At the beginning of this course, when we were just starting to discuss what qualities distinguish 21rst Century teaching and learning from what has come before, we read an article about learning "peripherally" as part of a "community of learners", where you can begin to learn the skills and norms of particular sites / groups / etc. and contribute "real" things even before becoming an "expert". (Here's a link to the notes and responses that I wrote about that article at the time.) At the time, I found these ideas interesting but didn't really "get" them emotionally.
As the course went on, at times I felt very frustrated about the amount of time that it was taking to begin to learn the various tools we were being introduced to. At one particularly low point for me mid-way through this course, I had reached such a level of frustration that I wasn't even really seeing what was on the pages in front of me, any more! At the next class session we did that inner circle / outer circle activity where we were sharing ideas for our projects, and while talking with Patrick I asked him how to add a new page to a wiki. (This turns out to be trivially easy to do, but like I said, I had become so frustrated by then that I'd really lost sight of any sense that I could figure such things out on my own!)
That one bit of assistance was enough to get me going again, though, and since then my confidence has just grown and grown as I've used my class wiki for several "real", meaningful projects with my class (especially our Marionette Myths projects and our Reader's Choice book), and taught myself the skills I needed along the way in order to do so.
Over the past week, I've been working feverishly to manage a project where my students were writing, editing, and illustrating a "Reader's Choice" book about the 1970's on our class wiki. At the same time, I've been trying to get examples of student work uploaded to other parts of the wiki. I've had to learn lots of new tools (both online tools and software that I hadn't previously even known was on our home computer) in order to do this, and I've done so entirely by experimenting, looking for buttons (for things like making links) that looked similar to those on other platforms that I now know, and reading online documentation (FAQ's and other Help pages). Unlike when I started this course, I've had no qualms about joining new sites online in order to use these tools. It feels wonderful to be able to gain new online skills so quickly and confidently!
A month or two ago, I was talking with another classmate, Suzanne, as she gave me a ride home from class. That was at another point when I had grown somewhat frustrated with the need to teach myself so many new skills so quickly. Suzanne commented that she thought that learning to do that was a big part of Dennis' goal for participants in this course. It took me a while to come to share her confidence and enthusiasm about this sort of learning, but after the past week or two of working at a sort of crazy pace on a really exciting classroom project (using our class wiki and many new online and software tools to have my students write the Reader's Choice book and fill it with lots of their illustrations, links, embedded pictures, etc.) for a 1970's assembly that my principal organized, I think I finally really "get" it. I've actually found it very exciting to learn this latest batch of new tools and skills so quickly and so independently, and I've loved seeing my students' enthusiastic response to the oppotunities that it opens up, in turn, for them. I finally feel that I both can and will continue to learn and use lots of new web 2.0 tools after this course ends.
Here are some of the tools (both online sites and software) and skills that I've taught myself just in the past two weeks (and mostly in the past week):
www.mind42.com, for my Summary of Personal Learning
www.YouTube.com (Including learning what formats are acceptable for uploading videos, and what software might convert the formats for me, and what glitches to watch out for in that software.)
Windows Movie Maker (which I used on my home computer to convert .AVI files to .wmv format in order to upload them to YouTube)
How to download pictures and videos from my husband's camera to our home computer -- I hadn't even known how to do that, before!
www.Flickr.com, and how to search it for pictures that have a Creative Commons license.
www.wallwisher.com (which I learned about from a k12online talk, recommended to our building Principal last week for a need that he had, and then used with my class yesterday to write poetry together)
www.slideshare.com (For uploading a PowerPoint -- and I also spent time searching online documentation to find out why it would upload my own PowerPoint just fine but not one that one of my students had made -- It turns out that it can't handle the particular types of images that my student used. So then I spent some more time searching for a tool that could handle her images, and I found a couple, but unfortunately they would have been expensive to buy.)
www.XTraNormal.com (OK, that one was a couple of weeks ago.)
www.makebeliefscomix.com
Promethean Planet (for my other course)
www.mathplayground.com (Just a site I found for my math teaching, not really a "tool" -- but very useful!)
www.prezi.com (I ran out of time before managing to complete the little presentation that I had started -- but, at least I know how to use this tool, now.)
(There are probably others, but those are the ones I remember or have written down!)
Showing posts with label #i3cs21. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #i3cs21. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Finding my usernames and useful sites
This is a note to myself that if I forget my userids for various sites, I can find them at www.docs.google.com. My google ID is my _w email account.
Experimenting with how to make a link in the body of a blog post
I've linked some of my post titles to the sites or articles they refer to, but I haven't tried that in the body of the post, and I've been wondering how to. I think I see a similar symbol to the paperclip-like one used on wikis, though! Let's try it. I want to link to one of my earlier posts, on social learning communities. Let's try it here.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Writing in the 21rst Century -- NCTE web site and PDF
The other Session 7 readings:
The National Council of Teachers of English website discusses the importance of validating all of the different types of writing that students do both in and out of class. At the same time, one article talks about "writing about literature" as an excellent way to foster deep reading and analytical thought, even though that sort of reading might seem to have limited practical applications at first.
PDF:
Historical background: Reading, historically in our culture, has "warm fuzzy" associations to communal activities such as church services. Also, reading was a way that the government could influence people (or so the article asserts). Writing, on the other hand, was associated with hard work, "episodes of despair", testing, etc. Through writing the common person might ASSERT control rather than BEING controlled, so the powers-that-be had less of an incentive to make sure everyone learned to write well.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, the "writing process" model came to have a big influence on writing instruction, with mostly positive results.
The invention of the personal computer added some other dimensions, such as being able to explore how visual and verbal elements of a piece work together.
21rst Century writing is EVERYWHERE, and a big part of the appeal may be just the sense of participation. Writing and reading on sites such as Facebook may be providing an electronic "commons", much like the village green of yore, and in ways that work to overcome the social isolation that Robert Putnam described in _Bowling Alone_. [What about those of us who don't WANT to replace our face-to-face communities with electronic ones, though?]
Right now could be called an "Age of Composition", where people learn to write partly through an "extracurricular social co-apprenticeship". (This is like what we talked about early in the course -- learning by playing on the edges of a community of practice, at first, and then building skills and an awareness of norms while gradually diving in more and more.)
Two interesting examples: (1) A teenager in Florida sent out email and photos of her neighbors, some disabled, trapped in their trailer park homes after a hurricane came through. All were rescued from the rising waters. (2) 30,000 high school students organized over Facebook to write "THIS IS SPARTA" or "THIS IS MADNESS" in cross-outs on their AP tests, worked into their answers in clever ways -- thus managing to relate to the graders (some of whom were amused) as human beings, not just as graders.
Summary: Seek a new theory of teaching writing; validate all of the various types of writing that people do; etc.
The National Council of Teachers of English website discusses the importance of validating all of the different types of writing that students do both in and out of class. At the same time, one article talks about "writing about literature" as an excellent way to foster deep reading and analytical thought, even though that sort of reading might seem to have limited practical applications at first.
PDF:
Historical background: Reading, historically in our culture, has "warm fuzzy" associations to communal activities such as church services. Also, reading was a way that the government could influence people (or so the article asserts). Writing, on the other hand, was associated with hard work, "episodes of despair", testing, etc. Through writing the common person might ASSERT control rather than BEING controlled, so the powers-that-be had less of an incentive to make sure everyone learned to write well.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, the "writing process" model came to have a big influence on writing instruction, with mostly positive results.
The invention of the personal computer added some other dimensions, such as being able to explore how visual and verbal elements of a piece work together.
21rst Century writing is EVERYWHERE, and a big part of the appeal may be just the sense of participation. Writing and reading on sites such as Facebook may be providing an electronic "commons", much like the village green of yore, and in ways that work to overcome the social isolation that Robert Putnam described in _Bowling Alone_. [What about those of us who don't WANT to replace our face-to-face communities with electronic ones, though?]
Right now could be called an "Age of Composition", where people learn to write partly through an "extracurricular social co-apprenticeship". (This is like what we talked about early in the course -- learning by playing on the edges of a community of practice, at first, and then building skills and an awareness of norms while gradually diving in more and more.)
Two interesting examples: (1) A teenager in Florida sent out email and photos of her neighbors, some disabled, trapped in their trailer park homes after a hurricane came through. All were rescued from the rising waters. (2) 30,000 high school students organized over Facebook to write "THIS IS SPARTA" or "THIS IS MADNESS" in cross-outs on their AP tests, worked into their answers in clever ways -- thus managing to relate to the graders (some of whom were amused) as human beings, not just as graders.
Summary: Seek a new theory of teaching writing; validate all of the various types of writing that people do; etc.
Fair Use: Notes on the report "The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education"
These are notes from the Session 7 reading on interpreting the doctrine of "fair use". The main point seems to be that the broadness and flexibility of the fair use doctrine are good things that work to the advantage of educators, and that should give educators a lot of confidence in being permitted to use materials for educational purposes.
The article includes five main principles:
(1) It's fine to use copyrighted materials to teach the techniques of media literacy (such as analyzing the form and content of different genres, looking at historical context and effects, etc.). Use only as much of the work as necessary, whether that means an excerpt or the whole thing. Give the source. Try to keep uninvolved third parties from downloading it.
(2) I don't quite understand this one, but basically they seem to be saying that it's OK to use copyrighted materials in lesson plan materials, much as above. Include educational goals, etc.
(3) Again, this is kind of confusing, but it seems to be saying that some sharing of illustrative materials at conferences, etc. is OK, but if you're trying to "promote" (Do they mean market?) your curriculum work, you should get all the proper permissions for anything you wish to include. Also, any license agreed to by a school district will be binding, even if it impinges upon the usual fair use guidelines.
(4) This is the one that I have been wondering most about: When is it OK for students to use excerpts of copyrighted materials in their own creative work. The answer is easier to understand than for #2 and #3, but it's more complicated and requires more situation-by-situation analysis than I had hoped. The report says that it's fine for students to use parts of copyrighted works in order to comment upon them, analyze them, etc., but NOT just to "create a mood", add interest to something they are creating, etc. This seems very "fuzzy" to me, as a guideline. . . The report also says that just giving proper attribution does not automatically make a use OK. . . . I think part of my concern is that I teach relatively young students. They're just starting to be metacognitive about WHY they choose particular resources. If my students can label the mood they want to create and find something to help them do that, I think that's a great first step. I'm not sure how much further I'd expect them to go, in analyzing how they're using the material. . . . One thing I like, here, is that the article says that incorporating bits of copyrighted material should not substitute for students' own creative work.
(5) If students are distributing their creative works more publicly than just within a classroom or school -- for example, if they're posting the projects on the Internet -- then fair use will be less of a protection. It is good to model for students the process of deciding which sorts of materials need which sorts of permissions.
The article also tries to debunk certain "myths" about fair use. For example, it says that the fair use doctrine is purposefully broad, and this "vagueness" shouldn't scare people off. However, "rules of thumb" such as "It's OK to use 10 seconds of a video clip" are not really true; fair use has to evaluated on a case-by-case basis, for the educational merits of the use.
"Transformativeness" is a key value in fair use law. However, this does not have to mean writing critiques or parodies; it just means using the material in a new way in a new context -- for example, to make an instructional point. Transformativeness is actually MORE important than non-commercialness, which is neither always necessary nor automatically sufficient to qualify for fair use protection.
A bunch of legal experts were advisors on this report.
The article includes five main principles:
(1) It's fine to use copyrighted materials to teach the techniques of media literacy (such as analyzing the form and content of different genres, looking at historical context and effects, etc.). Use only as much of the work as necessary, whether that means an excerpt or the whole thing. Give the source. Try to keep uninvolved third parties from downloading it.
(2) I don't quite understand this one, but basically they seem to be saying that it's OK to use copyrighted materials in lesson plan materials, much as above. Include educational goals, etc.
(3) Again, this is kind of confusing, but it seems to be saying that some sharing of illustrative materials at conferences, etc. is OK, but if you're trying to "promote" (Do they mean market?) your curriculum work, you should get all the proper permissions for anything you wish to include. Also, any license agreed to by a school district will be binding, even if it impinges upon the usual fair use guidelines.
(4) This is the one that I have been wondering most about: When is it OK for students to use excerpts of copyrighted materials in their own creative work. The answer is easier to understand than for #2 and #3, but it's more complicated and requires more situation-by-situation analysis than I had hoped. The report says that it's fine for students to use parts of copyrighted works in order to comment upon them, analyze them, etc., but NOT just to "create a mood", add interest to something they are creating, etc. This seems very "fuzzy" to me, as a guideline. . . The report also says that just giving proper attribution does not automatically make a use OK. . . . I think part of my concern is that I teach relatively young students. They're just starting to be metacognitive about WHY they choose particular resources. If my students can label the mood they want to create and find something to help them do that, I think that's a great first step. I'm not sure how much further I'd expect them to go, in analyzing how they're using the material. . . . One thing I like, here, is that the article says that incorporating bits of copyrighted material should not substitute for students' own creative work.
(5) If students are distributing their creative works more publicly than just within a classroom or school -- for example, if they're posting the projects on the Internet -- then fair use will be less of a protection. It is good to model for students the process of deciding which sorts of materials need which sorts of permissions.
The article also tries to debunk certain "myths" about fair use. For example, it says that the fair use doctrine is purposefully broad, and this "vagueness" shouldn't scare people off. However, "rules of thumb" such as "It's OK to use 10 seconds of a video clip" are not really true; fair use has to evaluated on a case-by-case basis, for the educational merits of the use.
"Transformativeness" is a key value in fair use law. However, this does not have to mean writing critiques or parodies; it just means using the material in a new way in a new context -- for example, to make an instructional point. Transformativeness is actually MORE important than non-commercialness, which is neither always necessary nor automatically sufficient to qualify for fair use protection.
A bunch of legal experts were advisors on this report.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
"Pay Attention" video for Joe's course
I just watched the "Pay Attention" video on U-Tube for Joe Ahern's course that is about to start on integrating technology. Some facts it asserts:
By the time they graduate from college, today's students will have spent. . .
10,000 hours playing video games
10,000 hours on cellphones
20,000 hours watching T.V.
(Actually, if this data is correct, it's interesting to me that the tv time is only half the video game time.)
Kids and teens, the video says, spend an average or 2.75 hours / wk. on home computers.
70% of 4-6-year-olds in the US have used a computer. (This does not seem surprising, since one experience at a daycare, preschool, or public library could presumably count for this.)
The author of this video equates all of this to "richness", which I don't necessarily agree with. There IS an interesting quote from a high school senior, "When I go to school, I have to 'power down'."
A study has found that students commonly ask only one question every ten hours in school -- yikes! (I'm not sure what grade level this was.)
Only 28% of 12th-graders surveyed believe schoolwork is interesting.
At the end is a link that I have not had a chance to explore yet, for more info.:
www.t4.jordandistrict.org
This video did give some sources for it's information, but not, if I remember correctly, for all of it.
I'm tagging this post for the 3cs course even though I watched it for Joe's course, since it is relevant to both.
By the time they graduate from college, today's students will have spent. . .
10,000 hours playing video games
10,000 hours on cellphones
20,000 hours watching T.V.
(Actually, if this data is correct, it's interesting to me that the tv time is only half the video game time.)
Kids and teens, the video says, spend an average or 2.75 hours / wk. on home computers.
70% of 4-6-year-olds in the US have used a computer. (This does not seem surprising, since one experience at a daycare, preschool, or public library could presumably count for this.)
The author of this video equates all of this to "richness", which I don't necessarily agree with. There IS an interesting quote from a high school senior, "When I go to school, I have to 'power down'."
A study has found that students commonly ask only one question every ten hours in school -- yikes! (I'm not sure what grade level this was.)
Only 28% of 12th-graders surveyed believe schoolwork is interesting.
At the end is a link that I have not had a chance to explore yet, for more info.:
www.t4.jordandistrict.org
This video did give some sources for it's information, but not, if I remember correctly, for all of it.
I'm tagging this post for the 3cs course even though I watched it for Joe's course, since it is relevant to both.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Online k12 conf. talk -- "Keeping the LIteracy in 21rst Century Literacies
Keeping the Literacy in 21rst Century Literacy
by Drew Schrader
Intent: Introductory strategies for addressing traditional literacy goals in high school, while using web 2.0 tools to foster student engagement. Aimed at "busy teachers".
Diigo for social bookmarking
Screentoaster for easy screen capture [Cool, I've been wondering how to do screen captures!]Prezi
Think alouds (to model metacognition strategies for reading) -- Using Screentoaster -- Easy to use at Screentoaster.com; nothing to download -- Runs online -- Just create an account and then click "Start recording". Can include voice and video. Can upload to Utube, or screentoaster can host on their own site, or you can download as a .mov file and use on your own computer.
Annotated text (to help students pick out important information by highlighting it, or to draw their attention to a particular text feature by using sticky notes) -- Use Diigo, then send students the link. [I'm still slightly confused about Diigo -- once one person highlights the article, will a random person who accesses that article on the open Internet see the highlighted version, or the original version? I assume the original version, but is that correct?]
Mind-mapping -- To plan / brainstorm and then organize ideas for writing -- Use Prezi -- He says students have found it intuitive and seem to like using it. [I'll have to try it again. The first time, I somehow made my whole presentation shrink to a tiny size, and then I couldn't figure out how to undo that!]
Too easy to "put neat tools ahead of good practice", rushing out to try a new tool with your class without really having a significant learning goal in mind for it. [I'm so glad he's addressing that; that seems like a big danger to me!]
He highly recommends the book _I Read it but I Don't Get It_ by Chris Giovanni (sp.??) for working with adolescents on reading issues. The reading theory in his talk is heavily influenced by this book.
by Drew Schrader
Intent: Introductory strategies for addressing traditional literacy goals in high school, while using web 2.0 tools to foster student engagement. Aimed at "busy teachers".
Diigo for social bookmarking
Screentoaster for easy screen capture [Cool, I've been wondering how to do screen captures!]Prezi
Think alouds (to model metacognition strategies for reading) -- Using Screentoaster -- Easy to use at Screentoaster.com; nothing to download -- Runs online -- Just create an account and then click "Start recording". Can include voice and video. Can upload to Utube, or screentoaster can host on their own site, or you can download as a .mov file and use on your own computer.
Annotated text (to help students pick out important information by highlighting it, or to draw their attention to a particular text feature by using sticky notes) -- Use Diigo, then send students the link. [I'm still slightly confused about Diigo -- once one person highlights the article, will a random person who accesses that article on the open Internet see the highlighted version, or the original version? I assume the original version, but is that correct?]
Mind-mapping -- To plan / brainstorm and then organize ideas for writing -- Use Prezi -- He says students have found it intuitive and seem to like using it. [I'll have to try it again. The first time, I somehow made my whole presentation shrink to a tiny size, and then I couldn't figure out how to undo that!]
Too easy to "put neat tools ahead of good practice", rushing out to try a new tool with your class without really having a significant learning goal in mind for it. [I'm so glad he's addressing that; that seems like a big danger to me!]
He highly recommends the book _I Read it but I Don't Get It_ by Chris Giovanni (sp.??) for working with adolescents on reading issues. The reading theory in his talk is heavily influenced by this book.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Example projects I like (briefer)
I was in the middle of writing this post, and I had saved periodically, but somehow I closed that window without saying "Publish", and now I can't find my saved stuff! Very disappointing! My original post had all sorts of annotations, but now I'm just going to try to paste in a couple of the links if I remember which ones they were:
http://mrkelln.wordpress.com/
I really like the informal tone ("you guys") of this blog, where a middle school teacher writes to his students about projects they are doing that integrate curriculum with having students use lots of cool digital creativity tools.
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321
Cool PictureTrail stuff documenting classroom activities
http://rrfournier.wikispaces.com/
Useful information that staff need at certain times every year.
(Hey, the earlier draft just came up, and I posted it. Very strange.)
http://mrkelln.wordpress.com/
I really like the informal tone ("you guys") of this blog, where a middle school teacher writes to his students about projects they are doing that integrate curriculum with having students use lots of cool digital creativity tools.
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321
Cool PictureTrail stuff documenting classroom activities
http://rrfournier.wikispaces.com/
Useful information that staff need at certain times every year.
(Hey, the earlier draft just came up, and I posted it. Very strange.)
Example projects that I like
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321
Third-grade teacher's class blog, with PictureTrail stuff.
http://mrkelln.wordpress.com/
A middle school teacher writes TO and about his classes. He's experimenting with incorporating lots of new technology (Moodle for science lessons, Voicethread, etc.) in ways that the students learn the technology and use it themselves for projects. I like the informal tone of his posts to his students -- "you guys", etc. Interesting and kind of inspiring site.
http://msgee.edublogs.org/
An interesting example of using a class blog to motivate students. The teacher posted about reading strategies she was teaching, and her third-graders posted about their implementation of those strategies.
http://math8geometry.wikispaces.com/
Eighth-graders each made one page of a geometry wiki. Each page teaches one concept well. Interesting, and I bet the kids enjoyed doing it, but I bet they learned more about making a wiki page than about geometry overall from this project. Fun and a good way to learn technology, but not necessarily an efficient way to learn the geometry itself.
Third-grade teacher's class blog, with PictureTrail stuff.
http://mrkelln.wordpress.com/
A middle school teacher writes TO and about his classes. He's experimenting with incorporating lots of new technology (Moodle for science lessons, Voicethread, etc.) in ways that the students learn the technology and use it themselves for projects. I like the informal tone of his posts to his students -- "you guys", etc. Interesting and kind of inspiring site.
http://msgee.edublogs.org/
An interesting example of using a class blog to motivate students. The teacher posted about reading strategies she was teaching, and her third-graders posted about their implementation of those strategies.
http://math8geometry.wikispaces.com/
Eighth-graders each made one page of a geometry wiki. Each page teaches one concept well. Interesting, and I bet the kids enjoyed doing it, but I bet they learned more about making a wiki page than about geometry overall from this project. Fun and a good way to learn technology, but not necessarily an efficient way to learn the geometry itself.
PictureTrail
The graphic (picture cube thing) that I just mentioned is apparently called PictureTrail. It takes lots of forms, not just a cube.
Cool picture cube graphic
Often I find the idea of including graphics more overwhelming than enticing, but this blog
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321
(which was one of the example projects that Dennis gave us links to) has one that even I really like -- a rotating picture cube thing. Cool!
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=162321
(which was one of the example projects that Dennis gave us links to) has one that even I really like -- a rotating picture cube thing. Cool!
Why I take notes on some of the articles here
I really like reading articles this way: I have the article open in one window on one side of my screen, and my blog open in another window on the other side. I read a little bit, then take notes and / or comment, then read some more, etc. -- Just like teaching "active reading" strategies to students, I feel like I get a lot more out of the articles, this way.
I certainly don't do this for every article -- that would take forever. And, right at the moment my wrists, shoulders, and fingers are starting to hurt -- NOT GOOD! So, it's just about time to stop taking notes, for tonight, even if I keep on reading. I really do like reading online this way, though.
I certainly don't do this for every article -- that would take forever. And, right at the moment my wrists, shoulders, and fingers are starting to hurt -- NOT GOOD! So, it's just about time to stop taking notes, for tonight, even if I keep on reading. I really do like reading online this way, though.
Why creativity and information literacy together?
Why was Session 4 on both Creativity AND Information Literacy? These seem like very different topics. Right now it is the information literacy stuff that interests me the most. So much of web 2.0 "creativitiy" seems to involve pictures, movies, or sound -- I am more interested in text.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Notes on Creativity Survey Results
Most people say they feel comfortable bending the rules some of the time.
Very few felt a need to find one right answer.
People were split on wanting things to be logical, and on idealism versus practicality.
Almost everyone likes to "work hard and play hard", including trying out new ideas.
People were quite evenly split on "playing with new teaching techniques" versus concentrating on "teaching students what they need to know". On the other hand, just about everyone said that they "embrace exploring" new teaching techniques.
People generally either disagreed about needing "conformity, consistency, and shared values" at work, or had no opinion on it. Maybe that was a confusing question, to get so many "Neither agree nor disagree" responses, or maybe it just seemed like too much of a loaded question.
A lot of people don't mind being wrong in public, but a fair number either do or said they weren't sure.
Most people in this group say they see unlimited potential for creativity in their teaching.
Very few felt a need to find one right answer.
People were split on wanting things to be logical, and on idealism versus practicality.
Almost everyone likes to "work hard and play hard", including trying out new ideas.
People were quite evenly split on "playing with new teaching techniques" versus concentrating on "teaching students what they need to know". On the other hand, just about everyone said that they "embrace exploring" new teaching techniques.
People generally either disagreed about needing "conformity, consistency, and shared values" at work, or had no opinion on it. Maybe that was a confusing question, to get so many "Neither agree nor disagree" responses, or maybe it just seemed like too much of a loaded question.
A lot of people don't mind being wrong in public, but a fair number either do or said they weren't sure.
Most people in this group say they see unlimited potential for creativity in their teaching.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Notes and comments on Student STEM (ISTE) article
1.
"a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
d. identify trends and forecast possibilities."
Comments: (a) is obviously good; (b) really excites and motivates kids -- Still need to balance time constraints, though, no matter how valuable this is. (It's very well-worth doing and I certainly do it with kids, but it would work better with a curriculum that was deeper and less broad.) (c) and (d) are interesting; I don' t think I've done that as much in teaching, except with obvious tools such as line graphs.
2. Students communicate and collaborate using digital tools, including with experts, and including globally and cross-culturally.
Comments: The "experts" part is cool! (Where do the experts find the time, though?) The cross-cultural part certainly has potential (maybe, I hope) to make our world a more understanding and peaceful place in the future. Isn't language a potential barrier, though, especially at the elementary level?
3. Students select and use information and tools effectively.
Comment: Essential; takes much instruction and practice over many years.
4. Students identify problems and collect and analyze data to help propose solutions.
Comments: Like the microfinance Kiva article we read in class. Very engaging as well as wonderful training for citizenship and leadership! Time and curriculum meshing, as usual, are issues to be dealt with.
5. Students use digital resources safely, legally, positively, and enthusiastically.
Comments: Certainly important.
6. Students can select, use, and troubleshoot both familiar and unfamiliar applications.
Comment: A good goal for teahers, too! :-) The trouble-shooting part can be pretty time-consuming and fairly frustrating, though.
"a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
d. identify trends and forecast possibilities."
Comments: (a) is obviously good; (b) really excites and motivates kids -- Still need to balance time constraints, though, no matter how valuable this is. (It's very well-worth doing and I certainly do it with kids, but it would work better with a curriculum that was deeper and less broad.) (c) and (d) are interesting; I don' t think I've done that as much in teaching, except with obvious tools such as line graphs.
2. Students communicate and collaborate using digital tools, including with experts, and including globally and cross-culturally.
Comments: The "experts" part is cool! (Where do the experts find the time, though?) The cross-cultural part certainly has potential (maybe, I hope) to make our world a more understanding and peaceful place in the future. Isn't language a potential barrier, though, especially at the elementary level?
3. Students select and use information and tools effectively.
Comment: Essential; takes much instruction and practice over many years.
4. Students identify problems and collect and analyze data to help propose solutions.
Comments: Like the microfinance Kiva article we read in class. Very engaging as well as wonderful training for citizenship and leadership! Time and curriculum meshing, as usual, are issues to be dealt with.
5. Students use digital resources safely, legally, positively, and enthusiastically.
Comments: Certainly important.
6. Students can select, use, and troubleshoot both familiar and unfamiliar applications.
Comment: A good goal for teahers, too! :-) The trouble-shooting part can be pretty time-consuming and fairly frustrating, though.
Notes on ISTE article (Teacher Standards). (I had wanted to do this by using Diigo to highlight and capture highlighted blocks of text, but every time I try to do so, Microsoft encounters an error and briefly closes, then reopens without the highlighting!) The parts after the dashes are my comments.
1a. Creative thinking -- Yes, great!
b. Real-world projects -- Again, great!
c. Use collaborative tools to clarify student thinking -- What's wrong with "turn and talk"?
d. Use virtual environments with students and colleagues -- Why should that be a goal in and of itself?
2a. Use digital tools and resources with students -- Again, why is this a goal in and of itself? When it's useful, great. Sometimes old-fashioned methods are sufficient or even preferable, though.
b.Students pursue their own interests and manage their own learing -- A very nice goal that I like. How do you mesh that with state frameworks?
c. Address different learning styles -- Good potential here.
d. Formative and summative assessments -- Yes, unless a different method is more efficient and just as useful!
3a-c. Teachers model using technology for doing work, collaborating, and communicating with students/parents/administrators/each other. -- OK.
d. Model and teach how to evaluate information -- Definitely important.
4. Teach digital citizenship (copyright laws, etc.) -- Vey important. Kids must be taught very explicitly -- Young kids think that printing out material from a site counts as "research".
Make sure all students have fair access to digital tools -- Very important; count on public libraries to help.
Model global awareness by reaching out to other cultures -- But let's make sure that we also leave time for our local, in-person communities!
5. Teachers continue to learn about new digital tools and resources, and actively seek to learn about this stuff and promote its use -- OK, but remember that our primary job is to teach content and traditional skills such as reading / writing / math. I still think that it's possible to do that very well WITHOUT constantly seeking out the newest, "bestest" tech-savvy way of doing so! Time is a limited resource, and sometimes saving time by continuing to do some things using more traditional tools makes sense. We should be going for incremental change where it actually adds important new value, not incorporating technology just for the sake of doing so.
1a. Creative thinking -- Yes, great!
b. Real-world projects -- Again, great!
c. Use collaborative tools to clarify student thinking -- What's wrong with "turn and talk"?
d. Use virtual environments with students and colleagues -- Why should that be a goal in and of itself?
2a. Use digital tools and resources with students -- Again, why is this a goal in and of itself? When it's useful, great. Sometimes old-fashioned methods are sufficient or even preferable, though.
b.Students pursue their own interests and manage their own learing -- A very nice goal that I like. How do you mesh that with state frameworks?
c. Address different learning styles -- Good potential here.
d. Formative and summative assessments -- Yes, unless a different method is more efficient and just as useful!
3a-c. Teachers model using technology for doing work, collaborating, and communicating with students/parents/administrators/each other. -- OK.
d. Model and teach how to evaluate information -- Definitely important.
4. Teach digital citizenship (copyright laws, etc.) -- Vey important. Kids must be taught very explicitly -- Young kids think that printing out material from a site counts as "research".
Make sure all students have fair access to digital tools -- Very important; count on public libraries to help.
Model global awareness by reaching out to other cultures -- But let's make sure that we also leave time for our local, in-person communities!
5. Teachers continue to learn about new digital tools and resources, and actively seek to learn about this stuff and promote its use -- OK, but remember that our primary job is to teach content and traditional skills such as reading / writing / math. I still think that it's possible to do that very well WITHOUT constantly seeking out the newest, "bestest" tech-savvy way of doing so! Time is a limited resource, and sometimes saving time by continuing to do some things using more traditional tools makes sense. We should be going for incremental change where it actually adds important new value, not incorporating technology just for the sake of doing so.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Feels like an online course
Another quick thing that I've been thinking about this course, is that it feels more like a very content-rich online course that I took (through Primary Source), than it does like any other in-person course I've ever taken. While I found the question-and-answer session at the beginning of our last class meeting very helpful, for the most part the place that I'm learning a lot is at home, reading articles and experimenting with the tools. Like the other online course that I took, there is way, way too much information to explore all of it within the time frame of the course (or probably ever), but when that doesn't feel overwhelming it's pretty cool to have been given so many new directions to explore. Thinking of it as a sort of an online-course-with-help-sessions makes me feel better about having to spend so much time outside of class in order to understand the tools.
"Minds on Fire" article and the structure of our course
I've been thinking about how the "Minds on Fire" article relates to the structure of this course. When I read the article, some phrases and ideas that jumped out at me were:
"Learning to be" a member of a social learning community -- learning its norms, etc. -- tacit knowledge. On the Web you can do a lot of this even BEFORE becoming an expert in the particular content area or skill involved.
Collateral learning / peripheral learning
Access to rich practice-based learning communities
What I'm thinking (sorry if this seems too obvious) is that that's probably a lot of how Dennis is hoping that we will experience this course. He's set up a large array of different ways for us to participate in online communities (even if it's mostly all our course community), and different tools to begin to explore a little bit at a time. We're figuring out, bit by bit, what sorts of things to write where in all of the online community venues, and we're developing this perspective partly by reading each others' posts. With the tools, it's quite possible to start to do "real" things already even though most of us are nowhere near experts with any of these tools yet (as when I tried out that Spezify site that someone -- I think Suzanne? -- mentioned, and lucked (?) into something truly useful for the writing project that I'm doing with my class right now). . . . In other words, one goal / philosophical underpinning of this course is for us to learn the material by experiencing and exploring it in exactly the way that this article says the web is really good at providing: through social learning communities that (unlike, say, a discipline in traditional academia) we can contribute meaningfully to even as beginners.
"Learning to be" a member of a social learning community -- learning its norms, etc. -- tacit knowledge. On the Web you can do a lot of this even BEFORE becoming an expert in the particular content area or skill involved.
Collateral learning / peripheral learning
Access to rich practice-based learning communities
What I'm thinking (sorry if this seems too obvious) is that that's probably a lot of how Dennis is hoping that we will experience this course. He's set up a large array of different ways for us to participate in online communities (even if it's mostly all our course community), and different tools to begin to explore a little bit at a time. We're figuring out, bit by bit, what sorts of things to write where in all of the online community venues, and we're developing this perspective partly by reading each others' posts. With the tools, it's quite possible to start to do "real" things already even though most of us are nowhere near experts with any of these tools yet (as when I tried out that Spezify site that someone -- I think Suzanne? -- mentioned, and lucked (?) into something truly useful for the writing project that I'm doing with my class right now). . . . In other words, one goal / philosophical underpinning of this course is for us to learn the material by experiencing and exploring it in exactly the way that this article says the web is really good at providing: through social learning communities that (unlike, say, a discipline in traditional academia) we can contribute meaningfully to even as beginners.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Article on using online worlds in middle school
"Whyville" -- like Second Life, but designed for middle school students to collaboratively investigate science topics. http://www.edutopia.org/second-life-virtual-reality-collaboration
Graphics are simple, and it's considered easier to learn than Second Life.
A middle school English teacher uses Teen Second Life for literature circles! She finds kids very motivated, including struggling readers and writers and shy kids.
She also had students create avatar based on a Revolutionary War period person -- dress, background, etc. Eventually, the students got to wander around in Teen Second Life as their avatars, having discussions with characters from other books!
Graphics are simple, and it's considered easier to learn than Second Life.
A middle school English teacher uses Teen Second Life for literature circles! She finds kids very motivated, including struggling readers and writers and shy kids.
She also had students create avatar based on a Revolutionary War period person -- dress, background, etc. Eventually, the students got to wander around in Teen Second Life as their avatars, having discussions with characters from other books!
More "Young Minds" follow-up articles (elem.)
(1) Auburn Early Education Center in Auburn, Alabama -- Kindergarten classes do student-initiated multi-month investigations using both online and book resources! Every classroom has an interactive white board -- maps of Brazil, video clip of giant anaconda, etc.!
(2) "More Fun than a Barrel of. . .Worms?" -- A project-based elem. school. Kids highly engaged. Two big, publicly presented projects per class per year. Lots of curriculum interwoven; other stuff taught separately if it's really not related. Teachers say much more work (to structure experiences so that learning standards are met), but much more rewarding. (My redesigning-the-library-chairs project was supposed to be like this, though on a much smaller level. I am running into snags about whether or not anything can actually be done once we have results from our data, though. And, time is always an issue.)
(2) "More Fun than a Barrel of. . .Worms?" -- A project-based elem. school. Kids highly engaged. Two big, publicly presented projects per class per year. Lots of curriculum interwoven; other stuff taught separately if it's really not related. Teachers say much more work (to structure experiences so that learning standards are met), but much more rewarding. (My redesigning-the-library-chairs project was supposed to be like this, though on a much smaller level. I am running into snags about whether or not anything can actually be done once we have results from our data, though. And, time is always an issue.)
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