Valuing Perspectives & Opening Networks

Today is the last day of blog postings for #cyberPD discussing chapters 5 and 6 of Who Owns the Learning by Alan November. Laura Komos will be hosting the event today on her blog, Ruminate and Invigorate.  Other participants are posting their links in the comment space and on Twitter with #cyberPD.  Plus, there is a "jog" of all the postings, if you would like to catch up, at Who Owns the Learning? #cyberPD 2013.  Here are my thoughts as I finish the book and think about the future.

“We need to start teaching our students global empathy by developing their ability to understand and appreciate other points of view” (November, 2012, p. 65-66). This is a relevant and essential recommendation from November, and although he focuses on the role of students as global communicators and collaborators, I think developing empathy and respect locally is just as important. Students are living in a world of popular and social media, new programs and cartoons that value and highlight aggressive, egotistical and opinionated personalities that insite conflict and disharmony. Just look at how the cast members of Big Brother, Survivor and other “reality” shows are selected – the goal is to create as much drama and conflict as possible. Where are the models of adults engaging in authentic dialogue that seeks to understand - not just win? Even Congress, in their role as representatives of the people, focus more on party lines and winning than on authentic debate and collaboration.

Narrowing our view points through technology – I knew that Google “personalized” searches, but I guess I didn't realize how extreme this narrowing has gotten. Early in my teaching career, I taught students how to use multiple search engines, because they each searched differently. Now, there is pretty much only Google. Yes, it is easier to find exactly what you want, but as November observed, this develops an over-inflated sense of rightness. I need to be confronted with alternative perspectives to be able to clarify my own understandings, not just confirm. November also commented how the potential of the World Wide Web for building connections and opening up multiple points of views has actually narrowed it more. It is really easy to find your own niche and ignore alternatives.  I've noticed this with my own use of Twitter. Like many others, I tend to follow the people that I have a lot in common with – middle school teachers, literacy people, technology focused educators – but that leaves huge gaps in seeing alternative perspectives. Social media can be a great venue for support – but maybe I need to challenge myself to become “friends” with less like-minded people and expand my own perspective taking.

“Every day, I have to decide if I will write for my teachers or publish to the world” (November, 2012, p. 69). This statement, from a student who wrote prolifically on a fanzine site, but not much at school, really resonated for me. Why would students want to write for an audience of one, when the world could be their audience? Like November stated earlier – how many assignments end up in the trash versus making a long-term impact on a student. As he stated in chapter 6, he remembers experiences from his own schooling, not the tests. Like Vygotsky, I believe that learning is a social process that focuses on individuals making meaning of the world through their interactions with others. It isn't the paper or the test – learning is the process of gathering information, evaluating and synthesizing it to make meaning of it. We have focused too much on highlighting the solo work of students, and not the collaborative process of learning.

Here is a YouTube Video from a 7^th grade student, posted in 2009. She describes her personal learning environment. When I first saw it, I was impressed. Now, I'm depressed, as it is 4 years later, and there has been very little support for students (and teachers) to develop these types of learning networks. What are we afraid of?

As November reminds us about what Daniel Pink has noted “the more we grade children on creative work, the less they'll do” (p. 83). Argh! Grading, assessment and evaluation. This is such a long and difficult debate and issue. There are so many political and social aspects of this issue too. But, as November observed before (building on Pink's work) the motivation to learn and take action happens when there is an authentic purpose, autonomy, and mastery. It isn't the reward of grades, money, bonuses or even praise. Real motivation comes from within.

Shift of Control

In chapters three and four, November describes two roles for students – that of scribe and researcher. Although new technologies provide different avenues for publication, audience and sources of information, these roles are not new. Remember the classic adage by Benjamin Franklin, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Pre-digital times, I knew several teachers who sent home student-produced newsletters that described the activities of the week. Granted, in those days, the audience and feedback was not as immediate as a class blog. Which, of course, is part of what makes using technology so powerful.

Like November states, I also believe that having a public forum and audience for writing provides motivation for students to not only write, but to care more about their writing. The recognition from peers, parents and others is more interesting than a single grade from a teacher. On Twitter, I've seen many teachers ask Followers to check out and comment on their students' websites or blogs. I know students love tracking who had comments and where they are from. Many years ago, I had my 10thgrade students use a blog to learn about and respond to Cather in the Rye. This was a group of students who were reluctant to write about their reading in traditional formats like reading response journals or double entry format, but wrote multiple paragraphs when writing on the blog. Besides having a public forum and audience, there was a sense of legacy, as November stated, that encouraged them to revise and take pride in their writing.

For me, the student role of scribe and researcher doesn't seem very radical, but as November states, the challenge “will be redefining the role of learner as contributor, and building a collaborative learning culture” (p. 5). For too long, we have designed learning spaces that require isolated, individual learning and support competition rather than collaboration. This, I believe, is the bigger shift of control – to redefine the classroom expectations, not just introduce technology. And, as November also states, teachers need to do more networking and sharing of their work with their peers. I just completed a study with two third-grade teachers who team-taught in a workshop format. One of the most important catalysts to changing their practice was consistent, collaborative reflection. As teachers, we need to not only open our classrooms, but open our thinking to others.

As November talked about the role of student as researcher, I was thinking about how teachers typically respond to student questions – and not just in K-12 schools but in higher ed. too. I think the most typical response to a student question is to just give the answer. As a culture, we expect teachers and instructors to be experts in their area, and their role is to impart that knowledge to others. The second response I've noticed is the command to “Look it up.” This assumes that students know how to look things up – either in print or online. And, as November found, many students, though digital natives, have very limited repertories of search strategies. This past year I asked my students to research a family artifact. But, I spent almost two weeks in preparation to practice search strategies and evaluation of websites. It was a little frustrating for both students and parents, because they wanted “results” immediately. But, as November showed, there are a lot of bogus websites available, and the top picks of Google aren't necessarily the best. November talked about the website that denied the Holocaust, but here are two other websites that look legitimate but are hoaxes that I have used with students:

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus - http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division(Dangers of H2O) - http://www.dhmo.org/

The final, less common answer, is the one November illustrated.  Modeling a stance of inquiry, the teacher would say, "How can we find that answer?"

As a graduate student, I returned to university after numerous years as a classroom teacher. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of information and terms I didn't know and I felt stupid to ask, because it looked like everyone else understood. Some professors were supportive of having open laptops in class, other professors felt it was rude to have students typing away during class. In supportive classrooms, I was constantly looking up things I didn't understand and was afraid to show my ignorance. Because of this, I was better able to participate in discussion and understand the material. I try to remember this when I'm teaching.

#CyberPD "Who Owns the Learning" by Alan November

The #cyberpd event will consist of three parts:

July 3rd: Chapters 1 and 2 - Hosted by Cathy Mere at Reflect and Refine: Building a Learning Community

July 10th: Chapters 3 and 4 - Hosted here at My Primary Passion

July 17th: Chapters 5 and 6 - Hosted by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-A-Lot

Date to be determined: Final chat about the book on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberpd

You can participate in several ways:

• You can write a blog post with your thoughts about the section we are reading for the week and add the link to your blog in the comments of the host blog.
• You can add your thoughts directly in the comments of the host blog.
• You can share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #cyberpd.
• You can come up with another way to share you ideas. We would love to see a new, creative way to join the conversation.

#cebc #ce12 Book Club: The Connected Educator

I just stumbled on the Connected Educators Book Club. The first live webinar was last night, but the archives are posted. Plus, there is a Ning for discussing the books. Being a Ning, I had to create a user name/password, so the discussions are semi-private. After the amazing learning via #cyberPD, I figured I would jump into this one. For more information go to the Club's website:

http://connectededucators.org/cem/book-club/

The first book in the book club is Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s The Connected Educator (co-authored with Lani Ritter Hall), “which compellingly lays out a step-by-step path to using online connected communities to become a connected learner engaged in do-it- yourself professional development” according to the website. I checked our university library and will be picking up the book this afternoon, but the first chapter is available at Solution Tree. Bill Boyd has a nice overview at his site, The Literacy Adviser.

Nussbaum-Beach's introduction says that the purpose of the book is to address teachers as learners first and educators second. In other words, the book is to help readers/users learn how to create and maintain personal learning networks (PLN) and communities (PLC), which will then help educators envision how to use them in the classroom. I've been involved in Twitter and the ECNing for a while, but I know I could be more organized and more strategic with my PLN.

One statement that resonated with me immediately was the recognition of the traditional solo learner.  Nussbaum-Beach says, “Yet in most schools, still, the assumptions are that learning is an individual process, that learning has a beginning and an end, that learning happens in schools separately from the rest of life’s activities, and that learning is the result of teaching. Technology is beginning to shift those assumptions and change the way, we, as educators, learn” (p. 10). As I've mentioned before, I struggle with creating “group” projects that require interdependence between students because, being American, I've grown up in a culture of Me-cracy and individual competition. As my mom has often told me, I was a stubborn child and would stamp my feet and say, “I'll do it myself” while she watched in frustration as simple tasks took much longer than necessary. Guess I ignored Vygotsky's theory of learning via the zone of proximal development (ZDP) and the more knowledgeable other (MKO)! I know I need to break my own habits of working alone and create spaces and opportunities for my students (and their parents) to learn how a community of learners is more powerful than learning alone.

I had the great fortune of having a computer-savvy husband/teacher, who took me to the NECC conference for many years, which is now the International Society of Technology in Education conference. Through that experience, I started this blog (see first post) and have been posting intermittently and connecting to others through this blog. Nussbaum-Beach highlights the importance of participating in the cyberworld, which makes sense to me because just being a lurker doesn't provide long-term learning and change. She says, “Becoming a connected, do-it-yourself learner begins with your willingness to be a findable, clickable, searchable-on-Google person who shares openly and transparently. From there we can form a connection, a conversation, a relationship and begin to collaborate” (p. 11).

I find the “Do-it-yourself learner” term to be quite intriguing. I've been listening to Daniel Pink's Drive:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and am currently on the chapter on Mastery and Flow. The do-it-yourself learning reminds me of the importance of autonomy and choice. Pink states, “While complying can be an effective strategy for physical survival, it’s a lousy one for personal fulfillment. Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night” (p. 112). So much of schooling – professional development for teachers and daily classes for students are about compliance. However, when learners get to CHOOSE what and how they want to learn, they become ENGAGED and enter a state of FLOW. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (in Finding Flow) identified nine elements of flow:

1. There are clear goals every step of the way.
2. There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.
3. There is a balance between challenges and skills.
4. Action and awareness are merged.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
6. There is no worry of failure.
7. Self-consciousness disappears.
8. The sense of time becomes distorted.
9. The activity becomes “autotelic” (an end in itself, done for it’s own sake).

Dr. Steven Wright has a nice overview of Csíkszentmihályi's Finding Flow and other works.

When I am working with others – talking with student teachers, collaborating with teachers, facilitating a classroom lesson, giving a workshop – I find my flow. Again, that is the power of learning together, rather than learning alone! Nussbaum-Beach says, “The simple truth is that there is a limit to how much we can learn if we keep to ourselves (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991). By deepening our connectedness to the level of true collaboration, we can best meet the needs of today's students” (p. 12).

I've read many technology for teacher books that insist that they are “interactive” but I have to say, this one is impressive so far. The authors have provided many active links at the publisher's website, plus have “Get Connected” activities at the end of each chapter.

QR Codes - A New Horizon

As you can see from the last post, I'm dwelling on 21st Century Learning.  Part of this, of course, is because of the Teachers Teaching Teachers Technology Conference and my attendance in various sessions about technology. 

I attended an interesting session yesterday about using QR codes in the classroom given by Jennifer Shafer Wyatt  (Twitter ID: @jen_librarian).  When I gave my poster presentation at AERA, I included a QR code to link to the paper, but I now realize how much more I could have used it for - to link to video or pictures to extend the poster with multimedia.  I definitely want to explore this idea more in future presentations.  But, I began to see the usefulness of QR codes in my own classroom  - to link student created podcast reviews of books to the book itself (with a bookmark & QR code) or to have station work that is linked to media and instructions via QR code which would reveal the information when the students were ready for it.  Jennifer provided several videos that showed ways to use QR codes and this is one of the better ones -  Black & White and Scanned All Over.

  I did some other looking and found a neat one about using QR in Elementary - what is especially interesting is that the video is narrated and designed by the students.

Now, QR codes aren't a new idea, but schools have been slow to catch on, mostly because student cell phones are generally banned. Here is a great blog from 2010 about using QR Codes - implications for teaching and learning.

Book Review: Literacy is Not Enough

Title:Literacy is Not Enough: 21^st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age

Authors: Lee Crocket, Ian Jukes, Andrew Churches

Publisher:21^st Century Fluency Project with Corwin Press.

Date: 2011

ISBN: 978-1-4129-8780-6

Pages: 232

As the title states, literacy is not enough. Literacy, in the traditional definition, means the ability to read and write. According to The World Fact book, which uses this most basic definition, the United States has a literacy rate of 99%. That sounds really good. However, according to the latest International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), between 21% and 24% of U.S. adults performed at the lowest level on three literacy scales: document literacy, prose literacy and quantitative (number) literacy – which leads to lower salaries and work hours and greater rates of incarceration and use of food stamps. But, the authors highlight other issues – even routine cognitive work is being outsource (ie reading MIRs and other medical diagnostics). To continue to be competitive students need to learn to be problem solvers, creative, analytical, collaborative, communicative, and ethical and the authors propose a focus on five fluencies rather than literacies to guide long-term planning in education. In other words, “We need to rethink what our definition of literate is, because a person who is literate by the standards of the 20^th century may be illiterate in the culture of the 21^st century” (p. 57).

Here is some interesting food for thought:

“How we teach problem solving in classrooms today isn't really working for us. Presenting a problem, then giving students the answer by showing them how we got it, and then repeating the process over and over by giving them a series of similar problems to solve doesn't cut it. When we do this, we aren't teaching them anything other than how smart we are. We are cultivating dependency, not independent though and the ability to analyze and solve problems.” p. 23

So, the authors present 5 Fluencies and their components skills:

Solution Fluency

• Define the problem
• Discover the context of the problem and availability of information
• Dream about solutions
• Design a plan
• Deliver the plan
• Debrief about process and results

Information Fluency

• Ask good questions
• Acquire multiple sources and types of information
• Analyze, authenticate and arrange the information
• Apply knowledge
• Assess the process and results

Creative Fluency

• Identify problem
• Inspire yourself through seeking information, ideas, connections etc
• Interpolate (find patterns) in the information
• Imagine what is possible
• Inspect idea – evaluate and assess

Media Fluency

• Listen
  • To the message – verbalize and verify
  • To the medium – the form, flow and alignment
• Leverage
  • The message – content and outcome
  • The medium – audience, ability and criteria

Collaboration Fluency

• Establish the group, norms, roles, responsibilities, etc
• Envision the purpose and outcome
• Engineer the steps needed
• Execute the plan
• Examine the process and outcome

The authors draw from Daniel Pink (2006), who concluded that often education is the process of teaching us what we can't do. Which, I think, does happen in too many classrooms, because proficiency is celebrated with grades and recognition, but risk-taking and trying yet not completely succeeding is avoided (by both teachers and students).

Beyond the Fluencies, the authors discuss Global Digital Citizenship. Since “we stay so connected to our friends [across time and space] it's like we have one long conversation that never ends; it just has some very long pauses” (p.79). In other words, whether we like it or not, we are all global citizens, because the daily events and happenings from around the world are deposited into our consciousnesses through social media and commercial media instantaneously and steadily. This requires teaching students to have particular awareness and responsibility to:

• Respect themselves
• Protect themselves
• Respect others
• Protect others
• Respect intellectual property
• Protect intellectual property (p. 81)

Most schools and businesses require users to sign an Acceptable User Policy (AUP) for the computer network. However, the authors argue that most of these policies for on the restriction of use, rather than supporting and teaching responsible use of technology. They provide a Digital Citizenship Agreement, that could replace the AUP using the foundations of respect and protect

The last part of the book has some unit plans for various grade and subject areas with a focus on developing the various fluencies through real-life simulations and project-based learning, along with a short discussion about assessment with more formative, self and peer assessment and reflection being key.

So, what is the essential pedagogical guidelines for 21st Century Learning? Velcro Learning!

• Make it sticky 
• Draw from the past 
• Repeat - often 
• Give positive feedback - frequently

Here are some online resources:

21^st Century Fluency Project

http://www.fluency21.com/index.cfm

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

http://www.p21.org/

NECC06 The Tech Savvy English Classroom Revisited (Or, Where are We Going?) - Sara Kajder

Bringing the Outside In - http://www.bringingtheoutsidein.com/

How is technology transforming the English classroom?

Ms. Kajder wrote the Tech Savvy Classroom http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idProduct=361 four years ago (good book by the way) but she feels that it is now outdated, as the conversations are now past using PowerPoint. So where are we going now? There need to be a re-calibration on how we think about using technology use in the English classroom.

She states that she is not a techie by nature, and has made many mistakes, but has also been able to work in tablet classrooms and handheld programs, so there is a broad range of experience. She quoted Todd Oppenheimer who said that good teachers know when to ignore the new technologies to use the “old fashioned” tools like pens, paper, instruments etc. The technology divide is not just the have and have nots – but rather HOW the technology is being used with students. Quantity does not make for a good program. Students should be doing more then drill and skill programs.

English teacher used to be pretty static – students read books and wrote stories. Over time the definition of literacy and text has changed, and our teaching need to reflect this. Literacy is not just reading – there are so many others – information, visual, numerical etc. Text is no longer just word – a book or anthology. It is the sounds, images, gestures, movements etc situated in contexts, surround by language.

So if a technology is going to be used in the classroom, we need to consider the unique capabilities of the tool and if the tool allows us to do something better than what we are already doing.

Will Richardson – the guru for Web 2.0 – book Blog, Wikis and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom
http://www.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book228840

Big Ideas of the Session
1)Allows for real writing for authentic audiences and real reasons
2)Mulimodal composition
3)Pushing the definition of literacy
4)Building purposeful and global interpretive communities.

Example – podcasting book talks to record and then edit a book talk for the best 5 minutes of a 45 minute conversation.

Digital Storytelling
Ms. Kajder showed an example of an older woman who created a wonderful memoir of about 3 minutes in about 4 hours that included video, still photos and text. To create a digital story, Ms. Kajder recommends iMovie, as it is the easiest to use, but there are other resources.

A memoir like this is a “Slice of Life” Story that is a retrospective and reflective story. Student writers mirror themselves and reflect what they are and project what they can be. A personal narrative is a school genre that is chronologically structured in a formal 5-paragraph outline that usually doesn't include a reflective component.

Another example of Connor's story about “Practice Makes Perfect” that was a 9 year old's view of his piano recital and the practice that went into it.

Creating a Digital Story with Students (a bit of a retelling of her NECC 2005 presentation Digital Images in the English Classroom - see Archive June 2005

1.Immerse students in the genre reading and writing
2.Pre-write and collect ideas
3.Select, collect and choose a lens/frame – includes artifact search
4.Draft and revise (must have a storyboard before going to the lab)
5.Construct in the lab (have a time limit to encourage students to work quickly)
6.Edit, publish, screen and publish

Fan Fiction – fanfiction.net
A site devoted to stories written by the average person, celebrating their favorite authors or styles. People can submit their stories and are peer reviewed. A good site to point kids to for them to share their writing and get feedback. There are stories in response to several canonical texts like 1984, Scarlet Letter etc.

Blogs – most teachers tend to use blogger.com.
What types of activities could be done with blogs?
1)Assign a student a day to summarize the content of the class
2)Discuss the reading assigned
3)Post notes from the class

Cool tip! There is Audioblogger http://www.audioblogger.com/ where the person calls an 800 number to record and post their comments. Blogger will also give the option to be private or public with a membership list that only allows the members to post.

Gabbly.com – chat about websites. Very cool tool, I'll need to ponder how to use it with kids. You type in the website and a chat box pops up so the people viewing the site can talk about it.

NECC06
NECC

NECC 06 Keynote - One Laptop Per Child - Nicholas Negroponte

One Laptop per Child (OLPC) - http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

Technology is not about teaching – it is about learning. In much of the world, the schools lack well-qualified teachers. In rural areas, some teachers are lucky to have a 6th grade education. In situations like this, we need to get kids to teach themselves. Giving kids computers, rich or poor, and they act the same way – excited about learning. Communication and connection is key. Children don't have the baggage that the adults have and are willing to communicate with anyone. Mr. Negroponte related a story about building 5 schools, with laptop programs, in remote villages in Cambodia. The kids take the laptops home at night and it is the focus of the family. In addition, Maine started an initiative

These two events prompted his idea of a 100 dollar laptop – or a laptop per child. The key of the program is scale – being global is crucial to launch 5-10 million in 2007 and 50-150 million in 2008. This scale allows for large ordering of components that will be cheaper. Then, there were many partners that become involved, such as Google, eBay, AMD, News Corp, Brightstar, Marvell, Nortall, 3M, etc.

A word about laptops – getting to the 10$ laptop is not difficult. 50% of the cost is marketing. 25% is the display and 25% is the support of MSFT Windows XP. The overwhelming memory and running needs of the operating systems make it to overloaded. More is not necessarily different. Moore's Law indicates that the size will shrink, power increase which keeps the price high and stable. Instead, what about standing still and getting the cost down. To get it down to a 100$ laptop, there are no sales, marketing and distribution. The first purchase order was 5-10 million units. The computers will use Linux and reduce the display cost by using a backlight innovation. In addition, the other features would include a human powered input (crank), must have wifi with a mesh network, be rugged, shared memory, and dual mode display (to be usable indoors and in sunlight with a B&W display). The goal is to have the kids do the maintenance. When Mr. Negroponte sent 50 laptops to Cambodia, only one broke in 3 years. However, when the laptop belongs to the child, there is a sense of ownership and pride. The kids in Cambodia polished it, made little bags for them.

Prototypes
Green machine was introduce with Desmond Tuti – it has a crank for human power

Ebook – like a readers or laptop
Orange machine – with rabbit ears for the mesh network
Red machine – display is a little bigger, still with rabbit ears (for heat release)
$100 server
$10 DVD drive
$10 Hard disc
$30 printer
$50 projector

Launch – a chicken and egg problem
Can't convince the people to purchase until the laptop is made, but the makers won't make until the orders are made. However, by Christmas, there should be the first ones manufactured.

Launch countries – Brazil, Nigeria, Thailand, and Argentina for sure, but other Central American plans along with China, India, Egypt, Mexico, Bangladesh.

Why not the USA?
Don't need a $100 laptop – schools can buy the $400 intel laptop
There are other problems in poorer countries – like no power and health issues

The first trial will be in Nigeria in 2007. The initial price will be about $140, but the target price for 2010 is $50. The important thing is that the price will float, based on the cost of the components. Features will not be added that increases the price. Countries are volunteering to sponsor other countries – or people purchase and donate in another's name.

Side effects of the $100 laptop. Linux will be on the desktop. There's no caps lock key. More consciousness about using human power. No bloated software or unneeded features. Viral telecommunications. Peer to peer learning and

What can you do?
Contribute your ideas to: wiki.laptop.org

If you are personally interested or want a developer board, send e-mail to: iste@laptop.org

Three basic principles:
1)Use technology to learn learning, not to learn something. To many kids are learning Word or Excel, but not learning to use the computer as the tool it is to be used to learn other things.
2)Teaching is one but not the only way to achieve learning.
3)Leverage children's initiative

NECC06
NECC

Blogging: Reinventing Teaching and Learning in the Information Age - Susim Munshi and Susan Switzer

According to Helen Keller, “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” If Helen Keller was around today, she would not have struggled as hard to be as successful as she was. To achieve the full potential for technology in education we need to change the lens that will look through – we need to be less critical and use more praise. The new fabric of life that challenges our traditions in education and many teachers feel threatened with it as education has spent the last 100 years “perfecting” the fabric of education. Jon Madonna said, “Nothing stops an organization faster than people who believe that the way you worked yesterday is the best way to work tomorrow.” (Sounds a little like Good to Great.)

The institutional visions tend to be tunnel (my space – community, school), silo (my silo – not anyone else's) or vertical (hierarchy. This type of vision limits the possibilities with technology. There is a lot of talk about the Internet 2.0 – if this is the future of the internet, we need to create Schools 2.0 that have teachers who guide the students to use the technology that is evident in every day life and prepare them for an unknown future.

According to Alan November, “Blogging is the single most transformative tool.” The control of learning is shifting to more student control, there is more noise, movement, new assessments, and available constantly. The current decision making tools that students are currently using include myspace, AOL messenger and other chat programs. We must be teaching students to teach themselves, as the jobs they will fulfill may not even exist in our current world.

Ms. Switzer then highlighted some examples of weblogs that are available through their own website:
http://learn2blog.21publish.com/

Mr. Munshi encouraged the audience to go to the website to share and use any of the resources available. He also highlighted the Goochland Public schools that require the teachers to blog. He references Alan November's presentation to administrator that asked if the administrators wanted their teachers to use technology (especially wikis and blogs) the administrators MUST also use these technologies.

The handouts for the session was unique – to required the audience to input information and reflect on the information. See Bob Pike from The Bob Pike Group on giving better presentations:
http://www.bobpikegroup.com/

NECC06
NECC

Introducing the Read/Write Web – Tim Wilson

Opportunities for the WebThe internet is the future for technology for education. It is up there with the ancient library in Alexandra and the TV. Web 2.0 is an emerging platform where the web is the platform. There will be a move from a classroom webpage to a weblog. The weblog is instantly updated and interactive – this is what makes it a read/write page. In addition, with RSS (really simple syndication) allows the subscriber to be updated when new content is posted on the weblogs you are interested in.

Compare New York Times and ohmynews. New York Times is written by professional journalists for stories that sell papers. Ohmynews is a Korean online paper with both professional and non-professional writers that brings the daily news to the public.

Encyclopedias vs Wikipedia. Most online encyclopedias are fee based and fairly static. Wikipedia is dynamic – with people who are passionate about the topic posting information. The incorrect information is quickly erased and rewritten. A recent study showed that Wikipedia is as accurate as any published encyclopedias. This would allow students to contribute to the world of knowledge. It is also available in other languages. There is also opportunities for discussion within the article.

Technorati
Tagging is a way of adding keywords for for arrogation. It allows links between blogs and on going conversation.

Audience
When students have a broader audience, they write differently and with more enthusiasm and significance.

How do we keep kids safe while working online?
Keep students on your own network and servers.
Monitor what the students are reading and writing.
Teach appropriate online behavior.
Recognize that young people will encounter unsavory things online, just like in real life.

What professional development is needed?
Avoid the “just in case” PD and look for “just in time.”
Build on the trail blazers so they can show the way for others.
Leaders have to lead – the admin must show what they want in technology.

How to assess student work?
Develop or adopt curriculum standards for information literacy.
Create uniform rubrics for use across curriculum.
De-emphasize individual assessments. (Wikis and blog are interconnected, assessing an individual would be difficult)

Equitable access is important – all students should have the opportunities to work with technology. Consider extending the hours of the school's media center and computer labs to better serve the community. Teachers can give classes on internet behavior or software lessons. Converse about the equity within your own school.

The implications of not getting technology use correctly in school. Change is happening so fast that we can't keep up. We are in a relevance race with our students. The social sites feeds the students' passion – we need to understand what this passion is and how to harness it for education. We should not divide students' “real life” outside of school and what happens within in the classroom. Our “digital immigrant” accent is clear to many students. We need to consider what the job market will look like in the next 10-20-50 years. Students need to communicate across cultures, without time lag for jobs that don't exist yet. There is the potential that students may move on to private tutors rather then public schools.

Tim Wilson's site - http://technosavvy.org/

NECC06
NECC

One Year of QuestGardening: A Crop Report – Bernie Dodge, PhD

PowerPoint Available - http://webquest.sdsu.edu/necc06/questgarden/

QuestGarden is a website that Bernie Dodge has worked on for the last 1 ½ and was debuted at NECC 2005. He created the site because Mr. Dodge noticed that creating WebQuests took a lot of time, too many technical skills, and resources that most teachers and school do not have access to. In addition, a good WebQuest should include strong pedagogical skills including constructivism, using higher level thinking, and coherence within a lesson. Most teacher also teach, and create Webquests, in isolation and peer feedback helps the Quest be better. Finally, teachers need to store the pages.
Some symptoms of these problems include: Webquests that are uploaded and not updates, many teachers found that the first one was too difficult and won't make a second one, and that fact that excellent teachers may feel that WebQuesting is too difficult and won't ever make one, which is a loss for all teachers.

What is QuestGarden? The metaphor comes from a community garden, where master gardeners work with novice gardeners to create an overflowing garden. Mr. Dodge debuted this website in Feb. 2005 and tested it throughout the spring and summer. He announced it at NECC 2005. There are now over 30,000 users from all over the world. Over 14,000 new WebQuests are available.

Mr. Dodge built into QuestGarden what he would talk about in a workshop, including prompted guidance with each step. It is browser based, so no software is needed. The advantage to this site is that fact that there is an emphasis on sharing resources and aadvice – feedback is easy even when using it as a workshop. It is WYSIWYG and able to upload pics. The basic patterns of WebQuests are available to help ease the design factor.

QuestGarden is available at: www.webquest.org

After a quick demo of the site, Mr. Dodge highlighted some of the best WebQuests accessible on the site. He is especially interested in the new developments within the WebQuest structure – using wikis and podcasts. He also looked at the kid-created WebQuests. At first is thought it was a bad idea, then, thinking about the structure of QuestGarden, it might be viable, however, after examining the kid-created ones Mr. Dodge has found that overall, the deep thinking needed is not happening. He is pondering how to deal with this situation, maybe including a student section with a different set of resources.
However, despite some of the problems, Mr. Dodge feels that QuestGarden is fulfilling its purpose – make it easy to create WebQuests, that are truly WebQuests. An activity that helps students to use the internet to get kids to think deeply, evaluate and analyze and apply information.

The future of QuestGarden is promising. It will continue to be free until September 1, 2006. There will be a charge in the future because the amount of information flowing requires server space and bandwith. He is considering 20USD for a 2 year subscription – to encourage people to use and revise their webquests. For teacher prep classes, there will be a 30 day free trial.

There will also be new features. He hopes to allow the WebQuests to be exported into other sites. Many people would like to translate the site into other languages. There will also be more options for peer ratings and feedback, including a mentoring type program. Scaffolding extras (such as art viewing worksheets) and integrated quizzes will be built in too. Finally, there will be the ability to download other's WebQuests to your own space to update and change it to fit your situation.

In addition, the current SDSU.edu WebQuest site will be merged with QuestGarden. RSS feeds will be available. There are new design patterns that are and will emerge as technology changes.

Inspiration-like concept map open source site - http://www.gliffy.com/

Timeliner-like open source site Simile by MIT - http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/

NECC06
NECC

Five Regions of Technology

Five Regions of the Future: A New Paradigm for Understanding Technology – Joel Barker

http://www.FiveRegionsofTheFutre.com/– find the latest examples of the five paradigms

John Nesbitt coined the term “hightech” which indicated that there was a low tech environment. However, in today's world, there is more then just two levels. We need to become more precise in our descriptions in order to truly understand technology. We live in a special time were there are more solutions than problems and technology is behind most of those solutions.

Five regions were settled on in 1984 and the purpose of the tech determines the placement of the tech in the region. This went from clusters of technology to technological ecosystems or technEcologies that give a view of what the world looks like in each ecosystem. This type of categorizing helps make sense of technologies, better descriptions, and an understanding of how they develop.

Supertech - overabundance, with enough time and money, science and tech can solve anything, given the choice, people would take leisure over work. Bigger is better! We can make it better than Mother Nature.

LimitsTech – Started as a criticism of SupeTech. Scarcity will happen soon so we should be careful of what we do. There are long term consequences to science and technology which need to be thought about before implementing new techs. Efficiency is beautiful. Education is a major goal, as it is the only resource that grows when used.

LocalTech – There is enough in the world for everyone. Humans are shepherds of Mother nature. Work helps us become more fully human. Local development is the best. Use what resources you have in a careful and planned way. Villages are the focus. Everything focuses on the short-range in location –food, resources and supplies.

NatureTech – Oldest in that thousands of years ago, cultures were tuned into the nature around them. However, it is also the newest, as science is helping to understand nature better. Humans are in a partnership with nature. Science role is to understand the solutions nature presents.

HumanTech – underneath the other four – it is located within us. The real needs of humans are not material. Science and technological is only just beginning to understand the nature of humans. To know ourselves is the greatest goal. Genetic manipulation is not needed. It is the base of all other regions and shows how little we know about ourselves.

To conclude, Mr. Barker indicated that as educators, we have a tremendously important job as we help other people understand these new technologies. As a superabundant nation,the US has a responsibility to be a leader in the discussion, as it produces many of the new technologies. Being a democracy, each person also has a responsibility to be involved in this discussion,because decisions will be may anyway, but do we want to live with the consequences?

The New Shape of Knowledge

The New Shape of Knowledge

David Weinberger

Knowledge is organized with a physical model in mind – that everything CAN be classified and when classified, there is only one category. However, the nature of knowledge is changing. With the Greeks, knowledge was learned, remembered, and passed on through rhetoric. People had to evaluate the truthfulness of the speaker. Later, knowledge was paper-based. This led to more narrow classification of knowledge as it needed to be sorted and stored. Currently, knowledge is digital, which allows for multiple classifications and uses.

This means that knowledge is a “leaf on many branches.” It now longer needs to be placed in one category and stay there. It can be resorted based on the user's needs. “Messiness is a virtue.” When looking at links and the internet, the more links, the more prevalent the information. It isn't linear, even in text based documents. “Information is not owned.” People continually add to what is on the internet. At one time, the authority – author, publisher,
teacher – gave knowledge. Now, “Users are contributors.” Wikipedia is an excellent example of this. This encyclopedia is written by the people who read it. There is no limit to the size or topics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

With so many people contributing virtually, there is a reduced sense of competition. People don't have to be right all the time. The WWW is a big place and there is space for everyone.
Living with this kind of change in the shape of knowledge requires students to use different skills. We should be acknowledging that knowledge is an unending conversation – and if it is a conversation, then students should be looking at the context of the knowledge, learning how to listen, seek ambiguity, and love difference.

Position Statement: Learning and Teaching with Technology

Technology is profoundly changing the world, but the impact on education has been slow. In real life, students are connected 24/7 through email, chat rooms and cell phones, yet in the classroom students and teachers are still isolated. Modern students are constantly multi-tasking as they chat with a friend in a chat room, text message another on the cell phone, do research on the internet while listening to music or watching TV. Yet, again, in the classroom, teachers expect students to do one task at a time. Technology has changed the way students think and perceive the world and education needs to be at the vanguard of this movement.

Technology has the potential to dramatically change the way students learn and teachers teach. Communication is faster and easier through email and can reach a broader audience through satellite feeds or conference calls. Productivity can be increased through word processing programs, grading programs, and presentation programs like PowerPoint. Access to information has increased through the internet, DVDs, CD-ROMs and on-line libraries and museums. Individual learning needs can be address through animated computer programs, video and audio versions of textbooks or novels, self-paced on-line courses, and personal adaptive devices.

These factors should lead to a change in the way students are educated and teachers instruct. Students can collaborate on projects, not only with students in their classroom, but with classrooms around the world. Parents and teachers can increase their communication through email updates, on-line classroom web pages, and voice mail. Student projects don’t have to be linear presentations with poster board or clay. Instead, students can create electronic simulations, web pages, and HyperStack or PowerPoint presentations with audio and animation. Teachers also are not limited to lecturing with an overhead, but can use the same types of programs to deliver instruction. The knowledge of the world is available on a desktop computer, which means teachers and students need to know how to access and evaluate it. At the same time, the ease of collecting information triggers the need to transform the type of coursework given to encourage the application, adaptation, evaluation and synthesis of information instead of just reproduction.

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.” - King Whitney Jr, President, Personnel Laboratory Inc.

Technology has the potential to dramatically change the way students learn and teachers teach, but it requires vision and support to create the inspiration to take on the challenge. Too often school districts throw money at the hardware part of technology without considering the needs of the user – the teachers and students. This type of thinking produces over-sized typewriters! For a school to effectively teach with technology, there needs to be a clear sense of vision and achievable goals with the support of hardware, software, training, in-service, support personnel, and time.