Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Links for 2009-11-20 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Suspicious Canadians

Why Audience Matters

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:46:55 +0000

This facebook/twitter posting by Chris Lehmann got my attention.

It's hard to argue with that statement and it raises some interesting questions and implications. It reminded me this cartoon by Hugh MacLeod (warning, Hugh as an affection for the f-bomb)

It's powerful statement warning about our ability to connect and yet wallow in shallowness and fluff. While I concur with Chris's concern I also think it's important to explore the nature and purpose of audience.

Placing a clustr map on your blog or receiving a comment from someone on the other side of the world is pretty amazing. Often in very contrived ways, teachers find these connections for their students and generally get the "ooohs" and "awwwws" for while. As Chris suggests this novelty fades. But I would argue the word "audience" has a number of connotations and uses. Understanding and leveraging them thoughtfully is the key.

Audience as Eyeballs

This is about pure numbers. Views on a youtube video, reads on a blog, traffic on a website. These tell students that others are watching. That's important. Just as it's important when fans show up at a basketball game. It says what you do matters. What it doesn't say necessarily, is that what you are doing is any good. You can put a video on youtube of yourself clipping your toenails and get 5,000 views. It says very little about quality and lasting value. In the end, the views are nice but won't lead to much more than a little recognition.

Audience as Teachers

This is when the audience suddenly participates rather than just views. Comments on a blog, emails, video responses are prime interactions. You have the opportunity to grow and get better. Fostering this type of relationship with your audience might be contrived as two classrooms decide to spend a little time on each other's space but even if it is, we know the power of peer review and assessment for learning. When students have to thoughtfully provide feedback and critique, both parties benefit. Even random, one off comments are useful and offer students new perspectives not otherwise available from their teachers and or classmates. Students will indeed have powerful things to say and share as they craft their messages and products under the tutelage of many teachers.

Audience as Co-Learners

When students now see themselves as teachers to others we have truly harnessed the power of the audience. This isn't about novelty anymore but authentic exchange between interested learners. It doesn't matter if it's only one person but the idea that your work or ideas not only matter but are important in the development of others learning. A little anonymity and distance seems to be a good thing in some cases. It's less about personalities and more about learning.

The question that we need to ask is can this occur in our classrooms without seeking an audience from the outside? I suggest it's possible but not as likely. Great teachers may be able to make this happen under certain conditions but the reason we love the internet is it's ability to personalize, customize and connect our learning to world. To suggest that room itself has all it needs to learn and grow is simply false. Limiting learning to the walls of classroom ignores a possibility that's too great to pass up. Good work needs to be shared.

Our students deserve not only an audience who would watch what they do but one that would actively participate in their learning.

One final point. Given that I would estimate fewer than 25% of our students even have a chance to find an audience via their schools, I hesitate to be too critical of teachers who only offer an audience of eyeballs. I would hate for that to be the ultimate goal, however, as Chris states, this novelty will wear off. Audience for the sake of audience is fleeting. Audience for the sake of learning is lasting.

Links for 2009-11-13 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

National Gallery of Art NGAkids STILL LIFE interactive
"Still Life (Shockwave, 8 MB) helps you create interactive compositions that mirror the paintings of the old masters. This Art Zone activity is suitable for all ages. Young children can explore spatial arrangement, perspective, proportion, and balance while creating engaging, interactive still life compositions that mix everyday objects with elements borrowed from famous works of art. More advanced artists will enjoy creating complex arrangements, and then switchng to the painting mode to add and manipulate textured 'brushstrokes" that give their art a more abstract, painterly quality. "
Convert PSD to Wordpress with Divine

Links for 2009-11-12 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Digital Footprints - Your New First Impression
Nice video showing stats about how future employers found both good and bad content on applicants sites
45% Employers use Facebook-Twitter to screen job candidates - Oregon Business News
As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilizing these sites to screen potential employees. Forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Links for 2009-11-11 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

What did you do in School Today?
Extensive Research on Transforming schools through social, academci and intellectual engagement.

Links for 2009-11-10 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Bird-House-Presentation
100 Twitter Feeds To Make You a Better Teacher
via djakes.

Links for 2009-11-09 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

SrW5N.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x676 pixels)
How to gain weight and keep it.
William the [African] Conqueror: Of Windmills and Presenting | Brain Slides
William was able to give an engaging and motivational talk without having so much as a high school education. Most people who are inexperienced presenters tend to use the same crutches: default PowerPoint themes, bullet points, notes, few pictures. But not William. Notice the simplicity of his slides. Many of them are full-bleed photographs. He doesn’t use bullet points and he speaks in a natural, conversational tone. Most importantly, his message comes from the heart. Building windmills, and engineering in general, is something that he loves.

Links for 2009-11-07 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 PST

Lithoglyph - Mondrianum
Free plugin that allows you to save Kuler color schemes to keynote or PPt.

Robbing Students and Teachers of Joy

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:02:15 +0000

Maybe I'm just too lazy or unimaginative so I stole the title of my last post to make this one. Whatever.

I'm not sure why but this topic runs pretty deep with me. I found Alfie Kohn's article this morning on twitter (I like the fact that he brings back stuff from the archives, I wish more people would do that. Old is not bad) and thought I'd highlight a few gems found inside it.

While I recognize many peoples opposition to Kohn's highly progressive, Deweyesque slants, I find myself more in agreement with him than opposition. In the case of this article, I find it hard to disagree.

I would begin by defining joy as a clear sense of satisfaction at the work or relationships that surround us. That's the definition, I'll use as I explore this idea. This does not equate with happiness, it's perhaps part of it but I'm talking about a sense of purpose and success. This is directly linked to a passion based learning environment.

Joy has been in short supply in some classrooms for as long as there have been classrooms. But I join Deborah Meier in wondering whether things are worse now, not only because more people are less happy but because this is taken for granted; we don’t even see it as a problem that requires our attention.

I can't remember having "joy" or "student's attitude toward school" on any meeting agenda in 20+ years in education. It's less important than if the school sports teams get new uniforms or if we'll stop allowing students to bring potato chips as snacks.

It’s simply stunning, therefore, that some traditionalists actually complain about an excessive concern with children’s happiness. Earlier this year, I came across an essay by an administrator who attempted to explain the supposed inferiority of U.S. schools by asserting that, whereas parents in other countries ask their children, "What did you learn in school today?," American parents ask, "Did you enjoy school today?"

Would that it were true! The author Frank McCourt, who taught at a prestigious New York City high school for 18 years, told the journalist John Merrow that only once in all that time had a parent ever asked him, "Is my child enjoying school?" Instead, all he—and, presumably, the students themselves—heard from parents were questions about test scores, college applications, and getting the work done.

It bugs me when my own kids, who do very well in school say they don't really like school. I know that it's the right thing to say when you're a kid but even when we get past the surface response, it's clear that learning isn't all that pleasureable. This is not because we have bad teachers, it's because we have schools that place student satisfaction way below everything else. "It doesn't matter if they like it or not." Really? What are the chances your student's will be proficient in using Mathematics after high school if they hated it? Again, this is about everything we do being akin to spending 6 hours playing HALO, but there has to be an element of joy, don't you think? Those classrooms where joy is the unspoken or spoken default environment, are the ones where good learning happens everyday. I have no data to back that up so you can dismiss that as opinion but I'd stand by the claim. But as I consider what we're doing to teachers in the quest for "higher achievement", I think we could remedy much of their stress but supporting them and encouraging them more strongly to make learning a joyful experience.

Academic excellence, the usual rationale for such decisions, is actually far more likely to flourish when students enjoy what they’re doing. "Children (and adults, too) learn best when they are happy," as Nel Noddings observes in her book Happiness and Education. How they feel—about themselves, about their teachers, about the curriculum and the whole experience of school—is crucially related to the quality of their learning. Richer thinking is more likely to occur in an atmosphere of exuberant discovery, in the kind of place where kids plunge into their projects and can’t wait to pick up where they left off yesterday.

But in pointing this out, I fear that I’m appearing to accept an odious premise—namely, that joy must be justified as a means to the end of better academic performance. Not so: It’s an end in itself. Not the only end, perhaps, but a damned important one. Thus, anyone who has spent time in classrooms that vibrate with enthusiasm needs to keep such memories alive in all their specificity to serve as so many yardsticks against which to measure what we’ve lost: 6-year-olds listening to a story, rapt and breathless; teenagers so immersed in an activity that they forget to worry about appearing cool; those little explosions of delight attendant on figuring something out.

Nobody seeks to snuff out joy intentionally, it just happens. The antidote is to be intentional about including joy in the classroom. We can fall into the same trap as parents. The fact we love our children should make this minimal but we've all been guilty of getting so caught up in accomplishing our various goals that we forget to experience joy and live in world where mistakes are valued, where working together on a project is fulfilling and where we celebrate completing a challenging task. Again, this is not some airy, fairy thing, this is, as Kohn suggests, an end, in and of itself. These not be separate, but seriously, if I had to choose between rigor and joy, I'd pick joy every time. But I don't think we have to choose.

I'll end with this quote from Taylor Caldwell

"Learning should be a joy
and full of excitement.
It is life's greatest adventure;
it is an illustrated excursion into the minds of noble and learned men."

Now there's a mission statement that matters.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by John-Morgan

Robbing Students of Recognition

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:44:44 +0000

Cross Posted at the TechLearning blog

Our district uses its front page to post success stories from our 40 schools. These range from academic achievements to athletic accomplishments of school teams. Schools post the stories to their own Website and submit them to me to post to the district page where generally there is more traffic. This one was sent to me earlier in the week.

Tanner Spencer from Craik, SK, attended team Canada's World Junior top 35 camp in Orlando, Florida from October 5th to October 15th. Tanner is the youngest Saskatchewan player ever chosen to go. The majority of the team was from BC, Ontario, and Quebec. One player was chosen from the Maritimes, one from Manitoba, one from Saskatchewan and two from Alberta. Tanner started pitching the first game in Orlando, started the fourth game and closed the last game. He gave up no earned runs on six innings pitched. Congratulations Tanner.

As soon as I read it I realize they had violated our district policy which states we will never publish a photo of a student with a full name. I also realized in that moment how absurd that policy is.

As we explore the idea of a digital footprint and identity we must consider that at some point we want to our students to own their work and accomplishments and showcase them to a variety of audiences. If I'm Tanner or Tanner's parents I want as many people as possible to know of his accomplishments. I immediately sent out my concerns about our policy to our school technology representatives and one of the school leaders, Angus Mcintosh, responded this way:

It is in Tanner's very best interest, at this point, that everybody knows is name. He will have offers for scholarships to Major U.S Colleges and Universities and already has a collection of business cards from Major League scouts. The more people that know about him, the more choices and opportunities it will create for him. People "knowing" Tanners name started somewhere, and the word has spread that there is a very good young pitcher living in Craik and playing ball in Moose Jaw. He has many doors open for him to choose from.

But for every Tanner Spencer, there is the opposite. There are children with unfortunate backgrounds that need protection in terms of privacy. We know that and will always respect that. But I also think (hope?) they are as rare as Tanner.

And here's the point that is critical.

And then there is the rest. There are kids with special talents that few people know about. What about them? I would bet our schools are full of kids like Tanner but their talent is in Art, or Drama, or Math, or Writing etc. Most kids probably don't even know where their talent is! But if they did, would they be able to open the doors like Tanner has? How does a superior math student get "recruited" to a University? Can a dance student get into the National Ballet if nobody knows what they have accomplished? At some point everyone needs to "sell themselves" in a job interview, or a business proposal, or even a meeting with the bank manager for your first mortgage. If we can show kids that their accomplishments are to be proud of, and that the accomplishments are not anonymous, we can teach self confidence, and true self esteem.

While this confidence and self esteem can be and should be established offline even more so that online, we do a huge disservice to our students when in efforts to protect them we inadvertently rob them of the opportunity to be recognized.

I get pretty zealous over stuff like this and perhaps I've missed something here. If I have please share.

Podcast 47…When You’re Not the Smartest Person in the Room

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:13 +0000

This is the audio and the slides from a presentation for SIAST Virtual Campus.

When You're not the Smartest Person in the Room

View more documents from shareski.

You can subscribe to my podcasts in itunes.

Follow up to a Rant

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:41:50 +0000

Last week I posted a rant entitiled, "We have to Stop Doing This to Teachers". I lamented about a number of conversations with teachers about the struggles of doing good work and dealing with change. Anytime you tag your post with the word "rant" it usually means there is some unfinished thoughts. (I guess you could say that about every one of my posts)

Rather than commenting on each person, I thought I'd highlight some of the more salient remarks and perhaps add some commentary of my own.

Alan writes:

I am less sanguine about the consensus for change. Competing philosophies of education still hold teacher’s attention. The teacher’s priorities also act as a barrier. Dean mentioned concerns that the focus is to narrowed on Math and Reading (add writing to this). Sure there are marginal teachers, or sound teachers in a slump; however, as Dean remarked, most teachers are innovators. We all have private action research projects we have committed ourselves to and these compete with the division’s primary curricular goals.

I'm not so sure I'd use the word innovator but certainly each teacher brings their personal bias and strengths which adds diversity to students' educational experience. While no one explicitly states that health or art are less important, the message is implied. It reminded me of a post and the comments of a previous rant from about 11 months ago as well as this quote:

Dave writes:

I’ve never seen a detailed breakdown of teachers’ time. If a group of teachers voluntarily started keeping these notes, and if administrators and support staff paid attention and gathered the data, we’d have a much better picture of the problem, could work towards some solutions, and make actual progress because we’d have data to show the decision-makers.

This could be an interesting research. My sense is that so much of the is interrupted in terms of student learning which includes obstrusive assessments. I had a number of teachers last week tell me that they spend more time working at home than they ever have. Again, this is anecdotal, perhaps some hard core data would be of value. Two can play that game.

Megan:

I am convinced that it can only happen when teachers are taught about the power of the personal learning network. By reading and writing and reflecting, teachers can not only connect with those down the hall but also with others from around the world. Through these networks, teachers can begin to grow professionally in their own ways and on their own time line. Of course, this takes great leadership (and possibly PLCs which teach and foster a 21st century mentality), but I think it’s a way to make transformative changes in schools and in teacher-attitudes from the bottom-up.

Although a few of the teachers I spoke with fit into this category, I agree that the support and power of personal learning networks are valuable. That said, our current division uses the term PLC very badly. In fact, what we do is not a PLC and it certainly isn't personal. Teachers are given 3 days throughout the year to work collaboratively on fairly targeted areas. The work itself is important but somehow the personal part needs to be included. This argument always falls back into a lack of time and will to provide teachers the ability to learn from and with each other. That's why those who are developing this online have the edge. They use their own time and efforts to do this work. There needs to be a better balance between personal learning and professional learning. Not that the two terms can't coexist but as a district or school, there may be certain goals that don't necessarily align or meet every teacher or student's needs but we can't ignore the professional judgement and needs of individual teachers.

Gord, a school administrator from my division writes:

There is no disagreement among teachers, administrators, or senior administrators that the changes we are discussing/implementing are positive and promising for improving student learning. In fact many of the changes we have been wanting for years are coming to fruition. The challenge of course is not in the believing or understanding of the change, but rather the complexity of the implementation. Teachers need time and training to successfully implement the transformation. Just as we do with our students, chunking, scaffolding, and mastery of outcomes come one at a time and build on one another. What we are doing right now is serving a buffet of change and asking teachers to taste a little bit of everything, without really having time to digest anything. Thus, as the instructional leader in our school, I find it my responsibility to filter out some of the myriad of choices and present them one at a time rather than force feeding everything and causing a mass case of indigestion. Change is good and will be a constant for all, but how we manage change and take others with us in the journey is critical to a true transformation.

Sue King,

To me, one of the biggest issues is that deep level change is needed – significant change – and that is not possible to do incrementally while school is in session in the manner we currently do things. I think a very different approach is needed – but the state leaders in education seem hell-bent on staying on the course of accountability via low-level standardized assessments given to all in order to “hold teachers and schools accountable for student learning.” Though the “student learning” being measured is not, to me, genuine learning. I am ready for a change – just do not know how or with whom to join to create something different – something that can start small but be brought to a larger scale in a reasonable amount of time!

Deep level change. That's an ongoing problem with education. We nibble at a variety of approaches and rarely dig deep. I'm excited about the possiblity of our new Saskatchewan Curriculum. It offers the possbility to go deep. Fewer outcomes that focus on big ideas and supporting indicators to guide assessments. Designing learning that answers the questions, "Why do I need to learn this?" and "What is it that I want my students to remember 5 years after they graduate?" is a worthy goal. There are huge implications about how to do that. That's a major shift we're dealing with right now.

Bill Ferriter,

I’ve never wanted to be anything but a classroom teacher–and have turned down many, many high paying opportunities to work beyond the classroom to stay true to that commitment. But I’m actively looking for a way out….and I’ll do almost anything: consultant, college professor, instructional resource teacher etc.

Pretty harsh reaction to someone who obviously is a valued teacher. I worry more and more of our best will be thinking this way. Not that those options are bad, I'm one of them, but certainly seeing those options as a way out, doesn't bode well for the future of the profession.

Finally, a bit of a dissenting point and one that is worth considering and responding to. Joel says,

I don’t think it’s fair to paint teachers as victims or martyrs. Professionals in many fields take responsibility for the product and the process of their work, and it seems that teachers may finally need to step up to the plate on both of these fronts.

I’m always amazed by teachers who think that education is some kind of ultra-noble exercise that is unaffected by the laws of organizational dynamics. It seems we’ve largely neglected our professional responsibilities for quality control, productivity, corporate culture and innovation. We’ve handed the reigns of our profession to administrators, staff development experts, teacher’s unions, and local and federal policy makers.

What did we expect? Did we really not see this kind of reform coming?

My response to Joel is that the "pull up your bootstraps" approach does have some merit, however, there are so many mixed messages that the whole idea of reform is a muddied notion. As he states early in his comment,

I’m a sixth grade teacher in Tucson, and I feel much of the pressure you describe. It feels like trying to rebuild the engine of a car while the car is still cruising down the highway.

Reminds me of the EDS ad about airplanes. That challenge is particularly unique to education since we can't ever stop.

Thanks for all those great comments and insights. This is why I write; to learn. Does any of this strike a nerve? Did we miss something?

Consider EduCon 2.2

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:03:16 +0000

For two years I've observed from a distance the energy and sharing of ideas that have taken place at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. The day after it ended in January 2009, I decided I wouldn't miss it again. My registration is in and my tickets are booked. In fact, I'm paying my own way for this one, it's that good.

If you're looking to participate in a learning event that's different from the regular conference, this is it. Fortunately Chris and his staff and students have always made it available virtually so even if you can't attend in person, you can participate both as an attendee but also as a facilitator of conversation. From Chris' Website.

The students and faculty of the Science Leadership Academy — and all the amazing folks who give of their time and energy and ideas — are again hosting EduCon! This year's EduCon 2.2 is now open for registration and for the call for conversations!

This conference only happens because so many people are excited to come together and share their ideas and passion. We have some amazing events lining up for this year, but the sessions — the things that the community creates and imbues with meaning — will always be the heart of the conference. So please, consider coming, and considering submitting a proposal to facilitate a conversation.

About EduCon 2.2:

And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.

The Axioms

Guiding Principles of EduCon 2.2
1) Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members
2) Our schools must be about co-creating — together with our students — the 21st Century Citizen
3) Technology must serve pedagogy, not the other way around.
4) Technology must enable students to research, create, communicate and collaborate
5) Learning can — and must — be networked.

Now, perhaps more than ever, it is important that a community of educators come together to share a vision of what our schools can be. Proposals are due November 1st. Registration will be open without late fee until mid-January.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by teachandlearn

We Have to Stop Doing This to Teachers

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:45:47 +0000

I been out of the classroom just long enough (7 years) to forget what’s it’s like. Not what it’s like to teach because I’ve been teaching, albeit at the college level but the I believe there are more similarities than differences. What I forget is all the "stuff" they deal with everyday. Some of this stuff has been there all the time. Dealing with parents who wonder why their kid got a bad grade, trying to come up with a new way to help your students learn long division, settling an argument that took place during a break or trying to figure out why your room smells. Those things will always be there. The stuff I’m talking may have been around for a while but it’s escalated over the past few years since I’ve been in the classroom.

Our division, specifically, is only 4 years old. Like all the divisions in Saskatchewan we forced to combine with smaller divisions to make larger ones. Ours is made up of 7 small districts. I would argue that we’ve done a pretty decent job of transitioning and building culture given the circumstances. But in addition to that our teachers are dealing with new curriculum, decreased PD time, new grading system, high expectations around differientated instruction, larger class sizes and i ncreased accountability. These changes represent major changes for many teachers and the overall theme here is to insure the highest quality of learning opportunity for all students.

I’m fortunate to be able to work with great teachers who genuinely want to get better. They recognize that while the may be skilled teachers, they don’t have the time or resources to implement all the necessary changes that are being placed upon them. We have very little argument about the shifts to student involved assessment, student led conferences or brand new curriculum.Good teaching, while based on many tried and true principles always considers how it needs to improve. In general, they appreciate the work that the consultants in our division do. I believe that the vast majority of our teachers fit into this category. No one goes into teaching to be lousy. We have bad teachers, but I don’t that we have very many.

I also get to spend a great deal of time with our superintendents and other leaders in our division and to a person, they all want to create a division where students succeed, teachers are great and everyone loves their job. They aren’t interested in making people nuts. As a province and division, our curriculum and beliefs around teaching and learning is recognizing the shift in role of expert to learner. This is all good but simply telling people they need to change isn’t a great formula for success. Not that that has been the case but when I talk to teachers I’m hearing the same message.

"It’s too much"
"It seems the only things that are valued are Reading and Math"
"I feel like everything I’m doing is wrong"
"I’m not sleeping well"
"I need time to implement"

Something’s very wrong when a whole bunch of good people all trying to do what’s best for kids feel like this. Is this just about a bad system or are we trying to do too much too quickly? I’m not sure but if we don’t figure this out soon, we’re going to have problems finding great teachers to fill our schools. Maybe we’ve always have been saying these things, it just seems to me things are escalating. I don’t think the things I suggest here are unique to our situation. But maybe I’m wrong. We could just, "stop the train, slow down" and not rock the boat. But if we believe that change is envitable and necessary, how do we do that and not drive teachers nuts?

So please help me understand. Does the scenario I write about resonate with you? If so what are your thoughts about the root causes and solutions? If you feel differently about education, by all means share what has made the difference.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Maria & Michal Parzuchowski

Google Image Labeler

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:05:05 +0000

Lesley Edwards left me a really interesting link in her lastest comment. Google Image Labeler is something I hadn’t seen before. Here’s how it works:

You’ll be randomly paired with a partner who’s online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

View the same set of images.

Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.

Receive points when your label matches your partner’s label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.

See more images until time runs out.

After time expires, you can explore the images you’ve seen and the websites where those images were found. And we’ll show you the points you’ve earned throughout the session.

I’m already thinking of the classroom applications involving vocabularly, visual literacy and logic. In addition, you’re working at making the web better. Not a bad deal.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Carlos Magaña

When Search Isn’t Good Enough

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:53:50 +0000

Search is highly overrated.

I have a serious problem. As I build presentations I get a clear vision of an idea or concept I want to discuss and I immediately want to visualize it. For better or worse, I gain and make meaning with visuals. To that end I’ve continued to create slides that I reuse and share with others. Fortunately others have shared my passion and created a nice set that others are free to use.

Today’s vision was around filtering. Not that kind of filtering but the kind I’ve discussed here. On more than one occasion, I’ve quoted Clay Shirky’s quote about filter failure. It has been begging to be visualized, at least for me. So I head over to flickr and realize that my vision lacked easily searchable terms. I had envisioned a larger quantity of some item with one item standing out. I tried several search terms and phrases but didn’t find what I wanted.

I turned to twitter.

After this initial request:

Over the next 30 minutes I recieved 20 various image suggestions and 4 other ideas of how to create one. Here they are:

@robletcher offered these two:

http://bit.ly/80zrS?r=td

http://bit.ly/cWAUc

@triareanews suggested these three:

http://images.inmagine.com/img/imagesource/ie236/ie236003.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3533/3931819587_48fdec1fd9.jpg

http://artforprofits.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/stand-out.jpg

Here’s four from @tuchodi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15202064@N03/2435295029/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollyclark/450509297/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unlearn_art/3143041781/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkay/3924381425/

@bookminder responded to my "needle in the haystack" concept

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/335350003_9ca033ba68_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanorwood/1046416640/

I nearly went with this one from @dlsio4 who apparently thought of something he had and took the picture on the spot

http://img96.yfrog.com/i/dyu.jpg/

@njtechteacher offered to take a photo of a pile of legos but did suggest this one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/1804080776/

In the end, Sean Nash gave me six to choose from:

It was that last one that I chose. I could have picked any of the ones offered me and I’m sure you might have chosen differently. The point is that sometimes search doesn’t get it done. Google only goes so far. I needed people to help me sort out my ideas and provide inspiration to reach a satisfying conclusion. I feel badly for folks who don’t have this resource.

Oh by the way, here’s the final product.

The Posse and Sir Ken Robinson

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:10:38 +0000

4/5’s of the Posse gathered at Convocation Place at the University of Saskatchewan to hear Sir Ken Robinson. You seen his TED talk right? If not, go watch it now.

Anywho, as usual we had a great time talking, laughing, being silly and of course, as sure as I’ll spill food on my clothes, Rob brings out the microphone and begins recording.

No theme, no purpose, just friends yacking. After Sir Ken, Rob and I hit a local coffee shop for the debrief.

Just because I felt like it, I’ve added some show notes. I haven’t done that for a while. Enjoy.

Honour Our Attempts

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:11:47 +0000

Claire Thompson left this comment on a recent post pointing to Jan Smith’s classroom blog and the disclaimer that sits on the left sidebar of her blog. This is a huge issue for many teachers considering posting work online. Not only are the worried about controlling content and concerned about how others will view the quality of the work.

Typically classroom bulletin boards are dedicated to finished, edited, polished work. Most classrooms do not want to draw attention to the mistakes or efforts of their students. They are comfortable with sharing the best products but would rather hide the process. While that may be a generalization, I would argue that it’s fairly accurate.

I’ve struggled myself when it comes to helping others recognize spaces dedicated to practice and at the same time finding places to set aside work that has been created, revised and reworked. Blogs in general often get a bad name from the public because by their very nature they aren’t intended to be definitive spaces, but rather conversation starters. But of what makes blogs what they are, is the ability to elicit comments. Ideally this should include critique and feedback to enable further learning. This is where most classroom and school relate blogs fail. They do not either have enough feedback from a variety of perspectives that includes both peer and outside responses or the feedback lacks depth and specifics. Creating a culture that encourages openeness and respectful, helpful critique is challenging and requires skillful teachers determined to build this meaningful community of learners.

By the looks of things Jan Smith is trying.

I’d love a response to any or all of these questions:

What have you done or seen that helps people understand how you’re using your online learning space?

What have you done to support your students in providing critique and meaningful feedback for each other?

How have you been able to bring in outside voices to give feedback for your students?

Reposted on the TechLearning blog

More on Stages

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:20:58 +0000

Yesterday I stood in the gym of a local elementary school to watch my 10 year old daughter play volleyball. Both teams were made up 5th and 6th grade girls who are in their infancy when it comes to playing volleyball. As a result, anyone one that could serve the ball over the net was 95% guaranteed they would win the point. There were the occasional returns and even one rally that consisted of the ball going over the net 3 times before hitting the floor.

As a sports enthusiast it was painful. As a parent, it was exciting.

The gym was pretty much full of parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters crowded around the perimeter of the gymnasium. What struck me was the unbridled joy and encouragement for both teams and the cheers with every effort put forth. It kind of gives that warm fuzzy feeling inside, not often associated with sports. Parents and children well behaved and excited to be learning a new sport.

So I’m back to thinking about stages. I can’t say for sure but I’m doubtful any kids were left off the team because a parent didn’t want them performing in front of others. Even the girls who couldn’t serve the ball more than 10 feet were cheered for their efforts. It was clear to everyone in the building that this was a place of learning, a place for social interaction and fun. We will watch with amazement to see improvements with the next game and cheer even more loudly.

Why is it so hard for people to allow this to take place with learning? The mystery that occurs because work is suddenly displayed on a screen, accessible to the world makes people nuts sometimes. Even if the local TV station wanted to show this game, I can’t see any parent opting out. They might even want to have names sewn on the back of the jerseys (okay they are only t-shirts but still).

The sad part is that as a parent of 4 children, 2 of whom have graduated from high school, I knew way more about the sports and extra-curricular part of their school life than the academics. There was almost no way for me to interact or watch them learn other than the occasional homework assignment or parent teacher interview. The emphasis on most schools places extra-curricular at a way higher profile than the academics. Grant it, those are choices students can make. But shouldn’t we be working to a place where the day to day work and learning is showcased, celebrated and elevated to a higher place?

I recognize that with classroom work, the students don’t have much choice but by starting young and creating a culture where we share our work and seek encouragement and feedback I have to believe that is going to make for more engagment students producing better quality work.

I’m probably not done thinking about stages, I’ll just warn you right now.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

Blogging is like extreme sports

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:18:11 +0000

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Will Lion

Discuss.

K12 Online 2009 Begins

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:37:15 +0000

Even though I’m not a convener this year I hope you’ll take advantage of this great learning opportunity. I also don’t mind the fact that this event includes two of my Saskatchewan colleagues.

Content copied and modified from Kim Caise, Patrick Woessner, and the K12Online09 LAN Party Wiki. Please copy, reblog, and tweet this information!

Please join us on September 26, 2009
for the first live event of the
2009 K12Online Conference

On September 26, 2009, the K12Online Conference in partnership with EdTechTalk will host a worldwide, sychronous “LAN party” (free web meet-up) from 2:00PM EDT (6:00PM GMT) to 5:00PM EDT (9:00PM GMT). Organizers encourage educators around the world to get together with colleagues and engage in lively, online discussions during this time using links provided by EdTechTalk. Past presentations will be shown, and participants are invited to engage in live conversations about the presentations with the featured presenters during and following each session. A K12Online Conference overview is scheduled at the EdTechTalk website 30 minutes prior to the LAN party. This event provides an opportunity to try out the synchronous EdTechTalk environment and platform, which we will be using for the 2009 K-12 Online Conference in December. For more background about LAN parties, see Jeff Utech’s post from Sept 2006 and the K12Online08 Shanghai LAN Party wiki. The Shanghai LAN parties are models we hope educators around the world will emulate in 2009. You do NOT have to gather face-to-face with other educators to participate in this Saturday’s live LAN party events, but F2F connections are encouraged! Here’s the schedule. (Times below are EDT. Start time for the first presentation is 6:00PM GMT. Use this WorldTimeServer link to convert this time for your local time zone.)

2:00 – 2:45 EDT Film School
Mathew Needleman, Apple Distinguished Educator, has been integrating video in the classroom for seven years as a teacher of kindergarten, first, and second grade. Make better classroom movies with simple tips that will help elevate your vodcast to the next level in terms of artistic and technical merit. Learn how to storyboard like a pro, choose shots that support the telling of your story, and capture better lighting and sound.

2:45 – 3:30 EDT Open, Social, Connected
Dr. Alec Couros is a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. This presentation unravels a recent open graduate course offering titled “Open, Connected, Social” that was offered at the University of Regina, Winter 2008. The presentation describes the theories influencing the course, types of open practice, reflections and outcomes, and goes on to describe the emergence of “open teaching”.

3:30 – 4:15 EDT Wiki While You Work (Basic)
A former high school English teacher, Mark Wagner has since served as an educational technology coordinator at Estancia High School, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, and the Orange County Department of Education. His session briefly introduces participants to the Read/Write Web, and to wikis in particular. A live demonstration of wikispaces.org and wikipedia.org will illustrate that…, “If you can use a word processor, you can use a wiki.”

4:15 – 5:00 EDT We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff With Blogging Mentors
Kathy Cassidy is a grade one teacher at Westmount School in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. In the winter of 2008, Patrick Lewis’s university class of pre-service teachers were blogging mentors for Kathy’s grade one students. This presentation talks about that collaboration and the results of the research that was conducted about the effect this mentorship had on the students’ writing.

Kudos to the K12Online09 Live Events Committee for organizing and hosting this event! Please plan to join us and share this learning opportunity with your colleagues!

There must be a link

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:35:43 +0000

This post sounds alot like this one but I don’t care.

Technology doesn’t make you a great teacher. But in my experiences those that do, seem to be among the best. I had two examples today that supports my hypothesis. First I was at a conference today with most of our school administrators. During a lull in the conference I checked my twitter account. (There were several lulls) and saw a primary teacher from one of our schools posted a picture of her students learning. Her principal happened to be sitting nearby and I showed him the picture of the kids. Another principal asked him who the teacher was. His reply included the phrase, "she’s an awesome teacher".

Today I taught my pre-service teachers and brought in over 20 teachers from across Canada, the US and even New Zealand to introduce themselves and share what they might want my students to do in their classrooms. Each teacher took a couple of minutes to introduce themselves and describe their classrooms. It was absolutely exhilarating. This had nothing to do with the technology they deployed but their passion for teaching and learning. One of those teachers was in her 37th year of teaching. Digital natives theory shot down again. 37 years and still willing to learn, to try something new that might help her students, that’s inspiring.

I"m fortunate, no question. I have a wonderful network and get to expose my students to these awesome teachers.

http://dcshstech.pbworks.com/
http://www.hafford.lskysd.ca/?q=cone
http://history302008.edublogs.org
www.mrforgrave.net
http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/mrskolbert/
http://fablogs.org/capohanka
http://www.mrkapptie.wikispaces.com
http://ckheyrman.wikispaces.com
http://collaborationnation.wikispaces.com
http://new.schoolnotes.com/xpages/view/16893
http://userve.unioncityschools.org/~lbruce
http://www.earth.edublogs.org/
http://www.major.lskysd.ca
http://mraungst.wikispaces.com
http://wilsonbeckri.edublogs.org
http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/TEACHERPAGES/MrsSmith/tabid/1814/Default.aspx
http://weblogs.pbspaces.com/ionnoj/
http://berwicklodgeps.globalstudent.org.au
http://www.mpradio.ca
http://www.burnabyonline.ca
http://edm310fall2009.blogspot.com
http://room10rbs.edublogs.org
http://www.macklin.lskysd.ca/?q=node/26
http://www.37stars.org
http://woodtech.edublogs.org/
http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com
http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=73127
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337
http://fa-marine-science.ning.com/ and http://www.fredericksburgacademy.org/page.cfm?p=958
http://huzzah.edublogs.org
http://www.wtisburyschool.org/
http://readwithme.edublogs.org
http://mallonmessages.blogspot.com
http://noeltigers.com
http://www.laspillane.org
http://learning.ssis.edu.vn/blogs
http://pvec201wscience.wikispaces.com/
http://www.calgaryscienceschool.com
http://wdpms.blogspot.com;
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=26233
http://martini.wetpaint.com

There must be a link between good teaching and technology. That’s what I see.

Photo by Mrs. B. Martin

Understanding Free

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:16:29 +0000

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Will Lion

I’ve been listening to Chris Anderson’s book "The Radical Price of Free" for free. It’s a long listen, over 6 hours and I’ve still got 2 more hours to go but it’s certainly helped clarify not only how free works, but how much money is to be made by free. Sound weird? Read/listen to the book.

My financial or economic knowledge is limited at best but as a consumer and producer I recognize a few things. While I make no money from this blog directly, I’ve been fortunate to indirectly gain financially and I owe much to the work and ideas that I share here and other places. Given that was never the intent of this blog, it’s simply a nice bonus. I recognize others try and utilize their blogs for financial gain either by ads or direct pay from outside interests. But for the most part this type of free seeks no compensation, it’s just free.

As any user of the web knows, there are oodles and oodles of sites and applications that appear free. Everything from google to yahoo, we roam around these internets and create, download, consume and communicate willy nilly with nary a penny exchanged. But it’s obvious there has to be a price. The book outlines the various ways this can work and some of those ways, such as ad driven sites, seem fairly obvious. Premium services is another common strategy. Some work well, others fail miserably. I’m glad I dont’ have to make those decisions.

Every term as part of my undergrad course, I ask my students to create a blog. I’ve used blogger, wordpress.com and edublogs. Each have their own benefits and downfalls. In general, here are my assessments:

Blogger

Pros: easy to setup, integration with google, customizeable, widget ready, easy to use, embedding capabilities
Cons: difficult to make pages, association with random blogs(although this can be removed), blocked in some schools

Wordpress.com

Pros: Simple to use, easy to setup, some customization, open in most schools, great for page making, better for portfolios
Cons: embedding is limited,plugins limited

Edublogs.org (wordpress platform hosted and managed)

Pros: Associated with educators, some customization, open in most schools, great for page making, better for portfolios,embedding capabilities
Cons: lack of plugins, nagging ads to support

I’m sure I have missed some things but these are my observations. Feel free to correct me in the comment section.

My experiences is that most of them use this as a disposable learning experience. As much as I would love them to continue blogging, the vast majority do not. Some, pick up after a few years but by then they’ve moved to a new platform. For a new blogger, they have no idea of all the advantages or disadvantages of a particular platform, they just dive in because of an assignment or recommendation.

There have been many discussions about the value of institutions providing their own spaces for students. Sometimes this isn’t an option and so part of my thinking is to provide pre-service teachers with the chance to discover alternatives.

This term I decided to have my students use edublogs. I know many teachers in my district who used edublogs a few years ago but have left because of performance issues. I was informed the performance issue had been resolved and was tipped off to the changes in the business model. It wasn’t until I began to have my students use it did it really hit me. The embedded ads make you feel as if someone else controlling your space and lack of plugins take away from the customizabilty. I understand they need to make money. We can’t expect folks to continue to support these projects for Starbucks cards (although I don’t know how David Warlick does it) My issue is, and again, I’m not business person, just a consumer in this case, I personally will choose another option for my students to begin their blogging journey. This is only my opinion and as much as I admire the work of James Farmer and Sue Waters, I’m not a fan of the free offering in this case. I’m not able to suggest a better, more viable model but given there are alternatives, I wonder if they might have to. Just one person’s humble opinion.

Dealing with My/Our Attention and Information Issues

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:00:14 +0000

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Will Lion

As this article states, the problem of attention isn’t particularly new but it certainly is becoming more and more an issue. I remember teachers back in the 1980’s lamenting that they felt they were competing with the MTV generation. MTV seems pretty tame and managable compared to what we are dealing with today.

There aren’t too many days that go by that someone doesn’t ask me about "keeping up". I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. Even highly connected and media savvy folks struggle. I struggle with it too, but I have developed a few beliefs, principles that have been helpful to me. I’ll avoid the "top 5" or "best ways to" kind of approach and simply share a few things I think can be helpful in a day of attention deficits.

Filters

As an avid reader of Clay Shirky, the most important lesson I’ve learned from him is about filter failure. As he so eloquently states, it’s not information overload it’s filter failure. We’ve always lived with an abundance of information. Our libraries were filled with books we never read, movies we never saw and conversations we never had. Today, it’s mostly access that makes us feel like it’s too much. In that past we just weren’t as bombarded with information. It took work to go to the library. We had to physically go to see people. Today we carry around our friends and the bulk of human knowledge in our pockets.

While search engines are getting better and better at filtering information, I prefer human powered search. Three places where that happens for me are:

Delicious I’ve got 29 people whose daily readings come directly to me. I could have 100 people, I could have 5. I can change these 29 people but the point is most of what they find is of interest to me. They are weeding out the junk to give me what they think is noteworthy.
Google Reader While I subscribe to over 300 sites but the shared portion of Google Reader is the one place I’ll check everyday. 55 people who share the best of what they find in their reading is pretty much all I need.
Twitter A bit more random but yet potentially very valuable, usually I find great stuff in the conversations. Great links usually get retweeted. If you just check RTs you won’t miss much

Simply the Complex

Information and technology can seem very complex but in the end, it’s important to distill and synthesize. This is why the Common Craft videos are so popular. The LeFevers have taken the time to take some pretty complex technologies and make them simple. One of the ways I attempt to synthesize is to blog. Writing often helps me figure out what is really important. When educators reject using technology in the classroom it’s often because they think it’s too complicated. What they fail to do is determine for themselves what the key ideas are. Digital Storytelling is a great example. There are upteen dozen ways to tell stories but in the end, it’s always about good storytelling. We can spend lots of time examining the intracacies of using media but without a good story, it doesn’t matter. That’s not to say that simple means easy, it just means it doesn’t have to be that hard to understand. Once you have a clear understanding of a topic, you can more easily sift through irrelevant material and noise.

The Hedgehog Principle

Jim Collin’s book Good to Great talks about success among business who deploy the hedgehog principle. In a nutshell it’s the idea of finding your niche or what your focus is and sticking with it. Other companies, in his examples, often get distracted and sidetracked working on things that aren’t part of the core of the company. Instead, he says, find out what you’re good at and stick with it. Now you can argue this idea to some extent but in today’s world, we have to set limits on ourselves. So at some point you have to decide what where you want to develop your expertise and focus your attention. When the latest and greatest tool or resource comes your way, you need to be prepared to pass on it from time to time. I tend to rely on others to become experts for me. Simply knowing that someone else can be a resource, relieves me from having to know all there is to know. I never would have anyways but limiting the discussions and ideas that I pursue is of great value.

Another resource that I think about a lot when it comes to dealing with choices and focusing on a few things is the great TED talk by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice. This video has been very important for me in understanding the greatest of our time as well as the challenges. If you haven’t seen it, watch it, or maybe even watch it again. After watching it again, I’m adding another principle that feeds off of this one.

Sometimes Good Enough, is Good Enough

Dave Weinberger talks a lot sometimes settling for "good enough’. That notion rubs many people the wrong way, in particular educators. Most teachers spend hours telling their students to always do their best and while this is certainly a valid trait we want to instill, at times, we have to settle for good enough. When it comes to information, this is very true. When you get 3 million search results, sometimes you settle. Wikipedia is often good enough. It’s not perfect but most of the work we do and understanding we are needing doesn’t have to be. Again, this isn’t always the case but learning how and when to accept good enough is a badly needed skill. I find this particularly true when I’m searching for an image on flickr. With over 3 billion photos finding an image that depicts an idea isn’t usually that hard, finding the perfect one is. Even the image I’m using on this post could be better, but it’s good enough.

Snacking versus Eating

For me, this is most challenging. I could spend a great deal of time snacking on twitter. While there are many quality ideas, resources and conversations shared, it’s still a snack. I hadn’t thought about it in terms of time and money but this quote from the Globe and Mail article explains it:

The cost of one’s time (approximated, for example, by the average wage) relative to the cost of data manipulation, transmission and storage has increased roughly 10-million-fold in just over two generations – a change in relative “prices” utterly without precedent. This, above all, is what is driving the evolution of online behaviour and culture, with profound implications for the production and consumption of knowledge. The primary consequence is the growing emphasis on speed at the expense of depth.

I like speed and like quick but I have to discipline myself to dig deep. I need to be able to move from a 140 character blurb, to a link-filled blog post, to an essay to a book. It’s not easy but like trying to eat well, I know what’s good for me. I like a bag of chips as much as the next guy but as a steady diet, you need to peel the potatoes and cook them (even better if you can grow them yourself). Sure it takes more time but it’s way better for you in the long run.

No question that how we manage information and how we teach students to manage it will be a huge part of our lives. It is already. I refuse to engage in conversations about "the good old days" in which we usually look back and attribute fonder and more positive memories about the past that we grew up in. It doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s never going to be like that. If, however, you want to discuss timeless values and characteristics that may be forgotten at times, that’s worth my time. I hope these are some timeless principles that I can get better at implementing.

Back to School Outfit

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:22:58 +0000

It seems every year that clothes gets put on the back to school supply list. Not by the school but by Mom’s and kids. (sorry for being sexist, I just don’t know of any men who think their kids need a whack of clothes to start school) I remember when I was a kid, you had to be very careful not to wear your new clothes too early for fear you might be called out for appearing too anxious and taken out to the back of the school yard. It was cool to wear something a little tattered. In fact, wearing an "outfit" was often the equivalent of wearing a "kick me" sign.

However, I’ve matured and I guess times have changed. So in the spirit of back to school makeovers and outfits, I’ve decided to put some new paint on my blog and go for a different look.

I wanted something a little cleaner, and more magazine style. I think the blog format of constantly having new work posted first, has its limitations. Subscribers see the new stuff via RSS but the newcomers often are unfamiliar with the format and often miss the best stuff. This particular theme called "Atahualpa" offers a "sticky post" feature. (Actually I think it’s standard in the latest version of Wordpress, I just like the way it looks in this theme.) This way I can leave the more blog worthy post front and center and hide some of the usual drivel in the back so to speak. I really have to think about who actually visits my blog. I know that for me, most, if not all of the reading I do happens inside Google Reader. I rarely visit the site of my subscriptions other than to comment and even then it’s usually a quick in and out. If I want people to stay here, and look around, I have to make it an easy experience. The pages at the top remain the same and I do go in there and clean them up from time to time so the content remains pretty current.

I’ve maintained my rotating banner of my personal photos simply because I think it offers some insight into who I am and tells its own story. I’ve removed some of the old banners and put up some new ones.

So that’s my new outfit. I hope no one beats me up.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

Video Shoutouts

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:33:05 +0000

You know when someone is doing a workshop and they have people shoutout on Twitter telling them where they live and how they use Twitter? Of course you do. You’ve likely been on on side of that or the other more times than you can count.

It’s my turn.

Later this month I’ll be doing my own little presentation on Twitter for local teachers. I’m calling it "The Stupidest Thing You’ve Ever Heard of That You MIght Find Useful". I’ll likely do a twitter shoutout but I’d really like you to take a bigger role. So stealing a page right out of Alan Levine’s book. (I steal many things from Alan so he’s probably just rolling his eyes if he reads this) I’m going to ask you to submit a little video that sheds a little light on the whole Twitter rage.

So if you’d be so brave, send me a little video (no more than about 60 seconds) explaining either:

a twitter story
why you find it useful
how you use it
a great twitter tip
or anything else I’ve forgotten

Send them to me via email in whatever format you wish shareski at gmail dot com. I’ll share your story both during my presentation and some place online.

If you’re really too shy to record yourself, leave a comment.

Now go watch Alan’s finished product of Amazing Stories.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

A Powerful Learning Opportunity

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:32:00 +0000

One of the most powerful things I’ve been part of recent years is the opportunity I’ve had to connect pre-service teachers with experienced classroom teachers via an online mentorship. This has transformed many young people and offered them an experience to work with great teachers from around the world and observe first hand what it means to use technology to amplify and enhance learning through technology.

This video illustrates one example of what happened last term as Carey Pohanka and one of my students worked together. If you were one of those students or teachers impacted by this mentorship program, please feel free to leave a comment as well.

I’ve written about it before here so I won’t go into any more detail other than to invite you to be a part of this experience from September to December. If you’re interested, fill out this form and I’ll get back to you. Thanks.

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Things are getting interesting

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:30:11 +0000

Today I stumbled across a couple of pieces of content that for me, placed at the forefront of my thinking, the real challenges that face education today. First Chris Lehmann gave a presentation to the National Broadband working group at the FCC. Chris began by challenging folks to picture any high school at dismissal time and observe the mad rush for students to turn on their devices, the same devices that are banned in most schools. He argues that the more we continue to ignore the role these devices play in students lives, the less relevant our schools become. These devices will only increase in importance and use as our students become adults.

Later I read Tim Stahmer’s post about being careful what you wish for. Tim works in a very large district in the DC area and has long lamented the lack of access his own district provides. In this post he recognized the potential issue of allowing students to use their own devices in schools.

Those of us who are advocates for the potentially transformative effect of instructional technology are often caught up in the day-to-day, never-ending struggle to provide enough equipment, software, training and support to make large scale changes possible.

But sometimes we forget the old adage of “be careful what you wish for”.

Because if we ever did get to the point where every student is carrying around their own networked computing device, the traditional education model we’ve lived with for a century or more would probably fall apart very quickly.

This is largely about losing control. Control which today we want to believe we have but are increasingly seeing it slip away. As I commented on Tim’s blog, I work in a district that allows students to use their own devices and has very liberal filtering policies. While it’s possible and allowed, very few schools and classrooms currently advocate and encourage students to bring their devices. I have had numerous conversations with principals who are trying to have more content blocked citing them as distractions. The bottom line here is that this is a battle of control. As Marc Pesce writes:

The computer – or, most specifically, the global Internet connected to it – is ultimately disruptive, not just to the classroom learning experience, but to the entire rationale of the classroom, the school, the institution of learning.

There are definitely two sides emerging. Those of us who understand the power of personalized, customized learning and those that are scared to death of what that means to all that they have believed. I don’t believe this necessarily is an either or proposition. There are certainly times when we need control and narrow the choices, but those occasions are becoming fewer than they have ever been.

The challenge facing education today is to be able to provide a personalized, meaningful, useful learning experience. For many this remains pie in the sky as their current environments are even close to being able to consider this due to standardized testing and lack of access to hardware and content. Some, however are opening up the doors to eliminate some of the current barriers. While this may seem like a step forward, it will certainly bring with it new challenges that are likely more difficult to overcome that the ones they just conquered. They better be thinking about Pandora’s box. Things just got interesting.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dkuropatwa

Cross posted at the Tech Learning blog.

What’s so good about Face to Face?

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:30:18 +0000

I’ve been grabbling with this question for quite some time now. Influenced by this book as well as my own journey into a hybrid teaching situation, I’m more and more convinced answering the question, "what is face to face good for?" is one of the most important in education today.

With the advent of technology and distance learning, I’ve stood in front of teachers and administrators many times and asked them to consider why their students would choose to come to school. While the quality of distance learning is far from perfect, it offers the opportunity for students to learn with and from anyone at anytime. With more and more choice students will start asking if they really need to come to class. At the same time, it’s hard to deny what it means to learn in the same physical space. Notice I was careful to say "learn". Many people take for grant it that students will come to school simply to socialize and enjoy extra-curricular activities with others. I say that’s not good enough. Learning has to be social, otherwise why come to school?

This article and the accompany video might at first glance be a anti-technology message but in fact its arguing for better face to face encounters. Some might view the article as anti-technology or anti-powerpoint, I simply see this as trying to determine what the best use of face time might look like.

The undergrad course I teach is usually 3 online for every face to face experiences. I’ve learned a great deal in teaching online for the past 3 years. I’ve worked hard to make it interactive and participatory. I’ve had my share of successes and failures and will endeavour to make the best experience possible. That said, the face to face classes prove invaluable. In many ways, the content and delivery of these classes is no better than the online sessions but somehow students say it offers something the online sessions can’t do. Simply seeing faces and understanding each other in a different way fosters community in ways online interaction cannot. Maybe it’s just a return to the comfortable setting they are used to. I believe its more than that. Yet, without the asynchronous and synchronous online components, my courses would not have near the impact. We need both. I no longer take face to face time for grant it. I think many teachers have become lazy and aren’t considering the current and upcoming options that are available to students.

Rob Jacobs viewed the above video and article and considered Professional Development. I also think about meetings and conferences. In the district I work, we have many teachers and administrators travelling 3 hours to go to a meeting. It is deplorable that they might attend a meeting and leave thinking, "I should have stayed home". Consider the time and money spent. I don’t want to be responsible for wasting their time. It shouldn’t really matter how far you have to drive, being together should be time well spent. We owe to teachers and students to make the face to face time we have valuable and important.

While interactivy and particpation are two huge elements that ought to be present, what else is good about face to face? How do you insure that your students/teachers/co-workers/clients find the time they spend with you valuable?

Inside the Cancer Video

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:43:25 +0000

I was asked to produce a series of videos for an upcoming breast cancer fundraiser event in September. The concept was to interview someone who is currently in the midst of breast cancer, someone who has survived breast cancer and someone who has lost someone to breast cancer.

This video is of a local women who has terminal cancer. It’s challenging and a little nerve racking to be working with such a sensitive subject. The intent is obviously to tell her story in a clear and concise way and at the same time evoke the emotion that will get people to open up their wallets.

I Have Cancer from shareski on Vimeo.

I thought I’d take some time to reveal some of the reasoning and thought behind my production/design choices. I’ve always believed and have been taught that nothing should be random so hopefully I can address those choices.

Trimming

The raw interview was about 12 minutes. I had a goal of getting the interview under 5 minutes. Determing what to cut was difficult. This is where you need an unbias eye to see if you’ve captured a coherent story. I had my wife watch the first cut to see if the story was clear. This is crucial since it’s often hard to remove yourself from the knowledge you have of the entire footage.

Camera Positions

When doing interviews I prefer to have the camera slightly off centre. The interviewer in this case is sitting slightly to the left of the camera. It’s actually farther off centered that I prefer but without moving too much furniture around, it’s the best I could do. I shot the main footage with a Sony HD camera. The second camera is simply my Canon SD 780 still camera that shoots in HD. The use of a second camera is always a plus and in this case I think it helps the viewer see the setting of the interview and get a sense of being present. The split screen view makes that clear.

Transitions

The transitions between shots using the flowers and backyard footage has two purposes. First you see the subject and interviewer in a casual setting which provides context and background information to the interview. I rarely show the interviewer since they aren’t really part of the story. In this case I wanted to reveal a sense of friendship. Although you never see the interviewer ask a question, I’m hoping the transition video makes that clear. I switch to using the flowers in transitions to represent the beauty of life. The whole idea of a transition between scences is done to allow the viewer time to feel the impact and emotion of the story. It seems that for me the greater the emotion, the longer the transitions. In this case I would have lengthened the transitions even more in some cases but wanted the entire project to be under 5 minutes so I had to trim some of them.

Audio

I can’t stress enough the importance of a microphone for interviews. I have a bluetooth, wireless mic that works wonders in all sorts of environments. The air conditioner was humming in the background but the quality of this mic eliminated external sounds. This also allows me to easily add background audio withouth having to a lot of tweaking. The music, which I found on Jamendo (my new favourite Creative Commons source) is used to provide a delicate, soft backdrop to the story. I sampled dozens of instrumental music but was thinking piano as the core instrument. Music can certainly be overdone and I sampled until I found the one that best fit the piece.

Special Effects

5 minutes of "talking head’ can be a bit much. I’ve rarely seen it done effectively. If I’d had more time or had more ownership of the project, I would have liked more "b-roll" footage. In order to provide interest I used the dual camera and split screens. Again, these are done with purpose. The viewer gets a sense of place and hopefully adds to the intimacy. I used a bit of slow motion on the pan of the family photos. This was done as much to cover up the use of a handheld pan. There are a number of interesting filters in Final Cut Express which may have been interesting but time and the fact they have to be rendered each time to view them made that less desirable. I will need to explore them more to understand how they might enhance future projects.

The story is still the key. However these other elements represent the design and as I’ve mentioned many times, cannot be separated from the final product. I hope these insights are useful and certainly am open to critique of my choices. I just wanted to be transparent and explicit with how and why I did what I did.

Chalk up another one for blogging

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:18:27 +0000

Dan Meyer has been looking back at his short, albeit significant career as an educator. Someone left a comment wondering what he would attribute his growth over the past few years.

In a word: “blogging.”

In seven words: “blogging and probably using a digital projector.”

The digital projector opened up my classroom and practice to visuals, which was a profound, if rocky and still ongoing transition.

But blogging was the cheapest, most risk-free investment I could have made of my personal time into my job. You start by writing down things that are interesting to you, practices you don’t want to forget. And then you start trying new things just so you can blog about them later, picking them apart, and dialoging over them with strangers. Periods of stagnancy in your blogging start to correspond to periods of stagnancy in your teaching. You start to muse on your job when you’re stuck in traffic, in line for groceries, that sort of thing. That transformation has been nothing but good for me and it all began on a free Blogspot blog.

Whenever I ask my pre-service teachers or classroom teachers to blog, it comes with a variety of reasons and purposes. Not everyone uses a blog to be reflective, but reflective practice in isolation has its challenges. There’s nothing like a solid testimonial like this to once again point to the value of open and transparent exchange of ideas. This is also why I often hesitate to suggest twitter to folks wanted to engage with other educators. Not that it has less value but there’s no way twitter can replace blogging as a form of reflective practice. I don’t suspect many use it that way but when it’s referred to as "micro-blogging" I get a little worried about that comparison. Blogging isn’t about building a sizeable audience necessarily. It’s about finding enough critical friends to make you work at getting better. Thanks to all who have done that for me.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

Are We Text Snobs?

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:00:47 +0000

This post will be double posted to the tech learning blog shortly.

Schools are text snobs. Most people reading this are text snobs. Our institutions are built around the written word. That in itself is not bad and we owe much of our culture, knowledge and understanding to the written word. It’s not our fault, we’ve been living in a world that up until a few years ago, only offered us to easily produce content via the written word. But like the revolution of the printing press, we are in the midst of a revolution of a digital nature that’s allowing us to easily create and consume context in many different forms, specifically audio, video and imagery.

So what are our schools doing to address this? I’d say for the most part very little. I must say I’m please to note that many curricula, are beginning to address this gap. In fact my own Saskatchewan Curriculum identifies these six strands as the cornerstone of the English Language Arts Curriculum: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Viewing and Representing. All are considered equal but take a wild guess as to which ones receive the bulk of the attention? No doubt that many standardized tests and assessments focus solely on reading and writing and thus perpetuate the lack of attention on the other four. But even those who are building vast digital footprints and experience the power of publishing and connecting are doing so mostly via text. Believe me, I don’t want to discount its importance and value. Writing and the written word will always hold a prominent place in our understanding and experience of life but I’m concerned over the limited use of video, audio and even imagery among teachers and leaders in our schools and in particular those who have created and are developing an online presence.

(This post continues with the following video)

(And now some audio)

Listen!

In general, schools have placed writing ahead of other forms of expression. Writing is what is measured and what is valued. As we consider the changing of the guard of modern communication. The recent marketing ploy by the Australian government to find someone to be the caretaker of an island illustrates the shifting of communication skills. Instead of simply asking applicants to write an essay, they were to submit a video to sell themselves. Consider this quote by Stephen Downes.

OK, these are videos for that contest to live on an Australian island (the contest was probably the public relations coup of the year). They are, of course, creative and imaginative and effective. Now for the kicker: ten years ago, not one student in a hundred, nay, one in a thousand, could have produced videos like this. It’s a whole new skill, a vital and important skill, and one utterly necessary not simply from the perspective of creating but also of comprehending video communication today. Some people out there

Marco Torres get a great deal of credit and is seen as an extraordinary educator. Not that he isn’t but part of the reason Torres gets the attention is the fact that very few teachers/schools allow students to create and express themselves with video. I’d love for this to change. We need more Marco Torres’. The challenge is that most teachers who have developed their online presence is largely because of their ability to write. This continues the bias towards text over other mediums. We need kids that can write, tell a story, engage in a coherent, interesting conversation and tell stories with still and moving images. Shouldn’t we be modeling this? Who’s going to teach them?

Ramblings from NECC 2009

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:55 +0000

I had the good fortune of spending the last week with some really smart people and sit in on a few great sessions. During this time I was asked a few times if I was enjoying this or learning. The answer to both was yes. However, I could likely have been asked the same quesitons a week earlier and a week from now and I’d likely give the same answer.

Not every conversation was outstanding, not every session was amazing. I can’t quantify the learning but can tell you the cumulative ideas and insights will continue to influence my thinking and shape my work.

On the weekend Will Richardson was asking if it possible to provide the kind of learning our kids need by improving schools or do we require a brand new system. I desparately want to believe we don’t have to blow up what we have but a number of things this week has me wondering.

Monday I was able to hear Tom Carroll speak about creating the schools our children need. A few months ago I read this article written by Carroll which was written 8 years ago and was challenged by many ideas. (If you read it and are choosing between finishing this post or the article, read the article) One of the most powerful analogies Carroll used on Monday was this:

"Asking how technology can improve student learning in our current schools is like asking the Wright brothers how the airplane improves the railway system"

That statement resonates with me as I am often asked to provide evidence or proof that technology is making a difference. I hate the question because the question is flawed in the first place. The better question (I’ve posted about this before) is:

"Does technology support the practices that improve student learning?”

While that is a better question I’m still grabbling with the notion that the impact of technology is creating such a shift that those "practices" have to be re-examined. Part of the very nature of school requires learning to be compartmentalized by time and content and subject. If I was asked to do that over this past week, I’d be hard pressed to provide you with that kind of data. I learned lots, some of which I’m discussing here and others which may not bear fruit for a while and other learning that will never be directly tied to this week but has undoubtedly been borne and fostered through these many conversations.

I’m seeing more and more that they way connectedness, sharing and access to media influence us and create opporutnities for great learning, often does not have a place in our schools today. Square peg in a round hole.

And yet through all that stuf that spins my brain in 19 different direcitons I’m inspired and encouraged by the many great people who are muddling their way through changes and making it work because of their passion and genuine concern and love of students. You have to have both. I think most of the teachers I work with care about kids. As Chris Lehmann talks about often, kids desparately need mentors. This is a great start and if that’s all teachers did was to be and find mentors for our students that wouldn’t be all bad. But combine that with a passion to learn and you have the makings of a great learning experience for anyone. It’s passion that drives people to seek better and more engaging ideas and content. It’s passion that inspires someone to learn and try things they never thought they’d do. This is when complexity and change occur.

The landscape of learning is changing. Rethinking what control means, understanding the power of sharing and transparency all work to topple many of the foundations our schools are built upon. I know this, you know this but after spending 3 days amongst 18,000 in the educational technology field, I still say very few else know this. I made this observation (jump down to #4) last year at NECC and while the number may have increased slightly, those who really have any sense of the changes that are possilbe and perhaps inevitable in education is strikingly small. Yet sometimes the conversations amongst them would indicate they think everyone understands. A good example took place in the last session I attended on a panel discussion on Web 2.0. The panel was made up of all people that I and many in the audience knew very well either because we’ve spent time with them or know them from varoius online circles. The panel and audience were calling them by their first names and having a good discussion One lady stood up and felt frustrated since she didn’t know these people, these terms and most of the content of the conversation. That wasn’t her fault that’s ours. The assumption amongst folks who live and breath social media is that most teachers know about but they just don’t understand social media. We jump in with disucssion about Web 2.0 when they aren’t ready for that discussion since they have absolutely no prior knowledge. I"m not against having these kinds of discussions but it’s a bit like Christopher Columbus and crew arguing over how they would organize and structure the new world when most of the old world didn’t even know it existed and if they did, had no idea why or how they would get over to see it, let alone settle there. It’s not a totally useless discussion but perspective is important.

2 Guys from Saskatchewan Rethinking Teacher Education

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:17:14 +0000

I had the privilege of keynoting last week with Alec Couros as the TCEA Area 7 conference. Scott Floyd and crew did an amazing job of organizing this one day event complete with great wireless access, streaming video of most sessions, not to mention a wonderful BBQ and golf. We were treated like royalty.

I come away from an event like this feeling blessed to know such awesome people and leave with great memories.

Our talk revolved around our efforts to change traditional teacher education to leverage the power of networks and technology in teaching and learning. We hope to spark some new conversations and support the great work already begun by Scott and friends.

Here’s the video to our Keynote and our other session can be found here. Slides from the keynote are here: Cooliris slides

Thanks again to Scott and Paul Wood in particular for an outstanding weekend.

Thanking my Dad

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:53:33 +0000

Another Father’s Day is coming to a close. I’ve yet to call my Dad but I will soon. But I did spend part of the day thinking about how great my Dad is and how I continue to want to please him and model much of his life. I created tributes to him in 2005 and 2006. Time for another one.

My Dad has many legacys. He was great husband (Mom passed away in 1996) and father and did meaningful work. Wrapped around all this was a strong faith that was the foundation for our family. One of my Dad’s greatest qualities is how he makes people feel. My father’s genuine concern for people and encouragement for them is easily observed. He’s curious, optimistic and caring.

I’m not sure who said this but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately as I work with teachers and parent my children and try to be a great husband:

"People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel."

Our connection to each other is not totally based on the content we share or the work we do but how we share it and the relationships we build. I’m grateful for a father who lives this everyday.

Time to call my Dad.

Edtech Posse 5.6 Chatting with Howard Rheingold

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:34:20 +0000

What a treat it is to be able to chat with someone who you read and admire. Howard Rheingold is a legend in terms of social networking. His book Smart Mobs is a classic and his historical perspective is really important as we try to understand our current world. This video from 1989 was of particular fascination for me.

Rick, Alec and Rob and I spent an hour last night learning from and with Howard. The ambient sounds you here of dogs barking and a parade are from my end. That’s just a bonus. Enjoy.

Fun with Twitter: Lesson #31

shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:18:14 +0000

Here’s just another really silly, useless but somewhat fascinating use of twitter. Not necessarily any educational value but pure fun.

Step one: Find someone at a sporting or other large event.

Step Two: Offer a challenge:

Step Three: Watch and wait:

Step Four: End with laughter, joy and acknowledgement of a well completed task.