The wrong questions (Thing 5d)

Ira David Socol wrote Technolgy: the wrong questions and the right questions over at education.change.org.
He begins with a quote from William Alcott in 1842 discussing how he considers books to be useless because of the availability of chalkboards and slates. He goes on to point out:

Then, as now, the wrong question was being asked. In 1842 the doubters wondered what these new technologies could do for schools as they existed. Today, educators and policy makers constantly wonder what computers, mobile phones, and social networking will do for a curriculum largely unchanged since 1910.

That was the wrong question then, and it is the wrong question now. The right question is, what can schools, what can education, contribute to these new technologies?

Just as in 1842, just as in Socrates' time when literacy appeared, the technologies of information and communication have changed radically this decade - the ways in which humans learn about their world have changed radically, and schools will either help their students learn to navigate that new world, or they will become completely irrelevant.

While I don't completely agree with all that he says (I don't advocate "throwing out keyboarding classess", for example), I do think that he makes some excellent points, which he sums up in this paragraph:

Now we must give up teaching that ink-on-paper is the primary information source. It is not. We must give up insisting that students learn "cursive" writing. Instead, they must learn to text on a Blackberry and dictate intelligibly to their computer. We must toss out our "keyboarding" classes and encourage students to discover their own best ways to input data. We must abandon much of Socrates' memorization and switch to engagement with where data is stored. We must abandon the one-way classroom communication system, be it the lecture or use of the "clicker," and teach with conversation and through modeling learning itself. We must lose the idea that "attention" means students staring at a teacher, or that "attendance" means being in the room, and understand all the differing ways humans learn best. We must stop separating subjects rigidly and adopt the contemporary notion of following knowledge where it leads us.

Podcasts (Thing 18)

I personaly prefer vodcasts on the computer - I am way too ADD to sit and just listen without any visual input lol - but I do like to download podcasts to listen to on the way to and from class (anything to make that 2 hour round trip drive less of a huge block of wasted time). I obviously don't get to take notes while driving, but I figure if I didn't listen while driving I wouldn't listen to many at all - so listening without notes is better than not listening :-) Plus when I get to school (or home) I can quickly jot down anything that struck my fancy (and I will admit that I have, on more than one occassion, called and left myself a voicemail when something was really interesting). I subscribe to Autism Podcast which is done by the father of a child with autism and has several interesting podcasts. Several of the blogs that I follow also periodically have pod or vodcasts.

Some of my recent favorite pod and vodcasts come from someone that I met on plurk! Her name is Andrea Keller and she teaches students with autism and they have created several podcasts that are posted on their blog. Another that I like is BigStoryTime - they have lots of "bedtime stories for kids" read by kids - I use this to let my students listen to stories.

I usually go to either Podcast.com or PodcastAlley to search for podcasts.

Nings and Microblogs (Thing 17)

Nings

I joined Classroom 2.0 last summer - and didn't really do much after that ... I've re-discovered it today and have no clue why it hasn't been one of my "dailies" (websites I check at least once a day)! It certainly is in the rotation now :-)

I really enjoyed the forum post (that linked to this google document) about using Twitter to update students and parents - there are some good ideas there!

I think Nings are great - another aspect to the online PLC that (like I've said before) is so important, especially since mine is the only class like it in the county ...

I'm also a member of these Nings:
Teachers 2.0, Technology Integration in Special Education, Assistive Tech, Special Ed in the 21st Century, Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs, and Special Ed Voices.


Microblogging

I use twitter and plurk (actually I post to plurk and it automatically posts to twitter - but I do check my twitter page periodically). I certainly think that it is one of the main components of my PLN - especially for quick answers. For more in depth or complicated things, plurk isn't the best option, but it's a great way to get quick feedback from lots of people.

Also I would like to start using microblogging as another tool for collaborating with parents - to keep them updated about class and school happenings and updates.

Why spend more?? (Thing 5c)

Firefox on the rise
Originally uploaded by MrTopf

In Refusing Free, Depriving Students, Ira Socol writes:

Students do worse in school than they need do, they struggle more, they even drop out more. All because schools won't take the two minutes to download something free.

Ira is referring to Firefox and the many available add-ons that can be used to allow disabled students to access the internet. He then goes on to mention other free software that is available:

From Ghotit (the world's best English-language context-based, text-to-speech Spell Check system) to WordTalk (turns Microsoft Word into a talking word processor), from OpenOffice to Linux (stop paying for Microsoft licenses), from Google Earth to GraphCalc (free complete graphing calculator), from Click-N-Type (the best virtual on-screen keyboard) to PowerTalk (reads presentations outloud), schools could be providing their students with a world of software and supports at zero cost, but are refusing.

The result? Rich, white, Protestant, normally-abled students get what they need at home, and vulnerable students fail.

That last line cuts right to the chase! As does this one:

And I won't accept the answer, "fear" anymore either. If an electrician was too afraid of electricity to touch a wire, he'd be an electrician no more. So if an educator is afraid of the information and communication technologies of his/her age, then he/she can no longer be an "educator" in any meaningful way.

I think that Ira asks several fantastic questions - I won't quote his entire blogpost here, but I do highly recommend reading it - and the comments!

It brings to mind another blog post I read recently ... where Daniel Dage asked "Is the Promethean Whiteboard Worth It?". He says:

Our school district is ordering tons of the active whiteboards at no less that $2000 each. I can do the exact same thing for less than $100. So can you, and you can do it easily and painlessly by checking out the folks at PenteractiveThe Wii setuhe Wii setup might be somewhat inferior to the Promethean whiteboard. But how inferior is it? Is it 20 times worse?

I think that, especially in the current economy, we should at the very least look for less expensive options that may achieve the same (if not better) results as the costly ones!! And that's not possible unless you are familiar with the technology available, which is where that online PLN comes in pretty handy!!

PLNs (Thing 16)

Of course I'm on facebook (and myspace though I never log on there anymore). And it's great to keep in touch with old friends, family members, etc. But beyond that, online professional networking through PLNs occupies a lot of my "free" time :-) And sometimes the two combine!

Before taking this course, I was a member of a PLN but not a very active one. I read a lot of the conversations on plurk, other blogs, Ning communities, etc. but never really felt knowledgeable enough to participate. That's actually the main reason that I took the course - so that I could learn more about Web2.0 and gain the confidence to become a more active participant. I felt like more of a "taker" (always going to my online PLN with questions/problems) than a "giver" (never really felt like I could offer advice for others or answer their questions).

As for the benefits of PLNs - a mastercard commercial just screaming to be made:
*laptop - $1000
*internet access - $40/month
*having a colleague there anytime of day to bounce things off of, ask for advice, etc. - priceless!!

I teach special education. There are 3 other self-contained special education teachers at my school, none of them have a similar class make-up as mine. While they are valuable resources for many things, sometimes I really need to talk to someone else who teacher students like mine. Problem is, I'm the only one in the county! Enter my online PLN members! From Kansas, Texas, England, Australia - they can help!!

Google Docs (Thing 15)

I did know about Google Docs before this class and I use it occasionally. I think it is great for sharing documents (I'm notorious for forgetting to attach documents when I email them to someone so it eliminates that hassle) without having to worry about whether or not the recipient has the same software (and version) and will be able to open the file - it eliminates the need to save documents as "97-2003" compatible! (I can't count how many emails I have gotten saying "I can't open the file" because the person I sent it to uses an older version).
The collaboration aspect is also great. I've used it in grad school to work on group assignments and with fellow teachers to create and get feedback on lesson plans.

I had not ever created a form in Google Docs before today - and I was surprised at how simple it is!! I've used MS Access to create forms and have them linked to spreadsheets, but this was much easier! I could see myself using this to collaborate and get input from parents, as a formative and summative assessment tool to get feedback from students in college courses that I teach, and even for data collection! I really want to get DDTrac (data collection software) to allow me and my paras to collect data on a PDA - but I *think* that I can play around with the forms on Google Docs and come up with something similar to hold me over temporarily until I win the lotto or convince the school system to order DDTrac lol.

I see several advantages (mentioned before - collaboration, access from anywhere, eliminate problems with incompatible software) but the only disadvantages that I see are 1)that you couldn't access your documents unless you were somewhere with internet access and 2)not a lot of the more advanced options (though plenty for basic documents) like mail merge, automatic table of contents, etc. And though there are several templates available, not as many as for Microsoft Office applications. (I also noticed that there aren't very many presentation templates for the presentation - which could be a good thing since many people over-decorate their powerpoints, but also gives you much less personalization and creative options.)

Wikis (Thing 7)

Wiki Wiki
Originally uploaded by elkit

(In my previous post (not really thing 7) I discussed how I would like to use a wiki in my classroom - and in another previous post (wordle, polldaddy and bubbl, oh my!), I linked to my bubbl map on that same topic. So this post is just the rest of thing 7 - observations from my exploration of other wikis)

Schools in the Past was very interesting, and seems like the beginning of a great idea - and I liked how it involved the parents, grandparents, and other people directly. It was a pretty simple wiki with just the one page, kindof bland ... I would have liked to see other pages with perhaps student-created material (maybe have the students draw what they think schools in the past might have looked like?). Maybe some students could even take home a flip camera/vado and interview their grandparents then post that video clip. I would also have added some visuals (photos of old schools). As far as learning outcome, I didnt' see anything that shows that the student applied what they had learned - or even that they had read what was posted.

I loved the Kindergarten Counting Book. I would have liked to see a byline for more of the photos, just to show that multiple children participated ... and the OCD part of me would have liked it if all of the photos were the same size :-) I also would have either added content to the pages tabbed at the top, or removed the tabs. But I think the idea is great and may even "borrow" it :-) But I think the idea might be better suited to another format (perhaps bookr? or a slideshow? maybe even a voicethread?) that could then be posted to a wiki rather than making it the only content on the wiki.

The third wiki that I visited was Code Blue - I think this is a fantastic job. You can tell that the students put a lot into it, it's obvious that they learned about different diseases from reading the patient pages. Looking at the hospital/doctor info pages it also looks like they had a lot of fun and were creative. I like the list of links on the front page, as well. They did a good job finding different resources. Finally, I enjoyed the hospital "signs" and other visuals on the pages - enough to make it interesting but not so much that it detracted from the information. Kudos to mscofino and her students! I explored some of her other wikis, as well, (like this one on Native Americans) and was quite impressed :-)