Think-Aloud, 'Real Blogging' and Storify

In my reading of education blogs I keep coming back to the work of Will Richardson. One thing that has been a persistent mental irritant with no small measure of dissonance for me is Will's thoughts on how much of what bloggers do is, in fact, not really blogging. This list of what does/not constitute blogging resonates-

Posting assignments. (Not blogging)

Journaling, i.e. “This is what I did today.” (Not blogging)

Posting links (Not blogging)

Links with descriptive annotation, i.e. “This site is about…” (Not really blogging either, but getting close depending on the depth of the description.)

Links with analysis that gets into the meaning of the content being linked. (A simple form of blogging.)

Reflective, meta-cognitive writing on practice without links. (Complex writing, but simple blogging, I think. Commenting would probably fall in here somewhere.)

Links with analysis and synthesis that articulates a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind. (Real blogging)

Extended analysis and synthesis over a longer period of time that builds on previous posts, links and comments. (Complex blogging)

And as my students begin their work reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" Will's list kept nagging at me. Then I thought "isn't a lot 'real blogging' just a Think-Aloud?" So in lieu of the usual pre-reading lists and worksheets my students are going to be blogging. Real blogging - but blogging as a Think-Aloud. 

Given that mimetics is at the heart of learning I thought that I'd try my own Think-Aloud with a recent article. The article is about how Death Valley is experiencing a rare occurrence - an outbreak of wildflowers. 

 

Right away images of the desert spring to mind with the mere mention of the name "Death Valley". The smell of wildflowers, dry winds, kalediscopic colors all flood the senses, but so do other texts. One I can't help but think of is the closing monologue of "25th Hour". While it's an amazing finish to a so-so film the use of the word "desert" always brings this scene to mind: 

From the opening lines of the article 

A rare burst of color is softening the stark landscape of Death Valley, with clusters of purple, pink and white wildflowers dotting the black basalt mountainsides and great swaths of golden blooms bordering the blinding white salt flats on the valley floor.

these connections just come given the idea of flowers springing from land that is otherwise dead. It also recalls T.S. Elliot's Wasteland and the opening stanza

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

 

and while this poem connects to the processes at work in the article it also connects to my own experiences with poetry. Elliot's Wasteland was one of the first poems that I read and reread in high school. At the time I couldn't at gunpoint tell you why it was always around me, and even reading an article about wildflowers in Death Valley, the poem still haunts. 

The article isn't without moments of confusion though. In all of the amazing descriptions surrounding this phenomenon and all of the flowers listed, I had no idea what a "chia" was. Contextually, it was obviously a wildflower, but I couldn't even place a color to the flower. 

The other moment that I had trouble comprhending was the bit concerning the pools of water:

The recent storms have turned part of the salt pan around Badwater Basin — normally a brackish puddle a few inches deep — into a reflecting pool about five miles across. Kayakers and windsailers cut across the shallow, lifeless water. Other visitors wade in, only to emerge covered in a salt crust.

This is an engaging description but it's hard to fathom whether this pool became both deeper and wider, it must have to accomodate the windsailers and kayakers, but if it swelled to being miles across it just doesn't read correctly. 

I don't know how often I'll come back to this specific article, perhaps only as metaphor. But images and idea of life and color springing forth from the desert is compelling. Especially when the article closes with something so closely connected to T. S. Elliot 

"This isn't a wasteland," Muick said. "It will start looking empty when the flowers are gone, but there's life there at all times."

 

As a bonus here is my first attempt at using the webtool Storify. It's an interesting service and the features lent themselves well to the requirements of a Think-Aloud. 

 

 

 

 

Reigniting the Muse of Fire

It's been a tough week in my district with tragedy befalling our student body prior to an extended weekend coming up. While the shock is still something being processed, the students have been making good use of writing to work toward a sense of catharsis. Blogging, like writing, often offers the chance for reflection and thought. 

This video of a talk by Sir Ken Robinson is something that has this writer thinking about the future and what needs to be done in education. Sometimes in darkness it's incumbent upon us to ignite something if no other illumination can be found. This video is something that's shining a light for me. It's Sir Ken Robinson being given the RSA Animation treatment. 

Socratic Circles and Backchanneling v.1.0

My classes have gained experience in the use of Socratic Circles this year. The basic formula for that activity is one of the following:

students first read a passage critically and then form two concentric circles. First, the inner circle examines and discusses the text and the second circle comments on the quality of the dialogue. Then, the two circles switch places and roles, and the process is repeated with the new ideas from a new circle. The outer circle is required to remain quiet while the inner circle reacts and dialogues, and conversely, the inner circle must listen quietly to the outer circle’s evaluation of their conversation.

One new feature we are experimenting with is the use of backchanneling. One backchanneling that's been a part of this experimentation is Today's Meet. Today's Meet gives their own basic definition of  backchanneling as:

The backchannel is everything going on in the room that isn't coming from the presenter.

The backchannel is where people ask each other questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give you the most immediate feedback you'll ever get.

The procedure is now altered to one of:

1. Group the class into two circles.
2. The Inner Circle speaks first using Socratic questioning methods.
3. The Outer Circle backchannels using Today's Meet while the Inner Circle discusses.
4. Time is called and the transcript of the backchannel is turned into a word cloud for analysis.
5. The Inner Circle's work is evaluated while new topics are generated from the evaluation and word cloud.
6. The circles switch and the new circles have their respective discussions and backchannel sessions.

So here is an example of Socratic Circles at work with students discussing the first part of "The Odyssey".

 

Here is the transcript of the backchannel from that session. Below is the word cloud generated from the backchannel session:

 

"Telemachia"
Click on the link above to see this word cloud at WordItOut. You may also view it on this website if you enable JavaScript (see your web browser settings).

Word cloud made with WordItOut

Mr. Smith's Class and 21st Century Teaching

Flipping the Paradigm of Homework

Writer Daniel Pink's article for the Telegraph has been making the rounds in various educational circles. In the article Pink first presents what has been the traditional model of education in the U.S. for the better part of the 20th century- 

During class time, the teacher will stand at the front of the room and hold forth on the day’s topic. Then, as the period ends, he or she will give students a clutch of work to do at home. Lectures in the day, homework at night. It was ever thus and ever shall be.

The article goes on to detail what Karl Fisch, a teacher in Denver, Colorado is doing to change this paradigm. 

However, instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – Fisch has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts. 

After reading Pink's article and the thoughts of marketing researchers like Seth Godin it's an idea that has merit. But first I'm going to put the question to my students and to all readers. 

Daniel Pink's full article on "Flip Thinking"

Complete the survey on "Flip Thinking" if you'd like to share your opinion. 

Sharing Reconciliation with the People Formerly Known as the Audience

Lately there have been a few words that have become ubiquitous in media discussions of education. That's right: standards and data are everywhere when education comes up as a topic. Everything in education is either "standards-based" or "data-driven" no matter what the topic is. Whether it's the adoption of a new set of standards or a supposedly well-intended instance of agitation, in education the words 'standards' and 'data' manage to resurface often. But in being given this opportunity to guest blog, the word that haunted the build-up toward approaching the topic of reconciling standards and 21st century learning was not standards but data. In a fit of 21st century research it can be found that data is defined as 

–noun

1.

a pl. of datum.

2.

(used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent 

the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate  processing by the computer.

3.

(used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information: Additional data is 

available from the president of the firm.

In all of the angst that surrounds the lemming rush of educational systems surging to become standard-based data-driven entities the definition of data gains new importance.  If data is simply a set of items of information, educators need to keep this fact in mind when the word 'standard' is wielded as a weapon. It is this writer's fervent belief that educators everywhere really are doing good work with students every day. What has been lacking has been a succinct way to communicate this fact. Cynicism aside, testing and the use of data has arisen as a part of the problem that education wants for ways to articulate what it does. In the midst of heated editorial pages and town-hall levy meetings achievement testing has become a baleful blade possessed of precious few handles. But how much do those strident voices demanding accountability even know about what is on those tests? 

The debate surrounding accountability and standards is often presented within a frame of binary solutions when what is truly needed is reconciliation. Wanting more for students is no more wrong than wanting a real assessment of learning. If education is to move forward and repair relationships with all stakeholders it must be with a sense of reconciliation. As Daniel Pink shows us, some surprising things can be learned from data particularly in relation to motivation. 

But if the tests used to derive the data only reward lower-order thinking how can education survive when its very funding is tied to what some consider to be the antithesis of higher-order thinking? The answer lies within the word 'data'. If data is a body of facts, education must use standards as a basis of learning not as a myopic and duplicitous lens. Data is present in everything education does. Data does not stop with a test score. But then how is the picture to be properly painted to all involved? How can accountability, standards, and the need for 21st Century skills be reconciled for all involved? 

The roots of this repair are present within the very 21st Century skills that are required by a shifting modern world. In the book "Cognitive Surplus" author Clay Shirky calls digital media users "the people formerly known as the audience" because 

When you buy a machine that lets you consume digital content, you also buy a machine to produce it. 

The binary distinction of student and teacher loses focus in the context of 21st Century technology and skills. If education is to repair the schism between 21st Century skills and standards-based education it must come through the sharing of data. The items of information for such sharing can come from the activities already going on in classrooms today. Data doesn't have to come from a one-shot testing window; data can come from qualitative learning experiences that still use educational standards. But such sharing will require a change on the part of educators. 

If educators are to reconcile educational standards in the context of a 21st century world, the "four walls syndrome" must cease. The times of saying that "<insert educational initiative name here> is just a fad" and will pass must become the past. No more closing the doors to the world and teaching within one set of four walls. To begin this reconciliation educators don't have to be Scott McLeod, or Shelly Terrell, or Will Richardson. Your school doesn't need to be on a laptop initiative or have a seamless online class management system. Use your cellphone to record a great student discussion, create a Facebook page for a class, have students concoct a Twitter hashtag to conduct larger discussion, or join a PLN yourself. But educators must share what is going on in their classroom with all stakeholders within the community and world around them. Isolation cannot be the default for those that feel educational data selection is subjective. Karl Fisch and others are taking steps to change educational paradigms; all you need to do is start to share the good that you do. Share this reconciliation of education with the people formerly known as the audience. 

Starting an "Odyssey" in the Answer Garden

Today students begin reading "The Odyssey" by Homer. The pre-reading will include reviewing a summary of the text and then researching the names they find to determine if they are indeed deities in the text. After that the deity names need to be entered into the Answer Garden below.

 

 

Which Greek Gods and Goddesses are present in "The Odyssey"?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Choose to Begin - Student Blogging Pt. 1

In the aim to simultaneously listen to what my students are asking for in writing instruction while allowing student choice, I have decided to move toward the use of student blogging. In earlier classwork students have expressed both an interest in multiple forms of writing and a value of choice, but also a pointed lack of experience in blogging beyond merely reading them. The hope then is to have instruction become paired with choice. In my own process of starting to blog the following Common Craft video provided a 'refresher' on what the basics of blogging are. 

The goal is to have students choose the way that they begin sharing their voice; something that is most likely tragically unique in the educational experience. To paraphrase a favorite poem of mine, I'd like for my students to choose to dare to disturb the universe, to choose to begin finding and sharing their voice. While any of the tutorial links below will provide a serviceable platform, I want them to find one that's more than merely serviceable - I want it to be theirs. And while we will both review the process outlined in Konrad Glogowski's great post on growing your blog, it's my hope that in coming up with their own metaphor they own their process and find voice. 

Some Possible Platforms

Blogger 

WordPress

Tumblr

Posterous

Socratic Circles - First Draft

Here are some of the highlights from my Honors English 9 sections during their first Socratic Circles discussions. The first time out of the gate is always difficult; will anyone speak, will the format seem too strange, etc. That was not the case with these discussions. While there was some ebb and flow it was as promising a beginning as I can think of. There will need to be some remediation on filming and volume levels, but my advice is use some headphones and take in the good work that these students are doing. 

Download now or watch on posterous

SocraticCircle091010.mov (52724 KB)

The Upside-down Syllabus Pt. 2

Yesterday's work was aimed at creating some "free write" beginnings for the class syllabus, but instead resulted in an interesting social experiment on anonymity, human behavior, and Google Docs. Yes, it will be the subject of a future post once the video is edited...

For now the YouTube video below will be the starter text used in conjunction with classwork thus far in the first Socratic Circle Discussion being held Friday. Enjoy.

Student Surveys & the Upside-down Syllabus

Right away it should be known that credit for this post should be attributed to an idea that stems from a post & tweet read from Shelly Blake-Plock over at the excellent Teach Paperless blog. Here is the spark-point:

I'm making it a goal next year to not plan out my courses until I've first met my students. 

How many schools started this year with teachers walking through a syllabus while students feigned interest? More than this writer is comfortable with. So what was to be done? 

Today students reviewed a basic noun/verb/modifier summarization strategy and first applied it in a walkthrough with short, but fine TED talk by Richard St. John. Then came the real juice. For the last day of school all of my Honors English 9 students made short videos giving advice to their 2010-11 counterparts. While watching the video of their predecessors students then applied the aforementioned summarization strategy. After viewing students then entered their work into a combined interest inventory and summary sheet created in Google Docs. 

Tomorrow's work will take the results of this survey into the online tool Wallwisher. But first a bit of visualisation is needed. In a process outlined wonderfully over at Teacher Reboot Camp the results from the survey will become the basis of an interactive cloud via Tagul.

Here's one for the question "What nouns/things stood out to you from the video?"

 

This cloud is for the "Stand-out Verbs" question. 

 

The modifiers - 

 

With an interesting look at social media use to close: 

The Fire's Beginning to Start in the Wilderness Downtown

If the new interactive film and music experiment from the Canadian indie rock artists Arcade Fire hasn't come up in the RSS feed or social media platform of choice, it is time to recalibrate or adjust priorities. Because this experience is engaging, challenging, and everything that social media should be. 

Upon traveling to the experiment site via the band's website or other portals users are met with an interesting price of entry: "the address of the home where you grew up." In an era of privacy concerns a user might balk at such a request; but it's worth it. The experiment then goes on to use Google Street View information tied to the given address to propagate the scenery of the interactive film. Immediately users have engagement via relevant images on the screen; this is the user's world as the palate for the media. 

While it's easy to get caught up in the "Hey that's my house" aspect of the interactive film there is also an element of challenge. While net neutrality is still fresh in the collective unconsciousness, only the early adopters of the HTML 5 variety can come play these reindeer games. The development channel and stable versions of Google Chrome are recommended as the film is a Google HTML 5 experiment. So while a browser might need to be upgraded or downloaded it is important to note that experience is the offered incentive here, and what an experience it is. The website itself puts it best by calling it "choreographed windows" - the images beautifully collect, converge, and collapse while interweaving locations from the user's immediate world. 

Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering... this Chrome Experiment has them all. "The Wilderness Downtown" is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire's song "We Used To Wait" and was built entirely with the latest open web technologies, including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas.

But upon several viewings what resonates is that this is what the internet and social media should be for users. An interest in the music or some aspect of the interactive experience spurs engagement on the part of the user. The experiment then takes data relevant to the user's life in the form of street images and "advice to a younger self" and weaves it all into the overall work. The effect is simultaneously unsettling and compelling. For in this world images flow from window to window and style to style all while building an audio/visual message. Once this message is crafted the user can then choose a new starting point from which to renew the experience, or share what they've done with others. is this not a suitable approach to learning also? 

While the debate surrounding whether Flash or HTML 5 is the superior format rages on one thing is clear; all future notions of literacy must contain a visual component. This video experiment provides an outlier of what social media use could be. A great deal of talk in the educational world attempts to encompass what exactly 21st Century Skills are while struggling with whether textual or visuals elements should have prominence in instruction when the answer is simply "yes."

It is fitting that one of the first singles from Arcade Fire's album is entitled "Ready to Start." As a recent review of the album notes: 

The Suburbs delivers a life-affirming message similar to Funeral's: We're all in this together.

This is what art does; it shows what can be possible in the world of those that behold it. Everyone's in this, change is here, and one must be ready to start. Below is a version of the experiment tailored to this writer's environment. What's yours like? 

The Wilderness Downtown

Student Mind, Blogger's Mind

This year students and educators around the country will be blogging, or starting to do so. Wrapped up in this blogging is the axiom of "teachers as lifelong learners." In the midst of learning what embedding, tagging, quoting, and auto-posting are, perspective can be obscured or even lost. Here's a recommendation; get help - join a community. It's quite common to see millennial or digital native students posting pleas for help on a variety of sites. If the students now are becoming more comfortable asking for help so should their educators. Any activity that requires the educator to simultaneously become a learner gains an additional level of credence. 

Kelly Tenkely has a great post on the necessity of blogging for educators. Here's a money-quote: 

Blog posting is good for teachers. It keeps us humble, reminds us of how scary it can be to "speak" in front of the class. It reminds us of what it feels like not to have all the right answers. How it feels to get your work back with red marks all over it, exposing your faults. 

It brings back Suzuki's concept of Zen mind being the beginner's mind. If blogging can return educators to a student's mindset, it is compelling evidence for the necessity of blogging in the classroom. 

Almost Student-centered: Bootleg Edition

Every teacher has processes that they go through to get ready for the school year. For this writer and educator, there are certain movies that need to be watched before beginning a school year. One that always makes the list is Cameron Crowe's under-appreciated gem "Almost Famous". It's a semi-autobiographical turn for Crowe based upon the time he spent as a teenager writing for Rolling Stone. In past viewings the relationship between Crowe's alter-ego main character William, and the rock critic guru Lester Bangs would resonate for their student/teacher qualities and quotes like the following: 

Music, you know, true music -not just rock 'n' roll- it chooses you. It lives in your car, or alone, listening to your headphones, you know, with the vast, scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain.

             It's a place apart...

But while viewing the film in readying for this school year another aspect gained prominence; namely that of the journey William's character goes through. William begins with a passion for music, specifically rock 'n roll. He meets a guide in the form of Lester's character, who arranges his work for the magazine which precipitates his journey following the band Stillwater. In the process of covering the band he often calls Lester to vent and get help in overcoming challenges presented by his situation and his goal of being a legitimate writer. Ultimately William's journey is about writing the truth behind his trials and sharing the knowledge gained with others. Does the progression of this plot sound familiar to anything else?

While William's journey strongly parallels that of the mono-mythic hero posited by Joseph Campbell and other scholars it is also an outline for student-centered learning. The student begins with their passion, a mentor arranges experiences to foster growth and engage the student in inquiry, the student undergoes trials in the process of learning, getting aide when needed but ultimately coming to understanding on their own and sharing that understanding with others. 

Maybe it's not possible or desired for all students to possess such an experience. The type of trials and tribulations William goes through clearly aren't for everyone, but if this experience of learning is analogous to the stories of heroes that pre-date Christianity it bears examination and discussion. Right now it feels like the multiple-choice driven assessments present in education are grounded firmly in the "trials & tribulation" aspect of the process and offer absolutely no check or outlet on the element of "sharing knowledge gained with others". A test score is a static number currently being used to evaluate, judge, or at worst shame those involved in the learning process. Isn't learning more than that? 

Factual knowledge is an inextricable part of the learning process. But the trials of a learner are so much more. It's fine to assess and test factual knowledge, but there is an entire part of the process that is being abandoned if this is the only focus. There needs to be a value and assessment for the sharing of knowledge; anything else is only 'almost' - but it's not real learning. Sharing knowledge is of vital import because: 

The only true currency in this bankrupt world... is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.  

 

A Ticket to Cautionary Tale-land

One centerpiece skill for many students this year will be the use of metaphors. If one thinks back, images of comparisons and distinctions from those of similes no doubt arise. But it's important to consider the origin of the word: 

metaphor 

1530s, from M.Fr. metaphore, from L. metaphora, from Gk. metaphora "a transfer," especially of the sense of one word to a different word, lit. "a carrying over," from metapherein "transfer, carry over," from meta- "over, across" (see meta-) + pherein "to carry, bear" (see infer). Related: Metaphoric; metaphorical; metaphorically.

When using metaphor the concept of transfer is particularly salient; it is after all, an attempt at reshaping reality through language. The poetic aspects of this have been forced upon students for generations and the clip below takes a simplistic, but striking take on the metaphor. Metaphors are similar to many linguistic devices in that if they are presented in a clear, committed manner an austere power presents itself. Joe Hill's excellent "Locke & Key" series is one such example. 

This short video by FableVision not only thoroughly applies a metaphor to the utmost, it employs the metaphor in service of the story. After all, it is important to remember that if one gets a "ticket to metaphor-land" the destination should clearly listed. If not, get another ticket. 

Testing the Cupcake Dog

In preparing for the school year I've been approaching my planning from a different standpoint. In the same vein as this blog, the aim has been to be as transparent as possible in terms of the learning process. One inevitable reality of the learning process in public schools is assessment which often takes the form of tests. During this preparation an interesting meme that came at me sideways was Stains the Cupcake dog.

This clip from "It's Me or the Dog" has started to take on a small life beyond the show. It could be the production values, or the disconcerting amount of focus by the dog, but in any event it's amusing and thought-provoking.

While preparing for the school year I've been embedding multiple assessments of different natures, all with the goal of improving student achievement. Within this goal is the focus and assumption of education being something more than mere operant conditioning. Too many students consume information, retain it until the test, and then promptly forget said information to ready the mental space for new information presumably for the next test. In this way the learning of Stains the Cupcake dog is a cautionary tale. If all we assess is the memory of wrote facts we are racing not to the top but toward obsolescence. Learning requires a basic knowledge of facts but that knowledge is not the sum total of learning. Though it may be easy to manage I do not want a classroom full of cupcake dogs.

What's the answer then? I'm not entirely sure, but I want to bring my students into the process of the learning that they take part in. A first step is giving them power to choose, let them peek behind education's curtain, to have opportunities Stains did not. If we do not teach students how we create lessons and curate learning how can we then expect them to learn on their own? The interesting thing is that we know what to do. The talk below is something that I am going to share with my students. Because I want learners, not cupcake dogs.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words then video is worth...

Take a look at an outstanding video called "Words" from the creators over at Radiolab. Try to carry on a dialogue of the words describing each scene as it shifts and the excellence of this clip becomes clear. 

Google, Data, and the Problem of the Chessboard

Last week a rather impressive statistic was used by Google CEO Eric Schmidt - Tech Crunch has the figure and the quote: 

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until  2003, according to Schmidt. That’s something like five exabytes of data, he says.

Schmidt goes on to say that the lion's share of this new data is user-created but the implications for all of us as learners is enormous. The immediate analogue is the proverb of the wheat and the chessboard. 

The short version is that an ancient ruler (some say India, others China) was quite pleased with one of his scholars who invented the game of chess. The ruler goes on to let the scholar name the reward for creating the chessboard. The scholar replies that he would like to receive one grain of wheat for the first square of the board and have the total amount of wheat doubled for each subsequent square. The ruler wasn't the mathematician that the scholar was but it works out to: 

To solve this, observe that a chess board is an 8×8 square, containing 64 squares. If the amount doubles on successive squares, then the sum of grains on all 64 squares is:

This equals 18,446,744,073,709,551,615.

To bring this back to Schmidt's quote it important to note that an exabyte is defined as: 

exabyte definition

unit 
 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes = 1024 petabytes or roughly 10^18 bytes. 

So what we're seeing nearly daily in data creation is something akin to the wheat & chessboard scenario. Again, a sizable portion of this data can be chalked up to the effluvium of life that comes in texts, tweets, and assorted blog postings - including this one. However, if even a fraction of this information is of merit it means that a drastic shift in pedagogy is needed. 

Often when people criticize education it's that recent graduates are woefully inept when it comes to remembering facts. Such a lack of memory has even been the subject of late night television segments and game-shows. With the aforementioned exponential increase in the creation and storage of data, how can something like the Common Core Standards hope to serve to prepare students for the future? Given the bureaucracy that surrounds the Common Core, and education legislation in general, keeping up with "all the facts that are needed to know" seems to be an almost foregone conclusion. 

Knowledge is needed to acquire any skill; facts are an indivisible part of learning. But the intertwined nature of facts and process in learning begs some important questions. Are educators supposed to strive to prepare their students for life, or for the next test? When looking at the chessboard are we approaching education as the ruler or the scholar? 

EdChat and the Information-scarce Society

A post over at MPB Reflections, 21st Century Teaching and Learning sparked some of my thoughts and observations from recent EdChats on Twitter. Michelle's post is one of those blog postings that gives you everything - context, content, and thought. The thoughts at work in the post deal with the dichotomy of social media interacting with staid teaching practices. The quote that stood out for me was:

Pulliam identified the lecture as a "discredited teaching method" in the 1960s.  Consider the head spinning rate of information production today -- my own blog and tweets serving as perfect examples -- and the fact that this perpetuating flow of content is now available through laptops and smartphones in the pocket of a growing percentage of the world.  Yet we're still educating our college students through a medieval teaching method that "makes sense" in an information-scarce society.

We no longer live in an information-scarce, but we're sure teaching like it. As the Smithsonian Magazine so succinctly states, we are reading in new ways. We are no longer a people of the book; we are the people of the screen. But then some of the recent discussions on #EdChat came to mind. Specifically whenever the topic of social media, a complimentary tool for our information-rich society, arises. Often an outraged educator will post something like

Not teaching social media is NOT a travesty. Not teaching <insert name of a fact from a personally beloved content area here> is a travesty! 

Or something along those lines. But we are all in this together as a society. Our society is changing due to the communication tools it has now. We need to develop ways to responsibly bring the learning to all stakeholders; parents, community, students, and educators. Given the vast array of knowledge accessible via the internet teachers simply can no longer compete as being the sole source of factual knowledge in a classroom. My question is why is the discussion so often framed in a binary manner? Why am I encountering such a dialogue while using social media to discuss education? Does the use of social media immediately preclude the use of factual knowledge? 

It's not wrong to have an aspect of life or area of study that we love almost unto excess. For many educators that passion is irrevocably bonded to a love of learning, it's what got us into education. But no one can be the font of knowledge as though it's an information-scarce society; we're too interconnected. There are many variations of the saying (often attributed to David Thornburg) "Any teacher that thinks they can be replaced by a computer should". The same might be said about social media in education. I would rather help my students learn to read the world around them and find their passion in it. Maybe I'll learn something from them and as we come to an understanding together about content. 

Hiring out "Milkshake Mistakes"

The Washington Post has an intriguing article posted today regarding college admissions that got my thinking connected to a post by Rob Jacobs over at Education Innovation. The article in the post is detailing how colleges are struggling to distinguish talent amongst the thousands of applications they are receiving. A money-quote:

"We felt that students who managed to come to campus were not reflective of the diversity of our applicant pool," said Maria Laskaris, dean of admissions and financial aid at Dartmouth College. via The Washington Post

The article goes on to detail the pitfalls of the "to interview or not" conundrum and what kind of technologies (Skype, webcams, etc.) might be used to this end. This brought me to Rob's post and a book I, and it seems technology enthusiasts and educators everywhere, have been reading - Clay Shirkey's "Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age".

Rob does an excellent job of summing up what Shirkey dubs "The Milkshake Mistake." The problem occurred when McDonald's researchers, working to increase milkshake sales, were surprised to find that milkshakes were being purchased in the early morning contrary to their expectations. Shirkey goes on to point out how the customers were simply hiring out the milkshake to perform a needed service, regardless if it was contrary to its expected use. Rob's post connects this to education:

You “hired” the technology to help students consume. They “hired” it to help them produce. You hired the technology to help students connect. They “hired” it to comment and critique.

The question over what we're hiring technology to do in education is somehow both salient and elusive. Shirkey does provide a key quote in a later chapter:

The logic of digital media, on the other hand, allows the people formerly known as the audience to create value for one another every day.

When using technology in education, are teachers committing a "Milkshake Mistake?" How are the expectations in the use of technology being communicated in relation to adding value? If the prevailing progression of test well, do well in school, get into a good university now involves an interview process that is designed to have prospects demonstrate skills - how are the Common Core Standards or test-based teacher accountability systems preparing students for this possible future? All I can think of is this quote:

So what future action should be taken? One thing I'm thinking about is teaching my students about Bloom's Taxonomy as a foundation piece for the school year. If we understand what we value and how we add value, maybe we can avoid some Milkshake Mistakes.

Give it Away Now

In surveying blogs, RSS feeds, #edchat, and other educational sources a common phrase I keep coming upon is technology being referred to as a tool. Which made me think of the following: 

Thirty spokes meet at a nave;
Because of the hole we may use the wheel.
Clay is moulded into a vessel;
Because of the hollow we may use the cup.
Walls are built around a hearth;
Because of the doors we may use the house.
Thus tools come from what exists,
But use from what does not.

 

via TaoTeChing.org 

As the month of August is nearly upon us, learners and students alike, I start to think about how I'll begin the year. The questions of what my students will be like, reviewing last year's reflections, the dreams about being unprepared, it all starts to come back. But so do the words of my friend and mentor Don Hovland on the one thing I needed to learn about education:  

Give the power, take the blame. 

So in order to keep my process transparent I'm going to give the tool Wallwisher a try at mapping out the first weeks. But I also think that I'll create an open 'wall' to let other educators chime in, give push-back, and generally test the bounds of Wallwisher as a tool. So look for the #1stweekplans tag or this link to access the wall. Give knowledge from what does not exist, at least not yet. 

I Believe...

“I Believe” Then and Now

As a lowly graduate student in a teacher education program this writer had to, along with all other students in the program, complete a list of “I believe” statements regarding education. These statements were hashed out in groups, the subject of discussions, and ultimately typed up and put into a portfolio.

At the time the exercise felt great in terms of the planning and pre-writing; the completed product was something that was reflected upon during the job hunt. This focus promptly was redistributed to the classroom of students that came with said job. But in the midst of getting up the nerve to start this blog these statements came up again. In the spirit of the blog and a sense of transparency of learning both the original “pre-teaching career” statements are followed by a revised version.

I Believe That...

All human beings can learn.

Education is a noble and challenging calling.

Change is not to be feared; only stagnation. 

Students must use knowledge more than merely possess it. 

The answers to all the really interesting questions lie somewhere between the confines of black and white.

Praise is a public matter while personal criticism is a private one. 

Motivation in the classroom is a symbiotic relationship. 

The expression of the human condition is not limited to one form or text. 

Students will not love me all of the time; nor are they required to in order to learn.

This list will always require revision.

It was nice of me to leave an “out” for myself there at the end wasn’t it?

The Revised “I Believe” Statements for the ‘10/11 School Year

Prufrock at the Moulin Rouge.

And then, one not-so-very special day, I went to my typewriter, I sat down, and I wrote our story.

Christian ~ "Moulin Rouge!"

So here it it is, everything changes; or everything is change. After a lifetime of consuming media it is time to add a verse to the powerful play going on all around. It is time to dare to disturb the universe. Later posts will deal beliefs, learning, writing, and media. But for now, this is a beginning.