ISTE at Your Pace

Didn't have the time or money for ISTE? You can access videos of key speakers/presentations here.

There goes my day....

Another Reason to Kill the Textbook Industry: Part II

I blogged awhile back about why curriculum decisions made by the Texas Board of Education were another reason to kill the textbook industry.

Here's one more.  In this day of online access to a plethora of online resources, both primary and secondary, it boggles my mind that we still promote the use of generic, unimaginative, I'd-rather-chew-broken-glass-than-read-another-page-of-this textbooks. But then, we have a multi-million dollar industry to support, don't we, and well-entrenched interests with access to Congress and the president who want to ensure their market.

Enter Arne Duncan and the Race to the Top, glowingly reported on by the NY Times with the reductionist headline: Teacher's Unions' Last Stand.  Now we know!  Our educational woes are all the fault of the teachers' unions, which stand in the way of true progress in favor of job security while protecting teachers with sub-par performance.

As Duncan states, "It's all about the teachers"  (as if students play no part in their education), and he paints of vision of higher pay for qualified teachers and...here's the crux...increased testing.
For states to win RTTT funds,  points

would be allocated based on the quality of a state’s “data systems” for tracking student performance in all grades--which is a euphemism for the kind of full bore testing regime that makes many parents and children cringe but that reformers argue is necessary for any serious attempt to track not only student progress but also teacher effectiveness.

As NCLB has amply demonstrated, when high-stakes testing determines financial outcomes, people retreat to the trenches and drill, baby, drill. And textbooks are perfect for that.

The problem with everything I've seen proposed by the government is it only reinforces current definitions of education, placing the focus on the teacher (Duncan's quote above) on the relaying of information to passive receivers.  If only it were that easy.

Never mind the practical consideration of where in the world the country will find 3.5 million Jaime Escalantes, if that's what we need to solve the problem.  Why are we again placing the emphasis on the teacher, instead of firmly on student-centered education, where it belongs? Why are we failing to acknowledge and utilize the paradigm shift created by our current technology?

If teaching doesn't move beyond  "sage on the stage" methodology, we are a doomed profession. That may have been fine in an era of limited access to information, but not in an age when I can carry the entire internet in my pocket. I even read somewhere that smartphones will eventually kill laptops...and we're still seating students in straight little rows in confined classrooms....and teaching out of textbooks.

Our jobs are not so much about content now, though that's certainly part of it. They're about teaching students to be effective learners, with whatever that means for our respective disciplines. We need to guide them towards meaningful ways of gathering, analyzing, and evaluating resources (the "self directed text construction" I blogged about a few days ago), then teach them to use technology constructively to reshape that information into personally meaningful outcomes.

And that's why Arne Duncan is wrong; it's NOT about the teachers. It's about empowering and motivating students to take charge of their own learning.  I would love to think I'm as gifted a teacher as Jaime Escalante, but I don't kid myself.  I'm a good teacher, though, and there are thousands of us out there, engaging students in real world problems and issues for which there are no immediate answers; yet we encourage them to ask the right questions and ponder possible solutions, with the whole world as their resource.

You don't need a classroom for that--or at least not a physical one. And you certainly don't need textbooks.  Moreover, while that kind of learning can be tested, it's not reducible to multiple choice responses.  I believe in testing and accountability, but only if the tests measure something meaningful. Knowing whether a given word acts as a gerund or a participle in a sentence is NOT meaningful.

Promoting this kind of learning isn't easy.  My next post will focus on the iPad, the promised software upgrade, and how it could well be on its way to becoming a useful tool for students to engage meaninfully with information sources.

UPDATE:  BTW, if you're not following Bridging Differences at Education Week, add it to your reader immediately.  The blog is an ongoing conversation between Diane Ravitch (and hasn't SHE turned around her views?) and Deborah Meier.  Ravitch had a telling quotation from a recent post:

I think the Race to the Top is a massive waste of money that will produce perverse consequences. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of schools will be privatized, handed over in some cases to incompetent or unscrupulous organizations. Teachers will be pushed to focus more of their energy on unworthy tests. Many schools will discover there is less time to teach the arts or sciences or foreign languages or history.

A big question I have yet to hear answered:  The top of what?  How are we defining the top?  Is there any consensus on what we mean by that?  If not, how do we assess whether students are there? Or the best means for getting them there?  People's jobs are riding on this.  We better be clear what we mean.

Living on the Edge with Doug Johnson

I just finished Doug Johnson's new book, School Libraries Head for the Edge.  I must admit, I bought it a while ago, and it sat around for a few months.  I should have cracked it open sooner.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know Doug is a personal guru of mine.  Well, not mine personally, but.....oh, you know what I mean! I blogged about the thrill of meeting him at ISTE a couple years ago.

Anyway, I like his very down-to-earth  been there, done that, we're in it for the kids approach to libraries.  He's idealistic without being impractical, and he's willing to call out the profession when he needs to. I can respect that.

The book is a collection of his "Head for the Edge" columns for the Library Media Connection. And, as I prepare to start building a library program in Mongolia, it's really helping me think through what I'm happy about with my current program, and where I need to improve it.

He covers everything from values to technology, and is seriously re-thinking what it means to be a library media specialist in this age of increasing layoffs. As he says in the intro: "As education changes because of the information explosion, everyone's role in it will change, including yours and mine." The rest of the book explores how to make your library a meaningful, influential and integral part of the school.

This is a must-read, and ought to be on the reading list of every library school; in fact, I'm going to email a couple of my old professors at Pitt and suggest it.

Myths and Opportunities

Alan November on the importance of using technology as tool to empower student learning and shift the focus away from teacher-as-sage (among myriad other issues!)

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

CyberSummit on 21st Century Skills

Register here for the online CyberSummit on 21st Century Skills from June 1-12. A nation-wide event including educators, administrators, business people and politicians, offers free webinars and a chance to make your voice heard.

On June 12th, as part of the National Summit, politicians and policy leaders will review the comments as part of their ongoing discussion on the future of education and technology skills.

Two New Toys

I've spent considerable time over the past few months trying to find a good screen-casting tool. SnapzX is fine, but not very versatile. It only captures what you actually do, then you have to import it into iMovie to edit, add titles, etc.

I compared both Adobe's Captivate and TechSmith's Camtasia Studio, finally deciding on the latter as it allows me to save the file in multiple formats (AVI, MP4, etc.) while Captivate only saves as a Flash file.

ANYWAY, I just finished playing with my first movie on Camtasia. It's rough--the audio needs work, among other things (it didn't render very well, as you'll hear!), but I like the different tools--the ability to use call-outs (arrows, etc. to highlight key points), add text, titles, zooms--even quizzes. I think this will be a great too for creating all the video tutorials I want to add to the library website.

The big plan is to create a web tutorial for each of the major lessons I do during research projects. That way, if students miss a day (or forget part of the lesson!), I don't have to repeat myself 10 times; I can just point them to the tutorials.

While both Captivate and Camtasia are currently Windows only, I have it on hush-hush authority that both companies have a Mac version in the works for release either later this year or early next year. They also have educator discounts, and Camtasia is offering a deal now where you can purchase both Camtasia Studio AND SnagIt (their excellent screen-capture software) for only $169!

Anyway, here's my final result. See what you think. (BTW--the second "toy" is learning how to use the map viewing tool on the Library of Congress site!)

It's Not About the Technology

That's probably an odd title from someone blogging a 5 day tech conference, bit I'm happy to say it's an oft-repeated theme here. Yesterday, I attended Bernajean Porter's (of DigiTales fame) H.O.T. Comics workshop, and fully the first half of the workshop focused on content rather than working with Comic Life.

So many teachers get caught up in the gadget aspect. My district requires each faculty member to teach one "technology" lesson per year. I'm encouraging them to re-phrase that, as it creates numerous situations where teachers come to me in a mini-panic saying, "I have to teach a tech lesson. Tell me what I can do in one period!" Worse, some teachers just turn in a plan that shows students a few web sites and call that technology.

Everyone needs to start somewhere, and when you're first making the foray into 21st Century learning, it's natural to focus on the gadgets and gizmos and flashy stuff. Just don't be disappointed when students turn in mediocre projects. My first set of documentaries were AWFUL (except for the one student with a very tech-savvy brother), as both students and I learned the ins-and-outs movie-making.

As I sat and watched them, I realized I had let the students down by not spending nearly enough time in the pre-production stage. I think our planning took a week (two at most), and then I turned them loose and said, "bring back a rough draft in a month." Live and learn.

Students (and teachers) need a clear vision of their message and audience before they even touch a piece of equipment. If you are asking them to work at the upper levels of Bloom's (and if you're not, why aren't you?), they must have a solid understanding of CONTENT, first.

That's why, when teachers complain that technology projects take too long, I point out that

1. most of that time is spent learning the content area
2. creating a well-constructed video, podcast or whatever almost guarantees students have made that learning personal, deeply internalizing the information.

Thus, 70% of the time should be spent on learning, and only 30% on the technology. And even then only if the technology enhances the learning.

Don't have students blog if all they're doing is keeping an online journal. What's the point? They need to link to outside sources, incorporating them into their thinking. They need to engage in conversations with each other. For my Film Studies class, students used blogs as their own individualized learning center, choosing a topic of interest to them (e.g. Samurai films), then researching, viewing, exploring and using the blog as a place to "think and link." This is difficult in a journal, without spending time wandering off topic to explain what you've read. In a blog, you just link to it.

This started out as a blog about using comics for graphic novels, but wandered off into my own pet techno-rant.

I also just realized that, as I'm sitting on the floor of the convention center, my entire right leg is now completely asleep to the point I can hardly move it!

More anon.

WorldWide Telescope--The Sky's the Limit!

Microsoft is taking on Google Sky and doing them one better with their new release of WorldWide Telescope. A "visualization software environment," the program turns your computer into a virtual telescope, with access to imagery from both ground and space-based telescopes.

You can choose a guided tour created by astronomers or educators, or explore on your own--or both. The program does have a hefty one hour download time, according to the website.

Unfortunately, the program is only for PC's at this point, but I hope Microsoft will eventually offer a Mac version. In the meantime, Mac owners who run Virtual PC (or Intel/Leopard users with BootCamp) can also use it.

How amazing will this be for science classes?!

Alan November Rocks!

If you ever get a chance to attend an Alan November seminar--jump at it! The school brought him in for our PG&D day today, and the faculty are VERY fired up and eager to go. It's not that he taught me anything I didn't know (except for one cool app I'll explain in a minute), but that he gave real ideas and examples for how to use Jing and Google Docs and wikis on a daily basis in th classroom.

For instance, designating rotating students as class note-takers in Google Docs, that other students can then add to. It's more useful than doing it in a wiki, because multiple users can access a document at the same time.

Our very innovative Middle School history teacher then commented that he takes the notes from Google Docs, then adds them to the class wiki, so they have a permanent online presence.

I've been talking about this stuff all year, but never managed to excite everyone to this extent. The guy has a real presence! Though I also think it's partly about having everyone together in one place. I work with small groups of 5-6 at a time, so you don't have the cumulative effect of 200 people all excited at once. (she said, in self defense!)

I must admit, to my shame, at first I was feeling a bit huffy and thinking "Harrumph! I knew this already!" Then I realized he was actually doing a great thing...he set people up to get excited about the tools, but didn't go into details about how to actually use them, leaving that to the on-site "techies." I had all sorts of people coming up and asking, "can we..?" and "How do I...?" I don't need to do anything to motivate people--just show them how. Thanks, Alan November!

The new bit I did learn is Google's custom search engine. Do you all know about this and I'm just behind the game? From your Google account, click on the "more" link, then go down to "even more."

In the column on the top right click on "Custom Search" and follow the rest of the steps. This tool allows you to create your own search engine. A bit of a chore putting in all those links, but imagine having your own school search engine with pre-vetted sites. Goodbye, Nettrekker! It would be easy to turn it into a community collaboration, with all teachers and chosen students having access to add exception sites as they find them. Imagine what a resource you'd have in five or ten years.

Individual teachers could make an engine for their class--the AP Science engine or the US History search engine, and you could have one on the library site for the whole school. You choose when you create the engine whether you want it to search only the sites you add, or to search all sites, but give preference to those you add. Personally, I like the former choice for primary grades, the latter for secondary.

I do believe students need to come to grips with evaluating sites, but an engine that gave preferential treatment to a core group of sites would allow for that while still giving students a more rewarding search experience.

I'm even toying with the idea of creating a primary source search engine, as our history department requires students to include seven primary sources in their research papers. Have you ever tried to find seven primary sources on Zulu warriors??? That was my crowning achievement this year!

I wonder if this might also solve my pathfinder dilemma. Teachers and students love them, but I struggle with the idea of providing a list of great sites for the students, who then don't have to search for them themselves. This would come close to guaranteeing them useful search results, while still providing the search experience and practice using those skills.

More to think about! And thank you, Ally Schweig, for bringing him to campus (grin--here's your shout out!)

I'm a Convert!

OK, so initially I was skeptical about a conference this formless, but my last two sessions today were really interesting. One discussed new technologies and how it affects teacher pedagogy (well, that was the initial topic, but it metamorphosed). You can see the video of that conversation here (click the New Technology) video. The last session was a free-for-all tentatively about search techniques but which quickly became a debate/discussion about Google vs. databases. I find I'm actually enjoying the free form style--it lets us wander to what interests us. In fact, tomorrow I'm going to lead a discussion of digital storytelling and documentaries. Can't wait!

Lost in the Tech Speak

I've been burying myself in Web 2.0 the past few weeks, and trying to figure out best practice for integrating it into the classroom, especially since my new job requires me to teach it to other educators! With that in mind, I purchased two books, one published last year and one published last month.

Will Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is a god-send. A fire up Amazon and BUY THIS NOW!!! kind of book. If you are AT ALL interested in educational technology, this book will not only answer your questions (or questions you never thought of), it also gives you practical, start-to-use-it-on Monday advice and ideas for classroom use. It explains not just the what, but also the why and the how. I've never had a clue how to really use RSS feeds, but Richardson not only explained the technology in easy to understand language, he gave great examples of how to get set up and ideas for using RSS feeds in the classroom (and why every teacher should). I'm convinced! He gives plenty of examples K-12. As an ex-English teacher, he makes a strong case for building the read/write web into the English classroom, with fewer compelling cross-the-curriculum examples, though he does try. My strongest praise would be that my school offered to let me teach an English class along with the library duties, if I wanted. Originally, I planned to turn that down so I could concentrate on the library (English teacher burn out!). Having read Richardson, I'm now so excited to try these techniques in the classroom, I not only WANT to teach a class again, I'm excited about the possibilities.


Less compelling (as a practicing teacher/librarian) is Gary Bitter and Jane Legacy's Using Technology in the Classroom (7th Edition), just published a few weeks ago. Written as a textbook rather than a practical "how to,' the book serves more as an introduction to educational technology for the neophyte ed student. While I knew what the technologies were after reading this (well, I knew before, but I'm speaking as a tech-tyro here), I really didn't have a clue how to get started using them, or what to do with them if I managed to get up and running. Some chapters offer a few teaching ideas, but I found them limited in scope. The book comes with a DVD and an companion website; frankly, what working teacher has time? What were incredibly useful (and almost worth the $90 price!) were the plethora of links and and resources at the end of each chapter. This alone will save you HOURS culling the web for content.