Jennifer's LIBE 477B 951 Summer 2013

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…

LIBE 477B Week Two Notes:

LIBE 477B 951 Special Topics in Library Education:

ICT (Information, Communications, technologies)

Aka Media & Technologies – Digital Technologies

Prof: Jenny Arntzen

Class Notes

Monday July 8, 2013

Class thoughts – where we are now – upper most in our minds – 3 sentences…

• Being responsible to our students
• Final project needs direction
• ICT Vision statement needed for self & school
• Use of iPads in classroom
• Enjoying self exploring in class
• Role of library in inquiry based learning
• Student driven curriculum… peer teaching
• Promoting reading – via blogging
• ICT committee – need of policy, vision or mission statement
• Blooms Taxonomy & ICT handout blend
• Overwhelmed by amount of ICT out there
• Parents & communication – how to use ICT…
• Applicability of ICT
• Building community
• Classroom blog or website
• Professional Learning Network
• Connections to nature and people
• Revolution!
• Picking appropriate ICT for the class
• How to communicate with parents when not their full time teacher via ICT
• What does research say?
• Making world connections with ICT
• Movement of ICT… SMART boards to iPads… (Fad vs. research/plan)
• Reading levels of ICT (local & provincial info-resources)
• Disconnection in schools, only using ICT as tools, what is the purpose?
• How to teach the new literacies via social media?
• Learning Commons versus traditional library role
• Inspiration by “pintrest”
• Made for school library ICT!

Groups of common interests – inquiry based learning

Whole class mindmeister for our group (via twitter & imbed the link on my blog)

15 minutes of fame:

Sophia: pintrest… “pro-ana” (pro-anorexic) if looking for pix of skinny girls, there u be. Make boards on topic. Add visuals from all over. Can “pin” things you like. Can be added to your blogs. Trend of text cluttering.

I enjoyed Sophia’s presentation and her first hand knowledge of the website. I tried it out and unfortunately I was not impressed. Upon signing in I had to automatically choose 5 Pintrests to follow. I deeply resented this, I have never been on the website and did not know what to choose or where to go to find something of genuine interest. Once I realized that I could not circumvent this step, I then had to choose. I explored a few categories, and to be honest I felt insulted. I did not appreciate being labeled in the “Geek” category. Why is Tolkien and Star Wars geek? Why is it predominately considered a male category too? I felt that this was a “needle in a haystack” website, where I will have to shift through a TON of stuff only to find something so small. Plus I am deathly allergic to cats, I do not cook, and I do not feel that I can use this site which is “pro-ana” since I teach and am a role model for middle school girls. Over all I do not think that I will be using this website. I will though pass it onto the 2 visual arts teachers at my school, in case they are looking for another online way to document their classes artwork.

Amy: social bookmarking (easy to use, able to organize, able to annotate, able to share it, needs to be pretty/visual). “zootool” http://zootool.com/ “educlipper”  https://www.educlipper.net/   “draggo” http://draggo.com/  “delicious” https://delicious.com/

I enjoyed Amy’s presentation and her knowledge and flexibility about so many different websites, I’m never going to use these though, as I already have too much to do already, and my school has me on all things Google and Powerschool. This is just another thing to do and password to remember. I am quite capable of managing my bookmarks bar and files. I also use hyperlinks in my e-documents! I also prefer paper to mind map on, as I can put it up on the walls and use that to create  “an environment of learning.”

Jorden:  “Genius Hour” students pick a topic – “passion projects” 20 minutes a day, an hour a week, teacher chooses. (Structure? Free-range inquiry based – what are the results? How are they assessed? Where does this fall into curriculum? As a CCA?)

I enjoyed Jorden’s presentation and her enthusiasm for her topic. However I was seriously concerned about how unstructured this was. I’ve been in Inquiry Based programs for the last 10 years and I was very surprised at how lenient this was. I had many questions to ask Jordens’ peers who run this. Is this just a “free period” once a day or week? What are the results? How is the knowledge shared? Is this assessed? If so, how is it assessed? Does this go onto the repot card? If so under what subject? Where does this “Genius Hour” fall under for curriculum? Would this be better as an after school club or activity? Where are the unit planners to back up this idea? Where are the scaffolding documents to support the learners? How would a teacher keep track of the students and 20 some odd different task? Where is the task sheet? What is the end goal? How will the teacher document the “baby steps” or formative assessments, which the students take along the way? How does one recognize if this is a success or failure?  I do love inquiry based learning, but not like this “free range” approach. Inquiry based learning is a bit more labour intensive but the results can be phenomenal! I do not think that I could support this idea with out a better understanding and documentation.

Blog tonight: what will my final project be?

I am still undecided but I am more than happy to help the “Inquiry Based Learning” group. I could look into some of the upcoming changes in the IBO MYP as my “aside” if need be…

Tuesday July 9, 2013

Final project group check in – inquiry based learning

Group discussion: “structuring an inquiry”

What is structure? For problems…

Process: model, design cycle, framework

Participants: we love them, relationships, composite unity, prior knowledge, experience already known, creating more than 1 meaning.

Purpose:  authentic piece of assessment, playing to strengths, self motivation, motivation & participation (intrinsic/extrinsic), being engaging, a safe environment, pushing kids out of their comfort zone, emotion & trust, ever changing goals, evolution of the task.

BC ministry blog conversation, No grades, Use of rubrics http://rubistar.4teachers.org/

Institutional isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell)

• Self-shaping the institution as a living organism
• Made up of people who bring it to life
• Philosophy, perspectives, practices are expressed inside of it
• Can sustain it’s own existence
• Not all things are in a policy – explicit
• How much change can happen? Resource variables
• Recreating the conditions a mind sets that sustain it
• Inquiry based learning changes the power balance, more towards teachers/students
• Less curriculum- grade driven
• Conveyed through normative practice, coercive practice, and mimetic
• http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/org_theory/Scott_articles/dimag_powel.html

Conservative Dynamisms (Dynamic Conservatism)

• Larry Cuban “oversold & underused”
• Transmitting knowledge, usual methods on new technology  (lecture 2 ppt 2 online notes)
• Important topics rendered dull
• Teacher directed learning and in charge
• Cynical passive – aggressive response to ICT
• Ignores responsibility to students
• http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/dynamic-conservatism-and-stability-in-teaching/
• http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/

Socio Cultural Homeostasis (Antonio Domasio)

• Human cognition
• Interconnectedness as people
• Feel first, then think, then rationalize behaviour
• The ways we use words., invoke responses in others
• Using words to make connections between people
• Things that stay the same
• How things stay the same
• Cultural and individual change
• How to maintain that change
• Pressure from our Socio Economic Cultural status to NOT change
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_25uUpippE
• http://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness.html
• http://discovermagazine.com/2010/dec/17-art-science-peer-into-the-mind#.Udxfgj6gl8s
• http://www.usc.edu/programs/neuroscience/faculty/profile.php?fid=27
• http://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1008328&CFID=8833770&CFTOKEN=98808467

15 Minutes of Fame…

Kristine – homeroom blog on word press. Loved the human touches, tried/failed experiences, offering insight and inspiration, homework page, schedule.  1 blog per class or add pages? “Keep It Simple Sweetheart.” Policies that govern student www usage. How to get the students involved in the blog…

Karen & Sandy – weebly making a website.  Keeping track and organized.  Getting students making a website, proof reading skills & responsibility from gaining a true audience.  Ensure www etiquette.  High expectations & guidelines are needed.  Can be free or paid for, more storage space & features if paying. Step by step with sandy.  Drag and drop techniques.  Can collaborate and add people.

Wednesday July 10, 2013

Fostering cultures of reading (library and digitally) as we share our learning

Cultural change in our schools with the library and the teachers we work with

Yesterdays how & why things are not changing in the current system

The cycle of the old mentoring the new with old school knowledge or skills

Today how we can support teachers with their ICT skills

Tomorrow the ideas of what it means to have networked or worldwide libraries… a chance to implement change!

30 minutes for final projects…

Connecting the train of thought

• Autopsies
• Self creating
• Living organisms
• Property living entity
• Ecological beings
• Connections
• Structural coupling
• Autonomic
• Continuity
• Consciences
• Human being as a biological, cognitive, cultural, technology
• Linguistic cognitive domain (tones & connotations)
• Being thoughtful about the ways we communicate in our lives (personal & professional)
• Participation vs alienation
• Supporting cultural changes in schools
• Change of belief systems & knowledge levels
• Change is hard
• The drive for connectivity
• Solving issues
• Arts… important, evolving, hands on
• Teachers role
• Need to be “live”
• Online (minority on love with it) vs face to face (human nature)
• Online: MOOC, instructors’ presence or preference…
• “EQ” practice
• Conversation practice
• Online technical issues…

15 minutes of fame

Michelle Sprintzios – book trailers: Windows moviemaker, imovie, power director, ppt, animoto (30 secs for free).  Practice voice & timing, music choice,  written summary for the dialogue. Copyright issues – discussion.. can scan book codes and add kids’ trailers to it (destiny)

Karen Shigeno – Bookmarking via diigo

Janet: Global Learner at MontRoyal School experiences – strong Arts faculty. New younger admin & teachers, began the process… Lunch & Learns, every 2 weeks workshops. Explore multiage groupings, collaboration, fine arts, and starting with ICT.  3 themes of exploration (children of the world, leaders & leadership, global stewardship).  Forgot to document and archive their achievements! L

Thursday July 11, 2013

Today – Module 8 Developing World Libraries

• Grade level differences (needs & demands)
• Explore the development of world libraries (diigo compilation)
• Discuss the significance of world librarians on the context of our school libraries (school level clusters & discussion forum postings)
• Discuss the significance of world libraries in relation to your inquiry topic (topic inquiry clusters & blog posts)
• Group work (middle school) discussion over our end vs over there. Mother tongue vs English language, tech available, NGO works in Africa, need for infrastructure, cost of infrastructure, initial setup of paper vs plastic, looking for articles…
• http://www.worlib.org/index.shtml
• http://www.publiclibraries.com/world.htm
• http://www.lib-web.org/
• http://www.wdl.org/en/

Break

Meet in final project groups

10 minutes of fame

Cherise – Google Chrome Apps. Google reader & iGoogle about to be discontinued.  Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/ & mindshift

Lisa – shelfari & goodreads.com 

Christine – padlet with stickies notes, can be embedded, can be blogged, no connections (mindmeister) tweet deck to view all accounts at once (professional/personal) “data smog” being overwhelmed & time sucking…

Wrapping up for today: why XYZ, how to get XYZ, and what are we going to do to enrich, enable, and enhance the experience?

Friday July 11, 2013

Module 9 Where you were when you started, where are you now, where you see yourself going…

Objectives for today: synthesize developing world libraries, share learning journeys, share ICT possibilities, and connect learning journeys

Tweet questions during 10 minute Summations…

Sophia: scoop it! http://www.scoop.it/

Brianne: Memes in class…

Kate:  light bulb moments…

Janet: summation of her journey…

Jorden: summation of her journey…

Sandy: review of her final project… www.archive.org

Karen: reflection on her learning journey… the new blooms!

Kristine: LOTR journey reflection…

Michelle: Padlet review of her learning…

For the blog tonight:

Comment on people’s blogs…

Ketchup:

1 Terrence lim

2 Lisa Lindquist

3 Julie mason

This week:

1 Anna-Marie McGinn

2 Brianne mlnyk

3 Kate Mosley

Ted talk Sugata Mitra

http://video-subtitle.tedcdn.com/talk/podcast/2010G/None/SugataMitra_2010G-low-en.mp4

For various reason good schools do not get built and good teachers cannot or do not want to go

Good places where teaches won’t go to places where they are needed the most

New Delhi slum – computer experiment all over India and worldwide

Noticed children will learn to do, what they want to do, no matter who or where they are

A teacher who can be replaced by a machine, should be

If children have an interest than education happens

Stuff on Google, so why stuff it into your head

Self taught & encouragement improved grades

Photographic recall due to group work and collaboration

Scores go up as students continue and return to researching topic

“Granny cloud” 1 hour a day, once a week via Skype

Self Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs), big screens, in groups, 1 computer per group, or interactive with a Granny

A structure appears without outside influence, and it does the unexpected

Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon

LIBE 477B Week One Notes:

LIBE 477B 951 Special Topics in Library Education:

ICT (Information, Communications, technologies)

Aka Media & Technologies – Digital Technologies

Prof: Jenny Arntzen

Class Notes

Tuesday July 2^nd 2013

Group Buddies:

Jennifer Lazareck

Janet Hill

Lisa Lundquist

Brie Melnyk

Content developments

ICT development

– Skill knowledge

Social Development

-Online social development

– Social media

– Online social presence

Wednesday July 3^rd 2013

Roll call & personal quips.

Back to the blogs…

Reading Q&A in small groups…

2) Individual, Small Group, and/or Whole Class Content Development (Learning Activities)

A) Review Why School – Small Group (post notes in discussion forum)

Small Group Organization – 4 per group, 1 group of 5 (approx.)

Part 1: Old School (Groups 1 – 3)

Part 2: New School (Jennifer, Janet, Brianne, Sophia)

Review Why School – Whole Class

En mass confusion 😛

Blog for tonight, Response to “Why School?”

At first this book seemed to be about why is there a lack of technology in the schools. Then it moved onto what I call “inquiry based learning.” Overall this was a highly depressing article, and I am extremely grateful that I do not teach in the USA. I am also hoping that Canada is not as bad as the USA as I have been overseas for 10 years now.

I have also been fortunate enough to become an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IB MYP) teacher. http://www.ibo.org/ The ENTIRE program is inquiry based learning from the “Units of Inquiry” in the Primary Years Program (PYP), the “Significant Concepts & Guiding Questions” of the MYP and Diploma Program (DP). At the end of PYP (Grade 5 or 6 in Canada) there is the “Exhibition” which is the cumulating of one inquiry based interdisciplinary unit. At the end of the MYP (Grade 10 in Canada) there is the “Personal Project” which is self-chosen task and reflective essay. Even though the IB is geared towards the standardized exam at the end of all DP things (to ensure a standardized report card for students world wide), the questions remain open ended and analytical, emphasizing critical thinking and reflective writing skills. Plus the students who do finish the DP have had to finish a plethora of reflective thinking papers (essays or assignments) from across the subject stream; and on top of that, they also need to complete an Extended Essay (EE), which is a 5,000 word reflective essay on the topic of their choice.

Yes indeed this does require teachers to be busy, however the students are more engaged and the end results are a more authentic understanding and demonstration of the students learning (or lack there of). I consider MYP to be like a marathon: all students have the same stretches and warm ups, drills, and training exercises. Then once ready you line them up and say “on your mark, get set, ready, go, show me all you learned over the last 4-6 weeks!” Therefore there is a time limit (due dates & deadlines) but the students do not really need to beat anyone, except due their personal best.

I am glad that there was a parent who complained about standardized exam based education. I wish more would. They are culturally biased tests, and do not support students from a lower socio-economic background or reflect the imbalance of the American society (monetary, culturally, or linguistically). Not to mention the horrid slashing of the Arts programs in schools, the lack of technical-vocation high schools, and closing of libraries – resources nation wide!

I actually recommend Canadian universities to my students when overseas, as they would not have to do an S.A.T exam, plus our education is just as old and good, and cheaper than the USA! Not to mention the fact that we do not go around shooting each other. My students who come form a non-English speaking country might have to do a TOFEL exam, but they often can circumvent that with their Language A English DP score. In some cases DP graduates can get first year credit from their DP courses! (A moment to gloat for my female Indian student – whose parents do not speak English – who received a 6/7 in her IB DP Language A English class – I am a proud teacher!) Therefore UBC you better get ready for my stellar IB students!

On a personal aside; I would never have passed in the American system, as I do not test well. Yet I have managed two bachelors’ degrees (Arts & Education) and am up to my ninth language or so, while living overseas and accumulating knowledge first hand about new countries and cultures. Not to mention improving my own personal professional development through the IBO courses, in house training, UBC, various Singaporean Performing Arts schools, and the Royal Shakespeare Company! I never cease to amaze myself and my mother these days, and she or I will gladly tell you all the horror stories I had earned during my school years in Winnipeg. Being a free spirit with a stubborn streak and a tendency to sleep during boring lectures, it is nothing short of a miracle that I was able to pass through the system of “teach to the test.” Good thing my university choices were essay based and I could chose the topics!

In conclusion I found this article as a depressing display of the current state of American education. I hope that Canada is not in the same boat, as I already enjoy the inquiry-based model of education while working in IB schools overseas. I also hope that this novella inspires other Americans to take charge of other education system and make the correct changes that need to happen!

Thursday July 4^th 2013-07-04

Twitter: MissLazareck

On twitter, follow the gang. Keeping it professional?

Module 3 in small groups…

Pearltress… connected via my CWI gmail

For tonight’s blog:

Post notes, links, and conversations about the technological aspect of information literacy here:

Think about your notes in terms of cognitive & Cultural dimensions:

Our conceptual understandings: I still do not always trust the Internet and online saving – storage devices. I cannot hold onto to them, so where does the information go? No one has explained this to me yet in a way that I understand, and that lack of physical evidence causes me to doubt and fear that all my work will be lost. I have little faith so it seems in ICT.

Our experiences & Our relationships with technologies: My experiences with ICT are good, bad, and indifferent to ICT. Mostly I find that ICT only works when I do not need it to. It is sort of like “Murphy’s Law” and that ICT will break down or go offline or whatnot when needed most.

Good things are how fast and instantaneous I can communicate with friends world wide and family overseas. How did missionaries live in Asia & Africa before email and AC? I cannot imagine waiting for a boat (months instead of hours to travel globally) for your post (long outdated by the time you got it) or no respite from the heat (not to mention corsets and stockings).

The bad is the overdependence on ICT. What happens to your paperless & wireless classroom, when the Wi-Fi goes down? What happens when you leave your smart phone at home or locked in your desk at work? What happens when files are corrupted and hard drives crash?

The indifference comes downs to the amount of time you want to be online or how much you want to be found. I don’t care for “shoot ‘em up” video games, but I do harbor a secret addiction to solitaire & free cell card games (not to mention that stupid black cat! http://www.gamedesign.jp/flash/chatnoir/chatnoir.html).

Our relationships with each other about and through technology: I find that when blocked from Facebook – I am okay. People back home seem to be sadder I’m physically missing, as opposed to what I ate that day or what quiz I took. Whatever happened to letter writing or emailing skills? If people really do need or miss me that much then call! We can even call text or video chat via Skype Gmail or MSN now too!

When my phone battery dies I can read a book and not listen to my music until I return home. I do not need to play falling fruit or gemstone games on the bus or train. I do not need to watch TV en route either, but actually that makes me more nauseous than anything.

I turn off my Wi-Fi on my smart phone, as I do not want to be found by students or parents after 6pm. I am entitled to have a life and I would rather prefer to walk through the air-conditioned malls, interact with human sales associates, and read. On that note I do love my Kindle and when that does not work or is in a mood, that indeed makes me rather hysterical.

Our beliefs:  Human nature and society have always been a history of change and evolution. We are a species driven by the use of tools and those tools, skills, and level of sophistication has changed over the millennia. We have gone flint stones, to chisels, to the pyramids, to cement and archways, to castles and bridges, to roads and cities, and now skyscrapers, and the Internet. Human nature is driven by the technology at hand, and we constantly desire more of it and better of it.  Those instincts have shaped our beliefs about ICT and reflect in our ever-changing use, desire, and demand of it.

Personally, ICT is a have to not a want to in my life. I enjoy the benefits such as IMAX 3D movies, TV, talking to friends and family overseas via phones and the Internet. Yet, if all the electricity stopped, I’d be most upset over the loss of my AC in Singapore. Then I’d have to go out to the bookshop for something on paper to read, and fried noodles with an iced coffee from the hawker stalls who cook over flames. I’d sweat like a pig while enjoying a good meal and book under an umbrella out of doors! J

Our relationships with educational institutions with regards to technology: I have been through the gauntlet of having nothing, to a computer lab with ICT teacher. Then I went to booking a lab 2 weeks in advance and around the ICT teachers’ schedule, for a class project or research period. After that it was having netbooks to be signed out at a weeks notice, and finally to now where I am in a 1 – to – 1 laptop school where the Wi-Fi is temperamental and the printer-photocopier even more so!  As for ICT, I can take it or leave it as I have been teaching for over 15 years now and I get amazing results from students no matter we did or did not have for ICT at the time. As for me, I can adapt or die and if that seems to drastic, then how about that I could evolve or marry a rich man and retire? J

Technological dimensions:

Learning to use technologies: Learning to use technologies, has been an on the go experience for me over the years. I learn best by doing and having step-by-step instructions or a troubleshooting document/person to help if I get stuck. I will need to be walked through the ICT once, then I need to time to explore, experiment, and either enjoy a great success or fail beautifully. Then repeat.

Learning technologies with technologies: I started on PCs and never had a Mac until last year in Mexico. I still don’t get the big deal. I find what the computer deems as “intuitive” to be annoying. I do like the speed of the machine, but the sound sucks and I don’t do enough with graphics to care about them.  Whatever I am given, is what I use, therefore my indifference to it all helps me be flexible and a quick learner.

Inventing uses for technologies as we learn to use them & Inventing technologies as an evolution of our learning to use technologies: As a life ling learner role model for my students I tend to reflect more at the end of a unit or rotation, and then I go back and tweak. As a full time teacher I do not have the hours in the day to surf and play or seek out new ICT life. Students and I swap pieces of ICT and ideas all the time, as we look for movies, TV, books, information, and music online. My department colleagues and I are really a great team and we are constantly sharing news articles, and stuff for the classroom with one another. It is more in the spirit of sharing and maintaining a constant front per grade level. At department meetings is where we express our comments, questions, and concerns over the unit so far and any end of unit reflection that needs to happen. The Google software and applications are constantly improving and changing, and therefore it’s uses become even more available or adaptable for our classroom.  Like all things we are a work in progress…

Friday July 5^th 2013

Class Objectives: on the blog header…

15 minutes if fame presentations…

Break

Discussion topics for final group presentations…

www.mindmeister.com online mind mapping…

Homework:

3 peer reviews on her blog…

Sign up for mindmeister

4^th blog…

3 Peer Reviews Friday July 5^th 2013:

1.    Consider the breadth of concept development – how much has this person broadened their perspectives about the concepts we have investigated and discussed this week? All of the presenters were knowledgeable in their topics. All of the presenters discussed ways that they have either used ICT or are trying to sort out what to do with it. All of the presenters discussed both their uses, and desires to revise and improve on their usage.

2.    Consider deepening understanding of concepts – is there evidence that this person has deepened their understanding of the concepts covered this week? I found that by using their ICT site/resource all of the presenters showed a good understanding. I was impressed by how colourful and enticing Michelle’s blog was. I was indeed sidetracked by taking on the of personality tests… Overall I felt that all of the presenters knew how to manipulate the ICT resource that they chose.

3.    What about this person’s use of ICT [in their blog] – how have they used digital media to represent their learning? I felt that all the presenters had good visuals and that they were used appropriately. I felt that their pacing was good and that it was easy to follow along if I so desired.

4.     What would you cite as exemplary uses of digital media in this learning context? Again I was greatly impressed by Michelle’s initiative to start and maintain both an educational and fun blog for her classroom. I do not know her circumstances at her school, but I found myself both exploring and enjoying her site. There were some good ideas and I liked the colourful layout. It was easy to navigate and I feel that she has accomplished her goal of being accessible to both students and parents. It is a good model for other teachers who are perhaps looking into this method as a means of classroom or subject maintenance.

5.     What would you suggest as ways to improve uses of ICT in this learning context? I cannot give comments on this as every teacher is in a different situation. Every province, school district, and administration has different rules, resources, and expectations of their teachers and their use of ICT.

For example: I am overseas, I live in Singapore which have their own rules on IP, I belong to an IBO school, we are accredited by Edutrust, IBO, and WASC which all have their own expectations and rules for us. My administrations are males who are obsessed with ICT; I am in an Apple hardware, Google software, 1-to-1-laptop school. I am expected to be online from 8:15am – 4:30pm daily, I need to be one and maintain my PowerSchool duties, maintain prompt communications on my school Gmail account, to use ICT in every summative assessment that I use in the English department, and I am expected to us the laptops in class instruction for both my subjects. I am connected to this laptop from 7:30am – 6pm daily. Not to mention the fact that I will then have to take it home to grade assessments on, as we have gone paperless in the English department, and I use Google docs for the Drama reflections as well.

Now, that being said – who else is in the exact same situation? Most likely none, therefore I cannot comment on them just as much as they cannot on me. However if anyone can figure out a way for me to work smarter – not harder – with my laptop, then by all means please speak up!

6.     Did you find anything problematic in their uses of ICT? Please describe and suggest a way to rectify this situation. I felt that the presenters all used their ICT well in their presentations. Again due to not knowing their circumstances, I cannot comment on this.

7.     Think about this person’s contributions to the learning group – how would you describe their contributions? I felt that the presenters were all well spoken and took ownership of their topics. They admitted when they might be wrong or needed more experience with their chosen ICT. I feel that that is a great quality in a lifelong learner and a teacher when they have the courage to admit and say, “I don’t know how to do this, but I am trying to get better at it.” I feel that students (and an adult audience) will respect them more for being honest and showing curiosity.  It was also great to have some “real world” applicable examples in use for the people who might need either information or inspiration!

8.     What have their contributions to the learning group meant to you and your learning experience in the course to date? I enjoyed the presentations and I liked their ideas and notions. Again I constrained by my own schools’ rules, however I did make bookmarks and notes on their topics and websites for future use.

My 3rd period class was cancelled today, and I went home to blog. Feeling uninspired to write, I decided to read first instead. I read a Danah Boyd Article. I started reading it and was surprised that it was from 2007. As it started with the history of social media, I was highlighting along when I realized that I had no idea what DB was talking about. I skipped to the conclusion and then I decided to go hunt down the websites as “research.”  I was also being a good “digital native” by multitasking as I was listening to music on YouTube. I was curious about Benjamin Britten http://www.britten100.org/home for my upcoming winter Xmas season with my beloved choir IFC http://www.singaporeifc.org/ 😀

True to her words Friendster http://www.friendster.com/ was uber popular in SE Asia and that made me laugh as I have been to many of the cities sited. MySpace https://myspace.com/ was odd at first glance as there was a video of people flipping their hair and it was rather off putting and slightly nauseating actually. Then I was sliding through photos of people on MySpace, and there were only “older people” or 20-30 something’s and most looked like to be musicians, and then I spotted Jay Z & Justin Timberlake. DB was right again as MySpace had transcended into a musician website. I then went onto Facebook to see what changes they have made since August (it’s blocked at school at & I go offline at 6pm daily to have some human time.) While on FB I put a few status questions up for my monkeys (my term of endearment for my students), which I also found funny as DB mentioned social grooming (with monkey photo) in her Harvard video clip! 😀 How apropos!

After that I was sidetracked by two advertisements for http://www.justmillionaires.com/ and http://www.jdate.com/ I signed up just for fun to see what would happen and if any money was required. No money is required to date a millionaire so it seems, but to get access to people on jdate you do have limited access unless you want to pay. In addition, I think I recognized three men from my hometown! :O Personally I don’t believe in online dating, as people can lie even easier from behind their screen. That being said I do have friends who swear by it. I guess I have earned my “old & bitter” badges over the years of “live dating.” Is that even a term now? (Sigh.)

I will chalk up this experience and “whatever happens” to my experiment with Social Media for the day. Overall I did enjoy reading Dr. Danah Boyds’ article and I am becoming a fast fan of hers as I like her way of speaking, her creative bluntness when writing, and her personable presence when public speaking.

Now I must return to THIS class and blog out my feelings about Inquiry Based Learning. Wish me luck! …