Merry Christmas

Peace and joy to all of you! Take time during your holiday break to rest and reflect on what is important.

Online Symphony Orchestra Project

I just found out about this exciting project, courtesy of Joyce Valenza at School Library Journal. Even if you or your students don't participate, this will be fun to follow! And it will end up providing a great set of resources for music teachers everywhere. Check it out!

Merry Merry Animating!

Here's my first "GoAnimate" creation. This is quite easy and fun. Put on your thinking cap - there should be lots of ways to creatively use this with students!

Using Go Animate

This is a terrific suggestion, and I'm going to try Go Animate after finding this animated video about Web 2.0 on a wiki, which you can check out here:
http://web2educationuk.wetpaint.com/




Isn't this great?

Sticky Learning

Fall has settled in to our area, and the beautiful colors, mild evenings and sunny days are accompanied by nature setting the stage for renewal next year. My somewhat clutzy but always lovable Golden Retriever, Sarge, comes running to me every evening now that fall has settled in. He skids to a halt and sits at my feet with a soulful look. He knows what to expect - help! Now that every plant on the farmstead is going to seed, the paths he follows while on patrol are full of stickers. It only took two nights of brushing his coat out with a curry comb for him to develop the expectation that, no matter what he gets into during the day, I will take care of helping him sort out the information he's collected.
The analogy to learning? In some roundabout way, Sarge has experienced some 'sticky learning' of his own. A romp in the fields results in his picking up a lot of things, not just scents of all those other animals that roam the area. And, running to your trainer when she calls you will result in immediate assistance.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants - Are we using the correct terminology here?

The past few years, many technology users have borrowed the terminology, "Digital Immigrants" to talk about adults and teachers in general, and the term "Digital Natives" to talk about our students and young adults. Like the use of "Generation Y" and "Generation X" versus the "Baby Boomers", we still try to classify citizens into some group, whether or not they truly belong there.

Yesterday, I actually noted that someone is using this idea, "Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants" to title an entire day's presentation. Isn't that just a bit of overkill? Having watched teachers and students interact with technology in the classroom for many years, I've come to conclusion that using these terms can be bogus. We use them as excuses all the time.

When it comes to learning, the term "LEARNING" should be the primary concern of all of us as educators. I see plenty of young adults and students that are very good users of digital technology, but they haven't much of an idea of what constitutes verifiable information. Many don't demonstrate good search techniques, understanding of documentation, how to follow links to find new information. Some of the demonstrations of learning they create for class are more a demonstration of skills than a demonstration of mastery. They don't seem to have a very good understanding of what 21st Century Skills should be all about.

Many teachers don't, either. This moves us back to a more level playing field, as it were, regarding making successful use of digital tools for learning and as a way to demonstrate deep understanding of issues and content. Think about just how long some of these technologies have been available. The term 'weblog' was first used by John Barger, a member of MY generation, in 1997. The term 'Web 2.0' to define the read/write interactive, participatory web only goes back to 2004. In these areas, we are all "Digital Immigrants" no matter what our age.

We need to go back to some of the basics for all of us, teachers and students alike:
What is it I already know?
What do I need to find out?
Where is the best source for this?
How do I best use technology tools and resources to accomplish this?
What search techniques, search engines, databases would be the best place to begin looking?
What technology tools will I use to demonstrate my thoughts and ideas - to show my learning?
How will I document the resources I found?

If you feel you are one of those educators that needs some assistance using 21st Century tools, then be the one that says I want to learn! Take an online class, go to a workshop, visit with teachers in your building (like your media specialist) that can help you. You know if you are one of those that is using this 'Digital Immigrant' status as an excuse! Give it up - join the learners - you'll be glad you did, and you will most likely find that your career is rejuvenated as a result.

Rethinking Information

From heiroglyphics to virtual manipulable data, the storage and retrieval of information has continually taken on different forms throughout the history of man and machine. Watch this video by Dr. Michael Wesch of Kansas State University, and notice how many information technologies you see that are already being subverted by new technologies; some are already obsolete. Better learn how to change the way you think about information and how it is stored and accessed - you don't want to make yourself Information Illiterate in this century.

Learning for Me - Part 3

NECC Conference Musings:

Tuesday night: Late evening for me - I went to the River Walk with two younger (much younger!) teacher friends for dinner and chat. It was a lovely evening, unusually cool for San Antonio this time of year! It was fun to hear them talk about their schools, which are so different than what I've ever experienced. One directs an after-school program for middle schools, the other teaches in a huge (to our local way of thinking) school in New Jersey. Their concerns and dreams for the students are the same, but their environments are so different!

And that reminds me of the most important thing that I've been reminded of this week. We need to change our schools and the way we 'do' education, if we are going to change the future for our kids. I'm in a hurry, and I know why! We are eight years into the new century, and while some schools are teaching 21st century skills, many are not. We need to get busy for the sake of these kids.

Learning for Me! Part 2

NECC Conference Musings

Monday evening notes: Today was a good day for learning. Well, outside of the fact that the rooms set aside for the BYOL laptops turned out to be waaayyyyy too small for the numbers who wanted to be in on the classes. There were long lines, people turned away, and thus - some pretty cranky people! Costs a huge amount to travel to a national conference, so being turned away from the learning hurts in more than one way. We need some 21st Century solutions - no one should have to miss out because of the number of seats available. How archaic is that? At the very least, we ought to web-stream and archive every single session, not just the handouts.

My favorite session today was Will Richardson and friends, who presented on live web-streaming. I liked the fact that it was unstructured and informal and extremely informative. It was, "Here it is, this is what you can do, here's the possibilities and the problems, we need to explore this and see where it takes us!" I already have a UStream account, now I'm going to give it a go. Look out, team - we've got another trial to set up!

I checked out the Apple classroom today for a short while. One of their Apple educators is one of my "teacher's pets" for want of a better term. Tina was in the second wave of teachers I mentored in a four-year ongoing project in a local school district. About a year ago, I prodded and pestered her to apply to the Apple Distinguished Educators Program, and of course, she was accepted. What a joy to watch her now!

Learning for Me!

NECC Conference Musings

Sunday night notes: I'm attending NECC 2008 in San Antonio this week. Yesterday and today were "pre-conference workshops"; you pay extra to attend these in the hope that they will be deeper, more intense than the regular one-hour presentations. The one I chose yesterday was good, but the one today was better! More hands-on, student-directed. The presenters did a good job of practicing a constructivist learning experience.

I was late getting to the major speaker event this evening, so I listened to it out in the hallways where it was being simulcasted on big screens and groups were watching. On the screen next, there was a running commentary in a chat about what the presenter was saying. Quite a bit of that 'chatter' was negative, and I wondered about that. Sure, many of those chatting had read the presenter's books, and already had some insight into what his positions are. Perhaps they had, but probably there were many in the audience who hadn't. I hope the negative people don't discourage those for whom the information is new. The best of NECC should be that there is learning for all, no matter where they are on the continuum.

Why am I here?

I'm giving myself a trip down memory lane this morning, before my teacher-students arrive for their fourth training day in our instructional technology program. As this summer has progressed, I've found myself reflecting negatively about workshops in general. I had scheduled some of what I thought were really terrific workshops this summer - all of them connected to Web 2.0 Tools and 21st Century skills in some way. None of them, so far, have attracted many teachers to sign up. My team is getting interest in some of our 'basic skills' classes, but the others, no. No one seems willing to step out and try these 21st Century tools. Why? Money issues? Salesmanship on our part? I don't know.

So today, I've pulled up videos of teacher presentations I've collected over the years, and I'm doing some reflection. I think it's going to improve my attitude.

You see, as each school year draw to a close, I have each group of teachers I've mentored that year prepare a reflective presentation. In it, they answer four questions:
What makes me a better learner?
What makes me a better teacher?
What makes my students better learners?
How does the technology I have available enable these things to happen for me and my students?

Each year, I get the basically the same reaction from the group, "You want us to what?" Many don't want to do it and think of it as a time-wasting assignment, but with a little grumbling they get it together.

The magic happens at our last group meeting of the year. Each teacher presents to the group. They've been given the opportunity to reflect on themselves both as learners and as teachers, and the results are incredible - sometimes funny, sometimes moving. We get little time as educators for reflection, but when we make the time, the results are powerful. I video the presentations and give each school an edited DVD of their teachers' presentations. This impresses the teachers, and their administrators.

Today, the videos are impressing me again. Reminding me that absolutely, positively, I am doing what I can in my little world to improve education for this generation of learners. Small audiences or large, one teacher, one small group of teachers, at a time.

Still Too True

"It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry." ~ Albert Einstein, 1949

Next week, I'm heading out to San Antonio. The NECC Conference beacons me, along with thousands of others, to come together and share and learn and try out new ways to connect our students and teachers to that 'holy curiosity of inquiry' that Eistein spoke of.

I can't wait! Hope to see many of my e-friends there!

:) L.

"Scaredy Cats"?

Have educators all become "scaredy" cats? Is the spotlight of NCLB enabling us – or dissuading us – from making positive change in schools?

I’ll admit that sometimes, I’m a bit discouraged. Like everyone in education, I have too much to do and too little time. That’s not what is getting me down lately, however. What is hurting is the lack of enthusiasm I see on the part of those around me about learning something new. Time after time, I hear the excuse “I don’t have time for anything but the basics.” What on earth does that mean? To you? More importantly, to your students?

Maybe to you, it means, “I have to teach to the test.” News for you: We have ALWAYS taught to a test. How else did you give grades? Most of us certainly did not give grades based solely on the true demonstration of understanding of deep curriculum and ability to apply that curriculum to solve problems.

Maybe to your students, it means, “No use asking questions during class; the teacher doesn’t have time. When I ask a question in the middle of class, he always says he’ll answer that later after we get though the material he has to cover today.” Don’t believe me? I’ve had students tell me this at least twice this past semester.

We need to start making time for the NEW basics! A student who masters the 21st Century Learning Skills will pass those NCLB tests. Paying these tests as much attention as we are is only as good as we make that attention. What needs the attention are not the tests and the scores, it is the STUDENTS!

We don’t have many excuses left. All the research points to differentiated instruction and integrated curriculum as the best way to help all students learn to a level that leads to deep understanding. We all know that learning is not demonstrated by spitting back basic facts, but by learning how to apply those facts to new learning and solving problems. We also know that teachers need 21st Century Skills as desperately as their students do. This world is not going to slow down while we think about getting ourselves ‘ready’ for the future. The future is here and now!

So, I challenge you to give up your excuses. Make the time to get the skills you need, learn something new and practice what you preach to your students.

Speaking of Change . . . .

In a high school government class, we showed this video clip from YouTube to initiate a talk about rhetoric. The students loved the video, and then created their own videos. They downloaded politicians speaking about specific issues. Then, students made mashup videos of the various candidates all speaking about one specific issue, such as the Iraq War or the high cost of health care. It was exciting! And the discussions generated showed that the students really understood that it can difficult to find out the truth about politicians' stands on various issues. I believe they are more educated about these issues now than many voters!

Enjoy the clip! And think about how YOU and others learn to understand rhetoric.

We Tell Stories! In a Million Ways!

Web 2.0 tools give use a multitude of ways to reach students with the love of reading and writing. Thanks to the Remote Access blog, I just learned about another excellent resource that you should take a look at for some terrific ideas.

The resource is a site posted by Penguin Books called "We Tell Stories." This site posted six stories, written by six different authors, using six different digital formats to engage you, the reader. Was I ever engaged! Take a look! Who could fail to be engaged in at least one of these formats?

My personal favorite is "The 21 Steps" which uses Google maps mashups to tell the story. I couldn't stop reading and following along! I went to London once, and it was such fun to recognize places I had seen.

Kudos to Penguin Books and these six authors for giving us such great ideas! Wouldn't it be fun to have students write and tell a story using Google maps? Or how about the design of the graphic story, "Hard Times?"

Have I engaged you yet? Quick - click and lose yourself in a story!
We Tell Stories

I Read Blocked Blogs!

The Internet world of many teachers I mentor at several different schools has been shaken up recently by the installation of “new and improved” school filtering systems. It is not the fault of these schools’ tech coordinators, who are struggling valiantly to unblock good resources and keep within the boundaries of the law while they are doing it. Rather, the schools have been sold services by vendors who seem to believe that the ‘read only’ web is easier to deal with in educational settings and do not understand the learning power of Web 2.0.

Tonight, trying to catch up on some blog reading of my own, I found there is a project that just recently started up to promote more informed use of school filtering systems. Using the slogan, “I Read Blocked Blogs”, a Wiki at: http://ad4dcss.wikispaces.com/I+read+blocked+blogs, and “Word of Web 2.0 Tools”, the word is spreading rapidly.

To quote the wiki site, “Read/Write Web resources provide valuable and necessary experience with 21st Century communication and collaboration tools, and we believe that it is in the best interests of our learners if we take the time to TEACH them how to use these tools appropriately, safely, effectively, and efficiently rather than just block their use altogether.”

I strongly concur! Help spread the word yourself! Follow the links from the wiki, check out the bloggers in my blogroll, many of whom are participating and are posting more information, and help us help learners everywhere! Filter intelligently and knowingly, and help all our learners become strong digital citizens.

Amazing!

The MACE Conference continues to be better every year. I learn so much at the sessions! I really enjoyed Kevin Honeycutt’s presentation, “Developing the Filter Between Kids’ Ears”. My favorite quote: “You can’t outsource AMAZING!”

When we’re talking about the huge need for teaching 21st Century Skills, we can’t neglect the facts. It’s been estimated that our students will change careers fourteen times, perhaps even more, in their lifetimes. These careers haven’t even been invented yet! We work in challenging times and these challenges will only increase. Jobs are being outsourced daily. We have to enable ourselves, and our students, to be engaged learners who can survive and thrive; who love engaging with challenges and anticipate what changes life will bring, not dread them.

Do you love learning new things? Do you encourage your students to love learning new things and creatively solving problems? How do you enable your students to be AMAZING?

Fun, Fantastic, FREE

I love Web 2.0 Tools! Kay Good (a library media specialist at a local school district and a great educator as well as a good friend) and I are doing a presentation at the MACE Conference in two weeks, all about the favorite Web 2.0 Tools in our toolkits.
The only problem is picking which ones to share! There are so many! Going through our bookmarks and shared notebooks and de.licio.us tags, we have tried and used close to a hundred - and of course, there are many many more! You'll find a new public Google notebook with some of our links at this address:
Fun, Fantastic, Free Tools

Here's our opening video clip. We'll be sharing however many we can cram into our alloted time slot, as well as point them to this shared notebook and blog. Join us! It will be, well, de.licio.us!

Multiple Intelligences and Thinking about Learning

One of my favorite resources is the book, The Multiple Intelligences of Reading and Writing: Making the Words Come Alive by Thomas Armstrong, available here from ASCD. What does a book about the multiple intelligences have to do with technology integration?

EVERYTHING! If what we are about is learning, then we need to use all of our multiple ways of learning to get that learning accomplished! Technology applications across the curriculum truly enable us to reach all of our students, no matter what the modality they use to learn best.

Time to Break Some Rules!

I'm in hypertext mode again - jumping all over the internet from place to place, following threads. This time, I stumbled upon the Google Testing Labs Blog - yes, they not only have one, they air their conversations in public! More than interesting!

Their motto is, "If it ain't broke, you're not trying hard enough!" What rules have you broken lately? In education, and in other venues as well, we're often scared to break rules of operation, for fear of making mistakes, or being criticized. Well, I think it's time we invited some criticism! Time to make some mistakes, make some discoveries about learning!

It's a new year and it's time to try some new things! What have you done lately that is 'out of your box'? Share it and we'll post it!