some material that comes from the company that produces our book.

Technology does not substitute my teaching, but enhances it. I only use the electronic assignment in the classroom as my own reference to check homework, while students use it at home to study grammar and vocabulary, and to produce written and oral homework based on listening/visual comprehension of the videos (which contain new vocabulary and new grammar introduced on each chapter of the e-book). I receive their oral homework, and deliver corrections, via e-mail.

In order to become proficient, and ultimately fluent, students must master the four language skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. I have seen an enormous benefit with the e-assignment because it provides students with the opportunity to practice the four skills, plus the added benefit of understanding the cultural differences, accents, and places of interest shown in the videos. Many times the students do not realize that they are learning visually as well as aurally. Their accents become better, and their comprehension, production, and enjoyment are much grater than with the textbook and/or paper assignments alone.

An extra-bonus for me is to know that they are exposed to the language, and have to speak it in the privacy of their homes. A second advantage is the strengthening of their organizational skills. Since they do not receive a paper assignment where they are given vocabulary lists, activities to complete, and so on, students have to keep an organized notebook where they generate their own lists (which forces them to write down words with the added benefit of the intervention of motor brain functions in memorization), and have to produce complete sentences, rather than filling in blanks. This aspect seems completely counter-intuitive when one thinks of children using computers.

In my high school classes I use e-books in the Advanced Spanish IV and Hispanic Literature classes. Since these students are advanced and mature, they not only use my assignments presented in e-book form, but are also actively involved in the production of their own. For seniors taking Hispanic Literature class during their second semester, this has proven to be an inspiring and highly productive exercise. The fact that they write e-books on any Spanish-speaking author of their choice makes them highly motivated, and the fact that their books become an electronic publication is the icing on the cake. This class is threaded together in seminar-like sessions where they share the progress of their weekly research. This is, in my opinion, a beautiful way to bring the best of the Dalton plan to the 21st century. Both, the students and I, love this time of the year.