Ed Tech Man

My Learning at #CMK2011

2011-08-31T13:43:00.009-04:00

This is my second post about Constructing Modern Knowledge Conference. This post is focused on my learning around my project. I learned many things at this conference. Some of the things I learned about had to do with engineering, electrical charges and gear ratios. If you missed the previous post, I created a cell phone charger that was powered by the pedeling of a bicycle. Also, some of my learning is explained on the Constructing Modern Knowledge blog here on a post called "Impossible!"

Here is what I learned about gear ratios. Really the only gears that matter are the ones that connect directly to the energy source or the output. All the other gears just transfer gears and really do not matter that much. Gears can be geared for speed or for torque. If your input gear is small and your output gear is small your torque will be great. If your input gear is small and your output gear is large your torque will be low but your speed will be high.

I learned a bit about creating an electrical charge. In the early stages of creating the cell phone charger, I wanted to see how much electricity I could create by self-powering a motor with my hand. With some help, I was able to connect a volt meter to the electrical output of an engine. I then cranked the engine with my hand. I was only able to create a .033 volt charge, which is very low. I did feel that I would be able to create more voltage by pedeling a bike than just turning a crank with my fingers.

I also learned that the only real electrical part of a USB port are the outside pins. There are 4 pins and the two inside pins are for grounds. I did not worry about the grounds since the electrical charge I was creating was not harmful. With the help of a friend, Elias, the female end of a USB port was sodered to the output wires from the engine.

The last thing I learned was the idea of over engineering. When I was young and I would get scared my father, who is a chemical engineer, would always tell me that I do not have anything to worry about because things (air planes, roller coasters or bridges etc...) are over engineered. I remember being a young child and getting on a plane. I was affraid but my father told me that I had nothing to worry about because engineers had designed the plane 300 times stronger than it had to be. Basically, whatever mother nature or human error, to a certain extent, “threw at the plane” the machine could handle it. I finally learned what this meant. When creating the cell phone charger I realized that I could create something better and in the long runs save myself time by over engineering. Basically where I could put one support I put two. Where I could put one stopper I put two. Where I could put three braces I put four. This made my charger virtually indistructable, which is a good thing because the vibration of the bike caused problems.

I do want to take my cell phone charger a step further. I want to make the charger out of an old VCR or outdated computer or other recycled materials. I think it is great for the environment to make energy from human powered devices made from recycled materials. As of last week, I purchased a $.99 electric can opener from Goodwill and am slowly turning my learning from Constructing Modern Knowledge into a real product prototype that I can use on my bike.

My Experience at #CMK11

2011-08-09T08:14:00.024-04:00

My experience with the Constructing Modern Knowledge Conference was like no other. I was able to hear from experienced

educators like Johnathan Kozol, Lella Gandini and Mitchell Resnik. I was able to choose a project and finish it to completion and I even have vid

eo documentation. I was also able to work elbow to elbow with Brian Silverman, Artemis Papert, Cynthia Solomon, John Stetson, Brian C. Smith, Claudia Urrea and others. The incredible thing was that you could not tell the participants from the instructors. I also got to talk to scientists. I spoke with Marvin Minsky and Derrick Pitts. At this conference it is difficult to label a person so I will just call all of us educated tinkerers.

Gary Stager asked all of us to take off our teacher hat and put on our learner hat. This request varied much with different teachers. I was able to take off my teacher hat and emmerse myself in learning. I even neglected a lot of my emails and did some work on my project in the evening in my room. On the first day I stated that I wanted to create a cell phone charger that was powered by a bicycle. I was able to make it.

Another great thing was working with educators from all over the world who have like minds concerning ideal uses of technology. If you have ever asked the question “how do I teach problem solving?” then this conference is for you. If you choose, you will be put into situations where you will have to solve problems.

Should Screen Time Be Limited (Continued)

2011-03-01T12:49:00.019-05:00

The whole year of 2010 was a very interesting year for me. Each year I make resolutions or create goals in different sectors of my life and do my best to accomplish them. I often have mixed results at my resolutions and my goals. Last year I created two publishing goals. One publishing goal was to read a book and record a book review for my local NPR affiliate. Here is that work. My next goal was to publish something in Learning and Leading, a magazine published by ISTE. I actually tried to publish in this magazine previously but was rejected. Unbeknownst to me, I was pitted against, in a duel of words, with Dr. Gary Stager. Gary is a leader in the edtech community whom I greatly look up to. Of course, I won the argument but I still feel that my 500 point/counter point stance could use further clarification, especially after Gary highlighted this poor attempt at a “faux debate” in a blog post not to far in the past. I must iterate the point that Gary and I did not know, at the printing of the original article, which side of the argument we were lobbying for. Here is the pre-published article.

I have three main points that I want to clarify. (Child=Student; Not all screen time is equal; limits are love)When is a child not a student? For that mater, when is a person not learning? I too believe that schools have very little jurisdiction of what a child is taught in the home, what parents should expect of a child and what that child is exposed to. I do not think that it is unreasonable to coordinate with the home about content. If Suzy is learning multiplication facts, wouldn’t it be great if the parents could do 15 minutes of flash cards a night. This is not an unreasonable expectation of the school. It is even a greater gift to a child if the school collaborates with home to help a child learn about his or her interests. By the way, these interests might not be on a state standardized test. If learning is a 24 hour, 7 day a week natural occurrence, then shouldn’t we consider a child always a student? And if you except the “child is always a student” premise then should parents limit screen time? And Yes, there is a screen time hierarchy. It does depend on what you consider screen time. I do not think that I consider, as a part of the edtech community, that all “screen time/screen-based activities as equivalent.” I hope that I am not a part of the “imaginatively bankrupt,” but I would let a child create a musical score to his or her video voyage to the center of the Earth, discussing all the layers of our planet before I sat that same student in front of a projection screen to let them watch the movie Marley and Me. On the same note, I see way too many children at Applebees playing Nintendo DS’s at the table waiting for a meal when conversation should occur. Give me a break. Parents and teachers should not placate their “student” with electronic devices because it is easier to let them zone out and avoid any risk of an augment with a disagreeable teen. Also, when children are engrossed to the point of zombies in their electronic devices they are a lot less likely to bug or touch each other in an effort to annoy, which seems to be an activity that my 8 and 11 year old cannot avoid. Parents cannot let their children sit around and “eat bonbons all day.” If we limit bonbons and screen time we are being the 24 hour educators we should be and are not being “capriciously mean” or in any way shirking our responsibilities as parents.

My son, while using an iPod Touch on my home wireless, downloaded the app “Sexy Monster Trucks” when he was 10 years old. My Internet at home is not filtered. I would rather teach about limits that are self-imposed rather then authoritatively handed down by some kind of automatic filtering system that blocks my father’s website because he works for the “lubricants” division at the American Refining Group. My son did not know what the word “sexy” meant so he looked up the word on YouTube. He got an education. He uses my iTunes account so I got an email about this app he downloaded. I asked him about the app and at first he lied and said he did not download it. Then I said that I would investigate and that is when he came clean. I was not going to punish him until he lied about it and it seemed he felt so guilty that he wanted some kind of consequence. So, for a whole month he had no screen time. He actually limited himself and did not watch TV or use a computer of any kind for a month. A transformation occurred. He became more articulate, talkative and more thoughtful. He even read more on his own. He was looking for a limit and in someway he understood that I cared about him even more because of the consequence that I handed down. I cannot imagine how inarticulate and mind numbed my son would be if my wife and I had no screen time limits.

The number one predictor of success for a child is their ability to delay gratification. Setting limits teaches children how to delay gratification. I wrote a previous blog post and I recently read a WebMD article about this very topic.

Setting limits are very important for children because they are always “students.” Watching “Fred Clause” during school and not creating your own video game using the program Scratch just further emphasizes the point that not all screen time is created equal. And sometimes children are looking for us (the village) to set limits and many times those limits are a sign of caring. And in this day and age, a caring adult in a child’s eyes can have a lot of impact.

(All Photos are in the public domain and were found using creativecommons.org)

Can This Job Go Over Seas?

2010-09-02T13:40:00.015-04:00

Can This Job Go Over Seas?

Click here and please listen to this story (August 24, 2010-Morning Edition)

To be honest, I think the job of "remote caregiver" can go over seas. But this story from NPR begs a couple questions. Are we as educators preparing students for a growing job like "remote caregiver?" Is it easier to build relationships with people from our own country? If I say yes, am I xenophobic? With the aging of the baby-boomer population, will the technology of wired homes help our economy or hurt it?

I heard this story the other day and just thought it was interesting. A few years ago there was much talk about "preparing students for jobs that have yet to be created." Well, the job of "remote caregiver" was not around 10 years ago. What do you think about the questions I have raised?

Is It “Us verse Them” in Your School?

2010-08-11T16:03:00.005-04:00

Is It “Us verse Them” in Your School?

I refuse to perpetuate the “us verse them” mentality that I have encountered all my previous 7 years as a teacher. It is not always possible to break the “us verse them” mentality or cycle but where ever possible I try. I also refuse to perpetuate this mentality in my current role. I am co-principal at BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Service) Summer School at Wellsville Central School in Wellsville, New York. Currently, I am a graduate student at Niagara University and attempting to become a future school leader. As part of my internship I have given myself the humorous title of Co-Principal. It’s humorous because, Dan Denner, the other Co-Principle has been the principal here at summer school for 4 years, been a summer school teacher 8 years and has been teaching at Whitesville for 12 years.

We have about a dozen students that smoke across the street, off of school grounds and before school starts. The law is actually pretty clear about under age smoking and loitering around schools, but that is not a direction I really want to go in. I think for some school administrators I’m taking a “different” approach by trying to get to the bottom of why they smoke. I am trying to build a relationship with the students and it seems to actually be working. I often go across the street to talk to them. I affectionately say while crossing the street “Good Morning young lung polluters.” I often say, when I leave, “you young lung polluters have a great morning.”

As co-principal, I’m not sure what to do about it. Calling the police for loitering or underage smoking will, in my mind, not accomplish what I want. Getting the kids in trouble will basically continue the “us verse them” mentality and make them more untrusting of adults. Allegany County is the poorest county in New York State and many of these students have some financial difficulties. According the Ruby Payne’s research, “the only thing that can break the cycle of generational poverty is a caring relationship with an adult and education.” I have tried to create a rapport with the students who smoke and I’ve made efforts to try to guide them into caring about themselves on a very general level. We have also suggested to students about calling their parents and basically the students say “go ahead, cause that’s how we get them [cigarettes].” Nothing seems to work so, last Thursday I took the matter a step further. Near the smoking area I stapled signs to a telephone pole. Actually, they were just little fliers that had pictures of healthy lungs and smoker’s lungs. You could see the black asphalt lung compared to the red, vibrant lung very clearly.

I spoke to a summer school teacher, who is a teacher from Wellsville. I asked him if there is always a group of students who smoke before and after school and he said “yes.” I asked him why he thought they did this. I asked him if he thought it were just students making poor choices. He said no. It is different than that. He stated that it has to do with people not wanting to be told what to do. I agreed with his point. He said that no one likes to be told what to do and that may not be why students started to smoke but it is probably why students continue to smoke.

This morning (8/11/10) I asked multiple students why they smoke. Many of them mentioned that their parents smoked. They also stated that their lives are very stressful. I continued and asked, “what is so stressful about your life?” One student said he has school and a job and his job is stressful. He works in a local restaurant where the kitchen is extremely hot. I did say that other people have stressful lives and they don’t smoke. I also told this particular student about the concept of reframing. I stated that you should try to find something that you enjoy that is healthy and substitute that activity for smoking. So, when you get the urge to smoke you should maybe listen to music, eat raw carrots and read an extreme sports magazine, as a possibility. I gave them an example that is near and dear to my heart. My mother, Susan Weinberg, smoked and she is actually a cancer survivor. I went on to say that my mom smoked and I don’t smoke. I also talked about my own addictions with food. Basically I weighed 30 pounds more than I do now, and there are people all around me that eat foods that I want to eat but I make health choices much of the time.

I can here the “other side of the coin” arguments about my philosophy centered around student smoking in my head. Kids should be held accountable for their consequences. The law is the law. I understand this as well. I also know that when kids continue to smoke around me that it damages my authority. I realize that I am sacrificing my authority to build relationships with these kids for a greater good with the hopes of positive decisions down the road when these students become adults. I would also like to make it clear that this is in no way a cultural issue with the school or the town of Wellsville. I believe that the issue around smoking is deep ceded in poor economic conditions, living environments where this behavior occurs and a misunderstanding of actions and one’s health.

I mentioned previously how people don’t like to be told what to do and students are no acceptation. The issue that I am having internally is the idea of “us verse them” and students learning that people in the future will tell you what to do. Students also need to realize that every time someone tells you what to do, it is not always “us verse them.” With that said, no matter what job you have, and there are different degrees of politeness, future employers are going to tell you what to do. A part of me thinks that students need to get used to people telling them what to do or they will never keep a job.

Let’s face the facts. These students are not going to quit smoking at noon today because I had this conversation with them. Really that is not my point. I am hoping that someday, maybe 10 to 15 years from now, that one of these students say “hey, remember that Mr. Weinberg? He was interesting. Do you remember the pictures of lungs he put up?” And I hope that after all the things they heard, seen or experienced pushes them over the edge and my efforts contribute to them making the tough decision to try to stop smoking because someone cared and made an effort.

I would love to know your thoughts on this matter.

If you are a student answering, just leave your initials, or at the most, your first name only. All comments are moderated before they go up on this blog.

Are the Very Nature of Organizations Shifting Too?

2010-08-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

Are the Very Nature of Organizations Shifting Too?

Up until now, we really had no good way for two way, back and fourth, communication. Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everyone makes you think about the implications of seamless two-way communication. The book is really about “organizing without organizations.” The idea of “flash mobs” not only as a type of art form but as an unstoppable and unpredictable tool for political protest is discussed. The first chapter goes into great detail about how a woman lost her phone in a cab and a nefarious person used it and would not return it. The police would not even charge the person with theft even after they knew who had the phone and was using it illegally. Charges were not filed until a friend of the woman who “lost” her phone helped put pressure on the thieves and the police. This whole first chapter is deeper than just the use of social networking tools for justice. Chapter one talks about our new forms of communication, race and right verse wrong.

Chapter four of this book is titled “Publish, then Filter.” This chapter discusses the whole shift, whether good or bad, in the concept of how media has changed. It used to be that media outlets decided what was news and then publish what they felt was important. Now, it seems with the advent of many web tools that publishing and then filtering is the norm. This chapter and subsequent chapters goes on to talk about the amateurization of professions that were once done by only professionals. Take journalism for an example. Every blogger is a journalist in a sense. Even during my short and sporadic “career” as a blogger, I too have been accused of being that amateur. I was told that I may not be taking jobs away from other people but I was part of the narcissistic communicators who blogged and that thought they had something to say. Just by my blogging I was some how taking away from others who actually had real things to say. I am paraphrasing.

Many of the shifts in how media works today comes down to cost. The word cost is used but does not entirely refer to finances. All organizations, whether it is Little League Baseball or Ford Motor Company, have costs that occur due to being organized. Just the enforcement of rules, scheduling and the shear need to stay organized costs money. Not only does it cost money but staying together or organized is priority one, which, in turn, means that goals and objectives can be no higher than priority number 2. According the Shirky, these organizational costs are called transactional costs. When an ad hoc, grassroots group gets together to work on a project and has no need to organize, the group can put it’s main purpose as it’s number one goal. Many familiar with technology can compare Shirky’s ideas with many open-source software projects, which he does clearly in this book. Many tools now-a-days can allow people to work on a goal without ever meeting one another or organizing, at least in a traditional sense.

Journalism, movie rentals and publishing are causing a domino effect of changes on every industry involving these mediums. It is easy to see how the changes in publishing are changing school text books and libraries. Technology and social media are spearheading these changes. With many of the points that Clay Shirky makes in his book the face of organizations are changing. Not before reading this book, did I ever consider the idea of an “open-source” organization. I’m not sure we totally know how the change in communication and technology will shape the future of organizations. One thing is certain, if organizations become increasingly a thing of the past, educators well have to take a greater role in teaching students to be entrepreneurial or at the very least help students acquire the skills to be their own boss.

This has far reaching implications for education. Basically, education is free now. With MIT and schools like Stanford publishing all or most of their courses online a student can avoid the debt of college. All the “none formal school” attending student has to do is prove that he or she has the skills to do what it takes to succeed in his or her desired profession. Here Comes Everyone says to me that we really no longer need to organize into schools and in many ways we are wasting tax payer dollars requiring the public to pay for transactional costs. I know that there are teachers out there that will fear this. They should not. There is absolutely no reason that the same teacher that fears their job being taken away by an online teacher cannot become the online teacher.

Water in the Soup and Tighten Our Belts

2010-06-27T08:43:00.003-04:00

Tough Times in Paradise

Let's face the facts. Times are tight and we all need to cut back and "tighten our belts." Schools, too, must add water to the soup and find many ways to save. In Hawaii, a place of great tropical beauty and climate, times are also tough. Hawaii is in the middle of a $1 billion budget short fall. Hawaii is the only state in the United States that has only one school district. To make up the $1 billion dollar deficit and tighten the belt, the school district contracted with the faculty to take unpaid days off. If a teacher worked in Hawaii for 10 months a year they had to take 17 Fridays off and if a teacher worked 12 months, they had to take 21 Fridays off. Here is the real problem. There is another contract involving the state of Hawaii. The contract is the IEP. Students with special needs and learning differences are required to get certain amounts of services per year. The teacher furloughs would effect these services.

Many Hawaiian parents of children with special needs are concerned and some have contacted lawyers. The lawyer many have contacted is Eric Sietz. Mr. Sietz is the same lawyer who argued on the side of parents of children with special needs in 1993. In 1993, a judge found the state of Hawaii in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. It was ruled that Hawaii was not providing mental health and other services to children with disabilities. Seven years after the initial judge's ruling, Hawaii was found in contempt of court because there was little improvement in services to children with special needs. In May of 2001, after Hawaii was found in contempt, $1.4 billion was spent to ramp up mental heath and special services to children in need. Sietz is a perfect and logical choice for parents in this current issue in Hawaii involving teacher furloughs.

The ironic things is that I am sure the $1.4 billion spent to revamp, increase and provided much needed services to special education children must be contributing in some way the the current 2009 budget crisis of $1 billion. What seems to me will happen in this new teacher furlough issues is that if the Hawaii school district does not find a way to provide specifically laid out accommodations and services for special needs children, Hawaii will be sued again. I am sure, since Hawaii is already budget short a $1 billion, another lawsuit is not going to help. Another lawsuit will defeat the purpose of budget reduction furloughs trying to solve deficit in the first place.

Monero, L. (2009). Hawaii parents may sue over furloughs. Honolulu Observer, Retrieved from http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091013/NEWS01/910130349&s=a

Geography Does Make a Difference

2010-06-10T13:25:00.009-04:00

Geography Does Make a Difference

In a law class I took in the fall one of my focuses was religion and education. I am at many schools in our region and what is acceptable here during the holidays, I am sure is not acceptable in other places. I am fascinated by how religion is treated differently depending on the location of the school in American and the cultural make up of its students and faculty.

On September 10, 2009, on a webpage of a Kentucky television station a story was posted. The story that circulated around the country was about a football coach who took 20 of his players to his church and 8 of his players got baptized. The players and the coach went for a steak dinner and to hear a motivational speaker from Texas. The students play football for a team in rural Kentucky in Breckenridge County. The coach even payed for the gas that was used in the bus. The coach claims that parents were informed about this trip. The Superintendent, Janet Meeks, who was a member of the same church and attended the same service as the students, defended the coach. She stated that no students were punished for their voluntary decision to either attend the trip to the church or not. This trip was voluntary and the students who went chose to go. The problem is parents are furious and may sue the school. A parent of a baptized child, Michelle Ammons, said that she had no knowledge and did not consent to the trip or baptism.

When I first heard about this story I automatically assumed the school was in the south, below the Mason-Dixon line. I was right.

The first college I went to was Delaware State College, which is now called Delaware State University. Delaware State is in Dover, Delaware and not a school that I would consider as in the "south." But every group event Delaware State started began with a prayer. I was always confused by this since Delaware State is a state school. The culture of the school was very southern. Delaware State was started as a national land grant college basically designed to educate poor African Americans. Many of the students are from the south and many of the administration of the school are also black. Interestingly enough, a huge majority of the professors are white.

Just last night I was reading about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, which is another fascinating case about public school and, what I call, a hiden religious agenda. Basically in Kitzmiller the Dover Area School District (Dover, Pennsylvania; not Dover Delaware) voted to have a statement read in 9th grade science that there is another option if you choose to learn about it on your own which is called Intelligent Design. The statement also emphasis that Darwin's Theory of Evolution was just a theory. Eleven parents brought a law suit against the school district. The school district lost the court case and was forced to pay just over $1,000,000.

In the Breckinridge case, Author David Waters states "How long would it have taken the entire community of Breckinridge County, Kentucky to run the coach and the superintendent out of town on a rail if they had taken players to a mosque or a Hindu temple or a Wiccan magic circle?"

My advice to anyone who reads this is two fold. You never know what is going to "blow up" in the public eye and become a huge issue. The second piece of advice is if you are not sure what is going to happen and the issue involves religion at all, stay away or tread with extreme caution.

Wifi on a Bus

2010-02-13T20:53:00.004-05:00

An email went around yesterday and everyone loved the concept in the hyperlink from the New York Times. I even liked it at first. It is about a school district and bus 92. Bus 92 is a wifi enabled bus that allows students to access the Internet from every seat. Like I said, many of the colleagues, friends and acquaintances I respect thought the concept in this article was cool, and so did I. Something came over me. I felt the need to offer a different perspective.
__________

I am going to offer a different perspective. I love the fact that when I go to the Pediatrician's office and they have signs on the TVs that say "do not touch" as Barney or Elmo blare away. What's funny is the American Pediatric Society says that television for children under two years of age is not, lack of a better term, "a good idea." The problem is Doctors and Nurses in the Pediatrician's Office do not want kids crying away and they want them to be distracted.

My wife and I still limit our children to 1 hour a day of "screen time." This is becoming trickier with my son getting into James Patterson books on an iPod Touch. Although the one hour a day of screen time rule is not hard and fast, we try our best to stick to it.

I get a bit concerned when we have a society when children can't easily entertain themselves without an electronic device. It may be hypocritical for me to be saying this, especially for anyone who knows me. I tend to use my phone for emailing, book reading, fact checking and other forms of communication. Even I have suggested lessons on iPods for bus trips for students.

More and more the environments for face to face conversations are diminishing. This may be good or bad. I, just two weeks ago, told a group of 60 college students at an event called Backpack to Briefcase that students sitting in their seats, in the near future, may be interviewing for jobs in environments like Second Life. In an age where libraries, music stores, books stores, movie theaters and other things become, in a way, things of the past. So too are the face to face conversation places and the opportunities for this spontaneous conversations to happen. Time, technology and inappropriate uses of technology are huge contributors to the demise of the face to face spontaneous conversations. Yesterday, I saw two young ladies discuss whether Dracula was immortal. They compared and contrasted Dracula from Bram Stoker's time to what they have read in modern times with the Twilight series. I had to say to myself "I get it. This is what the library is for" and the stereotype of the "shushing" long skirted librarian and the chain around her glasses is antithetical to what a real "learning space" like a library should be.

Kids should not hit each other or make fun of people on the bus. I was both a culprit and a victim of this type of behavior. I also believe that a technology bus should not be so infiltrated with technology that meaningful "Dracula" type conversations don't happen.

The 21st Century skill of communication is critical and it is the number one way we tell people we are credible, ethical and competent. We primarily do this by articulating it orally. Also, our speech, the content of what we say and how we convey our ideas is the number one way we "promote our brand." I see younger generations losing some of their abilities to be articulate and I am sure not having a great way to assess oral presentation or communication on a state examination may be a contributing factor.

I just hope for a day that it becomes clear that the goal of technology is upper level thought and not placating the masses.

Journal entry 8: 21st Century Skills ...

2009-06-09T14:09:00.004-04:00

Journal entry 8: 21st Century Skills and how Superintendents and CEO's differ

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0108/p03s03-usgn.html

Khadaroo, S.T. Schools tap '21st-century skills'. (2009, Jan. 9). Christian Science Monitor.

This article is from the Christian Science Monitor on-line. There is much use of the words and phrase "21st Century Skills" in education today. This article gives a pretty good working definition of these skills. Sure, they are reading, writing and arithmetic but they are more than that. How do students use reading, writing and arithmetic to solve real-world problems that make them an attractive employee in a global market for jobs that may not yet have been created. That is the gist of the ideas behind 21st Century Skills. This article goes on to say that it is possible to integrate 21st Century Skills into the core curriculum. Historically, the American Public Education System has had difficulties in applying real-world problem solving into its curriculum. This study also mentions P.I.S.A., which is the Programme of International Student Assessment. P.I.S.A. assesses how students perform educationally, in the areas of math and science, on a global scale. P.I.S.A. compares developed countries. America continues to be at the bottom of the list. Ken Kay, president of
the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, states that the American Education system must believe that all students can think critically and problem-solve. According to Ken Kay, for a system where teachers assess, and believe that all students can learn and problem-solve all teaching, curriculum and assessment must be aligned to this goal. To meet this goal some states are creating mentoring programs that partner students with real-world employees related to the field of work that the student will be working in the future. These mentors and students work together to solve real-world problems. Other states are revamping their teacher preparation programs or are providing intensive professional development for teachers who are already in the field. Some of this professional development is offered by companies like Oracle or Intel.

The interesting thing about this article is the idea of how Superintendents and CEO's differ on what they see as important skills high school graduates need to have to be competitive in today's global market. Two differences stick out to me. The first difference that sticks out to me is the idea of "problem identification or articulation." Business/employers felt that this ability was only very slightly important but Superintendents felt that it was very important. The next big difference that sticks out to me is the idea of "problem solving." Business/employers felt that this is very important for high school graduates to be able to do but Superintendents felt that this was low on their priority on importance.

This article does little to actually analyze the chart/graph at the top about the differences in perceptions of 21st Century Skills. The chart compares Superintendents and Business/employees and what they perceived as critical 21st Century Skills. I also find a flaw in the chart/graph. I find that the ideas of "comfort with the notion of 'no right answer'" and "tolerance of ambiguity" to be extremely related.

There is another area in which I disagree with the article. This article seems to put an emphasis on "computer literacies" and 21st Century Skills and the need to upgrade computers. I disagree with the need to upgrade computers. I am not saying that teachers never need to upgrade their computers. I believe that teachers do need upgrades and some training on how to make their computers run more efficiently. 21st Century Skills and computer literacy has never been about equipment, operating system or even being able to navigate word processing programs that might, at the time, be the industry standard. Computer literacies fit mainly, but can fit in other areas, into Communication and Information Technology, which is just on part of the 21st Century Skills framework. So often, people confuse, or put in a box that is easy to comprehend, the idea that 21st Century Skills are basically technology skills and that is totally not true. Everyone should check out Ken Kay's website 21stcenturyskills.org to get a better understanding of 21st Century Skills

Journal 10-Michelle Rhee and Her Ques...

2009-05-09T17:37:00.004-04:00

Journal 10-Michelle Rhee and Her Quest to Change D.C. Education

Thomas, E, Conant, E & Wingert, P. (2008, Aug. 23). An unlikely gambler. Newsweek, [152(8)], 54-57.

I have always been a big fan of Michelle Rhee ever since I saw her on an interview with Charlie Rose. It was one year at Curriculum Camp when I snuck back to my room and turned on the T.V. to relax. Here is the interview (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9170). She seems to be a smart, straight shooter who will not hesitate to say what she thinks. She also seems to not take to much stock in what people think about her. One can learn much more about Michelle Rhee by reading this Newsweek article entitled "An Unlikely Gambler" (http://www.newsweek.com/id/154901/page/1).

Michelle graduated form Cornell in 1992 and went on to teach 2nd grade in a Baltimore City School. She tells a story about her 8 year old students that seems to be a bit shocking and disturbing. One day she asked her students to line up. As they were lining up, a boy fell down, and as the other students passed by they kick him. Michelle goes on to say that it seemed like second nature for the other students to kick the boy that was down. Rhee says, "I was, like, 'What are they doing?' But it was like second nature to them. The kid is down. Kick him." Michelle openly admits that it took her over a year to gain control of her students.

Rhee also believes that teachers can make a difference. When all else is bad in a student's life, the teacher can improve a student's learning and performance on standardized tests. While Rhee taught 2nd grade, she was able to take her students, who previously preformed the worst to performing the best in Baltimore. She goes on to say that the students that she taught that went from worst to best still came from the same economically depressed, violence ridden environment than the students from previous years. She states that the only difference is the teacher they see everyday when they come to school.

As Chancellor of D.C. schools she is putting her belief in the teach to the test. Her biggest struggle will be a new merit pay program for teaching excellence in her school district. Teachers actually can choose to give up their tenure and receive merit pay of around $100,000 to $130,000 a year. Teachers who choose to keep their tenure will still receive a 26% pay increase. Rhee really could only do this type of teacher merit pay program if poor teachers were not previously removed, and they were. Of course, removing any tenured teacher is not without controversy.

Rhee seems to be sensitive to educational equality for students in her city, Washington D.C. As a democrat, she is not always thrilled with the way the Democratic Party addresses education. Often, Democrats will state that Bush's No Child Left Behind act is, as she says "sucking the life out of our teachers." Rhee goes on to say, about this statement, "come on." Who is looking out for the black child in Washington who historically had to attend under performing schools, Rhee states? She goes on to say that not until the Democratic Party breaks the ties with teacher's unions will true educational reform occur in this country.

Journal 9-Pussycat Dolls on the Nicko...

2009-05-09T16:13:00.005-04:00

Journal 9-Hey, President Obama, Did You Let Malia and Sasha Watch the Kids Choice Awards?

The above video is from the opening act of the Pussycat Dolls' performance at the Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards. You will see that in the video the barely dressed performers touch themselves while gyrating in suggestive ways. The video is the second song that the Pussycat Dolls sung which was "When I grow up." I just wonder how many girls watched this performance and thought, when I grow up I too want to dress suggestively, touch myself and gyrate in suggestive positions. I hope that all the 12 year old girls will actually grow up chronologically and psychologically before they even think about acting that way, even though it really does not seem appropriate for any age, I wonder who thought this was appropriate for children to watch. A guy name Greg at the Kultureblog stated, "Someone please explain to me why the Pussycat Dolls are an appropriate
live act for performing at a kids’ award show? Was there a burlesque
deficit at the prior awards show" (http://www.kulturblog.com/2009/03/liveblogging-the-nickelodeon-kids-choice-awards/)

The Pussycat Dolls originated as a burlesque group in Los Angles in 1995. The Pussycat Dolls eventually moved to Las Vegas and gained their own lounge and casino in Caesars Palace. The casino has woman dressed in "Pussycat Doll Attire." The is a second Pussycat Dolls burlesque troupe that performs in the Pussycat Lounge.

Hasbro considered making a line of dolls after the famed Pussycat Dolls but decided against it. A group called "Dad's and Daughters" campaigned against the line of dolls. The Dad's and Daughters group stated, “We asked Hasbro executives to imagine encouraging their own 6-year-old
daughters and granddaughters to engage in developmentally unhealthy
behavior,” said Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters, in a
statement.” It appears that they did that, and then made the right
decision for their families, our families, and the company.” I wonder how the executives at Nickelodeon came to the decision that having the Pussycat Dolls perform would not be a "developmentally unhealthy behavior."

As for the title of this blog post, I have no idea if the Obama girls watched this year's Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Awards. I cannot find any evidence of it on the Internet. I do know that the year before, both Sasha and Malia were at the Kids Choice Awards. My question for President Obama is, how does having the Pussycat Dolls as the opening act on the Kids Choice Awards, help parents and teachers teach children that this type of sexual behavior is not appropriate? I am not sure that the 11,000,000 children between the ages of 2-11 really need to know what fish net stockings look like. I am not the only parent, or father, for that matter, that feels this type of "entertainment" is inappropriate for children. After reading the Fairly Odd Mother's blog and comments, I realized I was not alone. (http://fairlyoddmother.blogspot.com/2009/04/and-i-thought-worst-thing-on.html)

Ever since the 1960's, educators have realized that we now must teach values, morals and ethics to our students. When executives making decisions that are unhealthy and inappropriate, that makes our jobs as educators more difficult. If you really want Nickelodeon to have more wholesome programing, we as parents and educators need to band together and stop buying products that are advertised on Nickelodeon. I would think that, that might get some people's attention.

Journal 7-Delayed Gratification

2009-04-07T14:41:00.006-04:00

Journal 7-Delayed Gratification

Abumrad, Jad & Krulwich, Robert (2009, March 9). [Podcast] Mischel’s Marshmallows. RadioLab. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/03/09/mischel%E2%80%99s-marshmallows/

Click here for the original podcast. You should listen to it because it is fascinating and very well done

I first learned about the famous marshmallow test this past week while I was in my car listening to a radio show/podcast that I love. It is called RadioLab. Dr. Walter Mischel (said like the President's wife) was the man who conducted the marshmallow test. He is currently employed at Columbia University in New York City. What Dr. Mischel did is he took 4 year olds and had them come to a room that was rather plain. In the room on a plate was a marshmallow. Each 4 year old entered the room and was told they could eat the marshmallow now if they chose to or they could wait until Dr. Mischel returned and they would get two marshmallows. Mischel tested 500 children and there was a huge range. Many children made it and were able to earn a second marshmallow, but many children could not wait. Some children ate their marshmallow right away but the average time a child delayed gratification was 7 to 8 minutes.

asked his girls how specific children, who he dealt with exclusively on this study, were doing. Some children were doing well and others were not doing so well. Then Dr. Dr. Mischel had two daughters going to the school where he tested these 500 children. About 5 years after the study, over pancakes in the morning, Dr. Mischel made some kind of inference that seems to be true. This is the amazing thing. There seems to be a direct correlation between the children who were able to delay gratification and their success in school. And the children who ate the marshmallow without waiting were, well, not doing as well.

You would never think this would happen but it has. Ten years or so later, Dr. Mischel looked at the children's SAT scores and there is distinct connection between the students who were able to delay gratification and higher scores on the SAT. Dr. Mischel calls the connection a "remarkable correlations between the actual SAT score and the delayed gratification time." Well, how much better did students do? How much better did the children who delayed gratification do than children the children that did not delay gratification? The SAT scores for both groups are startling? For one student, on average, the difference in SAT scores between a child who waited 1 minute to eat the marshmallow and the student who waited 20 minutes was a difference of about 210 points. And what happened to the kids that were not able to delay gratification? Dr. Mischel says that these kids are "most likely to become a bully."

40 years later Dr. Mischel is still in touch with these children from the marshmallow study. Dr. Mischel's and his group expanded the data that is being collected. They keep in touch with about 250 of these now adults. The kids who were able to delay gratification now have better jobs, have gone further in school and are even healthier. Does this mean I can try this test on my 4 year old and find out if he or she is going to be a good student and be successful? Well, the answer to that is, statistically, yes. So, am I to believe that at 4 years old, when the concept of will power is forming, that a child either has it or they don't? And if my child does not have will power are they doomed? Could schools use this marshmallow test as a screening tool for kindergarten and future schooling? Could a pediatricians use this test to judge whether the child who grows up and has a family history of diabetes will be more likely to get this disease. Do we even need to have a child's genetic code? Can we come up with a mathematical equation that predicts how successful a child is going to be at the age of 4 much like how a pediatrician comes up with a child's height and weight percentile? I keep coming back to the thought of, "is there any hope?"

All is not lost. What Mischel found out is that children who delayed gratification used little tricks to distract themselves or pretend that the marshmallow was some how not as desirable. And if that is the case, tricks can be taught and learned. So, Mischel took this one step further. He said to the child, who was unable to delay gratification previously, and was face to face with the marshmallow again, to pretend that there was a picture frame around the marshmallow and that it was a picture and not an actual tasty marshmallow. Guess what? Children, once they were taught this trick, were able to delay gratification.

This study has some interesting implications for education, early child development and quite possibly the future of our nation. If we can control obesity by teaching 4 year olds tricks to delay gratification we may have really got something. If we can control obesity, which is associated with various diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers and osteoporosis, we can help people live heather and happier lives. We will also save our nation a great deal of medical and health care expenses that seem to have major implications for our economy. These connections to delaying gratification go far beyond just obesity and a person's health.

Journal 6-Synchronous Online One-on-One Professional Development

2009-04-04T14:14:00.004-04:00

Journal 6-Synchronous Online One-on-One Professional Development

Yes...there were some glitches. For example, I forgot to share my screen a couple times and the movie froze up a couple times from YouTube, but all in all it went very well. I am talking about my first synchronous staff development opportunity via an on-line meeting software called Adobe Connect. I had two teachers sign up for the training, but only one teacher was able to attend. Lyn Mattern attended by sitting at her classroom computer and following along with a lesson. She practiced what she learned "on the spot" and did it on her own machine. The professional development opportunity that CA Boces offered was all about Social Bookmarking. We explored sites like Diigo.com and Delicious.com. I have to be honest, it took me some time to accept these sites and even explore them since they had the word "social" in them. Social...ah, that's something you do outside of school. I also felt that if it was "social" it had little to do with school. I was wrong, which is a great example of Piaget's idea of "Cognitive Dissonance." My hope is that you will be so inclined as to follow me down this Piaget path as I diverge slightly off topic. I will not take lone. Cognitive Dissonance is the idea that what you are learning goes against what your believe. Here is how Cognitive Dissonance is defined by Wikipedia.org

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive
to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and
behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs,
and behaviors.^[1] Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.

What does this have to do with the training Lyn and I participated in? Well, I want to be transparent in my thinking about a tool that I thought was really not that useful and designed for something not pertaining to education what so ever, or at least I believed that, to a tool that I use just about everyday. I went from not considering it for even a bit of exploration to a tool I use everyday and now am training teacher how to use. Not only am I teaching teachers how to use social bookmarking sites, I am offering it to them in an extremely ubiquitous way by offering the trainings online and adjusted to teacher's busy schedule, not to mention possibly causing less environmental impact due to the fact that no one had to drive.

What did Lyn and I learn? Well, we learned that you can actually create groups in Diigo and join groups with similar interests. There are many teacher groups on Diigo that could be very helpful. We also learned that you could highlight and comment on any webpage with what is called a sticky note. This could be very helpful for students who may be looking at a teacher's bookmarks that were saved for a specific class assignment. We also learned that you can actually communicate within Diigo and discuss articles or websites that have been added or recommended for you. Lyn was able to share her screen and sign up for a Diigo account and install the toolbar while I watched and gave little pointers.

I must admit that I learned a great deal from this workshop. I learned that Adobe Connect can be a great product to collaborate with. I really wish that Lyn had a headset/microphone so that we could have conversed with each other. We did most of our communication by me speaking and Lyn chatting in the chat area. Well, once again, technology can be a live and learn type of endeavor so we will have headset/microphones the next time.

Journal 5-

2009-03-22T10:37:00.001-04:00

Journal 5-Top News - Podcast trumps lecture in one college study

Carter, Dennis (2009, March 6th). Podcast trumps lecture in one college study . eSchool News, Retrieved March 20, 2009, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=57612&page=2

On March 6th, I bookmarked an article that I was going to read later. I bookmarked it on March 6. I finally did read the article on March 20, 2009. The article discusses how at one college, State University of New York Fredonia, students who listened to podcasts did better than students who actually went to the lecture. For those of you who may not know, a Podcast is a type of audio that is published online and generally has an RSS feed so that one can subscribe to future audio broadcasts that occur on the Internet. Using RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, allowes for all future audio broadcasts to automatically download to ones computer. I found this article in eSchool News very interesting since, for years now, I have been teaching k-12 teachers and on occasion students how to podcast. And in my estimation, podcasting has never really taken off in our school districts. The main reason I feel it has not taken off is it is not easy enough yet. This is changing.

It seems that the main reason students who listened to the podcasts out performed students who attended the face to face class is the pause and rewind button. Many students took advantage of these buttons to process the information, take notes on it and re-listien to anything that they may have missed or did not understand. The article states:

Students who watched the lecture podcast--available from the iTunes U online video library--scored an average of 71 percent. Students who sat through the 30-minute classroom lecture scored an average of 62 percent, according to the study.

The article goes on to say that this was a very small sample of students who were tested, suggesting it may not be very reliable. The article also stated that some college professors were concerned about the study. Some professors felt that if students could perform better by listening to the podcast than students who actually came to class would make an argument to students that they really don't need to go to class. The article also touches on this concern:

For those professors who might worry that the technology discourages students from showing up in class, this statistic might be welcome news: More than 90 percent of students said they preferred "traditional lectures with computer-based learning as a supplement for revising" their notes.

I actually used to do the same thing when I went to college, well, I actually still am going to college. During my undergraduate schooling I would tape record all of my lectures. In my notes books, you know the blue line on the edge of notebook paper, I would fold it. I would take notes on the face to face lecture in class and in the folded area I would take notes from my tape recorder. This method really helped me get through many of my classes. Of course, when there was something I did not understand, I would rewind and listen to the part in question again. This older technology that I used is really not that much different than the technology of the podcasted lecture and how students at Fredonia used this newer type of technology.

Journal 4-Non-inclusive Disease

2009-02-23T21:32:00.001-05:00

Journal 4-Non-inclusive Disease

I first heard about this issue from Dean Shareski. Dean is an Educational Technologist in Canada and I received this communication via a tweet, on, you guessed it, twitter. Dean's tweet went something like "check out this case of political correctness" so I checked it out. College students from Carleton University dropped Cystic Fibrosis from the list of organizations that they would be donating money to. Why? It has been determined that Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that primarily inflicts white people, primarily men. Cystic Fibrosis was deemed not an "inclusive" enough disease. Many college campuses across Canada have an orientation week and during this week students raise money for good causes. Last year alone Canadian college students raised over $1 million dollars to aid in researching cures for the disease. Cystic Fibrosis has been supported by college students for 25 years. Students are now considering rotating charities that will receive money.

Only one student on the Orientation Week counsel descended. His name is Nick Bergamini. Bergamin stated that he feels that this case of political correctness has gone to far. Bergamini went on to say that the college students were just attempting to be more diverse when in fact they are not supportting people with a disease with the average life span of about 35 years.

I of course Googled Nick Bergamani. Like many college students, Nick has a Facebook account. So, I sent him an email to get his reaction to a couple things. He did not respond to the email.

A later article was published in an online magazine called the National Post. It stated that students were concerned about all the bad press that Carleton University was getting. Many students started petitions to have fellow students who were in charge of the committee that dropped Cystic Fibrosis from it's charities removed. Students at Carlton University back petaled and changed their stance on funding Cystic Fibrosis. I did some deeper investigating and noticed that this topic made it to the Stormfront website. http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=545980 For those that don't know what Stormfront is, it is the new face of the KKK and their online presence is at http://stormfront.org. If you are reading this blog post from a school, you most-likely will not be able to get the the Stormfront link.

Once again, you just never know. You never know when an issue will get blown out of proportion. You will never know it as a student in grade school or college. You will never know it if you are an administrator either.

Journal 3-Paying Students For Grades

2009-02-03T21:22:00.001-05:00

Journal 3-Should Students Be Paid?

Toppo, G (2008, Aug. 1). Good grades pay off literally. USA Today, Retrieved 2/3, 2009, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-27-grades_N.htm

The idea of paying students for grades is really nothing new. But for a large school district in Washington D.C. to try the experiment is a big deal. 15 middle schools in Washington D.C. have started what is called the "Capital Gains" program. Students get paid incentives to go to school, behave and get good grades. The program just started this past fall and provides payment for some 3,300 students. Supporters of the "Capital Gains" program state that many life lessons are being learned. Showing up on time and putting in 100% effort are just two of the life lessons students learn that are not part of the stated curriculum. The maximum that students can earn is $100 every two weeks. When the first payments came out in October 2008, the average check was $43. This program did cost Washington D.C. $137,813. The money does not go directly to the students. It is placed in a student bank account that they can not access until they are 18 years old.

Some have stated that in away a pay-to-behave program for inter-city students is in some ways racist. The argument there is that D.C. school officials may be sending the message that we understand that your students are out of control and don't work hard in school and in-turn your methods have not work. The message may be that black parents are not able to discipline or motive their children to do well in school so we will just pay them off. Fryer, the black Harvard Economist who created the "Capital Gains" program for D.C. middle schools, totally disagrees. If any thing, Fryer states, "the real subtle racism here is the fact that we're continuing to do the same things we've always done, and we're allowing these children not to achieve."

Does this kind of incentive program work. Well, in Texas it did. According to Cornell economist C. Kirabo Jackson "found that it linked to a 30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students." (Tuppo, USA Today) Many people feel that these incentives can be harmful. Many students seem to be self motivated to earn good grades and go to school and not earn money. Often, college credit is give to students in classes and the college credit seems to be a bigger motivator than money. Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a watchdog group, is more blunt: "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroids," he says. "Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging." (Tuppo USA Today)

I really feel that we want students, at whatever cost, deep down, to love learning and the love of learning be the true motivator for them as part of their journeys to lifelong learners. I cannot see how earning money for behavior and good grades can in any way contribute to love of learning being the motivator. Money, to some, is the anti-motivator. I understand the program and I actually give Dr. Fryer a lot of credit for giving it a try in 15 D.C. middle schools. I understand the idea of being a risk taker and trying something new. And honestly I hope it works. But if it does not work, I wonder if we could be further behind? How will all students feel if the money is no more and the "Capital Gains" experiment goes away. Will teachers have a harder time getting students to come to school, behave and work hard? Oh, ya...what happens to the love of learning for learning's sake. I feel that concept will be even farther out of reach.

Untitled

2009-02-02T21:39:00.001-05:00

Journal Entry 2

Thing

Critics say yoga at N.Y. high school tries to spread Hinduism. (2008, Oct, 6). USA Today,

Gomez-Pinilla, F, So, V, & Kesslak, J.P. (1998). Spatial learning and physical activity contribute to the induction of fibroblast growth factor: neural substrates for increased cognition associated with exercise. Neuroscience. 85, 53-61.

We spent much of a part of a chat, on a Saturday morning, discussing the fact that some schools are banning the practice of Yoga because, by some, it is considered the spreading of religion. In Massena, New York, parents and church groups protested the practice of Yoga in the schools. Two high school teachers starting using the Hindu exercise to help students relieve stress and anxiety prior to performing assessments. The teachers, Martha Duchschere and Kerry Perretta, both whom have refused to respond to an email I sent late last year, were developing a district wide Yoga curriculum. A member of the Messina school board went on to say that these two teachers were not using Yoga in any other way than just an execise to help students with learning. Other schools have also been successful in eliminating Yoga from their curriculum. There are over 100 schools in 26 states that use Yoga as part of their curriculum. Schools have even used federal dollars to sent teachers to get certification to teach Yoga.

According to an October 1997 article in Neuroscience magazine by Gomez-Pinill, So and Kesslak, there is a direct correlation between exercise and increased cognition. Rats that execised did much better on memory tasks than rats that did not exercise. Certain chemicals are released by the brain of rats that exercised that allowed them to memorize things better. Basically, the rats that exercised were better at finding there way through a maze than rats that did not exercise.

What are we to believe? Is it possible that the possitives out weigh the negatives on this one? Are we doing more harm to our children by protecting them from religion? Are we protecting them too much by emphasizing one part of the first amendment over other parts? Do teachers have a little leeway here? I believe that teachers have the right to select lesson that fit into the curriculum, with in reason, however they choose as long as they have an educational reason and it fits into the state standards. I do not want my child's teacher showing them pornography and saying that it has to do with anatomy class. I did say "with in reason."

With the idea of Yoga in the school somehow promoting religion, I say thank goodness for tenure. Tenure is supposed to protech teachers that take curriculur risk and do what they think is right. This issue, mind you, became larger than anyone could have imagined. I am sure when these two teachers started using Yoga as a way to help their students relax, never dreamt that a national newspaper like the USA Today would pick up this story and cause so much publicity. I have learned from this article that you never can tell what is going to get bigger, so big it goes beyond your control.

Journal Entry 1-September

2008-10-29T14:14:00.004-04:00

Journal Entry 1-September 26th, 2008

Thing

Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind: Why the right-brainers will rule the future. New York, New York: Riverhead Books.

Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind is a book that could fit into any category. I also feel that this book is so monumental in what it discusses that I planned on using it for each possible category of journal entry. I have later come to the conclusion that that might not be a good idea and could possibly cause damage to my grade. In this entry, I will be discussing what Pink calls the Conceptual Age. I have heard many people say that we are in the Information Age, which is true. But the world is shifting into the Conceptual Age. Pink discusses many things that make up the Conceptual Age. The first thing is the idea that the work place is changing. If your job can be done by someone in India, Singapore, China or the Philippines or your job can be done more quickly by a computer, in the very near future your job may not exist. The work place is shifting in another way. There was a time when left brained thinking was king. Things like remembering facts, repeating procedures, and analyzing details were and still are important. But right brained thinking is becoming more in demand. If you are using your right brain, you may analyze details, and synthesize those details to create a "big picture." The left side of the brain is good at sequential things like counting or the alphabet. The right side of the brain is good at weighing all pieces of information and rendering a decision. In math, the left side of the brain would be good at counting and the right side of the brain would be good at geometry. The last way that the work place is changing is the idea of High Concept and High Touch. High Concept has to do with creators and High Touch has to do with empathizers. High Concept has to do with the world of design. Did you know that in America the number of graphic designers has "increased tenfold in the last decade; graphic designers outnumber chemical engineers by four to one" (55). High Touch has to do with the idea that people need quality time from one another. Pink calls the High Touch abilities as a "capacity for compassion, care and uplift" (59). Pink goes on to say, "that the number of jobs in the 'caring professions' --counseling, nursing, and hands on health assistance--is surging" (59).

I believe that much of what Pink says fits into learning very nicely. The first thing that comes to mind is the idea of the new Bloom's Taxonomy. When we teach we strive to get into the top of the Bloom's pyramid. The top of this pyramid fits nicely with the idea of what Pink call design. We are in a time of great abundance. In this day and age we can go to Walmart and buy a toilet brush. It will not be fancy and it will get the job done. We can also go to Target and buy a designer toilet brush. The brush may be ergonomic with a cushy handle and cost $26 dollars. Pink says that people who design, like the people who designed the designer toilet brush, will be in greater demand. People who design create and creating is at the top of the new Bloom's Taxonomy. If we as educators want our students to get good jobs we need to teach them how to create. That requires us to constantly get students to create in our classes. We must strive for the top of the new Bloom's Taxonomy.

What does this mean for schools? How does Pink's Conceptual Age effect school policy and procedures? I think that Pink's ideas will effect every part of education. The one thing that jumps out in my mind is the idea that schools may actually be killing creativity. With the push of standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, what some people call "specials" are being cut to make more time in the school day for Math and English Language Arts. I am in schools all the time and I see no public speaking class, no computer programing and very few graphic design classes. It just does not seem that these classes are emphasized as much as other classes and are often labeled a fluff. In fact, these so called "fluff" classes may be the key to the future success of our students.

One of the reasons that these right brained classes are being cut is because they cannot be easily assessed on a state examination. Whatever happened to differentiation of instruction? Isn't a speech class a form of differentiation? I was a student who is very good at expressing myself orally and found public speeching class to be very beneficial.

In this video, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how schools are killing creativity.

Connie Finney and Moodle

2008-09-05T10:45:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I had two appointments in my calendar. One was a chapel service recognizing a college professor who teaches pre-service teachers at a local educational establishment. Her name is Connie Finney. Connie, this past spring, decided to take a sabbatical. And she decided to take the sabbatical with us at Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES in the department of Professional Development. This seemed like a very logical place to take a sabbatical, especially with all the talk now in New York State about a p-16 initiative. Connie is also the kind of person who would feel bad for not preparing her students to be not only ready for the educational challenges of today but future, undiscovered challenges for students of all levels. You should see what Connie's students say about her. While Connie was with us she really embraced technology. She even went as far as to have her own professional development offering for the Houghton College community called “Google, Gadgets and God.” Yesterday, Connie was being recognized for her excellence in teaching, which, unfortunately, I can’t find mention of on the Houghton College website. I did find Connie’s faculty profile page. Connie is a professor and from what I saw yesterday, she is good at it. She spoke with candor and grace. Like an artist it is not always what you paint, sometimes it is the dark areas or things you don’t paint that are very powerful. Connie is to speaking as Frederic Church is to the art world. It was her pauses and her “blank space” that made what she was saying so powerful. She showed me that she thinks in three dimensions. Connie’s award is beyond well deserved. The second thing that I had on my calendar was a Moodle Focus Group meeting. I was part of the meeting and a representative of the professional development department. Moodle is open-source software. I have heard people say that one of the big concerns with open-source software is that there is really no one to call if things go wrong. I was at a training last year, at the beginning of school, and I mentioned teaching on-line. And this one teacher was brave enough to say that, teaching on-line scares me to death. She was concerned that she would loose her job to someone teaching the same thing she was teaching but on-line. And my retort was, “What if you became the expert on-line teacher?” The teacher went on to say, “but I don’t know how to do that.” This is where the tool, and in this case Moodle, and professional development comes in. Some schools are requiring students to take an on-line course before they graduate. There are also schools requiring students to do some kind of community serve before they graduate. I think, and it may exist now, that students may eventually be required to combine entrepreneurship with some kind of web commerce. Why can’t we require students to make some kind of profit using the Internet? The web is becoming more and more ubiquitous now that the end user’s device is in their pocket in the form of a cell phone. Should some type of web commerce or business be a requirement for students to graduate? Why can’t a web business be a type of internship? I know I have mentioned this before, but wouldn’t teaching students web commerce teach students how to fish and not just give them the fish? I have digressed again on my own personal little tangent. My point is let’s empower people. Whether its teachers teaching with Moodle or students having their own web based entrepreneurial endeavor. Knowledge is not just power, but knowledge can empower.

2008-08-18T20:38:00.000-04:00

Internet Rudeness Spill Over

On my way to Long Island, New York last month, I stopped in a McDonalds somewhere on the road. I had my normal grilled southwestern chicken salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and Diet Coke. On my way out of the restaurant, I stepped aside to let this beautiful family come into through the door. There was a mom and dad, grandma and grandpa and a brand new baby that was crying in this very young baby cry that is not yet annoying and sounds something like a young whitetail deer in need of it's mom's milk. The mother of this child had beautiful, long dark hair and was wearing sunglasses. The dad was young and what I can remember about him is that he had blue jean shorts on, you know, the ones that are a bit faded and come down to the knee and are hemmed and not cut off. When this family entered the McDonalds I could not help but smile, and spending a little time thinking about my own family, which I was apart from. I was so mesmerized by this sight that I never opened the door for this new mom that had her hands full. "That's ok....I got it," is what she said as she entered the MacDonalds. It is really not what she said, it was how she said it. She said it with the most sarcastic distain that really hurt, and I thought this is not normal rudeness. Now I know I should have helped her, but did I deserve her rudeness? Maybe I did. But I don't think so. I just have this feeling that the Internet rudeness that seems to have grown out of the anonymity of the web is spilling over into our daily lives. I'm not sure I can prove this but I read Dave Moulton's Bike Blog and he seems to agree.

I guess just rudeness in general is increasing. I have observed many times people going into a store and at no point did they acknowledge people around them not even saying hello or smiling to the checkout clerk. I was in Parkview, a local grocery store, during lunch just a couple days ago. And the woman infront of me talked on her cell phone during the entire grocery store check out process. I asked the cashier if she has many people who check out while they are on their cell phones. She said that about 4-5 people do it each shift.

I also heard the other day that an airline was considering allowing people to use the Internet in flight. At the time, I said, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Now I know how I feel about it. People should be talking to people. Have you seen many of today commercials? Count the acts of rudeness in commercials. I remember a few years ago, discussions about violence on television and how many random acts of violence children see, and how it desensitizes them to violence. Well, how many times do children see people being rude to each other and are children being desensitized to rudeness. I think so.

Rusted Red Wagon

2008-08-12T22:01:00.004-04:00

I spent $15.08 yesterday for lunch. I actually spend $15 dollars for lunch often, but this day was different. I have never really been good with money. It seems if I have the cash in my wallet I will spend it. I ate at Subway in Friendship, New York. My sub and small drink only cost $5.08. I gave the other $10 away to a total stranger. As I sat to eat my sub, I watched a man with two small girls, which he pulled behind him in a red wagon, walk toward the mini-mart/Subway restaurant. The wagon had a flat tire and the two girls were under three years old. One girl had an eye that I'm not sure she could open. She did not open it all the while I watched them. The father pulled the rusted, red wagon close enough to the store so he could reach into the garbage can to see if there were any cans or bottles he could turn in for money. He did not find any.

I noticed that a nice, clean cut guy with his baseball cap turned backwards, got out of his car and struck up a conversation with the dad. Some time went by and I notice the capped man gave the father of two $10. Next, the father and the two girls entered the store, leaving the wagon behind, and the father asked to girls to pick out whatever candy bar they wanted. He spent part of his $10 bill to buy a king sized Almond Joy and Snickers bar for his daughters. While they were in the store, I actually took my cell phone outside and snapped a picture of their wagon. The family came out and, I guess due the embarrassment that I felt about taking a picture of this dilapidated form of transportation, I slammed my phone shut before I actually saved the picture.

All the normal things crossed my mind that would cross anyone else's when giving people money. Is this dad going to spend the money on alcohol or worse drugs. He could do much worse than just buying some sugar filled candy bars for his girls. I also thought about how he would feel if I just tried to give him money. Would he feel devalued. Would he not accept my money because "he was not a charity case." I did it anyway. After I gave him the money, I thought wouldn't it be better for me to take him to the library and teach him how to sell something on eBay, or maybe teach him some kind of technology skill that could somehow help him earn a living so he could better support his girls? If I see this family again, I just may help them with more than just $10.

2008-08-12T17:03:00.000-04:00

A fisherperson is born

You know, you never can be sure what kind of impact you are having on people. When ever I provide a professional development opportunity I feel it is my job to explain what I do and what I feel my job is. Just about every time I state that this professional development opportunity has a duel purpose. The first purpose is to give you ideas on how you can use technology to engage, educate and facilitate student learning in the classroom. The second thing that I say is that this professional development opportunity is to help provided professional growth for you as a life long learner, which in turn will help you improve your craft. Last week when I was asked by Cindy Crandall to present Google Tools to Franklinville Central School teachers, I basically had the whole day to show them things that they could use in education. I created a workshop wiki with embedded videos so teachers could refer back to it if they had questions long after I was gone. The videos didn't load well and the wiki did not go as smoothly as I would have liked. But something great happened. Many times when I show a teacher a tool they really just want to know ideas on how to use the tool in the classroom and I often have a tough time with that. No one knows their curriculum and how the tool fits into it better than the classroom teacher. I try to show examples of how it is used in the classroom and often they can think of ways to use it. Rarely, does the teacher think about how the tool can help them with their professional growth. Well, it happened. After the training was over, one of my participants from my Google Tools workshop went to Tim Clarke's offering and he asked participants what they wanted to go over the next day. One teacher, Diane Watkins, who was in my workshop earlier, said, "I would like to go over some things in Excel." And actually, Tim is really an expert on Excel. So the next day came around and Tim decided to write on the white board things people wanted to work on during their "work day" and of course Tim wrote down Excel. Well, Diane who had suggested it the night before said to Tim, "I really don't need you to go over Excel with me." Tim ask, "why?" And the teacher said, "Well, Rick showed me YouTube so I looked up an Excel tutorial and learned it myself." When I heard this I was thrilled. I felt like an artist had painted a master piece that was inspired by me.

2008-08-07T23:10:00.000-04:00

My new vocabulary

I have always told everyone that the time in which I learned the most was when I was blogging. And I think the reason for that is because whenever I learn something new, I think about it in context of how am I going to explain this new information on my blog. We have always told our students that if you really want to learn something then teach that something. Blogging is a form of teaching.

Here are some words I have just learned in the last few days since I've been blogging. Frenemy, vetting, staycation, gap year and sesquapadalian are just a few words that I have learned this past week. I want to take a couple minutes to explain each of them.

I got the word frenemey from following links from Liz Kolb's blog. Liz is really into cellphones in education. From Liz's blog, I went to lastspotted.com and guess what there is a wikipedia definition of a frenemy. Vetting is a word I just learned today from Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and there is a wikipedia entry for this definition. But basically the word came up when she suggest that we try to get an international presenter from Australia sometime around the National Educational Computing Conference to add a "global" flavor to summer workshops we offer. Vetting just happened to be a word I was not familiar with. Staycation I heard on NPR.org and it is kind of this "green" way to take a vacation. Actually, staycations were taken a lot in the 1970's they were just day trips, but the idea of staycations being, well, green is a modern idea. You just travel near your home and see the sights. And the last word I learned is really two words and it is "gap year." I too learned this from NPR.org. A gap year is where students take a year either during college or before college to explore the world. Many 21st century skills are learned in these "gap years." And someone who is prone to use long word are are considered sesquapadalian. It seems as technology expands so too do the collective vocabulary. And as the collective of vocabulary grows so does our own vocabulary. I wonder if you have learned an words recently and do they have to do with technology? Are they words that were discovered by using technology or words that were invented because of technology?

2008-07-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

The Top 10 Cyber Things I Want to do Before I Die

This is my first true blog post in over a year. Sometimes it takes a while to really have something to say. After going to NECC 2008, I have been thinking about somethings. When I was growing up I was taught and I learned that I could be anything. I could have any occupation I wanted. I could grow up and be the President of the United States. I guess now that I am older, I don't really think I could be, well, anything I wanted. Also, I didn't know it, but I am what I wanted. I do feel, however, that social mindedly (if that's a word) I could do whatever I wanted. For example, If I wanted to have a competitive eating competition for St. Jude's hospital to raise money for their work and research, I could do it. I wonder if kids think they could have any occupation now-a-days? Also, what occupations do or would they think about when many of their jobs or careers have not yet been invented. I also wonder if children are socially minded? Do they think they could raise money for an organization that they felt passionate about? If I understand Daniel Pink correctly, empathy is an important "skill" that students need to know now to be prepared for the future.

Now, since just 7 long years ago I decided to go to graduate school, buy a computer and attend college online, I feel that I can do anything in the cyber world. This blog post discusses the ten things that I haven't done all ready that I want to do before, well, I depart. Is that too morbid?

This list is not in any particular order:

1) be a chacha guide
2) work on the cyber/Internet aspect of a future presidential campaign
3) sell something on ebay and make a profit
4) co-teach a class where student cell phones are used as an educational tool
5) present at NECC
6) not let my Karma go to far over 50 on Plurk
7) run my own online professional development for people all across the world
8) upload an education video to youtube or teachertube that I created
9) create my own mash-up that works with a social networking tool
10) in second life, ask a question during NPR's Science Friday

I am not sure how all these things help students, but they are all things I want to do. I really wonder what your thoughts are?