Thinking About Learning

One of the highlights of my week has been to have the privilege of getting two more 5th grade classes started on student blogs. We are using 21 Classes. It’s exciting to expose students and teachers to the possibilities of blogging! The potential for the expression of student learning and literacy development through blog writing is virtually an untapped resource in elementary schools. Students love to blog. It gives them a real world audience for their writing. It also allows them the opportunity to express their opinions and interact online with peers in meaningful ways. Blogs can enhance instruction in every content area. These students are excited about blogging, and it’s a great way to motivate them to write.

Curriculum Connections for Blogs:
Science: Write lab reports for experiments, discuss the application of the scientific method to various science activities, post research findings.

Math: Describe new math processes learned, post answers to word problems.

Social Studies: Commentary on current events, post research findings, compare and contrast events in history, summarize historical events, write biographical information about key historical people.

ELA: Book talks; describe specific story elements such as character analysis, setting, or plot; write poetry; personal narratives; demonstrate reading skills such as fact and opinion, cause and effect, compare and contrast, or figurative language; write biographies or autobiographies.

The year 2007 is nothing but a memory now! It was a year of many changes for the women in my family. My daughter graduated from college and began a 5 year PhD program. My sister graduated from divinity school and began a new job. It was also a year of change for me. After 20 years of teaching, I left the classroom to become a technology integration specialist. I actually love my new job, but I still feel like I’m “learning the ropes.” It has taken time to get to know a whole new faculty and to learn where they are in their comfort level/use of technology. Just today I posted an online survey for my staff about their technology needs so that I can determine what direction I need to take next.

I’ve decided that 2007 was the year of changes and that 2008 will be a year of letting go. This year my daughter will be getting married, and my son will graduate from high school and move away to college. There are some other things in my life that I need to learn to let go of as well. When I think about school, I think about some ways of thinking that I need to let go. I need to stop expecting all the teachers around me to jump on board with technology my way. Everybody has their own approach and comfort level. After a conversation with a friend a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded that I also need to let go of thinking about Web 2.0 applications in terms of “cool tools.” We were talking about what it means to have technology embedded in the curriculum as opposed to just using technology tools. I have decided to let go of the phrase “cool tools” and instead focus more on the curriculum. In keeping with that thought, instead of listing the new technology tools that I explore, I’m going to try to share some curriculum ideas and ways technology can support them.

ELA Curriculum Ideas:

• Use Shelfari to post the 2008 Children’s Book Award Nominees. Encourage students to post comments and opinions of the books online.
• Do an author study by posting multiple books by a single author on Shelfari. Have students make comments to compare books, identify common details of author’s craft, discuss favorite book and tell why.
• Videotape sample model RTI Intervention lessons to be used for training.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a SMARTboard Users Group in Charleston. There were over 100 people there, teachers, technology integration specialists, media specialists, and district level personnel. Prior instructions had been provided to bring a SMART Notebook lesson(s) to share with the group. After a large group introductory session, participants were divided up into small groups, about 15 participants each, based on self-determined user ability. In our small groups a facilitator shared some new information from SMART Tech, introduced us to some new tools, and then opened to floor for participants to share the lessons they had brought. At the end we were able to save a copy of all the shared lessons to a flash drive to take with us.

This was one of the best professional development events I’ve ever attended! Other educators are the best resource for teachers. We’ve all known that for years. When I attend a conference, I avoid sessions conducted by vendors and seek out sessions led by people in the trenches. So I’m asking, “How can we capitalize one all the experience that surrounds us, but seems inaccessible?”

Too often teachers feel isolated behind a closed door, struggling to create and use meaningful instructional materials in the midst of a day already packed with too many responsibilities. Collaboration is a buzz-word in education today, but when do teachers really have time to collaborate? Even when a monthly afternoon is set aside strictly for that purpose, other issues beg for the time.

The SMARTboard users group really got me thinking about the need for teachers to have a forum for an online professional learning team. Unfortunately, teachers who are trying to embed the use of technology as an instructional methodology within the curriculum are still in the minority. It’s easy to feel isolated when your beliefs about pedagogy are not shared by those around you. It only makes sense that an online professional social network community could be a possible solution for a more intentional approach for collaboration and continued professional growth among like-minded educators. I believe that educators have only begun to taste the value of social networking Web 2.0 tools. I’ll be seeking others to join this quest!

Technorati: smartboard collaboration PLT usergroups

I always spend a little time during the Thanksgiving holidays reflecting upon my many blessings. This year in addition to the traditional thoughts of family, friends, good health, an appreciation of the Divine, and meaningful work, I also found myself feeling very thankful for the gifts found in nature. Enjoying the beauty of our world has always been an important part of my life. Staying connected with Mother Earth somehow helps me stay connected with myself in a deeply profound way.

Yesterday I spent Thanksgiving Day at my parents’ home with the rest of my family. After recovering from over-partaking of the family Thanksgiving feast, I decided to take my nieces and nephews out for a healthy dose of nature. My parents live on 15 wooded acres. There’s a natural spring, a pond, an unused pasture, and more woods. Out at the back edge of the property is a small clearing surrounded by trees. Several times a year I like to go back there and camp alone, enjoying the silence and solitude. My nieces and nephews, ages ranging from 8-15 years old, had never been out as far as my campsite. In a rare occurrence, it had rained the day before. My dad said that the pond area would be too muddy to walk around, so we’d need to drive around the road and go in the back way. I loaded the kids into his old fishing van, along with some dry fire wood, some home-made marshmallow skewers, and all the makings for s’mores.

As we drove through the pasture, headed into the woods, and went up the little hill that led to my campsite, I saw an amazing Thanksgiving gift. Perched on a bended branch in the middle my woodland wonderland was a huge wild turkey! I put on the brakes and called my nieces and nephews to crowd to the front windshield to view this amazing sight. They had never before seen a wild turkey, and we were all genuinely filled with awe. Knowing that resuming the drive into the woods would break the magical spell of the moment, I reluctantly shifted from park to drive and stepped on the gas. Immediately, the turkey took flight, and to our complete surprise and delight, four more turkeys had been standing on the ground, hidden from our view. In the span of a minute, one by one, they took to the air. Five wild turkeys taking flight on Thanksgiving Day! It was a gift of nature that we will never forget.

Our spirits were soaring just like those wild turkeys, but as is always the case, reality has a way of pulling us back down. As I accelerated up that muddy hill, my front tires began spinning in the mud. Realizing that I was unable to go up, I shifted to reverse thinking that if I could roll back down to the level pasture, I could restart up the little hill and probably make it if I didn’t pause half-way up this time. I was only able to roll back about two feet, when suddenly my back tire was spinning, and once again I was stuck, unable to go forward or backward. When I got out to investigate, I saw that one of the rear tires was jammed against a tall stump, and the bumper was lodged on top of the stump. We were close enough to the campsite to get out and walk. Refusing to let circumstances ruin our plans, we gathered our supplies, walked to the fire ring, roasted marshmallows, ate s’mores, and laughed about our adventure.

Later, as I was reflected on the experiences of the day, I was struck by a comparison of the place we sometimes find ourselves in as educators. The view of the world ahead of us is an awesome, rapidly-moving thing, just like my wild turkeys. We see the potential of technology integration and Web 2.0 tools to empower our students to become information-literate, problem-solving, 21^st Century learners, who have the ability to soar at their own initiative. But often when we try to move forward and bring others along with us, we find ourselves mired in a 20^th Century educational paradigm. The more we rev our engines, the more we find ourselves just spinning our wheels, going nowhere, mired in frustration and disappointment about our inability to affect change.

Sometimes there’s wisdom in stepping outside of our expectations, and just taking a few baby-steps forward toward the goal. Remembering our vision and not allowing ourselves to get derailed by our current circumstances, we have the power to continue walking forward. As we are purposeful in our actions, persistent in our commitment to the vision, and mindful of the need to sometimes just laugh at the absurdities of resistance to change, we can make a difference in the lives of our students and fellow educators.

After we ate our fill of s’mores and our fire began to wane, I used my cell phone to call my dad and report our dilemma. (Yes, sometimes there is a place for technology in the natural world!) He laughed and said, “It sounds like you could use a tractor!” Shortly he arrived and used his tractor to dislodge the van’s bumper and push it on up the little incline. That old tractor was just the right tool at just the right time. I continue to cherish the hope that eventually a tractor will appear on America’s educational horizon, just the right strategy, at just the right time that will propel us forward toward a new paradigm of education. One that will be fluid, not static. One that will embrace 21^st technologies while teaching an appreciation of the world around us. Let’s keep taking baby-steps while keeping the vision ever before us!

Well, so much for good intentions! It’s been 3 months since my last blog post. I have been immersed in learning a new faculty, a new job, and more technical details about computer hardware than I ever wanted to know! We’ve had an equipment roll-out which has been a mixed blessing. Teachers have received laptops and projectors. SMART boards are on the way at some point. Many teachers are very excited about the new equipment, but in some cases it’s sitting in the corner collecting dust. My challenge now is to coach teachers about using the equipment to enhance instruction instead of just as an organizational/clerical tool.

One thing that I feel good about is that I have at least been working a little on my own personal learning. I have watched about a fourth of the presentations from the 2007 K12 Online Conference. Great stuff!! Shawn Nutting’s Creating a Paradigm Shift in Technology really spoke to me because I feel like that’s my mission as a TIS…to create a paradigm shift at my school. Putting the Pedagogy into the Tools by Anne Davis is a fantastic collection of Web 2.0 resources. I will be a repeat visitor to her wiki. In an effort to be more accountable for our own professional growth, my friend Ron and I have made a commitment to blog at least twice a week. I have successfully met the first deadline!

Cool Tool:
Trailfire: This social bookmarking tool allows you to string together a trail of websites and post comments on each one. April Chamberlain did a great K12 presentation about Trailfire using this tool.

It’s less than 2 weeks until I officially begin my new job as a technology integration specialist. I’ll be at a new school with a whole new faculty to get to know. I have so many questions! How can I be effective in leading and assisting my teachers in the use of technology? What are the most important things I need to teach them? There are so many great technology tools available for the classroom. Web 2.0 has been embraced by a few people in my district, but it’s still a mystery to most. Where do I begin?

I’ve been catching up on my blog reading, looking for some answers. I was reading a Thinking Stick entry that contained Skype notes of a NECC session by Will Richardson. One of Jeff’s comments was “Learning is about conversations, not tools.” A simple statement, but so profound! That was exactly what I needed to read and where I need to begin…conversations. Building the relationships and making connections will be the root of any kind of growth I might be able to encourage.

George Siemens, author of the connectivism theory, offered another take on tools in his blog entry entitled, “It’s not about tools. It’s about change.” He questions whether those of us in education who are caught up in Web 2.0 are using the right approach. “We are at a point of transition - will our tools be absorbed by education systems, and then become part of the problem? Or do our tools result in real change? … Will the change come only from conference-tour academics that adopt current trends and present them without passion for change to an audience seeking to hear what’s new in tools, but not what’s new in process, knowledge exchange or society? I’m concerned that the current tone of talk about read/write web tools in the conference circuit is one of shoring up an approach to teaching and learning that is fundamentally at odds with how people learn and interact.”

People learn by making connections. That’s why “making connections” (text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world) is such a valuable strategy in literacy instruction. Bringing about change in the educational realm won’t happen because of the next best tool. It will be a result of teachers making connections between the curriculum, their personal lives, and the digital lives of their students. Maybe that’s where I need to begin…with conversations and connections, not tools.

That being said, I still love cool tools! Check these out:

Shelfari: This site is connected with Amazon. It allows you to set up an online bookshelf of the books you’re reading, and if you want, you can interact with others who have read the same books. I have posted a shelf of my summer reads.

wikiHow: We’re all familiar with wikipedia. Now there’s a collaborative online how-to manual! Who knew? I found it by doing a Google search on how to use trackback.

Technorati: thinkingstick, connectivism, Siemens, cooltools, learning

I was first introduced to the concept of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) last October on Jeff Utecht’s Thinking Stick blog (one of my faves). It seems that this idea is finally taking hold in our corner of the world. There’s a lot of research to support this practice as a strategy for improving student achievement. Here’s a link to some supporting online documentation that I located regarding PLCs. My understanding is that generally a PLC is a group of teachers at the same school who are involved in an inquiry-based study of a specific educational topic or practice. Collaboration among teachers has been proven to improve teacher quality. As I have continued to ponder the need to change the way we provide education and how we might go about doing that, I would be very interested in being part of an online PLC that focuses on using web2.0 tools in the classroom. A cool tool that I learned of from Jane’s E-learning Pick of the Day is Xpanity. This application evidently provides a way for users who are reading the same web site to have conversation about it. I’m still trying to work with it, but this potentially seems like a fantastic way to facilitate an online PLC. (I discovered Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day in Widgetbox and have added it to my Pageflakes online learning page.)

Some other cool tools:

Seterra: This is a free download geography game. You can study or take quizzes to learn countries, capitols, and flags of the world. It seems to me that we should be placing a greater emphasis on teaching geography as our world gets flatter and flatter. A great use of time when you have a few minutes left at the end of class!
Slideshare: This application allows you to upload your PowerPoint slides and podcast to create a “slidecast.” This tool be used by teachers to make a lesson available online. It would also be a great way to share professional development presentations.

Technorati:plc thinkingstick elearning edtech cooltools

It seems like I’m getting off to a slow beginning with my fresh start! I spent some time today updating my page. Edublogs added some new customizable headers, and I was able to add my own picture to the header. I took this picture at Seabrook Island a year ago.

Edublogs isn’t the only site with new features. Pageflakes just posted some great upgrades. I’m going to spend some time reorganizing my pageflakes and play around with using the reader. I took some time off during the past month just to relax and read for personal enjoyment. Now it’s time to get caught up with my online ed tech reading and immerse myself back into the world of Web 2.0. Only a month until school begins! I have a lot to learn.

Some cool tools:
TrackStar: This site allows you to save links into tracks that can be shared with others. It’s like a digital filing cabinet for teachers.
Widgetbox: Hundreds of free widgets that can be added to many aggregators including Pageflakes, Netvibes, and Google Reader.

Technorati Tags: cooltools , pageflakes, Web 2.0

We can discern…a transformation of human personality in progress which is of evolutionary proportions, a shift of consciousness fully as epoch-making as the appearance of speech or of the tool making talents in our cultural repertory. ~Theodore Roszak

The more I become immersed in Web 2.0, the more convinced I become that we are on the front edge (or perhaps even in the midst) of a cultural revolution of mammoth proportions that will affect every corner of the globe…both in the educational realm and in the lives of individuals.  As I expressed in my last post, it can be a little discouraging to try to move forward when so few people in your immediate world share the vision.  That’s one of the wondrous benefits of the ability to be involved in a world-wide learning community like the K12 Online Conference.  That conference with its live discussion components was an effective demonstration of the  quote by Roszak.  I believe that Roszak fears this cultural change, but as an educator, I can see how the ability to interact with anyone on the planet opens the door to unlimited potential for learning, creativity, and bridge-building.   I was so encouraged by Wes Fryer’s comments about our presentation, Cultivating Digital Educators.   It’s very affirming to know that your voice has been heard and validated!  Thanks, Wes! 

Technorati Tags: k12online Web2.0

The more I learn about Web 2.0, the more frustrating it can be as an elementary classroom teacher.  The world is changing so rapidly!  The ability to communicate effectively is an increasingly necessary priority.  Memorizing facts is less necessary than the ability to locate needed information.  As the world becomes smaller and flatter, the needs of learners are changing.  The problem I’m encountering is that the education establishment (fueled by NCLB) seems blind to the type of transformation that needs to take place in education.  A rigid standards-based curriculum is not the answer!  Teachers are becoming increasingly overwhelmed by the demands of this curriculum coupled with the increasing number of children with special needs.  At my elementary school, we are blessed to have great access to technology resources, but the weight of the demands are causing many teachers to narrow their focus to what must be done each day to meet district expectations related to curriculum.  These demands seem to limit the ability of many to see the big picture of the drastic changes that are taking place in the world related to technology, communication, and the power of Web 2.0.  Most of the presenters of the K12 Online Conference have been connected to middle and high schools.  Is anyone out there having success with getting elementary teachers actively involved with Web 2.0 tools in the classroom?  Has anyone found the answer to meshing the real world needs of our students with the rigid expectations of high stakes testing?