The Access Obligation

I’m taking a class right now that is NOT using a learning management system or LMS. During my undergrad, I only had a few courses using an LMS and my masters was mostly online, thus we relied heavily on our LMS for making the course happen. However, this is the first semester since I started my masters (I’m working towards an Ed.D. now) that I haven’t had an LMS for a course. While I generally don’t like the idea of college controlled LMS, I have grown to expect them to be used if at the very least to provide access to the syllabus and other general course information.

It may sound like I’m complaining, which is good, because I am. I don’t typically like to complain, or at least not in a public manner such as this, but I expect that course information is going to be available online, anytime, and every time I enroll in a course. The impetus of my complaint is that I’m stuck at work without my readings schedule. I have the time to read since class doesn’t start until 6pm, and have been, but now that I’ve finished my chapter I don’t know what other readings I have to do.

Now I could call my wife and have her tell my what I need to read next, or I could have been more organized and brought my folder with my paper copy of the readings with me to work…but I didn’t and that misses the point. I’m a paying customer and I have certain expectations when I spend a large amount of money. As far as my education goes, I expect to have access to my course materials regardless of where I am and when I’m accessing them. This is a base level expectation I have for my courses and is something I have become very accustomed to over the last four years.

The best part is that making these items available is something that could be done for the instructor if requested. At the very least, someone in the department or within the instructional design services on campus could help walk the instructor through the process of uploading the syllabus, readings and assignment schedule, as well as any other general course information. I’m not asking for my courses to be taught online in any fashion as much as I am asking for access. And higher education has an obligation to provide me that access, because even though I’m not likely to switch institutions, others may and others may not choose to attend a school that doesn’t provide this basic type of service.  Millennials have and will continue to enter higher education and are coming with very specific expectations for their courses. Much higher expectations than uploading a syllabus and readings schedule to BlackBoard. Are you ready higher ed? For some reason, I doubt it…

Rote learning: A necessity but not for the classroom

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mischiru/2860228008/

At UNI we are still in the transition to Google Apps and the last major transition is from our old calendar platform to Google Calendar.  As I was reading the email I noticed that instead of having formalized training sessions on how to use Google Calendar, there was a link to Lynda.com where users can find training on all apps.  This left me wondering, why aren’t we doing this for all rote training needs we have?

As a technology specialist and educator, I understand that in order to reach innovative use of technology in a course, it is necessary to have some “how-to” knowledge about the technology being used.  Typically (going to generalize here) this is taught in large group sessions in a very rote way.  Click here, this feature does this, and so on.  We’ve all attended these trainings and many, including myself, have led a number of these sessions.  I’m wondering however, if we’ve reached a point where we no longer need to concern ourselves with teaching rote knowledge.  If we have very good tutorials on how to use X or what X is, do we really need to take up time “teaching” this when we are all together?  Wouldn’t we be just as or even more effective if we hand picked the videos we wanted our colleagues or students to watch so they can gain that rote knowledge that’s absolutely necessary for being successful?  Then, couldn’t we spend more time learning about how we can be effective with this technology in our courses?

I believe we have entered a point in society that you have to be a lifelong learner.  You simply cannot function without that essential characteristic.  At UNI, I’d say nearly all the people I work with would more than be capable of lifelong learning and I’d imagine many of you would agree you see the same in your colleagues.  However, as educators, have we truly embraced what it means to be a lifelong learner?  Do we take the initiative to learn new innovations as our organization adopts them?  I don’t think we have and I think we are wasting time organizing formalized training sessions on the latest innovation.  I know I’m guilty of this, we all are.  But I think we have a professional duty, as educators, to learn about new innovations as they become available in an asynchronous way.  I’m not saying you need to be an expert in every innovation, but I do think you need to be knowledgeable enough to either have a discussion about the innovation and/or be able to use the innovation in a basic sense without having to sit through an hour or even a full day workshop.

I’m going to shift gears slightly, but remain on the same topic.  I think we need to begin developing this literacy in our students as well.  How much time do we spend in education teaching students rote knowledge?  When was the Civil War?  What is the atomic weight of Boron?  What is the formula for calculating the surface area of a parallelogram?  We need to stop teaching our students how to do these things in our physical classrooms!  The answers to these questions can be found online and are very well articulated in a variety of mediums.  Why, I ask WHY do we still use low level rote instruction?  We’re good at doing it, but someone else is better and they’ve decided to share it with you for free (usually)!  Send your students to these resources online to learn this knowledge and then in class have them apply the concept they learned at home, the library, a friends house, etc.  It’s the application of the concept that get’s interesting and is where students have questions and is where our efforts as teachers should be.  Helping students apply knowledge in a meaningful context.

I’ll end by saying that rote learning, is necessary, but it shouldn’t be the only kind of learning that takes place.  I remember when I was in student teaching, my university supervisor asked me, “When are you going to develop the low level knowledge needed for your students to be able to answer the high level questions you’re asking them?”  This statement has remained with me ever since.  Before we can synthesize, create, or analyze, we need to first be able to understand the concept in its most basic form.  I think advocates for reform forget this, especially those who are critical of the flipped classroom.  I think flipping is exactly what we need to be doing, but it’s not the only thing.  It’s just one piece in the puzzle.

Finding the right balance

Image from http://kingsenglish.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tightrope-walker.jpg

This is my comment from http://bit.ly/vZEQF0 about finding the right balance through blended learning.  Parts of it may, therefore, seem a little out of context.

Trying to find the right balance is often a difficult thing to do, especially when there are so many good things you can do. My general rule of thumb is that when you add something to your class, something needs to go. However, there is a point when this isn’t really possible any longer. When it gets to this point, I tend to start examining the way the course and instruction are designed. Is the content being disseminated in the most efficient way possible?

This is where I think blended learning can really be helpful. Wendy I know you are already doing some work with Edmodo so this may not be anything new to you, but for the rest of the group it might be helpful.

What I’d do would be to look at everything that I want to include in my course. Put it all out on the table if you will. Then start thinking about what it is that you could do online. Are there components that can be facilitated online, such as discussions, readings, etc. that will reduce the load of your face to face lessons? If so, then start by organizing those components into an online “pile” if you will.

Next, I’d start looking at some of the things that you’ve done in the past that have traditionally taken place during class. Are there other things like lectures and group work that you typically give your students time in class to do that can be facilitated online? Some of you may be thinking, crazy Dan, doing group work online! As crazy as it sounds, it’s actually not that hard and can actually give your students more flexibility. In my master’s program (75% online) we did a considerable amount of group work using tools like Google Docs, WebCT (BB9), Skype, and Adobe Connect. And when it comes to lectures, there are a number of tools available that can help make the transition to online. While I don’t like lectures, sometimes you just have to lecture, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it in class. So as you survey the components of your course for those type of tasks, put them in the online pile as well.

Remember, you don’t have to put everything online, but ranking components by importance will help you decide if you can do it online or in class. Once you have gone through everything in your course, you should see all the pieces of your course that you want to do in class. These should be the crucial components of your course: major projects, central methods, etc. You should also see a considerable amount of your course that will be taught online. These are going to be things like discussions, lectures, small group activities (not major projects), videos, etc. These are still important pieces of your course, and by putting them online in no way are you lessening their value. Rather, you are just being more efficient with how you spend your time in your course.

As you go through this process, you’ll want to talk with an instructional designer who is familiar with online learning, such as myself. The main contact on campus would be Jason Vetter in ITS-ET. Contacting one of us when you go through this process will help as we will likely provide a different perspective. Remember, my goal here is not to have you simply post your syllabus and readings online. I’m talking about putting major components of your course online to complement your face to face sessions with your students. What I’m advocating for is much more difficult to do at the beginning, but has a much greater payout in the end in terms of the type of learning your students experience and the time savings you can experience in class that allows you to do other tasks with your students.

Digital Learning Day

From the Alliance for Excellent Education:

Image from http://www.all4ed.org/

Image from http://blogwalker.edublogs.org

On Wednesday, February 1, 2012, thirty-seven states, 10,000 teachers, and more than 1.5 million students will participate in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day, a national awareness campaign spearheaded by the Alliance for Excellent Education celebrating innovative teachers and highlighting instructional practices that strengthen teaching and personalize learning for all students.

This email summarizes how you can participate in the various events during Digital Learning Day, which include:

• 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (ET): Morning Webcast
• 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (ET): National Town Hall featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski
• 3:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (ET): Replay of Morning Webcast

There will be a live online chat running concurrently with each of these sessions. Additionally, individuals can follow the action on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DLDay2012 or with the #DLDay hashtag.

Additional details on each session appear below.

Morning Webcast: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (ET)

An extensive, in-depth webcast demonstrating how digital learning is already being used in classrooms around the country will be available to view from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (ET). During the webcast, educators will share innovative approaches designed to ensure that students graduate from high school, prepared for college and a career. A live chat feature will allow individuals who are interested in learning more about digital learning to engage in an online, real-time conversation with leaders in education technology.

The webcast and live chat will be accessible at http://www.DigitalLearningDay.org. An abbreviated schedule for the webcast appears below. The complete programming schedule for the morning webcast, including a list of featured speakers, schools, and sites, is available at http://www.digitallearningday.org/events/national-events/dldwebcast.

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (ET): Leadership and Innovation

Bailey Mitchell, chief technology and information officer at Forsyth County School District (GA) and Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, will moderate this session featuring district and school leaders who will discuss the importance of vision, leadership, and stakeholder ownership to ensure buy-in at the community, district, school, and classroom levels.

10:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. (ET): Instructional Strategies

In this session led by Esther Wojcicki, a journalism teacher at Palo Alto High School (CA) and member of the Alliance for Excellent Education board of directors, and Gov. Bob Wise, educators will explore how digital learning and technology can provide opportunities for teachers to apply evidence-based pedagogical practices that support effective teaching and learning.

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (ET): Effective Teaching and Professional Learning Opportunities

Led by Barbara Treacy, director of EdTech Leaders Online, and Gov. Bob Wise, this session will feature national, state, and district leaders and educators discussing teacher preparation and on-going, job-embedded learning opportunities that can provide teachers with the instructional strategies and pedagogy, as well as planning time, to maximize the potential of applying technology in the classroom.

National Town Hall: 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (ET)

The marquee event for Digital Learning Day is the virtual National Town Hall, which will feature a joint announcement and roundtable discussion with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Additional participants include Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, and Leon Harris, Emmy Award–winning journalist and news anchor for ABC7/WJLA-TV (Washington, DC) and former coanchor of CNN Live Today, who will moderate the event.

Live via Skype, the town hall will broadcast teachers, students, and leaders on the ground at Englewood Schools in Colorado; Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina; Klein Independent School District in Houston, Texas; and New Tech West High School in Cleveland, Ohio.

Featured teachers will include Kristin Kipp, English teacher at Jeffco 21^st Century Virtual Academy in Colorado and the 2011 iNACOL/SREB National Online Teacher of the Year; and Joseph Isaac,biotechnology teacher at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, DC.

The town hall will conclude with a special focus on the Reconnecting McDowell project in West Virginia, which is a comprehensive, long-term effort to make educational improvement in McDowell County the route to a brighter economic future. That segment will feature Jim Brown, superintendent of McDowell County Schools, Gayle Manchin, vice president of the West Virginia State Board of Education, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

The National Town Hall will also include a live chat moderated by Alliance staff members and education technology experts.

Register to watch the National Town Hall and participate in the live chat at http://digitallearningday.eventbrite.com/.

Replay of Morning Session: 3:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (ET)

Being cognizant of the schedules of teachers and individuals living on the West Coast, the Alliance will re-air the morning session from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (ET).

Although the video content will be the same, the Alliance will conduct an entirely different live chat for the afternoon session to allow individuals who are interested in learning more about digital learning to engage in an online, real-time conversation with leaders in education technology.

The webcast and live chat will be accessible at http://www.DigitalLearningDay.org. An abbreviated schedule for the webcast appears below. The complete programming schedule for the webcast, including a list of featured speakers, schools, and sites, is available at http://www.digitallearningday.org/events/national-events/dldwebcast.

A busy month

Like most educators, May is a busy month and mine was no different. This month marked the launch of the TQP pilot project with the UNI Faculty Course Redesign Summit. The TQP grant I’m working on is looking at effective teaching and the creation of a teacher performance assessment and a large part of that is redesigning some of the UNI methods field experience courses to include what we have dubbed Transformative Teaching Qualities. Without going into much detail, the essential purpose of the summit was to look at the things we’ve always wanted to do but haven’t really been able to in the past.

One of the areas we talked about was increasing clinical experiences through video conference technology. This was one session I led and it was great hearing the faculty get excited about new possibilities with field experiences. I demoed a potential setup called a Polycom which could be rolled into a classroom in one of our partner school districts and then using a similar device on campus, the methods instructor could connect their UNI class with a classroom in a PK-12 school district. This connection could be done either in realtime or it can be recorded and shown at a later date. When I think of the potential uses of this technology, it goes beyond just observing classrooms at a distance, and jumps to a place where teacher prep programs likely haven’t been before. Pre-service teachers can interact with students and teachers in the districts that they will be placed in later that semester allowing the pre-service teacher to begin teaching in the classroom sooner since they will have already gained a background of both the teacher and the students. I’m excited to see how our 12 faculty members integrate this technology into their courses.

Another topic we talked about was blended learning. As we were planning for the summit we quickly discovered that the number of topics we were going to discuss could become a problem for the faculty if they didn’t have a way to integrate them meaningfully into their courses. There is only so much time we spend face-to-face with our students so our thought was to leverage blended learning as much as possible in these courses to aid in the redesign process. Not everything in a course needs to be done in person, so why not streamline a much of that content as possible via a blended learning environment and free up seat time to do some of the new ideas we introduced to the faculty, such as remote clinical observations like I described above. Blended learning certainly isn’t a new concept, but the point I tried to get across is what are the students doing in the online environment? Are they just doing readings or are they collaborating, working with authentic sources, etc.? Again I’m looking at what we’ve dubbed Transformative Teaching Qualities. Just because the environment is online doesn’t mean that the quality of the learning is any less or that the activities are drastically limited or different. The opposite is true. There are so many potential activities and experiences students can have in an online environment that we need to think about how we can capitalize on those situations to create more meaningful learning.

There was much more that took place during the summit, but I thought I would share at least those two areas as they were the two I was most passionate and consumed with over the last month, which has limited my ability to do other things I deeply care about, such as blogging. Now that the summit is over and I’m heading into a nice long vacation, I have some time to catch up with my PLN and blogging and really have some time to digest what has taken place in the last few months. It’s a time to unwind and relax and I plan on doing plenty of it over the next month!

Social media, Pen pals, and Access

I was reading an infographic about social media and education and one part talked about how an instructor uses social media to connect his foreign language students with native speaking people.  Essentially, his students have pen pals they are connecting with using social media (Skype).  This surely makes a much more authentic experience than what I had when I was in school and we used mail to communicate back and forth.  Effective, but I never really knew my pen pal and certainly didn’t stay in contact after the course ended.  Social media is changing how we communicate and interact, but in a good way.

This was certainly an exciting opportunity for this teacher’s students to experience, but what struck me most about this was the incredible ease we have to connect with others from around the world.  We have almost unlimited access to people, information, and other resources, but the unfortunate reality is that too few teachers leverage these tools to create meaningful experiences for their students.  I don’t have any hard data to support my claims, just my own beliefs and opinions, but it doesn’t seem like teachers are unwilling to use social media.  To me, it seems like teachers just need support and a vision to see the possibilities.  The problem as I see it is that two fundamental things are missing from many schools…proper support and a vision.

What are your thoughts?  How are you or other teachers in your school using social media to communicate with others on a local, state, national, or even global scale?  How has that changed the dynamic of the classroom?  Add a comment and keep the conversation going.

My problem with #FF

I understand the need to share who we think are valuable people to follow on Twitter and the positive networking and generation of new ideas, but what bothers me about #FF is that I have to take a break from my PLN because that’s all anyone is tweeting.  I find very little value in the morning on Fridays, which is usually when I devote time to my PLN (I do a few minutes every morning).  Maybe I just need to participate a little bit more, but from what I can tell based on my experiences over the last few months, I should just as well find something else to do on Friday mornings and wait to check out my PLN until later in the day.  Perhaps the value comes later from the increased networking that takes place.  Not sure.

Am I missing something?  If so, leave a comment and help me learn!!

#i11i Post-Conference Reflection

Well, the day has come and gone and it was a wonderful experience.  I met with a number of educators and had a great time learning from each of the presenters.  I’d like to highlight what I thought the big points were from each of the sessions I attended and then have some final thoughts about the conference and where I’m going to take my focus next.

Social Media: @shannonmmiller

This was the session I started my day out with, mainly because as we look to the future of education, there is a global context that we have to address in education.  I think social media is one way we can accomodate the need for global connectedness and global presence in education, so what better way to learn about social media than from the queen of social media herself, @shannonmmiller. I’ve been interested in #VanMeter‘s story for a long time but haven’t had an opportunity to really listen and see what they are doing in their district that is so special.  What I saw was truly something special.  It wasn’t the computers or the software they were using, but what they were doing with the computers and software that caught my eye.  From using Facebook pages with students, to creating Flickr clubs around student interests, to having students interact with other young people across the US, @shannonmmiller highlighted how the #VanMeter teachers and students had knocked down the four walls of their school to interact and learn with others from around the world.

What I liked about this session was how @shannonmmiller discussed the implementation or the process they went through to create these opportunities for their students.  By process I don’t mean step-by-step directions for replicating this in your school, but rather the intellectual process.  A few comments that stood out were: “There are a number of reasons why we shouldn’t use social media, but do those reasons outweigh the benefits of using them?” “If there is a problem with a Facebook page, most likely administrators will be able to find out who posted the comment and take care of the problem rather than ending the entire project,” “Sometimes it takes a little hand holding to help teachers try something new in the classroom,” “Students have a love-hate relationship when using social media in education, which needs to be taken into consideration when using social media in a course,” and finally, “If you want to interact with someone using social media…just ask.  They are there to learn with you and will likely be willing to arrange some time to talk with you and your class.”  My big take away from this session is not that we need to unblock social media sites, but rather, we need to begin talking about how we can create opportunities for students to interact on a global scale, so they can become a global citizen which will be crucial for living and learning in the century ahead of us.

Rethink Assessment </summative> <formative>: @mctownsley and @russgoerend

I thought this was a fun session.  Matt and Russ had a very engaging and interesting presentation about why we need to stop summatively assessing students and begin assessing our students more for mastery using more formative assessments.  Matt and Russ introduced competency-based grading, which appears to be an interesting approach to assessing students, but I wonder if that means eliminating summative assessment entirely.  (Note: I just want to point out that I know very little about competency-based grading so if I make a huge misstatement, please correct me.)

I was able to identify with the situation they presented where a relatively young teacher grades purely using summative assessments, never taking time to see if students understand the content.  The “I taught it so you should have learned it” concept was highlighted which I think is true for many teachers.  I know I’ve been in that situation in the past.  As the skit progressed, they introduced formative assessment and how it benefits students by letting them know where they are and how they can improve to meet mastery standards.  What resonated with me was when one of them said, “We need to be more interested in student learning rather than when they learned it.”  We shouldn’t be assessing their compliance, but rather their learning which is something I feel many teachers don’t do.  ”Teachers need to stop hiding behind points,” was another statement I thought made a lot of sense, because we often give students that zero for not completing an assignment, which sends the signal that we don’t care that you didn’t do the homework and then we move on.  I think most teachers went into education because they care about students and want to help others succeed, but at some point our purpose has changed and we lose focus of our true mission and passions.  I think that is what this session was about.  Using formative assessment to show students that we care about them and want to help them learn.  Formative assessment isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.

Higher Ed Listens: Dr. Mary Herring, Dr. Leigh Zeitz, Robin Galloway, Megan Balong, and Dan Mourlam

This was my first session as a presenter at a conference and was a bit exciting.  It was different than I expected, likely because there were fewer people than we anticipated, but that’s okay.  We have to start the conversation somewhere and the conversation we had was a great one.  The goal of this session was to have practicing teachers and administrators in one-to-one laptop districts help higher ed identify what is necessary to be prepared to teach in a one-to-one school.  With so many school districts going one-to-one in the next year in Iowa, we wanted to bring to the forefront the implications for higher ed and pre-service education.

I haven’t looked at the session notes yet, but what stands out most to me was that higher ed institutions need to be more involved in PK-12 education.  This means both faculty and students going out to these schools that are being innovative, especially when there are a large number of districts all doing the same thing.  To me, this means changing our methods experience for in our pre-service programs, but how do we do this with 2500 students?  I refuse to think that we can’t change due to the large number of students enrolled in our program, but I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel.  With the grant project we are working at at UNI, one piece is creating virtual field placements/observations for our students, so hopefully the work we do with the grant will appeal directly to this gap that is forming between what many Iowa schools are doing with technology and the skills new teachers have once they enter the profession.

Role Alike

The role alike session was new to me.  I’ve never been in one of these sessions in the past and the one I went to was for technology coordinators.  The session didn’t start out very well as most everyone in the room just sat around talking.  One of my colleagues came up to me and asked what we are supposed to do and I decided to sieze the opportunity to work on my leadership skills.  So I hopped up, plugged my laptop into the projector and grabbed the mic and started talking.  It was a bit awkward at first, but after a few minutes the people in the room started opening up and talking about questions they had and things they thought was interesting.  I didn’t have any agenda for the session and did it just because I thought it would be fun, which it was.  The discussions centered around troubleshooting related to networking, servers, firewalls, etc.  Most of what you would expect technology coordinators to talk about.

There was one thing I was a bit disappointed about in this session, which was the extent to which many of the tech coordinators didn’t seem too interested in talking about learning as much as they were interested in talking about why we shouldn’t do something.  I didn’t want to capitalize the session and push the envelop too much since I don’t think that was the intention of the role alike, but there are a couple things that bothered me that I want to share.  The first thing that truly bothered me was that this conversation wasn’t about education.  I don’t mind talking about servers and networking if it is in the context of making greater educational goals happen, but this wasn’t the case.  It seemed like in a group of technology coordinators from schools that give all their students some kind of mobile computing device there would be discussions about how to solve problems that restrict greater learning from taking place.  This wasn’t the case though.  The focus wasn’t on enhancing, but rather maintaining.  Very little innovativeness for making greater learning possible.

The other thing that bothered me about this session were the number of excuses for not doing something.  Bandwidth limitations, students will abuse it, teachers aren’t using it, etc.  These are poor excuses for not being a change agent in your school.  I feel technology coordinators have a very special position in schools to help make change happen, but often that position isn’t embraced.  This was the feeling I had yesterday, which disappointed me a little.  It’s possible that the people who capitalized the conversation were the only voices heard and thus limit my perception to an extent, but I think it is time to stop hiding behind excuses for not doing something and to start making positive change happen in your district.

Oh, and by the way, if your teachers have access to a tool like Facebook but aren’t using it, that isn’t a reason to block the site.  It’s a reason to have professional development so teachers can understand the benefits of using the technology and create amazing opportunities for their students.  Refusing to accept the need for professional development and support is a lack of vision as well as a lack of leadership, because as a technology coordinator you have a responsibility to lead from an educational perspective, not a controlling perspective.  Just needed to get that off my chest!

What Are the Students Doing? @mcleod

I thought this was the best session of the day, because it brought to the forefront why we have one-to-one initiatives: to increase student learning.  The session started by having us talk about what learning is and how we define it, but then began to progress to whether or not we need to define learning and how as a group we define learning and subsequently assess it.  I had my own assumptions and opinions about what learning is and how we can assess it, but where the value came out was when @mcleod brought us to a close and said, “Technology does not equal learning.”  A simple statement that most of use agree with, but don’t always practice.  By giving all my students a laptop I cannot expect them to learn more.  It’s what we do with those laptops that will determine if they learn more or less.

@mcleod ended by asking a few questions that we need to talk about back home.  There were two that stood out to me and is how I am going to leave you today:

• What kind of support do teachers need in order to have the type of learning and teaching we want to see take place?
• How will the use of laptops improve student learning?

I had originally wanted to put my final thoughts in this post, but it is long enough.  I’ll work on another tomorrow and promise to keep it shorter!

Saving time with RSS readers

Image from: http://www.squishedfrog.com/images/rssiconlot.gif

This is one of those things I ‘ve been meaning to talk about for a while now and just haven’t found the time to write.  Well, what better time than now.  For those that don’t know what RSS means, check out this Wikipedia article.  It will probably tell you more about RSS than you really want to know.  My short definition is that RSS feeds are a way to receive updates posted to a Web site, usually a blog, podcast, etc.  RSS feeds aren’t anything new, but many people aren’t using them.  This could be due to a variety of reasons, but I think one of the biggest is that many people do not know now what to do with an RSS feed.  Well the answer is simple, and requires only the use of an RSS reader.

How this works is that you “subscribe” to a blog, or other Web site that has an RSS feed, using an RSS reader.  The RSS reader will then update automatically any feeds you have subscribed to.  So, when you want to see updates from a Web site, all you need to do is open your RSS reader and see if there are any new posts.  You may be asking yourself, “What’s the big deal? It doesn’t take that long to check these two, three, five, ten Web sites everyday.”

While that statement may be correct, time is relative to each person based on how much they value their time.  If you are like most educators, time is a rare and precious commodity.  For most, taking time to check multiple Web sites everyday to see if there are updates takes more time than you probably realize.  RSS readers increase a person’s efficiency by bringing the updates from all your favorite Web sites to one location.  Instead of checking five sites everyday, you can check just one and then move on with your day.  The time you save using an RSS reader translates into time for other, perhaps more important tasks you need to complete.

I know from my own experiences that using an RSS reader has made me more productive.  I have also had the chance to expand the number of blogs I follow and organize them in a way that lets me target the skill or area I want to devote my PLN time to on any given day.  So for me, my RSS reader has not only helped make me more efficient with my time, but it has also expanded my knowledge base by allowing me to follow more blogs more easily.

If you want to get started using an RSS reader, it’s easy to do.  All you need to do is look for the RSS icon usually accompanied with “Subscribe” or “Feeds” on your favorite Web sites.  Most Web sites usually put this at the top of the page, in with the navigation links, or sometimes at the bottom of the page.  If you don’t immediately see one, try search the home page of the Web site for Subscribe using the built-in search feature of your Web browser.  For most, the quickest way to bring the find feature up is to push command-f or control-f on the keyboard.  You could also find it under the edit menu on most computers/Web browsers.

Next you need to setup an RSS reader.  There are a number of options, but I prefer Google Reader the most, but feel free to use one that meets your needs.  Here’s a list of a number of RSS readers, both Web based and computer based (actually installed on your c0mputer rather than being stored on the Internet).  Once you find the RSS feed, by clicking subscribe on a Web page, you can copy the RSS URL and paste it into the subscription section of your RSS reader.  It is important you choose the RSS URL and not the Web page URL.  The difference is that if you choose the Web page URL it won’t update in your RSS reader, where the RSS URL will update.  For example, if you entered http://dmourlam.wordpress.com into your RSS reader, it would not update when new posts are published.  However, if you entered http://feeds.feedburner.com/dmourlam, you would receive updates every time I published a new post.

You may also notice that many Web sites have buttons that will enter the RSS feed into your reader for you.  This is the case for Technology Tips.  If you click on Posts-Technology Tips under RSS on the homepage, you will be taken to another Web page that allows you to subscribe to this blog by just clicking on the name of your RSS Reader.  So if you are using Netvibes as your RSS reader, then all you would need to do is click the Netvibes button on the subscribe page.  Below is a video that takes you through this process.

Twitter: How to use it and why

Image from: http://ceoworld.biz/ceo/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Twitter-Down-Bird.png

I had a teacher I used to work with contact me over Skype last week and he asked about using Twitter.  I was almost caught off guard by the question because even though this teacher is very innovative with the use of technology in his courses, and is always one to help when others ask, he just isn’t into social networking. Which is okay.  Social networking isn’t the right fit for everyone and there are certainly different levels of adoption.  However, with him starting the conversation and asking the question, I thought I would share with everyone else who is considering using Twitter in their courses or as part of their PLN.

To start off I’ll explain my experiences with Twitter, because like many people I just didn’t get it.  A little over two years ago I started hearing more about Twitter and when I attended a state technology conference I decided I would sign up.  I didn’t really know what to expect and was really quite disappointed after the conference ended.  I truly didn’t get what I was supposed to do.  I didn’t know who to follow or really what following was all about. So I just stopped using it, because I couldn’t justify the time commitment when I had an entire district to look after.  Over the course of the next few months I some how came back to looking into Twitter again and wish I could remember what triggered my interest in it again.  Regardless of the reason, I gave it another chance and this time I started looking at how other people were using it and finally discovered what I had stumbled upon.  As I started to slowly follow people I began seeing more and more resources and support for ideas I have that I think are important.  Up until this point I had relied only on my RSS reader for my PLN, but now I was able to expand that network by including the conversations, shared resources, and other interactions that take place through Twitter.  Twitter really brought a human component to my PLN.  Overtime I slowly began sending my own tweets and have noticed that others are interested in what I have to say as well.  The interactions I have had on Twitter have been some of the more in depth conversations I have ever had and now I can’t think of not using Twitter as a way to refine my skills as an educator.

So now that I’ve talked about my experiences, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of using Twitter:

1. First things first, you need to sign up for an account.  It’s free and pretty straight forward to do, especially if you’ve ever signed up for anything Web 2.0ish.  So go to http://www.twitter.com and click sign up.
2. Once you have an account the next thing you should do is find people to follow.  This is where I struggled at first but I think this is getting much easier in education because more and more educators are using Twitter.  I’d first start by thinking about people you know who might be on Twitter.  These could be people in your school, your AEA (regional education agencies in Iowa), the Department of Education, or other associations and organizations.  Once you find a few people who you want to follow, then start looking at who they follow.  Chances are you have similar interests and will follow many of the same people.
3. Once you start following other people, you will start to see the power of Twitter.  You will see people tweeting resources, links to articles, blogs, and other resources that can help you learn.  The best part of Twitter is that you don’t have to contribute if you don’t want to.  There is certainly power in sharing your knowledge, but you need to be comfortable doing so first, so if you don’t feel like saying anything then don’t.  It’s okay to just lurk for a while and see what everyone else is saying.
4. The next step is to begin sharing.  Once you have gained some comfort and followers, start sharing your ideas, resources, and anything else you think will help others become better educators.  As you start sharing others will begin interacting with you and the power of Twitter jumps dramatically because even though you are using 140 characters to say something, you will be surprised at how profound and meaningful some of those short statements are.  Some of the best conversations I’ve had with other educators have been over Twitter.
5. If you see something someone else tweeted that you would like to send out to your followers, then you should retweet it.  Retweet is simply resending a tweet.  You would do this because there could be people who don’t follow the person who tweeted the initial tweet that follow you and may be interested in the original tweet.  I also see it as reinforcing what someone said.  You can also add to a retweet if you want to add something more, but beware of the 140 character limit!
6. As you begin sending out messages, you may want to make your tweets are searchable by using a hashtag.  The best way I’ve found to explain a hashtag is that it is the pound sign (#) with a word or single phrase following it.  A hashtag doesn’t have any spaces and is usually descriptive of a topic, such as #edchat, #iowacore, #iwb, etc.  This is a great way to help organize tweets about a certain topic and allows for more structured conversations to take place.  It is also a great way to find others to follow and will help you establish more followers.  You will also notice others using hashtags which you can click on to do a quick search of the topic.
7. Once you get the hang of using Twitter, you should look into using software that helps you organize your searches and tweets better.  The one I’m most fond of is Tweet Deck, which is an application that is installed on your computer.  Tweet Deck allows you to organize your tweets in columns, which is handy if you want to have multiple hashtags open at once.  Another that doesn’t need to be installed is Hoot Suite.  It follows the same basic concept of Tweet Deck only it isn’t installed on your computer and is ran through a Web browser.
8. If you want to send a tweet to some one specifically, you can either send them a direct message or mention them.  To mention someone you type their handle (what shows up when they tweet, such as dmourlam) preceded by an @ symbol (@dmourlam).  To send a direct message click on Message at the top of your Twitter Web page and click new message.  The main difference is that a direct message is a private message where a mention is a public message.

There are a lot of things to know about Twitter, but once you adopt it into a regular practice, it doesn’t take much time investment.  If you are looking to increase collaboration with your students, you could have them begin using Twitter as well.  What you would need to do is make sure they all have access to a device that allows them to send tweets and then for instance you could create what is called a backchannel in your lectures/discussions.  A backchannel is a live chat stream, usually projected if part of a physical classroom, where the audience can engage in the content of the lecture/discussion rather than remaining passive in the learning process.  So as a speaker talks your students can ask each other questions or highlight parts that are important to them.  Creating a backchannel is also a great way to receive feedback during a lecture.  The key is to use a hashtag that is unique to your class, which you can make up ahead of time and let everyone in class know.  You will also need to use a service like Twitter Fall to show all the tweets from the backchannel, which you can then project in the room.  May sound intimidating, but it is a learning process and is certainly leading edge in terms of increasing the collaboration amongst your students.

As you begin looking at how to use Twitter, make sure to take some time to let everything digest.  There isn’t a rush and you’ll have to admit that you can’t read everything.  A good way to begin would be to devote ten minutes to using Twitter everyday.  Just read some things others are tweeting and see where it goes from there.  Another thing to keep in mind is to ask for help when you have questions.  Twitter can get a little confusing, so make sure to reach out for help when you need it.  Hopefully I’ve been helpful, but if you have questions, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Good Luck!