Educational Reform for the Digital Era

     Through a friend of a friend I learned about a group of educators in DC that strive towards making positive improvements in education and educational policy.  Through that group I heard about a discussion being held at the Fordam Institute, "Educational Reform for the Digital Era".  I will share some of the big take-aways I got from the discussion.
     John Chubb stated that "Technology can motivate and engage in ways that classroom instruction can not."  I completely agree with this statement.  Following the believes of Tapscott, in Grown Up Digital, students today are wired very differently that students in the past.  As educators, if we want to effectively reach our students we need to tune in to what they are interested in and what motivates them if we are to reach them.  Chubb continued to to support this explaining a center model where students meet small group with a teacher, perform on-line tasks, and do independent work.  I have used this model in the past very effectively.  Though as a word of caution, computer time needs to be properly prepared and designed.  Computers are not baby sitters, and can be very powerful learning tools if used appropriately.  Chubb supported this by reiterating that ALL learning must be scaffolded, be it on-line or in person.
     Mark Baurlein argued that digital technology will not aid student engagement as students will be using the same tools as they use in a social setting.  I disagree with this statement.  With the new digital tools and social learning, there needs to come new curriculum and rules of engagement.  Students need to be taught the appropriate use of the tools within an intellectual setting versus in a social setting.  For example, this panel used Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook for presentation and background discussion.  These tools are very much labeled as social tools, but can be very informative when used correctly in the intellectual setting.  Students just need to be taught rules of engagement.  One of the other panelists (I forget if it was John Chubb or Bryan Hassel) agreed with this, stating that these tools need to be a part of serious life as well as social life, and it is "a challenge for educators to figure out how to make technology work for schools or school will become irreleveant to students."  That is a very powerful statement, and I would say very true.  If we don't adapt our teaching practices and educational strategies to fit the needs of today's learner we will see a lot less student engagement and a lot more students checking out.
     The discussion continued into thoughts about how teachers can be used more effectively while promoting an opportunity culture within education, increasing technology use, and decreasing work force to balance budgets.  I am not going to comment too much on this prior to doing more background research.  Though I will say that MAJOR changes would need to take place within education and teacher work loads for this to happen. 
    Overall I felt the discussion was spot on regarding current issues and changes that need to be implemented.  However, I believe the road will be long and challenging to implement those changes.  And I would hope that those making the decisions would consult those in the trenches to gain and understanding of what impact and repercussions  their decisions may have on those the decisions effect most.

Ever Considered Flipping?

I was first introduced to the idea of a flipped classroom at the ISTE conference in Philadelphia this past summer.  An article I received from Edutopia this past week is one of the many sources I have seen about flipped classrooms recently.  Basically what a flipped classroom does is reverse responsibility.  Students are responsible for material out of school so that in school they can apply what they have learned through authentic, project based learning.  This could be done through any combination of reading, visuals, or videos sent by the teacher.    It promotes the teacher being a guide on the side rather then the sage on the stage.  Here is an example of how this works in a chemistry classroom.

If I were to go back into the regular education classroom I would very much consider flipping my classroom (considering of course the access to computers students would have at home).  I think this model of learning is much more beneficial to the world of today.  Have you flipped?  Would you flip?

Technology for the 21st Century Learner: Class Dojo

Checked out this site, Class Dojo,  and it is really neat, so am re-posting it.  Use this to quickly and easily keep track of student behaviors in real time, both positive and negative.  It can also be used to keep track of IBPYP learner profiles or any other items, as you add your own categories.  

Technology for the 21st Century Learner: Class Dojo: I was recently introduced to Class Dojo and am excited to start using it in my classroom, especially at this time of the year.  Has anyone e...

Computers on a Cart, Minus the Computers...

I must admit the last few weeks of work have been a little frustrating.  The older grades have been doing a lot of testing, and I mean a LOT of testing (way too much if you ask me).  As a result, my room is used for testing, as are all the laptop carts, which means I have had to get a little creative in teaching computer lab sans computers.   I will share some of my go to sites today.

  To start, I figured Spring is a good time to review some of our Internet Safety rules.  NetSmartz.org is an excellent resource for this.  They will send free  training materials, and the presentations are quite engaging.  The young kids are a BIG fan of Clicky and his friends.  I also like to Faux Pas the Techo Cat to switch things up a little bit.

For the older kids I like to use Professor Garfield.  By fourth and fifth grade they have seen the Netsmartz presentations multiple times, and professor Garfield addresses some older kid issues that Netsmartz doesn't delve into as much.  

Once Internet safety has been reviewed I find some of the learning labs on Discovery Education Science very interesting.  These have built in authentic problems and the students find them interesting.  Although better in partners or small groups, they are do-able whole class.  If your school has a license to Discovery Education, I highly suggest the add on package of Discovery Science.  Not only are their videos great, but the labs and explorations are designed very well also.

Brainpop and Brainpopjr are also excellent tools and allow for great discussions.  DON'T just play the videos through.  Stop and discuss the vocabulary and concepts being introduced.  One five minute clip can easily turn into a twenty minute lesson when you incorporate think-pair-share and class discussions.  The quizzes at the end are a great way to assess student learning, and for when students do have individual computer access there are some worth while learning activities that go with each clip.

My new favorite website to use, especially for the last five to ten minutes if a lesson didn't go quite as long as I thought, is Interactive Sites for Education.  Again this can be used on individual computers or whole class.  The activities are numerous, engaging, and appropriate for a variety of grade levels.

And of course, there are the numerous game templates available on the Interactive Whiteboard sites (Promethean Planet or Smart Exchange for example) that can be customized to fit any unit the students are learning.  I will be using Midwest Region Jeopardy with my fifth grade class tomorrow.

Vocabulary Is the Key to Understanding

     

     In a previous post I briefly mentioned Voki as a great tool to use with students to help them develop fluency when reading.  Voki can also be a great tool for vocabulary development.  Rather than having students write out definitions in a notebook, even an interactive notebook, have them create a digital avatar that will give the definition of the word.  As the teacher,  you can then group and organize individual student vokis so the class has access to them all.  They can be linked in a project or uploaded on a webpage.  I purchased Voki classroom for my fourth grade students and they have used it to define reading comprehension terms amoung other things.  They are engaged, and it gives a quick spot check as to who thoroughly understands the terminology, versus who only has a surface understanding.

     Spellingcity.com is a website that you can create customizable lists of students spelling words or vocabulary words.  Students can then play matching and mulpile choice review games to go over the vocabulary.  Part of the site is subscription, but a good portion of the site is free.

     However, one of my favorite ways for vocabulary and concept development is to have students create word clouds.  There are three applications I have used for word clouds in the past.  The first is located in the letters section of grades 2-5 at www.abcya.com, and is simply entitled word clouds.  The second Wordle, is very similar.  However, I have occasionally had difficulties with Wordle not printing for students.  The third, and my favorite is Tagxedo.  This one will have the words take the form of a silhouette.  You can use the examples they have, or do an image search for a silhouette of your choosing.    I used Tagxedo for the graphic at the top of this post.  The words I used most often show up in the image, the larger the word, the more it was used.  I simply pasted the text of thus blog into the silhouette; a key because vocabulary holds the key to understanding.  You can type directly into a word cloud, or paste a document as I did.  Words that are used more frequently will appear larger.  You can then customize the colors and layout.