Category Archives: Technology

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Skyping Celest – Day One – The Whole Story

Wednesday

We couldn’t begin first thing in the morning because we had the NAEP test to do – one last obstacle to get over before we could try our grand experiment. The plan was to wait until after lunch and then connect-up (Skype-up?) for the first time. Fortunately, I had Celest ring us up as soon as the class went to lunch – this turned out to be one smart move because when we clicked on our video buttons our image came up right away but the image from her end was black. I tried the few things I could think of, all the time repeating to myself, – but it worked flawlessly twice last night!!!?

I had 25 minutes before eager students would return from lunch, so after checking out with administration I zipped over to her house. The problem? There were at least ten applications open. Windows – their only experience was with Windows – and I hadn’t had a chance to brief them about everything the night before. They closed applications by clicking the windows closed not realizing that that did not close the application on a Mac. I restarted the computer and made the return trip.

At 12:30 video cameras were revved up to catch the event from 2 angles. Students tried hard to settle, but most were on their knees in their chairs hardly able to contain themselves. To begin I projected the image onto our Whiteboard. A ring sounded, I clicked the green phone icon and then the video button and in a matter of seconds Celest, who had shown up on my daily attendance since October, entered our classroom for the first time.

Hellos and waves were exchanged all around – I pivoted the web cam around to each table in the room so all could be introduced. Faces beamed. Now what?

I disconnected the laptop from the Activboard and moved it and the web cam I had taped to the top of a tripod to the front table – the students there gladly made room for their new classmate. I pointed the web cam at the board and had paper distributed all around (including Celest) – Yes I know – why are we using paper when we have laptops and Celest obviously has a computer to work on? Composing on a computer takes some getting used to, we will get there, but we’re not there yet.

I connected my Mac to the ActivBoard and started a pre-write brainstorm about our experience. I adjusted the camera angle once so Celest could see clearly and she followed along with the session easily. After the brainstorm we all wrote a rough draft and then word processed them on our computers. At one point Celest got my attention and wondered if it was OK if she went to the bathroom – how cool is that, she felt like she was at school! I reluctantly allowed her to go (couldn’t she have done that during lunch? : ) Our school counselor, Ann Marlow, who made most of the calls that made this happen – including making the connection that got us the new iMac, walked through and said her hellos and noted the writing everyone was doing – she was both relieved and thrilled this was finally happening.

1st-day

When Celest let me know she was done typing I talked her through spell checking and some other editing pieces, and then led her through emailing her file to me at school. This became her first post on our blog.

About then it was time for us to go to the library, so we said goodbye to Celest since library would take us to the end of the day. And, after many goodbyes of course, our first Video Skype experience was over.

Thursday, Celest attended for a bit more than an hour – she practiced her multiplication facts online with the rest of us and did some reading before she went off for chemo. She paid us a quick visit on her way home just before dismissal – mask on, no wig – she couldn’t make it today – we understand why. Monday will be a fresh day – except that we have ITBS testing all morning – all week, so it will be afternoons only.

We storyboarded our video about our experience today using the Flipchart software in ActivStudio, we will try to finish shooting it and editing it next week with Celest’s help – if so I will post the video for all to see. The students came up with some great ideas.

Learning is messy!

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Inclusion Via Skype – We’re Almost Completely There!!!


Inclusion Via Skype

Originally uploaded by BCrosby.

This post refers to previous postings (here and here) about a fourth grade student in my class – that because of Luekemia and the chemo/radiation treatments she is receiving cannot attend school.

We’re almost there! After more obstacles and issues than you would believe, today I installed a brand new iMac computer, DSL line and Skype connection at Celest’s house. The chemo and radiation have taken their toll on her hair, but she absolutely glowed when Doug Taylor (sixth grade teacher who helped me set things up and then returned to school for the trial run – THANKS DOUG!) answered her Skype call from my classroom (see photo) and we made the connection for the first time. A little later we hung-up, I left and returned to school, and then so she could practice making the connection herself we tried it again. My principal was sitting there when we made the connection again.

We will repeat the process again after lunch tomorrow (we have to take the NAEP test in the morning) and officially make her an attending member of a class she has been enrolled in since October for the first time. Hallelujah!

I will be posting a vidcast when we get it done.

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GRRRRRRRR! #%#**#@#!!!!– But Its OK … We Will Still Make It Happen! Online Inclusion Update 3

This is an update of some earlier posts.

I got back from my trip to Houston this morning and immediately touched base to see if phone line installation, DSL hook-up and modem delivery had happened. It was confirmed – everything was finally in place – all I had to do was go and do the installation of modem, computer and train my student how to make things work. I even dragged Doug Taylor, a sixth grade teacher, along who knows more about IT than I ever will in case what should be a no-brainer install ran into problems. Plus, once we had things running Doug was going to drive back to school and test the Skype connection from the school end so we could be sure things would work.

Well, we ran into problems … but nothing Doug could help with. NO MODEM had been delivered after all. After a few quick calls we determined it just wasn’t going to happen today UUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!! So we packed up everything and left.

The upside is that I did finally meet my student in the flesh for the first time. She showed me some of her Christmas presents and I tried not to breathe my germs anywhere near her. Her wig (because of the chemo and radiation) looked good and she is really looking forward to getting this going. We will try again tomorrow if the modem is located – but she will only be around for a few days next week because of another procedure she has to have done. All the more reason we need to make this happen ASAP!

Learning is messy!!!!

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Promethean ActivEducator 2007 Conference

Promethean ActivBoard – ActivEducators Users Group – Houston, Texas

Saint John’s School January 16th-17th

Keynote Tony Cann, – Vice Chairman Promethean – January 16, 2007

My Notes from Tony Cann’s Keynote:

Taking a risk today – will new tech he is demo-ing work today?

Had us use Activotes to tell whether we were from Texas or somewhere else. Years taught, age, grade level.

“Only a small part of learning is in the Classroom”

Part that parents used to teach kids while eating meals, hiking, etc. not happening for most students anymore – This makes the job of teachers more complex and wider because of lack of parental teaching. Spotlight is on teachers. Constant upgrade of skills.

Another suggested read – Preparing Teachers for a Changing World by Hammond – Bransford

Asks what will raise student achievement – answers 40% Teacher Development 25% Something Else – no one voted for Tech out of 300 – Tony agrees.

If there was more money where would you spend it – 60% voted for Elementary education – Tony agrees that it needs to be spent in elementary first.

3 Points About Tech – 1) Isn’t a magic wand, needs people to use it 2) Results driven by what happens in classroom – not administration based – but at teacher pupil level., we need to give tools they need. – 3) Use tech in ways that stop putting more burden on teachers.

Participation by teachers is important – but more important is participation by learners. Learners are our most underused resource.

Teacher demand has driven UK schools – 50% use whiteboards but usage was poor – now it is getting better.

When Activotes were first introduced – a teacher asked him “Why would we want that?”

Collaborative classroom allows teacher to listen and respond.

Videos on how Promethean improves participation – 2 students writing on board at the same time and using different colors. Next video shows software that allows student to write a word that character in video acts out. Next takes a picture and splits it into sections and separates it.

Tony announces that new software allows 2 to write on ActivBoard at once. Applause.

The next vote Tony has us participate in shows that audience feels that most found school not engaging when thinking about HOW OTHERS see their school experience – Then vote was taken about what we thought about our own schooling the results were slightly more positive.

NOTE TONY is running ActivStudio software on screen but not using an Activboard.

The experience of school affects your life.

Promethean is about inclusion

Question – What percent of human capacity is from genetics? Most vote 50% or less – Tony agrees.

Inspiration or perspiration??? – He feels that Inspiration is more important and will change the world.

The Nature-Nurture Debate – Book by Ceci and Williams – Feels this is important read.

Raise the level of everyone. How you feel about what you are teaching can’t be hidden from your class.

We can take average people and make them giants. We have to raise the standards of the middle.

An ignorant manager is one that doesn’t listen – we must listen.

In Viet Nam they spend more than 2 X Gross domestic product on education.

What is stopping schools from adopting tech? Most attendees pick money over 50%. Tony says it isn’t the money that is stopping tech integration it is vision. “It absolutely isn’t the money.” He gave some examples and stats that I couldn’t type fast enough.

Happiness is a by-product of activity, doing things.

Teachers help learners do things well.

Only the educated are free.

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Mcrel Training

I’m writing this from 30,000 feet over the snow-dusted white peaks and red-brown valleys of the Great Basin Desert of Nevada on my way to Phoenix and then to Houston for the Promethean ActivBoard Conference there Tuesday and Wednesday.

I’ve blogged recently about how I am optimistic that attitudes are changing positively about how “school” is done and the role of technology and problem-based learning in education. Friday my school was visited by Elizabeth Hubbell from Mcrel, in-the-flesh, as opposed to online via Marratech and a web cam. Elizabeth presented to our “Focus Group” of 12 teachers that have ActivBoards installed in their classrooms, for a morning session, and then our entire staff for the afternoon. Her focus was on sharing how Marzano’s research supports using technology in schools and some resources to support doing that.

I’ve mentioned in the past how most teachers at my school (and district) have been lukewarm at best about technology. Most struggle with basic email skills such as attachments or downloading a digital camera. When they have been in-serviced about using tech it has often been done by me or the one other teacher on our staff that is skilled at integrating technology – so after awhile the message becomes too “inbred” and loses its punch. So having an “outsider” here with a new story to tell supported by Marzano’s research was a breath of fresh air.

One of the breakthroughs for many was that we could put a wireless laptop into their hands so that as Elizabeth shared sites and activities, teachers experienced them and discussed them immediately. Knowing who the “reluctant adopters” were in the audience gave me further optimism as I observed them make connections with what Elizabeth was showing them and their own perspectives on how this might impact their classrooms and the realization that we have two sets now of wireless laptops that can move around the school – RIGHT NOW – so they could actually do these things with their students next week.

We’ll see how it goes.

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A New Horizon?

Dave and Will and others have recently posted about sensing a new attitude towards education. They experience that change while mainly talking to large groups attending conferences – conferences that are going to draw folks that probably already share their outlook. I’m seeing that resurgence too, but from a different population. I mentioned my feelings about that just last night.

What is important here is that I am experiencing that change at the local and even building level. Teachers in my school – the ones least likely to embrace new ways of thinking about learning are the ones giving me the most encouragement. Admittedly, some, if not a lot of that change has come about because we have acquired digital whiteboards, laptops, cameras and more just this school year. And some of these reluctant integrators have had a new digital whiteboard screwed into the wall literally covering-up their old whiteboard forcing them to at least try using technology. Our principal also built into our budget about $175 per teacher for field trips this year – it helped pay for our fourth grade trip up the mountain at Squaw Valley this fall.

So, yes, an influx of actual tech at your site can help – although we’ve had 30 wireless laptops available here for 7 years – and cameras and scanners and more, and they have rarely been used – most have never used them even though we have had trainings and encouragement from administration that it was OK to use it even when the heat from NCLB was the hottest.

So what has changed? Maybe the few of us pounding away has helped. Certainly more teachers have their own home computers and high-speed access. More teachers at my school have young children now (we’ve experienced a baby-boom of our own the last few years), are they seeing the light based on seeing their own kids’ futures? My principal has been pushing integrating tech (even though she is a novice – she is trying hard to learn) and experiential teaching and making connections hard. Maybe … probably it is all these things.

But I am also seeing it from teachers that have attended classes and workshops I’ve taught recently from other schools – even from schools where they tell me that their day is TOTALLY pre-scheduled by their principal. That when their principal walks through their room if it is not VERY obvious that they are employing one of several “programs of learning” they have in place, they are questioned and even reprimanded. Some of these teachers have started to work tech-as-a-tool for learning into these lessons to avoid suspicion. Others work it into their mandated half hour or 45 minute once a week computer lab time.

I also am hearing from some that they miss the creativeness of planning and implementing lessons totally designed by them. I feel this might actually be one of the biggest motivators for some. Learning and teaching as creative processes (what a concept!).

The point is that I’m seeing a change – and it has infused me with vigor and encouragement. Maybe we are seeing a new horizon – a new visual to pilot towards!

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If I have Limited Access to Computers, How Do I Have My Students Blog?

A third grade teacher in my district emailed me the following queries about blogging with her third graders:

“I established the blog with blogger.com and have been using it as part of my students 30 minutes/week in the computer lab. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the computers any other time during the week. If I did the students would be using the computer much more than they are. I have posted two items each week on the blog. One is related to the current HM story and it asks them to respond to the question that is posed. I have been using this for the students to get used to typing on the computer and being able to form reasonable sentences

I am having trouble with blogger, the computer assistant maintaining the computer lab says that it is their server that is causing the problem. The students try to post and it won’t accept their post, very frustrating. I hoped to move the students into having their own blog and then writing to each other in January. Third grade standards indicate that students need to know how to write a friendly letter and I thought this would be a fun way to write to each other and practice the skill. Any suggestions?

Also, do you have any other suggestions about how to use the blog in an entertaining/educational way since my students have limited access to computers?”

I have some ideas … but thought it would help to ask the experts. Any ideas?

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How To Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century

Time Magazine – How To Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century
by Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe

You’ve probably already read this article (and if you haven’t you should – here’s the link), or have read about this article (like here, here or here), but I like this article enough to comment about it (maybe more than once).

Early on Wallis and Steptoe make the following statement:

“This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is NOT having about education, the one that will ultimately determine not merely whether some fraction of our children get “left behind” but also whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English.”

In our rush to “improve” schools, we have made a common error – one we should know better than to repeat. That error is only focusing on what is perceived as wrong with schools without taking note of what schools have done that has contributed to our economy and our ability to invent and innovate. I’m not sure we really understand what has led us to be a powerhouse in that department – definitely something to do with our freedoms, free markets, our higher education, and lots of conjecture – but do we really know all the parts of the puzzle? What have we cut from our children’s school experience in our race to “improve” that might be an important cog in that wheel? Music? Art? … you know the list. And, what have we failed to include that is new or missing that will keep us competitive?

We have spent an enormous amount of time “implementing” and debating the good and the bad of NCLB, and one of the downsides of that has been little time to even think about having the conversation described in the quote above.

To those of us who are passionate about “Building a student for the 21st century” this quote is old news. But I think because we have the conversation often and are drawn to ANY news about 21st century education we think it is old news when really (and unfortunately) it is not. I’m encouraged that this article at least brings more credence to the debate. Not that I think Time magazine is the last word by any means, but it is not “Edutopia”or “Wired” or someone’s edtech blog or an online edtech magazine. The edtech gurus who travel around too often forget that if someone is attending a conference where they are presenting they are a different audience than a typical classroom teacher or administrator – because believe me, as a classroom teacher and workshop presenter, MOST teachers and administrators don’t even know what the quote is referencing. I’m taking an online class right now with 5 other teachers from my school – one of the requirements of the class is to write and respond on the class blog. None – not one of the other teachers taking the class with me had ever heard of a blog before they took this class.

Having said that however I am seeing a significant awareness in education that the boat is leaving the dock and we don’t have tickets. Even when I compare this school year over last year – I have experienced a longing by educators to embrace new approaches and tools – and I am enthusiastic about the possibilities.

More on this later.

Here’s hoping that learning and thinking about learning gets messy.

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“Six Ed-Tech Trends To Watch In 2007”

eSchool News has a great article called “Six ed-tech trends to watch in 2007” By Gregg W. Downey. A definite “must read.” I listed the six trends below along with a teaser quote from each – but read the entire article. They also have an article – The top 10 ed-tech stories of 2006
if you haven’t seen that yet. Add them to your “Holiday Reading List.”

From: “Six ed-tech trends to watch in 2007”:

Trend No. 1: The leveling power of the World Wide Web

Call it community-generated content, social networking, or–if you’re a young technology company pitching yourself to venture capitalists–Web 2.0. Whatever you call it, it’s the trend toward end-users, consumers, teachers, and students creating content for themselves and their peers. This self-generated content can be delivered in writing, in audio files, or in video clips.
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Trend No. 2: Cloud computing

Google’s current CEO, Eric Schmidt:
“We call it ‘cloud computing,'” he proclaims. “The servers should be in a cloud somewhere. And if you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile telephone or a Blackberry–or new devices still to be developed–you can get access to the cloud.”
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Trend No. 3: Service-oriented architecture

What’s revolutionary about SOA is not the concept itself, which has been around for a while, but the fact that it now can be implemented via the World Wide Web. Just as web pages load on any platform, web services work the same regardless of platform, provided they are built using universal standards.
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Trend No. 4: The gathering SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Mode

The SCORM specifications–now in edition three–are becoming increasingly important for ensuring that digital content can be integrated into any learning management system (LMS) software, regardless of its manufacturer. What’s more, SCORM is opening the door for the creation of “digital repositories,” or collections of sharable, reusable online content that educators can search through to find items they can incorporate into their own instruction.
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Trend No. 5: Telepresence and anytime, anywhere education

According to an industry insider, unsuspecting visitors entering a room during a telepresence conference have at first been unaware that all the participants were not physically present:
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Trend No. 6: 21st-century learning

Specifically, according to the Partnership, our students need:
-Information and communication skills;
-Thinking and problem-solving skills;
-Interpersonal and self-direction skills;
-Global awareness;
-Financial, economic, and business skills; and Civic literacy.

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Top 5 of the Year

The top 5 most read posts in my first 10 months blogging at Learning Is Messy: . . .

1) Paper, Pencils and Books May Not Boost Student Achievement 

2) Too Much Time For Change To Happen? 

3) Hoping To Make a “Web 2.0” Difference In A Child’s Life – Part 2 

4) Working, Breathing, Reproducible, Intriguing Models 

5) Society May Be Willing To Invest In Children If They Are Seen As An Immediate Value To Society 

Learing Is Messy