Small Changes; BIG RETURNS

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Last week was a technological week to remember.

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Thursday one of our district helping teachers came to the school to show us the 'Kurzweil 3000' voice recognition (+ a whole lot more) software.  It's used with students who have learning disabilities or are sight impaired. The main drawback is that even with a district license it will cost our school $300 per machine to install. We'll get 2 sit licenses fo a school of over 200. So it's wonderful software, but a lot of work will be needed to to learn a tool that so few kids will be able to make use of.  

It ought to be available as a learning platform for all kids to access on all of a school's computers because it makes teachers rethink how to get kids to write -- especially in content areas. They have teamed up with the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum people and have a writing contest going on with a Kurzweil 3000 site license as the prize. That's a very nice prize if you're looking for a project for some of your students. Interestingly, Kurzweil 3000 can be run from a flashdrive or an external hard drive so it does not have to sit on one machine. We need more software like that so we can carry it anywhere and use it everywhere.

I'm going to have to work on how to get this same sort of writing process going in Earth Science 11 and try to find some free tools that will do the job.

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Next the Glocal people did a pro-d where we learned to play with digital imagery. I have so many ideas of what to do with this free, open source software that I will fill future posts with them. Suffice it to say that my Saskatchewan colleagues will hear about it soon as I want to see if they are interested in getting some of their students collaborate with ours on an Earth Day partially flat classroom project.  This stuff is really worth a look. It's really cool and free and open source and downloadable. I have to ask if it will run from thumbdrives!

They have been working out of the Surrey Art Gallery with funds the city acquired when we became an official Canadian multicultural centre. Soon Glocal will move to the Emily Carr School where they will be using their technology to involve people from all over the world in posting photos during the next winter Olympics which we host in 2010.

My third tech adventure started when I decided to run a '23 things' program for Surrey staff in January. I started in Edublogs and changed my mind. I tried Word Press and changed my mind, and finally settled on Blogger, but in true Hellman fashion I was not content to just use the templates they offer. I had to start tinkering and tweeking.  But that's a story for another day.

Now at school we are working on a video for the school's annual Christmas dinner, and I am learning how to turn more of the process of building the video over to the kids.They have to use on my darling newlaptop because we don't have the sofware at school yet.  I have to resist putting in my nickel's worth and try to steertheir work the way I think it should go. I have to just be the tech person and set the boundaries and let them produce it the way they think it should be done. It should be a hoot. (Oh,Oh . . . I forgot to download the footage so I'll have to break off, walk Thelma and get into school early.)

TTFN!

 

Filed under  //   23 things   cartoon   Elluminate   fossils no more   Glocal   Kurzweil   Photoscape  

 

My word I can be long winded!  In preparation for the Horizons Conference on Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to get the rest of our Freepath interview posted. Congratulations to any of you who read it all the way through! I guess the value for me has been in the writing and crystallizing of my own thoughts as I have been preparing for these 2 conferences and sending in proposals for others.  

Read on, MacDuff!  I hope some of it has been helpful. If you nave a moment, leave me a comment below. I'd love to hear back from some of you.

FINAL FREEPATH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: 

In your session, you discuss the idea of ‘blended learning’; what does this teaching model look like?

 

At its simplest, blended learning is a custom approach that mixes a variety of content delivery and student response options to get the best fit for the student (in our case) or for the class.  We know that particularly with learning packages, it’s difficult to get the students off the bottom couple of steps of Bloom’s cognitive model (above) . Projects like making posters may offer a more creative, less ‘word bound’ way for students to respond -- but really -- how many posters can one student make in their high school careers? How many will they ever do in their work or family life (except when helping their own kids with their homework)? And do posters really reach up the lowest steps of the above model and engage learners in application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluations -- or are they just more basic knowledge presented in a visual way?

Here's what our new teaching model looks like:

I. Trigger Activity : Each new section or unit begins with an activity that serves 2 functions: (1) to generate student interest; & (2) to get the student and teacher to connect so the teacher can assess ability, prior knowledge, and interest levels of the student.

In my new Earth Science program this will be a mind map introducing the key topics of the unit but that will also be loaded with interesting links that will connect back to old learning, stimulate conversation about current events, amuse, surprise, or pique curiosity.

II. Content Acquistion :  This is where we can save time. Typically with the current learning packages, our students spend so much time acquiring the information in a course we don’t push them to do much higher order thinking or truly creative projects.  By setting out the learning objectives in a simple form right at the beginning, and using Freepath to package the learning materials, students will be able to accelerate their progress through this material, work non-sequentially if they wish, and have some measure of control over how much time they spend acquiring the required content and skills.

III.  PEL -- Project Enhanced Learning:   (I think I may have coined a new term!) Students will use a new web-based tool or resource together with what they have learned to solve a problem, answer a bigger question, make a connection, do the review, create a presentation, or fulfill the learning objectives. This requirement can be built into the body of the unit or done after the basic content has been covered.  It is possible that a well- constructed project may become the vehicle for the content acquisition -- that’s the neat thing about finding these tools.

 
How do you see social media impacting students in the 21st century? How does it impact teachers and where do you see the intersection?

Marshall McLuhan created the slogan "Reach out and touch someone" for the Bell system in 1979.   I think he’d be delighted by the way technology has so shaped our lives in the nearly 30 years since his death.

Clearly many students are wrapped up in a web of connections -- whether it’s as simple as passing notes by texting each other or participating in Facebook or Second Life. Contrary to school rules, their phones are always on. We can either fight this or, in the parlance of the 60’s and 70’s, co-opt it. We may not be able to ‘out-tech’ our kids but we can certainly outsmart them and harness their desire to be connected and use it for our own purposes.

Students with their phones out on their desks, accessing the internet and completing tasks using these as a primary learning tool can’t be texting each other under the table.  Students who are using the wealth of the internet as their primary learning resource and who are more engaged in their learning don’t have time in class to manage their Facebook files and keep up with their Tweeting friends.

Regarding how social networking impacts teachers:  I’m of the “Be wary because Big Brother is watching” generation, and I still have a lot of distrust for living so publically, but I will say that finding how willing people “out there” are to make time to help each other completely took me by surprise.

I can find a bit of software, get into trouble trying to make it work, e-mail out a request for help and then get back a response -- I find that totally amazing.  I am so used to waiting for hours on the phone or weeks for a serviceperson to come to the house or even in line at the bank or at the market -- this online world of people who want to connect, to help, to dialogue, and to learn form each other is a delight.

However, trying to fit the hours it can consume into an already crowded day and still find time for relaxation, my husband, and sleep is a challenge.  Perhaps the question on balancing time should have been asked in this context. It’s what I am truly grappling with right now.

 

 
Your presentation at the upcoming CUEBC Conference is entitled Small Changes; Big Returns: integrating Web-based Tools and Resources. Can you give us an idea of what we'll be seeing?

Debra and I have put a lot of thought into how education at the White Rock Learning Center can be taken from ‘pen and paper’ to more engaging delivery and improved student achievement.

The two of us collectively have been teaching for more than 50 years, and although we know that education should be a dynamic process, it is very easy for seasoned teachers to become complacent about the design and delivery of new educational material. Years of marking, large numbers of students in classes, and textbook upgrading can often squelch the teacher’s passion for the profession.  

With our students’ lack of self-directedness and our own need for professional renewal converging, Debra and I decided to start making some “small changes” in our classroom delivery --  i.e. incorporate a Powerpoint activity, try an essay template set up like a fillable form, add links to video files and animations, and use the Google research engine to find information in all content areas.

The small changes had BIG RETURNS.  A young man who had been struggling on and off to complete Geography 12 started attending regularly because the Powerpoint Jeopardy task we had set him was both manageable and intriguing.  Students no longer complained about not knowing what Deb wanted when reading the essay assignments. The structure and her voice were there on the page.  Some life was breathed into the deadly Earth Science course  when the students could see animations of processes and get video instruction.

Then, with the discovery of Freepath it all came together.  It became the delivery tool that would enable us incorporate these changes into a well designed lesson plans and package the new lessons up for the students.

Freepath is meets the criteria for our ‘tools of choice’ because it’s so easy to use and the company support is so good. With simple drag and drop moves, lessons can be created that allow students to work independently in a medium they are used to while at the same time allowing Debra and me to help those students who require direct instruction. The students benefit because they are involved more effectively in their own learning process, and Debra and I benefit because our passion has once again ignited.

“Small Changes; BIG RETURNS” is the core of our philosophy -- we invest in making small changes to our work to get BIG RETURNS with the students

 

Filed under  //   blended learning   Bloom   cartoon   Connect the Dots soup   CUEBC   enhance learning   Freepath   Horizons   Marshall McLuhan   model ot learning   recipe   social learning   tools   using technology   Web 2.0