point a to point b

Thanks to a presentation by Brian Smith, Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez at NYSCATE a couple of weeks ago, I get what the OLPC (one laptop per child) laptop is about. Its not about technology. Its not about schools. Its about kids, learning, and opportunity.

I watched and considered last year while the Give 1 Get 1 program was introduced. This year, I’m not watching, I’m in. I ordered an XO at Amazon, and it just arrived. Another one is on the way to a kid somewhere in the world. I’ll never know which kid, but that’s OK. It’s like blood donations - you give because you should, and you know some good will come of it.

What am I going to do with the one I received? I’m going to put it in the hands of my five and four year old kids, sit next to them, and learn with them. I’m going to do my best to NOT see how fast it performs, if I can check my work email, or any of the other typical adult uses. The interface and OS are totally different, and that’s OK (perhaps great). The XO is about kids learning.

I don’t know how many XO users are in the Buffalo-Niagara region, but we’ll be heading to the OLPC wiki to hook up with them. Maybe we’ll have to create a local group so kids can connect around here in addition to around the world.

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Use in the Classroom

Carrying on with a focus on the book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the first planning question is: What will students learn? There is one instructional strategy associated with this question, setting objectives.

“…when students are allowed to set some of their own learning goals, their motivation is higher than when they pursue only teacher set goals…” (p.18)

Taking the time to have students involved in the learning goal process can be a challenge, especially when teachers often know exactly which goals will help the most. As the quote above clearly says though, student engagement increases when they have the time to reflect and provide input into their own learning (something that is true of adult learners as well).

Most of the tools presented in this section represent technology making processes more efficient (e.g. word processing a KWHL chart, emailing a newsletter). One that stands out as a real enhancement of the setting objectives strategy is to use organizing and brainstorming software with sound recording capability to create a audio/visual KWHL chart.

We have Inspiration software on all of our computers. Consider the possibility of creating a template in Inspiration with the topic of your next unit on it. As a pre-assessment of understanding, ask students to rapid-fire the KWH pieces of the diagram, AND record a sound clip for each of those items providing more detail or an example. This multi-modal feedback would activate more input from the students and possibly reveal more understanding or lack of understanding.

The authors point out a challenge with using software such as Inspiration since most students do not have it at home to use. This relates exactly to the post I wrote a few months ago about making software accesible. A solution in this case would to use an open source solution, such as Cmap. Using Cmap would break down the walls between school and home.

For the next Content Tech, we’ll be looking at the instructional strategy of providing feedback.

Book citation:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Use in the Classroom

We are familiar with Marzano’s research in Classroom Instruction that Works. In 2007, MCREL released a supporting book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. What is terrific about this book is that it puts technology in the proper place - as a tool to support research-proven instructional strategies.

I’m going to take the next series of Content Tech posts to highlight the book, and discuss ways it can help us specifically in our setting here at Heim. I invite you to provide feedback and conversation through comments here or f2f discussion.

The introduction frames how technology fits in, by providing planning questions for instruction, instructional strategies that work, and then categories of technology available.

The four planning questions for instruction, and the associated Marzano strategies are:

• What will students learn?
  • Setting objectives

• Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning?
  • Providing feedback
  • Providing recognition

• Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning?
  • Cues, questions and advance organizers
  • Nonlinguistic representation
  • Summarizing and note taking
  • Cooperative learning
  • Reinforcing effort

• Which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning?
  • Identifying similarities and differences
  • Homework and practice
  • Generating and testing hypotheses

Note that 2 of the original 9 strategies have been split above in order for them to be addressed more specifically.

Technology to support the above questions/strategies have been broken into the following seven categories:

• Word processing applications
• Spreadsheet software
• Organizing and brainstorming software
• Multimedia
• Data collection tools
• Web resources
• Communication software

The following matrix shows which categories of technology best support which strategies (click to enlarge):

I’ll be exploring each of the strategies and supporting technologies in coming weeks. What initial thoughts/comments do you have about looking at technology this way?

Image citations:

“Book Cover.” Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 5 Nov.
2008 <http://shop.ascd.org/ProductDisplay.cfm?ProductID=107025>.

“Matrix.” Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 5 Nov. 2008
<http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/images/publications/books/pitler2007_fig7.gif>.

Thanks to Doug Johnson and his Blue Skunk Blog, I just learned of a neat tool, Wordle. You can paste a blob of text, or enter a URL, RSS feed, or Del.icio.us user, and see a word cloud created based on the content provided. The resulting image can be customized by color and shape.

When I entered the URL for this blog, here is the result:

So it appears I talk about software quite a bit. I like that students shows up quite a lot. Open and source appear more than I would have expected, but I like that too. I wish that learn, learner, and learning were in more abundance.

This is a neat, informal, assessment of what the blog has been about. I probably do talk alot about software since its easy to write about new tools (like Wordle…). I like to think I focus more on learning, but its so easy to get caught up in the tools. What in the Wordle does this mean? What fun food for thought…

One of the best technology conferences recently was one I did not go to. Rather, it was one I was supposed to go to, but due to a very busy schedule in the labs, could not. So at the last minute I approached a science teacher to go in my place.

It was the best thing that could have happened. Mrs. Merlino went to Riding the Digital Wave 2008 at our regional BOCES site, and got hooked immediately on podcasting.

Why was this best? Because since I go to many events and see many new things, I sometimes spend too much time thinking about how something could be rolled out, or what the logistics are, etc. I’ve been hooked on podcasts for a few years now but never got over the hump of getting them into the classroom. Mrs. Merlino saw the end product of podcasting at the conference, and came back to me for the details. With a bit of leg work, we soon had a plan, a podcast feed host, and results.

I’d like to share an example of her podcasting with you. For this initial attempt she was doing an end-of-year review show to help students prepare for the final exam. As we worked together, I suggested that she get students talking, and present it in a way other students could relate to. In this example, Mark and Kevin talk about moon phases (total time = 3:33):

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Note the player above is audio only, although it looks like a video window.

One of the very useful tools with this medium is that when you engage in a dialogue, you can talk through the thinking process. In other podcast episodes, Mrs. Merlino speaks with students, and when they don’t understand, they discuss that. This is a huge learning tool!

To listen to some of the other episodes in her podcast, titled Merlino’s Mystery Media:

Click here to subscribe in iTunes

Click here to subscribe via an RSS aggregator

Her students are coming in this week to create their own podcasts - it should be really cool!

We recently completed a video project with one of our social studies teachers. This 7th grade project involved students picking one topic from the curriculum, and interpreting it with video in some form. We showed the students some samples from TeacherTube, including some done locally in a Buffalo high school. We then set them loose with teams, storyboards, equipment, and guidance.

What I love about video projects is that since the focus is on performing knowledge, rather than just repeating knowledge, you get a better picture of what the students really know. While this can be either rewarding or scary, it still gets to the deeper understandings they have.

Quite a few different classes have created video projects this year, with some exciting results. I’m looking forward to many more next year!

Image citation:

18th-Century Engraving of Commedia Dell’arte Actors on Stage. Corbis. 2006.
unitedstreaming. 29 May 2008
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Somewhere between Twitter in the Classroom and old school lecture-till-you-drop teaching is a middle ground that begs to help move our classrooms forward.

The majority of K-12 classrooms today are f2f. How do we acknowledge and incorporate that underlying fact? The online, global, always connected network is incredible, valuable, necessary and worthwhile, but how do we foster and manage the transition to this new learning space within the framework of what is going to be the classroom of the foreseeable future?

How will we get from point a to point b?

Image citations:
Interplast. “Students At My Lecture.” Flickr. 6 April 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/interplast/15968190/
C o a c h. “Ritchie scores (redo). Flickr. 6 April 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alleneagleshockey/381866241/
Juque. “twitter y macworld.” Flickr. 6 April 2008. http://www.flickr.com/photos/juque/350786064/

Perhaps I’ve gotten your attention with the title. Please take the time to think about what’s on my mind here. If I look out over the next ten years, pushing and prodding toward better learning, dedicating time and resources to implementing a one-to-one computing program is not worth it. That is not to say that one-to-one computing is not a worthy goal. In fact, it is the only goal. Anything we do or say revolving around better learning and technology means that the learners have to have the technology access. We do not talk about one-to-one teacher programs. Be it a desktop or laptop - most every teacher has access to computer technology. Why then would I say student one-to-one computing solutions are not worth it? Simple…

Students are coming to school right now, today, with their one-to-one computing device.

Just about every cell phone out today has not only voice, but data access, a camera, and more capability overall than computers of just a few years ago. I further think that the cell phone, or smart phone as prices come down, as a one-to-one device will not be affected by the digital divide seen in schools. While the schools that many students walk into may not be digitally equipped, the students mostly are.

Some states, and a number of districts, are investing heavily in laptop programs for students. The overhead in managing such programs is huge. Juxtapose that with the simple, powerful tool already in students hands that they use constantly while out of school, and what you get is a win-win situation. Cost of management of cell phone as technology tool - minimal; value - priceless (with apologies and credit to MasterCard).

Would such a solution be viable in elementary schools? No. Middle Schools? Maybe (upper grades especially). High School? You bet. If I were to accept a student response to a class question that has correct grammatical construction, capitalization, etc. but was typed with all thumbs, should that matter?

Here is one scenario that is young in thought process, but I think worthy of conversation. A school has a building-wide access phone #, and each individual class in the schedule has an extension #. A student walks into 2nd period English, and upon seeing the warm-up activity on the LCD projector, dials into the class, and texts his/her responses to the warm-up activity. In this case it is a daily edit, and the teacher watches as the responses from the students appear on screen, making comments as they appear. Since the students have linked to the class right at the beginning, attendance is done automatically with no intervention by the teacher. Instruction on the particular topic, along with feedback from every student, occurs within three minutes of class beginning.

Now, the other side, better know as reality. How do we manage an environment where students use cell phones as a learning tool? How do we keep them focused on learning, and not messaging, bantering, bullying, or distracting? I do not have the answers, but I think this is where we should spend the time, energy and money for the next ten years. My motto is that a school is people. learning. The people in this case, the students, need to learn how to manage and interact appropriately and effectively within the context of being connected. We need to focus on how to get them there.

There are a whole host of issues to think about in order to make a cell phone as learning tool workable, but that is a far better conversation to focus on. In this scenario the tool is owned by the learner, and the school does not have the exorbitant management costs. There will still be some equity issues to deal with, but even if some schools had to provide cell phone devices, that is a vastly different cost/maintenance issue than with computers. Will schools still need comptuers? Of course. So will students at home. However, if we want to focus on the best value for anywhere, anytime learning, the cell phone is the direction I believe we should proceed in.

Image citation:
JonJon2k8. “Cell Phone.” Flickr. 31 Dec. 2006. 23 Mar. 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/jonjon_2k8/340305918/>.

We introduced the TechYES program to a pilot group of students today. The Gifted Programming teacher and myself are taking a group of 12 students through the certification process this semester to get a full understanding of how this can work. The initial reaction from the students was very positive. When they understood that THEY get to pick the project, and that THEY drive the learning, they were very excited. The TechYES program puts the students in charge of what and how they learn. We spend so much time (appropriately) helping teachers learn and integrate technology, in hopes that it will transfer to the students. In this model, the students and the learning are the focus - what a refreshing and direct approach!

There are many things we need to learn as we try this out - more related to how a full scale roll out would be managed with an entire grade or school - 12 is an easy number to deal with but plenty to start :-).

I’ve been following and impressed with the GenYES folks for a while, and their work is worth the time to investigate. I’m looking forward to some great projects!

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During our Monday morning school reading period, I like to read through the pile of educational technology magazines that normally stack up (and until we began this reading time were often ignored…). Top on the pile this week was Edutopia (one of my favorites). In the monthly feature, Sage Advice, the question put to readers was, “What would you teach a teacher?”

The first two responses (both from New Yorkers, BTW) are:

1. Realize you are in the people business! (Dan Murray, Principal, Wheatland-Chili Middle School)
2. Never stop learning. (Kristen Montgomery, English Teacher, Canajoharie High School)

There it is again - my mantra - A School is People Learning. The other responses were excellent as well - its just that the first two rang especially true for me.