Everything Old is New Again...

When I saw a commercial the other day, I nearly couldn't believe it. ABC is remaking the "V" series that brings reptile like alien creatures to Earth in an effort to conquer and extinguish the human race. I remember that show as a kid, and I really enjoyed it. Take a look around Hollywood for the past few years... What do you see? Transformers... GI Joe... Iron Man... Spiderman... Fantastic Four... Star Wars... and I just heard there will be a remake of The A-Team next year! Look at the return of the American Muscle. Looking at the latest Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers will throw you back to the late 60s and early 70s with a new millenium flair.

Education is not supposed to go 'retro' but we do look back to the practices of yesterday. For the most part, our instructional model is based off the same methods of 200 years ago, but the delivery methods are different and the approaches have 'matured' and 'evolved'. We strive for individualized learning approaches and opportunities within the confines of tight quarters.

New methods and models are created, introduced, implemented, and find their way into classrooms all over the world. Will the world of education ever return to the ways of yesterday? Will we one day have "teacher in the front and rows of students" in classrooms with technology all over the place? That is extreme, but you never know.

I'll tell you one that thing that must never change; communication. An open dialogue between teachers and teachers, teachers and administrators, teachers and parents, and teachers and students. Remember that communication must be both ways, not just listen to the teacher or the teacher listening to others.

Yesterday I received an email from a student (keep in mind that they are 9) saying that she did not have the reading homework assignment. I explained what might have happened to it, and I pasted the text from the assignment to her. She then emailed back that she understood and thanked me. Wow! How awesome is this? Now, before you think that email communication should be required, keep in mind that I am nuts about checking my email(s). This email was sent hours after school had ended. If we are require teachers to check their email after hours, we might as well give out home and cell phone numbers.

I don't know what the answer is, and I certainly don't know what the future holds, but I am glad that I will be a part of it.

Is the Grass Really Greener or is it Artificial Turf?

Oh.. the joy of being a classroom teacher.

We are generalists in out duties, but we immerse ourselves in every subject in an effort to become specialists in all that we explore with our students. We are told that something is a top priority, along with 100 other things that are as well. We explore new educational strategies and instructional models in an effort to give our students the best learning environment in a sincere effort to reach all learning styles and both engage and challenge every student at all times through all subject areas.

To be honest, I sometimes feel like a professional juggler. Having said that, I wouldn't want it any other way. I love the rush and the unpredictability of the classroom, BUT.....

The technology projects that I also love to do are getting tougher and tougher to tackle with my students. The pace of the day and the limited time I can work and devote to them can suck the life out of many things. I have started to blog with my students as of last week, and they are really loving it. As a matter of fact, I am anxious to see their articles this week. My mind has been racing with music video ideas and how I can tie one to a curriculum area that we are currently exploring. (My last 2 classes have made such videos, and they were incredibly motivating and fun reteaching opportunities. They also help me to gauge what other projects my students would like to tackle.)

Lately I have been looking at the role of a technology teacher, and to be quite honest there is much that interests me. A technology teacher has more freedom to interpret the curriculum and create projects that leap "off the page" so to speak. They also must collaborate with the classroom teacher to ensure that it is anchored in curriculum. I am sure that it is not all smiles and bubble gum though, as there are some tasks in the role that might not be as rewarding. My main concern is the connection that I wrote about in my last entry. When you are a 'specials area' teacher, is there less 'ownership' of a class? I hate to definitively say "no", but from my point of view there would have to be. You are seeing almost the entire student population and not just those 23-26 kids that you are the primary person responsible for. That connection (for me) is one of the biggest rewards of teaching. I wonder how things would feel different if I was not their classroom teacher.

I'm not going anywhere, but it doesn't hurt to wonder. I'm just wondering aloud I guess.

Connections: text to self, text to text, text to world, class to self

My class has been exploring the characteristics of good reading. One of the things we learn that good readers do is make connections to literature to make what they are reading more meaningful, more relevant and to enhance comprehension.
When I think about what is the best about teaching, the connection with the students is one of the first that comes to my mind. We spend so much of the day with them, and we become partners in what we learn, explore and share. We model for learning academic skills, acceptable behavior and social interaction. It is the connection with the classroom and my students that makes teaching truly fulfilling.
I am also lucky enough to keep in touch with some of my students after they leave me. I do see my kids when they are in 5th grade, but now as my former classes get older, they move into middle and high school.
One rather touching moment was my birthday. I received a few emails and cards from students that had moved on from the walls of room 25. That really touched me. I am honored to played a role in their lives, and I thank them most graciously for doing the same for me.

Cheers.

New Year, New Challenges, New Opportunities

Here I sit three weeks into the new school year. I am just a few days from introducing the concept of blogging to them, and still I am reviewing and approving entries that are still being created by the students that I had last year. If that isn't encouragement to keep blogging, I don't know what is.

As I get to know my class both as learners, as a team and as individuals, the ideas flow like a waterfall around me. What will we be able to do? How will we be able to grow? What strengths and interests do they possess that will steer us in some new direction? How will I keep things moving and interesting/fun for them?

For back to school night, I used my Flip camera to have the students tell their families the curriculum instead of hearing it from me. I went with a Star Wars theme for the movie, called "Grade Four", and it came out really nice. It also told me that filming in the second week of school might be too soon for these kids. They were not used to such projects, and they weren't even used to me yet. Last year's kids... well they were ready but we were doing videos later in the year.

Call me insane, but now I sit here taking a break from making a new music video detailing the scientific method, which is what we have been exploring lately. As I rummage through song after song looking for that perfect beat that can be used, I still wonder if my timing is too aggressive.

Yesterday, I told my class that we might be doing a music video. They have all no doubt seen or heard about the videos that my last two classes have made, and they seemed very excited. As I did with the DMSB video, I asked them to brainstorm vocabulary and concepts pertaining to the scientific method. They went through their notes and worked in collaborative groups for about 10 minutes, and you could feel the energy in the room. We collected our words and created a class wordle that now sits poster sized in the front of the room.

Scientific method is an important part of our curriculum. It is used throughout the year embedded in the units that we explore. I know this will be fun for them, and of course I know that I will be busting my butt to get it done. I do worry that they still might not be ready, but hey.. this is the fourth week already. Let's get moving!

Happy school year to all of my fellow educators.. less than 10 months to go! :)

August Already?

Back to school sales? Are you kidding? I first saw them in early July and I was floored. How about seeing Halloween decorations in late July? Why are they rushing us through the summer??? Oh, and what a great summer so far! Even though there is still half a summer left, the teachers out there will understand that the seed of school has already been planted in our brains. Even if we have no set foot in our classrooms yet, our minds are already racing with lesson ideas, goals, state assessments, class personalities, and the challenges of a new year.

I have just recently completed my second masters degree in Educational Technology, and I have passed the NYS Ed Tech certification test (YAY!). As I spend another few weeks soaking in those accomplishments, I must remember that in the real world classroom they are worthless unless the skills that I have leared are applied.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I love incorporating technology as both an extension of curriculum and just 'for fun'. I have been blogging with my classroom for 2 years. I have used collaborative wikis for two years (but last year was my first true successful year with it in my opinion). I like creating multimedia projects with my kids, and last year's class was able to truly take the video bull by the horns and create some great movies.

I am hopeful for this new year, as I usually am. I hope to be able to do more with new class both with and without technology. I will be working with a teacher that i really respect and that I am proud to call a friend. The state assessments seem to have moved along the calendar, so there will be challenges there as well.

Lots of challenges.. but who wants to be bored, anyway? But, no matter what the advertising executives tell you.. there's a whole lot of summer left.

Promise Not To Tell?

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I really like my class. I like how they respect each other, listen to each other, work with each other and communicate with each other. They communicate mostly in person and also through their blogs. They have tackled projects that I had never done before, and they have done a beautiful job. They have embraced what we have explored and created in a way that makes me proud as their teacher and hopeful as a person. I cannot believe that summer is here already.

Don't get me wrong. This year has been a lot of work (just don't ask the non-teachers that think we have it made for some!). We work our 'butts' off for 10 months and then spend the better half of the other 2 months either planning for, thinking about or trying not to think about the 10 that are coming next. I have a summer full of my own learning, family vacation and maybe even some sleeping late (if my kids can accommodate Dad's wishes). I am also finishing my graduate studies in Educational Technology (yay me!)

I just gave my class their digital yearbooks today. I have been doing them for every class for each of my 5 years of teaching. They are multimedia movies of our experiences in fourth grade. As a result of my own explorations and technical growth, each successive year has a "better" yearbook. They also tend to get longer. This year's video contains images and video with audio that I created by myself. I played with mixing and changing the speed. I am proud of it, and my kids absolutely loved it. Giving the yearbooks away is bittersweet for me. On one hand, they enjoy it and they cheer as they watch and relive our fourth grade memories. On the other hand, it means that the school year is really coming to a close and we must say farewell.

We all know 'those kids' that drive you totally nuts sometimes, but you would never trade them away. I have had quite a few, and I have a few this year. Today, I recieved something from a student that just totally blew me away. It was a note. It was a note in which this student expressed gratitude and happiness for the fourth grade experience that they had. It was so deeply anchored; it wasn't a "Hey Mr. D You Rock!" note. I read it a few times to myself, and I even shared it with a colleague. It wasn't to brag; lord knows I despise bragging... it was to share the fundamental joy that it brings to see a child appreciate what they were a part of. I am not a rarity in my school either. There are so many wonderful teachers in my school that go so far beyond the call of duty that perhaps students don't stop and think "Wow. My classroom really is a special place!" Not all of my teachers were so wonderful, but I will never forget those teachers that really played a role in my life. Thank you Mrs. Josell, my first grade teacher. Thank you Mrs. Rumore, my high school Spanish teacher. Thank you Professor Mandel, my college marketing teacher. This student wrote "I have another spot in my heart for you!". Wow... is there any accolade higher than that? Who knows... maybe one day this student will be blogging a similar article writing "Thank you Mr. Dugger, my fourth grade teacher."

I can only hope. Have a great summer everyone.

What's The Matter With Kids These Days?

What do you visualize when you think of that line? For me, I envision three older gentlemen sitting on something like a park bench or waiting in a barber shop. We all know it goes. Every generation says that it had it tougher than the one that comes after. We know how our parents walked uphill 10 miles to school both ways. We know how you didn't have more than one pencil so you made it last the whole year. We also know how you didn't waste one piece of food since children in other parts of the world were starving.

All too often, I hear adults speaking about how kids don't care about the world around them. Kids today and their "instant gratification" resources, video games that glamourize violence and crime and they can't do any real work because everything is handed to them. They don't care about anything or anyone but themselves. Ironically, the very people that now fight so much to "save the world" or whatever aspect of it they are on a crusade to protect is more than likely part of the generation that was responsible for its destruction or degradation. Our children should be educated on the issues that face the world, as they will truly inherit them.

I first watched this video by Don Tapscotta few months ago. It really got me thinking:

A few weeks ago, a classmate from my EdTech program that teaches middle school social studies showed me the following video. You may have seen it:

This "Lost Generation" movie really touched me. Watch the first half and you will be depressed, but at the end of the whole video you will be hopeful or at least a bit more optimistic than before.

I wanted to show "Lost Generation" to my class, but I was wondering if it might be over their collective heads. I opened a discussion about their concerns. After we spoke about general classroom concerns, I asked them to think about the world around them. They spoke of the economy, the price of gas, the price of college now and when they will be attending, the war in Iraq, and global warming to name a few. I understand that their concers might echo those of their parents, but I would wager than the fact that they are "hyperconnected" (it might have been Will Richardson that I heard use that term) contributes much to their knowledge. When I was 9 or 10, my biggest concerns were my bicycle, where my friends would be after school, and maybe a math test looming on the horizon. I don't remember being concerned too about the world around me, at least not the world immediately local to me.

Knowing that my students were aware of issues "out there", I began by defining vocabulary that they might not know. I then started the the video. I watched their faces as they watched, and I paused it right at the middle when the woman's voice says "It is foolish to think that there is hope."

The lights went back on, and we spoke about how it made then feel. They said how pessimistic it seemed, and how they felt angry, depressing and sad.

Lights went back off, and we watched the rest of the video. I was impressed at how my class reacted. A few sentences in, and I heard a chorus of "oh!"s, "wow"s, and "cool"s. They really got it. I told them how they will be taking over the decision making and the direction choosing. I told them how they must be informed with good information, and most importantly, to remain hopeful and empowered.

I think of my own children, the problems they will inherit, and the resources that they might have available to them. They use media that is available to them that I rarely even came into contact with as a child. There is nothing the matter with kids these days, but I wonder if my classroom is uphill in both directions in the hallway...

Notes From The Other Side

"Here are some suggestions to help you do your best." Ask any of my students what that means, and more than likely they will tell "that's Mr. Dugger's spiel" (pronounced shpeel). When I administer the New York State assessments to my class, I tell them that NYS requires me to read a certain amount of text to them since it is a standardized test. When we do practice questions, I sometimes do "the spiel" as a way of getting them used to what they can expect to hear on the actual test day. By the time the test arrives, my "here are some suggestions" speaking part actually relaxes them a bit as they are used to it. Having said that, it is me, their very own teacher that knows them both as students and as individuals that is reading to them. It is me, their very own teacher that is personally invested in their collected and respective successes that is reading to them.

Today I found myself on the other side of the testing table. Here I was at a college that I had never been to waiting to take the New York State Educational Technology Specialist certification exam. I was sitting with other teachers (and teacher-to-bes) taking some incarnation of a certification exam.

I looked at the proctor. She was a woman who I had never before met. She did not know me from any of the other people in that room. I did not have the familiarity with my protcor that my students were afforded, yet I was just about to read her version of "the spiel" given to her by New York State as well.

90 multiple choice questions and one extended response essay later, I stepped out of the college with my fingers and toes crossed. There were questions about hardware, software, technology incorporation, and collaboration. I hope that I did my best.

Can 21st Century Skills Replace 19th Century Skills?

I am very fortunate as an educator. I work in a school where the individual passions and strengths of a teacher are respected and utilized in such a way to benefit the students that we serve. We don't have a cookie-cutter system of teaching that we must conform to. We are not only allowed, but urged to develop our craft and become the best we can be. We all do things differently, but we achieve the same goals, meet the same standards, and all of that.

I aws speaking to my Library Media Specialist the other day about 21st century learning. We spoke about how the skills that will be necessary for the world of tomorrow will soon drive the learning in our classrooms. This begs the question... "What are the skills they need?"

While we don't know for sure what they are, we do have ideas and a general direction. Students need to be active learners. They need to be critical thinkers. They need to think "outside of the box". I believe that they need to be taught HOW TO, not taught WHAT.

A simpler analogy that I can refer to is the dreaded choral clap. Many teachers use this method to get student attention. This is especially useful in the lower grades (I guess, or at least that's how it appears). To me, that is more akin to training monkeys or seals than children. Are we Pavlovian training them to react to a sound or are we trying to help them to gauge the appropriateness of their actions and self-correct? The world doesn't clap when you do something wrong. It hits hard. Having students more autonomous and accountable to themselves without constant reminders and redirection from others.. that's what I hope for my students.

Back to the 21st century. There are things that many teachers do that I don't. They simply don't lend themselves to my style and my passions. If I had to assign weekly book reports to my kids, I think I'd jump out of a window (even thought I'm on the first floor). While book reports make me cringe, I have no problems asking my students to blog their thoughts. I would not want to read through pages upon pages of structured responses, but I gladly look through 25-50 blogs each week online and quite a few comments. I don't want to create scrapbooks and dioramas, but I love for my students to put on plays, create movies, and digitally tell stories.

Textbooks tell a story, but I want my kids to experience the story. I want them to feel the fight for independence as if they were alongside the Patriots at the Boston Tea Party, not look at it as an isolated, disonnected and irrelevant part of history. I want them to empathize with the characters in a book, not look on as a casual observer. It's nice to tackle transformative projects, but at what point will 21st century skills actually replace those that are "outdated"? How can we figure out what has become outdated?

On a probability test I gave my class about a month ago, I asked the following question:

A box contains 6 red tiles and 4 blue tiles. Sammy chooses a tile without looking. She wins if the tile is red. Cara wins if the tile is blue. What can you change in order to make this game fair for both players?

What do you think? The standard answers....
1) Remove 2 red tiles
2) Add 2 blue tiles



I had a student write the following on that test...
"Take one red tile and paint it blue"

I will not take credit for that student's thinking. I will tell you that I did say "WOW!" when I was grading it. That's not outside the box.. that's blowing it up.

Blogging Breeds Web Developing Skills

As my students are using classblogmeister (created by David Warlick), I am noticing an additional side benefit. No... this has nothing to do with a digital voice that transcends the classroom. No, it is not technology as a positive force of communication. This is something new and unexpected. My students are becoming web developers! While they might not be creating html and server side scripts, they are learning about how to change the look of text on the web and the purposes of doing so.


It all started earlier this year, when one of my students started playing with the "graphical style" text editor that David rolled out this year. Instead of simple text input for their entries, students are greeted with a familiar MS Word-ish interface with font faces, styles, weight, sizes, alignments etc. I remember seeing the first student use a different color. It became the talk of the class. Soon thereafter texts became larger, smaller and brighter and duller. Smileys invaded blogs, but it was used in the interest of personalization. I told my kids that as long as it was 'readable', meaning bright yellow was out, I was okay with it.


About a month ago, a girl in my class changed the text face color, but this time it was in a specific way and for a specific reason. She made the text white. Why, you might ask? She did this because white text with a white background means invisible text. She left a note to the reader to "Scroll over with your cursor slowely to see the hidden message below." Genius!


Soon, news of this new feature spread. Who's side would I be on the French and Indian War? Scroll over to see! Matching text color to background color! I do the same thing in hiding things on my SMARTboard, but here 9 and 10 year olds are doing the same with excitement! Is this cool or what? Yes, it is! It sure is!


And then? One of my kids the other day, in a blog letter to King George, wrote the following:





By putting something as simple as a "strikethrough", one of my students was able to voice his opinion on King George without even writing it! I was very excited to see this kind of thinking. It wouldn't be possible without technology. I often hear that 'words on a screen' lack emotion without the physical traits of the speaker's voice and actions (emoticons aside), so is this a good way to overcome this alleged shortcoming?
What's next??? I don't know! ;-)

What's the Story With Daniel Pink?

Last year we were asked to read "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink. I am always skeptical when reading the latest educational theories and research, but this one looked promising. To be honest, I was barely able to put it down and I read it, or rather digested it, in only a few short readings. Wow! It surely touched a nerve with me. In my previous life in the business world, I felt much like a hamster on a wheel. Sure I was "moving" but was I making progress? I was a marketing analyst, a technical support specialist and a database administrator. My last effort to remain in the corporate world was my position as a web developments specialist and team manager. I was able to work on projects and infuse a certain amount of creativity within the guidelines and constraints of brand identity and corporate direction.
When I finally decided to take the leap of faith into the world of education, I was immediately greeted by a world that not only allows independent creation and direction, but it fosters it. When I read Pink's book I did immediately think of my own personal voyage into creating my own classroom and myself as an educator.

One of the six essential senses that Pink speaks about is "Story". Story refers to the art of narrating information. Instead of merely retelling facts in a mindless list, using them in a story offers a much greater impact. He speaks of how commercial advertising has embraced this as a strategy for selling products to consumers. Technology is a natural for this sense, as it offers students a means of telling a story to get facts or information across to their audience. Since their audience can be the entire world for the sake of argument, the tools need to be powerful and outreaching, but given the user they cannot be overwhelming, cumbersome or overcomplicated.

Digital storytelling, blogs, and video logs are just a few of the tools that are at our fingertips. Twenty or even ten years ago, to make a movie and make it available to the whole world took a great deal of technical knowledge, high level hardware and a network of people "in the business". Of course, let's not forget the bank account that usually accompanies those with the last names of Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino and the like.

This evening, I decided to revisit Daniel Pink's own site (http://www.danpink.com/), and I found a most interesting video. It was created by Tomas Nilson, and he used infographics to tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It is so dry and riddled with facts. It lacks story, but it does paint a very interesting picture of how important story can be. Imagine how difficult it would be to understand what was happening if you didn't already know the story. It is quite entertaining though.

Is that not a huge example of the importance of story? As an educator, I strive to use story to create meaning in my classroom. In addition to simply reading about events in history, we sometimes act them out. We view movies based on history with characters that tell the story. We create silly stories to help students to memorize concepts in math. Of course, literature allows us to use story all of the time.

On the other hand, students can be creators themselves and use stories to demonstrate competency. On my most recent social networking history site, my students are creating blog entries as if they were that historical person using information gathered from research and their own creativity. They are writing autobiographies from the first person point of view. Instead of regurgitating facts and dates, they create meaning and connect themselves to the lives and experiences of that person.

What a journey this has all been, but that's a whole other story...

When Social Networking Becomes Social Studies...

In a moment of pure insanity, I decided to tackle a new project with my students this year. I found in "Instructor" magazine the idea of starting a social network for students using people that would be studied in history. How cool would it be to have Thomas Jefferson "befriend" John Hancock, post pictures of himself and some biographical info, just like Myspace and Facebook? So, with the idea, some motivation and a whole lot of optimism, I decided to embark on "MyHistorySpace".

My class studies the Golden Age of Exploration and the people that saught fame and fortune to find the new world. People like Christopher Columbus, Ponce DeLeon, and Ferdinand Magellan might have a lot to say if given the opportunity to be part of a social network.

My library media specialist provided the students with a myriad of web sites that they could start out with. We spoke about the suffixes at the end of web sites and what they mean (.com, .net, .gov, .edu, etc.). We spoke about how those suffixes have an impact on whether or not you should 'trust' the information that you find. It went very well, and we knew that we were ready to move on.

I started with our class wiki. It became a data warehouse or a knowledge base of sorts. Using questions that asked for various biographical information, students scoured the web. They saved images that they found on a network drive. Things were moving along, but what next?

I had played with animated avatars at www.gizmoz.com before. They were quick and relatively easy... so I had my kids write "status quote" type sentences with authentic information about their explorer. They then animated a head shot picture and recorded their voices saying their quote. Of course, I had them speak (or attempt to speak) in the accent of the country that the explorer was born in.

After searching and researching, I decided to use a ning. That's where we are now. Today I formally introduced "Social Networking", the Ning and how to use it. Today, they embedded their avatars, uploaded profile pictures (of their explorer, not themselves), and they have started to write their blog entries. This class is amazing. They take it and run, and their 'tech-savviness' is wonderful. They have managed to become bloggers, wiki collaborators, multimedia producers, social networker and digital researchers. I am so proud of them! Pity the school year is coming to a close very soon.

Is this the end of the traditional biography report? I doubt it, but perhaps it is "natural progression." I'll let you know how the rest of the project goes! Feel free to check us out at http://myhistoryspace.ning.com

Earning Your Digital Citizenship

I remember getting into fights on the playground as a kid. I remember my parents sitting me down and explaining how what I did was wrong, and then they told of stories from their youth when they had experienced the same types of situations. These discussions could be used for many challenges that have faced children of many generations. I bet even the kids of colonial America were caught cheating on tests or hiding their report cards.

The challenges that face students of today are similar in concept but radically different in the manner and form in which they manifest themselves.

The video by Dan Topscott "Grown Up Digital - The Net Generation is Changing YOUR World" is very interesting and worth the minute forty eight. He begins by essentially berating the digital generation. He tells them that they are lazy, lack motivation or interest in the world around them, that their only concern is of themselves, they spend too much time in front of their technologies, yadda yadda yadda. Once the viewer is fully irritated by his words, he breaks the news that all he has said is, in reality, unsubstantiated. He also says that this new generation is the smartest generation and possesses the capability for real change.

In Passport to Digital Citizenship, Mike Ribbie takes this and runs with it. He speaks of nine elements of digital citizenship that are aligned with the new NETS student standards. While I do believe them to hold a good deal of merit, the question on my mind is "On whom should this responsibility lie?" Should this duty be placed in the hands of parents, educators or both? Is the digital realm solely the domain of technology educators or should technology as an extension to learning be part of every subject area's curriculum? In this crazy world that we live in, who has the time to invest in this most important part of socio-digital development? Perhaps we should ask "Who has more time (but surely not enough?)

Remember the bully on the playground when you were a kid? What about when you were cyber bullied as a kid? Remember when someone stole your identity? Oh my gosh.. remember the time that you accidently commited to buying something on the Internet without permission? What about the time you installed a virus on your mom's computer by clicking on the link in the browser? Chances are, aside from the first example, you didn't have any of those experiences as a child. How do you prevent your children from making those mistakes when you don't have your own life experiences to draw from? As cyber bullying becomes more and more prominent, bully prevention programs (as antiquated as they usually are) are being forced to come into the 21st century and address this. I had this happen in my classroom about 3 years ago, so I began an "Ethics of Technology" program with my students. If you type the word "dog" into the search field of a search engine such our beloved Google, you will be face to face with nearly 100 million results (as of this writing). How can you distinguish "good" sites from "bad" sites? This has less to do with any kind of digital divide and more to do with being an informed and intuitive web surfer and person.

I have long been opposed to 'filters' or 'blocking software' or whatever soft and fuzzy name makes you feel like you are helping kids (NetNanny comes to mind.. what the heck kind of fuzzy name is that?). It's like teaching someone to drive a car in a parking lot, giving them their license and then giving them directions to get home on the Long Island Expressway. Filters are nothing more than putting bumpers up in a bowling alley, but they don't teach the student how to filter and censor for themselves. When they get home, odds are they won't have those filters. If they do, they won't be up for very long. We need informed Internet participants, as Web 2.0 has now transformed the Internet and its power. Once again... who is to teach it?

Who am I? I am Adam Dugger, and I am probably not what Marc Prensky would call a "Digital Native". To Mr. Prensky I most respectfully say that I disagree. While I did not have an Ipod or the Internet as part of my childhood (I remember the Internet coming about when I was finishing college!), I was a digitally immersed. Dare I say a "digital pioneer?" You see, I had a Commodore 64 in my bedroom. I did my programming in BASIC computer language, and I made my own games. I used my external modem to dial up into CompuServe and surfed text based "sites" if you can call them that. I did my word processing on a dot matrix printer that made so much noise I couldn't use it too late because it would wake my family up. I had cassettes and CDs. Although we couldn't burn CDs we did "dub" cassettes. Same thing? Nobody said that was wrong, but I suppose we had to buy the first copy...

I am able to navigate technology with relative ease. I would much rather 'play' with something and figure it out than be told how to do so. I like trying to make things better by "tinkering" and these are all extensions and evolutions of what I did as a child whether with Legos, bicycles, cars or computers. Having said that, rights and wrongs must be taught, learned and to some degree experienced.

I think that the ethics of technology should begin in the home. Parents must accept technology and the collaborative nature of the Internet as "here to stay" and treat it that way. Lack of information breeds fear and distrust. Just look at how "Internet security" is viewed on news shows. Tell someone that you are on a social networking site like MySpace or Facebook and immediately the glares come out. My own mother tells me that Facebook is bad news, and nothing I can do to explain to her the positive of social networking will help sway her.

Parents alone cannot handle the burden alone. We infuse technology into our lessons and explorations all of the time. We ask our students to grab hold of this resource and use it as a tool for their learning and expression. How can we as educators ignore the "right and wrong" part of that?

Morality has always been subjective, and it comes from your experiences as a child. Right and wrong are clearly defined with a wonderful little area in the middle we lovingly call "gray". If we are to share this digital environment, not as digital immigrants or digital natives, but as digital citizens, we must coexist with respect and keep the cyber landscape lush and green. The "not so good areas" must be allowed to stay, but students should be educated citizens that can quanitatively and qualititively make informed decision based on what they have learned.

The question is "from who?" I wish I had an answer... but this brings up even more questions for me.

Get a Charge Out My Flash Project!

Yeah.. I know.. horrible pun.. Then again I don't charge by the chuckle.. or should I..

Anyway.. part of my electrical circuits unit plan is to show my students how electricity passes through a circuit and lights up a bulb. I decided to use my flash project to show this step by step and point out the parts of the bulb that perform specific jobs.

So here it is.



This is the second incarnation of this project. The first was not as specific with words and vocabulary. I am thinking of redoing it again; this time adding an interactive switch to show how a switch works within the circuit. The teacher in me says that since the objective of the lesson would be to explain "why a light bulb lights and how", I should leave the switch concept for another (flash) lesson. Only time will tell.

My Next Vista Video

Drumroll please...

While I certainly won't be walking the red carpet and having my picture taken by relentless paparazzi, I have completed my video for Next Vista through Long Island University's T.E.A.M. Educational Technology program.

I chose to create mine to help students use Classblogmeister with their teachers and classes. I suppply documentation to my students, but a video just felt like natural progression and a better way to help them on their way to blogging.

The End of Social Studies Education?

A few weeks ago, I participated in a workshop discussion entitled "Digital Technology and the End of Social Studies Education." As a Social Studies buff (it is my favorite both as a student and as an educator), I was intrigued and somewhat worried. How could it be "the end?" Isn't the person that ignores history doomed to repeat it?

I was asked to start by looking at the following quote:

"Our beliefs about learners and tools come via Dewey and Vygotsky, and have been informed by the 'cognitive revolution' that in the last thirty years has given these ideas scientific weight:

~ Technologies as tools that amplify and extend fundamental human capacities to observe, understand and communicate about the world- tools that give us rich data, help us manipulate and think about it, and connect us with others around it in new and powerful ways." - Bill Tally (p. 308)

Where did this little bit of quoted text come from, do you ask? It comes from an article written in the Spring 2007 edition of Theory and Research in Social Education written by Bill Tally. Ordinarily, I find articles of this nature very interesting, but I have to be honest when I say that I was less than excited when viewing the pdf and seeing "Page 1 of 17". Yep.. I was all smiles thinking of how I would be able to digest this digital dilemma in one sitting. Boy, was I in for a surprise. The article was lengthy, but it was very thought provoking and I am glad that I read it. By the way... the "end" is not speaking of finality but of cause and purpose. Rest assured, we will still be teaching Social Studies.

In many ways, I agree with Tally. He wonders why technology has not infused new life and a deeper sense of being to Social Studies education. While there are some educators that have embraced it to (in Tally's words) slow down learning, Social Studies has not "come into its own" just yet.

Why is this? Hold on.. Let's discuss the "progressive tinkerer" that Tally speaks of. These are the people that modify and shape what technology designs will best compliment instruction and support the learning of students. Being a tinkerer myself, I am intrigued even more. I am a firm believer in tinkering with something to best understand it and to find faults and/or improvements.

So let's point the blame. It must be someone's fault. First in line were the teachers. Surely they were resistant to integrating technology for whatever reason. It is sad that this belief still exists today when so many educators are using technology as a resource and investing a great deal of time into them. Do other professions reinvent themselves as well?

After that notion was dispelled, the schools were next in line. Surely you have heard the old joke about Rip Van Winkle, who awoke after a great many years of sleep to find the world a very different place. When we walked around, he was so amazed to see all of the changes in society, but when he came to a school he immediately knew what it was. He recognized it as it was, and this drives home the belief that while our world has changed, our schools have not. Tally goes on to say that technology was quickly integrated into schools, albeit at a very light and refreshing superficial way. He says that the "tasks are ruled by format and as riddled with convention as the business letter. (311) If the task is so defined and the student's expected (required) tasks are so clearly layed out, the grade will be constructed by following them and not the content or what has been created.

Tully also seems to discredit "Webquests" which have become all the in educatopia. I don't particularly care for them, as they seem too "cookie-cutter" for me. I would rather give a task and allow the students to come up with the project or outcome with me as a guide instead of restrictor. The amount of time required for technology rich projects can be staggering. This can be unrealistic to assume that teachers will invest this time willingly without issue.

This really hits home. I consider my classroom to be technology rich, and I am proud that I am able to provide such a setting. Having said that, such projects are very overwhelming even for me, and I am a tinkering tech junkie. Why do I continue? I don't know.. either I am glutton for punishment or an idiot.. or maybe both.

Tally goes on to dispell the rumor that students have some inborn ability to pick up anything digitally. I totally agree that this is not true. While the media is more natural to use, the competencies that would be taught can still be challenging. The digital world is their world (and ours too btw), but how natural is learning in this new landscape?

Tally says (last quote I promise)...

Many children who are fluent at at ease with the 'Commercial Web' i.e., who fluidly find and browse their favorite popular media sites, play games, and communicate with friends, share photos etc., have difficulty when it comes to even basic uses of the 'informational' or 'academic web' - things like executing a competent search; reading and making sense of text and graphics; identifying the source of information; copying, saving and citing information, etc

Very interesting indeed.

Looking at Museum Box (http://museumbox.e2bn.org/), I really like it. It allows the students to go as deep as they want to. It also doesn't define what type of artifacts that can be used (good or bad depending on grade level). I just looked through a few student created boxes. There was one titled "The Treatment of the Jews by the Nazis." It used text from student research and images that they had found. I would like to see the teacher directions and/or task description that brought this Museum Box to fruition, as I am interested in perhaps using it in my own classroom. It's open ended nature does lend itself to "slowing down thinking" a good deal.

When I envision Social Studies in my classroom, it is more than just facts and dates. It is a series of stories in the lives of real people. We study their experiences so that we can perhaps apply them to our own. We celebrate their triumphs and learn from their errors. We objectively validate their choices and relive their journeys through their eyes and our minds. History never repeats, right?

The Internet as a Pied Piper

The Internet is, at its very core, is a network. Social networking, blogging, link exchanges, etc. are such natural progressions of this technological necessity that it truly isn't even funny. My main hobby is cars, and I have been part of a few forums dedicated to a specific car for a long time - some as long as nearly 13 years. The exhange of information and learning from the experiences of others has made it possible for people to tackle projects that they might not have attempted before.

Fast forward to 2009. In a moment of absolute insanity and crazy "what the hell", I purchased a motorcycle that needed some work. When I bought it, I knew that it was a popular model, but I had no idea that the passion behind the owners of this model might rival that of my beloved Mustang.

Having served as a warehouse of information (so to speak) for the Mustang community for so long, I had somewhat forgot what it was like to post 'newbie' questions and ask others to share their experiences. Since I have a solid foundation experience for mechanical projects (My Stang has been apart and back together quite a few times for quite a few incarnations of its life), I felt confident that I could jump into the motorcycle arena with just a bit of guidance. Just about 2 months later, the bike is looking better than ever and almost ready to hit the road (some parts haven't arrived yet).

I did the same when I gutted and rebuilt my daughter's room in our house, but I didn't find message forums resources as plentiful as the fossil fuel burners. I had to look through DIY sites loaded with advertisements and Youtube provided a good amount of online video instructions (but be careful what you follow and believe). Good old books (I have some of those fossils in the basement.. hehe) are also great sources!

The piece that was lacking was the interaction of people to people. You hear so much from "those people" that our students and we lack the person to person interaction that the Internet takes away. I think that it is easy to make the arguement that the interaction is surely there, although it has manifested itself in a different form but it has evolved to another level. Just because I am not staring face to face with someone doesn't mean we aren't communicating.

If that is your absolute quantifier, then I suggest getting a web cam and a clue. The "Great Communicator" is us. The tool is the Internet, and I can only imagine how communication will evolve next. Let's hope that we will be literate enough and open-minded enough to speak its lingo.

Web 2.0: Buzzword or Transformative Tool?

In preparation for an online conversation with one of my professors, I was asked to read an article called Why Web 2.0 is Good for Learning and for Research: Principles and Prototypes. In this article, web2.0 tools are presenting as using information in a different way. The author goes on to tell us that web2.0 is in danger of becoming a buzzword much like "e-learning" once took over the pedagogical lingo scene.

I was then asked to come up with four attributes to used as criteria by which technology resources should be evaluated to see whether or not they are truly web 2.0 tools. In no particular order, here they are!

Creativity - Does this application or tool allow and foster creativity in students?

Digital Presence and Expression - Does this application or tool create or help create a digital identity for the user in a safe and secure manner?

Community - Does this application or tool encourage its users to become part of a larger community of learners and creators?

Technology - This is probably the most obvious defining attribute. A Web 2.0 tool should be anchored in technology, and use that as its arena of existence.

So having said that.. let's take a look at a few web sites to see how they do with the aforementioned judging criteria...

Classblogmeister.com - This site offers educators a place to begin a class blog.

Creativity: Yes
Users can browse through menus and options to customize blog pages at both teacher and student levels. Creativity is encouraged, and there is even an option to design one's own template instead of choosing from premade ones.

Digital Presence and Expression: Yes
Students can upload pictures (either of themselves, user selected pictures and/or avatars) to make themselves known. Students can also title their blog and each entry they create. Although students have the ability to write nearly whatever they wish, teachers can (and should in my opinion) make it so that they have final approval on all.

Community: Yes and No
This is a place where Classblogmeister excels. David Warlick, the creator and blogger in charge guru behind CBM even has a feature called "The Collaborator" through which classes can find each other based on user selected and submitted criteria. Outside of the site itself, there is a ning and an online Yahoogroup that are just as valuable for teachers to find other teachers to collaborate with. For students, the ability to find others is not as robust, but perhaps that is with good reason. If a teacher decides to post a few links to other classrooms on his or her blog site, then students can really take advantage of the global community of the educational blogosphere.

Technology: Yes!
Classblogmeister is a web site on the Internet. You can use images in your articles (although they must be hosted elsewhere.. David W. can we upload please???), you can embed flash video and animation, and audio.

Notes: I am a big fan of this site, and I am happily in my second blogging class. David Warlick provides this site for free and without any advertisements.

Voki
Voki is an avatar creator that offers its users a very dynamic, almost fun interface that allows one to create a digital representation of one's self.

Creativity: Yes!
I have to admit that the possibilities are almost endless. One can choose from a myriad of physical characteristics, and a color palette with which you can grab your own. Backgrounds can be selected or uploaded. The voice can be chosen from a list of genders, accents and then a few within those parameters. In the preliminary research that I have done, it seems that 60 seconds is the time limit for uploading voice, but that is surely enough time to get any message across.

Digital Presence and Expression: Yes!
This is where Voki truly hits the mark. Users can choose from a ton of accessories and physical characteristics to make nearly any type of identity desired. I like the fact that you can choose to use the text to speech feature for those that might not want to upload their own voice. This could be useful for younger students or those students with speech and language challenges.

Community: No
This seems to be an area that is lacking. Voki seems like much more of a 'me' application than an 'us'. There is a news feature on the main page (at first difficult to find if you don't know how to get back there) that has some articles and news feeds written by others, but for the most part, you are on your own.

Technology: Yes
Clearly this web based JavaScript site uses technology in an innovative way. It is engaging, exciting and inviting. Voki is also adding new features on a continuous basis.

Notes: Overall I like Voki, but to me it is more flash and polish than substance. It could be the icing on the cake for your students' projects or a fun way to grab their attention, but as a standalone it isn't the "cat's cyber-meow". Having said that, I do like how registration with an email is NOT required. That is a big draw for teachers. However, registering one account can allow the teacher to keep editable copies of each student or teacher Voki. I am not sure if there is a limit to how many avatars one can have (there was no mention on the site). Another "turn-off" is that the free versions will have advertising on them. Feel free to check out the Voki I made on the right. That is a preloaded voice named Mike from the US.

del.icio.us
Delicious is a social bookmarking website that is used for storing and sharing one's personal and professional website bookmarks.

Creativity: No
Delicious does give each user their own page, but it isn't specific to each person in look and feel. It is totally template driven and standardized and although I suppose one could differentiate by tags and the resulting folders, there isn't much room for personalization.

Digital Presence and Expression: Yes
Through Delicious, you can have your own place on the World Wide Web. While there isn't a pretty digital presence like those of an avatar, one can show or identify those web sites that can be useful. Tagging allows easy differentiation or reasons why such a site was chosen.

Community: Yes
You can keep links to your favorite sites, share them with others, take the recommendations of others or follow the taggings of others that you choose.

Technology: Yes!
The Internet is the playground for Delicious, so being connected is essential. Without the web, Delicious is just a flat document.

Note: At first I was weary of trying Delicious. I had my bookmarks or favorites or whatever you want to call them safely nestled within the confines of my own PC. After a few weeks of using this, I was converted. It is a powerful tool for not only keeping those bookmarks at your fingers whenever you want or wherever you are, you can easily share or use some professional voyeurism to see what others are tagging.

Flowgram
Flowgram is site that offers a way to present digital photographs
Creativity:

Creativity: Yes and No
Allow me to explain. While you are offered many variations of choice, I do feel that it is a little "PowerPointish" in a way that you are restrained by templates. Having said that I still think it is a very valuable tool for the classroom since these templates provide a solid structure that students can use as a guide.

Digital Presence and Expression: Yes
While the digital presence isn't like that of an avatar creator, you can truly express yourself however you want with Flowgram. You can share your photos, speak your mind and comment on what you have seen on specific web pages.

Community: Yes and No
Once again, there is way to see the work of others, but nothing that truly fosters community. On the other hand, one could easily use this tool to share experiences and points of view with the world. This could go either way.

Technology: Yes
Flowgram can easily be embedded into a blog or wiki. You can record audio through your microphone or upload. You can use images or text and record motions such as highlighting to redirect the viewer's attention to wherever you want it.

Notes: The few times that I have used Flowgram I really enjoyed it. It is intuitive and easy to navigate. The only thing I have noticed (and perhaps it is limited to me) is that it runs somewhat slow in this "I want it now" digital age. not horribly slow, but slow nonetheless. I am exploring the use of something like Flowgram or Voicethread with my students to share our experiences on a field trip. I am hoping to explore the importing of video as well as photographs.

So how could these tools be used in a constructivist learning model classroom?

Classblogmeister
During a study unit on the Native Americans of New York State, students would be asked to choose whether they would have preferred to have been an Iroquois man Iroquois woman, Algonquin man or Algonquian woman. They would be asked to support their choice with facts and opinions. Interaction and collaboration are truly cultivated as students evaluate and respond to each other's work.

Voki
During a study unit on European explorers, students would work to research and gather biographical information on a given explorer. They would then use an image of that person and the information that they have to write a journal entry or that person's personal reflections. Finally, the student would use everything to construct a Voki telling the story. The application by itself doesn't do much for community, but placing it in a wiki, a ning or another collaborative space will greatly help interaction.

Delicious
Students might be working to gather information for any given task and need a place to house it. This can be done collaboratively in groups or independently. The task can be anything from Social Studies research to math activities to technical expository sites for use of an application or software.

Flowgram
Following a series of lessons on writing from photographs, students might be asked to share the images of their favorite place in the whole world. They could supplement their own photos with their voices and use web sites to document the history of their chosen place and any other significance it might hold in the world outside of them.

Seemless Integration vs. Add-on extension

Let's talk about our good old friend, the pencil. This antiquated, yet effective wriring instrument has many names. Call it No. 2, Dixon Ticonderoga or whatever you like, this usually yellow but sometimes flashier graphite scriber is the preferred tool for nearly all students regardless of age.

Do you remember learning how to use the pencil? Once you mastered its use, what happened next? Did you take any advanced pencil usage classes? No.. of course not. You simply accepted the pencil as an effective resource for learning. There weren't any additional pencil training classes. This new tool was simply fully integrated into every other subject area that you learning. The pencil became a part of everything.

I was in a discussion with other teachers from Long Island, and we were asked a question by our professor. "Would you be able to do your job without technology?" I was the only one in the discussion that answered "yes". A few of the others mentioned how wonderful technology is for engaging students, how it allowed them to express themselves in a new exciting way, and how it opens the classroom up to the world. With this I totally agree, and I prefaced my rationale by saying that I am a huge proponent of technology. Having said that, technology is not necessary for "the job". Even in the year 2009, the job of a teacher can be accomplished without technology. Who can argue against rows of students in that good old teacher centered environment getting knowledge from that one all knowing all seeing center of information - the teacher! Oh how lucky one would be to catch some pearls of wisdom! While technology certainly does enrich the learning (and teaching!) that happens in our classrom, fundamentally the job doesn't absolutely require it.

Sarcasm aside... Technology is often an add-on to learning. It is, in many cases, an extension activity to what has been explored through traditional means. In a progressive classroom, it is a central part of research and expression, and even while this is becoming more common it is still a relative rarity. What we need is for technology to really become integrated in the 21st century classroom. It should be taught as a resource and as a skill, but after that it should be used as a learning tool in every subject. It should be utilized in such a way that students will improve their skill and proficiency with it without feeling that they are practicing. How do students practice using a dictionary? They use it where it is relevant in your classroom explorations.

We really need to take a long hard look at the curriculum and find a place for technology within it. Students shouldn't feel like they are learning technology. They should feel like they are using technology to learn. If we don't do that, we might as well just keep practicing our penmanship for no reason at all.

BRITZ R CUMN BYH2O CUL8R

If Paul Revere were to communicate his important message in today's world, might he text that to the patriots? On the drive to work this morning, I was thinking about the new research project that my students will be embarking on (more on that in another blog post), and I had an idea. Perhaps it was the fact that I had the Mustang out on nice icy, snowy roads (should have left it in the garage) and I was restricted to about 15-20mph the whole way. Perhaps it was the CD that I had decided to listen to. I started to ponder that very thing. What if students were asked to retell important events in history using text messaging as the media? Is there anything wrong with that? Let me premise this by saying that I don't text message. I email. I Skype. I instant message. All of these use the typing skills that I know and love. I feel comfortable typing, but I have never texted. Isn't this what Will Richardson was talking about when he spoke to the staff of my district? Is it okay to throw the conventions of grammar out the window, the rules of language arts pushed to the wayside in order to use a means of expression that is more meaningful and relevant to the lives of our students. While this is something that my fourth grade students might not be able to make the most of, but no doubt a middle school class might jump at the chance to research, analyze, synthesize and recreate these moments using the preferred expression and communication resource of today's teenagers. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!