Have you ever spent hours working on something and then looked at the final product only to wonder where the time and effort went? That's how I feel about the rubric I have been working on for the Graduation Transitions Program (for which I am the coordinator at our school).
Last year, under the old program, the 'Final Presentation' was about showing evidence and meeting criteria. This year the 'Exit Interview' is more about the journey...
So how do you create a rubric to give feedback to students about their journey? I decided on a few things first:
Reflection is important and needs to be valued.
This is a big transition... some forward planning also needs to be valued.
This is NOT a grade! (The program is not graded, you just need to meet the requirements.)
It needs to be 'different' enough that the many different teachers doing the interview won't fall into 'grading' mode.
At this point I can't decide if this achieves what I want it to, or if I wasted my time... feedback is really appreciated... I have to present this to students on Monday.
I've bounced some digital immigrant/native ideas around a fewtimes. Now I have one more thing to add.
When I was young my sister had dolls that spoke. This was so amazing! You pulled a string in the doll's neck and as it recoiled the doll said, "Hi Ma-ma" or some other short phrase. Later the dolls would say a series of phrases, changing with each pull-of-the-string. Now my daughters have My e-Pets and Webkinz. Next comes this video:
It seems that the 'Immigrant/Native' argument is moot. I called the digital range in competency/capability of students a spectrum, not a dichotomy, (I think the correct word should have been continuum -note the reflection/comments on the post to see why I now think 'spectrum' is better than 'continuum'). The fact is students can't be lumped into general categories such as this. George Siemens summarizes this point better than I can, so read his post, and I'll move on to the point of this post.
There is an issue of 'digital exposure' that many (but not all) of today's kids have that simply wasn't available when we were young. Despite my new distaste for the 'digital native' catch phrase, I am back to liking my Batman/Borg quote:
"I come from the Batman era, adding items to my utility belt while students today are the Borg from Star Trek, assimilating technology into their lives."
My daughters interact with their toys in ways that I never could. In the same vein, two year old Paige from the above video will expect her toys to interact with her, to provide her with choices that I never had. Does it not follow that she will expect the same interaction and engagement in school?
Basically this is about 'exposure to' and 'integration with' digital technology at a young age as opposed to 'adaptation to' digital technology later on in life.
When Paige is 9, she will have peers that instant meesage each other on their PDA's... they will be more likely to communicate online at a younger age... they will be more likely to connect to like-minded social groups digitally. They will be continually exposed to 'new technology' that they won't ever remember living without. (Technology and tools that we name, and they participate with.)
Meanwhile, I will continue promoting the value of integrating technology into the classroom to teachers who have "enough on their plate already". I will offer out some 'delicious' tools for their utility belts... while Paige plays with an iPhone and learns to connect to the world around her in ways many of us are now learning about... learning side-by-side with a two year old.
Last Friday I was leaving the school and I popped into my VP's office. Among other things, Anthony and I often talk about technology in the classroom. One thing led to another and I showed him the YouTube video that was the subject of my last post: iPhone tutorial from a two-year-old. It was shortly after this, while I was saying something, that Anthony interrupted me:
"You can't go back now, can you?" "What?" "You could never be able to go back to teaching without technology, could you? "No."
Driving home after our conversation it occurred to me what a transformation my teaching has gone through in the past couple years. Could I go back to a classroom and teach void of blogs, wikis, & online networks? Well, of course I could, but I just wouldn't want to!
Not only do I never want to go back, but I have become an evangelist. However I've noticed a bit of a backlash among teachers. Comments like "We can do that without technology" miss the point about what students have the potential to do. "Every time I get them in the computer room all they do is Facebook" recognizes that technology is a tool, not an answer, but comments such as these are used as excuses rather than challenges.
In the past few weeks I've heard more than one teacher say, "What is Facebook", and "What is a wiki?". This I can handle. But then I hear about how technology is evil; about what a distraction it is. Well here is a little news flash... IT ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE!
There are times I just want to put my head down, improve what I am doing as a teacher, and forget that there is 'work to be done'. I can't. Not only can't I return to life in Plato's cave, but I am also compelled to 'share the true light'. I now realize that at times I am destined to be seen as 'blinded', such will be the lot in life for many of us.
