Tag Archives: Education

Does the Chalkboard Still Have a Role to Play?

Education, technology, writing, , ,

As part of a course I am taking this semester, I’m exploring the Horizon Project, mostly focusing on their process for coming up with their technologies.  I’ve been having lots of fun exploring the wiki, checking out some of the examples they provide for each of their technologies.  One example of collaboration webs–a technology that will be mainstream in a year or less–is a very cool use of Pageflakes by the Writing Program at the University of Southern California.  It’s an interesting mix of old and new.  The content is old: the “topoi” are lenses for viewing an issue and they originated with Aristotle.  The pageflakes site is very new and incorporates video, RSS, text and images.  It would be a useful site for beginning writers outside USC.

I watched the classroom discussion video related to the topoi and laughed out loud as the camera panned outward:

Pageflakes - Mark's The Topoi Flakes
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

It’s a chalkboard! A good, old-fashioned chalkboard! The writing prompt scribbled on the chalkboard is about comparing the coverage of news stories through the web and the mainstream media. But it’s scribbled on a chalkboard.  I guess it’s a good lesson about using the technology that is available but it just struck me as an odd juxtaposition to the very 21st century technology being used to display the video. Here I sit in Virginia watching a video of a USC professor pointing to a chalkboard.  Really a sign of the times in which we live where old and new exist side by side.

In Just 45 Minutes…

21st Century Skills, Education, New Media, teaching, technology, , ,

I head to campus to begin another semester.  I am teaching a course called Designs for Technology Enhanced Learning.  I have taught some version of this course to pre-service teachers for the past five years.  It began as a one-credit class that focused on technical skills, but as the students have become more familiar with the tools, the course has morphed into a two-credit class that focuses more on how to use the tools in the classroom.  I am more excited about teaching the course this semester because I really feel like I have hit my stride with it.

The one area where I am a little concerned is with the additional of a online personal learning network component.  This is clearly something that others are thinking about as well since my first look at Twitter this morning led me to Will Richardson’s post on the subject. I am going to have my students join a the VSTE Ning network and participate for the whole semester.  This assignment replaces the blogging they used to do as I grew discouraged with that assignment over time.  It became increasingly quantitative (x number of posts and x number of comments) and few students seemed to ever realize the potential power of blogs to support their own learning and reflection.  The Ning assignment is much more open ended: get involved in the community on a regular basis.  I have invited Sheryl Nussbaum Beach to come in as a guest speaker since she’s my hero when it comes to these communities.  I’m hoping she can provide some motivation for them to get involved AND stay involved even after the course is over.

The other part of this assignment is that I am hoping it will motivate my own learning and involvement in an online community.  I tend to live on the peripherals of these groups.  I was never much of a “joiner” in the real world and that habit has remained in the virtual one as well.   Like Will, I am very much in the midst of examining my own practices and also looking towards life after my degree is completed.  So, while I am nervous about this assignment, I am also excited to have an opportunity to really engage in an authentic activity with my students.  I’m just hoping they will feel the same way!

And now it’s time to get ready…I’m walking to campus this morning to benefit myself and the environment but that means an early start.  Class begins at 11 and if you want a sample of what we’re doing, here’s my agenda.

Vacationing With A To Do List

21st Century Skills, Education, technology, ,

After a long month of travel and training, I am home for the whole week.  It is a bit of a vacation..or, actually, a staycation, since I’m not leaving home except to go berry and peach picking and meet with the church secretary to help her with a website.  But, despite telling everyone I was going on vacation, the first thing I did on Monday morning was write a to do list.  Hmm…certainly doesn’t look like a traditional vacation, does it?  And, I probably could afford to take the whole week off.  Turn off the computer, crumple up the list, and just vegetate.  But the fact is, I don’t want to.  For one thing, I would be absolutely bored by Wednesday.  For another, I would have trouble relaxing completely knowing that I have two presentations on August 14th and a course to teach come August 27th.  Instead, it’s easier and less stressful for me to find a spot along the work/play continuum that falls closer to play with still a bit of work.  (As opposed to where I’ve been sitting…very close to the work end…for the past month.)

The problem with the continuum idea, though, is that it still gets at a division between work and play.  But, a lot of what I do for work blends pretty seamlessy into what I do for play.  Even as I surf the web locating materials to share with my pre-service teachers, I am earning points for PMOG, the online game I play.  And, frankly, I find it a lot of fun crafting presentations about teaching and learning in the 21st century.  It is a rare day that I don’t do something that someone would classify as “work,” yet I don’t feel like a workaholic who needs some counseling.  Instead, I feel blessed to have found something I love to do enough to want to do it all the time.

Before you shake your head at my blindness to my own situation, I should point out that I do plenty of stuff offline as well.  Today is “squash bread” day at my house; I’m filling up the freezer with loaves of homemade bread.  Loaves 6 and 7 just came out of the oven, and I’m planning for at least two more but maybe four before the end of the day.  I’ll also be curling up with my current book–Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry–and if yesterday is any indication, I’ll probably end up taking a nap as well.   Then, there’s the bathroom painting project:  we’ve stripped all the wallpaper and are now waiting for primer to dry before we put on the first coat.  Finally, I’ll be freezing and drying blueberries and canning peaches on Thursday and Friday.

So, what’s the point of this little window on my world?  If the World Congress on the Future of Work is to be believed, I represent the future of work.  Unlike my father, who worked 46 years for the same company before retiring, or even my older sister, who has been with her firm for nearly 30 years, I’m a freelancer who has had 6 or 7 different jobs and now run my own business.  In their summary (pdf) of the 2005 World Congress, these are the relevant paragraphs:

In the “old world” of work we went to a corporate office because that’s where our file were, that’s where the company resources (including support staff) were, and that’s where we would meet with colleagues, bosses, suppliers, and even customers. Now, of course, we can do that work anywhere, anytime, and we meet all those fellow workers wherever it’s most convenient. And all too often we blur the boundaries between our professional and our personal lives. We have a tendency to take our laptops, cell phones, PDA’s, and other “tools of the trade” with us just about everywhere we go (including the beach, the golf course, the living room, and the car) because we can – not always because we “have to.”

Many knowledge workers also mix and match their “work day” and their personal time, to the extent that they run personal errands mid-day and make up for it by working late at night. That’s a real benefit of the information economy, but a major complication as well.

That describes me perfectly.  And, learning how to navigate that world is going to be an important skill for us and for our students:

We believe that learning how to choose, and how to set limits on when and where they “work,” will be one of the biggest tasks facing knowledge workers over next few years as they finally begin to take charge of their work, and their lives.

These are not skills I got at school, where someone else usually determined the timetable for completing work, and there was a clear distinction between work time and play time.  I had to learn the hard way that there is a limit to how much work I can do after I spent one really long summer doing workshops every day and prepping for them at night.  By the end of August, I was exhausted, and it certainly wasn’t fun any more.  Now, I know how to block out preparation time on my calendar, and I have a much better sense of how long it takes me to do different tasks.  As we consider the skills that our students will need in the future, perhaps we need to concentrate on the literacy of work, giving students the opportunity to take charge of their own work and, thus, their own lives.

ITRT Mini Conference Keynote: Fred Scott

adult learning, Education, itrt, leadership, professional development, technology, vste, ,

Here are my notes from Fred’s excellent keynote.  (Now, I’m sitting in his breakout session.)

ITRT Mini Conference
Keynote Speaker: Fred Scott, Manager, Instructional Technology, Chesterfield County Public Schools
7/25/2008

Hardware? Software?  No…Let’s Connect With HUMANware

Humanware refers to people.  We have been investing in hardware, software and webware, but what about the people?  We need to invest in the people in order to improve instruction with technology.  We need to connect humanware to school goals, student goals, etc?  When our kids leave the school system there is a whole world out there.  They may not stay in their community…we have no idea where they will be and what they will be doing.  Fred’s framework asks how we connect IRTRs with the humanware: teaching, coaching, training, and learning.

Where does humanware fit in?  Alignment for success:  are you aware of your technology master plan in your district? professional development; curriculum blue prints; if teachers are only going to teach the SOLs, then we are still behind.  The last piece is school improvement so you should be aware of the school improvement plan.  How do we get connected with those people?

Data Wise from Harvard University includes 8 steps that begins with organizing for collaborative work and ends with acting and assessing.   He has a matrix of tools that will help the team be effective.  He aligned the school improvement process with technology tools.  The ITRTs need to understand the school data such as the report card.

Training:  Rich Allen, Train Smart, 2001  Five Pillars of Training:  Engage, Frame, Explore, Debrief, Reflect
Engage: Prepare the mind, you have 5 minutes to establish the connection with an adult; teach people NOT content; teach WITH people to understand the content
Frame: establish relevance, you have one minute to establish relevance, what are you going to help them learn, why is choice good?  Because then people can make connections, now you have the next 30 minutes to involve the key concepts
Explore: Learning + Enjoyment = Concepts; people remember the good and the ugly
Debrief: Consolidating learning: how are they going to apply it to the real world?
Reflect: Embed Learning: give them stories.

Quotes Confucious: I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.

Teaching:  connect the goals and objectives, what are we doing and trying to get across
The ABCD method of writing objectives
Audience
Behavior
Condition: how should they be able to do it?
Degree: how much should they be able to do it?

Be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant/Results
Time Dependancy

Discusses Marzano’s strategies:  we don’t see it as much as we should
The nine strategies are very powerful: the top three are reinforcing effort and providing recognition, summarizing and notetaking, similarities and differences

New book: Using Technology With Classroom Instruction the Works

He outlines planning question and instructional strategies.

He suggests applying the Madeleine Hunter model: from purpose to closer
Hal Portner, Workshops that Really Work

Showed the A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Coaching: NSDC says that effective coaching means you are with a person one on one.    In the coaching model, there is some risk.  There are three major levels of risk; are you going to be conservative, moderate or aggressive?

Kimberly Ketterer, “Coach, Nurture or Nudge?”  L&L

Coach:  there is a paradigm shift from a traditional classroom to one who integrates technology.  The adult is now a risk taker who trusts the coach.  They are willing to embrace the information and collaborate.

Nurture: The adult is not confident and are still learning skills and applications.  But they are willing to try.  this adult lacks the confidence and they want to watch you do it.  They will say that time is a major problem.  They like small achievements.

Nudge: This is the person that is satisfied with the way things are.  These people are uncertain and anxious.

Learning:  How do ITRTs connect to the learning process to get adults to learn?
Showed a graphic of the basic neuron types:  what does it take to help teachers understand the make up of the brain and what’s happening inside.  He talked about Howard Gardner and multiple intelligence theory.  http://literacyworks.org/mi/home.html  You can assess your learning style here.

Marcia Tate: Sit & Get Won’t Grow Dendrites:  she talks about adult learning and strategies and activities for how to work with adults.

How do we connect Humanware to Web 2.0 for professional development and learning?  He pointed to
•    http://www.wetpaint.com
•    http://talkingletter.com
•    http://www.wonderfile.net
•    Center for Learning & Performance Technologies http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

Here’s what ITRTs need to do:
•    We have to know the goals and objectives of the school.
•    We have to develop collegial relationships.
•    We have to recognize that the adults have the expertise.
•    We have to align activities with the curriculum.
•    We have to help them understand that technology can help improve instruction and delivery.

We must provide our children the best possible learning environments to foster critical thinking, innovations and problem solving to better our society.  Fred Scott

ITRTs Lead Out Loud: http://www.leadoutloud.ca

To get results with technology integration, we need to invest in people…nurture, cultivate and develop them to ensure that tools make a difference in learning.

Remember, FRED:
Facilitate
Resources
Educate and
Develop

They did a share fair at his school division for the school board so they could understand the ITRT position.

http://fredwscott.edublogs.com  for downloading the presentation

It’s Free, But That’s Not The Important Part

Education, Open Courseware, ,

This week’s Education Week featured the open content movement. (You can read the first couple paragraphs but you’ll need a subscription to see the rest. And, if you don’t have a subscription, you should get one.)  While the article suggests that the main reason for the interest in open content is that it is free and thus will save schools money, it also points to some of the other benefits of using this content.  One, in particular, struck me:

The process of content creation and sharing is also a way to build professional relationships between teachers, proponents of open content say.  And the more that teachers get their hands into content creation, the better they can teach that material.

The article goes on to quote Laura Petrides, president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knoweldge Management in Education, a group interested in open educational resources.  She talks about being able to “harness the knowledge base that already exists” among teachers.  That’s what got my attention this morning:  a movement that respects teachers for their knwoeldge and provides them a way to share it with others.

For everyone who is busy planning professional development for the beginning of school, you might consider doing a workshop on open education resources.  Give teachers a chance to look at some of the sites below, locating materials they can use but also places where they can make a contribution.  Then, throughout the year, provide them with time to work on those contributions.  You would be building community and knowledge at the same time.  I’m doing a session for admins in a few weeks and am going to incorporate these ideas.

The article also mentions that traditional textbook publishers aren’t all that worried.  I’m not surprised.  Their seeming strangle hold on education probably makes it tough for them to see past it to the future.  (Remember, Bill Gates didn’t see much future for the Internet either.)  The spokesperson for the textbook publishers points out that they have been offering digital materials for six or seven years now.  Wow…they just don’t get it.  The open content movement is so much more than providing digital materials.  Here’s what Samuel Donovan, head of Bioquest Curriculum Consortium, had to say:

Teachers can use that work not just in their own classroom, but repurpose them, organize them, customize them, and share them back to the educational community…it creates a very different kind of professional status for teachers.  They achieve ownership and professionalism.

Once again, we hear respect for teachers in this quote, something that often doesn’t form the foundation of contemporary movements in education.  I’ve been involved in several conversations this summer where the main point was that, if we’re going to make any real differences in education, we need to fire teachers who aren’t on board.  Here’s a movement that suggests that maybe we need to respect them instead and give them an opportunity to share what they know.  I think that’s a much better way to go.  After all, it’s not like we have a long line of people waiting to sign up to be teachers.  And, those that do enter the profession often only stay for a few years.  Could making them part of this kind of knowledge building community be a possible step in the direction of retention?  I’m in the midst of planning my course for pre-service teachers in the fall and will be getting them involved in this movement as part of that.

In Virginia, the Virginia Open Education Foundation is taking a proactive approach with the legislature to begin exploring this at a state level.   I blogged about my work in this area as part of my “best of NECC” post a few weeks ago if you’re interested in what we’re doing.

Meanwhile here’s a short list of open education resources to get you started: