Changing the Discussion

How Do You Connect the Dots?

2010-03-23T19:38:00.001-07:00

Tonight I read about the the Extreme Makeover - School Edition where the school district highlighted won the 2009 Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology. What struck me the most about what this district did was it's focus on "technology as the foundation for a whole new instructional program." Simple, yet not really. Their focus was based on well researched pillars of instruction. In Glen Cove School District the purpose of technology was to "inspire students, feed curiosity, stimulate critical thinking and problem solving and facilitate communication."

They connected to NETS and 21st Century Learning and worked for seamless integration through the lens of instruction. Curriculum, Assessment and Technology connected...there has to be some kind of line, straight, triangular, spiral, wiggly...I can't figure out any way to actually, literally connect the dots without a line to show the connection between the two. Can you?

Maybe seamless integration really can only occur through explicitly drawn connections.

Now We're Talking...Let them Bring It In!

2010-03-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

Almost three years ago I wrote a blog entry about a crazy idea...allowing students to bring in their technology and provide for those who can't afford it. Today at our Montgomery County Technology Directors meeting we had a discussion about it and how it is inevitable. So, we are (finally) starting the discussion! : )

Not that this "solution" won't be without it's challenges, but what good positive change ever is?!

Cooking Robots?

2010-02-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

So if there are cooking robots now, what comes next?

I found the most interesting part of this NY Times article the ethnographic study that the woman did to understand what kind of behavior a hot dog vendor would exhibit and then worked to program the robot to replicate it. I wonder if hot dog vendors in Pittsburgh act the same as those in Philadelphia.

Makes me a little confident that it will be a long, long time before robots can even assist teachers! :)

With or Without Technology

2010-02-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

I am teaching an online course for UMass Boston on Computers, Technology and Education. It is part of a strand of courses teachers can take to receive a certificate in Instructional Technology for Educators.

For their first blog post, I gave them the following prompt: What is the role of technology in education: the role of the teacher and the role of the student - in relation to this topic.

Today at our local Technology Directors meeting we discussed the challenges of taking "technology" out of the equation for professional development, in other words, embed it, integrate it. It is very hard to do, many people, curriculum folks, districts are just not ready to work towards true integration of technology as a tool.

As an experiment, I took their blog posts and imported them into wordle. With and without the word technology. Here is what came up. What do you conclude from this?

Sit in a Different Chair Today

2010-01-29T06:46:00.001-08:00

So the new Apple iPad was introduced today and there were a lot of disappointed folks out there twittering and blogging and writing crude comments. As I discussed it's possibilities with some of my colleagues, they too were disappointed. Everyone was looking for the computing Utopia and they feel like Apple fell short. I would say, as a few other writers have, David Pogue and Dan Katt, to name two that I have seen, that Apple is again thinking outside of the box.

I heard, no USB drive. I said, hmmmm, been using my iDisk and cloud computing since 2002, what do I need USB for? I heard, no camera. I said, hmmmm, I have two cell phones both with cameras that can upload to the web, which I could then use to download to iPad. I heard it can't print. I said, hmmmmm, the world is going green, costs for printing is up and encouragement for LESS printing is also up. I don't print my google docs, do you?

Hmmmmm....I challenge all of you naysayers to tell me, really, what can't it do that you want it to do? I bet you don't even know because you haven't even tried it yet. For those of you around long enough to remember when Apple came out with a computer without a floppy drive, think about that and then think about the iPad.

I am not saying it is a perfect device. When I get one I will probably see some challenges, however, I will either figure out a different way to do what I need to, or I won't do it. I would encourage you to sit in a different chair today, maybe you'll get a different view. And maybe, someday, you'll be reading my blog on your iPad! : )

Discussion Starter...

2009-05-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just learned about this tool from our CFF Coach - Wolfram/Alpha! This type of tool has the power to show educators just what Web 2.0 is all about.

It should also challenge them to think about what they are teaching their students. Here is a link to the screen cast that explains the website possibilities.

A computational knowledge engine....Think about the "what if" questions it can answer for students. I challenge you to discuss with one other person the potential that this type of tool has to change teaching and learning in the 21st century.

On Changing the Discussion

2009-05-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

I named my blog for a reason...changing the discussion...I have believed for years that we need to be talking about teaching and learning and NOT technology. Today in my school district, we had our CFF Flip the Switch event. It was amazing, the students showcased great projects, big and small, the teachers shared the successes and challenges of the CFF program, the board members listened and watched and thought and the discussion changed....

The teachers actually said, with no prompting, no scripting, it's not about the technology, it's about our teaching. At the end of the panel I had to speak up and honestly got very choked up as I shared my thanks with them. Thanks for taking the risk and for showing me that if you have a vision, if you work hard with the right team and leaders to support that vision, if you put technology in their hands, and give them a tech support staff and sustain a coach, the discussion will change...

I came to education to make a difference, to be an advocate for technology for teachers, sometimes it is hard to see from where I sit now that I am making a difference, today our CFF teachers and CFF coach showed me that I do. Sometimes we have to stop what we are doing and take time to celebrate all that we have done. We all make a difference. I would not have been able to move things forward so quickly here without the support of my upper administration and my tech team. They say it takes a villiage to raise a child. I also think it takes a "village" to change the discussion. Thank to all of my mentors, colleagues, friends, supporters, challengers, my "village" for being a part of changing the discussion.

ps - Check out our MS on NBC 10!

New Technology Learnings 09-10

2009-05-07T08:44:00.001-07:00

This is a wordle of what my Technology Learning Commitment Team celebrated today at our final meeting for the year. What Good stuff!

Change is messy. Many in my district were resistant to the change in technology this year. Mac to PC, stationary to Mobile, static to dynamic, flood gates were opened, some felt naked. We had a number of struggles this year but our teachers and technology support specialists all celebrated today. We discussed three pieces of the Horizon Report 2009 K-12 Edition

We shared our ideas about the following questions on our TinyChat;

What practices should we be changing (if any) in our classrooms?
How important is assessment in these classrooms?
How do we make progress in the short term?
How do we make progress in the long term?

(Thank you Kyle Peck who posed similar questions at the 1-1 Conference at PSU this year.)

We did not come up with any perfect answers but we did find that we had learned a lot and we are excited about more technology, changing teaching practices AND not forgetting to balance technology use with teaching to read, write and play in the mud!

School on a Bus

2009-03-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine sent me this article from the NYT over the weekend that talks about buses in Arkansas being wired for Internet so students can learn on their long commutes to school.

Harnessing idle time for learning, what a great idea!

Remember Who Your Followers Are

2009-03-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Last week Jodan Burnham visited our school. I tweeted about it...a reporter who follows me saw my tweet and then wrote a story about it. A few days earlier, a colleague of mine was referenced in a Tweet, only it wasn't really about him, it was a mis-tweet and I am wondering who looked him up and got as confused as I did about what he had said that promoted the tweet.

Interesting times we live in, just a reminder to think before you tweet and make sure you know who may be reading.

Great 2.0 Ideas

2009-03-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Space for me to explore my ideas and experiences of ICT in my classroom.

http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/2009/02/25/using-instant-messaging-to-engage-children-with-reading-comprehension/
~Thank you Tom Barrett!

Ideas to Inspire
http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/
~Thank you Jigar Patel!

KOCE's Film on the Fly!
Film on the Fly! is for people who love to make movies on mobile phones.
http://filmonthefly.ning.com/
~Thank you Kathy Schrock!

Some interesting facts about Twitter in light of our GMA twitter today! Check out Dave Ramage's post regarding the Twitter mis-tweet that occurred.

Meaningful Use of Technology for 5 yr Olds

2009-03-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Just...wow, great post Dr. Fritz!!

http://mokmfritzblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/meaningful-use-of-technology-in.html

A must read for technology leaders, principals, curriculum directors and the like!!

TinyChat

2009-02-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

We are getting there...

2008-11-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Years ago in a former district I remember planning a staff development day where we had identified 6 categories or tracks to plan for; Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Technology and Special Areas. As we worked toward an agenda with lead teachers of those subject areas and the Curriculum Director, in my role of Instructional Technology Coordinator, I also attended these planning meetings. This particular time I sat quietly listening to all that they were saying. After about 45 minutes of listening to ideas they asked what my thoughts were (now this is going back at least 6 years ~ 2002) and I said "I'm sad to see that we have technology as it's own strand instead of embedded into each of the other strands."

The room was quiet and no one knew quiet what to say...they couldn't really conceptualize that even though our teachers had laptops for 4 years already...

Fast forward to today...I am following "spillarke's" comments on twitter about the keynote that she is listening to by Marc Prensky at the National Conference of English Teachers (NCTE)...when you google NCTE...you can find their ning...http://ncte2008.ning.com/ with the heading of...NCTE Annual Conference, Because Shift Happens, Teaching in the 21st Century. We are getting there!

Building Virtual Global Communities

2008-11-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

US-China Virtual Symposium Presentation

Online Enhanced Podcast
http://blog.netbriefings.com/virtualconference/2008/11/07/dr-kristen-kozloski-dr-megan-fritz/

Archived Panel Discussion - Best Practices in Technology Use
http://144.118.68.54:8888/moodle20/mod/resource/view.php?id=34
(if prompted first, login as guest)
I was 1 of 5 panelists of the evening.

Emerging Interactive Media and Neomillenial Learning Styles

2008-11-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

Chris Dede
Harvard University
www.gsd.harvard.edu/~dedech/

Authentic Learning and Scaffolding

2008-11-03T15:20:00.001-08:00

This past week in my Drexel class we had many challenges with the podcast upload. Hopefully we will all get the kinks worked out and shortly you will be able to see my students' podcasts on iTunes U!! : ) For them, this process was a very good example of authentic learning and also of some additional scaffolding that we should have provided to make the upload process a bit easier.

As teachers, and technologists, when we design a learning environment that incorporates technology, we must think about our student audience and where they are with their level of technology use. It is clear to me today that my students needed a bit more scaffolding as to what a VPN was and WHY on earth they would connect to it and HOW from that connection they could upload their files. That information (along with some not so complete directions) was not provided so the students had some challenges in understanding the context for what they were doing and then completing the task.

We will discuss this in our live classroom. They all persevered very well in the process and are finding success in uploading their podcasts. They will be discussing the science of learning and how this can be applied to instructional desgin. Podcasts certainly worth checking out under Drexel's iTunes University!

Self-Engagement at 8 Years Old

2008-10-14T06:55:00.001-07:00

This morning I watched my 8 year old son show his morning sitter how to enter the world of Alice. Being a retired teacher, she was amazed at what he was doing.

He and I had dabbled in this 3D programming world when he had said to me, mom, I want to create a web-page...like Webkins....you can teach me that, right? Well, how could I say no?

I downloaded Alice and went through the tutorial on my own and then showed it to him. He learned how to load a world and start to manipulate objects in that world.

We need to find ways to harness this self-engagement for the 21st Century Learner so that all of our learners get this excited about learning on their own.

Web 3.0

2008-07-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Some new blogs I'll be following...

http://web3next.blogspot.com/

Tim Burners-Lee

Learning about these projects...

The Tabulator project is a generic Semantic Web data browser. Using outline and table modes, it provides a way to browse RDF data.

Policy Aware Web, funded by NSF, a collaboration between MINDSWAP and DIG to work toward creating discretionary, rules-based access for the World Wide Web.

The Transparent Accountable Datamining Initiative (TAMI) Project, funded by NSF, is creating technical, legal, and policy foundations for transparency and accountability in large-scale aggregation and inferencing across heterogeneous information systems.

http://dig.csail.mit.edu/

I also added some other Web 3.0 resources to my wiki.

Wednesday Sessions - NECC 2008

2008-07-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

What an amazing day already!!

Saw Mitchell Resnick from MIT first thing this morning. Really great stuff about the Scratch software and community, creativity and learning. Will post my notes later as I couldn't get on the Internet during his session. I am now waiting for Bernie Dodge to get started. Will post on that later as well, have a few things to finish up for our 12 pm presentation.

Here are the details....

University 2.0: Digital Innovations in the University Classroom

12pm Texas (CST) time; 1 pm Pennsylvania (EST) time:

Website: http://university20necc2008.googlepages.com/home
Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/university-2.0-necc-2008

Hope you can join us!!
~Kristen and Megan : )

Tuesday Sessions - NECC 2008

2008-07-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

Understanding Digital Learners: Learning in the New Digital Landscape
Ian Jukes

Website 83 page handout on the website - Understanding Digital Kids (notes on yesterday and today)

Why are kids in your classrooms?
This is a learning conference...
How can we begin to do things differently starting RIGHT NOW to have kids want to be in our classrooms?

Getting kids to WANT to learn...

Huge gap between digital learning styles and traditional education. System thing, not a personnel thing. Digital World completely out of sync with education methodology.

7 Major Changes that Educators/Education MUST make if we are going to connect with these Digital Kids

Time for education to CATCH UP.

Kids are neurologically different - see the world differently.

The Digital Diet - One step at a time.
Go online read Zits comics
Play video games against kids - while they are listening to music
Take time to explore their online world at YouTube, Flicker, etc, etc.

1. TEACH to a WHOLE NEW MIND (Daniel Pink)
Many in the top 1/3 of classes don't need to be "taught" - they do well in tool in spite of teachers instead of because of them.

Consumers v. Producers
Move beyond 20th century literacies to 21st century fluencies
~Fluencies are unconscious skills (internalized like learning to ride/riding a bike)

2. TEACH FLUENCY
Technological Fluency - transparent use of digital tools to perform a wide range of tasks (no analysis of how ink got into a pen - you just use the pen)! This is NOT about teaching kids Excel, it's about teaching kids how to problem solve!

Headware NOT Hardware

Media Fluency - being able to look critically at the content of a website, video, bog, video game, and be able to understand how the medium is being used to shape our thinking or to communicate - not how it is used but how WELL it is being used.

Educators need to understand that students need to be able to create/communicate in all mediums.

Information Fluency - ability to unconsciously to be able to interpret information in all forms in order to be able to extract the essential knowledge
Ask Good Questions
Access & Acquire Raw Material from the MOST APPROPRIATE source
Apply - VIP - moving Vision into Practice
Assess - process and product

We CANNOT just ADD another LAYER

3. We HAVE to SHIFT our INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH - resist the temptation to tell the whole story, sharing the product of our thinking, we are taking the excitement out of learning. There is a time for this but we can't do it all the time. We need to "teach lazy" - empower our students to be independent thinkers, independent learners.

Progressive Withdrawal in Education - Help kids become INDEPENDENT, not DEPENDENT on us for information/knowledge.

We live in an age of infowhelm - how do we keep kids engaged?!
Dale's Learning Cone, Learning Pyramid, Learning Triangle (google this to find diagaram)

4. Let our kids access information NATIVELY

5. Let students COLLABORATE
Ted McCain - spontaneous ad-hocism
DN's see the world differently than we do and will create things we do not even think of

6. Let students create products that demonstrate understanding of both CONTENT and PROCESS (not about using digital tools just b/c they are cool but b/c they enhance traditional learning and they are the most powerful tools)

7. We must RE-EVALUATE EVALUATION (still a place for traditional testing) ~ True Assessment measures so much more. Have to be used as tools for change of change and learning not just for teachers but also for teachers. Not just tools of accountability but tools to help teachers get better at what they do. Need an authentic audience in a variety of settings. Need encouragement to TRY and do things in all kinds of areas. Not just Qualitative/Sumative but Qualitative/Formative!

Committed Sardine Website

Edtags.org: Academic Social Tagging to Aid Learning and Assessment
Chris Dede, Adam Seldow

Web 2.0 Redefines what how and with whom we learn (c.dede)
Knowledge generated by experts v. knowledge generated by a community (i.e. wikipedia)

Chris_dede@harvard.edu

Adam Seldow
adam_seldow@gsd.harvard.edu
CIO - Fall River Public Schools

Collections of organizations and their inter-relationships

Whyville?

Sociosemantic Networking (polysyllabric words)

-communicating with language
-colloquial communication - tag as we speak

Sociosemantic plaforms
simpy
citeulike
scuttle
steve
furl
connotea
librarything
edtags - place where educational resources live

With a course - tag with course number
terminology and tags - reflection on what you are looking for in the class/as a teacher

Look at how mental models of the students will indicate their knowledge structures

isites.harvard.edu/edtags

NECC 2008 - Monday Session Notes

2008-06-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

Digital Literacy in the Elementary Classroom
Janice Friesen, Eanes ISD

Handout is online on NECC Site
References Daniel Pink
Talking about eInstruction
Talking about Alex’s Lemonade Stand Project

Resource
wordweb.info/free - pc only - check it out...very cool!

Photo Story - Kelly Manzano
100 Days of School - What each student brought to the 100 day celebration.
Headset microphones to record text.

Digital Storytelling with Minimal Clicks
Wes Fryer and Others

thinkingmachine.pbwiki.com

teachdigital.pbwiki.com/digitalstoryteling

Ear v. Eye - dialup v. broadband

“Do Curriculum”

Tell a Story with 5 Photos for Educators - Karen Motgomery
(on Flicker) - other group available also but not moderated by an educator so may have questionable content.
5 photos = 5000 word story

Text Century v. Visual Century

Professional Development - VoiceThread with Coffee 2.0
Digital Picture for Name Tent (no directions first)

Moodle Model 5E Lesson
Mark McCall, Charles Ackerman
Bryan ISD, Bryan TX

www.jukeboxedu.com
Teaching in a 1/1 classroom.
Extrovert v. Introvert
(Lab-Based v. Web-Based)

Other from Today:
Blog to Check out: http://learning20.blogspot.com/

Moving Skyscrapers, Moving Pedagogy

2008-06-26T10:16:00.001-07:00

If Dubai can plan a moving skyscraper (thanks to Jim Gates for this link) then we can plan for moving pedagogy. How do we do this? We begin by having discussions that focus on what some might call "out of the box" thinking. In a technology meeting today my team asked me how we would support PowerPoint from school to home if we were moving to Macs, iWork and Open Office. I suggested that we talk about using SlideShare and other Web 2.0 tools with students.

It was a new thought process for them, using the web to present. If we don't start having the discussions, we can't start changing the thinking or moving the pedagogy. A school district near mine has communicated to it's teachers that it is moving to Office 2007 so that they can take advantage of the additional 1500 features available in this new software. WHAT??? I would be willing to be that most people can't even list 50 features that they use now! So, to that I say...let's look at Google Docs. Thinking out of the box...what do you think??!!

Moodle Meet Ning

2008-06-25T08:36:00.001-07:00

View my page on Moodle Meet

NECC 2008

2008-06-23T10:42:00.001-07:00

View my page on NECC 2008

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

2008-06-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine shared this video with me today. It includes perspectives from Cheryl Lemke, Daniel Pink and Chris Dede among others. It is worth taking 5 minutes to watch. As an educator and advocate for 21st century classrooms, we need to keep these kinds of ideas in front of educational leaders and teachers to continue to promote the seamless integration of technology in the teaching and learning process.

False Sense of Connection

2008-06-10T17:31:00.001-07:00

We had an awesome summer thunderstorm near my house this evening. As I sat here and enjoyed watching the unpredictable weather from the comfort of my front porch, I reflected upon the fact that at the moment I was watching, my fun loving golden retriever kept wanting to connect to me, then the cat, then me, then the cat, to get someone to play with her. It reminded me of an old saying, "on the internet, no one knows you're a dog" which also made me think, if you're a dog, really, you can't connect with your owner or the cat via twitter on the internet. Some connections really just need physical interaction! It is human (and animal) nature to want to physically connect to one another.

Wes Fryer and Vicki Davis have both recently blogged about taking time to disconnect and refresh ourselves, connect with our family and stay positive. I wholeheartedly agree that all of these are very important to do. In fact, I think it is important to try to do these things more than once a year. Many of us take one vacation in the summer for about a week. The rest of the year we are connected with our colleagues, friends, family and significant others, via email, twitter, text messages, occasional phone calls (if we feel it's too much to type or text) and, if we're lucky, we meet in person. I am reminded of an initiative in our school district where we are educating the "whole child." As part of that, we were presented with the fact that to thrive, children, actually all humans need 6-8 respectful touches a day. There was no research on how many respectful twitters or emails equated to respectful touches.

Hmmmm....so I'm wondering...text connections without human interactions...do they give us a false sense of connection? As I begin to plan for a one to one initiative for my teachers this summer, I will pause to remember that the goal is not to disconnect but to strengthen connections. I will push myself to go the extra mile and not just send an email, text or twitter, but extend a hand and a friendly smile and hopefully create a human connection. Maybe even give a hug or two to those that have a special place in my heart. I urge you do to the same!

Making Learning "Safe" for Teachers

2008-05-13T05:41:00.000-07:00

In today's world of accountability, it is hard to find ways to allow for positive accountability without some kind of "evaluation" tied to it. However, I think this is what we, as educational technologists and advocates of changing pedagogy desperately need to do to support teachers!! If we do not make their professional development learning environments "safe" for exploration and free of negative evaluation, the willingness of teachers to try new things will be sorely diminished.

Safe environments invite exploration, creating avenues such as moodle sandboxes are just the type of activities that can begin to facilitate this type of professional learning. I have learned that people who are enclosed in walls for a long period of time have a very difficult time knowing what to do when the walls come down and they have opportunities for growth. I think we need to be cognizant of these feelings and make sure that we understand that while teachers may want to embrace change and new learning, they need support, hand holding and being told that it is OK not to know it all, or to have it all together as they explore these new frontiers.

We must also loosely structure their learning so that they have time to explore and but also give them small successes so that they get excited about learning more and take it upon themselves to continue to explore. These ideas may sounds simple and you may say to yourself that you are already doing these things and if so that's great. If you don't see teachers jumping on the bandwagon behind you, stop to talk to them and see how they are feeling. Safety for learning and exploration may be just what they need to get going. Try some structured facilitation and consistent support and watch them grow. Just like young plants, they need constant attention, at least in the beginning until they are strong enough and have a deep enough root and developed enough stem to survive a bit of drought and still stay strong and continue to grow!

Reading and Thinking

2008-04-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

Had some time this morning to work through some good Twitter and Blog links. Added a page to my wiki entitled "To Think About..." - sometimes it's just easier to add to my wiki! Happy Thursday...off to think! : )

Web Tools Conundrum...

2008-04-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended the first National Education Web Professionals Conference.

There was a wonderful diversity of educational professionals there. The conference wasn’t large enough for break-out sessions so we all were in the same room all day. It was a different but unique and rewarding conference experience. There wasn’t wireless internet access, which was a good and bad thing as we were a captive audience. The keynote speaker was Tony Byrne, founder of CMS Watch. What I thought was most interesting about his speech, was his idea that in order to identify what your district/organization needs from a CMS system, have people create narrative use cases to tell a story, that validates the needs, not just create a checklist of needs. Furthermore, the panels didn’t just present, they told stories about how their topic came to fruition in the district.

Many people in the educational technology world are struggling with blogs, wikis, podcasts, on-line courseware and content management systems (CMS) and how they all fit together. Some of the topics of conversation included Moodle vs. CMS, how do you make all users happy? What does ease of use mean? What content should be internal v. external?

They are hoping to grow the conference and the conversations, hope you’ll think about joining in!! :)

Digital Sharing and Engagement

2008-03-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

A struggle with my Drexel students kept me thinking about what really is the difference between presenting and digital sharing? Again, we were stuck on semantics - traditional paradigms about presentations with PowerPoint. We came up with the term digital sharing to reflect what we were trying to do. Traditionally the last night of class we have everyone present their project to the rest of the class. A painfully long experience when there are 20 students in the class. We wanted to have students look at each other's projects in a more meaningful way.

What we came up with was this: the students would post to my Drexel Wiki page and then using the wiki discussion board section, they would share comments with their peers. I was amazed by how much more involved the students were this method. They were forced to make an effort to look at others projects and they had to share feedback. Because this was done in a way that made sense to them, via a Wiki, the web and a discussion board, they were engaged.

But that wasn't all...at the same time they were working on this they had learned how to post to my voice thread about Blogging in Higher Education. They were doing this with their cell phones! Now I know Marc Prensky has written about harnessing the power of the cell phone in the classroom, and I agree, but to see it actually in practice, engaging students, amazing!!!

They immediately got out their cell phones and began to call themselves to post their response, then they stopped. They realized that they wanted to script out their sentences and then collaborate with their peers to see who was writing what. The energy in the room was awesome!!! They took the time to have the voicethread call themselves in the hall so that their recordings could be quiet. It was engagement at it's finest!! Now if we can just harness that for K-12!! : )

If it's not about the technology, what IS it about?

2008-02-26T10:48:00.000-08:00

Wes Fryer's blog post today reminded me about the importance of semantics when we talk about education and I would propose, more specifically about technology integration, especially as we talk to our leaders and our school boards.

Pennsylvania is on their way to getting it right with the Classrooms for the Future initiative. What is this initiative about? It's about teaching and learning first and technology second. It's about coaching teachers to shift their pedagogy in the classroom first and using technology as the tool second.

I constantly remind my Drexel students that when I am teaching about Multimedia in Instructional Design that it is NOT about the technology. They struggle with this comment at first but eventually get what I am saying. That is, that it IS about teaching, learning, changing pedagogy through collaboration, constructing knowledge, and empowering students by (as Wes said) "giving them an invitation to learn." Ultimately, it IS about our future!

I would love to hear your comments about what it IS about as well!
Visit Kristin Hokanson's blog to find out more about how to tell Congress (and don't forget about the semantics!!).

Learning about the Moon...

2008-02-20T18:23:00.001-08:00

Tonight there is a lunar eclipse. Being a technologist and NOT an astronomer I felt it my obligation to look up what this actually meant so that if I was asked by the Jay Leno show, or, more importantly my seven year old son, I wouldn't look like I had no idea what I was talking about. What I found interesting was the following quote by Robert Roy Britt in his article "The Disappearing Moon: Why and Where it Hides."

"Modern humans have lost touch with the night sky compared to our ancestors, to the point that even some of the most intelligent people on the planet are too wrapped up in the day-to-day to know much about what's going on at night."

I am wondering that as technologists (and intelligent people) if we are getting too wrapped up in the twitters/blogs/wikis/nings/pownces to remember what it is like to be in the classroom with 30 students and the reality of day to day teaching and learning, even with internet connectivity, somewhat unconnected to our peers and our friends throughout the day, AND which for many includes not enough technology and many administrators who are not sure how to get more or who are fighting with technology departments about how to let the Web 2.0 tools in!

That being the case, those of us who can, should advocate to teach others as Steve Hargadon is doing in his Classroom 2.0 "Conversations"/Talk-Casts. I need to learn more about how to use these tools in my own work environment!

Web 2.0 Teachers and Learners...

2008-02-14T06:36:00.001-08:00

Early in my educational training I learned that the expert is not always the best teacher because they tend to "forget" the details of "how" to do something as those simple "how's" have become natural in their use of the tool. I struggle to remember this as I am planning an introductory Moodle training for tomorrow’s in-service in my school district.

Having recently attended the PETE&C conference, I was humbly reminded that there are people who have never been exposed to Twitter or who have NEVER even created a blog or a wiki, used Moodle AND some who really don't even know what these and other Web 2.0 tools are or how they can benefit education. I guess that is what I like about the PETE&C conference, many practicing educators, sharing with others what they are doing even though they may not be experts in the tools.

I was excited hearing keynote speaker David Pogue talk about splintering technology and all of the amazing technological advancements that will be affecting the digital natives that we are teaching, I think we have to also remember that there are many educators who have not yet experienced Web 2.0 and it's possibilities As an educator, I believe it is our job is to remember that and empower them to learn about it, remembering back to our early learning days with this technology and remembering to teach them the basics without making them feel less of a teacher because they don’t know.

To that end, I am trying to create a virtual 2.0 educational field experience for the students in my Multimedia in Learning Design class. I created one this summer that was not well received from the edu-blogging community, possibly because of timing and I understand we are all busy, but I also think that if WE don't take time to teach those who don't know, who will??

These students are VERY new to the Web 2.0 world, while they know IM and Facebook, Web 2.0 tools in instructional design are new to them. Here ere is the original assignment I created this past summer.

Field Experience Paper

Please use APA style and include at least 5 research citations.

Use one of the following blog links (list deleted), or another of your choosing to virtually visit an educator. After reading a number of their blog entries, contact them to complete a short interview via email. You will need to write your own interview questions.

Your interview should ask more detailed questions concerning the topics you’ve read about and their practical application in the classroom. Ask these questions knowing where you are in the teaching process (i.e. just starting, learning more about technologies, or changing careers) and how you would like to incorporate multimedia into the classroom based on what you are learning in this class. Many of these educators are busy so I would suggest that you limit your questions to 5-7 to ensure that you will get a response in a timely fashion to complete your paper.

After completing the interview, do some further research one of the topics related to their blog entries and include your perspective on its potential use in education in your paper. Your paper should be 10-15 pages in length.

I am looking for new ideas to create a virtual 2.0 educational experience, for beginning Web 2.0 teachers who are learning about how to incorporate these tools into their instructional designs. All ideas welcome!! :)

2008-02-11T08:10:00.000-08:00

PETE&C 2008 Conference
Notes/Resources for Sharing

Keynote Speaker
David Pogue - http://www.davidpogue.com/

ETI Session - Ann Johnston
Lincoln Intermediate Unit No. 12
Good Model for staff development. Model for training - all resources in Moodle

Integration
Collaboration
Exposure to traditional/emerging tehnologies
Subject focused
Web 2.0

Modeling in planning and presentation
6 Teacher Stations (20 min./stations) – for exposure

Wiki's v. Blogs - Showdown in the Classroom
founderstech.wikispaces.com
handout on the wiki
You Tube Video – Wiki’s in Plain English

Wiki – document centered by content…
Blogging – David Warlick (basis for use)
Literacy=communication
Blogs = communication
Blogs = Literacy
Teacher: No requirement for classroom blog but to think about what they are learning and write down their thoughts ~ exploration of their thinking.

Places to blog: Kidsblog; Classblogmeister.com – readability level of writing is displayed, very cool.
Presenter – 8th Grade Teacher
Weekly requirement of the science class 20 pts to write, 20 pts to comment
Changing classroom practice from daily journaling and prompt/question of the day to the blog area. Starts by taking students to the computer lab 1/wk, then 1 e/o week, then not at all – students will find a way when offered to HAND WRITE the post and turn it in. Teacher controls all approval of posting, comments, etc.

Web 2.0 in the Social Studies Classroom
Jim Shields, Hatboro Horsham
theclimbingteacher.wikispaces.com

www.gigipan.org - panoramics of sites all over the world

List of Projects Demonstrated - Contact Jim for links...
CultureSport
Wordpop
Gender and Age
Help meet our neighbors across the globe
Ning Social Network
Flickr
VoiceThread

Other from Colleagues
http://www.mosaickr.com/ - create mosaics from flickr

Too Much Printing!!!

2008-02-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

My question of the day...how do we empower teachers to not print but go digital?? Baby step ideas are needed...I love Wes Freyer's post today about Digital Storytelling but I think I have to start smaller with some of the folks that I am working with.

All ideas welcome!! I am hoping that we can begin to get rid of so much printing and move to more digital teaching, learning, creating and assessing!!

From Fred D'Ignazio's Sparky the Dog...
"Cultural Blindness

We are not doing this on purpose. Most of us adults are not naturally mean, despite what many kids think. We really are people of good will. But we may be terminally blind.

As with any cultural transformation, the inhabitants of the old culture (the world of printed words) can't see the new culture coming. And the inhabitants of the new culture (electronic media) can't understand why most of their world is so foreign to the older persons they see everywhere around them.

Let's face it, we big people love books. We have spent our lives in the company of books. If you added up all the books we've stuck our noses into, you'd be amazed. Even worse, add up all the inches of text we've followed, line after line, page after page, as we've read books over twenty, thirty, or more years! We've spent our lives in "book school" learning this simple equation: KNOWLEDGE = BOOKS. And school is the center of this theory of knowledge. The specialists of book-centered knowledge teach in the schools. Their methodology is straightforward: If you want to know something, find it in a book."

Leaders, Technology Integration and Professional Development

2008-02-06T06:18:00.001-08:00

"A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless ... someone's got to make a wake up call." ~Warren Bennis

This was the leadership quote of the day today that a colleage shared with me from his iGoogle gadget this morning. Being a technology leader in my district, I love the quote. Last night's WOW2 EdTech Chat had, from what I could tell, one principal attend. Melinda Miller who has her own blog. We need more principals like her. She also does a podcast with Scott Elias which you can subscribe to from this blog. My research on principal leadership for technology integration also found that we need more principals like them. AND, the conversation last night further validated these ideas by those in the field who were chatting on the topic of technology professional development. Many in the discussion were technology integrators or technology coaches and not building adminstrators.

How do we get more building administrators involved in the discusion? Some are doing it on their own, Aaron Steinly, Assistant Principal at United School District also has a blog for his teachers as does Tim Lauer, Principal of Lewis Elementary, but they are the exception, as is Chris Lehman, not the norm. I am sure there are others that I have not had time to find and sometimes principals discuss these topics on the LeaderTalk blog. I wonder how many building administrators read these blogs?

As a district Director of Technology I believe it is my job to help principals become mini-technology integrators/leaders. Afterall, building principals are (supposed to be) the instructional leader in the building. If we want teachers to begin to think about and then begin to practice changing their teaching and learning environments to more 21st Century-like styles, we, technology directors, integrators and coaches alike need to provide consistent support for the instructional leaders at all levels. Building leaders then need to provide a consistent message of changing instructional practice to their teachers.

Listening, Conversing, Discussing and Debating...Which one are you doing??

2008-02-01T07:05:00.001-08:00

I just read an interesting quote from David Warlick's latest post (1/31/08) "Unconference is anarchy in practice. He says that everyone was blogging and podcasting, but no one was listening." He was listening to Andrew Keen on Digital Narcissism.

While I know digital natives are touted to be able to multi-task much better than the digital immigrants, I am wondering who is really listening when they are multi-tasking?? I ask this because if they are really listening, they will begin to more deeply discuss topics and involve others, but is this really going on in our blogs and podcasts today?

Educators are beginning to have conversations about technology and changing teaching and learning. I think conversations are a start it must go beyond that. We must then move forward both with our colleagues that we agree with AND those that we disagree with in our systems to move conversations to discussions and discussions to debates so that the "real" issues get to the table and are recognized. While it may seem like semantics, conversations are informal and begin most often between like-thinking colleagues, which won't cause an irritation in the system (Wheatley, 2001).

Discussions (which imply the taking of action to exchange ideas) can begin to do that but must be followed up with debates (formal, public discussion of ideas and opposing viewpoints). If we don't do move to these higher levels of conversing and listening, I'm not sure that we will ever move beyond the conversation to fundamentally change educational systems and create what we are all conversing about...an educational revolution that embraces 21st Century teaching and learning.

Technology Applications in Educational Leadership

2008-01-30T06:07:00.000-08:00

This evening I will be speaking in Dr. Ron Musoleno's graduate classroom at Penn State Great Valley on the topic of technology applications in educational leadership. As my research was on the topic of principal leadership for technology integration, I believe this course is essential to all potential incoming administrators so I feel very fortunate to be able to share some of what I have discovered, discuss and seek to continually practice to these potential administrators.

In Dr. Ron's words, "[the] premise [of the class] is to introduce students who are in the principal certification program to some of the many technological applications available to them as administrators. It is also designed to acquaint them with instructional tools (such as the CPS) that they may encounter when they observe a class."

We will be reviewing classroom performance systems such as eInstruction, Turning Point and Senteo. We will also look at podcasting and some other Web 2.0 tools. To begin, we will explore two TeacherTube videos to set the stage and get these students in the mindset of a digital native. I will also introduce them to the conversations about School 2.0 (School 2.0 wiki) and Students 2.0 that were recently discussed at Educon 2.0, we need to get more educators, at all levels of the system (and especially at the administrative level) to get involved in these conversations!

to reiterate...revisit the title of my blog and my first post...changing the discussion! : )

Technology-ish

2008-01-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

I think that 21st Century education is a constant balancing act between defining our learning goals and finding/acquiring/using the tools we need to meet those goals. Vicki Davis had a great blog post about Webkinz and education this week.

I also attended Peter Reynold's webinar on Tuesday and he reminded us to always try to promote creativity and innovation in our students. He had us draw teacups, so at my technology team meeting I had the staff draw monkeys. Most, including mine, were "monkey-ish." If you didn't hear the webinar, the "ish" might not make sense for you but basically what Peter was saying is that "ish" is a way of encouraging students. To that end he has created a product to easily allow students to animate drawn objects.

This product will do well to help us target ISTE's technology standard of creativity and innovation. Some of the first graders in one of my elementary schools got to demo this tool and created some Animation-ish movies today to illustrate dancing. I hope you enjoy them and all remember to dance to your own music! (hmmm...video upload errors...for now will publish without the videos...sorry!).

Many of us strive to be on the cutting edge every day. In balancing life, I have to say I think sometimes it's ok NOT to be and sometimes it's ok if you are just "technology-ish."

Entering the Wiki World...

2008-01-08T15:53:00.001-08:00

I created my wiki space today. I called it web20fored and the first space is about Why Wiki's. I welcome any input on the topic.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

In the past few days I have heard and read about how New Year's Resolutions are "planned to fail" because they are too broad or too comprehensive. Having started a new job, at times I am overwhelmed by all that I want to introduce to my teachers. Sometimes it leaves me puzzled and almost paralyzed as to where to begin. So, this year I have decided to take some smaller steps and set small goals. Introduce one thing at a time instead of showing them 5 Web 2.0 tools at once without knowing our goals and vision of technology integration as a district.

This week I (finally) found time to read the report Maximizing the Impact - The Pivotal Role of Technology in a 21st Century Education System. I thought it was well written. One of the key points that struck me was the following quote,

"We have different missions. We serve different constituencies, but we speak with one voice on this issue: We must synchronize our efforts to leverage technology to achieve results for every student and, ultimately, for the nation, states and communities as well."

This is the key point I will start with as I bring my technology team and my technology lead teachers together this week to discuss this report. I have asked them to bring one question and one idea that we should discuss further. I can't wait to see what they come up with!!

You can download the full report here.

Transitions

2007-12-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

Again, a bit since I've blogged! Ok, two months' isn't really a bit and I have been in transition from one job to another. Now that I am settled, consistency should fall into place. I am finding a routine and time to revisit the blogosphere that I have neglected. I realized I missed the K-12 Online Conference. Yikes! Luckily David Warlick's keynote is still on the site and I have download it to watch when I don't have time (have to say that these days as who really has time???).

I have also come to see that you have to be careful not to confuse pre-conceived notions about how an organization is with how it really is! Additionally, in my new position I have the opportunity to work with Ray Jorgensen and the ideas surrounding Conversational Leadership. Great stuff for someone coming new to an organization and looking for ways to structure conversation and think about systems and how they function.

As I transition, so do the people who work for me and I am hoping that along with me, they can suspend certainty (one of the principles of the learning conversation) as we move forward to develop a vision for technology...keeping in mind my theme for this blog of changing the discussion...from technology to pedagogy.

Gaining Perspective

2007-09-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

Over the past month and a half (wow, has it been that long since I blogged??!!) I have had a number of experiences that have (again) brought to the forefront of my mind the NEED we have to be able to examine multiple perspectives before responding (and not reacting) to situations, events or actions.

While it would be wonderful if others in this world did the same, I will focus on myself continuing to do this, at work, at home and in all of my relationships. It seems that if I pause, even for just a moment, to do this, understanding comes and my response is thoughful.

I am currently reading Change or Die by Alan Deutschman. While I agree with the principles in the book, I think we have to be careful to make a blanket statement and expect everyone to "change or die" in the same way or at the same rate.

For examples, teachers who have never created a WebQuest before are not quite ready to create their own blog or even post so someone else's blog as they are not confident yet of their ideas (maybe haven't even really formed them yet) and feel naked posting out there to the world. As an advanced user of technology, I think it is important that we all keep this in mind. Especially if we are working with teachers who are NOT advanced users. We must remember the point that they are at and strive to move them to the next step. Sometimes pushing them too far ahead will lead to refusal. Afterall, shouldn't we differentiating our strategies for technology integration and scaffolding for teachers just as we expect them to do for their students?

I will try to get on track again with my blogging with the goal of one idea at a time and continuing to change the discussion ~ it's not about the technology...it's about the processes and pedagogy that we use for 21st Century learning.

8 Things - Tagging, Connecting, Learning

2007-08-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

I came back to my office this afternoon to the latest Learning & Leading with Technology. All of the articles immediately caught my eye on this one...especially the article by Tim Lauer on making your presence known as a blogger.

I was tagged by Marci Hull and Kristin Hokanson! While this may seem somewhat like an annoying meme, I am finding that as I lurk on their blogs and read their "tags" I am learning a lot from who they know. So I hope that you learn a least one thing from those that I tag.

Here are the rules:
Post these rules before you give your facts
List 8 random facts about yourself
At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

So, here are my facts:

1. I am a certified NAUI scuba diver, have been 130' deep off the Jersey Shore where visibility was about 8' but my favorite dive to date is the James Bond wreck in the Bahamas where visibility was 80'!
2. I can cook just about anything in the microwave.
3. My great grandfather immigrated from Campobasso (Molise), Italy it is the first place I will visit when I get to Europe!
4. I surround myself with positive messages...always! Casting Crowns, Skillet, Tom Boz
5. My son is the most creative child I know he knows how to play - and not with technology but with old fashioned mud, blocks and his imagination!
6. I have 3 sisters, 2 brothers and 8 nieces and nephews.
7. My dream job is to be an educational technologist and use a Mac everyday!
8. I love children!

I tag:
Joyce
Bill
Tim
Dave
Bard
Kathy
Jen
Marc

Happy Tagging!

The Target

2007-08-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

I have been on vacation off and on for the last month and have been thinking about the target that I want to give to my teachers. Now its back to reality, catching up on my favorite blogs, 45 posts to read right now. In reading Marcie's blog about teaching Web 2.0 I am reminded of two quotes...
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." ~A. Einstein
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time..." ~Author Unknown

And so I am starting small while dreaming big! I am reading about Twitter as an educational tool and all sorts of cool stuff but I know that most of my teachers need to start small so I am going to ask them to try to do two things relating to technology this year:
1. Create a web presence - we have a new web tool in the district; SchoolFusion which is easy to use and simply combines a web page with some basic online classroom features and,
2. Create a new way to learn difficult material through the use of technology (WebQuest, Wiki, etc.)

Of course these two things are not small ideas but will start discussions that may change classroom instruction, that is my hope anyway!

As Will Rogers said, "why not go out on a limb - that is where the fruit is."

Stuck and Paralyzed

2007-07-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

I was struck by the video that a colleague of mine posted on her blog as it illustrates just how stuck some educators are in their traditional ways of doing things and solving problems. When presented with a problem, instead of working together to find an answer, we call for help as if we are a victim of our situation, paralyzed by our circumstances.

The truth is, we have a choice to stay put or to move. To allow others to keep us hostage or to move around the system in a way that we build our own power and unstick ourselves so that we can continue to grow and for the purposes of education, continue to make a difference for the lives of those we teach. We have to learn how to empower ourselves and take risks. How do we do that if we feel as though we are in an unsafe environment to experiment and sometimes fail??

We have to hope that there are brave administrators our there who are willing to put on their sheilds and fight the good fight for teachers to feel safe in changing pedagogy, embracing Web 2.0 tools and changing teaching and learning! And, as my colleague Marcie says, "Negativity is not cool!!"

For those of us out there trying to make a difference, keep going!! Think of yourself in a swimming pool, wherever you are, as in a system, when you move you will cause ripples. As for my target for teachers...still trying to figure that out. I'm not sure we can set one target for all if we can not support it system wide.

I am reminded of a Sesame Street book that illustrates similar principles to Kristin's video mentioned above...where Big Bird has a wagon that just won't go (doesn't have wheels) and then asks "who has something good for wagons" and EVERYONE comes running with something different to help fix his wagon...at the end of the book Grover says..."every day you need a helper, every day I need one too, there's so much we can do together, you help me and I'll help you!"

These simple messages make sense to children...why don't we try them on educators?!

How Do You Hit a Moving Bulls-Eye with a Blindfold On?

2007-07-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

...well, with ESP of course!! :) Having just come back from NECC, I find that my head is spinning with so many new ideas and it is now time to write the goals of technology integration for next year. As I think about them, I am reminded of a few quotes from my dissertation research:

Technology alone is only one piece of the puzzle that can support educational change, but technology will have little impact without accompanying reform at all levels (Barnett, 2003; Ely, 2000).
The success of a system wide change model depends on a coordinated “bundle” of innovations affecting many groups of stakeholders those results in a coherent system after its implementation (Ellsworth, 2000, ¶ 11).
Further investigation into how teacher pedagogy and teacher technology knowledge affect general teaching practice found that teachers who are exemplary in pedagogy are able to integrate technology as an effective tool, even if their technological expertise is not at an advanced level (Pierson, 2001).

What do we start with and how do we move (or continue to move) forward? I find that people who have a hard time with structure, have a hard time with the vision of implementing technology, or with the idea that sometimes, the change you want to see cannot be "measured" when it comes to technology integration and student acheivement. Don't get me wrong, I believe we do need measures of success. Sometimes, however, they may come in the form of anectdotal records instead of statistical scores. Those wishing to use an instrument should take a look at the featured research paper at NECC, "Cross-Validating Measures of Technology Integration." Definitely worth a read if you are looking for a tool to measure teacher technology use and integration. Copies of the instruments reviewed can be found here http://www.iittl.unt.edu/.

In the meantime, I am going to try to create a target that my teachers can see (topic for a future blog), so that they can try to hit it with their eyes open and tell their stories about the challenges and successes along the way!

Telling Stories

2007-06-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

At NECC 2007 I had the opportunity to sit at the Drexel Online Booth to promote the new Learning Technologies Masters program. It was interesting to me how many people came up to the booth just to share their Drexel story. The more questions you asked, the more you could learn about them. It is a good example of how people just want to connect to other people.

I think we need to think of more ways for people to share their stories...maybe that should be my ning. For right now, I will just quietly think about it and listen to others tell their stories and watch the Classroom 2.0 ning. I am currently multi-tasking, blogging while I am attending a Birds-Of-A-Feather Open Source/Web 2.0 session at NECC. People are sharing lots of great stories here. It is great stuff but almost information overload at the same time. For some of the best Web 2.0 tools, check out the Classroom 2.0.net wiki website. I'm off to go explore some of these tools and listen to the stories!

Have you connected with someone and told a story to today?

Let them Bring It!

2007-06-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

I am an avid reader of the GLEF website and newsletter. The newsletter I got today had two great articles in it. One of them reminded me of an idea that I have about how to change the funding for technology in schools. I have shared it with a few of my colleagues (most who say it will never work) and it sounds a bit crazy, but it just might get us moving ahead at a faster pace with technology.

What if... we let the students who "have" bring the technology in...and then focus our efforts as a school district on funding technology for those who "have not." In my past experience of being a Palm Education Training Coordinator, I remember hearing Elliott Soloway talk at a conference about the fact that the reason handhelds in education work so well with students is because students take personal ownership of them. I believe he mentioned that in his Detroit Inner-City Handheld Project he only had 5% loss. Amazing!! GLEF asked students what they wanted to see in the classroom and they listed the following; laptops, blue tooth technology, cell phones, digital cameras, graphing calculators, Nintendo DS, video cameras, flash drives, universal remotes, iPods and SIMS (full article). Don't students have many of these items at home, probably even their own? How many of you work in places where these items have been banned?!

Of course, this idea would take some planning and policy setting, however, I think sometimes we make it more complicated than it needs to be. I would like to quote a colleague of mine, a high school principal, on the topic of allowing iPods and cell phones in school, "there are 150 ways students can do damage with a pencil, but we seem to have be able to get that under control so why not technology?!"

The difference with technology is that it is changing all the time...changes make people uneasy. Compared to technology, the changes a pencil has seen in the last 100+ years are relatively simple. Why we don't limit students to only yellow #2 pencils anymore? More importantly, don't we let students bring pencils to school?

To appreciate the difficulty that teachers face when presented with the idea of changing their pedagogy to be problem-based, student centered with technology infused as a tool, take a minute and read Jim Moulton's blog entry about change! It should humble you and help you appreciate what we are asking teachers to do, and if nothing else, it should make you chuckle!

Going Outside to Get In...

2007-06-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have learned that in closed systems, people become frustrated and hungry to the point of starving for connections and for information! I think the true definition of a closed system should also somehow involve the word insanity! If we are not willing to let new ideas *IN* or let people *OUT* to have new experiences, how will we ever grow? If the only reinforcement of ideas is from within, the message doesn't change and most likely, those in the having the conversation won't change either.

Today I started a new conversation in our district between librarians, technology teachers , technology coordinators and some who also fulfill the role of webmaster. We brainstormed about the cross overs, specialties and the potential for collaboration. Unfortunately, due to summer scheduling, the groups will barely cross paths in person due to the nature of trying to get busy people together. Fortunately, we will be able to use Moodle to create a virtual conversation. The challenge of all of the groups will be to open their minds to new ideas about working together. It will begin by communicating with the groups about the scope and seqence of each other's curriculum, something they have never seen. It also involves appreciating the perspecitve of two very different mind sets, the digital natives and the digital immigrants, however, should'd we also add the digital refugee??!! Interesting and mind boggling...baby steps...but, baby steps are still steps!!

Before you can change it...

2007-06-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that before you can change a discussion, you first have to have one to change! Seems simple. In preparing for my upcoming presentations at NECC I have been going back to my research on change. One of my favorite writers on this subject is Margaret Wheatley. In her 2002 book entitled Turning to One Another, she talks about starting conversations. Specifically, "if we want to change the conversation, we have to change who's in the conversation" (Wheatley, 2002). In one of her most recent articles, she talks about large scale change happening as emergence and beginning with local actions.

Locally, next week Drexel's School of Education is holding their First Annual Leadership Conference entitled"Collaborative and Sustainable Leadership: From ONE of us to ALL of us." I believe it is places like this that local conversations, discussions and networks can start! I will be starting a conversation with two of my colleagues on system-oriented leadership at that conference. If you don't have anything to do on Saturday, June 23 at 2 pm, why don't you join our conversation!

Changing the Discussion

2007-06-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Today I joined my first ning. I have not yet started a blog or a wiki because until today, I had not figured out what to focus on or what cool title to use. Having finished my dissertation research last year, I wanted to take a year off to read and observe others but not necessarily write. In thinking about how to introduce myself on the ning I realized what I really want to focus on (at least for now) is changing the discussion about educational technology...in other words, changing the WAY we talk about technology integration. Others are starting to talk about it also. Not talking about the STUFF (hardware) but the PROCESS of utilizing tools to create more student-centered learning environments. Those of you who know me know that I embrace change as well as discussion so it seemed only fitting that I would create a blog combining the two! : )