ISTE 10 Videos

ISTE 10 was an incredible conference and experience.  Learning didn’t only occur during the sessions, it happened in the conversations and collaboration between the sessions.  As I mentioned in my last post, it was so much fun to meet members of my PLN in person.  We seemed to fall into conversation and joking like old friends (which I suppose is what we are).   Edublogger Alliance member Buzz Garwood orchestrated some excellent conversations that can be viewed in the following videos:

I was honored that Buzz included me in these videos, but absolutely floored that I got to be in a video with David Warlick.  David’s blog, 2Cents Worth, is the first educational blog that I read.  Corey, Amy, and I got a mini keynote right there while we listened to Buzz interview David.  Once again, as I listened to my peers speak about teaching, learning, and technology I was overwhelmed by the greatness I am surrounded by daily in my PLN.   You guys are amazing!

There are two parts to our video: 21st Century Classroom.  In part one we share our insights on teaching and learning in a digital age.  In part two, we discuss the challenge of using IT to make the classroom relevant and engage students in a learning lifestyle.  (As a side note, I love the idea of ditching the phrase life-long learner for learning lifestyle.)

Personal Learning Networks is another video that Buzz took during the conference, in it he interviews some of the members of my PLN as well as members of the iLearn Technology blogging alliance.

Thank you Buzz for collecting all of this on video, it was a pleasure to meet you and work with you in person!

And Now for something completely different, take a look at this ISTE10 fashion video that my colleague Amy and I got roped into.  Good for a laugh anyway!


TED Talk Tuesday: Tom Wujec Build a Tower, Build a Team

The group that consistently fails at the marshmallow task: recent graduates of business school.
Business students are trained to find the single right plan and then execute it. The problem with this strategy is that they wait for the last minute to add their marshmallow to the top of the structure and when their plan fails, it is a crisis.
The group that consistently succeeds at the marshmallow task: recent graduates of kindergarten.
Kindergarten students start with a model and they build successive prototypes of their structure. They always keep their marshmallow on top. They have multiple opportunities to refine their structure until it is working. With each version of the prototype, students are getting instant feedback about what works and what doesn’t and they can adjust accordingly.
Kids don’t spend time trying to be CEO of Spaghetti Inc. They aren’t jockeying for power, they are working together creatively and having fun.

What stands out to me about the data that Tom Wujec shares, is not that architects and engineers build the best towers (as he says, we would expect that), but that kindergartners are not very far behind. This makes me wonder about what important things we are deprogramming kids to do as we send them through the education system. If the education system was really working, I would expect that adults would be able to construct the best, highest towers. I would expect that those with the most education would build the best towers. But as we see, this isn’t the case. In school we teach students that everything has a correct answer. Sometimes that answer means filling in the “c” on a bubble test, and sometimes it means getting your teacher to nod and say “that’s right”. School has become a game of “guess what the teacher is thinking”.  As a result, we have students who can come up with one correct solution to any problem. In the real world, we often need more than one right solution. Many times we need several solutions and creative thinking applied to the problem. Our most recent example of this is the BP oil spill. I can’t help but wonder what great solutions kindergartners would come up with that adults aren’t even considering because we have been deprogrammed to think that way.
What does this mean for schools? It means that we need more opportunities for students to explore multiple solutions to a problem, it means that we offer kids the chance to discuss and stop asking the one answer questions all the time. Sometimes there is one correct answer, but in life that isn’t always the case. Students need to be given the chance to explore both options.

(As a side note, it is interesting to me that when the incentive of a prize was offered, not one team had a standing structure. I am working my way through Daniel Pink’s book Drive right now and it mirrors what he says in the book.)

TED Talk Tuesday: Tim Brown urges designers to think big

Today’s #edchat discussion on Twitter was all about training kids as critical thinkers.  I believe that we are losing students as critical thinkers because in our current model of education, where we are standardizing education with tests, we teach kids that there is one correct answer to every question.  We limit their thinking to what we have already determined is an acceptable answer to the question.  This is extremely limiting.  Critical thinking means that we aren’t satisfied with the easy answer, we think about multiple solutions to the problem and even think of additional questions.  We approach a problem differently, more creatively.

In today’s TED Talk, Tim Brown talks about his journey in design and his tendency to think about problems on a small scale, limiting himself to the obvious answers and a single solution.  Design wasn’t always this way, design used to be big. Design thinking solves problems and works to create world changing innovations. It seems to me that there is a strong correlation with what Tim refers to as Design Thinking and what we call critical thinking.  Roger Martin calls this integrative thinking, the ability to exploit opposing ideas and opposing constraints to create new solutions. Isn’t this what we are asking our students to do when we are looking for critical thinking?  What we really want students to do is think as designers.   When I watch children who haven’t yet entered the classroom, I notice a strong correlation between the way a child thinks and the way a designer thinks.  They are questioners, tinkerers, and are never satisfied with one solution.

Design thinking could be our model for critical thinking in the classroom, but beyond that design thinking could be our solution to reform in education.  Exploiting opposing ideas and opposing constraints to create new solutions.

Design is human centered, it starts with what humans need or might need. It means understanding culture and context.   From destination to active participation that is meaningful and productive. Value is added through collaborative experiences and not through monetary gains alone (think Twitter). In times of change we need new thinking and new ideas.  We are in the midst of massive change and we need to rethink what we accept as basic fundamentals. We need new choices because our current options are becoming obsolete.  We need to take a divergent approach and come up with something that hasn’t been done before.  What is the question we are trying to answer? What is the design brief for education.

The first step is to start asking the right questions. (I think #edchat does an honorable job of this!)  What are the right questions?

TED Talk Tuesday: Bring on the Learning Revolution

Since I won’t be with the CHC staff hosting Webspiration Wednesday lunches, I thought I would institute TED Talk Tuesday and share an inspiring TED Talk each Tuesday with all of you.  TED has a great tag line “ideas worth spreading”.  This non-profit brings together people from Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  (The scope of the talks is actually much, much wider.)  TED.com is a free collection of the very best talks with new talks are being added all the time.  TED believes “passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.”

Todays TED Talk Tuesday is dedicated to Sir Ken Robinson.  You may remember this Webspiration Wednesday sharing of Sir Ken’s Schools Kill Creativity.  This is Sir Ken Robinson’s newest TED Talk, Bring on the Learning Revolution.

Sir Ken Robinson has such a way with words, the message he shares is profound.  I agree with the summation that reform is of no use, the evolution of a broken model isn’t going to get us where we need to go.   We need a revolution where education is transformed into something else entirely.  I have watched this video several times since its release, about a month ago, and each time I am struck by something new.  This time what stood out most for me was the talk about innovation.   Innovation is hard because it means doing something that is challenging, it isn’t the easy or obvious solution.  It challenges what we take for granted, things that seem obvious.  Just before beginning this post, I read an excellent article by Blogging Alliance member Chris at EdTechSwami.  He writes: What Educators Can Learn From Steve Jobs.  I think Chris makes some excellent points in his post, it all comes back to innovation.  Apple doesn’t usually do the expected, in fact sometimes they purposefully step away from what is expected and what seems logical.  The reason is that they are finding new solutions and even creating new problems.  They are looking to the future and anticipating what is coming next.  Sir Ken helps us to see that innovation is difficult because there are so many things in this life that we take for granted.  We don’t even think about them any more because they are the way that we expect them to be.  It is only when someone comes along and points out a new way of doing something that we realize we have been taking it for granted.  In schools we take for granted that there is a linearity to education.  We start in kindergarten and move through until we reach the 12th grade, at which point we are encouraged to attend college.  What else do we take for granted in education?  Classrooms, grades, tests, desks, handwriting, curriculum, blackboards (IWB’s), policy makers, NCLB…

Today I was able to join in on the midday Twitter #edchat discussion.  The topic was reform in education and how teachers could be a louder voice.  The discussion was a great one with a number of good ideas.  I wonder if we are approaching the topic in an innovative enough way?  We tend to frame our answers with what we think might be possible. We frame our answers so as to play nice in the policy makers game.  What if we didn’t do things their way? What if we came up with a new way?  What if we taught kids how to be advocates for their education and learning and gave them a voice?  I threw this out there during the #edchat and @bliarteach reminded me of the big push there was for learning about recycling in school.  Kids became passionate about recycling and saving the earth, they took it home with them.  Soon families were recycling and changing their garbage habits.  This worked.  I was one of those kids who made my mom wash every piece of aluminum foil so that I could bring it to school and add it to our big ball of recycled foil.  I was the kid who was adamant about separating plastic, glass, and paper.  I became the adult who still does this.  Involving kids in advocating for their own education and learning has the added benefit of helping them to realize the importance of their education.  Suddenly they aren’t learning because we tell them to, they are learning because they believe in learning.  They have a pride and ownership in their own education.   The great thing about involving kids in the discussion is that they don’t take so much for granted.  They ask questions and challenge the way that we think.

So, lets figure out all the things we take for granted in education.  When we have a clear picture of those things, lets work together to find new solutions. Lets revolutionize education together, lets make the revolution viral.  If you can think of something that we take for granted, leave it in the comments below.

(Raise of hands, how many of you are wearing a wrist watch?) 🙂  Yeah, me too.

Game for Science

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What it is: Game for Science has to be one of the coolest virtual worlds for kids.  This virtual world is dedicated to getting kids excited about science and technology.  Students can explore various virtual islands where they will learn about health, aeronautics, genomics, environment, engineering and more.  Students can learn more about science careers, what scientists do, play games, learn interesting facts, and explore science photos and videos.  Students can play the Game for Science as a tourist without registering, or they can register for an account (this requires an email address with confirmation).  This is an outstanding way for kids to get excited about science and technology.  As students travel through the virtual world, they can collect neurons (smart stars) by answering questions and playing games.  The neurons can be used to purchase items for their avatar.

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How to integrate Game for Science into the classroom: Game for Science is a great way to introduce new science topics or areas of science.  The virtual world will capture interest and keep students wanting to learn more about each topic.  If you teach younger students (without email addresses), visit the virtual world as a class on the interactive whiteboard or the projector.  Give each student a turn to direct the journey through Game for Science.  The rest of the class can jot down observations in a science notebook that can be used in later learning and experiments.  Students who can read independently can visit the site individually on classroom computers as a science center or in a computer lab setting.  Older students can register for an account and earn neuron points for their characters.  This is a fun site for students just to explore and interact with; however, for use in the classroom, you can direct students to specific islands to study.  For example, as you begin a unit on the environment, students can visit the corresponding island.  Game for Science makes for a great jumping off point that will grab students attention and interest in the subject they will be learning about.

Tips: There is a chat feature on the registered version of Game for Science, this allows students to interact as they discover new islands and talk science.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Game for Science in your classroom.

Webspiration Wednesday

I learned about Guy Doud in one of my education courses in college.  We listened to a tape of a keynote speech he gave and read his book as part of the course.  Guy Doud was the Teacher of the Year in 1986.  He is an inspiration in education, even today.  I had the privileged of presenting at a conference where Guy was the Keynote speaker.  He is still an incredible voice in education.

Unfortunately I can’t offer you a full view of Guy’s speech (I have it on DVD only), but this clip should give you a look into this teacher of the year, and will, perhaps, encourage you to pick up his book: Guy Doud Molder of Dreams.

Guy Doud speaks about the focus of education: children.  When we get right down to it, isn’t that what we are all in this for?  He talks about the challenges that children face before they even step foot in a classroom.  He speaks to fostering the heart of children before we try to foster learning.  A child who is being abused, is hungry, is grieving the loss of a parent, has failed at life, really isn’t interested on your perfectly tuned lessons on superlative adjectives.  Whether we like it or not, we are in the heart business.  Teachers are called to be all things to the hurting kids who walk through our door.  Sometimes we play nurse, other times counselor, and sometimes even social worker.  Guy has an incredible rapport with his students and each of them leave his classroom knowing that they are important, that they matter, that they aren’t failures.  Watching Guy renews my spirit and gives me the inspiration to love those students who are hard to love.  To remember to get down on their level.  Many of our students have already been convinced that they are failures.  It is up to us to be their cheerleaders and let them know that they are uniquely gifted for a special purpose.  Our job is not just to teach and grow learners, our job is to assure students that they matter.

Google Search Stories Video Creator

What it is: Do you remember Google’s advertisement at the 2010 Superbowl?  It was called Google Search Stories and showed a story of Parsian Love  through a series of Google searches. Brilliant.  Now you and your students can create your very own Google Search story with Google Search Stories Video Creator.  There are three steps to creating your own Google Story: 1. Write the story, 2. Add Music, 3. Preview and Upload.  As you write your story,  you can choose to search by web, blog, images, maps, news, product search, and books.  

How to integrate Google Search Stories Video Creator into the classroom: Google Search story is an innovative way for students to display understanding or tell a story.  This tool teaches students to get to the heart of the story and tell it in a new, creative way.  Students can demonstrate their understanding of history, current events, a book that they have read, or a math sequence.

First, students come up with 7 events to search, paying close attention to story structure.  They should consider mixing web, images, maps, and blogs.  This will make the story more interesting.  Next, students choose music to fit the theme of their story.  It can be comedic, dramatic, romantic, country, horror, family, or sci-fi.  Finally, students can preview their story and share it with the world.

Think about sharing the life of a historical figure, or the story of Romeo and Juliet, or the scientific method in an experiment, or the story of their digital footprint,  or a fictional story that the student created.  Instead of writing out a traditional outline for a story, why not turn it into a Google Story?  The possibilities of this tool are nearly endless!  If you are introducing new information or learning to your class, consider doing it through a Google Story.  Watch the story as a class and find out what your students already know, what they need to learn, and what they want to know.  You could also create a Google Story as a class after new learning.  As you teach, ask students to jot down thoughts about what they could add to their search story to sum up the learning.  This will keep students engaged and thinking critically about the new material.  After the video has been completed, students can access it from home as an outline of what they learned in class.

Tips: Check out the Tips offered for starting a story, these tips will give you, and your students, a great jumping off point.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Google Search Stories in your classroom.

We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For

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What it is: We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For is an inspiring documentary film that explores education in the UK and challenges us to dream of something more.  Big names (Sir Richard Branson, Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson, and Sir Ken Robinson) share their experiences with education and offer new ideas for how education can be done.  If you are in the UK, take advantage of the free DVD offer and get the full documentary to share with your students.  Those of us not in the UK can enjoy clips of the film on the We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For website.  There are several clips from the documentary and each of them will leave you inspired and thinking about how education can be transformed.  The site also features some excellent games for students to play.  The first game is called “The Test You Can’t Fail”.  This little quiz asks students a variety of questions and gives them creative career paths to consider based on their interests.  Many of these your students may not have considered and will give them insight into the places they shine.  The second game is called “Future Me”, it is a Bebo App that lets students predict their friends future.  

How to integrate We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For into the classroom: If you can get the documentary for your classroom, do so.  Be inspired by the documentary as a teacher, but also share it with your students.  They need some inspiration for their education and future.  This film is sure to offer plenty.  If you aren’t in the UK, share the webisite clips with your students.  Challenge them to think differently about education.  At first, they may struggle with this task (the way my students did), they expect that there is one right answer.  This is a sad statement about what education has been up to this point, we have primed them to believe that there is only one right answer with a myraid of tests and worksheets that have told them it is so.  Have your students take “The Test You Can’t Fail” quiz, it leads them through a variety of questions and activities.  Students tell what their favorite subject is, swat or save a fly, order grocery items in order of price, connect a video game to the Internet and TV, choose what to do when they get lost, design a t-shirt, memorize a phone number, and arrange a computer desktop.  When students are finished they are given a list of things they are good at, some surprises (things students may not know about themselves), and thoughts about possible career paths.  It seems to work well, my results were education, computers and IT.  🙂 So I guess I am on the right track!  Talk with students about their results. Do they agree/disagree? Were their items on their list that they hadn’t considered?  It is good to dream with students, it gives them aspirations and goals for the future and lets them know that they aren’t the only ones dreaming.

Tips: In the “About the Film” Section, students can watch videos and read bios of the students that star in the documentary.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using the We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For in your classroom.

Common Sense with Phineas and Ferb

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What it is: Phineas and Ferb are popular Disney channel characters. They have a new short video to help students learn cyberspace rules and online safety tips.  Disney, together with Common Sense Media, created this fun short film to get kids thinking about cyber safety.  Tips in the video include: Be careful what you put online, you never know who is going to see it; just because it’s online, doesn’t mean it’s true; not everyone is who they say they are; if you wouldn’t do it in person, you shouldn’t do it online; and get outside and spend time with real friends.  These are great tips, but delivered by Phineas and Ferb they will be remembered by your students.  

How to integrate Common Sense with Phineas and Ferb into the classroom: Common Sense with Phineas and Ferb is an excellent place to get the discussion about online safety and netiquette started in your classroom.  The short video gives them a great jumping off point for thinking about the time they spend online.  Your students could “Laser inscribe” some additional tips in a paint or word processing program.  Post your students tips for online safety and cyberspace rules on a classroom bulletin board or on a Wallwisher wall.  I like how short and sweet this video is, every classroom can fit in a short lesson (or several) during the year.  Below the video, you can download a question sheet for students to quiz their parents about.  This extends the conversation at home and encourages parents to think about their child’s online safety.

Tips: If you have colleagues that are good sports, your students could also quiz other teachers in the building with the Phineas and Ferb Cyberspace Rules of the Road quiz.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Common Sense with Phineas and Ferb in your classroom.

The Zimmer Twins

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What it is: Who are the Zimmer Twins, you might ask?  Edgar and Eva Zimmer are 12 year old twins who appear normal but have developed psychic powers.  Strange things began to happen when the twins adopted a black cat named 13.  On the Zimmer Twins website, students can create their own cartoon movie endings to a story starter or create their own animated movie from scratch.  Students can create and edit movies solo or “Collab-o-write” and work together creating a collaborative movie.   Zimmer Twins runs well in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari making it easy to get to and use in any classroom setting.  You will need Flash 8 (or higher) installed for the Zimmer Twins to work properly.  

How to integrate Zimmer Twins into the classroom: Your students are going to love this site!  They can direct and produce their very own animated movies.  The easiest way to start using Zimmer Twins in the classroom, is to use it as a story starter.  Students can watch a “starter” video and finish the story however they would like.  The first time you introduce the site, it might be fun to complete a video as a class.  Then students can take over and create their own ending to a Zimmer Twins movie.  These video clips make excellent story starters for journal writing even if you can’t take the time to make it into an actual video.  To use as a story starter, show the beginning of the short animation to your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector, then let students take over on classroom computers, working together, or writing a journal entry.  After your students are familiar with the Zimmer Twins website, they can start a story from scratch.  Students could direct “screen plays” of their writing, as a way to publish their finished work.  Zimmer Twins would make an excellent alternative to the traditional book report.  Students could create a movie where the main character is being interviewed, the story is being summarized, or retold.  Students could also create movies about historical events, describing a science experiment or concept, in math as a story problem, to demonstrate understanding of character education or for vocabulary practice.  My students have really enjoyed creating movies to show what they have learned on any topic, it is always a sure winner!  Are you looking for new ways to engage your students? Why not create a Zimmer Twins original yourself to introduce a new topic.  If you are looking for more great ideas for using Zimmer Twins in your classroom, be sure to check out the lesson plans on the teacher page, there are some good ones.

Tips: Students can create a movie on Zimmer Twins without registering; however, they will not be able to save their creation.  Creating an account requires an email address.  If this presents a problem in your classroom you can do a few things: 1. create a classroom account that every student logs into and saves their videos on.  Students will need to include their first name or a class number in the title of their video to differentiate it from others in the class.  2. Set up an account for each student using your email account.  You will have to check this email account to provide your students with their passwords. 3. Ask parents to set up accounts for their kids to use at school.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zimmer Twins in your classroom.