The following parent evening presentation includes statistics on social network use in our school and examples of social software in the classroom. I wanted to provide some basics to parents unfamiliar with Facebook, inform the discussion of student use of social networks through data, and keep the focus on teaching and learning.
Today, I presented a talk on social networks to a group of principals and other school leaders taking a course on technology at Lewis and Clark College. I organized my preparation around the facets of social network sites that I thought principals would find most relevant: impact on teaching and learning, teacher professional development, and internet safety. The group had lots of questions that demonstrated a strong grasp of the challenges facing schools and how social network sites might fit into that.
It’s important to fully appreciate the challenge facing anyone who wants to change a school, never mind fully integrate technology. Wanting to fundamentally change the model for schooling is a prerequisite to mastering an entirely set of new technology competencies. As long as one is not willing to reduce the amount of content coverage, as long as technology activities are relegated to the category of optional enrichment, as long as a teacher has to run the classroom, then the effort is not worth it.
The class students are learning about online professional development practices first-hand, each maintaining a blog for the class. In addition, I directed them to Classroom 2.0, the Global Education Collaborative, and the Synapse as a starting point. I hope they’ll keep blogging after the class has finished, so I may follow their work. I demonstrated how to begin to build a personal learning network and related anecdotes of the value of our peers’ online posts to building one’s own knowledge.
To learn what students are doing online, I directed the principals to the MacArthur Foundation series of reports on kids’ online lives, stressing the importance of consuming many reports to gain a multifaceted perspective. Talking to teachers and students about what they do online and what value it has for them is also essential for school administrators.
In my first day at NCCE, I was surprised to attend sessions dominated by lists of technology tools and how to use them. Aren’t we well past that point? I certainly thought so after attending Building Learning Communities last summer. Then, session presentations were organized around teaching and learning — what goals did the teacher have for the course, how could one tell that students were learning? Tools were only discussed in the context of how they were strategically used to enrich an environment directed to specific learning objectives.
Excessive focus on the technology itself in the absence of an intentional learning environment reinforces unhelpful stereotypes about technologists and technology. 1) You can improve education just by adding technology; 2) Technologists aren’t interested in teaching and learning. Most of the conference attendees are teachers. Let’s upset the usual stereotypes and return to what matters.
NCCE organizers and attendees, may we set a simple expectation? Accept conference proposals that make a legitimate, explicit connection between the specific qualities of a technology and the construction of an intentional, thoughtful learning environment for children?
We have scheduled spring professional development sessions for our teachers. What are you focusing on as priority teacher professional development goals? We want to offer sessions that appeal to learners at their own stages of technology vision.
Moodle Workshop
Come set up your Moodle course in this hands-on session. Post assignments, readings, and links. Set up discussion forums for students. Learn how others have integrated Moodle into their classes.
Backup Basics
Is the backup process still not quite clear to you? Are you worried that you aren’t getting a good backup? Do you want to make sure that you are backing up what’s important and filtering out what’s not? Come with your questions and leave with a solid understanding of how to backup your important data!
Video Showcase
We have so many ways to use video in the classroom. This session will help you choose one to investigate more deeply for use in your classes. Together, we will briefly demonstrate each technology, discuss capabilities, and show current uses at Catlin Gabel. Technologies will include: YouTube, United Streaming, Blip.tv, TiVo, digital TV, cable TV, satellite TV, video in Drupal, video in Moodle, video cameras, digital cameras, and Flip video recorders.
Getting the Most out of Your SmartBoard
Do you have a SmartBoard in your room but you’re not sure you are using it to its fullest potential? We’ll show you lots of tips and tricks to help you maximize this useful tool. Bring your questions and your laptops as we will have hands-on practice time at the end of the session.
Tying Technology to Your Curriculum
If you’re looking for ways to enhance your curriculum and make it more effective using technology, then you’ll want to attend this workshop. We’ll provide numerous resources to get you thinking about where it makes sense to use technology in your curriculum to engage your students and how to continue to improve learning. You may have some good ideas you’ve already tested. Please bring them along to share!
Six of us recently presented a technology evening for parents in our elementary school. Our team included our computer skills teacher, fifth grade teacher, librarian, counselor, desktop/laptop manager, and me. We covered a range of topics: tech use in the classroom, teaching research skills, library web tools, “walled garden” intranet tools, tips for Internet use at home, and an explanation of our no-filtering policy. Click on each screeen shot below to link to the full presentation.
Intranet “walled garden” sites across the curriculum
Research skills, introducing kids to email
Catlin Gabel seeks a Drupal expert on a consulting basis to advise and assist school technology staff with the development of a new version of our public-facing web site, www.catlin.edu. The consultant will explain Drupal best practices to the school’s development team, provide suggestions for techniques to solve specific problems, and directly assist with site configuration and programming as needed. Please visit ww3.catlin.edu for examples of the ideas we are currently exploring.
To apply, please send:
- A letter describing your interest in this project
- A résumé of your Drupal development experience and computer science education
- The URLs of sites that you have developed and/or a web-based portfolio
- References to prior Drupal site clients, especially in the nonprofit and education sectors
We will select finalists based on these materials and then request an in-person or Skype interview.
Richard Kassissieh
Director of Information Technology
Catlin Gabel School
kassissiehr (at) catlin.edu
Catlin Gabel seeks a graphic designer on a contract basis for a new version of the school’s web site, www.catlin.edu. This person will produce an original graphic design suitable for a content management system and consistent with the school’s existing style guide for print materials. The design will contribute to the vitality, accessibility, and usability of the new site. The project will be limited to graphic design and a small amount of interaction design — the information architecture is already in place. The school already possesses a considerable amount of photographic imagery for use in the site. The final deliverable may be either a layered Photoshop document or a complete Drupal theme, depending on the designer’s skills and experience.
To apply, please send:
- A letter describing your interest in this project
- A résumé of your graphic design experience and training
- A description of your web graphic design process
- The URL of a portfolio of your web site graphic design work
- References for prior web site design clients
We will select finalists and then request from each a project bid and interview (in-person or Skype).
Richard Kassissieh
Director of Information Technology
Catlin Gabel School
kassissiehr (at) catlin.edu
During the inauguration, first grade students sketched the words and images that they wanted to remember. I assembled these into a slideshow and then overlayed an audio segment of President Obama’s speech. I am so pleased that the White House has made these materials easy to access and download. I hope we will see students produce creative remixes of government content in the future.
I downloaded the full-quality MP4 from whitehouse.gov and then used QuickTime Player to extract the audio track.
Richard Kassissieh is Director of Technology and Learning Innovation at Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
@kassissieh on Twitter
