From the Edu-Blogosphere
I realize many of you do not want to think about next year at this very moment. I also realize that many of you can’t help but to think about next year. So, with these things in-mind, I thought I’d share some things that have crossed my Google Reader and Twitter feed.
David Warlick asked his readers, “When you return to your classroom (or other edu-workplace), what do you wish will be there that wasn’t there this school year?” Folks then posted their wishes on Twitter with the hashtag #classwish. I wished for online presentation software could be collaborative and had non-linear possibilities. Today, Warlick compiled his results.
How would you answer David Warlick’s question? What do you wish for next year that wasn’t there this year? Really think outside the school box on this one. Who knows, we might be able to make it happen. I found the presentation software I was looking for in Zoho.
Over at Weblogg-ed, Will Richardson writes about a Time article in which the future of work is pondered. The article states, among other things, “We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world. It will be run by a generation with new values–and women will increasingly be at the controls.” Richardson then wonders…
Which would seem to me to suggest that we need to create a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative learning experience for my kids, right? If as the article states fully 40% of the US workforce is predicted to be independent contractors by 2019, shouldn’t we be rethinking what it means to prepare them for that?
How do these ideas change what you do in your classroom? My hope is that what we do in eMINTS supports this shift in education and the workplace. What do you think?
In conjuntion with the news that California (read “Cal-ee-fornia”) is dumping the textbook in favor of internet sources, I stumbled upon the blog TeachPaperless. While it claims to mainly provide educators with ideas for going paperless, the blog also gives its readers president for going tree-friendly in their classrooms. Even if you don’t care for the political slant, it’s an interesting read.
In my personal network, a friend who teaches high school English in Lincoln, NE mentions on his blog that his team of teachers is meeting to deal with plagiarism. It seems that several students have figured out how to copy and paste content from online sources onto their own papers, trying to pass the work off as their own. Have you considered this possibility in your own class? Do you have a plagiarism policy? Are you aware of ways to teach about and discover plagiarized work?
My partner sees this a lot as an English professor at the university. It’s easiest to deal with plagiarism when papers are turned in electronically. She copies the suspect content, pastes it into a Google search box, and up pops the original work. Sometimes it’s that easy; sometimes she has to search for a while.
As far as teaching about plagiarism, I have a few resources that may help:
- For you Wikipedia fans out there, there is a page with specific directions for citing the online encyclopedia of the people. Besides citation instructions, the page also offers advice such as “As with any source, especially one of unknown authorship, you should be wary and independently verify the accuracy of Wikipedia information if possible.”
- Plagiarism.com does the Google searching for you. Just enter the offending text in the box and hit “search”. You can even set up a Google alert as soon as the same text pops up anywhere on the Internet.
- The Citation Machine takes the guessing out as it will help your students generate citations for the work they ethically use within their writing.
- Excellent guides for teaching plagiarism can be found from Colorado State University, Web English Teacher, and Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Look for me to continue updating this blog about once a week this summer with more ideas to get your next year with eMINTS off to a great start!
Top 10 Learning Tools
Boy, I have really neglected this blog. Luckily, Jane Hart at the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies gave me a reason to get this blog going again. Anyway, this is my list of top 10 tools for 2009…
1. Google Docs -I recently moved all my training session plans from my own Word files to Google Docs in order to more easily share them with my supervisor and other trainers. Additionally, I plan to begin keeping classroom visits and status reports so as to make me more mobile. The best part is that I can access my plans on my iPhone in order to keep with my pledge of going paperless.
2. Google Calendar - I don’t mean to make this a Google-specific list, but I can’t deny the value of this tool to my work as an instructional specialist. I share calendars with co-workers, teachers I train, and even my wife (is busy enough with her tenure-track, research 1 job at a large, state university). The embedding has allowed me to post my calendar in my Moodle space for my trainees. Also, Google Calendar’s ability to synch with my work calendar makes my whereabouts known to those who need to know.
3. Delicious - I’ve used Delicious for a long time now. In fact, I used it when it was known as Del.ico.us back in the day. The difference now is that I use the networking features to harvest the best content and tools from the Internet. I’ve even subscribed to my network’s feed to make harvesting easier than ever before.
4. Twitter -This is the reason for my lack of blogging, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. This Web 2.0 tool has expanded my networks ten-fold. There is a constant stream of information coming to me from my Twitter network and at <140 characters a pop, it’s very efficient.
5. Google Reader - Actually, any RSS reader will do, but this happens to be the one I go to. I don’t go to the information anymore; it comes to me. Now, I don’t miss a post from my favorite blogs and I’m able to keep up with my many networks (such as Twitter and Delicious) with little effort.
6. Prezi - This is one tool I have not really used yet, but I plan to master it over the summer and utilize it next school year. As one of the contributors to Hart’s list put it, “This should be the death of PowerPoint…” Prezi moves beyond the limited scope of a linear PowerPoint presentation, something I’ve struggled to convey to my trainees. I figure that if I can master Prezi, it will revolutionize my training sessions.
7. TwitterFox -The effectiveness (and addiction to) my Twitter network has never been better stronger since I downloaded this Firefox add-on. Now, instead of heading over to Twitter, filling up my Google Reader, or wasting time on TweetDeck, I can simply look to the lower right-hand corner in order to keep up with my Tweeps.
8. Elluminate - Working for an organization that has personel scattered all over the state, there is no way to have regular team or staff meetings. Additionally, gas prices (and our concern for the environment) have caused us to cut back on travel. An online tool for meetings was needed. Enter Elluminate. With its shared work space and file-sharing capabilities, it’s almost as good as meeting in the same room. Although it costs money to have the full availability of Elluminate, there is a “Three-For_Free” feature for those smaller get-togethers.
9. Moodle - As far as training teachers goes, this is the one tool I use the most for course organization and learning facilitation. Every schedule, resource, and link is there for my teachers and I’m able to password protect our copy-written materials and curriculum.
10. iPhone - Let me first say that I am not a phone person. Before I bought my iPhone, I used the work cell for everything, paying for only the minutes I used. After purchasing this tool, I quickly wondered how I ever lived without it. This gadget makes me completely mobile without having to haul a laptop or search out wifi while traveling all over central Missouri. I manage email, calendars, Twitter, Google Reader, and Google Docs just to name a few. The plan is to use it for record keeping of classroom visits next year. I won’t go anywhere without my iPhone.
So that’s my list. For more lists, go here and ready those Delicious bookmarks.
Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons
The Fear of Blogging
This blog is turning into “What Will Richardson/David Warlick Said,” but when folks have good ideas, I have to recognize them and hopefully expand those ideas.
Anyway, Richardson had a great post today about the difficulty of blogging. He states:
While the successes are many and impressive, a good number of people still find the thought of publishing to an audience, even a relatively small, private audience of like-minded souls, to be too daunting. It’s just way outside their comfort zone, and they just believe that their contributions would either not be relevant, interesting or useful.
He goes on to get at the core of the argument:
…no matter how you slice it, blogging is a risk. And it’s a risk not just because you are putting yourself out there for the world, but because unlike many other types of writing that we do, it’s unfinished. At least that’s the way it feels for me. I don’t KNOW very much for certain. But blogging isn’t about what I know as much as it’s about what I think I know, and I find that to be a crucial distinction.
I think this has been an issue for me. I talk and talk in training sessions and classroom visits about the wonders for blogging. However, when it comes to my own professional blogging, it’s sporadic at best. On the other hand, when I blog about my non-professional interests, I find it to be easy. I’m afraid someone with way more expertise will come along and completely wipe out my ideas about education. It can be very intimidating.
Even if you’re not blogging professionally or with your students, the web can be a menacing audience. It’s what keeps us from blogging, starting wikis, writing WebQuests, or updating our websites. How do we get over that fear?
I know that reading other blogs has always helped spark ideas. Today (and yesterday) on this blog is no different. It’s helping me to blog by accessing my own personal learning network (PLN) through RSS feeds and Twitter. Now, if I could just come up with a few of my own ideas…
(Image “Blogging for Dummies” by Somewhat Frank.)
How We Teach Technology
I often read David Warlick’s 2¢ Worth blog in between planning, scheduling, and going on classroom visits. The other day, Warlick posted on the topic of methods for learning technology versus approaches. Teaching students the method of using technology is like giving them the steps in which to complete a task. On the other hand, students use technology every day by employing an approach that encourages them to test things out, explore, use some basic patterns found in other types of software, etc.
Warlick contends (or the guy he cites, Garr Reynolds) that by teaching systematic processes to our students, we limit their creativity and motivation for using technology. I couldn’t agree more. This is why I often avoid step-by-step instructions when introducing new software. I have found that most of the teachers I work with learn the software better when they work through it. If I can facilitate that learning through experience, then my teachers are more likely to make their own connections with the software.
This all goes along with eMINTS’ promotion of inquiry-based teaching methods. Your students are naturally inquisitive enough to figure out their own ways to make the technology work for them. We just have to facilitate that learning by providing experiences that encourage exploration.
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Since I’m into citing other people’s work today, another daily read for me is Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed. Richardson ,like many in the ed-tech world, loves the work of Clay Shirky, an expert in the networks of Web 2.0. Anyway, Richardson quoted Shirky for his “quote of the day”…
I’m just so impatient with the argument that the world should be slowed down to help people who aren’t smart enough to understand what’s going on. It’s in part because I grew up in a generation that benefited enormously from not doing that. Right? The baby boomers, when we were young, we had zero, zero patience for the idea that people who are in their fifties in the ’70s and ’80s should somehow be shielded from cultural changes because somehow the stuff that we were doing was upsetting them. So, now it’s our turn and we ought to just suck it up.
Teachers who have signed on for eMINTS training are not sitting back while the rest of the world moves ahead. You have chosen to update your skill set and to prepare students with 21st century skills. Good for you for making such a commitment to your students.
Teaching Obama
Whoa, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here. It’s been hard to come up with stuff that both my year one and two folks can use. Luckily, history was made this week with the election of our first African-American president, Barack Hussein Obama. I have a few resources you all should check out.
NPR has a report titled “How to Teach this Election” that should be available later today. Personally, I subscribe to the NPR stories regarding education to my Google Reader. Year two people should remember our discussion concerning RSS and readers. If any year one folks are interested, I can help you set something up.
Want to see the front pages of newspapers from all around the world? The Newseum is a journalism museum that features the front pages of many newspapers form around the globe. They have a page specifically for this past Wednesday reporting Obama’s win.
For those of you who study political cartoons, cartoonist Daryl Cagle posts his cartoons daily. There are several interesting ones posted after the election. I think the one featuring the Lincoln monument could be particularly interesting to address in class.
Illustrator Patrick Moberg has created a rather poignant image of all the presidents (pictured above). Barack Obama’s image is a striking contrast to those who preceded him. This would be another great discussion starter.
The Big Picture provides larger-than-life images that capture the essence of important news stories. The election is no different. The photos of Mr. Obama are remarkable and fully illustrate the enormity of his victory.
There are even a few great resources for the numerically-inclined educators. For an interactive map of all the national election results, check out the New York Times map.The map makes it possible to see voting results from the national level down to individual counties.
If it’s polls you’re into, the folks at FiveThirtyeight.com explain how the probability fits with determining the election winner. A word of warning regarding FiveThirtyEight: They are rather biased toward Obama, but in the election aftermath, this might not be as big of a deal. You could also ask your students to search out the site’s bias.
Are there any other resources out there that you have used to teach the election?
Classroom Management & Online Projects
Wow! That was a long day we all spent together! I hope everyone was able to glean something from all the content we covered and discussions had over the seven hours or so of training. I also hope you are not already burnt out.
I wanted to revisit a few of the key points and some great resources to get you on your way…
Classroom Management: I know that many of you are masters at managing your classrooms and some of you are always looking for new ways to facilitate learning. With the new year approaching, you have different considerations for classroom management than you did just a year ago.
Really think carefully about your classroom norms. It’s alright to have a few in mind. It’s even OK to include a couple that are extremely important to you, but make sure to include student input on those norms. They will feel more ownership in how the classroom runs this year than if a list of rules are dicatated to them. Also, be sure to word your norms as what students should do instead of what not to do. For example, instead of the rule “no talking,” try the norm “listen to others when they speak.” The goal is to get students to pay attention to each other or the teacher. A norm should give the desired behavior.
To get your year off to a great start, you should focus your efforts on management and behavior almost exclusively. The best way to ensure that these norms can be maintained throughout the year is by building a positive classroom community. Check my links for community building activities here. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use some of these resources to plan out your first days of school. For secondary teachers, you could do the same activity with every class. Elementary teachers may want to do one in the morning and one in the afternoon in order to break the monotony of the day. Either way, have a little fun with it and get to know your students. Building relationships with them now will pay off in the long run!
For the rest of my links related to classroom management, click here.
Online Projects: The key to a good online project is to think about the ways in which you can make it transform student learning through an authentic task. Start out small, like an email project or a class blog, then think of ways you can transform some of your old lessons into a real world project that incorporates some form of online tools or networking.
If you wanted to access many of the resources from our training session, go here.
Some tools to consider for online projects are listed below:
EduBlogs - This is a safe, user-friendly tool for blogging. You may remember that we had trouble with this tool last winter, but it seems to be working much better these days. I still use it, in case you couldn’t tell.
Gaggle - Gaggle offers blogging and email options that can make online projects interactive and transcend borders.
E-Pals - Some people mentioned E-Pals as a great resource for pen pal projects.
Youth Twitter - This is the kid-safe version of the micro-blogging pioneer.
Play a Little this Summer
I just read this interesting piece of insight on David Warlick’s blog about learning to run software. It’s basically about a veteran teacher who asked her son to teach her how to use some software. When she pulled out a notepad and pencil to take notes, he told her to put it away. What the teacher soon found out was that the best way to learn software is to “play” with it and figure out how to run the software, not to simply follow steps.
The best way to learn to use difficult software is to spend time playing with it. Of course, I’m not talking about only using the software at our training sessions. You have to open up that software on a regular basis to really know how to run it.
I thought about my own knowledge of software. Most of what I know was from “messing around” with the software. Take my ability to use Publisher as an example. I used to make mix tapes all the time in college and in the years following. I went so far as to design special cassette packaging using the program. This allowed me to figure out how to use templates, play around with text styles, take images from the Internet, etc. This doesn’t mention how I’ve learned most of the software I now train you all to use. I have mostly been self-taught, and that may be the best way to learn.
So, this summer, while you sit on your porch enjoying a cool glass of iced tea, open up that laptop and play around a little. I know that Dreamweaver and Fireworks have caused a lot of headaches for many of you. These would be great programs with which to play. You could design a website for your family or design a logo for your church choir on Fireworks. Have a little fun with it and in the meantime, you might learn to use this software more effectively.
**As a side-note…In order to keep your lap cool while using your computer, try filling a hot water bottle with cold water. It gives an adjustable pad on which your laptop to rest and keeps your legs from heating up. (courtesy of Life Hacker)
Top Ten Things to Consider When Writing a WebQuest
As you all begin the process of writing your WebQuests, I thought I would impart some knowledge and helpful tips to keep in mind.
10. Be creative. We really have to think outside of the box when writing WebQuests. David Warlick recently posted on his blog, 2¢ Worth, that the creativity we need to encourage in our students “will not come from lessons about creativity, but from a different kind of lesson that makes room for, invites, and values creativity.” Think outside the box and find ways to help your students do the same.
9. Think: What do adults do with this information? Think of your WebQuest as an opportunity for the students to practice applying what they learn in school to the real world. Thinking this way can also help you understand why the topics you teach are so important for preparing students for their adult lives.
8. Web 2.0 is your WebQuest’s friend. Not only can you provide resources from which your students can gather information, but you can also utilize all the great tools online for their WebQuest work. Wikis, like those at Edublogs or PBWiki, can be useful for group plans, note-taking, and even final products. Additionally, there are always things like blogs (Edublogs, Blogger, etc.), Moodle, various media hosting sites (TeacherTube, Switchpod), online productivity tools (Google Docs), and even social networks ( Youth Twitter, Edmodo).
7. WebQuests are best accomplished in groups. Here is your chance to put together a cooperative learning activity that is positively interdependent, able to hold each individual accountable, provides equal participation, and gets all the group members simultaneously active. However, WebQuests could also be valuable as tools for distance learning or independent studies.
6. Hook your students’ interest with great role-play. This doesn’t only mean you have to come up with great scenarios and characters for the students to carry out. You can also incorporate some “fake” email addresses for the students to contact clients, mysterious informants, or any character needed to make the project feel real.
5. Provide scaffolding for the learning whenever you see fit. It’s OK to link graphic organizers to the WebQuest that help students organize their learning. This could be a good opportunity to use software like SMART Ides or Inspiration. Just remember that this sort of work is to help the process, not to give you something to grade. You could also add a section for “learning advice” that could suggest techniques for organizing or how to aggregate the information.
4. Include brief descriptions of each of your resources with the links. This will allow students to know exactly what sites they should be researching. It’s sort of a preview of the site that prepares them for the other side of the hyperlink.
3. Be clear. Whether it’s the task, process, or expectations, you will want to be crystal clear for your students to be as successful as possible.
2. Consider including a teacher page in your WebQuest. A teacher page can provide others who want to use your WebQuest with contact information or tips for implementation. It may also be a good place for you to keep notes for the next time you use the WebQuest.
1. A WebQuest is a work-in-progress. Just because you assign a WebQuest to your class and they complete the task doesn’t mean that you are done with it. A WebQuest can be revised over and over in order to keep the links updated, the task fresh, and the strategies effective. If something doesn’t go smoothly, change it before you use it again. If you see a way that it could be altered to give students different perspectives, make the revisions. It’s your creation for you to mold into the perfect learning experience.
A WebQuest is a great way to provide real, student-led inquiry in your classroom. The best part is that it is also something that you can create to fit your students’ unique needs and gifts.
Earth Day Suggestions
Earth Day is approaching and I figured many of you would like some suggestions of how to utilize your new machines for this very timely event.
Carbonrally offers its users an opportunity to challenge each other in carbon-reduction behavior. Challenge the classroom down the hall to recycle paper or turn the lights off when not in the classroom and measure the effect on the environment. Middle school and high school students could probably run their own challenges, while the site is better used between entire elementary classes or families.
EarthLab, according to their website, “is a leading climate crisis community that provides a practical guide to green living through community interaction, exclusive environmental news, advice from experts and key analysis.” What does EarthLab have to offer? Where do I begin? They have the carbon calculator, a survey that determines an
Tox Town allows students to look at various human environments and the environmental factors that affect them. It is geared toward middle and high school students, but the interface is inviting to upper elementary.
EcoKids contains many interactive games with environmental content. However, beware of the trap to just set students free on the games. What are you goals for using games? What content do you want the students to gain from using class time playing games? This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use games to teach the content; it just means be careful and purposeful. Your friendly, neighborhood EPA also has a site with environmental games at EPA Environmental Kids Club.
I hope these resources will give you some ideas for Earth Day. It’s important to address these issues throughout the school year, but Earth Day provides a great opportunity to peak student interest.
[Picture of Earth source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Earth-Erde.jpg]
Assess this!
With the mad rush to cram all kinds of information into our students’ heads before MAP testing, I thought it might be important to think of some other, less threatening ways to assess our students’ learning.
Emmet Rosenfeld wrote a blog post on formative assessment. Like its summative step-brother, it can tell a teacher where a student is in his/her development. However, formative assessment can do so much more and can be a vital part of a student-centered classroom.
Rosenfeld identifies some key characteristics of formative assessment that make its value quite clear…
1. It’s ongoing. Kids don’t always know it’s happening; and teachers aren’t always trying to distill it to a number.
2. It’s dialogic. Evaluation is characterized by dialogue; standards are often negotiated, rather than handed down. The discussion about value is as important as the assigning of value; and even that is a task frequently done by self- and peer-assessment.
3. There is a feedback loop. The teacher often assumes a coaching role. Low-risk practice leads to perfect.
4. It’s metacognitive. Self-reflection is cultivated so that a learner can understand how he learned, not just what was learned. Every student becomes their own teacher.
For more on formative assessment, read Rosenfeld’s blog, Eduholic.
