#gafesummit Oklahoma 2015

I decided to spend some time at lunch today thinking about the things I thought about a conference this past weekend at which I was with the 'cream of the crop' of educators here in Oklahoma. It was a valuable conference and worth every penny spent on attendance. The conference was a Google Apps for Education Summit (#gafesummit)

I was privileged to attend the pre-summit which began the process of preparing me to become a certified Google Education Trainer. This was some very valuable training and helped to further conceptualize how you can integrate SO many different apps/programs/sites with GAFE.

I think initially when I thought about attending the pre-summit, I thought it would be good for some 'on-the-side' consulting work as more and more districts/schools will be moving to GAFE in the coming years. However, after attending, I realize that I have more than I can handle to get my own faculty ready to meet the coming challenges of the Digital Education Environment.

I learned some new things, such as croak.it and some more innovative uses of socrative.com. The pre-summit was a great time of thinking about the challenges we face in education with our students and how to overcome those challenges.

If you aren't a teacher, you may not know the wide variety of access many of our students (don't) have. Some students have some access at home (desktop, wireless internet, etc.), some have smartphone access only, some have both, while there are some students who have no access to the interwebs at all. One of the primary questions I have (as a teacher) is: "How do I get each of my students equal access?" (at least while they are in my classroom) As an instructional designer, that question changes slightly. Rather, how do I get my faculty to (1.) allow their students to have on-demand access? (2.) How do I help those faculty create a culture of trust for technology use in their classrooms, especially when we aren't modeling that culture of trust? (3.) What are the pre-requisite issues I need to solve/change with my faculty in order to empower them to innovate in their classrooms? In other words, just because I am not married to ANYTHING I do in the classroom, my faculty may not be quite so willing, so how do I sell innovative practice to them?

Often, when I attend conferences, I may not learn a ton of new things (beyond the new webapp or add-on for browsers), but I am pushed into thinking about my faculty and how we can move their student engagement up a notch, how to deepen their understanding of difficult concepts (through on-demand remediation) and/or how to push their students to be learners who (1) enjoy learning (2) are motivated to learn (3) and are able to see the relevancy of what they are learning. This conference really did that for me.

I had an opportunity to meet some great folks and expand my PLN, both here in Oklahoma and throughout the US. I heard some great keynotes by Holly Clark, Mark Hammons, and Lise Galuga. We thought about the adjacent possible, moved toward future-ready, and decided that an elephant is best eaten one bite at a time. Overall, the weekend was a total success.

Thanks @edtechteam for a great learning experience, thanks @bmchs1 for hosting, and thanks to @BekahHightower for your hard work in coordinating the entire thing.

One more thing, I did present a couple of sessions, but my favorite was the new presentation I did about the great work we are doing here at Canadian Valley Technology Center using Google Scripts. I had a full session so I broadcasted/recorded on YouTube so others could attend virtually.

Using Scripts with Google Drive to Track Student/Teacher Progress

I've been at a conference for the last couple of days and had an opportunity to share some of the great things we are doing at Canadian Valley Technology Center, specifically in using scripts to create calendar events (like a bus request), automated progress reports, professional development transcripts, and teacher evaluations (coming soon).

Background:

The first script I ever used was one which would send the results of a form to someone other than the person submitting it. I found it online, changed the email address, and made it work. That looks pretty simple now, but it started me on a journey which has led me to my current place in learning programming.

Gist:

We have started using scripts (which are bound to Google spreadsheets, calendar, forms, etc.) to take the results of a form (set up as a way for instructors to enter their professional development for the semester), create a copy of a template, replace all information in <<>> with information from the form, move it into a shared folder (one shared with the teacher's supervisor), share the document with the teacher (view rights only), and email a link to the document to the teacher. 

This was the first project we used to integrate the automation power of Google Scripts. We have since created an automated transportation request (auto-creates) an event on the bus/van/etc. calendar. We have also moved to a Google Sheets gradebook (from an Excel template), with automated progress reports. 

We are on about the 4th iteration of each of these as it has been a somewhat large learning curve for someone like me who had zero programming experience. I have done about 1/2 of the codecademy.com Javascript course which has enabled me to begin to conceptually understand Scripts within Google. 

But it takes so long!

Like every other kind of technology I have ever used in the classroom, yes, it takes a lot of time. However, all of the time you invest on the front side (development) you will get back probably two-fold on the backside. Time spent doing paperwork is reduced to nearly nothing. I remember the first school I worked at had a person who taught part time and the other part of her job was tracking professional development. This first script would have eliminated that entire part of her job. Not that I am in favor of people losing their jobs, but maybe that person could focus more on instruction? Or remediation? 

Next Steps:

If you are a Google District and you have someone who is willing to learn or already knows Javascript, I would highly recommend giving someone the autonomy to begin integrating something like this. There are scripts already written which people will/can share (I'm glad to share any I have done) and if you need help, some great resources are the Scripts documentation and stackoverflow.com. I do a lot of searching for help. 

If you would like to connect more about this topic, I'm happy to do so. You can connect through about.me/jbowie. If I can help you with anything, please let me know!

The Best Learning I’ve Ever Experienced

A key event in my personal learning/PLN was hearing Will Richardson speak at OTA back in February 2009. In his keynote, he talked a bit about blogging and connecting with others. Most of what he was talking about was in the context of students and being in my 2nd year of teaching I was VERY impressionable. I thought a lot about myself during that presentation and how I could impact my students in ways that would be meaningful, while using emergent technology. I left the conference with some validation on the things I was beginning and thinking about starting in my classes and on fire for technology integration. One quote which impacted me was, “Kids will never be knowledge navigators if we never allow them to navigate knowledge.” I took that to heart and started to put students in my class into the position of being required to use technology tools to navigate, locate, and synthesize knowledge. We started a class wiki, which blossomed into what I had hoped would become an online Open Source Textbook for high school physics (bear in mind every single page except the front page was student-created). However, I left the public education classroom before my students got very much on the site.

That was a seminal point in my educational technology journey. Currently, in that same journey, I am pursuing the PhD in Education with an educational technology focus. So, PLEASE, attend conferences! You just never know where a conference session will end up! I have presented at that conference a few times over the last 5 years and I consider OTA (now OTA-Encyclomedia) my ‘home’ conference. While it doesn’t typically draw ‘research’ presentations, it offers a ton of sessions in which people are successfully engaging students using new technologies.

At about that same time, I had recently discovered twitter and was beginning to meet many new people in the Oklahoma Education Community, specifically those who were early twitter adopters. Those connections led to job opportunities at the state level and some great friendships with people from all aspects of education and educational technology. Also, through those connections, I have been invited to speak at small district-level conferences. However, the learning goes far beyond the ‘exposure’ I got to others. I was trying new things in my classes, reflecting about it on my blog, and sharing experiences and learning from others through comments on blog posts and twitter interactions. This was even beyond the boundaries of Oklahoma. I have met people from all over the country (and some in other countries) through twitter and not met them face to face until attending the annual conference for the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE).

That said, the most important aspect of getting involved in a PLN, e.g. twitter, was the ability I had to connect with people who were trying the same things I was, or who had already tried it. I could learn from them and they learned from me. Twitter, as a PLN, made the education world MUCH smaller for me. The best part about it was this was free and I could personalize it to fit my needs and interests. It was (and still continues to be) an ‘a la carte’ professional development experience for me. Joining twitter for the express purpose of using it as a PLN was probably the best thing I have ever done as far as professional development goes, certainly in my first several years of teaching. I would highly recommend it. I have blogged about twitter previously here.

For those of you who are going into public education, you will have plenty of opportunities for professional development. Generally, there is enough built-in PD so that you do not even have to go to outside PD and you get your required hours. However, I can attest that the most meaningful development I have gotten over the last 8 years has been through conference, online communities, and informal learning that occurs when teachers collaborate together. I would advise anyone to get involved in some kind of community which interests you. Start a blog and reflect on what you do, start following some hashtags on twitter (e.g. #oklaed, #edtech, and/or #edchat), check with people you know who innovate. Don’t ask the teachers who are in their 30th time of teaching the exact same lesson, the exact same way. They likely won’t have much to share. Find the people who are trying new things. Those who are making mistakes. Those who fail at trying  something. (this is very different from people who constantly fail!) These are the people who will have experience to share which will be valuable.

Let's Talk about Pics, Baby.

I spent some time this week at the OTA/EM Conference. It was really really good. Our keynote yesterday was by a guy named George Couros. One of the things he said that stood out to me was, "We get what we model." Meaning, whatever we model to our students, that's what they are going to give us back.

So, when we give presentations, shouldn't we cite our images? If we don't, should we be allowed to deduct points when students don't cite their images? If students cite their images with the words, "Google Images¹," should that be sufficient? I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but we've all had a course in which we have written. In which we have researched. In which we have used outside sources. In which we have been required to cite those sources.

So, should we (as professionals - who want to be TREATED like professionals) follow the rules of academia? If not, why not?

Image courtesy of quickmeme.com - used without permission

¹Citing something with Google Images is kind of like citing the library. "Why yes Mr. Bowie, I did get this from an outside source. I got it from the public library!" WHERE DID YOU GET THE IMAGE?

Streamline Online & Hybrid Course Development Without Sacrificing Quality - Renee Cicchino

Streamline Online & Hybrid Course Development Without Sacrificing Quality

The culture of a university influences your online learning program. Additionally, the attitudes of a faculty member can influence the outcome of an online learning program, specifically in the course development phase.

What are some challenges in Course Design?

1. Siloing
2. Institutional Policy
3. Quality Oversight
4. Tech Competency
5. Faculty Development
6. Time (Release Time for Faculty)
7. Rank and Tenure
8. Funding

How do we address these challenges?

1. Utilize a Template
2. Give exemplar courses - highlight faculty work! Change this course out every year. 
3. Use QM and/or SLOAN-C resources

Do we fail occasionally? Yes. 

1. Low quality learning objectives or not measurable
2. Course design and navigation
3. Converting F2F materials directly to online/hybrid environment
4. Time Management
5. Tech Competency Issues (you don't even know what you don't know)
6. Time Management
7. Faculty and Student dissatisfaction

What lessons have we learned?

1. Tech skills among faculty vary
2. Online teaching experience vary
3. Look for strengths in faculty - Read CONTENT
4. Address the teaching and technology needs
5. Remove the fear of the unknown
6. Promote quality
7. Community of learning and support

As we've done at SNU, a best practice is to create your template in Word (be sure to include the measurable objectives worksheet) and let them create the course there (however, no one seems to be using it at this time). It is then much easier to move it to the LMS. 

In the model presented here, faculty ONLY do content and the Instructional Design Team does the technical side of it (putting it into the LMS).  This isn't necessarily viable for everyone, but there are certainly components of this which will work for us at SNU. 

Best Practice for Designing and Assessing Online Discussion Questions - McCourt, Yarbrough, and Tanner

What would happen if you went into a classroom and you were asked to "Describe an interesting educational opportunity"? This could create a monologue, rather than a discussion. Rather, what if you had to describe "the last time a student said 'this lesson changed my life'"?

So what are some specific steps that will stir communication in the classroom?

1. Ask Good Questions - The better the question, the better the interaction. Students should know immediately what the instructor wants them to do. (not necessarily what the answer is). Consider open ended questions.  Provide opportunity for students to incorporate personal experience. Also, create relevance through questions. Need to allow students to learn from one another AND problem solve. MUST be tied to course topics and course outcomes. No tangents!! Use Bloom's Taxonomy to consider levels of learning and how to elicit specific thinking from students on your target levels. 
2. Foster Meaningful Discussion - Require participation and provide some guidelines of what that should look like, e.g. 3 different posts on 3 different days of the week. What does a substantive post look like? Not everything needs to be "research-based." Feel free to have students share, rather than regurgitate. Students need an instructor to model good, substantive responses. Some faculty have issues with "having to" do something. Requiring that they have XX number of discussion board or you are not allowed to have XX number of discussion boards. 
3. Consider the type of communication you want to happen and design the questions accordingly:

• Student to Student
• Student to Professor
• Professor to Student

4. Provide clear guidelines for length, word count, number of posts, etc. Use a rubric!!

Gradually, Then Suddenly: How Tech has Changed Teaching in Higher Ed - Brian Kibby

Some students stop paying attention in 4th grade. If that happens, we often lose them for life. That doesn't mean they are going to be a degenerate, that means they likely won't reach their full potential. Welcome to the Army Private Kibby!

So why do SOME faculty do great things with technology and others don't? (Holy Crap! Did these people know that I was coming to this conference? This is tailor made for me!!) So Brian initially starts talking about "coming from a place of 'Yes" vs. coming from a place of 'No'." Sounds a lot like tribal leadership to me! He continues to discuss Positional Authority. Not cool. Stop doing it.

He shares a personal story about a teacher who is intimidated by the idea of a bunch of independent learners (using technology) basically putting teachers out of a job. How many of us have felt intimidated by that idea? It's not that we are going to be out of job. It is that we are going to have to change the way we teach. We need to embrace those (adaptive) technologies and move students to a deeper level of learning. We shift from a "save the people who are naturals at our subject" to "everyone is able to learn more than what they already know." Show advances in learning for everyone.

So how do we do this?

1. Start by saying "Yes" instead of always saying "No." 
2. Find a buddy. Someone who will help you with new things you want to learn. (We were doing this at Putnam City like 5 years ago! Nice validation of personal methods!) 
3. Are you market-driven? If not, you should be. The market of education is changing. If you don't adapt, you won't stay relevant. Nor will you be preparing students to be relevant. 
4. Just because you try something once, don't discount it. Check with your buddy. How can you adapt? 

The crux of the matter is to "try stuff." Brian says within 24 months we will be all digital (or should be).

Comment from the audience - Don't just use a buddy. As an admin, consider how to integrate a "technology boot camp" and provide some $$ for that. This could (has in other places) turn into something MUCH bigger than working with your own faculty.

Digital Competencies for Education - Doug Johnson at OTAEM 2013

Digital Competencies for Education

Doug writes at the Blue Skunk Blog and is @blueskunkblog on Twitter.

Doug's presentation is aimed at administrators, but I'm thinking about it in the context of staff/faculty development.

Guiding Ideas

For too long we've used a YOYO (You're On Your Own)  as far as staff/faculty development goes. So why is it so hard to get higher education faculty to learn how to use technology?

• Because they have "people," i.e. graduate students, who will do it for them.
• They are tremendously busy. 
• It doesn't fit their teaching philosophy.

So, do they really need those skills? If so, which skills? How are they best acquired?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (related to technology, from bottom to top)

1. Established Infrastructure
2. Effective Administration
3. Extenstive Resources
4. Effective Teaching
5. Empowered Students

What are the established Educational Technology Standards for Teachers? 

NETS for teachers from ISTE

**Think carefully about where to go from here in Online Professional Development.**

Look for (and outline) the benchmarks of what you should know and be able to do.

Personal Productivity

• Use some kind of calendar (Google Calendar!!) Integrates nicely with email (also consider Google Plus and how it integrates). Creates an attendee list.

Information Systems Use

• This one is up in the air for us with the transition to Ellucian. However, know what YOU need to know about it. 
• If you aren't using it, then the admin can't connect the data points (across campus).
• This should be web-based (I doubt Ellucian is, is it?)

Record Keeping

• All of your records should be current and transparent.

Data Warehousing and Data Keeping 

• This is done for us through Moodle. 
• A must for retention interventions. (use gradebook and attendance)
• For leaders to be able to make EFFECTIVE DECISIONS, they MUST have access to data, which means it's out job to collect the data. 

Content for Students

• Students need to access information on their time, at their point of need. 

The SAMR Model of Technology Integration:

jennyluca.wikispaces.com

Where are you? Where do you want to be? Where does your administration want you to be? For me, I think the ideal would be for everyone to be fluent enough with technology to be able to at least augment their face to face courses. However, many will go on and move into modification and redefinition.

Literacies for the Digital Age - Kathy Shrock at OTA 2013

What are the literacies in which students (and/or faculty) should be fluent?

• Traditional Literacies

1. Reading  - Readability calculator, sitebite
2. Listening - Use podcasts and take notes to summarize (great study skill) 
3. Speaking - Create script, record and edit audio. soundation studio (web-based) 
4. Numeracy - Math, computation, measurement, stats

• Critical Literacies

1. Information - State a need, find information, EVALUATE, utilize information. Use research skills appropriately. Change the result options on Google - look at "verbatim"
2. EVALUATE - Source validity, author bias, usefulness of information (and why) 
3. Utilize - Using "how-to" sites (you can find out how to do ANYTHING on the web)
4. Visual - Aesthetic Analysis (imagery) look into Haiku Deck (iPad app)
5. Global Perspective - resistant perspective?, check out newsmap 
6. Media - question, analyze, evaluate, create. Have students evaluate their ROLE as a media user (consider multiple perspectives). 
7. Tool - A supportive literacy in that you need to know how to use the tools to support the above. Commonly referred to as "computer literacy". Think about aggregation tools (RSS, Evernote, etc.) Synchronous conferencing (Hangouts, backchannels, etc.)
8. Digital - Social networking, PLN, copyright and ethics, and privacy
9. Data - Interpretation and visualization. 
10. Civic - Critical thinking applied to community engagement
11. Historical - Critical thinking applied to the past

Taking Your Screencasts to a New Level - Paul Tannahill

Paul considered picking apart many other presentations and worried that it would be a presentation of a friend or of someone in the audience. Rather, he showed his own screencast for us to pick apart. Driving Question: What are all the good things about doing screencasts?

Many screencasters use PowerPoint. Many people make a screencast and say, "Now make your's just like mine." Several people talked at length about the tools they used, rather than the actual making of the screencast. Let's define screencasts for the purpose of this discussion: A software tutorial program, rather than a recorded lecture of a keynote or powerpoint. Specifically, a recording to answer a question that is asked over and over and over.

Already I am seeing the need to continue my quest to acquire Captivate by Adobe.

You need to have the following three things for a good screencast:

1. Technical Excellence

Video

1. interface simplicity & clarity
2. effective transitions
3. zooms and pans

Audio

1. vocal clarity
2. vocal inflection - dubbing in your audio creates problems here
3. volume
4. computer sounds - keyboard? clicks?

Deployment

1. Embed using YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video, TeacherTube
2. Not a link to a native file

2. Sound Pedagogy

Analyze

1. Needs assessment
2. What do students/clients need to know?

Design

1. Plan your screencast
2. Storyboard
3. Script

Chunk

1. Don't put too much in
2. Don't include distractions
3. Don't underestimate

3. Watchability/Readability

Implementation

1. Title it correctly
2. Tag (taxonomy)
3. Share via every social media you have
4. Ask others to share and comment

Evaluation

1. Invite comments and suggestions
2. Use a hit counter. How many times was it watched?
3. Suggestions?

Stepping Up to the Challenge of Education and the Road Ahead - Dr. Mark Milliron

There was a point in time when education broke the cycle of poverty. That's not necessarily true in a day and age when only 50% of students who start college are able to finish.

We must think about the journey for students. How do we structure learning environments? How do we instill a sense of purpose in students? How do we help them to inventory their desires and wants and get that sense of purpose sooner rather than later? Note - the modal learner of today is from the late 20s to the early 50s with a mean of about 37. The traditional students are not going away, but they are no longer the modal learners.

Look into the Virginia Education Wizard and check out what it does. It's not useful outside the state, but the idea is awesome. Why is full-time status the default? Why do students have to talk to someone to make an exception to attend half-time? Why do students feel like they are filing for welfare or at the DMV? Students need to get on purpose from day 1. It doesn't mean they have to pick a major, it means that they need to understand the importance of knowing where they want to go.

We need to dispel the myth of edutainment. We must get them to understand that they must work hard in order to succeed. WGU Texas calls it the Texas two-step. Read the book Mindset. Shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. You don't already know everything you need to know. You are here to learn and that's intended to be hard. If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth doing.

There's a big difference between the kids who are scaffolded throughout their life for college. Contrasted with the students who have NO ONE in their life who understands the higher education journey. Check out Practical Magic for reading. Students need to leave our classrooms better prepared for the next part of the journey. Persistence and tenacity are two very important pieces. However, this must be combined with a purpose and strategies for success.

There are 3 academic mindsets. Social, academic perseverance, and learning strategies. However, many think you have to choose one. But research shows that you must have a combination of all three to be successful. With everything we do, we should ask the question: Does this expand students' learning? That and the data behind it should frame every decision we make. How do we leverage technology to make a connection with students?

How do we build the right infrastructure, to get the right data, to the right people, in the right way? The consumer world is decades ahead of us in using data. Within 2 hours of you losing your credit card, a man in India will call you to see if you have lost your card. This is triggered by your spending habits and quick, closed-loop feedback. Let's apply that to learning.

A MoodleRooms Guide to Almost Everything - Phil Miller, VP of Product Strategy

The Moodle community continues to grow at a rapid pace. There are about 60 million Moodle users in 100s of countries. This isn't just for education anymore. MoodleRooms is at about 1000 customers with about 2200 sites, worldwide. There is a movement in Moodle to consider the social justice ramifications of the use. MoodleRooms would like to be good stewards of the partnership they have. There is another mention about learner.moodle.net, a MOOC which will start on 1st of this year. You can earn a badge showing that you completed it and this can lead to Moodle Course Creator Certificate.

MoodleRooms is working towards with the movement of Standards Based Grading (SBG). MoodleRooms is sponsoring the certification from the National Federation of the Blind, which is a huge push by Moodle to integrate more easily with accessibility tools, such as screen readers.

So what is my responsibility as a user? Participate in the conversation. Contribute to the community (code - which I don't do). Expand the community, maybe by pushing the MOOC? Engage in the community. Look into research projects (this could be a good idea for class). All of these would contribute to the global reach of Moodle.

Collaborate might be an option for synchronous opportunities. Joule Classroom is $10k. The limitation is 50 total users. xPlor is also a new thing coming. It is a content repository.

MoodleMoot Portland Keynote - Martin Dougimas, Moodle Founder and CEO

Martin is joining us from the future! He's 16 hours away in Austrailia, via GoToMeeting.

So who needs teachers? Students are able to get knowledge anytime they would like. There have been a lot of predictions about what education would look like. Some say that Google will be feeding us information before we even know that we need it. Go to YouTube to learn an instrument. The hole in the wall project in India, etc. However, Moodle's position is that teachers are important. They need support and resources. The human component is missing when you take the teacher out of the equation. Even when learning happens over the internet, you still make a personal connection.

One of the great things about Moodle is that even though it is open-source, it can be run on your own server, with your own data, keeping everything that you want as private as you want. There is one site that is supporting over a million students, with several running over one hundred thousand. Moodle supports teachers and learners.

Given that as the mission, how do we get there? By development. Moodle allows many plugins to talk to other plugins. Such as a student posting an assignment and that triggering some action. Or the reverse, where a students doesn't post an assignment which triggers some external log, etc. Caching allows an increase in performance cutting down the amount of work the program has to do (cutting out repetitive actions). Moodle partners are allowed to prioritize their bug fixes (MoodleRooms).

So where are we going from here? Moodle 2.5! And then some discussion happens about bootstrap, which I have no idea to what he is referring. I got a bit lost here. Something about Responsive Design. We are currently running 2.4.4. The other priority Moodle is working on is outcome-based learning. If you are interested in this, look into standards-based grading. There are also a significant amount of improvements on forums, such as accessibility, discussion subscription, improved navigation, in-line reply, and posting stats. Additionally, they are working on data-driven improvements. In other words, analytics and reporting. I suspect that our reports for students not attending class or not turning in assignments will be coming soon. They will also be working on Course Management. According to Martin, the current one is rubbish. Improvements to grading papers, the ability to annotate assignment (via PDF), will be coming. Accessibility!! Gradebook!! Bug Fixing. These are not all coming in 2.5, but many will be coming in future iterations. Many people are unhappy with the Moodle app. However, it is impossible to have the app do everything the full site does. It is more focused on offline work, e.g. being able to download course information and grade or read.

Look into signing up for AirNotifier Server when it becomes available? This would enable notifications, meaning that students could be notified by text about due dates, etc.

Look for a new Moodle.org coming soon. This will include badging for users who are particularly helpful in the forums. Consider taking the MOOC, which occurs starting on 1 Sept 2013 at learn.moodle.net. You will earn a Mozilla Badge. There is a Moodle Course Creators Certificate that can be earned as well.

Martin shared a great list of research questions asked and explored at the Moodle Research Conference (this year in Tunisia, next year maybe the US.) What about data? How do we address issues of privacy? What about notifications? Specifically, notifications when students need help, without them asking for it? How can we motivate students with data? Can badges be motivators?

Abundant Learning: 4 Newish Ideas in Education with Will Richardson

Why are we here at ISTE? Is it to be a better teacher or a better learner? If its not the latter, it's probably for the wrong reason. We all are likely living at the most change-filled moment in education and we must be willing to re-think our educational methods through a different lens or we will be preparing students for a world that no longer exists. 

Margaret Wheatley says "We can't be creative if we aren't willing to be confused. Change always begins with confusion." What am I confused about? I think I'm confused about student motivation. I'm disturbed by a distinct lack of motivation in students. I need to work hard at engaging students and figuring out what I can do to move them to a more intense level of learning. How we get students to embrace the act of learning. More importantly, how do we engage students in designing their own learning AND how do we work on the systems in place to ALLOW that to even happen? This latter question is hard for K-12 and a bit easier for the more autonomous nature of higher education. 

The problem with education is that we are the product of the current system but that system is not relevant to today's students. Students understand the education game. What do I do to be able to "check the box?" 

How do students learn to play (actual) games? They have PLNs and resources that they find/construct on their own! Traditional learning teaches students facts "just in case" but today's learning teaches students how to find information "just in time" and be able to connect that information with other information.  

Think about today's world, who needs a reporter? Reporters are now news aggregators. EVERYONE is a reporter. YouTube is the channel. Even the media markets are beginning to use YouTube. The world is changing. We are now able to print leather and suspect that in the next two years we will be able to print food. We have no idea what's coming. Learning is leaving the institution and is moving into the hands of the learners. Students CAN learn anything, anytime, anywhere - if they are disposed to doing so and have the skills and literacies to do so. 

I think I need to read Mr Richardson's book, "Why School?"

We don't necessarily need to be better. We need to be DIFFERENT. Example, the USS United States (fastest ship to cross the Atlantic in its day) vs the DeHavilland Comet (jet aircraft cut Atlantic crossing to about 10 hours). The ship was better than other ships. But the airplane was different, not just better. 

What is self organized learning? What is networked learning? 

We need to be able to let our kids meet and learn with strangers on the Internet. Think about that. They need to be put into situations that allow (encourage/require) them to connect with people who are not bound by geographical limitations. It's the world we live in. That is what a global market looks like. What if your doctor wasn't/isn't an unlearner/relearner? That's what we need to instill in our students. Make a safe place for students to risk and FAIL. 

The epitome of the honors student is one who is terrified of failure. Students should be encouraged and allowed to fail. 

Check into dual lingo. This site teaches a language and translates the web at the same time. 

Think about the meta-idea of twitter and how that applies to students. It's not a place, an institution, a repository of knowledge. It is a place to make connections with others who have similar interests. This is the analogy of education. Students are learners who need to connect with others to achieve a common goal. This could be worded better, but I think you get the idea. Maybe instead it's a way to connect to team members to solve a problem. To connect to people who are DIFFERENT than they are. Bottom line, it's a medium for connection. 

What is design thinking? Check out designthinkingforeducators.com Discovery. Interpretation. Ideation. Experimentation. Evolution. It's a process that students of through. It's a bit like a pared-down version of the scientific method! The key is that the questions don't have answers. Key component. 

What is the Maker Movement? Good grief I freaking love this guy. We are moving back to the industrial arts classroom and a bit of the cottage manufacturing industry. Students make something as they learn the knowledge. It's a huge shift to students creating artifacts. The skills students learn are the basics of what every student should know.  

I need a 3-D printer. That's my next thing. They are <$2k. I've got to get another Arduino! I may need a Pi as well. 

Guiding question: How do I integrate this into my pre-service science education classes? Small things. Small steps. I can't change it all at once. 

SIGOL Forum: Connect, Collaborate, and Create with a MOOC

This is a panel format, where several people share their learned lessons. 

Tom Woodward - Ds106.com has already been mentioned. @mishelleyb and I have talked about that. It's a place that aggregates using RSS feeds. Students create assignments or choose a Pre-made assignment. Use tags to aggregate and see what others have done. A student created a radio show. It also contains a remix machine which will take two assignments and mix them. Also students have created a "best of" where students showed other students' work. 

Unknown presenter name - university gave grants for game-based learning. Looking at the meta-idea of what online communities look like, what discussions look like, and how this learning can "morph into a guild of educators." Lurkers use social network knowledge construction as a way of learning. Just lurking is a way to get the basics and begin to understand. Badges are a way for people who are over achievers to get what they need when they complete EVERY assignment. 

Unknown presenter - international MOOCs being used in emerging markets (limited) but heavily in higher Ed and some are for credit. Emerging markets do not put as much credibility into online degrees as established markets. Business world thinks this is new. But it's constructivist style learning. MOOCs are not as valued now for what they are doing, but more for how they are CHANGING education. 

Unknown presenter - many in education think that the MOOC is a "sky is falling" kind of mentality. 

However, his main point is the constructivist vs Stanford model (connectivist). There is defined content, but the connections made are more important. Khan Academy has delivered >300 million lessons. How do we build a MOOC that attracts students?

Chunk the information 10 minute videos with inline quiz (engages, not grading) requires students to check understanding. Also offers feedback. Cannot proceed w/o "getting it". Informal presence of the instructor. Think about the "lesson" module in Moodle. There must be deadlines. 

Shifted into breakout sessions - I followed Tom Woodard. How does this thing work? Must be open to change because this will evolve over time. The fact remains that we have a group of people who are engaged in something about which they are passionate. What if our OIT were a MOOC which was done as a cohort? The current group is creating content for future groups. That OIT is a free course anyway. We are using people who may or may not be right for online teaching. If they finish, great. If not, they don't teach. This needs to be something done in conjunction with other CCCU schools. 

One interesting idea of this is that these things can snowball and become much larger than the original intent. Sometimes there is a "creative-spiraling" where assignments get remixed. Students work hard when they see other's work and make it until they get it to the point at which THEY are satisfied. Not the point at which the minimum standard of mastery is met. Tom is self-described as "kind of fringy."

At this point I was supposed to switch tables, but I stayed. I'm interested in what this looks like from both the student and the admin side. Tom keeps referring to the "hippy Montessori" style of learning. The big idea here is to write on your own blog/place and tag it and its aggregated to the course through the RSS feed. The other big idea is to have students pitch assignment ideas. They become the course designers. These ideas then trigger ideas in others. This can lead to the "spiral of creativity" alluded to earlier. 

Linear learning is the fastest path, but is it the best? The less structured learning is slower, but maybe it's better? Are each useful in different situations? It seems the less structured way is good for specialization, while structure is more content driven, i.e. mat leave with "these basic skills."  

Big ideas: the things that yield the greatest results require the greatest risks. AND you must be prepared to fail. You must be willing to risk. How does this play out in a K-12 environment? What one person can achieve might not be possible in EVERY place. Work within your boundaries but push those boundaries to advance students' learning. 

Great thoughts. Interesting session. A whole lot to chew on. 

Keynote by Dr. Vincent Tinto at the 2013 Transformative Learning Conference

Transformative Learning Conference - 2013

Mobilizing and Assessing Student Transformative Learning - Threshold of Change

Introduction to the conference - Transformative Experience - in a few words by students: engaged, impactful, uncomfortable, one student said they understood what a transformative learning looked like after they were finished studying abroad and came back to Oklahoma.
There is a delegation here from Thailand. When asked why they were here replied, “We want to learn something new.” I hope that’s why we are all here. The question is, what are students learning and how are they learning it? In fact, how do we know they are learning it?

Dr. Vincent Tinto - Keynote - Transforming the Learning Experiences of Academically Underprepared Students

There is educational inequality in the US.

Very few students who start even just one level below college, finish a gateway course. So if we keep seeing this problem, why are we still doing what we are doing?

**If you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.**

FYI, nobody rises to low expectations. Student quote: “My favorite teachers were always the ‘ass-kickers’.”

What we need to do is provide contextualized support. They need support for the class in which they are working, i.e. bridge, supplemental instruction, embedded faculty support, etc. This all sounds like good pedagogy. Differentiated instruction. The students who need help get help. They engage with the information multiple times, they form study groups.

Learning Communities - overlapping classes in which students are taught the same information in both classes where the context of one supports the context of the other. Co-curricular and co-teaching.

Accelerated learning. Instead of being placed in lower courses, students at a lower level are placed in “normal” courses and they get up to level by also enrolling in a supplemental study course. Contextualized support. This begs the question of assessment.

Power pedagogy is a must in transformative learning. This can look like project-based learning, cooperative learning, collaborative learning, learning communities, and/or service learning. There’s a difference between group work and cooperative group work.

Expanded engagement in learning - when students talk to each other about the class, they learn more. Just getting involved with students more in the class is increasing their learning.” - anecdotal, I’d love to see research on this. Learning together is better and students’ sense of self is transformed. “If you are constantly having to think, re-think, and even re-re-think in light of other’s feedback, then you know something like you are not dumb.” Constructivism. Student learn to make their own meaning of the knowledge.

Transformative learning is purposeful. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. It must be the result of intentional, structured, and proactive actions that are systematic and coordinated in application. Since this isn’t happening for students at home, it has to happen in the classroom. In the same way that we cannot leave student success to chance, we cannot leave good pedagogy, assessment, development theory, etc. to chance. Our faculty must be trained. They must be required. However, we must eat the elephant one bite at a time. We can’t this overnight. We must take this in pieces.

So why do learning communities not work? Faculty are the problem. They have to collaborate. Look for courses that share characteristics. Learn in groups in ways that allow them to apply what they are learning. The communities scale up best within a major and/or best early in the career.

How do you best implement this learning strategy in online settings? The success of students from high income to low income is a large disparity. The intent of MOOCs should not be just an electronic lecture class. Consider which courses should be online. The best predictor of student success in online learning is how quickly faculty give feedback.

How do we apply the same concepts to academic advising? Focusing on student learning and activities. We often talk about extra-curricular and the “process” of college. So students are learning outside the classroom, as well. They are just learning through their experience.

Service learning. What could this look like? Do we have anything that could incorporate service learning into our classes?

the final assessment project

We did a short video as our final project for assessment. I've learned a lot and the following is what I wrote to accompany my video (it's at the bottom of the page).

Before:

Last semester, while working on our classroom wiki, I used this rubric. I also gave this sheet as instructions. That was pretty much it. I didn’t assess to learn, I only assessed for learning at the end of the project. I knew this was not the best thing to do. I knew it was not correct practice, but I was not really sure what else to do or what to change.

After:

After taking the module on Assessment, I have put a significant amount of thought into what I am doing in my classes, particularly on my wiki project. I realized I was not assessing students formatively and giving feedback in a manner, which would be productive for them. I was only doing a summative assessment and students had no chance to adequately prepare for this final assessment.

Students will now begin with the same sheet for instructions and they will be given instructions on a wiki: what it is, how we plan to use it, how to edit, and the purpose of editing. The instruction sheet is now posted to my website and is easily viewable by students at any time as a reference page. They will also be taught about the use of delicious.com (a bookmark sharing site) and will learn how to appropriately share their research sources with the instructor through Delicious, the bookmarking/networking website.

After their initial wiki page is set up (and weekly thereafter), students will use a formative assessment rubric to self-assess each week. They will also be required to blog about their research for the week. We will use the “discussion tab” within the wiki to accomplish this simple formative assessment. Students should write reflectively about their topic and the process of research. I will use this rubric to assess their reflections. In addition to self-assessment, I will do a weekly formative assessment using a similar rubric to the one the students are using. We will conference together so students can get weekly feedback on their writing and research.

Finally, after students have had an opportunity to correct the weekly conference issues, a summative assessment of their overall page will be done using this rubric.

My realization in this class has been something I teach in my own classes: “You cannot eat the elephant all in one bite.” This mantra certainly applies to assessment. It is unfair to expect students to be able to be successful on any assessment if they have not be getting little bits of assessment (with feedback) all along the way. I cannot expect students to be successful in their learning, nor expect them to even take responsibility, if I have not been giving them the tools for that success.

ISTE - Denver, CO

Next week, (actually starting this weekend) a huge number of techno-geek educators will descend (or would it be ascend) on Denver, CO for the largest technology conference in this part of the galaxy: the International Society for Technology in Education Conference. Best part? I get to attend! We are going to make a family road trip out of it (why fly 3 hours when you can drive 12 right?). Seriously, though, I love road trips with my family. They are the best part of my life and spending several hours in the family mini-van is actually a lot of fun with @mishelleyb, @justjessa, and @JCismyname. I spent several hours yesterday (instead of doing homework) planning my conference attendance so I thought I might do some pre-flection on my plans.

The conference officially kicks off on Sunday so there will be the usual keynote speech and stainless water bottle giveaways. I might even win an iPad! Monday starts the real business of learning, however. I'll begin the day by having breakfast with the president of SchoolCenter and their PR person. They are being very nice to me because I am going to help them out with a presentation on a new product we beta-tested last semester. That promises to be an adventure; even my kids are going to get involved, although I'm not really sure how they feel about it. I'll continue Monday with a session on how to "Creating a Google-Enhanced Classroom". I love the idea of Google and I've already ingested a significant amount of their Kool-Aid. That really about wraps up Monday, other than my SchoolCenter responsibilities, unless you count the reception the Oklahoma Technology Association is having that evening. Maybe I'll have time for a nap in the middle of the day.

Tuesday starts bright and early with (wait, it starts at 11 am.) "10 Web Tools to Make Learning in Your Class Even Better". I honestly have no idea what this one is about, so I am prepared to be surprised and hopefully learn something new. I really hope I am able to take something home that I can implement and possibly even share with my colleagues. One thing I have found with technology: if you find something that works, you cannot be selfish, you HAVE to share with everyone. It's all in the spirit of creativecommons and open-source. That afternoon will be filled with "Thinking Spatially: Using Geographic Tools to Enhance Learning". This smells of GoogleEarth, but we'll see. I want my students to become more spatially aware, so surely there will be some good nuggets (get it? Denver? Nuggets?) in this one! Then, that evening, I'm attending the "ISTE/NCATE Accreditation Standards and Program Reviewer Preparation". Yes. I know. It sounds like its over my head, but I'm on the accreditation team at PCO next year and I thought anything I could do to increase my knowledge of the subject would be beneficial, even if its only tangential knowledge. I'm strongly considering continuing my education beyond the Master's level and I feel fairly certain I will do that in Instructional Technology, so this seems right up that alley.

Wednesday is the final day of the conference and its a full day! I start the morning with one of my favorite subjects: "Wonderful World of Wikis: Practical Classroom Wikis for All Ages". I already use a wiki heavily in my class, but I have no doubt I can learn to do it better. I thought SNU had given me my fill of reflection during my undergraduate, but I am learning the value of true, focused reflection in education. That's why my next session is "EPEARL (Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning K-12)". I always want to find a way to make my student's and my own reflection better and more valuable. Since I just can't get enough Google, I'll continue the day with "Using Google Apps Education Edition to Improve Learning". Then, my final session of the conference will be "All Digital: The Paperless Classroom for Less Than $100". I dabbled with a paperless classroom last semester with my AP Physics class and then made a serious move towards it with my Physics 1 classes, so this one should be intriguing. My main concern is simply having enough technology to go around on a mission such as this. At least I can do it with the adult learners I'll be teaching during August.

So, there you have it. I hope I make this experience worth the money the district is spending to send me. I am so blessed to have the confidence of my district. I mean, I'm just a classroom teacher (yes, I know how that sounds). I simply mean I'm not necessarily someone who's job it is to teach other teachers. I feel that is my intrinsic responsibility (and some times there are extrinsic reward$), but I recognize there aren't that many folks who get an opportunity such as this. I'm ready to attend my first "big" conference as a full-blooded, tenured teacher! PC teachers, get ready to hear all about it when school starts up again. After all, it is my responsiblity.

p.s. - I'll be tweeting, so follow me if you don't already!

Oklahoma Alternative Education Conference

Yesterday I drove to Stillwater one last time to meet with Dr. Khanov and try to get my data analysis finished. I didn't quite get it done since we are having a little trouble with finding a data file that fits our parameters. I only meniton that because it means my research done! I'll have to finish some writing and work on a little bit more data, but for the most part, I'm done. It was a great 5 weeks and I am glad I took the opportunity. Very glad.

Today is the Oklahoma Alternative Education Conference. Its a conference for teachers who work with students in alternative education programs, such as the Putnam City STRIVE program (credit recovery) or the Putnam City Academy. I was asked to present (still haven't figured out why) by the state department of education Alternative Ed. director. I decided to talk about stellarium and Exploring your Universe. Stellarium is an open-source virtual planetarium developed by some french folks who are interested in Astronomy. Exploring your Universe is a companion lab manual, designed to go along with that software. It takes students through the process of first learning to use the software, then some exercises which teach them about constellations, coordinate systems, and even has them recreate Galileo's observations of Jupiter's 4 largest moons way back in the 1600's. Its a really useful tool which I will be employing in my Astronomy/Meteorology class next year.

I'm a little nervous, but very excited to share a resource I have with some very special teachers who work with some very special students.

As always, thanks for reading

jb