Monday July 15, 2013

Review of the last 2 weeks

This week are “making stuff”

• Daily blog
• End of the week reflection
• URL at some stage…

Circle: final project update in 3 sentences…

Final Project group work time…

10 minutes of fame…

Harsh: Google docs

Naomi:  websites for special needs. See her blog – pearltrees…

Anne-Marie: infrographics…

Brianne: iPads to do &to use…

 

Tuesday July 16, 2013

Traditional – transmissive education

Ecology of education is changing

Ecological psychology field…

Educators changing, use of www with parents (variables)

Technology as an enhancement not replacement

 

Participant / Learner Considerations (1 post):

Not everyone will jump on it

A place for resources

Depends on the rules & resources of the area you’re teaching in

Parent demographics

Socio-economic status – access to www & devices

Interest level in education

Promote success in class – with teachers

In addition to parent-teacher interviews

What happens to the librarian then, if not teaching in the classroom?

How to promote the library?

It would be nice if more parents cared…

Issues of ICT in the library

 

Work on URL project:

OMG! My English page is gone!

Investigate & email NR & MM

 

Presentations:

Justin: exploring of educational games

Terrence: khan academy https://www.khanacademy.org/

Neelu: edmodo https://www.edmodo.com/

Petra: www.pixton.ca

 

Wednesday July 17, 2013

What is at stake?

Teachers versus technology?

http://www.alternet.org/education/ipads-vs-teachers-why-technology-winning

July 16, 2013  |

 

The Brave New World is officially here — and it’s not just new, it’s also expensive and, at best, unproven.

That’s the news of the last few weeks in the world of education. In Europe, there is the launch of “Steve Jobs schools” where, according to Der Spiegel, “the entire education experience (is) offered via tablet computer” and where “there will be no blackboards, chalk or classrooms, homeroom teachers, formal classes, lesson plans, seating charts, pens, teachers teaching from the front of the room, schedules, parent-teacher meetings, grades, recess bells, fixed school days and school vacations.” In these Apple utopias, if “a child would rather play on his or her iPad instead of learning, it’ll be okay.”

Back here at home, a similar transformation is happening — albeit at a slower pace — in school districts that are spending big money to give iPads to every student. Indeed, following smaller districts from across the country, the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second largest in the nation —  just generated big headlines by becoming one of the  600 districts handing over public money to Apple in exchange for iPads.

How much money, you ask? In Los Angeles, many millions of dollars. If that sounds a bit vague, that’s because it is, thanks to the hard-to-estimate total costs of all the variables in technologizing schools. In L.A., for instance, school officials approved an initial $50 million in bonds (read: public debt) to finance the first stage of its iPad-for-every-student program. However, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, those officials quietly acknowledge that the plan will cost a whopping half-billion dollars when fully implemented.

Such massive expenses are, to say the least, alarming — especially in school districts that are simultaneously ramping up their spending on technology and slashing funding for traditional education investments like teachers and infrastructure.

Los Angeles, again, is a good example; the same school district that is going to spend a half-billion dollars on iPads has been laying off teachers. To justify those layoffs, the school districts have been citing a  $543 million district budget shortfall, yet somehow, those same officials apparently don’t cite that same budget shortfall as a reason to avoid spending $500 million on iPads. Why? Because education technology triumphalists typically portray iPads as long-term cost cutters for school districts.

As the New York Times sums up that argument, these triumphalists believe iPads and attendant iBooks will “save money in the long run by reducing printing and textbook costs.” The enticing idea is that schools may have to invest huge money upfront, but they will supposedly see huge savings in out years.

The trouble is that there is little evidence to suggest that’s true, and plenty of evidence to suggest the opposite is the case.

As respected education consultant Lee Wilson notes in a report breaking down school expenses, “It will cost a school 552% more to implement iPad textbooks than it does to deploy books.” He notes that while “Apple’s messaging is the idea that at $14.99 an iText is significantly less expensive than a $60 textbook,” the fact remains that “when a school buys a $60 textbook today they use it for an average of 5-7 years (while) an Apple iText it costs them $14.99 per student – per year.” As Lee notes, that translates into iBooks that are 34 percent more expensive than their paper counterparts — and that’s on top of the higher-than-the-retail-store price school districts are paying for iPads.

As I pointed out in a  newspaper column last year:

Those (inflated) costs might be justifiable when a new device is a sure bet to improve education. But a school’s wager on computer technology, as a pedagogic panacea is often just that: a blind gamble, and one that evidence shows is hardly safe.

Here in Colorado, for instance, the non-profit I-News Network recently reported that students attending the state’s “full-time online education programs have typically lagged their peers on virtually every academic indicator, from state test scores to student growth measures to high school graduation rates.” Stanford University researchers found similar results in their separate study of online schools in Pennsylvania.

And after its exhaustive national investigation of the trend, The New York Times concluded, “schools are spending billions on technology, even as they cut budgets and lay off teachers, with little proof that this approach is improving basic learning.”

Now, sure, it is true, there has been some anecdotal evidence suggesting that iPads can help students in their learning. But there are three problems with such evidence.

First and foremost, it is generated in a vacuum. Certainly, iPads in certain conditions may modestly help — or at least not hurt — kids in their educational endeavors. But the biggest question for schools should be a comparative one: namely, is it better to spend education dollars on iPads rather than on something else? In the age of finite resources, this is an especially relevant query when the “something else” could be more teachers and smaller class sizes — that is, an investment that has far more proven education results than iPads. In light of that, it is hard to argue that a massive investment in iPads is more prudent than putting the money into other education options available.

Second, for all the anecdotal evidence supporting iPads, there’s  other anecdotal evidence from schools that suggests iPads actually harm education.

Finally, there’s the fact that anecdotal evidence is just that — anecdotal. As Stanford’s Larry Cuban points out, there is no comprehensive scientific “body of evidence that iPads will increase math and reading scores on state standardized tests” nor that “students using iPads (or laptops or desktop computers) will get decent paying jobs after graduation.” And, incredibly, Los Angeles school officials spending the money on the iPads have made clear that, according to Cuban, they will collect “no hard data on how often the devices were used, in what situations, and under what conditions.” In other words, the investment is based on blind faith.

Why would schools go forward on such blind faith, you ask? Part of it is the allure of silver bullet, and part of it has to do with cold, hard cash.

In terms of the former, Cuban explained it to Pulitzer Prize-winner Peg Tyre:

“First, the promoters’ exhilaration splashes over decision makers as they purchase and deploy equipment in schools and classrooms,” said Larry Cuban, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University and author of Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom in an email to me. “Then academics conduct studies to determine the effectiveness of the innovation [and find that it is] just as good as—seldom superior to—conventional instruction in conveying information and teaching skills. They also find that classroom use is less than expected…Such studies often unleash stinging rebukes of administrators and teachers for spending scarce dollars on expensive machinery that fails to display superiority over existing techniques of instruction and, even worse, is only occasionally used.”

The promoters Cuban refers to, of course, come to school boards with money — lots of it. As both Tyre and the Wall Street Journal note, venture capital is pouring into the education technology sector. Basically, investors see the potential for big profits from convincing school districts to replace proven education methods with unproven technology products.

Not surprisingly, some of those profits finance armies of lobbyist and salespeople to harass schools’ technology directors to support new technology procurement (one such technology director told the New York Times he now gets “one pitch an hour”).

Some of the profits also become campaign contributions to school board members who set general procurement policy. A good example of the latter is Los Angeles, where, as NPR reported, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s empire “gave $250,000 toward a group that helped to fund like-minded candidates running for school board.” Murdoch, of course, is investing heavily in an education technology business that aims to get tablets into schools.

Reviewing all of this, of course, isn’t to make some sort of Luddite argument against technology in general. It is only to make the point I made last year about verification. To reiterate that point once again: Yes, technology can be a great tool for education, but huge amounts of public money shouldn’t be dumped into technology investments without data proving those investments are worth it. That’s especially the case at a time when money is being cut from things that have proven to boost academic achievement.

Such a truism should be obvious, self-evident, and hardly controversial. Indeed, it is only controversial to those companies and politicians with a vested financial interest in promoting education technology triumphalism, regardless of how factually unsubstantiated such triumphalism remains.

David Sirota is a best-selling author of the new book “Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now.” He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website atwww.davidsirota.com.

 

I found that this article has some very strong truths to it. Schools are falling into the “hype cycle” with technology, because it makes them look good and progressive. However they don’t really know which ICT to buy or how to use it properly.  In addition, they are not purchasing said ICT with any actual research or authenticated data to support those decisions. Thus the admin continue to spur on the cycle of “over bought & under used.”  Moreover, where were the actual teachers in this decision making process? Where were the teachers’ unions to protect their teachers?

I would also agree that after working with and hearing the horror stories from my USofA colleagues that indeed more teachers and class sizes under 22 would make a bigger and more positive impact on education. Let us not forget the cycle of poverty and how that influences the student body. Not to mention, why not compromise and have more teachers, smaller class sizes, and a B.Y.O.D.

Teacher needed input to district – superintendents’ policy making. Explaining what 21^st century skills are, and incorporating teachers into this.

Final project work time – ICT choices: hope to accomplish, what ICT’s at hand, what ICT to use… Touch bas with JA re: blogs and assessment update…

 

10 minutes of fame…

Doni: keeping community connections with other librarians.  Use of Yammer.  Use of livebinders.com

Julie: edmodo.com was JUST revamped the other day!

Tess: digital storytelling… www.storybird.com  J

ME! 😀

Tonight: fix blog – excel doc + email JA!

 

Thursday July 18, 2013

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald

http://www.amazon.ca/Blindspot-Hidden-Biases-Good-People/dp/0553804642

 

Blind Sight Group:

Blind spot “contains a large set of biases and keep them hidden”

Hidden biases are capable of guiding behavior with out being aware of their role.

Bits of knowledge of social groups

Hidden biases can influence our behaviors toward members of particular groups, but we remain oblivious to their influence

Is this different form stereotypes and prejudices?

Mind bugs & bind slight…

Visual mind bugs – vision illusion that produces an error in the minds ability to perceive a pair of objects as the actually are

Mind bugs – ingrained habits of thought that lead to errors in how we perceive, remember, reason, and make decisions

Blind sight (how we act on what we think but don’t really see – unawares) versus Blind spot (can’t see it because we are not used to looking for it)…

“Neuro – plasticity” be able to changing your mind…

“Self efficious” self – effective

We can make choice and we do mean well

 

Work on Final Project time… Having a ball on story bird! J

 

10 minutes of fame…

Kate: www gems

http://www.sweetsearch.com/

http://www.dogonews.com/

http://wonderopolis.org/

http://www.incredibox.com/en/play

http://www.thegamehomepage.com/play/3-slices/

 

Charlotte: science games http://phet.colorado.edu/

Shirla: Evernote

 

Friday July 19, 2013

Teacher review…

Summations:

1)    Harj: library website

2)    Shirla: library blog

3)    Anne-Marie: personal thank u list! & Reflections

4)    Naomi: making a classroom website & Google docs/sites

5)    Neelu: her 3-week journey

6)    Karen: her hungry caterpillar journey! J

7)    Tess: Absent… o_O

8)    Merrin: her personal journey

BREAK Coffee & Pastries till 12 noon…

9)    Terrence: ICT Sub Hub with Sandra

10) ME: Departments’ websites & new unit

11) Justin: reflection of his journey speech & YouTube – Knewton clips

12) Christine:  her journey via a Slide.ly

Where we go from here?

 

Publishing – influencing public perceptions, building public knowledge and support

Presenting – influencing policy conditions (school, district, province, and beyond)

Knowledge generative networks – broadening perspectives; deepening understanding
Efficacious ICT communities of practice – inquiry-based pro d, question, research, discern, design, implement, deliberate, repeat

 

Final Bogs???

Where I was & where I am going?

o. Naomi

s. Karen

s. Merrin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Module 14: Future Vision Project URL

 

For my Future Vision URL Project, I have decided to be more proactive with my department’s websites (Arts – Drama & English). I will post all task sheets  there in order to make the students more responsible for their learning, and to cut down on the en masse emailing that I do on a daily  basis.

I chose this as my project because it is applicable to my classes, it can be measured, and it can be achieved!

At the moment the schools’ internal web pages are only for those with a Chatsworth email address.  Kindly see the attached ppt of screen shots…

CWI URL Screen Shots – JBL

Module 13:  Future Vision Project Blog Post 4: Project Challenges

 

Introduction to Project Challenges: Anticipating Difficulty:

I am not anticipating too much difficulty as I am in a slightly obsessive ICT school. The administration has subscribed to being an Apple hardware and Google software school. We have hosted a TEDx event, are a 1-to-1-laptop school, and have been for several years now. It is implied and expected that every unit incorporate ICT, and in the English department we are the first to have gone paperless, and we have the most finished website pages. The only difficulty I am expecting s resistance from my department head as we have a personality clash. However when I come to the table with the new unit AND the ICT already incorporated, I believe the men will be in utterly shocked silence of surprise! ;D

 

Identifying School Settings Policies and Guidelines:

Please see attached Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the Orchard Campus (K-12) and our East Campus (K-6)

Orchard Student Secondary AUP 

Chatsworth East Student AUP

 

Governing ICT Use – Identifying School Settings ICT Strengths:

“The administration has subscribed to being an Apple hardware and Google software school. We have hosted a TEDx event, are a 1-to-1-laptop school, and have been for several years now.” Please also see the following links to the schools ICT web pages…

http://www.chatsworth.com.sg/page.cfm?p=523

http://www.chatsworth.com.sg/page.cfm?p=379

 

Identifying School Settings ICT Challenges:

The constantly cranky Wi-Fi, which only works when you do not desperately need it to.

 

At the end of all things considered, I am incredibly blessed by being in such a progressive school, which is fully resourced and happy to spend more on both staff training and ICT.  Chatsworth has indeed brought me even further into the 21^st century learning arena, kicking and screaming the entire way!

Topic Inquiry Blog Post 3: Supporting Teachers Learning ICT (to teach curriculum, as active learning pedagogy, to teach each other)

 

As ICT changes in the field of education and social media, many teachers are trying to keep up with the ever changing ICT hardware and software that is available to them. Many teachers are often overwhelmed by the amount of information and tools out there for them to use. Being overwhelmed often leads to anxiety and lack of use. Let’s face it teachers are busy and do not have the time to spend hours on end “looking for shortcuts or support.” That being said, teachers cannot let themselves fall behind in the modern world and watch the changes around them, instead of being part of that change.  Becoming obsolete should not be an option, especially when we are ever so concerned over both job security and of course preparing our students for that outside modern world in which we live in.

 

Teachers are a diverse group of professional and even though our basic education is similar, our comfort level, liking, and knowledge of ICT widely vary. In addition the way we work, where we work, and what we have access to at work also vary widely. Many teachers are often hindered by the schools lack of resources and overbearing policies to adapt their teaching styles to ICT.  Then at the other extreme we have teachers who have all the ICT they can handle and either learn as they go or fall prey to anxiety and ignorance.

 

What should really happen in an optimal world is that administration and policy makers actually ask for teacher input, since we are the ones on the frontline and will be the ones to teach the ICT and teach with it. However since this inclusion may not happen anytime soon (or at all) for the moment, admin must train their teachers in ICT. ICT is a skill set and it requires training and professional development time.  ICT is skills set, as is learning how to differentiate, run literature circles, or learn to how set up and run an inquiry-based class or project. There should be professional development (PD) from both outside and inside the school.  From the outside experts are called in to help teach staff how to use the ICT available at the school that teachers will be expected to learn (i.e. becoming a Mac school or having SMART boards). Inside the school there should be PD for learning new software that all staff will need to know and use (i.e. PowerSchool, Moodle, or Atlas Rubicon). There should also be PD time allowed for internal workshops between either grade levels, or subject departments. Another internal PD session could be the staff hosting various common-like groups (i.e. eReaders, blogs, website design, Photoshop, etcetera).  I am a firm believer that “Teachers Talking To Teachers” is PD (I have personally learned so much from having TWO professionally trained actors in my departments to share and help out).

 

In the end admin need to support the teachers in their ICT learning in order for the teachers to then take that learning and apply their ICT skills in a more authentic and positive way in the classroom.

 Topic Inquiry Blog Post 1 – Reading Cultures and ICT: Connecting Topic Inquiry with Cultural Considerations for Fostering Reading Cultures

 

With books going online and becoming electronic, I am a big believer in them. I feel that many children often do not either have access to books or know what to read.  In addition, many children are constantly online or on mobile devices and there should be another option besides music, movies, TV, or games to entertain yourself with.

 

There has been a growing number of sites offering eBooks and reading online over the last eight years. I was one of the first people to get an Amazon Kindle, and the market was just starting for eBooks online and reading online.  After Amazon took the lead on eReaders, the other big names in books such as Chapters (Kobo), Barnes & Noble, and Sony all came out with an electronic reading device. About two years after the first iPad came out, and the prices of eReaders dropped by half in order to complete with the Apple giant. This was great for many avid readers as the competition drove prices of the eReaders and eBooks down and the special features of them started going up! Now we started to see even more eBooks in multiple languages for both reading online or to download onto your personal reading device.

 

 

Being an English teacher who was working overseas and in hardship postings books was hard to come by, especially English books. Often I read the first twenty minutes of each school library book and then I would pass it onto the students. There were few websites to foster a reading community other than the online reading websites. There was not a lot in terms of social media besides “liking” a famous book or author on Facebook.  This was not really fostering a community of readers. Teachers had little resources and most ICT was done at home not at school.  I was fortunate that the majority of students came from pro-education and pro-reading families, and it was a struggle to help fill this need. The eReaders were a great resource and with the iPads coming out, people now had choices to make about how they wanted to read, wand on what type of device, or stick to the original paper novels. This was a great step towards international access to reading materials! At this point people were now able to share websites that they had found for both reading online and downloading individual novels. There was a great amount o sharing of books, and even more copyright infringement I am sure!

 

 

When I arrive din Singapore I was feeling the pressure to be as paperless as possible, and I was down to my “library logs” or weekly reading assignments. I had paper handouts that required signatures and it did take time to train the students on how to answer the questions, get the paper signed by a parent or guardian, and to return the log every week.  By October I was under extreme duress to get onto “good reads” which was something I knew nothing about, and neither did my students. Once I got online and got the students competent in basic skills, we all went online together! The homework did not change, but the culture reading did! It as amazing to see how the students often forgot to do their logs on time, yet they were on the website playing the giving, making lists, reviewing books, and finding “friends” from the other classes on the website! I was able to give the students different and more creative questions to answer and post under our group discussion forum. I was able to send the students to the authors’ websites to find more books written by them. Students sent me quizzes to see who could get a better score. I recommended books to them and vice versa. Students could have their say about a book, and coommnet on eachothers ideas and throughts, taking their reading comprehensions to another level. At the end of the year, I feel that I did achieve a culture of reading and a stronger group of readers (and therefore writiers) beciause of this online book scoail media site.

 

 

There are so mnay new websites for reading online or downloading free eBooks (copyright varying) that I feel that there is a new kind of culture of reading online. With access to books in many languages, I feel that the skill and hobby of reading will not fade into the past, but continue to move and change into the future made possible by the ICT aavaiable to society.

 

 

 

 

Thursday July 11, 2013 – Module 8 Developing World Libraries

 

In my group we discussed a few of the following topics.  The first topic was about grade level differences, as primary and secondary would often have different needs and demands in terms of their books (picture books, leveled reading materials, age appropriate novels, textbooks, and of course technology). For the next topic we explored the development of world libraries (via a diigo compilation). This brought about the debate of whether or not we were looking for libraries in the countries mother tongue or in English. I have yet to find an English section in a local library while travelling or living in most parts of Asia (mainland China, Macao, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and the Koreas). Brie however has a sister volunteering – teaching in Africa somewhere (the name eludes me – sorry) and they have two university – national libraries, but nothing else was mentioned for that country. We then moved onto the topic of whether these libraries in developing countries should be started off (infrastructure) and maintained in paper or digital (plastic). After this segway we then started to discuss the significance of world librarians on the context of our school libraries in terms of communicating, sharing, and exchanging information and possibly books and eBooks. We also talked about school level clusters and posted our discussion findings onto the forum. We then spent the last few minutes looking for articles on the topic…

http://www.worlib.org/index.shtml

http://www.publiclibraries.com/world.htm

http://www.lib-web.org/

http://www.wdl.org/en/

 

The significance of world libraries in relation to my inquiry topic is rather unique as I am once again a fish in s strange pond, and I spend most of my year “over there” and not in BC Canada.  Over the last ten years I have spent my life teaching in non-English speaking countries. Every country I have lived in or travelled to, has had it’s own unique sets of issues and successes.

 

Mainland China has an enormous population and a great value on reading and education. With China being open for business and tourism, the need to speak another language is growing. English is the most common second language studied, as that is where the money is coming from, and Japanese and Korean are close behind. Even though there are many English language schools popping up around the country, there is still little to no English book section in public libraries. The only time I saw English books in a library was in the International schools or the local bilingual schools. The public libraries have no English section and neither do the bookstores. As more expatriates are coming to live and work in China, in some of the more popular cities you may now be able to find one English bookstore. I found two in Guang Zhou last year in a city of fourteen million people! I cannot predict the future of Chinese libraries as they do not use the Dewey Decimal system for cataloguing their books, and they are severely restricted and censored by their government.

 

The same went for Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.  All libraries are in the Mongolian language (which is written in Russian Cyrillic by the way). After two years in “UB” I bought my first Amazon Kindle (350$USD and only available in the USA then), a cover, and some books all for a meagre 500$USD!  Mongolia is constantly in a state of flux and the money comes from “the west” (USA, Canada, Australia, UK), Germany, Korea, Russia, and Japan.

 

After two more years there, I moved to Phnom Penh Cambodia. The Khmer are rebuilding their country and there are libraries, but they are all in Khmer and in paper, as most people (80%) are extremely poor and do not have access to electricity for light or AC, never mind computer. Mobile phones are cheap and abundant, but the vast majority are not smart phones. Again the disparity between the few extremely wealthy families (5%), the struggling middle class (15%), and the majority of the poor prevents libraries from spreading and becoming digital. Local university textbooks are photocopied as well, to keep the cost as low as possible. When in Phnom Penh I was shocked to see used bookstores, which had started and spread from the backpackers coming in and out of the Indochine. I was also flabbergasted to see ONE English bookstore, courtesy of the expatriate community living in Phnom Penh (NGOs, UN for the Khmer Rouge trials, World Bank, WHO, UNESCO, and my IBO school). After two years my Kindle was now down to 200$USD and were now available world 2wide (for the most part).

 

Singapore has somehow maintained their English language skills from the colonial days and has an amazing “first world” public library system. In fact they have paper books in English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, and Hindi! They are also now branching out into digital eBooks, and I will be exploring that once I return in August!  There are also several bookstores throughout the island – country and all books are in above-mentioned languages. I cannot tell you how fantastic it is to go into a bookstore after all these years! In fact I tend to get overwhelmed and have to leave! Once I remember how to breathe, I go back and make a list of what I want to get for my Kindle!

 

Overall I have seen libraries in all shapes and sizes over the past ten years in several developing countries. My conclusion is that where there is a working middle class with disposable income, I am finding more libraries, more ICT, and more of the two combined.

I have the basic unit plan up and ready. Now all I need to figure out is the ICT – digital media that would best fit this  group of writing for the summative assessment…

Autobiography UP CWI Y8 SY1213 JBL

 

Thursday July 18th 2013

O.M.G!

a GIANT note of thanks to Tess and her storybird “10 minutes of fame!” http://storybird.com/ I am LOVING this website for my auotbiogrpahy unit! I made a demo and if I can figure it out – anyone can! Plus I love that the artwork is provided, and then students won’t panic over drawing, or me worrying about a picture bibliography!

Woot woot! Enjoy the demo…

A letter for Israel – my storybird demo…