Since I’ve not been updating this blog regularly in a long time, and I have no plans of doing so in the immediate future, I’m pulling the plug for a while. I may be back in the future…I may not. Flip a coin and see what happens.
This is a very simple way of getting your technology to work for you, instead of you for it. RSS feeds are great means of getting and keeping students informed. Many of you may already be doing this, but it surprises me how many otherwise tech-savvy colleagues are completely unaware of these, to say nothing of how they work or how to use them. I use a blog for lesson description and reminders in my history and government classes. My students can access their assigned readings, participate in discussions, and listen to my lectures if they want or need to. I have also posted my syllabus, various course-related materials, and numerous links there. Pretty standard stuff.
Our students use iBooks, and the only browser they can use on them is Safari – which has a great, built-in RSS reader. Firefox does, too. I have no idea about the newest version of IE — I replaced my Dell over the summer with an iMac. Anyway, I have my students bookmark the course blog homepage RSS feed — Safari and Firefox both show the RSS icon in the URL window, and clicking on it reveals the feed for that page. So I have the kids bookmark those on their Bookmarks bar — that way when I update my blogs my students are automatically notified — in a place that is front & center on their screen when online — that something is new. I also have them do this for my class wikis. Even if your students don’t have laptops, you could provide the how-to information to your students for home use.
I prefer to use theoe browsers for the RSS feeds I read most often. Bloglines works well for things that I want to check daily or weekly, but for those things — like the news — that I check throughout the day, it’s most convenient for me to have those feeds bookmarked right on the Bookmarks bar, making new posts obvious.
Virtually none of my students — maybe 1 in 20 — knew how to make this happen on their own. It took a few minutes of a lesson one day, and now my motivated kids are getting on with their work without me needing to tell them. Some show up for class already having perused our work for the day, and they get started right away. It’s a building process, of course, but one that is paying off already. Anything I can use to help my students become more self-sufficient is good.
As I said, maybe this bit of advice seems silly for many of you out there — and believe you me, I am Mr. Junior Blogger in Training, still trying to make trackbacks work right. But don’t fault me if you think this is too obvious; others don’t, and when we assume that they — our students, their parents, our colleagues — know about the latest *stuff* without being sure, we’re creating problems for them and ourselves.
Thoughts?
jdg
After reading Will Richardson’s 27 OCT post, I got to thinking about finding and cataloging information online, which was a springboard in my head to one of my greatest priorities in selecting and sticking with software and other systems; this latter piece is what this post is about.
First, some context. I recently had an interesting meeting with the president of a relatively prominent K12 online subscription service. I know that sounds cryptic, but I don’t want to drop names, and I don’t want to seem like I’m taking shots at something that others may find useful.
Anyway, some years ago my district bought a subscription to a web-based system that made a great many promises, and looked very promising — but after fiddling with it for a month or so, I determined that its clunky interface and (IMHO) unreliability made it a waste of time for me. So I stopped using it. Many other teachers did the same. When we were in the final planning stages for Empire I looked at it again, having read about all manner of improvements and such and such — and found it to be the same clunky, unreliable dog. So I decided to ignore it henceforth.
Last week the president of the company visited our district, and Empire, to talk to our IT people, administrators at various levels, and some teachers about how the system could be improved. So while my student teacher did a great job with one of my Government classes, I found myself sitting in a conference room explaining, along with another teacher, why we didn’t like the product, and therefore why we didn’t use it. It boiled down, in large part, to these two issues: the interface & organization weren’t intuitive, and required too much clicking and checking and clicking again — so that made using the system irritating and unnecessarily time-consuming. And second, the product of the system was not always delivered in a form that we found useful, and sometimes was not available at all — hence my comment that it was unreliable. We chose (and still choose) to not use the system at all.
The president listened, and took notes, and asked some questions, and then started to tell us how “easy” the system was, and how well it worked….to which I responded that if it was so easy, we’d have figured it out already. I don’t think this individual got it — you’ve all had that, right? You just know when the listener does not really understand what you’re saying, and what your comments really mean. I, and other teachers on two campuses in our district, had mostly agreed that the system was not easy to use — case closed…regardless of how “easy” the president thought it was, we disagreed. I don’t think that sunk in.
My issue with the service was, and is, this: whether it works or not is irrelevant at this point. I already sunk time into it, and couldn’t get it to do what I needed, in a form that made sense to me, so I dumped it. I have long since found an excellent resource to take its place — and this one is intuitive, reliable, and flexible. So why waste my time? If the technology isn’t transparent, I just don’t have time for it.
When I first started using a computer, it was pre-DOS. The first computer I owned was an Apple IIc (w/128k RAM!!). I remember the non-GUI computing world — I programmed in BASIC and Pascal. I remember word processors that had a steep learning curve to climb before any papers could be typed.
Happily, those days are gone for most users — computers are supposed to be easy for the non-techie. I am a teacher first, and so anything that takes time away from that function, when I need to perform it, is bad. I’ve taken just enough Econ to appreciate the concept of opportunity cost. Thus, my need for transparent technology: tech that’s so intuitive, flexible, and reliable that it fades into the background so my students and I can get down the real business at hand.
I think it’s easy to get caught up in trying to find the latest tech for the classroom — and lose sight of the students in that classroom. If the tech truly improves the quality of the experience and the outcome, use it. If the tech absorbs more resources (in time and effort, at least) than it can add on the end, why bother?
Thoughts?
jdg
I just read an interesting post about the struggle between freedom and uniformity in teaching. The author made the point that the best and worst teachers seem to want to same degree of freedom — for obvious reasons. Those in the middle, I’d assume, are happy with a lesser degree of freedom because its absence comes with some amount of pre-packaged (read: mindless) content, lessons, and outcomes.
If teaching inputs — that is, what teachers do and how — are a prime mover in determining student output (hopefully learning!), then this is an important issue, and alongside it the issue of teacher freedom in the age of hyper-accountability and top-down regulation.
What do you think? I don’t have time at this moment to add more, but I will within a day or two.
jdg
I just commented on Cathy Nelson’s blog on the issue of keeping up with current tech trends and possibilities — especially those presented by Web 2.0 technologies. I got to thinking about how I try to do just that: demonstrate to students the value of the technologies, and their potential, by using them myself. I think, however, that we’re putting process before product if we just focus on the technology — it needs to be leveraged to create better learning opportunities, which in turn should lead to greater learning on the part of the students.
I realized that my very recent foray into 2.0 tech (about a month and ticking) is just that — well, at least I think it is. I’m using a Wiki to help my advanced students (in a dual-enrollment American history course) write a college-level research paper. In order to model both use of the technology and research skills — as well as the creation of a final product — I’m going through the same process they are, and am writing a paper along with them. By using the Wiki, I can easily post updates, and they can all see that I’m working through the same steps they are, at the same time. Additionally, we’re using the individual Wiki pages within the space as workspaces for my students to research, draft, revise, and finalize their papers.
Check it out if you’re interested.
jdg
First off, I’m not going to answer that question, because I don’t know the answer — and I don’t think anyone else knows it, either. What is achievement? And how is it measured? Is it test scores? Class grades? An internal sense of accomplishment by students? A subjective “he knows what he’s talking about” nod from a teacher? I don’t know, for sure, and I’m not going to go into what I think right here.
What I am going to comment on is the notion that computers — especially in 1-to-1 programs like that at Empire High School where I work — make for a better school. After all, Empire is an ‘excelling’ school, according to our test scores, and we’re only in our third year. Isn’t it because of the computers, and the fact that every student has one?
Apple will tell you it does…well, only if you use their products, I suppose (and note that I do use Apple computers, but I have not had a sip of the Apple koolaid). Some university researchers last year said computers don’t improve achievement (of course, they didn’t really define achievement, either). And here’s another perspective.
What do you think? I’ve got my hunch — what’s the prevailing attitude out there? What’s your evidence?
jdg
I think I’ve just realized that a Wiki might be a more fitting forum for what I’m trying to do: share ideas about edtech and inquiry-based learning. It seems that blogger culture demands short posts, bursting with links to others’ blogs. I’ll do that here, but I think the Wiki I’m working on now will be the best place for me to post fully-fleshed out ideas and lessons. I’ve only posted something workable on the ‘Planning’ page, and that’s for an inservice workshop I’m giving to some of our teachers this week. If you have some ideas…contribute them! I’m interested in seeing where this leads. I can’t promise I’ll keep everything that people post on that wiki, but if it’s supposed to be all about collaboration and professional sharing, then let’s do it.
I really think that Web 2.0 can change how we teach, and how our kids learn, if we take the time to incorporate these simple technologies into our lessons and teaching — we just need to share ideas and get creative.
jdg
Here’s a plug for the “Last Flight Home,” a documentary I just had the privilege of seeing. It’s about ongoing efforts to recover the remains of American servicemen lost in the Pacific — specifically the Palau Islands. That may sound a little esoteric, but it’s not. It’s probably the most compassionate, human story I’ve heard about WW2, combining solid history with family interviews and footage of recovery expeditions launched over the last 10 years.
If you teach the war form a traditional big picture view, and need a way to make it more personal — more alive at the individual level — this could be it. If you’re more interested in the human/social history aspects of the war, this is perfect, and would provide a means to tie that side of the war to the military events that comprised it.
It’s just over an hour, and covers three different sub-stories, each focused on efforts to find the remains of one aircraft and its crew, so you could easily show only parts of it in order to fit into your bell schedule.
I met the directors and the guy who is behind the recovery expeditions (doing it out of his own pocket) when they screened the film at the Pima Air and Space Museum in September. The screening coincided with the annual reunion of VMF-114, a USMC fighter squadron that operated off of Peleliu, in the Palau Islands, from 1944-45. They all thought it was outstanding, and I figure that if a group of veterans put their stamp on it, it’s worth seeing.
jdg
Okay, thus far I’ve focused on inquiry-based learning, a little edtech, and a lesson — all pretty serious, sober stuff. And this lesson is no different, although it may seem otherwise.
Let me be direct: I think Iron Maiden is one of the best bands out there, and probably the best heavy metal band, period. And metal is great stuff — and far more cerebral than you might think (go here to see how!).
Anyway, that said, this is a lesson I used two years ago for a freshman World History class. Since the course was of the survey sort, we had too little time to do too much, and I needed to blaze through Alexander so I could get to Rome — bt I wanted to do something that would pique the kids’ interest, and maybe push them out of their comfort zones a bit. Enter Iron Maiden’s great historical tune, ‘Alexander the Great,’ off their 1986 album ‘Somewhere in Time.’ If you read the lyrics you’ll see that they tell the story of his life — or at least sketch out the high points (minus Oliver Stone’s take on the poor guy). I had my students write L1 and L2 questions for each line of the song (see my LoQ post for information about that if you’re scratching you head right now), then guided them to the ABC-CLIO Ancient History database to hunt for answers. The questions varied depending on the student, but there were some that were universal (what 9th-grader knows about the Scythians?), but there was variety among the students, based on prior knowledge & extent of vocabulary knowledge.
As a final product I had the kids create a glossary of terms and concepts, based on the answers to their LoQs from the lyrics, and put together a visual (either on paper or digitally — all the students have laptops at Empire) showing Alexander’s travels & exploits. On the day it was due I played the song for them in class, and given the interest among the current crop of students in classic metal (their parents’ music), it went over famously.
See? Historical inquiry, laptops, and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal can produce great learning outcomes — that’s what I call synergy.
jdg
ps: Maiden has a slew of historically–oriented songs, ranging from ancient mythology to WW2. And you can stream parts of the songs directly from their website..but if you want the full experience, you need to buy the CDs.
I decided, after my two-week fall break (see our great calendar here) that I needed a new category — “Lessons” — with which I could post short blurbs about lessons I have taught that I thought worked. I figure that teachers — the greatest thieves of intellectual property — would enjoy this. And feel free to use my ideas if you like them, and comment on them f you’d like.
I’ll post my take on Alexander the Great within a few days…I’ve had much better luck teaching him through heavy metal (the music…) than any other means.
jdg
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