Tried and True Tips for Working in the 1:1 Environment

Published by in 1:1, creativity on June 4th, 2010

These are my notes from Kristy Lovett (teaches HS Art 1-4) and Erica Carey‘s (HS consumer science) afternoon presentation at the Crescent Public Schools‘ 1:1 learning conference on 4 June 2010. The title of his session was, “Cross-Curricular Teaching (Electives/Core) in a 1:1 Environment.” MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

MY ASIDE: THE STORYCHASERS MOBILE LEARNING TEAM BLOG IS A PLACE FOR EDUCATORS IN 1:1 SETTINGS TO SHARE IDEAS.

Don’t just tell kids to go research online about a topic

Kids need to find the difference between reliable
- Example: Tree Octopus

I have a facebook page (which is blocked at school) for feedback for parents and students
- can give extra credit if parents will email

Classroom Management
- need laptop guidelines: we have those in every class
- consistent rules, and consistent consequences

Curriculum development
- start with a plan
– course outlines
– PASS footprints
Make your lesson plans digital! Don’t be intimidated! You can do it!

Create a visual learning environment
- words can only recall images we’ve seen before! Use lots of images

Good sources:
morgue file
www.free images.co.uk
www.imageafter…

3 biggest mistakes teachers make when using technology in the classroom
1. Technology is not used in a focused manner
2. Technology is the focus

“You call this a multimedia production? This is a slide projector and a bed sheet!” – Archibald Asparagus

3. Inadequate planning (have a plan, make sure your sites are open at school)

Don’t re-invent the wheel!
- so much information is out there!
- search for it!
- find a forum for teachers of your subject to get ideas

http://arted20.ning.com great for art teachers
- members here from all over the world
- I am working with a teacher in China now to send them some of our artwork, and they are going to send us theirs
- We are working with a classroom in Germany thanks to a German exchange student we had last year

Also we have a 1:1 Ning for Oklahoma schools

MY ASIDE: OF COURSE IT’S CLOSED/PRIVATE, SO NO ONE OUTSIDE THE ARRA GRANTEE GROUP CAN SEE ANY OF THE CONVERSATIONS HAPPENING THERE…

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

On this day..

8 Comments »
  • http://www.thinkinginmind.com Neil Stephenson

    I’m gonna get a little critical here – but why is there nothing on this list about using technology to transform learning? I would think #1 tip to an effective 1:1 program is to design engaging and authentic work for students. Students need to engaged in real world issues – not using technology to do the same tasks in new ways. I get tired (as you tell) of so much tech talk focused on how students can locate and represent information – and so little talk about rich and rigourous tasks designed to build deep understanding of core issues.

  • http://www.crescentok.com K Lovett

    The whole conference was about transforming learning. These are just a few tips that we have learned from experience/staff development that were helpful to us, so we thought we would pass them along. They were actually included as a bit of the cross-curriculum presentation, not a separate session. Do you work in a 1:1 environment?

  • http://cyndidannerkuhn./info Cyndi Danner-kuhn

    Wow, that looked like a great session, was it recorded and available someplace? And posted from your iPad, very cool!!

  • http://www.thinkinginmind.com Neil Stephenson

    Kristy – sorry for the overly critical response. I do work at in a 1:1 environment – and have for the last four year. I think my response stems out of wanting to see more deep change from tech integration. I just read a research paper from Alberta (where I’m from) that showed that over the last 15 years, $1.5B has been spend by our province on technology for education, with little to no deep change in teaching practices. I get tired of reading about tech tools in schools without a change in deep thinking about teaching practices. I think the line in Wes’ post that pushed me over the edge was “don’t re-invent the wheel” – and I think that’s the problem. We do need to re-invent the wheel. We can’t continue the same model of education – except now with wikis instead of paper. We need to have transformational change about the type of work kids are being asked to do.
    I also realize it wasn’t totally fair to be critical of your presentation, when it was written by someone else. I’m sure the nature of your presentation, and the entire conference, was more inline with what I’m trying to say. My apologies for that.

  • http://www.crescentok.com K Lovett

    No problem. I agree with you about deep, critical thinking and using technology to facilitate student understanding of core concepts. My first goal in teaching is to teach students to think for themselves. Several middle school districts in our state received a technology grant to implement one to one programs. These districts have 70 days to prepare for the change and their teachers are the ones who were in our presentation. That statement was in reference to web-quests and project based-/cross-curricular lesson plan resources that are located on the web. Our point was that you can find good plans on the web that can be adapted to fit your students’ needs and not feel the pressure to write an entire curriculum in two months. Thanks for your input. I am giving this presentation again in a couple of months, and I think I will add something in there to reiterate that point. :)

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    So glad to see this dialog… thanks for your 2nd response as well, Neil. It’s hard to get the entire context from a post, but that’s what commenting can help with!

    It really is a huge task for all the schools Kristy referenced in her last comment to get ready for this 1:1 change… and it’s SO good to have the teachers at Crescent, like Kristy and Erica, to share many of their lessons learned. I am particularly enthused with their focus on cross-curricular learning, because I know some of my own “deep learning experiences” in high school came in cross-curricular settings. Those were few and far between, and I think that’s common in many schools. So what Kristy and Erica were and are advocating for IS in many ways transformative.

    One thing that has been driven home to me many times over the past few years with respect to technology integration is that most teachers MUST go through accommodating stages of technology use before transformative ones. Some uses of technology are inherently transformative (like videoconferencing) but many others aren’t. I think ACOT research supported this:

    Stages of technology integration development for ACOT Teachers

    I think it’s important to encourage and highlight transformative uses, but not put down accommodating uses (which largely replicate existing practices) especially when someone is just starting out with tech integration. I don’t think teachers should STAY at a level of “just” word processing student essays… we all need encouragement and to SEE examples of transformative tech use… but we all move forward one step at a time.

    Kristy and Erica, thanks again for sharing a FANTASTIC presentation on Friday. Your energy and ideas were contagious, and I really appreciated the effort you put into making the presentation not only informative but also fun! (I loved the Elvis metaphors AND the chocolate!) Please keep on sharing!

    Here’s an open invitation to you and all the other 1:1 teachers at Crescent (and elsewhere, including you Neil!) to have a space to share learning and ideas– the Storychasers Mobile Learning Blog. If you don’t want to setup your own blog somewhere like EduBlogs this blog is a team blog where you can share.

    We all need to share more. I appreciated how you encouraged the teachers in your session to share, and you modeled sharing. We need to keep singing that tune in Oklahoma and beyond! :-)

  • Erica C.

    We appreciate your input. It was a pleasure to have you in our session! As we said numerous times throughout the presentation, communication is the key. Sharing our 1:1 ideas and experiences with other educators is so important! One of the reasons we believe in cross-curricular teaching is to provide “real world” relevance to what the students are learning. Students are not interested in something that they don’t see as relevant to their life. We enjoyed giving this presentation. We will be presenting it again soon and you have given us some points to consider. Thanks again!

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