NCS-Tech v2.0

Perusing my Skype contacts list a bit ago, I saw Kim Cofino (an educator in Bangkok, Thailand) was on (I’ve been meaning to connect with her for weeks to talk about UbD, but haven’t had the chance). Noticed her profile had a link to a TED talk (featured below) by Sir Ken Robinson, and I knew if she linked it, I had to watch it. And now, you have to watch it, too.

Stop what you are doing and click here right now!

At 20 minutes, it’s longer than most web-based videos you might encounter, but it’s well worth it, and you can minimize the window to just listen to the audio. He makes several incredibly powerful and beautiful points, which I don’t want to give away, so watch and listen for yourself, then ask yourself, as I am:

• How can I harness the power of individual creativity in my classroom, to design lessons that incorporate the material I need to cover, in a way that engages my students like never before?

The more I think about this, the more I think we (in my classroom at least) need to start over … from square one … think outside the box … [insert your favorite overused expression here].

Can I pull it off?

We’ll soon find out…

-kj-

08-31-07_1030.jpg

Originally uploaded by kjarrett.

It’s the last day of summer, essentially, for teachers in my district at least. We return on Tuesday the 4th for two days of in-service, kids arrive on the 6th. Teachers are busy getting their rooms ready, most are already done, but a few stragglers will undoubrtedly be here late into the evening next week getting ready for the big day.

I love this time of year, the anticipation of the first day of school, a new start, new faces in Kindergarten, and my first class – 4th grade – whom I’ve taught every year since they walked through the door.

I’ve never been very good at bulletin boards, but that didn’t stop me from adopting five that are outside my lab (one for each grade I teach). I use them for student work, mostly, because I’m not creative enough to crank out anything close to the masterpieces I see from my colleagues. Truly amazing.

As I worked to put up my backgrounds (didn’t have time to find fabric, Nancy, but thanks for that idea), my mind wandered to plans for this coming week, the first week of school … pre-assessments … seating charts … the basics … and my plans for intiatives this year centering around visual literacy, online collaborations, Web 2.0 tools, Second Life, and more.

That’s when it hit me … I thought, how is this bulletin board going to help me teach 21st century skills? It won’t – that’s up to me.

-kj-

This just in … from my web host:

Our systems are setup to ensure emails are delivered in a timely manner and also to ensure that the server load isn’t continuously working at a high load level.  We also have limits which are designed to prevent spammers from using insecure scripts.  When you send out email’s using your mail lists, we ask that you limit them to 50 email’s ever 5 mins or no more than 300 per hour, otherwise email’s above this limit will not reach your recipients.  You have recently been sending email’s above this rate, and hence these have not been sent.

Well, darn. I need to find a way to stagger the daily message delivery or this feature is going to have to get de-implemented.

-kj-

Just came across this fascinating tool, a product of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation:

Here’s a demo of the map which explains how to use it. Basically, you navigate the squares on the map, and they expand when you click, providing definitions/more information and links to embedded forums where you can discuss the issues with other visitors. It has just recently launched, apparently, as the forums are just beginning to fill up.

One imagines this tool on a gigantic screen, like Perspective Pixel’s creation:

… but combined somehow with Second Life, where instead of posting in a forum, you are teleported to a location in-world where a discussion is underway with avatars from around the world. The map is
a conduit to connections, a way to see the larger picture while easily drilling down to the details. So, watch the demo and then start exploring the future of education!

-kj-

Hi everyone,

Many of you are already back with students (or have been for a while) … LUCKY!!! We have to wait until 9/6.

Came across My friend and colleague Nancy Sharoff told me about this neat tool called Animoto. You select pictures, pick a soundtrack, select some effects, and it mixes a video for you on the spot. The free version limits you to 30 seconds…not bad, fun for experimenting.

Some of the musical selections might be a bit much for students younger than 13-14 but … you decide.

Here’s a vid I just threw together, it’s about my car, I know, lame, it’s a guy thing…

http://animoto.com/play/001e8e722f691e0b883bafeaa8a14c1e

Imagine what you could do with this … can you say “rock out” for Back-to-School night?

Oh yes…

-kj-

Google Sky

Originally uploaded by kjarrett.

You heard right, those boy and girl geniuses at Google have turned their attention to the heavens and created Google Sky, which is not a standalone application, but rather a new release of Google Earth (v4.2). You can download a copy here, learn about it here, or check out the coverage here on MSNBC. Beam me up, Scotty! -kj-

Ok, crunch time … I’ve got my ISTE NETS for Students right here, the draft student profiles too, tentative greenlights from my supervisor involving expanding the curriculum into social networking, possibly including Teen Second Life … but that’s not viable for *MY* kids, who are K-4. So where are going with this? I’d give my left shift key to be able to build a Ning community, but their TOS says “13 & up,” no suprise there. Imbee is looking more and more like the platform of choice. Anyone out there using it?

Love this quote from “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em:”

Educators who recognize how much social networking engages and informs kids are creating their own sites as learning tools that foster collaboration among students, teachers, and parents.

Amen, sister…

Ok. If I was a “regular” classroom teacher, this would be a slam dunk. Set up the accounts, 20 or so kids, prepare the parent communications, build the content, roll it out, snap, done.

Thing is, I have … wait, lemme check … 536 students this year, 40% of which are K & 1st, but that means the real number of possible participants in grades 2-3-4 is still well over 300. Unmanageable by a single person, or so logic would seem to indicate.

Maybe I could devote an entire grade to Imbee? Five classes? About 125 kids? Hmmmm. What about those without computers at home? Or those whose parents are uncomfortable with social networking, either because they’ve read too much – or too little – about social networking in the media?

Imbee appeals to me because it provides a safe environment where I and my students can create and collaborate. It trumps the competiton there handily. But the immersive environments of Whyville, Club Penguin and Webkinz offer a wholly different experience (social networking isn’t the focus so much). Which will they prefer? Which will allow me the most flexibility to create content that supports the State and ISTE standards as well as what they are studying in their regular classrooms?

Ok, I’m off to start prototyping an Imbee classroom … less than two weeks left … not … much … time!!!

-kj-

08-21-07_0849.jpg

Originally uploaded by kjarrett.

Today is Tuesday, August 21st…

63 days since I’ve been to “work.”
14 days until I return.
16 days until I’m with my students.

The first day of school has always been like Christmas Morning for me. And I’m not the only one!

-kj-

It’s a rainy Tuesday here and I’m heading over to spend the day in my lab, the first chance I’ve gotten since the last day of school, and I can’t freakin’ wait.

Hopefully the lab won’t be disassembled when I get there, they managed to wax my floors last year without breaking everything down.

We don’t return until 9/4, and the kids don’t arrive until 9/6, but I don’t care, I’m going to school anyway, every day I can, for the rest of the month. I have plenty to do!

Delivered a neat custom workshop yesterday that I’d like to share … it was a two-parter, the first was on Google Tools and the second dealt with Web 2.0 digital imaging:

Was great fun, superb audience, they were drooling by the end of the day. Talk about eye candy, these tools really bowled them over. The digital imaging goodness really hits home on Step 5. Check it out and have fun!

Gotta blast!

-kj-

The National School Boards Association just announced the results of a study conducted on its behalf by Grunwald Associates looking at the online habits of nearly 1,300 teens (ages 9-17) as they pertain to internet safety, cyberbullying, and use of social networking sites. Over 1,000 parents and 250 school district leaders were also consulted. The report, “Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social and Educational Networking,” (924 kb .PDF) is getting a lot of press, with coverage here on ars technica, here on Tech.Blorge, and here on the EDTECH Listserv in a thread started by Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use. and The timing is most fortuitous, as teachers and students across the USA are beginning the new school year (or planning to, shortly). Definitely give the full report a read as soon as you can.

Among the high-level messages to school boards that *I* see in the data:

• Many students are learning – and practicing – safe internet usage habits at home and at school. In short, our cybersafety education efforts are getting results, and they must continue.
• Cyberbullying is less of a problem than is commonly believed. (This fairly recent Pew Internet study disagrees.)
• Our communities expect schools to embrace social networking technology as it represents the fabric of our evolving digital society. So what are we, in our schools, going to DO about it?

The study was funded by three companies with major vested interests in social networking technology, particularly Microsoft, News Corporation (yes, MySpace.com’s parent company), and Verizon. The standard disclaimer applies: the study results “do not necessarily represent the views of the underwriters.” Well, let’s hope so. We are left to form our own conclusions.

All that notwithstanding, I think it’s unwise to equate “Myspace” and “Facebook” with Social Networking. To be sure, those sites were the prominent ones in the eyes of the survey respondents, but, does this survey mean we need to unblock these sites and embrace those particular sites in school?

No.

What we need is more creative teachers like Tom Woodward at Byrd Middle School who in 2006 with a fellow English teacher created Medieval Space, a historical version of MySpace. The objective was to create MySpace profiles for Medieval figures. Who would Henry VII have on his friends list? What music would he like? What would he be ranting about in his blog? The challenge, of course, is to make that effort relevant and meaningful in terms of factual research, critical writing and knowledge of that period in history.

I am not sure how Tom actually DID this (Tom, I know you read NCS-Tech occaisonally, enlighten us!) but thanks to free software programs like Ning.com anyone can create their own living, breathing, completely private (if desired) social network. Even teachers. Imagine engaging your students in a social networking environment that you create, manage and maintain for educational purposes.

Think of the results you might get by engaging students on their terms, while setting the standard for excellence in thought, scholarship and community, all in the context of an assignment in your class, or heck, even your entire school year.

The mind boggles.

I teach K-4, not middle school, so my options are more limited, from several perspectives. First, I see every student in the elementary school once a week for 50 minutes. Not. Enough. Time. Then there’s those pesky NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards that need to be covered. Still, I have those 50 minutes, so how can I best leverage them?

Yes, I can use a Ning community, but a better choice might be Imbee.com, the social networking site for kids AND parents (therein lies the rub – I’d need to get, and keep, parents involved). (I’ve been talking with Tim Donovan since last year.) What about using Club Penguin in my class? How about Whyville? (It’s educational pedigree is unmatched.) There’s always Webkinz, but, that site’s cost and commercialism makes me queasy in terms of school use.

What the heck. Let’s really blow the lid off this one. I want to design my lessons utilizing Google Apps – for Schools. Give all of my students who can read (and type) a Google Apps account. I’ll create my lessons embracing the revised ISTE NETS for Students and have the transfer tasks, the deliverables, all created in Google Apps. How about building a home inventory of all your Club Penguin possessions, including formulas tabulating cost and value, using a Google Spreadsheet? Or working on a collaborative story about you and your friend’s penguin avatar adventures using Google Docs? Soon, students will be able to create collaborative presentations with a Google App, but there are already tools to do that. Did someone say Voicethread? Oh, and, for those students who have a computer at home (the majority of our community, thankfully) – you’ve now got homework that kids WANT TO DO. For those without access, why not open up school computer labs after hours?

I’ve meandered quite a bit from the original title of this post, so let’s bring it back and wrap it up.

Kids are smart. Let’s leverage their knowledge, skills, abilities and interests in creative ways that teach the curriculum WE KNOW they need to master. I think our role as teachers is to create the context for learning, grounded in strong professional practice, leveraging available technology, and then GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some lessons to write.

I absolutely, positively, cannot WAIT to get back to school.

-kj-