No Choice...take that second seat

I found Christine Archer's blog this afternoon - she's a technology coordinator in Colorado. Looking through some of her more recent posts, she had posted a quote from Will Richardson:

We may not feel comfortable in a world filled with technology. We may not like the way it’s changing things and, even more, how fast it’s changing things. We may not like the way it pushes against much of what we’ve been doing in schools for eons. But our kids don’t have a choice. And if we’re going to fulfill our roles as teachers in our kids lives, neither do we.

In working with teachers, I find so much resistance to doing new things for the sake of students. Just this past week, I encountered two teachers, both of whom were working on innovative classroom stuff, that learned they might be pursuing other career options next year. As a result - in a reaction that's perfectly emotional and perfectly understandable - have decided not to invest the time or energy into their projects.

While I completely understand their sentiment, it's disappointing that they felt that way. Teachers are only human, and first and foremost have to take care of themselves and their families. But this is also a profession which, unlike almost any other, gives so much to others without asking equal in return.

I would've liked for both of these teachers to be willing to continue working on their projects for the sake of the students. Even if they weren't going to be at this school next year, they would've left an excellent model for technology-infused instruction - and if they were to teach next year, could've taken the idea with them to their new school. I had offered to help both teachers with the projects, and could've taken their work - making sure they received due credit - and provided it to other teachers for the students' benefit.

Teaching is, unfortunately, one of those professions where those engaged in it often have to take a second seat to those being served by it.

Civilization Project - Step 3 and more...

This past week, I started a long-term project using Civilization 4 in Mr. Hawkins' World History classes. During our block (90-minute period) days, students will play the same scenario for half of the time. The class is divided into ten groups, with half playing at one time on five laptops with Civ 4 Warlords installed.

Here's a brief summary of how this project is being set up. For future reference, you can follow along with the notes I'm taking in class here: Civilization Classroom Observations (on Google Docs).

Our overall goals are to 1) see how viable the Civilization series is as a tool for teaching the broader concepts of history; and 2) give the students a different "perspective" on history, and perhaps use it as an inquiry-based teaching tool.

In short order, I think I'll create a projects page on the blog to compile the Civilization information - links to this and other posts, sample files (such as the scenario file mentioned herein and information given to students), and so on.

Scenario: The groups are playing a custom scenario, in which they are playing in a fictional (random) world. This will allow them to experience the discovery of their geography, instead of relying on their knowledge of a historical map to know where resources and neighbors are.

The geography included four main continents. Two civilizations were located on one continent; no teams were assigned either of these civs in order to let them develop uninterrupted until discovered. One continent held three civs; another held four. A fourth continent had resources but no indigenous civilizations (not even barbarian), to serve as a "land of plenty" for any civs who discover it (human or computer). (The students were not told of this geographical layout.)

Every playable civ was given the same starting parameters (cities, units, technologies, etc.), so that no assigned civ would be at an advantage or disadvantage.

Groups: In order to do some comparative history, five of the ten groups in each class were assigned the same civilization (the French empire, appropriate to the time period/location in history currently being covered in class). The other five were assigned other empires (Indian, Ottoman, Aztec, Chinese, Celtic) within the same game world.

We'll be able to do some comparative history within the class using the French empire(s); we can compare the other empires across classes as well.

Technology disconnect between students and teachers?

In my conversations with teachers and with students, I'm always drawn towards an apparent disconnect between what teachers feel is good classroom technology use - what the students need, how the material needs to be taught - and what students feel is good use - what they'd really like to see with technology in the classroom.

My administration recently gave me permission to pull together a small student panel to address this issue. The students will be a representative group of the various demographics we have - advanced and on-level; males and females; high and low GPAs; races and nationalities; etc. I'd like to find out from students 1) what teachers are doing right regarding their use of classroom technology; 2) what teachers are doing wrong; and 3) what more could be done.

Right now, my list of questions is as follows:

• What should "students using technology in the classroom" look like?
• What are some examples of ways teachers have used technology in the classroom that you like? (You are engaged, you find the lesson interesting, etc.)
• What are some examples of ways teachers have used technology that they think you like but you don't?
• What are some examples of ways technology should be used for learning?
• What technology do you use outside of school that would be good for the classroom? Why?
• What can technology do for you to make you more successful in school and once you graduate?
• How does technology in high school look different than it did in middle school? How are your teachers using it differently?

The questions will be provided to the panelists ahead of time, to give them time to think about their answers. I'll ask them either to fill out an online form, or bring their answers in written down. All questions will be answered anonymously, and will serve as fodder for discussions when I bring the whole group together. (Some of the district technology staff have expressed interest in sitting in on the discussion.)

Is this a comprehensive enough list? Are there other questions I should be asking them? I'd appreciate some comments and feedback.

Once the panel convenes and I have some results, I'll post them here.

The Wired Generation Reaches Out

I'm sitting here at home tonight, watching the last hour of the Hope for Haiti Now telethon on...well, every channel. I had just heard about it yesterday; I don't know how long it was in the planning, but it was quite a few A-listers.

What struck me about the telethon was, while I doubt the content and format of the telethon was very different than telethons thirty years ago, the ways viewers can donate are quite different. 30 years ago, there were no other ways to donate other than by phone and possibly post mail.

For Hope for Haiti Now, you can donate by:

• calling in (and talking to a celebrity);
• visiting the website;
• text messaging GIVE to 50555; 
• downloading music tracks from the telethon at http://www.itunes.com/haiti;
• downloading the video of the telethon from iTunes;
• downloading the Hope for Haiti Now iPhone app;
• and joining the cause on Facebook.

I'd like to see 1) what the demographic breakdown was of the telethon viewers was; and 2) what the breakdown of the telethon donors was. How many older adults (50's and up) visited Facebook or iTunes or texted their donation, and how many teens and twenty-somethings stuck to only the phone?

On an educational note, educators are like telethon organizers - endeavoring to reach out to kids to get involved, so to speak. Are we really using all the right tools in the right ways?

Showing stuff when and where you want

Three recent articles I read about the next generation of multimedia display and interaction. They all seem to go together in the same vein...so here's that vein.

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New Projectors Make Any Wall an Interactive Whiteboard (eSchoolNews)

eSchoolNews reported on two LCD projectors - Epson's BrightLink 450Wi and Boxlight's ProjectoWrite2/W - which incorporate the functionality of an interactive whiteboard within the projector itself. What this means is that by using the infrared or wireless stylus that accompanies the projector, you can turn any surface - a pre-installed classroom whiteboard, a cafeteria, media center or gymnasium wall, or any flat surface in a teaching location - into an interactive whiteboard.

While I think IWB's have both positives and negatives, and that they're not the classroom-revolutionizers that they're always made out to be, these new projectors have some game-changing potential. First, it means that school districts wouldn't have to pay for both a projector and a whiteboard, thereby allowing them to redirect purchasing funds to other assets. Second, I've found in my district that our IWB's logically had to be installed in a particular location in the classroom - on top of an existing whiteboard - which then essentially locks the configuration of the classroom of a teacher who wants to use it. Without having a set IWB location, teachers can reconfigure their classrooms to, for example, permit easier student access to the IWB surface and allowing them more hands-on interaction with the technology.

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Are Pico Projectors the Next Big Cellphone Trend? (Yahoo! News/Reuters)

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas over the second weekend in January, Microvision, 3M, and Texas Instruments all demonstrated "pico" projectors - about the size of a bar of soap, and using laser technology to project excellent images. Commercials for cell phone projectors have even already started popping up, but the application can extend beyond cell phones. For example, with the advent of Windows 7 and it's support for tablet PC's, couple that with a pico projector, and you have the ability to take standard classroom technology and add the benefit of extreme portability.

Imagine if you couple that with the technology mentioned above to include radio- or IR-based IWB functionality. Wow - while I love being able to work in a classroom of today with projected interactivity, imagine what it'll look like in 10 years.

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CES: TVs From the Third Dimension... (CNET)

Also at CES, the biggest talk was about 3D TV. Several companies premiered their new 3D television sets, and while they follow on the heels of James Cameron's 3D masterpiece Avatar, there are some drawbacks (as there are with any first-generation technology): they are expected to be the most expensive in their respective companies' lines; they don't have much 3D content yet; and viewers will still need "the glasses", although not the cheesy cardboard red-blue glasses of the past.

While a very cool toy for some, I have no doubt that should these find their way into schools, it'll be quite a while. And I'm not sure I can envision an entire classroom of students comfortably keeping the glasses on. It may have the potential for creating even more interesting virtual field trips, but for the standard presentation in the front of the class? Seems kind of superfluous. Or am I wrong?

All a-Twitter...or for the birds?

So I know Twitter is the rage right now - only 140 characters, people? - but I haven't really gotten the driving urge to get into it. However, part of me (part of the professional part and part of the personal part, in a bizarre Venn diagram of psyche) feels like I owe it to the blogosphere (twittersphere?) to do so. I guess, in a way, tweeting is a little like mini-blogging.

So despite the fact that 1) my phone has a busted screen and therefore no way of accessing a mobile Twitter app; 2) Twitter is blocked by my district (and yet the district uses it to communicate information to the community, oh the irony); and 3) as if I don't already have enough to check online when I get home, here I go.  You can find me as techieteacherga on Twitter.

1. As I build my list of Followers and Followed, let me know what your profile is. I'll be going through my blogroll and following any of those folks.
2. Check out the new Twitter badge on the right side of techieteacher.
3. Because I'll probably forget to check my own Twitter page regularly, I'm going to subscribe via RSS on my Google Reader account. Hopefully that'll get me using it more.

Anyone have any tips on what has made your Tweeting easier or more useful? Or more addictive?

Whiteboards: Just a New Way to Conduct Old-Fashioned Teaching?

Photo found at http://www.musicteachersblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/whiteboardimage.jpg

As this second semester begins, I've been thinking about the kinds of trainings I want to offer to my staff. One very popular topic is how to use the interactive Promethean whiteboards and their proprietary software, ActivInspire (formerly ActivStudio). My concern about interactive whiteboards is that teachers don't really use them to their full potential.

I found a post on Michael Gorman's 21st Century EdTech blog referring to the "sage on the stage" syndrome. - that while teachers may embrace this new technology as revolutionizing teaching in the classroom, the same teaching behavior still exists in the classroom. On eHow, an article describing Reasons Schools Use Smart Boards even uses some odd language. The article talks about how, for example, a teacher in Michigan can "deliver material in a way that students are more used to seeing at home." [emphasis added] It goes to quote a teacher from a 2006 study of whiteboard use in the classroom as saying, "...Teachers will appreciate the selection of user templates and other great features that can only enhance their existing instructional methodologies." [ea]

That's the problem, as I see it - the "existing instructional methodologies" is just that, "delivering material." It still takes the position as the teacher as dispenser of knowledge and the students as receptacles. An interactive whiteboard is still positioned (usually) at the front of the room, where the teacher will stand and pontificate.

Don't get me wrong; I acknowledge the fact that there are times when the teacher must provide students with correct information to benefit their learning. But should the 21st-century classroom still be so teacher-centered? Harry Keller over on the Educational Technology and Change blog thinks that given all the glitz and glamour that an interactive whiteboard provides, they may not be as effective as everyone likes to think they are. I'm kind of inclined to agree with him...kind of.

I'd love to hear your comments about how a classroom with an interactive whiteboard can be truly student-centered. One example - and kudos to my math department - is that Promethean also markets an ActivSlate, which allows a user to remotely write on the whiteboard, but is the length and width of a textbook and can be passed around the room. Putting the whiteboard in the students' hands, so to speak. What do you think?

Once I get an idea of how I'm going to deliver this training to my teachers and incorporate using the boards in a more student-centered way, I'll make sure to post it.