We Can Do This. We Should Do It.

I'm way behind in my "personal professional development through RSS" (i.e., I have a lot of unread items in Google Reader), but luckily I took the time to read this post by Scott McLeod. Scott embeds two presentations given by Dr. Richard Miller, the Chair of the English Department at Rutgers University.

I'm also going to embed the two presentations below (the second one is in two parts), and I think it's well worth your time to watch both of them, particularly if you teach Language Arts, but really if you care about education at all. After each presentation I've pulled a few select quotes that really resonated with me.

The Future is Now: Presentation to the RU Board of Governors

We're living in the time of the most significant change in human expression in human history.

Do you agree? If so, what implications does that have for the way we teach Language Arts? What about other subject areas?

This is the room we're particularly proud of - the Collaboratory.

OK, when I build my school, I'm so going to have a Collaboratory. Actually, every room will be one. Perhaps that should be the name of the school?

To compose, and compose successfully in the 21st century, you have to not only excel at verbal expression, at written expression, you have to also excel in the use and manipulation of images. That's what it means to compose.

Shades of "The Yancey." Note that this is additive - no one is suggesting that words don't matter, that what we traditionally think of as "writing" is no longer important, but that the very nature of composition is more complex now, and that our instruction, our pedagogy, our learning spaces need to reflect that.

This is all building towards a larger vision of the humanities for the 21st century.

. . . In the New Humanities what we imagine at the center is this collective, collaborative kind of composition.

Social construction. Social composition.

The real function of the humanities is to engage in the art of creativity - moment by moment - to improve the quality of the world we live in.

I'm certainly not a linguist, but doesn't that get back to the root of "humanities?" And have perhaps some of our academic treatments of the humanities forgotten the human part that should be the center of our work?

That's writing in the 21st century. It's multiply authored, it's multiply produced, and that's where English is going.

Is that where English is going in your school?

---

This Is How We Dream (Part 1 and Part 2)

It has never been a more important moment for this profession, or for people who take reading and writing seriously.

Do you agree? If so, what implications does that have for your school? Your classroom?

I spent my time understanding writing as a solitary activity . . . I'm a person of the book.

Writing (composing) is no longer exclusively a solitary activity. And we need to expand our definition of composition beyond only text and beyond only a specific medium (book, research paper, academic journal).

An assignment for a class I taught for first year students called Creativity and Collaboration.

This is a class I'll be offering in my new school (The Collaboratory).

Ideas don't belong to us individually, but they belong to us as a culture. And that we as educators must be in the business of sharing ideas freely.

Shades of Pesce.

The limits and restrictions are largely ones we put on ourselves.

No excuses.

This is a way to push ideas into our culture. Why wouldn't we be at the front edge of that?

Yes, why wouldn't we?

We do not have a pedagogy on hand to teach the kind of writing I'm describing. It needs to be invented.

Alan Kay said the best way to predict the future is to invent it. The best way to figure out what composition should look like in the 21st century is to co-create it.

We can do this. We should do it.

We should get started.

Political Debates 2.0

I ran across a couple of interesting posts from ReadWriteWeb that show the changing nature of politics in a read/write, searchable, always-connected world.

First, this points to a post on the Google blog that includes a real-time graph of search terms during the vice-presidential debate.

Many people were simply interested in understanding the meaning of particular terms. Governor Palin called Senator McCain a "maverick" several times, sending many viewers to Google to query definition of maverick, what is a maverick, and define:maverick.

When Biden mentioned that the "theocracy controls the security apparatus" in Iran, users searched for the meaning of theocracy � as they did when he spoke of the windfall profits tax.

Go read the post as they go on to discuss problems with spelling (nuclear, Ahmadinejad, and McClellan/McKiernan), searching for historical references, and checking on which Article of the Constitution actually talks about the executive branch.

Google also has a new post up on last night�s town hall Presidential Debate:

Similar to last Thursday, people sought to understand the meaning of several words mentioned in the debate: morass, commodity, junket, cynicism, and cronyism to name a few. In the chart below you can see four of the most popular queries during the debate. People were quite interested in both Meg Whitman and Warren Buffett, who were mentioned as potential candidates for the Secretary of Treasury, but the biggest rising query was Senator McCain's paraphrasing of Theodore Roosevelt's motto. Both candidates spoke against genocide while discussing the role of the United States as a peacekeeper, and as we saw in the vice presidential debate, nuclear energy and weapons were prominent topics.

They go on to talk about differences in searches from swing states, which reminds me a little bit of one of the things I was thinking about when I created 2020 Vision (Google having access to so much disparate data and the ability to possibly bring it together in unique ways to discover new �truths� � could be used for good or evil, I know). I think both of these are fascinating examples of how our ability to access information in real-time can make substantive changes in the way we do almost everything.

The second post on ReadWriteWeb had to do with CurrentTV and Twitter�s collaborative broadcast of the first presidential debate.

In 1960 seventy million people watched Kennedy and Nixon engage in the first Presidential debate ever broadcast live on TV.

And not a single viewer could post a comment.

These days things are different. Tonight, far fewer people probably watched the Current.tv and Twitter collaborative broadcast of Obama v. McCain - but scores of them participated, 140 characters at a time. It worked very well. You can get some idea from the 1 minute of video embedded below.

I agree that things are definitely different, but I think I would have trouble watching, listening and reading the tweets. It�s that old multitasking thing again, but some folks can probably do it much better than I can. But whether I like it or not, things are definitely changing. I could see a debate in the near future when the �spinners� from each campaign are doing live text commentary overlaid on top of the video.

Even more interesting and useful, I think, would be delayed text commentary (or even audio or video) overlaid on top of the debate. Where you get some very knowledgeable folks with an historical perspective (and not overly partisan) to give insightful commentary (text, audio, or video) as you view the debate, with links embedded for viewers that want to learn more. What a powerful learning experience that could be, whether you watched the debate live and then watched it again, or perhaps even skip the live debate and just watch the "enhanced" version.

While it would take more time to view the debate that way, I think it has the potential to be much more useful. For me, I�ve always wondered about how valuable the debates really are. I know that�s a somewhat heretical view, but I�m not sure how much being a good debater � particularly the way our current political debates are run � is related to being a good President. It�s such an artificial situation � questions that are unknown in advance and often unrelated to each other, with a limited amount of time to answer them, and without being able to tap into other resources (both information and human resources). Which is why the answers always end up being mostly unsatisfying, playing to sound bites and talking points. I sure hope that�s not how our President operates day to day. (And, yes, the parallels to the artificial situations we have in school are striking, and somewhat depressing.)

When you look at our current presidential candidates, neither one is a particularly good debater. Senator Obama gives a good speech but tends to ramble in a debate. Senator McCain does well in town hall situations, but doesn�t do particularly well in a debate, coming off as too rehearsed and too much of a scold. And, like in pretty much all political debates I�ve seen, they often answer a very different question than the one that was asked. While I think debates can provide some insight into the character of each candidate, I really don�t think that completely parallels how good of a Chief Executive they would be. It�s a setting that will not be repeated as they perform their job duties, yet we continue to act as though the debates are the ultimate test of whether a candidate is prepared to be President. Yes, I want them to be able to function in such a setting, but I don�t think the �best� debater is necessarily going to make the best President.

Sorry for the digression. In any event, I think the read/write/searchable/participatory/real-time/always-connected web has great potential to make citizens much more informed and knowledgeable voters. Just like the ability to access information illustrated by the real-time searching on Google, the ability to connect with others anywhere in the world in real-time (or delayed time, for that matter) can also make substantive changes in the way we do almost everything. And doesn�t that mean schools need to help students learn how to do these things really, really well?

How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning?

First, a few caveats.

1. I don�t believe that all we�re about in education is preparing future employees.


2. Just because Business says something is good doesn�t necessarily make it so.


3. I don�t know enough about the methodology of this survey to judge bias.

Okay, now that we�ve got that out of the way, I found How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning? (pdf) rather interesting:

From November 8 to December 12, 2007, Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., interviewed 301 employers whose companies have at least 25 employees and report that 25% or more of their new hires hold at least a bachelor�s degree from a four-year college. Respondents are executives at their companies, including owners, CEOs, presidents, C-suite level executives, and vice presidents.

So they polled these executives about the quality of college graduates and what they�d like to change, particularly in the area of assessment. Here are a few excerpts:

Employers are satisfied that the majority of college graduates who apply for positions at their companies possess a range of skills that prepare them for success in entry-level positions, but they are notably less confident that graduates are prepared for advancement or promotion. While recent graduates are seen to demonstrate solid skills in the areas of teamwork, ethical judgment, and intercultural skills, employers are less convinced of their preparedness in terms of global knowledge, self-direction, and writing.

When it comes to the assessment practices that employers trust to indicate a graduate�s level of knowledge and potential to succeed in the job world, employers dismiss tests of general content knowledge in favor of assessments of real-world and applied-learning approaches. Multiple-choice tests specifically are seen as ineffective. On the other hand, assessments that employers hold in high regard include evaluations of supervised internships, community-based projects, and comprehensive senior projects.

Employers� emphasis on integrative, applied learning is reflected in their recommendations to colleges and universities about how to assess student learning in college. Again, multiple-choice testing ranks lowest among the options presented, just below an institutional score that shows how a college compares to other colleges in advancing critical thinking skills. Faculty evaluated internships and community-learning experiences emerge on top. Employers also endorse individual student essay tests, electronic portfolios of student work, and comprehensive senior projects as valuable tools both for students to enhance their knowledge and develop important real-world skills, as well as for employers to evaluate graduates� readiness for the workplace.

And, from the �Key Findings�:

. . . Most employers indicate that college transcripts are not particularly useful in helping evaluate job applicants� potential to succeed at their company.

. . . Few employers believe that multiple-choice tests of general content knowledge are very effective in ensuring student achievement. Instead, employers have the most confidence in assessments that demonstrate graduates� ability to apply their college learning to complex, real-world challenges, as well as projects or tests that integrate problem-solving, writing, and analytical reasoning skills.

. . . Employers deem both multiple-choice tests of general content knowledge and institutional assessments that show how colleges compare in advancing critical-thinking skills of limited value for evaluating applicants� potential for success in the workplace. They anticipate that faculty-assessed internships, community-based projects, and senior projects would be the most useful in gauging graduates� readiness for the workplace.

. . . When asked to advise colleges on how to develop their methods for assessing students� learning, employers rank multiple-choice tests of students� general content knowledge and institutional scores for colleges as conspicuously low priorities.

So, let me summarize (bias alert! bias alert!) via a single multiple choice question:

1. According to this report:

a. Grades are pretty much a non-factor in the hiring process.

b. Multiple choice tests are an unreliable predictor of success.

c. Employers are pretty much satisfied with the content knowledge of their employees and think assessments that cover content are relatively meaningless.

d. Employers want their employees to be more globally oriented, to take charge of their own job, and they must be able to communicate effectively through writing.

e. Employers prefer meaningful, relevant, experiential learning over an isolated, content-focused-only approach.

f. All of the above.

So, keeping those caveats I started with in mind, what does this mean for what we�re doing here at Arapahoe? Regular readers of this blog can probably predict what I would say about the ramifications of this in terms of the way we grade, what and how we teach, coverage of the curriculum, and how much of the responsibility for learning we put in the hands of students. But, just in case there was any doubt (and that the above wasn�t biased enough), let me add on to the choices above.

a. Since the primary way that many folks use grades appears to be superfluous, perhaps we need to take a hard look at the efficacy of grading in the first place, and perhaps switch to a focus on formative assessment versus �grades.�

b. Other than standardized test companies, politicians, and teachers who have a tight deadline to turn in final grades (see previous item), who�s really in favor of multiple choice tests? (Yes, I�ve ranted about this before somewhere, but I can�t find it at the moment.)

c. Content is necessary, but not sufficient, to be successful in the 21st century. So perhaps we should stop trying to �cover� the content, and instead focus on understanding the essential concepts and applying them in real world settings.

d. Constructivism. Blogs. RSS. Read/Write Web. Personal Learning Networks.

e. We need to take a hard look at our current system.

I�d love to hear your thoughts (especially AHS folks, but of course everyone is welcome to chime in) on what specific changes we might think about making. If you do comment, please try to not focus on the rant portion of the above, but on the results of the survey and on meaningful changes that will benefit our students.

20th Century Artifact of the Day

Today's Parade Magazine insert in the Sunday paper has a very nice article about Benazir Bhutto and how she might be America's best hope in Pakistan - 10 days after she was assassinated.

Online Parade explains that the assassination occurred after the print magazine went to press and has some links to a slide show and to Gail Sheehy (the writer of the article) talking on cable tv.

I understand that getting Parade printed and distributed to papers around the country is a huge undertaking, but 10 days still seems like enough time to figure something out. Hmmm.

Universities Outsource Astronomy . . . To Us

What do you do when you have a lot of data and not enough personnel and time to analyze it? Well, you outsource it of course. In this case, though, they're outsourcing it to us.

You're sitting on a pile of about a million telescopic photos of the universe, and each one needs to be classified. Bit of a job. So what do you do? Astronomers at the University of Portsmouth, Oxford University, and Johns Hopkins University came up with a solution last week that not only alleviated the burden but also generated an enthusiastic response from the public: They opened up the project to volunteers via the Internet.

The goal of the project is to identify and classify galaxies all over the universe and create a distribution map of galactic types--primarily spiral versus elliptical, but with some variations as well.

In order to accomplish this, the three universities opened up the project on a website called GalaxyZoo. Users log into the site, then are shown images of galaxies (and other cosmic entities). They then enter information about they images they see.

I sent this along to the science teacher at my school who teaches Astronomy - seems like a good project for the students in that class, don't you think? Now, if we could simply get our hands on that 142 megapixel camera they're using . . .

School Board Policy 2.0

I received an email recently from a school board member wondering if I knew of any school districts that had policies related to Web 2.0 tools. Now I know that most districts have policies relating to acceptable use of the Internet and regarding the use of an Internet filter, but that�s not what she was asking about. She wasn�t asking about policies restricting or regulating the use of Web 2.0 tools, she was asking about policies that encouraged their use.

Our board of education would like to move faster and generate more systemic growth and are exploring the possibility of writing a policy that would reflect our commitment to 21st century skills/tech tools . . . [We are] focused on working with our administrators and teachers to design/implement programs that are not "add ons". . . What we really want is to bring more people along more quickly - therefore we are exploring the possibility of writing a policy that will empower and support teachers, but at the same time, clearly state that the board is looking for implementation.

She indicated that they have small groups of teachers that are using tools such as Moodle, podcasts and wikis, and they are slowly spreading the word, but the board is wondering how to foster a more systemic application of 21^st century tools.

I replied that I didn�t know of any districts that had such a policy, but I�d throw it out to the rest of the blogosphere to see if anyone else did. If you know of any, or have any suggestions, please leave a comment and I�ll send it along.

2nd Annual K-12 Online Conference

Via Sheryl's blog (among many others). The deadline for proposal submissions is June 18th.

Announcing the second annual �K12 Online� conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! This year�s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, October 15-19 and October 22-26 of 2007, and will include a preconference keynote during the week of October 8. This year�s conference theme is �Playing with Boundaries.� A call for proposals is below.

OVERVIEW:
There will be four �conference strands�� two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in any of a variety of downloadable, web based formats and released via the conference blog (http://www.k12onlineconference.org/) and archived for posterity.

FOUR STRANDS:
Week 1
Strand A: Classroom 2.0
Leveraging the power of free online tools in an open, collaborative and transparent atmosphere characterises teaching and learning in the 21st century. Teachers and students are contributing to the growing global knowledge commons by publishing their work online. By sharing all stages of their learning students are beginning to appreciate the value of life long learning that inheres in work that is in �perpetual beta.� This strand will explore how teachers and students are playing with the boundaries between instructors, learners and classrooms. Presentations will also explore the practical pedagogical uses of online social tools (Web 2.0) giving concrete examples of how teachers are using the tools in their classes.

Strand B: New Tools
Focusing on free tools, what are the �nuts and bolts� of using specific new social media and collaborative tools for learning? This strand includes two parts. Basic training is �how to� information on tool use in an educational setting, especially for newcomers. Advanced training is for teachers interested in new tools for learning, looking for advanced technology training, seeking ideas for mashing tools together, and interested in web 2.0 assessment tools. As educators and students of all ages push the boundaries of learning, what are the specific steps for using new tools most effectively? Where �Classroom 2.0? presentations will focus on instructional uses and examples of web 2.0 tool use, �New Tools� presentations should focus on �nuts and bolts� instructions for using tools. Five �basic� and five �advanced� presentations will be included in this strand

Week 2
Strand A: Professional Learning Networks
Research says that professional development is most effective when it aims to create professional learning communities � places where teachers learn and work together. Using Web 2.0 tools educators can network with others around the globe extending traditional boundaries of ongoing, learner centered professional development and support. Presentations in this strand will include tips, ideas and resources on how to orchestrate your own professional development online; concrete examples of how the tools that support Professional Learning Environments (PLEs) are being used; how to create a supportive, reflective virtual learning community around school-based goals, and trends toward teacher directed personal learning environments.

Strand B: Obstacles to Opportunities
Boundaries formalized by education in the �industrial age� shouldn�t hinder educators as they seek to reform and transform their classroom practice. Playing with boundaries in the areas of copyright, digital discipline and ethics (e.g. cyberbullying), collaborating globally (e.g. cultural differences, synchronous communication), resistance to change (e.g. administration, teachers, students), school culture (e.g. high stakes testing), time (e.g. in curriculum, teacher day), lack of access to tools/computers, filtering, parental/district concerns for online safety, control (e.g. teacher control of student behavior/learning), solutions for IT collaboration and more � unearthing opportunities from the obstacles rooted in those boundaries � is the focus of presentations in this strand.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:
This call encourages all, experienced and novice, to submit proposals to present at this conference via this link. Take this opportunity to share your successes, strategies, and tips in �playing with boundaries� in one of the four strands as described above.

Deadline for proposal submissions is June 18, 2007. You will be contacted no later than June 30, 2007 regarding your status.

Presentations may be delivered in any web-based medium that is downloadable (including but not limited to podcasts, screencasts, slide shows) and is due one week prior to the date it is published.

Please note that all presentations will be licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

As you draft your proposal, you may wish to consider the presentation topics listed below which were suggested in the comments on the K-12 Online Conference Blog:

• special needs education
• Creative Commons
• Second Life
• podcasting
• iPods
• video games in education
• specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools
• overcoming institutional inertia and resistance
• aligning Web 2.0 and other projects to national standards
• getting your message across
• how web 2.0 can assist those with disabilities
• ePortfolios
• classroom 2.0 activities at the elementary level
• creating video for TeacherTube and YouTube
• google docs
• teacher/peer collaboration

KEYNOTES:
The first presentation in each strand will kick off with a keynote by a well known educator who is distinguished and knowledgeable in the context of their strand. Keynoters will be announced shortly.

CONVENERS:
This year�s conveners are:

Darren Kuropatwa is currently Department Head of Mathematics at Daniel Collegiate Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is known internationally for his ability to weave the use of online social tools meaningfully and concretely into his pedagogical practice and for �child safe� blogging practices. He has more than 20 years experience in both formal and informal education and 13 years experience in team building and leadership training. Darren has been facilitating workshops for educators in groups of 4 to 300 for the last 10 years. Darren�s professional blog is called A Difference (http://adifference.blogspot.com/). He will convene Classroom 2.0.

Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach, a 20-year educator, has been a classroom teacher, charter school principal, district administrator, and digital learning consultant. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member teaching graduate and undergraduate preservice teachers at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA), where she is also completing her doctorate in educational planning, policy and leadership. In addition, Sheryl is co-leading a statewide 21st Century Skills initiative in the state of Alabama, funded by a major grant from the Microsoft Partners in Learning program. Sheryl blogs at (http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com/blog). She will convene Preconference Discussions and Personal Learning Networks.

Wesley Fryer is an educator, author, digital storyteller and change agent. With respect to school change, he describes himself as a �catalyst for creative educational engagement.� His blog, �Moving at the Speed of Creativity� was selected as the 2006 �Best Learning Theory Blog� by eSchoolnews and Discovery Education. He is the Director of Education Advocacy (PK-20) for AT&T in the state of Oklahoma. Wes blogs at (http://www.speedofcreativity.org/). Wes will convene New Tools.

Lani Ritter Hall currently contracts as an instructional designer for online professional development for Ohio teachers and online student courses with eTech Ohio. She is a National Board Certified Teacher who served in many capacities during her 35 years as a classroom and resource teacher in Ohio and Canada. Lani blogs at (http://possibilitiesabound.blogspot.com/). She will convene Obstacles to Opportunities.

QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about any part of this, email one of us:

• Darren Kuropatwa: dkuropatwa {at} gmail {dot} com
• Sheryl Nusbaum-Beach: snbeach {at} cox {dot} net
• Lani Ritter Hall: lanihall {at} alltel {dot} net
• Wesley Fryer: wesfryer {at} pobox {dot} com

Please duplicate this post and distribute it far and wide across the blogosphere. Feel free to republish it on your own blog (actually, we�d really like people to do that ) or link back to this post (published simultaneously on all our blogs).

Paper Is A Great Medium?

It seems only fair since I linked to The Denver Post earlier this week to also blog about an article in Denver's other paper, the Rocky Mountain News. This article is actually a column from John Temple, who is editor and publisher of the paper. (He also has a blog, but he hasn't posted since January.)

The Rocky Mountain News has been doing some interesting experiments with their use of the web (including YourHub), and Temple writes about it fairly frequently and transparently. I think they are really trying to get their collective heads around how best to use the Internet - and of course how to stay solvent - so I'm not trying to be critical of their overall efforts. But this paragraph in his column made me stop and think.

. . . reporting a story online while it breaks doesn't weaken coverage in the newspaper. If anything, it actually strengthens it. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, by writing about events as they happen and as new details emerge, we learn how to shape more thoughtful packages for print. The Web is a great medium for breaking news. That's where you should turn to us to find out the latest. The paper by definition can't be real-time. It's at best a few hours old. But the paper is a great medium for analysis, perspective, depth and memorable storytelling, both visual and in words.

I pretty much agree with all of this. But that last sentence really makes me wonder,

But the paper is a great medium for analysis, perspective, depth and memorable storytelling, both visual and in words.

While that certainly is often true, I don't see where the "paper" part is critical to that sentence. Because can't they offer "analysis, perspective, depth and memorable storytelling" online, and actually offer more of it? With links to even more information? And then when you throw in "visual," doesn't the web offer much more opportunity, "space", and medium choices to the mix? To a larger audience? With more timely, convenient, economical, and environmentally-friendly delivery? And when you throw in blogs or other Web 2.0 tools, doesn't it offer the possibility of much more interaction than the print version? Then toss in search and pretty much unlimited archive capability, and doesn't that sentence strike you as perhaps missing the mark just a bit?

I know that many folks still prefer to read a newspaper in print rather than online. In fact, when I read a newspaper (which I do less and less of, at least in the traditional print sense), so do I. And the portability and readability of paper still triumphs technology for most people. But I think the technology will advance sufficiently in the next 7 to 10 years that that may no longer be the case. So I found it interesting that in an article about the changes they were making, and specifically about how they were trying to better integrate the web into their work, that the "justification" if you will of the value of the print edition wasn't really much of a justification (at least to me). In fact, it could've just as easily been a "justification" for an announcement that they were ceasing publication of the print edition altogether and moving to just an online version.

So, ignore the "I prefer to read it in print rather than online" issue for the moment (since I'm focusing more on what he decided to include in his column, and he didn't include that). Please read the entire column first to get the big picture of what he's saying, then what are your thoughts - does this strike you the same way as it did me?

Pay Attention

Darren Draper is a Technology Curriculum Specialist in the Jordan School District in Utah. He put together the following presentation

to motivate educators around the world to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

Much as with the series of presentations I've created, Darren wants this to be a conversation starter, not the end of the conversation. I suggest you take about 8 minutes and watch it, then head over to this list of resources that accompany it. (If YouTube is blocked in your district, Darren has a copy of it posted at the previous link, or it's also up on TeacherTube.)

Once you've watched it and looked at the resources, make sure you start some of those conversations . . .

Appearing On Talk Radio - Need Your Help

This just gets stranger and stranger. Barring any late breaking important news (maybe Britney getting another tattoo or something?), I will be appearing on Seattle talk radio next week. (For those who are more casual readers of The Fischbowl, this is particularly strange because I live in Colorado.) It seems that a friend of the producer of The Dave Ross Show was sent an email with a link to the video that shall not be named (with apologies to J. K. Rowling). After doing a little research on the web (I imagine with three hours to fill every day, they are pretty good at doing a little research on the web), they gave me a call. After thinking about it for a night � and checking with my district to make sure this was all okay � I decided to say yes (although I may still chicken out). You can�t change the world by whispering and all that . . .

Dave Ross is an apparently popular talk radio host on KIRO in Seattle, and does commentary for CBS Radio. (He also ran for Congress in 2004, but narrowly lost.) He wants to talk to me about the Did You Know? presentation and what the ideas it contains mean for education. According to the producer, she thinks it could be fifteen to twenty minutes, but I should set aside half an hour just in case (my bet is the over/under is more like ten minutes, but we�ll see). Then after we�re done, he�ll open it up to callers (I don�t have to be on for that part, which is a good thing for my sanity).

So, why am I posting this on the blog? First, because it�s another chance to point out how the world has changed. As I�ve said many times before, if a simple little PowerPoint that I almost didn�t even show to my staff . . .yada, yada, yada � you�ve heard this part enough to know what I�m going to say. But it�s still worth repeating, if only in your head.

Second, because I�d like your help. You see, I�m just a tad bit nervous about this. The producer has assured me that this is not �gotcha� talk radio, but still � up to thirty minutes? Live? On talk radio? Yikes. As the folks in my building will tell you, I can certainly talk for thirty minutes. I�m just not sure I can talk intelligently for thirty minutes. I�m generating my own ideas of what I�d like to talk about and what points I�d like to try to make, but the producer has indicated that the host does not work off of a prepared set of questions � he pretty much wings it. This does not help my nervousness any.

So, I�d like to ask two things of the wonderful readers of The Fischbowl. First, leave a comment on this post about the one point (or two, or three, or . . .) you�d most like me to try to make about all this stuff we�ve been talking about on our blogs over the last couple of years. It probably needs to relate at least peripherally to the Did You Know? presentation, but probably just about anything we�ve been talking about will. This is the easy one - anyone can do it � and I hope you will.

The second thing I�d like to ask is a little more �out there,� but it sounds really good in my head. You see, the Dave Ross show is streamed for free on the Internet. You can tap into the stream here. You have to register � for free � with an email address and some other info, but there's not even a confirmation email (you can just login after registering). So, I�m thinking that if you are available at 11:00 am Mountain Time on Tuesday, April 17th, maybe you could listen in. But, of course, I don�t want you just to listen, but perhaps call in (877-710-5476) after I�m done to add your two cents � or possibly fix any horrible gaffes I�ve made.

But, wait, that�s not all. You see, if you�re listening while I�m actually on, maybe you could help me while I�m still talking. Skype, anyone? What better example of how Web 2.0 is changing everything, including education. Think of it - a few of you, after reading this on my blog (probably through your RSS aggregator), listen live on the Internet, then Skype me (text IM) while I�m talking (via VOIP) and give me suggestions. There�d be a few ground rules (no berating the nervous high school guy while he�s talking live on the radio), and I�m not sure how good I�ll be at multitasking like that, but I think it would be interesting to try.

So, if you�re available at that time and at all interested, I�m karlfisch (Centennial, Colorado, United States) on Skype. Please request my contact info via Skype no later than 12:00 pm Mountain Time on Monday, April 16th, to make sure I have time to add you to my contacts. Please include some info about yourself so that I know who you are. Then, if anyone actually takes me up on this crazy idea, initiate a chat session with me at about 10:45 am Mountain Time on Tuesday, April 17th (check the blog first to make sure it hasn't been canceled or postponed - I'll post if there are any changes). That way I�ll have the chat session(s) open well before my time on the air starts. Once I�m on the air, if you have something to add you �chime in� via Skype IM with very brief, helpful messages about points I might want to make. Assuming I can handle the multitasking (which is a big assumption), I�ll occasionally glance at the chat session(s) and see if there�s something I can incorporate (no promises).

So, am I completely nuts? Next question please.

Presenting at NECC, Palm Beach, TIE, and ?

There are a couple of interesting side effects that have arisen as a result of this blog. The first is that we are being encouraged - and sometimes even invited - to present at conferences and school districts. There are three that we are definitely presenting at, and several more that have made initial contacts.

First up is the School District of Palm Beach County 2007 Technology Conference on March 19th. This looks to be an impressive annual conference that the school district (in West Palm Beach, Florida) puts on. It's a non-student contact day, and they put on quite an event, with hundreds of sessions and even a vendor area. Anne Smith and I will share our staff development efforts and what teachers have been doing in the classroom at Arapahoe, with two sessions for teachers and one for administrators.

Next up is the TIE Conference in Copper Mountain, Colorado in June. TIE is Colorado's statewide technology in education conference. Will Richardson is the keynote speaker this year. (I don't know how much credit I can take for that, but I did suggest him to the TIE Board and then "campaigned" via email once or twice - so until somebody tells me otherwise, it's all because of me!) Anne Smith, Barbara Stahlhut, Brad Meyer, Brian Hatak and I will be presenting on Wednesday, June 20th, from 1:00 - 3:00 (in Wheeler A in Copper Station for those of you who might be attending).

The third conference that is a definite at this point is NECC in Atlanta in June. Once again all five of us will be presenting, and it will take place on Tuesday, June 26th from 3:30 - 4:30 pm (location TBD).

While all three presentations will be similar, I think they will end up being quite different due to the different audiences and formats. It looks as though Palm Beach will have a wide mix of teachers in terms of both their technological background and their knowledge of the read/write web, plus we do one session with administrators (probably 50-75 principals plus a few other folks - yikes!).

TIE tends to draw folks that are fairly knowledgeable about technology and come every year, although there are always quite a few educators that are there for the first time. It also has a couple of advantages over most other conferences. First, most sessions - including our session - are in rooms where everyone has a computer, so we can give them some time to explore some of the technologies (and even if we don't give them the time, they will anyway). Second, it's two hours instead of the typical 50-60 minutes that we'll get at Palm Beach and NECC. That's good, since we have about 8 hours worth of "content," plus another 8 hours or so of "conversation" we want to have. So it should be much easier to squeeze sixteen hours into two instead of one.

I'm not sure what to expect at NECC since I went for the first time last year myself. I think this tends to draw fairly tech-savvy folks as well, plus the expectations are different - and probably higher - since this is a national conference. I also don't know whether to expect 20 people in the audience - or 200. One thing I definitely did not like about NECC last year was that the majority of sessions were in large rooms with rows and rows of chairs crammed together. One of the things we're struggling with as we are planning these sessions is how to create a conversation among such a large group of people in a short amount of time, while still sharing some of the "stuff" that we want to share. I know many other folks out there have struggled with this as well, so any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated. And if anyone out there is planning on attending NECC and doesn't have anything better to do at the prime time of 3:30 in the afternoon (nope, nobody's going to be tired, worn out, and sleepy from lunch at 3:30 are they?), please stop by so the room isn't completely empty, would ya?

It will be interesting to see how these go. I was hesitant at first to even entertain these conversations with folks about presenting, because I feel like we still have a whole lot more questions than answers, but I think that may be why they are asking us. It's because we are asking those questions about what learning should look like in the 21st century, working hard at figuring them out, and sharing both our successes and failures on the blog. We ultimately decided to go ahead for pretty much selfish reasons - we hope to learn as much or more from the conversations when we present as the so-called "audience" learns.

And the second interesting side-effect? Job inquiries. I've had several nice conversations with folks who've made initial contact with me wondering if I'd be interested in a particular position they had available. These were certainly not job offers, just initial contacts, and so far nothing that would make me consider leaving my wonderful position at Arapahoe High School (just in case my principal is reading this - Hi Ron!). Seriously, I think I'm doing important - and hopefully good - work here, and it would have to be something that was more important and where I could do more good to make me even consider it. (Cue violin music.)

Now, this is interesting and - yes, somewhat flattering. But what I find most interesting is that I mostly write on this blog about what other folks are doing in their classrooms. While I'm in classrooms pretty much every day, none of them are my classroom. It's been a few years since I've had a classroom of my own. All the great - and sometimes not so great - things you read about on this blog are happening in other folks' classrooms. (This is also why when I'm approached to present, one of my first questions is, "Can I bring at least one of my teachers along that is actually doing this in their classrooms?) I think - and hope - that I have helped a lot of those things happen in those classrooms, but it sure seems like those teachers are the ones who should be getting the job inquiries, not me. Now, having said that, if anyone was reading along and about to offer me six figures and unlimited use of the company jet, I'll be happy to delete the previous seven sentences and take your call - operators are standing by.

So, I guess I'm still processing all this but, to me, this is just another example of the way the world is changing. I wrote a grant and got it. I started this blog in support of our staff development efforts as part of that grant. I wrote a second grant and got it, which allowed us to bring even more folks into the staff development effort, which of course gave me more to blog about. The blog got noticed by some folks and people started reading it. They apparently found value in it, so many of them subscribed in their RSS aggregators. I apparently blogged something interesting at least often enough to keep them from removing it from their RSS aggregators. Now we're getting invitations to present and job inquiries.

This couldn't have happened to me/us ten years ago, or five years ago, or probably even three years ago. The tools may have been there (although they've improved tremendously), but the critical mass of audience wasn't in place (and the key tool - RSS - wasn't known to enough people). This is an important idea that I need to think about a lot more, but I think it holds a tremendous lesson for our students about the flattening of the world and the power of the read/write web.

More Poetry Podcasts

Previously I blogged about Anne's classes posting podcasts of their poetry, and now Maura's classes have posted as well. Head over and take a listen to Period 1 or Period 6 and give them some constructive feedback.

Rhyme Time Podcasts

To update this earlier post, each student has now chosen the favorite poem that they've written and podcasted it. Please head over to this post on Learning and Laptops, listen to a few, and then give them some constructive criticism in the comments.

Rhyme Time

Over on Learning and Laptops, Maria � who is a ninth grader � wrote this:

Imagine: A place where students are adults and teachers are students. Imagine: A place where information is pulled, not fed. Imagine: A place where poetry can be real, deep, and fun at the same time.

Welcome to Ms. Smith's 9th Grade Honors English Class!!! Beware: This is NOT education as usual, please come prepared to learn in a way never experienced before. Please come excited to try new things, and to do your best, no matter the outcome.

. . . So boom! Out came student-taught poetry explications, publishing of our poems, and a opportunity that, instead of ogling Shakespeare's brilliance, we could to create our own! And our poems wouldn't simply be pieces of paper with a red grade, they would be published on the world-wide internet for others to enjoy and reply with their feedback.

The limits of blogging were pushed past the max as, each night from my computer at home, I would post the rough draft of one of my poems. Then I could scroll through all my classmates' poems, and discover new ideas and ways to improve. The next time I checked back, it was thrilling to read others' comments and feedback. It felt like a giant fishbowl, where instead of agonizing over a poem by myself, I could throw it out to a ton of different minds and we could build it up together, achieving an end result that I knew was truly my very best work.

If you go to the post, there are links to multiple examples on their blog. I particularly like this one.

Then, over on Anne Smith's ninth grade blog, the students in that class responded to this:

Students were asked to compose poems following the "I am" poem format revealing in one line who they truly are. This line is then repeated throughout the poem as they speak of their wishes, dreams, hopes and fears.

Students not only posted their poems as comments, but also commented on each other�s poems.

If you have a few moments, please check out the posts, read through some of the poems, and offer your constructive criticism in the comments.


Image Citation: Poetry and dreams, originally uploaded by Cher Amio.

Has "Did You Know?" Gone Viral?

I'm beginning to wonder if the Did You Know? presentation has perhaps gone just a little bit viral. As many of you know, I posted it at the beginning of the school year and it got picked up by various educator blogs in August and September. But in the last few days I'm suddenly getting a whole bunch of emails asking about it, and many of those are from non-educators (a minister, the leader of a political action committee, a retired Naval officer to name a few). I even received a phone call this morning from London (as in England) - the assistant to a CEO of an executive search company.

I'm pretty sure it's not my original presentation, though, I think it's the version that Scott McLeod created that removed the first few slides that were specific to my school (and also improved the look a little bit). Scott says that he's had quite a few contacts regarding this as well. I asked some of the folks that emailed me where they had run across the presentation, and the responses I've received back so far indicate via email. It looks like there might be at least two emails floating around, one with "Did You Know" in the title and one with "Shift Happens" in the title, both of which just contain a link to the Windows Media version that Scott created. If anyone reading this has received an email like that, I'd love to know so we can try to figure out where this is coming from. (Also, if you're stumbling upon this post because of that email, you might be interested in two related presentations - What If? and 2020 Vision.)

Now, I'm not sure it's really "viral" at this point, maybe more like the sniffles, but it's still interesting to observe. Because I posted it in an easily downloadable form, without any kind of tracking statistics, and because it's been remixed and reposted so many places, I really have no idea how many times it's been viewed. But I know it was shown at a whole lot of faculty meetings (K-16), and quite a few conferences, and some Chamber of Commerce's. And apparently now there are emails going around to who knows how many people. So I'm going to estimate that the number of people who've seen it has easily passed the 100,000 mark. Please note that I have nothing to back that up with, just a semi-educated guess - feel free to laugh. (Note to my staff: yes, this will make my already healthy ego even larger. Hard to believe, I know.)

To tie this back to one of the major themes of this blog, it's a different world out there. A world where anyone's ideas can quickly spread if they happen to strike a chord. Where you don't necessarily have to have a large company or a huge public relations effort to make an impact (although that still doesn't hurt). And we need to be preparing our students to participate in such a world, to understand both the positive and the negative sides of that. To help them learn how to live and work in a rapidly changing world, where a fairly simple PowerPoint presentation that I almost didn't even show to my staff has now been seen worldwide.

This is just one of the reasons that I believe our schools need to change. They need to change to reflect this new world, this flatter world, this information-abundant, globally connected, rapidly changing, technology super-charged world that they are going to spend the rest of their lives in. Maybe, just maybe, we need to figure out how to make learning viral.

Global Collaboration: 1001 Flat World Tales Project

Michele has a couple of posts where she describes the initial steps in a global collaboration between her class and classes in Korea, Canada and China (so far). The idea originated with Clay Burell, who teaches at the Korea International School in Seoul, South Korea.

Clay's idea is to have students read portions of the Arabian Nights and have them then write stories about their culture, their lives, starting with truth and bleeding into fiction. The premise is a frame story (an alien has landed and you've been asked to explain our world). Students will create a Thousand and One Flat World Tales, a storybook online...students of all grades, from around the world. We'll focus on 6+1 traits, fiction techniques, and hopefully our students will see a common thread between all the stories. Maybe they'll have a bigger perspective of the world (sometimes hard to create at age 13 & 14) and leave English 9 a little more focused on their dreams, their future.

Check out the wiki that Clay has set up, and also take a look at the FAQ page. This is just getting started, so only Clay's students have any stories up yet. But this is an ongoing project (K-12 so far, any college folks want to jump in?), so contact Clay if you'd like to join.

Communication so far has been via e-mail, skype, and the discussion pages on the wiki.

I just got my account on Skype and tried out the instant messenging this morning. It was 6:45 am here and 10:45 pm in Korea. Clay Burell (http://burell.blogspot.com/) and I traded ideas, asked questions and held a free, international conversation all 15 minutes before my English Lit class started. The world has just gotten flatter in my little world.

When the stories are "finished," they will then be published on student blogs (linked from the wiki). Clay has coined the term "blook":

We gave the name blook to the idea of a new type of publication, never possible in the history of reading and writing until the invention of wikis and blogs: a "book" of short stories that is published on inter-linking student blogs. A blook.

The official list of published students will be maintained on this wiki. Whenever students officially select (and teachers perhaps agree?) a student's story for publication on the 1001 Fllat World Tales blook, the story and writer will be "promoted" from the wiki to the student's blog.

Each additional story will be added to the blook's Table of Contents on this wiki, and linked to each additional student's blog.

Readers of the blook will thus read each story on its own writer's blog, and click the hyperlink to the next successful student writer's blog, on and on. Think of the benefits of an ever-growing world audience for these students on their blogs. (And yes, we have security guidelines and advice!)

Our goal is to match--then surpass--the original 1001 tales with "1001+" of our own!

So, how did all this get started? Clay started blogging (okay, prolifically blogging - I don't think Clay sleeps much). He read The Fischbowl and linked to a couple of items. The links came into my RSS aggregator so I checked out his blog and commented. He posted the 1001 Tales idea on his blog and I commented. I shared some ideas via email (and in person) with my language arts and social studies teachers. Michele jumped in with both feet. I also have three social studies teachers that are discussing with Clay ideas for how they can work together. The most promising idea so far is taking a look at the Cold War - from the American and the Korean perspective, and specifically spending some time looking at the Korean "Conflict".

Umm, somebody explain to me again why we can't do this?

Image Citation: The Arabian Nights, originally uploaded by Shenghung Lin.

What Will You Publish?

Both Will Richardson and Christian Long included this picture in a post, but I wanted to pass it along to my staff as well. (This is the version from Will's blog, so I'm assuming he gets the photo credit.)

I'm thinking of asking Tracy (our librarian) for some shelf space, and creating a "virtual" shelf somehow on our school website to highlight some of the digital works that our students are doing (since for some reason everybody doesn't read The Fischbowl).

Priceless

Go watch this 5 minute video over on Learning Is Messy.

Okay, let's see what we've got.

1. School Building and Classroom already there - free. Check.
2. Computer in Classroom with broadband Internet access already there - free. Check.
3. Webcam - either already there or less than $50. Check.
4. Headphones - either already there or less than $40 for a USB headphone with microphone. Check.
   
5. Skype - free. Check.
6. Fourth graders already there - free. Check.
7. Caring and Web 2.0 Savvy Teacher already there - free. Check.
8. Fourth grader at home with leukemia being able to participate in class - priceless.
   

We'll Need To Rethink . . . Everything?

Via Jeff Utecht.

The main reason for this post is the video below. But as a side note, before tonight I'd never heard of digital ethnography. A very interesting combination, I think.

From the Digital Ethnography Workgroup:

Digital - because digital media provide exciting possibilities for creating, transforming and combining representations.

Ethnography - because the best way to find out how people make meaning is to go among them and carefully examine what they actually do.

Workgroup - because knowledge is the quintessential social product, and science requires co-labor-ation.

The video is only 4:31 - well worth your time. I think it goes along nicely with 2020 Vision (although this is much better - not to mention a lot shorter).