Drape's Takes

Twenty-four Year Old PhDs Will Become Commonplace

2013-05-17T17:44:00.000-06:00

I responded to Jim Groom's assertion that 10,000 students might just enroll in Georgia Tech's newly announced $7,000 Master's Degree program:

Jim,

You might very well be right. As I try to wrap my head around the implications of this Georgia Tech/Udacity deal, I keep bumping into the fact that they chose to offer a Master's Degree program first.

Can you imagine what will happen when a comparable UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM becomes available for this price and at this scale? It seems to me that the role of *public* K12 in preparing students for college would/will immediately shift - from helping students to acquire the SKILLS needed to succeed in college, to helping them acquire the SKILLS while also providing underprivileged students with ACCESS to *college*.

We all know there exists a percentage of students who are academically prepared for college while in their early years of high school. When we were in high school, we had little choice but to wait out our high school years (possibly earning AP credits along the way). Today's students are able to take concurrent enrollment courses - or also AP - earning their way to an Associate's Degree upon high school graduation. When quality undergrad MOOC programs become available, is it really that hard to envision our best high school students also leaving high school with their Bachelor's?

Twenty-four year old PhDs will become commonplace.

How ready are we for this kind of shift?

I Remember the Good 'Ol Days #glassexplorer

2013-04-29T18:07:00.000-06:00

I remember the good ol' days, when teachers could actually tell when their students were using the Internet.

With Google Glass and now this Muse spinoff, it's hard to know exactly what students are focussing on. Man, I miss the days of Minecraft and Snapchat, 24/7! ;)

Really I don't miss the good ol' days; because think of the opportunities for learning these new technologies will bring! However, in only a few year's time, I can imagine even today's most hesitant teachers (put that cellphone away!) will long for simpler times, when kids brought only iPods to class.

What "Best High Schools" in the U.S. Reveal About Ideal High School Class Size #utpol

2013-04-27T07:59:00.000-06:00

Based on our latest intel, the sweet spot for ideal high school staffing ratios hovers right around 16.41 students per teacher.

US News and World Report released their rankings this week of the "Best High Schools" in the country.* After evaluating more than 21,000 public high schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia, schools were awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on "state proficiency standards and how well they prepare students for college." The American Institutes of Research (AIR) paired with US News to conduct much of the analysis.

The methodology used for selecting this year's cream of the crop included three steps:

Determine whether "each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state."
For those schools making it past Step 1, determine "whether the school's least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic and low-income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state."
For those schools making it past Steps 1 and 2, judge schools nationally on "college-readiness performance – using Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success, depending on which program was largest at the school."

After all was said and done, California triumphed as this year's leading performer, with 27.8% of its eligible schools earning gold and silver medals. (Congratulations!) Other state rankings can be scrutinized here. Note that my home state, Utah, garnered zero Gold Medals and finished in 31st place against other states.** Upon learning that Utah's top contending school ended up in 652nd place nationwide, I publicly lamented that "in Utah, we get what we pay for."

Sad.

Nevertheless, this painful competition (for some) between schools and states can be an important learning experience for all. In spite of John Hattie's claim that class size has relatively little positive impact on student achievement, I continue to believe that large class sizes bring detrimental consequences that impede the success of schools. This year's display of "Best High School" rankings beautifully illustrates this fact.

Through my Utah-centric lens, I decided to dig a little deeper through the data published by the US News report. Upon analyzing the Student:Teacher ratios advertised for most schools in the report, interesting patterns emerged. Accordingly, in the US News report:

The top scoring 2,290 schools were ranked. These schools earned Gold and/or Silver medals.
The mean Student:Teacher ratio for Utah's twelve ranking schools was 23.
The mean Student:Teacher ratio of the 651 schools scoring higher than Utah's top InTech Collegiate High was 16.41.
Of those 651 higher-ranked schools, only 17 had Student:Teacher ratios higher than Utah's mean of 23.

Do an additional seven students per teacher really make that much difference? Ask any core teacher to give you their take. Ask me, and I'll tell you it's clearly time for Utah to spend more on education. Our high schools (still) need smaller class sizes! Obviously there's more to improving student achievement than meeting ideal staffing ratios; but when it comes to competitively preparing students for college on a national scale, it appears to be an indirect requirement.***

To me, if second place is no place, then six hundred fifty-second is just that much worse.

---

* School Administrators should ACT NOW! If your high school is nationally ranked, you may display a "U.S. News ranked" badge on your school's website. The Best High Schools badges are available as FREE downloads!

Apparently, this whole "online badge" thing works now for credentialling schools, too!

** This methodology exemplifies the kind of scrutiny under which Utah schools will soon be subjected, given the contract recently negotiated between the Utah State Office of Education and the American Institutes for Research (AIR). I guess I'm ready if you are.

*** There were 49 states and the District of Columbia participating in the US News analysis. Why weren't any Utah schools in the top 50? Am I naïve to think we should be able to compete? Am I wrong to think that we'd even want to? The classroom teacher in me hates so much of this entire scenario that I'm sick that I've even written this post.

Social Media Use by (Public) Schools #edreform

2013-04-24T12:22:00.000-06:00

I jumped into an interesting Twitter conversation last night between Dean Shareski, Karl Fisch, Chris Lehmann, and several others about how and why schools might use Twitter. Dean kicked off the discussion with this:

If you're working a school/district twitter acct & rarely or never reply or engage in conversation u don't really get the "social"part of SM
— Dean Shareski (@shareski) April 24, 2013

At the end of the conversation, both Karl and Dean summarized their feelings well.

@ the world - My 2 main points. 1) You shouldn't decide how others should use Twitter,etc. 2) Time/resources are an issue
— Karl Fisch (@karlfisch) April 24, 2013

@ the world 1) districts who broadcast only are wasting a chance to engage 2) if you can't engage you might be better off staying out of it
— Dean Shareski (@shareski) April 24, 2013

Even though Dean and Karl may have felt they were on opposite sides of the argument, I think their combined points illustrate four truths about Twitter use by schools. Namely:

Different people find different purposes and uses for Twitter.
Districts (and schools) who use social media to only broadcast are missing out on a valuable opportunity to engage with their patrons.
School (and district) time and resources are an issue.
If organizations can't engage with other social media users, they may be better off not using social media at all.

For my part, I added two principal points to the conversation. First, as a user of social media, I fully expect organizations to respond when I reach out to them for help or direction.

@karlfisch I expect people to engage on Twitter. Especially vendors. I think many see schools the same way. @shareski @chrislehmann
— Darren E. Draper (@ddraper) April 24, 2013

Second, whether we want to admit it or not, all educators are in the public relations business.

@chrislehmann @karlfisch @shareski Isn't poor PR why we have so few resources?
— Darren E. Draper (@ddraper) April 24, 2013

Education remains a highly political endeavor; if we can't figure out how to best meet the needs of our constituents, they'll likely find other ways to replace us. Sad, but true.

@chrislehmann I saw that. Sad stuff. :( @karlfisch @technolibrary @shareski
— Darren E. Draper (@ddraper) April 24, 2013

Having seen the tremendously positive role social media has played in establishing the identity of my school district, I can attest to the importance of its use by organizations desiring to have their voice be heard (rather than trusting that their voice will be appropriately filtered by others). At times, third party media outlets get it wrong; even those in new media. Nevertheless, as our district's communication team has interacted directly with patrons on social media, primary source facts have been distributed and public relations have improved.

It's All in How You Sell It

2013-04-22T07:37:00.000-06:00

I was catching up on my MacWorld reading the other day and I came across this gem.

Dave Wiskus, on Apple's approach to marketing and design:

Apple’s approach to the problem was to first connect with the human holding the device, then present you with neat things you could do with it. Advertisements for the iPhone and iPad never discuss features; they show human beings using the devices to enrich their lives.

Technology Specialists and Coaches should take note. Most teachers don't care about what a technology can do until they see how well it can be integrated into the human, every-day instructional experience.

People first, then the potential of things.

Why I Struggle with Teachers pay Teachers #OER

2013-04-20T10:30:00.000-06:00

~~Add Teachers pay Teachers to my list of Dilemmas of Openness.~~ Teachers pay Teachers appears to be a successful private marketplace from which advocates of OER might gain valuable insights.

"The world's first OPEN marketplace where teachers

buy and sell original teaching materials."

But is their perceived success really ~~Sounds~~ too good to be true?!

From the perspective of a public educator, here's why I struggle with the concept:

There are thousands of quality resources available on Teachers pay Teachers. We need more easy ways for teachers to share.
Most teachers aren't paid what they're worth.
Most teachers can't really raise a family on the salary they're given.
Most teachers signed up for the job knowing both 1 and 2.
Public school teachers are paid by the taxpayers - with public funds - to work during specific hours of the day.
In many cases, the computer and other equipment used by public school teachers were ~~all~~ likely purchased by the taxpayers, using public funds.
It is my belief that classroom activities, assessments, games, handouts, outlines, posters, printables, research, worksheets, and the like - that have been created by a public educator during work time or with school-owned equipment - belong to the public and should therefore be licensed with an appropriate, open license. Resources created with public funds should neither be bought nor sold by teachers because they were never the teacher's to sell in the first place. Because these resources were created with public funds, they belong to the public.

But perhaps there's really no reason for me to worry. How likely is it that NONE of the (hundreds of) thousands of items for sale in the TeachersPayTeachers catalog were created with public funds? (Not) Very likely, right?

IF the small business owners of Teachers pay Teachers really do aspire to the highest standards of professional ethics, THEN they would refuse to allow the sale of any publicly owned resource.

Right?

---

Update:

First, I appreciate the passion in the comments! Please rest assured that I know teachers work very hard. I also know that most of the resources sold on TpT were created on personal time. Like you, I've been no stranger to long work days (and nights!) throughout my career as a Teacher, Teacher Specialist, and Administrator.

At Jen and Sheri's request, I've done a little digging into the Administrative Code for my state (below, emphasis mine). The rules in your state may differ.

Utah Administrative Code R277-111-3. Educators Sharing Materials.

A. Utah educators may share materials for noncommercial use that educators have developed primarily for use in their own classes, courses or assignments.

B. Utah educators may only share materials that they developed personally and may not unilaterally share materials that were purchased or developed by or on behalf of their public employer or the State.

C. Utah educators may only share materials that are consistent with R277-515 Utah Educator Professional Standards. For example, educators may not share materials that advocate illegal activities or that are inconsistent with their legal and role model responsibilities as public employees and licensed educators.

D. Utah educators may share materials under a Creative Commons License and shall be personally responsible for understanding and satisfying the requirements of a Creative Commons License.

E. The presumption of this rule is that materials may be shared. The presumption is that Utah educators need not seek permission from their employers to share personally-developed materials. However public school employers may provide notice to employees that materials developed with public school funds or during public school employment must be reviewed by the employer prior to sharing or distribution.

F. Public educators may not sell teacher curriculum materials developed in whole or in part with public education funds or developed within the employee's scope of employment to Utah educators.

At this time, I haven't yet found law specifying ownership of resources created with public funds. However, in the original post above I've given number seven as my opinion and nothing more. For me, it stands to reason that if something is produced using public funds, then that something should probably belong to the public.

To clarify, it has never been my intent to accuse TpT of any wrong-doing. Instead, I've pointed out an obvious dilemma. First, there are many quality resources on TpT. Second, teachers work hard and deserve to be paid more. Third, it may be easy for teachers to create resources on publicly-funded time and equipment - and then sell these resources to others in need. Fourth, if resources have been created on public time and equipment, then we probably have no right to turn around and sell them.

For the record:

I appreciate Teach 4th's honesty, and suspect that most TpT users fall into the same category.
I also appreciate Angela Watson's direct answer to my question. That said, how do we really know that the vast majority of sold resources are legit? How possible is it for TpT to even provide a system that guarantees that only privately-created resources are sold? Seems impossible to me, beyond a stern warning in their Terms of Service. (You all read those when you created your accounts, right?)
I absolutely LOVE how Eric Johnson has answered my final question while also offering a true-to-form critique of my writing. I honestly never meant to let him down!
Finally, extra credit goes to Jen for providing the most rational and constructive comment yet! We would all do well to think of this entire dilemma in terms of opportunities.

Update 2:

I'm having a difficult time expressing with words how much I appreciate Jen, Bill, and Jethro's willingness to rationally think through this issue with me! In my imperfection, I have attempted to shed light on a complex issue, while certainly fumbling along the way.

Perhaps unlike many in the comment thread below, nevertheless, I continue to see this post as a learning experience - not a once-written-remains-written article. Throughout my blogging career, I've always tried to approach the platform in that manner.

As a result, with this update I've made slight alterations to the original post. Additions to the post have been colored pink.

Like Bill suggested yesterday, I no longer see the struggles I have with TpT to be dilemmas of openness. Although TpT may claim to support an "open marketplace," the implications of marketplace alone emphasize drastic differences in the philosophies of TpT and OER.
That said, I included OER in the title and openness as a basis for my post because - as I mentioned in the comments below - I wish we could figure out mechanisms of motivation that might make OER sharing as successful as the sharing that takes place on TpT. To that end, I probably like the recommendations made by Bill the most (emphasis mine):

Creating and using open content approaches the same problem - how do I get the best possible material to my class - from a different place. Teachers can use open content exactly as they would use a textbook, or a piece of content purchased from TpT; for many people, that is where their understanding of open content ends. However, that vision of open content is incomplete, and rooted in our habits of using material with restrictive licensing.

There are different levels of using open content; teaching lessons that use open content is the starting point. Remixing material that incorporates two or more openly licensed sources is a next step. Releasing that remixed version is the next step. Collaborating with other people to edit and remix content is an additional level of involvement.

And, if you look at the trajectory of using open content, it resembles the trajectory of learning. It's not a transaction (go here, buy this) - it's a series of interactions of increasing complexity, each of which requires judgment and expertise. Over time, building and using open content develops a professional network and a collection of domain level experts to work with. Working with people to create open content is some of the best ongoing professional development out there, and districts would be wise to embrace and support this reality. Rather than make absurd claims over ownership of teacher IP, they could divert some professional development money into supporting teacher time in a facilitated authoring process that spanned the course of a year. The resulting material could be released under a Creative Commons license, ensuring that teachers and the district were given the appropriate credit for their role in creating and funding the work, and material created with public money would remain available for public use.

At this point, I will be moderating all comments. Only comments that constructively add to the discussion of sharing resources created with public funds/time will be considered. At this point, I'm beyond acknowledging the less-than-civil commentary left by overworked/underpaid TpT sellers who are - for whatever reason - offended by what has been written.

MOOCs and the Elite Edupunk Way

2013-04-16T18:48:00.001-06:00

Stephen Downes discusses a "great rebranding" that is apparently taking place with regard to the concept of MOOCs:

MOOCs were not designed to serve the missions of the elite colleges and universities. They were designed to undermine them, and make those missions obsolete.

Yes there has been a great rebranding and co-option of the concept of the MOOC over the last couple of years. The near-instant response from the elites, almost unprecedented in my experience, is a recognition of the deeply subversive intent and design of the original MOOCs (which they would like very much to erase from history).

David Wiley responds:

Don’t mistake lust for fame with forethought. The current mania around MOOCs has nothing to do with strategic neutralization of a potential threat to higher education’s business model and everything to do with needing to be in the New York Times. Assuming the prior gives way too much credit where it isn’t due – twice. First, to the leadership of schools who have jumped speedily on the MOOC bandwagon. And second, to the creators of the MOOC approach who by implication have supposedly devised a method so brilliant as to be capable of destroying formal higher education (which, apparently, is to be lauded).

My take:

When David organized what was once called the first "proto-MOOC" at USU back in 2007, I remember thinking how cool it would be to participate in a course with fellow students from around the world.* I did not enroll, but chose instead to follow David's lead. Therefore, because I too wanted to test the boundaries of what might be accomplished using modern networking technologies, Robin Ellis and I offered to provide an after-school professional development course on Social Software in the Classroom to every interested person on the planet.

While I can't speak for David, my purpose in designing a pre-MOOC open online course was not to undermine the missions of any elite colleges or universities. Harvard and Stanford never crossed my mind.

Rather, I wanted to experience the cultural thrill of exposing my teachers to the attitudes and patterns of thought possessed by educators from around the world. I wanted to see if the Internet could really be used to build a productive community of practice. I wanted to see if it was actually possible to create an immersive learning environment that didn't require physical presence. And ultimately, I really wanted to do it for free: that is, free access to participants using free publishing/delivery tools, freely accesible to all. When all was said and done, we learned that nothing in life is truly free, just like we're also learning today that the same might be said of "open." (Is nothing in life truly open, or is everything really some shade of open? The jury's still out on that one.)

To be clear, Stephen's assertion of a great MOOC re-branding smacks of Edupunk (2008-2011, RIP). In spite of the first-sentence claim in the Edupunk Bible that this favorite movement died in 2011, Edupunk's rebellious redolence and distaste for all things formal can still be felt throughout online conversations today. Yes, the Edupunk spirit lives on; promulgated by Stephen and obviously flourishing among those who enjoy life in the "Schools Are Broken" fringes of society. To me, there is very little difference between the "We can do things on our own, who needs institutions?!?" attitude of an Edupunk, and the "We can do things on our own, who needs everyone else?!?" attitude of most private schools. Both attitudes are elitist, and ultimately in both sibling camps, some people win while other people lose. Perhaps in the end, it really is a dog-eat-dog world, as the fight for an educated populace continues to be trounced from nearly every possible angle.

Let the record show, nonetheless, that there were explorers in the days of pre-MOOC open online learning who simply wanted another quality method for all people to learn.

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* Last November, Wikipedia user Kmasters0 (account no longer exists) removed the paragraph describing David's efforts from the Wikipedia article on Massive open online courses. Can you help me understand why?

Canyons District Film Festival - Incredible Display of Talent and Inspiration

2013-04-12T22:42:00.001-06:00

The 4th Annual Canyons District Film Festival was held Thursday night at Eastmont Middle School.

Just when I start to think a project requires too many resources, too much time, and too much sweat, I attend the event resulting from the project and end up so pleasantly surprised I can hardly contain myself. This year's Festival was so polished, I was in awe and impressed throughout the entire night!

Without question, the student work on display at the Film Festival was inspiring! Beyond the films themselves, the evidence of strong partnerships between students, parents, and schools brought a smile to my face from ear to ear. Even so, the best part about attending an event like this is seeing the faces of student winners as their videos are shown up on the big screen.

Whereas a comprehensive list of Festival entries, nominees, and winners can be found here, a few of my favorites are embedded below. If you've got a few minutes to watch, you'll be glad you did. I've included my takes in italics.

Elementary Animation Winner
"Skittles Magic" - Kyann Otterstrom - Canyon View Elementary

Fun! The creativity displayed in this fun stop-motion animation is fascinating to watch.

Secondary Documentary Winner
"Bullying" - Alicia Gallegos, Danean Imboden, Brianna Groesbeck, Kelsie Bush - Crescent View Middle

Touching. The story of Amanda Todd is a tragic one. It was neat to see this documentary help her story to improve the awareness - and ultimately the lives - of students in our community. I also loved seeing these students go through the process of receiving permission to mix copyrighted material.

Elementary Feature Film Winner
"Surviver Mans" - Forrest Kunz, Matthew Turner - Ridgecrest Elementary

Hilarious! Being a fan of the original Man vs. Wild series, I couldn't stop laughing during my first experience with this clip. What (elementary!) kids won't do to stave off boredom on a winter's Saturday in Utah. Their parents must be so proud!

Secondary Feature Film Winner
"Fwd: FORWARD" - David Skorut, Marshall Blessing - Hillcrest High

Intense. A real heart-pounder, this clip does an outstanding job building tension and suspense while omitting the violence we'd rather not have our younger audience see. As I watched this on the big screen, I think I almost had a heart attach. Made me want to forward every piece of spam I get.

Poster Contest Winner
David Skorut - Hillcrest High

I'm already excited about next year's Festival. The poster below was created by David Skorut (who's quickly becoming a local celebrity) and will be used to advertise the event next year.

Great job students, on-stage talent, and skillful specialists behind the scene! You made this year's Film Festival a complete success!

"Sorry, kids. You were born in the wrong neighborhood."

2013-04-04T22:33:00.000-06:00

Dan Meyer, quoting Freddie deBoer (bracketing and emphasis mine):

I've said this before: let's have an academic decathlon... I would bet the house on my team [of privileged demographic], and I bet if you're being honest, you would too. Yet to accept that is to deny the basic assumption of the education reform movement, which is that student outcomes are a direct result of teacher quality.

deBoer continues:

In other words, Whitehurst assumes that there is a natural distribution of quality in any field, where some significant percentage of people are always going to be below a necessary level of ability. That's an interesting case to be made in this context, the context of No Child Left Behind and the typical assumption of education reform, which ludicrously asserts that all children are capable of meeting certain arbitrary quality standards. But perhaps that's the inevitable consequence of a movement in which the person whose voice is heard is the person who shouts the loudest, rather than the person who pays most attention to what is constructive, to what is achievable, and what is true. In that context, it becomes a crime to state the simple reality that in a system of massive entrenched inequality, we will always have educational failure.

I think you should give deBoer's entire post a good read. He's done a nice job adding to the nauseating rhetoric in less than ten paragraphs.

My take:

First, if we accept educational failure at the ominous scale deBoer describes, then what hope will there ever be of overcoming poverty? (If only Bill Gates could wave his magic wand!) No, I believe the only sustainable solution to poverty is to help the poor help themselves. How? Education. And giving up on any population because of race, religion, or location of residence is emphatically unacceptable. We, the people - for the sake of the people - must not stand for it.

How can we rise as a country if we choose not to rise AS A COUNTRY? bit.ly/YTagwI
— Darren E. Draper (@ddraper) March 31, 2013

Second, teacher quality is one of the few variables actually within our control. Therefore, if student outcomes can't be directly improved by improving teacher quality, then why would we ever make such an investment in teachers, at all? Surely nation-wide daycare can be procured at a much cheaper rate than the amount we're spending on pre-service endorsement programs and in-service professional learning.

Following deBoer's line of thinking, maybe our best solution really is to employ as educators "those" unteachable, poverty-stricken drop-outs such that they might too fail at improving student outcomes so clearly outside of their control. After all, in our "system of massive entrenched inequality," isn't failure the rightful destiny of all under-privileged students?

Teacher quality does make a difference, and educational failure is not an option. As educators, we have little control over what our students do when they aren't in school (and rightly so). However, when they are in school, we have the critical responsibility to make every minute count, every day, for every student - regardless of their demographic.

As educators in an imperfect world, ours is the responsibility to be our best; because for some of our students, receiving a quality education is the only chance they've got.

Is Social Media an Appropriate Avenue for Making Practice Public?

2013-04-03T08:16:00.000-06:00

I currently serve as the Director of Education Technology in a mid-sized public school district. As such, I feel a keen duty to spend public funds responsibly and in a manner that would be pleasing to the vast majority of those tax-payers who provide for the students in our care.

Because my department is in the business of technology and because technology lives in constant flux, I receive my share of requests for technology purchases: by teachers, by staff members, and even by principals in the schools I serve.

What do you think would happen if I required that all requests for purchases be made with a publicly-viewable account on Twitter or other social network? (Even though school district spending records are already publicly available, I don't think they're frequently reviewed.)

Do you think requiring openness when making purchase requests would be worthwhile?
Would it potentially cause more issues than it might alleviate?
Would it save money?

Finally, if the public scrutinized your spending habits, would they understand why you've purchased the things you have? Would they agree that your spending habits are sound?

Predictions for Education and Technology

2013-02-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Making accurate predictions is difficult.

After the New Media Consortium released their 2013 Horizon Report for Higher Education, I reviewed the predictions they had made annually since their first report in 2004. Having nothing but the highest respect for members of the NMC community and appreciating the process followed to make their projections, I was curious to see how things have turned out through the years.

I then took out the crayons, attempting to identify any patterns in their prognostication. Clearly, the routine of one phenomenon traveling from right to left - to eventual adoption over the course of time - was most ideal.

The conclusions I make from this brief exercise include:

Mobile (education) won't be going away anytime soon. Greater society's adoption will make sure of that.
Educational gaming will NOT hit widespread adoption in 2007 (2005 + 2), 2008 (2006 + 2), 2011 (2007 + 4), 2013 (2011 + 2), 2014 (2012 + 2), 2015 (2013 + 2), nor - based on NMC predictive patterns - at anytime before the year 2020. Gaming is DUE, however, to spend several years in the "1 Year or Less" category.
We may actually see solid in-class teacher use of learning analytics by 2016.
Wearable technology should spend at least ten years on NMC lists, as Google Glass and its counterparts work their way around the body.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Re-telling Stories and A Public Confession

2012-10-11T07:43:00.000-06:00

Some stories require multiple tellings.

Following up on what remains one of this blog's more popular posts, I couldn't help snapping this picture the other day. I call it A Public Confession.

A Public Confession - Click to enlarge.

More teens have smartphones today than ever before. To me, this means that more teachers have powerful technology to use as a resource for furthering their instructional purposes. It also means that more teens need more help in learning how to best use that power in safe and productive ways.

If we don't teach students balance and appropriate cell phone use, who will?

In other related news, Dan Haesler provides a nice angle on the state of social media instruction.

Imagine for a second if we taught our teenagers to drive a car in the same manner we attempt to teach them about social media.

1. Driving lessons would be taught by adults (teachers or parents) with little or no experience of driving.

2. Driving lessons would only focus on what not to do.

3. Driving lessons would NEVER take place in an actual car.

Outstanding analogy for an important problem.

My (still) pie-in-the-sky wish is that in all schools:

Policy would allow for teacher autonomy in using cell phones and social media as instructional tools.
More teachers had the technological-pedagogical skills and philosophy required to effectively harness these technologies for in-class use.
More curricula encouraged real-world experience instead of the artificial environments that adults seem to think serve children best.

Yes, some stories require multiple tellings.

Questions Unknown at the Time of My Naming

2012-09-18T07:30:00.000-06:00

By my count, there are currently forty (40) different "people" with the name of "Darren Draper" on Facebook. Spelled exactly like I do, creepy parallel universes and all.

I doubt when my parents decided to run with the name of Darren - you know, not Darin, Daron, Derin, Daryn, or Darrin - they had no idea there were so many already in existence, or soon would be, particularly in England.

West Jordan, Utah, never seemed so small.

Darren Drapers - Page 1 of 4

So naturally, when I noticed how many Darrens there were on Facebook, question after question began swirling around in my head.

What would happen if I "friend-ed" them?
How would I feel if I got a friend request. From myself?
What if I friend myself and I end up being a jerk?
Assuming I did friend them, is it too paranoid to wonder if the chain-saw-wielding-mass-murdering-type-Darren-Draper out there would then try to assume my identity? Surely life can't be that wonderful for all of us out there.
How many of them are wondering the same thing about me?

It was hard enough that time I had a female "Daryn" staring back at me while I taught high school Geometry. I'm not so sure I'm ready to be Facebook friends with myself.

Sometimes Silence Can Be Golden

2012-09-04T10:39:00.000-06:00

Hybrid Pedagogy

2012-08-08T02:20:00.000-06:00

Teaching is a moral act. Our choice of course content is a moral decision, but so is the relationship we cultivate with students. Both physical and digital learning spaces require us to practice a politics of teaching, whether we’re conscious of it or not. However, traditional relationships between students and teachers come freighted with a model of interaction that often impedes learning. They are hierarchical. Progressive teaching, informed by a critical attention to pedagogy, resets the variables and insists on the classroom as a site of moral agency.

If you're not reading the Hybrid Pedagogy blog by now, you should be. They kicked things off back in January and have filled me with so much Cool-aid I'm ready to pop. Look for more excellent thinking as the school year winds up.

As for me and my summer, I've been busy playing, when not making preparations for the coming year and our District's implementation of online enrollment. I'm looking forward to an exciting 2012-13 school year and hope to learn more with you soon!

Twitter and Student Bullying

2012-06-01T08:59:00.000-06:00

I appreciate that Vicki Davis and others have taken Paul Barnwell to task for his title selection in yesterday's Why Twitter and Facebook are Not Good Instructional Tools. It really is what you DO with the tool that matters, and I know far too many teachers getting solid pedagogical benefit out of social media tools to merit any type of "poor instructional" label.

That's not to say, however, that Twitter has its clear-cut downsides.

In our district, where students once used Facebook to anonymously bully others through fake school pages, they are now turning to Twitter because accounts can be quickly and easily created and most parents aren't yet savvy to Twitter's potential. Additionally, we've received no support from Twitter (the company) in addressing copyright/bullying issues, whereas Facebook has been more cooperative.

I hate Twitter for that.

Through our experiences in the last several months, we've come to several conclusions:

Blocking Twitter does not solve the problem because much of the student activity takes place on personal smartphones or through text messaging, not always on campus during school time. Moreover, we'd never ban paper from our schools just because students use it to distribute cruel notes.
Student authentication on wireless networks should possibly become an IT project with higher priority in order to provide administrators with more information when researching student online behavior issues.
We must be more aggressive in educating parents of the potential power of social networking, along with their students' actual behavior. Far too many parents have no idea what their students do on their phones and far too few parent/child conversations take place about actual and appropriate use.
Our bullying policies may need to be updated slightly to specify that following a malicious Twitter account (such as @mt_jordanprops or @diggerproblems) without reporting hurtful behavior is congruent to failing to report physical bullying. See Policy JICFA-R-1-2, which currently reads: Students who observe hazing, bullying, cyberbullying, or retaliation activities have a duty to report such behavior to school administration. Students that fail to report such behavior are subject to appropriate disciplinary sanctions under the District’s student discipline policy.
We must, in every school, address the creation of these types of bullying accounts with swift and appropriate consequences. Until students understand how serious, public, and permanent this harmful behavior is, they will continue to seek attention in this manner. (To see an example of administrator success, view @cvms1 - although final success would result in the deletion of this account.
Viewing an account's first followers is a good place to start when attempting to find the student - or students - behind the bullying behavior.

What are your thoughts about this? Are students in your school creating these types of pages - under the guise of your school - just so they can berate fellow students?

Why Graduation Ceremonies are Important to Me

2012-05-05T14:55:00.000-06:00

I've never really been one for pomp, and few circumstances warrant a love for ninety minutes of "Jon Doe, Master of Science in Science of Science Science and Science..." But I decided to walk the walk yesterday, and here's why.

First, a little backstory.

I successfully defended my dissertation in March 2011 and was told at the time that I was then eligible to participate in the commencement exercises that would take place in early May. I said, "Great!" but quickly learned that a successful dissertation defense doth not a graduate make. So, last year's commencement came and went without my presence and I finished my doctoral requirements two busy weeks later. Why celebrate the completion of tasks when those tasks aren't really complete? My diploma came in the mail four weeks later, and my email signature has read "Darren E. Draper, Ed.D." ever since.

Next, more backstory.

One of the most meaningful aspects of graduate work, for me, has been the opportunity that research and deep, concentrated thinking provides to form strong, lasting relationships.

In August 2011, I noticed that a colleague hadn't yet completed his dissertation. Being the strong friend that I was, I took the opportunity to verbally abuse him first. "Quit your slackin' you slacker slack slack!" I then made him a deal that if he finished his dissertation on time, I would walk by his side at the next USU commencement.

At the time I made that deal, there was no way in a million years that he'd ever finish in time to graduate yesterday, so naturally he finished in time to graduate yesterday.

And so I walked.

We weren't twenty minutes into the ceremony yesterday when I remembered why I'd skipped every other similar opportunity to be miserable since high school (an Associates degree at UVU, Bachelors degree at BYU, Masters degree at USU, and an ESL endorsement in between). I also felt guilty for asking my wife, my kids, my parents, and in-laws to attend this grueling event with me; because two hours of crowded boredom can seem like a steep price to pay just to view dad dress up like Dumbledore for 20 seconds of hooding.

In the end, though, I'm really glad I did.

Because I "walked" and my family was there, they were able to see firsthand that some projects really do have an end; that even though the road might be long - and believe me, this one has been long - there's value to setting goals, working to accomplish them, and carrying through to the end. Because I "walked" and my family was there, I was able to thank them in person for their help and support. Yesterday, the words that I wrote in my dissertation's Acknowledgment were real, heartfelt, and expressed.

I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Jim Dorward, for his helpful and pointed advice throughout this entire journey. Few know the pain involved in climbing a mountain, but those that have climbed it before.

I also give special thanks to my family and colleagues for their encouragement, support, and patience as I have worked my way up the mountain. I couldn‘t have done it without you, and wonder if my children will ever recognize their father not hunched over his computer while sitting at the kitchen table.

So, I'm glad that I walked the walk. Even though it was nearly a year later. Even though it was boring and long, and even though it was painful for my kids. That's what families are for, and I love them dearly for their support! Here's to the hope that yesterday's experience might aid in inspiring my kids to succeed in school and understand its benefits.

Here's to their eventual, hard-earned, college and career success!

Drape's Recommended iPad Apps

2012-05-02T22:45:00.000-06:00

This was a fun email I wrote tonight. If you find these recommendations helpful, all the better.

Colleagues,

With Scot wanting to tour my favorite iPad apps yesterday and Hollie asking for recommended math apps today, I thought I'd throw together a quick list for you tonight. Hit delete on your keyboard now if you're not ready for a lengthy email: I won't be offended in the least. :-)

First, the iOS Report that Katie Blunt and others recently created includes dozens of recommendations. I asked them to include specific examples by subject and evidence-based instructional priority and think they've made a solid start. Be sure to use the clickable Table of Contents on page 2 to quickly jump to your interest.

Download here: http://cnyns.org/JwiKj8

Next comes my list. Because I come from a secondary background, these apps are probably best suited for older users - including adult learners - although many are also mentioned in the more elementary-slanted iOS Report.

Some of the apps included below are free, but most are not. Therefore, you can at least rest assured knowing that if I recommend an app here, I've given it a try and found it worthwhile enough to recommend to you. If you'd like to try any of these apps before you buy, you're more than welcome to take them for a spin on my iPad. (Would a list of apps to avoid purchasing be worthwhile to publish on our site?)

To be sure, iOS apps keep getting better and better every day! More to come, if you're interested. Which apps can't you live without?

D

---

Drape's Recommended iPad Apps
(Random Order)

iThoughtsHD - Decent mind mapper for brainstorming and thought organization.

iMovie - Very well-designed nonlinear video editor. Easily publish to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and elsewhere.

iPhoto - Powerful photo editor and organizer. Great for digital storytelling and organization!

Comic Life, Skitch - Digital storytelling, different apps for different projects and audiences. I also like Skitch for annotating photos, quick note summary of meeting slides.

PDF Pen - Edit PDFs, think of a textbook that is now editable by each student.

GarageBand - Teach music theory and generate a love for music creation and organization. Try it, you'll like it.

360 Panorama - Quickly and easily create panoramas. 2D pictures are so 2011.

Reminders - Now ties to Outlook Tasks (and has replaced ReQall and IMExchange for me with Siri - thanks Paula Logan for the suggestion).

Quick Office Pro HD - Nice alternative to iWork (Pages, Keynote, Numbers). At $20 for the suite, it's $10 cheaper than iWork if you're going to purchase all three, but doesn't yet support the retina display. Ties into more storage providers than iWork. If on a Mac, though, I prefer iWork - mostly because I'm bored to death of PowerPoint.

Noteshelf - Note taking app, with a Cornell template.

Remote - Control Keynote presentations from your phone, allowing you to wander the room. A little buggy, but better than nothing.

Goodreader, Dropbox - De facto storage solutions for iOS.

Star Walk for iPad - Interactive star map, smells better than most astronomy professors.

Google Earth - Interactive map with geographical highlights. I love using this for historical tours.

ArcGIS - Tap into ESRI's online GIS or create your own maps. Also GeoMobile for ArcGIS.

GeoMeasure - Would've loved to have had this app when teaching geometry! Have students measure the area of a sector in real life (like a football field or section of lawn), verify answers with GeoMeasure.

iTunes U - Now on the iPad. See also Newsstand, iBooks, and iBooks Author!

ShowMe - View and create digital tutorials. Simple, yet very effective for electronic explicit instruction.

SCOtutor for iPad - Free for a limited time, video tutorials on how to use the iPad!

Study Apps:

TIPPS - SAT Prep, not ACT but still decent
ACT Student - Practice ACT questions
Khan Academy - Instructional videos by topic
Wolfram Alpha and most Wolfram Course Assistants - Nice supplements to traditional instruction
Simplepedia for iPad - Wikipedia reader with offline support

Which apps can't you live without?

My Personal Ed Tech Mission Statement

2012-05-01T08:00:00.000-06:00

Adapted from a conversation held during last week's round of job interviews. Solid candidate, refreshing perspective.

You! Yes, you! What do you think about the Common Core? Here's what I think...

2012-04-26T08:22:00.000-06:00

Our state Board of Education meets tonight to discuss the extent to which we - as a state - will be adopting or ignoring the emerging Common Core State Standards. They've invited public comment on the issues. Here's what I've written on their Facebook post, knowing the kind of right-wing thinking we're often dealing with in the great state of Utah.

The Common Core State Standards are neither distributed by Satan nor designed to send our unique state into a tailspin. Rather, they provide a collective and consistent understanding of that which students are expected to learn, so we all can then focus precious resources on topics that matter most.

Essentially, there are two key reasons I fully endorse Utah’s adoption of the Common Core:

1. If Utah students are to compete with students in other states, we’re better off playing by the same rulebook. (What kind of advantage would the Jazz have when playing the Lakers, if in LA points are scored differently than they are in Utah?)

2. The near nation-wide adoption of the Common Core has already improved the quality of curriculum materials immensely, and will continue to do so in years to come. Giving publishers a target that is common across all states facilitates an increase in competition for educational dollars (good for learners in a free-market economy) while eliminating the need for extraneous solutions (bad for those who insist upon going their own way).

Because we now live in a global society, the Common Core State Standards simply make sense.

What's your take? Am I a fool for thinking this way?

Is there a future for open education beyond privatization? #utpol #utleg

2012-01-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

The Utah State of Office of Education (USOE) announced today that “it will develop and support open textbooks in the key curriculum areas of secondary language arts, science, and mathematics.” They also encourage “districts and schools throughout the state to consider adopting these textbooks for use beginning this fall.”

This is clearly a major victory for proponents of open education and a move laden with tremendous potential!

That said, I have mixed feelings about the announcement – or more specifically about the timing and readiness of districts across our state to transition toward open textbook use. Here’s why:

USOE requires Utah districts to conduct standardized testing using a Measured Progress-developed software client that can only be installed on Macintosh or Windows devices. There are no immediate plans for progressing (measuredly) away from this client-based testing solution and no solutions for the iPad or Android tablet devices in sight.
Very few districts in Utah are ready for 1:1 technology access: neither pedagogically, financially, nor culturally. Really.
Any initiative announced just before the Legislative session is subject to immediate suspicion.

Two questions now ring inside my open-education-loving head:

Have you ever snuggled up with a netbook to read a good (e-)book?
Is this really more of a political move – designed to convince proponents of private and home schooling that public school districts will now gladly hand over students (vouchers) AND develop a viable curriculum for them (open textbooks)?

Openness in education continues to be plagued with more than mere moral dilemmas.

More open?

Refining Purpose for 1:1

2012-01-03T09:32:00.001-07:00

For me, there are four key reasons that schools should transition toward 1:1 technology access for students:

Broadband, social networks, and mobility have spawned a new kind of learner (Waters, 2011). Children expect different things out of life today than we did in our youth and as a result, technology is a very important (and fully anticipated) part of their experience. Failing to produce the kind of learning environments that are tailored to those of the rising generation will be the hallmark characteristic of defunct schools in this and future years to come.
In its ubiquity, the Internet has become the primary instrument commonly used to access knowledge on any subject. Under the guidance of a skillful teacher, every student should be privileged with unfettered access to knowledge – unhindered in his or her progress toward understanding. Clearly, an essential role of educators today should be to pay attention to the present (Draper, 2007), while leading students along safe and successful paths to a bright but challenging future.
When used properly, technology can be the avenue through which teachers and students become co-creators of knowledge. Through these more learner-centric approaches to pedagogy, the “banking” concept of education can better subside as truly impactful learning takes hold (Freire, 1963). With greater access to educational technology, the customized learning, social and emotional support, self-regulation, collaborative and authentic learning experiences, and assessment for learning that commonly accompany learner-centric classrooms can be realized with far greater ease (Aslan et al., 2011; Watson & Reigelut, 2008).
Outcomes of previous 1:1 efforts have included increased teacher and student engagement, higher test scores and a narrowing of the achievement gap, more effective professional development, and greater digital citizenship and community outreach (see for example Gray, 2011; Digital Education Revolution NSW, 2011).

What are your thoughts concerning 1:1? What are its pros and cons? In your opinion, is it worth the investment?

In your opinion, can schools afford not to make the transition?

Teaching, By Humans

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

I love this by Dan Meyer, and dare you to spend twenty seconds reading his sarcastic take.

Direct instruction encompasses far more than mere lecture, videos can only go so far to teach, and some lessons are best learned by pedaling.

Too bad too many look too hard for that ever-elusive silver bullet.

Look Before Leaping #iste11

2011-06-28T12:54:00.001-06:00

I took a picture this morning, of a guardrail strategically placed between buildings at the Philadelphia Conference Center. I think the whole guardrail idea is fascinating. Imagine what was happening before the rail was there...

Narrow enough to easily walk around, this safety feature prevents people from quickly but dangerously dashing out into traffic - because of their natural desire to quickly reach the other side. It's not that people want to walk right into traffic; but more that they may not realize the dangers present, especially when their focus on the end-goal might be so intense.

Pretty similar to the kinds of safeguards we need in place for kids while they're excitedly learning to use social media, isn't it.

The Continuing Shifts of Online Writing, Reading, and Thinking

2011-06-23T07:22:00.001-06:00

Will Richardson announced this week that he has "decided to pretty much bring [his] run at Weblogg-ed to a close." Instead, he'll be using Tumblr to facilitate his sharing and provide a space for him to disseminate his thoughts.

Being one of the first to join the educational blogging scene, I see Will's abandonment of traditional blogging as a clear marker for the beginning of the end of long-form educational blogging. While I don't think blogging will disappear entirely, I have noticed and experienced a substantial shift in how people prefer to collaborate - and even share deep thinking. I elaborated further on these shifts three years ago, as I began to flesh out my own thinking on the matter.

Around that time, I took a graduate-level course on the diffusion of innovations from Dr. Gary Straquadine, one of my favorite professors and teachers with whom I've ever been able to associate. As I explained to Dr. Straquadine my efforts with blogging and OpenPD, he was naturally fascinated by the diffusion aspects of these technologies and seemed genuinely impressed with the potential afforded by these once-emerging collaborative techniques.

At the same time, he asked me pointedly, "Darren, do you think you'll still be blogging five years from now? Do you think it will be as popular then as it is now?"

Shocked that he might be suggesting that blogging would one day have an end, I defended how immersive and incredibly powerful the technology was and how I had hoped all teachers would embrace its use. He then expressed his apprehension in blogging's long-term shelf life and his heartfelt confidence that improved innovations would eventually and inevitably come along.

He was right.

While blogging, for me, has been an incredible experience and convenient method for collaborating and sharing deep thought, other tools have emerged that now make some of this sharing easier. Will Richardson is moving now to Tumblr because its "flow" better accommodates his preferences. Similarly, I've changed some of my procedures by using ifttt.com to automatically push my shared items in Google Reader, along with my comments, neatly and nicely to Twitter. Posterous makes it dead simple to grab content and comment, although I haven't yet used this tool to its full potential, and the Diigo bookmarks I add to a specific list likewise push to Twitter. Flow.

Regardless, I continue to appreciate this space, the feedback you're willing to give me here, and the platform traditional blogging provides me when I need to elaborate.

In the end, I'll be curious to know how many of Will's original followers decide to move with him over to Tumblr. We're becoming more flexible in the tools we use to share information; are we equally flexible in our manner of acquisition? (Currently there are 18,461 Weblogg-ed and 69 willrichardson.com subscribers in Google Reader. Perhaps Will would be willing to share his actual subscription numbers in the future.) Furthermore, I wonder how our increased tendency to share snippets of thought alongside snippets of 3rd-party content will continue to impact our level of truly deep thinking - presumably forced (or more openly embraced?) by the constraints of blogging as our once-preferred medium.

As a society, if our move toward more convenient flow also translates into at least equal levels of shared deep thinking, then I'm all for it. If not, however, then the increased-ease-of-use for increased-shallow-thinking trade-off will be harmful in the long run.

My challenge for you now is to help me understand just how harmful it will be.