The point of blogging...

Recently Chris Lehmann tweeted about some graduated students contacting him about and I have found a few requests in my email box recently as well. While it is flattering to be considered "interesting" and people who know me know that these are the types of things that keep me up at night...this is a REALLY busy time of year. Many of us have spent the summer learning, connecting, applying and now we want to serve up a 7 course meal of great "stuff" to our teachers and are busy planning. Everyone knows we WANT to share the message of 21st Century in schools (me for my own selfish reasons--my own digital kids) but the last thing I need on my plate when ramping up for a new school year is to have to do a graduate assignment that isn't my own.

I have to say first, that I LOVE the concept of this assignment....send preservices students out to look at how the skills are being utilized, reflect on what they read, make connections and then create something to show what they have learned...What do we want kids to do when they read? We want them to make
connections, reflect, interpret, and then write their thoughts...HMMM
isn't that the point of blogging. Read, reflect, question, analyze, create....One of the best thing that I have discovered this summer (although it didn't do well by me this evening) is scribefire. Scribefire is a firefox add on that allows me to jot notes as I am reading my feeds...creating posts as I go...the only problem is you MUST save as notes as you go in case of a firefox crash. I read a post, comment read another post, make a connection...open scribefire, save as note...eventually I have created my own post, my own meaning from what I have read.

In having the student email the blogger, they are still asking these students to use 20th century ways to get their questions out. I guess my concern is that by having them read and then email the blogger they are losing the concept of collaboration (a 21st C Skill). When a bunch of students email questions that were probably addressed already in the blog, it not only creates a lot of work for the blogger, it also limits the conversation to those 2 people...ANYWAY, I came up with a creative solution of a google doc where I posted all of the questions and answers. If your paper is due Friday too, feel free to email me and ask to be added as a viewer :)

If you are a professor, and you want your students thinking about 21st century learning, rather than asking your students to email a blogger have them comment on what they have read...set up RSS to subscribe to their username if you want to see where they are leaving their mark. Create a google doc for your notes or have your students skypecast your next lecture. Have them create their own learning networks via Ning or tappedin If you want to contact an edublogger (or 2 or 3) ask them to come into your class via their elluminate VRoom or request that they set up a flashmeeting. MODEL the skills that these teachers will need to be using to engage their students when they have classrooms of their own.

AND if you are a preservice teacher and you have this assignment I encourage you to comment on some of the blogs you are reading...start the conversation there. Create your OWN blog, reflect online, talk to others, become an advocate for your students and how they learn.
Pay attention



Cause when they grow up....



I may be ruffling feathers this evening...Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: blog, 21st century

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TV 2.0

Way back in June, Edutopia had a great article (which has been sitting in my draft folder to write about) about the implications of the YouTube era.

"It’s a chaotic time for television, now that Internet video has arrived. Moving swiftly up the media food chain -- from text to images to audio and now video -- broadband distribution has made TV on your PC a reality."

When introducing teachers to resources to use with LCD projectors in creating a multimedia classroom, I created a wiki to point to a variety of digital video sources including the Future Channel, a place where teachers can connect learning to real world applications of math and science using problem solving approaches. This summer, while on a trip to Hershey, to get the baby to sleep, I took my 2 older children and sat them on the floor outside the room...My son's idea..."Mom, can we bring your computer so we can watch those magic school bus movies?" We use unitedstreaming all of the time at my house for learn. Watching something online is a very common event for them. Resources like teachertube allow educators and their students to post content they have created. Splashcast and now schooltube enable entire "tv channels" to create and play this content.

Learning, creating in bits and bytes...engaging, yes...knowledge building, can't help but wonder, what is going to happen to commercial content...and might some folks be tempted to take it so far to the extreme that we lose some kids in the digital void like in Chris Van Allsburg's The Wretched Stone.
I battle this with my own kids...always to turn to TV2.0 vs other ways to find information. I am asking as a parent and an educator, how do you strike a balance?

Technorati Tags: multimedia, web2.0, education,

Learning to learn and Loving learning

Through my twitter feed and blogroll, I realize that many teachers are struggling with the challenge of creating Web2.o experiences and 21st Century Skills to their students...adminstrative challenges such as who's accountable when Web2.0 tools are allowed to be accessed in schools. What will the future of work hold for our kids? Are we preparing them?

"Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself."

I can't define exactly the moment that I realized that I was a lifelong learner...or that I valued the process of learning...but I can tell you that I have learned more this summer through my social network than I have in many years of school....you can bet that our students are learning an awful lot through their social networks these days....

A possibility of continuing progress is opened up by the fact that in learning one act, methods are developed good for use in other situations. Still more important is the fact that the human being acquires a habit of learning. He learns to learn.

Mind you this was not written in the year 2007, these ideas have been around a LONG TIME....From Democracy and Education (1916)...via wikiquote mind you :)

Chris Lehman has been struggling with the difference between change and Innovation, and John Pederson wrote recently about the ACT of change vs the decision TO change... Reading all these things, talking about these ideas via twitter, blog comments, skype has really created a lot of "stuff" in my head...
So this post for me serves many purposes...
1. to remind me..remind us ALL, that these IDEAS are not new...but the tools we have to implement them are and we are going to need to do a lot of supporting of kids and teachers to use these tools in ways that support 21st Century Skills.
2. to get start thinking, and DISCUSSING what is needed to move forward, push the envelope, innovate...or make changes
3. finally to recognize the folks in my blogroll and twitterfeed that have reminded me how exciting it is to be a lifelong learner...Thanks to my local, virtual, and global "colleagues". This summer has been inspiring for me--I can't wait to share all I have learned with the kids, teachers, and administrators with whom I will work this year.
HAPPY NORTHERN HEMISPHERE NEW YEAR :)

Technorati Tags: teaching, education, learning, wiki, pedagogy, bestpractices, change, innovation

Can YouTube get ANY BETTER?

I know there are many arguments against using YouTube in schools, but I came across this nifty little feature and wonder why....



YouTube has given the ability to create an embeddable player from any playlist of folder from YouTube...The above are all the videos that I have added as my favorite Ed Tech Videos. Now I DO wish that they would take away the fact that you can still link out to the YouTube site, but what a great way for teachers to provide resources to their students OR to publish student work and then create a player to embed in their blog, wiki, moodle. I added the same player to my own wiki sharing my YouTube playlist in my blog, my wiki....Hmmmm the possibilities....

Technorati Tags: youtube

When technology....attacks?

I have to admit, I was intrigued when this first hit my twitter thread via John Pederson.
When Technology Attacks. Seriously. "Schools are fighting a war..." and "...be ready to do battle" http://tinyurl.com/2qrb4x Couldn't wait to get off the beach to see what the link held for me....

It was a link to the cover article of the most recent Scholastic Administrator Magazine...
As I was reading I didn't know whether to be shocked, distressed or annoyed...

Schools across the country are waging a war against technology tools gone bad. Read how some districts defend their classrooms against the new school thuggery—from iPod cheats to cell phone punks and sneaky Web surfers.

To start an article like this...SIGH....

Drugs can be used illegally, but they are also a cure for many diseases...A hammer could be used to kill someone, but it can also be used to build shelter...Knives can be used to kill as well, but my even my 5 year old has been taught to use it to cut her food.... and as I pointed out in an earlier post....PENCILS can be dangerous perhaps we should ban THEM from the classrooms.

I have seen Will Richardson present on MANY occasions and have read his book and he is right...this is NOT an easy issue. Teachers are clamoring to use collaborative technology in the classroom and administrators are facing pressures from parents and school boards to implement policies to curb its use. But even the National School Board Association is encouraging schools to re-examine their social networking policies. I understand that the hook, the shock value is what gets folks to read, but to I am disappointed that Scholastic chose only to demonstrate the way schools have been battling "issues" and not focus on ways they have demonstrated successes.

Please, read the article, read John's response to the article, and start the conversations in your own school districts....Make this a successful tech school year in your district and then...let scholastic adminstrator know about it.

Reexamining Social Networking in Schools....?

Recently David Warlick pointed to an article in which the National School Board Association is encouraging schools to re-examine their social networking policies and the conversation surrounding this has been interesting around the blog-o-sphere. If you haven't read the NSBA's Creating and Connecting Report, I encourage you to do so...Will Richardson looked at some of the statistics and the fact that many districts have their own structured online professional communities.

As I was thinking about the implications of the NSBA article, I came across an interesting article in CNN Money about a report done by Microsoft, MTV and Nickelodeon and while I can't find the report itself, Microsoft's press release was posted globally from AllAfrica.com to IndiaInfoline, and the findings as stated in THIS report were intriguing:

  The report found:
   -- Technology has enabled young people to have more and closer
      friendships thanks to constant connectivity.
   -- Friends influence each other as much as marketers do.  Friends are as
      important as brands.
   -- Kids and young people don't love the technology itself -- they just
      love how it enables them to communicate all the time, express
      themselves and be entertained.
   -- Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and
      mobile/sms are complementary to, not competitive with, TV.  TV is part
      of young peoples' digital conversation.
   -- Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and
      youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young
      people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face
      interaction.
   -- Globally, the number of friends that young males have more than
      doubles between the ages of 13-14 and 14-17 -- it jumps from 24 to 69.
   -- The age group and gender that claims the largest number of friends are
      not girls aged 14-17, but boys aged 18-21, who have on average 70
      friends.

The article goes on to examine each of these trends...with a bit of a marketing twist...
I give this as an example "And for IM, the top topics for 14-24s were: gossiping (62%), making arrangements (57%), talking about the opposite sex (57%) and flirting (55%), work or school (54%) and TV and music (52%). "Given the amount of time young people are spending on instant messenger every day presents a very powerful opportunity for brands to connect with the youth audience. When on IM, teenagers are at their most engaged and interactive," said Vogt. [Caroline Vogt, Head of International Research, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.]

For as much press as the NSBA article is getting, I was surprised that this is not getting as much "airtime" Hmmm, the advertising industry is saying connect to kids, the NSBA is saying connect to kids, yes...change is tough and scary, but isn't it time we start to examine how we are connecting to kids in schools? Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: social, education, learning, teaching, schools, nsba

Connectivity...in the eyes of a 7 year old...

I am on a much needed vacation...at the Jersey Shore. The house in which we are staying does not have internet access...but there is a coffee shoppe down the street that has free wifi. I usually go there in the am to catch up on my feeds before everyone gets up. When we are lucky and the weather is just right, we are able to connect to their access...hey I go there for coffee every am any way ;-)

This morning my son was up early. He is 7 and had used his spending money yesterday to buy his 2nd webkinz. The following is the conversation we had at 6:30 am....Mind you I was up at 4:30 to finish my research...but alas, not internet access at the house...

"Mommy...I need to get on your computer...

Me too, Austin, I have work to do.

But I have to garden....Why can't you do your work on your computer and I can do my webkinz on the black one?

Because there is no internet here at the house today.

But we could play yesterday....

I know, but today we can't get internet access...you need to be able to connect to the internet to play webkinz.

So why can't you just plug it in...

Well, it is a different kind of plug you need. You know at home we have the blinky box that tells us we are connected to the internet. That box is a router, it connects your computer to the internet so you can play your games and mommy can do her work. We don't have one here at this house.

Oh....
At this point, he goes and unplugs my cell phone....

What are you doing Austin?

Calling Daddy to tell him to bring down our box.....
PRICELESS...His perception, if we have all of the tools, we can connect...to meet his objectives...hmmmmm what is this saying to us as educators?

Austin & I headed to the coffee shop when it opened at 7. He harvested his garden, set up his rooms, cared for his pets and played games while I did my research. What struck me about the whole experience was the expectation he had...that his tools would always be available...and how he was going to problem solve to be able to do what he needed to do. And watching him play--battleship...and dice kinz, the strategy he used to win the game (and he very rarely lost using his strategy) How he methodically planned his time and money to get what he needed. Reading the kinznews....did I know that if we got back to the coffee shop before it closed at 10 (pm mind you) we could get our coupon for the day..and he is 7...and in September....

I have had an interesting conversation this week with Jeff Utecht which started with a post he wrote about putting it in perspective....why do we keep barking up the same old trees...
Because there are MANY Austin's in our classes...and we want to provide them with the same rich learning experiences in schools to meet OUR objectives.

8 Random Facts

SIGH....

I have been tagged...

TWICE by Ken Pruitt, AND Chris Champion...And although 1 of my facts is I have NEVER completed a chain letter or about me email, I thought since I am on vacation and not participating in the 31 day blog challenge, I would take them up on this meme and complete...

Anyway, here are the rules:

• Post these rules before you give your facts
• List 8 random facts about yourself
• At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
• Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

My Facts:

1. I have visited 47 out of the 50 states...Alaska, Mississippi, and Louisiana the only ones I am missing
2. I ran the Philadelphia half marathon...short of giving birth (3 times), one of my most rewarding (and challenging) accomplishment.
3. I used to drive a red convertible...sigh now a cranberry minivan.
4. I had my tonsils out as an adult...
5. I secretly love dance, dance revolution...although I am not much of a dancer it is GREAT exercise.
6. I love kid's movies ...just about as much as my kid's do
7. For years I spent my summers directing pools and summer camps.
8. Every once in a while I DO crash...although no one seems to believe this

Am tagging 8 folks I think will....a) read my blog and respond, b) won't mind being tagged (or read as a result:) or are likely to find out that I tagged them via technorati:)
Don't let me down power 8....
Diane
Scott
Jim B
Ken
Mrs. Durff
KKoz
Howard
Danielle

Candidates debate the Issues on YouTube

Thanks to Ken Pruitt for getting this discussion started . . Like Jen Dorman, I'd like to see some more chatter about the CNN/YouTube debates last week. I have to admit it is a challenge for me to sit for more than 5 minutes at a time...(those of you who know me well will attest to THAT) so having the opportunity to look at individual issues, when I have time to absorb...priceless.

On the topic of NCLB

Gov. Bill Richardson had a VERY strong reaction to the video and strong feelings about what needs to be done in education...
Scrap NCLB –it doesn’t work
One size fits all doesn’t work
Doesn’t emphasize teacher training, kids with diasabilities or English learning students
Worst thing is that it takes funds away from schools not doing well…need to help those schools…
KEY to strong schools is strong teachers
Need to empasize science and math
Unlock minds in science and math
Federal program of arts


On the topic of Public or Private school


I thought it was great that they took questions FROM YouTube

If you visit the debate site you can see not only clips of the debate...but the HUNDREDS of responses to them. The Republicans will have their turn on September 17.

Ken posed a question:

What legitimacy, if any, does this bring to YouTube as a media outlet?

Ken said..."Like it or not it is time to start paying attention so that we can make an educated decision come Nov 08'.".. Jen D offered her thoughts as well..." the answer is that absolutely this legitimizes YouTube as an accepted form of creative expression. Mainstream media has been lamenting the growing power of the online community (remember the Swift Boat Veterans) for years now. People like Matt Drudge and alternative media bloggers have broken, investigated, and dispersed stories that the mainstream media simply did not want to touch. In doing so they brought an entirely new group of citizens into the ongoing national discussion and empowered them to seek their own answers and make their concerns public. I would wager that a concerned citizen cannot make their thoughts any more public than by getting their video question answered a national presidential debate. " and like the 2 of them, I agree...

What a great learning opportunity for students and what a great way for the candidates to connect to the YouTube Generation. Is YouTube blocked at your school....? This is a great argument for why it shouldn't be.

The reality of Education for first year teachers...

David Warlick had a REALLY controversial post today about a presentation to first year teachers.

He stated that only two of them were bloggers, no one knew about Web 2.0, only a handful knew what a wiki was, and no one had heard of RSS. And he posed the question about whether we were creating a bunch of hype about “Web 2.0″ just to have something to be enthusiastic about.
You need to read the post and the comments--

I thought the best way for me to write about it was by way of "skype cast" conversation between myself and a colleague (who happens to live in FL, but be working in CA at the time of the conversation) Where else but in a Web2.0 world would something like this occur?

Kristin Hokanson 10:06 PM
the reality of it is, even being involved in ed tech in the classroom I have seen a TREMENDOUS shift in the past 2 years. Yes these technologies have been around, but more people are using them today than ever and I think they NEED to be defined....if you ask kids if they have every responded to a blog and hardly any of them will say yes...ask them how many have used myspace...
Zachary Chase 10:07 PM
And they're using them to connect on a much larger, more consistent scale.
Kristin Hokanson 10:07 PM
and they don't understand the ethics of it.... and I agree that it needs to be brought into higher level institutions...colleges NEED to be addressing this
Zachary Chase 10:08 PM
It's the approaching equity of the situation.
Kristin Hokanson 10:08 PM
and quite frankly....5 years ago would 2 people who met randomly EVER be able to have this discussion in 2 time zones in a professional manner
10:09 PM
It almost deserves us posting THIS conversation as a response
Zachary Chase 10:10 PM
I agree.
10:11 PM
My gut reaction is there are more important arguments to be had beyond the semantics of the whole thing.
Kristin Hokanson 10:12 PM
John Pederson made a great point that in the past you would sit and absorb what you can in one inservice and then be left on your own to absorb and apply what you have learned. With the interactive web....you are never alone in applying new skills in the classroom
Zachary Chase 10:12 PM
Saying that you kept a photo gallery online 10 years ago is different than me watching my 8-year-old brother connect the digital camera and upload pics of the family vacation to Flickr It's also got to be noted that many times I'm building on what other people are doing in their classrooms unbeknownst to those teachers.
Kristin Hokanson 10:15 PM
so true--I think David's original point was quite valid--these teachers are coming out of school doing NATURALLY what we older folks (and I won't include you mr born shortly before I graduated HS in that category) had to LEARN to do. Since we learned it to use it, we are using it ethically, professionally and thinking about the implications for the future in our profession
Zachary Chase 10:16 PM
But I'm also not.I'm using tools professionally that I used first personally.
Kristin Hokanson 10:17 PM
Newer teachers do it naturally as part of their world. Exactly my point but I dont think that most people make that connection
Zachary Chase 10:18 PM
I agree From the moment I started using it, I started advocating the use of myspace in schools. It just makes sense. Using cell phones is the same thing.
Kristin Hokanson 10:19 PM
I think we need to do activities that mirror myspace, but there needs to be a separation between personal and professional use
Zachary Chase 10:19 PM
I have two myspace accounts. Mine and Mr. Chase's. The former is private, the latter public. Through the use of the latter, I've been able to communicate with my students from last year and begin signing them up for my 9th grade English course that wasn't on the schedule until two weeks ago. By using the tools in this way, I can model responsible use in a way no one ever did for me. I set up an AIM profile for my kids to communicate with me. When I talk to them there, I use (much to their dismay) Standard English. They notice it and it opens a great conversation. There's nothing covert here, no effort to usurp their ownership of the skills, I'm merely meeting them at their level. Why compete for their attention when I can use the channels that already have their attention?
Kristin Hokanson 10:23 PM
did I open a can of worms?
Zachary Chase 10:25 PM
In Bill Bryson's book A Short History of Nearly Everything, he describes how biology developed as a science and the difficulty in nomenclature. The same process is happening here. Call a swallow a Dutch Swallow or a Netherlands Swallow, it's still the same bird, pity we have to quibble over what we're going to call it while the rest of the world pushes it toward extinction.The other piece that's important, with regard to David's original post, is the knowledge that colleges are teaching new teachers how to teach, not necessarily how to think like teachers. When we talk about thinking literacies and their place in classrooms, we cannot let higher ed escape our gaze.
Kristin Hokanson 10:31 PM
that is true in all cases
10:31 PM
I have friends who did the Columbia writing program with Lucy Calkins. What they are doing is very different from how everyone else is teaching and thinking about writing and yet when we write curriculum rather than using collaborative tools to involve them in the process...they have to wait until the ONE DAY that they can all get together
Zachary Chase 10:33 PM
Can we relinquish the idea that we will wrest education initiatives away from the body politic and instead turn our attention to mandating that the reforms they decide upon are truly what reflect education's needs?
Kristin Hokanson 10:35 PM
only when we relinquish the idea that school is a 189 day 8:30-3:30 job with summers off...

Thought this would accurately reflect both use of tools and conversation….
Interesting thread…. Your thoughts?

Twitter... from kind of pointless to REALLY POWERFUL...

A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!

So I know there is a lot of talk about the value of tools such as twitter for education, and I have to admit, I do question it for classroom use--it has really put a new spin on my summer time professional development. Why take time out from your packed schedule to let folks know what you are doing? Well if I weren't on twitter, I wouldn't have met Zac Chase...and followed the NSDC conference in Denver while I was at the Keystone Summit, I wouldn't have been able to get updates from Building Learning Connections conference through David Jake's Chatcasts...

Let people know you are planning a digital storytelling workshop like Brian Grenier
and you will get all kinds of resources tweeted back. When Jason Hando tweeted about a flash meeting he was participating it, I was invited to try an AWESOME new tool ....Crafty shared a tip about Slidecasting making podcasts with I know right away when new blogs are posted--seamlessly...I don't have to make time to seek this all out.

I think that is the greatest value in a good professional network--I encourage all educators to start growing their networks. There are VALUABLE things to be learned that can help to provide really rich learning opportunities for THEIR students. Who's in your network?

Building School 2.0 vision from the foundation UP...

There seems to be another recurring theme that came out at the summit and that was the idea about a need for a good foundation. One of the attendees said to me on the way to dinner.... "I thought I knew a lot about using technology...but now I feel as if I was really building this phenomenal addition where others were tearing their houses down and creating a new house or vision." And that struck a chord for me...it is not about the computers. They Dewey quote in my last post When thinking about using the tools of technology we need to be careful not to force technology use as an add on to an already packed curriculum, but find a way that they become a foundation for what we are doing. I noticed when we were doing our brick activity that some of the group had already made this shift. They organized their bricks from the bottom up as the bottom terms created the FOUNDATION for the rest of the ideas...and the foundation is most important. Chris Lehman had a great post a while back that looked at some of the things we should be considering as we build the foundation of school 2.0...

• It's really not about the computers. School 2.0 is older than that. School 2.0 is the tradition of Dewey. School 2.0 is born out of the idea that active, engaged, constructivist learning will lead to active, engaged students and people.
• it is a place where our knowledge, our ideas, our communication is no longer bound by the walls of our school or the hours of our school day.
• creating schools that reflect the world we live in today and creating schools that teach adaptability so that we can prepare for the world we will live in tomorrow
• it is is about process as much as it is about product and it is about collaboration
• it means understanding that facts, information, skills, meaning and wisdom are different, and that each one is valuable. But it also means understanding that facts and information used to be the top of the hierarchy where as now, skills, meaning and wisdom need to be. And it means that we as educators have to understand that meaning and wisdom are co-created.

Some really powerful conversations were started at KTI Summit and already I see these conversations returning to districts so that they can begin to tear down the walls of their current systems and begin to build the foundation of this new vision from the foundation up. I know Chris Lehman had many more ideas in his posts, but I'd like to see yours...

"If we teach today's students....

the way we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow." John Dewey.

My small group unanimously felt as if they had the opportunity to not rob the students they teach of their tomorrows because they were able to attend this summit--make connections and feel the support to begin to force change in their districts. The Daggett quote that continues to resonate with me is that we cannot and will not be able to change until there is more pressure for change than resistance to change I wanted to share the project that my group created as their vision. I believe that pressure to change is there....from the teachers and students and slow as it may be coming, it is coming...

Connect, Innovate, Explore, Lead...which comes first?

I REALLY need to get things out of my "draft" and out there so this evening I am live blogging our small group discussion. Last night, each group member was given 4 bricks. Each one had one of the following words on it...Connect, Innovate, Explore, Lead.

Each attendee was asked to think about envisioning a school that would meet the needs of students in 5 years. To build this school would require all of the ideas listed on the bricks. They were asked to "build the school" stack the bricks so to say in order of importance.
Here are the notes I took and some of their visions

1. Not linear...You need to connect to lead so that you can innovate to explore new things

2. Most important thing is to lead the way in order to innovate you need to provide opportunities to explore and connect to sources & each other.

3. Connect most important--once you have connected you can explore--look at new things and become comfortable. Once you are comfortable with things you have explored you can lead other and then once you lead you start to become more innovative.

4. Mine was similar...but I BUILT FROM GROUND UP--need a foundation so most important should be at the bottom--connect to explore--you need to get connected in order to explore
innovate and then you can become a leader

5. I built from the ground up too..first you have to explore--go out of your comfort zone and be open--Once you have exposure you can make connections to curriculum and colleagues
Once you have that in a comfortable place, collaboratively you can become innovative
THEN you can be a leader

6. At first I thought of straightline design--then I realized you start by exploring, connect to others so you can innovate and lead which brings you back to exploring new things or teaching others to explore.

7 . Don't think leading can come first--need to explore new opportunities and then become innovative that will create leaders that can help others connect to students

***We got into a little discussion about connection--are we connecting to resources or people...?

9. Explore first and then become innovative connect with others and then lead the way--BOTTOM UP

9. Fingers between because really don't build on others:
Please note this is more of a prediction vs prioritization
As world more competitive--only thing that can be sold is innovation--as the world doesn't let go--education drives economy have to innovate to sell product--no competing country will be content with being second. Innovation is the greatest commodity--as a result there has ot be exploration--explore new markets Connect--people are aways going to have the desire to connect to one another--reaching out to others and are People have been reaching for leadership and not finding it.

What an interesting conversation..
What an AMAZING group of educators...
and I am leading THEM.... wonder if they realize how much the "staffers" learn from them this week...
Please add your thoughts...if you had these bricks to build with, what would your vision include?

Banning pencils from the classroom...

The theme for this year's PA Keystone Technology Integrator Summit is Banning Pencils from the Classroom... If you haven't read Doug Johnson's Article in Education World it really speaks to what educational technologists have been professing....

When it comes to "technology" use in schools, every responsible educator's first concerns should be student safety and educational suitability. I am suggesting that we ban one of the most potentially harmful technologies of all -- the pencil. We must eliminate them from schools because:

1. A student might use a pencil to poke out the eye of another student.
2. A student might write a dirty word or, worse yet, a threatening note to another student, with a pencil.
3. One student might have a mechanical pencil, making those with wooden ones feel bad.
4. The pencil might get stolen.
5. Pencils break and need repairing all the time.
6. Kids who have pencils might doodle instead of working on their assignments or listening to the teacher.

Sound familiar? We have all heard the same arguments against computer use and the comments on Doug's blog regarding setting up policies for student owned technologies are interesting. Ok so we are not really encouraging teachers to give up pencils and paper....and while we know that banning pencils is unrealistic, the goal this year at the Summit is to expose teachers to real world, relevant technology applications that they can in turn go back to their schools inspired and ready to share with their colleagues -- Will keep you posted as I learn from them and they from me this week.

What's On your Booklist?

I put a request on my Twitter that I knew some administrators seeking change who wanted to start a book club...to take a look at the wagon and get moving. Chris Lehman came right back with his top 2

• Moral Leadership -- Thomas Sergiovanni &
• The School and Society -- John Dewey

I remembered that Ian Jukes had mentioned some during his session at NECC so I went and looked at his site and he offered the following that seemed to deal with school change:

• Results: The key to continuous school Improvement--Mike Schmoker
• Teaching For Tomorrow: Teaching Content & Problem Solving Skills-- Ted McCain
• A Whole New Mind: Moving From the Conceptual Age to the Information Age-Daniel Pink
• Understanding By Design- Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything --Donald Tapscott and Anthony Williams

What else should be added to our list? If we really want to begin a systemic change, what can we read to get everyone on the same page....

What KIDS want to see in schools

The other day Will Richardson wrote about a town in the UK whose solution to HS Reform was to close the high schools and open learning centers instead. This provoked a lively discussion as David Warlick reflected on what would become of his daughter who is seeking to become a history teacher.

I have very strong feelings about this...I didn't go into education because of the summers off. As a matter of fact, the amount of time I spend reflecting on practice, professional personal development, creating workshops....I have very little time off at all. I am in education because I am a lifelong learner. Marcie Hull has a great reaction as well...we need to focus on the kids and not the bottom line. I value the learning PROCESS... not the learning CONTENT. I want my own kids to learn by doing not by my telling them. And so I replied to David's post...

... As an elementary teacher and technology integrator I have had student teachers for as long as I can remember and it infuriates me that they step into my classroom, take one look at the smartboard and say "cool, I have never seen anything like that..." Even in Elementary schools when we are supposed to be differentiating preservice teachers are not taught to use tech tools to collect data, and use data to differentiate. They all use myspace and facebook (and most of them have seen kids use webkinz and club penguin) and don't see the tremendous power these tools can have in engaging the kids they are teaching. If anything they take a technology elective and learn to make powerpoints for their Open House presentation. Edutopia had an interesting article recently about what kids want to see in schools..laptops, bluetooth, cell phones, video cameras...I don't doubt that given the opportunity to create relevant learning experiences for themselves, they would. Think of the inquiry in elementary kids when they have the opportunity to really explore something hands on. Curt, I think many teachers teach as they have been taught because they were the kids that were good at "playing school" when they were in school. However, I don't think we can look at this and say until...until the Universities begin to have the discussions, until the teachers learn the skills themselves, until their is a tech literacy curriculum in place, until....this is a systemic problem and at somepoint in time it has to change. I think the thing that would impact the success is the amount of collaboration time, professional development that is given to the teachers. Would your daughter get a job in a learning center...would she keep the job...? If she was willing to be a lifelong learner herself, no doubt she would. As a lifelong learner myself, I LOVE the idea of learning centers and will surely be keeping close tabs. Thanks for another thought provoking discussion.

Gregg Farr had probably one of the most thought provoking call out to educational leaders on LeaderTalk today. So I can't help but think...what will it take for use to give kids what they want...what they NEED to be successful learners in the 21st Century? I ask not just out of curiosity for the future of my career....but for the future of my own 3 children....what will it take?

This is NOT science class...

When a friend pointed out this poster at NECC, I was taken aback. It was a vendor poster for a company that monitored students yada, yada, yada and I got their point...the kid SHOULD be in science class but instead.... So as I continued looking at it I began thinking..."they have it all wrong". THIS is exactly what science class SHOULD be. Kids could study slope, velocity, chemical properties of certain wax and temperature to increase speed...Sometimes I wonder if these things are MORE science class for kids than their science classes actually are. If kids could relate to science the way they relate to snowboarding, wouldn't it be a much richer experience for them?


The Science Learning Network has all kinds of great resources and Exploratorium takes kids through the science of skateboarding, cycling, hockey, surfing, baseball, and other popular sports. Why not check out some of these resources for your science classes this fall...

K-12 Online Conference Presenters Announced

The official list of the 2007 K-12 Online Conference presenters and their presentation titles has been announced! There are 36 presentations (9 per strand--Classroom 2.0, New tools, Professional Learning Networks, Obstacles to Opportunites) in addition to the previously announced keynote presentations in each strand, and a pre-conference keynote by David Warlick, totalling 41 presentations. I was excited to see so MANY from my Blogroll presenting:

Classroom 2.0

Anne Davis (Araphahoe HS)
“Putting the Pedagogy into the Tools”
Dean Shareski (Ideas & Thoughts)
“Design matters”
Jeff Utecht (The Thinking Stick)
“Sustained Blogging in the Classroom”

New Tools

Anne Davis
“Learn to Blog : Blog to Learn”
Kurt Paccio and James Gates ( Tech Ruminations & Tip Line)
“The Electric Slide! Twenty-First Century Style”

Professional Learning Networks:

Jen Wagner, Cheryl Oakes, Vicki Davis, Sharon Peters (Technospud, Cool Cat Teacher )
“Webcasting for Educators: Expanding the Conversation”
Jeff Utecht
“Online Professional Development”

Obstacles to Opportunities

Lisa Durff
“Pushing the Envelope or How to Integrate Web 2.0 Tools on a Shoestring”

The conference will consist of both live, interactive/synchronous, and asynchronous events.
-8-12 October 2007 Pre-Conference
-15-19 October 2007 Week 1 (Strands 1 and 2)
-22-26 October 2007 Week 2 (Strands 3 and 4)
-27 October 2007 When Night Falls

I highly recommend you add this to your calendar and join in this amazing educational experience which begins October 8, 2007!

An invitation to the YouTube Generation

In the USA Weekend paper there was an article titled, "Documenting the War" promoting Ken Burns' upcoming World War II special. I find Burns' work fascinating and this project is no exception. From the article:

"If young people could interview a grandparent or senior neighbor, they'd learn what this generation did during the war -- how, in shared sacrifice, they made their country richer and safer than anyone could ever imagine..... That's where the YouTube generation comes in. For the series, we used 40 of the hundreds of interviews we conducted. Now, Americans are being enlisted in the recording of history. Thanks to a cooperative effort involving PBS and the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project, anyone can get a camera and conduct his or her own interviews of a loved one who lived through the war.... I'm hopeful young people will take their YouTube-honed skills and use them for something like this.

America's most respected historian is inviting the YouTube generation to join him in recording the stories of World War II - before we lose them forever. I think about all of what we are trying to do...get kids to learn content by creating... With all the technology we have access to today, wouldn't documenting oral histories would be a great way for our students to learn history and participate in something amazing. I think what blows my mind about the whole idea is that in many schools...YouTube is blocked to both teachers and student users. With ideas as great as this wouldn't it be best to teach ethics than block great content.

Some links from the article include
http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Wouldn't it be cool to have students gathering oral histories on a variety of topics and other historical events. And why not use TeacherTube to share them?

Here are some other resources and guides on preparing oral histories.
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/services/oralhistips.aspx
http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html
http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/pf/pf_oral_history.html

Setting the Wagon in Motion...

I was sorry that I was unable to attend the Model Schools Conference in Washington, DC this past week. If there is anywhere edubloggers need to be it is there! I am fortunate in my district to have some really dynamic leaders who have "future vision" who attended the conference and starting to set the wagon in motion.
Because of my trip to NECC, I was following based on the wiki and blog of a friend who's district is committed to a Rigor & Relevance Framework. One thing that disturbed me was that in a conference for building rigor, relevance and 21st C skills...Jen noted there was no wireless and she only witnessed four other conference attendees who recorded their notes on a laptop. None-the-less if you are interested in learning more about Daggett--check out the links above. I think it is important to point out that t was during the nightly round-table discussions and dinners with the district’s team of 18 administrators and staff development facilitators that the really significant conversation occurred. (kind of like blogger cafe, or dinner conversations at NECC) If there is one thing I can suggest is that district teams attend conferences TOGETHER--be it NECC, PETE & C, Model Schools, Governor's Institute for Innovation and Education, Educon2.0....WHATEVER so that they can have TIME to discuss the impact of the session information on the district’s leadership.

from Jen Dorman's notes...the things that stood out for me as we start to build a plan to move forward...

Students who perform well in our school system do not necessarily perform well in life – skills valued in school are not the core skills and values in real life
The primary aim of education should not be to enable students to do well in school, but to help them do well in the lives they lead outside of school. They are good at studying to learn, but are they really ready to work? I kept seeing repeated that the top 5 new-hire skills included: Communication skills, honesty/integrity, teamwork, interpersonal, strong work ethic.

Kids need to learn from others – even if they are not like you . . .I recall an activity during I believe it was Alan November's session at NECC where we were asked to recall the names of faces...alone it was difficult, but together... You can’t teach kids you don’t know . . . relationships (Carol Ann Tomlinson), relationships are foundational to designing educational experiences that are appropriately rigorous and relevant

According to Jen's notes, the Model School Sessions did suggest some things to leave behind – industrial model of education, low expectations for students (esp. special education and ELL), pure disciplines (content), trainings not attended by leadership (if it’s important enough for them to be here, it’s important enough for you to be here), “this is the way we have always done it”, assign teachers based on seniority, using state assessments as the solution to the problem--WOW, some heavy ideas here...definitely a team decision...Ian Jukes at NECC referred to it as TTWADI (that's the way we always did it)

Highly effective teachers teach very little – they are facilitators of R/R learning--once again a concept that was reinforced at NECC..

Other countries invest in global skills:

* most other industrial countries start world language instruction in primary grades
* international benchmarking and exchange
* technology
* study abroad programs

I read about the importance of Professional Development. One school described the layers of support:

* 3 days of preservice induction
* 10 days of orientations for lateral entries (not trained to be teachers, career changes)
* School based orientation
* School based mentors
* M & M Meetings – mentor/mentee (monthly school based social/professional development) – help them to develop relationships to keep them in-district
* Peer classroom observations and feedback (praise and constructive criticism)
* BTI Lead Teacher Walk Thrus
* Opportunities to observe other peers
* Weekly contact w/school-based mentor
* Moodle . . .
Chris Lehman and Karl Fisch both described similar types of opportunities in their success stories

For many schools it was a FOUR YEAR PROCESS

1. Identify leaders (top-down support) who recognize the need for school/state-wide change
2. Develop partnerships Involve the community
3. Determine guiding principles (ICLE kit contains 12)
4. Establish plan (mission statement and vision, strategic plan involving all students, parents, and staff)
5. Develop advisory boards who can implement practices (organic and natural component of curriculum and instruction)
6. Focus on professional development

Again, I was not there...just reading notes and reflections but it seems to me that the Model Schools, Administrators, Edubloggers....are all speaking the same language, they are just doing it in different places...Scott McLeod suggested we blog leadership for Independence Day --He has some great starting points on his blog today. It will be exciting to all sit down together, compare notes, put the wheels on the wagon (or restructure as the case may be) and get movin'

Hi, My name is Kristin....

and I am addicted to blogging...

When I came across this post in my aggregator, and started to think of my recent twittering, I thought I should give it a try.

78%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Apparently I have a problem. For fun, check out your own addiction score and let me know if you are worse than me :)

My posts are all rated G in case you were wondering:

Karl Fisch at NECC

So I am still getting through all of my things from NECC. I recorded Karl Fisch's session and with permission uploaded to my podOmatic page. This was new tool for me but I think podOmatic could be a great resource for teachers in the classroom. Am playing with odeo too.

If you missed Karl's session and want to hear the recording you can check it out
http://khokanson.podomatic.com/

Putting a square peg in a round hole...

Or square wheels on a wagon as the case may be...

http://www.squarewheels.com/mainpage/swsmain.html

Right before NECC, I attended a 21st Century Learning Workshop in Harrisburg when I first saw this image, and I have been thinking about it ever since...

And when Steve Dembo in twitter wondered if "After reading a ton of blog posts from NECC and EduBloggerCon, I'm starting to wonder if We (Edubloggers) are getting a little egotistical" Marcie Hull asks a similar question "are we REALLY congratulating ourselves too much & too early?" I must admit, I have been challenged by administrators who when forced to see the big picture....from a district/system perspective ask...do edubloggers REALLY see the big picture? hmmm good question...
The picture I think is the one above...the one where the men keep the square wheels on the wagon when there are round wheels inside. Where there are LOTS of resources that people don't know how to use appropriately. The one where there is there only 1 person pulling and little effort from behind. There are not enough folks to move a really big wagon. The one where there is a REALLY sturdy LOOKING wagon, that is going nowhere.

I think David Warlick hit the nail on the head when he said It Isn't Easy, and Julie Lindsay reminds us there is NECC and there is the Real World.
The thing is Edubloggers can't keep talking to the echo chamber...What do we start with and how do we move (or continue to move) forward? From Marcie's blog I was directed to a new blog that asks this question and says that she is going to try to create a target that her teachers can see...yes, we do get it, we ALL GET IT...but until we work together to change the whole system, I am afraid we may end up like the guys and their wagon. So I ask you all...adminstrators and edubloggers alike, what is your plan to prevent the system, the wagon, from getting STUCK

Educational Independence Day...

Scott McCleod recently posted on his Dangerously Irrelevant blog that:

Many of our school leaders (principals, superintendents, central office administrators) need help when it comes to digital technologies. A lot of help, to be honest. As I’ve noted again and again on this blog, most school administrators don’t know

• what it means to prepare students for the 21st century;
• how to recognize, evaluate, and facilitate effective technology usage by students and teachers;
• what appropriate technology support structures (budget, staffing, infrastructure) look like or how to implement them;
• how to utilize modern technologies to facilitate communication with internal and external stakeholders;
• the ways in which learning technologies can improve student learning outcomes;
• how to utilize technology systems to make their organizations more efficient and effective;
• and so on…

I made the same point at Edubloggercon --in order to change a system, you MUST have support from the leaders. I am fortunate in my district to have leaders who understand what it means to prepare students, and are starting to work towards creating a vision. I think (as does Scott) that this message would be much louder, and much clearer if many voices were shouting...
He urges edubloggers to blog about effective leadership Wednesday, July 4th.
Use the tag schooltechleadership--Scott has a whole list of prompts to spark your thinking.... It takes more than just a FEW DROPS to fill a bucket, just like it will take more than a few educators to change the face of education. Yes Dave, we are still in the minority as edubloggers, but as shown by your statistics (and the amount of twittering since NECC) I do believe that our voices are being heard. If you don't blog, comment on someone else's blog, track the conversations, pass them on to your district administrators. I urge you if you have a blog to take this opportunity on July 4th to reflect on the importance of leadership.

What ARE the ESSENTIAL questions....

Still reflecting on everything I learned at NECC.

One thing that was brought up on Tuesday at a meeting for PA educators at NECC, someone (and I am sorry I can't remember who) mentioned that the one thing that really stood out for them from one of the sessions he attended said that Of the 5 questions who, what, when, where, why... 4 of them you can google—the only one you can’t is WHY--Well this has been rattling around in my head ever since.

I think I am so passionate about changes in education because I was a different learner in school. The only class in HS that I ever struggled with was the one where I was only asked to recall information. Read, write, memorize...YUCK because I was looking for the explanations, the exceptions to the rules. I think about my own small children, almost every time they ask a question it is almost always followed up with "why mommy?" Yet as they move on in school somewhere along the road the "why" gets replaced with a need to cover content. What gets lost is the idea that perhaps the content would be learned BETTER if kids were given the opportunity....no REQUIRED to get to the why.

And when reviewing all of my notes I thought about how Alan November said we spend too much time on how and not enough on the when and what and WHY. He spoke about how we shouldn’t be teaching HOW to podcast but spending more time talking about when and what to podcast. In my notes, I thought about how kids then could be using those podcasts to answer the WHY question. November's session will be webcast (http://www.kzowebcasting.com/necc/) but wasn't up at the time of this post. I will definitely go back and review this webcast as he offered a lot of good things to think about when changing systems, getting kids to the why...
Need to keep that in mind when creating a plan for tech integration..
why?

Constructivist Teaching With Technology: Learning With Laptops

I have made a promise to myself that was going to try to do less live blog note-taking and more reflective blogging. Chris Lehman said to me today that he has gathered enough "stuff" here for MONTHS of thoughtful blogs and like he, I need time to reflect on it. Kurt Paccio took some good notes on his blog so I will let you look at those...

My thought of the day comes from a presentation I went to by the Arapahoe HS teachers led by Karl Fisch--of Did you Know fame...The newest version of his PowerPoint is on YouTube and even if you saw version 1, it is worth seeing this version. AND David Warlick of the LandMark Project. I watched as a team of teachers shared the process, the successes, the failures of creating a constructivist model. They shared examples, spoke passionately, and really made the walls of their school transparent. Transparency in the classroom...what a risk they are taking opening the doors of their school to the world. Think about what a paradigm shift this must be. And all with just 2 classroom carts of laptops...2 carts...known by the WORLD!!!!! How can they be SO successful....
Professional Development---THEY don't focus on the technology, while they'd LOVE to have it, the focus is on shifting from a teacher centered model to a learner center model. I listened to David Warlick saying the same thing...He actually suggested that we STOP INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY????? If we are to come to a conclusion, it is not that we need to integrate technology.
Instead of integrating technology, we must INTEGRATE LITERACY—we need to think about what are the basic skills the kids need to be ready for their information landscape…the technology will come along—but not because we are putting their hands on machine. These machines are the pencil paper of their time, these are the tools of their time.

Two Things we know
1. We are preparing kids for an unpredictable future therefore the BEST thing we can do is teach them to teach themselves

2. Nature of Information has changed therefore we MUST change how we define literacy

These 2 ideas can be merged by beginning to think in terms of LEARNING LITERACY—they will be learning for the rest of their lives and THESE are the things that we NEED to start to teach...
Learning literacy...preparing kids for their future...wow what a concept

Looking for Global Partners

One of the CFF teachers with whom I worked this past year and I spoke at the end of the year about his desire to create a "global issues" course in our HS next year. The vision is to choose some GLOBAL THEMES and have kids from around the world to have peer-peer "conversations" about them...So one of my themes for this year's NECC was to investigate global opportunities. I signed up for a session today and when I walked in and saw a room full of iMacs, I KNEW I would not be disappointed :) This session was done by some apple distinguished educators. Click HERE for the wikispace they have created.
Global Collaborative Resources

MA314 Classroom Innovations Series: Teaching and Learning in a Global Context [Workshop : Hands-on]
Julene Reed, St. Georges Independent School with Lucy Gray Monday, 6/25/2007, 8:30am–11:30am; OMNI International A Learn how to use technology and online resources to provide structured experiences so students deepen their understanding of the world as they explore environments outside the classroom.

They also had a handout with some great resources for finding global partners and projects.

Rock Our World	http://www.rockourworld.org
The GLOBE Project	http://globe.gov
Kidlink	http://kidlink.org/english
My Wonderful World	http://mywonderfulworld.org
iEARN	http://iearn.org
ePALS	http://epals.com
Global SchoolNet Foundation	http://glonalschoolnet.org
Gloriad	http://gloriad.org
Think.com	http://think.com
One World Youth Project	http://oneworldyouthproject.org
Jane Goodall Institute	http://www.janegoodall.org
Roots & Shoots	http://rootsandshoots.org
Global Voices	http://globalvoicesonline.org
Global Learning	http://globalawareness.com
Kids World	http://peacecorps.gov/kids
Kids Around the World	http://www.katw.org

I know as we sit down to plan in September we will use some of these resources. If you are interested in becoming a partner in our global issues course, please let me know...
OH and if you have any ideas about what ISSUES we should think about...should it be up to the kids...are the issues we are concerned about in the US even ISSUES in other areas of the world...the opportunities...

Raising test scores with 21st Century Skills

Wow...the title of this session is every administrator's DREAM. How can we do BOTH.
Ian Jukes will tell you exactly how and if you EVER get a chance to hear him speak, I would highly recommend it. If you are in charge of curriculum in your district you absolutely must take a look at the handouts page he has put together.
He started his session by telling us that his job is not to educate, irritate...give swift kick in your assumptions and looking at things from a different point of view. He talked about how educators have an unconscious mindset for what education should be...and quoted Lou Salza who said it is "easier to change the course of history than to change a history course…" TTWADI—that’s the way we’ve always done it. Pervasive unconscious way we do things and his societal examples were astounding. Having small children, I really connected with the analogy he made of parents teaching child how to walk independently...they continue to try and fail until they finally get it right. Yet even when they are failing, we encourage them until they do succeed. Why is it that we know intuitively that we need to prepare kids for independence and yet we continue to create a culture of dependence in our schools?

But he didn't just talk about the problems. He also gave some solutions. He said we need to start to plan with the end in mind. According to Dale's Cone of Learning we remember only 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30 % of what we see but 90 % of what we do. His idea was to use a 4 D approach: Design, Define, Develop, Debrief.

Here are some of my notes on the approach:
1. Define: have you ever given a kid an assignment and gotten back something TOTALLY different from what you expect: ready fire aim they need to know exactly what they need to know before they go out to do it. At the define stage, the kids need to identify what skills they need to complete task
• Need to define in performance terms
• Must know before they begin how that performance is going to be assessed. Determined in advance. Tell me what you think I just asked you to do…define it in performance terms
2. Design: Have you ever done a garden without thinking through it? Providing a step by step plan in advance—prevents wasted effort and a logical strategy. In the design stage things look good. Ask kids to come up with a plan in advance: Might be working in community, parents, internet…doesn’t matter WHO they learn from as long as they learn it—they have been raised in a culture of dependency—unconsciously they feel that their assessment should be from decontextualized source—if you are not going ot lecture me, how am I going to get help—instead of TELLING them what to do, I am creating a dialogue—
TWO TYPES OF LEARNING
• Determine what needs to be done
• Determine the skills you need to do it

3. Develop: DO IT—put plan into action. Put paper into action. Kids asked to create a real life product. This is NOT a linear process—when we design a project there are always hiccups, always problems. It is EXACTLY like the writing process—we ask them to apply what they learn to perform THE END PRODUCT is important, but in order to improve the product you have to reflect on the process

4. Debrief: Debug CANEI constant and never ending improvement. Right now focus is on the product of learning, not the process of learning. In real life the responsibility of work happens long after the product…to prepare them for their future (not our comfort zone) need to foster independence and self reflection: What was learned, how was it learned, what were the obstacles, what would I do differently. If focus is only on the end product,
Job is not look smart—shift responsibility of learning from me to them
When kids grad from HS, they shouldn’t need us anymore

We HAVE to have the opportunity to FAIL in school there is no success without failure. There is no BIG success without BIG failure….Edison failed 1,000 times when making light bulbs rather than focusing on each attempt, he now knew 1000 ways how NOT to make a light bulb.

I thought the interaction....the how can we do this in OUR schools was the best part of the session. So let's hear it, how CAN we do this in our schools.

We teach KIDS not CONTENT

This is the philosophy of Science Leadership Academy (SLA) in Philadelphia. I had the opportunity to hear Chris Lehman speak about what fundamental changes need to happen in schools based on the trends of web 2.0. In an open forum, the following points were made:

We finally have the tools to realize Dewey’s dream=they are available…do we all have them…? If so, what are the top 2-3 structures that need to change?
These are the words / ideas of the many fantastic minds in the room…These are my notes…thoughts from around the room

• Time: Change how we use our time: Streamline paperwork, give teachers time to adopt new things. Cant do it on top of already packed curriculum
• Use data differently
o What we collect
o The way we collect
o The way we use

• Planning has to change: can’t just start a blog—expectations won’t be met
• Need more models of that kind of planning. 5 point lesson plan doesn’t fit school2.0
• Teacher attitudes not only about the structure of the day, but the structure of the year: Jump into school year rowing as fast as you can without the pre-preparation—paid teacher time during summer, end of year, mid year. ONLINE CAN BE HUGE WITH THIS…C Lehman met with teachers 1 ½ hours in back yard then online in moodle—weekly chats, live talk then threads etc…When we break down the walls of the schools, need to think who we can invite in: F Institute Wed pm… every week have time to meet and plan—be creative with common planning time

• Vision of Principal: Help learning
• CURRICULUM: Spiral Curriculum needs to be ocneected UBD curriculum planning tool
• GRADING: Stop using grades and grade books as weapons against children: learning and starting and stopping
• Location: physical location? Does it need to happen in building—What about the layout—want starbucks layout
• Role of teacher / student: Break down the wall between students and teachers—parent expectations & student expectation

HOW…
Start in kindergarten
Squarely on our shoulders teachers being willing to learn from students
Tell the kids that we don’t have all the answers
Starts with vision
Can we create a school that is different for each student—end user experience—if you get out of
1:1 laptop initiative so kids have equity home / school

Part of school 2.0 is we teach KIDS before we teach subjects
How do you evaluate teacher performance? Admin in every class every day…no evaluation of lesson plans Goals based assessment
Not using evaluation as weapons
Teacher learning must = student learning
George Lucas site…Sherman oaks elementary school…time is built in every day to review what you learn
Connect with the parents: Schools have been black boxes for years if you enter a students id # in moodle, you get a list of HW, can see website, announcements,
If you make your school transparent, parents will get involved 63 % of kids on free and reduced lunch—95 % have computer access…when told parents progress reports are ONLY available online they came flooding for tech help…
In SLA don’t make p.report available through tech as they want the teachers to come in the more we can do when use the tools: we track attendance on line, hw,
The more we can teach….
More we can get the UPPER ADMIN to blog & put themselves out there…
http://www.leadertalk.org

What is the WORST consequence of your BEST idea…what will happen if you let kids blog? what if we don’t disable ichat? You tell me…

What makes an effective international project?

What makes an effective international project?
This was the topic of the first session I attended this afternoon at the EdubloggerCon. I was really excited for this one as I had contact with both Vicki Davis (who skyped into my PETE& C session this February) and Julie Lindsay (who commented on our Latin American Wiki

Vicki Davis is a 10th grade introduction to computer science teacher in rural Westwood GA
At Vicki’s school…Curriculum is research / knowledge based --genuine assessment—she has given up 250 question exams in favor of project based learning.

Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay connected through k-12 Online Conference last year. Vicki ran online teacher wiki workshop. She talked about having her students read The World is Flat
CQ + EQ > IQ
That’s “Curiosity Quotient” plus “Passion Quotient” is greater than “Intelligent Quotient.”

After the conference, Julie emailed Vicki to say “I am on the other side of this flat world...let's connect our classrooms and talk about it…” and that was how it all began. They wanted to make the project wikicentric. Looked at tools--how they would link classes together, what would be the best tools. Structured the project so that there was ongoing and regular communication throughout. Individual and shared work--assessment would be based on the shared work, but still
They were experiencing the trends and writing about the trends at the same time.

The next step was the Horizon Project
Studied what college education is going to look like in the next 3-5 years. 5 classrooms, 55 students, whole new level of complexity in communications. ie kids need to respond to emails when they are sent. They established a project manager to manage the teams.
If we continue to allow our students to be ethnocentric--thinking that US is the center of the universe, we need to teach them to collaborate and build bridges with these students in other areas of the world

These students : in their classrooms: know how to tackle problems—won state literary competitions, the students were achieving new goals—I was really impressed with how much these students had achieved.
The discussion then moved
What defines an effective international project?
Consistency with both sides
Widen world for rural students
Make administrators aware of trends
Rethink stereotypes & communication: gaming
Must be part of curriculum: cultural awareness… NEED to be aware of it, see world through one another’s eyes

I thought it was interesting that Vicki commented that —while classroom is homogeneous IN the classroom= diverse because of the partners she has created
The attendees were a very diverse group and came up with amazing ideas

• GenYes
• Have to have hooks…
• Clearly defined objectives and assessements

Discipline: if you don’t have discipline in your classroom, you have no business being involved in a global collaborative project
And this was just session 1….

We talked about PROJECT BASED LEARNING and how defined curriculum is putting a damper on initiatives—how can we work these initiatives into the existing curriculum.
On a final note…the comment was made…
For a democracy our school system looks very communistic…
Your thoughts?

Edubloggercon07

So I made it to Atlanta...my luggage unfortunately :)
I just HAD to get to Edublogger proconference and I am SO GLAD I did. Will Richardson, Steve Dembo, Jeff Utecht, Chris Craft, almost my entire blogroll in the same room.

I got to attend 2 sessions this afternoon: Roundtable forums...open discussions...tough topics

Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis talking about what makes a successful international project...
Chris Lehman examining what we need to change about the "structures" of school 2.0...

Am furiously typing notes and PROMISE to get them up in less time than I last blogged.
Until then... check out the schedule on the wiki to see what you are missing

Boy I have missed this :)