Edu-Techno-Utopian Voices Got It Wrong with Remote Learning

“No matter the problem, it seems, a chorus of techno-utopian voices is always at the ready to offer up 'solutions' that, remarkably enough, typically involve the same strategies (and personnel) as those that helped give rise to the crisis in the first place. We can always code our way out, we are assured. We can make, bootstrap, and science the shit out of this.” Thomas S. Mullaney, "Your Computer Is On Fire"

Interesting thoughts here by Mullaney and some truth. There truly exists “a chorus of techno-utopian voices…ready to offer up ‘solutions’ that…typically involve the same strategies (and personnel) as those helped give rise to the crisis in the first place.” Education has its own “techno-utopian chorus” that sings of tech-solutions to everything that ails us in education too. Educational problems are seen as opportunities to solve with technology. But, as the recent remote learning experiment clearly demonstrated, our educational problems are not always solvable with tech. 

In fact, the application of tech, like in this situation, often amplifies existing problems, and causes a whole set of new problems. For example, in the remote learning experiment, the problem of parental involvement in their children’s education was magnified for those students because parents who were able to assist were either non-existent or not available. The students that remote learning most penalized were these students. There was not a ZOOM technology that could solve this issue because it was a problem before the pandemic, and it was a problem magnified during.  A whole set of new problems accompanied the remote learning experiment too. For example, how to effectively provide the services, such as counseling, therapy, and lunch to students who were not physically present, not to mention the issue of missing socialization with peers that works best in physical presence. 

As Mullaney points out, our first reaction as educators is to try to “code our way out” of the problem, or “science the shit out of it.”  Perhaps the problem in education is our recurring turn toward technology for answers. Sure, the tech industry loves that thinking and helps foster it, but we need to think independently. 

Resources from ASCD for Creating a Positive Classroom Culture

Alexandria, VA (6/17/2014)—ASCD, a global community dedicated to excellence in learning, teaching, and leading, is pleased to present a variety of professional development resources that support educators in creating a positive classroom culture. The collection of ASCD books and online resources supports all educators in improving their school culture and furthering their school’s continuous growth and achievement.

A positive classroom culture is essential to supporting the whole child and ensuring that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. By using these resources, educators can set the standard for comprehensive, sustainable school improvement and create long-term student success.

Professional Development Books

How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom—Teacher leaders Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Ian Pumpian believe that no school improvement effort will be effective unless school culture is addressed. Drawing on their years of experience in the classroom, they identify five pillars that are critical to building a culture of achievement. In addition, they provide 19 action research tools that will help educators enable success for all students.

Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success—McREL expert Bryan Goodwinpresents a practical, research-based framework for improving student achievement and identifies five essential practices that can vastly increase students’ chances of succeeding in school. Whether at the district, school, or classroom level, educators will find a valuable blueprint for turning knowledge into visible results.

PD Online Courses

Bullying: Taking Charge, 2nd edition—In this second edition PD Online Course, educators will learn practical tools for confronting and preventing bullying. Through video examples, in-depth readings, and problem-solving scenarios, users will learn how to recognize and detect bullying, address bullying with the bully as well as the victim, discuss bullying with students through classroom activities, and implement a communitywide bullying intervention program.

Embracing Diversity: Effective Teaching, 2nd edition—Through this PD Online Course, participants will consider the importance of building respect for racial and multicultural diversity, as well as how to combat gender and sexual bias through curriculum activities. Educators will explore ways to build learning environments that embrace diversity and learn practical tools for building respect for all students.

PD In Focus

The Art of Science of Teaching—This PD In Focus® channel presents a comprehensive framework for effective teaching that consists of three major focus areas and ten design questions, all of which are powerfully interconnected as part of the art and science of great teaching. 

Visit www.ascd.org/pdinfocus to browse all PD In Focus channels.

To learn more about ASCD’s professional development offerings that support classroom culture, visitwww.ascd.org/pd. For more information on ASCD’s other programs, products, and services or to join ASCD, visitwww.ascd.org. 

Turning Your Classrooms from Places to Control Students to Places to Engage Them in Learning

“For the first time in the history of education, the teacher, the student, and the content do not need to be in the same place at the same time.” Ian Jukes, Windows on the Future

How we handle the details of designing our “learning spaces” ultimately determines what happens in our classrooms. As Jukes points out, for the first time in history students and teachers do not even have to be in the same place when learning. Also, the content is no longer confined to textbooks. Still, our schools’ classrooms are designed for “imparting knowledge” not engaging in authentic learning. I would bet if you look at any recent plan drawn up for a new school, the spaces are still designed for traditional factory model learning. The classrooms are arranged like so many pods with desks sitting in rows with a teacher desk placed at the front of the room with a whiteboard located behind. What many still do not quite understand is  a simple principle of classroom design: How you plan the learning space ultimately determines the kinds of learning that happens in that space. Even the furniture selections can impact the learning that happens.

Take the student desk as an example (like the illustration above). These desks are still everywhere in our schools. When new schools are built, hundreds of these are ordered and then placed in neat rows in classrooms. But this particular desk is problematic if we are looking to create learning spaces where students collaborate and engage in active learning. These desks are designed to be placed in rows and to actually restrict the movement of the student sitting in it. Have you ever complained about how hard it is to move and get out of these things? But in a factory era school, student movement is discouraged and what better way to do it than by designing a desk that minimizes the movement of students? These desks are perhaps a symbol of what’s amiss about so-called 21st century education today. We still think of learning spaces as ways to control students rather than ways to engage them in real learning.

I have no way of knowing whether those who designed the first student desks in this manner really had the goal of making a desk that restricted movement, but the fact that so many of these still exist in our classrooms is symptomatic of a greater problem: We just can’t let go of the idea that schools are factories whose job is to churn out students who have been declared educated through testing and credentialing. “Get’em through the system like widgets and declare them graduated and educated if they make through the hurdles and tests.” In our classroom learning spaces we still buy furniture whose purposes is to control and attempt to make learning fit into neat orderly boxes, when those of us who’ve been teachers for some time know real learning is messy and not always subject to the controls we place on it. We keep arranging our schools’ classrooms for teacher-directed instruction instead of designing them for student-directed and inquiry learning which we know is how most of our students want to learn. In a word, for all our talk, we are trying to fit 21st century learning into classrooms designed for factory-model education systems.

Obviously, my point is obviously not to get you to throw out all the student desks in your buildings. But, the question is, how can we re-envision our learning spaces to make authentic, engaging learning happen for our students? We can begin by looking at our current classrooms and see how we can transform them from places to control to places to explore and engage learning. This doesn’t really cost us very much either.

Pearson PowerSchool Disasters in NC and Tech Lessons to Be Learned From It

I have always fundamentally understood that when it comes to implementation of new innovations, whether technological, instructional or organizational, it is a cardinal rule to “Not implement too much at once!” I’ve heard that mantra during my whole career as an educator, and even as a classroom teacher we have been cautioned not to try to change too much too fast. In school leadership, they tell you the same thing. Trying to implement too much, too fast, usually results in nothing being implemented well or at all.

It’s too bad the state of North Carolina recently forgot this important wisdom when it took on implementing Pearson’s PowerSchool student data system, a new online educator evaluation system called NCEES, or North Carolina Educator Evaluation System, and a new teaching assessment resource system called Schoolnet. Now that we are one-half year in with implementation, all three systems have been been so buggy as to be almost unusable.

About four years ago, Pearson purchased the company that supported North Carolina’s Student data system called NC WISE. Pearson then informed the state that it was shutting down support for NC WISE. Naturally, North Carolina then purchased Pearson’s PowerSchool software to provide the state with a state-wide student data system. In addition, North Carolina won a considerable sum of money from its Race to the Top application, and a portion of this was used to create a “one-stop data portal” for all the data educators need. State education officials called this portal “Home Base.” Through “Home Base,” educators theoretically can access  three programs and all the data they could possibly want. One is PowerSchool which is the state’s student data depository and teacher grade book. Next is the NCEES or the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System, and Schoolnet, which is a source that helps teachers with formative assessments tied to state testing. The idea was that educators would have one portal to access each of these important programs. While all three have been failing to work as intended, PowerSchool seems to have the greatest impact on school operations and on kids and it has caused one problem after another.

Now, it’s January, and there are still enormous issues with the system. In PowerSchool, students’ transcripts aren’t always accurate. Schools can’t access discipline incident features, and sometimes report cards can’t be printed. We can’t even trust attendance data on report cards right now due to issues with software. The list of failures for this program is way too long list in this blog post. The short of it is that there’s a whole lot of educators and staff in this state frustrated with this software and its gazillion bugs. I’m not even sure Pearson, nor the state education department can even repair its image after this fiasco. In addition, PowerSchool is beginning to become the butt of many, many jokes among educators. Say the name, and many times there is a collective groan in the room. When I have to tell a parent that I can’t print them a report card right now because of some technical issue in the program, or I have teachers frustrated repeatedly because they can’t get in to take attendance; that’s a pretty good sign that PowerSchool as a product fails to provide the service it’s supposed to provide.

Tech support is also non-existent or sparse. If you can ever get someone in tech support to answer your email, you usually get the answer, “We’re working on it.” That too is hardly acceptable. Should it not be worked on before it’s used? Would I want my car dealer to tell me as I drove off, “Come in next week and we’ll add the brakes?” If my cell phone service or cable provider were to tell me that for even two or three days, I would be looking to change providers. Perhaps North Carolina needs to do the same. If Pearson can’t deliver a product that streamlines and makes it easier for educators to do their jobs, then maybe we need to find another product.

Now those still trying to salvage this sinking ship will try to tell you that there are always bugs when you try to implement something new. Yes, there are always issues, but what we’re dealing with here is a “Pestilential PowerSchool Swarm of bugs” that should be embarrassing to those who still advocate for this product. When I go to my computer, I shouldn’t feel dread when I realize I have to access Home Base. It should fit my experience as a user seamlessly. But that isn’t how it is with PowerSchool or NCEES or Schoolnet. Instead, when someone calls me wanting a schedule, I am overcome with dread as I click on my PowerSchool shortcut icon. Will it work this time? Will I be able to easily find the information I want? The odds are perhaps 50-50 or 20-50, depending on the time of day, week or month. It might even prove impossible.

In my opinion, North Carolina and Pearson have forgotten some fundamental principles that could have guided their implementation and avoided all the issues we face with Home Base, PowerSchool and NCEES. Here’s some advice, and some lesson principles we might learn from this experience.

1. Limit implementation. Instead of trying to implement 3 new data systems at once,  try one. The problem is we have three new programs and neither of them is working well 6 months into implementation. Why not try to get one implemented and working rather than having three that fail to work properly. You can save a great deal of frustration for everybody by being realistic in your implementation plans. Start small and add, rather then hit everybody with everything at once.

2. Realize that a data system or program can’t possibly do everything. Far as I know, the PowerSchool program as Pearson originally designed might function well. North Carolina has obviously asked for all these updates and revisions to make the system its own. Perhaps it’s time to take a realistic assessment of the software limitations and just realize it can’t do all that we would like it to do. When programs get complicated; things go wrong. Just ask Microsoft or even Apple. Get a program that operates well, then you can have an experimental version operating on the side to try new features and ideas. You can’t sail a ship as you build it!

3. Keep it simple.  Steve Jobs understood this well. When anything---software to TVs----get more and more complicated; then more and more can go wrong and usually does. So what if you can claim your student data system does all these things. But what good is it if it does none of those things well? Simple is good. Keep the user experience simple. Complexity is only good when it’s simple.

4. Always keep the end user in mind. This is just plain common sense. Software manufacturers know this. You can’t sell a product that makes its users miserable. When designing any student data system, you must always keep those using it in mind. Perhaps it would be neat to add the ability to enter disciplinary data into the system. But if doing so makes the user experience more difficult, then table the idea until you can incorporate and reflect on the user experience. Keeping the end user in mind at all times means making sure you know who your users are and what they need to be able to do to successfully operate from day-to-day.

In some ways, North Carolina’s struggles with PowerSchool, NCEES, and Home Base is symptomatic of a greater problem we have in education. In our zeal to make things better, we sometimes make things worse. Also, instead of letting what we do as educators----teaching and learning---drive how we design what we do, we let the stuff---the technology----drive what we do. Our data systems should not dictate what we do in our schools; they should not even be noticeable. I certainly should not dread using them. There are major issues with these systems. Perhaps its time to start with just the imperatives; what must our data systems do to facilitate the operation of our schools. Then, we build that first and make it work.

New ClassDojo Sharing Feature Allows Teacher Collaboration to Improve Student Behavior

"New feature allows teachers to collaborate around students’ behavioral and character development and improve behavior consistently across the school day"

Today, ClassDojo, the free behavior management platform for teachers, students and parents, is launching ‘Class Sharing’ feature: the ability for teachers to share their classes with other teachers at their school. This enables teachers to collaborate in order to build positive behaviors and character strengths with their students across classrooms, through the school day. This is the first step towards helping teachers break down the walls separating their classes, and providing them the easiest way to consistently improve behavior with students as they move through classes during the school day.

The company is offering a limited number of ‘early-access’ slots, which teachers can get here: http://goo.gl/UGxcGE

ClassDojo’s ‘Class Sharing’ feature delivers on teachers’ most requested update: collaboration with other teachers across classrooms. ClassDojo was initially designed to allow a teacher to build positive behaviors in a single classroom; the team then discovered that teachers also wanted to work together on growing their students’ behavior. With this newest feature, several teachers in one school can now collaborate around a class of students to deliver consistent experiences that emphasize building positive behaviors and character strengths like like participation, hard work, persistence, curiosity, risk-taking, and helping others. Teachers can now let other teachers provide feedback to their students by giving them ‘full access’ to the class; alternatively they can provide each other ‘view only’ access if they just want to share progress reports.

“Real-time reinforcement of positive behavior, especially when provided consistently by all the people who care about a student, influences future behavior and makes a lasting impact on a child’s development,” says Sam Chaudhary, a former teacher and co-founder of ClassDojo. “We've seen tremendous results as a stand alone teacher tool, and are excited to add to that success with increased collaboration across whole schools. When a student leaves a classroom, it’s not just that teacher who cares about their development, there are other teachers, administrators, and parents who want to be involved. We’re trying to bring all of these people together.”

Sign up for ClassDojo: http://www.classdojo.com

ClassDojo’s mission is to address the ‘other half of education’ that goes beyond just building good test scores, to actually helping students develop the character strengths that are essential for lifetime success. The company is a graduate of the ‘Y-combinator for education’, ImagineK12, and is now one of the fastest growing education startups in history.


Thanks, ClassDojo for providing the information regarding this update.

Why Wouldn’t We Let Students Blog? Reasons to Get Students Blogging

One of the greatest battles I fought as an English teacher was the in-authenticity of my students’ writing. English teachers know exactly what I mean. After slogging through a stack of literary essays, that only English teachers read, your eyes begin to glaze, and if you are really honest with yourself, you realize, “NO ONE READS THIS STUFF! WHY DO I SUBJECT MYSELF TO IT?” Of course, we also know the English teacher, scholarly argument: “They need to know how to do this when they get to college, so it is a worthwhile activity.”

But really, do college English instructors still make students engage in kinds of writing that they never do again once they leave English 101 or 102? Sure, the “literary essay” serves some purpose. It's purpose is limited, however, and it is important to remember that it is hardly a truly authentic piece of writing, except maybe for literary scholars. Yes, it can force students to think critically about a literary work, but is it the best way to get students to engage that work critically? There are probably more engaging ways to get students to do that kind of thinking. That’s perhaps where blogging is different and could help. It has the potential to allow students to engage in authentic writing for authentic audiences.

I have written about its potential before, but in a conversation the other day, I became aware that there are still school leaders who do not allow students to engage in blogging. The reason why I asked the question in the title, “Why wouldn't we let students blog?” is because school leaders still  fight to keep blogging away from their students, perhaps out of fear that students might reveal something very private about themselves or make connections with unseemly characters lurking in cyberspace. But cyberspace monsters aside, there are absolutely good reasons to allow students, especially high school students, to use blogging as a way to engage in authentic writing with authentic audiences. In our quest for getting students to do authentic writing, we have at our disposal one of the best ways to do that with blogging. Here’s some good reasons for getting students blogging today:

• Blogging is an authentic publishing platform. As a former classroom teacher, it was a struggle to find places where my students could authentically publish their work. I tried copying and sharing, posting on bulletin boards and in the hallways, but while that was publishing, it was still not authentic. Students knew it and so did I. It was too superficial. Besides, that kind of publishing usually severely limited students to verbal media, which brings me to my second reason to get students blogging.
• Blogging allows for publishing in multiple forms of media. In old days, my students mostly just communicated their ideas through words, sentences, and paragraphs. Now, with blogs, students can use video, photos, graphics, to communicate their ideas too. Blogging allows students to engage audiences using most of the media tools available, which also allows them to struggle with the authentic question: "Which media best communicates the idea or message I am trying to send?" You just can't get much more authentic than that.
• Blogging gives students the potential to engage authentic audiences. To me this is blogging’s greatest strength. You post your ideas for the world to see, and if your ideas win the contest for attention, people read and respond. That’s gratifying feedback. Students struggling to be heard on the web is about as authentic as a writing and communication experience can get.
• Blogging is easy. Chances are, your students are already doing it. If they aren't, the blogging platforms available are easier to operate than word processing software. The more difficult part of blogging is trying to write engaging content that attracts readers. Also sufficiently promoting the material written is important too. Once again, these are two authentic things writers do.

Perhaps one of the best reasons for getting students to engage in blogging is best illustrated by one of my own recent, personal blogging experiences. In my post on “Data-Driven Decision Making Usually Means Test-Score Driven Decision Making” I made a serious error, that I am a bit reluctant to admit. But, I see it as one of the most powerful lessons blogging can teach. In that post, I used the word “quantitative” instead of “qualitative." What made the error even more serious, was that the use of the correct word between these two choices was essential to my entire argument. I messed up and then some! What happened that demonstrates the power of blogging occurred when a reader emailed me and politely asked about my error. It was then I went back to my post, and sure enough, I used the wrong word. I quickly changed the error, and emailed a big thanks to that reader.

My point about this blogging experience is simple: I made a crucial error in my writing that affected my entire argument. Never mind the embarrassment and never mind the fact that I probably destroyed my entire argument by choosing the wrong word. The real power of learning through blogging lies in the fact that these kinds of authentic experiences have the power to teach students real writing and communication. What better way to learn about the importance of choosing the right word or words as well as proofreading and revising carefully? I should have known better obviously. I have been blogging for some time. I have written more academic papers than I can remember. Still, I failed to edit and revise thoroughly enough, even though I always review, edit and revise a post multiple times before clicking the publish button. This is authentic writing experience, and our students need it too.

Transforming Our Schools by Changing Mindsets Not by Buying More Technology

“Teacher mind frames are the most important enhancer and barrier to students’ learning.” Alan Bain and Mark Weston, The Learning Edge: What Technology Can Do to Educate All Children

Our relentless pursuit for some magical formula that will suddenly transform our schools is a fruitless quest. There are no magical formulas or tools, and there are no heroes who will ride into our schools and school districts and suddenly save the day and turn our schools into magical places of learning and engagement. If transformation is to happen, we need to stop pursuing 1:1 initiatives, new standards, new tests, next generation tests, longer school days, and the other latest and greatest educational gimmicks and get down to the real reasons why we can’t change our schools. Authors Bain and Weston offer some good advice: look to the mindsets of the educators in our schools and districts. That's where the real obstacles lie.

According to Bain and Weston, “Technology will not force its way into classrooms; for decades, teachers and schools have shown remarkable kickback,” and if you walk into any district that has spent thousands or millions on technological toys,  you will see what they are talking about. We look at all out technological toys and we ask ourselves:

• “Why are our teachers not using these interactive boards?” 
• “Why are those iPads sitting idle in the corner of the room?” 
• “Why is it when I visit the classrooms in our school district I see little engagement with technology by the students, and mostly the kinds of teaching and learning that has been going on for the last 100 years or so?” 

I think the answers to these questions are rather simple: we put all this technology in our classrooms and schools, but we forget that many of our teachers simply look for ways to use the technology to help them teach as they always have, rather than look for new ways of teaching with the technology. Their mindset is the obstacle. (Administrators have that mindset too.)

If you really want to know why all that technology sits idle, it's probably because it does not fit the way your teachers teach and the way they have been teaching for the past 100 years or so. Too much of that teaching is still teachers talking, students sitting and listening. In these classrooms, some teachers determine that if the technology won't help them do school like they have been doing it, then they don’t need it. They don’t see the need to change how they are teaching, even though half their class stares up at them in glazed-eye stupor.

If we really want to transform teaching and learning in our schools and classrooms, perhaps we need to pause from all the technology buying, installing, and training and focus on the “mindsets” that our teachers and administrators have. We need to stop “automating the 20th century ways of teaching and learning” and pursue whole new ways of teaching and learning.

When Interactive Boards and Tablets Aren’t 21st Century Classroom Tools

I think most educators would agree that interactive boards are not always 21st century classroom tools. In fact, when they are only used to reinforce lecture, worksheets and other 20th century teaching and learning methodology, they are little more than chalkboards with computer chips. The iPad is not necessarily a 21st century classroom tool either, if students are only using it to read e-texts and complete e-worksheets. It is only when students and teachers are engaged using interactive boards, iPads, and other devices, to collaborate, create, and problem-solve that they become 21st century classroom tools.

Too often, anything labeled "technology" is immediately construed to be a 21st century learning device, but that quality never lies in the tool itself, but in how teachers and students engage its use in the service of learning.  Going back to the interactive boards example. How many millions have schools and school districts spent on these devices to simply be able to brag publicly that they now have "an interactive board installed in every classroom?" Because there’s only one in the room it often becomes a device that only the teacher interacts with and uses. This kind of thinking betrays a belief that technological devices are inherently 21st century learning tools, but they are not. It is a maddening thought that a teacher would simply use a very expensive interactive board to only do the same things he used to do with an overhead projector.

In order to keep in mind when technologies are truly 21st century classroom tools, 21st century school leaders should perhaps consider the following as they think about new technologies for their schools or districts:

• If you are buying technology so you can brag about it, you are probably buying it for the wrong reasons. There is nothing magical in the simple presence of an iPad or interactive board in the classroom. Just because it's there does not mean students are engaged in 21st century learning. Being able to boast about the number of iPads, laptops, and interactive boards in your school or district does not mean the claim of being a 21st century school can be made. Rather, it is what students and teachers are doing with the devices that matter the most and the kinds of learning they are engaged in while using them. 
• Don't be afraid to ask the tough question: How is this technology going to fundamentally transform the kinds of teaching and learning in my classrooms or schools? The expectation when it comes to technology purchases should always be that students will be doing 21st century learning tasks, not 20th century learning tasks. These tasks include: collaborating, creating, and problem-solving.
• Be prepared to support teachers when introducing new technologies into your school or district. This means providing them with professional development, additional resources, and time to collaborate with colleagues as they try to integrate the devices into their classrooms. Providing technological devices without support from school leadership might as well be giving teachers a paperweight or doorstop.
• Be wary of sales pitches that focus primarily on what the technology will do rather than what students can do with the technology. Bells and whistles do not make a device into a 21st century learning tool. What is more important is how the device will empower students to engage in collaboration, creation, and problem-solving. It is important to ask, "What kinds of work can students do with the device?" not “What can the device do?” Force salespeople to do more than show features. Ask them to show what kinds of learning students can engage in while using their devices.

As indicated earlier, interactive boards and iPads are not always used as 21st century teaching and learning devices. They can be used to perpetuate 20th century learning or they can get students collaborating, creating, and problem-solving. It is only when there's a fundamental change in what students and teachers are being asked to do with the devices that they can become 21st century learning tools.

2 Favorite Tech Tools to Save Web Content for Later Reading

Here's a common tech problem those of us who read a lot of web content encounter: You encounter three articles on the web, and you don't have time to read them. The old fashioned solution would have been to bookmark them and return to them later when you had time. But let's throw in a wrinkle. You are going someplace where you will be unconnected for a day or two, but you would still like to be able to read those three articles. In that case, a browser bookmark won't help.

The problem of wanting to save content for later reading is a common one and easily solved with two easy-to-use tools.

Evernote and the Clearly Browser Extension: This combination makes grabbing content for later reading easy. If you have an Evernote account, you can clip articles for later reading using the Clearly Browser extension. With the simple click of a button, you can send an entire article, including graphics straight to the Evernote Notebook of your choice. You can easily read these later through the Evernote app on your iPad, Kindle, or desktop, but make sure you sync your Evernote app before you disconnect, otherwise the article you clipped may not be available on your devices.

Clearly Screen Shot

Evernote with Clearly Clipped Article

Send to Kindle Browser Extension:  The Send to Kindle Browser Extension is a button in your browser that allows you to immediately send, or preview an article before you send it to your Kindle app. Once an article is sent, you can access that article on your iPad or your Kindle reader. If you have multiple devices with the Kindle app, you can decide which one you want to send it to, but the article will be available to download on all your devices. There is also a free Send to Kindle Desktop application available as well.

Send to Kindle Screenshot

Article in Kindle

Links to Resources Described in This Article

Evernote and Clearly Links

Evernote Web Site

Clearly Browser Extenstion for Chrome

Clearly Browser Extension for Firefox

Send to Kindle Links

Send to Kindle Extension for Chrome

Send to Kindle Extension for Firefox

Send to Kindle PC Desktop App

Send to Kindle Mac Desktop App

Posted with Blogsy

Penultimate: Handwritten Notes App for iPad That Syncs with Evernote

Earlier this week, I mentioned Notability as an app of choice to take handwritten notes on the iPad. It is an excellent choice for those looking for an inexpensive option for notetaking and an app with a number of features.

Another app for the iPad that offers users an excellent experience in taking handwritten notes is the iPad app, Penultimate. Now that Evernote has assumed control of this app, it's ability to sync with that application offers users an interesting feature not found in Notability.

Penultimate is an excellent choice for a note taking app for a number of reasons.

Penultimate's Notebook Interface

• Currenty Penultimate is a free app.
• It has a simple user interface.
• Users can create multiple custom notebooks for their notes.
• Insert existing photos or take new ones and insert those within your handwritten notes.
• Penultimate fully syncs with your Evernote account, which means you ultimately have access to your handwritten notes within your Evernote account.
• Choose your pen color or size.
• Choose the paper format for your notes.

Note Taking Page in Penultimate

But unlike Notability, Penultimate only allows you to take handwritten notes. There is no feature that allows you type text notes. Still, for those looking for an excellent app for taking handwritten notes that syncs with your Evernote account, Penultimate is a great choice. For more information about Penultimate, check out Evernote's web site. http://evernote.com/penultimate/

 

Posted with Blogsy

Mr. Reader: An Excellent RSS Reader for the iPad

As a heavy reader on my iPad, I have been looking for an RSS Feed Reader for my iPad that makes reading my Google Reader feeds easier and a more pleasant experience. I have tried several RSS feed reader apps, and I think I have found one that shows promise and offers an excellent reading experience. That app is Mr. Reader.

Screenshot Mr. Reader

While Mr. Reader looks in some ways like a normal RSS Reader, it has some features that make it a more interesting and effective.

• Fully syncrhonizes with your Google Reader Account
• Display is maximized to provide reader with lots of information at a glance
• App displays well in both landscape and portrait
• Full articles can be displayed by a simple tap
• Customization features make RSS reading even simpler and more pleasurable

Mr. Reader is an excellent RSS Feed Reader app for those who use Google Reader as their RSS aggregator. As an iPad app, it is a little bit more pricey than other apps, but its features make it an excellent app.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Making the Most of Your Online Professional Learning in the Digital Age

“Most successful teachers learn from a combination of resources, including local communities, virtual communities, and research,” writes Kristen Swanson in her new book Professional Learning in the Digital Age: The Educator’s Guide to User-Generated Learning. In other words, educators learn from the communities to which their are connected, and having the tools to make those connections are truly vital in the digital age. That’s where Swanson’s book comes in. Packed in only 109 pages, she gives readers the process and tools to become a connected educator in the 21st century, and engage in “user-generated learning.” Professional Learning in the Digital Age is a must read for educators who want to fine-tune the process of building and maintaining professional learning networks. And, for those have yet to venture out and begin the process of becoming a connected educator, this book gives them clear straightforward advice on how to do it, and a Tool Repository at the back of the book with which to get started.



Swanson begins by defining what is meant by “user-generated learning” which she defines as “learning acquired through active curation, reflection, and collaboration to a self-selected collaborative space.” In other words, user-generated learning is a very deliberate process of carrying out three specific actions that can transform an educator into a connected one, and by default transform his or her educational practice. These three actions that bring about the kinds of learning fostered through online connections include:

• Curating: Process or action of carefully collecting relevant resources. In this case, these are resources entirely associated with our professional practice. There are online tools that aid in the process of curating the content and information on which learning is based.
• Reflecting: Process or action of making sense of this newly curated information and determining what it all means for professional practice. Reflecting is vital to assimilating our new learning. Tools such as blogging assist educators in reflection.
• Contributing: This is the final process of action of user-generated learning. It consists of giving back to the community of learners to which we are now connected. Contribution fosters connections.

In simple terms, engaging in these activities result in fostering and growing as a connected educator. Swanson gives readers a powerful formula for fostering “user-generated learning” through connectedness, capitalizing on one of the most powerful professional development tools educators have in the 21st century.
Professional Learning in the Digital Age: The Educator’s Guide to User-Generated Learning, Eye on Education,  is powerful-succinct guide for all educators to learn 21st century style.

Implications of the 2012 NMC Horizon Report for 21st Century School Leaders

"To skillfully change our paradigms and cultivate the ability to embrace change, we must learn to let go of our old paradigms," write Ted McCain, Ian Jukes, and Lee Crockett in their book Lining on the Future Edge: Windows on Tomorrow. As 21st century school leaders, embracing change is no longer an option.

Each year the New Media Consortium (NMC) puts out a reminder of just how important embracing change is. This reminder is the 2012 NMC Horizon Report K-12 Edition (You can download it here.) This report is a snapshot review of trends that have the greatest potential to disrupt and shape education in the next five years. While the report is not meant to be predictive, it does serve as a point of thought and discussion for the 21st century school leader.

2012 NMC Horizon Report Near Adoption Technologies

Where is technology going in the next 5 years, and what might be some things we can expect as educational leaders? Here's what the 2012 NMC Horizon Report outlines as the technologies closest to adoption in our schools.

Near Horizon: (Within Next 12 Months)


Mobile Devices and Apps: According to the Horizon report, mobile devices and apps are increasingly becoming part of the classroom. Schools are implementing BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies that allow students Wi-Fi access using their smartphones. The number of applications available for these devices is near endless too, making mobile devices one of the most versatile tools students can have in the classroom.  More and more schools are re-thinking policy regarding students having these devices.

Tablet Computing: Tablets, according to this report, "Presents new opportunities for enhancing learning in ways simply not possible with mobile phones, laptops, or desktop computers, and is esepcially suited for 1:1 learning in the K-12 environment." These devices accelerate the possibilities of accessing existing content on the web, and generating and sharing student-created content. My own school is entering a second year in our district iPad project, with plans to move toward utilizing these devices more effectively.

Mid-Term Horizon (2-3 Years Out)


Game-Based Learning: "Educational gaming brings an increasingly credible promise to make learning experiences more engaging for students, while at the same time improving important skills, such as collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking." Keep in mind that this game-based learning is not the old "drill-n-kill" games peddled to schools in the early days when schools were just beginning to put computers in the classrooms. These are complex game environments engaging students in real-world problem solving and critical thinking. Game-Based learning uses the complex characteristics of gaming to deliver instructional content. These instructional gaming tools employ what Jane McGonigal calls, in her book Reality Is Broken, the "Four Defining Traits of a Game:" 1) these games have goals or specific outcomes players work to achieve, 2) these games have rules that place limitations on how players can achieve the goals, 3) these games have a built-in feedback systems that tell players how close they are to achieving that goal, and 4) these games employ voluntary participation which translates into the acceptance of the goals, rules, and feedback system. As the Horizon Report indicates, one of the greatest potentials for this technology is the ability to "foster collaboration and engage students deeply in the process of learning." From an administrator perspective it is important to understand that just because it's a game doesn't mean it's going to be effective. Those working in this area are trying to capture McGonigal's characteristics of games like Runscape, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft, and employ them in game-based learning environments.

Personal Learning Environments: According to the Horizon Report, personal learning environments (PLEs) are "personal collections of tools and resources a person assembles to support their own learning----both formal and informal." As more smartphones and mobile devices have become a part of our students' experiences, they are in a position to select more and more of the apps and learning tools they use in their own learning. The goal of PLEs is move to a learning environment where students "have more control over how they learn in school." The teacher role shifts in this kind of learning environment to more of a support or facilitator role in helping students develop and engage in their own personal learning environments. As more online tools that lend themselves to this kind of learning have become available, the opportunity to learn in this way increases. This technology will prompt serious discussions on traditional factory schooling concepts like required seat-time, teacher roles, and teacher expertise in technology.

Far Term Horizon (4-5 Years Out)


Augmented Reality: The definition of augmented reality provided by the Horizon Report is "layering of information over a view or representation of the normal world, offering users the ability to access place-based information in ways that are compellingly intuitive." These tools can add to learning experiences by combining real world imagery with virtual content. There are few examples of this technology, but in the future, students may be able to manipulate a 3-D image of a cell overlayed with a real world image. Some experts contend that this technology is not quite ready.

Natural User Interfaces: These allow "computers to respond to gestures, motions of the body, facial expressions, voice, sound, and other environment cues, and are replacing the key board and mouse as the standard for computer/human interaction." These devices make interactions with a computer more intuitive. Examples of this technology include the X-Box Kinect and Ninetendo Wii. These natural user interfaces have been particularly promising in teaching with autistic, blind, deaf, and other special needs students.

Implications for 21st Century Technology Leaders

While these are not predictions, this list does serve as a "Reflection and Consideration Point of Decision" for the 21st century school leader. The object is not to "prepare for these technologies" or even advocate for them. but what are the implications of these "near-horizon" technologies for 21st century technology leaders? Here's some things 21st century administrators might wish to think about in light of this report.

• Rethink, revise, and redo policies governing whether students can have smartphones and electronic devices in our schools. Cell phone bans have outlived their usefulness, just as bans on other electronic devices. Instead, we need poliies and guidelines that encourage students and teachers to engage in the use of these tools.
• Implement school-wide Wi-FI access for all students and staff. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies allow students and teachers to remain connected to the 21st century, not unplug once they walk through the school doors. Providing access should be a priority.
• Begin employing tablet devices in our schools, not as augmentation to current instruction, but to totally disrupt teaching models. If we want teaching and learning to change, we don't want to simply search for ways to augment what we are doing, we want to make it possible for new forms of learning and teaching. Tablets are the type of disruptive device to do just that.
• Stop viewing tablet computers as just another type of computer. Let's not use terms like 1:1 and the number of tablets in our schools as bragging points. Instead, let the discussion and bragging turn to how learning has fundamental changed in our schools for our students due to employing these devices. Let the technology disrupt and cause innovation and new forms of both teaching and learning.
• Be as cautious as ever. Beware of sales pitches and promotions of the "next thing." Insist that those peddling their wares speak in terms of how the technologies will enhance learning, and do not allow them to just quote test scores as evidence. Technology isn't beneficial just because it's new. It's effective in the hands of an effective teacher. Bad teaching with technology is still bad teaching.

The Horizon Report is an annual opportunity for school leaders to glimpse at possible near-horizon technology adoptions. In addition to quick view, as a technology leader, it is also an opportunity to engage in a bit of "what-if" thinking too, and that kind of thinking leads the way to embracing the change.

4 Reasons 21st Century Administrators Should Get Out of the Way and Let Students Blog

As a twenty-first century administrator, and a former English teacher, I believe in the power of blogging. There's satisfaction that comes from writing and having others read it. That is fundamental to every rule of composition. So much do I believe in its power, I am excited that students at our school are blogging and excitedly talking about the experience. Once we were able to rescue Blogger from the clutches of the content filter, several of our teachers now have students engaged in blogging as a part of their classroom experience. It's writing 21st century style. Here's 4 reasons to get students blogging for those administrators who still hesitate.

• Blogging gives students an opportunity to engage a real audience. This became evident this past week when one of our students excitedly came into my office just to tell me about individuals from a European country who contacted her because of her blog. I can't say in 16 years as an English teacher I ever saw one of my students get that excited about an essay they'd just written. Blogging gives students an opportunity to engage in real writing with a potential real audience, an English teacher's dream!
• Blogging gives teachers and educators a real context for teaching them how to effectively engage others with writing and media. No one sits around reading essays except English teachers, and I say that as a former English teacher. Trying to engage an audience in an essay isn't real. Trying to get others to read and comment on your last blog post is real. Blogging is an environment that gives students the opportunity to experiment and try to see what works with readers, and the feedback is real too.
• Blogging gives us (all educators) a tool to teach students to contribute responsibly to the web conversation. In the context of blogging, educators can teach students how to engage readers and engage with the right level of disclosure. Teachers can teach students how to blog safely as well as effectively. In other words, if we want students to blog safely, then we have to give them the opportunity to blog.
• Blogging provides an environment for students to reflect on learning. Sure, reflection can be done in a journal, but journals are at best written for an audience of 2, the student and the teacher. It's in the context of a blog that students can test out what they are thinking with others. The reflection is expanded with feedback and comments. Blogging allows for interactive reflection.

Just to give you some idea of what our students are doing with blogging, here are some of our students' blogs. Some are for an AP US History class. Others are a part of their senior projects. They are doing what a 21st century administrator would be proud of. I obviously do not include their names here, but I can't help but share them with you. 

Student 1 Blog

Student 2 Blog

Student 3 Blog

Student 4 Blog

It is time for 21st century administrators to move beyond the fear of students engaging in blogging. Blogging is an opportunity for students to engage in real writing for a real audience. It is an authentic activity that has the potential to bring real learning to the classroom.