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Monday, June 17, 2013

Tech It To the NEXT Level

I am privileged to be Skyping with Amy Kangas and her wonderful class of educators who are spending the next week exploring what it means to be a 21st Century Teacher.  

While I will just be there to answer questions and share some experiences, here are a few resources that might be useful for our discussion.


BackChannel:



Technology Integration Matrix:

UNI Instructional Technology Masters Program

Sunday, June 16, 2013

MY GAWD! It's Saturn thru Google Hangout!!!

There's Saturn. I can't believe it!

Fraser Cain in Courtenay, British Columbia, is SHARING THE UNIVERSE!
He is using Google Hangout to share this image on his telescope with other astronomers from all over the world.

English: Auroras on Saturn. Français : Des aur...
English: Auroras on Saturn. Français : Des aurores polaires sur Saturne. Русский: Полярное сияние на Сатурне. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I know that the technology is here and I have connected with people all over the world, but this video brought me to tears.  I don't know why, but the idea of connecting people from all over the world to through Google Hangout to see Saturn through a personal telescope in British Columbia, Canada, was incredibly moving for me, the teacher.

Sure, we have seen telescopic images on our televisions or even our computers, but this experience is not being directed by "The Establishment." It isn't something on PBS that someone in New York decided would be good for us to see. It is about a Canadian amateur astronomer connecting through Google Hangouts with individuals in Pakistan, Australia, U.S., Mexico, South America, South Africa and ??. It is an example of people sharing/learning/teaching with one another in a way that wasn't possible even 5 years ago.

This is what 21st Century Learning is all about. It is about connecting and collaborating and exploring on a global basis. It is about using our daily resources to constantly expand our opportunities with others. 

What are you doing in your classrooms to encourage such collaboration?

Z

Happy Father's Day
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Voki is a FUN way to do an Intro!


Voki is a fun way to have an avatar introduction you to your class.  I have asked my students to do this, but rarely have done it myself.  I am going to do that this year.  Should be fun.  Here is the intro that I did for an INTEL course that I am taking called "Facilitating and Implementing Online Professional Development."  Should be fun.

What do you use for introductions?  Can you suggest Avatars that you can make talk?  I tried Xtranormal but it didn't work correctly.

Z
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Wednesday, May 08, 2013

What Do Teachers Make? (Happy Teachers' Appreciation Day)

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Day, Everyone!!!

This is the day when we will appreciate you teachers who brought out the best in us. You made us achieve levels of excellence that we thought impossible.  You challenged us to succeed!

I must admit that my best days in life are those when I made a difference in someone's life. It might be a student or a son or a grandson or a complete stranger, but I possess the Teacher's Gene and it is what gives me pleasure.

I recently had dinner with a couple of guys who were my college roommates back at UCSB.  We started talking about retirement.  I had thought about retirement before but that night I couldn't imagine living a life when I wasn't trying to improve our classrooms by providing future and present teachers with innovative learning experiences that they could use in their own classrooms.  I couldn't imagine not working with students to challenge them to do the impossible.

I couldn't imagine not teaching.

I just bumped into Taylor Mali's talk on What Do Teachers Make.  It is a 3-minute soliloquy about what a difference teachers make in the lives of their students.  Here it is for you to watch along with a list of what Taylor identifies as "What Teachers Make."    Go Taylor.


Teachers Can Make . . .
  • kids work harder than then ever thought they could.
  • a C+ feel like a congressional medal of honor.
  • an A- feel like a slap in the face
  • kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence.
  • parents tremble in fear when I call home to compliment students on their actions. 
  • parents see their children for who they are and who they can be.
  • kids wonder, question and criticize
  • kids apologize and mean it
  • them write, write and write and read, read, read definitely and beautiful until they will never misspell either of those words again.
  • them show all their work in math class and hide it on their final drafts in English.
  • them realize that if you have this (brains) and you follow this (heart) then you don't have to worry about what you make ($$$)
Teachers make a Difference . . . what about you?

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Thursday, April 18, 2013

What IS the Difference Between 20th and 21st Century Classrooms

Student examining a laptop.
What ARE the differences between the 20th and 21st Century Classrooms?  We have heard a great deal about how the 21st Century Classroom's characteristics but I found that the 21st Century Schools website has a comprehensive comparison.


How should we use this? I have introduced this in my classes and my students have found it to be a valuable tool fool as they evaluated their own classes as to their level of 21st Century qualities.

Look these over and use them to review your own classes.  How can you improve your teaching?

  • 20th Century Education is teacher-centered with a fragmented curriculum and students working in isolation memorizing facts.
  • 21st Century Education is student-centered with real-life, relevant, collaborative project-based learning.


20th Century Classroom Qualities
21th Century Classroom Qualities
Time-based
Outcome-based
Focus:  memorization of discrete facts
Focus:  What students Know, Can Do and Are Like after all the details are forgotten.
Lessons focus on the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy – knowledge, comprehension and application.
Learning is designed on upper levels of Blooms’ – synthesis, analysis and evaluation (and include lower levels as curriculum is designed down from the top.)
Textbook-driven (content comes from textbooks)
Research-driven (content comes from student research)
Passive learning
Active Learning
Learners work in isolation – classroom within 4 walls
Learners work collaboratively with classmates and others around the world – the Global Classroom
Teacher-centered:  teacher is center of attention and provider of information
Student-centered:  teacher is facilitator/coach
Little to no student freedom
Great deal of student freedom
“Discipline problems" – educators do not trust students and vice versa.  No student motivation.
No “discipline problems” – students and teachers have mutually respectful relationship as co-learners; students are highly motivated.
Fragmented curriculum
Integrated and Interdisciplinary curriculum
Grades averaged
Grades based on what was learned
Low expectations
High expectations – “If it isn’t good it isn’t done.”  We expect, and ensure, that all students succeed in learning at high levels.  Some may go higher – we get out of their way to let them do that.
Teacher is judge.  No one else sees student work.
Self, Peer, and Other assessments.  public audience, authentic assessments.
Curriculum/School is irrelevant and meaningless to the students.
Curriculum is connected to students’ interests, experiences, talents, and the real world.
Print is the primary vehicle of learning and assessment.
Performances, projects, and multiple forms of media are used for learning and assessment
Diversity in students is ignored.
Curriculum and instruction address student diversity
Literacy is the 3 R’s – reading, writing and math
Multiple literacies of the 21st century – aligned to living and working in a globalized new millennium.
Factory model, based upon the needs of employers for the Industrial Age of the 19th century.  Scientific management.
Global model, based upon the needs of a globalized, high-tech society.
Driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.

Standardized testing has its place.  Education is not driven by the NCLB and standardized testing mania.
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