Is it hard to get your teachers excited about attending training? Do they dread PD Day in your district? Join this session to hear how Yukon Public Schools changed the face of their PD model by implementing some foundational strategies and introducing an ‘Un?Conference’ Conference Model.

I AUDIO RECORDED THIS SESSION WITH PERMISSION USING THE FREE IPAD APP CINCH, IT’S EMBEDDED BELOW:

Today we will try and communicate our evolving model of professional development

we call it the ‘un-conferenced-conference model’

the problems:
- teachers are unmotivated to attend PD
- teachers didn’t see the relevance to sessions
- negative feedback

The needs of the district and teachers need to converge
- we want to change the face of PD in Yukon (change perceptions / opinions / and offerings)
- build a relevant PD program

This is hard because the district always has new initiatives: New hardware, Baldrige training, etc…

Does Your Professional Event Suffer from Boring Conference Syndrome?

We had lots of past experience with large-group, motivational speakers
- those “touchy-feely presentations” don’t appeal to everyone
- everyone’s needs are different

Someone said: “we need to go back to site-based PD”
- team building / true colors / etc.
- we have been stuck in this rut for about 2 years

From participants:

OKCPS elementary schools are implementing a new core curriculum program, all teachers have to be trained in the next two years
- 12 trainers, training after school for 35 schools
- after school, teachers getting stipends
- many teachers are resistant
- trainers are not getting together and collaborating much since the start of term

Crescent Public Schools is continuing its ‘de-regulation model’ of PD where students get out at 2 pm on Wednesdays, and teachers stay from 2-4 for PD

Some districts having problem providing ‘just in time’ PD which is needed on Friday PD days because the schedule for the year is defined/determined at the start of the year

Self-Determination Theory by Deci and Ryan: To make something intrinsic from a motivational standpoint, we need:
- autonomy
- competence
- relatedness

This theory has driven our PD model for Yukon PS

“Have you noticed Accelerated Reader doesn’t follow this model?”

The Program… Now!
- goals: encourage ongoing learning

we had a money crunch in our district which prohibited teacher travel, so all our PD was site-based

now this semester we’ve brought in Wes Fryer as an instructional coach, working 1 on 1 and in small groups with teachers on their planning times focusing on common core integration

our individual and campus goals can’t sit outside the overall goals of the district (these goals need to be in alignment)

‘CHOICE is the main thing our teachers want when it comes to professional development’

Providing choices is a mindset change for teachers
- this changes who is responsible for PD
- we are not taking responsibility for other people’s learning in the way we’ve traditionally done it
- we encourage students to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning, we need to do the same thing with teachers and teacher PD

When we mandate training for teachers, we turn off the learning for many teachers
- by offering choice, it’s up to teachers to to build their own learning

Results: 83% (426 of 512 employees) are opting out of the PD day coming up in February because they already got training through different ways
- teachers can go work in their room that day instead of going to PD that day

We are not paying teachers for PD choice, but it is

It makes us sad when teachers don’t want to go to PD
- We know everyone doesn’t feel that way
- so we have to get our message out, and the ‘carrot’ was important for this

Another key: we don’t keep track of teachers’ points
- teachers are professionals
- “I am a professional, treat me like one”
- we are working on modeling this

We now encourage our principals to make faculty meets into PD, several are doing book studies
- they are not reading announcements anymore
- this also means PD for the administration
- we highly encourage our administrators to participate in PD

Next: we are working on focusing on pedagogy, practice and process
- what are the qualities and processes of good educational process

We need to move away, as much as we can as schools, from the model of ‘we bought a new product, now lets to get trained on it’
- teachers need training on how these different things ‘fit’ into our teaching and learning

We are already collaborating with other districts, and want to explore other possibilities for collaboration

Technorati Tags: development, oklahoma, otaem12, pd, professional, yukon, yukonps

Look at Me Now! Changing the Face of Professional Development originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 8, 2012.

Discover how easy it is to Standards Map the Common Core State Standards to lesson plans- curriculum- instruction- and learning. Why Standards Map? It documents not only WHAT standard is aligned to a specific lesson- test item- or instructional strategy- but also the specific content (nouns)- skills (verbs)- level of rigor (Bloom Level)- I?Can statement- Big Idea- and Essential Question. It’s alignment with rigor!

teachers will have to use the library in different ways under Common Core State Standards
- requires collaboration between teachers to require different kinds of collaboration

www.alcaweb.org
- curriculum threads standards

We have created a 14 foot long wall poster that is the reading common core (MY COMMENT: WHEN I ASKED GARY FOR THE LINK TO THIS MAP, HE SAID ONLY PAYING CUSTOMERS WITH REGISTRATION CODES AND LOGIN ACCOUNTS CAN ACCESS ANY OF THE RESOURCES HE’S SHARING TODAY.

Wouldn’t it be nice if students in older grade levels could create curriculum and materials for use by younger students
- wouldn’t it be nice for students to create and save artifacts of their learning which can be maintained year-to-year?

If you don’t do these things, it is going to be a LOT harder to implement the CCSS

Need to be able to assess how students can use a skill in ‘unpredictable ways’
- for the past 16 years we have been dumbing down students, because we have been focusing mostly on lower level skills

We (ALCA) have been doing research for years, we are driven purely by research, not whether we make money or create a product that sells
- “we are like Steve Jobs who built a computer in his own garage, we are doing it our own way”
- we’ve been doing this since 1997
- the problem up to this point is the system wasn’t in place for school districts, with carrots and sticks

“I can tell you this for sure, the Common Core isn’t ever going to go away”

How many reading standards in CCSS K-12?

This is the ‘traditional’ CCSS curriculum map for Algebra I in the U.S. developed by www.alcaweb.org. (MY COMMENT: I’M WONDERING WHY IT IS HELPFUL TO VIEW THIS, IN THIS ZOOMED OUT FORMAT?)

Standards mapping is two things:
1- unwrapping or unpacking: breaking standard apart so you can get all the information out of it, so kids / parents / teachers can relate to it
2- ‘wrapping it back’ around test items, a lesson plan, a website you found

MY COMMENT: THIS STEP 2 IS CONNECTING THE ‘UNWRAPPED STANDARDS’ TO LEARNING TASKS FOR STUDENTS

Whatever you do, you have to be able to unpack the standards as a teacher

MY COMMENT AND IDEA: I ASKED GARY HOW MUCH IT COSTS FOR A SCHOOL DISTRICT TO GET ACCESS TO ALL ITS ‘UNPACKED CCSS STANDARDS.’ HE SAID HE DIDN’T WANT TO GET INTO PRICING TODAY. I’M THINKING THIS IS A CRITICAL QUESTION. IT’S ALSO AN IDEA FOR A COLLABORATION AMONG OKLAHOMA DISTRICTS. AS WE HAVE TEACHERS UNPACK STANDARDS, WHY DON’T WE HAEV THOSE DOCUMENTS SHARED OPENLY AS PUBLIC GOOGLE DOCS? THEN ANYONE COULD UTILIZE AND BUILD ON THOSE PRODUCTS? I’M SEEING AN AMAZING AMOUNT OF WORK THAT ALCA HAS DONE UNPACKING THESE STANDARDS, BUT I’M THINKING THERE ARE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES HERE FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO OPENLY LICENSE (WITH CREATIVE COMMONS) THEIR OWN ‘UNPACKED STANDARDS’ FOR ANYONE TO USE.

Larry Ainsworth is the ‘father of unpacking’
- no one of the planet has done this… what I am about to show you
- it takes a lot of time and work to unpack standards

Where does the vocabulary list for this come from?

Columns for the ALAWEB unwrapping:
1 Content
- relevant information
- paraphrased information
- List
2 Skills
- recall
- gather
- summarize / paraphrase
- provide
3 Learning Targets
- I can…. statements
4 Big Ideas
5 Essential Questions

You never want to show a student “the big ideas”

Teachers on the east coast particularly will put the ‘big ideas’ and ‘essential questions’ on the wall, so at the end of the day the teacher can point to them and ask students to describe/discuss how those were addressed in our activities of the day

Wiggins and others have done the research and found: If you don’t tie learning students are doing to a ‘global concept’ that a student can relate to forever, s/he is NOT going to remember it
- must tie to a global set of knowledge

Students must use all four: reading, writing, speaking, listening
- kids are using four different parts of their brain, so they have a greater opportunity to burn it to long term memory

“Measurement and Data standard goes away in CCSS math standards after grade 5″

There are about 200 school districts in OKlahoma who are members and now actively contributing to these databases of resources
- schools retain ownership over materials created from a legal standpoint
- we hope schools share their products

I’M WONDERING IF ALCA PERMITS SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO SPECIFICALLY LICENSE THEIR UNPACKED STANDARDS UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS AND SHARE THEM ON THE OPEN, VERSUS THE CLOSED WEB?

My brother is the science coordinator in Enid, now I’m going to copy a benchmark test they created
- I am using a ‘room key’ as a password to access this
“sdMev”
- use that room code to import that ‘virtual room’ in our ‘learning community management system’ (more than Moodle, you can document TLE in an assessment way, not an evaluation way – teachers can self-assess, create smart goals. Also teams can do action research on specific competencies or skills)

I’m going to show you know how you can wrap an unpacked standard around a test item
- teachers are going to have to document how they are teaching
- this process allows for documentation of teacher instruction, as well as student learning
- using rubrics for formative assessment, tests, also other strategies

Story of an Ag teacher who is using iPads with students to assess how they showed sheep at a stock show
- students can do similar things with water quality data
- in lower grades, students have to participate in research
- need to engage students up and down grade levels

Most important takeaway today was shared by
- every system there will let you connect it to a standard, and then it’s ‘magically aligned’
- the level of rigor in terms of alignments with other tools (not ours) is too shallow
- systems that just let you attach a standard create too much grey area for a principal to talk to a teacher, or teachers to talk to a teacher
- those systems are always open to interpretation when we ask, “how is this aligned?”
- “most systems just link”

With the CCSS you need to assess two or more standards in every question

Right now we are doing leadership retreats and workshops with school administrators
- working with superintendents as well as principals
- all of them have to work with TLE

We created this for Oklahoma Career Tech, we call it Professional Development
- we don’t know yet if we
- it will be a personal learning network for students

Schools start with ePASS, Dibbles, anything, our system can ingest anything
- “our system never requires help from your IT department, we do it all”
- “we prefer to do the [student test score result] importing, because Pearson isn’t known for providing ‘clean’ data”

We are going to have science institutes, and have science teachers create content
- ‘we are going to Missouri next’
- we want Oklahoma to be a national model for this

“We paid 5 or 6 people to unpack all the CCSS standards last summer. We think individual teachers should only unpack 1 or 2 standards, it’s very time consuming.”

MY CLOSING COMMENT: I ASKED GARY IF THEY LICENSE ACCESS TO THEIR SYSTEM ON A PER SEAT BASIS, AND HE SAID YES. IT LOOKS LIKE HE WANTS SCHOOLS TO EMBRACE THEIR PROPRIETARY SYSTEM AS A COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) WHICH WOULD REPLACE MOODLE, BLACKBOARD, ETC. I AM VERY GLAD TO HEAR GARY SHARE THIS INFO, I WANT TO LEARN MORE. I’M CONCERNED THAT OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS ARE NOT BEING CURRENTLY ENCOURAGED BY ANYONE (APPARENTLY) TO OPENLY SHARE AND LICENSE UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS UNPACKED CCSS AS WELL AS LESSONS.

Sign up for the ALCA sacking [at] alcaweb [dot] org

Standards Mapping the Common Core to Everyday Instruction and Teaching originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 7, 2012.

Master learners today and master teachers must model lifelong learning
- that is one of the best ways to develop students who are lifelong learners

Handouts / backchannel archive from David’s presentations: (these are the same site, the first points to the second)
colearners.idave.us
http://davidwarlick.com/colearners

Links from today’s session: http://davidwarlick.com/colearners/?p=426

David is using his own Twitter site that also lets people share resources: http://knitterchat.com
- I will archive this conversation, and add comments/feedback
- this models how our conversations should extend beyond this F2F moment

20th century education was defined by its limits
21st century education must be defined by its lack of limits

Calculators were introduced when I started teaching, it was going to be ‘the gift to last a lifetime

I taught in an information scarce learning environment
- the pedagogues I learned college were based on that model
- over 2.5 million images uploaded PER DAY to Flickr alone

Interesting question: what are the pedagogies of information abundant learning environments
- when you have access to this world, what are the best learning strategies?

We have access to a billion people, almost 300 billion pieces of new information
- this access is part of the culture of young people

We could not have predicted this in the early 1970s when I started teaching as a history teacher

I’m going to jump ahead to my conclusion: I think we should stop integrating technology and start integrating literacy
- what should kids learn today is how to teach themselves

Literacy: reading what someone you trust hands to you?
- now we have WikiPedia

Stories about WikiPedia
- highlighting warnings on different WikiPedia about accuracy, bias, etc.

Basic literacy skills today are discerning

We must expand our notions of what it means to be literate today
- can you expose what is true in the information

My kids can Google, but can they find information with Google that is appropriate to the learning task
- being able to find it, decode it, evaluate it, conceptualize, and organize

Today online we’re not working with a few numbers, we can be working with thousands of numbers

Sources of raw data from David’s Landmark project website
- specifically looking at ANSS to get earthquakes since 2004 with magnitude over 4
- this renders a data set with time, lat, long, magnitude, etc
- copy all those numbers
- in this example there are about 10,000 numbers
- now I can copy these into a free spreadsheet from OpenOffice.org

Paste Data in
- pastes into first column
- select first column
- select TEXT TO COLUMNS
- choose fixed width
- now I can define each column, hid those I don’t need
- now I get a spreadsheet
- latitude needs to be on the right with open office
- make an XY scatterplot

What you are looking at here is history
- I used skills to make those numbers tell their story
- isn’t that what math is all about?

but now we have invisible numbers
- when I grew up we just learned about abstract numbers in math class
- now text, images, sound, video, animation, are all made out of numbers

Now we’ll go to Words of Humankind from the Landmark Project
- US Presidential Addresses
- use TagCrowd to make a tag cloud, this can empower that text to better tell its story

I used carry an Oxygen* keyboard, it’s not a musical instrument, it’s designed to generate numbers and my computer
- David sharing a song he made with Intuem software

We all have a story to tell, we all have something to teach

New record for information transfer: 186 gigabits per second (Dec 2011)
- what can you and your students do with that quantity of information?!

MY THOUGHT: WE’RE OVERWHELMED WITH TMI ALREADY, AS DAVID POINTS OUT THE KEY IS FILTERING AND USING

information competes for our attention, just like products on the school shelf competed for our attention historically in our classrooms
- our kids need to
- not just the ability to write a coherent paragraphs, our goal should be expressing ideas compellingly to a real audience

Shared a video from SFETT 2011 which has been seen in at least 23 different countries, and the girl who made the video has been contacted by the CEOs
- music communicates powerfully

Much of what I’m talking about today are things I believe
- Any school today that thinks it can teach children to be literacy

Now discussing SPAM: Spam cost the world $50 billion in 2005, cost doubled in 2007
- yet the Copenhagen group estimates we could solve HIV/AIDS worldwide for $27 billion

Learning and Literacy today is exposing what is true, employing information, expressing ideas compellingly, ethically, generously

Conclusion: Redefine literacy so it reflects today’s prevailing information environment
- digital tools are the paper and pencil of our time

How do we do this? It starts with us!
- it can be scary but you can do it

Now telling story about my senior English teacher from 1969

Today the world is the curriculum
- our information landscape has changed, and our kids are different

We will have obtained a transformation of education when we no longer have teachers who believe they can teach the same thing, the same way, each day / month / year
- anything less than that is just

It is having access to today’s prevailing information landscape
- become information artisans and master learners

Now sharing blog setup after London bombings: We’re Not Afraid.com

When in history have people like you and I been able to whisper to the world something as powerful as, “We are not afraid?”

Technorati Tags: association, edtech, okc, oklahoma, otaem12, technology, learning, david, warlick

Visioning New Schools with David Warlick originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 7, 2012.

I want to talk to you about anywhere, anytime learning

Fundamental question: What is the value of a book?
- the glue binding and paper
- books have remained unchanged for about half a millennia
- the book is a medieval business model
- I have a soft spot for books, but I”m not afraid to embrace eBooks and their power to bring positive change to education

I can bring an entire library around in an eBook reader
- our kids are being exposed to this technology every day outside of the classroom, it’s time for it to make it into the classroom

We are moving into “The Great Tech War of 2012″ (per
- Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple
- fighting for marketshare for eBook
- Facebook going public
- Apple now offering iBooks platform
- this is good news
- disruptive technology is going exponential
- what used to take years now takes months

Smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous
- broadband is expanding
- free content is exploding
- digital natives in our classrooms have never known anything else

Tom VanderArk was our summer conference
- his new book is “Getting Smart”
- he said 10 years ago we passed a threshold in human history, now anyone can learn anything for free or cheap
- our calcified school system is giving way to a new digital world

new SDE summer conference will be Vision2020: June 12-15, 2012

Kahn Academy has had 80 million YouTube views with over 2000 free videos
- Sal Kahn is working with a California classroom on a flipped model
- Kahn Academy has sophisticated data and tracking tools
- Sal says we’re at an inflection point, it’s crazy that every other field is being revolutionized except education

MY COMMENT: I’M TIRED OF GENERALIZATIONS LIKE THAT, WE DEFINITELY HAVE SCHOOLS AND EDUCATORS IN OKLAHOMA DOING AN EXEMPLARY JOB EMBRACING THE DIGITAL LEARNING REVOLUTION, AND WE NEED TO BOTH CELEBRATE AND AMPLIFY THESE SCHOOLS AT EVENTS JUST LIKE THIS. FAILING TO DO SO PAINTS OUR STATE AS A FAILURE FOR DIGITAL LEARNING. THAT IS INACCURATE, NOT FAIR AND MISLEADING. CERTAINLY WE HAVE LOTS OF CHANGES TO MAKE, BUT WE ALSO HAVE MANY EDUCATORS, STUDENTS, AND SCHOOLS RIGHT HERE IN OKLAHOMA THAT WE NEED TO CELEBRATE. JUST AS SHE DID IN NOVEMBER 2011 AT ODLA, SUPERINTENDENT BARRESI SQUANDARED THAT OPPORTUNITY TODAY TO RECOGNIZE THE CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE EDUCATORS AMONG US.

Last week we (Oklahoma SDE) announced a partnership with SASS Curriculum Pathways to offer thousands of free lesson plans to Oklahoma students
- also with Pangea Learning Inc. to provide supplemental tutoring services to 10,000 students statewide who are struggling to learn Algebra I skills
- also offering over 1400 digital files contributed from National Archives, LOC, NPR, NASA, National Institutes for Help
- web-based resources in ELA, Math, Science, Spanish, more for grades 6-12
- audio tutorials mapped to meet OKlahoma standards
- now this SASS Curriculum is going to be available free to Oklahoma learners

Pilot project with 16 high schools and 23 middle schools with Pangea Learning Inc.
- includes free teacher training to schools
- teachers will use this program as a supplement for Algebra I

In April we will convene a digital learning summit to write a document together
- we will use Digital Learning Council’s
- 3 organization: customization/success for all students, robust offering of high quality offers, robust infrastructure

MY COMMENT: IT IS SIGNIFICANT AND REGRETTABLE THAT “TEACHERS” ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK

[end of notes]

Technorati Tags: library, media, oklahoma, otaem12, sde, technology, janet, barresi, association

Anywhere, Anytime Learning by Janet Barresi originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on February 7, 2012.

On January 26, 2012, we attended a full-day workshop about “Common Core Transition” led by Jan Hough with Marzano Research Lab. These are some of our takeaways from the day. Handouts from Jan’s session are available on the OSSBA website.

Writing Across the Curriculum
One of the most important changes emphasized in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is writing across the curriculum. This means students in all grades, in all content areas, need to be doing more writing about what they are learning. Writing is not just just something students need to do in English class, students need to be writing in ALL their subject areas.

4 Key Steps to Implementation
Jan used a four part framework to explain how school districts are and should transition to CCSS. These four parts are:
Awareness
Proficiency Scales
Instructional Practices
Assessment Practices

These are explained in greater detail on this two page handout from Jan.

Unpacking the Standards
Jan emphasized the importance of “unpacking the standards” for teachers to learn the differences and similarities between what classroom practices they HAVE been doing and the new classroom practices which are expected under the CCSS. Jan provided a template document for teachers to use to “unpack the standards.” Unpacking the standards means taking a CCSS standard and identifying skills a teacher must explicitly teach for the student to successfully master that standard. It was not clear “how many” different standards individual teachers should unpack to adequately understand the CCSS. It seems reasonable for teachers to unpack some, but NOT reasonable for each teacher to individually or even collectively unpack ALL the CCSS which apply to them. Districts which have “unpacked the standards” with their curriculum have created new curriculum maps. This is a process we may include in our transition plan for the current (2011-2012) academic year.

Proficiency Scales / Rubrics
The cornerstone of CCSS implementation from the “Marzano Laboratory” is the creation and use of “proficiency scales” to specify student expectations. These are rubrics which have four levels of student expectations. Jan provided a template document for teachers to use when creating proficiency scales. The Marzano Research Lab provides a free, online “bank” of proficiency scales anyone can access after creating a free account on their website. Quality varies widely for the scales currently “in the bank.”

Written Response Tips
As teachers create assignments and assessments, Jan emphasized the importance of using informational texts. She also emphasized the importance of students citing evidence and writing across the curriculum. Teachers need to work collaboratively with team members on writing across the curriculum.

Ideas for Curriculum Maps
These are ideas we’ve discussed, not ones which were specifically suggested by Jan in the workshop. One of the things we may want to build (or have built) as an action script for Google Documents is a tool to insert different standards into our curriculum maps. We need to make it easy for our teachers to look up and insert CCSS standards as well as PASS objectives for non ELA or math teachers.

Our curriculum maps for each course and each grade level must be “living documents” which are continually open for editing / revision / additions. We will not be well served, going forward into the future, to select a commercial / proprietary tool for curriculum mapping which will require us to pay an annual licensing fee. What makes the most sense, at this point, seems to be using Google Docs as spaces for creating, sharing and updating Curriculum Maps.

The best example of completed curriculum maps we’ve seen are secondary maps from Stillwater PS. North Carolina has excellent resources on ELA and Math “unpacking the standards.”

We’ve created an open group on the social bookmarking site Diigo, called “Oklahoma CCSS,” where we have started to share links to resources. Anyone is welcome to join.

Collaboratively written by Kathy Davis and Wesley Fryer

Common Core Transition Ideas via Marzano originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 26, 2012.

Currently, a transition to Common Core Standards is prevalent in the educational environment. This session will overview key steps in successful Common Core implementation. A focus of the presentation will be resources the Marzano Research Laboratory has developed to support teachers and administrators in this transition from state standards to Common Core Standards.

ONE OF THE PARTICPANTS NEXT TO US ASKED JAN ABOUT COMING TO THEIR DISTRICT FOR PD, SHE QUOTED $6K PER DAY AS HER PRICE

Handouts from today are linked on www.ossba.org/ocic

Effective pedagogy in “Classroom Strategies that Work” by Robert Marzano
- curriculum articulation
- instructional methodology
- encapsulating both within classroom management

The instructional methodology piece is the one we hold closest as teachers

Now lets think about the definition of college and career ready
- this should make us think about instructional practices in our classrooms

think about the term “deep understanding” carefully
- if we are to be effective in that orchestration of complex skills, deep understanding is key

Now we’re going to talk about young people growing up today

Reference April 2010 FastCompany article: “A Is for App: How Smartphones, Handheld Computers Sparked an Educational Revolution”
- name things kids today have no concept of because of their generation

We need to think about skills kids need now

Take a look at the research (Wells & Croxton, pg 1)

Schools may once have done an adequate job of equipping and sifting young people to take their various places in the prevailing society, but that world is gone.

Now showing a YouTube video listing short change facts “Did You Know” style

PISA assessment
- “US students scored lowest on the problem-solving items.”

Jobs for the Future (2005) “Fore every 10 students who enter eighth grade, only seven graduate high school on time, and only three complete a postsecondary degree by age 26″

MY THOUGHTS: IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER THESE QUOTATIONS AND STATISTICS IN CONTEXT, AND THAT CONTEXT IS NOT BEING PROVIDED HERE. THIS IS A TYPICAL PRESENTATION OF “NATION AT RISK” STYLE STATS: OUR SCHOOLS SUCK, WE’RE IN A CRISIS, SO WE BETTER CHANGE. NO DISCUSSION OF POVERTY, CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, WHAT STUDENTS TAKE THE PISA IN OTHER COUNTRIES VERSUS US SCHOOLS, ETC. THE CITATION ON THE PROBLEM SOLVING PISA RESULTS IS DARLING-HAMMOND, 2010, P. 35, BUT THE MAIN FOCUS OF HER RESEACH (FROM WHAT I’VE READ) ABOUT TEACHER QUALITY IS NOT MENTIONED AT ALL. MORE DE-CONTEXTUALIZED CITATION OF “RESEARCH SAYS.”

Two resources to recommend to focus on cognitive skills and cognitive skills
- “The Highly Engaged Classroom”
- “Teaching and Assessming 21st Century Skills”
- surveyed 10,000 teachers, asked 3 questions: top 3 challenges you face as a classroom teacher
– #1 students reading below grade level
– #2 unsupportive home environment
– #3 student not being engaged in the learning process

Cognitive Skills
- mental abilities like logic, reasoning, thinking and attention to detail
- teaching of cognitive skills is not unique to the 21st century (VERY GOOD POINT, GLAD SHE POINTED THIS OUT)
- what is new to the 21st century is the idea that cognitive skills should take a dominant role in the curriculum
- analyzing and using information, addressing complex problems and issues, creating patterns and mental models

Conative skills
- the process of combining what one knows (cognitive) with how one feels (affective) and deciding what action to take in light of both
- understanding and controlling yourself, interacting with others

identifying “faulty logic” is a key element in CCSS

What of all this would we call “securely held content”
- what pieces of content are going to remain with my students forever
- the reality is nonoe of it will (so process skills are most important, not content)

Consider the students you are preparing for the 21st century
- discuss implications for educators and critical steps for successful implications of CCSS

OCIC part 2

How do we use proficiency scales to build higher quality assessments?

We don’t know what those assessments are going to look like?
- what assessment practices to support Common Core implementation?

Need specific items that support level 2, 3 and 4 scale outcomes
- most of your assessment items shouldn’t be level 4, ht need to be distributed

Research by Jorissen 2006: “Most Tachers say they develop their assessment knowledge and practices on the job”

These are about how we prepare teachers to craft assessments

MY THOUGHT: THIS IS DEFINITELY THE KEY TO WHAT WE NEED TO BE DOING IN PD

Rick Stiggins, 2008: “We have trusted those we believe… (trusted our textbooks)

Educators must gain deep understanding of how to develop high-quality classroom assessments that inform instructional assessments

He do we build quality classroom assessments

Recommend: “Classroom Assessment and Grading that Works” by Marzano 2006
- “Formative Assessment and Standards Based Grading” by Marzano 2010
- Teacher-Made Assessments: Gareis and Grant 2008

I believe in dual coding theory, we need both words/text and non-linguistic representations

Forms of assessment
- obtrusive
- non-obtrusive
- student generated

Obtrusive assessments interrupt the normal flow of activity in the classroom

Student-generated assessments are the most underutilized form, students generate ideas about how they can show they have mastered the content, students will create something and share it
- we can’t do this kind of assessment all the time

Classroom assessment = anything a teacher does to gather information about a student’s knowledge or skill regarding a specific topic

“Purpose of assessment is to enhance the experience”

MY THOUGHT: THIS MAY BE THE MOST THOUGHT PROVOKING AND CHALLENGING THING SHE HAS SHARED ALL DAY. THIS VIEW OF ASSESSMENT IS SUCH A FAR CRY FROM HIGH STAKES TESTING…

Why should we do it?
- research reported here shows conclusively that formative assessment does improve learning

A quality test is:
- valid: accurately and appropriately measuring what is relevant
- reliable: consistent and precise
- fair: does not put any group at a disadvantage

Tests/assessments must have these three elements
- we’ll spend the most time talking about validity today (“if you build your lessons on our scales, validity will be there”)

reliability
- refers to the degree to which a test is consistent and stable in measuring what it is intended to measure, mist simply put a test is reliable if it is consistent within itself and across time

Remember the PARCC website has some sample items for assessments, but we don’t really know if those will be representative of the eventual assessments which are developed

We know the following things WILL be in the CCSS assessments:
- assessments may be perforance-based and multiple choice
- assessments may require technology skills to respond to questions
- technology skills will be required to respond to questions (this means kids will take the tests online)
- assessments may require critical thinking, for example: claim-evidence-counter-claim approach, compare and contrast tasks, cause and effect relationships
- assessments may require writing in response to text
- assessments may be timed
- a different approach to instruction may be required

HIgh quality item types:
- true/false use those sparingly (strong statements include a single idea, not multiple ideas for T/F)
- true/false need to be black/white, not shades of grey

Matching assessments
- homogenous in content
- matching set no more than 7
- uneven number of items to be matched or items
- uneven number of items to be matched OR items may be used more than once
- ordered logically (such as alphabetically)
- longer reading on the left, matching items on the right

Multiple choice
- being with question-starter (who, what, where, how, why)
- a single task is articulated in the question
- emphasize qualifiers
- all response items are plausible (no-throw away)
- written in present tense if possible
- avoid negatives (e.g., which is NOT)
- may include context: more complex questions

emphasizing qualifiers
- kids will be required to come up with the BEST answer, so give students experience with that as you craft items

there will be “none of the above” and “all of the above”
- in Nebraska we didn’t allow this on our state test, we thought it was poor test item construction
- a good friend of mine is now a high level test item developer for PARCC and she says these items will be included

Quality Constructed Response Items
- require students to justify their reasoning
- fill in the blank, short answer, essay

tips for fill-in-the-blank
- position the blank at the end of the sentence as often as possible
- limit the number of blanks in an item
- blanks should be the same length
- be sure information prior to/surrounding the blank is adequate
- may use a word bank

Use logs of analogies: those are high level thinking required

Short answer and essay items
- make the nature of the response desired clear to the reader
- develop and communicate a scoring criteria for the question
- provide adequate space for responses

Practice makes perfect
- absolutely include these types of items on your assessments
- Common Core Will!

You do NOT need to build assessments for all of the scales you will use, but you (as a classroom teacher) definitely DO need to craft and use a variety of assessments

Video shown as an exemplar: “Assessment at the Utmost”

My Favorite No
Grade 8, Math, Warm Up Routine
Common Core Standards: Math.MP.6

When I work with district I encourage them to look at the scales and determine which ones could be combined
- you can do that, your design goes into the classroom assessment process

How many items do I need to be reliable?

MY THOUGHT: I THINK WE MAY BE PLAYING FAST AND LOOSE WITH THE CONCEPT OF ‘TEST RELIABILITY’ HERE, ESP AS IT IS CONSIDERED IN ACADEMIC SETTINGS (HIGHER ED)

If an assessment is valid and reliable, inferences about learning are more appropriate

Fairness: assessment level is appropriate
- readability
- avoid types of bias: offensive content, stereotyping, unfair representation, more…

format: directions, enough space, visually appealing

MY THOUGHT: IF WE’RE ASKING ALL TEACHERS TO BECOME ASSESSMENT DESIGNERS AND EXPERTS (WHICH IS NOT AN ENTIRELY BAD IDEA) THEN WHERE ARE THE ONLINE CCSS WEBINARS (FREE BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN PAID FOR WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS) FOR TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS TO UTILIZE ON SPECIFIC TOPICS LIKE ASSESSMENT CREATION?!

assessment format issues: the format of the test can district students taking a test

around the country I’m seeing a little bit of everything with CCSS implementation
1- year to year model
2- key leader model
3- shared resources model
4- scheduling options: early dismissal, late start, PLC meetings, PD days, summer meeting time

Consider the development of an ‘explicit development model

First and foremost: everyone must be on the same page with respect to goals
- what are our desired outcomes
- identify your implementation process

MY CLOSING THOUGHTS: I REALLY THINK WE NEED (IN OKLAHOMA) TO STOP PUTTING OUR EDUCATIONAL FAITH IN STANDARDS AND HIGH STAKES / COMMERCIAL ASSESSMENTS, AND INSTEAD INVEST OUR RESOURCES AS WELL AS FAITH IN DEVELOPING HIGH QUALITY TEACHERS. TEACHERS ARE THE KEY. I AM THINKING WE SHOULD START AN ADVOCACY GROUP WHICH PUSHES FOR 2 MAIN THINGS:
1- STOPPING THE DRIVE TO LINK STUDENT TEST SCORES TO TEACHER EVALUATION
2- WITHDRAWING FROM OUR FORMAL PLEDGES TO SPEND MILLIONS ON CCSS ASSESSMENTS, STOP STATE-LEVEL MANDATED HIGH STAKES ASSESSMENTS AND INVEST ALL THOSE DOLLARS INSTEAD INTO TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, TEACHER MERIT PAY AS NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFICATION PAY, AND IN TEACHER PAY. GOOD TEACHERS ARE THE KEY. STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENTS ARE NOT SILVER BULLETS. THIS ISN’T 1983, WE DON’T NEED A ‘NATION AT RISK’ RE-RUN. WE NEED TO TURN THE SHIP OF POLITICALLY MANDATED EDUCATIONAL MALPRACTICE IN OUR STATE. OUR TEACHERS, PARENTS, AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED OVER THE PAST DECADE TO BELIEVE THAT EDUCATIONAL QUALITY AND WORTHY EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT CAN ONLY BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH EXPENSIVE, HIGH STAKES ASSESSMENTS WHICH WE PAY COMMERCIAL COMPANIES TO DEVELOP. THAT IS A FARCE AND A LIE. WE MUST CHANGE THIS MINDSET AND THIS REALITY. THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOL IS NOT TO TAKE TESTS WELL. THERE ARE FAR MORE THINGS THAN JUST ‘ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT’ WHICH MATTER IN SCHOOLS. WE MUST ALWAYS PRESENT TEST SCORES AND RESEARCH RESULTS IN CONTEXT. WE MUST TALK ABOUT POVERTY AND HELPING STUDENTS AS WELL AS FAMILIES MOVE UP AND OUT OF POVERTY. NEW ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND NEW, FANCY, ONLINE ASSESSMENTS ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO THOSE CHALLENGES. PASSIONATE, DEDICATED, HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS DEFINITELY ARE A KEY PART OF THAT SOLUTION. THERE ARE SOME GREAT ELEMENTS OF CCSS WHICH WE SHOULD EMBRACE AND IMPLEMENT. THERE ARE OTHER KEY PARTS OF OUR EDUCATIONAL POLITICAL LANDSCAPE, HOWEVER, WHICH WE MUST STAND UP TO OPPOSE AND CHANGE.

WE’VE GOT TO TURN THE SHIP. AFTER ALL, WE LIVE IN THE USA. IT’S TIME TO SHOW HOW WE CAN ADVOCATE FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE IN A RESPONSIVE REPUBLIC.

Technorati Tags: ccss, change, common, core, leadership, marzano, standards, transition, state, ocic, ossba, literacy

Transition to Common Core Standards by Jan Hoegh @marzanoresearch (2 of 2) #ocic12 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 24, 2012.

Currently, a transition to Common Core Standards is prevalent in the educational environment. This session will overview key steps in successful Common Core implementation. A focus of the presentation will be resources the Marzano Research Laboratory has developed to support teachers and administrators in this transition from state standards to Common Core Standards.

Handouts from today are linked on www.ossba.org/ocic

Jan is working on a book titled “Making Common Core Standards Useful” with Dr Robert Marzano

Thanks that seem little often times make a big difference
- story about her sister as a cardio-nurse about a charting error typo

Common Core implementation is monstrous, not little
- has come upon us on a quick manner
- today is pretty little in the grand scheme of things
- but today could make a significant difference in how we go about implementation

One of my favorite examples of brain research:

from Sousa, How the Brain Works, 2005

MY COMMENT: THIS ‘BRAIN RESEARCH’ IS AN URBAN LEGEND AND HAS BEEN DEBUNKED. I AM COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY THAT THIS WAS SHARED AS THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF ‘BRAIN RESEARCH’ AND ‘ACADEMIC RESEARCH’ IN TODAY’S SEMINAR. IN ADDITION, MY GOOGLE SEARCH SHOWS THIS BOOK WAS INACCURATELY CITED ON THE SLIDE, IT IS “HOW THE BRAIN LEARNS” FROM 2006. THANKS DR. JON BECKER FOR SHARING THE LINK TO HOW “The “Learning Pyramid” IS A MYTH AND NOT ACADEMICALLY SOUND RESEARCH. www.learningandteaching.info/learning/myths.htm

There is a lot to consider today with Common Core State Standards

Age = our attention span
- change of state needed
- tops out at 18-20 minutes
- adult learners need chagne also
- 3 ways we will group and regroup

Your table family (a.k.a. the people at your table)
- sorry, you don’t get to pick your family
- your are stuck with them, just like life!

Next: your close partners
- some people sitting near you but not at your table
- form groups of 2 or 3
- take 30 seconds to introduce yourselves and then return to your table…

Last one we’ll just use 1 time: an across the room partner
- agree on a place in the room where you’ll meet and work together
- intro yourself and return to your table

4 Modules for Successful Implementation of CCSS (by Marzano Research Laboratory)
1- What are the CCSS?
2- How do proficiency scales support CCSS implementation?
3- What instructional practices support CCSS implementation?
4- What assessment practices support CCSS?

We have developed scales for every CCSS standard, working with leaders around the country

CCSS require us to look at our instructional practices and determine if we’re getting to higher order thinking
- 21st century teaching and learning

Take a moment to think of a time of ‘adjustment’ or transition in your life, either professional or personal
- with your table family, list emotions you experienced

Our group’s answers: anxiety, frustration, apprehension, anger, fear, stress, uncertainty, relief, excitement, relief

“We are transitioning now as a country to CCSS”
- “although CCSS isn’t our new normal yet, it will be”

MY THOUGHT: MANY PEOPLE WOULD LIKE OUR NATION TO TRANSITION, BUT THIS ISN’T THE CASE IN TEXAS AND (I THINK) 15 OTHER STATES

We need to ‘be real’ in this transition time and express these frustrations / emotions
- we need to embrace the change and focus on improving the educational experience for our students
- that is a choice we can make
- look today for things you find exciting

#1 Educators must gain deep understanding of the purpose, organization, and content of the CCSS

“Verbatim note-taking is the least effective way to process and keep information”

Mission statement of CCSS: (focus on bold

consider the implications of these things for us as educators

You as a state [OKLAHOMA] have chosen to be part of the Park Consortium
- states could sign on to either one: PARCC has 24 states, 17 are governing board states (PARCC = Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers)
- Nebraska has opted OUT of CCSS: educators in Nebraska are wondering why they are opting out of CCSS, since it’s coming down the road for everyone

as a veering board state Oklahoma has agreed to
- pilot and field test assessment system components
- administrator new assessment system during 2014-2015
- use results from PARCC assessments in state accountability system

Our state has chosen to take a leadership role, and that is to be commended

MY COMMENT: I WONDER HOW MANY ACTUAL PEOPLE WERE IN THE ROOM AND DECIDED WE WOULD JOIN PARCC AS A GOVERNING MEMBER? THIS WAS NOT SUBJECT TO PUBLIC DEBATE AND DISCUSSION AS FAR AS I KNOW. INTERESTING HOW THIS IS BEING PRESENTED AS A ‘GREAT THING’ WE SHOULD CELEBRATE AND BE PROUD OF.

“the promise of the standards…”
- “These standards are not intended to be new names for old ways of doing business… They are a call to take the next step. It is time for states to work together to build on lessons learned from two decades of standards based reforms. It is time to recognize that standards are not just promises to our children, but promises we intend to keep.”

When we talk about ‘rigor’ in this context, we are talking about “application of content knowledge and skills”

‘teachable and learnable’ = guidance for the design of curricula and instructional materials

measurable: observable and verifiable
- we give students tasks to complete in relation to the standards

coherent: progression of learning
- there are blocks upon which other blocks are learning
- a continuum of learning, you will see this in the standards so you don’t see a lot of repetition in grade levels
- some of the content we were repeating in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade is no longer repeated

grade-by-grade standards

internationally benchmarked: success in our global economy
- our environment is much different now than from when I started in education in the 1980s

What you must do as you get involved with CCSS is get the document in front of you and others you are working with
- starting at the beginning
- our intuition is to ‘just get to the meat of it’
- I was in Ohio yesterday and the teachers there didn’t want to hear about all the steps needed for successful implementation
- like “The Sound of Music” we have to start with ABC… reading the actual document

what observations can you make reading the table of contents

MY COMMENT: IT IS PRETTY UNBELIEVABLE THAT ALL THE MATERIALS FOR THIS WORKSHOP ARE NOT PROVIDED UP-FRONT IN ELECTRONIC / DIGITAL FORMAT. I DID ASK IF THESE COULD BE SHARED AND JAN SAID SHE’D EMAIL THEM TO USE IF WE INDIVIDUALLY SEND HER AN EMAIL. THE PERSON WHO INTRODUCED HER SAID THEY WOULD BE POSTED/SHARED ON THE OSSBA WEBSITE. THIS IS AS MAINSTREAM A CURRICULUM CONFERENCE AS YOU CAN GET IN OKLAHOMA, AND THE STACK OF PAPERS DISTRIBUTED AS WE CAME IN THE ROOM MAKE IT CLEAR THIS IS ‘PAPER-BASED LECTURE LEARNING AS USUAL.” IF WE ARE SERIOUS ABOUT FACILITATING STUDENT USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES APPROPRIATELY AND REGULARLY IN THE CLASSROOM, WE HAVE TO START WITH TEACHER-LEADERS. (US) WE’VE GOT TO MODEL BLENDED LEARNING, AND THAT’S NOT HAPPENING HERE TODAY.

design and organization: focus on results rather than means
- this means teachers get to do the designing
- teachers are not told how they have to teach something

integrated model of literacy means it’s an integrated approach

we have to focus on research and media skills, those are integrated throughout the document

Only 70% of high school students graduate on time with a regular diploma (Green and Winters, 2005)

MY COMMENT: THAT STATISTIC IS SEVEN YEARS OLD! WHY ARE WE USING RESEARCH FINDINGS THAT ARE SEVEN YEARS OLD WHEN WE ARE IN 2012?

Also: “Approximately 40% of high school graduates lack the literacy skills employers seek.” (Achieve, Inc. 2005)

“U.S. dropouts’ literacy skills are lower than those of dropouts in most industrialized nations.” (A Report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York)

MY COMMENT: WHERE IS THE DATE CITATION FOR THIS CARNEGIE CORP REPORT? WHERE IS THE LINK? HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FACT-CHECK AND CRITICALLY ANALYZE THE INFORMATION BEING PRESENTED TO US TODAY, WHEN QUOTATIONS LIKE THIS ARE NOT APPROPRIATELY CITED? WE NEED TO MODEL BEST PRACTICE WHEN IT COMES TO CITATIONS, AND THESE SLIDES MISS THAT BOAT.

“Our students literacy skills today are not what they need to be”

NAPE focuses on informational text use a lot, so CCSS follows suit…
- significant shift and implications

Reading Design and Organization
3 sections
1- literature
2- informational text
3- foundational skills (k-5)

Where do we go to find literary / informational text
- look at appendices A-C in the CCSS, and especially appendix B for examples of exemplary texts

What does “college and career ready” mean for students?

Content is just good, solid ELA and math content

four strands
- reading (including reading foundational skills)
- writing
- speaking and listening
- language

Numbering System of K-5 ELA Standards
- RL = reading literature
- RI = reading informational text
- W = writing
- RF –
- SL

Need to carve out time to help teachers understand the language / coding system

RST.6-8.3 = Reading, Science and Technology, grades 6-8, 3rd standard

Gaining understanding of the CCSS requires spending time with teachers ‘learning the lingo’ of abbreviations / acronyms in the CCSS

We already do a lot as teachers which is “orchestration”
- an arrangement of events to achieve a maximum effect
- the desired maximum effect is optimum levels of student achievement

MY THOUGHT: ACTUALLY THERE ARE MANY OTHER VERY IMPORTANT AND EQUALLY IMPORTANT OUTCOMES ON WHICH WE SHOULD/MUST BE FOCUSED AS PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS IN ADDITION TO STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Now we are shifting to module #2, looking at proficiency scales
- “Educators must gain keep understanding of how proficiency scales can be used to enhance CCSS processes”

Guiding Questions
- what is a proficiency scale and why is it necessary
- how does unpacking the standards support the development of scales?
- what resources does MRL have to support you regarding proficiency scales?

So what constitutes a clean refrigerator? (brainstorm)
- now discussing use of rubric to establish proficiency scales
- this creates documentation about the content of the standards and student performance

We are going to provide these scales as part of the appendix to the new book I’m writing with Dr Marzano

“the intent of CCSS was to create a national curriculum so students can move to different states and have the same learning”
- my fear is states are unpacking and unwrapping the standards so instead of having a national unpacking, we have 46 different unpackings
- so Marzano Research Labs has taken on the job of unpacking these standards as scales so these can be used as conversation pieces / starting places for conversations

On our proficiency scales, student expected performance is always at score 3 (score 3 is always explicitly taught in the classroom)
- application in real-world contexts

We want to get kids to college/career ready levels

MY THOUGHTS: I REALLY THINK WE NEED TO MORE CAREFULLY CONSIDER IF COLLEGE READY AND CAREER READY ARE THE SAME THING. THE CCSS ASSUME THEY ARE. OUR ELECTED STATE OFFICIALS ASSUME THEY ARE IN OKLAHOMA CURRENTLY (WHEN I’VE HEARD THEM TALK) BUT I’VE HEARD MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNOR’S WORKFORCE COUNCIL STRONGLY QUESTION THIS. THE CCSS ARE ASSUMING STUDENTS NEED A UNIFORM, CONSISTENT, STANDARDIZED SET OF EXPERIENCES TO PREPARE THEM FOR LIFE SUCCESS. I AM THINKING THIS IS ‘OLD WORLD’ THINKING IN MANY WAYS: 1 WAY, 1 SET OF STANDARDS, 1 PATH. THAT IS NOT DIFFERENTIATION. THAT IS FACTORY-THINKING.

Scale development
- now you’re going to create a scale for time and money
- start with level 3: what are all students expected to do? (learning goal / expectation)
- in level 2, include the vocabulary, foundational knowledge, simpler procedures, isolated details
- level 1: with help students can perform level 2 and 3
- level 0: even with help the student cannot perform expectations
- level 4: demonstrations of learning that go above and beyond what was explicitly taught

MY QUESTION: ARE WE REALLY JUST TALKING ABOUT RUBRIC DEVELOPMENT NOW?

Recommendation: Don’t have your teachers create all these scales
- have them go through the process to see what it takes
- scale captures content of the standard on the left side, the right hand shows example activities which pertain to content

Teachers get: “What does it look like in practice?”

We are in the process of posting our Scales as a bank
- access this from www.marzanoresearch.com/Free_Resources/itembank.aspx

MY COMMENT: NOTE A FREE ACCOUNT MUST BE REQUIRED TO ACCESS THE BANK

Now discussing implications: What does this mean for you in your district?

MY THOUGHTS ANSWERING THIS QUESTION:
- OUR TEACHERS NEED PD/OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP CCSS-ALIGNED RUBRICS
- WE OUGHT TO DEFINE HOW MUCH OF THIS ‘UNPACKING’ OUR TEACHERS NEED TO DO, TO UNDERSTAND THE CCSS AND HOW THEY APPLY
- I’M WONDERING WHERE THE FOCUS ON LESSON PLANNING IS? WHAT ARE THE KEY ELEMENTS OF A CCSS-ALIGNED LESSON PLAN WHICH ARE DIFFERENT THAN A ‘TRADITIONAL’ MADELAINE-HUNTER STYLE LESSON PLAN? I ‘GET’ THAT THE MARZANO GROUP WANTS TEACHERS TO USE SCALES/RUBRICS TO DEFINE AND ASSESS STUDENT LEARNING TASKS.

Technorati Tags: ccss, common, core, oklahoma, school, marzano, research, jan, hough, academic, standards, transition

Transition to Common Core Standards by Jan Hoegh @marzanoresearch (1 of 2) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 24, 2012.

There are 2 parts of the proposed state evaluation model for teachers: quantitative and qualitative

Quantitative: holding teachers accountable for student test scores
- our state (Oklahoma) “has punted” and said we need more research before we can implement this
- no state in the United States has figured this out yet (tying student test scores to teacher evaluation)
- Florida is furthest along, but they are still in a pilot stage
- the original proposal was to have 50% of teacher evaluation quantitative (student test scores) and 50% to be qualitative (principal evaluations)

The 50% that is the qualitative piece will actually be 100% this year in 2011-2012 in Oklahoma
- it is what you’ve been doing for 100 years, going into the classroom and seeing how teachers are teaching
- identifying strengths and rewarding those, identifying weaknesses and working to remedy those

Every school district in Oklahoma has to pick 1 of these 3 models:
1- Tulsa Public Schools Model
2- Danielson MOdel
3- Marzano Model

Tulsa model was developed from the ground up with funding from the Gates foundation
- Danielson and Marzano are national models, the Tulsa model is local

No model will be successful if administrators and teachers can’t implement it
- if the principal doesn’t have time to implement this, it won’t be successful
- you need to pick a model which is user-friendly for principals and teachers

Now we have 20 different criteria
- Marzano model has 60 criteria
- Danielson has 76 criteria
- Tulsa model has 20 criteria (it had 37 originally)

In pilot phase, principals and teachers reduced the number of criteria from 37 to 20

These 20 dimensions of the Tulsa model are:
- preparation
- routine
- discipline
- learning environment
- establishes objectives
- stresses sequence
- relates objectives
- involves all learners
- explains content
- models
- monitors
- adjusts to monitoring
- guides practice
- independent practice
- establishes closure
- lesson plans
- student files
- grading patterns
- student mastery

TLA (Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Commission) is composed of about 20 people, OEA, AFT, POE, Legislators, PTA, Administrators, School Board Members
- they evaluated systems for 6 months and came out with the recommendation that we have 3 possible systems
- they said the Tulsa system should be the default system, but schools should have options to adopt Danielson or Marzano

State Board took that recommendation and made Tulsa Public Schools Model as the “Presumptive Default”
- also picked McREL’s Principal Evaluation System and Reeve’s Leadership Performance Matrix
- your district will have to pick between these two systems on principal evaluation systems (we won’t focus on this today, however)

For 2012-2013: you will pilot one of the system and money will be available: $1.5 to be spent, 100% to be distributed on ADA basis to help with training ad implementation of selected models

There is no guarantee of future money after 2012-2013

Implementation Flow Chart
1- SDE provides information on TLA Framework (webinars will start in start of February, Oklahoma City area has 25 slots and they are already full)
2- Vendors provide information on systems
3- Districts choose systems (Supt Barresi said by late March at COSA conference last week)
4- Districts receive training on chosen systems
5- Districts implement chosen systems
6- TLA commission Commission and State Board continually receive updates
7- TLA commission and state board select Default Qualitative System and Quantitative Measures for 2013-2014

Principals will be required to attend multi-day training for whatever system the district selects

Now hearing from Tulsa PS

Our seed grant was funded by Gates Foundation and matched with local foundation dollars
- this was a massive effort, lots of time as well as funds required
- no evaluation system is practical if you can’t implement it

MY QUESTION: HOW DO THESE EVALUATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATE COMMON CORE EXPECTATIONS?

Ours is unique because it is Oklahoma grown, it has been validated, we base it on research and best practices (we are undergoing a validation study now)

Driving gains in student achievement
- teacher and leader effectiveness
- student achievement

TLA evaluation system based on observations, evaluations, feedback/support, and conferences
- this is rubric-based

Rubric provides a support document defining professional proficiency for 5 rankings
- a minimum of 2 observations are required, which each must be at least 20 minutes long
- small pieces of evidence gathered over time are the key

“The principal’s intentional study and analysis of the teacher’s classroom performance, guided by the detailed descriptions of the rubric and recorded in the observation form, which simplifies the rubric.”

Evaluation form is a technology-enhanced tool that documents/logs patterns of effectiveness via the rubric

Conferences follow each observation and evaluation, provide teachers with “status check” and “road map” to improve effectiveness

5 tiered approach to feedback and support
- focuses on 1 (“ineffective”) and 2 (“needs improvement”) performance levels and increases in ALL effective areas

Now hearing from Linda Hendrix
- been with Tulsa Public Schools for 13 years, never envisioned my role changing so dramatically because of accountability

Good relationship between district, teachers, and the teacher’s association is critical
- I’ve been on assessment committee for TPS since day 1 when Gates started with us

TLE System Structure: dimensions for teachers and principals (number of indicators follow, and weights)

Teachers: (20)
- classroom management – 6 – 30%
- instructional effectiveness – 10 – 50%
- professional growth and continuous improvement – 2 – 10%
- interpersonal skills – 1 – 5%
- leadership – 1 – 5%

Principals: (19)
- organization and school management – 6 – 35%
- instructional leadership – 2 – 13%
- professional growth and responsibility – 13%
- interpersonal skills – 4 – 13%
- leadership – 5 – 13%
- stakeholder perceptions – 1 – 13%

We recognized we needed weights, so we assigned the rubric calculation to put more focus (80%) on classroom management and instructional effectiveness

SM 2033 was crafted after we started the Gates process
- five tiers of effectiveness
- domains mirror SB 2033 requirements
- evaluation time frames
- supports for improvement
- applies to ALL teachers and leaders

Teacher rubric in detail: “Like a dictionary, the rubric’s descriptions provide definitional clarity as to each level of effectiveness”
- we wanted everyone to perceive the rubric in the same way
- fairness and equity in the process was a big focus for our working group

5 columns going across the rubric
1- ineffective
2- needs improvement
3- effective
4- highly effective
5- superior

Most of our administrators spend far more than 20 minutes in each teacher’s classroom
- rubric provides spaces for principals to put +, -, or another symbol in each category

One example: “the teacher might not have used their smartboard in the lesson, and they need to use technology, so you would mark that on the rubric”

MY COMMENT: THIS HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF FOCUSING ON EFFECTIVE LEARNING AND EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES, RATHER THAN JUST TECHNOLOGY USE (REF LARRY CUBAN)

Foundational idea: you don’t fire teachers and help them improve

5 tier approach to supporting teachers instructionally and improving leaders
1- “Push Pin” (less formal, yet documented) approaches to remedy ineffectiveness

2- Professional Development Plans (PDP)
in Tulsa PS we call this a “Personal Development Plan” to use more positive words/terms than “improvement plan”

3- Quality Experiences Supporting Teachers (QUEST)

We have Quest: intensive 24 day program, a Quest facilitator works with teachers 3 days per week, half day each time
- they model, help create lessons, lesson plan, and more

MY THOUGHT: THIS SOUNDS LIKE A GREAT PROGRAM AND I’D LOVE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IT

4- “9-week Cohort” focuses on application, reflection and critical thinking tools to support teachers to move to the next level of consistently impacting student learning”

5- “PDP Training Support Cycles” – 2 hour specific topic PD to address issues identified in PDPs, Oct through April

“our system is research based” and “we based this on reliable sources”

MY COMMENT: WHEN PEOPLE SAY THINGS LIKE THIS AND DON’T CITE AS WELL AS EXPLAIN THE ACTUAL RESEARCH BASIS, IT’S EQUIVALENT TO SOMEONE SAYING, “I HEARD THIS FROM JESUS.” THAT MAY BE TRUE, BUT IN THIS ACADEMIC SETTING WE NEED MORE ELABORATION THAN THAT: A FULL ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY PLEASE.

Now hearing from last speaker

MY SUGGESTION: IT WOULD BE GREAT TO HAVE THE NAMES OF EACH PRESENTER INCLUDED ON THE PRESENTATION SLIDES

The impact:
- student achievement gains
- “great improvements in identifying and distinguishing levels of professional performance”
- teacher evaluation: rankings guided and defined by 265 performance descriptions in 2010-2011 9versus 09-10: zero)
- more support for “less than effective” teachers
- “alignment of professional development plans and evaluation findings”

We are working to have teachers evaluated consistently via our rubric
- we have grown as evaluators through collaboration and comparing notes
- leverage teacher and administrator input
- improve system based on real-world implementation
- simplicity is best
- train evaluators, and train them again
- ensure inter-rater reliability
– certification and re-certification process

teamwork, fortitude, engaging outside community was important

our vision is one thing: student achievement

MY COMMENT: OUR VISION MUST BE FAR WIDER AND DEEPER THAN MERELY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT. BILL GATES AND NCLB-STYLE HIGH STAKES ACCOUNTABILITY LOVING POLITICIANS MAY WANT US TO SAY THINGS LIKE THIS, BUT WE SHOULD NOT. THERE ARE SO MANY IMPORTANT THINGS WE DO AS TEACHERS AND IN OUR SCHOOLS THAT ARE NOT MEASURED ON STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS. STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR FOCUS IN OUR SCHOOLS, BUT IT SHOULD NOT AND MUST NOT BE OUR SINGULAR FOCUS. WE ARE FOCUSED ON STUDENTS, BUT WE ARE ALSO FOCUSED ON ALL ASPECTS OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT AS INDIVIDUALS AND CITIZENS: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, COLLABORATION, ETHICS, CITIZENSHIP, ETC.

From Michael Barlow:
- as this is rolled out statewide, it will be web-based so you can use an iPad or smartphone application
- Enid PS is doing this now

From : “I hate technology and will not use it, I will do this with my paper and pencil, and you can do this evaluation with paper too.”

MY COMMENT: WOW – THIS WAS QUITE AN ANTI-TECHNOLOGY STATEMENT. I WONDER IF SHE USES A CAN OPENER AT HOME?

From Michael Barlow: We are not going to use student test scores in this now, but it is coming
- merit pay is coming, but it’s not part of this bill now

MY QUESTION: SINCE STATE FUNDS AS WELL AS GRANT FUNDS ARE SUPPORTING THE CREATION OF THIS WEB-BASED TOOL, WILL IT BE MADE AVAILABLE FREE TO SCHOOLS AND EDUCATORS? IT SHOULD BE. THIS IS A MANDATORY EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR OUR SCHOOLS TO IMPLEMENT AND IT ABSOLUTELY SHOULD BE FREE ONLINE.
- I ASKED MICHAEL BARLOW ABOUT THIS AFTER THE SESSION AND HE CONFIRMED THE WEB-BASED ELEMENTS OF THIS EVALUATION SYSTEM WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FREE.

MY THOUGHTS: THE WORK TPS AND OTHERS HAVE DONE ON THIS QUALITATIVE EVALUATION IS EXCELLENT. THERE IS MUCH GOING ON HERE WHICH IS NOT GOOD, HOWEVER. WHERE IS THE CONSTITUENCY IN OKLAHOMA WHICH IS OPPOSING THE TIE OF STUDENT TEST SCORES TO TEACHER ASSESSMENT / EVALUATION AND MERIT PAY. PEOPLE LIKE MICHAEL BARLOW ARE SAYING ‘MERIT PAY IS COMING’ AS AN INEVITABILITY. WE CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT ACCEPT THIS AS PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS. THERE IS NOT SOUND ACADEMIC RESEARCH TO SUPPORT THE VALUE OF THIS PATH, AND PEOPLE SEEM TO BE RUNNING LIKE LEMMINGS TOWARD THE CLIFF WITHOUT PROTEST. WHERE IS THE PROTEST? WHERE IS THE ORGANIZED OPPOSITION TO MERIT PAY TIED TO STUDENT TEST SCORES IN OKLAHOMA? THIS IS MADNESS AND WE MUST ACT TO STOP IT.

Technorati Tags: education, oaesp, oklahoma, principal, tle, evaluation, leadership, gates, ccosa

Teacher Leader Effectiveness (TLE) and the Tulsa Model #oaesp12 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 20, 2012.

Common Core state standards initiative
- state-led and developed common core standards for K12 in ELA and math
- initiative led by Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governors Association (NGA)

What are educational standards and why do they matter?
- standards define what the outcomes will be for our students?
- the create shared understanding for our student of what they need to know and be able to do at each grade level when they leave our schools

States were in the driver’s seat
- federal government did not develop the standards or require adoption

Why do we need common standards?
- disparate standards across states
- today’s jobs require different skills
- global competition
- for many young people, a high school degree isn’t preparing them for college or a good job

Why is this important for all students, teachers and parents?
- prepares students with knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and work
- ensures consistent expectations regardless of student zip codes
- provide clear, focused guideposts
- offers economies of scale (will drive down costs for testing, we have several consortiums, we are in the Park Consortium, all states in that consortium will be using the same bank of questions to measure the outcomes)

In part this was a response to criticism that schools (not necessarily Yukon PS, however) were not preparing students adequately/well for college/work

Features of standards
- aligned with college and work expectations
- forced and coherent
- include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills
- build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards
- based on evidence and research
- internationally benchmarked
- should be read to allow the widest possible range of students to participate fully

Aligned with college and work expectations

Standards development process
- college and career readiness standards for ELA and Math developed in summer of 2009
- based on college and career readiness standards, K12 standards for each grade were developed
- continual input throughout process from states, educators, business and higher education leaders
- public commit period received almost 10,000 comments
- final standards were released in June 2010

Map of Common Core State Standards Adoption

Applications for English language learners
- learn academic content WHILE learning English

Design and organization
- intro have description of capacities of a literate student (e.g. demonstrate independence, come to understand other perspectives and cultures)

3 main sections
- K-5 cross-disciplinary
- 6-12 ELA
- 6-12 literacy

ELA Key advances

Reading
- balance of literature and informational texts
- text complexity

Writing
- emphasis on argument and informative/explanatory writing
- writing about sources

Standards for reading and writing in history / social studies, science and technical subjects
- will complement rather than replace existing content standards

Standards for mathematical practice
- carry across all grade levels to address ‘gaps’
- describe habits of mind of a mathematically expert studetn

Standards for math content
- K-8 standards presented by grade level
- high school standard presented by conceptual theme (some states call math courses math 1, math 2, math 3, etc)

Math key advances
- focus in early grades on numbers (arithmetic and operations) to build a solid foundation in math (good change, we’ve been teaching too many objectives to young children, too early)
- evened out pace across the grades
- focus on USING math and solving complex problems, similar to what we should see in the real world in high school
- emphasis on problem solving and communication

Yukon’s Plan
- implementation plan developed in 2010-2011
- building knowledge
- side by sides to current standards (PASS skills)
- deconstructing the standards
- ongoing PD for faculty and staff

CCSS should be fully implemented in our classrooms no later than 2013-2014

State department of education has developed the REACH Network
- Deer Creek is our lead, we’ve had 1 meeting so far
- they shared information from the SDE in the ‘toolkit’ they received

(no questions from the board)

Introduction to the Common Core State Standards by Karen Robertson originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on January 9, 2012.

Here in Oklahoma, where our newly elected state superintendent for public instruction established our state’s first charter school, we are living in the midst of tumultuous and dynamic times for public schools. Recent state laws, enacted so Oklahoma would be eligible to apply for Race To The Top grant funds, have enabled new cyber charter schools like Epic One on One Charter School to operate with public funds. Rather than require parents to pay for a specific online curriculum option, Epic provides parents with a variety of choices. As Ali points out in her TEDx presentation, however, all of these curriculum companies (as far as I know) are FOR-PROFIT corporations. The purchase of commercial curriculum resources by schools isn’t anything new, but the “gold rush” which Ali describes for cyber schools and online curriculum IS. The questions she raises about public funds, public schools, and the ways limited tax dollars are (in some cases) now supporting single-curriculum vendor cyber charter schools are challenging.

Check out Ali’s presentation and follow her on Twitter. I found the way she approached these topics in her speech quite disarming as well as effective. These are controversial and important issues. I need to learn more and Ali has challenged me to do more research.

Ali’s October 2010 TEDxTalk, “Gaming to re-engage boys in learning,” was posted to Ted.com in January 2011.

Technorati Tags: school, charter, schools, ted, tedx, tedxpsu, curriculum, companies

The Dangerous Nexus of Cyber Charter Schools & For-Profit Curriculum Companies originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 26, 2011.

Lots of these photos “beg” for a blog post, and the following two are some of the loudest contenders in that category this evening. I snapped these photos this fall when my 8th grade son brought home the results of his Oklahoma standardized math and reading tests scores from 7th grade. Yes, we (his parents) were proud of his results. Yes, we posted them on the refrigerator in our kitchen. But, there are a lot more thoughts going on here besides simplistic parental pride. There’s also confusion and frustration.

Amidst the multitude of thoughts and responses I had and still have in looking at these test scores, the following statement stands out: “Standardized test results obfuscate real learning.” Obfuscate isn’t a commonly used word, so I’ll turn to Google for a definition.

Obfuscate: verb. 1. Render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible.
2. Bewilder (someone).

To be valuable to parents, documents sent home from school (both physical and digital ones) need to catalyze meaningful conversations between kids and adults. Standardized testing results obfuscate real learning because they FAIL this basic litmus test. The quality of conversations between my son and I after he handed me these scores was qualitatively the same as caveman Og had with his son when he brought home a deer from a hunt. “You hunt good.” “Me proud.” These are not bad things to say, but they’re not intellectually very deep.

I firmly believe the testing companies and testing psychometricians who design reports like we have for the OCCT tests do them with the explicit goal of intimidating and confusing parents. The message I receive from a report like this is:

Your child is doing lots of complex things at school which are not easily explained or understood. Trust us when we say your child’s performance is X on a scale of Y. We’ve designed these results so you will understand very little of them. We specifically want to prevent you from asking intelligent and helpful questions as a result of this testing result document. This is designed as one way communication: We’re telling you what score we assign to your kid. Your job is to nod your head affirmatively when we ask if you understand these results, and then maintain a perception that your public school is doing a good job educating your child.

I detest and reject the myopic and damaging focus on high stakes testing which our politicians have mandated for our public schools. I attended a meeting in the last two weeks in which the committee chair made a statement which made my heart briefly stop: “Standardized testing is so accepted by the public, it is politically impossible for us to question it at this time.” The context of that meeting was such that if ANYONE in our state should be feeling empowered and able to question the value and utility of standardized testing, it was the members of that committee. No one questioned the chair’s statement during the meeting, however. Since I was attending over the phone, I couldn’t see anyone else’s body language in the meeting. It was a chilling moment for me. I’m not sure how it will come about, but I KNOW we (the educators in the room) have to take back the power and responsibility for designing student assessments from the politicians and the testing companies.

As you send documents home for your parents in upcoming weeks and months, ask yourself this simple question:

Can this document serve as a meaningful catalyst for important conversations between kids and adults?

If you’re a public school teacher, I know you have to send home standardized test results. I’m not asking you not to. The politicians have ordered teachers to send home these expensive pages of statistical obfuscation, and at this point there’s no getting around that.

However, we DO have opportunities to send home meaningful examples of student work which CAN catalyze important conversations. We can do this digitally, through classroom blogs, on a regular basis. We should be publishing and sharing “our work” in school and outside the classroom with increasing regularity. It is, after all, the 21st century and we live in an era of digital information sharing. The transparency which digital information publishing can and should afford in our classrooms can be helpfully constructive in many ways. Listen to Cheryl Beaman and Michelle Barnes describe what their 1:1 learning project did to some of their worst teachers in Grandview, Oklahoma (convinced them to quit) if you’re uncertain about this. Technology is a powerful amplifier, and it amplifies the good and the bad.

Send home and publish online this year a wealth of student work which sparks important conversations. Check out the student media examples on share.playingwithmedia.com. Contribute your own. Instead of obfuscating learning for parents, catalyze conversations between adults and kids about learning which matters. Share the spark.

Technorati Tags: media, occt, oklahoma, standardized, testing, obfuscate, school, politics, high, stakes, accountability

Standardized Test Results Obfuscate Real Learning originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 26, 2011.

1. Grand View Public Schools (Oklahoma) Digital 1:1 Project
2. Grand View Public Schools, Oklahoma
3. Michelle Barnes, 2011 OTA Technology Leader of the Year
4. Michelle Barnes on Twitter: @MbarnesGV
5. Grandview Tech Blog
6. Mrs. Barnes’ Class on Twitter: @MrsBarnesClass
7. LoTi: Levels of Teaching Innovation
8. Implementing 1:1 Prepare Our Students for Their Future… TODAY! (Nov 2010 ILI presentation by Cheryl Beaman and Michelle Barnes)
9. NewNet 66: Delivering Technology to Oklahoma Schools (Grand View Schools’ networking partner)
10. K20 Innovative Learning Institute (Norman, Oklahoma)
11. K20 Center at the University of Oklahoma
12. Fuel for Educational Change Agents (Wesley Fryer’s supplementary podcast channel)

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Podcast386: Implementing 1:1 Classrooms in Grand View Schools, Oklahoma originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 22, 2011.

My three best recommendations for organizations which provide helpful information about not only “selecting a device” but more importantly addressing the myriad issues which come up with 1:1 programs are:

• The Anywhere, Anytime Learning Foundation (AALF)
• The One-to-One Institute
• Educational Collaborators (EC)

Full disclosure: I’m a ‘collaborator’ with EC.

Going 1:1 is far more than choosing a ‘device’ to purchase and support for all learners: It should be framed and supported as a whole-school learning initiative which will challenge as well as improve the ways ‘we do business’ at all levels in school. It’s critical to not only ask and answer a long list of questions about the “whats” and “hows” but also the “whys.” There are plenty of schools ‘out there’ who have gone 1:1 for the wrong reasons, and without a guiding vision for blended and differentiated learning programs do falter and fail.

In terms of the question about research focusing on 1:1 impact, Project Red is one of the most well known initiatives to check out. Their list of linked research articles about 1:1 programs is a good start.

Here’s my HUGE problem with Project Red, however: They are charging and arm and a leg for access to some of their research reports. This is WRONG. Academic research, which is viable research, should be freely available online without cost. See my February 2011 post, “Academic journals should not have paywalls- Support Open Access Publishing!” for more on this. Plenty of publishers as well as organizational leaders are misdirected today about “monetization schemes” for educational research. If it’s academic research it should be free, it should be open, and it should be accessible for everyone. Project Red is charging “$1,299 [for a] Multiuser license only for distribution within the purchasing organization” for alleged ‘research’ published by “the authors of America’s Digital Schools.” These fees and this paywall are ridiculous. If this is legitimate research, it should be available free.

I understand a bit about nonprofits and the need to pay bills. AALF also provides a wealth of “1-to-1 Research and Resources” but to access them, you must join and pay.

Despite my sentiments about open versus closed access to academic research, I think each of these organizations is worth checking out and can assist as schools consider options going 1:1. When it comes to the device, however, remember it’s not about the device. That’s not the right question to lead with. The right question is, “What do you want learners at your school to DO?” When you can define what you want students and teachers to DO as learners, that should help define what device (or devices) you decide to put in their hands.

I also encourage educational leaders considering 1:1 programs to not fixate on “a single device.” We are all products of a 20th century factory model of education, so we tend to think in terms of “a solution for everyone and all situations.” I’m going to be very interested to watch the renewal of Maine’s MLTI contract with Apple next year, especially to see what offers Google makes them with Chromebooks. The Open 1 to 1 Project has plenty of testimonies about why ‘a single device’ hasn’t been the choice for everyone in Maine. As much as vendors would like us to believe “one size fits all” or “everyone should have THIS solution,” the fact is different schools are going to decide to embrace different platforms, and some will select different devices for kids at different grades. We’re going to see more mixed platform 1:1 implementations in the months ahead as schools embrace BYOD programs. There are a confusing array of options. My best advice is: Find ways to talk AT LENGTH with different educational leaders who have been SUSTAINING 1:1 programs for many years. They can be your “Yodas” (borrowing the parlance of Marco Torres) and lead you to not only ‘a device’ but more importantly ‘a vision’ for digital learning which can sustain your organization for the long term.

For more resources and ideas relating to 1:1 learning, check out my past blog posts categorized, “1 to 1.”

What resources and recommendations do you share with other educators considering 1:1?

Resources for Going 1:1 in School originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 8, 2011.

If I’d been required to take those two tests when I was a 10th grader, my life would almost certainly have been very different. I’d have been told I wasn’t ‘college material,’ would probably have believed it, and looked for work appropriate for the level of ability that the test said I had. It makes no sense to me that a test with the potential for shaping a student’s entire future has so little apparent relevance to adult, real-world functioning. Who decided the kind of questions and their level of difficulty? Using what criteria? To whom did they have to defend their decisions? As subject-matter specialists, how qualified were they to make general judgments about the needs of this state’s children in a future they can’t possibly predict? Who set the pass-fail “cut score”? How? I can’t escape the conclusion that decisions about the [state test] in particular and standardized tests in general are being made by individuals who lack perspective and aren’t really accountable.

We need to move forward in “real school reform” in the United States, and a key step we need in all states is rejecting the high-stakes testing mentality and policies which have been normalized around the nation. This example highlighted by Marion Brady provides a specific, practical goal for parent organizations and others seeking to promote educational reform: Ask school board members and elected members of the state legislature to take high school “exit” level standardized tests, and then publish the results. In addition, highlight and publish the responses those adults have to the testing experience and their scores.

The only “winners” in our high stakes testing educational culture are the test makers and the politicians who use test scores to mislead voters into believing they’ve made a positive difference in the lives of children. This “norm” must change.

Via @isteconnects.

Technorati Tags: change, high, leadership, policy, reform, school, test, testing, stakes

Ask Your School Board Members to Take Your State Standardized Tests originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on December 6, 2011.

Today I had an opportunity to meet with the superintendent and CIO of Oklahoma City Public Schools to discuss my concerns as a parent in the district about the overblocking of Internet websites. I had heard a great deal from other people about the district’s policies and the reasons for those policies, but it was good to meet face-to-face with district leaders and hear firsthand about their perspectives on filtering. This evening, I had an opportunity to speak for three minutes before the Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education and share my concerns. This is the transcript of the prepared statement I shared with the board, which took exactly three minutes. A loud buzzer went off at the end of the three minute period, and I felt a bit like I was on “The Gong Show” and had done poorly when it went off. I also recorded the audio of my statement using my iPhone and the free Cinch app, which I’ve embedded below. I’m hopeful my advocacy and the work of others in the district will lead to the formation of a task force (which will include parents) that can recommend changes to some of the district’s current policies on Internet filtering. MANY thanks to those who completed my online survey/request for assistance on the content filtering policies of large, urban districts. I integrated some of those results into my prepared comments this evening.

Chairperson Monson, Members of the board and Mr Springer, I appreciate this opportunity to visit with you.

My name is Dr. Wesley Fryer, and I am a digital learning consultant in Oklahoma City. Tonight I want to share deep concerns with you as a parent of three students in Oklahoma City Public Schools regarding the overblocking of Internet websites in our district. I want to call on you to establish a task force to further investigate these issues and make recommendations so students and teachers in our district have opportunities to use interactive websites like Evernote, Edmodo, and Google Documents. These websites provide important platforms for students to practice safe collaborative writing and social networking.They are free and are being used by students and teachers in other large, urban school districts around the United States today which comply with legal requirements of E-Rate including the Children’s Internet Protection Act.

Since August 26, 2011, I have been working with teachers and staff in our district to get the website Evernote.com unblocked so the debate team at Classen SAS can use it to share research and evidence. I have worked with our classroom teacher, school librarian, school principal, and secondary schools director. This morning I met with both our district superintendent and district CIO. I have been told Oklahoma City Public Schools blocks the website Evernote.com because it poses a security risk to the network, because students could upload pornography to it, and because providing student access to sites like this would risk the loss of millions of federal E-Rate dollars.

In mid-October 2011 Oklahoma City Public Schools started blocking student access to both Google Documents and Google Mail. Last week our district started blocking student access to Edmodo.com, a free and secure website for in-classroom social networking and electronic assignment management. These decisions are not justified and should be reversed immediately.

Oklahoma City Public Schools has a professed commitment to “Preparing Students for Success in School, Work, and Life.” We have a problem, however, with a disconnect between these professed commitments involving digital literacy and the reality of draconian Internet website filtering in our classrooms.

Some of the information about the Children’s Internet Protection Act’s legal requirements provided to district staff is inaccurate. It is not true our district would lose $4 million of federal E-Rate funding if we provide students and teachers with access to sites like Evernote, Google Docs and Edmodo. Yet the threat of that monetary loss is regularly brought out at district meetings where content filtering issues are discussed. Large urban districts like Fairfax County Public Schools, Seattle Public Schools and Minneapolis Public Schools provide access to these three sites today. A district task force can research these issues further and provide recommendations to the board which support more balanced content filtering policies.

Thank you for considering these ideas and for your service to our community.

Technorati Tags:
okcps, oklahoma, city, public, schools, filter, filtering, cipa, balanced, balancedfiltering

Advocating for Balanced Content Filtering in Oklahoma City Public Schools originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 21, 2011.

THANKS. I’ll report results of tonight’s meeting as well as this survey here and on balancedfiltering.org.

Technorati Tags: block, filtering, internet, survey, blocking, overblock, overblocking

Help Needed from Urban Educators: Are Evernote, GDocs & Edmodo Blocked for Your Students? originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 21, 2011.

Update 11/16: Note the original title of this article has been changed, my intent in writing this is not to personally attack the reporter who wrote the article, but rather call attention to these issues which desperately need clarifying in our communities.

Update 11/17: After reaching out to the newspaper reporter via phone and email I have learned her quotations in this article came from the district technology director at a school board meeting. I am in the process of contacting the Assistant to the Superintendent for Operations for Parkland Schools for additional clarification. To address the reporter’s concerns about this blog post I have changed the title again. The initial title was, “Newspaper Reporter Marion Callahan Misquotes CIPA.” The title was changed on 11/16 to “Pennsylvania Newspaper Article Misquotes CIPA.” I have now changed the title to “Pennsylvania Newspaper Article / School Tech Director Misrepresents CIPA” and also changed this blog post permalink. The current Google search results for the reporter’s name which include “misquotes” in the title is her concern.

Sunday’s article, “Parkland students may soon take laptops, Kindles to class” in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper “The Morning Call” shares an exciting story about BYOD (bring your own device) computing plans in a local school district. The reporter, Marion Callahan, interviewed a school administrator at a recent board meeting. Her interview quotations may give readers a misleading impression about the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Those statements give the false impression that school officials are mandated by federal law to ban student smartphone use at school. While districts are obligated to implement and enforce a Internet content filtering policy on their school networks, schools are not required to outlaw smartphones at school which can bypass school-provided Internet access. With respect to current policy in the Parkland School District, Callahan wrote:

Smartphones, however, are off-limits. Until the district can find a way for its network to limit access, students are not permitted access to the Internet with phones during school hours. The Children’s Internet Protection Act requires that schools have a content filter in place and make every effort to block objectionable sites.

Callahan’s statements in this paragraph misrepresent the requirements of CIPA for schools. Students as well as staff at U.S. schools receiving federal E-Rate funding are NOT prohibited by law or mandate from using their Internet-capable smartphones at school and accessing the Internet through their privately-paid / cellular company provided Internet access. Too many school leaders use CIPA and other legal requirements affecting computing to maintain draconian content filtering policies which make China’s firewall look like a benevolent Santa Claus. This must change, and change starts with the truth.

If wireless Internet access is provided by the school receiving E-Rate funds, that school-provided wifi access must have some kind of content filter in place. The school is not obligated to provide wifi access, however, and certainly is not obligated to ban student use of smartphones or ban students from accessing the Internet with their own carrier data plans. The project wiki, “Unmasking the Digital Truth” highlights the requirements for CIPA:

CIPA requires schools and libraries using E-Rate discounts to operate “a technology protection measure with respect to any of its computers with Internet access that protects against access through such computers to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors…”

See the May 2011 post on BalancedFiltering,org, “Do your school administrators REALLY understand CIPA?” for additional information including clarifications on CIPA requirements provided last spring by Karen Cator, the U.S. Department of Education’s Director of Education Technology.

Misunderstandings of CIPA like the one highlighted by Marion Callahan in this article might seem like a minor detail, but they are not. Widespread misconceptions about CIPA abound in in our schools today. The last thing we need mainstream media outlets to do is further confuse and obfuscate ‘the truth’ when it comes to content filtering in schools. This is the reason the “Unmasking the Digital Truth” project highlights the facts, laws, and court decisions behind eight primary reasons school leaders in too many U.S. schools today over block the web far beyond their legal mandate to do so. These reasons include:

• CIPA – The Child’s Internet Protection Act (mandates basic content filtering – U.S.)
• e-Discovery – Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) requiring email archiving under some circumstances (U.S.)
• FERPA – The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (U.S.)
• COPPA – The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (U.S.)
• Bandwidth – Often a concern the school does not have enough to support a particular website/tool
• Control – Educational leaders sometimes want to limit potential user behavior
• Liability – Concern that website access will lead to lawsuits from and litigation with parents
• Fear – More generalized feelings that web 2.0 sites and technologies are bad / dangerous

I applaud the district leaders in Parkland School District in Pennysylvania for embracing a vision for digital learning which will support BYOD (bring your own device) computing for students and staff in the near future. I hope, however, local newspaper reporter Marion Callahan will clarify her misleading statements about CIPA so all community members in and around Allentown can gain a better rather than a murkier understanding of CIPA requirements. While the school district (which receives E-Rate funds) clearly has a legal obligation to provide a basic level of content filtering on its network when students, staff, and community members access the Internet through it, the district is NOT obligated by law to ban Internet-capable smartphones for students or anyone else or ban smartphone Internet use through commercial cellular providers.

All schools in our communities need policies which support balanced content filtering. All our schools need “smart networks” which can enable both flexible access as well as accountability for network users. It sounds like leaders in the Parkland School District are on the right road forward. Hopefully we’ll see more BYOD initiatives in our U.S. schools in the months ahead, as well as state-funded digital learning initiatives providing mobile computing devices for students who cannot afford to bring their own to school.

For additional guidance and information related to digital literacy and school leadership I recommend “What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media” by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehmann. (Steve Dembo and I co-authored chapter 3 on “Podcasts and Webinars.”)

Hat tip to John Maklary for sharing this article.

Technorati Tags: block, cipa, filter, filtering, internet, iphone, pennsylvania, school, smartphone, requirements, marion, callahan, allentown, parkland, ban

Pennsylvania Newspaper Article / School Tech Director Misrepresents CIPA originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 15, 2011.

Doubtless the fact that children normally engage in play and work out of school has seemed to many educators a reason why they should concern themselves in school with things radically different. School time seemed too precious to spend in doing over again what children were sure to do any way. In some social conditions, this reason has weight. In pioneer times, for example, outside occupations gave a definite and valuable intellectual and moral training. Books and everything concerned with them were, on the other hand, rare and difficult of access; they were the only means of outlet from a narrow and crude environment. Wherever such conditions obtain, much may be said in favor of concentrating school activity upon books. The situation is very different, however, in most communities to-day. The kinds of work in which the young can engage, especially in cities, are largely anti-educational. That prevention of child labor is a social duty is evidence on this point. On the other hand, printed matter has been so cheapened and is in such universal circulation, and all the opportunities of intellectual culture have been so multiplied, that the older type of book work is far from having the force it used to possess.

And yet, in the words of Karl Fisch, many math teachers today are still “assigning one through thirty-one odd” and calling that education.

In the same chapter, Dewey reminds us about the importance of mistakes and fashioning learning opportunities for students which permit learning from mistakes. He wrote:

Moreover, opportunity for making mistakes is an incidental requirement. Not because mistakes are ever desirable, but because overzeal to select material and appliances which forbid a chance for mistakes to occur, restricts initiative, reduces judgment to a minimum, and compels the use of methods which are so remote from the complex situations of life that the power gained is of little availability.

This “requirement” pertains to digital as well as analog work, including digital writing / blogging. I resonate with Dewey’s reference to “the complex situations of life.” Too often in school we try to over-simplify reality. Attempts at simplification can be warranted in some cases, but frequently these attempts result in boring lessons and boring activities for students. Life IS complex, and many of the learning challenges we share with students should include elements of complexity. When they do, not only can we see their levels of interest and engagement go up, but also their opportunities to “make mistakes” and thereby learn valuable lessons they are unlikely to forget tomorrow.

Reading these passages today reminds me I need to “return to Dewey” and read his ideas more often. Project Gutenberg currently has seven of Dewey’s books available free in multiple formats.

Technorati Tags: education, learning, play, dewey, mistakes

Dewey on Book Work and Opportunities for Mistakes originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 14, 2011.

I have not seen “American Teacher” yet, but the previews look excellent. It’s strange to learn, however (via Dana Goldstein) the film never addresses the contentious issues of teacher unions, testing, or merit pay based on student test results.

Check out the official movie trailer as well as introductory videos about the four teachers highlighted in the documentary film. I hope to see this movie soon.

AMERICAN TEACHER: Meet Jamie

AMERICAN TEACHER: Meet Jonathan

AMERICAN TEACHER: Meet Rhena

AMERICAN TEACHER: Meet Erik

A list of upcoming screenings of this movie around the United States is available, along with instructions about screening the film in your area. Follow the project on Twitter @teachersalary. I hope someone will take the lead and bring this film to Oklahoma City.

Hat tip to Mary Frances Agnello for sharing this film.

Technorati Tags: american, education, film, reform, school, teacher, video

American Teacher Documentary: An Answer to Waiting for Superman originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 14, 2011.

This session is available as a no-edit audio podcast via Cinch.

Conference Twitter hashtag: #k20ili

I’m passionate about these issues we’ll discuss today because of my 11 year old daughter, Abby
- particularly for her, I want you to think about YOUR Abby
- think about your young children or grandchildren you want to think about as I say “Abby” instead of thinking about ‘the generic student’
- make it personal, think of someone personal to you
- we need to think about what’s important

My purpose today is to be part of the conversation today, and the conversations you take back to your schools

Start: “I am a derivative”
- not a math derivative
- most of what I will share today I stole from someone else
- this first statement is from Dean Shareski in Moose Jaw, SA

Lots can say “Yeah, but…”
- I want you to change that to “yeah, AND”

As I teacher I set out in the audience
- I don’t have the answers, but I think I do have some good questions

backstory
- give you the context of how my thinking has evolved

As the director of technology, I am responsible for all the stuff which plugs in
- most important job is helping teachers and students USE the technology in compelling way

I was math teacher first
- fall of 1991 I started teaching math at Arapahoe High School

Generally our students are really ‘nice’ (compliant)
- for the most part they pay attention, do homework (or copy each other’s homework)
- some A’s, lots of B’s, a few C’s, generally everyone is happy

As an idealistic math teacher, I loved my content area and I wasn’t satisfied: I wanted

“We have a problem with math literacy: It affects 10 out of 6 people”

pushback: have an unwritten rule that we’ll ask just so much of each other, but not too much

“go back to giving 1 through 31 odd, and no one gets hurt”

1994 my administrator said, “I heard you know something about technology”
- photo of 8 mHZ processor Mac SE, 1 MB of RAM, dual 800K floppy drives for $2999, for $1000 more you could get a 20 MB hard drive
- flash drive in his hand: $15 and 400 times as big as that hard drive

Photo of Mac SE’s used as bookends in a school library

when I become full time tech director I started work on more staff development, starting writing grants
- I initially wrote grants but they were focused on tech, gradually I made them more about the teaching learning

Started blog “The Fischbowl” to continue the conversations in between grant meetings that were every two weeks
- faculty meeting: invitation to speak to teachers
- MY PARAPHRASE: KARL DIDN’T WANT TO PROVIDE THE ‘SAME OLD SAME OLD’ PD EXPERIENCE FOR TEACHERS, HE DID HAVE LOTS OF IDEAS TO SHARE, BUT HE WANTED TO DO THIS IN AN ENGAGING AND NOVEL WAY…
- went home over the weekend, created a PPT, shared it with staff, they liked it, and I posted it to my blog
- some wanted to share with their spouses

Video was “Did You Know” (Shift Happens)
- shifthappens.wikispaces.com
- video talking about changes happening and what it means for our students
- I was very concerned we were doing a great job preparing our students for 1985

Got posted by prominent educational bloggers (Will Richardson, David Warlick, Bud Hunt)
- 50,000 views by winter break
- in January Scott McLeod (at Univ of Kentucky now) asked for permission to remix it and post to his blog
- he posted it as video in multiple formats
- within 1.5 days someone downloaded it and re-uploaded to YouTube, http://glumbert.com (video sharing site), also iambored.com
- those sites track views
- I tracked top 4-5 sites: conservative estimate, PPT I created for my staff of 150 has been seen by 40+ Million folks in all

Video was shown for Senate Select Subcommittee for Intelligence and the DNI and heads of every intelligence agency!

If a simple little PPT created by , we live in a fundamentally different world than the one you and I grew up in
- if you buy that, then maybe school needs to look a little different than it does now

Schools as we know now were designed in the 1920s based on ideas from the 1890s
- students are widgets, we perform similar operations on the assembly line for 180 days per year
- after 12 or 13 years kids fall off the assembly line ready for success in industrial-age America
- the model is messed up
- if you put good people in a bad system, generally the system wins

“Never before have kids been so well prepared for success in an industrial…” (David Warlick partial quotation – I DIDN’T GET THE ENTIRE THING)

We need to prepare kids for a world of information abundance
- anyone wishing for more info today?

What should students be able to know and do?
- old conflict: content v skills
- I want both as an educator! (I’m biased of course)
- sometimes we err too much on the side of content

We are going for understanding and critical thinking
- Chris Giovanni, English teacher in Colorado, great books
- says “I can reach the finish line and cover the curriculum in the year, but the problem is I”m often the only one left” (kids can’t come with us)

We can teach Colorado history, but it might be more relevant to have kids research why a particular street has the name it does, and not just turn a report to the teacher
- make a video, publish to Youtube
- put a link and QR code on a plaque so students visiting a particular place can see the video

THIS IS A GREAT IDEA WE NEED TO DO FOR STORYCHASERS / CELEBRATE OKLAHOMA VOICES!

ADDITION FROM KARL VIA A BLOG COMMENT: The QR code and movie trailers are being done by two language arts teachers in my building (Anne Smith and Maura Moritz), but we got the idea from Becky Johnson (@librarybecky)

American Revolution (idea from Alan November)
- have students in England study American Revolution side-by-side with students in U.S.
- perspective really matters
- it’s easier than ever before

Founding Fathers or Insurgents?
- there are two sides to this
- victors write the history, but there is more to the story

world geography
- showing world map
- more accurate view via landmass
- we have skewed perceptions because anytime you make a 3D surface into 2D you get a skewed view
- you have to decide how to orient the map (showing upside down map)
- US students need to stop thinking of the US as ‘on top of the map’

Book reports
- we still do these
- but doing an old school book report doesn’t make as much sense
- so a student at my school is doing “BAnned Book Movie Trailers and QR Codes”
- students are doing movie trailers: 1 describes the book, 1 describes the controversy, and 1 shows their opinion
- making those links into QR codes and taping those onto the spines of those books on the shelf
- so if our kids have smartphones in the library, they can view those reviews right away

What does it mean to be LITERATE in the 21st century?
- I don’t think we know the answer to that question
- when I grew up it was about reading
- last 30 years, we know literacy is about much more
- I still don’t think we have a good idea about that

reading and analyzing “To Kill a Mockingbird” is different than reading and analyzing the WWW (photo of multiple websites) – teacher: Cris Tovani

Let’s talk about elections
- I grew up in Lexington, KY
- 1 newspaper and 2.5 TV stations (rabbit ears off, NBC didn’t come in)
- newspaper at most might have 5 stories in a night about national elections
- of 22 minutes of anchor news each night, about 4 or 5 minutes would be about national elections
- you had to be home at 6 pm to see the news
- we didn’t flip channels too much (no remotes!)

Think about how different elections are today
- collage of lots of other sites/sources
- surveys overwhelmingly show young people get their resources here, but older adults now do too increasingly

Websites of candidates, you could get pretty detailed policy briefs
- yes some spin there, but…
- compare this to Carter v Ford news ‘back in the day’
- no comparison…

Who is teaching our kids how to do this?

Showing graph of realtime searches during the debate between Palin and Biden
- searches of ‘clean coal,’ nuclear, maverick, and voter registration
- DURING the debates
- remember how few presidential debates there were in previous generations?
- now realtime conversations

literacies are not just for school or to get a job: it’s about citizenship

ABC started broadcasting in 1948 as 3rd major network

Thought experiment: 3 networks x 62 years x 365 days x 24 hours per day (all new content)
- over 1.5 million hours of programming (lot of TV)
- Last month, YouTube produced more info and that’s probably closer now to two weeks

Clay Shirky: says important things
- we lived in the past in a filter then publish world
- we now live in a publish then filter
- everything is published, we have to be the filter
- we all need to be media specialists
- media specialists are in the best place to help us figure all these things out

You can track rise and fall of Presidential candidates by what video is ‘hot’

Obama campaign said official campaign videos uploaded got 14.5 million hours of views
- would have cost $47 million to buy equivalent ad time (via traditional outlets)
- that was free

How many of our students can legally get to YouTube in our schools

Even the Vatican has a YouTube channel (the Pope!)
- now that the Vatican has given their blessing to YouTube who can’t: public U.S. schools and Taliban
- 17 year olds can defend our country in the military
- 15 year olds driving big SUVs to school
- but we still don’t let kids access YouTube at school

I understand there are issues with YouTube and distraction , but we have to work that out

Anyone watch enhanced, online version of last State of the Union address
- they had slides with additional info
- lots of folks like @nprpolitics asking for fact checking

3 groups of people
1- people who don’t watch State of the Union
2- people who watched it on TV and let the pundits do their thinking for them
3- people who watched it online and fact-checked / engaged in conversations

I want Abbey to be in group 3 as she grows up

Photo from Tunisa Arab Spring
- 10 years ago it might have stopped with the fruit vendor setting himself on fire
- no one is saying it’s a Facebook revolution
- but it DID help them spread their message

Picture from Tahir square
- blogging area, extension cords out to the edge of the square, people getting out their messages

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, requires eery diplomat who rotes through the forging service institute to get training in social media
- you think our students should? (no, let’s just ban it)

Quotes

Jason Ohler: “Literacy means being able to consume and produce the media of the day”
- not enough that students can consume media, they need to be producer
- if you know how to produce, you can deconstruct hand maybe not be manipulated by them
- think of the ‘media forms of the day’

My guess is “5 paragraph essay” not at the top of the essay
- I’m not saying the 5 paragraph essay is evil
- but if that’s all we teach our students, that’s educational malpractice

Ohler “Fluency is the ability to practice literacy at the advanced levels required for sophisticated communication within social and workplace environments.”

“The fluent will lead and the rest will get left behind…”
- thinking about NCLB

Partnership of 21st Century Skills
- “profound gap between knowledge and skills most students learn in schooll and the skills they need..”

ISTE: “work collaboratively, including at a distance…”

technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments…many literacy”

NCTE definition of literacies:
when we were growing up literacy was a capital L, now it’s many lowercase “l’s”
- “literacies are multiple, dynamic and malleable”

NCSS position statement one media literacy:
- we live in multimedia age where majority of folks get info from non-print sources…
- that true of your classroom?

Howard Rheingold: “In the 21st century, participator media education and civic education are inextricable.”
- if you are teaching civics and not teaching social media, you’re really not teaching civics

Richard Miller, Chair of English Dept at Rutgers
“We are not longer grounded in the printing press… to compose and compose successfully in the 21st century, you have to now only excel at verbal expression, at written expression, you have to also excel in the use and manipulation of images. That’s sweat it means to compose.”
- I have shared videos from him

Idea of a digital footprint

gateway drugs to Facebook and MySpace: Webkinz and Club Penguin

I think we need to teach kids Facebook in class
- not how to upload photos
- we need to teach them how, when and the consequences of things

difference between stupid things when we were young and now: if it didn’t rise to the level of felony in the past, we don’t remember it now
- today stuff gets archived in ways it didn’t before

GEneral Electric has internal social networking site they call professional networking
- employees will interact around their passions
- if that happens, good things will happen
- the site gets 25 million hits per day
- how are we preparing kids for a world of work when we block most social networking sites

High school language arts class who read “A Whole New Mind”
- interacted

Fishbowl technique with inner circle and outer circle, involved live blogging
- author Dan Pink came in for 2 hours

post: Dan Pink Ustream and CoverItLive Archive
- this is now part of the digital footprint of these kids

What will your kids have in their digital footprint?

you never get a second chance to make a first impression
- the first impression we make now is often virtual, not physical
- people will know about you before they meet you
- your digital footprint will speak about you to college admissions officers, future employers, your future mate

In a world where info is a text away…

Text GOOGL (46645) or ChaCha (242242)

Google Mobiel App for iPhone
- now Google Googles
- take a photo of something and it will search the web for it

Apple released Siri a few weeks ago, interacting with searches
Try WolframAlpha, it does all of high school math and science with detailed steps

What do we do if this factual information is a lick away

kids must learn how to learn

Toffler: “The illiterate of the 21st century will be those…

Hoffer quotation” Learners inherit the earth….

That was my concern when I created “Did You Know”

How do we help students create their own Personal Learning Networks?
- cavemen had PLNs to learn about hunting, gathering, etc.
- PLNs are now on steroids

I have teachers on 6 different continents now, most of whom I have never met in person

Knowledge resides in the network

were you can find info and answers today is much broader than it ever ways

Will Richardson: we are moving form “do your own work” to “work with others”
- “hand it in” to “publish it”
- “just in case” to “just in time”

what should students (and their network connections) know and be able to do?
- the more people you know, the smarter you are

Jay Cross, “Informal Learning”
- “What can you do….”

Help kids build networks and go global
- education is both local and global

2009 Horizon Report “those who use tech in ways that expand personal connections…”

5 billion potential teachers by 2020
- lots of people for my kids to learn from
- why would I lock this down?

My daughter now in 6th grade, had project similar to Flat Stanley and you write
- within a week 200 people around the world participated by sharing a photo and writing a paragraph about where they live

A couple weeks ago: Skype conversation with a teacher in Bermuda as a result of an assignment at school

What about standards
- I think we can have high standards but not be standardized
- the things my teachers are asking students to do now are much harder than what we had to do in school, but they are not standardized

Example: Do all students need to know “there is a complex number i such that i squared = -1, and every complex number has the form a + bi with a and b real?”
- I wish people would acknowledge that Abbey

It’s as if the most important thing we know about our students is their date of manufactured

I care about Abby’s Yearly Progress, not your AYP
- I don’t measure this with test scores

rhetorical question: you ever going to be 18 again?
= your students ever going to be your age?
- should we be preparing students for the world of the Mac SE or the iPhone world

What do you want for your Abby?

We need to spend less time paper training, and more team using digital tools (David Warlick)

Richardson: differences between what we can do with analog paper and digital paper

I want you to have some VISION for your students, for your Abby
- I’m not asking you to not be accountable, I’m asking you to be accountable for my kid

1 thing worse than not being able to see, being able to see but not having vision: Helen Heller

Breakout session links: https://sites.google.com/site/k20ili111011/

We’re living in a read/write world

Technorati Tags: creativity, edtech, education, technology, karl, fisch, ili2011, k20ili

Karl Fisch at the 2011 Innovative Learning Institute originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 10, 2011.

Referencing Fast Company article: “Great Tech War of 2012”
- big 4: Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon
- Disruption goes exponential
- Post-PC World: smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks
- the Cloud is Everywhere

Hopefully everyone in the room has read “Disrupting Class”

We are in a post-PC world
- we need to embrace cell phones and deliver content to them over their mobile devices, instead of taking them away at school

cheap tablets ($199 and dropping)
- broadband access expanding
- smart phones ubiquitous
- free content exploding
- digital natives teaching

I listened to Sal Kahn recently at a luncheon I attended
- a nice uncle who was looking for a way to teach his niece math skills, now thousands of views on YouTube

Consider this: Young teachers just coming into education now were born around 1994 or a little before
- they have never known anything other than technology
- those kids are ready to embrace these tools and use them
- they are already there

MY COMMENT: MY EXPERIENCES TEACHING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS THEIR TECHNOLOGY COURSES SINCE 2005, AND MOST SPECIFICALLY THE LAST THREE SEMESTERS,

I visited with Tom Vander Ark: his book “Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World”
- TOM’S BOOK WAS ACTUALLY ON DR. BARESI’S DESK DURING HER PRESENTATION, CLEARLY MANY OF HER VIEWS ARE CONGRUENT WITH TOM’S ON DIGITAL LEARNING / SCHOOL REFORM
- so many important points brought out in that book
- migrating to “just in time learning” instead of “just in case learning”
- students being able to acquire information required to solve a problem
- think of a gaming system, advancing on to higher levels

Tom talks about 10 shifts that are happening
- 2 are critical
- change in expectations: this ties to what we are doing with shifting to Common Core
- there is consensus that students need to be prepared for college (everyone)
- 68% of new jobs in Oklahoma will require competency in algebra, statistics, data analysis, technical reading

Common Core is not just about content: there are two classes going on at the same time
- students get critical content but also develop critical skills, learning about inquiry, engaging in higher order thinking
- real currency of the 21st century is being able to create things

Kids today are used to customized learning
- we know kids today learn differently
- kids need to advance based on competency, not just seat time

Another Tom Van Der Ark point: kids need to develop their ability to persist under dynamic conditions

Through gaming, kids learn to persist until they are successful

Tom talks about new testing/assessment tools where students are in a game, but it assesses the students’ cognitive skills

Let’s talk about Sal Kahn and disruptive technology
- 80 million YouTube viewers
- has developed 2800 videos, has a pilot in California where 7th and 8th grade students are taking trigonometry because “they are progressing through his videos with lightning speed’

Sal talked about ‘the flipped classroom’
- students will watch videos at home
- homework is in class
- very impressive tracking tools are available for his tools, which are free and he’s committed to keeping them free forever

MY COMMENT: OF COURSE MOST OF OUR K12 SCHOOLS IN OKLAHOMA STILL BLOCK YOUTUBE FOR STUDENTS, MOST (I THINK) ALSO STILL BLOCK YOUTUBE FOR TEACHER ACCESS
- ACCESS IS NOT THE WHOLE ISSUE, IT’S ALSO ABOUT THE ABILTY/RIGHT TO PUBLISH THERE!

A few months ago I visited Yuma, AZ and visited the “Carpe Diem” school
- 300 students, grades 6-12
- students are in 2 learning environments: large learning center with own computer in cubicles, kids are constantly taking short quizzes all day
- some short instruction and guided program, and lots of individual
- 60% of kids are free and reduced lunch, 48% are minority kids
- ranked in top 10% of AZ charter schools

MY COMMENT: IT’S VERY INTERESTING TO AGAIN HEAR ABOUT CARPE DIEM, THIS IS THE SCHOOL TOM HIGHLIGHTED THIS SUMMER IN HIS KEYNOTE AT THE SDE INNOVATION CONFERENCE. OFFICIAL SCHOOL WEBSITE IS carpediemschools.com.

In California I visited “Rocketship Education” center in San Jose
- serves kids in K-5
- it’s a blended education model

Now watching a video about “Rocketship Education”
- I’M NOT SURE IF THIS IS THE SAME ONE JANET SHOWED OR NOT, BUT IT IS A RELATIVELY RECENT ONE FROM FEB 2011

I’m proud to be part of “Chiefs for Change” founded by Jeb Bush
- he is working with others on the “Digital Learning Council”
- digitallearningnow.com/roadmap-to-reform

key points for me:
- personalized learning, customized learning for students
- promotion based on competency, not on seat time

As a state I see us moving in that direction
- through digital learning we are moving in that direction

We are truly at an ‘inflection point’ now as a country
- these points are not comfortable when we’re in transition

Our PASS objectives are a mile wide and an inch deep
- beauty of the common core is they let students go deeper into the content

MY COMMENT: IT’S INTERESTING TO LOOK AT ALL THE EXAMPLES JANET HAS SHARED TODAY, AND SEE THEY ARE ALL CHARTER SCHOOLS. SO THE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ASKED AND ANSWERED: CAN ALL OUR SCHOOLS BE CHARTER SCHOOLS? DO WE WANT ALL OUR SCHOOLS TO BE CHARTER SCHOOLS? ARE THERE NON-CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN OKLAHOMA DOING GREAT THINGS WITH KIDS AND ENGAGING THEM IN GREAT LEARNING WHICH COULD BE HIGHLIGHTED? (I KNOW THERE ARE.) IT’S VERY INTERESTING TO HEAR OUR SUPERINTENDENT OVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN OKLAHOMA CHAMPION EVERYTHING HAPPENING IN CHARTER SCHOOLS AND NOT SAY ANYTING POSITIVE ABOUT ANY PUBLIC SCHOOLS. I TOTALLY AGREE WE NEED EDUCATIONAL REFORM AND CHANGE, AND MUCH OF THE EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION WE SEE IN SCHOOLS IS HAPPENING IN CHARTERS. HOWEVER, PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN AMERICA DO HAVE WONDERFUL TEACHERS DOING GREAT WORK WITH STUDENTS EVERY DAY, AND WE NEED TO AVOID THE PITFALL OF DEMONIZING ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC EDUCATORS.

Now responding to questions from the audience
- KUDOS TO SUPERINTENDENT BARRESI FOR TAKING QUESTIONS!

Question about rural broadband
- Congressman Lucas talked about Dept of Ag offering grants for expanding broadband for rural businesses to function
- schools have to be allowed to piggyback on that grant-funded bandwidth

I ASKED SUPERINTENDENT BARRESI ABOUT CONTENT FILTERING: DOES SHE HAVE IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO ADDRESS SEVERE CONTENT FILTERING IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS? AS AN EXAMPLE, OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS BLOCKED ALL STUDENT ACCESS TO GMAIL AND GOOGLE DOCS IN OCTOBER. DO YOU HAVE IDEAS ABOUT HOW WE CAN RESTORE OR ESTABLISH MORE BALANCED CONTENT FILTERING POLICIES IN OUR K-12 SCHOOLS?

The Gates Foundation has provided writing templates available online, but accessing those depends on digital/online access

In the next 5-6 years we are going to be moving away from use of paper-based textbooks and embracing digital content / curriculum

40 districts in our state have already implemented the Common Core

Question from Larry Cochran on needing more K-12 representation and participation in ODLA
Legislation last year established a P-20 Council for Oklahoma education

Best way to get back to Superintendent Barresi on questions: contact Damon Gardenhire
- also work with Eric Hileman

Technorati Tags: barresi, education, janet, learning, New Tag, oklahoma, odla, odla2011, distance

Janet Barresi’s ODLA 2011 Keynote originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 9, 2011.

Creativity is an everyday phenomenon, it is not just something you find just in luminaries lives and writing

1 message: Creativity is a decision

Goals
1- show creativity is in large part, a decision
2- review research
3- show how to apply this in our lives

Definition of creativity: Production an idea or product that is novel and good and useful in some way difference to some contexts where both these things are not valued

Does creativity really matter?
- organizations that are not creative today are really in trouble
- “The Big Three” vs Honda
- CDC (Control Data Corporation) vs IBM
- Eastern Airlines versus United Airlines

Our standardized testing that we do today might have made some sense 100 years ago
- there was very little variation in students taking college entrance exams 100 years ago
- a lot of differences in test scores today have a lot to do with educational opportunities

Stanford Benet came out in 1905
- if we were still using medical tests from 100 years ago that would be ridiculous
- I have an article about this that was published today, we cannot accept the tests these companies are producing

Different aspects for personal relationships: intimacy, compassion and passion, commitment The Big3 automakers got into real trouble because they didn’t innovate
- 2 are bankrupt, 1 is in real trouble

IBM changed itself from a mainframe computer company

There used to be buggy whip companies too

Examples of quotations of people lacking creative vision…

Must read article on testing & college admissions: How to Reform Testing by Robert Sternberg

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/11/01/essay-difficulty-promoting-reforms-admissions-testing

There are a lot of kids who can really change the world, but often they don’t have the high test scores colleges are looking for and demand for admissions
- my view is that tests are very narrow and don’t tell us the things we need to know

Creativity is in large part a decision to ‘defy the crowd’ Creative people “buy low and sell high” in the world of ideas
- almost no one does this

Creative people are ‘value’ investors in the realm of ideas, very few people want to buy low and sell high, whether novice or experts

Reasons it is hard to be creative: external and internal pressures
- when you defy the norm you get negative feedback from others to conform, then you question yourself if you are off track

There are 13 key decisions to be creative 1 to redefine problems
- story of the guy who invented sticky notes for 3M

2- to analyze creative solutions to problems
- ask yourself the best and the worst things that can happen to you and your family

Aside: wisdom and ethics are often lacking
- we see this in failed leaders in business and politics – often those folks act in ways which are unwise and unethical Infusion of positive ethical values are essential

Always ask yourself: Is this going to make the world a better place?

Basic purpose of education: create responsible and ethical leaders who will make the world a better place – that is the bottom line for us in schools

Creative ideas don’t sell themselves: they don’t. You have to sell them

Story of Robert giving a preso on intelligence at Princeton, and feeling like it had bombed
- people get a vested interest in doing things a certain way, and they don’t want to change
- if you want to share a creative idea, you have to be able to sell it

This year we are starting our “panorama” project at OSU for admissions, we are putting new questions on the application

In education we have to teach to the way kids learn, other wise we are not really teaching (it just feels Iike we are)
- story of college psychology prof who told me I was a loser after getting a C in psychology

Problem is we give kids tests that don’t correlate to what we do in our professions and jobs

At OSU we have started a new learning center to change (at least some of the time) how we help students learn

Another key decision: to realize that intelligence and knowledge both help and hurt creativity
- example: a trip to the zoo in another country I visited

The less you know, the more flexible you can be in your thinking -Robert Sternberg #okcf2011

To be creative, you have to take sensible risks
- example was a showdown at tenure time Key decision: to find what you love to do
- research shows creative people are almost always doing things they love

Example: son Seth playing the Trumpet
- you will never have a creative kid if you want them to be you

It is really hard to find what kids love to do, it’s hard to find what you love to do

You have to believe in yourself
- you have to keep in touch with that belief

Need to tolerate ambiguity

Sense of humor: you have to take oneself and one’s ideas somewhat lightly and to a have a sense of humor

Only God finds truth, we don’t Creativity is a way of life

Create, design, invent, imagine, suppose: these are the key learning tasks we need to give kids -Robert Sternberg #okcf2011

Even if your goal is test score improvement, you have to teach to how kids learn Organization skills do matter, but so do creative skills

The Kaleidoscope Project at Yale

Panorama Project at OSU

Both changing admissions requirements for college to embrace creativity

Ending story “The End of Eternity” by Issac Asimov

Sent from my iPad

Posted via email from wesley fryer’s posterous

Creativity is a Decision: Keys to Developing Creativity in Children and Adults originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 1, 2011.

Peter Gamwell is the Superintendent of Instruction, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

Flow involves entering an energized state of mind during which attention becomes undivided and motivation is absolutely intrinsic
- it happens to all of us at different points, through different abilities in our lives
- for me this happens playing in a rock band
- I also absolutely love research

But in school, not so much
- in school I was the ‘classic clown’ and did almost nothing
- I understand why now

3 key messages:
- need to challenge ourselves to think and act from a strength based perspective rather than a deficit based perspective
- need to recognize, value and tap into creative capacities of those around us
- we need to foster a culture of engagement

the world is too complicated to just work on a whiteboard
- solution is to turn the whiteboard upside down, imagine the magical future you want to bring to your organization, and set processes in motion that bring that future forward

Often as soon as people come into their places of work, they leave their creative capacities behind
- we must tap into the amazing capacities of the people in our organizations
- in a culture of engagement people naturally want to contribute
- we are 5 years into this journey in our district
- there are too many formal leaders who use control as a means of maintaining the status quo

My future book: some of the stories that have been done to me to try and stop this movement
- surround yourself with people who can help you move this forward

Problem solving versus appreciative inquiry

Maxine Greene: You see and value what is not yet and work to bring it into being. that is what i call social imagination

we have to stop pretending that solutions form the past will translate into successful solutions for the future

3 key themes:
imagination, creativity, and innovation

these are the 3 themes which are guiding us
- we are expending our conception of literacy (and that narrow understanding) which has been holding us back

the standardization movement has not only been holding back educational systems, but business systems/organizations as well

devastating impact when people in an organization feel their creativity isn’t valued in their environment

150 years of evolution in education has produced this system, where we

we were at the imagination summit in July in New York
- director of LA school board said “the education system is very successful at doing what it was designed to do, it brilliantly moves along a very limited amount of ability (language and mathematics skills) for a very limited number of students)
- we have to be more hopeful and challenge ourselves to move to the future

3 vehicles for transformative change (to be revealed later)

We did a study for OCDSB 6 years ago
- what are our understandings as a district of ‘ideal leadership?’
- remarkable results
- we found out we were doing really bad as a school district, this gave us a baseline
- we need to create a dynamic, imaginative learning environment in our school district
- if we don’t have this now, that’s an opportunity to be embraced

Activity: when you think of the world creativity, what other words come to mind?

Challenge: how do you define creativity

MY RESPONSE: THE CAPACITY TO IMAGINATIVELY PERCEIVE, EXPRESS AND MANIFEST IDEAS

Now sharing an idea from Tim (?)
- he wanted to setup a company based on friendship
- this is a design company

whole concept of the company is they play with ideas: through role play and other methods

Ken Robinson talks about how we educate kids OUT of creativity

John Goodlad said in “A Nation at Risk “if an outside agency had imposed our existing educational system on the United States it would be perceived as an act of war”

Next activity on your paper: draw your neighbor

action research: what are the conditions under which creative individuals and organizations flourish?

THIS REMINDS ME OF THE “GOOGLE SCHOOL’ STUDIES OF PRESBYTERIAN DAY SCHOOL IN MEMPHIS

Next activity: make a flying machine with your paper

next: deliver this onto the 4 x 4 piece of carpet here at the front of our classroom

We have an annual conference now, regularly challenge everyone in our district to take creativity and imagination and weave it into what you do on a daily basis

Now hearing from Jeff, the lead custodian for our district who leads the mentoring program for custodians in our schools
- We’ve put together a mentoring program for custodians and facilities / maintenance staff
- mentoring has more traditionally been focused on academic staff, but it has a lot to contribute to facilities support staff
- creativity in this: there are never 2 situations exactly alike, this brings forth our resourcefulness, being able to make quick decisions, resolve different problems
- we need to draw from within ourselves to get the best results

Last year Burns Hargis said creativity is not just someone locked in a room, like a mad scientist
- it can be found anywhere, all we need to do is be able to recognize the people we work with
- mentoring is a way to connect with those people and be able to tap into those hidden talents which may be rarely seen

Custodians in our school have the ability to influence the course of any child’s education
- it’s important to maintain a very open and welcoming environment in the school
- the more children feel welcome in the school, the more they will want to be there and the more comfortable they are going to want to be

From Dan Pink in “Drive” – autonomy, mastery and purpose
- by giving people the ability to change what they are doing in the system, encouragement to move forward: this is VERY important
- then they can learn from those around them and archive mastery, and do the best they can do for themselves as well as the organization

breaking down those barriers which have been built up, in doing that you are going to achieve purpose individually and organizationally

In our initial study, our custodians reported they felt very disconnected

Now hearing from Michael Wendler (I teach grade 4/5 – 9 and 10 year old children)
- Creative Initiatives in the Classroom
- immersing ourselves into the creative process
- embrace the unexpected

First I want to talk about my son: The Precocious Paleontologist
- story of him eating a dragonfly at a museum when he was expecting a serious question

Lesson story focused on providing students with a powerful experience
- “The Griffin” (our school mascot)
- we were going to build together
- kids spent almost the entire year during recess time
- meaning of this was the dialog that started happening between the kids as they were working on this project

Big challenge was creating the wings
- local artist gave idea from the community: wood, old bed sheet, cut water bottles

The griffin was invited to a larger conference focused on educational creativity
- led to unexpected situations

As a teacher I need to give up some of my own direction, and allow the conversation and dialog students have to be what shapes where the project is going
- I want the students immersed in the process, I want them to take risks and make mistakes
- as I (the teacher) am taken out of the equation, this can happen

Connecting to Creativity Conference hosted by the OCDSB
http://www.leadthewaytocreativity.com/
- started a blog to share this experience with parents
- direction of the blog became a showcase, much more than a newsletter
- too often as teachers we are focused on the weaknesses of kids, and focusing on those
- as students took over the showcase blog, the children war showcasing their strengths

Threads start to weave their way through the community as a project like this develops
- example: slate rocks from the community, found fossils in the rock
- started to get comments from others around the world as we posted those, even a comment from a paleontologist

We are embracing a new way to teach math, through problem solving and critical thinking
- to teach this way, you have to be guided by what students are doing in the classroom
- buy in from teachers is very challenging with this

This is about letting go of some of your control

2 blog sites for Mr Wendler’s class:
- last year: http://mrwendlersclass.wordpress.com/
- this year: http://mrwendlersblog.wordpress.com/

Elliot Eisner’s research on forms of representation is critical when we talk about education and creativity
- everyone represents their understanding of the world in a different way
- if you block the door to the way people understand and represent the world, you have shut down the door to that person

Book reccs from Peter:

“The Power Of Mindful Learning” by Ellen Langer

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer (: Creativity in the Workplace, impact of it on people’s lives, summary of 3 year longitudinal study

THIS WAS A GREAT SESSION, I LOVED IT! GREAT BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS TOO, ADDED TO MY AMAZON WISH LIST!

Technorati Tags: change, creativity, education, innovation, leadership, okcf2011, school

Creating Conditions for the Extraordinary by Peter Gamwell originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on November 1, 2011.

Bill Price, one of several newly appointed members of the state Education Board, remarked that the best school in the state had an overall Academic Performance Index score of 1460. In three years, if the school doesn’t improve, it wouldn’t be able to meet the new benchmarks.

As anyone with a basic background in statistics could predict reading the required benchmarks for NCLB test scores when the law passed, huge numbers of public schools are now being branded as “failures.” According to the same article today,

Six times more school districts than ever before are on the state’s list of districts in need of improvement based on student performance during the 2010-11 school year, members of the state Education Board learned at their meeting Thursday. And the list of individual schools in need of improvement has grown from 90 schools in the 2009-10 school year to 227 in the 2010-11 school year.

As a state and a nation, we need to reject the high stakes testing fever which has gripped educational politics for years. More pressure and more testing is NOT a panacea which will improve our schools. We DO need to reform and improve our schools and the educational opportunities we provide for students, but that improvement begins with great people instead of a focus on testing. We need to attract AND retain extremely smart, passionate, and dedicated people who can join our EXISTING cadre of outstanding educators in Oklahoma. Do we have some teachers in the classroom today who need to be motivated to improve or change jobs? Of course. But the single most important way we can and will improve education in our state is by recognizing PEOPLE are the solution to our challenges, not testing. We need strong administrators with the backbone to support teachers and focus on engaging instruction. Have you looked at the statistics on administrator turnover at some of our “most challenged” and “failing” schools in Oklahoma? It’s not a pretty picture, for reasons that are NOT addressed simply by firing half the staff or asking the state to take over the school.

We need to confront the challenges of poverty in Oklahoma together, and stop ignoring it as journalists continue to parade test scores in newspapers as if they are complete barometers of academic quality. It ain’t the same to teach kids in Deer Creek and kids in OKCPS at John Marshall or Grant. We need to be spending MORE on teacher salaries and on our schools, not less. If you read The Oklahoman, did you see any irony in Saturday’s article about Deer Creek breaking new ground on new arts and athletic facilities… juxtaposed with today’s article about test scores and failing schools?

As a parent of three children in Oklahoma City Public Schools, I have a slightly better perspective than I did the last few years living in Edmond about the stark inequalities we have in our public schools around the metro. I need to learn even more about this to improve my ability to understand both problems and solutions in and for our schools.

Currently, I don’t hear any politicians in Oklahoma publicly rejecting NCLB and its destructive regime of high stakes testing. High expectations for student achievement shouldn’t correspond to a myopic focus on testing. It should focus on engaging lessons, strong teacher-student relationships, and hard work together.

Articles like this one sadden me but they also give me hope for change, because our shared night of political darkness in education has to turn the corner soon. A big part of turning that corner is publicly (and repeatedly, because as a public we can be slow learners) acknowledging NCLB as a train wreck.

For more of my views on educational politics, read my past posts about NCLB.

NCLB Fulfilling Mission to Portray All Public Schools as Failing originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 28, 2011.

Show Notes:

1. Digital Ethnography @ Kansas State University (blog of Michael Wesch)
2. Mike Wesch on Twitter: @mwesch
3. Michael Wesch’s YouTube Channel
4. “From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments” by Michael Wesch: Academic Commons, Jan 2009
5. Academically Adrift by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (Kindle edition)
6. “Generation Me” by Jean M. Twenge (Kindle edition)
7. My text notes from Michael Wesch’s Heartland Learning 2011 keynote
8. Michael Wesch’s BLC 2010 Keynote podcasted by Bob Sprankle
9. Heartland eLearning Conference 2012 in Edmond, Oklahoma hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma: March 5 & 6, 2012
10. Tech or Treat: Playing with Media (on the Fuel for Educational Change Agents Podcast Channel)

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Podcast384: Michael Wesch at Heartland eLearning 2011 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 23, 2011.

Thanks to Naomi Harm for her work on our marketing materials for this year’s conference, which will be published soon so you can help “spread the word” about K12Online. PLEASE consider submitting a proposal to present for this year’s conference. We’re all busy, but the benefit of sharing innovative ideas is a gift which “keeps on giving” in the K-12 Online Conference. We have over 200 conference sessions archived on our website, and hope to increase access and utilization of these professional development opportunities to MANY more educators in the coming year. Add your voice to our team of educator-advocates telling stories and sharing skills about “purposeful play” for learning!

Earlier this week, I recorded a two minute summary of the K-12 Online Conference for a class Leigh Zeitz (Dr. Z) is teaching in Iowa. Feel free to share this as well with others interested or perhaps not yet acquainted with K-12 Online.

Technorati Tags: k12online, workshop, k12online11, proposal

Share Your Ideas for K-12 Online 2011: Purposeful Play originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 14, 2011.

I grew up in Libya, and in my middle school years lived in Tehran and attended international school
- I remember growing up in Libya digging in the sand, digging for tanks and artillery shells

I taught in Denver, Colorado
- I was one of those teachers who got a job in the middle of the school year (ask lots of questions if you have a chance to take a mid-year teaching job)

Let’s give our assistant principals and principals a round of applause

Beware when your principal uses the word “unique” to describe kids

Where are our 8th grade teachers? Please stand up and let’s give them a round of applause!

Ever noticed how 6th graders are a lot like pigeons?

Middle school gym teachers learn ice can solve all ailments!

1st priority: we are going to become adult advocates for kids

2nd: you better know the fads, the fashions, the trends and the trends of you clientele
- isn’t it fascinating we don’t talk about those things in our faculty meetings?

How many of you have ever made a current cultural reference to your students?
- and they day, “How did you know that?”

We’re all over 40
- even if you’re under 40, they still think you are over 40

The biggest gap we have in understanding our clientele is with technology

I went to Univ of Northern Colorado in Greeley
I took ET410 where I learned to thread a film projector

Who remembers the filmstrip projector?

Did you ever read the can of the ditto machine? “Do not inhale”

There is no difference between the kids today and the kids of the past: The difference is, you’re sober now!

Think about when Xerox came into our lives… those big machines…

Now kids can get more information from a cell phone than any textbook we have
- But we ban cell phones because they use them for evil!

The interactive white boards today are amazing…

If you are going to teach middle school, you had better think differently about classroom management

The least effective form of classroom management is something we do every day: “Shhhhhhhhhh……”

I learned: if you talk to an inanimate object, middle school kids will listen

A group of middle school teachers would have NEVER created “cooperative learning”

There is nothing wrong with being emotionally unstable in front of middle school kids

The backpack / notebook symphony

We often forget we have the BEST job in the world
- people wait for us unconditionally every single day
- they give you the biggest compliment you’ll ever get after you get back from an absence: You’re better than the sub!

Kids are easy compared to teaching teachers!

Edict #4 when I am ruler of education: No more crappy professional development for teachers in this world
- our best and brightest should be teaching us
- here’s the problem: we can’t go back and teach our colleagues

You are only an expert when you are 50 km away from your own school
- the truth is: you all can do what I do
- you can believe what we believe in: what’s right for this age group

We speak for thousands of middle school students who do not have a voice
- this group needs a voice now than ever
- who is the last group thought of: middle school kids
- that’s a shame, because they are gift which is only given to a few….

There are days I know you’re thinking: If they’re a gift, is there a receipt?

We are truly blessed… every day adolescents wait for us unconditionally…

Technorati Tags: conference, doha, education, qatar, jack, berckemeyer, keynote

Jack Berckemeyer: Opening Keynote at Qatar Academy originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on October 7, 2011.

What happens in 60 Seconds on the Internet (April 2011)

“What Technology Wants” by Kevin Kelly (a great book to read or listen to on Audible)

The Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire TV Commercial (30 sec)

Google Chromebook

“You had me at 8 seconds”

Chromebooks for Education (2:13)

See resources for digital text, image, audio and video sharing on playingwithmedia.com

See examples of shared student projects on share.playingwithmedia.com

Purchase “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing” as an eBook or paperback

Google Sketchup software (free)

Scratch software (free)

Green Cities – New Businesses

Green Cities – New Businesses from DeerfieldCS on Vimeo.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman Book Trailer by Alec G.

The Great Book Stories project (examples of student-created VoiceThread-based book reports)

Roman Weapons In Plain English

Technorati Tags: blog, book, edtech, education, inspirational, inspire, new, playingwithmedia, report, school, schools, share, sketchup, student, technology, video, vimeo, youtube, nhste, hampshire, newhampshire, work, bookreport

Reach for the Stars Using Media in Your Classroom originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 29, 2011.

Tia Lendo is a “Noogler,” having joined Google two months ago. Prior to coming to Google she was a 4th grade teacher and then helped to start an education non-profit called Teach First in London. She also spent time consulting in education and healthcare. She attended the University of North Carolina and is a proud Tarheel who is looking forward to college basketball season! She attended Stanford to study Education & Business which means she also gets to be excited for college football season too She is looking forward to learning from everyone in Maine.

14 million education users now for Google Apps for education, in 145 different countries!

If you’ve used the Chrome browser, you’ve basically used a Chromebook.

Search Education Evangelism site from Google: We didn’t learn Internet search skills in school, we need to learn them now, however!

Google+ currently requires people be 18 years or older

Hangouts with Extras in Google+ now let us share docs and more (not sure when this will become available in Google Apps for Education)

Google App Inventor: Available to make Android apps (free)

Google Science Fair

2011 Google Science Fair video

Google RISE Awards

Google RISE – Roots in Science and Engineering – Awards are designed to promote and support Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Computer Science (CS) education initiatives. We provide awards to organizations working with K-12 (primary & secondary schools) and university students to provide enrichment programs in these fields.

Why Google Chromebooks?

Today on the web you can do so much
Why isn’t 1:1 technology permeating classrooms: budget, management, scalability are all big issues

Chromebooks for Education video

A few things to point out
- battery life 8 hours
- boot up fully in 8 seconds
- more productive technology: “technology that just works”
- easy to manage: cloud-based management and updates
- easy to support: simple tools reduce support calls
- simpler to scale: put more computers in the classroom

Chromebook Thomas Jefferson (Council Bluffs, Iowa)

Technorati Tags: education, google, laptop, chromebook, laptops

Google in Education and Chromebooks (Sept 2011) originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 27, 2011.

I learned that, in my humble opinion, to be literate in Canada today, to be literate in the world today, must include the ability to read and communicate with, and through, images. It’s not enough anymore to simply see literacy as reading and writing; overall literacy must include visuals as one of the forms of communication. I finally achieved an understanding of what this ‘visual literacy’ means and learned the beginnings of how to include it into my practice. See works by Elliot Eisner and David Jakes.

I agree wholeheartedly. In “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing,” I attempt to “make the case” for blended learning in part by discussing the power of visual media and the importance of helping students make the shift from simply media CONSUMERS to media PRODUCERS. I had a conversation with a friend this weekend, who is a dad of young children, who had never really considered this idea before. He knows he wants his kids to become critical thinkers, but he hadn’t thought much about how they might need to learn MEDIA CREATION skills to do this effectively. Like many people, he’s aware of how the landscape of communication has changed in the business world, but isn’t “connecting the dots” about how these changes MUST change the ways we formally educate our children in our schools and more informally educate them at home.

John Seely Brown, co-author of A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change, shared the closing keynote at the 2010 NMC Summer Conference. John and his co-author, Douglas Thomas, make a strong case for cultivating a new range of skills of adaptability and content CREATION. At the 5:24 point of his NMC keynote, John stated:

…learning has a lot more to do with creating the new than learning the old…

John argues in our current era of constant flux and change, we MUST encourage students to become content creators as well as CURIOUS learners. In one of the more straightforward sound bytes in a conference keynote, he states simply:

…how do we afford curiosity? Because basically if you’re not curious, you’re screwed in a world of constant flux.

John encourages us to look at iPads, laptops, and other digital devices “not as communication devices” but rather as “curiosity amplifiers.” I love that idea. Applying this to the thoughts E Gregory shared in her Masters program reflection, I think we need to focus on more CONTENT CREATION with images and other media in our classrooms not only because it can be engaging and more active/hands-on, but also because of the powerful ways it can AMPLIFY as well as ARCHIVE our thinking, our ideas, our curiosity, and our discoveries. Media literacy isn’t just “for the computer lab.” It’s not just “for the geeks.” It’s for everyone, and embracing a more robust use of images in our teaching and in the learning assignments we provide to our students is an important step in the right direction. We need to be “playing with media” more and sharing examples of student media creations regularly!

Take a look at the full video of John’s keynote. It runs just over 50 minutes.

Technorati Tags: education, images, john, learning, literacy, new, playingwithmedia, school, teach, teaching, visual, seely, brown, douglas, thomas, culture, reflect

Visual Literacy, Talking with Images and Curiosity Amplifiers originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 18, 2011.

Our planning document for this video is on:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uGuoQBqK_Xlb_mLK9oPQp5nhsIsg8T0T6SrBg3FwUPc/edit?hl=en_US

Other videos in this series include:

Administrator Movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-zY7d5ljSk

Librarian Movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zVFktNmUoo

I do not know if Marco’s original “Teacher Movie” is available online anywhere. There was a YouTube version, but it’s been taken down. I’m not sure if the original .Mac version of Marco’s video is still online. I don’t think so, as my own .Mac webpage movies are offline because of changes Apple made to the .Mac / MobileMe website. If you have a link to that original movie, please share it as a comment!

Technorati Tags: conference, development, edtech, professional, technology, video, satire

The Best Conference I Ever Attended… originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 9, 2011.

Control, apparently, is not the answer. People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous. What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way. Simply put, making art is chancy– it doesn’t mix well with predictability. Uncertainly is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the pre-requisite to succeeding.

Two particular sentences in this paragraph stand out for me: “What’s really needed is… an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.” What’s PBL if not a willingness to allow students to create, to discover, to “drive their own learning” and at times, and make mistakes on their way to “learning?” The final sentence stands out for me as well: “…tolerance for uncertainty is the pre-requisite to succeeding.” Are we comfortable with uncertainly? Are we willing to embrace the ambiguity which naturally is attached to projects which are open-ended and not fully defined at the outset?

Just as these dispositions are essential for those who create and seek to create ART, I contend these dispositions are essential for good teaching and good teachers. We cannot truly be “guides on the side” if we’re trying to direct every “turn of learning” for students like a traffic cop in the center of a busy intersection. We must leave the door to student choice open. This does not mean “anything goes” and a complete lack of boundaries. Rather, it means students have freedom to move within the confines of a project… and the choices they are allowed to make really matter in determining the direction and quality of their own learning.

I’m just 21 pages in, but already I can tell I’m going to love this book.

Technorati Tags: art, creativity, learning, student, teach, teaching, making, create, philosophy, freedom, choice, pbl, centered

Keys to PBL and Student Centered Learning originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on September 6, 2011.

We are in the midst of the latest wave of reforms, and Steven Brill has positioned himself as the voice of the new reformers. These reforms are not just flawed, but actually dangerous to the future of American education. They would, if implemented, lead to the privatization of a large number of public schools and to the de-professionalization of education.

As Brill’s book shows, the current group of reformers consists of an odd combination of Wall Street financiers, conservative Republican governors, major foundations, and the Obama administration. The reformers believe that the way to “fix” our schools is to fire more teachers, based on the test scores of their students; to open more privately-managed charter schools; to reduce the qualifications for becoming a teacher; and to remove job protections for senior teachers.

Note the breakdown of this misdirected education reform agenda. We have prominent politicians in Oklahoma advancing these policies now:

1. fire more teachers, based on the test scores of their students
2. open more privately-managed charter schools
3. reduce the qualifications for becoming a teacher
4. remove job protections for senior teachers

Wealthy corporations and individuals continue to chant, “More charters, more charters,” despite the fact research (which Ravitch cites) persuasively shows charter schools are NOT categorically better than traditional public schools. The June 2009 Stanford report, “Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States” (PDF) is one highlighted study. This research was funded by the “pro-charter Walton Family Foundation and the Dell Foundation.” Are we data driven and research-based today in American educational politics? Not much.

Just as important in the article is Ravitch’s explanation of how wealthier U.S. students continue to do GREAT on [traditional] international comparative tests, while poorer students don’t. The biggest problem we need to address in our nation with respect to educational outcomes is POVERTY, not testing or bad teachers. She writes:

The last international test results were released in December. Our students ranked about average, and our leading policymakers treated the results as a national scandal. But here is a curious fact: low-poverty U.S. schools (where fewer than 10% of the students were poor) had scores that were higher than those of the top nations in the world. In schools where as many as 25% of the students were poor, the scores were equal to those of Finland, Japan and Korea. As the poverty rate of the schools rose, the schools’ performance declined.

An objective observer would conclude that the problem in this society has to do with our shamefully high rates of child poverty, the highest in the developed world. At least 20% of U.S. children live in poverty. Among black children, the poverty rate is 35%.

Educational leaders: listen up. As citizens and taxpayers, we’re fed up with they way you manipulate data to paint teachers, unions, and public schools as “the enemy.” These groups are NOT the enemy. Poverty and illiteracy are our enemies. We need you to provide leadership to our nation on educational issues and reframe our discussions. Let’s declare war together on poverty. Let’s champion and support teachers who are in the trenches. Let’s support school administrators who focus on relationships with kids and parents, good instruction, and student engagement. Let’s stop pretending everything that matters in school can be measured on a bubblesheet. Let’s “shift our schools” not only to focus on digital literacy skills, but also to focus on the importance of student/teacher relationships. Let’s focus on strong school leaders who CARE for professional educators as well as the constituents we serve. Let’s stop bashing the educational profession and pretending that anyone with a heartbeat and college degree (regardless of training or preparation) can make a wonderful professional educator. Let’s get to work. There’s a lot to be done, and we need to stop the destructive course of privatization and professional teacher demonization which is popular with the “not-so-new reform crowd.”

[END OF RANT]

Technorati Tags:
education, reform, school, policy, ravitch, unitedstates, charter

Understanding and OPPOSING Misdirected Educational Reform Efforts originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 23, 2011.

What is blended learning and why should educators embrace it? How can we move towards a vision of blended learning in our schools? This session presents an OVERVIEW, WAYPOINTS, and DIRECTIONS for the Roadmap to Blended Learning.

I’ve shared a variety of resource links on my curriculum wiki. These include:

The 7.5 minute video, “Iowa Did You Know?” (August 2011)

A 3 minute introduction to Moodle.

Martin Dougiamas‘s July 2011 update and overview of Moodle on SlideShare.

In the second hour of each session (which will be repeated in the morning and afternoon) we’ll be exploring some of the Moodle demo courses available on the official Moodle.org demo site.

In addition to encouraging teachers to build and cultivate their classroom “home base” (wiki) and “newspaper” (blog) I’m throwing down the glove for the playing with media classroom challenge!

Even if you’re not a teacher in Ft Gibson, I encourage you to take the challenge! More on this to come as my advocacy for “playing with media” continues!

Technorati Tags:
blended, blog, development, edtech, education, fort, leadership, learning, moodle, oklahoma, pd, playingwithmedia, professional, technology, vision, wiki, #playingwithmedia, lms, ftgibson, gibson

The Roadmap to Blended Learning and the #playingwithmedia Classroom Challenge originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 22, 2011.

This is a great, reflective post from a university professor on how high stakes testing continues to damage students, our educational systems, and student capacities to effectively write at “college level.” The last two paragraphs summarize:

First, college professors like myself should realize that their teaching is being changed for the worse by standardized testing. The brains in our classrooms are shaped by the SOLs [mandated standards & testing] just as much as they are shaped by Google, and we have to clean up the mess. Many more students come in unprepared for writing at a college level, but also unprepared to focus and apply their own interests to a topic. Naturally, I believe the best place to realize their interests and gain that preparation is a small liberal arts college, where people like me have a passion for teaching as well as the time and support to focus on a lower number of students, and follow them for 3-4 years.

Second, I would remind those educational “conservatives” like those at the Fordham Institute who championed Core Knowledge when E.D. Hirsch was derided for his traditionalism, and now rise to the defense of the research paper that I appreciate that your right hand is fighting hard to preserve valuable aspects of the “industrial model” of education: broad factual knowledge, rigorous arguments based on legitimate scholarly authorities. Unfortunately, you don’t realize that the true enemy of these cherished elements of education is … your left hand, which is pursuing awful test-based accountability. The research paper was in hiding and on life support long before Cathy Davidson came along, and it was not driven mortally wounded from K-12 education by blog cheerleaders like Heffernan and Davidson, but by the very Reformy Idols that you celebrate.

We must end the widespread, damaging policies of high stakes testing in K12 education and restore both respect and autonomy to the educational profession. This does not mean a simple return to the pre-NCLB status quo, however, we DO need systemic changes in the ways we educate our society. High stakes testing should not and must not, however, continue as the principal instrument of curricular change. We have suffered long enough, and our students continue to pay the price. The madness must end now.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:N Higgins Ave,Missoula,United States

High Stakes Testing Damages Student Writing Skills originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 10, 2011.

Going to share some lessons learned, taking kids backpacking for the past several years
- I’ve taught for 14 years, coached, student council advisor, etc.
- I love teaching kids, I love our state
- I’ve taken 7th graders on these trips for the past 7 years

Good solution to stress: taking a trip for adventure-based learning

I have learned to NOT let students bring their own dogs
- now my dog is the only one that gets to go
- even with practice we always have kids with lots falling out of their backpacks, off their shoulders

There is a lot of student repoire which is built in these trips

Why should I do an adventure trip for the kids?
- finally be able to answer the question: When am I ever going to use this?
- motivates students to learn and perform
- sharing a passion has power to improve your students quality of life
- improves classroom and school climate
- improves student / teacher and parent / teacher rapport
- good community PR
- it’s fun!

In the 7 years I’ve done this, I’ve received more thanks from parents and kids than anything else I’ve done
- stories of the trip get passed around among the generations

Results?
- I don’t have a graph of test score improvements
- I do have lots of great stories testifying to the impact of this

Climate within my class started to change, especially as it related to the trip

I promised the school board after this trip was approved, I promised to share with the school board the impact of the trip
- this had a big impact with kids who weren’t bought into the trip

Favorite story: Andrew’s moment in the sun (future valedictorian)
- applying his presentation knowledge about heat exhaustion on the trip

Another story: Austin who was not interested in class / school
- he loved fishing
- he worked his tail off to go on the trip
- he ended up helping other kids on the trip, showing them how to fish, building the campfire
- he dropped out at age 16, it may not have changed his life, but it made a connection and we still talk about the trip when I see him in the community

Other kids ask me to borrow backpacks
- happy parents can be your best ally
- can make things a lot easier

Technology portion of the trip

This will all be on the CSPD we bite

Key components
- 3 to 5 letters to parents
- outline the trip
- kids are required to pass every assignment to go on the trip
- communicate early and often
- gear list in 2nd letter
- 3rd letter is final details

Kids often don’t buy into the idea school will get them anything
- kids who don’t see the connection for their learning
- also has immediate consequences for failure
- kids need to recognize how to set goals and work hard
- hardest thing I do each year is talk to the kids and parents who don’t’ get to go

Technology aspect of this project
- we used Google Docs this year
- start with a mini-research project
- have students research two topics and jot down two interesting facts
- others have to respond in a different color to others, then the doc is shared back with me
- as soon as the students start collaborating and interacting, the dynamics in the classroom change

Research project is main aspect
- kids brainstorm what we might need for the trip
- can use Linoit or Google Docs

We write business letters asking for funding for the trip
- in my letter I explain we are really just looking for $5
- kids getting a response

We now write to DSEF (Darby School Excellence Funds)
- kids see writing as power
- rough and final drafts for those letters

Research presentations
- we used Google Presentations this year
- let students work at this at home, PPT not required
- 1 video from an expert was required in their presentation
- next year I’ll also require them to include a video they film

We do thank you letters to the business
- personal touch
- what did you get out of the trip
- what’s neat about all their assignments: they have immediate value to the kids (receiving money, seeing the impact of their presentation applied on the trip, etc)

bdufresne [at] darby.k12.mt.us

Possibilities:
- great for co-curriculuar collaborations, get the PE teacher involved!

You can take almost anything that is a passion for you and tie it to the curriculum
- it doesn’t have to be backpacking, but that’s my passion
- any adventure can apply!
- large or small, your students will appreciate them all

Research is the easiest means to apply any trip to your curriculum; however, as a co-curricular unit you can really run wild and share the workload
- take 2 minutes and think of a passion you have and how you might be able to apply it to your classroom

This really comes down to authentic learning

MY COMMENT: THIS INSPIRES ME TO WORK ON OUTDOOR CAMP THIS YEAR FOR CLASSEN SAS!

Technorati Tags:
#wildtech, learning, montana, wildtech, adventure

Adventure Based Learning by Brian Dufresne #wildtech originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 8, 2011.

Kevin’s website is kevinhoneycutt.org

Opening comments from Nancy Marks, conference organizer:
- This is our 14th August Institute, we have over 400 this year
- who knew when we started 14 years ago and had 40 people at our first institute we’d grow like this?!
- some of our workshops will be shared as a podcast (check out our conference podcast channel)
- Follow our conference Twitter feed with the hashtag: #wildtech

I’M NOTICING HOW KEVIN HAS HIS KEYNOTE PRESENTATION ONSCREEN INITIALLY,
- INTRO SHARES WHAT HE’S PASSIONATE ABOUT

Starting with his own story
- taught art for 13 years in Inman, Kansas

I’m passionate about brain research because we teach brains
- if you pay attention to the outside package, you might underestimate that brain’s capacity
- I share stories because we remember stories, not facts
- we remember things in context
- we are temporal creatures who live over time

You ever meet a brilliant idiot?
- they can win Jeopardy but not change a tire

When you challenge kids, give them projects to do, they are engaged

“We’ll do the tests, but please let it matter”

I work with at-risk kids, the ones who bite
- you ever help a kid and then they get in trouble

It’s challenging to make the space for safety, to connect with a kid

I lived in 20 states growing up
- story of my crazy brother who

Our kids are playing on digital playgrounds without lifeguards

People are friending me on Facebook who I didn’t like in high school!

Group: “The Digital Grannies”
- they want to mentor their grandkids on Twitter and Facebook

I found out growing

It was always the kids who had EVERYTHING who were the meanest at school
- every once in awhile there were kids who would be nice, they leveraged their

I don’t preach to kids, that doesn’t work
- I try to talk to their hearts
- what is your ‘digital legacy?”
- everything I can Google about you is your digital legacy
- our kids are on the record
- I love digital because when we found the pyramids we learned all about the Pharaohs, because they had biographers
- but how long did it take for us to learn about the slaves who built them

Technology is anything invented after you were born
- Which of these are technology to you? cell phone, fax machine, the laptop, the abacus

All of us have a time when we thought music stopped being good
- for me, it was “Funky Cold Medina”

When my son came along, I have to embrace his

I am a “12 o’clock flasher” (it sounds bad, but it means all the devices in my home are flashing 12 o’clock)

When they found bacteria killed patients in surgery, some doctors said they didn’t have time to watch their hands
- problem was: they were killing people

You can only dream as big as your personal experience
- to move into a new life, you have to be able to imagine it as fully as your old life
- this is part of what we do: Helping kids IMAGINE who they can be

Question: Do I really need to know this?
- kids are asking in this situation for context

I always gravitated to the REAL teachers: three fingered shop teacher talking about bandsaw safety
- contrast those REAL teachers with the “Suzi cream cheese” teachers

The Honeycutt dream was to live in a double wide trailer and have skirting
- a mobile home isn’t mobile once the tires go flat, except in a tornado

My 2nd biggest fear, tornados
- my biggest fear: my dad
- he died at a party at the lake when I was 16

I want to talk about “the angels” (this is you, the teachers)

Mary Lou Burgoon
- the most dangerous place to be at school is alone
- are you brave enough to be nice to someone NO ONE ELSE is being nice to? (“What you do to the least of these you do to me”)
- she gave me a safe place to be
- when I graduated college, I went back and found all these people

Dorothy Anderson
- she believed in me!
- she gave me mail every week
- she sustained me with her letters
- she died 7 years ago and I love her forever, I am going to keep paying it forward because she had my back in 1978

My time in lockup: teaching in juvi-lockup
- you can never leave a pencil behind
- they have rubber pencils
- 15 minutes to hook em and 45 minutes to cook em
- without technology: it’s about relationships, it’s about trust

1979: The Digitor
- do you have one? It’s worth $1000
- the Intel chip inside was the first one ever
- it was a calculator with feet

I’m emotionally compromised, I’m damaged
- if you make me come in the front door, I’ll fail
- please let me be creative, can you give me choices?
- there is

I”m a digital dumpster diver looking for what works
- the schools I work with don’t have any money

Why this is benevolent:
- ever meet siblings, one is an A student and the other is flunking
- if I show you something new that none of you have seen, all of you have a chance at being great with this
- there is benevolence here (IN THE LEVELING POWER OF NEW DEVICES)

Mr Austin let me take the Digitor home, my family gather
- he used technology to win me back, to get be back into the boat

I believe this: Empowerment comes from being trusted to attack learning according to your own strengths

When I was in a new class
- “she wasn’t rewindable”
- if you just

If you waited till you were good at it to have kids how many would you have?
- just start

I don’t want to be stupid, certainly not in front of everyone

the benevolence of rewindability is a big deal

example of cereal box story that I built
- she gave me choice and she empowered me
- she saw me as a bionically powered learner
- she never let me be creative again all year

I could change education in 1 night: break into school and burn every file cabinet
- we need to shake things up, make things more interesting

we make our environment and then it makes us

Ever see “a kid launch?”
= they leave scorch marks on the pavement

Collect the keys
- this is a drive by
- you don’t have time to remember all this stuff
- learn a few things today, and make friends with others who can be

Digital Dumpster Divers
- this invites people
- dive in: click “Free tools you can use”

I’m smart, but my network is brilliant

Twitter is “thought casting”
- it is how good you build your network
- I only collect good people in my network: I don’t include people who cuss

Facebook, Twitter, Network, Plurk, and my Ning: I’m connected to over 10,000 people
- when we leave this conference we don’t have to stop learning, we can remain connecting

How many people typically read what our kids write?
Readers
- Blogs: 112.7 million
- My essay in class: 1

I had a college professor who saw me as a “C”
- if you’re going to guess me a grade, guess me an “A”

Kids as authors today: Lulu.com

As soon as we see a tool, we often categorize it and limit it
- Lulu is one of six tools on my site for self-publishing
- Kool-Aide stand on steroids

(I’M EAGER TO SEE KEVIN’S OTHER

Why do people buy “Who’s Who Among American High School Students?”

We need to let kids become published authors

Story: “Saving Me” by April Dawn
- Paperback book $5.52, Download $1.25

If this girl came into the Emergency Room with a broken leg, we wouldn’t say, “Why don’t you sit down and think

When you find a new tool, you need to TAME it
- example: I published two of my plays on Lulu to figure out the tool

Story of April: for the first time she cared about spelling
- that’s exciting

If you do this, do it for YOU
- let it be personal before it becomes professional
- we too often create prisons instead of playgrounds in schools

Publish letters by your Dad from the war, grandmother’s recipes
- do it first because you love it

Our high school this year is publishing our yearbook on Lulu
- do a search on lulu.com and find other schools publishing their yearbooks
- then you don’t send the check to Jostens, you support fundraising

This is the “Some Pig” principle

Kids submit and their work has to get approved
- example

Talk to your shoulder partner about this

If you don’t know why, why do it?
- how is easy today: you need to know they “why”

[TALK TIME]

NOW KEVIN IS USING EXPOSE ON HIS MAC TO SWITCH TO HIS WEBSITE

I work to create an environment where everyone is invited
- this middle space is intentional

Story of electric football game (the one that vibrated to make the players move)
- Quarterbacks see through time, and see to throw the ball where the receiver is going to be

I expect to get a current education, not one which is convenient because you’ve recycled 30 years

Example of project: The cereal box of now
- using Google Sketchup
- don’t think: “I’ll tell the art teacher”
- STOP: this works for ALL of us

Trojan horse learning: Asking your students who aren’t reading Poe to design the setting in a part of “The Raven”

What does it means to “do a 21st century collaboration?”

Be careful what you call kids’ work, you’re usually wrong

I bought the Wii-Fit because I’m a Wii-Fat
- I have lost 15 lbs on the Wii the past few months

13 buttons dis-invited us on a video game

Now shifting to a demo of Google Sketchup
- it has

I stopped teaching technology and started teaching WITH technology
- we don’t “teach pencil: teaching about compassed graphite sandwiched between wafers of wood”

there is a big barrier there where people think they need to be experts

Google Sketch up: leave the guy (the person) to include your scale

I flunked geometry but did awesome in art: how could that be?

Now doing a demo of Google Sketchup
- draw a square,

Opening an example of the human brain
- 8 years ago software that did this cost $30,000
- now I’m doing my report as a 3D virtual docent
- now shooing the Viking ship

Showing video of Kim Herron’s

Innovation dies from domestic violence: You do it

We need leadership which frames this for people
- that thanks our pioneers

We are moving at glacial speed in a time of exponential change: this is a problem

tell your story, frames are important

Call it what you want: give it a frame

Bringing kim Herron to our district was like strapping a rocket engine to a bi-plane
- we often fear those people

Kim Herron: kherron [at] usd448 [dot] com (she gave me permission to share her email address, she would LOVE to collaborate with you

I am in my second term as a school board member in Kim’s district

Now YouTube story: my first guitar
- kicked out of a music store for ‘thought-lifting’

MY COMMENT: LISTENING AND WATCHING KEVIN SHARE THIS STORY I CATCH A GLIMPS OF MY FUTURE. I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE GUITAR. KEVIN INSPIRES ME TO BELIEVE I CAN…..

KEVIN ALSO INSPIRES ME TO RUN FOR THE SCHOOL BOARD IN OKLAHOMA CITY. NOT BECAUSE IT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD, BUT BECAUSE I CAN, AND BECAUSE I CARE. AND MY KIDS GO TO SCHOOL THERE. AND WORDS MATTER.

For some kids, I”m good enough to be a teacher for
- many kids are not brave enough to get past blisters
- my question: “Are there cognitive blisters?”

Great closing demo by Kevin of digital musical tools! I recorded the last 6 min 40 seconds of Kevin’s preso on my iPad2 and posted it to YouTube:

MY COMMENT: THERE ARE FEW EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE PRESENTERS I’VE SEEN WHO ARE AS INSPIRING AS KEVIN. HE HELPS US CONNECT WITH SO MUCH THAT MATTERS: WHY OUR WORK MATTERS, WHY RELATIONSHIPS WITH KIDS MATTER, WHY WE NEED TO TELL AND SHARE OUR STORIES. WHAT A TREAT TO GET TO LEARN WITH KEVIN TODAY, AND MY DAD WAS EVEN IN THE AUDIENCE TOO! KEVIN IS 1 OF MY TOP “YODAS” FOR LEARNING AND SCHOOL LEADERSHIP. YOU ONLY HAVE TO LISTEN TO HIM PRESENT FOR 60 SECONDS TO FIGURE OUT WHY.

Technorati Tags:
education, inspire, learning, montana, technology, kevin, honeycutt, inspirational, wildtech, #wildtech, missoula

Trends, Tools & Tactics for 21st Century Learning #wildtech originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 8, 2011.

www.neiffer.com
blog: www.techsavvyteacher.com
twitter: @montdigacad and @TechSavvyTech (shared with Mike in Helena PS)

Handouts today: www.workshophandouts.com/etcmtda2011

I’m a big fan of paperless presentations

Montana Digital Academy
- created by 2009 legislature
- we were the 3rd or 4th attempt at an online digital academy
- took us over a decade of failures to come up with a model that works, but that has now worked to our advantage
- online statewide virtual school (this is very unique in the online world)

we don’t have a charter school law in Montana
- we exist/serve through local districts
- we don’t exist minus the local school
- ‘original credit’ and ‘credit recovery’
- enrollment has to happen through your local school
- certified teachers with Association with MOntana Public School District
- State STandards Based
- Moodle and Other Learning Environments

We don’t independent students unaffiliated with local school districts

Program Timeline
2009
- HB459 passed and funded
- Initial board named, chair and vice chair elected
- Director hired (from Michigan)

2010
- additional hires: curriculum director, 76 teachers, Instructional manager
- initial summer pilot project
- Fall 2010: Full program begins

2011
- February: MTDA Connect credit recovery rolls out
- Summer: Full, two tiered summer program
- Fall: Expanded program begins

Our numbers exceeded our wildest imagination by a factor of 4

Major unique thing: we have “partners” who are critical advisors
- Montana School Boards Association
- School Administrators of Montana
- MEA-MFT
- Montana Rural Education Association
- Montana University System
- Office of Public Instruction
- Board of Public Education
- Montana High School Association

Critical piece of our program and EVERY successful online program: the TEACHER’S roles

We have thousands of students around Montana that wouldn’t have access to education without our online learning program
- questions and debates should go beyond “online learning good or bad”
- it’s really an issue of access to kids

Good report: Online Learning in Context – 2010

Our slate of courses
- we have 7 AP courses
- it’s very challenging to teach to College Board standards online, we’ve had good success with this, however
- we are the only program in MT that teaches Mandarin Chinese
- we are the only Latin option for most MT high schools
- we have full spectrum of science courses, science courses are our most popular
- have some electives like oceanography that are wildly popular in our landlocked state
- we taught 7 sections of digital photography in MT, Spanish and Pscyhology were #2 and #3

Geographic distribution of our students and teachers (slide 10)

Successes of 2009-2011
- successful recruitment of administrative and program staff
- rollout of two distinct programs: original credit and connect credit recovery
- adoption of cutting edge tools to enhance online learning
- passage rates on par with other statewide virtual schools
- developed working relationships with 160 schools across the state of Montana
- Offered dual credit / dual enrollment courses from three unit of the MUS

We have lots of young moms in our program
- lots of them would have been without ANY educational alternative without online school options
- had many students in unique medical circumstances: Being in an out-of-state hospital for cancer, burn unit, etc.
- many needed an extra half credit to graduate this year, and were able to graduate because of online courses

These numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they do show our need, viability, and impact

Adding some exciting new courses this year:
- Spanish III
- Irish Studies (first in the nation in online environment for HS)
- Art History
- Personal Finance
- Pre-Algebra
- French III
- Health Occupations
- Music Appreciation

Our requests for new courses was three times this number
- we didn’t cut courses that weren’t as popular with students, because we think online courses should include unique offerings that meet special kids

Expanded Credit Recovery
- we are still stuck in a model of “seat time” by law
- we have a fair number of kids
- we do use a vendor for this, we think the vendor name is less important than our model
- key elements:
1- open entry, open exit
2- self-paced
3- pre-test module exemptions
4- available 24/7

Self-paced means you can really work hard on 1 course intensively, and decide how to change your course focus
- when this is sold by a vendor, it is usually a teacher less option (I’ll talk later why I don’t think that is a good option)
- we assign an academic coach to each student in this program (lots of cheerleading, keeping a mindful eye when a student is having struggles our program can’t address – we need to help you get assistance outside our online program)
- this is a unique opportunity for kids
- we don’t want kids just dropped into these courses and then asked 4 months later: How did it go?
- We want local schools to built support capacity and assistant for kids in these programs

This year we’re offering MLS: Middle School Multi-Language Sampler
- Aimed at the Middle School Learner
- Seven week program
- Programs in French, Spanish, Latin, German and Mandarin
- Innovative, Game-BAsed PowerSpeak Curriculum

Using PowerSpeak program, out of Utah, the company has been teaching distance language courses for over 50 years
- program is very game-based
- not unlimited enrollments, we will have 700 slots this year

Things we’re very proud of
- you have to have a platform for online learning: we use Moodle (we pay for this as a serviced, entrprise-level Moodle service)
- we are one of the first statewide virtual schools to use Moodle (this may surprise you)
- because of timing and being the new kid on the block, we could choose Moodle
- most statewide virtual academies are using Blackboard or WebCT / Angel (which are now both owned by Blackboard)
- we wanted to use Moodle since the Univ of Montana is going with Moodle

We give a Montana Digital Academy Google Apps account (Gmail, docs, etc)
- we do pay about $10,000 a year for extra archiving and storage
- that is basement bargain priced when you compare that to running an Exchange server
- we don’t really have a tech staff, so outsourcing this to Google Apps is very scalable for us

You are doing your students a dis-service if you don’t provide email to them
- many kids don’t use email, however

We use a lot of Open Educational Resources
- National Repository of Online Courses
- HippoCampus
- Open High School of Utah
- OER

We are working to figure out questions about things for science labs, hands-on learning

Smart Science Labs is an example of virtual science labs
- is a hands-on / mouse-on model

Mobile Learning
- adults are more excited about mobile learning than kids are
- sometimes we frame this in the wrong way
- wrong way to frame this: “Kids can learn 24 hours a day” (I’ve been on plenty of debate bases, at 2 am there isn’t any chemistry study going on them)
- right context: use powerful elements of mobile learning platforms

Example is an App MockUp
- real power of this is reminders that can be sent directly through the device
- it’s hard in an online environment to grab someone through the screen
- you can design notifications on a phone: something is due, something just got graded, instant message from

Smartphones are amazing measurers of data
- example is a walk app that is 99 cents
- imagine if we tell kids: you have to run a mile, so turn on your app
- the app tracks where, when, how fast, heart rate, etc
- we don’t even this in face-to-face classes now

I have a scale now that reports my weight to my iPhone and online that my wife can see if she wants

I think this is the future of a number of online courses
- I don’t think doing chemistry online at 2 am in the bus is what kids will do, I think this app is more like what the future looks like

MDA is cooking up lots of online PD

We are also working on creating lots of support for blended learning
- this scares a lot of people because there are schedule changes involved in many of these courses
- some districts do “Moodle Monday,” that’s the day they do assignments online and don’t come to school
- Moodle Snow Days
- states are working out how this still follows contact hour requirements

We are not a competitor to schools, we are a partner
- we may be able to provide curriculum to you, help you develop courses
- we are a partner to schools to help schools offer the most flexible learning environment

Tangent: Who is the “ideal online student?”
- we believe organizationally that any kid can be an online learner
- independent, smart, tech-saavy, motivated
- kids that have these skills typically don’t have all these skills

Problem with online learning: we can’t login for kids, we can’t reach through the monitor to touch them

Magical key to this: YOU (the teacher in the room)
- this is why I don’t think online learning will every replace the role of the teacher in the classroom

I had to leave the session at this point

Technorati Tags:
blackfoot, blackfootETC, learned, learning, lessons, montana, online

Online Learning with Montana Digital Academy #blackfootETC originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on August 3, 2011.

At Newman Grove Public Schools, science teachers are using the great outdoors as their classroom, giving students the opportunity to experience the scientific process in its most natural form.

My favorite quotation in the video, at 4:54, is Newman Grove science teacher’s Mark Seier’s statement:

All science is learned in classrooms, and unfortunately most science is learned out of ‘cookbook labs’ where we already know what the answers are going to be before we even start the labs… we do need to be in the classroom to learn the concepts, but if you are ever going to get students excited about science they have to be out and DO it, and discover things that are not known yet.

Take six minutes and watch this short video, then share it with others in your digital as well as face-to-face network. Watching this video, it’s easy to understand why so many Nebraskans LOVE their public schools!

NElovesPS | Newman Grove from NElovesPS on Vimeo.

At Newman Grove Public Schools, science teachers are using the great outdoors as their classroom, giving students the opportunity to experience the scientific process in its most natural form.

I’m featuring Nebraska Loves Public Schools in my closing chapter on “Digital Show and Tell” in my forthcoming EPUB eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.” Videos like this one about Newman Grove, Nebraska, are not examples of “quick-edit” and “no-edit” videography: They are professional, educational documentaries at their best. These videos DO showcase the power of digital media to shape perceptions, however, and the ways learners in our schools need to be “storychasers” telling our stories on the global stage of the Internet.

Kudos to the NElovesPS videography team and the Sherwood Foundation in Omaha, which financially supports this phenomenal educational advocacy project. Follow the project @NElovesPS on Twitter and on Facebook to keep getting inspired about wonderful ways teachers and students in Nebraska are learning in PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

NElovesPS | Newman Grove from NElovesPS on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Nebraska educator Beth Still for letting me know about NElovesPS via a badge on her blog, “Nebraska Change Agent.”

Technorati Tags:
advocacy, learning, nebraska, school, science, teacher, video, loves

Nebraska Science Teachers Model “Go Outside” Best Practices with Students #stem originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on July 9, 2011.

Tom started by joking he’s here with a contingent from Seattle looking for something they lost… (Seattle SuperSonics)

The Pivot to Personal Digital Learning: Digital Learning NOW!

Remember the first line of M. Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Traveled”
- first sentence: Life is difficult.
- 1st chapter: Peck talks about love, defines love as extending yourself to benefit another
- that’s the best definition I’ve ever read of teaching

We are here to talk about digital learning
- we’ll talk about improvement levers
- how this will happen (blended learning)
- implications for school leaders

I want to acknowledge you had a tough last year, and have a touch job
- I think it’s gotten even more difficult in the past few years

School leaders can influence seven key things:
1- culture
2- goals
3- instruction
4- hiring
5- materials
6- parents
7- partners

Culture is at the top of this list: #1 attribute that sets about extra-ordinary schools is culture
- you get a sense of this ethos in the first 30 seconds in an extraordinary school
- sense of goals and shared aspirations are key in this

instruction is the heart of the matter

While your district may have more control than you do over curriculum, when it comes to MATERIALS there are many ways you can supplement that
- digital supplemental resources

But you are stuck in an obsolete model
… based on time not learning
… based on cohorts not learners
… with limited leverage

I think we can do better: we can invent better ways to do school that work better for teachers and kits

Shift from batch-print to personal-digital

batch-print:
- age cohorts
- textbooks
- sequential
- annual tests
- institutions
- teachers

personal digital:
- individual students
- digital content
- adaptive
- instant feedback
- networks
- teams

We are living through one of the most important transitions in human history
- for thousands of years we lived in oral traditions and print-based traditions
- now we are shifting to learning predominantly through digital media

Almost anyone can learn anything, anywhere now for free or cheaply is extraordinary
- if you have a broadband connection you can learn almost anything, that changes anything: Kahn Academy is an example

Customization

kids will learn more
- adaptive content
- instant feedback
- personalized guidance

Kids can move at their own pace
- demonstrated competence
- rolling enrollment, money follows the student

Education driven by:
- learner profile
- smart recommendation engines

Students will learn more per hour in this blended learning environment

School of One” is a great pilot example in New York where each student has a “customized playlist” for each subject, for each day
- that can be a powerful way to build knowledge and skills

Persistence: Exploit game strategies

Passion: exploit interests, bring your passion!

We have learned so much the last few years from casual games
- designers are so good at ‘setting the hook’

some of the most important breakthroughs

We need kids to work harder: to write more, to do more problem solving
- we need to be smarter about building perseverent behaviors

We can do a better job making school less boring
- school network: Big Picture – http://www.bigpicture.org/
- they put passion and interest at the center of their school design

2 example projects:

UK-game Manga High
- all games are free, there are about 8 that teach pre-algebra skills

Edmodo is a company I helped start a few years ago
- about 2 million students using it now
- helping teachers customize instruction

I call what the learning environment will look like in the next five years: Blended Learning
- blended learning is an intentional shift for at least a portion of the student day to an online learning environment to boost learning and operating productivity
- most US students will learn in a blended environments in this decade
- low-cost, blended formats offer a chance to reach “the next billion”

blended learning is AT LEAST as important as clean tech and bio-tech in changing the world today

Read “The Rise of Blended Learning” by the Innosight Institute, best summary of innovative school models around the country

School One: Personalized Playlists
plus
Project based learning

I chaired “Digital Learning NOW” project last year with Gov Job Bush and Bob Wise
- 100 digital learning council members
- rapid virtual policy development process
- report released Dec 2010
- will release state scorecard report in Oct 2011
- www.digitallearningnow.com

assumptions
- all students are digital learners
- customized learning
- competency-based
- choice of providers
- all students have access

controversial piece: funding should follow the student to create incentives for quality and innovation
- funding should become more performance based
- encourage students to achieve, graduate, and innovation
- infrastructure supports digital learning

Example is Florida Virtual School

Infrastructure piece is complicated and expensive: we need to work together to promote this shift to personal, digital learning

Development of Race to the Top-funded assessments is very important right now
- I’ve been obsessed with this on my blog the last few months
- ESCA is going to be a weak bill, we won’t have an NCLB
- NCLB framed American education for the last decade
- ESCA won’t do that, state policies will be more important
- the common core state standards and the new tests which reflect those will be a big deal
- in at least 40 states we will have new standards and new tests, those will be the ‘frame’ for American public education for the next decade

Some of us have been worried those tests will not be good enough
- 60 of us signed a letter on June 30, that is an important letter to read
- these tests are a REAL big deal
- those tests will be ONLINE and will go live in 2014
- we only have a few years to get ready for online assessments

states can’t save enough money going from print to digital to give all students a digital tablet
- if you shift from textbooks to digital results, and to online tests, you can save enough money to give every kid a tablet computer
- they are cheap enough to be $20 per month in cost
- you can make a financial case just on the transition
- you can ‘lift the floor’ – give every student in your district access to digital resources

this is a difficult transition
- this will require states and districts to build a plan and phase this in

4 blended pilots you should start in September, in 60 days
1- 6-10 Math (every kid learning at their own level, in a learning lab)
2- AP, dual enrollment, STEM (offer hard to staff courses virtually)
3- Elementary learning lab (Rocketship are best elementary schools in CA, are all high poverty, they are top scoring elementary schools, every day each student has a 2 day targeted instruction lab time)
4- Special services (demonstrated power of distributed staffing, teachers working remotely, speech therapy is an example, I have vendor friends providing these services)

This is a big deal: blended learning, open resources
- this IS going to change the world

Story of visiting Nairobi
- kids getting surprisingly good education in one of the worst slums

My investment fund is working with Bridge International to develop schools in these slums
- $3.50 per month we are giving these kids an education pretty close in quality to what we provide in urban American elementary schools
- I’m fixated on providing that in high school too

We can create school formats in the toughest slums in the world and deliver a world class education for these kids

This will transform educational opportunities in Oklahoma, and in other parts of the planet
- I am so excited about the power of digital learning

Janet Barresi: visited “Carpe Diem” school in Yuma, Arizona
- school staffed by six teachers, had the highest math scores in the state of Arizona

MY THOUGHTS: I’M VERY GLAD TO BE ABLE TO HEAR TOM ARTICULATE THIS VISION AND GET MORE INSIGHT INTO WHERE JANET AND OUR OTHER STATE LEADERS WANT TO TAKE OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS. THIS IS AN AGENDA WHICH NEEDS TO BE MORE CLEARLY ARTICULATED, EXPLAINED, DEBATED, AND REFINED. I’M NOT SURE WE WANT ALL OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS STAFFED BY JUST SIX ADULTS, BUT WE DO NEED TO INNOVATE AND THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HOW WE PROVIDE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN OUR NATION. I’M ENTHUSED BY A LOT OF THE FOCUS ON BLENDED LEARNING AND DIGITAL ACCESS. I DIDN’T HEAR MUCH AT ALL ABOUT STUDENTS CREATING DIGITAL CONTENT, HOWEVER. I’LL REFLECT MORE ON THIS LATER. GREAT PRESO, THANKS TO THE OKLAHOMA SDE FOR BRINGING TOM TO OUR STATE AND CONFERENCE!

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The Pivot to Personal Digital Learning by Tom Vander Ark #innov8 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on July 8, 2011.

in the end we are talking about agency
- the ability to own your ideas and do powerful things with them
- be fully engaged in your world
- that is what we want for our children

idea that our children can be in and of their world
- poets have handed us the roadmap
- they don’t want to be told what to think
- they don’t want us to stand up and be brilliant
- they need each of us to see them and their brilliance

Agency is lacking in most schools
- most children have school done TO them
- the notion of compulsory education: we know what’s best for you

you can never doubt the wisdom of the voices of the children

how do we help children develop agency: to stand in front of thousands and speak truth to power

develop head, heart, hands and voice

develop minds
- help children ask powerful questions
- no ones we already have answers to
- the answers we don’t have yet

I can help students ask the questions they need, guide them, teach them
- we should take no greater pleasure than watching our students eclipse our abilities

helping students see all they can be
- schools have always known that
- help students develop their heart
- help them to see the world with empathy

the problems we face today, the world we are turning over to them will require more than analytical minds / data to solve those problems
- we must help children see the humanity all around them

At SLA children see teachers and each other as family
- they see that community as something that matters
- we must help students develop their heart

At the same time
- kids should do stuff that matters: they can do /create /make things that matter

Who can tell me what the lives of these childrens will look like for the next 50 years?

avoid the great lie of education: “this will be good for you someday?”
- why am I learning this?
- you might need it some day…

How powerful to say: you need it now!
- we must develop their hands…

And when we do, we will help them develop their voices
- I defy anyone to find someone who can speak to the challenge of public education in Philadelphia better than those 5 students just did

We are facing $629 million budget deficit in Philadelphia
- 20% of operating budget of the school district
- students went out, did the research on their own, and got on busses to go to Harrisburg

When we develop their head and hands, we enable them to have a powerful voice

Now a little about the Science Leadership Academy
- we are a public school, partnership of the Franklin Institute and the School District of Philadelphia
- opened in 2006

Our school is built on the ethic of care
- not only do I care about my students, I care FOR them
- there is a profound difference

I care about the ISTE community, but I can’t care for you… there are too many of you!
- I can, however, care FOR my students
- when we build a school that is first about the ethic of care (we are better together than we are apart) powerful things happen

Yesterday on a panel with some of my students
- a student who said “I don’t need a network… I need a family, brothers, sisters and mentors”

Our school is built on core values
1- inquiry
2- research
3- collaboration
4- presentation
5- reflection

A student who came to SLA and was initially “paralyzed by the right answer”
- student found it was OK to fail as long as he was always learning

Let us build a nation of schools where children understand and believe this

We should be building systems and structures around what we believe, in & out of schools – build on the ethic of care

Our teachers build their lesson plans on these five core values
- all of us

Key questions:
What does teaching and learning look like in your building?
How do you learn?
How is that sustained?

When you do this you unlock students’ passion

Example of students who entered a kinetic sculpture contest

Challenge to take back:
- what if school was not just preparation for life, what if it WAS real life?
- what if we let students do things that matter NOW?

Our kids have interviewed politicians, spoken in front of 6000 people, built websites, opened businesses, started nonprofits
- they have engaged with their world

In the end our goal is not to “create the 21st century workforce,” that is too low a bar
- our goal should be helping students be the 21st century citizens we so desperately need
- the scholars, activists, neighbors we need

The most important things we do is teach the child in front of us to fully become human beings

Remember: These tools and what we’ve done this week does nothing else more important than helping us become better people

When people ask what you teach, answer: “I teach children”
- that is what we all do

In the end the goal is this: Thoughtful, wise, passionate and kind children

MY COMMENT: I’VE HEARD CHRIS SHARE THIS MANY TIMES. THE “KIND” ESPECIALLY RESONATES WITH ME.

I want our children to be full of wise thoughts, and passionately apply them in the world
- be kind: find the humanity in all of those around them

SLA is not alone
- I hope and trust in everything I’ve said, you are finding pieces of yourselves which you believe
- much of this is not new

Like John Carver, superintendent in New Carver
- New Tech Network

If you come to this conference and don’t walk through the student showcase, shame on you!

Today is the day, wait no longer, join us
- write down your goals
- write down the action plan of how you will realize those goals

What is our role?
- we’ve already won
- the war has been won, no one is saying we shouldn’t use technology in education

Our Sec of Education has called us to innovate our way out of this crisis
- we have got to dream bigger

If the biggest way we can think about using these tools is a bigger and better flashcard, we will have failed
- we can give our tools the most powerful productivity tools ever created

Technology should be like oxygen in our schools
- Ubiquitous, necessary and invisible

Then we need to stop talking about the technology so much

Use these tools to create, research, collaborate, present and network
- show what you know and bring that voice to the world

We must empower ourselves, not just our children
- it’s not just about unlocking their potential, it’s about unlocking their potential
- it’s about the power of #edchat
- the ability to say I need help and get it, and then give it back

We can come together but we should never be apart

We should be humble, this work is hard
- we don’t have all the answers

Lets us question anyone who claims to have all the answers
- this is about us all
- we must innovate out of this crisis
- we should become 1 community

We need to bring that vision to ALL the students in our nation
- then, like our students, we will all be beautiful

MY THOUGHTS: GREAT MESSAGES AND THEMES FROM CHRIS. MY ONLY SUGGESTION: TELL A FEW MORE STORIES!

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Unlocking Potential by Chris Lehmann #iste11 (notes & audio podcast) @chrislehmann originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 29, 2011.

Resources shared during this morning workshop are listed in this post from PlayingWithMedia.com. One of our activities today was reflecting on what it means to have “digital vision” as a school leader in 2011. We watched the following video created by Montana administrators in January 2011, and workshop participants wrote a short reflection using the “Notes” application on their iPads. They shared those reflections with each other using a free website I setup on Posterous.com (edusandbox.posterous.com) and emailing those notes to the website.

I used this Posterous blog post as a virtual “home base” (borrowing the parlance of Maria Henderson, shared last Friday in White Oak) for our workshop activities today. One of the first things I helped workshop participants do was create a “home screen” button / link / app icon on their iPads for this page, which we continued to use throughout the morning.

Many thanks to Scott Laleman, who left four thoughtful comments on posts shared by our workshop participants this morning! We now have 34 posts on our “shared learning blog,” and we started this morning with one! It was great to help this group of school principals experience the “power of Posterous” in aggregating media… AND the ability to MODERATE both student posts AND comments… for FREE, on Posterous! If you’re interested in a how-to screencast about that process, see my post “Set Up a Moderated Class Blog on Posterous” linked from the “text” page of PlayingWithMedia.com. This screencast is 11 minutes long.

Resources shared during my afternoon breakout session at TEPSA, “Leading Schools with Digital Vision in a Bubblesheet World,” are available on my Google site: wiki.wesfryer.com. Presentation slides are available as a 2.6 MB PDF.

I wish I had shared more iPad apps during our workshop this morning! The following diagram, which I created with Popplet Lite for iPad (free) shows what I HOPED to address in our workshop:

Even though I didn’t “cover it all,” I think our workshop participants had fun and hopefully got some new ideas for leading teachers with their “iPads in hand” this year!

Many thanks to Trae Kendrick and TEPSA for this opportunity to learn and share with so many forward-thinking Texas principals!

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iPads and Technology Integration for School Principals #tepsa11 originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 15, 2011.

Lots of good ideas shared today, let’s hope they lead to some ACTION soon which will make a positive difference for Oklahoma students as well as industry employers!

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Brainstorming Ideas to Improve Industry and K12 School Connections in Oklahoma #workforceok originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 3, 2011.

Comment from Mary Fallin: Maybe this needs to be part of your discussion today: How can we get local businesses more involved in our schools, especially in rural areas
- even
- it makes me sick to see the wasted talent and wasted lives in Oklahoma with drugs, poverty, prison, etc when I review paroles each week as Governor
- we need to focus on those young ages
- I look forward to seeing your report

Comment from Steve:
- at the end of the day, we all serve at the pleasure of the governor
- we are all equally passionate about moving OKlahoma ahead for education
- we don’t want to duplicate things others are already working on, or impede the work of others

Now we are going to hear about “The Complete College of America” from Dr. Houston Davis

This is not an education initiative
- this is a preview of an orientation that will be hosted by partners of industry
- we have been talking about ‘how do we get kids to understand this’
- some other states have deeper crises on their budgets

What are the employer demands today, both from large and small businesses
- today I want to give you glimpse into the “Complete College America: Alliance of States”
- an Oklahoma Status Report

If you graduated from high school in 1973, 7 out of 10 jobs available to you required just a high school diploma
- today, the situation is very different: 7 out of 10 jobs available in the economy require a college degree

Complete College America is funded by:
- Gates Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of NY
- Ford Foundation
- Lumina Foundation for Education
- WK Kellogg Foundation

Hewlitt Foundation has approached us recently
- we in OKlahoma are seen as being able to follow through on these initiatives

Complete College of America Leadership TEam
- Chancellor Glen Johnson (OSRHE)
- Secretary of Education Phyllis Hudecki
- Secretary of Commercia Dave Lopez
- President Janet Cunningham (NWOSU)
- President Tom McKeon (TCC)
- Vice Chancellor Houston Davis (OSRHE)
- Vice Chancellor Tony Hutchinson (OSRHE)

We want to pull Supt Baressi into this group, also bring in business leaders for a steering committee

Project Deliverables
- CCA project requires each state to do following activities consistent with existing “Brain Gain framework” in Oklahoma and hte Public Agenda of OSRHE
- set annual completion goals at state and campus levels
- develop action plans and policies ot support these goals
- collect and report common measures of progress toward the completion goals

Additional focus areas: CCA Completion
- transforming remediation
- reducing time to degree
- (more…)

Time is the enemy of many students in our career techs, universities, etc
- we need to shorten the time

Alliance partners: Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsyvlania, Rhode Siland, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia

Now showing this slide of data / statistics:

they want us to get away from just measuring aggregate statistics
- they want us to disaggregate and show how wealthy students are doing relative to poor students

We are really concerned about situations where we setup a certificate program and a student has either been misadvised, moves, or for other reasons has to complete more, unnecessary hours to complete their program

Actions for Transforming Remediation (from our meeting in Miami, in basement hotel room for 20-30 hours)
1. Statewide transformational redesign of remedial and developmental education through a common developmental framework
2. Determine the instructional and assessment parameters to guide the pilot development and informt the new policy/framework
3. Deep faculty engagement in redesign, implementation, and refinement of policy framework
4. Higher education and K12 jointly develop a strategy and pilot activities to prvent/reduce remediation that leverages the EPAS system (and CCSS) and makes full use of 11th/12th grade years

We know our current remedial education model is 35+ years old and is NOT meeting the needs of today’s learners
- these new system might be modularized and not even a ‘course system’ like we’ve had in the past

We are on board and passionate now about working toward national norms / common core
- ‘what do these tests tell us about what students really know’

Actions to Reduce Time-to-Degree
5. Continued redesign of the REach Higher Initiative as a degree completion effort that involves the entire system of postsecondary education
6. Establish more systemic role for reverse transfer options setup within degree/credential structures
7. Developmetn of transparent and user-friendly degree plan tools for students at baccalaureate, associate and certificate levels
8. Degree inventory and audit of all levels of degree programs for unnecessary numbers of hours over the 60 and 120 hour minimums

“Some students are a flat tire from dropping out”

Actions for Performance Funding
12. OSRHE will conduct a full-review and revision of the Brain Gain Performance Funding program utilizing appropriate Complete College America and NGA….
(more…)

Now hearing comments from Dr. Phyllis Hudecki, newly appointed Secretary of Education in Oklahoma (she was executive director of the Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition)

We are working with Secretary Lopez and Godecke (?) for a CCA/GAtes Innovation Challenge Grant

OBEC: Oklahoma Business & Education Coalition was created to try and address recruitment challenges for top flight employees in Oklahoma

We are now working with the National Diploma Project, about 32 states are now on board
- big idea: looking at jobs that pay well / are on career ladders, you are looking at the same kind of preparation needed in high school

We want to create a pipeline for employees needed in Oklahoma

I lived out of state for 28 years
- I read a book about Oklahoma Politics: it said education is not intrinsically valued by most Oklahomans because most Oklahomans have ancestors who become wealthy overnight from natural resources

My grandparents didn’t think I needed to go to college

Not only do we have to do a lot of communication around these issues, to parents, etc
- helping all constituents
- we need to take a good look at our [educational] delivery system
- are we ready to set goals and revamp the delivery system to meet the goals, or are we going to set goals based on the delivery system we have now

Our alliance between Career Techs and Community Colleges in Oklahoma is one oustanding example
- we need to inventory what is offered in our state: certificates, licenses, and all the degrees
- we as a team discussed this and aren’t sure we have a good handle o nthis
- we need to evaluate the economic impact of those offerings

We want to address the problem of people moving in the swirl of low wage, low education jobs
- what is the potential for upward mobility for people in those programs?

We need to start using data much earlier in our public schools
- including rich middle school data in EPASS system, ACT data
- determine where each student is, and the expectation if they are going to be able to be successful
- especially if the person is from a poor family or disadvantaged

We need to change the remediation system in our schools
- why would we wait till someone gives us more money to make sure all students are at the same grade level
- that violates core mission of public education: we need to change our thinking about public education
- we need to decide if we have the political will as a state

We need to rethink the delivery model
- have to stop focusing on turf protection and serving the interests of the adults in the system
- I am an advocate for monitoring results continually

I want to brag on our higher education system [in Oklahoma]:
- for many years I know our Oklahoma higher education system was unique
- about 3 years ago in California, a colleague at Stanford noted that the data system for Oklahoma is the cadillac in the nation
- he said we have the most robust data system in the nation for higher ed: we can answer questions about our higher education system that other states cannot

Now hearing from Steve

There will be five states who will receive $1 million grants from the Gates Foundation
- I will be very disappointed if we don’t get one of these grants by the end of the summer
- these funding groups want to change education in the US state by state, not campus by campus

Next meeting: Friday, Aug 5, 2011 at OSU-OKC

Dr Houston Davis comments:
4 out of 10 graduates from an Oklahoma high school are going to be put in a remediation program

Now hearing from Dave Lopez
- Jeb Bush’s work in Florida has been exemplary
- he reported to us the toughest thing to implement in Florida was required students to read by 3rd grade: Up until 3rd grade students are learning to read, after 3rd grade students are reading to learn
- prison populations in California are created based on 3rd grade reading scores
- it’s sad someone’s destiny is set by the time they are 9 or 10, but that is reality

another term new to me: academic value of degrees and certifications
- is being an English major as important as getting a certificate that lets you earn $18 per hour? Should we value them the same?

Dave Lopez worked for SBC/AT&T prior to becoming Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce

MY CLOSING COMMENT: VERY INTERESTING DISCUSSIONS. PERHAPS MOST INSIGHTFUL TO HEAR CONFIRMATION THAT MANY OF OUR KEY STATE LEADERS ARE FOCUSED ON FOLLOWING THE ADVICE/LEAD OF JEB BUSH AND THE PATH HE’S CHAMPIONED FOR EDUCATION IN FLORIDA. IS THIS THE RIGHT PATH? WHO IS MEANINGFULLY DEBATING THIS TODAY IN OKLAHOMA? I’M NOT SURE. IT’S GREAT TO BE ABLE TO HEAR DIRECTLY FROM PHYLLIS HUDECKI – IT WAS MY FIRST TIME TO HEAR HER TALK. I’M VERY INTERESTED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE AGENDAS, AND IDENTIFY POTENTIAL AVENUES TO HAVE INPUT AND INFLUENCE INTO THESE POLICY CIRCLES. NO ONE AT THE MEETING (ALTHOUGH I DID ARRIVE LATE) DISCUSSED HIGH STAKES TESTING AS A MAJOR OBSTACLE TO HELPING OUR STUDENTS BECOME WORKFORCE READY IN OUR STATE. NO DISCUSSION ABOUT HOW A FOCUS ON MINIMUM STANDARDS CONTINUES TO NARROW OUR CURRICULUM AND DUMB DOWN EDUCATION IN THE STATE. THERE WAS SOME DISCUSSION ABOUT LOW-SES STUDENTS, BUT NO DISCUSSION ABOUT WHAT IS WORKING TO ADDRESS POVERTY AND HELP PEOPLE MOVE OUT OF POVERTY. THAT IS A CRITICAL ISSUE WHICH DOES NOT SEEM TO BE PART OF OUR CURRENT DISCUSSIONS ABOUT EDUCATION, THE ECONOMY, OR ANYTHING ELSE.

MANY THANKS TO GORDON ANDERSON OF PELCO PRODUCTS, INC. WHO IS IN MY MEN’S GROUP AT CHURCH AND GAVE ME A HEADS-UP ABOUT TODAY’S MEETING!

Technorati Tags:
education, oklahoma, politics, reform, workforce, workforceok

Educational Pipeline Challenges in Oklahoma #workforceok originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 3, 2011.

…has embarked on a campaign designed to instill pride in Nebraska public schools among various constituents. From parents to lawmakers, taxpayers to those considering a move to the state. We want everyone to know about the good work taking place throughout the state, and we want taxpayers and lawmakers to feel good about their continued support and investment in our education system.

This is educational storychasing at its finest. Check out this five minute video, “NElovesPS Adams Central,” described with the sentence: “Adams Central teacher Kristin Lukow is determined to get all of her students involved, whether singing, dancing, or bouncing basketballs to learn about music.”

NElovesPS Adams Central from NElovesPS on Vimeo.

What a GREAT celebration of great teachers, great teaching and great learning! It’s also superb videography. This kind of advocacy is DIRELY needed in our nation today. Amidst talk and continued planning for the “Save Our Schools” march in Washington D.C. on July 31st, I think we can all learn a great deal from the #NElovesPS campaign. I’m inspired!

Way to go Sherwood Foundation leaders and proactive educators in Nebraska! We all need to follow your lead and TELL OUR STORIES about great learning, great teaching, passionate teachers, and wonderful public schools.

If you’re inspired by this tale from and about Nebraska teacher Kristin Lukow, follower her on Twitter @kristinlukow and subscribe to her blog, “Musical Musings with Mrs. Lukow.”

Hat tip to Nebraska educator and change agent Beth Still for linking to the Nebraska Loves Our Public Schools Facebook page on her blog.

Are you aware of campaigns similar to this one in other US states? If so please share links as comments.

Technorati Tags:
advocacy, education, leadership, politics, school, schools, storytelling, video, videography, nebraska, sherwood, foundation

Nebraska Loves Our Public Schools: Educational Advocacy We Need! #NElovesPS originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on June 1, 2011.

This podcast includes a twenty-three minute excerpt of the Studio46 Podcast from May 13, 2011, published by the Edmond Sun newspaper and Oklahoma Christian University. Dr. Brian Bush, Executive Director of Oklahoma Christian’s Academy of Leadership & Liberty in Edmond, is the host of the Studio46 podcast and interviewed Wesley Fryer for the final portion of the May 13th show. Following a panel discussion about recent education reform legislation signed into law in Oklahoma in May 2011, Brian asked Wesley the following questions: How did you get interested in educational technology? Are standardized tests the right measure for student learning in our schools? How is the development of Smartboards affecting learning in our schools? Tell us about one to one laptop learning programs in Oklahoma schools. What do you think of Oklahoma superintendent Janet Barresi’s 3R’s agenda for school reform? What is a better way to provide accountability and good learning outcomes in our schools rather than high stakes testing? Is the law ending social promotion at 3rd grade in Oklahoma schools a good thing? Is the new law providing a letter grade for each Oklahoma school, measuring their performance, good for educational reform in our state? Refer to the podcast shownotes for links to the Studio46 podcast and other referenced websites. Many thanks to the Edmond Sun and Brian Bush for this opportunity to discuss educational politics and school reform issues in this public venue.

Show Notes:

1. The Studio46 Podcast
2. May 13, 2011 Studio46 Podcast on Podbean
3. The Edmond Sun newspaper
4. Oklahoma Christian’s Academy of Leadership & Liberty
5. Dr. Brian Bush at Oklahoma Christian University
6. 3R Agenda of Oklahoma State Superintendent Janet Barresi: Rethink. Restructure. Reform.
7. Common Core State Standards Agenda
8. Fuel for Educational Change Agents Podcast Channel
9. Contact Wesley Fryer
10. Wesley Fryer on Twitter: @wfryer

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Podcast379: Discussing Education Reform & High Stakes Testing in Oklahoma on the Studio46 Podcast originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 28, 2011.

Jenkins also addresses the issue of how as teachers, we need to be comfortable NOT being the expert (or the only expert) on topics we discuss and tackle with students in our classrooms. This is embedded in the concept of co-learning and co-learners, which unfortunately remains a foreign instructional approach some classrooms.

The augmented reality, GPS-enabled games built for learners at MIT like “Environmental Detectives” which Jenkins discusses sound FANTASTIC! I’ve heard Chris Dede discuss these “out in the community” GPS and virtual reality games previously at conferences. I wish we had games like this available for learners in the Oklahoma City area. If you know of anyone building this sort of thing in the OKC metro area please let me know. This would be a GREAT project for a summer class or summer workshop to take on.

How are you practically addressing the issues of the “digital participation gap” NOW in your school? Two of the best ideas I’ve encountered are sponsoring a local Scratch club at your school or elsewhere in your community, and becoming a Storychaser with others in your school. Seven upcoming workshops offered by Storychasers are being held in Oklahoma and Kansas during June and July 2011. If you’d like to host a Storychasers workshop in your local area, more information about volunteering your site is available.

If you have not yet read or added to your “read soon” list Jenkins’ book with Douglas Thomas, “A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change,” do so soon! This is one of the best books I’ve read in a LONG time about learning and its intersections with technology as well as schools.

I encountered this video of Henry Jenkins via Jackie Gerstein‘s outstanding recent post, “Kids Are Learning . . . Just Not in Ways We Want Them To.”

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edtech, education, technology, jenkins, newlearningculture, gps

How are you addressing the digital participation gap? #newlearningculture originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 18, 2011.

I recorded a short video today in the library using my iPad2 and iRig mic, showing some of the features and capabilities of these great student learning spaces!

What are the collaborative learning spaces in your local school library and public library looking like these days? Perhaps it’s time they had a facelift! You might consider taking some notes from the work of the great learning space designers at Texas Tech!

Thanks to Karissa Greathouse, the amazing Blackboard instructional designer and support specialist at the TTU Teaching, Learning and Technology Center, for showing me these great learning spaces today! Thanks also to a visiting student who agreed to serve as an impromptu videographer for me!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Collaborative Learning Spaces for Students at Texas Tech originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 13, 2011.

Here’s to the teachers:

Are you planning on attending or considering attending the “Save our Schools” march? I’m thinking seriously about it.

Via Anthony Cody.

photo © 2008 William Murphy | more info (via: Wylio)

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change, education, leadership, school, students, teacher, protest, march

Here’s to the Students (and Teachers) who Refuse to be Standardized originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 10, 2011.

Podcast378: The EdReach Media Network – Empowering Educator Voices Worldwide originally appeared on Moving at the Speed of Creativity on May 8, 2011.