Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

I’ve missed my blog, so I decided to spend a few moments today reflecting on my teaching year so far, as well as the things/people for which or for whom (!) I am most thankful.

I hope that if any of my former online classmates from this fall still check their Google Reader accounts, they will have a moment to read something “just for fun.” I hope you are all doing well — while I was grateful for the end of our class because of the time constraints homework puts on my personal time (reducing it to virtually nothing – read a book? HA!), I must admit that I suffered from brain stimulation withdrawal for about a week! I was still taking two other grad classes, but those were neither as challenging as ours nor (thankfully) as labor intensive.  Anyway, I’m plunging ahead in January and taking another Drake/PLS course about using primary sources. As a school librarian, I am really excited about this class, since I will be able to apply what I learn, just like the Fall class, even though I am teaching at the elementary school level.

School and teaching are going well. The book review wikis have been a big success, although some fifth graders are still using them as their private chat rooms! I try to only comment on their book reviews, but sometimes I want to make sure that they know I am reading what they write. I think this is a wonderful way for them to learn about the Internet, and for them to know that even though they are “safe” on this wiki, anyone with access can read and comment on what they write. They continue to use texting abbreviations, and I wonder if it is worth the effort for me to remind them that not everyone knows texting language, they can’t write this way in middle school, etc. I’m also excited about starting digital storytelling (Moviemaker) with my fifth graders after Christmas vacation. This is a creative writing assignment; they take their own digital photos and write a story, then dump the photos into MovieMaker and narrate in Audacity. Since the elementary school computers are slower than ever, I’m sure I’ll be seeing many of them at lunchtime for a few months. However, this is a wonderful antidote to the annual “March to the ISATs”, our standardized testing that occurs the first week in March; they are engaged, learn new technology, participate as actors/voices in each others’ stories, and have an opportunity to be entertaining as they use their own writing “voice” to tell a story! Looming on the horizon are additional budget cuts for next year, and I worry that specialists may be let go as the School Board tries to eliminate a $7 million deficit during the next two years.

It was a quiet Thanksgiving here. Daughter and son-in-law are currently in Dublin, Ireland for the wedding of one of her best buddies (from high school). Son and girlfriend spent Thanksgiving with her family in Shreveport, LA. I am still learning to adapt to a new way of life after my divorce this past year, but I think I am making progress, albeit slowly. Some days are great, others are not. I am thankful for the fantastic support of my kids, colleagues, family, and friends. I would still be wallowing in sorrow if it were not for their love and encouragement.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I think of you often and wonder how you are dealing with the issues we discussed this fall, and whether you are making any progress. My best to each one of you

 

 

 

Imagining Education in the Year 2020

             In ten years, my current second graders will graduate from high school. What will the world be like in 2020? Things are currently changing so fast, especially in the way we communicate with each other, that it is a bit difficult to imagine. I think it is a given that we will be much more connected with each other across the globe as world citizens and Facebook friends, but I do not see a change in the socio-economic divide between wealthy citizens and impoverished ones. There will be a fabulous new array of technology tools that our current high school/college students will invent during this time period. Many, if not all, will have educational implications. It will be interesting to see whether the One Laptop Per Child initiative will have created change in third world countries, or if violence and civil war continue to reign. Will more girls have access to an education by the year 2020? I would hope that as older foreign leaders leave their positions, new leaders will better understand that it is not just a man’s world. Perhaps during the next ten years, technology will enable extended dialogues between individuals around the world, bringing a new, grassroots collaboration to the solution of worldwide environmental, educational, and political issues.

How will changes in the world affect education?
             Families will come in all shapes and sizes, but for the most part, parents will be too preoccupied with their own lives to monitor their children’s education. Consequently, students will be much more responsible for their own learning and teachers will have to take on more responsibilities in terms of educating the total child. The corporate knowledge on any given subject will be too expansive for us to teach, so we will have to shift our focus away from testing critical content to information literacy. Students will have to know what information to look for and where to find it. Primary source information will play a larger role in education; students will examine original documents and interview actual participants in assigned events via the Internet. Videoconferencing through the use of Skype and other similar programs will be routine, as students learn from authors, astronauts, senators, or singers. They will have friends not just on the block, but around the world.
            More demands will be placed on school districts to deliver a world class education to students of widely diverse family backgrounds, learning abilities, and socio-economic groups. Energy costs will begin to make brick and mortar schools too expensive, so districts will rely more and more on distance learning, especially at the middle and high school levels. Knowing how to collaborate will be an essential skill for students, as they prepare for working with other people from around the world. Until a common language is established, fluency in at least one language other than English will be mandatory for high school graduation.
            All students will need their own computers by the time they are in third grade. Technology will have advanced so that both the hardware and wireless Internet connections will be very inexpensive, and grants will be available for families below the poverty level. Students and teachers will communicate online, work will be created, edited, and stored on the Internet, and learning will be demonstrated to, and discussed by, people around the world.

How will changes in education affect the world?
            Those countries in which children have access to the latest technology, and are taught by teachers who know how to seamlessly integrate it into all facets of instruction and presentation, will flourish, producing citizens who can successfully communicate with anyone, anywhere. Learning will happen 24/7, not just in the 6 ½ hours of student/teacher contact time. That will be an expectation, not merely an idea. More learning will happen at home, decreasing the social aspects of a classroom education. Social networking will be our principal means of connecting with classmates and other friends. Perhaps this means that our world will grow smaller, but I wonder if it also means that it will grow more impersonal as well. Small talk in the halls might be a thing of the past by 2020, as teachers and students get more serious about education and have no time for jokes or pleasant banter.
            Desktop computers will be dinosaurs, as technology becomes smaller and more mobile. A teacher’s online presence might not be restricted to just her local students, but grow to encompass students in other cities and countries. Much like radio stations currently stream live broadcasts on the Internet, teachers will have this capacity as well, not just at the college and graduate levels, but at the middle and high school levels, too.  Access to an education will be easier for students now limited in terms of course options and learning levels, meaning that a 15 year-old student who excels in math will be able to surf the Internet to find a class that suits his needs. This will also be important for students with learning disabilities, autism, or behavioral issues; students will be able to customize their learning. Hopefully, this will translate into more lifelong learners/productive citizens serving the world to their full capacities. 

How will your choices and innovations in the classroom affect others?
            For someone like me who is interested in all the possibilities technology has to offer my students, making the choice to integrate 21^st century learning strategies and tools is the best way for me to prepare my students for their educational future. At the elementary school level, our focus for primary students is on learning how to read, how to write, and how to solve mathematical problems. I choose to imbed as much new technology into my lessons as possible. I think this broadens the scope of my students’ learning and shows them multiple ways to demonstrate their knowledge. It connects them with what is happening in the real world, so “school” is not isolationist and potentially irrelevant to them. Additionally, I think the innovations I choose to incorporate model possibilities for my colleagues, so they see that there are exciting, new ways to deliver instruction and show learning. We don’t have to use worksheets any more! Interactive technologies, online portfolios, and other tools allow us to reduce our carbon footprint. These innovations will continue to ramp up student engagement in their learning in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

How will being a teacher be different in 2020 than it is today?
            In ten years, more will be expected of teachers, especially if government funding of education continues to erode. We will be more responsible for finding materials, ideas, and open source tools online, as district budgets provide us with less and less. Instructionally, we will no longer be lecturing at the front of the room. We will not be solely responsible for delivering content, and hoping students are open to receiving it. Lessons delivered via podcasts can serve as homework, so students can practice what they have learned with their teacher the next day in a hands-on, project-based learning environment. Teachers will have an online presence, as will their “classrooms”, and will therefore be more accessible to students. I think it will be critical for educators to embrace the use of technology tools and web applications. Not only will they have to be familiar with subject content, they will also need strong backgrounds in information literacy and the use of technology. I also believe that trying to teach a concept to a large group of students will be increasingly impossible, given the current rising level of autistic students and others with special needs. Teachers will have to be adept at differentiating their instruction in order to assist all of their diverse learners in their learning. Flexibility will be crucial to a teacher’s success, and I think that more co-teaching will occur. Collaboration with colleagues will also be necessary to share ideas and save time, and this will happen online on a worldwide basis. Technology will make all these changes doable, but current educators will have to be open to the evolving nature of teaching during the next ten years.
     I think another difference for teachers in 2020 will be the classroom. I think that teaching and learning will move beyond the four walls where they currently take place. As colleges graduate new teachers, these people will have seen blogs, podcasts, electronic portfolios, and videoconferencing on a regular basis, so they will bring those technology tools to their first teaching jobs. However, because the world, and technology, are both changing at such a rapid rate, I wonder if they, too, will be a few years behind what the rest of the world is doing. Who knows what the world will look like in ten years? As teachers, we will need to be more prepared than ever to help our students face, question, and understand what lies ahead.

Web Applications

     The web application I would like to try for collaboration with my colleagues is Google Docs. Right now, we collaborate on documents in two ways: fellow building teachers and I use the teacher drive at school to post documents for each other to view and edit, but, of course, this only works when we are all at school; librarian colleagues at other schools email presentation information back and forth, or take up precious after-school time to meet for the purpose of creating and editing lesson plans and other documents.

     Google Docs would save us from these continuous emails, losing track of what draft we’re on, etc. (Remember Inbox Zero?) Opening a Google account is really easy, if teachers don’t already have accounts for school/educational use. We could collaborate and edit at any time, from anywhere. One of my fellow elementary school librarians currently uses Google Docs for making her library schedule available around the clock, so this might be another use for this application. Templates are available for items like calendars, lesson plans, interactive photo albums, and reading logs. I also found the template for the Jeopardy game in powerpoint, which I plan to use later this year. While this has been around for years, I now have the ability to set it up so classroom teachers can edit the content/questions online as needed, making it ready for me to use with their classes tomorrow or next week.

     I also liked the powerpoint backgrounds in Zoho Show, so I might play around with this application as well. I think it’s great that there are more tools for presentation than ever before, and that we are no longer restricted to what is available in Microsoft Office.

Paperless Possibilities

I wonder if creating a “paperless space” at the elementary school level would work… In reading the Columbia University article on the ancient and classical traditions class going paperless, I was struck by a few similarities to what we do now with some of our assignments, even with students in grades K-5. On the H (Kids) drive of the school server, each student has a folder. Every time they create a Word document, powerpoint, photo story, or MovieMaker project, they save it to those folders. In the upper grades, they also create subfolders to store images and music . The difference is that most of the Word documents are printed out when completed. I thought about that… why are they printed out, when they exist in a digital format on our school server? For grading? Teachers could do that if we set it up so they could highlight/edit. For display on classroom walls and in hallways? Yes, we do that a lot… students seem to try harder at this age when they know everyone will see what they created, but we could post their work on the website. For other purposes? Definitely – for example, students create 10 different types of poems in the spring, type them up and add images, borders, etc. Then a mom helper binds them into a book for each student. I suppose you could call it a “keepsake” product. There are several of those at each grade level.

How would a paperless class change my role as a teacher? I would have to spend even more time working on their technology skills. Personally, that would be okay with me, since students will have to know how to use computers for every facet of their learning as they go through school and life.
How would paperless classes change learning?
Students could access information/create assignments at any time. That’s one of the neat things about the book review wikis; they are edited before, during, and after school, plus on the weekends. Math and spelling practice sites are currently linked to our school website in order to be accessible at home, as are lists of resources for research projects.  Learning can occur at any time, anywhere… not only in the school during the hours the building is open.
How would you measure learning in a paperless class?
Let’s go back to those folders. If there existed a way for teachers to access the folders at home, they would serve as student portfolios and their contents could be graded outside of school. Currently, this is not the case. However, if teachers could view/edit/correct student assignments online, the need to schlep all those papers home Friday night would vanish.
Would a paperless space make it easier or harder to build a learning network? Why?
I believe it would be easier to build a learning network using “paperless spaces” because of the 24/7 access and the fact the students love using computers.  However, our young students still need face-to-face contact, hands-on instruction, and physical manipulatives for much of their learning. I do think the collaborative nature of learning would be enhanced by going paperless; the audience for demonstrated learning could be many, instead of one (the teacher). Students would defininitely be on board with anything that includes computer use; of course, not all of our families have computers at home… And the number of children’s books/textbooks available on line is much more limited than books/readings at the university level.

The Shifting Tide of Education

As a school librarian, I suppose I should discuss “Big Shift #5 – Know Where Learning“. After all, Richardson focuses on moving from “closed” sources of information, like textbooks, nonfiction books, and all things print that are no longer new once they are published. He says that teachers need to know all about the other information sources available online and whether they are relevant, unbiased, current, etc. Librarian to the rescue!

Or, perhaps I should have chosen “Big Shift #6 – Readers Are No Longer Just Readers“. Readers must not only read, but discern “good information from bad.” That is right up my professional alley, too.

Alas, I chose to reflect on ”Big Shift #9 – Mastery Is the Product, Not the Test.” On page 135, Richardson talks about “the limited ways in which we could show mastery in the ‘old’ days”, meaning that students showed mastery by passing a test. Apparently, Mr. Richardson has not heard of No Child Left Behind… we are still in his “old days.” Classroom teachers and specialists in my school spend September-February preparing students in grades 3-5 for the ISATs (Illinois Standards Achievement Test). That means everything from expository essays to “extended response” (students writing after being given a practice prompt) to math problem-solving to multiple, multiple posters on every classroom wall to assist students in learning what they need to know to pass this test. The ISATs are the Illinois indicator for meeting AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) under NCLB. First and second graders spend instructional time learning how to fill in bubbles!!!

I’m not kidding.

Here is where I come in. I don’t have to make AYP, so I can introduce my students to the wonderful world of the Internet, the podcast, the wiki, the digital story, and (new in January) the blog. I think Richardson is correct when he talks about showing mastery through publication for the wider world. However, classroom teachers have an enormous anvil hanging over their heads from September to August, and it is not until the second week in March, when the testing  attains “completion”, that they feel free enough to allow their students more than a few opportunities to show their mastery of concepts through the use of technology in the classroom. There are a few exceptions to this teacher scenario, but not many.

I can already see intense, palpable learning happening on the book review wikis, particularly at the fifth grade level. Those students are working on internet safety podcasts with me this week, working in groups to teach the third grade students who will embark on their first big research project using Internet resources in January. As they do this project, they are reinforcing in their own minds what they have learned about the Internet and its dangers. That’s a stronger lesson than I could ever teach them by giving them a multiple choice exam.

My views on this subject have been enhanced by this course, and it makes me more determined than ever to guide my students into this age of connecting students with content, and with each other, to create new content and demonstrate mastery/learning. Hopefully, I will not have to leave any teachers behind…

References

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California. Corwin Press.

Responding to Connectivism

I agree with Group A’s Connectivism Wiki in many respects. Technology has definitely had an amazing impact on the amount of information now available, as well as the delivery of that information. Moreover, the number of technological tools and their implications in education grows seemingly exponentially each year. I liked how the group showed a relationship between constructivism and connectivism. Knowledge is still being constructed, but in the current, digital age, non-human devices like computers assist in that construction and even take it to a higher level.

Since I am not an educational theorist (by ANY stretch of the imagination), the debate over whether or not connectivism is truly a “learning theory”, and the reasons why it is or is not, are not very important to me. Still, I agree with the idea that we are “stewards of technology.”  That concept is extremely relevant to my position as a school librarian: I guide students in the use of technology to find relevant, current, unbiased information; I model/teach the use of many different technology tools, which students can then employ to demonstrate their learning; we communicate via email, wikis, and webpages as a learning community; and I introduce new technologies to staff for their instructional/professional/collaborative use.

I also agree that there is a very strong interconnectivity between teaching and learning. (We had a  discussion yesterday at lunch about brain research, how teaching is learning, and how important it is to give our students the opportunity to teach us and/or their peers) as a way to show their learning. I appreciate being introduced to connectivism and to the idea that people who study education for a living feel that current learning theories do not take into account today’s digital age. Teachers are no longer the fountains of knowledge that spew content out of our brains into the minds of our students. We all know that there is simply too much information now available to “know it all” and transfer it to groups of very diverse learners from the front of the classroom. However, we can help our students become information literate and teach them how to use current digital technologies to help create new learning.

Skyping Students Near and Far

I use Skype in my personal life for face-to-face chats with my mother, sister, and daughter. We email/text regularly, but like to see each other’s faces once in a while. (This is particularly true of my mom, who is 86.)

However, this year I will have the opportunity to use Skype as a teacher, and I can’t wait to begin. First some background: my next-door neighbor has been a first grade teacher for many years. A few years ago he was encouraged by colleagues to obtain his Type 75 license to become a principal. Last year, he was chosen to be an assistant principal in a nearby district. When it was time to trim budgets, his position was one of the first cut. He spent the summer going on countless interviews, but with his Type 75 and the tight times, he was too expensive for most districts to hire. Wanting to return to teaching led him to apply for a job in the United Arab Emirates. As of this writing, he teaches a class of first graders (boys, of course) in a school for regular children (not sons of Americans or Emirs).

Before he left, we wondered aloud if it would be possible to link one of my first grade classes with his class for the year, for the purpose of sharing work and learning. Of course, the biggest benefit would be the bridging of two very different cultures. In the last week or so, now that his class is fairly settled and myriad issues have been resolved, we have chosen Skype as our communication technology tool. We will probably begin after Christmas, to allow his young students (most of whom are in school for the first time, since there is no early childhood education there) an opportunity to work on their English.

There is a time difference of 9 hours, soon to be 8, so we may have to be creative because they are only in school for five hours. However, we are very excited to use this educational chance-of-a-lifetime to connect one world of 6-7 year olds with another! What do we hope to gain? We think that this may, in some small way, foster a genuine interest in, and better understanding of,  two very different worlds… and to also show that there is common ground as well.

School Librarianship in Today’s Digital Times

     I would like to discuss the role of the school librarian in teaching, learning, and educational technology. I see a serendipitous parallel with this week’s discussion of connectivism and whether as educators we should continue to feed our students a steady diet of content or shift our focus to teaching them how to find and evaluate the information they need. Of course, the latter scenario is precisely what good school librarians attempt to do: help students understand their learning styles and reading levels, and provide access to appropriate materials containing the information they need. Since I am a K-5 librarian, the materials I provide for my students start out mostly in print and spiral increasingly towards Internet sources once student reading levels become more compatible with Internet text. In language arts, social studies, and occasionally in science, the classroom teachers and I collaborate on projects that link the District critical content, state learning standards, research, writing, and technology. I feel that when students successfully find and evaluate information, then engagingly demonstrate their knowledge through the use of technology, a powerful learning experience is created.

Fourth Grade Genre Project

     Extensive research by Keith Curry Lance and others during the last decade indicates that a library with flexible scheduling and collaborative staff can make a real difference in the education of K-12 students. A key component in this research is how librarians help students with information literacy.

     I’ve talked about some of my projects in prior posts, including PowerPoint, Photo Story 3, Windows Movie Maker, and the fourth/fifth grade book review Wikis. Now I would like to hear from you. Listed below are some questions you might consider:

• What is the librarian’s principal role at your school?
• Is s/he a technology leader in your building? In what way?
• What is your perception of the school librarian’s job?
• Do you collaborate with your school librarian? Give an example of a project you work on together, along with your role as classroom teacher and his/her role as school librarian. What technology skills are involved? If you don’t collaborate, please tell me why that is so.
• Times are tight, and school budgets are decreasing each year. Should this position be cut? Is the school librarian obsolete? Why or why not?

Writing and Sharing Stories through Podcasts

While I often use Radio WillowWeb to introduce my fifth graders to podcasting, for this assignment I chose to discuss using podcasts to record/play first grade stories online using the Maple School First Grade Blog. Students each wrote a story, added dedications and an “about the author” feature at the end. Music introduced and ended each podcast. I chose to discuss these podcasts because they were made by very young students and clearly show their creative writing skills as well as their oral fluency. Also, although I initially accessed these podcasts through the EPN site, I followed the links to see where else they might be posted. The teacher had created a blog in Edublogs for the purpose of showcasing the stories, but also to allow people to comment on them. I liked seeing how those two technologies, blogging and podcasting, were tied together at the elementary school level.

I would definitely like to try doing something similar with my first graders after spring break this year. By then, they have gained a little bit more maturity in their oral reading and writing, and more students would actually be able to participate than at the beginning of the school year. I would introduce these podcasts initially so that my students could hear stories written by other students their age. Then, I would have them listen again at a later date, to give them ideas about how to actually write for a podcast — what elements they should include. It could also serve as a little mini-lesson about keeping information private online… only first names allowed. I would record the students using Audacity, so their podcasts could be edited if need be, then follow the Maple example and create a blog for the purpose of sharing the podcasts with others over the Internet. The Maple project was actually part of a grade level library project, so I think this would fit in perfectly with what I do.

Flickring Ideas

I freely admit that this is the first chapter in Will Richardson’s book that sent my mind spinning. I think that stems in part from my mere acquaintance with Flickr… I have never used it as a teacher. I share photos with friends/colleagues locally and globally via Snapfish, but have not had the opportunity to use Flickr, other than to briefly check it out and see how it works.

Suddenly, my mind was on fire! (That happens once in a while, perhaps age-related…. ) I love the concept of using Flickr images and Google Earth in tandem for a geography project. My 4th graders study the U.S. regions, and that would be a fabulous use of this technology, but I would have to tailor it to their young ages (9-10 years old). Equally possible on the social studies front would be the use of Flickr images with my fifth graders as they study the ancient civilizations. I really liked the idea that they could search photos taken by ordinary people (not stock images supplied by website organizers) to create a presentation. Ancient Egypt immediately came to mind, since the 5th grade classroom teachers require a research project for that unit. Here is a photo I found on Flickr, one of many, that would help my students illustrate their research on a much more personal level. I like how this photo puts the statues and the people visiting them in perspective. That shows my young students just how “colossal” these statues really are!

Argenberg. (2007, August 27). The Colossi of Memnon. Argenberg’s Photostream. Retrieved October 12, 2009, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/argenberg/1279525574/in/photostream/

 

Finally, a language arts idea mentioned in the text that I would also consider doing this year involves a David Jakes’ project using Flickr images to illustrate poems.

I appreciated Richardson’s information regarding Flickr’s privacy settings. That is always a major concern of mine, due to the age of my “clientele.” As we consider/implement the latest technology tools available to teachers at the elementary school level, it is also important to reflect on how to use them wisely, given the age of our students.