always learning

One of the issues that comes up again and again in our CoETaIL program is the “essential technology skills” that all of our students (and teachers) need to know. Now, I have to admit, I usually have a hard time with this idea, because it often comes with a list of skills like: bullets in Word, formulas in Excel or animations in PowerPoint. Basically all the things I’ve been trying to de-emphasize in favor of bigger, more wider-reaching concepts like collaboration across distances, communicating ideas to multiple audiences, or creating something new using technology tools.

Sure, you need to know how to add bullets – but you should learn how when you’re writing a list (“just in time“), not for the sake of knowing “just in case” you might need it. So, it was very interesting to me when our conversation in our last course took a turn to something I can really relate to – rather than the list of standard MS Office “skills” that were all the rage in the 1990s (with the previous edition of the NET*S), but those almost unidentifiable skills that frequent computer users just seem to take for granted. Things like:

• knowing to hold your mouse over an icon or a link to see what it does.
• understanding that the menus for any program are at the top of the screen, that they are usually very similar, and generally what you find within them (for example: “view” usually means how you see things on the screen and that menu is found in almost every program).
• recognizing when something is lit up (or underlined) on a website, you can click on it.
• knowing that the cursor changes when held over different parts of the screen and what that means (the little arrow turning into a hand over a weblink for example, or being able to stretch out a picture when it turns into the double-sided arrow).
• using tab to move from cell to cell or box to box on forms or websites.
• being able to recognize drop-down menus – and that they hold additional features.
• understanding that right clicking on things brings up more options.

These are things that are common from program to program as well as on multiple operating systems. They’re not specific tasks that you only use once in a while, they’re things we do every day, and those that are comfortable with these skills often find learning new technology tools a lot easier than those that are not. It’s like these skills are part of a special language that we can speak in order to understand how to interact in any given technology-based environment.

What’s especially interesting about these little, seemingly meaningless, skills is that they truly are transferrable and haven’t changed much over time – they’re certainly not dependent on a specific version of software. Unfortunately, despite their consistency, they often cause a lot of confusion for people who aren’t really comfortable with technology.

But here’s the thing: how many of these kinds of skills are there? Is there some kind of list? Because it’s almost impossible to think of all of them once they become second nature. Yet it’s easy to see how much people struggle when they haven’t learned them or don’t “see” them when they’re using technology. Even when we support people who are new to technology, we almost expect that they can see these small clues the computer gives us, in fact, they become implicit in our understanding of how to use a computer.

We simply expect people to know why the mouse and cursor change shape and what the shapes mean, or that you can figure out how to do pretty much anything by checking the help menu in any program, or that you need to highlight something before being able to change that item because that’s how you “tell” the computer what you want to change. These have become intuitive skills for those of us that use technology regularly, but unfortunately not knowing them has become an obstacle for others to overcome.

How can we make these simple and far reaching technology skills explicit?

A few weeks ago, I was in a grade 2 classroom demonstrating VoiceThread for a quick and easy science project. Based on our conversation in CoETaIL from the day before, I wanted to see what the second graders knew about these basic skills, so I spent a few minutes of my lesson specifically highlighting the many ways which the computer gives us “clues” about what to do.

First, when we logged into VoiceThread, we looked all around the screen to see if we could figure out how to make our own VoiceThread based on the options. It took them a few tries to understand that the “Create” button was telling us that this is the place where we can create our own Thread.

Once we got to the create screen, I asked them if they could tell me where to start. Again, it took a few tries, but once they realized the Upload button was the only one they could press, I asked them how they could know that in the future. They figured out that it was the only button in color, and it was the only button that, when you moused over it, turned the mouse into the shape of a hand.

We basically went on like this throughout the process of creating a VoiceThread. To be honest, I thought all of those “signs” would be blatantly obvious to these 7-year old students, who have grown up with computer games, but they weren’t. As soon as we pointed them out, it was clear to see that they made sense and that with continued discussion, they would become second-nature. But again, who’s going to be having this discussion with them if their teachers aren’t comfortable with these implicit skills either?

Not that I’m looking to make another old-school list of standards, but what else would you put on the list of implicit tech skills like these? Do you teach them in your school?

Sunflowers by marcomagrini
Key Blanks by Ben Oh
Steps by two more days

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been two full years since I taught my own technology classes. Of course I’ve done all sorts of co-planning and co-teaching in the last couple of years at ISB, but it’s certainly not the same as having your own group of students to work with. So, this year, in my new role of Middle School Technology and Learning Coordinator, I am thrilled to be back in the classroom, teaching our one middle school IT class – a sixth grade quarter-long exploratory course – for just one quarter this year. With the end of the semester quickly approaching, we’re almost finished with our ‘big project’, so I thought I’d share it here.

Given that I’m only teaching one section of this class (and my colleagues Ross, Matt and Jean are teaching the others), I felt it was important to keep the content as consistent as possible, but of course, I couldn’t resist transforming the process of how we would learn that content, along with the finished product that we would use to demonstrate our learning. As can be expected, since this is the first time I’ve taught this particular class in this particular way, there are a few things I would change for next time around, but overall, I think it turned out pretty well.

Basically the course is intended to teach the “basics” of Microsoft Office (you know the course, you probably taught it back in the 1990′s like I did when I was first teaching). So, considering the content, I tried to develop a project-based unit that would emphasize independent learning (since so many of the students would probably already know the basics), as well as allow them to share what they’ve learned in an authentic environment, and utilize some new technology tools in a creative way.

As usual, I followed the Understanding by Design model to plan the unit and the MYP Technology Design Cycle to break down the stages of the project into manageable chunks. Basically, what we’re working towards is a shared wiki with student-created tutorials on all of the MS Office basics (inspired by Chad Bates, our fantastic tech director who taught the class last year and experimented with the tutorial idea with his class) and an overview of digital citizenship, which we will share with the entire middle school as a resource for their potential technology needs.

Here’s what it looks like:

Established Goals (ISTE NETS Standards)

2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:

a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.

4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students:

b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:

d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

6. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems and operations. Students:

b. select and use applications effectively and productively.
d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

Enduring Understandings:
Students will understand that:

• Responsible digital citizens demonstrated shared characteristics, habits and attitudes.
• We can work together to teach others what we have learned.
• We can use web 2.0 tools to collaborate and communicate with a global audience.

Essential Questions:

• What are the characteristics, habits and attitudes of a responsible digital citizen?
• How can we work together to teach others about responsible digital citizenship?
• How can we collaborate and communicate with others online?

Assessment Evidence

GRASPS Task

• Goal: Your goal is to produce a multimedia handbook about basic technology tools and digital citizenship for ISB elementary students.
• Role: You are a team of student leaders at ISB.
• Audience: Elementary students at ISB, and around the world.
• Situation: You will need to collaborate together to produce a thorough, easy to understand, multimedia tutorial wiki about basic technology tools and digital citizenship for a school and worldwide audience.
• Product/Performance: Your wiki must demonstrate everything that you have learned about digital citizenship and basic technology tools this quarter.

Six Facets of Understanding:

• Explain: Produce a screencast tutorial about how to use a specific technology feature in MS Office.
• Apply: As a team, create a multimedia handbook about digital citizenship for ISB elementary students.
• Interpret: As part of your presentation to ISB elementary students, write a skit to demonstrate your understanding of digital citizenship.
• Perspective: Develop and deliver a lesson to ISB elementary students presenting all facets of responsible digital citizenship.
• Self-Knowledge: On your blog, describe what you know about digital citizenship. At the end of the course, go back to your first post and reflect on what you’ve learned. What more do you need to learn?
• Empathize: On your blog, write a post in the perspective of one of the characters in the public service announcements. Reflect on the events of that day and how they made you feel.

And here’s how I broke it down into the stages of the MYP Technology Design Cycle:

Investigate

During the first part of the project, we spent most of our class time exploring different types tutorials and determining what the criteria are for a quality tutorial. To get the discussion started, we watched and critiqued the first one (on adding a survey in Moodle) as a class. Then, they had class (and homework) time to watch at least 2 other tutorials from the list below (or a different tutorial that they found and shared with the class):

• Adding a chart in Google Docs
• How to draw realistic eyes
• Student Sample from last year
• Discussion Settings in WP
• RSS in Plain English
• VoiceThread tutorial
• Switch to Mac

For each tutorial they watched, they added a response to the Moodle discussion forum answering the following questions:

• What did the creator of this tutorial do well?
• What would you change about this tutorial?
• What aspects of this tutorial would you like to include in your own tutorial?

In the end, we came up with a list (as a class) of criteria for a good tutorial that all students will be assessed with at the end of the project. Then, because we had so many different skills to create tutorials on, I asked students to form groups based on the tutorials we needed (this list was based on the course curriculum I was given). Finally, each student wrote a blog post reflecting on what they learned in that section of the project , which tutorial they had chosen to create and why, and what they need to learn to complete their tutorial.

The next time I teach this course, I would also add some exploration time with ScreenRecorder and MovieMaker (and maybe even GarageBand) since we ended up doing quite a lot more editing than I thought we would. I would also add in brainstorming time for students to create a mini-storyline for their tutorial to help give them focus and to make the tutorials a little more interesting.

Plan

During the planning, students created a storyboard and script of their tutorial, keeping in mind all of the criteria we developed during the investigate stage. We focused on: making the tutorial understandable by anyone (even people who are not in our class), using simple and clear directions, including a basic introduction and credits, and changing the view and “zoom” on the screen to keep the tutorial interesting. Once the students completed their storyboard and script, they posted it on their individual blog along with a reflection on this part of the project.

Create

At this point, students have a good idea of what their tutorial will look like and exactly what steps they need to take to complete their tutorial. They spent a little bit of time exploring with the SmartNotebook SmartRecorder (which happens to be our only screencasting software available to students), after watching this tutorial created by Matt, and then got right down to the recording.

Aside from some serious Windows-related drama about recording volume (oh how I miss working in a Mac lab), it really only took one lesson for the students to record their complete screencast. Of course, they all wanted to add the extra features, so we brought their screencasts into MovieMaker and started adding the finishing touches. Once they had their introductions and credits, it was time to add background music. Since we have access to a smaller Mac lab, we spent one lesson exploring with GarageBand to create simple (and original) background tracks.

As each student finished their tutorial, they did a peer assessment based on the class criteria. Once they had feedback from their peers, they had time to edit and fix any issues with their completed tutorial. After they were satisfied, they uploaded their finished tutorial to YouTube, embedded it in a blog post and reflected on their finished product.

Evaluate

For the last few days of the project, we spent some time determining which aspects of the ISB Definition of Learning we achieved throughout the process of completing our tutorials:

I used a simple checklist to get students thinking about which aspect of learning they met during each stage, then they shared their results with a peer knowing that they would be asked to share 1 or 2 ideas with the whole class, and then we had a whole class reflection. Finally, they wrote a personal reflection as a blog post.

Here are a few highlights from what they shared with me during the whole class-reflection:

• We learned a lot having to do our tutorials independently instead of being directly taught each skill. This way we learned it when we needed it and as we were doing our project, which helps us remember how to do it.
• We learned more by being able to test out the tools by ourselves and helping each other than by having the teacher teach us everything together.
• We would have preferred to do one single blog post at the end of the project reflecting on everything, instead of one for each stage.
• By writing a blog post at the end of each stage, we really reinforced everything we learned during that stage.
• We learned a lot about what makes a good blog post from having to write so many.
• We learned about ISB’s Blogging Guidelines and how to write a blog post with just the right kind of information.
• We learned how to be independent in our projects, but we liked having the checklists and all the steps broken down for us.
• We would have liked the steps to be broken down into even smaller chunks so we could meet our deadlines better.
• We learned that we can use websites and YouTube to learn new things and to teach other people things that we know.

Putting it all together

I waited until the last three weeks of class to have the students start compiling the wiki because I really didn’t know how long it would take to complete the tutorials. So now we’ll spend the next few days putting the finishing touches on the wiki and publicizing it around the middle school so that other students can learn from our work.

We also have a collaborating class in the US who are doing something very similar, except using the Mac version of all of these applications. We’re hoping that they will finish their tutorials before the end of our semester so we can also include them on our wiki and have a brief discussion about the transferability of skills from one platform to another.

We’ll also use this time to discuss digital citizenship and online safety and responsibility to be able to add those sections to the wiki. If we have time, I would love to do something in one or two elementary classrooms to share what we’ve learned  with an authentic audience (that can always use some reinforcement about appropriate online behavior).

Final Thoughts

Considering that I really didn’t have a good idea of how long it would take students to complete this type of tutorial – especially in a PC lab working with MovieMaker (my old enemy), I’m quite impressed with how things turned out. I was so happy to see how much the students learned in this very project-based course. I did very little direct instruction, even though some of the screencasting and editing tools were completely new to most students. It was a pleasure to see how much they appreciated being able to learn independently and to create something new with their knowledge.

Next time I would really like to add a more in-depth collaborative element – having our global partners do the peer assessment instead of simply within our class, potentially sharing more directly via our blog posts, and maybe coming up with some kind of collaborative lesson for our elementary classrooms that could involve multimedia elements (or a Skype connection) from our partner class. Of course, this is all dependent on timing, commitment and logistics. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to teach this course again to make it even better!

Last weekend I was honored to present a session at the Bridging the Gap conference at Yokohama International School in Japan. YIS has hosted this community conference annually since 2001, and the topic for this year was “The Future of Education: Using Its Tools Today.” The three day conference included formal sessions led by teachers from YIS, other international schools and keynote presenter, Chris Toy, as well as a full day of BarCamp unconference sessions. It was a great opportunity to dialogue about the way schools may look in the near future with not only teachers and administrators, but also parents and students.

One interesting topic of discussion came up on Saturday: an administrator asked me if we should be expecting classroom teachers to teach technology, to be responsible for this additional subject along with their standard course material. Basically the question was about the value of technology as an integrated subject (with all teachers responsible for the instruction) versus a discrete course (with one or two specialists responsible for the instruction). Interestingly, I haven’t really had this conversation in a while, since ISB had adopted an integrated approach before I even arrived three years ago, but it certainly was a hot topic in both KL and Munich where I was part of the transition process from stand-alone IT courses to an integrated model.

Having developed and implemented an integrated technology program from scratch in two schools and expanded an existing program here at ISB, I firmly believe that technology is best taught within the context of the core curriculum. The natural use of authentic technology within the classroom setting, just like the way we use paper and pencil without any second thoughts, is always what I’m striving for.

A good analogy might be the way that over the past decade or two, classroom teachers have become more accustomed to the idea of differentiating for English language learners – especially in international schools, where often the majority of the class are not native English speakers. I have heard many administrators say “we are all ESL teachers,” with the expectation that no matter what subject we teach, we must ensure that all students are engaged with material that’s comprehensible to them. In all of the schools I’ve worked at, we’ve had extensive professional development in this area, and the consensus in education seems to be that if you’re a teacher in a linguistically diverse class, it is your responsibility to employ some of the professional strategies of an ESL teacher, even if you yourself are a Math, Social Studies, Science, etc teacher.  At this point, we’re all comfortable with the fact that we can’t simply give oral instructions, or that new vocabulary should be introduced in context, or that certain students might need more time to understand directions and perform certain tasks.

Maybe now it’s time to say “we are all technology teachers.”

I certainly understand that this is not a change that will happen overnight. Much like the move towards more ELL friendly instruction, teachers will need to learn appropriate skills, strategies and approaches to authentically and successfully embed technology within their core subject. Of course, this will take time, and during this transition, in my opinion, it’s the responsibility of the technology facilitator (or coordinator or integration specialist or whatever they may be called) to help their colleagues build their understanding of successful technology-rich teaching practices.

Often my colleague, Jeff, likes to say that his goal is to “work himself out of a job” by building teacher skill level to the point where they don’t need him anymore. Although I would agree that this is also my ultimate goal, I am conscious of the speed with which technology changes, and I’m not sure that we will ever get to the point where schools will no longer need some sort of pedagogical support in the technology field. After all, most schools still have ESL specialists, even though many of their practices are adopted by mainstream teachers.

Similarly, most ESL programs have a mix of in-class and pull-out support – blending the best of both approaches to ensure that all students are learning and understanding both the language and the curricular content. Although I firmly believe technology should be embedded within classroom practice, I also see a place for discrete technology classes – especially when they are designed with a curricular context that enhances the learning in core subjects, or when they emphasis the process of learning how to learn with technology, or when they offer a specialized skill for students that are highly interested (like graphic design or Flash animation).

The important thing to remember, is that even if there are seperate technology courses offered at a school, that doesn’t mean that those classes are the only place where students learn with technology. To continue to use the ESL anology one last time, a student who has a pull-out intensive ESL course isn’t excused from using the English language in all of their other classes simply because they attend a class that focuses on language. Students and teachers should expect that technology will naturally be a part of every class.

What do you think? Should all teachers be technology teachers?

I’ve had a lot of success this year utilizing the Understanding by Design model for my technology integration planning, but I have one more secret weapon: the MYP Technology Design Cycle.

Before I moved to Malaysia I spent five years teaching at Munich International School in Germany, which is a full IB school – from the Primary Years Program (PYP) all the way up to the Diploma Program (DP). During that time I really came to enjoy working with the Middle Years Program (MYP), and especially the Technology Design Cycle (TDC). The structure of the Design Cycle helps formalize the natural process that we go through when creating a product: Investigate, Plan, Create, and Evaluate.

A Recipe for Success

Students (and adults), especially when working with technology, tend to leap before they look – jumping right into the creating of the actual product before they think about what they would like it to look like, and what sorts of design elements and features are important in the final product.  By following the Technology Design Cycle, students are forced to take the time to investigate and plan before they begin creating. This gives them the opportunity to really understand what they want to accomplish with their finished product and how they will go about creating that product.

One of the best parts about combining the Design Cycle and the UbD model of curriculum planning is that by giving students an authentic goal to complete, and an organized structure in which to operate, they can complete their tasks almost entirely independently, working and learning at their own pace, helping each other when they get stuck, exploring different ways of completing the task, and discovering new skills along the way.

The Design Cycle Process

One example of a successful project that integrates the UbD model of curriculum planning and the MYP Technology Design Cycle is my seventh grade IT class project: the students were asked to design and create a logo that represents themselves in collaboration with students in the United States.

Upon completion of the logo, the students were asked to design a tutorial for the software application they used so that the other group of students could learn about both applications. Finally, they created an electronic portfolio presenting everything they had learned for the quarter. All of this was accomplished in our 9-week exploratory class.

Each stage of the Design Cycle is structured specifically so that students were able to develop the skills they needed to create their final logo:

Investigate

• What aspects of myself are import to include in a personal logo?
• What are the design features of an excellent logo?
• What are the technical skills students need to create a logo in Macromedia FreeHand?

During this stage of the project students used Inspiration to brainstorm aspects of their personality that they would like to include in a logo. Things like favorite colors, hobbies, and concepts that represent their individual personality. They then spent a lesson researching excellent logos online to determine what criteria are necessary in every good logo. Once they had compiled their individual research we completed a think-pair-share in partners, and then as a class to come up with a specific list of criteria that would later be used to grade their final logos. Next they worked through a jigsaw to investigate one major aspect of the software application. Once each group was confident in their area of expertise, the groups were re-organized so that there was one member from each group to teach their new colleagues how to use that part of the application. Eventually we went over all of the skills as a group to ensure that everyone understood all aspects of the tool they would need to use. Finally they reflected on the process so far and determined what they needed to learn next to make sure they would be able to complete their logo.

Plan

• How can I utilize the design criteria to design an effective logo that represents me?

In this stage, students drew at least three different rough draft ideas for a logo using colored pencil and paper. They were encouraged to make their designs as unique as possible and required to track how well they met the design criteria that were determined in the Investigate stage. Once they had enough designs to choose from they selected their design, determined which tools in the FreeHand they would need to use to create this logo, and justified their design choice.

Create

• Using my plan and the design criteria, how can I create my logo using what I know about FreeHand?

Next students spent several lessons actually creating their logo on FreeHand. Having access to their brainstorm, design criteria and plans from the previous stages of the design cycle meant that they can work almost entirely independently to create their final logo. Once their design is finished they reflect on what they did well and what they would like to do better next time around.

Now that they truly understood all of the skills required to create an excellent logo, they split into groups to create an online tutorial using our wikispace. Their goal was to create a well designed site where students new to FreeHand could learn how to create a logo in the simplest possible way. If I had more time, I would have had them investigate other tutorials and plan out their own space, but due to the limited number of lessons I could allow, I helped them structure the space effectively.

Finally, they used the skills they learned from creating the tutorial to create their electronic portfolio directly on the wiki. The portfolio is a final presentation of all that they had learned during the quarter.

Evaluate

• What have I learned?

The last step was to step back and look at the process from the beginning – before they new anything about logo design or FreeHand – and reflect on what they’ve learned.

Working through this process ensures that students have the skills that they need, when they need them. Each stage is carefully designed so that it builds on the previous step. In the end, even the most cautious and nervous students are able to complete their final project almost entirely independently. They may start the quarter thinking that they “only know how to play games” or that “the computer doesn’t like them” or that they just don’t “do computers.” But when they are given the opportunity to work through the TDC, by the end of the project they almost always feel empowered and excited about working with technology.

One Example of Success

This past quarter I’ve had an especially wonderful experience with one of my seventh grade students, Arjun. Before our class started he worked on the 1001 Flat World Tales project in English class. One day he was finishing work after school and he seemed very upset. I sat down and talked about the project with him and discovered that he felt totally confused, he had no idea how to work with the wikispace and he was starting to panic about getting his work done. It turns out that his partner had done most of the work during class, and now that he had to complete his section, he was totally overwhelmed. We spent some time working through it, but I knew that he would be quite anxious about coming to IT the following quarter.

Which is why I was actually moved to tears when I read his final evaluation. Some of my favorite parts are:

“In the Investigate part, I made a very organized and detailed brainstorm that I thought impossible for me at first. I later discovered that it is a mind set that I don’t know “anything” and that I can do almost anything if I set my mind to it.”

“…the project taught me how to work more independently and navigate around the website and FreeHand myself. It was more fun to discover things yourself which is the opposite of what I thought in the begining of this unit. So… I am not only happy with my finished work during this project, but also how it has changed me and what I learned while working on this unit.”

My goal as a middle school teacher is to empower students with technology, to teach them how to learn with technology, and to ensure that when they leave my classroom they are confident that they can handle anything that comes their way. Every year I have a number of students that are hesitant with technology. They arrive to my class thinking that technology is scary and that they can’t do anything on the computer except play games. I love those students! I love the challenge, and most of all, I love the feeling of success at the end of the quarter when those students realize that they too can be an expert with technology. It’s not something to be afraid of, it’s fun, exciting and much easier than they think. Working through the Technology Design Cycle allows me to help my students reach that goal every time!

Image 1: http://www.myptechnology.com/sitefiles/DesignCycleQuestions.htm
Image 2: http://www.sinomedia.net/eurobiz/images/story-photo0607.jpg
Image 3: http://homeharvest.com/homeharvest2000pics/HandsHoldingSeedling.jpg
Image 4:

http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/baby_steps_up_small.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

My classroom in changing… Every day when my students come to class they have a to-do list on the white board. The list used to say things like:

• Continue your iMovie project
  • Import all images and video clips
  • Add titles to group your images/video
  • Add effects

Now, my list says something like this:

• Continue your iMovie project
  • Use the checklist of steps to work at your own pace
• Check the wiki for new discussion items from our collaborative partners in New Zealand
  • Reply to any active discussions and start new discussions as needed.
• Check the YackPack for messages from our collaborative partners in New Zealand
  • Reply to any messages and leave new messages as needed.
• Continue posting work for your online portfolio

I want to add things like:

• Check the Skype “center” to see if anyone from NZ is online.
  • Conduct at least one video chat with someone from our partner class.
• Check your blog for comments from your partner classes.
  • Respond and comment as appropriate.
• Check your RSS reader to see if anyone in your partner classes have posted anything new.
  • Leave comments on anything interesting or relevant that you find.
• Check your social network for any new forum topics, chats, or media that have been posted.
  • Reply and initiate discussions as appropriate.

What kinds of routines do you have in your class? What else can we be doing to communicate, contribute, and learn from our personal learning networks?

We had our second video conference with our partner class in New Zealand last Thursday – and this time I remembered to take pictures!

There were a few things we learned last time around that helped make this conference a little smoother:

• Set up a “hot seat” right in front of the video camera so that students are automatically framed perfectly in the video feed.
• If you have one, a good quality microphone makes a huge difference.
• Arrange seating so that all students can easily come up to the video/mic without having to push through a forest of legs. We found that a max of two seats next to each other was right, and a large aisle helped students easily move between their seat and the front of the room.
• After the conference is finished, keep track of the conversations for future reference.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their second conference and were able to get to know their collaborators a little bit better this time around. They especially appreciated being able to put a face to a name and finding common interests with their partners in NZ.

Some background info:

These conferences take us about a half hour – we always make sure that every student has a chance to say something to the group. The set-up takes me about 5 minutes and consists of having the students move their chairs to one side of the room, turning the computer around, turning the projector and speakers on, and clicking on the “call” button. An interesting fact I forgot to mention in my last post about our video conferences is that the class in NZ has a Windows PC and we’re using a Mac – so Windows to Mac Skype video is no problem at all.

An idea for the future:

Next time I’d like to make the video conference more like a “center” in the classroom, and have it open and running in one corner of the room so students can chat one on one, without having the whole class watching. Now that they know each other a little better, they can focus on collaborating on their work, while still utilizing this exciting new tool.

This quarter I have been focusing on setting up all of my IT exploratory (9-week, introductory) classes with international partners. My sixth grade students are thoroughly enjoying collaborating with our partner classroom in New Zealand and my seventh grade class has just started communicating with Mr. James’ class in Texas. Last but not least, my eighth grade class is a Sounding Board for The Horizon Project.

The interesting thing about these global collaborations is that the students are not only picking up the new tools quicker each time, but that they are coming to expect new, exciting, international scope to everything we do. They are no longer surprised to arrive to class to find me talking to an empty classroom (because I’m chatting on Skype with another colleague), they aren’t jumping out of their seats with excitement (well, not as much as they used to) when we video conference, and they don’t even bat an eye when I show them something new and exciting like YackPack. These are the tools they are expecting me to use. These are the tools I need to use to engage them. They’re clearly ready and waiting for all of their teachers to catch up….

I’m curious, what are you doing to create engaging projects for your students?

Just a few days after I posted about the wonders of YackPack (and a few small disadvantages), I received a very nice (unsolicited) e-mail from their Chief Technology Officer, Michael. He had read my post wishing for multiple administrators for YackPack and offered to test it out on our current project. Within 24 hours we had multiple admin set up and were ready to roll. Now that’s what I call service!

My wonderful collaborative partner shared this very cool new tool with me today. Basically, YackPack allows you to set up a private (real-time and asynchronous) audio chat group using only an internet browser. By the time I had arrived at work this morning, Chrissy had a chat widget set up right on our wikispace. So, I registered for an account, created a “pack” and we were audio chatting in a matter of seconds. Considering that she’s in New Zealand and I’m in Malaysia, anything that brings us closer together is fantastic.

Now, I know this sounds a lot like Skype, but I think this is going to provide some huge advantages for us because:

• No additional software or downloads are required. Students can access our YackPack from any computer with an internet connection. Plus it’s directly embedded into our wikispace so there’s no extra web address to remember. How easy!
• In addition to chatting live, you can leave voice messages for any of the users (one, several, or all of them at once). Our 5 hour time difference makes it somewhat difficult to set up Skype conferences, so this will allow us to have “conversations” whenever we have the time. If I wanted to, I could leave a voice message for every student collaborating on this project to receive whenever they log in.
• Students can chat and leave messages with each other individually. So far we’ve only been using 1 Skype account per class – meaning everyone had to be in on the discussion at once. Now we can have many conversations happing in real-time or asynchronously whenever we want.
• The group is entirely private – you have to be logged in and invited to the group to see our “pack.”
• It feels like a community – the visual set-up of the group makes it feel like an actual group – instead of just a list of people.

It’s not perfect though… So far I can tell that I don’t like:

• There seems to be no way to have multiple organizers – it would be much easier if each of us could manage our own class.
• The visual appearance of the “pack” is small – we have so many members that I had to reduce everyone to the outer edges to be able to see them all without overlapping – and I haven’t even added my class yet!
• Even though I love audio chat, it would be nice to have a text chat option embedded in the same window – instead we’ll probably have to use Meebo or another text chat widget.

Even with these minor drawbacks, I would have loved to use this tool for our International Teen Life project or for the 1001 Flat World Tales project – hearing a voice definitely adds that personal touch. I can imagine students narrating bits of their story, asking for feedback and hearing their collaborative partner in Serbia, Canada or the US respond – no concerns over time differences or software. Hello YackPack!