NCLB is Proving The Need for 21st Century Skills

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:10:43 -0700

As the results of the standardized tests given this past spring are coming back to our school districts, we are seeing the same old story being told. Our students struggle with higher order thinking skills.

The chart that I have included above is called a Pareto Chart. Each bar indicates a different area of a state standardized test. The larger the bar, the more errors students made on that particular area of the test. The smaller the bar, the fewer errors students made. This particular chart is very typical of the types of errors made on standardized tests, and it just so happens to make the case that our kids continue to struggle with higher order thinking skills. This is due mostly to the fact that they are very rarely used in schools.

It’s no secret that to be successful in life, you have to have a pretty firm grasp on higher order thinking/21st Century skills. It is our responsibility to teach this in school so that our kids don’t have to struggle to learn it later. By focusing more on these skills, not only are you doing right by your kids and their future, they will score better on those pesky tests... and that makes everyone happy!

I Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself...

Tue, 5 May 2009 19:49:41 -0700

A Vision of the 21st Century Classroom

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:22:00 -0700

As part of an exercise to build a cohesive vision of what a 21st Century learning environment “looks like,” I wrote the following “journal entry” from the perspective of a kid about a day in their life at school.

A journal entry by Lauren, age 12

Last week a woman and man visited our homeroom class to tell us about a restaurant they are opening in town. It will be a casual family-owned restaurant, and they want our help with advertising, designing the menus, and they are even interested in hearing about our ideas for making their restaurant a place that kids want their parents to take them. My teacher said that she will splitting the class into 5 groups. Each group will take on the task that the restaurant owners presented, and each will make a presentation in 3 weeks. The owners will then choose the ideas they think will work best for their group.

Our teacher said that not only do we need to meet the objectives that the restaurant owners have given us, we have to be sure to meet the objectives the teacher has given us. It's our group's job to propose how we will meet all of the goals. For example: One of the things the owners asked us to come up with is some ideas for making their restaurant a place kids want to go. Our teacher told us that one of the things we have to be able to do are answer questions based on data displays. Our group is proposing that we create an online survey for kids across the district about what they want in a restaurant. We will use this data to create data displays to use in making decisions about what to propose to the owners.

Three weeks ago we took our benchmark assessments. When I looked at my scores, I looked on the computer and saw that I am approaching the standard in writing, and meeting the standard in the other areas. My language arts teacher showed me the specific areas in writing that I am having the most trouble with. I have set a goal to raise my math scores by focusing on those specific areas. I have also set a goal to exceed the standard in science, social studies and language arts. My teachers showed me what I need to focus on to exceed the standard in those areas. I have my own logon to the grade book system, so I will be able to track my progress.

My teacher told the class that in each group the work will be split up so that each kid is working on the stuff that will benefit their own goals. I am working to raise my writing scores by focusing on sentence structure, I will be taking on the task of writing the final proposal, writing the final copy for an advertisement for radio, and writing an interesting story about the owners and their vision for the back of the menu. I am also working to exceed in the other areas of the standards, so I will be doing research on successful restaurants in the area, and helping to design an outside educational play area. I also will be proof reading the meal descriptions that one of my group-mates is writing. My teacher told me that proof reading and correcting someone else's writing will increase my writing skills. Since this could actually be a menu someone uses, I am taking this pretty seriously.

My group has set up a wiki to gather all the resources we collect. This is really helpful because no matter when I want to work on my tasks, as long as I have access to the internet, I can get the resources. My homeroom teacher can also keep an eye on our progress. Our teacher has worked with each group to set timelines to make sure we keep on track. He has also let us know when we will be having quizzes to make sure we are on track to meet our goals.

Yesterday I did not do well on my social studies quiz. My social studies teacher told our class that most of us did poorly on certain parts of it, and she said that is because our project does not focus on those areas. She let us know that will be doing a mini project that isn't part of our larger project. We will video conference with a guest speaker, read articles, have a class discussion, and choose to report what we learned to the class by creating a 90 second presentation that summarizes our learning.

I also had some trouble on a few areas of my math quiz. I am frustrated because they are areas I have been doing homework on. I think part of the problem is that my parents aren't able to help me with it, so I am guessing. Today while the class worked on their projects, my teacher pulled those of us that are having trouble in that area to his work table and gave us a mini lesson. He assigned some homework for practice and put a video on his website that will help me if I get stuck. I am pretty lucky because I have a computer at home. However, the kids that don't are able to stay after school and use the library media center. It is open until 5:00 for kids that want to work. There are always teachers there to help kids work on their homework, because everyone needs to meet their goals in order to succeed!

Game Changer

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:13:49 -0700

We all have heard how fabulous the iPhone is. If you have one, you know that it is true! But after all, isn’t it just a really nice looking phone? I believed that was the case. As an Apple Computer fan, I take special pleasure using my beautiful machine and it’s super slick applications. But at the end of the day, I can pretty much consume and produce the same content on either a Mac or PC (although the stuff I produce on the Mac is much nicer!).

When I got my iPhone I found the same to be true of it. It basically did what by Blackberry did. I could call people, send and receive email, take pictures, surf the Internet, text, listen to music, etc. Sure, the applications that take advantage of the GPS are really great, but the device still only empowered me to be a fairly high level consumer of information but a very low level producer of information. After all, producing information and ideas are critical in the 21st Century, so the laptop and desktop computer still reign supreme. Then I stumbled on the Animoto application and I now I know that the game is about to change!

Animoto is a free application that takes the photos on the phone, sets them to music, and creates a video that can be viewed online. This is not high level video production. Not a lot of thought goes into the creation of these videos. However, it does cast light on the fact that our phones are becoming more and more powerful, and absolutely have the potential to someday impact the laptop and desktop market. It is hard to imagine students writing research papers or shooting a feature length video on their cell phone, but my grandmother still can’t figure out how I can video conference with her without my computer being plugged into a cable.

If you are resistant to students using cell phones in the classroom, you are missing an opportunity. Many students are sitting in classrooms with tools in their pockets that can do more than we might know, and certainly in the next few years they will do more than we can imagine!

Check Out The Following:
A Computer in Every Pocket
From Toy to Tool

Technology for the Sake of Technology

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 21:00:27 -0700

Throughout the presidential election season, CNN exemplified all that I fight against... using technology for the sake of technology. It seamed like every week the commentators got a new toy that they used to move the states around, circle squiggle and just plain attempt to dazzle us with red and blueness! And what is with the laptops? I will admit that some of the imagery was helpful, and the technology occasionally assisted in transforming my understanding of what was happening. But for the most part, it was just silly and somewhat distracting. If you saw the green screen technology that brought us the gold rotating rotunda where Ann Curry stood on NBC, you know what I mean.

That being said, I must say that the CNN hologram stunt was WAY COOL! I am sure that it cost close to my school district’s entire annual budget, but my mind started to reel with the possibilities for this technology. Video conferencing is great, and virtual worlds are compelling, but imagine a 3-D image materializing in a classroom and addressing students. Imagine carrying on a conversation with an astronaut floating in front of you. This technology can enable us to have those “being there” experiences that we so badly want for our kids. It may not be available to us in the public school arena anytime soon, but it is coming and I can’t wait!

Ensure Student Engagement Throughout the Learning

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:24:39 -0700

Research has documented the relationship between student engagement and achievement. There is a direct relationship between the amount of time students are actively engaged in learning and their achievement levels. The research also shows that students who are engaged persist, despite challenges and obstacles, and take visible delight in accomplishing their work (Strong, Silver, and Robinson, 1995, p. 8). In classrooms where students are highly engaged, student participation is a requirement, not an invitation.

Educators have long since observed that technology “raises student engagement.” However, we also know that there are many cases where the technology that is being employed in classrooms facilitates lower order thinking skills. Having students engaged in non-rigorous tasks can be counter productive to raising student achievement.

Eliciting student engagement in rigorous instruction can be done through having students summarize. In summarizing, students evaluate the information and decide what information to use, delete, or substitute.

There are many technology tools that facilitate summarization while eliciting student engagement. Tools such as Snapvine, and Wiffiti enable students to post summaries from either a computer or a cell phone. They can then be posted in real-time to a website where the teacher and the class have access to them. This enables further discussion or a review of learning the next day. In addition, because the summaries are posted in real-time, the engagement is mandatory.

Computing In The Cloud

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:10:29 -0700

I am a Mac user, but my organization uses PCs. Sometimes I get frustrated because I prefer to use Mac applications such as Keynote and Pages, but I can’t open them on my PC at work. However lately, I have been abating these frustrations by using online applications.

I began using Google Apps a while ago. They work great for basic word processing, slideshows, and spreadsheets. There is a new feature in Google Spreadsheets that enable me to create forms, post them online, and gather the data in a spreadsheet that is shareable. For some fancier slideshows, I have been using 280 Slides. Adobe has acquired and created some very useful tools, including a very nice word processor called Buzz Word. They also have an online PDF creator, online meeting space/screen sharing application, and an online version of PhotoShop Elements. All of these tools are absolutely free... at least for now.

The choices in free, online productivity tools are virtually endless. You have choices in calendars, to do lists, and of course email. It is clear we are moving away from platform specific applications, and moving toward online tools. Of course in order to use these tools you have to be connected to the Internet (although some of the more jazzy ones allow you to download a client to access them when you are not online). But as wireless access points become more prevalent, broadband cards become standard in laptops, and our phones become more sophisticated, we will soon be able to access the Internet anytime, anywhere.

This has some serious implications for schools. Districts pay thousands of dollars, millions if you are really large, for computer applications and network storage. In addition, kids and teachers should be able to access their files and documents anywhere, anytime. If they are stuck on a computer at school, or on a server behind a firewall, how can they work anytime, anyplace? Cloud computing solves that without paying a dime. There are many good arguments for continuing this practice such as security, control, and support. However, as the tools get better, connections get faster, and the stuff stays free, we may want to take a serious look at computing in the cloud.

Open Space Technology

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:58:31 -0700

Recently I attended a four-day summit on professional development. One of the days was devoted to professional learning using the format of Open Space Technology. Open Space Technology was created by Harrison Owen when he realized that people were learning more at the coffee breaks than the formal sessions. Owen then conceived of Open Space Technology as a completely new way of conferencing.

I had some great sessions and some not so great sessions. But at the end of the day, I learned more than I have ever learned during a conference experience. And to top it off, I was deeply invested in the learning. This is how it works:

The conference began with the whole group coming together. There was no keynote speaker. We all sat in a large room in a circle that was several rows deep. The facilitator explained the concept and we began. The theme for the conference was stated, and we were told to think of topics that interested us that related to the theme.

For the next 20 to 30 minutes, people got up and introduced the topic that interested them. They wrote the topic on a piece of paper and signed their name to the same paper. They then taped the paper to the wall on a pre-prepared time/room grid.

After everyone that wanted to share finished, the whole group went to the wall and signed their name on the topics they wanted to know more about. We then began participating in the hour to hour and a half sessions, although the time was not really set. If someone wanted to leave because they wanted to go to a session that was starting, or the session they were in wasn’t meeting their expectations, they were encouraged to leave.

The sessions were often facilitated by the person that introduced the topic, but not necessarily. Rules for facilitation were posted on the wall of each break out room so the facilitators had some guidance. Each group was asked to take notes on chart paper and return it to the gathering room after the session.

After all the sessions ended, the group returned to the gathering room and processed the posted session notes.

I found this to be a powerful professional learning experience, and I am anxious to put it to work. You can find out more about it by visiting the following sites:

Michael Herman
Lisa Heft
Amazon

Managing Up For Technology Coordinators

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 10:34:29 -0700

There are several good articles, blogs, and books about “managing up.” Managing up is the learned skill that enables people to influence their boss in order to further their career. If you are interested in this concept, you should definitely read Managing Up by Roseanne Badowski, or Throwing the Elephant and the Art of Managing Up by Stanley Bing.

Although I am an ambitious person that is concerned about furthering my career, my interest in managing up is not as much about moving up the ladder as it is in more effectively communicating what I do and why people should care. If you are reading this blog, you probably have a passion for using technology to transform teaching and learning. You understand that technology is vital in the engagement of 21st century learners. You also know that using technology to learn to communicate, collaborate, and to solve problems is critical to the success of our students. You know that, but does your boss and other decision makers? Are choices made to make these things possible, or do you run up against countless roadblocks due to a lack of understanding?

Managing up is a great strategy to educate and influence while maintaining your role in middle management. Here are a few strategies to you can use to influence your organization to better support teaching and learning:

1. Be a great communicator. If you put out great publications, maintain an outstanding website, craft engaging emails, and facilitate well planned meetings, people will notice and follow your lead.
2. Use Data. If useful data is not available to you, get up and go get it. Once you have it, analyze it and use it to make decisions. Make sure people know that the decisions you make are based on the data you have collected. Make the data you collect available to others.
3. Provide examples of greatness. When you see examples of what you want to replicate, capture it. Take pictures, video, or write the stories, and then share it. Use these specific examples in meetings, professional development, and publications. Let people know what it is suppose to look like, and make them hungry for it.
4. Focus, focus, focus! You need to develop what Jim Collins calls the Hedgehog Concept. You can read about it here. Decide on the area you are going to focus on, and do not deviate from it. Collect data about it, provide professional development about it, and make purchasing decisions about it. This will become the language you speak and what you become known for. Do not add anything new until you hear your words repeated back, and your examples replicated in classrooms. Be relentless about this!
5. Know what you are talking about. None of the above is of any use unless you know exactly what you are talking about. Make sure you are well-read, well-researched, and that you can articulate these things.

World Wide Telescope

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:27:32 -0700

I wanted to share the following information that I received from Microsoft. This free tool is absolutely amazing...

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope—bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. Feel free at any time to pause the tour, explore on your own (with multiple information sources for objects at your fingertips), and rejoin the tour where you left off. Join Harvard Astronomer Alyssa Goodman on a journey showing how dust in the Milky Way Galaxy condenses into stars and planets. Take a tour with University of Chicago Cosmologist Mike Gladders two billion years into the past to see a gravitational lens bending the light from galaxies allowing you to see billions more years into the past.

John Whitaker
Account Technology Specialist
Microsoft Corporation [Education K-12]
480-221-6958

Download:
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/experienceIt/ExperienceIt.aspx

Raising the Cognitive Level of Learning Tasks

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 22:30:47 -0700

Almost a year ago I created a post titled, “Step Away From The Power Point.” It’s main topic was that technology has such potential to raise the cognitive level of learning tasks, yet I often see that it enables lower level teaching and learning. One year later, I am still experiencing the same thing when I visit classrooms.

This isn’t just a technology issue. I have data that shows that over 85% of the teaching, with technology or not, in my district is done at the knowledge, understand, or application levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Before you judge to harshly, I have seen data from other parts of the country that show we are not unique in this sad reality.

Benjamin Bloom published his classification of levels of intellectual behavior, that we now call Bloom’s Taxonomy, in 1956! 1956! We have known about this for sixty years, yet there doesn’t seem to be a concerted effort on many to insist we attack this issue. So fellow educators that use technology to “enhance” your instruction, become the model that proves that technology can ENABLE the raising of the cognitive level of learning tasks.

If you are the exception, and your students are using higher order thinking skills, comment and share your experiences.

Ning

Sat, 1 Mar 2008 20:07:57 -0700

Have you wanted to use a social networking site with your students, but MySpace, Facebook, and the like are blocked by your firewall? Even if they aren’t blocked, perhaps they don’t offer the structure you desire... Enter Ning! Ning is a site that let’s you set up your own social network. You give it a name, customize it, and let the good times roll. What I really like is, you can create a private network. The only way people can join your network is if you invite them. I think this is a great school and classroom solution.

Second Life

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:58:57 -0700

My mind is reeling with the possibilities of Second Life! About a year ago I created a Second Life account and tried to develop an understanding of this online environment. I couldn’t quite get into it so I left it alone.

I got back in about a week ago with the help of my friend Bernajean. She helped me move around, change my appearance, and gave me a good understanding of how the whole thing works. I am now hooked!

Second Life interests people for different reasons. What I find so compelling are the professional learning opportunities that exist. For example, ISTE has a space in Second Life (an “island”) where you can go and meet up with other educators and discuss various topics. They have classes and lectures that you can take part in. I have met up with people for meetings and sat and chatted with other educators about they work we do. I attended a dance and watched real videos. I have visited the “homes” of people such as David Warlick and Hal Davidson and explored the resources they have available.

I have met a great colleague that goes by the name of Knowclue Kidd that is really tapping into the educational implications in Second Life. Many people are talking about this, and I am just a newbie. If you don’t have an account, I encourage you to get one and come join the party “in world.” You can find me by searching for Tingaling Ling. Hope to see you soon!

Tafiti

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:07:56 -0700

I am rarely impressed by anything Microsoft does. I am a Mac user that is used to my products being designed really well, and working the way I work... However, today I stopped dead in my tracks when I came across Tafiti. Tafiti is a search engine created by Microsoft and “powered” by Live Search. I think they would have done better to have it powered by Google, but I won’t split hairs.

The first thing that interested me about this is that I had to install Silverlight (14mb Mac and PC compatible) on my computer. This initially annoyed me, but I’m over it now.

What really buttered my bread was how you search and save your searches. It is very visual. You can create the equivalent to folders right in the browser. They are called stacks (very Mac-like). You can sort your searches by websites, news articles, rss feeds, images and books. You then drag and drop what you like into your stack, creating a collection of what you are interested in. It’s beautiful! You can then create a blog, using Windows Live Space, out of your stack.

The implications for students and teachers are great. Teachers can organize instructional support materials in an easy to access way. Students can pull together information from the web and then create a blog (if you are willing to use their service) with additional information, analysis, and comparisons.

This tool is in beta, so I am sure new features will be added. I hope they add video to their search criteria. I would also like to see them allow us to use different blog services. Let me know what you think of this tool.

Creative Commons

Wed, 2 Jan 2008 22:39:10 -0700

Teachers struggle with copyright. What can we do, what can’t we do? I am a bit sick of it. That is why I am turning to creative commons licensed materials. Creative Commons is a license that the creator of a product can apply to their work that allows the end user flexibility. Unlike a traditional copyright, the end user may be granted permission to modify, reproduce, or even use the material for commercial purposes. Creative Commons is very classroom friendly, and teaches our students about contributing to the common good.

You can search the net for CC licensed materials using this search engine. To learn about Creative Commons, view the video below.

Tux Paint

Sun, 4 Nov 2007 23:39:56 -0700

There are some pretty decent electronic paint programs for kids. The most popular is probably Kid Pix. Kid Pix is fantastic, and it allows you to turn your drawings into movies and slideshows. However, if you are just looking for the drawing/painting functions, and you don’t have any money to spend, you might be rather impressed by Tux Paint. There is even an online gallery where you can submit your Tux Paint creations! It is a free download, works on pretty much any operating system, and is really addictive!

Other free drawing programs you might want to check out are:
Drawing For Children
Art Rage (Starter Edition is free)
Art Pad (online only)

Confronting Arrogance

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:07:57 -0700

I hope we can all agree that instructional practices in schools need to change. Not change for the sake of change, but for the sake of our “new century learners.” Our schools are reflections of a slower, smaller world, and we are leaving millions of students out of the experiences they need to be productive in this fast, global economy. Law makers, communities and businesses have been calling for this change for years. Yet we are only beginning to see glimpses of the reform our students, and our society, so badly need.

There is a lot of discussion about educational reform barriers that exist. Poor leadership, lack of funding, poor professional development, and teacher shortages are all factors listed when discussing barriers to change. However, I think there is another huge issue we haven’t begun to confront. Teachers are arrogant, and they don’t think there is anything wrong with the way they are doing things (insert hateful retort in the comments section below).

Perhaps it is a natural bi-product of our profession. After all, many teachers spend hours every day being the sole authority and expert in their classrooms. After a while, that little bit of power is bound to change your thinking about yourself and begin inflating you with a sense of self-importance.

In order for instructional practices to change, teachers have to change. In order to change you have to identify that there is a problem. In order to identify that there is a problem, we have to admit we don’t know everything there is to know about teaching, and begin the difficult process of transforming ourselves into 21st Century teachers.

Powering Down

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:29:53 -0700

Last week I entered a classroom that had a sign on the door that read, “No electronics.” I went into the classroom holding a tablet PC and a Palm Trio. One of the students looked at me and said,” You are not allowed to have electronics in here.” I wondered if there was a medically fragile kid that was on some kind of life support system that my equipment could interfere with. I looked around and didn’t see anything, so I asked the kid,” Why?” She pointed at the teacher and said, “She thinks it is a distraction.” I internally rolled my eyes.

Ironically, the teacher was using a laptop and a projector. This teacher seems to understand that technology can support her, but doesn’t feel that her students need the same opportunity. I know the sign was intended to keep MP3 players, cell phones, and handheld games out of her room, but the message was clear. “I am going to power up my personal productivity tools, but you students need to put away anything that might distract you from my riveting PowerPoint enhanced lecture.” Cell phones, MP3 players, and handheld gaming devices hold enormous educational potential, and they are banned from the one place that needs them the most. I challenge teachers to not ask kids to power down when they come to school. This is a place they should be fully hooked up, powered up, and fired up!

Jing

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:06:52 -0700

Many of us techie teacher types spend a bunch of time making help documents and training materials for our colleagues. This can be a daunting tasks when screenshots are needed. There are several good screen capture programs out there that allow you to make snazzy looking documents, but you have to buy them. Well not any more! Jing, from the good people at TechSmith, is a nice little program you download for free. It places a little sun icon at the top of your screen (Windoes) or in the right hand corner of your screen (Mac). When you need to take a screenshot, you just hover over the sun with your cursor, and you get screen capture “crosshairs.” Once you indicate what you want to capture, you have the choice to save it or upload it to the Internet. If you upload it, you get a URL that you can share with people or place on a blog or webpage. Jing allows you to type on the image, highlight things, or draw arrows. And here’s the kicker, you can also capture video! You can show people how to do something on your desktop and use Jing to record it. It is a very sweet little application, and one that every person that provides any level of tech support needs to have. I even use it to help my Mom!

Differentiated Staff Development

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:37:31 -0700

Differentiated staff development… what a concept! I am really tired of attending and GIVING one size fits all staff development. I knew we as a system had hit rock bottom when I attended professional development on differentiation that WASN’T differentiated! It is not unlike the story I heard about the kid that was learning to program computers without the computer. The kids were taught the language, they wrote the script out on paper, and when a computer became available, they then typed in their code and tested if it worked!

The National Staff Development Council has standards for professional development. Number five states:

Addresses Individual Needs
The individual and specific needs of leaders must be addressed in quality professional development. Opportunities for individuals to assess their needs in relation to standards should be provided. To be effective, professional development must incorporate individual learning styles and adult learning theory.

So how do we pull this off? How do we deliver professional development to great numbers of teachers and account for their individual needs? How do great teachers do it in their classrooms… They START with an assessment. They then analyze that assessment, plan for the instructional activities and then “bring the magic”! It often takes the form of small group instruction and a variety of learning opportunities. So how can we start applying this to technology professional development? First off I would recommend STOP having technology professional development! Instead, embed strategies that are supported by technology into all professional development. Secondly, consider the following:

1. Assessment- assessing teacher’s skills and understandings is different than evaluating their teaching. It can be done in numerous ways: surveys, walk-through data, interviews (start asking the kids… you know, the client!)

2. Evaluation- evaluate the assessment. What does this data tell us about what teachers need? Include them in on the conversation.

3. Planning- create individual learning plans. What do they need, and how do they need to acquire it? Plan for a variety of leaning episodes. Face to face, online, a combination of both, collaborative groups, individual work time in a supportive environment… set up these choices, and allow the learners to take control of how they are going to learn.

4. Teaching- Provide the right amount of support for learning to occur. This takes a lot of planning. You cannot roll this kind of staff development out in an afternoon. One person standing in front of a room of people with a PowerPoint and a microphone will not get the job done. Sound familiar?

In short, identify what great teaching looks like, and clone it for professional development.