Reflections from the Trenches

Risk by Mandy Richey

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:37:00 +0000

The following is a guest article written by Mandy Richey, GAC JH Academic Dean. It so spoke to me that I just had to share it here. If you want to contact Mandy directly with your comments, you can send an email to mrichey@greateratlantachristian.org.

I'm crazy about reality TV. I'll watch almost any program about any kind of people including ice road truckers, hoarders, and housewives. But I have a specific affection for the competitors on Top Chef and Project Runway. Maybe I like the time crunch under which competitors must compete. Maybe I like those shows because I like food and fashion. Or maybe I like the fact that calamity is likely and the competitors have to "make it work!" I'm not sure why I like those specific shows so much, but give me a rainy afternoon and a marathon on Bravo TV and I am set.

I won't pretend that these TV shows teach one the great mysteries of life. I will say that I have learned something about taking risk while watching Top Chef and Project Runway. In an ever changing culinary and fashion world, chefs and designers are forced to change, evolve, and stay relevant. If they aren't willing to take a risk then — to paraphrase Heidi Klum — one day they're in, and the next day they're out. Big risk may lead to a big mistake OR big risk may lead to a big payoff. But chefs and designers in the televised competition — and the real world — will never know if they don't take the risk…

Is there an educational lesson here? I think so. Some would say that a child's education is too important for teachers to take risks . I disagree. The United States Educational system is floundering (see today's Huffington Post article which reports that the American educational system is "average" -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/us-falls-in-world-education-rankings_n_793185.html) and we are feeling the effects. But GACS is NOT average and we aspire to greatness. We must do something different in regards to our teaching to get different, better, and greater learning from our students. As Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum say in their bestseller That Used to be Us… "Average is over."

So let me encourage you to take a risk. Do something different. Teach a reading or writing skill you haven't before. Use an online digital resource that is cutting edge. Allow students to create and communicate using the most advanced technology. Take a risk. Will it work out perfectly in your classroom the first time you do something new? I doubt it. Do I expect greatness the first time students attempt an alternative skill? Not even close. Am I going to be mad at you if things are a little crazy in your classroom as you and your kids learn? Only if the children are harmed. :)

For real… average is over. Take a risk.

Art & Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:13:00 +0000

At times, I will get teachers who teach a performance class tell me that they can not figure out how technology could be used effectively for their area. So when I see a use of technology that goes above and beyond and is REALLY COOL, then I just have to share it.

Britney Ray, our JH Art Teacher, completed a project with her classes recently. The kids created a stop-motion style collaborative video while using their drawing skills. Each student had 5 scenes to draw. Their scenes had to connect in with the scenes of the person to their right. So they had to figure out how the two could connect in a sequence. They put everyone's scenes together in iMovie to create the finished product. When I watch their movie, I just can't help but smile. So, I hope you enjoy it. And to Mrs. Ray, bravo!

Getting Out of the Way

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:13:00 +0000

This week has been particularly fun for me with my classes. First, my students shared book talks about their independent reading books. One of my favorite things to do is to listen to kids talk about the books they are reading.

One of the fun things about this experience is that the kids (without any prompting from me) pulled out iPhones/iPod Touch devices and used the clock/timer to help each other know how much time they had left. The book talks were to last between 1-3 minutes.

Earlier in the week, the class listed the criteria that made up a quality book talk. That list created the target that everyone worked toward in their book talks. The kids really stepped up and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the quality book talks. As we began students said, "Is it ok if we take notes while people are sharing? We might hear about a book we'd like to read." "Of course!" was my response. What a joy for a teacher!

Today, the students began working on collaborative creative writing stories. They are working in groups: planning a plot, characters, and theme. All students were on task, engaged and enjoying the work. Again, extremely enjoyable for me. All I had to do was get out of the way! I am wondering why I don't do that more often.

What Can Be Done in Just 60 Seconds?

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:18:00 +0000

This year, I am fortunate enough to be one of the presenters for the K12 Online Conference. I have participated in the K12 Online conference before but never as a presenter. During my preparation of the presentation, it occurred to me that preparing for an online conference is distinctly different than preparing for an in-person conference. Because the delivery of the K12 Online Conference is through podcasts, then the presenter must prepare without relying on any participant feedback. I am so used to feeding off of my students responses and reactions to guide how classes go that I didn't even realize that until I prepared my podcast for this conference.

My session titled What Can Be Done in Just 60 Seconds? is simply a sharing of how I found the 60 Second Recap Videos website to be a great resource for my students.

Below you can see my session. I highly encourage you to follow all of the K12 Online Conference presentations as I have found them to be quite inspiring. Enjoy.

Digital Fabrication

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:31:00 +0000

This week a group of our JH teachers attended a workshop facilitated by Laura Deisley on Digital Fabrication. The concept of this is something I had tried to share with them briefly to give them a frame of reference. However, I don't think any of the teachers actually got it until the workshop.

Digital Fabrication involves translation of a digital design into a physical object. There is a great support site available for educators on this type of technology called FabLab Ideas for Teachers & Educators. A good overview of the technology is seen in the video below.

If you really want a look into the not-so-distant future, take a look at this video on 3D printing.

Our teachers really "got it" during the workshop and immediately started planning the use of this technology with their curriculum. I told a group of educators this week that one of the transformations that has occurred recently on our campus is that our teachers have become curriculum designers, not just "standards meeters." This is just one more piece of evidence of that statement.

Now, we have the wonderful problem of our teachers wanting to move faster than our technology department can keep up. We'll have to negotiate some things in order to make all of the teachers' plans a reality but I am only too happy to work on that challenge! It is a small hurdle to overcome and the end result is that our students will benefit from even more opportunities for design, inquiry and rigor. I can't wait to see what our students design!

Differentiated Professional Development

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:19:00 +0000

The past 2 weeks have been incredibly busy for me. Our school, this past Monday, had 8 Apple PD Trainers on our campus. My goal for this day was to make it as productive as possible for our teachers. Paul Tarantiles of Apple and I worked hard to come up with some workshop topics that would meet the needs of our faculty. Then, I had the teachers sign up for the sessions of their choice. Once they signed up, I determined which classes made and which needed to be cut. The result was an incredibly successful day. Giving teachers choice is just one way I see that we can effectively have differentiated Professional Development.

One of the most successful workshops of the day was titled Documentary Filmmaking. So why was it so successful? Teachers were active. It was not a "sit and get" environment. To learn the process, they made their own documentary film based on building a table. Then they spent the afternoon pulling together the concept and applying it to their own curriculum. The teachers left the day with a plan in hand as to how they can apply it to their classroom. I heard nothing but good things from teachers about that session. Because the teachers were allowed to be active, they felt the workshop met their needs.

When we talk about differentiation as it is applied to a classroom, we often say that three things can be differentiated: content, process and product. Content was differentiated on Monday by way of teachers choosing which sessions they wanted to attend. In the Documentary Filmmaking session, the process was differentiated with teachers active in the process. Product was also differentiated in that session since teachers left the session with an individualized plan for their own classroom and content.

Now the question is how do we make that sort of PD the norm? I'm still working on that one.

Design Thinking part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:55:00 +0000

So I have lacked follow-through on posting this article. After our exhausting weekend with Reimagine Ed: Designing the Future of K-12 Libraries, I presented my 6th grade students with the question of how they would design the library of the future. You can read some of their ideas on our class blog here. They had much less difficulty dreaming and coming up with big ideas. Now, the kids I teach for the most part LOVE libraries and books. They are the kind of kids that read for fun! So when I posed the question, they really went to town. That leads me to think that the process would be less draining on them than it was on the adults at the summit.

In addition, our Media Center Specialists who attend the event with me came away with some great ideas for how to change the physical spaces on campus we call Media Centers or Libraries. Our school is undergoing the planning for phase one of that redesign and phase 2 should come next year. I can't wait to see some of the ideas come to life!

Design Thinking part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 13:06:00 +0000

This weekend I am participating in a National Summit called Reimagine Ed: Next Chapter. The focus of this summit is the Future of the K-12 Library. We identified challenges and then "voted" on the ones we most wanted to tackle. We were divided into groups and engaged in a 12 hour process today to determine the solutions we wanted to take to the prototype developing step. As participants of this summit, we are being immersed in Design Thinking. So far, I have a few takeaways from this experience.

1. Start with a common language - Our challenge has to do with how to create a successful "unquiet" library. I'm not sure the solutions we came up with actually answer that challenge question, rather they seem to address the future library in general. Perhaps this is because our cohort did not begin by establishing what was meant by "unquiet" library.

2. There really is such a thing as "designer's fatigue." After 8 hours today, everyone was starting to drag. People got punchy and productivity seemed to decrease.

3. Empowering individuals is messy. As we worked, we had a framework but it seemed the framework as it was no longer met the needs of the design process. There is a need for a framework that can be flexible.

I can't wait to see what the last day brings. I'm hoping for some new insights.

Subject Matter Experts

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:46:00 +0000

Our students have a good many technological tools: iPod Touch or iPhone and Macbook in class every day. They have a reliable network and online tools like Studywiz. The tools are great but what we do with the tools is more important.

This past Friday, we had a special visitor on our campus. Ed Leonard, Chief Technology Officer at Dreamworks, visited and spoke to our Senior High kids. I was fortunate to hear him speak to two groups: the entire SH student body at chapel and the kids in the video broadcasting class. I'm not sure what I expected but as a person who works on billion dollar projects I felt like he should be somewhat "unusual" or at least out of the ordinary. What struck me was that he came across as a real person who might be considered ordinary in many ways that has done extraordinary things with his life. Many of the things he mentioned to the kids - how important a script is to a feature length film, for example - sounds like something I've said to my students many times. The difference is that the kids will remember what he says much more than what I say. He is the subject matter expert out there doing extraordinary things in the field.

This just confirmed for me what I've known for some time. We need to really work and leverage the technology we have to provide more opportunities for our kids to be in contact with Subject Matter Experts. The walls of the classroom can no longer be used as an excuse to not bring the "real world" into contact with our students in meaningful ways.

So . . . I'm looking for subject matter experts to connect with my students: authors, editors, playwrights, etc. Any ideas for me???

What Did You Learn Today?

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 02:00:00 +0000

"What did you learn today?" seems like an age-old question; however, it is a question that has not lost its luster. I recently came across a project among Atlanta Area educators called edu180Atl. The purpose of this project is best said with the words from their website: The mission of the edu180atl project is to nurture and encourage the spirits of those who love to learn, to connect learners across disciplines and settings, and to deepen the national conversation about education by enabling parents, students, and educators to share stories of what they are learning every day. 180 stories, 180 voices, 180 days(a school year). This simple project intrigued me so I decided to send out a message to my new students for this year before school even started. I simply shared about the project and then asked them to think about participating. I decided to apply to be a writer for the project and wanted to know if my students would join me.

The first student to respond did her writing for the project this week. Keep in mind that I teach 6th graders. This young lady decided to take me up on the offer and she applied to write. This in and of itself was enough to make a Language Arts teacher proud; however, what she wrote went beyond all expectations for an incoming 6th grader. I invite you to read her article and comment on it.

So in the spirit of things, I wanted to share what I learned today. I learned that the more things change, the more things stay the same. The Elementary at our school has a lot new this year. They are using for the first time a virtual learning environment software called Studywiz. In addition, all of the teachers have their own MacBook and iPad to use for class. There are new MacBook labs and the students are utilizing Rosetta Stone for foreign language learning. All of this is phase one of what we are calling Project 21.

With all of this new, there are some real constants. Elementary kids still need caring teachers to provide reassurance and guidance. Kids still rise to high expectations. It's amazing what the kids do when given the opportunity to stretch! Kids still bring their own special kind of energy into the classroom.

I am so excited to see what this school year brings! So . . . what did you learn today?

Standing at the Threshold

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:59:00 +0000

This is the last weekend before our school officially starts back for teachers. This past week as I worked with our new teachers during orientation sessions, it occurred to me that this is the threshold or the entryway into a new, yet familiar, adventure. If I had to choose a theme for this new adventure, it would be "empowering learners." For some of you who have read my previous posts, you will notice that this is a familiar theme of mine. Somehow things always come back to this one theme.

This summer has been a time of preparing materials for learners. Two of our teachers have helped me with creating more FAQ documents and video tutorials in an effort to further empower our teachers as learners with digital tools.

As I talked with new teachers this week, I found myself saying multiple times, "Don't worry. This is all written down for you. Your mentor will help you as well." Our school has a mentoring program that matches up new teachers with veteran teachers.

So, now, what can I take from what I've done for the teachers and apply it to my classroom of 6th graders? 1) Prepare materials on the front-end that will provide scaffolding and guidance while empowering the students as learners. 2) Identify those students early on who can provide mentoring to others.

When I looked up the definition of "threshold," I found the definition of the bottom of the doorway. But I really liked this definition, "the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested."(Dictionary.com)

So I am in search of that point that must be exceeded in order for the result of substantive and rigorous learning to occur. Join me, won't you?

Raising the Rigor

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 15:02:00 +0000

What is rigor?

I searched for quite a while before I could find a concise definition of what rigor really is when applied to education. Taken from Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement by Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver and Matthew J. Perini, ASCD, 2001. According to Strong, Silver, and Perini, “Rigor is the goal of helping students develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally or emotionally challenging.”I challenge this somewhat because to me rigorous curriculum is not a sit and get model. To me rigor is not "helping students develop the capacity to understand" but rather rigor is developing the capacity to ask questions and follow investigations in pursuit of answers. Understanding is kind of low on Bloom's Taxonomy. Where's creating, analyzing and evaluating?

I really didn't expect it to be so difficult to find an accepted definition of rigor but maybe that is part of the problem. Educators don't have a clear definition to work with. Many schools claim rigor, but is the curriculum really rigorous? When I engage in a rigorous physical workout, I expect a certain level of pain to be involved. However, I know that from that pain progress will occur. Do we take the same stance when it comes to educating children? Do we expect some pain in route to progress or do we want to "spare" the children any pain?

Applying Rigor to a Classroom

As I have worked with my students using digital tools, the questions of rigor and quality have surfaced. This past year, I had several discussions with my students on what constitutes quality. This summer, I read an article written by Bernajean Porter for Learning & Leading with Technology titled Where's the Beef? Develop Rigor in Student Digital Products. Ok, I admit it. I am a highlighter and I found myself highlighting much of this article. (Bernajean should take that as a compliment!)

Too often digital projects have ended up being nothing more than information summarization. Is that all we want students to do? Reporting back facts and information is an important skill but a low-level skill. Don't we need our students to go beyond that? Bernajean puts it this way, "A book report, for example, typically expects students to distill the facts to demonstrate that they know the book. Putting that paper book report into a slide show, podcast, Animoto, movie, VoiceThread, or Comic Life does not change the intellectual work of the content. It is still a summary report decorated with media." She goes on to say that changing that in a way which students must "sell" the book as a public service announcement or movie trailer helps our students become knowledge producers by demonstrating knowledge beyond just facts.

So how do we do this? Suggested steps include identifying the type of communication, selecting the mode that best suits the purpose and audience, and lastly identifying the tool. In the article, Porter suggests that the type of communication determines the depth of knowledge, format and cognitive style. Mode is the packaging of the message, such as podcasting, comic books, dramatic blogs or movies. It is important to note that the mode is chosen in regard to purpose and audience. All to often the mode has been chosen in an unpurposeful way, "what would be fun to do now?" If we are to get to that place of rigor with these projects, though, choosing the mode based on purpose of communication and audience is important. Finally, the digital tools are chosen to mix the messages. Too often educators learn about digital tools and then take the perspective of how can I use this in my classroom. Rather we should start with a purpose for communication and ask "what tool best helps me deliver the communication?" Anyone who has dealt with technology for any given time knows that available technology tools change over time. By placing the tool last, we are appropriately prioritizing the components of digital projects.

Involving students in choosing the types, modes, and tools as well as discussions of quality surrounding communication expression increases student ownership and independent learning skills. This year, my class worked on 60 second recap videos as an assessment over Literature Circle books they had been reading.

The concept of the 60 second recap videos is a really amazing one. Students have to utilize critical thinking in order to communicate within 60 seconds information about a book in such a way as to invoke excitement and interest in the viewer. You can learn more about 60 second recap videos at the recap resource. As we were working on this, we had discussions about what quality would look like. My students came up with an amazing list that became the rubric for the project. As one of the students said, "If we had known that, we wouldn't have kept talking." Their expectations of quality were even higher than mine!

As teachers, we need to make the transition to embracing the rigor of developing information seekers, collaborators, analyzers of credible sources, problem solvers, and effective communicators. Porter says, "Teachers need to create their own digital works to understand the multiple skills associated with authoring multimedia products." So join the conversation! Share your digital works and join in the quest for rigor.

Identifying Passions

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:38:00 +0000

Every year what we call summer break seems to get shorter and shorter. I believe many educators would agree with me on that. Nevertheless, one way I've used my summer break is to renew, replenish and identify my passions. I believe that to some extent the focus of a person's passion can change over time. As a person changes and grows, so does a person's passion.

There are some passions that I don't know will ever change for me. One of those is a desire to help students internalize that education is something they do, not something done to them. This is a platform of mine that I've been working on for at least ten years now. Still, the work continues.

As part of that overall passion, I have some added focus areas for this coming school year. Ensuring rigor is one of the new focus areas. This is a word being thrown about in educational circles but as I hear of things like the Atlanta Public Schools standardized testing cheating scandal, this teacher wonders where's the rigor? Maybe a better question is what is rigor? How do we ensure that students experience rigor as they grow with skills and content?

Another focus area is assessment. How do we truly assess students so that they continue growing with content and skills? How does variety play into the forms of assessments we use? How do we use assessment to document growth with rigor?

I am wondering what your passions are for this coming school year. When I looked up the definition of passion, I found "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling." So what is the thing that compels you as a teacher?

Upload Anxiety

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 13:32:00 +0000

This year our school has gone to a 2 to 1 Digital Learning Environment. Basically this means that every student in grades 6-12 have a MacBook and iPod Touch or iPhone at their fingertips 24/7 for the important work of learning. Part of the digital learning environment is the adoption of Studywiz. Studywiz is a virtual learning environment similar to Moodle; however, Studywiz has the ability to aggregate data from multiple classes to one home screen and integrates seamlessly with the mobile devices. My students are using Studywiz to upload work digitally, receive feedback from me, participate in interactive activities such as chats, discussions, polls, etc.

The students often seem to have a certain amount of anxiety when they are uploading work to turn in. My thoughts initially were, "What's the big deal? You upload it, then look at it to know it's there." However, I just finished my application for the Apple Distinguished Educator program. This application requires a written part (completed on Pages) and a video, both of which had to be uploaded. I must have looked over the application at least a dozen times before uploading it; the video must have been viewed twice that much. I actually started to upload them last night and then thought I needed to look at both pieces one more time. When I did, I decided to tweak a few things.

When I actually uploaded both pieces, it seemed to take forever for the process to finish. I thought, "Something's going to go wrong." "It's not going to work right." But then the confirmation page came up with the date and time that Apple received my submission. Why the anxiety?

At the beginning of the school year, one of my students came to me and said he wanted to take his vocabulary quizzes on paper instead of through Studywiz. When I asked him why, he said because taking it online seemed so "final."

I don't know that I have an answer as to why so much anxiety occurs, but I do know that after experiencing it myself in such a real way I will be more understanding and reassuring to my students. Maybe part of navigating this digital environment means nurturing kids in much different ways.

Listening to the Students

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:22:00 +0000

Have you ever sat back and listened to your students work? Today, I had the privilege of doing just that. My students were writing collaborative stories. They incorporated what they learned from vocabulary, grammar and literature this semester into the writing of their creative stories. "Can something be crystally clear?" "I think we should use distinctively clear instead." Other exchanges were about the theme of the story they were creating. Some chose friendship, some overcoming challenges and others chose love. One group has great plans for expanding their story over the Christmas Holidays into a novel and publishing it. They've even discussed how to split the proceeds from the sale of their novel. Such enthusiasm is contagious and I find that this tired, middle-aged teacher all of a sudden doesn't feel so tired any more. When was the last time you listened to your students work? You might just find some energy you didn't know you had.

"How" is Important

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:04:00 +0000

Our JH Academic Dean asked a group of teachers to consider the following quote from Eric Jensen's book Teaching with the Brain in Mind:

If I can learn in a way that satisfies me, I will learn anything you want me to. But if I cannot learn in a way that is comfortable for me, then I will not learn anything, even if I want to learn it, let alone if you want me to learn it. The “how” of my learning governs the “what.”

I think this is the challenge for teachers. Our students come to us with such different experiences than what we have that it sometimes is difficult to understand how new approaches can actually be helping our students learn.

Before the Thanksgiving holiday, I observed in a teacher's class. Lana Garner was using a text poll set up on the Poll Everywhere site in her Spanish class. She was posing questions in Spanish and the students were working in groups to respond appropriately in Spanish using an iPod Touch or iPhone. The group that answered correctly first got a point. This little competition was very engaging for her students and gave me an idea for my 6th graders. So when I returned to school on Monday, I set up a text poll on the Poll Everywhere site. My students worked in groups to choose a vocabulary word from our word list and created an original sentence using the word appropriately. They then submitted their sentence to the poll. I was able to export the sentences using the site into an excel spreadsheet and then reset the poll to allow for more to answer.

This little activity worked great and today when we did our vocabulary work, the students told me that the activity helped them be that much more in tune with the words in the lesson.

I know for a fact that I've had students create sentences from vocabulary words in the past but never in quite this fashion. "How" we went about it seemed to make all the difference!

Examining Ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:05:00 +0000

Why does it sometimes take a special visit to take a close inspection of your own house? I remember when my kids were young and we would be cleaning the house they would ask me who was coming to visit. Does it take having visitors to thoroughly inspect everything? I guess sometimes we get so busy with the day to day that we don't take the needed reflection time.

This week we had a bunch of people visit our school from multiple schools: NC, SC, CA, TX, TN and GA. Apple sponsored the visit and fed us well at lunch time. I was in charge of showing one group of folks around. I hope our visitors enjoyed the day but I know I really enjoyed going around to different classrooms and seeing what our teachers were doing. One of our guests created a podcast of the event.

Our guests got to see this video where some of our students talk about our 2 to 1 initiative.

Creative Communications in the 21st Century

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:29:00 +0000

This year, I have had the pleasure of presenting at iSummit 2010, the Georgia Independent Schools Association annual conference and the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. The topic I presented at all three is on creative communications. There are so many tools out there to help us provide our students with opportunities for the development of creativity and communication. Amy Dean, one of the teachers in our Junior High, worked with me on this presentation. Unfortunately, she was unable to help present this fall but her fingerprints are all over this work as well.

Creative Communications in the 21st Century on Prezi

I must admit that I feel somewhat lacking in the area of creativity myself. I have never considered myself to be particularly creative but listening to some of Sir Ken Robinson's materials have led me to question why. I have recently come to realize that there are a lot of us out there in "my generation" that feel the same way. Again, why?

Enjoy the presentation and links to the sample work. All example student work is used with permission from the authors.

The iPad - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:06:00 +0000

I feel compelled to provide a part 2 as a follow-up to my post entitled iPad - Initial Thinking. When I went back and read that post, I actually was surprised at how thorough I had been at the time. After using an iPad now for seven months, I feel so much more versed in the possible benefits of the tool.

Even though the iPad definitely has potential for K-12 education, I don't see the iPad as being able to replace a MacBook. The iPad is still limited in what can be created using that tool. It is, however, a very good "consumption" and "connection" tool.

I have gotten to know some new apps that definitely put this comment in its place. The Storykit app is one that has blown my socks away. Storykit allows you to put text, images, drawings and voice recording together in a digital storybook. It allows for sharing with other people by uploading to the Storykit server and emailing the link. You can view a video tutorial on the Storykit app from the Tech Savvy Educator.

Also, I recently sat in on a session on Cloud Computing presented by Dr. Patrick Crispen from the University of Southern California. It is clear from what he shared that solutions such as Google Docs will take the place of traditionally loaded software pieces in the near future. If this is the case, then accessing creation apps using a WiFi connection makes the iPad not just a consumption device, but also a clear creation device.

Step Up the Humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:18:00 +0000

On my drive to school this morning, I heard this quote attributed to Albert Einstein, "It has become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity." Could this apply to our world today? Wow! If it does, then our humanity needs to step it up.

I am thankful to work at a school which recognizes that technology needs to be used in service of humanity. When technology surpasses humanity, is it because we have not done an adequate job of teaching the morals and ethics involved with using the technology? Have we, as educators, put our heads in the sand hoping all of it would just go away? Are we teaching kids the value of respecting intellectual property?

I had a teacher say to me this week regarding a copyright issue, "The kids just don't care." Why is this? Have we not taught the kids to care? Are we modeling the digital citizenship we want to see in our students? Are we giving our students enough opportunities to contribute to the volume of work out there so they truly understand what respecting intellectual property means?

I am a fan of empowering students with ownership of learning. Maybe it is time for us to empower our students as digital citizens through ownership of intellectual property. The Digital Citizenship website authored by Mike Ribble offers some great resources for educators. The nine elements of digital citizenship are defined by the site: digital etiquette, digital communication, digital access, digital commerce, digital law, digital rights & responsibilities, digital health & wellness, and digital security.

Let's continue to work on what teaching digital citizenship to students really looks like!

T-27 and Counting!

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:53:00 +0000

It's hard to believe that in 27 days our first group of students will be receiving their MacBooks. We've been working so long and hard on this, that the fact it is almost here escaped me. On August 5th, the high school seniors will receive their MacBooks. (Lucky them!) During the week of August 9th - 13th, 7th - 11th graders will receive their MacBooks. Our 6th graders will receive MacBooks the week of August 16th - 20th. In addition, all Junior High and Senior High students are required to have an iPod Touch or iPhone in class with them beginning August 9th.

We've been working on a number of things to prepare for this. For three days this summer, our faculty worked together on digital curriculum and learning one of our new tools, StudyWiz. StudyWiz is a virtual learning environment, similar to Moodle. One of the reasons we adopted this program rather than continue to use Moodle is that it integrates well with the mobile device. Groups of our faculty collaborated on a list of apps which is being required of our students for their mobile devices. This list is comprised mainly of free apps, although a few paid apps did make the list.

Additionally, we are holding Parent Sessions this summer which are providing an orientation to the tools for those parents who want that. We continue to post information on the iLearn portion of our website and the iLearn "blog."

More than the tools that are involved, I am most excited about the shift in learning that will happen on our campus.

The mission statement:

GAC's 2-to-1 Digital Learning Environment connects our GAC mission, learning environment, and students to the 21st century of creativity, innovation and collaboration.

The emphasis:

GAC students live in a complex and mobile world. They need skills that will allow them to collaborate, think critically and creatively, and gain confidence through learning choices. In constructing meaning through learning, students begin to develop an understanding of their value as God’s creation.

We are at the dawning of a new day, T-27 and counting!

iPad - Initial Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:32:00 +0000

So you'd have to have your head in the ground to not realize that the world is a-buzz over Apple's new iPad. When I see new tools like this come out, I usually wait a bit to let some others test out the possibilities for the tool. After all, real life is happening now and it is difficult as a teacher to have time to test out things when you have today to worry about. However, this tool is different. I've actually had my hands on an iPad for less than 48 hours and I already see the possibilities for students.

I find this video telling of the intuitive nature of the iPad.

I like the intuitive design of the iPad. This is much like the iPod Touch, only bigger. For me, a middle-aged digital immigrant, the bigger interface is a plus. I also see that bigger interface being a plus for younger students. Will Richardson has made available an interview that he did with a well-known evaluator of digital tools for young kids. I thought the interview gave some good insight into the potential the tool has for kids, young and old.

Part of the apps now available for the iPad include some of the iWork suite: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Even though the apps are not full versions of the software, a person can put together a presentation in Keynote and present it all from the iPad. The VGA adapter for a projector will make it so that keynote presentations, photo slideshows, and videos can be seen on the projector. However, the adapter does not show the iPad environment. Why is that so hard for Apple to manage? When will Apple come up with a way for the iPad (as well as iPod Touch) environment to be projected?

Even though the iPad definitely has potential for K-12 education, I don't see the iPad as being able to replace a MacBook. The iPad is still limited in what can be created using that tool. It is, however, a very good "consumption" and "connection" tool.

I am curious as to what other educators think about the potential for the iPad in education. I enjoyed watching this video from wilsontech1, The School Tech Show.

Persuasive Communications

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:58:00 +0000

We finished reading The Giver this week. During the course of reading this book, we have been exploring the question,"What makes an ideal society?" We had Socratic discussions on being born into a family as opposed to being assigned a family, choosing an occupation vs. being assigned an occupation, euthanasia and we even debated the ending of the story. What was interesting is that at the last discussion, a number of the students agreed on the ending of the story. They determined that it was hard to have a Socratic discussion when everybody agreed. The kids ran out of things to discuss. As a group, we decided that more progress was actually made when there was a disagreement. One of the kids noted,"That's kind of like in the book. Everybody had to agree with the rules of the society in order to avoid being released and it created the Sameness." Super!

As the kids discussed, a group acted as "recorders" and typed what they heard into our Cover It Live event. Cover It Live is a live blogging tool that is free to use.

Now the kids are taking their thoughts about an ideal society and writing a five-paragraph essay on what they think makes the ideal society. We will be completing these next week, just in time for spring break!

Now the Fun Really Begins . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:30:00 +0000

Over the past two days, my 43 students each received a MacBook to use for their school work. This is an educational tool being issued to them much like a textbook would be issued traditionally. We are part of the pilot "test" group that is doing a "test drive" on the rollout of MacBooks. I took the kids through an orientation of the MacBook with helpful tips and tricks as well as reviewing the Acceptable Use Policy, Laptop User Agreement and Teacher Guidelines. After the orientation, the students filled out a simple online survey.

The kids were so excited. I reminded them that we have been given an important job - to test out the iLearn initiative for all of the other JH students and teachers. We are to figure out what works and what doesn't in order to inform policies and procedures for this coming fall.

So Friday, we have a vocabulary test. The students will be taking that test in Moodle. Then we will learn how to use myHomework, a software we are testing out for a digital agenda. One thing I like about that software is that it integrates with the iPod Touch or iPhone.

Next week will bring blog posts and live blogging as we continue our discussions over The Giver.

With great opportunity comes great responsibility! Now the fun really begins . . .

What I Learned Today

noreply@blogger.com (Julia Osteen) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:09:00 +0000

I am continually amazed at how much I learn from my students. Sometimes the nuggets I gain are totally by accident and sometimes it is because my students make an effort to help educate me. They have a true desire to help me understand their perspectives as well as missing information they believe I need. Today was an example of the latter.

We have iPod Touch carts at our school. Each cart has about 24 iPod Touch devices in them. These are to be used in class for the furtherance of learning. For our vocabulary program, we use Wordly Wise. Today, I decided the students would familiarize themselves with our new word list by listening to the audio file that the Wordly Wise company makes available via their website. Also, I showed the students how to download the mp3 file and pull it into their iTunes library so the file could sync on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

As we were getting out the iPod Touch devices from the cart, a couple of the devices had a passcode placed on them. This has been a particularly annoying issue. Some of the students have decided to place passcodes on the devices, even though they are shared devices. To this point, the way to deal with this has been to take the iPod Touch device to the Tech Department so they can reset the device. When you have a class of 22 and only 24 devices, it doesn't take long before it impacts what you are trying to do. The students had a couple of other solutions for me.

First, I learned that if you double-click the home button on the iPod Touch it goes to iPod mode (as the kids put it) and plays the music or in this case the audio file. This sounds so simple that I am sure I should have known that but I didn't. Second, the students told me to try using 1234 for the passcode. Believe it or not that worked on several of the passcode ridden devices and the students then took the passcode off.

Thanks Auston and Jaye for teaching me today. I am wondering what I'll learn from them tomorrow. :-)