Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Great thoughts about why we should CHOOSE teaching from Gail Lovely:

To be a teacher — choose it as a calling, not a job.

Choose it to do something meaningful and powerful, with rewards only you might notice.

Choose it to be a role model.

Choose to be a teacher because you love learning.

Choose to be a teacher because you love learners.

Choose to be a teacher because you cannot imagine anything else so wonderful!

Catch up with Gail by following her on Twitter. I had a wonderful opportunity today to visit with Gail both during Darren Kuropatwa’s afternoon workshop session (quietly of course) and a bit this evening at our METC dinner. Her husband IS a real rocket scientist. Who knew? Her decision to share the quoted thoughts above on her homepage speaks volumes about her values as an educator and change agent for engaged learning.

H/T METC 2010 organizers for the opportunity to meet and visit with Gail today, and to Gail for being here and sharing! Gail has some great links on the “resources” section of her website.

Technorati Tags:
quotation, quote, teach, teaching, metc_csd, metc, metc2010, gail, lovely, choose

Tomorrow on Thursday, February 4, 2010, the Oklahoma State Board of Education will hold it’s monthly meeting at Crescent Public Schools.

This is a BIG deal. Crescent Public Schools is one of only FIVE public school districts in Oklahoma (out of 530+) which is currently implementing a 1:1 learning initiative. That will change later this spring with the announcement of ARRA-funded grantees for 1:1 learning projects, but even when those projects begin 1:1 learning will still be the exception rather than the rule in our state. Oklahoma State Board of Education members have heard about Crescent’s 1:1 program and want to learn more about it, as they should. What better way to learn about the program than traveling there for a meeting, and getting opportunities to visit with both students, teachers, and administrators?

I am crushed that flight schedules would not permit me to fly from Rochester, Minnesota this afternoon and get back to Oklahoma City tonight, so there is no way I could attend and storychase this event tomorrow. If you’re going, please share a blog post about what you see and hear, and tweet me a link as an @ reply. It would be great if we could have a student Storychaser team there on site, webcasting like Van Meter students in Iowa did last week from their state legislature!

My thoughts and best wishes go out to all the teachers, students, and administrators at Crescent Public Schools tomorrow morning! The Eyes of Oklahoma Are Upon You!

To read more about Crescent Public Schools, in addition to checking out their website see my posts “Oklahoma Students: Modeling Digital Education and 1 to 1 Learning” (Feb 2008), “Crescent Public Schools: A Beacon for Oklahoma Education” (Nov 2008), and “Leadership, Vision, and Student Achievement (Panel)” (Nov 2009). Dawn Danker wrote a great guest blog post here in July 2009 which addressed Crescent Public Schools and their 1:1 leadership which is also worth revisiting: “1:1 Teaching & Learning Session, OK SDE Leadership Conference.”

Technorati Tags:
1to1, leadership, oklahoma, politics, school, crescent

On January 28, 2010, a group of students in grades 5-12 from Van Meter, Iowa, shared testimonies for the Iowa House/Senate Education Appropriations Committee about 21st Century Learning and the way learners can be empowered with digital tools. This podcast is an audio recording of a skype conversation with Deron Durflinger, secondary principal of Van Meter schools, and John C. Carver, superintendent of schools in Van Meter. Deron and John skyped in to a full day workshop just outside St Paul, Minnesota, which I was facilitating for CASTLE (The UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education.) These Van Meter students got the attention of Iowa legislators last Thursday, who need to understand the power and potential of 1:1, blended learning. In this podcast, Deron and John share part of the story of 1:1 learning in Van Meter and their administrative vision for transformed learning in the 21st century.

 

 Podcast337: Evangelizing Educational Transformation and 1:1 Learning in Iowa Schools [31:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (570)

Show Notes:

1. I Witnessed History Today – blog post of principal Deron Durflinger about the student presentation on 28 Jan 2010 for Iowa legislators
2. The Think, Lead, Serve Wiki – Van Meter website about the 28 Jan 2010 Iowa legislature event
3. Blog of Deron Durflinger (Principal of Van Meter Secondary Schools)
4. Blog of John C Carver (Superintendent of Van Meter Schools, Iowa)
5. Blog of the Van Meter Schools Elementary Library
6. 1:1 Schools Team Blog
7. Iowa 1:1 Schools Blog
8. 1:1 Iowa Schools Wiki
9. Van Meter Schools Central Wiki
10. John C Carver on Twitter: @johnccarver
11. Deron Durflinger on Twitter: @derondurflinger
12. Dillon’s Rule in Iowa (English WikiPedia)
13. Westside Community Schools (Omaha, Nebraska)
14. Skype (English WikiPedia)
15. Around the World with Skype by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (K12Online09)
16. Alrededor del Mundo con Skype by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (K12Online09)
17. Video-Conferencing It’s Easy, Free and Powerful by Brian Crosby (K12Online08)
18. UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), Iowa State University
19. Our workshop curriculum links today

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PBS Frontline’s digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier is a fantastic program as well as media-rich website filled with videos, articles, and information about our digital youth culture. The documentary premieres this week on February 2nd, but the website is already filled with outstanding resources. One of my favorites is project’s Digital Native Map, an interactive site with a wealth of updated stats relating to youth and their digital lifestyles.

Clicking on a different part of the interactive body map displays related statistics, like these about the brain:

Searching online activates more brain regions than reading printed words.
On average, multitaskers spend 11 minutes on a project before switching to another, typically changing tasks within a project every three minutes.
It takes about 15 minutes to return with full attention to a serious mental task after you responded to an e-mail or instant message.
Video gaming in moderation can help develop improved pattern recognition, more systematic thinking and better executive skills.

Website articles are filled with links to references and additional materials. Browsing through the available videos, I found the following two particularly compelling.

Todd Oppenheimer, author of “The Flickering Mind,” argues that computer classes should be treated like “shop class” in our schools. Work habits are KEY, and schools MUST help students acquire these skills. (1:06)

In Marc Prensky’s interview montage titled “Education 2.0” by the digital_nation producers, he asserts students want to engage in interactive, hands-on collaborative projects which have a focus on changing their communities and changing our world. While I’m not a big fan of Prensky’s digital native / immigrant dichotomy I do agree with his endorsement of project-based, engaged learning in this video. (4:31)

Thanks to a Facebook post this weekend by Marco Torres, I learned about “What’s Your Issue:”

A Global Initiative and Competition for the next generation of leaders and social entrepreneurs – Seeking global thinkers 14 to 24… For 2010, we are looking for 3-minute videos with Issue & Solution format. Express your issue and propose an innovative solution-project. Winners presented to Obama administration, on Best Buy screens across the planet, and at VIP reception and Awards Ceremony hosted by Sony Pictures in Los Angeles

This sixty second YouTube spot summarizes the project and contest. If you have any of the “digital natives” Prensky is talking about in the previous video clip in your classroom or household, you might give them a heads-up on this contest.

Technorati Tags:
digital, education, interactive, learning, map, nation, oppenheimer, pbs, students, technology, native, natives, frontline, digital_nation, prensky

This evening our family attended an evening presentation at Wilson Elementary in Oklahoma City Public Schools for families entitled, “Arts Integration at Wilson Elementary.” The interactive workshop was led by Randy Barron, a “Kennedy Center Teaching Artist” who has been working with Wilson teachers the past three days as their interpretive dance integration coach and mentor. Wilson is not a private, charter or magnet school, it is a neighborhood public school in the heart of Oklahoma City.

Randy’s presentation tonight was interspersed with interactive lessons he facilitated in the “shared space” which was the back of the school auditorium. It was a very experiential, kinesthetic learning time! Randy’s work this week is part of the Kennedy Center’s “Changing Education Through the Arts” (CETA) program. Randy explained the differences tonight between Arts curriculum, Arts enhancement, and Arts integration. Arts curriculum involves formal classes in the visual arts, learning dance, vocal music, instrumental music, etc. Randy said only 7% of all schools nationally (in the U.S.) have a dedicated drama teacher, and the vast majority of those are secondary schools. Very rarely do you find an elementary school with a full time drama teacher. Wilson Elementary has one, and we met him tonight after the program! Wilson is the only elementary school in all of Oklahoma City Public Schools with a full time drama teacher.

Arts enhancement is using something from the arts to help enhance learning, but largely in a superficial way. Randy said learning to sing “The Fifty Nifty United States” might be an example of arts enhancement in social studies.

Arts integration is different, and that is the focus of the program at Wilson Elementary. The Kennedy Center Teaching Artists define arts integration as:

an APPROACH to TEACHING in which students construct and demonstrate UNDERSTANDING through an ART FORM. Students engage in a CREATIVE PROCESS which CONNECTS an art form and another subject area and meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.

Randy pointed out the connection between the arts and a content area is always NATURAL as well as SIGNIFICANT in arts integration. Not so for “arts enhancement,” as I’ve seen and experienced previously many times.

This evening was a wonderful experience for all the members of our family. How often do we have chances like this to actively learn together, and especially to dance together?! Not nearly often enough! The last time I remember dancing in public with my kids was at my cousin’s wedding in September 2008. We had a blast, and my six year old even showed everyone some breakdancing moves we didn’t know she’d picked up somewhere! Clearly we need to find ways to get out and dance together more often! Thankfully this family program at Wilson Elementary tonight provided a great opportunity for this, along with a lot of additional learning about the school’s unique approach to learning.

I think the coaching / integration model of the Kennedy Center PD program is really valuable to consider, not only in the context of arts integration but also thinking about technology integration. Rather than have presenters come share workshops and then teach model lessons in classrooms for teachers, Randy comes for three days and works intensively with SIX teachers. Together, they plan and lead integrated arts lessons together with students which focus heavily on interpretive dance.

What a fantastic learning model, and what an amazing school!

Read more about Randy’s work for the Kennedy Center in the October 2009 article, “Kingsley students use dance to learn about plant cycles,” sharing about his work in Iowa. The 1.5 minute video “Moved to Learn” is not embeddable but is still available on the same website. It includes interviews with Randy and Iowa students with whom he worked. Randy’s current biography (PDF) is linked from the Kennedy Center’s Professional Development homepage.

One other noteable resource Randy referenced this evening is Anne Green Gilbert’s website, Creativedance.org. The articles page under resources includes PDF versions of articles including, “Movement is the Key” and “Boys Need Dance.” In the first article Anne writes:

During the 1977 school year, 250 students from four elementary schools studied language arts concepts through movement and dance activities for twenty weeks. The third grade students involved in the study increased their MAT scores by 13% from fall to spring, while the district-wide average showed a decrease of 2%! The primary grade project students also showed a great improvement in test scores. Most significant was that the research showed a direct relationship between the amount of movement used by the classroom teacher and the percentage increase of students’ test scores. The classroom showing the least increase in test scores used movement fifteen minutes per week for learning language arts concepts. In the classroom that showed the greatest increase, the teacher integrated movement and language arts concepts fifteen minutes per day.

Certainly we shouldn’t (and likely aren’t) motivated to change teaching practices solely by stories of increasing test scores. In the day in which we live, however, citations like this can get the attention of some people who might otherwise pass off arts integration as “districting fluff.”

My closing thought is:

As for me and my family, we will take the creative path, for it is the path less traveled and the one far more likely to produce long term learning as well as lifelong skills, with large doses of fun and joy thrown in as well.

Wilson Elementary rocks.

As Gandalf The White said in “The Return of the King:”

The board is set. The pieces are moving.

Technorati Tags:
arts, city, elementary, integration, okcps, oklahoma, oklahomacity, wilson

These are my notes from Katie Bader and Diane Bilcer’s presentation, “From One Computer Lab to 1:1 – Best Practices of Technology Integration” at the One to One Institute’s conference on November 9, 2009 conference in Chicago, Illinois. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I recorded this session and may share it as a podcast later. SOMEHOW THIS POST ENDED UP IN MY BLOG “DRAFTS” FOLDER AND WAS NEVER PUBLISHED, SO I AM PUBLISHING IT NOW!

Presenters: 5th grade teachers Katie Bader and Diane Bilcer, from Avoca District 37, Glenview, Illinois

Been doing this process since 2004

What makes our practices “best practices?”
- initiative larger than any one person
- staff has adapted teaching styles to incorporate technology
- commitment to professional development
- student test scores have continued to improve

score improvements have been DRASTIC
- not all of that can be attributed to technology, but it has definitely helped

Core parts of our program, thought about like we would with ANY type of curricular initiative
- content
- instructional strategies
- classroom management
- organizational structure
- program effectiveness
- student learning
- more…

10 years ago we were pretty traditional: one lab for 24 classrooms
- 1 teacher computer per classroom
- one scheduled lab time for the week
tech activities were:
- primarily word processing
- not meaningfully linked to curriculum
- usually tedious because they took forever to complete
- not designed to develop technology skills in a meaningful way
- sample project: Explorer Fandex

Our first tech plan
- was to begin 2004, through 2007
- our vision was very important: faculty went 1:1 first
- we went 2:1 in the elementary
- middle school and faculty went 1:1
- year 2: 5th grade went 1:1
- year 3: 4th grade went 1:1, take home pilo

We proceeded with the following mindset, which was critical
- take the process one step at a time
- make modifications to plan as necessary
- evaluate continuously (formally and informally)

The 2:1 Experience in year one
- made preparations for 2:1
– additional tables in the classroom
– one cart available for when we wanted 1:1
– one crystal projector for our team to share

- integration progressed
– split class between tech and non-tech lessons
– sample project: learning to copy and past with Word/World Book online for research
– new obstacles to overcome: slow response of network, kids dropping off, laptop cart not as spontaneous as we needed
- Year 1 reflection: we were ready for 1:1

laptop carts are not spontaneous, they are challenging to manage
- after the 2:1 experience, we found we really WANTED 1:1
- we were ready, we had internalized and seen so much

What we learned: Staff was surveyed about their experiences
- three key findings
1- time to play and experiment was the single most important thing: staff felt this was the most effective strategy for becoming comfortable with new technology
2- staff: teachers benefited from staff that promoted learning and encouraged experimentation
3- equipment that works: nothing is more frustrating than having a lesson ready and having technology fail!

The way it is now
- grades 4-8
– 1:1 with take-home privileges
– grade 4: 1:1, no take-home
Grades K-3
- Promethian boards for all
- lab for Encore Tech Class
- centers in classroom (four desktops in 1st grade, six in second and third grade classrooms)
- infrastructure: increased wireless access, networked printers distributed around building

We set the expectation at the start that the laptop goes home EVERY night

Big piece of take home: charging the laptops each night
- also we didn’t want to use class time for students to type MS Word documents

Parents do pay a yearly tech fee

To access their families network at home, they choose their local network, and then students log into the school’s VPN so they are still filtered on their home/other networks

We don’t have backpacks for student laptops at this point
We do use Macs

We have ramped up the ways technology is used to support learning across all grade levels and content areas

The 2 C’s
- a highlight is the COLLABORATION and COMMITMENT to the common goal of seamless and effective technology integration

Who does what: Administration, Tech Team, Teachers
- administration: vision, reasonable expectations
– time to play
– flexibility with classroom usage
– constant reflection

Teacher input has been so important throughout the entire process
- our committees always include board members, teachers, administrators, and parents

- Tech Team: facilitators
– help with integration, curriculum, and in class support
– encourage new ideas
– stay current and work with teachers to stay current

- Specialists (technicians)
– hardware, software
– keeps equipment up to date and always there to help

Some parents were worried about their kids handling the responsibility
- some are still computer-phobic
- many excited that another computer was coming home that they didn’t have to pay for

We did a “5th grade tech night” for parents this year
- did some troubleshooting then with parents
- our specialists help parents with VPN logins
- our community tends to be middle and upper class, but we do have some lower income families and have talked about providing ways for lower income students to get high speed Internet

If kids can’t get online at home to Google Docs, they can use MS Word and then upload it to Google Docs when they get to school

Our sense is that 3rd grade is too young for full 1:1 with take home privileges
- mobile labs are working well with younger grades

What are teachers doing?
- willingness to change in your classroom is KEY
– to a tech mindset
– appreciate the value of technology

- desire to learn
– open and ready to dive into a tech classroom
– experiment with new programs and web for lessons

- flexibility: handle the quirks of technology

- good role model: problem solver, patient with technology, explorer, responsible with equipment

A Day in the Life of Teachers
- instructional technology: think “how can I work tech in?”
– now this becomes second nature (over time)

Differentiation
- within-software modifications
- audio books
- software geared to target strengths / different learning styles
- organizational tools: stickies, inspiration, etc.
- type vs handwrite

Classroom management: daily routines and responsibilities
- at the start of the day, students show their power charge on the back demonstrating they are charged and ready for the day

A taste of tech activities
- Big idea: tech has moved from an ‘extra’ to an integrated part of instruction
- write arounds
- editing papers
- Book Blurbers blog (students write short book reviews each month)
- annotate articles on Word
- digital storytelling
- outline and graphic organizers in Inspiration
- science simulation via Internet
- digital microscopes
- research notes using Word Notebook
- Google Docs
- Podcasts
- Audio notecards on Garageband
- Tech components to adopted curriculum

When we setup Google for our school, they can exchange files and share documents but not email
- we have our own Google domain, our specialists setup students accounts, we didn’t have to worry with that

We had drop boxes for file sharing before we were using Google Docs

A day in the life of students
Three keys to student success
1- high expectations
2- responsibilities
3- ownership

Increased student collaboration
- students teaching students, students teaching teachers
- kinds on overhead projector
- Google Docs and public folders on network

focus on teaching ownership and responsibility is VERY important

Moving to a 1:1 environment has moved tech from the periphery to an integral part of the lives of students

Katie Bader: baderk [at] avoca37.org

Diane Bilcer: bilcerd [at] avoca37.org

website: avoca37.org/grade5

Started with a VERY cumbersome ePortfolio system, not using an ePortfolio system
- reflection and evaluation is a constant part of what we do

Dealing with off-task behavior strategies
- think of this in terms of off-task behavior with any other type of lesson
- use lots of similar strategies and consequences for non-digital off-task behavior
- a lot of times when “my computer is not working” is because students have done something

PD
- we had tons at the start
- now we just have a couple of days per year
- we have a strong mentoring program
- new teachers get a day of “meet your computer”
- we do have continuous and ongoing PD and support

Have used Enguage Model (5 part model)

We have 1 hour of planning per day, to plan with other teachers
- our schedule is very unique for elementary schools, our schedule is more like what you’d find in secondary schools
- this planning hour is IN ADDITION to our personal planning hour per day
- this is critical, and really makes this work

School district is constantly looking for ways to assess teachers who are or are not using technology
- our administration and board seem pretty content, but the assessment question is always in the background

We had a 4th grade teacher last year that, after Will Richardson came to our district, got committed to going paperless in our classroom
- we find that some paper is still important / needed

Each teacher has his/her own blog
- we send confidential info about field trips, etc via email to parents

At Middle School they are using the PowerGrade system as a parent portal
- we technically still have a homework hotline for parents, but that is not used much
- our district has become paperless for parent communication: no paper goes home to parents

PARENTS CHECKING EMAIL MORE THAN TEACHER BLOGS WAS DISCUSSED, I MENTIONED THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS / FREE SERVICES SO YOUR PARENTS CAN SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR BLOG UPDATES VIA EMAIL. I WILL POST ABOUT THIS SOON.

Technorati Tags:
#gl1to1, 1to1, laptop, leadership, learning, onetoone, plan, teacher, technology, illinois, fifth, grade, 5th, teachers

On the first day of class this semester in “Technology 4 Teachers” at the University of Central Oklahoma, I shared the following fifteen minute / nineteen slide presentation with my students on the topic, “Things I Want To Model As Your Teacher.” I’ve shared this as a synchronized Slidecast on SlideShare.

I tried to publish this entire Slidecast using the Ubuntu Netbook Remix operating system on my netbook, and was able to upload the PDF of slides in FireFox fine. I was not, however, able to open and listen to my mp3 audio recording or get my Plantronics headset to work readily. Rather than wrangle further with the OS, I just went back to my MacBook Pro to edit the audio in Audacity and publish this to SlideShare. I still need to get the Open1to1 Ubuntu image running on my netbook, which has over 100 educational applications pre-installed. I’m sure I’d have better luck using it for multimedia production with Linux on Ubuntu. This reaffirms the recommendation of our StoryChasers Mobile Learning Collaborative, that while students should be provided with netbooks running open source software in 1:1 projects, teachers should be equipped with Apple laptops running the best operating system for creating and sharing multimedia.

Hopefully the variety of classroom communication tools we are using in T4T this semester will help us realize many of the goals I discussed in this presentation. This was the list of things I shared in this preso:

1. Mobile access to content
2. Minds on, engaged F2F learning
3. Hyperlinked writing
4. Sharing as default behavior
5. Presentation Zen
6. Fun
7. Courage
8. Humility
9. Professional Digital Footprint
10. Clear Expectations
11. IP Understanding & Respect
12. Daily Scribe Posts
13. Deft swimming in a river of content
14. Passion for Public Education

On the topic of “modeling for our students,” what have I left out? What sorts of things do YOU want and try to model for your students in class?

Technorati Tags:
college, edtech, education, leader, oklahoma, teach, teaching, uco, university, model

Last week when I was at ESSDACK in Hutchinson, Kansas, I recorded the following three minute update with Lori Fast and Kevin Honeycutt, discussing preparations for the 2010 PodStock Conference.

Podstock 2010 will take place July 16 and 17 in Wichita, Kansas. Join the Podstock 2010 Facebook Event to stay up to date about the conference, as well as the conference Ning. Podstock is not just a conference, as Kevin explains it is envisioned as a MOVEMENT. Podstock Southwest was also a success last year, and a possible Podstock for east Texas is being discussed for summer 2010 as well.

Technorati Tags:
conference, edtech, essdack, learning, podstock, podstock2010, technology, update

The EduTopia video “YES Prep Boasts a College-Bound Culture” is right on target: Helping students “picture themselves” at college, develop the goal orientation which leads to college attendance as well as the SKILLS required for success in college all start with face-to-face visits to different university campuses.

This video inspires me to think about setting up college visits for my own children as I have opportunities to travel with them this year. It’s never too early (or late) to talk with each other about our goals and dreams for learning and our lives.

All the videos available via EduTopia are phenomenal. I’m going to be utilizing a lot of them in my T4T (Technology 4 Teachers) class this semester at the University of Central Oklahoma. Class starts for us Wednesday – Yikes! My course materials are not complete yet… but will be soon!

Learn more about YesPrep on EduTopia’s page, “The Yes Prep Story.”

Kevin Honeycutt has published an updated YouTube version of his wonderful song, “I Need My Teachers To Learn.” Instead of using video for the b-roll footage, his friend Rae helped him use still images synchronized to the music. It’s just over three minutes long, take some time today and check it out:

In many ways I think this video is an improvement over the original version which was posted in August 2009 and now has over 10,000 YouTube views. When I blogged about it originally I noted:

The song was written by Kevin Honeycutt of ESSDACK, and Charlie Mahoney from Turning Point Learning Center (TPLC) helped with percussion as well as some Garageband vocal adjustments to make him sound even more awesome! The video was shot and produced by Shawn Gormley, a friend of Kevin’s.

This latest version is published on Kevin’s own YouTube channel (to which I’d recommend subscribing) instead of the changingworldbyfilm channel. (I have no idea who owns that one.) From a digital footprint standpoint, this is a good thing for Kevin I think.

Static images synchronized to narration and/or music can be just as powerful as moving video. We take this approach as Storychasers in the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history project. From visual literacy and attention economy perspectives, I think it is very important we pay attention to the images with which we synchronize our ideas in digital stories. At several points in the original video, I found myself wanting more variety in the presented images, and more direct relevancy to the lyrics of the song.

In this 2.0 version of the video, Quang Minh (YILKA)’s Flickr image “How many non-Mac are there” is used several times. Several other images are repeated as well. While I think this 2.0 version is an improvement, a 2.1 version could be even better by avoiding repeated images altogether and using other fresh, new images in each verse. Of course this takes time, and we all have a limited amount of it… So I am not offering this as a criticism to Kevin and Rae but rather as a suggestion for future versions as an aspiring digital storyteller myself.

Attribution of image sources is also very important, and this is another area the video could improve on. My 12 year old just completed his first oral history video documentary over the holidays (we burned the DVD version last night, in fact, for him to turn in during class today) and image attribution was something we talked about and worked on together. This can be a pain, it is time consuming, but it is also important. It’s vital we model respect for copyright and intellectual property in published videos like this, and to do that one of the best ideas is to start with copyright-friendly image sources. Joyce Valenza shared some great image source links in her “Getting Started” strand keynote for K12Online09, “The Wizard of Apps.”

If you haven’t seen Joyce’s K12Online09 presentation, set aside 50 minutes in the next few weeks and DO IT. I challenge you to find and share a more creative and helpful online presentation about the practical ways learners can digitally collaborate in constructive and legally respectful ways online!

Kudos to Kevin and Rae for creating and sharing this “2.0 version” of Kevin’s song. I will definitely be sharing this with educator audiences in 2010 at conferences where I have an opportunity to present and share.

These are my notes from several K12Online09 presentation videos I watched this evening riding the Heartland Flyer Amtrak train from Fort Worth, Texas, back to Oklahoma City on my iPhone. This post was blogged on my netbook running Win7 using free Windows Live Writer software, downloadable from Microsoft as part of Windows Live Essentials. A Windows Live account/login is not required to download or use the software, if you have your own blogging site not hosted by Windows Live. I will share a separate post about configuring and using Windows Live Writer. MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

Angela Maiers: Engaging Our Youngest Minds

Angela makes the case for bringing passion into teaching and learning, and differentiating instruction for students based on their individual interests and passions using technology

Kern Kelly: The iPod Touch in the Classroom

Kern highlighted 12 different iPhone / iPod Touch applications
- Stanza
- Google Mobile
- Skype
- RSS Flash g
- DropBox
- Recorder
- DataCase
- StoryKit
- Air Mouse Pro
- Google Earth
- Dictionary! (free, downloads offline)
- Kindle for iPhone
- Memos provides a way to edit Google Docs offline on an iPhone or iPod Touch

Amazon now owns Stanza (I HADN’T REALIZED THIS PREVIOUSLY. I SURE HOPE AMAZON DOESN’T KILL STANZA, I REALLY LOVE IT, ESPECIALLY HOW IT PERMITS THE CREATION OF EBOOKS FROM DIFFERENT DOCUMENT TYPES.)

Use Headset with microphone to use Skype on an iPod Touch Thumbtack Mic works well with iPod Touch

Use recorder and put a provided IP address in a web browser connected to the same network

as the iPod Touch to download recorded audio

Kern’s site with all these links: tinyurl.com/itouchineducation

Cheaper to get Applecare warranty for an iPod Touch through Amazon than on the Apple store

Notes from Konrad Glagowski’s keynote address in the "Leading the Change" stand of K12Online09. (Self-driven and Classroom-based: Professional Development in the 21st Century)

We need to view our classrooms as sites for professional development

We need to know who we are as teachers, understand our context and our needs as teachers,

to have a good schema as background to understand things we can learn from a PLN

Health of our PLNs should be measured by our reflections and conversations which come about

as a result of our PLN and interactions with members of our PLN

should enage with 2 or 3 critical colleagues
- otherwise we will "learn from" not "learn with"

we need to listen to our classrooms first
- classrooms should be the first node we explore and connect to/with

Quotation from Claxton in 2002:

If the main thing we know about the future is that we do not know much about it, then the key responsibility of the educator is not to give young people tools that may be out of date before they have been fully mastered, but to help them become confident and competent designers and makers of their own tools as they go along.

The 21st century demands that we help our students become inquirers and critical thinkers. To do this as teachers, we must become inquirers, critical thinkers, and researchers ourselves. Our professional practice must be in a state of continual experimentation.

Relationships between students and teachers are critical for classroom-based professional development

- should see our classrooms as places for democratic engagement

Transformative practice begins with reflection

3 critical elements in reflection: describing, questioning, confronting

critical to articulate our context, discover limiting forces and practices behind our everyday practices which define and may limit who we are / what we do, work to effect change to move beyond our limitations

Definitions of reflection:

Dewey in 1933: “Active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.”

When we reflect from a content perspective, we can focus on our:

• context
• instructional practices
• assumptions
• goals and values

Reflections on classroom practice are NOT just about solving problems, but primarily about identifying them first (Schon, 1983)

asking ourselves “what are my weaknesses” is one of the toughest things we can do as professionals

An essential question to address as a reflective practitioner is: “How do my beliefs and values affect my classroom and my students?

Our teaching does not have to consist of “immutable practices” (changing our practices depends on identifying what our current beliefs are, and where they come from)

Today we need to examine our classroom practices regularly

• we need to engage students regularly in inquiry and knowledge-building
• we should challenge our existing frames of reference and assumptions
• critiquing our daily practice on a regular basis is critical
• everyday contexts should be used for our PD focus

We can find our own voices as teachers through this reflective process

Quotation from Claxton in 2002:

What is needed now is “reconceptualization of education as the creation of cultures and contexts within which young people develop the epistemic mentalities and identities characteristic of lifelong learners.”

Schools need to become communities of learning, sites of inquiry

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH KONRAD’S POINTS HERE, BUT ESPECIALLY LIKE THE FOLLOWING QUOTATION

Quotation from Claxton in 2002:

Schools should become communities of practice where the predominant practice is ‘learning’ … and where, concomitantly, the ‘elders’ of the community are themselves exemplary learners and skilled coaches of the arts and crafts of learning.”

Our students do not need schools which see their role as providing pre-packaged knowledge

THESE WERE ALL GREAT SESSIONS. SUPER TO BE ABLE TO TAKE THESE IN AND REFLECT ON THEM IN THE TRAIN, SINCE I’D PREVIOUSLY SUBSCRIBED TO THE K12ONLINE09 VIDEO PODCAST CHANNEL AND DOWNLOADED ALL THE VIDEOS PRIOR TO OUR TRIP!

This just in… St. Maximus Academy proves a focus on high test scores is all you need! Politicians, administrators and parents, rejoice! Students, repent… thy judgement awaits thee…

This one minute video is a teaser-trailer for “The Bracey Report On the Condition of Public Education, 2009.” (PDF – Nov 2009) Now that’s an innovative way to encourage others to look at your research findings!

Here’s an excerpt from the paper:

Test scores, however, are an imperfect instrument for judging the quality of a school, or, as Iris Rotberg has observed, the quality of any national education system. Nevertheless, they are the currency of the day. In testing terms, data (detailed below) indicate that increases in high-quality schools will have to come largely from low-income neighborhoods, where students with the most challenges have long been served by the most under-resourced schools. Thus, the key question becomes can schools alone overcome the difficulties associated with poverty? Advocates who answer yes usually contend that to be high-quality, schools need only high standards, high expectations, and strong principals leading a faculty of highly qualified teachers. However, terms like “high standards” and “high expectations” are usually left undefined, as if their meanings were self-evident—which they are not. Ignoring such gaps in rationale, No Child Left Behind’s reliance on testing and sanctions codifies the conception that schools alone are capable of erasing the achievement gap and need only to be required to do so.

Looks like an excellent read. I’ll be delving further soon… I hope!

Via anderscj.

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In the past couple of years, have you noticed how many fast food chain restaurants have undergone a complete facelift? This is a photograph, taken with the Pano application on my iPhone, of our Oklahoma City KFC restaurant on 23rd street. Wow! What a change from the “typical” fast food restaurant!

The physical environment has been altered dramatically in several of the McDonalds restaurants in our area as well. Booths and traditional tables have been replaced, in areas, to bar stools and small tables.

Boring, functional lights have been replaced with trendy lights that remind me of Starbucks or Pottery Barn.

The marketing messages and service focus of McDonalds has changed fundamentally as well. Instead of the traditional, “Big Mac and fries for everyone,” now the emphasis is on “drinks made to order.”

Flat screen televisions now adorn the walls, showing product prices and (in some stores) live television like CNN.

If McDonalds can re-invent itself as the “McCafe,” what about our schools?

I share the frustration of many others at the complete LACK of change we’ve seen in U.S. educational policy under the leadership of President Obama. I wonder if our political leaders see any alternative to the current recipe of high-stakes accountability, threats, and coercion to force states to open the coffers of public education dollars to private interests?

If McDonalds and KFC can reinvent themselves, why can’t our schools? Thankfully our K-12 public schools are not businesses (yet) where money and profits are the bottom line for all decision-making… but I keep coming back to the idea that the ECONOMICS underlying the way our schools are funded needs fundamental change. Where is the incentive to change in our public schools? Everywhere I’ve heard about innovative charter schools finding success, I’ve seen and heard about “regular” public school educators and leaders who see those successes as a big NEGATIVE and a threat which needs to be eliminated, rather than a successful model which could be replicated. Here in Oklahoma, the court case started by Tulsa Public Schools against our state charter school law (which only permits charter schools in TWO districts, our largest, Oklahoma City and Tulsa) was finally dropped. Public educators in so many places seem hell-bent to kill charter schools, which threaten to siphon off much-needed funding for public schools. Some of the most innovative schools we see are charter schools (as well as rural schools,) but these schools are almost never seen as “possible models” by most schools, particularly large urban ones. Where are the prospects for change in this environment?

I don’t have the answers.

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Great cartoon.

Via Whelmed and Tomaz Lasic.

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Monday, December 7, 2009 is a special day for several reasons. Two years ago, I had the privilege to witness memorial services for military veterans at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as part of our Oklahoma World War II Digital Learning Project. As always, I’ll be remembering our Pearl Harbor veterans and those traumatic events from 1941 on December 7th.

This year, December 7th is the start of week 1 of the FREE K-12 Online Conference. Last night our pre-conference keynote speaker, Kim Cofino, shared more about her presentation in a wonderful pre-conference keynote. That session via EdTechTalk and Ustream was recorded and the archive video is available. Bookmark the official K-12 Online Conference schedule and stay tuned for more updates starting Monday!

December 7th also happens to be the start of an important week of conversations in Austin, Texas, at an “invitational summit” titled, “Redefining Teacher Education for Digital Age Learners.” Even if you’re not able to attend in person (as I’m not) you can still participate via live presentations, archived presentations, and interactive discussion forums. According to the website setup for the event, redefineteachered.org:

Through a series of working sessions over two days, participants will work collaboratively to develop a shared vision describing:

1. Key characteristics of effective teachers for digital age learners
2. Critical elements of teacher education programs that will produce teachers with those characteristics
3. Barriers that prevent such programs from being implemented
4. Policy and action recommendations that will eliminate the barriers and enable the realization of a new model for teacher education

I’m going to be teaching two sections of “Technology for Teachers” this spring at the University of Central Oklahoma, here in Edmond. I’m excited to hear the ideas shared by presenters at the upcoming Austin conference.

Join the conversations about this important topic for the future of teacher education next week on redefineteachered.org.

Hat tip to Chad Fulton for the heads up on this conference.

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