I started this website as a young, optimistic, visual arts teacher. Now, I'm an old man yelling at cloud computing.
About Education
This is truly spiffy – Bre Pettis over at I Make Things and Room 132 posted a finger puppet how-to video that is nothing like the mini lessons I’ve been making. (In other words he’s in front of the camera, showing lots of details, has a GOOD camera, and is otherwise doing a great job.)
I really think more art teachers need to do these, and then someone needs to combine them into a giant online library. Imagine – any lesson you want at your fingertips! unitedstreaming, eat your heart out! :D
I was doing some very late (or very early) spring cleaning, and came across some papers from seminars and conferences I attended years ago.
Most of the stuff wasn’t worth keeping, but I did find a list that I think I acquired at a MICCA conference. I wish I knew who wrote this (a Google search came up empty), but I think it’s worth a reprint here.
UPDATE: I just got an email from Rachel. It turns out that Sarah Stiles (A freind of Rachel’s from Anne Arundel County Public Schools) was the author of this wonderful list. My guess is that it was her presentation I saw at MICCA.
8 Ways to Test for Effective Technology Integration
1. An outsider would view the use of technology as a seamless part of daily instruction.
2. Students are genuinely interested & excited about learning.
3. You’d have trouble accomplishing your learning goals if the technology were removed. (In other words the technology is truly the “best media,” or the “right tool for the right job.”)
4. You can explain how the technology is enhancing instruction in 2-3 sentences.
5. Students work towards one or more content-related outcomes.
6. The technology activity is a logical extension of the lesson.
7. A real problem is being solved through the use of technology.
8. All students are able to participate & you can describe how a particular student is benefiting from the technology.
The idea behind this list is not to do all 8 at once, but to hit two or three of them every time you strive for technology integration. Thoughts? Comments? Does anyone know who wrote this?
It’s only fitting that while I’m creating a presentation on the power of the blogosphere that I do something like this:
David Warlick wrote a post called Our Classrooms are Irrelevant, not obsolete! Steve Dembo read that post, and responded to it with his post called High touch AND high tech. Now it’s my turn to respond to both of them.
We might be using computers and web sites, but this is still good old fashioned networking – the sharing of ideas and concepts. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling when I get to participate in a global phenomenon like this.
… but I digress. The conversation’s on what people think the classroom will be like in 2015. To summarize, one comment Mr. Warlick made was that it’s disturbing to him that so many educators think classrooms will be totally replaced with long distance learning by then. Mr. Dembo’s post continued along those lines, mentioning that to do such a thing would actually pull people apart rather than bring them together.
I totally agree with both Warlick and Dembo, but I’m not worried about the classroom disappearing. Why? Well, the answer’s quite simple.
I’ve read a lot of old science fiction.
I mean REALLY OLD science fiction. In high school I would often walk to the local used book store and buy all kinds of anthologies and other sci-fi books, many of them published before I was born. I loved entering those hundreds of fanciful universes where the writers’ futures were our present. They had some really cool ideas about what would be going on right now, but you know what?
They all got it wrong.
In some cases we’re more advanced than they ever thought we would be. (The first Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov had the characters calculating equations for faster than light travel without a computer to help them.) In other cases, we’ve advanced much slower than the writer thought we should. (I’m still waiting for my fusion powered flying car.) In all those stories, the writers were way off on what life is like today.
Sure, some of them predicted certain ideas, but looking at the big picture they couldn’t get it right.
So I don’t really think we’ll get rid of the classroom any time soon, or even in the next ten years. Kids need social, face to face interaction. They also need to use computers and understand how flat the world is becoming, but you can’t play kickball with someone on the other side of the country (unless you’ve got a VERY strong kick…) or have a chemistry lab partner on another continent.
There are some who would look at Warlick, Dembo, and myself and say that we just don’t get it, that we’re holding onto the past like so many of the industrial age teachers we criticize. My response to them is that I’ve never advocated the total abandonment of old styles. For example, there are a lot of art projects for which a sheet of paper is far superior to a laptop screen, and there always will be.
What we need to do to prepare our students for the future is to give them a healthy dose of both old and new styles. I think I could go on, but I’ll stop here and let someone else add to the chain of thought.
Today I attended (& presented at) the Powering Up With Technology conference, and it was a blast. I have audio (and potentially some video, maybe) to share, and am working on getting that ready for you. If I can configure OpenOffice just right, I’ll have my presentation uploaded as a flash file. If not, I’ll take the more troublesome route and convert it to a .mov file.
David Warlick was recently interviewed on a talk radio show. I won’t go into all the details since I can always just link to his account of the experience, but I do want to cover one question that was asked of him:
| “Why should we be bringing technology into our classrooms, when our kids aren’t learning the basics?” |
To anyone who is an advocate of technology in the classroom, this question should irritate immensely. As someone who is also an Art teacher, this irritation is an all too common experience.
We (and by “we,” I mean everyone – teachers, administrators, parents, students, the list goes on…) tend to value some aspects of education more than others. Administrators tend to focus on standardized tests, since their jobs often depend on those test scores. Teachers focus on their own subjects, since … well … they did spend four or more years in college devoting themselves to those areas. Students will focus on whatever they don’t find to be boring.
But most of all, society seems to focus on Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Science and Social Studies will often be thrown in as 2nd class citizens, but the so called “Three Rs” are what we usually think of when someone refers to the “basics.” This is no doubt an ego boost to the teachers who teach those subjects, while the rest of us feel inferior in comparison.
This should not be the case. The basics, after all, should be whatever students need to know to survive in the real world. I’m not saying that the “Three Rs” are unimportant – they’re more important now than they were 100 years ago. What I am saying is that there are other subjects that are equally important. Those who fail to know history are doomed to repeat it. Science is what keeps us from reverting to the fears and superstitions that ran rampant in the dark ages of Europe. Art helps us to develop our creativity – something needed in every well paying job. (And don’t forget about expression, communication, and abstract thinking skills.) Technology is so ingrained into our society that I can’t think of a profession that isn’t impacted by computers in some way, shape, or form.
And yet we still refer to only three subjects as “basic,” and then wonder why our children are falling behind.
It’s not just certain subjects that are basic. Our educational system is supposed to prepare our students for the real world. That preparation should be the true basic, to which every teacher should adhere.
Let’s stick to the basics.
This is not my 34th podcast, it’s my 5th attempt at my 29th podcast.
Show Notes:On 9/14/05, Will Richardson Wrote:
I was talking with a math teacher who is a part of our pilot, and he told me that in the course of his lesson on Monday he used a term that was unfamiliar to his students. Rather than simply give them a definition, he modeled his own practice by having his students watch as he went from the OneNote page he was projecting via his tablet, opened up a browser, surfed over to Wikipedia, looked up the definition, and started a discussion about not only the math but about the workings of the site. Now I would bet that only a handful of teachers would model that same process.
Mr. Richardson was excited about this story, and I agree it was totally awesome when I read about it myself. It’s a total shame that today’s teachers often focus on passing on the information more than passing on the methods used to obtain that information. I don’t think this is any individual’s fault, but rather it’s residual inertia left over from an era where one could succeed in the “real world” without being a lifelong learner.
This is a new millennium, and we must begin to teach in a way that will help our students also be their own teachers.
Podcast Alley: Education Podcasts – C’mon, you know you want to vote for me … right?
Our best teachers do more than impart facts and figures – they inspire and encourage students and instill a true desire to learn. That’s a fine art in itself.
-Sonny Perdue
There are many teachers who could ruin you. Before you know it you could be a pale copy of this teacher or that teacher. You have to evolve on your own.
-Berenice Abbott
Teachers believe they have a gift for giving; it drives them with the same irrepressible drive that drives others to create a work of art or a market or a building.
-A. Bartlett Giamatti
The sincere teachers of their youth should be met, not with an intention to dictate to them, but to give additional force to their well-meant endeavours, and raise them to public esteem.
-Joseph Lancaster
Teachers of design should help a student to find their own voice. In other words, not be a templated version of the teacher, but rather to help them [the students] unfold what they already know and can bring to the table.
-April Greiman
I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
-Kahlil Gibran
You can get more quotes from BrainyQuote.com
9th Annual Powering Up With Technology Conference
Moving on Up: Using Technology to Impact Student Achievement
When:
Saturday November 12, 2005
7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Where:
Northwestern High School
7000 Adelphi Road
Adelphi, Maryland 20782
Highlights
*8 hands-on computer labs
*Model lessons on integrating technology into the curriculum
*Vendor booths and presentations
*Innovative instructional ideas
*Door prizes including a COMPUTER
*Yours truly (The Art Guy) doing a presentation on Creative Commons Multimedia
For additional information:
Call the Department of Instructional Technology at 301-925-2874, or visit the web site at www.pgcps.org/~support and then click on the conference link.
Registration:
Preregistration is $40 (in the form of a check or money order, no cash, please) which includes a continental breakfast, box lunch, and conference materials. Onsite registration is $45. Mail registration form below with fee to Christopher Fuller at the Department of Instructional Technology, 8437 Landover Road, Landover, MD 20785 by October 28, 2005. Checks should be made payable to the Prince George’s County Public Schools.
31 is fun, if you don’t mind listening to me rant.
In this episode I rant about a “news” story I found in Google News, then make a connection to one of the things that David Warlick talks about: It is not enough to teach our kids how to read and write. We need to teach them to read and figure out if it is RIGHT.Hopefully I’ll get to do that in my Art Club.
Podcast Alley: Education Podcasts – C’mon, you know you want to vote for me … right?
… On an unrelated note, I think I need new background music. Any ideas?
The local news had a story on backpacks being too heavy for students nowadays. When I went to their website to reference the story I couldn’t find it, but I DID find that they had in fact covered it several times before: 8/17/04, 8/23/02, I can go on, but I won’t.
In a society where we stress more and more learning we seem to be putting more than just emotional weight on our students’ shoulders, and apparently we’ve known about it for years. Think about how much an iBook weighs compared to all the books that it could replace. (And when you figure that e-books are cheaper and updated more often, those laptops can be very cost effective.) If there ever was a just reasoning for using digital media over printed texts, this is it!