Dare it be said?

Will Richardson's post is one to think about.

I have been thinking whether a college degree is really necessary these days. Many claim it is, but it seems to me as it is just another treadmill. See his post above for interesting thoughts on this. Since humankind has made quite the mess in this world, should it not be an opportunity to really rethink this? Really, if college is not for everyone, why is a high school experience that prepares you for that necessary? If you look at college drop-out rates and years to completion, one must argue that should not be a path for everyone. Every career is going to require training beyond high school, but that training need not be through college. What if there was an opportunity to pursue your passion and learn earlier?

Tags: Will Richardson

Technology integration...

Thanks to Drape's Takes:

Ronald Anderson and Sara Dexter conducted an interesting study back in 2000, with findings that every school administrator should consider:

For technology to become an integral part of a school, it not only is necessary to help teachers use the technology but administrators must be involved in it, too. The importance of training for developing teachers in technology has long been recognized in the educational community. These findings indicate that administrative leadership and decision-making are equal, if not more important than spending on infrastructure to maintaining a successful technology program.

...Charismatic people may contribute to technology integration as well, but it is even more essential for a school to distribute leadership and become a "technology learning organization," where administrators, teachers, students, and parents together work on how best to adapt new technologies to improve learning. (p. 17)

He asks: Nine years later, how's the scene in your school?

Answer: Generally not sure where they stand.

Tags: Darren Draper, technology, education

Re-booting my life

I have been pretty blaise about my New Year's resolutions. Thanks to Zen Habits here are a few items for people to think about. See his post for more great ideas.

"Think small, act big." I usually do the opposite of this mantra. Maybe this can create a change as well.

He offers goals for Simplicity:

• Reassess your mess. I do this a lot. My husband holds on to everything. I sort immediately and find homes for things we do not use.
• Unwind your mind. "We spend a lot of time trying to organize and create more functional living spaces. But we often neglect the most important space we live in: our mind. Take advantage of the New Year to reboot your mind. Drop disempowering beliefs, drop negativity. Cull and remove what’s not working for you...Here’s another great resource: How to Organize Mental Clutter."

• Reboot your bank account. I like the idea of "...develop the habit of being frugal."

• Automate your answer. A lot of the time we hold ourselves back because we don’t have enough information, or we don’t know where to start. Instead of letting “I don’t know” hold you back, put yourself on the auto-response “I’ll figure it out.” Imagine what you could do if you did this. You might be able to have the guts to start that business you’ve been dreaming about. You could write that novel you’ve been planning. Or could you take that trip around the world you’ve been dying for. Make your resolution to not let not knowing where to start keep your from taking action.

I am always thinking...

Tags: Resolutions

Ideal learning...

Robin Good's "The 10 Key Components Of An Ideal Learning Environment..." caught my attention with the following:

...we appear mostly incapable to look at our educational system with fresh eyes, or to ask relevant questions as to why we force our most promising youth to spend the most brilliant years of their lives to memorize dates, facts and notions they will have little use for in the real life that exists outside of their secure school walls.

He writes the post in his experience with the Timba music school and offeres the following points:

• Open access (access to peers, tools, resources at anytime)
• Access to learning objects
  
• Passionate peers ("The learners are the ones that make up the true value of the school..." not the scheduled lectures, age based classes. And this idea: "many of the masters have the right attitude of being teachers and students at the same time, great opportunities arise for everyone to learn something from someone else.")
• Elders (individuals that have a lot of experience - they may not be great teachers but they are available to offer expertise.)
• Models (diverse people to follow - a model may not be the one with the most knowledge. They are the ones that people admire and look into the character/knowledge for greater introspect.)
• Access to professionals (in his example, it is not the teachers, but those who are proven in a specific profession)
• Opportunity to try, experiment, and be wrong. (Because students are penalized for being wrong, many stop trying...Is there something wrong with that picture?)
• Put into Practice Publicly. (If you want to dive into something, you better have plenty of water...")
• Learning from each other, just-in-time, with no end (or exam) in sight. (This increases sharing and learning among peers.)
• Learners' in the driver's seat. ("When it is the student who can choose his master, peers and practice and learning times, you know something is going the right way. If it is true that it is really up to the learner to make all of the steps to relate and master what she is interested in, then it must follow that it must be the same student who chooses what to learn, from whom and when to do it.")

I know this is all we continue to talk about, but what is it going to take to rock the educational foundation on its ear?

Tags: Robin Good, Timba School of Music

Right up my alley...

Thomas Friedman offers a great perspective on the ailing America in his "Reboot America."

There is so much wrong here and it is not just the economy. Our priorities are in the wrong place.

What is important:

• Education
• Proactive wellness and health vs. reactive
• The environment

What isn't:

• Misplaced priorities (are those in competitive sports and entertainment really worth what they are paid?)
• Capitalism the way we have made it
• Maintaining our current status quo
  

It is not I can't learn, I don't want to

So, I have been thinking...

Is it the fact that this time of year automatically brings a period of reflection?

Did turning 44 on Christmas Eve cause a re-thinking of where I have been and where I have headed? (the past two years have been tumultuous as those who read my deleted post last month can remember.)

I think though, some of us just reflect more than others. And many of us who do, share these reflections with others. I am sure everyone reflects, but how deeply is it when it is not written and reworked and looked at again?

A few blog posts about teaching and pedagogy have caught my eye as they are current items I am reflecting about.

Explorations in Learning reports on the National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey has a large sample size and makes comparisons between first and fourth year college students.

The two points that caught my attention:

• Students taking most of their classes online report more deep approaches to learning in their classes, relative to classroom-based learners. Furthermore, a larger share of online learners reported very often participating in intellectually challenging course activities.
• When courses provided extensive, intellectually challenging writing activities, students engaged in more deep learning activities such as analysis, synthesis, and integration of ideas from various sources, and they grappled more with course ideas both in and out of the classroom. These students also reported greater personal, social, practical, and academic learning and development.

Charles Nelson offers some insight into the first point:

The first finding is rather curious. I need to look at the report more closely, but it seems unlikely, at least to me, that online learning per se would create "deep" learning. Perhaps students who sign up for online courses are already the type who enage in "deep" learning. Perhaps online courses are taught by instructors who are not content with the status quo, but continually seek to improve their pedagogy, to improve student learning, to challenge students. And the students responded accordingly, as noted in the fifth finding.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has some interesting thoughts on learning. This is not revolutionary and we already know this, but we just don't say it and the public at large will deny it.

It has turned out that mass education is more difficult to achieve than we had anticipated. To close the gap between the rather dismal reality and earlier expectations, researchers and practitioners have placed their faith in teaching methods modeled on computers and other rational means for conveying information - which in turn were modeled on industrial production techniques and on military human systems design. The implicit hope has been that if we discover more and more rational ways of selecting, organizing, and distributing knowledge, children will learn more effectively.

Yet it seems increasingly clear that the chief impediments to learning are not cognitive in nature. It is not that students cannot learn, it is that they do not wish to. Computers do not suffer from motivational problems, whereas human beings do. We have not found ways to program children so that they will learn the information we present to them as computers do. Unfortunately, cognitive science has not taken adequate notice of this fact, and hence the current cognitive emphasis on teaching is missing out on an essential component of what learning is about.

When one is motivated (either intrinsic or extrinsic), they are in flow. Students know what this is - they experience it when pursuing their interests. So, what do teachers do to motivate students:

• We need to look at extrinsic motivators. The common statement "that you will need to know it for...(insert next course, college, life, etc.) is bogus. Better to not say it. We are hypocrites and the kids know it.
• They need to see how fun it is to learn - we enjoy it, they need to experience it.

So what is flow? Wes Fryer offers this image that represents flow better than can be said:
If a student is not challenged but has much ability (A1 to A2), they are bored (not motivating.)
If a student is challenged but needs more knowledge to increase skills (A1 to A3), they are anxious. The balance between skills and challenges, leads to flow.

He goes on to state that writing is one activity that can push and stretch students into flow. Writing encourages analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating.

Still thinking. Flow is great and we have seen kids in flow. How do we address this:

It is not that students cannot learn, it is that they do not wish to.

We can make content exciting and find good reasons for learning, personal application, etc. When they "have" to take your course, what do you do to overcome the not wishing to learn?

Tags: Charles Nelson, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Wes Fryer, flow

Animal planet project update

First, I need to say that it is difficult using PBL in a content driven science class (especially as this is Academic and certain expectations for the college set must be met.) Sometimes it needs to just be about presenting content. Thinking of change in curriculum will help here.

Our combined class Animal Planet projects are really moving along. We have had a few bumps along the way:

• Google Teacher Academy took me away at a crucial point in the project and because of this, some of the items we had planned did not run as smooth and were not placed as desired on the wiki. Not a big problem, just a management issue. Content is there, just not in the manner envisioned.
• Tech glitches with server connections, down sites, and specific computer problems. This comes with the territory. We are used to it, but it slows work down.
• Disruptions at school. changing schedules for assemblies, two hour delays, one snow day, and other interruptions.

The animal phyla/class imovies and related information was good. Some were great. Suggestions I have are having students put information into a specific checklist or worksheet to double check information. Students have a hard time knowing that the information that they find needs to go in to the imovie. Seems simple but this always happens with a few groups. Even if the checklist is given and physical work can be seen, how are you sure that students actually put it in?

One thought that I have is in the use of peer review. Have students be responsible for part of the checking of information and how it is being utilized in a project. Use some kind of form for consistency that is checked by students and teachers. Maybe use another format than a video. (I really wanted them to have more experience in the creation of an imovie but also know that it is not always the best choice as it takes so much time.) I need to use the discussion feature of the wiki more for student feedback.

The google maps/google earth layers were to have been collaborative between a variety of students. For some reason, not all emails showed up to the collaborators, there were glitches in the creation of placemarks...and because of this, there are more than one map for each phylum or class (they are on the same page as each of the videos.)

The endangered and exotic animals research was pretty great. It looks disorganized due to lack of communication (the days I was not here), but this will be reorganized in the future. I have some eager students looking for extra points.

Students had fun making the Create-an-Organism using Scratch and also writing a poem or story about the animal. We are waiting for the projects to be printed in color. they will be coded with an animal grouping name (pod, herd, etc.) and a letter. We will distribute them to students and they will be asked to assess how well the person did at displaying the niche and the characteristics of the critter without giving too much away. They will place the name of the phylum or class they believe it belongs in. A portion of the paper will go back to the artist who will determine if they are correct and be given a grade for their answer + reasoning for choice. At this point, the images of the organisms created will be uploaded to the appropriate animal grouping name and reflections/feedback will be given through the discussion tabs. We will do this after break.

Students worked on the following dissections: Clam (which featured an interesting follow-up of a day in the life of a clam, how clams were different in the past, etc.), Starfish, and Crayfish.

When they return, they will be comparing and contrasting those three organisms in an invertebrate reflection. Each team will have a specific focus (like locomotion, digestion, reproduction, etc.) They will create information to be placed on a wiki page and study guide questions posted to a class google doc. This will help review and relate structure to function of various invertebrates. They will also compare to the pig which we will be dissecting in January. Many topics branch off from these comparisons and I am working on a segueway into those topics.

Pig dissection will also be interesting (this is a work in progress - one of the reasons I love a wiki for its ability to let me change portions at any moment.) We are pursuing a 20% time approach to the pig. 80% of dissection time will be answering questions and finding parts. The other 20% will be in pursuit of information/actual dissection of something on the pig we have not covered or would not cover. Obviously, there will be a plan and posting learning to the others, but I think a little freedom here (with teacher approval) may be a good thing.

I have some great ideas for next year that really focuses on biodiversity of living things. There are items I need to do more of: small quizzes, more review of material, perhaps a few written or review worksheets to help with understanding.

What ways are you teaching broad ideas such as animal diversity to your students?

PBL and life-long learning

Elona Hartjes at Teacher's At Risk, writes about Project based learning.

She begins with a search for 21st century and citizenship skills (which she mentions are one and the same.) She quotes these skills as:

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking;
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence;
3. Agility and adaptability;
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship;
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information; and
7. Curiosity and imagination.

Her last question as she integrates project-based learning in her math class and the push back by the students is this: Do some of their students prefer work sheet to projects?

I answered her with the following:

My upper level students are not as fond of pbl activities. They would rather have worksheets as they are good at them and they can get high grades. The workload now is less (we needed lots of worksheets to make it academic) but now the thinking required is more difficult. My lower students do not like worksheets, they ask great questions, but need motivated to keep going to find answers. I am interested in how your lower level students progress in a pbl classroom.

I still believe strongly in PBL as in the past I have realized that worksheets and lectures were not increasing student learning. Without solid support, this change is difficult. I have always embraced change and rarely chuck it because of slight pressure. I am not going back now and further cements my thoughts towards next steps in the future.

We will not be able to create life-long learners if the community of the school as well as the external community is not one themselves.

Innovative teaching and learning

Listen to this video of Larry Rosenstock of High Tech High School featured on Edutopia.

This speaks to the heart of what school needs to be and the differences that exist by those who follow a new model and those who blindly continue the path they are going.

This is worth a listen. A principal and CEO who has thoughtfully designed a school that supports and empowers all learners to be their best vs. all students in a cookie cutter type of environment.
No matter the roll out of technology, it will not matter if there is no ethic of care, a focus on everyone as a learner, and a true collaborative environment.