iPad envy

A few week ago, we were sent an email about the use of iPads in the classroom. The site discussed the advantages of this technology in the classroom..I don't need to be convinced though, of having this technology. We, Stephanie Gallegos and I, have had the fortune of having a classroom set of iPods this year, and it has transformed our teaching. Kids are more engaged, and involved...and we have enjoyed it too. As the year comes to a close, I realize how much my teaching has changed and how much I rely on being able to have my student access their blogs or the wiki, or TodaysMeet.

I am envious of those schools that can easily attain this technology...That their teachers don't need to look and apply for grants on their own to get things like the iPad. I defiantly have iPad envy!

Chapter 8 Reflection

Chapter 8 of Reinventing Project-Based Learning focused on building connections and branching out.  This chapter reiterated much about what I have learned from being an Expeditionary Learning School educator.  Students need real audiences in order for products to be meaningful and authentic.  Knowing that there is a broader audience beyond the school walls does help students focus more on the quality of work that they are producing. 

But having been a part of a school network that believes this, creating an authentic product is difficult and time consuming.  It takes careful planning, setting up experts, an audience and then working on the product, with multiple revisions.  It is a slow process, but students benefit from all of this work.  They experience what it is like to persevere through the learning, planning and multiple revision process.  And they feel a sense of accomplishment when all is said and done. 

A bit of a vent...

Class sizes aren't going to change, and neither will our technology access problems/issues change.  I was sad to hear that the Director of Technology position has been cut due to budget issues.  Who is going to champion now for better access to technology?  Who is going to ensure that teachers have equal access to computer labs...because right now, that is not the case.  Who is going to finally say that computer labs are obsolete, that we shouldn't be taking kids out of our classroom to technology, but the technology should be brought INTO the classrooms?  Our students won't be proficient in 21st century skills if we keep 21 century skills only in technology class - just like we are all teachers of reading and writing in our specific content, we should all be teachers of 21st century skills - and that won't happen until we have better and equal access to what our students need.  

Noel 

Technology Glictches...

Students are completing their final of their photo essay.  They have been working on and off between Tech class and social studies and writing class - taking pictures, downloading them, editing them into black and white, formatting Word document to our specifications, pre-planning in social studies, pre-planning in writing, rough draft, revising, typing draft, revising...and revising more.  Finally, last week, all their work was coming together into the beautiful final piece.  It's been HARD work for them, and us.  Computer issues have been many, mainly...getting students onto the server, because they couldn't.  Other problems, students working faster than other kids...so what do you do when they get done?  Or how do you support those students who are seriously behind when the number of students who don't need lab time outweigh those who do?  What happens to the student project who was almost done, and the computer just completely crashed his project, and no matter what you say, it is MONTHS of exhaustive work that has been lost, and the prospect of starting over is just too much?  I don't have the answers, and it is discouraging.  

One last question...maybe someone can help?  We want students to get onto our laptops under their server log in so that we can save their project onto a flash drive while we are in the classroom during other work.  This worked for us well last year. We can move on, without having to be in the lab.  However, when students have tried to login using our laptop, Microsoft Word does not exist...and they can't pull their project up.  It comes up as a text edit box thing.  Ultimately, students can't pull their projects up on our laptops...is it because we have Microsoft 2011?  

Noel

Reflections on Chapter 7 - Keeping a Project Moving

This chapter discusses the  importance of communicating with all the teachers involved in a cross-curricular project; and ensuring students are on the right track by asking the right question and becoming an observer in the classroom.  I liked the section about asking higher order questions - claiming that these types of questions are part of the everyday life of a project based classroom.  I completely agree with this, as asking these types of questions is just good teaching.  

At one point in the chapter, the authors discuss having students ask good question (for an interview, or to form a historical question to research).  I was hoping that the authors would spend time on how to teach kids to write a quality question that would drive their own research (which is one of the new Colorado Standards for history).  I am disappointed and frustrated that this was not addressed.

Leaving our Teachers Behind

I just got back from co-presenting at the Expeditionary Learning National Conference in Portland, OR with Stephanie Gallegos.  Our presentation relied heavily on technology - which has become an essential part of our active pedagogy.  We brought with us iPods from our classroom, we were going to have the participants use TodaysMeet.com to have an ongoing conversation with us during the presentation.  We were also using the iPods for video and music as part of our instruction with them.  I was quite shocked to find that there were many participants who did not know how to use the iPod.  I've been living in my little technology world with my students, that I have lost sight that there are many teachers who are not literate in technology, and some are even resistant to the new technology.  It makes me think a lot about how we have high expectations for students and technology...but do we have high expectations for our teachers to learn this? I keep thinking, how are we going to move our students into the 21st century when some of our teachers can't get there?  How are going to raise the bar without leaving our teachers behind? 

A Review on "Do Web 2.0 Right"

The last time we met as an E2T2 cohort, David gave us an article from the publication Learning and Leading with Technology from February 2011.  The title of the article is "So Web 2.0 Right"  The article is not a step by step guide on how to incorporate Web 2.0 tools, but more of a philosophy of Web 2.0 tools to consider.  The author, David Light, went into 22 schools and interviewed 39 educators throughout the country about how they incorporated Web 2.0 tools.  

As I was reading this, I found myself agreeing on what Light found based on what my experiences have been thus far with incorporating some of these tools into my own classroom.  Light writes that "we identified three elements that have clearly shaped how these teachers used Web 2.0 to create sustained, meaningful communication among their students:

• instituting daily practice
• carefully considering the audience
• teaching and enforcing appropriate behavior (11)"

Instead of using these tools as "special projects", teachers should use these tools "the same way adults use them in a social or business context(11)."  When thinking about this, this makes sense, especially when you look at standard #2 of  National Education Technology Standards (NETS)  for students.  This standard requires students to use digital media to communicate and work collaboratively. If students are using a daily blog or wiki to help build a common understanding of content, instead of just during "special projects" they are more likely to be motivated to use the tools, and use them correctly and more effectively.  

I was surprised about the section about audience and why some students don't post on a classroom/public wiki or blog.  While we have our entire reading class posting on their blogs, we are having a difficult time getting our entire social studies classes posting on the wiki.  Some students have forgotten their login information, and I don't have access to that, and wikispaces doesn't make it easy to get that information.  But I wonder if students fear posting their opinions because they don't have the trust in their classmates.  Which is what part of this section on audience discusses.  I will need to further think about this. 

Appropriate behavior is key on the web.  Just like we need to teach our students how to behave in class, and how to behave in groups, we need to teach appropriate web behavior.  I wonder what and how these teachers do to build online communities of appropriate learners and behaviors?  The article doesn't go into how teachers do this?  What do teachers in E2T2 do?  I'd love to hear your strategies...

Noel