Texas Malahini

Thoughts on Laptops

2012-01-31T04:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in a classroom that had a COW (Computers On Wheels) to do a lesson on Keyboarding. Something happened that happens pretty often when classes that I have been working with try to do a lesson with everyone on laptops. A bunch of kids cannot get on and it took about 20 minutes before we ditched the lesson because there were only 10 minutes left. Plan B was practice on putting their hands on the home row several times with their eyes closed with no typing.

I have observed this type of thing often with laptops. I like laptops in the classroom and it seems better than a lab to me, but it is always time consuming passing them out and putting them back. They seem much better suited to be available when needed for a small group or individuals. As a teacher you can then say to the students to get a laptop and let them switch if the one they get was not plugged in or is not working for some reason.

I wonder about the experiences of other people. Have you had success using the laptops on a cart with the whole class? What tricks do I need to learn to make it work more smoothly?

Here are a few links to what others have said:
http://edtechie.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/managing-laptops-and-carts-in-the-classroom/ - This one is from New York. He includes links at the bottom to others.

http://it.seattleschools.org/blog/schools/laptopcarts/ - Concentrates on management issues (ie. how to sign the cart out, etc)

http://blog.classroomteacher.ca/841/pros-and-cons-of-having-a-class-of-laptops/
This is the best one and the most current. It talks about the pros and cons of having laptops in the classroom.

Promethean Boards

2012-01-20T05:20:00.000-08:00

For the last few months I have been working with University of Texas Elementary school as a substitute Tech Teacher. I came from a school with SMARTBoards, but they have Promethean Boards. I never thought Promethean Boards could compare with SMARTBoards, but they are actually very interesting. One reason I didn't like them is that you cannot just write on them with your finger, you have to have one of their pens. They actually have a lot of really great features.

Switching to the Promethean Board has not been easy. It can do many of the same things as the SMARTBoard, but in different ways.

This morning I came across this blog from a teacher who uses a Promethean Board and she is having a contest. Here is the link. I am going to explore this blog and see what I can learn.

http://teachingmycalling.blogspot.com/2012/01/100-followersgiveaway.html

Finland: Example for Education in the US?

2011-10-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

There is a very interesting article about Finland's Education system compared to ours by Diane Ravich in the recent Education Weekly magazine. It is also very interesting to read the comments about the blog post.

I think that the most important things that it brings up are the differences in our goal in education, raising test scores and these stated goals in Finland:

"Finland has this singular goal: to develop the humanity of each child. Isn't that a shocking goal? Their guiding principles: equity, creativity, and prosperity."

It is hard to compare such a small country with our own, but when you think about what is important to a nation you can at least see huge differences which might make a big difference in outcomes. We have a 22% child poverty rate compared to their 4% rate. I think that the effects of that are MUCH larger than the effects of teacher quality. The way we are trying to deal with this is to create more accountability with test scores and measuring teachers based on test scores. This is demoralizing and crazy.

Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2011/10/what_can_we_learn_from_finland.html

Finally A School District Doing Project Based Learning!!!

2011-10-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

"...under the project based model, student learning is reflected in "more than just scores or grades. You see a transformation of their ability to take ownership...for their learning".

Quote from the principal of a Manor Elementary School

This morning in the local news there was an article about the Manor school district which is not far from Austin. I was SO excited to read even the subtitle which said, "High School's success in project based learning prompts Manor to try program systemwide." The graduation rates and rates of graduates getting into College were much higher than what would be expected in the population that attended the schools.

The best thing about the article was that it put the idea of HOW to teach (project based learning) above the use of technology. Although "beefed up techology is a big part of the program", the article spends VERY LITTLE time talking about that and spends many paragraphs talking about examples of lessons, learning and teaching. It is a refreshing article.

Here is a link to the full article:

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/by-embracing-new-tech-manor-school-district-is-1910852.html

On their website you can find testimonials from students in video.

See these Reflections

Facinating News of India's New Tablet-Al Jazeera Interview

2011-10-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a refreshingly thorough discussion of Technology in Education. I am so impressed with Al Jazeera. I do not agree with all that is said, but good questions were asked and the people interviewed were given time to give interesting answers. The footage of school in India is also really interesting.

Are technology and education inseparable? - Inside Story - Al Jazeera English

One thing that does not get said enough in these discussions about the value of technology in education is that technology is something that will influence the lives of all of our students. Those who do not have technology still grow up, still can get jobs. However, the good jobs will go to the students who have learned to be successful masters of technology.

The interviewer several times asked if it was worthwhile for India to invest so much in this device as compared to buying more books and hiring more teachers. I think that this view is really shortsighted. There certainly are problems with the roll out of something this big and there are dangers, like the poor getting overlooked and the middle class or rich getting richer.

I think that India will benefit in two ways from this project. First I think it may open up new possibilities for learning for students. Second just the process of doing this has already moved India up to a more important place in the world. The spin offs from this design will influence what is designed later and India will be ahead of the curve.

Technology and Test scores

2011-09-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

The last time I wrote was about a NYT article that has gotten lots of people talking and thinking about Technology in our schools. I just came across this very interesting piece by John Merrow and thought it was worth sharing. John has been writing about, visiting and thinking about public education for many years. He is a respected person and has interesting things to say. I hope you will read it.

http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=5314

Above the Fold in NYT-Technology and Test Scores

2011-09-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday's NYT had a huge article on the use of technology in schools. It focuses on one school district that has recently adopted lots of technology and has SMARTBoards in every classroom. The main point of the article as I understand it is that Technology is not raising test scores....

http://tinyurl.com/NYT-2011-09-04

DUH.... Technology will NEVER raise test scores. What is amazing is that test scores stay the same and in some classes they do increase, but they do NOT go down.

How can we justify NOT using technology in this day and age!!! We are doing our children a disservice if we do not help them to think in ways that technology allows you to think. Technology is SO prevalent in EVERY part of our lives. I started working with Ed Tech around 1990. At that time tech enthusiasts were saying that no matter what job kids had when they got out of school they would have to use technology. An example that is often given is that even at McDonalds and Gas stations computers are used for the cash register, inventory and so many other things. I always questioned whether the level that technology is used at these places makes any difference in how kids are taught. With or without technology in the school students can get jobs at McDonalds and Gas stations, but that is where they will stay.

The kids who know how to use technology will actually become the managers and Franchisers of McDonalds and Gas stations. However, that is NOT the goal of American Public Education. Don't we want kids to move beyond even that? Don't we want them to be creative thinkers and problem solvers?

Almost all kids now know how to do Facebook, download music and videos, and play games with various devices. But here are a few things that most students do NOT have a handle on that schools could make a big difference in. Schools could teach:

when to use technology and when a different media is better and how to decide
reading in different ways. Reading on the computer is really a different skill than reading text. Schools could help with that.
Learning both to FOCUS and to multi-task (by that I really mean doing several things in very quick succession) Many students going to college today are good at multitasking, but have little or NO idea how to focus and slowly think things through.
Real research skills using computers-what resources are out there, how to find them, how to cite them rather than just using someone else's work.
How to communicate ideas online (by hyperlinking, in 140 characters, through pictures, video and music)
and many other things

It is irresponsible for teachers today to say that they are great teachers if they are not using technology in thoughtful ways in their classrooms.

School Reform

2011-08-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

I just ran across a video from a meeting in July where Diane Ravich spoke. It is worth watching. Here are a couple of quotes:

"There’s no excuse for the richest nation in the world to tolerate so much poverty."

On Teach for America I like TEA and I also like the Peace Corp “…but when people go up to join the Peace Corp we don’t make them ambassadors.”

Dr. Diane Ravitch at American University July 29th from Rita Solnet on Vimeo.

Google-Should we be concerned?

2011-07-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended an event called "Texas Get Your Business Online" run by Google, Intuit and various other Small Business agencies and Chambers of Commerce. It was AMAZING. It was almost like a conference that I had paid for, except it was free and I could just walk right in. They gave me a bag full of information (no ads that I just had to throw away) and had bins with pens that say Google for the taking. They had candy in the Google colors, neon Google lights, cups in the Google colors and free snacks from all sorts of local companies that are or were small businesses.

I attended two Powerpoint sessions that talked about how to get your business online and about Adwords and Google Place. Then many people went to learn how to create their own website with free hosting from Intuit for a year and a domain name.

It was really wonderful. I also met a few people and learned a lot that will help me get started in my new business I'm Not A Geek.com.

Then this morning I got up and read an article in the Austin American Statesman about the dangers of the amount of information being collected on each click in a Google Search. Since I had heard it all yesterday from the point of view of the business it was interesting to hear it from the point of view of a person browsing the internet. http://www.statesman.com/life/what-do-you-share-when-you-click-on-1629154.html

I am still not concerned. I have decided that just about anything anyone wants to know about me can be found out, mostly in ways I had never thought of. For me there is more value in being findable than in being hidden. Maybe I am an idealist. What do you think?

This got me writing an article for my business blog on Cookies http://helpimnotageek.blogspot.com.

I'm Back

2011-07-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Some day I will write a long blog post about working in elementary schools, technology, my experiences and starting a business. But not now.

The end of the school year was sad. I did not like saying good bye and not knowing what I would be doing when the next school year came around. I still do not know everything, but one thing I am doing is starting my own business. It was a difficult decision not to take a classroom at Eanes, but now I am so glad I have made that decision. I feel free to do what I am good at.... although I am not sure how to make any money doing it!

I have started a blog for my business called Help! I'm not a Geek! which I hope reflects my desire to work at helping REAL people who need to use technology and feel at a loss. Sometimes just a short answer or an hour of someone sitting with you can free you to do what you want to do. Let me know if you have any ideas for me!

Observations on traveling and blogging with the ipad

2011-06-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

I am really loving traveling wi th the iPad. It has everything-books, games, email, browser, blog, twitter. I have learned that if I find a picture online (that is clearly for using of course) I can just hold my finger over it and it will come up with the choice to copy it or save it. Saving it puts it right into my photos!

However, the downsides are:
1. It takes me longer to type.
2. For some reason I cannot scroll the blogger editing window.
3. I cannot get embed code from YouTube although I can upload to YouTube. I think that must be flash related.
4. I cannot upload photos to blogger-I am guessing that this also has to do with flash. (I can link to a URL of an image, but I don't like to do that because of bandwidth problems it can cause.)
5. I cannot edit the size, color or font of the text in Blogger.

There may be solutions to these things, so if anyone out there knows them both me and the other reader ;-) of this blog would appreciate it.

Using Audio in Projects

2011-06-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

My eCoach Audio List

Finding Royalty Free audio that kids can use in projects was always a problem for me. The biggest part of it was that it took SO long to actually find what I wanted to use. Today I am having a small "aha" moment and I thought I would share it. I created a project in My eCoach that lists sites where you can get audio to use. http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=12860

I am working on my project for this summer (http://world-everyday.blogspot.com/) and I need background audio that I can use for some of my short videos. When I am putting them together I don't want to spend frustrating time searching. I just figured out (you all probably already knew this) that I could create a folder with playlists in it in my iTunes and so I have done that and I am just going out and populating it with tunes that I find that are free for use and have creative commons licenses.

I could not figure out how to download music directly to my ipad, so I am downloading it using my computer and just syncing it. Now I will have all of the music I need all categorized so that I can find what I want. Cool.

Global Education Conference

2010-11-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

Next week the Global Education Conference takes place from Monday through Friday for 24 hours each day. There are an amazing number of truly international presenters. I am looking forward to taking part in this conference and seeing what I can learn about thinking more Globally. I hope to see you there!

An Aha Moment about Collaboration

2010-10-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

I just realized something about collaboration that explains why many schools do not collaborate much. Collaboration goes hand in hand with flexibility. In order to collaborate with someone else you have to be willing to give up or adjust your regular schedule so that you can work together.

In my school we are doing a project with iEARN called Learning Circles. It is an awesome, time tested, way of helping several schools connect and focus on one shared project. I am supporting a teacher at my school who is taking part and so I am sort of in the middle of plans. Each week or two there is a task that we are supposed to each complete. For example, this week we have a class survey that we need to fill out and send to the Circle (there is one central email address that we all connect to). It is SO hard in my school to find time to fill out the survey or read what other classes are sending! There is just no time. There is no blame here, but I had this Aha moment today. The classes that are really participating on time are flexible. They fit in things like filling out the survey, reading about each other, mapping each other's locations in between math, reading, science, etc... They put as high a value on this type of collaboration and communication as they do on academic subjects.

Our district says that collaboration is a high priority and at the district level there is lots of talk about the importance of global connections. I wonder if anyone else has had the Aha moment about flexibility.

The Digital Student

2010-10-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday The Professor was team-teaching a class on evolution and creation. He works with another professor in the Science Dept. and he is the Religionist. Something really interesting happened. It is a small class of about 12 students and about a third of them had laptops. The discussion was about the eye being a really complicated organ. Someone asked, "Do worms have eyes?" The professors did not know, but a few seconds later one of the students raised his hand and said, "No, they don't" and he read a bit of the article he found online.

This proves what so many teachers who use technology say. Laptops DO belong in the classroom... but wait! There is more.

Later in the discussion one of the professors really wanted the students to discuss what Darwin thought about this topic. He was picturing the students predicting this based on what they had learned so far, but right away someone began reading what Darwin ACTUALLY said about it.

We REALLY need to be teaching differently if we want students to think! There are plenty of facts that are easily findable, but if we want thinking we must focus on something besides facts when we ask questions or preface a question like "What would Darwin think about that?" with "Before you look this up I want to discuss what you think Darwin would say? After we discuss it you can look it up."

Either that or we can get rid of laptops and wireless connections in classrooms. Kids just aren't learning to think!

Image from Wikimedia Commons

What should teachers do?

2010-10-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

I am motivated to write this time by a great post I read this morning on Lee Kolbert's blog I'm Not Who You Think I Am

"[I] Read Will's post AND the comments because reading it all made me realize this about myself: I suck! I must be a fraud. I'm not who you think I am!"
She has rules in her classroom and schedules, etc...

This led me to Will Richardson's blog Parents 2.0 a Back to School Dilemma and I am sure I will be reading more.

This touches on one of the main reasons that I wanted to be back working in a school setting. Sometimes there seemed to be a huge gap between what I read and heard and even said in conferences and what is really happening in schools. I felt hypocritical telling teachers what to do when I wasn't clear on HOW it can be done. This is something I have written about in the past. Observations of Computers in Classrooms is one post I could find from 2005, but I know I have been thinking it for a long time.

Now I have been working in an elementary school for three years (going on four). In the school we have SO much technology available that there is no reason to avoid its use. Teachers must use it for attendance, emailing parents and even grading. There have been a few fantastic projects. Some teachers have Skyped, a few did podcasts or radio programs, Google Earth was used for learning about biomes, all teachers have web pages and are learning to communicate with them. But I still feel unsatisfied. Why?

Thanks Lee, for your response. I work in an Elementary school with excellent teachers who struggle to find time to learn and use technology. Most of them are not resistant, just overwhelmed with new programs for reading and math, new standards for science, new forms to fill out for RTI. Some of them do some terrific technology projects during the school year, but it is possible that a Web 2.0 parent might be horrified with what they hear at Back to School. Hopefully not....

Letter to Oprah

2010-09-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

This letter to Oprah Winfrey is a MUST READ. The writer articulately explains the importance of public schools and the difficulty of pinpointing the problems with them. Please do read it!

http://www.ed421.com/?p=1438

The Problem with (some) Computer Math Games

2010-09-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Often when a class comes into the computer lab I try to take some to stand behind the students and observe what they are doing. Yesterday a second grade class came into the lab. They were on Funbrain and were using the Math Arcade. It works like a game board. It has a bunch of different games and students have to do one successfully before passing onto the next one. Some of the games are pretty good, but then I observed some frustration. When some students came to the ink-squirting octopus they got stuck. In this game there was a math problem at the bottom of the ocean and answers floating above in the water. The student had to use the arrow keys to move the octopus around to the correct number and drop it into the math problem.

Some of the kids were not very good with moving the octopus (and for full disclosure, neither was I). Even when they knew the right answer and it was visible they would keep picking up the wrong answers by accident and dropping them into the problem. They would also get hit by the crab and lose lives that way. Over and over again they would lose even though they knew their math facts. The skill that this game seemed to be teaching was how to move something in simulated water with the arrow keys.

Several other games seem to have similar qualities. One game that has caught on like wildfire has kids popping balloons in order to make money. Mostly boys LOVE this game. They spend lots of time popping balloons and seem to be learning strategies for popping the most balloons rather than any math goal that the game has. Math Blaster was like this. Kids seemed to learn more strategy to make points than they did math facts.

Everyday Math also has a set of computer games that support the math program. For the most part they seem pretty good. They focus on learning to work with numbers and support the program. However (and I admit that maybe it is just me) the games get petty boring. They are good for 15 minutes or so.

One computer math game that keeps kids interested in really learning math facts is called Arcademics. In this game kids can play competitively against the computer, other kids in the room or even kids in other locations. One example is a boat race. A student signs up to race and chooses a boat. Then they wait for others to join the race. When one to four of the other boats are taken they start the race. The boats are propelled by them doing math problems. They really have to be fast in order to win. Because they can play with other kids in the room or anonymously all over the world it is amazingly entertaining. Even kids that do not have computer game skills can really have fun learning math this way.

Next time you have a chance, watch students as they play math games online. Don’t settle for ones that the students like. Be careful to choose what will help them learn.

Looking for Videos to Start out the School Year?

2010-08-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

One of the teachers I work with asked me if there were other sites like YouTube that had videos she could use. I did a quick search and found this and thought it would be good to pass on.

Video Menu
http://www.videomenu.com/

It does not even include SchoolTube and TeacherTube!

Third Day Syndrome

2010-08-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

Did you take some time away from your cell phone, computer, email, etc... This summer? I didn't. Maybe I should have. Here is an article about some Neuroscientists who did this as an experiment. It has some interesting comments about the brain and technology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?pagewanted=1&ref=global-home

OH no! Maybe Brains AREN'T Changing

2010-07-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

From the Wikimedia Commons

According to an article in the LA Times Opinion page this morning:

"Whenever you hear that something is changing your brain, you ought to be worried..."

Please do read this article and see what you think. Digital Alarmists are Wrong

Bridging

2010-07-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

I just watched what I think is an important TED talk. It talks about the need for bridges, people who can cross two cultures and bring people and ideas together. I think it has important implications for education. What do you think?

Computers at Home: Educational Hope vs. Teenage Reality

2010-07-12T17:52:00.000-07:00

Do computers and broadband at home negatively effect learning of middle school students? This article from the NYT suggests that this happens. They look at three different studies; one in Romania, one in North Carolina and one in Texas. Here is a quote:

"The North Carolina study suggests the disconcerting possibility that home computers and Internet access have such a negative effect only on some groups and end up widening achievement gaps between socioeconomic groups."

What do you think?

Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/business/11digi.html?_r=3

Brains are not made to think with!

2010-05-12T17:56:00.001-07:00

I am just starting to read a really interesting book called "Why Don't Students Like School?" by Daniel T. Willingham. I learned about it by listening to an interview with the author by Steve Hargadon. He has some really great interviews with leading thinkers that I enjoy listening to on the way to work. Look on the right side of his website for a list of really fascinating interviews with people like Seth Godin, Sir Ken Robinson, Clay Shirkey, Daniel Pink and many more.

The first insight from this book is that "peoples minds are not well suited for thinking"!! He explains that thinking is a really difficult task and very taxing for the brain and so it prefers to rely on memory and he gives some good explanation and examples in the chapter. The brain likes to think, he says, when it can solve puzzles successfully and when it is engaged.

This has immediate application to what I have been noticing in the computer lab. Students who can rely on memory for many technology tasks have a much easier time than many older teachers who still need to have everything written out step by step. Even kids who have not been exposed to some technology tasks (like saving on a server-following folder pathways) show lots of frustration. The same age students who have been exposed often to saving their work can do so much more because they can rely on their memories for the menial tasks and focus on what is more engaging.

What does public school have in common with the publishing industry?

2010-05-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me yesterday when I was on a retreat and someone was presenting Howard Gardner's ideas of Multiple Intelligence as a new idea to a group of people that I first learned about it and read about it 30 years ago! Ever since that time there has been lots of talk and effort at reaching students with their preferred mode of learning (linguistic, spacial, kinisthetic, etc...) and seeing them as individuals who can be intelligent in many different ways, some of which don't show much like intrapersonal.

Why has education remained SO much the same? Why are we STILL focusing on the same things and not seeing change?

There are many industries that have disappeared or are on their ways out because of changes in the way things are done because of technology.

Travel Agents
Music Publishers
Book Publishers
Print Newspapers

Why didn't those people see how much things were changing and instead of trying harder changed WHAT they were doing?

Now apply that to education. What are we doing? Why don't we see that things are changing? We KNOW that standardized tests do not help our students. We KNOW that Art, Music, PE enrich learning rather than taking away from it. We KNOW that the world is changing. Is Public Education headed on the same path as the print newspaper? Is it worth hanging on and trying harder? How do we get a vision of a new way of learning and teaching?

Hypnotizing Chickens with PPT

2010-04-28T04:43:00.000-07:00

Here is what was said about PowerPoint in a recent article in the New York Times entitled "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Powerpoint".

“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,”
“PowerPoint makes us stupid,”
“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,”
“Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
[there are]"serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making. "
“death by PowerPoint,” the phrase used to described the numbing sensation that accompanies a 30-slide briefing
sitting through some PowerPoint briefings is “just agony,”
“Dumb-Dumb Bullets,”
"Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters.
The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.” "

The whole article is worth reading. What do you teach your students about PowerPoint?

Image from:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/2009/December/091202/091203-engel-big-9a.jpg

Being a Node

2010-04-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I am a node. Recently I have been thinking about networking in my own district and in my own school. Most likely everyone else has had this thought already, but I just realized how powerful it can be. In my district there are 10 people who do instructional technology at the school level. We don't see each other often enough, but we do support and learn from each other.

This morning I just realized that each one of us is a NODE on the network. That is an incredibly powerful concept (which probably the rest of my collegues understood long ago.) I have resources in people and experience and they connect to through me. They are each NODES that I can benefit from.

I have never thought about myself as a node before. I do have connections and experience and need to be sharing more and when I need something I need to think of my local nodes first.

Learning Step by Step

2010-04-16T09:39:00.001-07:00

Last week I had another "aha" experience while watching some first graders doing photo editing. Several first grade classes have been coming through the lab doing a project where they have a picture taken of themselves dressed as a cowboy with a green screen and after making the background transparant they copy and paste themselves onto a background with a horse. They are then going to write a story about what is happening with the horse.

One of the classes I worked with has been coming to the computer lab and using computers in their classroom regularly. Although it was a challenge for them to follow all of the directions they had the background they needed to easily do the editing. They were comfortable moving the mouse and switching to different tools and dragging corners to resize something. They were comfortable finding a file in a folder and opening it, renaming it and saving it.

Another class has rarely come to the lab and when they do it is usually to go to a website and play some learning game. For them this project was more difficult. Some of them could not make the mouse do what they wanted it to do. Some did not know how to find a file in a folder or how to save. Working with this group had to be slower and was a bit more stressful for them and for the teacher.

I have wondered sometimes whether it makes sense to be teaching Kindergarten and 1st graders technology. This was a definite example of how all of the experiences they have will help them as they do other things in the years to come. I don't want to underestimate what these kids can do. It is pretty amazing.

Teaching with Technology Observations

2010-03-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today I did a lesson on Google Earth with third grade classes. I did it 4 times, so I had a chance to see how it went with different kids and different circumstances. Here are some things that I think helped and others that did not:

HELPFUL

Start out by telling kids that there will probably be glitches and that it is OK. Think of a few plan Bs before even starting. In the past often there are several things that don't work at the same time and I can get caught only troubleshooting. I have also experienced frustration and tears (my own and the kids).

Start out with some time to play. In the past I get frustrated with kids who are not paying attention when I am giving instructions and kids get in trouble or taken off computers.

Make the first time using a piece of software a "test" so that it does not require a graded project. The cognitive load of learning a topic and also how to use software can be too much sometimes. This takes lots of pressure off of teacher and student to accomplish a lot the first time.

Insist on full attention with hands off of the computer (or even having laptops closed or monitors off) when instructions are given, but try to spend as little time as possible with them listening and you talking.

NOT HELPFUL

Fire drills in the middle of the lesson.
Pressure to hurry to finish something.

Needing to learn both software and a topic at the same time.

I really think that my attitude as a teacher when doing this type of lesson is central to how it goes. If I am easily stressed and upset or have really high expectations of the kids it will be a difficult time.

Laptops banned in University Classrooms

2010-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

This article from the Washington post really got my blood boiling:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030804915.html?hpid=topnews

After reading Brain Rules by John Medina and many other articles I am convinced that students do not multitask, but with every switch back and forth lose some time and content while they refocus. But laptops are not the problem!! They just show you what is already happening in student's brains that you could not see. I just listened to a very interesting lecture by John Merrow who has been covering Education for a long time (you may have seen one of his reports on NPR). He said that it has been documented that in any audience 8% of the people listen to the whole lecture, 14% fade in and out thinking of other things and then putting attention on the lecturer and a whopping 78% are thinking about something else altogether all or most of the time. The difference is that with a laptop you have evidence and something to blame it on.

The one sentence that made clear sense to me was at the end. It quoted one professor saying:

ultimately, it is a professor's job to hold the class's attention.
"If students don't want to pay attention, the laptop is the least
of your problems," he said.

Who is teaching the kids to focus? Who is designing University instruction that

takes into account the fact that the mind tends to roam?

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/penmachine/

Great Teachers

2010-02-23T04:48:00.001-08:00

I just read an article in the NYT that is really worth reading and thinking about. It is about Ms. Deborah Kenny who has created three successful charter schools in Harlem and is in the process of creating more.

Here are some important quotes:

"There is an overemphasis on "the program elements" she said, "things like curriculum and class size and school size and the longer day".... none of these program elements were nearly as important as the quality of teaching in the schools."
"What is ironic is that teachers are doing everything but teaching to the test."
5 core goals for the students: wholesome in character, compassionate and see life as responsibility to give something to the world, sophisticated intellect, avid readers, independent thinkers leading reflective, meaningful lives.
"Merely passing a standardized test was hardly something to aspire to."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ref=opinion

Thinkfinity

2010-02-09T04:59:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I went to a session on Thinkfinity which is actually a consortium of websites tied together with funding from the Verizon Foundation. It is a wonderful, extensive, overwhelming resource.

I learned many things at this session, but I think I took away one important thing: a way to approach teachers with this (and other tech resources) that will not be so overwhelming.

Start with what the teacher's need. I knew this, but yesterday I learned more how I can do that.

I have access to all of the past test data through Eduphoria which is an awesome program our district uses to make sense of all of the data. I learned how I can go to Eduphoria Aware and pick out ONE standard that our kids are having trouble with. Then I can go to the Thinkfinity site and search for ONE cool "learning object" (their term) that can be used in a lesson.

I think if I come to a teacher with ONE thing they can do that addresses a need they have they will be more open to what I have to offer. There is just SO much technology available (our school has digital cameras, digital recorders, flip video cameras, a green screen, polycom and skype for videoconferencing, and then all of the amazing resources online). One understandable reaction to all of this is to totally shut it off. It is too much. I am hopeful that if I can approach the teachers with ONE thing that is helpful it will open their minds to other possiblities.

What's in a Name?

2010-02-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying learning and meeting people at the TCEA (Texas Computer Educator's Association) conference in Austin, TX. Yesterday I was in a session about Thinkfinity, which is an amazing resource (more about that in a different post). We all had to introduce ourselves. Many of us had similar roles at our school campuses, but we all had different titles. It occurred to me that in the last 10 years I have been a CIS, AIS, CTC, ITP, and now I am a TIP!! Each of these acronyms can stand for different things! CIS for me was Cluster Instructional Specialist, but for teachers in a blog I was just reading it meant Campus Instructional Specialist!

For those of you who might be curious TIP, my current title, stands for Technology Instructional Partner.

Preparation for TCEA

2010-02-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I am doing the last bits of preparation for my presentation at TCEA which will be on Thursday. You are all invited! It is actually a presentation by teachers from my school. We are talking about the reality of using Web 2.0 in the classroom. We are coming from the point of view that we are not experts, but have something to share and we really want to hear what others are experiencing and learning also.

I am also looking forward to the Edubloggercon. This is a gathering of like-minded people for an "unconference". Edubloggercons have happened at many conferences in many locations. I have participated twice at NECC conferences. It is a great chance to meet people that you may have learned to know online through blogging, twitter, Nings or something else. The sessions are times for collaboration rather than one person presenting to a group. People have posted subjects that they are interested in talking and listening about on a wiki. YOU can put your ideas here too. They are welcome. It is FREE! I hope to meet you there!

Seth Godin Video

2010-01-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a video for today that might make you think:

Online, except at school....

2010-01-20T04:43:00.000-08:00

This morning in the Austin American Statesman "the professor" pointed out an article on the front page titled, "Youths almost always plugged in". It was actually a New York Times piece and so I looked it up on the times! What a difference! Look at this sentence:

STATESMAN: "Forty-seven percent of the heaviest media users-those who consumed at least 16 hours a day-had mostly C's or lower in school."

NYT: "While most of the young people in the study got good grades, 47 percent of the heaviest media users — those who consumed at least 16 hours a day — had mostly C’s or lower, compared with 23 percent of those who typically consumed media three hours a day or less."

I was shocked at how different the two articles were and how much more comprehensive the NYT article was. It showed me the answer to my question about the division between TV and other screen time...

Also one line surprised me "The average young American spends nearly every waking minute - except for time in school - using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device." In the same Statesman on the Metro and State page was an article about student test scores going up because of using video games for learning math! These articles are worth looking at!

Separating Technology and Curriculum

2010-01-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

For as long as I have been working with technology there has been the problem of integrating technology into curriculum. Several years ago the move was to add technology to lesson plans that did not use technology. It did not work. Sometimes teachers just added technology meaninglessly to their lessons. Currently we are talking more about meaningful use of technology in the classroom. The word integration is out of fashion.

This morning I had an experience that gave me a little insight into why this is happening. I work as the Technology Instructional Partner or TIP (sometimes called Technology Specialist or Technology Coordinator) at an Elementary School. Today was an inservice day for teachers. The morning topic was curriculum related (Marzano and vocabulary) for all teachers in the district and the afternoon is at our own school. TIPs were excused from the morning. We could work on our own campus on preparation for the afternoon.

Now... I have no shortage of work, but I decided to attend part of the morning anyway and here is what I learned. In our district we have a mentality that separates technology and curriculum. Why did the tech people get excused from the curriculum part of the day? Is it a waste of our time to know what the teachers are doing in the classroom?

The trainer (who was wonderful) gave examples as she was talking and one involved a map. She said to the group "....and I pull down the map and show the kids...." Why did she first think of pulling down the map? Why not Google Earth? It is so much richer and current! All of these teachers have computers with projectors! Many of them have SMARTBoards. We struggle to help teachers use these things, but no wonder they don't. They just don't think of them.

There are lots of examples, but the point is in most schools curriculum and technology are two different things. Teachers have to have energy and brain space for curricular things, but since technology is totally divorced from curriculum it is something MORE that would take more energy and more brain space. hmmmm

Thanks to Towboat Garage

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cottergarage/3186013605/

and erutan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erutan/23449136/

for the images

New XO???!!!

2010-01-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

Wow! I am really glad that I read this newsletter. The XO is coming out with a touchscreen tablet. Here are some pictures from their blog:

http://blog.laptop.org/2009/12/24/xo-3-concept/

All Teachers Really Need to Know about Technology…

2010-01-02T10:32:00.000-08:00

Is it possible that most of what teachers need to know in order to effectively use technology is “soft” knowledge, which is basically impossible to teach in the traditional sense, but is picked up with use? Can they learn it all, or most of it, by using Facebook?

I started this list because I was reading a blog post by Kyle Brumbaugh called the 50 Tech Skills the Tech Savvy Educator Needs http://edtechvalley.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-50-skills-tech-savvy-educator-needs.html.

I realized I don’t know many of them! However, it is pretty easy for me to figure out how to learn these things. I didn’t know how to turn on Google Safe Search, but I did know how to get to an advanced search and how to go about figuring it out.

I decided that I don’t agree with Kyle about the skills a teacher needs to know. Knowing how to do a Google Safe Search doesn’t help teachers when Google moves the link or changes the process or if the teacher uses a different search engine. Teachers don’t need to know how to word process or step-by-step how to make a spreadsheet. We tried teaching them all of this and then a few years later they came back to us and said that they still need training. Most of the time teachers forget how to do things because they don’t use them right away after they are trained and they have no skills for figuring it out themselves. I thought that making sure they had the software or the equipment to use right after the training would help, but still the new learning would not get used right away and a month later they were back saying they needed more training.

I think that Technology PD needs to be related to what teachers are doing anyway (either enhancing the curriculum or enhancing their lives (Facebook, personal slideshows)

As a Technology Instructional Partner I can also secretly be figuring out ways to teach them the “soft” skills that will help them figure things out themselves and even help them to think of possibilities. Here are some beginning thoughts. I would be interested in your thoughts.

How to figure out things you want to know, but don’t. (i.e. for me how to turn on Google Safe Search)

to ask questions that will get you someplace
certain tech vocabulary can help (preferences, fyi, options, tools, etc…)
how to edit your own privacy settings on a website

How to collaborate online.

it is OK to edit someone else's work-the concept of reverting the “history” of a website
Using Wikis, Blogs, Google Docs and Spreadsheets
CAPITOLs means yelling.

How to keep kids safe while using the Internet

decode URLs
how to deal with copyright-where to find the info.
basic safety rules (use of names, personal information, what to do if…, )

How to deal with tech frustration and overload

dealing with passwords
it is OK to take baby steps, but not OK to stop
When tension rises put technology aside. It will make sense or work tomorrow or later.
photo and video management

Concepts

embedding
shared workspace
backchanneling/multitasking
communication through images, video, etc… not just words

FYI Here is Kyle’s list:

KYLE’S LIST

http://edtechvalley.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-50-skills-tech-savvy-educator-needs.html

Google: (10)

turn on ‘safe search’
use Google as a dictionary
use Google as a calculator or conversion tool.
search web pages from a particular domain
search web pages from a particular country
search for particular file types.
determine the sites linked to a particular site.
search for non-copyrighted material.
set up a Google Alert.
translate text into another language

Google Apps / Tools: (5)

set up an RSS reader. (Google Reader, Bloglines)
set up a Google Group
create a Google Spreadsheets form.
put a place marker in Google Earth.
save a Google Earth file. (.kmz)

Internet: (8)

decode an Internet URL
find the owner of an Internet domain.
download a document or image from an Internet site.
view a historical version of a web page.
compare the traffic of two different web sites.
create a blog.
create a wiki.
set up an online calendar.

Image / Videos: (4)

download/upload images to an photo sharing site. (Flickr / Picasa)
download a ‘YouTube’ or other video service video
embed media into a webpage, blog or wiki.
create an online slide show.(VoiceThread, Photostory, Animoto, Picasa Web Album)

Communication: (6)

send, receive and respond to e-mail.
attach a file to an e-mail
send e-mail to multiple recipients and how to use copy and blind copy
use an Instant Messaging Client. (AIM, Google Chat, Yahoo Messenger)
set up a microblog (Twitter, etc.)
set up an Internet ‘phone call.’ (Skype)
set up a video chat.

Cell Phone: (3)

use your cell phone to send a text message.
use your cell phone to search Google. (SMS)
upload images from your cell phone to the Internet.

Personal Computer Management: (13)

cut and paste from/into any Office Productivity Application (Microsoft Office, Open Office) document.
crop an image
create charts and graphs in any spreadsheet application
copy text data and paste it into a spreadsheet so it can be manipulated or sorted.
convert any office productivity document into a file type usable by another application.
create a .pdf file.
create a mail merged document.
add media to any presentation application. (PowerPoint)
save any document to a flash drive.
burn data onto a CD.
convert audio files into MP3’s.
do basic computer troubleshooting .(Physical, Hardware, Operating System)
test an Internet connection. (ping)

What is on your list?

Terrific Teachers

2009-12-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

Now and then, when I doubt myself (which is way too often), I wonder about forcing (?) great teachers to use technology.

Let me explain... I am working in a school that has extremely high test scores. The teachers are great and the students are amazing. My title is Technology Instructional Partner and I work side by side with teachers as they use technology in their classrooms.

There are many teachers who really want to use technology. For a few it comes easily and even if I weren't there they would figure out how to do things and even write grants to get equipment if necessary. There is a second layer of teacher that is open to use technology, but needs a little carrot or stick to help them to move. It is great sitting with this type of teacher and brainstorming ways to use technology that really enhance their curricular goals.

There are two other types of teachers (at least). There are those who do not want to use technology or consider themselves too old to learn new things. Then there are those who are totally focused on their subject teaching enthusiastically and effectively without technology. This is the teacher-type that I am wondering about. If they are already getting top scores on the test; if they are teaching in an active and engaging way and emphasizing higher thinking from Blooms Taxonomy; if there is technology in their classrooms which is never used; why should I spend time and energy making them change? What if their test scores go down? What if they are not able to cover all of the curriculum the way that they used to without technology? What if they are frustrated instead of receiving energy from trying it out?

Somehow I know that they are cheating out their students and themselves by not using technology more. I just need more of a solid conviction that it is worth doing and maybe some suggestions for how to approach it. I hope I hear from some of my readers. (if there still are any!)

Thanks to yewenyi for use of the photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/yewenyi/300115429/

Send a Letter FROM Santa and Help Children

2009-11-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

I am on the board of a terrific Child Development Center in Austin, TX. Trinity CDC has been around for about 40 years and is now serving many needy families. I am convinced that preschool is where we need to start to help families and am excited to be involved. At Christmas each year we write letters FROM Santa as a fundraiser and send them to children all over.

This year it can be done all online (except for the actual letter which is snail mail). You can fill out the form below and when you submit go to a place online where you can donate $6 (or more ;-) to this fantastic cause. The results of the form will appear in a spreadsheet which is used to create customized letters that are sent to kids before Christmas. I hope you will participate.

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Reflecting on Resistance to Technology Use

2009-11-17T18:11:00.000-08:00

A recent blog post from Barbara Bray touched something inside me that I think is important to write and to think about. Barbara talked about the CBAM stages of concern. This was research that explained how innovations are adopted. It applied really directly to the innovation of technology in schools. She basically expressed surprise that the same percentages of teachers seem to still be resistant to the use of technology even though it is not an innovation any more. It has been around for 20 years or so. Why is this?

I think I have discovered one possible reason. I recently started working as a Technology Insructional Partner at an elementary school. In my district EVERY school has a TIP who supports teachers and students as they use technology. Not only that, but we have laptops, digital cameras, digital recorders, color printers and even itouches! In our situation technology can actually become transparent. Teachers have actually begun to risk trying new things. Even some teachers that were reluctant to use any technology have talked about knowing that they need to use more technology. I am beginning to have conversations with teachers about the importance of evaluating websites and the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0.

Even with all of that I find that sometimes I feel overwhelmed and frustrated. Technology seems to change faster all of the time. There are constantly new things to learn. It often doesn’t work when you most need it to. My main job in the school is to support Educational Technology, so if I am frustrated just think what classroom teachers must feel.

This reminded me of some action research that I did for the ISTE NETS course I took probably in 2001 (?) One thing that I learned was that there were essential conditions for successful use of technology in schools. The NETS spell out what all of these condtions are.

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2000Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2000.htm.

I think that our school has most of the essential conditions that are needed for successful technology use and that is why we are beginning to see success. However, I think our school is in the minority.

ITouches at Tech Forum in Austin

2009-11-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

Today I will be attending the Tech Forum in Austin, TX. Part of what I will be doing is participating in a discussion on iTouches in the classroom with one of the Tech Chicks! (Helen) I am so excited. I want to share some URLs, but it doesn't make sense to me to type out URLs on paper so that other people can type them into a browser. So, I am putting them here. Later I will put up some notes about the day.

Cable to project iTouch through the projector:
http://www.bizrate.com/mp3-player-accessories/ipod-touch-composite-video-cable/

Apple iPod Learning Lab(heavy duty)
http://www.apple.com/education/it-professionals/mac-labs.html

Tribeam Cart
http://www.tribeam.com/product.html

Create an iTunes account without a credit card
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534

Wiki with LOTS of ideas, apps and suggestions
http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/ipod-touch-schoolwide

Parent Education

2009-10-14T07:26:00.000-07:00

Reading blogs is SO helpful. Thanks Kim Cofino for sharing so much great stuff!!

One idea in Kim's blog was to have a parent coffee once a month. That made sense to me and so I decided to do something like it this year. Mine is a Brown Bag Lunch.

Today I had a talk with the Booster Club (PTA in most schools I have been in) and I think it went really well. My main point was that their kids will have (and probably do have) a digital footprint and so it is extremely important that they are aware of that and make it a good one. I showed them how a student in our school makes movies and posts to YouTube and compared it to the article in the newspaper this morning about a criminal who was caught because of his Facebook Page!

The movie was also pointed out by Kim Cofino. You should definitely read her blog!

Problem with Images

2009-09-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am really hoping that those of you who read this blog will break your silence and answer this post with your thoughts and ideas. I am wrestling with an issue and I would really like to come to a good solution. I KNOW there must be a solution out there and so this is a plea to you to point me in the right direction.

The issue is the use of images in the classroom. I have read and reread rules of copyright and fair use and even created my own web page to help teachers called Copyright for Educators. The problem is that I don't know how to make it happen in school.

There are more and more copyright free images for students to use for projects. For most things it is not hard to find a picture that fits into Fair Use. However, most of them do request that you include a link to where you got the image in your work. What I am at a loss about is how to efficiently keep track of that information. How do you keep image information with the images?

This didn't matter too much when kids were mostly using pictures for PowerPoints or Word Processing. It does matter when they are creating Wikis and Blogs. When images they are using are online it seems really important to teach them to cite the images.

I feel like I should have been doing better with this myself all these years. It is one thing to keep track of it for myself though and another thing to help kids and teachers in school keep track of this information. Any ideas are appreciated!

Teacher Burnout

2009-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

This article in today's Austin American Statesman by Nancy Schnog touhed a chord in me. I thought it was worth sharing.

The Cure for Teacher Burnout

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/ / CC BY 2.0

The Mediocre Multitasker

2009-08-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

In today's NY Times there is an article about a recent study on multitasking. The researchers were seeking to find what made people so good at multitasking and what they found to their dismay was that the people who were good at multitasking did poorly on most of their tests. People who in general did not multitask, but focused on one thing at a time actually even did better at multitasking!

See for yourself

The Mediocre Multitasker

What do you think?

Sir Ken Robinson and Creativity

2009-08-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

After listening to the amazing TED talk given by Sir Ken Robinson I try to listen to whatever he has to say. Here is an interview with him from the new edition of Educational Leadership. It is 17 minutes, so I have not listened to it yet... but part of the reason I am putting it here is because I want to!

Lightbulb Moment

2009-08-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I have a lightbulb moment with technology. It is some way that my thinking has changed because of what I do on the computer. One time it was being able to answer ANY question ANY time. Now that is even more true because I have an iPhone. I will be in a casual conversation and someone will say, "I wonder....." and now I know to say, "I can find out" and immediately I can go to the Internet and look it up!

Today it was RSS feeds. I have been using them to keep track of the blogs I read for a while. Today I found the blog of a teacher who is doing a Fulbright exchange and teaching in Scotland while her counterpart is teaching in the Pfleugerville, TX. Her blog is really interesting, so I thought I would put it into my RSS feed and check it now and then... Well, shock of all shocks there was NO RSS feed! (or at least my reader said it could not find one!) Earlier I had wanted to comment and noticed that there was no way to comment on it. I thought, "Well, that's too bad it is just a plain old web page, I will forget to ever go back and look at it." A PLAIN OLD WEB PAGE = web 1.0!!

The Knowledge is the ROOM not the Person in front

2009-08-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

This morning I listened to a podcast of one of the Keynote speakers from the Building Learning Communities conference this summer, David Weinberger. I want to remember one thing he said and so I decided that it makes sense to write it here. That way I can find it, but I can also share it with others who might find it interesting. He was talking about the huge change that is happening because of the Internet. He said lots of interesting things, so if you want to listen to the whole thing here is a link to it. I just read his Wikipedia entry and also learned that he is the author of the Cluetrain Manifesto. This was a very influential book for me and a MUST read even though it has been around for a while.

The main point I want to remember is that Knowledge is no longer something that an expert has. There is no scarcity and anyone can learn anything, but no one can know everything or even everything in their small field. Knowledge now resides in the network. Instead of a speaker up front having all of the knowledge we have to realize that the real knowledge is IN THE ROOM. In any given lecture at a conference there are many people in the seats listening to a lecture that know something that the speaker does not know. The trick is connecting all of that knowledge and the Internet has done that.

Two examples:
1. Library of Congress-The Library of Congress posted 3000 digitized photos on their site which are all important images of American History. They decided to try something new to make the photos searchable. They used a network of people by putting the pictures in Flickr where anyone could add a TAG to a picture. Flickr allows 75 tags per picture. In a few days all of the pictures had 75 TAGS and some of them were MUCH richer than any librarian could have put on them. The people who were in the pictures or knew people in the pictures were able to add important information that would not have been there otherwise.

2. Blogs, email and comments-This particular speaker is interested in law and so he has subscribed to a discussion list about something he is interested in. As he has browsed the discussion he noticed that certain people posted more often and really seemed to be the experts or the smart ones. The thing about a discussion list is that he did not have to depend on just that person for information, but could read when others disagreed with him and evaluate the discussions that people had.

He ended by encouraging everyone to share what they know because that is where we will really find power in knowledge.

Changing Teaching with Technology and Maps

2009-08-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

This morning The Professor and had a very interesting talk. We go out for coffee and talk almost every Saturday morning. He has a problem. One of the things that he teaches his students (in his class of about 200) is where important places like Rome are on the map. He has always had them do an assignment where they color in a blank map and then he puts that on the test. He wants to get away from just having the kids (mostly college freshman and sophmores) coloring on paper for the assignment.

I suggested using Google Earth and having the kids put placemarks (and even better, notes) on the site and turning it in as a .kmz file. He brought up two very interesting questions.

1. How many students would actually have the technology and the knowledge to do the assignment this way? Is it fair to those who may not have the knowledge or equipment? He does not want to be a computer teacher and spend class time instructing on how to use Google Earth. I suggested that he give no instruction on HOW to do it and then allow the kids to choose the coloring map or Google Earth. We have a friendly wager about how many students will choose to do it one way or another. He thinks that most of them will choose paper because that is what they are used to and it is easier and I wonder whether he will be surprised at the number of students who are able to handle the Google Earth assignment and choose it because it is so much more interesting. [NOTE: This really makes me more convinced that we need to be doing these things in Elementary school so that they can use the skills in a much more powerful way later.]

2. Then he wondered if the ones doing it on paper would have an advantage because that is the way they will be tested. Will those who choose to use Google Earth be unable to find Rome (and other places) on a line drawn map after finding it by using the search feature of Google Earth? That is a good question. It is a different brain effort to type R O M E and press enter than it is to color a map. With the Google Earth assignment students will have to attend differently to learn. hmmmm

Any Ideas? What would you do?

Digital Textbooks and iPods

2009-08-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

Here are two interesting links that I recently came upon about the demise of textbooks:

New York Times-Classrooms Go Digital...

and a very interesting idea from an enterprising HS student:

https://www.ischoolinitiative.com/The_iSchool.html

I think the second one is worth watching. It sounds like an interesting idea. This student has some good ideas about apps that can be used for education.

Finding Photos for Student Projects

2009-08-08T14:53:00.000-07:00

One of my pet peeves is when students come into the computer lab to look for pictures. The teacher has told them that they need pictures for their report on presidents or animals or something else and the kids have a habit of going directly to Google Images and searching for whatever it is they want a picture of and then spending lots of time looking at different pictures, downloading and collecting them OR complaining that they cannot find what they are looking for. Usually for the kids do not think about copyright or citations to give credit to creators of an image.
So, I was really excited when I found out about Flickr-Storm! This is an amazing free online application that allows a person to search Flickr and then create a webpage (automatically) with photos that you want to use. I created one with animals http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/set/92402b4d04eb456dfb01099c15ef9641e12128dc. Teachers can do the searching and then give the students the URL of the photo collection and save tons of school time. They can do a search of ONLY photos with a Creative Commons license so that all of the photos (and there are some great ones) are free to use.

Going One to One

2009-07-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

My district is considering going one to one with laptops. That is exciting, but I am also concerned. I just read the newest blog post from the blog "Learning is Messy" and here is a quote from the comments:

"...most 1:1 programs I’ve seen have gone down in flames for the very reasons you state. Teachers are the key, and a willingness to do this differently."

Down in Flames!!! This is such a common story. Back when I was working in a computer lab in Missouri in around 1995 I remember hearing a similar story about computer labs. Schools would spent huge amounts of money on getting computer labs, but there was no plan for regular upgrades and after a few years the equipment was obsolete and there was no way that the school could afford to replace it. Also teachers hadn't been using it much and so there was no vision of the value it could have.

I hope our school district is thinking carefully about replacement and total cost of ownership and also about teacher involvement. This year we will have both a full time Instructional Technology Coach and a full time Instructional Coach for each building. That is an amazing commitment to teacher support and I think we have a chance of hanging in there.

Has anyone reading had this experience? Any advice?

Netflix and Collaboration

2009-07-28T06:45:00.001-07:00

I just read a really interesting article in the New York Times about the power of collaboration. Netflix has been running a contest since 2006 to find a way to significantly improve the movie recommendation system. At the end of the contest (They had 30 days to try to beat the first team that reached 10% improvement.) there was "almost a race to agglomerate as many teams as possible" David Weiss, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania is quoted as saying, "The surprise was that the collaborative approach works so well that trying all the algorithms, coding them up and putting them together far exceeded expectations." This is such a different approach than we have been using (knowing what another competitor is trying is cheating) It is so interesting to read this type of thing outside of K-12 Education. What would the world be like if we all collaborated?

Happenings in West Bank Village - At Tuwani

2009-07-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

I am on an email list that gives me information about At-Tuwani, the village that I visited near Bethlehem. I was quite surprised to receive an email yesterday about an incident that occurred on the 3rd of July.

AT-TUWANI Release: Israeli Police, Accompanied by Israeli Settlers, Arrest_Palestinian:_Three Palestinians Arrested Within Eight Days for Grazing Sheep_3 July 2009__[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of_Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli_settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal._Settlement outposts are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]__...

Short summary: Christian Peacemaker Teams have been asked to live in the village in order to be witnesses of what is happening. A shepherd was out in a field on Palestinian land with his sheep when his brother came to talk with him. Both of them were arrested and taken into jail for being on Israeli land. The land that they were on belongs to a Palestinian family, but the shepherds are powerless if settlers come with police to arrest them. They will probably be released, but the constant harassment is hard to bear.

Multitasking from Brain Rules

2009-07-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

I am fascinated by the way the brain works and I have been interested for a while in the fact that some people say you can multitask and others say it is impossible. I think it is partly because I am married to a professor who spends lots of concentrated time thinking deeply about things and sits in “fascinating” lectures where NO one would consider having handouts or using PPT and often read from prepared papers.

As you might imagine he thinks that people cannot multitask and that students who do email and look at websites while listening to his lectures are tuning him out and not paying attention. He is better than friends of his who make everyone close their laptops during class and decry the existence of wireless in the classroom (“Why would you put wireless in a classroom? It is just a distraction!!”)

On the other side I have many friends in the Ed Tech community who say that one of the problems with education is that we don’t recognize that kids are changing and that they CAN multitask. Examples are given of kids doing homework while listening to music while carrying on a conversation online while playing an online game. So, can people multitask or not?

It is clear that there is a difference between generations. I wouldn’t even TRY what some of the kids do today. I KNOW that I would be totally mixed up.

Well… I just read a really interesting chapter in a book called “Brain Rules” by John Medina. He is a “developmental molecular biologist and research consultant” in Seattle, Washington. I highly recommend reading this book. Here is a small part of what he says about multitasking:

“Recently, I agreed to help the high-school son of a friend of mine with some homework, and I don’t think I will ever forget the experience. Eric had been working for about a half hour on his laptop when I was ushered into the room. An iPod was dangling from his neck, the earbuds cranking out Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Green Day as his left hand reflexively tapped the backbeat. The laptop had at least 11 windows open [added comment: sound familiar?]including two IM screens carrying out simultaneous conversations with MySpace friends. Another window was busy downloading an image from Google. The window behind it had the results of some graphic he was altering for MySpace friend No 2, and the one behind that held an old Pong game paused mid-ping.

Buried in the middle of this activity was a word-processing program holding the concepts of the paper for which I was to provide assistance. “The music helps me concentrate,” Eric declared, taking a call on his cell phone. “I normally do everything at school, but I’m stuck. Thanks for coming.” Stuck indeed. Eric would make progress on a sentence or two, then tap out a MySpace message, then see if the download was finished, then return to his paper. Clearly Eric was not concentrating on his paper. Sound like someone you know?

To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously. Eric and the rest of us must jump from one thing to the next.”

The rest of the chapter explains how our brains work and it was an “aha” experience for me to read. I think that it confirms both the fact that kids learn differently than we did and some multitasking keeps us from “attention-rich inputs”. What we often think of as multitasking is consecutive attention changes.

He goes on to what may be the most helpful part of this chapter where he explains the 10 minute rule. I will not go into that, but I think it is probably worth the price of the book for any teacher or lecturer. I am guessing that some people do it without thinking and that is why they are great teachers or presenters…. but the rest of us need to think about this. What do you think? What have you observed in yourself or in your students?

Leaving Israel-a few thoughts

2009-06-27T20:20:00.001-07:00

We decided that it was smarter to go to Tel Aviv the night before and spend one night there since our plane is at 6 am. What a contrast in only a few miles! Everything was air conditioned. It just seemed like there was so much luxury. It is hard to think that just a few hours before we were in another world.

This morning there was an article in the New York times that described really well what we experienced.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/world/middleeast/28westbank.html?_r=1&hpw

Visiting Palestine

2009-06-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have just finished writing a post to my project blog (http://2009-odyssey.blogspot.com) about my visit to the Wi'am center in Bethlehem and I will be writing one soon about my trip to Hebron. It is difficult to write without being offensive to someone and I probably did not succeed. I decided to write here some of my more personal reflections.

We came here because we met Zoughbi Zoughbi in the US. He was in Austin for a Conflict Resolution conference and came to speak at my church. Zoughbi is a Christian and a Palestinian. He is very open-minded and will work for peace with any type of person and any faith. He and others began the Wi'am center when they recognized the huge need that people had for help with resolving conflicts peacefully.

I guess the first thing that impresses a person here in Bethlehem is the huge wall that is being constructed by the Israeli government. The government says it is for security reasons, but it is clear that it is not the only reason for the wall. The wall and roadblocks which will not allow Palestinians to travel easily have made their lives very difficult. The wall blocks Palestinians off from traveling to Jerusalem, so they need to get permission just to travel what used to take 10 minutes. The family we were staying with was invited to a wedding, but only the father could go. He had permission to travel back and forth to Jerusalem for 6 months, but no one else in the family could get the permission. They told me that when you ask for permission there doesn't seem to be any reasoning behind how long you get the permit for. Sometimes it is for a few hours and sometimes for months. It seems to depend upon the mood of the person giving the permit.

There are big things and small things that are really difficult for Palestinians.

family land which has been taken away for Israeli settlements without any compensation to the original owners. I am putting in an illustration of the land mass that used to be under Palestinian control and how it has shrunk. It is from Google Images where there are more images which also lead to the website it was taken from.
unfair water distribution-80% of water in the area goes to the Israeli settlements
lack of work, causing poverty-many people who used to commute to work in Jerusalem no longer have that possibility and others who used to sell to tourists are losing livelyhood because tourists stay in Jerusalem and come to Bethlehem for only a short time to see the Church of the Nativity and then leave.
the need to get approval to travel almost anywhere in the country. I heard Bethlehem called a prison because it is impossible for Palestinians to travel freely outside of the West Bank
Palestinians have white license plates on their cars and Israelis have yellow. Israeli plates are allowed to travel anywhere, but Palestinian cars cannot go out of the West Bank. If they want to travel out of Bethlehem they must take public transportation or a taxi with an Israeli license. My friend, Zoughbi, has a car, but cannot use it because it has Israeli plates that have expired. They will not allow him to renew the plates OR to purchase Palestinian plates so that he could at least use the car in Bethlehem.
People we knew reported regular hassling by Settlers in the West Bank who often are American Jews who have extremely zionist views. Sometimes people are arrested and held for no reason for a while and then let go.The Obama poster that was posted at all of the bus stops near settlements shows how strong the settlers feel.

In Hebron where there is a settlement right in the center of the old town and Palestinians live REALLY close they are constantly hassled. The picture to the left is of a water tank with holes in it. Every house in the area has a water tank on the roof. This particular family lives right next to settlers and they have had to replace their water tank multiple times. The settlers hope that the Palestinians will eventually leave. The Palestinians feel constantly harassed. There are Palestinian businesses on the bottom floors and people often live above them. The picture to the right shows wire netting that the Palestinians have put above their shops to keep the trash from coming down on them. Settlers whose apartments are above the level of the shops have thrown rocks, trash and bottles of urine down to the shops. Settlers have welded some of the doors shut and even used bombs or grenades to burn up areas. There are Israeli military soldiers who watch everything that goes on, but they do not interfere when Settlers do this sort of thing. It was reported to us that people who live right next to the settlement have been offered millions of dollars to leave, but some of them will not leave their own property for any amount of money. Many Palestinians have immigrated to other countries. The Christian population has especially decreased. This is what the settlers want. They believe the land has been promised to them and so they just want to drive the Palestinians out and take over.

After only a few days I understand how close families are and how land is part of your family. Zoughbi lives in a house above caves that his ancestors used to live in. His house has parts that were built on top of the caves in the 1850's and modern additions. Next to him lives his brother and their family. Issa Zoughbi, Zoughbi's brother has land where he is building a new house. He has three sons and so the plan is that there will be flats in that building for each of his sons and their families. They watch every day while land is taken away bit by bit from the Palestinian people.

It is really hard to put into words all that I have seen in these few days. If I were in the shoes of a Palestinian it would be really hard not to be angry and let hate take over. It would be difficult not to want to do something to revenge the unfairness. Unfortunately, that is how many Palestinians have reacted. I don't see a solution. There are illegal settlements that are taking over so much of the land. How do you return the land to the people who owned it for centuries? Even if you could remove the people who have moved into these places the farmland is gone forever.

One of the largest contrasts I saw was in the village of Tawani. This is a very poor farming village. The people used to live in caves and subsist on grazing animals and growning a few crops. Not too far away there is an Israeli settlement. It has a pool, running water for everyone, electricity all the time, rose gardens, and nice looking houses. In the picture to the right you can see the settlement off in the distance. It would be easy to see the differences between the two and think that the Israelis are improving things, but much of the reason that the Palestinians have struggled is because they have not been allowed to build to put in water systems or electricity. When some of them have built houses they have been torn down because they cannot get official authorization to build. Their fields have been burned and their animals poisoned. Now there are international organizations (Christian Peacemaker Teams is one. They also have a presense in Hebron.) living in the village as a way of protecting the people from the settlers.

I met several people at the Wi'am center who described moving from having the type of anger that I think I would feel, to working for peace. One Palestinian man said that he was a bully when he was younger. Another woman said that she was convinced that revenge was needed. All of them have decided that non-violent resistance is a better path. They know that not everyone can or should emigrate to another country. They also realize that they will never see Bethlehem returned to what it was. In the meantime they work toward peaceful mediation of injustice in the local level, at the level of their country and internationally. I am proud to know people who have taken this approach.

Switch to another blog

2009-06-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

I have been writing regularly at http://2009-odyssey.blogspot.com about my trip around the Mediterranean. That blog is aimed at sharing my experience, especially to students (and anyone interested!). I will be putting a few more personal posts here that I don't think belong on the other one.

School Change

2009-06-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Wow! The last two days have been fantastic. My school district is really taking a huge leap and a risk by placing one instructional specialist for curriculum and one instructional technology specialist in each elementary building and similar, but also different arrangements for Middle and High Schools. This is an expensive and risky thing to do. The three day training started out with lots of information on how technology has changed learning!

I feel hopeful. I feel like there really may be a possibility of change. The whole effort is called Partnership for Learning and yesterday we talked about Partnership principles and roles and today we talked about change and what coaching is and isn't. I am AMAZED. It is just what I have been thinking needs to happen all along. We have had great discussions and the whole event was designed well so that all of the new Instructional Coaches had a chance to work together and really talk about what they think. The district leadership are talking about us getting together for a half day every two weeks to support one another. We might actually develop a professional learning network in our own schools. So many people say that they are the only one who "gets it" at their school. What if more teachers "got it"? Is it really possible?

There are only two things that bother me a bit. One is that our student demographic is so different than the majority of schools out there. I don't think that whatever we do can easily be replicated in other places. The second is that there is such pressure to stay within the system and have high test scores. The measure of success is so strongly dependent on getting good grades and extreme success in sports or music or any other after school involvement.

Our Curriculum and Instruction leader who was doing the training shared that he and the superintendent visited several colleges to follow up on students who had graduated from our district. The thing about them is that they have very little internal organization. Their lives have been heavily programmed since they were young. When they get to college and have some free time they do not use it well and don't reach their potential.

Now, what will happen when we really try to do it? Wouldn't it be amazing if we could use this to really make some big changes?

The authors of the book "Disrupting Class" were interviewed by CNN. They have a few things to say about trying to make change in schools. What do you think?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/02/christensen.schools/index.html

New Title-Instructional Technology Coach!

2009-06-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

I am so lucky. My school district sees the value of the coaching model. I am sitting in training now to be an Instructional Coach. The school district has hired one curriculum coach and one instructional technology coach for EACH school. I am not sure how they are affording it, but I am glad to be here!

Are publishers dinosaurs?

2009-05-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

This morning as the professor and I were having our Saturday morning conversation a lightbulb went off in my head. Everything has really changed because of technology. It really has!

We were talking about publishing textbooks. He had been asked recently if he was interested in writing a textbook by a publisher. He said that he wasn't and as we talked it became clearer and clearer why.

The picture to the left is a very rough diagram of a concept that Marc Andreesson explained to Charlie Rose (see http://malahinitx.blogspot.com/2009/02/charlie-rose-interviews-marc-andreessen.html). As long as there were no refrigerators the Ice Man had a good job, but as refrigerators became more common the job of Ice Man was no longer needed. It really did the Ice Man no good to complain about refrigerators. This graph shows a point at which you still need SOME ice delivery because everyone does not yet have a refrigerator, but beyond that crossing point gradually everyone gets a refrigerator and the ice man becomes a thing of the past.

I think we are at the crossing point with publishing, especially publishing textbooks. It will not be long until we have no need for traditional textbook publishers and everyone has access to any information that they need online.

It is exciting to live and work in a time where such deep changes are happening. Several years ago I was skeptical when people said that the Internet was changing everything, but they were right. Now.... what can we do about education in general which is at the same point?

Reflections on the past

2009-05-09T12:19:00.000-07:00

Today, a quiet Saturday, I decided to spent a little time looking back at the portfolio I created in 2000 to finish my Master's Degree in Ed Tech. I am just amazed at all that I did...and that I still agree with myself :-) I spent some time clicking through my worksamples. Many of the links did not work anymore, but many of them even still work.

http://jfriesen.net/worksamples.html

There was my project for Trends in Literacy Instruction

and the first school webpage I created with kids

and a course I designed on Technology Leadership in Schools.

and more... Most interesting I think was something I said in 2000 when I wrote up my reflections. It is something I deeply believe and has become common talk now.

"The new role in schools would be a technology coach. This is someone who knows education and has experience in the classroom and also knows technology. The role of this person in a school would be to act as a bridge and a buffer to technology for the educators including both teachers and administrators in the school. This person would have the ability and time to keep up with changes in technology as they occur. At the same time they would have the larger view of teaching and learning, so that technology can be applied in meaningful ways in classrooms."

I am lucky to have this role in my current job. It is not totally clear always how it should work and I don't feel very confident at times that I am doing a great job, but I still think it is correct!

This really shows me how amazing having things online can be. I don't often have time to look back, but it is nice to know that that stuff is there and is still meaningful at least to me.

Looking for Good Podcasts with a Purpose

2009-04-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

I have been spending the last hour or so looking for a weekly podcast for our newsletter. I knew of a few great ones and put them on in the first few weeks and now I am sort of at a loss.

Here are the things I am observing:

Most of the podcasts I found in listings were OLD. Isn't anyone podcasting anymore? Was it a passing fad? Am I getting on the bus late? (http://bce2.eanesisd.net)
The podcasts that I did find today were hard to listen to. Either the link to the audio file was hard to find or the podcast was way too long and kids mainly listed facts. How do we get away from that?

If anyone knows of some good student podcasts I would love to have some recommendations. Also, I am interested in finding good uses for podcasting. Why should a teacher do it?

Earth Hour

2009-03-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Every year the World Wildlife Federation sponsors an event called Earth Hour. It is a chance for EVERYONE to turn off all lights for one hour world wide. If you want to participate all you need to do is to turn off your electric lights from 8:30-9:30 on Saturday, March 28th.

On the website there is a pretty cool video of the lights going off in the "Birds Nest" building in China.

I hope you will turn off your lights.

Upgrading your Operating System

2009-03-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

I just went from Tiger OS to Leopard. I did this because I KNOW I need to be backing up regularly and I never do it. (It reminds me of flossing my teeth that way.) I decided to do it in December after Christmas, so I purchased an external hard drive online. It has taken 3 months of trial and error for me to successfully do the upgrade. It should not be that hard.

Doing this has helped me to experience the feelings of most computer users my age and older. Everything is so much of a mystery that you MIGHT just be really messing things up without knowing it. So, many people decide not to do anything. I really felt the need for handholding when I got this going. The first external hard drive I purchased offered only email support. After going back and forth several times I ended up sending it back for a refund. I don't know if the HD was defective or if it was operator error, but I had tried hard enough and it was NOT working. I finally decided to purchase a more expensive external hard drive with PHONE support from the Apple Store. Having someone to talk to and walk me through it REALLY helped. I am copying and pasting my notes from the process. I was looking for this type of help online and did not find it. Maybe it can help someone.

NOTES ON UPGRADING YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM
March 21, 2009

I am writing this because I just went through several months of effort and agony and I was hoping to find a step-by-step explanation and could not find one.

I have a MacBook and was upgrading from the Tiger OS to Leopard. I am pretty comfortable with technology, but this is something I have never done before and it brought out all of my insecurities. I learned that a good listening tech support person can be an amazingly wonderful help. Often I really did know what to do, but I needed the comfort of someone who knew a bit more and could “hold my hand” while I did it.

Maybe this can help someone else have a much smoother time of doing this.

Here are the steps:
Purchase an external hard drive to back up your current system. Since I was upgrading to Leopard so that I would have Time Machine to do regular back ups an external hard drive made sense. I was told that creating a bootable copy of my hard drive was important. Upgrading to a new OS in Mac should not erase all of your data, but you always want to have a back up just in case.

CREATING A BOOTABLE COPY OF YOUR CURRENT COMPUTER

1. The new operating system is supposed to install over what is already there without changing things, but just in case you want to have a back up.
2. You must boot your computer with the CD that came with it instead of normally if you are going to create a copy (image). To do this put the CD into the disk drive and restart while pressing down the c key.
1. The first thing you will see is a box asking what language you want to use. When you have chosen English it goes to a window, which asks you if you want to install. WAIT until the menu appears at the top of the screen.
2. Choose Utilities and then Disk Utility from the menu that appears.
3. When the disk Utility opens it will show all of the drives that are attached to your computer. It should show three things if you have your external hard drive plugged in. The Macintosh, the startup disk, and the external hard drive.
4. Choose “New Image” and indicate that you want an image of your Macintosh. It will ask you where you want the image to be put and you can choose your external hard drive.
5. Then it will take a while to make an image of your hard drive onto the external drive.
6. After that has completed it will restart. You can then remove the CD. Open your Macintosh Hard Drive and find the HOME (It looks like a picture of a house). Drag that onto the icon of the external hard drive on the desktop.
7. Restart your computer. Now your initial back up is done and you can use the install disk to install the new OS onto your computer.

INSTALLING THE NEW OS
1. Unplug the external hard drive.
2. Put the new operating system CD into the drive. Follow instructions to install the OS.
3. This takes a while (longer than I thought it would), but in my case it remembered all of my old stuff. I did not have to go and reinstall anything.
4. The one thing that I had to do was to open my mail program and put all of the information about the pop server and the smtp back into it. Once it was redone all of my saved mail and my new mail was restored.

THINGS I LEARNED
1. Apple has AMAZING customer service. They speak English and help you with a smile. It does not seem like they are complaining about you behind their backs. If you purchase the new OS you have 90 days of phone support. You can also sign up for time with a “genius” at the Apple Store. They were extremely helpful. The thing about phone support is that they can walk you through things and then if a process takes a long time call you back and continue. At the Genius Bar you don’t have that much time.
2. I ended up buying an external hard drive from the Apple Store. I learned that most Hard Drives are formatted FAT 32 ( I am not sure what that means) and need to be reformatted in order to work with all of the Mac stuff.
3. You cannot just download an operating system upgrade. You need to purchase the CD and install it from the CD.

Spring Break and Future Travel

2009-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

One thing I am doing this Spring Break is working on planning the trip I will be taking this summer with my husband the professor. In the past I have blogged about my trip and I have always tried to engage followers to ask questions and share thoughts. This has really enriched my traveling and so I plan to do it again. I am adding a Google Map that anyone who is interested in following can use to mark their location as well as a place where I can add information. I am not sure how it will work, but I am learning as I go. Here is the Google Map so far. I have just started using it. Feel free to mark yourself if you will be following some of the trip! You can manipulate this map, so be sure to zoom in. I have not learned how to put lines showing travel routes yet, but I plan to.

View Larger Map

Women's History Month

2009-03-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

It is a little late (I should have thought of this earlier in the month), but I have created some teaching resources that might be helpful for Women's History Month. I am sharing them here for two reasons. First because they might be helpful and second to point you toward a resource that has been helpful to me for many years. The best thing about My eCoach for me is that I have a locker there that keeps track of projects I have done. My friend, Barbara, who has given everything for years to see that My eCoach keeps on the cutting edge, often says that she will always keep resources available and I trust her.

So here they are
A web resourse list called How did Women get the Vote?
http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=9474

and a project called Suffering for Suffrage and Civil Rights
http://my-ecoach.com/online/teacherguide.php?projectid=9476

I hope that these are helpful to someone and that you will comment if you are able to use them.

Picturing the Future of School

2009-03-10T19:06:00.001-07:00

This morning I listened to the Seedlings Podcast and they were talking with Michael Horn, the author of Disrupting Class. It reminded me of a picture of the school of the future which I may have written here before, but I can't find it, so maybe I have not. It is a thought I am not forgetting, so maybe there is something to it!

I am thinking that we will still have all of these school buildings from the last hundred years. We will still have all of these kids that need to be learning and need a place to do it. How can it be done any differently?

What if some things were the same... Kids and teachers all went to a building each day to work together. Everyone still needs to eat lunch. Kids still need to play and move. However, the whole school is organized around a passion for learning and both students and teachers are involved. Of course at the early ages there will be a bit more structure because students still need to have a foundation. They need to be able to read and write. The school will not be organized artificially around grades (first, second, third, etc...) but will be organized around interests, passions and certain learning expectations. When a student has developed certain basics and they begin to have questions and interests in things teachers will guide them to do projects of different lengths depending upon the goal. Students will learn things that they need to learn through these projects. For example, all students will need to understand fractions and demonstrate it somehow. One student may be passionate about art and will be able to explore fractions through art. Another student may enjoy mathematical problem solving and will follow a more traditional path of learning fractions. Another may enjoy cooking and learn fractions through measuring ingredients.

The thing is teaching will totally change. Right now an important problem is that there is not enough TIME and a lack of professional development. Those who do professional development say that there is no time to work with teachers. They don't want to stay after school or work on weekends and it is difficult and expensive to get substitutes. What if instead of each teacher doing EVERYTHING with 20-30 kids all year a group of teachers worked together in an area of their passion guiding kids and collaborating with each other to design projects and learning experiences that those kids need? What if TIME to collaborate was built into the system?

Also teachers would not only collaborate with those in their buildings, but with a network of other teachers around the world who are interested in the same things. Online learning would be really important for teachers.

I know that these thoughts are sort of vague... and I am not sure how we would ever get there from here... but they are thoughts just the same...

Empowering Teachers

2009-02-20T05:35:00.001-08:00

One of my main goals in the job that I am in is to empower teachers to be the best that they can be. I believe that technology is an important part of that. It is not everything. To keep up with technology though is even tough for me... and I do it all the time. So, my school is doing what EVERY school needs to be doing which is providing support to teachers so that they CAN use technology well.

Recently I am seeing some big barriers to my goal of empowering teachers. Both of them have to do with well meaning and extremely hard working tech support people. The first is the adoption of huge expensive technologies that are challenging to use so that teachers need more and more training and because they are on the edge there are plenty of glitches.

Second, there is such an effort to keep everything secure (including students) that it prevents teachers from using some very simple things that could really enhance instruction.

Charlie Rose interviews Marc Andreessen

2009-02-20T05:26:00.000-08:00

Last night my husband, the professor, who can stay up later than I can watched Charlie Rose. He said it was a fascinating interview with Marc Andreessen. It is really worth listening to, so I searched for it. It has not been posted yet, but here is where you will find it:

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/3157

He said that it was very interesting that he did not talk at all about education in this interview. He also said that Andreessen talked about "organic growth" of the Internet! This was in answer to why Facebook is not interested in making a profit now. I am looking forward to watching it.

Technology Vision

2009-02-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

I have spent some time in the last few weeks pondering the use of technology in my school. I want to have a vision for what I think should happen and I want that to inform what I should be doing. Sometimes I feel like days are just so scattered and so some direction seems helpful.

Here is what I have come up with.

1. I would like to see each and every teacher have a Personal Learning Network that goes beyond the school, beyond the district, maybe even beyond the USA. These are other teachers who are passionate about similar things, who can give mutual support and share ideas. The reason I think that this needs to happen for the teachers is that I think it will be even more important for the kids, but technology will not be used that way in the school until the teachers really understand that.

2. I would like to see each and every teacher become a life-long learner, which they will be forced to be if they really use technology. They cannot be afraid of passwords, glitches, trying new things….

3. There is TOO much technology to expect each teacher to do it ALL. They need to be wise designers selecting which new technologies meet the goals in their classrooms.

4. I would like the teachers to trust the students more. These are brilliant kids with really supportive families. They come with a WEALTH of technology knowledge and yet I have seen them in the lab treated like they only know whatever the teacher is comfortable with and so have to learn step by step to do anything more complicated.

5. Meaningful Global Connections-These kids will probably be the leaders of the future. Shouldn’t they have a bigger view of the world (especially in 4th or 5th grade and above) than just the local school district?

6. A willingess to learn from failure

7. More emphasis on collaboration. This is SUCH an important quality for every student’s future. This needs to happen among the teachers as well. In many schools there is so much isolation. Competition rather than collaboration is more emphasized. I think that this is exacerbated by departmentalization. When one teacher does only Math and Science for the whole grade level and another does ony language arts the students do not ever learn the connections between all knowledge. There cannot be a project that involves both Math and reading. WebQuests are irrelevant for the most part. This collaboration can still happen, but the teachers need to be designers and work together on planning

My thoughts today... who knows about tomorrow.

Discovery of a good blog read

2009-02-03T05:24:00.000-08:00

This morning I came across a blog that is really worth reading. I have been uninspired lately and so it is always good to come across someone who is inspiring. Barbara Cohen works at Marin County Day School which is a dream school in California. I have only read the last few posts of her blog, but every one of them was interesting and inspiring.

http://barblcohen.edublogs.org/

Check it out!

Documenting "Through My Eyes"

2009-01-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

This is a post that was done during the TCEA conference and I had trouble putting the pictures in. Now I am putting it together.

Belaire High School
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

This was my favorite presentation for many reasons. First of all they started by getting us out of our seats. Next they did not let tech glitches get in the way of what they were saying. When their movie halted part way they just went on talking and did question and answer. People had lots of questions.

Finally, they learned something at the conference last year and then went home and tried it and presented it this year! It was REAL. Here are my notes and some pictures of the session. The session started out with all of us closing our eyes and following some directions on folding and tearing a piece of paper which we were given. It was a great example of diversity. We all followed the same directions, but came up with something very different. It got us out of our seats and participating. What they did was to take a group of students and have them create a digital story where they asked questions about themselves and all answered them.

What happened was that in the process they really learned to know the students and understand them better. They found out how important it was to build relationships. They did this with the 9th grade academy. There was a diversity of students and this helped them to learn more about them. Students created personal documentaries. about their in school and out of school experiences. Their initial idea was to have each of the students create their own documentary, but they realized in time that the best way was to work together and create one video. Started with 15 students selected by teachers. Very few directions. Ended up with 8 kids. The students had to take several workshops to prepare before even writing a script:

Film Script Terminology
Analyze documentaries
Create Storyboards and Scripts
Complete Creating Personal Documentaries packet
Develop storyboard and script
Conduct interviews

Then they wrote scripts and recorded video and audio segments and gathered other artifacts. They used windows movie maker to make the documentary. They started out with the question: Through our eyes, Who are we? This was done after school and during elective classes Kids were really motivated and interested. Teachers willing to put in extra time and effort. Worth it for them because they could better relate to kids. Took about a month to create the documentary. Whole process took since September. Someone asked about censorship.

They did not have big problems, but they were able to take things that were not appropriate in the editing process. There was benefit both in the process and the product. The materials that they used can be found online at the TRLD site and also at their school

Idea: Doing this with staff would help students to get to know you better. The kids built a bond with each other as well as the teachers they worked with. Better than getting to know you sheets. Did other students see the documentary? Some, but not all because of scheduling. Poverty role playing. BelAire High School Baton Rouge Louisianna http://ebrschools.org

CONNECTING KIDS WITH BOOKS USING TECHNOLOGY

2009-01-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

The second session that I went to was a practical explanation of using technology to connect all kids to books. It was well prepared. The presenter had several videos to illustrate the teaching methods. I do not have a picture for this session.

The presenter was Joy Heatland from Iowa IDEA 2004 required that text resources be provided to kids with disabilities. Some kids need different presentations in order to comprehend text.

In this session Joy explained how they created participatory parts of a story. They created fold out quizzes that they added to the bottom of book pages. This was also digital and could be shown along with the book pages on the computer.

She mentioned NIMAS-putting text into a format so that it can be manipulated (braille, audio, large print, etc) and how their project fit in. Narrow definition of NIMAS-Copyright note added to materials that have been adapted. AIM consortium-Accessible Instructional Materials

They moved from Traditional Literacy Instruction to Dialogic Reading (conversation about a book). Child becomes the teller of the story, Adult becomes audience. Dr. Grover Whitehurst designed this. Kids learn most from books when they are actively involved with them. Helps with language development.

This worked well, but the missing link was Support for Special Needs Students. Universal Design Features were missing. They added adapted dialogic reading, technology. Showed video example of adapted dialogic reading. The teacher used technology to allow ALL kids to participate. She has both the picture book open and a laptop with more than one mouse so that students can use to manipulate the book. The teacher used the same kinds of strategies, but accommodations for access.

They did three years of research. See this web page for her presentation which has a nice table comparing methods. The slides can be done with Boardmaker also, but they used Classroom Suite. Technology allows for lots of different ways to meet different kids needs. Benefits are Voice Output- click and hear, Highlight when read motivation, attention, memory vocabulary-especially for emotions.

Technology, Reading and Learning Diversity

2009-01-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

I am in San Francisco at the TRLD Conference. I am going to post some pictures that I saw and edited notes.

The Keynote yesterday was David Warlick. The thing that I was reminded of in his presentation was his site http://landmarkproject.com. At this site you can find lots of great resources. There are the electronic handouts, but one of the most amazing things is the library of links. There are pointers to tons of raw data that can be used for all kinds of things (inaugural addresses from all presidents). He made the point that today everything is numbers and so it can be manuipulated in various ways.

His talk was titled, "Redefining Literacy"
Important Points:

Teachers should be MASTER LEARNERS. It is possible to learn something new every day.
Handouts are online-tags to use redefine, literacy and Warlick.
Showed his office in Second Life. His Avatar is Suriawan Dato.
Many print documents are moving to being only online-example of Christian Science Monitor.
There is so much information available now. Most of it NOT printed on paper.
More and more of our communication is going to be virtual.
Showed wearable computing. There is a jacket available right now for $650.
We are not preparing our kids for OUR future, but for theirs. However, we know almost nothing about what we are preparing our children for.

What do kids need to be learning today to be ready for a future we don’t understand.

We need to stop integrating technology,.
We need to teach them to be literate.
being willing and ready to ask questions, Who did this, why
investigate (many skills about how to find info)-example www.martinlutherking.org, done by http://stormforce.org
Learning how to read is more critical than ever

Kids now GOOGLE the information, they need to be able to evaluate what they find
Definition of Literacy expanded-Using information to accomplish goals

What about numbers?
Use Spreadsheet to help students make math tell its story.

Tag Crowd.com (70 most used words-example of inaugural addresses) Possible to compare languages. Can be done because the full information landscape is made out of numbers.

Musical notes are made of numbers. It is possible to translate the numbers into other things now (visual-notes of different types) Working the numbers.

What about Writing?
20/80 curve. - The long tail. Now it is possible to self publish and sell books online. It used to be that Publishers controlled what would sell. Now it doesn't matter. Even those who only sell one copy can be published and made available.

Kids need to become good communicators in multi-media. They also need to know about ethical use of information. Respecting ownership, accuracy and infrastructure.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." Alvin Toffler

Information competes for attention. Kids need to learn how to write , create an image, a video, music, that communicates.
Example of video essay: look here for handouts http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?p=330

Try This!

2008-12-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

How did the OLPC people do this?

Update on the OLPC Program

2008-12-29T11:15:00.000-08:00

I just watched this short TED video with an update on the One Laptop Per Child project. It is worth watching.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_takes_olpc_to_colombia.html

In a more personal report I had time during the week before Winter Break at school to upgrade both laptops that we have to the newest "build" or operating system and software. It was pretty easy. Build 8.2 is great! In the short time that we had to explore it both Linda, the librarian and I liked it. We are leaving both of our laptops next to each other in the Library to give kids a chance to explore and use them. They have a record feature so that everything you do on them is recorded, so we can go back and see what they have tried. Fun!

Teachers and Technology

2008-12-26T12:08:00.000-08:00

I just commented on Jen Waggoner's blog and I thought it was worth sharing (or at least I worked hard on the wording), so I am putting it here.

The gap between my Personal Learning Network and most teachers is why I returned to working at a school instead of consulting and speaking at conferences. It just seemed that there was always only one or two teachers in most schools that were really using technology. The rest of the teachers see that one or two teachers as the "techies" on campus and don't worry about learning new things too much. This has been going on for 20 years. There has got to be some way that all or most teachers can be learning and moving in a direction of understanding the importance of technology. Since I have been working in an Elementary school for the last year and a half I realized that the teachers at my school are excellent teachers and hard workers. They do not (as a whole) see a positive trade off to using technology. It seems like too much time and work to be worthwhile.

So there are at least two things that I am convinced of:

most teachers are excellent educators and really hard workers
technology constantly changes (even I get frustrated and I do it all the time!)

I am seeing that there are teachers who have embraced the 21st century skill of being flexible when there is a tech glitch and there are teachers who have not. Those who have not are really frustrated when things do not work and do see value in learning more.

Also there is SO much technology. Maybe it is because I am in a wealthy district, but the teachers do their grades online, do lesson planning online, use United Streaming, regularly use email to communicate with parents, keep up an assignment page online and most have a website. On top of that they can choose SO many things to use Wikis, blogs, podcasting, online projects, digital cameras (comic life), Kidworks Deluxe, keyboarding, and so much more. What they do not do for the most part is allow the kids to lead and learn. So my goal is to help them to see how amazing they already are and find the ways to use technology to move them along.

Reading and Technology

2008-12-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

This morning I started listening to a new biweekly podcast about Literacy done by Dr. Betsy Baker from the University of Missouri. Each show she interviews researchers in the area of literacy about what they are finding. It is called The Voice of Literacy.

Today I listened to interviews of Julie Coiro and Robert Slavin. My drive is about 30 minutes, so I am guessing each show is around 10-15 minutes... just enough time to get a person thinking. Dr. Coiro does research on the process of reading online and how that differs from reading offline. She said that reading online is qualitatively different than reading offline. Students (and teachers!) need to learn how to effectively read online. Dr. Slavin does research on effective instruction. He said that what is surprising to him is how little effect technology has on learning according to research.

I am thinking that our rationalization for integrating technology in schools has been all wrong. We have been searching and searching for proof that technology makes learning more effective. The rational is to prove effectiveness in order to get funding for equipment. I think that actually technology adds new and different challenges to learning. In the same way that technology does not create less work, but makes more things possible so that people work MORE; technology actually adds a layer to teaching in order for it to be effective. Teachers and students need to learn how to read a whole new way. There are skills that are required which do not always correspond to being a good reader offline.

Different literacy skills and also valuing connections and working with people in other places and times have become important for success in our world. The recent presidential election highlighted how much things have changed. Being able to communicate through video, and texting; being aware of your digital footprint are new skills that are necessary for success in our world.

Technology and Literacy

2008-12-16T05:11:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in keeping up with Literacy Education and how technology interfaces with it you might want to check out a new podcast by Betsy Baker, Associate Professor of Literacy Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

http://www.voiceofliteracy.org

I often enjoy listening to podcasts as I commute to and from school. It is hard to find time in the day to read blogs and just in general to keep up with all of the new info that is available. That time in the car is often really valuable.

Technology Changes Brains

2008-12-08T04:35:00.000-08:00

This morning I awoke to my normal Monday ritual of reading the Tech Monday section of the Austin American Statesmen and "Lo and Behold" there was an article about Technology rewiring our brains! Dr. Gary Small of UCLA has come out with a book, "iBrain, Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind". According to the article his point is that, "When the brain spends more time on technology-related tasks and less time exposed to other people it drifts away from fundamental social skills..."

Wow! I have said that the brain is changing for years. It is interesting that they are focusing on social skills. I think that they are probably important, but I think there are all kinds of ways that our neurons are firing differently.

Born Digital Book Review

2008-11-29T19:26:00.000-08:00

The book Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives sounds interesting. I am a little tired of the Digital Native vs. Digital Immigrant metaphor. It makes a lot of sense, but like any metaphor loses something after a while. Anyway, here is a link to an interesting book review:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/109068/born_digital%3A_understanding_the_first_generation_of_digital_natives/

Organic Changes

2008-11-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I started a web site for an annual event with friends that happens just before Thanksgiving. Every year there were things that happened that people wanted to remember. We found ourselves wondering "did that happen last year at Chicago or the year before in San Francisco?".

So, each year I added a page or two to the website. The first year I went back and created one page for each year in the past and then each year when I go it is my job to document the event on our website.

It has occurred to me that no one really LOOKS at this website. It is sort of an archive. It is handy now and then, but something most of us totally forget about the day after the event. However, there are some things that we do every year that could benefit from a more interactive site, so last year I created a WIKI. Our wiki has the grocery list on it and a few other things that are really helpful to work on collaboratively. But still no one really looks at it. In fact... I doubt if people other than me remembered that it exists.

This year someone suggested that we just start a group in Facebook. It turns out that everyone in the group has a Facebook page and so it would be natural for them to go to Facebook to look things up and to communicate when they wanted to. At Facebook they don't have to remember some odd URL, or a login to a Wiki.

This is a good picture of ORGANIC growth of the use of technology. People do not use technology unless they feel the need and then they use it in a way that makes sense to them. Several years ago a website was the only way we could have an online presence. But now it seems odd to have ONLY one person able to edit and update the site. Now, how does that apply to a classroom teacher?

TIME and the right brain

2008-11-21T13:59:00.000-08:00

For many years I have been thinking that the issue of TIME is the elephant in the room when it comes to technology use in education.

In an earlier blog I said: "They could be blogging and be involved in deeper thinking, but we don't have time because of the testing. It is not as bad as in some schools where the testing frenzy starts in September."

But I have been thinking about this for a long time. I have been learning about the Right Brain lately by reading "My Stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte Taylor and also "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink.

It occurred to me that the LEFT brain is the one concerned with time. If we taught to the right brain (or using our right brains) we wouldn't be so concerned about schedules and time and fitting so much in. Maybe we need to consciously change the side of the brain that we as educators emphasize. Maybe we could actually teach with projects if TIME were not such an issue.

"The Professor" is not so sure. He says that there are other reasons for school than education. School is a way of socializing people for our society. We need people who don't do well in school to be our lower level workers. We need people in society who follow directions and don't ask too many questions.

Epiphany about Personal Learning Networks

2008-11-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

A few days (a week?) ago I started writing about what education would be like if we focused on Personal Learning Networks. It all came out of thoughts from the Tech Forum Southwest, ideas of Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach and a discussion with "the professor" over coffee. In my last post I had begun with talking about Online Education, but was just about to move to our current education system when time ran out.

Two things are central to this new vision (both coming from Sheryl): networking and a passion for learning. In my talk with "the professor" I was wondering what school would be like if instead of teaching facts we taught kids how to network and have a passion for learning. Would they? Would they learn the "right" things, whatever they are? I have to admit that what I know about Biology and Chemistry is only because I HAD to take those courses. I wouldn't have chosen to take them. That is probably true of government and many other things. But...would I have learned more about them if I had CHOSEN to take them and they were part of my passion for learning?

"The professor" is skeptical about students choosing to learn the right things. There ARE things that you just have to learn and what if kids don't choose to learn them when growing up? For the first time I think I had a vision of what school COULD be like, but I am not sure it would work. There would still be teachers, and schools. Kids would still come every day to a place to learn. At first there would be a lot of scaffolding-everyone needs support at the beginning. Kids NEED to learn to read and write. 5 year olds need structure in their day. As kids get older though what if the curriculum became more and more about networking and passion? What if they were required to do X number of large projects and could work in groups or alone?

What if teachers were facilitators of those projects and helped kids and stretched their ideas? What if teachers saw themselves as "Master Learners" (David Warlick's term) and they really had the passion for learning and how to find the right information? What if they could help students learn how to search, how to find experts, how to evaluate information? What if students could use online resources and connections to experts as well as text books? Would students find their passion? Would they learn Biology in a deeper and more meaningful way because it connected to something they cared about and they needed to learn it in order to do something or to communicate intellegently or would there be big holes in their learning because they focused on a passion and didn't "cover" everything?

The professor is doubtful. He works every day with many college students who are not curious or interested and squeak by in class. (You need to know that he also works with some brilliant and interesting students). He is doubtful that they would CHOOSE to learn the right things. I am not sure. What do you think?

Personal Learning Network 2

2008-11-13T07:41:00.001-08:00

OK, as promised I have started creating an Inspiration chart of my Personal Learning Network. As I was doing it I found myself beginning to add everyone I know... and realized that there is not a hard and fast line between people who influence (d) me and my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I know I have missed LOTS of people. Actually my true PLN probably cannot be mapped. It is just too big and it is often hard to trace what you know with who taught you. If I have missed you on this PLN chart please forgive me. After I got "done" I kept thinking of others that needed to be added...

Two Posts Behind....

2008-11-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

It is a nice thought that I would keep up with reading blogs and writing at least a few times a week.... but it is not happening. Even now I have a bunch of little tasks eating at my heels like so many little dogs and so I just can't take the time to think. I am going to do the Inspiration chart I talked about below and eventually I will tell you more about what "the professor" thinks. I just want to mention that I was on the road today listening to one of my favorite podcasts "Two Tech Chicks" and I heard my NAME! shocking! It was fun to meet them in person at the Tech Forum in Austin.

A Vision for Education

2008-11-08T06:40:00.001-08:00

This Saturday morning, like most Saturday mornings I went out for coffee with my husband "the professor". This is a wonderful time for catching up with each other, but sometimes we have really interesting discussions and this was one of those times.

Yesterday I had a sort of epiphany...or maybe just a new idea. I was facilitating a discussion about Online Education at the TechForum. It suddenly occurred to me that we are doing with online education the same thing that we have done with every new thing. We are trying to use it the same way we have always done things. We are using an old paradigm with new tools and it just doesn't work. One example is with the EBook. The first Ebooks were JUST LIKE paperbooks only on an electronic reader. You could turn pages, etc... Most people decided that they would rather keep reading paper books because there was very little advantage to reading electronic books.

With Online education we have kept the same paradigm. There are CLASSES. There are many STUDENTS (and some people make the mistake of thinking online classes can handle MORE students than a face to face class). There is a PROFESSOR OR FACILITATOR, there are ASSIGNMENTS and GRADES and CURRICULUM.

Maybe online is something completely different. Maybe we are just missing the fact that online you can create connections with and learn from multiple people. Maybe Online Education should be more like designing a Personal Learning Network....

What if we designed schools that way?.... what if we helped kids to find personal learning networks? Well, got to go now... but more later. I need to tell you what "the professor had to say" ....

Cultivating your Personal Network-David Warlick

2008-11-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

David Warlick started teaching in an information starved environment. Things have changed. He shared something that he has learned in the last 24 hours. He is first a learner. As we are striving to redefine what we need to be as teachers it is that we need to be Master Learners.

Online Handouts http://davidwarlick.com/handouts His blog entries are geotagged. You can search geographically for information.

He defined Twitter as a chatroom with out any walls and had us sign into Knitter-ajaxchat http://davidwarlick.com/ajaxchat/index.php. We all signed up. He encouraged us to do backchanneling. A way to learn something new.

Story of discovering his Personal Learning Network-summer 2004-had been blogging for a year. Knew that he had to start listening. Began to read Wil Richardson and Andy Carvin. They were not blogging out of their own heads. They were blogging about and responding to others. Joho the Blog, Lawrence Lesser (Creative Commons), Jenny Levine, Miguel Giulin, David Jakes (comment on his blog), Vicky Davis and others.... He tried to describe it so that he could tell others .....This is like... My personal digital newspaper??? personal digital library???? Decided finally it was his Personal Learning Network. He mentioned George Siemens concept of Connectivism-a learning philosophy.

On his blog Wil Richardson began a rant on his children's school. At the end he came to the thought that he didn't know what his kids needed to be learning. 84 comments. Lots of great content. Miguel condensed the comments and put them together into a Wiki document. It is still up there and we can find it on the online handouts. Doesn't really get Social Networks in Education. Difference between social networking and a social network. Started a wiki with an introduction and asking what ideas people have. It was contributed to by his Social Network. He went into history and took screen shots and then made a movie to show the changes from page to page.

People being connected because of IDEAS. Through content. One example is shown by mapping blogs http://www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/. Here is mine! The blue dots are other people who are linked to my blog. I am not sure it really means a lot, but it is cool.

David did an intro to Twitter and asked people to send in what they have learned from their PLN. Uses Google to find a NODE- He starts with Google and searches for Blogs and looks for someone who is what . Twitter is pretty easy. Look at who people you are interested in are following. Blog roll. Wiki "Bloggers to Learn From". Technorati-blogs with higher links get a higher authority rating. Flikr search. People who upload photos of things that you are interested in.

David introduction us all to RSS

http://theventurousedge.com-blog of the person sitting next to me!

I need to look at this later: He talked about the article on his blog10 tips for managing the information overload.

Talked about second life. Most learning is by going there and meeting people. Some people think that this is a good center of their personal learning network.

Lots of food for thought....

Tech Learning Southwest - Meg Ormston, Jon Orech, David Warlick

2008-11-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

Meg Ormston

http://wordle.com -Visual representation of information. Pulls out themes and lets us talk in a different way. For safety start on the second page. Print Screen and crop is the only way to save one.
http://tagcloud.com Alphabet file linked.

Creating a KMZ file with Google Earth.
http://twitter.com After a year Twitter is her best professional development. She has developed a PD community where they share new things and encourage each other
Story of son who wrote a paper on his cell phone and wrote three times as much as he would have with pencil and paper and it was higher quality. Done with tag cloud. YouTube-tutorials about how to do things. Help students navigate places like YouTube
Media Converter http://www.mediaconverter.org-converts Youtube videos to a format you can use in MovieMaker or iMovie. Use images tied to vocabulary! really helps vocabulary learning.
Podcasting-possibilities are endless.
Classroom 2.0 NING Skype with people from the different states. 4th grade teacher that says they want to change everything. Tech Teacher.com (blog) Jon

Oreck-Dave Jakes replacement. started as an English teacher for 24 years. Specific examples of integrating LITERACY instead of Technology.

Moodle and Wikis
Video Resume of a special ed student. amazing. Alternative assessment for Autistic Children
Using Blogs in the classroom as a learning tool The tool used was Blackboard. Highlighting used as a way to show where student's writing needs to improve.
Lord of the Flies-took up have of the fourth quarter. Used as final grade for the class. Kids worked in groups of three to create a scholarly article about the novel as viewed from a Freudian, Biblical, Maslows and another point of view. The kids had to create questions for the exam and the exam was an essay. The kids wanted to talk with each other and learn from each other

David Warlick Article about a woman who wrote a book only from her cell phone. New technology is what appears after you were born. Computers are NOT new to our students. 21st Century to us was the future for us, but not for our kids. It is just NOW. What has changed? What is different?

Globalization (invisible, but real)
It is all "connective"

ThinkQuest-http://www.thinkquest.org/en/ 21st Century Skills (NOTE to self: I should think about forming a team at our school to do this!!)

You cannot do this with keeping your classroom walls up. The kids need to connect outside the classroom to do this. The culture of performance-from a private school in Seattle (Seattle Academy).

TIME????-Selectively abandoning certain things in your curriculum. Working with Words example-find things that you ALWAYS do. REthink homework. Turn more over to the kids.

Tech Learning Southwest - Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach

2008-11-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Well.... I am finally here at TechLearning Southwest. It has been a hairy morning getting here. It is only a few miles from my house in Austin, but I can't seem to allow myself to take enough time to look up directions before I leave the house. The 5 minutes that looking at a map (or my iPhone) would have taken turned into about an hour and a half on the road....
My View here at the keynote

I am so happy to have arrived in time to hear Sheryl Nussbalm-Beach at the end of her Keynote. She does a well planned enthusiastic talk packed with great ideas. She is talking about passionate learning and the way learning has changed. Here is the direct link to her wiki which is where she posts all of her talks. I first heard her through the Seedlings Podcast. Bob Sprankle recorded her Keynote there. It is worth listening to, so I will link to it also.
http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/

http://bobsprankle.com/bitbybit_wordpress/?p=547

Personal Learning Networks

2008-11-04T05:24:00.000-08:00

I have recently been listening to inspiring Podcasts that have made me think. One of them was by Bob Sprankle who replayed a Keynote by Cheryl Nussbalm-Beach given to the state technology conference in Maine.

The thing she mentioned that has really got me thinking is Personal Learning Networks. This is a term that has been thrown around recently. (especially by people who don't seem to sleep and like to Twitter :-) But for some reason it is really connecting to me this time hearing it. I am not sure why. I guess before I always thought "that makes sense.... everyone should have one", but I really didn't think about who was in mine or what it has meant.

So, I made an Inspiration chart in my head to help me think about it and I am going to make it also on this computer when I get done blogging (if I am not interrupted and totally forget). For this blog I am going to do it in the linear way I am used to. What I just realized that it is an expanded online Personal Learning Network that has gotten me going and kept me learning for 25 years!! (yes, I am that old).

First it was Andy Carvin who I stumbled onto in the mid-90s. He had a website, which is probably still up there called "My Waste of Bandwidth" (or something close to that). He is now writing a blog called "Learning Now" at PBS and Twittering and everything else... He is one of those people who must not sleep. When I read what he had to say it really opened my mind and made so much sense. From that I joined a discussion list called WWWEDU. The list still exists, but is not as active because people have moved on to blogs and twitter. I learned SO much from reading that list and my Personal Learning Network expanded. Although I was teaching in a school where not too many people understood what I was thinking and although I moved several times I always kept that Personal Learning Network. I also joined another list called "techstaffdevelop" run by Barbara Bray (another tireless educator) the CEO of My eCoach. I had the pleasure of meeting both Andy and Barbara at different NECC conferences by noticing their NAMETAGS and being shocked to meet a person face to face that I knew online. So, that is one node that will be on my PLN chart.

Then there are the people I worked with in Missouri and Utah at the eMINTS project (or eMINTS National Center). Each day I realize how much I learned from Monica, Cynthia , and Jennifer and the others that I worked with there. What I learned came with me and I am still in touch and learning with some of them. I also met others during that time who I learned a great deal from, among them David Warlick, Bernie Dodge, Ferdi Serim, and many others.

There are the people I met through my interest in READING instruction. I especially appreciate Donald Leu, who probably does not remember who I am, but who graciously let me read and cite one of his articles that had not been published yet when I was doing my Masters in Ed Tech. Being a part of the Mosaic list and the Reading discussion list from IRA.

Well, the interruption happened.... So I will have to continue tomorrow...

(I want to add that by naming people I am not trying to impress anyone, but just expressing the amazement of connections that can be made and life long learning that can happen because of technology.)

Vote for Yohannes

2008-10-16T04:37:00.001-07:00

Yohannes has been instrumental in getting public libraries for kids going in Ethiopia. He has worked hard to make the world a better place. CNN is having a vote for ordinary heroes. I hope you will vote for him!

Let's Get Political

2008-10-13T04:41:00.001-07:00

I am preparing some election resources for a 5th grade teacher who wants to do a unit before the Election. I am excited by what PBS has to offer on their election site for teachers. Below you will see the Widget that the offer for free. There are also other interactive pages. One other resource that was shared with me is the Common Craft video on the Electoral College. If you (like me) still don't quite understand the crazy system you might want to watch it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I

...Just When You Thought it was Safe...

2008-10-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

This week has been a week full of dealing with technology glitches and at the same time a week when my colleagues led by Debbie have been discussing how to deal with the constant changes in technology combined with teachers who are reluctant to change.

Jeff Utecht in The Thinking Stick wrote a very thought provoking article about the fact that teachers are good learners, but they are not good at unlearning and relearning. This may be the ultimate 21st Century Skill.

Yesterday, after a week of issues with our networked keyboarding program one of the third grade teachers who was scheduled to start keyboarding with her students in the next week or two said "I will wait until you get all of the glitches worked out...." She is not going to do it until "after the holidays". Aughhhhhh!! She also expressed that the students could not handle such upheaval and she wanted to wait until things were smooth.

I DO understand her point of view. It is frustrating to start something and then to be interrupted by glitches. Teachers have enough to "cover" without taking a half hour off each day for activities that are not working. Teachers also like to have control. If things are not predictable you cannot control them. Kids are unpredictable enough! Teachers also like to understand EVERYTHING before the kids do it so that they can explain it to the kids. They do not trust the kids to be able to problem-solve, so they want to do it for them ahead of time.

Technology will ALWAYS have glitches and even more so if we quit trying until things work smoothly. So, I am thinking that there is a balance...

Just when you thought it was safe...

Toxic and Unhealthy aspects of Technology

2008-09-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

When I was in Grad School I did a project on computer recycling. It was bothering me that schools (and businesses) had tons of obsolete equipment that was toxic sitting in storerooms and that there was not really a good way to dispose of it. Sometimes it seems like no one else is thinking about these things.

Yesterday I heard an interview on NPR about a collaboration between Google and GE to try to find a better/safer energy source by 2030. Eric Schmidt from Google who was being interviewed said that this is very doable. One comment that sticks with me is that the two biggest problems facing us are Global Warming and the dwindling sources of oil. Both of those are bound to be the causes of future wars. It was amazing to think that it may be possible to solve both of those problems if we can find a solution to our huge needs for energy.

Picture from canada.com Used without permission.
Email me and I will take it down if there is a problem.

Beginning of School Surprise

2008-09-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

We are now into the third(?) or is it fourth(?) week of school... time flies when you are having fun... or doesn't. I am really enjoying the beginning of this year. As a Campus Technology Coordinator I tried really hard last year not to be seen as someone who can fix things OR someone who can take the place of the teacher when it comes to technology, but as a facilitator of technology on the campus. In the beginning that was really difficult because people saw me as someone who could make things work (technically) and I really didn't know much. So many times I would be asked a question and I had to say, "I don't know, but I know who to ask".

This year I have already asked many of the questions although there are still things I don't know, but I feel much more knowledgeable when I talk to teachers about various things.

One thing that is exciting is working with the kids at the beginning of the year and learning their names. I am doing an activity with the Kindergarten when they come into the lab for the first few weeks. First they must log in (which takes them 15-20 minutes, but is valuable because they are learning their numbers and letters and lunch number). Then they have to open the drawing program (we are using http://kerpoof.com) and then type their name. It has taken a few weeks to get this far! Then they are learning to make it different colors and different sizes. Eventually they will draw a picture and have their name on it and we will print it in color. In the process I will learn their names and they will practice hand-eye coordination, learn about drawing tools and learn letters and numbers on the keyboard. Cool!

I am also working with 1st and 3rd grades on keyboarding. For first grade it is only using two hands instead of just one. For 3rd grade it is traditional keyboarding and we are doing timed tests and Type to Learn for practice. Fun!

Now for my surprise: I had a meeting yesterday with my technology committee at the school and mentioned the idea of a one to one laptop project. I thought that they would react by saying it was visionary and exciting. I thought their complaints would be more about the cost... but was I wrong! The first one was "But how are they going to learn handwriting?" and "We don't have time to use laptops." (rephrased) What do you think?

Janice

The Second Day

2008-08-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Sarah at A Day in the Life blog I will put in some pictures of my computer lab on the second day of school. Believe it or not I do have a class coming into this mess today.... Oh well... I spent two weeks before school making sure that all of the teachers could function and everyone had equipment. It will all get done! Well, it is the weekend past the second day and finally I have gotten my pictures through the email. I don't know what went wrong. It is not all done, but things are looking a bit better now.

The little pieces of paper on monitors are marking the ones that are not working for one reason or another (no power, no internet...).