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Student Experts - Letting Students Lead the Learning

More often than not we find that it is easier to leave children to explore applications and programs themselves or teach them exactly how to use them without allowing knowledge already in the classroom to assist. Recently I started to explore the app 'Pic Collage'. This app is commonly used within the classroom by students and they are confident with using it to create the images they chose.

During reading one day I had a student come to me upset because her peers were excluding her from a task. She had a class iPad in hand and had been using Pic Collage herself. To draw her attention away from the exclusion I began to ask what she had been doing and then moved to asking her to show me how to use Pic Collage. Now I am not saying I can't figure it out myself because I probably could, however, the point was that I had a student who was able to use it and confident in using it so I took the opportunity to let her teach me. First she showed me the different templates and using her support I questioned what I should do it about and talked about the topic I chose.

Applications like this can be used for personal as well as learning situations and apps like this allow students to present their own ideas and knowledge in a more visual way. I ended my making of the Pic Collage with Tweeting it out and showing my student expert that I appreciated her teaching and I had learnt something. The situation ended with her smiling and the focus no longer on exclusion but on the inclusion and positive time spent with the teacher.

Check out my Twitter or look below to see my Pic Collage and don't forget to take the time to let your students lead the learning.


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