This journal article by Pamela Livingston, director of technology at Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, displays the advantages of using technology as a learning tool in the classroom. Students at the Chestnut Hill Academy wished to ask the author of a book series some questions about the books and why she wrote them. The faculty at this school saw this as an opportunity to use new technology to allow the students to chat with the author online in real time by using an "author chat." Author chats allow students to ask authors of their favorite books any question they would like, which is a very useful exercise in increasing students' interest in reading. This article explains that a lot of preparation is needed when using this type of technology for a classroom exercise. When attempting something like an "author chat," it is important to make sure that everything technologically needed to make it happen is tested multiple times in the days leading up to the event. Everything from internet connection to lighting at the view site is very important to prepare properly for an event like an "author chat." After days of preparation, the students of Chestnut Hill Academy successfully participated in a live chat with an author of a popular book series and had all of their questions answered thoroughly.
Q1: What advantages can computer technology bring to the classroom?
A1: Computer technology provides countless advantages for school teachers, and the author chat described in this article is just one example. Computer technology allows the classroom to escape the school grounds and obtain information from anywhere in the world. While enabling students to speak with an author without having to bring that author to the school is a fabulous tool, it is only one of many possible with computer and internet technology.
Q2: As a high school history teacher, how might I use the ideas in this article to come up with valuable teaching tools for a history class?
A2: While the majority of high school students don't particularly read history books, and therefore wouldn't be very excited about talking to some historian that wrote a history textbook, the idea of the "author chat" is still valuable. One example would be to find an expert on certain historical event and allow students to ask them any questions they wanted. This is just one idea pertaining to that of an author chat. Computer technology in general is going to prove to be extremely valuable to myself as a history teacher in many different ways.
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