The Connected Classroom

Plan the Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:13:00 +0000

Assessments in PBL are aimed at measuring content knowledge and skills such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, and teamwork. Learn how to match project outcomes with assessment strategies and rubrics.

via pbl-online.org

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Teachers Talk Classroom Challenges, Successes | NBC Philadelphia

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:40:00 +0000

"Teachers aren't going to be clamoring to get into the classroom if the teaching profession continues to be thrown under the bus at every single opportunity," said panelist Diana Laufenberg.

Laufenberg, a teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, says the conversation around teachers both in the community and in the media needs to change so that everyone can be successful.

via nbcphiladelphia.com

A necessary conversation...Check back on http://www.educationnation.com/ on Monday 6/6 to see the townhall meeting in it's entirety.

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Joyce Valenza's Resources from PETE& C

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:06:00 +0000

I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with Joyce Valenza's session School Libraries and Web-based Practice: A Tour of Effective Practice

Although I arrived about 10 minutes late, I feel like she shared 2 hours worth of information and resources and

One was childrenslibrary.org

Let students create book talks, incorporate Web 2.0 tools as platform, let them mash things up
http://bookleads.wikispaces.com/
Book talk a day
Joyce shared Book trailers for all https://www.4shared.com/u/ZiDT_kOV/Book_Trailers_for_All.html
and how she makes Summer Reading transparent http://springfieldreading.wikispaces.com/
http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php Great way to stretch library budget and it is FREE print out mailer, wrap book in it.
http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/
LibGuides http://libguides.com/community.php?m=i&ref=libguides.com
LiveBinders, Google Sites
vimeo
I don't think that she could make finding the google tools any easier than THIS http://joycevalenza1.edu.glogster.com/googlesearch/
wow, Wow, WOW shouldn't all the PA SGPs be done like THIS http://tinyurl.com/4ao5oj2 via @joycevalenza #petec2011

As soon as she has her slides posted on slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/joycevalenza/presentations I will be sure to post them here but I think this tweet kind of sum's up my feelings about this session.

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

And here are her slides if that wasn't enough

Library21pete&c2

View more presentations from joycevalenza.

Thoughts about Internet 2010 in numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 14:03:00 +0000

What happened with the Internet in 2010?
How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many, many more. If it’s stats you want, you’ve come to the right place.
We used a wide variety of sources from around the Web to put this post together. You can find the full list of source references at the bottom of the post if you’re interested. We here at Pingdom also did some additional calculations to get you even more numbers to chew on.
Prepare for a good kind of information overload.

READ MORE & see the STATS royal.pingdom.com

WOW...107 TRILLION emails sent...1.97 BILLION Internet users worldwide (up 14% since 2009), 152 MILLION blogs publishing even easier than before, 100 MILLION new twitter accounts added and 250 MILLION new people on Facebook. 2 BILLION videos are watched DAILY on YouTube and flickr hosts 5 BILLION images (3,000 are uploaded each minute). Whether this information is even true I would need to spend a ton of time researching.
It is fascinating to me how MUCH information is out there...Just this morning in frustration over her spelling ...my 8 year old turned to google to help her find the song lyrics for a favorite song. Even mis-spelled, her new friend google helped her to find About 534,000 results (in 0.58 seconds).
Are we doing enough to help our kids learn how to navigate this information landscape?

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

It's a LIE mom

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:35:00 +0000

Watching Groundhog Day Livestream from Punxy, PA the inner circle mentions it's Phil's 125th BDA10yo says "no way, 125 years..." disappears, comes back 10 min later, "it's a lie mom, I looked it up- groundhogs only live 10 years in captivity" LOL

via twitlonger.com

Funny that when my 10 year old hears something he questions on TV or in conversation, his first thought is to go "look it up". He is curious, creative and knows how to seek out information. He thinks deep and is a great problem solver.

It is unfortunate though that he is good at "school" too. in school he is learning that in order to succeed, he needs to know what's "in the book" and nothing more. When he does dig deeper he has found that his answers are counted as the "wrong answer"

Where is the disconnect? and how as educators do we fix it in our current system of recall & standardized testing?

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

If this is THEIR school...then what are ours

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:37:00 +0000

So I realize the importance of reflections I also realize that in a world where people (ok people like ME) are used to getting their information in 140 character twitter-like sound bits, in order for me to get my thoughts about Edcon in writing (and for folks to actually stop and read them) I really shouldbreak them down into multiple posts. What I realized as I started to jot down my main ideas was that they all seemed to follow the same theme...

A quote from Chris Lehman's blog from Friday morning of Educon pretty much summed it up for me

There's going to be a horde of kids at SLA tomorrow. This is EduCon, and this is their school, and a little snow isn't going to stop them.

via practicaltheory.org

This is THEIR school...I know that many of us teach in great places, that their are pockets of "ownership" in our sports and music clubs, student councils and other curricular activities, but in how many of our schools can our KIDS as clearly articulate OUR purpose as educators as Jeff Kessler @educoncierge did in his post

Education is a game and people have their priorities backwards. -- This probably sounds like I'm the child of Chris Lehmann, Zac Chase, or one of the many other wonderful SLA teachers, but I agree with them. We've made education into a game and it's no longer about teaching skills, it's about teaching facts. Data retrieval is incredibly easy. But the ability to process and synthesize the information is difficult. That's what we need to foster; the ability to combine and organize ideas is one that deserves much more time in the classroom.

via jeffkess.posterous.com

The ability to combine and organize ideas...

I watched as students (and I mean HUNDREDS of students) and parents and faculty worked side by side not for a sporting event or the arts or music or other extra curricular activity...and while all of these are important parts of the education process these people...the kids, the teachers, and the parents were all working together to promote the BUSINESS OF SCHOOLS... to teach children.

So what are OUR schools and how can we make them more of the community that SLA represents? We spent the weekend trying to tackle the really BIG questions in education but the biggest one for me as a wanna be school leader is how do take all of this and create community

@educoncierge ended his post

I look forward to seeing all of my educartor friends next year and hope that we can actually talk retroactiveally about some changes to our education system.

I can't either Jeff...I can't wait to see how Educon 2.3 has challenged us all to take a look at what OUR schools are ... and how we can do the best for our students!

Thank you to the whole SLA team for once again opening your doors and reminding us....school is for THEM...

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

So-Called 'Digital Natives' Not Media Savvy, New Study Shows - NYTimes.com

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:37:00 +0000

"In Google we trust." That may very well be the motto of today's young online users, a demographic group often dubbed the "digital natives" due their apparent tech-savvy. Having been born into a world where personal computers were not a revolution, but merely existed alongside air conditioning, microwaves and other appliances, there has been (a perhaps misguided) perception that the young are more digitally in-tune with the ways of the Web than others.

via nytimes.com

the findings showed that students are not always turning to the most relevant clues to determine the credibility of online content...

As I continue to work with my own children 10, 8, and almost 4 I find that technology IS like oxygen to them...don't know something? Just look it up...and yet the nature of the world online allows them to take the first thing they find as positive fact.

In a day and age of high stakes standardized testing though, where are we teaching kids to "read digital text"? Where are they learning reading and comprehension strategies to deal with hyperlinked text? How are they learning to "read around" the page, tuning out ads and focusing on content? Why is computer class an extra or add on? How do we share the results of studies like this with our curriculum teams and administrators to make this an important subject in schools? #amitheonlyone?

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Keystones the Cornerstones of Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:01:00 +0000

A keystone is the architectural piece at the crown of a vault or arch which marks its apex, locking the other pieces into position.^[1] This makes a keystone very important structurally.^[2]^[3] In an arch, the keystone is usually larger than the voussoirs that make up the arch and may serve primarily an aesthetic purpose. Some say that a keystone is not as important structurally as the voussoirs, since the removal of any of the voussoirs would cause the arch to collapse but this is not necessarily true of the keystone.^[4]
The term is used figuratively to refer to the central supporting element of a larger structure, such as a theory or an organization, without which the whole structure would collapse.

via en.wikipedia.org

Those of you who follow me regularly know about the PA Keystone Technology Integrators. Each year in the summer, a group of "tech savy" teachers are invited to participate in a week long intensive professional development program called The Keystone Summit. Most people arrive at the summit thinking they are going to learn a lot of stuff about great new tools...but they come to learn something that folks in the blogosphere have known for a long time. It is not about the tools...it's about doing new and innovative things to "Turn up the HEAT" in your classrooms. I was invited to that summit in 2005 and have been returning every year as a staff member sharing with the teachers not just technology. Every year that is, until this one. This year I had to make a difficult decision. I am working on my Administrative Certification and I needed to complete 180 hour internship. I knew that I couldn't commit the time and the energy needed to dedicate a week to be on campus for the experience and boy was I disappointed, but I did offer to do whatever I could to help create a virtual presence this year.

As I set up the wiki and ustream channels and coveritlives, embedded content and fix formatting I realized, this was just as much work as being there...without the face to face connections of being on the Bucknell campus to be with the group. Boy was I disappointed. As I listened in on some of the sessions, I missed the learning and I missed the connection. I listened in as Chris Moersch talked about ways to turn up the HEAT (Higher Order thinking, Engaged Learning, Authenticity, and Technology Use) in your classroom. I was able to sit in on many of the sessions, but this year it was different...not just because I wasn't there, but because I was thinking about all of these things through the lens of an administrator. I started to think about how as a principal or curriculum leader I could use some of the LoTi principles to change a building culture, to change the way teachers think about teaching an learning

At the last minute, a presenter was unable to make it for their workshop on Professional Development Models in the 21st Century so I thought...wow, I could teach that in my sleep so I pulled together a presentation titled 21st Century Professional Development through PLNs (with the help of my PLN) and asked if I could come and spend the day. It was what I was missing...the chance to connect, explore and innovate with some REALLY amazing teachers some teachers that will soon be leading the way in their district not because of a certification, but because of the skills they learned this week and how they reflected on these ideas...Connect, Innovate, Explore and Lead.

One of my favorite activities at Summit is during small groups where each group member is given foam blocks with the words lead, connect, innovate, and explore and think about how these 4 ideas are connected to change in schools. Back in 2007 after the summit, I wrote a post Connect, Innovate, Explore, Lead...which comes first? that shows how my group viewed it.

Each attendee is asked to think about envisioning a school that would meet the needs of students in 5 years. To build this school would require all of the ideas listed on the bricks. They were asked to "build the school" stack the bricks so to say in order of importance.

via khokanson.blogspot.com

I wish I had my new "livescribe pen" to jot my notes as a pencast, way back then;-) but you can see by the pictures that I took that year,,,every stack is different, every story is different, and each day I think about these 4 cornerstones: Lead, Connect, Innovate, and Explore in how I am going to affect change.

Although EXHAUSTED, I got home and saw Scott McLeod's tweets and realized that today was Leadership day, Last year I wrote about Leading By Example and again this year, I reflect that leadership NOT just what principals need to do, but something we ALL can do to lead in school innovation and change.

Yes...this week, I finished my administrative certification requirements...in September I will be returning to the classroom. What this week has taught me is that whether I am facilitating student learning in a classroom, working in a professional development in guiding teachers, or acting as a principal guiding a shared vision if I remember to connect, innovate and explore...if I think about was to Turn up the Heat...great things will happen.

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Technorati Tags: kti2010 leadership mcleod leadershipday10 keystones techintegration

I GOT TO GO TO KEYSTONES....

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:32:00 +0000

Create Your Own Personal Learning Networks for PD

Session Notes
Creating your own personal learning networks is one of the easiest things to do.
Finding the right resources for you is also not difficult, but with all of the resources out there
so how do we get start to learn the same way our students do....
This session will look at some social tools for your own personal learning

via kti2010.wikispaces.com

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous'

I was so impressed with how the participants took to twitter and diigo and CHECK OUT THE POSTS that the participants left via email on my posterous site

http://khokanson.posterous.com/interconnectedness
http://khokanson.posterous.com/summit-has-been-unbelievable
http://khokanson.posterous.com/rockin-pln
http://khokanson.posterous.com/kti-pln-ideas-workshop
http://khokanson.posterous.com/keystone
http://khokanson.posterous.com/thoughts-about-personal-networks
http://khokanson.posterous.c

om/i-3-technology

If someone new from PA is following YOU ...consider adding them to your PLN ;-)

PLN's for Professional Learning on Prezi

Technorati Tags: pln kti2010 khokanson pd professionaldevelopment

DMCA updated: My thoughts....

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:34:00 +0000

Now, in a new set of exemptions pushed for by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the legal rights of those looking to do those things have been made clearer and – dare we say – more palatable. That includes the proviso that jailbreaking a device to run an app that has been made incompatible by the handset manufacturer is fair use, as is bypassing copy protection on media (such as DVDs) to excerpt sections for derivative fair use works

via slashgear.com

This is some big news, news I have been waiting for! You can read more about it here, and here, and here, heck do a google news search to see what is being written or search twitter to see what folks are saying about the news. What concerns me frankly with all of the hype, is that folks aren't going to take the time to read the whole 262 page document of recommendations from the Copyright Office. It is scary but I am sure Renee Hobbs will help put it in plain English for us! In the meantime, you may want to read this shorter Statement of the Librarian of Congress Relating to the Section 1201 Rulemaking

I read in one article "this doesn't make piracy legal. It just means that bypassing DRM to reach a legal goal -- i.e. fair use of things you own -- is now protected by common law."It is therefore becoming INCREASINGLY important for folks to have a better understanding of fair use and all that it encompasses as well as the process one needs to go through in determining whether their use is fair. Things are BOUND to get really interesting

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Technorati Tags: copyright fairuse medialiteracy hobbs mediaedlab dmca

We Don’t Do That Here ...or do we?

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:44:00 +0000

Thanks to Jabiz Raisdana for pointing out something that has really been troubling me lately in a great post about what happens when one cuts and pastes another's work as their own...

I am curious if this was a case of misunderstanding or laziness.

via jabizraisdana.com

Here is my comment to Jabiz's post...

Jabiz-
Thanks so much for sharing this post….I have been thinking about this a lot as I start to use posterous. For me it has been a way for me to instantaneously take ideas from a site, and reflect on it and post simultaneously in a number of places. It has jumpstarted me back into blogging a bit. But it definitely raises some questions. I wanted to share a story…
This week I have been working on a tremendous program called Powerful Voices for Kids. In trying to create an atmosphere of sharing, I have been trying to find articles related to the ideas of using media literacy strategy. The other day through google alerts I came across this article I wanted to share with the team. While there was a citation at the top “This is from an excellent website: classroomtools.com. Checkout the links below to help you Navigate your way through the Lies of Media Trickery!” in reading the page you would think that it was a collection of resources put together by the author… HOWEVER, when I scrolled to the bottom of the page there was a link return to the Propaganda in the Classroom page . When I navigated to and through that page, I found THIS PAGE which was word for word what was posted on the blackbox page…and frankly, I was a little uncomfortable. here is what I ended up sharing with the team, but it caused me to ask….when we have the ability to copy and post with the click of a button, how do you ensure that it is clear the source of things you post and what implication does it have in other places? Hope you don’t mind that I repost this on my own site ;-)

Curious what others think....

Do tools like posterous justify plagairism in the google generation

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Educate yourself (& your students) about Media and Government Propaganda

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:18:00 +0000

Propaganda Resources on the Web
Check out the GREAT resources on the site below for developing critical thinking with this list of about 30 great advertising and propaganda resources

via Bill Chapman's Classroom Tools Propaganda Resources

Thanks to a comment left by Frank Baker on my media literacy resources yesterday, I was reminded of how many state's standards include media literacy and the many different ways it can be included in a traditional classroom. Today I found this great post listing all kinds of resources, links and activities to help navigate the ideas behind advertising and propaganda. There are print ad galleries, presidential campaign ads and Historical Radio Advertising... I hope you find something useful!

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Media Savy Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:14:00 +0000

Great article I found at during today's Powerful Voices Open Door session...

“How do we prepare kids for living in a society where almost all their information and entertainment comes to them through a screen?” asks Renee Hobbs, Ed.D., director of the Media Education Lab at Temple University in Philadelphia.
The answer: We teach media literacy, which trains children to think critically about both the overt and subtle media messages that wash over them every day. Media literacy — the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication in a variety of forms — is growing in importance in schools across the country.

via teacher.scholastic.com

Click on the side link for additional resources including...

5 Media-Savvy Questions That Kids Should Ask

Who created this message?
What creative techniques are used to get my attention?
How might different people interpret this message?
What lifestyles, values, and points of view are in this message? What was left out and why?
Why is this message being sent?

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

Searching for India's Hole in the Wall | A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:44:00 +0000

Thanks to Will Richardson for sharing this story about street computers in India. I have heard of this before and am still fascinated by things like the author references below:

The contrast here was for me pretty stark: One the one hand, you had two computers set up outside which received minimal maintenance, and which anyone could use from 9-5 each day. There was no direction on how to use this equipment, but that didn't stop kids from figuring it out via trial and error (or, more often, from other kids). On the other hand, you had a dozen computers locked up in a school just a short walk away, gathering dust for lack of 'qualified teachers' to use them, and direct their use.

The image of a locked school computer room door, and of an educator explaining why the door had to remain locked, however, and the image of a bunch of children animatedly using computers on the street less than a hundred meters away, is not one that I will soon forget.

via blogs.worldbank.org

Connect this to finding other kinds of "technology" on the street....Kids can find picture books on the street and they learn to hold the book the right way to have the pictures tell a story. That doesn't mean they can read and understand the written text, but they can figure out how the book "works". I know from my experiences with my own young children that the ease with which kids acquire the skills to manipulate technology is quite different from their ability to critically find and analyze information and use that information to create new things. Yes kids can find and USE this technology but are they really building the skills that they truly need without guidance? I wonder...

Posted via email from The Connected Classroom Posterous

And the research says...

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:04:00 +0000

Today is going to be a really fun day for me. Today is the day that Andrew presents his final project based on the research he was doing and the request that he shared, What do you see as the Future of education, last month on my blog. Thanks go to my local friends Jimbo Lamb, Jim Gates and Chris Champion for sharing some of their experiences. I was humbled by the number of folks in my network: Sylvia Martinez, , Liz Kolb, Doug Johnson, Steve Hargadon who took time to reach out and share information with Andrew. He got a video and note from Dorothy in New Zealand demonstrating how far information can reach. Andrew really took the ball and ran with it, contacting these educators and corresponding with them in a very professional way. He initiated a visit to SLA where he had the opportunity to see Chris Lehmann's high school in action. The work he did was phenomenal and I can't wait to see his presentation.
Here are his slides as a teaser...but if you would like to see it for yourself...

Andrew has asked me if I would be willing to stream his presentation and run the backchannel.

So today, starting at approximate 11:10 EDT he will be broadcasting on The Connected Classroom on Livestream. Please come join us and show his classmates how truly connected we all are.

Time in King of Prusia

the_connected_classroom on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

h-SGP

What do YOU see as the future of Education

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:29:00 +0000

I read George Sieman's request for help Defining the Future of Education at the same time a student at my school came seeking my assistance doing the same. He is working on his State Mandate senior graduation project and is examining learning theory, how people learn, and how technology is impacting schools. His original plan was to do an "in school" panel and have the teachers at our 1:1 high-school share their thoughts, but as he started his research he realized that he wanted to use the tools and ideas he was reading about and bring in a larger audience of educators for his application project. He asked me to send the following out to my network:

Subject: My E-mail to the educators
Hello,

My name is Andrew Wisniewski and I am a senior at Upper Merion Area High School in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. For my end of the year project I have decided to explore education and how technology is changing how students learn. Ms. Hokanson has helped me by creating a drop box and by forwarding this email to all of you. You can help me by visiting, http://drop.io/FutureEd and leaving me your thoughts about the future of education. In my drop.io, you will see that you can upload a picture, a text note or even call the dropbox.
Here are some ways you can share your thoughts
Go to http://drop.io/FutureEd and upload a file, record or add a note
E-mail a note, picture or video clip futureed@drop.io
Call 646-495-9205 x 95270 and leave your message via voice-mail
Please describe your role in education and let me know how you feel technology can change education; not only presently but also in the future. If it is fine with you, please state your name and with your permission I may contact you again regarding this subject. This will be an excellent addition to my presentation and I appreciate your insights about education.
I would be grateful for any input you can provide.

Thank you so much for your time,
Andrew Wisniewski

You can see the beginning of Andrew's work here...
• Andrew Wisniewski • Mr. Schurtz •

His classroom teacher has a closed ning community where the students are documenting the process of this project. Andrew has taken a number of classes through Virtual High School (VHS) so has had some unique experiences. His plan is to take the ideas, images, video clips and calls to create an iMovie to share with his classmates and perhaps have his classmates leave messages for future students (using some of these tools as well) about how to be successful in a 21st Century Learning Environment. Really his project will evolve as he gets more feedback from all of YOU....so how about it? Why not visit Andrew's drop.io and leave YOUR thoughts about the future of education.

Ten Ideas 4 Using Tech in the Science Classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Patty Duncan
http://techiescitchr.wikispaces.com/

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

Ten Ideas 4 Using Tech in the Science Classroom

All resources are on this webpage

PROVIDING CONTENT NOTES

Several new site for me Lab Out loud-podcast site by nsta

http://laboutloud.com

Great content for classrooms

Pete's Power Point Station

http://www.pppst.com

Good place to start - take as a base.

OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPLORE

Patty has a great list of interactive sites

Http://www.exploratorium.com

http://www.epa.gov/kids/ GREAT ideas for using the water cycle...interactive, labs, make pamphlets...

Great idea flickr images for Data collection- creating groups

Voicthread....DE Streaming video put into a voice thread that the kids comment on FUN first grade.

Here is Patty's class wikispace with examples of student work

Once again Evernote has come up - I MUST investigate this further

Clusty clustered search engine! We NEED to share this with our teachers!

One more thing to chck out- SHARE TABS

sharetabs.com/7ey aggregates sites that you want kids to use visually

GREAT EXAMPLES!!!!!

all linked on Patty's site from the top!

WOW...this is why I come to this conference

Technorati Tags: petec2010 DEN yoyosciteach

Web 2.0 for Reflection and Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Web 2.0 for Reflection and Assessment

PETE & C 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Am using this year's PETE &C conference as a way to get back to blogging. It is going to be a BUSY week as this year we have launched several exciting additions of the Social Network Lounge and the PETE&C ning. Check back for session notes and ideas!

Leading from the Middle: Keystones 09

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:21:00 +0000

Five years ago, I had a powerful learning experience that changed me as a person and a teacher. Today starts the 2009 Keystone Summit....I have been lucky enough to have been chosen to come back each year and work with teachers to help them understand how technology is more than a tool, but a powerful way to connect them to their students. The week long "boot camp" style of professional development builds a powerful learning community that is enhanced through their ability to communicate long beyond the week that they spend learning with and about one another.
This morning we will hear from Steve Sassman about ways to lead from the middle. I am sure this will be yet another powerful year.

Technorati Tags: kti09 keystones stevesassman

Leading by Example

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:17:00 +0000

Scott McLeod put a call out for Leadership Day, so I thought I would reflect on the new NET*S standards for Administrators that were released at NECC.
2002 NET*S for Administrators

When I look at the 2002 NET'S for Administrators what stands out to me is
Learning Educational Leaders Support Technology Use...
The focus is on the support of use, not necessarily using it themselves.

Whereas looking at 2009 NET*S for Administrators I see so much more...
Educational Administrators Learning USE Technology

Model effective digital tools use
Promote resources
Shared model
Support digital age

2009 NET*S for Administrators
The 5 key strands include:

Visionary Leadership. Inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization.
Digital Age Learning Culture. Create and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant education for all students.
Excellence in Professional Practice. Promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources.
Systemic Transformation. Provide leadership and management to continuously improve the organization through the effective use of information and technology resources.
Digital Citizenship. Model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture.

Wow...Do you see see Systemic Transformation is its own strand?
ISTE recognizes that Administrators play a pivotal role in determining how well technology is used in our schools. The NET*S revision is designed to show what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to responsibly lead in the effective use of technology in our schools.

"Integrating technology throughout a school system is, in itself, significant systemic reform. We have a wealth of evidence attesting to the importance of leadership in implementing and sustaining systemic reform in schools. It is critical, therefore, that we attend seriously to leadership for technology in schools." — Don Knezek, ISTE CEO

So how do we get administration to move beyond the fear of lawsuits, blocking key resources, and banning tools that kids have in their pockets to THIS vision....or do we become the administrators ourselves :)

Read more Leadership Day 09 posts...

Technorati Tags: leadership administration leadershipday09 mcleod netsa istenets

Supporting Reluctant Swimmers-or letting them drown?

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Hokanson) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Image by WoofBC via Flickr

I left this as a comment over at Duff's blog but I have really been struggling with similar thoughts. I have used the “pool metaphor” many times in the past but the more I thought about the post and the comments, the more I felt like I needed to expand my ideas about our responsibility for getting folks to "test the waters" to support our “reluctant swimmers” to start seamlessly integrating technology into their teaching process.

In her post Durff asks

How far are we to go with other educators? If we instruct on the technological skills, isn't our responsibility done? Isn't it the responsibility of individual educators to swim?...in the comments she says “I jumped in on my own,”

I have to wonder how many folks would jump in at all if they were afraid of the water. As David Truss points out, "too many people fear drowning and never get into the pool” and that in most Teacher Ed programs the amount of technology skill they leave the program with seems to be optional... to me that's like throwing a non-swimmer into the deep end.

I have to be honest, the more summer professional development I do, and the more in-service workshops I do, the more I worry about this. I spend a day or two, sometimes a week “teaching folks to swim.” I give them the skills and we go SLOW. We work on voice threads, and wikis…easy entry points. I model (swim along with them) give them support (sometimes putting on water-wings) but at the end of our time together I feel like I am still throwing “non-swimmers” into the deep end. My greatest fear, is that without a guide swimming beside them, they may find themselves close to drowning and perhaps no longer want to go to the pool :(
Candace Hackett Shively explained this beautifully in her post The Swimmer’s Obligation

I do not recall figuring out that I could not swim. I do not remember discovering the power of water. I try to imagine how it felt. I could not get my feet to touch the bottom at the same time as I opened my mouth to gasp above the surface, and I had no idea what to do about it. But some kind parent or bigger person reached under my armpits and supported me, laughing and congratulating me for a great jump. He or she likely placed my hands on the pitted concrete of the pool’s edge and told me to “kick big kicks and blow big bubbles.” Trusting, I must have done so, because eventually I learned to swim.

What happens when the support is not there? Unlike Candace, I DO remember the minute I figured out I couldn’t swim. I was 5 years old. I had just gotten my cast taken off that prevented me from having swim lessons all spring.. I was standing at the edge of the deep end and one of the older neighbor boys, thinking I could swim, pushed me in. I am 40 years old, but I remember to this DAY the fear I felt, struggling to get to the surface. I recall my fear and remember being pulled from the water barely breathing. Although I did go on to become a competent swimmer that experience had an impact on me that summer. I became, for a long time, very tentative around water.

There has been talk in the edtech community for a long time that we need to stop talking about the tools, but I disagree. You are always going to have those non-swimmers who finally find their way to the edge of the pool. Teach them what the water feels like and support them as they develop confidence in using the tool. When I share a tool like voicethread with a teacher, they can see so many ways it can be used in the classroom. They get excited about the potentials but they don’t understand the many concepts that go into it, embedding, and sharing, and privacy, and moderating comments, are so new to them…They are excited about being at the pool's edge, but it is like being thrown into that deep end for the first time.

Sure I can teach them the skills to use it, but I know from experience with my own children that I would not trust the swim lessons alone, nor the life vest for them to develop confidence in the water. I know just how far away from the wall I can move before my 7 year old gets frustrated. I knew that if I could just tread in the water beside him...on the other side of the lane…that my 9 year old could pass the test that earned him a green band allowing him the independence he was so desperately seeking. They need me as a coach and a guide continuing to support them, pushing them to take risks, and being to there to support them and pull them up when they go under or feel uncomfortable. Unfortunately teachers more often than not don’t have this. Sure, we give them the skills, but then too often we send them back to schools that don’t have the equipment or the support and ask them to “jump in.” The biggest piece of feedback I get in every professional development workshop I offer is…”I wish there was someone at my school that could work with me as I learn to do this with my kids” They are not lazy, or traditional, they don’t fear change, they are just reluctant to jump in the water- they are afraid of drowning…they don’t understand what that water feels like and want a guide to support them when they are struggling

There was also some talk in the comments on Durff’s post that administrators must make technology a priority if we are to get teachers to "take the time" to explore new things- it is one of the things that is driving me to complete my administrative certification. Provide opportunities for teachers to see what is possible (take them to the pool), Give them the skills they need (the swim lessons). Provide support for them and swim along side the teachers. Only then will you have competent swimmers.

My friend Marcie Hull from SLA talks about how technology at their school is like air. It is just always present and you don't even recognize it exists. This is because at SLA they are competent swimmers, surrounded with support when they are ready to try a new skill & test new waters. Until we can give teachers confidence in the water, I am afraid we may continue to see them simply sitting at the edge of the pool. I'd love to hear your thoughts...are we supporting reluctant swimmers or just pushing them in to let them drown?

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