Technology In Education Online

I’m ending the first couple days here at the conference. It has been a very busy two days.  I ran a full-day workshop on Mondy, “Getting Started on the Moodle”.  Tuesday, I completed a half-day workshop on Joomla and just finished a presentation, “Moodle and 21st Century DETAILS: A Constructivist Approach to Teaching.”So as I reflect on the first couple of days, what are my thoughts?  Well, after completing these workshops I am more convinced that giving educators the opportunity to participate in the process is critical. My afternoon presentation on reflecting on how you need to take a more constructivist approach while using a Moodle. One interesting point came when I was discussing about the Workshop component whereby students could participate in peer evaluation and grading, following the guidelines of a rubric. One teacher emphatically stated she would never allow students to participate in grading.  The bottom line for me was her not having a level of trust in students to fairly access another students work.  Now here is the rub, why can’t teachers trust their students to be responsible and accountable? The other question is: Is there a power and control issue here?  I think, at times, it is really hard for some teachers to empower their students.  Do they see their role as commander and chief and students don’t have enough expertise to enable to handle the responsibility?  My thought here is, and it may relate or not, we don’t  teach students what is involved in the process of working in groups yet we throw students together a lot of times and expect them to handle the responsibility.   All I’d ask people to do is to reflect back on their own experiences of group work in school and ask the question: how did it work for you?  I’ve heard from educators the thing they disliked most when going back to school was having a class where the instructor would state that there would be group projects during the semester.  Inevitability, i would hear such statements as: “I wound up doing most of the work” or “Person A didn’t do anything. What happened? What went wrong?  The biggest problem is that we never teach, and perhaps because we were never taught our self, what makes up the group process. How group dynamics work. How you look at members or potential members and determine where their strengths and interests are and grouping students based on their strengths and interests.  Why do group members usually get disinterested? Usually, my experience has been due to people in the group being the controllers.  They want the project to go their way.  On the other extreme you have those that simply tune out due to feeling the group wasn’t hearing what they had to say. So how does this relate to peer review, which was the main point in begin with?  In today’s world students are going to be working collaboratively.  They will also have to know how to peer review.  So if we make the same fatal error with not teaching peer review, we are going to repeat the same errors we have made with group projects. We must step away from this thinking that my role as an educator is to hold all power and control in the classroom.  We have to open up our classrooms to be interactive, peer-review, and restructure group dynamics.

OK, here is my frustration…I ‘ve been presenting at conferences on a regular basis for the past couple of years. I’ve setup my website and Moodle. Since setting up my Moodle I’ve had people register from all around the world.  I’ve set up discussion forums, encouraged people to participate, share their ideas, ask questions, etc. The results? Not much participation. So the question becomes (OK, this is where the pity party comes in): How much energy do I put into creating my website and Moodle if I’m having to guess what educators’ needs are? Or, what they would like to see on both sites. I know people are busy with their lives, but I think we need to encourage ourselves, as educators, as much as we encourage our students, to be active participants in our own learning.  If we remain passive receptors of information, how does this encourage learning?  So if there is anyone out there that has some suggestions, I’m listening!

Today’s theme has been my quest today. All sessions I’ve attended have been Web 2.0 related.  If I were highlight the day I’d say there are just an incredible amount of “cool” stuff coming out all of the time related to Web 2.0.  Just when I thought I was catching up to things, something new comes along.  The run down of sessions today:

Starting off the morning attending Alan November’s presentation: “Cultivating a World-class Work Ethic”.  If I were to reflect back on the session the key thing is that we must think of our learning from a multitude of perspectives.  If we study, for example American History, do we only source out of Google only from an American perspective?  Do we, with all of this technology available, open ourselves up to a more global perspective?  And if we restrict what we teach and our approach to how we teach  what are we preparing our students to become.  There are so many great things available to students today, especially with Web 2.0 tools that by placing all of these barriers in our educational approach we don’t create life-long learners.  We are leaving our students the job of teaching themselves outside of school. Students must and should have a say in their own education.

The remainder of the day I spent going to various Web 2.0 sessions.  I think when you talk about creativity and empowerment Web 2.0 is the future….for now. Who knows what the next big thing is coming around the corner!  This can be looked at in two different ways: 1) Why learn this stuff if it is going to be passe in no time, or; 2) This is some exciting stuff and it allows me to continue to bring in new ideas to students!  People were talking about YouTube, Digg, Blogs, Second Life, Habbo & Club Penguin, MySpace,  and Facebook to name a few. The whole idea is taking a bottom down approach rather than a top down approach towards education. Forget about memorization and regurgitation. Let’s move away from this focus on standardization especially since we can’t even get the “experts” to agree what these standards are and how we measure students’ progress.

The final thought of the day is this: If we talk about transforming our teaching methods with Web 2.0, we must think about how we teach ourselves.  If we are attending conferences, I think we need to develop conferences more towards being interactive and hands-on.  People may argue that with larger conferences this is an impossible task.  However, lets’ think about how a conference might work/ look differently. Attendees come to the conference, for those that don’t have a laptop, attendees are given a loaner system to take with them throughout the conference.  An attendee walks into a session, round tables are setup where people sit down, open up their laptop, and begin to walk through using these Web 2.0 tools.  How can we afford this?  I’ve seen vendors, such as Gateway, Dell, and HP, at the conference. Why not tap into their resources to provide the loaners?  The same with software. We have Apple and Microsoft at the conference. Why not have them participate in this process to provide the operating systems.

Actions speak louder than words! Why not re-invent our conferences and make them more like what we talk about when we talk about Web 2.0 philosophical approach to learning.  Let’s remove the chairs lined up in rows and create a a round table experience with a more collegial, interactive experience!

Continuing my random thoughts theme from my first FETC 2008 post, I’ll continue on.  I’m waiting the opening session to start and thought I’d put down my thinking from conversations today. So here they go:

I like wireless wireless access where ever I go.  I don’t like when I keep getting dropped off. It makes working while at the conference so much easier since a lot of my work these days is web-based. I just have to get over my need to plug-in for electricity. Can we have some type of solar or self generating power supply?

We need to move away from our fear factor.  Why do I say that? While sitting down for the opening session <strong>The Journal</strong> sitting on my chair listed on its’ cover “Handle With Care” In the wrong hands school PCs can be agents of improper even unlawful activity.  I’m not discounting the need for security, but when our focus is on this fear factor we lose track of the positives and focus on the negatives.  This is true of many of the Web 2.0 tools students use.   We must move away from this if we are to keep up with today’s students.  We can flourish using these creative, interactive, student driven tools.

Educational Leaders must be just that!  I had a great discussion with another presenter today discussing this issue.  How can we move away from NCLB and teaching to the test mentality if our educational leaders of our schools only perpetuate the status quo? If they only focus on test scores or padding their own resume then they have lost focus on what educational leaders should be.  If we are truly going to move towards a more constructivist approach to education, with technology integration being one of the many tools, then we must expect more.

Appearance is nothing. This piggy-backs off of #3.  If technology is about what looks good rather than how to better integrate technology then we are missing the boat.  Is it about show, how it appears to the community?  If this is true, then what are we to expect of our students?  As I walked around the vendor area I have a whole new outlook on how I assess what they are selling.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the first ones to jump at the “cool” stuff. But when I take a step back and assess what value it has my perspective has changed dramatically.

Technology isn’t just about standards, security, test scores, cool devices and nice looking reports.  Again I refer to #4 above. I don’t dispel these things I just don’t think they are the end pieces.  If we purchase these types of programs that generate these great looking reports with graphs and charts are we simply presenting them to our BOE to make it look good?  I don’t mean to be a cynic, I’m just a little tired of how people bend and twist technology into being the pacifier of accountability.

And so ends my latest random thoughts for the day.

As I left the cold rainy weather of New Jersey, I was happy to arrive in Orlando and feel the warmth.  Often before a conference many random thoughts go through my mind, especially at a conference I’ve never attended.  What will the presentations be like, how will the conference go, will it be informative, what new things will I learn, and the list goes on. I even haven’t got to those random thoughts about my own presentation.  Being the last session of the conference I wonder what the turn out will be like.  Do you know you’ve made it regarding conference presentations when you move up the schedule? Time will tell.

The one thing I’m really happy about (OK, sometimes the little things make me happy) is being able to access the Internet from my hotel room for free!  There is nothing worst when you make reservations and the hotel states that they have “free” Internet service. Free! Yes, if you want to hang out in the lobby.  I like access directly from my room. I can stretch out, relax, and work in my own space.

I will be a correspondent for eSchool News during the conference and will include links to my reviews during the conference. Stay tune! Enough random thoughts for now!

As the saying goes, the best laid plains of mice and men often go astray….I’ve always been one to be on time and prepared.  So this AM I get up, get ready for the conference, walk out of the hotel, walk down the street, enter the civic center, and no one is around! I look around and then quickly check my confirmation for the conference and it is at the Convention Center!!! Back to the hotel, take the shuttle, and I’m sitting here at this conference getting ready to present.  I sit down and go to check over everything on my computer for the day and I have no plug to plug into and I can’t get a wireless network connection.  I scramble around find a wireless connection and I’m sitting here typing out this blog. </p>

When preparing for my presentation at this conference I wanted to change things up a bit to how I’ve presented it in the past.  I have often thought about how do explain a Moodle to someone who has never heard of it before or if they’ve heard of it,  how do you share your excitement over the use of a moodle? The best example of the excitement is to watch a teacher who heard about this “Moodle thing” but weren’t sure what it was. After taking them on a brief tour, they are off and running. As they discover what they could do with a moodle the ideas start flowing from them on how they can use a moodle. And this is what I want to share with those that attend my presentation today.  The technology is great but the excitement is the real payoff

Now it’s on to the keynote address

More to come as the day progresses.

As I arrived to setup my presentation this afternoon I wondered how many people would show and whether people would walk away as excited as I am about using a Moodle. It is always amazing to me when talking to people about using a Moodle they are absolutely stunned when you tell them that it is free!  The next comment usually is ….”so what’s the catch?” It’s always a re-energizer for me to present at conferences. The energy that I get from peoples’ interest always sends me back to my usual work with a renewed sense of energy (of course after I’ve caught up from all the traveling). I will be posting my presentation here later on this week as a podcast. I’d like to hear back from people that attended today’s presentation

At times the stars and planets align perfectly with each other.  As I was working on my doctoral EPP, I was trying to look at how using a Moodle would fit into what I was attempting to accomplish.  Mainly, my goal is looking at how possibly can a Moodle fit into a constructivst approach and at the same time evaluate teachers use of it.  Well, back in May I went through training to become a <a target=”_blank” href=”http://www.loticonnection.com” title=”LoTi Connection”>LoTi </a>certified mentor. After completing the training I began to look at the various LoTi levels and it dawned on me, they fit very well together. By assessing how teachers are using the Moodle, I’m able to determine their current LoTi level.   From here, professional development can be focused on a teacher’s needs not simply throwing  a teacher into a one shot in-service or training.

Let me know what you think. Until next time.

Alan

This website will focus on technology in education. Discussions will revolve around how educators are utilizing technology in the classroom. Topics such as integrating vs. use and the confusion around wht the difference is between the two will be included. Other topics will include reviews and comments on software and hardware. I hope people find this blog useful and will contribute to its’ development.

Alan