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.

Libraries and Transliteracy blog: Gone, but not forgotten!

I am very sad that to read that Bobbi Newman and the crew at the Libraries and Transliteracy blog are closing shop.  In most parts of the country we are just opening the door to Information Literacy and have so many more battles to win before we offer true support to Transliteracy.  We will dearly miss the guidance and support they offered through this blog and can only hope that the void this departure leaves will be filled with motivational visionaries dedicated to this cause as a beacon for librarians into the future.

Below are some favorite presentations posted recently to the Libraries and Transliteracy blog and below them, excerpts from a February 2011 post by Bobbi introducing the concept of transliteracy to beginners.

Framing Transliterate Learning Through Inquiry and Participatory Culture from Buffy Hamilton

Transliteracy, customer service and the future of from Anthony Molaro

Exploring transliteracy from Bobbi Newman

ALA 2011 - Why Transliteracy from Lane Wilkinson

Beginner’s Guide to Transliteracy

February 27, 2011 — Bobbi Newman

Where did the term transliteracy come from?

 . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thomas, et al, posit a very specific origin to the term transliteracy:

The word ‘transliteracy’ is derived from the verb ‘to transliterate’, meaning to write or print a letter or word using the closest corresponding letters of a different alphabet or language. This of course is nothing new, but transliteracy extends the act of transliteration and applies it to the increasingly wide range of communication platforms and tools at our disposal. From early signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV and film to networked digital media, the concept of transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present.

What is transliteracy?

Sue Thomas and her group use this working definition:

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

The definition of transliteracy continues to be expanded and refined, but, as Ipri points out:

Basically, transliteracy is concerned with what it means to be literate in the 21st century. It analyzes the relationship between people and technology, most specifically social networking, but is fluid enough to not be tied to any particular technology. It focuses more on the social uses of technology, whatever that technology may be.

How is transliteracy different than media literacy, digital literacy or technology literacy?

Transliteracy is an over-arching concept that is not meant to replace any of the other more specific studies of format-specific literacies. It sits on top of these other literacies in an attempt to understand the relationship among them. As Thomas, et al write, transliteracy

offers a wider analysis of reading, writing and interacting across a range of platforms, tools, media and cultures, transliteracy does not replace, but rather contains, “media literacy” and also “digital literacy.”

They go on to posit that

transliteracy calls for a change of perspective away from the battles over print versus digital, and a move instead towards a unifying ecology not just of media, but of all literacies relevant to reading, writing, interaction and culture, both past and present. It is, we hope, an opportunity to cross some very obstructive divides.

Unlike many literacies that have a particular focus, transliteracy attempts to be all-inclusive. According to Thomas

transliteracy is not just about computer-based materials, but about all communication types across time and culture. It does not privilege one above the other but treats all as of equal value and moves between and across them.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Check out the archived Libraries and Transliteracy blog for the rest of this post and many other even more compelling ones.  Thanks Bobbi, Tom, Anthony, Lane and Gretchen for your leadership.

In the sweet spot!

Joyce Valenza hits it on the nail again!  "Co-presenting a session at educational technology leader Alan November’s 2012 Building Learning Communities (BLC) conference on July 19 with Shannon McClintock Miller, district librarian and technology integration specialist at Van Meter Schools in Iowa, Valenza outlined five areas in which K-12 schools should turn to their librarians to empower learners with valuable 21st-century college and career readiness skills."  Librarian's ability to support teachers and students with digital curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, connections and the Common Core place us squarely in "the golden age of librarianship."

Goldenview Middle School mashup with the library at Melk Abbey

Read the article in eSchool News for full description of the five C's that place librarians "in the sweet spot of education." My apologies to Valenza, McClintock Miller and Michelle Luhtala of eSchool News for the wholesale quoting of her article in this post.  I have done so because these concepts so closely match my own mantra that students must be motivated by the task in order to take ownership for the learning and that they will tend to achieve more when creating content that can be shared with others in real time or through the channels of 21st century media.

Curation: "Notebooks, bibliographies, and research papers, [are] inadequate for the digital landscape."  "School librarians, with their specialized training and background in collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating information, must now teach their patrons—students and educators alike—to" "use emerging technologies to showcase their progress as they acquire, organize, contextualize, and archive both existing content and new learning. Transparency is a critical component in growing what media scholar Pierre Levy calls knowledge citizens. The presenters stressed the value of teaching learners to purposefully contribute to society’s collective intelligence."

 Citizenship/Compassion:  “'With great power comes great responsibility,' said Valenza. Building society’s collective intelligence requires contributors to respect its infrastructure. This is the essence of digital citizenship.  Students must be taught how to publish their work for the real world, with their real identity (not anonymously), to build their digital footprint with purpose."  They discussed importance of accountability, compassion, awareness and potential repercussions along with the need for supervision and guidance.

Creation:  "The participatory nature of 21^st-century culture emboldens students to create and publish content—all kinds of content, but particularly multimedia content. Given the opportunity, students will transform work into play. Audience fuels their creativity, not standards and rubrics." "Valenza and Miller described the importance of granting students permission to experiment and explore, and the time to reflect and process their learning, to make it into something new. Students need to take ownership of their learning before it becomes relevant to them. Librarians, who have always served as matchmakers of sorts—pairing books with readers, resources with research questions, and, more recently, problems with tools to solve them [digital and multimedia options for publication]—should be the “go-to person(s)” to support learners as they construct their knowledge."

Connections:  Twentyfirst century literacy is incumbent upon connections and the development of personal learning networks.  Ideally these connections include a blend of experts, collaborators and audience.  While not all connections are reciprocal, collaborations can occur in real time or asynchronously as needed and available.  Collaborations can be built within classrooms, between classes within a school or around the world, or, as students become more motivated and involved with their own learning, with experts and collaborators they seek out on their own. 

Common Core:  "According to Lauren Davis, senior editor at Eye on Education, there are five things every educator should do to meet the Common Core State Standards. Her list includes focusing on process, publishing for real audiences, and engaging in discourse. Valenza and Miller explained that curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection embed experiences into instruction that make the CCSS gel for learners. They make learning authentic and relevant. They are the Common Core."

Curation, citizenship & compassion, creation, and connection also fit exactly into the definition of information literacy with it's focus on students' ability to locate, evaluate, ethically use, create, share, and synthesize information.

It has long been recognized that many of us learn by writing and teaching.  The process allows us to synthesize topics that may at first be confusing.  These focus areas are only the progression from writing in a vacuum or a box for an audience of one or two to writing on a stage with an audience of many.  Today's students who can communicate with the entire student body and friends and strangers around the globe instantly, see little value in writing or even learning without an audience.  

Note:  "The following curation tools were referenced during the presentation: Diigo, LiveBinders, Paper.Li, Pinterest, PearlTrees, Posterous, Scoop.It, Sqworl, Storify, Symbaloo."

Explicit instruction limits learning . . .

I often teach technology to students quickly. I often start with the comment, "I know many of you already know how to do this but if you'll give me a few minutes I might remind you of something you've forgotten." Once started, I try to keep things interesting and fast paced and will say as I skim rapidly over very important tips or techniques, "If you need help figuring out how to [get here / do this / take the next step] let me know and I will be glad to help you."

I have found that this method causes students to try harder to figure out how to do things they may have struggled with if I taught in greater detail. I think we (all) tend to rely on as much assistance or guidance as we can get and only when pushed to extend ourselves does our creativity and motivation to learn by doing engage. This seems to me like the basis of constructivist learning and the model we should all pursue as educators.

I watch teachers repeat basic instructions again and again until, "everyone in the class gets it," but notice that it sometimes takes forever and in following lessons students need the explanations again and again. With my method, after the first time, when I tell the students, "This is easy and I know nobody will have a problem with it," if I have to revisit later it is done individually or very quickly to the group with a preface like the one above.

A recent MIT study seems to confirm my rationale and support my opinion that sometimes to promote learning, when it comes to teaching, explicit instruction, less is more.

Suppose someone showed you a novel gadget and told you, “Here’s how it works,” while demonstrating a single function, such as pushing a button. What would you do when they handed it to you?

You’d probably push the button. But what if the gadget had other functions? Would it occur to you to search for them, if your teacher hadn’t alluded to their existence?

Maybe, maybe not. It turns out that there is a “double-edged sword” to pedagogy: Explicit instruction makes children less likely to engage in spontaneous exploration and discovery. A study by MIT researchers and colleagues compared the behavior of children given a novel toy under four different conditions, finding that children expressly taught one of its functions played with the toy for less time and discovered fewer things to do with it than children in the other three scenarios.

According to Laura Schulz, . . . Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at MIT, this is rational behavior, as teaching is meant to impart skills quickly and efficiently. The danger is leading children to believe that they’ve learned all there is to know, thereby discouraging independent discovery.

The rest of the article is available at MIT News.

E-readers -- Yes, but do questions remain?

On some topics I claim some expertise and on others just interest. I have not delved into the Nook, Kindle, iPad e-reader technologies, nor have I monitored popularity trends toward these technologies. It is as an uniformed outsider that I pose the question, "What happens if the technology you buy into does not survive?"

Does anybody remember the VHS / Beta wars? VHS was declared the winner but few of them still survive today. How about the game system wars? Which did you choose: Atari, Sega, or Nintendo? How is that holding up today?

If content and format are unique to the device and the device is replaced, what do you have? I only offer questions on this topic but am intrigued by this video about technologies I have never heard of before: Nelson, Coupland and Alice. They sound like people's names but they appear to offer another alternative to traditional e-readers.

I do not doubt for a moment that the future is in digital formats. I am fairly confident that after the Christmas rush this year a large percentage of human readers in our country will own some form of digital reader. Scanning library forums, it is apparent that many libraries are buying into current technologies. I am not questioning this direction, but the path.

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Meet Nelson, Coupland, and Alice — the faces of tomorrow’s book. Watch global design and innovation consultancy IDEO’s vision for the future of the book. What new experiences might be created by linking diverse discussions, what additional value could be created by connected readers to one another, and what innovative ways we might use to tell our favorite stories and build community around books?

Perhaps my questions are the irrelevant ramblings of the ignorant and if I better understood the technology they would not pass my lips. I wish this were so and beg any who read this post to correct me if my thought process is wrong. I also welcome comments of agreement and clarification if I am correct.

I promise to pay more attention and to pursue this technology in the near future. I look forward to the experience of reading my first digital book on a reader. For today though, I ask, please educate me.

Fact is stranger than fiction

Orwell's 1984 was considered science fiction in it's time. People laughed at Wilbur and Orville Wright and Glenn Curtiss until they proved flight was possible. Any of us born before 1970 knows at least someone who or whose parents thought computers were a gimmick or fad that would wane in time. And yet, look at where we are today . . .

Is it ridiculous to think that this video from Corning Glass is a realistic view into the future? (I honestly don't think so.) Whether you believe technology will seep into every aspect of our lives or not, this video proves it is possible in ways most of us could not even imagine. Even The Jetsons didn't have these technologies that are possible today!

This is must watch video for anyone responsible for teaching today's youth. It sheds new light on the phrase, "preparing students for jobs that haven't even been invented yet."

If anyone is shopping for my birthday, the technologies in this video would be a great place to start . . . .

Learning you can see!

Check out this great new tool! Create a video trip across a map complete with music and captions in minutes on TripLine.

In conjunction with our focus on Black History Month, check out this demo of King's march from Selma to Montgomery. Click "Full Screen" for best effect and press the play icon to start video. Click on the caption summary boxes to pause video and read an elongated caption.

It literally only takes minutes to create a project like this! Available tools allow you to select points through search or by dropping directly on map. Text and pictures are easily added as captions. Uploaded pics can create trip automatically using time stamp and geotags! A diverse selection of music is available on the site and adding is as simple as a click!

Great tool with potential uses in any subject from mapping civilizations to wars to political campaign trips. Highlight a biography, an event, a mission or even a period in history; Where were the hotbeds and turning points of the Industrial Revolution? Maps can be made with connecting lines or without for projects like this.

Would love to see a map of Homer's travels, the Iditarod sled race, and my next vacation (or my last). Maps can be made public or private with a simple click.

Registering to create your own maps on TripLine is is simple and easy but many maps are available for viewing without registering or logging in. I give this site an A++ rating!!

What is technology?

One of our teachers poised the question last week, "What will our classrooms look like five years from now?"  He declared that teacher laptops and ceiling mount projectors are not viewed as "new technology" but are embedded and required components for today's teachers.  His question was primarily rhetorical; despite some suggestions, he offered no answers but it certainly got me thinking.

We work in a well-funded district that has pursued technology including the tools described above, wireless laptop labs, Elmo visualizers, PolyCom distance learning equipment, and a variety of other hardware and software solutions.  Our teachers use the available technology throughout the curriculum in a variety of ways.  I've argued repeatedly and usually with the majority, that technology is only beneficial when it improves the learning experience or helps to prepare our students for college or professional experiences.

This argument tends to open far more windows of opportunity than it closes.  The use of all types of hardware and software technology in business and in higher education is expanding exponentially.  Teachers who create successful technology based lessons increasingly focus upon creating better and more encompassing future lessons.  The question is more than valid and worthy of discussion; so, what will classrooms look like five years from now?

These were my thoughts when I read Ben Grey's recent post, "Excessive Inaccessibility", in the Tech & Learning Advisor Blog.  Grey relates a conversation with a student, recently returned from Zambia where she saw, "children who lined up by the hundreds so that they might receive a single pencil.  A pencil.  Not an iPod, or laptop, or cell phone, or netbook.  A single shaving of wood lined with graphite.  And she spoke of kids without books.  Kids who are trying to read without the words with which to accomplish the task.  Kids who crave the learning yet lack access to the intellectual nourishment."

Quickly, I remembered that not all education is the same.  Though a digital divide does exist in our district, I had not really focused on its impact on student education in quite a while.  The wake up call that Grey delivered in this piece, though, is way more than a digital divide.  It is a digital and educational chasm.  And the reality is that we need not travel to Zambia to experience the stark differences between the have and the have-not districts.  I have visited schools in my local area that own less than one class set of computers and rely upon 30-year-old (average age) library resources.

As I contemplate my future employment I admit that I would consider myself honored to teach and serve a student community regardless of the level of technology (or library) funding.  I would, however, work within any community that I serve to foster and nourish any programs that will lead to the most complete and well-rounded education possible.

So, what will our classrooms look like five years from now?  Obviously, this will depend greatly upon what they look like today and what funding can be generated in the coming years for upgrades and improvements.  Our goal should be to work within our schools and as part of the greater education community to identify and refine our most pressing needs and to pursue them with passion.

The teacher that initiated my thoughts argued that projectors and teacher laptops are no longer technology.  Grey countered that, "a pencil is technology."  Upon reflection that has included memories of my grandmother's stories about teaching in a cold and drafty one room schoolhouse where all writing was done on a piece of slate because no one could afford paper, I agree that a pencil is technology.

I also agree with Grey and with the teachers in my school, and probably all over the world, that it is not enough.  It was not enough for my grandmother who taught for almost 40 years and it is not enough for our students today, no matter where they live.  I guess the greater frustration is that we may never feel we have enough regardless of our level of funding or support.

I must therefore conclude that while planning and goal setting for the integration of technology in the future is critical, it is more critical that we identify every way possible to draw the most benefit from the tools that we do have available to us.  This is a topic for a whole series of posts that I will not be writing now but which we should all explore.

How can we make the most of what we have?  How can we share and use the technology and resources that we have to their fullest extent to fortify our student's educational experience?  These are questions to which we can respond and directly affect on a daily basis.  We do not need additional financial investment or approval of any board to increase the efficiency of the tools that we have.

Tech Integration -- Expanded definition of digital divide

In a review of embedded curriculum and the potential for student success, Patrick Higgins at Chalkdust101 identifies the apparent failure of his (and many) schools with regards to technology integration.

"In our district, every teacher from grades six through twelve has a laptop . . . Our teachers are very wired, but our kids don’t have the same access. . ."

He gives credit to a job candidate in an interview for enlightening him,

"the next big hurdle for schools [is] to put the power to learn back into the hands of students."

In pursuit of this goal, he concludes his post,

"We have to start tipping the scales in favor of the question “what could they do if they had…” and go from there."

I am lucky to work in a district that has spent generously on computers, software and peripheral equipment. I get to work one-on-one and with large groups of students, collaborating with teachers to embed this technology into individual lessons and the curriculum. When I graduate (this spring) and accept a job in another district I will assuredly look back at this experience as, "the good old days."

As well equipped as we are, I cannot help thinking about the opportunities that we miss: lessons we could improve, social networking or blogging opportunities that are unavailable to us, and classes that can't (equipment not available) or won't (technophobe teacher) take advantage of the available technology. As a parent and citizen, it saddens me that there can be so much variation in the level of technology available from teacher to teacher, school to school and district to district.

I understand that funding varies and even understand that local environments are different but once they graduate, the vast majority of these young adults will be vying for the same opportunities without regard for background or level of technology integration in their high schools. Whose responsibility is it to prepare these students, if not ours? It may be a long and winding road but it is one that is definitely worth traveling.

Luckily, as time passes, lower cost hardware solutions are constantly being developed from the newly popular NetBooks to the SmartVine virtual monitors that allow up to 11 users to share a single computer. There are many, many very stable FREE software solutions available and constantly being developed (Audacity, GoogleEarth, Camtasia, and many more). While these solutions may not be acceptable in many districts, we should celebrate each success and improve upon each failure. Hopefully true technology integration will continue to grow across our country, continent, and world.

As we proceed, in addition to students, teachers, and administrators, we need to build relationships and with our network administrators. I have seen too many articles and blogs recently discussing the failed marriage of educational tech integration and the network administrators or IT departments. Among them, Higgins wrote on the subject in August drawing from a related article with a suggested solution by Jim Moulton in his Future of Education blog. Tech & Learning magazine published a brief article on the topic, focused primarily on the positive, in their September print and online issues.

I certainly don't have the answers but know that whether in a school with 20 computers or one with hundreds, until every student has access in all schools to computers, software, web based information and appropriate web utilities, our journey will not be complete. I'm so glad to be back at school! Sorry to take on such a loaded topic so early in the year . . . .