Tech2Go

I read about Pangea Day (5/10/08) in a posting by Karl Fisch, but the concept seems outstanding. Bring together global perspectives for a day of storytelling through film. I don’t know how many films were submitted but the site is going to narrow it down to their top 24. See the Pangea Day site at http://www.pangeaday.org/index.php for more details.

It looks like something worth exploring! I know I’m going to…Dave

This post is really a collection of resources that we’ll be using with a group of teachers during a professional learning experience. Maybe I’ll collect some of the stories and add them to a future post?

The guy that started it all, Dana Atchley, had an untimely death. Others have kept his work alive and these “older examples” are still some of the strongest digital stories we have. Visit his Next Exit site and do a little exploring  http://www.nextexit.com/drivein/driveinframeset.html

Examples
Here are some other digital story links to help you get a sense of what this process can produce for you and your students:
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listdigitalpe.html#cat1
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/ProDev/BAWP/OaklandUSD/OLA/ProDev_Summer06/
http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/ProDev/RCWP/DS2006/
http://www.storycenter.org/canada/index.html
http://storiesforchange.net/
http://www.digitales.us/

Music and images are so vital to the production! Here are a few sites to help you find royalty-free media. I can’t list these links without a short soapbox rant - it’s always best to create your own sounds, music, images, and other media!! OK now (without added guilt) feel free to browse through these links:

Music & Sound Effects
Music in Production Library format. Dave’s favorite “canned music” site (if you don;t have Garage Band to create your own) http://www.freeplaymusic.com/
Sound Dogs used to have free samples, but QT Pro may be needed to capture the samples now http://www.sounddogs.com/

Images
ImageBase at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco http://www.famsf.org/
http://www.bigfoto.com/
http://www.freeimages.com/

 Here’s a PDF file of a Storyboard Template used by Dana Atchley to help others create digital stories. This kind of scaffolding can be considered a pre-production, and production tool.

I’ve been convinced for quite some time that it’s our underlying beliefs that drive our classroom practices. Dennis Sparks, National Staff Development Council, spent the last few years of his tenure promoting just how important reflection on our beliefs is. In addition to many other researchers I know this is true from my own experiences, and my interactions with professional staff and graduate students.

My observed outcomes of “belief transformation” means I’ve been willing to engage in the challenging work of examining and shaping beliefs - even though it tends to move at a pace that is frustrating and maddening for those of us seeking reform. But I’m committed to classrooms, and teachers, that demonstrate a belief in student-centered learning.

A recent article in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, an ISTE publication, helped me step back and consider the way beliefs are shaped and changed. It presents evidence that raises a sort of “chicken or egg” question. 

Authors Sung Park and Peggy Ertmer conclude that, “Changes in intended teaching practices may be an important first step in changing teachers’ beliefs regarding technology use and future teaching practices” (p. 259). This is an encouraging finding for anyone working with classroom teachers. Their finding aligns with conclusions from my own research that suggest the context (institutional expectation, opportunity for reflection, shared stories, etc) is perhaps the most critical element of technology integration in learning systems.

I know this is a rather “intellectual post”, but maybe that’s the contrast I’m trying to illustrate. We can engage in the intellectual work, examine beliefs and analyze research without waiting to engage in solid classroom practices. And perhaps doing them hand-in-hand will actually result in the faster adoption and authentic use of meaningful integration practices? This dual approach has short-term and long-term implications for the learning environments our teachers design for students.

It’s been a while between posts (at least here on Tech2Go) for me, but I reached a point today when I just had to write down some of what’s been running through my mind.

Although Willard Daggett advises “evolution, not revolution” I want change to come quickly! I know this will not be the case, so what I really want is to invest time, energy and resources in a manner that produces an authentic difference in what we do.

 That leads me to the notion of how we spend our “curricular energy”. I wonder if we’re putting tremendous effort in the wrong direction. If US students suddenly surged to become the highest math achievers of any nation in the world would they have any better chance of landing a job when competing in a global economy? As professor Young Zhao asked in a conference in July, “what knowledge is most valuable?”. I parapharse the question for the title of this post.

Seymour Papert points to the same issue in The Children’s Machine: Rethinking School In The Age Of The Computer. On page 63 he observes, “Progressive educators do not see themselves as offering an alternative way for students to learn the same list of items of knowledge. They value a different kind of knowledge.”

Before I get a record number of (angry) comments I want to acknowledge the tension between core curriculum and 21st century skills/knowledge. I am not saying we should suddenly abandon our core curriculum (not completely anyway). I’m saying we have tipped the balance heavily in it’s favor - for far too long. Depth, not breadth, is a must!

So what do you know? What kinds of knowledge matter most? How can our outdated, yet deeply entrenched, system of curriculum and schooling respond to students in a relevant way? How can we create schools that will help our students to thrive in the years ahead?

It’s been a little quiet on the blog lately! As a new academic year begins the amount of reflection time (ironically) often diminishes. I am very excited, however, to be part of a move in my own district to examine integration of technology in a way that steps outside the notion of “direct instruction” for tech skills.

We are re-aligning the grades of our middle and high schools, and this provides an opportunity to develop a revised program of study. All this background to pose a question for our conversation…

What should an 8th grader be able to know and do with technology when they exit our middle school?

 ISTE’s National Educational Standards for Students (NETSS) provide a great framework, but I’m interested in the less formal, in-the-trenches answer that you might have in mind. Our digital natives are bringing increased skills to the table, how will we respond?

I really like some of the tools Google has been developing, and I appreciate their recognition that educators have special considerations to take into account as they work with students. Visit the Google For Educators page to get some great ideas.

A new Google tool I recently discovered (and can’t wait to share with our staff) is the custom search engine. You decide which URLs are being searched when your students enter their keywords. This is great for elementary grades, or a secondary class that has a specific project or topic to explore!

If you’re like me the two words quick and muse are not often thought of in the same sentence. Incubation of an idea can take a long time. The resource I have to show you today might change your mind about the creative process.

I found about this site from the Head Of Class section in Edutopia. What I like most is how QuickMuse makes the process so visible to students. I looked at a Poem Playback from Rick Chess. Very cool.

I hope the QuickMuse site will inspire you to get creative with your students’ writing - or your own teaching. As always, I look forward to your thoughts, reactions, and responses.

Our student authors share their experiences by writing uses and reviews of handheld software that have become mainstays in our classroom. In our articles, hopefully you’ll discover about the handheld app., how to use it, the educational benefits, and a critique by our students through a variety of criteria. If you’ve had some experience with any of the applications shared, we’d welcome your additions to our digital ramblings.

I suspect You Tube, My Space and other Web 2.0 tools will be blocked by most K-12 school systems for the foreseeable future. That statement is worthy of a discussion by itself, but for now I mention it only as a backdrop for the site I recently discovered. I found out about TeacherTube through a posting at the Speed of Creativity site.

TeacherTube appears to keep the best notions of motion video, collaboration, and knowledge sharing and package it in a moderated context for a school audience. TeacherTube certainly holds out a broad challenge in their slogan, Teach the World. I resonate with the notion that we can change our world, but I’d be ecstatic to just change our K-12 system in the United States.

It’s unlikely that our students will abandon You Tube, but at least while we’re in school we can access similar resources for our own learning. I’ll be searching the site for some great examples. Maybe I’ll make my contribution to teach the world and post something on TeacherTube myself?

I found out about a great site from Joyce Valenza today! Although I’ve used some nice applications to convert video, or capture video from web pages, each has been a commercial package or shareware.

Zamzar does the conversion for free and emails the resulting file directly to you as an attachment. The 100MB file limit is more than reasonable, and the conversion options are plentiful - including .mov and .wmv options for video files.

The site will convert all sorts of media files, but the feature that really piqued my interest was the news that Zamzar will convert YouTube movies! I suspect your district is like mine - YouTube, MySpace, Google Images, etc. are all blocked. The tension between safety and teaching students how to use these resources responsibly is a topic for another post.

But for now Zamzar will allow you to login from home, choose the video you need, and email the converted file to your account. I think it will be a popular tool. Don’t forget to cite your sources when you use the videos during your lessons!

Apparently the last post has been rolling around in my thoughts more than I anticipated. What struck me as a good idea has moved into a much more conceptual dialog (in my own head of course!). I know the physical structures of a school need to be redesigned and aligned to current practices, but the broad notion of redesign has gotten me thinking about literacy.

Interaction with several discrete sources is moving me toward a convergence in my own thinking. I’ll list three items in particular, and I hope you will explore them to inform your own thinking about literacy in the 21st century.

First David Warlick asks a group of teachers in Shanghai, China how literacy has changed (or how it remains the same). Portions of the conversation appear in podcast #81 at Connected Learning. Listen to the short podcast, and consider your own answer to the question he poses.

Next Cory Doctorow’s article You Do Like Reading Off A Computer Screen made me realize that soundbytes have a counterpart. The “readbytes” are influencing the way we engage with text. Is our curriculum acknowledging this phenomenon?

Also Donovan, Harley & Strudler reaffirmed, and validated, key aspects of the ACOT (Apple Classroom Of Tomorrow) study findings with their article  in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education(JRTE) this month. A key notion of our integration and change revolves around teachers’ practices moving to a student-centered model. 

Technology has influenced how we name revision and improvement (even school has a version number). So what does School 2.0 mean to you? What are the implications for your school? Easy access to technology is implied, but it must be more than student-to-computer ratios and bandwidth! What are the implications for writing in “digital genres”? Are there strategies specific to reading on-screen text? What are you thinking? 

Here’s a chance for you and your students to rethink the way we do school. What would you design differently if you could build a school from scratch? How will you beliefs about teaching and learning in the 21st century influence your design? What will your students think of that you haven’t even considered?

Check out the contest at http://www.redesignyourschool.com/ and encourage your students to submit their ideas. I can’t wait to see some of the ideas….

A picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a motion video clip worth? Since my last posting was somewhat theoretical I’m feeling a need to balance it with a practical resource! So today I want to highlight a service that you may not be familiar with.

United Streaming/Discovery Education has been assembling quite an extensive set of web-based resources to help teachers use video in the classroom. Still images, sound effects, songs, quizzes, standards, teachers’ guides and other resources are available. The Discovery Atlas Interactive Map is a great way to get information about the culture, history, government or natural world of countries around the globe. 

This service has done for teachers what NetFlix, BlockBuster Online, and Comcast On-Demand have done for consumers. Now you can have 24/7 access to streaming video that can also be downloaded. In Pennsylvania this subscription service was negotiated by the state’s Intermediate Units and the savings were passed on to local districts.

Are you using UnitedStreaming? If not try the free trial account and let us know how it’s changing teaching and learning in your classroom.

The title does not refer to the Whitney Houston hit - instead I want to ask you a question that has been in my thoughts lately. How will we know when technology is being used well in our classrooms?

What criteria pops in your mind? What data are most useful for answering the question. What kind of rich learning are we hoping for regardless of the technology component?

 I’ve been reading books by technology naysayers since Clifford Stoll’s Silicon Snake Oil hits the shelves. It helps to balance my natural tendency to dive full-speed-ahead with tech tools. But the question I pose goes well beyond some checklist of criteria or standardized test result.

In 2007, and beyond, I hope K-12 schools can recognize the growing gap between the way our students use technology in their lives and the way they use technology at school. If you found this blog you know that technology can be a powerful way to know and learn.

Convincing digital immigrant leaders that evidence of accountability in complex systems will be a complex data set is not an easy task. Can we tackle this big question together? Can we raise the level of conversation about educational technology above the student-computer ratio? 

Eisner encourages us to become connoisseurs of learning; Moersch asks what kinds of higher-level thinking is present; Lave and Wenger or Seeley-Brown and Duguid remind us to build communities of practice;  Dwyer notes that teaching will “look different”; Dewey would note that test taking is not the experience he had in mind. So many great educators to inform what our practice could be!

My posting is getting too long - I’d love to hear how you know the technology tools are making a difference….

In these times of shrinking budgets I know I should be more active to track down alternate funding sources. One recent search of possibilities led me to the Hewlett-Packard site. Here’s an excerpt from their description of the Technology for Teaching grant:

The HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative is designed to support the innovative use of mobile technology in K-16 education, and to help identify K-12 public schools and two- and four-year colleges and universities that HP might support with future grants.  Based on the outcomes of the projects funded through this initiative in 2007, HP may offer some grant recipients additional, higher-value grants in 2008.

Will I have the opportunity to create a strong proposal? I suppose time will tell…but I’m convinced that as innovation is pushed from our systems by standardized tests that alternate funding sources may be the only way to get a vision for technology integration implemented.

What do you think? Have you had any success acquiring grants or funding through community, business or other non-budget sources and relationships?

Why didn’t I think of this?! What a great convergence! Next fall the kindergarten students entering our schools will be the class of 2020. Karl Fisch from Arapahoe High School has created a simple, and powerful video to highlight our need to look ahead.

You can see the 2020 blog post that started the discussion on his Fischbowl site. You can see the 2020 video, and other presentations from Fischbowl, at this location.  The video is available in Windows Media or QuickTime versions. Take Karl’s advice and read the blog entry for a proper context too.I’d love to know what you think.

How can we begin to take action steps to create a relevant educational experience for our newest learners?

I showed the previous post to a colleague and they were distracted from the assessment discussion because they were so interested in Google Scholar. I suspect that might be indicative of others - so here’s a quick plug for this great search tool.

Here’s an excerpt from Google’s own answer to, “What is Google Scholar?”

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

Google Scholar has gives all of us access to the kinds of services that used to be reserved for subscription databases. Not all results found are available as full-text articles, but some are. It makes a great first-step to get abstracts and citations that can be used with other resources at your disposal (Pennsylvania schools have PowerLibrary for example). It’s a great way to get your students to interact with more scholarly content on the free internet! Comes in handy for your graduate classes too…

Just read a good article in the Journal of Staff Development by Rick Stiggins & Jan Chappus. What A Difference A Word Makes is a discussion about the design of formative assessment in the high-stakes testing world of K-12 education. The little word that makes a big difference is “for”. Assessment FOR learning instead of assessment of learning.

Do you use technology in ways to help learners get a glimpse of their progress toward a goal. Do technology tools have any special role in helping learners own their progress? Can computers help teachers  provide timely,  high-quality feedback that students can use to improve performance before their summative assessment?

Sorry I can’t post the article (copyright issues) - but I encourage you to track it down from your colleagues, school library, public library, or subscription database. Here’s a link to a workshop handout  Rick Stiggins offered on the topic of the article. I found this using Google Scholar and I suspect there are other articles available.

At the heart of my questions and answers on this topic are the beliefs I hold concerning assessment and learning. I’d love to hear a response from you on any of the points raised in my blog post, especially how you articulate your assessment beliefs.

Some of our newest handhelds (Zire 22s) are having problems running the (old) version of Sketchy. Anyone else having trouble? We’d love to get this application going on the Zires!
Maybe answers at GoKnow?

Before there was a Tech2Go blog site there was a Tech2Go podcast site. This was an experiment to help further my own professional learning, and to keep the conversation about technology integration going. I welcome you to check out the podcast site and maybe even subscribe to the podcast. Let me know a topic you’d like to hear about, or point me to a podcast that has been beneficial to you.