A Typical Day in my Dream School

I've been working on a team project for the Venture Lab Designing a New Learning Environment class I'm taking and I wrote this description of a typical day in a 2-3 combination class in the Constructivist, Experiential, and Purposeful School we've been designing.  I wish my own kids went to this school!

Example day for a 2-3 classroom:  Ms. Smith arrives an hour before her students on Tuesday morning.  She spends about a half hour setting up a simulation for the focus period and then meets with one of her students and his parent for another half hour.  They look at the student’s portfolio and Ms. Smith suggests some short novels for at home reading that match the student’s reading level and interests.  

The students arrive and the students discuss what to do when more than two students want to use the two glue guns the class has (resolving a problem from the day before) and then Ms. S reads aloud a chapter from a fictional novel about ancient Rome.  

Students all go to their literature journals and write a summary of the read aloud and a prediction.  About two-thirds of the students go get a Chromebook to work on either Compass Learning, Reading Eggs, or Read Naturally, while the rest rotate into working with Ms. S in small groups on Words Their Way activities targeted to meet needs.  During recess, Ms. S checks the online dashboard to see how students progressed and makes plans for the next day based on that information.

When students return, Ms. S introduces a problem scenario that involves figuring out how to best use pieces of wood for a building project using perimeter and area.  Some student grab graph paper, others get an iPad, some form groups and others work alone.  Ms. S moves around the class and offers encouragement and asks questions.  As students find solutions, they post them to the display board at the front of the room and move to the Chromebooks to log into their Dreambox account.  On the way to lunch, they go slowly past the solutions and read them.  Ms. S spends ten minutes looking at the Dreambox dashboard and joins her class for lunch.

After lunch, three “homeschool blend” students join the group for the rest of the day and Ms. S reviews the previous day’s instruction on ancient Rome and the whole class participates in a mock forum using the simulation Ms. S set up that morning.  The simulation includes both a reading and writing component.  Students head out to recess and Ms. S takes a look at her notes regarding students’ focus projects and does some prep for the next day.

When students return, they move into their focus projects.  Two parent volunteers arrive to help.  Five students go get a Chromebook to work on writing projects.  Another group goes to the project area to continue working on a model of ancient Rome (and hopefully share the glue guns better). A group of girls goes to one corner to practice a song and dance routine they’ve been developing with one of the parent volunteers who has dance experience.  A few students go to the library corner and browse books and “surf the web” on iPads looking for their next project.  One student gets out an acrylic painting he’s been working on and another is sketching ideas for a new skate park.  One student decides to make an Educreations presentation to explain her solution to the math problem earlier in the day.  Ms. S works out a plan with one student for her new project and then moves about the room supporting students with the other parent volunteer.  There are some unfocused moments, but students are mostly engaged.  In the last fifteen minutes of the day, some of the students share out what they are working on and one student from the library corner proposes a project and asks for someone “good at art” to join him. Ms. S makes notes during this time.  Students are dismissed after a five minute flurry of clean up.

This week on DNLE-- Bloom's Taxonomy

This week in the Venture Lab course I'm participating in, we were asked to do an assignment on Bloom's taxonomy.  It was one of those assignments where you are supposed to select a technology tool for each level of Bloom's.  I hate these assignments, and have described why in a past post.

At first I thought I might do the whole assignment with a pencil at each level, but another student beat me to it.  So instead I created the graphic below using a tech tool that I know is very flexible.




Bloom's taxonomy is a pretty amazing way to think about our thinking and I use it constantly in my consultant work.  I still feel it is a poor way to categorize technology.

Reflections on Fall CUE Conference

Here in California we have a state organization called CUE or the Computer Using Educators.  They have several conferences a year and I just came back from the Fall CUE in Napa Valley.

I usually have a focus when I go to a conference, some learning goals for myself that I use to determine what sessions I attend.  This time I was looking for sessions about innovative schools and about motivating learners.

Here are some quotes/ideas from various speakers related to those topics that I thought were interesting:

Chris Scott said that students need three things: Autonomy, Purpose, Mastery


Roni Habib said when you foster creativity in the classroom, deeper learning takes place.
What role will technology pay in our student's future?
What is important to our students?
How do they approach their learning?
What do we prepare kids for that really matter?

James Brown said if we want deeper learning, we need sustained engagement, emotional connection, critical evaluation, and a high reward mechanism.

Rushton Hurley had questions that were important to ask:

What role will technology pay in our student's future?

What is important to our students?

How do they approach their learning?

What do we prepare kids for that really matter?

He also had this great quote about student engagement, "If they're not guessing, they're bored."

Vicki Davis: "Students should leave high school with a learning legacy." and "Our classrooms are microclimates."

Jon Bergmann: "Teaching is about the relationship between the teacher and the student."  and "Every kid deserves the right education for that kid."  He also asked, "What is the best use of your face to face class time?"

Fred Mindlin thought we needed to think about the difference between data driven and data informed and that we need to train students to be the creators not to be consumers.

Links to the speaker notes when available and other links can be found in this shared Evernote folder.

This was my first conference by CUE and I also have some thoughts about how it was run.  There were only 15 minutes between each session and only an hour for lunch.  That meant the organizers could squeeze in five sessions a day and a keynote, but there wasn't much time for reflection or connection between sessions. I would have preferred four sessions and time to chat with my colleagues or the presenters in a longer break in between sessions.  Second, in some of the other tech conferences I've attended, there was an emphasis on connecting with others not just as a fan, but for the exchange of ideas.  In this conference, I felt there was an "in" group and those "stars" weren't very welcoming or encouraging to bring others into that group.  That social piece is something I think CUE needs to work on.

Overall, I had a good time.  I feel there are so many teachers who just need to be convinced that technology can benefit them in general, so there isn't as much at conferences like this for those of us who are already convinced and now need to go deeper in leveraging that technology use for deep learning.

My Dream School

This week I'm starting a new online course, called Designing a New Learning Environment from Stanford.  One of the things we have to do is to form teams around a similar idea for a team project.  This is a description of some of the inspiration and ideas that I have for what I think a new K-12 school system should look like.

Some of my inspirations include my experiences as a teacher and in working with the homeschooling community, the writings of Alfie Kohn and Will Richardson, the book Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, and the work in Alaska's Chugach School District.

I believe that humans are curious, self directed learners, that we are better together than apart, and that mentors are essential to the learning experience.  I also believe that the current high stakes testing climate and the Common Core standards are not in the best interest of students in the United States.

In one of his blog posts, Will Richardson sums up the problem by saying, "...if we don’t start writing and advocating for a very different vision of learning in real classrooms, one that is focused not just on doing the things we've been doing better but in ways that are truly reinvented, one that prepares kids to be innovators and designers and entrepreneurs and, most importantly, learners, we will quickly find ourselves competing at scale with cheaper, easier alternatives that won’t serve our kids as well."

My current thoughts are that the best way to model a different vision of what learning could look like in American classrooms (and those around the world, for that matter) is to create a non-profit that runs a demonstration school, develops a competency based k-12 curriculum, creates open educational resources so that the model and curriculum can be implemented in any school or district, and act as a research hub to compile research to support the model.  A non-profit could run a zero-tuition school that would be private but act as a charter school and in that way be exempt from following Common Core standards.

I also have a few ideas of what the curriculum might look like.  Kindergarten to 2nd grade would look somewhat like it does now.  There would be an emphasis on technology to learn skills and the teacher model technology tools to create and discover, turning over the reigns as appropriate.  Small, cooperative groups would create and discover with teacher guidance.  

In third through sixth grade, students would have an overview of history ancient to modern times, they would learn about the major concepts in sciences, and continue to develop skills in math and language.  The technology emphasis would be on creation, finding information, and evaluating sources, though technology would still be used for skill development.  In addition, students would learn basic programming in something like Scratch and participate in NVC style training.  

In grades seven to ten, big ideas guide learning so students can study areas of particular interest.  The emphasis in technology is on contributing to the online community, with more sophisticated creation and critical thinking skills improved.  Specific skills are studied in language and math where needed.  Students would also learn more sophisticated programming, human psychology, goal setting, time management, and independent study skills.  They would begin the process of developing their Personal Learning Networks.

In grades eleven and twelve, the emphasis would be on following individual passions, apprenticeship, business, and marketing.  The end of schooling is preparation for what students plan to do next with academics chosen to best meet those needs.

All this is subject to change and revision, of course, but it gives some idea of where I'm starting in this class.

Another MOOC

Sometime in the last two weeks, a friend pointed out the Stanford MOOC called Designing a New Learning Environment and thought I might like it.  I signed up and got the introductory letter today.  In addition to the usual lectures and discussions students will "ultimately design and pitch a new learning environment as your final team project. Examples include learning management systems that do more or are better than existing tools, mobile learning models or e learning pedagogies, a technology that supports learning and assessment, new school system models, or a blended learning program."

This seems like it's more in line with my idea for Edstartup 101, so I may decrease my involvement in that MOOC so that I can devote more time to the Stanford one.    Just realizing that is possible is informative to me of the MOOC phenomenon in general.  I would never consider dropping one class for another if I had paid for it.   Free, open classes are kind of like an all you can eat buffet-- take what you want and leave the rest.  It also has some interesting ramifications for the teacher-- how do you make it worthwhile to people to stay- or do you even care?

My Edstartup Idea

This week in Edstartup 101, we've been asked to explain our idea in no more than two screens full of text. My idea is a non-profit, but non-profits have to start up, too, right?

Summary

I would like to create a non-profit which promotes a new vision of the K-12 education system by collecting and disseminating research in best learning practices, running a demonstration school to model our vision, and producing open resources that allow other districts and states to scale the curriculum and practices of the demonstration school.  Key components of the vision would include: multiage and developmentally grouped classes; competency based core curriculum; technology used both to learn and to create; and an emphasis on collaboration and lifelong learning skills.

What problem does your idea solve?

In one of his blog posts, Will Richardson sums up the problem by saying, "...if we don’t start writing and advocating for a very different vision of learning in real classrooms, one that is focused not just on doing the things we've been doing better but in ways that are truly reinvented, one that prepares kids to be innovators and designers and entrepreneurs and, most importantly, learners, we will quickly find ourselves competing at scale with cheaper, easier alternatives that won’t serve our kids as well."

How does your idea fix the problem?

In order to reinvent education in K-12, we have to make more changes than will happen in a public school under current conditions.  Thomas Carol says, "If we didn’t have the schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today?"  Only by separating the school from current state and federal legislation can we actually answer that question with a model.  The non-profit will run a grant funded, zero tuition demonstration school with exceptionally transparent practices to serve as a blueprint for bold changes.

Why do you want to fix the problem?

I've been in education for most of my life, as a student, a teacher, a consultant, and a parent.  I believe we as humans are curious, self directed learners, that we are better together than apart, and that caring mentors are essential to the learning experience.  I am disheartened by the relentless emphasis on high stakes testing and scripted teaching.  I want to model a bold change that scales without being standardized.

The Edstartup Space

There have been so many great posts during the second week of Edstartup 101, that I'm not sure I have anything original to add.  Below is my visual for how I roughly sorted the startups we were asked to look at for the class:



easel.ly

The most exciting startups for me are mostly ones that didn't make it on the list.  The startups that are creating open ended tools like Easel.ly (above) or that are looking at education from a very different perspective are the ones that I like learning about.  I'm concerned about startups like Knewton that seem to be trying to remove human beings from being a part of the learning experience with the student.  And I'm disappointed by startups like ClassDojo that are based almost entirely on poor pedagogy (anyone there read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn?).

I don't have a clear idea for a startup.  I've thought about a few iPad apps that I think would make the classroom a better place.  Those aren't big ideas like Knewton or Dreambox, more like Goalbook in scope.  What I'd really like to do is start a zero tuition private school that leveraged all these new ideas and created something very different than a public K-12 school of today.  However, what I see in the startup examples is that the most successful may also be what is most familiar.  Even when the ideas are new they still work within the comfortable boundaries of what we expect from education.

The problem with different/disruptive ideas in education is that the experiment always takes many years to evaluate.  And then we have to decide how to evaluate it-- happier people, more productive people, more money, more success (and by what measure?).  When it comes to disruptive innovations in education, no one except those who have been utterly failed by the current system wants to be experimented on.  I think the disruptive innovations are going to happen on the edges of education among homeschoolers and among students with very different learning needs.

Betsy Corcoran on Edstartup

Just finished watching the live Google Hangout chat with Betsy Corcoran for Edstartup 101 this morning.  As a teacher and curriculum consultant participating in Edstartup, here are some of the points she made that stuck out for me.


She said new businesses change the way you do things, the time and place you do things, or the way organizations allocate funds to do things.  When Edsurge reports on new companies, they look for products that change the game, have a new idea, or affect a lot of people.

Betsy thought there was a shortage of technology based curriculum products that really teach curriculum with lots of input from teachers, and I've noticed that, too, in looking at the startups for this course.  She thought there was lots of room for people with research and pedogogy background to create genuine innovation and creative approaches.  Don't I hope so, too!

My favorite quote, "Demonstrating mastery is far more important than what you score on a test."

Edstartup and my Introduction, take two

Note: Edstartup had a glitch with midweek joiners like me, so I'm reposting this to see if it gets in the feed....

This week I started participating in the Edstartup 101 MOOC.  I'm not sure that I have any sort of "cunning plan that cannot fail" (one of the choices in the participant survey) but I feel that the experience might be useful to me.

I have a love/hate relationship with educational entrepreneurialism.  On one hand, I see it as sort of a scary part of what seems to be increasing privatization of education.  On the other hand, it's where some of the greatest innovations I've seen are being made.

I made this quick introduction video for that community.

Connected Educator Month comes to an end

Today was the last official day do Connected Educator Month. I joined one of the last sessions on "Professional Learning and the Learning Profession: 21st Century PD" and found myself with a group of 30 or so other educators, many of whom had names that seemed familiar from other events. One of my big worries in this month long event was that it was mainly populated by people who were already connected.

In this session, we talked about the main things that blocked teachers from getting connected-- time, access, comfort, know how-- the list was easy to generate. But when it came to brainstorming solutions and action items, the group was much less active at the keyboard and the panelists had less to offer.

Here's what I think are some essential actions:

• You cannot mandate connection. I've heard at least two administrators suggest we simply make connecting a mandate and I think that's exactly the wrong way to go about it. Being a connected educator is partly about finding people who are passionate about the same things you are, and you can't mandate passion. In fact, I think requiring teachers to participate will just fill our twitter streams with the junk that anyone being forced to participate in something they don't believe in would create.
• That being said, we should start by helping preservice teachers to create lifelong learning plans. Anyone in teaching knows you learn at least as much in your first year of teaching as you did in your entire preservice program. So we need to make sure preservice teachers know how to use PLNs to continue to grow in their profession-- not require them, just know how they work.
• We need to relentlessly share resources we find with our current peers that are not connected. Last year I worked in a small school with a teaching staff of five teachers. I shared via email useful tweets, articles, blog posts, resources... relentlessly. They were relevant to our work and they included my source when possible. One of the other four teachers has started to get connected and another is on her way.
• We need to open access on teacher's computers. Some of my teaching friends couldn't even access the events from Connected Educators Month because their school computers either blocked the websites being used (the book club Ning, for instance) or they couldn't download the plugins to participate on their school computers. Although I somewhat understand these restrictions on student computers, our teachers should be treated like professionals.

What do you think?

Learning 2.0 Conference

The 2012 Learning 2.0 conference ended today and although I didn't get to attend as often as I would have liked, everything has been recorded here and here, so I can still see some of the things I missed.  This was the first time I had attended a virtual conference like this and I was impressed by how intimate it seemed.  I absolutely loved having a chat as part of every session.  That backchannel was often filled with some truly rich resources.  I felt a lot more comfortable composing and asking questions to the speaker (or my fellow listeners) through the chat box.  I participated in the chat in most of the sessions I attended and I think that also contributed to my feeling of close involvement.

I was surprised at how few people were in each session during a free, international event with so many great speakers.  Next year I will work even harder to spread the word.

Categorizing Web 2.0 Tools

“Web 2.0 tools allow users to create and share content online. Also, Web 2.0 tools "live" on the Internet, with no need to download software to a computer.”

Ever since I read this definition of Web 2.0 tools from my Leading Edge Certification textbook, I've felt like a great mystery was solved. I've seen many lists of Web 2.0 tools and I always wondered what made them "Web 2.0" so this helps organize it.

However, the range of sites that fit this definition is enormous. I feel like there needs to be some sort of taxonomy for all the Web 2.0 tools out there for educators and students. I've seen the Bloom's Taxonomy diagram, but it's not really working for me for a couple of reasons. One, it's become outdated already as new tools pop up almost every day. Two, many of the tools can be used on many levels of Bloom's depending on the activity. Three, it tells me very little about the type of product or sharing that can take place.


I'm looking for something that will let me examine a new tool and mentally group it with some other things I'm familiar with and be able to retrieve it in the middle of writing a lesson plan because of its "fit" to my learning goals.

Will Richardson uses these categories in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms: blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, Twitter, Flickr, social bookmarking, podcasting, screencasting, videocasting, and social networks. This is a good list, but it still leaves out sites that let me create my own comic strips, for example.

Here's my attempt at a taxonomy with examples. It's still not a perfect system because there are still some tools that can be used in different ways.

Curation

• social bookmarking sites like Diigo
• web article curation like Readability
• magazine style tools like Scoop.it

Storytelling

• comic creators like MakeBeliefs Comix
• bookmaking tools like Storybird
• YouTube and other video editing tools

Presentation

• Prezi
• Google Presentations
• Google Sites

Mind Mapping

• bubbl.us

Infographics

• Easel.ly

Question and Answer

• online discussion boards like Google Groups or Collaborize Classroom
• quiz card sites like Quizlet

Reflection/Discussion

• blogs like Blogger
• Twitter
• VoiceThread

Information Gathering

• Google Sites
• Wiki sites like Wikispaces

What do you think? Can you come up with any other categories I've missed?

Final Reflection on Leading Edge Certification

Participating in the Leading Edge Certification for the Online and Blended Teacher has been a rewarding experience for me and has helped to organize my formal and informal learning in regards to online teaching.  Having read the iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Teaching, I see the following as my areas of strength and my needs for continued growth in my professional practice:

Standard A
The online teacher knows the primary concepts and structures of effective online instruction and is able to create learning experiences to enable student success.

I have been learning about using technology in education for about two years now, first through a small study group with other educators in my area, then by attending conferences, and most recently by taking this certification course.  I feel that this course has provided the scaffolding to put all the best practices and strategies I've been learning into a coherent whole.  I feel prepared to work with students as they become global citizens and I feel I can work with student in a variety of delivery modes.  I will need to continue to practice these skills and to reflect on my work with my professional learning community online.


Standard B
The online teacher understands and is able to use a range of technologies, both existing and emerging, that effectively support student learning and engagement in the online environment.

Between this class and my online professional learning network, I feel that I’ve become familiar with a wide range of tools for “communication, productivity, collaboration, analysis, presentation, research, and online content delivery” (National Standards for Quality Online Teaching: Version 2, p.5).  Because I work with learners from kindergarten through adult professionals, it is important that I match the right tools to my learners because they have a wide variety of needs.  In the process of trying out new tools, I’m also improving my skills at troubleshooting when problems arise.  I will need to use my professional learning network to keep me aware of new tools as they are developed.


Standard C
The online teacher plans, designs, and incorporates strategies to encourage active learning, application, interaction, participation, and collaboration in the online environment.

This course has helped me develop a clearer picture of what can be possible in an online course.  I feel I understand the strategies for promoting interaction, participation, and collaboration in an online environment and I look forward to practicing those strategies in future classes.  The best practices in an online class of being a facilitator in a student-centered learning environment mirror what I also consider best practices in the face-to-face classroom, so I feel confident that I can apply those practices in an online environment.  I will need to continue to practice and refine these skills as I work with more groups of students.


Standard D
The online teacher promotes student success through clear expectations, prompt responses, and regular feedback.

When we developed a syllabus for this course, I felt I was able to clarify for myself my expectations for the oldest group of students that I work with.  Creating a syllabus forced me to create clear expectations for class interactions, online behavior, and student assessment.  I feel that I have the organizational skills to provide prompt responses and regular feedback to students as part of an online class.  I created a syllabus for middle grade students, so I will need to refine those expectations for other students I may work with in the future as the need arises.


Standard E
The online teacher models, guides, and encourages legal, ethical, and safe behavior related to technology use.

Through this course and through resources from Google and Common Sense Media I feel that I have the tools I need to guide students in legal, ethical, and safe behavior online.  I have learned the meaning of fair use as it applies to materials I use in class and I’m aware of several resources for finding fair use media for use by my students.  I can also clearly describe plagiarism to my students and I know where to find tools online that identify plagiarism in written work.  I will need to continue to work to develop online learning modules that encourage original work.f


Standard F
The online teacher is cognizant of the diversity of student academic needs and incorporates accommodations into the online environment.

As a classroom teacher I have been using learning styles theory and 501/IEP accommodations on a regular basis.  I now also understand how to provide accommodations in an online environment for those who have visual, auditory, or physical disabilities.  I will need to continue to work on how to adapt online learning to different learning styles and how to evaluate a student’s learning style in an online environment.  I also will need to continue to work with the special education staff in my program to create other accommodations as needed.


Standard G
The online teacher demonstrates competencies in creating and implementing assessments in online learning environments in ways that ensure validity and reliability of the instruments and procedures.

During this class, I practiced using my knowledge of formative and summative assessments in an online environment.  We used rubrics to assess performance assessments and we aligned our assessments with clear learning objectives to help ensure validity and reliability.   I will need to continue to learn more about how to use the tools in a LMS to create assessments and collect student assessment data.


Standard H
The online teacher develops and delivers assessments, projects, and assignments that meet standards-based learning goals and assesses learning progress by measuring student achievement of the learning goals.

During this class, we learned about a number of online tools that could be used to create both formative and summative assessments that are authentic and project based.  Our instructor has modeled how to use polls and informal surveys to collect student feedback, and I believe I can apply these skills to my own classes.  I will need to continue to improve my practice as I develop coursework and assessments online to meet the new Common Core standards in my state.


Standard I
The online teacher demonstrates competency in using data from assessments and other data sources to modify content and to guide student learning.

Just as the results of formative assessments can be used to guide and modify instruction in a face-to-face classroom, they are also used the same way in an online classroom.  In this class we learned that an online course need not be a rigid, lockstep set of procedures for students to work through, but can and should be modified to personalize the learning experience for each student.  We learned the importance of assessing student readiness for the online environment and we bookmarked a number of resources for student self assessment.  I will need to develop my own procedures for tracking student communications and I will need to learn how my LMS can help me track attendance, time online, and so on.


Standard J
The online teacher interacts in a professional, effective manner with colleagues, parents, and other members of the community to support students' success.

During this class, I learned how important my professional learning community was to my professional growth.  Over the past eight weeks, I have seen many blog posts and tweets related to the content of this class and being part of that network enhanced my overall understanding of the course material.  I will continue to communicate with parents to provide feedback on their child’s learning, whether teaching a blended or face-to-face class.  I will also need to continue to write in the blog I started for this course on a weekly basis to connect with my professional network in a new way.


Standard K
The online teacher arranges media and content to help students and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively in the online environment.

In creating model lessons for this class, we practiced arranging media and content for effective online learning.  We learned about many online Web 2.0 tools that we can use as part of online learning modules.  We also learned to be aware of learning styles when picking content and assessments.  I will need to continue to follow emerging digital literacies and best practices in online and blended learning in order to keep these skills up to date.

Formative and Summative Assessments in the Online and Blended Environment

This week in my Leading Edge Certification course, we learned about assessment in the online and blended environment.  I was reminded of a blog post by Will Richardson in which he states, We define an “education” by what we assess, which in turn defines the value (or lack of value) of this thing we call “school.”  One of the complaints many critics have about high stakes testing is that teachers tend to offer instruction mainly on what will be on the state exam, which in turn narrows the curriculum to what can be tested on a multiple choice test.  Using Web 2.0 tools as part of online and blended courses offers us the opportunity to assess a broader set of knowledge and skills which in turn helps us to value a broader range of knowledge and skills.


We first looked at formative assessment, those assessments that provide quick feedback to both the teacher and student on the student's progress towards learning objectives.  One important consideration in creating formative assessments for an online or blended course is that the student get timely feedback and that the teacher do something with the results (as suggested in this blog post by Harry Tuttle).  Formative assessments are often automated in an LMS so that the student can get instant feedback.  Teachers in blended courses can also use systems such as Google forms to generate immediate responses using add on tools like Flubaroo.  All of these assessments are best for testing the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.


Teachers can also use threaded discussions or products developed in Web 2.0 tools for formative assessment, but the teacher must consider how he or she will assess the results.  We learned about a lot of resources for developing rubrics for this purpose.  This page by Kathy Schrock is my favorite.  Formative assessments using these tools are better for the higher levels of Bloom's.


Teachers can also think in new ways about summative assessments.  For a final exam, the teacher can enter many more questions than needed into a LMS and have the LMS generate tests with randomly selected questions.  For more complex assessments, students can upload essays or projects to a "digital dropbox".  One consideration I see for teachers in dealing with this kind of summative assessment is the need to have good tools for retrieving, viewing, and annotating final projects.  Also, having students create complex performance assessments as a summative assessment requires a lot of thought in creating the assessment tool.  It was easy to think of an idea for a summative assessment for the class project, but much more difficult to think about how it would be graded fairly. If a teacher is using performance assessment, I feel that the formative assessments need to be carefully monitored to ensure the student is ready for the performance assessment before the student puts time and effort into its development.


I addition the above considerations, as I implement assessment in online and blended courses, I feel I need to remain thoughtful that assessments reflect what I value in the course.  My assessments should reflect both the content and the thinking skills that are most important to the domain I am teaching.  It's easy for me to get excited about all the online tools available, but I still need to consider the "best fit" for my objectives and not just the "WOW factor" of the tool.

Developing a Professional Network

I started developing a professional learning network (PLN) in February 2012 after going to the California League of Schools technology conference. Connecting with educators across the world has helped me tremendously in learning how to use technology effectively with students. I follow about forty educators on Twitter and about the same number of blogs using Google Reader and an app called Feedly. I also have a Google+ account where I follow about forty educators. Here's an example of my Twitter feed from the conference I went to recently:

I don't read all of these resources every day but I usually look at at least one a day. I look for posts about topics of special interest to me like using iPads in the classroom, but I also enjoy reading about big ideas in education. I occasionally post questions when I need help and I share great resources when I find them.

In one way all these sources of information can distract me from spending time actually doing something when there's so much to read about! I've been trying to use this blog as a way of taking my PLN to the next level of producing information that others can learn from.

I think my students have some of the same basic challenges I do of participating and not just consuming information online. We also share the challenge of how to become a part of that community-- how to figure out what we have to say that's worth saying.

There are several ways I might support students in using the Internet as a personal learning space. First, I might model how I use my own PLN. Second, I can teach students how to do effective searches so that they can find people who share their passions and interests. I can show them how to notice the links to Twitter or Google+ on a website and demonstrate how to connect with others using various social networks. Finally, I can encourage students to participate by contributing ideas to the stream.

Google Apps for Education Conference Day 2

I decided to continue to learn everything I could about using Google apps for creating a LMS. I went to four good sessions and I feel like I now have a pretty complete picture of how to do almost everything except threaded discussions. Daniel Russell presented the keynote for the day on what it meant to be literate in the age of Google, which was great!

My first talk was by Tim Welch called Google Classroom for Higher Ed. His notes are here. Basically, Tim put together an empty shell of a site for his college level course and had students research and contribute to create the textbook as they went. I learned a lot about setting permissions and organizing folders from Tim's presentation.

The second session I went to was 25+ Ways to Use Google Tools for Online and Blended Learning by Chris Bell. You can find his notes here. This was probably one of the best sessions I went to at the conference. He really had a lot of practical ideas for every Google Tool and you could tell that he had a great deal of experience working with kids. He had some great hints, like submitting math homework by inserting an image from the camera on your computer of the handwritten work. He also showed us how to set up "office hours" on Google Docs so that we could have students select and schedule appointment times.

My third session was Forms Plus Site Gadgets by Roni Habib. His notes can be found here. The most important gadget he talked about was iFrame, which allows you to embed an outside site in a "frame" into your Google Site so students can access other sites right from your class home page.

Lastly, I went to Teaching to the Common Core Standards Made Easy with Google Apps by Catlin Tucker. You can see her notes here. Catlin brought a lot of enthusiasm to the last session of the day and it was encouraging to hear her speak of the Common Core with such a positive vibe. She shared a number of ways to use Google Docs to teach language arts. Most could be shared docs that you link to in a Google Site.

I feel like I left the conference with a much stronger picture of how Google apps could be used to support learning. It was great to be at the conference with colleagues from my school and be able to talk to one another about our sessions.

Google Apps for Education California Summit

I'm at the Google Apps for Education conference and just had a great first day. I feel like almost all the talks I went to have been just about at my level. I've used several of the Google apps for simple projects and so this is building on my prior knowledge. Today, my goal was to figure out if the Google Suite could replace an LMS in our school. We are mostly ungraded, so the emphasis on grades in commercial LMS environments is unappealing to us. In addition, we've been experimenting with various Google tools and this would take us to the next level.

Today I started out with Lisa Highfill who gave a talk called Using Blogger and Google Apps to Revitalize Your Reader's Workshop. It was a great start for my day because she modeled a lot of good ideas for slowly integrating these tools. You can see her links here.

Next I went to Brian Van Dyck's talk called Google Sites One Stop Lesson Shop. This was basically how to put all your lessons online as a Google Site and have places for kids to upload their files. I gleaned a lot from the example site he showed us, but I wish he had gone into more specifics of how to build it from the ground up. You can see his slides here. There's a good set of tutorials for Google Sites.

After lunch, I went to Kate Cheal's Google Flip Packs talk. I really liked the format she used which I think has the right balance of information and interactivity. Instead of just watching videos as homework, she has kids responding to the videos on Google Forms and she puts everything together in the nice five slide presentations. You can see her slides here.

Finally, I went to Mark Wagner's talk on Google Docs for Educators. I really like how Mark gives lots of practical how-to's. His notes are here.

By the end of the day, I found I was convinced that Google could do almost everything I wanted except threaded discussions. Lisa Highfill solves this problem by replying to students' initial online response in class or by using Edmodo for threaded discussions. I felt that Brian's and Kate's talks provided a suggested structure for integrating various tools into a site or presentation respectively.

Now to plan what I want to learn tomorrow!

 

Example of using Web 2.0 Tools

This week we have been exploring various Web 2.0 tools, defined at tools that allow users to "create and share content online" (Module Three textbook, pg. 4). Here is an example of how I might use a Web 2.0 tool in the K-2 classroom I taught in last year. This lesson idea doesn't include a formal out of class component as the students are fairly young.

Our Learning Objective would come from the creating and applying levels of Blooms Taxonomy: Students will create comic strips that illustrate how to respond respectfully to other students when working in small groups.

We'll start out by reading the book How to Be a Friend by Marc Brown. In small groups the students will think of various problems that happen when we work in groups and how we might "be a friend" and solve the problem. Students will start out by acting out small skits for each other with a problem and solution. We'll then work in the same small groups with a teacher or parent helper to go to Make Beliefs Comix to create three or four panel comic strips with a problem that might happen between students during group time and a solution. This tool doesn't require any kind of login, so it will be easy to access and use from any computer. Each group will email their comic strip to my email account so that I can print them out to make a class book.

Students should look through all the possible characters and items as they try to decide what problem to show in their comic. The helper might want to have students take turns adding components to each panel but assist with spelling and typing as needed. We may even want to print the comics out or take a screen shop in case the email sending doesn't work for some reason. To minimize potential frustration, I would want the helpers to be familiar with the tools that allow items to be resized, flipped, etc. I could also send the URL for Make Beliefs home with students in case they want to try making their own comics at home.


Here is an example of the kind of comic we might create:
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=11058621C754791

Challenges in Online Instructional Methodologies

One of the things that has attracted me to online and blended learning is that it has the potential to support the instructional methodologies which I have valued in the traditional classroom. I've always made an effort to individualize instruction as much as I was able to by using techniques such as writing workshop and giving choices for students to show what they know in other subject areas. One of the changes that an online or blended environment offers is a chance to use these techniques even more easily. Our textbook for the Leading Edge Certifications suggests that there will be even more emphasis on higher order thinking skills (page 4 of Module 2), although in the report we read a large number of the schools seemed to be using online learning for basic skills development. I think one of the challenges teachers may face is to not fall into a pattern of using online teaching only for rote learning. Finally, I'm wondering how online learning will change my own habits of developing my own curricular materials. I've always joked that I'm allergic to boxed curriculum. I'm always tweaking, enhancing, or rearranging what is in the textbook. How flexible will online teaching assignments be? Will I have the same kind of flexibility?

Ther are a number of skills I will need to improve or expand upon to support student learning in an online environment. For instance, I believe I'm fairly good at communicating through writing but it takes me time to write something well. I will need to improve my speed in composing my thoughts to be effective in online communication. I'm an advocate for using theories of learning styles to inform and individualize instruction but I think it will be much more difficult to identify learning styles in a distance learning environment. And although I'm familiar with techniques for guiding individualized learning in an face-to-face environment, I need to learn more about how to do that in an online environment.

In general, I feel that becoming certified to teach online will be an extension of many of the teaching skills and methodologies that I already use in the regular classroom.

 

Instructional Media Study Group Returns

About two years ago, I started a study group with a few other interested educators about instructional media. We read a number of great books, explored creating interactive PowerPoints, film, audio, and online classes, and had some really wonderful discussions. We took a break but we are back to meeting for the summer.

Last night we had our first meeting based on these readings:

How do you think technology should be used in school? This article describes three possibilities:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/05/schoolers-edupunks-makers-learning.html

These articles suggests students are changing. Do you agree?
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/11/world-of-warcraft-minecraft-education.html
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf 

These two blog posts are lists of things "every teacher should know" about technology. One is very combative, the other more supportive:
http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/10-ways-to-grow-as-an-educator/
http://holtthink.tumblr.com/post/21103709185

Here are some summertime challenges. Which do you want to try?
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/05/10-things-to-make-yourself-ed-tech-star.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

We had a great time discussing these articles and envisioning what a great classroom integrated with technology would look like. We also each set goals on what our personal summertime challenges would be. We'll meet again to discuss a new set of articles and share what we've been doing in regards to our personal challenges.

Personal Learning Goals

This week I began taking the Leading Edge Online and Blended Teacher Certification Course through the Alameda County Office of Education. I earned my Masters degree through Walden University, so online learning is familiar to me. Not surprisingly, when I took the online student readiness quiz linked to the Leading Edge curriculum, I scored as being prepared for online coursework. I really enjoy learning from text where I can take my time reading and sometimes rereading. When I listen to a lecture, I don't have time to pause and think or imagine how the topic relates to my experiences. I also feel that online coursework is often richer because everyone in class is contributing and sharing their experiences.

I decided to jump in and take this course for a number of reasons. First, I think that online and blended learning are educational trends that are going to continue to grow and I'd like to be prepared to make that leap in the way I teach. The alternative K-8 school that I worked for part time this year is trying to develop some blended courses, and I hope that the Leading Edge training will allow me to help our staff make that transition. Also, I work part time as a curriculum consultant for Curriculum Leadership Institute and that organization is also interested in the possibility of training teachers and administrators in our model through online classes. Finally, I'm the mother of three children between the ages of six and eleven and I feel that having the skills to teach online might open up job opportunities that would make me available to be with my children more.

In looking at the objectives for Leading Edge Certification, I see a lot of concepts that are familiar to me. For instance, I use Bloom's Taxonomy frequently during my consultant work and I've become familiar with a number of Web 2.0 tools through my PLN. I think I will be learning the most in the module about building a community online. That, in addition to better understanding the pedagogy particular to online learning, are priority learning goals for me in this course. I'm really looking forward to spending the summer learning new things and connecting with a community of other educators with the same interests.

 

Introduction

When I was a kid, my parents were early adopters of technology, though they always seemed to get it wrong.  (anyone remember the Betamax VCR, the Commodore 64, and the Timex Sinclair?)  I grew up to be an early adopter, too, and was the first person in my school to have an internet connection in class in 1995.  We used it for access to AOL through which we connected to some other classrooms and teachers for collaborative projects and participated in the GLOBE project. Since then I've been working in education as a teacher, a curriculum consultant, a director of a resource lending library, a tutor, a classroom volunteer, a parent, and a homeschool teacher.  My Masters degree is in Educational Change and Innovation and I continue to be curious about new trends in education and new ways to construct learning. This blog is a collection of thoughts about those subjects.