Review of A New Culture of Learning

For a grad school class I am taking we were assigned to read A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. This book explains that three fundamental exercises: Play, Questioning, and Imagination are vital for learning to occur in our classrooms.  They argue the need to incorporate the principles into our classrooms is due to the fact that our world is changing and that innovation will be the key to a child's success in their future.  After the first few chapters I was intrigued with the ideas of "cultivating minds" of the learners in our classrooms and setting up learning experiences to encourage collectives to form.  I found myself unconvinced by the end of the book that their ideas are new or applicable to a classroom.
Most of their ideas remind me of John Dewey's work and other experiential education advocates.  Their description of tactic versus explicit learning made me think of Dewey's work that was written a hundred years ago, yet the authors failed to mention him or use his work to support their points.  I whole-heartedly agree that experiential education is the right choice for our classrooms, but I am still searching for a way to set up more experiential experiences and still maintain a high expectation for content understanding.  We still need people to know things.  Doctors need to know the symptoms of diseases for the patients they will see and understand the treatment for the disease.  Lawyers need to know and understand the law.  Service industry personnel need to know and understand the information and skills necessary to perform their jobs.  In many instances the skills needed for the professions in our world aren't changing and at what point do we just accept that a kid needs to memorize 2 + 2 is four?

Thomas and Brown also spend a considerable part of their book arguing that games such as World of Warcraft offer the youth and adult communities opportunities for learning.  Although they provide examples of the collective learning that takes place within these games I find myself unconvinced that playing these games for hours on end are a good use of time for our citizens.  I kept waiting for Thomas and Brown to provide evidence of the gamers using the skills they learned within the games to contribute to the actual world community (rather than only their virtual community) in a positive and productive way but that evidence was never presented.  The negatives of kids getting addicted to these games and the high correlation of depression with devoting a great deal of time to playing the games makes the possible positives of the learning that occurs (but maybe not even transferred) within the game not worth it to me.


I will implement some of the ideas Thomas and Brown presented in their book.  I specifically liked their reflections about feedback in that the feedback should lead to a desire to improve.  I plan to incorporate this concept in my classroom this year by using feedback with students not just to indicate whether they got the correct answer or not, but also to challenge them to improve in many skills a science class lends itself to.

Overall, I felt that I was reading a lecture about not lecturing.  If play, questioning, and imagination are the keys to learning, how could the authors have used this format in their book to demonstrate their point?  If knowing, making, and playing are vital skills, then what journey could the authors have taken me on so that I could know, make, and play so that I could move forward with not just explicit knowledge (as they indicate is not valuable), but rather an experience with tactic knowledge.  I wish that this book had relevant examples for how to implement their ideas about experiential education into classrooms.  Although I agree with many of the concepts in the book, I could not recommend it to a colleague for the many things I found myself wanting from this book that weren't there.

Source: 
 Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning, cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Createspace.

Digital Citizenship

"Michael Rich, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston who directs the Center on Media and Child Health, said that with media use so ubiquitous, it was time to stop arguing over whether it was good or bad and accept it as part of children’s environment, “like the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat.”     - The Journal 


According to a 2009 Keiser Family Foundation study, kids are spending an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes per day consuming media (Generation M2 Report, 2009).  This means students are spending around 53 hours per week watching videos, television, surfing the Internet, playing video games, texting their friends, commenting on Facebook, listening to music, watching Youtube videos, and much more.  This is more time than an adult spends at a full time job during the week. The internet is growing and changing more rapidly than I (or most of us I suspect) can wrap our minds around.  Because of this students find themselves facing different challenges than previous generations have faced.  


Here are just a few of the challenges kids currently face:
1/3 of kids have been victims of cyber bullying (Commonsense media, 2012).  A kid no longer has to worry about dealing with bullies at school, but now kids can post harmful words and pictures on public sites such as Facebook.  Kids can find themselves receiving hateful text messages. 


1/3 of Kids have sexted which means they have sent or received inappropriate photos of themselves or messages about their explicit behavior (ABC News, 2010).


23% of kids (31% of males) report feeling addicted to video games.  They are not making this up.   A study by PLoS One has found that the same regions of the brain that causes drug addiction are the same ones that are used when kids play video games (Sevege, 2012).

Kids can purchase items impulsively through the internet. 


Kids are constantly asked to provide personal information to companies. 


Colleges and Employers check digital reputations to make acceptance decisions.  We live in an age where what a kid posts on the internet at 14 can have lifelong consequences.  

According to the 2009 Keiser Family Foundation  there is a high correlation between heavy media use and depression, and there is a high correlation between low media use and happiness and satisfaction (Generation M2 Report, 2009).

Here is a document Microsoft created highlighting many of the challenges kids face in our connected generation. 

Thinking about this is daunting and makes me glad I grew up in the 90's and didn't have to face any of this.  What can we do?  We can incorporate digital citizenship into our curriculum.  According to Ann Collier, the editor of Net Family News.org says "digital Citizenship is "critical thinking and ethical choices about the content and impact on oneself, others, and one's community of what one sees, says, and produces with media, devices, and technologies" (Collier, 2011)  We can teach students how to use technology for empowerment rather than only as entertainment. We can teach them how to sift through the vast amount of information on the internet and how to cite sources properly.  We can teach them how to responsibly create their digital footprint, and how to manage their time in a healthy way.  We can help them learn the permanent consequences of pressing send and how what they write on the internet or in texts is written in pen not pencil. We can teach students that cyber bullying is real and that sexting isn't safe. 

·         

 I have created an action plan for the boarding school community I work at, and I have attached it below.  This is a video for the administrators of our Health, Wellness, and Community Life (HWCL) curriculum at our school that demonstrates the need for these topics to be included in our HWCL curriculum)




 

Digital Citizenship Action Plan
Digital Citizenship Contract by Andrew Churches from edorigami
Digital Citizenship Student Survey
Digital Citizenship Scenarios


Links
Does Internet Addiction Change Teens Brains?

Keiser Family Foundation Generation M2 Report
     Want a quick summary of their findings?  Click here.

I Keep Safe

Common Sense Media

New York Times: Teaching about the Web includes Troublesome Parts

New York Times: If Your Kid is Awake they are Probably Online


Text unto Others as You Would Have Them Text Unto You


Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship

Sources:

ABC News. (2009, March 13). The consequences of sexting [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/consequences-sexting-7080436 

Common Sense Media (2012). Stand Up to Cyberbullying. Retrieved July 28, 2012 http://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying

I Keep Safe (2012). Sexting. Retrieved from http://www.ikeepsafe.org/articles/sexting/.  

Keiser Family Foundation. (2009). Report: generation M2: media in the lives of 8-18-year-olds.  Retrieved July 28, 2012, from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/8010.cfm

Sevege, Jenn (2012). Does internet addiction change teens brains? Retrieved July 28, 2012 from http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/does-internet-addiction-disorder-change-teens-brains

Special thanks to the following sites for photos for the video: 
Http://markdownworkin.com
http://stopthehateofcyberbullying.blogspot.com
http://uthmag.com/cyber-bullying/
http://n4bb.com
http://buzzaboutgames.com
http://Marketingallinclusive.com
Http://earnmoney-veryeasy.blogspot.com
http://chiropracticunderground.com
http://analyhighschool.org
http://Bybassfacebookfanpages.com
http://Clevland.cbs.com
http://writeforhr.com

Which Technology Tool to Use?

Trying to find technology tools to try in a classroom can be incredibly overwhelming. Our life as educators are incredibly busy and time is one thing we never seem to have enough of.  Therefore investing the energy and time in finding tools and then developing new projects seems to be something we can put off.  This seems contrary to our hope for students in that we want them to be life long learners, and yet we ourselves can be reluctant to keep up with the latest research and tools in our field.  As I reflect about this, I think that it might be part of why many kids fail to become lifelong learners. The kids watch us and follow what we do way more often than what we say.  If we demonstrate that WE are lifelong learners by staying up-to-date by learning and incorporating the new tools in our practice I wonder if the kids will be more receptive and more apt to follow our example.

So where to start?  First off, why should we take some of the fun in planning lessons and experiences away from the kids?  The internet and the many applications make it easier than ever before to give kids control over their own learning.  We could develop a question, topic, or problem and challenge the kids to collaborate and use a new technology tool in their answer, lesson, or solution.  Giving control to the kids seems really scary though.  In my education I was taught to have clear learning goals for the kids, and the learning outcomes from this method seem a little messy and more difficult to measure. Therefore we need to redefine what we want the kids to know, and it has to start by being more than content knowledge. David Dunbar from the Masters School in New York asked me "why do we love planning and not grading?"  I have been mulling over this question and I believe giving kids the opportunity to take ownership in using the technology and designing experiences and projects will have them create things I can't wait to read and watch and offer feedback about.

I recently watched a video produced by RSA about what motivates us.  I was shocked to find out that offering incentives such as money actually hinders people from doing good work.  Studies have repeatedly shown that when money is offered to try to get people to do better and more thoughtful work that the exact opposite occurs - they do worse with the incentive.  Scientists have found that people are motivated by three things:

             1. Autonomy
             2. A desire to improve
             3. Work that has a purpose



This could be why "paying" kids with high grades doesn't stimulate better, more creative, or more thoughtful work.  Instead we as educators need to make the work meaningful, give them opportunities and feedback in how they can improve, and the autonomy to create and have ownership over their learning. If this happens we no long have students in our classrooms but rather a collective formed by learners. Technology makes this dream more of a reality than ever before.

With this in mind I have created a Prezi to highlight some of the tools available and how they can be used by teachers and learners. Everything about our society is changing because of technology.  Learning both in and out of our classrooms can not only be improved but rather transformed by utilizing the tools available. Conversations can be extended beyond the class period, and the kids have the opportunity to present their work to their peers and the world.  Their words, videos, virtual posters, and stories matter more now because their work is valuable and they are accountable to more people than only their teacher their self. The teacher and learners more so than ever before can harness the power of technology and be able to form a collective and contribute in meaningful ways. 

Tech Resources for the Teacher and Learner on Prezi

I recently ran across a blog written by Sylvia Tolisano.  She has created a chart of resources that are organized by various roles in the classroom based on Alan November's Digital Farm model.

This is not an inclusive list, and in a few months to next year it will be out of date.  Subscribe to professional education blogs and have new feeds sent directly to an RSS Google Reader feed. Some examples of some professional blogs:
                             
                                         www.langwitches.org/blog/                          
                                    www.thefischbowl.blogspot.com
                                              www.pernilleripp.com
                                       www.davidwarlick.com/2cents

Joining a Professional Learning Network can help us as educators keep up with the latest tools and research available in our field.  Being a part of one can also help filter through the new tools and information on the internet.

                                                       The Educators PLN
                                                Edutopia's advice on PLNs
                           A Slideshare about Professional Learning Networks
                                           A blog about creating a PLN

Resources:

Pink, Dan., (2010) Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc.  RSA Animate.

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning, cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. CreateSpace.

The door is open, why can't I walk through?

So my summer of enlightenment continues and I find myself with more questions than answers. I have opened the door to the world of educational technology tools, but at the same time I am hesitant to go through. It looks so fancy inside and I want to enter, but some lingering questions are holding me back. I am being held back for the same reasons I am hesitant to let my sixteen-month-old daughter play with my iPad or watch television. My hesitation is mostly coming from my fear of living even more in a world without tactile stimulation. There is something really nice about writing on paper and feeling a book in my hands, even though I sit here reading articles and books on my iPad. Working math problems out on paper without a calculator is empowering and I worry the kids are not getting this experience by using calculators at such an early age. The kids think I am crazy when I tell them calculators are not allowed in my physics class and in the past few years I have witnessed the damaging effects of students relying on calculators instead of their own brain. Think about the experience of writing or receiving a handwritten note.  Why are more and more schools incorporating gardening and farming into the curriculum? There is something so great but I can't describe about "getting your hands dirty" that makes for a powerful learning experience for the kids. By integrating more and more technology into our lives and curriculum are we taking away these "human" experiences from the kids? Plus, using technology more promotes the lack of physical activity.  Physical activities such as exercise has been scientifically shown to improve the mental capabilities more so than just stretching your brain, so how can I jump on this technology train knowing that it might lead to even more sitting around and just using your brain and not your body as well?

One of my esteemed colleagues constantly reminds me that the content in her class isn't really important, but "rather the habits of mind" that are developed from doing the work is her main goal. At what point are we doing a disservice to the kids by not expecting them to sit down and do some challenging work that might not be initially interesting to them? They learn patience, resilience, and many other important lessons that come with the struggle of learning the material. Isn't it only through struggle that true learning can happen and personal growth can occur? Think if the pride felt by the learner when solving a problem he or she couldn't have dreamed to have been able to solve.  When is it necessary to be able to read a textbook and solve problems and learn how to learn stuff in an independent way? This seems to go against the 21st Century Learning expectations, thus my hesitancy to enter with both feet into this new world I see through the open door.

With all of us spending more and more time online in our online communities we are losing touch with our world and actual community, and it makes me wonder where is the balance between technology and the real world? How do utilize technology without becoming dangerously immersed in it or without as Thoreau said "becoming tools of our tools?"  One of my colleagues challenged me to question the line in which we are running technology versus when it is running us. How do we maintain high expectations for the kids and give them the opportunity to practice hard work mastering difficult concepts while still using technology in a thoughtful and meaningful way? I want to use technology in the classroom, but until I figure out where the line is for becoming too immersed, less physically connected, possibly less rigorous, and perhaps deficient in physical activity I am treading lightly in the technology ocean.

New Role of Teachers?

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the role of the teacher. Historically it seems that teachers were dispensers of information (now don't misunderstand me, I realize that teachers provide many other great things to students besides content), yet information is available everywhere and many sources are just as effective of delivering the information as I would be. Some people think that this could mean the end of teaching and they could be right. The teaching profession will most likely undergo a major transformation and it might be the end of teaching as we know it. I am struggling with a few things though. I teach biology and physics. What content is important for a student to know in these classes? The kids seem to struggle with some of the concepts and at what point do I need to become a dispenser of information? How do I balance assessment of content understanding with assessment of bigger and more valuable goals and higher level thinking? How much class time should be allotted for content and how much should be dedicated to skills, collaboration, etc?

 This makes me wonder how well I am using the time I am given with the students. The kids read the textbook for homework and then they come to class and I explain the main points. I have always thought it important for the kids to learn how to read a take notes from a textbook and this is a major skill I expect a student in my class to learn. Are textbooks the most efficient way to learn something? For decades now we have had kids read textbooks and then have to come to class so a teacher can explain it. What if knowing the content was expected before the kid came to class and that the kids had more resources than only their texts in which to learn? What if in conjunction with reading the book, the kids watched a short YouTube clip of me explaining a concept? What would we do in class? As I reflect on this most of what I do in class is help kids understand biology (with an occasional lab here and there), but with information being so readily available I am not sure that this is the best use for my time with the kids anymore.

 If the kids are going to learn the content of a class they are going to have to be held accountable for that information. They can either be held accountable by a test over the subject, or they can engage in activities that require them to use the information. Being accountable to contributing to something larger with their peers might be a better way to hold the kids accountable than giving them a test. This could serve our lowest performing students the best because they would have a reason to do their homework rather than just having to pass a test. Designing those learning experiences is challenging and something I have had no preparation or training for.

The other piece I feel unprepared to handle is knowing what to assess and how to assess it. Assessing content is easy. Even assessing application of content is easy. But we are now moving to assessing skills that aren't nearly as easy to measure. If knowing the content is only the starting point then what else am I asking the kids to do? I keep thinking about how kids rarely use feedback that we spend hours giving them. I have been thinking that the kids just aren't invested in the ultimate goal of the feedback. For example an English teacher might want a kid to become a better writer, but the kid might not know what benefits he will reap by being a better writer. In sports kids take feedback all of the time and actually use it. Why the difference? Well they know that applying the feedback will help them win a game. What if the kids were invested in the goals of the learning and knew exactly what benefits they will reap by using the feedback immediately?

How do we do this? What goals are the ones we are pushing our students to learn? How do we give feedback for this kind of work? Having time to give this kind of feedback is tough. If we could design our classes in teams (rather than individually) and have the courses laid out beforehand, that would free up a lot of time for assessment and feedback. I think it would also make me think even more about what I am assessing. Right now the majority of my time is spent planning and the grading comes last. This model would make the assessment and feedback the main way I spend my day. If I am spending the majority of my day assessing work, it is going to be pretty dull if I am mostly assessing content. The assignments are going to have to be interesting so that I want to read the work.

That brings me back again to what activities will the kids be engaged in, what skills would I be looking at, and what type of feedback would I provide? Flipping a class is not a new idea, but I believe we now have the tools to now make it a reality. The teachers role is changing and it makes me even more excited to be in this field than ever before.

21st Century Learning in My Community

The following is a video I created that highlights the 21st Century Learning in my community.

Has Technology Redefined Learning?

This is a tough question to answer. Can using technology actually make learning different? I suppose that answer depends on the definition of learning, therefore I consulted the Miriam-Webster dictionary.  It said that learning was “1: the act or experience of one that learns; 2: knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study; and finally 3: modification of a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning)” (Miriam-Webster, 2012). Can technology change the knowledge and skills acquired by instruction or study?  I teach physics and biology. Can using technology really change a student learning concepts such as Newton’s 3rd Law, or evolution?   I am hesitant to think so.  For example understanding the conservation of angular momentum is tough no matter if the student read about it in a book, on a website, or watched a Youtube video.  The act of learning that concept is identical to how it was learned fifty years ago.

So here I am arguing that technology isn’t changing learning, but at the same time taking an online class, and working to complete a Master’s degree that is completely online.  I am immersed in using technology to further advance my skills as an educator.  What I am doing would not have been possible ten years ago when I was working on my bachelors degree. I used to write papers read by only the teacher, and now I write blogs available to any internet user to read.  I used to read only a textbook and now I am reading blogs and articles, and watching videos about the questions we are exploring in addition to reading a textbook that by the way is an electronic version on my iPAD.  I used to have to create overhead slides and posters, and now we are creating videos, Voicethreads, and Prezis.  All of these experiences are much richer than completing assignments for one person.  I am exposed to multiple points of view. I now see the instructor of these courses as more of a guide and someone to give me feedback for improvement rather than someone who assigns grades to a project.  (Note that this could be due in part to a change in perspective as I am now a teacher and give feedback regularly.) I am accountable for my words to the global community, and I had better demonstrate that I know what to do with the information I am learning rather than just regurgitate the content we are learning about. I am collaborating with students living ten hours away from me to create presentations. So how can I argue that learning as an “act of experience” isn’t changing?  The long and short of it is that I can’t.

Though the content of many subjects isn’t changing, the relevance of the content is altered.  Yong Zhao says “knowledge might be the same but the relevance is different.  The relevancy depends on community and individual” (Zhao, 2009) Technology makes it possible for students to become reflective about their learning.  Metagognition aka students “thinking about their thinking” is one of the most powerful experiences we as educators can provide. Using technology such as writing a blog in which they are accountable to a global community, or having the students take group notes in a Googledoc or Typewithme file can provide the students the opportunity to see themselves as learners while also letting them become contributors rather than simply consumers. They can use the tools to demonstrate how the content of a class is applicable to their lives.


I can also argue that the connections that the content can be tied to are much stronger by using technology than it could before.  In one lesson using the Smartboard, I can use multiple Youtube videos, websites, and animations to help the kids not only understand the concept but know where it is applied in the world and to their lives. This though touches just the tip of the iceberg because so far I only describe using technology to consume content.  The students then create content by writing blogs about their lab and unit experiences.  They create podcasts and share them with our class and with the internet community.  This makes what they are learning much more valuable than the concepts were when I learned them fifteen years ago in high school.


The 21st Century Skills and the movement to incorporate technology in our education system is another reform. Education reform is just as much a part of our education system as learning and students are.  In America alone we have been arguing about what our curriculum should contain since the 1890’s and the Committee of Ten report.  In the early 1900’s John Dewey paved the road for experiential learning and argued that true learning is more than memorizing facts and that for learning to occur it must be based on a student’s actual experience.  In the 1950’s Benjamin Bloom helped design a framework for educators to use that included six levels of learning with the base being remembering and the goal and peak being evaluating and is now thought of as creating.  The qualities listed in the 21st Century Skills such as creativity, innovation, problem solving, critical thinking, and evaluation are not new, but rather skills that have been expected of students at least in this country for over 100 years.  Note, that I am not advocating to use technology just to dress the material up and make it seem fun. Technology is opening up new doors to make practicing these 21st Century skills not only possible but more relevant than they were in Dewey’s or Blooms’ time.  For example, instead of each kid taking turns coloring a poster with information to present to the class, each kid can respond to a prompt on a VoiceThread, or create a podcast and upload it to Youtube and then get feedback from their peers, teacher, community, etc.


With great gifts comes great responsibility. Technology is a gift to education, but we must use it in a thoughtful manner in our classrooms.  Many critics of using technology in the classroom argue that it is distracting and that the key to learning is engaging the kids.  Engagement can come in all forms, not only through technology. Engaging the kids has always been something that good teachers do, but technology is making engaging kids easier than ever before.  I am not saying that simply using an iPAD or the internet is engaging the learner.  If not used properly the “newness” will simply wear off or the kids will quickly complete work to get to play a game, check email, etc.  A student can learn information from a well-chosen book just as well as he can from a well-chosen website.  If we are going to incorporate technology and make using it worth the temptation of distraction and wear on a child’s willpower (of which there is a limited daily amount, for more information on this check out Willpower by Baumeister) we must use it for more than content consumption, thus we must redefine learning. After watching Alan November in Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom it is apparent that we must use the web for students to collaborate and create rather than just another place to get information. November argues that we must “redefine the work” and that “the learners must become contributors” (November, 2009)


 

Before the massive explosion on the internet a student’s life was confined mostly to her local community.  Now students are forming gaming communities with other kids from all over the world.  Their websites, blogs, videos are no different in merit or value than an adult’s.  Technology has leveled the playing field and made it possible for a students’ work to be relevant and applicable. Kids expect what they do and learn to mean something larger than being able to answer a question on a test. 

Assessing correct answers to questions on a test is a much easier task than assessing a student’s growth in collaboration, creativity, and innovation.  Just thinking about trying to assign grades in these categories makes me nervous (assuming that grades aren’t going away anytime soon and therefore must be taken into consideration), and yet if the primary advantage of using technology in our classrooms is to make growth in these areas possible, how do we blend the content knowledge assessment with the 21st Century Skills assessment.  Blooms’ taxonomy holds true today in that knowledge and understanding must come before application and evaluation, so how should the structure of our classes change to assure that all skills are being taught?  How can I use the content as a springboard to help kids improve their critical thinking and problem solving skills while at the same time assessing that they really are learning and understanding the concepts they need to know in order to move onto higher courses?


Finding the answers to these questions and implementing the solutions into our curriculum will redefine learning, and technology will be a part of that transformation.  The business community relies on technology.  Picture the last time you saw a businessman or lawyer without his or her smartphone, tablet or laptop.  Our industries such as transportation, manufacturing, and even medicine have all adopted technology to use as a resource and using the technology is transforming the way we travel, do business, engage in commerce, and even manage our health.  Why wouldn’t we expect technology to have the same transformative effect on education and learning?  Why wouldn’t we want to use the power of technology to redefine learning? 

Sources I found interesting this week: 

21st Century Learning Video Series: http://newlearninginstitute.org/film-series/a-21st-century-education

21st Century Skills framework: http://p21.org/

An article against using technology in education: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401532.html

A resource to use with our students: www.typewithme.com  
 - This is a tool to create collaborative online documents.  Checkout the group notes that my group took while reading and watching this week's content. 

Digital Divide

Picture being a high school student and being assigned to write a blog. You are to provide your thoughts about a particular concept in the course you are taking. You are also asked to provide the sources you used as well as to embed a video of some sort. Imagine that the only tool you have available to you is a smartphone and a tablet. Both are connected to the internet and you have access to the the sites that you need; however, when trying to update your blog it keeps getting formatted to one paragraph rather than five. Trying to copy the website to use as a source doesn't seem to be working, and the video you are trying to embed doesn't have the embed option next to it on the mobile app. Your assignment is due the following morning. You wonder how you are going to complete that assignment. You find a way to get to the public or school library early in the morning and hope that a computer is free. You are going to have to go the extra mile to complete that assignment. If you are also a student from a low income family you most likely have to go the extra mile for many other needs such as finding dinner for the evening, or getting transportation to get some basic household supplies. You might even have to work a job so that you can help support your family. How likely is it that you are going to be able to create the blog that your teacher assigned?

The above scenario could be describe any low income student in our schools. While the Digital divide in terms of access to the internet is shrinking the divide between the kind of access is widening. Higher income families use computers with broadband internet while lower income families are primarily using their mobile devices for their internet access. The mobile devices and even tablets to an extent greatly limit what the user can do with the technology. Try to think about creating a Presi on your smartphone, or keeping a blog updated with your thoughts or even complete an application to college or for a job with only a tablet or phone. It is nearly impossible to complete these tasks without a desktop or well equipped laptop. Imagine trying to watch videos assigned by a teacher with a slow internet connection. Just waiting for the media to upload, not to mention pause every few minutes while playing is frustrating. Personally, at this moment, I am away from my home and only have an iPad with me. I am fortunate to have a wi-fi connection and a portable keyboard, and yet I am frustrated with the limitations I am facing. I have little editing tools to help me write this blog. I can't embed the Voicethread below until I can find a desktop, and adding my sources below is much more challenging using only the tablet. These are the situations we are setting our students up to face if we do not create digital equity within our student population.

If we dig a little deeper we will find that students using only a cell phone are not seeing these tools for empowerment and creation but rather for consuming media, information, and entertainment. If we do not bridge the kind of access divide we the perpetuate the cycle of empowerment, income, and job difference we see today between different socioeconomic groups. I believe that the solutions can only come from each district at the local level and could be as simple as keeping a school computer lab (if the school is centrally located to most students) open late into the evening to as complicated and expensive as providing all students a laptop with access to a high quality internet connection. This will only happen if we as educators can demonstrate the benefits our students will reap from having access to these computers. If we only want to use them to create similar learning experiences with traditional goals I expect our policy makers will not see the full potential the computers and internet bring. We must redefine what our students will use the internet to learn, how these skills will be assessed, and how ultimately the future of the community will be positively impacted.

 In the past week I have had the opportunity to use a tool called VoiceThread to collaborate with my classmates and discuss the digital divide. I am really excited about using this tool with my students. I am fortunate to work in a private boarding school in which every student comes to school with a computer (most likely a laptop) and their rooms are all connected to a high speed internet connection, and therefore expecting all of my students to be able to complete an assignment such as this would be easier than if I were teaching in a digitally diverse community. As I reflect on my experience in using this tool I am attracted to the idea that each student can contribute equally in the presentation rather than just the students good at speaking in front of their peers or the ones that process the information quickly in class and are able to ask and answer questions. I also really like that this tool can be saved and revisited as students are preparing for tests, papers, exams, etc. Finally, I like that the kids can write a script ahead of time that either their peers or me can give them feedback for improvement. I want to be sure that each student has a chance to participate in a unique way though. Hearing the same content question answered several times was a little repetitive. I think that using this tool to reflect on a large body of work with many different perspectives might be a better way to use VoiceThread than we used it for in which the content was fairly limited. The students will be more likely to listen to their peers, I will look more forward to grading the assignment because of genuine interest in their words, and the collective presentation will add up to more than the sum of its parts. You can find the VoiceThread from my class below:


Some of the resources I found interesting from the past week are:

www.voicethread.com http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-divide-technology-internet-access-literacy-vanessa-vega

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Better-off-households.aspx

 Hertz, M. B. (n.d.). A new understanding of the digital divide| Edutopia. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. Retrieved January 6, 2012, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-divide-technology-internet-access-mary-beth-hertz

Bernard, S. (n.d.). Crossing the digital divide: bridges and barriers to digital inclusion | Edutopia. K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work | Edutopia. Retrieved January 6, 2012, from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-technology-access-inclusion

Where does technology fit?

Throughout the past year I have continually asked myself what is the value a student gets by being in my class rather than just learning biology or physics by reading some web pages or watching Youtube videos.  As a rule I have tried to promote a change in view of the world from the student perspective.  They can learn about Newton’s Second Law or about Cellular Respiration anywhere, but simply learning those concepts without the context of our class discussions or experiments with their peers leaves them with only some new content rather than a rich learning experience in which they emerge seeing the world in a new way. Reflecting on the reading throughout Module 1 has reinforced that I am on the right path, but it has challenged me to think even more carefully about what we do in class each day.  One of the things I am hoping to  plan for in this coming school year is  to think about what the kids are doing during each part of class?  For example, are they taking notes all class, discussing and listening, or are they working to find a solution with their peers?  The readings from this module have challenged me to think about what other (possibly more important) actions could the students be doing when in my classroom, and how can I use technology to help me do it?   Thomas and Seely said that “there is a difference between learning and being taught.”  I hope to frame activities with this thought in mind so that our “culture emerges from our environment” as Thomas and Seely write.

I also really connected with several of the things that Sir Ken Robinson presented.  He described our current education system as learning a bunch of answers that all happen to be in the back but reminded us not to look in the back.  I felt that he was talking about being well-schooled rather than being well-educated. Below is his video


This makes me wonder what the value our schools add to a student’s education?   Technology resources (blogs, games, wikis, Presis, etc.) open up a new door for student learning and collaboration.  Thomas and Seely tell us that in this century we must learn how to “embrace what we don’t know and come up with better questions in order to learn more and more” which makes knowing the content a vital starting point.  Digital Nation has convinced me that technology can’t be on the periphery of the classroom.  If used correctly can not only help excite kids, but also afford them the opportunity to engage with the material and the global community in a different way.

Watch Digital Nation on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

My Xtranormal video portrays a conversation a colleague of mine and I had as we are grappling with the changes, both good and bad, these new tools offer.  In the end though, how will we implement these changes within our classrooms?  What will a lesson plan look like fifty years from now?  How will we assess student learning if we aren’t assessing content?   If we aren’t teaching the students to fish for fear the pond won’t be there, what are we going to teach them? How can divergent thinking be assessed in a meaningful way and what use will being a good divergent thinker be for our future citizens? I don’t have the answers yet, but I am excited to keep searching.

The following is a link for the video
Technology and Class
by: Lelawrence03



 Dretzin, R., (Producer, Director); (2010) Digital nation: life on the virtual frontier. Frontline.

Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning, cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. CreateSpace.

Robinson, K., (2010). Changing education paradigms. Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

About Me

This is my first official blog posting. Ironically I have my students blog, but I have yet to jump into posting my thoughts on the web. I am a science teacher in North Carolina at a private boarding school called Asheville School. Before I came here five years ago, I taught at a public high school in Hendersonville North Carolina for four years. I am still amazed that my former principal hired a fresh college graduate from Southern Illinois University, but I am sure glad he did. Being at a boarding school is different than public school for sure, but at the heart of it all is that kids are kids. I am just joining the Learning By Design cohort this summer, and this is my second graduate school course. I chose this program because the skills it taught seemed to be applicable to my work in the classroom. I love working with young adults in the classroom, the dorm, and in the pool as part of the swim team. I try to assure the students in my classes are as active as possible, think carefully about what we are learning about, and see their world in a different way after their work in physics and biology. Working at and living on a boarding school campus makes for a very bust life. My husband and I love living in Asheville, and we are thrilled our daughter (currently 15 months)is growing up here and in the wonderful school community.