I had such a great time in Illinois. And when I lost my cell phone, my twitter friends found it!
Have talked to some people about joining some collaborations and accomplished quite a bit.
Two challenges in each session for the educators to get the most out of the sessions and conference:
1) Have a Big Three I take one page in my conference notebook (usually the last one) and write at the top "My Big Three" -- then at EACH session I attend, I write the three things I will do within the next 7 days.
This gives me one page of action items to do. Although my notes are great, I rarely go back and read them. When I get back, I tear out the page and put the items on my planner or tack it up on my bulletin board. I can clearly look and prioritize then when I see the trends that emerge.
2) Intentional R&D List I believe that teachers must reinvent themselves and continually keep themselves abreast of "what's new." We must move past point and click teaching and help people become self-directed learners.
So, this is a list of what I want to do "when I get a chance." I keep an intentional R&D list in my planner and go to it when I have a chance.
This new operating system for cellular telephones seems fascinating.
Right now I'm pondering this for two reasons:
I'm stuck in Chicago airport -- I arrived at 1:15 pm -- my plane is now delayed and not due to depart until around 4:30 pm CST (this blog post is on EST)
My cell phone is MIA (missing in action). Stolen, lost -- who knows. I figured it out last night and my husband called the carrier this morning. As a former General manager in the cell phone business, I've NEVER lost my cell phone.
(That doesn't count the time I flushed a pager down the toilet... it was my first job and I kept getting underwater pager noises and toilet flush messages left on my voice mail for months. That is the last time I joked, "I hate this pager, I wish I could flush it down the toilet!" -- because I did it!)
So, I cannot live without a cell phone and since I let my contract expire a full TWO YEARS a go! (I kept awaiting the perfect "phone" to ride in like a handsome prince and steal my heart!)
And I'm pondering -- not just which is the best gadget for TODAY! What will I be able to download this android software onto and use? What is expandable?
I think it is less about NOW but more about -- how mashable is it? And iPhone lovers -- I wish I could have an I-phone but AT&T service in south Georgia is as inconsistent as a bass trying to sing a Freddy Mercury ballad. The only phone I can find thus far is a star-trek looking Alienware phone preloaded with Android. (I wonder if they influenced the name?)
Backchannel The backchannel has really become my favorite tool of choice when I'm presenting. I've purchased an inexpensive ad-free chat room at Chatzy that is password protected and use it for my backchannels when I present.
I like to find two people to help: one to serve as Google Jockey (a/k/a Link dropper) and another to serve as a moderator -- posing questions to me when I take a breath and ask.
Gomeric Hill talked about the backchannel on a blog post.
"The WebEx interface they were using to present Vicki’s Flat Classroom project has a chat that was used throughout her presentation as a backchannel discussion. As Vicki talked, the conversation in the chat replied to her, responded to her, posted questions for her and assisted with answering questions without Vicki’s help. Sometimes the chat updated slowly and at other times, the information was being added so quickly it was hard to keep up with the glut of information being added to the chat. I learned as much from the backchannel discussion as I did from Vicki..."
Here was my response:
I think this is a great post for several reasons:
1) It demonstrates HOW things are happening now. A viral mashup of services, stream of activity and happy accidents.
2) It also demonstrates the power of the backchannel. I personally believe that the backchannel is the greatest unharnessed resource that we as educators have available to us. It does not threaten me nor bother me that you learned as much if not more from the backchannel the other night -- in fact, it makes me feel great that I facilitated the connection.
I believe a good presenter pushes the backchannel to do more by asking questions of it, encouraging the backchannel to communicate and share, and prodding it to communicate about the topic at hand.
I wonder if it is the "sage on the stage" type environment we've all grown up in that makes us THINK that the best thing on the menu should be the "main course" -- the presenter. When, in fact, the backchannel has so many more people involved -- really, it should give the most resources and insights and just add to what the presenter is saying.
Of course, there is backchannel netiquette as we discussed, however, I thought the backchannel was phenomenal.
Kudos on a great post!
Microblogging streams These are RSS feeds or searches enabled by the use of a twitter search engine like Terraminds -- searching on a keyword.
With our Twitter Bookgroup, a person can join the bookgroup and then just type @bookgroup in their response and it will appear on the RSS feed. (Note: You must have your responses allowed in the public areas of twitter and not be protected.)
See what this looks like at the Terraminds @bookgroup search -- so to make this simple -- it is aggregating all of the people discussing the book and we didn't really have to do anything except just create a wiki. @digitalmaverick is the bookgroup mastermind and it is starting to take shape.
Aggregating ourselves So, let me pose these questions:
1) What if some teachers coordinated a group skype discussion and enabled a backchannel chat with their students between the classes?
2) What if we came up with a twitter group for the major pieces of literature and set up a wiki page for each of them -- we could aggregate the thoughts of students and they could even send thoughts to it from their cell phones?
3) What if we just came up with a few standards of keywords to use for books or events or just about anything to aggregate the thoughts of students or teachers.
I'm trying this out -- if you'll go to your twitter account and type in #cw2 and then put a cool web 2 website, we should be able to follow the RSS feed for this at - http://terraminds.com/twitter/query?query=%23cw2&submit=search+in+updates once it populates.
Just think about what happens when we connect. Let's use our minds here and we can really come up with some useful ways to give more students a global audience without inundating us all with too much.
And remember -- always greet your students and call them by name when they enter -- I believe this is important. I make eye contact with every student as they enter -- I like to stand at the door and do this.
This video is a humorous reminder. We don't need any mutant teachers out there.
OK, and if none of these work, try this... (the second clip is from my favorite old show Call for Help -- I actually saw this one happen on TV. It is sooo funny.)
Sorry for the blatant move away from education, but hey, the tension is killing me and we need a laugh sometimes.
I'll be heading up to Illinois this Wednesday -- hope to see some of you there.
While playing with Newspond, I came across information on the wireless protocol that is going to turn your student's cell phone into more of a computing workhorse than ever.
Can you say, streaming HD? They believe this will make it possible for us to live streaming HD wirelessly as well as a virtual connection to a docking station that would let your laptop display on multiple displays AND access non-internal hard drive storage.
The article says it won't be here until 2009 but the target price for this chip is $10 -- yes, $10 which it means it can be in pretty much anything.
What it means for education I've been continually saying that one day, we're going to be REQUIRING kids to bring their cell phones to school, particularly as they fully converge with computing devices of all kinds. (Their textbooks will be loaded, infrared keyboards will make it easier to type in them, and all of their data and homework will travel in these things.)
Get at behavior No longer just fuzzy recordings to youtube (see Spies Like Us), kids will be able to live stream from cell phone to HD tv's around the world.
We need to fully discuss and integrate digital citizenship at all levels. I think the reasons we're having so many problems with cyberbullying, hacking, and other behaviors, is because most schools largely ignore technology and relegate it to the "computer teacher's job."
As cell phones, computers, digital paper, and even computing surfaces integrate fully with our lives, we will see that these are part of everything we do and should indeed be a part of every subject.
I'm sure that my miniscule $25,000 technology budget makes my vendors snicker behind my back. (That includes everything from internet connection to antivirus renewals.) However, it is the connection with the world that makes our program world class, not the hardware.
Hardware (and to some extent software) is becoming a commodity.
Increasingly, its presence does not guarantee that a school will be "leading edge." It is the USE of technology that determines the success of a school and the future success of its students.
Too many IT directors bemoan the dusty smartboards and unused laptops. (See info on the Montreal School Board that did just this.)
We need to work on behavior and bring these tools out of the bathrooms and closets and pockets where kids can literally text without our knowledge. Let's teach their effective use and also teach and promote self control.
Are cell phones disruptive? Yes. (For that matter, laptops can be too.)
Is it going to get worse? Yes. (It depends on how you define, "worse." Losing battle - yes -- great for your technology budget if you start thinking about it!)
Are we going to do something to help our students know when to use these tools and how? Only you can answer that question
I think it is time to start harnessing these tools. I don't have all the answers and we still "ban" cell phones and ipods in all places but my classroom, but I keep thinking that we've got to get to a more stable, workable solution with these little "monsters."
I came across this twitter from @kolson29 -- a great video from an elementary teacher.
This great video from a fifth grade teacher, Frieda Foxworth (Teacher Tube profile) ffoxworth )in South Carolina is a wonderful reminder of the power of using blogs in the classroom:
I WISH I could embed the show into this blog post, but it seems that feature isn't enabled.
Just remember, if you're ONLY teaching powerpoint, you're missing it. PowerPoint is great, but it is likely that students will have to change software programs as often as they change their hairstyles over their lifetimes. Fluency is technology is very important as students will have to be able to move from not only job to job but platform to platform.
My Current Book Reviews: PBL, Special Needs, Instruction Design, Photography, and a Fiction Novel
Thursday, February 21, 2008
I've been reading a lot lately and have come across several books I'd like to share with you. (I'm starting to get some books from publishers, and am overjoyed to get them... I like to share the best!) Project Based Learning & Technology Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age - This book by Jane Krauss and Suzie Boss is a gem. Julie Lindsay and I were talking today about what a great overview this book is. I think this book is a must buy for those who are looking to implement flat classroom-type projects. Excellent book!
My recommended audience:
I think that curriculum directors and teachers will enjoy this book because it is very practical and will help with implementation of projects using technology that also support research-based best practices.
It is also a must read for professional developers who focus on technology.
What is is in this book: The book covers many examples of projects and covers preplanning, management of the projects, and assessment. They have also covered many Web 2 tools and their usefulness in the classroom. It is practical and jargon-free.
anyone creating websites, software, or simulations designed to teach today's student (or employee.)
I also recommend this book for innovators and professional developers who want to understand the tools and methods for teaching today's students -- I found it helpful as a teacher to understand the types of activities that I should look for based upon what I'm trying to teach.
What is is in this book: If you want to understand the best online activities based upon the types of knowledge you're trying to convey, then this is a great book for you. It is a vital book for software / interface / online activity designers and I wish I could MAKE every textbook company read this book. They need to understand the types of tools they need to develop as ancillary products to the textbooks for the classroom teacher.
gifted and exceptional children coordinators and directors,
teachers who love differentiated instruction,
educational researchers who want to see what differentiated instruction looks like in the classroom.
This is a great resource for your school's educational library.
What is is in this book: This is what more classroom teachers need to do... write books. These two teachers partnered to bring together a full range of student ability levels in one classroom. This book discusses a co-teaching model that works and why they are using the model. It is chock full of simple explanations of things like Blooms Taxonomy but also shows HOW to do this in the classroom. They actually teach their students Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences!
The authors say:
"In the first year, the results-both academic and behavioral - were astonishing. Detentions were down 66 percent and suspensions reduced 50 percent for the same group of kids. Three-fourths of the learning-dsabled students mastered their academic goals and objectives compared to 45 per cent the previous year... I evolved from despising both the teacher I had become and the students I taught to wanting to do nothing other than work with these kids... This is why I became a teacher. This is why I now love my job."
I found many ideas for my own classroom (including a phenomenal set of activities for the first week of school to talk about feelings and respect for one another.) I'm relying heavily on this book for a presentation I'm doing next week in Illinois. While it doesn't talk a lot about technology, it is a great book! I learned a lot from it! Photography The Digital Photography Book and The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 (Digital Photography) by Scott Kelby
Audience:
Those who want to learn more about photography or who teach graphic design and photography.
ALL yearbook staff photographers and photo retouchers and advisors.
Anyone who owns a NICE Canon or Nikon camera. (You will need a camera that you can set manually to follow a lot of the instructions, but you can learn a lot even if you cannot.)
People who want to take photos and make money selling them on a place like istockphoto.com.
Someone getting ready to BUY camera equipment for any purpose. (Get this BEFORE you buy!)
What is is in this book: I've ordered volume 2 and it is coming in the mail tomorrow, however, volume 1 has taken me from photobug to more of a photopro. I've bought at least 5 photography books and this is honestly the only one that makes sense to me.
Rather than explain the fstop or the ISO, it talks about the types of pictures you may want to take: flowers, people, landscapes, sports, weddings, travel, and city shots. It tells you the EXACT camera settings to use depending on what you want to do. (I just write in the book what I want to do after I find the instructions in my camera's user manual.) He teaches you how to retouch the photo AND how to print the photo. He also shares lots of little gadgets to get and lower priced versions of them.
This is not a book to share! I was going to share it with my sister, however, I have written all over my book with the specific information for my camera. I bought her her very own. I think it would be helpful for each photographer or camera to have their very own copy of this book -- keep it in the camera bag. I'm not kidding!
Heart Thumping Action Novel (Fiction) Deception Point by Dan Brown
This was given last night at the Discovery Educators presentation.
Julie and I talking about Flat Classroom 2007 as we mashup Pink and Friedman
If you want to hear Julie Lindsay and I present the first part of this, I have an elluminate recording from today when she and I presented to some teachers in North Carolina. You'll hear Julie and I talk about this year's Flat Classroom project structure, organization, and methods.
Don't be put off by how many slides some of my presentations have, it is more slides, less talking, actually. Think of it as if you're a live narrator for a documentary!
If you look at my presentation from last Tuesday at the Center for Quality Teaching and Learning, the first 14 slides literally take 1 minute and 20 seconds. I did them for my students as a demonstration -- and they agreed it is a much better way to present, although it is very different!
It is about using graphically appealing slides along with two other items: speakers notes (detailed notes for me-- although I usually practice to the point I don't need them) and handouts (I like to use Google notebook -- see mine from last Tuesday.)
Garr talks about not producing "sliduments" but have a "document" to hand out.
Demonstrate the technique -- I have my students time my intro of myself and ask them to guess how many slides I use.
Elicit emotion with at least one slide - I end the presentation with my picture of the shark (slide #14).
We talk about the principle of thirds, share lots of examples, talk about Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity, and just look at a lot of Garr's work. We also talk about full bleeding off of the page.
We discuss scripting and storyboarding.
I give them super sticky notes and the storyboard pages. They brainstorm about their topic with their group and sketch out ideas on the sticky notes -- most use walls or desks to stick them in the order that they think they want. When they are done and have settled on the order, I have them stick it on the storyboard pages and flesh it out a little more. (This is why you need the supersticky notes!)
THEN, they go into PowerPoint -- not before!
You can imagine -- right now my walls have sticky notes ALL OVER THEM! But, we're getting some great presentations for me to share with you next week!
Slideshows aren't Downloadable! I've had some people e-mail me about downloading my slideshows. As much as I'd love to give them away, I am now using istockphoto for some of the graphics and need to make sure that I respect the agreement that I make with the photographers there. So, I cannot GIVE them to you to present, however, I CAN share them with you to give you your own ideas. (And yes, I still use creative commons search, however, istock photo is just so FAST and they have great pictures.)
I wish there was a way to easily mark or delineate the slides I can give you and those that are the copyrighted pictures... that is the struggle with these things!
Be a human BEING rather than a human DOING: Making choices in Overchoice
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
I've been on "vacation" for the last four days but with a sick daughter, messy house, and a beebee gun to the back windowshield of my vehicle -- I've been feeling more like a human "doing" than a human "being."
I came across KWHobbes' great article about "Functioning in a state of overload." He's a father of 7 so I feel that he can identify with my all too constant state of rush rush.
I believe a lot of teachers will identify with his thoughts:
"Safe to say I was overwhelmed and beginning to wonder if all the hype was worth the added stress. And, if I was having trouble, can you image what other educators who weren’t using technology would feel like if this were thrust upon them, even a bit at a time. With the number different things that are coming at educators from all sides, an overload of information is not what they need. So how does one manage in this time of information overload and do more than just skimming and scanning or drown in the tsanumi?"
He goes on to give tips about how he handles it all and I think they are good tips. Here are a few brief thoughts, because I've got a lot of cleaning (still) to do today:
1) Sometimes you've got to let the rough end drag A favorite saying of my late grandmother. Perfection is an illusion. It is enough to be joining in the conversation. And remember that ALL OF US, especially me feel "out of it."
2) Change your corner of the world Change what you can and start at home. Yesterday, my daughter and I had a great photography lesson together as we learned about how to take photographs. You can see what our last photo to the left. We had a great time!
3) Practice intentional R&D I have a whole chapter about this in my new book -- I keep a list of things I want to try out and when I can sneak in a little time here and there, I don't mindlessly surf -- I intentionally spend time on my own research and development in ways that fit into the big picture of my life at the moment. R&D is literally a list in my planner!
4) Participate but selectively congregate It is easy to feel like that you'll "miss something" when twitter is abuzz and things are hopping in the edublogosphere. Guess what? Things are always hopping in those places.
You've got a life to live. When I'm on trips, I often "congregate" -- heading off to the latest ustream or online free event, but otherwise, I am very selective. Wow2 and EdTechConnect with Discovery Educators make my top list. (I'm on tomorrow night at 7pm EST -- enroll ahead of time for this free seminar.)
5) Automate Automate as much as you can to facilitate your sharing.
RSS magic - For me, I use feedburner to put my delicious links into my RSS feed. Then, I use twitterfeed to take my feedburner feed automatically and post it to my twitter status. Then, I use the twitter app in facebook to automatically take my twitter status and change it to be my facebook status. (Note that I set my twitterfeed to only update once an hour at most, you don't want to inundate your twitter.)
Calendar Magic - I know everyone loves Google Calendar, but my life is on Airset -- this tool is embedded into so many things I do, from updating my public calendar on the left hand side of my blog, to reminding guests when they are coming on wow2, to setting up appointments, I love airset.
Cellphone Magic - Airset texts reminders of my calendar for the next day, reminds me of appointments, texts my husband and kids to remind them of their appointments, and I also use 4info.net to text me the weather for the day (and sports scores that are final for my favorite team, the Georgia Tech yellow Jackets -- not much to follow lately, but I like to know anyway.)
I also set up my gmail account to forward e-mail from my husband to my cell phone via text message. (Follow the instructions from your carrier or use something like MyCell.)
Additionally, I use callwave for my cell phone voice mail now, if I miss a call, callwave records the message and forwards it to my e-mail with a pretty good transcription and a copy of the message that I may listen to from my computer. I just use that for everything and am about to set my home phone to no answer transfer to my cell phone -- I need ONE place to check everything -- gmail is it -- even my voice mail.
E-mail Magic - All of your e-mail accounts can be set to go into one gmail account under your account settings. (It checks pop and imap e-mail.) I set all of it to go there.
If you have gmail, all I can say is filter, filter, filter. I have several important folders set up -- one is 2READ -- I filter all of my newsletters, etc. to go directly to that folder and skip my main inbox. Mark things as spam and filter them. If you don't want them, just tell gmail to delete it automatically by pressing the little down arrow on the right hand side and select filter messages like this. I still get 100 messages a day -- but that is down from the 2000 or so that I was getting since I went to gmail. It has the best spam filter and although I miss outlook a little, I have got to have the spam filter!
Use folders - I use the Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity method by David Allen and have folders marked @ACTION and @WAITING to file my e-mails that I need to act on or am waiting for others -- I still have to go through and review, but it is important to be able to get that inbox down to zero. 6) It is ok to be a being and not always be doing! The hardest thing for me to remember is that I am not validated by my list. Relaxing and remembering that I have a family to love on that won't be here forever is very important.
I'd love to know your tips for being more efficient. Please, share!
These are two things I discuss at length with my students and I thought I'd share them with you!
What do you do with negative comments?
Hurricaine Maine saw this recently in her class. A student who deleted the comment of someone who disagreed with them. Here are my thoughts: #1 - You have a right to keep profanity off of your own blog
I will not allow profanity on my blog. It doesn't come through a lot, but it has before. If I get profanity, I will rephrase the comment, reiterate my policy, and also reiterate my viewpoint that every perspective is important but that we should treat one another with decency and respect. (See my posting on xbox live to see how I handled this in November.)
I have found that people want to be heard, but sometimes see the bad behavior on political blogs or unmoderated forums and think it is OK to behave in such a way. I am an educator and it is my job to educate. I will not publish, I will rephrase.
#2 Everyone has a right to be heard Recently, someone accused me privately of not publishing their comment. As I told them, I publish all related (non spam) comments 100% of the time. If it contains profanity, I will rephrase.
But I believe for my authenticity to be "real," that I should welcome dissent. If they take the time to dissent, I should take the time to respond - I think it is good practice for bloggers to comment on their own blogs and I do it all of the time!
#3 Can the Spam If it is shameless self promotion and not related to my blog, I will not publish it. There is a fine line here, however, it is usually very obvious when someone is just trying to get a link from me. When the link is not educationally related, it is an easy decision. #4 I should participate Sometimes conversations move from my blog to other places -- like most bloggers, I consider it a compliment to be quoted and to have someone add their thoughts to mine. It is very important to use something like statcounter (which I prefer over Google Analytics -- I have both) or a technorati watchlist to see what people are linking to on my own blog.
I particularly look for those bloggers who are just starting out with no authority level on Technorati. (That means no one has linked to them) As an educational blogger, I believe it should be part of our ethos to encourage newcomers, to provide positive reinforcement for the fact that they wrote, hyperlinked, and pinged technorati, and to encourage them to continue. We should be authentically interested in others and not just do it for links or any gain.
If a blogger is going to be real, they need to understand that a blog is just part of a larger conversation and not be so "stuck on" themselves that they somehow think the world revolves around them and their own blog! It is about being part of something! (And bloggers should read other bloggers as well.)
"Things are different now, the internet allows for real people to connect with other real people and have discussions about anything that interests them –void of any shield, crest, or banner. Well to be specific, some people start creating their own individual brands (we see this on many blogs), but it’s at the core individual level."
#5 Have a voice! It is so much about VOICE. This is my first blogging lesson:
Students draw a colored chip (I use poker chips to do this) -- Each chip has a character -- I use Davy Jones, Will Turner, and the sailors on the ship as my three choices.
I teach my students how to embed the video into their blog. (We use a private ning now.) I also talk about HTMl and what it is.
Then, I have them write AS THAT PERSON. After we're done, we talk about VOICE. Emotion. Imagery. Feeling, and what makes a good blog post.
Here is one example of an eighth grade piece that was done. And remember this, the student was writing for me IN COMPUTER CLASS.
She was Davy Jones:
"There is one monster of the sea. Whose terrorreigns to infinity That monster is me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is no hope on my ship Where my many servants serve out their debt There is one man who tries to steal the key to the chest that contains my heart-BROKEN heart Will Turner may he be cursed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A beautiful woman broke my heart. OH HOW I LOVED HER!!!!! CURSE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! C URSE EVERYONE THAT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE So HIDEOUS So EVIL Maybe love is the real monster after all"
After we do this lesson, it is easy for them to understand that they are to write with a voice, only the voice is their own.
It is that personal, unique voice that distinguishes the blogger from the separated, objective journalist. Yes, the blogger can report, but first person is very often what we do. Our blog is who we ARE.
If you follow the threads on these two examples, you'll see that I had to endure what happens to most people when they screw up -- people jump in and tell you how "dumb you are." Well, in this world where we are all beginners, we have to work on making it a place welcoming beginners.
I leave up my own mistakes and use them as learning examples for others. And if I ever get "too big for my britches," one look back at those two examples gives me a humility antidote to last a few more months.
It is OK to make mistakes. Make them, correct your mistakes, and learn from them. Don't hesitate to correct what you've done wrong by using a strikethrough to mark out the wrong parts or by commenting on the post. Just remember, don't change the page the post is on, or everyone loses where to find it and all of your "backlinks" will disappear.
Making mistakes is OK as long as you are a real human. Now, if your purpose is to look like you know everything, then you could delete your mistakes and all of the comments, but then, I guess, you would no longer be real, but rather, A FAKE! All humans make mistakes!
#7 It is OK to be an individual "brand" Many of us use our blog name in addition to our real name. I have met many people who know "cool cat teacher" but don't have a clue who Vicki Davis is. (Uhm, that's me, the person writing this thing!)
Some like to change their names on each site, however, I tend to stick to coolcatteacher. It is almost like a fourth name I have now and I'm OK with it. However, if I have something I want to blog that doesn't "fit" with the audience for this blog, then I just create another blog for that. Know who you are on each blog. Be who you are. But remember, you may have several aspects of your personality that don't fit in the same blog -- feel free to create another "brand" for that area of your life.
Blogging is different Again, this is why we teach blogging AND essay writing at our school. They are two different means of communications. Sure, you can write an essay and post it on a blog or vice versa, however, having a successful blog is a different skill.
That is why I teach these things as well as my 10 Habits of Bloggers that Win and How to Comment Like a King (or Queen) as part of what I teach.
All of my students have an assortment of public, semi-private, and private blogging spaces. This is part of who they are and their future.
Understanding transparency and voice seems to be so difficult for many (especially business) who have tightly held their communications in the grasp of their PR departments. Blogging requires letting go of control, something schools and business seem to have a tough time with.
Just taking a break from my binge cleaning spree of the whole house to share with a you a few tools I want to get to know better:
VoiceThread - This is a tool that is on my hotlist to implement in our elementary school. I also want to use it more. (The one day I was testing it, they were plagued with server problems.)
Google Notebook - I'm going to experiment with student notetaking and sharing in here -- we've done it in chatzy and Google Docs (I have several students who routinely group notetake in Google Docs, it is a great thing.)
StumbleUpon - I've been refamiliarizing myself with this old favorite lately. They've done a few things to make it more usable. I find it a great way to find new "stuff."
Google Reader - I'm going to work with pulling my bloglist out of google reader instead of bloglines and share the Google Shared Clips. This reader is so very useful that I've fallen in love with RSS again. (I still use netvibes and iGoogle, however, for my "power reading" I love Google Reader.)
Kerpoof - I've got to play with this tool. There are a lot of educators singing Kerpoof's praises right now!
I've got a lot of work to do on the upcoming Horizon Project and a digital citizenship class that Julie Lindsay and friends and I are working on.
Oh, and I'm excited about being on EdTechConnect this upcoming Wednesday night -- it is a free seminar that you may register for now. I've got some exciting material to share about the steps to "flatten your classroom" and some other things as well. I'm recruiting a few "backchannel moderators" so comment or twitter me if you're interested!
Back to cleaning! (I bought an 18 hour book -- I'm literally 14 hours into it -- cleaning cleaning cleaning! Long overdue!)
I am a big believer in unstructured outdoor play! (But even the words "unstructured outdoor play" sound a bit limited to me.)
It is so important for kids to just go outside with nothing planned, nothing on the agenda. Sometimes they need to get out the hose and make a mudpuddle. Sometimes they need to play rockets or whatever their hearts desire.
Wouldn't it be cool to actually take our kids out to freeplay and twitter what we observe to the bookgroup.
OK, now, I've got to go clean the house! I've just downloaded my first book from Audible.com and am excited about making cleaning a little more pleasant.
Favorite Inspirational Youtube Clips and Youtube in Education
I know this is a promotion for the new Indiana Jones Movie, but I love the quote at the end:
Indiana Jones' son "You're a teacher."
Indiana: "Part time."
(hat tip to basler on twitter) The romanticized part of me wants to think that there are a lot of us out here who teach and then do really exciting things on the side. And I could talk about that.
But really, I'm just excited about a really cool movie! Actually, the Indiana Jones movies and Star Wars movies got me through college. When I would study for 18 hours a day, I would put these on my trusty VCR and play them in the background so I wouldn't have a pity party about having to study so much at Georgia Tech.
These movies are an anchor for me. They are part of who I am. Maybe this is why I love to use movie clips to teach. Some of my favorite clips are:
Samwise Gamgee's speech from Lord of the Rings -
Yoda and Luke Training
"Try not. Do or do not. There is no try."
I tell this to my students. Often, some of them, when they miss a paper or forget homework, they say, "I'll try." I've found that this is part of their excuse to not do something. "I'll try" usually means, "Mrs. Vicki, I'm saying this to get you off my back, I'll do it later when I feel like it."
Goal Setting I use this with my students. My boys particularly respond to this from LouHoltz. It is a little long, but it is amazing. I feel the same way as Lou. I've had some horribly low points as well. I usually just use the first 3 minutes, the audio is a bit off after the initial opening clip.
A Clip from the movie about Ghandi
We discuss freedom and the importance of speaking out for what is right. I love that movie!
Albert Einstein explaining E=mc(squared)
The point of this movie is that Einstein explained simply a very complex formula in a 57 second movie clip. If my students and I who pursue academics cannot explain things simply to someone not in our field, then we are limiting our effectiveness. The art of communications is paramount and being able to communicate and simplify is often the mark of those who are pivotal in their field and indeed break out of their field to influence all humanity.
Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech" -- the full version
A Call for Youtube to Do the Right Thing for Education
I have a point for this epic posting of video (and I could go on, I just pulled some of my favorites.)
3) With a rating system (G, PG, PG-13) or even an E rating for education, we could allow this great resource through our filters and filter by rating, not completely blocking the site. Now, we have no choice and many of you have to go home to read this blog post because you cannot see the videos.
4) Humans are deeply influenced by video, particularly those with an emotional anchor in their past. I used a disparate listing of video in the hopes that each of us would find one video that really pulls at our heart.
5) The effective use of video can give us breakthrough moments with our students. I most often find that the use of video has the greatest impact on my student writing of anything. If I can get them emotionally engaged, I can teach the importance of voice.
6) Youtube is something I use a lot in my classroom. Every 20 minutes I like to change the pace to keep attention and focus. (I find youtube second only to unitedstreaming -- my favorite for educational videos and documentaries -- however it is a pay service.)
Youtube will become Dead Tube for Educators if they don't wake up Although youtube is one of my most useful tools, it is also one which I curse under my breath several times a week because it requires my visual attention to the screen of my students if they get off task.
Sometimes, I block youtube when it is a distraction and I just need to get my work done.
But youtube could solve this problem -- they could allow people to self rate and then crowdsource the authenticity of those ratings.
Right now, youtube has the most videos and as much as I'd love to use teachertube.com. However, copyright issues and issues such as these continue to plague them. Since they have been bought by Google, they have not shown the responsiveness to these issues.
I agree with edutopia's take with youtube... right now
And therein lies the problem with youtube, doesn't it?
Speak out! Speak out about your thoughts on youtube in education. Perhaps if enough edubloggers say something about it, they will begin to listen.
I think that often once edubloggers talk about something that they feel that they've covered it. This is not true! Effective companies are perusing technorati and google to see what people are saying right now!
So, edubloggers. What do you think we should do about youtube in education?
We all love cupcakes and our school parties are full of them!
Cupcakes are everywhere.
But what happens when someone gives a person they dislike a cupcake that looks like this?
Or what happens when you eat too many cupcakes and end up like this?
So, really, what we're saying is that we should BAN CUPCAKES!
They make us fat, they hurt people's feelings! They are terrible, awful things -- aren't they?
And yet.
We don't!
Why not?
Well, we see cupcakes for what they are... an object in the use of humankind. And as with all objects, they can be used for good or for bad.
There are lots of other objects like these running around in schools... scissors (they can kill people), pens or pencils (also could kill someone), and the most lethal thing ever invented: human beings!
Human beings are all over our schools, and yet, as we are reminded this week, they kill more other humans than anything else!
But yet, we don't ban humans, we put things in place and teach the behavior so that we will not be eye poking, cupcake hurting, scissor wielding, fanatics.
We don't focus on things like cupcakes and scissors, because the human race tends to focus on the new things as the source of their ire. When the Gutenberg press was invented, we had book burnings. When the Library at Alexandria amassed the amazing learnings, it was burned also. Chemists were witches as were astronomers and many other scientists.
Now that we have passed the initial hatred and mis characterization of the Internet itself, the human race has turned on such things as:
Cell phones
Ipods
Blogs
Wikis (naughty Wikipedia)
Video sharing sites
Social Networks
These are the things that we're looking to outright ban rather than teach their proper use.
I have a bracelet that I wear that says "I read banned books." (Oh, I found it on Amazon -- here it is.)
My sister gave this bracelet to me over Christmas. (This bracelet includes the original book covers of Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Howl and other poems by Allen Ginsberg, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and a few others.)
On the note, my sister said this:
"Many great authors were once banned."
She and I often joke about how I write a blog to people who CANNOT read it. The teachers who read my blog have to slink home after a long day at work, open up their laptops and read my blog and the blogs of other educators promoting change.
I am banned. If you blog, you're banned too.
A Chorus for Change
But, I feel that the tide is beginning to turn and I believe it is because of the increasing cacophony of voices.
This past Tuesday, I had an amazing time at the Center for Quality Teaching and Learning at Columbus State University presenting a workshop. (See my notes.) Their visionary director Beth Holmes and I had a delightful dinner talking about change, the balance between testing and creativity, and she taught me a lot!
While I speak from a private school teacher teaching mostly upper level students in a computer lab...
My students spoke as learners in my classroom (and managed the backchannel beautifully! -- Casey, Katie, Gillian, Tayler, and Mitch -- you rock!)
My curriculum director spoke of the need for change as a 30 year teacher and 5 year curriculum director. (Thank you Mrs. Betty Shiver, my mentor and friend.)
Julie Lindsay spoke as an international educator working with international students...
Silvia Tolisano spoke as a elementary/ middle school technology coordinator working to promote literacy in classrooms having one computer each...
Chris Lehman spoke as a principal of a visionary public start up school in Philadelphia with a 1:1 laptop program...
Doug Johnson spoke as an expert librarian turned technology administrator from a very large school district...
Beth Kanter spoke about the amazing fundraising potential for schools and nonprofits using facebook and myspace as well as the state of technology education in Cambodia.
Although we all spoke about different topics, one theme emerged.
It was through our combined voices that the chorus for change emerged as such a cacophony that it could not be ignored... even for me, it was powerful to hear the similarities of speakers who did not even know the others were coming in or the topic of their talks.
I think of my favorite musical, Les Miserables. The finale goes like this:
Do you hear the people sing Lost in the valley of the night? It is the music of a people Who are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth There is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest night will end And the sun will rise.
They will live again in freedom In the garden of the Lord. They will walk behind the plough-share, They will put away the sword. The chain will be broken And all men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade Is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade Is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring When tomorrow comes... Tomorrow comes!
I'm sorry. You can call me a hopeless romantic, but I see the parallels with what we're experiencing right now in education that are so profound!
I can barely express how important I believe it is that we sing together. That we echo the importance of protecting our children from what is harmful, while exposing them and teaching them to the things that they need for their very future and the future of any nation that wishes to be civilized.
A commitment to excellence and high achievement that does not only produce well educated students but ones who are articulate, wise thinkers who can create and innovate.
That can generate ideas and inventions with the wisdom to effectively implement ideas for the good of society. People who interact online but remember that there are people behind the blogs, videos, podcasts, and avatars that they encounter.
A place where a variety of learning styles are included and we work to find the hidden potential in every child. (I cry for this day!)
Pardon me for being passionate, but I'm passionate about this!
The youtube clip that I included had all of those who had been in the Les Miserables musical over the 10 years. Those people earned the right to sing that finale in the anniversary because they had served their time!
Let me ask you this.
When this chapter of history is written.
When nations decline or improve because of the impact of their educators in their respective decisions and efforts, will you have earned the right to sing in the finale?
Will you be a person who has promoted positive, wise, change?
Who advocated the effective use of technology, not for the technology itself, but for the end result of well-educated students?
These are tough times, and pardon the pun -- some of us can get pretty miserable at times.
However, to earn the right to sing of victory when we're done, we must put in our time now. We must run and not grow weary and walk and not faint. We must encourage each other.
We must experiment and only take those technologies to the classroom that are safe for our students. We must be more dedicated to excellence than ever.
Only time will show whether we are visionaries or quacks, saints or devils, wise or foolish. And, as I've often said before, sometimes how we do things is the deciding factor.
In these days we desperately need visionaries and a whole lot of elbow grease. Doing it right takes a lot of effort.
Photos are from iStockPhoto and all rights are with existing photographers. If you wish to use these photographs, you must purchase the license from the original photographers there.
My friend Lucy Gray sent me information on this great program!
It is Doodle 4 Google and your school has 6 submissions that they may submit to Google. (So it means you need to have a school competition.) It is open to grades K-12 and they have made lesson plans to help you (Grades K - 3, Grades 4 - 6, Grades 7 - 9, Grades 10 - 12).
First, you must register and get your 6 ID numbers from Google. (Only 6 per school!) Then, download the lesson plans and the flyer (to post on your door.) The doodles will be judged in 10 regions to get 400 state winners and eventually will narrow down to one national winner which will go live on the Google homepage for 24 hours.
Here is the information Lucy sent me:
It's called Doodle 4 Google, and it offers students all over the country the chance to design the Google logo, and perhaps have their artwork viewed by people all over the world.
The Doodle 4 Google theme is "What if...?" Here are some examples of what this could mean:
- What if...I could live underwater, or in outer space, or in Colonial America? - What if...I could see into the future? - What if...I could build any kind of invention I wanted?
But your students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas about this theme. The competition is open to K-12 students between 5 and 18. An expert panel will pick 40 finalists who'll be invited to a workshop with Google's official doodler, Dennis Hwang, at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. The U.S. public will vote for their favorites, and the winning design will replace the regular Google homepage on May 22, 2008. This champion doodler will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and his or her school will receive a $25,000 technology grant.
How to participate?
Please visit www.google.com/doodle4google. You'll find all the dates and resources you'll need to get your school involved, including detailed lesson plans to help incorporate the competition into your curricula. School registration closes on March 28th and doodle entries must be received by April 12th, 2008.
"There is no point in cutting off a person's nose and then giving them a rose to smell." Indian proverb
As we consider change and helping others change, it is important to remember that WHAT we say is important but often HOW we say it is more important.
I saw that this week as I felt myself getting upset while discussing what types of things the teachers at our school need to learn at an upcoming class. I've lived and breathed and researched and studied for this moment and when asked, quickly typed up a two page list of simple ways for teachers to integrate technology into their classroom, while understanding that they are often beginners and only have one or two computers in their rooms.
My time had come! Oh no, it didn't!
It didn't matter.
It didn't matter that "I'm the cool cat teacher" (ha ha) or that "I cohost Wow2" or the countless hours spent researching and studying how to effectively implement technology in the classroom. The presentations, the awards, all of the things that I had done simply didn't matter.
All that mattered was my ability to keep calm and express in the simplest terms possible the value of these tools.
My ability to treat the person who has all of the decision making authority as an equal with an equally valid viewpoint (although it may not be as well informed.)
An ability to keep focused and express myself without using the terminology this person had already written off as irrelevant like blog, wiki, podcast, etc.
It simply did not matter except that I treated her with respect, dignity, and when given the chance that I expressed myself as kindly and simply as possible.
It took an hour. And even then I felt insufficient.
Still, the other teachers have to request what they want to learn. (Despite my objections that often we don't KNOW what we need to learn.)
And I too have to sit through this workshop (which really rankles me a bit but I must adjust my attitude and know I can learn ... thankfully, the workshop is with Dr. Shepherd so I know I'll learn some great things.)
And this is the struggle all of us face. The fact that online credentials and credence don't matter a hill of beans in our own back yard.
And in my back yard I'm often considered that little geeky girl that I was in middle school and will remain to be. Often it means that they leave me out because they don't realize that I can help beginners learn. (My problem is not enough time, not lack of ability.)
So, frustration aside... it comes back to kindness, decency, and a whole lot of patience.
Hotheads don't change anything but their own blood pressure! So, remember, this week, when you're ready to "change the world" that it often starts with your own attitude and willingness to submit yourself to the authorities that be who, although they may not know as much as you, are still your authority.
You can do this. You can promote change. However, promoting positive change for the good of our students has never been easy and is only attempted by the valiant souls who are truly willing to sacrifice themselves, their own egos, and often their own aspirations to help progress.
If teaching is the most noble calling on earth, then teachers who step outside their classroom and kindly, patiently, advocate change for everyone are saints. It is easy to cocoon in the classroom, but if you can help others, then you should do it!
Make a difference where you are... and don't cut off noses and hand out roses!
To those who want to block because of bandwidth: Get a Packet Shaper
Doug Johnson's recent post is too important to pass up. Countless times, people have told me that itunes, youtube, google video are being blocked solely for bandwidth reasons. Not any more.
According to Doug Johnson, packet shaping has become quite robust! (In fact, I want to get one and am calling my vendor next week.)
But it was a recent release to the software that made the greatest difference:
But the degree to which we can specify what traffic has priority became more granular with a recent software release. We can now give YouTube (not all Flash) a "Priority 0" rating. The yearbook people can use Flash to do their pages unimpeded; middle school kids can look for videos of fart lighting on YouTube with what bandwidth is left over. (Click on the small image at the left to see a larger version of the control module screen shot.) This has made a big difference.
So, if your district is blocking valuable educational resources because of bandwidth limitations think about using a packet shaper. (Since people will ask, we paid about $15K for ours in a consortium purchase.)
It seems pricy, but I wonder if there are other options. I'm going to look in my SonicWall and see.
I will say that I do not advocate middle schoolers looking for "fart lightning" on youtube and believe that if you have youtube at your school that every computer is directly supervised. I redesigned my classroom so every computer screen is facing my desk. I can see them all (I even put in a "rear view mirror" to see the screens of those behind me.)
Supervision is always paramount when you allow access, however, access is very important for some valid pedagogical reasons.
Steve Hargadon pointed out that the recent Classroom 2.0 conference in San Francisco had several micropresentations. Here is what he says:
"There were three very late "idea" additions to the program that ended up working very well. The first was the idea of holding 5-minute "lightning" round presentations, given by participants to showcase a tool they use or an idea for teaching, or by vendors to showcase their products. The idea for these came from the TeachMeet unconferences held in the UK that have seven-minute "micropresentations" and two-minute "nano-presentations." I'm not even sure if we followed their format very closely, but it was just the idea of short presentations that appealed to me: they don't require so much preparation as to put people off, they allow for bite-sized good ideas to be presented, and they aren't so long as to feel badly if you watch one that doesn't 't grab you. I think the participants in San Francisco felt the same way, and my reading was that they really liked the "speed" or "lightning" round sessions, and I plan to do a lot more of them in the future. They have the added benefit of involving more people (very Web 2.0-ish!). I think for them to be helpful, you really have to have time afterwards for individual tutoring and questions, and to try new tools or ideas out. So again, free time is so important."
Hopefully, we'll see more of these at edubloggercon this year at NECC (it is time to add your name if you're coming) which I plan on attending the Saturday before the conference.
I thought I was out but teachandlearn twittered about Songbird! This is the most AMAZING audio (and video) browser! This is amazing! I love it! I often don't want to struggle w/ starting itunes, etc. and this is just great (if it is stable -- see my notes below.)
It is open source software (which also means it is free!) OK, one warning -- it only looks like it is developer release (which I'm using.) So, in other words, there might be bugs. But I love the idea. Itunes is good, however, you're so limited to the itunes store. This is a great concept!
In other words, you need to be a bit comfortable with your computer, if you're a beginner, you may want to wait a little bit.
I came across this really cool presentation that is also pretty funny. (hat tip StumbleVideo. (Don't be scared but it is about greasemonkey and firebug -- cool tools.)
It is only 3 minutes long and yet I learned SO MUCH! Please watch it.
Here are my questions:
Fix it, Don't Trash IT- Why don't we use scripts to "fix" the sites for education instead of blocking them? (Although now it is tough and perhaps onesie-twosie, certainly we could use some sort of script to help us with this. It just shows me it is possible so I'm thinking about it.)
Micropresentations Why don't education conferences include sessions where people just get 3 minutes and 20 slides like this -- and the slides autoadvance. I wonder how much we could smash into one presentation? How much could we cover. (And could we stand the energy?)
I think the presentation is great because it just conveys so much, it is humorous, and it is jam packed with information. What a great teacher!
But if we are to teach -- this is a method of communication we should consider: Micropresentations.
We've seen the benefits of microblogging -- it is time we looked at micropresentations! Could educators do it? Could our students do it? (Many already do but sans content.)
I'm just thinking about this fascinating idea and turning it over in my head!
What do you think of the idea of micropresentations? (And remember, six months a go, most of us thought twitter was a stupid idea too!)
The uses outlined by this visionary prof include (I include summaries and quotes from the prof):
Class Chatter: Connecting the class with one another and the real world.
Classroom Community: Adding the sixth sense to the classroom.
" This carried with it a range of benefits, from more productive classroom conversations (people were more willing to talk, and more respectful of others), and also helped me to understand what type of students they were...I can definitely say that changed the classroom dynamics for the better. I think this is connected to what Clive Thompson calls the sixth sense of Twitter. Having the Sixth Sense can really help the classroom."
Get a Sense of the World: By looking at the public timeline, students taking a look at the "noise" in the world." (I wouldn't do this with middle school and below and perhaps high school.)
Track a Word: This is the most useful thing I learned in the article, I'm now tracking "teacher" "NECC" and "edublog."
"Through Twitter you can “track” a word. This will subscribe you to any post which contains said word. So, for example a student could be interested in how a particular word is used. They can track the word, and see the varied phrases in which people use it.... (To do this send the message “track Starbucks” to Twitter, rather than posting the update “track Starbucks” you will now receive all messages with the word “Starbucks.”)"
Track a Conference: The prof tracked "MLA" and found those going to the conference (and some griping students too!)
Instant Feedback: The prof tweeted to ask questions while prepping for a lecture. Students also tweeted when having problems understanding something to connect with other students.
Follow a Professional: Linking with professionals can give amazing insight.
Journalism students follow "NewMediaJim who works for NBC and Tweets about being on Airforce One, covering the Middle East etc. This is a rare inside, “real-time” view into journalism. He is followed by over 2,500 people at this point. Howard Rheingold also uses Twitter in his social journalism class."
Follow a Famous Person: Follow politicians and others.
Grammar: I find this quite interesting, what an amazing discussion about grammar and the importance of a comma!
"This helps to demonstrate, both how all communication needs rules/structure and how important something like a comma or a period can be. (Some Tweets become really ambiguous because of their lack of punctuation.)"
Rule Based Writing:
"Related to the above is the idea that when you change the rules (context) around any written communication you necessarily change the content of such an utterance."
Maximizing the Teachable Moment: Twitter lets you teach in context and harnesses the power of the student as teacher.
Public NotePad: Sharing inspiration is powerful in this tool.
Writing Assignments: This is a great idea for writing class.
"Remember that game you used to play where one person would start a story, the next person would continue it, etc. . .Okay try this on Twitter."
Again, I highly recommend you read this whole article for not only is a good lesson about twitter, but also about the importance of reflective teaching and innovation. For future success, every person must pull R&D down to the "desk" level... in their own job. Innovation and experimentation must become a way of life.
How to manage multiple twitter accounts It is tough, again, I find myself wishing to be able to segment this valuable service and what I believe I will do is to create another account on twitter just for my classes. I will then use twhirl to put them together. (snitter has become a crash demon on my computer.)
It is about Microblogging
It is important to look at twitter for what it is: microblogging.
In 140 characters, you must summarize.
Isn't that what we teach with a topic sentence? I'm looking for an upcoming project hooking up all of my student accounts and I'll have them twitter at the end of class a summary of their work for the day. (probably using their cell phones)
I'm sure some other microblogging services will come around but remember, when talking about twitter, you're discussing the principle of microblogging, don't get too caught up in the website when the website may evaporate tomorrow.
Track things in twitter I want to pull this point out again! How to track things in twitter!
I typed in:
"track teacher"
and pressed enter. This doesn't go to my timeline. Instead, any time anyone posts a twitter with the word teacher, it sends it to me. I'm also tracking the word "edublog" and the word "NECC." This is a fascinating service and has a lot of potential!
Look at and test microblogging, it has its uses in that it is a fast, efficient way to hook up a lot of people!
This slideshow is a must watch for anyone blogging. I think it makes some good points. I totally agree with three points:
No one wants to read a broken record. (vary your content)
No one wants to write a broken record .(vary your content)
Sometimes your blog posts should be easy to write.
I do want to add that commenting is a very important part of blogging as well. If you join in the conversation and be a part, people are more likely to come see what you have to say. (Goodness knows, there are enough know it alls in the world!)
I needed a laugh tonight... It was great to see a slide with me and the other wow2 ladies on a presentation by Miguel Guhlin titled "making mistakes."
Does this mean Wow2 is a mistake? Or that we are mistakes? That was the meaning we laughed about, however, he was talking about the fact that we are transparent learners and admit how much we don't know!
It is nice to get a compliment (and a HILARIOUS) photo. I think it is great to be a transparent learner. Goodness knows we have enough know it alls!
I was interested to see the notes from this session from Wes Fryer, it sounds like Miguel gave a GREAT speech.
Never Give Up Hope: Video from the Wild to Prove It
Monday, February 04, 2008
When I came across Karyn Romeis' Funday Monday post, I was expecting a laugh. Instead, I am literally in tears. I have never seen anything like this in my life! It is one of the most shocking and awe inspiring videos I've ever seen. (I have a feeling I'm the only one who hasn't seen it.)
Warning: I do not think this video is suitable for children because it is animals in the wild.
I cried because this is what I see in this video. I see students being torn up and fought over by the dangerous forces in the world and their parents and schools initially sitting back. I see researchers and the world going "OH, that one is gone."
Then, I see a determined mass of people coming back to reclaim the students from the lions and crocodiles. Surely, the student will never be "completely whole" again, however, the student can be restored to their family and their school.
If you're considering giving up on that one student who is having problems. ...the lions have got them and you think they are unsavable. This video is your message to not give up. (And I have a student in mind right now.)
I will not allow this student to be lost but rather, will work with my administrators and do what it takes to get people on board to help this student. In numbers and in agreement, we do have the power to fight back. Can they all be saved, certainly not.
Can some be saved.. YES!
But I can guarantee this... every student you GIVE UP ON is gone! Permanently. You can be assured of that.
Thank you Karyn... you've turned Funday Monday into Motivational Monday for me. I needed that video.
Fight on teachers... I am awe inspired by the nobility of your task (and mine!)
Here ye, here ye. I proclaim this day "Funday Monday" -- do something Fun on your blog today! Here's my effort!
As part of my resolution to have more fun, while I was up LATE grading last night, I twittered asking for funny videos. Boy did I get some great ones (mostly from down under.)
I can relate to this first one because I have a teenager and 11 year old -- sometimes they go into this mood! (From melanieh on Twitter)
One of my favorite Aussies Graham Wegner passed along the following. two videos:
After laughing, I actually saw a point: Sometimes we make things way too hard and there is a simpler way. (Just ask someone who has been around a while.)
This is kind of like when I started teaching and did things the hard way and the 30 year veterans would just shake their head and drink their coffee!! ;-)
Then another Australian commercial I had never seen:
For those who spend WAYYYY too much time on the computer, you can relate to this video. (You might have to replace the word Youtube with Blog or Twitter?) (from angelesb on Twitter)
And from janning on twitter, this one which janning says points out issues with "blogging behind walls" as being like the Cone of Silence portrayed in this video:
"My strongest belief is we must separate the debate on the educational use of social networking totally from whether Facebook should be used in an educational context. These are two totally separate issues.
Facebook is just one form of social networking; the educational benefits of social networking shouldn’t be devalued because managers and educators base their views on social networking solely on their own personal limited knowledge and/or experience of sites like Facebook and MySpace."
She and I line up squarely on this issue. However, I do agree with Allison on this point:
"We need to teach people about SNet-iquette (Social Network ettiquette), and the positive and negative effects of their online 'behaviour', and how they are creating an online 'digital foot print'.
I believe educational institutes should be 'leading the way' in educating people about these things. Therefore, by encouraging staff and students to use these sites as educational tools, we are encouraging the conversations necessary for people to work out what is, and what is not, appropriate in an online environment."
Although there have been times I unblocked facebook (like for screen captures for Flat Classroom or Horizon Projects.) I also remember one student coming to me at the end of flat classroom and saying:
"Mrs. Vicki, PLEASE REBLOCK FACEBOOK. It is such a distraction and I cannot get anything done."
The answer to effective digital citizenship and Social Networking Netiquette is not forcing ourselves into Facebook, it is in creating separate, safe places where we can work with students to improve their skills and safety. I think these places should be private initially so that younger students can be brought into them.
Then, they can safely move into our online world sometime in their teenage years already having an arsenal of knowledge to keep them safe.
As educators, if we could aggregate our personal goals, I believe that they would point to the trends in education that will shape 2008. As I looked at my goals, I've worked to predict the trends in education related to my "Big 12" goals for the year. We'll see at the end of the year how I fared. 1 - Publish My book My Goal - I have ten friends who have been helping me complete my book about how to teach students to LEARN new software. It is a methodology developed because I got tired of my point and click teaching becoming outdated with every new software upgrade. In this Method, I teach students HOW to learn new software using several strategies. This book is completely written and halfway edited.
Prediction - I predict that more teachers (like myself) will begin collaboratively editing and publishing books on Lulu. I have had no less than 7 rejections for my book idea from mainstream publishers. My response: Dale Carnegie's book was rejected more than 10 times and is one of the best selling books. I believe in this book and what it teaches and it will get published!
How many of you have books that you want to write (or have already written.) Take that book, throw it up on a private wiki, let your friends edit. Then, pull it back into Word, edit it and upload it to lulu. Bypass the publishing companies who don't believe in your dream. I am.
I am and I think more educators are going to do this and we'll see a proliferation of teacher (and student written) books. 2- Promote Grassroots Efforts of Teachers My Goal: Promote the classroom teacher. I have this platform for a reason and I will use it to help teachers connect. I resolve to resist the urge to become self-important and will remain content as a teacher in my classroom. I'm staying put as a teacher for another year, I just signed the letter of intent.
Arrogance and ego can be a curse and I will keep perspective that my blog has only a tiny fraction of readers that are educators... it is far to easy to become self-focused. I want to be teacher-focused. I want to share more about what I do BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY learn more from other teachers. It is not that the overarching debates aren't important but I've got a class to teach and sometimes these debates can become a distraction from my core purpose of teaching.
Prediction - I predict that the volume of collaborative projects this year will multiply exponentially in a way similar to the English fleet defeating the Spanish Armada. The smaller, more flexible educational organizations will create amazing projects while large districts and schools will continue to stifle teacherpreneurs under their own bureaucracy. (Every time I try to work with public schools, I am literally blocked by the Barracuda Firewalls. They hate me. So, I have to resort to alternate e-mails for the teachers I work with in public schools and at conferences.)
By the end of the year, I believe that large districts will begin to look at ways to incubate teacher innovation to facilitate global connections.
3- Promote the Evolution of Filtration My Goal - As a person who manages a classroom and my own filter, I will continue to advocate Ad-Hoc filtration policies. Even with my own filter, it is sadly very Filter 1.0.
Prediction - Someone invents the filtration "killer app."
First -- EDUCATORS WE MUST BECOME VOCAL ABOUT THIS. Then, firewall manufacturers will begin having to listen to educators and not just lawyers. Some firewall company will create the "killer app" for educators that will allow filter management to become accessible and part of the work flow of a school.
IT directors are tired of fielding special requests. Teachers are tired of asking people in information technology when really, this is a curricular decision. This is an idea whose time has come. (Imagine this, a teacher logs into the filter manager, requests a certain site unblocked during a certain class period, it is forwarded to the curriculum director, and then unblocked -- without IT's involvement. IT will just monitor and make sure abuse doesn't occur.)
(Or another scenario -- someone wants to collaborate with me and they are allowed to request and unblock my e-mail messages from going into the firewall.)
4 - Remember the Relationships My Goal - Log into my e-mail three times a day and limit my online time to certain predictable times. My kids are only young once and I will enjoy the time with them.
Prediction - The Evolution of Professional Development Some educators will resist the fact that educational blogs and podcasts ARE NOT available for them to access on school time. The increasing cannibalization of personal time for professional development is going to create a cry for #3 better filtration and #4 the evolution of professional development.
I spend approximately 3 hours per week (sometimes more) listening to podcasts, writing blogs, reflecting, and reading RSS. It makes me a better teacher. I believe that a teacher who connects in this way is perhaps more well educated than a person who takes a 10 hour class every two months!
As schools work to implement technologies, they are going to realize that collaborative content coaches are needed to work one on one with teachers and that professional development should be part of the weekly (if not daily) activities of teachers. Ongoing professional development methodologies must be worked through.
I also predict that more hybrid programs will emerge with educational networks making the connections prior to people meeting face to face so that a more useful learning experience will emerge. Teachers will continue to have to do some learning on their personal time, so PD will have to evolve to keep that in mind.
(And not to open a can of worms here, but if teachers are doing PD at home, couldn't they be allowed to exercise during the day! I believe companies with exercise at work programs will begin to receive health insurance benefits.. so it just might make sense.)
5 - To Connect Where I'm Disconnected Goal - It is my personal goal to have a collaborative project with a classroom in Africa and one in South America at a minimum. Julie and I are reaching out to learn how we must modify experiences to link with lower bandwidth areas. (After that, I want to work with languages and figure out how to have a dynamic translation type project.)
Prediction - The breakthroughs that happen with underconnected areas will be done via cell phone and lower bandwidth services like twitter, wiffiti, and even e-mail enabled postings. Educators who want to connect in these areas will have to simplify and connect in ways that are not bandwidth-hogs. The principle of bandwidth arrogance (or whatever it is called) will become something that we discuss. (I define bandwidth arrogance as assuming that everyone else has the same high level of bandwidth as you.) We will look for multiple portals into the sites we create -- via not only web browser but also smart phones.
6 - To have fun and be inspired My Goal - Sometimes the edublogosphere can be a frustrating place to be. I get so discouraged! Every time I post now, in the back of my mind I know that I'm going to offend someone out there! And you know what, that is life! I will do my best to be at peace, listen to the viewpoints of others, and by all means not to be just plain old cantankerous. So, I want to have more fun with this. I want to be inspired.
I will continue to look for people who not only educate me but inspire me AND make me laugh. I will also work to include inspiration and humor and learn how to be better at it on my blog.
Prediction - TEST SCORE MEASURES WILL EVOLVE! Students want to have fun and be inspired too! Life is tough and all work at school and tough lives at home (not to mention zero spiritual guidance that most have) combine to make pretty miserable people.
I predict that measures of school esprit de corps or "learning climate" will emerge to come alongside traditional test scores. As we look at the research, we will see that learning climate neutralizes the socioeconomic status of individuals and better shows if learning CAN happen at a school.
An increasing backlash of overtesting and parent concerns of their children's quality of life will be balanced against the need to improve education. I doubt that test scores will eVER be eliminated. That is not realistic. However, it will evolve. ( When will we ever learn that 100% of kids can't be in the 95th percentile! It doesn't work that way!)
7 - Reflection & Survey My Goal - Every workshop I do that lasts more than an hour will have a pre-workshop survey. I will use the pre-survey to convey expectations as well as to "front load" the concepts I will be covering. I will KNOW my students. I will also promote reflection of both myself and my students. After every major module of teaching, I and my students will reflect on our class blogs. I will promote school wide reflection and reading.
Prediction - The unharnessed power of teacher and staff reflections will become the "secret weapon" of power administrators. The fear of the word "blog" will diminish as school wide private social networks become ways to share and facilitate learning. Likewise, as teachers move online en masse, courses on professional online behavior and digital citizenship for teachers will become more widespread. 8 - New Tools Hit Critical Mass My Goal - I will not ever assume that "everyone knows" about the tools I am using when in fact they don't. If I do a workshop that lasts longer than an hour, I will do a pre-workshop survey (See #7) to understand the needs and knowledge levels of my "students." (Even if my students are teachers.) I will make surveying my students and everyone a part of my practice.
"The first skid rows were in the logging towns of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s. Faced with the chore of dragging felled trees out of the forest to the mill, 19th century loggers built "skid roads" -- roads paved with "skids," usually railroad ties or heavy wooden planks. It didn't take the loggers long to discover that the logs were far easier to move down these roads if the "skids" were greased, and "grease the skids" became a popular metaphor to describe speeding up the process of removing something.")
I want to be a person who helps remove the obstacles to these tools so that other teachers can start seeing the benefits I see in my own classroom. I am still a relative newcomer to all of these things, having been using them just over two years so I see myself as a "poster child for the newcomer." I want to be someone who helps others.
Prediction - I believe that we are seeing increasing acceleration of adoption of the Web 2.0 technologies with blogs leading the way and with wikis coming in second. Telephones (and cell phones) will be used increasingly as schools figure out that they can be used in lieu of special podcast setups with sites like gcast.com.
Principals will figure out that they can easily podcast from their cell phone on the way home and watch out! We are experiencing the use of these tools to improve our LIVES. I also believe we're seeing an increasing number of teachers ready to reinvent their practice as they sense that students have changed and that they must too. Hold on, we're going to go faster.
What do you think? What do you predict for the future and what goals are you going to set to faciliate being part of that prediction.
9 - Web 3D My Goal - Integrate 3D components to global collaborative projects in a way that is bandwidth sensitive. Several experts (Beth Ritter-Guth and Lee Baber) are actively talking to Julie and I about adding a 3D component to Flat Classroom. I'm not happy with Second life and the educational practices they have set up and want to look more into OpenSim as well.
My Prediction - Global 3D projects will begin to emerge in baby steps with a whole list of cultural issues that we'd never thought of emerging. (e.g. if a person's face must be covered in real life, must her avatar also be covered?) We will continue to work out the issues and some examples will begin to emerge of great learning experiences in 3D virtual worlds. I don't predict mass adoption any time soon, but I do predict increasing experimentation among advanced technological thinkers and educators. (Science teachers will play with doing experiments in virtual worlds with equipment they cannot afford to purchase, and someone will figure out a way to create virtual literary and history worlds that can be subscribed to or visited by whole classrooms WITH their teacher.)
I also think that machinima and screen captures will increasingly wiggle their way into the digital storytelling toolbox.
10 - Putting it on film My Goal - I am learning the RIGHT way to make movies from AFI's screen education program and several good books. There is a methology behind it! And as I'm delving into it, I'm seeing that it is an important compliment to essay writing. Movies require a very deep learning process and I want to move learning how to make movies correctly back to a younger age. Many of the problems I've had with moviemaking have been because I didn't know or follow the proper steps.
Prediction - I predict the proliferation of classroom movie contests and scholarship contests and that even some textbook companies will begin to dabble in aggregating the videos made by students using their textbook materials (to protect copyright if nothing else.) We'll see more classrooms using the movie as an alternative to a traditional report and teachers will struggle with the types of equipment to purchase and computer access will become an issue as students excited about the process want to work on weekends and after school.
11 - The rise of Educational Networks My Goal - I will roll out the school wide educational network (which has been in beta since mid December) and continue to work on best practices in social networks as created for the Horizon Project and Flat Classroom.
Prediction -- One or two websites will get it Right - Educators inundated with so many educational networks will begin to cull out networks that do not add meaning to their practice and several hubs of activity will begin to emerge for each educator. There will be a lot of "starting' and "joining" but not a lot of maintenance. The sites that emerge from this period of massive creation will become the major hubs of our educational practice in the future. Educators will tire of "moving" identities place to place. By the end of the year, I predict that someone will "get right" the practice of connecting teachers around the world and it will build a lot of followership among educators. The others will wither and die. The sites with REASON, PURPOSE, and maintenance will grow and dominate.
And when it all happens, textbook companies will wonder why they missed the opportunity.
12 - Open Source Education My Goal - To increasingly involve my students as prostudents (producing, professional students) in the creation of online curriculum materials to teach others and cement learning. I want to document what we learn and involve them in the process of online content creation and effective transmission of ideas online.
Prediction - Frustrated teachers will start creating and using collaborative sources of information for their classrooms. Student input will require digital citizenship and literacy to become part of core knowledge that progressive schools begin to teach at the elementary level. The increasing use of online resources will leave textbook companies scrambling to create an online business model that works and allows multiple authors and retention of accurate information. In Conclusion So, here they are. Take these predictions for what they are: that of a classroom teacher trying to take the 30,000 foot view of things. And as for the predictions, who knows if they will come true, however, I can speak for my own goals... I've already begun work on all of them.
Politweets insight into US Elections through twitter
Talk about a fascinating discussion for current events courses, Politweets is a website hat extracts candidate names from the tweets and organizes them by democractic and republican. (hat tip Bloggers Blog) It is really a fascinating use of Twitter.
I could imagine more uses for educators: If one could have all of the educators RSS'ed together (you could by following everyone who was an educator) -- and then do some sort of word cloud -- what are educators most saying?
RSS is a fascinating, amazing tool that we are just now getting a handle on. Even more useful than tagging, the ability to word cloud and aggregate WHAT people are saying will allow us to spot patterns heretofore unrecognized.
February is time to Learn to Blog -- free workshop
Friday, February 01, 2008
Atomic Learning is giving away their blogging workshop for free this month. (Full disclosure, I have done some freelance work for them in the past and will again soon.)
The more free resources, the better! (I do also thing this is a great service.)
Horizon Project Information session next Wednesday 3pm EST
I can't believe we're already planning the Horizon Project for this year. Julie and I meet once a week (via elluminate) and discuss what needs to be improved. Wow! What a great collaboration it is for me. Really, one of the most meaningful relationships of my life is with a friend halfway around the world that I've only met once. (And such it will be for many of us who take on the role of teacherpreneur.)
If you're interested in looking at the Horizon Project for your school this year (or next), you are invited to our Horizon Project information session next week at 3 pm EST in Elluminate (it will be recorded for those of you in Asia.)
Here is the information sent out by Julie:
"Vicki and I are planning the Horizon Project 2008 and wish to invite interested people to a preliminary information sharing and discussion meeting on Wednesday next week. We understand that one meeting in one time zone will not be enough however we will make a start with this and work out other meetings, or communications as needed.
The new Horizon Report 2008 was released last week and we are very excited to be reading this and looking at how it will inspire great projects from our students. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf"
Leave a comment here or e-mail me at coolcatteacher [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll be happy to fill you in. At this session, we'll talk about the timelines and dates and best practices that we're discussing. We also have several things that we want to make sure teachers understand up front that will help the project run more smoothly.
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- This book by Jane Krauss and Suzie Boss is a gem. Julie Lindsay and I were talking today about what a great overview this book is. I think this book is a must buy for those who are looking to implement flat classroom-type projects. Excellent book!
by Karl Kapp is another fascinating read.
- by Melinda L. Fattig and Maureen Tormey Taylor
and 
by Scott Kelby
by Dan Brown
. 
method by David Allen and have folders marked @ACTION and @WAITING to file my e-mails that I need to act on or am waiting for others -- I still have to go through and review, but it is important to be able to get that 
. I haven't read this book, although the theme resonates with me.
