I (Heart) Lausanne Laptop Institute - 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.