NECC - Monday 6/30, part 1

Orientation:
I left early, I liked the part about the maps and the guy there was funny for 7:15 AM. I think they hired an actor/comedian and gave him a script or else he has a side job at corporate parties.

Professional Learning Networks in Second Life:

You may recall my wicked kung fu from January. TIES' Second Life space is growing, we have a more permanent building but we just don't know how to develop the community we are looking for. This session is from a group of educators that created DEN, the Discovery Educator Network. It's exactly what it sounds like, a network of teachers in SL collaborating.

What I like: people doing what we are hoping to accomplish in SL. There are people behind me that are a part of Lighthouse Learing Island (Kathy Schrock's area). I want to talk more with them.

What I didn't: Not much on the how. I want to know more about how they are doing professional development. I agree with what they said, you need a little time to play, to learn how to operate in SL, but what I wanted was to know more about a formal structure of how they are meeting in SL. Meeting times, locations, how to set up a classroom or meeting space?

NECC - Sunday 6/29

Bags packed, kids with my in-laws, alarm set for (SWEET MARTHA!) 4:00 AM. Of course our bedroom clock is 9 minutes fast so we were in the kitchen at 3:54, I’m not sure why we went to the kitchen, neither of us are must-have coffee drinkers in the AM. I think we just wanted to know it wasn’t a joke. We hit the airport at 5:00 after a very pleasant cab ride with a wonderfully polite driver, met another chipper TSA security officer who checked our ID’s and hobbled to the gate.

MSP airport was smooth sailing, my compliments to American Airlines and MSP.

Dallas/Fort Worth was another story. Except for the Dunkin Donuts coffee (it really is good, especially for a first-timer) they almost screwed us over. Gate change one came over the intercom, two doors down, no biggie. Gate change two came without announcement and we had to catch the tram to a different section – slightly more harrowing.

I met Andrew Trotter from Education Week at the gate – it was he who checked with the gate and realized that it had changed – thanks to him. Also thanks for my first networking opportunity.

We had an hour of down time before I went to the ABC’s of Advocacy. Overwhelming on day 1 but everything made sense. We’re going to slowly create a community of action. We from MN were realizing that there is not a strong state level presence to influence policy, so we’re going to create one. HOW? I will not reveal my secrets. I always wanted to be a magician – now I’ll just keep the secrets like one.

Scratch - MPS Tech Academy

E-Learning Summit - Michael Wesch

Most people in educational technology have seen the video, A Vision of Students Today, put together by Michael Wesch and his students at Kansas State University. If you haven't, GO HERE. I saw this video last year, but had forgotten about it. I'm not exactly sure but when I first saw it I never got past the "that's really insightful" phase of recognition. Do you like how I just created the "phase of recognition" out of nowhere? I should have become a psychologist. But let me return from my digression.

My immediate response - "Holy smokes we are doing an incredible disservice to students."
My secondary response - "Holy smokes we need to fix this."
My tertiary response - "Slow down smokey."

I operate my life on the theory that nobody will change their behavior unless they are forced to by a change in situation. It's the reason that spouses think they can change their partners and fail. The other person won't change unless they are threatened with losing something valuable. When I was in the classroom I taught as I remembered good teachers teaching, that is, the teachers that I liked best because I learned from them. I was patient, creative, funny (at least I thought so). I found interesting readings, made real world connections, performed simulations but I still missed the mark on many students. I was still the authority in the class not letting the network of learning relationships develop.

The reason was that I always fell back on my experiences in education as a student - the classes I liked and believed were taught well. I emulated those teachers and classes. I wasn't taking what was in front of me - the change in students' ability to network and understanding that we needed a paradigm shift.

To follow my earlier logic, I wasn't forced to change because I didn't see the same students as others in, shall we say, more fortunate locales. Some stats about the last group of students I worked with:

• 94% free/reduced price lunch (high poverty)
  
• 15% ELL
  
• 25% of my students had internet access at home
• 45% had access within walking distance
• behavior - I ratcheted down rules and structure to keep behavior problems at a minimum
  

They weren't like Wesch's students, at least that's my excuse. Does anyone believe it?

What I want to take from his session:

• Understand that ubiquitous networks are almost here - everyone will be connected and multi-tasking. We need to harness that idea and work it into class structure not try to prevent it.
  
• Platform for Participation
• Use the Web 2.0 and 3.0 tools available - collaborative, constructive.
• Ensure students are using the media for communication and collaboration.
  
• Facilitate - set the stage, direct and let the students learn.
• Despite not wanting to (the tendency is to use an authoritarian system), you need to manage the network of relationships in the class [n(n-1)/2].

To close, I'm a fan of Wesch. As an anthropologist he has a solid understanding of cultural trends including technology in education. I will be happy to continue following his research in the field. More to come.

Epiphany analyzed. End rant.

Scratch it up

MIT, the technical wizards of the United States, developed a programming language called Scratch. It's not for super dorks writing code all day long so they can feel smarter than anyone else. It was designed with education in mind. I am in favor of teaching computer programming as a skill in school but not so they can program a computer for the rest of their lives. Believe it or not, knowing a computer language isn't that important - it's understanding the process of program development that is. Anyone can learn syntax, but the great programmers know how to manipulate commands to do what they want . They are the mad scientists of the computer world.

Relying on rote language and syntax restricts some students from learning well. I previously taught in a large urban district with a high ELL population (that's English Language Learners). I had bright, hard working kids whose grades didn't always reflect that because they didn't have a commanding grasp of English.

Enter Scratch. Students learn problem solving, developmental process, cause/effect, game theory, artistic themes, animation... all without relying on language because of how Scratch is applied.

It's also versatile. You can create animated scenes, slide shows, games - my favorite because of it's nostalgia is a perfect recreation of Nintendo's Duck Hunt, click the screen to go there.



Awesome. As big a Nintendo geek as I was, this is impressive. But it's not just recreating my childhood, Scratch opens the door for students and teachers to use it to teach concepts and skills in a constructive, interactive and authentic way.

I'll leave you with a project I created for the purpose of explaining RSS feeds. Let me know what you think.


Learn more about this project

Cheap, Easy and Classroom Applicable = Perfect for Education

How can I not love this? This dude developed uses for a Wii remote outside of intra-office boxing matches and nerd festivals. This, my friends, is true integration and application. The usefulness in the classroom has been proven through research (I know I should have a citable reference, but trust me) and one theme that always reappears in this blog - CHEAP.

I was a classroom teacher in an urban district for seven years. I know the pain of having good ideas for my teaching and students only to have them squished like a candy bar in the grocery store checkout. (I used to do that as a young'un, grab candy bars and squash them as my mother and I walked through the checkout. I think it was an anger response to the fact that I never could have one.) Where was I... squishing sound pedagogical innovation because of a lack of funds, time or resources.

What I'm excited for is to actually create what he has suggested. It may take a little finagling with the higher-ups but if I can prove classroom application for cheap - I'm golden. I'll keep you informed as to my progress ... by "you" I mean the three people that actually read the stuff I write. VIVA LA GEEK!

Ma & Pa Kettle Math

Here's a compliment to the previous math posting. From Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm (1951).