NextGenTeachers

If you really want to see students squirm in their seats…give them choices.

Yesterday I was approached by two teachers who wanted help coming up with ways to incorporate technology into some upcoming lessons. Both of them wanted to “do something different”. Which is a good sign, and shows that our Tech Fest has sparked some interest.

After listening to both teachers explain their projects and what they were looking for I simply said:

“Let the students choose!”

To often I think we try to put things neatly into containers. A lesson (as we were taught in educator school) must have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end, when really all a lesson needs is a clear focus. As Brian Crosby would say Learning is Messy and you gotta allow students to get messy with it if you want to see something new and different.

Both teachers are planning big projects where they want students to produce something at the end of the unit. Both wanted to know what I would suggest students produce. A PowerPoint? A movie? A digital story? Both wanted to know what was out there that they were missing.

Why not allow the students to choose, allow them to find for themselves the best avenue to represent their learning. Allow students to get messy with the project. Some might decide to create a moive, others might decide a PowerPoint is the best approach, and yet others might create a podcast that is a radio show. Allowing students to choose gives them power over the content and the method of conveying their learning. As the teacher becomes the guide, you create the rubric that demonstrates what you want students to learn based off of district standards, but allow the students to decide what that learning looks like to them.
I will tell you most students do not like this, they do not like having the choice to decide what to do. We have conditioned them to do what we tell them. I used this exact approach last semester and got more whining out of my students then on any project. “Just tell us what to do Mr. U!” was what they kept saying. We have truly educated the creative side right out of our students. They don’t want to have to think about it, they just want to fulfill the requirement that is being asked of them and move on.

We must reengage students in the learning process invite them back into the learning process and make them the center of learning, not the receivers of information. If we are going to teach students to ‘Learn how to Learn’ then we must at times push them to do so and get out of their way so they can.
One of my students in our teentek.com class came up to me yesterday and said:

“What do you do here MR. U? I mean you never teach us anything.”

Exactly!

Technorati Tags: 21st Century Learning, School2.0, jeffutecht

MissProfe is reflecting on her role in the classroom after reading Kelly Christopherson’s post about the same topic. Although I left a comment for MissProfe I wanted to post it here because I realized that I’m not just a teacher, I’m three teachers: I’m a technology teacher, an international school teacher and a middle school teacher. All three roles are wrapped up into one position, but they can have different objectives. It’s all about the balance.

From a tech teacher’s point of view:

I always like to say that I teach students how to learn with technology. It doesn’t really matter to me if they become the all-time expert on whatever tool we’re working with at the moment - after all, what are the chances that they’ll be using the exact same tool, same version, 5 years from now? All that matters to me is that they can learn how to use the next tool that will be developed, and the tool after that, and the ones we never dreamed would be possible.

From an international school teacher’s point of view:

We have so much transition in the international school classroom, both students and teachers rotating in and out. All I want is for students that leave my classroom to feel comfortable and confident with technology. They don’t have to be the best, they just know that they can tackle the next challenge that comes along - with the next teacher, in the next school, in the next country.

From a middle school teacher’s point of view:

I want students to have fun, to be excited, to be interested in learning more, to enjoy technology as part of their daily life. To me, middle school is about exposure to new skills and possibilities, about enthusing students in areas they may not be naturally interested, and showing them different ways to learn and have fun. I’m a cheerleader for technology.

I realize that pretty much everything I’ve written here is already stated in my teaching philosophy. Everything I do in the classroom is shaped by my understanding and my belief in my role as an educator, but I rarely think about that philosophy - I just do it. In fact, just about the only time I really think about my philosophy of education is during recruiting season.

We international school teachers go recruiting quite frequently, sometimes as frequently as every other year. Every time we attend a job fair we are meeting with administrators from around the globe that only have a few days in which to process our potential for their school. We are anxious to share everything there is to know about our teaching style, philosophy, objectives, experience and interests in a short (usually 20 minute) interview. I think next time I should just say I’m the best value: hire one, get three!

Image 1: http://www.bolton.ac.uk/learning/images/hand_globe.jpg
Image 2:
http://www.mousememories.com/images/eksuccess/BUY-SIX-DWARFS-GET-ONE-FREE-md.jpg

I’m growing increasingly frustrated in the teaching profession. I can’t teach the way that I want to, and I find it extraordinarily difficult to teach in the ‘traditional’ manner which is assumed and seemingly expected by all around me. This means I fall between two stools of conceptions of teaching. Allow me to elaborate and explain…

(more…)

Each time a student is absent for more than a day or so, I get an email asking that I send missed work to the front office for pickup so the student can catch up. I usually fire off a copy of the slides in handout form and a little note, and go on about my business. In talking with a few other teachers, I have come to the realization that my little note to my absent students (always handwritten by the way) is a bit different than others’. Here is an actual note, without the student name at the top. I wrote this just this morning, and I thought you might like to see it!

I hope you can read that ok, I wasn’t sure of the size. In case it is illegible, here is what it says…

“Spend some time on the Moodle if you can. You have a test on Friday, which you can take from home. You’ll see it in the Moodle on Friday, called Huge Test. It covers Colors, Numbers, and Days & Months. All the slides are online. Let me know how I can help! Mr. Craft”

I’ve been thinking about Alan November’s scenario of bird flu hitting our area and then no one being able to come to school.

Me, got it covered.

I am saying this not to be a punk, but I am using lots of cool tools to keep my kids up-to-date when they are at home.

Maybe a future post about what tools I use inside my moodle and on our class website, but not now. And please, spare me the discussion of authentic assessments , tests serve a good purpose and are to help learn vocabulary, a core function of any foreign language. We do lots of other asssessments, too!

So, how’s my note?

This is one for those wanting to spread the message about RSS feeds or put out a newsletter with good reading material. I’ve discussed xFruits over at EdTechRoundup.com. Go and have a look!

My wife sent me this article last week (found it in her RSS feed )

Mourning on MySpace - Via CNN

People often say that being a ‘geek’ and being on the computer all the time must be a lonely life, but with the new interactive nature of the web, it’s the exact opposite.

MySpace avoids deleting the deceased’s profiles unless asked by family
members, which means the profiles-turned-memorials can stay active for
years. Other social-networking and blogging sites, such as Xanga and
LiveJournal, also host memorials tied to deceased users’ pages.

This article is a good one to share with students to show them the power of these connections you form on the Internet can be real and that “Pages live forever”

I’ve been trying to drive this concept home to my students. That the stuff they publish, even the stuff they forget about is still alive and well on the web. If their not going to listen to me, maybe they’ll listen to an article like this. It brings a whole new meaning to “What will people remember about me when I’m gone?” when your profile, articles, pictures, music, and videos are still alive and living in cyber-space.

A good reminder to all of us that our digital profile will out live us.

Technorati Tags: myspace, jeffutecht, Web2.0

While searching for an image for my last post, I came across this picture.

I thought it was pretty nifty, so I checked out the root of the link and found The Opte Project: “Mapping the Internet in a Single Day.” The technology behind the project is totally over my head, but I thought the idea was very cool and the images are amazing and beautiful - definitely worth sharing. Check it out!

Image: http://www.opte.org/maps/static/1069646562.LGL.2D.700×700.png

I was planning to let this topic slowly die, frankly because I was too embarassed to post about it. That is, until Karen asked about it in the comments…

You left us in suspense….how did your presentation go? It sounds as though they need to hear what you have to say about Web 2.0 and teaching foreign language.

It was pretty bad.

Let me set the scenario for you. You arrive at a foreign language teacher’s conference wanting to learn about technology. You see there are two presentations titled*exactly* alike, “Blogging and Podcasting in the Foreign Language Classroom”. One is presented by two language professors, both Ph.D.s, representing the more marginalized languages, French and German. Not to mention they are both young ladies who are presenting at the first session of the morning when everyone is fresh and ready to listen.

And then there’s a presentation by a relative unknown, right after lunch, about the same exact thing, presumably.

Which presentation would you choose?

I received an email some months ago saying that there was a similar presentation and would I consider adding in ideas for younger students and maybe consider a bit of advanced training. Their thinking was, I later found out, that the morning session would be a basic introduction and mine would be more advanced, except the titles did not reflect that.

Their session was standing room only in a room with a capacity of 80.

Mine had 10 people.

Needless to say, we had a good chat about web 2.0 in general, but it wasn’t the dynamic session I had envisioned.

Truth is, it hurts to even talk about it. I could not get much invovlement from my audience so it ended up being a string of random thoughts by me. Lots of yawning, which I blame on the starchy lunch to save face.

Not only that, but I had to pay a late fee to register for the conference so that I could present. And, I got fussed at by the conference president because I failed to register and they were stressing that I might not show up.

To add insult to injury, no one from my district showed up to show support, even though I saw a bunch of them at the conference. They all went to the first session.

Can’t say I blame them.

I put in proposals for sessions about more fun topics, I think, such as Google Earth and how to better utilize PowerPoint. Maybe those will fair better.

So there’s my SCFLTA update, wish I could have brought better news.

OK, after the full on week last week where I think combined I may have had 10 hours of sleep. Bali was the perfect place for me.

85 plus degrees (30ish Celsius) and a tropical climate was just what the doctor ordered. Relax, walk, shop, read and relax some more is basically what we did all week. Lay by the pool, lie on the beach, have some wonderful food…and then do it all over again the next day.

It’s good to disconnect once in awhile even when I really don’t want too. But I’m finding that disconnected for me means something completely different than before.

Disconnected use to mean no Internet access what so ever, but more and more it means disconnecting from my network of reading, writing, watching, chatting, skyping, and listening.

On this vacation I was disconnected, but still managed to check my e-mail three times, look up some information on wikipedia, and tried to convince my Mother-In-Law that Google is god and is all knowing.

I wasn’t connected to my network, but was connected for reasons of survival. I had to check my e-mail to stay in contact with the person watching our cats, I did a live chat session with my bank because our Visa card got blocked (happens quit often actually) and e-mailed friends of ours that went with up but to a different part of the Island. We stayed in contact via e-mail and made sure we knew where each other was in case something was to happen.

The Internet and the ease in which it allows us to communicate are changing my definition of being connected. I don’t call this being connected any more than I would having a phone in my room. It just ‘is’ and we need it and rely on it just like we do did the telephone in the 20th century.

Do we have to use these new ways to communicate? No, but we use them and incorporate them into our lives without thinking about it. When we left Shanghai we didn’t give our friend the number of the hotel we were staying at in case there was an emergency, instead we said “e-mail us”. When we couldn’t get money from the ATM machine I didn’t make an expensive long distance phone call to my bank. I did a live chat session. When we needed information on a stomach bug I got, we didn’t go to the local doctor, we went to the web and wikipedia for answers.

Being disconnected is brining on a whole new meaning for me. It no longer means not having access, it just means not accessing my personal network. Not checked all 6 e-mails and blogs, but only my personal e-mail. Not interacting with information but rather just reading and gathering when needed the information I want. I guess this is what happens when we have ubiquitous access.

As for Bali….please enjoy my “100 pictures of Bali” Flickr slideshow!

Technorati Tags: Bali, connected, jeffutecht

Ok so I have been thinking pretty much non stop about research and bibliographies since the last time we spoke. Here is what I have been tinkering with…

A comment on my last post led me back to Lifehacker. This post held a wealth of opportunities, the most tasty of which were these three, which are in the final running..

First a quick review of my criteria. I need a web-based (or sync-able) program to be able to keep track of my research citations so that I can continue to work on a document prepping for submission for publication to journals. We are required to use the APA format, and I do have the Publication Manual here handy to consult as needed.

1.  Noodletools, $8 USD for one year, which I detailed in a previous post. Still very much in the running. I even emailed the son of the team and he emailed back saying he liked my posting. Heh.

2. SourceAid. $20 USD for one year. This is a tasty site, I have to say. It seems to offer very similar features to NoodleTools.  The interface is a little cleaner and seems a little more web 2.0. Ok not really, but the interface is a bit nicer and the questions are less confusing. For example, with NoodleTools, I had to know not to include the month of publication when citing a journal article, which I felt like should have been taken care of. SourceAid impressed me so much that I tried to sign up.

Twice. It declined my credit card without even asking for my address. No valid reason to decline, there’s plenty of room. Actually, it’s a debit card so I checked to make sure I wasn’t totally broke.  I’m not, although it’s slim pickings! No reason it should have declined, though. Is it worth fighting for? This may be what shoots me back to NoodleTools.

3. I also found a cool open source installable proggie called WIKINDX.  To be fair, I found a few installable proggies that could handle online bibliographies, but remember, I needed one that supported APA, which only WININDX did, best I could figure. I installed it in record time on my Bluehost account (full disclosure: that link has my affiliate code attached so I’d get credit if you signed up) and was up and running. I got a few records inputted and then tried to export them. It exported nicely as an APA list in Rich Text Format but there was a problem.

It wasn’t formatted correctly.

So far,  SourceAid has been the nicest in terms of formatting, as it gives a nice and easy download button right next to the citation, even when you’re using the free version. Noodletools allows you purely copy and paste when using the free version.

My big issue with NoodleTools, though, is the spacing. When the results come up, the spacing is not as strictly per the APA Publication Manual. With SourceAid, it is.

At least the Son of Citation Machine tells you to use your word processor to format the text to look like the illustration it shows, although the Son of Citation Machine does not allow you to enter an issue number for a journal article, only a volume number. So one portion of my citation is missing.

This is irritating. I am probably spending too much time on this, but hey, it’s keeping me from having to actually write the papers, right?!