Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Like most people, I use Google as my primary search engine. It is arguably the best meta search engine available. The problem with Google is that it takes some experience to understand how to search effectively.

For students, this is difficult. Instead, try a search engine called Clusty. Clusty categorizes searches for you. This can help a student narrow results as well as show them how topics are organized. This is especially helpful when beginning research.

What other search engines do you like for kids?

I love RSS. But after looking at my blog stats, I’m certain most/many that visit haven’t figured out the RSS deal. So I’m going to try using FeedBlitz to provide email subscription options. If you read this regularly but don’t use RSS or don’t yet really know what it means, you can subscribe via email.

I’ve decided to move all my new workshops to a weblog. Although some of my presentations may call for a PowerPoint, many are better suited to a weblog format.

I haven’t abandoned PowerPoint as a presentation tool as some may have, espesically in the light of Dick Hardt’s captivating use, but for most of my stuff, the weblog seems most appropriate.

You can subscribe to the weblog as well.

The need for teachers to learn web design in a traditional html editor has certainly been lessened as a result of the weblog. I try to advocate in favour of the weblog as a web presence for teachers and students. The Bionic Teacher just posted a question in regards to technology training and I commented in a similar way.
Our school division is about to merge with 5 other divisions on January 1, 2006. This will include some big changes. Our new director has asked a colleague of mine to design the new division site. I designed and basically maintain our present site but am more than willing to pass this task on to Jeff, who is a master web designer. He and I have talked about the use of a CMS as the backbone of the site. I know he’ll do a great job of creating a functional and powerful site.
Our current school sites have all been designed by willing teachers who have taken various training sessions with Dreamweaver. The issues that constantly arise is who maintains the site? How often is it updated? What happens if the web designer changes schools? In an effort to address these issues, we had Tim Lauer of Portland talk to our school support teams via Skype recently to talk about his school site. Tim discussed his purpose and some functions of his site. All our schools recognize the need to make some changes and we’ll begin by installing a news script inside their existing pages to alleviate the pressures of a single webmaster as well as create a site with updated information.
This represents a first step in developing a culture that embraces communication and makes better efforts to connect to parents and the community. Our new division will likely take this a step further with fully functional blog or CMS back end.
Is web design dead? For most teachers yes. Html and CSS are all still needed but we’re starting to understand its limitations.

In general, life is a balancing act. This hardly can be describe as a new or profound thought. Two posts particularly resonated with me about balance.

Susan Sedro set the stage for me by confessing, she should have been doing other things. Thanks for being honest. The first post was from Wired News where they write about cracks in Web 2.0. I’ve been using this term a lot lately simply because I haven’t found a better one and it’s one that many are now familar with. For many of my local colleagues, it’s a new term that likely doesn’t have great meaning. Anyway, the article talks about the inevitable problems surronding new technologies. In this case wikipedia is cited as an example of how the openness of access introduces the possiblity of inaccuracies and even pure garbage. True enough. Here’s the part that adresses balance:

“Online, free media is one of the contributing factors to the shrinking circulation of good newspapers,” he said. “Now, traditional media is shifting away from large investments in bureaus and hard reporting, and towards cheaper content and opinion-making. It’s hard for me to imagine participatory media devoting investments to hard, investigative or overseas reporting. The healthiest scenario would be one in which both kinds of media thrive.”

The second post was from George Seimens who talks about the joys of shallow thinking. I’m all for that. Actually his post looks at how we need to be able to read in different ways.

What happens when we change how we interact with information? We “ramp up” our processing habits. Instead of reading, we skim. Instead of exploring and responding to each item, we try and link it to existing understanding. We move (in regards to most information we encounter) from specific to general thinking…from deep to shallow thinking. Shallow thinking, in this sense, isn’t as negative as its connotations. Shallow thinking (perhaps I need a better phrase) involves exploring many different sources of information without focusing too heavily on one source. Aggregating at this level helps us to stay informed across broad disciplines. So much of education intends to provide “deep learning”. Often, however, “shallow learning is desired” (i.e. we want to know of a concept, but we don’t have time or interest to explore it deeply). All we need at this stage is simply the understanding (awareness?) that it exists. Often, learning is simply about opening a door…

As an example, today while skimming my Bloglines feeds, I formed a general awareness of lawsuits against Apple, developments with Google Base, blood tests for determining anxiety, etc. I’ve grown in my skills at rapid reading and aggregating information. I’ve also learned to quickly recognize information that is important for deeper exploration. The bulk of this work still happens in my head, but I’m encountering more software tools that assist the process. I don’t think it’s too ambitious to say that we are still very much at the beginning of a new era of learning – one defined by confusion in the abundance of information…and the accelerated need fro determining which information is valuable, and how the pieces fit together.

So it’s not that deep thinking is not necessary, but we need both and my sense is that everyone needs to think about how they and their students are balancing both the material they are reading, and how they are reading it.

When I first entered into using RSS, blogs and all the tools of Web 2.0, I remember saving a couple of posts from Will Richardson in my Bloglines clippings. One was called Shaking Society to the Core and the other was What if I did this as a teacher. These posts spoke to the new nature of the web and how the potential for change is within reach.

I had a conversation this weekend with a friend of mine for the STF. He is one of the administrative executives and was discussing some of the frustrations of the provincial body regarding communication and specifically the last round of provincial negotiations. A recent study on the process revealed that the voting habits of each local was a direct reflection of the position and attitude of their local president. During this round of bargaining, there was some level of misinterpretation and confusion regarding some of the key issues. In addition, the bargaining committee and administration was accused of not being transparent with all teachers.

So we talked about how these new tools might make things different. We wondered what things might have been like had all 11,000+ teachers had direct access to the information and more importantly had direct access to the discussion. While they may have had access to information, most of the information required explanations and discussions that seemed to be different in different jurisdictions. In collecting information traditional surveys are usually the form. If this information was posted, others could respond and react and engage in equal participation. There seems to be a desire on many to control the information. (If you haven’t already read the links to the two posts, now would be a good time to read them).

As it was, there was an email sent out to many that included a number of communications with the minister of learning. While this provided some unique and somewhat transparent information, without the ability for me to engage in the conversation, it was just information , not conversation. This is a clear picture of why the web is different now. This conversation takes place on many of the blogs I read. Even though I don’t comment on every post, the ability to do so is part of what makes it a conversation and community.

Locally, our school division just spent a full day with Richard and Rebecca DuFour talking about Professional Learning communities. I created a moodle site with a discussion area. I’ve asked teachers to comment on their thoughts and opinions engage in conversation. Teachers are beginning to understand they can speak freely and have professional conversations based on equal access to the information, in this case a day long workshop. This is one way to get a pulse on the feelings of our teachers. In time, more and more will participate and we’ll hear from a variety of teachers, not just the ones who tend to be vocal in public settings.

I’ll wrap up with a quote from the Cluetrain Manifesto, which is freely available online. Dave Weinberger talks about how the web changes the way business works but I think you can apply these principles to any organization.

It is a public place. That is crucial. Having a voice doesn’t mean being able to sing in the shower. It means presenting oneself to others. The Web provides a place like we’ve never seen before.

We may still have to behave properly in committee meetings, but increasingly the real work of the corporation is getting done by quirky individuals who meet on the Web, net the two-hour committee meeting down to two lines (one of which is obscene and the other wickedly funny), and then — in a language and rhythm unique to them — move ahead faster than the speed of management.

The memo is dead. Long live e-mail. The corporate newsletter is dead. Long live racks of e’zines from individuals who do not speak for the corporation. Bland, safe relationships with customers are dead. Long live customer-support reps who are willing to get as pissed off at their own company as the angry customer is.

We are so desperate to have our voices back that we are willing to leap into the void. We embrace the Web not knowing what it is, but hoping that it will burn the org chart — if not the organization — down to the ground. Released from the gray-flannel handcuffs, we say anything, curse like sailors, rhyme like bad poets, flame against our own values, just for the pure delight of having a voice.

And when the thrill of hearing ourselves speak again wears off, we will begin to build a new world.

That is what the Web is for.

So I issue the challenge to the STF and other organizations, try opening things up and allow the web do what it can easily do to build trust, community and conversation. I’m not suggesting we burn the organization but the principle of openness and breaking down barriers to reveal our uncertainties and questions will be necessary for satisfying 21st century communication needs.

It seems I get asked about digital cameras on a fairly regular basis. My answer usually includes something like, “stick with something fairly basic to start and then you’ll discover the features you’ll want to upgrade.

Everyone should have a digital camera. Here’s a way everyone can get started.Top 10 Rated Digital Cameras Under $100

USATODAY.com - Online phys ed takes hold in Minneapolis:

“‘I would’ve had to go to gym class and take up an hour every day,’ the
17-year-old said during a break from tossing a Frisbee with a few
teammates. ‘I would’ve had to give up orchestra. If I’d taken it last
year, I’d have had to give up German.’”

Physical Education may be the last course you would think lends itself to online learning but the concept here is pretty powerful. Allow students to get credit for physical activities they are already doing outside of school. I also wrote about this for our in-motion blog.

If a student spent hours a week writing, wouldn’t it be nice for them to get credit for that? After all, if our goal is to help kids learn, doesn’t this consitute the most important learning of all, learning that goes beyond the classroom walls and is applied. The morphing of academic and every day activities should be a worthy goal. We are spending a great deal of time developing learning that is relevant and meaningful. And we should continue our efforts to make our curriculum as relevant as possible. In this case, the kids already figured it out for us. Why not acknowledge that.

Now, to take that beyond this example and permeate all subject areas would be a great help in our quest to narrow and focus the curriculum on essential outcomes.