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DP--Article (Sorry, iPhone and Padlet Online are a struggle)... KC

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DP--Article (Sorry, iPhone and Padlet Online are a struggle)... KC

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Darlene,
Great Post!! I think we do have nostalgia for a medium that is increasingly changing. In reading Nicholas Carr these last few weeks, I've come to really believe that our attention spans, patience, and concentration have been deeply impacted by online consumption. Love that you touched on the idea I was bringing up about a medium becoming irrelevant. Why would we teach print and writing as we had in the past, when we will mostly be typing to communicate. People say the written letter is a lost art, archaic by today's standards. Soon, we are really not going to need to teach money management as a majority of our transactions will take place electronically. We know that post offices have closed across the US. I wonder about banks. Anyway, this is to suggest that the shift is inevitable and it will change the types of programs we offer in school. If schools are here to prepare students for tomorrow... and many, many tomorrows in the future, we almost have to be prophetic about what students will need. We're living and planning in the present about as often as we are living and planning for decades to come.

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Central Questions to Consider: DP Response

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Central Questions to Consider: DP Response

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I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I had the opportunity of meeting Alan November in person at an IB conference I attended a few years ago as he was one of the keynote speakers. He autographed three of his books I purchased there. He is such an inspirational presenter! At the conference he talked about some of the same points he makes throughout this chapter. One of the things that I remember from his presentations was this notion of students creating tutorial videos for peers locally and globally. What an engaging way to “hook” their interest in the content being learned. Students learn a great deal by explaining their ideas to others and by participating in activities in which they can learn from their peers. They develop skills in organizing and planning learning activities, working collaboratively with others, giving and receiving feedback and evaluating their own learning. November also references utilizing dynamic technology tools where students take ownership of their own learning and can for example, design their own homework besides creating tutorials.

In your question Kris, you mention teaching literacy on-line and ask us to comment on our thoughts about foundational reading skills for young learners on-line versus printed books where students could have a more participatory role in their learning how to read and hopefully enhancing their writing skills. I think that any time we can involve children in their own learning it is a positive thing and will have a long-lasting effect. However, I tend to agree with Katy’s response as my hope is that we would still expose young children to reading printed books instead of solely digital formats. I also think that perhaps we are the ones that feel the need to still hold a book in our hands in order to read, or learn to read, but that children born into this era of digital literacy may never feel the need as they will have no schema or exposure to such a tool or practice. I found this interesting article about parents’ perspective on this very subject:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/05/28/in-a-digital-age-parents-value-printed-books-for-their-kids/

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You can improve upon something endlessly and take a decent product and make it entirely inaccessible and ineffective for most....

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The Simpsons Travel Into The Future Couch Gag | Season 26 Ep. 1 | THE SIMPSONS

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Academy Award-nominated animator/filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt (http://www.bitterfilms.com) answers the question of what it would look like if THE SIMPSONS went far, far into the future!

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On the other hand, sometimes I feel like traditional approaches need not be tweaked to transfix. With technology, is an entire overhaul of the system necessary or can we simply continue to improve upon what needs updating and leave what's intact and functional.

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This is a comparison between the old version of the Simpsons intro (1991-2009) and the current high definition version (2009-). Which one do you prefer? The Simpsons Intro (1991 vs. 2009): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvIO-YwMxEo

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Real Time Mediation...KC Sending Digital Questions or Comments to Students While They Are Working:

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Real Time Mediation...KC Sending Digital Questions or Comments to Students While They Are Working:

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Real-Time mediation is something that members of the critical and creative thinking class learned about. This class espoused FIE (Fuererstein's Tools for Instrumental Enrichment). None of the tools tied to any one subject or topic but they were, in my opinion, virtually indispensable. One value imbedded in FIE was the idea that we should mediate student learning to help students develop the correct path or pattern, and eventually track their own thinking: am I thinking about this holistically? am I too focused on the key features and not enough on the supporting details? This is one way I believe think-aloud strategies in the classroom could help us know what students are thinking when. The premise of peer and teacher guided mediation was to catch bad habits before they developed. Habits, as a concept, seemed to govern a majority of what we actually thought and did in a given day. Behavior modification, through the use of steady mediation, was intended to redirect habits in a way that better enabled the learner to learn--eventually independent of the guide or teachers. To me, coaching or guiding students' thinking requires knowing what it is they think, how they think, why they think that way, and so forth. So, you have to relationship build with any child in order to make progress--in order to influence his or her thinking and his or her habits.

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Does any one have access to a video or article... KC

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Does any one have access to a video or article... KC

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that completely shuns the use of technology in classrooms?

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Should We Put Our Initials in the Titles to Keep Track of Responses? KC

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Should We Put Our Initials in the Titles to Keep Track of Responses? KC

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Katy,

I like the emphasis your school places on systems dynamics and systems thinking. We all operate within systems and networks and hierarchies and orders, implicit and explicit. Its relevant to understand how our thoughts and actions fit into larger concepts, and influence outcomes. Another theme I appreciated was the push for higher level thinking, problem solving, and critical analysis as essential to student development. These skills belong to no singular domain. They're vital for learning across topics and fields. Your school highlights participatory and hands-on learning as a means of teaching these skills and it is probably at the core of my beliefs about how educational experiences should be designed. It's another reason I am a strong proponent of vocational training and wish more high schools (and middle schools) adopted the model.

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Katy, I knew you would love idea of collaborating with students around the globe! I hope you get to try it.

I agree, that somethings like actually reading a physical book (hopefully) will not be replaced.

I was recently talking to admin at a school and he told me that he recommended to his friends kids that they don't bother to learn to type...because he predicts that by the time they are old enough for school...typing won't exist. I was shocked. He might be correct (doubtful), but typing, I believe, is a skill kids will still need at some level of competency.

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I enjoyed this chapter and specifically the examples he gave of tools for students. I think they sound great. I believe that there needs to be a shift in the way schools are conducted and focused. The world has changed so dramatically, yet schools have remained pretty stagnant. How great would his American History debate idea with students in different parts of the world?

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LOVED THE FLIP YOUR THINKING CLIP! Interesting timing on this as some MA districts are going homework free this school year as a pilot. I believe Holyoke. They are an under-performing district, so they are taking some "innovative" approaches to improve their student success rates.

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Here is the charter and website of my school. I feel really strongly about creating a culture of learning based on what I teach and how I teach. This charter is why I work where I do.

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Mission

The Mission of the Innovation Academy Charter School is to provide students with a challenging, interdisciplinary education that will prepare them for the 21st century through an emphasis on holistic learning, higher order and critical thinking skills and practical application and integration of curriculum areas.

Charter

Read read or download the full charter, or read the executive summary below. At the time of the charter, the name of the school was The Chelmsford Public Charter School. The school is now called Innovation Academy Charter School and is no longer located in Chelmsford.

The Chelmsford Public Charter School will focus on making learning relevant for its students through practical, hands-on applications of higher level knowledge. The core values are:

Students should be challenged to approach their maximum potential as social and intellectual individuals.

Comprehensive learning is best achieved through hands-on participatory instruction.

Education must constantly adapt to an ever-changing world.

Education at this level should produce enthusiastic, life-long learners.

Effective administration of education must include continual reassessment of curriculum, teaching methods and student and teacher performance.

Critical-thinking, problem solving and examination of problems through systems analysis are the basic foundations of learning which will carry students into the 21st century.

Community and parental involvement are essential to student success.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Social and emotional development at this age level are as important as academic development.

Systems Thinking and System Dynamics, as articulated by Jay Forrester and Peter Senge, among others, will provide a conceptual framework and guiding force in the development of curriculum. System dynamics encourages learners to look beyond just the facts and focus on broader principles. It is widely used in the business world and it is being successfully pioneered in some school systems around the country. Individual learning will be important, but students will also be expected to work with peers to analyze complex relationships.

Our charter school organizational structure would be very similar to the public schools:

Class size will be about the same.

The grade levels will reflect those of the public schools.

The curriculum is comprehensive.

Budgetary requirements are the same.

The replicability of the charter school will be ensured by:

The home-school partnership as a driving force for effecting change.

Dialogue with the public school administration and school committee.

Maintaining high visibility and open communication with the community and the school administration.

As the cornerstone of the charter school depends upon teacher as facilitator and teachers being fully trained in system dynamics, they will necessarily bring those skills and attitudes with them when they return to the public schools.

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Mission & Charter - Innovation Academy Charter School

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The Mission of the Innovation Academy Charter School is to provide students with a challenging, interdisciplinary education that will prepare them for the 21st century through an emphasis on holistic learning, higher order and critical thinking skills and practical application and integration of curriculum areas.

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Hi Kristin,

You mention that “what we need, and what we want, are for students to see technology as a means of achieving their own education, working toward specially tailored goals, and resulting from their own efforts”. This is such an important factor to consider when implementing new technologies in the classroom. I loved the example that November gives about using Google Docs to have a few students in the classroom as designated scribes who are taking the notes while other students are following along on their Google Doc. This type of activity is one that I use in my own classroom, as I am able to follow along while individual students are working on a written assignment. I can have all of their Google Docs open at once on my computer and can bounce back and forth to see the progress of each child. I can also send them comments as they are writing so that they have questions to consider. November discusses creating a “culture of learning” (November, 2010). This is a catch phrase in my school, and part of the mission of our charter. In this type of learning environment, students are working to use technology and learning to create their own learning and to share this learning with others. I agree with you when you state that technology alone is not a sufficient teacher, and I agree with November when he states that technology cannot just be “built on top” of the already existing curriculum. Students need to be given newly created technology that includes technology as an integral way for them to access new information, and curriculum that allows them to use technology to enrich their experience with the material. I loved the example November gave up students having a debate with students in the United Kingdom about the reasons for the American Revolution. I think this is actually something I may try in my own classroom. I actually do a similar project where students have a Town Meeting style speech about one of the acts or events leading up to the American Revolution, but loved adding the additional piece of communicating with students globally for this project. My students use Skype to communicate with students in schools around the world when we work on our current events unit and world geography, but I hadn’t thought of also using this technology for the history unit. More and more I am trying to use technology to help students complete their work. I am teaching them to use citation tools starting in fifth grade, so that these skills are firm by the time they reach high school and beyond. I am using social networking sites like Edmodo to help teach them safety and etiquette protocols when it comes to communication via social media sites. I am helping students to use blogging tools like WordPress and Weebly. I have been working with students to teach them how to do online research. I feel like students are gaining more and more ways to access their world and to guide their own learning. For your final point, I am not sure how I feel about teaching children literacy completely online. I do recognize that as you state, students will see more and more information displayed to them digitally. But I think taking away the element of reading is an unfortunate mistake. There is just something special about physically accessing a book. I think this is the case with face to face interactions as well. Despite all our technology, there are certain experiences that I hope are never completely replaced with technology because without these experiences we have less of a sense of humanity.

-Katy Angelone

Reference:

November, A. (2010). Technology rich, information poor. In 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

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November addresses what he believes is complete saturation of technology use in our schools. In the classrooms, technology can leave the impression of modern advancement, richness in learning and access to wider ranges of meaningful information. Under that impression is the reality that technology alone is not a sufficient teacher; the advancement we perceive is limited to our understanding of the medium, our information richness is hollowed out by the lack of credible resources and an inundation without form or coherence, the meaningfulness in our experiences start and stop at our engagement with the device, not with one another.

We have a dearth in credible learning and a deluge in technological access. The quandary November proposes is what it means to recognize that this multibillion dollar movement, without any substantial changes to pedagogy and curricula, hasn't amounted to much. Our processes around technology still seek to translate what happens in the physical class to the electronic format. More than the quality of experience is lost in translation.

What we need, and what we want, are for students to see technology as a means of achieving their own education, working toward specially tailored goals, and resulting from their own efforts. In a sense, we want technology to intrinsically motivate students, and teachers, to become self-directed, lifelong learners. In the equation, teachers need to experience technology this way to advocate and optimize it's use for students. With or without technology, it is hard to teach the essentials of self-propelled learning if one does not model it in his/her own problem-solving endeavors. The language and attitude we have about technology will continue to influence it's place in the classroom, regardless of how expensive it is, or how many a school buys.

Although a minor section of the chapter, I was intrigued by one idea November proposed. It's the idea that we should start by teaching literacy online. Students generally learn to read at school, as well as at home, beginning around age 5. What if the process of teaching literacy was almost entirely online--in class and at home? It would prepare kids for the future, where nearly everything will be available in hypertext--from road signs to recipes. Would it deeply hinder the coming generation's ability to read (and understand) books in paper print? In twenty years, do you think reading paper books will matter? As we teach digital literacy, and it takes over paper and print, do you care about a technology where beginner readers tell their stories into a mic which records and reads it back to them, and where they can make modifications to create their own narratives, and then read what they spoke in the creation of a digital book? Do you think students who create stories that are meaningful to them may develop a stronger drive to read and share ideas. In your opinion, is there any way this as would work to also make our readers better writers? Would students, as young as five years old, own more of their learning and it's content, by creating what they learn to read?

I hope everyone will try some new methods of response such as a voice recording, short power point, hyperlinks to related podcasts, word map or thought-algorithm, a written reply with pictograph, or guided slideshow. I'll try to do the same in my replies.

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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Framing the Evolution of Education in the U$

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Toxic culture of education: Joshua Katz at TEDxUniversityofAkron

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Ted Talk NY: Alan November

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Alan November is recognized internationally as a leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been a director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer.

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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What Homework is Doing to Our School Learning Experience

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Alan November speaks about The Flip in Sydney, 2012.

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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Technology Rich, Information Poor Supplement KC

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Alan November - Who Owns the Learning? Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age

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Alan November - Who Owns the Learning? Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age

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It's not the school, the community demographic, the poverty line, the language barrier, the amount of minority representation in the teacher body, the quality of school facilities, or the local and societal ills that creates a bottom line for students' success. Its their experience of critical thinking, problem solving, civic engagement, and authentic, real-life challenges; this is what creates the bottomline for our students.