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.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Practiced with Twitter and Diigo today; learned about Google Docs
Today four of us (Karen, Shelley, Sue, and I) met after school for a couple of hours to help each other with course stuff and explore together. It was both very helpful and very enjoyable! They were interested in Twitter and I hadn't done much tweeting, yet, so we went there first. We reviewed how to follow someone, and set it up to follow each other. We also learned how to send private messages, how to block someone unknown who tries to follow you if you don't want them there, etc. Finally, we explored some of Dennis' tweets and used Diigo to bookmark one about a link that seemed especially useful.
With Diigo, Suzanne showed us how to use Google to find it on a computer where neither the Diigo Toolbar nor Digolet is installed. We highlighted the URL of a web page we liked, then pasted it into the box on the right-hand side of the Diigo My Library page to add a bookmark in Diigo to that page. I discovered that all of the text I had highlighted earlier in the Smartstorming article had, indeed, finally made it to my Diigo library page. I'm still confused as to why the highlights only sometimes show up when I revisit the actual article page, though.
Finally, I checked out Google Docs for the first time. It looks really useful! I'm constantly emailing myself things between home and school, but this might make that unnecessary. I still need to figure out where some of the formatting stuff is, such as a ruler to set tabs and indents with. I made a trial document and invited the others to help edit it, though, and Sue did -- that was neat! (Now I have to think about what sort of shared writing space you would use for what: Google docs, a wiki, or a blog; when would each one be most appropriate?)
I have yet to experiment with Google Reader or RSS feeds.
With Diigo, Suzanne showed us how to use Google to find it on a computer where neither the Diigo Toolbar nor Digolet is installed. We highlighted the URL of a web page we liked, then pasted it into the box on the right-hand side of the Diigo My Library page to add a bookmark in Diigo to that page. I discovered that all of the text I had highlighted earlier in the Smartstorming article had, indeed, finally made it to my Diigo library page. I'm still confused as to why the highlights only sometimes show up when I revisit the actual article page, though.
Finally, I checked out Google Docs for the first time. It looks really useful! I'm constantly emailing myself things between home and school, but this might make that unnecessary. I still need to figure out where some of the formatting stuff is, such as a ruler to set tabs and indents with. I made a trial document and invited the others to help edit it, though, and Sue did -- that was neat! (Now I have to think about what sort of shared writing space you would use for what: Google docs, a wiki, or a blog; when would each one be most appropriate?)
I have yet to experiment with Google Reader or RSS feeds.
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!
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