10 Ten Web2.0 Tools - Gail Lovely

1. Wikis.  Gail considers them a bit more flexible thus ranked higher.

Cool Branching Story with the wiki - Teacher starts a story, students add choices for the next step in the story.  Then they write the results.  What a cool idea for collaboration.

2.  Blogs

Gail shared an example where a grade 3 student had 800 readings of her writing.  This level of readership encourages and motivates your readers and writers.  (The comments were moderated by the teacher)

3.  Voice Thread

The ability to publish quickly with multimedia.  Voice, Text, markup, or image.  

I missed the rest of the presentation.  The full presentation http://glovely.wetpaint.com

The special focus with this presentation was aiming at young learners.   

Early Literacy Skills

Attending #NECC09 Early Literacy Skills by Kathleen H. McClaskey, EdTech Associates

The website is at http://earlyliteracyskills.wikispaces.com 

Great list of websites that are listed for supporting early literacy.  Several to start  Phonemic Awareness.

Creating Practice Guides.  This was interesting.  Setting up a set of websites and providing links for a specific skill.

Phonemic Awareness

Website	Activity Link
Star Fall - A	http://www.starfall.com/n/short-a/sa/load.htm?f
More Sites

You can then carry on with placing the table on a websites

Also looks at Vocabulary Building

(A great one that I didn't bookmark is WordWeb that looks at synonyms but is a free PC download)

News to me - You need to be exposed to vocabulary at least 11 times before you know it.  From Grade 4 to 12 students need to acquire 3000 words per year to stay at grade level.  Wow.  It highlights the value of reading and exposure to literacy in many forms.

Check out her website.

It was impressive to see the collection.  Kathleen has more resources here as well.

http://www.edtech-associates.com/education-and-technology.htm

Kevin

SIG Digital Equity Summit

Digital Equity Summit #NECC09

 

An interesting start to the summit when the bloggers at the table realize that we don’t have internet access.  It is amazing that free internet has only been provided for the last few years and already we can't live without it.

 

ISTE now has 20000 individual members and over 100 000 with affiliates.  Together we can plug in on issues that we are passionate about.

Today’s summit is named “Success Against All Odds”

Stories shared during the session

1. Despite Low Income and under served situations partnerships and connections grow
2. Zoe’s Room – online afterschool community working toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)
3. Community Computer Centre – created STEM program with no money
4. MOUSE – young people developing help desk in school 
5. Students are the best textbook written for each other
6. Students helping students becoming tech literate
7. Building and designing educational games with STEM content
8. Students refreshing computers to provide to the community after used in School 

 

Keynote Opening – Jenelle Leonard – US Department of Education

 

Many changes are happening in the US DoE with a shift from compliance bureaucracy.  There is a new culture in the US Department of Education focused on TeamWork for those in the department and those served (80+ million kids)   The new administration is listening and sharing what is heard and publishing it publicly.  The administration is listening to keep what was good and fix what isn’t

 

The goal is to be back on track being number one in education including 

-       Modernizing Classrooms

-       Keeping Teachers working

-       Early Childhood Education

-       Improvements in teacher quality and effectiveness. 

-       Spurring on Teacher Innovations

 

The soon coming result will be High Quality Education For All.

 

Education is a Civil Rights Issue.  A fight for education is a social justice fight.  We need to work with a sense of urgency.  Our children can’t wait

 

(What a great viewpoint.  It feels like in my local government that education is a drain on the system, not a civil right, not an urgent need, and not worth investing in by meeting needs (not just enough to keep the lights on))

 

Milton Chen – George Lucas Educational Foundation

Milton started with sharing 10 films produced by 9 to 18 year olds.  We need to see what these kids are doing to realize how far behind the thinking about education really is.  More than 300 hours of media about kids and by kids.  www.Edutopia.org – Digital Generation Project - http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-youth-portraits

 

One of the videos features Luis Chavez.  He is from Oregon and his parents are immigrants from Mexico with technology skills limited to the ATM.  He has excelled and has presented in Chile by the age of 18.  He recognizes that opportunities have been presented to him and he took advantage of them.  It motivates him to give back.  He supports both the community and the school.  He is a great example of paying it forward.

 

Edutopia is working to provide case studies of model schools to help with information on funding, policies, successes, and challenges.  More is being developed to support more schools in becoming Model Schools. 

 We next had 8 minutes at tables to learn about a project....

  Project 1

http://www.FlatClassroomProject..org

(Support from ICT Qatar and HSBC)

-       Key learning from students – “I Learned Not to Sterotype”

- Amazing communication – two students communicated only through Google Translate (while sitting beside each other)

Goes beyond HOTS to HO Living

 

First Step to flattening classroom is to Connect Self

 

Project 2

http://www.MOUSE.org

Targeting high need schools and high need students.  The program is challenged with funding and challenges with the nature of high need students and schools.

 

Results include increases attendance, improved reading skills and 21^st Century Skills.  Need to support teachers in being comfortable with technology but the teachers need to be comfortable with the technology to allow students to excel.  The whole school environment gets tech support.  Teachers and students are trained together.  Networking sets up schools to support each other as well.

( There continues to be issues with access – parts of NC only has dial up access.  Some areas only ½ of students have computers at home and only 1/3 of them have internet access.)

While Canada and the USA are diverse, we end up with very similar needs.  We have very low performing segments of the population, we have areas of high poverty and we have locations with very high English Language Learners.    Supporting all students is a critical challenge that we need to meet.  Following Malcolm Gladwell's conversation, these students are disadvantaged by lack of access to gain expertise, and a lack of feedback.  They have lots of opporunities where compensation is needed to overcome; however, they don't have the teachers or resources to develop compensation strategies.

In Surrey it is a challenge while the district faces a 9 million dollar shortfall and we need 3 million annually just to provide a minimal level of sustainable computers.  (Computers aren't the solution; however, students need access to technology and the lack of functioning computers at a reasonable ratio is an indicator that we are not providing equity.)

Kevin

Malcolm Gladwell at NECC on Learning Environments

Learning Environments through Fleetwood Mac as a Case Study.

Peter Green hears the band members before they became a band.  He met with them, jammed together, then released Fleetwood Mac.

Rumours is one of their best albums.  Most think it is 3rd album - actually 16th.  There is a long history between 1967 and 1973 with members coming and going before they become the band we think of as Fleetwood Mac.

Lesson 1

We tend to telescope the time for learning between inception and success.  Pscyhologists have suggested that to become mastery requires 10 000 hours of practice (4 hours / day x 10 years).  Mozart was a late bloomer - his better compositions took 14 years of composing (age 9 to 23)  The Beattles played together live 1200 times before coming to America.  

As people, we have an attitude toward learning that sees the product not the effort to get there.  The effort is telescoped.  

The TIMSS test tests math and completes a 120 question survey.  A research correlated the number of question answered on the survey to the marks on the math test - it was a direct correlation.  If you can sit still and focus to complete a task, you will do well with Math.  

Attitude and Effort are more important than Ability.  

KIP model - working with disadvantaged children - provide instruction from 8 to 5:00 instead of 9 to 3 and 3 less weeks of summer vacation - can eliminate the disadvantage - 

There is no substitute for time and effort

Lesson 2

Most believe success is built on success - Capitalization strategy

Instead - Success is built on previous failures.  This is a compensation strategy - Compensate for your weaknesses.  NFL draft - First 50 for QB - their next year stats slightly under perform their 50 to 140 draft picks.  The first 50 have height, strength, looks, 'talent;' however the next 100 know they have to compensate for their disadvantages by being hungrier and more committed to excel.

A Compensatory strategy is more effective to improve.  Four of the best QB had the worst scores on IQ tests.  Being smart is valuable to learn the plays and other details of football; however, if you are not as smart, you will have to work harder to compensate.  Dyslexic entrepreneurs are at the top of the list because they had to work harder at school but learned instead - leadership, teamwork, aural communication, and delegation.  They succeeded because they compensated.

(interesting consideration)

Large class sizes force students to compensate.  Learning to learn with minimal support allows for compensations to develop.  We need to have respect for difficulty.  It is crucial to learn to overcome difficulties.  

How can we create 'constructive disadvantages' in learning environments.

Lesson 3

Learning Paths are not necessarily Linear

Fleetwood Mac changed styles many times over the 16 albums.

Paul Cezanne started with not good work, but 30 to 40 years of work and exploration developed famous styles.   He learned brush strokes from Pizarro for years with feedback

Huck Finn was written over 9 years.  Most completed early but needed 9 years of trying endings to create a literary masterpiece.

Feedback is at the core of learning.  The struggle to learn is where the learning lies.  The record industry would not wait for 16 albums today.  It is expected to be instant success.

Conclusion

Put it together

Learning takes time and effort

Learning takes making mistakes and compensating

Learning takes struggling and exploring along the way

Impressive Starting Points

I have had the privilege of working with SFU's Field Program - Learning and Teaching Through Technology for today - March 7, 2009. One of the activities that they have been working on is sharing "Who am I as a learner?"

What a great question.  I remember a similar activity several years back that I was involved in.  I will have to go and find what I wrote for that.  I highlight wrote since my work was written.  Since Graduating from TLITE in 2002, I have thought a lot about reflection, my practice, but I haven't had to make it salient.  

The rich thinking that went into the presentations was inspiring.  I will likely redo my thoughts of who I am as a learner.  (A key part of that is that I can see something and I will want to accomplish the same thing. )

It was impressive to see the learners reflected through their presentations.  From Blogs, to Movies, to warped photos, to PPT, to Keynote....  I can't believe the strength of technology use to produce amazing presentations, but more importantly that none of it was gratuitous glitz.  The technology tools chosen enhanced each of their presentations.  While I am tech savvy, I will have to strive to match the depth of reflection about themselves as learners.

Kudos LTT 2009

Computers not part of basic education needs....

At the Surrey All Candidates meeting on November 5, 2008, a trustee-elect was asked if he would accept a donation of 100 computers even though it is corporate sponsorship.  I don't take issue with accepting the donation; however, the justification surprised me.

It is acceptable to take the 100 computers because computers are not part of basic education.  They are an extra....

WOW - It was hard to stay in my seat.

I am hoping that this candidate just hasn't been in a school and worked with children lately to understand how vital technology is to today's children.  Assuming that technology is extra is just like considering you can live without it.  A child that does not integrate technology into their learning today would graduate missing essential skills to communicate in today's reality.

From iwasthinking.ca

"Really, it’s not about the technology, is it?  It’s about good pedagogy, good teaching practices, engaging students, making them think, giving them opportunity to be creative and work in teams and talk and learn…"

Heidi found a YouTube video that parallels technology through sports.  Athletes could play without shoes, but why would they?

What a great question.  So often I am challenged about the value of spending money on technology when we can't afford to purchase, train, maintain, upgrade, update.....  It is a good question.  I do look at my life and how integrated technology has become.  If I would have a difficult time functioning without integrating technology, why would I expect students to function well when not prepared.

I return to a previous statement, "If someone said that students should have no exposure to technology until Grade 4, it should be held in the same contempt as someone saying students should have no exposure to books until Grade 4."  Reading a book, learning from a book are parallel to reading from a computer and learning from computer.  

Wow - Value in Newsletters and their title

I have an RSS reader that has right now about 40 feeds with  675 unread updates.  I won't read all of them.  I often skim the subject lines to see if I want to read further.

Today I had a moment to read a newsletter sent out by http://www.edutopia.org/ I knew from the subject line that I would be interested.  It was entitled - Technology that Enables.  I didn't have time to read it back in July when it was sent out.  I am so glad I did today.  It highlighted a 2 minute video about enabling technology including that Acrobat Reader now has built in a Reader function.  It will read the text out.  It is not perfect; however, a free tool that students can apply to any PDF document is amazing.  You could even print your own documents as a PDF and have them read back to you.  Then you can hear if your sentence structure made sense.

I get a lot of email and will often delete email from newsletters or magazines based on their title.  I would have lost this nugget had I not be captured by the subject line.

PC - File Menu - Read Out Loud

Mac - View Menu - Read Out Loud

When Technology Fails Us

As I grow as an educator, my background knowledge of technology continues to increase.  I don't claim to know all the answers, but I have developed the ability to ask questions about the failure.  What caused it?  Is it within my control?  Can I find a work around?

Today I was asked to help with a blog where the comments weren't posting properly.  I didn't know the solution, but I checked it on another computer to see if it was a computer related problem, I asked the teacher to show me what they were doing, I asked them to check through the blog management tool.  We did find the problem being that the system hadn't accepted the comment approval commands that were given before.  The point is that I don't know Edublogs.org well enough to know the answer, but by asking questions and exploring we found the answer.

This leads back to my original idea.  What about when technology fails?

I was presenting on Google Earth in Victoria, BC yesterday and technology failed me.  The projector had poor contrast so that reds, blues and blacks all showed up as black on the screen, Google Earth opened but did not have a reliable fast connection to the Internet, and I planned to show my Google Literature Trips on the Apple Learning Interchange but the Internet would go there.  Sounds like a presentation from hell - right?

Wrong - I have learned to present the concept and the process more than the details.  Much of my time was spent sharing the concepts, the rationale, and the practical applications for Literature, Mathematics and Social Studies.  It is always hard to learn from a demonstration where you can't follow along anyway.  Being forced to present highlighting the concepts and potential was much more powerful.  

I find that we (as teachers) are moving to the process oriented learning side.  In doing so, I don't have to showcase a final product, I can instead describe the process and learning encapsulated in the project.

Yes technology fails; however, so does the power from time to time.  We deal with interruptions, assemblies, fire alarms, code yellow and much more on a daily basis.  Technology is not the answer to all.  Rather technology can be the spring board to amazing learning opportunities.  I remember creating skits in groups as an intermediate student; we are really doing the same project when we have students create movies to tell a story.  It is about the process not the product.

Where do we put our energy?

I listened to a TED video today.  It is focused on the basic question ?Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming? Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg comes up with surprising answers.  

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bjorn_lomborg_sets_global_priorities.html

Taking this to our role in teaching and learning.  There are many problems.  Rather than prioritize problems, we should look at prioritizing solutions.  Bjorn worked with economists to determine the cost/benefit of solutions.  In terms of technology, what technologies would have the best cost / benefit ratio.  If we can help more students by doing X than helping less students with Y, which choice should we make.

I don't have the answers to the cost / benefit of providing 1 to 1 laptop initiatives.  Rather than that specific problem I think we should ask ourselves if we are making the best choices with not only technology, but how we spend our time teaching and learning.

Is there a way to show that the cost / benefit of providing school and home computers with internet access to all students is more beneficial than providing targeted support to only students that need it (after they are already falling behind in their learning and then identified to receive support.)

My statement is not which one is better, rather that decisions around the world seem to be made all in the name of 'putting learners first.'  

Do we really know what uses of technology if any are more beneficial?

Flying over storytelling tools

I really enjoyed this morning where I was able to give a high level fly past of a variety of tools that teachers might want to go.  It is nice to know what is out there even if not ready for it.  A year later, one can reflect and say, "now I need something that will do _____.  I remember that we saw something that might just do that."

In preparing to share the tools, I had even forgotten about some options.  The last one CogDogRoo has a list of 57 + ideas for storytelling with digital media.

The archive of tools I briefly covered include:

Tools for Digital Storytelling
del.icio.us/digitalstorytelling
http://screencast-o-matic.com/
http://jingproject.com/
http://mnemograph.com/
Comic Life - see district license
Inspiration - see district license
Kidspiration - see district license
KidPix - see district license
www.edublogs.org
Google Maps / Google Earth
flickr.com
quickmaps.com
clustrmaps.com
Apple Learning Interchange - http://ali.apple.com

http://electronicportfolios.org/

CogDogRoo - http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools - FIfty different tools 

What is it like to just have second years....

This year we only have second years at our summer institute.  This is very interesting.  It seems more relaxed.  We are all focused on the same process.  We don't have to balance rooms, activities, times to make it all fit.

We do miss the opportunities to share with the first years.  Having second years helping the first years overcome the emotional hurdles and technical hurdles was empowering for the second years.  We don't have that same opportunity. 

We have planned less 'workshops' and more learning time, exploration, and critical reflection.  Since everyone has a base level of technological ability, there is little need to provide that kind of workshop or support.  I hope that next year when we start with first years again that we will be able to keep this decreased focus on technology and greater focus on the educational issues around integrating technology.

As a Teacher and Learner ...

As I continue as a learner, I learn more about my teacher.  I have always put myself in positions to share my knowledge.  I consider myself somewhat introverted; however, in a teaching role I seem the exact opposite.

Also in a teaching role, I force myself to be knowlegable.  This concept is odd in terms of teaching with technology.  I chose to leave my position at Frank Hurt as the Tech Facilitator because I was expected to be the expert in everything.  It just isn't possible. 

Oddly enough 3 years later, I ended up at the district level where again I am expected to 'know everything.'  The biggest difference is that I no longer try to actually know 'everything.'  Now I have a network of people and sources to point teachers to help themselves.  

With the growth of technologies, it is impossible to know everything.  I have been teaching lifeguarding for 18 years and have always taught principle oriented.  In lifesaving and first aid, you can practice procedures to deal with knowns and expecteds but rarely to accidents happen in identical ways.  I hadn't realized it until recently that teaching (especially with technology) has changed to be much more principle oriented.  

It is now no longer about knowing the answers but being willing to try and explore.  I am not an expert in most technologies; however, I can figure them out based on other existing knowledge.

I am much happier facilitating than delivering information.  I think the rich conversations during exploration and learning are worth more than the information that may have very little to do with their future life.

Kevin

Surrey TLITE 2008

I have been working with Surrey and Simon Fraser University for the past 8 years on an incredible program called TLITE - or Teaching and Learning in an Information and Technology Environment.  During August 11 to 22, I will be making some posts that might be a bit different than my usual posts.  

I wanted to warn you that as part of the coursework for the cohort everyone is blogging regularly.  I am including myself in this process.