Remote Access

Twittories and Instant Collaboration

After a month long wait, yesterday I finally received my copies of the twitter story called @manyvoices. Organized by George Mayo, (who has now moved into his next project, the online literary magazine for students called Space) this story, told on twitter by ten classes from all points around the globe was an "instant project" organized via twitter and email. Although I'm certain there was a lot of organizing and work behind the scenes that I never saw for this project as I was one of ten classrooms taking part and not a project organizer, George did a masterful job of getting people organized, to work, and then leading them through an editing process.

When these slim books showed up yesterday it made this project very real and powerful to me. Not that I hadn't valued it before, but for some reason, seeing these books in paper and print brought home what we had accomplished using a tool as simple as twitter. Think about it. Ten classes worldwide organized all by email and written on a free platform. Published on demand and distributed for only a few dollars to anyone who might be interested. We have come a very long way in only a few years.

This also has me thinking more about instant collaboration projects such as this one. Organized using twitter and email, more formal information communicated using a wiki and in a very short time, global collaborations emerge. The comment challenge currently being organized is the same type of project. Twitter, email, a wiki and collaboration grows. After my post yesterday on the student comment challenge, I am very glad to see that two more people have signed up. So far my class, Jody Hayes in New Zealand, and Shaun Fletcher, a fellow Canadian, are on board and we are looking for more. While these types of projects are often shorter in duration and less indepth then something lasting longer, I am wondering if they are also the difference between a lumbering multinational and an agile, fast moving start up. Projects that focus on the project, adding layers upon layers face a challenge in coming years. The knowledge and the understanding is different between instant collaborations and longer term projects, but for middle school and elementary students, the goals may be more related to collaboration, tool use and demonstrating the possibilities of using the web to work with others, there is a lot of value to dig into with these types of work.

Tags: GeorgeMayo, @manyvoices, Space, Shaun Fletcher, Jody Hayes

Student Comment Challenge

Commenting is an art that needs to be practiced, reflected upon and learned. Good commenting practices make for good blog citizens.

Kim Cofino and Sue Waters have begun the comment challenge for us as educators. The purpose is to get all of us commenting and thinking more, battling the twitch speed fo twitter with reflection and thought.

They have also started the comment challenge for students. I think this 30 day challenge is a great way to have students practice and reflect on their commenting practices. I added a few ideas to the student activities section of the wiki:

- Simply challenge students to leave the most comments for others in their class (give them comment starters so you don't end up with a bunch of "hi lols")
- Challenge them to leave the most comments on the blogs of students from others classes
- Challenge students to leave the longest comments
- Challenge students to leave comments for students in as many different places as possible (give each student a map or keep a classroom map that you can put push pins in
- Get students to find several (3-4?) students in other classes and work intensely with just these people, leaving repeated comments for them, beginning more indepth conversations
- Have students save all of their comments in one place (a google doc?) and at the end of the 30 days, have them evaluate how their comments have changed or improved, having them pick their best ones - a comment portfolio!

I've also added my name to the student groups page and so far (sniff!) I'm alone. So who else is interested in getting classes connected for this last portion of the year?

P.S. - I also think that this would be a great way to connect classes close to the beginning of the school year.

Tags: kimcofino, sue waters, comment challenge, education, blogs

Community and the Commons

As usual, David Jakes has me thinking. His post on the Tragedy of the Commons (which has 59 comments on it as of this publishing!) has led me to take some time to consider classrooms and how knowledge is constructed and shared; who makes it, who benefits, and how a knowledge economy and ecology functions in a classroom. David's post first explains the tragedy of the commons:

"Basically, it’s about the exploitation of a commonly shared resource. When all who share the resource play by the rules and share equally all benefit, while the resource generally remains intact and capable of sustaining future use. However, given human nature, a single member (or more) may eventually consume more of his/her share of the resource, prompting all to be more aggressive and utilize more, in an escalating pattern of consumption. Gradually, through this process the resource, or “The Commons,” is destroyed."

Physical resources are finite and can be used up. When all of the fish from a lake have been overused and overfished, outside resources need to be brought in to bear on the problem in order to solve it. If caught in time, if the resource has not been overused to a tipping point, there is still hope. When dealing with physical resources such as pastureland or a watersystem, the danger is immediately apparent. Greed ruins it for everyone.

But what about with resources that are not physical such as information or knowledge? Does the same danger apply?  I think it does.

Knowledge in a classroom is a communal resource. Together and over time, students gather and aggregate information, repackaging, repurposing, and rereleasing it for others in their network in many different ways. They may also create completely new information or create new resources which benefits everyone in the classroom or in their learning network. But just as with a physical resource, it must be used wisely. It must be shared freely and used freely. If only some members of a network  are contributing and creating, and others mainly consuming, this strikes an imbalance in the information ecology of the classroom. A careful balancing act must be recognised and struck by the teacher to manage an information commons they are supporting and helping to emerge.

In any network, some people contribute more new ideas and original content, while others consume and build upon what the first group has made. Giving them the freedome to do these things allows students to be individuals. But for teachers interested in creating spaces where there is some balance in the community and the knowledge it holds in common, this is an important idea to consider. The entire concept of a healthy information network and community in classrooms is a challenge. How does this change our role? What structures can we bring in to our classrooms to help this develop? What tools do we have available to us to measure the health of our communities? The importance of "community" and all that brings with it (helping others, being present for others when needed, rising to a challenge, chipping in to help out) is just as vital for knowledge based spaces as for those based on natural resources. A challenge for us as educators in this time.

 Image: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/117/276344173_0232998484.jpg

Tags: DavidJakes, community, commons, knowledge

News About Skye's Mom

Thanks to all who left comments for Skye, a student in my class whose mother recently discovered that she had a brain tumor (this is after beating cancer once already by the way).

Here is the most recent post from Skye:

-

(picture of my mom)(The thing in front of her face is NOT a mustache. Repeat: Not a mustache!!)    

 I have very good news about my mom. It is the 27th of April and my mom got back yesterday. Last week she went to Winnipeg for her surgery and didn’t get back until Saturday. She came back with 4 holes in her head but she was fine. We are still waiting to hear the results if they got it or not. Other than that we are thinking very positive about it. When she went into the surgery it was about 5am in the morning and when she got out it was about 1pm. Just to let you know she is doing good and is not all that sick anymore. If you have any more questions leave a comment and I can send them to my mom. All of the people who have sent me a comment on the blog about the surgery; thanks for all of your support and prayers. My mom also says thanks too!!=D

The Studio and The Master Learner

One of the most important things I've learned experimenting in my classroom is about ideas of studio. I've written about studio a number of times but now I'm thinking more about my role in this space. I started off wondering about professions where studios or studio like settings are common:

- artists
- designers
- architects

The themes of creativity and the concept of flex and flow in work schedules, creation and personal space are important. Flexible spaces that fit the individual or the team. Spaces that can change when needed. Time schedules that shift around personal needs help establish some of the atmosphere. The design of the space is important and something that is often sorely lacking in classrooms; including my own. I'm not sure how to tackle this. Laws state that students must be supervised at all times so creating any kind of learning space that is individual or personal is difficult.

The role of the person who is the leader in a studio is something that needs exploring. Studios often have "masters" who are in charge of "apprentices." The master directs the activity that is going on, offers help, direction, and critique. Apprentices in a studio have both rights and responsibilities. While supervised and directed, they are given the freedom to try out new ideas and experiment. In fact, they are encouraged to do these things.

So how does the role of being a master learner in a studio mesh with that of a teacher?

Often it doesn't. Or, it doesn't mesh with people's expectations of what being a teacher means in their experience. In my mind, being a master means being a learner. Each day and every day needs to be approached with an open mind and expectations of change and discovery. Being a master learner means allowing kids to explore, to sometimes fail, and often times to surprise me with their discoveries and their work. It means being open to new directions and new thoughts that might take us to places I had never thought of before. I struggle with finding a balance between directing activity and letting it emerge and flow. I aim in the direction of provincially mandated outcomes and strive to provide the direction that gets us there, but I'm also willing to miss. I believe that as a master learner I should promote questions and ideas, and even answers occasionally, but I often struggle with this as well.

I think there are advantages in small schools like my own where I have my kids basically all day. Our schedules change and flex as needed. We can talk, explore, experiment, and then enter intense periods of creation; long stretches of time where my role becomes mentor, guide, and point - of - first - critique. Working in large groups, small group tutorials or seminars and as individuals are all points that we can work across over a day or a week. Finding the balance between all of these combinations for kids as they need them is the challenge. Sometimes we are loud and boisterous. On other occasions we are completely silent, with everyone working individually. I find there is great value in being able to read the mood of my classroom as a whole.

I believe that the idea of a classroom being a creative studio holds a lot of potential for the type of learning we'd like to happen for our time. As teachers, we  have much to learn about them and about the people who can lead one of these spaces effectively.

Tags: studio, learning

Simple Programming and Creativity

I fell in love with Lego Mindstorms before it even hit the coasts of North America. I found out a lot of information when they were available in Europe and emailed the Canadian arm of the company and tried to convince them to let us order them and serve as a sort of pilot school. They told me I had to wait until I could buy them here. When they finally did show up, I convinced our school to purchase six sets and I ran a club for students at lunchtimes several days a week. We had a great time.

This tool was different. It was powerful and easy to use. It was more about science and programming then anything I had seen up to that point. Students learned a lot of programming pieces and skills, they also learned a lot about things like cause and effect and being creative in logical ways. I still love the Mindstorms even though I don't have the newer version of the kit (although I would dearly love to lay my hands on about six of them).

But lately I have been noticing an increasing amount of software that allows students to work in ways that are both creative and logical. Telling stories in new ways and with new tools. The best part about most of this stuff is that it is all free and from trusted sources.

Alice: New to me, Alice is similar to Scratch in that they are both meant to produce animations. Alice comes from Cornell and includes both a high school / college level programming environment and another, easier to use version called Storytelling Alice. Once again, free to download and free to use.

Phun: Phun is just that. I wrote a post on it earlier this fall after an amazing first experience with it. Phun is described as a 2 - D physics environment, but once again, it pushes students to be creative and logical, using the physics that they may know intuitively to design some amazing things.

Scratch: This software has been around for a few years and comes from MIT, the source of Mindstorms. It follows the same drag and drop interface as the Lego product, but to produce animations. It is easy to use and can allow for you to program your own blocks and pieces and allow you to use your own voice and sounds. Scratch has also built up a commuity around the software, allowing anyone to upload animations they have created to their website, allowing others to watch them. Interestingly, you can also download these animations and use the code behind them to extend and build upon them, a perfect way for kids to extend their skills.

All of this needs to remind us that there are many different ways to be creative. We often tend to work with software that allows us to work with language. We work with things like blogs, wikis, and even podcast. But we also need to remember that creativity can come in many forms and these pieces of free software are paths into these areas.

Tags: scratch, phun, alice, mindstorms, lego, prgramming, classrooms

We Tell Stories

Like many others in the edtechosphere, I come at technology first from the standpoint of literacy. I truly believe that literacy is ever changing ( a point I tried to make in my presentation for K12 Online two years ago,) and I also believe that  technology pushes both of our definition of literacy and also our expectation of the skills needed to be functionally and effectively literate.

Compare two texts, one on a page and one on a screen. While print texts have varying levels of complexity, (the simple layout of a novel vs. a magazine which may have ads and offers built into stories and scrambled up on pages) screen based texts are often more so. Screen texts can have these same elements, but they can also contain many more such as hyperlinks moving you to a completely new space, embedded video or audio files, and animations. Online texts may also include dangerous things such as viruses and this brings up questions around the concept of dangerous texts and the meaning of texts when they can be harmful.

But the fact is that online, texts are different and this is what is being explored in We Tell Stories. This is an experiment from Penguin books where they have asked six authors over six weeks to explore some of the possibilities of digital fiction. For example, one of the stories was told live during the week. The authors created it beginning at 6:30 PM every night for a week, allowing the audience to watch the stories emerge. Another, 21 Steps, used Google maps to show the characters as they moved around throughout the piece.

Another, the re-telling of Hard Times is posted as an infographic with data from our time period.

Overall, I find this fascinating. It is extending the concept of text, of retelling, of the tools that can be used for story telling and about what texts can look like and be like.

How do these new ways of being literate enter our classrooms? How do we need to expand our conception and our understanding of what text is and of the skills we need to work with in order to help our students comprehend things like these? How do ideas such as George Mayo's Space begin to tackle these questions?

Tags: literacy, penguin books, we tell stories, classrooms, george mayo, space

This is One Reason Why We Blog

Copied straight over from the blogs of one of the grade seven students in my class:

Gamma Knife Brain Surgery On My mom!!:O

from Skye's Blog by smcauley

    

In a couple of weeks my mom has to go back to Winnipeg. I don’t know for how long or even if i am going to she is for sure going. The reason why she is going is to do a surgery called Gamma knife brain surgery. About two weeks ago when I went to Winnipeg, the doctors said that she couldn’t get the surgery that week that we were there because the other surgeon wasn’t there and they need two people to do the surgery. The doctor also said that her brain tumor shrunk 38% and that if we went home and waited like a couple weeks for this guy to come back that the brain tumor would shrink more and then the surgery wouldn’t take as long. My mom said she was also scared because when the do the surgery they have to put a box on her head to keep it stable. Te reason why she s scared of that is because they have to screw it through her skin in the back lower head and in the front upper head. Then they have to put her in the machine to do the surgery. When she is in the machine it isn’t like she is stuck in there for hours but she can listen t music and she can stop the surgery to go bathroom and eat or take a brake. I think the surgery looks cool, if only they don’t have to stick the screws through the skin in her head. She’ll be alright because the doc said it doesn’t hurt because they freeze her head first. So if anyone wants to give my mom a message comment me and I will give it to her.

How Much Noise?

My classroom sometimes makes me crazy. I walk past quiet rooms in my school where all the kids are working away and then turn the corner to my own noisy space. I sometimes cringe as I wonder about people coming into my classroom. It's not out of control by any stretch. But it's not what you would call a typical classroom. Kids are seated at some combination of desks, tables, the couch and the floor. Depending on the time of day, we may spill over into the hallway as well. There are 23 students in my room and they are often at work on a dozen different things at any given moment.

I don't sit down very much during the day. (I'd really like one of those desks that you can stand up and work from actually) Most of my time is spent circulating among my students, asking questions, answering questions, and being a mean junior high teacher keeping kids on track.

But once things get going, I sometimes find myself simply standing with my back to the counter, watching the action in the classroom. "Kid - watching" the Goodman's call it. Before I react to any situation, or step in to put kids back to work, I stand and watch the action and more often then not, a conversation that has strayed off course very soon wanders back to the task at hand. An article I once read in the Harvard Educational Review said that well over 60% of classroom conversations centre around assigned work. So if we shut that down, are we shutting down their own personal learning networks in the classroom? This can be especially true when technology is involved. Kids will often ask others for help doing something and shutting them down does nothing but harm to their learning.

Image: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/146936654_1c0130db1f.jpg

Tags: classroom, management, noise

Success and Culture

David Jakes has challenged us in our thinwalls collaboration to think deeper. To not only have our kids collaborate, but have them think more deeply about the similarities and differences between our two classrooms and nations. Lately, we've been having the students in the two classes do some basic blogging together. We took some time to find questions that we hoped would make the students think deeply themselves and we've been posing them to the kids, two each week. Last week we asked them:

- What does success mean to you?

How do you define success? What does having a successful life mean to you? Who are people you consider to be successful? Why do you think they are successful?

- If you could put 3 aspects of your culture into a box what would they be?

What is a “culture?” What does this word mean to you? What are the elements that combine together to “make” a culture? Can it be boxed? What do you value as part of your culture? What would you want to save and preserve?

The kids in each class had to write about these things. Pre-writing discussions were held locally in each place and then the students had several days to write. At the end of last week, the kids in each class had time to read deeply across our blogosphere and then reflect on what they read. They could leave comments for each other or they could write another post on their own blogs reflecting on the similarities and differences they found across each class.

Many of the kids found that their definitions of success were remarkably similar. For the most part, many of the students talked about success being setting goals and reaching them. Success was about happiness. Some of the kids of course wrote that success required a high paying job and many toys, but they were actually few. One interesting difference was that many of the students in LA wrote about education being one element in success while that was mentioned by few of my students in Snow Lake.

In contrast, the question about culture brought out many differences between the two classes. Many of the students in LA are immigrants to the US or their families are recent immigrants. They are still quite closely tied to their home nations. Many of these students wrote about foods, religious rituals, ceremonies, and language. They were often fascinating accounts of rites of passage that needed to be passed through. In contrast, none of my students in Snow Lake are immigrants. Their families have been in Canada as long as they can remember. In fact, less then 50% of the students in my class could even identify their cultural heritage before going home to ask about it. They wrote instead about being Canadian. They wrote about things such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. They wrote about Canada being a global place where people from all over can come together. After in class discussions about culture, they identified such things as foods, language, literature and religion being important elements of culture, but most of them felt that they did not do things differently than those families who lived around them so they really didn't feel they had a culture of their own.

This week, we've posed these questions to them:

Question 1 = What is the most important thing that a parent can do for a teenager?

What do you think makes a great parent? What do you think parents need to do for their children to help them become successful adults?

Question 2 = What do the students want to know?

What are the big questions that you have? What kinds of things do you want to know about? What kinds of things do you feel that you are not learning? These things can be in school or out of school. But we leave the question for you: what do YOU want to know?

We're interested to see the results this week.

Tags: thinwalls,