Social Networking Keynote
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BLC08: Marc Prensky The Death of the Classroom and the Rebirth of Learning in the 21st Century: How Technology Changes the Meaning of Teaching
How would I explain Marc Prensky's method of presenting a workshop? Two words (and a conjunction): Shock and Awe - and I wouldn't say this is necessarily a good thing. Prensky, best know for his coining of the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant", flew through a PowerPoint presentation with sweeping words, some sweeping ideas, and some really annoying sound effects. I found many of his points interesting, but I think his message is now a few years too old. Yes kids use technology in new ways, we know that, that's why we're here. Yes things are changing fast, but again, that's why we're at this conference. We don't need to know why, we're here to learn how. (In all fairness regarding the question of how, he had given a pre-conference about using computer games in education. This talk would have better suited my inquiries). Following twitter feeds of those who saw his talk, some went as far to say that his ideas are digitally racist – pitting teachers vs students. I don’t know if I would phrase it like that, but I do think he generalizes to an extreme. I also got the impression that he believes, for the most part, that all kids have access to the same technology. He made the point that, even if a child doesn’t have an ipod, he or she likely has a friend who owns one, and therefore knows how ipods work. I think this is a dangerous assumption.
Here are my notes from his talk. I apologize for their lack of structure, but it was quite difficult following his sound-bite presentation style. Again, my thoughts are in iltalics.
Programming is the key to 21st century learning. How do we “retool” teachers?
What’s coming in 5-10 years? Expect change, expect a new paradigm for learning, new rules of engagement.
The right stuff is change! “email is for old people” if tech doubles every year, tech will be 1 billion times powerful in 30 years – we’re working at the atomic level. Are we walking backwards into the future, in order to see familiar things? I like this phrasing – there is fear walking forward into the future when one has such security in the past.
New tools come fast
Youtube really matters – strong tool of the future. This too I believe. Kids watch more than read these days – we could fight it, or have them watch powerful learning tools.
Kids were born with the idea of rapid change - Change that threatens teachers, empowers kids. Kids context of education is global from day one.
Old way – use pre-existing tools to solve problem New way - make a new tool to solve your problem. How do teachers help kids make new tools? I like this notion – ties in to McCain’s idea (Ted, not John) about the need to teach children to be problem solvers. Building a new tool is sometimes the only way to solve a problem.
Kids are already global citizens. Teachers looks at technology as a tool, kids look at it as a foundation.
Every teacher will need to change, give up control to the students, become a partner with the students. Give up control? Teachers will always need to help kids make good decisions. There is a difference between understanding the desires, fears, goals, and tools-used of one's students and "giving up control" to those things.
Feel the fear, then do it anyway. That’s courage! So we need to find the courage to change.
Kids are not “little us’s” Kids are reading books less. Kids think that digital tech is their birthright. Kids approach their life differently because of technology.
Equity? – no, but help the divide. I wish he had expanded more on this idea.
Kids “power down” when they get to school. Power down their brains too. This is a common theme.
Admin hire on empathy. Kids are bored when teachers talk talk talk. If we talk about the past, even with new technology, they still get bored. Kids passion is their future! Kids know how big tech power will be in their future.
Teach our kids to be effective.
After school programs can sometimes be the only technology-based educational time for kids. How do they learn in school, compared to their after school tech world? Can schools compete?
The Innovators Dilemma – book Clayton Christianson Has anyone read this? Recommend?
Kids tell us what they want – this provides successful teaching, so what’s the role of technology?
Just because its tech, it doesn’t make it engaging. Great point – how we use technology will determine if it’s engaging.
Techs only role – is to support the new paradigm of teaching – kids teaching themselves with the guidance of teachers. (old paradigm – kids being taught) Tech does not support the way we do now, lectures. If fact, tech hinders the old method of teaching. Schools have dropped laptops because they weren’t engaging. They were using the old paradigm.
Tech allows kids to do what they do well, old way lets teachers do what they do well. Teachers must change their teaching ways before using technology. Change paradigm, then let kids use tech to move forward. Old ways are useless for going forward. You just cant stand up and tell us. “The sage on the stage” has expired –
Don’t just be comfortable with tech, us it to get more powerful!
Ideas to explore:
Search vs research – good to decipher
Fair use vs plagiarism
We’re all learners, we’re all teachers – This is a great phrase – I’m going to put it up on my class wall!!!
Don’t give kids content, help them find it meaningful, help them create it! Balance top down with bottom up. Don’t engage to students, engage with students. Ask them if there are better way to teach you.
Kids should assist with teacher professional development. Great idea – I learned more about my teaching with one SurveyMonkey survey this year than all past years combined.
Here are my notes from his talk. I apologize for their lack of structure, but it was quite difficult following his sound-bite presentation style. Again, my thoughts are in iltalics.
Programming is the key to 21st century learning. How do we “retool” teachers?
What’s coming in 5-10 years? Expect change, expect a new paradigm for learning, new rules of engagement.
The right stuff is change! “email is for old people” if tech doubles every year, tech will be 1 billion times powerful in 30 years – we’re working at the atomic level. Are we walking backwards into the future, in order to see familiar things? I like this phrasing – there is fear walking forward into the future when one has such security in the past.
New tools come fast
Youtube really matters – strong tool of the future. This too I believe. Kids watch more than read these days – we could fight it, or have them watch powerful learning tools.
Kids were born with the idea of rapid change - Change that threatens teachers, empowers kids. Kids context of education is global from day one.
Old way – use pre-existing tools to solve problem New way - make a new tool to solve your problem. How do teachers help kids make new tools? I like this notion – ties in to McCain’s idea (Ted, not John) about the need to teach children to be problem solvers. Building a new tool is sometimes the only way to solve a problem.
Kids are already global citizens. Teachers looks at technology as a tool, kids look at it as a foundation.
Every teacher will need to change, give up control to the students, become a partner with the students. Give up control? Teachers will always need to help kids make good decisions. There is a difference between understanding the desires, fears, goals, and tools-used of one's students and "giving up control" to those things.
Feel the fear, then do it anyway. That’s courage! So we need to find the courage to change.
Kids are not “little us’s” Kids are reading books less. Kids think that digital tech is their birthright. Kids approach their life differently because of technology.
Equity? – no, but help the divide. I wish he had expanded more on this idea.
Kids “power down” when they get to school. Power down their brains too. This is a common theme.
Admin hire on empathy. Kids are bored when teachers talk talk talk. If we talk about the past, even with new technology, they still get bored. Kids passion is their future! Kids know how big tech power will be in their future.
Teach our kids to be effective.
After school programs can sometimes be the only technology-based educational time for kids. How do they learn in school, compared to their after school tech world? Can schools compete?
The Innovators Dilemma – book Clayton Christianson Has anyone read this? Recommend?
Kids tell us what they want – this provides successful teaching, so what’s the role of technology?
Just because its tech, it doesn’t make it engaging. Great point – how we use technology will determine if it’s engaging.
Techs only role – is to support the new paradigm of teaching – kids teaching themselves with the guidance of teachers. (old paradigm – kids being taught) Tech does not support the way we do now, lectures. If fact, tech hinders the old method of teaching. Schools have dropped laptops because they weren’t engaging. They were using the old paradigm.
Tech allows kids to do what they do well, old way lets teachers do what they do well. Teachers must change their teaching ways before using technology. Change paradigm, then let kids use tech to move forward. Old ways are useless for going forward. You just cant stand up and tell us. “The sage on the stage” has expired –
Don’t just be comfortable with tech, us it to get more powerful!
Ideas to explore:
Search vs research – good to decipher
Fair use vs plagiarism
We’re all learners, we’re all teachers – This is a great phrase – I’m going to put it up on my class wall!!!
Don’t give kids content, help them find it meaningful, help them create it! Balance top down with bottom up. Don’t engage to students, engage with students. Ask them if there are better way to teach you.
Kids should assist with teacher professional development. Great idea – I learned more about my teaching with one SurveyMonkey survey this year than all past years combined.
BLC 08 Kids and Social Spaces
More key take-aways from BLC08 on the social networks of children and teenagers
---For young people the social network is intuitive.
---What is the kids’ culture? Teach from their culture not from the teacher’s culture. Things are under our own noses and we don’t see what the kid’s culture is. Some answers are already there.
---Email is for old people according to kids. Getting an email address used to be a rite of passage. Now getting a Facebook page is a rite of passage. What learning spaces can teachers create that use the ability to communicate like Facebook without using Facebook. If teachers use the children/teenagers' spaces too much, kids will move on.
---To kids the tools aren’t tools - they are the way to communicate – what’s the best way to get something done or communicated? They come from a different culture. They won’t be the same as us. It’s a culture thing more than a knowledge thing. We need to help them get what they need. “Whenever I go to school, I have to ‘power down.’” If you ask the kids what they are thinking about? The future – their passion is their future. Teachers need to integrate the future into our technology, education.
---Technology is the kids’ birthright.
---What do kids like: group wk, project, disc, connect to the world, think their own thoughts and express their own thoughts. That’s the social space of kids.
BLC 08 Technology and Learning
Here's another them that I pulled out of my notes from BLC 08 - what's the relationship between learning and technology?
---It’s the early days of technology but we have some powerful opportunites.
---The technology should not be as important as what students do with it. The technology is not transformative. It’s the school, the pedagogy that is transformative. Tools don’t get socially interesting until they technologically embedded.
---Where we need to be now is: How would you (as in the student) like your learning? What tools do you need to learn in the way that you need to learn?
---Getting this education thing right has nothing to do with equipment.
---Our curriculum should be global b/c that’s the kids’ world. We used to solve problems with the tools we had. Now it’s more about inventing new tools. Adults need to be helping kids invent new tools.
---Children and teenagers have a participation culture .You have to understand about participation. It’s not about public and private spaces anymore. It’s gray. There are private spaces, group spaces, published spaces, performance spaces and participation spaces, watching spaces. Make sure school is not a watching space. Try to use every space when teaching a lesson.
---Give a teacher a button and they ask you what to do with it. Give a kid a button and they don’t ask, they just use it.
---Visiting other classrooms can be done virtually with digital pics, blogs, video. It can change teaching. Take pics and videos of each other classrooms then post. Create blogs that have 20 readers all sharing classroom visits virtually. Make everyone contribute to the blog and reflect on the what’s there. Be a virtual spectator.
---YouTube really, really matters – YouTube will be the major mode going forward. Yet it's blocked in schools. What we need to be teaching children and teenagers is how to act in these virtual spaces. If the sites are blocked, teachers can't model how to act, how to respond.
Kristin
BLC 08 Change
Some thoughts about change from different keynotes at BLC 08. We heard Ewan McIntosh, John Davitt, Mark Prensky, Alan November, Pedro Noguera.
-Who are the 21st century kids? They are not us. Our youngest students will not be the ones we designed our schools and education for.
-The change is so fast that we should forget yesterday and not predict the future. It’s the here and now that matter. History could judge education poorly: “They had all those tools and they did WHAT with them in education?”
-Things come in faster than they go out.
-Most of us are walking backwards to the future. Much of our lives are the same but the digital tech is what’s really going at an exponential speed. When Apple designs a new tool, they don't consider what they have in their design going forward. They start with what people need a tool to do. Their design isn't based on history.
-A lot of our technology tools will not exist in 5 years. Don’t get to wedded to any one thing.
-Kids only know the fast part. They were born to rapid change. They are expecting change. What can be threatening to teachers is empowering to the students.
Here's a game to try the next time you are out in a public space. Find 5 people using technology. It won’t be hard. Of those 5, now try to find 3 people using it in the exact same way. That’s the possibility of the tools.
Kristin
BLC08: Carla Zembal-Saul [R]evolution in Teacher Education
[R]evolution in Teacher Education -
Carla Zembal-Saul, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Science Education
Kahn Professor, STEM Education, Penn State University
Talk focused on how colleges of education are working to collaborate with schools to find new methods of better practice in terms of technology use in the classroom. Major concern is that colleges of education have vague definitions of what exactly is the appropriate use of technology. Is asking your students to make one or two PowerPoint presentations a year proper or adequate use of technology? What is the proper or adequate use of technology? Is it more appropriate to have students use web 2.0 tools promote student collaborations on a weekly or daily basis? Overall, the talk made me grateful for how Scott and Springside support our department’s desires for trying new methods of science teaching practice, technology based or other. Our classes are not just science labs, but labs of science education.
Below are the key ideas I took from the talk. My comments are in italics:
Teacher inquiry is key. It’s OK to question what is done in the classroom.
Teaching as a complex, problem-solving endeavor. If you think you have no problems to solve, you’re missing something key.
Examine problems of practice.
Promote knowledge building within the community. (Then publish together!)
Supporting the development of digital pedagogies – this could be considered teaching 2.0
Video analysis – teachers view their own teaching in a video - like sports film! Can “tag” moments in the film of note. Excellent tool for self-reflection. Watching a film of me teaching would definitely give me new perspectives as to the dynamics of the class. Didn't catch the program shown for recording such video - need to find on the conference website!
Carla Zembal-Saul, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Science Education
Kahn Professor, STEM Education, Penn State University
Talk focused on how colleges of education are working to collaborate with schools to find new methods of better practice in terms of technology use in the classroom. Major concern is that colleges of education have vague definitions of what exactly is the appropriate use of technology. Is asking your students to make one or two PowerPoint presentations a year proper or adequate use of technology? What is the proper or adequate use of technology? Is it more appropriate to have students use web 2.0 tools promote student collaborations on a weekly or daily basis? Overall, the talk made me grateful for how Scott and Springside support our department’s desires for trying new methods of science teaching practice, technology based or other. Our classes are not just science labs, but labs of science education.
Below are the key ideas I took from the talk. My comments are in italics:
Teacher inquiry is key. It’s OK to question what is done in the classroom.
Teaching as a complex, problem-solving endeavor. If you think you have no problems to solve, you’re missing something key.
Examine problems of practice.
Promote knowledge building within the community. (Then publish together!)
Supporting the development of digital pedagogies – this could be considered teaching 2.0
Video analysis – teachers view their own teaching in a video - like sports film! Can “tag” moments in the film of note. Excellent tool for self-reflection. Watching a film of me teaching would definitely give me new perspectives as to the dynamics of the class. Didn't catch the program shown for recording such video - need to find on the conference website!
BLC08: Ewan McIntosh - Not All Native Wit: From Creativity to Ingenuity
Ewan is a forward-thinking technology advisor in the UK. He started having his students interact using blogs and wikis back in 2003 and has been encouraging the rest of the UK to do so ever since. His blog is worth a perusal. I have it as an RSS feed on my igoogle page and visit it frequently.
Below are my notes from his talk. My reflections on his ideas are in italics.
How ineffective is technology use? Technology is not trans-formative - it is the school pedagogy that is trans-formative.
Everyone should be in the business of researching and developing of better teaching practices - all teachers, all administration. Ask a teacher – what have you done lately in the effort to research and develop better teaching practice?
Technology tools (like blogs or podcasts) don’t become socially interesting unit they get technologically boring.
Technology tools must be intuitive and familiar. Social networks are what’s familiar. 90% of kids have visited their social network in past month (not sure which group he referenced UK or USA?)
Kids are in social communities and can use such communities for action – Reminded me of the notion that today’s kids are in the “we” generation (due to their new modes of digital socializing) as compared to the “me” generation of the 80s.
Forms for the creative cycle:
1. Saturation- immerse yourself in the material (with complete and divergent thinking. Newton in his workshop )
2. Incubation – (with no deadlines no stress - let it settle - Newton sits under the apple tree)
3. Illumination -(share to a big crowd, a crowd that’s important to you apple falls on his head )
Ewan had a great side note on divergent/convergent thinking. Too many schools are about convergence, not divergence. Kids quelled to be convergent, to fit in the correct mold. Is ADHD really endemic in the US? Consider this map of ADHD diagnoses in the US. )
Demand the question -what is a quality teacher?
The quality of education can never go past the quality of the teachers. Fantastic point!
Spoke about how we can lose site of important factors if we are focused on the wrong ones. watch this card trick? Did you miss the colors changes? I found one. Consider this map of media coverage. Are we missing a few other places? We must read beyond the media that is presented to us. Do we get so used to a system that we don’t question it? Such an important question!
Shared awareness – what are our learning perspectives? I consider curriculum mapping a method of sharing awareness.
We are now in a participation culture. We’ve got to understand this notion - not just the tools that enable us (and our kids) to participate.
What new tools can your students use to participate?
What shared spaces can you create in which your students can participate?
What would you do to get small groups going?
Ended with a Ben Franklin (?) quote. Not sure if this is really from Franklin (couldn’t find any reference on the web) Anyway, I like it: “People are either immobile, mobile, or moving.” I know which one I strive to be.....
Below are my notes from his talk. My reflections on his ideas are in italics.
How ineffective is technology use? Technology is not trans-formative - it is the school pedagogy that is trans-formative.
Everyone should be in the business of researching and developing of better teaching practices - all teachers, all administration. Ask a teacher – what have you done lately in the effort to research and develop better teaching practice?
Technology tools (like blogs or podcasts) don’t become socially interesting unit they get technologically boring.
Technology tools must be intuitive and familiar. Social networks are what’s familiar. 90% of kids have visited their social network in past month (not sure which group he referenced UK or USA?)
Kids are in social communities and can use such communities for action – Reminded me of the notion that today’s kids are in the “we” generation (due to their new modes of digital socializing) as compared to the “me” generation of the 80s.
Forms for the creative cycle:
1. Saturation- immerse yourself in the material (with complete and divergent thinking. Newton in his workshop )
2. Incubation – (with no deadlines no stress - let it settle - Newton sits under the apple tree)
3. Illumination -(share to a big crowd, a crowd that’s important to you apple falls on his head )
Ewan had a great side note on divergent/convergent thinking. Too many schools are about convergence, not divergence. Kids quelled to be convergent, to fit in the correct mold. Is ADHD really endemic in the US? Consider this map of ADHD diagnoses in the US. )
Demand the question -what is a quality teacher?
The quality of education can never go past the quality of the teachers. Fantastic point!
Spoke about how we can lose site of important factors if we are focused on the wrong ones. watch this card trick? Did you miss the colors changes? I found one. Consider this map of media coverage. Are we missing a few other places? We must read beyond the media that is presented to us. Do we get so used to a system that we don’t question it? Such an important question!
Shared awareness – what are our learning perspectives? I consider curriculum mapping a method of sharing awareness.
We are now in a participation culture. We’ve got to understand this notion - not just the tools that enable us (and our kids) to participate.
What new tools can your students use to participate?
What shared spaces can you create in which your students can participate?
What would you do to get small groups going?
Ended with a Ben Franklin (?) quote. Not sure if this is really from Franklin (couldn’t find any reference on the web) Anyway, I like it: “People are either immobile, mobile, or moving.” I know which one I strive to be.....
Breaking News
Apple launched its k-12 iTunes U last night and all I got was a t-shirt! Turns out that Apple partnered with the State Educational Technology Directors Association so it is not available to Independent Schools yet. In Pennsylvania, the program is administered by the Intermediate units- I'm sure Pete will work on this since we have such great content to provide.
Since I was preparing for my presentation, I didn't go to as many workshops as Jenn but there are a few that stand out. The first was given by two Chemistry teachers from Colorado called "Never Lecture in Class Again with Video Podcasting." These teachers recorded their lectures using SnapKast and a USB microphone. They assigned watching the lectures as homework and then had students do their homework during class. They found that students scored better on all assessments and they had fewer visits from students outside of class. This worked wonderfully when teachers had half the class leave for sports. The teachers felt that they got to know each student in a more comprehensive way and that it freed up the class for more hands on activites. They are going to go to a self paced model next year and feel that their advanced students can cover Chem and AP Chem in one year. They emphasized that this approach would work best for sequential learning. Their instructional vodcasts are available by Googling "wphs chemistry."
Today, I was invited to a "Birds of a Feather" gathering for Arts Educators after my presentation. This was organized by Mara Linaberger, Curriculum Specialist with one of the Intermediate Units in PA and we were joined via Skype by Jamie Kasper who is the Arts and Humanities Advisor for the State of Pennsylvania. They have created a Wikispace at http://artseducator20.wikispaces.com/ to discuss ideas of art and technology in education. In the meeting we brainstormed issues that we would talk about on the wiki. The issued ranged from curriculum integration to creating an advocacy group for Arts educators to make sure our voices are heard when discussing topics such as creativity and technology (OK this has become a new obsession for me). I was also invited to join a new ning at http://arted20.ning.com/ It is a social network for people interested in technology and the arts.
In all, it has been a great conference. The presentation went well and Jenn and I had a great time trying a new guacamole every night.
Since I was preparing for my presentation, I didn't go to as many workshops as Jenn but there are a few that stand out. The first was given by two Chemistry teachers from Colorado called "Never Lecture in Class Again with Video Podcasting." These teachers recorded their lectures using SnapKast and a USB microphone. They assigned watching the lectures as homework and then had students do their homework during class. They found that students scored better on all assessments and they had fewer visits from students outside of class. This worked wonderfully when teachers had half the class leave for sports. The teachers felt that they got to know each student in a more comprehensive way and that it freed up the class for more hands on activites. They are going to go to a self paced model next year and feel that their advanced students can cover Chem and AP Chem in one year. They emphasized that this approach would work best for sequential learning. Their instructional vodcasts are available by Googling "wphs chemistry."
Today, I was invited to a "Birds of a Feather" gathering for Arts Educators after my presentation. This was organized by Mara Linaberger, Curriculum Specialist with one of the Intermediate Units in PA and we were joined via Skype by Jamie Kasper who is the Arts and Humanities Advisor for the State of Pennsylvania. They have created a Wikispace at http://artseducator20.wikispaces.com/ to discuss ideas of art and technology in education. In the meeting we brainstormed issues that we would talk about on the wiki. The issued ranged from curriculum integration to creating an advocacy group for Arts educators to make sure our voices are heard when discussing topics such as creativity and technology (OK this has become a new obsession for me). I was also invited to join a new ning at http://arted20.ning.com/ It is a social network for people interested in technology and the arts.
In all, it has been a great conference. The presentation went well and Jenn and I had a great time trying a new guacamole every night.
NECC: Making Sense of It All
As Tuesday's sessions come to a close, I will attempt to capture what I can of this conference for everyone back home. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and indeeed immense is the first word that comes to mind as I reflect on the 2008 NECC Conference in San Antonio. Eighteen thousand educators from around the world descended upon the city for this conference, and you can feel their presence everywhere. I'm not just referring to the 120 minute waits at the best Tex Mex restaurants in town, the five charter bus routes channeling participants to the conference center from hotels around the city, or a display of Apple Distinguished Educators (including our own Ellen FJ) "frozen" with their iPods in front of the historic Alamo. It's quite amazing to stroll through San Antonio's RiverWalk and hear passers by discussing pedagogical change, innovation, and Twitter. There are virtual playgrounds in the conference center where participants can create their own avatar and engage with Second Life. I lost count of exhibitors at around 75, nearly all of them with huge and impressive displays of interactive whiteboards, virtual worlds, sites for social networking, and digital equipment. I had hoped to share some video interviews taken with the Flip video camera, however nearly every location here is filled with noise, rendering these interviews incomprehensible.
The piece that transforms this conference from overwhelming into powerfully engaging is the fact that while everything here is big, and everyone here is encouraged to dream big, we all share one seemingly simple common purpose: we want only what is best for our students. I have met artists, musicians, scientists, writers, special educators, administrators, professors and yes, even students, all connecting with each other for lively and thoughtful discussions about the future of teaching and learning. While the sessions I've attended are about online learning, 1:1 laptop programs, 2nd Life, Google Earth, GarageBand, and digital literacy, this conference is far less "techie" than one would imagine. It feels much like any other education conference.
Ellen Fishman-Johnson co-facilitated an engaging presentation this afternoon with fellow Apple Distinguished Educator Gary Atkins on new approches to using GarageBand, getting beyond the basic loops and tapping into students' creativity. There was a line outside of the room thirty minutes before her presentation, and I could not help but beam with pride and count my blessings that we are fortunate to work with her everyday at Springside.
Over and out (for now) from San Antonio.....
The piece that transforms this conference from overwhelming into powerfully engaging is the fact that while everything here is big, and everyone here is encouraged to dream big, we all share one seemingly simple common purpose: we want only what is best for our students. I have met artists, musicians, scientists, writers, special educators, administrators, professors and yes, even students, all connecting with each other for lively and thoughtful discussions about the future of teaching and learning. While the sessions I've attended are about online learning, 1:1 laptop programs, 2nd Life, Google Earth, GarageBand, and digital literacy, this conference is far less "techie" than one would imagine. It feels much like any other education conference.
Ellen Fishman-Johnson co-facilitated an engaging presentation this afternoon with fellow Apple Distinguished Educator Gary Atkins on new approches to using GarageBand, getting beyond the basic loops and tapping into students' creativity. There was a line outside of the room thirty minutes before her presentation, and I could not help but beam with pride and count my blessings that we are fortunate to work with her everyday at Springside.
Over and out (for now) from San Antonio.....
NECC: The Collective Intelligence of Groups
Notes from Opening Keynote Speaker, New Yorker staffer James Surowiecki on the collective intelligence of groups - some highlights from a fellow blogger available at: http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/necc-2008-opening-keynote-james-surowiecki/
NECC: Online Learning Panel
| Virtual Opportunities: Interactive Strategies for Online Instruction | |
| Katherine Hayden, ISTE Consultant/CSU–San Marcos with Antonette Hood, Dennis O'Connor and Kecia Ray |
One member of the panel opened with his persepective that not all students can succeed in online learning. Self-regulation, self-discipline, and self-motivation to succeed are key, and it is essential to use a pre self-assessment to help students determine their skills. Illinois Virtual High School's self-assessment, "Is Online Learning for Me" may be useful. *I'm really interested to hear what others at Springside think about this - not sure if I agree that not all students can succeed. We have an obligation to support students as they work to develop relevant skills...
This was followed by an interesting exploration of Salmon's 5 Stage Model for eLearning (2000), and a rec for Bonnie Elbaum's book, "Essential Elements: Prepare, Design & Teach Your Online Course."
Tips for Development
1) Devote time to respond quickly and often to students in online course. It takes more time for instructors to teach online, but online courses also offer more flexibility.
2) Use video clips, multimedia, video available online, modules with chats, discussions, Skype, Google applications, TappedIn.org.
3) Take advantage of the unique opportunity to collaborate and team teach in online courses - especially the opportunity to collaborate and team teach with faculty at a distance, overseas, etc.
4) Offer phone and also live chat hours - different methods will work for different students.
5) Work to make student projects collaborative.
6) Allow students to partner in development of course.
Tips for Assessment:
7) Utilize the online gradebook which promotes self-regulation.
8) Build in self-assessment.
9) Provide examples for posts, videos, etc with comments on aspects that are particularly strong and even comment on areas that could use improvement.
10) Build in course assessment mid-way through the course. Ask what is the pace like, how many hours are you spending in this course, and for constructive suggestions about how the couse could be better. Give the data back to students and implement any changes immediately.
Tips for Community Building:
11) Have students upload photograph or provide information on personal context (similar to ice breakers you would employ face-to-face).
12) Empower students with multiple roles within the course- have them post questions to the group not the instructor and allow them to help and support each other.
13) Establish code of conduct.
NECC 2008: 1:1 Laptop Programs
1:1 Laptops and Seamless Integration: Peek into the Frontier
Howard Levin, The Urban School of San Francisco ; On Twitter: howlevin
Howard has 7 years of experience with a laptop program at USSF. Ultimately with a 1:1 program, the goal over time is for the technology to recede into the background so that the laptops exist merely to support learning in core classes ("making the laptop disappear").
We are living with a new paradigm - everyone can capture information and images at any moment with cameras, video cameras, iSight cameras, etc. Think of technology not as it exists at this very moment, but what is possible in 5 years. For those interested in Tablet PC, Levin predicts we will have write-able screens for all comptuers eventually. Quell fears that laptops will reduce communication - Levin has found that in fact the opposite is true.
Recommendation to watch the film Born into Brothels
Consider the four key categories (in Levin's mind) of how laptops can support learning: ORGANIZATION, COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION & PRODUCTION
Some concrete examples shared during the presentation:
-Using Inspiration for non-linear concept-mapping (note-taking tool) Ex - tracking the three most important events of 1979 in the Middle East - extremely detailed outline in Inspiration as pre-organizer, research organizer for report
-Use and exchange of audio files in foreign language
-Symmetry and rotation using SMARTBoard
- Archived notes with the SMARTBoard can be crucial - helpdul to pull up previous day's visuals
-Students giving feedback to each other (Google Tools)
-Record musical instrument playing, email or submit online (Music testing via email)
-Programs like GarageBand can easily archive and record progress of music performance or speaking (f.language or elem.) over time
-Trapeze lesson - wearing motion sensors to track speed, velocity, etc students went to trapeze school. With personal laptops, the students own their data. They can upload immediately, make graphs, etc and play with the data at home
-Virtual Chemistry Lab (irYdium?)
-Tools to support traditional art - traditional mediums, inspiration for ideas, students video and capture friends then edit in iMovie, looking for inspiration. They pull stills and create art from it
-Verbal essays with iStop Motion & Animation in science (molecules, gaining and losing electrons, what happens when temperature shifts- drawing of thermometer reading going down) - using visuals to explain with auditory capturing
-Speech to text software - big buzz at Urban
Howard Levin, The Urban School of San Francisco ; On Twitter: howlevin
Howard has 7 years of experience with a laptop program at USSF. Ultimately with a 1:1 program, the goal over time is for the technology to recede into the background so that the laptops exist merely to support learning in core classes ("making the laptop disappear").
We are living with a new paradigm - everyone can capture information and images at any moment with cameras, video cameras, iSight cameras, etc. Think of technology not as it exists at this very moment, but what is possible in 5 years. For those interested in Tablet PC, Levin predicts we will have write-able screens for all comptuers eventually. Quell fears that laptops will reduce communication - Levin has found that in fact the opposite is true.
Recommendation to watch the film Born into Brothels
Consider the four key categories (in Levin's mind) of how laptops can support learning: ORGANIZATION, COMMUNICATION, INFORMATION & PRODUCTION
Some concrete examples shared during the presentation:
-Using Inspiration for non-linear concept-mapping (note-taking tool) Ex - tracking the three most important events of 1979 in the Middle East - extremely detailed outline in Inspiration as pre-organizer, research organizer for report
-Use and exchange of audio files in foreign language
-Symmetry and rotation using SMARTBoard
- Archived notes with the SMARTBoard can be crucial - helpdul to pull up previous day's visuals
-Students giving feedback to each other (Google Tools)
-Record musical instrument playing, email or submit online (Music testing via email)
-Programs like GarageBand can easily archive and record progress of music performance or speaking (f.language or elem.) over time
-Trapeze lesson - wearing motion sensors to track speed, velocity, etc students went to trapeze school. With personal laptops, the students own their data. They can upload immediately, make graphs, etc and play with the data at home
-Virtual Chemistry Lab (irYdium?)
-Tools to support traditional art - traditional mediums, inspiration for ideas, students video and capture friends then edit in iMovie, looking for inspiration. They pull stills and create art from it
-Verbal essays with iStop Motion & Animation in science (molecules, gaining and losing electrons, what happens when temperature shifts- drawing of thermometer reading going down) - using visuals to explain with auditory capturing
-Speech to text software - big buzz at Urban
NECC 2008: Ian Jukes
This guy is a RIOT! Loved his presentation. I found it very difficult to blog during the presentation because I wanted to focus completely on the conversation in the room.
Some memorable quotes:
"It's easier to move a cemetery than it is to change a curriculum" -Woodrow Wilson, 1921
"It's easier to change the course of history than it is to change a history course"
"Do you use a Windows computer or a real computer like me?" Wild applause from audience :)
"My job as a presenter is not to educate you but to irritate you." He holds up a rubber band as a metaphor for his desire to stretch our thinking. When Ian lets go, it will snap back to the way it was. It has a paradigm, a place it likes to be. How do you get a rubber band to stretch and stay stretched? We may all sit here during this conference session, nod and say "uh-huh, right on Ian"...but then we will go back to our classrooms, shut the door, and do things exactly the way we always have. When the going gets tough, the tough get traditional. So what are we do to?
1) Go to IANJUKES.COM - Committed Sardine. Look for "Understanding Digital Kids."
2) Email Ian @ iajukes@mac.com. In the subject line type, "I need to be committed" - he will respond with a summary of latest of his articles and description of what it means to be a committed sardine.
This is a discussion about Screenagers...the generation that has grown up with mouse in hand. They have the assumption that images on a screen are to be manipulated and interacted with. Technology/screens/media represent for them a place to project their identity. They experience digital bombardment - several hours a day, several days a week, over extended periods of time. What has this done to kids' brains? Our students are neurologically wired differently than we are. Only 50% of our brains are hardwired at birth, the intelligence you're born with isn't fixed...measurable intelligence rises and falls throughout one's lifetime. Neurons are constantly making new connections. Neuroplasticity - brain is constantly changing itself and adapting
Brain scans of Digital natives and digital immigrants doing same tasks reveal that many digital natives are using measurably different neural pathways to take in, process and store the same information as digital immigrants. Visual processing skills increase DRAMATICALLY with just 10 hours of video game play. Researchers in a 3M Study presented 100 photographs to people of different generations. Digital natives were able to recall 90% of images, digital Immigrants could only recall slightly better than 60%. Digital Dinos (immigrants' parents) recalled a mere 10%.
Rec for the book The Brain Rules - read it!
Implications for our Students:
Text + image - 3 days later kids will recall 65% of the information presented. With text only, they recall only 10% 3 days later
Designing engaging reading materials - digital natives only read upper and left side of screen. This is the way video games are designed. They pay the most attention to the colors blood red/pink, followed by green, then burnt orange. Kids ignore black text on a white background (way digital immigrants are "programmed" to read)
87% of students are not auditory or text-based learners - they think graphically, because they grew up in a digital landscape. They are visual/kinesthetic learners and are wired for multi-media. 85% of test questions focus on vocabulary and rote memorization. By the age of 21 digital natives will have played more than 10,000 hours of video games, watched more than 20,000 hours television, viewed more than 500,00 commercials, and recieved a quarter million emails.
It's hard for us (digital immigrants) to comprehend how much change has really taken place- these kids look the same as we did growing up.
The digital native perspective: "Why would I memorize the states and capitals when I could instantly get them off Googe" Digital immigrant perspective: "Why can that same student recite thousands of lyrics when they can't memorize 50 states and capitals?" They're bored, they're tuning us out. Jukes cited that there are very few cases of ADD/ADHD anywhere in the world other than the U.S. and Canada. Students are bored, underwhelmed. We are failing kids.
Who here has the learning problem??? Bottom line: We as educators have to change. What is one action you will do TODAY to generate change?
Some memorable quotes:
"It's easier to move a cemetery than it is to change a curriculum" -Woodrow Wilson, 1921
"It's easier to change the course of history than it is to change a history course"
"Do you use a Windows computer or a real computer like me?" Wild applause from audience :)
"My job as a presenter is not to educate you but to irritate you." He holds up a rubber band as a metaphor for his desire to stretch our thinking. When Ian lets go, it will snap back to the way it was. It has a paradigm, a place it likes to be. How do you get a rubber band to stretch and stay stretched? We may all sit here during this conference session, nod and say "uh-huh, right on Ian"...but then we will go back to our classrooms, shut the door, and do things exactly the way we always have. When the going gets tough, the tough get traditional. So what are we do to?
1) Go to IANJUKES.COM - Committed Sardine. Look for "Understanding Digital Kids."
2) Email Ian @ iajukes@mac.com. In the subject line type, "I need to be committed" - he will respond with a summary of latest of his articles and description of what it means to be a committed sardine.
This is a discussion about Screenagers...the generation that has grown up with mouse in hand. They have the assumption that images on a screen are to be manipulated and interacted with. Technology/screens/media represent for them a place to project their identity. They experience digital bombardment - several hours a day, several days a week, over extended periods of time. What has this done to kids' brains? Our students are neurologically wired differently than we are. Only 50% of our brains are hardwired at birth, the intelligence you're born with isn't fixed...measurable intelligence rises and falls throughout one's lifetime. Neurons are constantly making new connections. Neuroplasticity - brain is constantly changing itself and adapting
Brain scans of Digital natives and digital immigrants doing same tasks reveal that many digital natives are using measurably different neural pathways to take in, process and store the same information as digital immigrants. Visual processing skills increase DRAMATICALLY with just 10 hours of video game play. Researchers in a 3M Study presented 100 photographs to people of different generations. Digital natives were able to recall 90% of images, digital Immigrants could only recall slightly better than 60%. Digital Dinos (immigrants' parents) recalled a mere 10%.
Rec for the book The Brain Rules - read it!
Implications for our Students:
Text + image - 3 days later kids will recall 65% of the information presented. With text only, they recall only 10% 3 days later
Designing engaging reading materials - digital natives only read upper and left side of screen. This is the way video games are designed. They pay the most attention to the colors blood red/pink, followed by green, then burnt orange. Kids ignore black text on a white background (way digital immigrants are "programmed" to read)
87% of students are not auditory or text-based learners - they think graphically, because they grew up in a digital landscape. They are visual/kinesthetic learners and are wired for multi-media. 85% of test questions focus on vocabulary and rote memorization. By the age of 21 digital natives will have played more than 10,000 hours of video games, watched more than 20,000 hours television, viewed more than 500,00 commercials, and recieved a quarter million emails.
It's hard for us (digital immigrants) to comprehend how much change has really taken place- these kids look the same as we did growing up.
The digital native perspective: "Why would I memorize the states and capitals when I could instantly get them off Googe" Digital immigrant perspective: "Why can that same student recite thousands of lyrics when they can't memorize 50 states and capitals?" They're bored, they're tuning us out. Jukes cited that there are very few cases of ADD/ADHD anywhere in the world other than the U.S. and Canada. Students are bored, underwhelmed. We are failing kids.
Who here has the learning problem??? Bottom line: We as educators have to change. What is one action you will do TODAY to generate change?
"Will" We See This Transformation @ Springside?
I have always made Will Richardson one of my "often" reads and have enjoyed working with him at different conferences over the years. Needless to say, I am stoked that Springside is hosting the PLP program in conjunction with ADVIS next year. Aside from being a great teaching, one of Will's best skills is the ability to help bring out the best in your "inner-tech self". The power of the Internet is connecting people and giving an important voice to even a 5th grade. Case in point, a recent post on Weblogged...http://weblogg-ed.com/
Looking forward to the plp program!
WikiTexts
Enjoyed a recent post on the Committed Sardine...it talked about several topics that seem to be a part of many conversations in our school; differentiated instruction, collective intelligence, students as authors, backwards design, etc...
There have been several gripping reads on the CS lately, including posts about turning teen texting into better writing, recent research on multitasking, info on how parents understand their children's digital world, and several others. I recommend making this blog one of your RSS Feeds and putting Ian Jukes to work for you!
image from ianjukes.com
ReThink. Reimagine. Redefine. A Tour of 21st-Century Learning Conference
On 4.22, Springside sent a small team to the Apple sponsored ReThink. Reimagine. Redefine. A Tour of 21st-Century Learning Conference. While the conference wasn't groundbreaking, and much of it was old news but it did offer a few key takeaways. Below are notes from the seminar.
Instantaneous communication Txtin youtube flickr facebook Web 2.0- where we are headed
PSU teaching classes through facebook
Digital content --- feedback 2 students
TIME Magazine how to build a student 4 the 21st century 2006
Tony Wagner from Harvard 21st century skills comparison (Dede's colleague)
- Global competition is a part of our students' future
- Everyone should read Dan Pink & The World is Flat
- In the 80s there were 25 million skilled workers in japan
- Now 300 million in China India Russia
- # college grads (over 3 million in china and in India) 1.3 million in US
- STEM US = 7th out of 8 G8 countries
- Finland = #1 educated country (way down list 5 years ago) Not sure of the metric used for this??
- Now...uniqutous information
- Txt messages sent everyday exceed the population of our planet (>8 billion txts sent/day) I send my 2,000 month!
- How r kids communicating? (2.7 billion searches this month on google alone)
- Workplace inovation
- Is ur school innovating everyday? How??
- Many jobs 10-14 in careers that don't even exist yet. (SF event---
- young people working in jobs that didnt exist 5 years ago...new paralegal, image archivist, creature animation artist,etc...)
- Nanotech, new media, etc...
- What will 10 years from now look like? How do we prepare? What should school look like?
Instantaneous communication Txtin youtube flickr facebook Web 2.0- where we are headed
PSU teaching classes through facebook
Digital content --- feedback 2 students
TIME Magazine how to build a student 4 the 21st century 2006
Tony Wagner from Harvard 21st century skills comparison (Dede's colleague)
http://21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_curriculum_and_instruction.pdf
Recent graduates talk about skills they need but didn't get in high school
Recent graduates talk about skills they need but didn't get in high school
- How 2 work in teams-one skill 21st century workers didnt get in school (according to SF event)
- Working across diciplines
- Use themes across disciplines (rethinking math education example)
- Initiative n leadership
- Interacting with multimedia
- Flat organizations
- Complex communication and expert decision making
How 2 leverage technology to be creative and solve problems...ISTE NETS
Does your learning include?
- Creating?
- Distributing?
- Accessing?
- Collaborating?
- And are you doing it globally?
U of South Florida use of iTunes on K12
NYC public library now on iTunesU - beyond campus section-----Using sports
to teach physics----why 1:1 is key, without it, can't extend classroom
Do we bring Brent/Apple back to springside to present to faculty?? (like he did for Admin Team in '07)
Get apple stuff working now!!! iChat, desktop sharing, ease of server access, etc...share with faculty!
Alan November, Will Richardson, Ian Jukes, Don Leau, + our workshops
Apple Learning Interchange Global classrooms...how do we partner/find/connect with
them??
Need all of our community to be tech savvy. We need professional development tied into our everyday, into our schedule, into our professional lives to become a learning community with tech.
Librarian put $$$ aside each year 2 fund iPhoto projects
iChat theatre
Pete DiDonato's iPhone
Director of Technology
Springside School
www.springside.org
The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading.
Howard Gardner teaches cognitive psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is directing a study of the ethical dimensions of the new digital media. Dr. Gardner is also a colleague of Chris Dede's.
In a recent article that appeared in the Washington Post, Dr. Howard Gardner (famed author of Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and more recently Five Minds for the Future) wrote about a collection of literacies and formats that will impact us in the 21st century. The article touches on teaching and learning, beginning with Plato and continuing to discuss Google. Interesting mix indeed.
Gardner brings an informed and level-minded philosophy to the changing landscape of literacy and media. Read the article...
***Note:
In Five Minds for the Future Gardner proposes that thedisciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical intelligences are most important in the future. I especially enjoyed the chapters on synthesizing and creativity. For me, Gardner made a more lucid connection between these two traits than Dan Pink, although in a similar vein.
Mind Set by John Naisbitt
Below are my blink reactions and main take-a-ways from Naisbitt's book. Anyone read it previously & have other thoughts? If you're interested in borrowing MS, I can burn you a CD...let me know.
- This book is probably required in a good deal of business schools...very focused on different ways of thinking about the economy on a global scale.
- Not having to be right when predicting the future is liberating. Having to be right is a burden and none of us should think we need to be right about the future all the time (at most!).
- The Future is embedded in the present - figuring out what it is, is the difficult part.
- Don't add anything new to your organization without eliminating something (sunsetting anyone?)
- High-tech, high-touch. Every technology needs "a poet". Tech by itself has a negative impact on humanity.
- "Technology ecology". What determines whether or not a technology is accepted & adopted? What is displaced when we do accept a new technology? The author feels many of us have a dysfunctional relationship w/ technology (wait, I have to check my iPhone...just kidding!)
- We often over estimate change in the short term but under estimate change in the long term.
- The newspaper, book, & novel cultures are in serious decline and are being reinvented as a new culture is being invented.
- We're in the midst of a huge shift toward becoming a visual world. Visual literacy is/will be as or more pronounced than the "written word".
- Looking at the future is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. You can't do it in a linear fashion but have to recognize what disparate pieces go together. Be prepared so that you can recognize the pieces that go together when you come into contact with them.
- Change is local, not top down. Look at the patterns that are emerging locally and extrapolate...these are the "megatrends" in their early forms.
- Great chapter on China and it's booming economy. I could see the people & country changing before my eyes when I was there, just as Naisbitt explained. Nice reminder.
Defining Literacy & Fluency for the 21st Century
Ian Jukes educator, futurist, and NAIS Keynote speaker spoke to us about the National Council of Teachers of English defining 21st Century Literacies.Read more about this on Jukes' website.
Read more about the new literacies on NCTE's website.
Highlights Include:
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and
cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of
purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous
information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and
cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of
purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous
information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
Adopt or Adapt
Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom
Twenty-first-century schools need twenty-first-century technology.
http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt
From the author of "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants", Marc Prensky discusses his four steps of technology adoption and wonders when we will achieve "Edutopia"...