Frontline: Digital Nation

After watching Frontline's Digital Nation, I had a few thoughts. For starters, I should confess that I was multitasking at the beginning of this video: texting, knitting, eating, and talking. However, the program quickly earned my complete attention, and there were a few points that I wanted to address. I'm choosing the topics that relate most immediately to children, as opposed to those that addressed the changing workplace for adults.

The bit that they did on multitasking I thought was particularly interesting. It didn't surprise me at all to see that people who tried to do many things at once were less than effective at those tasks. That old phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" has existed for a reason! It seems to be much more effective to do one thing, and do it well. Chances are that those things would get done faster, also. However, it also seems that this personal discipline and control to restrict oneself to one task is something that is difficult for today's emerging professionals to grasp. So really, the question for me, as a parent and educator, is how to appropriately integrate focus into this culture of distractedness, multitasking, and immediate gratification. As an aside, now I'm drinking coffee, watching the news, blogging, and wrangling a two-year-old.

I'm not sure if the natural progression of this multitasking culture led to the extensive gaming culture in South Korea, but I thought that it was sad and a bit foreboding to see what that situation has done to the youth of South Korea. I have known a number of students who have played online games and spent the majority of their time outside of school immersed in these worlds. I have also known some of those students who had a very difficult time managing themselves when they went off to college, and were unable to perform to their highest abilities. Although, that self-management is a difficult skill for many college students to achieve, regardless of gaming and online habits. Again, how do we help these students to manage themselves and their technology so that they realize that the technology is a tool to success, and not the indication of success itself?

With that thought in mind, I thought that the statements by the New York administrators that we needed to meet students where they were, indicating that the only way to engage students is through technology, is sadly pathetic and short-sighted. My initial reaction to those philosophies is that we are lowering expectations so that teachers and students can find successes, rather than insisting on balance. Please don't misunderstand me: I agree with the appropriate integration of technology into education. However, giving every middle-schooler a laptop and expecting them to focus in class is asinine. Moderation and responsibility has to be the key. I watched (and blogged about) a video earlier for this course that highlighted responsibility as a key topics for success in a Web 2.0 culture.

So, it would seem that modeling moderation and responsibility with technology is one way to help our children learn personal management. Beyond that, schools and parents have a daunting task ahead of them to teach young folks how to appropriately use tools for success and integrate technology effectively into their broadening horizons. I, certainly, don't have all the answers. But, I am eager to work towards a solution!

Obama Glog

So, President Obama came to my school on Tuesday afternoon for a Town Hall meeting and to talk about increasing jobs and strengthening small businesses. It was an incredible experience. Personally, I totally lucked out and was able to sit on stage with him and shake his hand as he entered. As part of the experience, we were asked to create a reflective piece for professional development. So, I took the opportunity to learn to use Glogster! I created a glog of images that I took during his visit, a little bit of text, an audio of the National Anthem, and a link to a video of his entire speech. I used the process of learning Glogster as my professional development, as this is a tool that I can use in my classroom for an alternative assessment. It was a hit! You should check it out. I'm pretty proud of it!

Obama Glog

And, this is proof that I shared space with him. I'm the one alllll the way on the left with the black shirt and gray pants.

On Twitter...

A good friend of mine who is no longer in the classroom (but absolutely SHOULD BE!!) sent me this article the other day as she was researching stuff for her new job as an educational consultant.

The article identifies how teachers can use Twitter for professional development and networking, like we've been doing in class. It gives a little bit more instruction as to how to go about finding networks of people with similar interests. And, it offers a degree of validity to the whole tweeting process.

And, if you're interested: I've been posting links to interesting tools in the sidebar over <--, so check those out too, if you'd like!

Educational Technology Tools

While pondering this post, I was concerned with what classified an "educational technology tool." Perhaps it's the scientist in me that wants to make sure that my definitions are clear before I embark upon a response. Regardless, I decided that anything that was available for free use on the Internet and enhanced a learning experience for students constituted an educational technology tool. While this may not be a correct definition, it worked for me, and it allowed me the freedom to investigate some of the things that I've used in the past in a bit more detail.

Since I teach high school chemistry, I try to integrate things into my continued learning that can benefit my students as well, so I set out to find stuff that would be good for my day students. There are countless sites out there that I have used in the past to supplement particular lessons and to offer support for specific challenges. So, here are a few of them:

• eChem has an application that allows you to create and manipulate molecular structures. This particular one is from another teacher's personal class site. Very often these (teacher sites) have some AMAZING tried and true resources.
• Mr. Guch (another teacher in the classroom) has compiled an incredible amount of information, tutorials, and resources for chemistry students and teachers.
• Science Spot has resources for all levels and areas of science for mostly teachers.
• There are like 80 billion Periodic Tables online, and they all have a lot of the same information (how many ways can you describe Calcium, really?), but this one is pretty neat and interactive and all that stuff.
• And, if you've got a couple minutes and want to hug your inner science nerd, this is always fun. Click it, you know you want to. Everyone loves it.

So, while my tools may be more specifically geared towards my nerd-tacular world, you may find that there are many tools out there that focus on your specific area(s) of expertise! And, since we should all be teaching all of the areas all of the time, perhaps you can use some of my sites to help you integrate science into your teaching :)

Equal Access

So, I feel like I'm kind of cheating on this one. While I was waiting for the link to follow Monday night's class on ustream, I was poking around profiles on Twitter. I stumbled upon a blog that our Fearless Leader (Dave) kept about a year ago. As I was perusing his writing, I read a post that he had written about equal access, and it really hit home for me. So, I feel like I'm kind of cheating because I really liked one of his phrases, and (although it's similar to one that I use in my classroom) I'm kind of sticking by that philosophy:

Equal access is about teaching them to drive, not buying them a car.

The reality of a classroom situation is that you see a student (along with 20-some others) for a fraction of their day. You can do everything in your power to make that fraction as productive, meaningful, engaging, valuable, and whatever-else-you'd-like-to-make-it as possible. But, when that child goes home, they are faced with a much stronger influence that you will not be able to control. And, equal access has to be about providing the same tools to all of your students, not providing the same goods, services, or situations.

It would be nice if every student had a functional laptop with Internet access and all that jazz, but it's not a reality. I'll hearken Maslow by saying that it'd be even better if every student had a warm bed to sleep in, hot water to shower with, breakfast each morning, and a hug on the way out the door, but that's not a reality either. So, equal access in education has to be about providing the same opportunities, and allowing and encouraging students to make the choices about what to do (if anything) with the opportunities that have been provided for them.

What can we gain through collaboration?

Short answer: everything!!

Collaboration is crucially important in education. From the time that you start any kind of teacher education program, you learn that reflection and collaboration are fabulously helpful in determining effecting lessons. Very often our peers are some of the best resources that are available. And, when those people are not immediately available (if you are the only 5th grade teacher in your building, for example) there are a wealth of resources available online. 

Personally, this is one aspect of my teaching experience that I wish were more elaborate. I became the veteran chemistry teacher in my district during my second year of teaching. I was faced with two brand new teachers straight from industry who needed as much help as I did. So, we all fumbled through and survived. These first years together, we worked very closely in order to coordinate the pace and content of our courses, and it was invaluable for all of us. Once we all became more self-sufficient, we all started to look to other resources to learn, and outside workshops became feasible. 

 

These workshops provided the opportunity to network with other teachers as well as the opportunity to bring ideas and materials back to our building. Now, with increasing budgetary issues in education all over the country, outside workshops are becoming more and more difficult to be a part of. However, the Internet provides countless ideas and resources, if you have the time to investigate and filter them. 

 

Basically, if you are able to look past your pride, ask for help, and work collaboratively with other teachers in your building, you will become a better teacher, and your students may have a better learning experience due to the change of pace or new ideas that you try with them.

K12 Online Conference: Web 2.0 Culture

As I revisit the K12 Online Conference this week, I do so slightly more optimistically. Although my school has serious budgetary issues, some that effect technology, I have become more hopeful that I can integrate some innovative features into my classroom that has one functional, albeit slow, computer and an LCD projector.

The topic that I chose to investigate this time is from the 2009 conference and was on Building a Web 2.0 Culture. Beginning points identified the democratization of information, the power of collaboration, and personal nature of the Web 2.0 environment as significant challenges to a traditional school and a traditional approach to education. It went on to identify that a Web 2.0 Culture is one that is rooted in a professional culture of trust, respect, and responsibility. The rest of the presentation provided examples of how these things can be fostered and integrated into classrooms to empower students to be successful in a Web 2.0 culture.

While I find most of these things energizing and encouraging, the reality of some classrooms (and students) is that these ideals are very difficult to attain. Difficult is not impossible, though, and one of the constant challenges of teaching is staying current and trying new things in order to reach students more appropriately and effectively. So, I'm game. I've even applied to a donor website to obtain some supplies for my classroom. We'll see if my application is approved and my materials are funded!