Category Archives: Technology Resources

Narcissistic Viewing: Teaching the New Writing

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Recently, I decided to do a search on the book that I helped co-edit and write a chapter for — Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change and Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom — just to see if anyone was writing about it. Our aim was to showcase ways in which technology might be changing the teaching of writing, particularly in the spotlight of standardized testing and assessment and state curriculum. When Charlie, Anne and I were planning the book as editors, and then working on it over the course of two years with various writers, we hoped it would be something useful for classroom teachers.

But you never know.

Happily, the book has its share of mentions at various websites. It seems like much of the responses are positive and that the information is useful. I even found an entire wiki site dedicated to the book as well as a glog, which is something quite cool.

I am collecting the tidbits in the LiveBinder show above and will add when I find new things. If you are a reader of the book, I thank you and hope you found it helpful.

Peace (in the viewing),
Kevin

Book Review: Teaching the iGeneration

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Look inside Teaching the iGeneration: 5 Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills With Web 2.0 Tools!

This new book by Bill Ferriter and Adam Garry can join the ranks of Troy Hicks’ Digital Writing Workshop and Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom as a reliable guide that I can hand off to teachers who want to know how to take that first step into bringing technology into the classroom.

Teaching the iGeneration: 5 Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills with Web 2.0 Tools is jam-packed with useful information about the rationale of technology and also, with easily adapted reproducible hand-outs that will do a lot to ease the concerns of some teachers around assessment, reflection and exploration. And, the hand-outs are linked online to the book’s website, making it even easier to use (and you don’t have to buy the book to use the resources, although it would probably be nice to support the writers if you can). The handouts are geared both towards students at work in the classroom and the teachers, themselves.

Here, for example are the resources for the chapters around multimedia:

I really like how the authors (Disclosure: I know Bill through various online networks and he sent me this book as a complimentary gift, just to be open about the review) group the topics in the book around the themes of Information Fluency, Persuasion, Communication, Collaboration and Problem Solving. Those do seem like important themes for the classroom, and the writers argue successfully about students harnessing technology to meet those goals.

At one point, the authors list out what draws teens to digital projects:

  • Self-directed exploration (the freedom to find something of interest and delve deep into that topic, with multimedia as one tool)
  • Peers to demonstrate authority and expertise (by turning to teach other for learning as much as to the teacher)
  • Students to wrestle with meaningful issues (as they use technology to enter the public sphere and engage in matters that impact local and global communities)

It is also admirable that Ferriter and Garry present many of the projects that use technology around the theme of global poverty and social justice. They note that the target audience for the book is middle and high school teachers, whose students passions around injustice can often be motivation for creating projects that can make a difference in the world. “… global poverty can provide a natural context for digital projects that have meaning and motivate kids,” they write, although noting that any of the projects outlined here can be adapted for other important topics.

The book begins by addressing ways in which students can learn to manage information in the era of information overload, and then moves on to writing to persuade world leaders on issues, using digital storytelling, collaborating on challenging topics and ends with an interview with a student, Michael, talking about what he learned from using technology in the classroom. I liked the way the student voice framed the ending of the book and brought us into the classroom through Michael’s voice.

I’ll end by noting something Ferriter and Garry  wrote in the introduction:

Today’s learning environment — influenced by the technology already being used by students outside of school — ” ….requires nothing more than a teacher who is willing to show students how the tools they have already embraced can make learning efficient, empowering and intellectually satisfying. Are you ready to be that teacher?“

I hope so. Teaching the iGeneration is one of the many emerging resources that can help you on that path.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Writing a Story in Reverse, with friends

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collabstory2

You know that movie by director Christopher Nolan — Momento — where the action moves in sequence from the finish to the start? I’ve always been intrigued by how Nolan could not only conceive such a thing, but how do you pull it off? I was reminded of the movie yesterday as I launched a collaborative story project via a site called Today’s Meet.

Today’s Meet is a backchannel site that can be used during lectures and conferences. It’s a nice design. Easy to use. Each new post in the channel moves to the top, sort of like a blog. I was playing around with it the other day and wondered if it might be possible to use it for writing a story.

The trick would be that the story would have to be told in reverse by the writers, who would have to add their next part of the narrative in time sequence before the part they are reading. In other words, if a character is eating an apple, the next part to be written would be the character getting the apple and preparing to eat it, and before that, the character expressing hunger for an apple. Everything is one-step backwards.

Which means I had to start the project with the story’s ending and then allow folks to backfill the plot. Here’s my first post, which is actually the last few lines of the story: By the time it was all over, she wondered whether the device would actually work the way it was designed. She honestly did not know.

I know. Confusing. But intriguing as a writer who likes to explore the off-kilter world of composition. And eleven brave folks, mostly from my urgings over at Twitter during the day, joined me, adding elements of the plot during the course of the day. Oh, and each post could only be the size of a tweet — 140 characters. Thanks to: Tony, Cindy, Matt, Larry, Sabi, Linda, Gail, Dennis, Doris, and Mike for coming along for the ride. Your words were magic! (and thanks to connections with the National Writing Project, since a number of our writers are part of my NWP network)

The plot of our collaborative story revolves around a woman who has been given some sort of secret device and needs to meet her friends, who are not showing up. There’s a hint of danger in the air, and secrecy. A few minutes ago, I ended the story with the first line of the story: It all began innocently enough.

As we were working on it, I was reflecting on whether this is a possibility for the classroom. I suppose, but I think the backwards-design of the story would be way too complex for my sixth graders. Their critical thinking skill levels are such that they need to see things develop in proper chronological order. But it might be possible with high school students. A few of the posts to our story seemed out of sequence, or slightly jarring to the posts around it, and the problem with Today’s Meet is there is no editing. You write, you post, you’re published. That’s tricky business for writers.

Go read the Collaborative Story-in-Reverse(note: I had to update this as a PDF file because the Today’s Meet site expired on me.

It was a fun experiment, and I kept checking in to see where the story was unfolding towards. We never really answered crucial questions (what is this device anyway? And why such secrecy?) but I think the story is interesting to read.

Peace (in the collaboration),

Kevin

Backwards Story Writing: Using Today’s Meet for writing

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today's meet

I’m not sure how this will work, but I want to try an experiment and I want to invite you along for the ride. Yesterday, I discovered a backchannel platform called Today’s Meet. It’s a nice, simple site to use, and is designed for the audience to “talk” during lectures and presentations, etc.

I wondered if it could also be used for a sort of collaborative writing, although the trick here is that the postings are done in reverse time order, so that the last part of the story has to be written first. That means that the first part of the story — the introduction — will need to be written last.

Do you follow me?

Oh, yeah, and you can only write in 140 character bursts. Forgot about that.

One nice element of Today’s Share is that you can click on the “transcript” link and see the postings in reverse order (so, from latest to oldest) and there is a “presentation” link, too, that shows you what folks have been writing.

So, visit the Today’s Meet that I set up for this writing activity: http://todaysmeet.com/Collabstory and see if you can add a piece to the story puzzle. There is no login or anything. Just create a name and start writing and we’ll see where it goes.

I wrote the ending already:

By the time it was all over, she wondered whether the device would actually work the way it was designed. She honestly did not know.

I have no idea who she is, what the device is, nor what it is designed to do (nor why it needs to do what it is designed to do). And why doesn’t she know? I have no clue.

Thanks for joining me! Spread the link through your networks, too. Not only for the writing, but also to explore the site for possible use in your classroom. That’s what I am doing.

Peace (in the collaboration),
Kevin


“Skyping in” to class

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skype into class
Yesterday was the second time in two weeks that I was asked to join a graduate level class for a chat around technology and writing, and I do find it fascinating that technology allows us to do that. It is a bit odd to be so removed from the room, and the quality of video would come and go depending on the connection. Still, it’s a great way to bring visitors to the classroom from afar.

Last week, I was “in” Mike Mansour’s class. Yesterday, I skyped into a class offered through our Western Massachusetts Writing Project called “Writing and the Teaching of Writing,” which is a course that I took a few years ago myself.

My focus yesterday was on how writing is at the core of so much technology that students can be using in the classroom, whether it is blogging, using wikis, creating movies and webcomics, or podcasting. In just about everything, writing is what drives the content of the learning and the technology is merely the tool for composition and expression.

The teachers (aka grad students) asked some great questions, such as:

  • Where does one even begin with technology? (start small, think it through, do it yourself first.)
  • How do you deal with firewall issues? (make friends with your tech coordinator, bring them into your classroom, justify the unblocking of the site for learning)
  • How do you bring administrators and parents on board? (lay the groundwork early, write out your rationale, update your principal regularly on progress)
  • How do you learn about all of this? (RSS feeds, social networking, reading and adapting ideas. I recommended Troy Hick’s Digital Writing Workshop to the class as a text they could use to think through technology connections with writing)

Peace (in the sharing),

Kevin

Mulling over my ideas about Tech

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Later today, I am going to Skype into a class of prospective teachers at Creighton University in Omaha that is being taught by a fellow tech traveler, Mike M. I feel honored that I am even being asked and I am trying to think of a message that I can send to these folks as they consider the world of teaching and technology.

Mike asked if I might think about talking about my work around webcomics or stopmotion movies. But I want to try to distill a message, too, about why I think technology belongs in the classroom and some practical advice for other teachers to at least consider.

Here, then, is some morning brainstorming around my ideas of technology.

  • Technology must become part of the general curriculum. The phrase technology integration is how we say it but what we mean is that ideally, all schools would rip out their computer labs and move computers and technology right into the classroom. There are still too many places where “technology” is a time when classroom teachers drop their kids off for their own prep period. Technology in isolation is almost wasted time. We need to find ways to integrate the tools into the everyday world of learning. There are, of course, many barriers to this, including aging equipment and lack of equipment. I understand. But isolated computer labs just won’t cut it.
  • Teachers need mentors/coaches as collaborative partners. There are many districts that have this model (not mine), in which a teacher with some expertise in technology is the coach of others. Sometimes, they are called technology integration specialists. An ideal model for this is that a mentor teacher goes into the classroom for long stretches of time, working on the planning  of a unit of instruction with the classroom teacher. Together, they find tools that expand the learning opportunities and push the students beyond, or in conjunction with, the traditional curriculum. And then (this is key), the mentor stays in the classroom with the teacher as the unit is taught, acting on a sounding board, troubleshooter and helper. This would instill confidence, which could then spill over to other projects. The fear factor is a huge deterrent to technology adoption by our colleagues. one difference between most teachers and most students (not all) is that students are fearless with technology. They’ll dive right in and not worry if they might “break” it. What they often lack is a framework for why they are doing what they are doing, and that is something we teachers need to help them understand.
  • We all need to play. Teachers need time to explore and play with technology, and they need this time within the professional development framework. And they need to do this  “play” collaboratively with other teachers so that they can help each other out as they are learning something new. This is not wasted time. It is valuable time because as we play, and as we move into new territory such as cool tools, we learn more about how we learn. Students need the same. They need time to play when you are introducing something new. If you don’t give them this time, they’ll do it anyway.  Trust me. Better to allocate time for exploration and then move towards focused learning. Don’t underestimate the play time.
  • Students need to be active composers, not passive gatherers. In my mind, accessing the Internet to gather facts for a report is not “using technology.” This is mostly a passive activity that merely replaces an encyclopedia with something quicker. I want students to be creating content with the digital tools available, taking ownership of the material. I want them to be composers. We need to constantly strive to make sure our students are not merely watching the world, but engaged in the world. Technology provides amazing tools for doing this — with writing, with voice, with video — and that kind of engagement around creating something original should be at the heart of most learning opportunities.
  • Reflective practice should be part of every assignment. I imagine this is mostly true for most of us, but we need to make sure students are reflecting on what they have done. What did they like about that tool? What did they not like? How would this project have looked different if they used another tool or site or platform? How could you improve upon the design of it? This stepping-back reflective stance is what helps shift students into critical thinkers.

I am pretty sure I can talk about webcomics or stopmotion movies through the lens of these ideas.

Peace (in the brain dumping, to quote Bud the Teacher),
Kevin

Colleagues are #1

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answergarden
I posed a question yesterday about where people learn about innovation when it comes to classroom technology, and used a site called AnswerGarden to gather responses. I had almost 120 responses, which is pretty neat. The site takes answers and makes word clouds, based on repeated use of words and phrases. The word “colleagues” (as well as “other teachers” ) was pretty prominent on the list and reminds us — those tech explorers — how valuable it is that we share our journeys with our fellow teachers, and help them when they need help.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

Where do you learn about innovation?

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I want to see how this site called AnswerGarden works. You pose a question and as folks provide answers, it makes a Word Cloud.

If you have a moment — my question is: Where do you learn about innovation for the classroom? (note: the answer has to be 20 characters or less)

Where do you learn about innovation for the classroom?… at AnswerGarden.ch.

(the direct link is here: http://answergarden.ch/view/808)

Peace (in the cloud),
Kevin

Plink, Plink, Plinky

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plinky story

Thanks to my friend, Jpeg (Jenny), I wandered over to Plinky this weekend to discover another cool writing place. I suppose it is sort of like others, in which you are given a prompt (this morning: Use third person to tell about an awkward school experience), a box to write in and then you can choose from a selection of images from Flickr to go with your writing.

I like the simplicity of Plinky, and also, that I can either get inspired or ignore the prompt, and then wander back tomorrow. Maybe. The writing choice is up to me.

I’m not sure if this site has possibilities for students (maybe high school) but you could easily “borrow” the writing prompts for activities in the classroom. Drop another idea into the classroom. Plink.
Peace (in the writing),
Kevin