It is hard to believe that 15 weeks of class are done. Its even harder to believe that we have already completed more than 15 weeks of the school year. THere will only be about 3 weeks until the end of the semester when we get back from Christmas break. This year is just flying by.
As I begin my final reflections on our class, I believe it is also important to thing about where each of us started and where we hoped to travel during the course. I am the team geek already. Computers and technology are a part of most of the things I am involved with each day. But there are always new challenges and new student needs out there to be met. I took this class not so much to improve my skills as a way of seeing what else was out there and how others were applying it. I wanted some new tricks to put into my toolbag.
With that goal in mind, the class was both a success and a little bit of a let down. The material for class was great and I did pick up some new tools and web-based applications that I can use to support my school and my students. But my second hope was that the class would give me the opportunity to interact with other techies and classroom teachers to see what they were doing and how they were meeting student needs. This course has been offered as a summer option at my school, but I passed on it because I was hoping to interact with teachers from other schools. My classmates were great and it was fun talking to them, but most were not in the classroom yet or were not strong in technology. I did learn from my peers, but did not pick up as many peer insights as I had hoped. So in some ways, my hunt for peer insights continues.There is a lot of good technology out there, we just have to find it and discover effective ways to use it to meet our students needs.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Google Earth: Just too much fun!
I have been using Google Earth in the classroom for a little over three years now. FOr someone who loves geography, this is an application that is pure trouble. As I begin planning my lesson, I find myself off exploring things that have nothing to do with the lesson I am planning to teach. Often I see something that leads to another interesting point. Before I realize it, hours have slipped by and I am still playing. Its as much fun to check out places you have been as it is to look at places you have never seen. I have literally spent hours arguing with other teachers about when the last time the school was scanned based on lines in the parking lot and which cars were or were not in the lot at the time.
Bringing the lesson to life in the classroom with students is just as distracting. I have learned that it is best to always plan a Google Earth play day before using the tool for the first time in a lesson. Once students see the maps projected onto the whiteboard, the fun begins. I always start in space and fly into our school. As I rotate the perspective so that the view is into our class window.... I can always count on at least half of the class turning to see if the camera is hanging in the air outside. They know its not, but they can not help looking. Soon after that come the inevitable requests to see their houses. So students take turns coming up to put in their addresses and watch the view fly to their houses to.
Eventually we get to the planned lesson. And their are so many that Google Earth can support. In my classes we have checked out rollercoasters and amusement parks for our science lessons on motion or gone to see places described in books we were reading. This is one application that is only limited by the imagination of the user. But be careful. Its so much fun that everyone might forget that they are learning.
Bringing the lesson to life in the classroom with students is just as distracting. I have learned that it is best to always plan a Google Earth play day before using the tool for the first time in a lesson. Once students see the maps projected onto the whiteboard, the fun begins. I always start in space and fly into our school. As I rotate the perspective so that the view is into our class window.... I can always count on at least half of the class turning to see if the camera is hanging in the air outside. They know its not, but they can not help looking. Soon after that come the inevitable requests to see their houses. So students take turns coming up to put in their addresses and watch the view fly to their houses to.
Eventually we get to the planned lesson. And their are so many that Google Earth can support. In my classes we have checked out rollercoasters and amusement parks for our science lessons on motion or gone to see places described in books we were reading. This is one application that is only limited by the imagination of the user. But be careful. Its so much fun that everyone might forget that they are learning.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Educational Philosohy of the Month
As I have worked on my own educational philosophy over the past week, I have spent a bit of time reviewing different web sites and blogs to get a feel for what other teachers say and think about education. The themes and models seem endless and they seem to change so quickly. During my 21 years as a software engineer, I thought I was used to being in an environment where everyone was looking at the latest piece of technology. Those of us who had been in the development field often referred to the new tools and toys as silver bullets. Everyone was looking for the perfect tool to slay the evil programming problem. But unlike the movies, the old engineers realized that there were no silver bullets. It was all about hard work, discipline, and a bit of flexibility in the way we think and approach a problem. There was never going to be a programming language or software tool that would solve everybodies problems. But there were ways to use the existing tools and some of the new ones more effectively to solve problems. It is what made a good engineer valuable and the rest of the players just programmers or hacks.
During the last 8 years of my engineering career, I began teaching college classes at night. As adjunct faculty, I was somewhat isolated from the politics of the college. Teaching philosophies and the latest teaching fads were not something that night school teachers had to deal with more than once a semester at semi-annual training sessions. One just had to keep the student critiques in the right range and you could teach as you thought best. But after I retired from my technology career and began to take classes for my teaching license, I began to be exposed to many different educational silver bullets. Each education class and professor I had followed a different "method" for the best way to reach students. After first, I assumed this was just a good way to expose us to different concepts. But then I began to teach.
I teach at a middle school and over the 6 years that I have been at this school, we have had 5 different school or district philosophies. Each has had something to offer, but before we could really make the new one work we were off exploring a new way to slay poor standardized test scores. The programs we used just fell be the wayside. Whats a teacher to do but follow along. Unfortunately, some just quite trying and pay lip service to whatever current approach is being forced on them. I oftern wonder whether there would be nearly as many approaches if a disertation was not required for most Doctorate degrees. If we eliminated the need to come up with a new silver bullet to get a degree, would highly educated teachers spend more time learning to use the tools we have already discovered. That's not to say new ideas are all bad, but sometimes its nice to have an expert at something we know trying to help a student who is having trouble learning.
I am not sure if it is politically correct to reference someone else's Blog while writting your own, but I did find one that seemed to be searching for the same goal as my own. David Truss asked the question in his own educational philosophy (http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/statement-of-educational-philosophy/), "I wonder how much of what I have written is ‘universal’ and how much of it is a product of being stuck in the current bureaucratic-age based paradigm?" I think its important to ask why we believe as we do. Is it what we were told to believe, a rut we are stuck in, or something we are passionate about. We all need to remember the first line of David's philosophy, "The goal of education is to enrich the lives of students..." because if it is not all about the students, then its time to leave the classroom.
During the last 8 years of my engineering career, I began teaching college classes at night. As adjunct faculty, I was somewhat isolated from the politics of the college. Teaching philosophies and the latest teaching fads were not something that night school teachers had to deal with more than once a semester at semi-annual training sessions. One just had to keep the student critiques in the right range and you could teach as you thought best. But after I retired from my technology career and began to take classes for my teaching license, I began to be exposed to many different educational silver bullets. Each education class and professor I had followed a different "method" for the best way to reach students. After first, I assumed this was just a good way to expose us to different concepts. But then I began to teach.
I teach at a middle school and over the 6 years that I have been at this school, we have had 5 different school or district philosophies. Each has had something to offer, but before we could really make the new one work we were off exploring a new way to slay poor standardized test scores. The programs we used just fell be the wayside. Whats a teacher to do but follow along. Unfortunately, some just quite trying and pay lip service to whatever current approach is being forced on them. I oftern wonder whether there would be nearly as many approaches if a disertation was not required for most Doctorate degrees. If we eliminated the need to come up with a new silver bullet to get a degree, would highly educated teachers spend more time learning to use the tools we have already discovered. That's not to say new ideas are all bad, but sometimes its nice to have an expert at something we know trying to help a student who is having trouble learning.
I am not sure if it is politically correct to reference someone else's Blog while writting your own, but I did find one that seemed to be searching for the same goal as my own. David Truss asked the question in his own educational philosophy (http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/statement-of-educational-philosophy/), "I wonder how much of what I have written is ‘universal’ and how much of it is a product of being stuck in the current bureaucratic-age based paradigm?" I think its important to ask why we believe as we do. Is it what we were told to believe, a rut we are stuck in, or something we are passionate about. We all need to remember the first line of David's philosophy, "The goal of education is to enrich the lives of students..." because if it is not all about the students, then its time to leave the classroom.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Good Parts of Technology
This may be one of the easiest writting assignments of the course. Technology has enriched my life by allowing me to overcome many of the limitations imposed by my blindness. The list of benefits is so long that its hard to summarize. I don't have to worry about going to the library as I can download digital books from the Library of Congress to play on my digital player. I can pull movies from Netflix over the internet which means that I don't have to find a ride to the movie rental store. Information and research that I would normally have to get to a library for is available at my desk. I can communicate and stay in touch with people simple by sitting at my computer. Shopping, hobbies, travel planning.... everything I need is a few keystrokes away. For many people, especially youth; this might be see as a retreat away from personal interactions. But for people with disabilities, this is often the only way to overcome being trapped in a house with nothing to do. Even my coursework to keep my teaching license can be done at home. Without the advances in technology, cab fare would cost me more than the course itself.
Maybe the biggest advantage is the emotional and psychological one. Sometimes the disability makes on feel trapped and very isolated. It can still be too quiet alone in the house, but there is an ability to reach out. And that provides some relief to the trapped feelings. Its hard to explain to someone who has the ability to go where they want when they want to.
As a teacher, my favorite uses of technology are the ones that I use to support my special education students. Technology allows me to help them succeed and learn. Students who can not write two sentences can use the computer to prepare movies and presentations to their classmates that show they have learned. My students record their voices over pictures that draw and scan or download or even take with a camera or camcorder. These pieces of technology combine into a project that they can feel pride in persenting to their classmates. For many of these students, the feelings of success are a new experience. I have technology that allows me to scan books or web sites and have them read to students who can not read. Again, my students feel included for the first time. They do not have to be embarassed that they can not read the hard chapter book that the rest of the class is reading. They can sit at the computer and have everything read to them. We are even experimenting with speach to text with some students. As in my personal life, technology can be the key to overcoming limitations. Its a good feeling.
Maybe the biggest advantage is the emotional and psychological one. Sometimes the disability makes on feel trapped and very isolated. It can still be too quiet alone in the house, but there is an ability to reach out. And that provides some relief to the trapped feelings. Its hard to explain to someone who has the ability to go where they want when they want to.
As a teacher, my favorite uses of technology are the ones that I use to support my special education students. Technology allows me to help them succeed and learn. Students who can not write two sentences can use the computer to prepare movies and presentations to their classmates that show they have learned. My students record their voices over pictures that draw and scan or download or even take with a camera or camcorder. These pieces of technology combine into a project that they can feel pride in persenting to their classmates. For many of these students, the feelings of success are a new experience. I have technology that allows me to scan books or web sites and have them read to students who can not read. Again, my students feel included for the first time. They do not have to be embarassed that they can not read the hard chapter book that the rest of the class is reading. They can sit at the computer and have everything read to them. We are even experimenting with speach to text with some students. As in my personal life, technology can be the key to overcoming limitations. Its a good feeling.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Video Blogging and our Youth
As part of this weeks assignment, I checked out two new video blogging sites VLOG Central (formally VBLOG Central) and VOBBO. I also looked at some of the VBLOG out on YouTube. This is a technology that is obviously immensely popular. As someone who has never really enjoyed being in front of the camera, it is a capability that I do not see the appeal of. But it is obviously there especially with our youth. From a personal perspective of having been in the military, I see a wonderful tool that could be used to link families to loved once far away. I know my son in Iraq is a big user of Skype and I occasionally borrow a friends netbook to video conference with my son... but that is really more of a communication tool that video blogging. I watched over 50 videos this week and some were very intertaining and fun while some were just silly (Cherry Popping and extreme fruit violence) and others were of very questionable content. This is definitely a technology with pluses and minuses.
On the positive side, I see an ability for students to express themselves when other forms of communication are difficult. Students who can not write a good paper can sit sometimes sit and talk to the camera to express themselves and to show what they have learned. Video responses give teachers an additional way to assess what students have learned and they provide students with a feeling of success that they were able to complete an assignment.
But this new technology comes with a great risk that it will be used in an inappropriate manner by our children. The children of 2009 have a different moral view of what is right and wrong that is more often influenced my thier peers that by the adults of their world. This new technology is one that requires we somehow teach our children how to use it properly. It is sad, but in many cases our children are doing more harm to themselves than the worst pedophiles. There is a growing base of stories about children and young adults using cell phone cameras and other video devices to take inappropriate pictures of themselves to share with friends. Once sent, these pictures are no longer under control and they often have very negative consequences. There are also a growing number of adult websites that provide similar capabilities to YouTube. I may be old fashioned, but somehow we need to teach our youth how to use these technologies in an appropriate manner that does not place them at risk. This children and young adults may think its okay today; and maybe they can avoid embarassment now, but there will come a time when they are adults with families of their own that these video exploits will come back to haunt them. Data on the internet lives forever. I do not know the solution to the problem, but somehow we need to put some thought into what technology we make available to our children before it can be misused.
On the positive side, I see an ability for students to express themselves when other forms of communication are difficult. Students who can not write a good paper can sit sometimes sit and talk to the camera to express themselves and to show what they have learned. Video responses give teachers an additional way to assess what students have learned and they provide students with a feeling of success that they were able to complete an assignment.
But this new technology comes with a great risk that it will be used in an inappropriate manner by our children. The children of 2009 have a different moral view of what is right and wrong that is more often influenced my thier peers that by the adults of their world. This new technology is one that requires we somehow teach our children how to use it properly. It is sad, but in many cases our children are doing more harm to themselves than the worst pedophiles. There is a growing base of stories about children and young adults using cell phone cameras and other video devices to take inappropriate pictures of themselves to share with friends. Once sent, these pictures are no longer under control and they often have very negative consequences. There are also a growing number of adult websites that provide similar capabilities to YouTube. I may be old fashioned, but somehow we need to teach our youth how to use these technologies in an appropriate manner that does not place them at risk. This children and young adults may think its okay today; and maybe they can avoid embarassment now, but there will come a time when they are adults with families of their own that these video exploits will come back to haunt them. Data on the internet lives forever. I do not know the solution to the problem, but somehow we need to put some thought into what technology we make available to our children before it can be misused.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Dr Ken Robinson's monolog on Ted.com is a rather interesting and often funny response to education, but it is also in many ways an unfair representation of today's educational system. I admit to laughing at times, but I also found myself being insulted at times. In the end, I wasn't sure if I was more amused or insulted.
Our educational system (at least in this country) has made many strides in the last 15 years. Recognition of multiple intelligences is just one of them. The system has begun to look at new ways of supporting learning and learning styles. In fact, if you wait a day or less.... a new paper will be published with a new way to teach children. In many ways, I feel that the system as gone too far in trying to find new and innovative ways to teach. The focus on fundamental skills in math and reading has been lost to the idea of kinder and less threatening learning. Reciting math facts and/or spelling in front of the class is now considered to stressful for fragil egos and so the skills work has been dropped from our curriculum. With these changes, out country's education system has lost it superiority in the world. Maybe we need to reconsider going back to the basics. We can still use the things we have learned about teaching, but without forgetting the hard lessons we learned along the way. I do not believe that stressing basic skills development damages creativity. The US did it for decades and managed to land on the moon. Creativity can remain despite structured learning.
There were two pieces of the video that I found very insightful though. The first was the comment that young children are often willing to try even if they do not know the answer. They are not afraid to be wrong. Trying and failing is still allowed. That is soemthing I think schools need to teach our students more carefully. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you are trying. If we teach our children its bad to make a mistake then they may be afraid to try. Smoe of our greatest achievements have involved failure. It was okay to fail 10,00 times to make a light bulb as long as Edison kept trying until he got 1 right.
The second note that I really like was the comment about how we treat kids with different learning styles or disabilities today. The idea that one of the world's greatest dancers might have been medicated and told to relax is scary, but all to often the easiest solution. Kids need to be understood and accepted as they are. Then we can learn to teach who they are. My experience is that most of who they are is what the adults in their life have created. True issues are issues our society has created in the child. Sometimes its a genius we do not recognize that a parent has nurtured and sometimes its a disability that adults have instilled. Sometimes its just who the child is. Understand it first, then maybe we can understand how best to teach the child. And maybe all it takes is dance school.
Our educational system (at least in this country) has made many strides in the last 15 years. Recognition of multiple intelligences is just one of them. The system has begun to look at new ways of supporting learning and learning styles. In fact, if you wait a day or less.... a new paper will be published with a new way to teach children. In many ways, I feel that the system as gone too far in trying to find new and innovative ways to teach. The focus on fundamental skills in math and reading has been lost to the idea of kinder and less threatening learning. Reciting math facts and/or spelling in front of the class is now considered to stressful for fragil egos and so the skills work has been dropped from our curriculum. With these changes, out country's education system has lost it superiority in the world. Maybe we need to reconsider going back to the basics. We can still use the things we have learned about teaching, but without forgetting the hard lessons we learned along the way. I do not believe that stressing basic skills development damages creativity. The US did it for decades and managed to land on the moon. Creativity can remain despite structured learning.
There were two pieces of the video that I found very insightful though. The first was the comment that young children are often willing to try even if they do not know the answer. They are not afraid to be wrong. Trying and failing is still allowed. That is soemthing I think schools need to teach our students more carefully. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you are trying. If we teach our children its bad to make a mistake then they may be afraid to try. Smoe of our greatest achievements have involved failure. It was okay to fail 10,00 times to make a light bulb as long as Edison kept trying until he got 1 right.
The second note that I really like was the comment about how we treat kids with different learning styles or disabilities today. The idea that one of the world's greatest dancers might have been medicated and told to relax is scary, but all to often the easiest solution. Kids need to be understood and accepted as they are. Then we can learn to teach who they are. My experience is that most of who they are is what the adults in their life have created. True issues are issues our society has created in the child. Sometimes its a genius we do not recognize that a parent has nurtured and sometimes its a disability that adults have instilled. Sometimes its just who the child is. Understand it first, then maybe we can understand how best to teach the child. And maybe all it takes is dance school.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Death by PowerPoint
PowerPoint presentations are not one of my favorite tools in the classroom. At least not for use as the teacher. They can be okay as a way for students to share the results of their own research or labs.... but even then there are better and more capable tools for the student to use. So I really do not have any educational horror or wonder stories to share. Just a little structured noted taking which seems a great way to allow students to copy down important notes.
In my first career in the US Air Force, PowerPoint and presentations were a way of life. Careers lived and died by the briefings that people gave before the Generals. It was often sad to think that you could do a better job and still not be recognized for it simply because the guy briefing before you had some better tricks in his presentation that caught the General's attention. But it was a fact of life.
The two most painful uses of Powerpoint that used to drive me crazy were often related. First was the 1 gigabit slide. The graphics and pictures on a single slide were so large that the slide takes forever to load. Back in the old days.... if you were lucky the powerslide would crash the computer and you could end that particular briefing quickly and painlessly. The second painful presentation trick was often related, too much animation. I can see my boss standing at the podium to shis day. The slide would begin with a map. An Airplane would fly across the screen and deposite an icon on the map. Ships would cross the ocean and drop more icons on the map. The whole process of building this one piece of information took 15 minutes to say something that could have been said in 15 seconds. Anybody besides me want to leave before the next slide starts? And by the way... there are 10 more after that one.
In my first career in the US Air Force, PowerPoint and presentations were a way of life. Careers lived and died by the briefings that people gave before the Generals. It was often sad to think that you could do a better job and still not be recognized for it simply because the guy briefing before you had some better tricks in his presentation that caught the General's attention. But it was a fact of life.
The two most painful uses of Powerpoint that used to drive me crazy were often related. First was the 1 gigabit slide. The graphics and pictures on a single slide were so large that the slide takes forever to load. Back in the old days.... if you were lucky the powerslide would crash the computer and you could end that particular briefing quickly and painlessly. The second painful presentation trick was often related, too much animation. I can see my boss standing at the podium to shis day. The slide would begin with a map. An Airplane would fly across the screen and deposite an icon on the map. Ships would cross the ocean and drop more icons on the map. The whole process of building this one piece of information took 15 minutes to say something that could have been said in 15 seconds. Anybody besides me want to leave before the next slide starts? And by the way... there are 10 more after that one.
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