I am an Educational Fanboy

I had an odd epiphany yesterday while at EduCon 2.4 in Philadelphia. This epiphany has been long overdue but I think that many others may feel the same way so here it is...

I am an Education Fanboy.

That may not be a big surprise to the hundreds of educators at EduCon who dedicate their lives to furthering education but I say fanboy in a very specific way. When most people meet celebreties they get weird. They are unable to talk and when they can get words out it's generally just "Hey... uhhh... I like your movies!" and then they slink away hoping that star never shares that awkward moment with some reporter. I have never been this way. I have met a few music and film personalities and I have been able to talk to them like regular people. I never understood why people got like that around what I see as normal people.

Until yesterday.

I am a 27 year old 2nd year teacher who dove into the world of education reform and technology about 4 years ago. I have grown my PLN and learned to respect many people in the educational sphere. At conferences I have watched people like Rodd Lucier, Zoe Branigan-Pipe, Ira Socal, Dean Shareski, Chris Lehmann and many others give presentations and talks that have changed the way I think about education and at events like EduCon I have had the good fortune to be in their company.

Meeting those people face-to-face has made me understand in some sense what people feel around celebrities with one slight difference, what those other people feel is excitement for seeing these stars, what I feel is respect. When I speak to these people I respect I don't want to come off sounding like an idiot so, of course, I wind up sounding like an idiot. Yesterday I was able to introduce myself to Dean Shareski who led one of my favorite conversations at EduCon 2.3 on Mythbusting in the classroom. I sounded like a complete moron with nothing of any significance to say. So I'd like to take this moment to apologize to Dean as I am sure I all but terrified him.

It was at that moment that I realized I am a fanboy of education. Events like EduCon and EdCamp are my rock concerts. Places where I get to meet the people I admire and effect what I do in the classroom everyday. I have a desire to be like these people I respect one day and what I truly love is that the barrier is low enough for anyone with a revolutionary idea to do so.

So I guess I should finish this up with a few points:

1. I am an Education Fanboy
2. I respect all those people who have affected change in the educational sphere
3. I want to be one of those people some day
4. I apologize for scaring Dean.

How Do You Teach What You Don't Know?

About a year and half ago I walked into my first classroom as a teacher. I walked in to no curriculum, 4 different textbooks and about a month to prepare. Needless to say it was extremely difficult to get started. My vice principal was as helpful as she could be in this regard but a curriculum still needed to be created from scratch.

My first step was to create a "curriculum" for the current set-up of the class. This involved a Sophomore and Junior curriculum to cover objectives necessary to pass the CompTIA Strata (Sophomore) and the CompTIA A+ (Junior). This was my first time writing a curriculum at all so it was a little rough around the edges. It was competent enough but focused too much on assignments and not enough on overall goals.

After some discussion with my vice principal we decided to overhaul the computer technician program. We decided to teach computer repair (CompTIA Strata) during Sophomore year and introduce programming in their Junior year. I was able to refine the current curriculum to meet the Sophomores needs and then turned my attention to the Juniors. We focused on Python and HTML/CSS as the core of the programming curriculum. There is only one problem, I don't know how to code.

Let me clarify a bit, I understand the basics of programming. I know about variables, strings, loops, if/then statements, etc but not nearly enough to actually teach a class on programming. I have designed and coded basic websites for friends but nothing approaching what people expect to see on the web today. I have messed with javascript and other client side scripting languages but would have to do alot of research to even appear semi-competent in any of them.

So the question remains, how do I write a curriculum for something I don't completely understand? Is it possible? Do I purchase a program or hire outside help to do this? Do I create a self-guided curriculum which allows the students to learn at their own pace? I have started learning python3 and am brushing up on my HTML/CSS. I am knee deep in research right now and hope to come upon a solution soon but we will have to just wait and see.

Leave any suggestions in the comments.

The Internet: Simplified

If there is one ting that I am good at it is teaching. I have been told that I have a way of making complex topics easy to understand. I've decided to take that quality and use it here. I hope to write a series of posts that help to explain how the common computer works. As the title implies I hope to make this as simple as possible. You won't be able to get a certification from reading these posts but they may inspire you to learn a little further.

I thought I would start with something that every one uses and it seems that nobody really understands;

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The Internet

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opte.org

The internet is a complicated animal. Most people get what the internet is in the most basic sense, a collection of computers that share information with one another. What people don't understand is how. Think about it; how does a computer in Philadelphia retrieve information from a computer in California?

Webpages:
When you visit a website you are requesting information. The information being requested is spread all around the world. Everything on the internet is stored somewhere in some internet code (HTML, CSS, Ajax, Javascript, etc) that the browser must translate. This storage place is known as servers. Web hosting companies sell server space to people to store their web pages on their servers. When you type in a web address you are requesting that page of code, your browser then translates that code into something you can read and understand.


The Browser:
Everyone has their preferred browser. Whether it be Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Chrome, or some other browser they all are doing the same general thing when you visit a website. They translate the code that the computer understands into text, images and videos that you can read and view. You can check out the code your browser is translating by doing the following: If you are in Firefox or Chrome press CTRL+U, if in IE go to Page>View Source. Early web-pages were composed entirely of this code. Your browser is able to read this code and create the pages you view.


The Web Address:
When you type in a web address such as http://www.digitalnativeteacher.blogspot.com you are contacting the DNS (Domain Name System). This is a collection of names that hosts like GoDaddy, Network Solutions and NameCheap sell to users. These names link to an IP address, which is the actual location of content you are trying to access. The simplest way to explain why DNS is used is to think about your own name. Imagine if instead of being able to remember all of your friend's names you had to identify them by their phone numbers alone. You can see how that would be confusing. An IP address is a set of numbers that acts not unlike your phone number. It tells the browser where it is sending the information request to, and if the connection is successful it sends the requested information back. Try typing 74.125.43.147 into your browser and seeing what happens. Even without the actual domain name you still arrive at the destination. The DNS just makes it easier to remember.


This is just a basic overview of how the internet works. If you are interested check out the links below for a more in depth look at how the internet works.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/internet-works-infographic/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_LPdttKXPc

A Google a Day

Have you ever wanted to test your search skills? How about find out useless trivia that you will never be required to recall again? Well have I got the tool for you!

A Google a Day is a new Google play-thing that gives you a question and provides you with a 1-day old search box (to avoid any spoilers via increased searching for that topic) to answer the question. It could be a useful warm-up for students while they get settled in class as well as a way for them to practice their searching skills (it has a timer).

Have Fun!

Have Your Students Build Multi-touch Tablets for Under $15

...and learn about optical multi-touch techniques in the process

 I found the above video on StumbleUpon a couple of months ago. That video led me to this link about building a cheap and easy multi-touch display called the MTmini. Apparently I was to busy to think but I had the good sense to at least bookmark the link in Diigo. While looking ahead in my curriculum I realized that next quarter we start talking about computer peripherals and in that is a section about multi-touch displays.

I remembered the link and started looking online for where I could find the necessary parts and how much they would cost. I decided to stash the links I find here so that others can use them (and so I can find them later).

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What You'll Need

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Here is the list of the required items with links and costs. I will update the list if I notice a price change or if the item no longer available at the link:

1. Cardboard/Plastic Box- Depending on the amount of displays you plan on making you can either find an appropriate sized box around the house or buy packs of 25 at Staples. Tip: ship to a local store to avoid shipping costs.
• Cost: approx. $1.50/box ($36 for a pack of 25)
2. Clear Acrylic/Glass- Check your local hardware stores or sign shops for deals on clear acrylic (glass may be to fragile). 1/8" thickness should be enough for a small display. You can order pre-cut sheets here cut to the specific size for the box you bought. Tip: order the sheet 1/16"-1/8" oversize to ensure a secure fit.
• Cost: $3.75 per 12"x12" sheet (15% discount on 10 or more)
3. Paper- You will need on standard size sheet of printer paper per tablet. You most likely have access to enough sheets of standard paper around your school or home. If not you can grab a ream at Staples when you pick up your boxes.
• Cost: Free-$6.00
4. Webcam- The instructions say any generic webcam will do but recommends a Sony Eye-Toy. You can find both on Amazon for about the same price
• Cost: approx $5+shipping
5. Computer- This is only item that I am not going to include on the list. You will need a computer for each MTmini you are going to build
• Cost: Already Owned
6. Software- All required downloads are listed on the website.
• Cost: Free

Total Cost per Student= $10-$15

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This project is an excellent way to teach students about optical multi-touch techniques as well as how to install and troubleshoot drivers and software. The website this is derived from has project guidelines that allow students to start with the above project and gradually build up to making a full size multi-touch surface like the one in the video below. I am planning on doing this with my students around the beginning of December, I will update with tips and tricks to pulling this off as soon as I can.

Teachers Are Like Silicon Valley CEOs...

Read Write Web is one of the best sites available for interesting articles that may or may not apply to education but are interesting none the less. This was what attracted me to this article titled, "The Pay-It-Forward Culture: Silicon Valley's Practical Generosity". Written by Steve Blank the article describes the culture present in Silicon Valley from the 1960's through today which helps entrepreneurs and start-ups by providing information and lessons that can only be learned through years of experience. This immediately reminded me of the current culture among teachers.

Just like the CEOs described in the article, teaching is becoming a pay-it-forward culture. However we are actually taking the idea to another level. While the Silicon Valley culture is mostly limited to Silicon Valley, teachers have leveraged social media in order to more easily share the things that help one another succeed. Those that participate are able to leverage the collective intelligence of thousands of other educators. Reaching out to other educators who collectively have seen much more within the world of education than your local network could ever hope to experience. 

We as educators should take it as a point of pride that we have been able to so easily migrate from our own local PLN's to the global teacher network that has become quite powerful on social networking sites sch as Twitter. In the past 30 days "Education" peaked at .11% of Twitter traffic (for comparison the term "Emmys" peaked at 2.29% this year). 

While that doesn't seem like alot it must be understood that Twitter recently announced 100 million "active users" (users that post at least once a month). That means nearly 110,000 Twitter users were posting something relating to the topic of education.

Even assuming 25% of those posts were actually irrelevant to educators that leaves 80,000+ posts relevant to education. That means that if an educator were to log onto Twitter on a given day they could potentially have access to thousands of educators actively sharing their thoughts and ideas, most of which can be highly relevant to that person. Scott McLeod had a great post on 20 great things an educator would have found if they were on Twitter the day before.

As educators we must be on top of the latest trends and changes within our society. As cliche as it may sounds we are literally teaching the future. We must know what is coming to the best of our ability, and be willing to share that information as openly as possible. Silicon Valley CEOs may be creating the future, but we are creating the Silicon Valley CEOs. So get out there and network, and remember to pay-it-forward.

Irresistable

This comic is based on an experience my wife had on her first day back to school.

I'm always looking for stories to illustrate. Got a great one? Let me know!