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.  

Google Teacher Academy Reflection

This opportunity was amazing.  I have been an Apple Distinguished Educator for 1.5 years now and love the networking opportunity.  The networking with GCT has been just as wonderful for networking.

The Academy was a neat adventure to be with 50 incredible educators and then cramming in the great wealth of Google into our brains until near explosion.  I consider myself to know lots about Google, but there were many things I found that I didn't have a clue about.  

As part of my follow up activities, I am hoping to produce a 40 things you can do tomorrow using Google in your classroom.  I would then be able to present this as a workshop to provide a condensed version of our experience.  Seeing what is possible is one way to open the eyes of educators to change.  At the same time, I want to caution educators to be careful how deep and how far they choose to go.  We want to make sure that we are using our time wisely to use what we need.  Here is where Just In Time learning comes in for teachers as well.  

I think for teachers JIT learning is almost as important as for students.  If we try and learn it all now, without direct application, it will just be added to the frustration level.  Prior to April of this year, I had experimented in Google Earth and created a basic virtual field trip.  During April of this year I was asked to share Google Earth in a meaningful way.  To me this became creating a Google Lit Trip. I have since created 2 Google Lit Trips; however, I built my skills as needed to complete the tasks.  (I still have a personal goal to learn the time coding features - but I don't have a project that needs it yet.)

I found the value of the GCT Academy in being:

1. Expanding my network of incredible educators,
2. Expanding the fly past knowledge of the Googlverse
3. Forcing me to think deeper about how to apply and present Google and its wealth of resources as meaningful tools to teachers (that may not be as eager as I can be.)

Kevin

Google Literature Trip

I had the pleasure of presenting with Jerome Burg at BC Literacy Forum conference. The link to the recording of our presentation. It does require a bit of Java install (automatically).

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/launch/play.jnlp?psid=2008-06-19.1739.M.4E2872FEDB7D69F3FCADABF491B2F1.vcr

I cannot say enough about how pleased I am to have worked with Jerome on this presentation. I was challenged to complete a second literature trip to share and learned new information to be able to share it. In preparing, I summarized what I see as the Return on Investment.

Student Engagement
Deep Learning with Many Connections
Reaches Visual / Spatial Learners
Reading with Purpose
Cross Curricular applications
Encourages global links to sources, people and resources
Alignment with PLO’s, IML Learning Capacity and NETS-S

A personal note for teachers thinking about doing a Google Literature Trip. Try it and you will learn more about that piece of literature than you may have in studying it with your students for years.

Kevin

Web 2.0 is not the Future of Education

In response to http://injenuity.com/archives/207#comment-1109

Jen,

An interesting conversation. I have to say I found your initial post provoking; however, I understand where you are coming from.

Our District Motto is "Keeping Learners at the Centre."

I don't know that Web2.0 is the right catch all but I will work within that category. I believe students today are different than even 10 years ago. If we want to keep them at the centre, we need to change as they and society changes. I do a lot of professional development workshops and get quite annoyed being asked to teach a software title. I reflect back to the requester to tell tell me what their learning goals are and ask how this will integrate to the curriculum.

A quote from Brigham Young University that I just love is "The goal of teaching is to teach our students to be learners. The content is what they practice with. "

With the world changing in ways such as a online community being compared to being a country with its size and other features. Students are different and have opportunities to learn differently. A few years back (probably 10 now) Bernajean Porter worked with our Ministry of Education to define technology use in three ways - Literacy - Adaptive and Transformative.

At some point we all need the literacy level (skills), then we can move to doing what we already do (PPT) to doing things not possible before. Transformative is where I want to see most of the time spent. Voice Thread was an example discussed earlier. If we just record ourselves that is just literacy, if we use it to practice a speech that might be adaptive, but if we use it to , that could have been done before . Using Voice Thread for a global (or local) conversation with voice, text, files, annotations was not possible.

Students and Teachers don't need to learn every Web2.0 application; however, we do need to prepare students to learn and use the tools that they will need throughout their life. (I actually don't use Voice Thread myself but I can see the potential.) I love working with wikispaces.com. It doesn't matter if you use Wikispaces or PB Wiki or any other tool. What I am teaching is becoming creators of information and publishing to a limited (or global audience.) I would hope that spending time learning to write with a wiki would transfer to other wikis, blogs, voice threads, and even podcasts.

I love using technology. I see so much potential. I totally agree that learning should be central.

I question where the balance is between "I am teaching them to learn so technology is a lower priority" and "I am teaching them to learn with technology"
Kevin

Security

I had an interesting conversation yesterday about security on a school network.  The "Ah Ha" moment for me was when I was informed of the greatest security risk - the USER.  When networks become super secure, the user is encouraged to find ways around the security.  When you can't do what you believe you need to do, frustration and creativity set in.  

I found this amazing and I agree.  Last year, I was introduced to the Yes And concept....  There are three kinds of people.  

No Way - They don't want to try things and whatever you suggest is just a No Way.

Yes, But - They like the ideas but have lots of reasons why it won't, can't or shouldn't work.

and

Yes, And - These people like the ideas AND seek for ways to make them work.  There are always hurdles, and there are lots of ways to overcome hurdles.  In terms of Security, the Yes, And group is the most dangerous.  We don't take no very well and seek creative alternatives.

I had to laugh when a school district recently blocked Facebook.  In the same breath I was told about the blocking, I was informed about UnblockFacebook.com as a way around.  I realize that that may be blocked soon too, and it will have another way around it created just as fast.

In the end, if we weren't so restrictive and diligent with some forms of security, then the Yes And group could do what they believe they need to do without putting their creative energy to just getting access, instead it would be channeled into doing what is needed better.

Kevin

Grafting Mac to Novell - Burnaby School District - Ken Kiewitz

Technology in Burnaby School District – Ken Kiewitz

 

Burnaby is the 4 th largest district in BC.  Currenlty they have 4000 computers (predominantly PC based) over 53 sites.

 

The presentation focused on Visual and Performing Arts.  When you want to bring in new technology, you have four options

1. Don’t bring in new technology
2. Bring it in and run it separate from existing structures
3. Bring in the new and out with the old
4. Try to make the two work together.

 

So the model was chosen of option 4.  Now it has been a lesson in grafting.  There are 39 Mac computers working with the network to service the Visual and Performing Arts.  The metaphor works well.  You can graft, use hybrid breeding, easier propogation.  The point of grafting is to use existing strengths (such as a tree and its root systems) 

 

At the same time as adding new hardware, it had to be made to fit with the existing infrastructure.  This meant that there needed to be administrative control to make the Macs that are aimed at single user work well with multi-user environments.

 

With planning and support the integration of the 39 Macintosh computers to meet the needs of students that were likely graduating to the Emily Carr Art Institute has been successful.  There was consultation and training directly with Apple.  The project will now be integrated into the other High Schools.  The suit of tools has been provide that are designed to support ‘artistic’ approaches instead of the ‘business’ style model. 

 

Students now have an advantage when applying for work experience or further education.  They are able to share a portfolio of successful work done on the platform and with the software tools that are commonly used in these areas.

 

In conclusion – Expanding the Orchard

-       choose an appropriate site,

-       prepare the soil,

-       mitigate the hazards,

-       establish the product,

-       market the product

 

If it offers us a better way of doing something, we don’t want to stand in the way of that.  If we can address the need with existing structures, that needs to be considered as well.

Apple Digital School - Session 1 - SD42

School District 42 Initiatives in the Classroom

Rory Payment and Peter Valbonesi

 This session is an overview of technology used to support the SD42 school district.

School District Environment

 - 22 elementary schools, 6 secondary schools

 

Moodle

Connected Learning Community – recently launched the front end to the service portal.  http://clc_online.sd42.ca  - working with MAMP – Mac– Apache – MySQL- PHP

 

BCeSIS – Teachers in 9 elementary schools have been given macbooks to support the needs of BCeSIS.  While they are used for that, teachers are also doing iLife and other productivity applications.

 

SMART boards

Implemented at 8 schools and the district office.  There is a great wealth of software bundled with the SMART board that allows for high interactivity in Math and Science.

 

SEED Carts

Teachers can book carts for a term.  It is designed for two teachers to work together on project based learning.  (MS Office is purposefully not installed)  Each cart set has a different set of software available.

 

One to One

400 students in grade 6/7 (20%) in 15 classrooms.  Classroom is integrated from September to June

In terms of results, it is not about the improvements in writing.  There are so many benefits to the students overall learning and the lives of the students.

Ah ha – some students do better paper-based. 

In some cases, the school decided to load all of the special needs students into the laptop class.  The results from teachers of those classrooms is that it is easier to teach than a class with less identified special needs students and no laptops.

Learning is differentiated as students can demonstrate their learning through Comic Life, iMovie, Podcast, WebPage and more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple Digital School - Keynote - Paul Witzel

Shoreline School District 1 to 1

 

A large portion of the success has been with the leadership of the Superintendent.  They are able to support with financial decisions and political ones as well.  Roadblocks are much more likely to be removed with this kind of support.

 

This success story started with a single cart for  Mathematics project 6 years ago.  An early finding is that the mobile cart was used for many other educational opportunities.  Early in the implementation all teachers were provided with a laptop. 

 

Peer Coaches were provided with release time (1/2) day per week to support their peers and funding a 0.5 tech specialist teacher.  Roadblocks and bumps in the road were removed so that teachers didn’t experience that one problem that gave them reason to abandon technology.  The 0.5 tech specialist was phased out; however, the peer coaches still continue to support.

 

Additional funding was arranged through grants and a 2 student to 1 computer ratio was established.  Programs grew and additional stakeholders came and observed what was happening.  Grade 4 to 8 became 1 to 1 and then the carts that were used for the intermediate grades moved to the primary classrooms.  In years 4 and 5, all schools in the Shoreline District went to 1 to 1 implementation.  (Changes to the support included training days,1 hour classified time, 0.2 tech specialist teacher, district technology specialists and continuation of the peer coaching.)

 

Common Agreements

-       Just right – Just in Time staff development

o      Surveying staff to assess needs

o      Differentiated instruction

-       Building-wide curriculum mapping

-       Vertical planning (discussion between grades)

 

Success :>

Over the five years of study,  students scores on the WASL are higher.  They are careful not to claim technology has made this change; however, technology integration is not a detractor.

 

Student Engagement through

            Writing

            Story Telling – engaging the family in sharing their stories

            Movie making – take existing clips, remove audio, create own tracks

           

Differentiation

            Projector – Visual learners, websites, modeling

            Individualize software – NLVM – Rainforest Maths – Net Trekker

                        - Achieve 3000 – United Streaming – Explore Learning

– Note Taker

 

Access – Not all students have home access or internet access

            Offer Breakfast Club

            Offer Homework Club

            Parent Classes – supporting parents to talk technology with students

 

Efficiencies

            Above and Beyond

                        Podcasting

                        iMovie

                        Communication

 

Interesting Comment to a question about Cyberbullying.

We have not have many issues with this but it is an administrative issue.  What we are looking at is just new ways of creating the same crimes.

 

http://tiny.cc/woGfO

Closing thoughts

I have now finished a whorl wind of a conference.  I have tried to blog and share my experiences.  I was very impressed with the last session I attended by Sharon Taylor.  The term VUCA will stick in my head now.

I found a bird of a feather sharing the same frustrations with much 'teaching' and same motivation to meet the needs of students.

Kevin

VUCA - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous

Sharon Taylor - Thompson University (Williams Lake)

Henry Jenkins refers to todays students as producers(creators, collaborators, convergers) rather than consumers.  Time Magazine identified 'you' as the person of the year - with the release of Web 2.0

This was the only the second presentation during this conference that actively integrated YouTube into the session.  Many still have not seen what are now 'classic' videos with the "A Vision of Students Today" and "The Machine is Using Us."

Many of our technologies are converging.  Facebook, Wikis, Blogs are bringing many areas together.  YouTube has many remixes or mashup.

Aca-Fan is a term for an Academic in a Fandom.  There are many assumptions that 'Fan Clubs' are for younger generations.

Educators work in a VUCA world (military term first used in 2004).  This is where history happens.

Bob Johansen in Get There Early (2007) shifts this to Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.

While we may not have the answers, we can network and have a quick search and get valuable information.  A starting place looking up the Abject Learner could lead to blogs from

Brian Lamb(UBC Professor), Bruce Eisner, Future Blogger, Daniel Lemire(Professor in Montreal)

We have all heard how close Wikipedia and Enclyclopedia Britanica are for accuracy.  The difference Michael Wesch highlighted was that Wikipedia's errors were all corrected in 30 days or less and Wikipedia is 15 times larger.

I found it amazing that a professor told his class how bad information about Latin American Authors was on Wikipedia.  He made it a class project to improve Wikipedia in this area.  Working for the semester only 3 articles made it to Featured status and 8 to good status. What a great way to show students that you need to be thorough and referenced and with good writing to be accepted in academic terms.  

Sharon Recommended the book, "The University of Google" by Tara Brabazon

We have no idea what our students will be doing a year or 5 years from now.  In 2003 blogs didn't exist.  Today there are over 71 million blogs (including this one).  Returning to the video that we started with is that university students are training for jobs that won't exist and not training for the jobs that have yet to be created.  We need to remember that students are adaptable and need to continue to be adaptable.  Instead of providing information, our job needs to be to build skill to create knowledge for themselves with the information that they can find.

Kevin

A final comment that Sharon made was rebutting another presentation that said students were lazy, unmotivated and disengaged.  She said they are not any of the above.  Instead they are extremely productive, motivated and engaged, but not in the world you may be teaching in still.

Designing for Success

Often first year students at university struggle or are not successful.   Working as a cohort for the first year allows a time to think and develop the ability to think.  They have three programs that use a cohort model.  The one discussed today was the Explorations program.

The content is interdisciplinary and process of learning is stressed.

Success is felt by students and staff.

The students enjoyed the smaller class size (only 100) and that the instructor actually knows your name.  

It is student focused and develops students who are involved in their learning.

It sounds like a good program is developing.  It is now in its third year and creating a positive teaching and learning experience.  It will be continuing next year with another 100 students having a cohort First Year Experience.

Kevn

Edutainment and Technotainment

Both of these methods of teaching offer opportunities to reach students and improve their learning.  This might include learning tools such as:

• multimedia
• animations
• music 
• interaction
• gaming

If we pick media that is relevant to students lives, they will be better prepared to connect to the content we are trying to share with them.

Several examples were shared including subscription service for multimedia, YouTube, Images, and Clickers.

Integration of Facebook / YouTube in Learning

McGraw-Hill Ryerson & SFU Teaching for Learning - Session 1

Social Networking Integration

This session highlights two forms of social networking - YouTube and FaceBook

The integration first involved students creating promotional videos for the Co-Op department of SFU.  A few important considerations:

• FOIPOP
  
• Legal - Copyright images, music
  
• Making the regulations achievable with reasonable effort
  

This first effort of this contest received 39 entries from the SFU Co-op community

A question from audience was about the amount of tech support provided to the students.  SFU provided links to resources and highlighting on campus support.  Some students were from graphic arts classes, but many of the top videos were students first attempt at video.

Students posted their videos to the SFU Coop Video Contest Group and the voting feature was enabled so that a 'People's choice' award could be given.

Facebook

Another form of Social Networking.  Students are very active with Facebook in Canada.  For many it is becoming a hub to keep in touch with friends and family.  While you may not have time to phone your network to tell them about your new job, you can update your status and all of your friends will have the update.

Embracing Facebook involves

• Going where the audience is
  
• More effective and efficient service/messaging
  
• Email is becoming ineffective
  
• Students enjoy being able to personalize and create a profile.
  

An interesting event is the Career Guide - Wil Fraser.  He is on facebook with almost 800 friends.  Updates can be sent to students and students can ask questions.  When Wil responds, he provides links directly to existing resources and answers from the university.  He is a character while on each of the three campuses.  

This project has integrated department support, facebook, real life interaction with him.  Wil is a person with personality, history, photos, friends and interacts with his friends.  Wil Fraser has acted as a hub for communication and community for the Work Integrated Learning Department at SFU.

Understanding Todays Youth and Educating

Max Valiquette - Youthography

Youth is defined as 10 to 29.  The distribution of the 5 year sub-groups is even so each sub-group has equal push on popular culture.  

Adulthood is starting earlier

- starting schooling by 4 years old

- if they smoke - 1st cigarette by 12

- early onset of puberty (27% of African-American girls begin puberty by age 7)

On the opposite side Adulthood is taken on in fullness later

- average age of post secondary grad - 25

- average age of first marriage - 28

- average age of first child - 29

This is resulting in a prolonged pre-adult stage

Youth value:

1. Relationships
2. Communication (70% of teenagers have a cell phone)
3. Information
4. Diversity
5. Empowerment
6. Technology (can now send message to one person with same energy as all of your network)

Max shared an interesting consideration - 24 year olds or younger are Digital Natives, while older are Digital Tourists.  (Organizing music by CD cases and titles or click on sort by artist)

Change - things used to change but the way we get them didn't.  There has now been a change in how we get them and how much we pay for it.  TV, VCR,DVD, HD TV - each time the speed and cost has gone down.  HD TV reached 70% market penetration in 5 years.  iPods have changed 8 times in 6 years.  (The Sony Walkman took 8 years to change to the walkman 2.)

Charge - Personal Control - Culture and Control on demand - You can record you TV shows with PVR, you can purchase a cell phone without a credit card on a Pay as you go system.

Challenge - The street starts to drive and dictate trends.

NBC aired a SNL show - reached 5 million - somebody hacked it and posted to YouTube - 7 million views.  The next major skit was then sent to YouTube by NBC- instead of 5 million hits - 45 million hits.

The control is changing.  There are ways now to become a member of an online company that is a large group of consumers paying a small amount of money ($35).  SellaBand allows you to own part of an upcoming artist.  There are 21 artists that have been sponsored this way for $50 000 and 3 have already paid dividends.  There is also a soccer team, and a clothing brand done this way.

We are at a stage of convergence - You need only a couple of devices - your mobile device and desktop entertainment system (cell phone and iMac).  With an iPhone you can call, watch TV and surf the internet.  Students often start research with Google.

This all leads to choice. - The number one TV show is getting less following.  Gunsmoke in 1961 had 61 million watching it weekly.  Now American idol has 30 million weekly following but 500 channels available.  (Younger people are reading less books; however, they are reading more than any previous generation.)  

Implication for Teachers - How do we move from content providers to content facilitators.  The learning environment is changing and going to continue to change.    The main branch of the library is no longer needed.  You can request from smaller branches or access online databases with the same content.  Instead the Library is the gateway to the knowledge out there;however, so is your bedroom!

(Interesting with podcasting - How do you compare to the other 'lecturers' they are watching?)

Implications for Teachers - What is official and unofficial for referencing?

While wikipedia is not considered academic, it references other works and now other works are referencing wikipedia.  Wikipedia is more current for news than any print work or 'official' encyclopedia.  Wikipedia also contains information that you will not find anyway else such as your favourite band, artist, or product.

Content Facilitators also need to be content improvers.

The top 4 websites in Canada

1. Google
   
2. YouTube
   
3. MSN
   
4. Facebook
   

The next trend will be a single online delivery system that can go anywhere we go.  Young people have redefined book, music store, and social networking.

In closing :

10 thought starters for Education

1. They are used to networked communication
2. They are more collaborative than any previous generation
3. and they have a different definition of plagiarism and copying
4. We are on the verge of the $200 laptop
5. We can't keep media of any sort of school... and by the time they get to college, it is simply expected
6. So some of the learning that comes from you might have to come on-line
7. What if you don't have the Internet - that question is the same as what if you don't have a calculator (desk, watch, cell phone, computer)
8. What is the value of 'official' source right now? Who determines what is official any more?
9. What is a career now any way - what is the right level of education for that career?
10. Remember that as a facilitator of learning you have experience and expertise to share.

Questions

How do you get students to figure out the 178 000 hits from a search?

- Instead of Googling students will be reaching out to their networks.  If you want a hotel in Paris, you would ask your network who has been there.  Then they might give you a couple of ideas, you would then tag the sites and consider the hotels.  Once you have been, you become an additional resource in your network.

I was able to speak to Max afterward and asked how a teacher can manage to keep up with the change and all of the tools that students might bring to the classroom or want to use?

- his response was interesting that we needed to reduce the workload of teachers and reduce the curriculum to allow them to spend time together learning.  It could be that every Friday afternoon staff worked in groups and one presented to the group about teaching and learning to meet their needs.

Kevin

Assessment for Learning - Kathleen Gregory

Tonight was the second session of the Assessment for Learning Series.

One of the opening quotes that was useful was that Assessment of Learning is the looking back, while Assessment for Learning is looking forward.

The focus of the workshop is on six aspects of Assessment for Learning.

1.  Making Learning Intentions clear

2.  Setting Criteria

3.  Increase the use of Open Ended Questioning

4.  Descriptive Feedback

5.  Self and Peer Assessment

6.  Ownership / Communicating Learning

Kathleen highlights the use of cards from a couple sources

Shirley Clarke - Formative Assessment in Action

and

Voices of Experience

Examples from Increase the use of Open Ended Questioning

• finding opposites
• your own questions?
• Right?Wrong? Why? (Show several answer 5 squared = 3,7,10,25,125)
• Agree / Disagree
• Give the answer - ask for strategies - Strategies - Answer - Written Evidence (SAW)
• Alternative Viewpoints

I appreciate how Kathleen engages the group with only about 10 minutes of talking then 10 minutes of work / engaged discussion time.  The time is well used providing real examples from colleagues.

The final one shared that was neat was called Review Cues - Students created an alphabet book as review (fold 11x17 into 24 squares) then pull words for each letter with

A ll letters used

I llustrations

M eaning - connections to meaning

Then to 'mark' it, students can be given an AIM, AI, AM as feedback.

While we can engage students and grow assessment for learning, eventually we need to evaluate.  To do so we take assessments of learning, observations and interactions with the students to determine the 'marks.'  The Assessment has been for learning and for the student.  The evaluation is for the school, parents and the student.  I like how evaluation and assessment were connected but aimed at different audiences.

Kevin

McGraw-Hill Ryerson & SFU Teaching, Learning, and Technology

Pre-Conference Session: Extending your Class to the Internet

http://extendingclass.wetpaint.com/

The above wiki was created to share the presentation during the conference.  I like how they configured separate pages for each topic.

I have to admit, I was a bit of a sprite.  I went into the wiki while we were discussing and added the class summary from the discussions.  This use was similar to Google docs.  I think that if more of us were thinking the same way then Google Doc would have been the better solution, but this way I was able to add directly to the document.  A huge advantage to keeping it in a wiki is the readable URL.  

This was a good foundational session.  I was most impressed with the Second Life demonstration.  I have tried several times to explore Second Life but I think I need some F2F time to get the real feel of it.

It was good to know the room was filled with Post-Secondary educators interested in meeting the needs of students and using online tools.

Kevin

McGraw Hill Ryerson - Teaching, Learning & Technology Conf - Pre Conf 1

Increasing Student Achievement with Synchronous and Asynchronous Online Tools

Jaron Easterbrook

To ensure we have increased student achievement, we need

• increased retention
• increased engagement
• increased relevancy

Technology is not the answer but course management software, laptops, websites, podcasts can be tools.  People are the answers.  How a teacher delivers content with passion provides the retention, engagement and relevancy.

It was interesting seeing how similar and yet different Wimba is to WebCT or Blackboard or Moodle.

It is exciting to see the opportunities that are available.  While any one tool may not be suitable for all locations, the selection of choices means there should be one to meet needs.

Kevin

Google Literature Trip with Hana's Suitcase

I feel privileged to have created a Google Earth file that follows the lives of Hana Brady and her family as documented in Hana's Suitcase by Karen Levine.

The project involved the basics of reading the book and identifying geographical locations along the way.

The learning for myself (and that I predict for your students )was incredible. I have learned more about WWII than in all my years as a student. I also have learned the value of authentic sources. I have been able to contact several sources including speaking to Ela Weissberger - one of the 132 child survivors of Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. This project was by far one of the best learning experiences I have ever had.

I am looking forward to expanding this resource as well as working with other books to create the Google Lit Trip resources.

I have just completed writing the whole package up and publishing in the Apple Learning Interchange. You can find the resource at http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=15418

Kevin

100 Uses for an iPod - too cool

Thanks Jerome Burg for sharing this site
http://www.airlinecreditcards.com/travelhacker/how-to-turn-your-ipod-into-anything-75-tutorials/

I checked out the links and it is cool to see what you can do with an iPod.

While I would not try most of them, it is interesting to see the human ingenuity of taking something that was build with a purpose be then repurposed in ways that were not even imagined.

I hope that my ideas become repurposed many times and in many ways.

Kevin

Math 8 Curriculum Changes - Bruce McAskill - STA Convention 2008

I joined this session on a bit of a whim.  I have taught both Grade 7 and Grade 8 Mathematics.  

It is exciting to see that the new curriculum.  The number of outcomes have been reduced and reordered. The shift will allow for conceptual understanding rather than rote learning.

We will be able to make the teaching more student centric.  There would be time to group projects, challenging questions, discussions.  Working in this way we can grow the project focus.  We had an interesting discussion about the difference between activities and projects.  The activities ended up being smaller chunks with less connections over a shorter period.  Then having projects allows for a greater depth and connection building over time with connected concepts.

The Grade 8 curriculum has changed 66% and for Grade 9 there is a 71 % change in the curriculum.  .  There are many topics deleted or moved to other grades as well as new concepts being added.


A neat quote from Bruce McAskill was that he doesn't like the term Differentiated Instruction because it really should be just good teaching.  

While focusing on talking about the Math Curriculum, he also challenged us as to where we are on continuums of teaching in relationship to meeting student needs.

Bringing it all together - We need to combine Differentiated Instruction, Assessment and Support.

Milt McLarren speaking at the STA Convention in Surrey

Milt McLarren

 

One discussion was about Global Warming.  He raised the awareness that it is Global Climate Change not warming, some will get hotter, colder, or wetter.  The world will get slightly warmer which will cause differences.

 

We assume that plants will use the excess CO2 but they need Nitrogen to process the CO2.  We are actually limited by Nitrogen.

 

To make real changes, we need to change the political systems including education. 

 

If we want to make change in environmental education, we don’t want another class or adding more to existing classes.  We need to realize that we have good curriculum but we need to give permission to take time to make meaning and connections to issues such as environmental education.

 

We need time for intelligent conversation, Reflection, Dialogue and Debate, Making Sense, and many more.

 

If you want to make a difference you need to engage the power that you have.  Pick up a shovel and make a difference.  You may not change the world but you can make a difference.  You also raise the awareness for everyone else to do their shoveling.

 

One comment summarizing the session was that his presentation was about integrating environmental considerations and how to cut through the noise.

I am taking a one week online cours through Knowschools.ca.  It is on Google Everything.  I just found a nugget that I had no idea about.  When you are logged into Google, it tracks your search history.  If you know you searched for something a week ago but can't remember the search words or how you found the site....  Google History has your answer.  I checked for myself and I have 2038 searches since June 2007.

Check out www.google.com/history

I can see lots of potential for education with this gadget.  You can have students look at their own history for the length of a project.  Once finished they can go back and do a meta analysis of their searching - and compare to their peers.  Who has less searches?  Why?(because they are more efficient or ....)

I continue to be amazed with the tools available for us.

Kevin

Blogging improves student writing

Thanks to Mike Silverton for fowarding me the PEW internet study.  http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/247/report_display.asp

Here are two quotes I wanted to highlight from the study
"Teens who communicate frequently with their friends, and those who own more technology tools such as computers or cell phones, do not write more often for school or for themselves than less communicative and less gadget-rich teens, according to the study, released April 24. Teen bloggers, however, write more frequently both online and offline, the study says."

"Most students (82 percent) believe that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further--and more than three-quarters of those surveyed (78 percent) think it would help their writing if their teachers used computer-based writing tools such as games, multimedia, or writing software programs or web sites during class."

I am glad that our district has not taken a stand to try and stop blogging or access to the blogging tools.  There is so much value that we can see when we use the tools.  It is good to know that what we see and believe can also be backed up in research.

Kevin

sharon's share: Digital Citizens? Who are they?

sharon's share: Digital Citizens? Who are they?

Sharon Betts has some interesting discussion relating to Digital Citizens.  

I agree with her statement, "These are just a few of the questions that go through my mind everyday as I work with teachers trying to move students toward "digital citizenship". It seems that I am not alone. "  

We are in such an interesting place where teachers in the same school may be passionately opposed to youtube, while their colleagues are already passionately using it.

I look forward to the day that all students can have the same rich experiences in all their classroooms.

Web2.0 - ERAC - Learning LInks

This afternoon has been a survey of Web2.0.  It is exciting to listen to people who are using these tools and exploring new ones.  Iron sharpens Iron.  

I should have known better than to try and blog this session.  There are just too many things to try and explain.
Notes from the presentation are located at http://wic.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0

I have made a few notes along the way, but I was exploring myself for much of the time.

Kevin

Consider Blogging - We need to teach students to look into things when reading blogs.  Is the information upto date, do they have expertise, how often do they post, who/ how many are reading the blog

Consider Wikis

Consider Google (everything)
        Docs
        Reader
        Notebook - doing research and annotating notes maintaining links.
        Custom Searches
        Google Maps - create custom journeys - similar to Google Earth but not requiring software download

Consider MashUps
        Individual Photos layered on others, or Google Lit Trips, or iGoogle or ....

Can you keep up? Do you need to?

Again, I was leaving a workshop in a state of awe and with brain overload.  There are so many things to actually know to be 'well-read' or knowledgeable with ICT.  I do believe I am information and media literate, but I  have so much more to learn.  I believe it was stated today that there are over 7000 Web2.0 applications currently available.

There is no way I can even imagine to see all of those tools.  I know many tools, but not as well as I want.  Being literate in terms of Web2.0 likely means that you have found the tools that you need and you can use the ones you need.  While I don't know all the tools, I don't have any needs that aren't being met.  

The ironic part of saying that is I also don't know what I don't know.  I will continue to keep my ears and eyes open to new opportunities, but I don't need to learn every tool that is available.  A favourite site for finding out more about Web2.0 applications is http://www.go2web20.net/

One of the last conversations of the day related to how overwhelming all of this can really be.  The best part was that there is a site that gives you 23 things to try and explore to move into the Web2.0 world.  Check this out http://schoollibrarylearning2.blogspot.com/2007/02/23-things_27.html

Exhausted and Excited - Kevin

ERAC - Learning Links - Digital Expression

ERAC is sponsoring the Learning Links sessions for teachers.  The sessions are being presented by North Vancouver teachers that have created a series of 3 books.  

Today's session is about Digital Expression.  A starting point was sending students as film crews to interview professionals - comic book writer, CBC New Media, Gaming, Musician, and Designer / Publishers.  Some of the videos are on their site at www.learntech44.ca.

The Essential Skills include - Photography, Graphics, Movie Making, Storytelling and Music/Sound.

Using Digital Photos as story starters.  Students take photos and then share them as story starters.  Instead of a teacher giving a lead in like, "It was a dark and stormy night..."  Now a photo of a man walking down a dusty road can be shown on the projector.

The Design Essentials include - Elements of: Line; Shape; Texture; Colour and Value; and Type as well as Principles of: Spaces; Balance; Emphasis and Flow; Repetition and Rhythm; and Unity.

An exciting chapter bringing 21st century reality of Creative Collaboration

Activity - Fun activity showcasing both Word and Appleworks ability to draw.

Stop motion is a way of looking at animating the story.  iStopMotion or FrameThief are two tools that are possible.  There are many curriculum correlations for using stop motion to tell digital stories.

Comic Life by Plasq.  I love this software.  A good recommendation is to plan 1 block to just explore.  Then use the next lesson for applications.  The options for integration are endless - pre-writing, newsletters, book reports, field trip review, storyboarding etc

Podcasting.  A great idea that was shared is how we often look to the written word to assess students.  This always puts students with written output difficulties at a disadvantage.  Podcasting allows students to show their understanding without being disadvantaged by their written output - instead of assessing their writing, we can access their ideas.

Using Garageband(Mac) or Audacity (PC) you can have students create podcasts within 15 minutes for a 1 to 2 minute podcast.  (Remember we are looking at their understanding, not their perfection of using technology)

The morning was a great opportunity to explore hands on.

Now off to lunch and then back for Web2.0 in the afternoon.

Kevin

Perspectives on a Planet - Bob McDonald - Catalyst 2008

Science has changed much since the space age.

In Kelowna we are spinning about 700km per hour
Near the equator, they are moving about 1600 km per hour.  That is why space shuttles launch closer to the equator - more 'free' speed

Time travel.  We are moving 30 km per second around the sun.  In the clap of a hand, the earth has also moved in space.  To travel back in time, you would have to transport the earth back millions of kilometers.

An amazing speaker that shared some interesting anecdotes including how speaking and hearing a speaker involves the vocal cords, air pressure, a microphone with a membrane that moves a crystal that is converted to an electrical impulse, that is transmitted as radio frequency that is received by an antenna that converts back to electrical impulses, to wires to speakers to move a magnet attached to a cone that moves the cone and creates a pressure wave that hits us in the head and hits our ears, moves 3 small bones, to the cochlea to liquid to hairs that create electro chemical pulses that move to the brain to be interpreted and thought.
                That kind of interest is what we want to inspire in our students.

He then showed us a video doing zero-g (and mars / moon g)
It was neat to see the experience of 1/3, 1/6 and 0 G.  Students can also relate to this from going on a roller coaster.

The stories engage.  
Only 24 people have been far enough from the earth to see 'earth rise.'  It allowed
a new perspective that the earth is one entity

The earth is really a big rock with a thin layer "like that of dipping a ball in and out of water" , the land, then a similar layer of atmosphere.  At the top of Mt Everest you can basically walk out of the atmosphere.

A really cool way to explain water crisis to students is fill a glass with water, then pour out the 90% that is salty, the 9% that is frozen, the 0.9 % that is not accessible, and then the 1 drop that is drinkable.  But neat to note that the water we drink has been around since the earth began and been through Romans and dinosaurs.....

The solution - an evolution not a revolution - Revolutions get people excited to change but little happens.  Evolution changes the way things are done.  To listen to Mozart you need to listen live, then came phonographs, record players, CD, MP3, iPod.  You are still listening to music but the method has evolved.

The new Tesla in the US is a fully electric car that has 250 HP using LiOn batteries.  It only has 2 gears - forward and reverse - it is 80% efficient.  It can run 300 km on a charge

The secret to take care of this planet is to help our children have a sense of hope about tomorrow and engineer our way through our crisis.  

Web 2.0 by Chris Rozitis at Catalyst 2008

Chris is on the Executive of CUEBC and the Conference Chair for Horizons 2008 (more info at CUEBC.ca)  He is also an Apple Distinguished Educator.

There are many ways of integrating Web 2.0
He highlighted using Google Docs.  Working with students

Google Reader.  As each student in a class might have a blog, you can set the RSS feed so you know who and how many posts students have made.  

Google has a huge amount of free resources - Google Docs, Calendar, Custom Search Engines, Blogger, Scholarly Articles and so much more.

Wikis
        Having students go in and change wikipedia gives them permission to be considered authors.  Some students have tried creating 'fake' units of measurement.  Wikipedia had it removed by the next day.

        Scheduling meetings with students.  Create a blank table in a wiki and then have them update when they want to meet.

Jing Project.com
        Maximum of 3 minutes but allows screen capture and video capture.  This is free for both PC / Mac

Elluminate
        Contact support@odysseylearn.com for your own room
        To book a single use room - http://www.learnnowbc.ca/educators/educationsite/toolsandresources/elluminateliverooms.aspx


ustream.tv
        Create your own room to broadcast

Del.icio.us/crozitis
        Check out Chris's bookmarks

Blogging - allows commenting of a webpage without changing the original content
        WordPress, Edublogs.org, Blogger.com


More information
        www.rozitis.ca/Web2.0

A fast paced session with lots of real classroom applications.

Kevin

Digital Microscopy - Catalyst 2008

Digital Microscopy


There are some great tools with Motic that allows you to use there microscopes and related software to measure the area, perimeter and distances.  Additional advantages of using the digital microscopes are to bring the images from a single person viewing lens to many students or teachers being able to see the same image and discuss on a laptop screen or on the projector screen


Claymation for Mitosis.  Students were engaged and creative demonstrating their understanding of mitosis.  They used a digital camera and Microsoft Movie Maker.  Students also added labels. 
 

I have used the Bodelin Proscope many times, but extending to multiple objective lenses without having to remove the microscope and then change the lens is an good option.

Podcasting in the Science classroom by Paula Taylor

Paula Taylor – Surrey Science Teacher – Blogs in the Science Classroom
Paula is a teacher that believes ‘I have to keep changing as my students keep changing’
Kids are coming to highschool already publishing to the read/write web.

In starting a blog last summer, in one semester she had 19 000 hits instead of the 800 in a semester with a static web1.0 webpage. There may be 200 posts the day before a test with students helping each other.

I loved how several times Paula talked about how her students and colleagues were a community of learners. The learning doesn’t stop when an assignment is complete.

A way of integrating blogs in the classroom that I have not heard yet is to attach a word document template for students to work on. Then they respond with a blog and attach they work in the comments

Here is here blog with assignments for 4 different classes.
http://web.mac.com/pptaylor/iWeb/home/Blog/Blog.html

Paula also highlighted the changes of being a teacher. It was nice to see the changes that have and are being made listed clearly.

Thank you Paula for sharing exciting teaching with technology from a teacher that admits she knows very little about technology.

Catalyst Conference - Genes in a Bottle

Genes in a Bottle by Bio-Rad


The world of technology is often considered to be "computers."  It is refreshing to see how "analog" technology is still valued.  This session was over-flowing.  Something as "high-tech" as DNA extraction is possible in "low-tech" ways. 
 
It really comes down to using the right tool within the resources available.  While the session was low tech, teaching it and the activity process was greatly supported with a slideshow presentation and digital projector.

Cool Facts I gleaned:

Each cell has 2 meters of DNA inside it

Light will go over DNA if it was laid out because it is so thin.

TLITE - April 19, 2008

I was privileged to attend part of SFU Surrey's TLITE event on April 19, 2008.  Alan November was the Keynote speaker.  I have heard Alan a number of times and the themes continue to be similar.  The two biggest themes are students having authentic experiences and students owning their learning.

While hearing his presentation, I was able to interact with my own wiki and make updates.  It is heartening to know that we are making progress in Surrey.  Many of the examples that Alan was using could have been examples from pockets of users in Surrey.  We do have a long way to go and 70 of our teachers were in attendance.

I had to work with my Masters class as well so I missed the gallery walk and final demonstrations of learning but heard great stories about their success.

I look forward to when all of the examples could be from several Surrey schools ....

Continuing to Continue

My computer died back in January and my iWeb blogging was lost with it.  I have finally had time to recover and repost all of the previous posts.  I have missed being able to blog...

I have moved much more extensively into the world of google.  I resisted having another account to deal with but now I use Google for Docs, GMail, Reader, Scholar, Earth, Custom Search Engine and Blogger.  

I really appreciate the feature of being able to directly email posts to blogger.

Student Showcase of Learning

Jennifer Rossi shared with me after the May 23rd, 2007 meeting an idea about hosting a Student Learning Fair like Science Fair or Speech Meet.
 
I love the idea and have started the creative juices flowing in my own mind.  The questions I have for you:  
    What would it look like?
    Who does it benefit?
    When should we host it?
    What categories should we have?
    How do you select a winner?
 
Here are some of my initial thoughts:
    We could host it at SFU Surrey campus in one or two of the labs.  
 
    The event would be for students much like Science Fair and Speech Meet.  Students could work in their classes on projects and representatives be selected to represent the school.  I say representatives because many projects are class projects or class learning and selecting a ‘best’ doesn’t really get at the learning.
    I realize that the event could easily lose focus on student learning.  We would need to make sure that students get a chance to see what other students are doing and share their ideas at the event and with their class when they return.
 
    I think it could be hosted in the first week of May.  There would have been lots of learning during the year and any project throughout the year could be chosen.
 
    Categories is kind of a leading question.  I would want to use the IML capacities.  The event should be about learning not about the best product.   Having categories would just help to identify how teachers could use the ideas back in their own classrooms.
 
    Selecting a winner is a trick question.  I don’t believe we need to select a winner.  I can see we would have entries in various categories and perhaps provide participation awards / recognition.  I am not sure that you can select winners when we are talking about learning.  I see it more as a celebration style event.  The part of Science Fair I like is having the judges talk to the students and have them explain their learning.  Ribbons are secondary to those conversations.
 
I invite your thoughts.....
If you are interested in helping, please let me know.
 
The more I think about it the better it sounds.  Maybe part would be sharing in a large group and part in ‘poster sessions’ where 30 presentations would be going on at the same time in a large room.