PODetc

The Evolution of Technology

2010-10-28T18:05:00.001-07:00

In our November PODetc Newsletter, Ron Smith, a PODetc instructor wrote:
The watchword of technology in the digital age is evolution. Each new application seeks to serve an as yet unidentified need. Those that are successful are the ones that change the existing paradigm and leave users wondering how they ever got along without them. Most are variations on an old idea, such as Twitter, which combined the ideas of chat and social networking, or YouTube, which allowed users to share video across the Internet for free.

The Survey of Emerging Technology introduces participants to resources available to them right now that they can use in their classes right away. We look at ways to use the Internet to enhance classroom instruction and teacher effectiveness. We look at ways to make teacher time more efficient and practical. We look at ways for educators to tap into Web 2.0 in ways that they may not have considered.

As we all know, a teacher's time is limited by large classes and by scarce resources. By looking at already existing technologies on the web, we explore ways for teachers to be more creative, more engaging, and more effective. Not everything you try will work for you, but simply knowing about different options will allow you offer your students new paths to success.

Through exploration and investigation, course participants will become more in-tune to the innovations in the K-12 education field and developing their skills to be leaders in their own organizations. Educators will examine the latest educational technologies and look into ways to effectively incorporate new technologies into their curriculum.

There has been much research into the ways that teachers have moved into the digital space. A leader in that research has been The Pew Research Center, with it's Pew Internet & American Life Project. A couple of the the most interesting studies look at the rise of the app culture (http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/The-Rise-of-Apps-Culture.aspx) and how we, as Americans, love our gadgets ( http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Gadgets.aspx) . I encourage prospective Web 2.0 explorers to look at these.

As a biology teacher in my other life, I love the idea of the "evolution" of technology and a kind of natural selection at work. The tools that seem to thrive are those that can adapt to our changing needs much as organisms that are best suited to the environment are the ones that carry on and pass on their traits to the next generation. The problem often is that as consumers we are overwhelmed with all the fledglings before they have been filtered by our peers and it is difficult to know which ones will really serve our needs and which will survive into the next generation. We have that conundrum of wanting to try out new options but not wanting to get excited about something that does not quite make it!

I experienced this first hand last summer. My students had been urging me to try Google Wave throughout the school year last year. I was interested but did not have the time to explore it as I might have liked. Finally, over the summer I had a chance to take a workshop on GoogleWave and was very excited about the possibilities. This workshop was during the first few days of August. On August 10, Google announced that Wave had not been as successful as they would have liked and they were stopping development on it! http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

The rule of survival on the web seems to be quick adoption or death! So, how do we as consumers deal with this? With the pace of technology we cannot afford to wait until it has been confirmed and tested before we jump in. Conversely we can't afford to invest time and energy with something that may not be around in 6 months. It is all a bit of a gamble but this is where a good professional learning network or community might serve you well. Start to follow blogs, join Diigo groups, sign up for twitter, etc.... so you can meet the people and learn the names of some reliable resources. But also don't be afraid to get in and explore sooner than later. We have to stay current as best we can as the pace is relentless and ever increasing. There are great tools out there but you have to find the ones that will work for you. You do this by learning with colleagues - sharing experiences. Truly the only way to survive the web is with community!

Back to School

2010-08-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy summer. I've had the pleasure of attending several conferences and presenting some of our work at two of them. The latest conference was Teaching and Learning Online in Madision, WI. I joined my colleague, Connie Jaeger, in the presentation of her research into Hybrid Systems using online learning, ad we were well received. Next year we may propose to do a workshop for the conference as there was clearly interest for learning more about our work.

Earlier in the summer, I attended the ISTE conference in Denver, CO. I made some great contacts there and had the pleasure of attending some interesting workshops include one built completely around playing with online constructivist and creativity tools!

Meanwhile, back at home, we've continued to add courses to our program and will be adding a course to offer proficiency in the ISTE Student NETS on global and digital citizenship. Our new course schedule is posted so don't forget to visit us at http://podetc.com.

Texting for teaching?

2010-04-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100426/NEWS/100429736

In several of our course discussion forums through PODetc lately, educators have been discussing what do to about texting! I have some associates who text their students on a regular basis but I have not yet tried to incorporate the practice as opposed to fighting its use. The above article is one example of a teacher using it to teach poetry with a measurable improvement in test scores. So what are some ways we could use it? Here are my thoughts:
For the group of students in my advisory -

texting reminders of meetings, important events
sending important updates on grades (not sure about privacy here)

For my classes -

homework reminders - but it is already posted on a webpage so this might be too much
word of the day
puzzle of the day
identify an interesting picture (if all phones receive images) - for science
"chat" about a particular science topic
identify main idea from a passage

These are a few thoughts but I have done nothing in terms of actually considering implementation. Send me some of your ideas on how you could use texting in your educational practice.

Do we deliver or facilitate learning?

2010-04-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Look at this article - http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/04/07/the-changing-role-of-instructors-moving-from-facilitation-to-constructive-partnerships.aspx

Is what we are teaching information? Or are we teaching how to learn and be "life-long" learners. Isn't it actually more challenging to facilitate learning than it is to merely deliver content? I would argue that it might be a step in the right direction if we can focus on teaching students how to effectively, ethically, authentically, creatively,.....access and use information that is out there than it is to teach course content. The flip side of it is that with technology there is access to so much information that teachers will always be relevant to help students learn to filter and validate what is there. I think with technology our jobs are becoming more critical and essential to the success of the learner but it will take a paradigm shift to understand how our new roles will shape up!

I'd like to hear your comments on this article and this shift in our role as educators.

STEM

2010-04-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

PODetc is currently conducting a STEM class and it always provides time for me to reflect on my own practice. I started as a science teacher and continue in the classroom after some 20 years although I have mixed some administrative jobs in there at different times. Most of the participants in our PODetc Focus on STEM class are science educators, but we generally come to the same consensus that STEM is not just about science and math and technology!

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math but what it really is about is focusing on critical thinking and problem solving skills in an authentic environment. Regardless of whether a student will pursue a career in one or more of these areas, you cannot live in our 21st century world without interacting with one or more of these areas. This course gives us a chance to look at ways we can use technology to really get our kids engaged in the learning process and to be students ourselves in learning how to use these tools. Right now we are trying some collaborative concept mapping using a site called Bubbl.us. This is one of many good concept mapping tools available - others include:

I find in my work with high school seniors that sometimes returning to a more organic note-taking and organizing tool as mind-mapping is more effective than the linear note systems we start to expect as students get older. The advantage of these Web 2.0 tools is that they are interactive!

We are also playing with the Intel thinking tools. Intel has some incredible resources for teachers above and beyond some great interactive sites. Throughout the course, the emphasis is on sharing resources and dialoguing about how we successfully promote some of these skills within our already crowded curricula. Again, I find that my interactions with the PODetc students teach me as much as I hope they learn!

Research and Information Skills

2010-02-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

"When I teach evaluating websites, I usually have students select one of five pre-selected websites and fill out a worksheet to determine if the website is valid. The worksheet really just helps students identify certain things about the website and then they give their opinion. It is fairly basic and there is a definite right or wrong answer. However, I would like to do something more challenging as a culminating exercise for this lesson. The website on GolfCross has been suggested to use in evaluating websites but there is conflicting information as to whether this is a bogus site or valid. One site rates this as one of the top bogus sites, , and a travel site on Mt. Cook New Zealand, lists it as an activity to enjoy along with 5 other golf courses. My research question, therefore, is to evaluate the website GolfCross to determine if this is a real site and real sport or a spoof. The Bloom’s taxonomy level would be analysis. Victoria suggested using Intel’s Showing Evidence. The Showing Evidence Tool helps students learn how to construct well-reasoned arguments and prove their case with credible evidence. The tool provides a visual framework to make claims, identify evidence, evaluate the quality of that evidence, explain how the evidence supports or weakens claims, and reach conclusions based on the evidence. This thinking tool supports activities where students debate differences, make and defend decisions, and analyze conflicting information . I would divide the class into groups. Each group would create their own researched evidence and come to their own conclusion. The groups would then compare their conclusions." S. Krueger, student PODetc Introduction to Instructional Technology.

In a recent PODetc course, a student posted this description of her lesson plan for research. What struck me about it was the clear application of analysis, evaluation, and discrimination in filtering information. This is a critical skill we need to foster in our students as we have access to exponentially more information every day!!! The ISTE NETS Students #3 is specific to "Research and Information Fluency" - with the goal that "Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information."

There are a number of tools on the Internet that can help you, including the Intel thinking tools mentioned above. Whatever tools or strategies you provide, it is important to remember that our students who are born to a world that is flush with information on any topic imaginable are not necessarily good at discriminating validity. It is our role as educators to teach students to use their critical thinking skills to filter this onslaught of information and to focus their research on specifics applicable to a specific question.

How do you develop those skills in your students - comment and let us know!

2010-01-21T20:16:00.001-08:00

See our January Newsletter to find out how we can help in your professional development in the New Year!

PODetc is off to a great start in the New Year. For our Winter term we are offering our full range of courses beginning next week with Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom. In this highly interactive course, participants will begin to explore tools and technologies that can enhance their own classrooms. In February, we will offer Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom and Technology Literacy 101: Foundations in Collaborative Tools. April and June offer even more options.

Visit our site to see how we can help you learn!!!!

Learning continues

2009-11-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

This month I conducted a new class in PODetc entitled "Focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math): Instructional Technology Strategies for Science and Math." I also decided to participate as a student in three other PODetc courses occurring concurrently but taught by other teachers. I also am a full time teacher and department chair in science so how I survived is a minor miracle!!! But that is not what I want to address here. The courses I participated in were:

Survey of Emerging Technologies taught by Theresa Stanley
Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom taught by Connie Jaeger
Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems taught by PODetc founder and CEO, Tammy Stephens

First, I have to say that I am lucky to be working with such knowledgeable and versatile instructors. They make the courses interactive and meaningful for all students coming in at all levels and experiences. It was really a great opportunity for me to participate in the discussions and activities both with the other students and with the instructors where my role this time was a student.

While I have of course reviewed all of our PODetc courses and have regularly lurked in the background to keep current with our offerings, participating as a student was a great learning experience. Among the four courses we built blogs, wikis, nings, delicious networks, diigo lists, interactive lesson plans, collaborative rubrics, Intel lessons emphasizing critical thinking, collaborative concept maps and more. Not only did we build them but we put them to work and found applications to each of jobs outside of the course. Instructors helped me stretch my use of these valuable tools and guided me in linking them together for ease of access and application. In our discussion groups we addressed the challenges of teaching students in this age of technology when our backgrounds, budgets, audiences, and resources span the gamut of possible combinations and complexities. We evaluated samples of each others work and each found growth and improvement through the feedback we received.

I cannot emphasize how valuable this month has been to me in terms of really fine-tuning and motivating my own skills as an educator!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our fabulous instructor and students!!!

Learning in the 21st Century

2009-11-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

In my current STEM course we are talking about "21st Century Skills" and STEM skills for our students. Recently we started a discussion forum on what those are and began to discuss "agility and adaptability." One student gave us a good reminder that brought back memories of some of my experiences over the last 20+ years of teaching. The post was as follows:

"This has to start with us as teachers. As a teacher I don't teach the same way every year. I am constantly trying new things and the students (most of them) enjoy trying something different. I think this is good to role model adaptability and the agility to switch how something is done when you see it is not working. Changing methods of teaching is good role modeling and will make the students more likely to open their minds to be more agile and adaptable.
Students need to be encouraged to step outside of their comfort zones. As teachers we meet annually and evaluate what, how and why we teach concepts and core curriculum to our students. Changes are made to include technology as it changes, update concepts and methods."

I clearly remember days as a young teacher when I was told not to dare try anything different than the other teachers as that would just upset everyone. I even got hired once for my innovative ideas and then told not to use them!!! At one district, I was told after an interview with the superintendent that he would love to hire me but I would raise the bar too high for the other teachers and they would not be comfortable with change. WOW - this is education????

As teachers we have to change to keep up and be willing to learn as we go more than perhaps any other career. It is incumbent upon us to look at our teaching on a daily basis to see what we can do better. Go to conferences on brain research or read the literature to see what we know about how children learn. This career can be so exciting and invigorating if we put the effort into making it so!!!

Classes still open for enrollment in December - visit http://podetc.com

Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom starting November 30
Technology Literacy 101: Foundations in Collaborative Tools starting December 7
Technology Literacy 103: Utilizing Social Networking Tools in a Leadership Capacity starting December 7

Introducing new STEM courses!!!

2009-10-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

PODetc is pleased to announce our new course - Focus on STEM offering instructional strategies in math and science education. This course will introduce educators to the concept of teaching within a STEM framework. A critical step occurs in the first week as participants develop a working definition for STEM in the context of their own practice and collaboratively build a glossary of working terms. PODetc participants will work with their fellow educators to define and rank the top ten critical STEM skills as we examine research and literature on 21st century learning. In the second half of the course, participants will create a lab report or project template aligned with the critical STEM skills, a rubric to evaluate students in their attainment of STEM proficiencies, and a final unit project within Intel Thinking Tools that integrates STEM with critical thinking, evaluation, and creation of new knowledge.

STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and math. Educators, legislators, and business leaders have long been concerned with the state of science and mathematics in our schools. In a comparison of international scores for 4th and 8th graders, results show that the American students are still lagging behind our major global competitors including Japan, China, Russia, and Singapore (TIMMS 2007). As these countries outcompete us in academic assessments, they are also outcompeting us in capturing the global markets particularly in the area of information management.

The purpose of STEM initiatives at the national, state, and local levels is to bring together the resources of government in support of improving our educational system, the private sector in making alliances to support authentic learning applicable to what is needed in the workforce, and educational institutions in collaborating on the best pedagogy and curricula to develop students who are prepared to meet the challenges of their futures. This course is applicable not only to the disciplines of science and math, but to all other disciplines as teachers continue to develop a 21st century approach through cross-curricular integration. In real world work and interactions, we don’t have clear cut divisions between disciplines. Rather learning through STEM gives students tools to develop creative and systemic problem solving, collaborative networks, leadership abilities, and long-term strategic outlooks.

With the nearly ubiquitous access we have to global resources of information, it is no longer adequate that we teach our students the content of science and math curricula. Peter Drucker (1999) predicted information management would be one of the key challenges of the 21st century (1999). For organizations to remain competitive in the information society, they must tap the potential of their knowledge reserves. Those reserves are people as Drucker explains, “The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or nonbusiness, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity” (Drucker, 1999, p. 135). Only a decade into the 21st century and we may have already surpassed that challenge to move on to the next. Now we need not just knowledge workers, but individuals with the creative acuity to know how to use that knowledge for the next evolution of governments, society, economies, medicine, and business. A side effect of an over-focus on information management is that the facility in the transfer of information leads to the tendency to detach the concept of knowledge from the context of the knower (Fahey & Prusak, 1998). It is not enough to teach a set of content standards, our students need to understand how to use that content.

Engineering is the application of skills and contents to the solution of real world challenges. Tony Wagner (2008), author of The Global Achievement Gap, describes what he calls the seven survival skills for the 21st century. These are critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration across networks and leading by influence, agility and adaptability, initiative and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination. “Being a lifelong learner and knowing how to access and analyze information, which is growing exponentially and is constantly changing, is far more important than rote learning of specific academic content” (Wagner, 2008, p. 257). The STEM initiatives are designed to encourage educators to move beyond the curricula to find application of content so as to nurture the ability of students to look at problems systemically from the roots up and find each level of cause and effect in the development of creative solutions.

Focus on STEM introduces educators to a new perspective from which to develop their craft. PODetc students will use online tools to integrate and apply the components of STEM to their curricula. Course participants will develop a working definition of STEM as it applies to their own teaching. We will develop strategies to reflect society’s evolution from an agricultural to industrial to information age, in which the world of work has shifted to requirements of self-directed use of time, mental rather than physical energy, a demand for creativity and innovation, and a high degree of independence (Goldberg, 1999). Students need the opportunity to forge not just social networks, but problem solving networks to collaborate across borders in finding common solutions to global problems. Educators must work toward the goal of preparing tomorrow’s builders and recognize that the workforce must be multi-talented with a combination of technical skills, flexibility, continuous learning, teamwork capacity, and communication (McLagan, 2000). Development of evaluative inquiry encompassing shared learning processes, training in inquiry skills, collaboration, links between learning and performance, and valuing a diversity of perspectives supports the development of these critical skills (Preskill & Torres, 1999).

Drucker, P. F. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century (1st ed.). New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc.

Fahey, L., & Prusak, L. (1998). The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management. California Management Review, 40(3), 265-276.

Goldberg, B. (1999). Overcoming high-tech anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McLagan, P. A. (2000). Portfolio Thinking. Training & Development, 54(2), 44-51.

Preskill, H., & Torres, R. T. (1999). Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 2007. http://nces.ed.gov/timss/table07_1.asp retrieved May 24, 2009

Wagner, T. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. New York: Basic Books.

How did the first week go?

2009-09-12T20:18:00.001-07:00

So while some of you started sooner than others, most of us are back at school after what always seems like a fleeting summer vacation! Those of you in year-round schools, of course, march to the beat of a different drummer. It is hard to engender much sympathy from those who are not in the education business as our job is often seen as easy what with all the vacations we get! Ha!!

We are all seeing changes in our classrooms as a direct result of the recession. Some of you have nearly 40 students in a class, perhaps there are some with even more. How do you interact meaningful with each of 40 students in a 40-60 minute period?? Even with block scheduling, bigger classes make it that much harder for us to reach the students we need to reach. And we continue to be expected to do more with less - less money, less coverage, less resources in general.

But those of us who have chosen to stay in this profession through thick and thin must have our reasons. Here are just a few of mine:

I learn as much from my interactions with my students as I hope to teach them.
Every year I come back there is a student from the previous year who is genuinely glad to see me.
Every year there is a student (or more) who makes me entirely rethink what I thought I knew about teaching - and that's a good thing!
There are constant challenges with the changes that continue to be piled on that are often directly in opposition to what we know about learning and students.
I cannot get complacent!!!
I have to keep on top of changes in technology in order to keep up with my students.

As director of PODetc, Professional Online Development from the Educational Technology Community, I am thrilled to work with a group of dedicated educators who are at the top of their profession in developing those tools that can help us tap into each of our students' potentials! I learn as much as I teach in working with the dedicated educators who take our course. I encourage you to take a peek at what we offer and consider how we might help you achieve your potential in the use of educaitonal technology.

Flat Classrooms

2009-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Insight from a PODetc student:

While watching the "Flat Classroom" video, I took note of a couple of inspiring messages both by Vicki: “Get on, get rid of excuses, and make it work” and “Build a tool belt”. The latter is in regards to the idea that learning one digital or technical skill is not enough. We need to "mash" them together in order to have a great mixture. I kept these two motivators in mind as I decided to check out iEARN. Wow! I really wish I would have known about this site last school year. As some of you may know, I teach a self-contained classroom. My classroom has 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who have a hard time behaviorally in a general education setting. One reason I wish I would have known about iEARN is that one of my 8th graders informed me of a social injustice going on in Northern Nigeria in Africa. We could have done one of the projects to inform more people around the world of the "Invisible Children". I will also be looking into ePals, as that seems like that may be a viable resource. This also brings up another point that was on the Flat Classroom slides that I found inspiring and it relates to administration: "Remove the obstacle or be the obstacle." My student had a friend in Africa that we communicated with back and forth; however, this was done via instant messaging from her home and letting me know what was said the following day. Any questions we had for her friend would then be sent that night or not depending on if she remembered. We do not allow instant messaging, face book, or emails for our students. I am working on getting some of our strong filters turned off. It was comforting to know that inappropriate usage of technology will occur. Yes, I say comforting in the sense that we can be reassured that it will occur and by that we will be proactive and quick to catch it and provide consequences. Knowing that it does happen will increase the likelihood of catching it.

The second reason I wish I would have known about some of these tools is that some of my students may be the only one working on a certain subject at a certain time. I have to teach them what they are missing when they need it. Last year, I had 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade sciences going during the same hour. It would have been so wonderful to offer them the world, rather than independent learning.

Ok, the 5 Ws of iEARN -

What is the global purpose? Well, I copied and pasted 15 different projects that I think my students would be engaged with. As I think about it realistically, 15 are most likely out of the question. Three different projects per each student would be more appropriate. In all honesty, I may get to view all 15 of the projects I picked as I work with three grade levels and all core courses. So in a large view, all of the projects I picked have a common global purpose: connection, awareness, collaboration, creativity, and digital awareness. For instance, the project For Me, Writing is Something Awesome, from Bat-Chen Diaries: The purpose of the project is to expose children to the values of writing a diary; to encourage young children to write in a reflective and personal manner and express their anxieties, fears and concerns as well as their hopes and dreams-- hopefully this will lead to getting acquainted with others. (iEARN)

I would use this tool in conjunction with historical fictional readings such as Letters from Rifka, Anne Frank’s Diary, Out of the Dust, Love that Dog and others. Many of the students in my classroom have dramatic issues. Through metacognition, thinking about their thinking, unlearning and relearning new behaviors, and using the project mentioned above; my students may be much more motivated and encouraged to help themselves and others along the way

Who would my students be interacting with? They would be interacting with 12-14 year old students from around the world. iEARN has an age category for each of their projects which is another outstanding feature.

Where do most people live who participate in this project? I am not sure of that. Each of the 15 projects I picked are global connections. It will be interesting to learn who they and where the collaborators are from.

I will become involved in iEARN at the beginning of the year and continue it for as long as it is available. I am so excited for this opportunity to provide digital and global connectedness.

Why would I want or not want to join? I want to join to provide engaging, meaningful, lifelong learning, and above all hope, for my students. I also want to share their success with other staff members and begin building a school district with fewer obstacles and more experiences. I already shared the site with one of our high school Spanish teachers. She had no idea, and I told her how it would be useful in her classroom. Her first question, “What does it cost?” I was proud to respond, “Dedication!”

Thank you for this opportunity. I will make it a point to look further into each of my 15 choices as well as some of the other tools like ePals. I also want to learn Skype, as this is the second time I have heard it mentioned. I am glad to have also learned about edtech talk from the video. It sounds like that will be beneficial for me.

Thank you, Joey, for your contribution!

Enroll now for fall classes!

Come Learn With Us - Reflections from a Summer Student

2009-08-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

How I spent my summer vacation….Well, it’s almost over and what do I have to show for it? Thanks to PODetc much newly gained knowledge. I always look for a way to make learning fun and meaningful to my kindergarten through 5^th grade students. Computer games are not used in my labs. In order to learn computer skills and to become life-long learners of technology, the students are required to complete projects which display these learned skills. For example, using MS Word to create a tri-fold state travel brochure in the 4^th grade displays the ability to perform research, typing skills, word art, text formatting and other skills. The 4^th graders then take the population of each state and create an Excel graph comparing the populations of each state.

I was somewhat familiar with the concept of Web 2.0 apps, but had never really had hands on experience. PODetc not only introduced me to many new resources for teaching and learning, but these courses also involved me in these resources. I had the opportunity to communicate with several of my classmates using SKYPE. Using http://21cif.com/rkit/timed_sc1.html in class helped me to understand how the students make mistakes during the search process and which mistake they make. More importantly, it gave me ideas for designing new lessons to teach the students more efficient ways to use the Internet to search for information.

Knowledge gained from my PODetc classes will also benefit the district in which I work. I have suggested to the administration that the use of SKYPE will increase the level of collaboration within grade levels between the three elementary schools in the district. Since two of these schools will be merging in about three years, these teachers, and students, will have the opportunity to get to know each other using this app.

The first day of school is in two weeks. I’m sharpening my pencils and aligning my objectives to the NETS standards. Thanks PODetc. I’m looking toward taking more classes this coming fall and using the skills I have learned.

Bonnie is an active learner and has taken several courses with PODetc since our inception. These courses include Introduction to Instructional Technology, Survey of Emerging Technologies, and Technology Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems. Thank you, Bonne, for your review!

A New Look for PODetc!

2009-08-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

PODetc is pleased to present a new look with our updated website. Visit us at http://podetc.com! As we all get ready to go back to school, it is a good time to look at what new skills you might need to update your classroom and approach to teaching. Any classroom teacher is all too aware these days of how addicted our students are to their technology whether it is an iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, laptop, or combination of all of these. How many of you have caught a student texting during class or, worse, cheating because of the technologies they know all too well.

Rather than try to restrict access to available tools, it is time to be proactive and learn how to incorporate these tools into your own curriculum. Imagine if you had to spend 6 hours every day in rooms without access to the tools you too have come to depend upon - how can we expect that of our students? PODetc offers a variety of courses for a range of comfort levels with technology. Many teachers start with our Introduction to Instructional Technology to get a broad overview of the ways some educators are actively using technology as critical tool for their teaching. But we also offer classes specific to certain kind of technologies with a range of applications. All of our classes are designed to meet one or more of the ISTE NETS for students as well as NETS for teachers. In the near future, we will offer a certification program that will grant a professional certificate in ISTE NETS student standards upon completion of a course map that covers all of the standards and an independent study in which you design a lesson around those standards.

We are partnered with the University of Wisconsin, Greenbay in order that you can earn graduate credit hours with the same tuition for both residents and non-residents. You may also take the course on a non-credit basis to fulfill professional development needs and to address your questions about integrating educational technologies into your instruction.

Fall classes are open for enrollment now!

The Analog Generation...

2009-07-18T15:07:00.001-07:00

With all this talk of digital generations, digital culture, digital age, etc.... I find myself seeking a phrase to define my generation, culture, or age. I remember as a child having an unquenchable thirst to figure out how things worked. Given any opportunity I would take a watch or clock apart to see how the gears interacted. Of course, there are some of you out there who can't remember that watches used to be wound by hand!!! What this all is leading to is the revelation that I grew up in the analog generation!!!!

Many of us in the classroom belong to the analog generation and teach students of the digital generation and there is undeniably a disconnect. Those of us from the analog generation make sense of our world by taking things apart physically or visualizing the interactions of the components. We were born into an age of radio, television, and land line telephones. We were okay with walkie-talkies and the concept of radio waves passing information through the atmosphere because we still had a nearly physical understanding of wavelengths and energy. But somewhere along the road, technology leaped ahead to a point where we do not have physical explanations for how computers work or how a device that fits in your palm can connect you anytime, anywhere with anyone in the world.

Our students were born to these technologies and embrace it without question. Some of them may have learned their alphabet on a computer keyboard leading to their first experiences with reading and writing.....digitally! But has our teaching and education system adapted to meet the needs of this new generation? If your classroom and curriculum looks much the same as the one you grew up with, then you know it is time for a change. It is incumbent upon us to provide our students with experiences and lessons that will prepare them for the world outside the school walls. We are all hindered by budgets, assessments, and a range of external measurements we are meant to meet, but look for ways to tap into the culture your students belong to. Learn how to use blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc... in the context of your course. Make connection with other teachers facing the same challenges through professional listservs or educational sites. Be aware of the conflict of your generation and that of your students, but do your best to catch up and embrace the vast possibilities offered by a new and exciting digital world!

PODetc Courses Still Open for Summer

2009-07-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

It's not too late to get some of your recertification credits before the start of the new school year!!! Join us at PODetc for courses that directly address ISTE student and teacher standards to help you become proficient with the latest instructional technologies!

Our late Summer courses start on August 3rd and include:

Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom (3 weeks)
What does it mean to be truly technologically literate? In this 3-week course, participants will be exploring each of the 6 International Society of Technology Education (ISTE) student standards for technology proficiency. It is our belief that in order to be able to deliver these types of learning experiences for our students, we must experience learning in this way ourselves.
The course is divided into three weeks. Each week a different instructor will take the lead in leading explorations in two of the six themes. Our schedule is as follows:
Week 1: Explorations in Creativity & Innovation and Technology Operations and Concepts
Week 2: Explorations in Communication & Collaboration and Digital Citizenship
Week 3: Research and Information Fluency and Critical thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
In this course we will be putting new tools and learning opportunities into your virtual sandbox. We hope you will enjoy playing with us and come away with new ideas for transforming teaching & learning experiences with the use of technology.

Survey of Emerging Technologies (4 weeks)
Through exploration and investigation, course participants will become more in-tune to the innovations in the K-12 education field and developing their skills to be leaders in their own organizations. Educators will examine the latest educational technologies and look into ways to effectively incorporate new technology into their curriculum.
Participants will be active learners completing specific projects and course-long assignments that will assist them in developing new skills.

Technology Literacy 103: Utilizing Social Networking Tools in a Leadership Capacity (4 weeks)
This course examines the intersection of three topics: technical knowledge, learning pedagogy, and digital culture. Participants will learn about best practices for serving in a leadership capacity by creating knowledge sharing social networks in their organizations through the use of Web 2.0 and social networking tools. Educators will assess existing resources and peer evaluate one anothers work to practice evaluating components of a well designed online technical resource. Participants will demonstrate their knowledge through creation of an online technical resource designed to help colleagues in their organization. Throughout the course we will model a community of practice so that participants can go out and help foster these types of learning environments in their own learning organizations.
This course is appropriate for administrators, teachers, library media specialists, and technology leaders.

Courses are available with an option of earning graduate credit through the University of Wisconsin.
Go to http://podetc.com to view our catalog and register for courses.

Questioning in the Classroom

2009-07-01T14:38:00.001-07:00

In a recent assignment for a PODetc course (Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom), a student delivered a well-organized post which demonstrated nicely a train of thought that might occur when we really start to evaluate a seemingly common process: questioning.

The activity prompt is as follows:
Discussion Forum: Sharing Your Research Question
Post your research question in the discussion forum below. Share the context of the curriculum and desired outcome of this research question. Identify what level of Blooms taxonomy your question falls under. Finally, Identify how technology can be used as a tool to promote critical thinking, problem solving, and or decision-making.

Chris from Chilton posted the following:
When I began this assignment, I thought about different units that teachers do at my school already, and came up with a combination of an English unit on Brave New World and a Psychology unit on advertising. I thought it might be neat if these two teachers could get together at some point and work on these questions:

Main Question: Are our minds manipulated by outside sources, such as the media and government? If so, is it always bad for us? Take a side and be prepared to defend your view.

Then one thing led to another and I thought of more questions to go along with that:

How can we become critical consumers of information?

If you were able to create your own “Brave New World”, how would you deal with issues of the media, advertising, and mind manipulation?

I believe these questions would involve analysis, evaluation and synthesis. Students would work in groups and would first need to do some research on different kinds of advertising and its effects on people. I would direct them to the library research databases that we have at the school, which include EBSCO, ProQuest, America's Newspapers and SIRS. They might use technologies such as cellphones, flipvideo cams, digital cameras, camcorders or DVD's to record examples of different types of advertising. Later they could even make sample commercials of their own with these technologies. I can see students using tables or spreadsheets to compare the goals and techniques of modern advertising with the brainwashing techniques of the novel Brave New World. They might find using Inspiration or the Seeing Reason Tool to help them organize their thoughts. If the teachers want to get really involved, they could use Second Life to help students create their own “Brave New World”.

I think the main technology tool though would be the "Showing Evidence Tool" from the Intel Thinking Tools. Once they have decided whether the media and government is using mind manipulation and have taken a stand for or against, they would use this tool to assemble their research and arguments, in order to defend their viewpoints. After using this tool and others as mentioned above, students have spent a lot of time using critical thinking skills on something that is relevant to them today, and that they need to be aware of. Students could be asked to present their viewpoint either in a debate style format or other presentation format.

Given the right type of question to start with and with support from the tools that we have encountered in this class, students will learn to think more critically, and at higher levels than just recording facts and memorizing. This will serve them well as they progress through school, and into the world of work.

Chris@Chilton

Well done, Chris, and thanks for letting me share it!

STEM

2009-06-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

PODetc is in development of several new courses for the fall and winter terms. One of these courses will focus on STEM - (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). STEM is not necessarily a new focus in education as we have known for a long time that other countries are out-competing us in filling jobs in these critical areas. Just read Friedman's book, The World is Flat, (read an excerpt here) to get a feel for what globalization means to us and our students. We are not producing the graduates that are capable of filling the jobs of the future.

STEM is a way to focus on those skills perceived as most critical to the future, but it does not mean that other disciplines are unimportant. Read a Q&A with auther Tony Wagner to get a preview of what he calls the seven survival skills for the future in his book, The Global Achievement Gap. This list includes oral and written communication, creativity and imagination, critical thinking, and several more. We need many of what might be called the traditional disciplines, but we need to integrate them into more meaningful and authentic learning opportunities.

If viewed properly, a STEM focus can provide this shift by providing an application of skills attained through the study of English, languages, history, art, music within a context of science, technology, engineering, and math that provides students with actual application of those skills to their world. My goal with the new PODetc course will be to provide educators from all backgrounds an opportunity to develop meaning for the acronym within their own reality and to share tools that can help us develop focus in these areas so critical to our students' futures.

To read the latest news on STEM, visit Education Week's Spotlight on STEM in Schools.

Information overload

2009-06-21T08:58:00.001-07:00

As an educator, I often find myself buried with the responsibilities of teaching during the school year let alone keeping up with the exponentially growing number of resources available to me through the internet. Yet, I know that it is my social and professional responsibility to keep up the growth of technology in order to better serve the generation of digital learners that populate all of our classrooms. There are, of course, a variety of options open to allow me to keep up with some of the instructional tools available through technology. Online learning is a great way to continue professional development at a pace, time, and location that fits my schedule.

PODetc courses are offered 24/7 in an asynchronous setting but that does not mean that there is no interaction between student and instructor. With the use of discussion posts and forums, as well as periodically scheduled synchronous chats, extensive communication occurs among the participants of a course. Many such courses exist and some combine synchronous with asynchronous interaction at a specific ratio.

Another option occurs with many degree programs where a ratio is set between face-to-face meetings and online interaction. This is the case with the Pepperdine Doctoral program in Educational Technology. I was able to hold down a full-time teaching job while earning my doctorate because the course was designed with professional students in mind. Our face-to-face interactions occured in blocks throughout the year, but we had ongoing online assignments and collaborative opportunities throughout.

With the PODetc model, professional can earn graduate credit while fulfilling standards established, for example, through ISTE with the Teacher NETS (National Educational Technology Standards). (www.iste.org) In the future, we will offer a certificate indicating completion of coursework that covers all of the NETS and their subcategories. As professionals, educators are obligated to keep up with learning research and learning opportunities for themselves and their students.

Summer Learning Opportunities

2009-06-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Summer is a Great Time to Learn for Yourself!

PODetc is offering several terrific courses for the summer and now is the time to enroll! We are currently running Introduction to Instructional Technology in the Classroom and are just finishing up with Tech Literacy 102: Building Knowledge Management Systems and Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom.

Our July offerings include:

Survey of Emerging Technologies
Tech Literacy 103: Utilizing Social-Networking Support Tools in a Leadership Capacity

You can enroll online and can take the course on either a credit or non-credit basis. Check out our catalog offerings at:
http://www.podetc.com/PODetc/Course_Catalog.html