Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

I had two interesting and challenging experiences the last couple of days. Experiences that cause me to consider my approach to supporting teachers and students.

I met with a small group of high school teachers who wanted to learn more about Web 2.0 and what they might be able to use in their classrooms. I was fully prepared to spend the day showing demos, and working through the technical issues of setting up a blog, wiki or whatever they wanted.What happened instead is we spent the first part of the morning grappling with the big questions of why. Why would we post students online? Why does it feel like asking us to change means that our current practice is all wrong? If this is so important, why aren’t we given time to explore and make change? To be clear, this group of teachers was not simply complaining or naysaying. They just wanted to be convinced and sure that investing time to use these tools would pay dividends. I’ve been telling teachers lately that if they have any hesitation, they shouldn’t bother to blog or use any tool because all it will do is add to the many “binders of guilt” that sit on the shelf labeled, “things I should really do”.I’m not sure that all these questions were answered but I know we moved forward on some. At lunch time, I fired up twitter and posed the question regarding posting online. Thanks to my network I received several key responses that I shared with the group after lunch. 

Again, not that those responses solved the conundrum but it clearly demonstrated that an online presence or network is a powerful thing. So we continued on and continued to deal with some tough questions but after providing some time for teachers to muddle on their own, they left the day feeling like they had some direction or purpose in using the tools. We’re moving forward in a positive way.I thank them for challenging me.

Thursday, I met with all our school administrators and shared our vision and focused on the idea of shifted learning. I showed Did you Know, used some of Ewan’s videos and ideas that focus on a shift in learning and challenged them to consider how learning is changing. In general they are a great bunch of leaders who truly want to make shifts that are good for kids but like many of us, are looking for a recipe, which although we know doesn’t exist, still want one. I challenged them to consider how they might support teachers and after some good discussion, felt like we have set the ground work for the work that lies ahead. The following are the slides I used with my notes embedded underneath…feel free to use this in whatever way you wish.

One school administrator approached me after and asked, “What is it we’re really trying to do?”He talked about an angst he feels about what he sees most kids doing with technology. Useless text messaging with the person right beside them, nothing seems to be interesting to them, jaded attitudes towards violence, and so on; all valid points. He was careful to say he didn’t want to appear to be out of touch but was truly concerned with kids who use technology in meaningless ways. I tried to share my feelings about our duty to .I’m glad he approached and challenged me and the kind of dialogue I had in these two instances does help us move forward. I’ve taught too many workshops where everyone comes happy and excited to be there and leaves happy and excited but never carry on with the ideas and never implement anything. They like new stuff but don’t deeply consider what the true impact of change might be.

I was further encouraged by spending time with two of our superintendents. Both men have been in education for over 30 years and recalled some of the reasons they got into education in the first place. As children of the 1960’s they were excited about the ideas of Summerhill and believed deeply in personalized learning. Somehow the system they entered took things into a more traditional model and my presentation triggered memories of the hope of what a quality, meaningful education can look like.

These conversations are what will matter. Allowing people to tell their stories, share their resistance and consider the change that’s necessary. I’m pretty good at telling my story and perspectives  but at times forget that others need to tell theirs as well. Chris Lehman has written lately about not forgetting the value of our teachers. Another great conversation ensues.  Again, this is not anything profound but once again, reminded me of the importance of those conversations. Conversations about change that lead to implementation.

Technorati Tags: blogs, assessment, prairiesouth, shifts, ewanmcintosh, didyouknow, summerhill

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Invariably when I introduce the concept of blogging to teachers, they want to resort to using it as a homework page. I understand that for many this is natural. After all, for many teachers, reflecting and sharing their work and ideas offline is not part of their practice, why would it be online?

So while I’m careful to point out that the power of blogging lies in the reading, thinking, writing process, I haven’t seen many evolve out of the typical homework thread. While the homework blog has its benefits, it hardly does anything to help students understand what blogging can be.

Konrad Glogowski is certainly a blogger every teacher needs to watch. Today Konrad writes a post called “Learning to be Myself“. In it he writes about his plan to be a blogger in the community of his classroom. Not a teacher but a learner like the rest of them.

My own blog in our class blogosphere has always been used to post updates, assignments, commentary on student work, and words of encouragement…I don’t think my students ever perceived it as a blog - a place where the author shares his thoughts, ideas, or experiences and engages in meaning-making. It was a place that my students would visit regularly to read their latest assignment or download a rubric. I don’t think they ever learned anything from my own blog.

So his plan is to write about things that matter, things that may not be curricular based. What? Not curricular based? I can hear it now, “I don’t have time for that”. We don’t have time to be people?  He continues:

If we are to be a community of learners, we need to know each other as individuals, not people who, for six hours every day, play assigned roles. In other words, I don’t believe teachers should engage in self-censorship. If we do, then our students end up interacting with an automaton, an actor performing a role. Our schools, administrators, and classrooms cannot demand that the richness that makes us human be stripped down because the students are only fourteen, for example, and should not read about human rights abuses, or because time in class should be used only to study the curriculum.

Konrad is one of those writers that I”m glad doesn’t write everyday. His posts regularly make me stop and reread two or three times. It’s that good and deep. To really see his full vision, you need to read the whole post.

Others and I have often wondered, “Should all teachers blog?”. Many think “no” since it’s not the medium for everyone. Should all students blog?  Many that would read any blog would think yes. Why? Because we want students to share their work, have an audience, connect with others, document and track learning, become global citizens, and communicate. So are we hyprocrites if we as teachers don’t do the same? Maybe it’s not a blog but it should be something. (If it’s not digital, how do you have 25 learners share their learning with each other in a 50 minute class, how superfluous would that be?)

Konrad embodies the belief of developing community of learners. So my question is, if you’re not blogging with your students about your learning, your passion and ideas, how are you demonstrating to them that you are a learner? How do they know?

Technorati Tags: blogging, konradglogowski

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I’ve gone to many conference, read books, articles and been involved with Professional Learning Communities in its official form for about 5 years. Assessment For Learning which is so tightly tied to effective PLC’s is also something I’m very comfortable with. Today as I listened to many qualified, knowledgeable and engaging speakers and presentations, I kept thinking something’s missing.

The focus of most of these presentations were around improving student achievement. Terms like “pyramid of intervention”, “common assessments”, “standards”, “accountability” and “collaboration” were used frequently. All good stuff. It was hard to disagree with much but my focus on the changing classroom and all that relevant and engaging learning looks like, forced me to question where the ideas of this conference take us. While improved student achievement is great, I”m still questioning what their achieving.

If they’re just achieving better grades, better study habits and better test taking skills, it doesn’t seem all that important to me.  Now I realize that none of these speakers would say that’s what this does and they even reference rigorous standards and I think I heard the term 21st century learning (whatever that really is), I’m still fearful that the zeal to improve scores and test results leads to the perpetuation of school as we knew it and still know it.  The strategies of PLC’s and assessment, if not combined with a real understanding of what kids ought to be doing in school leave use just doing a better job of the schools of the 1950’s.

While the stories were told of improved schools, homework programs, reteaching of material, I kept thinking envisioning schools where iron-handed principals and teachers lovingly force kids to do the work, the work of outdated curricula and outdated teaching methods.

Again, I know that’s not the vision they intend to create but those in the audience I fear do not have an understanding of how to become a learner first and lead kids to understandings and experiences that will matter.  Can you have a discussion about improving schools and not mention things like connecting learners, consumers not producers, digital citizens? Are we putting the cart before the horse? Does it matter what we consider first?  I think it matters.

Maybe it’s just me.

(I won’t even mention the brutal PPT’s by all the speakers!  No kidding one slide had 12 bullet points!  Oy!)

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I’ll take a crack at some live blogging. I think Doug Belshaw might be “irritated” but here we go:

My thoughts are in UPPERCASE. I can see much of this might be incoherent…if there’s value or need for clarification or discussion, leave a comment.

Conference page

Doug Reeves: Four Questions

• What do students need to learn?
• How do we know they’ve learned it..before the tests?
• What are the most effective teaching and learning strategies?

Speaking about accountiblity for central office administrators…everyone is accountable

STARTING TO HATE THAT WORD.

Reassess what you’ve learn with PLC’s and dig deeper…don’t retool…I LIKE THAT

Equity Gaps

Clear evidence to say that reducing this gap is not about outside factors such as socio-economic factors…it’s about what schools and teachers do

Brand names or programs are a myth….deep implementation of a few things makes a difference

Leadership Map

Lucky…high achievers…replication of success unlikely

Losing…low achievers… replication of success unlikely

Learning….low results…replication of success likely

Leading…high achievers…replication of success likely

Don’t use scores alone….demonstrate and account for learning that doesn’t yield high test scores…focus on improvements

What is your level of implementation? No need to do one more new thing. Just do it better and deeper…research has been out for a while…if 90% of teachers participate

• Recognition of Achievement….do you have a trophy case? Teachers who systematically recognize achievement see better results
• Aligning Standards….
• Assignment of teachers based on needs…instead of teacher preference
• Modeling and Mentoring of instructional strategies
• Engaging Classroom Environments….posting standards and excellent work POSTING WHERE..IN THE CLASSROOM? I THINK THERE’S A BETTER PLACE
• Deep Content of Analysis
• Monitoring
• Teaching Strategies

These are not new things….but they’ve never been deeply implemented…we assume too much…we haven’t done these things well

It’s their Culture …how to we deal with minority issues or in our case First Nations.

evidence shows that blacks and hispanics popularity declined as grades went past 3.0

2nd grade students when asked, “who do you want to be like?” focus on other high achievers

7th grade students are wanting more and more to be like lower achievers

Rules of games are consistent…grades aren’t…after a while, kids don’t want to play anymore….of things that are important, we have consistency….why not grading

I LIKE THE PRINCIPLE BUT DOES THIS LEAD TO STANDARDIZED TESTS AND DUMBING DOWN OF WORK IN ORDER TO MANAGE IT?

Toxic Grading Practices and Alternatives

• Zeros for missing work….instead…apply Larry the Cable Guy’s practice…”git ‘er done”
• Average/Mean…instead…evaluate best representation of work

Semester killer-one project or test…multiple evidence of learning

Change Killers

• Toxic Feedback….set teachers up with success….tell them what you’re looking for and give them feedback the same day
• Hierarchial Communication…Networking is better….WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS BEFORE IN ACTION?
• Blame…those who believe achievement is due to teacher decisions as opposed to those who blame kids and other factors

Effective Change

• Do we watch just kids or teachers?
• What and who are the cause of achievement?
• Evaluation…is it working?
• Differentiated PD
  • 4,3,2.,1
    • I will lead
    • I will model
    • Iknow about this but don’t use it
    • I’m not familiar

    Holistic Accountablility

  • Science Fair for adults..sharing and transparency…I CALL IT BLOGGING
  • Conversations
  • Remove excuses
  • Watch those that do it right

  DOUG OFFERS SOMES GREAT STUFF AND TO ME IS CHALLENGING TYPICAL CLASSROOMS….COMBINE THIS WILL TOOLS OF ENGAGEMENT AND MEANING AND I THINK SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS WOULD LOOK QUITE DIFFERENT

Technorati Tags: plc, conference, dougreeves

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Trying out a new podcasting service called SolidCast as recommended by Tony Vincent.  I continue to look for the alternatives to show teachers. Each of these services offers it’s  own advantage and Tony highlights some of this in this chart.

The thing is I have a feed already for my podcast.  As I configure it within my PodPress plugin, it asked for a location as to where my podcasts are stored. I normally use archive.org  so I don’t know if I can switch  to another host or whether this will appear in my current itunes feed. SolidCast provides a feed as do all podcasting services but I’m not sure I want to promote 2 feeds. I think the PodPress plugin is my nemesis.

Show notes: 

• k-12 online conference
• SolidCasts

[tags]k12online2007,solidcasts[/tags]

 

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Today was a disaster on many levels. My colleague and I have been asked to support schools in developing their school websites, we decided to use Joomla and special component called Multi-Site Manager to help look after 40 some schools. While good intentioned and some success, we’ve faced a few issues that while not totally catastrophic have been frustrating for many including us. Today we brought together teams from 12 schools to help them build their school websites. During this time we created their sites and users but inadvertently overwrote the previous schools content and had various issues with the databases.  While we admit and are very up front about not being experts and only facilitators, it’s hard not to feel like you’re letting people down with these issues.

This is not so much to give you the run down of the technical issues, although I’ll provide it but rather to extract some learning and revelations that continue to build about learning in general.

The technical background:
We’ve got some understanding of Joomla/Mambo and felt it was the best choice to accommodate the needs of school websites. We installed it on our server and purchased a multi-site manager component with the ability to quickly create sites and users from one place rather than have 40 separate installs. The issue is we did not have an easy back-up in place and weren’t using the component correctly and inadvertently overwrote site databases a couple of times. Since most schools were developing, this did not cause big issues other than a few pages and content that had to be recreated. Today, however we had a similar experience and several schools lost a lot of content. I certainly don’t have the technical expertise to be supporting this and although my colleague does, we don’t have a bunch of time to devote to learn this well. Our intentions was to learn together with schools. This actually worked to some degree as some schools discover unique ways to manage their site, use flickr as an image repository and pushed us to provide more advanced features that would enable a better site.

The learning
In the midst of the chaos that occurred during our workshop, a principal from one of the schools said to me, “learning technology is so much like the learning in our schools”. He explained to me some frustrations he’s had getting teachers to see that learning is hard to be prescribed. You can’t put everything in a handout or step by step instructions. As we talked about setting up the sites, it became apparent very quickly that every school would soon have different needs and that one easy solution wouldn’t be for everyone. You can’t just show one way and expect it to be learning. How many ways for example can you copy something?  How many ways can you tell a story? What’s the best way to a links page?  What is the best blogging tool? How do you divide 687 into 89?(not the answer by the method) A plethora of answers almost always exists. This bit by bit podcast touches on this as well. I was reminded of Thomas Edison’s famous quote:

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

As we showed people the calendar component, this principal wanted to know if there was a way to embed a calendar from the exchange server. It would have been easy for me to discourage this since it wasn’t anything to do with the agenda of the workshop. I knew I didn’t know how. So as many worked on using the calendar within Joomla, he began to explore how he might get his calendar from Outlook into Joomla. After a few minutes, he discovered if he exported his calendar into Google, Google created an iframe code he could embed into his site. Now there may be many out there who could come up with an easier, better way but his persistence and willingness to explore and experiment resulted in learning and satisfaction. There were many other experiments today that didn’t work and those are still valuable learning experiences. My good friend Ewan talks about being less explicit and more implicit. Teachers sometimes hate this. “Just tell me what to do”. I can get you started but eventually, you’ll have to figure it out yourself.  Sometimes we’re afraid to say that to students because we still see ourselves as teachers first and not learners. Fortunately for me, I know I’m a learner first and readily admit it.

Ken Robinson asked if mistakes are the worst thing we could make. I hope not because I made a bunch today.

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I’m getting frustrated. As Canadians, we aren’t tied to NCLB or other testing requirements that restrict and enrage my southern counterparts. It’s not that we don’t believe in assessment, it’s just that we don’t think these measurements and demands help kids.

I’ve been asked to try and develop and build something that could measure student achievement in technology. Here’s my issue: First this idea of separating technology from everything is not ideal. We know technology isn’t “integrated” it’s just used. We know the real skills aren’t “the student can save a document” just as we don’t measure, “the student will keep their pencils in a pencil case”. We want to measure learning in deeper ways and to break it down to this, misses the boat.
I’ve developed what I think are the important skills, learning in our school division. It doesn’t break it down into grade levels but why should it? I’ve seen too many teachers who think showing someone how to use a word processor or spreadsheet accomplishes the goal of using technology.

If you look at places like ISTE, they are beginning to get it right. I have no idea our Americans are using this because it doesn’t appear to focus on the type of data (quantitative, simplistic data) that is typically desired.

There are still a number of places offering really specific tech outcomes. TechLearing sent me an e-book that offers assessments that once again target things like:

• know basic computer parts
• email
• web browser

and the list goes on. Reminded me of a video Alec discovered a while back:

I don’t know. Maybe we have to measure this stuff. I think we’re breaking this down too far and missing the real important skills. Do I need to break it down further or is our Big Ideas all we need?

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Trying to podcast while on the road, I wanted to add some points to Ian Jukes’ talk at NECC 2007. Overall, his ideas are good but there are some things that I felt should be clarified.

Show notes:

• PodPress
• Wes Fryer’s issues
• Steve Dembo’s take on why podcast when you have a blog
• Bud the Teacher
• Kevin Honeycutt
• Original Presentation by Jukes

I’d didn’t say but would also include Ewan’s comment on my blog that address the digital native issue.

[tags]ianjukes,wesfryer,stevedembo,budhunt,kevinhoneycutt,ewanmcintosh,digitalnatives,digitalimmigrants,podpress[/tags]

 

 Podcast 29 What Ian Jukes Didn't say: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download