You know the saying…. “Someday I’ll get around to documenting and collecting all the ideas and resources we’ve created at our school.” Well, for Colleen (PCHS Technology Coordinator) and I, this was the week that we finally got around to it.
For the past several days, we’ve spent most of our waking hours organizing, collecting, uploading, and designing a website that gathers all the pieces and parts of our 1:1 program into one comprehensive location. Our goal was not only to make it easy for us to document and find our 1:1 program components, but also to be able to share them with other schools so that we can learn from one another.
The site, located here, is divided into 3 sections:
Considering a 1:1 (How did we go about preparing our school for a 1:1 rollout?)
Conducting a 1:1 (How do we support the ongoing needs of students and staff?)
Continuing a 1:1 (What are future plans and how will we adapt and reflect on our progress?).
It’s by no means a complete list, but we hope it will be of use to others who are just beginning the 1:1 journey.
What I’m hoping too, is that you’ll find a way to get around to doing the same – sharing what you, your students, or your fellow teachers have created. Dean Shareski spoke about the power of sharing on his blog a while back, and that post along with a conversation we had afterward have both stuck with me since. The best kind of leadership and excellence come not from holding on to what you have, but from sharing what you know.
For most of my life, I’ve carried a physical sign that marked me as literate. At the age of 5, that sign was first acquired over weeks of laborious work under the guidance of my Kindergarten teacher as I carefully practiced forming the symbols of literacy by putting pencil to paper. For the next 12 years, as I filled pages and pads with notes, essays, reports and thoughts, that sign became a constant symbol of the work I put into my studies.
Through college, graduate school, and almost 2 decades of teaching, that sign remained. But recently, I’ve noticed that even though I write more than I probably ever have, I’m actually losing that physical reminder of my ability to write. Instead of a callused pad of skin formed from decades of balancing a pen against my finger as I write, there’s a smooth area where that callus used to be. It’s probably the most concrete example I carry of how my own mode of communicating and building knowledge is swiftly changing.
Since I’ve acquired digital writing tools – mainly a laptop and an iPhone – I rarely write more than a reminder or grocery list by hand. There are times when I spend the entire day writing, but don’t ever pick up a pen.
As look at the students who are part of our 1:1 laptop program this year, I wonder how long it will be before we see a generation who remembers fondly the scratch of ink to paper as part of an earlier era.
I’m a believer in positive thinking and a great example of this philosophy comes straight from the Improv community in the form of Yes, and… thinking. I wrote about it a bit here in a page about collaboration, but basic premise is that by taking an idea and building on it, you’ll find lots of great outcomes as a result.
What can “Yes, and” thinking lead to? My newest adventure is a perfect example. When I emailed Katie Morrow to ask if she’d be interested in a dual-blogging venture to help classroom teachers who use laptops, she upped the ante by suggesting we start a podcast on learning with laptops instead. I’ve helped students with our school podcasts, have given workshops on using GarageBand to create podcasts, but have never actually created my own. Sounds like it was about time, right?
So, here we are, two episodes into our new podcast, Always On. You can subscribe to the podcast via the iTunes store, or from your favorite podcatcher. We hope you’ll join us as we explore strategies and share ideas for using laptops both in and out of the classroom. Leave us a message, or send your feedback and ideas – we look forward to hearing what you think!
I’m sitting here looking at my SMS messages, my email inbox, my Twitter replies and my Google Docs listing, all of which seem to be beckoning tonight. As I sit here, deciding how much procrastination I can actually get away with, I realize just how much of my professional life revolves around the ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly with people from around the country.
Who and where are the people I’m working with? I decided to create a map just to see how far my little corner of the world extended out from Pensacola with the projects I’m working on right this minute…
It’s amazing to me that from my little desk, I’ve been able to work with some of the best minds from around the US.
Now, it’s fair to say that I instigated a lot of the collaborative efforts linked on the map above. There’s nothing more exciting to me than starting with a seed of an idea and seeing who out there will come along for the ride. If you’re a person who relates to the “Now Discover Your Strengths” philosophy, it probably won’t surprise you that two of my five talents are Includer and Relater (the other three are Learner, Input, and Focus, which probably isn’t much of a surprise either).
But what still amazes me is how many of these opportunities simply wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago. It’s tools like Google Docs and iChat and Twitter that make the collaborating easy. The hardest part nowadays is coming up with an idea and then seeing it through.
Actually, that’s always been the hardest part.
For so long, collaborating meant working together either in person or through mail (both the snail and the e kind). The type and depth of those collaborations were limited by the ability to find common time or by the inability to get in a groove when you had to wait for an asynchronous reply before you could move ahead to the next step. The quality of the collaboration was often limited by the quality of the people within driving distance. No longer.
So, what does all this mean for teaching and learning and collaborating? How does our ability to do great things change when we’re not limited by the where, or the when, but by the what? How do we teach our students to aspire to great things when their greatness now can be judged by a global audience? How do we teach them to find, connect, and create with others both across the classroom aisle and and across the globe?
I’m still figuring it out. The most important thing, I think, is to be willing to jump in and give it a try. Sometimes the collaborating leads to great things, greater than I could have ever imagined. Sometimes, it doesn’t. But, that’s not to say the trying wasn’t worth the effort. Every experience leads to new thoughts, new connections and new ideas.
So, here’s the point to my rambling post. The web isn’t about publishing or product. It’s about possibility. Possibility that’s only limited by the ideas you have and the people you’re willing to share them with.
So, a friend from another school and I decided to write grants for LEGO Robotics kits and video cameras that we could use to teach math, science and problem solving. We spent a weekend putting it all together and were excited when our grants were awarded. The problem, however, was that each of us only received half of the money we needed. It meant we didn’t have enough equipment for either of us to fully implement the project. We decided to buy what we could and then plan our units so that we’d combine our materials and each have the equipment every two weeks. Every other Friday we’d meet and move the equipment between our two schools.
After a couple of weeks, we began to notice that our students were slipping tiny notes into the LEGO cases to one another. “Make sure to use the little gears on your wheels – it’ll go faster.” “Hi my name is Eric and I used this kit.” and so on. We asked our principals if we could set up an online collaboration between our classes to allow them to talk and share what they were learning.
Every Wednesday and Friday, we opened a chat between our two schools so that the students could type messages to one another. They shared building and programming tips as well as general “kid stuff.” It helped them to work on their writing and conversation skills while communicating with their peers.
At the end of our units on simple machines, we planned to have the students build examples using their LEGO kits and then create videos to teach the rest of the class. Our students asked if they could work with their “virtual buddies” to create their videos, so their communications became focused on dividing up the video into segments and deciding which group and school would be responsible for each piece.
We planned a field trip at the end of the unit for our students to meet in person and build four group videos out of the pieces they had created in class. We set up computer stations in the school auditorium so students would have space to work in teams to create their video masterpieces. At the end of the day, we served popcorn while the students crowded around the screen in the library to see the final product.
What did our students learn from this project?
• Science skills: Simple Machines,
• Math skills: Ratios, Scale, Proportion
• Communication skills: Writing for an audience, Outlining, Spelling, Grammar
• Collaboration skills: Working in teams, Compromise, Negotiation
Think this project sounds cutting edge for today’s classroom?
What if I told you that this project was from my classroom in 1993? The students used LEGO TC logo kits with an Apple IIe to build and program. They used Macintosh LCII and III computers with 8MB of RAM and a 40MB hard drive to create and edit their video using KidPix and Premiere. Their final videos were stored on a floppy and transferred to VHS tape so we could watch them on the only available television in the school, which was housed in the library.
To communicate between classes, we used a modem and an early version of Apple’s eWorld online service to open a chat between our schools. I actually had to purchase a 100 foot phone cable to string down the hallway so that I could tie into the faculty lounge phone when we wanted to have our students chat.
I found myself cleaning out piles of photos last weekend and came across the pictures from that project. It got me to thinking about how many of the things we argue are “cutting edge” today are really just extensions of ideas that have been around for quite a while.
So let me ask that again. Think this project sounds cutting edge for today’s classroom?
So here it is, 3 weeks after Halloween and a bowl of leftover candy still sits on my counter. I’ve picked through the remains now and then and what’s left behind is the stuff that makes “junk food” sound like a compliment. Stuff that’s full of sugar and artificial flavors and tooth-rotting, chewy goodness. Stuff that would make a dentist’s early retirement dreams a reality.
Stuff that makes Halloween a fun change from the regular routine but wouldn’t do much to provide for a healthy, balanced diet.
Good thing it only happens once a year.
Looking at that bowl of candy, I think about what sometimes happens when teachers think about addingtechnologyto their regular classroom routine. “It’ll help make learning fun,” they think as they usher students into a computer lab with little thought to the outcomes and goals they’d normally employ to design a learning activity. Sometimes, there’s a new web tool or site they’ve seen that looks like it might hold a student’s interest. Even more often, it’s the end of a unit and there’s a day or two to be filled, so using technology to create a brochure or slide show seems like the ticket.
Like the empty calories contained in my leftover candy, this type of use doesn’t give much thought to the nutritional balance students need to grow into strong and healthy learners. Playing games or throwing images into a slideshow doesn’t necessarily translate into learning. Sure, it’s fun, but unless it is backed by an understanding of the intended outcomes, it won’t hold you or your students over for long. And that’s part of the challenge I meet every day in my job. Helping teachers move past the quick fixes it seems technology can provide to thinking about what they really want their students to understand. Making a little sugary tech-goodness into a four course meal where dessert is part of the package, but isn’t the main focus.
So, what’s the secret to a perfectly seasoned technology lesson? When I co-plan with teachers, I ask them to use these three basics:
Begin with the end in mind. It’s rare when a good lesson begins with the technology. If you identify the tool before you are clear on your outcome, you’ll end up with a lot of fun, but not much learning. I often ask teachers to share with me what they hope students will learn or be able to do as a result of their activity. I listen for specific words that cue into their goals (see Bloomin’ Web Tools for an explanation) and then pick a tool that matches that goal. Having teachers document their outcome makes for a much better match between activity and tech tool.
Make sure the curriculum drives the process. Once you’ve matched outcome and tool, the real work begins. Next, comes defining the process students will use and the benchmarks that keep students on track. I’ve seen the best ideas come to a dismal end when teachers don’t clearly define their vision to their students. Share with students what your goals are and let them know what you see as an acceptable end product by using a rubric or defining a S.M.A.R.T goal. Most importantly, make sure your standards focus more on the curriculum than on the esthetics. While good design is important, unless you’re teaching a design class it’s more important that students show clear understanding of the content.
Reflection is essential. What a shame it is when students spend a significant amount of classroom time creating a product, only to have it turned in, graded, and returned without any peer feedback or culminating reflection. Any time you use technology, you should plan in time for students to reflect on their learning. Give them a chance to publish or post their products. Ask them to rate and comment on the work of their peers. Let them share what they learned. Without this final step, they’ll leave the table without feeling fully satisfied.
In short, make sure your technology integration efforts turn into more than an empty snack. A love of learning blended in with a dose of curiosity is what we’re trying to awaken in students. Not mindless entertainment, but mindful purpose. And if it happens to be a little fun at the same time, then that’s really sweet.
If it were the number of students in your class, it might seem like an impossibly large number. If it were the amount of minutes you spent per subject each day, it might seem a bit rushed. But what if you knew that 42 is the average number of people who respond and react to a student’s work from the time they enter Kindergarten until they graduate from High School? The following video created by Barry Bachenheimer really brought the point home for me:
So, after 13 years of schooling, a student’s perception of their ability as a writer, thinker and communicator has been influenced and shaped by an audience of fewer than 4 dozen people.
Makes you think doesn’t it?
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has defined Communication and Collaboration as one of the key elements students must master to be successful in the 21st century workplace. This includes:
Articulating thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively through speaking and writing
Demonstrating ability to work effectively with diverse teams
Exercising flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal
Assuming shared responsibility for collaborative work
Most importantly, students need to be able to accomplish these goals within a global community. It’s not enough for students to be able to work effectively with the person who sits next to them. Now, they’ve got to be able to work well with the person who sits around the globe from them.
We’re giving students the tools to take their learning out into the world through the CHS 1:1 laptop program. Now we’ve got to take those tools and help students learn to use them to collaborate within our school community and within the global community. How? How about starting small within your classroom and then going global when you’ve got the hang of it:
Start Small: Create a classroom gallery of work that can be rated and commented on by student peers. Celeste Bell is doing this now with her students by creating a Studywiz Gallery of their “Jesus Moments” photographs. While she’ll tell you that the students enjoyed taking the pictures before she created the gallery, she’ll also tell you that creating the gallery has motivated students to respond to and appreciate the work of their peers.
Go Global: Create a project that is published and posted on the web. Marilyn Stefani is doing that now with her student’s Earth’s Composition Wiki and Google Map. Marilyn paired her students across two classes and asked them to collaborate to create one page with background information on an assigned topic. She then challenged the students to identify current environmental issues related to their topic and create a collaborative map that gives a brief overview of the issue and links to more information on their wiki. It’s been a challenge to teach the students to work asynchronously on a common goal, but the payoff has been that students are learning how their actions (or inactions) affect others while appreciating the knowledge and talents of their fellow students.
Do people really pay attention to these efforts? The answer is yes, and sometimes in a big way. Last year, Nancy Collin’s class created a wiki project on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I wrote about it in a Scholastic article along with Christine Day’s Google Doc project. It’s still out there for others to see and on a whim, we decided to use Google Analytics to keep track of how many visitors we have there. In the last 6 months, there have been visits from exactly 42 locations. Not 42 visitors, or 42 cities, or 42 states, but 42 different countries sent over 1600 visitors to the site. How’s that for a global audience?
So, we can close the doors to our classrooms and give our students an audience of 1, or we can find strategies to give our students a global audience. Their future will include the challenge of living and working in a connected world.
Bloom’s Taxonomy. It’s one of those things we know we should think about when planning lessons and activities, but matching it with the right tools and activities can be tough. In this post, I thought I’d share with you one favorite tool that matches with each level of Bloom’s taxonomy.
Remember
Memorizing isn’t a bad thing – it’s often the first step to higher order thinking. If you don’t know the vocabulary, you can’t join in the discussion with real meaning. Quizlet (http://quizlet.com/) is a website that helps students practice and memorize vocabulary by creating flashcards and playing games. You can create groups of students and share your card sets with them or they can create and share sets with the rest of the class. Want to hear more about Quizlet? Listen to the podcast created by CHS students last year as they interviewed Anthony VanGessel about his use of Quizlet.
Understand
Summarizing and outlining content to emphasize the important ideas is an effective way to demonstrate understanding. Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/edu/) allows students to create virtual posters that include video, audio recording, images and text. The templates are engaging and interactive and allow students to show their creative side while demonstrating content understanding. Take a look at an example from Cyndy Murphy’s class where students outlined information about the history of atomic research.
Apply
Sticking facts into your brain isn’t that tough, it’s trying to use those facts to make meaning that can be a big challenge. Why not try a web simulation? You’ll find lots of them linked at this simulations site from the Kent ICT website.
Technology is Hard. That’s the mantra that keeps many teachers from reaching out and really exploring technology tools in their classroom. It’s hard to manage 30 students when they all have a laptop in hand. It’s hard to integrate it meaningfully because the activities need to have structure and guidance to be successful. It’s hard to step aside and hope that your goals are met when you no longer are on center stage in the front of the room.
This week, Mathew Needleman’s post entitled “Five Reasons Why We Aren’t Integrating Technology in School” listed the reasons technology often isn’t incorporated into the learning cycle. It’s a good list and one that will resonate with many technology coaches, teachers, and administrators. But like any list of reasons, it could quickly become a list of excuses that lead down the road to inaction. Matthew asked for solutions to his reasons and I know there are great ones out there, but I’m going to take a different turn. I’d like to turn the tables and use his list to rationalize why we should stop using textbooks in the classroom. I’ve already argued previously about the dangers of allowing students unfiltered access to paper. This seemed like a natural follow-up…
Here we are….9 weeks into our 1:1 rollout with our freshman class. Short of a few (ok, several…) (ok, 6…) cracked screens from a spate of student mishaps, it’s been a very smooth start. No panicked calls from teachers because of a missing application or software snafus. No major issues of student misconduct. Truthfully, I was starting to wonder if things were really as smooth as they seemed from outside the classroom, or if I was getting a false sense of security.
You know the saying…. “Someday I’ll get around to documenting and collecting all the ideas and resources we’ve created at our school.” Well, for Colleen (PCHS Technology Coordinator) and I, this was the week that we finally got around to it.
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