This Issue
Winter 2010 - Cover Story
Digital Tools Aid Teaching and Learning
Mikayla Lum ’15, teacher Kam Monaco ’87 and Anna Uhr ’15 work on their digital story book.
When William “Kam” Monaco ’87 was an ‘Iolani student, he completed reports on typewriters and attached the paragraphs and pictures to poster boards with rubber cement.
Seventh graders Sierra Greene’15 and Maddie Moser ’15 work on their Pacific Island Scrapblog project.
Monaco is now on the other side of the desk. A dedicated educator, he has taught seventh and eighth grade history and geography at his alma mater for six years. Not only has his role changed, the format of student reports has grown up as well.
He is one of many ‘Iolani teachers using blogs, web sites, pod casts and other digital tools to enhance learning in the classroom. He discovered that students express themselves more easily and freely when contributing to the class blog and that he stays in better touch with the net generation by using tools they’re accustomed to.
Matt McArthur ’15 downloads images into a lap top computer.
Monaco recently tasked students with an assignment on the Pacific Islands. Students were given the freedom to create digital storybooks with web 2.0 tools found on www.scrapblog.com to describe an island they fictitiously visited. They gathered information on the countries’ flags, maps, leaders, political systems, economies, ethnic groups, and destinations. Using their creative powers, they produced videos and described each country with music, visuals, sounds, and information all posted in their reports on the class website, www.monacopedia.com.
David Pang ’15 begins a project.
“I like it,” said Sierra Greene ’15. “I’d rather be using technology for a school project because we can share things on the computer and it’s actually fun.”
The ability to search for and access information is vital in education realms today as the Internet allows students to expand their experiences.
Monaco got started using a class website after web page developer and ‘Iolani basketball coach Dean Shimamoto ’94 introduced the right tools to him. Monaco started off with small projects, like showing the class a video on President Obama or on the tsunami that hit Samoa and requesting students to comment.
Kam Monaco ’87 says technology has improved the way he teaches.
“When students write on a blog, they’re not limiting themselves by writing what they think the teacher wants to see. But they’re writing for themselves and what inspires or motivates them,” Monaco says.