"Digitizing what is already there?"

I love the idea of using data analytics to know exactly where a student is and know when he or she is ready to move on.  The School of One is a powerful idea where kids choose their modality for learning:  how much support they want and need from the teacher.  They can speed ahead if they are ready or take extra time they need to get it right.  Teachers spend too much time grading papers and not enough time seeing what the results say about the student and how ready they are to move on.  Computers and help.  They are much better at crunching numbers than people.  So why are we doing it on paper?

#pencilchat (Links to an external site.)gives some numerous/ridiculous excuses for why teachers stick with paper and pencil.  

I think "digitizing what is already there" is simply a first step integrating technology.  Teachers and students first need to learn how the digital tools work well.  My district started with putting Smartboards and projectors into classrooms.  Then they added document cameras.  As this happened, multiple devices grew in the classroom for students to use.  

"Digitizing what is already there" is a first step, but the progress cannot stop there.  Teachers should take something they already teach and make it digital to build confidence and competence.  Some teachers are technology "high-fliers" and some are luddites, often falling along generational lines.

Other teachers are afraid of the technology because the pressure is on to make sure scores don't fall on high-stakes, standardized, achievement tests while integrating whole new teaching practices and technology tools.  

They need training, understanding, and confidence.  As the technology tools are gradually integrated with training and support, the teaching can become better as the technology becomes smarter.  One-to-one devices can the paradigm of learning in a classroom, but the teaching must also make the shift.  Otherwise, the digitized classroom will still be stuck at the first step of "digitizing what is already there."

Build a Feedly Blog List

The old RSS feed readers I used to use are dead:  netvibes, Google Reader, iGoogle.  I haven't followed blogs or podcasts with an RSS reader in a long time.  I use my Twitter stream and podcatchers as my feed readers these days.  However, if you want to follow specific blogs that don't post to Twitter, RSS readers are the perfect tool.  RSS readers are an important part of comment feedback in the blogosphere.

Feedly seems very popular and easy to use. I just copied the RSS feeds from the blogs I wanted to follow, and pasted them into the Feedly search blocks.  The blog popped right up.  Then I could just hit the Feedly+ icon to add it to my feed.  Having a feed from blogs I follow will help me to easily see which posts on which I want to comment.

District social bookmarking tag list

This is a list of tags from Delicious and Diigo that teachers and students in my district might use.  Next to each is a justification for why I included that tag.

• education - These tags will be relevant to education.
• school - These tags might be more relevant to students than the “education” tag.
• technology - This tag coupled with education will help teachers incorporate edtech.
• edtech - This tag combines the “education” tag and the “technology” tag
• CommonCore - This is a way to search a curriculum common to most districts.
• math - All schools teach these subjects.
• reading - All schools teach these subjects.
• science - All schools teach these subjects.
• SocialStudies - All schools teach these subjects.
• specialeducation - A tag for a department rather than a subject
• apps - for mobile learning
• learning - for the teachers
• kindergarten - for early childhood teachers
• primary - for lower elementary classroom teachers
• elementary - for all elementary classroom teachers
• middleschool - for middle school teachers
• highschool - for high school teachers in general
• whiteboard - resources for interactive whiteboards
• web2.0 - resources about social websites
• 21stcenturylearning - the buzzword that replaced web 2.0 resources

Concept Map Reflection

I created my literacy concept map on

Spicynodes.com.  

It was very easy to use.  I created the bubbles (spicynodes) in an outline view.  Then, I could drag them to rearrange the spicynodes as I liked.

I actually started with Michael Wesch’s video and structured my concept map as an outline of his presentation.  Then, I thought I should have read David Warlick’s book first, so I created a new Spicynode based on chapter 1.  Now how would I bring together both Spicynodes without completely redoing one?

One of the nice options of Spicynodes is that the “Edit Content” tab has several subtabs.  One is “code view.”  This allowed me to copy the plain text code containing the content text along with the formatting and paste it into another Spicynode.  This placed the outline of the second tab from the video under the outline from the book.  Then I could drag to rearrange the nodes to where they made the most sense.

I rearranged the structure of the Spicynode until I had them organized into groups that made the most sense.  Some groups were only one level deep, while others were four or 5 levels.

As read more of the materials, I added vocabulary to the Spicynode.  Then I would need to rearrange again to incorporate the new concepts.  Each addition jostled other concepts until they fell into a better arrangement.  However, after a while very few additions were needed because they had already be covered in some way.

I really liked the concept map, because it helped me see connections and fit all the ideas into one big picture.  It helped to me understand how the disparate pieces fit together into my current concepts about literacy and how it needs to change.

Technology in Education

How do you feel about the direction of technology in education?  

I am encouraged by the direction of technology in education today.  I feel ed tech is finally starting to be taken seriously in schools.  Used to be it was one computer in a classroom that was an add-on of “one more thing” to fit into an already packed school day.  Now we have multiple devices and even one-to-one devices in schools, so student can actually use them.

What do you see happening in your own school environment?  

Most of the high schools in the area have one device per student.  The elementary I work in have 6 tablets per classroom, enough to use in groups.

What are some of the technology issues facing your district?  

It is still  not enough in Carthage.  The high school did Bring Your Own Device one-to-one, which disadvantages those who can’t afford a device or internet access at home, the digital divide.  At my school, 6 devices is not enough to replace paper with digital.  Sharing devices means they can’t really be used for daily work.

What is your greatest technology need?

My greatest technology need an action plan for how to incorporate my vision for technology in education into activities and lesson plans aligned to state standards. There are so many great digital resources out there that I need help aligning them to standards that have to be taught.  In addition, the end result of classrooms with technology also has to be higher test scores (grr).  

What do you think technology in schools will look like in the next two years? the next five years?

I think in the next two years we will see education (textbook) companies will become better at bringing content to digital platforms.  One-to-one programs will push farther down in grade levels as districts continue to add more technology.  

In the next 5 years, I think common standards across the country will allow us to work together on finding and aligning higher-level units, projects, activities, and lessons.  I think the increased technology will allow more creativity with the technology as students and teachers get used to using them to learn.  The power of the technology will be 32 times what it is today.  I think we will have 3D goggles that will allow us to create and manipulate a digital world and then print 3D objects from it.