A Professional Development Assignment

Like some teachers, I enjoy planning a new class almost as much as I do teaching it.  A project assignment I am launching today for my graduate students draws from my recent experiences going to a 1:1 iPad environment at Mercy.  The project assignment calls upon students to plan an in-service day for teachers.  They can choose any sort of technology training.  The following slides indicate the required and optional components:

PD Assignment EDU 6720 from Laurence Baker

Mercy iPad In-Service August, 2012

We have set up a very special professional day for our staff, today. The focus will be on integration our iPads into the Curriculum. In fact the general keynote presentation will be titled, "Retrofitting the Classroom for the iPad. Cheryl Davis will be coming from the San Francisco Bay area to deliver her presentation and two other elective workshops Lucy Gray of Chicago has guided us in developing the in-service event. She will also be presenting workshops as will three of our own talented staff members-- Anne Eddy, Susan Smith, and Alison Kline-Kator. Each Mercy staff member will experience three of the following workshops:

Book Creation on the iPad

Collaborative Tools for Notetaking and Mindmapping

Creating Video

Exploring Instructional Uses of YouTube

iPads in the Moodle Environment

iTunes U Content and Courses

The In-Service will be a paperless experience. Lucy has helped us build a public Google Site in the interest of making our efforts transparent and helpful to the greater educational community. Feel free to visit it:

Mercy High School Professional Development

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Screen Shot from one of Cheryl's Workshop web pages

PCG #7 Obstacles and Opportunities

I had a peculiar experience with the seventh professional cluster group: Three of our professional development sessions took place before our in-service day.  Two took place afterwards.

The theme for each session was also the same: Obstacles and Opportunities.  However, the pre and post in-service groups took differing approaches.  Prior to in-service, the discussion centered on various ideas, frustrations, and anxieties which sere getting in the way of our development of challenge projects.  After the in-service, the focus concerned the kinds of training and  and logistical support that were desirable for nurturing these projects. Thanks to a very productive in-service day, we had shifted into a problem solving mode. In fact, the latter two sessions helped generate the themes for the next two or three PCGs: "The Teacher's Role in CBL" and "CBL Assessment".  Here are the slides used for the majority of the meetings:

Slides for Obstacles or Opportunities

In all five sessions I recommended one of my very favorite cloud applications-- Dropbox which uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization" (Wikipedia).  I use three computers each day.  It's wonderful having access to the same files on the desktop of all three computers without the hassle of emailing them to myself or transferring them with external drives.

Have a nice weekend.

A Grand In-Service Adventure

We are venturing outside of the box for today's all-staff professional development day.  Inspired by the "big ideas" we generated in our cluster groups last month, we are going to start the day with two minute "pitches."  Those giving the pitches are passionate about an idea they wish to turn into a cross-school challenge project.

These "elevator pitches" will be followed by a Challenge Based Learning "Open House" where those making the pitches can discuss their big idea with prospective teammates.  Who knows how all of this will turn out.

But up to this point in the agenda, the day promises to be  pretty much no-lose.  Whether she attracts a large team or not, a teacher may proceed with her project.  Those not interested in any of the pitches can quietly resume the CBL work which was started in their departments in August. Though there has been some confusion about all the options, I have tried to position the pitches as liberating opportunities, and indeed,  many of us are excited about the day.

The rubber meets the road after the teams have formed.  They will then be tasked with asking some tough questions about their big ideas.  Then the afternoon will be spent wrestling with answers to these questions.  I'm hoping that leads to some great conversations about education.

The counselors and administrators are going to drop in and out of the groups as "facilitators", serving as sounding boards or urging the teams to get back on track.  All the teams are going to meet in our media center so that transparency and networking have a chance to flourish.

I am sure there will be some hiccups-- Such is the nature of true collaboration.  Those of us guiding staff through the day are trying to model the very process we are hoping staff will try with students, so we'll be giving it our best shot!

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Flickr Creative Commons photo by Adam Swank

Best of 2009: Retiring? No, Reinventing!

This week I am re-posting my favorites from 2009. This one first appeared March 29.

"Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now"
-- from My Back Pages by Bob Dylan

This year, I have frequently been asked the question, "When are you retiring?" The main reason for this question is fairly obvious. My good friend and office mate announced his retirement early this school year. Never mind that I am seven years younger than he is. What with my balding pate, I probably look older. Besides, I have taught 34 years and for many teachers it's "30 and out".

But I'm not remotely ready. As I told Ann J, early this year, I have the sense of being on top of my game like never before. I've always sought change in my professional life. At first it was new preps in the English Department (at least 11 different courses). Then in the mid 1990s I began teaching American Government. And as this blog attests, the latest version of me is that of Web 2.0 evangelist. My new favorite thing to do at school is conducting staff development workshops on the magic tricks which I have discovered. Being selected as an '09 Apple Distinguished Educator is not the culmination of that new obsession, but the beginning of something even more radical and exciting in my life. I'm not sure where it will lead, but certainly not to early retirement. I've never felt more excited about my professional life.

This post was adapted from a recent Facebook note.

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"Carnival Father Time 2" Flickr Creative Commons Photos by dou_ble_uou

Enriching Collaboration with Colleagues-- A Neglected Pleasure

"It's about the kids"

"We've got to do it for the kids"

". . . . but I love the kids"

In thirty-five years of teaching I've heard variations on statements like the above so many times I almost bristle, because the teacher or administrator who utters it may be justifying just about any attitude or policy. Too cynical? I suppose , because I can count on one hand the educators who were in it only for the money, benefits, and summer off.

Yes, of course we are in it for the kids. But I have a confession to make. My most gratifying experiences this month were with other adults. Many of us (at least at my school) pretty much fight the good fight alone in our classrooms or other corners of the building. We brace ourselves for engagement at day's beginning and limping off to our caves at the day's end to muse about our victories or lick our wounds. So it has been a refreshing change of pace to join in some authentic collaboration with a vital network of people in my building who are helping me prepare for the November 9 in-service on personal learning networks. Thank you Colleen, Ann, Alison, Lynn, Will, Cheryl, Tom, Gary, Larry D. for giving me full-hearted support and really pitching in to meet our technical needs and plan a rich social media experience for full staff. I have really enjoyed rolling up my sleeves and working with and learning from a number of adults who are pulling in the same direction.

As we move forward, I'm hoping to have my cake and eat it too-- learning to become a better collaborator with both students and colleagues as co-learners.

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"365/225" Flickr Creative Commons photo by teachingsagittarian

Under Pressure

Today, at 8:20 am I will be addressing our Curriculum Council (primarily department heads) , giving them a snapshot of the staff in-service I will be leading on Personal Learning Networks. This is what I will be telling them:

The way information is being accessed and shared is changing radically. Students must learn to access and critically evaluate information. They need to learn new skills for communicating and collaborating. But how can we teach them unless we too are plugged in?

The in-service will provided a three step program:
1) Guided Exploration of some social media (Twitter, Diigo , Ning , WikiSpaces)
2) The PLN
3) Collaboration through Digital Anthologies

In addition to three taut presentations, the day will included two extended playing/brainstorming sessions. The approach will emphasize fun, exploration, and a purposeful outcome. A wide open feedback channel will be featured (via Twitter)

I am asking the chairs to pitch this to their departments with a positive attitude, emphasizing that there will be something for everyone and that our kids really need help plugging into networks. We are trying to develop a school technology culture and we need everyone to buy in.
I'm going to mention that the usual reasons to be negative about in-service won't work this time. I won't be talking down to anyone. I have no hidden agenda. Every department has something to gain. I have everything to lose, since I will be back in the ranks, slogging away with the rest of them the next day.

I will be interested in their responses....and as always, yours.

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"Under Pressure" Flickr Creative Commons photo by Tattooed JJ

Over the Top (The Tech Campaign Continues)

Part 3 of 3 - "Year in Review from the Trenches"

In Part 2, I had a chance to moan about "shell shock." But of course, I am not simply going to stay huddled on the ground holding my helmet. Here's my "battle plan" going forward.

* Focus on building my networks beyond my own building and aggressively seek a role as a Web 2.0 curriculum presenter and consultant. (Received confirmation of an October Mame 36 presentation two days ago. Woo-hoo!).

* Focus on media rich skills. I can make basic podcasts and videos, but I want to develop better technical skills with GarageBand and iMovie. The first weeks of summer "vacation" I am really immerse myself in this wonderful stuff.

* Ask fellow Web Warrior, Rick Strobl, to be my Sherpa as I venture as I get into the rarefied air of web media.

*While I dig into media applications, I will cut down my summer blogging to twice a week. But when I blog, I will naval-gaze less and try to engage my audience more. At the same time, I will more consciously "journal" in bursts through Twitter, giving my "followers" more content.

* I will be sampling academic lectures from iTunes U, to see how I can use the material in my courses. I have already begun editing two of these for the AP Digital Anthology.

* When I come beck to my internet classroom projects in the Fall I will focus on streamlined methods of evaluation.

* I will launch the Blog Squad at school in the Fall but will confine my efforts to a pilot approach.

* I am determined to keep pushing into social bookmarking. Sooner or later I will find another Diigo lover with mutual reading interests.

*I will love the heck out of the ADE Institute in July.

The Drive-thru will begin a Tuesday, Friday schedule next week.

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Photo: British soldiers "go over the top" at the Battle of the Somme

Shell Shock in the Trenches (part 2)

Shell Shock (Part 2 of 3 - " Year in Review from the Trenches")

I'm not the first teacher to suffer from shell shock, and during my adventures with tech, I've sometimes wandered the classroom battlefield, dazed and confused.

Most numbing is the continual collision with school culture. Despite operating in a 1:1 school and having put nearly every shred of instruction and material online for my bookless course, a sizable number of my students don't readily tap into the pipeline. As I've remarked before, developing online projects has not sparked intellectual curiosity to the degree I might have hoped for (see The Digital Natives Aren't that Restless). But at our school, there is something else going on. 1:1 has not meant fewer P.A. announcements or less paper. And since students know announcements will be made redundantly (and deadlines nearly always extended), they have little incentive to attend closely to email, web sites, etc. Ironically, in class when the P.A. is squawking, the kids are glued into their screens, ignoring it (My temples are starting to throb). Why can't we all support technology in this area at least?

2) My fellow faculty members may be pardoned if they are suffering from Larry-fatigue. I've been honking on about the wonders of Web 2.0. But some of what I've encountered within the building and even in my own departments is passive-aggressive. I make a presentation, no comment. I win a tech distinction, no reaction (that's cold). I guess I have betrayed some unspoken loyalty to chalk and board. In a detailed, staff development proposal for administration I warned of the obstruction of naysayers. Well, the report got lost in the shuffle, but not the nay-saying. Sort of grinds one down.

3) It was tough to see tech integration cut in our building. I understand that the budget is tight, but without vision and planning we will not truly engage in online learning. This speaks to priorities. We have the hardware, but despite popular mythology, the kids will not teach themselves with them, simply because they are keen on Facebook.

4) I have only myself to blame for this one. It's the blog. I've tried to encourage comments, and I haven't really succeeded. Clearly I am operating at cross-purposes by journaling, sharing, and trying to provoke conversation all at the same time.

5) I loved doing the in-services in my building last Fall. That's history. I aiming seeking new audiences, so good will come of it in the long run. But I've been in No Man's Land for the last few months.

6) This spring I taught AP Government and Film, But the three classes of 87 sophomores in American Government were the ones that put me into full shell shock mode. Foolishly, I targeted them for my most innovative methods. But I became overwhelmed with their 87 web sites. This like the other setbacks chronicled here was largely due to my unrealistic expectations banging into reality.

There are some valuable lessons here, so I will gather my forces and close the school year with -- part 3, "Over the Top! and into the Future"

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Thank you, Mark Berry - Photographer & Graphic Designer for permission to use your fabulous photo, "Crop Circle Maker-- Matthew Williams"

Year in Review from the Trenches -- Making Headway

Part 1 of 3

I am pleased to reflect upon on a number of techy milestones this school year:

*I have integrated several new applications, sites, and tools into my personal and professional life. (Some listed at my new Presentations Site).

*Being named an Apple Distinguished Educator was the thrill of my career.

*I have been professionally enriched like never before from my Twitter and ADE networks (See Why Twitter).

*Facebook and this blog have generated , stimulating tech conversation with personal friends like @bridgers, Rick, aml, Katy. And Facebook has allowed me to begin lining up classroom visits from accomplished alumnae like Nadia and Monica.

*I launched three very stimulating collaborative projects: The Civil Rights/Liberties Wiki, the Congressional Simulation, and my favorite -- Blogs on Vlogs.

*I enjoyed delivering a number of in-service presentations (fully listed on my new presentations resumé). There is no better way to learn than through teaching others.

*In Resolved.... I announced the New Year's resolution to avoid checking a single "paper" at home for the entire school year. Resolution kept.

*Also Resolved.... was my determination to keep blogging. Forty-six posts since the resolution, I am still going strong.

*Rick Strobl and I have begun collaborating on Web Warriors, and the results have been gratifying.

But not all has been triumph in the trenches. Come back Wednesday for "Shell Shock".

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"Success" Flickr Creative Commons photo by aloshbennett

Ten by Ten Top Techs

As the end of the school year approaches I've been tempted to make lists of this or that, so why not go all out and make a 10 x 10 list?

My Ten Best Blogs this Semester:

Wrap that Red Herring in Paper

At Long Last...ebook Joy!

A Vast Tinker Toy Playland

Hyperlink Heaven

Techno Topsy-Turvy

Sage Schuste Seduced by Cyberspace?

Tooting Your Horn

To Leap Forward or Hunker Down?

The Digital Natives Aren't that Restless

Teaching Literature Unbound

10 Lessons I've Learned at Age 55

Tweetdeck Top Ten: @bridgers, @cultofmac, @englishcomp, @jackiegerstein, @markwagner, @Milw_Mac_Guy, @ScottElias, @mcleoud, @potsie, @TweetingTigers

10 Necessities of Education Reform by Judy Willis

The 10 Commandments of Power Point. How can people possibly think that reading PowerPoint slides to an audience is an effective way to communicate? This post by David Pierce is a must read for those who use (abuse?) PowerPoint or teach it to others.

My 10 RSS Feeds Knowing that I would just get depressed if I loaded more and more feeds into my Google Reader, I always limit myself to ten. Click here for my current feeds.

My 10 Largest Delicious Tag Bundles: finish, blog, tenthings, google, dadcalx, AP, mhs, 13, technology

10 Reasons to Tweet: The nine I wrote about in Why Twitter? plus this obvious one that I forgot: # 10 Twitter is perfectly suited for mobile communications.

10 Sites I Check Daily

10 apps or sites that I've enjoyed learning to use this year: GarageBand, iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Google Docs, Audacity, WikiSpaces, Google Sites, Twitter, Presentation.

10 Compelling Reasons to Teach with Technology

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"The 'Ten Truck' FDNY' Flickr Creative Commons Photo by stevejonesphoto

Taking a Deep Plunge into Google Sites

Part 1 of 3

Back on Jan 23, I presented an in-service to our English Department on Google Docs and Google Sites. At that time I had lots of experience with Docs, but had only fiddled around with Sites in anticipation of the big project I would launch in March. So, for the in-service I constructed a demo site and packed it full of multi-media applications.

Shortly after my presentation, one of my colleagues began using Google Sites, but it was not until April that I found myself up to my ears in them. This week's three posts will relate to that experience.

I have described my simulation in this space before. I began teaching American Government in 1993, and my Congressional simulation has been with me for the entire ride. It evolved slowly from semester to semester. But this semester I converted it into a web experience. All game documents were distributed through Google Sites. In addition, each of the students created her own Google Site and was responsible for building the site with a character profile, daily journals, a summary podcast, and a "score sheet". Podcasts were created using the free audio recorder, Audacity. What is more, separate simulations were launched in three sections of American Government, involving 87 students, total. I only collected one sheet of paper from each student, instead of the two shopping bags I usually hauled home. This was radical change: lots of apps, for lots of students playing a complicated game. (Click for the the full project assignment).

Part two will be the project post-mortem. And as you expect from the Drive-thru, I will share both the tech agonies as well as the tech ecstasies. In the mean time, you are invited to sample one of the finished Sites. Just click the adjacent screen capture of "Rep. Jerry Jarvis". Jerry is a fictional character created by one of my sophomores, Meghan.

Enjoy.

Real Projects with Real Challenges (and Kicks)

Nothing could be hotter in Web 2.0 instruction than "Project Based Learning". While neither one would satisfy purists, I have redesigned two American Government projects this semester loosely based on this approach. Relative to what I have offered in the past, they are much more student directed, collaborative, and packed with technology. And they were cool enough to submit with my successful ADE application.

I described the Civil Rights / Liberty Project in "Larry's Adventures in Wikiland, part one" and then evaluated it in part two. I am currently wrapping up my Simulation Project. At this juncture, I have some general conclusions to share:

* I am not remotely interested in hearing a guest speaker or curriculum coordinator taut project based learning unless they have designed at least one and come down into the trenches to guide a group of learners through the experience. If not, these "visionaries" have far more to learn than teach.

* Projects (if they are going to be worthwhile) are very labor intensive upfront. Naysayers will love hearing this as it serves as grounds for them not to go near the stuff.

* Both of my projects would have benefited from collaboration in the planning and execution stages. Project learning cheerleaders will love hearing this because they extol collaboration. (Which is fine if someone else in your department is remotely interested in project based learning).

* It is impossible to debug the project in the design stage. You simply have to go through the pain of a steep learning curve with your first group of co-learners.

* Anyone with an ounce of credibility will acknowledge the pluses and minuses of these projects.

The Negatives

* As I reported in The Digital Natives Aren't Restless, conducting projects with Web 2.0 technology doesn't assure participation. During the wiki project, groups complained about deadbeat members and during the simulation there were students who simply did not post content to web sites.

* The set-up and orientation for online work was far more daunting than I imagined. Keep this in mind when you launch tech projects. All kinds of little bugs appear forcing the teacher to be resourceful with work-arounds.

* Because I enjoy designing systems, I have a tendency to over-complicate in the planning stage. I am learning to simplify and allow the students to complicate with their own ideas.

*Due to my own curiosity and naivete I used WikiSpaces for one project and Google Sites for the other. Thus I went through the set-up headache twice. Next time I will probably use one application for both enterprises.

Joys

* You really do get to see another side of your students. I get so tired of English teachers who talk about the "good" kids (The avid readers who arrived to their classes with strong writing skills). With tech projects previously unseen talents for communicating emerge.

*It is quite possible to develop tech aptitude without "teaching" it per se. Once the applications are in place, the kids do a nice job helping each other with bugs and inventive solutions.

*Perhaps because it is new to me, evaluating the projects seemed less like work. The projects contain terrific variety and many are creative in terms of layout and design. The time did not drag as it does when I check "papers." Tonight I carefully checked thirty web sites. I've also come away with a vivid impression of each student's work.

*It's great to be able to switch into a one-on-one mode with students, guiding them and making suggestions. The process lends itself to email. The students who are engaged can take their ideas as far as they wish. I've shared a few tech tips along the way. I have a greater sense of guiding through a shared mission, like a coach.

I remain very enthused about the projects and have every intention of developing them and expanding their use into other courses. But I also wish to firmly communicate that this is heavy lifting. Teachers need more than encouragement and tools to engage in project design. They need time, modeling, training, and support. We don't need cheerleaders.

To Leap Forward or Hunker Down?

I believe that political, business, and educational leaders should be advocating bold, broad strokes of policy change during this time of great economic stress. The alternative may be death by a thousand cuts to vital institutions. For tuition funded schools like mine this moment could be an opportunity for developing a revolutionary educational model that will prepare our graduates and the school itself to engage with the brave new world that emerges from this global economic convulsion.

This is no time for educators to cling to the American industrial model of education with its grades, final exams, "departments", lectures, "contact time", term papers, etc. The idea of learning revolving around "subjects" has already become as anachronistic as requiring 21st Century students to do all their research in a library, or the assumption that all important student learning takes place in a school building on a school's schedule. Our nation's future economic prosperity will require citizens who can think critically, problem solve, effectively collaborate, adopt the language of new ideas, and employ new technologies that mutate at ever more rapid speeds. the old model will not provide this need.

I have been examining the "leapfrog paradigm" that the The University of Minnesota has embraced to achieve a "Minnesota Miracle' which would radically transform its undergraduate school into one of the best in the world. The project currently exists in the form as a wiki where all stakeholders can contribute to change. I was startled by the general resemblance between Minnesota's call for action and the school culture projects I recommended in my Staff Development proposal. Of course the Minnesota plan was exceedingly more sophisticated and detailed than my fumblings, but still, when I read the the challenges articulated by Arthur Harkins and John Moravec, I mentally substituted my school (MHS) for U. of Minnesota:

• Can MHS shift from industrial/information-age models of human capital preparation to knowledge/innovation models?
  
  
• Can MHS seriously focus on recognizing and developing the uniqueness and variety of [students] through technology-supported, individualized learning services?
  
  
• Can the MHS focus more on student innovations as opposed to context-free testing and rigidly constrained paper topics?
  
  
• Can MHS become more experiential and experimental as it moves toward knowledge based, innovation-supportive learning services?
  
  
• Can MHS provide new subscription networking for its alumni, productively linking them to one another and to . . . students?

Sadly, like many organizations in this brutal recession, my school may be inclined to focus more closely on across the board budget cuts than developing its vision for the future. Our laptop initiative seems to have slipped into an autopilot mode, and I fear that we are losing our advantage to become leaders in educational innovation. During times like these, when it is tempting to hunker down, the leapfrog paradigm has provides me with some real inspiration about what new advancements could be achieved in my own school. What's required in this case is not a cash stimulus, but a major investment of conceptual capital. Let's not be so focused on funding the old that we miss an opportunity to leapfrog.


P.S. March 31 is the Special Olympics' "national day of awareness," a call to Americans to recognize and rethink their use of the word "retard," or as the organization would prefer, the "R-word." Consider clicking your moral support at their Change the Conversation site.
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"Escape from Fairy Tale Land" with kind permission of two very talented young photographers, nikki.jane & amina.be.free

Retiring? NO, Reinventing!

"Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now"
-- from My Back Pages by Bob Dylan

This year, I have frequently been asked the question, "When are you retiring?" The main reason for this question is fairly obvious. My good friend and office mate announced his retirement early this school year. Never mind that I am seven years younger than he is. What with my balding pate, I probably look older. Besides, I have taught 34 years and for many teachers it's "30 and out".

But I'm not remotely ready. As I told Ann J, early this year, I have the sense of being on top of my game like never before. I've always sought change in my professional life. At first it was new preps in the English Department (at least 11 different courses). Then in the mid 1990s I began teaching American Government. And as this blog attests, the latest version of me is that of Web 2.0 evangelist. My new favorite thing to do at school is conducting staff development workshops on the magic tricks which I have discovered. Being selected as an '09 Apple Distinguished Educator is not the culmination of that new obsession, but the beginning of something even more radical and exciting in my life. I'm not sure where it will lead, but certainly not to early retirement. I've never felt more excited about my professional life.

This post was adapted from a recent Facebook note.

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"Carnival Father Time 2" Flickr Creative Commons Photos by dou_ble_uou

QRS Redux

On January 6, I conducted an in-service for fellow teachers on tech time-savers. I followed this up with a presentation called QRS (Quick-Rich-Simple) for the English Department. While in-services are now indefinitely on hold, I'd like to offer another QRS set in this post.

A Published Calendar I wonder if my tech-leery peers know how easy it is to publish a calendar and then link it to Moodle. I'm partial to iCal myself, but I am also familiar with Google Calendar , and it offers many of the same features. I have chosen iCal to provide all my work and personal calendars because...

1) It synchs all my computers as well as my iTouch. Like Google Calendar it thrives in the Cloud.

2) One can easily publish a calendar as an html. Consequently, I can make up a detailed calendar of class assignments, publish it, and then copy & paste to Moodle. Presto, the students can easily consult a calendar that is easily updatable.

Temporary Delicious Tags Ironically I have not exploited the social bookmarking feature of Delicious which has made it so popular. Nevertheless, it is a key feature of my daily computing life. The tag features combined with Firefox Toolbar allow me to place any set of bookmarks one click away. And here's a wonderful teaching application: Suppose that you are prepping for a day's lesson by doing some online research. As you find your charts, graphs, photos; mark them with a unique tag. Later, you access them as a group, edit, and then select pop them into your toolbar for class. If you wish, you can connect to a data projector and share them as you go through your lesson (and/or the kids can subscribe to this unique tag). I use this shortcut all the time in my social studies classes.

iTunes University If you have not done so already, the next time you visit the iTunes Store, check out this marvelous collection of academic lectures. Choose your field, whether it is literature or mathematics and you will find something compelling from one of the world's greatest universities. By and large, these lectures are more suited for a college educated person like you than your students. But for your own edification or enjoyment, you can access them free of charge and then subscribe, download to iPod, or burn to CDs.

Would you like to share a QRS tip on my blog? Email me!

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iTunes University screen capture with Preview, 2/27/09

Goemetrically Progressing by Leaps & Bounds

A few months ago I decided that I would push much harder into tech exploration, but vowed that as I did so, I would make every effort to multiply the effects of my projects.

For example, when I applied to ADE, I upgraded portions of my curriculum. To do so, I learned new software applications, and then conducted in-services on what I learned. When I conducted in-services I blogged about my experiences. When I blogged, I tweeted my posts in order to build my professional network. These events often occurred in tandem instead of step-by-step.

This approach has sustained me very well. It makes me feel more productive, but more importantly, a single failure or dead end is less likely to make me feel as though I am wasting my time. I also find that after 34 years in the classroom, I get bored pretty easily, so I try never to repeat lessons verbatim. My geometric approach allows me to pursue my own professional development in chunks of this and that as I explore, create, and experiment. For the next few months, I have decided to immerse myself enthusiastically in Apple software. I know this will pay off with my courses and I hope it enhances my ability to move into a staff development leadership role at my school. But if the latter path is blocked, I'll simply branch out in another direction. The ADE Summer Institute has the goal of making me an "Advocate, Author, Advisor, and Ambassador". If this comes to fruition, I should have lots of options. Though it's uncertain which direction(s) my career is heading, I could not be more enthused.

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"Octagonal Star Geometric Progression, (backlit) 3 0f 3" Creative Commons Flickr Photo by EricGjerde

Staff Development, Part One

First of Three Parts

I'm preparing some material for a staff development brainstorming session. I'd love to have your input and feedback, too

Overview
Resistance to organizational change is normal but the introduction of IT into a school brings out a pronounced range of behavior. Leavening my personal observations with research, I have divided a typical faculty into four stereotypes:

A) "Pathfinders" In the first category we have the teachers who have embrace technology the way Dona Hickey's great-grandfather embraced electricity: "Hey, that’s for me!". This group is curious and open to the experimentation and implementation of new technologies.

B) "Jumpstarts" This group is willing to consider change, but they are sincerely concerned about striking the right balance between book and byte. Several who voluntarily attended my Jan 6, after school "Tech Shortcuts" in-service would exemplify this type. They are curious and eager, but may lack the impetus for taking the plunge. "Jumpstarts" probably lack confidence that the time they invest in IT will pay dividends. "Time, time, time" is invariably mentioned as an obstacle. At any rate, they have not hit the right "comfort level" to truly integrate the technology into their instruction.

C) "Too Old/Too Late" This group responds to technology with amazement and professes wonder at even superficial incursions that OTHERS are making. But usually they resignedly assert that they are too "old" or "far behind." Often they worry that "computers" create impersonal classrooms pose grave threats to personal privacy. They seem to accept a changing world, but are running out the clock until retirement or until someone magically provides them with a 21st century command center. George Siemen describes their deep seated reserve: "People resist what the technology may represent - change, confusion, loss of control, impersonalization."

D) "Naysayers". This is my gentler term for those Theodore Creighton describes as "Resisters, Sabateurs" who use a broad arsenal of passive-aggressive weapons to slow down change. This type of staff member is a deeper, angrier version of "Too Old,/Too Late". If forced to attend, he or she sits at the back of the room during in-service and shows disdain through body language. As I've noted in "Red Herring" they love to set up false choices between technology and face-to-face learning. This teacher's "sage on stage" identity is threatened by technology. As Bray notes, "they may just be afraid of letting others know what they don't know." To them, the Pathfinders are obnoxious and the administrators amoral. (Creighton supplies an interesting list of ten reasons people resist change).

Observations on Where We've Just Been
My four stereotypes are certainly open to debate, but if one accepts that we have significant numbers of teachers spread across such a wide spectrum, then it is obvious that a one-size-fits-all approach to staff-development will fall short. A presentation directed to the whole staff and aimed at the "middle" may not reach half of the staff.

This year, our school successfully inspired seven "Pathfinders" in a Technology Integration Committee experience . This created a positive ripple effect as Committee in-services enticed "Jumpstarts" (and some "Too Olds"). But we were time-limited to spraying lots of ideas and tricks at attendees, hoping that something would stick (and time will tell if anything did).

The Tech Integration experience was excellent for developing Pathfinders, but going forward, how will this year's group be enlisted in further staff development? In what ways can the integration experience be more pervasive? More to the point, what sort of staff development program can address the "Too Old/Too Late" and "Naysayers" groups so that our students can exploit the terrific advantages of their wireless classrooms?

Come back Monday for Part Two.

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"Technology" Flickr photo with kind permission of zinkwazi

Thank you, Theodore Creighton for reviewing the full document from which this post is adapted.

A Vast Tinker Toy Playland

I have shifted my perspective on curriculum in two major ways. I now think of my courses as Tinker Toys which I construct and then reassemble each time I take out the course and play with it. This is a major conceptual change for me. Previously, I thought of courses as made up of units -- blocks of instruction about the Supreme Court or Hamlet. I strove to construct the perfect combination of activities, assignments, minutes, and days for each unit. A "new prep" meant trying to compile materials for the creation of a product that would serve my students well, semester after semester. This view guided me as I developed my online course in American Government. I set about replacing the prepackaged units of the book with comparable online materials. If you had clicked into Moodle last year, you would have seen giant chunks of postings under broad topics like "The Constitution." But as I recently commented at QRS Gateway, I just finished deconstructing those giant blocks of Moodle, and my curriculum is now far more accessible and dynamic. I can update instantly thanks to the publishing features of iCal and Google Docs which integrate seamlessly with Moodle. More significantly, the hyperlink options of iWork and Google Apps allow for interconnecting the pieces of instruction beyond my wildest Tinker-Toy-on-steroids dreams. I can remix my course with the same delight as creating a new playlist from iTunes.

Secondly, I have fully embraced the idea of the Creative Commons. Instead of seeing my lessons as private treasures, I have literally unlocked everything I have posted to Moodle (no more enrollment key), and I am linking my newest projects to the in-service resources I freely provide to my peers. I have also begun to publish best practices to networks like ALI and CUE. No longer do I see my teaching materials as paper to be filed in the physical world of folders and locked cabinets. My digital curriculum is unbounded by classroom walls and scheduled periods. And the social media I have injected into class projects have enlisted students as co-authors of the lessons. My reason for sharing is not based on arrogant presumption or simple altruism. It is driven by my confidence that I possess a unique combination of knowledge and skills that make my teaching special, not the materials. I am changing and learning. As I do, I feel more alive and essential than ever.

Using Mp3s in Education

Staff In service Presentation