Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Industrial Revolution in the Classroom

I've taught The Victorians before. An interesting topic. We looked at housing, work conditions, the reforms of Shaftesbury and friends, the pioneer explorers and philanthropists and discussed what life would have been like in the workhouse.
This time I'm teaching the topic slightly differently. Instead of a blanket title; 'The Victorians', we are trying to answer a key question:

'Which was more important, the industrial revolution or the digital revolution?'

A big question indeed for children of 10 and 11. A very relevant, big question in the light of the iPad introduction in school. So we began by looking at what we wanted to find out. I used co-operative learning techniques and mind mapped various areas we wanted to look at and then sent the class home with this task:

'Create a mood board on the industrial revolution using the iPad.'

I was so pleased with the results and reports from parents suggested that children who would often be difficult to enthuse with homework were really motivated to complete the task.

Thanks iPad!








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