Changing Iowa

AEA PD Online - October Update

2011-10-18T15:12:00.001-05:00

As you can probably see, the creation of AEA PD Online has been time-consuming (just click on the calendar of 2011 posts to see for yourself). And though we haven't marketed it well at all, AEA PD Online is off to a great start.

This summer, we offered 72 online courses (with 1109 participants). That has been with limited number of instructors, as we are currently in a recruiting effort for more instructors to meet demands (those interested can start at our instructor toolbox or contact me). We should be at about 50 courses offered this fall. Our goal for 2012 is to offer 300 online courses.

Our online training system underwent many changes this summer as well. We added several Medication Administration trainings in specific areas:

Administering Rectal Diazepam for Seizures
Nebulizer Treatments at School
Administering Glucagon to Students with Diabetes
Medication Administration by Gastrostomy Tube
Insulin Pumps
Giving Insulin Injections

More importantly, our training system now has district administration features. Districts can access the backend of the system to 1) check employee account information, 2) run reports on completion of trainings, 3) send out notifications to teachers who haven't completed trainings yet, and 4) create their own trainings on the system. Over time, we will add more administration features based on the feedback that we receive from districts.

With these changes, and the recent $20 million cuts to AEAs, the AEA Chief Administrators have determined AEA PD Online will need to be self-sufficient. To assure self-sufficiency, there is a new funding structure in place for the online trainings. Individual participants now need to pay a $25 fee to complete the Mandatory Reporter training, a condition of licensure in Iowa. Also, districts have a 50 cent per enrolled K-12 student fee for unlimited access to all the other trainings on the system. Money raised from these ventures will help our instructional design support. Our plans are to add 5-10 new trainings this year with our instructional design support, for no additional fee to districts.

AEA PD Online's operational council approved the following goals for 2011-12:

Expand and diversify our current offerings
Implement quality assurance procedures
Determine and foster relationship to other groups and initiatives in Iowa
Continue implementing systemic plan of marketing and communication
Assure funding self-sufficiency

More to follow, including the implementation of a mentoring program and a study of online communities in the state of Iowa.

Metamorphosis of OLLIE 2

2011-10-16T02:55:00.000-05:00

I am currently taking a post-midnight break from grading students in my OLLIE course "Technology for Online Instruction" (hoping to have that all finished still tonight). As I think about the two ITEC presentations that I still have not begun (giving those in 36 hours), a thought has come to me. It is interesting to take a look at how this course has changed over time.

The Technology for Online Instruction course introduces students to online tools, with a primary focus on Moodle. Participants each have a "practice course" where they have to create on their own the basic attributes of Moodle (a forum, a webpage, a lesson, a quiz, etc.)

Despite being the second course in the OLLIE sequence, I developed it first, withing the first few months I began to work for Heartland AEA (fall of 2008). I didn't know what I was doing at the time... not that I'm much better than that now. But at least I've tried a variety of things to improve the course over time. Indeed, the current iteration is the 9th different time I've offered the course since then, and each time takes on a bit of a change.

THE BEGINNING:

When I first set out, the main purpose was to learn Moodle. Actually, that was the sole purpose. I was in a hurry to get a course out to meet the growing demand, so I grabbed a bunch of free misfit resources off the web and threw it together. The result:

Well, it served the purpose. We had a course up and running, my first one ever in Moodle, and with live students to work with, I figured out pretty quickly we needed to make some changes.

ATTEMPT #2:
While the next time I offered the course I still was focused on simply learning Moodle, I made several changes to the content.

• Concise Was Better. I had way too many resources, resulting in the scroll of death, as you can see. I took large numbers of Moodle Webpages I had created and wove them together into a single Moodle Lesson. The result was a leaner look that was less panic-inducing for students and made their work more direct.

• Simplify My Assignments. Not only did I have too many resources, I had too many assignments. Actually, I had way too many forums; I had 11 in the first go-round. All students were doing was creating forum posts to topics, and not all the questions had a lot of bearing on their understanding of Moodle. I eliminated half the forums right off the bat.

• Eliminated Downloads. My first try featured a few Word documents and several PDFs. Which, required the user to have to download and view those outside of the browser. I never ran into the hypothetical student who did not have MS Word, so I was lucky. But transferring those into Moodle webpages and lessons made the content all self-contained in the course.

My 3rd attempt was primarily aimed at incorporating another tool, Adobe Connect Pro, into the course. We were actively pushing that as an AEA. However, while I was able to work it in to the curriculum, it always felt like a poor fit, and I ended up minimizing it after the 4th attempt.

ATTEMPT #4
My 4th attempt featured quite a bit of change, as I was now getting better at the concept of instructional design. I was now teaching 3 other courses online, so I was picking up several tips that I hadn't realized before.

• Embedded Video. I removed almost all of my uploaded video from the course. Instead, I embedded the video, either from YouTube or AEA's Eduvision. This has saved tremendously on bandwidth and the speed by which participants can access the videos.

• FAQ Database. I had made archived backups of all the previous courses before resetting them. This was a wise move, as I still had access to all the past Question & Troubleshooting forum questions that students had posed. I took all of the questions as well as the answers I provided and I put them into an FAQ database. The number of student questions in course #4 went down by 90%. And while I don't have as many questions, I still add them after every new course.

• Multiple Learning Paths. The biggest change to the course was out of necessity. I had several individuals struggle with learning Moodle, becoming overwhelmed by the added item of building their own content. For this course, I add the "template course" option. Specifically, I created my own template course - Basketball 101. I also recorded myself making each of the steps. For those participants who needed a more guided approach to learning Moodle, they could now re-create the template course, basically copying and pasting all the text (and using all the same images). In this way, they wouldn't have to take up time developing their own text. They could also follow my recordings step-by-step. And, they had a finished model to work with, to compare to their own product. This was a giant game-changer to the course, and all of the future courses I have developed have used a similar "multiple learning paths" model.

• Soft Chalk. I finally had had enough of Moodle's lesson module, as it looked boring and was clunky to navigate. I had access to Soft Chalk's "Lesson Builder" program, which is now known simply as Soft Chalk. Taking the lessons that I had created in Moodle, as well as a few brand new lessons (like how to embed Google Forms into Moodle), I created a Soft Chalk lesson for them and replaced the old one. Some might consider this a minor detail (it is just window dressing, right?). And yet, when individuals were creating their own practice courses, they wanted to know how I had made the lessons with the neat banners and built-in navigational items. And especially the hands-on interactives that Soft Chalk allows you to embed within it. Being SCORM-compliant, adding Soft Chalk was extremely easy to do, and greatly enhanced the visual professionalism of the course.

GENESIS OF OLLIE
It was at this time, the spring of 2010, that we began to conceptualize a new way of providing professional development for online teaching. We were putting down the foundation for AEA PD Online, and were looking for instructors. In addition, the Iowa EdTech ARRA grant started, and we had 20 schools across Iowa sign-up to have their teachers trained. We branded a more comprehensive initiative as OLLIE (Online Learning for Iowa Educators), a sequence of 5 courses (to be built over the next year), and built off the Iowa Online Teaching Standards. This meant several changes for our course.

• Re-branding. This is similar to what many other virtual schools have gone through, where a course that was locally developed and used by a teacher was now being assimilated into something bigger. We customized our own template on our new statewide Moodle server, using the Aardvark theme.

• Adding Images. This didn't happen solely in this step, but by this time, it was very noticeable. There were now images to break up long sections of text, as well as visual elements like horizontal rules.

• Change in Focus. Since this course was now part of an online pedagogy sequence, the focus was placed on understanding the concept of online technology as a whole. Some items of Moodle were moved to the enrichment section in order for participants to explore the other online tools that can be utilized within the framework. For the first time, participants now examined a brief summary of the different categories of tools that are available for online instructors, and then chose on their own an independent proposal to examine one tool. This, they then incorporated into their work.

• Groups & Groupings. This was also the beginning of the gargantuan sections of OLLIE, which we've called the Cohorts. Cohort 1 had 93 participants in it (we are currently on Cohort 5, which has 86 participants). These large groups were due primarily to the demand and the lack of supply... I was the only teacher at this point. Having 93 classmates will kill a participant, so I reconceptualized the course using groups of 15-20 people to make up a "class". I then made the activities in the course accessible by group, so that they would only see their fellow classmates. For me, since the course already used a small group assignment, this required some personal learning... I had to figure out groupings during the middle of the course, as I inadvertently set up the course wrong. Luckily, I won't make that mistake again.

REVISIONS OVER THE LAST YEAR

The course continues to evolve, despite that familiarity that sinks in when you have taught it repeatedly. I gave up the other courses that I had taught online, and only teach the 5 OLLIE courses, so that helps a bit in focus.

• Diigo. When I began to develop the other OLLIE courses, I was set on doing a mixture of group work activities. Forums were great to a point, but they weren't always the form of interaction that I wanted. While I had used Diigo for years and had even referenced it in the course as a tool online instructors could use, it took me quite a few iterations before I finally took my own advice. I changed our "Online Teaching Standards" forum into an "Online Teaching Standards" Diigo collaboration, which had the added benefit of familiarizing participants with another form of technology. This hasn't always been smooth, even when I had participants do their collaboration only in a Diigo group we formed. When the next section of the course came to the same website, they weren't greeted with a blank slate to Diigo-annotate (and after one class of 93 participants, there isn't much to annotate anymore). I had to seek out permission from the authors to make a copy of their articles to use in the course, and then make a fresh new copy with each new section of the course that I teach.

• Adobe Captivate. My recorded screencasts of me building different Moodle features had served their purpose, but it was time for a better tutorial. I re-recorded them, this time with Adobe Captivate. This allowed me to pause in between steps and annotate with words and arrows to show what I was talking about.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Right now, we are still in the middle of changes. This past summer, we began to have different instructors teach the course. This has brought on a whole new set of challenges, which I'm probably a few iterations away from mastering. For one, the course still references a lot of outside resources. Those links go bad or those video clips suddenly disable embedding. And whereas before I only needed to keep track of my own course, now I need to make changes in many courses.

We are looking at Moodle's built-in repository feature. This essentially allows you to keep one copy of the resource on the server, and then each section of the course links to the central repository instead of its own file structure. Looks promising, yet we still have lots of work to do to get it to work.

That's not the only new feature that's out there. We are looking to integrate Google Apps into the Moodle platform, so that when a person signs in, their Google Apps (mail, calendar, docs) all appear within the course. This will allow for streamless use by our instructors over time. But this requires curriculum changes, assessment changes in the course, and new tutorials/resources. Similarly, we have added a audio recording tool that is embedded within the Moodle platform, which will be nice once we have it utilized.

The content itself is ever-changing as well. Podcasting was a big deal when I created this course. Now no one selects it as their independent proposal. Nings have gone away, as have dozens of other tools. Keeping the links active and the content fresh is a non-stop job.

The point here being, it is a misconception to think once you have built a course, it will never change. If it doesn't change, it isn't a course that I'd like to take. As an instructor, you have to have this in mind when you make the choice to teach online.

No Imagineering Allowed

2011-09-21T06:38:00.001-05:00

If you see this pop up in your RSS browser and wonder what this blog ever was... yeah, my bad. With my change in duties and the ramp-up of our statewide AEA PD Online initiative, blogging has gone beyond luxury to something that is unthinkable at this point.

But today is different. I'm blogging with a bit of anger. Never a good thing.

My oldest daughter entered 6th grade this year, meaning middle school. She is taking on a lot, including Pre-Algebra, Confirmation, and her first job (teaching Tae Kwon Do for Park and Rec). Her busyness has caused a lot of stress for her, which usually results in some deep discussions and a few tears.

So imagine my frustration when the latest issue was because a teacher wouldn't let her be an imagineer.

Okay, background info. Imagineer = the artistic brains behind designing Disney World attractions and rides. And the assignment = your run-of-the-mill "pick an occupation that you want to be and copy down facts about it... er, research it".

This assignment of course will be done a dozen times by a student in their school career, probably starting in kindergarten. Perhaps more, now that we are paying lip service to "employability skills" usually without any comprehensive curricula on fostering them. I should say, some teachers do this assignment better than others. Better than this case, for example.

The issues were two-fold. One, they were only allowed to pick occupations from a book (a "30-year-old" book, my daughter informs me). Yeah, nothing screams 21st century education like picking antiquated occupations. And two, they were only allowed to research from that book. Which isn't research. You should be banned from ever being able to use the word "research" if this is your idea of it. One source? No synthesizing info from a variety of sources? No evaluation of whether the source is valid or important? Just simply copying stuff down?

So my daughter, the mercurial one that great teachers will love and average teachers will hate, asks why she can't do Imagineering. Answer = 'cause its not in the book.

What's lost on me, and it may show my disconnect from other forms of teaching, is if I were a teacher doing this assignment, I would absolutely love for someone to come up with this. Sure, it might be as pie-in-the-sky as "astronaut" or "NFL player", but I could use it as an example for students to be creative and look outside the box.

Now, this is perhaps a caricature example, coming across as some pretty bad teaching at this point. But we found parallels in her other classes, where there was an emphasis on worksheets, end-of-the-chapter study questions, memorization-based quizzes, and other activities with no match to instructional outcomes (this same class awards extra credit for the completion of crossword puzzles).

This all led to some very sad conclusions that my daughter and I came up with:

1. Teachers care. It was my daughter's conclusion that teachers don't care at all, but that isn't true. They do care about students feelings. They often care very deeply about the content that they teach. They almost always care about keeping the class running smoothly without students getting physically or emotionally hurt.

2. But, they don't all care about creativity. Sure, all teachers will say they do. But valuing creativity is hard. You have to give up quite a bit of autonomy in a room. And it requires you to be willing to grade a lot of different demonstrations of learning. Which will take more time.

3. Even worse, teachers don't all care about learning. This is a harsh statement. Again, all say they do. But when you have an assigned lesson, and when students do something less than perfect on that lesson, if a teacher simply gives "the right answers", if a teacher simply issues a point total or a grade, if a teacher simply moves on to the next lesson, then they don't care about content being learned. They care more about content being taught.

In another class, my daughter has a workbook with study questions at the end of the chapter. Each chapter, the students answer the questions by looking up the answer in the chapter. And then, they review the answers in class, and are told what the correct answer is. The lesson in this case builds the skill of looking in a text and finding a set answer. Say what you want about that outcome, but the reality is, students are never taught how to get better at this skill. They get the answers. They might get an explanation of why such-and-such is the correct answer. But they are never taught how to better look in a text and find the answer. The teacher is more concerned that content is taught than the outcome skill is learned.

4. Straight A's are way overrated. The result of this is my daughter is getting a B+ in her Imagineering-free class. That is the source of all our stress last night. She didn't like the fact that her individual desires for her learning were denied, so she shut down on the assignment and didn't do very well. She was very surprised to hear from her educator-mother and educator-father that there were many classes that were simply ridiculous in what they demanded of students. We said the unthinkable to her... getting straight A's is not a very healthy goal.

5. You have to determine the hoops to jump through. You first have to determine whether your classroom is one that values your creativity and your learning. If so, then that classroom should be your top priority as a student.

If not, then you have to determine what is being asked of you, and simply do it. Or cause yourself a deal of stress and anxiety with the teacher.

So, here's my frustration. These are awful conclusions for an educator, be it me or anyone else, to come up with. But, students everywhere are making these same conclusions, whether in a discussion with their parents, their friends, or simply in their own head. What are we as teachers doing about this? How are we moving beyond lip service of vision statements, beyond just stating "all children must learn" and "creativity is important" and actually mean it?

I'll probably have the answer after another 6-month blogging hiatus.

Instructional Design: The Necklace-Maker Analogy

2011-04-15T11:49:00.001-05:00

With our two-pronged online learning efforts in Iowa -- online professional development and K-12 online learning -- many educators are inquiring about the process of creating an online course. Does it take a lot of time? A lot of skill? How would one even start?

The problem of course, is that in all cases, the answer is "it depends". But, that doesn't help very much at all. So instead, I've started using my necklace-maker analogy. (Yes, I know. Necklaces. But as my oldest would say, "Dad, you don't have to worry, you sacrificed your manly credentials long ago).

THE GOLD NECKLACE

One place many start with is the purchase of a gold necklace. It is already put together, wrought into an interlinked set of links which would make using any of the parts separately very difficult. You can use this right out of the jewelry box if you would like, although putting your own shine on it, through adding some specialized vocabulary to the glossary or some specialized instructions wouldn't hurt.

In this case, the Gold Necklace is the Apex, Plato, or E2020 that is out there (or their professional development-side counterparts). And the Gold Necklace comes with its set of benefits and drawbacks.

Most obvious, it is easy to do. Go to the store and buy it. You have to learn how to close the clasp, but you don't have to build it -- or know how to build it -- at all. Also, you have a good sense that it will look pretty good. The individualized pieces are indistinguishable and are expertly put together to look that way.

On the minus side, though, what qualifies for "gold" now days isn't always a certainty. My youngest daughter in fact is right now showing me her "gold" necklace that she won at Chuck E. Cheese's. And while it looks fairly good (gold-colored shiny metal linked together), the quality of those links beyond their looks isn't very high. Many of the packaged courses are the same way. Their assessments are low-level multiple choice questions, their activities require little imagination, and most of the "learning in the course" is simple delivery from the content into the student's mind. They don't employ constructivist learning very well. Now... that isn't all the packaged courses, but it is more than you would think. You need to examine the quality of the gold before you purchase.

Also, you pretty much have to use them as is. You can't go and add your own links, unless you have specialized skill (instead of a goldsmith, of course, you would need a web designer). Some teachers will go and add their own items and links to a packaged course, and the end result is predictable. It is like adding some plastic charms to the gold necklace. It doesn't fit very well.

And most of all... you have to buy it. They can be very expensive, and in the case of many, that expense is an annual cost.

THE HEMP NECKLACE

The exact opposite of this is the do-it-yourself, build from scratch hemp necklace. I actually have some skill in this area. Camp counseling pays off... well, not literally.

Here, you are starting with very basic building tools, and creating the necklace with a series of knots over and over. It is a very time-intensive task which, for some, is a fun thing to build laboriously. If you are really good, you can get quite elaborate with your knots, but many make a very basic and uninspiring necklace.

Similarly with a do-it-yourself course, you start with some beginner tools, like what Moodle provides. Some become sophisticated and use Moodle's advanced features, like interactive databases, collaborative glossaries, and grouping features. Others stick with what amounts to copying their Microsoft Word files from their face-to-face class and pasting them in a sequence of Moodle webpages... the basic knot.

The disadvantages might be very apparent. It is very time intensive. It is not often very pretty, except for the maker, where it can become a symbol of pride outstripping the actual worth of the course. And, it can be something people try to build for a few hours and then throw it away as the end product wasn't meeting their idea of what it would be.

But, don't overlook this option. The quality of the content, and more importantly, the instruction can be outstanding. More so than packaged courses, the activities can be constructivistically built, collaborative in nature, and very adaptable to student needs. In fact, this course can be adjusted and tweaked extremely easily, even in the middle of a course. And perhaps most importantly, these courses aren't sterile. You can embed within them a personality, like the "teacher who loves Disney so much that every lesson contains a Disneyworld analogy." This is what students remember and respond to in the long run more than the initial flash and glitter.

THE BEADED NECKLACE

This is a bit in the middle. Here, you find beads, which can be low-cost or free in many situations. The craft comes in stringing them together to make the finished necklace. Each bead can be taken in with the viewer's eye by itself, and then can be seen as a whole. And while you still have some flexibility in this option, it also is quite a time saver over knotting-it-yourself.

In the instructional design world, this means an instructor looks for reusable learning objects, of which there are many available. In fact, there are some large repositories out there, featuring a variety of end products: lessons, simulations, activities, surveys, pre-assessments, databases, and more. In most cases, these are free, and of great interactivity and high quality.

The talent is in weaving these together. Novice instructors will find the shiniest of these and try to string them up into a necklace, but the pieces don't fit together nicely... it is too difficult for the viewer's eyes to move from one bead to the next without getting lost, so to speak. More seasoned instructors selectively choose the beads that do fit together in a nice pattern, and then subtly weaves them together with transitional instructions, reflective activities, and a tied-in overall theme to the course. In this case, the instructor has a good sense of what the overall effect of the necklace is to be (the end outcomes of the course), and all the fitting together is done with that purpose in mind.

As mentioned, the danger is getting too focused on the individual bead and not focused on the overall necklace, and there is a talent in the art of weaving it together. Plus, it can be difficult for new teachers to find the beads they are looking for. But overall, this system is what I'm advocating, since it allows for all the benefits of the Gold Necklace and the Hemp Necklace. It involves high levels of design without requiring specialized design skills and maintaining flexibility. And it provides the opportunity for the necklace to retain its character, over a stock gold necklace. Students are more likely to have positive feelings about the course. And finally, it represents a low-cost, low-time solution.

THE PEARL NECKLACE

I'm morphing my analogy over time, and the latest is the addition of the Pearl Necklace. Like the beaded necklace, you are finding the learning objects and stringing them together. However here, by using a growing number of tools out there, you are able to make them look uniform in their design, much like a set of pearls.

Some low-maintenance tools like Adobe Captivate or Lesson Builder allow you to embed easily the learning objects you find. Think of a series of YouTube videos. These tools allow you to easily embed them within a common package, so those lessons look more uniform. But basically, you are not doing any more work (as the oyster would be quick to interject).

In years past, this wasn't a feasible option, since I'd only put Moodle as a low-maintenance, low-skill tool, and its lesson features aren't in the "pearl" class. But these other "rapid e-learning development" tools are now becoming available, and what was never an option for teachers is now becoming one.

WHICH SHOULD YOU USE?
As mentioned, the answer is, "it depends". You have to look at the urgency to get it out, the skill of the instructor in instructional design, the overall quality and level of instruction you are after, and the funding you have.

Long term, though, education will move towards the last two... the beaded or pearl necklace. I'll admit my impartiality here, since I taught this way even in a face-to-face class, where I eschewed textbooks in favor of weaving together some online mini-lessons into the context of interactive student activities. I saw in that method of teaching a vibrant learning atmosphere, filled with unpredictability and discovery for students, and one that mimicked real life much better than an "all-laid-out-for-you" textbook. It gave me the opportunity to teach more so than merely make sure students were reading the book properly. And, that is where our online courses need to be for our online instructors to truly work to their potential.

(Gold Necklace photo by Tiffany Day. Beaded Necklace photo by Sweet Stuff by Ashlley. Pearl Necklace photo by Millica Sekulic).

1:1 Readiness Survey

2011-04-08T08:08:00.000-05:00

CASTLE is partnering with Educational Collaborators to present a 1:1 readiness survey. This survey helps districts thinking about implementing a 1:1 initiative determine their readiness for an implementation. The assessment took me about 30 minutes to complete (they recommend 45), and it targets the following factors:

Goals and Objectives
Financial Planning
Device Procurement & Deployment
End User Support
Curriculum Integration
Marketing & Communication
Faculty Development
Infrastructure Development

Educational Collaborators also offers a post-survey consultation based on the results, something that AEAs offer as well. Educational Collaborators values this instrument as $600, so it being free is a good deal for interested districts.

Those Darn Eagles

2011-04-04T21:10:00.001-05:00

Here is an issue to ponder.

If you are unfamiliar with the Raptors Resource Project (the "Decorah Eagles" phenomenon), visit here to find out what I'm talking about. Or… don't:

We would like to ask staff members to be please refrain from watching the streaming video from the Raptor Resource Project's eagle cam. The watching of the video has slowed down our network which is an inconvenience for everyone. Thank you for your cooperation.

I'm using some sample text that came from an internal memo within our agency, but a similar email has now been sent in many of Iowa's school districts. Basically, when a large portion of teachers have the streaming video up the whole time, even when not at their computer, it does tend to slow things down a bit. Well actually, a lot.

The response from teachers isn't uniform by any means, but what has stood out to me is what I'd call verbal "dress-down" emails. I've seen such emails now in three different schools, each going to the level of chastisement for IT's taking away of a once-of-a-kind learning opportunity, in perfect alignment with the Iowa Core.

I raise this as an example where things aren't always as they seem. Sometimes, IT staff have the reputation of being more concerned about their networks than students. But in this case, I think it is the opposite. The IT staff is actually protecting student access. And, I don't think the line is really that "fine" at all.

A webcam or streaming video can be a great educational opportunity. But only for short segments at a time. Perhaps checking in once a day to see what's happening. Usage that is having the effect of slowing down the network means the streaming video is on constantly, on many computers in the same building. And it demonstrates an ignorance of digital access. One local tech coordinator mentioned that he walked in on a teacher who had each student streaming the video on their own lab computer.

What is key here is the perception of "access" to education, which is what technology is all about. In the "dress-down" emails, the teacher was appalled at the taking access away to the learning opportunity. But what it demonstrated was that the IT staff truly knew what access was. All of the Decorah Eagle project is being recorded and Youtube'd. Telling teachers to not stream the video deprives no students of learning opportunities.

The point I found most intriguing is that each email made an appeal to the Iowa Core. The argument essentially being, how dare you limit what we do on computers, because we've connected it to the Iowa Core, and you can't argue with that.

Is that what "Iowa Core" is becoming? A buzzword to be thrown in and win a persuasive argument? Because, this is about as far from aligning with the Iowa Core as you can get. It puts the resource first and puts the content, assessment, and activity afterwards. Much like saying, "Wow, I've got this really neat link from CNN news, I'm going to have to find some lesson where I can use it". And, it screams of inefficiency and depriving other students access to bandwidth, that could be used on other projects.

Besides, as my daughter mentioned... "Wait! When did the eagle say it was okay to be watched 24/7? It's like he got stuck in a constant episode of Big Brother without any say."

Summer OLLIE Courses

2011-04-01T12:17:00.007-05:00

The statewide OLLIE implementation is hitting full stride this summer! As more and more educators are looking to learn how to teach online, the demand for OLLIE has risen. To meet that demand, we have several AEA consultants now offering courses.

Keystone AEA - Norma Thiese
AEA 267 - Deb Versteeg, Cheryl Carruthers
Prairie Lakes AEA - Karen Appleton, Dorothy Degroot
Mississippi Bend AEA - Julie Alfaro, Robert Reppert
Grant Wood AEA - Karen Goslinga
Heartland AEA - Denise Krefting, Lynn McCartney
Northwest AEA - Pam Buysman, Judy Sweetman
Green Hills AEA - Judy Griffin, Maryann Angeroth
Great Prairie AEA - Kristin Steingreaber, Leslie Roberts, Fran McVeigh

Having more instructors means having more courses, both those with open registration, and those that are provided to a school as ongoing professional development by your AEA. If you are interested in having OLLIE delivered to your staff as part of ongoing professional development, contact your local AEA representative.

SUMMER COURSE OPEN FOR REGISTRATION
• Technology for Online Instruction - A course that focuses on the tools an online teacher can use in her classroom. Participants will learn how to build in the Moodle platform, how to weave in other tools such as social bookmarking, RSS, and synchronous meeting tools, and a chance to explore other ways of delivering learning activities online.

Dates: May 9 - June 12
June 13 - July 24
June 20 - July 31
July 11 - Aug 12
Sept 19 - Oct 31

• Instructional Design - A course that examines the process of creating sound lessons and units online--units that are engaging, interactive, aligned, and focused on end outcomes. Participants will apply their learning by building the introductory and first two units of their own course, either in Moodle or via a unit plan. For those looking to create a course in Moodle, it is strongly advised to take the Technology for Online Instruction course first.

Dates: June 13 - July 17
Oct 16 - Nov 20

• Online Facilitation - A course that helps a teacher see all the different considerations that go into teaching online vs. teaching face-to-face. Everything from how you schedule your week to how you take on different styles/roles in the process of teaching, how you frame your words to how you structure group activity and build classroom culture. This course involves many interactive scenario-based activities, giving a teacher a taste of the tasks an online teacher faces regularly.

Dates: June 6 - July 15
June 17 - July 24
July 11 - Aug 12
July 18 - Aug 21
Sept 5 - Oct 14

• Assessment, Feedback, and Evaluation (NEW) - This course analyzes the methods by which an instructor helps a student understand if they are learning and what else they need to learn. Included in this is how to establish self-assessment and peer-assessment, as well as get participant feedback to improve a course.

Dates: May 30 - July 3
Sept 19 - Oct 23

OLLIE Courses This Spring

2010-12-07T10:13:00.002-06:00

We are offering 3 OLLIE courses this spring:

• Technology for Online Instruction (2 credits, 1/10-2/14)

Course Description: With the demand for online instruction rising, both in K-12 and for professional development, instructors need support in understanding the available tools and their appropriate pedagogical use.

This course will help teachers feel comfortable using Moodle for a host of different purposes, including online courses, hybrid courses, web portals, and online communities. Participants will develop content in the Moodle platform, including activities, forums, lessons, and assessments. Skills and concepts will be analyzed in context of the Iowa Online Teaching Standards and Online Course Standards. The course is delivered online, in an asynchronous delivery (participants work at their own time and place).

• Instructional Design (2 credits, 2/21-4/03)

Course Description: Clayton Christensen, in his book Disrupting Class, boldly predicts that half of 9-12 instruction will be online by 2019. For educators, this means re-learning the principles of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, otherwise known in e-learning as instructional design.

This course introduces educators to the core principles of online instructional design. Participants will experience and discuss how to create student outcomes, assessments, and lessons for an online asynchronous format. They also will have exposure to existing online technologies, including web 2.0 tools, as well as online resources and repositories. Participants will create 2 instructional units, with lessons and assessments, and will practice their understanding with work in small groups. All content and activities created by participants will be able to be used after class is completed.

• Online Facilitation (2 credits, 4/11-5/15)

Course Description: Teaching online is not the same as teaching face-to-face. There are many differences between the two, and a quality online instructor will understand strategies that they use in an online format.

This course gives instructors an understanding of the important differences to teaching online. The course pays particular attention to the biggest challenges that beginning teachers face, such as how often to provide response to students, how to overcome the barrier of no face-to-face communication, and how to ensure academic integrity. And most importantly, this course focuses on the current research and best practices in establishing an online community among students.

Click on the corresponding link for each course to register.

The Danger of Online Teacher Overcompensation

2010-12-02T10:45:00.001-06:00

Re-read the overview of Rena Palloff's and Keith Pratt's "Building Online Learning Communities" in preparation for a course I'm teaching. Really struck by the following quote:

"Many teachers feel that the online classroom is simply not as robust or rigorous and not worthy of consideration, a belief that has caused those of us who teach online to overcompensate and create classes so full of content and activities that sometimes our students simply cannot keep up."

Hmmm... very true. It's the same as when you are 16, and your parents hesitantly give you the car keys, assuming the worst. And you drive the speed limit and signal a full 10 seconds before changing lanes, and keep more than proper following distance, all in the efforts to prove yourself a safe driver.

This having to prove yourself ends up having a detrimental effect on the student and the effectiveness of the course, and becomes just as much an issue as the lack of robustness in the first place.

Moodle Monday: Learning-Object Repositories

2010-11-22T08:02:00.000-06:00

In most face-to-face classes, digital resources have been underutilized. That happens for many reasons: lack of teacher planning time to implement new content, no access for students to reach the digital resources, not wanting to veer away from approved curriculum or a textbook... you name it. And while this weakens the richness of a face-to-face class, it still is able to function, as students plod through the textbook like they have done for years.

In an online course, however, weaving digital resources into a curriculum is an absolute necessity. While there has been progress in digital textbooks, they still are not prevalent. Access also isn't an issue, since if students have access to the course in general, they will have access to the resources within it. And given that the entire instruction takes place through a digital medium, a teacher's personality or classroom management cannot make up for dull materials lacking interaction.

But as most instructors will avow, it is the time factor that matters. While looking to weave in a webquest or a digital lesson into your face-to-face course could take up quite a bit of your planning in a face-to-face class, it will actually save you time in your digital classroom, since you would be building that lesson or resource from scratch yourself.

WHAT'S AVAILABLE?
There are a slew of resources out there, ranging from full lessons to video tutorials to simulations, and much more. The term for all of these is learning objects. Well-made learning objects are easy to implement in the digital class (whether directly linked, embedded, or imported into your Moodle class). They provide clear outcomes and instructions that are intuitive. They also make it easy for the teacher to find what she's looking for, with a searchable database and drill-down options. Here is a quick glance at some excellent learning-object repositories out there.

• Merlot - MERLOT (Multi-media Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) is a database of online resources. MERLOT offers descriptions and links to web-based resources, simulations, learning objects, lessons, and more in virtually every subject area. In addition, MERLOT offers user ratings and comments of the items.

While MERLOT is designed for higher education, the resources they link to are often very applicable for K-12 education. In addition, MERLOT offers an online content builder for teachers to create their own learning objects, as well as many resources for online teaching.

• Curriki - Curriki is a repository of all types of resources for K-12 online education, ranging from individual rubrics, resources, activities, or lessons, all the way to full courses. Like Merlot, it features a community of educators who contribute lessons and rate/evaluate others, to give you a peer review process for determining quality.

One bonus feature for Curriki is the extensive amount of resources for K-8 in addition to 9-12. It will allow you to search the site by those grade levels as well.

• OER Commons - Just like Merlot, the Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons has a database of learning objects available on the web. However, this is geared about equally to K-12 as it is post-secondary.

• Connexions - Connexions, like Merlot or Curriki, is a learning object repository with an online community that ranks and rates objects in addition to submitting them. Connexions has a great range in the grade level of intended objects. While mostly designed for higher education, there are resources available all the way down into elementary grades.

• NROC/Hippocampus - Hippocampus offers interactive courses and units that are free for individual educators to use with their course (there is a cost for institutional use). These courses are in high school subjects such as Government, Algebra, Geometry, Biology, Religion, Physics, Statistics, and US History.

The materials are aligned with both free digital textbooks as well as published textbooks (which many schools might already own).

• Wisconsin-Online - Wisconsin-Online has an extensive learning object repository, featuring quite a few interactive simulations. It features an expanded range of learning objects in many specific vocational areas (even cosmetology, hydraulics, criminal justice, and dental hygiene, among others). It also offers quite a few ELL materials.

• Udemy - Udemy offers recordings of seminar lectures and other materials brought together around a specific course topic. The materials are all modular, and can be used separately.

In addition to these, don't forget the "learning object repositories" of DE Streaming, Atomic Learning, YouTube, and Teachertube, all of which offer great amounts of multimedia content for your classroom.

Establishing Online Community and Virtual Office Hours: A Case Study

2010-11-09T11:23:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to sit in on Brad Niebling's Virtual Office Hours this morning. Brad is the alignment consultant at Heartland AEA and has been chairing the Iowa Department of Education's work on the Iowa Core with alignment.

Brad has a unique challenge in front of him. He is by all accounts the expert in this area in the state (at least at the K-12 level). And, unfortunately, alignment is not a topic that many are voluntarily flocking to in the state. Brad wants to build awareness, understanding, and interest in alignment across the state, where individuals can learn and discuss with each other. And therefore needs to overcome limits in time and geography.

In essence, Brad wants to create an online community.

He's taking a new spin on professional development which could have a big impact on future professional development in the state, especially as we begin to see fewer and fewer consultants being asked to serve more educators. He can best bring about this awareness, understanding and interest, not in some isolated presentations and courses, but by connecting things together, and allowing the internet to serve as a great on-ramp for getting people up to speed. Here's what he is doing.

1. GOOGLE SITE.
Brad is not a programmer and mentioned he has limited webpage design skills. So instead, he has used Google's easy, intuitive interface to make a site for all things alignment. This site not only has documentation he has created, but is eschewing an info-dump in favor of a learning experience. When visitors attend, they are part of a conversation.

How so? Take a peek. He is using interactive surveys for participant feedback. He has gathered testimonial stories from curriculum directors in the state, sharing their experiences with others. He is utilizing screen-cast tutorials to help participants navigate the ICAT alignment tool. He has a FAQ. Brad's site is a model of how to make interactive websites for educators, without any knowledge of flash, javascript, or other programming languages.

2. TWITTER.
Brad (@bniebling) has a good emerging presence on Twitter. The social media serves him in many ways here. First, he can use it as a method to give quick feedback to questions, sharing those questions with all his followers at once. Twitter's constant conversation makes it a more ongoing learning experience than his Google Site. Simply put, an educator might not check into the Google Site to catch the latest update, but those will come across the Twitterfeed.

Twitter enables Brad to leverage national expertise in alignment as well. I'll be honest... I know little about alignment and even less of where to go to get current research in the area. That's okay, though. Brad tells me where it is, through his retweets.

And of course, Twitter serves as a promotional piece of communication, as people through connections will eventually get connected to Brad even if they weren't to ever stumble on the Google Site. Which helps Brad promote...

3. VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS.
As I mentioned, his latest effort is to create a virtual session (using Adobe Connect Pro) where he answers questions or conducts conversation about alignment with whomever stops in. When I peeked into his virtual office this morning, he was in conversation with a local curriculum director about some recent developments with the Iowa Core.

Brad has structured the room so that he can show his desktop for step-by-step demonstrations, field questions from an ongoing chat stream, point participants to various resources and links, all while talking via his computer speakers with passers-by. Brad's next virtual office hours, by the way, will be on Nov. 23 from 2:00-3:00.

THE IMPACT?
I believe this to be the future of consultation and leadership in the state. An online community of educators, interacting through synchronous tools, social media, and online resources, makes for a much more flexible system to join and a more constant conversation. Think about an AEAs team of literacy consultants, for example, having a weekly webinar to field questions from teachers or demonstrate some latest techniques or resources in quality literacy instruction. And then, coupling that with an ongoing dialogue in a social media format, be it Twitter or a social network.

There is a similar model being employed by the University of Georgia, whose Bridges program has been connecting teachers for almost a decade now. When I visited with Julie Moore, an assistant professor who has coordinated the system, she mentioned the research they have conducted points overwhelmingly to the facilitator of the community as the linchpin to the community's success. Good facilitators had thriving communities, and not-so-thriving communities lacked that good facilitator.

Moore identified 3 key factors to that lead to a good facilitator:

1. Enthusiasm and vigilance towards the importance of the community's focus
2. The ability to connect with people and make them feel involved
3. The willingness to devote the time necessary

Note, there wasn't anything about being an expert in certain technologies, or even an expert in the subject area. Instead, it was more about the creativity of getting people connected, and doing so because of a passion for the subject.

So, while Brad continues his work in these areas, it isn't as simple for other consultants to go create a Google Site, Twitter account, and Virtual Office Hours. They have to start with the essential ingredients above.

At what point do we have too many rights?

2010-11-03T16:44:00.001-05:00

Even though election day brought little in terms of surprises (the Republican wave was prognosticated over a year ago), it certainly is the fruition to a shift in public privilege (entitlement is probably too strong a word here). Everybody wants their rights back. I'm not sure anyone knows how they'd like to exercise those rights, but they sure don't want even the thought of someone taking them away.

Public education was not on the radar at all this past election cycle (this is not a surprise, as it seems to be the only area that Republicans are willing to praise Obama). So, what is the natural extension of this "I have my rights" mentality in the public school debate?

Probably something like this. The editorial makes the case for the public's right to know the quality of teachers they support with their taxpayer money. This means the public release of teacher evaluations, including the "value-added" scores which measures how a student compares to their predicted success score.

This brings many questions to my mind:

Have we developed the value-added formula to measure the band teacher's performance, yet?
Can we do the same for police officers? Because I'd really like to know which ones are pulling over the most people.
Would the general public understand the dataset? Would they care to?
Once the public has the data, what will the actually do? Are they enabled now?
If I'm an administrator, how likely am I to add constructive criticism into a teacher evaluation, knowing I could have any citizen with a grudge looking at it?

Where do I begin? Measuring students on student achievement data alone is already a problem, as it is to measure teachers on it alone. This action would only reinforce the idea that this is what makes kids successful. Even if it was a valuable measure, collecting a dataset which will demonstrate the value of a teacher in student achievement is an impossible task. The data will be tainted with a myriad of other variables.

But what strikes me most is that the thought of communities being "enabled" to act on this information is utopian. What are they going to do? Spend a lot of time and money to try to force them out of work? That principled dedication is reserved only for action on our state supreme court justices. When it comes down to it, the community passion for a wave of change in schools isn't there.

The end result is instead that teachers feel ostracized and unfairly judged more than ever. Simply put, it uses "accountability" as a cover word for implementing "motivation by fear".

Yes, schools need changing. But this change requires cooperation between educators and the community, not distrust. Community need more rights, more data? Open the doors. Invite them into the school to observe what's going on in the classroom. Find ways for them to take part, to offer their reflections on what they see. This offers accountability in a constructive manner, with all parties on the same side.

Kids cannot be a political football.

Foundations of the Iowa Core

2010-10-27T07:13:00.000-05:00

The Department of Education, in conjunction with the AEAs, released over the summer an online module entitled "Foundations of the Iowa Core". The module is to be used as a component of professional development, or simply as an information piece. While its development began as a response to some confusion amongst educators about what the Iowa Core, where it began, or where it is heading, it has also been beneficial for parents and community members to get a sense of the initiative.

The module focuses on

The basic features and terminology of the Iowa Core
Understanding the 6 Outcomes
Identifying the characteristics of effective instruction
Discussing the benefits of the Iowa Core for students, educators, communities, and the state

The module is intended to be use either individually or in conjunction with others. There are several collaborative learning team (CLT) activities for schools who use it as part of their face-to-face inservice, as well as individual activities if a person is looking at it alone. In addition to activities, the module features video interviews with teachers, students, and community members. The content itself will take about 1 hour to complete if working individually, and will take 2-3 hours if groups are discussing the CLT activities.

RELATED POSTS
Iowa Core in a Nutshell
5 Characteristics of Effective Instruction

Online days instead of snow days?

2010-10-26T07:18:00.000-05:00

Never too early in Iowa to start thinking about snow days, of course.

Boone Grove High School in Valparaiso, IN is one school that last year dealt with snow days by creating "online days". The premise was that students could still meaningfully interact with the curriculum working online through Moodle, and it would cause less disruption to the continuity of the learning process.

I ran across this reflection from a high school student, Jacob Knecht, who was writing for the school's newspaper. While there isn't much there in terms of the structure or logistics of the day, it is clear that the "online day" was well received by students, faculty, and especially parents. The concern of access at the home was not identified as an issue for BGHS.

One school's success does not dictate it is right for schools in Iowa, but it is good to see that while many Iowa administrators have hypothesized about an "online day" every time they have to call off school, there are schools that have put that into action.

Things that bug me, part one million and 26

2010-10-20T20:24:00.000-05:00

I've been known to complain too much, and this really is a minor thing. Still...

My son's quiz question:
Why is voting a good way to have a voice in your community?
a. Voting is easy
b. Voting helps make towns and cities better places
c. Voters choose who will help make decisions for the community

The answer guide of course says c, but you could easily argue b. That's what my son chose. And, he got it marked wrong.

It's not that he got it wrong that bothers me. It's that he didn't get a chance to explain why he chose that answer, as he told me. They never went over the questions as a class. This is a golden opportunity for students to justify their answers with rationale and logic. At the very least, the teacher should explain why a given answer is correct and others wrong. But instead, students won't have a chance to learn and engage in dialectic discussion.

The answer sheet said c.

Digital Learning, Illustrated

2010-10-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

One of the better activities for teachers to do is to look at the following YouTube video and answer the following questions:

What type of learning is taking place?
What role is technology playing?

It is worth it to take a look at the comments the boy has received (66 total when I posted this).

The type of learning that is taking place is illustrative of "digital learning". It is student-centered, inquiry-based. It draws upon teachers from around the world. The individuals who are helping this boy out, the boy does not even know. It is an authentic real-world experience for him, not something contrived and solely useful in the walls of a classroom.

In brief, he is learning through making connections. And, it's not about the technology at all. He didn't create this just to "make a YouTube video". We aren't interested in assessing his videography or editing skills. He wanted to learn how to use a bowdrill set, and the technology was merely a conduit to get to that learning, just as he would use a pencil or a calculator in other situations.

In this sense, digital learning is not about the technology at all; it is about the deeper purposes and important learnings that you want students to have. It is about a curriculum that creates connections for students to multiple sources of learning, not to simply the one answer in the back of the book.

The easy mistake to make, the wrong conclusion to jump to, is to think it is about the technology, since as an outsider that is what you see when you walk into a 1:1 school. But if a school is doing it well, it's not what students should see. As Chris Lehmann from Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia points out, technology "should be like oxygen, ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible". Students should no more be conscious that they are using the computer than other pieces of technology in their room.

Moodle Monday: Can we have some Moodle please?

2010-10-18T08:01:00.000-05:00

A presentation from Tomaz Lasic, Moodle entrepreneur. Ask and you shall receive, as Moodle's array of functionality meets the wishes of many educators.

Can we have some Moodle please?

View more presentations from Tomaz Lasic.

Online Learning Initiatives in Iowa

2010-10-14T12:32:00.002-05:00

(My presentation given to the Statewide Leadership Teams)

Online learning initiatives in iowa

View more presentations from Evan Abbey.

1. Iowa Core materials on Moodle

The Iowa Core professional development, alignment, and assessment for learning sub-committees have been placing their resources and instructor guides on the Heartland Moodle server (will soon be on the statewide Moodle server).

2. ARRA

The state has been awarded $2.7 million for the developing our capacity to deliver K-12 online content. This includes content development/acquisition, professional development, and technological support. An overview of the grant can be found here

3. OLLIE

The AEA Online Council is developing a PD sequence for online pedagogy, called Online Learning for Iowa Educators (OLLIE). There has been a proposal to offer a cohort for curriculum consultants from the statewide team this spring, with the purpose being common collaboration to create PD content, K-12 content, and prepare consultants to teach online. If you have personal interest in this, contact me and for more info, check out here.

4. ITSI-SU

Heartland AEA is currently participating in a National Science Foundation grant coordinated by the Concord Consortium. The grant is looking at the use of digital tools (including a portal and simulations) to enhance inquiry science. It is entitled “Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry – Scale-Up” (ITSI-SU). While the grant is paying for a piloting group to receive stipends and digital probes for their involvement, the online tools are available freely to all teachers. If there is statewide interest, Evan Abbey and Rob Kleinow can train other consultants in a “train-the-trainer” model.

For more information, visit http://www.concord.org/projects/itsi-su

To see and try out the portal, visit http://itsi.portal.concord.org/signin/

Why Moodle?

2010-10-13T16:44:00.003-05:00

The recent developments with both ARRA and AEA PD Online have gained many administrators interest. However, one question that surfaces is why did we choose Moodle over Blackboard, Studywiz or other LMS products? Both of the initiatives will be standardizing the content into Moodle.

First, there isn't much debate, that we need to standardize and choose one. AEAs and districts have limited resources, and content and expertise are easily shared when everyone is using the same platform. So, why Moodle and not a different one?

It is not because of functionality. In comparison of features, many of the top platforms have very similar features. You could argue Moodle has a wider range of plugins for installation than commercial products, but that doesn’t mean overall it has more functionality. So, this is not a deciding characteristic. Here is what are:

1. Cost – Moodle is open source, meaning there are no annual per pupil costs for the license to use Moodle. This differs from commercial products, which usually range from $5-10 a student, plus the yearly license fee (and some have support contracts on top of that). Open source doesn’t mean free, as there are costs involved to have someone maintain the server, but those costs go back to support local employees. And, while there are other open source LMS products out there, Moodle remains the option with the most visibility and support, meaning the cost is lower over them as well.

2. Present Scalability – Because of its open source nature, it allows all types of deployment. Districts can dabble with a trial server. An individual teacher can set up their own server. There can be cheap hosted versions for as little as $7/month. A district can set up their own Moodle installment, including robust options (the largest self-managed Moodle installments have up to 500,000 users). And, there are many full-fledged Moodle hosting options a district can use if they would prefer not to host it themselves.

3. Experience & Market Share – The AEAs have each used Moodle, in some cases for over 5 years. Leading districts in Iowa have used Moodle for just as long. In fact, the current market share of K-12 educational entities in Iowa for Moodle is overwhelming. Having a community of users makes for a more valuable statewide effort, allowing content, professional development, and knowledge to be exchanged.

4. Professional Development – The AEAs have developed professional development materials (including modules and courses) for Moodle. This material can be used flexibly in either online, self-paced, hybrid, or face-to-face options. Developing professional development for other LMS tools would be a considerable cost for the AEAs.

5. Future Scalability – Moodle’s market share, especially among open source options, means it isn’t going anywhere and will continue to thrive. Moodle has a vibrant community adding many different plug-ins and options. The ability to add your own individual themes, plugin tools, templates, and layouts make it a flexible option for the future.

That's not to say a district could not choose a different platform and be pleased with the results. But, it will inhibit that district's ability to participate in the statewide effort.

So, what is OLLIE?

2010-10-12T09:05:00.002-05:00

Online Learning for Iowa Educators (OLLIE) is a new initiative by Iowa's Area Education Agencies. Its central aim is to deliver quality professional development in online pedagogy to Iowa teachers, and do so in a systemic way. It is a 5-course sequence built around best practices in online teaching:

Introduction to the Online Learner (1 cr.)
Technology for Online Instruction (2 cr.)
Instructional Design in an Online Course (2 cr.)
Facilitation in an Online Course (2 cr.)
Assessment and Evaluation in Online Courses (2 cr.)

The AEAs began offering courses in the sequence during the 2009-10 school year, and will have all 5 courses being offered by the summer of 2011. Currently, the AEAs are also partnering with Drake University, which will be offering a 15-credit certificate in online teaching, using a core of the 9 credits above with 2 electives (6 credits) from their online pedagogy offerings.

As taking an online experience is one of the keys to learning how to teach, the courses are all online. More importantly, they are being delivered in a train-the-trainer, modular format, meaning that schools can deliver school-wide professional development to teachers using the course content with a local or AEA facilitator (we are currently in the process of training a cohort of AEA trainers). Courses will also be offered as catalog courses through AEA PD Online for instructors looking to learn on their own, outside of a district initiative.

The courses do build on each other sequentially. Participants have hands-on activities helping them construct an actual course they will use, so the learning is an efficient use of time. However, the "Introduction to the Online Learner" is an excellent course for all educators to take, whether they will be teaching online or not. Given that many administrators, counselors, at-risk coordinators, and TAG coordinators are pondering online offerings for students, this course gives must-have information on ensuring student success online.

OLLIE & THE ARRA GRANT
OLLIE is a central part of the ARRA Ed Tech grant to help build capacity in Iowa to deliver K-12 content. Some of the grant dollars are being used to provide piloting districts with stipends for early adopter teachers who take OLLIE courses. This summer, we held a cohort of 19 districts who completed coursework in the OLLIE sequence, representing over 100 teachers and administrators. In addition, the Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Des Moines, Norwalk, and Van Meter school districts have committed to delivering OLLIE content to selected teachers in their district.

Map Channels: free mapping tools

Teachers participating in the cohort not only had a chance to engage with the content, but they also had the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers across the state on similar projects, including the creation of common courses. Several teachers participating in the summer program are implementing hybrid units this fall as the first step into online learning.

One important step for schools looking to dip their toe in online learning is to target specific teachers who will actively challenge themselves to deliver the curriculum in new and exciting ways for students. More cohorts are planned to begin this year in regional areas for district trainers or early adopter teachers. Districts interested in professional development should contact me or their AEA Ed Tech consultants to find out more.

Getting Your School Started with Online Learning

2010-10-11T08:21:00.000-05:00

(Below is my presentation for Tuesday, 11:00 at ITEC).

Is Your School Ready for Online Learning

View more presentations from Evan Abbey.

Key Concepts
• How online learning can be used in your school. (Blog - 4/26)

• Most common roadblocks facing Iowa's schools
- Fear for teachers of being replaced
- Primitive view of what online learning is
- Tradition of what "school" is to look like
- Money

• Action Steps
1) Become an advocate
2) Share and refine a vision of online learning in your school (Have conversations with your influential people)
3) Sell your idea to your publics
4) Lay the foundation--plan your course server, your student access, your policies, your professional development. Examine the processing questions
5) Learn what resources/opportunities exist (network)
6) Target specific areas & early adopters to work with
7) Commit. If you wait for the perfect course to be developed, you will never offer one. You learn by trying.

• Current Efforts in Iowa
- Iowa Learning Online (contact Arlan Thorson).
ILO offers free courses in several areas for Iowa students. They also offer free content for schools to use, and have brokered courses for schools, helping with marketing & registration.

- ARRA Grant.
The state AEAs, in partnership with Cedar Rapids CSD, Davenport CSD, Sioux City CSD, Waterloo CSD, Iowa City CSD, Council Bluffs CSD, and Dubuque CSD have received a $2.7 million grant to develop capacity to deliver online learning in Iowa.

Goals of the grant =
1) Provide online content for Iowa schools in math, science, and literacy.
2) Help connect teachers with free online content.
3) Build a repository to host the online content.
4) Provide systemic professional development in online pedagogy for K-12 schools.
5) Connect schools with Iowa Learning Online to use their services to enhance online offerings.
6) Help schools find new models for providing credit recovery and alternative programming.

- OLLIE (Online Learing for Iowa Educators).
To help build internal capacity for online learning, we are developing a sequence of professional development courses, to be facilitated by AEA consultants or locally at an LEA.

The modules include
1) Introduction to the Online Learner (1 credit)
2) Technology for Online Instruction (2 credits)
3) Online Instructional Design (2 credits)
4) Facilitation (2 credits)
5) Assessment, Feedback, and Evaluation (2 credits)

Reflection on Eric Scheninger's Visit

2010-10-10T12:14:00.001-05:00

Eric Scheninger (@NMHS_Principal), a frequent colleague and collaborator of Van Meter High School principal Deron Durflinger (and many others in Iowa), recently made a visit to Iowa State's CASTLE program and several central Iowa schools. He liked what he saw. Here's his reflection from his visit. Definitely worth a read, since it gives us a view from outside of the work that is happening in the state.

A few of my thoughts:
• Eric is a proponent of constructivist education steeped in technology integration, so the benefits he saw are not surprising. Still, it is reinforcing for Van Meter, South Hamilton, and United to hear that it is obvious to outside observers the enthusiasm and enjoyment with the learning process that their students have.

• The "parental-acceptance-curve" is a poignant observation that future Iowa 1:1 schools will grapple with... parents being a bit leery before roll-out.

• Obviously, Eric's visit was limited in time. While it is one thing to observe creativity on display in student reactions and enthusiasm, it is another to quantify it against other schools. The big question that remains is how students are achieving in 1:1 schools. Are students actually learning more? Is the constructivist theory of education bringing about higher gains, or is it a bunch of sound and fury? If I'm a school weighing this decision, this question has to be at the center of my decision, and we need that data. The data on higher attendance and fewer referrals are steps in the right direction.

• Eric hit the nail on the head with his observation about needing more professional development. The AEAs were a bit blindsided by the explosion in 1:1 environments and are scrambling to catch up. Most distressing to me: Over a majority of the AEA Ed Tech consultants who are training Iowa 1:1 teachers have never actually taught in a 1:1 classroom. Good news, though. The INTEL Elements courses will help provide system professional development in this area.

• One concern for me is that Eric highlighted certain student work--creating original music for their presentations, developing Wordles, putting in slide transitions, and using Paintbrush. At first glance, I don't see how any of these actually lead to mastery of objectives. They are the equivalence of making your posterboard look really pretty. And undoubtedly, they are time-consuming, taking time away from student analysis, conversation, and direct focus on the end outcomes. This is a chief criticism of technology integration by critics such as Dan Willingham, Robert Pondiscio or Jay Matthews, and something that our 1:1 schools need to be conscious of.

• One other bright spot in this reflection is Eric sees most teachers thriving in this type of teaching environment. From my conversations with Deron and Van Meter superintendent John Carver, this is not always easy. While it can appear schools like these 3 are fully embracing the mantle of change, there is a lot of background working with staff and community to help them with this second-order change. Not every teacher was originally excited about the move to 1:1, so this shows the work that school leaders have put in.

So, what is the ARRA grant?

2010-10-09T22:40:00.001-05:00

The ARRA Ed Tech Grant uses federal stimulus dollars for the purposes of enhancing education through technology in the classroom, using a similar structure to the E2T2 system. In applying for the roughly $3 million, Iowa is prioritizing capacity-building for its schools to deliver K-12 online learning.

The needs for this are self-evident: Iowa has limited statewide options for online learning that pale in comparison to other states. This has come as the result of its fine educational system (and the pride that the state takes in it), as educators and community members alike have been slow to demand fixes when what we are used to "wasn't broken." But, times have changed, and the most vocal group for needing the benefits of online learning have been administrators.

To address this need, all 9 AEAs and 7 of the 8 largest districts in Iowa banded together to create a common proposal. They were awarded $2.7 million, to be used to address the needs of online learning for rural access, high teacher shortage areas, credit recovery, and disaster/pandemic preparation.

The specific action steps have quickly materialized:

Develop/purchase online content for schools to freely use
Link to and vet free online resources that exist on the web
Deliver professional development to train K-12 teachers in online pedagogy
Create a common repository for schools to access the content and deliver online learning
Partner with Iowa Learning Online, which brokers courses that districts can open up to other district students

One distinct thing about this is the speed at which things are moving. This isn't a 6-year development process before schools can peak behind the curtain (okay... maybe that was too blunt of an allusion). These things are coming quickly. We had a 100-teacher cohort complete summer training in online pedagogy from 19 different Iowa school districts, and we are currently in the middle of a train-the-trainer sequence for AEAs to deliver their own training. We also will have purchased some content from Florida Virtual Schools this fall, and will have the repository up and running by next summer.

I've had the pleasure to work closely with Nancy Movall, who was named the grant specialist, and has been overseeing the governance of the grant. Nancy has been vigilant about 3 things--sustainability, efficiency, and results. The grant's funds are limited to one year, so purchasing seats in a program like Plato or Apex won't have any sustaining effects. Neither would they be transformative, as it would emphasize the same detached form of online learning that schools had been engaged in, one where the student works through endless modules in isolation.

She has stressed that we need to own content, that we need to make one-time purchases and have the content indefinitely. This will include some local development, geared around specific aspects of the essential skills and concepts. But given that we have limited resources in the area of instructional design, we have to be systemic about what we choose to develop ourselves.

Most importantly to Nancy, we need to avoid situations where teachers are developing content on their own. It is a model that is highly inefficient, and past track records have shown a tendency to take traditional face-to-face lessons and move them online, not taking advantage of the features about online learning to make it unique. Instead, teachers will be trained on how to take existing content, be they units, lessons, activities, or resources, and weaving them together for a powerful learning experience.

So, what do schools need to know? First and foremost, that help is coming. Schools interested in systemic professional development in online pedagogy now have an option, the OLLIE sequence. This professional development can be delivered in different formats to fit a school's needs. In addition, schools will have a solid base of content to choose from within a year's time, eliminating the need to purchase high quantities of seats in packaged programs. Plus, the process for schools to become participants in the arena of online learning will be made much easier with the resources that Iowa Learning Online offers.

Interested? Contact us:
• Evan Abbey - eabbey@aea11.k12.ia.us
• Nancy Movall - nmovall@gwaea.org
• Arlan Thorson - athorson@iowalearningonline.org

10 Things You Need to Know About Being an Online Teacher

2010-10-08T09:28:00.002-05:00

(Below is my presentation for Monday, 1:45 at ITEC).

10 Things You Need to Know About Being an Online Teacher

View more presentations from Evan Abbey

More and more, I receive random emails or calls from those with an interest in teaching online. The reasons for their interest are different; some are looking at retirement and see this as a more flexible way to stay in teaching, others see themselves as changes agents for educational delivery, be it a constructivist pedagogy or a tech-infused classroom, and online learning is the next frontier. Some in this rough economy see teaching online license renewal courses as a decent part-time job that allows them to keep their present position. And still others are being asked to by administrators.

Whatever the reasons, my responses are usually the same. Online teaching is not easy. Whether you thought so or not, you have to understand that it isn't as simple to do what you do in a face-to-face classroom, only this time with a keyboard.

I've seen several good face-to-face teachers who are not able to teach online (and vice versa). It is a completely different skill set. Not an impossible one, mind you (and certainly one we need to learn as a state). But it is different.

Here are the ten pieces of advice (not in importance, but rather in terms of when you'll encounter them) that I would recommend for any person looking to become an online teacher:

#10. Take an Online Course
Or five. You'll learn more from being a student in an online environment than you will researching it. You will see first hand what type of organizational structure or communication patterns work for you and what don't work at all.

Of course, a problem is that there are currently many bad online courses out there. My wife recently completed one where she was asked to read the two articles and make two reflective posts in the forum each week for 9 weeks. And that's it. She never discussed the content with her instructor or fellow classmates... it was simply a sequence of hoops to jump through for her credit. So, take the course with a critical eye, and take a variety of courses to gain some perspective. This one step will help you not just at the beginning, but throughout your online teaching career.

#9. Online Teaching is Time Consuming... Have a Plan!
You know, when I receive evaluative feedback from my participants at the end of the course, the most frequent comment is how surprising the amount of work is. They were thinking an online course would be less work than a face-to-face course.

The same misperception holds true for the teacher as well. It takes a considerable amount of time to read student's work, answer student questions, communicate through announcements, etc. Your evening hours can quickly evaporate. What makes it worse, students who are used to getting an answer immediately in a face-to-face class will wonder why you haven't emailed back to their question (it's been 5 minutes already!!!).

For your own sake, have a plan of when you will be teaching. Block out some time from your schedule. And communicate this plan to your students. Let them know that Wednesday is "Church Night" and you will be busy, or Saturday morning is spent watching each of your sons' flag football games. Let them know when you will be grading assignments, and how frequently you respond to questions. The more up front planning and communication you can add, the more sane your life will be. Which leads us to...

#8. Communication Online IS Different
You probably already get the whole netiquette, "You-don't-know-how-they-will-interpret-sarcasm-online-so-don't-use-it" thing. And yes, use emoticons.

But there is much more. As an instructor, you have to use many different tones, be it analytical, informal, inquisitive, humorous, concerned, reassuring, or more. You have to know how to phrase things positively, even when students aren't reading the directions (which you will be tested on even before your first class starts). And, you need to know when and how to jump in to online discussions, helping steer them to the learning outcome you desire, without people knowing you are steering them.

#7. Remember, Online Students Have Issues, Too
Which, is better stated as "Online Students have Needs". They will need to have clarity about assignments, meaning you will need to provide many levels of support. That includes a "Question & Troubleshooting Forum", screencast tutorials showing how to navigate the site, and virtual office hours for asking questions.

But the bigger needs are social needs. Students need to get to know other people. Research out of UW-Madison has shown an interesting phenomenon: When students rate the quality of online courses, even if they are in the exact same course, they will pick different reasons why it was a good course or not. But actually, the biggest constant for good courses vs. bad courses is something that appears later in the survey... how well did you get to know your fellow students. Even though participants can't articulate this, their perception of being in a close social group in class makes the class good.

Social presence can be built in several different ways. How you have students introduce themselves is critical. How you have them keep connected at the end of the class is critical. And, how you structure assignments so that there is honest interaction, requiring a person to converse with others is critical. As a beginner online teacher, this is a hard area to perfect right away.

#6. Flexibity... and yet, structure
Online courses are synonymous with being flexible. "Any time, place or pace" is the mantra.

Well, that's not quite correct. Flexibility is important, even more so than in a face-to-face environment. In addition to differences of prior knowledge, learning preferences, and favorite topics, online courses bring in differences of technological proficiency and technological access (doing certain online activities on dial-up = not fun). So, it is important to provide choices for students.

But, that doesn't mean you don't have due dates. Letting students wait until the last day of class where they turn everything in is a recipe for disaster. Items like pacing charts help students budget their time to meet weekly due dates. And with each choice, you will want to provide models of the desired outcome as well as the steps to get there, so students can see clearly the path of their learning. Without this structure, students are left wandering the great desert of online courses.

#5. Need-to-know vs. Nice-to-know
The most common mistake a new teacher make is putting too much into their course, not too little. Myself included. I haven't had a course yet where I haven't taken out considerable portions after teaching it the first time (I know... if you have taken my course, you are allowed to say "No Fair!")

When you design your course, be sure you clearly identify what you want your students to know, and then stick to it. If you have other material, clearly identify it as "Enrichment" that participants can learn on their own.

#4. Make it Interactive
This video really says it all:

Interaction isn't jump-through-the-hoops forums. Your class need to have high quality multi-media, simulations, scenario-based activities, and role-playing.

#3 You can't just take everything off the internet
Take some time to understand copyright, including Creative Commons. Copyright for an online classroom is very grey at the moment. While you are a teacher and you are guided by fair use policies, you also are putting things on the web. There is debate right now between whether a learning management system like Moodle is an online classroom or a webpage (which has a great impact on whether you can use items through fair use).

#2 Rethink assessment
How could you assess student ability to graph inequalities online? How about singing? Physical agility and endurance? Oral speaking?

Not everything can be taught online, but more can than you think. A common mistake is, for a performance-based objective, an online teacher will require non-performance-based assessment. Taking a multiple-choice quiz to see how well you can sing, for example. There are a multitude of tools out there, be it podcasting or data-collection tools (heart-rate monitors and video cameras for a PE class, for example). Don't settle for inferior forms of assessment.

#1 Make it fun
You know which face-to-face courses are fun within minutes of being in them. The instructor has a personality, uses humor, and doesn't take themselves too seriously, making everyone feel relaxed and safe to learn in the process. That's harder to do online, but just as critical. How can you make your course fun right away?

From the moment you introduce yourselves to your students, let them know your personality. Use personal anecdotes. Use a theme throughout the course (best online course I took was from a Disney nut, who kept putting random images of Walt Disney World throughout the course). And, be sure to show them you are not perfect either. Show them how you have learned the content you are currently teaching, and point out some of the mistakes you made at the beginning too. All of these things make the course more enjoyable and safe for students.

So, what is AEA PD Online?

2010-10-07T07:16:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, we have 2 concurrent initiatives regarding online learning in the state at the moment. The first, which had been called "the statewide system" for months, has now been dubbed "AEA PD Online." But, what is AEA PD Online?

A little over 3 years ago, the chief administrators of Iowa's AEAs commissioned what was called the AEA Online Council. It featured at least one representative from each AEA, and the representatives came from a set of diverse roles within their respective AEAs; we had Educational Service directors, Media Service directors, Educational Technology consultants, and License Renewal coordinators in our group. In addition, we had representatives from other partners, such as the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Learning Online, and IPTV. Recently, that has expanded to included representatives from higher education as well.

The chief administrators commissioned the group out of a concern of duplicating resources. There was the reality that as AEAs began to develop online content or online professional development, there would be some unnecessary duplication from one AEA to another if they did not communicate. So, in its infancy, the Online Council was that vehicle for communication.

It did not take long for the members of the council to realize that by actually pooling together resources and proactively working together, they could work most efficiently, producing the most amount of professional development for the money. This could only happen if the AEAs worked as a system with dedicated staff and resources being not for one AEA, but for all the AEAs. In 2009-10, it was a goal of the council to make this system a reality, and by this last summer, we had hired a project manager to oversee the system, started laying down our online technological supports of a registration system, Moodle server, and website, and developing a legal agreement to govern this new system. The birth of AEA PD Online.

The mission of the Online Council is:

To develop a statewide system for development of content for online professional learning related to statewide efforts and mandates by determining the vision and managing the process
To develop a single, transparent system for delivery of online professional learning content
To serve as an advocate for quality online professional learning by collaborating with other state organizations

AEA PD Online will bring to Iowa educators those 3 things. Our goal is to offer 150 online courses in 2011 and double that for 2012. Included in this are the rapid deployment of several state initiatives, including Iowa Core professional development, the Intel Elements series, training on the Google Apps, and the OLLIE professional development series. We have recently added a training to our training server on 103b Overview of State Requirements Regarding Seclusion and Restraint, a legally-required area of professional development for Iowa schools, and we have plans to continue adding more. We will aggregate the webinars and webinar recordings from the AEAs in one place, and will help host statewide webinars. And similarly, we will gather together and support the online communities that allow Iowa teachers to connect with each other.

SO, WHEN DOES THIS HAPPEN?
The AEAs, through AEA PD Online, are in the process currently of applying for license renewal provider process, a process that should go through December. By that time, the aforementioned registration system and Moodle server will be put in place, meaning we will see our first official "statewide" courses in April. However, individual AEAs are already hosting online courses. A list of them can be found on the AEA website. The training server has already existed statewide for some time, although individual trainings are new. And, while the aggregation of current webinars, recordings, and online communities will happen once our new website goes live in April, you will see more efforts in those areas in the spring.

But, this does not happen without you. We need instructors willing and interested in teaching online. And, teaching online is not the same as teaching face-to-face. If you have a desire to teach online or want to know more, please contact me.

In an upcoming post, we'll look at what it takes to be an online instructor, and let you see if it would be right for you.

A return to blogging, with a look ahead and behind

2010-10-06T16:30:00.001-05:00

I had promised to myself that I'd have met my year-long goal of re-designing the look of the blog before I started blogging again, but that's still a work in progress.

In the meantime, it is fall conference time, and I'll be presenting at the following in October:

"The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Cyberspace PD" at the Iowa World Language Association conference (I'm co-presenting with Waukee Middle School teacher Susan Sandholm-Petersen)
"Getting Your School Started with Online Learning" at ITEC
"10 Things You Need to Know About Being an Online Teacher" at ITEC
"Technology Isn’t Enough: Structuring Your Gifted Program to Fully Utilize Digital Learning" at the Iowa Talented and Gifted Association conference.

But, I'm more excited about what has happened over this past summer. The AEAs are making headway to having a statewide system for online professional development, a one-stop shop for Iowa educators for online trainings, webinars, online communities, and for-credit online courses. That should roll out this winter, with complete offerings in those areas up and running next summer.

In addition, the AEAs are collaborating with the districts of Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux City, and Waterloo on a federal stimulus money grant. The grant brings nearly $3 million to the state to build the state's capacity to deliver online learning for K-12 students, especially in the areas of rural schools, high-need/teacher shortage areas, and credit recovery. The grant will do this through 1) systemic professional development, 2) collection and development of content that is free for Iowa's schools to use, and 3) creation of a repository for online learning to take place.

These are two big developments (and directly responsible for my blogging hiatus), and Iowa's teachers and students will greatly benefit. In upcoming posts, I'll help highlight the details of these developments.

TICL

2010-06-21T07:35:00.002-05:00

My time to blog has pretty much evaporated over the past month, as we are busy working on the Online Learning for Iowa Educator consortium this summer, as well as putting in motion several items to develop the statewide system for online professional development. Here's a quick update:

Northwest AEA and Prairie Lakes AEA are holding their 3-day TICL (Technology Integration and Instruction for the 21st Century Learner) conference starting today. I present today at 1:00 at Buena Vista University on the professional development opportunities available online for educators. I've included my presentation below.

In addition to me, there are several presentations on online learning, Moodle, and online courses for K-12 students. Many schools in these AEAs have already considered implementing K-12 online courses (and a few are on their way to putting those in place in 2010-11). This promises to be a good chance to see what others are doing and considering.

Online Professional Development for Iowa

View more presentations from Evan Abbey.

Why Online Learning for Your High School

2010-04-26T08:11:00.008-05:00

This is the question that I've recently discussed with superintendents and principals across Iowa, at least those who are seriously considering the benefits of online learning and the future reality of it as well. Here's a synopsis of what they have said:

SCENARIO 1: CREDIT RECOVERY
Our number of dropouts is way too high. We've got students who fail a semester of algebra 1, which means they cannot enroll in second semester or geometry the following year until they pass. This puts them a year behind. Fail again, they are now 2 years behind with almost no way of graduating on time, just because of math courses alone (or substitute in the science course sequence).

If we could have our present curriculum placed in an online format, a student can work through the portions of the course they failed with the assistance of an at-risk teacher; do so at their own time, pace, and place; and be back on track for graduation. We could purchase packaged programs like E2020 or Apex, but that yearly cost is expensive, and if we had our own online curriculum, it saves money for more at-risk teaching staff.

SCENARIO 2: CONSORTIUMS FOR TEACHER-SHORTAGE AREAS
It is difficult to find a Spanish teacher in many rural school districts, let alone a language like Chinese or Arabic. Plus, the vocational areas of Family Consumer Science and Industrial Technology are hard to staff as well. On top of that, in many schools, those teachers have class sizes of 5-10 students, making it hard to justify the costs.

Sharing staff between two districts has worked somewhat well, but consider the time spent for the teacher to drive between one district or the next. Instead, what if we had the teacher teach online, putting students from 3 different schools in the same course and raising numbers to a more sustainable amount. That teacher could drive to a different school each day (as opposed to several within a day) and still keep the course going.

SCENARIO 3: FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES
If you like impossible puzzles, you should try developing our master schedule for next year. There is no way to get courses placed so that students can be out for Band, Choir, and Computers, which not only upsets the students, it also upsets the teachers of those respected programs.

But if we offered that Computers course online, then the student could take it during their free hour, whenever that would be. Or if they have a full schedule, they could still take the course and work as time permits. That flexibility sure makes scheduling an easier proposition.

SCENARIO 4: ADVANCED COURSES
The hardest students from scenario 3 are students who are the most academically-inclined. Not only because they are more likely to fill up their schedule rather than take a study hall, but also because their courses tend to be ones that there are only 1-2 sections of it (and in many cases, courses whose numbers don't allow a separate section, like scenario 2).

The result is if we have a student enrolled in Advanced Algebra 2, AP Biology, Honors Humanities, Advanced Chemistry, Band, Choir, Journalism (because they are the school newspaper editor), and Honors US History, as well as PE somewhere, they are over capacity, despite often having the ability and desire to take all of those courses. But, by putting Honors US History, Honors Humanities, Advanced Chemistry or Advanced Algebra 2 online, we have some flexibility we didn't have before.

SCENARIO 5: FLEXIBILITY, PART 2
I have a student who was recently suspended, and because of tensions with fellow students, I don't want him back in his course. Or, I have a student who is pregnant and finds it difficult to be in a class with other students. Or, I have a student who consistently butts heads with our one and only government teacher, and government is a required course. I wish I had another option.

SCENARIO 6: FUNDING OPPORTUNITY
In addition to the other scenarios, we have enthusiastic staff and belief that this is the future of education. If by putting our courses online we can offer them to other schools, we could stand to get weighted funding from those students. In essence, online learning makes increased enrollment a possibility.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACCESS & LEARNING
Here's the upshot, of course. All of those have to do with the access of the curriculum to the student, which is a primary reason for online learning, and realistically, this is where Iowa's administrators should be initially thinking. But at some time, we also need to get to the point where we see students learn more from an online or blended learning opportunity. That, even if the above were not true, there would still be benefits to putting a course online in that it:

Is a media-rich environment
Allows both synchronous and asynchronous communication
Uses ongoing group collaboration
Connects students with outside resources and people
Creates a digital portfolio of student work
Puts the student in a position where she can share her work with the larger world easier

I don't know when the conversation in Iowa will turn from "Online learning brings us better access" to "Online learning brings us better learning"; what I see is that until the first one is fully understood by a majority of Iowa educators, the second one cannot happen. But ultimately, we need to get to that second conversation.

Summer AEA Online Courses

2010-04-20T13:26:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick list of some of the summer AEA online courses available with links for more info and registration. Note that in some cases, 2 sections of the course are offered... I have linked to each section by their dates.

I'm teaching the courses with an asterisk by their titles.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

The Different Learner - Examining The Myth of Laziness (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)
The Different Learner: Exploring How the Special Need Brain Learns (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)
The Different Learner: How to Differentiate Instruction in a Mixed Ability Classroom 2nd Edition (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)
The Different Learner: Exploring Overcoming Dyslexia (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)

ONLINE INSTRUCTION

*Technology for Online Instruction: Moodle (2 cr, 05/03-06/06)
*Technology for Online Instruction: Adobe Connect Pro (2 cr, 06/21-07/25)
*Online Learning Instructional Design (2 cr, 07/05-08/08)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

*Developing Personal Learning Networks (1 cr, 06/21-07/03)
Becoming a More Effective Teacher (2 cr, 08/02-11/12 & 09/06-11/12)

COUNSELING/AT-RISK

The Emotional Life of the Child: Bullying From Both Sides (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)
The Emotional Life of the Child: Helping Students Overcome Anxiety and Depression (3 cr, 05/24-07/24)
The Emotional Life of the Child: Managing Non Compliance in the Classroom (3 cr, 05/15-07/24)

MUSIC

Using Technology to Teach Comprehensive Musicianship (2 cr, 06/28-07/23)

TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

*Presentation Zen: Improving Your Approach to Presentations (1 cr, 05/10-05/23 & 07/26-08/08)
Web 2.0 Tools for the 21st Century Classroom (2 cr, 06/28-08/09)
Wikis, Websites and Web 2.0 (2 cr, 06/15-08/10)
Collaborative Online Presentation Tools in Math (2 cr, 07/05-08/02)
Collaborative Online Presentation Tools in Science (2 cr, 08/02-08/30)
Collaborative Online Writing in Science (3 cr, 05/10-06/21)
iLife (2 cr, 06/14-07/16 & 07/19-08/20)
iPods & iTunes (2 cr, 06/28-07/30 & 07/26-08/27)
Building WebQuests for Better Learning (2 cr, 06/16-08/04 & 09/29-11/10)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE & CULTURE

Learning Central Asia: Beyond the Headlines (1 cr, 06/22-08/03)
Spanish for Educators Online (3 cr, 05/04-06/29 & 06/23-08/18)
The Chinese American Experience (1 cr, 06/29-08/10)

Ning eliminating free networks

2010-04-16T07:10:00.002-05:00

Ning announced that they will be phasing out free accounts, part of their shakeup of the company. If you used the service for your school, you'll have to pony up or lose the data that your social network has created.

Ning joins many other popular services, such as Gabcast and Yahoo's Geocities that have discontinued free services. This is the day of reckoning that all the web 2.0 companies will eventually face. Starting off free to drive up traffic, they have to find what their funding source will be. Twitter recently announced they will be using "sponsored tweets" as advertising to drive up revenue so that the basic service is still free for users. Of course, that is what Ning tried to do as well.

This will probably be a bigger blow to Iowa schools than it should be. Ning, while extremely easy to use, never had "must-have" features for social networking. Regardless, many schools started their own Ning among teachers, and there are also several statewide Nings tied to teacher organizations. Will those teachers find Ning indispensable that they will pay for it? Will they make a jump to the cheapest alternative? Or, will they figure the bump in the road isn't worth it, because the next free option will dry up in a few months anyways.

Given how we were having a breakthrough year in Iowa with the social networking of teachers, the timing couldn't be worse. Social networking is crucial to 21st century professional development. Just another reason that the expense for Iowa to create a home-grown social networking engine would be well-worth the cost.

Thoughts on I11I

2010-04-10T08:54:00.003-05:00

The first reflection by anyone attending the session has to be a big thanks is in order to CASTLE. That includes Scott McLeod for the vision and Jamie Fath, Nick Sauers, and John Nash for the work putting it together. We can't lose the fact that this conference was:

Free
Brand New
With Limited Marketing

And yet, it was powerful to connect with other educators on this magnitude. Almost 600 people were there, and enrollment was capped back in February. When we were originally kicking around the idea of this conference last May, I believe I had told Scott he would be looking at about 200 people the first year. I won't underestimate the enthusiasm of Iowa's educators again... when we estimate that we'll have to double enrollment for next year's session, I believe that will be too low as well.

Reflection #2 is one I'll echo from Steve Linduska. Steve has been working with Iowa school districts and 1:1 computing initiatives for over a decade (and with technology in general much longer than that). He mentioned he never thought he'd see the day there was this level of enthusiasm for 1:1 computing in the state.

And what is most amazing is, conference aside, this enthusiasm has been at a grassroots level. We at the AEAs and the DE haven't made a big push for 1:1 computing, and in many ways, are now coming along for the ride. Look at who was presenting at this workshop. Teachers and administrators, not AEA/DE consultants. This is a refreshing change. Just as we need to shift our classrooms away from teacher-centered to student-centered learning (moving the teacher to facilitator), we need to shift the conversations around school change away from the statewide positions towards those at a local level. And, this conference did exactly that.

Which leads to reflection #3. Iowa is still a state of rural school districts, despite the growing migration to the urban centers and the consolidation of districts. Having taught in some very small districts, this was amazing to see the leaders in the state were small districts. This conference, much more so than ITEC or SAI, gave districts a concrete vision of what could be. Visiting with many of the teachers and the administrators who attended, they all had a very similar response to what they saw: That can be us in a year. Where else have we provided the avenue for that much change and hope in a year's time?

The most lasting image for me was the image of the map in the foyer with the pushpins from those who were attending. The pushpins were colored based on your district's current thoughts on 1:1... whether you were implementing, starting next year, next couple years, or wondering if this is for you. It is lasting predominantly because of the number of pushpins, representing a large percentage of Iowa.

But there's more to it than that. I met with Audubon's superintendent Brett Gibbs a year ago, almost exactly. At the time, we were preparing for a professional development session on technology with his whole staff. Brett was (and still is) very excited about what technology could do for achievement as well as enthusiasm within the community. I asked Brett what his current technology was like, and in the midst of describing it, he said "We do what we can... we can never go 1:1".

Audubon had a pushpin through it on the map, saying they are going that way in a couple of years.

This is serious change on a transformative level in the state. Naysayers will question the effectiveness of 1:1, and it is true that just getting the technology won't necessarily make a difference for students. But Brett will tell you that in rural Iowa, it is very difficult to make any sort of change against the inertia, even though it is critical for small district's survival.

Many state leaders, just like Brett, have found empowerment with CASTLE's leadership, whether directly or indirectly. I'm very impressed with all of them.

Quick thoughts - #iowacore

2010-04-08T22:11:00.003-05:00

I owe you a more thorough reflection on the 1:1 institute from Wednesday, which was extremely successful given the grassroots nature of its development. But for now, I see some early momentum coming out of the institute for increased Twitter usage--the bi-product of good PLN presentations (@derondurflinger, et al) and many speakers posting their username on their presentation with an active backchannel discussion... at least until the internet went down.

So, when I see many individuals starting to use the #iowacore hashtag, I believe this will be a central place for many educators to get what they've unfortunately been lacking... a good conversation around what the Iowa Core means. Join in the conversation.

Learning Online in a K-12 Setting

2010-04-07T01:29:00.001-05:00

My presentation from the Iowa 1:1 Institute

Learning Online in K-12 Schools

View more presentations from Evan Abbey.

Learning Online in a K-12 Setting
Iowa 1:1 Institute - 4/07/10
Evan Abbey - AEA Project Manager for Online Learning

This presentation is aimed to build advocacy in school leaders for online learning, giving leaders discussion points and resources to have conversations in their home district.

Urgency: In his book Disrupting Class, Clayton Christensen boldly predicts that 50% of 9-12 courses will be online by 2019. And colleges are seeing unprecedented growth in online course enrollments. Never before have students had the economic market-based power over their education that they do now. They are not limited by geography or time restraints. And, the monopoly educators had over determining the format for learning in the school is coming to an end.

In the past, the "online learning" discussion in schools has revolved around whether online learning is as effective as face-to-face learning. Despite research affirming the effectiveness of online learning, the debate has slowed action to a standstill, both at the local and at the statewide level. The time for debate has passed. Students are taking online courses regardless of a person's viewpoint of their effectiveness. We must now look instead at the most effective way to teach online, and rapidly prepare our schools for this change.

Roadblocks:
1. Cost - Both in teacher time and in compensation
2. Misunderstanding of what online learning can be - Thinking online learning is like an NWEA test where you read a passage and take a multiple choice quiz repeatedly. Online learning is so much more, including forums, online collaboration, social networking, online portfolios, synchronous virtual classrooms, simulations, and even interactive gaming.
3. Iowa's Tradition - Iowa has a deep history of educational excellence. That is a good thing. But it also makes embracing change, especially in non-traditional formats, very difficult. Iowa's tradition has slowed down efforts and killed urgency more than anything else.
4. Resolve - To be fully honest, online learning can happen, regardless of the perceived roadblocks. This is the one that can kill it, however. If there isn't the resolve from a group of school leaders who are dedicated to seeing it happen, it will always be passed by more "pressing" issues of the day.

What You Need to Know:
1. There are several districts in Iowa that are currently developing online courses or are in plans to develop courses. Your efforts would not be alone in the state.
2. To help prepare the districts for teaching online, the AEAs have developed a module on Online Instructional Design. This module is designed to be a 45-hour (3-credit) course, facilitated locally in a district, where teachers collaborate face-to-face in learning teams, online in online communities, and individually as they build an online course. The topics in the module include
• Guiding Principles to Online Education
• Online Course Orientation, Policies, and Structure
• Objectives
• Assessment
• Instructional Strategies
• Resources, Teachnologies, and Copyright
• Online Facilitation
• Putting it all Together
3. The AEAs and several Urban school districts have teamed together to write an ARRA grant for online learning. This grant will provide funds for online content, courses, and professional development, all of which will build the capacity in the state to teach online. The efforts of the grant will work to build a statewide system of courses, shared between districts, available for 9-12 students.
4. There are other professional development offerings available right now. Here are 3 online license renewal/graduate credit courses in online pedagogy:
• Technology for Online Instruction: Moodle (2 credits - May 3-June 6)
• Technology for Online Instruction: Adobe Connect Pro (2 credits - June 21-July 26)
• Online Learning Instructional Design (2 credits - July 5-Aug 8)

Where to Start:
1. Become an Advocate. If you the school leader do not vouch for the importance of online learning, it will not happen
2. Have Conversations. Just like with starting a 1:1 initiative, moving a school to teach online takes many informal conversations before you can have formal ones. Visit with your most influential teachers, your technology personnel, your curriculum director.
3. Get connected. See Arlan & Evan's contact info below.
4. Get your early adopters going. The schools that are the most successful identify those 1-2 teachers who are willing to learn on their own and try something brand new. Get those teachers inspired and then get everything else out of the way. Piloting a successful course not only gives other teachers an example of how it can be done, it allows you to look for the logistical issues to offering online courses and it begins your marketing of your courses before you have large numbers.
5. Get informed. Many resources to read about effectiveness in online learning. It is not the same as face-to-face learning. Below are resources to get started.
6. Plug in. Have teachers take a course online to get a feel for how it works and see the benefits of learning in that manner. Connect with other schools and school leaders looking to use online learning. And start selling your vision to your local community, touting the benefits it will bring your community.
7. And now... Plan. Now its time to start looking at technical hardware and the logistics of setting up courses.

Resources and Information:
• Evan Abbey - AEA Project Manager for Online Learning - eabbey@aea11.k12.ia.us
• Arlan Thorson - School Liaison for Iowa Learning Online - athorson@iowalearningonline.org
• Power Point presentation
• Sloan Consortium 2008 Report on K-12 Online Learning
• Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies by U.S. Department of Education (2009)
• National Primer on K-12 Online Learning by North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) (2007)
• Keeping Pace - an annual review of state-level policy and practice (2008)
• Changing Face of Education in Iowa - Evan's blog

Online Learning at the Iowa 1:1 Conference

2010-04-05T07:25:00.004-05:00

This Wednesday, I will be presenting at the Iowa 1:1 conference from 1:30-2:30 on online learning. Here's the info:

Title: Teaching Online in a K-12 Setting
Description: For districts looking to incorporate online learning in their curriculum. Will overview current online learning initiatives in the state and information on planning, professional development, and technology support.

The session is geared for both administrators and would-be online instructors. We will discuss the Iowa ARRA grant which will provide resources and training for schools on online learning--something every administrator should know about. We will also look at how schools are using online learning in Iowa currently and at a plan to get your district started.

I will see you there!

Wiggins on Prioritizing Assessment

2010-04-02T08:16:00.003-05:00

Soundbite, demonstrating once again we should listen to Grant Wiggins. From ASCD, about teachers who argue there is not enough time in the day for quality assessment with the required instruction:

If you say you don’t have time for assessment, you assume that the teaching is more important than the learning. Feedback is the key to reaching goals. Saying there’s no time is to confuse causing learning for mentioning stuff.”

h/t Ben Grey

Being Selective in Your PLN

2010-04-01T07:07:00.002-05:00

The current course I'm teaching on Personal Learning Networks has been discussing the challenge of time quite heavily. Specifically, for those new to connecting to others via web tools, it isn't just the time involved in learning in a new way, it's also the time spent learning the tools to access that learning.

When asking others about PLNs, the message that comes out is to be selective in the tools that you use. Don't become jack of all trades, master of none. Find the tools (or tool... singular) that work for you, and then use it to enhance your learning.

That's why an otherwise powerful video like the one below sends some mixed messages.

There of course are great thoughts about the changing role of the teacher and the power of digital technology over the paper and pencil. But what unintentional message does the beginning of the video send?

And, how do we overcome the anxiety that it causes?

New Iowa teaching standard = handling the media?

2010-03-29T06:42:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure this really deserves front page status on the Des Moines Register, do you?

For those that do not know Sarah Brown Wessling, she is excellent. She is teacher of the year in Iowa for a reason, and the teacher that the Department of Education videotapes when they want to show other teachers a model Iowa Core lesson. That should suffice, but if not, ask any other faculty member of Johnston High School.

This type of complaining happens. When I was a principal at Grinnell, we had some of the best staff I have ever seen. And, there were still parental complaints. They were groundless, of course, but it is part of the open process that a school has with their community.

But, Grinnell's disgruntled parents didn't go to the Des Moines Register.

I'm not sure how the story got to the Register. I'm even more confused why the Register would print this, other than to be salacious. And at this point, it is a bell that cannot be unrung.

We at the AEA level have been in the news recently as well. Because of this new approach to journalism, the AEAs are having conversations with their consultants about how you address media questions. It looks as though districts will have to do the same thing. Not only with their staff, but with their board members as well.

Would you like to be Teacher of the Year, and open yourself up to front-page scrutiny from any disgruntled parent? I believe there are some long-term implications to this.

Nichification and School Responsibility

2010-03-23T06:49:00.010-05:00

The term nichification, meaning to develop and connect people to a niche which suits their preferences, has its roots in marketing. With the advent of the internet, the lines of marketing and social interaction have blurred. There are now online niches for about any particular interest, viewpoint, age bracket, you name it.

Are you an environmentalist? A fundamentalist? A hard-core interior designer? A curling fanatic? A World of Warcraft enthusiast? There is an online community for you.

Couple that with the advent of web 2.0 technology, and not only can you read about your selected interest, but you can also interact with that community.

The vastness of the web and the availability of tailor-made niches (I literally stumbled across a fan club of the children's show Backyardigans for adults only yesterday) has many consequences. It can bring excitement and connection to someone cut off from a community by her geography. It has the potential for sustained interaction with people from different cultures. But what is becoming very apparent to me... it actually further incubates you from different cultures.

My two favorite pastimes, sports & politics, have online communities that are echo chambers more so than discussion boards. This lack of diversity not only doesn't stretch a person's mind, but also leads to out-grouping and marginalization of those who don't share their viewpoint. Visit one and see for yourself... it will make you sick.

SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITY
As we re-shape our schools to meet the demands of this new world, the question of nichification is one we cannot avoid. We have the potential, through online tools, to connect students with other students around the world who share their passion and interest.

But, just because we can, does that mean we should? What are schools' responsibilities for this nichified world?

We can't accept the view the nichified world is too dangerous and so we should avoid it in schools. That's too easily dismissed of course, since this is the prevalent attitude in our schools and homes. But easily dismiss it, I do. We also can't assume that this is a fad and that it will go away. If anything, this will become more pronounced than it is right now, and rapidly.

There are two different, although not mutually exclusive viewpoints on this question. The first is the embracing of nichification. Plugging in students to groups with similar interests... consider the possibilities. In the state of Iowa, we recently received the free license to Google Sketchup, a program that doesn't necessarily find its way into the mainstream curriculum, but that appeals to certain students who literally like to build. Imagine if we create a statewide community of Sketchup afficiandos, who can interact and build in their virtual world. Tying into student passion would lead to intense learning. Powerful stuff!

I'd say this is the prevalent viewpoint of online learning advocates. And yet, I fully acknowledge the other side, that there is some danger in all-out embracing of nichification.

The other viewpoint is to say that we at schools have a social responsibility to push students to collaborate with others online who are not like themselves. Others with different viewpoints and perspectives. And as an extension, dealing with those other viewpoints and perspectives in a respectful, positive manner. Look at the aforementioned sports or political communities, where the act of outgrouping by internal members of the community and trolling by external members simply wrecks the positives that community can bring.

We obviously need a balance between the two; the embracing of nichification as well as the forcing of us to collaborate with those outside of our niche. The problem is, we aren't having a discussion with educators on how to find this balance. And until we do, we won't be serving the needs of our students in this age.

ISN'T THIS ALREADY AN ISSUE?
Despite being very apparent in an online setting, we really have already had this issue for years. Schools and their cliques are already nichified, even before the advent of the internet. Cliques rarely interact with each other outside of the classroom--take a walk through the halls of a high school and see for yourself.

In the classroom, teachers have thought about this issue, at least subconsciously. When teachers allow students to choose their own groups, students will pick groups that make them comfortable and that have similar interests. This can be a very productive strategy. But on the other hand, many teachers see they have a responsibility to pair students with those they don't normally visit with in order to extend their thinking.

But, have you ever had this discussion with other educators? How to get students out of their clique-boxes and learning from other students in the class? I haven't in all my experience in teaching, which makes the issue of online nichification more dire and more pressing. We have to have that discussion now.

But first... I'm going to check out what other Backyardigans enthusiasts have to say. Don't knock it until you have to watch it with your three-year-old!

Image from Syracuse.com

Implementation & Technical Logistics for 1:1, part 2

2010-03-18T06:45:00.000-05:00

As we looked at yesterday, there are several considerations for technology leadership when planning for a 1:1. Here are more thoughts from Pamela Livingston's 1:1 Learning - Laptop Programs That Work:

THE LEADER'S ROLE
Many leaders of 1:1 initiatives take a hands-off approach when it comes to technology. Bad idea. Yes, you might never know the ins and outs of technical maintenance, but you still play a major role in its success. It is important to set expectations.

For example, you will need to address the issue of the home internet connection. If students are taking school laptops home (and they should be for optimal learning), school boards and parents want reassurance that they will not be able to access inappropriate sites there either. Laptops can be set up with a proxy, which is a policy that routes all their internet traffic back through your filter.

Another expectation is the physical safety of the machines. Livingston mentioned that at Peck, they spent the money to purchase briefcase-like cases for protection. We used soft cases at Howard-Winneshiek, and while we never had any accidents with the machines going home, I was always nervous about it. An orientation on how to carry your computer and lock it up is also a must-do strategy, best done in the roll-out orientation (which we'll look at in a later post).

Which leads us to insurance. There are several different approaches to how to pay for damages, and damages will happen. You will want to visit with your insurance company right away. This could be the first they have ever dealt with a school 1:1 program. Several Iowa schools set up insurance policies that parents would pay somewhere between $25-50 for the year, and then pay a $100 deductible if the machines were damaged. This minimized expenses for the district. Some other districts had the plan be voluntary (parents could opt to cover this under their own insurance).

Insurance is important not only for damage, but also for theft. Just like with damage, all machines should have preventative physical measures like identification tags and safe storage locations, as well as proactive human measures, like the aforementioned walk-throughs and spot checks.

EXPECTATIONS FOR TECHNOLOGY STAFF
If leaders do not have expectations for technology staff, there will be problems. That's not to say that technology staff won't have their own, even higher expectations for their work. In many cases they will. But good district leaders will be proactive here as well.

One general expectation is the access vs. security continuum. When it comes to school IT staff, they will fall somewhere in the spectrum of "as much possible access for teachers and students to technology for learning" to "as controlled of an environment as possible so that students, staff, equipment, and the district are safe". And, these butt heads all the time. Do you block Youtube? Do you allow teachers to install their own programs? Do you require a network password for visitors, and who gets to know the password?

There are pros and cons to both sides of the spectrum from a technology standpoint. But from an administrative or curricular standpoint, I was firmly in the "access" side. I wanted teachers to have the ability to find and use new resources and tools without feeling like they had to jump through hoops and wait for me. For technology staff that have never been in the classroom, they do not realize how spontaneous and changing classroom choices are, and nothing is more discouraging to a teacher than spending many late hours planning a great lesson only to find out the next day that the site is blocked and it is a 2-week process to get it unblocked.

Livingston's school took the same, anti-lockdown approach. And, this was second-order change for the tech staff. But that change in philosophy happened at the earliest of stages, before serious conversations with the staff at large and the community were taking place.

Another expectation is no down-time, as we mentioned yesterday. Again, talk with technology staff about the importance for students to have access to the computers and the internet. Determine what the expectation would be for different scenarios. At Howard-Winneshiek, my expectation was that I would have the teacher or student a working computer within 24 hours, whether fixed or loaner. With more help staff, that number could be cut down to 2 hours. Now, I will admit there were occasions when I missed the expectation (and there will be that in your district as well), but I communicated with the teacher/student beforehand so that they knew. Having that expectation made sure no-one was left in the dark, and also allowed for objective evaluation of my work.

Have an expectation for login time as well. If it takes more than 2 minutes from when a person pushed the on button to when they are ready to work on the computer, that is lost instructional time. Other items, like minor technical support (the computer is working, but a program has a glitch) or instructional support (how do I...?) are areas to discuss as well. This is a chance for technical staff to voice their thoughts and have an important say.

WHAT ABOUT HOME INTERNET ACCESS?
One last item mentioned in Livingston's book that is a huge fear for would-be districts, what about students without home internet access?

Internet access outside of school hours is a non-negotiable; students will have to have it. But this issue should be one you can plan for. Here is how I tackle this conversation.

First, what does your data tell you? How many have access at home? Don't just say "we have 31% free-reduced lunch...". That number is not the same as who has home internet access. Many times, the answer is... we don't know. Surveying your home families, be it through conferences or registration, is valuable data collection. Many districts found that they had over 85% with home access, which meant that they were targeting less than 15% of the population.

Next, find alternatives. You might have some common areas where students can stay after school, be it near the gym or by the office. Also, the community library is an option.

Then, ask students what they would do. Jeff Dicks at Newell-Fonda said when asked about this question by other superintendents, "To be honest, it hasn't been an issue. Our students were resourceful enough to find the hotspots if they needed them. We've had students who have sat in the parking lot to access files on a Sunday, and it hasn't been a problem for them." And, this is in Newell, Iowa, where Panera's and Starbucks have not yet arrived. Not promoting illegal hotspot squatting, but students can find appropriate places to get on the internet in many cases.

Implementation & Technical Logistics for 1:1

2010-03-17T07:28:00.001-05:00

More from Livingston's 1:1 Learning - Laptop Programs That Work:

Schools tend to have a disproportionate anxiety about the technical aspect of going 1:1. That is to say, they tend to overemphasize the technical side in their planning (in most cases), or completely underemphasize it. It is important to not concentrate all your thoughts on the machines when professional development, community involvement, and changing pedagogy are all equally important. But if you are a district that thinks going 1:1 is not a big deal, Livingston says "think again."

Before looking at some of the logistics mentioned by Pamela Livingston, I'll point out 2 critical steps leaders do in this area.

They involve technology leadership, even hesitant technology leadership, from the very beginning, and network them to technology leadership from other successful 1:1 schools. Their advocacy for the initiative is paramount.
They communicate early and often that there will be technological glitches during roll-out... and that's okay. We will deal with the setbacks and learn from our mistakes and be better for it. The earlier this is communicated, the less pressure there is on everyone involved. This is, after all, new learning for everyone involved, and new learning doesn't always thrive in a high-stakes environment.

THINGS TO CONSIDER
As we mentioned in past posts, the platform (i.e. whether Mac or PC) is only a small piece of the technological considerations. The best way to make an informed decision about the platform without consuming all your time is to talk to some current 1:1 districts, ask them how they chose their platform, how it is working, and whether they would choose it again.

In addition to the platform, here are the other critical technological considerations:

Bandwidth - the demand for access to the internet will jump with ubiquitous computing and different pedagogy. It is very important to get this right. With e-rate being a large factor, you will need to consider this first, since the e-rate calendar starts in December.
Network Storage - Ubiquitous computing will need more storage space on the server. One question is whether computers will have a home directory, which is when a person's files (and maybe even applications) reside on the server. If so, the setup of the authentication and home directories is a major undertaking for the technical staff. Best to develop that system before the laptops arrive.
Backup - Even if you choose not to use a home directory, you will still need server space in the form of a backup. But given the recent disasters and flooding, backup off site is essential as well. Consider that with ubiquitous computing, most of your learning is digitized, and therefore, protect your learning accordingly. If you do not have a backup & disaster recovery plan in place, do so before the purchasing of equipment.
Protection - Laptops bring about more computer usage, so a consideration is the right firewall and virus protection. Firewalls have gotten much more sophisticated in recent years, which can setup an "allow but monitor" policy with categories that are more grey. Some 1:1 districts have used that, and given parents access to see what sites their students are browsing to. Another item to consider is a remote monitoring feature that allows the technological administrator to see what students are doing on computers at any particular time. I've used Apple's Remote Desktop for years, and it works very well. The knowledge that I have it keeps most students honest, and even better, it allows me to fix student technology problems without driving over to their classroom.
Automation - Thinking systemically, having that many computers will dictate needing automatic processes. Imaging your laptops is a must (most 1:1 schools re-image them each summer). Also consider the policy for updating computers throughout the year.
Email - Student email was once a necessity in a 1:1 setup for a variety of different reasons. It still is important today, but with many districts looking to setup Google Docs accounts for every student, they use gmail domains for the email setup.
Charging - Laptops "should" make it the day without needing to be re-charged. That is dependent on 1) students remembering to charge the computers before they arrived, and 2) the battery capacity maintaining itself. Don't count on either of these. Think about how to handle charging in a classroom, be it charging stations, extra outlets, or a table on the side.

With all of these considerations, don't hesitate to ask for help. You should ask both your computer provider and your AEA on these to compare answers (many providers are very honest, but there have been schools buying too many wireless access points because they didn't get a 2nd opinion). And, surveying other 1:1 schools is well worth the effort.

PECK'S TIMELINE
At Livingston's school, they followed this general timeline:

April/May - Order new computers, take care of warranty issues, hire any part-time summer staff for imaging/updating work
June - Collect computers, order replacement computers, order new cases
July/Aug - Re-image the computers (& image new computers), take care of updates, create network accounts for new students and staff, assign machines, prepare for fall pickup and orientation.
Year-round - Remind students of appropriate care, including the acceptable use policy. This was done through many walk-throughs and classroom visits by technology staff, as well as other proactive measures. Some schools have had "laptop patrol", where the technician hands out rewards for spotted appropriate use between classes or in common areas. This can be part of the school's Positive Behavior Supports initiative.

One tip that Livingston said repeatedly, have loaners and spare parts available. In 1:1 more so than in a regular school, down-time is not tolerated. Laptops literally are students' access to the curriculum.

There are many more features of technology leadership that are important, of course. Fitting a wide-spread initiative like 1:1 into an existing framework is not an easy task. Plus there will be specific application support that a district will want. But, technology leadership is only part of the equation. District leadership is just as important in terms of technical logistics, even if the principal is not a computer expert. We'll examine how this is so tomorrow.

Systemic Change and the Starfish Story

2010-03-16T05:13:00.001-05:00

You probably have heard of the Starfish Story as an allegory to an individual's value in making a difference. If not, here it is:

Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see a boy going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this boy went. As the man approached he could see that there were hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the boy continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.
As he came up to the boy he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The boy looked at the man. He then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

What is important for educational leaders to hear is the rest of the story. Cue Paul Harvey:

"No, I'm sorry," the man said. "That's not what I meant. Of course you are making a difference one by one. Here, let me show you."
And with that, the man got out his cell phone and called the lifeguard tower. Within minutes, three lifeguards riding on ATVs with attached beach-combing buckets on the front began to scoop up large parts of the beach, letting the sand sift out the bottom. Then, they turned to the ocean and dumped the bucket full of starfish out into the ocean.
"It's good to make a difference," the man said. "You just make a bigger difference with a plan and connections."

Using Wordle with Current Events

2010-03-15T10:13:00.003-05:00

I mentioned my frustration with Wordle recently, among other tools. The primary complaints I had was not with the tool itself, but the tendency to invest too much time and instruction into the tool when it is better to use as a resource.

Case in point, the political blog 538.com had a post this morning analyzing the current health care debate. They took survey results from citizens and fed those results through Wordle to generate the following word clouds:

Those in favor of the current health care bill-

Those against the current health care bill-

Used in this context, Wordle provides a quick graphical representation which can lead to an analytical discussion of both current events and politics. The key words here... 1) "quick", and 2) "lead to". A teacher here wouldn't spend any time teaching students how to use Wordle (and heck, they wouldn't even make the Wordle themselves). This is a good example of how tools can be used effectively given the scope and purpose of what they are trying to accomplish.

The Most Misused Tool

2010-03-09T06:44:00.004-06:00

Wait... where's Power Point?

We didn't include Power Point (or its cousin Keynote, which you can insert anywhere in this post) in either the list of underrated or overrated tools, even though it is heavily used. In fact, Power Point was the tool that got us in this discussion. The teacher, who has his students create presentations in Prezi, was fairly dismayed at the amount of Power Point doldrums many fellow teachers were in.

Now, I'm not a fan of Prezi. Like Animoto, its use of dramatic transitions of the audience being swooped from one slide to another is fantastic to watch, but unfortunately leads to more emphasis on the effects than the learning. It seems I'm the only one who isn't a fan of it, though.

But his complaints about Power Point use were right on the money. It certainly seems like the most overrated tool.

THE PROBLEM WITH PPT
Teachers have generally moved past considering the internet and MS Word "technology integration". Not so with Power Point. It is the first foray into integration that many teachers do. That's not a bad thing. Its easy to use and you need to start somewhere. But while some take their comfort with Power Point and branch off to look at other tools that are more of learning tools in nature, many teachers stay stuck with their same Power Point unit.

And that's not good.

It isn't used to learn, only to present your knowledge. It is e-posterboard.
It isn't collaborative; even if it is "group work", one works while the others watch.
Despite being extremely quick and easy, it takes up a lot of instructional time. I remember telling a class to take the discussion we were having about epic heroes and using Power Point, create a quick outlined presentation of who you would consider an epic hero and why. In the last 12 minutes of class. You would have thought that I asked them to build a solar car. No way they could make a Power Point that quickly. (Then... they did. "Wow, that wasn't so hard...")
It isn't a good teaching tool. All those Power Points given by students leads to very little learning by their fellow students.

In fact, Power Point is probably the most scorned piece of technology among educational tech folk today. People's Witness #1. People's Witness #2. And, People's Witness #3.

THE BENEFITS OF PPT
It's because of phrases like Blake-Plock's "PowerPoint presentations are precisely the sort of things so many of us in ed tech are trying to steer folks away from" that I'm equally as tempted to put it into the most underrated tool list.

Because, we simply aren't using it for what it does very well.

This is perhaps the premier digital storytelling tool. Easily combining images with manipulative text in a sequential order with the option for embedding video. Which means all the benefits of digital storytelling--for example that we teach and learn in stories and we use both creative and logical thinking skills intensively at the same time--all apply to Power Point used well. The presentation below by Garr Reynolds illustrates how to take something as mundane as a book review and turn it into a digital story.

Brain Rules for Presenters

View more presentations from garr.

Reynolds' Presentation demonstrates another reality, it is also a great stand-alone tool. That is, a presentation tool that you don't need to give a speech with. We have made Power Points implicit with a speech so much that people forget they are much more engaging when students access them on their own.
It is an excellent outlining tool. Not because of the bullets. Because it is a) easy to quickly input concepts and then b) re-arrange those concepts. In fact, the slide-sorter view is a forgotten piece of gold for teachers. Think how easy it is for an educator to make a jumbled Power Point of slides and then have students re-arrange the slides into the logical organization. When we read Wiesel's Night, I had students in groups arrange their own ethical priorities from a pre-made Power Point, requiring them to come to a consensus. All group members actively working with Power Point, even with only one computer.
It is a great teaching tool. Yes, I'm serious. In spite of us, it is. We have made Power Point an exercise in creating a meaningless backdrop to monotonous speeches, in which we teach students where all the buttons are in Power Point but we don't teach how to become a good speaker or how to communicate effectively with visuals. Garr Reynolds, in his excellent book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, informs us we need to simplify our approach to Power Point. Use it to amplify the way we learn, through visuals and powerful stories.

And because of all these, it is a great learning tool. But we have to unlearn how we use it. We have to forever obliterate the image of what comes to mind when we "make a Power Point". Because that image is bad pedagogy, and it doesn't take advantage of the benefits it brings us in our classroom.

Most Underrated Tools

2010-03-08T06:43:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, a conversation with a teacher prompted me to reflect on the question of what tools were the most overrated and the most underrated. Here's a look at tools that I'd like to see used more often in the classroom.

1. BLOGGING
By far, the most underused tool. I cannot understand why every student doesn't have a blog. And no, it's not just because I am an avid blogger.

When I taught, I used reflective writing in the form of journaling extensively. It did so many beneficial things to my classroom, I had each of my student teachers I worked with develop their own journal prompts before designing lessons. Simply put, journaling gave every student a chance to reflect on their learning or a question posed before discussion. Writing then served as a springboard; any student I called on was better prepared to contribute. Moreover, it gave me a chance to assess every student, even the ones that I didn't call on, since I could gather their journals after class and read. And this process improved their metacognition and their writing skills in one swoop. This was my most powerful formative assessment tool at the time.

Then Will Richardson introduced me to blogging. All the power that had been in journals was magnified, because no longer was writing directed just to me. Students wrote for other students, who could read and react instantly to another's post. And, students wrote for real-world audiences.

Blogging in the Classroom

View more presentations from Evan Abbey.

Blogging can be done easily in any subject area. Have students create blog posts for how they solve (or couldn't solve) mathematical problems. Have students keep a blog reflecting on their individual fitness goals and progress. Have students document their learning in a lab-based science or FCS classroom by taking digital images and embedding them within lab writeup posts. Blogging is literally the easiest method of e-portfolio and can give educators great access to understand how students think and what they are struggling with. And it is the perfect tool for sharing and learning from each other.

2. ETHERPAD
I have now been out of the classroom for 3 years, and Etherpad is one of many tools I didn't have the chance to use. In all honesty, there are probably dozens of tools that should be on this list but aren't because of that fact.

I was perhaps the only teacher who excitedly taught with TextEdit, the Mac equivalent of Notepad or SimpleText. I'd consider it one of the most underrated tools as well, since I don't know of any other teacher who uses it in the classroom. My students would shrug the first time we opened it up, until they realized why we used it. It was simple. No toolbars. No 3-million fonts and formatting buttons. Loaded in a fifth of the time as Microsoft Word and took up basically no memory. It was the simplest brainstorming and notetaking tool there was.

Etherpad is better. Yes, a bit more bandwidth intensive, but the ability for multiple students to work collaboratively on the same set of notes changes teaching and learning. Much is made out of Twitter (or Edmodo) as a backchannel discussion board, but Etherpad will work just as well and adds the element of constructiveness to the work as well.

3. POLLING SOFTWARE
Just as I consider interactive whiteboards to be overrated since they are not really that interactive, I also consider classroom response system "clickers" to be underrated. Getting direct student feedback empowers more formative assessment and allows students to drive the curriculum.

Clickers are expensive, of course. But polling software, whether via laptops or cell phones, is a free alternative. A teacher can post some questions and get instant student data back, in graphical form. Heck, a student can just as easily post questions and get feedback from other students. I've seen teachers give a quick pre-assessment over the unit's new vocabulary, only to find out that there were several terms students already knew. She had more time to focus on the other terms and was able to have students who were comfortable in their knowledge share with the class what they knew. The entire lesson was driven by students. And it saved them time, which students could then use for their own individual projects.

We parrot the phrase "data-driven decision making" all the time, but how often do we use tools that exemplify it?

4. VOICETHREAD
Just as I find Animoto and iMovie to be inefficient uses of digital storytelling, I find Voicethread to be the most powerfully efficient. And the differences between it and Animoto are slight.

Voicethread allows you to quickly upload images, video, or documents. It allows a by-slide annotation through text, audio recording, or video recording (including from your mobile device). Each commenters' image then appears around the slide, giving you a visual sense of the community discussion.

But what really sets this apart is its simplicity. Animoto's effects distract a student from learning by watching it. Voicethread pares it down to the visual and the narration. Its simplicity goes straight to the heart of what makes effective digital storytelling, a focus on the central story.

Like Etherpad, I missed out on this tool. I too required students to create and share their poems aloud, to get a sense for the oral tradition of poetry. It led to uneasy "polite" listening and boredom. Voicethread, as this teacher used it, makes the experience more visual and engaging, leading to better learning and expression.

5. DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS
Before Web 2.0, this would have been Microsoft Excel (or InspireData for younger students). With the advent of Web 2.0, there are now several online collaborative data analysis tools that would work well.

The thing that strikes me about most web 2.0 tools about there is their inclination to helping build creativity. That could be the rationale behind a tool like iMovie or any other, that it allows students to express themselves and built their creative thought, and this is definitely a good thing. Yet those tools don't have as close a connection to logical processing.

A data analysis tool, like a spreadsheet or a database that allows the entry of numbers and the creation of visual representations, is a springboard for logical thought. Having students collect and plot data, and then draw conclusions (a la the David Warlick ITEC presentation) represents an important wave of mathematical literacy and logical processing that we simply don't do.

There is some irony here. In my experience as a principal, I had few teachers who lamented students' lack of creativity. It seemed students were very creative, even to the point of being inappropriate. But I had many teachers lament students' inability to figure things out. Other than Geometer's Sketchpad, our students had little exposure to data analysis tools.

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There is one tool that we discussed ad nauseum that I didn't put on either the underrated or overrated list. It deserves its own special category, which we'll look at next.

Most Overrated Tools

2010-03-07T10:04:00.007-06:00

I was recently asked by a teacher during a casual conversation, "What do you think are the best and worst tools to use in the classroom?"

It was very apparent the teacher had put a lot of thought into this; someone wondering what the "worst" tools to use in the classroom has an understanding that technology is not a panacea. There are indeed uses of technology in the classroom that are harmful to student learning, mainly because they offer no new access to learning and take up valuable time.

Of course, I equivocated in my response. The tools themselves are not bad. In fact, any tool can be used well by teachers. But there were indeed several tools that I have seen misused quite a bit. Here's my thoughts:

1. INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS
Interactive whiteboards have taken many hits among edubloggers, and my thoughts are similar. The tool is teacher-centered instead of student-centered, and while it does allow for more use of visuals during a teacher lecture, you still have a lecture, which doesn't change from the traditional learning process very much.

What makes this striking is that many schools see this as the penultimate tool of dynamic learning. So much so, that I've seen about a dozen district technology plans calling for SmartBoards or Prometheans in every classroom. In many cases, those whiteboards will be installed without comprehensive professional development, and even if they were, classrooms will still function the same.

2. iMOVIE
This tool is now over 10 years old. When it first came out, teachers (including yours truly) raved about the way iMovie supports project-based learning and appealing to visual learners. Students could take their learning and share it in a much more vibrant way than the traditional posterboard activity or oral presentation.

The reality is less rosy. Teaching with iMovie has not changed much in those 10 years. It is not very collaborative (it ends up being one person working on the computer with the other group members occasionally looking over her shoulder). It more often than not becomes an exercise in regurgitating content rather than tackling content at higher-levels. Other students usually come away from watching a fellow student's iMovie with less understanding than if the fellow student had simply talked to other students. It is gadgety and gizmo-y. And it is a monumental waste of time.

There are places where video production can be a valuable enrichment or a truly authentic exercise. But making an iMovie on the four stages of the butterfly should be avoided.

3. ANIMOTO
This tool is more qualified. It saves so much time over iMovie, that it is great if for no other purpose. And since it is web-based and has built-in a place for comments, you are opening up your students to a larger audience (at least, more easily than through iMovies).

But, the tool is still misused at high rates. A typical Animoto project might ask students to do an Animoto on the 3 branches of government. The student will go find a bunch of pictures of the White House, Capitol Building, and Supreme Court, and then string them together with some adrenaline-flowing music. Other students watch them and love the images flying in all over the place and the music. Fun all the way around. But none of this demonstrates or facilitates learning.

In fact, Animoto is often used after students have already learned the material, and if not, it lends itself to cut-and-paste exercises. The questions a teacher has to ask herself after seeing the student video is 1) How do I know they understand the concept, and 2) How do I know they understand it because they used Animoto? If the answer to either is "I don't", then it shouldn't be used.

4. PODCASTING
When I started my foray into web-based activities in my classroom, podcasting was my bread-and-butter. There was true irony that students loved giving speeches and presentations to fellow classmates when they didn't actually have to stand in front of them. I literally had to kick students out of classroom at the end of the day because they were voluntarily staying after to tweak their podcasts.

Podcasting has lost a lot of its luster in recent years, though. I don't see it used very often in the classroom, and teachers who use it tire of it easily.

The problem is definitely not the tool, but how the tool is used. Teachers tend to have students make a podcast as a project (often just a recorded speech). It is not used often as an audio-blog, which is a great misuse. There is greater continuity and development of both individual learning and individual expression when a student builds their podcast episodes one after another. Plus, when podcasting is used only in project form, too much time and emphasis is spent on the fine-tuning of a project... putting in the sound effects and such. It is more effective for students to use as a brainstorming tool, getting a chance to put ideas out without killing thought with too much refinement.

The larger problem with podcasts is that they aren't assessed very well. First, fellow students don't listen to them, usually because they are too long and the class has moved on. In the same vein, teachers usually give a summative grade at the end of a podcast. This misuses one of the greatest features of podcasts, that being you can easily go into it and point to places for improvement. This could be a great formative assessment tool to help students not only in the creation of their thoughts, but also their ability to articulate them. However, students are rarely asked to go and add/alter a finished podcast.

5. WORDLE
There are many fans of Wordle out there. In most cases I've seen, the amount of learning that has taken place is far less than the perceived amount of learning a teacher feels Wordle brings.

I've mentioned my thoughts on Wordle before. The main item I keep coming back to is Wordle, like many other tools, is powerful if it is used quickly and seamlessly in the learning process. In this way, it is just like any other graphic organizer, such as a flowchart or a graph, to help visualize abstract qualities and relationships. The use of Wordle should take mere minutes out of the instructional process, and then students should be on to the processing of what they see. Any Wordle-creation time that takes more than 10 minutes is a waste.

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After having this conversation, I thought of probably 2 or 3 others that I should have put in there. At any rate, the tools themselves are immaterial, for all these tools could be used well. It is the intentions behind the tools that is important. Teachers need to pay attention to the ratio of time used on the tool vs. time using the tool to build learning, the tendency for a tool to lead to simple cut-n-paste, the ability for a tool to share learning with other students, and how a tool can be used seamlessly in the learning process.

We'll take a look at the most "underrated tools" next.

Professional Development for a 1:1 Implementation

2010-03-01T17:06:00.003-06:00

More thoughts and insights about Pamela Livingston's book

Professional development is, just as with anything, an absolute necessity for success. Livingston states it must be "iterative, sustained, and understood by all to be a priority." Livingston's phrase "understood by all" cannot be understated here. Some leaders go into a 1:1 initiative with a good sense of the professional development needs of the staff, but fail to communicate and reassure those needs to the staff.

This professional development needs to be in many layers, and these layers vary in terms of formality and timeliness. There must be a formal "boot camp" layer of training prior to the start of implementation on how to design instructions and assessment, utilizing digital tools in a 1:1 environment. That should continue throughout each year's implementation, as with the whole staff, you look at how to implement digital tools.

Informally, sessions like "Tech Tuesdays", where teachers are allowed to show up to discuss a technique, tool, or a "how do you teach this...?", lets teachers receive hands-on training. A similar informal session could be teacher poster sessions, where they showcase some of the things they are doing in their classroom. This could be enhanced by creating some virtual communities. Some schools in Iowa have done this through collaborative Nings, which focus inwards and build strong communities of learners. Some have used Twitter to tap into the larger world-wide community. Summarizing it succinctly, professional development should spend most of its time in the stage of "coaching and feedback".

Professional development should also include the leaders as well. Livingston recommends the building principal going beyond an open-door policy to setting up a table outside the teacher's lounge to make herself available to other teachers. Technology coordinators have informal drop-ins to see teaching in action. These will give leaders a much better ideas of the actual things that teachers need help with.

STARTING QUESTIONS:
There are some critical questions a district should ask itself regarding professional development:

How do we build buy-in for intensive professional development?
When, how, and how often do we conduct professional development?
Who leads... early adopters, outside consultants?
Who evaluates effectiveness and fidelity of teachers' implementation?
What is the cost, and the funding for professional development (including compensation and substitutes)
How and when is follow-up completed?

OTHER TIPS:
These questions are a good place to start. For schools starting out, Livingston recommend several other tips:

• Give laptops to teachers before students. A full year has worked well in many districts. Spending 1 semester creating common goals with the staff and then the next semester individualizing around how to integrate 1:1 in a teacher's classroom is a typical time length.

• One idea that has worked well for reducing teacher anxiety is to create a tech-savvy student cadre. This group of students can work with teachers individually during that year of preparation easier than a few tech experts in a school can.

• Keep in mind that classroom management in a 1:1 world will provide as much anxiety as tech issues. What happens when students access iTunes? How do you keep them from plagiarizing? Gather a list of concerns and then allow a panel of experts to respond to those questions.

• Teacher-led professional development sessions, especially poster-board sessions, can be recorded and shared with the community as well.

• Be sure to provide teachers with meaningful examples. Being too theoretical in technology integration, or even saying "you could do this, this, and this with this tool" isn't going to get the job done. Find actual examples of how teachers are using technology, in your school or elsewhere. And, avoid too much correspondence with paper and emails. A page of "good links" might be a good intention, but it will not be used.

• Make sure you respect the adult learning curve. Not every teacher will become a master technology user. Be sure to reach out to those not on board right away and listen to their concerns. Use those concerns for planning. Keep in mind that adult learners 1) are self-directed, 2) want to know the objectives up front, 3) need time to reflect, 4) need relevancy, and 5) need time to collaborate with others, for they have a wealth of knowledge to share with others, and sharing their knowledge with others makes them feel more comfortable and competent in areas of new learning.

• And, be sure to collect good data on the effectiveness of implementation. Teacher attitude surveys should be repeated periodically to keep a pulse on how things are going. Just like student achievement data, be sure to do assessment for several years, as there often is a honeymoon period with implementation.

OTHER POSTS RELATED TO 1:1 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Technology Professional Development: Do this, not this
Determining the Purpose before Integrating Technology
5 Frequent Problems with Technology Professional Development
Things my Ed Tech Consultant forgot to tell me

Professional Development Opportunity: Drawing Your Network
Professional Development Opportunity: Exploring Wikis
Professional Development Opportunity: Subscribing to Blogs

Statewide Project Manager

2010-02-18T20:33:00.002-06:00

A quick tidbit: last Friday I accepted a position as the AEA Project Manager for Online Learning. I will be working with all the AEAs in the state to develop online learning and professional development opportunities. This is a great opportunity for me and my family.

The subject matter of this blog won't change much. It will still focus on the same blend of topics: leadership and school change for the 21st century, online learning, 1:1 initiatives, 21st century skills, and of course, the Iowa Core Curriculum. If anything, I should have more access to highlight great things that are happening in Iowa schools right now.

In the meantime, if you have a chance, you can complete the survey below. The information gathered from the survey, though informal, will help serve as a datapoint for my future work.

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Moodle Uses for Professional Development

2010-02-14T13:02:00.009-06:00

I mentioned in an earlier post how Moodle can be used for a continuum of ways in a K-12 classroom, and that teachers could use Moodle without being fully immersed in teaching an online course. The flexibility of the platform makes it useful for a variety of purposes.

Ditto for professional development, be it from an AEA or from the district level. As the swiss-army knife of online tools, you can use the pieces of Moodle that serve your purpose. Here are some of the main purposes for professional development that people use Moodle:

1. ONLINE COURSES
This is often what you think of. Moodle allows you a space where you can not only place your content, but you can group students, have them submit their work, and meet to discuss and get information. The built-in forums, assignments, and gradebook make this the natural tool for online courses, for which teachers can get licensure renewal credit (or graduate credit).

AEAs aren't the only ones using Moodle for online professional development, however. Districts, such as Ankeny CSD, have used Moodle to host their own courses. Ankeny has offered courses to their staff members, such as Web 2.0 technology, Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning, Differentiated Instruction, and Mentoring and Induction. The courses are hosted on their own Moodle server and are offered by Ankeny staff.

Dianne Peterson, the district coordinator for curriculum and mentoring, mentioned there are many benefits. In a large district like Ankeny, it can target specific needs of teachers and get them connected with each other, even if they are in different buildings. It also allows teachers the flexibility to work with content over the course of a semester. Working over that period of time allows teachers to implement and get coaching/feedback in ways that face-to-face professional development cannot. In this way, online courses are an essential tool in line with the Iowa Professional Development Model.

2. HYBRID COURSES
Also referred to as blended courses, this is a blend of asynchronous learning (learning when the classmates are not meeting together) and synchronous learning (when they are together). That synchronous component is often face-to-face, but with the use of Adobe Connect Pro, those meetings can be virtual.

One consultant I've had the privilege of working with is Brad Niebling, Heartland's alignment consultant. Suffice it to say that Brad's knowledge of alignment in curriculum isn't matched in the state. To connect Brad with other consultants so they could learn principles of alignment, we looked into online options. Brad found a hybrid environment to be the best of both worlds: allowing a synchronous discussion of some difficult abstract terms, and some online asynchronous work to integrate the principles into your own profession. What's more, since it is online, it is set up to be delivered to consultants and educators across the state.

Hybrid is an excellent stepping stone; for teachers who haven't had an online environment, this type of course is a safe way to wade into online professional development.

3. ONLINE REPOSITORIES
Not every form of professional development has to have a direct teacher involved. At a base level, you can use Moodle as a house to store files and resources.

When Susen Schirmer conducted counselor academies for area school counselors, she would regularly distribute handouts and links to websites to counselors. When some counselors were unable to attend (or had lost the files), this meant extra work with sending attachments. That's not to mention the amount of paper that was involved.

She now uses Moodle to hold the Iowa School Counselor networking site. Files and links can be easily updated, and any time a participant misses out on a meeting, they know where to go. And again, since it is online, it has the capability to be used by counselors across the state.

4. ONLINE MODULES
A step up from a repository would be a module. While you still don't have a teacher directly instructing in the class, you have set outcomes and a learning sequence in a module.

We have used other tools to develop modules for subjects such as the mandatory reporting of child abuse or bloodborne pathogens. Moodle is another way to put that material together. Heartland ed tech consultant Denise Krefting has created a number of these. Two of her most recent are modules on Google Sketchup and Adobe Connect Pro. In both, the module takes you through the learning in sequential order, building your knowledge of the subject.

5. ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS
I wouldn't recommend using Moodle solely for the purpose of having teachers network with other teachers... there are many other social networking tools like Ning that are simpler to use and more user friendly.

On the other hand, if you want to couple social networking with another purpose on this list, Moodle is exactly what you want. Moodle has forums and choices that allow participants to share ideas and thought easily, just like a Ning. But Moodle makes it much easier to share documents and other resources. When the Iowa School Counselors networking site was created, Susen wanted not only a repository for files, but also a chance for counselors to meet and converse with other counselors. Moodle even has a social group format expressly for this purpose.

6. FACE-TO-FACE PORTAL
Consider this scenario. You would like your district staff to spend your day-long inservice looking at the district's standards and benchmarks. Your staff will be accessing the AEA online resources and finding examples that support the curriculum. Once they do so, they will need to share their findings with other teachers in the district, and write an implementation plan. You will gather those plans at the end of the day to look at and set up observation times. What's more, since your district doesn't have a computer lab with 200 computers in it, or has a big geographic area to cover, you can't have all your teachers (and you!!!) in one space.

Even though none of this is asynchronous professional development, Moodle works great here. You can create a "course" in Moodle and label it for that day. You can post the directions for teachers in the course. You can also upload the standards and benchmarks (if they are a pdf) or link to them (if on the web). And of course, you can link to the online resources as well.

In the course, you can use a forum for teachers to pose questions or share examples of the resources with other teachers. And as the teacher work teams finish their implementation plans, they can submit them to you through a Moodle assignment. Moodle is the structure that allows all these tasks to be brought together into one place. Woodward-Granger is one district in the Heartland area that uses Moodle in this method.

7. PLC/WORKTEAM SPACE
The idea of teacher collaboration in professional development has gained roots in the concept of professional learning communities, as well as teacher quality learning teams or balanced leadership workteams. With any of these, teachers are collaborating with other teachers and driving their own professional development, instead of passively receiving it in a traditional top-down method.

PLCs and other collaborative teams are most limited by time. Bill Ferriter, a big proponent of PLCs recently reminded me via Twitter:

One of the struggles I have is that I just don't have the time--as a classroom teacher---to collaborate. They want us to collaborate---and we'd do a GREAT job---but between planning, grading, parent conferences, there's nothing left. I think many people beyond the classroom forget the crush of tasks that we have to do beyond collaborating with them!"

He's right... I was guilty of that as an administrator, and my administrators were guilty of that as well. The time set aside for PLC collaboration gets eaten up by other issues of the day.

Online learning allows you to converse when you have time and energy, because with forums and wikis, you can have an ongoing asynchronous conversation with your colleagues. Moodle can provide you a space for your group to focus on improving student learning, and in that space, you can hold conversation, resources, a calendar, and more.

8. IMPLEMENTATION SPACE
The benefits that Moodle brings for online courses--a place for common content distribution and sharing files/resources, a place for participant conversation, and a place for individuals to submit their own work--are also benefits it brings for any district implementation.

Several districts do this with individual professional development plans. Moodle can serve as the portal where you post directions for the yearly process. If a district is pushing a specific initative, such as Second Chance Reading or Handwriting Without Tears, you can provide a secure space to share digital resources (check copyright restrictions of a publisher before posting).

Teachers can then post their plans, be it individually with the supervisor through an assignment, or for all to see. Moodle can help you schedule meetings or announce deadlines. Best of all, once the structure is developed, it can be re-used the next year.

Youtube Safety Mode

2010-02-11T07:05:00.002-06:00

Quick-hitter this morning:

From their blog, Google announced they have a safety mode for Youtube. It is an opt-in feature, sort of like "safe search" on Google images. This safety mode will not only filter out some questionable content (which Youtube already does), but will filter out profanity in the comment section (which it hadn't done before).

This is not perfect. First, it isn't permanent. You could log in to an account and keep the feature permanently on within that account. But it won't take a student long to log out. Sarah Perez from the ReadWriteWeb mentioned that it would have been better to have created an entirely safe site, which would have allowed an easier go of it for filtering at the district level.

Planning for a 1:1 Initiative

2010-02-10T07:04:00.000-06:00

More from Livingston's 1:1 Learning - Laptop Programs That Work:

Planning for a 1:1 initiative is obviously critical, but it is complex as well. Livingston uses the phrase "not driven by nuts and bolts, but a vision of what to accomplish." Which is well said. Often schools become too focused on which type of computer and applications instead of the reason why you are going 1:1 in the first place.

Planning starts with a committee, and the committee must have a strong leader. The leader is one who is passionate about the move, dedicated to see it work effectively even if that means she will be doing the heavy lifting herself, and most importantly have the trust of the teachers. In the schools Livingston highlights in the book, that leader has always had one foot in education and one foot in technology. The lack of a strong leader (at least one dedicated to a 1:1 initiative) will be what keeps most schools from making the leap.

Next, the committee should be determined. Many schools make the mistake of putting only the tech-savvy go-getters on this committee. The committee should see representation from all viewpoints, with the possible exception of outright naysayers. One school included a teacher near retirement on the committee. She wasn't objecting to the movement, but she did raise concerns, such as "You're asking teachers to have students save their work on the server. I don't know how to do that." Having that voice on the committee allowed the committee to make sure it addressed those concerns, and it gained a lot more credence during conversations with the whole staff. And in addition to teachers, the committee should have representation from parents, community members, and most importantly, students as well. Whatever the committee is, it should not be the old tech committee.

Livingston mentions the committee will meet "to provide vision, formulate, decide, detail, market, implement, oversee, and assess." Everything the committee plans or discusses should be documented.

After the committee is created and starts their discussion, the next critical step is to survey other 1:1 schools. Livingston recommended one way of defusing the anxiety over which computer to choose is to ask current 1:1 districts a) why they chose their platform, and b) would they do it again.

Livingston's book goes into good detail about each of the next steps in planning, which we'll look at more in future posts:

Professional Development
Implementation Logistics
Pedagogical Theory
Classroom Management & Policies
Communication with the Public

Some other items for the committee to consider:

Keep in mind the educational age and SES of the students who will receive the laptops. One of the most common questions is whether students would have internet access outside of school, a must to fully tap the potential of a 1:1 environment.
Think about how technology integration has worked or not worked in the past. Those mistakes will be magnified when every student has a laptop.
Consider how other change initiatives were addressed, and why they were successful or not.

A Tale of Two Teachers

2010-02-08T10:29:00.003-06:00

Ran across an old backup disk of mine from when I was in a previous district (its a bit like Christmas for me). In there, I found copies of some emails when we asked for teacher feedback on our districts' standards/benchmarks work (which was back then in preparation for the Model Core Curriculum). There were some very interesting perspectives as you can guess. I thought two emails were worth pointing out.

...I'm not saying that standards and benchmarks are unimportant. However, we spent quite a bit of time three years ago working in our committees on standards and benchmarks. And before that, we spent quite a bit of time developing standards and benchmarks 6 years ago. Now, you are having us examine them again. Will this ever end, or will we be working on the same standards and benchmarks forever? When will we actually have time to work on our classes and what we are doing in our classroom right now? This is not the best use of professional development time."

Keep in mind, this individual is a good teacher. And certainly the feeling that spending time over and over again on something without any end in sight is frustrating. So I understand where this teacher is coming from. And since I was in my second year in the district, I don't know the whole story. Perhaps the work that was done in the past was completely ignored.

However, what upset me then still upsets me today. There is this perception with the teacher that the standards/benchmarks you teach... the "what" you teach... doesn't have to be looked at. Once you have it determined, you shouldn't every have to re-visit it.

Teaching is a profession requiring a professional attitude. Imagine a doctor saying, "I know everything there is to need to know about the human body. I don't need to improve my knowledge of it." Or a lawyer who says, "I know the law inside and out. I'm going to spend all of my time in the courtroom as opposed to the library, because that's just a waste of time."

It is frustrating to have to continuously improve, to continuously have to look at how you do things and continue to tweak them. But you have to do it. The world changes. Schools need to change too, even if what you had worked find.

This is the similar anxiety I see among many teachers regarding the Iowa Core. They will say "here is the latest round of the same ol' stuff we've had, forcing us to adopt new standards and benchmarks (and now I hear there are national standards coming down the pike)." And I understand the frustration. But the attitude that we have to wait for the department of education (or for any body of authority for that matter), before we will actively look at what we teach will only lead to acting out of compulsion. And if you are acting out of compulsion and not because it is the right thing to do, of course it will have no effect on your teaching.

Another email that was compelling:

...I'm not sure looking at our standards and benchmarks is what we should be doing now. Maybe there are some things we need to change on them. But, what we really need to do is look at how well we are actually teaching those things. You and I both know there are teachers who list off they do everything in that list, but are doing a crappy job at it. That's really where we should start."

This teacher, like the first, is not a "change agent" in the school and tends to look pessimistically at professional development, despite doing a good job in the classroom. Teacher B's complaint is typical of the other set of complaints that I receive with the Iowa Core. I really can't argue with what this individual said... I think it is spot on. It is looking for fidelity in what we teach. We say we teach the standards and benchmarks, but do we really? And how thoroughly? This is the heavy lifting of the Iowa Core's alignment process.

Two Good Reasons to Go 1:1

2010-02-06T18:41:00.004-06:00

From the introduction of Livingston's 1:1 Learning - Laptop Programs That Work:

Because we've long known that students need to work at their own pace and in their own way, both school and at home, no one expects students to stand in line or adhere to a schedule for using technologies such as books, pencils, or calculators. However, that's precisely what we've asking them to do with computers."
- Mark Weiser

How effective is a classroom set of textbooks, that students couldn't take home or to study hall to read? That had to remain in the room so that the next class could use the same resources? It isn't, other than to save money. It interrupts the learning process so much, we can't call it a learning process anymore. Leaving the books behind would be a workflow.

We have no problem making sure we are 1:1 with textbooks (in all subject areas, nonetheless), but isn't it just as absurd to leave the access to computers behind?

We need to get past the fear factor that is associated with the web, and I'm not just talking about the safety issue. We're scared of bad information and that children will plagiarize and cheat and that people will lead them astray, and so our reaction is to block it all. That doesn't protect them. It makes them less safe and more ignorant."
- Will Richardson.

Our world in now open to our students; through the portal of the internet, they can connect to people around the globe to learn from and share with. Never before have we had this learning potential before. And yet, we use fear of the world as a reason to shield them from technology. What favors are we doing them? If we don't give them ubiquitous access--if by denying them access, we deny them the opportunity to learn--then we aren't doing everything we can to help them.

1:1 Learning - Laptop Programs That Work

2010-02-05T11:44:00.004-06:00

I mentioned one of the best resources we have on 1:1 computing is a book in our professional library by Pamela Livingston. Pamela Livingston, who has served in many technology roles both in schools and the private sector, was the technology coordinator of the Peck School in Morristown, NJ, one of the first school districts to roll out a 1:1 initiative.

Livingston puts together not only her experience, but also the existing research and experiences of other pioneering schools, and statewide initiatives. I'll highlight some of my favorite sections of the book in some upcoming posts.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
Section 1 gives a narrative of the process Peck used to roll it out, from idea, to common vision, to logistics and budgeting, to implementation, and then to evaluation. She also compares it to the work in San Francisco's Urban school, St. Louis' Whitfield school, Denver School of Science and Technology, Henrico County (VA)'s initiative, and the statewide middle school initiative in Maine.

Section 2 gives more details on the aspects of leadership. Specifically, it shows what worked and what did not with planning, professional development, and implementation logistics.

And section 3 delves into the teaching pedagogical differences that ubiquitous computing affords a school. Livingston does a nice job of touching on the differences in learning theory and some important aspects to remember about use of web 2.0 tools. She also provides a model lesson and classroom management advice.

Finally, there are excellent resources in the appendices, including Peck's sample policies, a collection of FAQs from students, current research and resources, as well as a scenario-starter for how you would implement different technologies into language arts, math, science, and social studies classes.

By the way, Livingston also guest blogs on the 1:1 blog run by CASTLE.

Heartland AEA 1:1 Resources

2010-02-02T09:02:00.002-06:00

I am at the Heartland area superintendents' monthly meeting this morning, where there will be a large focus on 1:1 schools and the process involved. Van Meter's superintendent John Carver and high school principal Deron Durflinger will be presenting about their district's initiative, and later Jeff Dicks, superintendent from Newell-Fonda, will be discussing some of the growing pains involved with a district going 1:1.

For those in the Heartland area, or in Iowa for that matter, here is a quick look at the best resources we offer for schools looking to go 1:1.

1to1schools.org is a blog coordinated by Scott McLeod, director of Iowa State's CASTLE institute
CASTLE is partnering with the AEAs to put a wiki of information on the 1:1 process
On that wiki, there is a listing of other 1:1 schools in Iowa with contact information
Also on that wiki is some information about the upcoming spring conference for Iowa 1:1 schools
The Digital Curriculum (pdf) is a framework for how to teach with ubiquitous access
From our professional library, Pamela Livingston's 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs that Work (2nd edition) is a must read, detailing not only the necessary steps for schools, but also highlighting some of the pioneers in 1:1 use.
SAI is in its second year of offering leadership training in transitioning schools to the 21st century. Heartland also offers leadership training in the form of an online course/community on how to lead schools in a 21st century tech-infused school.

Those interested in knowing more about 1:1 implementation, access and integration are encouraged to visit with either me or one of Heartland's educational technology consultants, Denise Krefting, Toy Waterman, Steve Linduska, or Wade Andersen.

Data points that maybe only I'm interested in

2010-02-01T06:46:00.002-06:00

My kids point out that we would have been at the 100th day if it hadn't been for snow days (which I believe means we are in the mid-60s now...). Good time to look at some data and draw some conclusions.

Here's a couple data points for you to consider:

How many times this year has your principal been in your room to observe a lesson, other than formal district-mandated observations?
How many times this year has your technology coordinator observed your lessons? Or curriculum director? Or department head?
How many times have you observed another teacher teach this year?
How many other educators in your district know what you are currently looking at in your curriculum? And, how many of those only know because they have children who are your students?
How many times this year have you had a discussion with another educator about student data, not including the ITBS/ITEDs? How many of those led to you altering your teaching?
How many articles, books, or blog posts have you read this year that have transformed your teaching? How many of those did you share with your colleagues?

With the exception of a few schools who truly value collaboration, we live more isolated than any other profession. Professional development does not work in isolation.

Tony Wagner, in his visit to Iowa, used the analogy of the tennis player who was trying to improve her game by only email interaction with a coach. The coach was not allowed to see her practice or play, but could only offer vague advice on the fundamentals of the game. The player was also not allowed to see herself via videotape or to watch other players for comparison. And she wasn't allowed to discuss the score of any match to measure the effects of any efforts she made.

How well would the tennis player improve in that isolated of a situation? How well do you?

Random Thoughts on "Teacher Beliefs"

2010-01-30T21:04:00.004-06:00

I have some thoughts on the professional development activity that Heartland consultants did yesterday. As I mentioned, I feel that when a staff collectively explores what their beliefs of education are, this is a much better time than what a majority of our professional development is spent doing. It not only leads to powerful conversations, but educators leave PD with a renewed sense of passion and vision. Which is probably 180 degrees from where they usually leave PD.

Julie Hukee, a Heartland mathematics consultant who led the session, mentioned this during the session:

When it comes to a teacher's beliefs and a teacher's actions, which changes first? Can you change your actions without changing your beliefs first, or must you go the other way around? And, how does that impact schools?

Think about that. Let's say your school is in a rut. Not bad per se. In fact, overall they are doing a more than adequate job. But the district is not moving anywhere; they're content to do things the way they've always been. After all, it has worked in the past.

This isn't the exception. This is the norm. And leaders at the state level look at this and say "We need to move these schools to provide a 21st century education". And thus, the Iowa Core is born.

But--and here's the real question--can those statewide leaders be confident that the Core will actually change schools? For, what if educators don't actually change their beliefs? What if they treat it like the other initiatives du jour that have been handed down? Will there be any true change in actions?

The obvious answer is no. Teachers must change their beliefs about education. A mandate by itself might have some temporary change in action, but it will fade if there is no accompanying change in beliefs.

So, the solution is obvious, right? Change the teacher's beliefs first, and then their actions will change. Not so fast, says Todd Whitaker. In his What Great Principals Do Differently: 15 Things That Matter Most, he says effective principals know locking heads over beliefs is counter-productive. Effective principals acknowledge that there might be disagreement over beliefs, but there will be an expectation with actions. Or in other words, "You don't have to agree with the policy, but you do need to abide by it".

I'm torn on this... I actually think Whitaker's right. Trying to change beliefs first is pollyanish. It isn't going to happen. But as Whitaker points out, with positive leadership and reinforcement, a teacher who changes actions often times does change beliefs. And even if they don't, the school as a whole doesn't suffer when the teacher performs the right actions, albeit grudgingly. I think a large percentage of schools' inertia comes from leaders trying to change beliefs first and getting nowhere... perhaps as large as the percentage from leaders not trying to move the school anywhere.

Unfortunately, I'm not a my-way-or-the-highway kind of guy. That's why I like this activity. It creates a safe place to really explore a teacher's beliefs, to bring them out into the open and see what others are thinking, without being directly evaluative of a teacher's teaching. I'm trying to think of another way to truly change teacher's beliefs, and I'm drawing a blank.

ONE MORE THOUGHT...
There unfortunately was one nagging thought for me, though, and it only became more and more apparent as the data from the 43 consultants in the room came back. To me, for most questions, the answers were obvious. And it was as obvious to the other consultants as well. And yet, we didn't agree. The variance was huge.

So, if I sequestered all the statewide leaders behind the formulation of the Iowa Core into a room, gave them the paired statements, and said "According to the Iowa Core..." for each, do you think there would be agreement?

And, this is why teachers are frustrated.

Professional Development Opportunity: Teacher Beliefs

2010-01-29T11:03:00.002-06:00

We had an excellent professional development opportunity today at Heartland, stemming around research conducted by Vicki Snider, a professor from UW-Eau Claire, working in conjunction with the Janesville Community School District. The research article, entitled Teachers' Beliefs About Pedagogy and Related Issues, uses a constructed instrument with phrases posed as diametrical opposites, and asked educators to rank their beliefs. I've placed a few of the paired statements below.

A couple of quick points. First, undoubtedly you will look at some of the paired statements and conclude they aren't true opposites. Also, as a few consultants mentioned this morning, there is some use of some charged words in the survey ("How can you be against authentic learning"). I can admit those up front with the understanding that it is difficult to create a well-worded pair, and those two quick points don't necessarily invalidate the discussion that takes place afterwards. Overall, Snider's instrument is well worth a district's time.

We conducted the activity using classroom response system clickers so we could analyze the data immediately, and I'd recommend a district or a building to do the same. After a quick introduction of the study (and how clickers work, if necessary), explain the scale that is used (a modified Likert-type scale). Then post the questions and have each teacher respond via the clicker.

Once you have worked through the questions, have teachers discuss the results that they found. If you would like, you can provide the dataset from Janesville for comparison sake.

The paired statements, by themselves, can generate very quality conversation, but there are a couple of other takeaways from the process of this discussion that I find interesting. I'll touch on those in another post.

Here are some of the paired statements:
• The concept of learning style has little relevance for deciding how and what to teach vs. Individual learning styles should be an important factor in deciding how and what to teach

• The best way to ensure success for all students is to provide authentic learning experiences vs. The best way to ensure success for all students is to teach critical skills and concepts directly and systematically.

• Small class size in the early grades is the primary factor leading to higher academic achievement vs. Small class size in the early grades is not the primary factor leading to higher academic achievement

• Accuracy and fluency in basic skills and factual knowledge form the foundation for conceptual understanding and critical thinking vs. Conceptual understanding and critical thinking should be emphasized even when students lack proficiency in basic skills or factual knowledge.

• A great teacher cares about students and makes learning fun and interesting vs. A great teacher cares about students and produces high student achievement outcomes.

• Ability grouping is inequitable and destructive to motivation vs. Ability grouping is necessary to foster success and motivation.

• There is a best way to teach that will be effective with most students vs. There is no best way to teach all students; an eclectic or balanced approach to instruction is best.

• Teachers should facilitate learning, rather than teach directly vs. Teachers should teach directly, rather than just facilitate.

• Factors (e.g., home life, dyslexia) can prevent children from becoming functionally literate and mathematically competent, regardless of the school’s best efforts vs. All children (excluding those with severe disabilities) can become functionally literate and mathematically competent.

• Instruction should start with teacher modeling and guided practice followed by practice and review vs. Instruction should be organized around meaningful activities and projects.

• Experience is more important than education and training for becoming an effective teacher vs. Education and training is more important than experience for becoming an effective teacher.

• Following a prescriptive curriculum stifles teacher creativity and reduces student motivation vs. Following a prescriptive, but well-designed, curriculum provides the best opportunity for effective instruction.

Your legislator needs a letter

2010-01-15T07:47:00.004-06:00

If you didn't read this article in yesterday's Register, take a moment to do so. It forecasts a major shift in Iowa's educational structure.

You can see why legislators are considering this, as AEAs, without their direct contact with students, looks like the natural choice to save money. Same way a district looks to administrators, central office staff, and custodians when cutting to meet their budget. But, those same legislators could also understand that cutting their own clerical support is not going to make for a more efficient legislature.

Obviously, as one who earns their paycheck from an AEA, I'm distraught about this. Certainly, that's not to say that AEA employees would be losing their jobs, but "re-organization" is the time to lop off programs and services while becoming more streamlined, regardless of the gentle language that is coming out in the article.

So, the question is what will we lose in order to save this money? Will it just be the "extra layers of bureaucracy" that is referred to--the administrative jobs that can be magically eliminated without a loss in services? Do those even exist (and why haven't AEAs eliminated those already, then)?

Or will it be cuts in curriculum consulting? Professional development? Assessment services?

And, the second question is will districts see that saved money? Especially now that they will have to hire to handle those services internally? Or will it be absorbed by the state budget?

Will this new, spider-shaped organization, be efficient enough to keep Iowa's schools moving forward? Do we have any other spider-shaped initiatives going on right now, and how would we rate their efficiency?

Erik Helland is right, the devil is in the details.

Iowa Core, in a Nutshell

2009-12-18T11:18:00.006-06:00

I've had this conversation enough that it is time I posted it. For many educators, the Iowa Core Curriculum comes across as more confusing than it really is. Partly, that is due to problems with a roll-out, and another part due to questions about mandates and timelines. With non-educators (and many educators would openly admit, with them too), there is too much jargon that comes across as fluff, the eduspeak of those of us who have worked in education for a long time.

But at its heart, the Iowa Core Curriculum is really simple. Its really solid. And, there's little argument about it, even though there is consensus we could do a better job on these things. Here is the Iowa Core Curriculum, boiled down to seven basics:

1. We have to always be changing.
Because, the world is always changing. And we have tended to say that we're pretty good at what we do, which can create complacency. Eduspeak calls this the culture of continuous improvement, but basically it means we can't rest on our laurels. We have a process where we get better, going on all the time.

2. Change has to be based on data.
We can't make changes willy nilly. We have to seek data so that we can make a good decision. And most importantly, we have to know what kinds of data we seek. It isn't always the ITEDs. In fact, it usually shouldn't be. As schools, we have to be better at a) defining what we're after, b) knowing how you measure that, c) actually going out and measuring it, and d) interpreting it to make a decision... as opposed to twisting it to reinforce the decision we have already made.

3. We teach what we should be teaching.
The word thrown out here is alignment. The Iowa Core gives us essential skills and concepts for students to master. The problem is not that those are different than district's written standards and benchmarks... they usually aren't. The problem is, a district's standards and benchmarks are different than what actually goes on in their classrooms. We need to actually look in our classrooms and determine what is actually taught, what is "covered", and what is assumed to be covered by a different grade level.

4. We have good instruction and assessment when we teach, and we know what that means.
The Iowa Core identifies 5 characteristics of effective instruction. But even here, there isn't anything magical about these terms. They refer to teaching that is constructivist in learning. Deep learning. Less topics, higher-order thinking. More focus on analysis and creativity, less on rote memorization. Ongoing feedback, students driving the learning. Authentic learning environments, activities in the real world. And differentiation around a student's abilities, interests and prior knowledge.

Teachers have heard these buzzwords for years... the Iowa Core isn't new here. What's key is calibration. Can teachers look at a lesson being taught and identify if it is higher-order or not, how it can be more authentic, etc.

5. We develop 21st century skills in all that we do
Perhaps the biggest of buzzwords with the Iowa Core -- 21st century skills -- are actually well known. Show teachers a clip of a good lesson and they'll be able to identify the skills taking place, be they creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, innovation, etc. The problem is we see them as a discreet skill, as though we need a separate lesson on creativity in our curriculum.

Rather, they should be the lens by which we look at all that we do. You've got a unit on polynomials, or structuring a paragraph, or the process of osmosis. Great. How good is that unit at developing creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, etc? How can you make it better at those? Each lesson, regardless of content area or age level, should have that as the implied focus, the universal outcome.

6. We need to work more closely with those outside school
And, that's not just communication. Are we actually collaborating with others, partnering with others? Parents, community groups, local businesses, other schools, government institutions, the list goes on and on. We need to admit as educators that we can't teach students the best by creating an insular environment. We teach better when we bring in external "teachers".

7. We need good leadership
None of the other things happen without good leaders. And leadership doesn't always come solely from administration. We need to be systematic about building leadership... it won't happen just on its own. We need to adopt attitudes of balanced leadership, giving other people the chance to lead in the areas of their strengths.

No one is saying we need poor leadership in schools, of course. But when we talk about a district that doesn't have quality leadership, we tend to throw up our hands. Not much we can do there.

That's the wrong attitude to take. Every school needs quality leadership. Therefore, we need to not just pay this lip service, but actually invest time and money into leadership development. Administrators and teachers alike. The Iowa Core emphasizes to districts that this is a priority.

Google Sketchup & Build Your Town

2009-12-17T13:25:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned before, Google is partnering with the DE and AEAs to provide Google Sketchup to Iowa schools.

For teachers interested in using Google Sketchup but unsure of a hook to your classroom, you should know about the Model Your Town Contest from Google. The contest asks students to design 3d renderings of buildings in their towns via Sketchup, and then submit those for Google Earth.

Grant Wood AEA has taken the lead on this and is offering training for teachers in Google Earth. You can check out their website for more details about the project. Heartland AEA is developing an online course for Google Sketchup as well. Those interested to know more can contact me or Denise Krefting at the Heartland office.

More from Will Richardson

2009-12-15T06:36:00.003-06:00

Some more thoughts from Will:

On the Youtube video below: "We have now the tools where students can go, access the broadest of networks, asking help from strangers they have never met before. Youtube can be a method to get direct feedback on your performance."

"80% of students are involved in social networking, and an overwhelming majority of those (probably 95%) are not taught how to engage in it by an adult. You as an educator HAVE to teach my kids how to interact with adults online... its how they will learn in this world."

"Schools need to be learning communities not teaching communities."

"A new graduation requirement we should have: students will be able to create, navigate and grow their own personal learning network."

"The strength of a network is in diversity. Not diversity as we usually measure it, but diversity of ideas."

"I want my kids to fail safely somewhere using social media than never get the opportunity to interact with the world"

"Everywhere I go, teachers are fixated with units. Why? Why does everything have to be in a unit? We have a unit for this and a unit for that? The reality is, learning can't always be chunked. It's not units, it's the way we do things, our culture of learning."

OTHER REFLECTIONS
Tim Limbert, technology director at Newell-Fonda, has an excellent write-up of the day

Jeff Dicks, superintendent at Newell-Fonda, reflects on the day and the implications for his district. Good quote of his to highlight:

I assure you, Newell-Fonda is listening to this conversation. Our laptop program was a great step in providing devices for each 9-12 student. Now we are seeing that is just a piece of the puzzle, and more important, we need to create a curriculum to support our access.

Scott McLeod's writeup for the day, parts one, two, and three.

Will Richardson: "You need to share more"

2009-12-12T10:16:00.005-06:00

I'm still percolating thoughts from yesterday's session. Here are my biggest three.

1. DISTRICT RE-CALIBRATION
We have a lot of enthusiasm from the represented districts about teaching in the 21st century. They want to gear instruction towards project-based learning. They want to embed technology. They want to prioritize creativity, innovation, and critical thinking. They want to connect with other schools. And, this enthusiasm--this willingness to try and risk failure--is absolutely critical for a district to be successful.

But, there is perhaps a perception of the districts that their involvement with a one-to-one means they are truly teaching in the 21st century. Will repeatedly mentioned purchasing the digital technology and using it is actually very easy. It is transforming the curriculum that is difficult. He asked where districts taught Wikipedia, or taught about sexting. He asked about authentic assessments and internships. And, the educators there realized, there is a way to go.

And this is a problem. When the Newell-Fonda's, Okoboji's, and Van Meter's of the state try new things, they don't have a model or blueprint to look at. They have to build the plane while flying it. And in addition, given their relative position to other districts, it does look like they are doing things very well.

These districts have to re-calibrate their understanding of effective teaching. No longer can they compare themselves to "business-as-usual" instruction that you might see in other Iowa districts... they have surpassed that. They now need to look at schools like the New Tech High school or Science Leadership Academy. They have to see how these schools go beyond having computers and using projects to fully improving instruction and assessment.

2. STATEWIDE LEADERSHIP
We have a lot of enthusiasm from the districts... much of the conversation was driven by them. But there wasn't much conversation from DE or AEA consultants (myself included). You could make too much of this, but the contrast with who was participating was striking.

My thought is this: Not every school has the leader who can vision schools functioning in the way Will Richardson talks about. We need statewide leadership to help promote one-to-one initiatives and not merely cheer lead. I'm not sure that has happened up until this point.

3. BUILDING COMMUNITY
The biggest takeaway was Will's reflection, invaluable as an outside viewpoint looking in. He mentioned that the current work of the schools represented, and their leadership they are providing, is excellent. But, it is pockets of excellence at this point. Much as a district has an excellent teacher here and an excellent teacher there, if there are districts doing great things, it was apparent that they were in isolation from everyone else.

Will asked several superintendents how other people knew what they were doing, and the response was typically "Come visit us" or "Look at our website". Which isn't active sharing... it's passive sharing. A willingness to share doesn't mean anyone is going to do it. And this has been the downfall of our statewide efforts many times before.

Will mentioned Clay Shirky's analysis of what constitutes a community. Shirky writes that while networking and connecting is important, people mistake that for a community. True community starts with sharing, then moves to collaboration, then to collective action. Collective action is the place we want to be in Iowa, where we are moving forward all schools. How will we start the sharing?

Will Richardson visiting with Iowa Leaders today

2009-12-11T06:48:00.000-06:00

Through CASTLE, I will be joining about 35 other people from education, administration, AEAs, the DE, higher education, and business to visit with Will Richardson. Will, who is a renowned blogger and author about 21st century education, will be addressing what leaders are currently doing to move forward education in Iowa... and what they should be doing more of.

I will admit, I'm very excited for the day. Scott McLeod is doing an excellent job of networking leaders in Iowa, and this day will be a chance for those leaders to connect and stretch each other's thoughts. Add to that Richardson, who stretches educator's thoughts for a living.

For those unfamiliar with Will Richardson, here are some of my previous posts about his work. He is an educational thinker I recommend every district put on their staff reading list.

Will Richardson
Your PLN
21st Century Skills = Fluff?
Using Wikipedia in the Classroom
The Digital Curriculum, Student Research, and Diigo
Paperless at Inservice
Pageflakes and iGoogle

Image from http://oame.on.ca/OAME2009/presenters.htm

Update:
Our chat space for the day
Our etherpad for the day
Our hashtag for the day

You never write anymore

2009-12-02T07:52:00.004-06:00

I see it's been almost 2 weeks since the blog was updated, which I can only partly blame on Thanksgiving. Truth is, I have a list of topics that need addressing, but I haven't gotten to them.

The reason there haven't been as many posts recently is a sudden flurry in online content development projects for Iowa that I've been involved in. They include:

• An Iowa Core foundations module
• An online course for Google Sketchup & Earth
• An course on instructional design (one of several to be offered as part of a sequence of courses available for would-be online instructors)
• A repository of information and networking space for 1:1 schools in Iowa

The one I am most excited about right now is an online course Toy Waterman is focusing on, which uses Atomic Learning's individualized assessments. Teachers can take the assessment, and Atomic Learning will prescribe technology tutorials that are best for the teacher. What's more, the instructor of the course can prescribe their own tutorials.

The vision for this course is that districts will be able to host their own session of the course, not needing a teacher as much as a facilitator (the course is self-paced). So, when districts are struggling to figure out how to provide technology professional development during the year, especially individualized professional development, they can implement this course, and have teachers walk through the steps to improve their professional practice.

It goes beyond Atomic Learning. Toy is integrating resources on digital citizenship & internet safety to help teachers prepare lessons around those topics for students (a requirement for districts with e-rate), as well as an activity where participants apply their technological pedagogy to a lesson that integrates 21st century skills (by looking at the Iowa Core essential skills and concepts).

More to come on each.

Working ahead?

2009-11-20T06:42:00.003-06:00

A question I posed to a teacher recently, who had some difficulty thinking what she would do:

Let's say you had a policy in your course that allowed a student to test out of a unit (and if you don't, that would be a good place to start). Once the student tests out, they have enrichment activities.

You notice a student who, in class, is reading the next chapter of the textbook, googling key vocabulary terms for it, whatever would be involved, in order to pass out of that unit.

Do you as a teacher allow that to happen? Do you encourage it?

At first blush, this would seem to be the perfect scenario. The student has initiative with a measurable goal in mind. They are becoming an independent learner, acquiring their learning in their preferred method. And, they are working at their own pace.

Yet, as parents of the students above could attest, this doesn't happen much. Why not?

The first barrier is even having the option to test out of units in the first place. Often, the thought is the curriculum is "too essential to let a student clep". Or "too difficult to even let them try." Or, group work is required during this unit, so others in the class are depending on this student. Or, you can't "test out" of physical fitness. Or choir. Or...

But let's say a teacher sees the light and allows testing out. And then sees students cramming before the test-out. Isn't it difficult to let go of that locus of control? Isn't it intended for students who already know the material? Is it hard to possibly perceive that the student would rather not learn the material the way you teach it?

The problem is that, even in these situations, the class is a teacher-centered class. Not a student-centered class. Despite allowing students to test out, the control really still rests with the teacher. To allow it to happen is the first step. To encourage it is the end goal in 21st century teaching and learning.

Mt. Washington is 6288 feet tall

2009-11-13T06:56:00.005-06:00

Or so I learned this past week.

Today, my daughter takes her social studies test over the northeast states. I helped her study this week for the test, and I'm glad to say I see a perfect score on the horizon (not due to my tutorage).

The format for this unit, at least how it was reported to me by my daughter (and this is often at variance from the truth), leaves much to be desired however. Students have a thick social studies book filled with facts galore to cover every possible standard, benchmark, and performance indicator of all 50 states (to make the book marketable). But they don't really read the book; there is a CD audiobook of the text that is played at the beginning of the week.

The next day, they are given a worksheet packet with 15 questions on it, fill-in-the-blank style. The teacher reads question number one, which reads Mt. Washington, which is in _________, has a height of __________ feet. The teacher asks if any students know the answer, and students try to remember what they heard the previous day. The teacher then gives the correct answer (or confirms it), and the class moves on to question #2.

That's it. Test given out today.

OTHER QUESTIONS FROM THE TEST
• There are _____ states (number). Name them.
• _________ is an important industry in the northeast because the coastline has many harbors.
• The type of government in which all of the people vote for laws is called a ___________
• When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, they drew up an agreement that would help them to make laws called the __________
• A ditch dug across land to connect one waterway to another is called a __________
• The _______ _________ built in 1817, is a long ditch that connects the Hudson River with the Great Lakes
• A way of making large quantities of the same product is called ___________
• In the U.S., your rights are made possible because of our plan of government called the _________
• Our national government has 3 branches, known as _________, __________, and _________
• The place where Congress meets is in the _________ building
• NYC is also known as the city of ___________ because people from all over the world live there.
• The reasons that our nations first factories started in the northeast was because of _______ power and __________ power
• List the state capitals from each of the northeast states.

Note a pattern to the questions? If so, you are better than me. These are knowledge-level questions about geography, economics, government, and history. And there are several questions that aren't about the northeast.

LET'S EXAMINE OUR CURRICULUM
This isn't to pick on my daughter's school or teacher. I think what I see here is an anomaly, and that literacy and math are not taught this way. It's more to pick on the lesson design, which I feel is unfortunately typical in elementary social studies curricula.

There is too big of a dependence on the textbook.
There is too much information covered, given the little time spent on it in class, and the information is incoherently jumbled together.
There is a missed opportunity to work on reading skills embedded across the curriculum
The information covered is too low-level, factual-based, and doesn't lead to higher level thinking
The assessment is non-authentic recall
The information is, for the most part negligible (this will be the last time in my daughter's educational career she will be expected to know how tall or in what state Mt. Washington is)

Here's the scenario of what this leads to: I started reading the question "this is an important..." and before I could get to "industry", my daughter shouted out the word "fishing!" I asked her an application question "Where else is that industry important in the United States?" and she responds "That's not on the test." "I know, but where else it is important"? "Dad, I don't know, we haven't gotten to the other parts of the United States."

You never will. There is too much in social studies to cover everything.

What I want her to know is that, being by a coastline, it is logical that fishing will be an important industry. Therefore, other states/nations with coastlines will also have a significant fishing industry. Even if we haven't heard the official textbook CD. The lesson design precludes her from making associations like this.

If you look at the questions in the list, they are not all equal. The state capital knowledge is beyond negligible (how many of the 50 do you know, and has that had any impact on your life?). Some other questions could lead to deeper learning (like the Mayflower Compact or Erie Canal), but listing it in a factual method and then moving on makes them irrelevant as well. Meanwhile, perhaps two of the most important concepts of social studies, worth an intensive unit all in of themselves, democracy and the constitution only get one question devoted to them. In the midst of everything else. Very much, a mixed message to students.

When we discuss the Iowa Core, this is an example of what we need to do. Get rid of the rest of that stuff. Determine what is important. And then have a deeper lesson, leading to deeper conceptual and procedural knowledge, with authentic and formative assessment. Which will lead to permanent learning.

I give my daughter 5 months to forget that Mt. Washington is 6288 feet tall (she does have a good memory).

Nate Silver, Math, and Quadrant D

2009-11-12T07:08:00.000-06:00

The big mistakes we make with the rigor and relevance framework is that we assume higher-order thinking is "tougher" and that more relevant means a story problem from a 2nd-person perspective. And, neither are the case.

Math is a great example. If you were a math teacher, and you were asked to make your curriculum more rigorous, you would probably eliminate some of the easier skills and replace them with skills that are tougher. Or given that math often works sequentially, eliminate chapters 1-4 and replace them with chapter 21-24 in the textbook.

You'd definitely be upping the difficulty, but would that result in students having more rigorous thinking skills? Not if the replacement skills are taught the same way, it wouldn't be.

In that same vein, traditional math instruction is definitely analytical, I'd say more so than traditional language arts or social studies curriculum, and analysis is a higher-order skill. But is it critical thinking? How much do students actually critique what they are learning? Even the best math instructors struggle with that... it's hard to critique something as black and white as mathematical theorems.

NATE SILVER
One of the biggest names in math today is that of Nate Silver, the founder of the popular political statistics blog FiveThirtyEight.com as well as the inventor of the sabermetric statistical model for baseball PECOTA. Silver's use of statistics and mathematical logic, both in baseball as well as in politics, ranges from the simple to the extremely complex.

But above all, it's very accurate, as PECOTA was the gold standard in predicting player performances and team results for years (other mathematical models have now caught up to it), and 538 successfully predicted 49 out of 50 states from the 2008 election with an algorithm of polling data.

There are two ways teachers can use Silver's work as the basis for quadrant D math activities (and no, one of those is not to do a biographical report on him... the biographical report on the "famous mathematician" or "famous chemist" or whatever being one of the worst ways for a student to learn more about that subject). One is to look at how to mathematically determine an otherwise non-mathematical quality. Silver asked the question "How can we predict the success of a baseball team or a presidential candidate?" and then developed the mathematical model to do so. But that question could just as easily be to rate the "best" musical act of all time or the most influential president of all time.

Starting off with a theoretical question, and then looking at the math that could help you support the answer uses a higher order skill not often associated with math: creativity. It also is relevance... true relevance. Not just take my problem and make it a problem that involves money. But rather, actually look at how real mathematicians in the world would use the content and skills to solve a real-world, unpredictable problem.

The other way would be to look at the ethics behind math and statistics. As we mentioned earlier this week, Silver questioned the methodology of the polling company Strategic Vision, which has been producing some shaky polls used to advocate for certain political causes. The method he used is to look at the trailing digits used by the polling company, which shows a non-random pattern. Silver then concludes the company was fabricating the polls, quite the claim.

Not only has this episode been relevant in terms of its impact on the world we live in, but it also has unfolded before the viewers eyes through an ongoing blog (Silver does a fairly good job of explaining some very abstract patterns). Again, you have the task of working through some unpredictable situations (proving a statistical polling company is lying is not a predictable part of any curriculum). And oh by the way, Strategic Vision hasn't polled since Silver's inquiry.

Now, this comes from a non-math teacher's perspective, but this is what the Iowa Core is getting at. The counter argument to doing this quadrant D work would be 1) it's time consuming and 2) takes us away from the mastery of essential skills and concepts. But that's actually its strength. It does take a student away from the collector of formulas and theorems to becoming the critical thinker in an inquiry-based setting, and it gives the student an appreciation for how math is relevant in the world around them.

Arthur Benjamin talks about statistics (and how it is overlooked in American curricula) with this short TED talk.

Other links
An explanation of PECOTA
The methodology behind 538

A Lesson from Oklahoma

2009-11-08T21:59:00.003-06:00

Earlier this fall, the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs released the results from the survey it had commissioned about the civics knowledge of high school students, which were very alarming. Only 23% identified George Washington as the first president, 29% identified the president as being in charge of the executive branch, and 43% that Democrats and Republicans being the two major parties in America (10% identified the two parties as Communist and Republican). OCPA decried the results as proof of the failure of Oklahoma's educational system, and the results of their survey were used in many major publications.

But, almost as soon as they were released, questions began to be raised. Could it really be that only 2.8% of the 1000 polled high school students, as the survey claimed, could pass the test (which is a meager 6 out of 10 correct)? And none would get 8-10 correct? In a random distribution that would bring about 600 college-bound students and 50 gifted students, none got 8-10 correct?

This raised some questions, most notably by statistician Nate Silver. Even starting with the assumption that only 23% of the sampled students knew about Washington, the results still looked fabricated. Simply put, the distribution of student scores matches almost identically to a homogeneous distribution of probability. However, students are not homogeneous... a student that gets the first three right is much more likely to get #4 right than one who got the first three wrong.

Silver wasn't the only one, as he mentioned today. State representative Ed Cannaday, a former educator, also thought something was fishy. He conducted the same survey in school districts in his own congressional district within Oklahoma (N = 325). And, he found an entirely different set of results. In fact, 98% identified George Washington as the first president, 85% identified the president as being in charge of the executive branch, and 95% identified the correct two political parties. In fact, the average score in Cannaday's survey was 7.8 correct out of 10, very striking considering the OPCA survey said none in 1000 scored more than 7 correct.

POLITICS INVOLVED
While Silver doesn't focus specifically on it, still what is clear is the subtext of OCPA being a conservative group pushing educational policy changes. And, by the reach of the survey's results, which landed prominent places in Time, Newsweek, and the USA Today, it can be said the survey was successful, however dubious. Now that headlines have blared how Oklahoma's public schools are failing miserably, the damage is done, and a page 12B follow-up article will not do anything about it.

The lesson here is twofold. One, that in an era of data-driven decision making, standardized assessment results still run secondary to sensationalized opinion polls in the effort to sway public opinion. And two, that schools appear to be not off-grounds for fabricated politicization. Which means one thing...

If you are an Iowan representative, you better be extra critical of any external data used to describe the achievement of Iowa's students.

And if you are a newspaper, like let's say a Register in the state capital, you should be equally cautious.

Using standardized data as a measuring stick for how well the nation's schools are doing is troubling enough for many reasons. It becomes infinitely worse when using non-standardized survey data.

There are a million reasons behind the data, all the way down to whether the students had any breakfast this morning, to whether the test had cultural bias within it, to whether a teacher happened to give the students the answers. Now we have to add nefarious purposes of the testing provider to the list.

Parent-Teacher Conferences, and Asking the Students

2009-11-02T07:42:00.000-06:00

Parent-Teacher conferences are coming in full swing with the start of November. P-T conferences were frequently disappointing in our districts, as parents had busy schedules and were keeping track of grades online, thus decimating participation. Even requiring parents to come in to P-T conferences in order to get the student's report cards didn't work; parents came in, got the paper, and immediately left. I had a similar experience with a face-to-face parental advisory group when I was a principal.

About 2003, I stopped putting any hope in P-T conferences or Parental Advisory Groups, and instead prioritized online communication. And it worked, tremendously. I had near 80% participation rate in my parental advisory group with an online communication format. I found online communication better for two reasons. I could initiate the conversation at any time, and parents were more likely to respond.

The takeaway was this. Parents care. They want what is best for their children, and they want a voice in that education. There was something about the convenience of interacting online that made it possible.

What I realize now is that I didn't offer them a forum to talk to each other online. All communication was back and forth via email with me. A discussion group or a blog would have produced more authentic sharing.

Which brings me to what Russ Goerend is doing. In addition to his other online professional learning activity, he uses blogging as a centerpiece of his teaching. His blog serves as ongoing writing instruction for students as well as a springboard for student discussion. Moreover, the blog offers parents a chance to not only find information and access notes, but also to participate in the discussion about how to improve the classroom.

STUDENT INPUT

Come to think of it, there was one compliment (I take it as a compliment... those who disagree with my pedagogical outlook will consider it a weakness of mine) that I received at the P-T conferences I had that was very rare for other teachers. Parents really liked the fact that I asked students for their thoughts on what we were learning in class and how we learned it.

We went beyond just offering multiple project choices for individuals. We actually had discussion about the format to instruction and the way we learned best, and sections of my courses were taught completely different from other sections based on what the students argued they learned best with. These usually spilled over into individual discussions with students, both inside and outside of class. For me, frankly, I felt like I was doing what I should have been doing; it was their education, after all.

Russ of course does it better than I do. I love his open threads for students and parents alike to contribute to. Teachers and administrators need to do more of this. It creates more empowering, ongoing dialogue and creates a culture of continuous improvement. More on the responses from students about the technology teachers should use tomorrow.

To do this requires a teacher to be open to criticism of their teaching, that they indeed do not have all the answers and are looking for input. I won't be naive; this is a major hurdle to most teachers, whether we want to admit it or not. But it is one we need to overcome.

Related Post:
Why aren't we asking students?

Heartland Tutorial on Ning & Online Communities

2009-10-31T09:18:00.002-05:00

We just finished our facilitator training for our agency-wide learning teams, which included a discussion about using collaborative online tools for better learning. Each learning team (think: professional learning community) will be using an online collaborative tool of some sort.

For training purposes, I created a tutorial on how to use Ning to build an online community, with an assist from a self-paced tutorial by Anthony Armstrong. The tutorial currently features the following sections

Joining and Participating in a Ning
Creating and Administering a Ning
Digital Citizenship
Using Collaborative Documents in a Ning

Right now, it's just a start... we'll be adding more information to the tutorial as we go. Feel free to take a look.

Keeping an Eye on Net Neutrality

2009-10-29T12:32:00.004-05:00

There certainly are many current educational issues in politics today, with the debate over standardized assessments, national standards, teacher merit pay, charter school funding, and the like. It might be safe to say that net neutrality is the one furthest off most educators' radar. It shouldn't be.

IN A NUTSHELL
Net neutrality basically states that the content on the internet should be equally available to people. That is, unlike cable, you shouldn't have sites that are intentionally blocked or slowed down by internet service providers because they stand to make money if you instead go with a competitor.

The following graphic from Jason Linkins gives a good visualization of this (CORRECTION, the graphic is from a different user, reported on by Linkins):
We currently have net neutrality, but certainly many telecoms and internet service providers see the abolishing of net neutrality as a cash cow. And, politicians have moved to restrict the FCC from assuring net neutrality by introducing legislation (ironically named the Internet Freedom Act).

THE IMPACT FOR SCHOOLS
Schools could feel the impact of a loss of net neutrality in many ways. You could start with the additional costs to purchase the internet. And as some have predicted, like the cable companies, rising uncontrolled costs could see the advent of a new technology competitor, much like satellite TV. Would schools be equipped to handle "the new web" if something came to fruition?

Many educators have turned to free web 2.0 tools in an effort to provide collaboration and creativity in their curriculum. For the longest time, the warning was that the developers that made these free services might not make them free anymore, causing an educator to be "stuck". But sources like Blogger and Wikispaces have not made any inclination that they would go away from free services.

But, that changes. It wouldn't have to be the developers at Wikispaces who say "no more free wikis". It could be the internet providers who could do that. That's not to say that there wouldn't be other agreements (many districts work with local telecoms right now to receive free cable), but it adds an unknown to the equation.

On a deeper level, the question of open access to all information vs. censorship comes up. Is it censorship if students won't have access in schools to certain news outlets? Some would argue the internet is a big place; there will always be resources available for students. But others would argue that denying students the access to information, no matter how "little" the effect is deemed, infringes on the basic rights of students.

Maybe the best way to frame this is, is internet a right (like basic utilities) or a privilege. The issue isn't quite so black and white, but it is something that educators should have in their peripheral vision because it will affect schools.

Learning = Fishing

2009-10-24T07:40:00.006-05:00

At Heartland, we are putting into effect learning teams, which are similar in principle to professional learning communities (PLCs). The teams afford our consultants the opportunity to learn from other consultants in areas that they prioritize, making them better at their profession.

As any administrator that has tried to institute PLCs can attest (or, anything new, for that matter), change isn't embraced by everyone, even when it directly benefits their autonomy. For many, it is an opportunity, but for others, it is a mandate that they don't have time for...

Wait a second. Learning is a mandate. And some educators have a problem with that?

Well, that's not quite fair. In visiting with some of those who had some concerns, it isn't that they have a problem with learning, per se. They just feel they learn quite well with their current routine.

Unfortunately, that's not what the research in adult learning says. And the difference is perhaps best illustrated with a metaphor. Learning is like fishing.

1. You can't learn much if you don't get off the shore. Learning is an active process, requiring effort and initiative. If you wait for the fish to come to you, you might get lucky and have something wash up next to your feet. But it isn't the effective way to do it; get in a boat and go navigate the big lake. If I told you to go learn as much as you could in one day, you wouldn't do what you normally do in a day. You would change your routine.

2. Learning isn't just quantity, but also diversity. Some beginning fishers like to go to the same hole and pull out perch after perch just to say they caught 50 in one day. There is nothing wrong with catching a large haul every once in a while, but you can't do that all the time. As fishers become more sophisticated, they realize that a diversity is important--bass, crappie, and then walleye, and even muskie.

3. Learning is organic, not systematic. I went through all the checklists of "how to fish" with my kids, be it how to bait, how to cast, how to hold the line, etc. It didn't necessarily lead to catching fish, and that is frustrating to seven-year-olds. Many learners go through the same frustrations. I did the steps someone told me to learn algebra, or to grow tomatoes! What they don't realize is learning must be done multiple times in a variety of ways to be internalized, and there is no systematic schedule to it.

4. Diversity of learning requires different locations. Move that boat around. Put the line deeper. Or in other words, check out different sources of information. Use different tools to acquire information. Including ones you haven't tried before.

5. Diversity of learning requires different times. Saying to educators, "the time you will learn is during this once-a-month, two-hour professional development session" is like saying to the fish, "the time I'm catching you will be at 2:00 in the afternoon". That isn't necessarily when you are ready to fish, or when fish are ready to be caught. Adults must have access to learning at all times in an ongoing basis to truly be most effective.

6. Diversity of learning requires casting your widest net. Some during our sessions were slightly upset that they couldn't choose to work with those that they were most comfortable working with for their learning teams. But, the reality is people don't learn as much from those who they are closest to, much like you don't always want the fish that are right next to the boat. People learn more from those farther away.

As an analogy, fishing illustrates what George Siemens describes as connectivist learning, how adults learn best in today's age. We don't learn by prescribed times, locations, sources, people, and methods. We learn instead by a diversity of practices and by creating a wider network with more nodes. Wider networks mean learning can come at any time and not always when one is expecting it.

But to create wider networks, we need to seek out new sources, tools and people. And, that includes people we don't know. Developing our own personal learning networks to fully utilize the tools of today. And embracing online communities to interact any time, pace, and place.

Interactive Gaming for Pre-Literacy Development

2009-10-22T06:51:00.004-05:00

I'm starting to focus on studies about the involvement of interactive games for preschool/primary students in the building of pre-literacy and pre-math skills, given some mounting evidence that this is an underutilized area in education.

The latest: THE Journal reports on a study from the Educational Development Center that suggests preschool students learn pre-literacy skills better in an environment with repeated exposure to interactive games. The specific skills were letter recognition, letter naming, letter sounds, and understanding story concepts.

Take this study with a grain of salt. I'm not convinced of the methodology, as the comparison group was a science curriculum, not a literacy curriculum, and it was commissioned by PBS, which while I admire their overall work in helping students learn, they still have a vested interest in seeing a positive correlation.

Best news though is that it is leading to further studies. Given available technology that is more accessible to young students than ever before, this will lead to more purposeful game development for that age, with a better tie-in to the Iowa Core.

Teachers Beware: Facebook Usage is Dangerous

2009-10-20T16:43:00.000-05:00

Or so says Justin Bathon at the Edjurist, on multiple occasions.

Actually, Justin has many valid points. I've had several discussions with administrators this year alone who have mentioned younger teachers are sometimes unaware of the dangers of Facebook, namely that it is open, easily traceable, and permanent. When teachers make the mistake of getting caught up in the forum, whether it be an avenue to vent, a place to post candid pictures, or a forum to show yourself as a fun-loving person, the line can be crossed very easily.

Perhaps the most famous case involves a teacher from Charlotte, NC, who on her Facebook page:

Listed her hobbies as "drinking"
Said her job was “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte”
Said she was "teaching in the most ghetto school" in town.

I suppose if you want to start a checklist of what not to do on your Facebook page, that would be a good start.

Prospective teachers take note. It was our policy when I was a principal to not only Google a person, but to fully examine their Facebook page, and I currently recommend that to administrators that I visit with. In recent days, one reported back to me that, upon visiting a prospective teacher's page during the summer, that teacher was immediately dropped from consideration (no comment as to why, which has unfortunately let my imagination run wild). And certainly, just because you are already hired does not mean that inappropriate actions via Facebook are okay. They are not only very strong grounds for dismissal, they are also easy data to gather, as opposed to non-digital evidence.

I'm not quite as strident as Justin on this; I do believe that educators should use the tool personally to become familiar with it, not only because it can help them understand social tools to possibly use in the classroom, but also because it offers many positives to a person's life. It helps them become connected and collaborative with others that they normally would not have. But what is a non-negotiable is that teachers need to have an understanding of digital citizenship, at the very least because they are expected to help their students have an understanding of digital citizenship.

The NEA is similar to my thinking. They have posted both on the benefits of social networking in the classroom (despite the myths) as well as some of the professional pitfalls. Those two articles are great resources to share with your teachers.

And, if you would like some more, below is a brief presentation on the dangers of Facebook.

Five Ways Facebook Can Get You Fired

View more presentations from Paul Dunay.

And perhaps my all time favorite, someone actually getting fired via Facebook. Add this one of what not to do to the above list.

Having an Appreciation of Technology

2009-10-17T06:27:00.001-05:00

Was in a meeting today, the brunt of which was visiting about some of the phone calls our agency has received recently. This discussion was not to be unexpected; we recently changed to a new system and there was sure to be a breakdown in communication as it got further away from us. Couple that with the urgencies that mandatory certification provides (I need this now!!!) and we knew this would happen.

But, some of this impatience is remarkable given how technology has made our lives easier as a whole. I sometimes have the same conversation with teachers, who get overly frustrated by some of the available web 2.0 tools not being the exact perfection they were seeking (you mean we have to create student accounts to use Google Docs?).

This video comes to mind from Conan and comedian Louis C.K.

ITEC 2009 - David Warlick

2009-10-16T06:43:00.000-05:00

Presented twice at this year's ITEC conference, once on the digital curriculum and once on the state of e-learning in Iowa. More about those in another post, but the handouts from those can be found here.

Didn't get to as many workshops as I was hoping to, either. I found myself in many side conversations on the state of technology in Iowa, which actually was a much better thing than attending the sessions or presenting... nothing beats two-way conversation. It was good to visit with many of the people I see only in the Twitter-sphere, such as @AngelaMaiers, @karlhehr, @RussGoerend, @tdejager210, @jamiefath, @beckymather, @acrozier22, @mctownsley, @sethdenney, and @MikeSansone.

Seth, by the way, had the most apropos tweet from the conference.
That was the statement made by David Warlick, which even after hearing before twice, I came away from his keynote very impressed. Not just for the mantra-quality of the statement, which definitely rang true (lots less sessions about how tools work or that are labeled gadgets & gizmos this year). But more so for his way of making what we are working for--improved student learning, not student technology use--so simply put.

His best example of this was a lesson redefining of mathematics literacy. Students took live data from worldwide geological sites of the location of earthquakes. That data was then formatted into a spreadsheet and scatterplotted using Excel (poor ol', 1.0, much-bashed-at-ITEC-in-years-past Excel!).

The result is this.
Which, as Warlick noted, is basically a map of the world. The nature of data to visualize in this method is not only a valuable skill for students to learn, but also clarifies the concept of latitude and longitude in numeric sense, or in other words, literacy of the mathematical concept of coordinate geography. All done with a non-trendy tool to boot. This wasn't about the technology, it was about learning of an essential skill.

And on a tool note, for those who asked me about the presentation application Warlick and others used at ITEC, it is called Prezi, and there is a free online version you can use. Here is Warlick's from ITEC.

My personal opinion though (many of you will want to stop reading here), while I think Warlick did a really good job using the transitions to add to the meaning of his presentation, I do not like the tool. Distracting. Definitely not presentation zen. I know, I know... blasphemy... I'm the only one at ITEC who will say that, so peruse and make your own judgment.

Leadership is a non-negotiable

2009-10-08T16:59:00.004-05:00

I'm working this week with the 20th different district of my 2009-10 year. There is some variance in the level of involvement I have with them, but generally it is very similar: visiting with teachers about need for change in schools, the Iowa Core, 21st century skills, project-based learning, and technology integration. Universal themes that each school is dealing with.

By asking me to visit with teachers about those things above, you can safely assume that all the districts feel they are important (that's the way I feel... I'm sure there are more jaded responses).

But, let me tell you, there is a dramatic difference in the leadership at these schools. And I don't say that as someone who has worked closely with the district or has quite a bit of data over many years to tell me that, because I don't. Here's what I got:

• At some districts, the superintendent is taking it all hands-on. They initiate the contact themselves. They have taken the pre-requisite steps and gotten key people on board. The technology coordinator is in the loop. They have a vision of where they'd like to go, what they'd like to see at their district, but are open to meshing that vision with other people's thoughts. They use the professional development opportunities to highlight successful things teachers are doing to reach that vision. They are not only at inservices, but they are fully participating, active in the small group breakout sessions, sharing their thoughts openly during discussion. And, they have a plan on how this will be implemented, with specific steps, supports for teachers, set expectations, and opportunities for evaluation.

• At some districts, another key figure has taken the initiative, perhaps a curriculum director or technology coordinator. The superintendent is on board, but the vision is shaky. They are more interested in hearing my vision for their school than they are of crafting their own vision. The administrators attend the sessions, but aren't necessarily taking a prominent role. They agree that planning for how action will be implemented is important, but they are likewise not sure how they will get there.

• And finally, at some districts, while a key figure has initiated the contact, the superintendent is absent. There is never really a desire to talk about vision, but only "could you visit with teachers about x and y?" There is no plan nor a discussion of a plan... the expectation is planting the seed will lead to magical sprouting of teacher development. And most telling, no administrator attends the session.

Even though that's all the data I see, I know which districts have strong leadership and which do not. Actually, so do you, even though you've had no contact with these districts. What's more, I know right now which districts are changing to meet the changing times, which will continue to be reactive instead of proactive (tottering with the initiative du jour), and those that my visit was a complete was of time for nothing will come of it. Note, nothing is said about an administrators actual knowledge of the initiative (in this case, technology), only their participation.

If you are a school leader reading this, here is your takeaway... leadership is a non-negotiable for change to happen. You need to take an active role in planning this before it happens. You must create a plan for afterwards. You must not only attend, you must not only participate, you must advocate.

If you cannot attend, cancel the inservice. That's right. There's no point in requiring a presenter to come in and teachers to attend if you are not there. Nothing will be picked up, and if by some chance something were to be picked up, it cannot be acted on. The message of having no administrator at the session speaks unbelievable volume about either a) the important of the topic, or b) the quality of leadership... and perhaps both.

What I'd like to see for an iTouch

2009-10-07T01:00:00.000-05:00

While I looked at what's out there yesterday, I still see quite a bit of potential to be reached, and reached within the next two years. There's even potential for these needs to be developed locally. Grant Wood's Andy Crozier and I recently attended a session on Apple iTouch App development, and given the (nearly) free developer kits out there, there is potential for the AEAs, and enterprising schools, in partnership with developers from the state's universities, could produce items such as these, in perfect alignment with the Iowa Core.

1. An easy-to-use flashcard program, where a teacher can quickly go in on the internet and upload curriculum related information that the student's iTouch would then draw upon, giving students an interactive way to check their understanding of teacher notes immediately after a lesson... and anytime thereafter.

2. Tools that mash geochaching information, such as photos or data, that tie in with a geographic location. Google Earth's iTouch app works well, and with the availability of free Google Sketchup licenses for Iowa, students can build 3-D items in addition to adding photos and data. Research is coming out that, given students increasing acclivity toward visual references for a schema to house non-visual information, geocached mapping serves as a referential package for student learning (such as Google Lit Trips).

3. Simulation-games, where a student has an interactive lesson to experiment, explore, and practice the skills they have acquired, such as what UW-Madison is doing. Here's a screenshot of a simulation-game created for students to interact with the Milwaukee Museum of Modern Art.

4. Clicker-style formative feedback, where a teacher poses a question to class, students select one of the answers, and the teacher can pull up live feedback from the "polling" via computer and display over a projector. The data could be displayed anonymously, or tracked by students when they log in.

5. In the same vein as above, a way to quickly generate online quizzes, especially ones that can be dynamically generated.

6. Personalized data programs, such as health and fitness monitors, musical composition devices, visual arts portfolios, allowing students to track their own learning. This one will be a ways off, as there needs to be better ways to import data and images into the ipod.

7. Apps that give practice for skill acquisition. This is the place where the first educational apps are, including ones for math facts, spelling, vocabulary, scientific equation balancing, etc. These are much more interactive than a simple multiple-choice quiz problem. Problem right now is they aren't customizable--I can't create a vocabulary activity over the first grade sight words in my curriculum. But this could change with advances in the software.

Educational iTouch Apps... What's Out There?

2009-10-06T08:29:00.005-05:00

Hardware issues aside (still no camera or voice recorder in the iTouch, which if added, would make it a more full-featured formative assessment tool to use in the classroom), I still am high on the iTouch at the elementary age. It continues to be a more intuitive interface for primary students to pick up and use, making the technology serve the curriculum faster.

But, educational software for the iTouch is still in its infancy. There have been some simple apps created, focusing on one particular skill or concept (like multiplication or state capitals), but we're a ways from a really robust educational app that could be the centerpiece of a curriculum. However, given the speed things are changing, that "ways" might be traversed in a few months.

Tomorrow, I'll touch on the things I'd like to see on an iTouch, some of which might exist today, but could use more development. Here, though, is what I've seen so far.

OVERVIEW OF ITOUCH IN THE CLASSROOM
This teacher tube video describes what it labels as the iSchool initiative, a curriculum aided by the computing power of an iTouch

ON MY ITOUCH NOW
I've limited myself to free apps for now, and my target audience is ages 3-10 (the age of my kids, since they are my test audience). The older grade levels have more built in use, just as mere content vessels (like audiobooks or a referenced periodic table or historical maps)... if you are a secondary teacher, you are more likely to find something to use right away because you can use it as an accompaniment to your regular instruction easier. But I think the more interactive programs are definitely suited for younger learners at this point.

Google Earth - application for searching geographical information, including geocaching.
Basic Math, Brain Tuner Lite, Math Drill, Multiply Flashcards - applications for math fact drilling
gFlash and iFlipLite - programs that allow teachers to create their own flash cards
Flickr and Image Search - for finding images
aNote Lite and Evernote - two note taking tools for organization
Remember the Milk - organizational to-do lists for students to use
Blanks - a program that gives drills on vocabulary words
Spel it Rite, ShakeSpell, Spell - interactive spelling programs

The reviews are mixed on these... very easy for my kids to learn and become engaged, could serve for enrichment in many cases. On the other hand, some have been overly simplistic and not well designed. Blanks for example generates definitions from some a dictionary, so they'll occasionally list something like "a trait of being curious" with the correct answer out of the four choices being "curiosity" (and the other three being adverbs or something non-relative).

My two favorite have been great for my 3-year old. iWriteWords allows students to trace the path of letters and connect the letters to sounds and visual pictures (a bee for the letter b, for example), which has done wonders for Hannah learning her letters. And, HippoShapes allows students to select the shape described, using a variety of different textures and settings. Neither are very complex programs, meaning Hannah taught herself how to use them. Both isolate the skill that is part of the curriculum (pre-literacy skills such as letter recognition and shape recognition are pretty much universal).

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR ITOUCH APPS IN EDUCATION
Learning in Hand (a great place to start for an overview)
I Educational App Review
iPhone and Kids
Online Educational Database's Top 50 Apps
99 Apps for Students
Apps Hopper
Springfield, IL CSD

Wagner and the Flip Camera, part 2

2009-10-01T06:54:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I looked at the use of videotaping of instructional lessons for the purpose of calibrating teacher understanding of effective instruction, and Tony Wagner's advocation for this process.

For the record, I'm a huge advocate for exactly this. But I don't want to oversimplify the issue. There are some problems with video that has to be overcome.

1. There has to be clear distinctions between professional development use and evaluation use. This is the same issue teachers had with me when I conducted walk-throughs. No matter how much an administrator says, "this is not for evaluation... it's just to gather data to help you reflect later," teachers are not comforted. And for good reason. There were several times when I made a walkthrough visit where I saw bad instructional practices going on that I had to address. If I enter a classroom and videotape a teacher who is sarcastically putting down a student, that has to be addressed, videotape or no. For this reason, teachers (and teacher unions) are naturally apprehensive. Where's the line?

A successful administrator will make that clear up front, that yes, there are some non-negotiables that will be addressed, video or no. And, a successful administrator will help facilitate a staff discussion about what those instances are, so it truly is a staff norm and not an administrator-created expectation.

2. The elephant in the room is time. Flip helps, but it still requires time to 1) know when a video opportunity exists, 2) capture video, 3) watch video for the opportune moments to share with teachers, and 4) then package the video so that teachers can effectively learn from it. And, time is exactly what administrators don't have. They will need to make time, emphasizing this over other things.

As an administrator, my walkthrough trainer had a good perspective on this. She mentioned that a successful administrator will clearly state to parents, teachers, students, or even their superintendent: "Yes, I'm looking forward to meeting with you. And I'll do that as soon as I am finished visiting teacher classrooms, to help our school become better." In other words, the principal needs to communicate to everyone that this is how their school gets better, and therefore, this is where my priority is.

3. Another problem, but one that will go away quickly, is the disruption videotaping causes. Simply put, turn on a videocamera and a class doesn't function the same way it normally does (which is great for a rowdy classroom).

But like walkthroughs, this goes away with repeated exposure. Once students get used to the practice, it becomes invisible. In fact, when I ramped up my walkthrough usage to "each class, 3 times a week", it took 3 weeks before students didn't give me a second glance. UNI's Price Lab is a testament to this, as their students are more than accustomed to visitors and outside eyes on a regular basis.

2 OTHER THOUGHS ON VIDEO
• Wagner didn't stop at videotaping classrooms, however. Another big use of videotaping is with student focus groups (especially graduated students... or students who dropped out). A pointed interview with students can get right at what they see as working well and not working well in school. We'll touch on this in a later post.

• Schools shouldn't (unless rare exceptions) show the entire staff the video footage of an individual teacher. That should be reserved for a more safe setting like a PLC. But the whole staff can still benefit from watching video from external teachers. Just as with evaluator training, there are video clips available that can be used (check with your AEA). And Angela Maiers regularly posts video lessons on her website along with a written post of what she is trying to accomplish in her lesson. Those are great places to start.