Featured Teacher
Derek Swanson
Fulfilling the mandate of moulding the future generation
What are some of the ways
in which you use ICT to help
other educators to improve in
their practice?
Derek Swanson, teacher of Technology
at American Community School.
The faculty and staff at ACS have
embraced the use of Google
Applications, which transforms the
way the school conducts business.
Motivating teachers and students with
a movement to Google Classroom,
which is a Classroom Management
System, helps to extend learning
opportunities for students, since there
are class materials and help available
beyond the end of the school day.
Share two technological
gadgets that you must have in
your classroom and why?
Two technological devices that are
necessary are a computing device and
consistent, reliable wireless Internet
connection. Having a computer and
the web allows for the world to come
into the classroom.
Photo credit: ACS
D
erek Swanson is an educator
from Colorado in the United
States. He most recently lived
in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
He asserts that his career in education
stems from two inspirational teachers
that he had in school, and also his
desire to help future generations to
become the leaders of tomorrow. He
has been an educator for a decade and
remains passionate about educating
students at the American Community
School.
What inspires you most?
I am following the development
of Gazebo, from the Open Source
Robotics Foundation. Gazebo is a
software that provides a 3D world for
robotics simulation. Additionally, I had
the pleasure of visiting the Carnegie
Mellon University Robotics Institute,
which is at the forefront of robotics
technology.
What are your thoughts
on continued professional
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development for teachers?
It is important to continue learning,
particularly when it comes to
technology. Keeping current with
trends and embracing change is key to
moving forward.
What are three key steps
that other educators who are
interested in implementing
a robotics program in their
school ought to consider?
Creating a program does not happen
overnight.
Students
generally
have a deep interest in computers.
Focusing their efforts away from
consuming media to generating
content and observable results from
their computing devices helps to
draw interest in computer science.
Establishing an interest in students
of the engineering process takes
hardware and exposure to working
with the hardware hands on. Having
quantities of equipment that allows for
two students per robot is key.
Class Time
What advice would you
give to other schools that are
struggling with implementing
the use of technology in their
classrooms?
Having an action plan that expresses
the goals that the technology
implementation intends to reach,
provide the resources the staff
need to be successful, incentivize
the technological learning (such
as time savings, efficiency, or a
level of automation) and allow time
for the teachers to develop their
technological skills. These all allow
for greater success in technology
implementation.
What is the best advice that
you have received and how
has this helped you?
The best advice I received was to
inspire students to continue refining
their own learning and to avoid directly
intervening. Allowing the students
to learn from their mistakes allows
them to grow in the learning process.
Testing and retesting their ideas allows
for the students to make adjustments.