Erik’s Random Babble

Here is the PDF of my second unit plan assignment, which you may refer to during my presentation tonight.

Unit Plan 2 PDF

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=186

Finally got around to watching this from our very own Patrick Ledesma, and naturally a lot of what he talks about is stuff that is quite familiar. Patrick’s basically in the same trenches as I am, and I do think he makes a lot of good suggestions here. Personally, I would put his second step of administrative coordination on top, because it is that that really affects the other steps he suggests. Of course, this kind of coordination with one’s principal and assistant principal won’t happen overnight, and really is an on-going process. But by making it a priority to align your own goals as a technology leader within the school with the expectations of the administration is critical, and can also help with the implementation of the other steps presented here.

Managing the hardware environment obviously also is an on-going process, though I think a great way to ease the burden of this sort of thing is by working with teachers to show them how to manage things on their own, especially when things don’t work as expected. I am also fortunate that since last year, I now have a tech support specialist in my building 2 days a week instead of one, which means I can redirect a significant portion of the hardware and software maintenance issues to her, freeing myself up to focus on other things…such as teacher professional development and teacher coordination, Ledesma’s third and fourth steps. A recurring challenge is getting teachers to come to training sessions that I offer — beyond those 5 or 6 who come to every single one. And I agree that by working with the teachers who most readily embrace the technology, I can indirectly reach more of the staff. It sort of becomes viral marketing for technology integration — I work with one teacher to create a whiz-bang integrated lesson, and then when he or she passes that along to his or her teammates, suddenly the interest spreads. I still face the challenge of pulling some of those reluctant teammates in to a training session, but at least I’ve got their attention now.

I would go a step further, or perhaps add a step 4.2 to Patrick’s suggestions here — namely (a la Alan November) to also look into student coordination. November talks of having students attend training sessions along with the teachers, which, although I have yet to try this, I think is a fabulous idea. I am also interested in putting together my own student “geek squad” whom I could train in various essential things, who could then act as my tech helpers throughout the building. I know that there is a great deal of interest on the students’ part, and I might as well tap into that resource. 

This is a question that I have been asked a number of times, and anticipate I will face again when class play season returns in the spring. And I will admit that in the past, I have made copies for a teacher without really thinking too much of it (and imagine that I’m not alone in this). However, our classroom discussions on copyright issues has made me rethink this considerably, and intend to change the way I deal with this situation in the future.

The FCPS Guidelines for Use of Print Music & Sound Recordings state that “for academic purposes other than performance, single or multiple copies of excerpts or works may be made, provided the excerpts do not comprise a part of the whole work which would be independently performable, such as a section, a movement or an aria.” Going with the 10% rule that we’ve discussed doesn’t really offer a viable solution, since I am sure that teachers wouldn’t see that giving students only abbreviated, excerpted versions of their class play soundtracks as being particularly useful. Also, the time and effort involved in created a compliant excerpted version of the soundtrack would definitely not be the best use of my time.

So, what are the alternatives? One option, which I will likely suggest to teachers early in the new year to get them thinking about this well in advance of their plays, is to provide students with the means of purchasing additional copies for individual use at home. Being fortunate enough to work at a school located in a fairly affluent area makes me feel that this wouldn’t be something that would meet with any particular resistance from parents. Also, it might be possible to get a “bulk discount” when purchasing a large number of the same soundtrack CDs. Another less desirable possibility would be for the teacher to write to the copyright holder of the play soundtrack to ask for permission for making the duplicates. Actually, I would think that since many of these class play soundtracks are marketed to teachers, they would take these sorts of requests into account and accommodate them as much as possible. Indeed, I would expect that at least some of these play soundtracks would even explicitly state that duplication is permitted. Of course, even if duplication were allowed or teachers were able to get permission from the copyright holder to make copies, I would be hesitant to do this or even show teachers how to do so – because it would require a great deal of time on my part (or the teacher’s) to make multiple copies, and also because by showing teachers how to make duplicates, it might encourage them to do so again in the future without paying attention to the copyright issues at all.

I found both Alan November’s and Larry Lessig’s podcasts very interesting and thought-provoking. Each of them mentioned things that connected to my own personal experience, as well as left me with a number of ideas which I hope to put into practice within my own role as a technology leader in my school.

November’s “Preparing Students to Succeed in a Global Economy” definitely presents a major wake-up call to US educators, though the message shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to anyone who’s paid attention to the news or had the opportunity to travel overseas. He pushes for a “global work ethic” for students, which, in an ever-more-interconnected and interdependent world, really is essential. And to hear his suggestions for how teachers can take their first steps in this direction really comes across as quite straightforward — turn classrooms into “global communication centers” through the use of Skype, podcasts and blogs.

Several points throughout November’s talk reminded me of what was basically the mantra of my Master’s program in teaching ESL/EFL at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont — that you are your own best resource. He speaks of making students self-directed, shifting control of learning to the students so they’re empowered to be more responsible for their own learning. As educators, this requires us to give students enough guidance so that they aren’t just floundering about unsure of what exactly they should be doing, but also to give them enough freedom to find their own individual meaning in what they are studying. This goes right along with the concept of differentiated learning, which is a constant topic of discussion among the faculty at my school.

Where do I see myself going with this? Of course, I would love to push forward with what November suggests, and work with both my teachers and students in morphing our classrooms into these global communication centers. The challenge, as always, will be finding the time to show teachers how to take the first steps — though I do think November’s idea of having students attend trainings along with or even instead of teachers is a way to do an end-run around this. The students, on the whole, are far more aware of the potential of what’s out there than many of the teachers, and by involving them, it’s not only empowering them but also helping to prod the teachers along. Is it going to happen tomorrow or next month or next year? Probably not. But at least I can get the ball rolling, and hopefully once the momentum starts to build, things will snowball and everyone will get hooked.

Now, whereas the Alan November podcast had fairly clear and concrete suggestions for what could be done within my own work environment, Larry Lessig’s TED presentation about “How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law” was rather more nebulous, at least in the realm of the elementary school. However, his points about user-generated content and a “read-write culture” were very familiar to me, as the same concepts has been the focus of the July 2005 issue of Wired magazine, the cover of which proclaimed “Remix Now! — The Rise of Cut & Paste Culture.”

One article in particular in that issue was a piece titled “God’s Little Toys: Confessions of a Cut & Paste Artist” by cyberpunk author William Gibson. In it, Gibson describes author William S. Burroughs’ “cut up method” whereby he had “incorporated snippets of other writers’ texts into his [own] work.” He also mentions the “versions” of existing songs that Jamaican musicians King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry created in the early 70s, linking those early experiments with what modern DJs have been doing more recently in clubs around the world, remixing and recombining songs in new and creative ways. He touches on other modern examples of the same type of remixes and mash-ups that Larry Lessig speaks of, and also looks at the legal implications of this new norm in the culture. Gibson concludes that “we seldom legislate new technologies into being. They emerge, and we plunge with them into whatever vortices of change they generate. We legislate after the fact, in a perpetual game of catch-up, as best we can, while our new technologies redefine us.”

Again, where do I see this in the context of my own school? While I’m not sure how or when I might encourage students and teachers to start creating their own mash-ups and remixes, I do think the whole issue of copyright infringement is important to discuss. I imagine that using the same types of examples of remixes that Lessig shows in his presentation with teachers and students would be an interesting way to make them question what copyright really means. It’s a good way to at least start the discussion, and I think it can frame a broader, on-going look at what is and isn’t acceptable use of someone else’s content. We shall see where that discussion takes us.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=151

This presentation by Silvia Tolisano, detailing how students were taken on a virtual trip to China coinciding with an actual trip made by the presenter, was very cool as well. She used a variety of Web 2.0 tools to support a curriculum of global awareness to help make students critical thinkers, which I agree with the presenter is imperative in our ever more interconnected world. My own background and experiences in travelling around the world and communicating across cultures made this presentation resonate quite deeply with me.

In a visually engaging video, Silvia describes the development of her school’s global studies program. Though technology played a significant role throughout, I enjoyed that the primary focus here was on the thought process Silvia and her colleagues followed in creating this exciting learning opportunity for their students. Details about the specific technology tools used during the China trip round out the presentation, as well as links to various blogs she has helped set up for the China trip, a forthcoming trip to Egypt and her school’s global studies program.

I’m going to share the link to this presentation with one of my school’s 5th grade teachers, who is Chinese and leads groups on tours to China every summer. I’m anxious to hear his impressions about it, and imagine after watching it, he will also be interesting in taking things to the “next level” in a similar way as Silvia describes here. Even on a smaller scale, I think this presentation makes a good case for blogging in the classroom to any teacher, and could even see that this might be the hook to get other teachers in my building interested in exploring the possibilities.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=199

In this somewhat disjointed presentation, Vinnie Vrotny talks about several options for using social networking sites to connect with other people in the educational technology field. He first demonstrates how to set up and use the Twitter site to expand one’s personal learning network. Next, he walks through using the Ning community for extending the discussion beyond the K12 Online Conference. A very quick glance around the Twitter and Ning sites doesn’t quite have me sold on this, as I feel there are other, better ways for active involvement and communication with colleagues in the ed-tech world. Although it’s nice that Vinnie’s trying to show how to take basically any online networking tool and adapt it to the education and professional development realm, I don’t really see any compelling reason to use either of these sites at this point.

Unlike other presentations, this one featured multiple linked files, the first two of which did not seem to have been properly uploaded onto the K12 Conference site, as their file extensions were off and they also suffered from rather poor audio quality. It also wasn’t immediately obvious that the real “meat” of the presentation was actually lurking in an audio-only file (which was also broken up into 6 segments under the Supporting Links).

Criticism aside, though, I do think Vinnie’s on-the-mark as far as the importance of connecting and exchanging ideas with professional colleagues, as well as with parents. Though I may not choose the same tools that Vinnie singled out, I do think it’s good to maintain multiple lines of communication with immediate coworkers, the extended learning network of our students’ families, and others within our field throughout the world.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=164

Needless to say, the first presentation that really caught my eye when browsing through the K12 Online Conference offerings was this “panel” about educational applications of the Second Life virtual environment, presented by Kevin Jarrett and Sylvia Martinez (but featuring contributions from numerous others). Though I am already fairly well versed in the whole Second Life realm, I’ve only ever used it as a bit of escape and fun. This presentation opened my eyes to a lot of the interesting educational projects that have been established within SL, and which I intend to explore in greater depth in the near future.

To summarize, this presentation began with a basic overview of SL, including descriptions of the two parallel (but mutually exclusive) “grids” within this online universe: the Main Grid, which is geared towards adults over the age of 18, and the Teen Grid, which is logically designed to be used by 13 to 18-year-olds. Next, a variety of the aforementioned projects were discussed, which I found to be the most illuminating part of this presentation. A variety of web resources for getting more information about how SL is being used in education are then identified, which also provided a number of appealing leads which I have every intention of follow-up on in the future. The potential pitfalls and areas of concern about SL are discussed, and although many of the issues raised are more prominent in the Main Grid rather than the Teen Grid, it was good to see them mentioned as they are important to remain mindful of when considering the use of SL in an educational setting. The latter part of the presentation covers how to get started, including details about hardware and network requirements.

As I already mentioned, the descriptions of various existing educational projects in SL was what really got me excited. For instance, ISTE has a fairly well-established presence in SL now, and one area in particular that I want to check out is their Emerging Technologies Idea Library which features rooms devoted to each NETS standard. Something called the PacificRim Exchange, a project created to allow exchange students from the US and Japan to get to know one another within the SL environment before going on their actual exchanges, also piqued my curiosity. And the Ramapo Islands Project, created by Peggy Sheehy of Suffern Middle School (linked off of the presentation’s Supporting Links), sounds like a great model for using SL with students. In it, Peggy has had her student participate in things such as virtual literature circles, and even acting out scenes from books, like the trial sequence from ‘Of Mice and Men.’

Really a lot to digest here, as this presentation clocked in at just under 2 hours, and I will no doubt rewatch it and subsequently explore beyond my current locales within the Second Life universe. As for actually bringing this into use with students, I imagine that’s still a ways off — at least for me. However, seeing what’s already out there has definitely expanded my own horizons here.

Over the past few years, one of my third grade GT teachers has been having his students create poetry books. They worked their way through various types of poems — haiku, cinquain, etc. — and *attempted* to turn them into a book. This particular teacher didn’t really specify what software to use, or rather let the students choose between MS Word or AppleWorks. Perhaps he was overly confident of their word processing skills, or underconfident of his own, but he gave very minimal direction and mostly just left the students to their own devices when they came to the Tech Lab to type out their poems. While I’m all for open-ended-ness in lesson planning and instruction, I noticed over those years that the same mistakes kept on occurring. Students had problems formatting their poems properly. They became confused with how best to print them out. And when they did print them out, they often came with a number of blank pages following behind (as they’d failed to delete extra spaces or returns they’d inserted along the way).

At the start of this new school year, I decided to try and nip this in the bud, by suggesting an alternative to this teacher. Instead of having students simply typing up their poems whenever they came into the Tech Lab (which always struck me as requiring the bare-minimum of effort on the part of the teacher, who sadly came to just assume I would be on hand to troubleshoot all the problems that would inevitably crop up and answer all the students’ “technical” questions), I proposed the idea of turning the poetry books into an extended PowerPoint project. This would, I told the teacher, help avoid the page-formatting problems that seemed to plague previous iterations of this endeavor, while also offering numerous possibilities for extending this beyond “mere” typing. I suggested incorporating clipart and digital photos. I hinted at the possibility of recording students reading their own poems, and then embedding those recordings within the PowerPoints. And, much to my delight, the teacher even responded with a rather positive, “Maybe this will finally help *me* learn PowerPoint as well?” So, we were off.

Now, this project is still very much in its infancy, as so far the students have only created their title slide and first poem slide. I created a step-by-step instruction sheet, which walked them through the process of creating a basic, two-slide presentation, entering and then formatting the text, and, if time permitted, customizing the presentation with clipart and backgrounds. For that first lesson, I modelled the process in the front of the Tech Lab, creating my own two-slide poetry book presentation as the students read off each step that I had to do. This definitely seemed to help reinforce with the students that they needed to pay close attention to the steps on their handouts, as they created their own presentations.

When designing a rubric for this project, I knew right off the bat that the rubric would need to be something with which to evaluate the final product — not the two-slide, bare-bones presentation the students created during their first visit to the Tech Lab. So, I tried to think ahead about what sorts of things would be important in the finished product — things like text and slide formatting, mechanics like spelling and grammar, use of clipart and other media, and overall originality in creating a PowerPoint-based poetry book that was uniquely their own. Much to my delight, the rubric-generating website Rubistar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org) had just those categories at the ready, and I was able to put together the following preliminary rubric. As this project has just begun, and I haven’t yet had a chance to sit down and consult with the teacher on how students will be evaluated in the end, I consider this rubric to also be a work-in-progress. As the year goes on, and this teacher and I continue to re-examine where we want this to go, I know that it will change and expand (and in the case of the latter, I know the teacher will also want to add some rubric categories dealing with the actual content). But for now, here is what I have:

Poetry Book Rubric Version 1

This is a temporary placeholder post for the second week’s homework assignment, which, although having read the “Six Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction” chapter from Robert Marzano’s Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools, I didn’t yet do as the assignment details weren’t posted on the SBTS EdTech blog. Unfortunately, I wasn’t clear about what we were supposed to comment on regarding the articles that we were issued, though as soon as I do get some clarity on that, I will revise this posting accordingly.

In the very general sense, I see instructional technology as any tool, hardware or software, that can be used to help facilitate instruction and enhance learning. It can be something the teacher uses to help illustrate, model or communicate the information they are trying to pass on to the students, or tools that the students themselves use during the learning process. Here are a few examples of each that come to mind:

Facilitating Instruction:

• Connecting a laptop to a TV or projector to show a website, PowerPoint presentation, video clip or software application that the students will need to use.
• Using a SmartBoard to model a computer-based activity to students before they do the activity individually or in groups at their own computers.
• Recording a class lecture and converting it into a Podcast, so students can hear it again either at school or at home.
• Using FCPS 24-7/Blackboard to post information about homework.

Enhancing Learning:

• Using Pixie to draw a diagram showing the parts of a mushroom or cricket.
• Using Kid Keys to help kindergarten students learn the location of keys on the keyboard.
• Using Kidspiration’s or Inspiration’s outlining tools to help students organize their ideas when writing a report.
• Using a website like WeatherBug Achieve to gather data that students can then use to create a chart of the average temperature over the past month.

As for my own personal beliefs about instructional technology, I do feel that the word “tool” is important when defining it because although it can take many forms, it’s not really the focus of the instruction. Instead, it’s something that helps the students get to where they need to go. It should help make the information being taught more comprehensible to the students. It can be a tool that helps students visualize a complex or difficult concept. It can spark the students’ curiosity, making them want to learn more about something. Or it can help the students pull multiple concepts together into a unified whole.

That being said, technology isn’t always “invisible” enough not to be at least a partial focus of a lesson (or lessons). To use one of my examples above, before students can draw a diagram of a mushroom in Pixie, they would need to understand which tools within the program that they are going to use and how to use each of them. However, I think that this tends to only become a partial focus when the technology is being used by the students. If the teacher is the one using the technology to enhance his or her instruction, that technology (ideally) remains the medium through with information is communicated to the students.

Achieving that ideal of “invisible” technology in the service of communicating information is the challenge, though. It is the goal we, as SBTS, have — getting our teachers to the comfort level and familiarity with whatever technology tools that are at their disposal, so that the technology does indeed act as the medium, rather than “getting in the way” of instruction. A teacher fumbling with a SmartBoard or unsure of how to use a piece of software distracts students from the information he or she is attempting to convey to them. Some teachers are more open and flexible in their approach to incorporating technology into their instruction, and are comfortable enough to go with the flow especially when things don’t work as expected. Others, however, may find themselves running into some technological hiccup or uncertainty, and allow that to color their own feelings towards using that tool again in the future.

That is actually something that I continue to work on myself — finding ways to ease teachers’ techno-phobias. Unfortunately, I often find myself coming to their rescue too quickly, to the point that they wind up relying on me too much for anything tech-related and stagnate in their own learning and use of instructional technology. Finding the right balance between helping teachers too much or letting them figure out things on their own remains a bit elusive for me — but I do see it as an ongoing process. Hopefully one of the outcomes of this class will be that I am better able to reach that balance.