Some Tech Sense » NECC

Progressive Pedagogy and 21st Century Tools – NECC

Amanda — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:46:52 +0000

Chris Lehmann (Principal of the Science Leadership Academy – small public school in PA and it’s a 1:1 school) presents Progressive Pedagogy and 21st Century Tools.

Premise: Pedagogy Matters! Schools should be…
Caring Place – we teach kids not subjects
Inquiry Driven – what are the questions we can ask together?
Student Centered – it’s not about us
Passionate – it has to matter economic and energy independence because of bio-diesal creatiton
Meta-cognitive – we need to think about thinking
Technology infused – ubiquitous necessary and invisible
Understanding driven – project based

Problem - Technology Overload and How to Prevent It! Ask what is good not what is new… the best one sets us up for collaboration It must allow us to:

Research -RSS, Diigo, Google, Wikipedia
Collaborate – Wiki, Google Docs, Moodle
Create – Blogging, Drupal
Network – Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Email
Present – uStream, Flickr, iTunes U, podcasting

We need a strong pedagogical framework to harvest the tools of technology.
Curriculum Writing Framework: UbD Unified our inputs (inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation – the core values) so that kids hear the language repetitively. Unified process (everything PD, class structures – feel the same). Outputs are the same on a rubric design, knowledge, application, presentation, process as they transcend all disciplines.

Step 1: Desired Results… If you don’t know where you’re going

Goals – the objectives
Understandings – the big ideas about why we teach this
Essential Questions – The Throughline – what do we keep coming back to over and over again?
Skills and Content – What is all the stuff kids have to know to get to the big ideas?

Step 2: How do you Assess?

Traditional: Tests, Homework, Projects, Class Participation
UbD: Projects, Homework, Class Participation, Test/Quizzes

Students should be able to conduct interviews, improve writing skills, hone readings skills. Everything that he was talking about was related to Assessment FOR Learning instead of Assessment OF Learning. This ties in perfectly with my upcoming second visit to Rick Stiggin’s Assessment FOR Learning Conference in Portland. Kids gain more, remember more, learn more through formative assessments.

Step 3: The Learning Plan using UbD. We created the following lesson plan today about Natural Disasters…

The complete slideshow…

Thanks Chris for a great presentation!!

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Flat Classrooms – Live Blogging for NECC ’08

Amanda — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:58:24 +0000

Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis discuss Flat Classrooms

Jousting for the New Generation by David Loader is an excellent read over the summer. “Knowledge sharing among students can be a major source of content and pedagogy.”

You know you have a flat classroom when…

You expect to have daily conversations, ongoing, regular interactions with students and classes around the world
You and your students collaborate to create products that make a difference in the world with people from different countries.

Students are having opportunities to interact with other adults who review content on the wiki and give feedback around the world. Go to p. 501-503 in Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat for a great discussion. Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind and Wikinomics served as inspirations for the project.

All projects
Flat Classroom (back off sept-nov)
Horizon Project Mar-June
Digiteen (for younger kids age 13-14)

Elementary Group
Create a Ning and embed Voicethread in the Ning using peer review.
Virtual Fieldtrips in a flat classroom – Monstorous Google Map with an overlay

Social Studies/History/HumanitiesStudents come from one place and another place to meet in a third place and plan a virtual student fieldtrip… airfare, sights, hotels, visas, using email, Ning, voicethreads

Technology
Ask students to create a digital story about what it takes to be a good digital citizen – digital storytelling
Parent and student survey piece as done in Digiteen

Arts
Podcast about what is looks like in their biomes
Create voicethread discussing particular artists and sharing different points of view.
Email Kevin for more information The Rest Area is his blog….

MS Group
Students collaboratively create Non-Governmental Organizations for issues that are world-wide or regional such as poverty, peacekeeping, conflict prevention, international labor/migration rules, digital divide. Students can use voicethreads, wikis, blogs, video-conferencing…

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PowerPoint Presentation Facelift – Live Blogging at NECC ’08

Amanda — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:59:43 +0000

PowerPoints Again??

I suppose we go into each of these sessions with our own point of view. We read a description of a workshop or session, perhaps do a little research on the presenter and then go in hoping to get our needs met. This time I head to David Jakes and Dean Shareski’s One Hour PowerPoint: A Strategy for Improving Presentations. I’ve listened to strategy after strategy at various workshops and conferences, but it’s always good to get a refresher because I see and sometimes still do some very wrong things concerning PowerPoints.

All presentation materials can be found on the following wiki – http://jakes.editme.com/

Teachers are still doing some pretty bad things with PowerPoint. In 10 steps you can dramatically change how kids produce visual presentations. It’s not what the software does, it’s about what the user does!

1: Teach users biology – there is a broadband connection from eyes to brain. 30% processes visually 3% processed auditory… ability to communicate must be visually based!

2. Do not use bullet points
Limit Text – “Why would you use words on the screen when they do just fine in your mouth” – Seth Godin

3. Teach about intellectual property
Use FlickrStorm because it allows kids to search through licenses. Apply Attribution license to the pictures you put online and give credit to those you use. Choose pics and add to tray then download to that tray. Take the URL and provide link to kids and in presentations. For other great photos use iStockPhoto.

4. Teach kids Creative Commons and talk about intellectual property.

5. Teach them design by giving their slides a makeover
The goal is to change slides to turn them into a more compelling presentation
Strip away templates and start with blank slate and text
Find an image that is a metaphor for the idea.

6. Teach them to craft and sell a message.
A great beginning project is to have kids write a personal narrative and write a script that includes mulit-media applications. Write the script first, extract a storyboard, and then film.
Transfer the emotion of the script is what communication is all about.

7. Color and font choice matters. Yellow is the first color we see. Green means renewal. Red-danger alert. Blues and yellows work together. Deep blue – trust. Fonts Serif Font has the hooks which helps your eyes track when reading paper. San Serif Font without hooks should be used for projection (Ariel). Don’t use Helvetica with adults in America because IRS uses it!

8. Teach them to incorportate multi-media
Embed – Zamzar will convert files online for free.
Add ons Youtube vidoes for MS World ’03 and ’07

9 Teach them PowerPoint secrets
Do a Keyboard commands search on google
B key – goes black
W key goes white

10 Teach them to share
slideshare.net has featured presentations. Have students critique them. What elements of design engaged you or were unengaging?
sliderocket – build presentation online
Google Docs
Do Photo credits at the end

An excellent resources for presentations is The Back of the Napkin, Dan Roam

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My First Take on NECC 08

Amanda — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:14:43 +0000

Leading up to NECC, all I heard about was Edubloggercon, Edubloggercon… people were excited about it, but everytime I went online to investigate, it just seemed huge to me. I felt like Edubloggercon was going to be about the philosophy of technology rather than talk about tools. For this reason, I decided to give it a pass and attend all all day session about digital storytelling.

Carol Anne McGuire who is the ISTE teacher of the year led the session and she did so brilliantly. It was everything I was looking for in a first day conference session. It was active, fun, fresh, challenging… I was learning something new. Jeff Utecht said it perfectly in his reflection after his first day:

We both used the time as “Beta Time” time to learn something new, to be taught something new, to take risks, laugh, and talk about how these tools, these ideas can be/might be using in a classroom. We were looking for something new not rehashing the old.

My first day was all Beta Time. We took our video cameras as soon as we walked in the door, made a few new friends and filmed a short scene with a rough script in hand. After watching all of our short videos, we talked about storyboards and made out first storyboards for what we had done and where we were going with out story. The real fun started when we had to had over our storyboard to another group and they had to film our story. In the end, we got our stories back and incorporated sound and lighting into our composition using point of view that made it real. The day was a blast which is exactly what I needed for my Beta Time!

We are all now connected with each other through Carol Anne McGuire’s Rock Our World organization and her Moodle site. Great resources – great people – great BETA!

So I attach my final product that is by no means great, but considering that I didn’t know much when I walked in the door, I’ll give myself some credit. I do ask myself one question though: how the heck do I always get dooped into being the actor?? It’s so not my next calling…

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