5 Ways to create spectacular classrooms

I am a firm believer that asking teachers to do more with technology is the wrong approach to renewal, unless you are removing old habits, old methods and genuinely improving outcomes. In sessions I run for teachers, I believe that it’s more effective to change the culture and narrow the participation gap between autonomous and co-operative learning. By establishing a few simple norms – for spectacular results – especially in 1:1 technology situations. To achieve this, I’m proposing 3 tools, and  dropping some old approaches to get a performance gain.

1. Use reflective, self-reporting activities

The internet is a complex and diverse environment – simplify it for students. Use technologies that accurately reflect classroom activity and narrow the gap between what you want them to do and what they actually do – and save a heap of wasted or off task time. Diigo is the tool for this. Use it to model resources for students (lists); ask them to justify their own explorations (bookmark); and reflect on group learning (forums). Diigo is not a bookmarking tool! – It’s a learning management system and should be central to online learning.

2. Students must believe their choices and opinions matter

Probing questions in online spaces, allow teachers to discover student opinions; use a weekly question in your Diigo forum to ask them a probing question that allows them to express their feelings. Encourage participation by engaging in socio-centric conversation with students in the online space – as an aside from the rigor of the syllabus routine.

3. This week matters, because there’s another one following it.

Use TodaysMeet to create a simple question and answer page that expires after a week. Let them know that information is not persistent; but needs application to become knowledge. Encourage them to take turns in using it for passing notes and asking questions. Allow them to answer them and then at the end of the week, ask them to write a weekly journal entry – by asking a driving/probing question. Students are often poor a daily journal writing (you just get recounts) – make each week a process of leveling up to a Friday summit question. Base your assessments on summit questions.

4. Make authentic connections

Bring external voices to your classroom via technology, even if it as simple as using Google Chat, or finding a voice from YouTube. Locate an authentic dimension to problems. One great way to do this is to find your schools entry on Wikipedia – and make it better!

5. Build Vocabulary Bank

Each week a student is asked to find one word that relates to the week learning. Make one page in PBWorks, and ask them to add to it – alphabetically.

•    They have to give the meaning and how it relates to the discipline.

•    They should locate a web-reference of this being applied

These two actions provide continuous formative assessment of their ability to learn, comprehend and apply – digitally and conventionally.

What does this do for learning and engagement?

These 5 things, as a norm, repeated over a semester, promote socio-disciplinary learning. For the teacher it represents a very small change to promote the read write process in their learning and welcome students with a positive approach to learning with technology. Students will begin to select when and how best to use these spaces and  replace some of the tiresome activities of writing in Word, printing it out, collecting it or transferring it to flash memory or via email. Rather than think about ‘new’ ways, this appraoch blends existing, successful practices that allow technology to augment learning, keep students on task, be accountable, and interested in working online – though teacher facilitation and communication in those spaces. Doing this over and over, insisting and persisting; will create that norm – and may take several weeks to embed in student behaviour. Don’t fall into the trap that many another technology might work better – after all for the last decade, students have used little more than office automation and Google Search. Give them and yourself time to adjust and to be confident.

Policy and Risk in 1:1 Laptops

As we see laptops being issued to students directly, here in Australia and around the world- it’s interesting to look at the policies being issued to students and teachers – which then shape their use and the learning possible. Given the language. Are we ready for laptops?

When it comes to visualising policy, a word cloud helps me to illuminates the ‘mood’ of the document.

This illustration is from a school laptop policy which begins ‘students will not disable …’, and then goes on to list a long list of terms and conditions under which students can use them. The entire document is built around fear and control, passing significant, long-term risk and responsibility from the issuing authority to the student.

As a parent, I’d be weighing up the risks before agreeing to such terms as;

“never plagiarise information and will observe appropriate copyright clearance, including acknowledging the author or source of any information” and “responsible for any breaches caused”.

The personal computer under overt policy becomes a personal tracking device. Mobile computing means flexible thinking; and shared risk.  I wonder how policy affects the learning outcomes. Risk passed directly to the student regardless of their ability to interpret or comply with it? – How does that encourage better pedagogy? How is this being taught and assessed? or it is a case of wait until it happens, then determine who was at fault.

A photo for example, used on a blog or powerpoint? Does the teacher understand copyright?, will the child ask? How can we validate that it is the original source … how much time will be afforded to addressing these issues in busy curricula?

So if we allow digital sources into student work, then we have to be clear as to which parts are being assessed against the usage policy and which against learning outcomes. At a time when teachers are often critisised in their use of technology, the policy that acompanies the device will to a large extent determine the way in which it can be used. We have come a long way in educational technology, but in reform and policy there seems to be an increasing shift of responsibility on children. I’m left wondering if we classrooms are ready for personal laptops in learning and teaching … and have put a 10 second poll online which I hope you’ll add your voice too (or leave a comment).

Twilight – Covert-Operations and banned ideas

DISCOVERING who is doing what, sneeking about, looking for covert technologies, is a twilight though bloodless activity I engage in.

How did the Twilight novel end up the banned list in the locker library … 

Maybe some of the attraction is to rebel against the filtration and prejudice that stops what we perceive to be ‘better’ outcomes and opportunities. This action usually changes the social-dynamics of the ‘community’,. Even a once welcomed innovation can easily turn to a nasty intrusion, if we persist enough, and not pay close attention to behavioral signals. There are numerous stories of people feeling private backlash behind the public facade ofcollegiality – and at times they are aware of this, but do it anyway.

There is good reason for newcomers keep a low profile. Indeed many of MITs projects once started as a ’secret box’ for fear that someone would shut it down. (just for the record, I’m not in the shut down business).

This student story post is a fantastic example of not just being covert; but how others are attracted to groups and networks that appear to be offering change. The multiplyer effect that often drives networks and movements.

Human behavioural intelligence influences perception, belief and propensity to enquire or avoid something different (not just new).

In this case, the tale unfolds of how banned books, are distributed as an initial reaction to authoritarian policy; but leads to attracting others. They be attracted to the cause; but metacognitively, they are thinking about the content – what makes ‘Catcher in the Rye‘ a banned book? – This would make a great project … and indeed that is what it became. Interestingly, the story ends with the provocateur banning Twilight.

There’s a literature project right there! – Why do people do people engage in special-operations others seek to ban?

If you’ve got a project, a black-ops operation, twisting the syllabus and weathering the backlash – good on ya!, love to hear your story or thoughts on this.

This is now

OMG, this kind of thing is available for computer owners. It will never catch on.

23 years ore 23 seconds – to rebuild a house of learning?

THE Daily Mail, reports a story in which a little old lady in the UK, spent 23 years dismantling every brick and beam in her house and moving it 100 miles. She wanted to preserve it, and saw the need for this long before local council policy forced it upon her. If a little old lady,  so persistent for so long; can reach that goal – what’s stopping anyone else trying. She overcame bureaucrats, physical and mental barriers and eventually achieved it. The idea of 23 Things for learning about technology has become web2.0 educator folklore. Schools are in an age where pedagogy can be shifted in 23 minutes and this story reminds me that persistence is better than pessimism or prejudice. Good practice does not mean radical, fast change, it requires conservation of what is good about learning.

I showed the story to a friend who commented “she’s obviously mad and got way too much time on her hands”. It is just so easy to make judgments and determinations in less than 23 seconds, which have long term impacts on those we teach and the very place we call ‘work’. If we avoid risks, we may well miss opportunity. Just one tool presents multiple ways to learn in new ways. We have come a long way educational technology; but such a short way in educational reform. There is both apathy and passion in the idea of preserving formal education as a relevant, realistic experience for learners. The real question is, which parts are worth saving – given that we’re moving it brick by brick to a new location regardless of the ‘yeah buts’. If you  believe education is be changed by technology, you will find like-minded ‘owner builders’ and plenty of rich ideas in places such as Classroom 2.0. Being able to pull down your house and move it is harder than unlearning and relearning basic uses of ICT in the classroom, but ideologically is presented by some as just as formidable a challenge.

Russian invasion!

INCREASINGLY it seems, newcomers are taking their classes online in blogs, wikis and online communities. There is a wealth of published materials that encourage and celebrate the adoption of technology in the classroom. Schools need to  provide adequate orientation and safety assurances; taking the newcomer through practical guidance be an effective, safe, online course facilitator. As soon as part of a course is online, the role of teacher is opened to greater risk and responsibility.

Schools with hundreds of kids online, without obtaining any additional ‘permission’ or ‘advice’ on social media risk assessment is a reality.

I noticed a Ning site, for middle school students that was left open. It appeared that the site was abandoned. A russian ‘porn spammer’ had joined the group, and immediately added all the students as a friend, leaving a comment on their wall inviting them to visit ‘her’ online. It is highly likely that kids signed up to the Ning with an email address, and that they receive notifications – as a year or so later this new member, produced a flurry or activity in the ‘old abandoned’ Ning.

Replies and comments to the new user flourished.

There is an excellent Social Media Guidlines project in the USA that is well worth adding to; and modelling from developed by Gina Hartman, Educational Technology Specialist in the Francis Howell School District. As more newcomers arrive, and more technology appears in classrooms, the risk grows – as I believe that the risk has a proportional relationship with experience, ability and understanding.

Providing orientation training to the online space is very important – and seeking help to do it is advisable and you want your employer to support and acknowledge that in sharing the risk – else you may wear all of it, if you have an invasion.

Demonstrating that you can operate effectively and safely, just like ’safety’ tests in an industrial workshop or science laboratory – is something that should be a norm, like manual handling and OH&S.

Word Sift

WORD Sift, is a site that allows you to paste in a passage of text create a visualisation of the word frequency, removing some 2000 most common English words. Word Sift allows the user to click the word to feed a visual thesaurus. The tool has been linked to a list of academic word list, developed by Averil Coxhead as her MA thesis at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

Word clouds have already become a popular way of visualising text for students. Given the diverse language backgrounds of many Australian learners (K12 or otherwise), developing a list within a study area and then be able to relate that to the work of students with  discipline resources has tremendous possibilities. A great example of educational technology.

23 Things about Classroom Laptops

LAPTOPS in the classroom will be for many teachers a rude awakening or a liberating departure – depending on your ideology. There is no disputing the fact that students will have a printing press on their desk.

Schools are not ready for this; but teachers have to be – so I’d like to put forward 23 things teachers might consider in regard to a problem that we’ve been talking about for a very long time.

I highly recommend you read this post about Dr Alan Kay’s thoughts over at Parallel Divergence. I was thinking it was 3 years ago, and have been corrected! – I love the inter-webs.

So in the tradition of 23 Things, here are just some of the considerations that teachers might consider in the lead up to laptops ‘hitting the classroom’ as Nathan Rees puts it.

1. Modding Behaviour

Students will also want to mod the laptop, which will probably be locked-down. Modding it, or circumventing the security will be a mission for some students – as a laptop is so much more useful when it’s tuned to the user.

2. Work avoidance just went digital

Laptops present a wealth of opportunities for the strategic learner to avoid work: low battery; lost wifi signal; ‘lost’ files etc., a range of ways to rebel.

3. Screen-wagging and DVD Draw popping, display flipping, keyboard locking …

An interesting behavior – Students often like to ‘waggle’ the screen back and forth in group discussion. They don’t even know they are doing it much of the time, but is often distracting to the teacher. It is a sign that they are in private conversation and off task. Find ways to make them accountable for their own time. Students may ‘prank’ others by locking their keyboard, remapping drives, setting the keys to type backwards, flip the display etc.,

4. File Sharing

Sharing is a behavioral status currency. A laptop is an excellent way for students to share video and music they have downloaded illegally. Students will share work via flash drives, hard drives as well as emailing it to each other.

5. iGoogle or other portal to friend-networks

Laptops represent an opportunity to stay connected with friends, there are numerous ways to stay connected, and students are increasingly using asynchronous methods such as Twitter and Plurk, not just Messenger. You need to find ways to bring that into class, not try and ban it.

6. Search

Learn about ways for students to ‘search’ beyond Google, and create lessons around how information is shaped to appeal to a diverse range of learners. Googling and using World will be incredibly tedious for students. If you don’t know how to use visual search engines, custom Google search, Wonderwheel yet … now would be a good time to find out.

7. Sage on the stage

If you stand at the front of the class, you’ll see the back of laptops, so movement around the class is important. Sitting students in rows doesn’t work like it used to. The best place for the teacher to be is online and mobile – learn to multi-task and be prepared to access and work with students – online after school (great way to build respect).

8. Learn to use ‘mass’ collaboration tools and create learning spaces

Find ways in which one or two students can ‘share’ work with many. Create online spaces where students can use ‘friend-networks’. Do not expect or ask students to work alone as they used to – that is the last thing they find motivating. Teachers will not be provided with these spaces – they need to be created in context with the needs and preferences of their learners.

Example: Three students take notes; then share with others; who then improve them online.

9. Digital Blooms

Learn about Andrew Church – (if you really must stick to Blooms).

10. Use Diigo – everyday.

A Diigo account – even if teachers do nothing else, learning to manage student progress via Diigo is a critical skill. Use Diigo as a forum, a learning management system and an exercise book!

11. Don’t be boring!

Using a laptop to type in answers to textbook questions, print them out and hand it is absolutely facile. Your textbook is NOT compatible with student motivation towards technology. Boring computer activities lead to work avoidance strategies and self-interest use of the internet.

12. Don’t try to win the proxy war

Filters can be got around, they will always find a way. Entering a proxy war means more wasted time trying to work out what sites will work – You have to test your lessons using THEIR proxy (web access) – as you’ll find that things you want to use are blocked. Overtly policed and blocked networks are counter-productive.

13. Learn about Enquiry, Problem and Project Based Approaches to learning

Social construct approaches work well with technology – but take MORE preparation.

14. Music soothes restless minds – or distracts them

Consider allowing the use of headphones for study (yes the like music), but also consider how great they are if you are giving them a YouTube to watch or a Podcast. Encourage them to remix, recreate and construct new audio – to put intrinsic interest to positive use.

15. The wipe-board is no longer the hub of activity – unless you put it online.

The board is not the place to ‘look’. Consider how it can be used to work with ‘small groups’ to workshop ideas – and use the laptops as a student management tool to keep them busy and focused on work – not you or the board.

16. Parents!

Parents find it hard to judge if students are working at home – or playing (socializing). The lack of text book and pen might send the wrong signals. Run parent orientation nights! – Get in guest-expert to talk about the issues and benefits – get parents onside.

17. Get a school mentor! or enroll teachers on professional learning plan (not a ‘tools’ trail – they suck)

If you don’t have an ICT integrator, or cant identify a teacher-blogger, then get a mentor. Invest in a long term, 12 month, mentor program to allow teachers to undertake a course that leads them through the re-establishment of new skills and classroom management strategies. You won’t achieve this in a day’s in-service. Make sure you are working with a practitioner at all times, not a ‘consultant’ who can’t drop into a school and model their theory in practice.

18. Empower and enlist your Library

Librarians are teachers with an additional skill – enlist them in your classroom as a team-teacher. Don’t ask them to find online resources for you – that’s lazy, as them to teach you how to do it, or teach your students.

19. Teacher will use the same strategies as students when the going gets tough

I don’t know how, I don’t like to, No one has told me … expect that some teachers really do believe that schools never change and will refuse to change their teaching approaches. You won’t get 100% buy in – even if they nod politely in staff meetings – asking for help is challenging for some – and age is no indication of belief and attitude.

20. Leadership is critical!

Powerful learning, comes from passionate, motivated teachers who never stop learning. Don’t lock-step these people by industrialist notions of hierarchical power play – or resort to moral or ideological pressure to teachers to do more. It is a long slow process to renew learning, not overnight change. Recognise how important the goodwill of staff is – given the absolute lack of central government funding to invest in teachers – the way it is investing in infrastructure. The criteria used to target ‘future leaders’ is not going to be as effective as it once was, so be prepared for innovation to come from the grassroots.
21. Get student advisory / maintainers.

Students make great tech experts. Enlist them in general maintenance of laptops – don’t assume students know how to care for laptops! – Learn about OH&S, OOS in regard to the Ergonomic use of laptops. If all you do is put them on the desk, then there are some serious OH&S issues happening. Develop a maintenance and support program – and allow students to run it. Let students have a BIG say in how IT Support should work.

22. Plan for ‘wi-fi’ down times or server failures.

Do not make the laptop the center of the activity – just in the same way we never made the ‘calculator’ the centre. A lesson should not fail or win – because of the laptop or lack of.

23. If you don’t have a learning management system – get one.

If you’re a department get Moodle, if you’re a teacher, use Edmodo if there is no Moodle. Managing digital learning is thought, not labour intensive (of can be).

If you are a school leader, then my suggestion – come up with a strategy and long term professional learning program for staff. If you don’t have one, drop me a line. Don’t assume that it will all just work or get better – it won’t – you are going to have to find ways to invest in people – even if the politicians won’t.

Look forward to any more tips – or mods to this list!

FaceBook – the ICT Student Support Line

I met with an ex-student, now at a University recently. We talked about how informal networks influence his study patterns. I had to re-assure him about why I was interested. “Why are you looking to ban them at your place?” he said jokingly … but went on to explain how he uses about ten FaceBook networks –primary to for ’ immediate help – ‘There’s always someone on”.

He wasn’t using FaceBook for learning, but just to operate effectively inside a large system which has ‘glitches’ as he put it. Navigating the process and protocols of student life … “you can see Student ICT Services and wait for hours in a line – or just go on FaceBook and ask people there who’ve stood in the line already’.

He also said that Facebook gave students “advice on which subjects to choose, as some don’t fit that well” with getting a job.

“You can go on FaceBook and ask people who are graduating, or left already, which units we’re useful, or find someone who has”.

He was using it for social and study purposes – using his mobile phone to do that. He laughed when I asked if he used in it lectures. He clearly felt that his personal technology was there to help him navigate the institution and found efficiencies to be more strategic in study. He used online study to in balancing the “rest of his life”.

He didn’t connect that with learning directly, saying “we have a online learning portal, but it just for the course information mostly, but some academics do a lot of that stuff, just not in my course. We just use forums to answer questions, is that what you mean”.

I asked if he thought it would be good for him if they did … “yeah, but those guys are so busy, they can’t get back to you as fast as you need”.

He felt that there his access to FaceBook made University life easier to manage and didn’t expect that the institution could provide this support network.

“We use the food places, if we can’t get into the library – that place is often packed, people camp there all day with their friends”.

I not sure I drew any ‘ideas’ in this conversation, but really enjoyed being able to talk about how he’s drawing on his friend-network skills to solve ‘glitches’ in the system. I wonder how different ‘adult learners’ as teachers are from students? Navigating the system seems to a universal problem

Permission Publishing with Students

PRIVACY and duty of care are  a right of students. As the number of teachers and students continues to grow from the grassroots,  do we need better policy, as we do more online?

At worst, students online should have their identity protected – and there should be an acceptable use policy in place to even access the internet. This policy needs to be in ‘plain’ English – so students can understand it – and make it better. If the network policy was written by the IT guy, then its probably more about ‘what you won’t’ do – and not what you don’t understand not to do.

We need to be very ethical in our use of social media publication today. The growth of ‘youth online’ in the last few years is staggering – and reports vary widely due to the almost un-definable meaning of ‘online’. Five years ago, reports suggested that “Most children (79 percent) and parents (95 percent) agree that parents are knowledgeable about kids’ online activities.” This kind of statement seems odd, considering five years ago, the media focus was on cyber-stalking, cyber-crime and collapse of language via MySpace.

Today, teachers are ever more interested in making sure that students are ‘digital-citizens’, equipped to move fluidly over the landscape of social media, as though it is some permeable layer that promotes a transfer of knowledge. Some are doing it amazingly – and demonstrating both disciplinary and digital literacy attainment, however this is not universal. Many are not seeking effective, ethical permission to do so – and when promoting their blog, seem to ask ‘everyone’ about what they ‘think’ – when perhaps they need to be more specific.

In a recent research paper about ‘blogs’ verses ‘peer review’, Wardrip-Fruin (2009) comments

“I soon realized that blogs also contain raw research, early results, and other useful information that never gets presented at conferences. Of course, that is just the beginning.”

It is an interesting approach – public comments as peer review – and the changes that it brings in academic work. Wardrip-Fruin goes on to say

“blog-based review form not only brings in more voices (which may identify more potential issues), and not only provides some “review of the reviews” (with reviewers weighing in on the issues raised by others), but is also, crucially, a conversation”

We need to be very clear when their online work is conversational vs scholarly - and be very honest about this to ourselves and students. We can’t say ‘we are always assessing’ – that is not enough when we’re talking about the internet. Students work online because they are told to; they use friend-networks because they want to.

We need to find ways to represent the boundaries and intersections when using blogs, wikis, podcasts etc., in this context.

CLASSIFICATION POLICY and PROCEDURE

Green work for conversational discussion (that doesn’t make it outside the institution), orange work for collaboration with other institutions and students (closed to the public) and red work – where it is likely that their work or part of it will be seen, or referenced in future published material, scholarly activity – or just Google-able.

Teachers need to demonstrate visible compliance with school policy and keep appropriate records to ensure professional development is focused on realistic ability and activity. Those responsible for curriculum must demonstrate understanding where this activity intersects with their ‘job’, and be proactive – not reactive by passing the risk to others. Leadership in this regard might be through the development of a policy where teachers need to spend some time on ‘green’ activities – and demonstrate attainment before moving further.

LEADERSHIP BASED APPROACH TO RENEWAL

This approach may lead to new ideas on network policy; new ideas on the induction into these spaces and better classification of  ‘tools’ and professional practice. We need to ensure that those teachers who wish to enter the ‘red’ zone are themselves aware of the implications of poor practice, privacy and the nature of public comment. We need to create guidelines and resources that model and reflect this through school leadership channels.

Students in a grade 3 class undertake a green project using ‘voicethread’. Parents receive a ‘green publishing’ notice that clearly outlines the scope of work and what happens to it after the project ends – what data is going to be collected, where it will be kept – and how it applies to the assessment.

This would ensure that the teacher is aligning the outcome, the activity and the assessment – and is fully aware of its ongoing ‘reasonable use’. Consideration must be given to who owns the data’- and how in the future the students will have access to it (if at all). Parents understand how the school is managing their child’s digital footprint – and the student understands how to behave and approach the work in context.

We cannot today, simply ask parents for ‘blanket’ permission notes or rely on IT-Centric Network Policy to ‘cover’ ourselves. We need to rethink, and re-design the ‘classification’ (and associated technologies) – using simple systems – that clearly communicate how we are protecting and respecting the rights of the child.