Helping Laptop Programs Work

Professional Development and - Students?

2011-10-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Professional Development - learning for teachers - should take students into account not just as the "targets" or recipients of what teachers will put in place in the classroom - but - as the active participants in a school wide learning community including teacher PD. What might this mean?

Students are the largest stakeholder in schools or districts by measure of numbers and impact on their lives and their future. Yet they are routinely not brought into planning, decision-making, and thinking and even being informed about the integral components that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

Recently I worked with a school district in Missouri helping them design their PD program and brought up the idea of students as co-learners, even teachers, and as consultants in the design of how and what their teachers might learn. Schools are using students in meaningful ways as co-learners and as teachers at The Urban School in San Francisco, and with many schools employing GenYes - just for instance.

Why not bring students into PD design, into your planning and goals, into sessions with teachers, why not have them learn along with the teachers? If students need to know inquiry-based learning and how to ask deeper and more meaningful questions - and if your teachers need to create classroom goals that are deep and meaningful - why not combine this so that teachers and students consider deeply overarching important questions and goals - together. If your school or district establishes yearlong goals which are incorporated into teaching - have a student group that helps plan and create the content that will be taught.

Let students see "behind the curtain" that teachers are learners, too. Let teachers openly share with their students what they are learning about and ask students questions about how they view this learning and their suggestions for improvement. Teachers can tell students that they never stop learning and give examples and bring up some of their "homework" and ask students how they might approach some ideas.

We speak of Learning Communities and Learning Environments - yet we just assume that students are already members of these communities because they are the targeted learners. Take them out of the "end result" position and put them closer to all the learners actively engaged in the activities of planning and co-constructing knowledge. You will be surprised at how much they know and what they are thinking about - and how engaged they will likely be with the process.

Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay run the excellent Flat Classroom Project which you can join with your students. But how will your school flatten all learning so that students are more than the end recipients and instead move up to a place of full participation in a vibrant learning community of all children and adults - including PD?

Conferences That Work - And Why I'm Loving This Book

2011-08-06T06:37:00.000-07:00

I am reading this book Conferences that Work - Creating Events That People Love by Adrian Segar. I've known Adrian for quite a while since attending the excellent edACCESS conference for the first time while an IT director at an independent school some time ago. I'd seen the book in pdf version when Adrian asked me and several others to give feedback, I thought it was great then, now think it's even better in print (and check out the Web site as well which is descriptive and will start your creative juices flowing.)

However I'm not planning a conference right now, I'm redesigning a 2-day workshop Middle and High School teachers in Iowa at a school district about to go 1-to-1. Why would the idea of peer conferences be applicable for a workshop of teachers? Because, frankly, most PD (professional development) does not deliver what teachers and administrators want - real learning, understanding, and applicability to the point of meaningful replication in the classroom. And also while we're being honest here, I am becoming less and less interested in the stand-and-deliver version of presentations - keynoting, presenting face-front sessions, watch me and I'll show you things and hope to make it fun and exciting and also try to involve you.

I want everyone to get their hands dirty myself included and to experience what adult learners need - practical ideas they can use, mediated by their own needs, opportunities to do and not just view, time to try and experiment and experience possibilities, metacognitive time to discuss what they are learning and what they are grappling with, and something they will come away with and have to use again at the end.

So thank you Adrian for an excellent book the elements of which will be included in a future workshop for me, even though it won't be a "conference" per se.

#iste11 - ISTE 2011 - Trends I noticed

2011-07-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've been going to ISTE since about 1998 or so, have presented at maybe 7 or 8. It has been interesting seeing it grow and change and to take note of what seems to be trending every year.

This year I noticed back channels in just about every session (oh except that one where they gave us pieces of paper from a notebook to write down our questions which were then collected), hashtags to follow, QR Codes (which I am particularly intrigued by), iPads everywhere used by attendees and as raffle items, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) discussions rather than just providing laptops, flash mobs, and pretty good to excellent keynotes. The Blogger Cafe was cramped and too small imho but still where great things were discussed, the poster sessions with students was bigger than previously (yay!) and had great presentations such as by Kristin Sigler and her awesome students, the book section was larger (yay!) and comfortable shoes were de rigueur because of how many buildings were involved and how long it took to walk from one place to another (passing time needed perhaps!) I saw some great sessions including a panel of PA coaches from the Classrooms for the Future project and it was wonderful to see Holly Jobe from PA and lead of the aforementioned CFF, who is so talented and experienced yet ever gracious and humble, take the stage as ISTE president.

I am continually inspired by the energy and innovation of my fellow educators. It is why I stay in this space and why I am continually inspired.

Knitting Your Own Bones

2011-04-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

I will be leaving soon for the drive to Philadelphia where I teach a grad class entitled "Emerging Technologies for the Classroom and Corporation" (GRIT550 at Chestnut Hill College). In addition to the great pleasure it is for me to get to know the hard-working adult teachers and other professionals who take the class, and to hear their ideas, it keeps me dwelling in K-12, new technologies, and what is happening in areas needing instructional technology. This is in addition to my full-time job now as Product Manager at Tutor.com which also keeps me in the K-12 space along with managing and leading teams in how products are envisioned, designed, programmed, rolled out, implemented, assessed, and scaled up for the market.

But back to GRIT550. One of the themes of this class is to "knit your own bones." This is an old-fashioned phrase my mother used. The idea is that when you break your arm, doctors do not go in and operate (usually) but instead immobilize the arm with a cast so that the bones themselves will heal and eventually "knit" and one day your arm will be okay. An x-ray will show that there was a break but for most intents and purposes, your arm is now healed and usable.

This applies to learning technology because if you knit your own bones, find ways to solve your own problems and issues, don't get the "answer" (e.g. surgery - or having the professor or someone else tell you precisely what to do and how to do it) you have now grown and expanded and you own the new bone you grew yourself. Like with the x-ray evidence, you can relate in detail to others what it took to grow this new "bone"/technology or other knowledge.

So instead of giving a step-by-step tutorial with everyone taking notes while I show how to use Wikispaces, Weebly, Glogster, or Google sites (the four tools they may chose from for the project which has components due during the course) everyone must learn the tool through the online help or another source. If students get stuck, I ask that everyone go to 1. the help for the tool 2. your PLN (and part of the class is choosing and expanding your PLN) 3. another student 4. "the Google" or another search vehicle. Of course I am to be asked as well but often that results in my posing questions about 1., 2., 3., and 4. with some more suggestions about PLN sources of help.

And an x-ray of my "bones" will show evidence of years and years of knitting as well.

1-to-1: The Next Generation

2011-03-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am hoping to get 1-to-1 schools or districts to respond to my survey 1-to-1: The Next Generation. Results will be used for a blog post here; at 1-to-1schools.net and at the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation. Thanks if you can participate - feel free to forward to others as well.

Sustainability

2011-01-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Just got off a conference call with a school district in Wisconsin. One of the topics was sustainability of 1-to-1 programs and my first thought was "funding" - that if the program isn't funded year after year and if the people, resources, hardware and infrastructure don't have the financial support to move forward, the program will languish and possibly fail.

But this school district brought up the sustainability of Professional Development. The light bulb went off in my head.

Here's a possible sustainability list:

1. Funding (hardware, software, applications, infrastructure, resources, support, people)

2. Professional Development - most schools/districts will have an initial "let's get going" PD plan with all attention on teachers and the classroom - but how is this maintained/refreshed year after year? If after say 4 years the school/district has 25% new teachers and maybe another 10% teaching something different - can the remaining 65% of teachers who benefitted from the initial PD carry it forward? Without a plan - doubtful.

3. Leadership - again after several years leaders will move on or move to other spots - do the administrators and teacher leaders still have the initial goals still clearly in focus?

4. Goals - do the initial goals still work and are they sustainable as it or do they need a refresh, update, clarification

5. Measurement - if the goals need refreshing so will the metrics

6. Tech support staff - skills, goals, etc. Has there been turnover in the people supporting the program and if so how have they been brought onboard?

Many schools/districts get high grades on the rollout because so much attention, time, resources, and money is involved. Sustainability needs to also be considered. Your rollout plan ought to also have a Sustainaibility Plan.

2011 Predictions - Sticking My Neck Out Again

2010-12-30T13:38:00.001-08:00

Not sure if this is nuts again but here I go. Here are some general 2011 predictions for the U.S. and educational technology in general.

1. Credit recovery and self-directed learning - which is not just now about learning what you want but about earning credits you want/need that maybe you didn't get the right way or missed or lost somehow - will be even more important. Just like many people take longer than 4 years to get a college degree, there will be more ways to get a high school diploma outside of the traditional/same school for 4 years/route. It won't be as easy for students as it seems, though, because independent learning takes a lot of self-motivation.

2. Chrome PC will take off even more - and others will enter the foray of cloud-based computing devices. Privacy concerns will become factors, though, as people who are now beta testing start to realize that everywhere they are going is being tracked in even greater detail than before. Still, it will make sense to not be tied to hardware operating systems so closely. Apple, Microsoft, Dell, IBM and the big players will take serious note.

3. Tablets, eReaders - tipped! Everywhere! Just look around on any airplane now. This will continue and the devices and offerings will get better.

4. Nearly everyone with a smart phone. Just as you can't hardly find a soul older than about 15 without a cell phone, you won't be able to hardly find anyone without a smart phone.

5. Schools start looking around and worrying about 1-to-1. Yes, people like me have been advocates and many have gotten on the bandwagon. But have they followed what ought to be in place in my book, or with what Project Red recommends? Well ... not exactly ... so time to regroup, rethink and restrategize.

6. The economy grows a bit but not enough.

7. More contract work takes off, more people realize they need to go back to college and learn more skills, and the shrinking of fulltime jobs continues as I blogged previously.

8. Fewer service workers, everywhere. Grocery stores, restaurants, bookstores, retail, etc. will see shrinking needs for humans as online offerings plus in-store automation appeal to everyone wanting quick results without waiting on line.

9. Employers will start getting more interested in where applicants went to high school, not just college, and will start asking questions about how technology was used throughout applicants' educational journey. Graduates of schools known for integrating technology will start promoting themselves as such.

10. The move towards utility-based technology without centralized technology departments will grow with co-lo, offsite support increasing. Schools preventing Web 2.0 activities will find educators have a better approach in their student-centered classrooms empowered by open-ended emerging technologies.

Of course I could be all wrong!

The Computer I'd LIke - Too Bad It Doesn't Exist (with everything I want) yet

2010-12-16T05:10:00.000-08:00

I am picking up my new PC laptop this morning, already have a Mac laptop, and need to be fully cross-platform. But here are the specs of the device I wish I were picking up:

A slate - to write on and use - that also has a keyboard if I need it - keyboard is full size
This part's new: a fully native "reading" mode that softens the glare and the light so that when I download eBooks and other things I can read without eyestrain
This is new as well - extremely lightweight - maybe 2 lbs or less - but with native USB ports - 3 of them - for my printer, external backup, camera, etc.
Built in standard VGA port - no adapter
Takes phone calls natively without 3rd party product in that when my phone rings it goes to my phone AND to this device and I can press a button and go into automatic speaker mode (if I want to) or ignore the call
Operating system fully integrates with built-in native antivirus antispyware antimaleware tight firewall and automatically updates - for no additional cost
8 gigs RAM native that the operating system fully accesses all the time
500 gig hard drive
Runs all the apps I have right now plus lots of things built just for the slate
Mac/PC immaterial - it all runs, even including Office - AND MS Office keeps up with updates and doesn't do the Mac on one version PC on another thing

Along with it I want all projectors to be fully wireless and connect to my slate with enough bandwidth to run streaming video as needed. Basically one-stop shopping, and I'll just be carrying my slate and my smartphone and so will everyone else.

Oh and it costs $500 fully loaded.

Maybe it's ... on the way?

Inspired by 21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in 20 years

2010-12-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

I've been inspired by this posting 21 Things That Will Become Obsolete in Schools in 2020 and here's my list:

1. Fixed spaces for learning - eventually there will be much more movement than we see now, think of Google or similar environments. There are "offices" but there are also spaces to meet, there are big spaces and a few smaller spaces and areas for collaboration and areas for gathering. Or think School of One with one big space segmented into functional areas.

2. I second the idea that IT departments as we know them will be different - instead I think (and said in my book as well) that we'll be outsourced for connectivity with 3rd party co-location areas which house applications that aren't in the cloud (and likely most will be) with the high end network manager no longer needed. Schools will pay per computing device which will include applications and Internet access.

3. Specialized teachers with just one role. We're already seeing this for budgetary reasons but I think eventually the teacher who only teaches 4 sections of Latin will find himself/herself needed to have more content/subject expertise. Teachers will lead the way in retooling and reeducating themselves according to what needs to be taught and how - and colleges/universities will help.

4. Libraries as we know them. These are already changing and I think will continue to change into spaces with varied functions - perhaps very large spaces where lots of things are happening and where books, Kindles, iPods or whatever digital assistants are called in 2020 are available - they may even be where online learning takes place. Think of the Online School for Girls where physical brick-and-mortar classes are supplemented by online classes. When the online learning happens during the school day - where does it happen? How about in the Library which has morphed into a School of One/large Google space with collaboration and other possibilities going on.

5. Being uninformed. Everyone will get the feeds they need to be informed as learners and as community members. However, somehow the filtering and the digesting and the organizing has got to be better than it is right now.

6. Teachers not being available to students. This is controversial I know. But somehow if education is moving away from a traditional school day there has to be a way for teachers to be more available. Whatever the equivalent of texting, Skype, etc. will allow teachers and students to communicate more frequently with teachers able to indicate when they are on the grid and when they are away.

7. Lack of choice by students. Students will have more choice about what they learn, how they learn, and how they will demonstrate what they've learned. I talked to a student in Iowa who said one of her favorite history classes allowed her to take a project and just learn about it the way she wanted and then demonstrate it using the tools and vehicles she wanted.

8. Big old heavy textbooks. Yes, they will be a thing of the past and my daughter (age 18) and her generation will say, "in my day we carried these huge backpacks that weighed nearly half what we did and our spines just about got permanently curved."

9. The Digital Divide. This cannot continue, education must be universal, so therefore must be access to everything including technology.

10. Traditional college applications. They'll be video based, face-to-face, portfolio-informed, with teachers giving their "recommendations" as videos - or - in video response to video questions posed by colleges.

11. Bandwidth Issues. Obviously, this must go away, and high speed access must be the norm in every community whether wealthy or poor, urban or rural.

I can hardly wait!

The End of - Full Time Jobs?

2010-11-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

I was in Sydney, Australia last week working with Digital Education Revolution NSW Australia and giving a keynote and workshops to Secondary School Principals, all around 1-to-1. I was talking with Ben Jones who explained that he worked on a contract basis as do many Australians with contracts expired and renewed after the job expires or changes and with an expectation that this is how work will occur.

Thinking now of what is happening in the U.S. with a 9.6% unemployment rate, with much underemployment and disenfranchised people who have stopped looking for work, talk that many of the lost jobs are never coming back and wondering if this is the beginning of the end of the full time job as we know it.

Technology for all its benefit also has a downside in that it can automate away jobs. Just look at how many workers were required 30 years for nearly any organization and how many are needed now. A trip to the grocery store to see the advance of self checkout is just one example.

So many things have converged right now - globalism, high speed Internet, accessible open-ended tools, economic crises, more Americans working from their homes.

What if where we are leading is to have contract-based work everywhere, with organizations finding pools of workers to accomplish projects for short periods and paying just on the work needed, a truly mobile and responsive workforce without the guarantee of a fulltime job of indefinite length - but instead working by contract to do specific projects for specific amounts of time at hourly or per diem rates. People will be working from their homes or possibly temporarily from the organizations, using technology (computers, smart phones, Internet, conferencing and Web based collaborative tools) to work with their fellow temporary team members to accomplish the project and then disband for the next contract.

If so, we have even more reason to ensure that the students we are teaching learn how to be flexible and adaptable, able to locate, leverage and synthesize information quickly to solve problems, report and publish on findings, and create new ideas.

It's exciting to live now but the sand is shifting continually.

Thinking About Sydney - Keynote for Educational Leadership - Getting Teachers Onboard

2010-11-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

First let me invite you to an EduTweetup if it can work for you - that's Sydney time by the way, NYC + 15 hours.

Next, enjoyably neck deep in creating a keynote and a workshop (to be given several times) in Sydney the week of November 15. Some ideas coming to the forefront:

We have to change the assignments if we don't want the same old thing -- static reports that only reward Master Manual Regurgitators to now static reports that reward Master Digital Regurgitators. Why regurgitate at all? Wasn't good then, not good now. In fact counterproductive and time-wasting even.
The hard stuff with 1-to-1 happens AFTER the hardware/network/infrastructure/logistics/initial buyin happens - that's the humanly complex process of adaptating, morphing, reflecting, rethinking and changing.
Adult learning is not always considered when PD is designed and should always be.
Interactivity is key in the classroom and in the keynote room.
I have learned a whole lot from my PLN - they inform me every time I create a Prezi or write an article. How lucky are we to live in a time when collaboration is so accessible.

Australia!

1-to-1 and Leadership

2010-09-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Thinking about 1-to-1 and leadership for possible workshop series in Australia and one thought came to mind: probably the very best thing leaders of laptop/tablet programs can do is empower their master teachers to rethink teaching and learning utilizing 1-to-1. And then to find ways to share what and how the master teachers teachers are using 1-to-1 with the entire faculty. Teachers respect and emulate the master teachers amongst their ranks.

Research continually points to effective teaching as the most important element for student achievement. If you can facilitate having a core group of your master teachers onboard your 1-to-1 program, many other necessary elements will follow.

I (Heart) Lausanne Laptop Institute - 2010

2010-07-11T08:20:00.001-07:00

I am really looking forward to the Lausanne Laptop Institute from 7/18 - 7/20 at the Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, TN. I'll be presenting two sessions - one on a review of current literature on studies/research on 1-to-1 programs in schools and one as part of the Adaptive Technologies new thinktank partnership of ISM and the Laptop Institute. Note for the Adaptive Technologies session you need to sign up when registering - but there's no additional fee.

Here are descriptions and links to both sessions. It promises to be a terrific conference so do consider attending if at all possible - but sign up right away in case it's filled up. (By the way it also happens to be one of the most FUN conferences anywhere with cameraderie, Beale Street, great food and a really warm and friendly vibe everywhere!)

Examining New Models … The Shift in Process – Pamela Livingston - Monday July 19 11-12:30

These are exciting but shifting times. The old model for education, which worked for most all of us, doesn’t really fit our shifting world. Education has been slower than other organizations to adapt and change but now global and economic factors are forcing the change. Educators immersing themselves in the shift can be part of what comes next – or as Shakespeare in Hamlet said, “The readiness is all.”

This session is about looking at some innovative models bubbling up in education – virtual schools, project-based-learning schools, blended approaches, and other examples of how schools have seen the need to change and responded with a new model.

• We’ll start with a brief overview of several new models

• We’ll then form groups, with each group honing suggested open-ended questions according to what members of the group want to know and understand about these new models – with an eye towards bringing strategies and approaches back to their own schools

• Each group will then take a deep critical dive into several innovative models, responding to the group’s questions, and recording their thoughts into a Wiki.

• We’ll end with a sharing by each group of what was discovered, what was of interest and what conversations or strategies might happen next at everyone’s schools.

Review of Current Research on 1-to-1

Session Summary: This review of current studies and research on 1-to-1 is based on some work I've been doing. Participants will understand the benefits, challenges, and results from a synthesizing of 1-to-1 research and studies.

Presenter(s): Livingston, Director of Information Technology, TEAM Charter Schools of Newark, NJ, Newark, NJ USA

Day / Time / Room: Tuesday, July 20 / 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM / UM 205

2 Projectors

2010-04-03T06:24:00.001-07:00

I was emailing Tami Brass (she's got a terrific blog to follow - I find myself retweeting her all the time and using her Diigo bookmarks as a first stop when researching) and was talking about the idea of 2 projectors.

The question is: why is there only 1 projector in a classroom, or even at a conference where there are speakers? Why is the projector fixed in the "front" of the classroom or meeting space and pointing to one wall or screen - meaning that the "owner" of the projector is the owner of the material - and he/she "releases" that position for the students or the audience? (Or sometimes does not ever release that position for others.)

Why not 2 projectors? (Yes, I understand about the cost) But why not have a projector just for the students to use so when they are working together and want to share with the smaller or whole group, it's easy to do? Why not a projector for the audience members when there is work to be done so that groups can also share together or for a larger group? Or even then both the students and the audience can use both projectors as needed.

I've started requesting 2 projectors sometimes when speaking. I am still working on the model so it's a bit messy right now but conceptually it feels like it could work. Knocking the sage off the stage often takes multiple tries and approaches.

Roadmap for Change - Feb. 1, Vancouver, WA

2010-01-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

The idea of Roadmap for Change is an interesting analogy - and the title of the workshop that Tom Woodward (Bionic Teacher) and I will be conducting this Monday, February 1 in Vancouver, WA for superintendents and principals from Oregon and Washington State. We've planned a hands-on interactive session and hope that participants will have the first draft of their own maps for change when they leave.

Jumping into 1-to-1 with stimulus money is happening at many schools now and it can be a good time for jumping - partly because there are so many schools who have gone before and can provide cautionary tales and successes. That is, it's a good thing so long as stakeholders are fully involved and there are clear goals articulated by the school or district on specifically what 1-to-1 might accomplish for teaching and learning - and so long as everyone keeps an eye on these goals throughout the process.

Podcast from Oz

2010-01-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a podcast with Leslie Wilson, Ben Paddle Jones, and myself conducted by Chris Betcher. Australia is about to become the largest by far provider of laptops to students and teachers - and they have learned from their predecessors. We talk about this program and what can work in general as well as some of the caveats to dodge if possible.

1to1schools.net

2010-01-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging on 1to1schools.net after being kindly invited by Dr. Scott McLeod the renown expert, blogger, presenter, researcher on technology, leadership, and much more. So c'mon over! There are several of us there giving perspectives on 1-to-1, schools, and education.

Teaching Adults Online/Mark Milliron/Temple Univ. Online Teaching Strategies

2009-11-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

These are complicated times with shrinking resources and an unsteady national and global economy. Planning and sustaining educational programs is more complex than ever. Are we teaching what's needed for the future our children will inherit? Will right brain careers dominate or is there some other skill or expertise that will be essential to making a living 10 or 15 years from now? Are we acquiring the right skills we need for our continuing careers as educators? There's one thing I think is going to only grow and provide some answers - online teaching and learning - virtual courses for children and adults. It makes sense for financial reasons - it allows rich offerings - and learning can occur without constraints of time or place.

There's a trajectory for technology in education - first it's about the technology - then it's about learning. In the early days of networks being introduced into schools the buzz was about the network itself and solving the problems it introduced became the focus of workshops, conferences, professional organizations and listservs. Eventually the messy part came along - leveraging technology for teaching and learning. The same happened with 1-to-1 - initial questions were on how schools solved issues of battery life, wireless network, power, access. In 1-to-1 we're now reaching the ubiquitous stage where it's no longer unusual to provide laptops or tablets to children in your school or district; it is however very complex to support and sustain the kind of meaningful student-centered learning that 1-to-1 affords. This logistics-first trajectory is necessary however because there are issues to solve before learning ensues.

We're now moving along the continuum of online virtual learning because we're talking less about the tools and more about what's different when the entire environment is partly virtual, partly not. There are blended approaches to online learning such as what's done at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where I received my M.S. in education and technology and now teach, and there are wholly online courses in many schools and universities and colleges. My employer opened a virtual school in South Carolina in September with more to come; enrollment exceeded expectations and children, empowered by a virtual environment, using laptops from their own homes, work through a rigorous high school curriculum while interacting synchronously and asynchronously with teachers and fellow students.

Knowing how to teach online, how to engage, motivate and support students in this environment, and how to keep content rigorous and meaningful is one of the most important skills educators should learn if they are planning to remain in education for the next 10 years.

I recently had the pleasure of attending an event at Temple University in Philadelphia entitled Online Teaching Strategies for the Health Professions. Professors from Temple described how they engage their students virtually through chats, online discussions and forums, how they facilitate the community of the course and how they overcame the challenges of the virtual classroom. As an adjunct professor, I listened intently for ideas and tips and took many notes. Because of Dr. Rosalie Schofield, for instance, I will introduce the idea of SAOQ's - Summary - Analysis - Opinion - Questions - as a model for online forum postings by my students. Dr. Deanna Schaffer talked about telephoning all of her students before the course began - what a simple but supportive technique to help ease introduction into the course learning community.

The keynote speaker, Mark Milliron, was excellent and I would highly recommend seeing him if the opportunity presents. An avid reader and futurist, he talked about the Next Generation of Learning. For instance, our students can text at 60 wpms, and age 16-20 prefer text to voice. One university with an infrequently-used library space put a Starbucks in the middle of it and saw exponential gains in its use as a community center of learning. He said it's useless to dichotomize in the "get onboard or fall behind" way of thinking - better to see the whole picture with many learners. If you want to avoid Alzheimer's, he said, be a rookie every year. The idea of Trigger Analytics was a topic; apparently a course at Purdue University "signals" students as to whether they are on track or not - most useful in the online learning way when bringing students back is a frequent effort. He talked about holographic caves where a hologram of, say, a brain is projected into a room and students can walk around it to understand it better.

I can hardly wait to see how it all - virtual teaching and learning - plays out in the next 10 years and what the children we are parenting and teaching will build next.

Consider Twitter

2009-08-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

I've been on Twitter since 2007 when I saw David Warlick presenting it at an educational conference. For quite a while, I was an evangelist, trying to explain it to various people, following lots of forward thinking educators, making it a demo during presentations I've given. It would go like this - I'd send out a tweet while everyone watched:

"Please reply to this group of educators from XXX and tell us where you're from and what Twitter means to you!"

And we would watch as various "tweeple" would reply e.g.:

"Sam XXX from London - Twitter keeps me connected..."
"Joan XXX from Cleveland - when Twitter runs in the background my PLN is always there..."
"Jeff XXX from NJ - Twitter is intelligent cocktail chatter for educators ..."

Above were made up but you get the idea. It was thrilling to think of all these people communicating synchronously in 140 character bytes of pithy conversation, adding to our shared knowledge and ideas, enriching us all. And that, in a nutshell, is what I like the most about Twitter.

The things I don't like about Twitter:

Being followed by spammers
Seeing yet another "making PB&J sandwich for my son" style comments - IF this is the only feed from this person - some PB&J is fine with me so long as it's mixed with intelligent ideas, contributions, links, educational ideas, etc.

The PB&J comment makes sense when you remember that the essential Twitter question is "What are you doing right now?" However, I am hoping the people I follow are often expanding that question to "what am I reading/writing/creating/pondering/linking to/reflecting on right now?"

The negatives bulleted above are not a long enough list for me to quit Twitter, however. The benefits right now are greater than the downsides especially when I have a chance to consider everyone I follow to make sure they're involved with the latter question above.

I told my daughter I was thinking about Twitter lately. She said she wasn't surprised. I'd shown her Twitter back in 2007 and sent out a tweet and we watched for a while. The tweet was not a question, just a statement. She said "awwww, they don't answer." She said she wasn't surprised now because in her words "there's no center." There's no one place to go, no extension of the 140 characters, no central community.

We live in really interesting times don't we. Community is all over the place in various forms but there's no one place at all, there's no center, for almost all of us.

I'm staying with Twitter for now but bouncing in and out as needed. It's worth it because of the good stuff and I'll take some time to mediate the other stuff.

Adult Learners and PD

2009-07-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

Blogging from Las Vegas during a 3-day Professional Development session and thinking about Adult Learners. The work of Malcolm Knowles continues to resonate even though he did not write about technology or the field of education per se - he wrote about andragogy - or adult learning. Knowles explains that adults have a wealth of knowledge, want involvement in learning, want hands-on experience, are practical, are motivated by their own needs, want their own learning styles maximized, and need time to think and reflect. The book I use most by Knowles is The Adult Learner which is now in its 6th edition.

When Professional Development is designed for the Adult Learner, knowing that adults need opportunities to be hands-on, should do and not just view, that they have an average attention span of between 8 to 20 minutes, that they have a wealth of knowledge, that they are highly practical, and that they need to see the value of the learning, it works and you will see evidence in post-session surveys.

Here are some ideas that have worked for education technology working sessions:

Getting participants hands-on as quickly as possible. Brief intros and a broad stroke of purpose and goals - possibly turning to participants for purpose and goals.
Changing activities and approaches frequently.
Adjusting as needed - paying attention to the body language of participants and having some activities ready should the session lag.
Breaks. This may seem obvious but adults need to stretch, move, and walk away in order to return fresh.
Getting feedback and participation different ways. Some will feel comfortable speaking out, others will prefer reflecting on paper, others will like an online survey or a back channel.
Sparing use of Powerpoint - but - not so spare that there is nothing to follow or see for your visual learners.
An electronic version of it all somewhere - a Wiki, a Ning, etc.
Some type of paper handout. We don't want to kill trees but we are in this interesting in between stage right now involving adults who are "paper-trained" - and those who are immersed and comfortable in the fully-electronic delivery of media. Give them something to hold in their hands and you will see relief on the faces of many participants.
Reasonable times for all activities - not too long or too short - adjust if you start seeing people taking a break when times for working hands-on.
A reinforced theme - go back to that whenever possible.
A "parking lot" for ideas or tangents that are brought up.
A positive activity describing the intent of the session and asking people to buy in somehow - we posted a large smiley face, gave out star stickers, and asked people to post 2 things on how they will be ensuring they stay positive at their schools while managing change.
Participant sharing in different ways - not just talking - showing, demonstrating, sending out links, etc.
A druther - 2 projectors in every room - one for the present(ers) with a screen and one for the participants with a screen/wall as well - speakers for both - jump drives if needed and a spare laptop

Starting the second day this morning of our session which we have adjusted and changed multiple times and feeling energized about working with adult learners. It is so much better than being a "talking head" (although I've done my share of that)!

Back Channel: Boon or Bane?

2009-07-12T13:31:00.001-07:00

One difference between NECC this year and past years is that back channels, as is the case in many conferences, are alive and well and very active. During keynotes there were up to 4 going at the same time. If you're not aware, backchannels are live chats where participants comment on something going on. The best backchannels are actively moderated. Cover-It Live, Tinychat, Chatzy are just three to list, but there are more. During NECC's keynotes I was active in the backchannel as was my 17-year old daughter who attended this year's conference (her 4th!)

During a conference last week for my employer (see "about me" for full information - I blog as an individual and not as a representative of my employer and my thoughts and ideas represent only my own ideas and not current or past employers or clients) we initiated a back channel and also set up a private Ning. It went quite well and added to the dynamic in many ways, and was fully moderated. We were about as fortunate as we could be to have the thought-provoking dynamic Vicki Davis as our keynote speaker (anytime you can possibly see Vicki live do it!) My musings below are about NECC as at the EdisonLearning session we had a smaller more controlled and focused backchannel which did what we wanted - to allow people to question, consider, reflect, share and experience together.

At the NECC back channel at one point my laptop battery died. So I could no longer participate in the back channel, but my daughter continued to do so. I tried to consider what was different after my laptop was shut. And what I saw myself do was hone in more on listening and focus in a different way. This was not necessarily better, just different. I had no one else to bounce ideas off of and did not take any notes, just tried to listen. I think different things made sense but different things were missed.

Note that I am not a strong auditory learner, that in every learning styles test ever taken, I skew towards visual and kinesthetic. I usually take notes in meetings and at conferences, but the notes are visual with lines and drawings and quotes - and often are never reviewed - the experience of the pen and the drawing helps me absorb what's going on and make some sense of it all. But with my laptop shut I did not have a pen or a pad or anything for drawing or notes.

The back channel experience seems that it can be noise or it can be reflection, it can be focused or it can be highjacked (especially when someone goes off on a tangent and is not brought back by the moderator or participants), it can be effective or it can be disruptive (and not in the "disrupting class" sense of moving towards a new paradigm), it can take people to a higher plane or it can scroll off the screen too fast to make sense. It favors fast typists, fast readers, and quick thinkers. It can be like the best most stimulating fascinating cocktail party conversation or can be annoyingly one-sided and didactic. How very human this all is.

New Podcast - 2nd Edition release

2009-06-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

There's a podcast/interview I did for ISTE available here about the 2nd edition of my book to be released June 19 and available for NECC this year. I'll be there presenting July 1 at 8:30 a.m. along with Dr. Dave Berque, Rob Mancabelli of Hunterdon School District in NJ, Kim Henninger of St. Ursula Academy, and Shabbi Luthra from the American School in Bombay. I have enormous respect and admiration for all these hard-working visionary leaders of schools with successful tablet programs.

The Largest Stakeholder at Schools: Students

2009-04-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's important that any organization involve stakeholders in some way either by having them on boards or committees, by surveying them, by inviting them to events, or through other methods. Organizations understand that the nature of stakeholders is that they have an investment, a stake, in some way in the organization. When organizations bypass or ignore their stakeholders, the organization moves ahead without vital information.

Yet often in schools we do not involve our largest stakeholders: students. We would not implement a major improvement without seeking buy-in from teachers and without fully informing parents. How often do we involve students only peripherally even though they are the largest, numbers-wise, stakeholder in our schools? Students have much to say and have spent considerable time thinking about school, yet we often don't ask their opinions. Do you involve your students, poll them, put them on committees and boards? All students, not just the student council and/or student leaders?

I'm an Ed Tech Nerd -- Meeting Dr. Elliot Soloway

2009-02-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

Somewhere around 10 or more years ago, I was in the audience at a conference at Germantown Academy when Dr. Elliot Soloway showed a video of students working in a project-based learning, constructivist style classroom. He said the noise and the seeming chaos were what was expected with this approach and it certainly did not look like a class where traditional "Classroom Management," i.e., students sitting in rows in a teacher-centered classroom and waiting to be called upon, was happening. Students were circulating, standing, sitting, moving, talking, gesturing, explaining, drawing, writing, using computers, using books. But he said -- listen to what they're talking about -- watch and consider what is really happening. We did and it was quite impressive - the students were working, collaborating, sharing, thinking, solving problems, creating together, building. It was not the 3 R's - rote, repetition, regurgitation - it was the 3 C's - collaboration, creativity, communication (3 C's are an element of 21st Century Learning per the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)

Something clicked while I sat in that audience - I thought - this is it. This is how computers should be used with students, this is the real power they can offer, this is how students can be unleashed to their full potential, and how teaching and learning can be a mobile fluid continous process and how learning can happen in a way that engages, involves and enlightens students, in a way that emulates the most creative work in real life. I wanted to learn more about teaching this way and enrolled in a master's program at Chestnut Hill College (where I'm now an adjunct), wrote more including a book, and other things followed as well.

But it was watching Dr. Soloway and that video that was the catalyst.

So I told him the story of how seeing and hear him and viewing that video transformed my professional career and how he should know he may be touching others in an audience when he speaks as well. He hugged me - 6 times (I counted.)

This was by far the high point for me of an exciting day at the University of Michigan - Dearborn for the One-to-One Institute and Wayne RESA where I keynoted (Dr. Soloway stayed and listened!), and taught a class of middle school students from Sarah Banks Middle School in the morning and in the afternoon, and lead a panel of the students. The teachers and administrators were eager and reflective, the students were flexible, bright and creative, everyone else was helpful and kind. But meeting Dr. Soloway topped it all. I am an ed tech nerd for sure.

End User Networking

2009-01-18T07:26:00.000-08:00

My local supermarket, the Acme in Randolph, NJ, recently installed do-it-yourself check out lanes. They were one of the last of the bigger stores in the area to go this way, distributed checkout now available as a growing option.

In the late 80's, I worked for Pan American World Airways, in the department termed End User Computing. The idea was that instead of having secretaries and assistants who did word processing and interacted with a computer, the end user, from the chairman on down, would all have a computer and do their own work including email, word processing, database analysis and reporting, spreadsheets, etc. This was an enormous change in approach and philosophy and was, frankly, one of the attempts to save the airline which had not made money since the 70's. The concept was to distribute the computing work to the actual person who needed the work done, not through an intermediary (word processing department or secretary or assistant.) Now it seems in most organizations this is how it's done, with a few people having secretaries or assistants, but most doing their own email, word processing, spreadsheets, etc.

In the end, by the way, computers (of course) could not save the airline and in 1991 it closed its doors. According to a friend of mine still there at the time they piled up all the computers with the trash and threw them out. I hope some went to good use in some way.

Now we have Web 2.0, cloud computing, ATM's, grocery store self checkout, home/school/work/cafe and nearly everywhere Internet access, social networks, personal networks, online shopping (which didn't suffer so much economically as retail stores during this past holiday season),Twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious, Diigo, and more. Nearly everything pushed out to the fingertips of us all. End user networking in effect. No go between, no one to separate us from the work and the activities.

How far will it go? I think we will see eventually the end of the IT departments as we know them - although there will be a need for experts in centralized support. Instead of everyone having servers at their locations, they'll connect to server farms where redundancy and security are part of the package. This is already happening of course but not so much yet at schools. But in a recessionary economy, cost cutting and consolidation rule, and IT will be examined closely.

Who will survive, who will thrive? Most likely the people with the end user networking perspective, who have a strong PLN, who have seriously seen and considered the shifts happening, who can understand infrastructure and grids and large scale information delivery, who have become experts at some things and generalists at other things, who can articulate their vision, and who can form and strengthen learning and working communities.

The product I'm personally waiting for is the fully functioning portal to gather together all the various networks that exist, with a single signon, with feeds and updates and access to everyone and everything in my personal and professional learning network, where opportunities/ideas/discourse/information/learning/teaching/microblogging/news feeds are all available from any networked computer anywhere. I know parts of this exist but not in a fully formed environmental consolidated one stop shopping way.

But as we consolidate and distribute and bring back to the end user, how to we strengthen communities where we actually see one another? Wouldn't it be great if along with this fully functioning one stop shopping portal there were a fee charged that would go back to local communities that would set up localized drop-in in person community centers that would be physical spaces, with full Internet access, which would allow people to drop in, socialize, interact, speak in person, hold meetings, share information, read and relax together. There might be specific things set up to gather say teenagers together, others for retired people, others for family. It used to be that every town had a movie theatre and lots of people went to the movies nearly every week and saw their neighbors and friends and met other people routinely. This new physical community center could help tie us together in online and personal ways.

What do you think?

Link to 21st Century Keynote/Teaching of a Class

2009-01-14T18:31:00.001-08:00

The link is live for the session to happen on Tuesday 2/24/09 in Dearborn, MI for the One-to-One Institute. I am really excited about this - it's going to combine a lot of thinking about teaching, learning, planning, assessment, new tools, student-centric classrooms, and more. Participants will have access to a Wiki instead of handouts. The link has all the details including a flyer and how to register.

21st Century Classroom/One-to-One Institute in Michigan

2009-01-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

On a snowy day, I'm having a great time planning for an event next month. Will post the URL when it's ready (soon, during the week) - but it's for for the One-to-One Institute to be held at University of Michigan Dearborn on February 24, 2009. Synopsis is I'll give a keynote on 21st Century teaching and learning followed by my teaching a 21st Century classroom of 6th, 7th and 8th graders while observed by the participants in the morning and then again in the afternoon, closing with a panel of the students. With much deconstruction of the process, the planning, the resources, the tools, the goals -- and with an eye towards making the ideas replicable, accessible and practical for teachers. A Wiki will be fully populated for all participants in lieu of "handouts."

The idea of 21st Century learning is in many ways a new moniker for many existing important educational ideas. Collaborative learning, team learning, higher order thinking, student-centered learning, project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, critical thinking/problem-solving skills are part and parcel of what is now termed 21st Century skills and learning. In the end it's all about the facilitation of deep thinking. Deep thinking doesn't involve repeating facts or finding information, although facts and information inform thinking. Teachers viscerally know when thinking and synthesis is going on in their classrooms. Those educators attuned to these ideas will thrive in a 21st Century classroom.

The difference, however, between these concepts as they were employed even 5 years ago and today's classroom is the abundance of new resources and tools for engaging students and facilitating their deep thinking. And the tools available for the teacher while planning, executing and assessing the project. We'll be using Wikispaces, Voicethreads, Animoto, Apple Keynote, Google Maps, Excel, Smartboards, laptops, blogs, Twitter, and probably more. All without Webmasters or a tech department. All planning is being done at home on my wireless network and at various Internet-enabled cafes and libraries. With reliance as always on my PLN (Personal Learning Network) contacted and polled through Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook and email.

This is going to be way too much fun.

HotChalk Column Live

2009-01-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

The HotChalk column is live - predictions for 2009. It always means going out on a limb to predict these things but at the very least there will be something to chuckle at in 2010 - at the most some of them might happen!

2009 and One-to-One

2008-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

Working on a HotChalk column for January and thinking of what new things will be in store for One-to-One. So far the list includes:

Bandwidth attention by the Obama team and others - hopefully the U.S. will move to a better place in the terms of Internet bandwidth plus access. Let's hope WiMAX and other technologies become ubiquitous - and affordable.

Cloud Computing/Portals - without a robust learning community/environment the potential for one-to-one is static.

Obama team pays serious attention to One-to-One - this is already starting as Don Knezek of ISTE asked me and several others for input in response to questions he'd received from the Obama team.

Apple releases a tablet? No insider (or outsider) information here, just resurfacing of rumors - and a sincere hope that Apple takes what they learned from iTouch, along with their design sense and knowledge of schools, and releases a tablet.

This is a short list - the longer and more detailed list will be on HotChalk in January.

Sustainability and One-to-One

2008-12-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

An email from a reader of my HotChalk column asked about paying for 1-to-1 which made me think about sustainibility. Back in October, I'd had a great conversation with Leslie Wilson who heads up Michigan's One-to-One Institute, about paying for laptop/tablet programs as well as continuing them. So between Leslie's ideas and survey results (see it to the right - please take it if you can) I'll be writing a column on sustainability. (By the way, in February I'll be in Dearborn, Michigan for the One-to-One Institute, teaching in a 21st C. classroom, viewed by educators as part of a 2-day conference. And in August Leslie and I are planning a peer conference for national leaders of One-to-One programs. Will post URL's when they're available.)

Initial thought about sustaining - it's about more than money, but in the end it's about money. If the program hasn't been accepted by stakeholders, and if the program is viewed as an extension or an add-on to "real curriculum" or real "tools" - it might be cut. Especially in these complicated times with our economy. Schools are going to feel the effects because the dominoes will be falling. Public schools are funded by tax dollars and if people have lost their jobs and houses, they're not paying full taxes, if at all. Independent schools will likely feel the pinch in enrollment for the same reasons. It will be a tough act for every program at many schools which use a zero-sum budget model.

But in corporate America, if you're working, you've got a computer. It's a given that it's how business gets done. It would seem that in schools where laptops is how learning gets done, laptop budgets will continue.

Cloud Computing, Google and 1-to-1

2008-11-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

This week I joined the Google Teacher Academy in NYC along with 60 of my colleagues from around the country to learn more about using Google in the classroom, and am now a Google Certified Teacher. This is exciting on many levels and I'm looking forward to designing presentations/workshops infused with Google tools. The whole thing has me thinking about 1-to-1 and "cloud computing" - and how much this makes sense.

Having your computing device with you anywhere you go is one thing - and a prime reason that 1-to-1 works - but what of your work? It's either on your computer's hard drive or back at the school's network. Was it synched and are you working on the latest version? Did you collaborate with some other students and change things but someone else has the right version? Did your computer start choking and make ominous noises and stop functioning?

Thinking back to Septembers when I would talk to 7th and 8th graders and share my hope that this would be the year that none of them lost any of their work due to failed computers and non-backed up files. After five years of making that speech to the 12, 13 and 14-year old rolling eyes, I wish I could say there was a year without lost work because it wasn't backed up - but there never was. Diligent at first, as are we all, about dragging files to the server, by the time winter break rolled around, the slipping began. Late fall or early winter there seemed to be at least one, maybe two, failed computers. Sometimes through unavoidable mechanical failure, usually gravity claimed several. "Were the files backed up?" "No."

But with cloud computing, the documents are backed up (provided the "cloud" is reliable) and accessible from another computer from home or school or the library. The latest version is there, shared, and updated, even if several people are using it. 1-to-1 and its power amplified because collaboration, sharing, and backing up are the norm. Maybe there may be fewer rolling eyes if the backup speech is eliminated, although in schools there are always other speeches.

Microsoft is now at a similar juncture to 10 years ago when they realized the Internet would be big - they are realizing cloud computing is going to be huge. So they're developing tools for "the cloud" - so we can likely expect more players in the cloud computing arena before long. It makes lots of sense for business and also for schools to combine remote computing with remote documents.

WiMAX Goes Live in Baltimore

2008-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

WiMAX (30 mile radius microwave based wireless) is live in Baltimore read about it in Computerworld - what does this mean for schools? What about schools that sold their spectrum in 2006 or 2007, is it gone forever and do they now regret it? I'll be writing a column about it soon and after conducting a few interviews.

1-to-1 and Constructivism/Cognitive Load Theory/Work from Kirschner and Sweller

2008-08-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Currently rereading an article by Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard E. Clark from 2006's Educational Psychologist 41,(2) 75-86, available here which is challenging my thinking and will be part of a caveat for a chapter in 2nd edition of laptop book (publication Spring, 2009). The article is titled "Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching." That title definetly got my attention (and I'll be talking about this on EdTech Live! Sunday 8/3 at 11:30 a.m.) I have taught in a constructivist style for quite a while, and found it works well in a 1-to-1 environment, as well as with adults.

In spite of teaching in a constructivist style, I keep having concerns about constructivist approaches, having seen chaos ensue at times in my own classes and in others'. Plus having heard my daughter complain several times about teachers making them work on projects, saying, "why won't they just teach me!"

What follows is my interpretation along with quotes and references to the article. I would encourage you to read the article for your own interpretation.

The gist of the article's argument (that this instructional approach does not work) is based on how learning happens. To quote from the article: "Learning ... is defined as a change in long-term memory." (pg. 75) Meaning that when information moves from working memory, which can hold 7 or less things, into long-term memory, learning has occurred. And that this movement happens when there is a place for the information to go - when there is already some long-term memory in place already - some scaffolding in place to accept the new idea. The example of chess players being able to replicate complex moves from real games as they draw upon their experience/skill to quickly do so is given. But what then of being presented with problems for which there is no previous knowledge, no long-term memory to retrieve, no scaffolding in place? There's the rub for novice learners who have not been exposed to a concept, say the authors. And that's why instruction is key to prevent an overreliance on working memory (which can only hold a few items and which is lost when not "rehearsed") say the authors.

Additionally, the act of searching for information requires continual use of working memory, and when working memory is used for long periods it cannot be used to learn or to convert to long term memory.

The authors move next to looking at empirical examples concerning constructivism. The root of constructivism is that knowledge is constructed by learners and that learners need to construct their own learning in an instruction-sparse environment so that they discover the ideas on their own which then become their learning. The authors question here the withholding of information; traditionally constructivists give partial information allowing the learners to discover the rest of the information.

Here's the part that gives me pause and some trouble: the confusion by educators cited in the article between "teaching ... a discipline as inquiry...with the teaching of the discipline by inquiry" (p. 78) - and that the problem here is we (and our students) cannot be the researcher(s) with all the experience and background required to practice a discipline. (The part that gives me pause is that shouldn't there be some understanding of the research done by scientists? This is a real questioning of science labs done in middle schools and high schools everywhere.)

Moving to constructivist approaches a number of studies were cited supporting "direct instructional guidance" (p. 79) saying students learning purely by discovery "often become lost and frustrated, and their confusion can lead to misconceptions." (p. 79). The authors cite a study by Klahr and Nigam (2004) which found "Direct instruction involving considerable guidance, including examples, resulted in vastly more learning than discovery." (p. 79)

Another idea explored is cognitive load:

"free exploration of a highly complex environment may generate a heavy working memory load that is detrimental to learning...important in the case of novice learners who lack proper schemas to integrate the new information with their prior knowledge." (p. 80)

One antidote the authors suggest is worked examples for novice learners whereby they look over, in a guided way, how problems were solved. This works at least until the learners have a scaffold in place of long term memory and require less guidance.

This challenge to constructivism has left me reeling as an educator. I wonder about the examples used and the implementation. Leaving students unguided would not be my approach nor the approach of most of the educators I know. But does PBL, IBL, discovery learning, constructivism result in real learning that sticks? This article suggest that, at least for learners new to a concept, no, because these approaches rely too much on working memory and are based on taking the approaches used by experts and having student emulate these approaches - while leaving out the vast experience and knowledge these experts possess.

I need to see the other side more clearly - research on PBL, IBL and constructivism to see what that says about how (or if) it works.

Lausanne Laptop Institute - Live Blogging - Scott Kososky keynote

2008-07-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

At the Lausanne Laptop Institute in Memphis. Hearing a presentation from the superintendent of the American School of Bombay. ASB is featured in the tablet PC of 2nd edition of my laptop book. Shabbi Luthra is the director of technology and she and ASB have a large cohort attending, including at least one recent graduate (Sunny) who wrote a very articulate piece for the tablet chapter of laptop book (to be published in Spring 2009) on what it's like to be a student in a tablet school. Getting ready to hear the keynote speaker in a minute.

Over 80 attendees at Laptop institute from outside the U.S.

Discussion on the bus with someone from an independent school in Kentucky in their 4th year of a program. Issue becomes after time, once the issues are solid, what will you do with 1-to-1?

Scott Kososky has said "technology is just a tool." First thing for me to disagree with (have written about this - laptop as a digital assistant, not "just a tool.") Tool idea, in my opinion, is too limiting. A tool has one or possibly two uses, a computer has far more.

His son changes the material the same percentage that he changed his "research" from what he found from the library except he did his with Google and found the material in 15 minutes instead of in about 3 or 4 hours. Good point!

Number 2 advertiser in the world is now Google. Drastically changed advertising. Google knows what you do and where you go online, can advertise things you have bought or looked into. Apple, not music industry company, becomes #1 seller of music in the world. When needs exist, needs get filled, not necessarily by the industry or the people you expect to fill the need. This could be the case for education - who might fill the need for education? Laptops are a rock pile until someone looks at it with a vision. Cathedral made of rocks, rocks don't have value, it's what's made from it.

Three leverage points to improve school he says:

Learn the better "see" the future - we think too short term (agreed!) - we think of performance on the short term
Understand the impact of technology (how does it change people, what they do, how they learn, how they digest information.

Evolve how you teach with new tools. Teaching the same way and enabling is not the quantum leap forward, is just faster. Same report on Ghandi in 15 minutes that he took hours to do. Was anything learned? Both taught the same way and both learned as little

High beam theory - if you can only see a year ahead of time, won't see far enough, think long term enough. We'll always be polaying catch up if we don't think far enough ahead.

SecondLife mentioned. A virtual world created in China for Chinese citizens. Google mixing GoogleEarth with virtual world - when you walk into the building, turns into a virtual world. Will they merge together? Idea of making the meeting room better than the room world, move people from agree to disagree so that people move from their opinion. Some walk on, some move, speaker can see this. Give visual clues where people feel. For schools can be Understand and Don't Understand. Students move over. A way to see what is going on for the speaker/teacher. (What I LOVE about this idea is that it is the idea that technology improves something that exists in another way!)

If you are going to create value, you must infuse progress that will be relevant in the future.

How to create your community - blogger notebook about ecommunity. Young people are assembling their ecommunity to assemble their community. It is going for us to start connecting. He recommends Plaxo, Linked-In and Facebook as the starter systems to become their eCommunity. Says NetWork is not NetFun NetVisit NetPlay. It's work. You have to work at building a network.

On the grid and off the grid - people start expecting you are always working. Sometimes you need to go off the grid. Not take the cell phone.

The idea of a grid profile. First thing - check grid profile. Tools (IM, Twitter, email, where are); where you are - proximity (GPS); status - busy,invisible,available, invisible,emergency - I'm on the grid but you can't get me but I can get you, emergency you can reach only emergency; groups; how represented - avatars, profiles; best communication methods (e.g., don't call but send me email.) Think of how this will change how we communicate with each other. People call just to ask a question, when texting/IM/email might be better.

He suggests when you can call, here are the ways to link to me. How to communicate. OR click on my grid profile.

He says this is where we're headed. Is very natural for us to do.

Cloud computing - software served by others. All software can be rented. Applications untethered. Don't even need hard drives. Just need input device and a stream. Already seeing Google docs in the business world because graduates are used to collaborating on their documents. Graduates came out of college with all their cloud-based computing tools knowledge and entering the business world but hitting against standards and non-understanding of the potential.

If you can't see the world the way students see technology, with empathy, have to see the world the ways they see the world, in order to teach this generation.

Never before have there been so many tools in this world, we live in a blessed time. Let's not waste this chance and these opportunities. Don't want to waste it. Do something to use our technology skills.

NEC 2008 - Article for TechLearning - Musings under deadline

2008-07-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

TechLearning asked me to write a short 300-500 word article on trends from NECC2008 for their August issue and I'll be turning that in tonight. But here are a few more personal observations from NECC2008.

San Antonio is a cool town. Never been there before, but really like its charm, beauty, history, and how easy it is to get around via the riverwalk. Also some great Mexican food, dancing and singing.

The ISTE book area (near and dear to my heart because of my book) was well done this year, felt like a "real" bookstore, and allowed purusing and enough space for a change.

Second Life might grow on me. But am I the only one who thinks every avatar looks like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt? Is this reality? It's obvious this phenomenon is expanding and people are tapping the possibilities. My friend Kevin Jarrett has promised me a guided tour sometime. Have to get over my reluctance!

Web 2.0 is no longer the toddler technology, it seems much more mature, and a given. Probably the term will disappear pretty soon.

In the vendor area, it's LMS's everywhere (Learning Management Systems.) I'm really psyched about this one. 1-to-1 needs the power of LMS. Let's all push for really great ones.

I (heart) Edubloggers and having an edublogger area. Every time I dropped in there was someone I followed on Twitter or online or knew some other way to see and talk with.

Next week I'll be at the Lausanne Laptop Institute and will post from there. Memphis in July, woo-hoo! Seeing more ed tech colleagues next week: priceless.

HotChalk Column is Live

2008-07-04T07:37:00.001-07:00

Two of the new Hot Chalk columns are live at http://www.hotchalk.com/mydesk - scroll down to the One-to-One area. They will be monthly although they asked me to write a few more to start off.

Two chapters for the 2nd edition of "1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work" turned in a while ago (Leadership and Tablet PC's - the tablet chapter written by Dr. Dave Berque) and still ruminating about the third. This third chapter was going to be called "1-to-1 and Web 2.0" but then I thought the term Web 2.0 is going to become passe; who would title a book nowadays "The Information Super Highway" or something else archaic. People are talking about Web 3.0 anyway. This chapter needs to be about what you can do with 1-to-1 - or what people are doing with 1-to-1. So today will be spent scaffolding this chapter.

What pedagogies, what teaching approaches, work best with 1-to-1? Project-based learning and constructivism/constructionism come to mind. Also inquiry-based learning. Teaching without fear of losing control is really an underlying assumption when you start your practice shift. Shift is the idea. Technology as infrastructure, teaching from the side. Leadership has shifted so that most leaders understand they cannot be didactic and prescriptive but supportive, inspirational and enabling. Teachers that understand that will do best in the 1-to-1 classroom. The trick is making the work rigorous and meaningful while putting learners front and center.

NECC Survey, Trends ...

2008-07-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

Writing a quick article for TechLearning's August issue and asking for input via a very short survey here Take our Online Survey

Thanks if you can participate!

My take on NECC: big, interesting, sometimes overwhelming. Hey, I guess this technology in education stuff is here to stay (grin)!

Best thing for me (although I spent far less time there than I'd have preferred): the EduBlogger area. What if we had an entire floor and there was always something going on. Well, I guess you could say that the Second Life area plus the EduBlogger area plus Emerging Technologies plus the UnConference counts.

Still, I sometimes want a little more controversy. It's my opinion we're not challenging one another enough.

NECC Musings

2008-06-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

Considering NECC this year, which will be maybe the 8th one attending, about the 6th presenting. Trip down NECC memory lane, or at least the memories that pop up. One NECC maybe 1999 memorable for Jennifer James the cultural anthropologist who warned that huge changes were coming and that because of these big changes, driven largely by technology, people would be disenfranchised and more people would be left out, painfully so, than from the Civil War. And that many teachers would be among those left out. Also that globalism, diversity, working in teams would be required. Hmm, pretty true you'd think.

Another NECC (maybe 2000?) where Bill Gates was a keynote and there was no way to fit in the main room so all sorts of smaller rooms with video cameras (with varying watchability) were set up for the overflow. And where several teachers and I brought along letters written by our students to Bill Gates telling him they were unhappy with the clipart in Microsoft Office because the images of people were not diverse. We gave the letters to someone from Microsoft, no one ever responded, but eventually the clip art reflected real people.

Seattle several years back (one of my favorite cities) where I brought my daughter and she went to the coolest ecology camp on Bainbridge Island sponsored by NECC.

Baby panda bears at the Atlanta Zoo one year.

Last year's videos of the Manhattan dance company that throws themselves at walls and floors as part of the interesting though spotty keynote panel on creativity.

But the best part for me every year is seeing colleagues from all over and getting a chance to talk and blog and share. So glad there is an unconference this year, a continuing blogger cafe, and lots of advance chatter and twitter and a Ning as well. My Personal Learning Network face to face for a change! What could be better.

Leadership and 1-to-1: Brainstorming

2008-05-25T04:31:00.001-07:00

Brainstorming ideas on 1-to-1 and leadership:

Is leadership always leadership - does a good leader of a traditional school without committment to technology automatically become a good leader of 1-to1? (Likely it depends on philosophy, committment to learning, openness, personal beliefs about technology and whether it has the potential to transform teaching and learning)
Where does management fit. (Sometimes there are great leaders who are poor managers, sometimes great managers who fall short on leadership. What about 1-to-1 when there are logistical, technologicial, financial issues which must be addressed.)
Modeling and leadership - can the leader who personally eschews technology lead 1-to-1 (probably not)
Nurturing teachers - does the leader understand that everyone is coming at 1-to-1 from a different level and starting point - and needs then to move from that point - what is movement and how does the leadership nuture while challenging, support without enabling.
Change management - is it essential? One book we read at a school actually said change management was uneccessary for leaders. How can this be - or is this my prejudice?
Vision - built by consensus with others - or initiated by the leader?
Sharing and communicated vision - how?

A short list but will post again after the chapter on leadership is done.

Comments welcome!

Technology and Students: The Neighborhood, the Culture

2008-05-04T09:41:00.001-07:00

This was one of our discussion during the course I teach at Chestnut Hill College one more Saturday in May and 3 Saturdays in June: what is the main (self-chosen) purpose of computers for students? We agreed it was - for fun. Our students view computers as fun, as how to communicate, as how to share.

What was our purpose as educators for computers? Mostly to do work, with some elements for fun and communicating.

The question then becomes how do we consider the social aspect of computers when we are integrating into our classes. And how to consider more deeply that our students are immersed in the culture of technology/computers, which means it's all around them, they are conversant and accepting of the culture, they are part of the culture, but oftentimes they do not question the culture. How then to relate their culture to what and how we're teaching, while keeping the bar high for rigor in content and expectations -- and how to challenge our students around technology. The challenging them part is important because of how accepting many students are of this digital culture, which is also their neighborhood.

Many adults of my age experienced a neighborhood of homes or apartments close together - and had a lot of free time. We weren't scheduled and structured so much so we used our feet or maybe our bicycles to go see who was around. We had the perception of "safety" and so long as we came home for dinner, we could spend a lot of time socially interacting with our peers. But students now are structured and scheduled and our neighborhoods are different. There is the perception of less safety.

The neighborhood today is all around IM, texting, Facebook, Myspace - and probably interactions happen later at night when all the homework and activities are done. And as students will tell you, email is old people's technology. Their neighborhood is just as important as ours was, and like ours was is also is an adaptation to their physical environment and the time available. (Knowing the term "our neighborhood" is loose and doesn't apply to all educators of course.)

Not new questions or conversations of course, all related to Vygotsky, Dewey, Seeley-Brown, others. But relevant to educators teaching those immersed in the digital culture.

Wondering what others are thinking ...

Multimedia and the Brain

2008-03-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

This article from eSchoolNews this week is most intriguing - it's about a meta review of studies (kind of a research mash-up) from the Metiri Group commissioned by Cisco on how "multimodal learning" using various strategies including multimedia, works better for learning than unimodal, more traditional learning. It talks about sensory, working and long-term memory, and includes references to Bransford's How People Learn among other works. The Bransford work was the basis of Chapter 8 in my book written by Dr. Donna DeGennaro synthesizing a lot of Bransford's ideas.

One thing I really like if you read the entire study "Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says," is the specifity of the recommendations. Every instructional designer ought to be reading this because it says where text and graphics should be placed on a page for maximum understanding, for instance. Maybe designers already are reading it, I don't know. But there still are plenty of applications that haven't really taken how the brain is stimulated into consideration when creating their interfaces. It's also a great answer to the critics of "edutainment" - motivation, engagement, multimodal learning and brain research all point to interactivity and visual appeal as integral to effectiveness. Of course lots of good teachers pretty much knew this viscerally anyway. But good that it's all pulled together in an accessible and well-written way.

Parallel Computing

2008-03-22T16:21:00.000-07:00

So this announcement about parallel computing and Microsoft and money to step up the research is intriguing. I should be finishing an article for Technology & Learning right now, which is on a fascinating topic - the state of distance learning today (and it really is different than in the 90's) (will be in the May 2008 issue) but parallel computing as a tangent is pretty compelling.

A quote from the article above:

"if researchers can use programming to harness the capabilities of multi-core machines, it will give mobile devices the computing performance that today comes only from supercomputers."

So if parallel computing becomes a major factor in the future, and I think it will, and if computers can truly process multiple strands of complex code simultaneously, how much more will be possible in our day-to-day lives that we don't have right now. For instance, could I be compiling lots of relevant research on distance learning at the same time while writing this and while also researching parallel computing and maybe also getting my taxes filed and of course as always having Twitter running in the background ... and all on my cell phone. Is this different than multitasking windows and widgets? Is the real limit the human brain? Even though we use the term multitasking in reality what we're doing is just fast task switching because we only can do one thing at a time. How can we maximize parallel processing if we have to be the triggers for the processing and we can only start one thing at a time because we can't truly multitask?

I have to say I don't get it yet. But I do sense this is going to be big. What would the late Mark Weiser, who coined the term "ubiquitous computing" and his vision of the future with "tabs" and calm technology everywhere, think of parallel computing.

This feels like the Next Big Thing.

No Digital DNA

2008-03-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Conversation today with a colleague about Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants (did Prensky ever realize he would get this kind of continuing traction from his article?) and ranting just a bit that some seem to almost believe that their students have Digital DNA - that on the magic date of January 1, 1980 suddenly all babies were born with an extra deoxyribonucleic acid strand just for technology. The day before, and an hour before, those other babies, even though they may have physical proximity in the nursery ward - just missed the 1/1/80 digital DNA creation, so they are going to have to be analog all their lives.

Okay, an exaggeration, but the dichotimizing that occurs between "digital natives" and "non natives" isn't helpful or healthy or positive. Creating these labels when it comes to something as important as teaching and learning, and when this digital immigrant/digital native concept is not backed up by research, and when being "just a digital immigrant" gives an "out" to those who fear technology and don't want to use it (and unfortunately that does mean some teachers), well then it's time to find some new ideas.

And here's the other thing this colleague and I discussed: research takes persistence and is part of what we need to teach students. That the instant gratification of Google is not deep, thoughtful research - although it's often a start. We need to have students not just take the easy answer or the first "hit" on Google instead of going deeper, broader and further - instead of taking the time to do thorough research.

1-to-1 Leadership, Vision, Support, Sustainability

2008-03-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is my current rumination - how does leadership envision, support, and sustain 1-to-1 in particular and technology in general. Lately I've been reading and editing things for various purposes and organizations and am struck how often technology is an add-on. Something to include, it seems, if the teacher has time, or maybe as a "supplement" - showing some Web sites to kids, let's say.

But now we have Web 2.0 and now we have 1-to-1 and now we have the opportunities and the vehicles for technology to truly be ubiquitous in classrooms in terms of not just hardware, but in terms of creating content that is potentially seen by nearly anyone. We should be thinking of technology in broader strokes now because the means and the possibilities exist to take our classrooms so much further than before in terms of technology infusion and fluency.

That does mean leadership needs to step up to the plate in terms of the vision, the support, and the means and resources to sustain technology. But what does this vision look like, what are its attributes, how then to lead when teachers are at different starting points, are teaching different disciplines, and when expectations and the technology itself seem to continually shift.

The statistics say that students are learning about technology at home and not in school and colleges are finding their incoming freshmen are less prepared than they expected, so are assigning them to remedial technology classes.

Visionary, supportive leadership is vitally important to the success of educational technology everywhere so that this generation of children can step up to the plate when it's their turn at bat.

1-to-1 book, 2nd edition

2008-03-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

Having many friends and colleagues contribute to the 2nd edition of my book "1-to-1 Learning, Laptop Programs That Work" targetted for Fall, 2008 publication. It will have new chapters on Web 2.0, Tablet PC's, and 1-to-1 Leadership and a rewritten introduction.

It pays to know people and to have a strong personal learning network (read: Twitter, Classroom2.0, EdTech listserv, edACCESS, ISED-L, ISTE, Wizards, NYCIST, AALF) of smart educational technologists who understand the pulse of what is happening. Because of these networks, I have been fortunate enough to have contributing articles or interviews for the book from Will Richardson, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Dave Berque, Gwen Solomon, Alice Owen, Leslie Wilson, Steve Hargadon, Milt Dougherty, and possibly a few others. All by just asking. Amazing, powerful, much bigger and smarter and broader than any other way - enriching and deepening and extending the continual discourse around 1-to-1 learning. W00t and double w00t!

Digital Directions article

2008-02-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Digital Directions is the new technology publication, as of this school year, from Education Week. Please check out the article I wrote in Digital Directions on 1-to-1 and feel free to email me your feedback.

1-to-1 and Getting Work Done

2008-01-20T04:23:00.000-08:00

Was in Los Angeles with a group of administrators/teachers at schools and colleges talking about 1-to-1, what's possible, what the research says, what the components for success are, logistics, caveats, hindsight from other schools, etc. Related this story but not in so much detail.

A neighbor of mine is in computers and during a neighborhood event started talking about what he did and asked what I did. When I talked about 1-to-1 initiatives in schools, and going to schools and districts to help them get started or move ahead, he laughed. Yes, laughed. Because he thought that giving laptops to kids was about the most ridiculous thing you could do with money. He felt kids would not take care of the computers, just use them for downloading music and games, and generally not be "serious."

I asked him about his computer use. Oh yes, he has a computer at home, actually more than one. Oh yes, he has a laptop. Yes, it goes with him everywhere. But he said, "I have work to do."

Don't children and teens have work to do also? Isn't this the era when there is so much information and expectation and accelerated programs in schools? Aren't we trying to compete in the global economy? Isn't there a proliferation of homework and projects and assignments and requirements for reports, presentations, research ... all work expected that our students accomplish on time and well and present or hand in? Why should their work have so much less value than my neighbor's work?

Intel Quits OLPC

2008-01-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

Well, the Intel and OLPC partnership is over now - Intel quit this partnership over "philosophical differences" with Nicholas Negroponte. Could it be the child-centered nature of the OLPC, or the open architecture, or something else? Competition of different devices is cited by some articles, requiring only one device. My personal bias is I want more kids to have laptops, having seen the power and possibilities of self-directed learning when every child a laptop or tablet.

The Tipping Point - Windows on XO

2007-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

Yup. This is it in my humble opinion. The tipping point for XO - One Laptop Per Child. It's going to run on Windows now. OLPC also has a Board member on AALF as just announced (but not yet on the Web site.) So the business model now will make sense for real across the board, across multiple countries (read: US schools) ubiquitous use of One Laptop Per Child.

This is what we've been waiting for. We will likely see large increases in 1-to-1 implementations soon and not just using XO computers.

Map of Future Forces Affecting Education Preso

2007-11-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

On November 17, I presented before officers of the NEA and members of the NCSEA for Knowledge Works about their Map of Future Forces Affecting Education - on the "HotSpot" of Deep Personalization - along with the dilemma of standards and standardization - and with the educational ideas of participatory pedagogy and personalized learning plans. Researching the preso was about the most engrossing educational fun in some time - considering this idea of how people express their strong opinions and "do-it-yourself" motivation in ways that eschew traditional institutions, including education. Web 2.0 provides one means for this deep personalization, but by far not the only one - bumper stickers, tatoos, and lots more provide ways to express personal feelings and opinions as well. Through lots of use of Jing Project we looked at Harry Potter Fan Fiction, Voice Threads, uStream TV, and local newspapers with active "Comments" sections. With written permission of Buns and Chou-Chou (signed "hugs") from Rabbit Bites, we watched their interview of Andrew Keen author of "Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture" and grappled with what deep personalization in our society means to our classrooms and our roles as teachers and our own learning. We considered some schools offering project-based student-centered learning including Florida Virtual High School, Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy, and Minnesota's Harborside International School.

Now I wish I could say this paragraph is how we came to solid consensus and conclusions, and were able to find the balance between deep personalization and standardization, but of course we would have had to spend considerably more than a day on this discussion. However, it was affirming to see this many educators willing to roll up their sleeves and consider ideas that are expected to have a profund impact on teaching and learning.

1-to-1 Resources

2007-10-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Posting resources that will be shared during a laptop roundtable this week, 10/26, at Tech Forum in Palisades, NY:

1-to-1 SIG and Wiki for ISTE members
http://sig1to1.iste.wikispaces.net/

Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation
http://www.aalf.org

Chris Smith of Shambles.net compiles 1-to-1 links:
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/1to1laptop/

Dr. Mike Muir’s 1-to-1 Laptop Learning Advocate
http://www.mcmel.org/MLLS/1to1PR/index.html

K12 Computing Blueprint – Resources for One-to-One
http://www.k12blueprint.com/k12/blueprint/index.php

Maine Learns – Maine’s online learning community
http://www.mainelearns.org

One-to-One Information Services – includes case studies
http://www.k12one2one.org/

Penn State’s Center for One-to-One Computing in Education:
http://1to1.ed.psu.edu/

Technology & Learning – The One-to-One Tsunami
http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604373

The Irving Independent School District site on 1-to-1
http://www.irvingisd.net/one2one/documents.htm

The Lausanne Laptop Institute – A yearly 1-to-1 conference:
http://www.laptopinstitute.com

Dr. Mike Muir on Laptops and Test Scores

2007-10-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Dr. Mike Muir posts an excellent article for ISTE on laptops and test scores for the new ISTE 1-to-1 SIG that formed as of this past NECC. Dr. Muir has a terrific blog, was one of the architect's of Maine's program, has added a great body of work and resources to 1-to-1 and happens to be a really nice person as well.

Basically what Mike says is that improving test scores is all about great teaching and that placing laptops into a classroom without understanding this will make no impact at all.

He's so right.

K12 Online Conference - David Warlick's Keynote

2007-10-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Listened to David Warlick's keynote for the K12 Online Conference earlier today. First off, I just have to say that David Warlick has to be one of the nicest people you will ever meet and talk to, which is all the more remarkable when you realize he is in the business of challenging educators. This keynote gave yet another example of how he makes ideas accessible and real while gently prodding and challenging us all.

Many analogies made sense for me from his keynote - the first thing being the idea that if there are no boundaries and therefore no walls, where do we get traction? How do we orient ourselves? He talked about how he isn't entirely comfortable with speaking to a video camera sans a live audience and how he misses the "furrows in foreheads" and other feedback when giving a presentation. If we have no walls and no boundaries how do we know where we are, where we're starting from, where we're going?

He talked about the Orson Scott Card book "Ender's Game" (which I love - I read it as an assignment in grad school) and how Ender's soldiers learned to work within the constraints of no real walls or boundaries, and even used the other soldiers who had been rendered unable to move, as traction. (Note: a fascinating aspect of this book not mentioned by David is how Ender and his sister become these agents of change in society, using the Internet-like communication described in the book to influence politics. They were pre-bloggers!)

He also said his was the last generation to look at their own fathers and see their future careers and in a touching evocative way described how his dad would shave and put on his white shirt and tie his tie every morning and go to work. David instead works at Starbucks, or in his basement office or on airplanes or at schools and corporations all over the world. He said we educators are preparing our students for a future we cannot describe, because the world of work is now so different.

The idea of networks and how students and young adults use their networks is another fascinating discussion he touched upon. How when he and his wife were at college on his son's first day there, that he continually kept checking his cell phone, sometimes closing it, sometimes texting something - to his friends all over the country who also were just starting college. When David went to college he said goodbye to his friends, some of whom he never saw again. His son didn't say goodbye - he took his friends along with him. (Note: I keep thinking - who's in our networks - how are we connecting - Twitter and listservs and social networks keep me rooted and allow me to ask amazing people questions and they ... answer! Teachers, of all people, need rich networks because the nature of the classroom can be isolating.)

So these adolescents and young adults are creating their networks full of tenacles and they come to school - and school chops off the tenacles. He said it's because we want the students to be who and what we want them to be, and don't accept who they really are. Whoa on that one, and wow and other things. I keep thinking of how we were told to "chunk" information - but that I found a lot of kids don't want the chunks, they want the whole thing. Tenacles cut off. I am still thinking about that one.

David also talked about how students and adults are creating material and publishing it directly from the author, sans editor or librarian. How then to create our own personal digital libraries.

Information overload was another topic - how information is competing for our attention - and what does it mean to be literate today? How to shape and reshape information? How to safely make mistakes?

He said one of the most important things we have to teach our students is how to teach themselves.

It would seem we need to model that and show them how we are teaching ourselves as well.

This Thing Called Twitter

2007-10-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

I just realized that my last blog post was September 22 and today is October 4! This was not the plan I'd had after speaking with David Warlick this summer when he talked about how important and vital blogging was to him - and after speaking with Will Richardson recently when he said his blog posts come out of reading or thinking about something and are intentionally "thin" because there's always more to add and that's how blogging should be.

But I haven't blogged since September 22. Why? I feel like I've been blogging and keeping up with things and thinking about issues and participating and writing and ruminating.

It's the little Twitter that's making me think that.

Because now Twitter is becoming how I keep up and converse and it's more of a conversation, albeit it a disjointed cocktail party conversation, than my blog has been and more than posting on other blogs has been. More than an RSS feed. More than a PageFlakes page.

I've got Twitterific always in my back pocket - or in the lower right hand corner of my screen.

And I follow some people and a few people follow me.

And I find out about things like the live Weblogg ED-TV sessions Will Richardson, Steve Dembo and David Jakes conducted last night from a bar in Chicago before the Cubs game.

Or that Andy Carvin is on NPR in San Francisco - right about now.

And the latest news from the K12-Online Conference fed right to my screen. Realtime. Short, sweet, to the point, tweets from the twitterati world.

So I'm really enjoying this crazy little thing called Twitter.

NJECC - 1-to-1 Assessment and Pre-Assessment

2007-09-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

Part 1: NJECC meeting

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking to NJ tech directors from NJECC at Montclair University's beautiful campus (see photo of this room) and also saw my friend Dr. Donna DeGennaro, a talented professor at Montclair who wrote Chapter 8 of my book.

The topic was 1-to-1 and the discussion was lively and challenging. Trevor Shaw of Dwight-Englewood School (year 3 of their tablet PC program just beginning) kindly came to participate as a panelist and administrators from Springfield provided panelist expertise and advice as they are also in their third year.

Here are some ideas from that discussion. One question came up about budget - how can a school district afford one-to-one? We all agreed that the answer is varied and depends on the school or district. Some have parents pay for all or part of the hardware, some use bond money, some reconsider how their budget is spent (e.g., not replacing desktops anymore but using the money for laptops.) At The Urban School in San Francisco, selling parents on 1-to-1 was part of the approach at this independent 9-12 school, so they polled parents to see who was planning to either purchase a new computer or dedicate a computer just for their high schooler and nearly 90% said they were. Urban offered to purchase the computer instead of the parents, put educational software on the computer, fix it, have loaners, and have it used in the classroom. As so many parents now consider a computer an essential part of their child's education, the program was a go.

Another important discussion was about leadership. It was obvious Springfield has solid leadership and commitment as does Dwight-Englewood. We agreed that having both a principal/school head and tech director onboard are vital to successfully starting and continuing a program.

One question was - what if the tech director is onboard but other leadership isn't? Some said not to move ahead, but a few of us suggested starting with carts or with a pilot program to demonstrate what's possible. An element here to consider is that the students are continually moving on to the next phase of their education or to their careers - and not preparing them with 21st Century learning skills hampers their success.

One agreed theme for success - 1-to-1 needs to be systemic and part of learning/pedagogy/curriculum and not just an isolated technology initiative.

Part 2. - Assessment and Pre-Assessment

The NJECC meeting discussions and several recent requests from schools have me thinking more deeply about assessment of existing 1-to-1 programs and pre-assessment for schools considering 1-to-1.

While there are a number of components to evaluate before starting 1-to-1 including infrastructure (can the network handle 1-to-1), logistics (cases, transportation, insurance, repairs, loaners) and support issues (internal or external people to troubleshoot and repair), there are important philosophical elements that don't respond to the same "list-making" approach and require delving into mission, school culture, and the school's prevailing instructional model.

If most teachers at a school or district are the center of the classroom most of the time and aren't comfortable with morphing from teacher to learner, aren't sometimes the coach and facilitator, and don't walk around while children work independently or in groups, 1-to-1 won't achieve deep learning goals. This doesn't preclude the necessity for some whole class activity and times when laptop lids or tablet pens are down. It just means a different dynamic is operational when every child has his or her own powerful digital learning assistant. The question becomes - can enough educators shift to embrace the potential benefits.

Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants - Is Our Thinking Wrong?

2007-09-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

I am loving Classroom 2.0 right now. This post is inspired by a discussion happening right now on the main page - go there and join up and jump in!

It's about Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants, an idea a lot of us have repeated after hearing and reading Marc Prensky - he came up with this conception that today's kids are, to quote him directly, "... all 'native speakers' of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet." And he continues by saying that the rest of us are "digital immigrants" and retain "one foot in the past" as we try to interact with technology. Go here for the exact article being quoted, found on Marc Prensky's site marcprensky.com and downloaded 9/14/07.

What is being said on Classroom 2.0 is that this idea of being a digital immigrant is used by some as a "cop out", e.g., "I'm just a digital immigrant, I can't figure this stuff out." Additionally teachers are saying some colleagues are also making assumptions about kids, e.g., "they know all about this technology stuff, we don't need to teach them anything" that becomes a double cop out. (Dating myself by saying cop out most likely!) Also, they've said that the "digital native" label was more for middle class males and left out a lot of others.

Well, big wow for me! Because I've been using this term to try to explain something - about today's kids, and how we have to reach them and not hold back. And maybe some people heard the "digital immigrant" label and took a pass (although I hope not.)

The idea of "these kids know all about this" is something heard since, well, forever, as a way to let them go learn technology without us. Once I heard this from an administrator (not where I've ever taught or worked!): "these kids know all this stuff" as a reason for not teaching any computer classes whatsoever. While kids are natural explorers, and many of we adults are not (probably not an intrinsic trait but probably because we were taught to "sit still, don't touch anything, and wait for instructions") - being an explorer does not mean you find the good stuff. Because unless your exploration is planned -- random exploration results in random understanding and learning. You could be dropped off in Paris and be unafraid to explore and spend a lot of time there but if you didn't know there was something called "The Louvre" and didn't happen upon it - you missed it.

We do have to teach about technology, model technology use, question technology, jump in with kids while they're learning, challenge their assumptions and beliefs, challenge our assumptions and beliefs.

And if a label no longer fits we should give it up.

Rethinking Tech Plans

2007-09-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Having written several tech plans, I usually look for a school's plan when we're talking about 1-to-1 or any educational technology initiative. Recently a school said they didn't have one. But ... what is a "Tech Plan" now -- and should there be one? Should there be a Learning Plan instead (which includes technology)? Maybe with an Infrastructure Plan? Along with a Hardware Evaluation and Replacement Plan? And a Learning Community Plan for All Learners (Educators, Administrators, and Staff Included)?

Tech plans used to be lists of hardware, software, network devices, protocols, operating systems, platforms, etc. Then they started including more educational goals and objectives, and the hardware/network/software/etc. became an appendix in the back.

But the target is moving so rapidly and schools that want to sit down and plan, as they should, might do better with a Learning Plan Wiki instead which would include how all learners will participate and progress, how infrastructure/hardware/network, etc. will support, how curriculum will evolve. So that everyone can contribute, update, items can be added and subtracted, attachments can come and go, and stakeholders can not just view it all but be active participants. I don't know of any schools doing this yet -- but likely some are - or will soon.

Proliferation of Web 2.0 Apps, Chitch.at, Teach the People, others

2007-08-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

We know about Wikis, podcasts, blogs, Google apps (which seem to be increasing nearly every day - what about Google Sky, huh? Amazing, and so many educational possibilities), Twitter, etc. But there are new ones coming up all the time. Tuesday I met with Jack Phelps to see Chitch.at which is an answer to Blackboard and Moodle, but adds a lot more, such as math functionality with a teacher-friendly approach. It's being written in Ruby on Rails. Could be very useful to schools - and right now they're looking for schools to pilot it - for free. I've also been speaking with the people running Teach the People which is still in beta but is another fascinating concept - taking the idea (not the content) already done by several universities that are putting their curriculum online for everyone - but adding more tracking, feedback and other features. They're also in beta and looking for participants.

All very exciting possibilities - and both headed up by Millenials - born after 1980 - who never knew about a life without computers as completely part of their environment. I wonder what else Millenials will come up with - probably more amazing things to transform teaching, learning and communities. Makes me think of how important our jobs as educators are - to be sure technology is used in meaningful ways - and that our students learn about discerning use of technology and how the world can be improved with technology.

Pushing The Higher Ed Envelope

2007-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Just read this article in the Argusleader.com in South Dakota which contained the quote from a regents administrator:

"K-12 is moving in their technology and we have no other choice.." - Regent James Hansen of Pierre, SD, above referenced article.

The "moving in their technology" is laptops in K-12 schools, which South Dakota has made a priority. I was in Mitchell in June as a keynote at their excellent Laptop Institute which was partly held at DSU and involved teachers, administrators, and professors from Dakota State.

South Dakota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Michigan all have statewide laptop programs, and many states have district-wide programs. So these students are now arriving at colleges and universities and pushing the envelope for more use of 1-to-1 for productivity and for teaching.

Integrating Technology Into Our Thinking About School Reform

2007-08-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

All these things converged recently through conversations and reading blogs - about technology and integration of technology into our thinking much more thoroughly about school reform.

One was reading Will Richardson's post from August 7 (above snippet.) where he quoted Sylvia Martinez and Connecting Ed Tech to Ed Reform which made me think YES! (a favorite dog-eared book I can recommend by the way which is not about technology is Robert Evans "The Human Side of School Change: Reform, Resistance The Real Life Problems of Innovation") this makes so much sense - to connect educational technology to school reform.

One more thing is that we have to be sure technology is thought of in an expansive way for teaching and learning, and not just constructivism but much more. I always fear that we educational technologists may be boxing ourselves into an only-constructivist stance.

Then I listened to a podcast (scroll down to Episode 7 where he interviews David Elliot) from Chris Smith at Shambles (what a terrific resource) and where David Elliot talks about how his school used Grant Wiggins' Backward Design/Understanding by Design as a framework for teaching and learning which also included technology.

Earlier this summer I enjoyed this Teacher Tube which discussed how a Middle School in Australia had started a whole teaching and learning project - it started with having the students think about and understand how learning happens (something we often don't do - we teach the kids and expect that learning happens - but don't often talk about what learning is - what learning styles are - how the brain works.)

Before that, I'd had a converation with Terry Dash, Director of Technology at The Pike School after she'd posted on the ISED-L listserv about a technology day involving teachers in the big picture thinking about technology -- not just having everyone view an LCD projector and show a few tech tools as so many tech professional development days often happen. They opened up the thinking school-wide on what does successful technology use really mean. Being in the trenches every day with teachers like Terry and so many others involves grappling with these big educational questions in a realistic way.

Some are seeing technology as integral to teaching and learning and less as an "add on." Visiting Israel speaking and touring as part of the KATOM! Project, I was so impressed with how the teachers had actually redesigned curriculum when their students were given laptops. They didn't understand how remarkable this was - I said most U.S. schools had retrofitted technology into curriculum and not rethought or redesigned curriculum when 1-to-1 was introduced.

Hopefully many more educators will really take this deep thinking approach to making technology integral and part of reform -- and not an add-on to what's already happening. They'll seize the opportunity to consider the big picture and ask the tough questions about teaching and learning, how schools are changing and need to change, how the world is changing, and how technology needs to be right smack dab in the middle of it all.

Web 2.0, Web 1.0 and the Classroom

2007-08-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

I'm honing a new workshop and polishing my grad school class at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and both have a similar content - emerging technologies/Web 2.0 for the classroom. Also starting to think about an update to my book (which is more than a year away because of research, editing, and publishing.) And also thinking more about Web 1.0 - how we would all accumulate lists of resources and share them and have students find them. I'd taught a number of workshops in the past providing lists of links for teachers and the invariable question would be "what do I do with these?" and many of us would come up with scavenger hunts or Web quests and virtual field trips, etc. All creative uses of what we had - which was the hyperlinked Web.

But the exponential, interactive nature of what there is now is so far beyond anything that was then.

Last year during the grad school class we started out thinking about podcasts and Wikis and blogs and RSS feeds and tagging and by the end of the class everyone was coming in to show new things none of us had even seen yet - (which we all know about now) - like Twitter and PageFlakes and SecondLife and Classroom2.0. So what are we going to see this time around? The exponential growth of Web 2.0 applications is astounding - not yet to the growth of hardware a la Moore - but quite amazing and shows no sign of stopping. McLuhan said when there is great change, it's the artists who really understand it as it's happening - and I know educators are artists - so I really look forward to hearing from my colleagues and grad students about new Web 2.0 developments.

Social Networks - New Report

2007-08-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

edWeek's Teacher Magazine reports on a new study from the National School Boards Association which questions some of our Internet fears for kids. The study, which is also sponsored by MySpace's parent company News Corps, along with Microsoft and Verizon, finds the stats on children who were pursued by predators to be lower than previously stated. It also says we should evaluate MySpace and social networks for educational uses.

So here's my opinion for what it's worth - we do have to empower children with knowledge and understanding of the Internet, and what playing in a place where everyone can be watching really means.

But - we are just now really learning what the read/write Web fully means - and there is a huge amount of untapped possibility for every classroom that exists right now. A lot of it is for free (now at least.)

If you think back to the early days of the Web, so many of us were enamored with just putting up simple Web sites, and with finding things online. People put up lists of clickable links and aggregated all sorts of Web resources ad nauseum. Sometimes the links worked, sometimes they didn't. There are still lots of pages like this out there.

But now interactivity rules. Newspaper articles have comment areas. Experts on just about everything blog. Podcasts from conferences are available days after the event. Wikis on any topic are there for the reading and for the editing. It's the world now.

Social networks are important in my opinion because community is changing and shifting and because communication, real give-and-take discourse, can happen that didn't happen with the flat Web and its lists of resources. It's the discourse that's important. How does that discourse happen, what is shared and what shouldn't be shared, how does living publicly in networks make or break reputations, enable or thwart learning, add to or warp knowledge, how can money be made and influence be obtained, what is kindness in the age of Web 2.0.

There are a lot of questions and the people posing these questions and ideas? Teachers. Because we have to.

Change ... Changing ... Half-Change ....

2007-08-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

Looking through some U.S. district education sites - interesting that some have a lengthy list of technology skills for students but then few or none for teachers. Not that I'm a fan of skill lists. Just noting the disparity here.

Also thinking about change - the word change meaning that something has happened and has reached the state that it's become a noun, implying some kind of permanence. But shouldn't the word be changing ... implying growth and continual movement. Also, is there a "half change?"

It's the half change where I am most interested and involved. Starting from where people are right now as educators as administrators. Kind of like Vygotsky's "Zone of Proximal Development" - and what happens just before change - the "almost" state - maybe that's pre-change.

Anyway I hope we aren't blaming the teachers for technology not being fully integrated because that's not useful or helpful. Just a thought after a lot of blog jumping -- and noticing a dichotomy of those who are completely onboard with Web 2.0 and newer technologies and those who are just learning about them.

Managing the 1-to-1 Classroom

2007-08-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

This seems to be a universal question from teachers - how to effectively manage the 1-to-1 classroom.

So I will be designing a brand-new workshop for schools on this specifically - tips, techniques, ideas, lessons, projects, examples of how to teach when most of what you learned about classroom management from your bachelor's or master's degree program has been turned on its head. It's completely different when resources are decentralized and every student has a laptop - because a laptop or tablet changes all our old assumptions of teaching and learning. Which is good in most ways - you can get to the thinking faster when every student is empowered with a computer - but challenging in many ways.

Email me if your school might be interested.

And So It Begins - Production on OLPC

2007-07-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

With 3 million ordered now, the production of XO laptops from One Laptop Per Child begins in Shanghai. Although the AMD chip is the processor, with Intel onboard there are talks of a version with their chips, according to this article and also this one. This is the real deal now, what some didn't think would happen at all.

It bodes well for schools in the U.S. - but will that mean a complete rethinking of our networks and applications? Or will the U.S. version not use peer network sharing and just take advantage of the screen that's visible in the daylight and other design and functionality developments. It's a different laptop that we're all using, that's for sure, with a different O/S and approach - much more exploration and user-centered. Change is coming.

Summer at a Laptop/Tablet School - The Busy Season!

2007-07-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Many people don't know that a school technology department's "busy season" starts right after graduation and goes full bore right up until fall's first class. Summer is when laptops, tablets or desktops arrive which have to be unpacked and imaged with the latest software, drivers, print queues, antivirus, operating system updates, etc. Computers have to be staged, installed, and tested. Supplies have to be replenished. Carts, laptop/tablet cases, printers, switches, and other equipment and peripherals have to be tested and sometimes replaced. Many of the deferred projects ("let's not do that until the summer") are tackled, which often bring up their own cascading logistical problems. Add to that a school's databases which need updating; creating and inputting the school's schedule; updating email and other systems; and it's apparent why summer is the busy season. At The Peck School our bulleted summer list was pages long and was often added to over the summer when one seemingly-simple update caused something else to go awry.

Curt Lienick, director of technology at the University of Chicago Lab Schools has created videos of what happens over the summer to show teachers when they return - and it's a real eye-opener to see the level of activity. Like many tech directors, he makes it look easy, but it's good sometimes to let everyone know what it really takes for school to start up in September, technology-wise.

PA Gets Their Funding!

2007-07-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Holly Jobe and everyone working so hard on Classrooms for the Future in Pennsylvania - the full $70 million budget has been approved in Pennsylvania and now the program will receive the full funding requested. Big important things will be happening in PA high schools when 1-to-1 is everywhere.

(Quick aside: "1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work" was distributed to all the Classrooms for the Future leaders.)

Little Announcement/Big Significance

2007-07-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

I get a Google feed on "laptop schools" to my email every day and this article Intel relents on laptops for kids just appeared - maybe it's in other papers already but this is big news and will have really large significance. It says that Intel is joining the OLPC board.

Those of us waiting for the serious impact on all laptops everywhere (and schools eventually being able to afford 1-to-1 everywhere) because of One Laptop Per Child - are going to get what we want soon. Maybe even in 2 or 3 years.

Lausanne keynotes Ian Jukes, Will Richardson (will at left)

2007-07-16T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Ian Jukes cajoled, inspired and scared us a bunch. Gesticulating, sometimes wildly, Ian gave a presentation that sure didn't look like Powerpoint (lots of pictures, things to make us think, pithy comments, etc.) The future is coming and it ain't stopping for the faint of heart! And, schools still look like and act like the past. Favorite quote from Ian's presentation: "Changing the course of history is easier than changing a history course." (full attribution to follow - soon)

The exponential growth of hardware and bandwidth along with the lowering of prices at least for hardware (Moore's law), the Internet along with InfoWhelm are what we need to fully consider, as educators. What does this mean for the classroom - that looks the same and acts the same as it has for maybe the past 40 years or so. Information fluency, not information literacy.

The group at our table wanted Ian to talk more about discerning information and how important our task as educators is to be sure kids don't accept everything coming at them as okay and meaningful. (Maybe this is what he meant by information fluency.) But he made every one of us think and continue to think.

Now listening to Will Richardson and here is his Wikispaces with handouts and backups for what he's saying. Wow - I didn't know about the Obama campaign which is allowing people to put their own blogs up - this is brilliant.

Camera phones/Treo's, etc., how something can be put up online immediate, with a photo and with words. Music is changing, digital rights, how do we exist when it is so easy (albeit not always legal) to share. Journalism now has comment section; newspaper readership dropping, how to change the model. (Personal note: even content - NYT magazine with article on Williams syndrome had a link to a video of a 19-year girl with Williams.) "Cluetrain Manifesto" recommended. People can look at their opinions somewhere on the product or the book, etc., people can read the comments before purchasing.

Problem: as Ian said - education is not changing. We are not responding like other structures. Something like 65% of kids have MySpace, 75% have Facebooks. How many educators? Maybe 15%. Information is going to continue to grow. There is still a digital disconnect, and when there are kids, they can't compete. Kids have really taken off and we're not in sync, we need to move with them.

Recommendations: creating networks for teachers and students to sustain learning. Blogs as a starting point - blogs as a conversation - blogs as a learning environment/community.

Many teachers using these technologies to publish and not to maximize as a network. Cluster map show where people are coming to read Will's blog. He is humbled by this, but has learned from this.

Kids are also beginning to build networks - fan fiction (note: my daughter does this extensively on the Harry Potter site and HP is the biggest site.) The learning is available anytime, you can connect to the people.

MySpace - who is teaching it? One teacher raised her hand. How to leverage the space. Meg Cabot who wrote "Princess Diaries" has a great MySpace and it connects her to the people who love her book. Why should Will's daughter memorize the capitals of the U.S. - where in the curriculum is it taught to get on her cellphone and find out information - what happens when content shifts. (Note: this is our discussion at our table last night - picking out what information is most relevant and important and how to find the important information - yes!)

MITOPENCOUSEWARE - wow, what is available here, for free, as podcasts, as video, etc. You don't get the credit but you don't get the bill either.

Wikipedia - we need to teach it. Will told about a kid who didn't want to do a project so just posted a sparse page on it on Wikipedia and then just waited for everyone to correct. Corrected so quickly. In last minute 500 changes to Wikipedia.

IM, collaboration, on the fly. We need to teach this.

Plagiarism is getting blurry, we need to talk about it. Biggest problem - being editors in this environment, being skeptical consumers of information.

How many people teaching kids to read and write in hypertext environments. Yet this is how they will be working in the future. There is a literacy here. If links connecting people are not part of what they are doing, they are not learning what they need to know.

If we have an Internet connection, we are no longer the smartest person on the room. Our job becomes to connect us to the smartest people in the world.

The shift - the conversation - reaching others to engage in the conversation - finding the strong and the weak ties and how we can expand our knowledge and our conversations - flat classroom project.

Friday folder from classes - things sign - what is the engagement in this paper - yet we can have do meaningful projects in real worlds. Example, Radio WillowWeb - 1st graders, regular podcasts, thousands of listeners. Marco Torres and a video done by his kids - (note: I have yet to see Marco but have heard amazing things about him and his work.)

Will says every day he is learning something new, the networks of learners are what is important, making everyone information literate is vital, kids will be at risk from information if they are not discerning, we need to be different teachers in this environment, we must connect.

Here are my questions: what happens when people go back to their schools with these new ideas and the "zero sum game" becomes operational - can we have "and" and not just "either" and "or" - not traditional learning or 21st century learning. How to bridge the gap. We must, obviously, we must.

Summer Conferences - Professional Development - Even When You Can't Attend

2007-07-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

There are so many excellent summer educational technology and 1-to-1 conferences around the U.S. Attending sessions enables teachers to get the pulse on what's happening, to network, to learn some new techniques and tools, and to take a long reflective pause because the rush of September.

But what if there is no budget or time to attend? Because of the Internet, teachers can go online and read about sessions, download handouts and presentations, view videos and podcasts and get a feel for what's happening. Here's a few great conferences with links to materials:

Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation held summits on 1-to-1 for leaders in March and May this year, very well received by attendees.

edACCESS draws 50 or 60 tech directors from small schools and universities and never fails to impress attendees with its scope and vision.

Lausanne Collegiates's Laptop Institute is incredibly well done and valuable - it's happening this coming week but check back after July 18 for session handouts.

One of the largest, and best, over 18,000 attending this year is NECC (National Educational Computer Conference).

South Dakota's Laptop Institute started this year in June and brought together several hundred educators for sessions all on 1-to-1.

Next blog will be during the Lausanne Laptop Institute.

Kids and Computers - What are we afraid of?

2007-07-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

At NECC last month, while I was at a booth, my teenage daughter who attended with me wandered nearby. A teenager with a rock n roll t-shirt and a laptop in a case slung over her shoulder, she stood near a computer at a booth. Suddenly an adult ran over to the computer and hurriedly shut it down. She hadn't touched it - but somehow the "threat" existed for that adult - teen hacker! How often are our policies guided by such fears? Hopefully not too often, and hopefully we are working to engage and challenge students with computers and not to only police their activities, but maybe we need to examine our approaches. (Note I posted this story as a comment on Mike Muir's excellent blog as well.)

We used the idea of L.A.R.K. at The Peck School where I worked for the past 5 years - which is also described in my book - we worked to ensure that all use of computers was L - Legal, A - Appropriate, R - Responsible and K - Kind. Having this acronym as a shortcut yardstick for technology helped keep everyone on track.

1-to-1 and girls

2007-07-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a thoughtful article from edWEEK written by Dr. Kitty Boitnott describing how she'd just defended her dissertation three days before the NY Times article describing how laptops programs had been dropped. Dr. Boitnott's dissertation was on how laptops can level the playing field between boys and girls when it comes to technology, providing a high tech career path to girls. It's interesting to note that at The Peck School where I worked for the past five years we'd seen a leveling as well around gender - while initially (we're talking 1998) boys were more comfortable with using laptops, now there seems to be no discernible difference.

1-to-1 and Authentic Learning

2007-07-04T05:28:00.001-07:00

I'm doing some writing on authentic learning for a client and it would seem that 1-to-1 is ideal for all the underlying goals of authentic learning. This article succinctly describes authentic learning and its student-centered goals for exploration, inquiry, authentic tasks, scaffolding, discourse, and creation of a product to be shared with a larger audience. 1-to-1 can make this happen because the resources for inquiry, exploration, and presentation are available at the fingertips of every student.

NECC keynote session - Zolli et all

2007-06-26T05:43:00.000-07:00

School statistics around the world - Dr. Francesc Pedro, US has much home Internet access, does not lead in educational tech in schools. Unusual stats on computers at school and computers at home -- better at home. But are they looking at laptops here, where home to school happens?

Varied presenters, extemporaneous speaking, most impressed by Elizabeth Streb. How to loosen up education so creativity becomes the norm. High bar set by Philadelphia - how does it actually work?

Dr. Pedro, Language learning and the brain - start as early as possible - yet schools generally wait, sometimes all the way to middle school.

No physical evidence of differences in male and female brains (ha, here's a myth buster!)

"If we only had time for this in school ... we had time to think" - Mary Cullinane

Recommendations:

Michael McCauley "Whole New Mind" by Pink recommended and "Dream Society"

oecd.org - look next week for a report on "Understanding the Brain" on emotions, foreign languages

Elizabeth Streb - www.strebusa.org

Mary Cullinane - Ask kids What motivates kids, trends, obstacles, what value, what environment

Zolli - Askaninja.com - in which a man dresses up like a video and answers questions. Mostly students view this. Show what

**Funny alert - when Streb asked Cullinane if the offices at Microsoft were "Open Source" - Cullinane said they were "definitely NOT Open Source"!

Some Research on 1-to-1

2007-06-21T07:23:00.001-07:00

I sent these links to Pennsylvania's Classrooms of the Future administrators. Thanks to Mike Muir for some of these:

From the One-to-One Institute, a collection of research.

The Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation is also collecting research on their site.

Here are the Maine studies available online.

The Rockman, et al Anytime Anywhere Learning studies from the original AAL schools.

A thorough and promising report on laptop use and student achievement.

Missouri shows student achievement improvements.

I'll keep an eye out for other research as well.

edACCESS 2007 - keynote session

2007-06-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Here at edACCESS at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. Yesterday's keynote was virtual, by Marc Prensky and was on "Losing your digital accent." Things that resonated or made me think:

• The idea of how the light is now on for students. It used to be that students would come to school to learn about the world, and educators would show students the world little by little. He used the analogy of a clearing a window bit-by-bit to see the view beyond. Now, Prensky said, students already are in the world because of TV, the Internet, they already have knowledge and understanding of the world.

• That school is slowing students down. They have all this energy and knowledge and then have to slow down to enter the school environment.

* How students are bored so often in school and not engaged.

• How important it is to involve students, ask their opinions, include them. How many tech plans have been created without any student involvement?

• That teaching the traditional, lecture-based way does not work well with technology, and that technology actually impinges on this approach. This makes a lot of sense and when people say "I don't have time for technology" their shift from teacher as disseminator of knowledge to including more facilitation and coaching is still in process.

This is a terrific conference, by the way, that involves ad hoc focus groups and gives an opportunity to find out about new approaches and issues and to take the pulse of technology at independent schools.

Love/Hate Relationship - Testing and 1-to-1

2007-06-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Some of us have this love/hate relationship with test scores. Yes, they're not going away, and we know many things are based on scores, not the least of which is funding.

But the kind of skills that students gain from 1-to-1, such as how to maximize their own learning styles, how to evaluate information, how to become autonomous self-directed learners, how to create content and publish to the world ... does not necessarily show up on standardized test scores.

The latest eSchool News, however, hints at some positive results coming soon. While not specifically about 1-to-1, the report coming out soon is wide and deep - 9 states, and talks about "student achievement" as opposed to test scores, exactly. Here's the link.

The big sky in South Dakota

2007-06-14T18:03:00.001-07:00

I keep thinking about the big sky in South Dakota. It's so different than in the northeast. It seems like an ever-present element there and since back in New Jersey I keep looking up at the sky between the trees and it's just not the same. An analogy for possibilities - so many possibilities with a huge sky - you can see the weather coming, you can see the land more clearly, you can see the horizon.

It seems like Web 2.0 and the landscape for schools has all these possibilities, too. We just have to keep looking up and not have our heads down so much.

Here's the link to South Dakota's conference which also includes presentations.

South Dakota 1-to-1 Laptop Institute

2007-06-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Interestingly, this was the first conference I've ever attended that was paperless, e.g., you got a thumbdrive with the overview, sessions, and all information. At first I was a bit stymied - I'm so visual - then hit upon opening the day's schedule, saving it as a .jpg, and loading it as wallpaper. Worked great, especially not being on a tablet.

So ... why doesn't Apple make a tablet again?

Yes, there's this third party product out there and here's MacWorld's review - but why not a native Apple tablet. Schools would love it.

South Dakota Laptop Institute - Warlick session

2007-06-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Sitting here and listening to David Warlick and his session on Web 2.0. Really fascinating stuff, great presentation. Loved the story especially about the teacher in Canada who did away with his textbook (they were all stacked in the corner gathering dust) and instead had all the work as a Wiki. Here's the hook for teachers especially - when students aren't getting something he can actually go back and beef up that chapter. How cool is that. Wow. Differentiated learning on the fly. Then he described how Vicky Davis in Georgia does this but actually as the students write the chapters, themselves. David asked if the students made mistakes, yes, she said, but she didn't correct them unless really necessary, because she waited for the students to find their own mistakes.

Content - we are all creating it - we are all sharing it - we are all participating.

KATOM!

2007-03-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

It's about time - time for a blog, that is.

Fresh from presenting at the Davidson Institute in Rehovot, Israel, where the KATOM project is going strong in six schools with students and teachers equipped with laptops. Fascinating to be in Israel, to hear about the challenges and successes of the program, and to visit schools. 1-to-1 learning offers so much but it's not straightforward, it's messy -- as it should be. Each school in the program approaches laptop learning a bit differently. One of the most interesting is the ceremony they have for all students when they receive laptops, which includes publicly signing a committment contract. Another is "KATOM Day" with all the students visiting the Weizmann Institute of Science to participate in learning activities.