TIE 2009 – Design with Forever in Mind – Ben Wilkoff June 23, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, Tools.add a comment
Authenticity done for a real purpose and a real audience. How do we capture learning?
Backchannel is set up using a hash tag in twitter. #forevertie09, viewable as an RSS feed from http://tieconference.wikispaces.com/1117
How do you created learning that lasts forever? Based in experience, grows with the learner, has an impact that is external, creates more questions.
Forever does not mean storage, nor password protecting the information, nor the work remains unchanged, nor that everything is preserved.
Forever does mean that done does not exist (foreverism), that everyone should teach (mathcasts), and exit strategies are not optional (jot and the web 2.0 graveyard). So how do you do this?
Capture student voices:
- vocaroo – http://www.vocaroo.com voice recording
- drop.io – http://drop.io/ file sharing, drop box, and also voice mail
- screencastle – http://screencastle.com screencasting
Aggregation:
- educhat – open discussion using twitter tags http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/
- Google Docs collaborative documents, presentations
Reflection:
What learning will I capture? Aggregating hash tags in twitter – great way to collect discussions from people both present and virtual. How does this captured learning let everyone teach? Every participant in the back channel can be the teacher, can participate, can ask the important question. How will someone build on this learning? If the backchannel is posted as part of the learning, it can serve as a reminder of jumping off points for the next discussion, the next learning or presentation. What is my exit strategy? I’m blogging my notes about this session.
Linked here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rm5-Ie8Hss7MgxElepGuAyw
Distractions:
- The conference network is not behaving. It’s down, it’s up!
- Ben’s battery, is it charging or not? Will his laptop turn itself off in the middle of his presentation?
Other tools discussed:
- Tweetgrid.com – set up searching for hash tags in Twitter, near real-time RSS feed.
- Bubbl.us – mind-mapping or brainstorming
TIE 2009 Keynote – Dr. Tim Tyson June 23, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, Opinion.add a comment
Starts off with survey questions collected using eInstruction Classroom Performance Systems. With about 600 people in the room, most ‘votes’ are not registering. eInstruction presenter mentioned a previous virus on her computer and interference from the wireless network as excuses. We are using radio frequency models.
Theme: Gifts
Discrepancy between our belief in the impact the work our students do in schools to change the world and our belief that students actually do change the world. Cell phones are mostly banned in schools, but that will change. Cited diabetes testing on the iPhone. Screencast (screenflow) of the presentation will be available. Also using an xTag wireless USB microphone. If you text “TimTyson” to 50500 it will respond with his business card. As a principal, every public meeting he had he created a podcast and posted it. Also Ustreaming at ustream.tv/channel/iupgrade-tv. Can he get any more wired than this? Yes, by texting questions to 99503 using PollEverywhere. Start poll with 29710 and then the question. Free for fewer than 30 students at a time, or for NCLB failing schools for free. Also using iPhone to control computer. drtimtyson.com/clients/TIE-09 user id and password are the same as the end of the URL.
Tim thinks differently. Recalls something from The Phantom Tollbooth. “Well, it all depends on how you look at it I suppose…” and continues on with the story of the family whose members are born with their head in the air and they grow down to the ground. We all know what school looks like. We’ve been there. Tim is going to challenge that presumption today. Maybe no one knows what school looks like with all the tools that are available to us today. “Everything is about perspective”. The challenge is to step outside out professional practice to view that practice anew.
Tim is telling us about his family, starting with a picture of himself sitting on the lap of his great-grandmother who was born just after the Civil War. Things have changes a lot. Industry has expanded. Parking has shrunk. Fewer workers controlling larger amounts of infrastructure. Every business on Main Street was closed. Pritchart (sp) Alabama has changed in 25 years from a great place to raise a family to the worst place to live in the state. This transformation is happening everyhwere. One third of our workforce (US) works as independent contractors. Do rules, rituals, routines, and right answers prepare our students for their future?
The impact of everything we do in schools will long outlive us. Long quote from John Dewey about what learning is and is not. The big question: who owns the learning? Who is doing all the work? Our students increasingly do not believe that school prepares them for ‘real life’. We have to figure out what school needs to look like.
School 2.0
- authentically engaged learners
- Self-directed learning
- prject-driven instructino
- empoered by technology innovation
- collaborative learning community
- relevant
- contribution
Let’s define what best practices look like. “Value the instructional capacity within our students”.
First priority for students on summer vacation? Sleep. Tells story of Conrad, student who called on first day of summer vacation who wanted to come in and work on his school project. He already got an ‘A’ on the project, but he wanted everyone in the world to see his project. We should say is, and fulfill throughout the year, that the best of the best work will be considered for global distribution. MabryOnline.org and on iTunes, distributes over a million files a month.
what would you do differently in your classroom if your students really wanted to learn? to create? to connect with people to share something important? Students want to learn, especially with their tools. The classroom no longer has walls, it is now the Earth, the whole world.
Grading kills learning. Replace with authentic assessment. What is authentic assessment? Conrad working on his project all day, every day, until it was ready for global distribution. Milking the cow doesn’t earn a sticker, it feeds the family. Survival required it. How old do you have to be before your life is meaningful? Age doesn’t matter, it can start right now. What do you as a (fill in the blank) have to say that is so important that everyone needs to hear it? What do they (students) come up with? Create a movie on embryonic stem cell research. Students arranged a 2 hour interview with a leading researcher in the field. Video won at a film festival. Does any of this have anything to do with the test?
In their words: Easier to learn from an expert in the field. Our reserach wasn’t random. Our motivation was to teach the world something important. We wanted more people to sign up to be organ donors. We wanted people to be better informed about purchasing chocolate (child and slave labor).
It’s not about the technology and connectivity, but that is where we focus our PD. Effective education collapses the distance between the classroom and the world around them. Students want to make a contribution to their world today.
Finished with a movie about disabilty. Are we experiencing the most exciting time to be an educator? Is this a once in a lifetime opportunity? How will we define the uses of these tools in education? “This is your destiny”.
Reflection: Great points. I’m pretty sure that ’school’ as we know it, will not provide the answer to these questions. For the most part, it can’t in this era of standardized tests. It can’t in this era of state curriculums. It can’t until we understand that the students are really the ones who are in charge of their learning.
Tech Boot Camp June 5, 2009 – Blogging June 5, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.13 comments
This is another Tech Boot Camp session on Blogging. Please copy and paste the address for your blog as a comment to this post.
Tech Boot Camp June 4, 2009 – Blogging June 4, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.23 comments
This is a spot for people to comment and leave a link to their blogs so everyone can find them all.
Google Externship March 20, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Tools.add a comment
If you ever get the opportunity to participate in a Google Externship (field trip for teachers) do yourself a favor and do it! These are bright people who spend a lot of time thinking about how the Internet should work, and how they can support teachers and learning. Below are my notes from my visit to the Google building in Boulder, Colorado, yesterday.
Google Teacher Externship
Google Boulder
3-19-09
Google Earth
Navigation skills are important. N resets compass orientation. Google Earth Outreach can assist with creating your own layers. A Gray building has all of the building data (Sketchup model) included. The ruler tool lets you choose points to measure distances. Google Earth Pro is free for educators and students. You can customize your own content. Add points, paths, polygons, etc. The language for your own content is kml. Export allows for kml and kmz files. You can also add image overlays with your own images. Here is a link for a tutorial for KML from Google:
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html
Google Sketchup
Click-release-click to draw. Called the rubber band effect. Look for the colors to identify the axis. Typing in a length allows you to draw with accuracy. Escape is your friend to stop. It took just a few minutes to get used to how the tools worked, so if it doesn’t seem obvious at first, give it a little time.
Advanced Search
Three basic parts to a search results page. Top ads along the top, right side ads on the right, and the search result for the main portion of the page. There is a lot of AI used by Google crawlers when they search through the Internet. Context is part of the consideration. Suggested searches appear when you type in your search query. Start with a simple search. If it isn’t right, modify it. Double-check the results. [ define:philtrum ] How about searching for information on something that is visual media? From the results, try defining the word to verify. Use the snippets (search result descriptions) to get more terms to use to refine the search. What about synonyms? How much context do I need in my search? Is there another phrase for the context that could be tried? For specific types of results, include the term in the search, like wikipedia, image, video, forum, overview, tutorial, FAQ, etc. Include the ~ to include a word and its sysnonyms. Check out a book through my own library using Google? Books.google.com, search for a book, select a result, select “Find this book in a library” and check it out.
Google Maps
Started with directions. There is a link for public transportation or walking if available. The ’show options’ link allows you to set an arrival or departure time. You can also create your own walking tour to see distances. A ‘one box’ search provides a specific response, for example, a flight number provides information about that specific flight.
An Open Source Conversation February 21, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions, opencolearning.add a comment
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Roundtable+Conversations
Why (or why not) are you using open source solutions?
- District processes are complicated or hidden.
- If I want to know how to do something, what do I do? Train teachers how to search Google for self-directed PD.
- Start teachers with the basics, like calendar, quizes.
- Posting materials first to Moodle has reduced paper/duplication costs.
- Increased parent participation.
- Open source relies on a community of practitioners.
- Maybe tighter budgets make open-source more viable.
- Gallery for a flickr alternative.
- http://opensourceschools.org.uk/
- Format and organization are important, especially when providing services at a building level. Consistency at the teacher level helps the learner.
- Agreed upon tag for presentations is #opencolearning when used in delicious, slideshare.
- Geogebra, a java-based geometry sketch pad that includes a filter for Moodle.
- http://moodle.legendtitans.org/ instance of moodle
- http://learningischange.com/now/ instance of Wordpress multiuser
- Be careful about the tools we pick on Tuesday, because we’ll need them to be available beyond that. Google notebook is a good example.
- you need to be able to get the data back out of a system, interoperability.
Student Panel February 21, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.add a comment
The following quotes are paraphrased from a panel of high school students responding to questions posed by attending teachers and administrators:
- It isn’t about the teaching style as it is about being effective with your style.
- You need to be in charge of your own learning and not just regurgitate what the teacher tells you.
- You can’t avoid using the Internet.
- Students use iPods and cell phones. It would be great if teachers were creative enough to embrace those. Exmaple of students texting answers to a question, projected up on the board for classroom discussions.
- People learn in different ways.
- Technology is a necessary part of work and school.
- Be more flexible and embrace new technology.
- Strike a balance between the new and the traditional. There is a place for both.
- Your students might be in a job that doesn’t exist until tomorrow.
- Constructivist learning goes hand-in-hand with technology.
- Technology Rocks!
Embracing Failure February 21, 2009
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.add a comment
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/Embracing+Failure
What are the consequences of only focusing on the one right answer? What if that isn’t enough? What happens when you come to a roadblock, something new?
Moving from ‘writing a paper’ to ‘provide evidence of learning’, students wanted to stick with what is safe and chose to write the paper. Take the ‘paper’ option away. The students wanted to be right more than be interested or interesting.
10 minute conversation about “What are the ways in which critical thinking are supported in your educational spaces?”
Suggestion, when running a ‘fish-bowl’ or back-story, project it for everyone to see as the class continues.
5 minute conversation around getting passed standardized testing fervor. Establish a relationship to build trust, present clear critiera, de-emphasis of the answer and focus on the thinking. Reminds me of Wii-fit center of balance. What’s your answer and how did you get that answer?
Games include high degrees of failure with low cost to the individual. Encourages risk-taking.
