Critical Thinking on the Web with Alan November

As a member of a team beginning a 1-to-1 laptop program at ISBangkok, I was part of a meeting with Educational Technology consultant Alan November. I knew nothing about him other than what I just described, and I have to report a pretty fascinating meeting.

I walked in hoping to have a consultant take a unit and 1-to-1-ify it. Instead he started off saying the most important thing to teach kids about computers/internet was critical thinking on the web. He started us off with a mock unit plan for the following topic:

How did different countries respond to the crisis in Haiti?

As a Math/Science teacher, I thought first of data and statistics that could be used in a math lesson. At that point, our team sidetracked and wondered about the math curriculum our school had recently adopted, Connected Math Project 2.

Alan showed us the computational knowledge engine, Wolfram Alpha, which he said essentially takes care of the mechanics of math forever. He was able to demonstrate that it could produce steps to solve math problems, not just give final answers. When we protested that we wanted our students to understand the math, not just produce it from the internet, he showed us an interesting technology way of demonstrating understanding. Students would make a screencast of the Wolfram Alpha results of a math problem and record themselves explaining the steps to solve the problem. Alan's choice of screencasting software was Camtasia Studio.

Link to My Own Example of a Math Screencast a-la Alan November

Another point Alan November made about the use of laptops in Math was for simple homework practice. He referred to research on influences on student learning done by John Hattie which found that instant feedback was one of the most significant influences on learning. The connection was that students could do self-scoring homework online rather than correcting it in class the next day, a day after that by the teacher, or never. Thanks to our school's Moodle, we are able to concur with Alan's point, because we have started using self-scoring homework and are encouraged by the results to continue using and improving it.

Finally, we returned to the initial Haiti example. Alan shared some Google search tricks, such as "zooming in" on links from a particular country by using a country code in a search including the "site command", for example, "site: hn" for Honduras. During one of his searches, he found a relevant link at the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I believe. What he showed us was a link on the page that he said was gold. It was the "Contact Us" link. This link he said allows kids to interact with real people in the world. Via Skype they can have conversations with experts. They can record these phone conversations, edit them, and finally upload them as podcasts to iTunes to share with world. (His two technical notes were that the audio file must first be loaded to blog, and that Skype calls can be recorded with a piece of software called Audio Hijack Pro (on Macs)

He also briefly showed an example of validating a website. Honestly, it went by so quickly, I don't remember the details, but one idea was that through checking what pages link to a particular page, one can evaluate the particular page. He used Alta Vista and explained that it was better suited to this end.

While he showed these examples, he summed up the big picture by saying that one of our main goals should be teaching kids basic architecture of information, the grammar of Google. Doing this could be a learning for G6.

It was a very rich hour and a half and the list goes on. I'll summarize the last few items briefly.

He mentioned new classroom jobs of the technology age - tutorial designer, daily scribe, and he didn't get to what he said were an additional four. Each of the jobs would need to be taught, just as teachers teach anything else. He acknowledged that tutorials were work intensive and should be started using a volunteer system, which kids would sign up for once they saw how cool a tutorial was. In this context he also mentioned freeware for animation/movie making called Scratch that was created and run by MIT.

He showed an example of making a documentary using a screencast of Google Maps street view. He narrated while he panned Google's street cam along the road. It was as if he had been on the road with a hand-held video camera. This was probably the "coolest" use of technology he showcased. His example was for a Social Studies report about the Battle of Lexington (US History).

He showed an example of discussions that can go on via the web surrounding a video posted on a Ning.

He showed examples of posting pictures on Flickr and let students tag the image with overlays - This he called "no end to creativity."

When a concern arose about authentic audiences for student work, he mentioned that another way to get students connected rather than have them post on a blog and wait for the world to comment, was to got to a major website with extensive traffic and comment there, for example CNN's blog.

His ultimate message was that technology was a tool to to reach the goal of personalized education. He made a convincing case that there was ample information technology to begin moving Education in that direction.

Google Docking for Feedback, Collaboration, and Managing Assignments

I've always dreaded the paper trail of teaching.

Collecting papers. Marking on papers. Returning papers. Taking up second drafts. Rewrites. Edits. Corrections. All on paper. Lost papers. Damaged papers. Sloppy papers.

In the "dark" pre-Google-Doc ages, I started trying to circumvent that with emailed word documents. Then when our school's Moodle opened, I had students upload files to a page on the Moodle where I could open and read them. After a few edits, I could post the new file back for the student to download.

Still too many files floating around.

Now I'm experimenting with Google Docs. I distribute papers to student via Google Docs. They work on the tasks, mostly writing tasks, and I see their work while they are doing it. Best of all, I can leave feedback on the draft-in-progress. I feel like my feedback gets more attention than when I write comments/corrections on students printed drafts.

Here's an example of a student's work that I gave feedback to. Her work addresses my feedback, but the feedback has not been deleted. She changed the font color of the questions so they would stand out from her answers. I used a third and fourth color for two separate feedback sessions.

Copy Of Wasted Water Experiment Questions

View more documents from herrmann73.

Then there's the student-student wiki function of a Google Doc that works so well. In the example below, I asked students to populate a table with presumed identities of mystery mixtures and with evidence from lab tests they used to come up with their conclusions. Students could compare conclusions and evidence from their classmates. Some identities were ambiguous. After sorting the data in the table, we were able to have a class discussion around the discrepancies. (Unfortunately the formatting of the table was lost when uploading the file to SlideShare, but you get the gist.)

Panther Pop Mixtures Class Conclusions

View more documents from herrmann73.

I've already reduced paper usage and paper management issues by going to Google Docs for student work. Below is a screen capture of Google Docs' file management box. As easy as any Windows Explorer system.

Looking forward to next year's 1-to-1 program and using Google Docs full-time for all its advantages.

Trialing Science Blogging

With the ultimate goal of connecting two classrooms across the Pacific to share and discuss science experiments, my fellow teacher next door and I embarked on a trial run with our own students. Our first step was to simulate the cross-Pacific relationship by having our own classrooms blog with each other about a common science experiment to determine various snail preferences. For our purposes, we limited preference options for each of our classes so that they would not have conducted the same experiments as their classmates next door. The hope was to simulate the kind of blog conversations that they might have with students from other schools. We planned to begin working with these other schools once we felt comfortable with some basic procedures about documenting and blogging.

The most exciting aspect of the ultimate phase of our project was for students to share experiments with each other as their audience rather than with the teacher or fellow classmates who likely conducted a similar, if not the same, experiment. Their questions could be answered and discussed by fellow 6th grade scientists across the world. They could describe their procedures for students who did not know them and who might seek to reproduce them in their own schools. 6th grade science had a potential for authenticity we had rarely seen in our own teaching and classrooms.

I will let the student blogs below to give you some details about what the experiments were about. But I can report that guiding an experiment while students took and uploaded photos to their blogs was entirely overwhelming. Even with a technology piece as theoretically simple as digital photography, the management of this on top of the management of a science experiment was enough work for at least two teachers. Science experiment issues (uncooperative animal specimen) were compounded by some technology troubleshooting issues, and we just about gave up.

Unfortunately, we were only a few days away from the end of the semester, and we lost momentum in the chaotic final days before the Winter break. But below are photos posted to the blogs of the team digital documenter(s). I believe only one group out of 6 was not represented by the photos posted to the blogs linked below. Better than I expected while in the chaos of the moment. Have a look and see a first pass at sharing a science experiment via a blog post.

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/miom/science/

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/briane/category/science/

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/celinae/2009/12/14/our-snail-experiment/

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/nicoleg/page/2/

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/teganm/2009/12/14/science/

http://blogs.isb.ac.th/nicolekrause/2009/12/14/science/

Embedding Tech Standards into a Non-Tech-Class Unit Plan

Technology standards are currently so broad and all-embracing that embedding them into a semester of Science was a natural fit. I think this reflects the fact that the tech standards define themselves as tools for a set of skills that are universal (as far as education is concerned).

For example, communication is a standard that probably exists in every content area. In the case of science, communication is one of the important parts. After all, it's been said scientific research is worth very little if it isn't communicated to others. So meeting the communication standard of technology is easy. The added bonus of blogs and similar technology is that students can communicate their experiments to others who have not witnessed their experiments. In my current classroom, communication is somewhat artificial because the students and I conduct the same experiment and all know what our results. My hope is that by communicating with a classroom of students who were not involved in the same experiment, their communication becomes more authentic. I would hope students to see what it means to explain procedures and results clearly and why it's necessary.

The standard of collaboration was also an easy fit for science experiments and one that seems applicable to many school assignments. 6th grade science is not an one-student affair. Students work with a partner to conduct experiments. Linking two classrooms with blogs allows my students to solicit feedback about hypotheses and experimental designs from other students with different perspectives. Collaboration in 6th grade science has a chance to expand outside the classroom walls.

Ultimately, embedding a technology standard into a non-technology course is as natural as embedding a standard about students using language (e.g. how to explain, persuade, etc.) into any course besides English. Technology, or language, gets used across the curriculum regularly without standards being identified, because technology or language is a tool. The technology standards are written in a way that makes them easy to identify as being used in a content area classroom.

Managing Technology Peripherals

Aside from the SmartBoard, my most frequently used technology peripherals (from the perspective of the Tech and Info literacy) are cameras and cell phones, which I use with my students for identical purposes--taking pictures and capturing video. It turns out students these days are likely to have cameras on their cell phones, which has been a great help, since students are not as likely to leave their cell phones at home as they might their digital cameras. Students also won't have parents worrying about them taking the family camera to school.


As with all technology devices, there are some details that I have learned to be aware of while using cameras and cell phones.


1. In general, transfering the pictures/videos to computers can be a hassle.


A. Often these devices store data on memory cards. Computers need card readers to be able to access this data. Sometimes the memory card does not fit the card reader, but students have fortunately turned up with adapters. In either case, a test is necessary because some computers cannot read the data even when they "see" the memory card. Other times students need cables to transfer the data from their camera/cell phone to computers.


B. There are similar issues with the data, but the need for a cable requires students to keep track of one more item besides their camera/cell phone. Ideally, all phones will eventually connect to the internet at which point images/videos can be posted directly online or emailed.


2. On many cell phones, image quality is an issue when a video is used on a computer. I've seen videos that looked spectacular on a cell phone turn to a jerky, accelerated, pixelated mess. We didn't make much of an effort to fix this problem, just tried transfering it a few different ways, none of which made a difference. Fortunately, there are many cell phones that work fine, and I expect they will only improve with time.


Areas where I have not focused as much time with peripherals are the typical class management areas. Typical class management that one would associate with any piece of class equipment, for example, a technology peripheral before computers had the monopoly on the word technology. A microscopes is the main one I use through science class. And every teacher knows that class management specifies all sorts of appropriate procedures for the use of such equipment: proper usage, storage, maintenance, etc. In the case of cell phones and digital cameras, my use has been casual and that has led to occasional chaos regarding who has whose memory card, cable, adapter, etc. It's time I used appropriate procedures for the use of equipment with which students are so familiar.


It's also about time I fully integrated a document camera into my teaching. It replaces the overhead projector and allows students to display their paper directly to the class without the use of plastic transparencies. ISBangkok has purchased some for the teachers and I have one at my disposal. Jonothan Steenwijk, fellow ISB teacher and COETAILer, blogges about the power of his in his math lessons. It is a low maintenance peripheral with relatively simple management since students barely touch it. I imagine that I only need to set it up, and after that there would be no further management issues. Hopefully, when I blog again, I will have already integrated it to my lessons.

Classroom Laptop Use & A Best Practice to Add

Laptop carts are a classic case of an area where students might accumulate, linger and get rowdy. With each cart being accessible to realistically only two students at a time (even that many constitute a crowd), when more than two students try to get laptops from the cart, there is inevitably conflict. I should say that I'm speaking of 6th and 7th graders. To minimize crowding and potential conflict, I ask that students take turns to collect laptops, with students waiting until the group before them has collected their computers.

With my students, there are also issues of proper care, so I have assigned them a number which corresponds to a computer on a particular cart. Students know that they are accountable for their particular computer and if theirs is not properly stored or located, they will have to check the entire cart before leaving on the following day.

As we at ISBangkok are not a one-to-one school regarding computers, we share the carts between classrooms. Often computers arrive non-functional or without a charged battery. Sometimes one computer's wireless card isn't working. Sometimes one computer does not load a student's profile. Rather than solve the problem by asking students to double up, I make sure to have extra computers on hand so that a student can use a back-up computer if necessary. I'd say that the need for extra computers comes up at least once each class.

Beyond these basic practices of mine, I've gotten some new ideas from a blog post at Design 4 Learning called 23 Things about Classroom Laptops. One has been to not use labtops like textbooks. When I've done some writing activities, I've asked students to use a Word Document because I feel they spend more time and give the writing more care than if they handwrite it. But I'm missing out on the opportunity for students to include images, videos and links to various related websites. In other words, I've been using the laptop a bit like a textbook, when I should be maximizing it's usage and letting kids "go digital," which would no doubt be more engaging to them. I could imagine that a student would take more pride and more stake in the writing portion of an assignment if they were generally more motivated in the assignment because it included multimedia.

Relevance of NETs for Teachers and Admins

How relevant are the NETs for Teachers and Administrators to being a "Good Educator" today?

The NETs for Teachers is as general as the NETS for students, in that if you removed the technology piece, those standards could come from an Ed Psych textbook from a teacher prep program. Insert the word digital or technology and you have NETs for Teachers. Few people would argue with their validity.

Who could imagine being a Good Educator without facilitating learning or inspiring creativity? The same is true for authentic learning experiences; modeling the use of a tool or a skill; citizenship or responsibility; and professional growth. This list comes directly from the NETs for Teachers.

As in the NETs for Students, technology is a cross-curricular vehicle for these qualities of a good educator.

I haven't read any literature on educational administration, but once again, the list of NETs for Administrators reads like a commonly-accepted list of qualities of good administrators: vision, a culture of learning, professional learning, school improvement, and citizenship. Just insert technology and you have good DIGITAL qualities of administrators. Would anybody argue with those?

Honestly, NETs almost seem too simple to be Earth shattering. Technology has always been a tool/means for humans to meet objectives. I don't believe NETs is proposing anything new in that respect. ISTE seems to be steering clear from the fact that educational technology is an end in itself. It's just the most current means to achieve the ends that education deems appropriate. Am I missing something here?