Great post

This is a great blog post about adopting technology in the classroom and its pitfalls. (Got it via Twitter.)

Live blog: fate vs. freewill

My epistemology class of juniors and seniors will be engaging in a live blog session around the classic philosophical argument of fate vs. freewill: What is freewill? Does it exist or is it all determined in advance (destiny/fate)? Are fate and freewill mutually exclusive or can you have some combination of the two?

The event will start at 1:30 and will run about 45 minutes or so. If anyone is interested in joining us, that would be pretty sweet.

Live blog: What are YOU doing?

On Friday, March 27, my classes will be participating in a live blog session discussing the topic: Within the realms of food, transportation, and housing, what have you done or what are you doing to prevent or slow climate change, especially in the face of peak oil and a diminishing oil supply, and what goals do you have along those same lines? (So basically: What are you doing and/or what can you do to help heal the planet?)

The times for the sessions are as follows (just click on the class period link to be taken to the blog site):Please note that all times are Mountain Time in the United States (GMT-7):
Block 2: 8:30-9:15 a.m.
Block 3: 9:30-10:20 a.m.
Block 4: 11:15 a.m. - 12:05 p.m.
Block 5: 12:20-1:10 p.m.

It would be great to have people join us for our discussion!

CLAS Presentation

At Joe's request, here's the presentation I did at the spring conference of CLAS (Colorado Language Arts Society) via Slideshare. Hope you enjoy it/find it useful!

Clas Conference Presentation

View more presentations from Todd_M.

CLAS, Ning, and my next installment

Yeesh... where has the time actually gone? CSAP time already (but I'll reserve comment on that topic; heh). For those who read my first two installments of Education in the 21st Century on Elephant Journal, the third part is up and posted.

Last weekend I did a presentation at the spring conference of the Colorado Language Arts Society (CLAS) on technology in the classroom. I have to admit that before I started, I was a bundle of nerves and was pretty much looking for any excuse to not do it. It's funny: I can stand up in front of 25-30 students all day long, but when it comes to standing up in front of a dozen adults, I'll take a pass whenever I can. Fortunately, it ended up going really well. I hit on Google docs, Google sites, Blogger, podcasting, live blogging, videos, etc. As it turned out, a lot of it was really new to many of the people in the room, even though I thought it would be "old hat" to them. I ended up running out of time, and I really enjoyed myself once it was all said and done.

My newest "toy" in the classroom is Ning. Doug A. and I are collaborating on a project involving Plan B 3.0; yesterday I hit up Jeff L. to see if he wanted to join us (you're next, Liz!). Actually, as far as that goes, if anyone is interested, I know I'd be up for it... could prove to be very interesting. At any rate, I want my students to not only collaborate within the class, but between the classes as well. To that end, I set up a class Ning page for the kids. Will it work? Well, we'll see I guess, but I do think there's some very interesting potential to become something pretty amazing.

*UPDATE*

I've been doing some digging around on Ning and after a few trial and errors, I have a few tips/suggestions:

First, I found that even though I told the students it was in essence an online classroom and needed to make sure their profiles reflected that, I still had a few students post pictures and choose names that weren't school appropriate. I am still working with those more recalcitrant students around that issue. Ning does give a privacy option when it comes to who can see and join the page. So far I haven't worried about who's joining it, especially since there is an option to ban members, though I can change that to approving members that try to join if I need to.

Ning does give the option to approve just about anything that could be posted to the page: videos, photos, blog posts, etc. I engaged it after a few students were adding pictures of themselves to the main page.

The students have really bought into it so far, but all we've done is set up profiles. They haven't quite realized how I plan to use this for networking, posting assignments, etc. I have a feeling that they may become slightly horrified when they realize that their "MySpace for my class" is going to be used against them... ha ha!

What's next?

Today's class discussion went really well. Not only did I have two other teachers in the room, but one teacher logged onto the live blogging from her room, and one student that was absent logged in from home and participated in the discussion online (which led to an interesting question and brief discussion about class participation). My next step is to really push to take this global, so I plan on giving more of a heads up to people, including those on Facebook, Twitter, etc. so that they can maybe better plan for the discussions. I would love to see not only educators and students involved, but anyone anywhere that might have something to say about the conversation. In the meantime, I'm really going to use their cell phones to my advantage: at the start of our next discussion, I'm going to have them take out their phones and text the question to at least one person that is not in the building then post the responses onto the live blog as a part of the discussion. I think that should be a lot of fun, and I'd bet I will get a really high level of participation with that! ;)

I was also pleased with how quickly the students adapted to having the live blog in the classroom, reading it and commenting on it, and even stopping the conversation when they wanted to address a point that had been made on the screen. They adapted really well and have made it a part of the classroom culture already, so I definitely think it's here to stay, at least for this class. I've also begun thinking of ways to collaborate within the building on this... live blogging represents some real possibility for cross-classroom and even cross-curricular conversations. A real plus is that it's really amazingly easy to use, and it doesn't require anything beyond a laptop and projector, so incorporating non-Global Learners will be a really easy thing to do. Let the walls continue to melt away! :)

Epistemology blog

So I've decided to make the big leap and I've created a separate blog for the epistemology class. My plan is to use coveritlive.com (almost) every day, thus enabling others to join us when they can and want to. I'll likely pick different students, or get volunteers to do the typing throughout the discussion so I don't burn out any one particular student. If you're interested, here's the link to it... come and join us sometime. The discussions start at about 8:45 and run until 9:19 or so, and there will be a screen posted any time there will be a discussion.

Live blogging reminder

Just thought I'd remind people about our live blogging conversation that starts at 8:45. If you can, join us on my blog.

One of the coolest days EVER

Today in my 2nd block class we discussed the goal of education. My 2nd block is an epistemology class of juniors and seniors, and we always have some pretty amazing conversations, but for this one, I wanted more people involved, especially some of my colleagues, so I sent out an invitation to the staff inviting anyone that had that period off to come in and join us; then Tonia gave me the fantastic idea of using Coveritlive.com as part of the class for those who couldn't be there... it was GREAT! I had a student doing the blogging as we talked, and I recorded the conversation for podcasting later as well (yeah, I was totally and completely geeking out). The only downside was that Blogger didn't post up the whole conversation, so the comments of those who participated didn't show up- they were on a sidebar that got cut off. Another very strange thing is that when you look at the page itself, the blog appears to be in Latin; now I'm working with some of the best and brightest in the school, for sure, but we're not exactly fluent in Latin... I'm not that good! Fortunately, once you click on it, it goes to English, so it's really not a problem... it's just odd.

At any rate, there is a transcript of the class discussion and a podcast (Dec. 17), so anyone can listen in that wants to. I'm actually thinking of making that a regular part of the class now. It was a way cool way to dissolve the classroom walls, and I want to do it again. Dave is going to let me use a projector tomorrow as well, so that way the students can not only see the question posted, but they will also be able to follow along with the live blogging discussion.

Actually, since we didn't get to finish our conversation, we plan to continue it tomorrow. I will happily post up the link to it here and anyone who wants to join us on Coveritlive is welcome to do so. The class conversation will run from 8:45 until 9:15 or so. Come join us!

Nifty Resource

My son's friend told me about ReadWriteThink from NCTE that is full of nifty resources, including things like interactive Venn Diagrams. Since my students are getting ready to write a compare/contrast essay, things like this will be awesome and super great to use on a SmartBoard. Since it's from NCTE, it's English/Language Arts oriented, but there are still some tools that anyone can use, like the aforementioned Venn Diagram, and a Compare/Contrast Guide and Map, etc. Enjoy!

Education in the 21st century, part 2

Just wanted to let people know that I've just posted part two of my series on education in the 21st century to the Elephant Journal website. In case you missed it, part one is here. Elephant Journal isn't blocked any more, so feel free to share the articles (and comment, of course!) and pass the links along! :-)

Reflections on a week of technolgy

(Cross posted on my teacher blog.)

Happy International Day of Peace, everyone! I read an article in the paper reporting on how various factions that have been involved in armed conflict have agreed to not fight at all out of respect for the day, which begs the question, if they can do it for one day, why can't they do it permanently?? *sigh*

We had the laptops in my classroom for the entire week, which should have been great, right? Yeah, well.... *ahem*.

The biggest frustration was students who couldn't remember their passwords for their blogs and/or their school email accounts (even more so the ones who'd forgotten them from the day before). I expected that the first day would be refreshing memories, but we ended up losing two days to that, and even more for some students. Add to that the various technical difficulties, including Google not publishing posts on blogs even though I watched the student write the blog and click "publish now," and it made for a very interesting adventure, to be sure. There were times when I felt like just saying "forget it, let's just use paper and pen or pencil," but then I remembered that for some students, this technology is completely new to them, and as such, require a certain amount of patience from me. Just because this generation has been called "digital natives" doesn't mean all of them were born in the same technological land (figuratively speaking). The digital divide was very prevalent in the room, and I almost blinked and didn't see it.

I think that by and large, the week was a success. Yes, there were some students who in spite of my watching over them and giving and paying as much attention as I could still managed to slip through the cracks, but most of the students took advantage of the opportunity, so I'm pleased.

This week we go back to the "regular" world of not having instant access to all of the technology we need. I have six desktops in my room now so up to six students can blog or work on their essays at a time, though, so I expect we'll still get a lot done; maybe even more since I only need to watch six instead of twenty-six or so.

I've started reading over some of the personal narratives, and there are some really amazing pieces of writing there. There are some structural issues and the like, but last week was about getting the words down; this week is about making them better. I'm looking forward to the finished product, and I am thinking of asking some students about posting their work to the web, and since Google docs has that as an option, it will be really easy to do, and I can put the link on the class webpage... yet another way to make the writing more "real world."

Parent/teacher conferences

Last night's Back to School night/parent-teacher conferences went particularly well. I made it a point to show the parents the class webpage and talked about the paperless policy of my classroom, blogs, Google Docs, and the idea that I'm using the technology to get the students ready for both higher education and the job world. I also invited them to listen to any of the podcasts or read the notes for themselves if they wanted to. More than one parent made a comment along the lines of "Oh, I like that!" and one parent that I had previously emailed to invite to last night's conference said "Oh, I've already been there, and I read [my daughter's] blog." The student's eyes got big, and she said, "You did??!" :-)

I even used the downtime to help the rest of my team create class webpages on Google Sites, and I even got the math teacher to (finally) set up his blog and link to it on his class webpage.

A great night from a Global Learner point of view. :-D

Woops.... duh

Yesterday I introduced Google Docs to my students. In my first hour class, I was projecting the Google Docs screen onto the screen in my room, walked over, and tapped the screen to switch the view. Nothing happened. Puzzled, I went to tap it again, then remembered that I wasn't using my Smart Board, I was using a regular overhead screen. Woops, no wonder it didn't work. None of the students noticed, so I got to keep full cool nerd points for block 1.

Needless to say, I switched back to the Smart Board for the rest of the day. :-)

Goals met (at least partially) and Smart Board Reflections

(Cross posted from my teacher blog.)

Got up early this morning and really wanted to go on a bike ride, so I pumped up the Cannondale, got in the saddle and off I went. It was an absolutely perfect morning for a bike ride. I headed north and found myself on highway 7 before long, then I headed west. Next thing I knew, I saw a sign that said "Lafayette 6; Boulder 17." I smiled and decided to make the trip to Lafayette. It didn't take me anywhere near as long as I thought it might; an hour or so after I left my house, and I was in Old Town Lafayette. I hung out for a while, then made the trip back for a total of 28 miles in roughly two hours. I was pretty psyched, and it's most of the way towards my goal of riding my bike to Boulder. Since I was roughly 10 miles from Boulder, I definitely know that it's within my reach to finish it out to Boulder. I have to admit that I was glad I turned myself around, even though I was tempted to finish it out to Boulder. I like to finish out the last half-mile or so to my house on a dead sprint, but that just wasn't going to happen today. About five seconds into the sprint, my legs gave me a very firm "Nope, not gonna happen, buddy" response, and I decided instead to do a nice, easy warm down ride instead. Heh.

I've been using the Smart Board quite a lot now, and it's been working out fantastically. We were working on the 11-sentence paragraph in class last week, and what could have been dry and boring ended up being a lot of fun. We spent some time filling out the graphic organizer together on the Smart Board, and I had 100% engagement for 100% of the time in all of my classes; not bad for a Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

I think I've actually perfected the podcasting, too. I recorded each of my classes on Friday, and I'll be uploading and linking them on my class website later on today. (I also plan to upload and link the Power Point presentations I used, though I will likely upload them as .pdf files since not everyone may have Power Point or even Microsoft Word, but Adobe Acrobat Reader is free.) Initially I was going to do all sorts of editing of the podcasts and only upload the "best," but the principal encouraged me to just upload them as they are and let the students fast forward through them as they need to.

Of course, there are some definite implications around doing that, not the least of which is that my classroom walls are definitely going to disappear and there will be full transparency, particularly since not only my students can listen to the podcasts, but their parents can as well. I told my students not to worry... I know how brilliant they are, and now their parents can hear it as well. :-) I do plan on emailing the link to as many parents as I have email addresses for, and while it seems a little scary to open myself up like this, I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I'm really excited about it.

I've gotten most of the students logged on and blogging already, and that has been a fantastic experience so far. The students have the option of blogging or reading during independent reading time, and it's not unusual to have a line of students four to six deep waiting to blog. So far I only have two desktops in my room, though I'm trying to get more put in. If you go to the class website, I've linked to the students' blogs there, so anyone interested can read and comment on their blogs. There is still some tweaking to do around the blogs, but they've gotten started, so the biggest part is done. I'm planning on working with my reluctant colleague after professional development this week and want to have her up and blogging as well.

I hit upon a bit of a flash as well around sub plans. What I hope to do on days when I know I'm going to be out is to upload my lessons as Power Points and record what I want to say in advance, along with a notesheet for my students to fill out and email back to me, then email links to the Power Point and podcast to my students, along with the notesheet to fill out. Then, on the day(s) when I know I'm going to be out, I simply reserve the computer lab for my students, the sub takes them down there, where they then log in, and can watch the presentation, listen to the podcast, and do the work there. Chances are I'll let them work collaboratively, but certainly any student that wants to work alone could... I guess it will depend on the nature of the assignment. I can even check in on them while I'm wherever I am and address issues/questions as needed. They really CAN have class 24/7! Of course, making sure I have access will be an issue, but I think it's one I can resolve (I hope).

The implications for all of this on my teaching is mind boggling. How on earth did I get anything done in the classroom before?? ;-)

Do the Diggs Dug?

Listible is a pretty cool web service that is based on the concept of Digg. Could you imagine using a technology like this with your students to help them understand the modern collaborative web (Web 2.0 for some) and simultaneously encourage them to solicit real-world feedback?

Join me by voting on the best education technology here and add your own. Share with friends. Click the link below to vote!