Yes, I’m still around. I haven’t been able to blog much lately as commitments in my classroom have consumed my time-prepping students for the AP exam, releasing our trout, and prepping for a trip to Costa Rica….whew. I need some time for reflection. I just wrapped up a neat project where my seniors taught Kindergarteners and 1st graders. I hope to be back to share soon.
The 2011 the National Association of Independent Schools annual conference is winding down. I am still struck by a question asked by someone at the end of our workshop….”What is a Google Doc?” Wow. Really? Let me give you a little background…
I was privileged to present with an amazing group of innovators that includes: Sarah Hanawald, Cannon School (NC); Peter Gow, Beaver Country Day School (MA); Demetri Orlando, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (MA); Jason Ramsden, Ravenscroft School (NC); Vinnie Vrotny, The North Shore Country Day School (IL). The presentation was on Creating Connected Teachers: Professional Growth Using Networked Collaborations. Here is the blurb about our session:
“Social media offers powerful tools to help educators break free of the isolation that can hamper growth. How can administrators support teachers who have made the leap to professional networking and encourage others to venture into this world? We will highlight resources available to networked teachers and learn how to encourage entire faculties to connect. Bring a laptop!”
So, we hit ‘em with the fire hose! Twitter, Nings, wikis, bogs, podcasts, Skype, Google Apps….I know almost a third of our audience considered themselves newbies to Web 2.0 in education. When the presentation was over, we broke into discussion groups so folks could ask questions about applying certain tools and about developing actions plans. Then the question, “What is a Google Doc?”
I was shocked that someone could not know the answer to this question in 2011. Then I thought back to last year when I first learned what a Google Doc was and more importantly, what a powerful tool it can be for collaboration. My school has adopted a suite of Google Apps tools and we are using them on a daily basis with students. Then I thought back to two years ago, when I had no idea what a blog, wiki, or Ning was–a time before I was @dwillard on Twitter. What a blur. My journey to this point (presenter at NAIS) has been fast and furious. But, my journey started with a toe or two in the water-a Twitter account and an exam review wiki project. All of this flashed through my mind before answering that question….
So, before I explained what a Google Doc is I explained WHY a student/teacher/administrator would use one. Then, I showed my questioner what a Google Doc looks like (our team built our entire presentation in Google Apps without meeting face-to-face). Then, our discussion turned to where to start “the journey.” I explained to my questioner that about 2 years ago I was asking the same questions and trying to find a place to start. I suggested she join the ISENET Ning and get a Twitter account. I wish her (and any other newbie reading) best of luck on the journey to becoming a connected educator! Once you connect, you will collect, collaborate, create and grow!
So, I am in the midst of preparing for a presentation at the National Association of Independent Schools annual conference next week. I am privileged to be presenting with an amazing group of educators that includes: Sarah Hanawald, Cannon School (NC); Peter Gow, Beaver Country Day School (MA); Demetri Orlando, Buckingham Browne & Nichols School (MA); Jason Ramsden, Ravenscroft School (NC); Vinnie Vrotny, The North Shore Country Day School (IL). The neat part (for me) is I’ve never met Peter, Demetri, or Vinnie in person! Yes, we are organizing our presentation in Google Docs. That would have been impossible 2 years ago!
My piece of the presentation (see session W8) is on the use of blogs in education. I plan to talk to about why teachers should utilize blogs and why teachers/admins should blog. I am certainly no expert, but if you have checked in here over the last year then you know I use class blogs to create a blended classroom. At least, I’m trying…
So, why would you use a blog to supplement your face-to-face classroom time with students? Why do I think EVERY class should have a blog? Well, I think this diagram by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano gives you several great reasons:
Click to Enlarge
Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/langwitches/2855720793/in/set-72157625878283389/
When you have students blog as individuals or as part of a class, you give them opportunities to create and reflect. Maybe more importantly, you give students a chance to dialogue with a more authentic audience than just you as instructor. Who writes just one an audience of one? I think that is called a letter. Right? Don’t you want your students to connect to a global audience? There is so much power in this tool, the trick is just learning to use it…
The days of the static website are numbered. Are you ready to kill yours?
So, the end of this month will be my one-year anniversary of joining the blogosphere…
I was nervous at first, putting myself out there in the most public of forums. Regardless, I set out to do several things:
1. Convince skeptical teachers of the value of social media for teachers and students.
2. Build an electronic portfolio of social media projects that I can show other educators.
3. Journal about my professional development journey.
I don’t have any quantitative measure of my success at goal #1 (since I don’t really think I have a following to speak of), but I have had a few strangers weigh in with comments from time to time. I didn’t set out to build a “brand,” and I probably don’t blog enough to maintain one if I did. At least I will get a chance be a part of a presentation to administrators at the NAIS Conference (scroll to item #W8) this year about the value of social media in education.
Now, I do feel much better about goals #2 and #3. By forcing myself to post my social media experiments online, I was putting myself in the position of one of my students completing a formal lab report–I had to explain my methods, to analyze my data, and to reach conclusions. Posting my experiments on the internet is in the best spirit of science (peer review). As for using my web-log as a journal, I have found that even if no one is listening to me that blogging forces me to listen to myself. Good stuff.
So, if you are reading this and are not blogging then I want to encourage you to take it on as a resolution for this new year…it’s not too late.
Finally, here are my favorite reflections/lessons from 2010:
Why Try? (my first post)
Student feedback (about my first experiment with a wiki almost 2 years ago)
Processing and PLNs (about why I value my Personal Learning Network)
Presentation on wikis and girls (about the potential for wikis to give “quiet girls” a voice)
Class Blogs: Looking Back at my “Blended Classroom” (reflections on a year of class blogs)
If you are new to all this and see anything you want to try, let me know. I’m glad to help-someone did it for me not long ago…
Matt Scully is our talented Director of Instructional Technology here at Providence Day School. He is the reason I’m blogging today-I couldn’t have done all I have done without his support and encouragement. This is a cross post from his blog: Engaging the Learner.
Want to know why I love YouTube or more accurately streaming video? It is because of moments like last friday when I was struggling to decide what to do with my freshman English class. At the very moment when I was about to sign off on the easier lesson plan – the one I could do without any heaving lifting… you know the one where I do the work and the kids just watch, I heard Sir Ken Robinson in my head. I don’t mean I asked myself what would SKR do, but I literally heard his voice in my head. It was a snippet from his TEDtalk reminding me about creativity and student engagement. It was enough the get me thinking. In less than 40 minutes I had revised the outline for the entire unit and during the revision I consulted with Rives, Ian Jukes, and Sugata Mitra. These are the voices in my head and having heard the lilt of their voices, the strain of their excitement, and the depth of their passion has embedded them in what I do, how I do it, and why I do it.
Your mission if you choose to accept it is to collect the voices in your head. Search them out online, capture them with a Flip video camera, and digitize them from old cassette tapes. Check out my resources page for the beginnings of my collection.
So, I’ve read that if you don’t blog on a regular basis that you lose your following. Maybe so, but I’ve been trying hard to get a new school year kicked off so the blog has suffered. I still intend to share social media projects/action research at this site. So, check back next Monday for a new post. My new class wikis and blogs are established, so I’ll have some good stuff to share soon…
So, this year I tried an experiment with a CLASS blog. Yes, a CLASS blog, not individual blogs.
Why blog? Well, there are a number of reasons I might ask students to blog for the CLASS:
1. To remember or recount what happened in class that day. We call this a “scribe post.”
2. To offer a question about a confusing concept prior to the test. We call this a “reflection post.” Other students are encouraged to answer these questions.
3. To share something neat or a current event. We call these “on my mind posts.”
and other reasons to use a blog include:
4. To debate. Blogs allow a space for responses after each post, and sometimes I require students to participate in a discussion of a topic (like bottled water use).
5. To create a “positive digital footprint.” I think I have a responsibility to help these kids leave a more substantial mark on the WWW besides what they post on Facebook.
We’ve categorized all the posts by the first 3 categories above if you want to see examples. You can check out either of my class blogs at these links:
APES 5th Period Class Blog 2009-2010
APES 8th Period Class Blog 2009-2010
Each student was required to serve as the class “scribe” at least once or twice a semester and create a summary lesson for those who might have been absent. Each student had the option of posting reflections before each test for some minor extra credit on the test. Some students felt compelled to share something neat-a headline, a picture, or even a YouTube video clip. By doing all this, the kids have had to reflect on what they’ve learned and they’ve created a wonderful online textbook as a resource for AP exam preparation.
If you have a moment to explore our class blogs, I want to encourage you to scroll down to the “tag cloud” of topics we’ve studied this year (pictured below). Pick a topic that is of interest to you (energy, water, agriculture, etc…) and click on the tag.
Env. Sci. Topics
We’ve cross-linked all the posts dealing with that topic even though they might be in different units. That’s the beauty of the environmental science course (and use of a blog)–the interconnections between topics. As John Muir once said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” Also, notice the “ClustrMap” of the world and look at the global audience these kids have attracted this year!
*As I have done in previous blog posts, I must give credit to Class Blog-Jedi Master Darren Kuropatwa for this model.
Check back here tomorrow for a great guest blog post on social media and the “dominant discourse.” A really thoughtful exploration of how we use the tools with students…
So, I’m back home after two very stimulating days at the NCAIS Innovate Conference at Cary Academy. Man, my mind is still on fire and I cannot sleep. I’m sitting here trying to let the flames die down a bit, so I can sleep by the coals. I’ve heard so many teachers who attend conferences like these struggle to process and reflect, but the only solution is time.
I think one thing I know for sure is that I met some neat folks–progressive educators who push themselves to innovate in order to better engage their students. For example I met arvind s. grover, the Director of Educational Technology at The Hewitt School in New York City. arvind (yes, he spells his name in lower case), was a part of the keynote panel and helps host a nifty online talk show called EdTechTalk 21st Century Learning. I also met Meredith Stewart, a 6th Gr LA & History Teacher at Cary Academy (and another panel member). Check out her insights on teaching and technology at her blog. I could go on and on. The point is, I found some really neat folks to add to my Personal Learning Network (PLN).
Why do I have a PLN? Why should you? A personal learning network allows a teacher to efficiently gather knowledge to improve his or her craft. I think Daniel Tobin explains it best:
How can your learning network help you?
By helping you to sift through all the data to identify the information that will be most useful to you.
By helping you to identify learning resources and opportunities.
By coaching you and answering your questions as you try to apply your learning to your work.
By sharing their wisdom with you through dialogue.
Building a personal learning network is requires that you not only seek to learn from others, but also that you also help others in the network learn. Even when you are a novice in a field of learning, you can still make contributions. Did you read an article that might be of interest to others? Then distribute it to other in your network with a short note that you thought they might find it interesting. Did you hear of a conference on the subject? Let others know about the program and speakers and, if you attend, circulate your notes and papers you collect to other network members.
How do you build a solid PLN? Well, here is a great blog post on 8 Steps of PLN Development by Liz B. Davis. Me, I started by subscribing to blogs and Twitter feeds of folks I learned are opinion leaders in the field. So, if you haven’t started building your PLN yet, now is the time!
In my first post, I posed the essential question:
Why would any teacher (especially a successful, experienced teacher) investigate using social media tools like Nings, blogs, or wikis as a part of their craft?
Besides being a regenerative experience for your as a teacher, social media allows your students to be generative. That is, students can create.
One of my favorite wiki sites is educational origami. You can find some wonderful resources that link new social media tools and tasks to Bloom’s Taxonomy. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, creating is the highest “level” of learning:
“Creativity involves all of the other facets of the taxonomy. In the creative process the student/s, remembers, understands & applies knowledge, analyses and evaluates outcomes, results, successes and failures as well as processes to produce a final product.”
*Taken from the educational origami page on Bloom’s – Creating.
Better yet, what more fulfilling aspect of being human than the ability to create. Often, this is a missing component from “classroom education.” For example, I while I teach Advanced Placement Environmental Science (APES), the course syllabus puts a premium on students understanding and remembering tremendous amounts of content. Of course, I try to push kids to analyze and apply and evaluate (see below), but they just don’t get much chance to create in the AP world.
Click to Enlarge-taken from: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy
So, how have I pushed kids towards the HOTS end of the spectrum on the Digital Taxonomy using social media?
These are first attempts for me. Yes, there are standards and means for evaluation. And, the majority of kids have positive things to say about these methods, but I’ll share those next time.
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