Teaching Generation Z

dear ken,

Do you like the way I started this post by using one of your trademark writing quirks?

Anyway, it has taken me this long to pull together some bits and pieces since your post that got me thinking. I went and did what I threatened in the comment. I took your techno-ripe idea, ping-ponging its way via the network from California to Pennsylvania to South Australia, twisted it around to suit my Year Six classroom and have a few samples to share.

Check this one first…

The goal was to advertise their upcoming Personal Research Projects (starting up this week!) in one minute with the assistance of four relevant adjectives combined with four skilfully chosen CC images. Some kids did well with their adjective choice, their excellent speaking skills but struggled to break away from the obvious connection with their chosen topic. Not to worry - these are 11 year olds after all. I was happy about the attribution and thought put into this one.

Others were not as fluent at the speaking part but their image choice was positively inspired…

And if you’re wondering what four adjectives would sum up your own fine country from an Aussie child’s perspective, try this ad for the topic of the USA.

So, ken, I did much of what you suggested. In between the demands of your young family, just know that your influence (and so many others that I read and connect with) resonates in my classroom half a world away.

And that still blows me away.

I’ve been hosting a few visitors again and it’s the interactive whiteboards that seem to be the main attraction. I had a team from a local educational publishing company sit in on one of my lessons to see one in action and gain some ideas about how to design content (books, digital resources, support materials) that fits with a classroom that is moving more into the digital world. Amazingly, one of the graphic designers was an ex-student of mine from my teaching days in Port Augusta (in my Year 3/4 class back in 1992) - feeling old at 41!

Then tonight, I took a group (of which I am a member) from my son’s school’s Governing Council around my school to get some ideas around the theme of Assets Improvement. This group are parents from other non-education areas of the workforce and they really wanted to see an IWB in action for the first time. I know that the “wow” factor is always more pronounced with adults but I did point out that nearly everything I produce now in the course of my work is digital. I do my programming on a wiki (easier to embed the web links I like to use), I create flipcharts to introduce concepts and take students through units of work, my school communication runs on email and the electronic daybook and I produce document after document in the course of my daily work. Then in the evening, I network with my global colleagues, hunt down and tag potential online resources and read widely varying big and small picture perspectives on technology, education and the space between the two.

One of the Assets group pointed out that all of this technology stuff seemed to be my passion and that is true. I have actively sought out all of this stuff and manouevred myself into leadership responsibilities in the eLearning area, and tried to be progressive in working out what new and emerging technologies can do in the classroom. The hardest part has always been how to lure the non-technology-passionate teacher over to the other side. And I still think that the Interactive Whiteboard is the one of the best ways to do that luring. It bridges that middle ground and gets otherwise skeptical non-digital teachers to at least start to become digital in their day to day work.

Lastly, I’ve been approached to offer a workshop for the mid year Australian Literacy Educators Association conference on how I use the IWB for literacy in my classroom. Looking through the program, there are shades of Web 2.0 in some of the sessions and the opening keynote will focus on the media fuelled “Literacy Wars“. (Yep, we’ve got our own version, Doug.) But if some of these passionate literacy educators drop into my session and see that use of an IWB in their classroom can be a gateway to all of these new multi-literacies that modern education needs to address…. well, I’m hoping that I can do the invitation justice.

Over the summer holidays I’d been pondering how to improve my Mathematics program using inspiration, ideas and resources from Dan Meyer’s blog. I wanted to harness the potential of my classroom interactive whiteboard to the engagement and purpose of digital materials presented using some of the effective information design principles that Dan so passionately espouses. My original idea was to break the back of the Year Six Maths curriculum by designing the flipcharts by topic or concept before school started back but having a real holiday break and spending quality family time after a really intense 2007 put paid to that ambition. Instead, I’ve made a conscious effort so far this year to stick to my concept and while what I’ve produced so far could always improve in quality, I reckon I’m on the right track.

I’m not naturally well organised so establishing some base concepts early on has been helpful. I created some template flipcharts using a colour code system to identify the strand. (e.g. Green gradient background = Measurement, Yellow gradient background = Number although the cruddy Toshiba projector I have in my classroom turns that into a dirty lime.) From there I have been seeking out maths related Flickr cc images to hook the kids’ interest, get the class thinking and then I try to clearly introduce the concept, process or skill using clear good sized fonts (Tahoma is my favourite) and minimal word based instruction. I’m scouring del.ici.ous links for useful web based simulations, games and embedding them in the flipcharts so that they can become an integral part of the lesson.

So, I’ve gone from a wild variety of fonts, backgrounds and amount of mathematical information:

To something that is starting to be more about the maths concept and how the kids will learn that than how it’s all going to look.

I’ve also taken Dan’s ideas about effective worksheet design on board as well, designing my own worksheets instead of pulling stuff out of textbooks (where time allows) and even when I do use something that someone else has used, it has at least been with a critical eye and conscience.

Just having a plan of attack is doing wonders for an area of the curriculum I have less than progressive in over the last couple of years. My co-teacher and I reckon our classes are up for the Feltron Project next - modified for 10/11 year olds, of course.

And using this approach is turning up some digital gems. Last night, I started hunting down supporting material for the topic of timelines, starting with units of time measurement, moving to sequence of events in varying time frames and then adding some scale to those timelines. For starters, this time keeping page was an ideal starting point (until the data projector froze this morning and I had to do some fast paddling to get the laptops out, logged on and kids directed to the right spot in cyberspace - a non-digital plan can be a helpful back-up) followed by this great timeline of events based around the fatal tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. Tomorrow, I will get them analysing a day of their own life using the ReadWriteThink timeline tool before we look at how to introduce scale into the concept.

Still not sure how to use this timeline on the history of McDonald’s in my class but the tool that creates it , xtimeline oozes potential for older users.

Following the Learnscope event on Tuesday but seemingly independent of it, discussion around the concept of PLE’s and related concepts (like e-portfolios) seem to have reached fever pitch in the edna forums. Unfortunately unless you are prepared to create an account and then join the groups, the conversation is hidden to the outside world. And as is the case in many of these forums, there are powerful voices ready to “tell it like it is” and impose their perspective on others.

But onto the discussion - there are two forums in debate over what a PLE actually is and I waded into one behind a Stephen Downes post, possibly shielding me from others poking holes in my meek opinions. Not surprisingly there were various points of view. These included:

• a PLE is the property of a school or educational institution
• a PLE can only exist in places you personally can control, like your own computer, your own server
• a PLE is a great big nothing
• a PLE is a whole heap of sources and content aggregated in a personal StartPage like iGoogle or PageFlakes
• a PLE can only be defined by official refereed academics
• a PLE is social networking tools leveraged for learning

If that sounds like a whole bunch of viewpoints at odds with each other, then I think you’re right. Makes me wonder if I even know what I was talking about in my slidecast. With so many “experts” weighing in and sounding authorative, what hope would my ideas have of surviving in that forum environment?

One time that helps me is the knowledge is that even if “my PLE” isn’t a real one according to some of the proclamations in edna Groups, it seems to be working for me.

I’m feeling a bit tired and I’ve been a bit distracted all day long. I think some of it is mental fatigue as a result of having so many intriguing ideas floating around in my head from yesterday’s Day One of the TALO Swapmeet/ Unconference. In some ways, it’s just as well that the day got off to a slow start because things really started accelerating through the afternoon. In another way, although I would have loved to have the opportunity to be there today, my brain would be hard pressed to process more than a small percentage of what I did get to sample. So today, as I led my class through some very traditional schooling experiences (spelling, writing, multiplication tables, some assembly practice and Go-Go Golf) and spent some quiet anti-social time (two yard duties on the oval), I mulled over what should end up in this post.

One thing about TALO is that it is very ”big picture” and wading into big, curly questions is a specialty. From my viewpoint, the one drawback is getting an unconference going is that without a designated moderator, no-one wants to push their way to the front in a group of educators without any pecking order (which is a good thing). Thankfully, some people have leadership presence whether they are comfortable with that label or not, and Leigh kick-started the afternoon by suggesting that those with less attendance opportunity be up first thereby inviting me to talk to my ideas about E-Portfolios/Online Teachers.

What really amazes me is the way this scattered group of people from all corners of the Antipodes (and beyond via Alex’s Breeze session) just effortlessly pull and manipulate available technology to reinvent the conventions of professional learning. There’s photos from mobile phones loading periodically to Flickr, there’s data projectors beaming dual perspectives onto spare wall space (who needs an interactive whiteboard or presentation screen). Jumping in and showing a resource of interest (Mathematics YouTube videos, anyone?) is not only OK but encouraged. I’ve never felt so comfortable with people I’ve never met before - except I have. It’s a redefinition of what to means to know someone, what it means to learn from someone, to be someone. There’s free and open conversation and no-one playing the role of expert or puppetmaster (except with Bill’s slideshow - how eerie!) and if I play the “I’m only a primary school teacher” card, I rightly get admonished for being negative and undermining my own contributions. This is really different (for me) way of learning - when the conversation and digital reference points kick in, anyone can add fuel to the topic at hand, redirect or play devil’s advocate to force out further explanation. Contrast that to a regular conference keynote or presentation where someone holds court and pushes out their worldview without challenge to an audience conditioned to respectful silence punctuated with occasional polite applause.

So, as I process the time I spent at TALO07 and then consume the media created on Day Two, can I just offer thanks to Robyn, Stephan, Michael, Mike, Vonnie, Peter, Pete, Leigh, Sunshine, Bill, Botts, Jo, Rose and anyone else in Room 305, Adelaide TAFE for your interaction, energy and colleageality. And thanks also to the world’s lowest fuss houseguest, Alex Hayes, who tolerated my family’s need for routine and was an instant pal to my youngest son. It really was a pleasure.

Attribution for above: Image: ‘08032007(017)‘ by mobology
www.flickr.com/photos/12881336@N00/414192278

Attribution for below: Image: ‘talo10‘ by rjay
www.flickr.com/photos/http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/415038137

Christopher D. Sessums says:

We need an instructional theory that states: “we must listen to people who think differently than we do.”

That’s why it’s important for someone like me to listen to someone like Dan Meyer. His latest post adds another must watch video to the ones I highlighted in my last post. One thing we both agree on is this:

…this is an exciting time to be a teacher with graphic design and motion graphics in his back pocket…

Compelling messages are being created that don’t rely on words alone. Images, key text and motion combine to draw the viewer in, give that part of the brain that would normally be prone to distraction something to notice, and delivers the idea or concept in a very “sticky” way. Dan Pink talks about the importance of design and I think Dan Meyer is right on the money here. Engagement is not entertainment - but it’s a compulsion to see something through to the end to see where something is going. That’s where presentation technologies can be really useful. And that can work just as well (probably better) in a Californian mathematics class as it can in my humble Aussie primary classroom.

Derek Wenmoth, Director eLearning CORE Education Ltd Christchurch NEW ZEALAND with his keynote was titled,” Thinking Digitally”. He started by relating a story about his father-in-law who was confronted by a group of youths who disappeared quickly after a few words. Derek’s son suggested to his grandfather that he should have taken a photo of these guys using his mobile phone camera. This is an example of digital thinking. Also related the story of the high frequency sound used for keeping teenagers away from malls called Teen Buzz, which has been reinvented as a ringtone that adults can’t hear! Quoted Nicholas Negroponte ” Thinking in terms of Bits, not Atoms!” He talked about the change in tools from when he started teaching in the 70’s. Then tools were Analog, Now tools are Digital, Next tools are Connected.

Our schools may not may changed but our kids have. Talked about the concept of “hypertext” minds and ” attentional deployment.” It is now an important skill to be able to shift attention from one task to another. Talked about synchronous tools (IM, Skype etc.) and asynchronous tools (blogs). He showed us his daughter’s blog. He also talked about My Space - he points out as educators, we can’t afford to just say, “Well, that’s their problem.” Derek posed the question,” What would happen in Australia if the Internet fell over tomorrow.” Well, our banking would grind to a halt but would it make any difference to schools?

Showed us his OLE continuum diagram to demonstrate the pedagogical charge needed in schools. He then started to talk about the different components needed in schools for a school based OLE - LMS (Moodle was his example), management of student identity but while schools set up their system to contain everything, students are off setting up their own blogs, ELGG’s etc. See his diagram here. The problem now is not access to information but how to sort through that information.

I love this idea of public photo sharing. It’s great even if I don’t do much of it. Checking out D’Arcy Norman’s flickr faves or looking through Brian Lamb’s trip to Croatia is amazing. I even subscribed to Doug Noon’s flickr account rss feed and I get his 9 latest images on my Pageflakes page. So reading an article on digital photography by Terry Freedman got me thinking the other day about getting my class out in the yard to take digital pics of maths in real life, in their local environment. I grabbed five of our basic Kodak C300 cameras and got the class into teams of five to go and get ten mathematical pics in a 20 minute timeframe. Well, most groups were back sooner than that and we dumped the pics onto my laptop desktop and had them up on the IWB in ACTIVstudio annotating and discussing the maths involved in the first few pics. The first one was of a hopscotch layout and the kids identified area, perimeter, symmetry, intersecting lines, shape and number patterns. It was a great lesson.

Looking back through the pics, it struck me that for the short time frame the kids had, the brief scope of the task etc. that some of the pics showed some real photographic flair. So, for your enjoyment, here’s a RockYou show of 10 of the best out of the nearly 50 snapped from 9.20 - 9.35 am on Wednesday morning.

[rockyou 29923108]

A really interesting skype enabled chat with Alex Hayes last week about his work and mine as well led to an invitation to contribute to a new group blog with a focus on mobile educational technologies. When I look at the blogroll of contributors there, I certainly feel that I’m in a place where I can learn a lot more than I can contribute. Some of my posts there are probably going to reek of naivety, but mixing it with high level thinkers can help me to clarify ideas better to my colleagues at the local primary school level. I certainly want to expand the ideas I started in my On The Wall Or The Go post, with the goal being to publish a better researched, in depth article in our local professional association’s (CEGSA) publication.

Personally, one of the best things I have done this year was to buy a wireless router for my home broadband connection. That in combination with a new wireless Acer Tablet PC from work has really freed me from being chained to my desktop each night or from having to sync my iPaq to constantly download my blog reading and learning. The analogy of where mobile learning (and working) seems to be heading in my eyes is much like the shift from hardcover to paperback books. When the paperback book became a popular “technology”, then were two things that gave it an edge over its more traditional rival. It was lighter and more portable. Instead of binding and stitching, it used inexpensive glue. The old dustcover was given the heave ho and and a thinner, flexible glossier cover made it very attractive to the consumer. Now it was practical to read a book or two on the bus into work or in the staffroom on lunch break. I was a big science fiction fan at high school and borrowing three or four Asimov or Andre Norton paperbacks was preferable to only getting one hardcover edition. But the thing that gave the paperback its big advantage was its vastly reduced cost - here in Australia, about half the retail value of its older sibling. So that made buying books much less of a luxurious indulgence and the consumer could afford more books more often. Of course, the publishers still like to release all new titles in hardcover some time ahead of any paperback release - much like big budget Hollywood movies going to the cinema a few months before they make onto DVD. Of course, downloading movies off the internet has probably reduced the gap between the movie theatre and you owning your own legal copy. So how does this relate to the use of mobile technologies?

Well, we are still in an era where the vast majority of online content is geared towards the monitor size of a desktop or notebook computer. Some formats are capable of reshaping themselves for a mobile phone or PDA screen but wireless mobile users still need to use web services like Skweezer, Mobile Leap, Google Mobile or the mobile version of Bloglines to assist in comfortable reading. The read/write web may well be in full swing on the regular sized screen but there are far less choices for the Web 2.0 mobile user. So, the change will have to gain momentum (and it will be driven by consumer demand) until the paperback version of the web is in place. Moblogging is proof that people want the capability to publish to the web anyplace, anytime. So just like one of my class’s simple pleasures might be to relax under the trees on a beautiful day reading our very portable paperbacks, there might be soon a day when they can write a hypertexted report on their mobile wireless device, publishing it to the web on the fly and downloading criteria for a set task in voice, word and/or screencast format in the same shady spot. Maybe then the education sector might be with grudgingly accept that power of learning is indeed in the hands of its students.

Photo credits: bookshelf by kathy s Flickr Creative Commons Image.

Well, if you read the last two posts and were confused, a little bit of background is in order. Today I attended the ICT Research Expo at TSOF which featured presentations from the 2005 ICT Research Grants. The Action Research Grants have been a DECS initiative since 2003 and I was lucky enough to score one back then for the development of student friendly school websites, working with my class and my good educator friend, Lindsay and his class. I was encouraged to take a look today by my principal especially as several of the presentations featured the use of Interactive Whiteboards. Our network manager came along for a look too so it was good to have a professional colleague to bounce thoughts and ideas with. As the previous entries showed, I had a go at live blogging using the wireless network at TSOF but I wasn’t too brave. I used the Tablet PC input panel to scribe as I went, turning my scrawl into the Open Office Writer document and pressing save regularly to avoid loss of text. At the end of each session, I cut and pasted into my blog and posted. By the third session, I’d had enough and listened to Mike Roach’s presentation on live NASA feeds into his high school Science classes and listened like a regular human being.

After that, I still recorded my impressions but I’m sticking them all in one post here a couple of hours after the event. I don’t think that it’ll make much difference as they were my thoughts as I listened and I’m no David Warlick or Stephen Downes whose thoughts I might like to read as they unfold!

So you’ve got an Interactive Whiteboard! Now what?
Beth Measday, Ingle Farm PS.

I’ve referenced this research report before over at Activboarding so I knew the gist of her conclusions prior to this presentation. I would also say that Beth is an extremely engaging speaker and I can see how she will be a tremedously succesful consultant for Electroboard, the distributors of SmartBoards here in Australia. Consequently, Beth is an active proponent of the SmartBoard brand but I’ve been really keen to hear what she has to say re: IWB technology in general terms as her research was not brand based. This fits with what I’ve been exploring with about whether IWB technology is the best way to go. Beth also wanted to look at how to support teachers to become powerful uses of IWB in their classrooms. She started by using the DECS ICT skills and abilities survey and found 75% of teachers were at the basic level. She started the implementation by getting the staff in three phases - the keen, the ones who saw the keen users and wanted one, then the reluctant teachers. She ran regular weekly sessions to support those teacher for just in time learning, Beth talked about “play to learn”as her preferred model of learning, but different teachers need different learning structures as well. The first group of teachers filled the “play to learn” model but the second group needed a “trickle feed” model. Some needed a “read the manual” approach and other wanted a 1:1 approach. Beth commented that if those teachers had to offer that to their students that would be a different matter! Training and time to learn is essential for success. A key factor for the last group was essential technical support. It was also key to have the software available on all computers and important to disperse the expertise on staff to have more than one way of troubleshooting problems. IWB’s also increase the use of other technologies - scanners, camera, slates etc. I even got to ask a question. How do you move teachers from using it as primarily a teaching tool towards using it as a learning tool? Beth’s reply was that at her school,the IWB has never been used as a teaching tool only. However, she qualified that by saying that she had seen the transition from teacher designed materials extensively prepared prior to now getting the students to construct lessons as they went through the day.

Improved Learning Outcomes for Anangu Students on the use of ActivBoards.
Kathy Smerdon (AESEO Ernabella), Gail Carroll, Kirstie Holmes and Bianca Lally (Mimili Anangu School)

This was a very cool session as it was beamed in via Centra - ie Powerpoint Show and online voice and video link (webcam) controlling the presentation. After an intro, the presenters (apologies, I lost track of who was speaking when) played the Photostory file about the project to give some background to Mimili. One of their aims was to cater for the Anangu way of learning, particularly the use of images to demonstrate a concept - their point of success was in helping the students to move from concrete concepts to more abstract understanding via the IWB. The staff take up has been steadily growing. Whatever level the staff starts at, an IWB is a tool that they can get started with in the integration of ICT. The relative isolation of these communities means that professional development and technical support is a major issue. They did say that they have had very little trouble with the Activboards. They support each other via network meetings, training across the district and are still working on ways to share their resources via their district website on Commander’s website.

Are blogs an effective tools to support SHIP students research collaboratively and to improve literacy?
Kirsty Amos, Grant High School.

She takes a SHIP (Students with High Intellectual Potential) class and wanted to investigate show communication skills could be improved via the use of blogs. After a quick explanation of blogs and RSS, she moved onto describing the project. The blog system was set up internally and completely protected. The aim was to get them out onto the world wide Web, but that didn’t eventuate. Kirsty said they were glad that it didn’t progress to that stage as one child had blogged about an inappropriate topic and because of the closed system, it could not be traced back. She referenced Peter Ruwoldt’s metaphor of the using the internet like a road when a child starts crossing the road, you hold their hand, as they get older, you accompany them etc…until they are aware enough and skilled enough to do so. Used a set up called Serendipity on their local server and subscribed to each other’s RSS feed. When the students started a lot of them used TXT language. Again, access to computers was key to success and Grant High School used a thin client setup to have lots of computers available reading from the server.(Correct me of I’m wrong, Peter.) Kirsty actually said that the kids were losing some of their interest now. She did say that the research proved their theory that blogging has the capacity to improve communication skills. The project did encounter a lot of technical hitches along the way - if she did it again, she would use a public blog server. (I suggest learnerblogs.) She gave us the example of a student who was gaining acceptance and being listened to via this medium. A very interesting research project and of interest to the wider edublogosphere - I think the report link above will yield more in depth information.

Using iMovies to reflect on, understand and change learner behaviour.
Mark Hansen, Gilles Plain PS

This project focused on the use of movies to improve some poor behaviours. The child whose behavior was being targeted had to create a movie that portrayed themselves and showed different choices that could be made. It also showed the child how they would appear to others. The child owned the video and could choose to share it with his peers if he wished. Mark’s point was that you get powerful results in video if the stories are about the students themselves and about what could really happen.

That’s it - these are only my formative thoughts that I scrawled as it unfolded. It can be hard to focus properly when you are trying to get sentences down but a recent Stephen Downes post had me wanting to try the live blogging thing to see how it flies for my immediate learning. I might try some reflective posts later.

Or not.