Yet we do very little to achieve that goal. 

One of my favorite moments over the past several years was having a teacher write me about some of the changes she was making in her classroom. She described a shift of handing the reigns of learning over to students and moving from doing everything to as she put it:

Talk about engaged learning. I could be sitting at the back quilting!! They are helping each other, going above and beyond any expectations I have.

Of course she didn't sit at that back of the room quilting, but it does illustrate that her role as teacher at the front, in control of the learning had shifted. There are many new roles she will now have to embrace. I think there are some similarities for all types of classrooms but in particular I've been wondering how the gradual release of responsibility should look in our K-12 schools. In many cases, students have more freedom and control of learning in our Kindergarten classes than in our Grade 12 classrooms. That's both odd and disturbing. 

As parents, I would hope that our goal is to help increase independence and self sufficiency as our children get older. When they're 3 we hold their hand as we cross the street, talk to them about traffic, how to look both ways, etc. At 5-6 we might stand at a safe distance and watch them practice and cross the street on less busy sections. Hopefully by the time they are 8-10 they can do this on their own. We repeat this gradual release of responsibility in many facets of parenting. Certainly this varies depending on your parenting style, beliefs and disposition, but in general, all parents are trying to get their kids to be relatively independent adults by the time they reach 18ish. 

Yet our schools can't seem to get this for the most part. Instead of giving students more control and independence in many ways we decrease it. Sure in our high schools we offer electives but beyond that, there's very little intention about helping students become these life long learners we talk about. Part of this issue is the antiquated structure of high schools. At least in K-8 environments, teachers have the ability to reduce the impact of time which allows for the potential of project based learning, which at its core and at its best is student driven. I'm still amazed at the "rigor" around assignment choice at the high school level. Too often there is little room for choice or option. We even take away their cell phones in order to maintain control. I'm astonished at the unwillingness to even engage students in a process of decision making. Couldn't we at the very least have a conversation with students? Students leave high school without being true independent learners. As Stephen Downes says:

We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves. It is time, in other words, that we change out attitude toward learning and the educational system in general.

We're not having enough conversations around this idea. Partly because I don't think enough educators even believe this. Our institutions, our jobs have been designed to maintain that status quo. The status quo for schools is, "come here, listen to us, mind your own business, do what we tell you and we'll give you a diploma". That's the current deal. It's largely our structure that maintains this but what we often see as our best results are continuing to feed this system.

I see many of these same students enter university. These are the best students, the ones who were most compliant (that's another issue but related) and high achievers. Many of these students are still highly dependent on a teacher to learn. Too many still don't own their learning. Besides a lack of choice, we've made them dependent on grades as well. if we truly believe in life long learning we have to be much more diligent in emphasizing learning for learning's sake, not for a grade. My experience tells me there is very little that happens in school that makes this message clear. Just like parenting, we all go through the anxiety of allowing our children to choose, allowing them to fail and allowing them to feel success and discovery on their own. 

As a parent of four, I know I'll always be a parent. In that respect, I'm not really working myself out of a job.  But my role has to change somewhat. My influence changes as does the relationship. Instead of helping them cross the street, I'm advising them on buying a car. 

So what should and could and are we doing to develop life long, independent learners? What does gradual release of responsibility look like in our K-12 schools? Maybe we are doing something about it, I'm just not seeing it.

Photo: by shareski http://www.flickr.com/photos/shareski/209122376/

My wife, after spending the last 10 years as a teacher librarian is back in the classroom. She's doing a fantastic job and has committed to share her students work through her blog. I set her up with posterous and it's working really well. She's posted more than once a day sharing photos, videos and is getting great feedback from students and parents. She'll be shifting to students posting their own work soon. 

She told me interesting story today. Each week she does a little warm up activity called "Minute to Win It". She draws names out of a hat to determine the order. Today she realized that the one student that would not get picked today would not take it well. She knew the student  was going to cry.  Just as she was about to film the other student, the water works began with loud wailing. My wife turned to the student and said, "Do you want people on the internet to see you crying?" She was shocked when the student immediately stopped crying. She didn't need to say another word. She didn't think it would make that much of a difference but it did. Later the 8 year old came to her and said, "Did you erase the part where I was crying?"

​​It doesn't mean that 8 year olds should not be allowed to cry or show emotion. They absolutely should. But the idea that we see value in learning in public, even at 8 is an increasingly important idea for all. There's a time and place to cry act like a kid. But even kids need to understand there are times to "be on". A blog is a good place for that. 

If you don't think that kids get digital identity, guess again. This child goes home every night and sees all classmates and themselves online. They realize it's a public place and wants to show their best selves. A good lesson to consider, even at 8. 

Why would you Skype someone involved “in the process?” What process? Who? State legislators? What are they likely to tell a student that can’t be found out in a book or article?

The connections you speak of, now matter how much you yearn for them may be as inauthentic as the task itself. Perhaps they just make a task nobody cares about even more arduous. The “you can use Google ____ or Skype with someone” suggestions have become as automatic and meaningless as when a politician says, “We need to pay teachers more, but hold them accountable.”

To be fair, Gary's comments here were about a broader issue and he goes on to discuss it in more detail. For me the striking comment that “skyping someone in” is often a automatic response to trying to demonstrate you have a classroom that “gets it” gave me pause to think. While I applaud teachers who consider this strategy, without thought and purpose it has no more value or impact that asking a parent or principal to randomly come talk to your class.

But today was a day where I saw Skype used in a truly authentic, powerful and yet quite unassuming way. Much like a pop-in. On the surface it was a class in the small town of Mortlach, Saskatchewan talking with students in Philadelphia, PA. Depending on who you ask that may or not be all that remarkable. The technology was pretty straightforward. A laptop, webcam, and a projector. Call someone up and start talking. Today we can longer attempt to think that that requires any degree of skill. it doesn't. Unless you have some type of fear mongering administrator or IT person weary of Skype, or an unwilling teacher, every classroom can and should have the capability. no training required.

Allow me to deconstruct this for you.

A week ago, Zac Chase of SLA posted a wonderful recording on his blog of some students in a task he calls Story Slam. I listened to it and immediately shared it with my own kids and then thought of a teacher in my district that I knew would love this idea. I shared it with her and without asking permission, I suggested that Zac might be able to have his kids and him Skype in and share this. Which brings us to today.

What I witnessed was a group of students sharing a couple of stories and learning about an idea. The students from SLA talked about what story slam involves, students in Mortlach asked a few questions and in turn shared a story too. A brief pop-in that later led to more conversations about storytelling, inspiration, encouragement and learning in a very natural way.

The untold story here is how a conversation like this can even happen. There's a story of networks and connections, a willingness for one teacher to publicly share practice and student work and another teaching actively seeking a better learning experience for her students. I'll take partial credit for the networking and connections. Part of my job is to connect learners.

The willingness of a teacher to share allows me to even know that this good work and good idea exists. Can I once again implore everyone to please share your work? It matters.

Finally, a teacher who sees herself as a learner, wants great things for her students and is open to ideas that will help them finished the story.

All these pieces were necessary for this to take place. This is no flat classroom type project, no massive project based learning example, just some teachers and students interested in storytelling and a desire to get better.

So Skype, for Skype's sake is just superfluous. This is about way more than technology. It isn't just about technology, but in some ways, it is.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/4766403166/

]]> http://ideasandthoughts.org/2011/03/28/the-anatomy-of-a-skype-call/feed/ 0 http://ideasandthoughts.org/2011/01/20/learning-to-learn/ http://ideasandthoughts.org/2011/01/20/learning-to-learn/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:49:07 +0000 Dean Shareski http://ideasandthoughts.org/?p=1235 I've had the privilege of spending a few days in Shelley Wright's Classroom.  Her blog has been a breath of fresh air this year as she has been taking some major steps in changing her classroom.  Watching her students and her interact and find their way was not necessarily a smooth and perfect transition. She [...]]]> I've had the privilege of spending a few days in Shelley Wright's Classroom.  Her blog has been a breath of fresh air this year as she has been taking some major steps in changing her classroom.  Watching her students and her interact and find their way was not necessarily a smooth and perfect transition. She would be the first to admit there's a long way to go. 

When you take 35 minutes of interviews and try to condense it to around 5 minutes, you risk leaving out key ideas or making ideas flow. I used snippets from her blog to frame the video and then allowed her and her students to speak more directly about their experiences.  There may be some who see her as being critical but her critique is much more about a faulty system and paradigm than about teachers.  I hope this video can be used to elicit some discussion. 

On a side note, the reason it has (revised) in the title because my first cut was over 8 minutes and needed some cleaning up. Thanks to Ben Grey and a few others who offered some detailed and important feedback I was able to get it to this point. I can say enough about the need and power of feedback, particularly when tackling a project like this that takes several hours to create. 

Certainly a statement like this will elicit a great deal of discussion as is should. My point here is that my thinking about one to one computing which has been ongoing for at least 6-7 years has focused on purchasing laptops for every student. That may still have merit in some instances but I think we have to move beyond that single path and begin to explore a variety of options and configurations that truly do enhance learning. 

The idea of BYOT (Bring your own technology) is beginning to take shape. Certainly there are cost savings involved but more importantly it acknowledges that the type of equipment you have may not matter and in many aspects of learning it doesn't. The naysayers will be quick to argue that mobile devices lack the ability to create in the same ways that a typical laptop does. I'll concede that argument but would also argue that a great deal of learning is about consumption. I realize that's almost a dirty word in today's Read/Write world, of which I participate fully, but even in a world where publishing and creation is more prevalent and possible than any time in history, creating first comes from consuming. To quote Will Richardson, "Blogging is about reading". To paraphrase, we can't create, until we consume. If that's the case then we need to acknowledge that allowing and promoting students to use their devices, as limited as they may be,  at a minimum allows access to the sum of human knowledge. That is going to be a great start in creating a learning space that offers a plethora of possibility. 

Frasier Speirs argues against such a model. He cites the following issues:

• "It assumes every child has a mobile phone." No it doesn't. Just because you allow students to bring what they have doesn't mean you won't supplement those who don't.  Schools still need to be aware of inequities and address them. In the same way schools offer free and reduced lunches for those that need it, the same could be done when it comes to access.
• "It assumes that every pupil's mobile phone has a certain baseline capability." Again, no it doesn't. Talk to someone like Liz Kolb who has been exploring the use of cell phones for a number of years. She readily acknowledges that not all phones are alike and yet has been exploring the untapped potential of devices once thought could only make phone calls and text. Classrooms and schools should have a variety of technology but there seems to be a desire for uniformity. Some might call it standardization. The problem  is that we assume that when students leave the building they have uniformity at home. We need to help them make the most of whatever technology they have access to and when necessary, supplement those who need something more. 

Speirs goes to make a few more arguments all of which presume an all or nothing approach. I've yet to hear anyone suggest that allowing students to bring their own technology means that no more hardware would be purchased. That would be ludicrous.

In my district you'll find Macbooks, Netbooks, ipads, ipods, Windows, Linux, Snow Leopard, BlackBerrys and basic cell phones. Some are district owned, some are student owned. We certainly haven't got it all figured out but as an IT department, the acknowledgement that students and staff all have personal preferences and personal devices they want to use has been a key philosophical view that pushes us forward. Ask our IT staff if they like it and they'll usually say, "it's not the easiest approach but the most beneficial for students". 

So when we consider what a classroom and learning space should look like, what do we envision?  It's difficult to come up with a singular description. Age and developmental stages would have to be an important consideration. What a grade 2 classroom and a senior biology classroom look like should likely be quite different and this would likely be true with technology as well. However, I'm envisioning spaces that perhaps are similar to many households and businesses where multiple devices are employed. For most people, a laptop is overkill. I'm seeing more and more professionals make the transition to mobile devices and yes, ipads.  My daughter, who is 23 currently owns a MacBook. She asked me what I thought about her replacing her MacBook with an Ipad. We discussed what how she currently uses her MacBook. We didn't uncover a single reason for her to own a laptop. For any "heavy lifting" computing, she would have access to machines at school or work but she really couldn't think of any occasion in the past year where she needed that. The ipad itself is beginning to grow on me as a device that offers a unique experience. It's difficult to compare it with a netbook which is so often the case. Certainly there are similarities but it many respects it's quite a different device in the same way that a mobile phone is different from a laptop. Some might think differently but as I think about a classroom makeup, I see a variety of devices and choices much like the variety of students and aptitudes that come to our schools everyday. 

As a side note, I do think that we highly under utilize the power of our computers. I agree with Gary Stager that in our connected and published based world, we've lots some of the potential for computers to create and build. We do need to provide students with the opportunity to do complex and challenging work that computing can offer. Even if we provided every child with a high powered laptop or desktop to do the heavy lifting, we still have to acknowledge that other devices are part of the landscape and again, most of the time, those other devices are the ones we use most often. 

So while the mish-mash of technology may prove to be challenging for teachers and IT staff to manage and control, in the end this isn't about management or control but learning. It's about helping students use the tools and gifts they have at their disposal, maximizing that potential and showing them new possibilities as well.  

I tend to rely as much as possible on others to help me with this stuff. Call it lazy or smart, whatever, that's also how I roll. 

I began by posting this question to the twitter. 

Lots of great responses came in.

Thanks for the great responses everyone.

As you can see there are some patterns. These are really helpful to me as I try and connect the dots in my own thinking as well as try and develop a coherent presentation of ideas to share with others. 

In fairness, twitter does restrict ideas from being fully developed and yet it requires the reader to do a bit of thinking and meaning making on their own. But I do want to provide this space to continue the conversation and perhaps clarify my intent and thinking.

Many of the ideas of what to keep, in my mind are actually fairly new practices. Things like project based learning, teacher collaboration are not yet entrenched in schools but indeed many are moving this way. Part of my talk hopes to illicit deep rooted practices and beliefs about teaching and learning that we need to continue and indeed are classroom practices as opposed to system type practices and policies. My goal is to expose teachers to some new ideas, which I have plenty of, but also to remind them of great things they've always done and should continue to do.

If you have a moment, please let me know about educational practices and experiences that you had that were positive and that you feel we ought not to lose sight of as well as ones you feel are still happening that need to be ditched.  Feel free to expand on ideas already posted above or offer some new ones. 

I remember back in the 1990's learning to create webpages using Dreamweaver, when we wanted to insure that a particular font was consistent across browsers and individual machines, we had to convert text to images. The first time I did this or was made aware of this it took a bit to wrap my head around the idea that the text was not really text but was actually a graphic.

In reality this isn't a totally new phenomenon. Poets have been using the shape of text as an integral part of their poems for centuries. E. E. Cummings for example used typography to "paint a picture" with many of his works. Today we view typography very differently thanks to our personal computers. The simple fact that we quickly recognize most fonts and have very strong feelings about some, suggest that text is no longer simply symbols that combine to form words but in a digital format can have added emotion and meaning.

My own work within my district often focuses on shifting notions of literacy that need to include a variety of media. Digital Storytelling becomes a major emphasis for helping teachers move beyond text and provide students with a balanced notion of what it means to be literate. 

This summer I was fortunate to share some of my beliefs, experiences and exploration into this at a number of conferences and shared a section I called "More than Words" where I demonstrate some examples of using typography as digital stories. Here are a couple of those examples:

Typography in Motion

I call this typography in motion but perhaps there's a more common/official term for this and feel free to clarify in the comments. The words definitely come to life and the art, design and placement of text in motion provide an entirely new layer of humor to this classic exchange. Searching youtube you'll find a plethora of these examples and generally they are created using software like Adobe After Effects which is not only expensive but pretty complicated. I was pretty pleased to see that the latest version of PowerPoint offers some features which may be able to allow you to create similar work but in a much more familiar, easy to use tool.

Search Stories

The 2010 SuperBowl featured this commercial for Google.

Youtube now allows anyone to create similar stories. It's not difficult to see the value in having students create these types of stories. The traditional instruction of sequencing takes on an entirely new twist as we use the common task of searching as a storytelling tool. 

In my presentation I go on to discuss wordle and things like text position in slides and graphics as other examples where text  can have a distinct visual characteristic. 

What I'm discovering is that understanding these new ways to use words and text can assist teachers that feel both resistant and fearful in shifting away from entirely text driven curriculum. It certainly doesn't mean that text is no longer valuable simply as written communication but it does help to open up the conversation around shifting notions of literacy. 

I’m not convinced the idea of short tutorials works in all disciplines but certainly it does for Math and Science. As much as this body of work is impressive for the content, I’m more impressed by the passion and joy Sal gains from helping others learn. In addition the form factor here is worth exploring.  If you skipped the video go back and watch it and perhaps you can answer the following:

What are the implications here? Could a student learn Algebra with this without attending a high school class? What does it make us rethink when it comes to school and learning?

The whole idea of community and creating community in our classrooms has been a very important theme in both my current class as well as the work I do in Prairie South.  In reading Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky references the book Bowling Alone a few times so I figured I should buy it. Essentially the book deals with the decline of community in America and examines things like civic involvement, religious affiliation, and formal and informal groups. In essence, since the mid sixties, the social capital of Americans (I see Canada as having similar experiences) has declined quite dramatically. For many reasons, we are choosing to spend less time in community and more time as individuals, thus the title Bowling Alone.

I read the first part of the book as I flew to Portland for ITSC. I had the opportunity to spend time with Tim Lauer and his family. They live in a very nice neighborhood and Portland in general has some wonderful neighborhoods. As I spoke about our current endeavor to build a new house I discussed our challenge to avoid building a “garagehouse”. In many of our neighbourhoods lots are only 50 feet and thus people wanting a two car garage end up building homes that look like this.

In contrast, Portland would not allow this type of home because it’s not “neighbour friendly”. I believe there is also a bylaw in place to prevent that from happening. Instead this is the type of community they envision:

Front Porch Party by fensterbme

Cross posted on the TechLearning Blog

I was fortunate to be able to spend Thursday and Friday hanging around the school. Here's what I saw:

• Lots of smiles.
• Loud classrooms
• A principal's office that looked more like grand central with equal numbers of staff and students talking and working, coming and going
• Teachers who discussed personal issues with students
• A brief power outage that didn't paralyze learning despite them being a 1:1 school
• A lack of emphasis on technology
  
• Students occasionally off task
• Students excited to talk with adults

None of these things are particularly amazing and are all things you could find in many, if not all schools in North America.  I didn't see one thing that couldn't  be done almost anywhere. The teachers are good teachers but they aren't doing anything I haven't seen before. So what's the big deal?

There are many more observations and insights that one would make beyond the few I've listed but I'm not sure that any additions would tell us that "one thing".  It's obvious that leadership plays a significant role and that grows culture over time which is undeniably palpable.   While many will continue to deconstruct and analyze how, and if this type of place is replicable, Good teaching and caring adults can lead to a really wonderful place which Science Leadership Academy truly is. But maybe SLA isn't so unique after all? Maybe there are more schools and classrooms like this but we just aren't telling anyone? The level of connectedness among staff doesn't hurt their image but indeed follows closely with one of their guiding principles: Learning can – and must – be networked.  But behind that networked learning lurks teachers who know how to teach just like many of the teachers you work with or you already are.

I didn't see any one thing that blew me away at SLA . They just seem to embody the things we think schools should be.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

I'll be teaching a new session of advanced computers and technology with pre-service teachers at the University of Regina from January to April. In previous introductory courses I've had my students become mentors for classrooms around this world. The chance for my students to connect with great teachers and becoming involved in classrooms in a variety of ways is often the most powerful learning they experience.

For the upcoming term I'd like to offer my students a chance to take that experience a little bit deeper. Instead of randomly posting to blogs or occasionally Skyping into classrooms, I'd like teachers to suggest a project, or teaching opportunity for my students to explore. 

The project might be a chance to teach a short series of lessons, build some tutorials, create some podcasts or videos. These are some suggestions but generally the idea would be for a group of my students, either pairs or threes would create or make something for you and your students. I"m open to other ideas but want my students to be involved in creating something of value using technology and working with/for a real classroom teacher.  Even if you have a thread of an idea but aren't quite sure exactly how it might work, I'd still like to have you apply. I'll do my best to work with you to narrow down what might work.

I've been so blessed to have many great teachers who have participated with this over the years. If you're one of those, I'd love to have you join again. I'll likely take about 15 or so classrooms. 

I would ask my students to contact you by the end of January to establish the nitty gritty of the project and work with you over the next few weeks with projects completed by the end of March or first week in April. 

Interested? If so, fill out this form. If you have more questions, email me shareski at gmail.com. If you think others might be interested, forward this, tweet it or send them my way.

This facebook/twitter posting by Chris Lehmann got my attention.

It's hard to argue with that statement and it raises some interesting questions and implications. It reminded me this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod (warning, Hugh as an affection for the f-bomb)

It's powerful statement warning about our ability to connect and yet wallow in shallowness and fluff. While I concur with Chris's concern I also think it's important to explore the nature and purpose of audience.

Placing a clustr map on your blog or receiving a comment from someone on the other side of the world is pretty amazing. Often in very contrived ways, teachers find these connections for their students and generally get the "ooohs" and "awwwws" for while. As Chris suggests this novelty fades. But I would argue the word "audience" has a number of connotations and uses. Understanding and leveraging them thoughtfully is the key.

Audience as Eyeballs

This is about pure numbers. Views on a youtube video, reads on a blog, traffic on a website. These tell students that others are watching.  That's important. Just as it's important when fans show up at a basketball game. It says what you do matters. What it doesn't say necessarily, is that what you are doing is any good.  You can put a video on youtube of yourself clipping your toenails and get 5,000 views. It says very little about quality and lasting value. In the end, the views are nice but won't lead to much more than a little recognition.

Audience as Teachers

This is when the audience suddenly participates rather than just views. Comments on a blog, emails, video responses are prime interactions. You have the opportunity to grow and get better. Fostering this type of relationship with your audience might be contrived as two classrooms decide to spend a little time on each other's space but even if it is, we know the power of peer review and assessment for learning. When students have to thoughtfully provide feedback and critique, both parties benefit. Even random, one off comments are useful and offer students new perspectives not otherwise available from their teachers and or classmates. Students will indeed have powerful things to say and share as they craft their messages and products under the tutelage of many teachers.

Audience as Co-Learners

When students now see themselves as teachers to others we have truly harnessed the power of the audience. This isn't about novelty anymore but authentic exchange between interested learners. It doesn't matter if it's only one person but the idea that your work or ideas not only matter but are important in the development of others learning.  A little anonymity and distance seems to be a good thing in some cases. It's less about personalities and more about learning.

The question that we need to ask is can this occur in our classrooms without seeking an audience from the outside? I suggest it's possible but not as likely. Great teachers may be able to make this happen under certain conditions but the reason we love the internet is it's ability to personalize, customize and connect our learning to world. To suggest that room itself has all it needs to learn and grow is simply false. Limiting learning to the walls of classroom ignores a possibility that's too great to pass up. Good work needs to be shared.

Our students deserve not only an audience who would watch what they do but one that would actively participate in their learning.

One final point. Given that I would estimate fewer than 25% of our students even have a chance to find an audience via their schools, I hesitate to be too critical of teachers who only offer an audience of eyeballs. I would hate for that to be the ultimate goal, however, as Chris states, this novelty will wear off. Audience for the sake of audience is fleeting. Audience for the sake of learning is lasting.

I'm not sure why but this topic runs pretty deep with me. I found Alfie Kohn's article this morning on twitter (I like the fact that he brings back stuff from the archives, I wish more people would do that. Old is not bad) and thought I'd highlight a few gems found inside it.

While I recognize many peoples opposition to Kohn's highly progressive, Deweyesque slants, I find myself more in agreement with him than opposition. In the case of this article, I find it hard to disagree.

I would begin by defining joy as a clear sense of satisfaction at the work or relationships that surround us. That's the definition, I'll use as I explore this idea. This does not equate with happiness, it's perhaps part of it but I'm talking about a sense of purpose and success. This is directly linked to a passion based learning environment.

Joy has been in short supply in some classrooms for as long as there have been classrooms. But I join Deborah Meier in wondering whether things are worse now, not only because more people are less happy but because this is taken for granted; we don’t even see it as a problem that requires our attention.

I can't remember having "joy" or "student's attitude toward school" on any meeting agenda in 20+ years in education. It's less important than if the school sports teams get new uniforms or if we'll stop allowing students to bring potato chips as snacks.

It’s simply stunning, therefore, that some traditionalists actually complain about an excessive concern with children’s happiness. Earlier this year, I came across an essay by an administrator who attempted to explain the supposed inferiority of U.S. schools by asserting that, whereas parents in other countries ask their children, "What did you learn in school today?," American parents ask, "Did you enjoy school today?"

Would that it were true! The author Frank McCourt, who taught at a prestigious New York City high school for 18 years, told the journalist John Merrow that only once in all that time had a parent ever asked him, "Is my child enjoying school?" Instead, all he—and, presumably, the students themselves—heard from parents were questions about test scores, college applications, and getting the work done.

It bugs me when my own kids, who do very well in school say they don't really like school. I know that it's the right thing to say when you're a kid but even when we get past the surface response, it's clear that learning isn't all that pleasureable. This is not because we have bad teachers, it's because we have schools that place student satisfaction way below everything else. "It doesn't matter if they like it  or not." Really? What are the chances your student's will be proficient in using Mathematics after high school if they hated it? Again, this is about everything we do being akin to spending 6 hours playing HALO, but there has to be an element of joy, don't you think? Those classrooms where joy is the unspoken or spoken default environment, are the ones where good learning happens everyday. I have no data to back that up so you can dismiss that as opinion but I'd stand by the claim. But as I consider what we're doing to teachers in the quest for "higher achievement", I think we could remedy much of their stress but supporting them and encouraging them more strongly to make learning a joyful experience.

Academic excellence, the usual rationale for such decisions, is actually far more likely to flourish when students enjoy what they’re doing. "Children (and adults, too) learn best when they are happy," as Nel Noddings observes in her book Happiness and Education. How they feel—about themselves, about their teachers, about the curriculum and the whole experience of school—is crucially related to the quality of their learning. Richer thinking is more likely to occur in an atmosphere of exuberant discovery, in the kind of place where kids plunge into their projects and can’t wait to pick up where they left off yesterday.

But in pointing this out, I fear that I’m appearing to accept an odious premise—namely, that joy must be justified as a means to the end of better academic performance. Not so: It’s an end in itself. Not the only end, perhaps, but a damned important one. Thus, anyone who has spent time in classrooms that vibrate with enthusiasm needs to keep such memories alive in all their specificity to serve as so many yardsticks against which to measure what we’ve lost: 6-year-olds listening to a story, rapt and breathless; teenagers so immersed in an activity that they forget to worry about appearing cool; those little explosions of delight attendant on figuring something out.

Nobody seeks to snuff out joy intentionally, it just happens. The antidote is to be intentional about including joy in the classroom. We can fall into the same trap as parents. The fact we love our children should make this minimal but we've all been guilty of getting so caught up in accomplishing our various goals that we forget to experience joy and live in world where mistakes are valued, where working together on a project is fulfilling and where we celebrate completing a challenging task. Again, this is not some airy, fairy thing, this is, as Kohn suggests, an end, in and of itself. These not be separate, but seriously, if I had to choose between rigor and joy, I'd pick joy every time. But I don't think we have to choose.

I'll end with this quote from Taylor Caldwell

"Learning should be a joy
and full of excitement.
It is life's greatest adventure;
it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of noble and learned men."

Now there's a mission statement that matters.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by John-Morgan

Lesley Edwards left me a really interesting link in her lastest comment. Google Image Labeler is something I hadn’t seen before. Here’s how it works:

You’ll be randomly paired with a partner who’s online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

• View the same set of images.

• Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.

• Receive points when your label matches your partner’s label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.

• See more images until time runs out.

After time expires, you can explore the images you’ve seen and the websites where those images were found. And we’ll show you the points you’ve earned throughout the session.

I’m already thinking of the classroom applications involving vocabularly, visual literacy and logic. In addition, you’re working at making the web better. Not a bad deal.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Carlos Magaña

As a sports enthusiast it was painful. As a parent, it was exciting.

The gym was pretty much full of parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters crowded around the perimeter of the gymnasium. What struck me was the unbridled joy and encouragement for both teams and the cheers with every effort put forth. It kind of gives that warm fuzzy feeling inside, not often associated with sports. Parents and children well behaved and excited to be learning a new sport.

So I’m back to thinking about stages. I can’t say for sure but I’m doubtful any kids were left off the team because a parent didn’t want them performing in front of others. Even the girls who couldn’t serve the ball more than 10 feet were cheered for their efforts. It was clear to everyone in the building that this was a place of learning, a place for social interaction and fun. We will watch with amazement to see improvements with the next game and cheer even more loudly.

Why is it so hard for people to allow this to take place with learning? The mystery that occurs because work is suddenly displayed on a screen, accessible to the world makes people nuts sometimes. Even if the local TV station wanted to show this game, I can’t see any parent opting out. They might even want to have names sewn on the back of the jerseys (okay they are only t-shirts but still).

The sad part is that as a parent of 4 children, 2 of whom have graduated from high school, I knew way more about the sports and extra-curricular part of their school life than the academics. There was almost no way for me to interact or watch them learn other than the occasional homework assignment or parent teacher interview. The emphasis on most schools places extra-curricular at a way higher profile than the academics. Grant it, those are choices students can make. But shouldn’t we be working to a place where the day to day work and learning is showcased, celebrated and elevated to a higher place?

I recognize that with classroom work, the students don’t have much choice but by starting young and creating a culture where we share our work and seek encouragement and feedback I have to believe that is going to make for more engagment students producing better quality work.

I’m probably not done thinking about stages, I’ll just warn you right now.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

Technology doesn’t make you a great teacher. But in my experiences those that do, seem to be among the best. I had two examples today that supports my hypothesis. First I was at a conference today with most of our school administrators.  During a lull in the conference I checked my twitter account. (There were several lulls) and saw a primary teacher from one of our schools posted a picture of her students learning. Her principal happened to be sitting nearby and I showed him the picture of the kids. Another principal asked him who the teacher was. His reply included the phrase, "she’s an awesome teacher".

Today I taught my pre-service teachers and brought in over 20 teachers from across Canada, the US and even New Zealand to introduce themselves and share what they might want my students to do in their classrooms. Each teacher took a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and describe their classrooms. It was absolutely exhilarating. This had nothing to do with the technology they deployed but their passion for teaching and learning.  One of those teachers was in her 37th year of teaching. Digital natives theory shot down again. 37 years and still willing to learn, to try something new that might help her students, that’s inspiring.

I"m fortunate, no question. I have a wonderful network and get to expose my students to these awesome teachers.

http://dcshstech.pbworks.com/
http://www.hafford.lskysd.ca/?q=cone
http://history302008.edublogs.org
www.mrforgrave.net
http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/mrskolbert/
http://fablogs.org/capohanka
http://www.mrkapptie.wikispaces.com
http://ckheyrman.wikispaces.com
http://collaborationnation.wikispaces.com
http://new.schoolnotes.com/xpages/view/16893
http://userve.unioncityschools.org/~lbruce
http://www.earth.edublogs.org/
http://www.major.lskysd.ca
http://mraungst.wikispaces.com
http://wilsonbeckri.edublogs.org
http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/TEACHERPAGES/MrsSmith/tabid/1814/Default.aspx
http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/ionnoj/
http://berwicklodgeps.globalstudent.org.au
http://www.mpradio.ca
http://www.burnabyonline.ca
http://edm310fall2009.blogspot.com
http://room10rbs.edublogs.org
http://www.macklin.lskysd.ca/?q=node/26
http://www.37stars.org
http://woodtech.edublogs.org/
http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com
http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=73127
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337
http://fa-marine-science.ning.com/ and http://www.fredericksburgacademy.org/page.cfm?p=958
http://huzzah.edublogs.org
http://www.wtisburyschool.org/
http://readwithme.edublogs.org
http://mallonmessages.blogspot.com
http://noeltigers.com
http://www.laspillane.org
http://learning.ssis.edu.vn/blogs
http://pvec201wscience.wikispaces.com/
http://www.calgaryscienceschool.com
http://wdpms.blogspot.com;
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=26233

http://martini.wetpaint.com

There must be a link between good teaching and technology. That’s what I see.

Photo by Mrs. B. Martin
 

With the advent of technology and distance learning, I’ve stood in front of teachers and administrators many times and asked them to consider why their students would choose to come to school. While the quality of distance learning is far from perfect, it offers the opportunity for students to learn with and from anyone at anytime. With more and more choice students will start asking if they really need to come to class. At the same time, it’s hard to deny what it means to learn in the same physical space. Notice I was careful to say "learn". Many people take for grant it that students will come to school simply to socialize and enjoy extra-curricular activities with others. I say that’s not good enough. Learning has to be social, otherwise why come to school?

This article and the accompany video might at first glance be a anti-technology message but in fact its arguing for better face to face encounters. Some might view the article as anti-technology or anti-powerpoint, I simply see this as trying to determine what the best use of face time might look like.

The undergrad course I teach is usually 3 online for every face to face experiences. I’ve learned a great deal in teaching online for the past 3 years. I’ve worked hard to make it interactive and participatory. I’ve had my share of successes and failures and will endeavour to make the best experience possible. That said, the face to face classes prove invaluable. In many ways, the content and delivery of these classes is no better than the online sessions but somehow students say it offers something the online sessions can’t do. Simply seeing faces and understanding each other in a different way fosters community in ways online interaction cannot. Maybe it’s just a return to the comfortable setting they are used to. I believe its more than that. Yet, without the asynchronous and synchronous online components, my courses would not have near the impact. We need both. I no longer take face to face time for grant it. I think many teachers have become lazy and aren’t considering the current and upcoming options that are available to students.

Rob Jacobs viewed the above video and article and considered Professional Development. I also think about meetings and conferences. In the district I work, we have many teachers and administrators travelling 3 hours to go to a meeting.  It is deplorable that they might attend a meeting and leave thinking, "I should have stayed home". Consider the time and money spent. I don’t want to be responsible for wasting their time. It shouldn’t really matter how far you have to drive, being together should be time well spent. We owe to teachers and students to make the face to face time we have valuable and important. 

While interactivy and particpation are two huge elements that ought to be present, what else is good about face to face? How do you insure that your students/teachers/co-workers/clients find the time they spend with you valuable?

Ever since the day I wrote my first blog post and received a comment, I knew that learning in public had huge potential.  That was over 4 years ago. Today I’m one of those who has embraced a lifestyle of learning that is founded on transparency and connectedness. I’ve wondered many times how and when learning should be private.  My belief that the pendulum for most of education sits way on the side of private and needs to move way more to public.  It does seem a bit odd to me since we have no qualms about student athletes or musicians or actors to perform in public. No athlete ever joins a team and suggests they just want to practice but don’t want to play in front of a crowd. For many, that’s part of the appeal. I’ve often talked about stages: athletic stages, artistic stages and then wondered about academic stages. We have almost zero expectations for students to publicly share learning. While I understand some people’s hesitancy to participate in online spaces, I believe the benefits are worth exploring even it it means some discomfort.

When can we begin to expect that just like our sports teams, drama clubs and bands, our students academic work will be publicly on display? Is asking pre-service teachers to post content online outside of a walled garden a bad thing? Is age a factor? Does it matter that I’m teaching future teachers? What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best? (I already know the answer to this since it’s happened often during my various sections of teaching this course). I would value and love your input on this issue.

For the past 3 terms I’ve had my undergrads hook up with classrooms from around the world. Over the course of about 2 months the range of interactions is anything from skype conferences where my students teach lessons to commenting on blogs to working closely with students in collaborative projects. I’m been reluctant to make it much more structured since I want to honor teacher’s time and access. My student’s express a variety of  levels of satisfaction. I usually have the connect with 2 classrooms both to give them some variety but also to insure a greater chance of interactions. Two months is a very short time to build a connection with a class. Amazingly, some of my students made this happen and for many it was the best part of the course.  Others were frustrated by communication break downs and lack of activity. This was usually no one’s fault but the nature of school. Teachers are busy and I don’t want to place any undue expectations on them. I want my students simply to have the chance to interact with other students in whatever way the teacher sees fit. It’s not a perfect program by any means but it continues to provide students with an experience they never get in other classes in their university careers.

From May 6-June 18 I’ll be teacher the spring term of this same course. I had originally resigned the idea of a mentorship not only because of the shorter time frame but also since many US schools in particular would either be done or winding down. However I know there may be many that might be looking to have some outside voices participate.  I thought I’d give it a shot.

We’ve had classrooms ranging from Kindergarten to advanced senior Math. My goal is simply to have my students witness and experience how teachers and students share and open their classrooms to the world.  So I’m calling any teacher or classrooms in any grade and subject area. I might suggest the following scenarios for interaction:

• A Skype call to share stories about where you live and where we live
• Find out what areas of expertise my students might have and have the teach a lesson virtually
• Collaborate on a story
• Have my students comment on student work

As teachers, you’re using many tools to connect, these are just some starting points. My students need to see these in action. I realize that in a month it’s going to be difficult to establish a deep relationship be I’m open to being surprised.

So leave a comment, email me shareski at gmail.com, or resend this to any teacher you wish and let me know if you might be interested.  Our class meets every Monday and Wednesday evening and I’ll likely have you come all join me  in early May (likely the 11th or 13th) via Elluminate one evening to share about classroom.

Please complete this form if you’re interested:

Once again, testing the boundaries of my PLN.

We’ve been meeting for 3 years talking about teaching and learning and how their classrooms are evolving.  There story continues to inspire and encourage others in their making learning better for students.

Here are the slides and the audio is below:

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

[display_podcast]

There are so many powerful ideas packed into this story.

• Geography is largely eliminated from the learning equation. These stories continue to emerge from isolated communities that realize there are opportunities to be found and are willing to find them.  Isolation may be the mother of invention when it comes to connected with others.
• The teacher’s recognition that there may be others in a better position to teach his students is key. The teacher became the network administrator in providing his students with other experts.
• People want to share. The fact that other ukulele players flocked to provide instruction and share their passions continues to be the theme of the social web.
• Music matters. While not a direct message in this story, research is clear about the value of music in learning. Learning an instrument requires complex thinking.
• Modeling how to learn. These students have been given a powerful lesson in teaching themselves. Having access to a variety of people/resources will serve them well in their future.

I think I’ve mentioned this before but if you haven’t already subscribed to Spark, go do it now.

*Disclaimer: I am not paid by Spark, however I’m sure my tax dollars help pay them. So in that regard, I’m part owner.

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/

24-time-effect

5:24 QIK recorded of me parking at the U of R. (stupid, but I was trying to figure out why the alert to twitter wasn’t working, I guess it worked)
6:25 Email from a student who said she was sick and wondered what I could do so she could participate. (Our online classes are held in Elluminate but since this was a f2f class I didn’t create a session for tonight)
6:28 Started a Ustream broadcast and sent her the link and my other student who is in Malaysia.(Productive. Didn’t plan to do this but I suppose a teachable moment)
6:30 Class begins. I demo ustream and qik to students and have the stay there to keep Chelsey and Eric company in the chat.
7:15 Join with Alec’s class and watch Ben Hazzard’s excellent presentation on SmartBoards.
8:05 Students explore Smartboards I move my computer over to one of the Boards, use the video feature in Elluminate to show the board and students to the 2 students viewing virtually. (productive)
8:55 Class ends.
9:12 Wait for Alec to finish with students. Stuck my nose in their conversation and offered some suggestions.
9:18 Tweeted out my impatience (stupid but effective, students talking to Alec had their laptop open and conveyed my frustrations to Alec)
9:55 Need gas, the gas station near the University was closed I started driving west and got a little lost, fired up GPS enabled Google Maps on the iphone and found my way to a gas station. (productive)
10:05 Qik recorded my ordering at the drive thru. (really stupid)

Is  “off task” behaviour relating to technology an issue with your students? If yes, how do you deal with it, if no, what have and your students done to alleviate the problem?’

The following represents a request I made to several teachers in our school division. You’ll see a few different viewpoints which is what I wanted.

I see it as an issue of off-task behaviour.  Every teacher deals with it differently, but for the most part, they are instructed to get off of Facebook immediately and risk losing Computer/Internet.  In my Information Processing class, I allow for them to check e-mail/Facebook in the first few minutes of class.  I usually need a few minutes to get myself logged in and get the projector up and running.   They will also get to class early so that they can do this.  It helps.  We do not worry about its use during the noon hour, except that they are asked no to use the videos because they consume band width.  With special needs students, I have used  it to help them develop social skills.  They struggle with writing but they want to communicate with their peers (many of whom have graduated already) and I use Facebook to help with this.  I use Word to convert speech into text and they pastes it into Facebook.  With regards to content on Facebook, they are instructed that they are responsible for what they see and do on any site, including Facebook.  I have instructed them that I cannot possibly list every inappropriate piece of content which they might encounter, but they will know it when they see it and are to immediately move away from that content.   Dwelling or calling over buddies changes everything and it is dealt with as a discipline issue..

I hope they do not use a single blocking mechanism.  I can only see it going to a very locked down place.  Communities would be forced to accept the values of other communities, be it too much or too little content from the internet.   Are we going to see an internet blocked based on needs of Kindergarten students?  Will high schools be different?  What about K-12 schools?

Given that the internet is a moving target, we need to educate.  We need to educate our students, teachers, parents and administrators.  Do they realize that within a couple of hours of blocking Facebook, they will need to get IT to block a proxy server?  I have been so impressed with how well the filtering has worked and how helpful David has been.  I hope that it does not change and that people can be educated.  Easy solutions are not always good solutions.           Ed Fahl, High School teacher, Avonlea, SK

Is the Pope Catholic?  Believe it or not we even have off task behaviour in the classroom!  I know let’s use shock collars!

Is off task behaviour an issue?  Only if you let it run rabid.  How do we deal with it?  Supervision, education, learning, protocol, expectations (kids can come up with and agree on expectations – our cell project proved it – I did the same with facebook, no problems yet), respect, responsibility, and the odd consequence.  It’s no different than classroom management.  Same startegies work in the classroom as in the lab.  We need to move into the new millenium here.  Planning, preparation, and management.  Oh yeah, learning, engagement, and expecations.

Other solutions?  Let’s start teaching and learning about technology and respectful/responsible use.  We can’t put our kids in a bubble, but we can teach them how to be respectful/responsible people.  This is where we are missing the boat.  We aren’t going to be there to censor their activities when they are 19, so we better teach them right from wrong when we do have the chance.

I don’t know if this helps or not Dean, it’s pretty broad.  All I can say, is since we have adopted the philosophy of teaching/learning respect/responsibility for technology and the net, our off task behaviour has decreased because kids can make good decisions about their learning/lives, too.                        Gord Taylor, Principal Craik, SK

I am struggling with this issue in my classes and in general.  Usually the logical consequence for an off-task behaviour is, after a warning, removal of the stimulus.  In this case it is not possible to remove the stimulus.  Facebook, or any social networking tool, twitter, etc. is extremely addictive as it seems as if you are “out of the loop” you are truly missing out on something that seems impossible to catch up on at a later time.  I have to admit, I have checked my facebook during work hours myself.  The temptation is great.  I struggle with what consequence to enforce…denial of internet access?  Seems extreme when most of their classes require them to use the internet.  In-school suspension?  Meeting with a parent and having them promise not to do it again? How could this be enforced in any way but scanning their use logs everyday to ensure that anyone accessing off-task sites were given the same consequence.    My belief is that the temptation is great as our students are multi-taskers who are used to typing an essay, creating a spreadsheet while surfing you-tube for music and IMing on facebook.  They do not see this as a distraction at all.  They believe (may be true) that they can scan their facebook while doing other things and it isn’t a problem for their focus.

We have had an instance of bullying that was documented on facebook during school hours.  The student who made the comment on the wall of another student did so during school hours from a study period that is “supervised” by the library technician.  The issue was dealt with as a bullying issue, not a technology issue.  I supported, promoted, and stand by this.

We do not have adequate staffing to supervise all students on all computers at all times in our building. We have students completing on-line courses that are, unfortunately, not always supervised.  In my own classroom students are accessing off-task sites on the sly.  I have 27 students and one me.  They know that if I am helping students in the far corner that I can not see what they are doing on their computers in the other side of the room.  These are good, reasonable kids.

In the end, when all is said and done, what I am doing in my classroom?  I did my educational piece on internet, bullying, proper use of work time, what businesses expect (i.e. fireable offence to waste company time on off-task behaviour), etc.  This does not seem to curb the use of facebook…I teach PAA classes and so I am allowed to assign a mark for business-like attitude and behaviours.  I dock this mark for off-task time.   Does this curb the behaviour?  No.

The reason that I am harping on facebook is that of all the off-task sites, it is by far the most addictive as the very social networking nature of it makes it so tempting.  Games, youtube videos, etc…do not seem to be a problem.  The main problem is facebook in our school.  The main problem with dealing with facebook is the seemingly lack of logical consequence to enforce.            Lona Froshaug, High School teacher, Assiniboia, SK

Finally, this conversation is with Patricia Yeske, High School teacher at Riverview Collegiate in Moose Jaw,SK.

What I have come to realize is that teachers who share are the best teachers. Even better if they choose to share online. Sharing online requires, in most cases some careful thought and consideration since the implications and stakes are much higher.

I was fortunate to spend an hour with some of these outstanding teachers;teachers who have an online presence of some sort and are willing and excited to open up that space for others to join them and participate in their learning. Alec and I are teaching undergraduate courses and are matching up our students with several of these teachers.  Listening to them describe their
classrooms, you can sense their passion and it’s palpable.  They love kids and they love teaching. Many of them made statements about their work as if they are just learning to use these sharing tools and they shouldn’t be seen as leaders. In that respect, they are wrong.

Sharing and meta cognition should be inseparable.  Deep reflectors of their practice  are constantly modifying instruction to make learning more effective. This is not about them using technology, it’s about sharing. I’m not saying you have to share to be a great teacher, I’m saying if you do, you are.  I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

This group of teachers includes a few that in their last year of teaching, some in huge high schools, in small rural schools,  some teaching in Indian reserves, some Kindergarten teachers and some senior classes. The one thing they have in common is that their classrooms are open to the world. What would our schools be like if every classroom operated this way?

Here’s a link to their spaces for you to check out yourselves.

Carey Pohanka
Chad Brannon
Chris Harbeck
Colleen Glaude
Donna Fry
Eldon Germann
George  Mayo
Jaqlyn Schmitt
Jeff Whipple
Jennifer Clark Evans
Karen Chichestor
Moira Moritz
Anne Smith
Kristen Leclaire
Kelly Hines
Kyle Stevens
Lois Smethurst
Maria Knee
Mavis Hoffman
Matt Montagne
Jessica Lipsky
Debby Cothern & Michelle Ellis
Tracey Ruark and Cathy Daniels
Nellie Duetsch
Sandi Kerney
Seth Dickens
Sheri Edwards
Sophie Rosso
Stephanie Affield
Stephanie Olson
Susan Carter Morgan
Paula White
Teryl Magee

Teachers from Chet's Creek Elementary in Jacksonville talk to our students

Thank you all for sharing.

Images: Teachers introduce themselves
http://www.flickr.com/photos/holtsman/3235968267

Angela, Barbara

With the amount of sharing I do, I’m not sure if there are 7 things people don’t know about me, but knowing I’ve likely broke the TMI rule several times, here goes:

1. I never planned to go into education. I began my
undergraduate studies intending to go into journalism.  During my first
2 years, I spent time helping in a church pre-school program (I have no
idea how that happened). Several people recognized my love of kids and
suddenly I did too. Having a blog has rekindled my love of writing.

2. I took my daughter with me to University. I was married at age 20. We had our first child 2 years later while we both attended University. My daughter was born 3AM on a Saturday and I wrote a final exam at 9AM that day. The following year was my last year of school and when the babysitter bailed, I’d cart her to class with me. I don’t recommend it but it worked for us.

3. I taught grade 1 for 6 years. I love little kids. My wife says I relate to them very well. 

4. I cook. I never learned how to cook till I was married
and as two young people trying to figure out our roles, she picked
cleaning and I picked cooking. I’m not that awesome but in general, I’m
in charge of meals.

5. I have an outstanding memory of the trivial. I’ve pretty much memorized every Seinfeld episode, can recall yardages of golf courses I’ve played 10 years ago, and know that the winners of every major golf championship winner for the past 40 years. I’m not sure of all my kid’s birthdays.

6. My faith is of paramount importance to me. While I don’t think this is the space to share it, my faith is really the basis of who I am.

7. I’ve fallen out of love with hockey. For someone who grew up playing the game and even getting as far as tryouts with Major Junior hockey, I rarely watch and never play. I stopped playing about 4 years ago after 35 straight years and haven’t watched more than about 5 games in the past 10 years. I really can’t explain it.

I now tag,

Amy Bowllan

Clay Burell

Darren Draper

Lee Kolbert

Jeff Utecht