Posted on

Focus vs. filtering

I've been using the laptops a good bit in my classes recently.¹ Students often stray off the assigned task to check their MySpace, Facebook, check their email, or one of many other options.

I realize that it may be a rare and wonderful activity that captivates my 14 year old students' mind more than reading comments on their MySpace page, yet I feel students need to learn to focus on an activity when there are other options available.

How much censoring should I do of their wanderings? Currently I keep a close watch: If they quick check an email, the boxscore to last night's game, or their profile page and flip back to the assignment, I don't say anything. After all I function much like that when I'm working. If they're lingering a little too long or falling behind, then I ask them to stay off all other sites.

I don't want to block everything, but I also don't want to put my students in a situation where they can choose to fail via social networked distraction. Sometimes I catch myself wishing the school would block these sites; thus saving me the hassle.

But who am I to require students to focus on only one thing?

__________________________________

¹ I'll share some of what I've done this week on this blog soon.

Image: Screenshot from my work computer

Posted on

5 minutes to a better school

Chris Lehmann recently gave a presentation titled "School 2.0: Creating the schools we need" at an IgnitePhilly event.

It's probably the best 5 minutes video clip I've seen online¹. I've never heard someone explain things I've grown to believe so right on.

Watch it. Love it. Do it!

Mr. Lehmann gives his take on the presentation and the slide set he used on his blog.
_____________________________

¹that didn't include a cat doing something hilarious, of course.

Posted on

A computing conundrum

I have a decision to make. I don't want to make it. I already know what I'll end up doing in the end. Think you can figure it out?

The situation

My new school has two laptop carts per floor. That works out to two classroom sets of laptops for every 20-22 teachers or so. They're brand new and not many teachers realize that they're working perfectly fine (98% of the time at least).

There's no check-out or check-in system. When I wanted them, I went to the teacher's workroom and rolled them on down to my room. I had no way of telling if they would actually be available until I opened the door to the teacher's workroom. I have no way of telling when other teachers would like to use them.

The options

1. Do nothing.

  • Pros: I could (in theory) just keep the laptop cart in my room unless people ask for it. I'd definitely be able to use the laptops multiple times during the week. With my seeming inability to accurately plan how long things will take, I wouldn't have to worry about not getting to that online activity on time.
  • Cons: (1) I'd be monopolizing 50% of the available computers to regular classroom teachers. (2) I'd have no idea how long other teachers would be using the laptops when they did take them (if they ever found out where I was stashing them, of course!).

2. Do something (i.e. set up a shared Google Calendar or the like for teachers to sign out the laptops)

  • Pros: (1) I'd know when and for how long other teachers would be using the laptops. (2) There would be the opportunity for more equitable use of the laptop carts for all teachers.
  • Cons: I'd lose my potential monopoly of the carts, and would more thank likely have to reduce the number of activities in my classroom that would require the use of laptops. Boo.

The laptop cart: currently hiding in my room

The real problem

We don't have enough laptops.

I wrote about a very similar topic in March while I was at Whitmore Lake in Michigan. Back then we had four laptop carts and a media center lab available for use between 22-25 teachers. Here I'm down to two laptop carts and essentially zero dedicated computer labs available for use for the same number of teachers.

I sometimes chuckle to myself when my vice-principal talks about how much technology is available to students this year.

So, take a guess:
What am I going to do? Something, or nothing? 😉

Posted on

A free conference!

The K12 Online Conference 2008 is revving up to start on October 13 and running through November 1st. I was unable to participate in the 2007 edition due to time issues, and have heard very little but good about the whole process.

They've just posted the schedule for 2008, so I urge you to check it out. Unlike typical conferences, you can choose just to dip into what areas interest you. If you don't like any of the topics for a couple days, don't participate! If you have a big social event planned one of the nights, they're all archived for later viewing! And best of all (especially coming on the day when I was denied funding for EduCon 2.1¹), it's free. 

I'm interested to see what ideas people will be sharing and excited to get an opportunity to interact with other individuals from around the world.

_________________________________________________________________

¹ In no way am I meaning to knock EduCon, or the fact that it costs money. I'm just a bit disappointed my district doesn't see it as valuable for my own professional development. We'll have to review personal finances to see if it's in our budget...

Posted on

Economy: FAIL

Understanding the ins and outs of the United States economic woes of late isn't exactly my strong suit. I get the basic concepts, but I'm not claiming to be much of an economic expert. This picture is definitely the best I've seen to date in describing the recent turmoil:

Fail!

Yes, that is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in the foreground.

As a subscriber to ICanHasCheezeburger and the FAIL Blog, I appreciate this "protester's" simple yet effective analysis of the situation.

In other economic related news, Gov. Jodi Rell of Connecticut (that'd be my governor now) said:

When the markets and Wall St. seem to be in flux and the state budget is extremely tight, we're going to have to make the most of every learning opportunity that's out there.

Hmmm...that sounds an awful lot like, "Education isn't going to get much funding in the future, so start figuring out how to run a school on a shoestring budget."

Considering many economic-related stories have been using descriptors like "unprecedented" and "first time since the 1930's," perhaps that's the least of our worries.

__________________________________________________________________________

Image by Getty (Chip Somodevilla) via denverpost.com :: via Gawker :: via my wife who recently started using Google Reader to share items with me

Jodi Rell quote via WSHU public radio

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.

_______________________________________________________________

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

Posted on

Design, presentations, and the power of the network

Dread! It all started with dread.

The last week or so, my classes have been covering material that I made PowerPoint slideshows for several years ago. While at the time, I put in lots of images and even embedded some video, I found myself dreading to give those presentations to my classes. I started pondering whether there wasn't a better way to utilize slideshows than what I was doing. I became discontent with my presentations

As if the heavens could hear me, wisdom rained down upon me.

Wisdom Bit #1: This fall, I happened upon Lawrence Lessig's talk on copyright at the TED conference. While the subject matter was interesting, I was enthralled (& engaged) by his simple use of visuals and high-contrast text. It made me want to go design my own presentation right then and there (it was a pretty busy time for me, so I didn't). As I became discontent with my presentations, my thoughts went back to his presentation.

Wisdom Bit #2: On a tip from Wes Fryer on his blog, I've subscribed to the Practical Principals podcast. In the first installment I was able to catch, Scott Elias discussed a presentation he gave on how to give engaging presentations. In the show notes, a link was provided to his presentation. I checked that out, and liked what I saw. The wheels were turning...

Wisdom Bit #3: Wes Fryer wrote a post discussing digital storytelling and dual-coding theory. Essentially, dual-coding theory states that when a speaker reads information off of a slide, very often the audience can become overwhelmed because there are two images to pay attention to (the speaker and the projected text). I found this very interesting, as I had previously been under the assumption that reading and projecting the text was helpful to students, as it provided both a visual and auditory pathway for the information. It's funny what information we believe that isn't really true.

Wisdom Bit #4: Clay Burell shared a presentation he gave and also wrote a bit on good design in presentations to boot. I especially liked his tip to include a "narrative thread" in presentations. It provides a something for people to grab onto, and combined with slides with relevant images (and very little text), people have to listen to hear the story.

Wisdom Bit #5: At the end of Clay's post, he provided a link to Dan Meyer's blog post on how to present. He pretty much reiterated what I had already heard and read from Scott, Wes, and Clay; but it was an excellently written post with great examples. I think what I took away most from this post was his statement: "If I can look at your slidedeck and determine the full content of your presentation, it's carrying too much information."

Direction! Finally, I had direction.

I think what struck me most about this process went far beyond my integration of a new and improved method. The online network that provided the wisdom is the big story here. Though no one whose wisdom was included in this post put their content online with the specific thought of helping me escape the doldrums of antiquated presentations, the simple task of accessing distant knowledge is pretty amazing in itself. The sources of my wisdom were located in California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Missouri, Korea, and California again. It was totally asynchronous, and exactly what I needed. I don't have a well-developed edtech network yet, but just because I can't tweet a question and get back 50 responses yet doesn't mean I can't take advantage of the network.

Yay, Network! Thanks, network. You're the best!

Stay tuned. I'll post my old presentation compared to the new one.

Photo credits: Medo/Fear by xaimex, BLESSINGS FROM THE SKY by dharmesh, Map and Compass by Inky Bob, and Be Positive by José Miguel Serrano

Posted on

Authentic learning without technology? No way!

Walden PondThere' s a school in them there Woods. Matt Schlein raised the funds to purchase 260 acres of land and open the Walden Project- an innovative high school where class is held outdoors (except for when they have it in a motley-looking tent). The curriculum is based around Thoreau's writing, but by no means is no means limited. The NPR article notes:

"There's no need to go out in the hall or grab a new book. That's because everything is related, so class discussion about the recent primary vote in neighboring New Hampshire is just another aspect of the school's simple mission. Like Thoreau, students are supposed to be exploring their relationship to self, their relationship to culture and their relationship to the natural world."

This sounds quite similar to all the edu-talk about creating authentic learning environments through the use of global personal learning networks and other technological tools. The Walden Project doesn't utilize technology (though, as a joke, their tent has a satellite dish), but yet it sounds like authentic learning is taking place. One student is managing a corner of the forest. He's selectively culling some trees to determine if he can increase the biodiversity of plant life.

Personally, I'm drawn to the Walden Project model- I love the outdoors and would love to get to spend my days teaching in such an environment. I realize this isn't a feasible solution for the vast majority of schools and students. However, I do find it interesting that while many of us edu-bloggers are talking incessantly how technology can create authentic, interconnected learning, here's an example of a completely different solution that seems to basically have the same goals in mind. Perhaps technology is just a filler for those of us who don't have 260 acres of land to teach on...

From NPR :: via Treehugger

Photo credit: Storm Crypt via Flickr

Posted on

The New Endeavor

This all started after deciding to not make any New Year's Resolutions. I don't like resolutions. They're over-used and under-achieved. If I want to change something, I tell myself to simply make the change- not publicly resolve to do something then later feel guilty for not doing it.

However, I often find myself spending time during my time off during the holidays reflecting on my life. During the active school year I often feel so busy planning, preparing, grading, etc. that I don't feel I get a chance to sit back and reflect. Over break I had the time, and during this time I had a epiphany.

The revelation follows: I regularly have used an RSS aggregator (originally Brief in FireFox, but now Google Reader) to keep up with my favorite environmental & educational blogs and websites. In small times during classes, my planning period, or before and after school, I often browse through 100 or so articles & postings. I don't necessarily read them all, but I greatly enjoy reading some of the articles and bookmark those that I found interesting or intriguing. In doing this I ran across Michael Wesch's "Information R/evolution (video embedded below)" I realized that I have been consuming massive quantities of online information without giving much back. Sure, I have a blog that my family and maybe a couple friends look at, but I haven't been creating, critiquing, organizing, or understanding. I had only improved slightly upon reading a newspaper. I had failed to realize that I could also be writing the newspaper! Thus the resolution (shudder) was made to actively comment on articles. Thus I came to the conclusion that it was time to really analyze what people were saying online and then let them know my analysis. Thus, this new "space" became inevitable.

If you're caught in the slog of school life & getting bogged down trying to integrate technology into your classroom, check out Michael Wesch's videos on YouTube. They get my heart pumping.

As promised, Information R/evolution: