As with last year, I spent most of my time in the Blogger’s Cafe’. It’s always nice to see many of the people that I feel are like-minded in our zest for improved student learning. I did have HIGH expectations/hopes leading into NECC with regards to sessions and the learning that I was about to embark upon. Being the procrastinator at heart that I am, I did not do any pre-reading of the conference schedule. That would have made too much sense, i.e. that’s not me. I started reading the conference schedule book received with the registration packet and was quickly dismayed. Like my FETC (Florida Educational Technology Conference) experience in January, I found that many of the sessions in my opinion were geared for the mid-ranged adapter to newer adapter. Please don’t misunderstand, there is a need for these types of sessions, however, they are not for me. I saw myself quickly going back to presenters that I’ve seen in the past, and enjoy learning from (i.e. David Jakes/Dean Shareski, David Warlick, Hall Davidson, Chris Lehmann). Not sure if this makes me a gomer or a homer or guilty of living inside a professional development bubble. I just know that many a session I snuck in on was not compelling.

My large goal for NECC this year was two-fold: How can I create better professional development opportunities for my teachers and how can I become a better TV Production Coordinator. I think I was successful on both ends. Having been told pretty much that PD for my teachers will be at a premium (read: non-existant), so I will need to be creative in my approaches. I will definitely be keeping to my working with specific teachers that express willingness to take the step towards tech integration. Through the DEN pre-conference event at the Enchanted Springs Ranch, I learned for the first time about Mogulus. Seeing it for the first time BLEW my mind away. What a way to have PDOD (professional development on demand). I’d been toying with a way to create an anthology of PD webcasts/screencasts of myself in front of my laptop and using screen capturing software to demonstrate concepts. This website takes it to the next level. Actual demonstration, rather than screen captures. And it can run continuously if I so choose.

The second great PD idea I’m going to borrow is Kevin Honeycutt’s Web 2.0 Keychain he gives out to his teachers. What a novel idea and a way to have not only web 2.0 tools, but traditional websites at the fingertips. I’ve started to create my own and will definitely share when I’m finished.

I was able to attend a session on building a better School TV production show on Monday morning. Still trying to get my hands on a copy of their resource cd, but did use google docs to type up some GREAT ideas that I can take back for the start of the school year. This will be my first foray into tv production of this sort, so it should be a VERY nice challenge for me. Heck, it’s already paying dividends, I was able to get out of my morning duty to work with the students during this time. YAY!

I am already looking forward to next year’s experience in Washington DC. Looks like the wife might be coming too. That should be a fun time definitely.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Having just opened a brand new school, with well over $500,000 worth of technology throughout the campus, with all honesty, my students and teachers are not wanting for much. The one thing they are complaining about NOT having is an overhead projector (***CRINGE***). I took the liberty of talking the principal into order Avermedia’s Document Cameras for the classrooms. Not ideal, but remember my good friend Jen Wagner’s mantra, “Baby Steps”.

The underlying issue that remains, as Dean also points out, is “Lack of training, challenges around support.” Is this not the same argument against 1:1 computing initiatives? Teachers consistently point out that they have no guidance as to how to utilize a classroom full of computers for an entire period. As these machines age, what type of replacement plan is in place? What type of warranty is set up for when machines break down during the life of the computer? All valid questions. One term that I hear alot from people within the ed tech community is that we are in our own little ‘echo chamber’. I sometimes forget that I work with very much NEVER or newer adapters. Some do it willingly, some get it, some don’t.

So what’s the solution? Not withstanding teacher buy-in of integration concepts, but a total overhaul of what administration thinks education is all about. I’ve spoken ad nauseum of this, as I’m sure many others have. I think a focus needs to shift from not only concentrating on the teachers, but delving deeper into administration understanding what tools are out there, and their educational values. I’d like to see the days of hearing “there’s no time for that type of stuff in our classrooms” and “you should be concentrating on real reading and writing concepts and principles” behind us. Until this happens, we’re destined to be trudging through the mud that is 20th Century Education that we’re still mired in.

And by the way Dean…Love the animoto! The few students that I’ve used it with so far have been very excited about it’s ease of use. A very nice way to introduce storytelling.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: shareski XO education edtech

So what do I find when I go to the wiki to start editing some new writing prompts for the students? Half of the class adding their portions to the story. These are students who every Thursday are being told they NEED to write a 5 paragraph essay as an FCAT practice. They do it begrudgingly, with from what I’m told, a heck of a lot of bellyaching. This resistance on their part justifies the premise that students who are given the task to ‘write for an audience’ will write, and write more often.

This being our first foray into this type of project the writing is raw. Heck, we’ve not even started the pre-writing learning centers and blogging. Time will tell how this turns out. Both the classroom teacher and myself have high hopes.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Earlier this week I came across this article on TechCrunch. It really did pique my interest to the point of, how can I get something like this to be done on my campus. Here’s the basic concept. “Twittories” uses the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter to create a work of fiction. Much like “The Neverending Tale” from the late 90s – early 2000s did.

Here’s my problem: Twitter is blocked by my district. So that’s out. This is a shout out to all in my network of friends and colleagues. I’d like to start something like this, small of course, working with one of my 4th grade classrooms, as 4th Grade is the year that their writing is assessed by the state. At this time I do not have access to anything like Blackboard, nor know enough about Moodle to begin to fathom trying to create something. I’ve looked at the Moodle site, to me, very confusing. I am sure I can ask a friend of mine to host web space for me, is that what I’d need to use something like Moodle? (Here’s hoping there’s a session on Moodle @ FETC that I can sit in on) .

What are some other alternatives that I could use here. Again, this is a call for advice. Any and all would be greatly appreciated.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages.

Tom.

Technorati Tags: education technology edtech twitter twittories

My head’s been all over the place over the last week. I’ll honestly say that I refrained from even opening up my dashboard page for fear that I would type more negative material. Yes, my last post was negative. I’m trying, I really am. I’ve had some great conversations with great friends to help me keep my focus on the true prize.

We had a great photostory 3 workshop on my campus Monday evening. Many thanks to Karen Seddon who is coming out every month. (Last month was Audacity, this month was Photostory 3). The good news is that 5 of my teachers showed up. The bad news was the amount of complaining from teachers that the workshop was so late in the day. Yes, it was after school. All five of the attendees were newer adapters, even going so far as saying they are true, green newbies. That’s okay. Baby Steps. I’d forgotten the importance of that little mantra.

We have a 5th Grade teacher on campus that has been doing research projects, the old fashioned way. Let’s research, and oh yea, let’s write about 4 pages about what you’ve researched. Notice, not what they’ve learned. I tasked her with finding a way to spice up her project outcome. For the most part, she obliged. Instead of a paper, she offered her students a choice of a powerpoint or a display board. Progress. YES! That’s not the end. Begging would be an appropriate way to say what I did. I begged her to come to the PD on Monday night. Happy to report that her project outcome has changed again, with a due date pushed back to the end of January. We’ve discussed dates/times to come in and teach the students how to use Photostory 3 to create their own stories.

As described by me in previous postings, her reply to the school based mantra of “there’s no time for such projects like this” was this: “I don’t care, these students NEED to learn how to research and create something.” I should also note that this is an educator that has been teaching for almost 15 years. Baby Steps!

I have another post brewing in my head. More on that later, don’t want to get them confused.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages.

Tom.

Technorati Tags: PD education technology edtech photostory3

I wanted to share this last little bit of wisdom that was shared with me this week. I recently opened up a 3rd computer lab on my campus. Again, I’m very, I MEAN VERY, blessed to have a School Technology head who purchased 40 extra workstations to use on campus. This alone allowed me to open a second and a third computer lab on campus, which I think makes all the difference. The first 2 labs are being used as a skill n’ drill type lab, so my goal was to open this one up as a research and projects lab. Now for the nugget, “There is no time to use the computer lab for such trivial things as  research and to type projects.” So what is this teacher’s response to this? “Mr. T, go ahead and take me off of the lab time schedule, I’m just not going to go.”

This was just the latest one, there were more over the last few weeks. I won’t go into great detail into them, as I don’t want to harp on them. Frustrated? Yes, why yes I am. I’m sure it will pass. As with every time that I sense becoming highly frustrated, I tend to stay away from my office and work around the school. The last two days I’ve spent in the Media Center setting up (I will say FINALLY) the workstations for up there. It only took 5 months, but they are definitely done. In the end he has a pretty nice set up: 6 desktops and a movable 10 wireless laptop lab. Not even 10 minutes, while I was packing up my stuff to go down to my office, a class working on a project (this is where the hope comes in) on Lewis and Clark were having HUGE issues in finding books. Between the 2 of us, we worked with the class in using our online card catalog system to find the books they would need.  To put the icing on this story this particular teacher’s response to the decree on computer use/projects was a basic “I don’t care, they need to learn how to do it anyways, so why not now!” made me feel much better.

Sorry for the rant, so </rant>

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Let me say that I’m very blessed to call Danielle not only a colleague, but a close friend. We’ve shared many conversations in person, over the phone, and via internet. Her zest and enthusiasm for all things education and technology, and how they intermingle is second to none. For any of you that know her, please go read what she shares about her son.

Not being in the classroom everyday has made me somewhat forgetful of just how diverse our students are. I swear I won’t go onto a rambling diatribe about how this has not really changed over the years. I won’t mention that I went through the last 2 years of elementary school and the first year of junior high with a foreign exchange student from North Korea. But I won’t go into that. I swear!I guess what I’m getting at is, in my opinion many of the obstacles, many of the distractions, many of the crises at home that students face are very similar to what the teachers that I had faced. Also, many of the same diversity in learning styles as well as learning exceptionalities we teachers see in our students are similar to what teachers of the 20th Century faced.

What’s the big difference then? Why does the public perceive education is failing in today’s society? The new era of accountability is here. But are we measuring our students the right way? It’s my belief that we should start measuring our students by 21st Century Standards. The problem with using the term accountability is that most national, state, district, school level administrators (don’t forget the parents here too!) neglect to hold accountable the students for their performance in school.

I always asked the question, “How do you motivate the unmotivated?” My class was always up and moving. Highly energized. Class activities, Think-Pair-Share, Inspiration, Thinking Maps. I like to say, never a dull moment. (I’ll have to share my Volcanic Theory with you all sometime if I haven’t already) A few years back I had a student who was a constant disruption to class. Picking fights with the meeker 6th Graders in class. This student was also a repeater. Many of the same behaviors the student displayed in my class were displayed in the other 6th Grade Geography Teacher’s class the previous year. When not misbehaving the student was sleeping during instruction. I was weighed heavily with the thought, “Do I wake him and let him disrupt class, or let him sleep and actually accomplish something in class, like instruction?” Ethically I was challenged with what to do. It became such a source of contention between both of us, that I eventually chose the route of gently trying to ask if participating in class was an option for the day. Usually the answer was a ‘no’. The reason for this student’s lack of sleep will remain unspoken, however, it led to his unmotivating attitude towards school.

Teachers, both from today and going back 20-30 years ago, had students of this nature. Teachers today are more scrutinized based on test data and student performance on such tests. It’s such a shame that we’re judged on the merits of such test data. How is it a fair reflection of what the student can do, or what the teacher has taught throughout the year. The student in my example would ‘christmas tree’ KAPLAN testing we did throughout the year. And I say this because I know Joey, is a standardized test truly a ‘true’ evaluation of what he has learned? I think not, however, the state and local districts give little or no regard to students facing situations similar to these. Until then, I will continue to support educational uses for technology in the classrooms. I’ve seen that it works, and thankfully some of the teachers on my campus see how it works too!

Deep thoughts for such an early time on Sunday morning!

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: edtech diversity school education

Some cool things going in the next few weeks for me. My wife found a UBER huge deal on a cruise out of Miami. Family of four going to the Bahamas the weekend before Thanksgiving in a mini suite for just over $700.  Too good of a deal to pass up. As is typical with an educator, I’m looking for the best way to get some educational benefit out of this trip for my kids. My son will be way too young to remember any fort we go to or any tour of the parlaimentary building in Nassau. I’ve been trying to find a way to get jump started into the world of geocaching. Trying not to point out the fact that I have no GPS device, it’s just the thing to go out and buy one.

It’s also like living in a bubble. Never knew that geocaching.com existed. Researched and found some that were close to both Port Lucaya on Grand Bahaman Island and in Nassau. When explaining geocaching to my AP and groveling to borrow her GPS device for the trip, she told me to look into buying some for the school. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Just told me to find some ‘justification’ for using it in school. What better way then showing her Ed Warkentin’s “Teach em to Fish” blog post on using geocaching in education from April 15th of this year.

More later, time for sleep.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Unlike for FAME from last week, I went ahead an created a wiki on wikispaces.com to be the launching pad for my presentations. I remember talking with Jennifer Wagner back at NECC prior to her presentation with the WOW 2.0 Ladies, and lamenting on the thought that we if we are expected to have the people who come and listen to us in conference sessions, or our teachers we work with on a daily basis, then we need to embrace the technologies and use them in our presentations. With that in mind, I created the ‘official’ Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages wiki.

Thursday afternoon’s session was titled Online Tools for Busy Teachers. The presentation was originally supposed to be given by my friend Diana, who then asked me to give it instead since the 15 or so that I had envisioned she’d never heard of. The funny part of the presentation came after the fact when we (myself, Diana and Debbie B.) were discussing how they thought it went. One of them mentioned it could have been better if the websites were shown during the presentation instead of just the wiki. Not even thinking about it, and I guess this was just a matter of me being in a ‘zone’ I don’t know. But somewhere in there I forgot to mention to Diana to go ahead and click on the links to share the webpages with the attendees. Live and learn, as with everything in life.

Friday’s two sessions went equally as spectacular in my estimation. The first AM session was “The Basics of Audacity”. I’m not a big fan of ‘how to’ sessions at conferences. So I went with the approach for the both of these sessions that I was going to give a hybrid ‘how to’ session where I did a portion of how to and a portion of thoughts on integration into the classroom. The second session was of the morning was on blogging as a reflective tool for educators. I spent most of the session discussing the importance of adding blogging as a component to reflective practice. I did show how easy it was to create a blog using the edublogs.org website.

I do know that they recorded the sessions, so I’m hoping I can get my hands on the audio file. Would love to get the files for all three and add them up as a podcast somewhere.  More on that later though I’m sure

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Thursday marked the second year in a row that I presented digital storytelling at the FAME (Florida Association for Media in Education) Conference. Most, if not all, of the attendees for this conference were media specialists. I did see a spattering of teachers when I asked if there were any teachers in the hall. It was a pretty great turnout for my session. Had standing room only, and saw some sitting in the aisle just inside the door. Made me feel really good.

Now me being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until the last minute to complete my presentation slides. I know I know…I’m a tech guy, why am I using powerpoint to present??? Well, I learned my lesson last year with this conference. My goal last year was to run everything off of my wikipage. HA! I was dropped off REAALLY early to last year’s session, as my wife needed the use of the car that day. So I had a few hours to kill before my presentation. Lo and behold, as I’m setting up in the presenter’s room, I find there is no internet available that’s free. Just the paid 4.95/hr or 19.95/24 hour through the Disney Resort. Not having my credit card, and being cheap, I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I paid for the hour to at least get the information that I wanted off of the wiki and put together a slide presentation. So I knew better for this year.

Last year’s presentation was more of a ‘how to’ begin digital storytelling and other video content into the curriculum. I took the approach this year of integration. I was very surprised at the number of media specialists in the room that have not used, nor even heard of digital storytelling. They took copious amounts of notes, and asked many great follow-up questions. What amazed me the most was learning that a school had the use of windows movie maker blocked as part of the group policy settings. Fortunately having backup plans like using Photostory3, slideshare, and voicethread are out there to allow educators to get around such roadblocks.

Being my second solo presentation, I had a great time doing it. I look forward to getting in front of groups again. Although, my wait won’t be that long. I am presenting on Audacity, Blogging and Online web 2.0 tools later this week at the FAACS conference at the Orange County Convention Center. I can get used to doing this pretty quickly! Unfortunately I got word 2 weeks ago that my proposal on blogging for teachers for FETC was denied. Oh well….I get to hang out with Anne T. who’s coming down then

Till Tomorrow…

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Technorati Tags: FAME2007 digistory digitalstorytelling pd