I just returned from three days at the PNAIS TechShare conference, located in the foothills of Mt. Hood. It was a great conference. Though very small (maybe 35 attendees), we attracted a critical mass of teachers, kept the conversation focused on teaching and learning, and enjoyed the retreat-like atmosphere of a resort hotel. Gaining face time with Northwest colleagues we usually only "see" through email was most valuable. I picked up a lot of useful sites and tools to support our global education initiatives and made several contacts at other schools who are doing very interesting work. Best of all, I shared the experience with two colleagues from my school, which should really help with implementation of these ideas this year. Go TechShare!

We did devote an hour's time to discussion of open source software. Interestingly, the conversation was not much different from similar talks two years ago. A lot of tech staff are still struggling with how to take the first steps to exploring open source software in their schools, and the categories of desktop, server, and web open-source software are mixed without much discrimination. I don't fully understand why open-source technologies are not treated like other new technologies. You find the time to learn it because it's interesting, your users are curious, and it has the potential to really help your operations. If it's strategically important to your school, then you find the time to study it. I hope that we may one day take this conversation to the next level within our community of northwest schools.

Wow, has the Apple revolution arrived to the state of Washington! A number of schools are now wrestling with Mac client-Windows network integration, as students have begun to show up on campus with MacBooks. A whole bunch of conference attendees sported iPhones (and complained about the spotty signal reception at the resort)!

We maintained our global ed theme throughout most of the conference. The best part for me was learning what interesting global trips other schools have undertaken (Seattle Academy, Overlake, Northwest Academy, Lakeside, among others). However, when I asked the teacher group how many had tried a virtual exchange, no hands went up! Maybe the right people weren't in the room, but I was surprised at the lack of virtual exchanges. Thankfully, the group received my presentation about our Gaza City Skype chat very well, and perhaps one or two will give it a try this year.

After a lovely retreat and conference experience up in the woods, I return to help launch our new web site tomorrow! Hopefully, by the end of day, you will see a whole new look and functionality at www.catlin.edu.

tags: globaled, pnaistechshare

A colleague sent this terrific workshop session description for this year's Storyline Conference, which is happening in Portland.



PicoCrickets and Wigwams
Mary Boutton, Carole Lechleitner

This session will introduce PicoCrickets (tiny computers used to create inventions programmed to respond to light, sound, and touch) and demonstrate how they can be used to develop students’ programming and engineering skills while constructing Storyline settings. PicoCrickets are recommended for ages 8 and up.

PicoCrickets, based upon research from the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, provide entry points to programming and robotics, engaging students with diverse learning interests and learning styles. Strategies that promote this include: (1) focusing on themes, not just challenges; (2) combining art and engineering; (3) encouraging storytelling; and (4) organizing exhibitions rather than competitions. PicoCrickets support these strategies by enabling students to design and program creations while enhancing creative thinking, problem solving, and co-operative learning skills.

Through Storyline, the elementary social studies curriculum can offer a rich array of themes that can be integrated with PicoCrickets. We will focus on how PicoCrickets were integrated into the fourth grade Ohio history curriculum. The presenters will show how fourth graders used robotic technology and concepts to make their Native American and pioneer villages come alive. Participants will observe Native Americans cooking over a crackling fire in their wigwam, tanning a deer hide, turning a grist mill, and making a river undulate through the forest. Students’ work from the 2007-2008 school year will be highlighted. The presenters will share success stories and pitfalls that should be avoided.

The Presenters will also address how using social studies themes can heighten student motivation by giving students the freedom to work on projects they care about in a multi-sensory, artistic, and creative manner. Cooperation and team effort, rather than competition, are stressed, leading to participation in robotics by a broader range of students, particularly girls.

What is the Storyline Method?

Storyline is a structured approach to learning and teaching that was developed in Scotland It builds on the key principle that learning, to be meaningful, has to be memorable, and that by using learner's enthusiasm for story-making, the classroom, the teacher's role and learning can be transformed. Storyline is a strategy for developing the curriculum as an integrated whole. It provides an opportunity for active learning and reflection as essential parts of effective learning and teaching. At the same time it develops in learners a powerful sense of ownership of their learning.

-The Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum



tags: storyline, picocrickets, medialab, techintegration

As I caught up on two weeks' worth of blog reading tonight, a few thoughts struck me (yes, that's all ;^). First, I've seen an increase in the number of school-based educators writing online, but it's still not enough. The ed-blogosphere is dominated by people who don't work in schools, and I want to hear about what teachers and students are actually doing in schools. So if you blog and work in a school, please keep writing about what is actually happening in your school!

Second, if you blog and work in a school, please remember that you have the most impact in your school! Fortunately, most school-based bloggers I follow seem well-rooted in their schools, but a few seem to have forgotten their local context when writing. It's okay if you only post a blog entry once a week (or fewer). We know that you are spending your work hours meeting with teachers, keeping up a computing infrastructure, helping students, or building a new tool.

This past week at Catlin Gabel, our new Global Connect site gained its third, fourth, and fifth groups. We created Global Connect in order to have a Catlin-hosted, but not Catlin-branded, place to group blog for global ed. The site was originally for exchanges, but now pre-trip planning groups have also joined. I figured out how to use taxonomy access control lite to give groups the choice of whether they wanted their discussions to be public or private. Interestingly, the two groups actually talking with students in other countries opted to go private, whereas the three groups using the site for pre-trip planning went public. We'll see whether that distinction holds up going forward. Next, I need to put a public commenting system into place, so just hold your horses (or use the contact form) if you were hoping to post a comment.



One man's struggle to restore real-world issues to the core of the school program took another step forward this month with the launch of the Economic Crisis Reading Group moodle site. This one is private (sorry, legions of interested members of the public). 34 students have signed up for the Moodle course, which includes news and discussion about the most compelling post-inauguration teachable moment of the year. I hope this takes off, to prove that students are indeed interested in chatting online about serious issues in a school context.



This week will be dominated by (yet another) presentation, this time to our board of directors. Seriously, it's been a great year for our IT team to discuss social networks and other compelling issues with teachers, students, and parents in the school community.

tags: blogging, drupal, moodle, teachintegration

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.

tags: professionaldevelopment, ning

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?

tags: ncce, ncce2009

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!

tags: professionaldevelopment, moodle, drupal, video, smartboard

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.


Examples from fifth grade


Library skills


Intranet "walled garden" sites across the curriculum

Home Internet use

Research skills, introducing kids to email



tags: elementary, techintegration, internetsafety

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.



tags: whitehouse, inauguration, firstgrade, techintegration

Our sixth grade language arts teacher has done it again, inventing a multimedia writing project that has captured kids' attention and produced some passionate, authentic writing. Last year, his students composed and recorded Reconstruction-era songs and then held a follow-up discussion via online forum. This year, students wrote, acted, and recorded short video skits about gender stereotyping and physical education.

Why video? Carter comments.

Video is important to get kids' attention and provide fun. There is an element of drama and play. Tracking visually turns on some part of their brain, helps them understand better.

It must be even more effective to have the kids write, stage, and record the video. There are likely to remember every detail of the prompt that leads to all of the subsequent writing.

A comment thread provides the subsequent discussion space.

Kids who struggle with expository writing can really shine in a more argumentative/discussion format. [One student] cares about people listening to her points, being respected. She likes the slangy sound [of kid talk] -- it has a nice ring to it. She is also really good at this dialect.

In other words, let us recognize that people demonstrate a number of authentic literacies in the real world, not all of which are represented in schools.

To spice up the discussion, Carter invited eighth grade students to join the conversation. That sure motivated the sixth grade students to write compelling responses!

Students love the forum medium, because they know they are not going to be asked to produce a lot of text, and the topic is going to be relevant to their lives. It is not authentic to write longer pieces -- just an artifact of school.

The five-paragraph essay is still a critical student writing competency. It is just not the only one.

Want to join us?

Do you teach middle school students? Would you like them to join the conversation about gender stereotypes in physical education? Go to the conversation web site and submit your comments. Please ask students to identify themselves by first name and school.

tags: video, writing, english, middleschool

No matter how many amazing technologies that educational technologists may personally enjoy, our work in schools is fundamentally about supporting teachers and students. We provide the tools and means for teachers with limited time and risk tolerance to try activities that apply modern pedagogies and use social technologies. We ourselves operate in a different world, immersed in social technologies at our desks and at home, able to spend far more time than can most teachers.

I spent an hour today with arts teachers from grades PS-12, focused on a single topic: posting multimedia content to web sites. If we post more content, students can exhibit more work, and visitors can learn more about the school's arts program. Our teachers already have the media—digital photos, audio, and video. They just need help crossing that last hurdle to post the content online.



We have our share of early technology adopters. They build amazing lessons with technology tools: trip planning with Google Earth, language activities for homework with Voicethread, real-time group writing in Google Docs and class discussions in Moodle. Now we are grooming the second level of teachers who are eager to learn new technologies once they have seen others use it successfully, and the platform looks stable. This second wave of teachers is much larger than the first, so many opportunities exist to provide training, visit classes, and involve the innovators in providing leadership and guidance. The second wave will make student-centered classroom uses of technology commonplace, not just exceptional.

Many kids figure out how to post content on their own, especially in the higher grades. Younger students need more assistance, especially with audio, since the most successful commercial networks emphasize photos and video. Substantial online writing—especially collaboratively—is often a new experience for students. We have also found some success with students learning skills in one grade and carrying them on to the next.

Helpful in this endeavor is insideCatlin, our "walled garden" of social software open to the members of the school community. While I completely understand some educators' insistence on teaching students to use publicly available tools, we find it easier to scale technologies to multiple classrooms when everyone uses a common platform that we can bind to our login system and customize to our liking. Intranet-based services also ensure that authorship of posted content is easily identifiable, helping teach responsible use within a community setting.

I have scarcely mentioned Twitter at our school. Does it have potential as a useful tool? Sure, but we're better off using scarce teacher time to deepen one's still-nascent understanding of the last few years' inventions, to enrich their curricular applications and actually improve student learning. I'll continue to tweet, but I won't encourage our teachers to (at least not yet)! I may even get into Second Life (if someone drags me there), but I would not roll it out here in a big way. Teachers' brains and schedules are currently full. Except for the rare few, they can't give these new technologies the time they require to make them really useful in the classroom.

What successful experiences have you had scaling new, curricular applications of technology to the majority of your teachers?



tags: techintegration, curriculartechnology, voicethread, googleearth, twitter, secondlife

Our middle school visual arts teacher organizes a self-portrait project for his students based on the techniques of Chuck Close. In his classroom, he has the students use Apple Photo Booth to capture a photo of themselves and then modify it in the way they desire. They print the photo, add a grid using pen, and then begin to draw their self-portrait using pastel crayons on a larger, similarly-gridded paper.



I asked whether using Photo Booth's built-in image filters stunted the students' creativity in this project. On the contrary, Dale replied, it helped those students who needed a little push be more creative. Other students found plenty of creative space in the drawing portion of the assignment. The digital portion was just a starting point for the project. One student used Photoshop instead of Photo Booth to achieve a more custom effect.



New iMacs with built-in cameras made the digital portion of the project run more easily and faster for a number of students. They were more quickly able to get to the drawing portion than did students in past years. The teacher successfully used the digital tool to assist the creative process while retaining hand drawing as the central component.

tags: photoshop, photobooth, imac, techintegration

The Catlin Gabel students initiated an election night "headquarters" on campus, where they watched live video broadcasts, analyzed electoral maps, and played "first to 270." Note that the TV I set for them went unused! Streaming video filled that need and left space for other internet graphics. Many students opened their laptops to follow reports of their choice alongside the shared display.







tags: election, election08, obama, mccain

Our middle school spanish teacher and I met with two staff members from Mercy Corps today to lay the groundwork for collaborations between Catlin Gabel students and schools in El Salvador and Guatemala. It quickly became apparent that we have at our disposal so many different options for how to take the first steps in that direction and subsequently deepen the relationships.


Spencer at the Centro Educativo Maya Ixil in Chajul, Guatemala.

Despite our experiences working with schools abroad, we mostly have questions at this time.

When will a satellite-enabled cell phone or laptop modem become affordable enough that we can bring internet connectivity to a remote village in a developing nation and leave it there when we depart? When will video Skype become a standard feature on mobile phones?

When will the numbers of kids in developing countries who are online in social networks reach a critical mass, so that appreciable numbers from an individual school can spontaneously connect with our students? What happens when we realize that students have far more developed competencies for social networks than do the adults?

When should we choose to set up a teacher-teacher professional development relationship with a school rather than going student-student?

Is a highly organized, teacher-led, curriculum-based instruction still the best model for global school-school partnerships? At what point can we turn the leadership of the relationship over to the students, for example by setting up a private social network for the exchange and then letting the kids go at it?

What language-social studies teacher partnerships can we leverage within our school in order to provide both meaningful learning experiences for both second language acquisition and study of world cultures?

How far into our school's core curriculum does a school's global education program have to penetrate in order to be successful?

Most of our global relationships are due to the passion and commitment of a single teacher. How does one broaden responsibility so that the school owns the relationship, and it continues after the original teacher departs or alters his/her priorities?

Spencer adds:

I would add one piece to the last comment about broadening our commitment and having the school steward the relationship as opposed to the individual teacher. I really like the model of individual teachers creating and fostering these international relationships, but we do need some oversight on the bigger picture of how many relationships we can sustain and to which we can dedicate ourselves wholly. Some relationships will naturally form and also end in time. I think this is ok and logical.

tags: globaled, skype, drupal

I am excited to recruit more teachers to attend terrific ed-tech conferences, especially those focused on learning and located nearby. I sent the following list to my colleagues today in an effort to build interest and make plans.

This year sees an unprecedented number of quality national conferences in educational technology both locally and further afield.

 

K12 Online Conference

October 13 - November 1

100% Online

http://k12onlineconference.org/

This free, fully online conference marks its third year in October.
Speakers record presentations in advance and then participate in online
discussions on a predetermined schedule. All the presentations are
archived for posterity. Most of the leading international figures in
educational technologies have a hand in this one. Now all you need to
do is to carve out some time to watch and participate.

EduCon 2.1

January 23-25, 2009

Science Leadership Academy

Philadelphia, PA

http://educon21.wikispaces.com/

SLA is a public school in Philadelphia with a progressive educational
mission and many thoughtful uses of technology. Their principal, Chris
Lehmann, has established a national reputation as an effective school
leader, education technology blogger, and school reform authority. The
school enjoys a partnership with the Benjamin Franklin Museum and
enrolls an ethnically and socioeconomically representative sample of
students from the city.

EduCon is the school's groundbreaking "unconference," where teachers
and theorists facilitate participatory discussions rather than giving
conventional presentations. They also took the groundbreaking step of
broadcasting the entire conference via uStream last year, making it
possible to attend and participate "virtually."

Northwest Council of Computer Educators (NCCE)

February 17-20, 2009

Oregon Convention Center

Portland, Oregon

http://ncce.org

This leading regional conference usually takes place in Seattle, so we
are fortunate to have it in our own backyard this year. The conference
boasts dozens of sessions and features nationally-known presenters. If
you have an idea of what you are looking for, this conference is likely
to offer it -- new technologies from all of the main vendors, and
teachers sharing their strategies.

PNAIS Spring Teachers Conference

April 20, 2009

Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School

Salt Lake City, Utah

http://pnais.org

Imagine the fall teachers conference that many of us attend annually.
Now imagine the entire thing organized around the role of technology in
education. Keynoted by Ian Jukes, the day promises to focus on 21st
century learners.

Association of Computer Professionals in Education

May 6-8, 2009

The Resort at the Mountain

Welches, Oregon

http://acpenw.org

This is the leading annual conference for computers in education in Oregon. Geared to technical professionals, this conference nonetheless contextualizes our work firmly in the context of teaching and learning. It offers an excellent opportunity to network with Oregon schools and build relationships with local vendors.

PNAIS TechShare

June 28-30, 2009

The Resort at the Mountain

Welches, Oregon

TechShare features practitioner sessions from our peer schools in Oregon and Washington, including Lakeside, Northwest, Evergreen, Overlake, Billings, Meridian, FAIS, OES, and Seattle Academy. The participatory format and small size encourages lots of informal conversation and networking with our colleagues at other institutions. Participants stay at the resort for three days and two nights, and the sessions encourage your participation and ideas. The conference is divided into two strands, "teacher" and "geek." This year's theme is "Small World," an exploration of tools and techniques that put our students in touch with peers and resources globally.

Building Learning Communities (BLC)

July 27-31, 2009

Copley Plaza Hotel

Boston, Massachusetts

http://novemberlearning.com

In 2008, Alan November succeeded in focusing this conference primarily on teaching and learning in a technologically-rich world. The best sessions were led by educators creating remarkably student-centered learning environments with technology. Student-led instruction, international collaborations, and social learning were all on display.

 

tags: techintegration, k12online, k12online2008, blc, blc2009, pnaistechshare

A former student recently asked whether I could point him in the direction of resources on the effects of computing on schools in Africa. As the academic computing activities of an entire continent are far too diverse to capture in a single response, I collected a few links to identify some activities that might help provide some insight.

AfriGadget While not specifically about academic computing, AfriGadget uses grassroots reporting to collect stories of technical ingenuity under conditions of extreme resource limitation. AfriGadget best captures everyday Africa.

Konrad Glogowski: South Africa, A Reflection Konrad visits Cape Town to help teachers learn to integrate Web 2.0 tools into their instruction. He grapples with the relative modernity of South Africa and the huge differences in access to resources within the country.

dvGarage in Zimbabwe: Alex Lindsay teaches Zimbabweans professional 3D animation and compositing techniques. He seeks to create a PixelCorps of media developers worldwide for the new economy.

One Laptop Per Child Africa: the heavily scrutinized ubiquitous computing project has several test sites listed on this page. (Go to the parent page to find the link to South Africa.)

Ndiyo: a different approach to ubiquitous computing, developing a new thin-client, Linux desktop for community technology centers and schools.

In the mid 90's, I was involved in academic computing initiatives in Botswana secondary schools. This Google search result suggests that some academic papers exist on this topic, though most require membership to access.


tags: africa, computing, schools