Texting toward Gomorrah?

I read a recent blog in Education TechNews about student texting.  It cited a study from Case Western Reserve whichindicated that

• 20% of Cleveland high school students are “hyper-texters”, sending and receiving more than 120 messages a day.
  
• Hyper texters “are more likely to engage in sex and use alcohol and drugs.”

The blogger muses that “banning phones (and thereby texting) at school may curtail potentially harmful behavior after school.”  I had a couple of reactions to this:

1) I think students (and many adults) are obsessive about their mobiles.  Their need to stay connected through texting or other forms of social media does interfere with face-to-face communication and leads to other bad habits. I teach in a 1-1 school, and while we still ban mobiles from classrooms, I’ve found that  at critical times I’ve been forced to ask students to close their laptops, because even though they are avid electronic communicators, they cannot be relied upon to check online assignment calendars or even their school email.  It’s a strange paradox, but I’m not ready to say, “anything goes” in terms of permitting students to be plugged in every minute of every school day.

2) I am somewhat skeptical about a cause and effect relationship in the correlation between hyper texting and sexual activity, drinking, drug use.  I am guessing that “banning phones” during the school day will have negligible effect on reducing such behavior.  After all, the technology is already deeply embedded in the culture, and I find that adults in my professional development groups are as likely to get distracted by their screens as my students.

I think we are talking about a life skill, here.  As a culture we could benefit greatly from learning a code of behavior related to our mobiles:   What is socially impolite?  How do I know when I am offending others?  How did we signal by our social cues that it’s time for others to unplug?  How can we recognize these cues.  Ideally, what is called for is a school culture that reinforces good habits rather than a special course that “teaches” these skills or rules that simply try to shut usage down.  

What do you think?

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Flickr CC photo by Jamie Heimbuch

Hail to the Chief!

Since Howard Dean's campaign for president in 2004, I have been fascinated with netroots politics. After dazzling onlookers with his ability to raise funds and organize volunteers online, Dean wiped out. But Barack Obama’s took online campaigning to a new level, and his election has installed the first new media administration the Executive Branch. Consequently, the White House web site has now become a valuable resource to me.


My American Government Students learn that the presidency is several different authorities, responsibilities and symbolic functions wrapped into one. I am using the online resources of the Obama administration to illustrate these roles. First, I downloaded pdfs, podcasts, and videos for this purpose. I have used Apple tools (Preview, GarageBand, iMovie) to create screen captures and clips and then placed them into a multimedia slide presentation. The slide show vividly portrays the president playing out his various functions.

I think the White House site also serves as a perfect example of how social media has become a conduit for vital information. It is clear that organizations large and small are assuming that global consumers/citizens will want to be informed and updated through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and iTunes. Showing this as a key priority of the 21st Century presidency helps to make my case to educators that they are obligated to help students access and evaluate new media.

I’ve created a short QuickTime movie to demonstrate how I will be using the digital presidency as a classroom resource and to enhance my professional development presentations. Please check it out!

"Hail to the Chief" Multimedia Demo

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Demo created with Apple Keynote

Parent Night, Multimedia Style

Like most schools we have an open house early in the school year. Ours is called "Parents Night", which primarily involves the parents following their daughter's schedule , spending about ten minutes with each teacher.

We generally have a good turnout, so most of us try to bring our "A" game. In recent years, I've tried to add some flavor. When digital photo frames were new, I took a photo of each student in my home room group and had the frame running when their folks came by. Last year I used iPhoto and projected the album on screen with a data projector. This show was accompanied by music as the parents arrived. I could tell most folks liked it.

But last night, I went much farther. In addition to the photo slideshow for homeroom, I created a Keynote presentation for each class. The first slide is a photo of the class. This was easy to manage, because everyone was enthusiastic about being photographed on the first day of school. The slideshows took a couple of hours to whip up-- a little longer because I included some audio files. Here's a pdf version (sorry, no audio).

Parent Night Slideshow

Why take the trouble to do this instead of just showing up and giving my spiel as usual? Because, indeed, the medium is the message. I wanted the presentation to be dynamic and memorable. I wanted to give the parents of taste of why I am trying to crank up the technology in their daughter's class.

As it turned out, I will definitely do it again. Amazingly, the presentations had almost perfect timing (pure luck). And the parents were pretty darned locked in. Next time around I will do the "about me" segment as a quick animation build and focus more of my very limited time on the curriculum. I think it's quite likely that I can reuse much of the formatting and even some of the slides, next year. Bottom line: The extra time prepping for "Parents' Night" was time well spent.

My Ed Tech Manifesto (part 1)-- Creeping toward Connectivism)

I have never really contemplated my "educational philosophy." Even on my first job applications out of college, I fudged that section, blurring principles with methods. This is in part because I am a practical person. I'm willing to compromise and change course. When I coached basketball, I adapted my approach to the players rather than teach them my offensive or defensive "philosophy".

Also, my formal introduction into educational philosophy and was a bit of a disaster. Rebounding from the Sixties, my profs were all about completely open schools and Teaching as a Subversive Activity. Once my grad assistant teachers simply brought two children to our class, and we watched them play for half an hour. The profound lesson of this escaped me. I think it had something to do with not letting these poor innocents become just another brick in the wall.

So why would I start musing about educational philosophy in my thirty-fifth year of teaching? Well, as usual for me these days, it's the unintended consequence of my tech activities. Through the Fall of '08, I had been consumed with the classroom ramifications of the read/write Web. Then, in winter '09, I grappled with writing a staff development proposal for our tech integration committee. In it I called for changing the school culture by establishing school wide social media"projects":

Staff would engage in the same kinds of collaboration experiences we wish to provide our students. And really, if the school is committed to the program, no one should be exempt through special pleading of being "too busy."

Since writing those words I came across a statement by faire alchemist that nailed what I was going for:

. . . .computers have been around for a long time. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the network itself. We're talking about the paradigm of immediate global connection. [We need to] engage this thing for the benefit of the students who are already living their own lives in this digital domain,

When I was drafting my staff development plan I shot it off to several experts, requesting feedback. A thoughtful, nuanced reply came from George Siemens. His paradigm of "connectivism"-- hit me right between the eyes. . . .and is the subject of part 2 (September 16 post).

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"Skirt on a Box Bike" Flickr Creative Commons photo by Mark Stosberg

Why Blog?

When I first started blogging at the Drive-thru, my intended focus was political. I suppose I intended to air out the issues of the day, spark debate, and gather an audience. That didn't last long. I simply didn't feel like I was adding much new to the topics that had already been chewed over before I got to them.

When I shifted the Drive-thru to an instructional technology focus, I still hungered for an audience and hoped to-- at least within my own building-- foster discussion on a subject that had really captured my imagination. I track my readership numbers pretty carefully and feel a special surge of motivation when the posts attract comments. But I have come to realize that blogging has important value to me regardless of how widely it is read or how much social interaction it generates.

Blogging actually helps me stay committed to my experiments." While not exactly a matter of "keeping me honest", the public record created by blogging helps me to carry out my intentions. If I mention at the Drive-thru that I am trying a new techie trick, invariably I report back, even if I wiped out. Being willing to risk and experience those failures is critical to innovation.

Blogging on a regular schedule also encourages me to read more widely and turn over more rocks, looking for posting ideas. It encourages me to try new tools and pilot new strategies in the classroom. In this way, feeding the blog has actually contributed to my professional development.

Most importantly, like a journal, the writing in the Web log forces me to think hard about what I believe about education. Next week, I am returning to my three posts a week schedule (M,W,F) and I am going to begin with a three part "manifesto" of what amounts to my ed tech philosophy. Certainly this is not a subject likely to increase my readership, but it's been a great mental exercise. With over a hundred ed tech blog posts under my belt, I am ready to bite off and chew some educational philosophy at the Drive-thru.

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"We Love Blog" Flickr Creative Commons photo by kawade

Food for Thought

Lots of time to read online this summer. Here are some nuggets from my reading. Food for thought.

NCTE Tries to Define 21st-C Writing--- lol

NCTE is trying to wrap their arms around, and control, informal writing styles that predominate Web 2.0 and are labeling them unacceptable. They state that the new generation are learning from,"extracurricular social co-apprenticeship." A term like this will have a typical 16 year old heading for the hills with their iPhones! :-) This sounds like an organization feeling a loss of control trying to control a social phenomenon. Good luck with that.

If We Could Start Over, What Would We Build?

In the networked learning communities of the future, expert learners (we call them teachers, educators, scientists, and researchers today) are going to be recognized for their ability to learn and help others learn, as they continue to construct new knowledge and develop their own expertise.

Why Do I Hate Paper?

Ideas brought forth in a dynamic environment should not be 'written on paper', in the symbolic sense. In other words, they should not be thought of as singular and final products to be graded and filed away; rather, ideas are always in flux and current to debate and change and this is a good thing, an innovative thing, and cooperative interactive online docs with no fixed 'due date' are more natural to use in this environment of thinking -- that is they are more an extension of this type of thinking -- than a piece of paper kept in one's folder smooshed in the grimy depths of one's bookbag could ever be.

Bobb Boots out Top DPS Executives

Our goal is to transform the central office. . . .We want it to be the center of support, not the center of attention for our schools.

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"Food for Thought" Flickr photo available with permission by aporter

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

Blogging on Podcasts

The final "project" that my AP American Government class completed is worth mentioning because it produced excellent results and is easily adaptable to a variety of subject areas. It was conducted entirely outside of classroom time, and the kids really liked it.

Students were asked to independently view a documentary film which related to our course. They were then required to produce a ten minute podcast which included a summary and dealt with such areas as

*Did the director betray any biases?

* What important things did you learn from the film?

* Name one or more weaknesses of the film.

* Would you recommend this film to others? On what basis? Explain.

The podcasts were uploaded to an iWeb podcast page. Students were then randomly assigned to review two of their classmates' podcasts and blog the reviews at the site. Here were the instructions for writing the reviews:

1. Whose podcast did you review and what was its length?

2. Was the main theme of the film explained clearly? What did you understand the main theme to be.?

3. How was the general pacing of the broadcast? Was the volume satisfactory? Did the student seem prepared?

4. Did the broadcaster seem informed and confident? Explain.

5. Describe at least two important facts or arguments that the student provided.

6. Did the film sound interesting? What came across as its strengths and weaknesses.

7. What other information about the film did you glean and/or what other stylistic points about the presentation were noteworthy?

The exercise produced excellent blogs, and once again I found that podcasting produced excellent writing. (Just listen to Allegra's superb review of The War Room).

The students responded to the transparency of the work and sampled each other's work beyond the requrirements. Each watched a worthwhile film, and quite possibly some have been enticed to watch a few more that their peers recommended.

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P.S. If you missed it due to the holiday, take a peek at "Rick's Off to College Computing Tips" and forward link to families of graduating high school seniors. The post now followed by some worthwhile commentary from college students.

Education "Suicide Watch" (with apologies to Frank Rich)

Dramatic blog title? It's not totally off the wall. As a resident of Southeastern Michigan I have been following the wrenching decline, diminution, and possible deaths of GM and Chrysler with anxiety and fascination. When an acquaintance from Massachusetts referred to this process as "creative destruction", I considered it callous, even offensive.

On the other hand, I think I have been guilty of the same emotional distance as I have followed the Newspaper Death Watch. I spoke often and openly with the journalism students in my AP Government classes about their pursuit of a rapidly evaporating dream.

I was jolted out of my emotional disconnect from old media death-throes when the Ann Arbor News suddenly announced it would cease publication in July. Grandfather Baker worked for Booth newspapers his entire career and ultimately became editor of the Ann Arbor News. The end of the paper seems a slight against his memory.

But the problem seems so obvious, doesn't it? How could the a business model based on the processing and physical delivery of ink-on-tree-pulp to the nation's doorsteps be sustainable? The high-speed internet kicks the traditional newspaper's butt on the all important issues of immediacy and cost. But naturally, many of us are concerned real journalism will die along with the old media. Might this not have dire consequences for our democracy?

In Sunday's New York Times (which I read online of course) Frank Rich reflects on these very issues. In a piece entitled "The American Press on Suicide Watch" he chronicles the industry's "self-destructive retreat from innovation" and suggests that newspapers might survive this technological revolution, just as the movies adjusted to tv and music evolved in a post-Napster world. His darkest concerns focus on the future of investigative journalism and the inability of "blogs" to substitute for true reporting:

Opinions, however insightful or provocative and whether expressed online or in print or in prime time, are cheap. Reporting the news can be expensive. Some of it — monitoring the local school board, say — can and is being done by voluntary “citizen journalists” with time on their hands, integrity and a Web site. But we can’t have serious opinions about America’s role in combating the Taliban in Pakistan unless brave and knowledgeable correspondents (with security to protect them) tell us in real time what is actually going on there. We can’t know what is happening behind closed doors at corrupt, hard-to-penetrate institutions in Washington or Wall Street unless teams of reporters armed with the appropriate technical expertise and assiduously developed contacts are digging night and day.

Personally, I think the best chance of something like our old newspapers surviving is Kindle. Last week Amazon introduced the Kindle DX, which may set the standard for newspapers, magazines, and books the way iTunes has done for digital music.

What does any of this have to do with education? Much. In the short term, teachers can enjoy the tremendous windfall of free information being provided by old media as it offers free content online in order to lure advertising . Without this free-for-all my digital anthology project would be much more difficult.

But how different is the education "old school" mind set from "old mainstream media" titans who steered their industry into the rocks. "Old school"continues to privilege ink-on-paper, brick and mortar, one teacher to 30 students. Administrators treat school calendars and schedules as sacredly as the old-time newspaper editors treated "deadlines".

But news doesn't stop happening at deadlines and learning doesn't stop when the bell rings. Most in the ed establishment still conceive of teaching as something that happens when an old guy like me stands in front of students at desks and delivers lectures from the podium. For them, "technology" means the old guys does death-by-PowerPoint instead of death by chalkboard.

Since education is so heavily subsidized by public funds, it's not on the verge of dying as my teaser implies. But how can we suppose that a process so stale and outmoded can contribute to a thriving society which competes in a flat world of rapid change? We risk a great deal by clinging to the old ways.

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"Old Man with Newspaper" Flickr Creative Commons photo by andreas.plesnik

A Digital Anthology for Poli Sci (or any course!)

Sometimes I blog and wonder if my words make any impact. Then I am comforted by the thought that one reader often takes the words to heart. . . . Me!

This happened again recently after I posted Teaching Literature Unbound. In it I described Jim Burke's Weekly Reader-- A Digital Anthology. Afterwards, I found myself musing about the types of lit I might include for an English class. Then I hit on the realization of how valuable a digital anthology would be for my AP Government and Politics class.

I have have always included a "reader" companion to the text for this course. Typically it costs about fifty bucks. And even though I regularly order newer editions, many of the articles typically seem dated in even the newest collections. A digital "reader" could be current, free, and include multi-media.

Since having this brain storm I have thrown myself into the project. I've drawn from four main sources so far:

Academic and news articles-- Gale Student Resource Center

Video Lectures-- Academic Earth & NY Times Video Library

Podcasts-- iTunes U

I am using Google Docs to collate my materials. The hyperlink feature (see Hyperlink Heaven) allows me to pull all the resources into one space. After seven years I have a pretty clear idea of the kinds of topics I want to include for my students. As I pull together the resources, I also compose critical thinking topics, which I compose in a different color text)

Next school year, besides saving my students fifty dollars, I will break by anthology into course packs which correspond to each unit. Students will have direct links to the resources with attendant topics to write, vlog, blog about (according to instructions).

From the teacher's point of view, the anthology can continually be refreshed and tailored exactly to each year's course.

If you have suggestions, please comment. If you would like to see a section of my anthology, just shoot me an email: labcbake@umich.edu

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Screen Capture of "Academic Earth". Thanks to our Jonell, our Dean of Students, for passing this link along.

Why Twitter?

Our after school in-services have been placed in moth balls, but I was musing the other day about what topic I might choose if I were to present one tomorrow. The answer? Twitter. My AP students make Twitter jokes to me because they know I am a slappy about it. But they, like most people who haven't engaged in "tweeting" don't get it. Since Oprah got with the program many "journalists", like Maureen Dowd of the Times and Mitch Albom of WJR have expressed bemusement by it. They don't get it either. Folks use it for many reasons, but I find that Twitter is wonderfully adaptable to individual needs. It may not be for you, but if you are in education, I recommend trying this hot micro-messaging network for the following reasons:

* Twitter provides me with stimulating professional reading. After a month of refining who I "followed" on Twitter, I filtered my stream to include a set of educators from around the world who were making great recommendations of blogs, articles, applications, etc. that have become about 95% of my professional reading. The more I filter this set (I cap "following" at 100), the better my information stream becomes.

*Twitter is a rich source of ideas. I could not post to this blog three times a week without Twitter. Since my network is so diverse, I am constantly exposed outside-the-box ideas that I could not be exposed to any other way. I have fun (or vent) on Facebook, but I learn much more through Twitter.

*Twitter is a way to connect with others who share your unique interests. I can tweet my Web 2.0 fascination out of my system on Twitter, and I am reassured by those I follow, that others out there who feel the same passion.

*Twitter is very low maintenance if you wish it to be. I check in on Twitter three or four times a day, but usually for brief intervals. The profile page is very limited and basic so there is little upkeep. It is a much less self-conscious style of interaction than Facebook.

*Twitter is less personal than Facebook, so there are no social consequences for unfollowing a person. (I only know about 5% of my Twitter friends personally). Most users don't select privacy settings, so you can "follow" another person without asking permission. And if someone follows you, there is no obligation to reciprocate.

*As I discussed in "Back Channeling. . . .", Twitter is often used at conferences by attendees to communicate with each other about presentations, sometimes while they are under way. This is adding an entirely new dimension to these events.

*I am amazed by how often Twitter is first with the "news" of something big going on in the world or small going on in Web 2.0.

*Twitter is an easy way to float an idea to get feedback or develop an online audience. As I write, I am up to 95 followers. I tweet whenever I post a blog. Unsurprisingly, my blog readership has grown with my Twitter following (and they are the types of readers I want!).

*After you have acquired a following of your own, Twitter can be a great way to get a quick answer to question you may have. Suppose you were a history teacher who had networked with others like yourself. You could pose a quick question about a resource, method, or fact; and get instant answers in return.

If you decide to try it, be patient. Most folks find that it take 3 weeks or so to get a feel for it. The best way to network is to check out who the people with your interests are following and then follow them yourself.

I enjoy the jokes about Twitter and make plenty myself. But for me, it has been more than a passing fad. If you join follow me @labcbaker

The Drive-thru will continue to publish on Monday,Wednesday, Friday for the rest of the school year.
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"Ode to Twitter...." Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Thomas Hawk

Building Virtual Audiences for Students

Teachers' Lounge Series, part 4 of 4

Ron and I were talking about podcasting several months ago, and during the course of our conversation he inquired about my course web sites. He expressed an interest in developing a drama department site, and I've been nagged by the thought ever since. My course sites were pretty easy to develop with Apple's iWeb-- It's user friendly and I had several months experience.

I think course web sites are important because 1) They allow a much better view of the class than a mere paper syllabus. 2) People simply expect to get detailed information online these days. I think a 1:1 computing school like mine should put as much well designed information on the Web as possible.

In creative areas like drama this seems particularly desirable. But why should it be on the drama, poetry, or music teacher to design and maintain the site? Shouldn't a school's community resources be used to actively support the efforts of our artistic teachers and students as they try to build their audiences?

As I've argued in "Tooting Your Horn", students respond to performance and since those outside our walls are coming to expect information about us at their fingertips, why not show them the best of ourselves? To illustrate how effective this can be, I've found four different high school sites that I would hold up as examples.

I loved the student art portfolios at the Conestoga H.S. site. It is my impression that the department has taken the initiative to archive its students work this way. Most extraordinarily, it appears that each student has designed her own page with links, so the media itself communicates the message of this department being exceptional.

The Parkview High School drama site is absolutely packed with production photos and slide shows. I would have loved to see some video, but obviously they are exhibiting their students in the next best way. Northampton High School Theater Net appears to be a beautiful work in progress. Simple tools have been used to create an elegant design for a site packed with information. They are beginning a wiki, which contains a very interesting layout. Imagine how such a wiki could accommodate student memories of their experience with a play or club at your school.

The Wooster High School Music Department won't perhaps win any awards for design, but I was blown away by how much actual music I could find there. What is more, the site contains very creative ways to make connections with members and alumni. I loved the "history" page and the way bios of middle school teachers are included on the staff page. The site is dynamic and fun. If I had a young child in the district I would conclude that my child would have a great experience if he or she were part of this program.

I have a couple of reflections before I conclude this topic that I keep pounding like a drum (see vlog/blogs and Staff Development, part 3). First, I'm in two departments which work very hard at our school's open houses to recruit students. Yet, in both we lay out our texts in order exhibit what we are doing. It seems to me that exhibiting our students' accomplishments gives far greater testimony of how we stand out. Secondly, I recently sought waivers from a few parents in order to exhibit their kids' videoes online. One student told me that her dad had balked. Fine, except this same student had been recently featured in our major daily newspaper with photographs, and unlike my exhibit, with full name and personal information. I think both examples indicate that many of us still cling to printed paper as a privileged way to communicate. From here in the trenches this seems irrational and the sooner we take advantage of broadcasting our students' achievements ourselves, the better.

As I postscript, I note that I am interested in starting a Web Design club at our school to help folks like Ron show off the fabulous work that his department does. I envision club members could benefiting from mentoring by alumni and parents in our school's extended community. I already have a prospective partnership with a web design ace-- my friend, Rick (Who will be guest blogging on these pages soon).

But to tell you the truth, I am skeptical about pulling this off. Ambitious projects like these need the support and encouragement of folks throughout entire school. I think we all have to embrace the reality of the communications revolution and make the vey best of it.

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"E.E.D.L.M.V." Exhibition by moi Creative Commons photo courtesy by Simon Pais-Thomas

Transcending Words (and copyright!)

Teachers' Lounge Series, part 3 of 4

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language. - Herbie Hancock

I'm sure our great art teacher, Susan, wonders how she got dragged into this blog. But if she had not asked a question about copyright and music she would not have launched my adventure into the realm of Creative Commons music. This has been one of those fun Web 2.0 experiences where I learned to use cool tools while searching for content (see Geometrically Progressing. . . .).

Well, I basically ducked Susan's question which concerned student use of "all rights reserved" copyright music. By staying within the Creative Commons we all are quite welcome to take, use, mix, mash music files; usually with the mere stipulation that we credit the artist. Over the past few weeks I have acquired a collection of interesting CC music. This is very easy to do with iTunes. On the info tab of a music file, I always enter "Creative Commons" as my Grouping. This way with a couple of clicks, I can create a "Smart Playlist, locating the style that I might want to legally use for a project.

Presently, I am adding to my music library through Magnatune. This site presents music by commercial artists. For example, I recently downloaded a piece by Barry Phillips, whose cello music appears in Ken Burns projects. This piece is called, Polska fran Glava, and one can easily imagine how a student might use it for a slide show or movie. Magnatune customizes licenses for commercial use, but maintains a generous policy towards downloading music for non-commercial and student use. I subscribe to a daily download that's emailed each day. If I like it, I add it to my library. These tracks end with a narrative clip describing the piece, but this is easy to clip with Audacity or GarageBand. Magnatune is search-friendly and provides detailed information about the artists.

PodsafeAudio has music by independent musicians which is royalty free. I found a nice guitar piece by Lawrence Creswell that I have used as a thematic intro for some of my podcasts. Called Water Bug Dance, it has an NPR kind of sound. I found it more difficult to search for and find quality music on this site, but it's all free and copyright safe.

If students are looking for copyright-free sound effects, Free-Loops.com is a fun site. Again, all of the sound loops are licensed under Creative Commons. After downloading the WAV files, they can be dragged into Audacity or GarageBand and then added to a student's creations. Here's an example called, Chime Clock Sound. There is a terrific selection of loops for a person seeking to create his or her own music mix. While I am more than satisfied by the huge set that comes with GarageBand, I still like poking around Free-Loops. I strung together recurrent loops of Red Bass and started dancing around the kitchen until my wife made me stop.

If you or your students are into sampling, remixing and mash-ups, ccMixter "is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want." Sample packs and a capellas are available for free download and the quality is consistently good. Podcasters and movie makers can browse among some interesting remixes. I suggest starting with with Editors' Picks, where I found, Short Fuses Burn Long Bridges, by William Berry, who creates a very original sound. Many of the selections take a capella vocals and surround them with trance or club music.

I'm looking forward to dabbling with this stuff and sharing my new interest with some of my students. Unlike me, they might actually be able to come up with something artistic!

On Friday, Part 4 of this series-- Building Virtual Audiences for Students
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"Narumi [HPP] by me" Flickr photo with kind permission of p o m

The Digital Natives Aren't that Restless

As I bounce from tweet to tweet and blog to blog these days, I bump into presumptions about students and technology are at odds with my experience “in the trenches.” Constructionist gurus would have us suppose that A) Kids today are fabulously techno-savvy in the way their elders are not. B) If only we would reach kids through social media their zest for learning would ignite and they will hurl themselves at society’s problems, hell-bent to solve them. It's time for some balance.

Sorry for the downer, but I find that students often treat Web 2.0 activities as, well, assignments. At my school, where we have a one-to-one HP Tablet program, even a group of supposedly college prep sophomores will get bogged down in a simple matter like registering for a Google account, let alone, setting up a Google Site or Blogger. And many, when they get frustrated, simply stop in their tracks (so much for their intoxication with technology), demanding instant help, (“It’s not working, It’s not working....”). This same kind of impatience marks their searches rather than the intuition, judgement, and perseverance we might expect from “digital natives”. They will announce they “can’t find it”. Of course this is not the case for a majority, and, yes, some students dive right into the tech (and help others). But the online dimension in and of itself does not assure motivation or deep engagement for a large segment of students. Designing a project that takes into account such a broad spectrum of attitudes and skills is no easy matter.

I had a conversation with my AP class on the supposed tech generation gap. In their opinion their grandparents better fit the stereotype of the without-a-clue adult than their parents. They noted that many moms or dads were glued to Blackberries and iPhones. Though the parents weren’t Facebook junkies like their kids, they too were heavy texters, and in some cases participated in professional social networks. Of course most of the parents were compelled to learn tech skills by their jobs.

I think we teachers perpetuate the urban myth of the tech generation gap due to our own peculiar myopia. We can trudge up the salary scale despite resisting innovation. And it will probably be the newer, more tech adroit teachers who get laid off when budgets get cut. The national emphasis on standards-based testing also mitigates against innovation.

I am completely convinced that American students must learn to access information and communicate with the latest tools. This won’t happen if “grandparent” teachers / administrators don’t embrace the new and create learning environments that prepare our kids to take their places in the global community. This calls for a real cultural change up and down the educational system. Contrary to some popular notions, this will be far more daunting than plugging our tech-savvy kids into Web 2.0 , and letting their curiosity and skills power the curriculum. There are huge issues confronting the educational system, which are conceptual, not generational. A critical mass of "grandparents" of all ages stands to hinder acceptance of and adaptation to the tremendous communications revolution we are experiencing. Students, teachers, and administrators who "get it" need to be nurtured, and moved to the head of the class or a hard rain is gonna fall.

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"Sleeping Student" photo with kind permission of Tapasparida

Who Says You Can't Tweet in a Blog?

If you don't "follow me" on Twitter you have not been privy to these "retweets", so I'll share these gems here:

Newspapers & Thinking the Unthinkable I have been following the rapid demise of daily newspapers with morbid interest. This blog by Clay Shirky is the best piece I have examined on the subject. When you read it, imagine that he is discussing how the communications revolution is changing schools rather than newspapers:

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. . . . When reality is labeled unthinkable, it creates a kind of sickness in an industry. Leadership becomes faith-based, while employees who have the temerity to suggest that what seems to be happening is in fact happening are herded into Innovation Departments, where they can be ignored en masse.

Card Catalog, 2008

Artist Tim Schwartz has made a wonderful visual statement about the old order of organizing information colliding with the new. Visit his brief performance video and watch him open his seven foot card catalog drawer of 7390 iPod songs organized in reverse chronological order of how recently he listened to them.

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PBS Teachers

If you are curious about digital education, but the terrain simply seems to alien to you, I recommend that you register at the PBS site and investigate their projects, networks, and professional development links. This well-designed, familiar location allows the teacher to focus on materials for all grade levels and disciplines. The materials and strategies range from the very basic to the highly sophisticated. I have placed the Media Infusion blog in my RSS reader. The March post, Mashups, Remixes, and Web 2.0: Playing Fast and Loose with Shakespeare contained several fascinating suggestions for using Web 2.0 in order to explore one of my favorite plays. I particularly liked the following idea:

Illuminating a passage from a play with hypertext is a basic way to get students to do a close reading of a passage. In the process of selecting and hyperlinking the perfect image, audio or video clip, or Website, students tell me that they focus on the words in the text in a way they never would by merely reading it.

Whether you teach Math or English, elementary or high school this site will almost surely offer you a gem like this as well.
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Screen capture of "Card Catalog 2008" with permission of Tim Schwartz

Groovin' with My Favorite iTunes Artist-- ME!

Several weeks ago, Andy Mann briefed students, teachers, and parents at our school on social media issues . After meeting with faculty, he and I had some time to talk Web 2.0 shop. He showed me a number of interesting web sites and I shared what I had been doing with Moodle. The subject of audio files came up, and he casually mentioned how great it was to podcast using GarageBand.

For the past two years I have really enjoyed using podcasts in my classes and extra-curriculars. But for each of these activities I have been reliant on creating mp3s by telephone. Recollecting what Andy had mentioned, I decided to embark on a new podcast project using GarageBand. What a blast!

My Lit into Film students recently submitted detailed notes on two films for the purpose of comparing and contrasting them in a later paper. Rather than jot my feedback in red pen, I decided to try podcasting and then emailing my audio reactions to the students. Click to listen to one of these podcasts. If you have iTunes the mp4 will go right into your library. I only mention this because as I noticed as I was creating my twenty-five podcasts that I was loading my iTunes with .... me!

Podcasting and emailing took some time at first, but I thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace and the opportunity to really explain my reactions rather than scrawling cryptic written phrases. Besides, after I got the hang of it, I could make and send a detailed mp4 in ten minutes. The students appreciated receiving much more feedback than they would have gotten, conventionally. And as a bonus I was introduced to GarageBand, which has been ignored on my personal computers for three years. No longer!

Two last comments: 1) Podcasting was particularly suited as an evaluative tool for this assignment because general remarks were appropriate. 2) I am going to introduce Audacity to my government classes soon, so that they can have an experience similar to mine for our coming project. I'll post on that experience in a month or so.

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jpgs: "Doofus at Leisure" taken by Chris Baker & GarageBand '09 screen capture.

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

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