Students as Teachers and Teachers as Facilitators

Teaching students computer technologies sometimes requires untraditional teaching methods in schools, as it is not uncommon that students possess more advanced computer skills than teachers in today’s classrooms. In this paper, we present our study of a course website design project in a public high school to investigate new teaching strategies in technology education. We observed how students and teachers shifted roles during the project, i.e., students became technology consultants and trainers while teachers, although still acting as facilitators of the process, also became learners. This role-shifting resulted in augmented learning outcomes for the student. For the teacher, the challenge of adopting the unconventional role of teacher-as-student required a new teaching paradigm, bringing to light the inherent tensions brought about by such role changes and skill differentials. Lessons we learned from this study are discussed as well as suggestions for teachers and schools that are interested in adopting this approach.