What Does it Mean to be a 24 Hour Teacher?

I have to go back to Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom as I continue to connect with points made in this resource. The book makes me think of the fact that learning never stops so, therefore, teaching should never stop either. In his chapter on social networks, Richardson (2010) talks extensively about the power of social networking in schools and shares several strong examples of how teachers have used the formal social networking site, Ning.com, to enrich students’ educational experiences and help them accomplish major projects like a 120 hour career exploration (Richardson, 2010). This learning and student engagement is taking place outside of the classroom, 24 hours a day. In one example, a teacher set up a Ning for students in his Marine Biology class and it has transformed into a place where students, former students, experts, and people interested in marine biology share information in a structured and educational fashion ALL times of the day and night! This clearly takes learning beyond the classroom and creates a learning experience that students can literally access long after they have left the building. It may not be all together comfortable for teachers to get used to the idea that they can and should make learning accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and I respect that. However, this does not mean that a teacher needs to answer every question or discussion prompt within minutes of a student post. Rather, it is the act of posting a deep and meaningful discussion question that students answer and discuss online that takes the learning from a single experience to one that occurs repeatedly over an extended period of time, all times of the day. When students engage in an online, threaded discussion that may last over several days, they are thinking about course content, building critical thinking through reflective discussion, and engaging in the language of learning even when they are not sitting in class. Teachers who have used Edmodo, for example, have seen students posting late at night or early in the morning (especially the day before final posts are due). This is real, authentic learning and it is taking place far beyond the walls of the traditional classroom and it is taking place 24 hours a day.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press. Thousand Oaks, CA.

Technology: Helping Students Protect Themselves, Prepare themselves, and Enrich Themselves

A lot of powerful teaching tools are seen in chapter 5 of Schrum and Levin (2009). What stood out most in this chapter was the “One School Leader’s Story” section discussing the lesson from international school teacher, Clay Burell. Burell taught world history to ninth graders in Singapore and he had his students contribute to a “wiki textbook” that they co-created. What a powerful and endearing learning experience for students! Not only are they learning how to research, evaluate sources, and engage in a variety of media tools, they are creating and comparing knowledge in ways Marzano would be truly proud. In developing 21st-centtury skills, it is important that we help students develop the skills to navigate large amounts of information quickly and how to share it appropriately, Burell’s lesson accomplishes this. Students, naturally, develop this expertise on their own as they manage smart phones, computers, media, marketing, peers, and all the other influences that engulf the formative years. Empowering students to meaningfully and safely navigate information on the web is a particularly important skill to develop because the information on the web is vast and sometimes disturbing. We can control this within in our schools but eventually students will be independent and will need this important skill. Teachers who use social media to host online discussions with students also help to develop these important skills. Tools like Edmodo are very structured and controlled and teachers can oversee online student discussions around academic and rigorous topics. Not only is it important to help students discover how computers can enrich education, it is important they experience this now because this will be a big part of students’ post-secondary educational experience. In my own Ed.D. program at Rutgers, I am using no less than 4 different sites (Sakai, eCollege, Thinkfinity, and Wiki) to interact with my professors, my classmates, and the educational world to discuss, problem solve, network, and learn together (undergraduates are doing this as well). This is a powerful experience and one that we need to prepare students for.
Schrum, L. & Levin, B.B. (2009).

Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement
And achievement. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks: CA.

A principal's reflection on Web safety for schools

As a public school principal, issues with school safety and security and, now, school online security is something that is a constant stressor. Ultimately, it is very difficult to imagine that enough filters can be put in place that guarantees complete safety from inappropriate sites being accessed or “spammed” in. However, Shrum and Levin (2009) do offer some very sensible ways to begin to manage the technology and make it safe for the students in our schools. Shrum and Levin (2009) remind us, “Part of learning to use 21st-Cetnrury skills, and taking advantage of all that the Internet and Web 2.0 tools have to offer, includes being sure students and teachers use their common sense while also learning how to critically evaluate content for accuracy, trustworthiness, authority, reliability, and currency, is a key concept…” (Shrum & Levin, 2009, p.144). I agree that education is the key but it also important to know the rules and regulations. Regulatory safety nets like the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) forces any public institution that gets reduced internet rates (which most do) have to enforce a policy to “monitor online activities of minors” to ensure that institutions are using these tools responsibly. It is also important for school administrators to adhere to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to ensure student record safety. Finally, administrators need to engage the latest in filtering technology and creating clear acceptable use policies. With these things in place it is difficult to deny what a powerful tool the internet can be for teaching and learning. I see exceptional children excel with a piece of technology (like an “app” on an Ipad) that accelerates the learning at an amazing pace. Some of this is the ability of technology to hold students’ attention for long periods of time, think how long students can play video games for! Richardson (2010), when discussing the social Web as a learning tool, imagines, “You can almost visualize this network of individual nodes of people, connected by ideas and passions, constantly shifting and changing as new connections are made and old ones reconsidered…it also means we’re willing to share our ideas and resources with the network for its betterment, because we get back just as much if not more” (Richardson, 2010, p.85). I do this in every example, but I go back to my wife’s use of Edmodo as a socially based learning network (except the discussions are online) that students (high school) are eager to contribute to. Part of the motivation, I feel, of the 21st Century Skills initiative is to create a workforce with both the technological skills and the collaborative skills to succeed in a highly advanced team environment. Collaborative activities that are online for students allow both a shared problem solving experience and the opportunity to engage technology. We do have to be educated consumers and screeners of what is out there.

Schrum, L. M., & Levin, B. B. (2009). Leading 21st-­‐Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Blogging about blogging for educators and students…

One of the more interesting things I have read in the last month was by Will Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom.  He discussed the use of blogs as a source of information that teachers and students (especially students) need to learn to navigate.  Of course, my first reaction was to think, “What?!”  For so long we have stressed source reliability and only relying on those sources that we feel are “proven” or “legitimate.”   However, as Richardson notes, even the New York Times can and have gotten their sources wrong.  It seems in this age of the digital child where children are filtering information in an almost constant stream, learning to navigate blogs should not be ignored.  Indeed, it is blogs and other online sources that have resulted in major world movements, particularly in countries like Libya that have seen vast changes as people shared information on the Web through blogs and other sources.  One challenge we must meet is to educate and empower students to decipher from what is a powerful or interesting point on a topic of interest compared to propaganda designed to change or motivate a student in a negative direction.  We do not want students to plagiarize for many reasons, one of them is the need for students’ to develop and defend their thoughts, feelings, conclusions, etc.  It is the art of navigating a difficult conversation, only this time it is a digital conversation.  In addition, the other valuable lesson that is highlighted by Richardson is the assessment of Web content for reliability.  More and more students are getting most if not all of their information from the Web.  Empowering students to navigate things like blogs will build filtering skills, clarify judgments, and develop the critical thinking needed to judge Web content for reliability in general.  Finally, let’s not overlook the potential for exploring blogs in an effort to assess the art of persuasion, particularly because so much of student writing is persuasive in nature.  Blogs offer a vast array of persuasive arguments, some of them very good and some of them very bad.  The better students are at telling one from the other the better they will be as educated consumers and as students…in my opinion. 

teacher leaders and technology

One important point that Schrum and Levine highlight (p. 112 in Leading 21^st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement) is the importance of utilizing teacher leaders.  This can be tricky depending on the school culture as often teachers do not want to “put themselves out” in front of their peers.  This may seem more applicable to new teachers but veteran teachers also share this apprehensiveness particularly in an unhealthy school culture.  However, the use of technology to support teaching and learning is one place that teachers can take a leadership role in a less threatening manner, particularly if it is not mandated by administrators where a teacher risks being seen as carrying at the agenda of administration (more so when the initiative is deemed disconnected from what “really” happens in classrooms).  Because the curiosity about technology in supporting teaching and learning is building rapidly and because teachers are intensifying their increase in using technology, this seems a natural place for teachers to promote their own enthusiasm for this cause.  In my school I have one particular Science teacher who is passionate about the use of technology.  She Skypes with other teachers from around the world and aggressively looks for ways to find technological tools to support the teaching and learning of Science.  I would generally not consider her a vocal informal leader in general but she is a vocal champion for the use of technology.  By developing teacher leaders around technology you can change the culture of the school in two ways.  One, creating a culture where teacher leaders are supported, thus promoting distributive leadership.  And, two, creating a school that also champions the use of technology.  Of course, I always stress patience in technological promotion in teaching and learning.  Rather than “throwing spaghetti at the wall” it is important to find a handful of meaningful technology tools that your teacher leader can promote.  Give him or her the opportunity to support these efforts and structure time for your teacher leader to teach and for others to learn.  It is about building curiosity and supporting the fostering of that curiosity through strong and clear support and modeling.  It is always more comfortable to have something modeled form a colleague rather than an administrator, as you know.  This is why the teacher leader can be, as Shrum and Levin note, a powerful way to build a school’s culture.