Friday, March 26, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Common Core Standards Prezi
I recently came across this Prezi by Eric Bateman about the Common Core Standards. I thought Eric did a good job emphasizing the 21st Century Skills embedded within the standards and wanted to share what he put together here. (With his much appreciated permission.)
You are probably already aware, but NYSED has put together a toolkit for the draft documents under consideration -- http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/home.html . If they stick to the original timeline, they could be adopted by the Regents as early as July 2010.
Additionally, he added this note in his email to me: I tried to focus on the parts of the 300+ page document (with appendixes) that I thought best aligned with the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner. You could probably make the case that whole document emphasizes 21st-Century Skills, but I tried to hit the highlights.
You are probably already aware, but NYSED has put together a toolkit for the draft documents under consideration -- http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Winner!
Congrats to @mbcampbell360 WINNER of the ASCD Bag O' Swag Contest!
Matthew--I DM'ed you, but if you see this first--DM your address!
Monday, March 15, 2010
ASCD BAG O' SWAG CONTEST!
That's okay! I've got a little piece of it to give away!
The vendor area was chock full of great stuff and lots of freebies, which I've got a bag full of to share with you! The conference was a lot of fun with lots of learning and discussion going on. It was a great opportunity to meet online friends face to face, and chance to see some of the heavy hitters in education today! We even got to see Flat Stanley at the Alamo!
So, on with the contest! There are several ways to win, all of which involve visiting one or more of the following...each of which earns you a chance! (Be sure and leave your Twitter username so that I can contact you if you are the winner!)
- Visit my Facebook Page and become a Fan.
- Visit my Consultant Page and leave a comment on the Home Page.
- Leave a comment on my page at ASCD Edge.
- Leave a comment here on this blog, in response to this posting.
- Or send out the following message in its entirety as a tweet: I'm trying to win an #ASCD Bag O' Swag from @fisher1000 #ASCDDigigogyContest http://tinyurl.com/ya7ndq3
So, what exactly do you win?
Here's a PIC!
- The ASCD Red Bag!
- Preview of Paula Rutherford's new book.
- Flocabulary Sampler
- Pinnacle Learning Sampler
- Silver & Strong Thoughtful Classroom Sample incl. poster
- Mentoring Minds Card Connections Sample
- PBS TeacherLine Laminated Cards
- Free Trial of Education City
We had such a good time in San Antonio--it seemed a shame not to share!
The contest runs through this Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. The Winner will be announced on Twitter and here on the Weblog within this post sometime after 5:00 on Friday! Good luck to everyone!
Oh, and P.S. >>> Winners will be chosen by random by assigning a number to each entry, then using a random number generator to pick the winner!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
New Web Stuff 03/15/2010
Google Fast Flip
tags: google, fastflip, news, toolsPosted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
VIGOR vs. RIGOR
Curriculum Mapping Institute in Saratoga this summer!
(cross posted from the Curriculum21 Ning)
I’m excited to be presenting this year at the Curriculum Mapping Institute in
Saratoga Springs this Summer. Besides the opportunity for engagement with mapping professionals, I’m looking forward to face to face interactions with my online network. I’m also looking forward to helping to build professional practice around the mapping work that I’m currently doing in school districts.
In my session, Globalizing: Creating Collaborative Experiences to Upgrade Existing Curriculum Maps, we will look at upgrading skills and assessments on already created maps. We will investigate web tools that foster a dynamic and interactive learning experience through collaboration both locally and globally. We will discover together new ways to show evidence of learning in the 21st Century.
In my other session, 21st Century Assessment: Digital Storytelling, we will investigate an array of fun web tools that will invigorate, motivate, and engage the traditional curriculum. We
will create a toolbox of opportunities so that teachers can pick the right tool for students to show evidence of learning, developing a new framework of assessment practices. If you’d like a sneak peek at the Digital Storytelling materials and some examples, CLICK HERE!
Looking forward to seeing everyone!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
New Web Stuff 03/12/2010
Dr. Macs Amazing Behavior Management Advice Site
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
My Network and Me at ASCD in San Antonio
This morning I had the very great privilege of presenting at the ASCD Annual Conference with two vital members of my Digital/Personal Learning Network—Paula White and Becky Fisher, from Charlottesville Virginia. I'd like to note that we planned the entire session online in virtual environments and did not meet face to face until we got to San Antonio.
Our Session was entitled Learning For All: Conversations, Collaborations, and Choice Through Technology. Our intention was to showcase collaborative technologies for our participants in an overview session and leave our participants with a playground in which to come back and continue to self-develop at their own paces.
But that’s not what happened.
What happened was better.
We started by engaging the participants in a couple of the technologies we intended to highlight, specifically TodaysMeet and Tweetgrid. The audience conversation quickly turned into one of how to relate these to learning and what their usage might mean for student engagement and achievement. We were still able to show our playground, but we were also able to direct the workshop to the needs of the participants—modeling exactly what should be happening in our classrooms with kids.
We expected learning to take place. But the unexpected happenings raised the level of learning for everyone involved. That was a little slice of awesome.
We were also able to interact with other folks in our network, in real time, via Twitter, Today’s Meet, and Skype, and it made our presentation that much more rich and multi-layered in a way that showed participants exactly how powerful networking and collaboration are.
I’d like to thank the members of our network who were involved in this morning’s session by posting their twitter IDs. There’s no greater group to have in your own networks!
@langwitches
@pammoran
@antoesp
@plnaugle
@ascd
@pamb
@linda704
@Doremigirl
@jasonflom
@darahbonham
@aleaness
@paulawhite
@beckyfisher73
And mine too: @fisher1000
Other links to presentation resources are embedded above, including an archive of our session and resources. Thanks again to all involved this morning. We really showed the power of the network and collaboration!
Our Session was entitled Learning For All: Conversations, Collaborations, and Choice Through Technology. Our intention was to showcase collaborative technologies for our participants in an overview session and leave our participants with a playground in which to come back and continue to self-develop at their own paces.
But that’s not what happened.
What happened was better.
We started by engaging the participants in a couple of the technologies we intended to highlight, specifically TodaysMeet and Tweetgrid. The audience conversation quickly turned into one of how to relate these to learning and what their usage might mean for student engagement and achievement. We were still able to show our playground, but we were also able to direct the workshop to the needs of the participants—modeling exactly what should be happening in our classrooms with kids.
We expected learning to take place. But the unexpected happenings raised the level of learning for everyone involved. That was a little slice of awesome.
We were also able to interact with other folks in our network, in real time, via Twitter, Today’s Meet, and Skype, and it made our presentation that much more rich and multi-layered in a way that showed participants exactly how powerful networking and collaboration are.
I’d like to thank the members of our network who were involved in this morning’s session by posting their twitter IDs. There’s no greater group to have in your own networks!
@langwitches
@pammoran
@antoesp
@plnaugle
@ascd
@pamb
@linda704
@Doremigirl
@jasonflom
@darahbonham
@aleaness
@paulawhite
@beckyfisher73
And mine too: @fisher1000
Other links to presentation resources are embedded above, including an archive of our session and resources. Thanks again to all involved this morning. We really showed the power of the network and collaboration!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Teachable Moment – Digitally…
With today’s earthquake in Chile and subsequent Tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific, social media really started to paint an incredible picture of how information flows now. As a matter of fact, the ebb and flow of the tsunami in the Hawaii footage was symbolic of the ebb and flow of information being reported.
It started with a watch for the water to start moving in and during that time, there was a lot of talk about the earthquake, the expectations of the tsunami, how the tsunami would cause damage, the shifts of oceanic crust the propagated the tsunami – lots of science being discussed.
When I logged on to the CBS News’ Ustream channel I was able to see this unfold with a Twitter stream running beside it:
I was able to start a backchannel discussion using Todaysmeet.com to discuss the tsunami in real time, outside of Twitter—which is important because that would be a safer alternative to Twitter, as far as acceptable language…
I was also able to take screenshots of the evolution of the ebb and flow of the water that the CBS News Camera was capturing:
This made me think about all of the new ways that we could engage the teachable moment now with web tools. Specifically, today, I used Ustream, TodaysMeet, Picasa for the Screen Captures, Twitter, and resources from Mashable’s Weblog. The screenshots below represent links to content about the Earthquake and/or the Tsunami.
What a spectacular learning event!
More resources:
http://mashable.com/2010/02/27/track-hawaii-tsunami-warnings/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/index.html?hpt=T1
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html
http://delicious.com/tag/tsunami
http://delicious.com/tag/chile
It started with a watch for the water to start moving in and during that time, there was a lot of talk about the earthquake, the expectations of the tsunami, how the tsunami would cause damage, the shifts of oceanic crust the propagated the tsunami – lots of science being discussed.
When I logged on to the CBS News’ Ustream channel I was able to see this unfold with a Twitter stream running beside it:
I was able to start a backchannel discussion using Todaysmeet.com to discuss the tsunami in real time, outside of Twitter—which is important because that would be a safer alternative to Twitter, as far as acceptable language…
I was also able to take screenshots of the evolution of the ebb and flow of the water that the CBS News Camera was capturing:
This made me think about all of the new ways that we could engage the teachable moment now with web tools. Specifically, today, I used Ustream, TodaysMeet, Picasa for the Screen Captures, Twitter, and resources from Mashable’s Weblog. The screenshots below represent links to content about the Earthquake and/or the Tsunami.
What a spectacular learning event!
More resources:
http://mashable.com/2010/02/27/track-hawaii-tsunami-warnings/
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/index.html?hpt=T1
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/02/earthquake_in_chile.html
http://delicious.com/tag/tsunami
http://delicious.com/tag/chile
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Drill and The Hole
Last year on Twitter, one of the members of my network, @plind, tweeted the following:
At the time, a lot of the staff development I was doing centered around instructional technology and I thought it fit in perfectly with the notion that it's not about the tool, it's about the task. I think about the quote every once in awhile, but lately, it's really been resonating in the work I'm doing. The last few weeks have been filled with instructional coaching opportunities that have largely boiled down to differentiated instruction and choices for students. Specifically, I've been talking a lot about strategies and Web 2.0 Tools, but not necessarily describing the tools so much as divining the purposes of the tools for a particular task.
At this point, it's come down to how the purpose for learning is related to the methodology. It's always going to continue to be about the content, and not the resource. The tools are meant to be a value-added feature of instruction, but not intended to replace the content. What I mean by that is yes, I need the drill to make the hole, though the drill isn't the only way to make the hole, but I still need the hole whether the drill is around or not.
I also don't necessarily need to be proficient with the drill to use it effectively. This is important. I still need to meet my objective, which is to create a hole, but I can do that without knowing everything there is to know about the drill, beyond plugging it in and making sure I have a steady hand. There are loads of attachments and methods and strategies, I'm sure, but I don't need to know everything in order to drill the hole I need. Likewise, there are so many web tools available for use now that it would be virtually impossible for a teacher to learn them all at a proficient level before using them with their students. They should certainly investigate them, but they shouldn't feel like they have to know every tweak and nuance. Many of the students will figure those out themselves. This allows the teacher to offer several choices for tools to be used, without feeling like they have to master each and every one.
All this to say, it's not the tool you use, it's the evidence of learning that occurs. If the tool enables that, great. But it's still about that hole.
Also, I'd like to note that metaphorically, "the hole" comparison to learning sounds not so great to me. I don't want to give the impression that I think we should just fill kids' heads up with knowledge, like we'd bulldoze dirt into a sinkhole. I just like the quote, and it made me think.
Additionally, since I'm on the subject of drills as a tool, I think it's important to recognize that the drill goes into my toolbox. I chose it specifically for a task--drilling a hole. I didn't pick up the drill and walk around the house with it wondering what I could apply it to. My toolbox is full of tools that are appropriate for different tasks, and I have all those tools so that I can make the right choice. That toolbox is a great metaphor. The more tools we offer to the students, the more choices they have when it comes time to select the appropriate methodology for showing evidence of learning.
At the time, a lot of the staff development I was doing centered around instructional technology and I thought it fit in perfectly with the notion that it's not about the tool, it's about the task. I think about the quote every once in awhile, but lately, it's really been resonating in the work I'm doing. The last few weeks have been filled with instructional coaching opportunities that have largely boiled down to differentiated instruction and choices for students. Specifically, I've been talking a lot about strategies and Web 2.0 Tools, but not necessarily describing the tools so much as divining the purposes of the tools for a particular task.
At this point, it's come down to how the purpose for learning is related to the methodology. It's always going to continue to be about the content, and not the resource. The tools are meant to be a value-added feature of instruction, but not intended to replace the content. What I mean by that is yes, I need the drill to make the hole, though the drill isn't the only way to make the hole, but I still need the hole whether the drill is around or not.
I also don't necessarily need to be proficient with the drill to use it effectively. This is important. I still need to meet my objective, which is to create a hole, but I can do that without knowing everything there is to know about the drill, beyond plugging it in and making sure I have a steady hand. There are loads of attachments and methods and strategies, I'm sure, but I don't need to know everything in order to drill the hole I need. Likewise, there are so many web tools available for use now that it would be virtually impossible for a teacher to learn them all at a proficient level before using them with their students. They should certainly investigate them, but they shouldn't feel like they have to know every tweak and nuance. Many of the students will figure those out themselves. This allows the teacher to offer several choices for tools to be used, without feeling like they have to master each and every one.
All this to say, it's not the tool you use, it's the evidence of learning that occurs. If the tool enables that, great. But it's still about that hole.
Also, I'd like to note that metaphorically, "the hole" comparison to learning sounds not so great to me. I don't want to give the impression that I think we should just fill kids' heads up with knowledge, like we'd bulldoze dirt into a sinkhole. I just like the quote, and it made me think.
Additionally, since I'm on the subject of drills as a tool, I think it's important to recognize that the drill goes into my toolbox. I chose it specifically for a task--drilling a hole. I didn't pick up the drill and walk around the house with it wondering what I could apply it to. My toolbox is full of tools that are appropriate for different tasks, and I have all those tools so that I can make the right choice. That toolbox is a great metaphor. The more tools we offer to the students, the more choices they have when it comes time to select the appropriate methodology for showing evidence of learning.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
New Web Stuff 02/23/2010
PrimaryPad is a free web-based word processor designed for UK primary schools that allows pupils and teachers to work together in real-time.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New Web Stuff 02/22/2010
A Magazine for Teachers to help them bring a technology frame to what they are already doing in the classroom.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
DIGIGOGY - The MAGAZINE!
I took some of my web content, including content from this blog, and used a new Web Tool called ISSUU to turn it into a magazine. Here are the results:
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
What We Expect Vs. What We Teach
When we tell our three year old to "clean up," often she just stares at us as if we were asking her to lick the back of her neck.
We go on to say things like, "It is really messy, and we need to clean this mess up." Or, "Why did you get all of this stuff out?" Or we try to do something that, to us, is logical -- such as, "We have to clean up this mess before we get any other toys out."
It finally dawned on us that we were missing some key steps here.
We never told her HOW to clean the messes up, we just expected her to do it. Because we said so. Because I guess, in our brains, we didn't understand that there was a skill set involved that was beyond the basic direction. When we figured that out, things changed.
It wasn't about cleaning up this mess or that mess. We had to be specific. It had to be, "Let's put these books back on the shelf...this way." (And we would show her.) Or, "These things go into your toy box." (And we put them in there together the first few times.) Now, she is still 3, but she has a better understanding of what we mean when it is time to clean up and we want her to help.
I relate this story because it's come up in several workshops lately the lamentations that teachers have over expected behaviors in their classrooms. They ask the students to do something, something that we've probably ALL done at some point, with the expectation that they have the skills to be able to do it.
One teacher recently told me that she was frustrated that her students just don't study, as evidenced by low scores on assessments. I asked her if she ever told the students HOW they should study, or given them information that might help them to make their study efforts stronger. Last week, I had the opportunity to teach 18 model lessons with 5th and 6th graders. In many of the classes, I asked the students how they studied. This is a sampling of the answers I got:
- I read the information over and over.
- I lay on my bed and study it.
- I look at the information until it is in my head.
- I close my eyes and try to remember.
- My mom (or dad) reads it to me.
The work I was doing with this school last week centered around test taking strategies, study skills, and brain based instructional strategies. What their students had collectively figured out on their own, over time, was that they needed to spend time with the information they were supposed to be learning, but did not specifically know HOW to spend that time.
Over the years when I've asked students to study, I had to become mindful of the specifics around the direction. In the beginning of my teaching career, I might have told children to study for their tests, and that be the end of the directive. In the last few years, I would say, "Highlight your notes and determine which pieces of information are essential to remember." I might say, "create a graphic organizer that chunks your information into smaller pieces that are more easily digested and remembered by your brain." I've tried to teach in a way that gives students multiple interactions with the information, reinforcing, hopefully, the need for multiple interactions at home. They need to see the information, hear it, manipulate it, make connections within it, apply and analyze it, create mnemonic devices if necessary, create their own study aids, including graphic organizers, and play games with the information. That's what studying is--specific strategies to get the information to stick in their brains. But the students have to be taught those strategies so that they can use them when we say, "STUDY."
I've also taught my students, over the years, how I want them to take notes. I use a format called NOTEMAKING, developed in conjunction with a colleague, Vivian Demers-Jagoda, where students chunk the information they are learning, reading, or experiencing into manageable "Brain Bites." (This format is also largely based on the Cornell Note Taking System, with a few changes specifically geared to its usage by younger students) Students learn to pull out key words, big ideas, and listen carefully for questions and repetitions to help them more effectively study when the time comes. PLUS, the new format provides a more active role in their study efforts, giving them guidelines to fold on to isolate information they are trying to remember.
I remember being in high school and trying to write down everything the teacher was saying, and having page upon page of overwhelming notes to study. That "studying" usually meant lying on my bed with the notes in front of me, and hoping that by magic the information stuck in my brain. I learned pretty quickly that magic doesn't work, and it was years before I discovered what did.
What else do we require of students that we've not specifically taught? What expectations do we have that require specific skills that are not often part of the instructional sequence? This includes things like what we might consider "good behaviors," listening skills, conversation skills, collaboration skills, etc. Feel free to leave comments about what you do in your classroom to help students learn what is expected but not always taught.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Upgrading Assessments!
I’ve been working with a local school district here in Western New York on updating and revising their curriculum maps this week. Much of our conversation centered around mapping language, evolution of the maps, and how the maps were reflective of both horizontal and vertical conversations.
Within our conversations we talked about upgrading the assessments to include technology resources many students are already using. We talked about how these tools can provide just as clear evidence as paper and pencil tests where students DO something with their learning and prove that the learning is enduring and ready to be utilized for their next academic task.
I wanted to share what one group of 7th grade Math teachers came up with as a technology integrated product. Note that they are still in the planning phase, but I wanted to share their frame of learning, as what they were talking about doing with their students was exciting to me—and I knew that their students will be thrilled with this:
Rather than a traditional paper and pencil final exam, these math teachers brainstormed other ways to have their students provide evidence that learning has taken place. We talked about embedding technology and what pieces of content were important. Through the brainstorm, we were able to identify skills and content pieces that will ultimately become new components on the map. (See Pics…) We were also able to articulate how this would be assessed, some activities to be embedded within the task, and resources the students would need to be successful. The pictures represent all of our ideas, from which we drilled into the essential information to create the frame for the project design.
What they ultimately came up with was a project where students, in groups, will visually represent what they’ve learned in a movie format using video functions on cameras or some of the school’s new Flip cams. They can use both pictures and video, along with narration, to create a movie about their chosen topic, which is to be one of the six major content pieces taught during the school year.
The teachers have wikis and each group will be given access to their own page where they will embed their video and give some sort of textual support for what they’ve done visually. Additionally, they will learn to use a “fun” web application such as Glogster, Animoto, xTranormal, etc. to enhance their wiki page. The project will involve a presentation piece where they present what they’ve done to the rest of the class, reinforcing the learning for all. They will also participate in a peer review process by using the “Discussion” tab within the wiki to answer essential questions and have ongoing dialogue about what they created. They are going to be graded with a rubric that evaluates not only their performance and understanding collectively, but also their individual contribution to the group.
I’ll post more on this later as I help them hammer out the details, but I was just really proud of what these teachers have decided to do as it exemplifies the notion of “doing what’s best for students,” “creating learning events” rather than rote and traditional lessons, and it does all of this within a solid curricular frame that provides powerful evidence of student learning. Their students are the ultimate beneficiaries here—not to mention the fact that they are going to really enjoy this learning opportunity!
Within our conversations we talked about upgrading the assessments to include technology resources many students are already using. We talked about how these tools can provide just as clear evidence as paper and pencil tests where students DO something with their learning and prove that the learning is enduring and ready to be utilized for their next academic task.
I wanted to share what one group of 7th grade Math teachers came up with as a technology integrated product. Note that they are still in the planning phase, but I wanted to share their frame of learning, as what they were talking about doing with their students was exciting to me—and I knew that their students will be thrilled with this:
Rather than a traditional paper and pencil final exam, these math teachers brainstormed other ways to have their students provide evidence that learning has taken place. We talked about embedding technology and what pieces of content were important. Through the brainstorm, we were able to identify skills and content pieces that will ultimately become new components on the map. (See Pics…) We were also able to articulate how this would be assessed, some activities to be embedded within the task, and resources the students would need to be successful. The pictures represent all of our ideas, from which we drilled into the essential information to create the frame for the project design.
What they ultimately came up with was a project where students, in groups, will visually represent what they’ve learned in a movie format using video functions on cameras or some of the school’s new Flip cams. They can use both pictures and video, along with narration, to create a movie about their chosen topic, which is to be one of the six major content pieces taught during the school year.
The teachers have wikis and each group will be given access to their own page where they will embed their video and give some sort of textual support for what they’ve done visually. Additionally, they will learn to use a “fun” web application such as Glogster, Animoto, xTranormal, etc. to enhance their wiki page. The project will involve a presentation piece where they present what they’ve done to the rest of the class, reinforcing the learning for all. They will also participate in a peer review process by using the “Discussion” tab within the wiki to answer essential questions and have ongoing dialogue about what they created. They are going to be graded with a rubric that evaluates not only their performance and understanding collectively, but also their individual contribution to the group.
I’ll post more on this later as I help them hammer out the details, but I was just really proud of what these teachers have decided to do as it exemplifies the notion of “doing what’s best for students,” “creating learning events” rather than rote and traditional lessons, and it does all of this within a solid curricular frame that provides powerful evidence of student learning. Their students are the ultimate beneficiaries here—not to mention the fact that they are going to really enjoy this learning opportunity!
...
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Where does a teacher start with technology?
I did a workshop yesterday with Policy Board members for a local teacher’s center. As part of the workshop, I surveyed them to gauge their interests to make what I did as meaningful for them as possible. One of the questions I asked on the survey was, “What is one thing teachers need to know about using technology in their classrooms?”
These are a sampling of their responses:
§ how to EFFECTIVELY use it.
§ It's hard for me to say since I am overwhelmed already...I don't know anything about them except how to work in word programs and not very effectively either I might add.
§ How to teach using technology to supplement their teaching.
§ Their students will always know more so let them go…
§ I think that they need to be comfortable with trying new technology; but the districts need to be comfortable with opening up new technologies without thinking that the Internet is "bad." The more technology a teacher uses the more relevant their lessons will be...most students are techies and they need that connection. We can't afford to ignore technology.
§ They should embrace technology - it isn't going away.
§ They should know enough to be able to understand what their students are working with or involved with in technology. They should also be knowledgeable enough to be able to use a variety of technology strategies to offer a more varied way of teaching academic materials.
§ how to communicate effectively.
What I gleaned from the survey and from our subsequent conversation is underscoring the fact that students have already arrived, and the teachers are now playing catch up. In Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ new book Curriculum21, she talks about how students go through a “time warp” at school. In their own lives, they live and breathe and communicate and interact in a 21st Century environment. Then many go to school and go BACK IN TIME! For many students, 21st Century skills are not being used or reinforced during the time they are at school and so the learning that happens is nowhere near what it could be.
The landscape of what is available is incredibly overwhelming, especially considering the fact that most teachers are digital immigrants—they are coming into technology without growing up with it permeating their everyday lives from birth, the way kids today are.
So what can teachers do about it? To begin with, they can just take a deep breath. You don’t have to learn the entire scope of what’s available on the Internet by tomorrow. But, there are starting points:
- ==) Know that it’s not about the tool as much as it is about the task. I told the teachers in this workshop yesterday that although the plumber has some pretty cool tools, they wouldn’t be very helpful to the roofer. It would be better to develop a “toolbox” of web tools so that you can choose the right tool for the task, rather than trying to fit a task to a particular tool.
- ==) Don’t be afraid to take risks. It’s true, the students may be far ahead of you technologically, and it’s okay to give up the “sage on the stage,” “sit and get” mentalities. You don’t always have to be the teacher—there’s a lot of value in being the learner sometimes. Let the kids teach you something.
- ==) Find out what other colleagues are using in their classrooms and ask if you can either observe how they do it, or at least explain how they use different technologies. If you are investigating a particular web tool, program, or gadget that those around you are already proficient with, then you have “go-to” people to help if you need it!
- ==) Ask the students what they would like to use and let that be your framework for learning something new.
- ==) Check out Clif Mim’s “Just One Thing” series on his blog to help you focus on a starting point.
- ==) Start with what you know. If you are already proficient with Microsoft Word, for instance, perhaps a good technology starting place would be to investigate online, collaborative word processing environments like Google Docs or Etherpad. Both use a Word-like interface, but have the added benefit of being able to be manipulated by a group of people rather than just one at a time.
- ==) Go slow. There is nothing to be gained for you or your students if you are overwhelmed. There’s too much out there at this point and it’s too easy to drown in what’s available. Extend your comfort a little bit at a time and build those knowledge bases. Do what you would have your students do! Let what you learn inform where you’ll go! Over time, especially with web tools and applications, you’ll begin to see that many of them have similar functions or use similar operational skills, and once you get the hang of a few of them, new ones will be that much easier to learn and integrate!
- ==) Make one small change. Do it today. What one new thing can you learn that will help make a difference in the way you teach or the way your students learn? In Heidi’s book, she talks about starting with assessment. Perhaps that would be a good place for you as well? Rather than paper and pencil traditions—what if your students were given the option of turning in a new type of evidence of learning that involved technology? They could create a video, they could tell a digital story, they could create a website, a weblog, or other online multimedia content. They don’t need you to show them how to do it, they just need the opportunity of choice.
The time has come to embrace all of this technology in some way. You don’t have to be an expert, you just have to be willing and invitational.
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Friday, January 22, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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