It takes more than technology

Using technology is NOT more engaging. No matter the medium, we must design for student engagement. Technology does not create engagement, your lesson design does. While anything new may energize students for a short period of time, there is no substitute for designing high-quality lessons.     http://alicekeeler.com/2016/07/05/google-classroom-not-jump-deep-end/ Making the shift to digital is NOT about doing what you’ve always done in a digital format. Digital allows us to rethink our tasks.    “When students can access information, I can talk less.”    How the class functions should be different when students have access to devices. First, students no longer need to wait for you to know what to do. Students walk in the door, go to Google Classroom and get to work. http://alicekeeler.com/2016/07/05/google-classroom-not-jump-deep-end/ When moving to digital tools it is a mindset shift. Our first question should not be “how do I take all my stuff I have and put it online?” Instead, How do I have more dynamic interactions with my students?” “How will we collaborate?” “How can I give feedback faster?” “How can I change the task to create more engagement?” “How can students be more actively involved in their learning?” http://alicekeeler.com/2016/06/28/collaborative-google-slides/ Change is slow,      Change is hard,          Change is messy.      We will get it wrong and things won't work.       We can only do so much.  Some things truly should not be changed!  It is far, far easier to rely on tools and methods we know.  And yet, great success begins with small steps!  Expect more from our students.  Focus more on their learning and less upon our teaching!      Prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, and execute! Change the expectations!      Change the energy level!    Reflect upon and consider the path and the outcome . . .  wash, rinse, repeat . . .   plan, teach, assess, reflect, repeat . . .  Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Tech toys or tools (?) and their uses

Wordle.com is described on its home page as a "toy". Using it to create a tag cloud of this blog, though, it is a tool to summarize and discover the primary informational focus or keywords being discussed. Is this cheating? Is using a calculator to do math cheating? The answer is a resounding "no". The answer is that we need to embrace technology and the new tools and methods available to us as a society and as teachers and learners.

A school librarian I met recently boasted how much fun she had doing her job - playing with kids and technology every day. Past generations maintained a strict division between technology toys and technology tools but the more I learn about the technology available and the pedagogy of learning, the more difficult it becomes to label tech toys as valueless. Tool or toy, matching the application to the curriculum, the need, and particular learning style is far more important than the preconceived perception of the application's value.

Presenters at the K-12 Online Conference (live this month and archived for perpetuity) with the theme “Amplifying Possibilities” are using many different communication technologies to share and teach us some of the Web 2.0 possibilities and challenge us to reach for the next level. In their presentation "How Can I Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?" Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle, and Cheryl Oakes remind us that once we immerse ourselves and accept our roles as learners along with our students, they will develop and show us ways to use technology that we cannot even imagine.
Keynote speaker Stephen Heppell (designer of physical and virtual learning environments of the future) started the conference (link to his presentation moved. will add when I find.) by describing the crossroads in our educational environment today from the old "factory style" classrooms to the new community classrooms defined by "us-ness". He spoke of teachers provoking learning instead of providing learning and pushing students to take ownership of their learning. While I don't see the majority of our students accepting that role, I think he hit the nail on the head regarding the social nature of learning today and the value of "audience" as a tool in the equation. Perhaps the failure of students to take more ownership or at least be more interested and engaged may be a result of our failure to trust them with the tools of their generation.

Instead of prohibiting headphones, for instance, we should be providing them to all students along with books on tape, podcasts, vodcasts, and text message reminders of class assignments. Instead of disjointed and meaningless deliverable assignments during the course of a semester, perhaps each assignment should add toward a greater, high quality, publishable whole to be displayed on the web. Examples could include articles, tables, photos and even video or podcasts blended into a student created website, or perhaps a professionally designed magazine, well maintained blog, or carefully edited video news program. The key factor may not be the format, but the freedom to choose the format and the reality that, upon completion, it will be available for the full world to see (including important peers and family members).

Assistive Technologies for all

I failed to post an entry last week on assistive technology (AT) and accessibility. Crisis of family and friends diverted my attention and time. Here are a few thoughts on the subject.

The lesson opened my eyes to two items that I would not have identified on my own. I am well aware of text reading, magnification, speech-to-text, and keyboard accessibility technologies. I have worked with many of them and have found varying degrees of quality and ease of use with these technologies.

One attribute identified throughout the lesson, and the topic of the newsletter that I created, was the usefulness of these assistive technologies to the general population as well as to the disabled. Discussion about uses of text reading technology to assist ESL students, slow readers, aural learners, and others beyond the visually handicapped opened my eyes to benefits I had not previously considered. The added benefit of using these technologies across the population and curriculum is the reduction and elimination of stigma attached to these technologies.

My other takeaway had nothing to do with AT but with the tool we used. So often, we provide communication about services available at the library in the form of an e-mail to teachers or a poster or bulletin board for students. Building a newsletter was a little time consuming, and perhaps my effortwas too wordy (who me?) but with a little effort and creativity could be a great medium for communication with faculty and even parents and students.