Last week, I was doing a lot of talking about using blogs in my classroom. Being the bandwagon, jumper that I am, I'm really liking the idea of using wikis instead. Having looked at this wiki for My Side of the Mountain, I was really impressed with all the information they included- most of it student-created. What I really like about the wiki format is that all of the information stays put on one nice, neat site. If I had each of my students create blogs, then tried to get them to read each other's blogs on a regular basis, that would be a lot of clicking around, especially for students who don't organize their bookmarks well. (I assume RSS would be another solution to this problem, so I'll be back on blogs before too long.) But I like the idea that students can easily go back and study at the end of the unit, stay involved with the class if they have an extended absence, and have the chance to work at a different pace if need be.
The thing I'm wondering about is assessment. The example I linked to assigned different parts of the wiki to different students, so that would be easy enough. The part that gives me pause is, does that really encourage collaboration? Say Jack and Joe are assigned chapter 1. They are supposed to write a summary, and their classmates add or change details to improve accuracy. But will they? If there is a way to see who has written what, that problem is gone. I can tell that Susie added a few details that they missed, so she did a good job. I can tell that Greg didn't write anything, and he was a bald-faced liar when he said he did. But if I can't tell who wrote what, assessment becomes difficult. I have concerns that many students wouldn't write anything in the Chapter 1 page, because that's Jack and Joe's page. That said, leaving it a free-for-all where every student is expected to contribute something, but are free to contribute in whatever section they want, is a great way to hear some digital crickets.
So has anyone used wikis much in their classroom? Do you have any ideas for assessing student writing? Are my concerns about students contributing to the wiki valid?
Hopefully I can get this straightened out, because I'd really like to incorporate wikis this year.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
535 Week 1- Coincidences
I'm writing this post a little late- I think it was supposed to be posted today at noon. But after my boys basketball team got thoroughly beat Monday night, I hoofed it right out to Wisconsin Dells for the SLATE Conference- my second year attending. I'm now sitting in my room after a full day of sessions. One theme that seemed to permeate throughout the sessions I saw was moving away from paper. Through Google Docs, Edmodo, or any number of other tools, it's easy for teachers to not only communicate with students, but move the entire classroom online.
In my paper, I wrote about 21 Classes, Edmodo, and ThinkQuest. Edmodo, more so than the other two, seemed like a tool I could use that would really allow this shift to happen. The format is familiar to students, and I've heard other teachers say they take very easily to it. For a long time, the excuse for not making these moves has been access (and I'm as guilty of that as anyone). But more and more, students have that access, whether it be computer or phone, and a lot of these tools have Android and iPhone apps.
This fall, I'll be writing my second PDP goal (and boy am I excited). I think moving my class online will play a large role in this. As it stands, I see Edmodo playing a large role in that. It accepts a wide variety of embedded content, it allows for easy differentiated instruction, and the ability to adjust pace for students fits well into RtI.
In my paper, I wrote about 21 Classes, Edmodo, and ThinkQuest. Edmodo, more so than the other two, seemed like a tool I could use that would really allow this shift to happen. The format is familiar to students, and I've heard other teachers say they take very easily to it. For a long time, the excuse for not making these moves has been access (and I'm as guilty of that as anyone). But more and more, students have that access, whether it be computer or phone, and a lot of these tools have Android and iPhone apps.
This fall, I'll be writing my second PDP goal (and boy am I excited). I think moving my class online will play a large role in this. As it stands, I see Edmodo playing a large role in that. It accepts a wide variety of embedded content, it allows for easy differentiated instruction, and the ability to adjust pace for students fits well into RtI.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Finishing the Pecha Kucha
This project ended up a little more difficult than I had expected. When making my original storyboard, I had forgotten that this should be a story, not just a presentation. I guess that probably wouldn't have happened if I would have glanced at the title for the course, but hindsight's 20/20.
I went about making some changes to make it more like a children's fable about the importance of warming up before a game, since a list of warm-ups and stretches didn't seem like much of a story to me. I enlisted the help of a friend, his wife, and their daughter to get the pictures taken. It was actually kind of fun to try to fame all the pictures now that we've talked a bit about what makes a good photo. A few of them took a lot of trial and error, since we were trying to get pictures of us actually attempting shots.
The tough part came when I had to record the audio, though. I'm perfectly used to speaking in front of people, but it was a really awkward thing to just tell a story 20 seconds at a time into a microphone while sitting alone in my condo. And the fact that my neighbors were clearly having a conversation in the hallway at the time didn't make it easier, given the paper-thin doors around here. (Though I hope they got at least some entertainment by hearing me try to tell this ridiculous story.) It ended up being really tough to get in the flow of the story, and what I got was kind of a bored-sounding narration that didn't improve no matter how much I re-recorded it. So I gained a new appreciation for podcasters through this.
This would be an interesting kind of assignment to give to my classes- but not one that I think I would give to everyone. I may have a few outgoing students who would be able to put more emotion into their voice than I did, and they may very well thrive under that challenge. But for now, I just hope I sound more interesting in real life than I do talking into a microphone.
I went about making some changes to make it more like a children's fable about the importance of warming up before a game, since a list of warm-ups and stretches didn't seem like much of a story to me. I enlisted the help of a friend, his wife, and their daughter to get the pictures taken. It was actually kind of fun to try to fame all the pictures now that we've talked a bit about what makes a good photo. A few of them took a lot of trial and error, since we were trying to get pictures of us actually attempting shots.
The tough part came when I had to record the audio, though. I'm perfectly used to speaking in front of people, but it was a really awkward thing to just tell a story 20 seconds at a time into a microphone while sitting alone in my condo. And the fact that my neighbors were clearly having a conversation in the hallway at the time didn't make it easier, given the paper-thin doors around here. (Though I hope they got at least some entertainment by hearing me try to tell this ridiculous story.) It ended up being really tough to get in the flow of the story, and what I got was kind of a bored-sounding narration that didn't improve no matter how much I re-recorded it. So I gained a new appreciation for podcasters through this.
This would be an interesting kind of assignment to give to my classes- but not one that I think I would give to everyone. I may have a few outgoing students who would be able to put more emotion into their voice than I did, and they may very well thrive under that challenge. But for now, I just hope I sound more interesting in real life than I do talking into a microphone.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Throughout this course, we've linked to a number of TED talks. I've cringed at the beginning of every one of them. For a while now, I've had a distaste towards the TED conferences and TED talks. A few years ago, I saw a documentary on the conferences that spawned this feeling. I might have the timeline wrong, but I think the film was made when TED was still in its relative infancy. Instead of presenting it as an collection of unique presenters sharing ideas, it came off as a bunch of rich people who got together to tell each other how smart they are.
This was not intentional on the part of the filmmaker, but she lingered way too long on how much money it cost to attend, how tough it was to get into, and the people who regularly attended. I left with the feeling that instead of "Ideas Worth Sharing", their slogan should be "Pompous Jerks Tell You What to Think". It's sullied my perception of each and every TED talk we've been linked to. As I read this Presentation Zen chapter, I was thinking about that.
Reynolds talked about how Steve Jobs is such a skillful presenter because of his ability to connect with his audience- to seem affable and generally comfortable with what he was saying. He connected with his audience on their level, and invited them to care about what he was saying, instead of telling them "Now everyone sit in awe while I tell you some awesome stuff!" That's what I really took away from that section of the chapter. In order to connect with an audience, you cannot come off as being "above" them- something that teachers can definitely keep in mind. I can tell them all day long why Mark Twain is so funny, but the best way to connect with them is so much easier. As he mentioned by bringing up Judo, let the kids think he's some stodgy old writer, and present his work at face value, without beating them over the head with the idea that he was such a cultural icon. The work is good enough to speak for itself, and still relevant.
On an unrelated note, I was excited to take another shot at Prezi after some of what we've learned in this class. One of our classmates mentioned on my first presentation, to summarize, that I was doing it wrong. And quite right. I like the zooming and twisting and flying that Prezi can do. I think it looks cool. But a few of my students have complained that my Prezis make them motion-sick. I haven't made my Prezi yet, but instead of flying around this time, I want to concentrate on the idea of a "journey" (as hackneyed as that sounds). I plan on choosing a few pictures from my neighborhood, and trying to make it seem like you're actually walking around the Waukesha. That is how I plan to connect with my audience at a reasonable level. I may like the flying-all-over-the-place that Prezi can do, but there's more of a "story" to be told by holding back on that.
This was not intentional on the part of the filmmaker, but she lingered way too long on how much money it cost to attend, how tough it was to get into, and the people who regularly attended. I left with the feeling that instead of "Ideas Worth Sharing", their slogan should be "Pompous Jerks Tell You What to Think". It's sullied my perception of each and every TED talk we've been linked to. As I read this Presentation Zen chapter, I was thinking about that.
Reynolds talked about how Steve Jobs is such a skillful presenter because of his ability to connect with his audience- to seem affable and generally comfortable with what he was saying. He connected with his audience on their level, and invited them to care about what he was saying, instead of telling them "Now everyone sit in awe while I tell you some awesome stuff!" That's what I really took away from that section of the chapter. In order to connect with an audience, you cannot come off as being "above" them- something that teachers can definitely keep in mind. I can tell them all day long why Mark Twain is so funny, but the best way to connect with them is so much easier. As he mentioned by bringing up Judo, let the kids think he's some stodgy old writer, and present his work at face value, without beating them over the head with the idea that he was such a cultural icon. The work is good enough to speak for itself, and still relevant.
On an unrelated note, I was excited to take another shot at Prezi after some of what we've learned in this class. One of our classmates mentioned on my first presentation, to summarize, that I was doing it wrong. And quite right. I like the zooming and twisting and flying that Prezi can do. I think it looks cool. But a few of my students have complained that my Prezis make them motion-sick. I haven't made my Prezi yet, but instead of flying around this time, I want to concentrate on the idea of a "journey" (as hackneyed as that sounds). I plan on choosing a few pictures from my neighborhood, and trying to make it seem like you're actually walking around the Waukesha. That is how I plan to connect with my audience at a reasonable level. I may like the flying-all-over-the-place that Prezi can do, but there's more of a "story" to be told by holding back on that.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Digital Storytelling Week 3
When watching Garr Reynolds' video on design this week, I was actually at my most doubtful. The example of the graphs with the bike, while I admit was "noisy" to begin with, looked a little too plain at the end, in my opinion. While I agree with doing away with some extraneous details, like the small logo, and doing away with that background picture, I thought some other elements were very helpful. I use a lot of Excel graphs on a daily basis to track behaviors in my classroom, and a variety of colors makes things easier for me. That said, he's the expert, and not me, so I thought I'd keep listening with an open mind.
As he began to talk about the superiority of pictures, I began to really buy into what he was saying. If someone is presented with an image that represents an idea, they have to work actively with it to connect that meaning. This was something I actually struggled with when I was fixing my own presentation. Mine was on common grammar errors, so I was having a tough time coming up with images to represent the differences between words. I can come up with a picture for "our" easily enough, but what about "are"? The second-person form of our most simple verb doesn't translate itself very easily to image. However, if I can show a picture, and get the kids wondering the same thing, they are all engaged in the activity when I finally say that my little picture of a guy with his arms up is what comes to mind when I think "You are!" As in, "Who's the best? You are!"
I think this is a great way to get kids thinking about ideas rather than just seeing a literal representation. If nothing else, perhaps they would be thinking about what image they would use instead. Based on this one presentation, though, I can tell that finding images for those ethereal ideas is a skill unto itself. I think the hardest one for me was "Kind of" or "sort of". I searched those two literally, searched "average", "normal", "middle", before finally stopping and thinking what I would draw if I had pen and paper. I figured I would draw a few people in order of height, and say the second one from the end was "kind of tall". So, a search for "average height" got me an image that worked. It reminds me of the way storyboarding really helped on the Civil Rights presentation. There may be something to be said for starting with the basics.
As he began to talk about the superiority of pictures, I began to really buy into what he was saying. If someone is presented with an image that represents an idea, they have to work actively with it to connect that meaning. This was something I actually struggled with when I was fixing my own presentation. Mine was on common grammar errors, so I was having a tough time coming up with images to represent the differences between words. I can come up with a picture for "our" easily enough, but what about "are"? The second-person form of our most simple verb doesn't translate itself very easily to image. However, if I can show a picture, and get the kids wondering the same thing, they are all engaged in the activity when I finally say that my little picture of a guy with his arms up is what comes to mind when I think "You are!" As in, "Who's the best? You are!"
I think this is a great way to get kids thinking about ideas rather than just seeing a literal representation. If nothing else, perhaps they would be thinking about what image they would use instead. Based on this one presentation, though, I can tell that finding images for those ethereal ideas is a skill unto itself. I think the hardest one for me was "Kind of" or "sort of". I searched those two literally, searched "average", "normal", "middle", before finally stopping and thinking what I would draw if I had pen and paper. I figured I would draw a few people in order of height, and say the second one from the end was "kind of tall". So, a search for "average height" got me an image that worked. It reminds me of the way storyboarding really helped on the Civil Rights presentation. There may be something to be said for starting with the basics.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Digital Storytelling Week 2
Before I start into my post, I need to yell at Lenovo for a second. Why did you ever go away from the Track Point mouse? I must hit this touch pad with the side of my palm every ten minutes. And just now, it hit the back button on my browser about six words before my post was finished. Fix it, Lenovo, because my hands won't shrink.
Anyway, I'll now continue with a post that will surely be less inspired than my last one.
For years, I was a summer camp counselor. As such, storytelling is something that I'm fairly used to. Without ever really examining what we were doing, we learned how to make tweaks to a story so that a group of 40 8-year-olds would listen to the whole thing without deciding to play "Run All Over the Place and Yell". In previous speech units, I've always started with one of my favorite camp stories, then asked students what made it completely awesome. We usually end up talking about some concepts that are pretty similar to "stickiness"- don't over-complicate things, try to talk about things your audience will understand, give them something to care about. I also mentioned somewhere else that I used a little story to teach run-on sentences recently. Since I'm a Language Arts teacher, and stories play a pretty big role in what I already do, I wanted to bring them in somewhere else. The great thing about it was, students remembered the story and understood the story, so I just have to remind them about it when teaching the concepts. Now, whenever a student tries to separate sentences with just a comma, I can remind them about the tiny police officer that was too little to break up the gang fight. They get the concept, and they get the reason. Beautiful.
I was also intrigued by Voicethread this week. It's a surprisingly easy tool to use, and I'm looking forward to using it in my class. A while ago, my father showed me and iPad app that would record both audio and any writing/drawing on the screen, and play them back simultaneously. I thought to myself, "If I could get this to project on my Smart Board, I could record and upload every lesson!" I don't quite think I could do that with Voicethread, but it would be great for posting lessons that would need to be reviewed often (subjects and predicates, why do you have to be so confusing to kids?). It would also be a really cool way for students to present. The commenting feature is a great way to leave specific feedback, both from peers and from the teacher.
Anyway, I'll now continue with a post that will surely be less inspired than my last one.
For years, I was a summer camp counselor. As such, storytelling is something that I'm fairly used to. Without ever really examining what we were doing, we learned how to make tweaks to a story so that a group of 40 8-year-olds would listen to the whole thing without deciding to play "Run All Over the Place and Yell". In previous speech units, I've always started with one of my favorite camp stories, then asked students what made it completely awesome. We usually end up talking about some concepts that are pretty similar to "stickiness"- don't over-complicate things, try to talk about things your audience will understand, give them something to care about. I also mentioned somewhere else that I used a little story to teach run-on sentences recently. Since I'm a Language Arts teacher, and stories play a pretty big role in what I already do, I wanted to bring them in somewhere else. The great thing about it was, students remembered the story and understood the story, so I just have to remind them about it when teaching the concepts. Now, whenever a student tries to separate sentences with just a comma, I can remind them about the tiny police officer that was too little to break up the gang fight. They get the concept, and they get the reason. Beautiful.
I was also intrigued by Voicethread this week. It's a surprisingly easy tool to use, and I'm looking forward to using it in my class. A while ago, my father showed me and iPad app that would record both audio and any writing/drawing on the screen, and play them back simultaneously. I thought to myself, "If I could get this to project on my Smart Board, I could record and upload every lesson!" I don't quite think I could do that with Voicethread, but it would be great for posting lessons that would need to be reviewed often (subjects and predicates, why do you have to be so confusing to kids?). It would also be a really cool way for students to present. The commenting feature is a great way to leave specific feedback, both from peers and from the teacher.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Digital Storytelling Week 1
Coming into this class, I was looking forward to learning some new tools for presenting in my class, and to get my students presenting to each other in new ways. After doing some looking at Presentation Zen, though, this may be more of a philosophical shift than I thought.
I had heard before that Power Point slides should be minimal, and I've had to sit through absolutely painful presentations where slides were filled to capacity with text, which the speaker would just read verbatim. The last time I saw one of these was at an RtI conference in Green Bay. It was an 90-minute presentation with a break at the halfway point. Once they announced the break, they said they would give free books to whoever actually came back. I considered trying to steal a book, but there was zero chance I was going back into the soul-sucking pit of a presentation. I left wondering, "If you know your presentation is so terrible that you have to bribe people to come back, why not just change it?"
I try really hard not to duplicate that in my classroom. I did find, much to my surprise, that I fell into that trap a fair bit. When discussing grammatical terms, I would have the definition up there, and I would read that exact same definition. Then we would roll through a bunch of examples so they could practice. This is where the shift has to come for me, and where I'm nervous about changing. I understand it's boring to see text and hear the same thing, because we read faster than we talk. What makes me nervous is that not all my kids pay attention all the time. (I think it's pretty close to 100% though. Right? Right?!) I feel understanding the role of different parts of speech is important, so I make sure it's up there. That way, if they aren't listening when I talk about it, when they finally snap back to attention, there it is for them. If my presentation just showed images and minimal text to support examples, like a cartoon adjective pointing to a cartoon noun, those zoning-out students might not understand what it means. Maybe they would get the impression that an adjective is always the word right before a noun. And then how would they ever contribute to society?
I understand that maybe if my presentations were a little better, I'd have fewer students zoning out, but that's just going to happen no matter what with middle schoolers. What I have to strive for is a balance between education and entertainment, because the second can easily lead to the first.
I had heard before that Power Point slides should be minimal, and I've had to sit through absolutely painful presentations where slides were filled to capacity with text, which the speaker would just read verbatim. The last time I saw one of these was at an RtI conference in Green Bay. It was an 90-minute presentation with a break at the halfway point. Once they announced the break, they said they would give free books to whoever actually came back. I considered trying to steal a book, but there was zero chance I was going back into the soul-sucking pit of a presentation. I left wondering, "If you know your presentation is so terrible that you have to bribe people to come back, why not just change it?"
I try really hard not to duplicate that in my classroom. I did find, much to my surprise, that I fell into that trap a fair bit. When discussing grammatical terms, I would have the definition up there, and I would read that exact same definition. Then we would roll through a bunch of examples so they could practice. This is where the shift has to come for me, and where I'm nervous about changing. I understand it's boring to see text and hear the same thing, because we read faster than we talk. What makes me nervous is that not all my kids pay attention all the time. (I think it's pretty close to 100% though. Right? Right?!) I feel understanding the role of different parts of speech is important, so I make sure it's up there. That way, if they aren't listening when I talk about it, when they finally snap back to attention, there it is for them. If my presentation just showed images and minimal text to support examples, like a cartoon adjective pointing to a cartoon noun, those zoning-out students might not understand what it means. Maybe they would get the impression that an adjective is always the word right before a noun. And then how would they ever contribute to society?
I understand that maybe if my presentations were a little better, I'd have fewer students zoning out, but that's just going to happen no matter what with middle schoolers. What I have to strive for is a balance between education and entertainment, because the second can easily lead to the first.
Friday, September 30, 2011
525 Final Reflection
This was one class that I found extremely beneficial. In looking back over our previous classes, we learned a lot of great tools that I was able to implement in my classroom. Actually, when I realize all the tools that I learned through this program, it feels like I've been using them forever. Speed of technology I guess. But I was happy to get the chance to start analyzing these tools in terms of strategy in the classroom. It's this line of thinking that will be the difference between effective use of technology and the "Do something, just do anything" approach.
I think increasing my use of finding similarities and differences will be the biggest change in my classroom. In the past, I always looked at that activity as just another way to reflect on a reading- something to throw in with a bunch of other strategies to bring some variety. But this activity, as opposed to something like putting events in chronological order, really makes students think about the content. And with a wide variety of potential answers, adding it to use of wikis, blogs, or other tools for students to share information can be very beneficial.
On a semi-related note, I taught my first lesson that centered around cell phone polls. I had used them extremely sparingly in the past, but never as the bulk of a lesson. The kids went nuts. My last question was "On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you like answering questions this way?" I had a bunch of "10"s, a "1000!" and one "Mr. Granger needs to shave his beard." So I'll definitely be using it more in the future, but I'm not shaving.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Module 5- 525
Early on in this class, it struck me (and likely a few others), how high Identifying Similarities and Differences scored in effective practices. Luckily, this is one that's easy to apply in my classroom. Identifying similarities and differences between characters, themes, or conflicts can really help students to think more deeply about their texts. I've also tried to start discussing synonyms and the slight differences between them as a way to build vocabulary with my remedial class.
Strategies like generating and testing hypotheses can be done with Language Arts, but really isn't as involved as it is an a Science classroom. Students make predictions, and we eventually see if they came true, but that's not really much of a test. There isn't a process for "testing" like an experiment, and novels are intentionally surprising. So students usually alternate between guessing the extremely obvious, and applying something like The Sixth Sense ending to a prediction about Tom Sawyer. But it is a good exercise to get kids discussing characters and what they would and wouldn't do.
Homework is something that seems like an occasionally contentious issue in education, and I was glad to hear this course not go the way of Alfie Kohn. I think homework is important if for no other reason than making sure students have attained mastery of the material. There are plenty of times students can repeat a process minutes after I explain it, but even over the course of a few hours, their lack of full understanding becomes clear. I'm not insulting my students here- there's no reason to expect mastery after one lesson. For many subject areas, students need plain old repetition to fully understand something. As mentioned, though, it is important that homework has a clear purpose and is connected to curricular goals. The better the students understand why they're doing something, and can track their own progress, the more invested they are in their own learning.
Strategies like generating and testing hypotheses can be done with Language Arts, but really isn't as involved as it is an a Science classroom. Students make predictions, and we eventually see if they came true, but that's not really much of a test. There isn't a process for "testing" like an experiment, and novels are intentionally surprising. So students usually alternate between guessing the extremely obvious, and applying something like The Sixth Sense ending to a prediction about Tom Sawyer. But it is a good exercise to get kids discussing characters and what they would and wouldn't do.
Homework is something that seems like an occasionally contentious issue in education, and I was glad to hear this course not go the way of Alfie Kohn. I think homework is important if for no other reason than making sure students have attained mastery of the material. There are plenty of times students can repeat a process minutes after I explain it, but even over the course of a few hours, their lack of full understanding becomes clear. I'm not insulting my students here- there's no reason to expect mastery after one lesson. For many subject areas, students need plain old repetition to fully understand something. As mentioned, though, it is important that homework has a clear purpose and is connected to curricular goals. The better the students understand why they're doing something, and can track their own progress, the more invested they are in their own learning.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Institutions vs. Collaboration
After watching the Clay Shirkey video, I was reminded what annoys me about things like TED Talks. We get generalizations that sound like nifty "outside the box" thinking, but are really false analogies to the issue at hand for most. If this was a speech aimed specifically and only at creating institutions to organize information on a topic versus community collaboration, it makes a good point. If we try to say that this change has consequences in other arenas of life...well, maybe.
When he gave the Flickr example, the thing I kept thinking was "Great, I can easily get pictures of the Mermaid Parade or Iraq. What's stopping me from accidentally getting a picture that is incorrectly labeled?" And that's what I worry about when applying the community model to education. What is more dangerous- information being slightly sparse and difficult to find, or plentiful and potentially incorrect? I would say the latter is of greater concern. As a student teacher, I remember being told "If you don't know the answer, don't try to fake it. This isn't a term paper where you're supposed to know the answer. These kids will believe what you say."
We look to collaboration in the classroom both in terms of resources, and as a way for students to process information and build knowledge. In terms of resources, I know I'm skating perilously close to Wikipedia territory. I'm going to dodge that bullet by saying that the far left of Shirkey's graph, in reference to Wikipedia, are highly concerned with accuracy of information. The same can't be said for Flickr. In that sense, Wikipedia takes on traits of both collaboration and institution in that those on the far left of the graph have been known to take an "edit first, ask questions later" attitude. In terms of collaboration between students, we have to address the same concerns- if they are going to learn from each other, we had better make sure what they're saying is right. This can probably be addressed with clearly defined group roles and redundant responsibilities, but it's not quite certain.
And this segues nicely into reinforcing effort in cooperative learning. Keeping open lines of communication between the teacher and the groups can keep students interested, on task, and ensure that the information they are learning is accurate. On long-term projects, Edmodo is a nice tool for this. But even having students create blogs like this one would suffice.
Ultimately, cooperative learning can be effective and gives students a variety of skills. However, it differs from a collaborative business model. What does it cost Flickr if a few of their Iraq photos are labeled incorrectly? But if we give students incorrect information, it could take years for that to be undone.
When he gave the Flickr example, the thing I kept thinking was "Great, I can easily get pictures of the Mermaid Parade or Iraq. What's stopping me from accidentally getting a picture that is incorrectly labeled?" And that's what I worry about when applying the community model to education. What is more dangerous- information being slightly sparse and difficult to find, or plentiful and potentially incorrect? I would say the latter is of greater concern. As a student teacher, I remember being told "If you don't know the answer, don't try to fake it. This isn't a term paper where you're supposed to know the answer. These kids will believe what you say."
We look to collaboration in the classroom both in terms of resources, and as a way for students to process information and build knowledge. In terms of resources, I know I'm skating perilously close to Wikipedia territory. I'm going to dodge that bullet by saying that the far left of Shirkey's graph, in reference to Wikipedia, are highly concerned with accuracy of information. The same can't be said for Flickr. In that sense, Wikipedia takes on traits of both collaboration and institution in that those on the far left of the graph have been known to take an "edit first, ask questions later" attitude. In terms of collaboration between students, we have to address the same concerns- if they are going to learn from each other, we had better make sure what they're saying is right. This can probably be addressed with clearly defined group roles and redundant responsibilities, but it's not quite certain.
And this segues nicely into reinforcing effort in cooperative learning. Keeping open lines of communication between the teacher and the groups can keep students interested, on task, and ensure that the information they are learning is accurate. On long-term projects, Edmodo is a nice tool for this. But even having students create blogs like this one would suffice.
Ultimately, cooperative learning can be effective and gives students a variety of skills. However, it differs from a collaborative business model. What does it cost Flickr if a few of their Iraq photos are labeled incorrectly? But if we give students incorrect information, it could take years for that to be undone.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Subsumers!
"The appropriate level of inclusiveness may be defined as that level which is proximate as possible to the degree of conceptualization of the learning task-- relative, of course, to the existing degree of differentiation of the subject as a whole in the learner's cognitive background."
Of course.
While the article was a little tough to get through, it made an interesting point. If I understood it correctly, they described the visual as an "anchor", and that the less knowledge students have, the more the advanced organizer or visual needs to include something the student can relate to. This is ultimately the way I see advanced organizers and visuals used in the classroom- as a way to organize thoughts and encourage the building of schema while learning new information. Tools like the ones we were given to review are excellent for times like this if students are able to work either as an entire class or small groups. I feel that students working alone to organize new information often have a difficult time keeping it all straight.
I've tried to use visual and advanced organizers in my class with mixed success. I often use Cause and Effect type charts to review difficult readings. That usually helps with chunking a lot of difficult events into a simple summary. I've also tried using Inspiration to create an outline for a research project. That did not go as well. There was just too much information involved and the kids got confused by all the bubbles and lines. Nearly all of them ended up abandoning the bubbles and using the outline view.
A few of the tools we were told to review seem very useful- some I will probably start including in my classroom in the very near future. Bubbl.us seems easy to use and fairly straightforward. It would be a nice tool to use for a simple daily activity. Webspiration and Mindmeister get immediate points off because they charge and I'm poor. I did get the trial version of Mindmeister, and it seemed to have a few more features than Bubbl.us did, but seemed less intuitive. Exploratree and Education Oasis seem like very handy resources. My district brings in a speaker on organizers every year- Sue Beers. Even though her site looks like it was built by the neighbor kid, she has a ton of organizers and ideas for aiding reading comprehension. CMAP was confusing and I still have no clue what it is.
Of course.
While the article was a little tough to get through, it made an interesting point. If I understood it correctly, they described the visual as an "anchor", and that the less knowledge students have, the more the advanced organizer or visual needs to include something the student can relate to. This is ultimately the way I see advanced organizers and visuals used in the classroom- as a way to organize thoughts and encourage the building of schema while learning new information. Tools like the ones we were given to review are excellent for times like this if students are able to work either as an entire class or small groups. I feel that students working alone to organize new information often have a difficult time keeping it all straight.
I've tried to use visual and advanced organizers in my class with mixed success. I often use Cause and Effect type charts to review difficult readings. That usually helps with chunking a lot of difficult events into a simple summary. I've also tried using Inspiration to create an outline for a research project. That did not go as well. There was just too much information involved and the kids got confused by all the bubbles and lines. Nearly all of them ended up abandoning the bubbles and using the outline view.
A few of the tools we were told to review seem very useful- some I will probably start including in my classroom in the very near future. Bubbl.us seems easy to use and fairly straightforward. It would be a nice tool to use for a simple daily activity. Webspiration and Mindmeister get immediate points off because they charge and I'm poor. I did get the trial version of Mindmeister, and it seemed to have a few more features than Bubbl.us did, but seemed less intuitive. Exploratree and Education Oasis seem like very handy resources. My district brings in a speaker on organizers every year- Sue Beers. Even though her site looks like it was built by the neighbor kid, she has a ton of organizers and ideas for aiding reading comprehension. CMAP was confusing and I still have no clue what it is.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Feedback
Feedback that Fits
I liked having the chance to reflect on feedback around this time of year. In all the rush to get everything organized to start the year right, I forget that setting up routines and structures to maximize feedback to students should be starting now.
Being a Language Arts teacher, I often consider how to give feedback on large written assignments. The example listed in the article was a little too familiar- I often find myself proofreading a piece of writing, then not really saying much about the writing itself. I may correct ten spelling and grammar mistakes, but only make one or two comments on the writing itself- which is the goal of the assignment.
I had also not really considered how students may react to written feedback. The article describes how students can mistake a teacher's comments as validation of their own perceived stupidity. I like the idea of really concentrating on a few, doable steps. I've heard other teachers in the past debating whether it's better to cover a paper in red ink- so the student knows all the mistakes, or just concentrate on a few types of mistakes and mark all of them. Teacher 1 would say that if you let a mistake go unmarked, you are essentially saying that that writing is acceptable. And I do remember, as a student, not knowing how to correctly punctuate something, getting the paper back unmarked, concluding that I had done it right, only to be corrected years later. As frustrating as that was, I don't think it compares to a student who is already scared to write seeing a paper with more red ink than black.
Electronic Feedback
I have used both Rubistar and Quia in the past, and have enjoyed both of them. I have used Quia mostly for games for students to play, but I have always wanted to use it for the electronic quizzing. I think it would be good for students to see their score and their mistakes immediately after they take the quiz- while the whole thing is fresh in their mind instead of three days later. I do use the games pretty frequently for review, and the kids really like them. I've always been sort of skeptical about the value of some of them, however. There is one game- Rags to Riches- which is supposed to be like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The kids like it, and they want to get to a million, so they do it the best way they can find- play it a bunch of times and memorize the correct answers. It's great if I was trying to get them to do that, but I don't see a lot of understanding being built. Their Jeopardy game, on the other hand, is great. The kids love it, it's simple, and I always rotate speakers on each team (at random) so no student can just zone out and not participate. Even if they have no clue what the right answer is, they listen to their teammates debate over which one is the reflexive pronoun, and they get some good review that way.
Rubistar is also a nice tool, but doesn't really do much you can't do in a word processor. I've always liked the idea of using a rubric where there is a description for each point. The student understands why he got a 9 out of 10, rather than having a vague understanding that his writing was pretty good. The only annoying part of using that style of rubric is that I often find myself saying "Well this section should be an 8 out of 10, but not for the reason listed in the box." It's a pretty minor inconvenience to have to make a little note on the side, but I'm usually pretty bitter when I'm stuck at school after practice grading papers.
I like that both of these tools fights the battle of a student getting a paper back, and not getting much from the feedback because they hardly remember the assignment in the first place. Quia does it by giving that immediate feedback, Rubistar does it by adding description to a grade that will inevitably get back to the student quite a while after they created the work.
Reflection
What is the purpose of asking students to...set goals? It can be a useful way to help students identify learning goals in a lesson or unit while feeling like they have a stake in their own learning.
I can think of a time I asked students to...and was pleased with the results. I'm still a little bit baffled by how well this worked, but Reading Mazes. It's a simple little 3-minute reading assessment. I had kids take them every other Friday and they would keep a chart of their scores. They went absolutely nuts. I never predicted that sort of response. I think part of it was being able to see their own learning over time. Another part was that there was no judgment in the score. If a kid got a 27, he didn't know if he was a genius or well, not so genius. So they just focused on improvement. And they succeeded. All their scores went consistently up for the whole year (except a dip after spring break, which showed up for nearly every student).
I can think of a time I asked students to...and was not pleased with the results. In my first year as a middle school teacher, I tried to get my kids excited about their book groups by having them blog about it. I liked posting and discussing on my favorite baseball blog, so why wouldn't they like this? We even used a site where the kids posted under anonymous names, so nobody would be embarrassed to say what they really felt. Unfortunately, I was packing to many new things into this. They were writing about concepts they had just learned in books that were intended to challenge them using technology they were unfamiliar with. It was too much at once, and they shut down. The kids wrote next to nothing and had no conversation. Next time, one new thing at a time.
What kind of technologies can I use to help students? Edmodo has really gained popularity in my school as a way to get kids talking to each other. And the polling feature can be used to check understanding of the group or to just get their opinion on something. I also plan to start using polleverywhere to do the same thing in class.
What questions do I have about using technology to use...in my classroom? I'm not sure I understand this question, but I'll do my best. The largest question I always have is when does technology stop becoming an aid, and actually become a hindrance. I mentioned polleverywhere in the last question, but is that any better than giving little whiteboard squares and markers to the kids, then just have them hold up their answers at the same time? I know we get excited about technology, and the kids would too, but I often ask, "Where is the line between using technology usefully and using it just to use it?"
I liked having the chance to reflect on feedback around this time of year. In all the rush to get everything organized to start the year right, I forget that setting up routines and structures to maximize feedback to students should be starting now.
Being a Language Arts teacher, I often consider how to give feedback on large written assignments. The example listed in the article was a little too familiar- I often find myself proofreading a piece of writing, then not really saying much about the writing itself. I may correct ten spelling and grammar mistakes, but only make one or two comments on the writing itself- which is the goal of the assignment.
I had also not really considered how students may react to written feedback. The article describes how students can mistake a teacher's comments as validation of their own perceived stupidity. I like the idea of really concentrating on a few, doable steps. I've heard other teachers in the past debating whether it's better to cover a paper in red ink- so the student knows all the mistakes, or just concentrate on a few types of mistakes and mark all of them. Teacher 1 would say that if you let a mistake go unmarked, you are essentially saying that that writing is acceptable. And I do remember, as a student, not knowing how to correctly punctuate something, getting the paper back unmarked, concluding that I had done it right, only to be corrected years later. As frustrating as that was, I don't think it compares to a student who is already scared to write seeing a paper with more red ink than black.
Electronic Feedback
I have used both Rubistar and Quia in the past, and have enjoyed both of them. I have used Quia mostly for games for students to play, but I have always wanted to use it for the electronic quizzing. I think it would be good for students to see their score and their mistakes immediately after they take the quiz- while the whole thing is fresh in their mind instead of three days later. I do use the games pretty frequently for review, and the kids really like them. I've always been sort of skeptical about the value of some of them, however. There is one game- Rags to Riches- which is supposed to be like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The kids like it, and they want to get to a million, so they do it the best way they can find- play it a bunch of times and memorize the correct answers. It's great if I was trying to get them to do that, but I don't see a lot of understanding being built. Their Jeopardy game, on the other hand, is great. The kids love it, it's simple, and I always rotate speakers on each team (at random) so no student can just zone out and not participate. Even if they have no clue what the right answer is, they listen to their teammates debate over which one is the reflexive pronoun, and they get some good review that way.
Rubistar is also a nice tool, but doesn't really do much you can't do in a word processor. I've always liked the idea of using a rubric where there is a description for each point. The student understands why he got a 9 out of 10, rather than having a vague understanding that his writing was pretty good. The only annoying part of using that style of rubric is that I often find myself saying "Well this section should be an 8 out of 10, but not for the reason listed in the box." It's a pretty minor inconvenience to have to make a little note on the side, but I'm usually pretty bitter when I'm stuck at school after practice grading papers.
I like that both of these tools fights the battle of a student getting a paper back, and not getting much from the feedback because they hardly remember the assignment in the first place. Quia does it by giving that immediate feedback, Rubistar does it by adding description to a grade that will inevitably get back to the student quite a while after they created the work.
Reflection
What is the purpose of asking students to...set goals? It can be a useful way to help students identify learning goals in a lesson or unit while feeling like they have a stake in their own learning.
I can think of a time I asked students to...and was pleased with the results. I'm still a little bit baffled by how well this worked, but Reading Mazes. It's a simple little 3-minute reading assessment. I had kids take them every other Friday and they would keep a chart of their scores. They went absolutely nuts. I never predicted that sort of response. I think part of it was being able to see their own learning over time. Another part was that there was no judgment in the score. If a kid got a 27, he didn't know if he was a genius or well, not so genius. So they just focused on improvement. And they succeeded. All their scores went consistently up for the whole year (except a dip after spring break, which showed up for nearly every student).
I can think of a time I asked students to...and was not pleased with the results. In my first year as a middle school teacher, I tried to get my kids excited about their book groups by having them blog about it. I liked posting and discussing on my favorite baseball blog, so why wouldn't they like this? We even used a site where the kids posted under anonymous names, so nobody would be embarrassed to say what they really felt. Unfortunately, I was packing to many new things into this. They were writing about concepts they had just learned in books that were intended to challenge them using technology they were unfamiliar with. It was too much at once, and they shut down. The kids wrote next to nothing and had no conversation. Next time, one new thing at a time.
What kind of technologies can I use to help students? Edmodo has really gained popularity in my school as a way to get kids talking to each other. And the polling feature can be used to check understanding of the group or to just get their opinion on something. I also plan to start using polleverywhere to do the same thing in class.
What questions do I have about using technology to use...in my classroom? I'm not sure I understand this question, but I'll do my best. The largest question I always have is when does technology stop becoming an aid, and actually become a hindrance. I mentioned polleverywhere in the last question, but is that any better than giving little whiteboard squares and markers to the kids, then just have them hold up their answers at the same time? I know we get excited about technology, and the kids would too, but I often ask, "Where is the line between using technology usefully and using it just to use it?"
Monday, August 15, 2011
525 Week 1
In reading the Principles of Teaching and Learning, there were a lot of ideas I was glad to see presented. Not being a strong believer in learning styles, I'm always glad to see a philosophy of education that doesn't put balancing visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners at the forefront.
An interesting fact that they did bring up, though, regards students' prior knowledge. We know that activating students' prior knowledge can be effective (though maybe not as effective as we thought, according to the Power Point presentation) in building schema necessary for fully understanding new material. This article, though, mentioned the possibility of inaccurate prior knowledge. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention, but I've never seen much attention paid to the possibility that a student may know of Tom Sawyer, but have the completely wrong idea about the character. It will definitely make me more careful about taking the time to define the basic concepts at the beginning of a unit, and if I use an example to explain a concept, I'll make sure I know what I'm talking about.
One concept I found difficult to apply was brought up often- setting clear goals and expectations. As a Language Arts teacher, our goals are sometimes not as clear. Reading comprehension is not as concrete as something like math. Six traits makes writing somewhat more concrete, but Voice is not something easy to measure. I definitely agree that clear goals are important, but that is easier to accomplish in some areas than in others.
I was also happy to hear that we'd be examining a meta-analysis. I recently started looking through Visible Learning to inform my instructional methods as my school moves towards RtI. The article mentions the "soft science" surrounding education, and I am often frustrated by that. It seems very rare that I can read about an instructional method and know, simply, "Does it work?"
The first thing I noticed about the study, though, was how little I really know about statistics. Being a Language Arts teacher, numbers aren't exactly a big part of my day. Statistics and measurements have been a little bit of a hobby for me, but I'm very far from having a strong background.
I was surprised, also, at how much the studies varied. To go from over 200 studies down to just over 40 speaks to just how difficult synthesizing data must be. If schools rely on studies like this, they had better be confident in those putting the study together, or have someone able to fully comprehend the data and the way they are compared.
I happy to see that the study came to what seemed like a pretty logical conclusion. Instead of presenting technology as a panacea, it seems to be simply part of a good teacher's repertoire. Using technology enough can keep students on task, but using computers entirely can diminish their attitude towards their lesson. In the conclusion of the study, it is stated that more research will be done in the field of technology, and hopefully with a more standardized set of criteria. I think that would be a good thing.
An interesting fact that they did bring up, though, regards students' prior knowledge. We know that activating students' prior knowledge can be effective (though maybe not as effective as we thought, according to the Power Point presentation) in building schema necessary for fully understanding new material. This article, though, mentioned the possibility of inaccurate prior knowledge. Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention, but I've never seen much attention paid to the possibility that a student may know of Tom Sawyer, but have the completely wrong idea about the character. It will definitely make me more careful about taking the time to define the basic concepts at the beginning of a unit, and if I use an example to explain a concept, I'll make sure I know what I'm talking about.
One concept I found difficult to apply was brought up often- setting clear goals and expectations. As a Language Arts teacher, our goals are sometimes not as clear. Reading comprehension is not as concrete as something like math. Six traits makes writing somewhat more concrete, but Voice is not something easy to measure. I definitely agree that clear goals are important, but that is easier to accomplish in some areas than in others.
I was also happy to hear that we'd be examining a meta-analysis. I recently started looking through Visible Learning to inform my instructional methods as my school moves towards RtI. The article mentions the "soft science" surrounding education, and I am often frustrated by that. It seems very rare that I can read about an instructional method and know, simply, "Does it work?"
The first thing I noticed about the study, though, was how little I really know about statistics. Being a Language Arts teacher, numbers aren't exactly a big part of my day. Statistics and measurements have been a little bit of a hobby for me, but I'm very far from having a strong background.
I was surprised, also, at how much the studies varied. To go from over 200 studies down to just over 40 speaks to just how difficult synthesizing data must be. If schools rely on studies like this, they had better be confident in those putting the study together, or have someone able to fully comprehend the data and the way they are compared.
I happy to see that the study came to what seemed like a pretty logical conclusion. Instead of presenting technology as a panacea, it seems to be simply part of a good teacher's repertoire. Using technology enough can keep students on task, but using computers entirely can diminish their attitude towards their lesson. In the conclusion of the study, it is stated that more research will be done in the field of technology, and hopefully with a more standardized set of criteria. I think that would be a good thing.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Copyright and such...
This week's assignment was quite interesting. My school, like many others, has regular debates about what constitutes copyright infringement and what doesn't. I was glad to learn that anything used for an academic purpose is fair game. So I can show parts of movies in my class, or students can use them for their projects. I think.
The gray area for me comes in what constitutes "academic". (Pretty sure I'm not the only one.) If I use a song in the background of a video made for the school's drama club, is that ok as long as I don't sell DVD copies? I'm not sure. I've been using copyright-free music for the last few years, but I'd really like to have everything be fair game.
Our librarian is a big proponent of "when in doubt, just get permission". Apparently, if you contact the legal department of some copyright-holding corporation, their willing to give some leeway to schools.
I suppose any laws that cover an area this vast have to be complicated, but I would really like to see someone put together a straightforward approach to copyright laws for schools. Chances are, most schools are looking to do pretty much the same things. And none of us are trying to copyright our Elvis sighting. I hope.
The gray area for me comes in what constitutes "academic". (Pretty sure I'm not the only one.) If I use a song in the background of a video made for the school's drama club, is that ok as long as I don't sell DVD copies? I'm not sure. I've been using copyright-free music for the last few years, but I'd really like to have everything be fair game.
Our librarian is a big proponent of "when in doubt, just get permission". Apparently, if you contact the legal department of some copyright-holding corporation, their willing to give some leeway to schools.
I suppose any laws that cover an area this vast have to be complicated, but I would really like to see someone put together a straightforward approach to copyright laws for schools. Chances are, most schools are looking to do pretty much the same things. And none of us are trying to copyright our Elvis sighting. I hope.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
It hits home...
This week, I got around to thinking about how this program will actually affect my career path, and what I'll be doing when we're all done here. This happy little bit of reflection was brought about by looking at Oovoo and comparing it to Blackboard Collaborate. In doing so, I really thought about what it would be like to teach a fully-online class, and whether that class would be connected to my school, or some other entity.
If I were to teach an online class, all of the tools we've been looking at are no longer a nice added extra- they're necessary. Getting kids to use things like Google Docs, Web 2.0 word processors, etc. would be the way it has to be. That's why I'm glad that it seems kids come around on technology a little bit more quickly than adults. In the last two weeks, I've been teaching two classes using technology. Last week, I taught my peers how to use social bookmarking and cloud storage. This week, I've been teaching 6th grade students how to use Movie Maker. It was interesting to see how they approached it differently.
Honestly, I feel Movie Maker is much tougher to use, but the kids took right to it. I demonstrated for about two minutes, then set them loose. They were very willing and able to troubleshoot on their own, and only had a few issues that needed direct assistance from me. The adults, on the other hand, got mad easily. If a program didn't do what they expected, that exasperated sigh came right out. The time between when the issue came up to the point where they gave up was very short with the adults, but happily quite long with my 6th graders.
I've mentioned before that I find the digital natives/digital immigrants metaphor a bit tired, but it seems kids really do approach technology differently. Maybe its just a comfort in making mistakes and fixing them- the same way my father can make touch-ups on a home-built cabinet days after I would have reduced it to firewood. Of course, it's not true of all kids, but if I am looking at a future where I'll be relying on these tools to be used effectively, at least I'm relying on a population willing to work with them.
If I were to teach an online class, all of the tools we've been looking at are no longer a nice added extra- they're necessary. Getting kids to use things like Google Docs, Web 2.0 word processors, etc. would be the way it has to be. That's why I'm glad that it seems kids come around on technology a little bit more quickly than adults. In the last two weeks, I've been teaching two classes using technology. Last week, I taught my peers how to use social bookmarking and cloud storage. This week, I've been teaching 6th grade students how to use Movie Maker. It was interesting to see how they approached it differently.
Honestly, I feel Movie Maker is much tougher to use, but the kids took right to it. I demonstrated for about two minutes, then set them loose. They were very willing and able to troubleshoot on their own, and only had a few issues that needed direct assistance from me. The adults, on the other hand, got mad easily. If a program didn't do what they expected, that exasperated sigh came right out. The time between when the issue came up to the point where they gave up was very short with the adults, but happily quite long with my 6th graders.
I've mentioned before that I find the digital natives/digital immigrants metaphor a bit tired, but it seems kids really do approach technology differently. Maybe its just a comfort in making mistakes and fixing them- the same way my father can make touch-ups on a home-built cabinet days after I would have reduced it to firewood. Of course, it's not true of all kids, but if I am looking at a future where I'll be relying on these tools to be used effectively, at least I'm relying on a population willing to work with them.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Where'd you get that?
In talking about Wikipedia and search engines this week, I got to thinking about the reaction some people have so information sources. It seems that people are distrustful of any information that is easily retrieved, whether justified or not. "I got it off Wikipedia" or "I Googled it" will often land you a few derisive sneers if said regarding a controversial topic. But I always wonder, is this the result of honest and productive skepticism, or are people just unwilling to accept that reliable information can be found so easily?
There are plenty of articles out there about why Wikipedia can't be trusted. Heck, a five-year-old could have written that fact about Mary Magdelene. Or it could have been Dan Brown trying to generate buzz for his next book! YOU DON'T KNOW.
I like that Google and other search engines have provided a filter to only show sites from certain types of sources. And link sites like Noodle can be effective to this end as well. But it's not as though all those authors are perfect either. If there is one thing that this debate stands to teach us, it's that no information source is Gospel. Any author can be mistaken, or write down information that is slanted by his or her world view. This is possibly more of a problem on Wikipedia, or if you click one of the first links shown on Google, but as more and more people get involved in this debate, and students hear more and more about it, at least we're all getting used to the idea that facts should be corroborated, and sources should be examined.
There are plenty of articles out there about why Wikipedia can't be trusted. Heck, a five-year-old could have written that fact about Mary Magdelene. Or it could have been Dan Brown trying to generate buzz for his next book! YOU DON'T KNOW.
I like that Google and other search engines have provided a filter to only show sites from certain types of sources. And link sites like Noodle can be effective to this end as well. But it's not as though all those authors are perfect either. If there is one thing that this debate stands to teach us, it's that no information source is Gospel. Any author can be mistaken, or write down information that is slanted by his or her world view. This is possibly more of a problem on Wikipedia, or if you click one of the first links shown on Google, but as more and more people get involved in this debate, and students hear more and more about it, at least we're all getting used to the idea that facts should be corroborated, and sources should be examined.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Internet Learning Resources!
I was at the gym last week (it doesn't happen much, so I'll brag when it does), and a friend asked me about our grad program. The conversation when something like this:
Friend- What class are you taking now?
Me- Internet Learning Resources.
Friend- What was your last class again?
Me- Technology Tools.
Friend- How are they different?
Me- I...don't know.
So that jerk got me worried that this course would just be our last class over again. (Not the worst thing in the world, since our last class was pretty useful, but I was kind of hoping for something new.) I was happy to see after our first meeting that this won't be the case.
It seems like, while the last class focused on tools for presentation, this class will focus more on research. This is something I'm really looking forward to learning more about, because we've been sharing frustration at school over how to move forward with our research projects. There is a consensus that we want to move more of our research online, and give students more independence in finding their information, but there is no small amount of trepidation. In the past few years, we've moved from 100% print resources to at least one print resource, and the rest of students' research coming from links provided on the class website. The issue I have with this is that if you give a student a link, is there really any difference from giving them a book? It's good to show them some sites that can be trusted in the future, but I'd really like to have my students start searching for information and making judgments about how reliable it is. I'm hoping this class will help me do that with my students.
Friend- What class are you taking now?
Me- Internet Learning Resources.
Friend- What was your last class again?
Me- Technology Tools.
Friend- How are they different?
Me- I...don't know.
So that jerk got me worried that this course would just be our last class over again. (Not the worst thing in the world, since our last class was pretty useful, but I was kind of hoping for something new.) I was happy to see after our first meeting that this won't be the case.
It seems like, while the last class focused on tools for presentation, this class will focus more on research. This is something I'm really looking forward to learning more about, because we've been sharing frustration at school over how to move forward with our research projects. There is a consensus that we want to move more of our research online, and give students more independence in finding their information, but there is no small amount of trepidation. In the past few years, we've moved from 100% print resources to at least one print resource, and the rest of students' research coming from links provided on the class website. The issue I have with this is that if you give a student a link, is there really any difference from giving them a book? It's good to show them some sites that can be trusted in the future, but I'd really like to have my students start searching for information and making judgments about how reliable it is. I'm hoping this class will help me do that with my students.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Sayonara, 515
Looking back at to the beginning of this class, it surprises me how long ago it seems. Granted, a full 6-week class with a break in the middle can be a long time, but some of the tools that I was experimenting with at the beginning of this class (Zoho Writer, GoAnimate, 280 slides) are now fully entrenched in my planning for next year. In fact, in a few weeks, I'll be teaching a class to my fellow staff members that will include Zoho Writer and TypeWithMe.
This makes me hopeful that students will be able to do the same as I infuse more technology into my classroom. As I've found the idea of technological literacy to be important, I think students will be more inclined to think that way if they have more tools at the ready.
All in all, this was the type of class I was hoping to take when I signed up for the program. I was able to take what I learned here and apply it in my classroom immediately, but it has also given me some things to think about in the long term. In 2011 and 2012, I'll be looking to use these programs more often, regularly giving students a choice in their presentation tool, and including a project-based assessment in more units.
This makes me hopeful that students will be able to do the same as I infuse more technology into my classroom. As I've found the idea of technological literacy to be important, I think students will be more inclined to think that way if they have more tools at the ready.
All in all, this was the type of class I was hoping to take when I signed up for the program. I was able to take what I learned here and apply it in my classroom immediately, but it has also given me some things to think about in the long term. In 2011 and 2012, I'll be looking to use these programs more often, regularly giving students a choice in their presentation tool, and including a project-based assessment in more units.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
What Does It All Mean?
This class has lived up to its fairly straightforward title and has given me tools and ideas that I can immediately start using at school. Well, maybe not immediately, but in a few months when school starts again.
I used some of the presentation programs we discussed early on, and my students loved using them. As we move past classroom tools to things like Google Sites that can be used on a school-wide basis, the questions sort of change. I can picture what will or won't work for my classroom, what my students would understand, and what they would likely react to. But those things aren't true of every teacher's class. What is great for me might be a flop for someone else. Or it might be missing essential tools that I would never think of. This is why conversations between teachers are important. And as schools start to address budget cuts, these conversations are going to become more and more important.
My school currently uses School Fusion, which I don't really like. For creating a simple website where I can post announcements, leave links, and upload files, it works just fine. But as you try to do more, the interface becomes a little less than intuitive. And students seem to have a tough time with the blogs in School Fusion. A few co-workers swear by Edmodo, and seem to get their kids pretty interested. I had pretty good responses from students using Zoho Writer and Diigo to share links to share links and turn in their writing.
Ultimately, there are so many free tools out there that are just as good, if not better than tools that schools need to pay for. I have a feeling it will be a common conversation at my school, and being comfortable with some of the tools we've used in this class, I can help save space on the budget for the things we really need.
I used some of the presentation programs we discussed early on, and my students loved using them. As we move past classroom tools to things like Google Sites that can be used on a school-wide basis, the questions sort of change. I can picture what will or won't work for my classroom, what my students would understand, and what they would likely react to. But those things aren't true of every teacher's class. What is great for me might be a flop for someone else. Or it might be missing essential tools that I would never think of. This is why conversations between teachers are important. And as schools start to address budget cuts, these conversations are going to become more and more important.
My school currently uses School Fusion, which I don't really like. For creating a simple website where I can post announcements, leave links, and upload files, it works just fine. But as you try to do more, the interface becomes a little less than intuitive. And students seem to have a tough time with the blogs in School Fusion. A few co-workers swear by Edmodo, and seem to get their kids pretty interested. I had pretty good responses from students using Zoho Writer and Diigo to share links to share links and turn in their writing.
Ultimately, there are so many free tools out there that are just as good, if not better than tools that schools need to pay for. I have a feeling it will be a common conversation at my school, and being comfortable with some of the tools we've used in this class, I can help save space on the budget for the things we really need.
Monday, June 13, 2011
InTime
The InTime video that I chose shows a middle school that broadcasts daily announcements through one of the classes. In my school, we also have students broadcast announcements, but it is through our morning advisory period, and the kids are really only involved in that they read the announcements.
Next year, I will be one of the teachers starting a new remedial Language Arts program. As we are looking for new ways to engage students and give them a chance to practice communication skills, this seems like the perfect opportunity. Generally, students get pretty excited about reading the announcements and being on TV. I feel that this would be enough to engage the students and get them excited about what they're doing. Even if they are shy and don't want to appear on camera, I'd bet they would be excited to be able to say "I was holding the camera for this," or "I helped edit this."
Doing daily announcements through Language Arts classes, instead of Advisory, would give students a chance to interact more with the tools associated with putting a news broadcast together. We could also practice writing skills by asking the students to write the summary, not simply read it. This would be a good way to reinforce that good writing must give the audience all the details they need. Finally, it would also be a good way to practice speaking skills, as students would have to speak clearly enough for everyone to understand them.
Daily announcements, in some form, is something that every school has, but I would guess that very few use it as much of an educational opportunity. I think that this school is taking advantage of that opportunity, and I will definitely talk to teachers and administrators in my school to try to do the same.
Next year, I will be one of the teachers starting a new remedial Language Arts program. As we are looking for new ways to engage students and give them a chance to practice communication skills, this seems like the perfect opportunity. Generally, students get pretty excited about reading the announcements and being on TV. I feel that this would be enough to engage the students and get them excited about what they're doing. Even if they are shy and don't want to appear on camera, I'd bet they would be excited to be able to say "I was holding the camera for this," or "I helped edit this."
Doing daily announcements through Language Arts classes, instead of Advisory, would give students a chance to interact more with the tools associated with putting a news broadcast together. We could also practice writing skills by asking the students to write the summary, not simply read it. This would be a good way to reinforce that good writing must give the audience all the details they need. Finally, it would also be a good way to practice speaking skills, as students would have to speak clearly enough for everyone to understand them.
Daily announcements, in some form, is something that every school has, but I would guess that very few use it as much of an educational opportunity. I think that this school is taking advantage of that opportunity, and I will definitely talk to teachers and administrators in my school to try to do the same.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Spreadsheets!
I use spreadsheets a lot. Probably too much. I record daily behavioral data on my students, pre- and post-test scores for every unit, MAP and WKCE scores, and have even tried keeping data on how they do on daily warm-ups to identify areas that need extra review. I find it extremely useful, as the numbers often show trends or issues that I wouldn't have seen on my own. This allows me to make simple adjustments to solve these problems.
I used spreadsheets on a senior graduation project when I taught high school. Students had to simulate their first year out of high school and set a budget. Excel was handy for this, since it was easy to add another line on the budget and have everything automatically adjust. Since I moved to teaching middle school, I haven't used spreadsheets directly with the students. I could imagine some ways to incorporate it into my classroom. Currently we do a project where students create an ad campaign for an imaginary country. They could be given an advertising budget, then choose ad methods based on cost and how many each method would reach. Also, we have a fantasy league for Tom Sawyer. Students "draft" characters at the beginning of the book, then get points based on certain actions (5 points for hiding, 4 points for cleverly getting out of trouble, etc.). I use a spreadsheet to keep track of their points, but this is something that I could hand off to them in the future.
As we move forward with RtI, and efficient data collection and analysis becomes a larger part of a teacher's job, knowing how to use a spreadsheet will be more and more important. It's been interesting as I talk to teachers in other districts that some pay quite a bit for a program to analyze data (SWIS), while other districts are doing it for free with Excel.
I used spreadsheets on a senior graduation project when I taught high school. Students had to simulate their first year out of high school and set a budget. Excel was handy for this, since it was easy to add another line on the budget and have everything automatically adjust. Since I moved to teaching middle school, I haven't used spreadsheets directly with the students. I could imagine some ways to incorporate it into my classroom. Currently we do a project where students create an ad campaign for an imaginary country. They could be given an advertising budget, then choose ad methods based on cost and how many each method would reach. Also, we have a fantasy league for Tom Sawyer. Students "draft" characters at the beginning of the book, then get points based on certain actions (5 points for hiding, 4 points for cleverly getting out of trouble, etc.). I use a spreadsheet to keep track of their points, but this is something that I could hand off to them in the future.
As we move forward with RtI, and efficient data collection and analysis becomes a larger part of a teacher's job, knowing how to use a spreadsheet will be more and more important. It's been interesting as I talk to teachers in other districts that some pay quite a bit for a program to analyze data (SWIS), while other districts are doing it for free with Excel.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Online Word Processing and a Mini-Rant
I just posted my observations about Zoho Writer in the discussion board, so my apologies if this is a bit redundant, but I was really impressed. A lot of the tools I've seen on the web that try to replace Office programs either completely fall short, or fill some weird little niche. But Zoho Writer seems like something I could give to students, and they would probably be able to use it without any problems after about 10 minutes of playing around. Because of that shallow learning curve, it's something I feel I could apply in my classroom very easily.
Using programs like Zoho Writer or Google Docs take care of some common classroom problems. First of all, there are no compatibility issues. So students can't (legitimately or "accidentally") save a file at home in a format that won't open at school. Also, sharing between group members is easy. They can collaborate on a project in real time, even if they aren't in the same room. And if they are working on it at different times, it is easy to leave comment boxes in work someone else has done if it is something the group needs to discuss.
I mentioned in my post that my school is planning a project where groups are comprised of members from different classrooms. To avoid redundancy I won't go into it again, but that seems like the most likely way I would have students collaborate. I would like to have students working online together outside of school, but I always run into the problem of the 10% or so that don't have internet access. Our principal has been very clear in her stance- "Go for it. Why deprive 90% of the students because it won't work for 10%?" But the realities of the situation are what get in the way for me. Generally, those 10% that are without the home internet access are the 10% that I often worry about. The 10% that probably don't need to be separated from the rest of the class and given an alternate assignment. The 10% that really need technology instruction at school, because they don't get to wander the web and find tools like these at home. And I realize that public libraries offer free internet access, but there are some kids for whom that just isn't going to happen, and it isn't their fault. If technology becomes another thing that separates them from their peers, and reminds them how bad they've got it, when they could see technology as a way to reach out to the world, then we lose.
Using programs like Zoho Writer or Google Docs take care of some common classroom problems. First of all, there are no compatibility issues. So students can't (legitimately or "accidentally") save a file at home in a format that won't open at school. Also, sharing between group members is easy. They can collaborate on a project in real time, even if they aren't in the same room. And if they are working on it at different times, it is easy to leave comment boxes in work someone else has done if it is something the group needs to discuss.
I mentioned in my post that my school is planning a project where groups are comprised of members from different classrooms. To avoid redundancy I won't go into it again, but that seems like the most likely way I would have students collaborate. I would like to have students working online together outside of school, but I always run into the problem of the 10% or so that don't have internet access. Our principal has been very clear in her stance- "Go for it. Why deprive 90% of the students because it won't work for 10%?" But the realities of the situation are what get in the way for me. Generally, those 10% that are without the home internet access are the 10% that I often worry about. The 10% that probably don't need to be separated from the rest of the class and given an alternate assignment. The 10% that really need technology instruction at school, because they don't get to wander the web and find tools like these at home. And I realize that public libraries offer free internet access, but there are some kids for whom that just isn't going to happen, and it isn't their fault. If technology becomes another thing that separates them from their peers, and reminds them how bad they've got it, when they could see technology as a way to reach out to the world, then we lose.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
515 Week 1
It felt good to get back into the swing of classes this week, and I was glad to see that some of the ideas brought up in the text related directly to conversations we've been having at school. I was particularly intrigued by the idea of Technological Literacy, as this is something we've been talking about a lot this year (though not by that name). I had read a while ago that the most important thing to get through to students is not how to use individual programs, because they will likely be obsolete by the time our students are using them in their careers. Instead, we need to teach why we use them. What aspects of this program make it a good fit? What would make it better?
I've seen this plenty of times with my own students. Over half of them are probably better at Power Point than I am, but look like a deer in the headlights when asked to use Google Docs. They know their one program, but that knowledge isn't seen as something that would translate. Last fall, I tried to take them out of their comfort zone on a presentation. They had to research a country, then act as its tourism bureau to attract visitors. They could make a flier in Publisher (though most were discouraged from it), a promotional video in Animoto, or a commercial in Kerpoof. To my surprise, they really took to the project. Most of the Publisher users actually abandoned their flier and switched to something more interesting. And once they were engaged in a project they found fun, getting them to research was a snap- they needed information to fill that commercial.
In a few weeks, I'm doing a similar project with an advanced class. They will be creating advertisements to some event that is taking place this summer. The main requirement is that they have to use an online presentation program that they have never used before. While some might be drawn to a program like 280 slides for its similarity to their familiar Power Point, I really think more will jump on to creative programs like GoAnimate. I feel this is a great example of how technology can be used as a tool. Since each program is suited for a slightly different purpose, this will lead to discussions of different forms of writing and a review of all the different styles and purposes we discussed all year. Much more entertaining than the "Name That Style" game I had planned to fill three days.
I've seen this plenty of times with my own students. Over half of them are probably better at Power Point than I am, but look like a deer in the headlights when asked to use Google Docs. They know their one program, but that knowledge isn't seen as something that would translate. Last fall, I tried to take them out of their comfort zone on a presentation. They had to research a country, then act as its tourism bureau to attract visitors. They could make a flier in Publisher (though most were discouraged from it), a promotional video in Animoto, or a commercial in Kerpoof. To my surprise, they really took to the project. Most of the Publisher users actually abandoned their flier and switched to something more interesting. And once they were engaged in a project they found fun, getting them to research was a snap- they needed information to fill that commercial.
In a few weeks, I'm doing a similar project with an advanced class. They will be creating advertisements to some event that is taking place this summer. The main requirement is that they have to use an online presentation program that they have never used before. While some might be drawn to a program like 280 slides for its similarity to their familiar Power Point, I really think more will jump on to creative programs like GoAnimate. I feel this is a great example of how technology can be used as a tool. Since each program is suited for a slightly different purpose, this will lead to discussions of different forms of writing and a review of all the different styles and purposes we discussed all year. Much more entertaining than the "Name That Style" game I had planned to fill three days.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Reflection 501!
At the end of the last class, when our esteemed professor mentioned how this class may have seemed tough for some people, I breathed an audible sigh of relief. This one was intense! I had never taken apart a computer, was vaguely aware the Linux was a word, and was fairly sure that USB flash drives worked by my own sheer will.
That said, it's a class I'm glad I've taken. I liked Linux to the point that I said I would run it as my OS of choice on my perfect computer. (You try arguing with free!) I've also started lots of good conversations at work by just bringing up something mentioned in class. It's gotten me to think about and question a lot of things I would normally have never considered. How are we protecting our files at school? How do we keep kids from loading a virus that ruins everything? Is there a type of server configuration that sounds like a California NFL team?
I still don't feel completely confident with the technical, nuts-and-bolts aspects of computers, but I'm happy to say that I feel like I've improved. And going forward, I'm definitely going to keep looking at apps to run off a flash drive. Hopefully, by the time I'm looking back at this for our final project before graduation, I won't still be using Microsoft Movie Maker for the school drama club. (And, hopefully, "finding lolcats" will no longer break the top 10 list of my technical abilities.)
That said, it's a class I'm glad I've taken. I liked Linux to the point that I said I would run it as my OS of choice on my perfect computer. (You try arguing with free!) I've also started lots of good conversations at work by just bringing up something mentioned in class. It's gotten me to think about and question a lot of things I would normally have never considered. How are we protecting our files at school? How do we keep kids from loading a virus that ruins everything? Is there a type of server configuration that sounds like a California NFL team?
I still don't feel completely confident with the technical, nuts-and-bolts aspects of computers, but I'm happy to say that I feel like I've improved. And going forward, I'm definitely going to keep looking at apps to run off a flash drive. Hopefully, by the time I'm looking back at this for our final project before graduation, I won't still be using Microsoft Movie Maker for the school drama club. (And, hopefully, "finding lolcats" will no longer break the top 10 list of my technical abilities.)
Monday, April 4, 2011
Disasters and Security
Another week, another reminder that I am no longer 19. This week's class once again forced me to recognize that I am not the most responsible computer owner. As I had mentioned, I have antivirus software, but the updates I run fall somewhat short of "regular". I'll have to admit that this is irresponsible because at home, I use the laptop my school provides me. This is the same computer I use at work on the school's network. So, if I got a virus on my computer because I was to lazy to click a few prompts and wait for an upload, I could infect other computers along with mine.
As far as backups is concerned, I don't backup anywhere near as I should. About twice a year (winter break, end of year), I drop all my important files onto a flash drive. Basically, anything that passes the "Would I get mad if I lost this" test goes on. All the other files have to fend for themselves. Sorry, guys.
In looking into antivirus software and backup solutions, I realize that I probably should spend a few bucks to keep myself safe. If I was working on my own personal computer, I would probably take it more seriously. As it stands, I get antivirus software, and I get backup protection when I'm at school. But this has definitely been a productive activity, as I will want to start building better habits if I start using my own computer. So, if I were to choose now, I like the variety of free antivirus software available, but I would probably drop the money for Norton or ESET. Likewise, Carbonite backup is pretty affordable, and sounds like it would be all the backup protection you would need. Plus, the fact that it backs up automatically appeals to the lazy 19 year old in me.
As far as backups is concerned, I don't backup anywhere near as I should. About twice a year (winter break, end of year), I drop all my important files onto a flash drive. Basically, anything that passes the "Would I get mad if I lost this" test goes on. All the other files have to fend for themselves. Sorry, guys.
In looking into antivirus software and backup solutions, I realize that I probably should spend a few bucks to keep myself safe. If I was working on my own personal computer, I would probably take it more seriously. As it stands, I get antivirus software, and I get backup protection when I'm at school. But this has definitely been a productive activity, as I will want to start building better habits if I start using my own computer. So, if I were to choose now, I like the variety of free antivirus software available, but I would probably drop the money for Norton or ESET. Likewise, Carbonite backup is pretty affordable, and sounds like it would be all the backup protection you would need. Plus, the fact that it backs up automatically appeals to the lazy 19 year old in me.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Viruses
Apparently, I am a terrible role model for protecting against viruses. I have always just used whatever virus software came with my computer, and I only updated it when the update reminders became annoying enough. In college, I used file-sharing programs like Napster, Morpheus, and Limewire. (To share public domain audiobooks only, of course.) Yet, I never had a problem with my computer that I could point to and say "See, that's a virus."
Sure, the little Dell I had at the time slowed down a lot over my years of college, but I usually chalked that up to the hard drive being nearly full. But I've never had any popups at weird times, never had the computer shut down randomly, or really do anything on a regular basis outside of what I told it to do. But the certainty of the "Windows? Yup, you've had a virus," stance expressed in class has me a little concerned now. I hadn't really thought that beyond just making my computer do random things, viruses could also be stealing my passwords.
So I suppose I can file this one under "should have known better, do now". Right after class I updated my virus protection software and plan to go through and strengthen my passwords. After all, I do my banking online, and if my password gets stolen, I could lose the dozens of dollars I have in there.
Sure, the little Dell I had at the time slowed down a lot over my years of college, but I usually chalked that up to the hard drive being nearly full. But I've never had any popups at weird times, never had the computer shut down randomly, or really do anything on a regular basis outside of what I told it to do. But the certainty of the "Windows? Yup, you've had a virus," stance expressed in class has me a little concerned now. I hadn't really thought that beyond just making my computer do random things, viruses could also be stealing my passwords.
So I suppose I can file this one under "should have known better, do now". Right after class I updated my virus protection software and plan to go through and strengthen my passwords. After all, I do my banking online, and if my password gets stolen, I could lose the dozens of dollars I have in there.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Computer History for Rob Granger
My first computer was a Commadore 64. I know it was likely bought at some point after my birth, but I don't really remember- it was always just there. It really functioned only as a word processor. When I became old enough to write papers for school, that's what I used. We didn't have any games for it, nor did anyone in the family use it for anything other than typing and printing. My parents wanted to be sure we could also use a typewriter, so my first few essays were clumsily typed out that way. The computer was much more convenient for making revisions and correcting mistakes. However, I remember associating the computer with difficulty rather than convenience. Any time I was using the computer, it was for an important assignments. And important assignments meant my father would make me proofread and revise it a few times, rather than just filling out a worksheet or doing simple bookwork.
When I was in about 5th grade, we got a new computer and internet access. I remember playing games on Prodigy with my sisters and downloading all types of shareware games. I rocked at Commander Keen, and that's a fact. We tried a few other service providers, and eventually stuck with AOL for a while when the 1500 free hours disks showed up everywhere you looked. Through school, I dabbled with computers, but it never really stuck with me as a hobby. As a result, I never turned into any sort of computer wizard, but I was always fairly comfortable picking up new skills or troubleshooting typical problems.
It wasn't really until I started teaching that I made a concerted effort to start learning how to effectively use technology. I find the "digital native/digital immigrants" metaphor a little tiresome, but I wanted to find a way to engage my students. Plus I was sick of them being better at Power Point than I was. I took a few classes on the basics of some common programs, talked to some co-workers, and eventually got comfortable adding new skills again. Plus, the tools in Microsoft Excel really sparked my interest when I started trying out different types of record-keeping with my students.
While I can't say that I've ever felt inspired by a computer itself, I do feel that this is a pretty exciting time to educate myself about technology. I'm always excited to share a new tool with co-workers or show an interesting website to friends. But I'll still rock out a little Commander Keen every once in a while.
When I was in about 5th grade, we got a new computer and internet access. I remember playing games on Prodigy with my sisters and downloading all types of shareware games. I rocked at Commander Keen, and that's a fact. We tried a few other service providers, and eventually stuck with AOL for a while when the 1500 free hours disks showed up everywhere you looked. Through school, I dabbled with computers, but it never really stuck with me as a hobby. As a result, I never turned into any sort of computer wizard, but I was always fairly comfortable picking up new skills or troubleshooting typical problems.
It wasn't really until I started teaching that I made a concerted effort to start learning how to effectively use technology. I find the "digital native/digital immigrants" metaphor a little tiresome, but I wanted to find a way to engage my students. Plus I was sick of them being better at Power Point than I was. I took a few classes on the basics of some common programs, talked to some co-workers, and eventually got comfortable adding new skills again. Plus, the tools in Microsoft Excel really sparked my interest when I started trying out different types of record-keeping with my students.
While I can't say that I've ever felt inspired by a computer itself, I do feel that this is a pretty exciting time to educate myself about technology. I'm always excited to share a new tool with co-workers or show an interesting website to friends. But I'll still rock out a little Commander Keen every once in a while.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Social Bookmarking and Skype
I've used Diigo for a little while now and really like it. With all the websites that I stumble upon and want to remember, my bookmarks list was starting to get a little too long to really be useful. I like using the tags to organize my bookmarks and make them more user-friendly. However, I've never used to social part of Diigo. I can see where it would be useful- my co-workers and I often trade links regarding lessons, online tools, or just something interesting to share with the students. I've often found myself re-sending links that had been accidentally lost or requesting links be sent again.
By sharing bookmarks with co-workers, we could eliminate that little annoyance. But more importantly, we could share resources without having to decide whether or not something is worth sharing. A co-worker may find value in something I would not have chosen to send. Also, other teachers could look at my bookmarks when they need it, not just when I feel like sending them. I could also connect with teachers outside of my district to bring in new ideas and practices.
Skype is a tool that I've never used before, but have often wanted to. I think that Skyping with an author would be an experience that students would remember for a long time. The problem is, I can't think of an effective lesson. Talking to the author about his or her inspiration for the book and the process of writing a novel would be memorable, but does it fit my learning goals? My students talk a lot about theme in novels and short stories, so they could discuss that with the author. But that somehow feels like calling an astrophysicist to do simple algebra. If I can come up with something good (or if someone left a comment with a genius idea), though, it's go time. For now, though, I like the idea someone mentioned during class about connecting with another class and Skyping to present projects or discuss the reading.
By sharing bookmarks with co-workers, we could eliminate that little annoyance. But more importantly, we could share resources without having to decide whether or not something is worth sharing. A co-worker may find value in something I would not have chosen to send. Also, other teachers could look at my bookmarks when they need it, not just when I feel like sending them. I could also connect with teachers outside of my district to bring in new ideas and practices.
Skype is a tool that I've never used before, but have often wanted to. I think that Skyping with an author would be an experience that students would remember for a long time. The problem is, I can't think of an effective lesson. Talking to the author about his or her inspiration for the book and the process of writing a novel would be memorable, but does it fit my learning goals? My students talk a lot about theme in novels and short stories, so they could discuss that with the author. But that somehow feels like calling an astrophysicist to do simple algebra. If I can come up with something good (or if someone left a comment with a genius idea), though, it's go time. For now, though, I like the idea someone mentioned during class about connecting with another class and Skyping to present projects or discuss the reading.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Introduction
While I begin my Masters program in Instructional Technology at Cardinal Stritch, in order to figure out what I want from the program, I have to think about why I teach in the first place. Of course, I care about kids, I have a personal passion for learning, and I want to inspire others. But my inspiration for exploring technology in my classroom came from an unlikely source:
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Manny Parra.
Manny has loads of natural talent. He had lots of success at lower levels, but something went wrong. For some reason, he just stopped performing up to his capabilities. For a while, people said he was just struggling with the transition. As his struggles continued, they questioned his focus. They thought that maybe he just wasn't motivated to succeed. They said his attitude was causing him to waste his talents. As a middle-school teacher, this sounded familiar. Replace poise on the mound with behavior in the classroom, training with homework habits, and the fastball with reading ability, and you've got a generic script for any number of parent-teacher conferences.
Manny was frustrating. I knew he could do it, and I didn't think he was a bad guy. He was trying! Then I read this article. This was my introduction to the world of sabermetrics- the advanced study of baseball statistics. I'll save you the read and summarize by saying that the author of this article broke down the mystery that is Manny Parra with every imaginable statistic. He looked at Manny's performance and dissected every possible part of the game to figure out what was going wrong. Then I thought about my students who had been labelled with a "bad attitude" or "lack of motivation". How was I analyzing their performance? What was I doing to solve that mystery? I decided I had to start applying a sabermetric approach to education.
That touched off an obsession with measuring everything I could. I broke every assignment into little pieces. Where was it worked on? What skills were used? How was the student behaving that day? What day of the week was it? What trends was I seeing? Was I seeing them from everyone?
It was beautiful, except for one major problem- I teach Language Arts. My last math class was an algebra class my freshman year of college. My only experience with statistics outside of MLB box scores was looking at one WKCE or MAP number and saying either "Oh, good," or "Uh-oh." Microsoft Excel to the rescue!
Fast forward a few years, I've had a great time finding tools to find effective solutions to problems large and small. And to bring this post back to the original point, that's why I enrolled in an Instructional Technology course. I want to learn about better tools and better methods to solve problems in the classroom. And I want my students to do the same. I don't want to simply assign Power Point presentations, then say, "Look! They used computers! They're ready for the future!" I want them to realize what is out there, and actively seek the best solution to their problems.
And if they learn that batting average is overrated, that's just gravy.
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