End of Semester Digital Reflection

iPad Implementation: Some Points to Consider

Effectively implementing technology is an attitude shift, 

not just buying and distributing electronic gadgets. 

Today we took a visit to Paul Ecke Central Elementary School in Encinitas to explore their use of technology in the classroom, specifically their use of iPads. The Encinitas school district has dedicated themselves to providing iPads to all students grade 3-6 and have provided a large amount of discretionary funding to individual schools for the principals to determine how to best support their students (providing more iPads for other grade levels, creating up-to-date Mac labs, etc.).
(For more information on their district-wide iPad program click here.)

Below are some things that stood out to me in their iPad implementation that are worth considering when discussing iPad implementation in other districts:

• Let students be the experts-- It will probably not shock you to hear that our students, even our youngest ones, are wonderfully adept at figuring out how technology works--especially when it comes to the iPad. Sometimes teachers are hesitant to try a new program or website because they think it will take too long to teach the class how to use it, but from talking to the PEC students and from my own experience I find that to be an overwhelmingly incorrect assumption. Yes, the teacher will still need to provide explanations for some apps/websites and model its use, but once you give the students time to explore on their own you will find that they will quickly learn more features than the teacher originally anticipated. One thing I really loved was seeing how proud the students were of their tech capabilities and accomplishments! During the visit they were excited to show us what project they were working on, what app the were using, and could easily explain how it worked. One of the teachers said it best when she stated, "The kids are the experts and often teach each other, which allows me to focus more on the content." Collaborative learning at its best.
•  Natural consequences encourage accountability-- The thought of elementary students using iPads immediately conjured up thoughts of sticky fingers, broken screens, and other horror stories in my mind. Again, this assumption is totally inaccurate and the worries hardly justified. The students treat their iPads well and handle them carefully. This is due to both excellent modeling and front loading by their teachers when they are first given the iPad to use as well as the consequence of losing their iPad privileges if they cannot treat them correctly. The 'horror' of having to use paper and pencil to do your work instead of Explain Everything or similar apps is consequence enough to keep students in line and on task. The same goes with making sure their iPads are charged and ready to go--if there's not an outlet available to charge it, tough luck, it's paper and pencil for you that day. What an quick, effective way to learn cause and effect! But the  PEC teachers are not leaving everything to chance. Students are highly encouraged to buy the iPad insurance to allow for repairs if they do happen to have accidentally break it, and if they don't the repair costs fall on the student. But again, most students do not damage the equipment so this money is put into a fund to buy new devices, repair others, and pay for additional resources.
• iPad and its apps as a medium, not the "be all, end all"-- There are so many wonderful apps and resources available when using the iPad in the classroom, but it's the content that should still be front and center at all times. With that said, one method I appreciated was the teacher who allowed their students to demonstrate their knowledge in whatever way they deemed best. She posed a central question to the students and instructed them to create a product to show their thoughts and responses. By not limiting the student to a particular app at all times the teacher allows for student choice and has differentiated the lesson at the same time for multiple intelligences. Students that feel more comfortable using iMovie can express themselves that way, while others may choose something more traditional like a poster layout. At the end of the day, if each student can successfully answer the topic question, why stress out about how they choose to do it? And that goes for all classes, not just those using iPads or other technology. If we can let go of the reins a little more as teachers and allow for student choice and creativity I think we'd be astonished by the outcomes.
• Support + Attitude shift = Success-- Teachers are busy people and learning how to implement new technology takes time, which we often don't have to spare. Encinitas has addressed this issue by building in team collaboration time dedicated specifically to technology implementation once a week. During this time the grade level teachers meet to discuss apps, sites, plan how to best use them to support their curriculum, and have specific professional development sessions on programs when needed. This time is separate and different from individual planning time, and sounds like it is non-negotiable (aka can't be taken away for another reason). Along with that, teachers are able to sign up for tech training from the district office on a regular basis or can access many training sessions/notes from the Encinitas' iTunes U account. The expectation is that both teachers and students will want to use the technology available once they see its benefits, and the support is there to make sure that happens. Another reality is that the students are savvy and have learned many of the iPad capabilities last year--if a teacher was not using the technology for some reason, they risk loosing the interest and attention of a lot of students who are accustomed to a different type a learning. For better or for worse, using the iPads to enhance student learning is simply expected and yet not scary because of the support from the training, their administration, and their fellow colleagues. 

Photo via wired.co.uk

No system is perfect and iPads are not necessarily the panacea that some people make them out to be, but Paul Ecke Central Elementary and the Encinitas school district are doing a wonderful job of using them to their fullest rather than being expensive devices that gather dust or simply word process. The attitude that the iPads are there to enhance student learning rather than be the 'answer to the problem' is evident, and with a school wide/district wide approach like that I can see them being successful well into the future. 

Some questions to ponder:

What are some of the fears/issues you see in implementing a school wide/district wide program like this that I did not address? How could you see these methods working or not working in your school?

Finding the Magic in the Classroom

This week has been awesome--Thanksgiving break, Thanksgiving dinner, spending time with friends, and getting to see my hubby for more than two hours at a time. But one of the best things that happened that combined three of the four things listed above was going to Disneyland for the first time. It was AWESOME! I felt like 28 going on 8, practically skipping around the park in my Minnie Mouse ears, and I loved it! It was fun, magical, special, and something I definitely want to do again.... which got me thinking: Why can't school be like this? How can we bring the Magic of Disney into our classrooms to replicate even the smallest amount of the joy that people have when they visit a Disney park?

Here are a couple of things I've come up with:

1. Positive energy and a smile will go a long way-- Everyone that works at Disney is so nice and genuinely seem happy! That happiness is infectious, and even though it seems silly at first when a cast member in Frontierland says, "Welcome partners!" with their slight southern drawl, you can't help but smile as you climb on the ride. The same is true in education. If a teacher genuinely enjoys what they do and the content they teach, the students will notice and often their attitudes will adjust accordingly. But you can't just love what you do on the inside, you have to find a way to convey that passion through your teaching. It's ok to show some emotion, get excited, and even get the class riled up a little--it's all positive energy going into the students' memory bank that can help create an authentic love of learning.
    
2. Magic happens when you let your creativity explode--Disney is an explosion of creativity and of imagination gone wild! The designers take huge risks when developing new themes and rides, but this is why Disneyland is unlike any other amusement park you've ever been to (Disney World aside). Too often we allow others to dictate what our lessons should look like or play it safe because we're unsure how it will turn out, but if we allow our creative juices to flow we could transform an otherwise routine lesson into sometime memorable for our students. This can be difficult for people like me who feel naturally uncreative, but the magic in teaching doesn't happen in the safety of the norm--it happens when we step outside our comfort zone and let the imagination & creativity flow. So when a moment of inspiration hits, don't just wave it off--embrace it, write it down, use it, and see what happens. Chances are it will be awesome!
    
3. The difference is in the details--I was absolutely amazed at the amount of detail given to each aspect of the park. The rides, the landscaping, the decorations and the costumes all were designed to create the overall impression, but if you stop to look closely you will see the extent to which the intricate details are done. For example, when you burst through a fireplace in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride you don't just go through some doors with a fireplace painted on them--you see glimmers of 'embers' scatter on the floor and the colors in the fire shifting as if it were real. These details are not necessary, but they are the true backbone behind the experience--without them the ride seems two-dimensional and dry but with them it comes alive. Teaching is full of these types of details: going out of your way to talk to each student that day, putting extra touches on the bulletin board, adding the smiley face sticker on a job well done, using current students' names in your example problems or their favorite musical group's picture in an activity--all of these are time consuming and are technically unnecessary, but they make a huge difference when put together with the positive energy and creativity pieces. They are the little extras that students remember and that personalize the educational experience for them in a unique way. Little things often make the biggest difference.

None of these are an instant classroom fix, but rather small ways to revive the magic when we're feeling low. Educators are more like the Disney cast members than we'd like to think--it's our job to put on a show and create a special learning experience for each child we have the privilege of meeting... let's embrace it & make it a good one!

OMG Disney!!! :D
I mean, I'm not excited at all....

Loved being a big kid again with my hubby & friends!

More on Students vs. Learners

I just got done talking to one of my favorite former students (are we allowed to say we have favorites?) whose comments made me revisit the idea of Students vs. Learners again. She is a taking an honors level English class where the teacher has given her a prompt, some general guidelines, and instructed them to create a research paper and project around the topic--all while documenting their learning in a journal each class period (sound familiar?).

And she is struggling... big time. She feels lost, wants more guidance, and even told me, "I just want to be told what to do! I'm scared I'm doing it wrong."

I feel her pain. She is the epitome of a 'student'--hard working, always studying, completing the task requirements to a "T"-- and she has never really had to learn in this way before. Had she told me this even a month ago I might have told her how unfair her assignment was and how the teacher should be giving her more guidance. But today I gave her a very different answer:

"Your teacher is trying to make you be a 'learner' instead of a 'student.' It's uncomfortable, isn't it? But you'll learn so much more by exploring on your own, solving your own problems, and discovering new information than you would if you were being told what to do. I promise! Have faith. You're a brillant girl and you will do awesome on this if you just let yourself be comfortable with the unknown."

But along with this advice I pray that the teacher is fulfilling her role in this learning process as well. I pray that she is guiding them, supporting them, and giving just enough assistance so that students like mine can be successful and not give up because it's too challenging or too big of a change. It's difficult to go from a student mindset to a learner's, especially if you've never done it before, and the worst thing her teacher could do is to drop her into this ocean of learning and turn away, trusting that the student will figure out how to swim--some may but others risk drowning from the shock.

The role of the teacher is so much more important in this type of learning environment and requires a vast amount of awareness on the educator's part--knowing when to step in and when to back off, what kinds of questions to ask to promote deeper thinking without leading them too much, and modeling the type of behaviors that should be used throughout the process. This kind of knowledge is developed over time through experience, but I also wonder what we can do to better prepare educators to think in this way. Is this something that we can try to foster in the teacher education programs? Or do we just learn it on the job?

Either way, I know that my former student may not be happy right now with this shift in the classroom, but I'm excited to see how she feels and what she's learned when it's all said and done--if she's intelligent as a 'student' now, I can't wait to see how much she can do as a 'learner.'

The Power of Words

Ah Election Coverage... you bring out the good, the bad, and the just plain nasty in people more than almost any other topic, and this past week was no different. There was a difference though in the way it was presented and spread about like wildfire, and I attribute that difference to the vast uprise of social media in our lives over the past four years. Now granted, things like Twitter and Facebook have been around longer than that (though not that much longer, relatively speaking), but when looking at how differently they were used in this election it's not hard to see that they have grown and evolved significantly since the 2008 coverage. 

Many times on both Tuesday and Wednesday I found myself sitting in amazement at how social media has truly changed they way we 'do' life. Status updates, Tweets, Blogs, and comments are such an integral part of our daily interactions that it only makes sense that we would want to discuss an important national decision like this through those means. But I saw so many instances of people who are friends in real life, or even family members, making mean, insensitive, and just plain rude comments to one another under the premise that through the internet such things are ok to say. People were being offensive to friends & 'friends' alike to the point that some were removing them from their profile or life altogether.

Now, I enjoy social media and all of the benefits it has brought us--never before have we been in such a place as to communicate with each other instantly around the world, learn from one another, get answers to questions, and access professional development resources--but sometimes I wonder why can't we be civil with each other? And where will we draw the line between debate and personal attack? Are people even able to find that line anymore? 

Which brings me to the world of education. I truly believe that negative interactions like these can often be avoided, but it takes a special type of literacy to do so--one that could be called something like Social-Tech Literacy or Social Media Literacy. This type of literacy does not just include things like ensuring that students know how social media works and are able to navigate new interfaces (though those are important foundations of it) but also how to interact properly with others online. This type of literacy education would include word choice and tone, but also the power that is contained through punctuation, emoticons, and other text formatting options. The teaching of social media etiquette and literacy will become increasingly important as we begin to integrate it more and more into our classrooms, and the reality is that someone needs to teach it! There are far too many adults and children alike using harsh, hateful language to 'discuss' a topic--when the topic could be addressed both critically and civilly at the same time--because they are unaware of how to discuss it otherwise**.

Words are powerful, and even more so when the 'listener' cannot hear the intonation through the internet text. If we can begin to address tone, formatting, and word choice in online interactions in our classrooms then we will be taking a huge step towards creating a future generation that is more cognizant of what they say, both online and otherwise. And who knows, maybe this is part of the formula for reducing the amount of online bullying out there too....One can only hope!


Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Comment below and I'd love to discuss it with you!


**(I'm choosing to assume that they are unaware of the effects of their word selection rather than it being a conscious choice, which would be an entirely different issue.)

Creating Learners

  The Essence of Connected Learning from DML Research Hub on Vimeo.

"How do you create a need to know in a kid?" Or rather, how do you create a learner instead of a student? This video is timely in its relation to our learner vs student discussions and blog posts, and I feel like it touches on some of the same issues. How do we teach the next generation to learn and be learners? The video above, "The Essence of Connected Learning,"  highlighted few key points for me in trying to reach this goal of creating learners in our schools.

The first is that we are currently taking learning out of context and focusing on facts rather than learning. I think this is so true! Facts alone do not lead to understanding--but if you place the information in context and allow a student to construct their own meaning around the topic we will create a deeper understanding that will last way past the test date. And the more authentic the context the better!

The second is the idea of bringing people together who want to learn together. Not only can we strive to do this in our classrooms by grouping students of similar interests, but in our connected technological world we can also reach out to others to foster this community of learning. We need to use our resources, both in and outside the classroom, to tap into students' interests and encourage their thirst for knowledge regardless of whether it coincides with what we find interesting or not. 

And lastly is that the attitude of, "We're all going to learn the same things in the same way," is completely unnecessary in today's education world. Why can't we provides projects/assessments with choices? If a student wants to create a video showing off their knowledge of Hispanic cultures or would rather draw a visual representation or write me an essay, why can't I allow all of them to be representative of their learning? I think this is definitely easier said than done because as teachers we need to reprogram our brains (and assessment guidelines) to allow for these different "proof of learning" forms. They don't fit into our current molds, but are worth the time and exploration to allow students choice in how they learn.

These are just my personal takeaways and reflections on the video--what do you think? Agree/disagree? Have another key idea I should have included? Let me know! :)

Are we learners or students?

Our Learning and Technology class has a very different set up than I am used to--there is no concrete syllabus, very few specific assignments and guidelines, and (perhaps the most foreign concept of all) the expectation that we will be learners.

Yes, I just said that being a learner is a foreign concept to many of us, myself included. "But isn't that the goal of education?" you ask and, "I've always been a learner; I don't know what you're talking about," you scoff. But is it really and are you sure? After thinking deeply about it and reflecting on our professor's post on learners vs. students I would have to boldly say that we as a society are hardly learners at all.

We have been trained by our education system to be students--to follow the norm, the syllabus, the guidelines--and have been sucked dry of the inclinations to be a learner instead. And I will be the first to admit that I fall into this student category. I've been well trained to cater my work to the teacher's desires, I know when to be quiet and when to chime in, and I have felt pride at times that I can test well, generally know how to succeed and get good grades--that I can be a good student.

And there it is: I am a good student. I've never heard anyone say "I'm a good learner," and maybe that says something in and of itself.

So yes, it makes me uncomfortable to not have a rubric to guide me, a checklist to complete, a number or quantity assigned to produce--it's unfamiliar territory with a technically "unmeasurable" expectation. We know through educational research that these traditional methods often stifle creativity and limit learning, yet we do them anyway. And graduate school, where I'm often reminded of the fallacy of these methods, is a regular perpetrator itself. I'm given page limits, word limits, specific expectations--and the scary part is, they make me comfortable. Familiar is comfortable.

But learning is not always comfortable. So now here I am, constantly battling with wanting to learn, to create, to test out and to try, and yet struggling with it--struggling because my other classes require very little of this (and quite frankly, because I haven't really been allowed this kind of chance to learn before).

So what does it mean to be a learner? This goal that is so uncomfortable to reach? And what can we do to encourage it? For me being a learner is having the intrinsic motivation to seek out information, to acquire knowledge with the intent of using it to do something in the world. As educators we have the awesome responsibility of creating these types of learners that will hopefully change the world. Are we allowing them the opportunities to explore? To learn on their own? Or are we prescribing an agenda and teaching to the test?

What can we do to start changing this in our classrooms while still jumping through all of the hoops that our broken systems requires from us? I'd love to hear your opinions of how this can be done, as I'm honestly searching for the balance myself. But for now, I will do my best to model by example and try to be a learner rather than just a student. Wish me luck!

Photo: GETTY via http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Can You Focus Your Passion?

"What you are passionate about in terms of education or leadership? What do you hope to do with this passion (or what are you already doing with this passion)? If you had to narrow down your passion to one specific aspect in terms of your future research, what would it be?"

What am I passionate about in education? Everything. Can everything be an answer? No? Ok, I'll be a little more specific.

I’m passionate about:

• Building relationships
• Teaching & learning
• Helping others to become good people & productive members of society
• Making connections
• Inspiring passion in others
• Preparing students for the future
• Making a difference

If I had to narrow it down though, one thing that I’d like to focus on for future research is meaningful technology integration in the classroom (specifically my Spanish classroom). This is an area that I find interesting, challenging, and practical given the influential nature that technology has on our lives and for our students’ futures. Also, the use of technology in a foreign language classroom is rich with possibilities for connection, communication, and real world application. I feel that this topic has the most potential for combining all of the things I listed above into one focus--the best of both worlds.

Do you agree? What would you focus on if you had to narrow your passion down to one thing?

Tribes

For class this week we listened to the audio book version of Tribes by Seth Godin and tweeted out quotes that either defined a tribe according to the author or that resonated with us (#usdedutribes). Let me start by saying that the last time I listened to an audio book was as a young child, trudging through The Lord of the Rings on tape during one of our many long car trips with my dad. That experience, while awesome in retrospect, had biased me with a fairly negative view of books on tape. After all, LOTR does not exactly top most children's list of fun things to do on road trips--at that time I was much more interested in playing "I Spy" or beating up my brother :)

Listening to the Audible version of Godin's book this time around was definitely a different experience. For the most part I enjoyed the book-on-tape assignment--I'm a big multi-tasker so the audio version allowed me to check email, clean up around the apartment, and even do some of my listening with my eyes closed on the beach. I enjoyed hearing the author's voice inflection as he read and felt that his reading definitely gave it a more authentic feel than if I had read it on my own. I did struggle with not being able to see the text itself though--I had to listen & relisten multiple times to catch the quote I liked correctly and I didn't have the visual reinforcement of the text that often helps me remember material better. I was also a little worried about bombarding my Twitter feed with 20+ quotes, but I think that goes along with Stephanie's post idea of who really wants to get to know me & who really cares what quotes/ideas are important to me?

With all that said, I thought that Godin had some great insights into our world today and influence that each of us has if we choose to use it, if we choose to lead. I feel like as teachers we are automatically leaders whether we want to be or not, so we really need to use that opportunity to make the biggest difference in the world today that we can. I really loved the section where he talked about working on his vacation and how there was nothing else he'd rather be doing at that moment. Imagine how different things could be if all people had this kind of passion about their work rather than just fulfilling their role as walking sheep?
And though I only tweeted out one or two quotes from the section, I really liked his analysis of faith and religion--both in the Religious sense as well as the secular/everyday sense. I would really love to get a tangible copy of the book and go back to that section to analyze/process out further.

The biggest take-away I have from the book is that leading can be difficult and change will always be met with resistance, but if it's something you believe in then there's no better time than now to step out of your comfort zone and do it--all of the best ideas and greatest impacts have started the same way.
What's holding you back from leading? From trying that new idea in your classroom or sharing your insight with the world?