Point A to Point B

Category: Russo’s Ramblings

  • A School is People Learning: Revisited

    Forgive me for waxing a bit philosophical here, but I want to spend a bit of time revisiting my mantra for education…A School is People Learning. I first wrote about it here during NYSCATE last year, and reaffirmed it here just before this school year started. This year’s NYSCATE brought it back again.

    At Milton Chen’s keynote, he showed the terrific video, Animal School. Take 5 minutes now to watch it if you have not seen it. I could not see the video very well during the keynote, and until it was just re-sent to me, I did not realize how powerful it is. It goes to the heart of our primary goal in schools – people. Our customers, our students, are the majority of the people in the school, and although they come in with unique talents, strengths, and weaknesses, it seems like all we do is teach to the test, and beat back all the things that will make each child do their best.

    There is no simple solution to making things better for every person, and we do an incredible amount here everyday to foster our students’ strengths. This video is a reminder for me to try just a bit harder, or try something different, because our students depend on us to. dog.jpg

    Image citation:

    Bondseye. Pose. Photograph. 2007. Flickr. 29 Nov. 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/32731319@N00/492552952>.

  • Synthesizing NYSCATE #2 – Is Google Big Brother?

    nyscate2007.jpgLet me begin by saying that Google is awesome. The breadth and depth of tools coming out of Google each day is unreal. This post is not meant to be a “paranoia” reaction. Its just something nagging in the back of my mind. I’ll try to voice it and see if it makes sense.

    At NYSCATE, I attended 2 sessions in which the various tools of Google were presented. Some are true Google creations (Blogger, Earth, Maps, Reader, etc.), and some are independent, but linked to Google (GoogleLitTrips). There were 5 sessions at the conference which focused on some aspect of Google. They have even started a network of educators, “Google Certified Teachers.” For me personally, I have trained on it – I was a co-presenter for a hands-on workshop 2 years ago at NYSCATE on using Google.

    One of the hottest tools in recent years is Gmail. The web based email has a unique conversation hierarchy, and 5GB of storage. You can archive, rather than delete, email, resulting in the ability to track down old messages you want. You’ll notice the contact at the top of this blog is my Gmail account.

    Blogger was a great independent blogging site that Google purchased and made better. It’s easy to create and begin publishing a blog, and there are awesome examples of how Blogger blogs are lighting classrooms on fire (you must see apcalc07.blogspot.com right now if you never have before!)

    Web History is a newer tool (I believe) which can remember all of your web searches from the point that you activate it. You can go back and review old searches to find information you are trying to recall.

    Google Docs may well mark the end of the stronghold of Microsoft Office. Docs has word processing, spreadsheet, and, just recently added, presentation files available for creation and sharing. More than that, online collaboration is available with multiple users simultaneously editing the same document. Those of us from my district who attended NYSCATE are collaborating on a presentation file to summarize our take-aways from the conference. Its a simple and powerful way to bring people together virtually.

    I ‘ve really just begun to talk about what’s available. I hear many people, rightfully so, singing the praises of Google. So where is my issue? I think it comes down to the fact that all this information is stored on Google servers (a joy for any IT department since they do not have to worry about storage). Its not that I’m worried about server failure or space. Terabytes of storage are added everyday to the Google “cloud.” Its that Google is a business. Businesses are in the business of making money. In this age of Google frenzy, millions of people a day are storing information on these servers that can be used to profile them for future use. It is an advertising/marketing holy grail, far better than any grocery store loyalty card.

    By no means am I accusing Google of doing nefarious things. My concern is that we are placing a lot of eggs in one basket, and that at the end of the day, a for-profit company holds the handle of the basket. This is where I hear myself sounding paranoid – I’m not a paranoid type. Microsoft got into the OS and productivity software game early, and came on strong. Google got into the Internet game early and is coming on extremely strong. There is much talk that they will be at the table when bidding opens in January for the 700mhz bandwitdth auction by the FCC.

    Maybe this is my subconscious reacting to the riveting Epic 2014 video that I first saw a couple of years ago (take the 8 minutes now to watch it if you have not seen it). I can best sum it up by recalling something from the Constructivist Celebration pre-conference workshop on Saturday. I briefly spoke with Gary Stager and told him how I appreciated his tendency to disagree with many educational technologists. The comment he made (I’m paraphrasing here) was: If everyone thinks something is a good thing, there is something inherently bad about it (keep in mind our brief conversation was not about Google at all – this is me re-purposing his comment in my context).

    Well, that’s more than enough about this. If you managed to read this far, I would love your feedback. Tell me I’m just plain paranoid, or tell me to get a life, or anything else. But if you’ll excuse me, I have to go now. I have to go check the RSS feeds in my iGoogle account.

  • Harsh – But Gets the Ball Rolling…

    In David Warlick’s book Raw Materials for the Mind (4th ed.), he has the following quote in the introduction:

    “IT Departments do not work for the technology. They work for the teachers, to make sure that teachers can use the technology to produce the learning experiences that they know need to happen in their classrooms. ”

    I feel this statement is misdirected, but starts the correct conversation. We all struggle with networks that are tied down, filtered, and otherwise “safe.” The flip-side is an open, non-obstructed system, which is just not feasible. The Internet is a great, awesome, unbelievable source of networking and information. It is also a place of danger, mis-information, and viruses. We would do a disservice to our school community to not try to protect ourselves.

    I would suggest the correct statement reads as follows:

    (IT Departments) or (Educational Technologists) or (Administrators) or (insert whatever group here) do not work for the technology. They work for the learners, to make sure that learners can use the technology to produce the learning experiences that they know need to happen in the classroom.

    Note that I purposely did not make a distinction between teacher and student when referring to learner.

  • The First Full Week – A Full Week!

    The first full week of classes included a very full week of activity in the lab. The district has initiated a keyboarding program in 5th grade. In addition to the many startup activities (classes registering for electronic textbooks, WITS orientations, etc.) all the 5th graders have begun their keyboarding classes. One of the nice side-benefits of this is that all our 5th grade students are oriented to the network and basic operations already.

    Our new keyboarding teacher, Mrs. Meyer, brings a wealth of experience to the program. I’m excited for how these skills willredkeyboard help our students now and in the their future. Mrs. Meyer will be with us for the first half of the year, and then goes to Transit for the second semester to teach keyboarding to their 5th graders.

    Image citation:
    “Red Lit Computer Keyboard.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 15 September 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>

  • The Beginning

    My summer reading list did not get too long, but the books I read were awesome! See the recently read list in the sidebar at right for my book list. Interestingly, two of the books, totally different in nature, ended the same way. Each had as the closing, “The Beginning,” instead of, “The End.”

    Peter Reynolds “The North Star” is a simple, inspirational book about following your heart to where and what you should do in life. T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King” is a classic fantasy of the story of King Arthur. The reasons each of these made it on my reading are similar – they both invoke and reinforce a lifelong desire and committment to learning.

    Both books leave the reader with the sense of desire for more – the beginning of a journey. Both were great as a kick off to the new year. Having just finished the first day of the 07-08 school year, it really the beginning of an awesome new adventure – and only we can make it end up as we wish!

  • What Makes a Web Site “2.0”

    So “Web 2.0” is the term for the second generation of web sites. What exactly are the characteristics of a site that make it 2.0?

    Sites that are “Web 2.0” typically include most of the following:worldwide_web_network_cables.jpg

    • publishing (writing, pictures, videos…)
    • networking (link and group with other users on the site)
    • tagging (keywording)
    • RSS feed (for others to be able to subscribe to your site)

    If you take this blog as an example, it has 3 of the 4 listed – publishing, tagging and RSS. Blogs are the hallmark of Web 2.0. You’ll find that many sites now qualify for the new generation. In the old web, pages were there to read. In the new web, pages are there to to contribute to.

    Image citation:
    “Worldwide Web Network Cables.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 14 July 2007.

  • The Machine is Us/ing Us

    This video, created by Michael Wesch and posted at YouTube, is great to show how Web 2.0 has changed our world. The one here is a repost of the video at TeacherTube, a much more educational friendly site. It is not clear if this repost is has permission granted to do so, however.

    I’ve been trying to embed video here on the blog with mixed results – if your browser crashes, my apologies – still trying to learn how to do this fun stuff.

    Update 7 Sept. 2007: I’m pretty sure the emebedded video has been crashing this page, so to see the video, click here to view it at TeacherTube.

    Video citation:
    The Machine Is Us/ing Us. Dir. Michael Wesch. 2006. TeacherTube. 20 Aug. 2007 . This repost by mrstacey on Teachertube – original by Michael Wesch posted at YouTube

  • The Rules

    Following up on the previous post about what matters, where does technology fit in? Schools are about people and learning, regardless of technology. That being said, obviously technology plays a huge role in where we are going, so how do we keep on the best path? Its very easy to get sucked in by technology that is cool, or a time-filler, but has no real value. So here are 2 easy, basic rules for harnessing the power of educational technology:

    1. Does the use of technology create new and/or unique learning experiences not possible without the technology?
    2. Does the use of technology exponentially increase the efficiency and/or value of a process that is possible without the technology?

    If the answer to both is no, then its not worth devoting time to use the technology.

    Learning to Crawl

    Image citation:
    Lutz, R. Frank. “Learning to Crawl.” Flickr. 7 Aug. 2007 <http://flickr.com/
    photos/lf-photodesign/337715955/>.

  • What Matters

    As I form the foundation of the work for the new school year, what crystallized for me during the 3 day Bea McGarvey workshop on What Works in Schools, continues to be what I posted about last November:

    A school is people learning. (click on the sentence to go to the original post – still holds true).

    I’m excited about the District taking the Marzano research as the foundation of working, as it will give us common languageDictionary Definition: Learn to improve. As my thinking firms up even more, the work going on at Fablevision and Generation Yes continue to peak my interest. I do not yet see a vision for how they play in, but I think that will become clear when the time is right.

    Image citation:
    “Dictionary Definition: Learn.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 10 August 2007. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>

  • Am I a Dinosaur?

    Attending NECC virtually has been fascinating. Not the same as being there for sure, but reading and watching what I can, I do feel a connection to what happened. There is still a long list of videos/podcasts to catch up on, but I’m brining my official attendance to a close.

    The twitter-skype chat-live blog thing has me thinking a lot about my own personal preferences for learning, and so I wonder…am I a dinosaur?

    When I want to really concentrate on something, I have to focus on it and immerse myself. If its reading, I dont like the tvdinosaur_skeleton.gif on. If its writing, no music in the background. Attending a session with a speaker I want to hear – that’s all I want to hear. If its practicing the piano, then that’s it. OK, maybe one little exception – I like to have a cup of coffee while doing any of those things…

    We talk all the time about how kids multi-task, and reports are coming out that brains are working differently. Are there any kids left who need to focus? Who really should turn off the chat client and log out of the social site to get something done (even if they don’t want to)?

    Am I the new dinosaur? Is the ice age that is going to freeze my bones in perpetuity a huge spout of ones and zeroes that the younger generation can process and manage with the flick of a finger? I consider myself reasonably tech-savvy, but what do we need to do in schools to meet the needs of these kids? Or, are we just letting them be over-stimulated and under-focused when we should still be guiding them in how to train their minds?
    Definitely a Russo’s Rambling…

    And on that note, pointatopointb is going to power-down for a couple of weeks. Its that time of summer when I dig into my hosting site, re-learn how to tweak, align and update all the background stuff, and get ready to launch into the new year. I really like the current design for the site (implemented last year), so probably no new look for the new year, but maybe some tweaks and such as I upgrade the verison of WordPress. See ya soon!

    “Dinosaur Skeleton.” Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 6 July 2007.