Category Archives: Change

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Fun And Motivation With FD’s Flickr Tools

Years ago I came up with an idea for a writing prompt that I felt was pretty “schema neutral“-  all kids would have experience enough to be able to write a story about this prompt. I call it “A Day As Your Shoes.” Several years ago Corbett Harrison, who among other things had the concept for and started the Writing Fix web site and still maintains it, put my prompt on the site. He made it an interactive prompt to mimic how I have students brainstorm their ideas. Since all students have experience with shoes (at least in this country) and going to school – they will all be able to bring schema for this story.

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This year to add to the motivation and creativity I had the students make the covers for their stories by taking pictures of their shoes and using Fd’s Flickr Tools – Magazine Cover to design their bookcover. We took pictures with a digital camera and downloaded into iPhoto on their laptops. Each student designed several covers so they could build at least some expertise with the software before putting together their final product pictured below.

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Microsoft Windows XP, Office, Live Mail All For Only $3 – Legally!

The Indian Express Newspapers today announced in an article titled “Microsoft to sell govts $3 software package” that Microsoft:

“will sell a $3 package of Windows, Office and educational programmes to governments that want to load the software onto personal computers for students. The package, called the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, will include the Windows XP Starter Edition operating system, Microsoft Office and Live Mail email software, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said in a speech at a conference for government leaders in Beijing on Thursady.”(sic)

Obviously the thought of a billion or two potential customers being introduced to computers running Linux and open source software have them scared:

“…The company (Microsoft) also wants to ensure that countries that offer free or cheap personal computers (PC) to students will choose Windows instead of the freely distributed Linux operating system. Microsoft will start selling the $3 software package in the second half of 2007, it said.”

Interesting …  very interesting.

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Maybe My Class Is Doing The $100 Laptop Pilot For The US

Will Richardson and Chris Lehmann have posts today about the $100 laptop program in Nigeria. I commented on Will’s blog that it reminded me a lot of what and why I’m doing a pilot 1:1 program in my own classroom with 7 year old iBook computers. The screens are small and the screen resolution is even smaller and the CD player covers fall off occasionally, and they’re not “wicked fast” – but we are using wikis, Skype, Flickr, blogs, and much more. And actually we probably have a lot in common – 90% of my students receive free and reduced price lunch, few have access to technology at home, and the laptops we are using probably aren’t worth much more than $100.

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See any parrallels here? Hmmm … do you think they have access to Skype? What’s the time difference between Nigeria and Reno?

We have all lamented and wondered when the US will see the light and begin to implement 21st century tools in education at a much higher level than we do presently. I wonder if this program in Nigeria just might help us here. If the $100 laptop initiative begins to take off and the media covers 3rd world children using 21st century tools in meaningful ways, maybe, just maybe, people in this country will wake up and notice that it is not happening here and that will be the catalyst to jump start us on our way.

Learning is messy!

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My Classroom Blog Is Open For Commenting

My fourth graders’ foray into the blogging world is now open. We are still discussing a name, so its current name is… “Name Goes Here” … which we laugh about, but we are trying (probably too hard) to come up with the perfect name. So anyone out there that would like to (please!) feel free to read some posts and comment. We are trying to blog a lot this week … we brainstormed some topics they want to blog about – some had a list of over 20 possibilities. You will note that most of my students are Second Language Learners (mostly Spanish, but also Vietnamese, Filipino and Portuguese). We will be trying to add posts all week.

Blogging can be messy!

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Can It Be True? Free WiFi?

I heard about this earlier today. Google is offering free wifi that is easy enough that you can install it yourself (or you can opt for professional installation for a price). What implications will this have for schools and learning? How will school districts react? What about the general public? What is your reaction? Almost to good to be true! Share any thoughts you have about how we could leverage this to make a difference in students’ lives.

Learning is messy!!!

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TeacherTube, Free, Easy To Use … But Is It Blocked?

Thanks to Vicki Davis and David Warlick I tried TeacherTube by uploading our “Inclusion” video there. It was viewed 30 times in about 30 minutes. As so many Web 2.0 applications it is free, easy to sign-up for, easy to use … but … is it blocked by my school district? Since it’s Saturday I’ll find out tomorrow or Monday.

Update 3-25 – I’m at school right now … and the answer is … IT’S NOT BLOCKED!!!

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“Speak Up” Survey Speaks Volumes

“ … an overwhelming 97 percent of students, but just over half of teachers, say they think cell phones should be allowed in school for emergencies and for connecting with parents.”

So says Eschool News in an article where they quote the 4th Annual “Speak Up” survey.

The survey, “ … released at a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., on March 21, collected ideas and views from more than 270,000 K-12 students and 21,000 teachers from all 50 states. For the first time, the survey also included parents, and some 15,000 parents took part. Participants were asked about their views on such topics as technology, math and science instruction, 21st century skills, global collaboration, communication and self-expression, and schools of the future.”

Here’s a surprise:

“According to the survey, students cited communication as their No. 1 use of technology.”

The article is chock full of interesting findings like:

“When asked how well they think their school is preparing students for working in the 21st century, 48 percent of parents and 47 percent of teachers said well. More than 50 percent of parents said not well.”

– I’m not going quote them all here – go see the article yourself or the Speak Up survey itself.

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No Child Re-Think?

Some interesting goings-on in Washington:
Dozens in GOP Turn Against Bush’s Prized ‘No Child’ Act
By Jonathan Weisman and Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 15, 2007

This article starts out with this news flash:

More than 50 GOP members of the House and Senate — including the House’s second-ranking Republican — will introduce legislation today that could severely undercut President Bush’s signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, by allowing states to opt out of its testing mandates.

I, like many, am not entirely against NCLB. I just wish the testing parts were more prescriptive and timely – were used less to point fingers and more to actually make substantive changes – there was less testing overall – and that some of the money came straight to schools to fund some innovative approaches that allowed teachers at the local and site level some say in how things are done, along with the money to actually-really try them, instead of only psuedo try them so they are doomed to failure like we have done ad naseum. This might actually lead to teachers being able to conclude that this did or didn’t work and we need to do it differently – NOT, well this didn’t work but that was because we didn’t have the support or funding to do it right.

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Blogging Superintendents

3-15 Update – Scott Mcleod pointed to this piece – they really go together.

Found this article today at Eschool News:
Supes use blogs as outreach tool
District CEOs discuss the impact of blogs on stakeholder relations
By Corey Murray, Senior Editor, eSchool News

I wonder how many of the teachers and students do this:

In Pinellas, for example, Wilcox uses his blog to link to video feeds of meetings with building principals. He also reportedly uses Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a technology that automatically pings stakeholders when new features or content have been uploaded to the blog and links to the local television station, so readers can download relevant video footage about the school system. Stock says he’s currently exploring ways to integrate podcasts and other audio-based content that readers can stream or download and listen to at their leisure.

The article also touches on some issues you might recognize:

For one thing, they said, administrators need to decide if the blog is to be a natural extension of the school system, or the property of the superintendent. This distinction is important, because it affects how the blog will be used and what content and issues–political and otherwise–should be addressed, said Stock.
In his case, the district requested that he put a disclaimer on his blog stating that the opinions expressed were his own and that they did not necessarily reflect the beliefs or ideologies of the entire organization.

And:

As the superintendent of a large school district, Wilcox said, his goal was to give stakeholders a chance to voice their opinions about his decisions, “to give them that pressure relief valve.”
But there was problem: “People were just vicious,” he said. As the attacks got more heated and eventually started striking out against administrators and school district employees on a personal level, he said, the district had to shut down the blog temporarily to reconsider its policies.
“I think it’s just one of those things where, when you get out in cyberspace, you’ve got to be a little more careful what you ask for, because you just might get it,” he said.

Interesting article – check it out.

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One : One Laptop Ramblings

Miguel started this conversation – Tom and Doug have jumped in … here are my ramblings:

How important or “worth it” are laptops, or any other technology? How valuable they are as learning tools should be the decider of how much we are willing to invest. Not that I think we shouldn’t expect that $200 dollar laptop, but it will be important what those $200 laptops can do – we have had PC4’s that could do word processing and some other applications for less than $200 but that hasn’t been enough – they were hardly used … what is enough?

Internet based software like wikis, blogs, and various web based, math, language arts, science and social studies pieces make operating system issues closer to moot all the time. To use them effectively with my students I’ve found I have to teach them to think differently. I can’t claim that it has been transformational or even “better” than what we were doing before … yet – but my students spend more time on task, and when I explain that we are going to use our laptops to do whatever, they are excited every time – even on activities we’ve done multiple times. We write more than ever – and I’m a writing project consultant and I already had my students writing a lot.

Our laptops are 7 years old – dropping and breaking has not been an issue, we spend some time talking about care – but the fact that this year the students have some sense of ownership helps – I’m sure breakage will happen sometime – is that a deal breaker? Tom mentions a 3 year shelf life – well we are searching the net, blogging, wiki-ing, word processing, using digital video, digital photography and more with 7 year old laptops – will we get less longevity later? Are we the exception?

Don’t do a 1:1 laptop program (Or any tech program) if you don’t already have,  “age-appropriate, curriculum-relevant things to do with them.” That’s been done many times and it doesn’t work any better than spending money on textbooks or any other educational tool you aren’t sure what to do with – and it makes us all look like fools. Technology won’t make a hoot of difference if we don’t do things differently and work and learn in ways that are more engaging and meaningful. And if we can’t do that, or that doesn’t work – then we don’t need to buy them or use them at all.

I’m not saying this alone really makes 1:1 worth it – but just the experience my students have had in the last month while we have been reading stories about animals they know little about (whales, rhinos, leopards, camels, kangaroos, elephants, armadillos, and more) – having them use our “Just So Stories” wiki to gather facts, but also to see photos and video of them – how excited they get and how as a teacher I find that many really knew nothing about kangaroos or most of the rest of the animals (assessment on the run) – how they moan when we run out of time. Just being able to build their schema easily and quickly in such an engaging way almost makes the cost worth it just for that.