Education 2.oh!

The whirlwind of weekend activities helped to distract me from wanting to be at what sounds like an amazing conference at the Apple Education Leadership Summit in Hong Kong. But, whenever I could, I checked in with what was going on. To do so, I used Twitter to follow the back channel chat.


Here’s how it works. Before the conference someone asked those who were there to attach a particular hashtag to their messages, #hksummit. People who went to the conference were writing messages during the sessions and including this tag. That allowed all the messages from the one conference to be found using the search function from Twitter or one of the desktop apps (I use Tweetdeck). Loads of great quotes, thoughts, and questions were posted during the two day event. Have a look for yourself here.

The conversation was so active that the messages from the conference made it into the top 4 trending topics on Twitter on Saturday and the top 5 on Sunday. This really demonstrated the kind of “1 + 1 = 3” power of networks when coupled with a top notch forum for generating ideas.
So, even though I wasn’t physically present at the conference, I still got the benefit of having the links, pics, and ideas shared. This is the epitome of the networked experience. Thanks #hksummit and welcome to my new Twitter followers.

An important conversation has begun in the High School. Yesterday, department and other school leaders met to discuss the technology vision for ISB and specifically, the High School. We’ve got a lot of background “pieces” related to technology in place: the 5-year strategic plan, learning 21 framework, and school-wide ICT philosophy and vision, along with some things that are on the horizon including newly adopted ICT/Library goals that need to be integrated into existing curriculum and technology standards becoming part of teacher’s professional evaluations. While these pieces are an important and necessary part of the process, we urgently needed a chance to get down to the nuts and bolts of how teachers are using technology to enhance student learning and how the tech facilitators can support them.


Several things are resonating with me after this meeting, the cognitive dissonance between some who see tech as an “add-on”, and increasingly, a distraction and hindrance to learning versus those who see tech as an essential and enriching part of life in the world today including school. There’s also concern over the widening “technology gap” as those who choose to dive in and embrace technology obtain a new skill set and I might say different outlook on their role as teacher versus those who haven’t. This is what concerns me most.


How do I as a tech facilitator confront the duality of my job, being at the same time a cutting-edge innovator yet someone who is able to meet colleagues where they are?
There are a few possible paths to take here: those of us heading out into the tech frontier could pull back on the reigns and wait for the rest of the pack to catch up, or we can keep going and act as scouts along the journey, trying new trails to find the ones that will help the rest travel more easily.
I plan on pursuing the latter approach. But, as a good scout, I have to keep checking in with the group, leaving markers to find the right paths. To do this we need to get better at articulating two things: the technology integration continuum and integration model. People need to know what technology integration looks like at varying levels from using technology as “digital paper” to using it in a transformative way. Also, people need to clearly understand that we expect to be engaged with them in their tech learning however they want it. This may include personal PD, co-planning/teaching, and group sessions.


Though different models exist and these are not the models adopted by our school, I have found them particularly helpful.
The Technology Integration Matrix by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology
The Collaboration Cycle by Kim Cofino, International School of Bangkok

The conversation has only just begun, but hopefully we’ll be able to move together toward our common goals of preparing our students for a life of learning.

Images:
"Mind the Gap" by kevingessner on Flickr!
"wagon train" by hugslife on Flickr!

"It's not what you know but who you know"

I can't tell you how many times I've uttered this statement in disgust after missing out on a job, great seats for a game, or that upgrade to business class. Such is the fate of a regular Joe like me, the unconnected. But now, increasingly, I'm finding that who I know is influencing what I know through my connections and exposure to new knowledge via my Personal Learning Network (PLN) and I don't look at that phrase the same way anymore.

Connection to people has never been easier and more varied than it is right now. Earth-shattering statement right? But, I run into teachers and students everyday who really don't believe or understand how I can use my network tools like Skype, Facebook, and Twitter for authentic learning experiences. For many, these things have been relegated to the role of purely social interaction, for fun, and not possibly for learning. Maybe I'm just narcissistic, but I see these things as learning opportunities through social interaction and they are critical to how I learn new things these days.

Building and maintaining a PLN is an art that must be experienced to appreciate. You can't possibly know what its potential is until you've invested at least two months and become part of a working network. The tools are just the beginning. You need to find people, these can be people you know from other schools, people you've met at conferences, people you've heard speak, etc. Start with a few, find out who they connect with and who those people connect with and all of a sudden you've got yourself a network.

Like a garden, your PLN needs tending. You need to nurture it by giving as well as taking. Try to provide feedback when people ask for it, comment on the odd blog post, provide a resource here and there. Also, like a garden, weeds will grow. You need to periodically prune your PLN to allow for fresh growth. Continue to seek out new people as well so that you don't end up in an echo chamber. Don't be afraid to let people go, rarely are they offended.
An important skill to PLN maintanence is knowing how and what to communicate. I like to read 75% info/knowledge sharing and 25% personal details and I tend to share with my people similarly. Why give personal details to the network at all? I think this is really important to building and maintaining relationships, often with people you've never met and may never meet. The odd personal details like what you're cooking for dinner, the occasional silly pic of your kids give these people a glimpse into who you are and help forge bonds. Some people give no details, it's all business. I find that a bit dull. Others let you know when they're flossing, putting on their shoes, walking to the train, etc. For me, that can be a bit tiring to read. Knowing what kind of info you want, from whom, and how often is the art of using the PLN and develops with experience.

At the heart of a good PLN are those two or three key, "go-to" people. Two librarians, who by the way I've never met (yet), are at the heart of my PLN. Why do I love "my" librarians so much? They have the technical expertise and know-how to find sources of information to meet the needs of their patrons. Also, they have a knack for knowing just how much info to give and how do deliver it. However, too often these days we leave them out of the loop as we wade through the process ourselves using our computers. Unfortunately, librarians are quickly becoming endangered species as schools encounter difficult financial situations and focus on standardized testing. The library should be at the center of both student and teachers PLNs.

This entry is cross-posted from http://lrning21.ning.com/blogs


There were some interesting reactions to a technique we tried today in our F2F session on communication called so I thought I'd blog about it to explain a bit more. The exercise was called "Extreme Slide Makeover" where I pulled some slides from presentations and challenged individuals in the PD session to improve them in 15 minutes. The ensuing discussion was interesting and made me think about what makes a presentation good. The purpose of presentations: Presentations have become almost a "default" means of communicating to a group in schools. We use them in department or team meetings, faculty meetings, and students do them often in attempts to "integrate" technology. Maybe, we overuse them when really there are more appropriate means of communicating. We do it because it's the expected format perhaps. Maybe we feel empowered standing up there with an expensive piece of technology beaming light toward a screen. Whatever the reason, we need to remember that presentation slides are VISUAL media. Therefore, we should take every opportunity to capitalize on the VISUAL impact they can make, if done well. As marketing consultant Seth Godin says, "Communication is the transfer of emotion." The visuals we choose on our slides should evoke an emotional response, I believe, every time. If we're not interested in that, why are we presenting in the first place? Send an email, or write a paper that they can take a way and read instead. I can't think of a case where someone should get up and present an audience with information and not really care whether they connect with it or find it interesting. Certainly not when we're trying to teach, emotional connection to the subject is key to student motivation, retention, and ultimately learning. One of the gurus of professional presentation design, Garr Reynolds, author of the book Presentation Zen, shares some great before and after slides here on Slideshare that illustrate the potential of well-designed slides.
Why then are there so many text-laden slides? I think one reason is because people don't know better, they've not seen enough excellent presentations (Inconvenient Truth?) to know what "good" looks like. Another reason is that it's hard work to create good, thoughtful presentations. The images are becoming easier and easier to find, but the better you get, the higher your standards become and it takes time, no question about it. A third reason is lack of comfort with the material being presented.
If you watch some of the most compelling presentations at TED; Sir Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert and others; they by and large present "naked". It's them, telling a story, something they are passionate about and know every detail intimately, to an audience that's hanging on every word. But, to present this way you really need to know what you're going to say. It's OK to carry note cards or have them in the presenter notes section of the screen, even the pros do this, just don't put them on the screen for your audience. Of course, when you see a slide full of text, you know what's coming next, the presenter reads it to you.

To help illustrate my point, we've all watched a movie in another language right, with subtitles in our native tongue? It's always amazing to me how deeply into it I can get even though I'm reading along and the words don't match the sounds spoken by the actors. Well, now imagine that same movie, but the screen, instead of showing the characters is a background like this

How long do you think you'd last on a Friday night watching this? Yet, that's what we do to our audiences when we project text and read it to them at the same time. In fact, they might actually remember more of what we presented if we just flicked through the slides full of text and said nothing. John Sweller's research referenced by the Sydney Morning Herald suggest exactly that. So what can you do about it? I'll provide some tips that have been helpful for me to transform my presentations in my next post.

ISB now has added a Safari Montage video server and I love it! It has loads of great videos, including PBS, all searchable and sharable between students and teachers. The basic process or "workflow" I use on Safari is this:

• open Internet Explorer (Firefox not supported :-( )
• http://safari.isb.bj.edu.cn
• log in with ISB user name and pwd
• use the "search" tool to search by keyword
• preview the video and save it to a "playlist"
• find others to add to the playlist
• stream them in class or assign students to watch them (only from within ISB)

One of the cool features "beyond the basics" is that you can create a custom video montage from clips of videos that you select. You can set the start and stop point of any video and save that "clip" into a playlist. This allows you to cut down to only the most relevant part of the video and mix several video sources together that may have portions relevant to a particular subject.

Playlists are sharable with students and/or teachers so that they can watch a particular set of clips in a playlist.

Educators can now get FREE Diigo premium accounts to use with their classes. Features according to diigo include:

• You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
• Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.
• Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
• Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

In a great flash of genius, actually it was a suggestion from a teacher at BISS, I realized that the same tool I'm using to collect student and parent feedback could be used for quick, simple online assessments.
NEW: Learn how to make self-grading quizzes

It's that time of year again... time for my annual formative feedback meeting with admin. Part of the process is discussion of the feedback gained from my students and parents. I've been using the "forms" feature in Google Docs to create an electronic feedback form.
The form was easy to make and allowed me to input different types of questions and even require responses for particular questions.
Once finished, you can email the form, link to it, or embed it in a blog, web page, or wiki. Parents and students see only the blank form and are able to fill in it easily in minutes. They just press "submit" and heir responses are then time stamped and saved in the order they come in to a spreadsheet. It's anonymous and the respondents never see the other responses.
The best part is what happens when you've got the data in the spreadsheet. There's an automatic summary feature that compiles all the text responses and correlates all the other data presenting it in bar charts for easy interpretation. All this with just one mouse click.

Here are the links to two template forms I've made, feel free to go and copy them if you like.
Student Feedback Form Template
Parent Feedback From Template

If ISB faculty would like a session where we sit down and create your personalized feedback forms, just leave a comment and we can arrange it based on interest.

NEWstep-by-step instructions by d draper

Here's a great video with a Senior Google engineer talking about search features built into Google. How many of these didn't you know about before?

Today I happened to look over a student's shoulder who was in a computer lab after school working on a project. He had a good-looking brochure up for the Science Department in our school, which I happen to be part of. After telling him how nice I thought it looked etc, I asked him what he was going to do with it. Was he going to give it to our department to use on back to school night? Could we give this to parents and students who are new to the school?

"I never thought about that. I just thought I'd turn it in to my teacher" he said.

What's it all for? Why are we asking our students to create "authentic" assessment items without building in authenticity? Technology available to us allows us to create great looking items, but why? What are they for? Do they meet some identified need? Are they serve some real purpose? Do they add value to the world we live in?

These are the questions we should be asking as we design relevant assessments.

I took time to listen to "The Lie of Community: The True Nature of the Network" by Bud Hunt. This post is part of the K12 Online conference going on right now. I was turned on to this particular post by a Kim Cofino tweet while marking papers and it turned out to be one of those things that made me just stop working and listen.

The discussion explores both definition of the word "lie" to help us understand both the potential and limitations of online networks and the how they're used, where they fit, in education. It's important for us to realize as we start using social networks in education that they are NOT the same as a community of people who see each other every day. And, students perhaps don't want to use their Facebook to communicate with their teachers. They also need a place to escape, be themselves, not doing school work.

Have a listen and let me know what you think. Can we effectively build "community" through online networks? How do we do it? Should we?

Photo:  "map of online communities" 
by Ross Mayfield on Flickr

Here's a link to some of my older blog posts.

Today was both exhausting and exhilarating for me as a teacher of Environmental Science. My students are working on developing experiments to test the effect of some factor on the productivity of an ecosystem so I ended up spending the day counseling them on the finer points of controlling variables, measurement, and sample size. I was thoroughly beat after one hour of this, talking to each student at least once.
My thinking is that if I invest the time now to get them to do this first one right, it will pay dividends later as they design future labs. I've been at this for a while but it never ceases to amaze me at how much my students just take at face value, refusing to go deep down and struggle with the tough questions like "what does growth mean?""How are you going to measure that?""How do you know if the plants are the same?"
Then, I had one of those moments that lift you up and keep you coming back for more. I was helping a student with some search terms for her project, chit chatting about her topic when out of the blue she says "this stuff is so interesting because you make us consider where it fits in with life. Usually, when we do experiments the teacher tells us what to do." We went on to have that "it's hard, but rewarding" talk.


This girl gets it.

I think I'll go back tomorrow.

"Protecting Whom?" by Todd Huffman on Flickr

It's relatively easy to recognize incompetence when you see it. It's a different animal entirely when you try to sit down and come up with a set of "indicators" of competence. Competence is something you feel. You know it after you've seen it. So, having just gone through a long process of discussions meetings, planning, building, and testing, we've finally, I believe, managed to come up with a mechanism that will allow us to assess the technology use of our students and promote integration of 21st century skills in every classroom.

The main shift in thinking has been away from a products-based approach to a more process-oriented one. Drawing on the NETS standards and the 21st century skills, we have identified 5 cornerstones of technology competency. Students are asked to describe how they've used technology, selecting one of the cornerstones, to complete an academic task requiring reflection on their own learning process. The cornerstones include creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking & problem solving, and information literacy.

These cornerstone skills transcend a particular software, operating system platform, and type of computer. These are skills that are transferable as technology tools come and go. Finally, these are the skills that are sought after by employers and are instrumental to our students being engaged in the digital age.


"jumping through hoops" by hanabrighton on Flickr.