Moving at the Speed of Creativity

These are my notes from Erin Gruwell’s closing keynote at NECC 2009. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. This was the program description:

Wednesday’s keynote wraps up your conference experience with an inspirational look into the 10+ years’ worth of technology-supported projects initiated by Freedom Writers founder Erin Gruwell. Born and raised in California, Gruwell has been inspiring students and teachers alike since beginning her teaching career in 1994.

By fostering an educational philosophy that valued and promoted diversity, she transformed her students’ lives. She encouraged them to rethink rigid beliefs about themselves and others, to reconsider daily decisions, and to rechart their futures. With Erin’s steadfast support, her students shattered stereotypes to become critical thinkers, aspiring college students, and citizens for change. They even dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers”—in homage to civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders”—and published a book.

In January 2007, Paramount Pictures released “Freedom Writers,” a film based on this remarkable story, featuring Hilary Swank as Erin.

2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the original Freedom Writers project, and at NECC, Erin will connect the ways in which her ongoing work with the Freedom Writers Foundation has promoted digital citizenship through storytelling and has influenced teachers and students worldwide.

Freedom Writers Foundation
The Freedom Writers Diary
Film: Freedom Writers

Story of Maria Reyes inducted into a gang at age 11
- little girls like her could care less about a number 2 pencil and a scantron
- with more money, she could visit her daddy more often in prison
- repeated visits to juvenile hall
- she saw her life path options as VERY limited

Wanting her to understand we do not live in an “undeclared war”
- we don’t have to reach for weapons
- instead we can reach for pens
- I thought about Anne Frank
- I decided we would have a “toast for change” with sparkling Apple cider

Like so many teachers in our country, I had been brainwashed to teach to a test

Maria was teaching me a valuable lesson: teach to me, not to a test
- she said she wanted to change, not be pregnant by 15 like her mom, not go to prison like her dad

I’d like to bring you into my classroom in room 203
- share how a little girl was able to find her voice

Movie of Maria telling story of how she read “The Diary of Anne Frank”
- she didn’t think she had anything to relate to in that book
- every day she brought in new questions
- started to relate to Anne when things started to go bad
- I was able to link to that feeling of knowing the outside world was out there, but I just had this small connection to it
- from then on I wanted Anne to make it

One day Maria came in ad threw the book across the classroom, asked “Why didn’t you tell me?”
- I asked what? She said “you didn’t tell me she didn’t make it.”

Maria: I felt that same feeling of disappointment that I had felt with so many other disappointments in my life

Darius stood up and said: she did make it, because she wrote about it she is going to go on living even after she is dead
- that was real turning point
- that realization that writing makes you immortal, that was huge

Darius came up with an idea of getting lots of books in the library
- for so many kids who are transient, they may have missed out on show and tell

He learned that a woman who had helped save Anne is still alive, and thought they could write letters to her and she would come fly to the U.S. to come talk to 150 gangster students

Darius asked classmates to pony up cash to bring her from Amsterdam
- raising coins each day
- we sent 150 letters

She DID come from Amsterdam
- started talking about where she would stay, what we would feed her
- students repainted the graffiti covered walls of the school

Darius asked if he could be the MC of the event

Saw Maria holding her torn book (Diary of Anne Frank)
- she asked if we could get the book in Spanish because her mom wanted to read the book that changed her life

Darius who was so street tough, was deeply touched by this little, old lady telling this story about Anne

Most important thing she put into that attic was hope
- she looked at Darius and got very upset
- she said “No, I am not a hero. I simply did what I had to do because it was the right thing. Please make sure Anne’s death was not in vain.”

This made us realize perhaps we have a story, and someone would listen to us
- kids started talking about the stories they wanted to tell
- I made this desperate plea, my kids have no money, there are no computers in their homes, the librarian is afraid of my kids, they are afraid they will write on the keyboard and screen

If you tell a kid over and over again they are dumb and stupid, they will believe it
- so many people had stereotyped my kids they actually believed it
- that was a true until this one lady told my kids they were brilliant

If you don’t ask, you’ll never receive
- I was ready for a couple computers
- Two days later 36 computers arrived at my school
- it was like that new car smell
- My kids were wondering, “Are these for us?”

My kids wanted to have voice, they wanted to tell their story
- all of my kids could tell their story

As everyone began to write, I recognized those stories couldn’t be contained in room 203, in Long Beach

We decided to call ourselves the “Freedom Writers Diary”

Darius saw a video with the US secretary of Education
- asked if they could send their stories to them

Erin had just showed a video of civil rights leaders in 1950s and 1960s
- Darius wanted to take this message to Washington
- The sec of education would have to pay attention: this wasn’t about teaching to a test, this was about teaching to kids

I never envisioned that book would transcend our classroom, and become the #1 book
- all books sold, money was put into a fund to send all 150 of those students to colleg
- the first of their families to go to college

Right before we walked into the capitol we went into a juvenile hall
- they are treated like max security offenders
- people viewed those people and viewed them as bad because they had done bad things

Education is the only way to equalize an unfair playing field

you have a story

write your story down, give it to me, and I’ll take it there

Next thing we know, w

Being a dreamer, having that dream
- having kids who were written off, who were not supposed to make it

that blank screen gave them the power to become immortal

we walked into the halls of Congress
- Maria said, “Oh my God, there are so many old white men in here!” (with no script)

Maria was giving a face to millions of kids
- she recognized a man who had been a freedom writer
- he was a Congressman from Atlanta, Georgia
- he realized they had taken Freedom Writers as their name

If you teach 1, they will teach another

Yet again, just like the woman who had saved Anne Frank, the baton had been passed

So I wanted to create an organization that would teach teachers what they need to know, to reach and help each and every student that enters their classroom

150 teachers, from all over the nation, came to Long Beach and went through our boot camp
- Maria, Darius and others said come walk into our world
- doing bad things doesn’t make you a bad person
- if you tell a person they are dumb and stupid long enough they will believe it, imagine what will happen when you tell someone they are brilliant

THE POWER OF WORDS

last video in a virtual classroom with
- gave 150 teachers laptops from HP, software from Microsoft
- challenged them to tell their story
- we are underpaid, we are not validated
- help people realize our profession is a calling
- it could be a revolution, it is the only way to change society

These teachers realize education is not about a test, number 2 pencils, NCLB
- it is about reaching each child and believing each one can make it

Movie about the workshop for teachers, laptops provided by HP and Microsoft

THIS IS A TESTIMONY TO MANY THINGS. THE POWER OF WORDS. THE POWER OF HOPE. THE IMPORTANCE OF PASSIONATE TEACHING, LEADING AND LOVING. THE POWER OF STORIES. THE NEED TO ACT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. THE VITAL IMPORTANCE OF TELLING OUR STORIES. THE POWER OF VOICE. THE POWER OF 1:1 COMPUTING IN THE HANDS OF PASSIONATE CHANGE AGENTS. WOW.

NOW I’VE GOTTA GO BUY THE BOOK AND READ IT, AND SEE THE MOVIE. ERIN’S STORY REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF MARCO TORRES. LIKE MARCO, SHE’S A PASSIONATE EDUCATOR WHO IS CHANGING THE WORLD BY LOVING, NURTURING, MENTORING, CHALLENGING, AND SUPPORTING KIDS.

I AM INSPIRED. LET THE STORYCHASING BEGIN.

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#necc09, education, inspire, iste, keynote, movie, necc, necc09, reform, school, story, transform, transformation, gruwell, erin, anne, frank, freedom, writers, freedomwriters, love, inspiration, expectations, hope, gang, gangs, diary, hp, microsoft, gangster

These are my notes to the “Classsroom 2.0: What Is Web 2.0’s Role in Schools?” at NECC 2009. This was a panel discussion. I captured the entire backchannel for this session as a PDF file. Thanks to Vicki Davis for setting up the backchannel in Chatzy!

Julie Lindsey: I covet the learning connections and networks which I make now as a result

Darren Draper: I use the Internet as an extension of my brain

Steve Hargadon
- is this a passing fad or a sea change? How big of a change is it?

David Jakes:
- it has potential to be a sea change, but if we just focus on tools it won’t amount to much
- citing article “Have you considered the Internet as literacy, as a context for reading, writing and communication”
- those things are timeless and we understand as
- better to talk about a new context to read, write and communicate, rather than talking about “web 2.0 tools”

Chris Lehmann:
- the notion of a collaborative, participatory culture is definitely out of the box
- no one is going to give that up once they’ve realized/experienced it

Sylvia Martinez:
- first step is to define web 2.0
- dictionary would say: a very specific way webpages handle entry and access
- what we have done is expanded the definition
- that is dangerous because we’ve expanded the meaning, to the point now that it can be meaningless

Darren Draper:
- evidence pointing to the idea it’s not a passing fad: this panel
- we have public and private, U.S. based and international

Steve Hargadon:
- audience, is it here to stay or passing fad?

Audience: “Here to stay”

Steve: “Cool.”

MY THOUGHT: HOPEFULLY THAT IS NOT THE INTELLECTUAL DEPTH OF THE CONVERSATION WE ARE GOING TO HAVE HERE. (I.E. WEB 2.0 IS COOL. WITH THE PANEL HERE I KNOW THAT WILL NOT BE THE CASE, THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT CONVERSATION

Chris Lehmann:
- we need a defined pedagogical conversation about this

Jakes:
- should focus on the skills: writing and collaboration, not the tools
- the tools are going to come and go

Julie Lindsey:
- web 2.0 has changed how people change their strategies for instruction in the classroom
- allows you to communicate, collaborate and create at different levels
- is transforming what we can do in the classroom

Darren:
- web 2.0 focus can bring in sharing, collaboration, and digital citizenship which may not be on our state core curriculum standards yet

Jakes:
- we are having those conversations throughout our school community
- we focus on intersection of literacy and technology, and what that means
- I like to ask, “What does it mean to be well educated in the 21st century?”
- we have moved away from information fluency, information literacy
- what does it mean for instruction when we are focusing on what it means to be well educated today?
- what changes does that invite/require in curriculum and assessment?

Lemann:
- transformation is taking ideas from Dewey, Connectivism ideas from Siemans, is a new paradigm
- what do these things mean for how we teach and learn?

Darren:
- interesting that I learned about Michael Jackson’s death via Twitter first
- our students are learning with these tools NOW whether we like it or not
- it makes sense to integrate and implement those technologies in the ways we teach

Sylvia:
- we have to fill the vacuum with appropriate ways to use these tools, or students will fill the void with inappropriate ways
- we need to point out the glib ways web 2.0 tools are sometimes “claimed” to be used (SMARTboards are not web 2.0 tools)
- ask “how is that student centered?” and “how does that empower the child?”
- web 2.0 can enable that renegotiation of the relationship between students and teachers

MY THOUGHT: AREN’T WE TIRED OF SAYING “IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS YET?!”

Vicki Davis:
- why do we need to have a Ning workshop to use Ning?

I AGREE WITH THAT. CELEBRATE OKLAHOMA VOICES IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF USING TOOLS CONTEXTUALLY TO ACCOMPLISH A TASK.

Workshop on “here’s how to use this tool” is less powerful than a workshop on “here is a core value of our school, and here is a way we can/are using tools to accomplish that” is better

Question

Jakes:
- what do you do when the walls around you become permeable
- this is a climate and culture issue
- how comfortable is the school letting students step outside those walls as they produce and publish content
- connections for schools begin locally
- learning community begins first, not just in a social way but also in an academic way

THIS REMINDS ME OF THE GORE-TEX CLASSROOM ANALOGY I DEVELOPED AWHILE BACK. GOOD METAPHOR.

Chris Lehmann:
- our kids need mentors. badly. We need to be and provide mentors for our kids

Sylvia:
- you can’t convince others with words about the value of web 2.0 tools
- there is not a way to fight this in terms of trying to fight liability fears directly
- best way is to make these models of success as visible as possible

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE. AMPLIFYING SUCCESSES IS THE KEY. EXAMPLES ARE THE KEY.

Jakes:
- this is a school community issue
- this involves a group we don’t talk with often: the kids
- recently asked adults at a panel about how many have recently had conversations with their kids about what they know, are doing, etc online

Lehmann:
- simple things we don’t yet do: it’s mind boggling every school in America doesn’t have a listserv of all parents to send out the daily announcements
- we wrote a Moodle hack so parents could go to our website and find out the homework each day
- at EduCon conference we have students
- give students small reasons/steps to come into the school
- going from “I grew up in this community” to “my kids at school are talking to someone in Belize” is a huge leap

Sylvia:
- sometimes the horrible, legal AUP is the only thing we send home to parents
- messaging of technology has to be positive, constant, to the students
- if you are not bringing your students in as allies, you need to
- if kids are going home with the message you want to send, that will trump your AUP every time

Darren:
- asking what kind of efforts we are doing to try and teach our parents

THAT IS A GREAT QUESTION. SOMEONE SUGGESTED DOING SMALL, SHORT COFFEE CHATS FOR PARENTS AT SCHOOL VIA THE PTO/PTA.

Julie:
- we have a teaching parents Ning
- helping parents make informed decisions

Chris:
- At SLA we have a culture of laptops up / laptops down in class, we have talked about whether we need to do that at times in faculty meetings
- what do we want our kids to be able to do, and what tools can harness their ability to do those things?

Sylvia:
- to assume that kids don’t already have a backchannel in their heads already is a mistake
- having kids communicate about what they are doing, and the classroom experience, is a way to harness some of those energies
- often kids are buzzing in their heads and much of formal education is going over their heads now

Very impassioned comments by a participant (name I don’t know)
- point was: find tools LATER AFTER you set your goals
- disagree with the message “you have to use blogs, you have to use wikis”

Someone else: we are putting up walls now with laptop screens

Lehmann:
- we are focused on teaching communication skills, students are communicating with each other, organizations in our local community
- last year was “Change the World” project, last year was “Change Philadelphia” project, based on “think globally, act locally” mantra

Sylvia:
- this today is not a classroom, this is an experiment

Julie:
- I have seen this (backchanneling) work extremely well in classrooms, in conferences (for Flat Classroom conference), in different languages

Vicki:
- when you have a backchannel you need to have a moderator

THIS IS A COMMENT I MADE IN THE BACKCHANNEL:

I really push back on this idea that “we should never talk about the TOOLS.” It is ok to talk about the tools at times. We start with an awareness level knowledge of tools, move to a personal use, then go to the instructional level of use, both taking other’s ideas and inventing our own. It is a process. It is ok to talk about the tools. We shouldn’t feel guilty talking about the tools, esp with people who are not familiar with them AT ALL.

Jakes quoting Lehmann: “What is the worst consequence of your best idea?”

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#necc09, collaboration, necc, necc09, technology, web2, schools

These are my notes from the panel session “21st-Century Learning: The New Visionary Administrator Speaks Up!” at NECC 2009, facilitated by Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow. This session is being audio recorded and will be posted/shared on the Project Tomorrow website after the conference. The official session description was:

A new breed of visionary administrator is transforming education through technology. Learn about their visions and strategies for 21st-century education.

MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Project Tomorrow is on Facebook.

Panelists include:

1. Paul from North Schuylkill SD (Ashland, Pennysylvania
2. Ryan from Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts (Baltimore, Maryland)
3. Gerry from Chicago Public Schools
4. Brian from Digital Harbor High School (Baltimore, Maryland)

Intro from Julie Evans
- Nick Nicholson from Chicago PS: “We want technology to be almost a thoughtless, seamless process. When you go to a classroom, you pick up a piece of chalk…”

Going to talk about “Speak Up” project, review national data findings, intro report findings, hear from panel of experts, discuss new report on visionary administrators

What is Speak Up?
- polling effort for constituents on use of technology in and out of school
- started in fall 2003 because of seeing a disconnect with how schools were using technology and kids were using tech outside schools
- Oct 12 - Dec 18 is open dates for survey this year (2009)
- will have a new survey for preservice teachers this year

THIS IS THE SAME AS WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY CALLED “NET DAY”

with a new edtech plan, we’re asking for student’s ideas about designing the ideal school of the future
- received over 150,000 responses from kids
- video responses available on our website

Using Senteo clickers to get audience responses in the session

Many people are surprised by the ubiquity of access to technology to even young students, access to gaming, young girls too, not just teen boys

Kids look at technology as a productivity tool, they are constantly looking at being more productive and using tech for productivity

We hypothesize our kids are functioning as a “digital advance team” and can give us a guide about where tech in schools should be
- we are watching US K-12 students, adopting/adapting technologies for learning
- students first use it in their personal lives and bring it into the classroom

Now we are going to look at stats

Digital disconnect is alive and well at many levels

I WISH I HAD THAT SLIDE SHE JUST SHOWED, GIVEN THE “BRIDGING THE DIVIDE” THEME FOR THE 2009 K-12 ONLINE CONFERENCE, THIS INFO IS VERY RELEVANT FOR ME!

Most of our adult respondents consider their tech skills “average”

What percentage of 9th graders consider themselves “advanced tech users?”
- most people say a majority, real answer is between 22-24% do
- vast majority consider their tech skills to be average

Our paradigms for “advanced users” as adults is very different from the kids

This presentation will be fully available online!

What are kids doing to use technology for schoolwork?
- taking online tests
- using online textbooks
- taking online classes
- playing educational games
- more…

Kids are generally not very happy with technology use and access at school

top responses
- school filters and firewalls block websites I need
- teachers limit our technology use
- too many rules

Many kids report they had better access to technology BEFORE professional development was provided for teachers

Biggest things kids want
- let me bring my own laptop, mobile device, cell phone at school

Digital advance team trends
- the mobile learner
- it’s a web 2.0 world

WOW, JULIE IS WHIPPING THROUGH THESE SLIDES WITH LOTS OF TEXT AND NOT PROVIDING SUFFICIENT TIME FOR AUDIENCE MEMBERS TO PROCESS THE CONTENT. NO PRESENTATION ZEN APPROACH HERE.

Question: What are the behaviors, values and aspirations of our nations ADMINISTRATORS regarding tech use and 21st century skills?
- key finding: there is a new cohort of emerging visionary administrators who share common behaviors, values and aspirations for 21st century learning
- this is very interesting and new (these perspectives are closer to those of students than to many parents or teachers)

Beliefs of this group of admins:
- believe tech can help student achievement
- model and use tech personally
- doing lots of communications
- also doing videos and podcasts
- downloading more music, similar to how students do
- are doing some game playing

Almost 100% say tech use within instruction is a “wake up issue” for them at night about something they need to address better
- they have higher expectation for incoming teachers
- are more interested in new teachers using digital aides, incorporating digital resources
- are looking for incoming teachers to have created podcasts, have taken an online class
- they have greater intense interest: mix of operating systems and hardware is not as big an issue
- spending a ton of time on school or district websites is not as important

Visionary admins are working on:
- funding
- PD
- evaluating emerging technologies, seeing how those fit into their instructional plan
- very interested in the assessment of tech skills (most say this should be looked at from a 21st century skill focus)

We ask all participants, if you could design the ultimate school what tools or elements would you include:
- K-12 students for past 6 years response has not changed for urban and rural, across the nation: “Give me a laptop for my personal use at school and at home”

THIS SHOULD NOT BE A SURPRISE: KIDS WANT 1:1 LEARNING. WE NEED TO GIVE IT TO THEM.

students with this response are looking for control over their learning environment
- they see us having control to contacts, resources, our work destination

ISN’T IT INTERESTING HOW MANY OF THESE CONVERSATIONS COME DOWN TO CONTROL?

Visionary administrators believe their vision sets their school apart from other schools
- parents and teachers are not as supportive of the role of technology in helping prepare students for the future

Students are looking for:
- untethered learning
- new learnign spaces
- social based learning
digital resources add relevancy
- …more
- learning that is enabled, engaging, and empowered

So how do we get to that, and meet these expectations? We are going to turn to our panel for answers

From Ryan:
- we are trying to build a culture of experimentation
- I have been at Perry Hall
- we recognized we were NOT listening to our students
- we pulled together a student forum

Brian at Digital Harbor
- we select students by lottery to come to our high school
- we have 4 media pathways, like a tech-based votech
- students are in their track for 90 min per day in grades 10-12
- vision of our school began in 2002
- we wanted to give kids both the honors/AP classes as well as technology exposure, so they can have a choice about whether they wanted to go to college or enter a technology career fields
- reading skills are a big challenge for many students, reading at a college level
- tech integration skills for teachers are a big challenge
- we are one of the most popular lottery schools in the district, about 1200 students in 9th grade compete for 250 slots, as a result next year we are restructuring to a school-within-a-school model, each tech pathway will be on tis own floor, collaboration is encouraged heavily between teachers
- another challenge is state industry test, we haven’t been very successful there in the past but are working on that

Now going up to the district level

Paul at mid-level sized PA district, 2100 students
- our economy has been in decline for the past several decades
- our focus is to afford our students the opportunities they could have anywhere else in the world
- we are struggling economically, and view technology as a way to level the playing field

I AM HAVING TO LEAVE THIS SESSION FOR A BLOGGER CAFE MEETING. THIS WAS A GREAT SESSION, I’LL TRY AND LINK UP THE PODCAST WHICH WILL BE POSTED LATER BY PROJECT TOMORROW.

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iste, necc, necc09, project, student, technology, voices, tomorrow, survey, data

Tomorrow my son and I head out for Washington D.C. This evening we’ve been finalizing our packing, and that meant (for me in anticipation of some webcasting as well as podcasting from NECC 2009) putting together my updated webcasting/podcasting kit. The following image is labeled with mouse-over notes on Flickr:

I won’t be using the Ustream mobile application from NECC to webcast, but do plan to:

1. Use my iPhone GS to record some video interviews which I’ll post directly to my YouTube channel.
2. Record some interviews and sessions with my digital audio recorders, for later editing and publication.
3. Webcast some full NECC sessions live over my Ustream channel using a DV camcorder as well as a Nady wireless lapel mic setup.

I’ve been concerned about my camera situation, since the DV camcorder I was going to borrow from my father-in-law stopped sending a DV signal over firewire for some reason last week in the middle of our stopmotion filmmaking camp. Today after our COV workshop finished up, I visited a couple Oklahoma City pawn shops in hopes I could find a relatively inexpensive DV camcorder that could work for webcasting.

I was VERY impressed at the camcorder selection in the second pawn shop we visited. The question is, of course, how many of these camcorders were actually stolen?

This is the camcorder I ended up buying for $104, along with a six month warranty for $10. It’s a Sony with a 40x optical zoom, and it works great with my MacBook Pro over Ustream! It also included a case, two batteries, and the AC power supply. Given that you can’t buy a consumer-level camcorder with a DV port anymore in our area, this was a GREAT deal and find.

I will not be an official participant / contributor to the ISTEconnects webcasting and livestreaming efforts from NECC, but I would encourage everyone to check out the schedule Joe Corbett posted yesterday on ISTEconnects for their planned coverage from D.C. I’ll still be sharing posts on the ISTEconnects blog through next week, and I’m sure there will be a LOT of new content posted there and elsewhere as NECC gets in full swing.

I went ahead and deleted the session I’d planned to share on “Webcasting, Live Blogging & Backchannels” during session 1 of EduBloggerCon on Saturday, because I want to attend the “Web 2 Smackdown 2009″ session Vicki Davis is organizing during that same time block. I missed that session last year, and don’t want to miss it again! I shared a similar session at our Oklahoma Distance Learning Conference in November of 2009 titled, “Webcasting on a Shoestring,” and that is available as a Ustream archive.

I added an EduBloggerCon 2009 session in the 1-1:45 pm timeblock titled “The 2009 K-12 Online Conference: What’s New and What Should We Do.” If you haven’t already, please read, forward, and retweet the post, “K12Online09 Bridging the Divide: Call for Proposals, Keynotes, and LAN Party Plans.” I’m hoping this session at EduBloggerCon 2009 will provide a good opportunity to discuss ideas for the 2009 conference, both sharing new elements proposed by conveners this year and also discussing other, new ideas we may not have considered previously. I am VERY excited about our proposed LAN party “live events” for k12online09 in partnership with EdTechTalk!

NECC 2009, here we come!

Technorati Tags:
#necc09, iste, k12online, k12online09, ustream, webcast, necc09, necc

This fantastic presentation by Dyane Smokorowski (Mrs. Smoke) was shared at the PodStock 2009 conference in Wichita, Kansas, on May 1, 2009. Dyane is an instructional technology coach in Andover, Kansas, and is one of the most enthusiastic advocates for telecollaboration in the classroom you’ll likely ever hear! The official description for this Podstock09 session was: Telecollaboration refers to the activity of engaging learners in intercultural exchange with students from other countries through the use of online learning. The learning outcomes of these exchanges can be both powerful and enlightening with an amazing potential for language, data collection, and global awareness. The best part of these projects is they are easier than ever to implement with the use of Web 2.0 tools. Here we’ll explore different collaborative projects and how your classroom can open the door to global learning.

 

 Podcast321: Getting a Global Perspective - The Power of Collaborative Projects by Dyane Smokorowski [01:00:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (882)

Show Notes:

1. Dyane’s SlideShare for this session
2. Dyane’s Wiki links for Telecollaboration
3. Making Teachers Nerdy: The blog of Dyane Smokorowski
4. Dyane (Mrs. Smoke) on Twitter
5. Dyane’s delicious social bookmarks
6. My blogged text notes from this session
7. PodStock Ning
8. Dr. Judi Harris’ Virtual Architecture’s web home
9. My wiki resources for educational collaboration
10. ESSDACK: The host of Podstock09!

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The following paragraph from the Target Tech in Texas (T3) Collaborative Grant program guidelines document (page 9 of 47) summarizes what policymakers in Texas view as the ideal 21st century classroom environment:

In a 21st Century classroom, students have access to appropriate technology and digital resources for technology integrated curriculum activities on the campus, in the district, at home, or key locations in the community. Teachers seamlessly integrate technology in a student-centered learning environment where technology is used to solve real-world problems in collaboration with business, industry and higher education. Teachers and students apply technology across all subject areas to provide learning opportunities that are not possible without the technology. Teachers create and integrate web-based lessons which include TEKS-based content, resources, learning activities, and interactive communications that support learning objectives throughout the curriculum.

The paragraph above would describe a level 4, or a “target tech” learning environment as defined by the Texas STaR (School Technology and Readiness) chart. The STaR chart and its associated websites were created to support implementation of the Texas “Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020.” (PDF) For more on this long range Texas technology plan for schools, see my post, “Notes on the Texas Long Range Technology Plan: 2006-2020.”

The following are Texas STaR chart assessment options in the category “teaching and learning” for educators at the top “Target Tech” level of integration. (Available on page 11 of the PDF-formatted Teacher STaR Chart document.)

For patterns of classroom use:

My classroom is a student-centered learning environment where technology is seamlessly integrated to solve real world problems in collaboration with business, industry, and higher education Learning is transformed as my students propose, assess, and implement solutions to problems.

For Frequency / Design of Instructional Setting Using Digital Content:

My students and I have on- demand access to all appropriate technology and digital resources anytime/anywhere for technology integrated curriculum activities on the campus, in the district, at home, or key locations in the community.

For Content Area Connections:

My students and I seamlessly apply technology across all subject areas to provide learning opportunities beyond the classroom that are not possible without the technology.

For Technology Applications (TA) TEKS Implementation:

I seamlessly integrate Technology Applications (TA) TEKS in collaborative, cross-curricular units of instruction.

For Student Mastery of Technology Applications (TA) TEKS:

86 to 100% of my students have mastered Technology Applications TEKS.

For Online Learning:

I have created and integrated web-based lessons which include online TEKS-based content, resources, learning activities, and interactive communications that support learning objectives throughout the curriculum.

The advanced search portal for the Texas STaR chart permits visitors to search for Texas schools which have specific reported levels of technology readiness in different categories. For 2007-2008 STaR chart results, statewide only 86 campuses reported “target tech” level for online learning. At the other “levels” for online learning in 2007-2008, 491 campuses reported level 3 or “Advanced Tech” level, 5075 reported level 2 or “Developing Tech” level, and 1865 reported level 1 or “Early Tech” level status. If these numbers are accurate, that means there were 7517 campuses in Texas in 2007-2008 which submitted the required Texas STaR chart data for teachers and campuses as a whole. With only 86 campuses reporting “target tech” for online learning, that means only about ONE PERCENT of Texas schools (1.14%) under the purview of TEA in 2007-2008 were creating and integrating:

…web-based lessons which include online TEKS-based content, resources, learning activities, and interactive communications that support learning objectives throughout the curriculum.

Given the goals of the Texas “Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020,” these statistics paint a compelling picture for the importance of educators as well as students regularly engaging in the 3 C’s of 21st century learning: Creating, Communicating, and Collaborating. This was my keynote theme at MASSCUE 2008 last November. Focusing on technologies which enable TRANSFORMATIVE learning experiences (those not possible without the technology access) was a key theme I shared at eTechOhio in February 2009.

We not only need to encourage more teachers and students to regularly COLLABORATE throughout the school year with each other (including learners outside the traditional walls of the school) but we also need to encourage teachers to CONTRIBUTE to collaborative curriculum repositories like Curriki. Participating in a free, online conference like K-12 Online can open educators’ eyes to not only the possibilities for collaboration in our digitally connected world, but also provide specific and realistic pathways forward to make collaboration in our schools a “normal” and regular occurrence rather than a “1 in 100 schools” characteristic.

Technorati Tags:
education, learning, plan, technology, texas, collaboration, star, tea

In the May 2009 issue of “Learning and Leading with Technology” Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler discuss the TPACK framework in their article, “Too Cool for School? No Way!” The article is available electronically to ISTE members only. According to Mishra and Koehler:

Expert teachers consciously and unconsciously find ways to orchestrate and coordinate technology, pedagogy, and content into every act of teaching. They flexibly navigate the affordances and constraints of each technology and each possible teaching approach to find solutions that effectively combine content, pedagogy, and technology. They find solutions to complex, dynamic problems of practice by designing curricular solutions that fit their unique goals, situations, and student learners. They use naturally make changes to their pedagogical approach and the content they cover to create a new “curriculum” that is also highly effective.

They maintain:

…effective teaching represents a “dynamic equilibrium” between content, pedagogy, and technology such that a change in any one of the factors has to be compensated by changes in the other two. For example, teachers who change the technology they use naturally make changes to their pedagogical approach and the content they cover to create a new “curriculum” that is also highly effective.

This description of “expert teachers” reminds me of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) research which identified “stages” through which teachers may progress when appropriately supported with technology, content, and pedagogical assistance.

In their May09 L&L article, Mishra and Koehler make the valid point that many of the “cool tools” of web 2.0 and our digital landscape were not designed expressly with classroom education in mind, but they can be “repurposed” for educational uses. This creative process is light years away from the “scripted curriculum” which many schools have embraced in our era of high-stakes accountability. Bill Ferriter’s June 10th post, “The Problem with Scripted Curricula. . .” highlights some of these dynamics and the problems school cultures which push scripted curriculum impose on educators wanting to “repurpose” web 2.0 tools in the ways Mishra and Koehler highlight via TPACK.

TPACK was developed to use a “Learning by Design” approach where:

…inservice teachers work collaboratively in small groups to develop technological solutions to authentic pedagogical problems. In order to go beyond the simple “skills instruction” view offered by the traditional workshop approach, we have argued that it is necessary to teach technology in contexts that honor the rich connections between technology, the subject matter Content (content), and the means of teaching it (the pedagogy).

I like this three-part synthesis of technology tools, content information and knowledge, and pedagogy. We often hear about the need to focus on “learning” rather than simply technology tools. This is something I’ve heard repeatedly from presenters and educational leaders like Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, as well as many presenters active in the K-12 Online Conference. With NECC 2009 just around the corner, I’m sure there will be plenty of situations where these thoughts (along the lines of Jamie McKenzie’s 2001 article, “Toolishness is Foolishness”) will be needed and important.

While I agree an exclusive focus on “technology tools” is ultimately not transformatively constructive for educators as well as students, I also maintain we shouldn’t minimize (or underestimate) the importance of becoming exposed to different tools and getting familiar with their use both for personal reasons and in professional / educational / classroom contexts. These are many of the ideas underlying the activity framework Karen Montgomery and I are developing for “Powerful Ingredients for Blended Learning.” Drawing on the ACOT stage research as well as other frameworks like TPACK, we’re proposing four levels of digital literacy when it comes to educational technology tools:

1. Level 1: An awareness of the technology tool or resource
2. Level 2: Personal use of the technology tool or resource
3. Level 3: Instructional use of the technology tool or resource using an existing “recipe” (lesson or assignment ideas created by someone else)
4. Level 4: The invention level, creating your own instructional “recipes” for learners using the tool or resource along with others. This is “inventive blending.”

Mishra and Koehler’s framework suggests that attention should not only be paid to the technology tool and the content which is presented or studied, but also on the pedagogy or the way in which students interact with content as well as each other. This gets to the focus of the “learning task,” something Phil Schlechty writes about at length in terms of student engagement. Two weeks ago I heard Tammy Worcester present at Oklahoma City Public Schools’ annual Tech Day, and quote David Warlick when it comes to student research assignments. As teachers we should NOT be assigning tasks, including research assignments, which can be readily Googled and copied/pasted. Learning tasks should be more complex and challenging, involving role play, creative writing, and other strategies which invite a higher level of both student engagement, creativity, and critical thinking. This can operationalize what Andrew Churches writes about in his Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.

The TPACK wiki (openly accessible to anyone) includes some resources (including an extensive “Reference Library” to articles and conference proceedings) relating to the TPACK framework. Matthew Koehler has an extensive list of TPACK resources and content/conversation channels on his professional website also.

One VERY important book I need to read soon, which I anticipate will further shape my beliefs and perceptions about this intersection of technology, content and pedagogy, is the “Understanding by Design” framework. I own one of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s books, I just haven’t made the time to read it yet. I hope to in the coming weeks.

[Cross-posted to the Powerful Ingredients for Blended Learning blog]

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content, integration, learning, technology, pedagogy, teaching, design

These are notes I’ve taken from the Texas “Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020″ which is available as a PDF file. I read and took notes the first half of this document using the free iPhone eBook Reader Stanza, and used the free Stanza desktop application to convert and share the PDF file in eReader format to my iPhone. MY OWN THOUGHTS, REFLECTIONS, AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

Mission of Texas Public Education is based on the idea that:

…a general diffusion of knowledge is essential for the welfare of this state and for the preservation of the liberties and rights of citizens. It is further grounded on the conviction that a successful public education system is directly related to a strong, dedicated, and supportive family and that parental involvement in the school is essential for the maximum educational achievement of a child.

Texas Long Range Technology plan supports educational activities which are:

preparing each student for success and productivity as a lifetime learner, a world-class communicator, a competitive and creative knowledge worker, and an engaged and contributing member of the emerging global digital society.

Texas technology standards referenced in the tech plan:
- Teachers must meet the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) Technology Applications standards
- Students must meet the Technology TEKS

NOTHING IS IN THE SBEC STANDARDS WHICH REFERENCES THE NEED FOR OR REQUIRES COLLABORATION.

A big goal of the tech plan is extending learning to the home / to parents
- SCHOOLS SHOULD HAVE A WAY TO ASSESS HOW WELL THEY ARE EXTENDING LEARNING TO HOMES
- “distributed learning environments” is a key phrase

SBEC technology standards require for teachers:
- access to technology
- quality professional development
- time to implement technology infused lessons

Students must show they can:
- acquire information
- solve problems
- communicate with technology

Provided PD must align to SBEC standards, must:
- support lesson planning
- classroom management
- administrative tasks

PD must be available 24/7 and be available on platforms including online
- a “comprehensive PD initiative is imperative”
- should move teachers from early/developing technology on STaR chart to Advanced/Target Tech levels

Content focused PD must be provided
Schools should budget for TCO (total cost of ownership) as well as sustainability
Key goal is connecting schools, homes and businesses

approach is very top down: “systemic planning, and step-by-step strategies”

“rigorous curriculum standards,” quality instructional materials and comprehensive student assessments form the “framework” for the plan
- this is the “framework for success”

I THINK THERE IS AN ERROR HERE: TEACHERS SHOULD BE A KEY ELEMENT OF THIS FRAMEWORK, RATHER THAN JUST BEING ASKED TO “BUILD ON IT”

schools should provide PD to “personalize instruction”

vision of learners is to:

… engage in individualized real world learning experiences supported by ubiquitous access to modern digital tools…

key phrases include:
- “dynamic, diverse learning communities”
- “create knowledge… apply it across disciplines”
- “requires management of complex processes”

Educators:
- “mentor, monitor and motivate” students
- “participate in communities of learning and inquiry, as co-learners and researchers”
- “leaders provide stewardship for universal education”

Infrastructure
- should support interoperability
- should be benchmarked with exemplary schools around the entire nation, not just the state

A compelling need to change schools:

…essential skills required in this new era are those of agility, self-reliance, self-motivation, problem-solving, collaboration, life-long learning, and facility in using information and communication technologies…

- competitive businesses require employees to “…acquire new knowledge, learn new technologies, rapidly process information, make decisions and communicate in a globally diverse society…”

…the goal in teaching and learning must be to empower young citizens to live and learn in a continuously changing twenty-first century environment and enable this citizenry to effectively interact in the global marketplace…

STATEMENTS LIKE THIS SHOULD HAVE HUGE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WAY INTERNET WEBSITES / CONTENT FILTERING IS CARRIED OUT AND IMPLEMENTED IN OUR SCHOOLS (REFERENCE: “UNMASKING THE DIGITAL TRUTH”)

schools must extend teaching and learning beyond the traditional school walls
- must serve an increasingly diverse student population

…the learners [today's students] require a significant, immediate shift in teaching methodology…

- no more “one size fits all” content delivery
- students must develop personal skills like self-assessment

Obstacles to successful technology integration identified in the 2005 NetDay surveys in Texas
- not enough computer time
- computers don’t always work
- not enough computers

Teachers in 2005 said fast wireless was critical for tech integration success along with PD time

We want teacher-education programs which “model current technology in instructional and administrative practices”

…develop new learning environments that utilize technology as a flexible tool where learning is collaborative, interactive and customized…

STATEMENTS LIKE THIS SHOULD LEAVE NO DOUBT THAT TEXAS SCHOOLS SHOULD AND MUST EMBRACE THE USE OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS WHICH FACILITATE COLLABORATION!
- COLLABORATION AND PROJECT-BASED-LEARNING REALLY SHOULD BE A FOCUS OF SCHOOL CHANGE INITIATIVES, IF THE IDEALS AND GOALS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE TO BE REALIZED

…all leaders…offer expanded curricular and instructional opportunities to students via online, digital technology…

Professional Development:

…provide opportunities for sustained, relevant, and timely staff development in a variety of formats…

Student engagement is the key to all of this:

…The key to success for all students is the assurance that they are all fully engaged in their learning processes…

Equity and access
- it is essential we “equalize the learning environment”
- geography should not matter in terms of the quality of the educational experience which is available for students at all levels

The core framework of the Texas technology plan for teaching and learning:

The integration of technologies into Texas schools can transform the teaching process by allowing for greater levels of interest, inquiry, analysis, collaboration, creativity and content production.

I THINK THERE IS A BIG MISTAKE AND OMISSION HERE. TECHNOLOGY JUST FACILITATES THESE CHANGES, IT DOES NOT BY ITSELF CREATE THESE TRANSFORMATIONS. TECHNOLOGY IS NOT THE CATALYST. IT IS A NECESSARY INGREDIENT. THE KEY CATALYSTS ARE EDUCATIONAL LEADERS WITH THE VISION FOR CHANGING THE BEHAVIOR AND RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. A FRAMEWORK IS GREAT, BUT THEY KEY IS PEOPLE, NOT TECHNOLOGY.

Teachers should take advantage of technology to make learning more engaging and relevant
- all learners should have access to resources for individualized instruction 24/7

SO THIS VISION DOES SOUND VERY COMPELLING AT MANY LEVELS. THIS MAKES ME WANT MY OWN CHILDREN ATTENDING A SCHOOL WHICH FULLY OPERATIONALIZES THESE IDEALS, NOT IN 2020 BUT TODAY.

The model of the teacher as the source / student as the receiver of information and knowledge is inadequate
- teacher roles: facilitator, mentor, and co-learner
- students must be “active participants in the learning process”
- teachers need more time to visit classrooms, explore best practices, and learn new curriculum strategies

An online Texas teacher resource center should be created which provides technology-based resources
- “research-based strategies to improve…academic achievement”
- school leaders should “support teachers in developing classroom websites and online resources to share lessons”

critical urgency to support teachers

[THIS IS THE END OF MY NOTES FOR NOW. THIS IS ACTUALLY A DIGITIZED VERSION OF WRITTEN NOTES I TOOK ON MY ALABAMA TRIP THIS PAST WEEK.]

Technorati Tags:
integration, reform, technology, texas, transformation, plan, equity, access, vision

Oklahoma needs to join the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The “21st Century Skill Incentive Fund Act,” introduced into the US Congress last month, may help. The act:

…aims to provide matching federal funds to states that pair strong core courses with 21st century skills such as creativity, innovation, critical thinking and financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy.

Thanks to Lucy Gray (@elemenous) and Jane Park for bringing this bill to my attention. We probably shouldn’t hold our breath over this legislation, however. Hopefully it will be more successful than a similar bill (perhaps the same bill) which was proposed in the 110th Congress (2007-2008) and did not pass.

While I am glad to learn about this financial incentive for states to embrace a focus on 21st century skills, why should it take extra money to get leaders to do this? Leaders with vision and an eye to the future already understand the critical importance of transforming our schools from standardized worker factories into differentiated learning centers. This is a key goal of the Oklahoma Creativity Project. Anyone who has read articles or books by Richard Florida and does not have their head in the sand should understand these ideas. Unfortunately, however, lots of smart people (including leaders) are still not on the bandwagon for transforming our schools to meet the needs as well as opportunities in the 21st century work and learning landscapes.

I continue to be VERY uncomfortable with the standard rhetoric about “rigor” which often accompanies announcements like this:

Still, the teaching of 21st century skills is meant in no way to detract from creating a rigorous core curriculum. As Senator Rockefeller said, “West Virginia students need to master the 3 R’s – reading, writing, and arithmetic – but they must do more if they want to be ready to compete in the global economy.

High expectations: YES. A “rigorous core curriculum,” NO. We have to stop trying to force-feed a curriculum that is “a mile wide and an inch deep” down the throats of students, to quote Ian Jukes.

We don’t need legislators with a vision for 21st century literacy that would merely overlay digital tools on top of the existing, traditional secondary bell schedule and core curriculum. We have to not only re-imagine our schools, we have to actually re-architect them. This means changing the bell schedule. This means changing the required curriculum. This means no longer measuring learning exclusively on seat time. It means using portfolio assessment, and requiring that students use a variety of digital technologies to “show what they know.” It requires operationalizing the rhetoric we hear about moving from fact and recall based learning to a model emphasizing AND assessing the abilities to access, process and efficiently utilize information to solve problems and accomplish specific tasks. Check out my August 2006 podcast, “Reject Rigor: Embrace Differentiation, Flexibility, and High Expectations,” for more of my thoughts along these lines.

Trent Batson’s May 20th article for Campus Technology, “Why ePortfolio is the Tool of the Time and Who is Enaaeebling It,” got me thinking more about electronic portfolios and how the ePortfolio model we commonly see now in colleges of education is NOT the model we need to move forward in the learning revolution. Trent argues:

One particular part of ePortfolios has been built out–the part we call assessment management, the institutionally owned reporting process, tracking the progress of student cohorts toward program learning goals. But other parts have not been built out, so the eventual ideal structure of the ePortfolio enterprise is missing really important enabling software applications.

At NECC 2009 this year, I really want to learn more about how educators and students at different levels are using ePortfolios not as institutional “assessment management” portfolios, but rather as personalized portfolios which effectively communicate via “digital footprints” the experiences, capabilities, and skills of individual learners and workers.

I’d love to hear about how K-12 schools as well as universities are implementing Mahara:

…an open source e-portfolio system with a flexible display framework. Mahara, meaning ‘think’ or ‘thought’ in Te Reo M?ori, is user centred environment with a permissions framework that enables different views of an e-portfolio to be easily managed. Mahara also features a weblog, resume builder and social networking system, connecting users and creating online learner communities.

7 different NECC 2009 sessions are scheduled which include (in the session title or description) the word “ePortfolio.” Of these, the two concurrent sessions that look the most promising for my interests are:

1. Scott Floyd’s preso “ePortfolios for Students & Staff Using Free Web 2.0 Tools”
2. Helen Barrett’s session “ePortfolios 2.0: Web 2.0 tools to Improve/Showcase Student Technology Literacy”

Hopefully I’ll be able to attend and live blog/webcast these sessions from NECC. I did learn recently that I’ll be working with an ISTEconnects team to live-blog and webcast different NECC sessions, as well as interviews and conversations from the convention center. It should be fun as well as educational on multiple fronts!

Helen’s precon workshop, “Web 2.0 Tools for Classroom-Based Assessment and Interactive Student ePortfolios,” also looks promising but I’ll miss it since I’ll be attending EduBloggerCon 2009 on Saturday.

Helen’s post last week, “Digital Identity and EIFEL’s new direction,” echos some of Trent’s comments in the above post about an increased focus on “digital identity” and ePortfolios which functionally serve the interests of INDIVIDUAL LEARNERS rather than mainly institutions. On Helen’s recommendation I’ve downloaded the free eBook version of “This Is Me.” The book description is:

Your Digital Identity is everything you create on the Web, but also what other people might say about you there. Photographs on social networking sites, logs of chatroom conversations, newspaper articles about your role in a play, or your sporting victory. Even if you don’t post material to the Web yourself, there is a good chance somebody else does, and we believe it is worth knowing about some of the issues. This workbook is designed to help you raise your level of awareness and to think about some of the ways your DI might be affected.

The book is in the format of a workbook which could be used with teachers and students in a class on DI (digital identity.) I am going to consider using part of it in the class I’m going to lead on Wednesday nights next fall at my church on “Digital Dialog: Leveraging the Constructive Potentials of Technology and Social Media in our Lives, Homes and Communities.”

Technorati Tags:
curriculum, education, leadership, learning, partnership, school, skills, eportfolio, portfolio, 21st, century, time, rigor, transform

Thanks a tweet I learned today about “The National Summit on 21st Century Skills” scheduled for June 12, 2009, in Washington D.C., and the “Cyber Summit on 21st Century Skills,” scheduled for June 1st-12th. The Cyber Summit is a free event held online, and will provide opportunities for insight and input into the face-to-face national summit later in the month and prior to NECC at the end of June.

My home state, Oklahoma, is not currently a member of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and I’d love to support both membership of our state in this organization as well as advocate further for 21st century skill emphasis in our schools and communities. Our 3 year-old Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project and Storychasers organization both provide tangible ways to advance 21st century skills for both educators and students. Given these contexts, I’m intrigued to learn more about “21st Century Oklahoma:”

…a community of educators, parents, students, and other stakeholders seeking to ensure that our children are equipped to be successful citizens and leaders in the world they are about to enter. That world is a very different place than it was even ten years ago, and the skills needed to survive and thrive have evolved as well. In an era where the amount of technical information doubles every two years, it is no longer practical or useful to hope students will acquire enough basic content knowledge to get by. Far more important are the ability to find information, validate it, analyze it, synthesize it, and repurpose it (often collaboratively) for their needs.

This online community is a resource for anyone looking to better understand what we refer to as 21st century skills, and a central voice calling for the formal adoption of those skills as an essential and required element of learning for Oklahoma’s public schools.

This website and initiative is being spearheaded by Joshua Williams. Follow the project on Twitter @21stCOK.

Expecting as we are the imminent release of Oklahoma’s portion of the $90.9 billion of ARRA funds designated for education, it is certainly an exciting as well as opportune time to be advocating for 21st century skills in Oklahoma.

The upcoming National Cyber Summit will offer a variety of both live events as well as asynchronous conversation opportunities.

Consider joining in the conversations. The tag “#p21cs” is recommended for the event, for tweets and blog posts.

Technorati Tags:
#p21cs, summit, partnership, cyber, 21stcentury, skills

Next time you have an opportunity to share some quotations with a group of educators, parents, or others interested in learning and school change, consider sharing a slideshow of the images in the “Great quotes about Learning and Change” Flickr group.

Just be sure to check if Flickr is accessible in the location where you’re sharing the presentation, in advance if possible! If it’s blocked and can’t be whitelisted, download and save the images you want to share to your local hard drive before the presentation. FlickrDown is a Windows-based program you can use to readily download Flickr group images offline. (Thanks Lifehacker.) I’m not aware of a Mac-compatible program with this same functionality, but would love to find one if it exists.

Hat tip to Silvia Tolisano for mentioning this Flickr group in her post, “Education & Learning Quotes.”

Technorati Tags:
learning, share, technology, quote, quotations, flickr, group, slideshow

This morning I created a Slidecast using Slideshare of my keynote address from the PodStock conference several weeks ago, shared in Wichita, Kansas, on May 1, 2009. This presentation is part one in a two part series titled, “Storychasing: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses.” A Slidecast includes multimedia slides synchronized to a mp3 audio file.

I made several mistakes during this presentation and fixed a few of them in this asynchronously shared recording, but did not fix everything. I changed Hudson “bay” to “river” in Audacity, but did not fix my reference to the book “The Rise of the Creative Class” from “Dan Pink” to “Richard Florida.” (I got a bit rushed toward the end of the preso.) I also edited out the audio file I initially played incorrectly as “Lupita’s Mother’s Day podcast” from this recording. The photo from Pearl Harbor and the USS Oklahoma Survivors videoconference was taken in 2007 rather than 1997. Dr. Lynell Burmark says the human brain processes an image 40,000 times faster than text, rather than 60,000 times. I may have made other errors… if so, please forgive me. This was the first time I was able to share this session, and ended up sharing part two yesterday as a keynote during the Webheads in Action Online Convergence 2009 Conference online. I’ll be editing, uploading and syncing my recorded audio from that second part of this presentation soon.

I created a one page PDF QuickStart Guide for SlideShare today also, which I plan to use in several weeks when I spend a full day with Alabama educators in Gadsden City Schools. I need to increase the margins on this document and add a CC license, but I’ll keep the URL to this document consistent after I make those changes. I’m also going to make a similar QuickStart guide for Slidecasting. These will both be linked from my Intro to Podcasting wiki curriculum page. As always feel free to use any of these materials for your own learning and workshop needs under a CC Attribution license.

A less edited version of this keynote is available as an audio-only podcast here on Moving at the Speed of Creativity. I think it’s valuable to be able to see the slides in sync with the audio, however, if you’re viewing and listening to the presentation in a “tethered” mode. (Using a laptop or desktop computer.)

Technorati Tags:
education, safety, school, technology, video, youtube, storychasing, podstock, podstock09, #podstock09, #podstock, podcasting, record, online

This podcast is a recording of my keynote address for the 2009 PodStock conference, held in Wichita, Kansas, on May 1-2, 2009. This part 1 of a 2 part series on Storychasing: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses. Part 2 will be presented online this weekend on Saturday, May 23, 2009, at 1900 GMT (2 pm CST) as a keynote for the Webheads in Action Convergence 2009 Conference. Please join us for part 2! (It will also be recorded and shared here afterwards.) The official conference program description for this sesson was/is: Just as a stormchaser uses available technologies, knowledge and skills to pursue and document an impending thunderstorm, storychasers use their tools and abilities to document stories of local, regional, national or international interest. In our classrooms and after-school programs, as educators we can empower learners of all ages to become digital witnesses and responsible citizen journalists as storychasers. Whether on a school field trip, conducting research for a class project or school journalism assignment, or interviewing local residents to share about their lives and experiences, storychasers can and are utilizing a rich array of new media tools to create, communicate, and collaborate. Come learn how to join the storychaser’s communication revolution, and catalyze the development of a diverse array of 21st century as well as traditional literacy skills with students in your local community who can become empowered storychasers!

 

 Podcast318: Empowering Students as Digital Witnesses (Storychasing Part I - PodStock09 Keynote) [54:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (941)

Show Notes:

1. This presentation is available as a Slidecast on SlideShare (presentation slides synced to an audio mp3 recording)
2. Official Schedule for WebHeads in Action Online Convergence 2009 Conference
3. My WIAOC 2009 Presentation Wiki Page (Part 2 of this Series on Storychasing)
4. What Did You Do in School Yesterday, Today, and Three Years Ago? by H. Songhai (2008 K-12 Online Conference Presentation)
5. Kevin Honeycutt
6. ESSDACK
7. Presentation wiki (with additional resource links)
8. Multimedia Slides on SlideShare
9. Sony ICD-UX70 MP3 Digital Audio Recorder
10. 2009 Mother’s Day Podcast (created free with GCast - no cell phone recording used tho)
11. Audacity (free, open source audio editor)
12. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
13. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices Project wiki
14. StoryChasers
15. TwitPic: Hudson River Landing (15 Jan 2009)
16. In Hudson River Landing, PR Pros Were Not the First Responders (5 Feb 2009)
17. StoryChasers
18. Mother’s Day Podcasts (Carol Anne McGuire)
19. Radio WillowWeb
20. A Day to Remember (Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital story about the inauguration by Renee Hall
21. Additional links available on my wiki curriculum, “Publish Audio At-Will and Geo-Storychasing”
22. Follow Wesley on Twitter: twitter.com/wfryer

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I’m continuing to prepare for a day-long workshop in Amarillo next Saturday on “Powerful Ingredients for Digitally Interactive Learning,” and I came across the video “21st century schools” from Dr. Stephen Heppell today on the Shanghai Learning 2.0 Ning. I’ve added this to my “Videos for PD” blog page.

Being a big fan of railroads and analogies of today’s learning environment to bygone days of railroad glory, I especially enjoyed Stephen’s comparisons of people thinking about schools today and the way railroad advocates were dubious about the newly introduced technology, “the automobile.” This video, in my view, makes a strong case for blended learning where the learning connection between home and school is seamless.

For more video analogies about railroads and hyperlinked learning, see David Warlick’s 2006 keynote for the K-12 Online Conference (“Derailing Education: Taking Sidetrips for Learning”) and my video “Roads of Learning in the 21st Century,” which I included in a longer related discussion in the post “Railroads and virtual connections.”

Stephen’s longer video, “Space The Final Frontier,” is also worth checking out on the subject of changing schools and technology’s proper role in these changes. An online forum has been created to discuss the ideas in this video.

Stephen’s discussion about “agility” versus “flexibility” as well as collegiality, community, and “us-ness” reminds me of The Oklahoma City COworking COllaborative, which I’m eager to check out in person later this month. The physical design of learning spaces is SO important, and as we redesign / retool schools I think it’s pivotal we pay more attention to this. Consider the design of the physical space of OkcCoCo:

Looks inviting, doesn’t it? Our schools should look more inviting as well.

Stephen also discusses the importance of getting and keeping the ATTENTION of students in the 21st century, which reminds me of a favorite piece: Michael Goldhaber’s 1997 article, “The Attention Economy and the Net.” My three part podcast series on the attention economy (including its implications for schools) continues to be an important part of my own lens / frame for looking at the world.

My favorite quotation of the video is at the end, when Stephen said:

The future of higher education is in our hands, if we design it for the 21st century.

David Clews video, “SPACE: The Movie,” is a 4 minute response to Stephen’s video.

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Some chamber of commerce groups and school administrator organizations in Oklahoma are no-doubt disappointed today: Oklahoma school boards will NOT be able to fire teachers, librarians, counselors, and other educators at will under an exemption “from all statutory requirements and State Board of Education rules from which charter schools are exempt as provided for in the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act.” This legislation was proposed this session in Oklahoma as Senate Bill 834. The enrolled version is available from the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s website. I did find an amended version on eCapitol.net from February 19, 2009, but I could not readily find a link to the amended version which Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry vetoed yesterday. If anyone knows of a link to the final version which was passed by both the House and Senate and sent to Governor Henry, please share the link here in a comment. I did not find the Oklahoma Legislature Homepage online to be very helpful or functional in this regard.

Tulsa World writer Barbara Hoberock titled her article about the veto today “Henry vetoes schools bill: He says the measure would have turned back the clock on decades of education reforms.” This is the lead, front page article on the printed/analog version Tulsa World today. Michael McNutt, writing for The Oklahoman / NewsOK, gave his article the headline, “School Deregulation Flunks With Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry: With Veto, Henry Says Sb 834 Would ‘Turn Back The Clock.’” This is a VERY big deal for our Oklahoma schools, so it’s interesting the headline seems buried in the online local news items on NewsOK.

I will not pretend to be an expert on this legislation or all the politics involved here, but I will share what I know. Joshua Williams has been keeping me up to date on some of the developments via his tweets on SB 834. A couple of weeks ago when I presented “Leveraging the Potential of Social Media for School Public Relations” at the 2009 Oklahoma School Public Relations Association conference, I visited with a representative of the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA.) She explained that some business groups in Oklahoma as well as school administrator associations (including the Oklahoma State School Boards Association) have supported this bill because it would free school boards, superintendents, and principals to fire educators at will without having to follow existing contract limitations and protections on educator contracts. The justification most are giving for this is the economy and our tough economic times for schools: It will make it much easier to make school budget cuts if administrators don’t have to mess with / respect these “pesky teacher contracts.” (That’s my paraphrase, not a quote from anyone directly.) While I certainly understand that administrators would like to make their lives easier by being able to hire and fire teachers at will, I also recognize that such a situation would open up teachers all over Oklahoma to arbitrary and capricious decisions by administrators to fire people they don’t like or want to work with for some reason. I’ve been in education long enough to know those sentiments DO exist on many campuses, and it’s VERY important that employment safeguards are in place to protect educators from such arbitrary treatment. We call this “due process” in the United States. I’m glad Governor Brad Henry vetoed SB834, not because our Oklahoma school system is perfect and isn’t in need of substantive reforms, but because this legislative effort was ill-conceived and potentially very harmful for the educators, students, and the educational system in our state.

There are several BIG issues here that do need to be addressed, but unfortunately this legislation would not have done so constructively.

The first issue is something I’ve referred to as “the dead wood” issue for teachers. We all have known and may still know teachers that simply should not be in the classroom. In some cases they hate kids, in others they refuse to do what’s best for kids if it causes them an inconvenience, in others they refuse to learn new techniques and ideas for better reaching kids and helping them learn. I’m reminded of a workshop I shared in a rural Oklahoma school back in 2007 about Google Earth. One of the teachers in the session played solitaire during the entire 45 minute presentation, refusing to look up from her screen at me or anyone else in the workshop or interact in any way with others in the room. Her unspoken but loud message was, “You can make me attend this professional development session, but you can’t make me listen or learn anything new.” It was sad. This anecdote actually highlights a rather minor instance of the “dead wood” problem, I know there are MANY cases which are much more egregious and harmful to kids. The bottom line is this: We need an educational system led by caring and strong administrators who ARE empowered to make the sometimes tough decisions which are in the best interests of students and the community. Teacher tenure has and continues, in many cases, to be an obstacle to the realization of this goal. Poor administrators who care more about coaching their sports team rather than providing instructional leadership within the school culture is an even bigger issue in many contexts, however.

The OEA representative with whom I spoke several weeks ago indicated that OEA had expressed a willingness to sit down with OSSBA and other groups to look at the current processes for teacher evaluation, probation and firing. Apparently this opportunity was not embraced by OSSBA and other administrator groups. Now that HB834 has been vetoed, perhaps these groups can sit down and work together on this issue. It IS real, and does need to be addressed more effectively.

The other big issue which the HB834 discussion highlights is MONEY. I could write at length about this, but I’ll attempt to summarize my thoughts in two main points:

1. We have to pay our teachers more in Oklahoma. We are rated 48th in the nation in teacher salaries. It is impossible for us to meaningfully improve our schools and school system if we continue to offer such paltry salaries to educators, as well as ridiculously meager (and expensive) health benefits. We must pay our educators more to both attract and retain great teachers who are passionate about kids and learning.
2. We must restructure the way education dollars are allocated in our state. Public education is a common good, not a private privilege. Visit some of our poorest urban and rural schools, and then visit some of our wealthiest schools in Deer Creek and Edmond. This phenomenon is not new, and it’s well known. Oprah focused on these types of school inequalities in her episode last year, “Failing Grade.” These inequitable facilities and opportunities for student education are UNACCEPTABLE, here in Oklahoma and elsewhere in the nation. We have got to get serious about addressing poverty on multiple levels in our nation, and the foundation of any strategy to reduce poverty is a high quality education. I am not entirely sure what form this school finance restructure needs to take, but I think “Tough Choices, Tough Times” is on the right track. We have to stop funding schools locally through property taxes, which are inherently inequitable, and instead pool education dollars so they can be dispersed in a truly equitable manner. This is not popular idea with real estate developers or racist / ethnocentric individuals. The common attitude in many wealthy areas seems to be, “We’ll just build more gated communities and take care of our own. Good luck to the poor, they’re on their own. We don’t care enough about them to give them the money their children need and deserve for a world class education.”

This YouTube video, “Trading Schools,” is from the Oprah segment I referenced above.

One of mechanisms I believe holds promise for improving educational quality and REAL accountability for teachers are online rating systems for educators. Pick-A-Prof is one of the best known systems used by college students nationwide, but other platforms inclusive of K-12 teachers also exist like RateMyTeachers.com. This isn’t a panacea, but I think overall MORE transparency leads to MORE information and BETTER decisions. The solution in cases of POOR democracy is MORE democracy. This is one reason I support the Change Congress movement. Upset because only the only ratings for educators at your school on sites like those above come from discontented / negative voices? Consider actually inviting students to post their ratings and thoughts. Look at what is happening in this regard in higher education, and ask if a similar dynamic could be positive for primary and secondary education. I’ve had this belief for many years: If schools permitted both parents and students to rate and evaluate teachers in schools, and those results were published online for all the world to see, that project could have more positive accountability effects for improving teaching and resolving real problems in classrooms than all the scantrons we pay Pearson to sell us as a state. When people are doing things that are wrong, generally they prefer the darkness to the light. Social media tools can be used in powerful, constructive ways to shine the light on people, actions, and topics which have been previously shrouded in a protective darkness. This dynamic is critical for a responsive democracy / republican government. We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m optimistic since so many powerful tools are now “at the fingertips of the people.”

The last issue I want to briefly address in this post relating to HB834 is the thick rhetoric which we hear from politicians and in the news articles covering education issues. In the two newspaper articles I referenced first in this post, why did we not hear the REAL reason business and school administrator groups want this legislation? If my sources are correct, the reason is those leaders want to be able to make budget cuts more easily in 2009-2010 by making fast personnel cuts. Instead of communicating in plain language we all can understand, we’ve heard politicians repeatedly talk about things like “quality standards.” My, is it not amazing how frequently politicians love to repeat the phrases “rigorous state standards” and “strict accountability?” This rhetoric almost makes me physically ill. Continuing to witness the failure of our elected leaders (at national as well as state levels) to articulate a constructive vision of substantive education reform builds my personal resolve to enter the political process at some point as an elected official myself.

We NEED to transform our schools to better meet the needs of our students, families, and communities in the 21st century. We did NOT need HB 834, however, and I’m personally glad to see the measure was vetoed. Thanks Governor Henry.

If you’re wanting to read more of my thoughts on education reform, and specifically how they relate to NCLB, see my February 2008 post, “A contrary view of education and NCLB.” The bottom line to a high quality education for students is high quality teachers. Thanks to all of you “in the trenches” of our classrooms, reading this post, who continue to serve the children and families of your community, our nation and world. You deserve our full support as citizens and taxpayers, and you deserve school administrators with the courage and gumption to do what is right even in difficult circumstances.

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