ponderings on PD

Using web 2.0 applications in terms of our professional development is an area I think many teachers will find useful. One of the hardest things about attending professional development opportunities is the conflict we feel dealing with the concerns of being out of the class compared to any benefits we might gain from the training or other PD activity. The following thoughts are based on notes I took from Chapter 5 of Web 2.0.new tools,new schools. The authors site Tom Guskey's work on what makes for effective PD, and that is the importance of follow up support, proper implementation and the need for staff to see a close connection to improved student learning. The authors also increased emphasis on the social and cultural context of learning. Just as students learn best when leaning is viewed as part of a community so to will teachers.
The more we can do to foster the development and nurturing of professional learning communities within our schools the stronger those schools will be. I see the development of an electronic community that goes beyond the walls of the school as a way to strengthen the shared community within the school. I see a place where sometimes the discussions start on line and move into the hallways and other times they may move in the opposite direction. Certainly the asynchronous aspect possible due to electronic networks increases the opportunities for shared experiences. The authors discuss the need for a "culture of learning" this is certainly something we have in pockets of the school I teach in. They go on to discuss four necessary elements:
1. a diversity of expertise
2. a shared objective of continually advancing collective knowledge and skills
3. an emphasis on learning how to learn
4. a mechanism for sharing what is learned

the chapter then goes on to make some recommendations:
1. Help teachers uncover and make transparent their notions of the classroom community.
2. Develop alternative forms of teacher professional development that embed the social networking tools we want teachers to consider.

Stages of PLN adoption
Thanks for the connection to your thinking Jeff. I like the visual it makes sense to me, even echos some of my thinking in my last post. I am certainly in stage three...but anxiously awaiting getting to BALANCE! One of my next steps will be creating a list of those items I find best match my learning goals. One absolute truth is that I am in a more exciting place professionally than I have been in long time. There is so much to learn and the idea that there are so many people willing to share their knowledge is very exciting. I also realize that the more I can post and write and think about my learning the more real it will be for me as well as for others!





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Stages of PLN adoption by jutecht.

Beginning to process PLN's

From our weekly assignment (T&L in the networked classroom) ... "As the half-life of knowledge continues to decrease and the amount of knowledge known to us continues to increase we cause a gap of what we know, what we think we know, and what we think we should know." Reading this section of our assignment for the week, reminds me of cycles of thinking I have experienced based on this class. It goes something like this. ...

I log into my goggle reader ...I find something interesting ...I follow links...I get excited...I'm learning ... this is cool .... I can really see how this is going to change the way I learn and process information...things are great! The next time I log on to my goggle reader...I skim through some information ...absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of information in front of me...there is too much here! ...I'll never be able to make sense of all this...this is crazy! The bottom line is I find myself alternating between excitement and learning and frustration and being absolutely overwhelmed!

I think I am beginning to see how social networking, web 2.0, or whatever you want to call all this can help teachers to become better collaborators. The idea that people go (or went) into education because they are solitary workers (let me close my door and work my magic!)is changing, people are craving collaboration in school communities built for solitary operators. I work in a district in which many of us are really ready for collaboration we know what we want to do together, we know the importance of working collaboratively, all we need is time. If we can find that time asynchronously then maybe with the web we can make it happen. That's enough from me for now.

First Attempt at a Podcast

Many hours...lots of mis-steps ...a messy but at least an attempt at a podcast. I will leave this up for a couple days and then try to replace it with a more meaningful posting.

PLN ...the steps to active self directed learner

"Concord High School Graduates will be active self directed learners who
inquire creatively about their world, take risks and examine options as they
initiate actions and complete tasks." Above is part of the mission statement of the high school I teach at. It seems to me that PLN's (personal learning networks) certainly are or will be an important element of creating our future active self directed learners. I have been doing some thinking and reading about the idea of PLN's including a piece from The Fischbowl . In this piece the author discusses the incredible abundance of information we live in today and the impact of that abundance on today's learners and what is required of them. "Our students need to learn how to find, evaluate, organize, synthesize, remix and re-purpose information in order to understand and solve complex problems." I agree very much with changes required of today's learner and worry some about the idea of "repurposing" I see the incredible amount of cutting and pasting done by the students in my classes. One of the issues I am concerned about is the idea of intellectual property (though I sense this is somewhat becoming "old school"; my greater concerns are due to the fact that I often see kids do this (cutting and pasting) without ever processing the information. Many studnets cut and paste without ever reading. So my major concern here is how do we assure students are making sense of information and not simply processing it? I hope in my reading and my personal efforts in dealing with and shuffling through the huge amount of information I will develop skills that I can use to help students in this process.

Ponderings from Chicago

Sitting in the airport in Chicago on my way home from a very stimulating and professionally invigorating trip to Colorado Springs and BSCS, worrying about how I will complete my podcast this week, but already much more confident with this whole blogging thing. I am glad I am being pushed to create the podcast, because I know left to my own ambitions it would not happen any time soon.

BSCS & work with Medicine & Evolution

My trip to Colorado was to serve on an advisory board in creation of a NIH sponsored educational high school level supplement on Medicine & Evolution. The board was composed of equal representatives from four groups; high school biology teachers, evolutionary and genetic scientists, NIH, and BSCS. As a biology teacher it was very exciting being part of a group with practicing scientists. Hearing discussion of scientists sharing their research reminded my I studied to science in college.The work was very rewarding and I look forward to continuing the work in the months to come.

Podcasts

I just loaded three educational podcasts onto my ipod (actually my daughters hand-me-down ipod shuffle (the ten year old has the upgrade!)). My plan is to listen to these as I travel out to Colorado for some curriculum work with BSCS. Having podcasts on my ipod is not a new thing, I am embarrassed to admit that I have been known to listen to science stories as I ski. The new thing for me today was finding the podcasts on the web and then subscribing to itunes through the site, in the past I simply found what itunes offered me. So I guess the growth for today is the linking to itunes. The bigger step will be getting myself to the point where I feel comfortable creating my own podcast. But I'll do it because I know that if I expect my students to learn by doing I best be willing to do the same.

Think, Adapt & Continue Learning

More thoughts on chapter 2, "Students and Learning" , from Solomon & Schrum's Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools. In the conclusion of the chapter the authors discuss the challenge for today's educators. Constructivism, project-based learning and connectivism are discussed as a past trend in education. If they are a past, then I fear I am still living in the past. Most of what I believe about education is wrapped pretty tightly into those three terms. Students need to connected to their learning, they need to engage in the learning, to construct the knowledge for themselves. Teachers can not deliver the learning, we can't do it for the students, we must create an environment where students can involve and immerse themselves in the learning. Creating those environments whether online, during field experiences or in the classroom are the job of today's educator.
The authors discuss the very real concern over "teaching to the test", the idea that what we measure in standardized tests might not be what is most important. I have come to see these tests as both good and bad. Good in that we (educators) are being held accountable for raising student achievement. And certainly bad when they measure surface content and not true depth of knowledge. But they are here for now and as a public educator i have a responsibility to help my students to as well as possible of there tests. Over the course of the last ten years I think the tests themselves have gotten better. The authors worry that educators will (and have) move away from good teaching and move toward teaching to the test. Though we are concerned about the impact of test results in our district, we have not been asked to teach to the test.
I think we will see improved test scores by helping our students to be better thinkers and the way to make them better thinkers is to strive for deeper understanding in every thing we teach. Kids need to learn how to learn because all the research out there supports the idea that today's students need to be life long learners.

"Did You Know?"

I am currently a Curriculum Facilitator, one of the curricular areas I work with is our science department. One of my responsibilities is to facilitate department meeting. I opened our meeting yesterday by showing "Did You Know?" . I followed the video with a few minutes of reflective writing and then some group sharing. I was somewhat nervous about showing this because I did not want the staff to hear an unintended (by me) message that here is just one more thing we are not doing well (we tend to be very hard on ourselves in the science department). The discussion started in a somewhat dangerous direction with one of our senior members worrying about all the change we have pushed for and that has been blocked in the past, all true...but not the direction I was hoping for. I think I was able to focus our discussion in a more positive light (though much concern remains) trying to point out what we can do both now and potentially in the future. I felt good about being able to share some of what I have learned in this course (Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom). My goal was to begin to get the staff to see the web as a place where collaboration, sharing and thinking can take place, I think I at least opened the door. Well worth the 30 minutes of a department meeting.

To be Linked!

In the past month since starting this class I have read an incredible amount of material on the fast pace of the changing world of teaching and learning. Of all I read there is one line that keeps coming back to me ... "Why would you want to write something that others would not want to link to?" I'm sure I have not quoted the line quite right, but the meaning is there. The whole idea of writing for others to read is so different from anything I have ever thought of doing. Not sure what to do with this thinking. Just wanted to share it because it has really had an impact on my thinking.

To wiki or not to wiki!!!

Not much of a title but it does capture my current wonderings. I am very much intrigued by all I am reading about web 2.0 and definitely see the educational value. I also know that the value in the information I am learning in this class is all about how I will incorporate the material into what I do with kids. For me that is when it becomes valuable. As a teacher I realize kids learn by doing and real learning is measured when kids can make meaning and transfer learning to new situations. That being said I know I need to jump in and try some of this new technology. But I want to be sure I know enough so that it is a successful jump. I'm OK struggling, even gasping for air from time to time, but I don't want to sink! So where to start that is my question. I worry some about district concerns over student security. I had some digital images of students petri dishes on my web site with student first names as label and some in the district worried that I had exposed the kids too much. So what to do is my big question. My goal is to something concrete with my students before the year is out. I have a couple of thoughts and certainly welcome any suggestions:
1. Have students do some blogging around a book club type theme. I plan to have the students select from a number of titles about DNA/Genetics.
2. Have the class develop some kind of a wiki discussing global climate change.
3. I have seniors who will be completing an individual research project as their final exam in a senior environmental biology elective course I teach. There has always been a finding and contacting a expert element to this project. In my perfect world the students would find a local expert whom they could visit, maybe even shadow for a day, generally what I get is a description of a relatively meaningless phone discussion or very limited email. This might be a good place to integrate some of the connections from this class.
4. Some of my seniors are currently training rats as part of a unit in animal behavior. Part of the final assessment for this project is a video of their rat completing its maze or obstacle course. Sharing these tapes has always been difficult. Last year I had a few of my students post to youtube creating a webpage or wiki loaded with all the videos might be cool.
I welcome any suggestions!

thoughts re "Students & Learning"

The following ponderings are based on the reading in chapter 2 of Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. On page 26 the author references work from marc Prensky in which he calls today's students "digital natives". I wonder what percentage of our students at Concord High School truly qualify as "digital natives"? and perhaps even more important what are the implications for those who do not? What are our responsibilities to bring more of our students into this realm. As any who have read my earlier entries have noticed I angst over the equity issues involved for students whom do not have either the availability or knowledge necessary to access this exciting world. Prensky goes on to talk of the idea that our students are thinking and processing information in fundamentally different ways. I get this, but still wonder where the research is to back up this claim as well what are the implications for teaching and learning implied by this statement.
The author goes one to share statistics about contact time for students on the web. The numbers are impressive, but I worry about the depth of that contact time. I watch too many kids spending time on the computer, doing a large amount of time clicking and perhaps scanning information; but continue to worry about the depth of thinking taking place connected to this process. Kids are definitely connected through facebook and myspace, but most of that time (at least to my 50 year old eyes) seems very superficial. I certainly see the benefit from the growing interactive quality of the web. The authors share work from Levin & Arafeh, 2002 criticizing the growing divide in how students use the web at school vs. how they use the web on their own time. Stating " Many schools and teachers have not yet recognized-much less responded to- the new ways students communicate and access information over the Internet." My experience has shown me that this statement is very accurate. Unfortunately schools (public) maybe becoming even more separate, I see two reasons for this distancing. One, simply lack of technology, having enough machines for all students to have even weekly access (and lack of conductivity on the machines we do have). The second issue maybe even bigger (though less expensive) that is concern over the social nature of web 2.0. Teachers and school districts tend to be very nurturing and protective of students and worry about opening access to and for students.