Week 7: Webinar: ThinkFinity

Thinkfinity - Verizon Foundation Partnerships

www.thinkfinity.org

What is Verizon's ThinkFinity Webinar

I watched a prerecorded Thinkfinity Webinar from Thinkfinity.org.  This was a training webinar in how to use the site and resources.  I found the information helpful, informative and applicable in a number of ways.  First, in the things that I could possibly use in my classroom.  Second, things that others in my building might be able to use.  Finally third, things that might work with members of my family.  I am always hesitant when I see a major corporate connections to “educational” offerings.  I really feel like any corporate connection is minimized by the quality and quantity of information and partnerships.  I am including some of the links to some of their partnerships at the end of the blog.  

The search engine that Thinkfinity uses only searches within their partner sites.  They support educational resources in all subject areas.  The history resources supply a great number of primary source documents, like the Gettysburg Address from the Smithsonian.  

Thinkfinity offers free professional development through their webinars.  They supply certificates after completion of webinars and completion of survey.  This is a great supplement for rural communities like ours.  What I found really useful, even in the recorded webinars, are the active links to presenter notes, partners and resources.  

I have found a number of things in their podcasts that I am going to integrated into my current practice.  I have shared the CreditCard Simulator and lesson plans with our Family Consumer Sciences educator.  She has used a couple of the lesson plans.  I have also shared this with the middle school history educator.  She is always looking for primary source resources.  One for the greatest teachers for my son has been game-based applications.  There are many links to resources that are partnering with Thinkfinity. 

RESOURCES

1. Thinkfinity

     http://www.thinkfinity.org

2. Multimedia Explorations

Gettysburg Address-

http://logs2.smithsonian.museum/FlashBrowser/viewfa.htmlpath=kioskinteractives/GA_final/Document_gallery2.cis&aratio=1.77

Lewis and Clark-

     http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

     http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/

Great Game based activity

     http://sciencenetlinks.com/interactives/messenger/makeAMission.swf

3. Interactives

–Postcard Creator-

     http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/postcard/

How Many Under the Shell

     http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?id=198

Compound Interest Simulator

     http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=172

4. Detailed Plans

     http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/

5. Podcasts

     http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update_index.php

6. Thinkfinity Newsletter

     http://www.thinkfinity.org/newsletter.aspx

7. Free Training

     http://www.thinkfinity.org/pd/request_training.aspx

8. Join our Community

     http://www.community.thinkfinity.org/

9. Print your certificate (You created your login when you registered for the Webinar.)

      http://community.thinkfinity.org/community/professionaldevelopment?view=iframe

Week 9: Final Entry StarDate: 45022.154653795

Final Blog Entry

By Miguel Jiron, this video was featured this week at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York. He calls it Sensory Overload, and it's part of the Interacting With Autism Project

.............We end where we start........a little overwhelmed at the possibilities..........In the words of Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Where do we go from here?....."

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Being willing is not enough; we must do.

––Leonardo da Vinci

This is the final blog.  As the video visually illustrates, there is so much to take in and try to make sense in how, where and when I can utilize all the new information. 

“By developing an adaptive mindset, the connected learner can innovate.  Because technologies connect us and the potential now is to create a generation of participatory curriculum designers (you and your students), innovation is multiplies rather than added.  The shift is exponential rather than incremental.  Schools will change or become irrelevant.   Teacher will redefine themselves and their classrooms, or students will turn elsewhere in order to learn.” (p. 218, The Connected Learner)

Course Learning Objectives:

• Provide instruction and modeling regarding digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.

I have been using digital technologies in my classroom for a number of years.  There is a culture of appropriate and safe use within our space.  The expectations of how software and hardware are used to the design of the room in that all screens are visible.  We, the others music and visual arts educators, have zero tolerance classrooms and teach appropriate  and safe interactions in all online and critique processes.  I expect that as I move my curricula into a more collaborative model that appropriate use will continue as a core expectation.  

• Promote and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources. Familiarize students with Web2.0 tools that may be used professionally or within the classroom environment to establish deeper learning experiences through proper curricular standard driven development.

I have begun using and seeing the possibilities in connected learning and supports.  I am at a professional transition where hopefully, I become more involved in supporting and learning about effective use and integration of new technologies and how they relate to educational design and student learning.

• Become familiar with current technology issues, trends and technology use within the K- 12 environment. Discuss how technology use impacts student learning outcomes.

Schank says, learning is about making schematic connections, attaching new knowledge to existing understandings.  Piaget refers to learning as moving from a state of disequilibrium to one of assimilation of new ideas.  (Piaget, 1962; & Inhelder, 1969).  Learning is a jumping-off place where we not only attach new ideas to the old and assimilate them but make peace with the fact that we have to unlearn much of the knowledge we started with. (p. 218, The Connected Educator)

This Schank quote really sums up what we can do to extend and enhance student learning.  I need to be mindful and I must stay connected to a diverse group of learners and communities so that I can stay on “trend.”  Trends or technologies can only “impact” student learning if we truly understand how our students best learn.  

• Design and implement digitally-based learning experiences with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments

I have begun adjusting, augmenting and implementing digital-based learning in my Art History course.  I am seeing that some similar aspects, with some adjustment will work for my Digital Photography course.  I am hoping to also expand more online and perhaps “Flipped Classroom” model in my music classes for theory and composition.  

• Establish a core personal learning network of technology leaders to follow. Utilize this new network of educators as personal professional development.

We can no longer expect to learn all that there is to know.  Our jobs now, as educators, is to nurture a collective intelligence and, is in learning how to become part of connected learning communities.  Within that collective we  then begin to understand how to leverage those communities.  The goal is extending and continuing our learning. Not passively, but interactively learning with those around us but also the continued learning about ourselves.  We continue questioning our own ideas by finding those who will push us through questioning our mental models.

• Use knowledge of digital tools and technology applications to facilitate experiences that advance learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

The web has become not only a great curriculum resource but also a great learning resource.  And, if we so choose, each of us can add to the world’s understanding and can advocate for positive change. (p. 217, The Connected Educator)

Any education initiative whether “fact-to-face” or “virtual” is only as successful as the educator who can see the core value of the initiative and then leverage that within their curricula design and implementation.  

• Evaluate, adapt, and reflect on emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature.

Ongoing reflection and adjustment of our ideas and “mental models” is the only way to stay current to our students needs.  I have found that after twenty plus years in education, the greatest educational tool is reflection.  Taking a reflective stance while being open to the known possibilities but to all possibilities in the future.  

The best advice I could give to a new educator or leader is that we need to be discoverers of possibilities not the followers of trends.

As next week is Thanksgiving here is a family favorite.  Peace, happy seasons and success in making great discoveries.  

Stuffins

Recipe By: Timm Judas

Serving Size: 24

Ingredients:

1 package turkey gibblets, clean

3 cups white wine

2 cups beef broth

1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

1/4 tablespoon pepper

12 slices sourdough bread, dried

3 cups corn bread or corn muffin

3 cups celery, chopped

2 cups onion, chopped

2 cups carrot, chopped

1 tablespoon salt  

5 eggs, slightly beaten

4 cups chicken broth

Directions:

Sourdough and Cornbread Preparation

1. Make or buy one loaf of sourdough bread.

2. Slice, place on pan and put in 250˚ oven until dried, about one-hour.

3. Make cornbread or purchase three corn muffins.

Giblet Preparation

1. Rinse and clean giblets and neck.

2. Place wine, broth, neck and giblets in heavy two-quart and season with salt and pepper.

3. Boil until meat is cooked and reduced to under half, about 45-minutes

4. Set meat aside to cool.  Keep broth wine mixture.

Vegetable Preparation

1. Chop onion, carrots, and celery.

2. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Saute in large skillet until soft.

4. Set aside until cool.

Putting It All Together

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ fahrenheit.

2. Slice giblets and pull neck meat off of bone and set aside.

3. Crumble sourdough bread and corn bread in large bowl.

4. Add prepared vegetables.

5. Add giblets, eggs, giblet broth and chicken broth.

6. Mix until well combined

7. Spoon into prepared muffin tins.

8. Bake until edges are brown and firm, about 25-minutes.

9. Cool for 10-minutes then serve.

Notes:

Can be prepared, covered with foil and refrigerated the night before.  

Week 8: Blog - Come on just try it, you'll like it.

“He who learns from one who is learning, drinks from a flowing river.”

--Mark Wagner

Source

I am part of a personal learning network at my school.  It is not digitally based and does not extend much beyond a dozen or so area schools.  I have not seen where I could find the time or value in becoming part of the larger digital community........This last set of articles begun redefining that view.  

There are two areas that have emerged out of these readings.  First is the requirement of moving beyond our voyeuristic position of web involvement and insecurities around educational leadership.  Second, meeting students where their educational needs live.  

In her article, Social Networking: Building Toward Learning Communities, Ruth Reynard makes a very good point.  

“My discussion here does not negate that good work but introduces the idea that social networking is only the beginning of a longer and more complex process of socially constructed learning and ultimately collaboration and knowledge building.....in an active learning community, those relationships should evolve into actual idea exchange and knowledge construction.”

I see this within the context of the coming educational shift.  No longer can we selflessly surf as disengaged voyeurs of information and ideas.  We are now being asked to become involved in the creation and exchange of ideas.  We will now strive to let go of “ownership” and work collaboratively in the creation of new paradigms and constructs.  

For success in these coming times we must continue to move forward but not before understanding how we move forward.  

"Self-proclaimed learners understand they will  never “get it” because “it” will always change!"

--Angela Maiers

As educators we need to not just understand this, we need to know this.  

If understanding is intellectual then knowing is felt at our core beliefs.

After we know, we then allow ourselves to be imperfect.  We no longer need to, “Stay one chapter ahead of our students.”  This new knowledge allows us to approach design that allows us to learn as we facilitate learning.

“Today, we have the potential to tap into a flow of conversation, a web-based learning ecology, that we can learn from 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

--Miguel Guhlin

Vitruvian Man, Leonard DaVinci, circa 1487

Our final hurdle is knowing that,  as educators, we can only connect to our students if we are willing to step into their communities.  From there, we can begin to move those students out of their digital 140-character construct of “me” into the communities of “we.”  It is then possible to leverage their base knowledge within communities that work towards the goal of all.  

“The purpose of education is Change....So I would Change the world.”

--Simon Finch

Week Seven: Blog Post - Learning inHand

“I never teach my pupils.  I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

--Albert Einstein

This quote paints the intent of these video’s.  Tony Vincent is great at presenting while explaining and instructing.  It is helping to frame and inform the structure that I am taking with my final project.

Tony like Eric Mazur puts great weight on the planning portion of the work they do.  It is about creating Driving Questions that cannot be answered easily.  I like Tony’s Project Based Learning quote, “Instead of teachers covering material, students uncover the answers.”  

Chris Lehmann in his presentation at the 012 Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, says that, "Our schools have to be healthy places for adults before they can be healthy for our students.”  Before any Project Based Learning can happen, a healthy community needs to exist.  When we design projects that are going to extend a number of days we have to “know” our community.  We also, have to move out if a, “We can do.” to a, “We will do!” attitude.  As the emotional leaders of classrooms we lead through a positive momentum  As long as we maintain that truth, students will step up and create wonderful things.  Lehmann refers to that as it, “Get(ting) what you want, and you will get more then that."  

Annie - Newbury Elementary School 2003

I bring an aspect to the theater program when I collaborate with high school students.  That is a vision of continuity.  It is the same thing I do in my Visual Arts and Music classrooms.  I front load as much in the way of “problematizing everything.”  Being as proactive as much of the time while also realizing there will be moments that we will need to adjust.  A believe that, “If necessity is the mother of invention, then panic is the father.”  Anyone who believes they are the director of a play or chorus is loosing out on the opportunity of collaboration.  Working together towards the common vision of the group not the individual.

Much of what we have read and seen this semester centers on crafting great questions and creating integrated design.  I think we also need to remember that at some point during the process the educator has to become one of the collaborators.  It takes a seasoned educator that can step aside and learn with their students.

Max

I find it interesting that so much of the this course just make good educational sense.  My son is autistic or as we say now, Autastic!  When we meet with his teachers we ask them to think about Max as potentially one of their greatest teachers.  What he manifest through his verbal or physical commentary is what others are thinking but not saying.  This is typically met with a roll of the eye.  However, at the end of the year, his educators say how much they have learned about teaching from him.  In the same way with this course, what has been offered as suggestions continues to broadened my educational lexicon in the possibilities of ideas, community, technology and digital tools.

Week 6: Animoto

25th Wedding Anniversary Foodie Trip to NYC

"BusyBusyBusy", Album: Philadelphia Chickens, sung by Kevin Kline, words by Sandra Boynton (The children's author), music by Michael Ford. 

She has turned her successful children's poetry books into mini-musicals.

Week Six: PodCast "The Middle Ages"

I created this PodCast in GarageBand to support differentiational student support in the next unit of my Art History class.

The podcast is a great way to support diverse learners.  It is time consuming in creating the audio track. Doing this in GarageBand makes the process a bit easier and gives me more control in image insertion and audio track controls around volume and fade-in, fade-out controls.  

Although tedious, the final product is worth the time and effort.  It will be there as long as I teach this course.  A number of students have used this to learn new information but also to help with the crossword puzzle that accompanies the reading.  

Week Five: Post 2 - MidTerm Reflection

“The death of education but the dawn of learning.” 

--Stephen Heppell, CEO Heppell.net LTD., UK

Course Objectives:

• Provide instruction and modeling regarding digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.

As this question relates to digital communities concerning this class, I have not specifically addressed this objective.  I will share what I currently do and see the integration of more technology moving in the same direction.

In the arts, we are very careful about how we introduce any idea concerning the possibility of “critique” or evaluative procedures.  For my students, I have created a continuum of how we enter into a critique process, whether it is digital or first person direct. 

by Timm Judas, 2012

First we establish norms of proper response and interaction etiquette.  Second, our first experience with critique is only positive, “What do you like about your work?” and “What do you like about another work?”  Third, direct criticism is always framed within the responses of, “Have you thought about this?” and, “If this were my work, I would.........”  I model, and we practice these types of interactions and types of responses.

• Promote and demonstrate effective use of digital tools and resources. Familiarize students with Web2.0 tools that may be used professionally or within the classroom environment to establish deeper learning experiences through proper curricular standard driven development.

I have started to address this objective through an online quiz format that will eventually lead to a final exam.  There were two things that I took away from the VIDEO: Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur.  First, the course syllabus should not include the content of the course but rather the “Learning Outcomes” of the course.  “Shift Focus from [teaching] to helping students learn.” (video, Mazur, 16:37)  Second, his only quiz that includes four questions.  The first three are questions from the reading and the fourth is, “What do you have questions about or what are you confused by?”  He then designs his peer teaching questions for the following day to include these identified questions/concerns.

• Become familiar with current technology issues, trends and technology use within the K- 12 environment. Discuss how technology use impacts student learning outcomes.

If we think about the research that Eric Mazur presents, it is depth of discovery and understanding over “coverage,” or as stated in the Common Core Standards for Math and English, “breadth” where students gain the best chance of moving further in their true understanding of presented ideas.  His research also shows that a student who is  more to able to solve “conceptual” problems will also score better on conventional questions.  However, the inverse is not true.  A student who scores well on “conventional” (memorized) information, typically will bomb “conceptually” based questions.  Building on Mazur’s ideas, well designed conceptually based problems that utilize technology as part of the “solving” process will lead to more authentic, therefore deeper understanding of their learning.......it will support their ability to, as Mazur says, ”build their mental models.”

I am now using EBlogger, Diigo, GoogleNews and GoogleReader.  They have become a daily peruse.  I am transitioning from folders on my tool bar to highlighting and tagging blogs, articles, videos websites using Diigo and have started creating tags within my documents so that I can search my hard-drive more easily.  I am starting to “curate” my information.

So, on the continuum of this Objective, I feel as though I am moving from a high  application of use into the understanding of systems that will best support my style of teaching and aligning with students individual styles of learning.

• Design and implement digitally-based learning experiences with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments

"Tea Time" by Sally Williams, 2012

I am in the middle of this process.  This class is helping to focus this, through identification and application suggestions and successful models.  These will inform  how I ultimately create, shift and tweak their usage in my classroom as formative and summative assessments.

• Establish a core personal learning network of technology leaders to follow. Utilize this new network of educators as personal professional development.

I am part of a developing core of technology leaders in our area schools and supervisory union.  I do need to expand outside the confines of our river here and see what other best practices other Arts and Music educators are involved with and are building.

• Use knowledge of digital tools and technology applications to facilitate experiences that advance learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments.

I think that I have addressed this throughout this post’s comments.  I do not envision blogs or wikipages becoming part of my immediate programming.  If I can work out a clear and direct way to post images of student work, I will then use blogs as a formative critique assessment.  This is one of the areas that I want to still pursue.  Currently, there are no other teachers in our school using blogging with their students.

• Evaluate, adapt, and reflect on emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature.

“Reviewing current research and professional literature.”  I am on it. “Participating in local and global learning communities.”  Not so much.

“Evaluate, adapt, and reflect on emerging tools and trends.”  I am, by nature a reflective person.  I think of it like this.  The art that I make is all over the place.  I am versed with most media; photography, sculpture, clay, collage mixed-media, ceramics, painting, printmaking and so on.  I don’t believe that everything needs to be painted, photographed or created in only one media.  Part of the process as an artist is the dialogue the creator has with the created.  Part of the process as an educator is the dialogue the educator has with the student.  So, part of the process of education is understanding the needs, skill, ability and voice of the student.  Not all students are meant to be great painters, but all students should be comfortable at expressing their point of view, through what ever media connects to them.  

I treat information, technology and the act of making the same way as I create a mixed-media work of art..  I have a barn full of stuff.  For the most part, I have that inventory stored in my head.  When I come to create a work I start with the pieces from the barn and develop them.  What evolves is a synthesis between what is created through the dialogue of what my needs are as the creator and what the object will allow me to do.  If I find that what I have in the barn will not work, then I search for what will.  

"Saint Joan" by Timm Judas, 2012     22x42

The artwork that I have included here is an example of that.  I collected the wire dress form from the middle of the street in Boston.  It has sat in my barn for over twenty-years waiting for the other components, which were painting techniques, maps of Europe, one of my daughters senior pictures, the play “St. Joan” by George Bernard Shaw, stained glass techniques, and the digital photo-transfer processes, that I just learned this past year and developed for this piece.

I am always reflecting about all the information and things that I have in my life.......you never know from where the next great ???? is going to come.

Week Five: Post 1 - Working Smarter not Harder

Working Smarter not Harder

Technology and Standards, is it the technology that drives the project or the project that drives the technology? Use the "Tool it is collaboration PDF" above to help with this post.

Imagine building a house using only a hammer and nails.  No saws, levels, measurement devices or other tools.  Tools were invented to make our lives easier; to help us work smarter, not harder.  I can no longer imagine using a traditional screwdriver to drive those three-inch deck screws.  In fact, I wait until the battery is recharged before resuming a project requiring........wait.....stop....did I really write “requiring?”  New awareness, my schema of what hand tools and building are has moved into a nonnegotiable stance about battery powered assist when designing or constructing.  

Capelle is getting at this in his article, It’s Not About the Tool: Why Online Student Collaboration Should Focus on State Standards “Too often it seems that a blossoming educator ready to explore the new frontier of Web 2.0 says, [I want to make a blog,] or [My class should use a wiki.] While this willingness to explore technology is admirable, it is also a case of focusing on the tool, and not on what the educator intends to do with it.“

I think one of the larger issues facing less technologically able educators, is finding that balance between curricula and technology.  As educators we are faced with the pressing demands of high-stakes testing and the reactive stance that happens under the pressures of making, “Annual Yearly Progress, (AYP)”  Unfortunately, I am generalizing here, it has been my experience that school leadership have a hard time seeing the gestalt of how it all can work together, how to facilitate all areas in working together.  AYP is a by-product of a well designed and supported education system, not the goal of Math, Science, English and Social Studies.

How can technology help us to work smarter not harder?  Time!!!!! Time to explore. Time to understand.  Time to apply.  Time to reflect.  Time to adjust.........and repeat.  This impacts first, the individuals, then a small group then a system.  

Question.......Is it possible to shift an educational system in regards to technology, standards and assessment in the time that technology is relevant to current user abilities and the ever shifting educational initiatives?  Is there research around this?  I am also surprised how quickly the “Connected Educator: Chapter Five” and some of the articles seem less relevant.

As a problems / performance-based educator in visual arts and music, I have been wrestling with the same topic as Capelle.  Going back to an earlier blog and reframing Capelle’s quote.  “Too often it seems that a blossoming educator ready to explore the Arts says, [I want to make Art or Music,] or [My class should use the Arts.] While this willingness to explore the Arts is admirable, it is also a case of focusing on the methods and tools, and not on what the educator intends to do with it.“.......

“It is our differences that make us strong” --Jean-Luc Picard

Week 4: Thoughts on GoogleReader & Social Bookmarking

“Know where to look, Know who to ask.”

I now have GoogleReader, GoogleNews and Diiago. It seems that this trio will work well for my needs. I also use the whole suite of Google of programs. I love the fact that this information is “at-my-fingertips,” and that by using tags, I get to the relevant information more quickly.

I am in Boston this weekend. I like the metaphor of this city. To successfully navigate the city I have a few simple procedures. First, decide on the destination. Second, create a map in my head of how to get there. That does not mean it will be the most direct route. This map is dependent on time of day, weather and road work that I am aware of. Third, I have two other alternate routes at the ready in case of the “unexpected.” Without these in place I become very unfocused in my driving in Boston. Social Media, Bookmarking, Reader, Cloud, DropBox, and RSS are destinations with wonderfully diverse uses. My father used to say, “Use the right tool for the right job.......if you don’t have it, go out and buy it or hire a professional.”

Now the issue. My laptop is a few years old.  Memory nearly filled. In fact, I had to move forty-plus gigs onto a backup drive so I would be able to do what I needed for this week’s assignments. The Cloud, along with all the digital community is completely reliant on access, relative speed, processor and bandwidth. I don’t tend to use GoogleDocs because of my inability to maintain consistent access speed. 

As I see the possibilities I will start thinking about the possibilities to “leverage” as much educational power that I can from all the new communities. Christopher Lehman, principal of the Science Leadership Academy says, “Technology need to be ubiquitous, necessary and invisible.” Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century  This is how I feel.  Technology should be a natural extension of what we reach out for to enhance our lives.

Week 4: Digital Media: New Learners of the 21st Century.

Digital Media: New Learners of the 21^st Century

“Probably the most important thing for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change.” 

-John Seely Brown

This is probably the most profound statement in the video, and it happens in the first eleven seconds of the video.  The primary themes of this video are empowering students in their own education and developing educational systems that leverage current and potential technologies and digital communities.

So, you can see that we could imagine a day where learning and assessment are the same thing.  That is, we build such rich learning systems, they already assess themselves. Think about it - - that would be, in the end, cheap, because we wouldn't need the testing industry anymore. We... We would just need a learning industry.

--James Gee

I love this quote. I watched this video while waiting my turn to get my hair cut.  We have been going to Mario’s for over twenty-years.  Mario and Pepé have been cutting hair in Davis Square for over thirty-years.  They come from the old country and the majority of their staff is related to them or are Italian as well.  All communication in the salon happens in Italian and so to most of their cliental, it occurs in the background of our “normal” American English existence. So much so, they step in between these two world seamlessly.  “Tieem, you go wash your hair.”

“....learning and assessment are the same thing.”  

The digital communities, technologies and operations are becoming this seamless.  I remember the days of DOS.  You really had to understand some fundamental programming to use the applications. Then we moved to icon user interface where a click of a button completed a series of actions.  Now we are at the point were we turn it on and chat or shop.

This video does a really great job of showing the collaborative realities that new schools are making work and how they are helping to empower students.  

“I think a lot of what's happening with this program (Smithsonian Institution) is that the individual student is being empowered, and they're being empowered to sort of follow a different course, maybe, or to follow a very personal sort of path to understanding what the great artists have always done.”  

--Richard Koshalek

We have moved into an age of information creation through collaboration.  We are soon going to see more novels, music, art and media done through collaboration, yet evolving the idea of authorship and originality.  Kurzwell refers to “singularity” as the point of the machine becoming self-aware.  I believe the “singularity” will involve us all. 

“Most of our learning could very well come from the interaction with the peers in this particular collective that I'm a part of because we all know that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach something. So, in peer-based collaboration, you're both learning and teaching, and that sense of having to explain to other something is often the way you discover what you yourself know and don't know.”  

--John Seely Brown

"If we teach today's students the way we taught them yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow."  

--John Dewey

Flipped Classroom

Flipped Classroom

KWL Post

What I know?

I have been using technology personally, and educationially for as long and I can remember.  I believe strongly in the adage, “Work smarter not harder.”  The issue is, with this adage and technology, that every time I sit down at a computer, ipad, iphone  or keyboard (music), I end up doing number of other things, working on my learning curve or trying to figure out how to leverage what the software currently does not do to approximate what it is I am trying to accomplish.  

   

What do I want to learn?

I am always interested in leveraging what it is that I know with new ways to doing.  This is throughout my life.  For instance, I hate how much waste kCups create.  There is perfectly good coffee grounds inside the kCup, that could be used for compost and growing medium.  The coffee maker came with a do-it-yourself refillable kCup that fits in the coffee maker.  The problem is, it takes as long to clean and refill this as it would to make an entire traditional drip pot of coffee.  I also despise random coffee grounds all over my sink when I try to clean out the refillable cup as much as I dislike using the kCup.  So, the choices are, don’t drink kCup coffee or only make one cup and let someone else clean out the refillable cup.

Cleaning out the cupboard one afternoon I found some unused coffee filters from the unused drip coffee maker.  “Do I keep them......do I recycle them?  I am too cheap to recycle perfectly packaged and good filters......fast forward a week later.

Grumbling again about having to clean out my refillable pod container, the sink and now my shirt, I wondered, “Why don’t they make a make a miniature natural compostable filter that would fit inside the refillable container?”   “Wait can I?.......I look to paper towels....pause.... eureka.....I will cut down the unused drip filters into four inch circles....crimp slightly....put into the refillable.......presto fresh cup of coffee....take off lid....pull out soggy packet....toss into compost bin....rinse container....no pesky grounds in my sink!

So, your question is, “What do I want to learn?”  My response is, “Be my natural coffee filter,” I will use everything that you can offer, along with anything that assists me in making connections to my practice.

Though........in a perfect world.  My photo students use iPhoto to download and do minor edits.  Their assessments would be less fragmented, (handing in workbooks before doing the online aspect) if they could upload (drag and drop) from iPhoto into “googleforms” so the image would accompany the assessment portion of the unit.  I am thinking more integration rather than more steps and different websites...more paperless whenever possible.

What do I currently use?

All classroom management; attendance, announcements, schedules, handbooks, business forms are digitally available and, in some cases, fillable. 

I use technology in the home, work and in my music and art classrooms.  In art, students watch online videos to reinforce “throwing” on the wheel (ceramics).  Their handbook, that I created, used to reside online.  Students document their work digitally and include this photo into their assessment packets.  In my digital photography class, all formative / summative assessments are online.  I use GoogleForms, spread sheets and FileMakerPro.  In my Art History Class, I have implemented a student self designed differentiated homework quiz.  Individually, students create four questions based on the video, reading, vocabulary homework.  They also answer these questions along with one question that I include.  These questions will then comprise their final exam at the end of the semester.  This is all done electronically by exporting the googleForm into spreadsheet, then into FileMakerPro, and from there, I can print out individual exams.  

In music, students use iPads to access online music theory units, watch youtube performances.  My accompaniment music is on my iPad and I have a foot controller to turn pages.  I use software called “Sibelius” along with a digital USB keyboard. I input music manually, from PDF’s or through realtime direct keyboard input.  From this, I can make rehearsal CD’s, write and arrange music and print out the sheet music for students. 

I use technology throughout every day.  I look forward to new ways of extending, deepening and broadening my use of the media and connections in the digital communities.   

Week 3: Video and RSS My World Just Opened Up

Essential Question: Are schools exploring all of the free resources available to them, encouraging teachers to use this technology in the classroom to engage and energize all learners?

I have known about the exsistance of RSS feeds since when they were RDF feeds.  In fact, one of my earlier MacBook’s screensavers was an RSS Feed of the headlines for the day.  Didn’t have a clue though of what it was, what it meant and what it’s potential was.........until today. 

RSS (Rich Site Summary) Allows users to avoid manually inspecting all the websites they are interested in, and instead subscribe to websites such that all new content is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes available. --Wikipedia: RSS

So now through Google Reader I have subscribed to Huffington Post and Scott McLeod’s Blog.  I have also put the application FeeddlerPro on my IPad.  Thank you “Kathy’s basket”

Scott McLeod’s article is great.  I agree 100% about his ten points.  Of this ten, nine take little to no money to implement.  They do require a shift in our perceptions of what is important in technology and how it is used.  I think however, we are at the point in where we can only support the seasoned educators and encourage the new educators in the strategies that can be used and become leaders.  I would propose that research would say that when a major shift in education occurs it takes the generation that was taught within that shift to be able to implement it fully....perhaps up to twenty years.  

I feel like we are at one of those shifts.  I see two major areas of affect.  First, is the idea that technology is now integral to most aspects of an individuals life and will always be interactive and no longer passive.  Second, we are permanently shifting into online virtual hybrids of educational paradigms. 

It also make me think about the term “technology” and how it almost seems redundant.  For me, it implies that it is something separate and apart from other functions.  I see the term evolving just as “community” is coming to mean much more.  In fact, could “community” also come to mean those interactive technological parts that integrate the organic members.”  A point where we could not communicate or succeed without these nonorganic members.  In some aspects of our lives we are already there. 

What happens when we figure out to create a system that is 100% organic.  Systems that are biological, neuron, synapsis based instead of resistor and chip based.  Will one blend into the other and become invisible..........sorry another “Borg” moment.

Michael Wesch - Video: A Portal to Media Literacy

This video gives me a lot to think about.  For me the big takeaway is the idea of “Creating Significance” for our students.  Michael suggest the following three steps.  

1. “Find a grand narrative to provide relevance and context for learning (addresses semantic meaning)
2. Create a learning environment that values and leverages the learners themselves (addresses personal meaning)
3. Do both in a way that realizes and leverages the existing media environment (and therefore allows students to realize and leverage the existing media environment)

“The challenge for higher learning: Creating platforms for participation that allow students to realize and leverage the emerging media environment.”

He follows this comment with the following model graphic and definitions. 

Network = Participation  Hierarchy = "Obey Authority"  Mass = Follow Along

The challenge is how to leverage the existing and new media to enable and engage all students.  In an environment that they all become the experts.

“Move from being knowledgeable to knowledge-able.”  --Michael Wesch