Follow up on Moodle Uses

Thought I'd quickly link to this post by Joseph Thibault. He's got some examples of Moodle courses for the eight steps of Moodle. Worth a read.

Degrees of Moodle Use in the Classroom

One tool quickly gaining the interest of schools is Moodle, the open-source learning management system. It is at the same time extremely versatile and free, making it a favorite.

However, Moodle is not for the faint of heart. After showing it to teachers, I often hear something along the lines of "Whoa, that is a lot more complicated than a wiki!"

Yes, that's true.

But, you can also do much more with it. Not just in terms of individual tasks, like a discussion board and a database, but also big-picture outlook. You have several different starting points. And best of all, you can start and just get your feet wet, or when you are ready, you can always progress in your use. There are many acceptable levels of use that improve your classroom instruction... you don't have to become fully immersed in it to use it well.

While the list below isn't all-encompassing, here's a common look at the different steps in Moodle use in a K-12 classroom:

1. Repository - Teachers often start with Moodle just by taking their worksheets and handouts saved in MS Word or as .PDFs and uploading them to Moodle. Immediately, you have a place for students to get their classroom resources, at school or at home.

2. Links to Websites - The next step for teachers is to take the handouts of classroom activities, especially those that involve browsing on the internet, and make them into a page right in Moodle. Then within that page, they can insert the live links. Suddenly the paper assignments have become digital assignments with a launch-pad to the internet.

3. Classroom Calendar - Using the calendar block, teachers can put in upcoming classroom events, such as assignment due dates or the dates of tests. This works well not only for students, but also for parents.

4. Digital Assignment Dropbox - Until this moment, the Moodle course could be used without any student accounts (open for all to see). But if the teacher takes it to the next step and has her students make accounts, the student can turn in their homework via Moodle assignments. What's nice, it allows for submission at home (at all hours of the night) and stamps it with a date & time when it is turned in.

5. Classroom Discussion Board - There are some big limitations to class discussions face-to-face. One, not every student gets to speak. Two, not every student gets to interact with every other student. Three, there is a limit on time. And four, if a student isn't prepared for class that day, they often cannot participate. But with a Moodle discussion board, a topic can be discussed at any time during the day, and it makes it easy for all to interact and for the teacher to see what each student has added.

6. Enrichment - Frustrated by trying to differentiate instruction with only 2 ears? Teachers can create enrichment or acceleration units in Moodle that offer learning at a different pace than the regular class.

7. Supplement - After one gets familiar with Moodle, they see that there are some assignments that are better done digitally online. Even though students might report to the same room, more and more of their time can be done in the digital world of Moodle. This includes online quizzes, wikis, and lesson modules in Moodle.

8. Full Online Course - The final step, but not necessarily one that leaves the school's building. Think of a senior project or a seminar done independently by students via Moodle.

No Presidential Speech for My Kids

Not of my choosing, of course.

The district my kids attend were one of several schools in Iowa that did not air the speech. Here are the official reasons given to parents (all caps = district's emphasis):

1. There will be no organized school-wide or grade level viewings in any of our schools
2. If this speech supplements curriculum being taught, AT THE CURRENT TIME, by a teacher - it is at the discretion of the teacher to show it or not
3. Parents may make a decision to keep their children at home during this hour long speech and they will be excused for that hour only
4. The district will post the President's speech on the district website for students, parents and others to view later in the day

After some digging, it was determined that this was because of "8-10 calls and emails from concerned parents". For some scale, my kids attend a 4A school district. Those calls represented less than 1% of the student body.

My initial thoughts:
• This screams of the path of least resistance. Not that that position is always a bad one... as an administrator, you make a dozen decisions a day that you aren't too crazy about, but you do so because they are going to cause the least amount of controversy. The district just voted on the use of their one-cent sales tax yesterday, and as any district coming up to a vote can tell you, extra controversy is not what you want when coming to a public vote. The part where parents can keep their kids home (presumedly to watch the speech?) without consequence, and that the speech was posted on the website, are very telling.

• I cannot figure out "if this speech supplements curriculum being taught--AT THE CURRENT TIME" (again, the district's emphasis). This is a speech about setting goals and taking your academic efforts seriously. Is that truly a place in the curriculum? "Class, tomorrow we will be learning about the importance of education and then we'll take a quiz." Is it like other objectives, that are covered once in the 13 years?

Self-awareness, responsibility, and self-worth are 21st century skills. You do not teach 21st century skills "at a current time". They are infused in the curriculum. They are always present. Any teachable moment that comes up, you try to foster the 21st century skills. A speech from the nation's president and a follow up discussion is the perfect opportunity for a teachable moment. I've thought that perhaps this is a wink-wink code to teachers that basically permits them to show the video because it can always be argued the speech fits in the curriculum... that's the best I can do with this.

• Speaking of 21st century. I remember the powerful experience of turning on the TV on 9/11 eight years ago. We were in the middle of Fahrenheit 451 at the time, but that went by the wayside. The students at Postville, as well as everywhere else, were mesmerized by what they saw. I said simply "Get out your journals and write. Write about whatever comes to your mind." Even the most resistant journal writers in my class did so immediately and could not stop themselves from writing and afterward discussing.

I'm disappointed that the message I received from my kids school is that we don't allow the current world to creep in. We do our education in an incubated box.

• I had, both as an administrator and a teacher, the chance to be ruthlessly attacked for "forcing" my students to read "racist trash"... aka Huckleberry Finn. Six different occasions in all. We made other options for the students, which was met with the charge of ostracizing the student who wasn't reading the book. Nothing less than the entire class not reading the novel was unacceptable for them. Every time I stood my ground, and every time, the parent of the student threatened to take the fight to the school board. And while they never did, my decision harmed my relationship with the parent in 5 of those 6 occasions. The parents never got past it.

The thing I had to tell myself is, do the right thing. The vocal minority do not dictate the curriculum. It would have been the path of least resistance to offer a different book, but even my students agreed, the discussion about whether the book was racist and what the author's purpose was, was one of the most powerful experiences they had in their high school career. Ironically, I never had a single parent object to Catcher in the Rye. As one student told me after he graduated, "there was no way I was going to tell my parents again what I was reading after they wouldn't let me read Huck Finn."

Bottom line to all of this: The decisions we make have to be what's in the best interest of learning, not the path of least resistance. This decision (at least what was communicated to the parents) was the opposite. It sets a very bad precedent, for it gives license by any small minority to tell the district you cannot show a future president's speech.

What people should be furious about, with Obama's education webcast

More controversy involving the president and his outspoken critics. The president will be making a web-based address to students next week, urging students to work hard and stay in school. And on cue, his Republican opponents are aghast at his "blatant use of indoctrinating students with his socialist ideology." Forcing students to listen to a message without an appropriate check, say House Minority leader John Boehner, is allowing students to only see one side of the story.

Not lost in this are three basic facts. One, it is optional. Not forced. Two, the content is not political. He won't be speaking about taxes or health care or the war in Afghanistan. He'll be asking students to work hard and set goals. John Boehner wouldn't say anything different about hard work and goal setting. And third, this is a politically-motivated controversy. It's not about the mere spreading of ideology; it is the specific ideology that people mistakenly think he'll spread. Case in point is when George HW Bush did the same, and met some resistance from democratic opponents. If the president was spreading his capitalist ideology, there wouldn't be a resistance from Republicans (there might be one from the Democrats, however).

Many people (for example, this one and this one) are jumping on these politicizing opponents, and I agree with them. But there are two things not being mentioned. Here's what no one... or at least no one with a loud enough voice... is saying:

• We should be outraged at fluff. That is not to say that Obama's message will be fluff, but it is set up to be just that. I grew up during the "Just Say No" campaign as well as Channel One. Substance-deficient messages dumbed down to trivial soundbites. I believe the message of hard-work and goal-setting is a positive message, but it means nothing if there is just repetition of a mantra. The accompanying lesson plans that are the cause of controversy are the best someone can do from a distance. It takes local teachers to lead critical discussions about the message and lead to deeper change. But that never happened for me. When I was growing up, Channel One was a time-filler, never leading to a critical conversation afterwards. As soon as it was done, the teacher would turn off the TV and say, "Okay, turn your books open to page 42."

Fluff isn't going to indoctrine anyone. Unfortunately, it won't educate anyone either. It will be ignored.

• We should be outraged that kids are expected to be easily indoctrinated. We are a nation bombarded with advertising and messaging all the time. We don't give students enough credit; they are not zombies sucking up everything as gospel truth. They are naturally more skeptical than their parents were. That's our changing society, where you can't trust anyone (even the president). Let's treat them with some respect for their abilities instead of "sheltering them".

Under the circumstances, this would be a great chance to model constructive civic discussion. A great chance to have students analyze "the truth". Here, we have the president who is emphasizing the importance of visiting with our nation's students, and we have politicized the discussion. Which means when there is a Republican president, they too will not be able to speak with students without it becoming political.

For now, I guess I'll be outraged by myself.

Fall Online Courses in Leadership, Technology

A quick look at the courses I'm offering online this fall & winter:

Leadership, Technology & 21st Century Schools (3 cr. - Nov 9-Jan 29)

Course Description: Scott McLeod argues: "Without leadership, the great and wide-spread change our schools need cannot take place. Unfortunately, the people in charge of leading school organizations into the 21st century often are the least knowledgeable about the 21st century."

In this course, participants will examine and discuss the changes necessary for schools. They will develop their own personal technology skills and analyze frameworks for implementing a digital curriculum in their buildings. They will examine the role leadership plays in this process. And, they will then improve their professional practice by developing their own action plan.

The work in this class builds on the McREL traits of leadership, but participation in previous Leadership Academies is not a pre-requisite.


Developing Personal Learning Networks (1 cr. - Nov. 9-22)

Course Description: Professional development in the 21st century is changing towards Professional Learning Communities and Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). In this online course, we will look at George Siemens' connectivism learning theory and the implications for the way educators learn. We will examine how to structure systemic change to move your individual (or district) practice towards a PLN, utilizing social media tools such as Delicious, RSS, Twitter, and Nings to improve practice


Presentation Zen: Improving Your Approach to Presentations (1 cr. - Oct 12-25)

Course Description: We've all been there: a presentation that isn't working. The message gets lost, the audience becomes distracted, or altogether disinterested. Otherwise known as death by power point.

We use presentations to communicate, share ideas, teach, and persuade. Unfortunately, many of the practices we are taught for presentations actually hurt our objectives. Bulleted lists, sound effects, and small graphics take our audience's attention off our intended meaning and put it on the presentation itself.

This course helps participants understand and practice the principles of "Presentation Zen" outlined in Garr Reynolds' book. It allows participants the chance to reflect on their own professional practice and communication skills, and improve their own presentations for better meaning. And it puts the focus back on presentation as a process of teaching and learning.


Technology for Online Instruction: Moodle and Adobe Connect Pro (2 cr. - Jan 11th-Feb 14th)

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 and Adobe Connect Pro, equipping them with tools and skills to create and deliver online instruction. Participants will develop content in the Moodle platform, including activities, forums, lessons, and assessments. Participants will also create and facilitate webinars in Adobe Connect Pro, using desktop sharing and interactive features. Skills and concepts will be analyzed in context of the Iowa Online Teaching Standards and Course Standards.

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All the courses will take place online. Graduate credit will be made available through Drake University. Interested participants can register at the Heartland Professional Development Catalog.

Also, to see other online AEA Professional Development offerings for teachers, including from different AEAs in Iowa, check out the Iowa Learns website.

Multi-tasking & overconfidence

Full disclosure: I'm doing this while getting my kids' lunches ready and proofreading their homework. So according to the research, this post might be of inferior quality.

That's because the concept of multitasking has been researched by Stanford University recently. Their findings are creating quite a stir! People who multi-task a lot are awful at it, while those who do not multi-task can do it much better. Exactly opposite of what you'd think.

The shocking discovery of this research is that [high multitaskers] are lousy at everything that's necessary for multitasking. The irony here is that when you ask the low multitaskers, they all think they're much worse at multitasking and the high multitaskers think they're gifted at it.

The full research findings are here. Interesting food for thought. Perhaps this exists because the process of multi-tasking appears to be easier than it actually is, or perhaps the more you do it, the more your skills deteriorate.

Or perhaps, the study itself is flawed. Cathy Davidson takes it to task for poor research design, basically saying the test measures your ability to focus on one item when others are interfering. But multi-tasking is not solely a skill of blocking external stimuli, but rather keeping track of multiple stimuli.

Two thoughts. One is we need to examine this cognitive ability more closely in schools. We have all used the rhetoric that "digital natives can multi-task". We need full analysis of whether they can multi-task well, or if they just multi-task a lot. Similar to saying my son does cartwheels all the time, but that doesn't mean he's good at them. If we are going to design instruction with multiple tasks running concurrently, we better know as educators that it truly leads to better learning and not just trust the rhetoric.

Second thought, and I'm taking this from the most mind-stretching blog currently in my reader. Jack Uldrich at Unlearning 101 argues that while the results of the research are open for debate, one separate thought ist standing out. That being those who don't multi-task think they are lousy at it, and those who do multi-task think they are gifted at it. He labels this as over-confidence, one of the most important things we need to "unlearn" in order to be successful.

I like the way Uldrich articulates this:

If you are a multi-tasker, I am not suggesting that you unlearn the skill -- only how proficient you believe you are at the skill. (Preferably, I'm hoping you'll unlearn your over-confidence before you slam into the side of my car at some intersection because you were texting a friend while at the same time checking out the latest Tweet from Shaq.)

More on unlearning: Unlearning as a 21st Century Skill

First Day of School Care Package and H1N1

Having young children in elementary school and a wife who teaches kindergarten, you tend to notice trends quicker. Some time in the past couple of years, it was determined that elementary teachers providing care packages on the first day of school for students was essential.

Not sure what a care package is? It usually is a brown paper bag filled with odds and ends like a lifesaver, an eraser, or a piece of gum. The trifles themselves aren't important; it's the symbolic significance of each. The lifesaver lets the student know there will always be help available, the eraser lets them know it is okay to make mistakes, and the piece of gum helps remind them to "stick" to it, even when challenged.

Full disclosure: I did not teach at the elementary level and have never been mistaken for a warm fuzzy kind of guy. But, while this simple (note that I avoided the word "cheesy") gesture is lost on me, my kids and my wife seem to like it a lot.

Much more cheerful than receiving an emergency kit for H1N1.

But given reports that Swine Flu could infect half (half?!?) of the United States, your school better have one of those, too. And as Marshalltown CSD can attest, when the crisis hits, its not just as simple as calling school off.

ASCD has some good directions on where to get started:

From Nashville to New York, schools seem to be taking to heart new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed to curb the spread of the flu while minimizing disruptions to learning. They're educating students about proper hygiene, communicating to parents the importance of keeping their sick children at home at least 24 hours after they no longer have a fever, and making preparations to separate ill students and staff or selectively close schools with high-risk populations should the need arise.

For school nurses and educators (as well as the general public), the government has set up http://flu.gov/ to disseminate information.

ASCD goes on to mention that what is most crucial is a contingency plan, which can be difficult for schools to do in the face of such uncertainty:

A couple of anecdotes demonstrate the possibilities. According to a Baltimore Sun article, Maryland's Anne Arundel County Public Schools has prepared contingency plans in case schools are closed. Over the summer, officials considered how they could offer homework assignments or teach online. The Los Angeles Times reports that Los Angeles Unified School District is contemplating various methods of continuing children's education by delivering lessons and instructions through public-access television, automated phone calls, the Internet, and the mail.

I recently visited with an official from Des Moines Public School about this very topic. Using technology, be it Moodle, Google Docs, or even a system of email, can help continue instruction even if students are not physically able to meet. The problem of course is the breakup of instruction. While Moodle could offer schools the best home-bound instructional model, almost universally in Iowa, teachers are unprepared for how to teach at a distance with Moodle. That would be a long-range plan at best.

3 Resources for Administrators to Help with Contingency Plans

1. Start with the Department of Education's resources, including their recommendations.
2. The federal government has also provided a communications toolkit for K-12 schools (pdf). This gives you sample language and steps to follow to keep your community informed.
3. Meet with your technology staff, your AEA educational technologists, and/or (at Heartland) me about looking at technological possibilities to conduct home-bound education.