'Twas the week before Christmas, when all through New Meadowlands
Not a Giant's face nervous, not even red Tom Coughlin's;
The 4th-quarter clock ticked before Giants' fans' stares,
In hopes the division title soon would be theirs;
The broadcasters were nestled all snug in their booth,
While whispers of 4 p.m. games danced through bluetooth;
Down 31-10, yes, I reached for my cap,
And made plans to retire for a long winter's nap,
When out on the field there arose such a clatter,
A deep pass to Celek, the fact of the matter.
Away to the endzone he flew like a flash,
Right past Justin Tuck in his 61-yard dash.
Signs of life on the sidelines barely started to show
It was still quite a long shot, after all, as you know.
When what appeared to surprised special teams players' stupor
But an onsides kick pulled in by one Riley Cooper!
Then out came a quarterback, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Mike Vick.
Less rapid than Eagles the Giants they came,
And Vick scrambled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"No, Webster! no, Cofield! No. Here's somethin' for ya!
No, Phillips! no, Bullock! no, Umenyiora!"
With their lackluster prevent, backed up to the wall
Vick dashed this way! dashed that way! dashed away all!
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So in to the end-zone the quarterback flew,
With a 35-yard scrable, and a 4-yard sneak too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard from the stands
The overwhelming silence of shell-shocked Giants fans.
And while shaking my head, without turning around,
Down to the 36 yard line, Eli came with a bound.
He was dressed all in blue, from his head to his foot,
And this drive seemed to make all our chances caput.
After 2nd and 6, the D forced a third down
Then a procedure penalty knocked the Giants back out of town.
Tom Coughlin -- how he panicked! his dimples how ruddy!
His nose looked like roses, or a cherry that's cruddy!
His droll little mouth was drawn open with woe,
And the hue of his cheeks was as red as Bordeaux;
And in Eli's frustration, we clearly could see,
He threw up hands, which encircled his head like a wreath.
Andy Reid held his playbook o'er his little round belly,
That shook, when he schemed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right cunning old coach,
And I laughed when I saw they had time left to poach.
A clearing of his throat and a play call to Vick,
Soon gave me to know they'd move down the field quick;
Vick spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
33 yard run, then 22, as he turned with a jerk,
And holding the football, cocked back by his nose
And giving a pump fake, down to Maclin he throws;
So we're going to overtime, but no, wait -- what's this?
Did Matt Dodge punt to Jackson, who just made everyone miss?
As time expired, the comeback complete, Eagles win, out of sight!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Scott's Profile Pic
Scott Swindells
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Mid-year Review
Hey there! It's Tuesdays with Swindy coming to you on a What up Wednesday this week with a reposting of an excellent article by Diane Ravitch, "The Real Lessons of PISA." She looks at the success of education in China and Finland through a lense that is much more clearly focused than our own country's seems to be with regard to viewing these results (see "Waiting for Superman," increased emphasis on testing and data, etc.).
The excerpt that drove a key point home for me, which I'll be heavily retweeting and spreading to my PLN, is the way Finland approaches student learning:
"Its education system is modeled on American progressive ideas. It is student-centered. It has a broad (and non-directive) national curriculum. Its teachers are drawn from the top 10 percent of university graduates. They are highly educated and well prepared. Students never take a high-stakes test; their teachers make their own tests. The only test they take that counts is the one required to enter university."
Another passage that strikes a chord with me is the approach Shanghai takes to it's troubled schools. Instead of punishment, it is one of collaboration:
"Interestingly, the authorities in Shanghai boast not about their testing routines, but about their consistent and effective support for struggling teachers and schools. When a school is in trouble in Shanghai, authorities say they pair it with a high-performing school."
Please read Diane Ravitch's article; it is exactly what I'd like to share this week.
Now on to some business of reflection...
It is the mid-year point for we three Academic Integration Coaches. Since we exist in a data-driven system, we were asked to compile the data of what we've done to improve tech integration in our district this year. We spent a day in reflection and data compilation, and below is our mid-year report. Now, we've got to get back to work! See you next week!
The Professional Development
Instructed 539 teachers in 35 after-school flex sessions from August through November (that total climbs to 615 teachers in 39 sessions if July is included), with 25 remaining flex sessions still scheduled for this year. Breakdown by session and date is below.
We average 15.8 people that actually attend each tech- integration flex session (compare that to the district average).
Received strong feedback on these sessions on mlp.com, with the average rating from teachers who evaluated our overall sessions being between 4 and 5 out of 5. Check it out -- our sessions rank very high.
Used a Help Request form so that anyone in the district can easily contact us.
Spent considerable time each week to stay current on trends in education and technology through blogs, PLNs, list-serves, webinars, and conversations.
Conducted on-site help during lunch periods with faculty at all elementary schools except York Ave and Bridle Path.
Have worked in every building in the district except the Alternative School, so far.
Maintained a list of upcoming and prior flex sessions on our website.
Published all agendas, notes, and links for CFF-approved flex sessions on the NP Tech Tools Wiki
Published regular blog entries:
http://swindiculous.blogspot.com/
http://mrcstat.blogspot.com/
http://wmckfarm.blogspot.com/
Podcasted weekly Tech Tip of the Week
Followed up via email with every person we’ve worked with this year.
Tech Integration Flex Sessions this year and number of participants
(Date, Session Title, Number of Attendees):
12/6 – Empowered – 13, 12/2 – Everything – 12,11/29 – Twitter – 15,11/17 – Wiki – 18,11/13 – Schoolwires – 13,11/10 - PowerPoint – 10,11/9 – Excel – 14 ,11/1 – Wiki Online – 24,11/1 – DE Streaming Online – 5,10/26 – Video – 15,10/19 – Schoolwires – 9,10/13 – Google – 14,10/13 – Word & Outlook – 13,10/7 – PowerPoint – 14,10/5 – Schoolwires – 12,10/1 – DE Streaming online – 2,9/30 – Everything – 15,9/29 – Moodle – 9,9/28 – Excel – 14,9/27 – PLN – 19,9/21 – Social Bookmarking – 15,9/15 – Schoolwires – 17,9/1 – DE Streaming Online – 15,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 22,8/26 – Excel – 20,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 26,8/23 – Blogging – 19,8/19 – Word & Outlook – 14,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 15,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/16 – Paperless – 21,8/16 – Web Quest – 20,8/12 – Word & Outlook – 16,8/11 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/4 – Word & Outlook – 19,7/28 – Word & Outlook – 16,7/21 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/14 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/7 – Word & Outlook – 18
The Work Log
Our work log spreadsheet (not included in this blog post) separates the data we collected from our meeting requests. We had approximately 168 meetings in three months. This does not account for some repeat visits to provide support at the last moment. The topics covered each month are as follows:
blogging/ collaborative writing
digital media (videotaping, podcasting, digital cameras)
google apps
promethean/ Smart board
schoolwires/moodle
web 2.0 tools
wikispaces
other: Microsoft 07 and other school based software including Gradebook, ELMO and SRS systems
Open school meetings/training
Of the 168 meetings conducted 70 were at the elementary schools, 14 were at the middle schools, 4 were at the ESC and 79 were held at the high school.
The Success Stories
For all of the training and meeting requests, we also wanted to highlight how it is actually being implemented with classrooms.
1. We receive so many requests for help with Wikispaces, that every teacher wants one almost instead of a Schoolwires webpage. The great thing about this is that students and teachers alike can be the ones generating content for their class Wiki.
a. A wiki used in a 5th grade class to replace a less-than-stellar unit in the textbook to learn collaboratively about Explorers (Explorers Wiki). Being in this classroom when the students are working on this project is an amazing experience.
b. A wiki used by 7th Grade Reading Teachers at Pennbrook (Pennbrook Fever). There are 500+ students discussing literature online.
2. Numerous teachers are using Google Docs to have students submit assignments, cutting down on the usage of paper in the district. We still do have a long way to go, but we’ve gotten a great start as a result of our “Going Paperless” session.
3. The NP Tech Tools Wiki is a listing of resources gathered by the AIC’s through involvement in online professional learning and development. We continue to update these resources for any teacher to access.
4. More teachers are willing to take on a student-centered approach to their classroom. In continued meetings with one high school teacher, her instruction is focused on what her students can be doing to actively learn. She is using Edmodo and Google Docs to facilitate this approach to her classroom.
5. Five Teachers at Inglewood Elementary have class blogs set up on http://www.kidblog.org/. Their students are excited about blogging their assignments, but they are also communicating with other students by way of comments on their posts. They are excited about writing and publishing for their classmates to see.
6. Two of Walton Farm's 6th Grade teachers have started an after-school club to allow kids to create a news program for the school. They are writing scripts, performing, filming, and then editing their video. The club meets one day per week, but one teacher has students coming in 3 other days to work on their videos.
7. Pennbrook's tech aide recently praised our team for getting a reading classroom up and running with Wikispaces and a set of classroom laptops.
In terms of vision, these are the kinds of classrooms, activities, and environments we want to create. Kids are being creative, they are being engaged, they are excited about learning. This change in attitude(for both student and teacher) is easily observed from classroom to classroom. The innovation has been facilitated by the AIC’s through careful planning and implementation alongside of teachers in the use of classroom technology.
Jason Christiansen, Scott Swindells, Wendy McKenzie
The Academic Integration Coaches
The excerpt that drove a key point home for me, which I'll be heavily retweeting and spreading to my PLN, is the way Finland approaches student learning:
"Its education system is modeled on American progressive ideas. It is student-centered. It has a broad (and non-directive) national curriculum. Its teachers are drawn from the top 10 percent of university graduates. They are highly educated and well prepared. Students never take a high-stakes test; their teachers make their own tests. The only test they take that counts is the one required to enter university."
Another passage that strikes a chord with me is the approach Shanghai takes to it's troubled schools. Instead of punishment, it is one of collaboration:
"Interestingly, the authorities in Shanghai boast not about their testing routines, but about their consistent and effective support for struggling teachers and schools. When a school is in trouble in Shanghai, authorities say they pair it with a high-performing school."
Please read Diane Ravitch's article; it is exactly what I'd like to share this week.
Now on to some business of reflection...
It is the mid-year point for we three Academic Integration Coaches. Since we exist in a data-driven system, we were asked to compile the data of what we've done to improve tech integration in our district this year. We spent a day in reflection and data compilation, and below is our mid-year report. Now, we've got to get back to work! See you next week!
The Professional Development
Instructed 539 teachers in 35 after-school flex sessions from August through November (that total climbs to 615 teachers in 39 sessions if July is included), with 25 remaining flex sessions still scheduled for this year. Breakdown by session and date is below.
We average 15.8 people that actually attend each tech- integration flex session (compare that to the district average).
Received strong feedback on these sessions on mlp.com, with the average rating from teachers who evaluated our overall sessions being between 4 and 5 out of 5. Check it out -- our sessions rank very high.
Used a Help Request form so that anyone in the district can easily contact us.
Spent considerable time each week to stay current on trends in education and technology through blogs, PLNs, list-serves, webinars, and conversations.
Conducted on-site help during lunch periods with faculty at all elementary schools except York Ave and Bridle Path.
Have worked in every building in the district except the Alternative School, so far.
Maintained a list of upcoming and prior flex sessions on our website.
Published all agendas, notes, and links for CFF-approved flex sessions on the NP Tech Tools Wiki
Published regular blog entries:
http://swindiculous.blogspot.com/
http://mrcstat.blogspot.com/
http://wmckfarm.blogspot.com/
Podcasted weekly Tech Tip of the Week
Followed up via email with every person we’ve worked with this year.
Tech Integration Flex Sessions this year and number of participants
(Date, Session Title, Number of Attendees):
12/6 – Empowered – 13, 12/2 – Everything – 12,11/29 – Twitter – 15,11/17 – Wiki – 18,11/13 – Schoolwires – 13,11/10 - PowerPoint – 10,11/9 – Excel – 14 ,11/1 – Wiki Online – 24,11/1 – DE Streaming Online – 5,10/26 – Video – 15,10/19 – Schoolwires – 9,10/13 – Google – 14,10/13 – Word & Outlook – 13,10/7 – PowerPoint – 14,10/5 – Schoolwires – 12,10/1 – DE Streaming online – 2,9/30 – Everything – 15,9/29 – Moodle – 9,9/28 – Excel – 14,9/27 – PLN – 19,9/21 – Social Bookmarking – 15,9/15 – Schoolwires – 17,9/1 – DE Streaming Online – 15,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 22,8/26 – Excel – 20,8/26 – Word & Outlook – 26,8/23 – Blogging – 19,8/19 – Word & Outlook – 14,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 15,8/18 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/16 – Paperless – 21,8/16 – Web Quest – 20,8/12 – Word & Outlook – 16,8/11 – Word & Outlook – 20,8/4 – Word & Outlook – 19,7/28 – Word & Outlook – 16,7/21 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/14 – Word & Outlook – 21,7/7 – Word & Outlook – 18
The Work Log
Our work log spreadsheet (not included in this blog post) separates the data we collected from our meeting requests. We had approximately 168 meetings in three months. This does not account for some repeat visits to provide support at the last moment. The topics covered each month are as follows:
blogging/ collaborative writing
digital media (videotaping, podcasting, digital cameras)
google apps
promethean/ Smart board
schoolwires/moodle
web 2.0 tools
wikispaces
other: Microsoft 07 and other school based software including Gradebook, ELMO and SRS systems
Open school meetings/training
Of the 168 meetings conducted 70 were at the elementary schools, 14 were at the middle schools, 4 were at the ESC and 79 were held at the high school.
The Success Stories
For all of the training and meeting requests, we also wanted to highlight how it is actually being implemented with classrooms.
1. We receive so many requests for help with Wikispaces, that every teacher wants one almost instead of a Schoolwires webpage. The great thing about this is that students and teachers alike can be the ones generating content for their class Wiki.
a. A wiki used in a 5th grade class to replace a less-than-stellar unit in the textbook to learn collaboratively about Explorers (Explorers Wiki). Being in this classroom when the students are working on this project is an amazing experience.
b. A wiki used by 7th Grade Reading Teachers at Pennbrook (Pennbrook Fever). There are 500+ students discussing literature online.
2. Numerous teachers are using Google Docs to have students submit assignments, cutting down on the usage of paper in the district. We still do have a long way to go, but we’ve gotten a great start as a result of our “Going Paperless” session.
3. The NP Tech Tools Wiki is a listing of resources gathered by the AIC’s through involvement in online professional learning and development. We continue to update these resources for any teacher to access.
4. More teachers are willing to take on a student-centered approach to their classroom. In continued meetings with one high school teacher, her instruction is focused on what her students can be doing to actively learn. She is using Edmodo and Google Docs to facilitate this approach to her classroom.
5. Five Teachers at Inglewood Elementary have class blogs set up on http://www.kidblog.org/. Their students are excited about blogging their assignments, but they are also communicating with other students by way of comments on their posts. They are excited about writing and publishing for their classmates to see.
6. Two of Walton Farm's 6th Grade teachers have started an after-school club to allow kids to create a news program for the school. They are writing scripts, performing, filming, and then editing their video. The club meets one day per week, but one teacher has students coming in 3 other days to work on their videos.
7. Pennbrook's tech aide recently praised our team for getting a reading classroom up and running with Wikispaces and a set of classroom laptops.
In terms of vision, these are the kinds of classrooms, activities, and environments we want to create. Kids are being creative, they are being engaged, they are excited about learning. This change in attitude(for both student and teacher) is easily observed from classroom to classroom. The innovation has been facilitated by the AIC’s through careful planning and implementation alongside of teachers in the use of classroom technology.
Jason Christiansen, Scott Swindells, Wendy McKenzie
The Academic Integration Coaches
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Doing Things the RIght Way
I just wrote an entry describing my very positive experiences today with two 6th grade teachers and their group of more than 30 students at the first planning meeting of their news team. The entry praised the teachers leading the group for doing things the right way, describing the way they organized their students into teams and gave instructions for planning their news segments, which will air for the school every week. Each group of five or six students will have a turn to air their episode to the school. Since there are six groups, each group will have about six weeks between airing their episodes, so things are set up to provide students ample time to plan, record, and edit. The focus is on the content and the process. Absent from the meeting was the focus on the equipment. I really like this! The teachers are doing a great job of avoiding the temptation to jump right in to the technology. Instead, the teachers will have students plan, research, set up interviews, write copy, and script their episodes before picking up the camera and working with the classroom iMacs.
It was a good entry, going into some detail about the processes the teachers used and the enthusiasm of their students... but unfortunately I got an error message when I clicked "Publish Post," and lost everything.
I had to write something, because it is Tuesday, but I just couldn't bring myself to go into as much detail at this late hour. The group will be meeting again next Tuesday, and I look forward to working with them again and writing to all of you fine people on Tuesdays... with Swindy.
It was a good entry, going into some detail about the processes the teachers used and the enthusiasm of their students... but unfortunately I got an error message when I clicked "Publish Post," and lost everything.
I had to write something, because it is Tuesday, but I just couldn't bring myself to go into as much detail at this late hour. The group will be meeting again next Tuesday, and I look forward to working with them again and writing to all of you fine people on Tuesdays... with Swindy.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Net, working.
This week has been busy so far. I presented a training session on Using Twitter and Edmodo in the Classroom with Jason on Monday. The plan to have participants backchannel using Cover It Live failed, intially, when we couldn't get the chat, which Jason had embedded in our session wiki, to load. Jason made some quick adjustments, and we ended up using Today's Meet instead. This worked well, and led to some good discussions among participants, including the ever-present fear that students will post something innappropriate if given the opportunity to backchannel, especially anonymously. Later in the session, Cover It Live was working again, and many of our participants were happier with the way Cover It Live requires all comments posted in the chat to be approved by the moderator before they appear in the discussion. There is certainly a balance between convenience and control, between the freedoms of a site that allows students to post in real time vs. the security of a site with added control on the teacher's end.
Participants used the backchannel to discuss questions and respond to short video clips. We asked them to think about how many more students would be able to participate in a classroom discussion when everyone has the opportunity to backchannel as well as raise his or her hand to comment. Participation and engagement are greatly increased over traditional discussions where only one speaker at a time is able to contribute.
The teachers who participated in the training saw immediate use for backchanneling, and also seemed comfortable using Edmodo for classroom communication. Many created Edmodo accounts during the session. Jason gave an overview of Twitter as an educational network, showing his Twitter stream and the great collection of educators from across the country whose posts he is able to read and with whom he is able to collaborate.
The Academic Integration Coaches also visited two schools so far this week, Knapp on Monday and Nash on Tuesday. As we have been doing with every elementary school we've visted, we worked from the faculty lunch room during all lunch periods. The purpose of these visits is mainly to meet and make connections with the teachers, to set up future meetings, collaborations and co-teaching opportunities. Thanks to advance messages to the group telling them we would be in their schools, we were also able to answer some specific questions teachers brought to us.
The connections we've made with teachers in training sessions and during our school visits has been leading to constant requests for our help through emails and the help request on our website. As of today, we've logged 165 instances of tech integration work with teachers, and have worked with hundreds of teachers in our after-school training sessions.
In fact, if you are reading this blog, you might be interested in having one of us out to your classroom to work with you and your students to integrate technology into your lessons. What can we do for you?
Participants used the backchannel to discuss questions and respond to short video clips. We asked them to think about how many more students would be able to participate in a classroom discussion when everyone has the opportunity to backchannel as well as raise his or her hand to comment. Participation and engagement are greatly increased over traditional discussions where only one speaker at a time is able to contribute.
The teachers who participated in the training saw immediate use for backchanneling, and also seemed comfortable using Edmodo for classroom communication. Many created Edmodo accounts during the session. Jason gave an overview of Twitter as an educational network, showing his Twitter stream and the great collection of educators from across the country whose posts he is able to read and with whom he is able to collaborate.
The Academic Integration Coaches also visited two schools so far this week, Knapp on Monday and Nash on Tuesday. As we have been doing with every elementary school we've visted, we worked from the faculty lunch room during all lunch periods. The purpose of these visits is mainly to meet and make connections with the teachers, to set up future meetings, collaborations and co-teaching opportunities. Thanks to advance messages to the group telling them we would be in their schools, we were also able to answer some specific questions teachers brought to us.
The connections we've made with teachers in training sessions and during our school visits has been leading to constant requests for our help through emails and the help request on our website. As of today, we've logged 165 instances of tech integration work with teachers, and have worked with hundreds of teachers in our after-school training sessions.
In fact, if you are reading this blog, you might be interested in having one of us out to your classroom to work with you and your students to integrate technology into your lessons. What can we do for you?
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hubpages - http://hubpages.com/
Audio Clipping - http://www.audioclipping.de/
Pandora - http://www.pandora.com/
Photobucket - http://photobucket.com/
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/
Tag Cloud - http://www.tagcloud.com/
Hyperlinkomatic - http://www.hyperlinkomatic.com/
Airset - http://www.airset.com/
Ning - http://www.ning.com/
Kinja - http://www.kinja.com/
Skype - http://www.skype.com/
Google Docs - http://docs.google.com/
IMeem - http://www.imeem.com/
Visual Thesaurus - http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
IStockPhoto - http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
Newsvine - http://www.newsvine.com/
Google Maps - http://maps.google.com/
Audio Clipping - http://www.audioclipping.de/
Pandora - http://www.pandora.com/
Photobucket - http://photobucket.com/
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/
Tag Cloud - http://www.tagcloud.com/
Hyperlinkomatic - http://www.hyperlinkomatic.com/
Airset - http://www.airset.com/
Ning - http://www.ning.com/
Kinja - http://www.kinja.com/
Skype - http://www.skype.com/
Google Docs - http://docs.google.com/
IMeem - http://www.imeem.com/
Visual Thesaurus - http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
IStockPhoto - http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
Newsvine - http://www.newsvine.com/
Google Maps - http://maps.google.com/
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Five Myths About Technology in Education ... and the Arguments Against Believing Them
After facilitating three training sessions this week, in which I was able to work with many colleagues I hadn’t met before, the number of teachers I have worked with on some form of tech integration is now at 634. Yes, as I've mentioned before in this blog, I do keep track with an ever-growing email distribution list for messages about AIC podcast, blogs, training sessions and links, which go to everyone who has been in a flex session with me over the past few years. I am now starting to worry that these messages may be in danger of crashing the network when I hit send. :)
There are so many teachers in this district, and so many who are enthusiastic about integration in their classes, that it is very clear to me that our small department needs to grow. I would love to see every teacher who wants the integration support be able to have it on short notice, and the only way to make this happen is to bring on more coaches!
In order to shift the focus in our district – which is happening – there are several educational myths I believe we need to continue to work hard to break down.
Here are five commonly held beliefs about educational technology that I’ve encountered this week, followed by excerpts from and links to articles and blogs that help disprove each as a myth:
1) There is no evidence to show that technology has a positive impact on learning
There IS! The findings of Project RED have shown that schools with 1:1 ratio of technology devices to students have increased attendance and decreased drop-out rates. Project RED surveyed principals and technology coordinators at 997 schools that are representative of U.S. education in terms of enrollment, geography, poverty-level and ethnicity. Here is an excerpt from K-12 Blueprint ‘s article, “Study Shows The Benefits of 1:1 and the Factors that Enhance Success,” Tech & Learning, NewBay Media, LLC Copyright © 2010.
An Investment Not an Expense
Two financial factors were identified by the Project RED team as off-setting the costs that many associate with 1:1 computing. Most dramatically, there is the cost-savings that comes from reducing dropout rates. As the Project RED summary puts it: "The huge economic cost of dropouts is well known. The difference in lifetime tax revenues between a dropout and a college graduate is approximately $200,000. If 25% of dropouts actually graduated from college, the increase in tax revenues would be $6.25 Billion per year per graduating class. Schools with a 1:1 student/computer ratio are cutting the dropout rate and reaping this broader benefit."
On another front, there are the cost-savings associated with reduced printing, copying and paper usage. According to Project RED, "It is estimated that high schools where every student has a computer and which use an LMS could cut copy budgets in half. On a national basis that would equate to savings of $400M a year for high schools alone."
Overall, the benefits offered by 1:1 and the savings that it can generate lead the researchers to suggest that such technology programs should be viewed as an "investment" not an "expense."
Read More Here.
2) Technology Takes too much time
Actually, social media and web 2.0 tools save time when used properly. Amanda Kenuam’s blog post titled “Spend Less Time Searching and More Time Learning” gives good examples.
Read More Here.
3) Social networking in schools is dangerous
The post "5 Ways to Teach Cyber Safety and Digital Responsibility" in the blog "Social Media in Education MYTHS" speakins to the contrary:
In fact, blocking social media in schools is dangerous. It leaves kids ill equipped to learn how to protect their digital footprint and safely navigate the social web.
Read More Here.
4) Newer teachers are more likely to use technology frequently for instruction than veteran teachers
The article “Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths” from The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University (2010), questions this myth:
Anyone who believes, for example, that technology use is the exclusive purview of newer teachers might want to reconsider. Teachers’ years of experience— and, presumably, their ages—seem to make little difference in their frequency of technology use to support learning. The distribution of teachers, segmented by their years of experience and frequency of technology use, is similar.
Read More Here.
The Same myth is also debunked in the eSchool News article, “Research Dispels Common Ed-Tech Myths.” Here’s an excerpt:
New teachers aren't more likely than veteran teachers to use technology
In a finding that might surprise some people, younger teachers who are newer to the profession were no more likely to use technology than teachers with 10 or more years of experience, the study found. “Newer teachers might very well use technology more in their personal lives, but when it comes to frequency of technology use in classrooms, they don’t seem to have any edge over veteran teachers,” the report notes.
Read More Here.
5) Sudents today are comfortable with technology, so teachers’ use of technology is less important to student learning
The Walden University article (2010) also goes a long way to debunking this myth:
In reality, teachers’ use of technology matters a great deal. Teachers who are frequent technology users report greater benefi ts to student learning, engagement and skills from the use of that technology than teachers who spend less time using technology to support learning. Frequent technology users place considerably more emphasis on developing students’ 21st century skills—specifi cally, skills in accountability, collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, ethics, global awareness, innovation, leadership, problem solving, productivity and self-direction. Frequent users also have more positive perceptions about technology’s effects on student learning of these skills—and on student behaviors associated with these skills.
Read More Here.
Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading some of the sources I shared that help dispel some of these common myths about education and technology.
There are many other myths that hold back progress in schools (i.e., “I need a SMART Board,” or “This stuff is great for the honors level, but won’t work with students at the level which I teach”), but we’ll have to save some of those topics for another Tuesday … with Swindy.
There are so many teachers in this district, and so many who are enthusiastic about integration in their classes, that it is very clear to me that our small department needs to grow. I would love to see every teacher who wants the integration support be able to have it on short notice, and the only way to make this happen is to bring on more coaches!
In order to shift the focus in our district – which is happening – there are several educational myths I believe we need to continue to work hard to break down.
Here are five commonly held beliefs about educational technology that I’ve encountered this week, followed by excerpts from and links to articles and blogs that help disprove each as a myth:
1) There is no evidence to show that technology has a positive impact on learning
There IS! The findings of Project RED have shown that schools with 1:1 ratio of technology devices to students have increased attendance and decreased drop-out rates. Project RED surveyed principals and technology coordinators at 997 schools that are representative of U.S. education in terms of enrollment, geography, poverty-level and ethnicity. Here is an excerpt from K-12 Blueprint ‘s article, “Study Shows The Benefits of 1:1 and the Factors that Enhance Success,” Tech & Learning, NewBay Media, LLC Copyright © 2010.
An Investment Not an Expense
Two financial factors were identified by the Project RED team as off-setting the costs that many associate with 1:1 computing. Most dramatically, there is the cost-savings that comes from reducing dropout rates. As the Project RED summary puts it: "The huge economic cost of dropouts is well known. The difference in lifetime tax revenues between a dropout and a college graduate is approximately $200,000. If 25% of dropouts actually graduated from college, the increase in tax revenues would be $6.25 Billion per year per graduating class. Schools with a 1:1 student/computer ratio are cutting the dropout rate and reaping this broader benefit."
On another front, there are the cost-savings associated with reduced printing, copying and paper usage. According to Project RED, "It is estimated that high schools where every student has a computer and which use an LMS could cut copy budgets in half. On a national basis that would equate to savings of $400M a year for high schools alone."
Overall, the benefits offered by 1:1 and the savings that it can generate lead the researchers to suggest that such technology programs should be viewed as an "investment" not an "expense."
Read More Here.
2) Technology Takes too much time
Actually, social media and web 2.0 tools save time when used properly. Amanda Kenuam’s blog post titled “Spend Less Time Searching and More Time Learning” gives good examples.
Read More Here.
3) Social networking in schools is dangerous
The post "5 Ways to Teach Cyber Safety and Digital Responsibility" in the blog "Social Media in Education MYTHS" speakins to the contrary:
In fact, blocking social media in schools is dangerous. It leaves kids ill equipped to learn how to protect their digital footprint and safely navigate the social web.
Read More Here.
4) Newer teachers are more likely to use technology frequently for instruction than veteran teachers
The article “Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths” from The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University (2010), questions this myth:
Anyone who believes, for example, that technology use is the exclusive purview of newer teachers might want to reconsider. Teachers’ years of experience— and, presumably, their ages—seem to make little difference in their frequency of technology use to support learning. The distribution of teachers, segmented by their years of experience and frequency of technology use, is similar.
Read More Here.
The Same myth is also debunked in the eSchool News article, “Research Dispels Common Ed-Tech Myths.” Here’s an excerpt:
New teachers aren't more likely than veteran teachers to use technology
In a finding that might surprise some people, younger teachers who are newer to the profession were no more likely to use technology than teachers with 10 or more years of experience, the study found. “Newer teachers might very well use technology more in their personal lives, but when it comes to frequency of technology use in classrooms, they don’t seem to have any edge over veteran teachers,” the report notes.
Read More Here.
5) Sudents today are comfortable with technology, so teachers’ use of technology is less important to student learning
The Walden University article (2010) also goes a long way to debunking this myth:
In reality, teachers’ use of technology matters a great deal. Teachers who are frequent technology users report greater benefi ts to student learning, engagement and skills from the use of that technology than teachers who spend less time using technology to support learning. Frequent technology users place considerably more emphasis on developing students’ 21st century skills—specifi cally, skills in accountability, collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking, ethics, global awareness, innovation, leadership, problem solving, productivity and self-direction. Frequent users also have more positive perceptions about technology’s effects on student learning of these skills—and on student behaviors associated with these skills.
Read More Here.
Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading some of the sources I shared that help dispel some of these common myths about education and technology.
There are many other myths that hold back progress in schools (i.e., “I need a SMART Board,” or “This stuff is great for the honors level, but won’t work with students at the level which I teach”), but we’ll have to save some of those topics for another Tuesday … with Swindy.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Coaches and Staff Work Together for a Successful In-service Day
This week began with an in-service day, during which two of the Academic Integration Coaches were tapped to train district secretaries on Excel, and district security personnel on the transition to Office 2007.
The Excel training sessions were in the morning. We had worked carefully the week prior to this session to querey all the participants about what they wanted to learn, researched the answers to their specific questions, and created a wiki that covered in detail everything they asked us to cover prior to the session.
With one coach presenting and another floating around the room to assist and troubleshoot, we covered all the topics they requested, including mail merge, charts, graphs, tables, formulas, formatting, pivot tables, and much more. The original plan caleld for us to each teach half of the session to a group of 15, then have the participants switch rooms and learn the other half. Instead, we chose to have all the participants in one room while we took turns presenting our half of the training, enabling us not only to have each other as an assistant, as I mentioned, but also giving us the combined wealth of Excel knowlege of the entire group of participants. These are people who use Excel for their jobs in ways that are different than we presenters use it, so it was great to have a large pool of people to share their own tips, tricks and strategies. There were still some questions that came from the group during the training that we did not know off the top of our heads that could not be answered by anyone in the room, but we researched these after the session and sent answers, along with the link to our session wiki, to everyone as a follow-up the next day. I am very happy with the results of this session. Instead of just delivering training, we worked together with everyone in the group to make sure everyone's questions were answered. I would like to follow this training model again, but maybe also have the participants working on meaningful, job-related spreadsheets in addition to our simulated ones for their hands-on work.
Later in the day, we gave an overview of Word and Outlook to the security staff. The group was in good spirits and willing to learn, and we were able to deliver the content in a shorter time span that we had been allotted, providing the group with lots of time for hands-on "play" with the applications, allowing them to work on documents and projects that were meaningful to them.
There were some glitches with the tech. Laptops didn't always work, connectivity was slow at times, and we had to scramble for extra mice for people who could not use the ThinkPad trackpoint mouse, but the tech staff was swift and effective, and we were able to get everything working and have successful sessions. At times, we're all tempted to criticize the equipment when it doesn't work as quickly or effectively as we'd like, but I choose not to look at the glass as half empty when it comes to this stuff. In the end, we got everything to work effectively, and as I reflected on the day's events later, I found myself instead thinking of how fortunate we are to work in a district with so many computers, laptops, devices and other forms of technology at our fingertips. We all criticize at times when things don't go smoothly, but imagine the alternative of not having access to it at all. We are lucky to have what we have in this district, and along with a little creativity from the participants, presenters, and tech staff, it really enabled us to have an excellent day of learning ... powered by technology.
The Excel training sessions were in the morning. We had worked carefully the week prior to this session to querey all the participants about what they wanted to learn, researched the answers to their specific questions, and created a wiki that covered in detail everything they asked us to cover prior to the session.
With one coach presenting and another floating around the room to assist and troubleshoot, we covered all the topics they requested, including mail merge, charts, graphs, tables, formulas, formatting, pivot tables, and much more. The original plan caleld for us to each teach half of the session to a group of 15, then have the participants switch rooms and learn the other half. Instead, we chose to have all the participants in one room while we took turns presenting our half of the training, enabling us not only to have each other as an assistant, as I mentioned, but also giving us the combined wealth of Excel knowlege of the entire group of participants. These are people who use Excel for their jobs in ways that are different than we presenters use it, so it was great to have a large pool of people to share their own tips, tricks and strategies. There were still some questions that came from the group during the training that we did not know off the top of our heads that could not be answered by anyone in the room, but we researched these after the session and sent answers, along with the link to our session wiki, to everyone as a follow-up the next day. I am very happy with the results of this session. Instead of just delivering training, we worked together with everyone in the group to make sure everyone's questions were answered. I would like to follow this training model again, but maybe also have the participants working on meaningful, job-related spreadsheets in addition to our simulated ones for their hands-on work.
Later in the day, we gave an overview of Word and Outlook to the security staff. The group was in good spirits and willing to learn, and we were able to deliver the content in a shorter time span that we had been allotted, providing the group with lots of time for hands-on "play" with the applications, allowing them to work on documents and projects that were meaningful to them.
There were some glitches with the tech. Laptops didn't always work, connectivity was slow at times, and we had to scramble for extra mice for people who could not use the ThinkPad trackpoint mouse, but the tech staff was swift and effective, and we were able to get everything working and have successful sessions. At times, we're all tempted to criticize the equipment when it doesn't work as quickly or effectively as we'd like, but I choose not to look at the glass as half empty when it comes to this stuff. In the end, we got everything to work effectively, and as I reflected on the day's events later, I found myself instead thinking of how fortunate we are to work in a district with so many computers, laptops, devices and other forms of technology at our fingertips. We all criticize at times when things don't go smoothly, but imagine the alternative of not having access to it at all. We are lucky to have what we have in this district, and along with a little creativity from the participants, presenters, and tech staff, it really enabled us to have an excellent day of learning ... powered by technology.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
What's Working
I am taking a moment to celebrate our successes.
Today we helped our "100th customer," meaning the three Academic Integration Coaches, who keep a log of the people we work with to integrate technology in their classrooms, have now logged over 100 entries.
We helped plan and facilitate a technology-based in-service day for teachers in grades 4-6 on October 11, which opened a lot of new eyes to collaborative, web-based porgrams and increased our workload with lots of new requests to work with us. We've got a second in-service day coming up on November 8th, where we will be conducting several Microsoft Office training sessions throughout the day.
We also do after-school training sessions for teachers to earn flex credit while learning about integrating technology. We have offered more than 20 sessions since August, with three scheduled in the next two weeks. We are well beyond 100 participants in these sessions, and they are rating us highly. When teachers follow up on the effectiveness of our training sessions, they are consistently giving us a four or five, with five being the highest possible score.
To help me follow up with the participants in my training sessions, I keep a record of teachers I have trained. According to my distribution list, which filters out repeat names, I am approaching my 600th unique person since I began working with technology integration in 2008. In a district of around 1000 teachers, that is an accomplishment worth celebrating!
As teachers on special assignment in this difficult budget, our position will be reevaluated every year. We were told we will really need data to show that our impact is worth the district's investment, which is why we keep the log, write our blogs, write follow-up emails to participants in our training sessions, and conduct pre- and post-surveys of district faculty.
We want to do more than keep our positions. We want to expand. We know the value of having teachers who are prepared to put the best resources in their students' hands, and we would love to see our small Academic Integration department grow to include more teachers on assignment to assist even more classrooms with tech integration.
What's working so far is our help request system, where teachers complete a form on our website to reach us for help with problem solving, ideas, training on programs and applications, co-teaching, and other forms of integration. When this is combined with the 40+ flex training sessions we've planned for this year, follow-ups via e-mail and face-to-face interactions, and word-of-mouth, our first two months have been a success.
Moving forward, I'd like to see us build a collection of training documents that can be accessed online. We do this with our weekly podcast, Tech Tip of the Week, which are archived on our website. But we can do more in this area. I'm envisioning a searchable database of up-to-date training manuals and guides for using the forms of technology we are most frequently asked to help teachers and students utilize. I'd love some suggestions about how to improve in this area.
Thank you to everyone who has worked with us this year. We're incredibly busy, but willing to take on more. Contact an Academic Integration Coach today!
Today we helped our "100th customer," meaning the three Academic Integration Coaches, who keep a log of the people we work with to integrate technology in their classrooms, have now logged over 100 entries.
We helped plan and facilitate a technology-based in-service day for teachers in grades 4-6 on October 11, which opened a lot of new eyes to collaborative, web-based porgrams and increased our workload with lots of new requests to work with us. We've got a second in-service day coming up on November 8th, where we will be conducting several Microsoft Office training sessions throughout the day.
We also do after-school training sessions for teachers to earn flex credit while learning about integrating technology. We have offered more than 20 sessions since August, with three scheduled in the next two weeks. We are well beyond 100 participants in these sessions, and they are rating us highly. When teachers follow up on the effectiveness of our training sessions, they are consistently giving us a four or five, with five being the highest possible score.
To help me follow up with the participants in my training sessions, I keep a record of teachers I have trained. According to my distribution list, which filters out repeat names, I am approaching my 600th unique person since I began working with technology integration in 2008. In a district of around 1000 teachers, that is an accomplishment worth celebrating!
As teachers on special assignment in this difficult budget, our position will be reevaluated every year. We were told we will really need data to show that our impact is worth the district's investment, which is why we keep the log, write our blogs, write follow-up emails to participants in our training sessions, and conduct pre- and post-surveys of district faculty.
We want to do more than keep our positions. We want to expand. We know the value of having teachers who are prepared to put the best resources in their students' hands, and we would love to see our small Academic Integration department grow to include more teachers on assignment to assist even more classrooms with tech integration.
What's working so far is our help request system, where teachers complete a form on our website to reach us for help with problem solving, ideas, training on programs and applications, co-teaching, and other forms of integration. When this is combined with the 40+ flex training sessions we've planned for this year, follow-ups via e-mail and face-to-face interactions, and word-of-mouth, our first two months have been a success.
Moving forward, I'd like to see us build a collection of training documents that can be accessed online. We do this with our weekly podcast, Tech Tip of the Week, which are archived on our website. But we can do more in this area. I'm envisioning a searchable database of up-to-date training manuals and guides for using the forms of technology we are most frequently asked to help teachers and students utilize. I'd love some suggestions about how to improve in this area.
Thank you to everyone who has worked with us this year. We're incredibly busy, but willing to take on more. Contact an Academic Integration Coach today!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Reducing the Digital Clutter
Hello, and welcome to a special Wednesday edition of Tuesdays.
That's right -- just when you started to get comfortable with the security blanket of a blog that appears every Tuesday, I went and flipped it on you, coming to you a day late this week!
I don't have long to write today, as I'm off to Oak Park elementary school to work with a teacher who is interested in having her students create video projects. The past week, which has been busy busy busy -- as always -- the prevalent theme seems to have been making videos. Since I last wrote, on the day of our video podcast project with the visiting German exchange students, the Academic Integration Coaches have been receiving lots of requests to help teachers and students make videos using the equipment at our disposal. This is partly due to the success of the breakout session on podcasting from the October 11 in-service day for teachers of grades 4-6.
This has been a great challenge for us, because our students and teachers use a wide variety of means of capturing video, from different types of digital cameras and video cameras to video screen capture applications. We have been trying our best to help them use many different types of video files, including .avi, .mov, .mpeg, .wmv, .mp4, and more, bringing them in to the video editor on our district image, Windows Movie Maker, which is very limited in what types of files it can import and export. There have been several roadblocks. Some people record a high definition video that can't be imported into MovieMaker, but can be edited on a Mac using iMovie. Since iMovie is very simplified and limited these days, some people would like to take the videos they create in iMovie and move them into Movie Maker, to take advantage of the transitions, titles, and ability to split clips. Other want to take a video created in Movie Maker and import it into iMovie to use some of the better features of that program, but that has surprisingly been difficult as well. Here I thought I could import anything into a Mac program, but that has not proved to be the case, as Mac applications do not like to use .wma files.
We've found some good online video converters, such as Hamster, but we have not always been successful. It seems the free video converters still lag behind the ability of the free online audio converters right now.
One of the most frequent problems, once we've gotten past the file conversion issues, is that video editing takes a lot of organization. It's not just about planning the shooting of video, having a working script and a sense of blocking and camera angles, it's all the elements that go in to the editing process that can cause a clutter. Videos -- even short ones -- have still images, video clips, transisitons, titles, overdubbed audio tracks, and many more elements that all need to be saved as files. Once a project is finished and turned in to a video, I like to go back into all the folders I used in the project and delete the files. I know it might come back to haunt me if I find a mistake and need to edit it, because then I'd have to recreate the project. But videos and all their assosciated files take up a lot of space. I've found that if I don't clean up after my mess relatively soon after finishing the project, things can get very cluttered.
This digital clutter is not limited to video editing. There is our work log in a spreadsheet that comes to us in email and in a Google form, which constantly needs updating. As we become more and more busy with requests to work with teachers in our district, tracking these requests, taking action on them, logging them as complete or in-progress, etc., gives us a lot of data to sort through.
Since my last entry, the AICs worked with a few dozen teachers during the school day, and facilitated a flex training session called "Stop Showing Videos, Start Making Them" for another 20 teachers. We each co-taught classes where students used Wikispaces, made non-linear PowerPoints, published blogs, linked to audio files, and made videos. Keeping track of the files assosciated with all of this work (let alone logging it for our record-keeping) can become an overwhelming task if the three of us don't work in concert to stay on top of it.
Later today, I will be participating in a 21st Century Learning chat on teaching network literacy. I am hoping a large part of this discussion will center on organzinational strategies for files in a network.
On November 8, Wendy and I will be working with teachers on organizing their files when we present training on Microsoft Office applications during an in-service day.
All of these thoughts came together for me when I made this week's Tech Tip of the Week podcast this morning. Today's topic was reducing digital clutter, influenced by the Inbox Zero movement started by Merlin Mann.
In a nutshell, clutter is distracting. Whether it is literal papers on a desk or electronic files on a desktop, I've found my eye goes too quickly to the clutter when I'm working, and I start thinking of many things not related to the task at hand. If my inbox is filled with old messages I've saved as "reminders" of things I need to do later, I can't avoid thinking briefly about each of them every time I open my mail. However, if I use my inbox as a queue for decision-making instead of a colelction of tasks, the clutter disappears. In other words, I am learning to make a decision about every message as soon as I get it.
That doesn't mean I have to instantly reply, though I often do. But instead of having it languish in my inbox, I decide what to do with the content of the message. Maybe I need to make a task or appointment in my calendar to tackle the task at an assigned time down the road. Maybe I need to save the email or its attached files. Maybe I need to reply. Maybe I just need to delete it. The point is that I make the decision, and clear out my inbox. The same goes for electronic files, which I am careful to place in a clear system of folders, and paper files on my desk, which are thankfully becoming fewer as my colleagues and I learn how to use less paper.
Merlin Mann and many others have been blogging and tweeting about this topic. Just do a search for "inbox zero" and you'll see a lot of interesting discussions and ideas on the subject.
My podcast for reducing electronic clutter can be found here.
Thanks for dropping by. Talk at ya next week!
That's right -- just when you started to get comfortable with the security blanket of a blog that appears every Tuesday, I went and flipped it on you, coming to you a day late this week!
I don't have long to write today, as I'm off to Oak Park elementary school to work with a teacher who is interested in having her students create video projects. The past week, which has been busy busy busy -- as always -- the prevalent theme seems to have been making videos. Since I last wrote, on the day of our video podcast project with the visiting German exchange students, the Academic Integration Coaches have been receiving lots of requests to help teachers and students make videos using the equipment at our disposal. This is partly due to the success of the breakout session on podcasting from the October 11 in-service day for teachers of grades 4-6.
This has been a great challenge for us, because our students and teachers use a wide variety of means of capturing video, from different types of digital cameras and video cameras to video screen capture applications. We have been trying our best to help them use many different types of video files, including .avi, .mov, .mpeg, .wmv, .mp4, and more, bringing them in to the video editor on our district image, Windows Movie Maker, which is very limited in what types of files it can import and export. There have been several roadblocks. Some people record a high definition video that can't be imported into MovieMaker, but can be edited on a Mac using iMovie. Since iMovie is very simplified and limited these days, some people would like to take the videos they create in iMovie and move them into Movie Maker, to take advantage of the transitions, titles, and ability to split clips. Other want to take a video created in Movie Maker and import it into iMovie to use some of the better features of that program, but that has surprisingly been difficult as well. Here I thought I could import anything into a Mac program, but that has not proved to be the case, as Mac applications do not like to use .wma files.
We've found some good online video converters, such as Hamster, but we have not always been successful. It seems the free video converters still lag behind the ability of the free online audio converters right now.
One of the most frequent problems, once we've gotten past the file conversion issues, is that video editing takes a lot of organization. It's not just about planning the shooting of video, having a working script and a sense of blocking and camera angles, it's all the elements that go in to the editing process that can cause a clutter. Videos -- even short ones -- have still images, video clips, transisitons, titles, overdubbed audio tracks, and many more elements that all need to be saved as files. Once a project is finished and turned in to a video, I like to go back into all the folders I used in the project and delete the files. I know it might come back to haunt me if I find a mistake and need to edit it, because then I'd have to recreate the project. But videos and all their assosciated files take up a lot of space. I've found that if I don't clean up after my mess relatively soon after finishing the project, things can get very cluttered.
This digital clutter is not limited to video editing. There is our work log in a spreadsheet that comes to us in email and in a Google form, which constantly needs updating. As we become more and more busy with requests to work with teachers in our district, tracking these requests, taking action on them, logging them as complete or in-progress, etc., gives us a lot of data to sort through.
Since my last entry, the AICs worked with a few dozen teachers during the school day, and facilitated a flex training session called "Stop Showing Videos, Start Making Them" for another 20 teachers. We each co-taught classes where students used Wikispaces, made non-linear PowerPoints, published blogs, linked to audio files, and made videos. Keeping track of the files assosciated with all of this work (let alone logging it for our record-keeping) can become an overwhelming task if the three of us don't work in concert to stay on top of it.
Later today, I will be participating in a 21st Century Learning chat on teaching network literacy. I am hoping a large part of this discussion will center on organzinational strategies for files in a network.
On November 8, Wendy and I will be working with teachers on organizing their files when we present training on Microsoft Office applications during an in-service day.
All of these thoughts came together for me when I made this week's Tech Tip of the Week podcast this morning. Today's topic was reducing digital clutter, influenced by the Inbox Zero movement started by Merlin Mann.
In a nutshell, clutter is distracting. Whether it is literal papers on a desk or electronic files on a desktop, I've found my eye goes too quickly to the clutter when I'm working, and I start thinking of many things not related to the task at hand. If my inbox is filled with old messages I've saved as "reminders" of things I need to do later, I can't avoid thinking briefly about each of them every time I open my mail. However, if I use my inbox as a queue for decision-making instead of a colelction of tasks, the clutter disappears. In other words, I am learning to make a decision about every message as soon as I get it.
That doesn't mean I have to instantly reply, though I often do. But instead of having it languish in my inbox, I decide what to do with the content of the message. Maybe I need to make a task or appointment in my calendar to tackle the task at an assigned time down the road. Maybe I need to save the email or its attached files. Maybe I need to reply. Maybe I just need to delete it. The point is that I make the decision, and clear out my inbox. The same goes for electronic files, which I am careful to place in a clear system of folders, and paper files on my desk, which are thankfully becoming fewer as my colleagues and I learn how to use less paper.
Merlin Mann and many others have been blogging and tweeting about this topic. Just do a search for "inbox zero" and you'll see a lot of interesting discussions and ideas on the subject.
My podcast for reducing electronic clutter can be found here.
Thanks for dropping by. Talk at ya next week!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
A Tale of Two Tuesdays
I had David Truss' quote from "A Brave New World Wide Web" on my mind this morning, "Learning is messy... sometimes the technology didn't work."
It began with great intentions. Our school has an exchange program bringing in German students from Aalen and Saltzgitter. During a few days of their visit, the 40+ students travel through an eight-period day at the high school, and teachers volunteer to host all or some of the students. I volunteered to host the visitors this morning to show a little of what we do as Academic Integration Coaches, and to let them have a little fun with our tech equipment. The plan was fairly simple: the students would each use video cameras to record a commentary about their visit to America, then edit the videos and post them on a Wikispaces site so their friends and family at home could watch them.
Our planning for this event was considerable. We reserved one of the smaller auditoriums in the high school, procured a cart of 30 CFF laptops from a neighboring classroom, and amassed around 15 cameras, ranging from Flips to Canons to webcams, from around the district. I drove to four schools yesterday to collect the cameras from the buildings that volunteered them for our use ( a big "thank you" to Oak Park, Montgomery, Bridle Path, and NPHS!). Our HS tech department created temporary accounts for the German students to log on to our network, and I made a wiki and, using the "User Creator," created Wikispaces accounts for all the students to use the site.
The students received their instructions, formed groups, grabbed cameras and headed into the nearby stairwells and hallways to record their videos. We were excited by the enthusiasm and creativity they showed as they took turns recording each other's testimonials. But when they returned to the room to plug in the cameras to the laptops to edit and save their videos, we encountered one problem after another. The Flip cameras recorded video that would not import into Windows Movie Maker (we did not have enough MacBooks at our disposal to have them use iMovie or Final Cut, which would have handled the videos fine). The students who shot thier videos on the older Canon video cameras had no trouble getting the video to import to Movie Maker, but the time it took to capture the video from the devices left them little time to edit their work. Jason and I went from group to group, helping them figure out alternative methods for completing the project. Some of the students were able to post their videos on the wiki directly from the cameras, with the intent of later getting the files and editing from a computer at their host families' houses. Other students were unable to even post their clips to edit later because the files were too large to upload to the wiki. Some of these students were able to use a file-sharing site to temporarily host their footage until later.
When the dust settled and it was time for the students to head to their next class, only four of the more-than-40 students had posted videos on the wiki as we had intended. As they powered down the equipment and we said our goodbyes, I appologized to the group for our lack of success. However, the smiles on their faces and the very nice comments from their chaperones quickly lifted my spirits. Though many of the students will end up being unable to share their videos with their friends and families at home, all of them had met the lesson objective. They had all reflected upon their visit, and recorded a narrative telling their stories. They had all had fun in the process. And there was a great lesson in the way we all adapted and collaborated to attempt to get the videos posted. Learning is messy. The technology doesn't always work. That does not mean that some great learning did not take place!
At the end of the work day, I facilitated an advanced training session for Schoolwires Teacher Web Pages. I worked with a dozen or so of my colleagues through an agenda I helped create showing them advanced uses for our district's teacher websites. This time, technology smiled on us. Everything worked well, and the two-hour session concluded with plenty of time left for me to answer individual questions while the teachers got a lot of hands-on time working on their pages. The attendees were excellent. Everyone was willing to help each other find the solutions to things they wanted their web sites to do, and their attitudes made it an excellent working and learning environment. Several times, when I was busy helping one teacher with his or her web pages, I witnessed teachers helping other teachers with a tool, tip, or trick that they knew how to do. The teamwork they demonstrated was an even bigger factor in the success of this training session than the fact that the technology worked. Of course, that didn't hurt!
It was a tale of two Tuesdays in the way the technology "cooperated" or did not, but the constant between both of today's endeavors was a strong sense of collaboration. This is certainly an age where learning needs to happen through collaboration. It can be messy, but out of the experience of working together to solve problems, some really incredible things are possible.
It began with great intentions. Our school has an exchange program bringing in German students from Aalen and Saltzgitter. During a few days of their visit, the 40+ students travel through an eight-period day at the high school, and teachers volunteer to host all or some of the students. I volunteered to host the visitors this morning to show a little of what we do as Academic Integration Coaches, and to let them have a little fun with our tech equipment. The plan was fairly simple: the students would each use video cameras to record a commentary about their visit to America, then edit the videos and post them on a Wikispaces site so their friends and family at home could watch them.
Our planning for this event was considerable. We reserved one of the smaller auditoriums in the high school, procured a cart of 30 CFF laptops from a neighboring classroom, and amassed around 15 cameras, ranging from Flips to Canons to webcams, from around the district. I drove to four schools yesterday to collect the cameras from the buildings that volunteered them for our use ( a big "thank you" to Oak Park, Montgomery, Bridle Path, and NPHS!). Our HS tech department created temporary accounts for the German students to log on to our network, and I made a wiki and, using the "User Creator," created Wikispaces accounts for all the students to use the site.
The students received their instructions, formed groups, grabbed cameras and headed into the nearby stairwells and hallways to record their videos. We were excited by the enthusiasm and creativity they showed as they took turns recording each other's testimonials. But when they returned to the room to plug in the cameras to the laptops to edit and save their videos, we encountered one problem after another. The Flip cameras recorded video that would not import into Windows Movie Maker (we did not have enough MacBooks at our disposal to have them use iMovie or Final Cut, which would have handled the videos fine). The students who shot thier videos on the older Canon video cameras had no trouble getting the video to import to Movie Maker, but the time it took to capture the video from the devices left them little time to edit their work. Jason and I went from group to group, helping them figure out alternative methods for completing the project. Some of the students were able to post their videos on the wiki directly from the cameras, with the intent of later getting the files and editing from a computer at their host families' houses. Other students were unable to even post their clips to edit later because the files were too large to upload to the wiki. Some of these students were able to use a file-sharing site to temporarily host their footage until later.
When the dust settled and it was time for the students to head to their next class, only four of the more-than-40 students had posted videos on the wiki as we had intended. As they powered down the equipment and we said our goodbyes, I appologized to the group for our lack of success. However, the smiles on their faces and the very nice comments from their chaperones quickly lifted my spirits. Though many of the students will end up being unable to share their videos with their friends and families at home, all of them had met the lesson objective. They had all reflected upon their visit, and recorded a narrative telling their stories. They had all had fun in the process. And there was a great lesson in the way we all adapted and collaborated to attempt to get the videos posted. Learning is messy. The technology doesn't always work. That does not mean that some great learning did not take place!
At the end of the work day, I facilitated an advanced training session for Schoolwires Teacher Web Pages. I worked with a dozen or so of my colleagues through an agenda I helped create showing them advanced uses for our district's teacher websites. This time, technology smiled on us. Everything worked well, and the two-hour session concluded with plenty of time left for me to answer individual questions while the teachers got a lot of hands-on time working on their pages. The attendees were excellent. Everyone was willing to help each other find the solutions to things they wanted their web sites to do, and their attitudes made it an excellent working and learning environment. Several times, when I was busy helping one teacher with his or her web pages, I witnessed teachers helping other teachers with a tool, tip, or trick that they knew how to do. The teamwork they demonstrated was an even bigger factor in the success of this training session than the fact that the technology worked. Of course, that didn't hurt!
It was a tale of two Tuesdays in the way the technology "cooperated" or did not, but the constant between both of today's endeavors was a strong sense of collaboration. This is certainly an age where learning needs to happen through collaboration. It can be messy, but out of the experience of working together to solve problems, some really incredible things are possible.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
You down with AIC? Yeah you know me.
Keeping with the iPad topic, I'm going to try the Dragon app to speak this week's blog to see how well it does with converting my speech to text. I've read a lot this week about the popularity of the iPads for speech/vision/hearing impaired.
Jennifer Valentino-Devries' October 12 article in the Wall Street Journal stands out.
Since last Tuesday, the three AIC coaches have been busy, working with over 40 teachers in two after-school flex training sessions, and logging time 17 teachers during the work day, on topics including Google apps, Schoolwires, MOODLE, wikis, Word and PowerPoint 2007, collaborative writing and blogging, Voki, and the Podcasting topic we promoted at the in-service day.
After Monday's in-service for all teachers in grades 4 - 6, which we coaches helped plan, delivered the five concurrent breakout sessions (with the help of 7 other excellent faculty members and administrators), and ran the end-of-day collaborative work session, we took some time today to reflect on our work. The theme of the day was, "It's not about the technology; it's about learning powered by technology." At many points in the day, the technology played a crucial role, like when instructors of breakout sessions used Skype to bring their two groups together, from separate rooms in the building, for video chats. The tech took center stage in several breakout sessions, where facilitators modelled blogging, collaboration with wikis, and other specific web applications (Wallwisher, Google Forms, Quizlet, Voki, etc.), and demonstrated specific tools, like video cameras, Movie Maker, and the Elmo, to enhance the academic content. At other times, the technology took a back seat, where participants worked in groups to discuss and plan implementation and integration into their grade-level content. Of course, at certain times, the technology even limited our plans, like when presenters linked to sites that didn't funtion properly, or when facilitators had difficulty connecting to chat.
All in all, teachers were engaged with the ideas we shared, got to try a lot of the applications hands on, and we're extremely pleased (and even appeared in disbelief!) that they did not have to fill out a form to say what they did during their collaborative work time. This last part was very important to us on the planning team -- we wanted the teachers to have the time to work on what they were taking away, instead of worrying about what to tell us they were taking away. The exit ticket came on our end, as we traveled from group to group and recorded, with several flip cameras, each group telling us what they had gotten out of the day and what they planned to do with it in the classroom. We are working on combining that video into a webcast that can be shared with all who attended.
OK, that's enough from me for this Tuesday with Swindy. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a What-up? Wednesday from Wendy and Jason.
:)
Jennifer Valentino-Devries' October 12 article in the Wall Street Journal stands out.
Since last Tuesday, the three AIC coaches have been busy, working with over 40 teachers in two after-school flex training sessions, and logging time 17 teachers during the work day, on topics including Google apps, Schoolwires, MOODLE, wikis, Word and PowerPoint 2007, collaborative writing and blogging, Voki, and the Podcasting topic we promoted at the in-service day.
After Monday's in-service for all teachers in grades 4 - 6, which we coaches helped plan, delivered the five concurrent breakout sessions (with the help of 7 other excellent faculty members and administrators), and ran the end-of-day collaborative work session, we took some time today to reflect on our work. The theme of the day was, "It's not about the technology; it's about learning powered by technology." At many points in the day, the technology played a crucial role, like when instructors of breakout sessions used Skype to bring their two groups together, from separate rooms in the building, for video chats. The tech took center stage in several breakout sessions, where facilitators modelled blogging, collaboration with wikis, and other specific web applications (Wallwisher, Google Forms, Quizlet, Voki, etc.), and demonstrated specific tools, like video cameras, Movie Maker, and the Elmo, to enhance the academic content. At other times, the technology took a back seat, where participants worked in groups to discuss and plan implementation and integration into their grade-level content. Of course, at certain times, the technology even limited our plans, like when presenters linked to sites that didn't funtion properly, or when facilitators had difficulty connecting to chat.
All in all, teachers were engaged with the ideas we shared, got to try a lot of the applications hands on, and we're extremely pleased (and even appeared in disbelief!) that they did not have to fill out a form to say what they did during their collaborative work time. This last part was very important to us on the planning team -- we wanted the teachers to have the time to work on what they were taking away, instead of worrying about what to tell us they were taking away. The exit ticket came on our end, as we traveled from group to group and recorded, with several flip cameras, each group telling us what they had gotten out of the day and what they planned to do with it in the classroom. We are working on combining that video into a webcast that can be shared with all who attended.
OK, that's enough from me for this Tuesday with Swindy. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a What-up? Wednesday from Wendy and Jason.
:)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Using iPads in the Classroom
A topic on my mind this week, as I head to an Apple training on using the iPad in the classroom, is the use of / use for / usefulness of the iPad in the classroom.
My thoughts, before attending, are on the criticisms I've heard and read, that the iPad is not for content creation, but just consumption. However, only having had an iPad at my disposal for one afternoon before attending tomorrow's training, I have only personally used it for one thing, which was in fact content creation, so I am skeptical of the skeptics.
An officer in the high school Ski & Board Club was able to use the iPad to record the names of members that were paying the club dues, as they stood by the door to the room the 200-some club members were entering. The iPad enabled the student to be mobile, while providing us with a list to cross-reference with the Google Form we used to collect membership information. Simply typing names may sound like a pretty small deal, but it was a very important solution to a potential problem that came up today, and one that would have been much more awkward had it been completed balancing a laptop or tied to a desktop.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
In Media Res
Hello. Welcome to my life. You are joining a program that has been in progress for 32 years, so I won’t attempt to get you caught up. In fact, I can’t remember anything from the first three, and the next several are comprised of fond-but-fuzzy memories, with the remaining years containing so many scattered story lines that attempting to bring readers “up to speed” would be as limiting to the potential plot hereafter as it would be exponentially confusing. So I resist the temptation of exposition, intending instead to work backwards to anything that becomes relevant as things unfold.
We’ll begin in media res.
It is a Tuesday night. I just returned from a jog and now sit on my couch, surrounded by technology. I am immediately referring to the two laptops, cell phone, television and iPod that are all within my sight lines as I begin to type, but the words of a colleague in the Technology Education department from two summers ago ring in my ears. As I was about to begin a presentation on technology integration for the district, he pulled me aside and told me that technology was not “just computers,” but the physical world’s entire collection of man-made materials and knowledge. “The lights in this classroom,” he said, “the walls and even the floors” were technology. I thanked him, and continued with my planned presentation, covering Internet safety, effective web searching, and school board policies and regulations concerning the use of technology. In the 14 months since, however, his words have really sunk in. Technology can mean something slightly different to everyone, from the professor of nanotechnology to the teacher who wants to know where his PowerPoint files went when his district computer was reimaged over the summer. Everyone uses technology everyday, but my fellow Academic Integration Coaches and I need to help our teachers find the appropriate forms of technology to best meet the learning objectives they’ve set for their students. This might mean a different “solution” for every teacher, every student, and every individual situation. What an undertaking we’ve embarked upon, the three of us putting ourselves out there to coach 1000+ teachers!
I named this blog Tuesdays with Swindy for several reasons. The title comes from my younger brother Greg, who used to send hilarious weekly e-mails to his friends and family in a play on Mitch Albom’s 1997 non-fiction novel. My brother is secretly creative, though he does his best to keep it in check as the family businessman. Scratch that. He’s not a business man, he’s a business, man (Jay-Z lyrics). In our family, I am more outwardly creative; I’ve always approached writing, music, education, and other endeavors in quick, passionate bursts of creativity. I can’t control when these brief moments of inspiration will come, but they happen frequently enough that others have labeled me “creative,” and I’ve embraced the description as a motivation, challenge, and guide. It’s the least I could do tosteal -- pay tribute to – his creative idea.
Another motivating factor for naming this blog comes from the fact that it is Tuesday night. If you’ll notice the timestamp when I hit “post” on this first edition, you’ll probably see that it is close to 11:59 p.m. on a Tuesday. I needed an impetus to write. Today. And as I’m just coming in under the wire, I’m glad I finally gave myself a deadline. I have been in my current position for exactly one month since school began. I have not written a single entry. Of course, we have been incredibly busy. My fellow Academic Integration Coaches, Wendy, Jason and I, have worked with 48 teachers who have requested our help during the school day, and trained more than 200 teachers in after-school flex sessions (my personal total over the past two years as a Learning Coordinator for Technology Integration is approaching 500 unique participants in training sessions I facilitated, or roughly half the teachers in this district. Boy, I sure hope some of them will read my blog!). Being busy, my father would tell you, is not an excuse to put off doing something important, and we all feel that regularly reflecting on our work with teachers and students is an important part of modeling technology integration, and improving upon what we are striving to do. One of our goals as Academic Integration Coaches is to keep a blog to regularly document our experiences working with the more than 1000 educators in North Penn School District.
A creative writing professor in college, herself an incredible poet, once told us of the importance of making oneself sit down and write every day. While I won’t be writing here every day, I am finally taking her words to heart. It is not important that the writing be exceptional, just that it gets done. Nothing great comes from doing nothing. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You know, I could go on with quotes about getting started, but then I’d miss my self-imposed deadline, defeating the purpose of getting started with Tuesdays with Swindy, so to save precious time, here’s a link to some of my favorite quotes about getting started. :)
The New Bloom’s Taxonomy lists the highest level of learning objectives as “create.” As I work with teachers and students creating their own blogs, podcasts, websites, movies, slide shows (etc., etc., etc.), I want to encourage them to create without worrying if the product will be perfect. Wendy wrote, “Technology is not a noun ... it’s a verb ... an action verb. Just do it.” The important thing in learning is to do it, whatever “it” may be.
My name is Scott Swindells. I am an Academic Integration Coach for North Penn School District.I look forward to helping teachers and students solve problems using the technology at our disposal, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you here on Tuesdays ... with Swindy.
We’ll begin in media res.
It is a Tuesday night. I just returned from a jog and now sit on my couch, surrounded by technology. I am immediately referring to the two laptops, cell phone, television and iPod that are all within my sight lines as I begin to type, but the words of a colleague in the Technology Education department from two summers ago ring in my ears. As I was about to begin a presentation on technology integration for the district, he pulled me aside and told me that technology was not “just computers,” but the physical world’s entire collection of man-made materials and knowledge. “The lights in this classroom,” he said, “the walls and even the floors” were technology. I thanked him, and continued with my planned presentation, covering Internet safety, effective web searching, and school board policies and regulations concerning the use of technology. In the 14 months since, however, his words have really sunk in. Technology can mean something slightly different to everyone, from the professor of nanotechnology to the teacher who wants to know where his PowerPoint files went when his district computer was reimaged over the summer. Everyone uses technology everyday, but my fellow Academic Integration Coaches and I need to help our teachers find the appropriate forms of technology to best meet the learning objectives they’ve set for their students. This might mean a different “solution” for every teacher, every student, and every individual situation. What an undertaking we’ve embarked upon, the three of us putting ourselves out there to coach 1000+ teachers!
I named this blog Tuesdays with Swindy for several reasons. The title comes from my younger brother Greg, who used to send hilarious weekly e-mails to his friends and family in a play on Mitch Albom’s 1997 non-fiction novel. My brother is secretly creative, though he does his best to keep it in check as the family businessman. Scratch that. He’s not a business man, he’s a business, man (Jay-Z lyrics). In our family, I am more outwardly creative; I’ve always approached writing, music, education, and other endeavors in quick, passionate bursts of creativity. I can’t control when these brief moments of inspiration will come, but they happen frequently enough that others have labeled me “creative,” and I’ve embraced the description as a motivation, challenge, and guide. It’s the least I could do to
Another motivating factor for naming this blog comes from the fact that it is Tuesday night. If you’ll notice the timestamp when I hit “post” on this first edition, you’ll probably see that it is close to 11:59 p.m. on a Tuesday. I needed an impetus to write. Today. And as I’m just coming in under the wire, I’m glad I finally gave myself a deadline. I have been in my current position for exactly one month since school began. I have not written a single entry. Of course, we have been incredibly busy. My fellow Academic Integration Coaches, Wendy, Jason and I, have worked with 48 teachers who have requested our help during the school day, and trained more than 200 teachers in after-school flex sessions (my personal total over the past two years as a Learning Coordinator for Technology Integration is approaching 500 unique participants in training sessions I facilitated, or roughly half the teachers in this district. Boy, I sure hope some of them will read my blog!). Being busy, my father would tell you, is not an excuse to put off doing something important, and we all feel that regularly reflecting on our work with teachers and students is an important part of modeling technology integration, and improving upon what we are striving to do. One of our goals as Academic Integration Coaches is to keep a blog to regularly document our experiences working with the more than 1000 educators in North Penn School District.
A creative writing professor in college, herself an incredible poet, once told us of the importance of making oneself sit down and write every day. While I won’t be writing here every day, I am finally taking her words to heart. It is not important that the writing be exceptional, just that it gets done. Nothing great comes from doing nothing. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. You know, I could go on with quotes about getting started, but then I’d miss my self-imposed deadline, defeating the purpose of getting started with Tuesdays with Swindy, so to save precious time, here’s a link to some of my favorite quotes about getting started. :)
The New Bloom’s Taxonomy lists the highest level of learning objectives as “create.” As I work with teachers and students creating their own blogs, podcasts, websites, movies, slide shows (etc., etc., etc.), I want to encourage them to create without worrying if the product will be perfect. Wendy wrote, “Technology is not a noun ... it’s a verb ... an action verb. Just do it.” The important thing in learning is to do it, whatever “it” may be.
My name is Scott Swindells. I am an Academic Integration Coach for North Penn School District.I look forward to helping teachers and students solve problems using the technology at our disposal, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you here on Tuesdays ... with Swindy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)