There's an App for That

Why are kids the way they are today? Howard Gardner believes he has the answers. Students today have grown up with the world at their fingertips through computers, tablets, and smartphones. This has caused them to have unique characteristics from those of us born before technology was so ubiquitous. He categorizes these differing characteristics into three groups: identity, intimacy, and imagination.

Even as young as 5th grade, my students have been shaped by the internet and the world of connectivity. I have students who use Snapchat, have Youtube channels, and play games where they’re connected to others around the world.

With our students, we certainly need to help them to maintain a strong sense of their true identity, both on the internet and in our classrooms and to grow that identity based on their interests and a strong personal code of ethics and morals rather than to try to maintain a cultivated image for “likes.”  We also need to help our students learn how to meet other people and have strong social skills. In the future, working together, be it in person or digitally, is a key skill so we need students to be proficient in both face-to-face and online social skills.

Students also need experience with actively using their imaginations and not relying on “apps” to create everything. I just had a personal experience with this last week. I was teaching students how to make websites about decimals (digitizing a poster project that my coworker had used for years [decades?]). Students quickly showed their reliance on Google image search and reluctance to use Google Drawings to create their own illustrations of decimals. I will be teaching this lesson two more times (to the other 5th grade classes) and I plan to have them start by laying out their websites on paper (including drawings) first to remove pre-created images from their options when they’re planning. They then may find a pre-created image still but hopefully some will create their own content.

Not Just Words and Numbers

NetSmart covers five new types of literacy: Attention, Crap Detection, Participation. Collaboration, Network Smarts. In it, Howard Rheingold gives specific aspects of these literacies and how they should we should improve upon these skills.

This means that we as educators need to recognize our own literacies and work to improve them. Even more, it means that we need to consciously teach these literacies just as we would with written literacy and numeric literacy.

One thing that interested me was how much the skills under Attention overlapped with some of the specific skills I do already teach my students. Every week we practice “Concentration” as a skill that can be improved by playing a game that focuses on ignoring distractions outside of our control. We, as a school, have also incorporated Mindfulness into our curriculum and have had coaches come in to talk about Attention and noticing things in the world around us.

I’ve actually made some intentional changes to my own participation after reading this book. I’ve played a game with a rather small community for quite a while now. Like most games, they have forums where players discuss game elements but also other things going on in life.  After reading, I made a concerted effort to participate in the forums for that game posting in various sections at least a few times a week.

For collaboration, we have our large end of year project the Global Awareness Technology Project. I plan to include several mini-lessons that focus on how to work with group members and target shared goals over personal interests.

Am I Going to Go to Jail for This?

I’ve always been an “Ask for forgiveness instead of permission” teacher. As such, I’ve used information pretty much non discriminatorily for whatever educational purpose I needed at the time without giving it too much thought.  I assumed copyright laws were strict, but as long as I didn’t have any students whose parents worked for Disney I considered it a pretty low-risk rule breaking versus the benefit of any educational outcomes I would achieve by using it.

After reading Copyright Clarity, it turns out the way I was using information actually fitted within current copyright laws.  

Under copyright law you can use otherwise copyrighted material under “Fair Use” if you consider the following categories:

1. Is the work being transformed?
2. Does my use of it impact the creator and the creator’s use?
3. Is the work being used for a different purpose than its originator used it?

When I reflect back to the works I used, they definitely met these criteria, however I lacked the information to think through the process before reading. Going forward, I will be able to better evaluate my use of material prior to using it.

Another big impact is how I work with students.  We use Google Images a lot in creating presentations and representations of topics. By helping them understand copyright laws, I can free them to use materials in a way that’s going to promote their learning while also challenge them to evaluate how they’re using these materials in a transformative way.

Information Watchers

I found this to be among the most interesting books we read, along with Sabertooth Curriculum and Victorian Internet. The author says we’ve been overwhelmed with not just information but poor quality information. Like consuming excess poor quality food, consuming so much poor quality information can have negative health effects.  The author suggests several ways that people can increase the quality of information and lessen the amount of information we intake.

With the age of self publishing, anyone can put their thoughts out for everyone to see… and it turns out that not everyone has something worth saying.  Worse than that, some people will intentionally put out misinformation to promote their cause. In this world, we need our students to be able to assess information for its quality.  We also need students to be able to step away from the constant stream of information so that they can live balanced healthy lives.

Over the weekend, I’ve tried to implement some changes in the way I consume data. Typically, I listen to NPR whenever I am in the car. I’ve already switched to only listening to it on the way to and from work and listening to music the other times. I don’t see this as having a negative effect on being informed of events, as the commute times are their big news hours and will have all the important stories, it just means I’m getting the headlines instead of being flooded in details.

I’ve also reevaluated my Facebook feed. I attempted to “localize” it by removing any politician or organization from out of the DC region with a few exceptions. I’ve excluded groups that are close to my life such as educational pages, being a teacher, and gun control groups, having had people close to me affected by gun violence.

You're a designer! You're a designer! EVERYONE'S A DESIGNER!

Not only are teachers designers, students are too.  We can empower them as designers by giving them voice in assignments.  By allowing students to create they take pride in their work.  With imagination, students are going to learn more and be more actively engaged in tasks. And by making these tasks interdisciplinary we make them more related to real life and help students make lasting connections.

This means that students learn best not by filling out worksheets but by making stuff! And by stuff I don’t just mean towers and bridges but anything. Pamphlets, posters, presentations, letters and of course… towers and bridges…

I have always tried to allow my students to make things rather than just do worksheets but I know I’m on the journey and not at the destination. I look forward to including more well designed activities that allow students to design and create.

Welcome to... The Price Is Right!

Affordance analysis is used to evaluate technology. By looking at what a technology CAN do and what a teacher NEEDS affordances can be created… however, certain technologies are going to be a better fit than others.

If teachers follow this, they can use the technology they have effectively. More importantly, it can be used to evaluate possible NEW technologies that a teacher or school might wish to invest in to determine if it’s a worthy investment… or merely a new educational gimmick.

I’ve already seen this affecting my practice. On Friday, I recommended both Ozobots and Osmo for our school STEM lab to teach basic training.  We’ve added them to the list of products we want for the STEM lab as this is our first year and we’re still setting it up.

I’ve also thought more about the tech I already use, switching from Google Forms to an open ended discussion question on Google Classroom for science homework. Also it’s caused me to think more deeply about what technology I want to use for upcoming projects.

Technology: Boon to society or uncontrollable menace?

I was fascinated by The Victorian Internet but even more so by The Day the Universe Changed (even though its title might be a little overblown for the current impact of the little blue marble in the universe). Because of this, I have decided I want to talk about both of them! Both of these were stories of new technology that facilitated, and dramatically increased the distance of, communication. As such they had both intended and unintended consequences.

This means that when new technologies come about, we need to be prepared both for the expected (increased globalization, interconnectedness, etc) as well as the unexpected (illicit use, profiteering, etc).  We saw this in both the technologies described but we also see it in current innovations such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Facetime.

For us as teachers, it means that we must be aware of the ways technology can be misused. For example, students misusing Google Apps email or comment feature to discuss inappropriate things or harass other students. But this doesn’t mean we should be fearful of new technology though as consequences can also be positive such as increasing collaboration and allowing students to continue to be a part of the classroom community even when they can’t be there physically.

For example, I had a student move to Germany during the middle of our big end of the year project (that literally takes all of 3rd and 4th quarter Social Studies and most of our Language Arts time too). He was able to use Google Apps and Facetime to continue with the project, not because he had to (as he was no longer subject to a grade) but because he was engaged with it and wanted to continue working with his group.

It's Time To Play!

Hooray! I was dismayed when we read Sabertooth Curriculum and New-Fist saw the children playing and said that they were wasting time and could be put to better use. So much so that I cried aloud. Therefore, I was obviously overjoyed that Vygotsky understands that play is learning!

Even though I was already a firm believer that the power of play, my feelings have been reinforced by the reading we did. Even the youngest children are learning when they play. Learning the rules of the world around them and then learning how to exploit those rules.  As students age they learn the rules of society around them through play and again, learn how these rules can be used to their advantage.

Vygotsky also talks about the Zone of Proximal Development. This means that students cannot miss the opportunity to read, or write, or learn mathematical concepts. It does mean though that students may not all be ready to learn a concept at the same time.  This is why some students don’t get rounding in 2nd grade… or 3rd grade… or 4th grade… but suddenly in 5th grade it makes sense. They were finally in a place where they were ready for the information.  This is in stark contrast to Piaget’s view that students were ready for certain activities at a certain age.

As teachers, we need to make sure that our lessons allow for play. This doesn’t mean that we need to get out the Recess equipment for every lesson, but rather that learning should engage students imaginations and allow them to work together in a playful manner. And ultimately this play needs to mimic real life, otherwise the benefit is lost.

Can we walk the walk? or will we just talk the talk?

One thing I’ve noticed, and is slightly reassuring after reading Sabertooth Curriculum, is that a lot of the articles we have been reading do align with many of the initiatives in FCPS, such as PICKLE = Portrait Of a Graduate and Authentic Activities = Project Based Learning. The pessimistic voice in me does warn that talk is cheap and we still have to see action being fully implemented. This is highlighted by my new principal’s demand that we post our objectives for each lesson on the board, a practice I oppose and feel like goes against the nature of both the ideas of PICKLE and Authentic Activity.

For my own practices, I will have to reconcile these two philosophies (particularly since I’m under evaluation this year :P) but I believe it can be done once I’m finished being grumpy about it. One aspect that was expanded for me was about the context of project based learning. I think a lot of teachers try to give students a task and say things like “pretend you are a ___________” or “imagine you are a ______________” which keeps students in a classroom context. I think the goal should be to have activities that aren’t framed by imagination or pretend but actually put students in the context of the professional culture involved.

One part of our discussion that really resonated with me is that we, as teachers, aren’t going to be able to teach every child to be a doctor, or an architect, or a scientist. What we need to do is give students experience thinking like these professionals so they can be productive and informed citizens when they read about current events and are expected to make high stakes decisions (cough… 2016 election).

PICKLE

The Sabertooth Curriculum highlights several issues with our current education system. The most striking of which is how society holds back innovation and change.  Change and innovation are both continually discussed amongst teachers and even requested from business leaders but they can be scary to parents and thus elected school boards and politicians can be reluctant to embrace it for many reasons.

So what are these skills students need for the future? Students need PICKLE (Problem solving, Information using, Community participation, Knowledgeable, Literate, and Ethical decision making) to succeed in the 21st century world. Despite the slowness of change, this is being taken up, at least in word, by many national standards as well as local standards (like FCPS’ Portrait of a Graduate).

What we haven’t reached yet, is fully implementing this plan. My current school is making steps towards implementing FCPS’ aforementioned Portrait of a Graduate but I do believe this is because we are a high performing school. My previous school was a Title I school and I fear that it will take longer for schools like that to have the “flexibility” (I use that in quotes as I don’t believe that’s really the case, merely what would be said by the tribal chiefs… I mean leadership) to pursue these skills in earnest.

Teachers as Designers

I learned there are some distinct differences between planning lessons and designing lessons. As teachers, we do both and both have a place.

Teachers as designers means that teachers need to think about the problems they need to tackle, the goals they want to achieve, and the constraints of the curriculum in order to design activities. With this in mind, Teachers use their curriculum knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge to innovate new activities that accomplishes the desired outcome and modify and adapt as new problems, goals, and constraints arise or are made apparent. This is supported by the need for designing to be intentional and purposeful over just filling time for students in the day.

These all happen, to some extent, subconsciously for teachers, myself included. My practice will be impacted by bringing these thoughts to the foreground and to increase the frequency of “designed” activities over “planned” activities.