TeachPaperless: Final Post

Dear Readers,

I hate long goodbyes; so I'll spare you.

The news: this is it for TeachPaperless. I've decided to close up the blog. As this has been a big part of my life for the last three years, this moment comes with mixed emotions. But it is time; we've accomplished whatever this thing was meant to do and now it's time to make new things.

Before heading out, however, I wanted to acknowledge some people who have really made this whole project work. I'd like to thank Reader Knaus -- who I believe was the very first reader to really get into a comment discussion on this blog; thanks to Will Richardson, Ira Socol, Chris Lehmann, and Clay Burrell for inspiration; thanks to Scott McLeod; thanks to Richard Byrne; thanks to Dean Groom and all the crazies in Australia; thanks to all the folks who took part in the original Friday Chat sessions; thanks to the editors and folks at Edutopia, ISTE Connects, NY Times, Ed Week -- especially K. Manzo; thanks ASCD, MindShift, Audrey Watters; thanks to Robert Pondiscio for being such a great person to argue with in the early days of this project; thanks to Anonymous -- who is a very prolific commenter; thanks to Malcolm Gladwell for not beating me up (not that I think he would have); thanks to everyone at Johns Hopkins School of Education -- especially my former students; thanks to Bob Schick and to all of my former high school students / lab-rats; thanks to all of the readers and commenters who pushed our thinking here; thanks to all of the contributing writers; and especially thanks to John T. Spencer -- hands-down the finest pure-writer anywhere near the education discussion today.

I think we did some good stuff here; and I think we (or I should say "I") screwed up a fair amount. I take full credit for all screw-ups and I humbly accept whatever the fates allow here on out.

This also marks the end of my formal classroom teaching career (although for the last year I've taught exclusively online). Over the years, I've come to realize that I can't be a classroom teacher. My interests in learning are in the things that exist beyond the structure of a school curriculum and an academic environment. Luckily, we are living at a time when teachers have more ladders available to them to pursue their work in education than perhaps at anytime in the last hundred+ years -- from collaborative community based art projects to social entrepreneurship to the design of new technologies to the dreaming up of new programs that challenge the traditional barriers of time and geography and that will effect a real future.

And so, in the capacity of co executive director, I've joined with fellow teacher Andrew Coy in helping the Digital Harbor Foundation to found a series of community education and technology centers in Baltimore. We'll be serving Baltimore City Public School teachers and students K-12 -- delivering extracurricular after school maker-experiences where teachers gain free, open, and relevant PD and students gain digital literacy skills through the experience of actually building new things and new designs and new technologies.

I'm pretty crazy excited about the work we've done so far; and will be sure to detail where things lead on Twitter -- which, btw, I'm now going to use exclusively as @blakeplock.

Last thing I wanted to say -- and this is to the teachers and students out there: go make stuff. Stop jumping through hoops. There is a world out there and there are a million different ways of becoming educated. You don't have to follow their rules. Go out there and make stuff. Stuff that matters. Stuff that makes people smile. Stuff that changes the way other people do things. Stuff that's beautiful. Stuff that's ugly. Stuff. Stuff you make. Stuff that reflects who you are rather than what they want you to be.

Thank you all for some great conversation. Now it's time to really put my nose to the grind in Baltimore; I expect you'll be hearing about what our kids and teachers are doing soon.

Shelly

We Have a Negative Space Problem

In terms of social media, I spend the most amount of time on Twitter and the least amount of time on Facebook. On some level, it's the culture of each "place." Plus is great, but I haven't found a way to "fit in" yet -- despite having an account and posting from day one. Meanwhile, Facebook is the place where I meet folks from high school.

However, it's more than that. It's the concept of space. Twitter is simple and it looks simple. Watch the user interface and there's enough negative space to breathe. Google Plus has more to offer than Facebook and does so with more negative space and easier navigation.

It has me thinking of school. When I walk the halls, there's too much negative space. When I visit classrooms, there isn't enough negative space. Physically, there isn't any sense of balance. Students move from edgy overload to edgy boredom without a sense of flow.

When I think of instruction, it's crammed with positive space. No reflection. No wandering. No negative space between the subjects and the concepts. Again, it misses the sense of balance. For all the talk of "instructional design," schools are often missing one of the core fundamentals of design. We need negative space.

I'm not sure what it would look like, but I want schools to rethink the concept of negative space. I want to recover the paradoxically complex simplicity and solitude of negative space.

What My Grocery Store Needs to Learn About Twitter

by John T. Spencer

My grocery store has a sign begging me to follow them on Twitter. Here is what I was expecting to see in their Twitter stream:

• Hey, I’m selling food right now. You should come buy some. #hungry #food
• Did I mention that we have food? Thought you should try it. #food #hungry #eat
• Just sitting here full of food.  Just got stocked.  Damn I'm full.  #food
• Hey guys, I have a ton of food and an endless supply of Celine Dion music. #adultcontemporary #food #party
• Party at my place. Everyone is in line.  No one is line dancing.  #lamestpartyever #party #food
• There's a #grocerchat in twelve minutes.
• So apparently all food is ethnic food (even white people food). So do I call it Hispanic, Latino or Latin? #grocerchat
• Really? But Latin just sounds like singing monks? Is that really what we should use? #grocerchat
• Apparently it's not okay to switch the butcher block signs to Comic Sans. Who knew? #grocerchat
• RT @Kroger "Wal-Mart is such a selfish blowhard.  I hope he chokes on the vomit from eating up all the little guys." 
• Sorry for the confusion. Supermarkets are for all people, not exclusively superheroes. #apology #food
• I'm sorry for referring to myself as the "anchor store." @kay'sbeautysupplystore - U R muy importante to me, girlfriend! 
• Sorry for referring to @kay'sbeautysupplies as "girlfriend." #crossedalineonthatone #tryingtosoundhip
• @Safeway - You want a link? We got tons of sausage at our site.  
• @Safeway - Wrong link? :( You want a link to an article?  I've got a whole magazine rack.  #checkoutthatrack #supermaketinnuendo

Perhaps it's asking too much of Sprouts to act like a person on social media. However, I would assume that if they were on Twitter, they would do something different. Post some recipes. Send some links to foodie blogs. 

Participate. 

Maybe choose a representative from three or four departments to answer questions regarding food. What if I could tweet out to a veggie expert who can tell me the best season to buy habanero peppers? What if I could look into my Twitter feed and get some tips for grilling large hunks of animal flesh? Instead, I see a stream of advertisements for events and sales.

Ultimately, that's the real issue with social media. Companies want to learn how to use it. However, Twitter is as much a place as it is a tool. We don't learn how to use the park or the library or the town square. We learn to relate and to participate and to interact in those places. If Sprouts wants to engage with the public, it has to move beyond simply creating advertisements and tweeting them out. You can't use Twitter.

kroto music

kroto music

Student-led Final Review

By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Others on this blog have been writing about student-produced/student-driven final exams. I'd like to add to the conversation the student-produced final review. This is the third semester that I have foregone handing out a big semester review before the final and instead left it up to my students to guide the review and I have not been disappointed. Just as there is a wide range of abilities in my classes, students produce an array of activities that go far beyond what I would have created, especially on the high and low ends of ability/readiness. I would be lying if I claimed that 100% of students subsequently took advantage of class review time to diligently study and prepare for the final exam but the vast majority do and, from my viewpoint, appear much more engaged in the whole process. I think that the student ownership creates buy-in and interest in what we are doing.

Note that while this is for high school Spanish students, most of the tools and resources here can be adapted to meet the needs of other subjects. This year, the most popular and beneficial study guides came in the form of the dice maker, fakeconvos.com, awards show and Quizlet. Below is an abbreviated version of how I introduce this to classes (I post it to them on Edmodo, and those who create digital reviews share them with classmates on the group page):

One of the ways that you can demonstrate your own understanding of learning is to be able to show it or teach it to another student. To that end, you will help others study for the final exam (and they will help you) by creating a review activity or game. We will dedicate block day and Friday to preparing for the final exam by using YOUR review activities.

You must be able to explain the game to your peers. If you are unsure about your idea, run it by me before your create it. You may do more than one activity. If you have a bigger project to attempt, I am open to allowing you to work in pairs but clear it with me first. Same goes for any doubts you have...if you have questions, ask!

Some ideas:
1. Write stories that classmates can read. By reading them, they are studying and preparing for the test.
http://www.artisancam.org.uk/flashapps/superactioncomicmaker/
www.makebeliefscomix.com

2. Record a listening practice. You can record a reading of one of our stories from class (They will be in your edmodo library) and have questions that classmates answer to demonstrate their listening comprehension.

3. Adjust one of these games to meet your needs:
http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/gameresources.htm

4. This site is a gold mine of activities you can use: awards certificate maker to do your own awards show for classmates, dice games, board game generator to invent your own board game, crossword puzzles and more. A lot of you used this one last semester:
http://www.toolsforeducators.com/

5. Create a story (usng target vocab!) in the form of a fake Facebook conversation:
http://fakeconvos.com/index.php

6. Here's another site with great resources, including a Jeopardy game maker:
http://www.superteachertools.com/index.php

7. Make your own online review game!
http://www.purposegames.com/

8. Make your own poster series (Hola meme addicts!). This site has some good resources:
http://bighugelabs.com/

9. Create a stack of digital flash cards. There are a ton of resources out there. Here's one:
http://www.brainflips.com/

10. This is a step up from a dice game: Sentence Generator
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/games/sentence/

This is but a partial list of what resources are out there. What would you add to the list? Have you had success (or struggle) with tasking students to take ownership of their own final review? Let us know in the comments!

Cell Phones Don't Annoy People; People Annoy People.

By Noah Geisel (@SenorG)

Last week, I joined fans of public radio’s This American Life, in shelling out twenty bucks to go to the movie theater for a live taping of the program. Host Ira Glass drew laughs when he talked about the many theater managers nervous that we was encouraging viewers to take out their cell phones during the show. While he was going for laughs, he was dead serious about letting folks fill the theater rooms with screen glow. Dozens of audience members in hundreds of theaters across two continents simultaneously pulled out their smart phones and fired up the app that had been created specifically for this show. Glass introduced the band OK Go, known more for their groundbreaking music videos than pop melodies. The gimmick-geared musicians did not disappoint. The easiest way I can describe the experience: the band played music and with the app the audience played Guitar Hero to accompany them. I think the consensus was that it was pretty cool stuff.

At the end of the song, folks put their phones away and the show, as they say, went on.

Cell phones have become Enemy #1 in subways, movie theaters and pretty much every public space. OK Go and This American Life provide an excellent example of how mobile technology can be mobilized for positive disruption. They succeed in showing that the negative disruptions are a product of the users, not the phones.

This is a good lesson for schools and educators to note. In edu-speak, controlling the impact of cell phones is a classroom management issue, not a cell phone issue. This does not necessarily mean educators need to be incorporating mobile into their lessons (though many readers of this blog probably do); rather, that we are at least embedding into our lessons the idea of responsible cell phone citizenship. Modeling the positive disruptions a la Ira Glass is one of many ways of fostering this important learning.

Open, Collaborative Test

by Mike Kaechele

I was inspired by Shelly's final exam to try my own version of a collaborative, open internet test. The background for this is that students worked in groups of 3 on one of five topics related to the Cold War: Germany, China, Korea, Vietnam, and the arms and space race. All students were responsible for researching the beginnings of the Cold War and the policies and actions of the West and the Soviet Bloc. Students prepared presentations on their topic and shared while their classmates took notes. The next day the students worked in their same groups (they had two hours) to answer the following questions with full access to their computers.

Names and font colors :

Please pick a different color font for each group member and use it throughout. You should proofread each others' work before you are done. You must answer all of these questions in your own thoughts and words. Copy and pasting will result in no credit for that question! Your answers should be in complete sentences and paragraph form. You have some choices in how you answer these questions. Be sure that you address ALL of our sub-topics: China, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and the arms and space race somewhere in this test.

Standards:

WHG8.1.1a blue
Explain the origins of the Cold War including the differences in ideologies and policies of the Soviet bloc and the West.

WHG8.1.1b
The arms and space race between United States and Soviet Union.

WHG8.1.1c
Conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.

WHG8.1.1d
The development of communism in China

Answer all of the following:

1. Explain how the conclusion of WWII helps start the Cold War. Be sure to list specific events and decisions by different countries.
2. Explain in detail the message of this political cartoon. Be sure to identify the people, countries, etc:
3. Give 3 examples of how the Capital used fear to manipulate people in The Hunger Games.
4. Explain the “Domino Effect” and “containment” and how they originated from the Truman Doctrine. Give an example of how these policies were implemented.
5. List as many examples of proxy wars from the Cold War that you can. Explain in detail how one of them was a proxy war.
6. What factors lead to communism developing in China and how is China part of the Cold War?
7. How were the space and arms race related to each other and to the Cold War? Give detailed examples of how they began and progressed.
8. Watch this. Explain how this is not the end of the Cold War. How and why did the Cold War end?
9. Evaluate your partners in this Google Form.

Choose 4 of the following questions to answer in detail:

10. Insert 2 images (One Western and One Soviet) of propaganda and explain how they used fear to manipulate people.
11. Why was this era called the Cold War? Use reason and evidence to support your claim.
12. List the title and artist of a Cold War song,insert a hotlink to the song lyrics, and explain how that song relates to the Cold War. Bonus points if Mr. Kaechele likes the song:)
13. Explain how “The Butter Battle Book” is an analogy to the “Arms Race.”
14. Give specific examples of Cold War governments making decisions based on fear and false assumptions of the opposing side.
15. Some people have compared the Cold War to a chess match. Others say “The Cold War never fought any physical battles.” Agree or disagree with one of these statements and support your opinion with examples.
16. Explain how the Berlin Airlift was brinkmanship between the Soviets and the Americans.
17. Explain how the Suez Canal Crisis was part of the Cold War.
18. Watch “We choose to go to the moon.” How is this speech propaganda? How is it part of the Cold War? How is this speech part of the “American myth” of exceptionalism?
19. Choose any topic of the Cold War that you feel is not addressed in the previous questions that you feel that you are an expert on. Explain it in detail.

 Some observations of this process is that students were challenged. I also enjoyed listening to the conversations going on in the room. They were more intense than normal. A couple of students told me they liked the test. When is the last time you have heard that? I also think that if I used this format again they will do even better in both their preparation and understanding that it is their responsibility to make sure that they address all of the standards.

From Tools to Toys

by John T. Spencer (or in this case, Tom Johnson)

An excerpt from Pencil Me In:


For millennia, it was a cultural universal that games existed for learning. True, children had fun, but the games were designed to teach both social and physical skills. Children learned to be warriors, how to govern, how to access cultural narratives all through the act of play. In fact, Plato theorized that one could learn more about a person through an hour of play than a lifetime of conversation.

Even in America, where we have shifted toward a sit-in-your-desk-and-shut-up-and-learn model, our games become methods of accessing these cultural skill sets.  We get the darkest factory values in child's play. Thus, Simon Says teaches social conformity and prepares small kids for the prison-like environment of their future careers. Dodge Ball teaches Social Darwinism. Hide and Go Seek teaches children that transparency is overrated. Best run and hide from others. After all, this is the building block of many adult relationships.

On the flip side, our games teach the best of American values. Hide and Go Seek helps teach autonomy and creativity. Simon Says teaches listening skills and proves to kids that language can be powerful. Dodge Ball helps with teamwork and allows kids to see the value of throwing things at people for sheer enjoyment.

So, in our class, we create a game to make sense out of capitalism. It's a market simulation game, where students graph their own investments and interact with one another. Throughout this process, they write reflections, send mail messages and join a pen pal network. A few of them even plog (short for pencil logs) about the process.

When the game ends, students debrief the information in their plogs. After words, we set our pencils down and talk. On some level, it feels like waking up for a daze. Students debate the pros and cons of a market system, talk about the risks of speculation and relate this to the economic crash of last year.

The pencil smudge girl from yesterday raises her hand, “I think there is a danger in playing this game, but I'm glad we played it.”

“Can you elaborate on that?” I ask.

“I think the people in Wall Street got suckered into the same vortex that we were just in. They got selfish and that led to the Panic a few years back. It became a game to win. I think that's how it is for some of the people who run Wall Street.”

All of this has me reconsidering the notion of fun. I don't want my students to be amusement-addicts who play a violent Hang Man game or throw wads of paper out of boredom. I want students to use pencils as a tool. However, I'm realizing that games can be a tool for learning. I’m left feeling conflicted and confused.  Perhaps technology can be a toy and the game can spur deeper reflection. Maybe the power in every game is the fact that it creates a safe place to rehearse reality.

So now I'm sitting at home with my daughter. She's tossing a ball at the fence. The ball has been the dragon that attacked her fortress made of blocks and now it's a magic ball that will lose its fairy dust if it falls on the ground more than once. She's playing and learning and there isn't much of a divide at this age.

Perhaps there shouldn't ever be such a rigid divide. Perhaps when my students ask, “Can we play games?” or “Can't we have fun?” the answer doesn't have to be “these are tools not toys.” Maybe the answer can be, “Maybe they are tools, but maybe they're also toys. Sometimes it will be fun.  Sometimes it will be difficult. But I will always try and make sure it’s meaningful.”

And it has me thinking that maybe innovation happens, not because we use our tools appropriately but because we play with them. We hack them. We change them. We use them in ways they weren't intended to be used and in the process, they become better tools. 

The Problem with TED Ed

by Shelly Blake-Plock

The problem with TED Ed is the problem of what we define in traditional education as a "lesson".

In life, we learn lessons by trial-and-error. We burn our hand on the stove as children and therefore learn that the stove gets hot. Over time we realize it gets hot because its purpose is to cook food. Some of us learn how the stove works and become mechanics or industrial engineers; others of us become chefs. Most of us just realize to keep our hands out of hot stuff.

But we all learn by doing and by making mistakes.

And I emphasize "doing".

TED -- in the form it is presented online to the masses -- is not about doing. It is about watching. Listening. Consuming. Maybe leaving a comment or sharing a link to improve your TEDCred score. Yes, there is a wealth of interesting information and lots to think about. Personally, I find many of the lectures to be inspired. But we shouldn't confuse an inspiring lecture and provocative ideas with "learning".

And much of what we have called "lessons" over the decades really aren't lessons at all -- they are consumables. They are short narratives consumed by students who are then asked to fill in bubbles that demonstrate that the student either was paying a modicum of attention or that the student has good natural deductive skills in parsing the quiz-maker's craft.

And so we added the essay, the brief constructed response, the formal answer. And we said it was good because now we had brought qualitative and subjective response and the skill of argument to the assessment of learning. And we judged it objectively. And we kicked the poets out of town.

None of this led to "learning" for the overwhelming majority of students. If it had, we would not be at the crisis stage in education and culture.

And so, I was interested though skeptical of TED Ed when it was announced. And now, in seeing where it is going I am depressed.

Let's consider the things that TED Ed asks the learner to do: watch a video, take a multiple-choice quiz, write brief constructed responses, and read through a bibliography. If I took the name TED out of this scenario, I would suggest that many educators would say that this format is exactly the type of traditional assessment that project-based, inquiry-driven, personalized learning is at odds with.

It is perfectly fine to watch a video. It is perfectly fine to view a lecture. It is perfectly fine to quiz yourself on what you remember from the video or the lecture. It is perfectly fine to write a brief response about a big question. But let's not call that a lesson. That's just a starting point.

Lessons come from doing.

Our mother told us the stove was hot. She told us not to touch. If we were asked what mother said, we would say: "She said not to touch the stove. The stove is hot."

But we didn't learn a lesson until we touched the stove and got burned.

Lessons worth sharing are lessons that come from out of doing. And if we are going to bring education to the online space what we need right now is a platform that exists to help us do a lot more than flip the classroom. We desperately need a platform that exists to help us learn lessons by doing.

Will TED Ed evolve into that? Will MITx? Will any of the current rage of MOOCs?

Therein may lie a lesson.

If School Was Like Twitter

a lesson I couldn't learn on Twitter

by John T. Spencer

As the kids filled out their silent, kill-and-drill test, I found myself wanting to interact on Twitter. I wanted to share my questions and frustrations with the people I've gotten to know. It had me wondering what school would be like if we modeled it after Twitter.

At first, this ideas sounded intriguing. We would get together in random chats, organizing our thoughts and sharing resources according to shared categories that grow organically. I'd have the permission to speak and to listen, engaging strangers at times and somehow making close friendships in the process. When things got too loud, I could move into a one-on-one mode, sharing small direct, personal messages back and forth.  There would be space for deep, conflict-ridden discussions and light-hearted humor.

Then I thought about the times when I've learned the most and they had certain elements that simply don't work that well on Twitter. They involved direct action and reflection, painful conversations, longer narratives, novels and paintings and solving equations that I had to wrestle with on my own. It was never entirely self-directed, often shaped, in positive and negative ways, by the will of the group.

I really enjoy Twitter, but I grow professionally from a pint or a cup of coffee or a long hike or a game of catch or a favorite novel or a perplexing historical monograph.

I love Twitter. I really do. I love blogging, too. But I'm struck by the notion that social media should not be the basis for how we design schools. Instead, we need to design social systems that reflect the profound, the superficial, the nuanced, paradox-filled, muddled, messy nature of humanity.

We Can't Define Social Media

by John T. Spencer

Educators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.

I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.


Location

Should we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game.

Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). 

If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.

Content

Should we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? 

The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. 

If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. 

Communication

Should we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? 

The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. 

Identity

Should we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." 

The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. 

I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. 

What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

How to lecture in a PBL classroom

by Mike Kaechele

Disclaimer: I teach in a PBL school where every core class follows the PBL process. I am a firm believer in PBL as an excellent application of student-centered, constructivist learning. I believe that PBL is ONE effective way to teach and provides a clear structure for teachers to transition from a teacher-centered to student-centered classroom. I do NOT believe that it is the only way to effectively teach.

In reading comments to John Spencer's post about The Problem with PBL I felt like people have a bit of a narrow view of PBL. It felt like many define it as students engaged in a project, usually inquiry based. PBL at its heart and soul is a process that can include any teaching style in it including simulations, research, individual and group work, and yes even lecturing. So here is how lectures fit into the PBL model.

On a recent project on WWII students were considering the driving question "When is War Just?" They were required to present their findings to the class using the methods of their choice. I team teach with an ELA instructor and part of her requirements was that students submit a bibliography according to the MLA format. Students had done a very poor job of this on a previous project so we asked what we could do to make it better. She had already done whole class and small group, voluntary workshops (PBL lingo for lectures; I know the lingo is overkill, but don't shoot the messenger). Most students had not followed the instructions.

For this project we waited until the day before the project was due and required each group to send one member to the workshop on MLA format. This was very effective because students had their bibliographies "completed" but were able to see in the workshop any mistakes and fix them. This is how lectures are used in PBL-"just in time."

Instead of forcing a lecture on students who are uninterested, PBL encourages students to struggle and get stuck first. Then they can request a workshop on a topic that they need help on. Now they are ready to listen and get the help that they need. Frustration and struggle with a topic creates a need for the teacher lecture. Oftentimes attendance to a workshop is voluntary. Other times a teacher may require certain students to attend based on a formative assessment that shows weakness in a certain area. This allows the lecture to be focused on those students who need it when they need it.

So for those readers who say that PBL is part of a holistic education and not the whole. I am curious what other techniques do you use in the classroom that you do not feel fall under the umbrella of the PBL process?

The Problem with PBL

by John T. Spencer (@johntspencer)

Every time I've visited an educational conference, the big buzzword (is an acronym a word?) is PBL. I have heard to definitions of the PBL acronym: Problem-based and Project-based (or Product-based). I'm not sure why it's not PL, because of the hyphenation, but I won't ask. Either way, it is presented as a fix-all for education.

I like the PBL framework. However, I see a subtle danger in pushing PBL as something that should be happening in every classroom with every student all the time. Most often, the reason behind this is that in "the real world" we learn through inquiry, problem-solving and projects.

I don't deny the validity of that argument. However, in the real world (and in the magical world, too - folks still learn in Narnia), we learn in ways that go beyond the PBL approach.

Take inquiry. Life doesn't always begin with my own questions. Sometimes someone asks me a question and the motive is external. Sometimes epiphanies happen. Sometimes I learn through something that is not a question at all - just an observation or an explanation. Sometimes I start with an answer and then question it later, as I intuitively create something new.

Sometimes life isn't a problem to be solved. There's a place for nuance and paradox and the recognition that we don't have all the answers. I ran into this a few years back when I had a Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process PBL. In the end, a student approached me and said, "I read about fatalism and the history of that area. What if peace isn't possible? What if there isn't a solution? More importantly, what if it's not our job, as Americans, to solve the problem?" We should have looked at the human element, at the conflict and the culture without treating it as a problem to be solved.

In the real world, learning isn't always a product or a project. Sometimes it's a conversation over a pint or a cognitive process in a time of distress. Sometimes it's a Google search when something sparks my curiosity. Sometimes it's a metaphor as I watch a baseball game. Or it's a tweet. Or a hike. Or a profound way in which a song speaks to the human condition.

I am not against PBL. I see it as a vital part of authentic learning. However, as amazing as it is, it still remains a part rather than the solution to a holistic education.

Edutopia: on 'How Did School Do?'

by Shelly Blake-Plock

Edutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...

It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar –- along with a class of eager 10th graders –- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?

Read the whole article at Edutopia.

How Did School Do?

By Sean Wheeler and Ken Kozar

@teachinghumans
Teachinghumans@gmail.com
teachinghumans.blogspot.com


Learning comes more from asking questions than it does from answering them.  


Of course, the education paradigm that we find ourselves in is based upon an opposite notion.  This notion holds that by measuring students’ responses to questions that we put in front of them we can somehow surmise how effectively students learn, how effectively we teach, and how well the educational model that we’ve developed over a couple hundred years serves to prepare our students for engaged and meaningful lives.  


Perhaps it’s time that we begin to explore a different path.


A month or so ago, the team of teachers we work with came up with an interesting idea based on a post that Shelly Blake-Plock had written entitled, “If School Is Not Relevant”.  

“Imagine if schools were judged not by how well students achieved while they were in school, but in how well they achieved once they left. If schools saw their worth not in how many kids got accepted to college, but in how many kids went on to live meaningful and engaged lives and who would point back to their school years as the point of relevancy that was the foundation of it all.”  

In an age of massively networked communication and virtually unlimited access to information, it seems like our educational model should be exploring the tremendous potential our students have in regards to asking big questions of -- and to -- their world.  Authentic audiences can be easily accessed, broadcasting is incredibly simple, and our mission as educators should include teaching our students to work in a world in which everyone is connected.  


We can now ask huge questions of the world, and learn from listening to the conversations that develop.


But we didn’t want to only imagine an education assessment model like that, we wanted to create one.  What would we find out if we actually asked people to reflect on the relevance of education in their adult lives?  What questions could we begin to ask of a data pool like that?  Who could use that information and for what purposes?  What would it mean if we could begin to analyze this qualitative feedback and learn from it in the aggregate?    


So we approached Shelly Blake-Plock and Andrew Coy with a suggestion that we team up and use social media to gather this feedback.  What we came up with is the “How Did School Do?” Project, and we’re hoping to learn from the feedback we get.
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Our students will watch the videos, study them, and begin to propose research topics based on patterns that will begin to emerge from your feedback.  Students will then set out to explore their topic, engage in conversations about their topic, and ultimately report what they’ve learned online.  


We’d like to invite other classes to join us as well, and will do our best to support a network of students studying these reflections on school relevance.  We also invite anyone else who’d like to join us in learning from what your videos tell us.  We hope it sparks many great conversations about what works in our schools.  So please submit a video, share this with your friends and family, and help us to get a really big answer to a really big question...

How did school do?

Question of the Day: On Mission Statements

by Shelly Blake-Plock

This one came up yesterday during #EdInnoMeetup -- a new quarterly gathering of edu thinkers in Baltimore: "Is your school's mission statement relevant to your students' online communities of practice and social influence?"

In my experience, school mission statements do a good job of telling us what influence the school will have over the student, but not vice-versa. Thoughts?

Creating Effective Passwords

By Steve Katz
http://www.stevenkatz.com/

I have been giving a lot of password advice at work lately, & over the years I’ve read several different ways to invent passwords. I think I have a pretty good system for creating them. Here it is:

1. Come up with a password that has absolutely no significance. I call this the “root password.” Use at least six characters. More is better. So is a variety of letters, numbers, & symbols. example: k5$3b4
2. Memorize it. (You can write it down somewhere without worrying about it. Read on.)
3. For whatever site you need a password for, take two characters from that site’s name and then add them to the root password. Use the same system for all sites.For example, you can use the first two letters of a site’s name. Facebook = fa, YouTube = yo Add them to the beginning of your root password and your password for Facebook becomes fak5$3b4, YouTube is yok5$3b4.

There are an infinite number of variations for this. You could use the first and last letters of a site’s name, second & third, capitalize them, add them to the end or in the middle of your password, or split them with a punctuation mark.

This system has worked for me. My passwords are different for all sites & they are easy for me to remember.

Two more bits of advice: If you use a mobile device make sure the characters you choose for your root password are easy to access. On my laptop the percent symbol, %, is just a shift key away, but on my iPad it takes three taps. It is still a good idea to change your password regularly. When you change your passwords simply vary your system or root password.

If you would like to check you password strength, passwordmeter.com can do this and also gives some ideas for creating a stronger (root) password.

Cross-posted on my blog.

EdTech Link

by Shelly Blake-Plock

This year has been one of transition for me as I shifted from working full time in the secondary classroom to working online virtually with kids and on the ground throughout the country with educators and technologists.

This last November I had a long conversation with Andrew Coy, a public school teacher here in Baltimore. We talked a lot about the variety of ways that the traditional school format was having trouble keeping up with the changes going on culturally and socio-economically with regards to digital literacy and tech access.

We came to a fundamental conclusion that one of the hurdles urban youth face is having the opportunity and support to actually see themselves as engaged content creators and tech-space makers and doers. It has to do with identity, access, and having a network that will support you. It's a cruel irony that so many of our kids are natural innovators and entrepreneurs but so little of our curricula encourage new thinking and new ways of doing things.

And so, we decided that we would do something about this.

This evening, Andrew and I are holding a fundraiser for a program that will connect students, teachers, and technologists in ways that encourage collaboration, the spread of digital literacy, innovative and creative thinking, and the development of new open source technologies driven by real digital age classroom experience.

Andrew and I have accepted positions as co executive directors of the Digital Harbor Foundation, a recently formed nonprofit based in Baltimore. In our role, we are designing and rolling out a new program called EdTech Link.

Converting an under-used city rec center into a nonprofit community tech center, we will develop digital capacity in students and teachers while offering outreach in innovation, tech advancement, and entrepreneurship designed to empower communities long under-served.

Students will be enrolled in an afterschool program defined by their passions in life. Our curriculum is designed to teach digital literacy and tech workforce skills while kids learn and develop new understandings about the things that motivate them. Students then have the opportunity to "get paid to think" in the evening as they take on the role of reverse-mentors teaching digital literacy and tech workforce development skills to their parents and adults in the community -- all this with the support and guidance of teachers and volunteer technologists.

A select group of city public school teachers, meanwhile, will be chosen as EdTech Link Fellows. They will receive a stipend and tech support as they take part in intensive edtech professional development and run afterschool tech and innovation programs in their schools across the city.

Additionally, in the summer time, teacher-fellows will work directly in collaboration with technologists in our local tech incubators to develop new open source education technologies based directly on their experiences and needs in the classroom. For generations, teachers have had few "ladders" available in their career: one either stayed in the classroom or became an administrator. Now, with the rise of professional online technologies, networks, and communities of practice, we have more ladders available to us; our task then is to help teachers develop into teacherpreneurs whose sense of practical innovation and open social entrepreneurship changes the face of both education and technology.

Just two weekends ago we had two brilliant teachers in from Cleveland. And in the course of 72 hours we built a new model open source technology for collecting and coding qualitative data. That's the skill of the social entrepreneur in education.

And so I'm entering into uncharted waters. I'll be spending my time working directly with students and teachers on the ground while also working with technologists to bring the work we are doing in Baltimore to the online space where learners everywhere can be part of our community.

New thinking means new thinking. And I've found myself in the position of actually being able to put to the test all of the ideas that have percolated in my mind and on this blog for years. And I'm going to make the most of this.

I want to take just a moment to thank the educators, technologists, and organizers who have accepted positions on our Advisory Board -- Alec Couros, Chris Lehmann, Mary Beth Hertz, Steven W. Anderson, Rodney Foxworth, Dean Groom, Christine Johnson, Tom Murdock, Susan Malone, and Christopher Sessums. They are the folks who will keep us focused like a laser on making something relevant to the lives of kids and their teachers. I also would like to thank the folks whose sense of innovation, technology, and education make up the sustainable heart of our Board of Trustees -- Sean Lane, Chris Hoyt, Craig Cummings, Rachel Charlesworth, Guy Filippelli, and David Stone.

Andrew and I are pretty darned excited about where things are headed, and we want to thank all of you for making up the network that makes this all possible.

From Baltimore,
Shelly

ps -- Here's some more info about EdTech Link...

An article on Mind/Shift describing the program.
Info on MarketWatch about EdTech Link.
And, of course, a link to our website and our @DHFBaltimore twitter feed.

Why I Suck at Twitter

by John T. Spencer (johntspencer)

I just read an article by Beth Still ("Ten Surfire Ways to Destroy Your Twitter Cred") in Learning and Leading with Technology. While I agree with most of her advice regarding Twitter etiquette, I found myself thinking, "I kind-of suck at Twitter." As I read the top ten list, I found myself thinking, "Oh, that's me."

#3: Tweeting about all of your interests from one Twitter account
I tweet about my world. Often this is education, but I have no idea tweeting jokes about language, thoughts about sports, commentary on local events or satire about suburbia. Sometimes I let my interests combine (which was the case with the tweets I wrote about #jesusasateacher). I see the rationale for keeping these worlds separate. But I need to be a little more holistic. I respect people who can manage multiple accounts and really focus on a special interest. However, that's not me.

#6: Using slang and text lingo
Guilty. I agree with Beth on this one, but still I use IMHO and I bust out the emoticons way too often ;)  Twitter belongs in the common vernacular. Sometimes it's fun to play with formal, poetic language. Other times, it's fun to be very casual. I like the surprise and flexibility of Twitter.

#9: Snarkiness
Some of my favorite tweets from others have a snarky edge to them. When I look back at it, #pencilchat was slightly snarky. I'm pretty sure my #vintageISTE tweets also a bit snarky (writing about how the Oregon Trail would save education).

I don't have much Klout and I admit that I don't have anywhere near as many followers as many educational bloggers. I'm pretty sure that some of my tweets have stretched the boundaries of professionally.

And yet . . .

A little bit of snark, a somewhat casual approach and a sense of variety have allowed me to be myself online. I've made friends by being myself. I've engaged in some meaningful dialogue when breaking the rules (the PLC conversations come to mind here).

What should an administrator look for when hiring a 21st Century teacher?

John T. Spencer (@johntspencer)

What should an administrator look for when hiring a 21st Century teacher?

Humility.

If a teacher can't use an iPod or an iPad or a Chromebook or a laptop, that's okay. A humble teacher can ask for help from fellow teachers, from students and from folks online.

If a teacher doesn't quite get project-based learning, that's okay. A humble teacher will watch and listen and be open to the major paradigm changes required to pull of a PBL framework.

If a teacher hasn't heard of connected learning and has never developed a personal learning network, that's okay. A humble teacher will learn to use Twitter and blogs and Facebook and whatever tools are necessary to learn. In an echo chamber of "I have an idea," that teacher just might say, "I have a question."

I'm not suggesting that administrators should deliberately search for unqualified candidates. Often, the most humble teachers have already done amazing things. Still, humility is the gateway to innovation and growth and sustainability. Humility works paradoxically to bring about greatness. Humility enables empathy and communication and collaboration that goes beyond the structures implemented by a school.

I'm not sure how you find humble teachers. I'm not sure there is a test for it. I'm not sure you can find it in an interview. It certainly isn't a feature on a resume. However, if I was an administrator, I would try my hardest to recruit and retain humble teachers.

John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

Could Social Networks Replace Higher Ed Institutions?

by Shelly Blake-Plock

More and more I find myself thinking about the future of teacher preparation and higher ed more generally. I'll be posting at length about this in the coming weeks, but for right now I just want to throw a question out there and get some ideas.

And the question is whether a social network can or will ever be able to grant accreditation, certification, validation, and the like. Maybe I'm just stumbling over my thoughts, but I'm thinking along these lines: we talk a lot about Twitter and PLNs encouraging and making possible great pd, so why not take it to the next level: could professional social networks replace much of what goes on in higher ed professional schools and become in and of themselves accrediting, certifying, "institutional networks"? And would we want that?

Resources and tips for going paperless

by David Andrade

http://willardeastelementary.edublogs.org/2010/04/22/paperless-earth-day/

I haven't posted on here in quite a while, but in keeping with the title of the blog, here are some great resources and tips for going paperless.

I'm a big proponent of going paperless. When I worked as an engineer over 10 years ago, a few of the companies I worked for where going paperless back then. Many schools are going paperless, or as much as possible, now. I've written about tips and resources for going paperless before and here are some more tips.

Paper, we don't need no paper! Tools and tips for going paperless

Tools to go Paperless (in school and at home)


Tips:

- use flat screen monitors on walls as electronic bulletin boards.
- install solar panels on roof to offset increased electricity use.
- 2 monitors for each PC - can have reference on one screen and working document on other instead of printing reference out (or use tablet)
- Use email, chat, and meeting software and other collaborative software
- all markups done electronically
- auto backup of network every day
- all files on network with offsite, fireproof backup (Dropbox, Sugarsync, own network)
- autosave files every 5 min
- battery and generator backups
- limit print outs to absolutely necessary items
- all files saved in two formats - original (such as Word or PPT) and PDF. PDF is readable by every device and operating system using free apps.
- Read-only terminals in certain areas for visitors and reference look up
- network accessible from home/road for personnel - no data on laptops
- all paperwork from outside is scanned into system - original is filed
- all partners, organizations and vendors are encouraged to use electronic communications - email, website forms, etc.
- Student Information are all searchable and connected and linked with all relevant files
- scan legacy files using OCR into PDF files or scan into Evernote to make searchable
- don't print emails!
- all files distributed as PDF's when possible - readable on any system
- Train your employees on going paperless




What tips do you have for going paperless?




Related:
Evernote for Educators

Cloud File Storage, backup and sync

Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an Educator

Interesting Comment Regarding Going Paperless

Unfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"

Google for Educators resources

Why I use Google's resources as an Educator

Alternatives to Google's web services and apps

Tips for saving money and finding free resources for school