In Media Res... Or the Eye of the Hurricane

Image: Student work, Nathan Bateman

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Today is a bittersweet day. We are on the final leg of our journey into the unknown with technology integration into the classroom. After 8 weeks of hard work, I am pregnant with thoughts, ideas, and hopes for the future of education in my classroom, the school, and beyond. In my own classroom today, I dove headfirst into actually incorporating technology into an assignment for my students. And the results...

First period was a debacle. Because everyone seems to be using the computer on campus these days, I could not find a place to take my kids so they would have computer access. When I finally decided upon the library, we discovered problem upon problem. Students couldn't log in using their username, once they got to the website they couldn't see it, some needed to download a plugin, etc. Finally by the end of class, we had things under control and we actually got some work completed.

Although first period was a disaster, every class thereafter was exponentially better. Some students were so excited about the assignment that they completed it the night before. I used these students to help others and what do you know, we had actually peer learning! In addition, students were actively engaged and I did not have to tell one student all day long to 'do the right thing' . They were all so into the assignment they just worked. What?

For one day, I felt what can only be described as a 'Teacher Christmas'. Students were engaged, asking great questions, helping each other, and learning. Also, my teaching style changed drastically. I could be myself with the students. I learned more about some of them in today's class than I have all year. Some students who have not even uttered a phrase were actively participating. It was surreal.

I also learned a few things about the way we are doing things- they don't work as well anymore. The current way of doing things- teacher at the front, students in rows copying doesn't work anymore. Especially when you compare it to collaborative or creative learning in which the student plays an active role for his or her self. It is education as it should be.

All in all, these 8 weeks have been some of the most important for my professional development as a teacher. While we are in the middle of thinds and nowhere near the end, there is a lot we can use at this point. All is calm now, but round two, three, four, five are just ahead.

Ode to Technology

I love you, I hate you. Ah, the roller-coaster ride that describes my relationship with technology. Last week, I spent way too many hours (most of them my precious free time) trying to figure out how to upload, edit, and upload again a video of my lecture. Through no fault of my own or anyone else's, I eventually had to succumb to failure for the assignment that week. Eventually the problem was cleared up, and I finally had my first video of myself giving a lecture! In my excitement, I raced to this blog to upload the video, and subsequently deleted my entire entry from last week's blog post. It was like a part of my soul had been chipped away.

This week, I resolved to be more careful and to get the assignment done correctly- and I did. It seems as though I say this every week, but what we have done so far really has the potential to change everything. We are working this week with the learning managment system Haiku, and I am happy as can be. Besides having everything I want for my courses, Haiku is extremely simple and user-friendly. This extremely important for people like myself who are resitant to change and everything that comes with it.

One of my biggest concerns is how the faculty of CBHS will react when we begin introducing all of the technology in the coming years. With the Haiku system, most of these worries have since abated. Within an hour or so, I easily uploaded and created enough to get me through a few days worth of work in my classes- all accesible online for my students, teachers, and anyone I would want to see. I also began exploring other tools such as the assesment portion of the LMS, and inviting people to join my class. Finally, for those of us who teach multiple subjects there is the ability to add more than one class. This program is awesome and has the potential to do some very good things for our educational system.

On a note of caution, one thing I must continue to remind myself is to take it slow. There is so much that I want to do right now it is easy to get ahead of myself. I want to gradually introduce more materials, and little by little do more with the system. Within a week or so, after I have tweeked and adjusted my class, I would like to begin requiring my students to do some work via the program. My goal is to be able to incorporate much of the system into my class coming in the fall of next year.

For now, technology, I love you. Thanks for making my life easier at times. I know I can be hard to deal with, but so can you. When we get to these difficult roadbloacks, I try to remember all the good times we have shared, and the great future we have together. Stop hogging the covers, and I may keep you around.

Check out my classroom: https://www.myhaikuclass.com/do/share/eclass/221531?k=10521efb71fadce7bd9b25807daee8517db526f1

Am I really that boring?**

This week we did something I have wanted to do for a long time- we filmed ourselves teaching. The excitement that I had about this assignment was quickly diminished when I saw the video of myself. What started out as excitement ended with a question, " Am I really that boring?"

** The original post was much longer than this one. Due to my love-hate relationship with technology, and my inability to understand this relationship at times, I accidently deleted much of the post. The gist of it was that while I am not always boring, I can be sometimes. Technology enables me to see this, and 'spice up' what may be a boring lesson. I also discussed pros and cons of having cameras in the classroom. Lots of pros, few cons was the consensus.

Oh, and here is the actual lecture which deleted my post when I tried to upload it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSutkhueUNM

Less time at the front of the class, more one-on-one time

My wife and I have a running joke around our house. If either of us is trying to prove a point in an argument, and we don't really know what else to say, we always finish with, "I read it in an article." This week's reflection actually does come from something I read in an article. The article was from AOLnews and highlighted Hudson High School in New York that has incorporated laptops in lew of textbooks into their classrooms. The article was overwhelmingly positive, but a statement from proponents of tech integration stood out above all others, "teacher's spend less time at the front of the class and more time working with the students one-on-one."

For me, this sums up the whole purpose of tech integration. As we have discovered more and more useful tools for our classroom through this class, I have continued to ask the question, "what are we trying to accomplish?" I must admit, this question has resulted out of fear- fear thay I may be replaced. Much of what I do in the classroom that takes up so much time, but can now be done easily and more quickly with tech integration. I was worried as to what I would do with all the spare time, now that students can do much of the work at home or elsewhere in what would normally be done during class time. With this article, those worries have now subsided.

I realize now that the whole purpose of tech integration is to enable us to be better teachers, to free us up and allow us to spend more time amongst the students, and to allow the students to create. That last part is essential and exciting. This week I spent much of my time exploring things the students could create. One of the tools I came across was Museum Box. Museum Box enables students to create their own presentation with links to all sorts of medias centering around a specific person, place, or event. Museum Box is one of hundreds of presentation tools which can be used by students to learn and create their own unique work at the same time.\

An addition to exploring presentation tools in class this week, we also looked at Open Ed resources. These resources I believe will shape the face of education for the future. What Open Ed resources do is to provide Education sources used in the classroom to anyone who wants them. From powerpoints, to transcripts, to Itunes lectures, Open Ed resources enable people anywhere, anytime to be a part of a classroom. This is just another one of the thousand of time-saving resources that will not only improve education, but that will give us the opportunity to get out amongst our students. I can't think of a better, more meaningful answer to, "what are we trying to accomplish?"

The article on Hudson High:

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/09/hudson-high-teachers-computers-no-textbooks/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%7C20

Can technology make learning not only easier, but fun?

Over the past week I have had countless conversations with administrators, teachers, tech experts and my students about the integration of technology into our classrooms. The overwhelming consensus is that while everyone is excited about the direction our school is moving toward with technology integration, there is much apprehension about what it will look like. I've found out that if I want to become instantaneously popular, all I have to do is drop an explosive technological catchphrase and teachers will flock like moths to a flame. Just yesterday I witnessed or was involved in five heated technology-based conversations.

This isn't something that is effecting a few individuals- it is and will continue to effect the way we all educate- there is no escaping it. For me, this inability to escape was even more evident in our assignment for this week: creating a technology-based lesson plan. While I couldn't contain my excitement for incorporating Webspiration into my lesson plan, I also was a bit overwhelmed. By creating a lesson plan centering around this technology, I began to realize just how difficult it is now to incorporate technology into the classroom.

The lesson plan I created requires at least 3 or 4 visits to the computer lab, and countless hours where students would be doing individual work on the computer. With something as simple as creating a technology-based lesson plan, it has become all the more evident to me just how necessary it is to begin moving in the 1:1 direction.

I am also beginning to get a sense of how this is going to work out on a day-to-day basis. Whereas before I began to see technology as eliminating a need for class meetings, as much of the information can be done online, I now begin to see it simply enhancing and enriching the time already spent together. Currently, I have to devote much of my class time to taking quizzes, doing reflections, and giving presentations- things which can be done online. One of my big questions has been, what will I do with the extra time I will have when much of this is done online? The answer presented itself this week with the Lesson Plan. Now, instead of spending a class period trying to show the students how to use web 2.0 tools like Webspiration, I can take a week and actually guide them through the process. Not only can this enrich my students' learning in this manner, but I also see them having more fun with this type of work. It seems plausible that now with technology integration in the classroom, learning can become fun for the modern student. What a concept!

If I allow my students to use technology, will it get me fired?

Upon the completion of class this week and the aftermath that ensued, I discovered I have even more questions now than I did in the previous week. The questions have also grown more complex. Whereas before most of my questions were techinical- what does this term mean?, what is this tool used for?, is this applicable to my course?- the questions now are broader and more complex. Most of my questions now fall under the umbrella of one overarching question, "What are we trying to accomplish?" Are we trying to make our own lives easier, our students lives easier, enrich our students' learning, or simply save time?

As far as incorporating technology into my classroom goes, I am beginning to see the double-edged sword that surfaces with this integration. In class last week, we were introduced to a Web 2.0 tool that enabled us to give polls via text messaging. I decided to incorporate this into one of my classes this week. The benefits were astonishing. The kids were excited, feedback was instantaneous, and we had one of the best discussions of the year as a result of the exercise. However (you knew this was coming), there were problems associated with the polling.

The main issue came to my attention during the last class of the day. As I was giving the directions for the poll and the discussion started, I began to notice everyone turning to look at one particular student. After class, I found out the student had taken a picture of himself doing the poll in class, posted it to his Facebook wall, commented that class was 'so awesome', and shared this with his friends in my classroom via their Facebook profiles. All this was done in less than 30 seconds. While the student still participated. These guys are good.

Besides learning about unique polling opportunities, we also discussed unique presentation tools such as Prezi or Wordle. Not only are these presentation tools easy to use, but they are also visually stunning and effective. Take for instance my Wordle developed from my M.Ed final project:




It looks great, and the main points of my paper are highlighted- the more something was used, the larger it appears in the Wordle.

All these presentation tools are beneficial in some way or other, but there are so many questions that come with them. What is the best way to use these tools? How do we regulate the usage of these tools in our classrooms? Is this really going to benefit our students? Until these questions can be answered, the only viable option in my opinion is to introduce these tools into the classroom and determine through experience what works and what does not. I just hope I keep my job and don't end up on the streets as a result of one of my student's Facebook posts.

I'm smarter than the average smart phone... hopefully.

I have always enjoyed the rush associated with the first day of a new class. Questions like “Who will I know?”, “Who will I meet?”, "What will we learn?", and “How smart is everyone here?” dominate my thoughts. On the first night of my integrating technology class, things are somewhat abnormal as my classmates are all teaching colleagues. I know everyone and will meet no one new. The only unanswered questions then are what will we learn and just how smart is everyone here? By the end of class I am overwhelmed with knowledge and the realization that these are technologically savvy individuals.

Our instructor must be some sort of mind-ninja, as I have never left class with such a cloud in my brain. I was extremely overwhelmed with the information presented, and spent most of the class pestering Shawn Morgan and Debbie Bautista for help. In spite of my inabilities, I learned a great deal of information and even created this blog, a weeble account, and my own webinspiration concept map. While I am a total newb with these technological tools, I can already see the profound impact this course will have in my teaching and my classroom.

The blog is something I will use again and again, and hopefully my students while be able to reflect on it or create/use one of their own. The course I teach at CBHS, Ethics II-Christian Writings, is focused around two theoretical frameworks: the students must have a thorough knowledge of the terms and concepts, and then they must be able to creatively assess and reflect on these concepts. While it is easy to teach and asses facts, terms, and concepts, finding an outlet for students to express their changing beliefs is difficult. Currently I use a journal system for the students, but it is so archaic and limited in its design that it does little for helping students grapple with and express their thoughts. Giving the students the opportunity to blog may give students a better venue for expressing themselves.

Encouraging blogging also has the potential to change the way my students view the subject. Since my subject is grounded in writings that are almost 2,000 years old, most of my students enter the class with preconceived notions that the class is outdated and boring. I am constantly trying to find new methods to make the class current and relevant to today's student. The chaotic world in which we live provides ample opportunity for discussions relevant to our course, but the students do not always have the ability to connect with these topics. It seems possible to me that my students would be able to connect to topics and news more readily if it requires them to express their feelings in a venue familiar to them. Additionally, with the knowledge that what they share will be eternally accessible to all, I believe with blogging, my students will take their reflections far more seriously.

Looking back on the first night class, I would have to consider the evening a success. Now, if I can just find a way to become smarter than my smart phone, I will be pleased.