Spearheading in Transforming Learning environment

Lia Muschellack, Director of Technology (New York campus) and Roberta Ferraz, Director of Technology (São Paulo campus), Avenues The World School

The presence of digital technology is nearly ubiquitous in the classrooms found in most developing countries. But the mere presence of devices in the classroom does not ensure transformative learning. Innovative and intentional integration of digital technology in the learning environment is essential to achieve the deep and impactful learning required to thrive in the 21st century.

Schools generally share a purpose of preparing students academically and socially for future opportunities in academia or the workforce. However, the way schools’ approach this can differ greatly in terms of curriculum design, academic structure, assessment processes, student support, rigor, and the use of technology. The choices made by schools regarding how they strive to achieve their purpose fundamentally influence the choices they make. At Avenues, we made an intentional shift from strictly making technology available in schools to focusing on integrating technology in ways that make a meaningful impact on students’ academic journeys. We believe it is essential that we embrace technology’s potential and intentionally integrate it into the academic environment in ways that both enrich the classroom environment and expand the students’ learning outside the classroom walls.

Aligning our approach with our vision

Avenues’ vision is: “to develop future worldwise leaders uniquely equipped to understand and solve global-scale problems.” With such a unique and ambitious organizational vision, technology serves as a foundational element of the Avenues experience. Technology serves a purposeful role in learning tools, assessment frameworks, communications, research and innovation platforms, pedagogical and curricular approaches, and fundamental services to ensure the school’s daily operations. Technology connects our students, faculty, and campuses, allowing us to function as a truly global school. The technology team behind this collection of tools and services provides thoughtful, timely, and purposeful implementation, support, and maintenance to ensure that Avenues, as a whole, can fulfill its vision.

“It is essential that we embrace technology’s potential and intentionally integrate it into the academic environment in ways that both enrich the classroom environment and expand the students’ learning outside the classroom walls.”

At Avenues, Technology Integrators (TIs) are deeply knowledgeable about the school’s vision and approach to learning. They join teachers in professional development sessions, curriculum design discussions, and planning meetings as active collaborators for the envisioned curriculum. They observe or co-lead classes and other learning events, living and learning through the enacted curriculum.

TIs also perform thorough and active research on innovative practices in various contexts and emerging technologies. They proactively experiment and tinker with digital tools to explore and imagine their implementation potential.

This broad and deep expertise is leveraged when TIs actively listen to teachers as the learning outcomes are determined, and projects are designed. Rather than determining that students need to learn how to use certain tools at a certain grade, they focus on the curricular goals and identify how to take elevate learning through technology.

While this may all sound good in theory, anyone working in this area knows that this is an ambitious undertaking. Here are a few examples of how this plays out at Avenues:

The Early Learning Center at Avenues curriculum, which comprises grades from Small World (for 1- and 2-year-old children) through kindergarten, focuses on “Learning Through Play “as the key to child development. Tactile play develops fine and gross motor skills, physical play stimulates growth, and make-believe play accelerates social-emotional learning. Building blocks, repetitive and additive sequences of actions, and strategy games (think Connect4 or Chess) are the type of unplugged play that develops a coding mind model and sets a foundation for the creation and understanding of algorithms.

As our young students’ progress through their academic path, they are then immersed in an inquiry-oriented learning model. Inquiry is the process whereby students expand their knowledge, discover solutions to problems, uncover inconsistencies, and answer questions. In World Course, our global humanities program, students are invited to ask themselves, “What are my roles and responsibilities in the community?” Avenues subscribe to 120+ databases for research and inquiry, differentiated to be age- and developmentally appropriate. Through the technology-infused environment, students connect within and across campuses, sharing their perceptions and raising their wonders, empathizing, and taking into consideration different global cultures and backgrounds. While a videoconference allows for synchronous interaction, a collaboratively built mind map may foster more thoughtful contributions and help structure and translate their thinking in a visible format.

The curriculum then spirals, expanding the questions - “How do humans survive and adapt to their environments?” Environmental simulators, programmable robots, and scientific experiments allow students to raise and test their hypotheses. If the project culminates in a movie exhibition, with short videos to showcase each student group’s findings, that serves as an opportunity to leverage a script design tool, learn how to capture, and edit videos, plan, and manage an event, and experiment with production and post-production tools. Digital portfolios support this spiral learning model, allowing students to celebrate, reflect upon and keep track of their projects and highlight meaningful learning experiences.

In the Mastery program, Avenues students pursue an interest of their own. To develop proficiency in an area, students need the opportunity to develop a meaningful passion for something, seek out mentors, and organize a range of experiences that culminate in a long-term, customized project. Technology integrators play a key role in these highly differentiated projects, collaborating with students to best leverage the tools and resources available to maximize the impact of their learning.

These highly flexible professionals are vital to the success of an academic program, especially one that aims to equip students with the practice of using thinking processes and curiosity to tackle problems collaboratively and resourcefully with creativity, ethics, and social impact. With an intentional focus on innovative and impactful uses of technology, TIs at Avenues become architects of powerful and innovative learning experiences.