Here’s a great article about how students in 8 classrooms in Mary Passage Middle School in Virginia are successfully using cell phones on a daily basis.
Why do we keep fighting with students who carry cell phones? It’s like trying to close the lid on Pandora’s box. Instead, let’s start showing them how to use them to LEARN! Smartphones, iPods…GREAT teaching tools, and schools don’t even have to buy them!
Here I go again…blogging about blogs. This one really resonated with me and I had to comment!
Doug Johnson, in his Blue Skunk Blog, posted an Internet usage chart which was part of the recent Generations Online in 2009, published last week by Pew Internet and the American Life Project.
In a nutshell, part of the report indicates that parents of today’s digital natives, Generation X-ers (aged 33-44) are just as likely to go online as teens are for some information. Doug contends, and I agree, that this revelation should have significant implications for our schools and how they communicate with their real “customers” the parents of our students. They are, after all, the ones that have the final say about which school their kid attends.
Doug states:
“As our parents become accustomed to using the Web to find travel, health, banking and other information, it is not unreasonable to assume they will be looking for information about schools as well. I see this breaking down in three big categories:
What is your district doing that will make it easier for your students’ parents to stay in touch with you and you with them? I cannot tell you how many district websites I’ve visited that left me frustrated because I couldn’t easily find the information that I was looking for…and I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy person. I can’t imagine how much a more typical Gen X-er or even a “Younger Boomer” (aged 45-54) must be struggling!
When was the last time you re-evaluated your website? In his blog, Doug does make some simple recommendations that you might want to check out. Why not give it the “grandma test” as my favorite grants-writer, Joe Gaunt, recommends. If grandma doesn’t understand it, it’s not likely to pass muster with others, either.
Don’t know how many of you have heard of Twitter or are using it, but if you are (or aren’t but perhaps considering it,) here are two very interesting links you may want to check out. BTW, Green Bay Schools is now using Twitter to update users about the latest district happenings! One of their “followers” is local TV station WFRV. What a great way to get the word out to the community!
If you’re a teacher–just think how many of your students have cell phones and access to text messaging. Twitter could be a useful tool for you to remind them about an assignment due or a test coming up or ANYTHING else!
A good article to check out: 50 Ideas for How to Use Twitter for Business (but some great tips for educators as well):
Having trouble keeping up with everyone you’re following on Twitter? Try Twitter 100–the latest 100 posts from those you follow all in one page.
I use Twitter as part of my PLN (Personal Learning Network) to stay abreast of what’s happening with those I follow. Of course, not everything everyone posts is earth-shattering or important or even informative, but I have found it a good way to keep “in the know” about many new developments/announcements about EdTech info.
When you set up your Twitter account you have options as to who to follow and who can follow you (I know, at first it seems a little creepy…someone following you…) but you have complete control at all times. Yes, there are spammers who will try to follow you, but you can easily block them.
Twitter will FORCE you to say whatever you want to say in 140 characters or less. What a great way to learn to be concise.
Consider Twitter–email is SO yesterday!
Last week I had the opportunity to showcase the OLPC $200 laptop for CESA 7 area superintendents and shared a list of “netbooks” that are either available now or coming soon. Of course, with technology moving so quickly, the list is now obsolete!
Brad Rodgers, CESA 7’s tech director, shared the following URL with me regarding a $98 and $120 Linux based laptop from a Chinese company called Hi-Vision. (http://hvsco.com) Go here to read more about it .
I also found the easiest way to view the video referenced was on YouTube.
The laptop is smaller than the OLPC and has just 3 hours battery time as compared to OLPC’s 6 hours. They are both Linux OS and both have flash memory, no hard drives.
One more addition to the list comes from Superintendent Steve Seyfer, Gibraltar Area Schools. Steve has purchased netbooks called the “Howard” which runs Windows (not sure which version) from Howard Solutions. Although he was able to pick them up for about $400, I could not find them listed on their website. Perhaps contacting them directly would get you pricing and more info. (888-323-3151)
There are Windows versions of most of the netbooks that are out there or yet to come, but that brings the price considerably higher–more in the range of $400-600.
My thought is that these compact netbooks might be perfect for elementary students, but still not sure about middle and high school kids. The keyboards are incredibly small and difficult to use for even young adult hands. I still think that handheld devices like Palm E2’s with a nearly full-size external keyboard (combined cost around $150) is a great option for them. Or, check out the new iPod Touch with wifi and tons of great apps for education (more to come, I’m certain) at costs ranging from $200 for the 8gb (refurbished) to about $400 for the 32gb.
I’ve been doing considerable reading about and “playing” with the XO laptop from OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) organization over the past summer and continue to be impressed with what this approx. $200 machine can do. I’ve also been researching some of the other “netbooks” (the term reintroduced in Feb. by Intel for low-cost, lightweight, subnotebook machines) that are either hitting (or about to be hitting) the marketplace.
I still think the XO has advantages over others being introduced. There’s an excellent chart of those currently on the market and some in the works/ready soon in Wikipedia’s “Comparison of Netbooks” entry. The XO has all necessary applications that any elementary student would want or need and can access the Internet in a wireless environment. The “mesh” network technology allows students to collaborate with each other on many of its “activities” (OLPC’s term for applications.) The battery lasts longer than any other netbook I’ve researched. The Wikipedia chart doesn’t include the battery life–not sure why, but perhaps it’s because there is an optional human-powered adaptor that can be pulled by a user to generate unlimited power.
One of the big disadvantages to the XO, and many other netbooks as well, is the keyboard size. The keyboards are definitely not made for adult-sized hands (or even young adult sized hands for that matter.) Asus’ Eee PC 1000 series comes closer (92% of full size; priced at $650,) but is that what today and tomorrow’s students will want? I don’t believe they will.
Kids are all about handhelds–from games to smartphones–and are so used to them that, in my humble adult opinion, is what they will be looking for when it comes to a computing device they will carry with them and use on a regular basis. And, until students have equal access–all the time–to that type of machine, I believe technology will not truly make an impact on teaching and learning. The machine our kids will “buy into” needs to be as ubiquitous as a pen or pencil and just as easy to have with you at all times. That’s more like an iPod Touch in my mind. Wifi enabled, onboard keypad that is more like a thumbboard and unlimited access to numerous inexpensive applications (waaaay beyond the music of the original iPod) is what kids want and will need in order to be competitive in our “flat” world.
What are your thoughts about the future of 1 to 1 computing in your district? Are you moving in that direction? What will it take to get your students there?
Today’s post is a guest blog from Keith Schroeder, Library Media Specialist extraordinaire, from BayPort HS, Howard Suamico School District. Keith is a real mover and shaker when it comes to 21st Century teaching and learning. He practices what he believes on a daily basis. Keith’s mission statement: “to prepare both students and staff to be technology-literate, well-informed, and critical thinking citizens who are active participants in local and global affairs. “
I got the following in an email from Keith today and wanted to share it with you. So, with his permission…read on and learn!
Quoting the main thought from “Turn Teen Texting Toward Better Writing” from the Christian Science Monitor last week:
“Our student bloggers and digital writers of all backgrounds are part of a journaling culture which America has not seen since the great age of diarists during the Transcendental movement, when Thoreau and Emerson recorded their daily lives for eventual public consumption. Failure to harness that potential energy would prove a terrible misstep at this junction in American education.”
The author of the essay, Justin Reich, a Ph.D. student at Harvard, makes the case in a pretty interesting way, weaving in research, classroom observations and personal experience in a way that seems quite compelling. Especially because he seems to really understand the “connective” or network aspect of the writing process.
“Failure to harness that potential energy would prove a terrible misstep at this junction in American education. As educators, we face two choices. We can scorn youth for their emoticons (☺), condemn their abbreviations (Th. Jefferson would have disapproved), and lament the time students spend writing in ways adults do not understand. Or, we can embrace the writing that students do every day, help them learn to use their social networking tools to create learning networks, and ultimately show them how the best elements of their informal communication can lead them to success in their formal writing.”
I agree that is the choice. No one is denying that much of what students (and adults for that matter) are writing wouldn’t be worthy of publishing under traditional standards. But the fact that kids are writing and publishing in a variety of texts, traditional or not, is, I think, a wonderful reality, one that if we know how to leverage it gives us great opportunities to help kids get better at all types of writing.
Read the Christian Science Monitor article here.
The full research study can be found here.
Keith Schroeder
Library Media Specialist
Howard Suamico School District
Bay Port High School
Here’s a novel idea…instead of writing a term paper that sits on a teacher’s desk and no one but the teacher actually reads it (we hope.) Following is a summary of an interesting article about a professor who gave students in his Latin American literature class the assignment of writing an entry for Wikipedia, the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet.
Jon Beasley-Murray, Assistant Professor of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview published on Sunday, May 11, that writing for Wikipedia “seems like a much larger stage, more of a challenge.”
“The vast majority of Wikipedia entries aren’t very good,” he admitted, adding that the site aims to be academically sound.
The professor promised a rare A+ grade to students who manage to get their projects accepted as a “Featured Article,” the top rank on the online encyclopedia. For an entry to be ranked as such, Wikipedia says, it must provide “thorough, well-written coverage of their topic, supported by many references to peer-reviewed publications.”
Of more than 10 million articles in 253 languages, only about 2,000 have reached that status.
The experiment has proved very challenging for students in Beasley-Murray’s literature the course.
“I was up nights until three or four a.m. in the morning working on it,” Eva Shiu, a third-year student, told AFP. “I got addicted to it.”
Shiu and two colleagues worked on an entry on Gabriel Garc Marquez’s book, “the General in his Labyrinth.” The entry, along with two others, became the first student works to reach Wikipedia’s top rank and ran on its homepage on Monday, May 5.
“But it was really exciting, and I feel like I’ve accomplished something,” said an enthusiastic Shiu.
Monica Freudenreich worked on an entry on Nobel prize-winning Guatemalan author Miguel Angel Asturias that also made it to Wikipedia’s top rank. She is most excited by the fact that her efforts and contribution will survive online.
“Term papers end up in a binder that eventually sits under my bed.”
Professor Beasley-Murray said the projects took the students four months, noting that one entry was revised 1,000 times. He recognizes that the experiment is not all sweet.
“Sometimes it’s a disaster,” said Beasley-Murray. “But in some ways it’s good news…this was a great learning experience for students.”
It seems that a global audience might be a great way to motivate students to their best work and leave a legacy from which we can all learn!
Blogging about blogs…again! One of those “wish I had written that” posts. 
The Education Origami blogsite has an excellent profile of the characteristics that a teacher who expects to be able to teach 21st Century skills to 21st Century learners must have.
The blog has a great graphic that outlines these characteristics:
For more detail about each of these characteristics, be sure to read the full blog post. I know we have lots of teachers in CESA 7 who fit this model, but the big question is: how do we get others on board? Can these characteristics be taught and if so, how? Any ideas? Please share them!
Hello. I thought I would post my notes from our CESA 7 Tech Coord’s meeting of April 9, when John Ashley of WASB spoke to our technology coordinators. He had some good points on approaching school boards (and administrators) to support technology.
”How to Talk to Your Administrators and School Board about Technology”
John talked about basic ideas for working with school boards and making the case for technology in school districts. Boards need to understand their roles are to commit to all children receiving a good education and to ensure student achievement.
Boards should set direction, not make day-to-day decisions. They reflect community values, and should make decisions on how to benefit the largest number of students in the district.
Don’t assume all board members know what your technology initiatives are. Speak to the school board at least once a year. Talk with your administrator so you can get on the agenda. Showcase how technology is improving student achievement. Invite students to show their work. Help them understand networks, email, curriculum requirements, upgrade requirements. Do this in a non-threatening manner. Address safety re Internet use and student safety. Thank them for their support in the past and continued support.
How to show they should invest in technology vs adding teachers? Work together with the teachers and technology to show the improvements. Show the neeeds for 21st Century Skills. Partner with classroom teachers. The board likes to see the data – how can we get them to look beyond these test scores. The test doesn’t tell us some of these benefits of using technology. A proactive superintendent can be very helpful and is critical in setting the vision for technology. Denmark has some student demos at almost every meeting, which has been very effective for them. It is a great way to bring it close to home.
Learn how to work with your administrators – they are not comfortable with technology. Give them the info they need, educate them about the roles of technology, so they can feel comfortable when asked by the school board. Also put the technology in the hands of the school board so they can experience the technology. One district gives a list of tech competencies to each stakeholder group – including school board members - so they all know what is expected.
Budgets: most of the referendums in the state recently failed. Staffing positions are being cut. We need to engage the community in how the high quality education is a benefit to all the community. Bring them into the district to see the benefits.
For further information, contact
www.wasb.org , jashley@wasb.org. 60-8-257-2622. John will provide any resources and support that he can.
Just read Alan Levine’s April 6th “CogDogBlog” post (Alan’s “place to bark about instructional technology”) “The Wiki Way”
It has a great list of quick guidelines for a wiki. Alan’s favorite phrase, and now mine, too:
‘No one has “forgotten” or “left out” anything. You just haven’t added it yet.’
For a great place to get started with a wiki, check out pbwikis
Is it safe? (Always the first question…)
Yes. According to their FAQ’s you can always make a wiki private and even if you don’t, you need to have a password to edit one, so spammers can’t add at will.
How could you use one? Here are some of pbwiki’s suggestions:
A wiki might be perfect for you if…
- You’re tired of waiting for Brad in IT to help set you up (not you, Brad R!
- You want to increase student engagement using a safe online wiki
- You’re tired of complicated solutions that nobody uses
- You want a no-hassle way to showcase your students’ work online
- You want to eliminate excuses of lost homework
- You want a central place for your group to collaborate
- You want one place to put your files and thoughts so you can access them anywhere
- You want a partner to share best practices on collaboration
So have you set up a wiki yet? If your teachers aren’t yet using wikis with their students, why not? If yes, tell me…if not, tell me why not! (I started a personal one for my own thoughts just now.)
How many years will it be before your district is able to implement 1 to 1 computer
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