21st Century Learning

ABPC 21st Century Learners Quarterly Meeting

While I obviously haven't been blogging- I have been fast at it. I would say I have been busy, but Dean Shareski (our new convener for K12Online)  has taught me we are all busy and I am not suppose to talk about how busy I am, but rather just talk about what I have been up to lately.

I keep a running "to-do" board above my desk. Lately, there have been too many "to-do" items to fit them all. My life is full of meaning, exciting and that word I am not suppose to say (whispering ...busy). So busy in fact that I forgot to share about one of my most passionate interests.

ABPC 21st Century Learners- Year 3 Culminating
Anyone who has followed me knows that one true passion I have is the incredible work I am helping to deliver in Alabama around 21st Century literacies. On May 1 we had our culminating celebration for this year's 21st Century Learners journey.

What Was Different in Year 3?
In a word-- students. ABPC's leader, Cathy Gassenheimer felt this year's project with schools needed to have an clear connection to student achievement.  We wanted to developmentally move teachers along the continuum of use and understanding of the transformative potential of 21st Century teaching and learning strategies to actually applying them in the classroom.

We created a student strand and added students as members of the team. Together we looked at how to change teaching to a self-directed process tied to student passion and rigor, as well are core curriculum standards.

During the culminating event students and other team members were led in a fishbowl exercise that turned out to be the most enlightening experience I have had so far in working towards 21st Century educational reform. Students were asked hard questions about how they learn best and evidence of those strategies used by teachers in classrooms. They were asked what do teachers need to change to be the kind of teachers that would help you learn best? Their answers were profound and I realized for the first time I think-- if we would just ask kids what they need, they know and would tell us. Wow. What a concept.

Here are some of the projects from Alabama this year:

WinterboroSchool
Our theme is:  Taking Technology to the next level- The competitive level. Our teachers have worked in harmony to help our students take their individual projects to the competitive level.  We decided to encourage and help our students to compete on the local and state level using 21st century skills we have introduced and use in the classroom throughout the year. Winning at this level helped validate that we can compete in the local and state arena using these newly acquired skills.  The publicity has also been great for the entire county.  It has been a great success.  We will display our students’ medal winning projects along with the bling bling they have won in the process. 

West Blocton
For our student project, we created a wiki. On this wiki, the students would choose a book to read that they wanted to carry on a conversation about in the wiki. Then, they would rate the book. Next, they would write why they rated the book the way they did. The next few sentences had to include a comprehension strategy that they used while reading the book. Whichever strategy they used, they had to support it with text and tell what detail from the story made them use that strategy. Then, they would write a sentence to try to encourage others to read the book, even if they gave it a low rating.

Finally, they would look at other responses other students had made and carry on a conversation about their book.

Hewitt-Trussville Middle School
Our team created a wiki as a resource for the teachers.  The wiki contains descriptions, examples, and uses for 21^st tools in the classroom.  The wiki also contains information about project based learning. 
You can find out wiki at http://21centurylearners.wikispaces.com .

Challenger Middle School
Challenger 21^st Century Team Group project:
Our professional development project is called "iTeach 2.0" and we invited the middle schools in our district to become a part of iTeach 2.0. Each school sent two teachers to a workshop we sponsored to learn about 21st century tools. We established a wiki for our team and participants to use to share ideas. Our April face to face meeting was a type of fair where each school shared a tool or project that they successfully used this semester. Our computer will display screen shots from our wiki and our display board will define data collected and cool tools explored during this year’s iTeach workshops. Our wiki is http://iteach2-0.wikispaces.com .

Student Project:
We invited 18 students to commit their own time to work on a project they would select. Twelve saw the project to completion. We gave three basic guidelines: the students must develop their project around an issue that affects teens, the project must help someone, and the project must be communicated using technology tools.  Our students brainstormed on their own private wiki and were very passionate about teen issues! They decided that they wanted to work on a project related to poverty. The students then researched and decided that they wanted to adopt an impoverished school in another country, which led them to Uganda. They formed an Invisible Children Club to raise money.

The students created posters, a website and a multi-media embedded PowerPoint to present to the student body. They learned so much about war torn

Uganda and the suffering of the children there. They have a basic knowledge of how this war started. The amazing part is that we have not taught this information to our students. They have taken a project with very few guidelines and have learned so much! For this year, the project culminated in a fund-raiser, which raised $1778 in 3 days! This has become a project that encompasses many of the 21st century skills. Our students are learning about society, geography/history, communication, discernment, teamwork and many other skills.  We will display a computer with a timeline/info about their project work and their presentation.  We will have an additional computer with screen shots of their webpage. Their website is http://www.freewebs.com/guluschoolproject/

George Hall Elementary
Collaboration is the main thesis for our project. This year collaboration projects includes Skype interview with Janis Kearney, diarist for Bill Clinton and author of "Cotton Fields of Dreams",  Elluminate session with children from the Dominican Republic and a weekly Skype collaboration with 5th grade students in West Blocton Al. We continued the wiki field trip project using Scaling where the students were proactive in the production of the projects to go online.

Blossomwood
Blossomwood Elementary's team project for 2007-2008 has been to obtain more technology resources for classrooms and adequately train teachers on how to use these resources.  Promethean ACTIV boards have been purchased for all classroom units and teachers have attended both training at school and online training from Promethean.  Today, Blossomwood is displaying some sample classroom flipcharts, as well as flipcharts that were used to train the faculty.

Clay-Chalkville High School
We will be presenting a Power Point presentation that highlights some of the work that our teachers have created with their classes to enhance student learning, as well as to promote communication between the classroom and the home.

For instance, we have teachers that have created wikis with the main purpose to keep the students and parents updated on assignments and projects that are coming up. At the same time, other teachers use blogs to allow the students become more involved in the learning process.

Discovery Middle School

Middle School will showcase our journey from local to global connections through a photostory.  We will highlight our challenges and how we have overcome them.  We will also share our current projects that will lead us to district wide integration of Web 2.0 tools.

Mt. Laurel Elementary
Sharing Web 2.0 Tools
Mt Laurel Elementary School is a K-3 school right outside of Birmingham. We are in our second year with the 21st Century Learning Team.

Our team's focus project was sharing Web 2.0 tools with our faculty. We conducted a survey to determine awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools and found that very few were aware of Web 2.0 tools, and even fewer were using them.

As a team we compiled a resource list of Web 2.0 tools. We held a meeting with our teachers and presented an awareness training to share the uses of each tool. We shared examples of how we had been using these tools and how students could benefit from using Web 2.0. We also encouraged them to let us help them set-up any of the tools they would think they would like to use in their classroom.

As of today, the number of teachers that are using Web 2.0 tools has changed by 60%, compared to when we initially took our survey. We now have grade levels participating in projects and teachers using these tools to create works with their students. We have teachers participating in book studies using Wiki’s, classes and parents blogging, podcasting galore, but most of all the awareness of the many tools that are available to each of them to enhance their class lessons and projects.

Cullman Middle School
Collaborative project-based teaching aligned to state content standards, reviewed by students. That is our lofty goal with this wiki. For 2008, we have selected 4 courses to focus on: Social Studies, grades 7 and 8 AND Computer Applications, grades 7 and 8

This project is designed in conjunction with the Alabama Best Practices Center's 21st Century Schools professional development. The project will be developed by a team of teachers and students from Cullman Middle School.

We hope that this will be a treasured resource for educators across the state, the country, and the world. Depending upon the success of the site, we hope to add additional areas of study in the future. We recognize the level of learning and retention of learning that project-based lessons hold for students, as well as the interest it adds to classes. On the outset, this seems like a project designed to aid teachers, and it will do that, but more importantly, this project will aid students in fostering a deeper interest in learning. With the Computer Applications courses, we are fortunate to be embarking upon new territory. At this time there are not specific standards for grade levels, only grade bands. This project will assist us in focusing on learning objectives and organizing those objectives in a sensible format. The student team will be comprised of students involved in

Cullman Middle School's SWAT (students willing to assist with technology) team. The teacher team will select a student team leader that will serve as a liaison to the teacher team.

Dean Road Elementary School
Our team sought to showcase the various ways we use the Smart Board to communicate more effectively among staff members and students. An immense part of our daily communication begins each day with our morning broadcast, WDRE, which features fourth and fifth grade students as broadcasters. Other grade levels are involved by reciting the pledge of allegiance and sharing the daily weather. All parts of the broadcast are viewed through the use of the Smart Board.

Not only do we begin our day with the Smart Board we also use this valuable learning tool in many other ways throughout the day. We display our morning messages, share interactive websites embedded in our daily lessons, and research an endless amount of information that can be easily displayed for all to see. This beneficial tool as helped foster communication through shared lessons created on the Smart Board software that assists teachers in planning and presenting the curriculum in a way that increases the students’ motivation to learn. The Smart Board, found in all classrooms, has become an irreplaceable learning tool that teachers and students just can’t seem to live without.

Fayetteville High School
The Fayetteville High School team has led a 21st Century Learners initiative for 10 schools throughout Talladega County. Modeled after the training sponsored by the ABPC, the FHS team, along with other teachers from Winterboro School, have served as mentors to over 20 teachers in their school system.  The team will display the materials used for this project as well as evaluations from some of the participants in the program.

Wrights Mill Road Elementary
Tech-Know Expo
5th grade students brainstormed topics related to technology that interest them.  Then, they volunteered to teach those topics they felt they were “Tech-sperts” in.  The students prepared presentations for the younger grades and invited parents and members of the community to attend.  Topics ranged from “Lights, Camera, Pinnacle in Action,” to iPod 101 and “How to Convince Your Parents to Let You Get A Cell Phone.”  Students taught about blogging, making avatars, using Blabber, and the latest and greatest in text messaging.

Smart Board on the Cheap

Thanks to Will for the point to Tim Wang's elearning blog via Twitter.

Check this out! First question you should ask yourself is-- what in my current curriculum would have nurtured this creativity and innovation in this student? Ok. Now watch! Wiis aren't just for gaming! I am running and buying extra Wii remotes today!

"The high-end smart board / screen overlay can cost as much as the LCD or data projector itself (up to $2000-$3000 easily). Then a much cheaper and yet more powerful solution came across (thanks to Ulrich Rauch), it seems one can convert a Wii remote into a multi-point infrared reader, with a few infrared sensors, you can turn any flat surface (Plasma TV, LCD, Projector Screens and even a coffee table) into a smart board!"

Here is Johnny Lee's Wii Tricks Site Look at this one-  the next video where Johnny takes this Wii Remote hack up a notch - Minority Report technology in real life for less than $100!

Second Life-Thinkerer Challenge Announced at Symposium

Got this from Alan Levine's NMC site.

August 15, 2007 (Thinkerers Quest, Second Life) - Thinkerer Studios - a network of residents in the virtual online world of Second Life - today announced the launch of an awards program to identify and encourage the development of creative products and services that use Second Life capabilities to enrich or empower experiences in Real Life. The first Award recipient will be made known at the end of September, 2007.

Recipients of the Thinkerer Challenge Award will receive 30,000 Lindens - the currency of Second Life - and the use of a parcel of virtual land (or an equivalent arrangement) for one year. In addition, they will be invited to become judges of future Thinkerer Challenges.

Cash awards will be funded by the founder of Thinkerer Studios, Thinkerer Melville. Awards will be given as often as once a month, depending on the volume and quality of nominations. Honorary Awards will also be presented on occasion, depending on merit and circumstances. All winners and their projects will be publicized and promoted, both in and off-world.

For more info: http://sl.nmc.org/2007/08/16/thinkerer-challenge/

Tech Enhanced Learning and Social Networking as a Degree

Interesting discussion over on Will's site.  University of Michigan is offering a M.A. specialization in Social Computing.

Here’s the list of courses you have to take:

• SI 508: Networks: Theory and Application (3 credits)
• SI 532 Digital Government I: Information Technology and Democratic Politics (1.5 credits)
• SI 583: Recommender Systems (1.5 credits)
• SI 631: Content Management Systems (3 credits)
• SI 679: Aggregation and Prediction Markets (1.5 credits)
• SI 683: Reputation Systems (1.5 credits)
• SI 684: eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction Environments (3cr)
• SI 689: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (3 credits)

Amusing for Sure
I responded in his comments.

The part I find amusing is the content to be covered is an established set of courses-very linear. It kind of defeats the purpose of social networking which emerges out of an organic mix of "wisdom of the crowds" and "just in time" learning.

I have had a blast this semester with a course I am teaching at The College of William and Mary. I came with a general syllabus of concepts and then a suggested tentative schedule.

From day one I told them this would be a constructivist course modeling social networking and connectivism that would be built from student passion and interest. I contacted a few practicing teachers from the international blogosphere-- as I feel the content of teacher prep courses should be developed and often taught by those who are in the field--asking them if they would like to help teach the course. I showed them the course outline and said either pick a topic from there (topics are described in general ways so lots of room for redesign) or suggest one you think should be included.

I created a wiki and as a class we began to create. I model daily how to build a network and gain access to the content you need through access to experts around the world. We do not use a text, rather we use resources we are collectively building.

Virtual Mondays
Each Monday's class is virtual and the various teachers in the blogosphere present. Each Wednesday's class is spent creating content and unpacking the things we are learning together through this experience and in their other content courses in terms of how it all translates to 21st Century teaching and learning.

Mark Wagner and Aimee Smith
The two most recent speakers were Aimee Smith, who spoke on email and asynchronous discussions and Mark Wagner, who spoke on educational gaming and constructivist theory. Aimee's archive can be seen here and Mark's can be seen here.

Electronic Mentoring

In addition, we all engage in an electronic virtual learning community that consists of student teachers (another class I have) highly accomplished tech savvy teachers from around the globe and this class of students.

 All the students have started to blog and have created their own wiki space. Several projects have developed from the students collaborating together on their own and with others in their growing personal networks.

It isnt a degree in social computing but very much an example of how you can use a higher education course to help students (preservice teachers) make sense of all they are learning (both in and out of class) through a school of the future lens. Much like in the day of Socrates -- it helps to have a critical friend there modeling and asking hard questions for self- reflection.

Giving Back

The important thing to note-- as in any good learning ecology I am learning as much as I hope they are. I am also very grateful to those in the blogoshere (especially Anne Davis and Lani Ritter-Hall) for taking time to nurture these future teachers through their unsolicited comments on their blogs.

Feedback Wanted
If you would like to check it all out I would be interested in your feedback-
http://techenhancedlearning.wikispaces.com/

Photo credit:http://diskurs.hum.aau.dk/english/dexus3/images/collaboration.jpg

Transforming Teaching with Project/Problem-Based Learning

Mark Wagner http://www.edtechlife.com/ and I taught a two hour session in Elluminate last night to 22 Alabama teachers who are part of the ABPC 21st Century Teaching Initiative. It is a project  I co-lead with Cathy Gassenheimer, President of the Alabama Best Practice Center and John Norton, educational writer and virtual learning community expert.

Mark was incredible. He showed us how to use educational games to transform our classrooms.

This Elluminate session was designed to familiarize teachers with the basics of Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and the strategies for implementing PBL projects in the classroom. Participants were to gain hands-on experience developing collaborative, inquiry-based projects that utilize the best of 21st Century teaching and learning. In hind sight, we didnt allow enough time as the amount of content we covered was huge and left teachers with a good deal of cognative dissonance. <smile> The feed back this morning is great though. It definately left teachers wanting time to sort through all they experienced. Thanks goodness for wikis.

Here are Mark's Slides

Resources mentioned in the presentation can be found on the slides (above)
One resource not included in the handout- Bill Mackenty is at mackenty.org

Sheryl's PBL Resources
My slides, resources, and planning tips for PBL can be found on the wiki.
Feel free to add your own resources or start a discussion using the discussion tab.

I also have included a clip from a news reporting of Dream School Belize that shows me as a "30 something" preaching the same message I do today. Student engagement. Check it out. The hair (side pony tail) is a hoot. What was I thinking?

Want to watch the archived Elluminate session? PBL Archive

Warner in Second Life... Get out!

I live in Virginia. Mark Warner was my governor. Working in Media and Communications for the Virginia Beach City Public Schools I had many opportunities to meet him and help host events where he was speaking. I like him. But now...

I think he is cooler than ever. Mark Warner is in Second Life!!! 

Back in March of this year in the NY Times, Matt Bai did a piece on Warner having his eyes on the presidency. Here is a quote from that piece.

Though little known nationally, Warner has emerged in recent months as the bright new star in the constellation of would-be candidates, a source of curiosity among Democrats searching for a charismatic outsider to lead the party. Pundits credit Warner's popularity in Republican-dominated Virginia — his 80 percent approval rating when he left office made him one of the most adored governors in the state's history — with enabling his Democratic lieutenant governor, Tim Kaine, to win the election to succeed him last November. Suddenly, Warner is being mentioned near the top of every list of candidates vying for the nomination in 2008.

Apparently someone made a joke about how great it would be if they brought an avatar of Governor Warner into Second Life.

“When we all quit laughing, we kind of looked around and said, ‘Hey, that's not a bad idea.’

New World Notes is quoted as saying...

“One of Governor Warner's operating principles is to go where the voters are not make them come to you. We saw how rich an environment Second Life was. I mean, you can sit next to someone's avatar, strike up a conversation, and forget that you're not in the same room. We started to see that in Second Life, people can get together and talk politics with other folks without the obstacles of real life.”

Ms. Mandelbrot is undeterred. “The Governor likes to tell how when he decided to get into the cell phone business-- he co-founded the company that became Nextel-- his friends said he was crazy. ‘No one’s going to want a phone in their car!’ So he doesn't have a lot of time for people who will write off new technology without trying it. There's nothing trivial about social technologies. They connect people together, we need more of that. Why waste time trying to second guess innovation? Let's try it out, see if it works… He's used to giving speeches, answering questions, in the physical space. This will be a new experience for him.”

I got tickled when I went to Nancy Scola's blog and read a bit about what went into getting Warner's avatar prepared for the event. "Here's a sign that your week is going to be a strange one. You send a note   around your office saying, "on the virtual Mark Warner -- tie or no tie?"

I am telling you. Social networking tools are part of the way we are doing business these days. Schools are just starting to take notice. If they do not "get it" soon our students may be sending their avatars to school to teach them everything they need to know to be successful.

I wonder how much of an impact DOPA would have if someone was in office that understood Second Life and the potential it has in shaping future Americans.

Video Game Generation

Boyle states, “This is the video game generation”. (2005). Students want hands on learning and seek entertainment. Imagine students who turn to technology with its entertaining appeal to assist in school work and problem solving activities in a routine manner. Successful technology implementation changes the way teachers teach and the way students learn.

Boyle, A. (2005). A formula for successful technology must include curriculum. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 12(1), 30-32.

This is the deal...we have a group of teachers who are deeply committed to traditional ways of teaching and learning (ones that worked for them). Then we have students who learn best by using the tools they immerse themselves in everyday. We have to decide if we are choosing instructional strategies simpy because we relate to them or if we are willing to choose instructional methods that the students relate to best.

Are we preparing students for the world of today or tomorrow? As educators we simply must become visionaries who speak the digital language of our students.