Remote Access

Finding Good Questions

My ThinWalls partners in Los Angeles and I spent an hour on MeBeam last night planning another collaborative piece. We used MeBeam instead of Skype and it worked great. But we also learned the value and the difficulty of finding good questions.

David Jakes has been pushing us since the beginning of the year to look at the similarities and differences we have been seeing between the students in the two classes. Are these things cultural? Are they based on the nations themselves? Are they explained by rural and urban understandings of the students?

Based on an article from ASCD, we are hoping to help these students develop more of a world view and promote deeper global understanding. We want to step into a part of our collaboration where we will have the students think more deeply about their cultures and their values.

To do that, we need questions. We want to begin on their blogs and have the students do some writing about their values. But if we simply pose questions at them such as: "tell us if your family is important to you and why?" then we all know the types of pat answers we will get back. They will give us what we want to hear. So we are struggling with questions. "Talk about your definition of success." This is better. This is open ended enough that it will promote some dialogue. "What have you been taught about money?" is also good. It will allow students to expose some of their values and put things out there to compare with other students.

But here we sit. A one hour meeting on MeBeam and we have two solid questions to show for it. But that is the point (or at least part of it). Changing practices in your classroom can be hard. Coming up with good questions that promote collaboration, understanding, and global awareness is not an easy task. Getting kids comfortable enough with each other so that they get to the point where they will put themselves "out there" takes time and is important. These are tasks that are best accomplished within a learning community that you know and trust.

When we do manage to get some suggested questions together (and if you have any suggestions, please post them in the comments) we want to have the students do some reading, writing, and thinking about these things. We want them to first think about their own values and ideas. We then want them to begin comparing notes with those around them. Where are they finding similarities and differences? Are the kids in Snow Lake mostly thinking in one way and the kids in LA another? Are there differences between males and females? Are these things split on cultural lines or are attitudes all over the place? These will be their things to think about.

Once again, I am back to the quote from Tom Carroll which has been riding around in my mind all school year long: "Quality teaching and learning today is a collective action and not an individual accomplishment."

Tags: thiwalls, questions, classroom, values

Travels

This is going to be a busy season coming up.

First it is the MADLaT conference at the University of Manitoba on May 8th and 9th called "E-Learning Comes Together." I'm doing a 3 hour, hands - on blogs, wikis and RSS session entitled Cornerstone Technologies.

Next is NECC. After having a ThinWalls session rejected, they contacted us about doing a poster session about our collaboration. A perfect excuse to head to Texas. In July (hot!).

Following NECC, I think I've got ten days until my return to the US with the BLC conference in Boston. 3 sessions. "This is Not a Test - What Happens When International Collaboration Becomes Business as Usual?" and "Everything New is Old Again." This last title I'll be doing with Darren Kuropatwa and will be a treat for both of us. We've been looking for a space willing to let us work together.

Then I'm off to China, Finally officially confirmed last night, I'll be heading to Shanghai from September 18 - 20 for the Learning 2.008 conference. I Skyped into several sessions last year and watched the entire experience unfold via twitter and ustream and as many other channels as I could find. This is also an opportunity to meet an another entire end of my aggregator who I have so much to thank for. I'm not quite sure how I managed to crack a line up of presenters which includes David Jakes, George Siemens, Alan Levine, Marco Torres, David Warlick, Ewan McIntosh and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach but I am certainly honoured to have the opportunity.

All I can say is wow. Amazing opportunities for a grade 7 / 8 teacher from a small town in the middle of nowhere and I am thankful for each and every one of them.    

Tags: blc, madlat, novemberlearning, learning 2.008

Information as a Virus?

Last week we found out that our ThinWalls collaboration did not win one of the 17 MacArthur grants that were up for grabs. Considering that there were 1020 applications, this is not really surprising, but still disappointing. The projects that were awarded the grants are amazing and I am truly looking forward to their completion. But I would still like to see one idea from our application go ahead: the creation of a piece of client software that can track the spread of ideas across a network.

Information is like a virus. Information that is popular or meaningful, or which strikes a note with many people for whatever reason spreads across a network like a virus. We've all seen this before with viral videos such as Karl Fisch's "Did You Know?" Initially picked up by a few, the video grew a slow but steady audience until it achieved a critical mass. Once it reached this point, it exploded and its popularity grew rapidly into the hundreds of thousands and eventually over a million views. (click on picture for animation)

While I would never expect a post written by a student in my classroom to achieve that status, it would give teachers a lot of interesting data about the spread of information across classroom and learning networks if we had a piece of software that could track keywords or site links or visits. This software would be a monitor, but not a censor or a filter. There is enough of that already. While similar to a keyword logger, it would not be intended to "spy" on kids and their activity, but be used to record words, links and sites that come up repeatedly.

Installed on the computers in a specific network of learners (3 - 4 classrooms that are working together at least part of the time?) this software could follow how Child A in Classroom X first posts something. This is then commented on by several students, picked up in blog posts written in other comments and then commented on in this space as well. This is similar to Konrad Glogowski's ideas of ripples being created. From this data:

• teachers could see which bloggers and commenters in their class are producing the most content in the learning network
• we could see who is not taking part in the conversations
• this will help us to understand who the vital nodes in the learning space are and how they can be supported in this role
• students could better understand how ideas spread
• classroom conversations could occur around how information is effectively spread and
• around what kinds of information are most effective online. What spreads and what doesn't?

I certainly do not have the programming experience or ability to produce something like this. Our plan was to hire someone to produce an open source tool which we would give back to the community for use by anyone who wished to use it. While the MacArthur folks have not given us one of their grants, is anyone with any programming knowledge interested in tackling something like this? I believe it could be an excellent tool to have for all of us.  

Tags: MacArthurgrants, viral video, classroom, opensource software

Phun

Sitting on the couch this Saturday morning with my son beside me scanning through my Google Reader. He makes me back up to a YouTube video embedded in a post that I had skimmed by and it turns out to be an amazing resource: Phun.

Developed as a Master of Science Theses by Computing Science student Emil Ernerfeldt in Sweden, Phun is a 2 - D physics modeling engine.

There are countless possibilities for using this tool. A free download, teachers can use it to set up models of physics concepts such as force and gravity. Students can use it to model movement. Creatures and machines could be created.

This is an area of edtech that we don't explore very much. Tools like Lego Mindstorms and MIT's Scratch teach kids whole other ideas about technology. Simple programming skills, cause and effect, creativity, concepts of physics, and how technology is embedded in our lives in almost every space we occupy.

Tags: phun, mindstorms, scratch

What Happens When 10 Laptops Show Up

When 10 laptops show up in your classroom, it changes things. Although this has been a slow blogging year for us (concentrating on other kinds of connections), when 10 laptops show up in your classroom, you have over 25 new posts in two days. When 10 laptops show up in your classroom, you have kids sitting beside each other helping each other out with a new interface and getting hooked up to wireless signals. Kids take renewed interest in their iGoogle accounts because now they have the time on a regular basis to read and look for new sources of information. When 10 laptops show up, the section of your wiki you have been working on (ancient Egypt) gets hammered with over a hundred edits in two school days.

Changes are still to come. We need to learn how to integrate them and make them a seamless part of our learning. But it is pretty cool to watch kids walk down the hallway with a small black box under their arm and look for a place with a strong wireless signal so they can best finish up a blog post.

Tags: asuseee, classroom, laptops, learning

Changes

This has been an important week for me that has brought some changes.

The first is that my ten long awaited Asus eees showed up for my classroom. I had one of these remarkable little machines in my classroom before Christmas and the kids in my class loved it. Simple easy to use interface, remarkable speed and a straight out link to such things as Skype, Google docs and iGoogle, these machines promote collaboration.

Now I have ten of them for use in my classroom. My division brought up a beautiful case, a web server, a wireless point and all the cables tht I need. I'm still waiting on mice and headsets, but those will come soon. We tried them out quickly this morning and the kids were very excited to dive right into them. 1/2 of the machines were given to me with the original Linux OS and the other 1/2 were delivered with XP on them. Interestingly, although the kids were far more familiar with XP, they were not very happy to see it when they turned their machines on, wanting something new and different. As well, 1/2 day into this trial, we have already had two of the machines lock up with XP on them, while those with Linux boxes chug happily along.

We have a lot to learn about having access to 13 computers in the classroom (I also have 3 desktops) plus whatever machines show up on any given day from home - somedays up to 8. We need to develop check out policies (should they just be first come, first serve?), figure out a routine to keep them charged up, and most importantly, work to understand the most effective way to incorporate them into our classroom learning. I was encouraged when we had just one of them, to often see kids surrounded by books, their binders, and a small laptop in the middle. The small footprint of the machine making it possible to switch back and forth.

There are also changes for me this week. My school division has asked me to become more actively involved, on a divisional level, with implementing Manitoba's mandatory LwICT curriculum. This K - 8 curriculum is one that we have been struggling with. Turnover and new staff in key positions as well as the challenges faced by implementing this program in a division of our size have left us behind where we need to be. For these reasons, I've been asked to move into more of a role supporting changes and creating resources for our division. I'll still be based in my classroom, but along with several other very smart people, I'll be be doing more traveling, mentoring and resource creation. We have some solid plans involving setting up a YouTube channel, a resource wiki and a planned support and mentoring program for teachers who want to push themselves and their students along. While all the plans have not been fleshed out yet, I'm excited. I think I'll be getting the best of both worlds. I'll still get a lot of classroom time to do some interesting things, but I'll also get to travel and support some changes for people who are interested. This is a change for our division and a new role, but I think the vision is there, the support is there and the time is ripe. Hopefully in the next two weeks everything will be finalized.

Change is good.

Tags: Lwict, Manitoba, Frontier school division, asus eee pc

Soft Skills vs. Content

We've been struggling with our ThinWalls collaboration lately. Again, looking to be the most effective that we can be and constantly evaluating what we are doing, we are wondering about the value of content vs. soft skills.

Content is content. Teaching content in collaboration has required us to pour over curriculum documents and find places that match at least reasonably between the "official" curricula mandated to my school by the provincial government in Manitoba and for St. Elisabeth school in Los Angeles. This has required a lot of time and energy and now we are wondering if there is a better or different way to do it.

In an article from ASCD in April 2007's edition of Educational Leadership entitled Being Citizens of the World, Vivien Stewart argues that to act globally, and become what she calls "globally competent," programs for students need to focus on three things: World Knowledge, Language Skills, and Civic Values. Stewart says that too often, global projects focus on "food, festivals and fun," giving students a shallow understanding of each other's culture at best.

We've been talking about this article within our collaboration and what it means for us. We are wondering about what these things would look like in a classroom and how we could change our focus to move more towards soft skills such as these compared to content. Concentrating on critical thought, comparing our values, wondering about the reasons for our similarities and differences and opening a river of thought, a connected pipe between our two spaces may be of more value to our students than having them study similar content.

New ideas to consider as we move again through the woods.

Tags: ascd, vivien stewart, thinwalls

Learning, Networks and Distance

Discover has posted a video interview with danah boyd talking about her research into the emergence of social networking and social networks in the United States. Her research is an interesting look at how platforms were first adopted on the coasts of the US and then spread from these spaces across the interior of the country. She has also analyzed how different platforms over time (Friendster, MySpace and Facebook) have emerged and split in their use by various demographics.

But in this video she also mentions a map which appeared in The Guardian newspaper (which I haven't been able to find after much searching - if anyone has a link to it I'd be greatly appreciative if you could post it here) telling about the distance which children have been allowed to travel over the years. For example, people my grandfather and father's age were often allowed to roam five or six miles from home to go swimming, meet with friends, etc. People my age were allowed to travel around their neighourhood to meet friends and find something to do. Whereas children growing up in these times are often restricted to their own yards. A dramatic loss of space.

I find this fascinating and a great explanation for the rise in importance of technologies such as IM and social networks. These technologies allow children to "roam" much further afield in virtual spaces then they are often allowed to in their real lives. Living in a small town, our students are often amazed and shocked to hear from students who live in cities of this type of lifestyle as here they have much greater freedom to travel across the community.

This video also reminds me of the doctoral thesis written by Ulises Mejias about Networked Proximity. In this piece, he talks about information being "social glue that allows networks to transcend distance." He also talks about the idea that there is a shift underway from "physical proximity to informational availability as a principle of social relevance." This would match boyd's ideas because as people become more isolated from each other geographically and as our social networks become more "glocal" (a hybrid of global and local) the importance of technology as a social and learning tool has increased.

Interestingly, the combination of increased technological access and social change has made it easier for us to be social with and learn together in virtual spaces with those who are located far away from us, then then those who are located a short distance away who we need to spend time with in reality. This research into social change is important to us as educators as we strive to make some sense of how the generation in our classrooms use these tools and understand their world.

Tags: danahboyd, discover, networked proximity, ulises mejias

Spore - the Video Game

Will Wright, the creator of video games such as Civilization and much of the Sim series (SimEarth, SimCity, the Sims, etc.) finally has been able to announce a release date for Spore, the game he has spent several years designing. Announced yesterday, Spore will be released in Europe on September 5, 2008 and in North America two days later on September 7, 2008 for Mac, PC, and Nintendo DS.

Spore is a completely new type of game that Will Wright is calling a Massive Single Player Online Game as opposed to games like World of Warcraft that are Massive Multi Player Online Games. Starting the game, a player begins with a single celled organism which they need to evolve. At critical points you will have control over what the organism eats, how it hunts to survive and what other organisms it crosses with, allowing it to evolve and change, gaining new traits. Eventually, your single celled creature becomes a multi celled creature, which builds a civilization for itself, gains new technologies such as spacecraft and then travels the stars to other planets. A pre build version was featured last year at TED with Will Wright himself leading us through it:

On my classroom mid term Social Studies exam several weeks ago, I asked the students how using video games such as SimCity is like conducting a science experiment. Many of them understood the idea that a simulation video game gives them the opportunity to test a hypothesis and then go back and make changes, looking for different results. I think this game fits exactly into that category and will prove to be an excellent resource for anyone who studies societies, societal development, or history as part of their curriculum.

This will be worth saving some of your tech budget.

Tags: spore, will wright, classrooms, learning

Google Docs and Essays

I've noticed a growing trend in my classroom over the last few months. More and more kids are moving over to using Google docs and their blogs as a place to complete their written assignments.

I don't usually care where kids work. When they are on the computers we have access to, they used to most often use Word and then email things back and forth to home every night so that they could continue working. This was more difficult if they didn't have Word at home. It invovled a process of cutting and pasting and fixing formatting errors each time they did this.

But over the last few months, I've noticed the kids in my class have made a dramatic move to Google docs. Using Google docs they can work at school or at home much more easily. But they are moving there for other reasons as well, the biggest one being that they can simply share their work with me and with other kids in the class. For example, my students are currently writing a short, one page essay on a topic of their choice to do with life in ancient Egypt. They've chosen a wide variety of topics ranging from the Nile to make - up and dress, boats, farming techniques, and much more. I keep the formal essays that they need to write short, being much more interested in having students learn to write a set of coherent paragraphs and an interesting introduction and conclusion than I am in quantity. It's not hard to write lots. It's hard to write well.

But with these pieces, these students are more often sharing them with me so that I can help them with revisions and specific paragraphs. They will share their document with me so that I can write suggestions and ideas for them and then save them for them. The same is true among each other. As students have been working on topics that may occasionally overlap ("What kind of clothing did the farmers wear?") students are sharing their pieces with each other. I don't consider this to be wrong or plagarism of any sort. I consider this to be knowledge networking and making use of the resources n the classroom. It's called learning from each other.

So they are learning the benefits of these types of social, online software. I gives many of them access to the same platforms and it allows the knowledge to flow more easily around the classroom.

Tags: googledocs, classroom, learning