• Ubiquity… In previous years, we had two carts of 25 laptops each shared between 3 grades (9 classes.) Occasionally, teachers in younger grades would want to sign them out as well.  Of course, scheduling was difficult, especially when one grade level was working on a technology-focused project all at the same time.  I’m not complaining about our access: we worked with it and, in fact, I was usually able to use them when I needed to.  Because they weren’t always available, though, it was always a bit of a novelty to have them in the room.  This year, the laptops are easy to access at any point during the day, and the focus has really moved to seeing them as tools for learning rather than something used for “special activities.”
• Routines…Proper management of technology in the classroom, like proper management of ANYTHING in the classroom, requires clearly-defined routines and procedures.  At the beginning of the year, before the students even brought their laptops in, we practiced packing,unpacking, carrying, and storing routines with textbooks. I’ve incorporated use of the laptops into some of our regular tasks (such as Daily Edit,) so my students have become adept at efficiently getting them out and putting them away.  Establishing, practicing, enforcing, and revisiting routines with the students is essential.
  

  Laptop Storage... obviously we need to do a bit of tidying up, but it works!

• Expectations about behavior/Meaningful tasks…These two go together.  My students know that they are expected to be using only programs and/or sites related to what we are doing in class.  I’m always walking around the room during laptop use; providing support for students, questioning them to prompt deeper thinking, monitoring their use, etc.  As long as the task they’ve been assigned is meaningful, the students are typically engaged and have no trouble staying on task.  If it isn’t, well, things can go downhill pretty quickly
  

  Collaborating on a math project

   

• Troubleshooting… Our 1-to-1 program is dual-platform and, while certain models of laptops were recommended to students, there is quite a variety in what we actually got.  Currently, I am teaching a class where about 2/3 of my students use Mac, the rest PC.  There are a total of 9 different models of laptops in my classroom, two of which have an operating system in a different language.  I could easily spend all of my time troubleshooting with students!  One of the first things we did this year, however, was show the students some simple things to try before asking for help.  They have all had to get to know their personal machine and how it works.  Most of our problems can be solved by toggling the wireless off and on or simply restarting the machine.  They also know how to both ask for and give help from/to peers, and how to use online resources for assistance.  Giving the students the power and knowledge to do that has really helped the class run more smoothly.

With appropriate management, I have found that teaching in a 1-to-1 environment has significantly expanded my instructional style.  I’m changing the way I think about the purpose of education, and can’t wait to keep learning!

Traditionally, education has revolved around specific content knowledge.  We began school to learn things, went on to high school to learn more things, graduated and moved to college in order to learn more things.  This model worked for a long time, but the time has come for it to change.  The emphasis in education in the coming years will not be on things, but on processes.  We will not look so much at summative assessments of what content students have learned as we will at their ability to seek out information and evaluate it when they find it.

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The idea of connectivism really fits this model.  In this article, George Siemans states that

“the starting point of connectivism is the individual.”

In many traditional learning theory models, the starting point is the source of the information (typically the teacher), and the process ends once the information has been passed from source to learner.

Consider these trends in learning from the same article:

• Many learners will move into a variety of different, possibly unrelated fields over the course of their lifetime.
• Informal learning is a significant aspect of our learning experience. Formal education no longer comprises the majority of our learning. Learning now occurs in a variety of ways – through communities of practice, personal networks, and through completion of work-related tasks.
• Learning is a continual process, lasting for a lifetime. Learning and work related activities are no longer separate. In many situations, they are the same.
• Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking.
• The organization and the individual are both learning organisms. Increased attention to knowledge management highlights the need for a theory that attempts to explain the link between individual and organizational learning.
• Many of the processes previously handled by learning theories (especially in cognitive information processing) can now be off-loaded to, or supported by, technology.
• Know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed).

If we are teaching process rather than things, and focusing on the individual learner as a starting point, these trends become natural extensions of what students have done in school.  While we can’t possibly prepare our students in terms of content and specific skills for the world they will enter as adults, we can certainly give them the process skills they need to develop that knowledge and those skills as necessary.  The content is available elsewhere… it is becoming the job of educators to make sure we produce adults who know how to access and synthesize it.

I can be hesitant about adopting new ideas.  For a long time, I’ve clung to the idea that there is knowledge that kids just need to have (multiplication facts?), and have felt that, as a teacher, it is my responsibility to make sure they have it.  I’ve been thrilled to attempt merging process and content skills in my classroom, but don’t feel like the core of my teaching has changed much.  As I’m reflecting and growing and conversing with others, however, I’m beginning to wonder.  Is there a balance to be found here?  Or is it time to completely redefine education?

orry… the Napolean Dynamite reference just HAD to happen.

One of the biggest, most revolutionary, and most exciting ideas I came away from ETC ’11 with was the reverse instruction/flipped classroom concept.  There is not enough time in the day to do everything we want to accomplish, and, added on to that, fifth grade seems to be a year where “extras” abound.  Between band practices, concerts, Scottish dancing, retreats, and other valuable extra-curricular events, I have had very few weeks this year where I was able to stick to the planned schedule.  Flipping the classroom, at least in part, seemed like an ideal solution!  Mingled with the enthusiasm, however, were a few questions and concerns.

Flipping (hopefully NOT flopping)

First of all, I could completely conceive of the flip working well with a lecture-based class, but  I teach elementary school.  I was having a hard time figuring out exactly where it might fit in my curriculum.  Math seemed like an obvious choice… there is a wide disparity between students’ mastery of the various skills and concepts in math, and it would be fairly simple to create (or find!) digital lectures/tutorials on various topics.

Secondly, I had concerns about the reaction of the parent community to the idea.  Balancing the homework load in my classroom is a difficult thing.  Our school policy sets homework as 30 minutes of reading each night and not more than 30 minutes of other work.  Of course, I have parents who are constantly wanting more, as well parents who are frustrated by the amount I do give.  All of them, it seems, are anxious for their child to do plenty of drill-and-practice.  There is no winning!  I also have parents who are concerned about the amount of time their children’s homework requires them to be on the computer.  I feared the reaction I would get if math homework moved from pencil and paper work to online, and in a form drastically different from what they were familiar with.

Having found a solution to my first concern, I looked forward to flipping my math classroom.  This year, unfortunately, I haven’t made as much progress in reversing instruction as I had hoped to.  We’re in the process of adopting new math materials and that has kind of taken precedence.   I have incorporated use of several math websites (including Khan Academy and MangaHigh) into my math classroom, and encourage students to work independently while also focusing on whatever whole-group concept we are studying.  As we move into using fractions in the second part of the year, I think I’m going to try implementing a model similar to this one.  We’ll see how it goes!

The solution to the second problem?  Parent education, careful balancing, and experimentation.  There is a shift happening.  While the idea of reverse instruction is very strange to the parents of my students, I think they will recognize the value as student engagement and conceptual development (hopefully) increase.

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My first year of teaching, there was segregation.  The students went to computer class once every six days.  Our use of technology in the classroom was limited to our SMARTboard (which I primarily used as a projector that first year), and using laptops to publish final drafts of writing, along with limited research.  When I look back to that time, four years ago, it’s pretty clear that I’ve made some progress!

My second and third years I will call the implementation years.  We had a lot more access to the laptop carts and computer lab.  I began teaching web research evaluative skills, started using laptops during the entire writing process (and loving Google Docs for peer revision) and developed a few projects centered in technology.  One example, in which I asked my students to research one of the thirteen original colonies and create a simple webpage for it, can be found here.  (I’m not very proud of it now, and I obviously didn’t stress proofreading enough, but it was a stretch for me at the time!)  Of course, my third year is also the year I began the CoETaIL program and my eyes really began to open to the incredible richness and essential skills the use of technology can provide for my learners!  I spent the last couple months of the year, my mind filled with neat tools and fantastic ideas, dreaming about the coming school year, when all of my students would have laptops.

Whether we call it integration, embedding, grafting, or something entirely different (I appreciated this post… thanks, Jeff!), effective use of technology in the classroom absolutely depends on a willingness of the teacher to learn to teach differently and appropriate support for them as they do so.  (See Laura Arleth’s great post for more on this).  I find that my fifth graders readily view their laptops as just another tool they use to learn, but that some teachers still see them either as a novelty (which they aren’t, especially for the children we teach) or as intimidating.  We need to think more like our students, who have never known a world where immediate access to information wasn’t at their fingertips.

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Now, in my fourth year of teaching, I use the laptops most days.  In the beginnings of the integration stage, I’m beginning to really discern between doing old things in new ways and doing new things in new ways.  My students are developing a healthy relationship with the technology at their disposal.  We use Google Docs and individual blogs to share writing, read and comment on one another’s work, and reflect.  Research involves a balance of book sources and online resources.  Several more technology-based authentic projects are in the works, but, more than that, the computers have become part of the everyday environment in my classroom.  Slowly but surely, my curriculum is growing and changing around the technology we’re using.

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We think we’ve got it all figured out; new initiatives become part of our daily routines, we’ve come to the end of our TO-DO list, hooray! ……………………………………..and then more is heaped in front of us.

While I have only been employed at one school in my career, I am fairly certain that this is common throughout the profession.  It’s good in many ways… as promoters of life-long learning, we certainly should embrace the opportunity to learn, grow, and change ourselves.  The challenges and new requirements we face each year encourage innovation and ingenuity, and, in the correct dosage, can promote enthusiasm in our work.  Too much, however, and we begin to shut down.  Burn-out sets in, frustration builds as previously-introduced initiatives are laid aside in favor of the latest and greatest, and what could be fodder for engagement instead becomes an obstacle to effective teaching.

Whose responsibility is it to teach the NETs?  As I pondered this question, I was reminded of a recent faculty meeting in the elementary school where I work.  This is the first year in which we’ve really, as a school, begun intentionally moving towards effective integration of technology, rather than the idea that “computer” is a class.  The students still have regular computer classes, but applications are moving into the classroom.  Our integration specialists spoke with the entire faculty about the NETs standards, which our school has adopted.  You could feel the air become tense as every teacher in the room braced themselves for yet ANOTHER list of things we are supposed to teach and assess, when we often feel we don’t have time for what is already expected.  Fortunately, as the presentation progressed, everyone was able to see that the NETs should be seamlessly integrated into what we all already do.

Our school has set Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs), ideals about what we want to see in our students cognitively, affectively, and spiritually as a result of being a product of the school.  As the images from the presentation show, the NETs fit neatly (if generally) into the categories of those ESLRs.  (special thanks to Sarah Carpenter for allowing me to use part of her presentation)

Six Strands in the ISTE NETs Standards

Our ESLRs (in red) overlap with the NETs

The NETs standards coincide so well with our ESLRs because, in large part, both are an expression of the basics of effective education.  If essential 21^st century skills are added to the mix, we find that the overlap continues.  Using technology isn’t the point of the NETs… teaching our students to explore, challenge, participate in, and change their world is.  As Mary Beth Hertz states in this post,

[The NETs] include skills and concepts that you are hopefully already addressing in your classroom, thought they stress how technology will aid you in addressing these standards.

Whose responsibility is it to teach the NETs?  The onus is on all of us, and hopefully we find it engaging, invigoration, and inspiring.

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This is my fourth year teaching fifth grade, and, for the past three years, our science fair has looked and operated pretty much exactly like I remember them from my science fair days 15 years ago!  Last year, after attending a session at KORCOS on using video in the classroom, one of my team members and I began dreaming about ways we could incorporate video and/or other visuals into our science fair presentations.  We’re ready to move away, at least in part, from the tri-fold boards and students simply reading the content of their boards to their audience.  There are others feeling the same way… here are some examples from an all-digital science fair at a school in Washington, D.C., and here is a Moodle project outline (with a digital product) from a school Minnesota.

My vision for this unit is that the students really act as scientists.  They are already carefully documenting in writing what they are doing… I want to move them towards image documentation.  After all, a data table showing the growth of plants watered with coffee, soda, orange juice, and water is not quite as compelling or meaningful as a series of carefully-taken images showing the differences.  Students sharing their set up and/or procedure verbally is not as memorable as video of the process.  Of course, having to do this careful recording might mean that students are forced to be extra cautious with their experimental controls as well!

In essence, these science fair projects will be individual digital stories.  Each one will contain the big question, the student’s prediction, the materials, procedure, and data.  They will also provide a place for analysis of data, drawing conclusions, and sharing final evaluative thoughts orally.  All of the essential pieces of the science fair project will be in place, but the students will be tasked with sharing that information in an accessible and interesting way.  The oral explanations of each step in the scientific process will help me assess understanding, while the presentations should help alleviate some of the stress of presenting on science fair day.

This format will also allow me to introduce (or review) some of the big ideas from this course with my students.  We’ve already had some excellent conversations about effective presentations.  This opens up new possibilities to discuss use of meaningful images, visual representations of data, and effective design elements.  In a world where visual literacy is becoming increasingly important, these are essential skills.

I’m not sure what vehicle we’ll use for this yet… I’m leaning towards VoiceThread.  I like the fact that students could use a format that is somewhat familiar (slides), while including their oral explanation of what is happening in the pictures and why it is important.  I also like that we could incorporate both video and still images, and the on-screen drawing could be really helpful.  Of course, since most of my students are expats with far-flung family members, the ease with which VoiceThreads can be shared is a major plus as well!  Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Just as a note: we’ve been using Science Buddies as a major resource for our fair… does anyone know any other great online resources?

A few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated the ten year anniversary of the beginning of our relationship.  When I read the assignment for this week, then, the first story that popped into my head was the story of Nathan and I.  Our relationship has spanned high school, college, and the beginning of our teaching careers, with many adventures and surprises along the way!

When I began searching for pictures to use, I realized that something was missing.  While our relationship began in 2001, I didn’t get my first digital camera until 2003.  Oops!  So, the first two years aren’t included here… the rest of our pictures are safely stored in a closet at home, thousands of miles away.  Even without those first two years, I ended up with too many options… but more on that later!

One of the most exciting and most frustrating parts of doing ANYTHING with technology is that there are myriad tools available, most of which do essentially what you are looking for and many of which allow approximately the same as others.  I love trying and figuring out new tools, so the article we read listing tools for digital storytelling was exciting.  I’ll definitely be referring to it again!  I played around with Our Story a little bit, but found that it wasn’t quite working the way I wanted it to.  I decided to try one of the slideshow tools instead, and settled on One True Media.

Note to self: always read the fine print carefully.  I casually noted that only videos of 30 seconds or less can be shared without paying for a subscription.  Then, I proceeded to upload all of the pictures I had selected for use, organize them, and began experimenting with transitions.  I played around with adding captions, which really added a lot to the video, but those too are only available for subscribed members, and I wasn’t ready to commit.  I ended up with a slideshow which told the story of Nathan and I quite effectively, but was well over 3 minutes long.  Second oops!  Ruthlessly, I cut out pictures right and left, leaving in only some essentials; the earliest picture I could find, several images from Idaho (where our families spend time together every summer), a wedding photo (of course!), pictures from favorite trips (China, Saipan, and New Zealand), and a random Taco Bell run (because Taco Bell IS essential).

The process of adding music and a theme was pretty painless, though some features (like editing the text on some of the pages I wanted to use) seem to require, again, the paid subscription.  It was a lot of fun putting this together, and, while the slideshow I have to share here is a mere sliver of what I had created at first, I think it’s a decent first attempt.

Click here to view the embedded video.

While I was a little frustrated by the limits of the free version of this tool, I think that it would be incredibly valuable in the classroom to have that 30 second limit.  Earlier this year, we challenged our students to put together a 45-60 second video (using FlipCams and iMovie) for our anti-bullying assembly.  It was really tough to get them to tell a complete story in that time frame (and all of them ended up a bit long).  I’ve included a couple examples below.

Of course, one of the biggest lessons I took away from this is that it takes time.  My teensy little 30 second “story” took the better part of a day, from planning to gathering photographs to realizing that I had way too much to cutting and finishing.  It’s definitely not perfect, but it doesn’t need to be: I had fun learning a new tool, enjoyed fantastic reminiscing as I looked through old pictures, and got really excited about the potential of using digital storytelling in the classroom!  From developing a writing piece into a digital story project, assessing any number of skills and understandings,  and maybe taking our spring science fair beyond the traditional tri-fold boards, digital storytelling really has potential to make my classroom a more meaningful, “learningful” place.

I’m not without fault in this area… in fact, just this fall, I succumbed to the siren call of PowerPoint when we held our annual Back to School Night.  Why?  It’s easy!  When nerves take hold, or I realize that maybe I should’ve spent more time planning my presentation, the slides are there to keep me on track and keep my audience focused.  Hopefully.  I actually started the evening with a lame apology this year… regret that they were stuck listening to one more PowerPoint presentation, with the explanation that it would keep me on track in that meager 30 minutes.

Seriously, though… why apologize?  Why not fix it?  Actually, this IS the second iteration of my presentation.  In an effort to keep things consistent across our grade level, we had a presentation developed that outlined all of the information we wanted to share with parents at our BtS Night.  Below left are examples of two slides, both of which addressed homework.

Back to School Night- General Homework Slide

Back to School Night- Math Homework Slide

While my iteration isn’t perfect, I did work hard to minimize the amount of text on each page, keep things simple, and use it more as an outline than as notes.  Rather than including every single detail about homework policy and procedure, I posted just a few key words/ideas, elected for an off-the-cuff style of speaking rather than reading, and depended on my handout to supply the details.  The two screens seen to the left were compressed into the one below right.  This is just one example of how I altered the initial presentation.  Of course, mine is far from being an eye-catching design gem, but it was a start.

Back to School Night- Homework and Accountability

I ended up spending a lot more time engaging with my audience than I would have had I used the original version, and rationalized that what I missed would be covered in my handout.  While 30 minutes still wasn’t enough time, and my presentation visuals were still pretty boring, it was a step in the right direction, and parents had some very positive feedback.

Of course, the goal is to keep growing.  While any presentation tool or software can be used well, and, likewise, any can be used poorly, some are more conducive to engaging presentations than others.  I don’t thing Keynote or Prezi are going to save us from dull presentations unless people become more knowledgeable about what makes good presentations good, but they certainly seem a bit easier to manipulate in an effective way (design-wise) than PowerPoint.  While I’m not sure that what follows will be used next year (certainly not in its current incomplete state), it is an example of what I feel I could do to cut text more, include additional images, and keep things more interesting based on both previous knowledge of design elements and recent readings.  Definitely not perfect, but, hopefully, a step in the right direction.

The approach has its roots in these beliefs about children and learning:

• The world is complex and presents many layers of information. Children know a good deal about how the world works.
• Children have a reservoir of knowledge that is often untapped in classroom settings.
• When children build on that knowledge through activities such as questioning, investigating, and researching, new understandings are acquired.
• Problem solving is a natural and powerful human endeavor. When children are engaged in problem-solving, they take ownership for their learning.
• The story form integrates literacy skills to help children apply their learning in a meaningful context to gain a deeper, more complex understanding of major concepts.
• When children construct their own knowledge and understanding of their world, their learning is more meaningful and memorable.

My class has been working on building the frieze for our story.  The materials provided do a fantastic job of describing the look and feel of colonial Boston, and, in fact, I didn’t WANT to provide the students with

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pictures until I was able to assess their independent thoughts and ideas about how things might look.  As we have now passed that stage, however, I’m looking forward to sharing some of the below images with them.  My hope is that they will begin to see colonial Boston as a real historical place, that they will have a stronger connection with that place, and that they will see how their thoughts and feelings about our classroom activities might mirror those (however superficially) of real people in the past.

I’m also looking forward to engaging my students in some critical thinking… most of these images were recorded in 1898, and our Storypath starts in 1765.  Many of the details in the picture fit with what we’ve already talked about; multiple chimneys, wooden shutters, cobblestoned streets, businesses on the first floor of residences, etc.  Others, however, would have been different or not present.  I envision using these in an exercise wherein students compare and contrast the photographs with what they know to be true in colonial Boston.

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Some rights reserved by Boston Public Library

Some rights reserved by Boston Public Library

Things I thought would be difficult that ended up being not-so-difficult:
• Establishing routines… I’ve never been very good at sticking with a routine, as I’m always thinking up a better or more efficient way to do something. My team and I thought very carefully through what we wanted to be consistent laptop systems this year. The students responded well, and now we have well-established and effective routines for charging, storing, carrying, fixing, packing and unpacking, etc. Whew!
• Keeping students on task… I really took to heart the idea that if students are off task on the computer, it’s because we as teachers have not assigned them work which is engaging enough. I’m definitely not saying that all my lessons are masterpieces of perfect planning, but I have found that with some diligent attention to planning, I can limit off task behavior.
• Finding ways to use the laptops… okay, I didn’t REALLY think this would be a problem, but for the entirety of my teaching career, I’ve had to plan around when I could get the laptop cart. Having them available for my use non-stop, whenever I wanted/needed them, was an awesome thing! Since our laptops are student-owned, however, it was stressed to us that we needed to use them regularly in meaningful ways. I was concerned that I would either be using them in very limited ways or using them in superficial ways. While being in a 1-to-1 classroom hasn’t totally revolutionized the way I teach (yet!), I have found the transition to effective every day (or almost every day) use surprisingly smooth. The laptops have already made a difference in my ability to differentiate for students, and I am sure they will continue to do so!

Things I was un- or under-prepared for:
• The difference dual platform makes… Okay, I was prepared for the fact that it was going to be difficult to deal with both Mac and PC computers in my classroom. Since much of what we are doing is online or in the cloud, it seemed manageable. And it is. But… it DOES make a difference. Even though we’re trying to keep things consistent by all using Chrome, by setting things up similarly, and by learning programs together, the fact is that the two platforms are different. I think I was unprepared for the collective amount of extra time it takes to say something like, “well, if you’re on a Mac, you should look under Preferences, but if you’re on a PC, it’s called Options,” whenever we are installing programs, using a website, learning software, etc.
• The range of previous skill… There is a lot of talk about how our students are “digital natives,” and will be much more intuitive with any new technology that is placed in their hands. I admit, I was assuming that my students would all come in with some basic knowledge and skills; creating a bookmark, downloading something, basic typing, and how to save a file, among others. Was I ever surprised: while some were completely independent on these (and more) skills, others were struggling to locate and open their web browser. Logging onto our school network, six weeks into the year, has just now become something I don’t need to review. Keyboarding skills run the gamut from quicker than me to tediously-slow hunting and pecking. Just like with anything else, I’ve found a real need to differentiate for students. Peer helpers are a great idea!
• The fear/uncertainty… my students are 9, 10, and 11 years old. Some are very wise in the ways of the world, others are completely naïve. While I am incredibly excited about the opportunities afforded by having the world at our fingertips, I have also found myself frightened. For example, the fact that my students have their own blogs is wonderful: they’re writing for a wide and authentic audience, they are practicing keyboarding skills, and they can share their work with far-flung family and friends. Even though we’ve gone through steps to make their work private and secure, however, it scares me to know that they’re out there, leaving little digital footprints.

My classroom has changed quite a bit with the introduction of student laptops this year, and I love it. Without the work I’ve done in COETAIL, the blog posts of fellow educators, the ideas that have been shared, and the knowledge I’ve gained, it would probably not be as positive an experience as it has been. I am so eager to keep learning!

Online tools we’ve been using in fifth grade at SFS this year: (the list is short, but we’re getting the basics down!):
Edmodo: used for general communication, homework turn-in, and as a repository for websites, etc.
Blogger: student blogs are used for regular reading responses and current events reflection so far… I’m looking forward to expanding this!
Khan Academy and MangaHigh: both used as math challenge/enrichment
Google Apps for Seoul Foreign School: Google Docs and Gmail are our primary uses right now, but I’m hoping to add to that list!
My Fake Wall: used as a vehicle for a project related to our social studies unit on the American colonies
Weebly: have used in the past for student projects; will be using this year for student e-portfolios