Category Archives: COETAIL

Making It Seamless

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This week has been a frustrating one technologically-speaking; some successes, but a couple key failures. Examples follow:

I was in charge of chapel for the Elementary School which entailed planning the half-hour with songs, a message, a bit of fun, and hopefully some depth and substance as well. After sketching out the general plan, I went to work on my puppet show to support the central message. No big struggles with technology here… only issue was making sure that the puppeteers were all miked backstage. This was solved with two wireless stand mikes on the two sides and one wireless headset mike in the middle. Wireless is so great for puppet shows; no tripping over the wires behind the curtain.

After finding a willing guitarist and another person to help with the singing, I made use of the internet to find chords and even give examples of the song being sung and strummed. One song was too ancient to find on You Tube, so I had to teach it directly. In defense of this poor, neglected song, I did find others who recognized this song, but they were (of course) about my age. So far, so good.

I made use of Keynote to get the lyrics up on the auditorium screens to assist the sing-alongs and even figured out how to embed a pre-recorded song into one of the Keynote presentations. (That would be the song used to support the colorful, lip-synching Muppet-style monsters.) The monster song was to be the energy high point of the chapel, so I worked hard on that one to make it appealing and easy to read.

The night before, we rehearsed the puppet show and the puppet song and everything worked beautifully. The next morning, two of my puppeteers showed up one schedule, but one was sick… so we had to quickly adapt. I gave my narrator part to another teacher and ducked behind the curtain to play the part of the cynical dog. We did mike checks but did not have time to do the puppet-song Keynote check since my sound booth guy had safety duty out on the sidewalk. So, the chapel starts, and we roll into the first song; the Keynote lyrics work fine. Then comes the puppet song. Monsters are in place, ready to begin…. and …. nothing. Ad-libbing monsters pop up and ham it up for a bit…. still nothing. So out from behind the curtain I come with my vent puppet, Truthful the Lion, and we continue as best we can segueing into the puppet show, “A Love Story with No Kissing.”  That part goes fine, but I am still frustrated by the failure of the music to play upon launch of the Keynote. (Still waiting to hear back about that one.) Technology is great, except when things go wrong.

One teacher offered to record the puppet show with a digital camera. The one that she borrowed from the library, however, was not fully charged, even though it had been plugged in overnight. Turns out that the charger doesn’t work when the computer it’s plugged into goes into sleep mode. I think I have found a solution for that one now, but too late for getting that puppet skit recorded. Sigh.

With the chapel over and done, I launch into my library classes. I am in charge of the large and wiggly second grade class for a half-hour library lesson in the second grade classroom and I am ready to do a unit on non-fiction books. I would like to show them a lovely book, written and illustrated by Peter Jenkins, called “In Living Color.” It is beautifully detailed with many fascinating critters and facts on each page. I would love to be able to show each student these illustrations up close. Wouldn’t it be great if I had a document projector? There’s one in the 5th grade classroom? Run, run; unplug and borrow; back to 2nd grade… hmm. Different setup and no available cord. No way to hook it up. It will be set up later, but not for a while. So, back to showing the pictures from my lap at the front of the room. Kids are still really excited, but some can’t quite see the details.

Good technology should be seamless. But in order for this to happen, you have got to set it up ahead of time, practice, know how to troubleshoot, whittle down transition times, and make sure that your tool is a good fit for the intended use. I need more practice. I am getting more practice, but I am very tired at the moment.

It’s All in My Head

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“Digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral.” Wow. It’s starting to soak in. I’m reading something called “The Horizon Report” and I have to keep stopping to absorb stuff. Although I feel like I’m already water-logged (steady rain during my hour-long soggy bike commute home) I know that to “stay afloat” in this digitally-connected and ever-evolving academic world, I need to cultivate the ability to be ever more absorbent. Now I sound like a diaper commercial. Let’s go back to that first statement.

“Digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking.” So it’s not just a matter of absorbing all of the new applications, digital organizers, enlightened blog posts, and cool resource-laden websites…. (how can I remember all that stuff anyways?)…. it’s more about changing my way of thinking about the learning process and welcoming the digital shift.

I admit that change does not come easily to me. I watched an amazing but completely normal event in the library today. The usual early-morning batch of educational gamers had installed themselves at the computers and I mentioned to one of them my plans for expanding the school library website and adding some extras… like links to some great new educational games. “Like what?” Of course, he was curious. They are tired of playing the same old teacher-approved games and typing practice. So I gave him one example of a reasoning, physics-based game like Civiballs, and he took off. No instructions, no questions, no prompts needed. He just figured it out as he went along. After about five minutes, at least eight kids were playing the game and other related games. I watched them for a while and slowly figured out some of the rules and they charged ahead to level 10 and beyond. No fear. I watched them fail at some levels again and again, but they did not show any frustration; they just persevered until they understood the rules. New is not scary. New is an adventure. That is the mind shift that I need to absorb.

I suppose I have changed and become more able to embrace new technology, but I often only see my failures and frustrations and no longer notice what I can do. I think that for many of us, we don’t realize we have changed until we stop to compare what it was like before. We may have been soaking in a new and challenging environment and learning to adapt, but we cannot see how far we have come.

I was thinking about this as I was biking home in the rain today. Back in California, I had been immersed in a car culture. We drove everywhere. For a while, we drove our kids to school. We drove to the grocery store. We drove to church. I am ashamed to admit that I even drove to the health club which was only a few miles away… and I looked for a parking spot close to the door. How ironic is that? Sacramento has one of the highest incidences of asthma because of its poor air quality. Driving to a health club (in a perpetually sunny environment) really was ridiculous on so many levels, but I didn’t notice it at the time. Now, here in Tokyo, I bike 22 km a day in all kinds of weather. On my way home today, I passed several automotive traffic jams and realized that biking, even in a downpour (or especially in a downpour) was faster than driving. It was cleaner, healthier, gave me my needed exercise and allowed me almost two hours of downtime per day. And lots of other people were doing the same. I was surrounded by a different environment and had changed without knowing it had happened.

Of course, it is easier not to change. Change can be painful and uncomfortable. I have to accept the fact that I will get wet and cold and tired while biking, just as I have to accept the fact that learning about new technology and then having the courage to try to use it effectively, failing and then trying again, is all par for the course. To finally feel that you are in your element, you first have to be immersed in the elements. A change in thinking will allow a change of heart.

Edutopia Topiary

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Okay, so there’s a fast-growing bush called technology integration growing smack-dab in the middle of my classroom. Can’t ignore it; really should make use of it; but it’s just so huge and out-of-control that no one knows what to do with it. Time to tackle the pruning. Cut away what is not useful right now (don’t worry; it will grow back) and leave the leaves that benefit the most students at this time. I need to create a topiary that fits with my environment, so how do I shape this thing?

While reading the article, “Shaping Tech for the Classroom,” found on Edutopia’s website  http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt , I found myself waging a running battle in my head. Yes, of course, the students want constant access to email… “ The number-one technology request of today’s students is to have email and instant messaging always available and part of school.” But would providing this to the students actually enhance their learning? I have witnessed what happens when students have access to email and IM at our school. They chat, gossip, gripe, game; they do anything but schoolwork. Yes, it would be great if they would start IMing about the assignment or start Skyping sonnets while looking up references to Elizabethan English as they speak, but it’s not happening yet. Their favorite use of the digital tools is communicating with friends and working on their own self-images.
Technology is not always the answer. We need to discern when it is the answer. Automatic grading of tests could certainly save teachers plenty of time, but only if the assessment is originally constructed in such a way as to allow the automatic grading. Creative and authentic assessments, however, are often more organic and individualized and require a pair of human eyes to give a fair evaluation. Snip, snip. When and where?

It was inspiring to read about the educational possibilities that our current connectivity could bring to the students. As the article states, “If we really offered our children some great future-oriented content (such as, for example, that they could learn about nanotechnology, bioethics, genetic medicine, and neuroscience in neat interactive ways from real experts), and they could develop their skills in programming, knowledge filtering, using their connectivity, and maximizing their hardware, and that they could do so with cutting-edge, powerful, miniaturized, customizable, and one-to-one technology, I bet they would complete the “standard” curriculum in half the time it now takes, with high test scores all around.” Yes, that would be great. I noticed that the only time my own child had time to pursue this kind of self-motivated schooling was when we home-schooled him for half a year. During that time he researched the solar system and molecules. He ended up writing and illustrating three books about a water molecule named “Feenix” who helped explain, through his various adventures, the water cycles, the states of water and the atomic structure of a single water molecule. And that was when he was in First Grade.

 

 

We can and should do more for our students because when they are inspired, they can and will do more for themselves and their own personal bliss-inspired quest for learning.

Letting the Flower Create the Root

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Bloom’s Taxonomy. The name starts out making me think of colors, blossoms and growth (Bloom’s) and ends by threatening me with an insinuation of taxes and monotony (Taxonomy). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy seems even more threatening ‘cuz it’s got that Digital thing in there: http://tinyurl.com/438yalc  But as I read this article and absorbed the diagrams, I thought about how I learn and my attitudes as I approach new information, especially when that information involves technology. First, I should explain that I am picturing Bloom’s Taxonomy as a flower, with the creative layer (evaluation) at the top and the remembering layer (knowledge) at the bottom. Creativity is reaching toward the sun, glorious with its shimmering petals and supporting sepals, and remembering is in the dirt, down there with the compost and the worms. Both parts are important, of course, along with the stuff in between, but I know what motivates me. I don’t grow a flower to admire its intricate root structure (although I am sure that does have its own beauty). I grow a flower to eventually see the blossom.

I suspect that my students may be the same. If they are motivated by the opportunity to create something that interests them and impresses their peers, then they will have the patience to work their way up through the layers of Bloom’s Taxonomy so that they have the resources to get to the colorful finish. And just as the root systems of plants tend to spread out and support each other, these networked students can help each other grow as they share knowledge and both challenge and affirm each other’s ideas. Connectivity has its merits.

I think about the task that waits for me, with a deadline looming in December. Finishing my first digital illustrated children’s book is a very motivating goal for me… but just thinking about all the steps I need to take to get there, makes me weak in the knees. I’m afraid that my roots and stems will not grow fast enough to support that bud. I do have my own helpful connections, digital and personal. I suspect that my tech-savvy hubby will be helping quite a bit as he has in the past. I want to be able to build my digital independence, but there is so much to learn at once. I will try to remember to take it one step at a time, and to not be afraid of the dirt and the worms. Bring it on.

Hanging, Messing and Geeking; a Family History

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While reading the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur-funded “white paper” (http://tinyurl.com/3nag5ag) about the new media practices of online “Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out,” I realized that I had witnessed the evolution of this culture and many examples of all three modes of virtual behavior in my now-14-yr. old daughter. Thanks to her, I was familiar with the behaviors discussed in the papers and could fill in many examples as I read along.

I remember my youngest’s first foray into the online communities with her fascination with a penguin-populated chat room (http://www.clubpenguin.com/). All three children were heavily invested in Neopets (http://www.neopets.com/) at one point and I remember the family drama when our oldest managed to get all the family accounts frozen after he defied the game rules by creating multiple accounts in order to rack up loads of game points. He still takes heat for that escapade.

While I understand the educational possibilities of trying to tap into this youth-culture fascination with being constantly connected with one’s peers and being able to “geek out” in an area of one’s own predilection, there are far too many areas of scholastics which may need to be taught irregardless of a teen’s willingness to geek out in that area. I have watched my daughter do a deep dive into creative writing while creating complex story lines with online co-creators and I have recently witnessed her sudden ability to disassemble and repair a 20-inch iMac by simply looking up the instructions online. Even when she was only nine years old, I watched her successfully dissect a bullfrog using diagrams that she looked up online. She identified all of the internal organs and even discerned the cause of death of her specimen which she had found near the Tama River in Tokyo.

With the ubiquitous availability of information, where there is a desire to learn, there is also the means to go as deep as one might desire. And from intense study, original creation is often a result. Online tutorials in digital drawing and use of the digital tablet, along with online artistic communities, such as Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/) and websites where participants can collect and modify digital pets, our youngest is learning to hone her abilities with both digital and traditional pen and paper. She has even succeeded in drawing me into this world as I began to collaborate on a children’s book with an artist in Sweden whom we discovered through the online community.

The challenge remains in finding a way to actively engage digitally-savvy youth to embrace those scholastic disciplines and subjects that do not grab them by their mental lapels and shake them awake. If they are motivated, they will learn far more than we can teach them. But if they are not motivated to learn something, then they will invariably find a way to geek out once again only in the areas that hold their interest.

Certifiably Confused

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This past week has marked the beginning of a year-long course that should improve my functioning in the techno etherspere. Ya, I know that is not a real word, but I don’t yet know how to describe the body of knowledge which I know I should have in my head, but is still floating out there beyond my reach.

I am finding it hard to simply remember the meaning of the acronym, COETAIL, which stands for Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy; and yes, I did have to look it up again to double-check. TMI and TLT… too much information and too little time.

I did set up my RSS feed via NetNewsWire, but then ignored it all week since it was not sending me any email notices. It seems like nowadays, with the busy work schedule and two hours of commuting by bicycle, I do not have much time for extras like news of the world. I do get through my email at least every few days and in this way I am reminded to read world news articles that wind up in my inbox from sources such as the “Huffington Post.” I usually read just the first paragraph and then move on to the next news item.

My NetNewsWire is now configured to launch at startup, so now, perhaps, I will pay more attention to the 2o or more blogs and news feeds that I have subscribed to.

Here is one item that caught my eye: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/08/21/blooms-taxonomy-and-ipad-apps/. These colorful representations of Bloom’s Taxonomy would be great posters to have in the classroom and the chart showing the various iPad applications sorted into their places in Bloom’s hierarchy made me realize why this whole process of information gathering and sorting via RSS is so aggravating to me. I would rather be creating content than gathering, sorting and disseminating it. I will need to compartmentalize a bit if I expect to gather and integrate the information that continues to bombard my synapses.