I have kept digital portfolios for some time and before that, journals. As a verbal processor, I tend to stumble on deeper thoughts or new ideas while speaking. This is the same when I write. While it takes extra time to reflect on things, I experience them more fully when I take that time. That reflection also allows me to improve my performance the next time around, whether it be teaching or personal. Documenting my goals and accomplishments also helps me to create a public profile, or resume of sorts. Knowing that I am writing, or otherwise posting for an authentic (often public) audience pressures me to verify my facts, be thorough, and present my ideas in an organized fashion.
Students stand to gain the same values from keeping portfolios. I think that a huge challenge when it comes to student ePortfolios is that they may not be enthusiastic about their content. When I have to write about something that is not compelling to me or present someone else's ideas, I have to drag myself through the exercise. I am certain that students feel the same way. Since every content are cannot be interesting to every student, it may be difficult to engage students in the portfolio creation process.
One thing that may help to keep student interest in a portfolio is to allow as much choice as possible. When assignments are too scripted, not only does it stifle students' creativity, it sucks any possible enjoyment out of the task. I find it helpful to think deeply about the things that I do, but I prefer to answer broad questions and see where my responses take me. When the questions are too specific, I feel like I can't be myself while exploring them.
Publishing the portfolio in a public space can also be a way to make the portfolio creation process more interesting. When students know that the public can see their work, they may be more concerned with what is there and how it is presented. Since most students communicate digitally in public spaces on their own, having their portfolio online may be more realistic and enjoyable for them.
One other challenge specific to those of us with 1:1 iPads in the classroom is the ePortfolio technology for iOS. Websites and Wikis allow for a visually appealing layout such as the students portfolios at High Tech High. The various topics are listed in the sidebar for the viewer to get an idea of what is on the entire site just from the front page, which is lovely. However, there are few, if any, website creation tools for the iPad which are fully-functional or easy to use tool. I've had even less luck with Wikis as both PBWorks and Wikispaces do not lend themselves well to iPad authors.
Whatever the ePortfolio tools for the iPad lack in attractive layout, they gain back in usability. Apps like Evernote, Diigo, or eBackpack allow students to quickly and easily add a wide variety of media to their space and organize it into folders or notebooks. Students can snap photos of paperwork, something on the board, post a video, their voice, documents, drawings, or media from other apps and organize all that with little effort. When it comes time for reflection and presentation, students can create a notebook or folder for the "showcase" and decide which items to move into it. These apps lend themselves well to student-led conferences because they work well to share as slideshows or notebooks to be viewed a page at a time.
I doubt that there is a "magic bullet" for getting students to take time and receive value from the process of creating portfolios in all subjects. For my own part, I can try to make the process as compelling as possible by allowing as much choice as possible and choosing tools which are easy to use with the existing hardware. Allowing students to start their first ePortfolio with some content that is genuinely interesting to them would be a great introduction to the process too.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Teaching Meaningful Stuff
I spent some time this week reading a little and thinking a little more deeply about collaborative learning. The essence of what I've gathered is the strong message that, by teaching students to work together, solve conflicts, and communicate effectively, they gain critical skills for success in the "real world" - outside the classroom. I think it is generally understood that it is no longer necessary, or sometimes even possible, to have work teams all in one geographic location; and now that people are relating socially and professionally online, we can't really afford not to teach students these skills.
Being new to the teaching profession, I have far more experience in the "real world" than in the classroom. So, this topic is something I can strongly relate to.
I was a Team Leader in the Information Technology Department of a large company in Maine and it was my responsibility to hire and develop team members, manage performance, collaborate with other team leaders, ensure efficient processes, manage the team budget, contract with vendors, manage team projects/changes, and make sure that problems were resolved and prevented from reoccurring. In addition to all that, both the Director whom I reported to, and two, of my six, team members were in North Carolina.
There is no way I could have done all that without working with, and learning from the people on my team. All of us have our strengths and weaknesses and we regularly had to lean into each other to get things done effectively. There were always problems and decisions to make, some of them having huge financial impact. Negotiation, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking were essential. Our team needed to stay connected despite our physical and cultural (north/south) differences, so video conferencing and other online communication use and etiquette were also key skills for success. Our most important collaborative tool (akin to Google Drive) was our Incident Management System. Customers entered their problems into the system in a variety of ways and individual team members could all see the tickets, prioritize, take ownership, document progress, and resolve incidents. This system allowed us to always see where each indecent and team member was with each item should someone be out sick or get stuck and need to escalate or transfer the problem to another professional.
These types of skills and communication are needed, not just in an office job, but in any job - health care, small businesses owners, activists writers - they all need to solve important problems, collaborate, share information, and resolve conflict.
One might make the argument that some professions may not need these collaborative and tactful negotiation skills. But I beg to differ. I have witnessed a lot of people in technical or hands-on type of jobs who are amazingly skilled at the mechanics of work, but who lack the very skills I'm writing about in this post.
Most tech departments I've worked have a lot of great people who do not know what each other are doing. Their customers do not know when to expect a response and they are wasting a lot of time duplicating efforts because either solutions are not documented and shared or there is no system in place for prioritization and organization (grouping) of tasks. Basically, despite vast storehouses of knowledge and technical skills, the right hand does not know what the left is doing.
Recently, I had to contract a Sealcoating expert to work on the driveway for our condominium association. I had his business card and called several times with no response. Finally, over two weeks later, the man called back and told me that he really only responds to his cell phone. Even then, the response rate was not much better. Unbeknownst to any of us, last Summer, our lawn person did not get paid due to a mixup with the change in our treasurer, so in response, his wife/office manager posted a nasty message about our association on Facebook. I also have a fantastic auto mechanic with a great personality, but he does not have a web presence and does not respond to email. He would have even more business if he did!
Since it is so easy for customers to share their experiences and choose vendors using the Internet and their digital tools, anybody who works anywhere needs to have effective and tactful communication skills, online, for teamwork and for customer service. Successful workers are all collaborators and problem solvers.
One thing that I've noticed since being a student, is that it is very rare, in any job that I've ever had, that I would have to solve any problems or make any decisions in a vacuum. I've always had peers, superiors, documentation, or the Internet to help me learn and find solutions, or at least leads. That is not the experience I've had as a student, where so much of my work had to be done individually. The group work that I've done, as a student, has felt mostly forced and awkward, as if it were solely for the purpose of collaborating, or breaking up the lecture, and not for the purpose of really getting to a solution.
I'm very fortunate this year to have the opportunity to work with a small group of students on the Student Technology Team. Because it is a small group and I do not have a stressful agenda with regard to ELTs, I can have them do some of the meaningful "real world" stuff that I care so much about. For example, I have given them tasks with no directions and let them figure out a good way to complete them. I encourage them not to go it alone - but to help each other out. Two of my students are working on a project to build a server. I don't know how to build a server. Neither do they. But they're under the table every chance they get, researching on the Internet, talking, negotiating, trying, and trying again.
I've noticed that, when students are deeply engaged with the task at hand, they are driving themselves to learn the content. The role I take in these situations is more like a coach. I encourage them to give each other suggestions and help, rather than just taking over and doing it for each other. I also require them to document the process of what they're doing in some way (text, video, audio, etc.) so that they will have evidence, remember what they did, and share knowledge with others. When my lesson falls short of interesting, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to teach the collaboration and interpersonal skills because students are so frequently of task.
I believe it is possible to have regularly assigned projects that engage a whole range of students enough so that classroom management takes a back seat to coaching use of these higher order communication skills, but I also think it will take us all some time to develop them. For right now, I have between two and five of them in my repertoire, so I have a long way to go! I'm glad I work with a lot of awesome teachers that I can learn from and I look forward to sharing my own with them.
I was a Team Leader in the Information Technology Department of a large company in Maine and it was my responsibility to hire and develop team members, manage performance, collaborate with other team leaders, ensure efficient processes, manage the team budget, contract with vendors, manage team projects/changes, and make sure that problems were resolved and prevented from reoccurring. In addition to all that, both the Director whom I reported to, and two, of my six, team members were in North Carolina.
There is no way I could have done all that without working with, and learning from the people on my team. All of us have our strengths and weaknesses and we regularly had to lean into each other to get things done effectively. There were always problems and decisions to make, some of them having huge financial impact. Negotiation, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking were essential. Our team needed to stay connected despite our physical and cultural (north/south) differences, so video conferencing and other online communication use and etiquette were also key skills for success. Our most important collaborative tool (akin to Google Drive) was our Incident Management System. Customers entered their problems into the system in a variety of ways and individual team members could all see the tickets, prioritize, take ownership, document progress, and resolve incidents. This system allowed us to always see where each indecent and team member was with each item should someone be out sick or get stuck and need to escalate or transfer the problem to another professional.
These types of skills and communication are needed, not just in an office job, but in any job - health care, small businesses owners, activists writers - they all need to solve important problems, collaborate, share information, and resolve conflict.
One might make the argument that some professions may not need these collaborative and tactful negotiation skills. But I beg to differ. I have witnessed a lot of people in technical or hands-on type of jobs who are amazingly skilled at the mechanics of work, but who lack the very skills I'm writing about in this post.
Most tech departments I've worked have a lot of great people who do not know what each other are doing. Their customers do not know when to expect a response and they are wasting a lot of time duplicating efforts because either solutions are not documented and shared or there is no system in place for prioritization and organization (grouping) of tasks. Basically, despite vast storehouses of knowledge and technical skills, the right hand does not know what the left is doing.
Recently, I had to contract a Sealcoating expert to work on the driveway for our condominium association. I had his business card and called several times with no response. Finally, over two weeks later, the man called back and told me that he really only responds to his cell phone. Even then, the response rate was not much better. Unbeknownst to any of us, last Summer, our lawn person did not get paid due to a mixup with the change in our treasurer, so in response, his wife/office manager posted a nasty message about our association on Facebook. I also have a fantastic auto mechanic with a great personality, but he does not have a web presence and does not respond to email. He would have even more business if he did!
Since it is so easy for customers to share their experiences and choose vendors using the Internet and their digital tools, anybody who works anywhere needs to have effective and tactful communication skills, online, for teamwork and for customer service. Successful workers are all collaborators and problem solvers.
One thing that I've noticed since being a student, is that it is very rare, in any job that I've ever had, that I would have to solve any problems or make any decisions in a vacuum. I've always had peers, superiors, documentation, or the Internet to help me learn and find solutions, or at least leads. That is not the experience I've had as a student, where so much of my work had to be done individually. The group work that I've done, as a student, has felt mostly forced and awkward, as if it were solely for the purpose of collaborating, or breaking up the lecture, and not for the purpose of really getting to a solution.
I'm very fortunate this year to have the opportunity to work with a small group of students on the Student Technology Team. Because it is a small group and I do not have a stressful agenda with regard to ELTs, I can have them do some of the meaningful "real world" stuff that I care so much about. For example, I have given them tasks with no directions and let them figure out a good way to complete them. I encourage them not to go it alone - but to help each other out. Two of my students are working on a project to build a server. I don't know how to build a server. Neither do they. But they're under the table every chance they get, researching on the Internet, talking, negotiating, trying, and trying again.
I've noticed that, when students are deeply engaged with the task at hand, they are driving themselves to learn the content. The role I take in these situations is more like a coach. I encourage them to give each other suggestions and help, rather than just taking over and doing it for each other. I also require them to document the process of what they're doing in some way (text, video, audio, etc.) so that they will have evidence, remember what they did, and share knowledge with others. When my lesson falls short of interesting, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to teach the collaboration and interpersonal skills because students are so frequently of task.
I believe it is possible to have regularly assigned projects that engage a whole range of students enough so that classroom management takes a back seat to coaching use of these higher order communication skills, but I also think it will take us all some time to develop them. For right now, I have between two and five of them in my repertoire, so I have a long way to go! I'm glad I work with a lot of awesome teachers that I can learn from and I look forward to sharing my own with them.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Flipping Out
If flipping the classroom is so awesome, then why isn't everyone doing it already? Most educators I talk to about "flipping the classroom" are not entirely sure exactly what "flipping" means. I have to admit that I'd heard the term myself for a very long time before I could adequately define what it means. That is weird to me now because it is a pretty simple concept and I'm not sure why it was so mystifying for so long.
I tried a variation of flipping my very first year teaching, although I didn't know that "flipping" was what I was doing. I had students do the reading/note-taking at home and then we did the actual math in the classroom where I could facilitate and support. I did not find this successful, at least right away. Students first needed to learn how to read technical text and pick out important information. So, I had to back up, pre-teach the skills, and provide a graphic organizer to assist with the note taking. Obviously, students disliked the reading of dry material just as much as they disliked doing the math problems, so this method did not have positive results. Had I thought to create videos for each section, I suspect that results would have been much different for me and for my students.
However painful it may be, I am grateful for my classroom failures. I learn more from them than I have in any graduate course I've ever taken.
In a series of videos I recently watched about the FIZZ method of flipping the classroom Katie Gimbar and Dr. Lodge McCammon make some excellent points about the benefits of flipping the classroom. The three major ones are differentiation, time savings, and classroom management. Gimbar seems to have it down to a science with a series of very short and simple videos. She makes it look so easy. She even says that the flipping technique worked well for her and her students even in her very first year of employing it.
Based on Gimbar's experience with remarkable increase in student understanding, reduction of classroom management issues, and her improved ability to reach all learners, I have to wonder; why aren't we all doing this every day? Aren't these the results that every teacher wants? I think that there are four basic reasons that flipping the classroom is not more widely adopted: teacher overload, communication, fear, and confidence with technology.
I think that the first barrier is pure overload on the part of teachers. The primary reason that it took me so long to grasp what exactly "flipping" means is because, as a new teacher, I was overwhelmed with all of the other competing pressures, priorities, deadlines, and mini-emergencies. Learning to "flip" was on a list of things I wanted to check into...as soon as I could get a chance. I don't think that overload is any different than what seasoned teachers experience because the educational landscape is currently in the midst of some massive transition.
Another significant obstacle is communication. Communication issues are most likely due to the teacher overload I just mentioned. But, nevertheless, it is a substantial barrier. I find it a typical struggle to find an effective method of communicating important or helpful information to teachers. So far, despite my varied and thoughtful efforts, evidence is clear that nobody saw or heard my communication attempt. I understand that it is difficult to focus or listen when there is too much to absorb in a day. We're faced with the dilemma that we're too busy to learn to something that is going to save us time. It happens all the time to all of us. I like the well-known analogy that if we don't stop to sharpen the saw, it will take us a lot longer to cut the wood.
Fear is a formidable impediment to changing the way that we teach, or to change anything for that matter. There is a lot of security in the familiar and trying new things involves the dreaded risk. It is human nature to seek security, to cling to that which is familiar, and to desire guaranteed outcomes. Some common fears around flipping the classroom are certainly ones that I share: that flipping may not work well right away, that it will involve struggle, possible failure, and maybe even chaos. Recognizing fear does not mean that we have to let it stop the show. We can be afraid and try it anyway. Modeling how to try, fail, and try again is nothing but valuable to students in the long run.
Teachers lacking confidence in their own technical abilities or their video presence can hinder efforts to flip a classroom too. Just three years ago, it did not even cross my mind to create videos, rather than have students read textbooks. For the past three years, I have had the advantage of research and practice built into my job responsibilities. I improve on my methods and I get a little bit more comfortable with seeing myself on video with every video that I make. Only recenlty do I feel ready to be more prolific with my instructional videos. So, I can imagine that many classroom teachers are certainly not there yet.
This weekend, on my agenda, was creating an instructional video for using the Evernote iPad App. I was asked to prepare training for teachers because we may be using Evernote for a student portfolios. I can provide training in person, but flipping the lesson may prove to be useful for many teachers and students. So, after watching a variety of flipped classroom videos, taking note of the varoius techniques, I went to work.
Attributes of the videos I found most effective were simplicity, the ability to see the speaker on the screen, the camera's proximity to the content, and balance with regard to the amount and rate of information displayed on the screen.
I struggled for some time because I wanted to use an on-screen pointer and a video of my face while simultaneously screen casting my iPad. With my existing resources, I found that there were two ways to do that: Either using Screencast-O-Matic to record my Mac monitor while projecting my iPad to the Mac with AirServer (or Reflector), or put screenshots of each Evernote iPad screen into a separate slide in the Explain Everything App.
Screencasting the Mac, using Screencast-O-Matic would allow me to easily show my face on screen while walking my viewers through the Evernote App. However, since the action (tapping and navigating) was taking place on the iPad and not the Mac, the screencast tool did not register my selective iPad tapping. Therefore, not only was it impossible for viewers to see where I had just tapped the screen, there was no way to point at each feature as I was referring to it.
Using Evernote, I would have been able to point, draw, and record my face talking. But, I would have had to paste a screenshot of each area of the Evernote app on its own slide and speak to it that way. Organizing screenshots would have been very labor intensive and would not have allowed me to gracefully walk through the Evernote App. Besides the huge time expense, I was worried that I would lose clarity with the slide show method.
I started down each road before deciding to research some other tools. I was inspired by the methods used in Mr. Anderson's (bozemanscience.com) video on Atomic Theory, so I watched his video demonstration of how he created it. It was interesting, but I found that he had some software and hardware, which I would have had to purchase. So, I kept looking. I stumbled on a tool for my Mac, called Ink2Go and I was (am) thrilled!
Ink2Go put a very simple tool bar at the top of my screen (see below) which allowed me to do every single thing I wanted to do and more. I briefly scrolled through the Ink2go tutorial and was busy working on my own Evernote tutorial in minutes. Ink2Go has a free 15-day trial of the full product and then costs $20, which seems well worth it to me. I'm going to try to make as many videos as I can in the next 14 days and then I'll probably have to convince my employer to purchase it...or even buy it myself.
Just like it did not occur to me to make video at all a few years ago and now it is a regular event for me, I think that the same will happen for most teachers. Like I mentioned earlier, we are all in the middle of a tremendous amount of transition and it is virtually impossible to see evolution as it happens. But, like me, classroom teachers are doing all sorts of awesome things that they didn't even consider doing just a couple of years ago. I expect to see more leaps and bounds over the coming few years too.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Making it fun
Reading the chapter by Gardner about creativity was a bit of a struggle for me because of the voice he chose to use. He was obviously aiming for an academic audience. It wasn't that I couldn't understand what he was saying, I did. My frustration came from the amount of effort it took to understand what he was saying. Because it didn't read easily, I felt restless, annoyed, and distracted while I was reading it. If I were a student in his class, I probably would be downloading a game on my iPad or writing a grocery list during his class.
Interesting because, as far as I could tell, Gardner was saying that students should be encouraged to focus on synthesis and discipline in preparation for using creativity after K-12. I think that is a bad idea for a few reasons. Younger children far more imaginative than adults, even young adults. I heard this news story on NPR earlier this week about how senior citizens are able to "exercise creative muscle" in the workplace because they no longer have corporate ladder, small children, and many other stressors that younger adults to. It seems to me that the people in the age group that Gardner things are most equipped for creativity, are really the least. Another reason creativity needs to be employed in middle school is that many teachers are up in arms about the level of distraction that the iPads cause - games, apps, and social media. When students get bored, they're going to do just about anything but pay attention. So, allowing creativity seems like it would be a strategy that would help with that.
I will be the first to recognize the need to get ourselves through things we don't like to do. We can't expect everything to be unicorns and rainbows and I doubt that there is a teacher on earth who can avoid ever being boring, just as it would be difficult to get through life without doing the dishes or paying the bills. As a teacher, I'm forever worrying about being boring and sometimes there just doesn't seem to be interesting, or reasonably efficient, ways to present some things. But, I think we should be asking ourselves why we're doing what we're doing and whether choice or a creative solution could be introduced without taking away from the learning goal.
I remember a specific weekly assignment that my son had in third grade where he had to put each vocabulary word in a sentence. He has always been an avid reader, so he didn't have much trouble learning the vocabulary but he loathed doing that assignment every week. He would drag his feet through that assignment, sometimes losing his pencil several times without even leaving the seat. I would try to convince him that if he just blew through it, he could move on. He could say the sentences, but would procrastinate and balk at the writing. It was truly painful for the entire family. I asked him what would make it more doable. He said he would rather write a paragraph and use all the words, but his teacher said that he couldn't do it that way. If he could come up with a creative way to use all the words in a paragraph or speak them into a recording device, would it not meet the learning objective? What he did learn was that he just plain has to do things that are not meaningful so that he gets a passing grade.
I noticed this in our 21st Century Skills ELAs: "Tools of Communication: Effectively analyzes types of information to be shared and selects most appropriate tool to use " However, in many cases, there is no choice. The whole class is using the same tool. I'm glad to see the ELA so that all students will have some opportunity for choice.
I have numerous videos that I made over the past couple of years that would have met the requirement of Assignment 2B, but I thought it would be fun to make a new video. I was glad that I did because I've not made one for a while and I re-familairized myself with all of the options within iMovie. By assisting another teacher with his assignment, I reinforced my comfort with iMovie. Now I'm very motivated to re-learn how to use iMovie on my iPad as well as an App called TouchCast so that my Student Tech Team can start making some cool stuff.
I created a lesson for Assignment 2C that I can use with the Student Tech Team right away. I'll probably make it a little less formal where I am not assessing for mastery of any particular ELAs. I think it will be fun.
Interesting because, as far as I could tell, Gardner was saying that students should be encouraged to focus on synthesis and discipline in preparation for using creativity after K-12. I think that is a bad idea for a few reasons. Younger children far more imaginative than adults, even young adults. I heard this news story on NPR earlier this week about how senior citizens are able to "exercise creative muscle" in the workplace because they no longer have corporate ladder, small children, and many other stressors that younger adults to. It seems to me that the people in the age group that Gardner things are most equipped for creativity, are really the least. Another reason creativity needs to be employed in middle school is that many teachers are up in arms about the level of distraction that the iPads cause - games, apps, and social media. When students get bored, they're going to do just about anything but pay attention. So, allowing creativity seems like it would be a strategy that would help with that.
I will be the first to recognize the need to get ourselves through things we don't like to do. We can't expect everything to be unicorns and rainbows and I doubt that there is a teacher on earth who can avoid ever being boring, just as it would be difficult to get through life without doing the dishes or paying the bills. As a teacher, I'm forever worrying about being boring and sometimes there just doesn't seem to be interesting, or reasonably efficient, ways to present some things. But, I think we should be asking ourselves why we're doing what we're doing and whether choice or a creative solution could be introduced without taking away from the learning goal.
I remember a specific weekly assignment that my son had in third grade where he had to put each vocabulary word in a sentence. He has always been an avid reader, so he didn't have much trouble learning the vocabulary but he loathed doing that assignment every week. He would drag his feet through that assignment, sometimes losing his pencil several times without even leaving the seat. I would try to convince him that if he just blew through it, he could move on. He could say the sentences, but would procrastinate and balk at the writing. It was truly painful for the entire family. I asked him what would make it more doable. He said he would rather write a paragraph and use all the words, but his teacher said that he couldn't do it that way. If he could come up with a creative way to use all the words in a paragraph or speak them into a recording device, would it not meet the learning objective? What he did learn was that he just plain has to do things that are not meaningful so that he gets a passing grade.
I noticed this in our 21st Century Skills ELAs: "Tools of Communication: Effectively analyzes types of information to be shared and selects most appropriate tool to use " However, in many cases, there is no choice. The whole class is using the same tool. I'm glad to see the ELA so that all students will have some opportunity for choice.
I have numerous videos that I made over the past couple of years that would have met the requirement of Assignment 2B, but I thought it would be fun to make a new video. I was glad that I did because I've not made one for a while and I re-familairized myself with all of the options within iMovie. By assisting another teacher with his assignment, I reinforced my comfort with iMovie. Now I'm very motivated to re-learn how to use iMovie on my iPad as well as an App called TouchCast so that my Student Tech Team can start making some cool stuff.
I created a lesson for Assignment 2C that I can use with the Student Tech Team right away. I'll probably make it a little less formal where I am not assessing for mastery of any particular ELAs. I think it will be fun.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
21st Century Skills: Are we in the Stone Age, Emerging, or Proficient?
Over the course of this week, while reviewing the various articles, videos, and peer comments, I noticed that perspectives vary greatly as to whether today's schools and teaching methods are way behind where they need to be, only beginning to change, or right where they should be. I think that, while we've made a lot of progress, when it comes to available technology and teaching methods, we still have a lot of work to do.
In the forward to the book 21st Century Skills, Ken Kay says "I believe we are on the threshold of a tipping point in public education." I think that this is even more true than it was four years ago when the book was written. Pressure to meet the demands of the adult workplace, compete with the global community, keep up with the advances in technology, and change the way we assess students are reaching critical mass.
As mentioned in the recent posts of some of my peers, our classrooms do not look like they did in the 1960s because we do have a lot more technology at school and are doing a lot of creative things with technology in our classrooms. Every day, I see teachers doing interesting and engaging things with technology, so I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.
On the other hand, I see a lot of stuff that does mirror older times as well. We're still doing a lot of sitting, synchronized assignments, and regurgitating memorized facts. My daughter recently graduated from high school with honors, but she will be the first to admit that the was not required to do a lot of critical thinking. She was able to say what was expected of her to say, do what was required of her, and get A's on her summative assessments. She did spend a lot of her time working toward her A's. But, in her first year of college when she was expected to state her case, defend her positions, and forge working relationships with her professors, she was learning to do these things for the very first time and it was a major adjustment for her.
When I hear even"Academically Gifted" students get visibly upset because they're asked to do something without being told exactly how to do it, it makes me think that we're missing something. Along the same lines; In my previous career managing a team of adult IT Professionals, it was always discouraging when telling me was the solution to most problems. From setting personal boundaries with colleagues to addressing inefficiencies with the workflow, it did not occur to many of them to come to me with a good idea, just the complaint.
In no way am I intending to be derogatory. In fact, I think that we could be doing all the right things, and we probably are, but we may still feel like it is not enough. As an Integrator, I am exposed to endless PD, feeds, posts, email lists, user groups, and the like, espousing what we should be doing with technology and why the way we're doing it isn't working. For example, see the video we watched this week on the Vialogs Site or take a look at my Tweet Deck from 5 minutes ago below where nine of the sixteen most recent posts are proclaimations of the authors' theories on educational technology .
I agree with the sentiments, but I often can't say what the best thing for us to do today would be and it can be very overwhelming to listen to all this rhetoric without a good new idea or short-term road map.
21st Century Skills Bellanca, James A. 2010 Solution Tree Press. Bloomington, IN (Kindley page numbers)
In the forward to the book 21st Century Skills, Ken Kay says "I believe we are on the threshold of a tipping point in public education." I think that this is even more true than it was four years ago when the book was written. Pressure to meet the demands of the adult workplace, compete with the global community, keep up with the advances in technology, and change the way we assess students are reaching critical mass.
As mentioned in the recent posts of some of my peers, our classrooms do not look like they did in the 1960s because we do have a lot more technology at school and are doing a lot of creative things with technology in our classrooms. Every day, I see teachers doing interesting and engaging things with technology, so I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment.
On the other hand, I see a lot of stuff that does mirror older times as well. We're still doing a lot of sitting, synchronized assignments, and regurgitating memorized facts. My daughter recently graduated from high school with honors, but she will be the first to admit that the was not required to do a lot of critical thinking. She was able to say what was expected of her to say, do what was required of her, and get A's on her summative assessments. She did spend a lot of her time working toward her A's. But, in her first year of college when she was expected to state her case, defend her positions, and forge working relationships with her professors, she was learning to do these things for the very first time and it was a major adjustment for her.
When I hear even"Academically Gifted" students get visibly upset because they're asked to do something without being told exactly how to do it, it makes me think that we're missing something. Along the same lines; In my previous career managing a team of adult IT Professionals, it was always discouraging when telling me was the solution to most problems. From setting personal boundaries with colleagues to addressing inefficiencies with the workflow, it did not occur to many of them to come to me with a good idea, just the complaint.
In no way am I intending to be derogatory. In fact, I think that we could be doing all the right things, and we probably are, but we may still feel like it is not enough. As an Integrator, I am exposed to endless PD, feeds, posts, email lists, user groups, and the like, espousing what we should be doing with technology and why the way we're doing it isn't working. For example, see the video we watched this week on the Vialogs Site or take a look at my Tweet Deck from 5 minutes ago below where nine of the sixteen most recent posts are proclaimations of the authors' theories on educational technology .
I agree with the sentiments, but I often can't say what the best thing for us to do today would be and it can be very overwhelming to listen to all this rhetoric without a good new idea or short-term road map.
I think that it is difficult for us to see this whole situation clearly because we're smack dab in the middle of it: just as it is not possible to see evolution clearly as it is happening. Additionally, letting go of too much of the "tried and true" can feel quite risky to many teachers. Most people, including myself, are very uncomfortable when they don't know what is going to happen next and when mistakes are inevitable. So, while we step away from what has always worked and toward the groundlessness of a new ideal, we need to find things that make us feel successful in the moment.
What I really appreciate, and find the most useful are the reflections of my peers who have tried something new and what was successful or not successful about doing it. I appreciate sharing and learning about specific ideas, tools, tips, and tricks that I can use to improve my own methods or pass on to others. Having some time to improve on my blogs, use my YouTube Channels differently, and see what ideas my colleagues have for using them a prime example. I also think it is very important to be willing to make mistakes and accepting of them when we do. Not only will we learn more from them than any book, class, or video, but our students will benefit greatly by watching us as role models of what to do when we don't know what exactly what to do.
21st Century Skills Bellanca, James A. 2010 Solution Tree Press. Bloomington, IN (Kindley page numbers)
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