Project Based Learning

The Buck Institute for Education commissioned this video that simply explains Project Based Education. This is something my school is pushing for and I think is a great way to help students gain skills that are important to the real world. Check is out below and visit their site to learn more.

Are We Giving Students to Much Credit?

I recently saw this posted in a list on the blog Teaching Paperless under the title 21 Things that will Become Obsolete in Education by 2020

13. Organization of Educational Services by Grade
Education over the next ten years will become more individualized, leaving the bulk of grade-based learning in the past. Students will form peer groups by interest and these interest groups will petition for specialized learning. The structure of K-12 will be fundamentally altered.

 Maybe it's just the students I am around but of all of the ideas on this list, this one seems the most unlikely. Maybe it's because the students don't have the proper role models to do this or that they don't have the drive to get out and do something. I think however that the biggest problem in making this happen is the fact that students still feel as if they are under the thumb of education.

I like the idea of students petitioning their schools for learning environment that better suit their needs. Students need to know that they can make a difference, even against something as big and lumbering as the American Education System. It is our job as reformers to let the students know that if they want something to change they need to make it happen. Sitting back and complaining to each other will only get so far.

Maybe what we need is a spark, someone to get the students started and let them take it from there. Maybe a Facebook Group?

Technology ADD?

EDUCATORS BEWARE!!

I came across this article today while browsing through my PLP Ning community and had a pretty strong reaction to what I read. I have posted some of my thoughts on the article below.

You can read the entire article here

-“When rock ’n’ roll came about, we didn’t start using it in classrooms like we’re doing with technology.”

-The problem with this statement is that it shows a person that does not truly understand the impact that "technology" is having on the world. Rock 'n 'Roll had an effect on the aesthetic opinions of many people but did not fundamentally change the landscape of anything except music. "Technology" (quoted because they are using it as a generic term and refuse to be specific) has changed the face of the country world. It has affected the way people buy and sell (Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, iTunes), they way people communicate (cell phones, video chat, instant messaging, Facebook, email) and most importantly to us the way people learn (Google, Khan Academy, iTunesU).

-technology lovers ... are often quick to claim that today's students are "digital natives" who learn differently and need a different kind of school."

 -They often mistake the glib and facile use of technologies for competence

-This article uses a misrepresentation of the term "digital native". The term does not imply that the students immediately know how to use technology in a relevant way. The definition according to Wikipedia (the irony is not lost on me btw): "A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3s." Notice it says nothing about them innately knowing how to use technology. Our job as teachers is to change the "glib and facile use" into significant usage. To make a comparison, If you sent a group of kids into the library 30 years ago to do research you never just assumed that they understood how to find all the relevant information, they had to be trained how to use the library and conduct research. This is the same concept with technology, they must be shown how to use it productively.

-Several recent studies of home use of laptops by low income students have reported disappointing results in terms of academic performance at school.

-The first issue that strikes me here is the fact that they are rating these kids by academic performance. If the technology advocates are saying that kids need a new way of learning that involves technology, you can't refute their claims by handing laptops to kids and testing if their academic scores go up. They need to test if the students understanding went up anywhere else. I doubt that many of you make it a point to research the proper use of colons vs. semi-colons during your free time on the internet. Instead you probably choose to research the things that interest you on a personal level and which are probably not accounted for on a standard academic test. I posted a video on here previously that touches on the fact that kids are significantly different than their predecessors when it comes to learning. The other problem is that the laptops were given to "low income" students, who we could assume have had little to no access at home before this and would most likely be interested in playing around on the new gadget that they haven't had significant access to before. I would like to look more at this study and see exactly where these results came from but the way it is stated in this article it doesn't make logical sense.

Maybe choose a more current book?

-When Matt Richtel reports in his article that many bright students at Woodside High do not finish reading assigned classics like Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle because they favor activities like Facebook, YouTube and making digital videos, it is evidence that the quality and depth of thought of such students has been weakened.

-So the fact that today's students, some of whom have never seen a video-cassette, don't want to read a novel from 1963 which "explores issues of science, technology, and religion, satirizing the arms race and many other targets along the way" means that they lack quality and depth of thought? The fact that students favor creating and watching YouTube videos and posting on Facebook in no way shows a lack of quality or depth of their thought. Instead of just writing the kids off and saying that just because they don't want to read what we tell them, let's incorporate the activities they enjoy in the learning process. Have them create a digital video re-enacting one of the scenes from the book, or get them to create a Facebook profile for one of the characters. There are plenty of options open to those willing to think outside of the box.

-"Look how modern we are! Our students have learned to express important ideas in just a few monosyllabic words and characters. No need for paragraphs, logic or evidence. No need for figurative language or a carefully constructed persuasive essay. No need to read Vonnegut or Eliot or Dickinson. The Cliff Notes and YouTube will suffice nicely."

(I will assume the author is being facetious here but I will argue against it anyway...) Who actually says this? Logic and evidence are two of the most important aspects when discussing technology and the future. Why is it not important for students to learn to "express important ideas in just a few monosyllabic words and characters"? This is how the world operates now. Students need to learn figurative language, they need to learn to be persuasive but guess what, people aren't persuaded by essays anymore. They are persuaded by blogs and Twitter and Facebook and Google and all of those other technologies that you seem so afraid of. Ideas are related quickly and succinctly today, and students must learn how to both create and navigate that stream of information properly, not be taught to demonize it.

-Is that book worth the time and attention of every high school student or do we buy into the notion that each student should be allowed to study whatever they wish?

-So standardized testing is the better option? How about a balance? Students do need to be guided along their studies, but force feeding them literature, often chosen by non-educators as classics is not the way to do it. Sure it may require a little more work on the teachers part but that may well be part of their job.

I know teachers like this

-Unfortunately, in some schools the 1-on-1 imperative is so strongly voiced that some teachers will be reluctant to ask students to give full attention or to close the lids of their laptops.

-A teacher who can handle a standard classroom and gain attention can learn to handle a 1-on-1 environment will equal efficiency. This is a problem that will happen but cannot be the end all for tech in the classrooms. We must adjust, not outlaw.



Let me know what you think in the comments. Is Jaime McKenzie right in saying that Education Technology should kept out of 1-on-1 and limited to computer rooms? Should teachers learn to teach with technology?

Wikipedia in the Classroom

If there is one thing that I remember from my time in high school it was this, Wikipedia is not a source! I bought into the logic and still somewhat agree with the basic idea behind it. Wikipedia is, at it's core, a wiki (which will be described in an upcoming blog post) and by it's nature a wiki is able to be edited by nearly anyone. Because of this Wikipedia itself cannot be trusted as a standalone source. However that does not mean that Wikipedia does not have a place in the world of education.

Beside the fact that Wikipedia is the easiest way to quickly delve into a topic and get a basic understanding of it, Wikipedia defers from most wikis in a very fundamental way. Wikipedia requires citations for facts that are entered. This means that for most major articles there is a list of citation acquired at the bottom of the article which can be very useful for students when looking for more proper sources or a way to check their facts.

Of course the fact that these citations exist does not mean that student will actually use them. So be sure to still stress the them that Wikipedia cannot be used as a standalone source but rather a way to find more sources relevant to their topic. So in conclusion be wary of turning students off Wikipedia all together but rather work to shape the way they use it in their projects and essays. Just like the rest of the web, we need to be sure that students know how to use it properly instead of assuming they will use it wrong and therefore restrict it's use altogether.

Got Suggestions? Email me! justinhanger+classroom20@gmail.com

Classroom Blogging Basics

A "blog" as described by our good friend Wikipedia:

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

And as described by CommonCraft:

There are several advantages to having a blog for your classroom that are difficult to provide through any other medium.

• Creates a unified place to post important reminders and upcoming events.
• Creates a place to show student resources for projects and/or assignments they may be working on.
• Allows students to communicate with one another through comments, which are easy to moderate from any computer.
• Makes students that miss a class able to be held accountable for the work they missed.
• Creates an searchable record of the class and their interactions.
• Allows students with different learning styles to access information in different ways.
• They are FREE, EASY to create, and highly CUSTOMIZABLE.

One of the best parts of blogs is that there are so many choices when creating one. The following provides several sites that have excellent free accounts available and also have excellent support for both beginners and experts available through a simple search.

Google Blogger-www.Blogger.com

You can always count on Google to provide a top notch service for free. As of this posting this blog is hosted on Google's Blogger platform. With a multitude of templates and an extremely intuitive interface, Blogger provides a perfect platform to create a classroom blog.

EduBlogs-www.EduBlogs.com

EduBlogs is a blogging platform created specifically for Teacher and Students. They have a feature rich free account as well as premium accounts that pack on additional excellent features. The education based environment means less of a chance of your students being exposed to questionable content and also means a strong backing from the educational community.

Tumblr-www.Tumblr.com

Highly customizable service for those of you looking to have your content really *pop*. Slightly less intuitive then the others but many excellent blogs are built on Tumblr. Could lead to some questionable content but if done right Tumblr is an excellent service.

WordPress-www.WordPress.com

One of the most widely used blogging services and for good reason. Not only does WordPress have on of the largest support communities on the web, it also allows provides those that are familiar with HTML and CSS nearly endless creative possibilities. If you plan on making a professional blog that will be visited by more than just your students, WordPress is the way to go.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of options. Got any better ideas? Leave them in the comments! Feel free to post any questions or comments.

Got Suggestions? Email me! justinhanger+classroom20@gmail.com