Build it and the money will come...

When I think about technology use at Detroit School of Arts (DSA) I think about the outdated netbooks that students have access to, the tv in the classroom that isn't connected to anything, and the overhead projector that my mentor teacher uses on occasion.  It doesn't seem like there is much room for innovation, but then I heard from Pete Pasque.

Pete is one of the founding teachers at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor.  He came to class to speak to us about all of the ways teachers are helping students organize their digital lives.  Skyline is doing amazing things when it comes to integrating technology into the curriculum.  Each class has its own Google page and students can organize and manage who they share their work with.  Students have the opportunity to show teachers their research process through Google docs and pages and they can even collaborate with other students.  This digital world that has been created at Skyline is truly amazing, but all I kept thinking was: how could this be implemented at DSA?

Then Pete told us about his experience as a beginning teacher in a wood shop class with outdated technology.  He described how the students were able to utilize the technology that was there in order to demonstrate to the administration the need for updated materials.  By the end of the year, the room was filled with new computers and technology to use in the classroom.

This story was inspirational to me, as I could see what I needed to do in order to update the current technology at DSA.  I simply had to make use of the materials given to me in an innovative way.   If you use the technology and build up the infrastructure, the funding will come.

It is much easier to write a grant for something that is already taking place than to start from scratch.  If you can show someone what you can do with what you have, imagine what you can do with what you don't.  After listening to Pete, I am more motivated to incorporate the given technology into my lessons instead of ignoring it.    It is important for students to learn 21st century technology skills no matter what the medium is that you have to teach it with.

The Future of Reading?

When I think about reading, I think about a book.  I don't think about a Kindle, an iPad, or my computer.  But that is what reading is turning into for the students we will be teaching.  Is their concept of reading going to be completely digital?  Is this necessarily a good thing?

The Common Core State Standards seem to think it is.  The Smarter Balanced assessment, which aims to test standards designed by the common core, is presented to students in a digital form.  All reading passages, math problems, and audio segments are presented on the computer.  While most media and information we get these days is online, I can't help but think about how a different format makes you think differently.  We recently read an article about the extra cognitive resources needed to process electronic material.  With all test questions on the computer, how many cognitive resources are left for students to focus on the test?

One solution would be to prepare students for this format throughout the year by presenting information in a mainly digital format.  As a future science teacher, I suggested having students learn to read material on a computer.  But how can I really teach this if I haven't mastered this skill myself?  While I enjoy reading some material on the computer, scientific articles are still the one thing I would rather print out and mark up with a traditional pen and highlighter.  After four years of college, I still cannot get the same value from reading an article on the computer as I can from reading it on paper.

So why would I ask my students to read scientific material in digital form?  Is it for the test?  Is it really the future of all reading?  Ultimately, I want my students to be prepared for tests that they will need to take throughout their K-12 career.  But beyond that, I want my students to be prepared citizens for life outside of the classroom.  Which method is better for personal preparation:  digital or paper-based?  

Cool Cat Teaches Reading Tips

Looking at the edu bloggers this week made me think about how I can continue my blog once I start teaching.  I found most of the blogs helpful in the sense that I get to read the experience of people who have already "been there".  As I begin my student teaching career I think I will find these sites helpful in forging my path as a beginning teacher.

One site I want to point out is Cool Cat Teacher Blog (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/).  I enjoyed reading this blog because there was a post titled "Reading Tips to Program Your Mind for Success".  This post talked about ways to sharpen your mind through reading and various ways to organize what you have read and what you plan to read.  I found this post refreshing because we have been talking a lot about ways we can develop our students as successful readers.  Similarly, this post focused on developing ourselves, as teachers, as better readers.  It is important to remember that we are in a profession of lifelong learning.  Sharpening our minds through reading will help us grow as better teachers, just as it will help our students grow.

This post also touched on the technology aspect of using a Kindle to read.  I have never been a fan of digital reading because I prefer the feeling of an actual book in my hand, but this post made me think about benefits to using a digital reader.  Cool Cat Teacher references the fact that she has read over 250 books on her Kindle.  First of all, the thought of reading that many books is mind boggling.  But second of all, this made me think about how much more practical it is to read this volume of books on an e-reader.  Being able to download a book from your house is a pretty crazy idea that I'm sure no one would have imagined even 20 years ago.  It's amazing how far we have come with technology in such a short period of time and I am happy to see it being used for academic purposes.

I anticipate this list of edu bloggers will be a helpful resource to all of us beginning teachers in the future!

School as a Game: What Does That Look Like?

When I was in in middle school, my best friend and I would play Mario Party almost every day during the summer.  We each picked characters and collected stars as we progressed through each level.  Towards the end of the summer we had this crazy idea to start off the school year by treating it like a game.  We decided to classify grades as different levels of stars and have a contest to see who could collect the most stars.  A's were worth 3 stars, B's were worth 2 stars, and C's were worth 1 star. It was not that we were bad students to begin with, we just wanted a way to make it more "fun".  Initially we were so excited to treat school like this.  Then the school year actually started and I don't think we ever came back to the idea.  Looking back, it was probably because the school environment did not lend itself to this kind of assessment.  None of our teachers were treating the class as a game, so how could we?

Rory touched on the idea of turning his English classroom into a game.  When I think about what this would look like, I think about differentiation.  Within a game you have different levels that you must master before you move on to the next.  If one student is having a hard time beating that "level" it will take more scaffolding by the teacher or more time spent on that level by the student.  I think the idea of treating it like a game is that instruction fits everyone's skill level.  This sounds much easier than it is in practice, and I am not sure who to balance this idea with the idea of standards.  Eventually, your goal is to have everyone on the same level.  This same level is usually high and is not decided upon by the teacher.

This also makes me think back to learning my multiplication tables in 3rd grade.  We all had paper ice cream cones that hung on the wall.  Each "level" of multiplication we completed earned us a scoop of ice cream on top of the cone.  Students who did not complete level 3 could not move on until they had mastered this skill.  This makes me wonder about what my teacher did for students who still only had 4 ice cream scoops while the rest of us had 10 or 12.  Either way, I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment when I completed a level and got to put another scoop of ice cream on the board.  It was a game of skill and I still remember my times tables to this day.

Ultimately, I think it is important to balance "fun" with required learning objectives.  Maybe one way to strike this balance would be to brainstorm with students about what activities they would find engaging.  That way, you can plan a lesson around a particular activity, but find a way to tailor it to a specific objective or goal.  I think it is hard to imagine school like a game because it is something that hasn't really been observed in a traditional classroom.  Perhaps this will change in the future as we incorporate more "game-like" features into our classrooms.

The Oregon Trail: A Guide To Teaching

Oregon Trail Computer Game

Crossing the river posed many difficulties.

When I was in elementary school, my favorite part of every week was the time we got to spend in the computer lab.  Not because I liked the pink and blue iMac G3s, but because we got to play Oregon Trail.   Oregon Trail is a computer game that puts you in the role of someone traveling the trail out west in the 1800s.  You had to constantly make decisions throughout the game in order to ensure your survival and make it west.  For example, when you came to a river you were given information about the depth and the width in order to decide if you wanted to ford the river or pay for the ferry to take you across.  This meant that you had to determine if your ox could handle this type of depth and if you had enough money in your budget to afford the ferry.   The game also included hunting simulations so that you could eat, as well as stops at general stores to stock up on supplies.  If someone in your family got sick, you had to decide if you wanted to move on or buy medicine.  It put you in another world and let you identify with a personality completely different from your own.  Most of all, it forced the 4th grade version of myself to make life decisions that I would never be faced with in reality.

So why was this game encouraged in my school?  We never learned about what to do when your ox and covered wagon came to a river in social studies class.  We never learned about how to ration food in a health class.  And we were certainly never taught how to hunt.  I would guess that Oregon Trail was encouraged by my school because it contained elements that forced us to think critically.  In addition, we had to think about the consequences of our actions and how our decisions affected the outcome of the game.

This process of decision making, coupled with a low risk activity at the right difficulty level, is what attracted us to Oregon Trail.   As pointed out by James Paul Gee, this combination is hard to come by in a traditional classroom setting.  Often times, a classroom activity is not low risk because students do not want to look or feel "dumb" in front of their peers.  In addition, instructional activities are often tied to assessments, which students have a fear of failing.  Teaching at the right difficulty level for all students through differentiation is not easy.  When you are in the virtual world of a game, however, the levels and pace at which you move depends on your difficulty level.

So how can these competing ideas be reconciled in order to get students excited and engaged in learning?  James Paul Gee suggests that we model teaching after the learning principles present in good games.  It is about getting students to think about gaming in a strategic and reflective way and then applying that sort of thinking to the classroom.

I am not sure if Oregon Trail is around anymore, nor am I up to date with the kinds of games students like to play.  Perhaps as part of my training to become a teacher I should sit down and play some video games.  Thinking about what is going through my head as I play these games may give me some insight on how to structure my practice.  Ultimately, I want my students to walk away from my class with more knowledge than which they came with.  Looking to video and computer games may provide me with the inspiration I need to make this a reality.  

Skepticism and the Internet

How often do you ask a question five times?  How often do you consult five different sources when looking for an answer on the internet?  Admittedly, I often click on the first search result in Google and leave it at that.  But how can I really trust the first source I find?  In class we played a version of "20 Questions" in which the facilitator could lie two times.  This means, in order to identify a lie, the same question needed to be asked five times. 

Growing up in an age where the internet was not a part of daily life in school, I would like to think that my teachers presented unbiased views.  Today, students get more of their information from the internet. If we are not teaching digital literacy in a way that promotes healthy criticism and skepticism how will students know how to differentiate a biased view from an unbiased one?  I think the goal would be for students to learn how to research enough sources to understand all sides of an issue in order to formulate their own opinions.  This brings me back to a previous post in which I discussed the responsibility of schools to teach digital literacy.  Etiquette is important, but so is being able to differentiate between a reliable source and an unreliable one.  It makes me wonder how many students simply get most of their information from Wikipedia and take it as fact.  If part of our job is to produce informed citizens, how can we do that without teaching digital literacy?  

A student may stumble upon this blog and take my opinions as fact.  They might think that everything I write here is a shared view with the rest of the world.  Not only is this far from true, but it is a scary thought.  What authority do I have to tell someone what "digital literacy" means and should be?  I think the goal should be for students to read even a blog post with a healthy dose of skepticism.  

Social Media Etiquette: What's That All About?

Upon hearing a story about a student who tweeted obscene messages without knowing these tweets could be seen by, say, his teacher, it made it me think back to my first experiences with social media.  Did I understand legal and social internet etiquette when I first started using MySpace and Facebook?  I don't remember reading any manuals.  Where did I learn this and who did I learn this from?  These are important questions to address as I enter into a world with teenagers whose lives are on the internet for all to see, including me.  

I think back to a 10th grade english class at Groves High School where my teacher was talking to us about things she had seen on Facebook.  She was asking us if we felt that it was ethical for a teacher to punish a student for something witnessed on social networking sites.  As a 15 year old, I remember thinking "No way!  That's an invasion of privacy!"  But is it?  Clearly, I did not think that anything I posted on Facebook would leave my circle of friends.  Even with privacy settings today, there are still ways for people (employers) to see everything you post.  When you delete something from the internet, it's never really deleted.  I wonder how many 15 year olds today know that.  I also wonder whose job it is to tell them.  

As a future teacher, I do feel it is part of my job to educate students on social "literacy".  I do not feel that this duty should fall directly on the education system, but this also needs to come from home.  This could mean educating parents, as well, on the "do's and dont's" of the internet.  As our world becomes increasingly digital, the socialization that comes out of schooling should be addressed in a digital age.  

Luckily for me, Facebook did not reach the height of its popularity until I was finishing high school.  Meaning, Universities may not have been using this medium as a screening tool for future students.  Also luckily for me, I was "smart" enough not to post pictures of me and my friends engaging in NSFW (not safe for web) activities.  Looking back, knowing not to post such pictures came from my first encounter with Facebook with my parents looking over my shoulder.  My parents were concerned with some of the pictures they saw of my friends and I remember thinking that I would not want them seeing pictures of me like that.  Perhaps it was also the idea that I knew teachers could see what was on Facebook, because that had been addressed in class.  

We are entering an age in which the students we have in our classrooms will have grown up using such websites.  How is their digital literacy different from our own?  How can we incorporate the strengths of such literacy into our instruction, and how can we use deficits as a learning opportunity for social and emotional growth?  I hope to work through some of these questions in order to benefit my students and the society in which they live.