Education

I have been taking a class on Technology and School Change. My final paper is on the concept of Connectivism and how it can help improve student learning and teacher professional development. To learn more about my project, take a look at the presentation I had to create for the paper.

If you teach World History, you need to check out the new Google Earth 3D layer of Ancient Rome. It presents Rome as it would have looked in 320 AD.

The layer was created by Google and The Rome Reborn project at The University of Virginia.

In addition, Google for Educators have created a competition that is connected to the release of the new Ancient Rome layer. Create interesting lessons based upon the new Rome layer and win some great prizes.

As of late, new media and social media have been the focus in education. Applications Facebook, Twitter, and You Tube have become an integral part of our teaching practices. Project New Media Literacies, created by MIT, has been examining where New Media is going and how it can apply in education. Check out their new video.

This is a video for “Oxygen”, a song by Willy Mason. This song came out when Mason was 19. Watching this video reaffirmed something for me: The voice of our youth must be heard.

As educators we must allow our students to dream big and speak their mind. They are just as curious, concerned, and invested in our world as we are. As Mason sings in the song,

THE KIDS OF TODAY MUST CARRY THE LIGHT

This is a great song that not only addresses some powerful issues but shows that we must give our youth a voice. We must provide them with the skills to question, inquire, and respond.

I saw this video a few months ago but as I have been thinking a lot about educational design, I thought posting this video would be appropriate. As we reconsider how our educational system is designed, the ability to be creative in and out of the classroom is of paramount importance.

Check out the video and I hope that it helps you find your “flow”.

I got into teaching to make an impact. I wanted to prepare my students for what may lie ahead. When I started teaching, I thought I would make a lasting impact upon my students by teaching history.

While I originally thought that simply teaching history would make an impact, I have come to realize that for educators to truly make a difference in our students’ lives we cannot rely upon a traditional curriculum.

With the crises we face and an every changing world, it is critical that we reassess what we are teaching. We must examine what it takes to prepare a student for the challenges they will face. We must challenge our students to think. To be able to be presented with a difficult challenge and develop a solution. If we are to prepare the future leaders of this world, we must supply them with the skills to think abstractly. To do that we must reevaluate how we design our curriculum. No offense to the proponents of a traditional curriculum, but that ain’t gonna solve global warming.

This video, found by Antonio Viva, is from Rutgers University. Rutgers has developed a New Humanities program. The core of the program gets at what I was mentioning. They have developed a curriculum that is built upon the principle of making students think about “the biggest problems our time”. Now that will make an impact. That will prepare our students for their future.

The K12 Online Conference 2008 is a great resource for ideas and trends that are influencing education. This is the pre conference keynote. It is a good perspective on what education should like now. Stephen Heppell presents on what education should look like in today’s world. As he says himself,

It’s the death of education… but it’s the dawn of learning

“It Simply Isn’t the 20th Century Any More Is It?: So Why Would We Teach as Though it Was?”

Lately I have been following Howard Rheingold’s work with social media. It is innovators like Rheingold and Danah Boyd who have been at the forefront of the discussion on social media in education.

Social Media is “the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings”.

One of our main goals as educators is to promote the development of critical thinking skills. Social Media is a perfect example of this. Using the technology that our students are familiar with, video, twitter, blogs, forums, wikis and chat, we can support our curricular goals with new methods.

Rheingold has created a platform, that will go public soon, that brings all these social media tools together and promote a higher level of understanding. The web platform takes these social media in order to support the skills we attempt to impart to our students.

He states in a video, “student-led collaborative inquiry and involvement… enlists their enthusiasm in ways that even very good lectures and texts don’t.” He covers what he calls meta-skills, which include: critical inquiry, pathfinding, balancing individual and collective voice, and attention-to-attention.

Social Media like Seesmic, which allows video posts and responses, can provide a platform for support of the skills that Rheingold mentions in his aforementioned video.

These meta-skills are a core part of what we teach, it just makes sense to use technology that will bolster our teaching efforts and keep our students engaged.

So I stumbled upon Big Think the other day. From what I understand, one of my childhood friends’ brother started the site. When my mom told me to check out the url I immediately thought, “it’s gonna be some personal homepage that isn’t worth my time”. Boy I was wrong.

Big Think has an amazing amount of potential in education. The mission of the site is to bring video interviews of the great minds and leaders of today discussing ideas that matter to them. The videos allow for comments and discussion on the site as well as the opportunity to present your own ideas for future videos.  As educators we aim to help our students develop their thinking skills and to clearly express their own ideas.  This will be a excellent tool to support that curricular goal.

Using this site will bring a whole new dimension to class discussions and is definitely worth a look.

School is just around the corner and with that comes last minute preparation for a year full of firsts. I am the Director of Academic Technology, I have redesigned my AP World History class as well as my World Civilizations II class and I am starting graduate school.

Director of Academic Technology

This is a new position at my school and with it comes a lot of opportunities and potential directions but will require a strong focus. As I see it for a school that is moving towards potentially becoming completely 1 to 1 in the next few years, my primary goal should be to make faculty and students familiar and comfortable with the tools that can best suit their needs. It is a matter of identification and simplification. At this point presenting too much would push our potential adopters away before they would even see the advantages of the technology I am introducing. Beginning a position like this will take tact and patience. You have to listen and build relationships before you go too far “off the deep end”.

One of my priorities this year is to promote student voice. I am a coach, teacher, advisor and friend to many of the students on campus and one of the things I hear most often is that they aren’t heard and don’t know what’s going on around campus. Part of my goal this year is to use technology to help resolve these problems.

AP World History

This will be my second year teaching AP World History and my focus this year will be to build the historical habits of mind that are required for the exam. My focus isn’t to teach to the test but rather to provide them the skills necessary for deep examination of the content, which in turn will prepare them for the exam.

I have revamped my class so that it is much more linear in chronology but the class will work on document analysis, their writing, and debate as a way to support the chronology.

I will also be having professors from universities from near and far presenting in person and virtually to my students on topics ranging from Eastern belief systems to Eastern Europe in the 20th century.

It will be a lot of work this year in preparing the lessons and making sure the students are on track but the reward will be worth it.

World Civilizations II

This year I will be teaching one of my classes using the Understanding By Design method. My World Civilizations II class is going to be project based. The idea is that by using themes I want my students to understand how we got from 1450 to the present. The projects will be the final assessment as they work through the essential questions that I will present to the class.

I have overhauled this class in effort to bring in a deeper understanding of how our present was shaped by the past while helping my students understand the value of asking questions and investigation. One of the highlights for me will be the field trips that we will be conducting for each of the themes that the class will cover.

Graduate School

I am going back to school. I have asked myself a number of times why now. I have thought about this often especially since I am beginning so many new things at once as well as coaching my cross-country team. But as I mull over this I always come back to the same answer.

I am driven and see a M.A. program focusing on Technology and Education as a path that will provide me a better understanding of what how technology can further the educational landscape. As our world changes and schools grasp to keep up, technology will play a huge role.

While this degree will not make me a fortune teller, it will provide me with the skills to understand the trends as they occur and predict the best approach for my school.

And Their Off

And so on Monday the year begins, meetings will start and chaos will ensure. No matter if you are like me and are entering into a great deal of change or are starting the same job, simplify your life, bite only what you can chew, and take one step at a time. While my life doesn’t look like I’m taking my own medicine, even with a crazy schedule if you set realistic goals and are persistent, you will succeed.