Educational Endeavors

An interesting coincidence occurred today. I had just shown Karl Fisch’s video, 2020 Vision to my students this morning (before the LCD projector blew up), and when I approached my computer this evening to complete my assignments for my college class, I saw that I was assigned to do what Karl Fisch had done in his video. He’s a hard act to follow, and some of my thoughts about the future of education have changed since watching his video, so I beg your pardon if I touch on some of his thoughts as well. Since I am a high school teacher and have never taught at the lower levels, I will keep my visions of the future to the upper grades.

I think education will have to change in order to prepare our students to be confident, productive, active, literate members of society. As evidenced by the enrollment at the school in which I am employed, more and more students are choosing some type of alternative education. Whether it be charter schools, alternative schools, post-secondary options or online schools, the “typical” classroom is becoming less and less “typical”. Learners are changing; technology is changing; businesses are changing; the world is changing. Schools and teachers that do not change will be left in the dust.

I remember my first teaching job in 1992. I was assigned a room full of desks and outdated textbooks. There was also a teacher’s desk, and an Apple IIGS computer. I was delighted that it had a color monitor and a printer. I was one of the lucky ones, as not every teacher had a computer. There was a computer lab but those computers did not have internet access. It was not until three or four years later when the science teacher was lucky enough to have the one and only computer with internet access and it was limited at that. Imagine his fury when, absent for one day due to illness, he came back to his classroom to find that his substitute teacher had used up all of his allotted internet minutes for the entire month.

By the time I left that school in 1998 for my current teaching position, each teacher had a computer at his or her desk and unlimited access. My new teaching position suggested a radical change – no textbooks – not a single one in the entire school. That was an alternative school, with alternative students and alternative delivery methods. In six years, I went from a textbook based classroom with limited computer access (and virtually no internet access), to a project based classroom with unlimited computer and internet access. What could be better than that? Well … a curriculum would have been nice … teachers were expected to write our own.

How far have we come since then? What’s my classroom like today? Still no textbooks, but we have a new computer lab. We don’t have 1:1 computer access for students, it’s getting close but we’re not quite there, and with creative scheduling, there isn’t much of a problem with students being able to access the computers. We have wireless connections, and three-fourths of our staff have laptops. We had one LCD projector, but it’s currently out for repairs, and we don’t yet have an interactive white board. We are in the process of creating online classes, and they are expected to be up and running by the end of the year. Technologically speaking, we’re not too bad, but we could be better; much better.

It could be like this:

Students open their laptops and login at the beginning of class. Some of the students are in class, others at home or on the campus where they take post-secondary classes in addition to their high school classes. The off campus students login to Skype and accept the conference call from their teacher, allowing them to join the class through the LCD projector or SmartBoard. The class discussions and activities are entered into the class wiki, where ideas are expanded upon as well as summarized. Students are given the objectives and tasks, and their work begins. Students are able to keep up on current news in their research through GoogleReader, which is linked through RSS feeds to their iGoogle page, as are each of their blogs, de.licio.us favorites, wikis and podcasts. Their assignments are submitted electronically, and their parents are able to view their work or the class work at any time, with the proper permissions and passwords.

Or this:

Students are out in the community for at least part of their day, volunteering at the court house, assisting the court clerks, learning the process of the judicial system. Or they are at the historical museum, assisting the docents, performing inventory, categorizing and filing archives, indexing artifacts, researching history. Or they are at the hospital, assisting the clerks, the custodians or other personnel. Schools and businesses need to work together to create the workforce of the future. Schools need to know the skills necessary for the working world of 2020 and students need to learn them. If businesses want employees capable of performing basic tasks, then they need to help is determine what they are and help us in allowing the students to access their expertise.

Or this:

Teachers create their online courses from home, meeting with other staff members once a month for information sharing staff meetings. Students have 24/7 access to the online lessons, and may contact their teacher at anytime by e-mail or through their wiki. There will be “office hours” through Skype, when the student may discuss issues with the teacher and/or other students through conference calling.

Or this:

A combination of all or any of the above based on the needs of the learners.

The teacher is no longer “just” a teacher. She is an organizer, a facilitator, a director of learning. She arranges for experts to “visit” the class through Skype. She arranges for connections, communications and collaborations among students, teachers, experts, parents, and community members worldwide. Students network with others from across the globe, they learn of other cultures, other governments, other opinions, and other ways of life. The classroom is without walls, and the students are empowered to be facilitators of their own learning.

Projects and assignments, as well as assessments, become authentic. Students create for a wider audience. Whether it be a wiki seeking solutions to a worldwide problem, a story for others to critique, or a pamphlet for the local history museum, their projects are created for others to view and are useful. There are no more worksheets, and no more printed textbooks (novels will still be around, of course). They learn from online resources, whether it be text, video, audio or a combination of all, their information is digital, and it’s accessible from anywhere, at anytime.

The exact details of what the future will bring to education are unknown, as is what the government and politics will bring to education. The future of education cannot be addressed without taking into account the requirements of outdated, high-stakes testing. The worldwide web and visions of classrooms without walls, along with the technology and its financial costs, will have a difficult time being a reality if we must focus our resources and skills on doing everything we can do ensure that our students pass a standardized assessment that is no indication of how they will function in the real world. I hope the visions of our government leaders will not get in the way of the visions of educators or the visions of our children.

Try as they may, many students are not able to complete all of their assignments while at school. In the old days of textbooks and worksheets, this was not a problem. They would simply stuff their backpacks with the needed books and paper and complete their work at home. In the current world of education, with the advent of technology and the software needed to complete their assignments, some students have run into a problem. Their computers don’t necessarily have software compatible to the software used at school. A project initiated at school cannot be finished at home, and vice versa. This is where Think Free Office Online comes to the rescue. Think Free is, for the most part, compatible with the Microsoft Word software used at school. Their word processing software has the capability to save files as PDFs, includes a web based editor that can be used to edit documents and post to blogs, and includes work space capability and file sharing. Their presentation software is also compatible with Power Point. This software can enable students to work on project at home or at school, and be assured that the project can be completed, even though their software may not be identical to that of the school’s.

In reading through “The Big Shifts” in education regarding the Read/Write Web, Big Shift #2 caught my eye. “Many, Many Teachers, and 24/7 Learning” in particular hit home.  I try to as many experts into my classroom as possible.  Teaching in a school that does not use textbooks can be challenging and I have to be creative when locating resources.  I am excited about the possibilities of what can be done with Skype.  I know of several experts in various fields around the U.S., as well as a few in other countries who I would welcome with open arms into my classroom though Skype.  I could connect my laptop to the LCD projector and project their image up on the big screen while they talk with the students. I could invite historians for history classes, HR people for work seminar classes, WWII or other war veterans, the list goes on.  Just think of the possibilities!  People outside of our classroom, even on the other side of the world, could enter our environment through an internet connection!

My views on technology have not changed since I started this class, but the possibilities for their use has.  This class has enabled me to use web 2.0 in ways I had not thought about. I wonder, though.  If there are all of these tools available that I did not know about, how can I keep up on the tools of the future?  How will I know what is being developed and how to use it?  Is there a central location to find these things out, other than RSS feeds through Google Reader?  If there is, I would like to know about it.

For the past year or so, I have been using less and less paper in my classroom. I grew weary of students losing their work and telling me they handed it in, of making extra copies on a copier that worked about 60% of the time, of finding the copied sheets in numerous places around the school, half finished and forgotten, abandoned by the students with good intentions and poor organizational skills.

It was simple enough to do. Each student has his or her own computer file, easily accessed at any computer at any time. I also have the capability to create class folders with the same student accessibility. I began posting class assignments, along with the needed text, graphics or other files into the class folders. Students completed their assignments and saved them into their designated file, which I am able to access in order to view, edit and grade their work. We also use blogs to communicate back and forth as a group, and we have started to utilize wikis for group work.

It has made my role as a teacher much easier in some ways, harder in others. No more time is spent at the copy machine, but I find I am spending more time searching for the online resources (or creating my own) to accompany the assignments. But I only have to do that the first time around – the next time I teach the same course, the resources will already be there. It is also more efficient to view and grade the students’ work. I can make suggestions for changes by highlighting my comments right on their work. No more toting around that huge teacher’s bag of homework. I just login from home.

I think the students have taken on more responsibility for their own learning with the paperless classroom. They are more at home in front of a computer than in front of a book, and they seem more engaged. They check their work every morning to see what I have to say about their progress, and they ask for assistance freely.

Measuring learning in a paperless classroom is, in my opinion, easier than in a traditional classroom. Their learning in documented by the assignments and their work. Since they need to enter information on a daily basis, and I check it daily, there is very little room for plagiarism. Their projects are ongoing, with ongoing assessments and feedback. The amount of time I spend looking through their work each day in minimal; it does not take long to see what they have accomplished (there are only 25 students in our school), and a final assessment is much easier when in close communication with the student throughout the process.

I think building a learning network is a natural aspect of paperless classrooms. There is constant contact through blogs, and, more recently, wikis. This type of learning network does not have walls, whereas the traditional classroom does. I look forward to the learning environments we are creating and the student participation and responsibility for learning that is a result.

Overview • Topic A • Topic B • Topic C • Topic D

I had not used (or heard of) Skype before taking this class. I connected with Gregg through IM using Skype. His family was sleeping, so we used IM instead of voice. The IM function didn’t really offer any new ideas to me. It’s really not any different from any other IM application. I am, however, excited about the video/voice part of Skype. I can imagine many classroom applications, including expert speakers, demonstrations, and even using webcams for online classes or when students are absent from class. Just imagine a home bound student being able to log onto his/her computer at class time and be active in the classroom. I think that has a great deal of potential.

Is connectivism a new learning theory or is it composed of learning strategies in an extension of constructivism? That is what the argument seems to be. In the class wiki Against Connectivism, it is stated that George Siemens “believes that learning may reside in non-human appliances.” That makes about as much sense as NCLB.

Does it really matter whether or not connectivism is a learning theory? I don’t think so. The premise behind it is, in my opinion, what really matters. Information must flow within organizations in order to be efficient; teachers must connect within their network in order to grow as educators and facilitators of learning, and students must make connections in order to learn more efficiently. When businesses, teachers or students do not know the answer to a question or problem, if they know where to quickly and efficiently find that answer, then that is what is important.

This does not take away from the fact that there is still a great of knowledge to be learned. We must know the basics in order to understand the problem, where to find the answer, and how to determine whether or not the answer we found is actually correct. For example, someone I know took a sample MENSA test, just for fun. He was done quite quickly. When I asked him how he finished so soon, he said, “I didn’t finish it. I didn’t even understand the questions. I didn’t know what they were asking. How could I possibly know the answers?” If you don’t know what the question is, you have no chance at finding the answer.

Our Generation: Duck and Cover/The History Channel

I must admit that I really didn’t think I would use podcasts in my classroom.  I didn’t think my students would listen for long – that they would soon be distracted by the enormous amount of much more entertaining music to which they are accustomed. After searching the available podcasts, I think I may have to change my mind.  Several are interesting, most are educational, and quite a few are worth trying.

I found the most potential at the history channel website.  The above link to their “Our Generation: Duck and Cover” podcast enable you to listen to some very interesting information about an extraordinary underground bomb shelter designed and built during the Cold War to protect our governmental leaders in case of nuclear threat.

I specifically sought out a podcast from the History Channel because my students are familiar with the site, and because we have worked with the History Channel before.  One of our classroom projects gained recognition from the History Channel and is posted in the “Save Our History” section of their web site.  Thus, we use their resources on a regular basis.  I chose this particular podcast because one of my students recently brought up the nuclear threats of the Cold War and the class had an in-depth discussion about it. I think my students would be very interested to hear this podcast.

I would have the students listen to the podcast while thinking about how they could depict some type of visual (perhaps a slide show using Flickr) to go along with the audio.  This would give them a reason to visualize what they are hearing and to internalize it a bit more. I think it could be a really great project.

Flickr has many possibilities for use in the classroom. Flickr photos could be used for storyboards, collages, story starters or to reinforce a blog, project or idea. Students can also create magazine covers, posters, movie posters, CDs and more at the bighugelabs.com website.

For example, the photo below can be used for a topic starter on politics. It could be used as part of a collage, as a background for a magazine cover, or for the cover page of a report. Images enhance student work and make it more interesting for the students, as well as for those evaluating their work.

Amaah (June 2, 2007). tag cloud: politics. Amaah’s Photostream. Retrieved October 25, 2008 from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/koranteng/526642309/

After participating in a wiki project for the first time, I wondered what it might be like for students. I took a look at the project outline page for the flatclassroom wiki. Their mass collaboration effort involved “cooperative knowledge building and learning with students around the world as they learn the nuances of overcoming language, geography, time zones, and culture to effectively communicate a common message”. This was a much more ambitious project than the one in which I was involved. Their dedication impressed me and I will attempt to allow my students a similar opportunity.

The main challenge I found in using a wiki was collaboration. We all have different time schedules and priorities in our lives. While some prefer to get things done right away, others prefer to wait. There is no right or wrong in this as long as the end result is completed on time; it just means we need to make adjustments to our own schedules in order to collaborate effectively. Another challenge was editing or modifying someone else’s work.  I am not used to doing that, and I felt a bit intrusive or pushy doing so, thinking I may be offending the person whose work I was changing.

I was a bit anxious about the wiki assignment because I had not really worked on one prior to this. I had started to created one this past summer, but I never finished it because I really didn’t know what I was doing. I did notice, however, that the history section can be a bit misleading. Gregg had started the main page of our wiki, combining the main topic with a sub-topic. I thought we could split the two up and use one for our drill down page. I moved the sub-topic to the drill down page. When you look at the history for the drill down page, it looks as though I did most of the work there, when in reality, all I did was move someone else’s information to that page.

I look forward to using wikis in my class and am encouraged to do so through administration in my school, as well as the students.

We’ve gone back and forth with the homework issue in my school. Two years ago our administrator said, “Give them more homework. They need to maintain a connection between home and school; they need to learn the responsibility of completing tasks at home and establishing a routine for homework.” This created a dilemma. Our teacher-created curriculum was designed to be completed within the school day. Giving them homework meant restructuring our lessons as well as our learning environment. Most of the students finished their work during the school day, but since we were told to give them homework, we ‘enhanced’ their assignments. Then they finished their work as quickly as they could, diminishing the accuracy of their work. Parents were phoning, wondering why their student was not bringing home any work. When we finally got them to bring work home, parents were phoning, telling us their child did not have time to do homework. We even had some parents doing their child’s homework for them.

Although these are at-risk students, they all have the cognitive ability to perform these skills. Their work while in school is exceptional. Once they finally have pen-in-hand and get started, the results reveal creativity and outstanding work. Some have even won national awards for their school projects. These are smart students but they are lacking in organizational skills. As soon as they walk out the school doors at the end of the day, it’s, “out of sight, out of mind.”

Alfie Kohn , in his article, Rethinking Homework, said “The negative effects of homework are well known”, and “The positive effects of homework are largely mythical”. He makes note of frustrated students and parents who find homework interfering with their family time. He has found no evidence that homework benefits students academically, and may even hinder the child’s “love of learning”.

An opposing viewpoint comes from a group of Duke University researchers. As stated in the article, “Duke Study: Homework Helps Students Succeed in School, As Long as There Isn’t Too Much”, their research synthesis indicates, ““With only rare exception, the relationship between the amount of homework students do and their achievement outcomes was found to be positive and statistically significant”, although they point out that “overloading them with homework is not associated with higher grades”.

What are your thoughts on homework? Do you believe there is an academic benefit associated with homework? Do you believe homework is overrated?