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Student teachers at South Park Elementary School experienced a role reversal: they became more teacher than students. The student teachers trained in-service teachers how to use HyperStudio in their classrooms. By becoming technology mentors, the students were able to successfully integrate technology into classrooms that had little prior technology enrichment. "Reversed mentoring," said Sean Smith, "has a lot of power."
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Students in KU's School of Education are experiencing a role reversal. Thanks to the Integration of Technology into the Curriculum cohort, student teachers at South Park Elementary School in Shawnee, Kansas have become more teacher than student. "We could actually lead to further integration of technology in those schools through the support and guidance of the 5th-year students," Sean Smith, faculty leader of the cohort said. "Our teacher-ed students could give [the in-service teachers] good examples of how technology can be used in the classroom."
The cohort, active from January through May 2002, formed "to further enhance integration of technology in a K-12 environment at South Park Elementary School." It was a seemingly shocking idea, to "get the teacher education 5th-year students to teach the current South Park Elementary teachers how to use technology," but it was an idea that worked well for both students and teachers.
The role reversal began by training the student teachers how to use HyperStudio. HyperStudio was the program chosen by student teachers and in-service teachers together because it is well suited for kindergarteners and sixth-graders alike. HyperStudio offers "an alternative way to present information both from the students to the teacher in terms of projects as well as from the teacher to the student," Sean said. "[HyperStudio] offers another vehicle for instruction and it offers an anchor for students with disabilities." After the student teachers completed training, they provided the in-service teachers with hands-on training over the course of 12 weeks. Teachers "liked the flexibility of it, they liked the fact that they could get it modeled by the 5th-year students and the fact that it was being used without a lot of their involvement," Sean said. "I'd say that they were overall fairly happy."
In-service teachers and their students caught on quickly, producing a variety of slide shows on topics such as worms that related to their lessons. Sean even noted that since the cohort's completion, the majority of the South Park teachers exposed to HyperStudio are still using it in their classrooms without the guidance of student teachers. This is especially significant because, Sean said, "South Park teachers prior to that had access to technology but unfortunately their use was fairly sporadic, so student access to it in the classroom was fairly sporadic."
Therefore, the role reversal in South Park Elementary School is yet another example of the power of using technology in the classroom. "My belief is that the further you expose and model and prepare folks to use technology in non-related courses and experiences, the better they are going to be able to use technology," Sean said. "This model can work, we should be doing it more, and actually this year we are doing it more."
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