Another You Tube video about teaching and learning with technology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4VhoWGZ2eA
Kudos to the Pearson Foundation Digital Arts Alliance and the Consortium for School Networking (and a hat tip to David Warlick) for a great resource!
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This is a spin off of Stephanie Sadifer’s blog. Scott McLeod at Dangerously Irrelevant has this to say about ‘teachers as learners.’ This is a hot topic, I know that we will have some really good discussion about this!
Operationalizing the concept of ‘teachers as learners’By dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod) on willrichardson
If we want teachers to be ‘learners’ – if that’s important to us – how do we define that? What do we look for? How do we know if we’ve got it?If we can’t define it, we can’t recognize it / hire for it / reward it / remediate for the lack of it.
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By leadertalk@gmail.com (UCEA CASTLE) on Stephanie Sandifer
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(Cross-posted at Change Agency) You’ve just watched “Did You Know” or a keynote by David Warlick for the very first time. You feel your heart begin to race as panic sets in… you think: “My school is in no way prepared to help our students learn what they need for work and life in the this very different and constantly changing world… What should I do?!” Too often, the initial response is to look for money to buy more computers. Some educational leaders may say “Let’s make sure we have laptops in the hands of EVERY student!… SmartBoards in EVERY classroom!” While it is nice to have administrative support for new technology purchases, a “technology purchasing frenzy” is simply NOT the correct response to the realization that our schools are not doing enough to prepare students for their futures. This is really about changing adult perspectives and adult behaviors to create student-centered classrooms that exemplify research-based best practices around learning. It’s not about buying the latest, greatest, and most expensive tech toys on the market. Expensive tech in the hands of educators who haven’t made changes to their behaviors and instructional practice are no better than the good old chalk board, pencil, and paper. Even worse, expensive tech that the teachers see no use for will end up just collecting dust in a storage room. The examples are endless… SmartBoards as expensive chalkboards… PowerPoint & media projectors as flashy and expensive overhead transparencies… computers as typewriters & calculators… Distance-learning labs that only get used for faculty or team meetings — or worse, as a nice empty room to use during testing week… PLEASE NOTE – from here on out on this blog post I am using the word “learner” for everyone on the campus — teachers, administrators, staff… AND — I am unapologetic with some of the things I say below. If we are serious about changing our learning environments so that our students leave fully prepared for life and work in a globally connected and collaborative environment, then we are definitely going to be moving the cheese of many people in our organizations — it won’t be easy and we can’t wait for all of the state and federal policies and mandates to catch up before we take action. So what should we do when we realize that the world has changed for our students? Rather than immediately engage in a technology purchasing frenzy, take some time to begin discussions on your campus about how to transform your school into a place where teachers see themselves first as LEARNERS who are invested in improving their instructional practice through reflection and inquiry, and where students are more globally connected in a way that enhances and supports their individual learning. Collaborate with your faculty and staff — your learners — to learn more about how the world has changed and what that means for our profession… Locate the “early adopters” in your district/schools and bring them in to a conversation around change — recruit them to help spread change virally… Change adult behaviors and practices first… Change the way you work together, the way you speak with each other… Change your vocabulary… Begin by redefining yourselves as learners rather than educators… Acknowledge that in order to prepare your students for their futures of the 21st Century, all learners on your campus must be equally prepared for those futures… Commit to the belief that being “technophobic” or “technology illiterate” is no longer an option for 21st Century learners (and after you’ve redefined yourselves as learners, understand what that means for professional learning on your campus)… Be firm about this — it should NOT be okay on your campus for ANYONE to say “I don’t like technology” or “I’m just not very techie… can you do this for me?”… Banish the phrase “Kids these days” from the vocabulary of everyone on your campus… While you are at it, you should also banish the phrase “My teaching methods have always worked and I’m not going to change just because these kids (fill in the blank)…” Don’t form a committee to “study this and bring back suggestions for change” — committees take too long and you just don’t have time… change needed to happen yesterday… Don’t create a “pilot project” — same reasons for not forming a committee — it takes too long and change needed to happen yesterday… Do not purchase any new technology hardware until you have first ensured that your network is up-to-date and accessible… How many network drops are in each room? Do you have wireless access across your entire campus?… Drops in every room and wireless access across the campus are “must-haves” before you start buying anything else!… Give your teachers time to “play” with Web 2.0 — to explore the use of Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis, Twitter, etc.) for THEIR professional learning BEFORE they attempt to use the same tools in the classroom with students. In fact, put a moratorium on classroom use of blogs and wikis for at least four months until teachers have used them weekly for their own learning by reading and writing and connecting with other edublogging educators… Inform all new first-year learners on your campus that their “learning” is just beginning and will never end… and that it certainly did not end upon completion of all degree and certification requirements… Begin all interviews for new hires with “what is the most recent thing that you learned and how did you learn it?”… Understand that all of this can and should happen in conjunction with other changes in professional practice such as Professional Learning Communities and Critical Friends Groups, and along with structural changes such as Smaller Learning Communities, varied student grouping strategies, and/or early college campuses… Transforming your school into a 21st Century Learning Center does not mean that you throw out other initiatives and other research-based best practices… Campus leaders should model the professional learning use of Web 2.0 tools through transparent blogging and wiki use with the faculty on a weekly basis… Begin putting all of your professional “knowledge” on a wiki (accessible from anywhere — NOT on the campus intranet) and when your learners ask where they can find certain documents, policies, etc., smile and tell them “It’s on the wiki!”… Give your learners password-protected access to edit the wiki so that knowledge on your campus is collaboratively developed… This is as much about being transparent in your own learning and in your communication and collaborative decision-making with all of your learners as it is about modeling the use of new tools… Don’t know how to use these tools for professional learning, collaboration, and communication? Take time THIS SUMMER to learn… A few great places to start include a wide variety of edublogs as well as “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms” (Will Richardson), “Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century” (David Franklin Warlick), “Classroom Blogging: 2nd Edition” (David Warlick), and “Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools” (Gwen Solomon, Lynne Schrum)… If our students need to be educated for a globally connected workplace rather than educated for factory work (and yes, they do), collaborate with your learners to make system, process, and structural changes so that your school looks, feels, and functions less like a factory and more like a globally connected communications and learning center… Remember that the most important thing is a change in behaviors and practices — a change in pedagogy — NOT just buying new technology… Finally… when you do make technology purchases — provide support… provide support… provide support… AND provide training… but provide training that is a model of effective instruction and learning practices… create cheerleaders who will coach other professional learners and promote continual learning around changes in the world, economics, technology, and workforce trends that have an impact on our work as learning professionals… Here are a few other blog posts that offer more suggestions for creating a 21st Century learning environment on your campus: Your job is to make something happen I know I haven’t covered all of the do’s and don’ts around this issue of reinventing our schools for the 21st Century, so I’ll throw this out to the edublogosphere… What do’s and don’ts would you add to the list I’ve compiled above? |
Filed under: Articles of Interest, General Teacher Info | Tagged: leader talk, shift happens, technology | 3 Comments »
By Will Richardson on shifts
 Finished Clay Shirky’s “Here Comes Everybody” yesterday and it’s now on the top of my list in terms of books that explain the state of the world in a cogent, balanced, even-tempered way. It’s not a book about education, per se, but it’s a book by an educator who brings a teacher stance to the conversation. And it articulates clearly and without hyperbole the shifts and challenges that are presenting themselves right now.
Before getting to some of the more salient quotes, let me just say that I’m feeling a great deal more urgency about this conversation at the moment. Between reading the book and watching some of the videos from the FastForward blog on the future of enterprise, it just feels like the tsunami is bearing down on us and we don’t even know there’s much of a wave out there on the ocean. (Take a few minutes to watch this vid interview with John Hagel, for instance. How are we as schools developing “talent”?) Early in the book, Shirky makes the point that while traditional institutions are facing competition, they are not going away. But they are going to have to change:
The value of the services that institutions provide is changing as individuals become more and more able to undertake “ridiculously easy group forming” and do everything from share music to create the sum of human knowledge online. That ability is what changes the rules, Shirky says, and that can be a good thing (Wikipedia) and a bad thing (terrorists). But it is profound, nonetheless.
Which says a couple of things to me. First, we need to move away from this idea (as driven by current assessments) that information is our core product and that second, we need to set information free in our schools. If we don’t, how will we ever be able to teach our kids how to use well the power they can now wield with their networks? Shirky also points out that this is not going to be fast nor will it be easy.
I wonder, however, if time runs at the same speed today as it did back then. 100 years feels like an awfully long time for all of this to shake out. There is much more to think about here, but I’ll end where Shirky ends, with some thoughts on how we first have to change our own frames before any of this will begin to truly make sense. Apologies for the long snip, but I think it’s worth the read:
Read the book. |
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Sir Ken Robinson is interviewed by Radiowaves, at the Liverpool ICT Conference.
Sir Ken Robinson discusses transforming education through creativity and innovation. It is a thought provoking interview, definately worth the time to watch.http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/story.aspx?lngStoryID=14527
My questions after watching this interview are …
Are students engaged and challenged in schools today? Can we meet the needs of the students in our education system and try to engage them in relevant learning for the “new world?” Are students and parents willing to make this shift in thinking about education?
What are your thoughts?
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What Do We Know About Our Kids’ Futures? Really.
By Will Richardson on The ShiftsA lot of us (or should I say I?) frame the conversation around Read/Write Web tools in schools in the context of this very blurry future that our kids are entering into, one that despite its lack of clarity is decidedly different from today. In my own case, I tend to frame this through my parenting lens, that it doesn’t feel like the system is preparing my kids for their futures very well even though we don’t exactly know what that future looks like.
So yesterday here in balmy Toronto, I got asked the question directly: even though we can’t be certain about what the future looks like in terms of preparing our kids for it, what, generally speaking, do we know? What general characteristics can we assume in terms of rethinking our curriculum and our practice?
I threw some ideas out, some of which I’ve tried to articulate below. It’s difficult on many levels…are we talking about what they need to know in terms of education? Their profession? Environmentally? From a citizenship standpoint? But truth be told, I’ve been mulling the idea of this post for a while now, so I’d appreciate any sage answers you might be willing to contribute as well. (Come to think of it, this sounds like a potential Tweet…)
Our kids’ futures will require them to be:
Networked–They’ll need an “outboard brain.”
More collaborative–They are going to need to work closely with people to co-create information.
More globally aware–Those collaborators may be anywhere in the world.
Less dependent on paper–Right now, we are still paper training our kids.
More active–In just about every sense of the word. Physically. Socially. Politically.
Fluent in creating and consuming hypertext–Basic reading and writing skills will not suffice.
More connected–To their communities, to their environments, to the world.
Editors of information–Something we should have been teaching them all along but is even more important now.
There’s more, obviously. But I’m curious. What would you add? Or what would you push back against?
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This post is from David Warlick at 2 cents worth . It caused me to pause and reflect how far we have come in such a short period of time. We are truly in the digital age, and we as educators and parents need to take notice of what our children are doing. I am also posting this on my class blog for the students to comment on. I am interested in what they have to say.
I am planning to talk about internet safety and get the students to create an awareness project to go along with the lessons. Anyone have some interesting ideas for middle years students? I thought we would use voicethread to create a movie.
- Kirsten
Parents & Internet-Using Teens
I’m on my way out the door, but this just popped into my aggregator. It may have been there for a while, just hiding. But the latest findings from the PEW Internet & American Life Project are interesting.
Pew Internet: Parent and Teen Internet Use:
Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online — at least 17% more than average adults.
The study indicates that parents are paying a lot of attention to their children’s media consumption.
Parents check up on and regulate their teens’ media use, not just in terms of the internet, but with television and video games as well. However, those rules lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.
Alexandra Rankin Macgill, the author of the report, suggests that “The fact that the biggest increase has been in the number of parents who think the internet has no effect on their children suggests that parents are beginning to have a more nuanced view of the internet.“ She continues, “It is a grey technology that can be helpful or harmful depending on how you use it.“ This is from the PEW Press Release for the study.
I wonder, though, — and this is just me wondering — if maybe the opposite might be true. That in 2004, we felt that we understood the Internet as a rich source of content. Some was good and some was bad, but it was a place to go to find answers. Today, however, our children seem to be spending more time interacting in their social networks, and, in my opinion, discovering and even inventing new ways to learn through those interactions. But we don’t understand this.
What do you think?
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I finished making my presentation for the school and hope to post it here. I am always looking for feedback! If you haven’t downloaded the beta version of the toolkit from smart, you may not be able to view the second and fourth slides. If you haven’t already checked out the new toolkit, I suggest you try it. ict-intro-07.notebook
I have just sent away the new SENTEO system to Winnipeg Audio Visual. What a great system! I hope that we will be able to purchase one for our school this year. You can read about the SENTEO system on the SMART site.
Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger from pdtogo.com (podcast) have mentioned us during their ‘blog love’ segment. Thanks Joan and Ben! Check out their podcast and blog – some really great information and sharing going on here!
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Hi everyone,
I am going to be meeting with the ESRSS ICT group on Tuesday and I have been thinking about a ‘hook’ to get everyone excited about technology. I will be sharing some information about what is expected from new members this year, sharing copies of the continuum and some ideas on how to get started. I follow David Warlick’s 2 cents worth blog and Connect Learning podcast and thought that sharing his video podcast on how to use del.icio.us as a personal digital library would help me do just that (episode 87) . What I like about this video podcast is that he is creating a del.icio.us library for cooking recipes. I will provide the link on my professional site so that staff can find it again, and offer follow up help for those who would like to create one at a later date.
What are you doing to help your staff get hooked on technology?
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