Reflections on Education and Technology

Technology IEP

2009-05-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Google Earth rocks. It's just that simple. The free version (the only one with which I'm familiar) has so many features that it fairly boggles the mind. Since my first time using the program to locate my house I've been hugely impressed and have wanted to explore how to use this incredible tool in an educational setting. So when my tech professor gave us the task of creating an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to develop our understanding of a technology of our choice I knew exactly what I was going to explore.

To start off with, my major educational goals for myself were fairly simple:

Become more proficient in the navigation and use of Google Earth.
Learn how to create relevant, engaging lessons using Google Earth.

My baseline experience with Google Earth consisted of dragging the globe around looking for my house, university, favorite mountain biking trails, etc. After completing my IEP project, I had learned how to make a tour, use the ruler and path tools and manipulate layers. I'd also created six reasonably well polished and engaging lessons and had ideas for many more. The lessons I created are hyperlinked below along with a brief description. For more information, follow the associated hyperlink.

Introduction to Google Earth: Students become familiar with Google Earth and learn how to manipulate layers. Students also learn to use the path, ruler, and other basic tools.
Travel Brochures: Students use Google Earth to explore and research locations around the world before creating their own travel brochure on the area. (Google Earth is great for anticipatory sets and getting kids interested in exploring other areas of the world).
Historic Site Tour: Students use Google Earth to create a tour of a historic site or location of their choice. They then research their topic and narrate the tour for their classmates, acting as tour guides. This lesson can be used either on it's own or as an extended learning version of the Travel Brochure lesson plan above.
Exploring Ancient Rome: Students use Google Earth's Ancient Rome 3D feature to explore the city and locate and research major landmarks and important buildings.
A Tour of Ancient Rome: Students use Google Earth and the Ancient Rome 3D feature to create a tour of the city, stopping at major landmarks to explain their significance. Students will then present the completed tour to the class, acting as tour guides and fielding questions. As with the other tour lesson, this lesson could be taught either on it's own or as an extended learning option for advanced students.
The Northwest Passage: Students explore the significance of the Northwest Passage (and the ramifications of its opening due to climate change) by plotting imaginary shipping lanes and using the ruler tool to compare distances and travel times between Europe and the West Coast of America via the Northwest Passage, the Panama Canal, and the Straits of Magellan.

From an educator's point of view, Google Earth offers endless possibilities. The sheer number of educational layers is incredible and the program is remarkably easy to use. In a relatively short amount of time I was able to figure out the basic tools, explore a few layers, and even create my own tour. To me, this last feature is the most exciting. It gives students a chance to interact with a presentation by acting as a tour guide while the class takes a virtual tour of their topic. It's even relatively easy to do, as you can see by clicking the image below and watching the brief tutorial I created using a free screen capture program called Jing.

I really enjoyed this project. It forced me to develop my technology skills and to explore a piece of software that has fascinated me since I first saw it. I'm still simply blown away by the sheer amount of information available on Google Earth, its processing capabilities, and the astounding potential it holds as a classroom tool. Even after improving my knowledge of Google Earth, it was abundantly clear that I had barely scratched the surface of what this program is capable of doing and of how it can be used to enrich the classroom experience.

Online Community

2009-04-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

One of the major topics of conversation recently in my Classroom Internet Integration course at UAS has been the evolution of the web into a worldwide forum for discussion and debate, resource sharing, and community/relationship building. Web 2.0, as this iteration of the internet is sometimes called, is an interactive environment in which people around the world are no longer merely consumers of online information; rather, they are active and involved participants who freely contribute ideas, information, skills, knowledge, resources and more. The web has thus emerged as an invaluable community hub with access to an almost unimaginable depth and breadth of information while at the same time serving as a global commons where people from around the world can come together to share ideas and resources and to engage in meaningful discussions.

In keeping with this spirit, I've added a Community section to my blog where I'll be posting links to interactive sites I've found (generally related to education) that provide both good information and commentary and at the same time afford the opportunity for feedback and interaction.

The first site on this list is the Education Policy Blog, where you'll find thoughtful analysis of issues of education policy and links to other interesting articles elsewhere on the web. Just recently I found this link to a new joint study by the University of Colorado Boulder and Arizona State University arguing that more needs to be done to address out-of-school factors like chronic poverty, pollution, violence, etc. which have negative effects on student achievement. It raises some interesting questions about the role the school plays in attempting to ameliorate society's ills; in particular, how effective is outcome oriented legislation like NCLB at reducing gaps in achievement among rich, poor, minority and non-minority students when the underlying social factors that create inequality remain unaddressed? Interesting reading, to be sure, and well worth the time.

Digital Storytelling

2009-02-24T17:38:00.000-08:00

The Purpose

For the technology component of the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the University of Alaska Southeast we all had to create a digital story in our respective content areas. Given the research showing the effectiveness of the story format in teaching and the easy overlap between storytelling and history, I was excited to create something I could later use as an example for my students.

Currently I'm teaching history in a sixth grade classroom where we're studying ancient Rome and I as the quarter progresses I'm interested in having my students create a digital story of their own. The storytelling process was, to me, both challenging and thought provoking and yet also very engaging and creative. The major benefits of storytelling as a teaching and learning tool is that the storytelling process requires students to:

Have a clear understanding of the subject matter.
Think imaginatively to create their own story.
Think deeply about how to integrate their knowledge of the subject into their own personal narrative.
Reflect on the storytelling process and on what makes a good story.

The digital media component of digital storytelling enables students to interact and create in a medium which is both familiar to them (in that they are constantly exposed to digital media) and yet exciting and exotic (in that they may have never created anything like it). Digital media also has the added bonus that it forces the student to use multiple intelligences to create a finished product that is well written, flows smoothly, is well narrated and which is visually appealing. The student must therefore effectively integrate multiple facets of presentation, including the following:

The written word
The spoken word
Relevant / evocative images
Appropriate narration, sound and music

In doing so, the student is forced to think more holistically, making connections between the verbal, auditory, and visual realms in order to create a product which seamlessly unites the three into a compelling whole. Having to think in this way and making connections between different areas of understanding can be a very powerful learning tool and offers students a creative way to truly show what they know.

The Process

Before I break down the process I used to create my own story, perhaps I should tell you where you can view my digital story. It's here.

The basic idea I had was to illustrate the process of building a Roman aqueduct and to highlight some of the technologies the ancient Romans used to accomplish this. Personally, I've always been impressed by the graceful arched arcades the Romans used to span valleys and astounded by the extraordinary engineering and the sheer blood, sweat, and toil it would have taken to build such phenomenal structures. Even so, I could tell that a straightforward "this is how you build an aqueduct" story would be pretty boring.

In our tech class we talked about how good stories generally incorporate emotion, tension centered around the potential for success and failure, and some sort of personal transformation in the main character. This last part is perhaps the most important because, as humans, we seem most compelled by stories in which the protagonist, through his/her experiences, undergoes some sort of a personal transformation or growth. My aqueduct story, in its early documentary phase, had no such transformation, no real tension, and no emotion. Clearly there was work to be done.

My inspiration finally came while discussing substories. I decided that I could tell the story of building an aqueduct through the eyes of the fictional Roman in charge of its construction. Through his eyes, we could learn about the process of building an aqueduct, about the obstacles in the way and the human ingenuity and determination that overcame them. By telling it in this format, however, I could also incorporate emotion and personal transformation. Issues of race and class have always resonated with me, and so I decided that my fictional Roman aristocrat builder could begin the story as an elitist disgusted with having to oversee his crew of slaves, lower class Romans, and legionaires. As the story progressed and he saw these men work and overcome hardship and tragedy, he would be moved to reconsider his notions of human worth based on race and class and would come to respect his men simply for who they were, regardless of their status in society.

Now I finally had an idea that incorporated emotion, tension, and personal transformation. Next I set out writing the story. First I sketched a rough outline of the interplay between the plot (building an aqueduct) and the subplot (the transformation of my Roman aristocrat). Once I had this I wrote out the story in diary format, which you can see here. After a few proofreads by Dr. Ohler and my classmates, I was ready to start making my digital story. The basic process is as follows:

Record narration of the story.
Select and incorporate pictures that help bring the narration to life.
Work with transitions and effects to give the movie a polished feel.
Cite sources and include credits.

Though it looks simple, there's a lot that actually goes into this process. Getting the narration right took time, and achieving the proper inflection and emotion was a challenge for me. It was also difficult to find pictures that showed exactly what I'd hoped to get across but I was able to achieve the basic effect that I'd hoped for. Adding transitions and effects went very quickly and smoothly on Windows Movie Maker, as did adding credits. The process of actually making the video was considerably less involved than that of creating the story. My experience bore out completely what Dr. Ohler had been telling us all along, that it is much easier to create a reasonably polished movie than it is to create a well crafted story, and that for that reason it is especially important to spend the time to think critically about how to create a compelling story. In the end, I learned a lot about how to make a movie on my computer, but I learned immensely more about how to think about what makes a good story and about how to create one myself.

Technology & Education: Article Assessments

2009-02-06T13:00:00.000-08:00

For the technology component of the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the University of Alaska Southeast we read several articles about the use of technology in the school environment. These articles, which I review below, were both thought provoking and informative and raised interesting questions about the place of technology in the classroom.

Article 1: The Overdominance of Computers by Lowell W. Monke

The focus of Monke's thoughtful and incisive piece is the rethinking of the notion that technology should play a central role in education simply because that technology plays such a central role in modern society. Monke points out that the realm of the computer is a "purely symbolic environment" in which users work "with abstract representations of things, never the things themselves." While these synthetic models most certainly have value for organizing and working with data and concepts, they also separate the learner from the concrete world which they are studying. This is, in both Monke's and my own view, problematic when we consider the extent to which today's youth are already engrossed in digitally synthesized environments when they interact with their peers and play. Monke cites a study showing that the current generation of elementary age students have 30% less face to face interaction than their peers in previous generations. Given the importance of face to face interaction in learning and developing positive relationships with others and the world around them, this statistic is troubling.

Having seen that the current generation of students already spends much of their life immersed in digital environments, the challenge of education becomes not to further inculcate students in the use of technology but rather to balance technology's use with real world learning, hands on activities, and personal interaction. This is especially true when we consider that technology is, by itself, neither a positive nor a negative force. Before students learn to interact in the impersonal, abstract digital world we need first to help them develop firm foundations in what really matters in education:

Positive and caring relationships with both peers and adults.
An understanding and appreciation of the natural world, its processes and inherent value.
Hands-on, physically engaging, and in-depth exploration of the core subjects (mathematics, science, history, language arts, etc.)
Creative thought and expression, tempered by respect and responsibility towards others.
Critical thinking, introspection, and reflection.

To rephrase Monke, the essential guideline for technology use in the classroom is that its use should be limited to those situations where it provides, in a way that other resources cannot, genuine opportunities for in-depth exploration and analysis of the content being studied. To use technology simply because it is so prevalent in modern society shortchanges students by introducing a layer of abstraction that is in many cases unnecessary and distracting. In short, technology needs to be balanced with traditional learning, face to face peer interaction, and hands on instruction. Technology can be appropriately used when it genuinely enriches the curriculum and once students have a firm foundation in both the subject matter and the underlying values of respect, compassion, and responsibility.

Article 2: Assistive Technologies for Reading by Ted S. Hasselbring and Margaret E. Bausch

Modern schools are founded on literacy. Books and other written materials are a wonderful storehouse of knowledge and the written word remains the most prevalent means of retaining and passing on knowledge. Given this reality, the ability to process written material -- to read and write effectively -- is essential for success in the academic environment of today's schools. However, statistics cited by Hasselbring and Bausch show that about 10% of U.S. students have learning disabilities and as many as a further 80% of these students "have reading problems so significant that they cannot read and understand grade-level material." Nearly half of these students spend most of their time at school in inclusive classrooms where the required reading is far above their own level. Traditionally teachers would have made accomodations and provided learning disabled students with text at their own level. This had the positive effect of enabling all students to access similar materials, but the readings and information would, of course be different and the exact material could not be matched. Now, however, new technology may enable learning disabled students to access the same reading material as their peers.

The most practical technology for inclusive classrooms is perhaps text-reader software, which uses computer synthesized speech to read aloud highlighted sections of texts, allowing the reader to follow along with the specific words and phrases being read. Use of this system requires that schools have access to computer-readable school texts. Hasselbring and Bausch reference the success of text-reading programs in Kentucky schools, where learning disabled students have made significant gains in reading and writing skills and where the state has made accomodations to testing whereby learning disabled students are able to use assistive technology when taking state assessments. Students also appear to show greater improvement using text-reader software than they do when teachers simply read aloud to them, perhaps because the software allows students a degree of independence they would otherwise not have. Combined with skilled teaching, accomodation, and supportive parents, technologies like text-reader software have the potential to make grade level reading materials accessible to more and more students. As the technology improves, it will be interesting to see how schools and teachers incorporate it into the classroom to make learning accessible to everyone.

Classroom Technology Resource Reviews

2009-01-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Big Huge Labs

For the Greek unit of 6th grade world history, the students have been studying, among other things, Greek mythology. One of our culminating projects in mythology was for the students to create trading cards of different characters from Greek mythology. To do so, we used the Trading Card Maker from www.bighugelabs.com. The whole process is super easy and the kids REALLY enjoyed it. They got something slick and professional looking while at the same time retaining the ability to customize their work.

The website, run by Flickr, has several preprogrammed templates for playing with photographs, a few of which have some pretty cool applications in an educational setting. The trading card maker can easily be put to use showcasing student understanding and creativity. I've also had the kids use the Movie Poster Maker to create promo posters for our upcoming production of Homer's "The Iliad". While not all of the applications at Big Huge Labs are usable in the classroom, it's definitely worth checking out as a way for students to learn to use technology in a creative and educational way.

Classzone

This coming week I start teaching sixth grade mathematics, which is rather outside my social studies comfort zone. I do, however, have several resources in my toolkit to make this an exciting, rather than a daunting, challenge. One such resource, which my host teacher introduced me to, is www.classzone.com, a site created by textbook giant McDougal-Littell as an online extension to their family of printed texts. Classzone offers a host of services meant to be used in conjunction with McDougal-Littell textbooks, but some of their features offer learning engagment opportunities for everyone.

At the homesite, you simply select your grade level, subject, and state and the site brings up a list of McDougal-Littell texts commonly in use in your state. Once you've selected your text, it takes you to that book's homepage where you'll find everything from homework help to activities, learning games, and animations that help explain the concepts you're teaching in class. The site also breaks down by chapter so you can easily find and access resources directly linked to the specific lesson the student's are studying.

My host teacher went over the use of classzone.com with the students last semester, specifically in reference to the homework help feature and games designed to strengthen basic computation skills. Another helpful feature that I've found useful in breaking down the lesson in order to think about how best to teach it is the @HomeTutor feature. The HomeTutor is designed to provide an overview of the lesson which is accessible to students while at home or away from the classroom. I've found it helpful to look at the way the HomeTutor breaks down lessons and to then compare that with the way that I'd been thinking of tackling the lesson myself. It provides another perspective that sometimes provides insight into other ways of explaining a key concept that I might not have thought of myself.

Obviously, Classzone is most effective for teachers using McDougal-Littell textbooks in their classrooms. However, with a little time and exploration, even teachers who teach from other books could use this resources to come up with games and ideas for activities in their content area.

Hulu

While Hulu.com might be best known for its alien commercials and archives of popular TV shows like The Daily Show and the Simpsons, it also provides access to a treasure trove of educational videos from acclaimed sources like National Geographic, NOVA, CNBC and a host of others too numerous to list. In fact, the sheer breadth of archived video material available at Hulu is staggering. From an educator's perspective, having free access to all these educational videos at the click of a button is an amazing resource.

For example, a few weeks ago we were looking at the history of ancient Rome and slavery. The slave revolt of Spartacus in 73 B.C. is the stuff of legends and, with a few keystrokes and a click or two of the mouse, I was able to pull up an extremely well done video from National Geographic that brought the story vividly to life for the students. Having access to such educational materials is a priceless tool to help engage students with quality re-enactments from trusted sources without having to go through the hassle of ordering a video and waiting for it to arrive. Perhaps the key benefit is that it enables educators to bring up information quickly and easily and at the spur of the moment. If, while planning a lesson where a video resource would be helpful, you can find it at your fingertips in mere moments and incorporate it quickly into your teaching. This is where Hulu truly shines.

The only real problems that I've encountered using Hulu is that it takes up a significant amount of bandwidth and that some form of projector is needed to transfer the video from the computer to a larger screen. Therefore, in a school with limited technology resources, Hulu would not be a viable option. However, if you work in a district with good bandwidth capabilities and some basic technology like a digital projector, Hulu functions smoothly and allows access to a mind-boggling amount of educational videos.

A much smaller issue is the commercial breaks that allow Hulu to function. They are generally about 30 seconds in length and come about every 15-20 minutes, meaning that in an hour long documentary, you can expect to lose a couple minutes to commercial interruption. This time need not be wasted, however, as the projector can be blocked and the audio muted to enable class discussion while the commercial runs.

Videos have long been used in the classroom to enrich learning and to provide visual reinforcement of the concepts or events being studied. Hulu is a tool for the modern digital age that allows educators to access a wide variety of educational videos from their own classroom. If you work in a district with good internet connectivity and decent bandwidth, and have some means of transferring the video to a larger screen, Hulu might be a tool to help you easily find and incorporate educational videos into your instruction. It's definitely worth checking out. Click here to visit it yourself.

My Philosophy of Education

2008-12-16T16:44:00.001-08:00

For our technology class we created a video presentation of our philosophy of education. A lot of the current buzz in social studies education has to do with increasing the focus on critical thinking, research, and problem solving. I agree; my personal belief is that content must be both woven into a deeper understanding of the larger context and driven towards imaginative and analytical thought. You can watch my philosophy movie by clicking below.

For a list of images used in the presentation, click here.

I enjoyed the process of creating this video, technical issues notwithstanding. Having to trim down my philosophy to fit into around 90 seconds of audio really helped me think about what I value most in education. I was also encouraged by how easy it was to create a reasonably polished video, as this makes me think that such a project could be incorporated into a classroom setting with a little bit of planning and initiative. Having seen how well my students react to other projects involving technology, I feel like a video project would be a good way both to engage the students and to help them reach another level of technological literacy.

Article Assessment: Tools for the Mind

2008-11-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

Technology specialist Mary Burns lays out her reasoning for rethinking the use of technology in the classroom in this insightful piece in Educational Leadership magazine. Burns argues that current use of technology in education is misguided, focusing on low-order thinking and presentation rather than on helping to develop critical thinking and analysis abilities. Reliance on "show-and-tell applications" like Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher, and an emphasis on presentation rather than analysis has made ineffectual use of the educational possibilities of technology. NCLB requirements have further shackled schools regarding technology by encouraging a reallocation of technology funds from instruction into data-management in order to meet NCLB reporting and accountability requirements.

What is needed, argues Burns, is to refocus on critical thinking and curriculum and to integrate technology as it best serves learning rather than using technology simply to improve student engagement. In order to foster critical thinking and analysis skills through technology we must move beyond show-and-tell applications to technologies that enable students to analyze and interpret data and to explore concepts more deeply and meaningfully. Some specific examples of higher-order technology include:

Spreadsheets
Databases
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Computer Aided Design and Drafting programs (CADD)
Simulations

Such technologies enable the user/learner to interact at a deeper level requiring thought, analysis, reconstruction of knowledge and result ultimately, argues Burns, in more meaningful and powerful learning.

From a teaching standpoint, I can definitely see the benefits of a shift towards higher-order uses of technology in the classroom. Clearly, the more that we can get students to analyze and interpret data and to think clearly and critically, the deeper their understanding will be. The difficulty to be surmounted is in teaching the students to use higher-order technologies effectively. Using spreadsheets, databases, or any of the other higher-order technologies Burns lists requires specific skill sets that need to be taught. With NCLB increasingly focusing curriculum and class time towards meeting progress standards, teachers have little available time to incorporate technology training into their classes, regardless of how helpful that technology might be in deepening student learning. Teachers, tech gurus, and administrators will need to work together if students are to become proficient in and reap the benefits of the use of higher-order technology. That said, the obstacles are not insurmountable. Education professionals all have in mind the best interest of their students, and if higher-order technology is given the chance and can show itself to be beneficial, certainly it will find its way into the classroom.

Article Assessment: "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web"

2008-11-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

In this thoughtful piece about technology and the changing nature of education, author Will Richardson concisely summarizes recent technological developments and their implications in the field of education. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and the sheer ease with which information can be accessed online have created a radically different information culture which in many ways demands a rethinking of traditional educational goals and methods. In particular, Richardson argues that the traditional definition of literacy as the ability to read and write is insufficient in an age where anyone with internet access and a computer can create content which is accessible across the globe. Literacy in such a society must also include the abilities to:

Identify sources and gauge their credibility
Compare new information with existing knowledge
Evaluate the authenticity and relevance of information

Simply being able to read and write is no longer enough.

As educators, Richardson's words are hugely relevant to us. Important as it is for students to be traditionally literate, it is increasingly critical that students also be able to evaluate and make intelligent use of the wealth of information at their fingertips. In an age where anyone can contribute to the body of knowledge, educators need to ensure that students develop those skills that enable them to become adept at gathering, interpreting, evaluating, and synthesizing information. The web is awash in information, some profound and enlightening, some trivial, and some disengenious or false. It is enormously important that students have the tools to intelligently evaluate information and it is the duty of the educational system to help provide those tools.

Presentation Reflection

2008-10-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

Wow. Although I'm pretty sure that cruel and unusual punishment is prohibited under the US Constitution I just had to watch a video of myself giving a presentation and I'm almost certain that it qualifies as such. However painful it was I must admit that it was quite informative. Who knew a man could say "um" so many times in so short a span of time? Or so methodically twist a handheld marker for nearly the entirety of his presentation? Well, now I know.

That's not to say that it was all bad. I noticed that I seemed very laid back and that I spoke fairly coherently. My posture was fine and my gestures seemed natural enough. The biggest area for improvement, however, was in pacing. I noticed that most of the 50 or so "ums" that I uttered were a sort of filler while I was thinking of what to say next. While presenting it seems like a pause lasts forever, but looking at the video it was obvious that pauses are almost instantaneous and that silence is infinitely preferably to the infernal "um". Hand positioning was the other issue I noticed. I'd intentionally picked up a marker to find something for my hands to do and it most certainly worked. Perhaps a bit too well. I'm not sure if it was distracting to others, but my constant fiddling with the marker made me look nervous (fair enough) and distracted.

From a teaching standpoint, I can now totally understand why all my students find it so easy to approach/not listen to me; my laid back style seems like it would lend itself better to a question and answer format rather than direct presentation/lecture. Looking more collected and serious might be a good thing to work on and slowing down and speaking more deliberately to eliminate "ums" would be another big step in the right direction.

Bicycling and Energy Conservation

2008-10-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I set out to determine how much gas, CO2, and money I could save by undertaking my weekly commute on two wheels instead of four. Though my commute is relatively short (about 25 miles), over time the results began to add up. In one year I would be able to:

cut my personal fuel consumption by around 3 barrels of oil
reduce my CO2 emissions by about 1200 pounds
save over $250 in gas money

If those numbers seem inconsequential, you should check out my presentation to see the collective difference a large number of people can make by taking small steps. In it I provide a step by step breakdown of how I calculated my human power energy savings as well as links to further resources and data. Some of the numbers get very large and I provide various juxtapositions to help put them in perspective. I hope you find it informative and maybe even a little inspirational. The little things really do add up.

Philosophy of Technology in Education

2008-10-07T18:06:00.001-07:00

We are living in an increasingly digital age. The depth and breadth of information available at the the touch of a finger is breathtaking. In education too, technology has made its presence known. Clearly, the students of today must know the tools of tomorrow, and to that end technology should be incorporated into the classroom and into class projects in such a way as to familiarize students with its possibilities. Technology can be a great tool to deepen understanding and open doors to new information and should be used as such. Its use should not be forced, but it should be incorporated when it genuinely adds to the educational experience.

Energy Awareness Project

2008-10-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Every human being uses energy in their day to day lives. According to the US Department of Energy, the average American uses six times more energy than the world average. Given that we use so much more than the rest of the world we have a greater responsibility to conserve energy than those who use much less. Even little steps, when taken by enough people, can make an enormous difference.

Americans are the most car-centered people on earth. Unfortunately, even very efficient cars use relatively large amounts of energy. The bicycle, however, uses no energy beyond the food needed to fuel it's rider. Just how much energy could I save by riding my bike in my daily commute instead of driving?

My weekly commute between school and work comes to around 25 miles. How much gas would I save by riding my bike? How much less CO2 would I pump into the atmosphere? How much money would I save? I determined to find out...

Floyd Dryden Technology Assessment

2008-09-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks my counterparts and I have been exploring the technology resources available to us at FDMS. Dryden is a technologically well equipped school with a knowledgeable staff and helpful tech experts. The student population is, generally speaking, fairly tech savvy and with good reason. Dryden boasts:

Computers in each classroom
Smart boards available for check out
Schoolwide Internet access
Digital projectors and overheads in each room
A host of education related software

Floyd Dryden follows the Alaska Content Standards for Technology and digital technology is frequently incorporated into everyday classroom activities. Perhaps the most used piece of technology is the digital projector. This is an extremely versatile piece of equipment, capable of projecting videos, DVDs, computer based media, and anything else placed beneath it's camera. The Accelerated Reader program and STAR testing match students with books at their reading level. Students can then take online tests on tens of thousands of different books. This creates a student driven reading program and familiarizes students with basic computer use and web navigation.

Dryden staff emphasize the value of technology through its incorporation in lesson development and presentation. Though overt instruction in technology and its use are generally reserved for tech class, students are immersed in a technologically rich environment every day in their classes and there are opportunities to learn more about technology outside of class. To learn more, please consult my FDMS Technology Assessment.

Article Assessment #1

2008-09-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Digital Natives is an interesting article by Marc Prensky in which he addresses what he sees as the divide between pre-digital education and digital savvy students. In Prensky's view, 21st century students are "digital natives", people who have grown up in the digital environment and to whom technology and its use is second nature. We, the teachers, are with rare exception "digital immigrants" who, though we may be reasonably proficient with technology, are still far from fluent. Prensky argues that our schools are failing our students because they don't adequately incorporate technology and are thus unable to effectively engage the students. In order to rectify this situation, Prensky suggests that we as teachers should:

incorporate aspects of digital world "gameplay" into classroom instruction
update our subject matter so that students are exposed to 21st century material (nanotechnology, genetic medicine, neuroscience, etc)
increase student access to digital technology in the classroom
increase the number of courses teaching digital skills like programming
involve students in developing instruction
focus on engagement rather than content when planning lessons

From a teaching perspective, I both see the truth of much of what Prensky says and yet still find myself reluctant to give myself over to his solutions. It's certainly true that today's students are well acquainted with and engaged by digital technology. Gameplay undoubtedly has appeal and I know that educational games (e.g. Carmen Sandiego) exist and can be both fun and educational. Programming and other digital skills are in huge demand and I completely agree that schools should offer courses in those areas where feasible.

Clearly technology has enormous educational potential both engaging students and enhancing lessons. However, I have misgivings about technology as panacaea. The average American child already spends huge amounts of time in front of the television or playing video games. Obesity is one of our country's biggest health problems correlates rather neatly with the amount of time spent in front of computers and TVs. There is some evidence as well that social skills and attention spans have declined as kids become more and more immersed in digital worlds. Given this reality, I think that technology use in the classroom, especially in the form of digital games, should be carefully balanced with more traditional instruction.

Obviously technology and technological innovation are here to stay, and the digital world is a growing part of our reality as well. Given the increased prevalence of technology in our everyday lives, schools do have a responsibility to teach students appropriate technology and to incorporate its use where it can truly help students to learn more effectively. For me, technology has a place in the classroom supplementing traditional instruction and peer interaction.

Futuring

2008-09-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

a. How would you "grade" or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person and School Train?

The beauty of alternative assessments is that they allow students to be creative in demonstrating their understanding of a subject and to explore modes of communication other than the standard essay or research project. For School Train I liked how basic the expectation was: show an understanding of metaphor. Having simple, straightforward, open-ended expectations like this helps create an environment conducive to creativity and self expression. It also puts the impetus on the student to do their utmost to demonstrate that they really do understand. The question then becomes: did they convince me?

In School Train the students use numerous juxtapositions and direct statements to compare school to a train. For example:

cars are classrooms
tickets / homework
students / passengers
dining car / cafeteria

To me these statements clearly show that the students understand the metaphor they've created; namely, that school is a train ride. Therefore in the area of content I would give the students an "A". In grading a creative endeavor such as this I think it is also important to take effort and creativity into consideration. The students obviously put a fair amount of thought into the ways in which school mimics a train as well as significant effort in putting the whole thing together. The use of train-like sounds and classroom visuals to tie everything together shows great understanding as well as the creative use of media. I'd give them "A"s for effort and creativity as well.

Fox Becomes a Better Person is slightly different. We have no prior understanding of what the expectations are but, for the sake of grading, I'm going to say that the assignment was to synthesize traditional Native and digital storytelling by:

telling a story
effective use of technology
using relevant visual aids
incorporating Native values

In regards to telling a story, the student does a fairly good job in relating the story of Fox. She speaks from memory and acts out pieces of the story to help relate what is going on. She's engaging and easy to understand. Her use of background visuals helps set the scene and gives the story a more personal feeling. Although simple, her use of technology works well. Live action over hand drawn pictures combines high and low-tech and her use of music helps introduce and bring closure to the story. She directly addresses the Native value of "speak with care" and her story indirectly portrays several more. Based on these requirements, I would give her an "A".

b. What impacts could the developments portrayed in Epic2015 have on your classroom, particularly with respect to things like podcasts?

I was thoroughly impressed by Epic2015. The synthesis of history and prophecy is eerily plausible. The confluence of information technologies, advertising, consumerism, and digital networking portrayed in Epic2015 frightens me because it so closely resembles what we're seeing already. Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have already achieved enormous popularity and technologies like cookies have been mapping user preferences for years. In the classroom and society in general, people are becoming more involved in their digital worlds, even as in many instances they withdraw from the world at large. Some of the larger points that Epic2015 drove home were:

we have, via the internet, access to a "breadth and depth of information previously unimaginable"
technologies already exist to electronically tailor information for individual consumption
in the digital age, huge quantities of our personal information are available online

With all of this in mind, and knowing the pace at which technology is currently developing, we as teachers need to recognize that we are inextricably caught up in the digital age. We as teachers need to understand that we are going to be teaching in an age where digital identities and cyber-bullying are big deals, where kids have multiple lives: a real, flesh and blood, physical life and an online, digitized, abstracted life. How can this reality fail to impact our classrooms? Professors at the university level, especially in distance courses, are using podcasts to post their lectures online and huge numbers of young people post their lives on Youtube or rant on blogs (like this one). The sheer amount of information available to students is truly mind-boggling and their exposure to it (be it trivial or profound) is bound to shape classroom interactions. For me, the challenge will be to harness the positive potential of technology while not being overwhelmed by the "fluff" of digital life.

c. What can students learn about math by animating a rolling ball?

Can students learn mathematical concepts by creating an animation of a ball rolling on the beach? After watching just such an animation and the process behind it, I was convinced that they could. First, the students used computer software to create a beach, and later a ball, which they then rolled along the beach. Initially they simply move the ball several units to the right, but the lack of roll sticks out as extremely unrealistic. Therefore the students had to determine how to get the ball to roll that same distance in the animation. In order to do so they had to understand several basic math concepts:

how to use axes (x,y,z) and what they correlate to in space
how to calculate circumference
how circumference relates to distance traveled in a rolling object

From an educational standpoint, I think that the lesson innovatively presented these math concepts while at the same time appropriately incorporating technology skills (digital animation) and creativity. The students also told a story by guiding us through the animation process, enabling us to better understand how they worked through the problem and overcame obstacles. Their initial attempt to move the ball along the x-axis was a failure because it resulted in the ball moving unnaturally across the beach surface. They achieved the goal of moving the ball, but it didn't look right and so they had to try again.

Thus they had to learn about circumference, how to calculate it, and then they had to apply it in relation to distance in order to make the ball roll onscreen the desired distance. In order to overcome an obstacle the students had to think more deeply about the math concepts in order to apply them to a practical and engaging problem. Having to work out how to apply these concepts the students will be more likely to remember them and to understand how they work in the real world.

d. How might you use Sabrina's piece, Sabrina Journey, as a model for something you might do with your own student.

Of all the media that we looked at, Sabrina Journey was the most like something I would have my students put together. The format was essentially autobiographical with a view towards analyzing "belonging" and discussing her journey back home. It is simply formatted: a running slideshow of images over her own personal narrative, and yet it is quite effective. If I were to make it a class assignment in a language arts or social studies class I would have the students incorporate the following elements:

a personalized written narrative (Sabrina Journey is autobiographical but the narrative could also describe a historical event, a place, culture, etc.)
the use of appropriate images to enhance/illustrate the story
tasteful use of music to evoke emotions
mastery of appropriate technology

In assigning something like this I would be looking at the written narrative first and foremost. Is the student able to engagingly tell a story? Do they vary vocabulary and sentence structure? Essentially, do they have a well written backbone for their video? The rest of the project would focus on multimedia creation by teaching students to use images and music to help convey their thoughts and feelings in a creative way. Students would also have to learn how to do some basic computer video editing, thereby exposing them to the new and rapidly growing medium of digital multimedia.

The basic structure in Sabrina Journey, therefore, would be applicable to a wide range of projects in numerous subjects and would foster cross curricular learning between the arts (image and music selection/creation and use), language arts (the written narrative), and technology classes (the creation of digital multimedia). It also seems that, with kids as tech-savvy as they are these days, students would love this kind of a project.

Initial Thoughts

2008-08-22T13:08:00.000-07:00

When I first heard that we'd be having to create a blog for this course I got kinda nervous. It's not that I'm necessarily computer illiterate, it's just that I'm pretty sure I've got some form of technological dyslexia or maybe even some minor technological retardation. Either way, computers and their use are not exactly my forté. On the other hand, when you start at around zero, you can really only go up from there, so let's see if I can't learn a thing or two about making technology work for me. Hell, it might even help keep me from tearing my hair out the next time my computer claims it can't find the damn printer. Some semblance of poise regarding technology in the classroom can only be a good thing.