MAME37 Presentations -- Dearborn Hyatt Regency

It's great to be back at the MAME Annual Conference this year.  This will be my third appearance at a MAME activity, and the school library media specialists are a favorite audience.    Last year, I introduced a presentation on my digital anthology, a topic I repeated for the MHS staff and the MACUL Cloud Conference.

Today, I am presenting on the following topics:

(12:45- 1:45) Using Apple’s Challenge-Based Learning to Build Learning Networks
Apple's Challenge-Based Learning model fosters authentic understanding and leverages technology. Students use the web for research, planning, and collaborating while seeking solutions. The media specialist's role as guide will be explored.

(2:00 - 3:00) Building A Knowledge Hub for Your Learning Community presented by Larry Baker
Baker's M-Hub Project helps life-long learners build personal learning networks.  It is grounded in the Department of Education's "2010 National Educational Technology Plan."  Staff are networked as real-time resources.

This will be the maiden voyage of my M-Hub preso-- It has recently been accepted for MACUL at Cobo Center in March.  But today will be unique, because I will be honored with the assistance of two student leaders from M-Hub.

As promised to attendees, here are the slides of the presentations: 

Challenge Based Learning 1

Challenge Based Learning 2

Challenge Based Learning 3

Building A Knowledge Hub

  

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Screen capture from CBL 2

Techy Trends

I've collected some news about several  major trends. Pretty interesting sutff, partcularly about iPads.

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University of Minnesota  CEHD News

The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), in partnership with the University's Office of Information Technology, will provide its entire freshman class of about 450 students with iPads, in the largest pilot of its kind at a major research university. . . .  CEHD faculty, who are world leaders in academic technologies and postsecondary education, will research how iPad use relates to student retention, engagement, and learning outcomes. A broad spectrum of first-year undergraduate courses in the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning will incorporate the devices.
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Michael Liedtke A.P.: "Google plugs free PC-to-phone calling into e-mail"

Google is adding a free e-mail feature that may persuade more people to cut the cords on their landline phones. The service . . . enables U.S. users of Google's Gmail service to make calls from microphone-equipped computers to telephones virtually anywhere in the world.
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Ben Worthen, WSJ: "Businesses Add iPads to Their Briefcases"--

When Apple Inc.'s first iPhone came out in 2007, many companies told their employees that the device wasn't appropriate for the workplace. The iPad is a different story.

The company's tablet-style device seems to be sidestepping the resistance that the iPhone and other consumer-oriented devices have faced in the corporate environment. Indeed, many businesses have raced to snap up iPads.

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Rob Pegoraro T"Apple's move pushes TV toward Internet delivery"

Apple's updated video vision falls in line with that of such competitors as Amazon's video-on-demand store and the free, ad-supported viewing available at the Web sites of the TV networks and Hulu, which is owned by some of them. All those offerings mean free viewers don't have to pay for things they don't want to watch -- unlike the traditional programming model, in which they subscribe for a large bundle of content and then proceed to ignore most of it.

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GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And MARIE C. BACA The Washington Post: "The ABCs of E-Reading":

New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak . . . . Among early adopters, e-books aren't replacing their old book habits, but adding to them. Amazon, the biggest seller of e-books, says its customers buy 3.3 times as many books after buying a Kindle, a figure that has accelerated in the past year as prices for the device fell.

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David Winograd, TUAW   "Notre Dame embarks on a paperless course with iPads"

The University of Notre Dame's yearlong study of eReaders in academics is starting the school year with a bang-- a course that will use the iPad as the only textbook students need. 

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Bret Lang, The Wrap "Look Out HBO"
 

Netflix announced that it had struck a deal with cable channel Epix that will allow it to instantly stream more box-office hits. Sources tell the Los Angeles Times that in exchange for access to the Paramount, Lionsgate, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer digital libraries, Netflix will pay Epix $1 billion over the next five years, putting the cable company back in the black. Under the agreement, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, Netflix will be able to stream movies 90 days after Epix picks up the rights, or around the time that movies go to DVD. The deal will dramatically expand Netflix's instant-streaming catalog.

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 Blog Photo from Notre Dame News

M-Hub Update

My involvement with Challenge Based Learning has been pretty all-consuming these days.  But M-Hub has grabbed my attention in a big way.  This is largely due to having a remarkable student-leadership team which is bent on getting things done has helped move moved M-Hub from an interesting idea to a reality.

The basic concept of M-Hub is to provide studetns with a tool for building personal learning networks within our greater school community.  We want to build a highly searchable database of "expert" alumnae, staff, parents for students to contact for a wide variety of information.


The idea has received support from all parties, but actualizing the plan has been challenging.  Suddenly, we have major break throughs

Data Collection
We believe that Zoomerang can provide us with a polling instrument that we can send out by email or link to a web site.  If the "free version" is too limited, we think that the "pro" pay version can certainly meet our needs.  We are ready to begin building a prototype.

Web Solution
Finding a place to store our data which would allow students to gain access has been more perplexing.  However, with the help of some "seed money" from the school we will be able to secure the services of a web designer who is going to begin constructing the back end of this database.  He also is confident that the data from Zoomerang will be easy to import to the web site.  Working with Drupal our web designer will be able to integrate this feature right into the school's web site.

Fund Raising
In order to pay for the complete services of the web designer and meet other expenses such as an upgrade to Zoomerang Pro, we will need to raise funds.  Here, our status as a school club comes hand.  With 25 club members its feasible host activities.  One likely possibility is a sale of M-Hub logo flash drives.



Leveraging Technology
I'm also pleased to note that while we are not overtly a "tech club",  we are pretty clever at finding virtual tools to help us keep pushing M-Hub along.  We use "Doodle" to schedule leadership meetings.  We also carry on discussions between meetings on a private blog site created with iWeb.

MAME /MACUL
The world is about to hear about M-Hub.  Two of the student leaders and I will be presenting our project to the school library media specialists at MAME 37, this week.  I also just learned that M-Hub has been selected as a topic for the 2011 MACUL Conference at Cobo Center in March.

What a rush!

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Screen capture of M-Hub leadership private blog site

MACUL Cloud Conference Presentations

I'm delighted to be at the MACUL Cloud Conference, today.  I'm looking forward to sampling some really interesting presentations on a theme near and dear to my ed tech heart.  I also have been eager to see Holland Christian after hearing about their innovative 1:1 program from Tim Kamps at  the 2009 ADE Summer Institute.

Here are the slides for my presentations:

A Cloud Based Digital Anthology  
8:30 am
Room 223


Baker explains how he has replaced a traditional reader with a cloud based text linked to current information and packed with multimedia. The tools and resources to be discussed — Moodle, Google Docs, PBS, iTunesU, Academic Earth, NPR, Gale Virtual Research — could be used for most courses and grade levels.


An Elaborate Congressional Simulation Moves to the Cloud
12:45 pm
Room 217


The centerpiece of an American Government class now exists completely in the cloud. Students access instruction and tools from Box.net, Google Sites and WikiSpaces. Each builds (and visits) multimedia Google Sites for their fictional characters including a cloud White House. Full access to 2010 materials and exhibits will be included.

Finding Your Passion - PCG #6

Our latest Professional Cluster Group was the first to go off the rails.  I planned a longer session, but instead decided to "go with flow" and shorten the presentation, allowing for greater discussion.  The other slides can wait.  At this session I conducted two exercises:  1) I asked everyone to identify something (a subject) he/she was passionate about teaching or learning and then share it with another.  2) I showed the movie below and asked individuals to consider, was their an essential question here that he/she felt passionate about to pursue as a cross-school Challenge Based Learning project?  If so, would you be willing to "pitch" it to others at the upcoming in-service day?  We then discussed the topics.

The PCG groups made some interesting discoveries:


* Finding a CBL big idea that one "cared enough about to fail at" was a possible new way of engaging with the process for some of us.

* "Inter-disciplinary" is a phrase that carries too much baggage for us.  It suggests being tagged as a contributor by your discipline (e.g., science teacher).  Talking about "cross school teams" was liberating.  And the idea of joining a broad challenge group as an individual with a greater skill set than mere expertise in his/her discipline was an enticing concept for some.

* We liked the idea of being "free agents" who could join each other in project teams.

* Some of us still wanted to work within our individual departments, but realized we could do that and also collaborate with others another passion.  We could have our cake and eat it too.

* Some of us were holding back from wiki or group discussion for fear of being judged.  (I was glad this was expressed because it guided me in how I will react in the future to doubts, contradictions, and questions.

* We didn't like the idea of having to jump "all in" immediately and wondered of there was a way to try a small scale project in order to get the feel for the process.

There were too many other challenging questions and interesting responses to list here, but I suspect we have come to an important milestone in our process.

Introductory "Find Your Passion Slides"

The Change Dilemma

I had a recent opportunity to talk with an expert about reform and change in education.  I bent Dr. Ruben Puentedura's ear about M-Hub, Challenge Based Learning, and our ongoing professional development through PCGs.  His reflections on all these matters were quite insightful and interesting, but one remark in passing, came back to me just the other day.  During a dinner conversation,  he referenced Everett Rogers' model for the adoption and diffusion of innovations.  Rogers theory breaks innovation adopters into five groups:

Innovators-- the first individuals to adopt an innovation.

Early Adopters-- These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories.  More discrete in adoption choices than innovators. 

Early Majority-- Adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. 

Late Majority-- Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. 

Laggards-- These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”.

 

I decided to read up on Rogers because last week I began to get back channel feedback that implied I was churning up too much information in our professional development groups.  Folks needed more time to process information, settle in, discuss, etc.  This makes perfect sense at several levels: I have been rather furiously introducing new themes and we are discussing a radical new learning design with CBL.  Besides, change is simply tough on most of it.  It brings discomfort an ambiguity.  I deeply sympathize.

 

And that's the dilemma.  One's sympathy calls on a veteran teacher like myself to focus on the "slow" students, the laggards if you will.   But I think that culture shift of the kind that I trying to facilitate to focus attention on those early adopters and make sure that they are cultivated and intellectually nourished.  Initial success of my project cannot be measured on whether or not the majority immediately buys in.  We need to start bringing over the "early majority" to CBL and teaching Wagner's Seven Survival Skills.  Then some of the rest may come over.  And perhaps, some never will.  

So here is where I am with the dilemma.  I am going to cheer lead  every fresh idea and innovative inclination that comes along.  I want to be positive and fight any urge to become a scold.  But wait for ideas to "settle in"?  That's a fine line.  Because it is entirely legitimate to analyze, reflect and choose caution.  On the other hand, others need to press forward so that they don't lose the momentum to innovate and try new things.

P.S. Please don't lay any half-baked ideas expressed here at Ruben's doorstep.  This has been a riff on one reference he made.

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Flickr Creative Commons Photo by kagey b

 

 

 

 

Authentic Learning

In case you have not seen this "Student / Learner 1.0 'The Housewarming" created by The Council on 21st Century Learning, I wanted to share it. Check it out. It's short and sweet.

I have a couple of observations:

This past school year I watched kids go from being "students" to "learners" by experienceing Challenge Based Learning. Typically, some of the grade-driven students find themselves frustrated at the outset when it is not clear what the teacher wants for an "A." And the teacher may have to really to hold back from dropping clues or making suggestions, since most of us are very used to setting up the hoops that students jump through. However, if we challenge them to stretch as they set their own goals, many of these learners far exceed anything we might have expected.

Secondly, I am wrestling with issues related to "deeper learning" in my professional development cluster groups.  What a challenging topic to get one's arms around.   But the potential benefits of becoming a community of authentic learners are worth the struggle.

Reflections on the "See-through Cycle"

Professional Cluster Group #5 focused on reflections. I took the opportunity to focus on my experience at the "Challenge Based Learning Group Think", sharing what I had gleaned about the "future of the book" and the student as "free agent."

Participants filled out the "Big Idea" Survey that I blogged about which I recently blogged.  This shall serve as grist for our next session on "Deep Learning."

Finally, in small groups we discussed our experience with the "See-through Cycle  which surpassed my greatest expectations in terms of participation.  The reports on the experience were universally positive, but the big question concerned how to take transparency to the next level.

I'm really looking forward to ratcheting up the discussions with some exercises I have planned for "deep learning."  Stay tuned!

Reflections Slides PCG#5

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"See-through Cycle" title slide photo insert thanks to the kindness of Jud Turner.

Upcoming Presentations

I have written for presentation proposals for this professional organization and that. The first four have been accepted and I am waiting to hear about the one at the bottom. In the mean time I thought I would share them with you, to let you know what topics are on my mind these days.

Simulation

The centerpiece of an American Government class now exists completely in the cloud. Students access instruction and tools from Box.net, Google Sites and WikiSpaces. Each builds (and visits) multimedia Google Sites for their fictional characters including a cloud White House. Full access to 2010 materials and exhibits will be included.

Using Apple’s Challenge-Based Learning to Build Learning Networks
Apple's Challenge-Based Learning model fosters authentic understanding and leverages technology. Students use the web for research, planning, and collaborating while seeking solutions. The media specialist's role as guide will be explored.

Digital Anthology

Baker explains how he has replaced a traditional reader with a cloud based text linked to current information and packed with multimedia. The tools and resources to be discussed -- Moodle, Google Docs, PBS, iTunesU, Academic Earth, NPR, Gale Virtual Research -- could be used for most courses and grade levels.

Building A Knowledge Hub for Your Learning Community

Mercy’s M-Hub Project helps students build learning networks “inside-out”. Grounded in the Department of Education's "2010 National Educational Technology Plan", the project uses social media to connect students with experts in the school community like parents and alumni. A blueprint will be presented for developing learning hubs at other schools.

Challenging the Challengers - A Staff Engages with Challenge Based Learning.

A school has engaged in learning design and culture shift through a series of innovative professional development activities.  The endgame calls for student directed learning experiences that develop Tony Wagner's 21st Century "Survival Skills."  The strategies, joys, and obstacles to this journey will be detailed.

Mixing Metaphors about the Future of Education

I expressed three metaphors yesterday about the future of education:

1) The student as "free agent".  I shared this metaphor with the afternoon professional cluster group (I heard it at my "Group Think" the previous week).  Will the student of the near future be a "free agent" who is not chained totraditional institutions for education?  Will he or she be able to pick and choose from the enormous buffet of online resources as well as face-to-face experiences?  If so, what will be the role of a school like mine.

2) Creating a CBL "dream team".  Today, on the staff wiki I pondered the demise of  traditional academic departments.  I suggested that I would experience superior professional enrichment through regular meetings with a challenge based learning "dream team."  Two colleagues quickly remarked that this metaphor smacked of elitism.  They were right, but my "dream" of a team was an interdisciplinary group of teachers hooked on the same "big idea."  I wasn't imagining a Kobe, Lebron group of egomaniacal  "stars." 

3) Who gets to connect the dots?  A fellow English teacher wrote a terrific piece on the merits of using the "value of literature" as a big idea for a CBL project.  She also reflected on a teacher's role in cultivating this value and mentioned teachers helping students to connect the dots.  I replied that with CBL, students get to plot the dots and help their peers connect them.  Generally, her remarks were more worthwhile than mine, but in this case, I will stand by my metaphor!

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"mixed metaphor" Flickr CC photo by roger jones

Surveying Big and Bigger Ideas for CBL

During the last meeting cycle of our professional development groups, pairs of staff members brainstormed interdisciplinary "big ideas" for potential Challenge Based Learning projects for our students.

Considering that the limited aim, progress and reach of some of the projects being developed within departments, I'm searching for a way to entice the true adventurers on the staff to stretch for challenges that will truly excite them and their students.

I'm beginning with a survey.  I've selected a set of ideas that I think have potential, but I want to narrow these fine suggestions from our brainstormers to an elite set of 3-5 topics.  I've asked our staff to rate them according to a) topics which are compelling to the staff member  B) topics which would provide a great interdisciplinary challenge for students.  Readers of this blog are welcome to participate as well (click the link below).

Where do I take the results?  Well, I have a meeting with our administrative team to make a proposal.  How would you facilitate interdisciplinary challenges on these topics.  Please comment here or privately!  I am quite impressionable at this point.

Big Ideas Survey

Thinking Big

The theme of our fourth professional cluster group was Still Looking for a Big Idea?  Look to the Mission.  The main purpose of the PCGs is to foster the Challenge Based Learning model in order to develop Tony Wagner's Seven Survival Skills.

*The tip of the day was Rubistar, a handy site for whipping up customized rubrics.  I've become a fairly heavy user of rubrics with my Challenge Based Learning projects.  I find that they are very effective for group self-evaluations, particularly if they can be customized to fit the team's unique goals.  I also like to use them to evaluate slide presentations, since I lay out very clear guidelines for students to follow.

* I also presented a brief but important technology piece on sharing Google Docs.  I was pleased to show a recent example of a brainstorming session that I initiated.  The subject was "Reimagining Detroit."  This allowed for a natural segue to the main theme-- The Big Idea.

* Every Challenge Based Learning project begins with a "big idea."  After reviewing the  department notes on our staff wiki, it seemed to me that many of the discussions lacked a gripping challenge for students.  Rather, the discussions seemed to revolve around project possibilities that would result in pre-determined results that the departments were already trying to accomplish through traditional means.  I wanted to use the PCGs to brainstorm truly big ideas that would cut across disciplines and inspire a stronger sense of engagement.  I think that a good challenge should not carry a hidden agenda (i.e., students will gain "x" information or come to "y" conclusion).

So I decided attempt a break out from this stagnant brainstorming process.  In the PCG, I reviewed some big ideas that were generated om the interdisciplinary discussion threads on the wiki and suggested others that AI based based on our school mission.  We broke into pairs to brainstorm at least one original idea that could cut across at least four disciplines.  The results were terrific, and I will publish them in my next post (Oct. 6).  I have a scheme for leveraging them and would love to have reader feedback.  In the mean time, here are the slides from the presentation:

PCG #4 slides:  Still Looking for a Big Idea?  Look to the Mission

Weekend Take-out from the Drive-thru

Over the summer I collected  news about several potential "disruptions" to the conventional ways that consumers, students, businesses access media and use technology.  It's important for educators to reflect on how these innovations might affect the lives of our students and our schools.


Micahle Liedtke The Washington Post: "Google Plugs Free PC-to-Phone Calling into e-mail"

Google is adding a free e-mail feature that may persuade more people to cut the cords on their landline phones. The service . . . enables U.S. users of Google's Gmail service to make calls from microphone-equipped computers to telephones virtually anywhere in the world.
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Ben Worthen, WSJ: "Businesses Add iPads to Their Briefcases"--

Some Companies, Which Barred the iPhone, Build Apps for Tablet Computer and Give Apple Gadget to Employees . . .sidestepping the resistance that the iPhone and other consumer-oriented devices have faced in the corporate environment. Indeed, many businesses have raced to snap up iPads.
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Rob Pegoraro The Washington Post: "Apple's Move Pushes TV toward Internet Delivery"

Apple's updated video vision falls in line with that of such competitors as Amazon's video-on-demand store and the free, ad-supported viewing available at the Web sites of the TV networks and Hulu, which is owned by some of them. All those offerings mean free viewers don't have to pay for things they don't want to watch -- unlike the traditional programming model, in which they subscribe for a large bundle of content and then proceed to ignore most of it.
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GEOFFREY A. FOWLER And MARIE C. BACA The Washington Post: "The ABCs of E-Reading":

New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak . . . . Among early adopters, e-books aren't replacing their old book habits, but adding to them. Amazon, the biggest seller of e-books, says its customers buy 3.3 times as many books after buying a Kindle, a figure that has accelerated in the past year as prices for the device fell.
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David Winograd, TUAW "Notre Dame Embarks on a Paperless Course with iPads"

The University of Notre Dame's yearlong study of eReaders in academics is starting the school year with a bang-- a course that will use the iPad as the only textbook students need
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Bret Lang, The Wrap "Look Out, HBO"

Netflix announced that it had struck a deal with cable channel Epix that will allow it to instantly stream more box-office hits. Sources tell the Los Angeles Times that in exchange for access to the Paramount, Lionsgate, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer digital libraries, Netflix will pay Epix $1 billion over the next five years, putting the cable company back in the black. Under the agreement, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, Netflix will be able to stream movies 90 days after Epix picks up the rights, or around the time that movies go to DVD. The deal will dramatically expand Netflix's instant-streaming catalog.


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"Take Out" with generous permission of americanvirus