Technology in Learning

I found Larry Lessig’s presentation “How Creativity is being Strangled by the Law” very entertaining. I agree with him that there needs to be artist choice and that copyright law needs reviewing and possibly changing; however, I disagree with his point that we are “making our kids live against the law”. He states that we live in an “age of prohibitions”. I’d argue that almost any time in history was an “age of prohibitions”. People during all ages of history have lived life against the law. I don’t think it has ever stopped creativity. Some great works were developed during major “ages of prohibition” when people were forced underground for their art. This is how the law develops and changes. People advocate for change based on changes to environment, political rule, technology, economy, etc. This is not necessarily “corrosive” or “corrupting” but advancing and promoting change.

The other day at lunch I listened to a group of teachers discuss students who did not hear a thing they said during their lessons. They complained of students not facing them while they were reading a book or students who fiddled with things on their desks while the teacher was “teaching”. They were discussing ways to change the students. I was thinking of ways to change the lesson, not the students. As the discussion went on, I did mention that children these days have different influences on them than we did. They have grown up in front of the television where information is fed to them in 30 second intervals. Most play video games daily which stimulate many senses but often do not require much thinking and certainly not creative thinking.

Here was my opportunity to work with these teachers to engage their students in learning. However, one or two people in a school working for this purpose will slowly affect the way lessons are delivered. The way we educate our teachers needs to change. I see “content memorization” valued more now than ever before. Are No Child Left Behind and SOL’s responsible for this? I’m sure they have a heavy correlation with “content memorization”. I think we’ve moved more toward memorization than when I was a student. I sat in a professional development session for staff where the presenter emphasized that students needed to know how to “interpret” data on a graph not how to create the graph or apply the information they gain from the graph. (Yes, “interpret” is the SOL.) This presentation is coming to our school from our central office. We are telling our teachers to stick to the SOL which usually means “memorize for the SOL”. Is this what we should be emphasizing for the global economy? I agree with Alan November that we need to move toward applying our information. In today’s world, you need to understand concepts not memorize. Information is only a few keystrokes away. Students need to know how to search, synthesize and evaluate the information they need when they need it.

“The Collaborative ABC Project: Using Technology To Tell Stories”

By Kevin Hodgson, technology liaison with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project and Bonnie Kaplan Co-Director and Technology Liaison with the Hudson Valley Writing Project

In this presentation, Kevin Hodgson and Bonnie Kaplan detail their digital storytelling project using collaborative medium.  Bonnie gives a brief digital story overview of how this project started.  Kevin and Bonnie met at a technology institute where they were introduced to a host of Web2.0 tools.  After this, Bonnie created a blog and soon found Kevin’s blog and added it as a favorite and to her surprise, he was reading hers. In their online discussions that followed, Kevin suggested they create and share digital stories on the Web and use as many tools as possible.  Thus the project began.

Basically, they sent out an invitation to their tech network, 12 teachers across the country.  In order to give it some structure, they decided to get create a digital ABC storybook.  Each person was given several letters.  They created a short (no more than 2 minute) digital story about each letter.  The story reflects the author as a person, writer, or teacher.  Each story begins announcing the letter and end with the same announcement.  They used any software wanted to create their digital story.  Each person uploaded their final digital stories to JumpCut so the stories could be edited and combined into one ABC movie.

The presentation not only provides the background and ABC movie videos, but also provides the link to the slideshow (using Spresent) Kevin put together to document the steps and concept map (using Gliffy) they created to assign letters.  They give the link to their blog and a Google map to illustrate where each participant lived.  They also give you a chance to participate by adding a VoiceThread to record narrative for letters.

As I was watching the video, I had a new idea for using digital storytelling to review for the SOL tests.  Each student or group of students could be given a topic.  They would take the topic and create a digital storybook for their classmates which would serve as a review.  This could be a long term project that they can work on collaboratively using Web2.0 tools.  When SOL review time rolls around, the movies will be shared in class and linked in the teacher’s course for review at home.  Most students would much rather watch movies for review than do online sample tests.

“The Technology Specialist as Teacher Leader: Strategies to Ensure Successful Technology Integration and Student Learning in Schools”

By Patrick Ledesma, FCPS SBTS, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

Patrick Ledesma provides steps to getting the technology specialist’s vision as teacher leader across to your staff.  How do we move from the reality (fixing hardware and ambivalent staff) to the dream (enthusiastic teachers and supportive administration)? You can always find one teacher to implement the newest technologies in their classroom. The challenge is encouraging others to try something new and use the technologies.

To have an impact on teacher and student learning, Ledesma states that certain steps need to be taken.  The first step is to manage the hardware environment.  Have procedures in place for teachers to get assistance with hardware, software and network problems.  This will allow you to prioritize your work and to reduce the distractions keeping you from working with instructional technology with students.  He also suggests that you have a backup technology or routines for teachers so they can continue working when their equipment is out of commission for repair. Having the backup equipment is sometimes difficult based on the school’s budget but working with teachers on backup routines will give them the confidence to try the technology in their classroom.

The second step is administrative coordination, setting goals and expectations.  I would make this the fist step because upon this everything, including the hardware environment, balances. Ledesma says that the technology specialist’s role should be instructional leader most of the time, not repair person or teacher helper.  Coordinating with the administration, both school and central, assists the technology specialist in taking on a leadership role.  We need to work with administration to align technology with instructional needs making us an instructional resource, not just the repair person.

Third step is teacher professional development.  Ledesma says to sell the instruction not the technology.  He believes that teachers who have effective teaching practices in place tend to embrace the technology because they understand how it improves their practices.  Staff development designed around instruction, not the application, allows teachers to see how it can be used in their classroom and often can turn around and use it the next day.

Ledesma’s fourth step is teacher coordination.  As you work with your staff, you will learn the different personalities and skills they possess.  Ledesma says you need to define expectations clearly and find ways to make them successful.  He puts staff into three technology competencies:  the high flyer, the curious, and the ambivalent.  The high flyers are your staff members who embrace technology and can incorporate it into their classroom on their own with minimum support from the technology specialist.  He suggests you use their lessons as examples. However, I believe some teachers see that staff member as the technology geek and don’t relate to the lesson. The curious want to use the technology but are not quite sure where to start.  You will probably co-teach and work with them the most.  I believe that lessons developed by the curious are the ones you want to share.  Many staff members relate to this group and see themselves in the teacher with whom you collaborated.  If that teacher can do it, then so can they.  The ambivalent need to meet job expectations and you need to provide enough opportunities for them to meet expectations and to be successful.  Hopefully, they will become the curious, but some may never and that is an administration issue.

Last step is to promote school-wide student learning and achievement.  When the previous four steps are accomplished, Ledesma says technology integrations will be seamless and students will be using it as part of the learning process.  Technology is a means to accomplish instructional goals. This should be the focus for the instructional specialist when planning, coordinating, collaborating, teaching and managing.

“Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools”

By Liz Kolb, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Madonna University in Michigan
Blog: http://toytotool.blogspot.com

Wow!  Where do I begin?  Liz Kolb’s presentation is on how we can turn cell phones into a “knowledge construction tool” and not just a “social toy”.  This presentation is full of good ideas, many we do with other tools but she suggests using the cell phone as the tool.  Here’s a summary of the presentation with my thoughts but I suggest listening to her entire presentation. 

Since cell phones are one of the most engaging tools for this and the next generation of students, we should show them ways it can be helpful in school and their professional lives; and not just send the message that it is distracting or a cheating tool.  Many Web2.0 resources can be used on cell phones to create mobile learning opportunities.

Kolb first looks at using cell phones for podcasting, mobile notes and conferencing.  Below is a slide from her presentation which lists ideas for using cell podcasting in the classroom.

She lists many Web2.0 tools (Gabcast, Gcast, Hipcast, Evoca, FreeConferencePro, TalkShoe, PrivatePhone, Jangl, Jott, BrainCast, Mindjot) which can be used for these projects and steps us through using Gabcast, FreeConferencePro, PrivatePhone and Jott.  She also shared some sites with examples of classroom projects using audio from cell phones.  Many of these ideas work just fine with a land-line phone so teachers can try these projects and not worry about whether their student has access to a cell phone.  I am immediately going to share PrivatePhone with staff for communicating with parents.  Teachers can get a free, private phone number that they can give parents (without giving out their personal home or cell number).  Parents can call and leave messages.  Staff can check these messages from any computer.  I  think a debate with a class from another school using a phone conference would really excite the students.

Next, Kolb looks at using cell phones as cameras and camcorders. Students can use cell phones as data collection tools.   She suggests sending digital images from the cell phone to Web2.0 tools (Blogger, Flickr, Bubbleshare, Eyespot, Jumpcut, YouTube) to create photo blogs, slideshows, and movies.  She gives detail instructions on how to send a picture to Blogger without an account and how to find the email address to send pictures from your cell to your Bubbleshare account.  This has application at every grade level.  I can see first graders, with parent help and support, using this.  Students could take pictures of signs of the seasons and send them to Bubbleshare where the teacher can create a slideshow of all the pictures and share in class.  Student’s participation will probably increase as they see pictures of their neighborhood or other places they know.  Below is a slide from Kolb’s presentation which lists ideas for using pictures and video from cell phones. 

Kolb then moves the presentation away from using cell phones as data collection tools into creating curriculum projects for cell phones.  She suggests creating content jingles using ringtone builders (PhoneZoo) or having students create content logos and wallpaper (Pix2Fone or PixDrop) for their cell phones.  Also, since students love to text message using their cell phones Kolb suggests sending free text messages (TextForFree, TxtDrop, Reactee) to student cell phones for reviewing content or for text messaging information on a cause.  Kolb also shows how cell phones can be used as a survey tool.  Students can create surveys using Mobiode which people can access and take with their cell phones. Some project ideas she gives for ringtone, logo, and text messaging include  poetry slams, unit reviews (flash cards), current events, studenta activism projects, and school events.

Other uses Kolb sees for the cell embrace the mobile web and cell phone tools.  Students can use their cell phones as research tools when they are out of the classroom.  Using the mobile web they can connect to search engines (Plusmo, Goggle), online encyclopedias, text a librarian, etc. to look up information.  Teacher can also create mobile friendly websites (HomeworkNow, Zinadoo, Winksite, Mob5) so parents who don’t have internet service at home can connect using their cell phones.  Students and teachers can use their cell phone tools as an electronic notebook/agenda.  They can record reminders, create appointments on their calendar, set up alarms and alerts.

Kolb also talks about the future uses of cell phones.  More and more applications are written for cell phones and live streaming of video is becoming common place.  Students will be able to run educational applications on their cell phones.

I can’t wait to try a few of these Web2.0 tools with the cell phones.  I’ve already discussed the conference idea with one teacher and will talk to another about using it as a data collection tool for field trips.  I know there are still many questions to answer, such as, cost for sending pictures, text messaging or accessing the web and responsibilities for the phone.  However, with careful planning, I agree that these can be useful classroom tools, energizing students to learn content.

“Step by Step-Building a Web2.0 Classroom”

By Drew Murphy, a teacher at
Chatelech Secondary, British Columbia, Canada

In this presentation, Drew Murphy discusses how to get people started in Web2.0.  He suggests that since everyone has “hugely diverse” skill sets, you start with small steps to get everyone comfortable with the skills required for Web2.0.  He has defined 10 essential skills which he groups into three phases. I would define these as 10 concepts because several of them consist of more than one skill.  During the first phase, Explore and Participate, Murphy states users need to learn 4 skills:  1) Tabbing vs. Windowing; 2) Simple Bookmarking; 3) Sign up and log in; and, 4) Comment and Review.  The second phase, Deconstruct and Reconstruct, consist of the skills to 5) Cut and Paste; 6) Emphasize and Align; and, 7) Images and Uploading. The last phase, Connect and Create, includes Linking; 9) Slideshows; and, 10) Embedding.

Getting teachers comfortable with these skills will go a long way to making Web2.0 more concrete for them and useful in the classroom.  Although we would not expect teachers to know all of these skills, we often make assumptions that teachers know most of the browser skills, such as, how to bookmark or cut and paste since these skills are second nature to us.  Many of them do not though and because of this, they do not explore or participate in what Web2.0 offers them.  We need to start with the basics.  How do we get teachers to want to learn the basics?

Murphy’s presentation gave the following reasons why teachers should use Web2.0:     

•  Saves teachers time
•  Provides effective, relevant lesson options
•  Enhances class interactions
•  Improves student behavior
•  Makes teaching more rewarding

The first reason alone would get most of the teachers using the Web2.0 tools immediately.  However, getting them to invest the upfront time to learn the basic skills so they can incorporate Web2.0 into their classroom is the challenge.  A few will invest the upfront time but many don’t have “time” to attend trainings nor to read or watch a step-by-step guide.  It will be something other than time that prods them to learn the skills.  I think when teachers begin to observe how it enhances class interactions in their colleagues’ classrooms, then, they will begin to take the time to learn the skills.

Students today grew up with the web and many of them use Web2.0 tools for fun at home. We should bring this fun into the classroom. Why? Web2.0 offers many tools that can get students to use higher level thinking skills (creating, evaluating, etc.). But, how do we get teachers who were not raised on the web to incorporate these tools into the classroom? When I want teachers to incorporate a new tool into the classroom, I often show them how to use it to their benefit first and then, when they get comfortable with the tool, provide examples of how they can use it with their students. Many of the Web2.0 tools can be used to help teachers organize and save them time. For example, if you train staff on using photo sharing sites, they will take off using these sites to share pictures with family and friends. When they are comfortable with that, discuss with them how they can use the same tool in their classroom (digital stories, reports, labeling, etc.). As I learn about many of tool myself, I always look for the “hook” for teachers. Once you hook them, they will incorporate the tools into their teaching and make learning fun for this generation of students.

Can I make copies of this CD for each of my students to take home to practice for our class play?

I referred to the CANI fair use principles for educators and the FCPS Guidelines for Print Music and Sound Recordings to help me answer this question. In order to answer the question, other questions must be asked and answered.  What is on the CD and is the class play for academic instruction or for performance?  

Copyright and fair use does not allow a teacher to copy the entire sound recording to distribute to the students without permission.  Using the CANI principles to answer the question, this would have a financial impact on the market value.  However, what if the teacher is just copying excerpts of the work to cd and giving them to students for practice?  This may be allowed.  If the play is for academic instruction and not for performance, then copies may be distributed to the students provided what is copied to the cd does not contain a part of the whole work which could be independently performed.  An example of this would be a scene or monologue of the play.

I stated in my earlier blog that technology should be used as a tool so children can learn in the form most comfortable to them.  If a teacher allows students to use any technology tool for their project, does this create an assessment problem?  How does a teacher assess students’ PowerPoint reports, videotaped documentaries, and rap songs?

It is not difficult if the focus is on the curriculum standard and the content of the project.  The assessment of students should be on the student’s knowledge and understanding of the topic, the appropriateness of the content, their mechanics, organization, planning and in some cases, their creativity, not on how well they know the technology tool.  Attached is a rubric designed just for this purpose. Project Rubric

I have modified this rubric for a sixth grade social studies project.  The students are studying European Exploration of North America and West Africa.  The students need to describe the motivations, obstacles and accomplishments of the following explorers:  Francisco Coronado, Samuel de Champlain, Robert La Salle and John Cabot.  Students will research their explorer and present their findings to the class using any technology format (song, documentary, oral presentation, etc.) they choose.  Students will be assessed using the Explorer Project Rubric.

I just finished reading a section from the book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts & Other Powerful Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson.  In this section, “Weblogs: Pedagogy and Practice”, he states that “blogs facilitate what I think is a new form of genre” and calls this new genre “connective writing”.  Blogs can be considered a new genre depending on how the blog is used in the classroom.  I do not believe that blogs used solely as journals constitute a new genre although he does include this type of blogging as an example of the new genre.  If students just use blogs to post their writing and never perform research, receive comments or converse online about their writing, then blogging is not much different than electronically typing their journal and handing it in.  However, when students use blogs to post information, reactions, links, and opinions to topics researched and converse about what they wrote, then I agree with the “connective writing” genre.  Students are making connections to topics and reacting to other people’s opinions, making more connections. 

In his book Richardson gives six reasons blogs make an attractive addition to a teacher’s toolbox.  These six reasons are:

1.      Blogs are a constructivist tool for learning.

2.      Blogs expands the walls of the classroom.

3.      Blogs become a log of learning.

4.      Blogs support different learning styles.

5.      Blogs can enhance a student’s expertise.

6.      Blogs can teach “new literacies”.

When teachers use blogs to extend the conversation outside the classroom, then Richardson’s reasons hold true.  Students now have contact with more experts and materials than could ever be housed in one school. We must teach students to analyze, organize and synthesize the information they find online. This information can be found in text, graphics, video, and audio making ideal for different learning styles.  Students construct their ideas based on what they discover from these expert sources and from the comments they receive.  They can reflect on what they have learned and continue to augment what they know. Students must also understand that their blog adds to the bank of knowledge on the web, giving them a sense of responsibility for their writing.  When used effectively, blogs can be a powerful tool in a teacher’s toolbox.