Texting for teaching?

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?

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.

Learning continues

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!!!

Come Learn With Us - Reflections from a Summer Student

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!

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!

Questioning in the Classroom

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

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

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

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