"Too Busy" to be Engaged and other Paradoxes

Flickr CC Photo by Jeff Hester

I write this post with no anger, some frustration, and much bewilderment.  This year at my school we used a staff wiki for staff collaboration and sharing.  I truly believe that this became a viable place for sharing documents and achieving at least a modicum of collaboration.  I would give us an A-.


One feature of the wiki was a "forum" for discussing issues related to tech integration, professional development through "cluster groups", and conversation about Tony Wagner's "Seven Survival Skills".   As I write this today, the forum has received 435 posts.  "Success!" one might say.  Except this number has not budged for weeks, now.  Earlier in the year, I was flogging participation in the forums through my professional development group and deliberately trying to provoke conversation with statements I hoped would produce responses.  At one point, the principal urged participation in an all-staff email.  Then, it happened-- outspoken backlash-- at me!  In one of my groups there was outrage about the forum participation being forced on people.   


I get this. First of all, I don't like being told to do things, either.  And meaningful conversation can't be forced.  Also, they were "too busy" to have this additional obligation. However, during a school year, it is nearly impossible to schedule such conversations face-to-face.  Most of the threads concerned core educational issues.  


Now, here's another irony:  At the end of the school year, a very genuine colleague pulled me aside and told me she had been reading through posts in the forum and thought them so valuable that she hoped we wouldn't "lose" the ideas expressed there.  She sadly noted that only three or four persons-- always the same ones-- were having the recent conversations.  This was quite true.  But hers was not one of these voices!


I'm really not sure about the future of the forum.  If only a handful of us are going to discuss, it's sort of silly to do it this way.  On the other hand, I don't want to give up.  I thought we had reached a tipping point this year, but my guess is that the only way to rev up discussions online is to kindle them in a face-to-face context (like a faculty meeting) first.  But I right now I am pretty skeptical about even reaching the 435 post mark now that the novelty has worn off.   


Currently, I am having some very nice experiences with conversations through a wiki about specific projects.  That is obviously a key, but I still find I have to put considerable energy into getting them started.  Any insights or suggestions?

Spring Time with M-Hub

I recently sent out this missive to the friends of M-Hub, our online project for networking students with adult experts within our high school learning community.

Lest you think that M-Hub has fallen by the wayside, I thought I would give you an update on our feverish behind the scenes activity:

We are now working directly with the school web designer on the web site for M-Hub.  Our leadership team developed the home page and essential additional pages.  He did not blink when the girls asked for assorted bells & whistles, but their proposals were thought through with intelligence and careful consideration in regard to how first time visitors might respond.  They are intent on creating a clean, user-friendly environment.

Some of M-Hub's finest!

On April 18, two teams of students met under the supervision of Susan Smith, alumna and Art Department Chair.  They designed features for our student profile page and data collection page (The one that we will be inviting many of you to visit in the near future).  I passed their ideas on to the web designer who has already installed them on the site.

Essentially, there was much more work and planning for the web infrastructure than we ever imagined, but thanks to the terrific support of Will Gervais (Administration) and Julie Earle (Advancement), we remain undaunted and have made amazing progress in creating a site that is surpassing our wildest dreams.

Obviously, we still lack data before M-Hub can be rolled out as a useful networking tool for our students.  So that will be an immense task for Fall.  Then, attendant upon that chore, we will have a major educational task for members of our learning community.  But we have every reason to believe that M-Hub can be operational for the 2011-12 school year.  

Some final notes:

* Those of you who participated in our Zoomerang beta-test made a very valuable contribution to this year's progress.

* The M-Hub Project has remained student-driven.  What you will eventually see will be the result of a marvelous collaboration between our dedicated students and various adults they have tapped for expertise.  The goal of M-Hub is "to help MHS students build learning networks which leverage technology."  Essentially, building M-Hub has provided this very type of experience.

* We are trying to be foresighted in terms of creating a basic site to which modules can be added if M-Hub becomes as robust as we hope.

* School Administration has given unqualified support to our venture.  They have encouraged the girls every step of the way.

Thanks for your interest and support,

L.

So Who "Teaches" Social Media"?

An interesting moment occurred in a recent professional development meeting.  We were agreeing that we all liked a student (CBL) challenge that began, "Use social media to convince . . . ."  This was direct, punchy, clear, actionable -- all the qualities that one could want at the heart of a Challenge Based Learning project.  But then I asked how the "social media" piece would be contextualized.  In other words, what kind of instruction about social media would the teachers give their minions before setting them loose.

It's fair to say there was an uncomfortable pause.

I think some of us  assume that the students have lots of savvy about social media. But in fact while many tool around merrily on Tumblr, Facebook, or YouTube, they have never been asked to market something or persuade someone using these tools.  They go as consumers for entertainment, photo-swapping, chat. One teacher wistfully hoped that 9th graders might be able to take a social media through a course.  However, I think most of us could see that something so pervasive as social media has to be addressed across the curriculum.

So we have lots more to discuss.  If you do as well, please join the conversation at the Drive-thru!

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Flickr CC photo by Ivan Walsh

Four Friday Quotes from TED

Lots of people are used to having a spiritual tribe or a church tribe , a work tribe, a community tribe. But now thanks to the internet, the explosion of mass media . . . . Tribes are everywhere. The internet was supposed to homogenize everyone by connecting us all. Instead, what it's allowed is silos of interest. . . .People on the fringes can find each other, connect and go somewhere. . . .What we do for a living now, all of us, I think, is find something worth changing and then assemble tribes that spread the idea [until it] becomes something far bigger than ourselves. It becomes a movement.

Seth Godin, The Tribes We Lead, TED Talk, Feb. 2009

Organizations designed around a culture of generosity can achieve enormous effects without an enormous amount of contractual overhead-- a very different model than our default model for large scale group action from the Twentieth Century.

Clay Shirky, How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World, TED Talk, June. 2010

The story that Americans tell, the story upon which the American Dream depends, the story of limitless choice. . .promises so much-- freedom, happiness, success. . . . It's a great story, but when you take a close look, you start to see the holes. . . . Americans have so often tried to disseminate their narrative of choice. . . .but the history book and the daily news tell us it does not always work out that way. No single narrative serves the needs of everyone, everywhere. Moreover, Americans theme selves could benefit from incorporating new perspectives into their own narrative, which have been driving their choices for so long. . . . It brings us so much closer to realizing the full potential of choice, to inspiring the hope and achieving the freedom that choice promises but doesn't always deliver.

Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing TED Talk, July. 2010

There are things that we are enthralled to in education . . . one of them is linearity. It starts here, and you go through a track, and if you do everything right, you will end up set for the rest of your life. . . . We have become obsessed with this linear narrative. . . .[However,] human communities depend on a diversity of talent, not a single conception.

Sir Kenneth Robinson, Bring on the Learning Revolution, TED Talk, May. 2010

Sarah on Social Media

Like Sarah, I used to think that social media such as Facebook only had utility only as a way for far-flung friends to stay in touch, share pictures, chatter about social life One could also amuse oneself and others by developing a clever and/or self-effacing persona.

Twitter changed all that for me. It revealed the power of personal learning networks. It allowed me to connect and breathe outside of the necessarily confining walls of school building. I can literally say that without social media, I'd still be doing my old "sage on stage" routine in the classroom.

Still, when Sarah's cbl group turned to Facebook as their means of "improving our democracy through an authentic medium", I was skeptical. I privately thought that they were "dumbing down" their project. My bad! As Sarah explains, what could be more "authentic" for young voters than Facebook.

Each of my project experiences has taught me important lessons along the way!

P.S. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day the Drive-thru will have new posts twice a week.

Rethinking the Confines of Teaching & Learning

You may recall that last year I featured Tom Schusterbauer in "Sage Schuste Seduced by Cyberspace", describing him as "a gifted teacher who has impacted literally hundreds of students by touching their hearts. I've never encountered anyone who more passionately teaches about literature and life." I also marveled that this self-proclaimed technophobe would be having such a tremendous impact on Facebook, sharing his reflections on life with hundreds of "friends-- primarily former students. And he's still going strong on Facebook!

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Schusterbauer commented to one of my blog posts: "And I Quote....". The theme of my blog was the educational system's resistance to forces shaping the world outside it. As a recently retired vet of 41 years in the classroom, Tom remarked:

It is difficult to partially leave a system which you know has worked . . . It is difficult to find the time and the energy (especially for one who has been teaching for decades and in a discipline where so much time is spent in both prepping and correcting) to explore and modify. . . . the goal is to take what has worked and make it work better and more dramatically.

My knee-jerk reaction to this is, well Tom, we must change despite the "difficulty". But that would have been overly simplistic and would not have acknowledged the wealth of knowledge and insight Tom has amassed from all that time prepping. He is exceedingly well versed on such varied topics as the Holocaust, Abraham Lincoln, J.D Salinger, Anne Tyler, jazz, film noir, composition). Despite his high profile on Facebook, this treasure trove of knowledge was more or less unplugged from the educational "system" when Tom he quit punching in at the time clock. But he still loves teaching and sharing about his passions. And memory erasure was not a prerequisite for receiving his pension.

An aside: Once when the Media Center was making tough choices over which expensive resources to add to its collection, I suggested that the faculty could contribute "free" podcasts on race relations, Charles Dickens, mythology, the Elizabethan Age, and other subjects we had immersed ourselves in over the years. Such podcasts, I argued, would be legitimate sources for the kinds of research assignments we conventionally give students. Students would still have to wrestle with the information and synthesize it for their reports or presentations. My suggestion was not taken seriously, but I still think it was a pretty good idea. Isn't it too bad that some of Tom's legacy has not been bottled this way for present students to discover in their research?

Today there are even more dynamic ways to connect Tom back into our students' learning networks. Why not plug him back into the knowledge grid through email, texting, video conferencing, or perhaps, a phone call?

Even more peculiar is this consideration: Why aren't actively employed teachers considered as potentially valuable "nodes" in the learning networks of all students? Why, with the tremendous communication technologies at our fingertips, do we hang onto mindsets that "classroom teachers" are pretty much confined to serving designated students who are scheduled to show up in their rooms for the duration of a "course? This no longer makes sense to me and I've decided to take action with something I am calling a Knowledge Hub Project. More on Wednesday!

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"Schuste" (with his permission) as photographed in '09 by Haley D.

MHS Board of Trustees Presentation

Tonight I will shift into hyper-drive and give the MHS Board of Trustees a fast motion look as how I have blasted off into Web 2.0 education. It should be fun. I've probably put too much multi-media into my slides.

Here are some of the resources that I have created or have tapped.

Board Slide Presentation: One Teacher's Tech Explosion

Student Interviews: Challenge Based Learning

Baker Animation: The Digital Anthology

Virtual Conferences: Thursday's P.T. Conferences:

Apple Computer: Challenge Based Learning

Next stop, Grand Rapids, for the 2010 MACUL Conference. Come back on Friday for those goodies.

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Screen shot from "One Teacher's Tech Explosion" Keynote Presentation

Ning Nut or Nuts to Nings?

I have become a kind of Johnny Appleseed of Nings this year. And after my staff in-service presentation, a thousand flower-nings bloomed.

All sorts of folks have let me know about their Nings. They have started them up in their classes, for their departments, or even for their families! This is ironic at two levels: 1) I really haven't really pushed this particular social platform. 2) Most of the Nings that I have joined through school have one active participant-- me!

I have written before about my frustration with starting the Blog Squad club with a Ning. I had dozens of students join but very little participation after joining. More recently, I have joined Nings that were started by the chairs in my two academic departments. I have posted a number of discussion threads and items to each one. But no one else is really using these virtual meeting places, let alone responding to my posts.

Between you and me, the Nings could almost completely replace our physical meetings. So this is a bit of a head-scratcher for me since I find many such meetings to be time-wasters and would rather participate on my own terms with the Nings. So I'm going to be a bit stubborn about this. Both departments have asked me to help out with some techie issues. And I will......But the help will be channled through their poor neglected Nings, not through some watch-the-paint-dry meeting. We'll see if this helps to reactivate the Nings (You can count on me to keep your posted). As usual, I welcome your reactions and insights!
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"May 8 - Multi-Color Ning" Flickr Creative Commons photo by Paul Robert Lloyd (old)

AP Government CBL Student Solution -- A Web Masterpiece

In my last post, when we visited The Ideal Voter, I did not mention that the group had been completely intimidated the day before revealing their beautiful site, because the Democracy of Tomorrow group had stunned us all with a finished product that surpassed our wildest dreams. I tweeted during their presentation that I was "being blown away" by what I was seeing.

You simply must visit the site to appreciate what this group has done. But as you click to their site, please note that most of the content you find there is original. They have created most of the videos posted to the site. And the site is divided into three sections in order to meet the needs of kids, new voters and active voters. Similar to the Ideal Voter Group, Democracy of Tomorrow seeks to teach citizens how to get involved in government and why their votes matter.

Other aspects of the site which impressed us and may interest you:

* The group purchased the domain name to their site

* The group drew so much traffic to their site that when they began their presentation they told us to google "Challenge of Democracy" and we were surprised to find that it was the top hit.

* Over 1150 visitors have been to the site. The students created links through Twitter posts, Facebook, and a Wikipedia page.

* Most of the students in this group learned the nuances of the technology they explored or emplyed in the project.

* As with the other groups, the only credit I can take for what these students accomplished was presenting a solid challenge, introducing them to the cbl process, and urging them to set the bar high. Their solution was purely student direced and created.

You might be wondering how I can top this with the last student presentation. I many ways I cannot. But my challenge to the class was to "create an authentic medium for improving our democracy." In the next post you will see the most authentic medium created by any group . . . on Facebook.

AP Government CBL -- Solutions: A Vibrant Web Site

This is the 6th post in a series on the AP Gov cbl project. The last post investigated a web site that was launched as a demo. I was stunned to find that two groups had produced fully operational sites. This one is called The Ideal Voter. Be sure to go to the Guestbook page and note the comments of some of its many visitors.

Let me allow the Ideal Government group to explain the "mission" of their site in their own words:

The ultimate goal is to not only inform, but excite young (and soon-to-be) voters in America. . . . The ability to vote brings power: power to change the world around us, and power to make life in America better for the future. . . .

The assignment which inspired the creation of this website was to "Create an authentic medium for strengthening democracy." In America, we have the opportunity to take part in politics and truly make a difference. . . . . Thus, we are attempting to promote democracy in America by empowering young voters. Although we have focused on Southeast Michigan, people from across the country are welcome to join in the fun.

The future is ours, and it all starts now. Help us to build a generation of politically educated and opinionated men and women!

Before they even did their presentation for us, the group had attracted over 500 visitors with their information site. The site is exceedingly well designed and is an excellent source of news and facts. It also hosts a lively blog. One of the most impressive links was a portal for actually registering to vote-- something the group succeeded in accomplishing with a few newly-turned-eighteen visitors.

I found the solution to be virtually flawless. Furthermore, the group members had absolutely immersed themselves in their research and site construction. Their passion came through during another wonderful presentation. My only disappointment is to see that the site has now fallen more or less dormant. As you will soon learn, only one group truly built an authentic medium that continues to have a vibrant life beyond the assignment deadline.

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Screen capture from The Ideal Voter "about us" page

Super Soph Simulation

As I mentioned in Embracing Failure, I continue to tinker with my American Government tour de force -- The Congressional Simulation.

Last semester, finding myself overwhelmed by my effort to take "The Game" online, I instituted changes in the evaluation process. All were helpful this time around.

But I also encouraged some creative changes. Like last time, each student was required to design a web site for her fictional game persona. But I encouraged the following additions:

1) A podcast welcome to the site performed in character.

2) Instead of a journal, students posted press releases, memos to staff, and letters to constituents.

3) This semester, a presidential aide character was created. Part of her responsibility was to produce a multi-media White House site.

Of course, new innovations mean new complications. Down the road I will no doubt blog about further adjustments. In the mean time I wish to share some of the best work produced by my current tenth grade students. If you visit Super Sophs you will find some of the best web designs, podcasts and documents. A very creative White House site is included in the mix. Hope your get a chance to check it out.

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Super Sophs: Annie, Susan, Laura, and Audrey. Great job, ladies!

Connecting A School Community with Social Media

After conducting an all staff in-service on personal learning networks, I invited some folks across the building to guest blog. I thank Tom Sklut, Director of Institutional Advancement for his contribution, below:

Tevye sits down heavily next to his wife Golde, sighs and ruefully shakes his head saying, “It’s a new world, Golde.” In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, the villagers of Anatevka are faced with earth-shaking and earth-shattering realities touching every facet of every life, not unlike our experience here in the little “village” of Mercy High School.

We have chosen to acknowledge that, if we undertake to graduate young women who make a difference in the world, they must be prepared to make the most of modern computers and internet web access. The ramifications of this decision are truly earth-shaking and potentially earth-shattering for everyone involved: students, parents, administrators and teachers.

We are wirelessly connected throughout our school building. Teachers and students utilize common tablet pc’s and interactive, educational software. Homework assignments, grades and home communications are all largely computer and internet-based.

Tevye and Golde, as well as every member of their village, were challenged to adapt to the forces of the world within the context of their own societal identity and personal philosophies. Likewise Mercy.

As a teaching/learning community, we focus on what needs to be taught/learned if our students are to become successful in the world of tomorrow. Computers, software, wireless networks are tools, not ends in themselves. It is not the “what” that has changed for the most part, it’s the “how.”

The Advancement corner of the Mercy village, where I “live” is not untouched by this revolution. Technology allows us to maintain closer contact with our constituents – regular e-memos keep our alumnae, friends and parents updated on the latest news, views and achievements. Interested in reading a back issue of the Mosaic, Mercy Memo or Alumnae E-newsletter? Go to our website (mhsmi.org).

Contacting prospective students and their families is much more interactive and, many times, families have done a great deal of “comparison shopping” and know a lot about MHS prior to even stepping through the door of the school itself, often starting with a visit to our website and a web search.

One of the interesting characteristics of this new world is that, quite frequently, it is a two-way means of communication. Become a fan on Mercy High School Farmington Hills Facebook page and alumnae, join the Mercy High School Alumnae Network . We are also able to utilize Twitter (@twitter.com/MercyHighMI) and other features of the blogosphere to add special depth and immediacy to MHS news. And when people decide to support the work of Mercy High School with a gift of cash or appreciated securities, they are able to do so with the push of a button or two via our website.

It is a new world, Golde. No facet of Mercy High School is untouched or unchanged by this technological revolution . . . except for the urgency and the importance of the work we achieve with and for young women. This work was crucial when Catherine McAuley began it in 1824 and is just as vibrantly necessary today – but that’s another blog altogether.

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Screen shot of Mercy High School's Facebook page.

A Great Journalism Wiki

One of the key members of my PLN, Lynn Waldsmith, has been doing all kinds of cool social media things in her English and Journalism classes. You may recall that in December, she wrote a guest post (Teaching without a Safety Net) which described a Web 2.0 Canterbury Tales activity. She also described her Journalism class blog -- Waldsmith's Dispatch -- which is one of the best uses of a stuent blog that I have ever seen.

Once again, I think she has hit one out of the park. Waldsmith's Dispatch-- Student Online Edition is a simple use of social media technology that accomplishes an important function: it provides a wider audience for these aspiring writers. Lynn's students are sophomores, the majority of whom will seek to write and edit for the student newspaper as juniors and seniors. The Student Online Edition gives them an audience beyond the teacher. In my experience, this has consistently produced higher standards of communication.

Incidentally, I think the wiki also provides a neat slice of life of our school, issues on the minds of teens, and even contemporary American life. Take a look!

Congratulations, Lynn, and thanks for sharing!

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Screen capture of Waldsmith's Dispatch-- Student Online Edition (included is a magazine cover photo by student, Megan B.).

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

Howling at the Moon

Wailing and moaning on a bleak Friday Morning:

Too Many Questions, Not Enough....
I used to really enjoy reading blogs like a recent one from Will Richardson which poses tons of questions. This one revolved around the issue of school's prohibiting students from using mobile even though they now provide connectivity to the Internet. Very interesting. But, these days when it comes to ed tech, I suffer from "Devil's Advocate" fatigue. I prefer to hear about actual attempts at implementing new policies and programs. Questioning alone lacks street cred with me.

Put up or ....
Speaking of trying new things-- I'm up for that. Imagine my frustration then, when on two different occasions teachers at schools hundreds of miles away have suggested that our classes hook up on a Ning and then failed to follow through on even a first step. This puzzles me a bit, because in both cases they took the initiative. Brainstorming is cool for workshops and retreats. But for classroom activities, I'd rather collaborate with doers.

Positively 4th Street

As Tiger Woods has learned digital information does not dissipate into the ether. A recent experience caused me to consider this fact more deeply as well.

On Facebook I often exchange sarcastic barbs with "friends". But I'm not used to stumbling upon gratuitous insults like the one a friend had posted to his own wall. It was a tired "joke", based on a half-truth. Much worse, it elicited a pair of hyperbolic anecdotes from a former student of ours. She sardonically portrayed me as a heartless beast. No "friend" had my back.

When I revealed that I was masochistically following this thread, the tone instantly switched to chumminess (oh, that's not too phony). What a creepy and uncomfortable experience-- and, I sure didn't like considering that this version of me would remain out there on a virtual wall for family, friends, students or even strangers to see. It originated with my friend's need to come off as oh-so-clever. I've been quite guilty of the same urge. So besides calling out this casual bit of nastiness, I'm giving myself pause for reflection. When I re-engage with truer "friends" on Facebook, I'll be more circumspect, recognizing that any words that fly out of my computer are built to last.

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"a howling moon tonite" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by max_thinks_sees

Diigo Does It

This is the second in a series of guest blogs. This one is by our Religious Studies Department Chairwoman, Ann Lusch. Ann is a key member of my pln. Over the last year we have encouraged each other's tech adventures. Like me, she is willing to try new things, but doesn't simply do "new" for its own sake. If she recommends Diigo, it's because she has given it a vigorous road test!

On a recent day off I had time for some leisurely browsing in my library. I'm not talking about a room in my house, or even the wonderful building crammed with books just a couple of blocks away. I'm speaking of "my library" in Diigo, the social bookmarking site that contains the compendium of website articles, blog posts and other information that I have amassed over the last few months.

The collection (much of it gathered through sharing on Twitter) is mostly about education and technology, but every once in a while there will be the occasional recipe or blog post about the lost tribes of Israel or health care reform in the U.S. That it's a bit of a mixed bag is not a problem; by clicking on tags I have applied to bookmarks along the way, in a flash I can narrow the list to a desired topic.

I will say that I love using Diigo, but I cannot compare it to that other, apparently more famous, bookmarking site that I have never used. Here's what I'm told, though: Delicious lacks two very important features that make Diigo as great as it is: highlighting and sticky notes.

In Diigo I can highlight the sections that are most pertinent to me and reread the highlighted sections (or hide them) right on the list of bookmarks. I might not even need to go back to the original page. Or perhaps I'll have a comment about the site that I can add with a sticky note -- it could be a thought, for example, that will remind me why I even bothered to bookmark the page in the first place!

I still remember the piles of index cards with scrawled notes that I cranked out diligently while doing research in a grad course or two. I'm not sure if finding good information these days is easier or not, but organizing online information most certainly is. Diigo keeps it all together.

So that's what I had in mind when I assigned research using Diigo to students in one of my classes. Pairs were required to collaborate on a paper and presentation about a chosen topic. Through a Diigo Education account I quickly created a group for my class, and on the group homepage we could all view items as they were added during the research period of the assignment. Through a "teacher console" I had access to individual pages to see what each student was contributing. And, importantly, project partners could easily share found information with one another.

It was not entirely smooth sailing. Websites posed no problems, but we did have difficulties with the subscription databases available to us through school. In the future I will know how to direct students to the persistent URL's that will enable them to actually get back to their sources through the bookmarks. Then there were the points where some of the students' highlighting or sticky notes did not appear consistently. But I'm ready to introduce it to a new class next semester. It's a valuable tool for students about to launch their college careers and, I hope, a lifetime of learning.

There are more features than this to Diigo; it's about social bookmarking after all, and there's more on sharing that I haven't shared: groups to join, friends to add. But it's not necessary to know all the ins and outs to get started. Go ahead, take the plunge, install the toolbar at diigo.com (easy to do) and start highlighting. Chances are, you'll get hooked, too.

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"The Library" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Here's Kate

Ring a Ding Ning

I finally got off the schneid and activated my Blog Squad Ning. I put out a call for members to come to the aid of my American Government students to help them with the nuances of their web site construction. I was not prepared by the immediate response I received....from adults! Our associate principal came in twice to help students one-to-one. Our library technician came in last week and hopes to come back this week. The chairwoman of our Religious Studies Department is coming in on Thursday. This has been inspiring and fun....It's nice having another adult or two in the room because these tech adventures surface a variety of perplexing and humorous issues. The students have been quite appreciative too. The atmosphere has been charged, purposeful, and fun. It makes me feel really good about my school.

Speaking of Religious Studies, I would guess we may be one of the only schools around where this particular department is leading the way in terms of pushing the social media envelope. They have put together a cool Ning for inter-department communications and two of the teachers are experimenting very daringly with wikis and Diigo. They will be guest blogging in this space very soon.

Following on the heels of the Religious Studies bunch, the English Dept. initiated its own Ning and used the forum feature very effectively to discuss a new course proposal. I thought it was a good way to use the Ning and I suspect the discussion was more balanced and focused by virtue of taking place online.

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P.S. I've become addicted of late to sports gossip-- Not Tiger Woods, but the Detroit Tigers. I check the news aggregator mlbtradrumors.com several times a day as the general managers head into their trade meetings. Great time of year for hot stove trade speculation. The rumors and news tidbits absolutely pour into this site.

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"Door Bell" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Caro's Lines

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

Media Professionals-- In or out of the Loop?

I recently gave a presentation on digital anthologies at the Michigan Association for Media Specialists annual conference (MAME 36). Some reflections:

* As a classroom teacher I was concerned about focusing too much on the nuts and bolts of how the anthology was set up with Google Docs and Moodle. But the media specialists were determined to see howall this worked.

* I received a very positive response when I suggested that media specialists were under utilized in classrooom collaborations. I proposed that besides identifying resources, media specialists should rightfully be involved in culling specific materials and recommending assessments. (Boy, di I hit a chord on this one).

* I noticed that my audience was particularly likely to take notes when I mentioned free resources. I was surprised that most seemed unfamiliar with iTunes U. They also were interested in public domain resources at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Attendees also piped up with other free resources.

* As with my audience at Madonna University, they were eager to see actual student work. I was grateful to have several my AP students' permission to show our blogs on vlogs. I'm planning to integrate such demonstrations int both Apple presentations at MAPSA, next week

* My only regret was that time constraints prevented me from engaging in some brainstorming on how the digital anthology model might apply to collaborations in their schools.

The Bottom Line: Presenting at MAME 36 was intellectually engaging. I received as much as I shared about the practical uses of educational technology. I will go forward, advocating that teachers take advantage of collaborations with talented specialists like the ones I met at MAME 36.

Sincere thanks to MHS specialists, Katy, Cheryl, Larry for supporting my presentation. I'll be asking them for a guest post on educational technology from the perspective of the Media Center.

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"The Infinite Loop" Flickr Creative Commons photo by kurafire

Reflections on "Information Rich & Attention Poor"

Today's post centers on Peter Nicholson's Information-rich and Attention-poor (Toronto Globe and Mail). The samplings below provide a context for my reactions, but the entire piece is worthy of contemplative reading:

The three technologies that have powered the information revolution – computation, data transmission and data storage – have each increased in capability (and declined in cost per unit of capability) by about 10 million times since the early 1960s.

This has unleashed a torrential abundance of data and information. . . . .The primary consequence is the growing emphasis on speed at the expense of depth. This is simply because depth and nuance require time and attention to absorb.

There is also under way a shift of intellectual authority from producers of depth – the traditional “expert” – to the broader public. This is nowhere more tellingly illustrated than by Wikipedia, which has roughly 300,000 volunteer contributors every month.

The result is the growing disintermediation of experts and gatekeepers of virtually all kinds. The irony is that experts have been the source of most of the nuggets of knowledge that the crowd now draws upon in rather parasitic fashion – for example, news and political bloggers depend heavily on a relatively small number of sources of professional journalism, just as many Wikipedia articles assimilate prior scholarship.

. . . . Access[ing] efficiently what you need, when you need it. . . depends, of course, on building up a sufficient internalized structure of concepts to be able to link with the online store of knowledge. How to teach this is perhaps the greatest challenge and opportunity facing educators in the 21st century.

The hyperlinked and socially networked structure of the Internet may be making the metaphor of the Web as global “cyber-nervous system” into a reality – still primitive, but with potential for a far more integrated collective intelligence than we can imagine today.

Reactions:

*I think the article emphasizes to educators how poorly we are served by the notion that students are techno wizards and only need to be liberated by their keepers to roam the Net in order to optimize their futures and serve society. Instead, teaching them how to access, assess, and pool information is of paramount importance.

*Though Nicholson argues convincingly for the continued need for trained journalists and academic experts, it certainly calls into question the usefulness of traditional academic "departments" and anything that resembles the traditional newspaper.

The article reinforces my opinion that teaching technology in a vacuum is nearly as great a waste as requiring students to memorize information from textbooks-- information that is accessible with a few keystrokes. Both a liberal arts education and the ability to operate within the global network are absolutely essential....and I will have more to say about this in my next post!

This article came to me through my personal learning network. The recommendation and link came from two different sources. In the olden days (two years ago?) I would have depended on a newspaper or magazine to bring Nicholson to my attention, and then search for it in a library database (quite unlikely). I'll be running a staff in-service on pln's in a couple of weeks. More fuel for the fire.

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"Atrappée dans l'information #1" Flickr Creative Commons Photo by ton3vita