always learning

I love reading about all the successes other edubloggers are having. I love reading posts that confirm what I have been thinking and that discuss issues that have been on my mind. But how do we take the momentum and the successes of the education blogosphere and bring it to the institution where we spend most of our time?

And more importantly, how do we do this when so many of our colleagues are so resistant to change? Is it fair to our students to have one teacher that allows natural and authentic use of technology in their classroom and 7 others that do not? How do we implement this change when we are so entrenched in our system of standards and standardized assessments already?

For example, I was recently in a portfolio “de-briefing” session with a few middle school faculty members. We were discussing the effectiveness and success of our portfolio process. When the time came to share ideas for improvement, I was not alone in the desire to incorporate more relevant and authentic methods of presentation for our portfolios. However, we were definitely the minority. Even though we’ve all just been through extensive IT integration training, several members of the faculty were adamant that the only way to do portfolios is to put paper in a binder – how else will we include all our tests?

I tried to explain, a la Ian Jukes (via Chrissy Hellyer), that the process is not relevant to our students, that they’re not thinking like we’re thinking. I shared ideas for 21st century skills, I described the digital native concept, and I discussed authentic assessment, but in the end it’s just too much, prompted by too few, that has to change too quickly. After all, we have years and years of experience giving tests and putting them in binders. It’s just so much easier to keep doing things the way we’ve always done them.

I know the reason they are so resistant, I know they are trapped by fear: fear of technology, fear of knowing less than their students, fear of losing control… But how can we help these teachers get over the fear and just try something new?

How do you do it?

Update: How do you do it on an institutional level? How do you get the whole mind set of an entire school to change? Is it even possible for one, or two enthusiastic teachers to make this change?

It’s that time of year again. Students, teachers and administrators are wrapping things up and getting ready to say goodbye to the place they have called home for the last few years. Although I am so excited about my move to Thailand, I am still sad to leave Malaysia. There are so many things I will miss about this wonderful country and this school community.

Most of all, I am sad to leave:

• The absolutely amazing students we have. They are friendly, helpful, motivated, energetic and best of all, excited about learning.
• The wonderful faculty. Every single teacher is so dedicated and enthusiastic about education that it has truly been a pleasure to work with them.
• This fantastic city. Life is so easy in KL – everyone speaks English, the city is quite small and easy to get around, there are beautiful, green parks everywhere, and we have pretty much every comfort of home, even all the way on the other side of the planet.

As the many leaving parties begin to make life extremely busy in these last two weeks, I will be savoring every moment of my time here in KL – putting off that last goodbye until the absolute end…

A few weeks ago, Kelly Christopherson posted an interesting thread, Walking the Talk, on the Classroom 2.0 Ning forums asking whether the teachers who promote web 2.0 tools are actually using the tools themselves. My response was:

Absolutely! Doing these type of things myself is the only way that I can truly understand how they will impact my classroom. It is time consuming, and sometimes I think I should just shut-down for a few days, but there is so much emerging every single day that I don’t have time to take a break.

What has really helped me this year is to keep a personal blog. Of course, I have my professional blog, my wiki, my twitter, del.icio.us, ning, facebook, yackpack, skype, etc accounts that I use every day on a professional basis. But, bringing these tools into my personal life has completely changed my perspective.

I know how the students feel when they are asked to write a blog post for school – the pressure of writing something academic and relevant to what you’re learning – the pressure of a professional blog. But, I also know the fun and excitement of experimenting with these tools for my personal enjoyment. I can honestly say that these tools have changed the way I learn, create, and communicate in every aspect of my life.

The only problem I’m facing is how to keep up. There are so many new tools emerging every day, how can we keep track of them all? Or at least, how do we pick the useful from the superfluous? How do you do it?

Which web 2.0 tools are your favorites and how have they helped you – either in your classroom or in your personal life?

Image: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~juggsoc/images/large/other_17.jpg

I have finally joined the Twitterverse. Not that I ever think I have anything that interesting to say, but I do like the community atmosphere, the constant sharing of great websites and blog posts, the real time updates from my friends, and the instant gratification of instant messaging with dozens of people at once. Who said the internet causes short attention spans?

I may not have a complete understanding of the wondrous possibilities of Twitter, but basically, it seems to me to be like having a constant, open, IM chat with multiple people at once. Plus, the social networking feature of being able to see every user’s friends and then add them as your own. I’m friends with Steve Jobs, Stephen Colbert and Barack Obama. Close, personal, friends.

Right now I’m using TwitKu to post to both Twitter and Jaiku (Twitter’s prettier, Finnish cousin) because Twitter was having some technical difficulties last week. I like the instantaneous, simultaneous posts of TwitKu, but I don’t like the totally featureless, boring user interface. I suppose that’s the price I’m willing to pay to avoid “cats” eating my tweets…

Speaking of the cats, when did they take over the internet? How did I miss that craze?

Image: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/in_ur_reality.png (Thanks to Teacher A for the link)

As if I wasn’t already excited enough about my new position at the International School Bangkok next year: I get to work with two tech superstars, Justin Medved and Dennis Harter at a fantastic school in a wonderful country. And now I get to add a blogging principal to the mix! Please take a moment to stop by my new principal’s new blog about thinking and educational change: In-tu-it-think. What an inspiring team to work with!

I’ve done a lot of technology integration projects over the last seven years, but this year I started doing things a little differently. I realized that technology integration is about more than just finding a way to embed technology into a project, it’s about planning an authentic assessment task which utilizes technology in a meaningful way. I’m starting to feel like a curriculum coordinator for technology, rather than a technology facilitator. I don’t just facilitate technology, I develop entire units in partnership with the core subject teachers, and if technology fits, so be it; if not, we don’t force it in. The ultimate goal is always the development of a solid unit of study.

This process really started for me at the beginning of this year when I attended a fantastic Understanding by Design workshop with Jay McTighe. I had been using the UbD process rather superficially for the last few years, but never really applied the process to my integration consultations with other teachers. I usually just sat down with the teachers, talked about what they wanted to accomplish and then helped them achieve their goals. Usually they already had their curriculum mapped out, activities and assessments defined, technology was basically just an fun new way to do the same old things – even though I never realized it at the time.

This year, though, I’ve been going through the UbD process every time a teacher approaches me regarding an integrated project. We spend a lot more time planning than I ever used to, but it is so worth it! For example, I’m currently conducting a great math integration project with our sixth grade math teacher, M. When she came to me to ask about doing a project she told me she was a “digital dinosaur” but she really wants to be a “digital immigrant” (this was right after our PD days). So, right away I had three goals:

• Focus on making this experience a positive one – sometimes the best tool to complete a project isn’t always the most practical tool. This time was it going to be nice and easy – no pressure.
• Thoroughly plan out this project based on her math standards to make it crystal clear that math was the focus, not technology.
• Take all the stress of working with technology away from M. – make sure she does not have to worry about any technical issues, ranging from booking the laptop carts to software issues.

If I could achieve these three goals, I would in turn make some inroads towards the most important goal:

• Have M. share her positive and stress-free experiences with a technology project around the school – maybe in an official way, like presenting at a staff meeting, but more importantly, in social conversations. Having a self-proclaimed “dinosaur” praising technology integration as an exciting and productive method for teaching math is the best sales pitch to get the rest of those “resisters” on board.

So, basically, there’s a lot riding on this project. I’ve worked with about 70% of our middle school staff this year, but they’re all enthusiasts, interested and ready to explore. M. is the first teacher that is really taking herself out of her comfort zone and experimenting with something that is totally new.

In setting up this project together, we spent at least 3 hours planning and following the UbD process:

• On the first day M. showed me the project that she was trying to enhance (the previous sixth grade math teacher used to do this project) – a to-scale drawing of a park on graph paper. She knew there would be a way to do the project utilizing technology and she saw this as an easy, introductory way to start integrating IT into her math program.
• After M. left, I spent about a half hour experimenting with the various applications we have at school to see which would be the best fit for her. My goal was to keep it simple and non-intimidating, so I ended up setting up a template in Macromedia FreeHand with guide lines evenly spaced to reproduce graph paper. This may not have been the absolute best solution, but I always think in practicalities – the simpler the better, especially for teachers new to technology.
• The next day, we sat down for about an hour to discuss which math standards M. needed to meet with the project. We made a conscious effort to only apply the standards that will actually be assessed over the course of the project. The unit planner started with almost every math standard listed, but now we have 5 (which is still a lot).
• After we had selected the appropriate standards, we talked about what those standards really were trying to achieve. What were the essential understandings for the unit? What did M. want the students to remember after they’ve graduated high school? What is the big picture?
• Then, we re-phrased those essential understandings into questions. All the while we are focusing on the standards we listed in step one – what will the students be able to demonstrate if they have truly understood the standards?
• Next, we took the project that the last teacher developed and looked at how we could adapt that experience to accurately reflect the standards. We rephrased and reorganized the project to reflect the GRASPs model of assessment planning (Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product). This was a lot of fun for M. – taking the somewhat stale project idea and transforming it into an authentic assessment with a real-world application. The students would now all play a role in designing an accessible park for our neighborhood as members of the Community Planning Committee They are responsible for taking into consideration the needs of all park enthusiasts and persuading the committee to accept their design. Every student in sixth grade will then share their own park, and have a chance to vote on the park which best meets the needs of the community, via our wiki.
• After we had designed the final assessment task, we developed additional assessment activities to support student learning to enable them to be able to successfully complete the final assessment. Taking the time to plan activities through the lenses of the 6 facets of understanding really helped us to develop some exciting activities, all focused on the standards but not all involving technology. We thought about accessibility and had the students conduct a “field experiment” by trying to access our upper field on a wheelchair (impossible) to reach the facet of empathy. We also wanted to emphasize the real-life application of mathematical concepts through the use of a digital photo-story journal to reach the facet of self-knowledge. We honestly never would have thought of these ideas if we hadn’t utilized the 6 facets of understanding as we were planning.
• Once we had the project sorted, we posted everything on M.’s brand new sixth grade math wiki (yay!) and created the corresponding student wiki for this project.

Honestly, it was so much fun coming up with all these ideas. UbD makes it so natural to develop ideas that are truly relevant to the standards, but also unique and exciting. And now that the project has started (yesterday, so no finished work yet) M. has been so pleased at how smooth and stress-free things have been progressing. Every day she tells me how nervous but excited she is about this project.

The cool part is that we did all of this to develop a technology integration project. Which, to me, means it’s not a technology integration project. It’s an awesome math project that utilizes technology in an authentic and meaningful way. To me, technology facilitator isn’t just about bringing technology into the core classrooms, it’s about the process – the process of learning how to plan a new unit in a new way, using new tools…

I think I’ve discovered the secret to a perfect day:

On my daily walk to work I pass all the condo employees – cleaners, building managers, security guards, etc – and every single person smiles at me and I smile back. We don’t know each other and we never talk, but we always smile. After growing up in New England, and spending five years developing a permanent frown in Germany, I can safely say there is nothing better than a few smiles to start your day off right!

Image: http://www.colinheatherly.com/images/Smile.jpg

I am definitely inspired by Lisa’s kids and I really do want to tag my posts, but I just can’t seem to get into the routine.

Clearly, I need to either:

a) be convinced that it is absolutely essential to the blogging experience. What exactly does tagging do for me?

or

b) find an easier way to embed tags every day. I know about David’s handy tag generator, but I guess I need it to be even easier…

Part of the problem is that I read this:

If your blog software supports categories and RSS/Atom feeds (like Movable Type, WordPress, TypePad, Blogware, Radio), just use the included category system and make sure you are publishing RSS/Atom feeds and your categories will be read as tags.

back in August when I started blogging and, since it sounded logical and I’m using WordPress, I promptly forgot all about it and assumed it would work.

So, what’s the story? Am I tagging? If I’m not, why should I be?

Image: http://www.xpresstags.com/images/shipping_tags0.jpg

How many of your schools have a portfolio process? Something where the students compile their work throughout the year and present pieces which demonstrate growth in certain areas? I bet those of you that do, also have student-led conferences when the students share their work from their portfolio with their parents. Now are those portfolios, by any chance, all set up in the same format? Maybe a binder of some sort? And, for those of you that follow this type of structure, how many of your students feel that this is an authentic, relevant way to share their work? How many of them keep their portfolios from year to year? How many of them even know why they’re creating a portfolio?

Now, I’m not critiquing student-led conferences or portfolios. I love that students are expected to share their growth with their parents and I know portfolios are a good thing. I have one, well two. I like having all of my work compiled in one place so that I can share it with others, and if I had more time, I would do more reflecting on what I’ve done. But I chose how I set up my portfolio. I chose the format, the content, the tools. What happens when all students are forced to present their work in the same way?

Our students must present their portfolio work in a 2-inch, 2-ring, white binder with the see through cover. They can decorate the cover and choose which pieces of work to go inside, but that’s about it (although as the IT teacher, I’m allowed the special privilege of having my students create an electronic portfolio – which they then must burn onto a CD to put into the binder). Everyone fits into a white, 2-ring binder, right? Just like Will’s family gets such great use out of the weekly Friday Folder…

So, I mentioned in a faculty meeting that a white binder full of paper may not be the most authentic way for our students to share their achievements with their parents. In order for our students to feel empowered, to really relate to, and understand the process of, creating a portfolio, perhaps they might enjoy presenting it in a different format? Perhaps, even, a format of their choosing?

The next day I shared this story with my homeroom class. I was hoping to hear some of their ideas for how they might want to present their portfolios. However, one of my most wonderful students carefully explained to me that the reason we have the binders is to prepare students for job interviews. You know, when they go to an employer with their paper resume and samples of their paper work in a binder.

She was so enthusiastic about this “simulation of real life” that I hated to burst her bubble when I explained that I have gotten all of my jobs through my electronic presence – my blogs, my websites, etc.

I asked her: “if I was just invited to interview for my new job as a result of my professional blog demonstrating my skills, mind-set, and experience; how impressed do you think an employer will be when – 10 years from now – you show up with a binder?”

And the light-bulb goes on.

Is anyone else struggling with this one-size-fits all circa 1988 portfolio issue? If not, what kind of authentic methods do you use to help your students simulate the “real world”?

Image 1: http://www.officedepot.com/pictures/SK/MD/396291_sk_md.jpg
Image 2: http://www.immediart.com/catalog/images/big_images/
SPL_R_T194428-Coloured_X-ray_of_an_electric_light_bulb-SPL.jpg

My eighth grade students just spent two class lessons working as a Sounding Board for the The Horizon Project – another fantastic collaboration with Julie Lindsay, Vicki Davis, Vienna International School, Presbyterian Ladies College and Shanghai American School (check out our finished work on our class wiki).

This particular group of students has been through an excellent international collaboration and this was a great way to demonstrate that other students are participating in the same kinds of projects all around the world.

After going through the process of learning about the trends and then reviewing and evaluating the projects in progress, they shared some of their thoughts:

About technology:

• they discovered how technology might be used – once it’s potential is unlocked
• they explored how technology can enhance education
• they determined that all technology will be simpler, yet will do more advanced things

About what will happen to education:

• everything (including school) is going to go digital
• school will be more complex – more authentic
• the concept of international schools and regular schools will not exist, because everyone will be connected

and my personal favorite:

• school would be better because you’d be preparing more for your future life

An excellent part of the project was the section where students were asked to pose 3 questions that arose from their reading. Here are a few of my favorites:

• How will people in the near future use these user created content pages if half the world is in poverty, and hardly any of the schools in those areas have computers?
• Will the older generations like it if or accept it if user created content pages become more liked by the student body and are used frequently for various reasons?
• How can social networking help and not turn it into some place for chit-chat like mypace, facebook, friendster, hi5?

We are so lucky to be a part of this amazing project. Sometimes it’s hard to explain to colleagues, students, parents, and administrators why what global collaboration is important. Being able to share projects like this help validate what I do in my classroom and help inspire teachers and students to try something new. My eighth grade class and I send a huge virtual thank you to the Horizon Project coordinators for allowing us to take part!

Image: http://thankyou.org.uk/thank-you-card.jpg