Technology In Education Online

There were four sessions throughout the day. Here is a brief review of the sessions:

 Session 1 – Project Based Learning That Works - Great Ideas for You – Thematic Planning – The LEADS model (Literacy is Essential to Adolescent Development and Success ) is built around thematic, cross-curricular units.  The core reading materials, novels and expository/informational text are utilized to incorporate this cross-curricular approach.  The presenters gave an example of Project-based Learning by presenting YouTube videos showing this model in action.  Integrating curriculum through ideas – LA teacher, SS teacher, and Math teacher are thinking of ways to integrate these themes/ideas.  They pointed out that collaboration time is essential.   

Session 2 – Drop-in Time- Web 2.0 tools- They spoke of how they could be used in the classroom with students. The presenters demonstrated interesting sites:

For more information go to: http://dropintimewithweb20.wikispaces.com/

Session 3 – I presented “The Project-Based Web 2.0 Buffet! Eating It All Up! I spoke about the collaborative 6^th grade project. I’ll be posting my presentation on my website.

Session 4 – Developing and Supporting Teacher Leaders – The Academy of Teaching and Learning – http://southjerseyacademy.com/. It is run by teachers for teachers and started in 2000. 

All sessions are free. The only responsibility of the school districts are providing teachers with substitutes while attending.

There are 4 components -

1. governance committee – gets feedback from others to determine who are speakers, i.e. teacher leaders in the area then plan/organize
2. EIRC – take care of cost, meeting place, etc.
3. Quarterly meetings – meet on a specific topic – teachers drive the topics based on feedback
   1. Keynote in AM, breakout, lunch, return for big group activity, burning issues
4. Website – collaboration, professional growth

Once again a very enjoyable day at this annual conference. Thanks to all the folks at SRI – ETTC for putting this together!

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!

We need to look beyond the factor of what looks good.  Some administrators too often can’t look beyond what appears to be technology integration. What do I mean? Comparing what “we” have with what others have doesn’t equate to being more technologically innovative. Nor does what others have versus what “we” have equate to them being so far ahead of us.  Are we worried about appearance more than content?It becomes a fashion show of hardware. School districts purchase equipment and once it is placed in the classroom it just sits there. Why? Teachers are never trained on how best to use the technology.  Comments such as, “I have five computers in my classroom and twenty-five students. How can I possibly use them?”  Most times these computers wind up being used as a “reward” for students that complete their work quickly.  Or the clamor for interactive white boards and projector units are heard to be a necessary piece of equipment. And what do they wind up being? An expensive overhead projector and transparency unit.

How do you avoid this way of bringing technology into the school? First step is to make a plan whereby teachers are given the opportunity to learn how best to integrate the technology into their classroom.  This step is usually skipped in order to quickly show-off their new equipment.  To exasperate the problem even further in tight budget times, teachers become frustrated because the money is spent on this equipment at the expense of other things including additional teachers to reduce class Until leadership takes a more proactive role in planning, it is inevitable we will repeat this pattern over and over.  We can never move forward until we break this cycle.

Something that has got me thinking lately is how technology is being used today in the classroom. From student management systems to Accelerated Reader, teachers are finding the convenience of technology to beneficial. But the question must be asked, how is this benefiting students and the educational process? It is with a bit of apprehension I raise this question. I don’t want this to be an opportunity to “blame the teacher.” However, more of a reflective questioning of where we are going with technology. The idea of using testing software that comes with some of the text books has also been another technology tool teachers have felt to be beneficial. Or the rationalization that “I’m continuing to use this software because students are used to it or comfortable.” Is it the students or the teacher? Ok, not to get everyone up in arms. Granted teachers have been burdened with more and more responsibilities over the years. However, do we use the technology to reduce the workload regardless of the long term effects? Take for example Accelerated Reader (AR). Teachers will talk about the program boosting students interest in reading. However, how often had the program been used as a convenient tool to dismiss the reflection and analytical aspects of reading. It isn’t to say AR is good or bad, but more on the implementation of the program. As Sadusky and Brem indicate in their study, “The Integration of Renaissance Programs into an Urban Title I Elementary School, and its Effect on School-wide Improvement” , point out “These misconceptions are not the responsibility of any one group or aspect of the program. They are fueled by some program design elements, political pressure over accountability, and misconceptions held by parents, teachers and students. Based upon our surveys, interviews, and focus groups, we believe that the dominant model of assessment at the school is what we term the “high-stakes testing” model, which stresses summative evaluation, striving for perfect performance, little feedback and contextualization, and substantial, long-lasting consequences.” Others, such as Krashen, show that “the results presented here strongly suggest that of the four aspects of AR, access to books, time devoted to reading, tests, and rewards, only the first two are supported by research. If the focus is on competition and rewards for number of points the reading aspect becomes secondary to the need to outpoint peers or win the reward. Can the same be said of other software used in the classroom. After attending numerous conferences and walking through the vendors displays I am too often left with the sense that technology integration is lost in the process. As has been the case in some presentations that I’ve done, teachers will say to me “I don’t have time to do that” when explaining the more constructivist approach toward technology. But give them a good testing software program that complements their textbook and they are all for it! So is it convenience or integration? Perhaps again we need to focus on professional development and the lack there of. If we continually expect teachers to integrate technology then we must give them the opportunity to see how it fits into their everyday classroom. Also, if the administrative focus is on what “looks good” rather than integration then we are fighting an uphill battle. If the opportunity isn’t there to learn then we are simply spending a lot of money on a whole lot for appearances.

What does it take for people to be active members in a learning environment?  Is there a magical answer to this question?  The reason I pose this question is due to my wondering how do you get people involved with technology integration.  For example, I’ve started to build a moodle (<a href=”http://www.techinedonline.com/moodle”>http://www.techinedonline.com/moodle</a>) with various topics being covered. I’ve noticed quite a few people coming to this site, but not a single comment, suggestions, request, etc.  So I’m left to ponder whether building such a site is a worthwhile adventure or is simply providing a repository of information enough.  I enjoy putting this site together and offering information to others.  However, it’s hard to know what direction to take with this site without knowing what peoples’ needs are or what they are looking for.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand people have other things happening in their lives and taking the time to respond is not a priority. However, this is the same dilemma I’m faced with in my work.  How do you get people to use the knowledge and resources at hand in order to better integrate technology into the classroom? Are expectations too high?  I ran into this situation a couple years ago when I introduced the concept of a discussion forum for teachers to use as a way of communicating with each other, as well as offering their own knowledge to share with others? Guess how many people participated? At first, a few people posted to the forums but those numbers quickly faded within the first couple of months.  I also setup a Tips and Tricks website for teachers. And what was the reaction? Most people stated they would just rather ask me then look at the site.  What strikes me as being somewhat baffling is that we tell our students to look for the answers rather then come to the teacher to give you the answer. Yet, we often do the same thing that we attempt to dissuade our students from doing.

Alan November, last week at the “TechForum Northeast 2007″ talked about how he had peoples’ blogs tied into his course website and still had people adding to it now even though the course ended this past spring.  I think I’ll try that within my moodle and see what happens. His thinking, which I agree with, is that people need to have some connection or feeling of ownership for it to be successful. I also liked his idea of using Skype to open up lines of communications. I’ll continue to offer skypecasts over the next few weeks (look for notices here) to see what kind of responses I get.  I’ll have more to say about last week’s conference later on.

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

Working with teachers today I had time to reflect afterwards on the day.  Often times after doing a training or in-service I spend time reflecting on how things went.  The thing that struck me the most was how much energy people can devote to resisting change or looking at things from a different perspective.  The in-service today was a follow-up on teachers having recently completing the 21st Century Details Questionnaire.  Several teachers could not move away from the focus of it not working for them.  The thought came to me…what if instead of saying “this doesn’t apply to what I’m doing” or “this if fine for older students” teachers thought how can I make this work for me!  How can I take the concepts and strategies that are applied to older students and tweak it to fit my grade level?  What a novel concept. At times it does feel like I’m battling those windmills!

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