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Video projects: Lip service only

n my traditional cavalier/reckless fashion, I designed a project where students would create videos as the final product. I have two video cameras1 (a Flip and my point & shoot that shoots video), MovieMaker, three microphones, and a lack of experience with the moving picture medium.

Students got into groups, randomly selected a family of elements, and got busy researching & planning. Other than the typical issues that pop up when freshmen work together in groups2 things were going swimmingly. I suggested using PowerPoint as an image editor or stop motion picture creator, but other than that I really didn't push them in any direction for how they should produce the video. I was pleasantly surprised at the creative mix of puppet shows, live video, claymation, and other ideas that they came up with on their own. Despite the lack of equipment there were very few times when a group had to sit around waiting for a camera.

The trouble starts

Students began to download their video files and attempt to work with the files in MovieMaker. That's when things got dicey. Just a few of the problems we ran into:

  • Student accounts often were not able to download files from external devices. Sometimes it would work for them, sometimes it wouldn't. Weird.
  • Despite the claims on the official MovieMaker website, the program as installed on students computers could only import .WMV files. My video cameras saved files as .AVIs.
  • I sent students to Zamzar to convert the video files. Zamzar isn't always fast. Even better, students aren't allowed to download any files from online to school computers. When the conversions were finished I had to do all the downloading & distributing of files. I mourn the large amounts of class time that were lost due to all this file jockeying.
  • On a couple random days, the students weren't allowed to save any files into their network drives. Needless to say, that caused some frustration.
  • Beyond the problem above, twice during the project the school district's network drive was too full for anybody to save anything to it.

The irony

As a faculty, we've frequently heard from our administration (from assistant principal up to the SuperNintendo himself) that we need to embrace and encourage "21st Century Skills" with our students. As part of the NEASC accreditation process we're involved in the term "21st Century Skills" also comes up in every other indicator, standard, and student learning expectation.

The end

I probably won't try another video project this year. I'm pretty skeptical about trying it next year. The sad/frustrating/scary part of it all is that the issues with this project were caused by the lack of support from the administration and institution for a creative project that embraced "21st Century Skills." The problem didn't arise from poor project design3, a lack of student ability/skill, or a lack of resources. The problem arose solely as the result of an overly restrictive network and a lack of vision from those who control those restrictions.

The solution?

  • Trust students with the network.
  • Trust teachers with the network.
  • Think about what these "21st Century Skills" that are harped upon actually mean for how students and teachers will need to use the network. Adjust network restrictions accordingly.

Despite all the issues some pretty great videos came out of it. Check out a quick selection below:

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Creative-Commons image via P.C. Is2dent's Flickr stream

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  1. I did encourage any students with cameras that took video to bring them in. A few did.     [↩]
  2. i.e. "Johnny stole my [noun]!" "I didn't take your [noun], you're crazy!" "MR. W!!!"  [you get this too, right?]       [↩]
  3. Truthfully, it's very hard for me to judge the effectiveness of the project because the end result has been so overshadowed by all the technical issues.     [↩]
Posted on

Filter frustration

Monday Afternoon

The school tech came into my room and asked me to restart my computer for the work order I had put in. I told him that I hadn't put a work order in. He told me that he still needed me to restart my computer because of an update they did with the school's web filter. He left. I obediently restarted. Upon rebooting, I no longer had access to the filter override account. I couldn't access any blogs (including my own), any social bookmarking sites, Flickr, Google image search, twitter, and so on. I had previously been using these resources to improve the content I pushed toward my students in the classroom.

Tuesday Morning

I still was unable to bypass the filter. I sent an email to the school help desk and the school tech who visited me Monday afternoon explaining that I couldn't bypass the filter and that this was negatively impacting my ability to prepare quality content for my classes. The school tech emailed me back promptly explaining that he wasn't the person in charge of the filtration settings and to be sure that I filled out a help desk request (which I did).

Wednesday Morning

I still was unable to bypass the filter. I sent another email to the help desk and the school tech again explaining that I couldn't bypass the filter. This time I also included a list of several web sites that I was using from school to improve teaching and learning in my classroom that were now inaccessible. The school tech dropped by in person to explain that he personally couldn't do anything about it.

Wednesday Afternoon

I dropped by my local vice principal's office after school. I explained the situation to him, and he called down the school tech. The school tech again explained that he had no control over the school filtration setting, and that he asked his boss (the district head of technology) about it. Turns out that previously when one person used the filter override password, it shut down the filter for the entire district. As a result, they eliminated all override accounts. I asked about setting up a tiered filtration system- different filtration for staff than students. He said it's possible but it would take time and money, and since I was the only person who had a problem with the filter, it's not a priority. He suggested talking to my principal, who could talk to the superintendent, who could then tell him to set up tiered filtration. Did I mention we're between superintendents?

Seriously.

I have several major issues with this whole situation:

  1. As educators in the 21st Century, we need to be preparing students for the 21st Century. Draconian filtration protocols don't help this situation. I understand the need for filtration at school. I don't understand the degree to which it currently is enforced.
  2. The district has no educational technologist or whatever the title is. All tech personnel have no education experience. They're solely concerned with protecting their network. This is poor policy. Someone needs to stand up and fight for the educators using technology.
  3. I was told half-truths on Monday and Tuesday about what was happening. I asked why I needed to restart and then why the filter override wasn't working for me on Monday and Tuesday. My questions were not directly answered until today. I don't understand the reason for this.

What next?

I've emailed my principal and overseeing vice principal outlining my concerns with the filtration and explaining how it is negatively impacting my instructional practices. I'm extremely frustrated. I was never exactly happy with the level of filtering at the school, but because of the override I could get to enough resources that I wasn't going to raise much of a stink about it. Now I'm raising a stink- and now that I'm at it, I want students to have increased access as well.

Looking for help

If you have experience at a district with more lax filtration or tiered filtration at a school district, I'd love to hear from you- especially if you're in Connecticut. I was told by our district tech administrator he couldn't even unblock specific sites per teacher request- said the filtration system didn't work like that. That doesn't seem right to me. Is he right? Are filtration systems really that screwy?

Anyone have any success stories on pushing for more lax filtration?

You'd think this would be easier.
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Some related posts:

Posted on

Student technology survey

I tried out the new laptop cart at my new placement today. No one was very confident that the laptops would work well, but I used them enough at my old job ( and mostly found them quite effective) that I wasn't just going to let that cart sit there untested for long.

The last 20 minutes of each hour today I had students try to log into the school's network. I was surprised I had so few who couldn't login considering I have all 9th graders coming from 3 different middle schools and several who're new to the district altogether.

Once they were logged in I had them take a survey on their technology experience¹.

Initial results

  • 87% have their own cell phone
  • 82% have their own mp3 player
  • 92% have a computer at home connected to the internets

Conclusions

  1. Remember these are all freshmen. Most are just 14 years old. I'd imagine by the time they're juniors and seniors the percentage of students who have cell phones and mp3 players would increase to near 100%.
  2. The student body is quite diverse socio-economically and yet my percentages are very high across the board. Only 8 of my students DON'T have cell phones. Only 2 don't have internet access at home.
  3. Currently, all cell phones are supposed to be confiscated on sight from the beginning of 1st hour to the final bell. Does this policy support 21st century skills? Even if the skill being taught is simply appropriate use of a cell phone in a "business" setting (i.e. not texting during presentations, learning when and where it is acceptable to pull out their phones, etc.)?
  4. The school has about 1 computer for every 10 students (maybe even less), yet at home the ratio is probably much closer to 1:4. Are they being taught to effectively use online tools at home? They certainly aren't getting much computer time at school.

I have more data from the survey that'll take a little longer to disaggregate, but I'll share that when I get a chance to break it down.

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¹ If you'd like to see it, here it is.

Posted on

Scarcity and Collaboration: An argument for 1:1 initiatives

A couple of weeks ago Kate Olsen posted on her blog about getting hassled by one of her colleagues. Part of the hassling included a mention of her hogging the computer lab so others couldn't use it. That touched off some thoughts that had been floating around the back of my head for awhile.

Following is an excerpt from my comment on her post that briefly summarized my thinking:

Two years ago I was one of very few teachers who used the laptop carts on a regular basis. As a result, I could get them whenever I wanted (they even let me store a cart permanently in my room). Now there are 5 or so teachers that regularly use computers in their classes. While there has been a little increase in the number of available computers in the past 2 years, there is definitely more demand on the computers.

[...] The big problem I see is that the limited supply of computers with increasing demand may prevent tech-savvy teachers from sharing their expertise with those less familiar with technology to keep the demand for computer resources lower. This is simply unacceptable. Who benefits from this arrangement? It certainly isn’t the students.

One of the best sources of knowledge available to teachers who might be interested in integrating technology are other teachers who are already actively using it.  However, in schools with fewer computers available than students, for a tech-savvy teacher to share their knowledge means they run the risk of reducing the amount of time computers will be available for them to use. One of my primary concerns when planning lessons that require the internet or online tools (other than the school filter)  is that other teachers will sign out all the computers during the time when I need to use them.

Can I really be upset at these teachers for using technology? No. Should I withhold my expertise from them for selfish reasons? No, and I hope I haven't consciously done this. However, if each teacher at my school wanted to use the laptops even just once a week, there'd be a major fight over who would get them.

Aren't we in the business of supporting educators in the teaching of 21st century skills? The scarcity of computers in most schools (in my opinion) serves to prevent all teachers from utilizing technology. It seems to me the logical conclusion is to provide a laptop for each student. Known as a 1:1 program, many schools across the country are getting great results from it being thoughtfully implemented. I'm not purporting to be a 1:1 expert. All I'm saying is that if we want schools to be places where students learn to be competent citizens of the 21st century we need to provide them with the tools to do so.

What to do? I'm a bit of a lame-duck at my school (I'm moving to Connecticut this summer), so I feel my power to effect change has been diminished. However, we can all do a little to support these initiatives.

  • Teachers: talk to your principals, tech directors, school board members, etc. about the importance of teaching 21st century skills. Also, if you're not sure how to utilize technology, demand professional development time. This doesn't have to be an expensive keynote speaker, it could be a workshop by another teacher in your district.
  • Students: demand your teachers and principals provide an environment where you have the opportunity to learn and exhibit your 21st century skills. If your principals hear hundreds of requests for more technology to facilitate learning each week, then they're going want to take action.
  • Parents: talk to your students' principals and school board members about the importance of providing environments that prepare your children for their future. Again, if the school board hears several requests every week, they're much more inclined to "find" money to fund it.

For further info on 1:1 initiatives: