Taylor Allen Fund Promotes Use of Technology in the Classroom

Published on: 2012/06/21 - in Featured Science & Tech

Students and staff at First Avenue Public School showcased an innovative teaching & learning practice with Kindergarten and grade 8 students on Wednesday June 6th, when students highlighted the use of their new flip cameras. The high resolution cameras were purchased for the teaching staff with the support of Mr. Ken Allen and the Taylor Allen Memorial Fund through the Limestone Learning Foundation.

This spring, teachers and students have been using these cameras to document the quality of student work, students’ assessment of their own work and how to improve their work, and also to recall what has been learned with oral retelling.

Teachers have found that students’ engagement with the learning material is increased when they know they are ‘in camera.’ Additionally, the quality of students’ verbal answers to questions when students are ‘in camera’ is greatly improved. Teachers are using the cameras to document student improvement in work quality over time.

It’s been a fun and creative way to work with students and to help them improve their work, and it’s going to become part of their formal school improvement plan in the coming school year.

Taylor Allen was 16 and a grade 11 student at LaSalle Secondary School. She was popular, a star athlete, and had a passion for basketball. On a warm April evening in 2008 Taylor was with friends, not far from home, when she complained of feeling dizzy. The next minute, she collapsed, never regaining consciousness.

It was later found that her heart had stopped beating and that she suffered from an undetected genetic defect known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardio Myopathy, ARVC. Taylor’s father Ken Allan wanted to celebrate his daughter’s life and established a memorial bursary through the Limestone Learning Foundation.

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Release source: Limestone District School Board