Teaching in the big wired world

I am using today’s slice to vent a frustration I am having in my role as an elearning coach in schools (remembering that I.T makes up part of who we, the L.I.T Ladies are). Here it is: EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGYITIS.

While acknowledging that schools need to adopt a 21st ‘centurised’ approach to teaching and learning in schools, there has been a large push to “inject the tech” into everything that we do. In Victoria, this focus on technology has seen the introduction of netbooks and ipad trials, the Edustar image and of course the Ultranet.

As an elearning/Ultranet coach, I have witnessed the growing phenomenon of “chicken-or-eggitis” coupled with “round-peg-square-holitis.” From a teaching and learning perspective, I am here to warn that these 2 ailments should be noted as being very serious and ones that need to be attended to immediately, before the situation worsens. Firstly, “chicken-or-eggitis.” What does come first: the learning outcome or the technology? The need for a program that helps x,y and z or the purchase of a program that can do a, b and c? In its more prevalent form this ailment presents itself as hordes of schools purchasing ipads and then asking “how can we use these?” in an attempt to be pushing the boundaries of innovation. Can I play the Devil’s Advocate and suggest that schools establish a strong foundation of technology integration using tried and tested methods/devices before trying to lead innovation in this area? The simple antidote for this ailment is for educators to ask themselves 1 question before they do anything with educational technology: “What is the outcome I am trying to achieve? Knowing that, is there any technology available to assist me with this?” We need to get out of the mindset of a) using technology for the sake of it and b) using technology in the wrong way.

This brings me to the second ailment, “Round-peg-square-holitis.” This ailment is quite often coupled with “chicken-or-eggitis.” It is displayed in the form of educators trying to use technology to accomplish a task for which it was not designed. The more recent (and most prevalent) form of this being educators’ use of the Ultranet. The antidote for this ailment is given in several injections of both Understanding and Knowledge. (It is important to note here that the injection of Understanding must precede the injection of Knowledge as without the first the latter is pointless.) The Understanding will help educators to see all technology programs and apps as tools that they can call on to perform different tasks. The Ultranet is one of the many tools available to educators. Like any tool, the Ultranet is designed to perform certain tasks. When using technology tools we need to think like tradesmen: Would a builder use a saw to nail a house frame together? The builder must first think ‘what outcome do I want to achieve?’ (This outcome is the ‘roundpeg’ of the ailment). They must secondly ask ‘which tool will help me to achieve this?’ The builder would then sift through their toolbox and locate the desired tool. This sifting part is where Knowledge is important.

Once educators understand that all tools have desired purposes they then need the knowledge of a range of tools to call on to achieve their desired outcomes. In order to develop the most enriching teaching and learning possible, educators need to be able to call on a range of high quality tools to help achieve their desired outcomes. It is, after all, the combination of several tools used together that result in an entire house being built.

There are some tasks that would be better achieved on the Ultranet, some on Google Docs, some on another Web2.0 website and some on the computer software itself. It is the knowledge of this range of tools (and how best to use them) that will lead to improved outcomes for our students. Moving in to the future, leaders in education need to be considering prevention measures for these 2 common ailments. The only documented evidence of successful prevention to date has been a wholistic approach to professional elearning. That is, when delivering professional learning around anything educational technology related, the tool being discussed needs to be treated as such: a tool. No more and no less. It is also important to note that this tool should never be discussed in isolation. (Could you image the design of our houses if this approach to professional development were replicated in the building industry?)

It is time we harnessed the power of technology effectively to get the best outcomes for our students. As educators, we need to ‘ask before we acquire’ and “put what before which” to stop the spread of ineffective and stifling uses of technology in some of our schools today.

Tags: edtech, ipads, ultranet

I have just been speaking to mum on the phone about a boy she works with at school. She wanted some advice on a situation that occurred with him last week at school. My Mum is an integration aide (or an ESO in the new language) and is currently working in a grade 4/5 class. She described the situation to me and it turns out it was a scenario that is no doubt played out in schools every day around the globe: A boy has been asked to write on a specific topic, he wants to write about something else, he is told he must write on the chosen topic and in the end he cracks it with the world and ends up writing next to nothing for the entire lesson. Does this scene sound familiar to you?

When Mum finished describing the scene I asked her to ponder the original aim of the lesson. Was the intention of the lesson to teach the child to follow instructions or was it to help him improve his writing? In the case of the lesson in question I would think that the aim was firstly to get the students writing (as it is only 2 weeks in to the school year) and secondly to then use this writing as a basis for improvement. The fact that the boy lost his temper and ended up writing very little not only means that the lesson intention was not met, but that the precedent for the tone of future writing lessons has now been set in this boy’s mind. To help Mum with her dilemma I read the following excerpt to her from Ralph Fletcher’s Book ‘Boy Writers: Reclaiming their Voices’ (p45)

“Boys crave choice when they write. I surveyed nearly five hundred boys, trying to unearth their attitudes and experiences about writing, both in and out of school. At the end of the survey I asked them to complete this sentence: “When we write in school I wish we were allowed to…” The overwhelming response to this question was a plea for more choice.

• Create our own topic.
• Choose.
• Write whatever we want.

Here’s a radical idea: let’s bring choice back to the writing classroom. Just let them write. I don’t know a better first step to create an environment that will engage our boy writers.”

I love this paragraph as it really makes us wonder why on earth we don’t let students (and boys in particular) choose what they want to write. It is so obvious! Kids love sharing their oral stories with others- just think of the buzzing atmosphere on a Monday morning as the students excitedly share their stories from the weekend (or the even more excited atmosphere after the holidays). Why is it then that when we get to the writing lesson that we only let them write about topics we have chosen for them? It makes sense to let students select their own topics as it means they will be automatically engaged with the topic, a situation in which quality and quantity can only be winners!

This situation is another mark on the board for why teachers should introduce a Writer’s Notebook to their students. If students spend the first few weeks of the school year writing about things that are important to them in their Writer’s Notebook not only will they have a collection of ‘starting points’ for further mandatory genre studies lessons (aka NAPLAN preparation lessons), they will develop a positive attitude towards writing itself and, in an environment where attitude determines altitude, the value of this can never be underestimated.

Tags: boys, choice, literacy, notebook, writing

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and this week I have seen how the Ultranet village is enabling us to do just that.

Since the launch of the Loddon Mallee Literacy and Numeracy Challenge Collaborative Learning Space on Monday this week, I have rekindled that excited feeling you get when you know that magic is happening in your class. That feeling when you want to tell everyone about the amazing things your students are doing and you can’t wait to plan the next exciting project. When there is a buzz in the air and a spring in your step and you can’t wait to get to your classroom each day.

You know that real magic is happening when your students beat you to class in the morning and hang around well after the end of day school bell goes. Yesterday my first student arrived at 7:40am and the last one left after 8pm.  I take that as a very positive sign that something I am doing is hitting the mark. The mark that is signified by an eagerness to participate and a hunger to contribute and to find out more.

My class is a fairly normal class in that it is about the fundamentals- Literacy and Numeracy. It is slightly larger than a normal class though as I am the teacher of a class of over 3800 students.  A village of 3800 learners all discussing, collaborating and sharing their learning about Literacy and Numeracy. Of course I am not the only teacher in a class with so many students- there are 7 others. We ourselves discuss and collaborate on activities and opportunities for the students in our village to participate in.

Imagine a story being created by over 50 authors. That was Monday’s Literacy challenge- a line by line story. A collaborative story constructed by students of different schools, sexes, ages, year levels, family backgrounds and ability levels. It’s a non-discriminatory village this Ultranet village.

Yesterday was International Poem in Your Pocket day. A day dedicated to people sharing their favourite poems with others. Being a lover of poetry AND of reading to kids I was able to share one of my favourite children’s poems with an audience of over 100 P-2 students. Using Voicethread I was able to let the students see the poem as I was reading it aloud. I then had over 60 students post a response to the poem on the Ultranet space. How great it felt to be able to share a favourite poem with so many students and have them be able to enjoy in the fun of it too. We then had over 200 students share poems they had created with the rest of the village. What could be more purposeful and authentic than writing for an audience of over 200 other budding poets?

One of the most significant success factors in this village is the fact that is has grown from being ‘my’ class to ‘our’ class. The more collaborating that has occurred by the teachers of the class- the richer the community has become. It is a class without walls that is being led by a group of educators in a staffroom without walls. A staffroom of teachers with varying passions, curriculum focuses and ideas, combining their collective strengths for the benefit of the village of students who are eagerly waiting to be engaged, inspired and challenged. THAT is the power of the Ultranet village.

It has taken me 18 months of moving the rocks so I could finally reach the thriving village at the end of the road, but now that I am here I can look back and see that the closer you get to reaching the village, the more the power and magic of the village makes those rocks turn in to pebbles. The village is still being constructed and of course it can be frustrating when the shop you want to go to hasn’t been constructed yet, but gee-it is going to be a very exciting place for learning!

Tags: collaboration, ultranet

Today I witnessed the real future in mobile EDUCATIONAL technologies.Talk about exciting! Now I have heard people call things ipad killers before but this is unquestionably THE ipad killer.

Introducing the ASUS Transformer.

Seeing this amazing piece of technology today almost makes me feel sorry for all those schools who have wasted thousands of dollars on purchasing useless non-educational ipads for their students. (I did warn them though!)

What is it?

It is a tablet PC that looks very similar to an ipad until….wait for it…you sit it on the keyboard dock. Yes you read correctly, this tablet has the option of being attached to a keyboard that enables the tablet to form a decent sized touch screen netbook WITH arrows keys!!  Allow me to explain in 10 simple steps why the ASUS Transformer walks all over the amazingly skinny, amazingly shiny and completely unamazingly educational ipad:

1. It has the option to dock on a full QWERTY keyboard (that comes standard with the device)
2. It runs Android and is not controlled by the itunes mothership.
3. It has a USB port (I wonder if Mac users even know what that is?)
4. The tablet has a 16hour battery life with a further 16 hours when placed on the dock.
5. It has an SD slot.
6. You can edit Google Docs without paying for an app.
7. Multi tabbed internet browsing.
8. It’s a tablet that runs Flash so you can visit ANY website!
9. It has a 5-megapixel camera as well as a 1.3 one.
10. Did I mention it has a USB port?!

The ASUS transformer is the perfect educational tool as you can switch between purely web-surfing mode (tablet) to ‘I need to sit down and get some real work done’ mode- netbook. As I have stated in past I use an ipad regularly to surf the web however when I need to do ‘real’ work I put it away for my ‘real’ computer- my laptop. This device allows students to have the choice to customise their device to suit their needs. Now there are 2 words that are foreign to the ipad world- choice and customisation.

The price of this device currently sits at around $800 for a 32gb version which is comparable to the 3G enabled ipad2. If schools are really serious about purchasing devices that will enhance student learning (rather than enhancing self esteem ) they will definitely look into investing in these devices.

Tags: debate, devices, ipad, mobile, netbooks, tablet

Over the past 3 weeks I have been busy building a soapbox. Today I would like to stand on top of it and shout out my issues. (well  I will start with 1 of them) I have a few so I am thinking this could potentially become a whole series!

My soapbox item for today is….Kids and typing

*Steps up onto newly created soapbox, straightens shirt, clears throat and lifts megaphone to mouth*

The first issue for my newly created soapbox is the issue of kids and typing.  In my current role as an elearning coach I have the privilege of working with loads of different kids in different classrooms and different schools. A common issue that I have struck recently is our students’ lack of ability to touch type. (And by touch type I simply mean typing with more than 1 finger). As I glanced across the classrooms I was working in today I noticed the most common approach to typing sentences on the student netbooks was with 1 hand either on the seat or on the desk or supporting the cheek and the other hand, index finger extended, ever so  slowly pecking away at the keyboard. I was continually asking students to place 2 hands on the keyboard and at the very least try and use their 2 index fingers to type.

Observing this across a range of schools makes me wonder if we need to add explicit teaching of touch typing to our curriculum. With the emphasis we are now placing on use of technologies in the classroom surely it makes sense to teach our students the most efficient methods for this style of communication and expression.

Teachers need to start acknowledging the importance of this key skill.  We place emphasis on teaching handwriting and as an innovator (aka tech loving teacher) I constantly come up against teachers who whinge about students’ poor handwriting or the old worry about kids ‘not being able to handwrite anymore because they spend all their time on computers’. Seriously, how often do we handwrite in our modern society? On the other hand, how often do we type in our modern society? Aren’t we doing our kids a disservice by not providing them with the skills to become more efficient at this vital skill?

I know our curriculum is already overcrowded but I think this is one skill that needs to be taken MUCH more seriously.  And by much more seriously I don’t mean telling students to go on Tux Typing for 15 minutes every now and again.

Tags: curriculum, soapbox, teaching, typing

This post has been a long time coming but I think it is time to set the record straight…

I was fortunate to be asked to take part in a debate via Skype recently with the Edtech Crew. The debate was on netbooks vs ipads as an educational device. Darrel and Tony from the Edtech Crew had invited 4 participants from a range of backgrounds/settings to discuss their view on the topic. I was the netbook representative; there was also a laptop rep, an ipad rep and a mac book rep.

Being lucky enough to have (and use) a netbook, laptop(s) and an ipad myself I felt qualified to argue my point on the topic- my point that overall, given the opportunity (and endless budget), I would choose Windows laptops as my preferred classroom device. Having said that, I need to be realistic about school budget constraints and say that I would certainly be happy with netbooks as my chosen classroom device. At any rate, I would ALWAYS choose a netbook over an ipad.

I thought about this for a few days before the debate and pondered my dislike for ipads (as an educational device.) Why am I so against them? What has brought me to this decision? Am I being closed minded?

I would like to state here that I am not a Mac basher of any description. I certainly appreciate the fantastic software such as iMovie and Garageband that Macs offer. I am also not anti-ipads in any way.  I own and use one myself regularly. I AM however anti ipads in educational settings IF they are used as replacements for ‘real’ computers such as netbooks.

Sure people argue that ipads don’t have USB ports and cameras and it’s annoying that they don’t have keyboards. I ‘get’ that and I agree with it and I also realise that a few of these issues will be fixed with the latest release of the ipad 2. The thing that concerns me about ipads in education is the constraints they place on kids creativity. I know there are apps for just about everything but I just have not experienced the freedom and multitasking on my ipad that I have on my netbook or laptop. I taught in a netbook classroom and I’m now an elearning coach working with 21 different schools. The things I have had students do on netbooks is amazing. It is nothing short of exciting being in a classroom when kids are engaged in the creativity offered by the many programs on the netbooks and seeing the magic happening. Having students browsing ebay ‘purchasing’ items of furniture for the house they are creating in Google Sketchup while keeping a budget for everything they are doing in a Google Spreadsheet is just one example of the opportunities the netbooks offer. I am tired of people saying that not being able to multi task on ipads is “actually good for students because it makes them focus in on one thing at a time”….”kids of today need to learn to focus on one thing at a time…blah blah blah”. Sorry, but in my job I need to be able to talk on Skype to a teacher in one school while emailing support to a principal in another school while completing a spreadsheet to be handed out at the Network meeting in 2 days time. I need to multitask. It was one of the questions when I applied for the job! I ‘get’ that students need to learn to develop their attention span, I myself have a self confessed low attention span. My point is that when I want to focus on one thing I can- I just turn Skype off and close Outlook. By giving students ipads as their only device in a classroom we are making that choice for them and therefore taking away their freedom. We are saying that kids need 21^st Century skills and literacies but taking away one of the highly important ones- the ability to multitask.

My other gripe with ipads in schools in the control factor. I am not a person who likes to have unnecessary restrictions and controls placed on me and I feel that is exactly what the iTunes mothership does to me. I can see this mothership has its advantages but I am also a huge advocate for the idea of open free for all sharing. (A whole other blog post coming on right there…)

In the end I firmly believe that ipads in classrooms are a direct result of the ingenious FOMO (fear of missing out) factor created by Apple’s marketing department. It appears that the ipad catch cry in our schools (and in many business too) is “find a reason to use these ipads”. In the same way interactive whiteboards were installed en masse across our schools, ipads are being purchased first and then thought about second.

If I had a dollar for every teacher that contacted me and said ‘we have been given ipads to use with our kids and I have no idea what to do with them’ I would be as rich as Steve Jobs himself!

I am not denying that I don’t enjoy using my own ipad and that I don’t miss it when I go away and forget to bring it. My argument and frustration however, lies in the restrictions and limitations placed on students who are only given an ipad as their primary device. Why are our schools wasting precious resource dollars on something that has little documented educational value? It is time educators started to realise there are much better devices available that can have a far greater impact on enhancing student learning.  Yes it is slim, yes it is shiny and yes it is lightweight, but HOW does it improve student learning?

Tags: debate, devices, ipad, laptops, macs, mobile, netbooks, windows

This week’s WOW is Maths Starter a Day. This site features a calendar that has links to a different maths problem for each day. The problems are based on a range of maths topics and encourage problem solving skills as they provide JUST enough information for the students to solve the problem. (Can be quite frustrating for some students at first until they start to develop their problem solving skills.)

I have used this in class as an introduction to the Maths lesson and it is also an excellent activity for early finishers. The problems range in difficulty and I would suggest that they are probably best suited to high grade 3 students and upwards.

All problems have the answers and usually some demonstration / explanation of how to solve the problems at the bottom of the page.

Here’s the poster for Maths Starter a Day

Here’s the site- Maths Starter a Day

Tags: Maths, problem solving, WOW

This week’s Website Of the Week is Writing Fun by Jenny Eather. This site used to be a part of Rainforest Maths before it closed down (it has reopened now). Writing Fun is excellent for showing kids the ‘recipe’ for many genres of writing. It comes with several examples (increasing in difficulty) of each genre and a printable template for the students to use when they are writing. Any genre’s writing lesson should start with this on the IWB.

I use this website to teach the students about each style of genre we are writing in.  After reading through the genre on the first day and reading a couple of examples, I get the students to lead the second and third day by coming up and circling the various parts, words etc on different examples.

Here’s the poster for writing fun.

Tags: IWB, literacy, WOW

After a long Christmas holiday break I am back online and ready with the first of this year’s WOW- Website Of the Week. Australian teachers will be starting (however reluctantly) to get back into school mode now and this week’s website is an excellent resource to kick start your new class’ spelling program- www.spellingcity.com This website is simple to use and has huge benefits for students.

Teachers can set up weekly word lists (or students can add their own) and the students can then either press ‘teach me,’ ‘test me’ or a ‘play a game.’ The website actually creates games such as hangman using the word list entered. It even tests the words using an audio version of your word (and even puts the word in a sentence) – AMAZING! This site allows you to have multiple levels of lists happening in your class without the need to spend hours testing all the different groups. Once the students complete the test they can print off a full report on how they went.

Here’s the WOW poster for this week: spellingcity

Tags: literacy, spelling, WOW

As suggested by one of the visitors to this blog- I am attaching the posters I have made so far for Website of the Week.

I suggest you print these out in colour and hang them above the photocopier to encourage teachers to visit new and interesting sites.

WOW#1- writingfix

WOW #- Mathionaire

WOW #3- Wordle

WOW # 4- Exploratree- Resources for Thinking Curriculum

WOW # 5- Santas village

Let me know if you have any other sites you think would be great for WOW!

Tags: resources, WOW