Thinking About Learning

Each year I send out a technology survey to my teachers to get a read on their “technology temperatures.” The survey provides me with a picture of how they perceive their use of technology and of their preferences for professional development.  This year my district generated the list of questions.  I used the free version of Survey Monkey for the survey, so I was limited to 10 questions.  That didn’t leave any space for questions of my own, but the information I received was helpful.  After I received the results, I used Open Mind 2 to convert the results to a web page: Tech Survey 09-10.

The start of school this year has been  particularly challenging due to so many new technology products in our district: new Windows domain, new Outlook email that replaced Groupwise, PowerSchool replaced SASI, and PowerTeacher gradebook replaced IGPro.  There have been so many glitches and frustrations.  In some ways the “tools” have eclipsed instructional support in the areas of time and need.  Now that it’s time to generate the first term report card, PowerTeacher has become a major time consumer.

The survey results, however, provided me with a good dose of encouragement!  Most of my faculty seems to be developing some self-confidence in using technology in the classroom.  They’re also showing interest in learning new technology skills and in exploring a variety of tools for improving and enhancing learning.  Unfortunately my opportunities for providing professional development sessions are very limited this year.  My district adopted a new literacy coaching model this year, and the literacy coaches visit our school every 3 weeks.  This plan eats up designated training time that the math coach and I used to have to meet with grade level teams.  I have found, however, that one-to-one mentoring is actually my best strategy anyway.  I try to meet with teams as they work on collaborative planning so that I know what standards they are planning to teach.  Then I’m able to go to individual teachers with project ideas that will address those standards.  This is the part of my job that I love!  I’m hoping that after we get this first round of report cards printed that I’ll begin finding the time to fully focus on teaching and learning.

Teacher collaboration has been a strong push in my district this year with an emphasis on Professional Learning Communities.  We’ve had a district focus on DuFour’s book, On Common Ground.  As part of that effort, quarterly “On Common Ground” meetings have been held with elementary administrators, instructional coaches, TISs, and interventionists to promote a data-driven, results-oriented culture.  At the school level, grade level teams have been meeting weekly to plan instruction and common assessments and to analyze results.  We’ve just completed the spring administration of MAP testing for reading and math, , and I’ve had teacher after teacher come up to me, beaming about their great scores and how many students met or exceeded the anticipated growth index.  After such an intense year of hard work, teachers are able to see the great results that can be achieved through collaboration.

In an effort to carry collaboration another step further, I worked with a small group of TISs to create a district-wide database of teacher-created lesson materials.  Our district web master took our recommendations and created a searchable database.  Teachers can upload interactive whiteboard lessons, PowerPoints, WORD docs, spreadsheets, handheld activities, and many other files.  The database is searchable by subject, content strand, grade level, and keyword.  We’re excited about this project because it will enable teachers to share and find resources from other people in our district who teach the same standards.

Over the last several months, however, I have come to realize that collaborating within the district is still too narrow of a vision. Through my own PLN, I have been amazed and delighted to discover that there are excellent educators around the globe who are willing to share their resources and knowledge, and sometimes I can receive an answer faster than if I sent an email to a colleague.  A month ago, I was experimenting with Ustream, and I was running into a playback issue.  Not knowing anyone in district who was using it, I posted a question about it on the Classroom 2.0 Ning, I had received a reply with a checklist of steps to try.  This list helped me narrow down my issue to reach a solution.  And from where did my speedy assistance come? From Carlos Ferrer in Rykjavik, Iceland!  Recently I was preparing a lesson on folk tales for 5th grade, and I had already spent a lot of time searching for resoures.  I posted a query on Twitter and quickly received 3 good leads, including a great link to video on an interesting New Zealand legend from allanahk in Nelson, New Zealand.

Yesterday morning, ironically, Wes Fryer posted a link on Twitter to an article he had written on the ISTE blog on iTouch and iPhone apps for Education, and his opening sentence was “The power of Twitter and personal learning networks continues to amaze me!”

I’ll close with these words from a post on Twitter by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach: “It is time to end the practice of solo teaching. Today’s teachers must learn in collectively built, widely shared, cohesive networks.”
That’s what I want for my teachers, because I’m convinced that it’s a vital element in raising student achievement.

Finally! Scientific research from a reliable, respected source about the effect of technology on student achievement!  I have been heavily engaged with educational technology for more than 6 years.  For 4 years I taught fifth grade in a technology-infused classroom, and I’ve been a technology integration specialist for the past 2 years.  I knew from the beginning that the use of technology had a positive impact on student learning, but most of the benefits I observed were non-measurable with a test: higher motivation, increased engagement, improved student focus, development of problem-solving skills, more collaborative learning, improved student behavior with fewer office referrals, growth in digital literacy, and increased student efficacy.  While all of these effects are significant gains for 21st Century learners,  the bottom line comes down to student achievement, and up until this time, I knew of no data-rich research that documented the impact of technology on student achievement.

Dr. Robert Marzano, one of our nation’s leading scholars in the field of educational research, has begun studying this issue and recently presented his findings in the keynote speech at CUE. Using 85 teachers across the nation who taught one class using an interactive whiteboard and another “control” class without the technology, he examined the effect of the use of an interactive whiteboard on student achievement.  He discovered 4 variables that affected results: overall years of teaching experience, length of time in months of experience in using a whiteboard, percentage of time the whiteboard is used in the classroom, and teacher’s confidence level in ability to use the technology effectively.  The research showed that optimal student achievement gains (the “sweet spot” according to Marzano) are possible with these conditions: a very experienced teacher who has at least 2 years of experience using an interactive whiteboard, uses it about 75% of the time, and is confident in his/her ability to effectively use the technology.  According to Marzano, such a teacher may expect up to 30 percentile point gains in student achievement.  Marzano admitted that all research is equivocal, and that ultimately the most significant factor in student achievement, with or without technology, is teacher quality.

His suggestion for effective use of technology was to focus on content, not the bells and whistles.  He also gave a reminder of the importance of keeping track of which students are getting it and which are not.  That point led Marzano into commentary about formative assessment and the use of technology for record-keeping.  He asserted that assessment should be an instructional technique, not a labeling technique. It’s important to examine lots of data over time to get the best picture of a student’s progress.  The most significant acievement gains came from tracking student progress over time using a rigorous rubric-based model.  The implications are that teachers need professional development in both effective teaching and the effective use of technology to maximize growth in student achievement.

Twitter has been around since March 2006.  I have to admit that when I first heard of it, I was skeptical.  Twitter asks a single question, “What are you doing?” and gives you up to 140 characters to answer the question. It just seemed too mundane and a waste of time, so I didn’t sign up.  There are only so many hours in a day, so you have to choose carefully how you’re going to invest your time.  But a little over a year ago, a friend encouraged me to check it out, and I’m hooked! Evidently lots of other people are as well. TechCrunch reports:

In February, 4 million people in the U.S. visited the site, up from 2.6 million the month before, according to the latest data from comScore. That represents a 55 percent month-over-month growth rate, compared to 33 percent growth in each of the two months prior.These numbers are only for visitors to Twitter.com, and they do not capture usage on desktop or mobile clients. And the apps just keep on coming. For instance, Twitdom now counts 529 Twitter apps.

I confess that I’m still a fringe Twitterer.  It’s blocked at school, so I can only access it at home in the evenings and weekends.  I have a BeTwittered widget on my iGoogle page, so it’s easy to take a quick glance whenever I’m online.  So, why do I recommend Twitter to my colleagues?  How can Twitter help you grow professionally?  I’m very selective about who I follow.  Right now I only follow people who are educators.  Most of the people I follow don’t waste time telling what they ate for breadfast or what they’re watching on TV.  They most frequently share links to new blog posts they’ve written, links to new tech tools they’re exploring, or links to teacher or student collaborative projects.  They also ask questions and quickly get needed answers for problem-solving.

Sometimes educators leading conference sessions will invite fellow Twitter users to join online.  I’ve participated in several technology conference sessions in places like Pennsylvannia and Illinois by joining in a collaborative Google Doc, adding a placemark for my location on a Google Earth map, or chatting on a back channel during a live stream.  In this way not only am I learning, but I am also supporting my Twitter colleagues as they are conducting their professional development sessions.

How can you find people to follow who will ge good contacts for your PLN?  There are several wikis that collect lists of like minded people.  Here are a few:
Twitter4Teachers
TwitterPacks
Twitter Group: Teachers
Another way is to go to the Twitter pages of people you enjoy following and check out some of the people they follow.

If you’d like to learn more, visit Sue Waters’s PLN Yourself wiki.   Another great resource is 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter.  If you’d like to read about Twitter in the classroom, visit Anne Mirtschin’s blog. I don’t squander a lot of time with Twitter, but every time I check in, it’s always well worth it.  I always find something new to learn and explore.  It’s connected me with thinking educators around the globe who are commited to constantly learning and making efforts to bring change to the way we do education.  It’s the best source in my PLN!

I recently introduced Photo Booth during staff development sessions for my grade level teams.  We only have 3 MacBooks in the building, but I would love to see my teachers use them.  They had a lot of fun playing with the special effects, and I now have in my possession some “leverage” pictures and videos if I’m ever in need!  It was tempting to post a few here, but I’m resisting.  Here’s a list I compiled of some ways Photo Booth could be used in the classroom:

• Book talks
• Reader’s Theater
• Oral reading/student self-evaluation
• Maintain a digital record of reading progress over the course of the year
• Biography “living history” presentations
• Weekly class news report
• Demonstration of science experiment
• Character education development: take photos of students expressing various emotions (Source: iLearn Technology)
• Grammar dictionaries: when studying verbs, take pictures of students acting out verbs
• Digital poetry portfolio
• Social Studies “You Were there” newscasts
• Point of view debate over historical events such as Trail of Tears or Hiroshima
• World language conversations/skits
• Stop motion animation (claymation)
• Infomercial (nonfiction informational writing)
• Commercial (persuasive writing)
• Writing prompt: Something has just happened to you that has caused you to go through some drastic physical changes.  Take five pictures of yourself using Photo Booth where you show the progression of your drastic changes, from the beginning stages to the end result.  After you take the pictures write a narrative or a news article explaining what happened to you. Be creative! ( Source: Stepping Forward: Personal and Digital Learning in the 21st Century)

On a different note, I just completed a survey Sue Waters is conducting about Your Top 5 Web Tools for Managing your Workload.  She’ll share the results on her PLN Yourself wiki.  Check it out!