Ahem, yes. Sorry. This weeks blog post is about Global Connectivity. So, one of the things I'm contemplating for my current class and something I've been contemplating for a while now before this class is connecting my students to resources all over the globe. I find myself with a number of connections in academia (one of them's name is Caroline, thus the cheesy intro) and I'm setting out to investigate the possibility of connecting my classroom to research labs in far away places. Sounds snazzy right?
The world is not such a big place any more.
Well, where to begin? First, I'm reaching out (bah, bah, daaaah) to my contacts to see if they're willing to jump on this bandwagon. While I wait for the dozens of positive response I'm going to get, I've begun researching. Shelley Terrell does a blog and has posted 28 resources for connecting students. Its a good start, but I'm a doer. I'm hoping that I can get connected with colleagues that I already know and that will get the ball rolling with colleagues I don't know. Since migrating my classroom to Google Classroom, I am looking at giving my students a more rounded education, allowing them to reach out to the Internet and delve into the subjects. If I can set up partners in advance, it would give them a head start.
Thomas Friedman does a talk about his book The World is Flat, the first three chapters anyway. His basic idea is that the world is no longer a disconnected series of countries. We are globalizing. We are communicating in ways that we can't possibly imagine. He brings up one example of McDonald's having a call center that takes your order and sends it along with your picture to the restaurant where you've pulled up to the drive through. Say what?!? Yes, you might speak to someone in Colorado Springs to order your 20 piece nugget no matter where you might be. It's a pilot program to be sure, but hey.
Are we sailing off a cliff?
This is what I want my students to become a part of. I want them to realize how to make these connections to further their learning and open up all kinds of possibilities. We'll see what happens as this develops. I'll keep you up to date.
Until next time. . . . here's a video to get that song out of your head.
Originally this blog was a series of posts from a couple of classes I have been taking for my masters degree. Today, I decided that I would make regular posts outside of my classes required work. So, if you're following this, congratulations! You should see my opinion flash across your feed fairly regularly.
Today I would like to talk about Google Classroom. What is it? Well, it's a platform attached to the Google suite of products (free for educational use) that allows you to organize your classroom, make assignments, announcements, and coordinate with your google drive. To be very up front - as a tool, I would rate it 5 out of 10. Does that mean you should avoid it? Absolutely not.
So, as a technology-oriented teacher, I can be a harsh critic. Google Classroom has some really great functionality. But it's also lacking a tremendous amount. I have set up two classes so far. It's an excellent way to communicate with your students. You can make announcements, send private comments, start discussions, etc. You can also set up assignments with due dates. I have created several, attached rubrics and instructions, graded, and commented on work all through Google Classroom. That stuff works great. You can even export grades into an excel spreadsheet!! Lovely.
Now the bad stuff (sorry, Google). You can't copy assignments from one year to the next. You have to basically recreate everything year after year. When you are in the class, you can't easily sort through the things you have listed. Everything is listed in a 'stream' of posts (like a blog). And (strangely for Google) you can't search the stream. You can pull up a list of assignments through the main menu, but it's not intuitive. You also can't mark assignments as done if the student decides to hand you a paper version. Unless they log in and mark it as done, it will forever be marked as "Late". So, in a nutshell, the teacher has little ability to manipulate their classroom.
Sure you can change the theme. I like having a big frog eye at the top of the page, but that's decorative. If Google wants to make Classroom competitive, they need to start thinking like a teacher. Or hire one. . . I may be available to consult. . . just sayin'.
Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.) has become a common communication tool for people of all ages. The Pew Research Center (2014, January) found that 74% of online adults are using social media. The number show a sharp decline in use for the older generations, but across income and education levels they are fairly steady. "Everyone" is using social media. It has become the norm for our society. Teenagers are a bit different, however. The same research group shows that while 93% of teenagers are online, only 55% of them have created a social networking profile. This seems to be because of teens becoming "multi-channel" - users of multiple different communication tools (instant messaging, cell phone, text message, etc.). Social media has its hold on adults, but the next generation of teenager is branching out.
The multi-channel teen can hang out in person and still use other media.
So to the question of social media in schools. What's all the fuss about? There are some clear issues with adapting social media to the classroom. Some of them stem from teacher student interaction. The Alberta Teachers Association wrote an article detailing some of those issues. Inappropriate posting seems to be at the heart of it. To me, that seems to be an easy hurdle to overcome. My personal rule with social media is to not friend students. Period. I will allow them to friend me once they graduate, but even then I limit my contact with them as acquaintances. Students (and graduates) thrive on recognition and if having a friend request accepted upon graduation will bolster them, then I'm all for it. Other than that, we are not friends - I have no need to share my random quips or life events or directed rants with my students. That's not entirely true - I share those things with them in the classroom. Voice communication is far easier for students to translate than text communication. Reading a post on Facebook comes with the emotion of the reader not with the emotion of the author. Sarcasm is wasted in text communication.
In the classroom, you may choose to use something like Edmodo or Kidblog as a tool for learning. These 'social media' platforms are controlled and limited by the teacher. The same pitfalls can apply however, if the teacher is not careful. As teachers, we are under tremendous scrutiny. We have to be pinnacles of the community in our public life. When our personal lives bleed into our public lives, we can run into problems. The National Educators Association discusses several cases where teachers lost their positions for inappropriate actions on social media.
The other side of the coin is how students are going to interact with each other. Cyber-bullying is the buzzword that the media tosses around. But, teens have reported bullying in a variety of contexts. The CDC reports that between 9% and 35% of teens have experienced online bullying compared to 4% to 21% experiencing face-to-face aggression.
CDC statistics on electronic aggression.
Here's one of the key points, however. "Although the news media has recently devoted a lot of attention to the potential
dangers of technology, face-to-face verbal and physical aggression are still far
more common than electronic aggression." (CDC, 2008) The data shows an increase in electronic aggression over the years, but the problem isn't that students have access to social media - the problem is that students are being aggressive period. These students need to be educated in how to treat each other regardless of what delivery system they're using.
So, with all that information, what's my point? Social media isn't the devil. It's a tool like any other. When a tool becomes harmful, we don't take them away, we educate people on how to use them properly. Students behave however they behave regardless of the platform they are on.
Reflect on your own digital footprint and personal thoughts on digital citizenship, as well as the necessity of teaching students about digital citizenship in school. Also, discuss your thoughts on an appropriate age of introduction to digital citizenship.
My own digital footprint is pretty small from what I can tell. The standard Google search of my name (in quotes) gives you a look at where I work (public school), my membership in the NHGMC, my Facebook page (just the front page, public stuff), and a random mention of me in a friends Google+ posting from like 4 years ago at Disney World. I remember when my digital footprint was a bit larger, but many of the photos of me have gone away with old websites, etc. Who cares, right?
Me from the internet, aren't I handsome?
I have been pretty careful about what I let get put onto the internet about my personal life. I keep the Timeline Review feature active on FB and I do periodically search for myself to keep an eye on it. Not in a paranoid way or anything, but in a curiosity way. I try to personally be a good digital citizen. If I would close my blinds at home, I wouldn't post it to the internet. Also, I carefully read everything I post to make sure that inferences are minimized and that I'm not insulting people when I don't mean to be. Digital communication is a lot harder than most people think.
Frontline did an excellent documentary on digital citizenship called Generation Like. It is about how the social media craze is all about what other people think. This lends itself to the idea that we need to teach our children about digital footprints and digital citizenship early. Children can become members of groups that are spread across the country and across the world. They can get their 'empowerment' from anywhere, their rush of endorphins when someone 'likes' their post. They are becoming more social and less social at the same time.
One of the problems I think they might run into is that they are lacking experiences that they might have had if they hadn't been so focused on the one or two ideas/topics. They won't have the opportunity to experience differing opinions as they gather in large, digital groups. We have to steer them away from that thinking. We have to get them to thinking critically about what they read on the internet, even if it is in their favorite Reddit thread.
As the generations change, I think the digital footprints and the problems associated with it will become less egregious. As these students grow up, they will teach their own children about good digital citizenship and their experiences can be passed on to a new generation of digital natives. Because we as educators are encountering this now, we have to take the steps that the parents don't or can't because they don't know how to educate their children on this extremely important part of growing up.
I have returned to my blog because I am tackling another course for my master's degree. This one is the Technology Integrator's Toolbox (EDU 642 for those keeping score). So, it's all about technology. You know how I feel about technology. If you don't you should probably refer back to the title of this blog. No, really . . . go look at the title.
Today's blog post comes to us in the form of the following questions:
"What are your ideas of what a technology integration specialist is as you previously learned in other SNHU courses? Also, discuss today’s students and teachers as related to their use of technology in and out of the classroom."
I can do that. Here we go.
So, the only class I've had which seems relevant was my Learning Through Technology course (the one that got me to start this blog in the first place). That course put me on the road to understanding how technology can be used effectively in the classroom. When I say effectively, this is really the idea that I have for a tech integrator. Anyone can use technology, but I think an integrator can help teachers use it effectively. By combining the ideas in the classroom with ideas from the technological world, you can build effective lessons to inspire your students to achieve.
One of the things I've been saying for a while now was reflected in the video Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner (MacArthur Foundation, 2010). "I don't think any kid is born digitally native," is said around 1:12 in the video, which I wholeheartedly agree with. We are so buried under the idea that our students are holding powerful computers in their hands so they must be fully versed in technology. They are not. I have had so many conversations with students where I ask for someone to perform a task on their phone and I get blank looks and confusion. Students haven't been taught how to use their phones. They only thing they've decided to learn are the popular and fun apps like Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, etc. They haven't delved into the powerful tool they have at their disposal. Nor has anyone given them a lesson in how to do that. Parents are presently unequipped to be their teachers in this area. They know just as little and are often more afraid to try new things. The technology integrator must be able to help teachers step into this role. We can introduce things that will help both the teacher and the student, all the while allowing for the teacher to take the lead and be the guide for the technology.
So there you have it, my view of what I'm trying to become. Or technically already am, just without the degree to add to my name. :-/
References:
MacArthur Foundation, (2010)., Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=c0xa98cy-Rw
If you recall, I was creating a webquest for my genetics section. Well, it's done and here it is!!
Journey to the Center of the Cell - the website's a little rough, but I still have time to work on it before I show it to students. It's the content that's important.
And for those who want it in all one succinct package - here's a link to a google doc.
That's all I really wanted to say in this post. It's short and sweet. So here's a cute cat video.
So, I'm going to begin this blog with one of my favorite songs:
Appropriate? Of course it is! This post is about what I've learned from this course and what I want to know more about. Mulan learned that she is not who everyone thinks she is and that she doesn't know who that person is herself. See the connection now? Good! Let's keep going.
First, a bit of reflection of my own - I've created my second podcast reviewing the final learning objectives for this course.
Why is it important for all teachers to integrate technology into the lessons they teach, regardless the age of the students or genre that they teach? Or is it?
It is! And I think I covered this in my week 9 post, but I will reiterate in short form. Teachers will never go out of style - a passionate person speaking about a subject they love can inspire. Technology however, will constantly change. Wait, this seems like the opposite argument . . .what's going on here? Bear with me. While we stand up there lecturing our hearts out, students are getting jazzed by the latest technology. And if we can combine those two passions, think of the things we can accomplish. Here's an article by Edudemic that talks about how students are using technology. The short answer is - for almost everything. According to that article 96% of college students have experienced an online component to their courses. NINTEY-SIX PERCENT! If colleges are moving to embrace technology, we can not do our students the disservice of not doing the same.
Discuss what may be barriers to technology integration and how you as the teacher can overcome them.
Appropriate to this discussion.
In my opinion, the biggest barrier to technology integration is funding. Most of the technology that I have taken advantage of in my classroom came from me. I used my tablet, my laptop, my webcam, etc. to make my classroom a more interesting and inviting place. In the last couple of years, we have acquired a great deal more technology for the classroom - laptop carts, smartboards, student information systems, etc. But all that came because the funding was put in place to do so. School boards and the public in general needs to see that technology is an integral part of our society. As a teacher, its my job to show them. To make my programs and resources visible to them in fun and interesting ways. I want them to say "Wow, that's great! How can other teachers do that?" By being a futurist, I can encourage and inspire others to come along with me. I want students to show their parents the great work their doing using Animoto or Vimeo and have the parent attend PTO meetings and discuss the great uses of technology and have it spread from there. Like that old shampoo commercial - and they told two friends, and they told two friends and so on and so on. Here's a great article that can help get parents on board and riding the technology train. One of my favorite parts the the "Follow up with parents" step. Inviting parents in to see what their student has done or other students have done is a great way to get people excited. One year for parent teacher night, we ran a looped video that showed students doing science. It was a big hit!
Another barrier to technology integration, sadly, may be the teacher. Some people are just fearful of technology. One of the fears they have is not knowing how to use it and their students getting some advantage they didn't know about that will decrease the rigor of an assignment. Its an understandable problem. Marc Prensky writes about it very well in his article about Shaping Technology. He says "resisting today's digital technology will be truly lethal to our children's education," and I agree with him. We cannot fall back on old ways with the new ways out there waiting for us. So, my solution is to be a teacher to my fellow teachers. I want them to feel like they can use technology without fear of something going wrong. They have to know that (in most cases) their "dabbling" as Mr. Prensky puts it, is not going to break anything. I'm planning on having Tech Tuesday at our monthly meetings at school to introduce new technology to my colleagues. And then, they can introduce it to others and so on and so on (see the theme here?). I love technology and I love teaching, so I can combine two passions into one and help my fellow teacher. Some of the tools I will be covering come from Edudemic's 100 best Web 2.0 tools. Things that will be helpful to everyone like Diigo and Wordle.
Personal Learning Network
Throughout this blog I've talked about the framework I'm constructing for my classroom and my colleagues. To put a formal name to it - it's a PLN. I'm connecting to others through this class, through Diigo, through the interview process with Mrs. Carney. Plus, I get to bring all of this information back to my colleagues in my department and staff meetings. I get to bring everyone who gets excited about technology into my personal learning network. And that's just the start - I'm planning on reaching out to experts to speak to my class through Skype and Google+. I'm planning on continuing my role in my district as a technology go-to guy so that when people find new things to share, I can get in on the action. I think having an open mind about technology can really help lead to a better place for teachers and students alike.
