What Matters Now

Seth Godin just published a book called What Matters Now. In his new e-book, which is really more of a pamphlet, Godin and a number of other thinkers examine some important ideas that every educator must ponder and attempt to incorporate into his or her teaching.  These are concepts that will cross every industry and will prove to be invaluable for our students as we move into the second decade in the 21st century.

Download the free PDF here or read the book below.

The case for mobile phones in education

Mobile phones are ubiquitous.  Whether you like it or not, your students have them and are probably texting or on Facebook while in your class.  Some may see these tools as a massive problem for teachers but mobile phones are the one technology that has the most potential to improve education around the world.

There are many initiatives to improve educational opportunities for students.  Laptop programs have been extremely popular for the past few years.  While laptops provide access to information and offer the opportunity to engage the world, they are expensive and not every student can afford one.

Mobile phones, on the other hand, are less expensive and provide many of the same opportunities to extend the classroom for learning.  We need to find a way to provide quality education for all people around the world and at this point mobile phones are our best bet.

To support this argument, I have listed below a number of very useful blog posts, presentations, or websites that examine the power of mobile phones in the classroom.  At the end of the day, mobile phones will not change what we need to teach but they can improve how our students learn.

Post: Please turn on your cell phone

Presentation:  Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools

Website: Cell Phones in Learning

Wiki: Cell Phones in Learning

Wiki: K-12 Cell Phone Projects

Delicious: Articles on cell phones in education

Website: MoblieActive

Photo Credit: Quinn.Anya

What is TEDxNYED?

This week the TEDxNYED website went live and the application is now open to all educators or those interested in the future of education.

The TEDx event will be hosted in New York City on March 6, 2010.  But while you could view the website to learn about the event, I wanted to introduce TEDxNYED and explain what prompted its creation.

In the summer of 2009, I came across a tweet about TEDx.  TED is a brand that almost everyone instantly recognizes as a leader in helping to spread innovative and thoughtful ideas around the world.  Now with TEDx, individuals could host their own independent TED event.  When I perused the list of current TEDx events, I did not see any dedicated to education.  It is then when I decided to start this process.

I currently work in New York City at an independent school.  I knew an epicenter like New York City would be an ideal location to bring together some amazing minds to discuss education.  As an educator who is involved in studying the potential of technology in shaping the future of education, I wanted the event to be centered on how new media and technology is shaping our educational landscape.

I brought together a number of amazing technology leaders, educators, and TEDsters from around New York City to help lead this event.  This group has worked hard over the last five months to create an event that will bring the best and brightest minds in education, media, and technology together to reach educators, leaders, and those passionate about education.  Our hope is that our speakers will spread ideas and help decision makers and interested parties understand this undercurrent in education and take these ideas back to their schools or organizations and make valuable change to educational instruction, design and access.

While we still have a great deal of planning still to do, we at TEDxNYED are well on our way and look forward to hosting this event on March 6, 2010.  We see this a great way for us to spread ideas on the future education while providing an opportunity to network and meet some amazing people who are dedicated to improving education.

Follow TEDxNYED on Twitter and Facebook.

Social Media Workshop

Theory

Social Media Revolution

New Media Literacies

Digital Generation Themes

The Digital Generation Themes consist of:

Creativity

Collaboration

Teaching

The Power of Social Media

The networked student

You Tube Activism

Practice

Tools that promote the themes of collaboration, creativity, and teaching.

• Twitter


• Blogging


• YouTube


• Flickr


• FriendFeed (combine all your mediums in one place)


• Diigo


• Yes, even Facebook

Hands-on

In groups of two or three choose one of the tools above and talk about how you could use these in YOUR classroom.

Blog Workshop

Theory

Blogs In Plain English

The blog as a writing tool

"Why I blog" by Andrew Sullivan

Practice

How to use a blog

The power of blogging lies in providing a public voice for students.

How could you use one in your classroom?

"Blogs in Education" by Stephen Downes

New Literacies by Clive Thompson

Hands on

What is it?

Discuss the variations of a blog and its potential.

Do it

Based upon our discussion:

What is the focus of your blog?

Access your blog: (http://blogs.dwight.edu/username)

http://blogs.dwight.edu/dbill

Write your first post

Follow Up

There will be a variety of professional development opportunities to learn more about blog and how to effectively use them in and out of your classrooms.

Disrupting Education

Lately a lot of people have been talking about disrupting industries.  If we want to seriously consider how we can disrupt our current educational model, we need to listen.

We need to listen to the likes of Clay Christensen who wrote a book about it, MIT's New Media Literacies has developed strategy guides to support it, David Wiley and the State of Utah who are opening up classes that will enable it, Mike Wesch who is using new media to reconsider how we address course content, and Bill Farren who is developing an online course around it.

In my last few posts I have been writing about changes that can be made to alter our educational landscape.  At the core of these changes is transitioning to a model based upon participatory learning:



This is an open classroom.  An open classroom is based upon the idea of participatory learning; connections between students and experts around the world as well as dynamic content, that is readily available to all, drives student inquiry.

Access

The power of this participation starts in the access to information.  With resources like iTunesU, Academic Earth, Courseware, Diigo, Google News, blogs via an RSS Reader, and Wikipedia, our students can find more information and sources on a topic than any teacher can provide in a lecture.  This access not only promotes inquiry, as students must find reliable sources and learn digital literacy skills, but it creates the potential to open a class to communities outside the four walls of a classroom.

Connection

We are social beings that want to learn.  When students can connect and participate with others while learning, they become intrinsically motivated.  If learning happens by students working together to draw conclusions or provide feedback, students interest increases.  With technologies like Ning, Skype, Wordpress, Twitter, YouTube, and Wikis, students are able to collaborate with their peers around the world, discuss issues with leading experts in order to develop their own ideas.  When learning can reach beyond the four walls of a classroom and there is meaning to the content as well as the personal connection to the outside world, a school can be transformed into a place where students want to learn.

Meaning

Today's technology creates opportunities to bring the masses together while making an impact.  In a world where transformative technologies are at tips of our fingers, it is all the more important to make learning meaningful.   When a class can work with a village in Africa to learn how AIDS has been decimating the population, students do not want to simply write an essay about the disease, they want to do something about it.  Our students are constantly connected and we can use these technologies to help make a positive impact.  It is this potential, the ability to bring meaning into learning, that can truly disrupt our current model of education.  When the wold is faced with countless problems, it is the fact that our students can help make a difference that will make learning meaningful.

Getting There

The technology is there, the need is there, what lacks is an understanding from educators.  It is our job, as those who get these ideas, to forget about giving presentations on Twitter.  Rather, talk about making our classrooms meaningful and why our students should connect to the world.  If we want to disrupt education, we must explain why before how.  We must open their eyes to a new approach to teaching, helping them to see this transformation.  The next time you speak to a peer or present to a group, do not focus on the technology, spend your time talking about an issue important to you and how your students can use technology can make a difference.

Photo Credit: Courosa
Alec Courosa is also on Twitter: @courosa

Education 3.0

No matter matter how much money a school throws at technology, it is all for naught if the use and approach is outdated.  The folks over at Education Futures have been writing about this very thing in a series called Designing Education 3.0.  There they discuss:

• The Role of Schools in Education 3.0
  


• The Role of Technology in Education 3.0


• The Role of Teachers in Education 3.0

These posts hightlight the fact that as technology becomes more ubiquitous in schools, it is imperative that we address how that technology is used.  Far too many times I have seen SMARTBoards unused, teachers "using" technology by giving lectures with PowerPoint presentations, or my favorite, simply showing a YouTube clip with no follow up.

This Education 1.0 approach will not work.  Teachers complain about having to learn about new technologies and I don't blame them.  Used in a Education 1.0 model, these technologies are just updated chalkboards, overhead projectors, and film clips.

Instead of wasting our time, money, and energy on simply introducing the latest technologies, we need to spend our professional development time helping teachers understand how and why we must move to a Education 3.0 model.  If we continue to teach using outdated models, not only will our students lose interest but they will be left behind.  The following chart from Education Futures outlines this idea:

As I have written before, time is precious.  There is never enough of it.  If we can spend that time helping teachers understand this shift and how they can use technology in order to support the idea of Education 3.0, not only will our teaching improve but our students will be more engaged.

Here is some evidence that supports what I have just mentioned.  Demetri Orlando published a great Digital 1:1 Laptop Classroom Rubric.  Take a look, this would be a useful tool in helping teachers begin to develop a more Education 3.0 classroom.

A Model For Learning

For the past several weeks I have been mulling over the idea of participation, transparency, and connectivism. All ideas that I believe are the corner stones to the next big shift in education. Several people have been influential in helping me reach this point. I have been reading work from the likes of Henry Jenkins from Project New Media Literacies, Mike Wesch from Kansas State, David Wiley from BYU, and George Siemens and Stephen Downes from Canada.

Today I went to a conference at MIT hosted by Project New Media Literacies. The focus of the conference was on participatory culture in education. As the day went on I began to piece together some things.

Our students participate. They want to be involved. They are connected, ALL the time. If we ignore that fact we will lose our students. Henry Jenkins alluded to this fact in his 2006 white paper on participatory culture. It is vitally important that our students create, circulate, connect, and collaborate. Research by Project New Media Literacies highlights this point. But not only will this participatory model be useful in engaging our students, it is an opportunity to teach ethical behavior when working with digital media.

If schools follow a participatory model, using open education resources to examine real issues through our curriculum, while using a framework that promotes collaboration and discussion, we can change the game.

The idea is based upon what I heard today and have read from Mike Wesch, Stephen Downes, David Wiley, as well as countless others.

This is what I have in mind for a grade 6 through 12 school:

The Framework

All course content is free using Open Education Reources (OER) available via online resources.  All disciplines would frame their course curriculum around the free materials. This would not only cut costs for a school but also lend itself to opening the class to the online community.

Individual courses, their syllabi and resources would be housed on a Course Management System (CMS) like Moodle, Wikispaces, or EduCommons. Having the platform online would allow the class to include participants from around the world.

All student work would be created and managed via a blog based e-portfolio. This system would be build off of Wordpress Mu. Every student would have a blog. This would be their home for all written work, digital media, and presentations. It is an opportunity to not only record a student's work but have their voice be a part of a larger conversation. The work would be separated by tag and each class would have a site where the aggregated feeds for the class appropriate posts and comments as well as all relevant information would be posted.

Here is the Google Doc of the proposal I created.

The Participation

Create

If students create online content, whether written or media, that is a part of a larger conversation, the work takes on a new meaning. Students who can express their ideas and produce something concrete that they can publish, will be more more engaged.

Connect

If there is anything I have learned in the past few days, it is that to make a model like this work, it MUST connect to our students. There must be relevance and it must mean something. Whether it is a Biology class creating HIV/AIDS PSAs for a local AIDS center or working to develop tutorials on algorithms for a village school in Ghana, if curriculum can not only teach content but connect students to something bigger, it will make an impact.

Collaborate

At the heart of this model is collaboration. When the curriculum is designed to have students work with experts outside the classroom, community organizations, or other classes around the world, the learning becomes real. When a student's blog entry on civil rights gets comments from a community leader who the class had been working with, the connections becomes real, the work meaningful. These collaborations can take place in many forms: Second Life, Skype, Elluminate, uStream, on a wiki, or Google Doc, or in real life. No matter the venue, what makes the work engaging and relevant is the collaborations and relationships that stem from creation of the content.

Circulate

The blog becomes a platform for the circulation of student created content. It a means to promote not only writing but all digital content created by a student would be available online. Here, the e-portfolio plays a role. Now all of the work that a student produces over four years is housed online on one site. The ability for a student to simply send a URL to a friend, family member, or potential college and show their work speaks to the true nature of the platform. Their works is now accessible to the world.

This model does not only support the ideas of transparency, participation, and connectivism, but it teaches another important lesson: digital citizenship. Using a platform like this, digital literacy and the ethical use of digital content becomes interwoven into each class. Students will become aware of fair use and copyright not because they read a case study but because all their work is online.

I borrowed a lot of ideas from people much smarter than me who have been proving this model in higher education but I believe this is an idea that could work in a grade 6-12 environment.

This is a very rough outline of what I am envisioning but to be true to the idea of participation, please leave your comments and criticisms. They will be extremely helpful as I improve this model.

Photo Credit: Today Is A Good Day

Writing Tool Belt 2.0

This is a cross-posting for a piece I did for edSocialMedia.com

No matter what new tool a carpenter may have at his disposal, he still must master the skills needed to build a house. Those tools may change the way he does his job but he still must learn the basic skills of carpentry.

Learning in the 21st century is no different.  Our students must learn many of the same skills they had to learn prior to the digital age.

No matter the tool, our students must master how to write. But wait, isn't this a site that supports technology? Yes. While our students must master skills that were taught with pen and paper, if we are to reach our students in 2009 we must update our tool belt.

Writing is essential to a students success. But we are now in an connected world and how we teach our student to write is just as important as what we teach our students to write. I read Kathleen Blake Yancey's "Writing in the 21st Century" and it only validates this fact. She states that,

"we are writing to share, yes; to encourage dialogue, perhaps; but mostly, I think, to participate"

Today, social media plays a vital role in developing these ideas. Whether you like it or not, how we write is shifting.  The media as well as our students are interacting and writing online.    As more and more people live in an connected world, the way they communicate is evolving.  Pew Research Center states that "1 in 5 online adults 18 to 24 have ... used Twitter".  If we ignore that fact and try to teach in an unconnected world our students will lose interest.

Yancy goes on to say,

"21st century writing marks a new era in literacy, a period we might call the Age of Composition, a period where composers become composer not through direct and formal instruction alone (if at all), but rather through what we might call an extra curricular social co-apprenticeship."

Writing has never been more important but we must recognize this cultural shift.  Educators must develop a new tool belt that supports the interaction and connectivity that our students now thrive upon.  Our students text, comment, and tweet.  Our job is to use the tools that they are familiar with to create an environment that develops the literacy skills Yancy mentions while building upon our students' communal interactions via social media.

In our connected world where everyone is just a click away, social media tools like Twitter, Blogs and Facebook will be essential in order to develop the writing skills our students need while keeping it relevant.

Photo Credit: Robyn00

A Response To The Textbook Debate

This is a cross post from a comment I wrote on Kevin Levin's blog.  He had written a response to my earlier post about textbooks and the role of the Internet.  Enjoy.

The Internet will only become a larger part of our lives, whether you like it or not. Our responsibility as educators, notice I say educators not teachers, is to prepare our students, we’d all agree on that. But, if we introduce the skills (no matter the discipline) we want students to learn with traditional methods, our students will lose interest. They are growing up in a world of constant connectivity. Say what you will about this, that’s the way it is. The idea behind my post in response to “Joe’s Non-Netbook” was to highlight the fact that learning without a textbook and the skills we want them to learn go hand in hand.

If we as educators determine the core skills that we want our students to master, we can use any number of resources, we are not tied to the textbook.

As for history, we are trying to engage our students in a scholarly dialog. If we present them with multimedia (video, maps, art, charts etc.) as well as several text websites that are dedicated to a certain topic but have slight differences, the class can then determine those differences on their own not having to rely upon a textbook to tell them. As for the scholarly perspective, you can post two JSTOR articles from different historians and have the students debate the arguments and then write analytical responses on their blogs about the core differences in the two articles.

Textbook or no textbook, the skills we want our students to learn are still the same: be able to think and write like a historian. If we want to do justice to our students and keep them interested, we must acknowledge that our students consume information differently. If we completely ignore that fact we are doing them a disservice. While the top 10% of the class can understand the argument by simply reading a textbook, we are missing out on the 90% who need audio or visuals that are NOT available in a textbook. Yes, this approach will take some extra time and planning to post all the resources on-line ahead of time but the benefit for the entire class is well worth the effort.

As for other disciplines like math. Yes, math is different but that doesn’t mean that students can only learn from a textbook. Dan Meyer, a math teacher in California proves this very convincingly. Here are two examples of what he does with his class: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=213 and http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=440

To sum up, textbooks not only cost a great deal of money but they cost our students’ potential to learn. With a different approach to how we educate our students and using the plethora of multimedia and text resources available on-line, we are not only saving money but doing a great deal of good in helping to keep our students interested and wanting to learn the skills we are “teaching”.

Scholarly Crowdsourcing: Twitter Does History

Dan Cohen, the Director of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, my alma mater, tried an experiment yesterday that really made me think about how we can use social media in our classes.

Cohen posted on his blog that he was going to conduct an experiment using his blog and Twitter. He would post an artifact and using a Twitter hashtag, #digdil09, and his Twitter account, @dancohen. Cohen wanted to see if his Twitter and blog followers could determine what the object, shown above, was within one hour.

The post was put up at 3:00pm EST on Thursday and within the hour both @grresearch and @opencontent had found the answer.

The hashtag feed was a true example of what history is all about, investigating a problem through discussion. The "mystery", as Cohen put it, brought random people together virtually in order to solve the question through scholarly discourse using social media.

For me, this experiment again proved that Twitter isn't just for ego maniacs trying to be more popular than a news organization. Rather, this again proves that it can develop our personal learning network (PLN).

This could be an excellent opportunity for students to learn how to do research by not just simply using Google but through discussion and learning from others. With tools like Twitters and blogs, our students can now crowdsource and take advantage of the greater community of knowledge that is not only in the "blogosphere" but also in the "twittersphere".

Solving The Time Issue

A few weeks ago I wrote about the issue of time and technology. I had referred to a speech given by Clay Shirky. His argument stated that we have always had the time to investigate technology but we used that time mindlessly watching sitcoms.

The other day I read a post by Antonio Viva titled, Who Has Time for Social Media? Mr. Viva states that for the vast majority of people

social media is either a term they don’t recognize or a fad they tried and just don’t seem to have the time for.

So this brings me to my question.

What will create the shift to where the majority of people see social media and technology not simply as another thing to do but rather as THE thing that brings their lives together?

The shift is beginning to happen, we see Oprah coming to Twitter. Yes, I am following her. The Boston Globe may close. These are both important indicators. They identify the fact that mainstream media is evolving. The ways we get our information is shifting in response. Despite this, many still fight the idea of technology as a "waste of time".

For technology or social media to take hold, our communities must fully incorporate it. We work and live in communities. If we want to make that shift from seeing technology as just another responsibility, it must become our brand. It must be a ubiquitous part of our community.

When our communities develop strategies that incorporate technology seamlessly into our daily lives, we will find that elusive time that Mr. Viva was looking for.

This takes a very deliberate approach but with the right plan and support, that shift can happen.

Photo Credit: Matt Hamm

Students Can Transform Educational Technology

Sylvia Martinez, president of Generation YES, recently penned the blog entry Successful, sustainable strategies for technology integration and tech support in a tough economy.  This entry was very timely because our school, like most schools, is trying to cut costs. Some see technology has a financial burden during a recession rather than an opportunity to save some money and create a student centered environment.  Martinez's post argues for the later.

Even though students are 92% of the population at the school, and are 100% of the reason for wanting to improve education, their voice goes unheard.

The idea behind making technology integration and support successful in a school is to incorporate the students into the process.  She outlines the following reasons for including students:

• Technology literacy for all - Creating an expectation that modern technology will be used for academics, schoolwork, communication, community outreach, and teaching. A key success factor is teaching students how to support their peers as mentors and leaders.


• Student tech teams - The 21st century version of the old A/V club, this strategy expands the definition of tech support from fixing broken things to also include just-in-time support of teachers as they use new technology. This digital generation is ready, willing and able to help improve education, we just need to show them how.


• Professional development 24/7 - The old idea that teachers would go off to one workshop or a conference and immediately start using technology has been proven wrong. Truly integrated technology use requires a bigger change than that, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Teachers require more support in their classrooms that they can count on when they need it. Students can help provide teachers with this constancy and supportive community.


• Students as stakeholders - Whenever schools initiate new technology programs, there is typically a call for all stakeholders to be included. Parents, teachers, staff, board members, and members of the community are invited to participate — but rarely students. Even though students are 92% of the population at the school, and are 100% of the reason for wanting to improve education, their voice goes unheard. Students can bring passion and point-of-view to the planning and implementation of major technology initiatives. They can be allies and agents of change, rather than passive objects to be changed.


• Students as resource developers - Students can help develop the resources every teacher and student needs to use technology successfully. These resources can be help guides, posters, instructional videos, school websites, or teacher home pages. Students of all types can use their talents to build customized resources for their own school. Artists, actors, and techies can contribute to this process.

How Can We Make This A Reality

1. We are a laptop 1 to 1 school.  If we fully utilize these laptops for everything pertaining to the school, essentially going paperless, we would save a great deal of money.  If the students become a primary resource for helping faculty and other students adapt to this shift, you are not only cutting costs but you are promoting student responsibility.


2. Building upon what I just mentioned.  Many of our students know more about technology than even some of our tech savvy faculty.  We must utilize this.  If we can incorporate students into our tech training and support systems, not only will we be empowering them, but providing the school a cost saving opportunity to expand their staff and make the most of the knowledge available.


3. With the development of Twitter, chat clients, and on campus support teams, faculty professional development no longer has to be dedicated to one day workshops.  Students and the technology department could use Twitter to periodically update the faculty with tips and reminders on how to use their laptops or fix a problem.  Something like iChat has to potential to have a help desk on call when school is not in session.  Finally, if you have teams of student technology assistants, they could help solve simple problems like "Why won't the projector turn on?" This support network would bolster the faculty's  confidence when using technology.


4. Students need to be a part of the conversation.  If a school wants to fully utilize our laptops, we must consider the students' perspective.  They will have an understand how the technology is used and can help plan and implement a program as well as prevent issues from happening.  We must listen to our students, their voice and contributions are vital to a program's success.


5. Finally, students are creators.  They have grown up around digital media.  We must take advantage of their comfort with this medium and have them help create and publish digital media that can range from tech tutorials to videos for prospective students.  Their experience with that medium will promote a student centered environment and save your school some money.  Who needs a marketing firm when you have students.

The points Martinez are important. Student participation is necessary.  When we involve our students in the integration and support of technology we not only empower them and the community but also cut costs.

Photo Credit: -bartimaeus-

The Switch

As I examine my media habits I realize, like many people, that what and how I consume my information has drastically shifted.

In my previous post, Where do we find the time?, I mentioned the role of the Internet and how it can alter how we utilize our time.  After I wrote that post I started to think.

If I have shifted my media consumption habits from passively watching television to actively managing, digesting, and learning from media online shouldn't I think reconsider what media I pay for?

The reason I mention this is because I have been traveling a great deal lately and unfortunately it has been hard to find access to the Internet when and where I want it.  I spend more time trying to find a coffee shop with wireless than I do actually on the Internet.

So, if the media I consume is primarily online and I am not at home as much, why should I pay for a traditional TV and Internet plan?

Since I carry my laptop with me virtually everywhere, wouldn't it make sense to simply purchase a top of the line wireless Internet card as my means of connection? Everything I watch or read is online, from TV shows on Hulu.com to my favorite contributors on my Google Reader and Twitter.

I spend my time watching, reading and contributing to the web.  In this economy, it only makes sense to purchase a plan that fits my needs more appropriately.

By getting rid of my cable and home Internet I can access and contribute to my media anywhere and I will no longer have to search for a coffee shop with wireless.  Although a good chai latte will go a long way.

I'll let you know how it goes. Good-bye Charter Communications.

If you have suggestions on a good wireless card and carrier please lend me your expertise via the comments.


Photo Credit: droïd

Where Do We Find The Time?

Like most technology integrators, the biggest hurdle I have faced as the Director of Academic Technology has been the issue of faculty buy-in.

I consistently hear the "I don't have enough time" argument. This video of Clay Shirky, author of "Here Comes Everybody", presents an interesting perspective in regards to the use of time. Are we really lacking the time or do we need to reallocate our time?

In the following video, "Where do people find the time?", Shirky argues that investing our time in learning these technologies or spending your extra time on the Internet learning is not useless, rather it is more productive than watching TV and that we should reconsider how we "waste" our time.

So as I look at the impact for educators, my argument for teachers who say they don't have enough time is this: rather than watching that episode of "American Idol", go online, develop and learn from a Personal Learning Network. You have the time and this is much more rewarding.

Part 1

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ

Part 2

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNCblGv0zjU

Thanks to @arvind for reminding me of this video.

Google Maps and Writing

Writing is an essential part of what I teach.  But no matter how you slice it, the act of writing is evolving.

The short story, The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming is a prime example of this evolution.  Cumming intertwines Google Maps into his story so that a story now takes a very visual twist. The reader visually follows the protagonist as the story unfolds.

Changing The Game

With the evolution of technology has come this evolution of writing.  If we are to engage our students and make writing something they enjoy practicing, we must reconsider our approach.  As a history teacher, I value the necessity of learning how to research and write a argumentative essay, but a story like 21 Steps, Twitter, and blogging prove that the art of writing can and should be developed in other mediums.

By combining a powerful technology like Google Maps and a short story or for history, a historical narrative, a student can create a much deeper learning tool that not only develops writing skills but the visual connection reinforces and extends the learning opportunities.  Using images, or in this case, maps allows the reader to actually see where the events took place.

Using a tool like Google Maps in conjunction with a writing assignment could make writing an engaging and rewarding process for both the author and the reader.

Joe's Non-Netbook vs. The Internet

Today I was reading Jeff Richardson's blog entry, Textbooks... Are they old-school?, and it touched on a point that has been brought up in several recent conversations.

Should we move away from textbooks?

Jeff posted the following video made by Joe, a student at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA, which highlights this issue.



While the video takes an amusing look at textbooks, Joe's Non-Netbook ties into deeper questions about the direction schools should be taking.

Inquiry And Textbooks

No matter how you slice it, a textbook cannot provide the same richness, depth, and perspective as the Internet.  A textbook limits a student, it prevents inquiry and further investigation.  As educators, if we are attempting to develop critical thinkers and challenge our students to ask thoughtful questions, they need to have access to multiple points of view and should be able to investigate on their own.  A textbook cannot provide that, the Internet does.

The Cost Of Textbooks

The argument is presented, but it would cost too much to put a computer in every students hands.  If you compare the cost of bound textbooks over four years (at least one textbook per class) to the cost of a having all texts housed on the Internet through an online course management software (CMS) and a top of the line HP netbook ($499), it's not even close.  You would save hundreds of dollars.

The Environmental And Economic Impact

Whether a school is trying to cut budgets, support efforts for environmental sustainability, or both, it is a good call to invest in online texts.  The amount of paper that is printed can be cut substantially when using online texts and laptops.  If a school invests in high speed scanners and all paper resources are made digital and posted online, a school is able to cut down on not only the amount of paper used but the number of copiers and printers needed on campus.

Conclusion

Joe's video may of taken a satirical look at bound textbooks but it definitely hits a nerve.  When we look at transforming our schools and truly preparing our students we must reconsider what we use to teach.  In a world where our students are constantly connected online and have access to the world, are we really going to turn that off and give them a book with no hyperlinks or alternatives and expect them to really learn?

Bursting the Bubble (Tests)

I read an Op-Ed the other day in the New York Times by professor E. D. Hirsch, Jr.  The article supported the value of the fill in the blank bubble test.  He asserted that while the current format is faulty, there is validity to the data and reliability of the test.  Dr. Hirsch made some valid points including:

the key to comprehension is familiarity with the relevant subject. For a student with a basic ability to decode print, a reading-comprehension test is not chiefly a test of formal techniques but a test of background knowledge.

While this may be the case, and we must assess our students on relevant materials.  That does not mean that bubble testing is the answer to the question of assessment reform.  Bubble tests have been around since 1938 and like the lecture only classroom, is seriously outdated.  In an era in which we know that students learn in many different ways, we must reconsider how we assess our students.

In his article, Beyond the Bubble, Bill Tucker argues that we can assess using the technology that are relevant to our students

Using multiple forms of media that allow for both visual and graphical representations, we can present complex, multi-step problems for students to solve, and we can collect detailed information about an individual student's approach to problem solving. This information may allow educators to better comprehend how students arrive at their answers and learn what those pathways reveal about students' grasp of underlying concepts, as well as to discover how they can alter their instruction to help move students forward.

I find this argument interesting.  I am not saying we should not assess.  I simply believe that with the understanding of differentiated learning styles and multiple intelligences, we must shift our understanding of teaching and assessment and disrupt the current model.  Bubble testing does not effectively represent what and how our students learn.  In the 21st century, our students are learning differently, interacting differently, and we must assess differently.

Assessments are a core part of preparing our students for the global marketplace but in an interactive and connected world, do bubble tests really prepare students for what lies ahead?

In utilizing the concepts of differentiated learning, we can to develop a form of assessment that takes advantage of the available technology and supports the skills the students must master to succeed in today's world. This will take some time and effort but to do justice to our students and their future we must burst the bubble tests.

Photo Credit: Thant Zin Myint

Using Video To Communicate To Your Class

Are you looking for a different way to post your assignments?  I wasn't but I have started playing with an option that I think will be beneficial in the long run.

I use Moodle for my course management.  It is simple, clean, and effective.  While it has been useful, i figured there should be a better way of posting assignments, giving instructions for a class that I would have to miss, or supplementing the content to be covered in class.

Homework

I have started using YouTube's quick capture feature to fill this gap.  See my first post below.  Not only can the students comment on the video to ask questions but by keeping the video broadcasts in a central location, it is simple to find assignments or instructions that the teacher wants to send out to the students.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HERTERyPZhU

Lectures

Another use of video I have been thinking about comes from the fact that I teach AP World History.  One of the challenges I face is the fact that I want to do too much in class.  I believe that getting students to practice the art of examining documents or debating theories is much more powerful than listening to a lecture.  The idea is simple, screen cast my lectures and post them on Vimeo the night before class.  Have the students watch the lecture for homework.  Then use class time to create lessons based upon historical discussion or investigation based upon the ideas introduced in the video lecture.

We'll see how this turns out but as I try to reexamine how my students learn and how to best use my classroom time, it's worth a try.

Net Generation Education Project

My World Civilizations II class and I were recently selected to particpate in the Net Generation Education Project organized by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay.

My class will work with schools from around the world as we will examing Don Tapscott's book, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World and the 2009 Horizon Report in order to determine what the future of education will look like.

We will be using multiple platforms, including a Ning, a Wiki, a Google Group to communicate with the other schools and discuss the ideas behind our final product: a video on what education should look like.  This video is to be part of Tapscott's Net Generation Education Challenge competition in which the winning entry will receive $10,000 in scholarship money.

The project begins this weekend, my students and I are excited to particpate and I will make sure to update the blog and let you know how it is going.

Technology Is Not The Solution

It might be a strange title for a post coming from a Director of Academic Technology but...

I just read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Technology not the panacea for education", written by Todd Oppenheimer, author of The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology. I found it using my education Alltop page, a free news aggregation website.

Oppenheimer is on target for the most part.  Throwing technology at a school will not improve education, teaching technology skills will not prepare our students for the challenges that lay ahead.  He calls the use of technology, "Education's WMD".

He goes on to quote a report from Information Technology Association of America on what students to learn in school.

Know something about the problems that need to be solved.

The concept is absolutely correct.  Students do not need to be taught how to use a word processor or for schools to purchase expensive content management systems.  That being said, technology CAN help students learn how to solve challenging problems and support the writing and reasoning skills Oppenheimer so strongly emphasizes in his article.

While technology is not a panacea and must be used with curriculum designed to support

writing and reasoning; reliable work habits; the capacity for concentration and face-to-face communication; a sense of history, cultural anthropology...[and] higher math and science

it can provide a wealth of knowledge and opportunities that will develop and support these skills.

Money for education should be invested in building or redesigning schools and curriculum that can develop the skills Oppenheimer mentions.  But, we would be foolish not to utilize the free or inexpensive technologies like Alltop, Skype, or Delicious, to only name a few that will only bolster that learning process.

Photo Credit:  Matthew Clark Photography & Design

The New Liberal Arts

I was learning more about a presentation on activism in the Middle East to be put on by the Berkman Center at Harvard next Monday when I saw another post on the Digital Natives website about the "New Liberal Arts".  After talking with my boss over the past few months about the idea of the New Humanities, created by Rutgers and now Stanford, this entry caught my eye.  A group called Snarkmarket posed the question, "What are the new liberal arts?"

This then prompted the group to open the idea up to the world for feed back and the idea is now turning into a book.  Snarkmarket is looking for your opinions on what the new liberal arts should include:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtLVFWXF_UQ&eurl=http://snarkmarket.com/blog/snarkives/books_writing_such/a_snarkmarket_book_project_the_new_liberal_arts/&feature=player_embedded

Our students are digital natives who live in a very different world.  We must adapt our curriculum to support the skills and thought processes that they will require in the 21st century.

With that in mind, I ask you to support Snarkmarket and their book in one of two ways:

1. Make a pitch for a new liberal art. It can be something you know lots about, or something you wish you knew lots about. It can be general or specific. It can be anything. Leave your first draft as a comment on this post, and don’t worry about thinking it all the way through. Don’t worry about length, either. If we decide to include your pitch in the book, we’ll work all of that out. ( click here to add your new liberal art)


2. Help promote the project. Even if pitching a new liberal art isn’t your speed, someone in your network might have a great idea. So blog this post; Twitter it; email it to your two nerdiest friends. Here’s a shortened link, if it’s helpful: http://is.gd/i4lG

Photo Credit: quinn.anya

Will We Push Them Off Facebook?

Steve Ritchie just wrote this post about making the case for social media engagement on edSocialMedia.  In the post he discusses new findings by iStrategy about Facebook demographics.  Specifically, Ritchie focuses on the jump in the number of 35 to 55 year olds joining Facebook.  Ritchie goes to state that because more parents and alumni are using Facebook schools must seriously consider using social media to attract and connect their school to the blossoming 35 to 55 demographic.

While this may be the case, I also saw a trend that cannot be ignored.

1)  The 35-54 year old demo is growing fastest, with a 276.4% growth rate in over the approximate 6 months since we last produced this report

2) The 55+ demo is not far behind with a 194.3% growth rate

3) The 25-34 year population on Facebook is doubling every 6 months

7) The largest demographic concentration remains the college crowd of 18-24 year olds (40.8%) which is down from (53.8%) six months ago.

While the percentage of 18-24 year olds may be down due to the increase of 35-55 year olds, I have a feeling that that trend will only increase.  Students do not want to be friended by their teachers, they do not want their parents to see their profile.  While schools may be investing in Facebook as a tool to recruit potential parents and alumni donors, sooner rather than later students will find another medium for their online presence.

So while we should invest in using social media as a tool for schools, we must realize that the trend will shift because no matter if it's 1909 or 2009, adolescents want to be different, they don't want to be like their parents.

I am happy to see that education is catching up to the idea of using new technologies to connect and communicate with their constituencies but they also must realize that Facebook is not a sliver bullet.  Trends change fast and Facebook may be useful now but don't bet the house on it.

As my boss, Antonio Viva, told me, "It's about the vision, not the tool".  Using social media in a school is the right call.  It is the way to communicate your message.  Unfortunately, if schools are looking to reach students, teachers, and alumni on one platform that is a mistake.  Students will begin to leave Facebook sooner rather than later and with the way schools work, that trend will be lost in a school's effort to catch up.

So, while I am happy to see more people join Facebook and schools wanting to utilize social media, don't be surprised when the 18-24 demographic on Facebook rapidly declines.

Photo Credit: Stabilo Boss

Teaching Through Social Networks: Help Someone

The following video by Seth Godin, author of Tribes, addresses a question that many teachers bring up.  How can social networks help teach?  While Godin's response is for marketers, the same concept applies in education.  Help someone.  If social networks (Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, Wikis, and Blogs) are used by classes to help others, this will be more powerful than any test the students will ever take.

Lets say students in a Biology class learn about AIDS and its role in Africa.  Rather than simply taking a test, the students could use their social networks to connect to a community in Africa that has been ravaged by AIDS.  The students would then Tweet about the community and what they are facing.  Using Delicious, the students would post links about the disease.   A fundraiser could be set up through Facebook and students could invite all their friends.  A blog could be dedicated to the effort of raising money and awareness about the true impact of AIDS.   If we used our social networks like this, we would not only help others, our students would learn a lot more about the content covered in class.

Social networks are not going away.  We must use them to our advantage. Use them to help others and learn from the experience.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OujgPgNCLvk

The Next Step

I have been thinking a lot lately about where teaching will go next. As mobile and cloud computing become more ubiquitous and globalization increases, collaboration and communication will define the success of an educational institution.  In the 2009 Horizon report, the authors state that some of the future trends in educational technology will only enhance these principles.

3 C's

While at Educon 2.1, Kendall Crolius, founding partner of The Sulevia Group, stated that the purpose of school is based upon the three C's: Creativity, Collaboration, and Courage.  Those three C's are the basis of what students need to learn and how we need to teach.  If our teaching does not address these three C's and I would add a fourth, Communication, we are doing our students a disservice.

Globalization

As our world becomes smaller and folks in New York must work live with their peers in Bejing, it is imperative that education help students develop the skills necessary to be prepared for the scope of collaboration needed for success.

The majority of our classrooms are not built for this kind of learning.  We must force our students to see beyond hardbound books and multiple choice tests to have them prepared for the world they will face after school.

How To Get There

If we are to maximize the global collaboration and communication stated in the Horizon Report, we must focus on developing programs like the Horizon Project 2008. The project brings schools from all over the world together to work on a common goal.  Programs like Skype, Ning, and Google Docs allow the ability to design an environment where students from around the world can communicate and work together.  It is this type of communication that will build a community and it is that community that will build the skills and understanding that our students require as they look ahead to their future.

Our model of education is outdated, are we ready to address this on the macro level?  I sure hope so.

Tech In 20: Technology Professional Development

The following presentation was given at Educon 2.1 hosted by the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA on January 25, 2009.

The presentation focuses on how to maximize your faculty professional development by presenting topics in 20 minute chucks and supporting it with teacher led technical assistance.


Tech In 20: A New Vision For Professional Development from David Bill on Vimeo.

CoverItLive Session On How To Reform Our Schools

WA @ The Inauguration: The Documentary

Eric Rubino, one of the 11 students on our Inauguration trip created, edited, and published this video documenting our trip. Well done! Enjoy.


Worcester Academy @ The Inauguration from Eric Rubino on Vimeo.

The Educational Impact Of Our Inauguration Trip

I write this from Worcester, MA the day after returning from Washington, D.C. and our Inauguration trip. While in Washington, 11 students from Worcester Academy worked three 18 hour days, conducting interviews, producing videos, and writing blog entires examining the Inauguration. While it is obvious that experiencing the Inauguration alone is monumental, it is the work that the students have done and their intrinsic motivation that stands out in my mind.

Ever since this project was developed, the idea behind it was two fold.  My co-director, Pete Smith and I wanted our students to experience the Inauguration but just as important, was the educational potential the trip provided.  This trip was about giving our students the opportunity to document history and express themselves and their perspectives.  Watching my students wake up at 6am and for some to work until 1am the next morning was awe inspiring.  These students put their all into collecting and producing quality content about the Inauguration.  They spent time developing strong articles on real issues surrounding the Inauguration.  They had to develop questions and interview tactics for everyone from Dee Meyers, President Clinton's Press Secretary and Congressman James McGovern, to high school students.  The challenges they faced are one's journalists face on a daily basis and the work they created added a valuable perspective. The students recognized that they were not only witnessing history, they were documenting it and people were interested in what they had to say.

The Educational Impact

Our 11 students' focus and dedication that developed from this trip drives at the idea that the way students learn no longer can fit into a 19th century or even 20th century model.  The value of the students taking ownership of this trip to produce a quality article, image, video, or twitter update (tweet), outweighs any learning they would have gained through a lecture.  Brian, one of the students on the trip, stated the following on his Twitter account:

no it was a lot of work but it was much more fun than the work back here.....soooo maybe it was a vacation?

Today's students are capable and ready but we must engage them.  We must get them interested in learning.  This trip did that but it does not have to be the exception to the rule.

No matter the topic, whether it is the Inauguration or Geometry, when students can produce and share something of value, their willingness to really invest their time and energy will dramatically increase.  If we really want to find out how you can get your students to want to learn and be engaged, find a way to have them take ownership of the material.

Students today are surrounded by an amazing array of media tools.  These can be used by classes in any discipline to get your students to synthesize learned content and produce a something of value that highlights their understanding.  A student's education is not about simply learning facts but rather understanding the concepts.  If you want your students to really understand the content, they need to see its worth, they need to produce something of value connected to that content.  Regurgitating information does not work.

While social media was our medium for this, there are many ways and methods for a class to accomplish this concept.  Student driven learning is possible and necessary.  As the technology becomes more ubiquitous, we must prepare our students to understand that the tools they use on a personal level can produce quality content of value.

I witnessed history and I will never forget that but what will always stay with me was the dedication and efforts put forth by our students.  Their work is proof that student driven or project based learning is valuable and worthwhile.  As my memories of the Inauguration fade, it will be the dedication and hard work that our students put into producing their work on this trip that will always stay with me.

Photo Credit: Brandy Agerbeck

A cross-posting from http://wainauguration.org

Our First National News

So the Worcester Academy trip to the Inauguration got its first national mention today on USA Today. It mentions the trip and highlights a video from one of our applicants. Check out the link to read more.

Inauguration Update

The application process has ended and we have selected 11 students to travel to DC. Our inauguration site is now live.

To follow the trip's progress and find out what the students are doing leading up to and during the inauguration, visit the following site:

http://wainauguration.org