Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
UPDATE: Is Anybody Asking The Kids?
A few weeks ago, I blogged about all of the discussion around what’s wrong with education today and the passion with which everyone is talking about it. I wondered if anyone was asking the students what they thought about the state of things.
So I asked kids, through a Google survey, what they thought of the state of things. I asked the following questions:
Here are a sampling of some of their responses (paraphrased):
I included both generalizations combining several like responses, as well as some singular responses that I thought were significant. There were 80+ responses, and you can see the actual data HERE.
In general, I thought the responses had a positive tone, that things aren’t, perhaps, as broken as the media is making them sound. This was not a scientific survey, nor was the sample of respondents that broad, but I do like that students actually participated, and were honest about what they think.
I think there are a few illuminating discoveries here, though; inferences I’m making from what the students said:
I think more emphasis needs to be placed on the students’ voices in all this talk of school improvement and reform. I also think we need to differentiate the conversation based on populations of kids in our actual schools rather than trying to set national goals that only a fraction of our schools can realistically reach. We need to consider the improvement of teachers and not put our energies into ridiculous measures and evaluations that don’t paint an accurate picture of teacher performance.
We need to listen to the kids. They are the reason we do what we do. Don’t they deserve to be heard as loudly as the adults who think they know what’s best? There’s an old Hebrew proverb that fits here, based on an image I saw created for the “Great Quotes” FlickR group that says, “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.”
Another important message here should be what we can collectively do to start enhancing our professional practice, leaving the traditional behind, and really start preparing these kids for a world where they will be expected to collaborate and communicate on a global scale, as well as think critically and creatively to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet. Worksheets and lectures aren’t going to prepare them, but those that depend on them can’t be dismissed--we need to build capacity around what works, be collaborative as professionals, and share the journey that is going to have the biggest impact on student achievement and real 21st Century preparation!
So I asked kids, through a Google survey, what they thought of the state of things. I asked the following questions:
- What is working in education right now?
- If you could make only ONE change at school right now, what would you change?
- What else would you like to see change at school?
- Where do you go to school?
- How do you like to learn?
Here are a sampling of some of their responses (paraphrased):
- Many students talked about liking hands-on opportunities
- They liked learning with peers in groups or in pairs
- Less violence – bullying addressed
- Like using technology and see it as something that is working in education
- One student wrote that they want to feel safe and be able to trust their teachers
- One student wrote that he would like for someone to ask him about his opinion…
- I think the technology helps a lot in schools, and having the teachers know how to work them instead of wasting the whole period fumbling around trying to understand the technology.
- Clubs for different subjects to extend the learning for interested students
- I personally like teachers that don't stop or rest until you understand and can do it over and over again correctly.
- I would change some of the classes students have to take, like health, I took it in 7th grade, and now in 8th grade, I think if you all ready took the class, you shouldn't have to take it again, I know all this stuff from 7th grade, why should I have to learn it again?
- I would change school hours. I would extend the hours by at least 1 or 2 hours long so that we could really pass the End of Grade tests because I think that if we have more time in the classes then more people would understand things to the point were you'll know it...
- Less Lectures!
I included both generalizations combining several like responses, as well as some singular responses that I thought were significant. There were 80+ responses, and you can see the actual data HERE.
In general, I thought the responses had a positive tone, that things aren’t, perhaps, as broken as the media is making them sound. This was not a scientific survey, nor was the sample of respondents that broad, but I do like that students actually participated, and were honest about what they think.
I think there are a few illuminating discoveries here, though; inferences I’m making from what the students said:
- Students want to be valued for their experiences and be voices in curricular decisions.
- Students want to go beyond a comprehension level of knowledge. They want to know their content on a deep level.
- Students want bullying/school violence to be addressed. (I work in a lot of schools that have programs in place or plan singular anti-bullying events. What is the outcome of these programs? How do they know / provide evidence for whether or not the program is working and/or valued by the students? Do students have a voice in the program design, implementation, and/or reflection?)
- Students want someone who really cares about them and their learning. It reminds me of a book I read years ago called Inviting School Success by William Purkey. There are a myriad of other books on inviting behaviors and personal relationship building, but I like the simple and overarching message in Purkey’s book: Trust and Respect, the foundations of invitational theory, are at the root of promoting successful classroom practices. (I included a link to the book, knowing the price is steep, but used copies are inexpensive.)
I think more emphasis needs to be placed on the students’ voices in all this talk of school improvement and reform. I also think we need to differentiate the conversation based on populations of kids in our actual schools rather than trying to set national goals that only a fraction of our schools can realistically reach. We need to consider the improvement of teachers and not put our energies into ridiculous measures and evaluations that don’t paint an accurate picture of teacher performance.
We need to listen to the kids. They are the reason we do what we do. Don’t they deserve to be heard as loudly as the adults who think they know what’s best? There’s an old Hebrew proverb that fits here, based on an image I saw created for the “Great Quotes” FlickR group that says, “Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.”
Another important message here should be what we can collectively do to start enhancing our professional practice, leaving the traditional behind, and really start preparing these kids for a world where they will be expected to collaborate and communicate on a global scale, as well as think critically and creatively to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet. Worksheets and lectures aren’t going to prepare them, but those that depend on them can’t be dismissed--we need to build capacity around what works, be collaborative as professionals, and share the journey that is going to have the biggest impact on student achievement and real 21st Century preparation!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Champions of Ubiquity Resources...
Today I participated in the Lancaster Education Technology Conference in Lancaster, New York. I did sessions on being a "Champion of Ubiquity" and the "Digigogical Matrices." My resources are collected here in a LiveBinder!
Thanks to Heidi Chaves and the Lancaster School District for inviting me!
Thanks to Heidi Chaves and the Lancaster School District for inviting me!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Digigogy Magazine, Issuu #3
Tonight I had the great pleasure of working with Pre-Service Science Teachers at a local university. They were introduced to several web tools and asked to consider how they could be used instructionally. They collaboratively created the 3rd ISSUU of Digigogy Magazine with an overview of the web tool they investigated and how they collectively thought it could be used for instructional purposes.
Thanks, future teachers! I hope you had fun exploring and sharing!
...
Monday, October 11, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinders)
Tomorrow night at 7:00 PM Eastern, the good people at LiveBinders.com (Tina and Barbara!) are graciously allowing me to talk with them about how I use their service and my thoughts on 21st Century Learning and Teaching. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PODCAST.
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s)
In this last week, leading up to tomorrow's chat, several people have asked about different ways to use LiveBinders, and rather than write my typical blog post, I thought I would do something a little more creative. Thus, please find below my take on using LiveBinders, but in a more lyrical format. I used to rewrite lyrics with my students to help them remember the content I was teaching, so I thought it would be fun to do that for the readers of my blog and in preparation for tomorrow night's podcast.
I dare you not to hum the song and try to rap it out yourself! (My wife has already been making fun of me for doing just that...)
All in good fun--Enjoy! And tune in tomorrow night--though I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that I will NOT be rapping this LIVE!
(A parody of "Ice, Ice, Baby")
Alright stop, collaborate and listen
LiveBinders-the perfect invention
Something grabs my attention on the net
Need to save it easily, yes, you bet.
Create a Binder and stash that link
Coordinate the pages so my stuff’s in sync
To the extreme, I rock the net like Al Gore
Light up the binder, saving objects galore
Creating the binder for a singular purpose
Enhancing your brain for powerful discussion
Use it, for portfolio assessment
Or to group like items that you teach, your content
Love it, and use it, LiveBinders is the way
To visualize the websites that you save
If you want an upgrade, yo, it’s right here
Check out the site that’s on the frontier!
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (Live Binder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby
Now that the Binder’s created,
With websites kicked in it’s ready to be upgraded
Add a picture with some text articulation
Upload a file into your innovation
Burn it up! You’re an expert collector,
Share it with a colleague, see if they concur
Add some media from Youtube or FlickR,
Change up the colors, to make it more slicker
Functional, cool, for your task and vision
Teaching and learning with exact precision
Bringing together—the best of your web
Personalized experiences like you’re a celeb
Take heed, of this sometime poet
LiveBinders is the tool you need, and you know it.
If you want an upgrade, yo, it’s right here
Check out the site that’s on the frontier!
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (Live Binder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby
(Too Cool, Too Cool)
Alright stop, collaborate and listen
LiveBinders-the perfect invention
Something grabs my attention on the net
Need to save it easily, yes, you bet.
Create a Binder and stash that link
Coordinate the pages so my stuff’s in sync
To the extreme, I rock the net like Al Gore
Light up the binder, saving objects galore
Creating the binder for a singular purpose
Enhancing your brain for powerful discussion
Use it, for portfolio assessment
Or to group like items that you teach, your content
Love it, and use it, LiveBinders is the way
To visualize the websites that you save
If you want an upgrade, yo, it’s right here
Check out the site that’s on the frontier!
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (Live Binder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby
Now that the Binder’s created,
With websites kicked in it’s ready to be upgraded
Add a picture with some text articulation
Upload a file into your innovation
Burn it up! You’re an expert collector,
Share it with a colleague, see if they concur
Add some media from Youtube or FlickR,
Change up the colors, to make it more slicker
Functional, cool, for your task and vision
Teaching and learning with exact precision
Bringing together—the best of your web
Personalized experiences like you’re a celeb
Take heed, of this sometime poet
LiveBinders is the tool you need, and you know it.
If you want an upgrade, yo, it’s right here
Check out the site that’s on the frontier!
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (LiveBinder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby (Live Binder’s--)
Nice, Nice, Baby
(Too Cool, Too Cool)
Friday, October 1, 2010
New Web Stuff 10/02/2010
-
Eleven Interesting Ways to use Web Conferencing in the Classroom
-
The Five Features of Science Inquiry: How do you know? | Edutopia
-
Social Studies - US History Videos
From Glencoe
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Is Anybody Asking The Kids?
Since last week's two Oprah shows related to the "Waiting for Superman" movie, there has been a social media firestorm largely bashing teachers and methodologies. I'm not certain that everyone who is participating actually saw the show, but the conversation is definitely polarizing, and I'm thrilled that it's being talked about with such passion.
This is a conversation we NEED to be having. We can't, as Heidi Hayes Jacobs says in her Curriculum 21 book, continue to educate the kids who will graduate in 2025 with methods and curriculum designed for 1975!
Oprah called this the civil rights moment of our time. I think she's right.
Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said, "Sedentary Agitation won't work. We can't sit on our couches and be mad about something. We have to get up and actually work towards solutions."
But there's where the problem is. We have so many folks talking about the problems and nobody talking about solutions. And nobody has mentioned what the kids think about all of this.
We continue to identify something that has already been identified but what we really need to be doing is figuring out creative ways to solve the problem. So I'd like to propose that we be innovative from the beginning.
Let's ask the kids.
If you are reading this, ask your students the following questions, either IN THIS GOOGLE SPREADSHEET or as a comment on this blog:
- What is working in education right now?
- If you could make only one change at school right now, what would you change?
- What else would you like to see change at school?
- How do you like to learn?
- Where, in general, do you go to school? City School, Suburban School, Regional School, Private School, Home School, or other type of school?
If we are really going to effect change, let's ask the stakeholders who matter the most: the kids.
After a week or so of collecting responses, I'll blog about the results.
We can do great things. We just have to stop arguing about it and get going with the changes and growth!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Instructors as Resources Podcast
I recorded a podcast episode today. (First time in a long time that I made an actual podcast episode that didn't involve audioboo or some mobile technology app!)
It's just an overview of my observations about the nursing staff of a local hospital here in Buffalo and how their methods could be applied to classroom instruction.
Access the episode HERE on "Pod-O-Matic"
You can also search iTunes for "MIKEFISHER821" and subscribe to my channel.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Champions of Ubiquity!
And We’re Off and Running!
Many of my colleagues and friends are starting school tomorrow here in the Northeast, and some of you have started already! I thought I would create a “Back 2 School” Blog Post with an idea for starting the year off on the right foot.
I’d like to first have you consider whether technology itself is worthy of being a set of “skills” that we must develop. The usage of “21st Century Skills” is quickly becoming a banal phrase and only carries as much meaning as the person who says it is committed to its meaning…and there are multiple meanings and interpretations!
That said, isn’t technology so infused for our students now that saying that we’re going to use it is like saying the movie we are going to go and see is “in color?” Isn’t it a given? (At least for the kids?)
So, I’d like to ask you to commit to being a “Champion of Ubiquity” this coming year. Assume the technology is a framework for everything you do or everything you offer to your students. Let your teaching methodologies and student assessment products be menu items rather than set in stone artifacts and modalities.
Give your students opportunities to design their own instruction based on their experiences, based on their own readiness and interest, or any other platform from which you might consider differentiating yourself. (You know this stuff…why should you be doing all the work?!?!? Let the kids be tired at the end of the day from their hard work—not you!)
Make a difference this year by becoming the teacher you wish you had, or by making instructional design choices that truly benefit the 21st Century Learner (including yourself!) The “21st Century” isn’t about the transference of information – it’s about the sharing of information and the collective creation of something new from that. It doesn’t matter what the label is on the learner…whether they are the teacher or the student or the administrator or anyone who wants to be in the process! Everybody is a learner now—that’s really what the 21st Century is all about!
Here's to a great year!
CC image from SXC.HU user: samlevan
...
Monday, September 6, 2010
New Web Stuff 09/07/2010
-
Cool tool that randomly selects a place on the planet. Would be a neat way to invigorate geography class - students could pick 1 of 5 places chosen by computer to investigate, rather than canned, traditional things...perhaps one of the places could serve as a point of contact with other students to develop a collaborative project?
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Techie Drama with Prima Donnas!
As we get started with the new school year, more and more teachers are gearing up to bring technology tools into their classrooms. However, even the most willing teachers often hit a wall of access issues, otherwise known as the Technology Director—the person who is in charge of and controls all aspects of internet access in a school. This is sometimes just one person, but that one person can make life very frustrating for the tech-enthused teacher!
Trying to keep this on the light side, I thought I would write a quick 10 step “TEST” to determine if YOU are dealing with a “Techie Prima Donna.”
1. Your Internet access is dependent on sucking up, brownies, and endless stream of diet Pepsi and/or coffee.
2. Your tech person spends hours pouring through reports to see if a staff member tried to access eBay.
3. There’s a sign hanging in your tech person’s office that reads, “BLOCKED – By Me!”
4. Your tech person believes that YouTube and Wikipedia will ultimately cause Armageddon.
5. Words like “router,” “network infrastructure,” “server diagnostics,” or “parallel ports” are the most common answers to the question, “Can I do this?”
6. Your tech person wears a t-shirt that says, “I’m the King of the World.”
7. You stopped attending technology workshops because everything you learn will be blocked.
8. You fear that your computer could be taken hostage at any moment, with explanations that involve words similar to #5 or in response to you asking “too many questions.”
9. Your tech person knows how to write code in COBOL, but has never heard of a Smartboard, Audience Response System, or an iPad. (And doesn’t see the need for them in the classroom…)
10. While you can’t prove it, there’s a good chance that your tech person can physically plug themselves into the network firewall.
Now, laughter aside, let’s look at the real issues:
· Is the Internet too slow and the issues are over bandwidth? Beef it up. We are too far into the 21st Century for this to continue to be a problem.
· Is the issue over the chance that students might find something inappropriate? TEACH THEM WHAT TO DO when they encounter such things! (Who else is going to?)
· Is the issue of access related to having just one person in charge who believes that everything on the internet is potentially evil? Perhaps their control issues would be better served in an elected position in another state…
· Is it really a good idea to have that one person in charge of all technology decisions? Doesn’t a committee make better sense, one that includes multiple stakeholders?
· Are instructional decisions being made by those that don’t have an instructional background? Might need to restructure the requirements for the position…
I think that there needs to be an understanding that we are an entire decade into the 21st Century. We are not at the point of “beginning” to need technology, we are already well-ensconced. Technology, at this point, needs to be ubiquitous. It needs to be like air or water. We don’t limit access to the air we breathe, but if it’s not just right, we do make others aware. (Air Quality Indexes, Signs on Mountain Tops about breathing…you know what I’m saying…) Same is true for water. We don’t avoid either one just because there might be some unhealthy air or water somewhere in the vastness of the world. We prepare and respond.
We have bigger fish to fry: learning how to communicate and collaborate globally; learning how to think critically and creatively; learning how to problem solve; learning how to work with a team. Technology enhances all of those things, and it is a necessary framework through which all of these new 21st Century fluencies will be developed.
If you’re a technology prima donna reading this, I encourage you to read it over one more time. The seeds of humor are usually rooted in truth…
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