Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Karl Fisch - Constructivist Teaching with Technology: Learning with Laptops

http://www.lps.k12.co.us/schools/arapahoe/21c/necc2007.html

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com

http://learningandlaptops.blogspot.com

Arapahoe is a public high school that is piloting a one-to-one laptops. Some classes have laptop carts. Four teachers presented with Karl.

For their pilot group of teachers, staff development meetings are three hours long and are held every three weeks. One hour is spent on theory, one hour is spent on pedagogy, and one hour is spent on technology. Karl quickly shares something technical, and then they look at how it could be used in the classroom. There is good faculty buy-in because this is teachers teaching teachers.

They changed the classroom environment. The goal was to create a professional learning environment . Desks were replaced with tables and rolling chairs. Posters were put up that were interesting to the students. Also, a list of classroom expectations was created by the class, each student signed it and it was put up on the wall.

They are blogging for “reflection, collaboration, critical thinking, and professional purposes to create a school-wide learning community.”

They have students blogging the class while it’s going on. Sometimes the blogging can interfere with student attention.

Skype is better than Blogger.

They are collaborating with classes around the world. Collaboration is not cooperating learning.

The teachers are role models as learners.

Students are producers and consumers of information.

When blogging, students get excited when they get comments from people around the world.

The astronomy teacher’s textbook was outdated when the class received it. The class created it’s own textbook. A wiki was used.

They are using Google docs for 24/7 collaboration by students and teachers.

The review toolbar in Word is a powerful tool for peer editing.

Bernie Dodge - Can Technology Make Us Wise?

We have been studying wisdom only for the past 20 years.

Wisdom is rare. Can we make it happen more? Can wisdom be taught?

According to a respected test, people grow wiser through their teen years and then the growth in wisdom levels off. This means we need to work on teaching wisdom to children and teens.

Some feel that wisdom is teachable because on a test on wisdom, clinical pyschologists score higher than the general public. The training that pyschologists have experienced has caused them to become wiser.

In school, standards are about learning knowledge. This isn't wisdom.

Bernie's advice -Fix ourselves first because role modeling is very powerful in teaching wisdom. Technology has a role to play - it can give us a much greater breadth of information and experiences. Technology allows us to interact with more people. Technology supports transformation through the ease of editing. Technology supports creating artifacts that can be referenced so we can remember what went right/wrong in the past.

Personal Habits to enhance wisdom: keep a wisodm blog (this is a private blog for reflection); develop a diverse feed list (hear what lots of different people are saying); keep a to-know list (a wiki of what you would like to explore in the future); develop a proverbs wiki (summarize and synthesis daily experiences into memorable sayings with a short story).

Classroom Habits to enhance wisdom: develop a collective proverbs wiki; keep a class to-know list; role-play important issues so students understand other perspectives.

Teachers need to think about teaching wisdom when creating assignments.

Modal Occupations

prehistory - 1850 farmer

1850 - 1950 factory worker

1950 - present office worker

Future? Toffler thinks it will be either priest or soldier.

Mark Wagner - Wiki While You Work: An Introduction to Wikis in Education

Use this site to sign up for no charge, ad free wikis http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers/

http://edtechlife.com/ Mark's website

http://wikiwhileyouwork.wikispaces.com/

http://nextvista.org/ a collection of videos for use in education

http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/ has many examples of wikis used in education

Wiki uses: record all the activities of a class over the year; share resources; online class encyclopedia

Only one person can edit at a time.

The Discussion tab can be used for a threaded discussion.



Keynote Panel - What do the arts, brain research, and creativity have to do with the emerging face of education? EVERYTHING!

Panel members - Elizabeth Streb, choreographer http://www.strebusa.org/; Michael McCauley - creative director; Mary Cullinane - technology architect http://marycullinane.com/default.aspx; Dr. Francesc Pedro - educational analyst; Andrew Zolli - futurist

The panel discussion was preceded by beautiful cello music.

First, the CEO of ISTE, Dr. Don Knezek, spoke to the audience on the globalization of education. Countries like the Philippines are preparing their new teachers to meet world class teaching standards. The globalization of commerce requires the globalization of education.

C Learning first, technology later, be comfortable not knowing, paying attention to language and what we are trying to communicate (the principal is known as the chief learner)

P US ranks high in use of computers by 15 year olds at home, but many countries have higher use at school. Higher computer use at home leads to higher math scores. They don't know why.

M His role is to inspire by setting an positive example.

S Ask seemingly unanswerable questions. Set impossible goals.

C School needs to be a place where failure is an option for students and teachers. Need ad hoc gathering places.

S Need places where people can mess things up. School as a garage.

P Include users and doers in the process of innovation. Technology is a pump for innovation. Allow innovations to bubble up.

C Innovation is slow because we are swimming up stream.

M Corporations are thirsting for innovation. Every day educators have the opportunities to celebrate innovation and creativity in their classrooms.

P Foreign language should be taught at as young an age is possible. There is no evidence that boys and girls brains work differently.

Z At early ages, children can differentiate many more sounds than when older. Language instruction needs to start early.

M Read A Whole New Mind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Whole_New_Mind

C Remember what motivates students, their values, their environment.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Birds of a Feather – Tablet PC, Gathering of Users and Potential Users

Use slates in lower grades. They can’t keyboard anyway.

An Australian school uses Epson wireless projectors. They are also wired to the network for showing video.

Get projectors that can freeze the screen. This way the class continues to see the image on the screen while the teacher can bring up a different screen on his/her tablet.

Birds of a Feather Session – How to Help Teachers Successfully Integrate Technology

Teachers have to be expected to be learners first.

They need ongoing support.

Their tech projects need to match their comfort level.

On-line professional development has the advantage of being very convenient – anywhere/anytime.

Teachers are looking for a reward. I think this was one aspect of TUTE that needs to be not skipped. I still see Camp Swivel diplomas and trophies in teachers’ rooms.
Don’t be discouraged in technology buy-in takes a while. Plant seeds.

Meet with teachers individually and regularly.

Use students to help teachers. Look at the Mouse.org program.

Keep training sessions short – 15 minutes.

Doug Johnson - Classrooms and Libraries for the Net Generation

http://doug-johnson.com/

Doug wanted the audience to take away two points from his talk: 1.It’s easier to change the way we teach than trying to change the Net generation. 2. Today’s students like to learn. It’s just that they don’t want to learn what we are teaching and how we teach it.

To better understand the Net generation we should all read the first two chapters of Educating the Net Generation by Educause. It’s a free download.

We need to examine the implications of the Net generations attributes on school – buildings, mission, services, and resources.

Net generation students are, as a group, a valued group (look at all the money that parents spend on them), and a sheltered group. They don’t like anything slow. They don’t like negativity. They share attributes with the Greatest generation.

How to get students involved in school – use technology as a hook, make education available anywhere and 24/7, put students on school technology teams, build a place where students want to be.

Students are bombarded with information and need and seek guidance.

In the age of digital information, the Dewey decimal system doesn’t make much sense (still a good idea for physical books). Resources can be TAGGED many different ways and found using these TAGS. Can our students add TAGS to Principia resources?

Today, Information=conversation=authority? Discrimination and evaluation skills are very important for our students. Students need guides (teachers and librarians) more than ever. Our focus need to be on organizing, creating and using information. We need to teach copyright from the standpoint of the creator.

To promote student success at school we need to give them a voice in policy. Also, we need to lead by demonstrating our commitment to life-long learning by being life-long learners.