What are the skills our students learn when they blog? What are the 21st century skills they need to learn -- and can gain fluency with by blogging?
These are the questions left bumping around in my head after attending a couple of sessions at Edubloggercon at ISTE 2010 this year: Jim Gates's session on "Best Practices in Student Blogging," my (and Jim Gates's) discussion group on "Building Personal Learning Networks," and Kevin Honeycutt's entertaining "Conversational Lubricants." I know they learn tagging ("higher order thinking on steroids" according to Honeycutt), and tagging is a skill that is largely absent from their regular Internet lives. They learn to assess one another's blogs by commenting -- and they can learn to comment in more meaningful ways as a result. They learn to share ideas, to engage in intellectual discourse, to collect and make sense of ideas from others. They learn to expand their notion of the world. They learn to write with words and pictures and video -- and to have a point. They learn to think "out loud."
They learn to teach.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The TED Standard
I have come to think of TED Talks as the gold standard for presentations. While not all of the TEDs are pure glorious intellectual entertainment, enough are to make the standard hold. It's worth asking -- what do the best TED talks have in common to set them apart from the run-of-the-mill lecture or mediocre PowerPoint presentation?
We can learn from TED talks when we think about education, about inspiring others to think and to learn. This is what was on my mind today when I attended TEDxHouston. First, you know there has to be some powerful chi at work when you have that many smart, articulate people in one room. The air pops with their enthusiasm -- they are so happy to have found one another. I found that the best talks are also conscious of their purpose, which is to be worthy of the "ideas worth spreading" label. Which basically means they are meant to inspire us in some amazingly thoughtful way. Finally, the best talks are expert performances (and the less good ones not so much). The "talks" come across as conversations meant to enthrall and amuse, while they also tackle the big questions of the world. One final note: the best speakers use big, powerful images and only a select few words as written text in their digital presentations -- or they use no digital presentations at all. The best speakers connect with their audience and do not merely speak from on high.
Here are some of the highlights from today's delicious deli tray of ideas:
Dr. Brene Brown:
BreneBrown.com
"Stories are just data with a soul."
"Embracing vulnerability as beautiful is the birthplace of joy, creativity, love."
"You cannot selectively numb your emotions."
"We pretend that what we do doesn't affect other people."
"We need to let ourselves be seen, love with our whole hearts, practice gratitude, lean into joy."
"I am enough."
Dan Phillips
PhoenixCommotion.com
"Appollonian concepts create mountains of waste."
Cristal Montanez Baylor
HashooFoundation.org
"In order to empower women, men have to be participants."
Drs. Rebecca Richards-Kortun and Maria Oden
Institute for Global Health Technologies
"Students can solve global health challenges."
Haitian saying: "You do not learn to swim in the library, you learn to swim in the river."
"When our students put their ideas into action, they become the leaders of the 21st century."
Stephen Klineberg
Houston Area Survey
"No city in America has benefitted more from immigration than Houston, Texas."
Mark Johnson
Hometta.com
Questions we need to ask:
"What is authentic? What is sustainable? What is design integrity?"
Monica Pope
ChefMonicaPope.com
"We say eat where your food lives. Hell, I say, eat at a table."
"We need the new campfire -- cooking, eating, being together at the table, sharing who we are...."
Dominic Walsh
Dominic Walsh Dance Theater
"There's a beauty in the uncertain."
"Dance is a way of observing the spirit in the physical body."
"When I watch dance, I look for the space in which I can participate. This is the creative space meant to be filled."
Dr. David Eagleman
Eagleman.com
"What we really learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance."
"We need to not 'cowboy up,' but geet out."
"Lead a life that is free of dogma....Celebrate possibility and uncertainty!"
Finally, congratulations to the brave and awe-inspiring young people at Culture Pilot who made TEDxHouston happen! What a day -- my head is still spinning.
We can learn from TED talks when we think about education, about inspiring others to think and to learn. This is what was on my mind today when I attended TEDxHouston. First, you know there has to be some powerful chi at work when you have that many smart, articulate people in one room. The air pops with their enthusiasm -- they are so happy to have found one another. I found that the best talks are also conscious of their purpose, which is to be worthy of the "ideas worth spreading" label. Which basically means they are meant to inspire us in some amazingly thoughtful way. Finally, the best talks are expert performances (and the less good ones not so much). The "talks" come across as conversations meant to enthrall and amuse, while they also tackle the big questions of the world. One final note: the best speakers use big, powerful images and only a select few words as written text in their digital presentations -- or they use no digital presentations at all. The best speakers connect with their audience and do not merely speak from on high.
Here are some of the highlights from today's delicious deli tray of ideas:
Dr. Brene Brown:
BreneBrown.com
"Stories are just data with a soul."
"Embracing vulnerability as beautiful is the birthplace of joy, creativity, love."
"You cannot selectively numb your emotions."
"We pretend that what we do doesn't affect other people."
"We need to let ourselves be seen, love with our whole hearts, practice gratitude, lean into joy."
"I am enough."
Dan Phillips
PhoenixCommotion.com
"Appollonian concepts create mountains of waste."
Cristal Montanez Baylor
HashooFoundation.org
"In order to empower women, men have to be participants."
Drs. Rebecca Richards-Kortun and Maria Oden
Institute for Global Health Technologies
"Students can solve global health challenges."
Haitian saying: "You do not learn to swim in the library, you learn to swim in the river."
"When our students put their ideas into action, they become the leaders of the 21st century."
Stephen Klineberg
Houston Area Survey
"No city in America has benefitted more from immigration than Houston, Texas."
Mark Johnson
Hometta.com
Questions we need to ask:
"What is authentic? What is sustainable? What is design integrity?"
Monica Pope
ChefMonicaPope.com
"We say eat where your food lives. Hell, I say, eat at a table."
"We need the new campfire -- cooking, eating, being together at the table, sharing who we are...."
Dominic Walsh
Dominic Walsh Dance Theater
"There's a beauty in the uncertain."
"Dance is a way of observing the spirit in the physical body."
"When I watch dance, I look for the space in which I can participate. This is the creative space meant to be filled."
Dr. David Eagleman
Eagleman.com
"What we really learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance."
"We need to not 'cowboy up,' but geet out."
"Lead a life that is free of dogma....Celebrate possibility and uncertainty!"
Finally, congratulations to the brave and awe-inspiring young people at Culture Pilot who made TEDxHouston happen! What a day -- my head is still spinning.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Teaching Teachers
This year my school has participated in a wonderful learning community, Powerful Learning Practice led by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson, which has pushed and stretched us to rethink teaching and learning.
Soon my PLP team -- made up of administrators and classroom teachers -- will be presenting "teasers" about training workshops we are planning for our faculty in August and October. Our topics will be based on our most significant take-aways from the program and geared towards helping our faculty step up to the needs of our students, our seniors in particular, because they are embarking on a new senior project.
So, I got to thinking about how to help these teachers scaffold their workshops for our faculty. I came up with the guidelines below, which may be helpful to others who design professional development for teachers.
1. All workshops should introduce at least one tool but probably no more than three (if a choice is provided). This is so that teachers have something to play with during the workshop and, I hope, something concrete as a take-away assignment to use immediately in class. At the same time, we don't to push participants into overload.
2. However, the point of the workshop, as we know, is not the tool, but a better understanding of 21st century learning. Thus, the teachers need to experience and discuss specific skills and concepts relevant to 21st century learning that are suggested by the tool if it is integrated well into the classroom. Thus, blogging introduces new ways of thinking about writing for a digital audience, integrating images, tagging, etc. The presenter should help guide the teachers towards an understanding of what the particular tool does best and how it can be a game-changer for student learning in the future.
3. All workshops should use examples that can convince teachers that these skills are applicable across disciplines and grade levels.
4. All workshops should provide sufficient "play" time so that teachers can learn from their hands-on experience with digital tools
5. Workshops should include time for discussion about what teachers have learned, raise questions, discuss best practices, etc., and generally address issues and concerns about 21st century learning and how teaching is evolving to address students' needs.
6. Presenters should follow up on each teacher in his or her workshop as he or she implements what was learned -- providing advice, offering support, cheerleading, visiting a class and discussing further. I think this will provide a wonderful means for collegial interaction and sharing of ideas, and it's what makes our work "scalable."
I'm interested in any other ideas and suggestions our readers here may have. I understand that our formula may not work for everyone, but wonder if there are some "best practices" you can recommend to enhance the technological PD experience for teachers and to help others who lead such PD in their own schools.
Soon my PLP team -- made up of administrators and classroom teachers -- will be presenting "teasers" about training workshops we are planning for our faculty in August and October. Our topics will be based on our most significant take-aways from the program and geared towards helping our faculty step up to the needs of our students, our seniors in particular, because they are embarking on a new senior project.
So, I got to thinking about how to help these teachers scaffold their workshops for our faculty. I came up with the guidelines below, which may be helpful to others who design professional development for teachers.
1. All workshops should introduce at least one tool but probably no more than three (if a choice is provided). This is so that teachers have something to play with during the workshop and, I hope, something concrete as a take-away assignment to use immediately in class. At the same time, we don't to push participants into overload.
2. However, the point of the workshop, as we know, is not the tool, but a better understanding of 21st century learning. Thus, the teachers need to experience and discuss specific skills and concepts relevant to 21st century learning that are suggested by the tool if it is integrated well into the classroom. Thus, blogging introduces new ways of thinking about writing for a digital audience, integrating images, tagging, etc. The presenter should help guide the teachers towards an understanding of what the particular tool does best and how it can be a game-changer for student learning in the future.
3. All workshops should use examples that can convince teachers that these skills are applicable across disciplines and grade levels.
4. All workshops should provide sufficient "play" time so that teachers can learn from their hands-on experience with digital tools
5. Workshops should include time for discussion about what teachers have learned, raise questions, discuss best practices, etc., and generally address issues and concerns about 21st century learning and how teaching is evolving to address students' needs.
6. Presenters should follow up on each teacher in his or her workshop as he or she implements what was learned -- providing advice, offering support, cheerleading, visiting a class and discussing further. I think this will provide a wonderful means for collegial interaction and sharing of ideas, and it's what makes our work "scalable."
I'm interested in any other ideas and suggestions our readers here may have. I understand that our formula may not work for everyone, but wonder if there are some "best practices" you can recommend to enhance the technological PD experience for teachers and to help others who lead such PD in their own schools.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Your Money - Working Financial Literacy Into the Classroom - NYTimes.com
I read this article in the New York Times this morning and marveled at the timeliness of it. My school has been promoting this very subject and I thought the article lent our initiative a good deal of support. Financial Literacy is one of the literacies mentioned by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills as as essential competency for students. Our Lower Division has been promoting financial literacy in our Fourth and Fifth Grades for several years now through a wonderful program called "Biz Town." (Click here to view the excellent video about the program, one of several under the umbrella of the James Center.) "Biz Town" is one of several popular programs created and sponsored by Junior Achievement. The program provides an extensive curriculum and students end the program by actually visiting Biz Town, a teeny tiny little community where students take on the role of Mayor, bankers, business owners, police, and even a DJ. Watching them cash their first check and wondering where the money went (TAXES!) is worth every minute spent standing over the copy machine photocopying the curriculum packets.
Maryland Thinkport.org has a link to Financial Literacy resources for all ages including an interactive media section with fun, thought-provoking games and simulations. Any of them would make a nice supplement or enrichment activity to a classroom lesson on financial literacy.
What other resources are schools using to build this vitally important literacy?
Maryland Thinkport.org has a link to Financial Literacy resources for all ages including an interactive media section with fun, thought-provoking games and simulations. Any of them would make a nice supplement or enrichment activity to a classroom lesson on financial literacy.
What other resources are schools using to build this vitally important literacy?
Friday, February 26, 2010
Backchanneling is Brilliant!
During a recent conversation with my Middle School Head, he described an activity he had just completed with his Sixth Grade Geography students. He had planned to show them a video and then lead a discussion of the main themes and supporting ideas. Pretty traditional. I'm not sure why, but he changed his plans and instead created group chat rooms through FirstClass, our email system, and asked his students to write comments as they watched the video.
I leaned forward in my seat as he described the results. The students were completely engaged, he said. They asked questions which other students jumped to answer before he could, they absorbed the content, and made the important connections he had hoped to lead them to himself. Even the quiet kids contributed more to the discussion than he would have expected had he gone with his original instructional plan.
"So you had the kids backchannel while watching the video," I said. "You're backchanneling with Sixth Graders. That's brilliant!" While he had no idea what I was talking about, that's exactly what he had done. And I think he liked it when I said it was "brilliant."
I had literally just finished reading a blog describing this very thing. This happy accident confirmed what the blog's author, Chris Webb, reported, only with Eighth Grade students: engagement, ownership, collaboration, and they were present, not day dreaming or waiting for the class to end. The blog referred to TodaysMeet, a website that allows teachers to set up simple, private, and free rooms for backchanneling events. Teachers can even retrieve a transcript of the discussions.
So kudos to my Middle School Head/Geography teacher. And kudos to all the other fearless, brilliant teachers willing to try something new in the pursuit of learning.
I leaned forward in my seat as he described the results. The students were completely engaged, he said. They asked questions which other students jumped to answer before he could, they absorbed the content, and made the important connections he had hoped to lead them to himself. Even the quiet kids contributed more to the discussion than he would have expected had he gone with his original instructional plan.
"So you had the kids backchannel while watching the video," I said. "You're backchanneling with Sixth Graders. That's brilliant!" While he had no idea what I was talking about, that's exactly what he had done. And I think he liked it when I said it was "brilliant."
I had literally just finished reading a blog describing this very thing. This happy accident confirmed what the blog's author, Chris Webb, reported, only with Eighth Grade students: engagement, ownership, collaboration, and they were present, not day dreaming or waiting for the class to end. The blog referred to TodaysMeet, a website that allows teachers to set up simple, private, and free rooms for backchanneling events. Teachers can even retrieve a transcript of the discussions.
So kudos to my Middle School Head/Geography teacher. And kudos to all the other fearless, brilliant teachers willing to try something new in the pursuit of learning.
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