Alice Christie's Tech Know-How

Dr. Alice Christie is Arizona State University President's Professor Emeritus. She is a self-proclaimed "lifelong learner." Her website offers extensive resources that enable teachers to learn many ways technology may be utilized in the classroom. The site provides her opinions and strategies, but it also gives examples of material she has produced and links to sites with material offered by others.

Christie recommends teachers create digital portfolios (e-Portfolios). The intended audience of the e-portfolio may vary, but it is basically an online collection of artifacts a teacher or other professional uses to describe his or her accomplishments and goals, as well as provide resources he or she has created (websites, blogs, documents, presentations, etc.). Christie provides an example on her site. Although our teacher, Dr. John Strange, does not refer to his website as being an e-portolio, it seems very similar to Christie's. The primary difference appears to be that Christie's is aimed toward associates who may have an interest in knowing her professional biography, while Strange's is intended primarily for the college students. If one of the two were to be the pattern for teachers who would like to use an e-portfolio as a tool for students, it would be Strange's.

Another tech project Christie recommends is the use of GPS and Geocaching. Before I read the information she's provided, I had never heard of using GPS as part of a curriculum. She suggested teachers could have projects in which students use a GPS device to seek strategically placed geocaches (earth containers) that have subject relevant artificacts enclosed. This is a way to transform the classroom from being teacher-centered to student-centered, a change many educators believe facilitates greater learning.

Christie has accomplished much throughout her career. She said she was first introduced to technology with the Apple II computer in the late 1970s, and she had two added to her classroom. It seems since then she has never tired in learning more about how technology can benefit the classroom.