I spent Friday morning with 22 student teachers and a couple teachers from my school. My goal was to introduce them to the world of web2.0, wikis, and del.icio.us. Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad- I didn't really get into delicious beyond an introduction. That aside, I think this group of future teachers really understood my point that education is changing and our teaching needs to change too!

The slideshare was my main introduction, and here is the wiki we used. I gave them each a page to play with and used video's to convey many of the ideas I wanted to get across. I'd like to thank SFU Faculty Advisor and friend John Stockdale for the opportunity.

I'd love to be able to give this message to every student teacher! 

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/you-cant-go-back-now/

It's the old allegory of the cave.

    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.

Can you go back now?

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/most-influential/

We are influenced by so many things in our lives. Identifying what has a significant influence on us can be difficult. Here are two things that I believe can be categorized as most influential... and they both happened Monday.

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1. Fifteen year old Kristine wrote a very influential blog post last May. It coincided with a lesson I was doing in my class for our school's Renaissance Fair. The post, "How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci", has made the finals for the Edublog Awards 'Most Influential Post '. She is the only student to make the finals in this category. Furthermore, the post has had an impact on me, and many teachers that I have shared it with. Thinking back now, as I write this, I realize that Kris has influenced my blog posts, time and again. (The student as teacher, or at least as an influential node in my learning network:-)

As I told Kris in my comment months ago: "You are, and always will be, a lifelong learner who engages in a quest to meaningfully exploring your world, (dare I say like da Vinci)… I guess one would argue despite your education rather than because of it… so there is hope, and there is potential for us to find our next da Vinci… perhaps SHE is within our midst today:-)"

As edubloggers I think that it is great to recognize students like Kris who deserve more recognition than they usually get at school. We should also recognize that although we strive to give students the best possible experience in our classrooms, Kris' message holds more truths than most would like to admit. May her blog influence many learning discussions in the months to come.

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2. Two good friends, Dave Sands and Gary Kern came to my school Monday night and did a presentation with me on: Technology, Your Child, and You. Twenty seven parents braved the threat of the first snowfall of the year to participate in the presentation. On a personal note, I felt a little like a rookie called up to the majors to help out with this presentation. Dave and Gary have given it many times, and they had a 'flow' about them that I lacked. Overall I think it was great to be part of the presentation and it was fun to see my Batman/Borg metaphor being used (though they use the more recognized Terminator rather than the Borg).

Dave was very impressed with the parent's involvement and interest. The most vocal of them wanted answers about what to do about Facebook and all the screen time kids have. This presentation however was much more about asking questions than giving answers.

The presentation delivers a number of key ideas: Technology feeds student needs. Technology isn't going away. Parents need to figure out what they value, and they need to understand and engage with the technology their kids are using. If parents want influence with their children, they are far more likely to get it engaging from the inside rather than policing from the outside.

A simple example: a kid that won't phone a parent from a friend's house to say they are changing locations, might not think twice about texting a parent while in the back seat of a car heading to the new location... if text is a mode of communication that the kid already uses with their parent. 

The presentation is very well designed and parent feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with several of them wishing more parents showed up, "Parents need to hear this!"

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It was a most influential Monday!

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/the-lowest-common-denominator/

The LCD

In Math, the Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) is a good thing...
it allows you to simplify an equation and usually makes the work easier. (If you were looking for a Math post go here or here.)

For the sake of this post the LCD is not good.
Here, the LCD is when you reduce things to in order to oversimplify a problem, to avoid it or make it go away, (rather than to make an effort to resolve it). It is about taking an easy way out instead of choosing a smart way forward.

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They Both Get Dirty

Doug Belshaw does NOT want you to vote for his blog in the upcoming Edublog Awards. I'm not a regular reader of Doug, but the size of his audience suggests that he is a noteworthy edublogger. I ended up finding his Please don't vote for this blog! post since I read Kelly Christopherson who wrote about it twice, and so I did venture over there. The worst of the comment spat that ensues comes from Dan Meyer who I first read when he wrote a brilliant post on How Math Must Asses and then later on Why I don't Assign Homework, but he isn't in my quite limited RSS feed either.
To put my 2 dimes worth into this I will quote my grandfather, "Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it!"
What I don't like about the comments in this post is that they get personal and neither of these two bloggers have any intent to resolve things, they just want to get the next jab in. I am a fan of healthy discourse, but this is unhealthy, vindictive, and I would even add cheap. LCD.

My suggestion to Josie Fraser and the Edublog Awards team: After a blog gets nominated, ask the bog author(s) if they accept the nomination... problem solved.

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Easier Isn't Better

When I took this job as Graduation Transition Coordinator, I adopted a few other responsibilities too. One such obligation was organizing the Take Our Kids to Work Day (TOKTWD) event for our Grade 9's. Apparently our school could not coordinate the Grade 10's Junior Achievement event on the National TOKTWD so we held this Grade 9 event one day early. This saved us from turning our entire schedule up-side-down for 2 days rather than just one... but this was an LCD solution. I didn't make this decision, but I dealt with the upset parents whose work places had created special activities for their children on the National day (one day later). Our response, let your child miss the next day of school, so teachers had to settle for a number of absent students the day after our event.

Next year: Either the two dates fall on the same day, (I'm already in the process of booking it), or we move them completely apart and keep the TOKTWD on the designated National day. If it needs to turn our timetable upside down on two different days - so be it!

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Build it and they will come...

I first blogged about the idea for FieldFindr here. I created a mock-up wiki for that post which has now been viewed over 2,500 times. Later I wrote about it in the Ning in Education network:
"...I think that perhaps a social networking site such as Ning could be a great launching point for teachers to connect with 'resources' in their, or the global, community. What do others think?"
... and got positive responses from Nancy Bosch and Steve Hargadon. So I launched a Ning version of FieldFindr. I then asked for help in my other Ning (Educational) Networks, and I also 'nudged' my Ex.plode.us friends... only to get a very small response. It's kind of funny that I took this personally at first. I thought to myself that I had network issues... but I think the main problem is that I went to the easiest audience I could find... I went to the LCD... the wrong audience! If I really wanted to make Fieldfindr work, I would need to promote it with potential volunteers, not educators. I did what was easy, not what was necessary. Build the volunteer network and teachers will come... but we need to start with the volunteers!

I don't feel that I personally need to start such a network, but I do believe in the idea. If by this summer I can't find a network, or group, or website that does what I think FieldFindr can, then I will start seeking out networks of potential volunteers to sign up... For now I won't do that because I can't offer the commitment needed to make it work.

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Busier Isn't Better

I shared this quote with staff in a staff meeting last Monday afternoon.
"The task of organizing and operating a huge and complex educational machinery has left us scant leisure for calm reflection."
The quote is by Irving Babbitt, and it seemed very appropriate for me to mention before discussing the plans for the heavily reflection-based program I was presenting to students the next day. The interesting thing about this quote is that Irving Babbitt died in 1933, and I think few could disagree that education has gotten much more complex since then!
In our school there is an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In order to run the programs in sync with the rest of the school, our Grade 12 IB students are now doing 5 straight classes in a row for this semester. They start their day at 8:30 and end at 3:15, eating in classes and not getting more than a 5 min. break unless a class ends early. They also have to work on their Final IB paper as well. It is not uncommon to hear a Grade 12 IB student say they have between 3 and 5 hours of homework when they are leaving the school for the day- this would be ok if they weren't saying and doing the exact same thing the next day, and the next day too...
As a new staff member coming in and observing this I have to wonder about subjecting students to this. I don't doubt that there are some wonderful learning opportunities that happen in their classes, but how much is too much? The idea that these kids are bright, and that they can handle this pressure is nothing more than an acceptance of a LCD.

We are taking some of the brightest students in our district and working them so much that they can't think, reflect, or for that matter even care about learning. It is their final year in the public education system and they are wasting it away being busy-bodies. I've learned so much from reflection, from taking my time to think things through, and from asking myself what I want to learn... we need to give this students a bit more time to reflect and explore their own interests in their final year... they prove themselves capable of the busy work enough in Grades 10 & 11.

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Is Ping Pong a Sport?

To meet one of the requirements of the Graduation Transitions program, students are required to do 80 hours of physical activity after Grade 10. Last year as part of the Portfolio program the hours had to be considered either Moderate or Intense for the activity to count, but working definitions of those two terms were difficult. This year that language has been removed, but many school have kept it. LCD.

I was recently asked in an e-mail, "Is ping pong a sport?"
This was to figure out if time playing Ping Pong could be 'counted' towards the 80 required hours. This is what I had to say:
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I've spent way too much time thinking about this.

Our judgments and values don't matter.
Get students active, have them think about that activity, and if it is enough to keep them healthy or not... that's the best we can do. Trying to tell students that an activity of their choice does not count accomplishes nothing. LCD.
(Oh, and Ping Pong is definitely a fun and exciting sport.)

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I am a Hypocrite!

Tuesday Nov. 6th, 2007 was going to be tough for me to get to, and through. I knew that when I accepted this job.
When someone asked me in August, "So, is this going to be a good move for you?"
I replied, "Ask me on Nov. 7th". Well the 6th has come and gone now. I never want to repeat the hours that went into this event- sleeping 19 hours in 5 nights the week before. Getting 2 hours sleep before doing two big presentations, and doing more paperwork that I care to do in any given year... The end result is that feedback has been very positive from teachers, secretaries, admin., support staff and students. Part of me wants to talk about this, and part of me wants to be happy with how positive the day was and just move forward... The fact is that the hard work came from getting all the background paperwork for the program fully developed to present to students, (such as the section of the 80hr Physical Activity Reflection seen above).

Three really positive things about that event that I would like to mention:
1. Students understood the value of the day and did not skip the assemblies in droves, which could easily have happened after their disgruntle attitude for the Portfolio program it replaced. Their feedback to me was very positive and I've had a number of the absent students come in on their own accord, or by suggestion of their peers, to find out what they missed.
2. My PowerPoint was pretty slick, I broke it up with a few good videos, and kept people's attention with great images and subtle transitions. For someone who has used it very little (beyond my presentation week this year) I have become pretty good at creating engaging PowerPoint presentations.
3. I brought in a Bike Trails Champion, Steve Baia, to do a demonstration for us and promote Healthy Living. Not only was this a fantastic addition to the presentation, but he and his dad, Mike, were also wonderful role models of a great father-son relationship. Furthermore Mike watched my presentation and made sure to reference things that I said while he commentated Steve's performance... very classy!
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Up until now this section is all about really good stuff. So where is the LCD and why the hypocrite title of this section?
Well, here I am developing a program for which one third of the outcomes are related to Healthy Living, and what do I do? I deprive myself of sleep, I completely stop exercising, and I put myself through tremendous stress... Some role model I am:-(
Whenever I get busy my healthy lifestyle takes a back seat. I turn 40 in a couple weeks and I am, without a doubt, in the absolute worst shape of my life. For me physical activity is the LCD, the one thing that I can always drop from my schedule to make more time for other things... and that is wrong.

So here is my plan- and it started yesterday! Three treadmill runs a week and one other activity during the week- Every Week! I'm also going to sign up for the Vancouver Half Marathon in the spring. I had students create one Healthy Living SMART Goals this week, and to practice what I preach, I'm going to create 2 SMART goals to help me live healthier, (one around weekly exercise and one specifically to build my endurance and speed for the half marathon).
By the way, for you SMART Goal fans: The 'A' should stand for Action-oriented not Achievable or Attainable. If you think about it, the 'R' stands for Realistic and if it is Realistic it is already Achievable but without Action your goal gets nowhere.

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The Greatest Common Factor

None of my LCD's above are things that can't be 'fixed'. The common factor in each of the sections above is that the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Sometimes big ideas need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to question what we do, and why we do it... and we need to be willing to make a difficult change because it is the right thing to do!

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Images:
ARGUMENT by Shaun.numb/ Shaun Morrison on Flickr
Work in Progress... by Spike 55151 on Flickr
Influence Ning profile image for FieldFindr
Perfect Blue by Netean/ Iain Alexander on Flickr
Steve Baia by Mike Baia

Well, I've been at school for just over 14 hours and my mind is officially mush. I'm creating the paperwork needed for the new Grad Transisions Program so that I can give the Grade 11's and 12's in my school all the new documents for this year. I plan to be paperless for the Grade 10's but time and technology constraints won't allow it right now.  A quick post and I'm home to bed!

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This is a pdf I am including in the package going out to the Grade 12's: Employability Skills 2000+ 

"The skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress in the world of work—whether you work on your own or as a part of a team."

Is it just me or is this a very Web1.0 / behind-the-times document? Where is the emphasis on Collaboration, or Synthesis, or even perhaps Re-mixing Information?

I noticed under Communicate:

• share information using a range of
information and communications technologies
(e.g., voice, e-mail, computers)

...and under Think & Solve Problems:

• readily use science, technology and
mathematics as ways to think, gain and
share knowledge, solve problems and
make decisions

But the document seems lacking... and now my tired eyes see why! In the brochure I just noticed that the print date was May of 2000. No document made for back then is going to hit on many of the Employability Skills for 2007+... which in turn will be outdated for Employability Skills for 2010+...

However, the document will have to do for next Tuesday. Please point me to an updated resource if you can find the time- Thanks.

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Back to work

(A post in under 20 minutes- a record for a slow blogger like me!)

You can go to the K12Online page or to Chris' wiki page.

To put it simply... there is something here for everyone!

Description
This presentation takes participants along my journey into integrating 2.0 applications and “21st Century Learning” into my pedagogy. The presentation will show how teacher driven assignments and projects teach students some of the skills they need to use these new technologies to enhance their learning. Scribe Posts, Growing Posts and E-Portfolios will provide participants with three different activities to do with their students. The final part of my presentation takes participants into “unprojects”. Participants will learn how to create “unprojects”. For the veteran teacher who is using 2.0 in their classroom this is for you. See how students are more creative and show more enthusiasm towards assignments when they are in charge of their learning.

 This is where the future of education should be heading... Kudos to Chris Harbeck!

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Unfortunately I will not be participating in the CUEBC Conference with Will Richardson. He comes all the way to my neighbourhood and I have to miss him! Fortunately I am missing this so that I can help out at a Student Leadership Retreat with my school. I have run these camps for many years (and have resources to share). This year I am helping out rather than leading. I look forward to this, and I hope to learn a lot with the advantage of a different (less stressful) perspective. Joni, is a great leader who truly lives by the mantra I borrowed from Dave Sands, "I teach leadership not followship". I wish I could do both events, but at least I am doing something that I will enjoy and learn from. You can do the same by heading to one of Chris' links above.

I have 2 blog posts on the go right now that I can't get myself to complete.

One is on Digital Citizenship which looks at a post by Vicky A. Davis. The concepts I am formulating are in need of some more deep thought, and I don't know when I will get to it?

The second post is on a 1-1 project in our district. I invited myself to a presentation for parents of students receiving computers for the project. Although the post is almost done, (and sitting in a Google document), I'm feeling bitter about my lack of availability of computers to teach my Planning 10 classes and so I don't think I can complete the post until my frame of mind is one that can frame the post in the positive light I feel it deserves. (I feel childish admitting that, but that's where I'm at right now.)

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 A third post has been looming in my head, but my feedreader fed it to me in the form of someone else's post: It’s time for some perspective here  by Kelly Christopherson.

Here is a little more perspective: I am attempting to fully engage, but still can't keep up... I've been to Second Life, but can't find anything useful there... I don't Twitter (yet?)... and to me Ustream seems like nothing more than a car accident that everyone is slowing down to look at...

All these tools are technological with only the potential to be pedagogical... but they aren't designed with pedagogy in mind. And so with regards to education, I wonder if those in the lead are actually worth following? Will Richardson has a great blog, but I'm not going to give him and his buddy 45 minutes of my time to get information that a 4 paragraph summary of their talk could give me!

...And as for the big hype around backchannels... why do people think this is something worth having transcribed? If a backchannel is used correctly -in my humble, 'perspective from the outside looking in', opinion- then it would influence the presenters, and so the meaningful components would be integrated into the presentation. As for any 'interesting sidebar conversations' that happen- they are mostly relevant in context with the presentation and if they are worth expanding on and investigating... great, investigate them and blog them for me, just don't ask me to read 200+ comments to find a gem in the rough. Backchannels have tremendous value in the 'here-and-now', during a presentation, but what's with all the analysis after the fact? My point is that not only do I not have time for all these new tools, these new tools are time consumers that don't add to my learning experience in a meaningful way.

Going back to Kelly's post, he states:

"Primarily, little has changed with education despite all the tools. I firmly believe that until we examine the curricula, change some of those objectives and rework others, making it relevant to the students, no amount of cool tool is going to create change."

I couldn't have said it better! 

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[Pink Floyd tune in my head... clocks ticking/bells chiming] The coordination of the Graduation Transitions Program at our school is consuming so much of my time. I have to be realistic about what else I can do!

• How much of the K12Online07 conference will I participate in?
• Is FieldFindr worth spending time on?
• Am I Ning-ing for my Planning 10 class project or blogging?
• When will I finish my other posts?

 I could go on but I think my point is made, and I want to turn my questions outward...

• Am I the only one who feels like a 30 hour day would still be too short?
• Are there others out there who wonder what kind of commitment it will take for a teacher to be technologically savvy enough to meaningfully engage students with all these new tools?
• Are we focusing too much on the tools and not enough on pedagogy?
• Will educational structures change fast enough to provide our students with a relevant education?
• ... and for that matter... What would an ideal education look like today?

 

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*Update: What technology should do for us...

I won't violate the copyright, so I will just provide a link:

 Learning Authentically in the Language Arts Classroom by Jamie McKenzie

See the bulleted criteria under 1. Rationale ...

I think that if the use of technology is authentic in this way, then the technology is being used appropriately in education. (Rather than just to play with the newest toys, as I seem to be noticing with Ustream- more on this misguided 'use of technology in education' in my next post). Also noteworthy, the author's Anti-Prensky article.

Jessica Hagy uses graphs to make sense of our world. She is deft at finding hidden truths in places we all look at, but are blind to. I will share one such graph with you now, and link to two more on her blog.... head there and find your own favorites.

Interesting people are interested.

 

 I have spoken about Learning Conversations before, but this little cue card says so much... for Jessica Hagy 'A 'graph' is worth a thousand words!'

But we can't just complain about the current state of education... 

What are you gonna do about it?

Complaints do not move us forward, action does. After all...

Yes, there is always another option.

We need to dream, but we also need to be grounded enough to know what is possible... and we have to follow through and implement our plans. 

Thanks for the inspiration Jessica!

"A portal to Connect Classrooms to the World: Global Citizens can Share Talents and Skills with Students. Teachers can find Global Citizens (Volunteers) willing to help in a field of interest that they are working on in their class."

FieldFindr: Where teachers can meet global citizens with skills to share.

It started with a post and a wiki, and now it has evolved into a Ning Network.

I humbly request your help so that WE can make this happen.  After you sign up, this forum post is a great place to start.

Thank you for contributing to this new site!

Amy Capelle has started a very interesting discussion in Ning's Classroom2.0 

She asks, "Are they really digital natives?"

The discussion there is great! Here is my response:

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"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."

That's a quote I use to differentiate digital immigrants from digital natives.

BUT I have realized that it is much more about comfort level & exposure than it is about age. While I am helping some frustrated students open a sign-up verification e-mail, other students have logged into the new site, added a photo, and changed the appearance of their personal page.

There are three digital divides here preventing me from effectively using technology in the classroom. (Two from my post, and the 3rd added from the Classroom2.0 discussion.) These divides are the gaps between:

1. What I know and what I need to know.

2. What the school has in the way of technology and what it needs to have.

3. What skills/abilities students enter my class with.

#1 I can change.
#2 will never change fast enough.
#3 is the shift in this conversation.

I have both immigrants and natives in my class, so the distinction is moot.

In another post I said,

"And then there is my class Science Alive! wiki... "I think that I am guilty of seeing the value of using technology in guiding learning, but not effectively guiding learning in my technology use."

I have done a pretty good job of getting my students going... but now as momentum builds I have come to the realization that I don't have a marking rubric to guide me, or my students, as we move towards a final product.

My class is assembling a lego model without the instructions, or even the image of the final product on the front of the box. This isn't a problem for the creative/motivated students; they will assembly a better model in ways that I could never have 'instructed' them... but some students need structure, they have been fed it for years and expect it (even from yours truly - this isn't finger pointing, it is observation).

I let technology supersede pedagogy."

Digital immigrants or digital natives is nothing more than a discussion of digital competence... it is a spectrum, not a dichotomy!

Where does this leave us?
We want all of our students to be digitally competent.
We want all of our students to be articulate thinkers.
We need to make this happen in pedagogically sound ways.
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Let us go to the very beginning of the whole debate and none other Mark Prensky himself. In his article, Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom, Prensky says:

"...technology adoption... It's typically a four-step process:

1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways."

I think we get excited when we see 'new things in new ways', but often we end up (re)creating old things in new ways. The real conversation needs to be around the constraints of curriculum and standardized testing.

"This is why the foundation of education systems today should not be the rails, but it should be the side trips. It should not be the central standard curriculum, but it should be those directions that students, that learners, both teachers and students, can navigate to on their own." (David Warlick)

New things in new ways... creating articulate thinkers... and building digital competence as a by-product.