World Wide Web history lesson

This is a really interesting and funny story about a leader in the technology field who decided that the World Wide Web was not something to be involved with in 1992. This really makes me wonder about the leaders who ask for innovative ideas and then find reasons to pass on every solution that comes their way.

The world is changing: GPS tracking

Today the US Supreme Court is hearing a case to decide if the police are allowed to put GPS tracking devices on cars to track people of interest without a warrant. NPR had an interesting version of the story this morning.

Although this may seem disconnected from middle school classrooms, it does point to the changing realities of life in the digital world. Not only should educators be aware of these types of issues, but we should help our students become aware of the potential uses of the devices they carry.

Prepare your students for this...

When I hear parents and teachers and others arguing we need to "get kids ready for college," a shiver goes up my spine. Every year about this time, I see students beginning  return form their semester year of school and they are in-debt and not liking school.

In a recent story in the New York Times web site, we read that students debt continues to rise... I see young people who have borrowed more money that I spent on my house to get undergraduate degrees.

In middle school, we have the chance to open kids to possibilities and to explore all of their interests so that they can make good decisions in a few years... perhaps entering the trades and feeling confident in their choice (an being healthy and engaged in the world) is the best option for many of our students.

Really liking Scratch

I have students involved with some simple programming right now. We are using Scratch, the open source platform from MIT that traces its roots to LOGO-- Seymour Papert has been a hero of mine since I first became a student of education.

Students are programming Pong-like games, and they are finding interesting ways to solve problems. I create the basic functionality with them-- paddle controlled by the arrow keys, a ball to bounce around, and targets to hit and those to avoid. They are having new characters arrive as play continues, characters change based on actions... all sorts of fun!

It never fails to amaze me how those students who traditionally struggle with many school activities will quickly figure out how to write programs in Scratch and how they arrive at "work around" to do what is not obvious... and how students who traditionally do well in school struggle to find innovative solutions using the tools in Scratch and tools like it. (There has got to be a research project in there waiting to be done!)

TV for middle schoolers...

Common Sense Media provides a list of television that is more appropriate for children than some of the shows they watch. There list is for kids from the pre-school age set to the middle school set.

I wonder what it says about me that Futurama (one of the two non-sports programs I will take the time to watch) is on the list.

TImes are changing!

Share this video with middle school kids and start a conversation about how the world is changing:

NELMS Events

Literacy Summit

November 7-8, 2011 

Find out more here

Middle Level IS the Place for the Prevention of Bullying

December 2, 2011 

Find out more here

Differentiation and Motivation

February 2 & 3, 2012

Find out more here

Teachers Over Paid?

EdWeek has a story of a Heritage Foundation study that suggests that teachers are overpaid!

The study factors in job security... vacations... benefits... presumably educators have lots of each...

Job security... not in my school with its declining population. I have had my job removed from the budget twice before and I left a job when teachers were not offered contracts because the master contract had not been agreed upon. (When I was growing up, my father got laid off from two jobs over his career-- looks like my job is about as secure as his was.

Vacations... my friends who are my age get paid vacations... they get a day's pay but are not expected to show up. My salary is paid to me in 26 installments as a courtesy (that I appreciate). I have never had a paid vacation since 1988 when I was mowing lawns in the summer between when I graduated and when I started my teaching career. (I do usually take advantage of the personal days I am allowed-- so I do get three vacation days per year.)

Benefits... yup this one is true... I appreciate the benefits I get, but my benefits are not out of line with those provided by other professionals who work in my area (in some cases our benefits are worse than those provided to other professionals).

Games and Jesse Schell

In the past, I have used this video of a speech by game programmer Jesse Schell when introducing computer ethics to students... it is still timely and I am still using it.

Wii Games - E3 2012 - Guitar Hero 5

The world is changing... Stuxnet

This morning I listened to Morning Edition in NPR and heard an interesting and scary story about Stuxnet... the malware that hit the Iranian nuclear facilities in 2009. Basically, this is a relatively new method of war-- deploy malware against your enemy so that you control their infrastructure.

This raises many new issues for students and teacher to contemplate and discuss-- humans ethics seem to have changed. While we may be able to disable enemy using non-lethal options, it seems as well that there is potential for extending lethal force to vast populations through indirect means. I wonder about the ethics of disabling the power grid in a country to prevent its military from functioning, but at the same time preventing its medical system from caring for ill civilians.

I found a trend...

As I have indicated in posts earlier this fall, I have been working with fifth graders and StoryBird.

Over the past week, my fifth graders have created stories with first and second grade students. They did this work independently... in a room connected to mind, but with little guidance, other than an occasional "walk through" and check in my one of a couple of adults. They did a fantastic job, and the one thing I am most interested in is the apparent improvement in their spelling and grammar.

Their first stories were just painful to read... of course it was early in the schools year... they were using a new system... we could go on and on to brainstorm reasons they did not write well. With these (about their third stories they handed in) the problems were (in my estimate and the estimate of the other adult who helped me review them) less than half the problems there were in their first stories.

I have no hard evidence to support my observation and I can establish no cause or effect, but it appears that having students write for real audiences and using technology does lead to improved writing.

Bullying Conference Reminder

Middle Level IS the Place for the Prevention of Bullying

A day-long event confronting bullying in schools.

Doug Wilhelm & Elizabeth Vachon

SERESC Conference Center, Bedford, NH

December 2, 2011, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

The workshop will be divided into two half-day sessions. Presenters, Doug Wilhelm and Elizabeth Vachon, will share their experiences and strategies for preventing bullying at the middle level.

Doug Wilhelm's young adult novel, The Revealers, deals with bullying and has been used by middle schools nationwide to open up discussion on this difficult issue. During Doug's workshop he will share many of the creative strategies he has seen middle school teachers use to engage middle level students, stimulate discussions, and deepen their interactions with the novel and the real-life issues it addresses.

Doug started writing for young people with a science fiction novel for the Choose Your Own Adventure series. He found he loved writing for young adults, and he's been doing it ever since. Wilhelm often visits schools to talk about The Revealers and the issues it raises. He lives in Rutland, Vermont. For more information about Doug Wilhelm and The Revealer, click here.

Elizabeth Vachon is a L.I.C.S.W. at Birchwood Middle School and the director and facilitator of her nationally recognized program, Can't Bully in Schools. She has worked extensively with schools' students and faculty to showcase the issue of bullying and to engage the student population to think and take action on this topic. Her workshop will focus on ways educators can develop an anti-bullying program in their own school, share resources utilized for the prevention of bullying, and discuss how to get the "whole school" involved in the development of a preventative program.

Ms. Vachon was recently featured on the CBS program "48 Hours." The episode examined what Birchwood Middle School in Rhode Island is doing about bullying. For more information on that program click here.

All hail a new heroine!

Ms. Rief... veteran teacher at Oyster River Middle School needs to be recognized as a heroine!

Please read the article about her...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/education/no-child-left-behind-catches-up-with-new-hampshire-school.html


and pass it along and encourage everyone to adopt her approach!

Writing!!

The Young Writers' Project is one that I wish teachers (and leaders) in my school appreciated and were  participants... I subscribe to their newsletter and found this announcement posted... it is worth passing along!

NOV. 11: Taylor Mali headlines the Fall Joy of Writing Conference, Friday Nov. 11 from 8:30 to 3:30 at the Davis Center at University of Vermont. Mali will deliver the morning keynote and have an afternoon performance. Mali is inspirational and should not be missed. ... The morning will feature a variety of workshops on writing, instruction of writing, and digital writing. ...  For more: see http://ywpschools.net/joyofwriting (link has a written attachment, too.)    To register: http://www.regonline.com/joyofwriting

Technology questions...

After reading an opinion piece entitled "the wrong education questions are being answered" recently, I reflected on my morning walk about the important technology questions that we are ignoring in our schools... here is my short list:

> What are the skills my students will need in the future?-- We have all sorts of standards, but none appear to be forward-looking at all. If we cannot predict the future, then how can we assume we know now what they will need then?

> What can I learn from my students?-- For the first time in the history of humankind (I speculate), there is a skills inversion... young people are more skilled users of information and technology than their teachers.

> How can we be flexible in our technology systems?-- There is one things that is for sure... technology today changes-- quickly!-- and educators do not. Whatever systems we create for technology infrastructure or technology usage, must be adaptable

Horror Movies

Earlier this week, I posted a study from Common Sense Media regarding young people's use of media... I registered on their site so (of course) have begun receiving emails form them and it appears this is an organization worth watching.

One timely item that they have featured recently is a sort item on horror movies and young people.. worth taking a look at and sharing with parents:

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/advice-for-parents/horror-movies-and-your-teens

WolframAlpha widgets

I am not sure how long WolframAlpha has had this feature, but I am in search of new web-based tools to use with students, and I have been exploring the site more...

So, if you have an account with WolframAlpha, you can create and publish a widget:

Google+ for Education

Rumor has it (on the IT-listservs I read) that Google+ (their version of FaceBook) is going to be released for education soon.

Presumably, educators would be able to control students' access to their own social network. I like the idea-- I like it a lot.

If this does become available, then educators are going to be forced to rethink their relationship with media and social networks. A few years ago, I mentioned to a principal (who was wondering around looking for a student to hand her a letter) that we should set up a social network so that he could simply message her that the letter was ready and he could have saved some time. He rolled his eyes and walked away. Fortunately, that principal has retired, but we will have to get the rest who have his response to return or otherwise leave the profession if we are going to be able to join the 21st century and catch up with our students.

NELMS Awards

NELMS Awards Update

Know an outstanding middle level educator?

Would you like to nominate someone for one of the NELMS awards?

The nominating deadline has been extended until January 7, 2012 for all awards. Don't wait click here for the NELMS award page and find out more about nominating a deserving colleague.

Good cyberbullying resource

Education Week Teacher is hosting an online discussion with Sameer Huinuja and Justine W. Patchin, two of the leading scholars on cyberbullying... there seems to be some good discussion as well as line to informative resources.

21st century educator

A colleague recently asked me what I thought about eSchoolNews' five characteristics of effective 21st century educators:

1. Anticipates the future.

Yeah, this is needed, but be careful... the future, especially if it is technology-rich, is not predictable. Much of the really interesting and useful and innovative and necessary "stuff" in the future (devices and patterns of using the devices) is not what was predicted by experts or intended by the designers. Anticipate the unanticipated and run with it!

2. Is a lifelong learner.

This one is a "no-brainer," if you are not actively learning about everything-- human learning, your content area, the learning sciences, and technology-- you are are demonstrating that you are not qualified to be an educator.

3. Fosters peer relationships.

This is important, but we have to be careful... simply having kids "work together" does not foster peer relationships. Educators must give opportunities to create together what cannot be created alone and  educators must model and provide structures for meaningful dialog and multilog. 

4. Can teach and assess all levels of learners.

 I am confused as to why this is still an issue... perhaps to raise awareness. But then again, I see lots of teachers who believe their job is to work with specific populations. Sigh...

5. Is able to discern effective vs. non-effective technology.

This is a bog one... just because kids are in front to screens does not make the use of computers effective. I think back to the principal who insisted that students use a web-based test preparation program. I advised the principal to make sure that it alone was not the only computer experience students had. A month later, I observed students in tears because they were forced to use the system over and over again. I am glad that principal has since retired. We must develop the skill and knowledge to recognize useful technology, and that is only done by becoming confident and competent users ourselves.

 

Don't think we need to change education?

Here is yet more evidence that the learners who enter our classrooms are not the same learners as we were when we were in school (I am 46-- even if you are in your 20's this applies!)

Common Sense Media, an advocacy group focusing on children's relationship with media, has released a study looking at the media use of young children... even pre-school children. The middle school educators may find little of interest, reasoning that t will be 10 years or more before the children who are that age enter middle schools, however, the media experiences of those children now will permanently affect their relationship with information. What they experience now will determine what they expect and how they experience school and work and life.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/zero-eight-childrens-media-use-america

PDFescape

I recently stumbled upon this tool...

http://www.pdfescape.com/

Log on and create PDF files... also create PDF files that can be forms... filed trip permission slips and similar forms can be posted online and users can enter their information and then produce a PDF file!

Autism & iPads

I do not typically watch the television networks (sports is about all I watch and that is for only a few hours per weeks), so I missed the 60 Minutes segment on iPads and autism that aired on Oct. 23. It is available on the web: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-20124225/apps-for-autism-communicating-on-the-ipad/

The report does seem to confirm the observations that I have heard at several lunch table conversations at conferences in the last few years that seems to suggest that the devices do help some learners diagnosed with autism to become more social. Certainly, this is a field that will be the subject of greater study in the coming years.

Math Anxiety

EdWeek contains a story about math anxiety and the brain physiology of the response. I have been trying to convince several colleagues (with limited success) that the work of educators is going to change significantly as we come to deeper understanding of the operations of the human brain-- findings like this simply cannot be dismissed!

Schools that Don't Compute

The New York Times web site features an article about Waldorf School that don't compute... even those in Silicon Valley are places where kids don't use computers. The page with the story features a picture of a girl lying on the desks reading.

I am something of a Luddite-- I want technology to be used for those purposes for which it is useful and I want it to have a place in schools where students build and create, read and write, and play instruments and games. When we look to schools such as these and contemplate the minimum role of technology in them, we must think about why there is no technology and not assume that this is necessarily "better."

Recently, I was at a soccer game and saw a teacher in the audience who was correcting test papers... a stack of papers on which the students had answered questions and she was marking them with a red pen. I wondered back to the last time I corrected papers like that... it has been years. All of my students take test online, so we are all looking at the same questions and answers and my comments are their for students and parents to review indefinitely.

I think we need schools aligned with the Waldorf spirit of engaged learners who build knowledge... and even lie on desks reading books, but then who use technology when it is appropriate.

In-service...

Today is the first in-service day of the school year... I am afraid, very afraid. The agenda has several items; first a continuation of a very-poorly designed introduction to research-based practices... those things that appear to be observed in every "good" classroom.

Second, our new curriculum coordinator (which I have not seen in our building yet since students arrived) will talk about curriculum mapping (an initiative that has been talked about for several years-- and we even hired a superintendent who was the curriculum mapping expert but who left before the initiative could get to the top of the to do list).

Third, our new technology coordinator will introduce Google Docs... this is going to be a long afternoon for those of us who have been using it for three years!

Ubuntu & Windows.. for techies!

I just read a post on a mail list that suggests someone was able to get Ubuntu (11.10) to join Windows 2003 Active Directory... if you know what that means, then you will see this as a good thing.

Basically, one of the impediments to using Ubuntu in networked environments has been difficulty with Linux connecting to existing Windows servers... looks like this has been addressed.

Sometimes we feel like this in education...

This strip runs in my local paper...

When I saw this yesterday, and thought about the budget worksheets that I had just submitted (and was called on the carpet for not taking seriously when past practice is well-established in our school... seek input that is ignored and then criticize those who gave the input) I was convinced that this was written about education!

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/

NCTI closing?

I was surprised to read on the eSchoolNews web site recently that the National Center for Technology Innovation, one of the leading organizations for supporting special needs populations with technology, is closing because the government grant that funded it expired.

BYOD debate...

In this space, I have participated in a small way in the bring your own device (BYOD) debate. Basically, the contention is that schools should introduce schemes whereby students (and teachers) are allowed to supply their own computing devices and that the school's systems be adaptable to allow those machines to function.

Yes, I know the equity issues, but I think those can be addressed... yes I know the security issues, but I think those can be addressed...

This is not a debate only for educators. ZDnet (a site for IT folks) is contributing to the debate as well:

http://www.zdnet.com/debate/great-debate-bring-your-own-device/6313019

Internet Safety for Parents

The NLEMS community may be interested in this:

Internet Safety for Parents

Tune in to 30 minute sessions October 19th or 26th

Learn about steps you can take to keep your kids safer online, including tips for privacy settings,

passwords, safer searching, and more. This webinar is back by popular demand after it was presented in March. 

To attend, go to the webinar link at www.e4vt.org on the date and time of your choice from any computer with a high speed Internet connection. No pre-registration required. 

We encourage you to log in 5 min. before the session begins.

You will need to turn on your computers sound/speakers.

Webinar Dates (same webinar repeated):

Wednesday, Oct 19th 6:00-6:30pm

Wednesday, Oct 26th 6:00-6:30pm

I can only hope this is a fake news story...

This caught my eye as I was looking at the education news this morning... really?... a school policy that limits visits to the restroom by students?... this puts a new spin on bullying!

School policy limits bathroom breaks

A colleague recently told me that bullying an teaching are associated... she suggests that some teachers were once bullies and entered the field to continue to bully or that teachers were once bullies and become teachers to get a chance to bully... I am not sure I agree with her (perhaps in a small, but recognizable minority), but this story appears to support her observation.

WolframAlpha... check it out

On occasion on this NELMS blog, I have pointed readers to WolframAlpha, the computational knowledge engine, and given the attention I gave Siri with Wolfram Alpha earlier today, I should point readers who don't have an iPhone back to the site.

One of the features I enjoyed the most when I used the full version of Mathematica (the software behind WolframAlpha) was the 3-D molecules that could be rotated. (I know similar options were available with certain web browsers and plug-in's, but this is far easier to use that the previous options.)

This capacity is built into Wolfram|Alpha with CDF... and it does require an install and restart, but it is worth the few minutes of work to add interactive computing to your web browsers.

iPhone & Wolfram Alpha

My kids (20 & 17) are real Apple geeks... they have the laptops, iPads, Apple TV, you name it, they have it... so on Friday two iPhone 4S's arrived at our house. Over the weekend, we spent several hours playing with Siri... the voice-activated assistant.

After a few minutes of finding out how it reacts when you swear at it (we are middle-school boys despite our ages!), we spent quite some time exploring how it works. I was especially impressed with the integration of Wolfram Alpha... tell Siri to graph a function (tell it "graph x squared" and within seconds, the graph is there on your screen!

Don't think we need to change?

This video just came my way... can someone argue that we will be able to engage this kid in 10 years when she is in middle school?

Brilliance from unexpected sources...

Yesterday, students in our building were completing standardized tests... they have been for much of the week. Walking home, I was listening to a comedy podcast from the BBC. One of the presenters reiterated a quote from Albert Einstein:

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

Ubuntu 11.10

I am a huge fan of Ubuntu-- a version of Linux that is easy to install and has loads of software that has wide application to students in grades K-12. Especially today when there are so many Windows-based computers in homes, I firmly believe that students should have access to alternative operating systems in schools. Further supporting the decision to use Ubuntu in schools is the fact that so much of 21st century computing is cloud-based that all one needs is an updated we browser and one can be accessing information and interacting via ICT and Ubuntu provides several modern web browsers.

The most recent version of Ubuntu (11.10) has been released. If you have never used it, ask for (or find) an old unused computer... look for a computer that would run Windows XP or better... a Ubuntu Community Documentation page suggests:

The Recommended Minimum System Requirements, here, should allow even someone fairly new to installing Ubuntu or Gnu&Linux to easily install a usable system with enough room to be comfortable. A good "rule of thumb" is that machines that could run XP, Vista, Windows 7 or x86 OS X will almost always be a lot faster with Ubuntu even if they are lower-spec than described below. Simply try Ubuntu CD as a LiveCD first to check the hardware works.

Ubuntu Desktop Edition

• 1 GHz CPU (x86 processor (Pentium 4 or better))
• 1 GiB RAM (system memory)
• 15 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
• 800 by 600 screen resolution
• Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media
• Internet access is helpful
  
  

Install Ubuntu and explore.... you may never buy a Windows computer again!

Ideas that could change the world

The future is a scary but exciting place... educators have a responsibility to become proactive in our curriculum. Cutting edge ideas need to be in our classrooms... I write this as the students who should be in my classroom are taking standardized tests... argh!!!

Sure information technology is an important aspect of society and culture, but I am convinced that K-12 curriculum must adopt a more broad view of technology and the nature of technology and emerging technology trends need to part of what we teach.

The BBC recently added some "ideas that could change the world" to their web site... robotics... biotechnology... seem like interesting an important ideas for middle school students to understand.

BlackBerries... iPhones...

In the car last night I heard for the first time of the outages that have affected the BlackBerry network in recent days... I carry a BlackBerry, and have had no problems. My son who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his new iPhone on Friday suggested that the BlackBerry issues are a conspiracy by Apple to get folks to switch!

I am wondering if my son in right! I was impressed with the video demonstrations of the new iPhone and I am thinking I may join the iPhone crowd!

Storybird

So, I have become a serious fan of Storybird... after my students (5th graders) created some stories, we invited younger students to read them, and we had several score students caring about their writing and taking care to read.

Some of my 5th graders even admitted that it really is important to use punctuation and to spell right if other are going to read their work. Not all of them are convinced and not all of them have the ability to makes sure to add those details to their writing, but we are making some progress!

Chromebooks...

It appears that my school is beginning to look at purchasing Chromebooks... basically that is Google's device that is all about "the cloud." They have partnered with various manufacturers to produce these devices that connect users to the web and little else.

As a fan of GoogleDocs, I like the idea... but I am not convinced that we are looking at them for the right reason. The process is good, but not great compared to other low end notebooks... yeah Docs is great, but there is more to computing than Docs... and what about tablets... seems to me that a KindleFire may be just as good...

NELMS bullying conference

NELSM has recently announced a conference focusing on bullying (the standard joke about preventing it not getting better at it is deleted from this spot). We know that bullying is a problem that increases as students progress through grades 6-8-- at least that's what the data says for cyberbullying-- and we know that adults do have a role in reducing the instances of bullying and in helping young people develop strategies for reducing it, so add this to your calendar:

Middle Level IS the Place for the Prevention of Bullying

A day-long event confronting bullying in schools.

Doug Wilhelm & Elizabeth Vachon

SERESC Conference Center, Bedford, NH

December 2, 2011, 8:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.

YouTube and space station!!

Today, I noticed the YouTube icon was different (Google is famous for that), and so I clicked on it to find out why they would have a space helmet as part of the icon. I expected to learn that today was the anniversary of a famous space launch, but instead, I discovered that YouTube is sponsoring a competition to have a young person's experiment flown into space, conducted on the space station, and the experiment streamed back to Earth!

What a cool idea and a great opportunity for young people to think about experimental design. As the contest is open only to those 14-18, most middle school students cannot submit, but this seems a good opportunity to think about what experiments we need to do, how to do them, and it seems we might want our students to pay attention to what happens:

http://www.youtube.com/spacelab?feature=inp-yo-space

The more things change... the more they stay the same...

I have been watching the recent discussions related to NCLB with some mild interest. I have been hopeful that learning and preparing young people for an unimagined future would become the focus of our schools, but it appears that there is interest in continuing to make schools political institutions and to make the political disputes over schools even more heated and more dubious:


Details Emerge on Senate ESEA Discussions

Educational software

An article from the New York Times News Service has shown up in several newspapers recently... the general conclusion of the authors is that educational software-- specifically Carnegie Learning's Cognitive Tutors-- is not effective. Visitors to the Carnegie webs site can see research that the software is effective, and the authors cite other research that it is not effective.

It sure seems to me that this discord points to the simple conclusion that technology alone is not going to solve any education problems... also that no single approach or model or curriculum or reform alone is going to solve any education problem.

Thinking about Jobs & innovation...

With the news of Steve Jobs' death, I hear commentators discussing innovation and the role of innovators as leaders. I hear speculations about the future of Apple, and question about the future of Apple as an innovative company.

In education, also, we see that the culture of a school is a deeply influential aspect of the school that follows from the leader-- innovative leaders cultivate an innovative culture that can outlast the leader, but only if another innovator assumes the lead after one leaves.

Apple seems an interesting case study for educators... perhaps we should listen to these commentators and pay attention to what it means to be innovative and how innovators approach their work.

A $60 tablet?

News on the computer geek blogs in the last fews day has announced that a company in India is marketing a tablet computer (like an iPad) for $60-- it was supposed to ship for $35!

It sure seems to me that the recent meetings I have attended in which we were sitting around trying to figure out how we are going to find donations or grants so that we can upgrade our students to "good Windows computers"seems misguided... in the time we spend at those meetings, we can all throw in a few bucks (or have a bake sale!) and get devices that can get our students connecting, communicating, and creating!

BYOD

EdWeek has "reprinted"a story about the efforts/ struggles in Massachusetts to address the "digital divide." Whereas some schools are moving fast-forward with efforts to provide devices to each student, leaders in other cities are concerned about equitable access.

In my own school in rural Vermont, we are concerned with how we get devices in front of each student also. Increasingly, I am convinced educators have a responsibility to reflect the emerging technology reality: many people have far better devices than we can provide them. By leveraging the capacity in students' pocket, we can use school resources to provide similar devices for those disadvantaged students and we can begin to make progress using technology to access, manipulate, create, and share information.

Questions about online learning....

An article on EdWeek raises questions about student performance when they attend online high schools. Now, I am no huge fan of using test to judge student performance, but if we use those as a measure to compare groups of students who have different education experiences, then I think we may have found an appropriate use of those data.

The issue from my perspective is in the quality of the implementation... the same things that are true of in-person schools is true of online schools. Poor curriculum and weak instruction results in inadequate learning.

Safe surfing

The news is in (well, not really news)... colleges and employers check FaceBook before hiring!

We need to start spreading the word to our students that what they say and do online is a permanent record of who they are and what they do... and bad choices when they are young can limit their choices later.

Renewed basics for teachers?

A colleague arrived at my door recently with one digital device in each hand: an iPad in one and a Bluetooth keyboard in the other.

In the box with the keyboard, there was a USB cable... I am not sure what the purpose of the cable was, but she wanted help... she could find where the cable plugged into the keyboard, but not into the iPad.

After a big sigh, I explained to her that Bluetooth is a wireless protocol... no need to plug anything in... I also explained that an iPad is not a laptop like those that have become familiar over the last few decades.

I also was cleaning up some old files recently and found a 3GB movie file that I helped a colleague rescue a year and a half ago... she had been told that the netbooks we received with a grant would be great multimedia computers. She had then used the machine to create a 45-minute video and the 3rd party video editing software that was added as part of the grant that paid for the machines only allowed her to export as an .avi file.  Surprise, surprise, the video caused the netbook to freeze, and we worked several hours to save the video so it could be available at the open house.


I get the desire to have new and flashy toys, but we need to become aware of the capacity of devices before we buy them and attempt to use them.

Put this on parents' radar!!

It seems there is a new app that is gaining popularity... Blendr is a "location-based app." (Interpretation-- it  allows users to see the location of other users... up that is the physical location of the user.)

As you may have guessed, there is concern over predators using this to find victims... and there is some evidence that it has been used in this manner.

Seems to me we educators have a role in publicizing this so that parents and others know this capability is available.

Another story appeared on The Guardian's web site a few weeks ago.

Robots... interesting ideas about technology

Middle school students are intrigued by robots and other futuristic and fantastic devices and plots and characters. In the past, I have had students consider ethics form the perspective of  Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics. It has been some time since I have had the opportunity to consider those ideas with students, and then today, I found on the BBC's site an article that considers the potential of robots in today's world plus reference to Asimov's laws and a modern variation.

This is on my "to read with students list."

Studio schools... looks like a great idea

Education as we know it is a recent invention, largely the creation of society to deal with the need to prepare people to live and work in a print-dominated world. Print is no longer dominant, and education is changing. Middle school educators have know that for some time and have worked to preserve the best of apprenticeship models, authentic learning, and instruction that build on social interaction. Sure looks like the rest of the world is coming back to our way of thinking:

For Vermonters... and those close by...

The 2011 Tech Jam is coming late in October... check it out.. a great chance for our students to explore their future.

http://techjamvt.com/

My students' Storybirds

Today, I will be posting students' Storybirds to my school web site.... follow this link to take a look:

https://sites.google.com/a/westrutlandschool.org/dr-ackerman-2011-2012/5th-grade/read-our-story-birds

Maybe we should read terms of service and privacy policies carefully...  some one just posted this to a listserv for Vermont school IT people... it come form a "free math games" site for teachers:


Your personal data will be collected, processed, stored and used by us, and passed to and processed by our subsidiary and/or affiliated companies and other data processors acting under contract with us to provide and promote the Mangahigh Service, to process payments you make to us, to provide customer support, and for other purposes referred to in this Privacy Policy the User Agreement and the Parent Agreement. It is possible that some of the computer systems and companies that process your data on our behalf may be based in countries outside the European Union (“EU”). Countries outside the EU may not have as well developed data protection laws to protect your information as those inside the EU, but we will contractually require that personal data which is processed on our behalf is treated in compliance with EU laws and this Privacy Policy.

Cyberbullying... MTV Survey

My local newspaper carried a story this morning about a survey studying teens (14-24 year old) and their experiences with cyberbullying and sexting. What seems unusual is the survey was commissioned by MTV and Associated Press.

The results suggest the trends are really unchanged... it appears as if about a third of students are involved in some way in an on-going basis. More than that have had experience with these types of interactions, fewer are involved on a regular basis... fewer than a third are involved with sexting involving images.

This all suggests to me we (as educators and parents) need to continue to be proactive in building young people's understanding of how to interact with each other in an appropriate manner (using technology and not). That we the trend that the results show of more students intervening to stop their peers form engaging in this type of behavior can continue.

But can I say, that bullying is a problem among adults as well... I have observed in recent days situations in which adults were interacting with children (and with younger adults) in absolutely inappropriate ways.   These types of interactions have led a colleague to observe, "sometime bullies become teachers."

BYOT coming to work

An article on the New York Times web site recently described how businesses are beginning to allow employees to bring their own IT devices into the workplace. Interesting how IT departments once placed emphasis on controlling everything, but that they are trusting employees to makes decisions about the devices they need to do their work.

I wonder if educators are ever going to adopt such practices?

Value of ed tech?

ESchoolNews has an article (linked to others on New York Times, and other media) wondering if educational technology is "worth it."

I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that educators are about 15 years behind our students, and I don't see us doing anything to catch up. Teachers send students to the library to borrow VHS tapes that were produced 20 years ago. The tapes were discarded two years ago when we installed a media server that has thousands of hours of video available on the local area network. THat is a terrific system, but come to find out, someone had decided to "hold off" on renewing the license for that server, so now the videos are inaccessible.

What frustrates me the most is that this is not "rocket science," there are plenty of skilled and competent people around who can help educators and leaders attend to the details of transforming our practices so that they are relevant for students, but we refuse to admit we need help and to accept it.

Storybird... continued

So, my students came on this morning (5th graders) and for 45 minutes they have been writing... stories... dialog... characters... not much plot yet.

A colleague came in and could not leave as students wanted her to read their stories. When it was time to leave, there was groaning. Kids engaged in academic work is a good thing (when it is meaningful).

NCLB in the news

There has been lots of chatter about NCLB in recent weeks... waivers... accountability... my school is getting ready for "knee-cap" testing, and last year we got our first check, so we are particularly interested.

I continue to be puzzled by educators' and educational researchers' silence on this matter. We are spending billions of dollars and subjecting learners to dubious experiences in the name of "accountability," but there is little evidence that performance on these tests is actually associated with meaningful performance on authentic and innovative problem solving.

Storybird again...

I signed my students up with students accounts on Storybird over the last few days, and out Friday activity (while some students finished up projects) was to play around and explore the artwork as they are going o start writing stories next week.

One young man (who struggles with school) announced, "I con't wait until I get to start writing my story next week."

YES!-- small victories are good victories... if one student is engaged for one day, then I can keep going to try to engage him one more day.

Microsoft!?!?

This week at our annual fall open house, a few parents stopped in and expressed surprise when I told them that I had no Microsoft product in my computer room. (I have 14 Linux desktops, and 10 Macintosh computers.)

Recently, we were interviewing candidates for a district technology coordinator position... one indicated that one of his first priorities would be to get all of my computers "up to date with Windows 7." He indicated he had never heard of Ubuntu (the flavor of Linux I use).

I am increasingly convinced that a diverse computing environment is necessary for schools... if we only introduce students to Microsoft because that s what the business world uses, then we have become a job preparation program for local business, and while that is a role of education, it is not the only role. ALso, what I read leads me to the conclusion that an employee who has the ability to adapt to new and different computing environments will be better employees than those who are skilled at using Office.

A good and simple idea

Today's information technology is social... we (and our students) use computers and networks to connect to others-- we connect to individuals and we join communities.

A recent article on EdWeek's  site reminds teachers that this media can be used for academic purposes, including virtual book clubs.

I have been working with a student recently who has been including her poetry that is on one of the young poet's spaces and embedding it in school pages.

Simple ideas for connecting kids with others in meaningful ways.

"Best Practices"

I have seen many connections between education, medicine and agriculture in the last few years. Basically, these all share a foundation in biology, but each is regulated by political decision-makers. Much of my thinking has focused on how educational decision makers in many instances make decisions for political reasons, and how those are often contrasry to to the biology that is the foundation of education.

An illustrative example: we know that fit individuals have healthy brains and that the opportunity to be up and active helps cognitive function. based on that biology, we would hope to have students, especially struggling students as active as possible. Rather than encouraging those students to be active, however, we institute academic standards for student-athletes. As a result, an academically weak student may be further disadvantaged because he or she cannot"make the grade," and the student falls further behind because athletics is taken away.

There has also been something steadily bothering me about "best practices," in recent years. Now I get it, I want educators to do what they should (according to the biology of human learning), and much that we have done in recent decades is not. Still, however, an expert who defines best practices, and the administrator (or other leader) who buys into that experts' definition is limiting what is expected and what is done.

I have a PhD. I have been thinking about kids and computers and what and how they learn for a couple of decades. When a principal comes to me with a "best practice," I scrutinize it. I look at it from all sides and challenge both the practice and the advocate to prove it is worthy, and I am likely to take the practice and tweek it to the experiences I know my students have and to try it out before concluding it is "best" or not.

Today, I heard a story on Fresh Air (the NPR program) in which Harvard University Medical School professors were drawing similar conclusions about the best practice recommendations in medicine.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/21/140438982/becoming-mindful-of-medical-decision-making

StoryBird

I know I have posted this in the past, but StoryBird is a cool web site: Log on and you can create books... and you can share books to collaborate with others. Once they are finished, you can download them (for a fee, and you can buy printed copies).

My fifth grade students are going to be writing books with Halloween themes!

More Images

Teachers are always in search of safe places to find images... sites we can send students and be reasonably sure they will not encounter unsavory images. MorgueFile.com is one of those sites that I have been using lately. Uploaders share their work under creative the morgueFile license which is similar to Creative Commons licensing.

Google Image Search!

We all know that Google allows users to search for images-- search "soccer" and you get pictures of Hope Solo, Manchester United, and World Cup matches. Now, Google allows users to search by using an image. Upload an image from your computer or enter a URL of a picture on the web and Google will find pictures that look the same. I have a picture of me on my web site. I entered the URL of the image, and google found several other places where I had used the image as a profile picture and several images of other people wearing white shirts-- including one fellow who resembles me in many ways. Pretty cool, but also sort of creepy!

Digital books-- can't do this with a bound book

I live with books. Always have, always will.

But I think this short video shows how books are even better now...

Must-Have Tech Certification!?!?

I get lots of "IT management" stuff arriving in my inbox... I am still on mail lists from my days as the computer and network manager. Today, there arrived a list of 10 "must-have" certifications, and the list included project management, Microsoft Certified Engineer, Cisco Certified Engineer, and others.

New to me, however, was the Certified Ethical Hacker. This is someone who can be hired to attempt to hack into your network... he or she will employ the methods of unethical hackers and attempt to break into your system and then let you know the weaknesses in your system. Sure seems like the kind of person you want to be sure gets paid when the invoice arrives!

21st Century Skills...

Christopher Doyle commented on 21st Century Skills on EdWeek recently....

Catch phrases like "21st Century Skills" become so broadly defined they are meaningless, and more meaningless as educators apply the labels to their irrelevant practices in hopes they can give the illusion of being cutting edge. Certainly, we all hope to teach our content well, but that necessitates each of us to understand how the 21st Century Skills (and the condition leading to them and defining them) affect what it means to be a historian (or scientist, or mathematician, or artist... or any other noun).

Understanding those influences is an essential aspect of being an educator today.

I want my Angry Birds- games in the classroom

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of games and simulations for educational purposes. The reasoning is sound:

• Young people "like" games-- their brains are adapted to them and it is a part of their everyday life to which we can connect our lessons if we are clever and open to the potential.
• Games and simulations allow us to quickly experiment with otherwise unavailable "stuff-- while I don't want future scientists trained exclusively on simulations, I do think we can help them see patterns and connections immediately and thus be well-prepared to see similar patterns in the slow-moving laboratory.

I have had several conversations (arguments is more accurate) with teachers about the appropriateness of arcade-style games. I have always contended that those games are not the one described in the literature as  being appropriate for classrooms and as benefiting people's cognitive skills. 

Then, along comes an article in which Angry Birds can be used to teach physics. Maybe I never saw the connection because, while I sometimes teach physics, I do not play Angry Birds!

This does still make the point I have argued with principals and that seems well-supported by the literature: Games are appropriate for classrooms, but how they are used and what aspects of the games we study matters deeply. The lazy educator will "assign" students to play angry birds and mistakenly call it "game-based learning." The rest of us will look at the game, come to deeper understanding of it and physics with students and accurately call it "game-based learning."

Lure of the Labyrinth

A colleague asked me to review this game recently...

Basically, Lure of the Labyrinth is a Flash-based game in which players solve pre-Algebra problems in a game environment. Surely to engage some students not otherwise engaged in learning math. As with all such tools, however, it is not a panacea. I can see this as a more interesting alternative to other options in a "math lab" setting or as an option for middle schoolers (both students and teachers) looking for an exploratory activity. (I remember as a first-year teacher working very hard to be sure my exploratory offerings were engaging-- this game would have bee a welcome relief for a few days worth of meaningful, but easy, activity.)

Edward Tenner... unintended consequences of technology

Edward Tenner is one of my favorite historians of science and technology (I know, I need to get a life... a favorite historian of science and technology... really?)... anyways Tenner has written about the unintended consequences of technology.

One of the favorite examples he gives in this talk is the decision to make sure each ship had sufficient lifeboats for all passengers at the sinking of the Titanic, and the subsequent sinking of a ship made unstable because of the additional lifeboats placed on board. And more people died in the second sinking than on the Titanic.

Look at the graph at 11 minutes... our capacity is outpacing our ability to foresee the potential of our technologies.

Politics of education

So last week, President Obama called for billions to support education... keep teachers employed and rebuild schools. (EdWeek's article on it is here.) That sure seems a good idea to me, although I am apprehensive about the future of the bill in the politically divisive environment that we have seen in recent years. Like many, I am loosing faith in the individuals who we have elected, it seems they are more interested in scoring points with their political base and making the other party look bad so they can be elected rather than actually fixing the problems we face.

The problem is exacerbated with education as ours is a social system, but it is a system that is based on the biology of the human brain and how it learns. Unfortunately, the human brain does not construct knowledge in a manner that is easy to measure objectively. I am afraid that any funds available from the American Jobs Act will be attached to the requirement that improved test scores result.

PicLits-- encourage writing!

The librarian with whom I work sends me sites on a regular basis... she is always excited when she finds something new to me (which is becoming more frequent-- something both she an I are enjoying!).

Today. she sent PicLits my way.  Simple, elegant, and interesting:

Choose a picture, and drag-and-drop words into it, or free style to add your own text.

(I was messing about with it, and found "Opps, a glitch on our website" when trying to set up and account...)

Not sure how I ever missed this...

What a great video:

Is the world ending? Google Docs is down!?!?!?

Check out the screen shot from http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

5:41 PM eastern on Sept. 7, 2011-- Google Docs is down!?!?!?

I guess I will go to the soccer match at the local state college with my kids!

James Gleick & The Information

In case you missed it, On Point (the NPR program) rebroadcast the March 2011 interview with James Glieck in which he talked about his recent book The Information: A History, a Thoery, a Flood. If that book never got to the top of your summer reading list (I am fortunate it made it to my "I've Read It" shelf on Shelfari), then take some time and listen to this interview:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/03/18/james-gleick

Full-speed ahead...

A recent report on eSchoolNews points to several schools that have begun initiatives to adopt iPads and similar devices as replacements for textbooks. This makes me wonder about those teachers who have asked me about training recently.

"I really need to learn PowerPoint," was one comment. Another asked me, "what was that math software you installed?" and I needed several minutes to figure out she was asking about Geometer's SketchPad that I installed on some laptops in 2005, and still has yet to be used in the math classes.

Sigh... how can this be?

Lat week, I was at a meeting along with several principals, and we were talking about technology in schools... vision, connections, networks, curriculum, the whole range of issues realted to computers in schools today.

As we were about to adjourn, one principal indicated that her school was about the same place they were eight years ago. Their network was a little more reliable, but not much. (Now it fails every other day, a few years ago, it failed everyday.) There are a few teachers who use technology some, but it is still "special" when students use computers for their school work.

As I reflected on this over the weekend, I have come ot the conclusion that collectively, our industry is in need of new frameworks for making our schools truly technology-rich:

1) We need to define baseline technology and install that in a robust manner so that failures of our systems are rare. These systems need to be basic- Internet access, access to cloud computing, and printing.

2) We need to accept students' willingness to bring their own technology in and use it for school, so our classroom places need to e supplemented with virtual spaces that are available over Mac, PC, Linux, and mobile operating systems.

3) We need to accept that our learners are different and  for us to be relevant, we need to update our practices... no more excuses, no more "proceeding slowly."

4) We need leadership (individuals and groups) who accept a new vision for curriculum and instruction  in their schools and actually follow through on implementing that vision.

You Must Read This!

Larry Cuban wrote about the UNICEF report The Children Left Behind on his blog recently.

In brief, the report looks at the disparity between "the middle" and "the poor," in industrialized countries and draws the conclusion that government policies can make the difference in helping disadvantaged children in in material well-being, educational well-being, and health well-being. Cuban concludes that the refusal of the educational establishment (and the ancillary media, business interests, pundits, etc.) to recognize that and to question the educational policies that lead to No Child Left Behind to apply the free market to education are misguided at best.

Go read Cuban... seriously.
http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/international-rankings-that-reformers-ignore-the-children-left-behind/

Tool to Know: Aviary

The second promisisng tool of the year has crossed my desktop...

Aviary is a web-based tool for paint, vector drawings, and audio.

I set up a teacher account to free and I can now set up students account, and create and share projects among them.

Starting school: What's the culture?

I observed a teacher once who decided she was going to start the year with " a good positive culture," and so she spent two days reviewing a long list of classroom rules-- this was in the pre-cell phone days, but I am sure, she would have included "put your cell phone in the box on your way in" had she foretold the invention of the devices.

My son came home yesterday with a similar story of of a teacher who was setting the culture of her classroom by reviewing a list of rules. Just as my son's teacher got the the rule about no cell phones, hers rang. Yup, she lost her credibility in an instance and will be taking several months to regain it.

I also decided to start with year with a good positive culture, and I want my class (5th graders is the group I have in mind just now) to be a group that ponders and solves (or attempts to solve) challenging problems. We started class by contemplating things that can be measured and things that can't be measured... as that is our first challenge-- measuring the immeasurable.

Sure, I knew the kids from last year, so much of that work was unnecessary, but I am approaching all of my students as competent and we are just going to work and study and learn about ourselves as we go. That's the culture I want to promote, so that's the culture we are leaping into from the first day.

RoboMind.net

One of the great things about being back in school is that friends start sending me links to sites... here is the first one that really looks interesting:

http://robomind.net/en/index.html