Getting in Trouble Because of Assumptions

A colleague of mine attempted to do a video teleconferencing (VTC) session with a remote student yesterday. I had given her the directions on setting up the session and didn't worry. The video teleconferencing just always works. Well, for some reason, it didn't yesterday. My first thought was that she didn't reserve the room. That is unlikely, though. My second thought was that the info I gave her was for one of the video conferencing stations, so the session came up, just not in the room where she was waiting. My third thought was that she didn't know to call AV services or VTC support in Fairbanks to get help. My fourth thought was that even though VTC appears really easy, I really do need to stick around to make sure a first session works and to make sure people know whom to call when it doesn't work. Sigh. I feel badly that this didn't work and my assumptions about how easy VTC is didn't pan out. Lesson learned.

An Emerging Response to Legislative Audit

On Friday I will participate in a "mini-summit" to craft UAA's response to the Legislative Audit on Distance Education at University of Alaska. I reviewed the Audit and a draft response today. I also read an article on Using Emergence by Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze of the Berkana Institute.

I wonder how to apply their observations and practices to encourage emergence of new behaviors to the system of distance education at UA. I do think that there change in the air with the one UA-wide login that is starting to rollout.

According to Wheatley, a way to encourage emergence is through connections. The Berkana Institute has a four stage model to encourage connections: name them, connect them, nourish and illuminate them.

Emergence has a lifecycle that starts with networks, then matures to communities of practice. At some point after this, new systems of influence arise and new practices become the norm. This is not predictable.

As I write these words, I realize I need to go back for one more read of the article. I've had an interest in systems theory and a fascination with the concept of emergence. To see that Wheatley and others are intentionally creating environments for emergence to happen is fascinating.

Creating the conditions for emergence of new practices is a fascinating idea. I'll hold on to it as I contemplate the meeting tomorrow.

Finishing Up

The students are just about done. A few have some details to clean up and submit. They gave some feedback on what worked and what didn't work in their last discussion board post. I skimmed and graded the posts, but haven't yet read and replied.

That's something I want to: there have been numerous opportunities for substantive discussion that I was unable to take advantage of.

As I think about next semester, I want to ease in a bit more slowly, spend some time building community. We may start with personal wiki pages and maybe some sort of Jeopardy game about each other. I am also thinking about creating avatars to use in our Elive profiles, in our blog profiles, and in our Blackboard intro pages.

Final Class

We had our final Ed Tech class tonight. It ended on a high note, now there's scrambling to make sure all the assignments are turned in. I think everyone will do fine.

I asked my students tonight what they would take from how I teach as a model. I am curious about how they are thinking about their teaching repertoire and what sparked them.

Flexibility came up a lot. With only one class, it was easier to be flexible. If I had 3 classes with work to track, flexibility can become cumbersome. I need to develop better management systems for work coming in at different times and to different locations. Blogs, the course wikis, the discussion board, Blackboard assignments. Keeping track of comments that are posted to blogs and wikis. Maybe I'll have the next class keep their own assignment lists for at least some assignments.

With commenting and responding to each other's work, there is the issue of when folks do the initial post. I can see that I have lots of room for improvement.

This is surprisingly fun

Half Hour a Day

Stephen Downes had a blog (maybe he still does) called 1/2 hour per day in which he allowed himself to write. I admired that. It's time for me to make another attempt at more regular blogging. I owed it to myself to structure my reflection more intentionally and I owe it to my students to blog more.

This weekend we attended two amazing concerts. Eileen Ivers' Celtic Christmas concert at the PAC and Peter Mulvey at Vagabond Blues. Because we were so awestruck by the performance of Ivers and her band, I purchased my first album on ITunes: An Nollaig, Ivers' Christmas album. I was disappointed that the wren song wasn't on it and it did capture the energy of the concert. Peter Mulvey's lyrics, stage presence and readings of his letters to his nieces and nephews were inspiring. If one wants to write well, well, one has to actually write. Here is my humble attempt.

I would have benefited from weekly writing during this, my first Ed Tech class. It's work though, and not required. But it is perhaps necessary. The reflection both clarifies my thinking and makes it more transparent to the students. In some small way, seeing my thinking as I approach teaching may help them as they face this dauting, humbling task.

There are a dozen or so posts that I haven't written as I've gone through this semester. I can only pick up the pieces and start anew. We'll see how far this attempt goes.

Week of Nov 9-16

With Blackboard down for 3+ days, it's impossible to get our work done. I realize that some of you may not have time in the coming weeks to make up the work you missed due to the outage this week. You may not have even finished the assistive tech wiki page that was due this week.

Here is your homework for this week:

1. Configure and install audacity. Or, if you have another digital audio recording program that you prefer, you may use it. I sent help files out with the email on class cancellation.

2. Create a 20-40 sec audio recording (mp3 format on what you did instead of class on Monday night. Email it to me.

3. Create a 1-2 minute digital audio recording about your assistive technology project. Post it to the discussion board when Blackboard comes back up.

4. Peer review the assistive technology wiki pages of your group members. Provide feedback in the comments area of the wiki page. I'd like you to use the "2 stars and a wish" protocol: describe 2 "stars" - things you liked in the presentation and make a wish of something you have liked to have seen or seen differently.

5. Follow the blogs as you've been doing.

I was going to ask you to research educational uses of podcasts, but I think this will wait. We didn't get to talk about podcasts in class on Monday. Podcasts, in brief, are audio recordings that come via an rss-feed type mechanism. Remember RSS? Really simple syndication?

We were also going to talk about questioning and feedback strategies for peer review on Monday. 2 stars and a wish, which I learned in a 4/5/6 multi-grade classroom is a good model, though, for peer feedback.

If anyone has trouble with the initial audacity assignment, let me know.

How I keep up-to-date

Here are five e-Newsletters that are delivered to my email box each day. I give them a skim and click on the links that interest me. I save the best articles to my delicious.com account, occasionally forward articles to colleagues, and sometimes find myself exploring unexpected, fascinating sites and blogs for education, leadership, online learning, networking, and more.

1. Edutopia - from George Lucas' educational foundation. Marvelous and exciting examples of what is possible in K-12 education.
2. OLDaily by Stephen Downs -Stephen reads 1o's or maybe 100's of educational blogs each day and posts a summary/link for the 3-8 most interesting sites.
3. Workplace Learning Today by Brandon Hall Research. Like Stephen the Brandon Hall teams reads dozens of blogs and articles. They post links to 3-6 interesting items each day.
4. ASCD Smart Brief - ASCD has a selection of newsletters. This one collects items of interest in education from magazines and newpapers around the country.
5. Higher Ed Morning - Just keeping the pulse on university issue

Commenting on Students' Responses to the NETS-T

I enjoyed reading my students' blogs today. They had to write a post comparing the NETS-T of 2008 with the NETS-T of 2000. They also had to determine where the use of images fit into the NETS-T 2008. Here are some of the trends I saw:

On where images fit into the NETS-T, many of you commented about the need to cite sources, that one shouldn’t just take an image from a site on the Internet and use it. Our students need to understand about copyright issues too. A few mentioned that images may appeal to student creativity, that using images appeals to a variety of learners, and that in fact, the use of images fits into any of the standards. Well done.

We’ll watch a video on copyright this week since this is a major concern. Copyright is part of our digital citizenship unit, which we will start working on. By the way, there are resources in the Course Materials wiki for images that you can use from the Internet. Some need to be cited, some do not.

The comparisons between the NETS-T 2000 and 2008 elicited some great responses:

One person thought that the old standards appeared to written and adopted quickly. Another opined that the old standards might have been more of a precautionary measure rather than a real attempt to address the appropriate use of technology in the classroom.

To summarize more of your responses, the NETS-T 2008 are more technology-focused, less rigid, and address diversity as compared to the NETS-T 2000. In the 8-10 years between the development of the two sets of standards, the world has changed –exponentially- and the new standards attempt to address those changes.

We have a profusion of devices, websites, and applications. There is greater connection throughout the world. Tom Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat”, addresses that notion. Daniel Pink’s book, “A Whole New Brain” gives implications for what it means to thrive in this new era. I recommend both these books to you if you want more depth on where the world and education are heading.

We have been developing the context for educational technology in the 21^st century. I think you all pretty much have a sense of why the new standards are the way they are. That being said, now what do we do?

We’ve begun to explore that process. We are using some of the new tools. Our blogs are in a public space so that we can connect with a global community if anyone happens to notice us.

Here’s the rub: it's natural to:

1. Teach the way we were taught and

2. Teach the way we learn best

Our children are growing up in a different world than we grew up in. It's like teaching children from a different culture. And many who go into teaching happen to like the way school was for them. It’s perhaps harder for us to see how that model has never served all students well. So, technology offers a way to disrupt our thinking about education and approach teaching and learning differently.

I am not sure how this is going to work for all of us. And I intend to continue this experiment. One of the reasons I ask for weekly feedback is so I can see how I’m doing and adjust accordingly.

2+ weeks of teaching ed tech

This week the students had to do a 1-Powerpoint slide summary of an article. The assignments aren't all turned in yet, but I was amazed and pleased by what I saw had been turned in. The students are coming along on their blog posts; they appear to be getting familar with the applications we're using and with why we're using them.

There has been some consternation about the use of tech in schools... and then the article about technology in an early childhood class opened some eyes. I know that my 6 year old grandson navigates through my iPhone with ease to find the light saber and my 10 year old granddaughter will soon purchase an IPod Touch. It's a digital world for them. Their ease and expertise with technology continues to amaze me.

Cool Tools

Maybe it's been around for awhile, but I just discovered cooliris when viewing Alan Levine's Amazing Stories of Openness. CoolIris is an add-on to your browser that allows you to view a collection of pictures or videos in its entirety, on a "wall". You can scroll along the wall, select an image to view. Here's the cool part: the images can be on flickr, facebook, your computer...My grandchildren were mesmerized when we did a google images search for golden retriever puppies and we could browse through the collection. Easy... YES. Cool...YES

Cool tool 2 came to me today from Tom at the Rapid e-Learning blog. It's screenr. It's an online tool for recording videos of your desktop. The video can then be downloaded as an mp4 or sent to your youtube account. Here's my first attempt. Easy... YES. Cool...YES

Enduring Understanding for Ed Tech Class v.1

My task today is to develop the first draft of the Enduring Understandings (EU) for my Ed Tech class. EU are hard. They really do inform the design of the class, and it often takes a bit of work to coax them from the subconscious to written text. I was aided in this process by an excellent paper from Educause: Learn and Technology - "In That Order" by Malcolm Brown. In fact, my first enduring understanding comes from the title of the paper. Here are my draft EU. They seem a bit redundant to me, but they'll do for now.

1.Learning comes first, then technology.
2. The technology supports the learning and student interaction.
3. Teachers and students are partners in utilizing technology to enhance learning.

EDFN 302 Thoughts

I will be teaching EDFN 302 this fall, using the new NETS-T (National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers) as a guide. Teaching something for the first time is always an exciting and a daunting prospect for me. I've developed a brainstorm list of topics. One topic that seems like a good start is to compare the new NETS-T 2008 with the 2000 version. Another topic that intrigues me is to use the new NET-S (National Educational Technology Standards for Students) as a design guide for this course.

I am reviewing various links I have on del.ici.us for interesting online games, brainstorming a survey that I want to give the students, and perusing the Internet for sites that model/discuss the new standards. I have not ordered a textbook for the course because I want my students to use the Internet for resources. After I review the ISTE book on the new NETS-T, I may suggest that the students order the book.

I am into an inch-wide, mile-deep learning, I want all the students to learn a new tool. I am thinking that as a group we could learn Scratch or explore Google Earth.... I really want each of them to learn one tool well for instruction and for management. The exploration continues....

Images in Blackboard and Elive

When selecting images to load into Elive or onto Blackboard, be aware of:

• The size of the file. It should be less than 300 KB, ideally less than 150 KB (these are not hard and fast rules; just recommendations)
• The size of the image. Keep each side in between 150 and 400 pixels.
• Banners for Blackboard are 100-150 pixels by 600-800 pixels. 150 x 600 is a nice banner size.
• Instructor picture for instructor bio is 150 x 150 pixels.

Where to find images:

• Your own
• Flickrcc: creative commons licensed images. You just need to give attribution.
• Animated gifs
• Free clip art

In Mac OS or in Vista, you can look at the file size and the pixel size of an image in properties. In XP, hover the mouse over the image. The info box that pops up gives the size in pixels

Resize images on the web:

• piknic.com
• Picasa probably does this too.
  

Resize image on a Mac:

• Iphoto
• Preview > tools > Adjust size

Resize image on Windows:

• paint.net
• photoresize
• fancy programs like Fireworks or Photoshop

Video on adding images to a Blackboard Item

Working at home

It's dreary out, some light snow and a gray sky. I can't complain, though... when I work at home, I can actually glance up and look out a window. It's a catch up on reading day for me. When I'm in the office, I try to visit with others a bit more unless some sort of deadline looms.

I've been skimming a document that Pat sent me on Web 2.o tools in the classroom by Doug Johnson. It's a nice summary produced as a whitepaper by Saywire. I can see the appeal of having a "walled garden" in which students can use the web 2.0 tools in the classroom, and it's protected from the outside world.

Watched a great TED Talk on practical wisdom by Barry Schwartz. The suggestions to educators.. .that every moment of every day we have to model practical wisdom and character... struck a chord with me. His explanation of why incentives and rules are not enough is great. We need to all become ordinary and extraordinary heros, learning to do the right thing at the right time (developing practical wisdom). We need systems and organizations that celebrate practical wisdom and its heros.

Back home and happy

Let's see.... the events in Washington:
We saw Capital Steps at the Ronald Reagan Center and laughed and laughed
We walked along the parade route on Sun. night and seeing the bleachers set up already
Monday:
We drove out to Silver Springs, MD to visit some old friend of Mike's
Susan, Ken, Terry, Mike and I walked over to RFK Stadium to participate in the National Day of Service
We walked over to a friend of Susan's who went to high school in Anchorage for drinks
We walked over to Pennsylvania Ave SE for dinner at Sonoma
Tuesday:
We were up early and out the door by 7 am
We walked in a thickening, friendly crowd toward the Mall, and along the south side of the Mall
We set up camp just southeast of the Washington Monument, close to a Jumbotron
We watched a recording of the Sunday concert on the jumbotron and then... the Inauguration
I cried. Everyone cheered.
Crowd crush as we left, and it was a very polite crush.
We all straggled in to Susan and John's to watch the news, the parade, eat, share experiences of the day
We got dressed up and went to the Capital Hill Neighborhood Ball (500 tickets were sold) and dancing to an incredible swing band. Susan was happy because they played "Happy Days are Here Again"
Wednesday:
We walked over to the Hart Office Building for coffee with our Senators.
We got to talk to both Mark and Lisa
Ken and Terry drove us to Newark
We flew home... there were lots of Inauguration folks on the flight from Newark. Still quite a few on the flight from Seattle to Anchorate
We got to bed at 3 am Thursday

I am still glowing from the event.

Sunday Walk on the Mall

We approached the Capital Building from the east. Stack of security fencing waiting to be assembled. Lines of porta potties. People everywhere. We walked toward the Washington Monument. The jumbotrons were still being assembled. Just passed the monument, we joined the crowd watching the Lincoln Memorial Concert on jumbotrons. The crowd thickened as the concert progressed. Everytime Obama appeared on the screen, the crowd cheered. It was incredible. People snaked through, saying excuse me. We queried our neighbors about who was singing. The energy was incredible. This was an amazing experience.
We started walking back before the concert was over and strolled passed the jumbotrons on the mall, watching the concert. We stopped and sang "This Land is Your Land" with Pete Seeger. We watched President-Elect Obama address the crowd at the end of the concert and listened to Beyonce' sing America the Beautiful. I felt so fortuanate to be there.

Sunday Jan 18 2009

Ken and Terry picked us up at the Newark airport yesterday and we drove to Susan and John's house on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. The techno-fun was that I used my IPhone to navigate us to our destination. Tired after the long flights from Alaska, we stayed up a little while drinking wine, catching up, and planning our adventures for the next few days. Too many options, so we just planned out Sunday.

John knocked on our door at 8:15 on Sunday morning. We did our various morning routines then set out on foot for Susan and John's church, St Mark's Episcopal Church, for the Sunday sermon at 10. Paul Abernathy, the priest, gave a sermon about what the inauguration of Barack Obama means to him and then invited the congregation to come up and speak about what the election of Barack Obama means to each of them. I can write a little or a lot about the sermon and what folks said. I'm choosing a little. As we walked home for lunch, and at lunch, we shared in turn what the inauguration of Barack Obama means to each of us. I think that's another post.

John and Susan live about 8 blocks west of the Capital Building. After lunch, we set out to walk to it, and then down the mall to the Washington Monument. The set up for the inauguration was in progress: security fencing and all the porta potties from a wide radius.

There is lots more to write about - it's been a thrilling and marvelous and exhausting day and I have to go to sleep now.