Yesterday I attended the Arizona School Administrator's Law Conference. While there, I live tweeted the two morning sessions using #asalawconf for my tweets. Today, I read this great blog about the urgency of change in educational technology. Greatly inspired, I rushed in to my principal's office to show him how I had tweeted the highlights of the conference (which included the impact of Medical Marijuana, FERPA, and Americans with Disabilities Act). Although very open minded about technology, my principal would be the first to tell he's not incredibly tech savvy.
So I show him Twitter on my smart phone because of course it's blocked on our campus because of the Internet filters. I feel I've lost the impact that projecting the tweets from the LCD may have had, but he listens intently. Explaining how I think I could have students tweet about Macbeth, he nods at the possibility, and then he asks what other technologies could be used similarly. Wah? It's Twitter. There are no other technologies like it. I backpedal, saying that maybe you could compile comments in a wiki, but then mention that one of the benefits is that you can post to Twitter via text messaging, and that a smart phone isn't needed. Overall, he seemed receptive about the idea.
After mentioning the blog post on urgency, I came home to look up the link to send to him (the author of the post is another principal in our district). I reread the post, glad I had mentioned it to him, and then started clicking links. The first click was to connectedprincipals.com, a great site that has numerous resources for school leaders. Great find! I also went promptly and liked their Facebook page. There, I found some more great resources, including a link for a PowerPoint used by a principal for professional development about social media and another link to an article about twitter. I sent all of these to my principal, too.
What I liked so much about the blog I mentioned to him is this: "Meaningful change requires a certain level of discomfort and expediency. Choose to be a little uncomfortable, challenge others to take reasonable risks, and create a sense of calculated urgency with regard to the utilization of educational technology." I hope my principal reads the blog. I pray my district will try to be a little uncomfortable by taking reasonable risks where technology is concerned. I hope I have created a bit of calculated urgency. We'll see.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Consistency
Recently, I wrote about how the filters at my school let me in to post a blog. Today, we found out that everything, including sites that had previously been approved, seemed blocked. Tomorrow, I will post more since I'm reading "Filters, Fair Use &Feedback: Usergenerated Content Principles and the DCMA ." I hope it sheds light on this subject.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
When technology fails
At approximately 8:40 am today, we were told to log out of our computers because of some network issue. Hours later when we were still locked out, I entered my login and password to find my computer worked perfectly. Within minutes, a voice over the loud speaker adamantly told me to log off the system as if Big Brother himself were ordering me to do so before the thought police could deal with me.
This happened a second time, and from what I hear some teachers had logged back in, even after the vehement direction to log out. Those teachers were remotely logged off the system and I'm sure a tally mark exists next to their name on some list somewhere. Regardless, the subsequent comments from colleagues and facebook posts about not having access to technology made me think: Are we too techno-dependent in the 21st century classroom? What if the interwebs disappeared tomorrow? Could I still teach?
I remember when my house was valued at twice the purchase price five years after we bought it. I remember thinking, "the value can't go down, can it?" We all know how that ended, but the conspiracy theorist in me questions the extent to which we as teachers should rely on technology in our classrooms because it might not be there someday. Perplexed by paranoia, I fired up the google, and searched my heart out looking for some sort of "top 10 things to do when technology fails" type of list. I found this great blog and I hope if you click the link, you read all of it, especially the last paragraph. This is not what I did today.
What I did do today consisted of being grateful that the activities I planned entailed predominantly pencil-to-paper skills, and that I only missed about 20 minutes of a clip of a movie and an audio version of a play. Whew! I made it out safe. Countless others intended to rely on the computer, lcd, and/or doc camera for the entirety of the 100 minute block period.
Unable to easily google a list to share with you here (yes, I smell the irony), I shall compose a top 10 list of things to do when technology fails. Ahem:
1. read the text
2. write questions about the current topic
3. draw something, anything
4. rate processes, procedures
5. discuss current events
6. review notes from previous lesson
7. create problems and scenarios
8. evaluate previous activities
9. justify answers from a previous assignment
10. debate potential changes to the style of the next assessment
Well, at least it's a start. You should print out the list, though, because you won't be able to access it should technology fail.
Well, at least it's a start. You should print out the list, though, because you won't be able to access it should technology fail.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Concise and collaborative
For a project in my qualitative data analysis class, I interviewed two colleagues that I respect beyond words (and, coincidentally, who both blog). I asked how writing changes as technology advances. Both gave different responses in some areas, but both agreed that writing in the high school classroom has become more concise and collaborative.
I was reminded of these interviews today when the New York Times tweeted about using social media to teach concise writing. The article contains great links to activities to use while teaching writing including the six word story, the twaiku (a twitter haiku), and literary response activities using Twitter or Facebook. As I read the article, my mind raced with ideas about how I might incorporate some of these social-media-based activities in my classes. And then I remembered the internet filter.
See, last year, after two years of suggestions by most tech savvy colleague, I embarked on a journey of technology immersion in my classroom. Devon had explained to me numerous times how to use blogs with my students, how to use Google docs for students to collaborate on writing, and about a million other ideas, but I never fancied myself tech savvy enough to implement such lessons. When I wrote a paper about technology as culturally relevant pedagogy, I argued that secondary teachers are hesitant to try different technologies with students because they are used to possessing the most knowledge in the room where content is concerned. With technology, teachers know they won't know the most--the students will. It's a control issue, and so last year I let go, knowing that I would likely know the least about the technology I would be using.
The good news is, I survived. The bad news is that my school, as with many other public schools, has internet filters that block content. Unable to score the student authored blogs during my prep, I spent countless hours at home reading what amounted to their entire research process, from proposal through final draft, from my couch. My school's filter blocked all blogs. So, today, when I saw the tweet about using social media (another area that is a category for filter blocks) to teach students how to collaborate and write concisely, I was at the same time excited at the idea and sad that I could not likely access the technologies in my classroom.
I'm not going to question how and why, but today I was able to access Twitter for the New York Times link, Facebook to reread part of the paper I referenced, and, *gasp* Blogger. I will count the time from my prep hour used to blog as payback for last year's hours of grading from home. I'm also going back to the article to click on a few of the links for the lessons, now that I see they may be possible in my classroom.
I was reminded of these interviews today when the New York Times tweeted about using social media to teach concise writing. The article contains great links to activities to use while teaching writing including the six word story, the twaiku (a twitter haiku), and literary response activities using Twitter or Facebook. As I read the article, my mind raced with ideas about how I might incorporate some of these social-media-based activities in my classes. And then I remembered the internet filter.
See, last year, after two years of suggestions by most tech savvy colleague, I embarked on a journey of technology immersion in my classroom. Devon had explained to me numerous times how to use blogs with my students, how to use Google docs for students to collaborate on writing, and about a million other ideas, but I never fancied myself tech savvy enough to implement such lessons. When I wrote a paper about technology as culturally relevant pedagogy, I argued that secondary teachers are hesitant to try different technologies with students because they are used to possessing the most knowledge in the room where content is concerned. With technology, teachers know they won't know the most--the students will. It's a control issue, and so last year I let go, knowing that I would likely know the least about the technology I would be using.
The good news is, I survived. The bad news is that my school, as with many other public schools, has internet filters that block content. Unable to score the student authored blogs during my prep, I spent countless hours at home reading what amounted to their entire research process, from proposal through final draft, from my couch. My school's filter blocked all blogs. So, today, when I saw the tweet about using social media (another area that is a category for filter blocks) to teach students how to collaborate and write concisely, I was at the same time excited at the idea and sad that I could not likely access the technologies in my classroom.
I'm not going to question how and why, but today I was able to access Twitter for the New York Times link, Facebook to reread part of the paper I referenced, and, *gasp* Blogger. I will count the time from my prep hour used to blog as payback for last year's hours of grading from home. I'm also going back to the article to click on a few of the links for the lessons, now that I see they may be possible in my classroom.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Naming a blog more challenging than naming a child
At the suggestion of Dr. Coop and the others at cybersalonaz.com, I accepted the NaBloPoMo challenge: one blog post per day. The first complication clearly surfaced when naming the blog, probably because I'm not sure of the goal of my daily post. Coop said, "I know not everyone can keep up with that hefty goal, but how about committing to one a week? It sure beats trying to do NaNoWriMo." Having failed at that once in 2009, I figured I could give this a whirl.
Rewind to the beginning of the summer while studying global education in preparation for a two week language immersion in Granada, Spain, as part of my doctoral studies in education. Dr. Fischman said in his lovely Argentinian accent, "First, you must write. Every day, at least once per day, you must write your ideas." Well, my ideas about contemporary literacies on the final paper garnered comments such as, "Once you know where you are going, you will know better how to support it with empirical evidence." Ok.
So, where am I going? I have two more classes to complete next semester, then I will begin writing my dissertation. When people ask what my topic is, I answer "technology" because they nod and are satisfied. Really, I'm interested in technology's effect on literacy in secondary education, but I don't like the furrowed eyebrows that response receives. Ah, much more work to be done.
In order to know where I'm going, as Fischman suggested, I will blog. See, in mine, and I'm sure many other doctoral programs, they encourage memo writing. In fact, a whole section of my qualitative research text explained memo writing. My first shot at a memo began with this quote: “to imagine literacy education as not only a pathway for professional membership, but one of development for engaged citizenship, positioning adolescents as learners of literacies of power and participants as agents of change” Morrell (2005). I love the sentiment, just not the format. I keep thinking that I don't have a commitment to memo writing, not even if it helps me find my topic. But, with NaBloPoMo here, I have agreed to make the commitment to blog each day. I've failed at NaNoWriMo, maybe this will be my success.
Which brings me back to my blog title: Literate Liza. Because I teach high school seniors, I hope that they use literacy gained from my class to become "agents of change." Next quarter, I expect them to blog their entire research process while writing a literary criticism of a famous author and two of that author's works. If I expect it of them in their research process, surely I can do it during mine. Therefore, in order to write, every day, to find my way to my topic, I shall blog.
Rewind to the beginning of the summer while studying global education in preparation for a two week language immersion in Granada, Spain, as part of my doctoral studies in education. Dr. Fischman said in his lovely Argentinian accent, "First, you must write. Every day, at least once per day, you must write your ideas." Well, my ideas about contemporary literacies on the final paper garnered comments such as, "Once you know where you are going, you will know better how to support it with empirical evidence." Ok.
So, where am I going? I have two more classes to complete next semester, then I will begin writing my dissertation. When people ask what my topic is, I answer "technology" because they nod and are satisfied. Really, I'm interested in technology's effect on literacy in secondary education, but I don't like the furrowed eyebrows that response receives. Ah, much more work to be done.
In order to know where I'm going, as Fischman suggested, I will blog. See, in mine, and I'm sure many other doctoral programs, they encourage memo writing. In fact, a whole section of my qualitative research text explained memo writing. My first shot at a memo began with this quote: “to imagine literacy education as not only a pathway for professional membership, but one of development for engaged citizenship, positioning adolescents as learners of literacies of power and participants as agents of change” Morrell (2005). I love the sentiment, just not the format. I keep thinking that I don't have a commitment to memo writing, not even if it helps me find my topic. But, with NaBloPoMo here, I have agreed to make the commitment to blog each day. I've failed at NaNoWriMo, maybe this will be my success.
Which brings me back to my blog title: Literate Liza. Because I teach high school seniors, I hope that they use literacy gained from my class to become "agents of change." Next quarter, I expect them to blog their entire research process while writing a literary criticism of a famous author and two of that author's works. If I expect it of them in their research process, surely I can do it during mine. Therefore, in order to write, every day, to find my way to my topic, I shall blog.
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