Book Review: Professional Learning in the Digital Age by Kristen Swanson

When I heard that Kristen Swanson was releasing a new book on my birthday I jokingly reached out for a copy as a present. Little did I know that she took me seriously. Find the review below.

When I received my copy of Professional Learning in the Digital Age : The Educator's Guide to User-Generated Learning I was initially put off by the size of it. How could someone possibly fit a guide to all that the internet has to offer educators in just over a 100 pages. Turns out the brevity of it is what makes this book so easy to pick up and learn from.

When most books describe tools available on the internet they lead off by telling us what the tool is; Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, Pearltrees is a curation tool, Blogger is like a journal that everyone can read, and then explains how that tool is useful in a given situation. Swanson turns this around by first telling the reader the problem and then walking them through the solution, introducing tools along the way. What is really interesting however is that even though I am familiar with nearly all of the tools described in this book I was still drawn into the stories presented. It allowed me to see how others are using these tools and reflect on some of the ways I am using them.

The book is very targeted. It doesn't attempt to cover classroom tools or grading systems or classroom management techniques. It focuses on getting educators to building their own digital file of colleagues and resources that will in turn allow them to find the resources and tools that they can implement in their classroom. Because of that this book actually contains much more information than is actually contained in the 100 odd pages. Swanson was able to compress the methods it took me 3+ years to learn on my own into an easy to read and concise book well worth the time it took to read.

I am already thinking about who I will be passing this onto next. I have certain middle school principle in mind already...

You can pick up Kristen's book at Eye on Education and at Amazon (it's on Kindle too!)

Why it Sucks Being the IT Guy :INFOGRAPHIC:

Found this infographic fairly true. 

/* Infographic: Why it Sucks Being the IT Guy */

Teachers Need to be Foxy

Wait, that title might not come out right. Let's try this again...

Teachers Need to be More Like Foxes and Less Like Hedgehogs!

Amazon.com

Okay forget the title.

I am currently reading "The Signal and the Noise" by Nate Silver, the now famed economist/blogger that correctly called 50/50 states in the 2012 presidential election. The book discusses how predictions are often incorrect but sometimes can be correct (or something like that). The part that led me to write this post however is based around a chapter that asks the question "Are You Smarter Than A Television Pundit?". Silver discusses research by Philip Tetlock, a professor of psychology and political science. Tetlock was examining predictions made by "experts" and found that while they overall were about as accurate as a coin flip there was a slight differences in two subgroup he labeled "foxes" and "hedgehogs".

The names of the groups was based on a passage from greek poet Archilochus:

"The fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

 Here is a more in depth description from Silvers book:

• Hedgehogs are type A personalities who believe in Big Ideas- in governing principles about the world that behave as though they were physical laws and undergrid virtually every interaction in society.



Photo Credit: XWiz

• Foxes are scrappy creatures who believe in a plethora of little ideas and in taking a multitude of approaches toward a problem.

Photo Credit: DigitalPrimate

In case you haven't realized it by now teachers need to be more like foxes. They are like "Renaissance Men", studying as much as possible so that they can apply those ideas to whatever it is they are doing. Silver characterizes them as multidisciplinary, adaptable, self-critical, tolerant of complexity, cautious (when it comes to opinions) and empirical. Now try and tell me that doesn't sound like an ideal teacher! Teachers need these qualities for their classroom. Foxes understand, and can draw from multiple disciplines when speaking on a subject. We always talk about being interdisciplinary, threading lessons through as many different subject as we can so that we highlight that subjects are not compartmentalized. We need teachers that can do that in their own classroom.

We probably all know a hedgehog-ish teacher. A teacher that knows their subject inside and out but is completely unable to speak with any credibility on anything else the students may have questions about.

We need foxes in schools. We need teachers that are willing to learn. We need teachers that branch out. Most of all though, we need teachers that model the type of multidisciplinary learning that we expect from our students. 

Standards Based Grading

Right now I am not teaching. I left a teaching position at a private high school to take a position in the IT department of a public school district. I hope to go back into the classroom next year and as I mosey around my PLN I am collecting ideas that I may want to implement in that classroom.

The most recent idea I came across that interested me is the idea of standards based grading. I have heard this term before but I became interested when I noticed a grade book service named Active Grade claimed that their entire grade book hinged on standards based grading. As I began to research the idea further I became interested for several reasons.

Most importantly I consistently ran into a problem with grading where students were not receiving grades I felt they deserved. I found myself playing with averages and tweaking numbers in order to get students to a grade I felt they deserved. One instance was a student I will call Jim. Jim struggled with testing as well as writing out his ideas. He did however generally understand the material (computer technology) presented in the class. Because of this Jim was unable to receive a high mark in the class but was actually passing as far as knowledge is concerned.

According to what I have found standards based grading would have remedied this problem. I am actually genuinely excited to get back into the classroom so that I can begin to implement these ideas. I am even willing to keep separate grade books for the first couple years in order to be sure I have the methods down before jumping in.

Standards Based Grading Resources:
The Challenges of Standards Based Grading
7 Reasons for Standards Based Grading
Active Grade
Active Grade FAQ
Active Grade - Starter Kit

Rethinking Professional Development

An idea came to me today while reading through the blog roll of David Jakes, specifically a post titled Words Matter | Professional Development. David questions the current popular definition of professional development. Professional Development carries with a sort of negative feeling. It is something that is required of you in order to continue doing that thing you enjoy doing, teaching. He recounts a colleague that begin each of his presentations with something he learned the night before. Something that may be completely unrelated to the topic but still sets him up as a learner, someone who strives to learn something new every day. He goes on to talk about creating a "learning culture";

Model it, live it, make it visible.  Do this, and you'll take some significant steps towards developing a learning culture...and that's the real prize.

image credit: JMSmith

I couldn't help but think about a recent conversation I had with a middle school principal I know. He explained that in addition to PLC and grade meetings, the teachers at his school are given weekly "reflection" time. Time that they were to use to look back on their week, think about what changes they need to make, or learn something new. When I asked how they made sure this time wasn't wasted he explained that each teacher needed to write out what they used their time for and explain what it was they did. I accepted this answer at it's face but I have continued to think that maybe this time was still being wasted. Maybe the teachers were simply making up the things they said they were doing. Really, who is going to take the time to read these essays? Are they graded? Do they get put into the teachers personnel file for later review? What real consequence is having them write it out besides busy work that we all hate assigning to students. I feel that this falls into Davids current definition of professional development and could be changed. 

Instead of having teachers write out their learning experiences for review by administration, why not have them post something they have learned each week to a school blog? Or have their learning experience emailed to a random colleague or posted on a board for the rest of the faculty to read? Why not hold a monthly "unconference" where teachers can get up individually or as a group and present a tool, technique or revelation they had during this time?

Don't get me wrong, what this middle school is doing is definitely on the right track. I think however that it can be taken to whole other level. I think that while they started correctly by encouraging teachers to learn, they reinforced the notion that learning happens while studying alone. Learning happens as part of a group. If there is nobody that is challenging or adding to what you are learning then how are you going to grow?

"What-If" Answers Ridiculous Questions with Science

If anyone has not yet found the webcomic XKCD do yourself a favor and read all of it! Written by former NASA roboticist (seriously) Randall Munroe the comic is covers a wide range of themes including forensics, social networking, politics, weather and teaching. The comic even has a website dedicated to explaining the meaning behind some of the topics. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this may be one of my favorite comics of all time, including Calvin and Hobbes (XKCD is #2 and the first 20 years of Garfield would be #3 in case you are wondering, your not are you?). I have even posted one of XKCD's comics on this blog.

image credit: What-If logo

While I believe XKCD itself deserves recognition in a classroom (pre-read the comics before showing your students) Munroe recently started a new section on his site where he answers what-if questions with science, math, physics and a hefty dose of humor. The section is called "What-If" and more often than not leads to an "oh, wow!" moment. While reading some of the recent entries I realized what a great discussion some of these questions could start in a science or physics class. Questions like

What if everyone who took the SAT guessed on every multiple-choice question? How many perfect scores would there be?

and

What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light? 

These could make great thought experiment questions to end units on statistics, conservation of energy, weather systems, lightning or photosythesis. Imagine giving students an extra credit question that asks them what would happen if you detonated a nuke at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Or put the students into groups and have them attempt to come up with an equation for how long it would take Michael Phelps to swim to the lowest point of the ocean and back if he could hold his breath indefinitely?

While there are currently less than 20 What-If's answers to new questions are posted every Tuesday.  You could even have students come up with their own questions and submit them to the site. Take a look around and see what your could use to liven up the mood in your classroom. You can even purchase posters to hang in your classroom. Be sure to give XKCD lots of attention. He makes physics look awesome!

Cross Curricular Awesomeness

Maybe it's because my first teaching job was in a vocational school. Maybe it's because I have always enjoyed learning about every aspect of everything I possibly can (I love Curiosity on the Discovery Channel). Maybe it's because I believe that a school should be a community, with teachers, administrators and students sharing and helping each other out. Whatever it is I have a strong belief that when designing a curriculum it should cross over through as many different subjects as possible.

@anainvancouver tweeted this great link to a custom marble run with ways to utilize it in a math class. The link also includes instructions on how to build the marble run. The first thing I thought of was the use of this in a math class after being built by a woodshop class. Then I started thinking;

• Science could use this as a entry to a discussion on cell distribution
• Computer science classes could program a digital pascals triangle
• Art classes could create designs based on the fibonacci sequence which is mathematically related to pascals triangle.

Not only would it get even more students involved in the lesson you could draw from each individual students knowledge from the other subjects to scaffold to greater understanding for all students.

I am sure that it would be difficult to get all of these subject to time out just right to make all of this work but imagine how long this lesson would stay with the students. A lesson like this could hit on all of the major cognitive levels and hit from all learning styles. Not to mention the fact that it shows students that knowledge from all subject is required to make an informed opinion or hypothesis on something.

One of the most important lessons I have ever learned is in order to truly understand something you must have a foot in so many different areas. I have always enjoyed working with computers, but until I learned a little about programming, engineering, production and marketing I never really understood anything about computers. Curriculums that touch on as many subjects as possible will show students that true understanding requires knowledge, and true knowledge requires a willingness to always learn more.