Three for Thursday 12-18-08

I know it has been a while. I have been working in other research which I will post later. Here are some sites that have caught my attention this week.

Cool Resources for the Periodic Table. Science teachers have always been lucky. Ever since I have been collecting resources from the Internet, they have had wonderful visualizations, virtualizations, animations, etc. This is a collection of cool links of the periodic table, an awesome virtualization in itself. I wish I had these when I was in high school.

NIBIPEDIA This is still in Beta, but this could be promising. They started with mashups from TED, which I enjoy. Soon they will allow users to upload their Nibs. Nibs, by the way, are visual bookmarks on a video timeline.

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes. Great for my Leadership class.

The Networked Teacher

NetworkedTeacher
Originally uploaded by courosa

A continuation from the previous post. This is a graphic worth discussing. One item that is missing from both of these graphics is the student, but we obviously will have to assume that is a given.

Typical Teacher Network

TypicalTeacherNetwork
Originally uploaded by courosa

I am experimenting with Flickr's blogging tool. I like this graphic, but compare it to the next post.

The Networked Student

College Prep Continued

In an interesting article "College Stops Giving Students New Email Accounts: Start of a New Trend?" Boston College will now no longer be issuing new accounts stating, "Students have already created digital identities The officials realized that the students already had established digital identities by the time they entered college, so the new email addresses were just not being utilized. The college will offer forwarding services instead."

This may be a new trend, and I am interested in thinking about how high schools can help prepare students for it. Although we too have a difficulty of students to read their school-issued email, I believe that schools need to help them understand digital identities and look at ways to create a their own online dossier, whether it be Facebook, Google accounts, blogs, Twitter, etc. How can they use the web not only for not only connecting now but to also let it grow and develop with them as they grow older?

By the way, is this true?




Also see earlier post on College Prep.

End in Mind

Earlier I had posted a Three for Thursday on College Prep. Last week, we had our first trimester exams. Since I have been teaching at St. Margaret's, we have given our exams in our gym for one week. This arrangement allows every student to take a core subject exam at the same time. Each day students take an exam (for example, English on Monday) in the morning, then lunch, then a guided study period with teachers for the next day (History on Tuesday), and that structure is for five days (English, History, Math, Language, Science). Electives offer their assessments during a class period.

This structure is very efficient. Faculty are available for questions during the exam. All of the 150 students are taking the exam at the same time; moreover, students can focus on one exam at a time. I just have trouble with this model of an efficient machine. Although it may make sense, is it right? Is it best for our students? Is this a healthy preparation for the future? Ever since I came to the school, I just cringed at putting especially our younger students in the gym in a cold environment under the fluorescent lights, distant from the teacher, given strict rules about seating, movement, noise, etc. I was concerned about our 8th and 9th graders, who may be taking their first cumulative exam in this environment. I asked why we did it this way, and the response was that this is what they do in college--we are preparing them for college. Really? First of all, I never had that experience in college. We actually had a greater freedom. We could take the exam on any particular day at a specific morning or afternoon time we wanted during the exam week. We had an honor system and could take it in any classroom. Now I know that is a lot of freedom for high school students, but we do have an honor system and do not give much trust to the students. I also think there is some merit to having student make that choice of when they want to take the exam.

My primary objection to the system is that it limits the assessment. I can be as creative as I want during the term. I can find ways to give authentic assessments, but when it comes time to give them a grade for a final term assessment, I am limited to a test. I am limited to assessing the thinner parts of Dale's Cone with less of an authentic assessment or demonstration of real understanding. I taught 8th grade English when I first arrived and actually circumvented the system and gave more authentic assessment in my classroom. When I had multiple sections of History, I gave into the system, and my assessments became more conservative and, although throrough, were actually less creative.

My question is: Although this is an efficient system, is this the best system? Personally, I am working for student portfolios and better assessments for understanding during and at the end of the term. I believe this discussion of assessments and keeping the end in mind for our curriculum and individual classes is the direction for dialogue about what is best for our future.

Cart Before the Horse Pt. II

This is a continuation of an earlier post. We now have a group of about 20 faculty working on a list of technology skills divided into fundamental, proficient, and distinguished. We attempted this ten years ago, and have a very outdated document. The purpose of this work is for our curriculum guide which outlines not only content in the scope and sequence of different departments but also the progression of skills across the curriculum. The technology is just one set of skills but not to be isolated from other learning. We just felt that this was worth starting with just to begin the long dialogue of moving into the 21st century.

The difficulty I am having right now is where the appropriate focus should be. Right now I am perusing through my notes from writings addressing 21st century skills (most recently, Stephen Downes and Ian Jukes). I just linked to David Warlick's "Big Ideas 4 Eduction." I have linked faculty to NETS for students, AASL, 21st century skills.org, etc. These are good sources, and we know the pedagogy should guide the use of technology, but still at some point we need to look specifically at what skills students should know and then what should teachers know to be able to guide their students. For example, should students know about page layout properties in an office productivity suite like Word, Open Office, Google docs? This is minor, but at what point to we expect students and teachers to know this information. What about understanding tabbed browsing, bookmarking, etc.? I know this type of dialogue drags us away from the larger goals to tech specific "stuff," but I do think we have sit down and discuss the specifics at some point. I have searched online for guidance but without satisfactory results.

I will publish a wiki soon so that our group can collaborate. Here is an older wiki on looking at basic skills for our faculty. I am interested in any feedback or guidance to see if this is a wrong path to take as we think about the future of our students and our institution.

Three for Thursday: College Prep?

One aspect of our mission is that we are a college preparatory school. But what does that mean? I realize that we want our students to be successful at the next level, but at times I feel that holds us back. Are we trying to have our students please college professors who are more backwards or behind the times than we are? As Sir Kenneth Robinson asked why do we hold our college professors in such high esteem as the end in mind? They are such an odd lot. Moreoever, it is difficult when we as teachers use our own college experiences of the past and hold them as a model for the future. I am glad to see that colleges are changing too. Here are some links to see what colleges are doing to prepare their students for the future. Perhaps we can keep this in mind to prepare our students for future colleges.

The Future of Higher Education from The Economist.
Significant challenges loom [for colleges]. For all of its benefits, technology remains a disruptive innovation—and an expensive one. Faculty members used to teaching in one way may be loath to invest the time to learn new methods, and may lack the budget for needed support. This paper examines the role of technology in shaping the future of higher education.


The Tower and the Cloud
The emergence of the networked information economy is unleashing two powerful forces. On one hand, easy access to high-speed networks is empowering individuals. People can now discover and consume information resources and services globally from their homes. Further, new social computing approaches are inviting people to share in the creation and edification of information on the Internet. Empowerment of the individual—or consumerization—is reducing the individual's reliance on traditional brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of new and emerging virtual ones. Second, ubiquitous access to high-speed networks along with network standards, open standards and content, and techniques for virtualizing hardware, software, and services is making it possible to leverage scale economies in unprecedented ways. What appears to be emerging is industrial-scale computing—a standardized infrastructure for delivering computing power, network bandwidth, data storage and protection, and services. Consumerization and industrialization beg the question "Is this the end of the middle?"; that is, what will be the role of "enterprise" IT in the future? Indeed, the bigger question is what will become of all of our intermediating institutions? This volume examines the impact of IT on higher education and on the IT organization in higher education.

In digital era, blue books still causing white knuckles Will the ever go away?

More visualization!

I just had to share this after previous posts on news visualization. The New York Tims just released The Visualization Lab.

Today, we’re taking the next step in reader involvement with the launch of The New York Times Visualization Lab, which allows readers to create compelling interactive charts, graphs, maps and other types of graphical presentations from data made available by Times editors. NYTimes.com readers can comment on the visualizations, share them with others in the form of widgets and images, and create topic hubs where people can collect visualizations and discuss specific subjects.

-source

I think that it is important to teach students to understand visual information from others but also be able to visualize(?) their own data at times. This is not a new literacy but an ever important one. It reminds me of the work of Edward Tufte and his writings and talks on the graphic press. Now in web 2.0 fashion the consumer can be the producer of information.

Print to Web

I was reading a couple of days ago the New York Times article about the end to the daily printing of Christian Science Monitor. This is the first paper to end circulation, but I have seen other signs of things to come. I usually have my students in my World History class subscribe to a major news magazine such as Time or Newsweek. This year, we could not get a student subscription to either and now they are reading Upfront published by the New York Times. I actually like it better, but why the difficulty in giving subscriptions to our students? I have, however, moved to teaching my students to use RSS feeds and social bookmarks, which actually seems to be easier.

The change in CSM may not actually affect my students. I have liked the accessibility of the paper because of the size and length of the articles. CSM is already one of our news feeds. I have used CSM since high school, especially liking the coverage of world events.

"The Monitor is an anomaly in journalism, a nonprofit financed by a church and delivered through the mail. But with seven Pulitzer Prizes and a reputation for thoughtful writing and strong international coverage, it long maintained an outsize influence in the publishing world, which declined as its circulation has slipped to 52,000, from a high of more than 220,000 in 1970.The Monitor is an anomaly in journalism, a nonprofit financed by a church and delivered through the mail. But with seven Pulitzer Prizes and a reputation for thoughtful writing and strong international coverage, it long maintained an outsize influence in the publishing world, which declined as its circulation has slipped to 52,000, from a high of more than 220,000 in 1970."

Good luck, CSM. I look forward to continued use in a new format.

Faculty Meeting Wiki

I have been experimenting with wikispaces for our faculty meetings this year. One of our objectives is to update our goals for knowledge, skills, and values we want our students to develop by the time they graduate.

It was my desire that perhaps we could do without much of our meeting time by letting faculty members participate and give input to brainstorms and collaboration asynchronously-- that is on their own time. When I introduced the concept, I could see how many were willing to give it a try, and I was optimistic. I did give faculty meeting time during our first meeting for groups of faculty to brainstorm, and as we concluded, we had definitions, links to resources, embedded videos. There was excitement in the air. As we go into our next long meeting, however, there has been little input by our teachers, and I feel very deflated. As I reflect on what happened, here is what I think needs to be improved:

1) I wanted faculty to work together, but once they grouped, only one actually recorded on the wiki. That means that most were not able to see easy text entry and uploading is. Now that I am asking them to do it on their own, they do not feel comfortable with wikis.

2) There is still a reluctance to using the term wiki. Even with definitions, resources, examples, and videos, the term "wiki" is hard for some to take seriously and justify use with each other and with students. I should probably say it is just web page editing, even though they should know and use this tool for learning, communication, and collaboration. Many, however, were here when we thought HTML and later wysiwyg editors, again to some unsatisfactory results. Some of us saw the great possibilities of hypertext even 10-12 years ago. Only three of us continued to create web pages. Will wikis go the way of the html editors of the past? I don't know, but I am impressed when I give the format to my students, and how familiar they are with wikis whether they know exactly what they are doing or not. Is it too much of a paradigm shift for adults, espcially older ones?

3) The last major obstacle is what I was trying to alleviate--TIME. There is not enough time for faculty not only to learn new tools but most importantly not enough time to play. I hear more frustration about not wanting to use the tool, no time to get on, no time to edit. Really? No time to pull up a web page and edit a sentence or a word perhaps? I have written about this earlier, but we are more comfortable in the bubble of our own classrooms. Moreover, how can we find the time to learn about and use the tools.

More News Sites: Visualize, Visualize

I just have to add to one of my earlier Three for Thursday posts on news sites for students. These additions come from Larry Ferlazzo, who provides links for students, especially ESL, on his blog. I recommend his page on "best web sites" with its different categories. Here are my additions to recommended news sites.

World News Map: I actually like this the best for student project on Hot Spots around the World. You could click on any country and get headline news and breaking news.

NewsMap: I like this just as much. Google Maps, and just click on any country.

NewsGlobe: Another visual global news map from Yahoo News.

Reverbiage: Nice widget with a global visualization. I'll see how and where I should embed this.

Newsline: Breaking news in a timeline format as released. I don't really know how I would use it in class, but it is a different visualization of the news.

DoodleBuzz: I don't exactly know how to use this either. It is different and interesting.

Earlier Recommendations:

Breaking News Map
Newsmap
Spectra Visual News Reader

Web 2.0 Discussion on Britannica

I came across a great discussion on Web 2.0 and education on the Britannica blog. First, kudos to Britannica for using the web to add to and improve the knowledge base of their already wonderful work. I guess competition (from Wikipedia, Encarta, et.al) can be a good thing. Their blog, with the subtitle "Where ideas matter" makes sense. I am caught up in the forum this week on the uses of technology and education and will perhaps need to write later about it as I wait to digest the meat of their ideas.

The forum first begins with Steve Hardagon with an entry entitled "Moving Toward Web 2.0 in Education." posted on October 22 and then a follow-up "Why Web 2.0 Will Not be an Integral Part of K-12 Education." by Dan Willingham. Hardagon explains the advantages and obstacles of education during this revolution of information. I have seen in my classroom aspects of Web 2.0 tools to achieve goals of engagement, authenticity, greater participation, dealing with openness and greater access of information, collaboration, creativity, personal expression, asynchronous contribution, critical thinking, etc. I also know by working with other teachers that if they are not ready or adequately trained, it is not going to happen. Willingham has a good closing "The wisest course may not be to find the 'best practices' with the expectation that they will apply across the board, but rather to expect that teachers will select pedagogical practices based on their own strengths and the material they teach, and to support them in that choice." I just believe that these new tools and applications of the web can help them be more effective in their own teaching and better reach our students. After all, Willingham is part of this information "conversation" on a blog, a Web 2.0 tool to reach teachers and students, which is much better than reading an encyclopedic definition.

Three for Thursday 10-23-08

Links for educators for the 21st Century

ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards for Educators These standards by the Internaional Society for Technology in Education is always a good place to start.

21st Century Educators from 21st Century Connections nice description of chracteristics of needed teachers.

Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom Nice workshop of 21st century classroom skills from Vickie Davis and Atomic Learning.

The Transparent Teacher

I am having some difficulty with this thought of being transparent and connected. It is very interesting to be in a profession that is based on connecting with people be they students, parents, and at times peers. Yet, we are too comfortable in our own classrooms and reluctant to share and have others share with us.

As a new teacher twenty years ago, I was fortunate enough to teach in a school that allowed for collaboration. I taught both English and History and was, therefore, a member of two departments. The other sections of the classes I taught happened to be taught by master teachers. I touched base with them almost daily, not only to be sure we were teaching at about the same pace but also to learn from them, get ideas from them, and in turn become a better teacher. They were also willing to hear my ideas about content, skills, and pace, and we had really developed a peer relationship rather than just have me teach what they were doing.

The second school where I taught I was asked to create this program in English based on the Reading and Writing Workshop approach. The school was smaller, and I was more or less on my own this time. The atmosphere of the school, however, allowed for great input from others and collaboration. We all shared a common workspace, and I remember wonderful discussions on content, curriculum, students, and personal interests. I was free to experiment to get this program up and going. Experienced faculty encouraged me to put myself out there. They gave me great feedback, put me back on my feet if I was struggling, pushed me back out the door to try again. They also shared their experiences and gave me wonderful advice.

I now have taught at my third school for seventeen years. I remember the first few years wanting that feedback, discussion, brainstorming. I asked for teachers to visit. The Department Heads said that wasn't really part of the culture of the school. When I was visited, feedback was very cursory and surface. I remember one time, I tried to implement what I had learned with the workshop approach I had used from another school and was told in some roundabout way that content was more important and shouldn't I be worried if students were prepared for the next year of class. Not that there was any data suggesting students were not prepared, but their expressing a concern was a way of saying stop. Back into the classroom I went, door shut, and taught by myself, careful not to rock the boat.

What am I getting at? First, I feel like that same excitemnt of learning as I teach. These tools of technology are now again giving me teachers to learn from, feedback from other voices, and a forum to reflect in a more public environment. Moreover, experimentation, constructivism, student empowerment, teacher empowerment are becoming more accepted. I am becoming more energized.

Yet, I am worried I have become too comfortable in my own domain, my own classroom. Can I allow myself to be vulnerable again. I remember seeing my first comment on one of my Flickr images or this blog by someone I did not know. My first reaction was fear. Did I post the right things? Was I grammatically correct? Was I understood? Being raised in generations paranoid of "Big Brother" was a natural instinct. Once I broke through that trepidation, I realized I had just plunged into a new pool, and I can swim. Yes, we should open to working with each other, showing our own efforts, whether they be victories or failures. The Internet can be used to help each other whether we are in the same school or across the country. We should be transparent teachers.

I have shared my experiences and what I am gaining, and what I hear most is that teachers here do not want to be so connected. "Why should I share my bookmarks?" "Why should I post a comment on a blog or even worse have someone comment on mine?" What can break through this reluctance on allowing ourselves to grow and become more transparent in our growth? How can we break out of the four walls of our classrooms and work with each other so that we can be better teachers for our students?


Photo Credit: Aki Jin

Is it the content?

I just returned from a Fall Family Weekend at my son's boarding school. It was interesting being on the other side of mini-classes and discussions. I was intrigued with a couple of members of the faculty in the classes. First, there is an atmosphere at this school where it is cool to be smart. I believe that we have it at St. Margaret's where I teach as well. Students come wanting to learn but need to learn how to learn. Those at the top of the class are models and not pariahs. Secondly, at his school, I appreciated that even the honors classes were still focused on skills such as communication and critical thinking, not so much on content. In this age of Google, content is less important, it's about learning.

I then came across this video from Chris Lehman. Nice for some inspiration on developing schools for the future.

I have been reading Chris Lehman for a while now and had come across a pdf of one of his presentations. I like his speech, although he is speaking quickly, is inspiring and motivating. The ideas are also a good starter for school conversations. I think why I have been drawn so naturally to Web 2.o and its application in schools are the principles of progressivism but with new tools. "21st Century Schools are about educating for 21st century citizenry not the 21st century workforce.

I really like the quote of Alvin Toffler, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

His talks reinforce how I want to engage teachers that we teach kids before we teach subjects and it's about them--not US!

I also like Chris's commentary on Neil Postman that technology when done right is not additive but transformative. "Technology should be like oxygen--ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible."

Three for Thursday

Three visual news sites that are helpful in teaching news and current events.

Breaking News Map An interesting site with breaking news from Reuters appearing on a moving Google map on fo.reca.st.

Newsmap I don't know why I like this, but it's interesting and quite usable. Stories are color-coded by story type and then darkened by time since posting. These first two links seem to be difficult for older adults to to see and use.

Spectra Visual News Reader This is one funky site which is a visual reader from the RSS feed of MSNBC. The floating and moving stories can be distracting.

Time for professional reflection

Today was PSAT day. I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up on some major blog reading and look at current conferences as I await the K12Online Conference. I did enjoy the keynote video from Stephen Heppell on Oct. 13. I already introduced the concept to our faculty of his title “It Simply Isn’t the 20th Century Any More Is It?: So Why Would We Teach as Though It Was?”

Looking for more info bring to my faculty, I came across Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's broadcast video at the Learning 2.0 Conference in Shanghai in September. She begins with a good question that I want our faculty, "What am I doing right now in my classroom to prepare kids to live out their lives and be successful in the 21st century?" Good question, and to be honest, I really don't know. I think as a history teacher I am preparing students to live in a new global age and learn different perspectives and cultures. I want them to use tools of technology to be more effective consumers of knowledge but also learn to present, share, and create.


Other points in her video:
"Helping students to learn to be . . . is just as important as learning about . . ." Our school has spent some a lot of deliberate time reflecting on what do we want our students to be. I don't think that these "to be's" have become more important than our "to know's."

"We do a wonderful job help our students engage in conent so that by college students are ready to be engaged with content. But the problem with that model is that the rate at which content is expanding."

"By 2020, knowledge will be doubling every 72 hours." If this is true, we cannot have content be the focus.

I use this concept of the growth and speed of knowledge in my history classes, and I do agree with the concept, but I am still trying to understand how this is measured. Here are some similar statements.

"In the ninteteenth century, it took about fifty years to double the world's knowledge. Today, the base of knowledge doubles in less than a year." http://www.emory.edu/TEACHING/Report/AppendixD.html

"We're all striving to keep up with the quantum leaps being made in all areas of knowledge. It's estimated that medical knowledge, for example, doubles every seven years, and scientific knowledge doubles every twenty years. The total written knowledge in the world is said to have doubled between 1450 and 1750, and then to have doubled again between 1750 and 1900. Between 1900 and 1950, human knowledge doubled once more, and then again from 1950 to 1975. Now, it is believed to double every 900 days. By the year 2020, global knowledge is predicted to double every 72 days!" http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/web/about/about_dean.asp

The Horse or Cart

Yesterday, I was giving a faculty workshop on web 2.0 tools. First, I gave an introduction to Firefox and tabbed browsing. We then moved on to Google applications for teachers. We started with iGoogle and gadgets and then started on other applications that could be used. I think as teachers learning technology, it is difficult for us to first learn technology for its own sake, think about how we could use it in our own lives, and then think about how to teach the students to find meaning and purpose in these tools and then apply the technology in their own lives. I then have work with many different levels of ability and interest in a faculty workshop and then levels of willingness to apply and integrate technology in the classroom.

I also have a difficult time communicating my own experience and joy of really seeing these applications work as more efficient tools for learning without sounding like a nut. I want them to have that epiphany but also see how the web can be a great tool for them as teachers but also fellow learners.

One comment was made which is worth discussing. A colleague, who is very thoughtful and careful with his words, said that we have to think about how we teach this technology to our students. At what point are we setting the cart before the horse? I do understand this predicament. I guess, at what point are we teaching our students technology for its own sake? Moreover, at what point do we set our students lose with technology while they are still learning the steps of the research process, learning how to evaluate resources, learning content? I guess I feel I am comfortable seeing new ways for students to create, express, analyze. I feel comfortable teaching these students tools to be more effective learners. News feeds are a wonderful way to research current events and blogs. They could apply outside of school in their own lives with keeping tabs in their own social networks. Social Bookmarking is another way to learn how to not only find useful sites and have them follow you, but also to have others be your filter. Google Docs and Notebook is helpful for research, bookmarking, and early outlining. Moodle is great for experiencing online course mangagement, class chats, forums, posting, journals, assignments, online help, wikis, etc. The fact is our students are already immersed in this world, especially our girls with Facebook and MySpace. Isn't this teaching skills of interaction with people and online content but through the course?

I am still feeling my way as a go, but I haven't seen many concerns when working with the students. The difficult part as a teacher is yes there are times when it is about the technology, but with that tool comes learning, participation, and student teaching more than I provided before.

Are we teaching for them or for us?

Participating in the conversation

I was reading a recent post on my Google Reader about comparing the difference between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee to those who just soak in media and information and those who give back. I can't find the original, but I did come across this one. Basically, the idea is that the Sea of Galilee is one of the most fertile places on earth fed by the Jordan River, rainfall and Springs. The Dead Sea, also fed by the Jordan, is so named because of its high mineral content and that no water drains out of this lowest place on earth. The difference is that
"the Jordan River flows into the Sea of Galilee from the top and flows out the bottom. It is as if the Sea of Galilee receives and gives. The Jordan River, then, flows into the Dead Sea and never gets out. Its as if the Dead Sea receives but does not give. The Dead Sea receives and keeps and, I think, this seeming selfishness is what makes the Dead Sea, dead. On the otherhand, the seeming generosity of the Sea of Galilee is what made it the exact opposite of the Dead Sea."
I spend so much of my time learning and trying to master that I do not give back and perhaps participate in the conversation. As a teacher/learner who is an introvert, I am very content to receive and unwilling to share and give. To make this work I will try to share more of my thoughts, experiences, and connections to what is out there.

21st Century Skills

Here are some links used in our faculty meeting on looking at the 21st Century

Video of Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity
Video "Did You Know" by Karl Fisch
Common Craft Show "RSS in Plain English" Visit Commoncraft.com for other helpful Web 2.0 skills

Here's another video from mwesch at Kansas State.The purpose of the video is to"explore the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively."

If Real Life were like Facebook

I found this from Ewan McIntosh. Do our kids think these social network interactions are just like face-t0-face friendships?

picture of jenny

Here is a picture of Jenny taken in Maine from a friend of mine.