Last week one of my news aggregators found this article: Schools Giving High-Tech Lessons to Give Students Information.
I was intrigued by the title since the use of the word 'give' in association with teaching always makes me cringe. As a teacher designer, I do not want to give information or give lessons. The news article describes several ways Ohio schools are giving students information through the use of Web 2.0 tools and other technology tools in what they deem High-Tech lessons. My favorite quote:
"At Chardon Middle School, one seventh-grade classroom is partnering with another class in Beachwood, connecting via Skype, which allows students to see each other as they interact by computer.The classes study for quizzes together and are collaborating on writing an online world history textbook."
What???? Using technology as a means to study for quizzes? Collaborating on writing an online world history textbook is fine, but it is not what I would call a high-tech lesson. It is a great initial use of Wikis. But where is the synthesis, the analysis, the concluding, and other higher order thinking? When I think of creating an online textbook, I think of regurgitation of facts. Technology is technology. What is High-Tech? To author in this article it appears to be defined as the latest and greatest.
Falling into the technology trap and grasping onto to the latest technology before understanding how that technology can be used to support higher order thinking is simply using the technology as a Gimmick.
The focus of schools, school districts, administrators, teachers, and parents should be on High-Level Thinking, not celebrating the fact that a school is using the lastest and greatest to foster low-level thinking.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Scholarly publications
Didn't see any music stars in Nashville while attending the 2011 SITE conference, but I did get to see some other kinds of stars....the scholarly type. I attended more presentations this year than ever before, and even more exciting, I was less disappointed than in previous years. Oh sure there still were presentations that did not come close to living up to their abstracts. Lots of presentations with 'Design' in the title were offered, but most lacked a connection with design as I understand it.
One star that was noticeably missing was Bernie Dodge. We later discovered he was ill and wasn't able to attend the conference. However, organizers failed to mention the absence to those that gathered for his first scheduled presentation. After 10 minutes of wondering if we were going to take a journey with Bernie in QuestGarden, we had a great conversation about Webquests. Those attendess unfamiliar with Dr. Dodge's work, were able to hear first hand accounts from those in the trenches who use Webquests in K-12 AND Higher Ed classrooms.
A presentation among hundreds that caught my eye was "Engaging Students Through Participation in Keypals Exchanges." HUH? Keypals? In this day an age? Isn't that an 'old' instructional strategy? And that is precisely what caught my attention. In the age of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, among the newer innovations that SITE scholars took on as their research focus, a powerful activity structure emerged from the pages of my program. I listened intently as the quiet German Middle School teacher from Pennsylvania explained her design plan and implementation, all the while thinking, our ITSers could do this!!!! Not only can ITSers do the project but also write the scholarly paper AND present it at an International conference. Yes, this researcher was a doctoral student, but she emphasized at the beginning of the presentation that she was a classroom teacher. It was refreshing to see that Keypals have not been forgotten, are still considered and proven to be valid instructional strategies, and that when used in a well-designed unit powerful learning experiences can happen.
To read this paper, visit University Libraries. From the Research Databases link, go to the Education link, then EdITLib Digital Libary. You will need your Mason email username and Mason email password to log in. Susan Featro is the author of the paper.
One star that was noticeably missing was Bernie Dodge. We later discovered he was ill and wasn't able to attend the conference. However, organizers failed to mention the absence to those that gathered for his first scheduled presentation. After 10 minutes of wondering if we were going to take a journey with Bernie in QuestGarden, we had a great conversation about Webquests. Those attendess unfamiliar with Dr. Dodge's work, were able to hear first hand accounts from those in the trenches who use Webquests in K-12 AND Higher Ed classrooms.
A presentation among hundreds that caught my eye was "Engaging Students Through Participation in Keypals Exchanges." HUH? Keypals? In this day an age? Isn't that an 'old' instructional strategy? And that is precisely what caught my attention. In the age of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, among the newer innovations that SITE scholars took on as their research focus, a powerful activity structure emerged from the pages of my program. I listened intently as the quiet German Middle School teacher from Pennsylvania explained her design plan and implementation, all the while thinking, our ITSers could do this!!!! Not only can ITSers do the project but also write the scholarly paper AND present it at an International conference. Yes, this researcher was a doctoral student, but she emphasized at the beginning of the presentation that she was a classroom teacher. It was refreshing to see that Keypals have not been forgotten, are still considered and proven to be valid instructional strategies, and that when used in a well-designed unit powerful learning experiences can happen.
To read this paper, visit University Libraries. From the Research Databases link, go to the Education link, then EdITLib Digital Libary. You will need your Mason email username and Mason email password to log in. Susan Featro is the author of the paper.
Monday, March 7, 2011
noTLB website
Last night I was rereading Bradbury's 1953 short story, The Murderer, to prepare for Monday's undergrad class. No, I'm not trying to glean a new teaching strategy to use on undergrads. We are finishing up Tapscott's Grown Up Digital and preparing to write short stories about the classroom of the future. My iPad incessantly notified me of incoming emails as I was reading. I was starting feel just like the Murderer, people keeping in touch, "mauled and massaged and pounded" (Bradbury, 1983, p. 244). But a portable diathermy machine would not be a solution to interfere with today's communication.
I pondered declaring email bankruptcy, but that didn't seem to be a responsible thing to do mid-semester. I went back to my tried and true method (and psychologically more manageable for me): Sorting the From field in alphabetical order and starting with the Z's.
When I got to the A's (and all of you A's who heard from me between yesterday and today can attest that I did reach the 'bottom' of my list), I came across an email from Nisha Arnold, subject: Education. Now I get a lot of educator and researcher stuff....attend the e-learning conference in Madrid!, publish in The Journal of School Nursing (figure that one out), ASCD breaking news....you get the idea. So "Education" as a subject line is a bit too vague to warrant anything more than DELETE. However, in the body of the text, I spotted 'noTLB.' Well a good ITSer never lets an abbreviation or acromyn go by without understanding the meaning.
noTLB=no Teacher Left Behind
noTLB is 'FREE website that helps ensure that no teacher is left behind by cataloging the online education community, and presenting it to you in a user friendly fashion.' It is wiki-like, blog-like, social, and collaborative. I especially was interested in the Free Tools/Software link under the View Resources tab. It is similar to a link provided by Aeronia Poole: the Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011, rated by educators all over the world.
Take a look at noTLB if you have time. There are thousands and thousands of online resources for teachers but I thought this one was interesting in its organization and collaborative activities. Will educators participate? How long will this website be relevant? Is it relevant, useful, necessary? Is it too much information? Too much connectiveness? Time will tell.
Reference
Bradbury, R. (1983). The stories of Ray Bradbury (4th ed.). New York: Knopf
I pondered declaring email bankruptcy, but that didn't seem to be a responsible thing to do mid-semester. I went back to my tried and true method (and psychologically more manageable for me): Sorting the From field in alphabetical order and starting with the Z's.
When I got to the A's (and all of you A's who heard from me between yesterday and today can attest that I did reach the 'bottom' of my list), I came across an email from Nisha Arnold, subject: Education. Now I get a lot of educator and researcher stuff....attend the e-learning conference in Madrid!, publish in The Journal of School Nursing (figure that one out), ASCD breaking news....you get the idea. So "Education" as a subject line is a bit too vague to warrant anything more than DELETE. However, in the body of the text, I spotted 'noTLB.' Well a good ITSer never lets an abbreviation or acromyn go by without understanding the meaning.
noTLB=no Teacher Left Behind
noTLB is 'FREE website that helps ensure that no teacher is left behind by cataloging the online education community, and presenting it to you in a user friendly fashion.' It is wiki-like, blog-like, social, and collaborative. I especially was interested in the Free Tools/Software link under the View Resources tab. It is similar to a link provided by Aeronia Poole: the Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011, rated by educators all over the world.
Take a look at noTLB if you have time. There are thousands and thousands of online resources for teachers but I thought this one was interesting in its organization and collaborative activities. Will educators participate? How long will this website be relevant? Is it relevant, useful, necessary? Is it too much information? Too much connectiveness? Time will tell.
Reference
Bradbury, R. (1983). The stories of Ray Bradbury (4th ed.). New York: Knopf
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Research on Blogs
About a month ago I came across a feature in Campus Technology entitled "Can Blogging Make a Difference?" A doctoral student studied the use of blogs in the classroom and students' perceptions of the value of blogging as an instructional activity. The doctoral student chose blogging because it "combines solitary thought and social interaction to engage students and reinforce learning."
A couple of interesting ideas stood out for me. First, the blog template used for that course mirrored my own :) Okay, not so important. More importantly were the findings that on the one hand indicated positive benefits such as "providing an outlet for thinking about things we talked about in class" and on the other hand, stated, "[students] would have liked a more explicit connection between course content and the activity of blogging." In addition, the challenge to keep students engaged in the activity was present. As the researcher indicated, certain implementation strategies for the activity need to be in place.
5th semster ITSers might be wondering the same thing. As we near the 1/2 point of the semester, you might ask yourself: Why are we blogging---again? Is it just a requirement for you? What benefits have you experienced and what challenges have you faced? Is blogging different for you this time around than it was in semester 1 and 2, and if so, how is it different?
A couple of interesting ideas stood out for me. First, the blog template used for that course mirrored my own :) Okay, not so important. More importantly were the findings that on the one hand indicated positive benefits such as "providing an outlet for thinking about things we talked about in class" and on the other hand, stated, "[students] would have liked a more explicit connection between course content and the activity of blogging." In addition, the challenge to keep students engaged in the activity was present. As the researcher indicated, certain implementation strategies for the activity need to be in place.
5th semster ITSers might be wondering the same thing. As we near the 1/2 point of the semester, you might ask yourself: Why are we blogging---again? Is it just a requirement for you? What benefits have you experienced and what challenges have you faced? Is blogging different for you this time around than it was in semester 1 and 2, and if so, how is it different?
Friday, February 4, 2011
A New ITS Semester 5
ITS that time again and I am revisiting my blog to join in the learning about blogs with 0911 ITSers. As we begin our exploration on using blogs and their value as an educational tool, here are some examples:
Josh Thom, 0810 ITSers presents his thoughts on a variety of educational topics: http://blog.celeritasforge.com/
Daniel Pink: http://www.danpink.com/
Will Richardson: http://weblogg-ed.com/
Bernie Dodge: http://webquest.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=bdodge
A List of Blogs by teachers: http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/blogteach/
One feature of blogging software that I find most useful in a classroom situation is the ability to Follow a particular blogger. With a glance at my Dashboard I can check updates on blogs I am following. Be sure to check out this feature as you visit your colleague's blogs.
Josh Thom, 0810 ITSers presents his thoughts on a variety of educational topics: http://blog.celeritasforge.com/
Daniel Pink: http://www.danpink.com/
Will Richardson: http://weblogg-ed.com/
Bernie Dodge: http://webquest.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=bdodge
A List of Blogs by teachers: http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/blogteach/
One feature of blogging software that I find most useful in a classroom situation is the ability to Follow a particular blogger. With a glance at my Dashboard I can check updates on blogs I am following. Be sure to check out this feature as you visit your colleague's blogs.
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