This weekend I was on the lookout for moments of beauty inside our house. Having been taking a photo every single day for the past 4 years, I've developed a keener sense of beauty or mindfulness. Trying to capture moments, seeing something special in the way light hits an object or the way two people interact. It's a habit I'm glad I've been developing and will continue to pursue. 

This is what I came up with. 

It's not awesome but it's a story, our story. I can really see taking this format and tweaking it and making it one's own. Ben used his son as the theme of his video. That's a very compelling story and while it's obviously incredibly meaningful to him, he tells it in such a way that we are drawn in as well. As I watch my own, I'm not sure exactly where to critique it. Would a better camera made a difference? What shots would have been more compelling? Was there even an implied storyline? Was the music an appropriate choice? 

I think about my own assessment skills here. I've created enough of these stories to have some sense of what works and what doesn't, and yet I lack the vocabulary or expertise to truly dissect my work in this case. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a new format or whether art itself is too challenging to always try and deconstruct. Certainly this is the dilemma of assessment in schools when it comes to creative work. As Royan Lee says, "why grade when you can reflect?"

It might help to read Part 1.

I've been teaching a course at the University of Regina for over 5 years. I've taught it for roughly 12 sections over that time. I really don't enjoy the assessment process. While I've had a wack sack of training and embrace the idea of student's owning their own assessment, too many intuitional and societal barriers still make it less than ideal. I've told my students this as well.

On the practical side, here are some things I've done to try and make assessment as useful as possible.

1. Co-creation of criteria. Although students often struggle with "what I'm looking for" I really want them to look for it themselves. With my learning project, we built this.

2. Choice. Like most teachers I give them lots of choice. They can choose the type of projects they want to explore and I make it clear they should be able to come up with alternative assignments if they choose. Many still beg me to just "tell them what to do". I won't.

3. Use your strengths. This term I  have 3 major assignments worth 25% each by default. I allow my students to change the weighting of these to as low as 15% and bump up others they find use more of their strengths.

4. Insist on social learning. My students are required to give each other feedback. In true community, this is organic so in that respect it often feels forced but I know they learn as much or more from each other as they do from me. Even when students email me a question, my first response is usually, "Have you read your classmates blogs?" because often their answer is there.

5. Self Assessments. I require my students to grade themselves and justify their grade. In most cases, I end up using their own recommendation however anyone who's ever done this will attest to the fact that students are often harder on themselves than you would.

Throughout the course I remind them how useless I think grading is and how much I want them to enjoy and value learning without worrying about grades.

Today made me think about why I was apprehensive about this project at the very first mention of it. I regret being apprehensive, because A) I’m learning something I have always wanted to and B) I’m being graded on an assignment that I do when I want to, however I want to, I just have to document my thinking… http://staceyjc3.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/wherewhenwhy/

I really want to work at making the assessment process less painful, less important and perhaps even useful. If you've got some techniques or ideas or criticisms. on this please share.

These updates really serve two purposes. One is for me. Like the before picture when you go on a diet, these videos will one day serve to remind me just how brutal I once was. I have no illusions of grandeur but continue to desire to be able to play for personal enjoyment. In that sense, I've already achieved it to a small degree. Documenting my learning via video is a useful and easy way to track progress. Outside of jotting down a few ideas to reflect upon, it's totally impromptu. I know, it's hard to tell.

Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

The second purpose is for modeling. I'm hopefully showing my students that learning is hard but fun and that being a reflective practitioner is something that will serve them well as they progress in their careers as life long learners. And teachers too. 

I suppose there's a third purpose or outcome here is to demonstrate that by sharing your learning you open up the opportunity for others to join with you and teach. That people would take time to watch me struggle and offer support and advice is an illustration of using technology in transformational ways and is amazing. And when I say amazing, I mean amazing. 

So here I am, still looking for support and moving forward.

A month ago, I participated in a unique and powerful event called Unplugd. I've posted bits about it and will likely refer to it often in the future as it offered some outstanding experiences that have a direct impact on how we learn and how we do school. The product we created was a book on What Matters Now. We're releasing each chapter a week at a time in order to give people a chance to digest the content. The first three chapters have already been released. The essays are quite compelling along with the video stories. 

This week, the chapter I was involved in developing is now available. The process of writing these essays is a powerful story of collaboration, feedback and assessment for learning. I'll share more about that in the future but I will tell you it was a great model for collaboration. 

For now, here's my small contribution entitled Why Joy Matters.

Photo: by charbeck10 http://www.flickr.com/photos/23046603@N00/6106611048/

Over the past several years, I've attended many conferences and workshops where speakers have talked about how all kids can learn and the importance of that belief. They also talk about how, if that's true, it's our obligation and duty as teachers to make sure all students learn and have success. This famous clip serves as the mantra for many schools and districts determined to see students succeed. 

Okay, I get that. We all love kids and want them to succeed. If fact we want to design systems where no child is "left behind" and no child fails. Full proof schools where everyone is a winner. They unintentionally paint pictures of kids "not getting away with not doing their work". These are not places of joy but places where come hell or high water, kids will succeed and if they fail, it's the teacher's or the school's fault. What if it is the kid's fault? Can they ever choose not to be successful? Should a 5 year old even be considered a failure? Should a 17 year old be allowed to fail? How do we create a gradual release of control or do we ever relinquish that control? The other huge misconception that is rarely explored under this philosophy is that all children, while they are capable of learning, aren't all capable of learning the same thing at the same time in the same way. 

On the other hand we hear other folks talking about student's owning the learning, customized and personalizing learning for every child. I subscribe to that belief and I'm not suggesting these two ideas are mutually exclusive but I wonder about the value of failure. We're also hearing many talk about embracing failure. Is that simply as adults? Can students learn to embrace failure? Not just in terms of  risk taking but of  not achieving. I'm talking more about 15 year and 16 year olds who drop out of school. Is our goal to  make schools where 15 and 16 year olds want to stay? What if there is a better option for them like working?  Maybe there are 15 and 16 year olds who aren't having their needs met. Some suggest not all kids need to go to college, but do they all need to finish high school? Schools, as much as they try can't be all things to all students. Particularly as we are currently a million miles for making school the personal and project based places many dream of. Our schools today by in large, for better or worse, have mandated curriculum that determines what is and isn't important for life. Even when teachers begin to make learning more meaningful and personal, school still consists of arbitrary learning goals. What happens when a student decides he/she isn't interested? At what age is it appropriate for a student to make a different choice of how to spend their day? As well, what ways to we invite and make it easy for students to re-enter school as adults? I had a friend who dropped out at 15 and returned to school at 18 and outside of the stigma attached to being 18 years old in high school, it was a good move for him. 

I've seen lots of talk about reducing the dropout rate. What I continue to see is a focus on changing the supports for these students and little in the way of making school in general a place that doesn't suck. But really my question continues to be, if we believe (maybe you don't) that the kids should own the learning, shouldn't they own the failure too? I'm not suggesting we simply create a smorgasbord of learning and then watch them sink or swim but I've witnessed educators spending countless hours hand holding and walking students through painful exercises designed to help them 'get through" the curriculum. Reminds me of parents who do their child's homework. 

In some ways this returns me to a previous post about personalization and standardization. I don't have many answers and am really inviting some conversations, help me see what I may be missing but I"m frustrated with both the "no kid can fail" attitudes and the "kids own the learning but not the failure" thinking too.

The only thing I can think of that helps me work through these ideas is my own parenting. I obviously want my kids to succeed and yet they've all experienced some failure. My kids have all started into sports and music programs they decided they didn't like and quit. Sometimes we made them persevere and on occasion they discovered they liked it. As parents, we felt all our kids needed a basic proficiency in swimming and music. They didn't have a choice. Some of them choose to go beyond the basics, others met the basic, then quit.  As they got older they chose they own paths. Altogether my kids have quit/failed at many things. Big deal. None of these endeavors, like school are on the same level as Apollo 13. It's not life and death. I'm not suggesting it doesn't matter but whether or not a student passes algebra shouldn't carry the weight if often does. I'm sure others will disagree. Feel free. 

Alright, I've been all over the map here, not my best writing but I hope I've started a few ideas we might talk about together. Should kids be allowed to fail? Under what circumstances? Go. 

It's been a month since the course concluded. I had 27 students and for what it's worth, the class average was 73, whatever that means. 

The first few times I taught this course the glaring issue I had was work overload. As a sessional and new instructor, I really had little conception of time expectations. I wasn't trying to be tough on students, but I simply wanted them to experience as much as possible. This becomes more challenging when the course is a 6 week course as opposed to 4 months. At any rate, I've carefully considered what I think are essential and what might be optional. I've tried to allow students as much choice as possible. As a result, I think I'm getting closer to achieving a reasonable work load.

18 of the 27 students completed the survey. 

As you can see, I've still a ways to go but the first time I did this the results were overwhelmingly in the "greater" section. 

I continue to see blogging as a challenge for many students. I've become better as explaining the variety of ways to use a blog and also realistically tell my students many won't continue but hopefully we explore enough examples that they might return or use it sometime in a new way in the future. That's become evident as students graduate and become teachers. My favorite folder in my RSS reader is my former student's blogs. As I tell them repeatedly throughout the course, I'm a lifetime subscriber. 

The specific feedback of how to improve the course is usually most helpful. This year, as in the past, I've not done a great job of clearly laying out assignments. I need to recognize their anxiety better and although I want them to take full ownership and feel free to modify and personalize assignments, most are being exposed to that idea for the first time and it's difficult.  I need to get better at that.

Here are the open ended responses:

• list online sessions in course description so people can try to make them
• Perhaps try to find an alternate time for live sessions so more people could attend? Vary the times more?
• shorter sessions
• Hard question. Maybe offer elluminate sessions at more varied times. I think many people worked or had activities at night so they missed out. I would consider actually offering the class with an assigned time even if it is online. 
• A clearer and more defined syllabus and assignment due dates please. 
• Perhaps respond to emails a bit sooner. I would to have liked more comments on my blog about my thoughts and about my final project etc.
• I felt the course was pretty good! As of now, I like everything he had included in his class.  As I discover more, and he does, Im sure this class will change over the years (in meaning content and programs he decides to teach the students).  I liked all the programs and tools I learned and feel like I have knowledge and can use them now!
• Given clearer direction on what is required in the portfolio.
• I thought it was very well done seeing how we couldn't physically be all together was a class.
• Offered it in a classroom setting as well. 

I love teaching. I love that I've evolved as a teacher and my role has truly morphing into a sherpa,dj, connector and yes, sometimes a traditional teacher and instructor. I love all those roles. But as much as I love them, I need to be able to understand my students needs and expectations. I believe and value the idea of co-construction of assessments, assignments and even my role. I need to utilize this feedback to make myself better. This is extremely valuable for new students and for me. 

Just curious, what methods, tools or process do you use to make you better at what you do? What can teach me about this?

It's been over a year since one of my students wrote a very heartfelt post about his younger brother. The aftermath of this post was quite powerful and led to  a big change. Read the comments, a few of which aren't very nice to get the full picture. Kyle handled himself with integrity. I continue to point to this post as a great example of the power and potential of blogging. But the whole grading and honour roll thing continues to be problem-some, at least for me.

All my kids have been on the honour roll. For them the grades were motivating and to be honest, they didn't really work all that hard. Sure they studied and put in the effort but I know many students who worked much harder with poorer results. School came pretty easy for them. In the end, the real winners were the ones that learned how to learn, the ones that found a passion, worked hard because they cared about what they did and wanted to make the most of every opportunity. I'm not saying my kids didn't achieve any of these but it wasn't the dominant reason they went to school. My youngest, who is 12 is tired of me telling her not to focus on the grade but focus on the learning. But it's hard for her to think differently when everything around her tells her the grade is really the most important thing. We live in a system that prizes numbers and letters.

So back to Kyle's post. Last night Kyle and Jordan presented to my current ECMP 355 class on ideas that are still resonating with them a year after taking my course. One of the reasons I asked them to do this was to demonstrate that hopefully what they learn in my course has value, value beyond a grade but something they'll use for the rest of their lives. They did a wonderful job. Kyle spent a few minutes talking about that post and some of the inside stories around it. I posted it to twitter last night and my colleague and mentor Rick Schwier posted a comment that has been in my head for the day:

I have a son with a different kind of disability. He has Down syndrome, and he is 37 now. He’s the most academic of my three kids, and I mean it… not in some pathetic condescending way. He pays attention. He is a serious critic. He has no tolerance for fools. He remembers important things and refuses to internalize trivial things. He inspires. Honour rolls. Silly. Trivial. Unnecessary. And at their worst, soul destroying. The older I get, the less tolerant I’m becoming of the deleterious effects of grading and its offspring.

Wow. "…the deleterious effect of gradings and its offspring". Chew on that for a while.  

The PISA results were released this month and my overwhelming response was: Who cares? Many of my fellow Canadians were quite happy to be ranked sixth in the world. What does that even mean? Is that cause for celebration? Should we be upset? What would we do if we were first? (Hint: I've talked to many educators from schools with high test scores. They are the most resistant to try new things and be innovative for fear it will lower their test scores). Once again, these tests perpetuate the idea that:

• Schools should measure math, reading and science only.
• Arts, Health and Physical Education are not really necessary (rewatch Ken Robinson's video on creativity).
• Tests taken on a single day are a good and accurate measurement of student learning and achievement.
• Rankings against other countries/districts/schools/classrooms/students is important because education should be competitive.

There are no questions on the test that measure creativity (if that can even or should be measured), collaboration, or media literacy, never mind their ability to learn or their understanding of their body. The other thing it doesn't measure is whether or not students like school. I'd like to know where Canada ranks on that scale. As a parent, I value that. I've been around schools enough to know that there's lots of learning that happens, even in our so-called "worse" schools and classrooms. Sure, there are some teachers and schools better than others, but I also believe that students that are happy and enjoy school actually learn more. But of course, we don't consider that important data. I'll bet some people would consider it fluff. Instead we get the usual discourse from non-educators about how education sucks and the curriculum has to be revamped. Diane Ratvich recently debated a high ranking U.S. official about the obsession with testing and he challenged her with the the oft heard claim:

"You measure what you treasure." To which Ravitch replied, "No, you cannot measure what you treasure." How do you measure, friendship, love, courage, honor, civility, love of learning?

And because those things are hard to measure, many think they aren't all that important. That's really sad. Some openly dismiss those values as pie in the sky or "nice but not necessary" for learning. Few dare to openly state that, but I found one who wasn't. I wrote about Michelle Rhee over 2 years ago when she made the following statement to Time Magazine:

People say, 'Well, you know, test scores don't take into account creativity and the love of learning,'" she says with a drippy, grating voice, lowering her eyelids halfway. Then she snaps back to herself. "I'm like, 'You know what? I don't give a crap.' Don't get me wrong. Creativity is good and whatever. But if the children don't know how to read, I don't care how creative you are. You're not doing your job."

This presumes you can't do both. I think we can. I would argue that as educators we're obligated to do both. But until we begin to design assessments that actually give credence to the love for learning, creativity and other so-called 21st century skills, I'm not going to "give a crap" about any of these tests.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27087959@N00/359572656/

The issue today of course is that many of these debates aren't really debates but exchanges of sound bites in media outlets, comment fields, twitter and passing remarks in a variety of settings. These sound bites become part of the culture and people are often quick to choose sides in efforts to find simple solutions to complex problems

I've been thinking of a few of these issues and without trying to argue further for any position, although I do have my opinions, perhaps it's important to at least frame the issues more clearly. Here goes.

Training vs and Learning

In the world of education and professional development the word training is often used to describe a particular event. "We're having Smartboard training". "I've been trained in the Montessori method".  Training is the acquisition of skills toward a competency. Many criticize the use of training as they hear things like "iPad training" which assumes that there are skills needed to be competent in using an iPad. There may be some skills but most would argue they are minimal and likely don't warrant formal training. Training usually doesn't offer a lot of wiggle room. Perhaps you might classify this as the science of teaching.

Other forms of professional development are more intellectually demanding and require much more of a constructivist approach. These are the ones that are about pedagogy and are more complex. There is no prescribed method and thus "training" seems like the wrong word. In fact, even calling it "professional development"  can be less than accurate and to me conjures up a linear approach. In our district we've been using the term "professional learning". For most, the difference is negligible, but I think it's an important distinction. 

By no means I'm I suggesting one is more important. One is certainly more complex and perhaps we're at a point where we need to be focused more on the challenging stuff but I know that I've been guilty of dismissing training as menial and unnecessary at times. That's a somewhat arrogant attitude I need to guard against. 

Assessment and Evaluation

These two terms may be interchangeable in some circles but in our district and province and many other jurisdictions, they have an important distinction. We've been using the word assessment to refer to formative assessment. We like to think of the Latin meaning of the word which means "to side beside". This makes assessment the coaching part of teaching where we don't focus on a grade but rather provide meaningful feedback to help the learner learn more. Evaluation is the summative portion where we assign value to the learning. When people use the word assessment, they often refer to assignments and the work that will be evaluated. Again, it may seem like interchangeable terms but when you are trying to make clear distinctions and promote the use of formative assessment, it's important to be clear on the two terms.

Homework 

Along with a recent grading policy controversy in our own province, homework is continually a controversial topic. Part of the controversy centers around what homework should be for. Here's a few perspectives:

• finishing work not done in class
• practice
• punishment
• extending learning/working because there's not enough time in class

Again, homework means very different things to different people. It's a generic term and when debate occurs, people may be thinking very different things. Alfie Kohn writes a lengthy, but valuable article outlying why homework, in most cases, may not be a good practice. It's worth a read and for me, one I'll read more than once.

Other terms of confusion include "Literacy and Skills" and "Cooperation and Collaboration". I'll wait for Ben Grey to blog about those. 

I'd be grateful to hear your thoughts on these terms or feel free to add other terms you feel often are either misrepresented or misunderstood. Too often, discussions are taking place and people aren't even speaking the same language. 

Photo: Day 233: Talk to the Hand. http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahmae/2048336011/

Dear Ms. Winfrey

I'm Not Waiting For Superman

What Randi Weingarten Should Have Said

I also wrote a post a few years ago about Michelle Rhee and her methods.

The issues in the US have some similarities to our issues in Canada and Saskatchewan but we're now battling our own reform issues. Recently the Saskatoon Public School Division, our provinces largest district, implemented some new policies around grading that are in direct alignment with our new curriculum. In a nutshell, we're moving to outcomes based education and need to change some of our practices to stay true to that. The problem is that many of these practices appear to fly in the face of many things that have been mainstays in schools for years. The biggest problem you have when making these changes is in garnering support. In this case all stakeholders are having difficulty understanding these changes. Administrators, teachers, parents and students are questioning the changes. Our own Premier has come out publicly and is questioning these policies. There's nothing wrong with questioning change. Change is difficult and in this case, some of these changes at first glance can appear downright strange.

But this is a combination of poor communication and implementation as well as media who are in the business of creating controversy. Headlines like "Teaching Plagiarism" or "How to Succeed: Cut and Paste" all serve to incite readers and enable them to quickly jump on the bandwagon and find a target in school officials as incompetent idiots. Everyone in education realizes that it's one of the few businesses that everyone feels they are expert in. That makes it very difficult to consider alternatives when many leaders and strong voices were once successful under the current regime of schooling. You'd have to read most of my 500+ posts over the last 5 years to get a small glimpse of understanding of the changes that are occurring that require us to change. This is not about change, for change sake, this is about doing what is ethical and best for kids.

 I'm going to try and address some of the most common misconceptions in this new policy and while our division has fully implemented these ideas, rest assured that in the BEST INTEREST of students, we do hope to move forward.

Students are not penalized for late assignments. False. The major shift in this policy is separating grades from behaviour. If we're going to measure learning, time should not be a factor. The argument many are making is that this is unfair to students who get their work in on time and it isn't teaching them real world skills. Once again, if this is a behaviour issue, schools need to determine how to deal with poor behaviour. Traditionally, many teachers simply made students stay behind or docked them marks. Schools need to set guidelines and ways to deal with lates. There should be deadlines and there should be consequences for late assignments. The obvious consequences is that those finished, don't have it hanging over there head. But there can be other consequences, but losing marks shouldn't be one of them. It's not often a reflection of their learning, it's a behaviour and should be dealt with accordingly. The solution of docking marks was the simplest but I'm not sure it solves the problem and definitely doesn't reflect what a student knows and can do.

Students are not penalized for plagiarism. False. Like lates, they aren't penalized academically but as a behaviour. In this case, the obvious consequence is do it again. The other issue here is one of education and developmental appropriateness. If a 10 year old is caught cheating, I don't think the consequences should be the same as a university student who knows better. If our job is to educate, then we need to start from that premise. Sometimes educating may involve punishment but it needs to be appropriate.

Schools are getting soft on kids. False. These policies are not intending to make it easier for our kids but if implemented well, places more onus and ownership on students. The struggle comes in developing specific protocols as the school level that are fair for teachers as well. A team approach is required which once again, has not been the norm. Typically classroom teachers have had to carry the full load of both late assignments and cheating. I think the consequences for these behaviours should vary according to age and regularity. Giving student a zero for cheating is a pretty soft consequences as opposed to making them redo it and maybe tacking on some community service for example.

I really don't understand those who think behaviour and achievement should be lumped together. One argument is that there is a relationship between the two. Absolutely. But this is another example of our need to simplify. Instead of rich information about a student that pinpoints learning strengths and weaknesses and also reveals work habits and behaviours, we ask for a single number to define the entirety of a student. We say, that's how it is in the real world. That's where I might disagree. Suppose you were hiring an electrician, I might tell you that she's does outstanding work, goes above and beyond but she takes forever. Depending on your situation you may be fine with hiring her. I could also tell you of an electrician that is adequate but can be there tomorrow and will finish the same day. The more information we have, the better decision we can make. That's the entire purpose of this grading change. The problem is we want simple, clean evaluations that can be reduced to a two digit number. How sad and potentially useless. 

I'd encourage you to listen to the 11 minute interview with Ken O'Connor who is a noted expert on grading. You may want to explore the area of his website where people have asked him questions.

The recent discussions in the US is slightly more complicated and controversial because the argument around what schools should be about is at the core of the discussion. Media has encouraged the public to look for simple solutions to complex problems. This approach satisfies our human need to see the world in black and white, good and bad. I'm sorry to say it's not that simple and to say it is borders on arrogance. I work with teachers every day who know the challenges and difficulties of providing great learning for all students. In the case of the new grading policy, we all want simliar things. We want our students to be accountable. The one deeper philosophical debate is whether you believe that schools are about sorting and ranking students into smartest to dumbest, good to bad or if you believe it's about helping all students learn. Those interested in ranking or survival of the fittest may lean towards lumping achievement and behaviour together.

As I said, we know that even our own teachers are struggling with these ideas. They fundamentally shift many long held beliefs. The implementation of the concepts themselves are challenging. They require staffs to sit down and figure out how make this manageable. Again, our old system was very efficient in many ways but not always in the best interest of our students. I'm not yet comfortable with how we've helped teachers become part of these discussions, let alone the parents, Joe Public or even our students. Simplistic approaches and answers won't cut it.

Thanks to the media, they've reduced a very important conversation to a bucket load of stupid, mean spirited comments that will only polarize people instead of uniting them. (by the way, if you want to listen to an intelligent discussion about how to balance the idea of transparency and public commenting, have a listen to this CBC spark clip) I'm hoping our district can do better to inform all stakeholders as to why these changes are important and ultimately serve the best interest of students.

My youngest daughter is known for asking these types of questions. She has actually asked that one but usually the questions are more about a favourite part of a movie, what's your favourite vacation spot, etc. That's pretty typical for kids and even adults. We love to order and rank things. I have many favourites. But when does it go too far? Are these lists of favourites personal or is their value in crowd sourcing our favourites?

I think there is a place for ranking. But not for everything. 

Trip Advisor is a great example of crowd sourcing and rating. It may not be definitive but provides a useful beginning in making a financial investment. Digg and Youtube are fine examples of places that use rating systems to determine popularity but not necessarily quality. That can be useful but not definitive. 

It starts to bother me however when we feel compelled to create list of greatness when it comes to people who, because of their generosity have chosen to use their cognitive surplus to share online. These folks, and I'm mostly speaking about educators, have joined a revolution of sharing and connecting and have worked together, mostly for free, to learn together. That's pretty darn cool. Deciding to rank and rate them is a little like having a potluck dinner and then having a vote at the end as to who made the best meal. What would be the point other than to single out a few and let others feel less than worthy. 

I love the social nature of the web. Anyone who knows me gets that. I also like recognition. I like to contribute and like to know I'm helping folks. I get that recognition from trackbacks, comments, Retweets, mentions, links and thank yous. I know how important they are to me and try to respond in kind, partly because it's natural and partly because it's the right thing to do and partly because it's how all this will continue to work.

I've been on a few lists of best blogs or whatever. I'll admit, it's flattering but I can't tell you how many times these lists are derived by a single person and looking deeper at the lists, many blogs appear that are inactive or are just plain bad. They always leave out many that should be included and in the end do little than cause controversy. I haven't linked to one of those lists in years. I appreciate a thoughtful comment much more than making a list. 

I do think that those who create the lists or awards mean well. I'm sure they either want to raise the profile of others or give recognition to those that have influenced or supported their learning. That's cool. But I think we've now reached a new way of filtering content.  Dave Weinberger talks about the power of folksnomy, tagging and personalized sorting. This is what makes the web great. Yet, our natural instinct is to rate and order and better yet,get others to agree with our rankings. I'd love great work to be promoted and shared more  but I'd like to see that done by using the tools of democracy that the web offers. Retweet like crazy, leave a comment, tell somebody but leave the rankings alone. 

We live in a metric obsessed world. Moreover, our education system is based on the ranking and ordering of students. Who's the top of the class? Who had the highest mark? Anyone involved in education know how silly that is and how it often fails to recognize many students who deserve recognition. We know our measuring tools are flawed and that at the end of the day we want our students to learn because learning is life and rankings aren't all that important. In the same way that ranking damages and can discourage those who don't get noticed, I worry we do the same for those who are just beginning to discover the power and value of sharing online. I can't imagine any teacher who introduced their students to blogging and sharing online start to have students rate and rank each other. It's hard enough to be transparent and open with your learning. To start to sort out the best from the worst borders on offensive if not unethical. If it's wrong to do with students, why would we do it with each other?  I'd hope that as educators we could model sharing, celebrating and learning that doesn't have to classified as "best", because best implies there's worst.  

This has largely been a think aloud post. I'm up for questions, clarifications or disagreements.

One of the current buzz words in the world of educational technology is “personalized learning” I’ve used it often and while it’s been used prior to the influx of technology in schools, the internet is making it more of a reality and possibility than ever before. If indeed we believe in the value of a personalized learning experience then I think we also need to consider what personalized assessment and evaluation might look like as well.

Trying to define or actualize the concept of personalized learning in schools is still a little fuzzy. Here are a few examples that I think exemplify personalized learning

Will Richardson shares the story of a high school Spanish teacher who decided his students would learn Spanish in the context of their passions or interests. For one student that meant finding a Spanish fashion designer and blogger to connect with and simply begin by reading her blog and leaving comments. Not only was this highly motivating for the student but as a bonus, the designer ended up  asking the student to help her learn English.

Chris Harbeck,  a middle school Math teacher uses something he calls “unprojects” where students demonstrate understanding in Mathematics. Chris talks about students in charge of their learning.

I’ve tried to do similar things working with pre-service teachers at the college level. Students are asked to design their own project that tie into the big themes of the course. Once they get over they get over the initial shock that I won’t be telling them what to do precisely, we begin to negotiate their projects with the intent of making it useful and meaningful. It’s not surprising that for these students, who have been part of a system that rarely acknowledged their interests, they have a difficult time accepting this freedom and choice.

One area that seems a bit behind this trend is in the area of assessment and evaluation. Too often we run into huge snags as we try and implement any type of newer pedagogy and then use traditional evaluation strategies. Quite often they are incompatible. In keeping with the spirit of personalized learning should we not consider personalized assessment? Just like personal learning, this is not easy or straightforward. Simple solutions are not apparent. However a couple of things are worth considering.

Given you may have certain outcomes and expectations, those need to be part of the learning. To attain that, students and teachers need to negotiate the content, the process and the product of the learning. The key is built in feedback loops. Whether it comes from you, their peers or outsiders, the learning needs to be done in such a way that there is lots of opportunity to revise, edit and refine. Putting this work online seems like a no-brainer in facilitating that.

A second, more interesting idea is to allow students to determine some of the weighting in regards to grades. The course I’m teaching at the moment has 3 assessments. One student was brave enough to ask me if she could have some say in these assessments. I’ve done this in the past but for some reason did not include that this term. We decided together that instead of the arbitrary grading allotments to each assessment, they would be able to, within a given range, place more emphasis on one assessment that they felt reflected their energy and time. I’m so glad the student suggested that.  Another classmate responded to the idea this way,

I have grown up in a system, that NEVER worked that way [allowing for choice], … I am so brainwashed into thinking that this is the way it is, and it can’t be changed. Just like I feel as though having a voice in assessment makes me feel empowered, which in turn will have a big influence on the way I do assessment as a future teacher.

Giving students choice in both their learning and assessment seems to be the right thing to do. I can hear some folks already saying, “yeah but what about the tests?” I don’t know the answer totally but I do know we can’t ask students to move to personal learning and then have us as their teachers own the assessment.

Do you have some ideas or examples around personalizing assessment? I would love to hear them.

“In this world in which we are so centered on metrics, those things that are not measured get left off the agenda,” he said. “You need a metric to fight a metric.”Technology brings ever more metrics. The strange thing is that nothing in them prevents us from using other lenses, too. But something in the culture now makes us bow before data and suspend disbelief. Sometimes metrics blind us to what we might with fewer metrics have seen.

I’ve been fortunate to work in an environment where metrics and hard data have only been a small portion of determining value in education. I’ve operated in work places where trust was the core value which gave me and others the ability to make decisions and target efforts that while guided by some structure, curriculum or shared goals recognized our own instincts and judgements. This is changing and while it’s not all bad, in the absence of trust, data becomes the most important part of the decision making. Lack of trust = just show me the numbers.

Chris Lehmann has often said, “Good assessment isn’t cheap”. Triangulation of evidence, combined with story represents better attempts at quality assessment. We’re still pretty bad at triangulation so we opt for single sources of evidence and try to distill judgement inside a narrow rating scale.

Telling Stories to Administrators

Stories can complicate the process. What may have been a clear cut decision to cut staffing purely on numbers, can be seen very differently because a well told story suggests that the numbers might not be enough. Stories focus on emotion and emotion matters. If you’re a parent you know exactly what I mean. Your kids can be described with metrics in any kind of a meaningful way.

What is becoming clear to me is that our jobs as educators and parents must include the ability to tell a story. We need to have a variety of ways of telling that story for different audience and in different context but we simply can’t sit back and allow metrics to take over our decision making.

… something in the culture now makes us bow before data and suspend disbelief. Sometimes metrics blind us to what we might with fewer metrics have seen.

I’m not denying the need for accountability, data and all that jazz. It has its place. But those who can tell stories in powerful, meaningful, succinct ways are going to fair far better than those who will simply allow metrics to tell their story for them. Garr Reynolds on Dan Pink:

“What begins to matter more [than mere data] is the ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.” Cognitive scientist Mark Turner calls storytelling “Narrative imagining,” something that is a key instrument of thought. We are wired to tell and to receive stories. “Most of our experiences, our knowledge and our thinking is organized as stories,” Turner says.

I’m wondering if you’re telling these stories, how you’re telling them and where you’re telling them. I’m not suggesting it’s a singular answer to making great decisions but certainly something that needs more emphasis. As classroom teachers, administrators and leaders, find a place where you can share you stories regularly. Practice telling them in different ways, using different mediums.  I think it’s critical.

I think the ideas here are going to challenge some of your thinking and give you lots to consider.

Enjoy.

Claire Thompson left this comment on a recent post pointing to Jan Smith’s classroom blog and the disclaimer that sits on the left sidebar of her blog. This is a huge issue for many teachers considering posting work online. Not only are the worried about controlling content and concerned about how others will view the quality of the work.

Typically classroom bulletin boards are dedicated to finished, edited, polished work. Most classrooms do not want to draw attention to the mistakes or efforts of their students. They are comfortable with sharing the best products but would rather hide the process. While that may be a generalization, I would argue that it’s fairly accurate.

I’ve struggled myself when it comes to helping others recognize spaces dedicated to practice and at the same time finding places to set aside work that has been created, revised and reworked. Blogs in general often get a bad name from the public because by their very nature they aren’t intended to be definitive spaces, but rather conversation starters. But of what makes blogs what they are, is the ability to elicit comments. Ideally this should include critique and feedback to enable further learning. This is where most classroom and school relate blogs fail. They do not either have enough feedback from a variety of perspectives that includes both peer and outside responses or the feedback lacks depth and specifics. Creating a culture that encourages openeness and respectful, helpful critique is challenging and requires skillful teachers determined to build this meaningful community of learners.

By the looks of things Jan Smith is trying.

I’d love a response to any or all of these questions:

What have you done or seen that helps people understand how you’re using your online learning space?

What have you done to support your students in providing critique and meaningful feedback for each other?

How have you been able to bring in outside voices to give feedback for your students?

Reposted on the TechLearning blog

Schools are text snobs. Most people reading this are text snobs. Our institutions are built around the written word. That in itself is not bad and we owe much of our culture, knowledge and understanding to the written word. It’s not our fault, we’ve been living in a world that up until a few years ago, only offered us to easily produce content via the written word. But like the revolution of the printing press, we are in the midst of a revolution of a digital nature that’s allowing us to easily create and consume context in many different forms, specifically audio, video and imagery.

So what are our schools doing to address this? I’d say for the most part very little. I must say I’m please to note that many curricula, are beginning to address this gap. In fact my own Saskatchewan Curriculum identifies these six strands as the cornerstone of the English Language Arts Curriculum: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Viewing and Representing. All are considered equal but take a wild guess as to which ones receive the bulk of the attention? No doubt that many standardized tests and assessments focus solely on reading and writing and thus perpetuate the lack of attention on the other four. But even those who are building vast digital footprints and experience the power of publishing and connecting are doing so mostly via text. Believe me, I don’t want to discount its importance and value. Writing and the written word will always hold a prominent place in our understanding and experience of life but I’m concerned over the limited use of video, audio and even imagery among teachers and leaders in our schools and in particular those who have created and are developing an online presence.

(This post continues with the following video)

(And now some audio)

In general, schools have placed writing ahead of other forms of expression. Writing is what is measured and what is valued. As we consider the changing of the guard of modern communication.  The recent marketing ploy by the Australian government to find someone to be the caretaker of an island illustrates the shifting of communication skills. Instead of simply asking applicants to write an essay, they were to submit a video to sell themselves. Consider this quote by Stephen Downes.

OK, these are videos for that contest to live on an Australian island (the contest was probably the public relations coup of the year). They are, of course, creative and imaginative and effective. Now for the kicker: ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending video communication today. Some people out there

Marco Torres get a great deal of credit and is seen as an extraordinary educator. Not that he isn’t but part of the reason Torres gets the attention is the fact that very few teachers/schools allow students to create and express themselves with video. I’d love for this to change. We need more Marco Torres’. The challenge is that most teachers who have developed their online presence is largely because of their ability to write. This continues the bias towards text over other mediums. We need kids that can write, tell a story, engage in a coherent, interesting conversation and tell stories with still and moving images. Shouldn’t we be modeling this? Who’s going to teach them?

The concept of student involved assessment is hard to deny as a powerful learning practice. Students taking care of their own learning and being able to use meta-cognition to dissect understanding and progress and seek ideas and support to learn more. The work of Rick Stiggins and others provides extensive research into this practice as the most important component leading to student achievement.

Whether or not you’ve done any study of this concept, this video does more than about anything I’ve seen recently to support this notion. (via Will Richardson)

I apologize if youtube is blocked at your school but allow me to offer some insights as to why this is a great example of student involved assessment at its best.

First the young boy demonstrates what he already knows. Using a simple video camera he models and speaks to his current level of understanding. Second he identifies what he doesn’t know, not simply by saying he doesn’t know but by offering some suggestions about what might be wrong but questioning his methodology. And here’s where it gets interesting. Instead of him floundering around with the people in his local vicinity who may not be able to help him he reaches out. Reading the comments below the video you’ll see at this writing 10 comments that are very likely going to allow him to learn more. Lest you think this is some obscure example, the first time I viewed this there were only just over 100 views. That’s pittance in youtube terms. Anyone can get 100 views but that’s all it took for learning to happen.

I do know that a teacher helped him learn this. I don’t if that "teacher" works in a school but he definitely was taught. It’s not simply a matter of posting a video and awaiting responses, this video was tagged and categorized very well. Without this understanding, it’s unlikely that he would get 10 quality answers. It’s not at all surprising to me that people are willing to share their knowledge and help him out. I experience that everyday as part of living in a connected way via social networks.

This represents some of the best ways to help classroom teachers and students understand the power and value of technology. I realize this boy never thought much about what he was doing with technology beyond helping him figure out how to start a fire. As a teacher it would be very easy to assess his understanding but more importantly HE COULD assess his understanding and create his own path to learn more. Now, what if all kids did this?

Because of institutional requirements and societal norms, I’m required to give you a grade. This grade falls between 0-100 and in some way is intended to inform you and others how well you did in this course. The importance that number is given is appalling. While I do my best to provide you with some outcomes, indicators, rubrics and feedback I still feel my assessment of your learning is fairly trivial or at best a thin slice  indicator of what you’ve learned.  I realize many would love to believe that the number or grade you get is pure, accurate and will provide future instructors, institutions or employers an indication of your proficiency, understanding or knowledge. If anyone of these groups were to ask me about you, I could tell them what I’ve seen and observed. That may have value, the grade, not so much.

I also recognized that many of you took charge of your own learning, asking to change assignments, finding alternatives and creating meaning for yourselves. That’s what I wanted. While it wasn’t really an “anything goes” approach we were able to negotiate some ideas about what would be valuable for you to pursue inside the broad goals and guidelines of this class.

At the beginning of the term I told you I had 4 goals for you. I wanted you to see that:

• Learning is social and connected
• Learning is personal and self-directed
• Learning is shared and transparent
• Learning is rich in content and diversity

I hope I succeeded in that. Don’t rank me from 0-100 but provide me with feedback and ideas to make me a better teacher.

As I’ve told you before, you all are the winners in our current system of education. You’ve come through 12+ years of education understanding what it takes to do well in school and please others. There’s nothing wrong with this in principle, however if that’s all this class is, and the other classes you take, that seems like a waste. That system may have worked for you but it doesn’t work for everyone and certainly continuing to aid students in playing the game of school needs to stop. Personalizing learning and being able to take away clear and not so clear understandings, skills and ideas is what really matters. That doesn’t mean we don’t have to learn specific knowledge and skills but we have to move beyond that. I know that for most of you, you did.

So if you look at that number and it doesn’t make sense to you, I apologize. I try like crazy to make it meaningful but always get frustrated trying to make that happen. In the end, you tell me, what you learned. I would love to be like this guy and give you all A’s. Ranking you makes little sense to me. Helping and guiding you to become better at what you want to do is something I’m deeply committed to. I’m hoping I was able to do that and that we didn’t’ let a little thing like a number get in the way. Your challenge as future educators is to figure out how to minimize the meaning of that number and get your students to learn inspite of that. That won’t be easy. Will we ever have schools that truly model and commit to lifelong learning? I realize I’m dreaming but wouldn’t it be great if we could just learn because we want to?  Idyllic, I know but it’s worth pursuing.

Still learning.

Dean

ecmp355, assessment, grading

In the 2000 United States Open at Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods stood on the 18th tee in the second round and had just hit his tee shot into the Pacific Ocean. The TV cameras showed a disgusted Woods slam his club to the ground and reach out his hand to caddie Steve Williams to request another ball. Woods then proceeded to hit a perfect and went on to win the tournament and broke a scoring record in the process. What you didn’t know was because of a number of circumstances, that was the last ball in Woods’ bag. If he had hit that ball into the water, he would have been disqualified. Knowing the inside scoop adds intrigue and context to already exciting event.

With the opening of baseball season just around the corner I was thinking back to one of my favorite shows as a child, Inside Baseball. As much as I loved to watch the games themselves, I was fascinated by the stories and that took me inside the locker room and practice field to learn more about my heroes. Hearing Rod Carew talk about how he stole home four times in one year, having Bruce Sutter show how he threw a split fingered fastball all helped to make the game more interesting and meaningful. The more I knew about the players, the more I appreciated their on field accomplishments.

Today, DVD’s usually offer bonus sections on the “making of” the movie. We have many more opportunities to see process and get insights of artists and storytellers we previously only could imagine. While much of the magic and mystery may be gone, it certainly helps us better understand the finished product.

So what’s this got to do with learning and technology?

I”m currently teaching first year university students and require them to blog. There are many benefits for having them blog but I’ve found it to be one of the greatest ways I’ve been able to get into the thinking and process of my their learning. Asking them to describe their learning and thought process provides me with insight not only to appreciate their efforts but to inform my instruction and decide on what further supports I can provide to take them to the next level. This technology remains a powerful way for learners to reflect and share their thinking on a variety of endeavors. As much as teachers and schools say that process is as important as product, this often is more lip service than practice. Process takes time and talking about learning can be tiresome. The transparency of blogs make this a shared experience that no doubt can provide all students a greater opportunity to learn from each other. The advent of blogs in schools often is deployed as a way to bring technology into schools. That’s the wrong reason. I recently read this quote on Doug Johnson’s blog:

At a conference last week, Mark Weston from Dell computing stated that asking the question, “Does technology improve student learning?” is the wrong question. The question should be, “Does technology support the practices that improve student learning?”

That is a better question. In this case, a student blog can support the practices of feedback loops and student reflection not to mention the ability to connect with those outside the classroom that may be able to provide deeper and more valuable feedback than the teacher or classmates. While the final products our students create are important, getting the inside scoop and allowing places for us to explore ideas often provides a direct view not easily replicated in other ways. Having a place to explain in greater detail how a concept was formed or a product was developed in many cases is the more interesting part.

As professionals, it becomes a space to test out theories, share successes and failures and build relationships. Inside learning.

As we continue to see many join the publishing world, our role is not only to learn how to filter out the noise but to teach our students to be transparent in meaningful ways. Using blogs and other spaces to provide insights of deep, thoughtful reflection moves away from simply playing with the technology but truly uses it to support the practices that improve student learning.

amberblow, dougjohnson

Content is Everywhere

So when sites like this emerge it simply highlights the reality that students should never have to settle for  second rate educational content.  If I were teaching Physics, I would be crazy not to invite Walter Lewin into my classroom at some point.  An economics or political science class could utilze the works of Alan Blight.  And while it might be easy to say, textbooks also provide a level of expertise, a well-crafted lecture or better yet a live Q and A with the author is a game changer.

So as I ponder what this should and could l00k like, I think about how that changes my role as a teacher. Again, this is not a new conversation but when you have to live it, it truly changes how you feel about education.   I still love to teach, which can be defined as direct instruction or lecture. There are times when that’s important and the right approach. But I don’t need to feel compelled to prepare a session on web-based storytelling, or podcasting or educational gaming. Others are much better qualified and passionate to teach my students. So while I often brag about being a lazy professor, I’m not all that lazy, just resourceful.

Content isn’t Everything

But again, simple access to great content in a variety of formats is not the only thing we need. Wes Fryer’s review of Bill Gates recent Ted talk addresses this issue:

In his speech, think Bill made a contradictory error in asserting that through access to digital videos of “the best teachers” our students “can have the best teachers.” Simply having access to high-quality video content will not provide our students with the GREAT teachers which Bill Gates correctly asserts our students need and deserve. In addition to good content knowledge, what makes great teachers great is their ability to cultivate relationships with their students. Certainly there are many students who don’t “need” a professional relationship with their teachers or instructors in order to “do well” in academic terms in school. But how about those students in “the lower quartile?” How about those students in alternative educational settings, for whom the “traditional school system” has not worked? Do you think those students simply need access to Academic Earth online? Having more choices about the ways they access content and demonstrate their own mastery IS an important part of differentiated learning, and students at all levels should have those options. Providing great teachers for our students means far more than simply providing access to high quality video lectures, however. It means investing in and supporting teachers who care, understand, and relate to their students so they can encourage, challenge, and support them in their own individualized journeys of learning.

What was formerly seen as nice, but not necessary, must now be first and foremost: teachers who care and relate to students. Teachers who will seek out what specific needs each student has and leads them in the right direction. What great lectures and content can never provide is relationship and caring.  I don’t necessarily define caring and relationship as a seen in the movies, but rather someone who recognizes that their job is to create opportunity for students to not only learn content but pursue and find their passions.  While that may seem like rhetoric, to me it’s become my mantra. I see all my students as desiring to be teachers,  I see all the teachers I work with as teachers desiring to be better.  I realize that may not always be the case, but that’s the premise I begin with.

What Should I Call Myself?

Clarence’s metaphor of teacher as network administrator gains relevance for me many days. My inbox is full of questions from students and teachers wondering how to do this and where to find that and I regularly lead them to others in their current network as resources.  I’m quite pleased with the ways I’ve been able to find mentors for my students. They will learn so much more from the teachers that I could possibly offer on my own. In addition, I’m the lead in providing feedback, not the only one as I encourage and require my students to provide feedback and critique for each other. Will’s theme about being a learner first has also captured my imagination. “Lead learner” is something that feels right but not sure it depicts exactly how I see myself.

I’ve already admitted I do many things that may not be according to the textbook, but I feel like I’m more comfortable in my role. While some reading this might find it fluffy or inconsequential, it’s important for me to provide a definition and title to what I do. Teacher, brings with it too many perspectives to which I no longer subscribe.  Again, I still “teach” but it has to be more than that. I teach, I lead, I learn, I share, I encourage, I critique, I monitor, I connect, I care, I model.

I’m still looking for a name for what I do. Teacher is okay, but as I redefine what it means to teach, I’d like a different title.

Graph by Jessica Hagy
http://thisisindexed.com/2009/01/another-reason-the-internet-has-saved-many-a-butt/

There was a lot of talk of big picture thinking and encouraging teachers to reflect on why they teach what they teach. Early on someone mentioned the goals of education. With some recent discussions on the purpose of education, I thought it pertinent to look up the 9 goals of education for students in Saskatchewan.

Basic Skills

• Read, write and compute

• Acquire information and meaning through observing, listening, reading and experiencing

• Process information through intellectual and technological means

• Solve problems by applying basic principles and processes of the sciences, arts and humanities

• Communicate ideas through written and spoken language, mathematical symbols and aesthetic expression

Life-Long Learning

• Seek and value learning experiences

• Act as self-reliant learners

• Base actions on the knowledge that it is necessary to learn throughout life

Understanding and Relating to Others

• Act on the belief that each individual is worthwhile

• Base actions on the recognition that people differ in their values, behaviours and lifestyles

• Interact and feel comfortable with others who are different in race, religion, status or personal attributes

• Develop a sense of responsibility toward others

Career and Consumer Decisions

• Develop an awareness of career opportunities

• Develop interests and abilities in relation to vocational expectations

• Adapt to shifts in employment patterns and technology

• Make informed consumer decisions

Growing with Change

• Work toward immediate and long-term goals

• Base actions on an understanding that change is a natural process in society

• Select workable alternatives in response to changing conditions

• Develop confidence in making decisions that involve risk

Membership in Society

• Assume responsibility for their own actions

• Work with others to achieve individual and group goals

• Participate in the democratic processes of government and perform the duties of citizenship

• Respect the rights and property of others

• Act with honesty, integrity, compassion and fairness

• Develop a sense of national pride and acknowledge the need for international understanding

• Work toward greater social justice

• Assume responsibility for dependent persons in a manner consistent with their needs

• Respect law and authority

• Exercise the right of dissent responsibly

Self-Concept Development

• Perceive themselves in a positive way

• Appreciate their own abilities and limitations

• Set and work toward personal goals

• Assess praise and criticism realistically

• Present themselves with confidence

Positive Lifestyle

• Practise appropriate personal hygiene, engage in sufficient physical activity, and maintain a nutritionally balanced diet

• Avoid harmful use of alcohol and other drugs

• Cultivate interests that may be the basis for personal development and leisure pursuits

• Recognize the importance of productive activity

• Display initiative and pursue tasks diligently

• Maintain a safe and healthful community

• Respect and seek to enhance the environment

• Appreciate beauty in its many natural and constructed forms

• Express themselves creatively

Spiritual Development

• Seek an understanding of the purpose and worth of human existence

• Develop a knowledge of God

• Respect family, religion and culture in a pluralistic society

This looks decent. A balanced approach to education. But if you dropped into any of our schools or most of yours,  you might find most doing a good job on the first goal but pretty pathetic on the others. Oh there are some hits and misses in the other areas but the message that is sent to students, teachers and parents is that basic skills, and specifically reading, writing and math, are most important and the others are nice, but not necessary. I’m frustrated by the lack of focus on health, arts education and character education. I’ve already ranted about that. This rant simply states that we don’t walk the talk.

I am pleased that most of our leaders seem to believe in this balanced approached, but our infrastructure doesn’t support it. Specifically, school divisions in Saskatchewan are now accountable for something called the CIF (Continuous Improvement Framework) Schools are asked to identify goals which promote:

• student achievment
• equitable opportunities
• Smooth transitions into and through the system; and,
• Strong system-wide accountability and governance.

I don’t really care all that much about the last one but the first two goals in particular have been focused largely on reading and math. Not because people believe the other areas of a balanced curriculum aren’t important, but because we can more easily measure them. At least that’s my perspective. Isn’t that a great reason? It’s not easy to measure positive lifestyles or membership in society.

I’m not blaming our province, they have produced some quality documents and framework for education. I’m not blaming our school division, they feel pressure to produce measurable results for stakeholders. I’m not blaming teachers, they’re just operating under the current system.

Maybe I’m blaming everyone?

Good plan. Poor execution.
photo credit: Foxtongue

I also asked what ideas/resources they will continue to use. Here are a couple of responses.

• I’m not to sure what I will continue to use as time goes on, but I do know that I appreciated my blog, but I don’t always have stuff to say so I will like not being marked on the content. I will also continue to use my Igoogle I have created as well as all of the other aspects of google. They will be significant in the classroom.
• Google: igoogle, reader, earth, maps; I will continue to visit the classes I was mentoring; I will hopefully keep up with my blog; i will have a class blog in my classroom, and use the computers there often once I’m teaching; this class helped me to become familiar with many, many things regarding technology in the class, and lots of the tech tasks helped me to figure out how to do things that I will be more confident doing again; I also learned how to use some things I had used before better and in different ways; I have become more comfortable and familiar with blogging; I really enjoyed this class!!! I liked being at home, and learning so many new and useful things! Thanks so much Dean!!!

I asked what I could do to improve the course.

• I think that having the blog worth so much is kind of stressful. I think that a blog is something that takes adjusting to and having to do it so much caused me a lot of frustration because I didn’t always have stuff to say which kind of hurt my mark a little bit. I think that three hours a night was kind of rough to, I mean you can only stay interested for so long, and at night time there is always other homework that needs to be done so it caused a bit of frustration.
• It was a great course, but if we could have more knowledge of our marks or the marking structure as we go along, that would be really helpful.
• The blogging expectations seemed high like I didnt know how to meet the standards for the highest ones (of course aiming for the highest… but couldn’t possibly)
• To inform the students of blogging other than tech tasks right away as well as his expectations for blogging right away
• More time in the classroom at the beginning of the class to make sure all students were on the same page. Maybe go through things like smart boeads more as well.
• Dean’s great! i love the final project was so personal and flexible. I think there was a lot of assignments. I didn’t have time for everything. huge work load. but very worth it!
• explain clearer in the beginning about blogging: the min. # needed each week, and for commenting as well min. #, also about having non-tech task blogs and how they don’t count for the required number, maybe give some ideas of things you could blog about, maybe show some past students blogs; Maybe a few less tech tasks; maybe have one more face to face in the beginning of the semester so people can put faces to names/voices/blogs (i still don’t know some people from their face but i do know them from their blog/name/voice)
• not as many tech tasks so we are able to focus and learn from each one more.  I found the more tech tasks there were the quality of work for each assignment was not as high.

Having to teach again in a couple weeks, I already know a few things I’ll do differently.  Certainly I was unclear regarding my blogging expectations and perhaps weighted it too heavily. As much as I find value in reflecting and having a clear web presence, for many this was a challenge. The dilemma I have is that I need to have some mechanism to observe their reflections and thinking. Perhaps there is another way? Not everyone is going to want to blog as they enter the classroom but I do want everyone to share. This is where I’m still struggling. The mentorship and guest speakers continue to be a highlight as well as the pecha kucha night. I also need to rethink how to spend 3 hours in one sitting online. Even the best speakers can likely only hold attention for 30-40 minutes. I need to offer more interactivity and take advantage of breakout rooms inside Elluminate. One of the best classes we had was on bullying where students broke into groups to tell their stories. With a short turn around time, I may not have time to change much and I’m not sure I need to. This term I hope to work closely with Alec who will be teaching an advanced level of the course but we think we can combine a number of ideas.

What types of mechanisms to you use to improve as a teacher? Do you have great evaluation form? Any suggestions for me?

Last night was so much fun. We had our final class and it was face to face. We had to create a slideshow with fifteen slides each lasting fifteen seconds. It was challenging but lots of fun. Our presentations were all about what we learned over the semester and thinking back really put the semester in perspective for me. Wow have I ever learned a lot.

There is no way I would have stood up in front of a room full of my peers (younger people yes, same or older no) and did a presentation. But last night I felt no fear at all. I know everyone so well even though I have hardly ever seen most of them face to face.

I think the best part of last night was just sitting around eating pizza and talking. I think that is why face to face is so great there’s just something more to talking to someone that way then there is online. I think the people you meet face to face are sometimes very different from the online people. At least my impressions of people were different than the person I actually met. (I never really look at the about me pages just what pops up in my google reader) It’s interesting, I wonder what impression my blog gives about me?

Another student told me:

…this is my only university class that I know every student by name, and know at least one important thing about them.  This is really weird, because I wouldn’t have been able to do that even in high school.

Social learning is a clearly stated goal in my class. The fact that they know each other better stems solely from the ability to connect and learn beyond the walls of the classroom. In addition, although I may not have outlined specifically how they should engage in learning socially, they all were able to provide reflection indicating they were at least aware of its power.

My own experience with meeting people at conferences and having great conversations outside of the formal sessions reaffirm that face to face is good and necessary and in many ways real reason and value of a physical place where people gather. I believe it was Kevin Honeycutt who said, “it was the first time I’d met someone’s brain before I met their face”.  Being together is really what my class is about. But the richness of conversations and willingness to be open and transparent is difficult to foster in 3 hours a week where much of that learning is teacher directed. I think the model developed by Jonathon Bergmann and Aaron Samms is one we’ll likely see more of in the future. Coming to school to do homework and learning with others.

As is typical, this post begins with reading Will. While I can’t say to any more certainty what the future of school will completely look like, I do believe that the opportunity for students to learn from each and others will be more than just rhetoric which it pretty much is now.

People in the same room talking, sharing, laughing and learning happens because of numerous hours spent getting to know each other and their brains away from class.

“Teachers will not take up attractive-sounding ideas, albeit based on extensive research, if these are presented as general principles which leave entirely to them the task of translating them into everyday practice … what they need is a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can derive conviction and confidence that they can do better and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice”
Black, P. and William,D. Inside the Black Box: Raising standards through classroom assessment, King’s College, London, England. 1998, 15-16

This quote reminds me to work harder at finding living examples of what best or better practice means. Last week I spent 2 days with teachers looking at Project Based Learning and how to embed it deeply into practice. Much of our discussion focused on a video used by our presenters showing a classroom and teacher in action. Discussions were rich and meaningful.  We’re working really hard to insure that professional development includes and is built around followup. In a month, we’ll be gathering virtually to share our progress and further our understandings. Sharing artifacts of learning is challenging at times. Finding time to write up something or even provide background to student work can be time consuming.

To help support this, I ran out at lunch and picked up Flip videos for all participant teams. The intent is that teachers will be easily be able to capture learning and share it with each other.  I’m hoping to piece together these clips eventually to create something that would clearly represent what Project Based Learning looks like in our district. 

I use this video a lot when I make the case for digital storytelling.

“…they need a variety of living examples of implementation, by teachers with whom they can identify and from whom they can derive conviction and confidence that they can do better and see concrete examples of what doing better means in practice.”

I’ll stop talking now.

projectbasedlearning, galileo, black&william, flipvideo

Yesterday's blog post was eerily similar to the one I wrote about the same conference a year earlier. Even the title was the same. I'm starting to steal from myself.  After a conversation with a disgruntled principal I realized I had had the same thought a year earlier. I still basically feel the same way.
 

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.

There are around 800 leaders from around the province and again, I just think the big picture of student engagement in authentic, relevant learning isn't being emphasized.  Every example of effective assessment seems to focus on Math. Why? Is it because Math is linear and easily reduced to a numerical value of learning?  Ken Robinson videos keep playing in my mind.  Our province's best work was released in 1989 called Common Essential Learnings or CELs. These things matter.  I'm sure I'm just in one of those moods but I just think we have to talk about what matters most. As I say above (is it bad when you start to quote yourself?), are we just getting better at what we've been doing for the past 50 years?  

aheadofthecurve, assessment, kenrobinson

The day was well crafted by Ewan that included a series of short presentation type deliveries followed by opportunity to discuss and play.

As a group, we decided these were the most important ideas from the morning:

1. R & D is for everyone
2. Building Shared Awareness
3. Remix the curricula
4. Balance between structure and flexibility, saturation and overload
5. Importance of rules in play

The afternoon was spent exploring gaming and the concept of gaming as a learning tool.

One participant summarized his learning this way, “One mistake I’ve made is I’ve never played with a computer”. This was a telling statement about how we view ourselves as learners.

Lots of ideas were explored and my goal was that folks left willing to continue to innovate, explore, learn and share. Not entirely new but a fresh set of eyes always helps.

Working out a New Game photo: by Ewan Mcintosh

We met 12 times, 8 online and 4 in person. You can see the course outline here if you login as guest you’ll have full access.

Students were evaluated in five areas:

• 25% on weekly Tech Tasks
• 25% on their blog
• 25% on a final project
• 10% on Blogging Mentorship
• 15% on Social Learning

Tech Tasks

These were simply assignments in using the various tools we explored in class. Podcasting, setting up various accounts, watching and responding to K12 online sessions and digital storytelling were a few of the task. There were 13 in total. We spent our synchronous time considering pedagogy and for many of them the struggle was in the technology. The challenge of distance learning means you have less control over things like what software students have and their ability to download plugins and troubleshoot. One student struggled for quite sometime until a friend of hers realized she didn’t have Service Pack 2 installed. Students were basically given 20/25 for completion of the tasks and the other marks were subjective to the quality of the work.

Many students commented on the challenge of this but it also provided something very specific for them to work on. The balance between desktop and online applications is important. I may change some of the tasks but the concept works well.

Blogging

As many remarked during their self evaluations, this was a big stretch. Forced blogging is never the best way, however in a distance setting, this becomes my window into their learning. I encouraged them not only to reflect on class discussions but to chronicle their learning in other areas. It was powerful to watch the growth of my students in this. I realize most will drop their blogs the minute the course ends but others have said they’ll likely continue. Obviously a big hook for them was the comments for others within the class but in particular from those outside. The really saw the power of linking as they reviewed the k12 sessions and a number of the presenters were led to their reviews and left comments. I’m also coming to accept the fact that blogging isn’t for everyone but sharing is.

I’ll likely not change much in this area. Perhaps some more deliberate mentorships outside the class as well as focusing more deeply on exemplary blogs.

Final Projects

While most are still out there, the struggle here was the open-ended nature of the assignment. I strongly encouraged students to combine this with the work in another class. This seemed to make the most sense. About half the students have choose this route.

Grading will be tough as it’s difficult to rubricize the varying projects. Everything from live presentations, videos, wikis, podcasts is challenging to assess. I need to do a better job developing the assessment up front. Perhaps I’ll steal a page out of Chris Lehmann’s approach to projects.

Blogging Mentorship

I wanted my students to gain some experience inside a classroom in a virtual way. I invited these teachers to open up their classrooms to my students:

• Maria Knee (Kindergarten, NH)
• Lisa Parisi (Grade 5, NY)
• Kathy Cassidy (Grade 1, SK)
• Sandi Kerney (Grade 6/7, SK)
• Erin Remple (Calculus, MB)
• Clay Burell (English, South Korea)

These teachers graciously introduced themselves briefly to my students after Vicki Davis provided a context for what a globally connected classroom might look like. The success rate of this aspect of my course had the most variance. Partly due to the students efforts but more due to the set up. Many students were disappointed that these students never responded to them. My continual nattering about blogs as conversations, led them to believe everyone, including 6 year olds, think the same way. In fairness, both Kathy and Lisa have a large number of mentors and it becomes difficult for their students to respond. However, there were some outstanding successes. One of my students had a skype conference with Maria’s class. The impact for her, will be long lasting. I had two other students who stepped out of their comfort zone and had some very positive results. Although none of my students had any experience in calculus, one of my students emailed Erin and ventured into her class and provided some very insightful comments. Clay was very clear he was not interested in any type of forced mentorship. Because of the nature of his student’s work I had a difficult time helping my students understand his intentions. Yet one of my students did venture out and again, had a very powerful experience with one of his. I also know that Clay emailed her to encourage her. I want to thank all these great teachers for participating. Your willingness to share will have long term impact on these young people.

I have lots to think through on this assignment. Certainly the concept is good but the execution might require a bit more planning. I really didn’t line up these teachers until shortly before we began. I also wonder about the more focus on tutoring/mentoring one or two students rather than trying to spatter comments throughout the class.

Social Learning

If there was one area I emphasized throughout this course it was the importance of social learning. More so than any course they’d likely take, the expectation was they would learn together. Whether they were asking questions, answering them, commenting on each other’s blogs, texting each other or visiting each other in person, I asked them to document the way in which they contributed and received help from each other.

Other than the format and details of how they assessed this, this was truly a critical component of the class. Even their commenting progressed from “nice post” to challenging each other’s ideas. Certainly most classes don’t require much in this way. Perhaps the odd group work project but not as running thread.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy working with these young people. Most of them will make outstanding teachers because they already recognize they are learners first. My main themes continue to drive my class and I hope many of theirs as well.

• Learning is social and connected
• Learning is personal and self-directed
• Learning is shared and transparent
• Learning is rich in content and diversity

Show notes:

Dan’s Assessment stuff 

TMO’s blog

[tags]danmeyer,darrenkuropatwa,math,assessment[/tags]

Simplicity, planning, innovation, constraints and whitespace all are used. Yes, they use some green screen but really, it’s about storytelling. My son played director and  producer and his buddy did the editing. When asking about ideas, he said it came from watching movies, playing video games and tv.  This is why demanding students to talk about movies like we ask them to talk about books is critical. Students should be as fluent talking about video as they are about writing. We’re so text bias as schools, that it makes it difficult to even understand what is a well crafted, design piece of multimedia. And while I think we need more examples of student work, I think there are so many in the real world, but we don’t look deeply at what makes them work. That’s what these guys did.

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To me, social capital, or perhaps there’s a better term, is a quantifiable measure of contributions to one’s social network. So a few things have arose as of late that sparks an interest in this for me.

• Will’s recent post on Pocket Texting and the idea of “knowledge power” points. We have seen the use of ratings on sites like experts-exchange and other sites where the usefulness of one’s answers ranks them higher and in some cases produces economic benefits.
• Tweeterboard. I hadn’t even heard of this until this tweet a few days ago. So for the past few days I’ve tried to figure out how in the world this works and what’s the significance? First of all it appears to be a random sampling of twitter so that needs to be considered but the idea is basically a combination of quantity, shared links and exchanges with others.
  

  They’re calculated using some algorithmic mojo that resembles the link analysis algorithms used by search engines. Your reputation points are based on the conversations you’ve had over the last 28 days, which means your score can jump around a lot.

• A conversation I had with Ewan Mcintosh about a company, (maybe Ewan can add the link) that is developing their own algorithm that measures social capital within their business. He mentioned things like identifying writing and work that has been reused or tagged several times and looking at the usefulness, sharing,commenting of one’s work inside a company. Ewan’s thinking about how this might be used to measure the work and value of Scotland’s student bloggers.
• My continued pursuit of a higher commpost rating.

So while tools like Technorati provide some degree of measure, there’s so much more than comprises social capital. How might we assess, our total online portfolio? The fact that many are involved in dozens of communities from flickr, youtube,facebook,blogs,wikis, the whole sha-bang would require some fancy mathematical calculations. I’m guessing it would include things like: the number of communities you’re actively involved with (which means “active” must be defined) numbers of tagged pieces of content by others, number of other’s work you’ve remixed, comments, IM’s…the list goes on.

Teachers are excited when I show them simple things like the history feature of wikis that track student work. The sophistication of some of these tools to measure the depth of conversations and contributions seems to be increasing.  While in many jurisdictions the importance of standardized testing seems to preclude many discussions around the value of social capital I think there is some real ripeness for some of our schools to utilize tools that could measure social capital. I’m guessing that so would many businesses. Not that that is the ultimate goal but like Will watches his gas gauge on his Prius perhaps our kids could get excited about watching their social capital points rise. Or does that miss the point totally? I’m just wondering.

Technorati Tags: willrichardson, heatherross, rickschweir, edtechposse, twitter, ewanmcintosh

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