Instructional Technology @ WHS

A Post From: Choosing Democracy

2011-05-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

Mr. Duncan. You Are A Shining Example

This was a blog post from David Reber, Topeka K-12 Examiner May 21st, 2011. You can see the blog here.

Mr. Duncan,

I read your Teacher Appreciation Week letter to teachers, and had at first decided not to respond. Upon further thought, I realized I do have a few things to say.

I’ll begin with a small sample of relevant adjectives just to get them out of the way: condescending, arrogant, insulting, misleading, patronizing, egotistic, supercilious, haughty, insolent, peremptory, cavalier, imperious, conceited, contemptuous, pompous, audacious, brazen, insincere, superficial, contrived, garish, hollow, pedantic, shallow, swindling, boorish, predictable, duplicitous, pitchy, obtuse, banal, scheming, hackneyed, and quotidian. Again, it’s just a small sample; but since your attention to teacher input is minimal, I wanted to put a lot into the first paragraph.

Your lead sentence, “I have worked in education for much of my life”, immediately establishes your tone of condescension; for your 20-year “education” career lacks even one day as a classroom teacher. You, Mr. Duncan, are the poster-child for the prevailing attitude in corporate-style education reform: that the number one prerequisite for educational expertise is never having been a teacher.
Your stated goal is that teachers be “…treated with the dignity we award to other professionals in society.” Really?

How many other professionals are the last ones consulted about their own profession; and are then summarily ignored when policy decisions are made? How many other professionals are so distrusted that sweeping federal legislation is passed to “force” them to do their jobs? And what dignities did you award teachers when you publicly praised the mass firing of teachers in Rhode Island?

You acknowledge teacher’s concerns about No Child Left Behind, yet you continue touting the same old retoric: “In today’s economy, there is no acceptable dropout rate, and we rightly expect all children – English-language learners, students with disabilities, and children of poverty - to learn and succeed.”

What other professions are held to impossible standards of perfection? Do we demand that police officers eliminate all crime, or that doctors cure all patients? Of course we don’t.

There are no parallel claims of “in today’s society, there is no acceptable crime rate”, or “we rightly expect all patients – those with end-stage cancers, heart failure, and multiple gunshot wounds – to thrive into old age.” When it comes to other professions, respect and common sense prevail.

Your condescension continues with “developing better assessments so [teachers] will have useful information to guide instruction…” Excuse me, but I am a skilled, experienced, and licensed professional. I don’t need an outsourced standardized test – marketed by people who haven’t set foot in my school – to tell me how my
students are doing.

I know how my students are doing because I work directly with them. I learn their strengths and weaknesses through first-hand experience, and I know how to tailor instruction to meet each student’s needs. To suggest otherwise insults both me and my profession.

You want to “…restore the status of the teaching profession...” Mr. Duncan, you built your career defiling the teaching profession. Your signature effort, Race to the Top, is the largest de-professionalizing, demoralizing, sweeter-carrot-and-sharper-stick public education policy in U.S. history. You literally bribed cash-starved states to enshrine in statute the very reforms teachers have spoken against.

You imply that teachers are the bottom-feeders among academics. You want more of “America’s top college students” to enter the profession. If by “top college students” you mean those with high GPA’s from prestigious, pricey schools then the answer is simple: a five-fold increase in teaching salaries.

You see, Mr. Duncan, those “top” college students come largely from our nation’s wealthiest families. They simply will not spend a fortune on an elite college education to pursue a 500% drop in socioeconomic status relative to their parents.

You assume that “top” college students automatically make better teachers. How, exactly, will a 21-year-old, silver-spoon-fed ivy-league graduate establish rapport with inner-city kids? You think they’d be better at it than an experienced teacher from a working-class family, with their own rough edges or checkered past, who can actually relate to those kids? Your ignorance of human nature is astounding.

As to your concluding sentence, “I hear you, I value you, and I respect you”; no, you don’t, and you don’t, and you don’t. In fact, I don’t believe you even wrote this letter for teachers. I think you sense a shift in public opinion. Parents are starting to see through the façade; and recognize the privatization and for-profit education reform movement for what it is. And they’ve begun to organize – Parents Across America, is one example.

To save yourself, you need to reinforce the illusion that you’re doing what’s best for public education. So you
play nice with teachers for one day - not for the teachers but for your public audience...

No doubt some will dismiss what I’ve said as paranoid delusion. What they call paranoia I call paying attention. Mr. Duncan, teachers hear what you say. We also watch what you do, and we are paying attention. Working with kids every day, our baloney-detectors are in fine form. We’ve heard the double-speak before; and we don’t believe the dog ate your homework. Coming from children, double-speak is expected and it provides important teachable moments. Coming from adults, it’s just sad.

Despite our best efforts, some folks never outgrow their disingenuous, manipulative, self-serving approach to life. Of that, Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example.

What Employers Want

2011-05-18T13:09:00.001-04:00

I was listening to NPR this morning and there was a story out of Aberdeen, SD. Apparently, there are plenty of jobs in Aberdeen, but not enough "employable" people. Aberdeen Mayor Mike Levsen says of his town's employers, "All they're asking is minimum education, good work habits, pass the drug test, show up for work on time and follow directions."

It got me thinking, "Are we graduating employable people?" Mr. Levsen's list are all traits that we, as parents, educators, and community leaders, want for our children. As professional educators, we encourage students to stay in school, pay attention in class, and get an education. Teachers give students tasks and assignments that provide them with opportunities to develop their work habits and follow directions. Administrators have tardy and attendance policies to encourage students to attend classes. Despite our best intentions and efforts, however, many high school students choose to not follow directions, not attend class, not complete assignments, not practice reading/writing, not try. Many students are making poor decisions outside of school, as well, that may compound their issues and reduce their "employability."

I realize (and am thankful) that there are many great, hard-working, focused, law/policy-abiding students at WHS. If I were pressed to say what percentage of students were "employable" by Mr. Levsen's standards, I'd say that 80% of our high school students are. However, if my estimate is correct, 20% of students at WHS who choose to not be "employable" equal approximately 160 students. In my opinion, that number is way too high and I hope we can someday reduce that number to zero.

8 Tips to Keep Your PC Virus-Free

2010-12-13T16:05:00.009-05:00

1. Install an antivirus program. No need to spend any money. I recommend downloading Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). MSE will update and run automatically, IF the machine is clean when it is installed. While you're at it, download Malwarebytes (MBAM). This program does NOT run in real-time, so you'll have to update it and run it from time to time. I recommend once a week. Be careful not to have too many antivirus programs on your machine. Too many antivirus programs may slow your machine down to a crawl OR they may see each other as threats. Other FREE anti-malware programs rated by Consumer Reports include Avira AntiVir Personal, AVG (Free Edition), and avast! SUPERAntiSpyware was also recommended by a trusted colleague in the IT field. Again, I suggest you pick one in addition to MBAM. Don't download all of these freebies onto one machine.

2. Run antivirus updates and scans at least weekly. Viruses/malware/spyware are constantly being written and released into the world. MSE will update and scan automatically (assuming you don't already have a virus that turns it off and prevents it from updating). Update Malwarebytes and scan your machine AT LEAST once a week.

3. Keep Windows (operating system) updated. When that little yellow shield (XP) pops up and tells you updates are ready, click Install. You can set up Automatic Updates under the Control Panel.

4. Keep other programs updated. Programs such as Java, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, etc. should be updated on a regular basis to close vulnerabilities that malware uses to exploit machines.

5. Do not open OR download suspicious attachments in email. Repeat, do NOT. When in doubt, delete the email. If you feel you MUST open a suspicious attachment, right-click the attachment and Scan with Malwarebytes (assuming you have updated MB in the last week) BEFORE you open it. While I'm on the subject of email, do not open suspicious links, either.

6. Do not click banner ads or pop-ups. Ever. Trust me, you're not going to win an iPad.

7. Do not take quizzes on or download apps from Facebook. There is no software that will show you who unfriended you or who is stalking you. What it MAY do is load some neat keylogging software that will collect information from your computer including your usernames, passwords, and sites visited.

8. Be wary of Flash/Thumb drives. The conficker (AKA conflicker) virus is spread through flash drives and USB ports. You can use MSE to scan and clean flash drives.

Lastly, get in the habit of backing up your files (docs, music, video, etc.) on an external HD, the server, or online to protect your work. Free online storage can be found at Dropbox (2GB of Dropbox for free), Windows Live SkyDrive (25GB), MozyHome (2GB), and ADrive (50GB). You can also save files in Google Documents through GMail or a Google account.

I hope this helps!

If We Were Really Serious About Ed Tech

2010-12-13T10:47:00.001-05:00

This is a post by Scott McLeod

If we were really serious about educational technology, we would… [here are 10 to get you started]

show students how to edit their privacy settings and use groups in Facebook instead of banning online social networks because they’re ‘dangerous’ and/or ‘frivolous’;
teach students to understand and contribute to the online information commons rather than ‘just saying no’ to Wikipedia;
put a robust digital learning device into every student’s hands (or let them bring and use their own) instead of pretending that we live in a pencil, notebook paper, and ring binder world; integrate digital learning and teaching tools into subject-specific preservice methods courses rather than marginalizing instructional technology as a separate course;
understand the true risk of students encountering online predators and make policy accordingly instead of succumbing to scare tactics by the media, politicians, law enforcement, computer security vendors, and others;
find out the exact percentage of our schools’ families that don’t have broadband Internet access at home rather than treating the amorphous ‘digital divide’ as a reason not to assign any homework that involves use of the Internet;
treat seriously and own personally the task of becoming proficient with the digital tools that are transforming everything instead of nonchalantly chuckling about how little we as educators know about computers;
recognize the power and potential (and limitations) of online learning rather than blithely assuming that it can’t be as good as face-to-face instruction;
tap into and utilize the technological interest and knowledge of students instead of pretending that they have nothing to contribute;
better educate and train school administrators rather than continuing to turn out new leaders that know virtually nothing about creating, facilitating, and/or sustaining 21st century learning environments;
and so on…

What else could we add to the list?

It’s almost 2011. Isn’t it time for us to get serious about educational technology?

Top Five Tech Myths

2010-10-27T11:09:00.001-04:00

This is an article by Megan Kaesshaefer for Scholastic.com. You can access it here.

True or false: Technology in the classroom helps kids learn. A new survey reveals the answer, and the top five myths surrounding technology in K-12 classrooms.

Myth 1: New teachers who have greater access to technology are more likely to use it.
The Reality: A teacher's experience and age don't affect how often or well she uses tech. About 72 percent of frequent users have taught for 10 years or more.

Myth 2: Only high-achieving students benefit from using technology.
The Reality: Technology doesn't discriminate. Using technology helps to engage all types of students: high achievers, English language learners, and students with special needs.

Myth 3: Kids today are so comfortable with technology that teachers don't necessarily need to use it in the classroom.
The Reality: Kids may use tech on their own time, but fostering 21st-century skills is best done through active learning in a classroom setting. Plus, setting a good example encourages students to use technology properly and effectively.

Myth 4: Teachers and administrators are on the same page about classroom technology use.
The Reality: While 92 percent of administrators say they are "supportive" of new technology use, only 66 percent of teachers say their administrators actually are.

Myth 5: Teachers feel well prepared to incorporate technology into instruction.
The Reality: Many teachers don't feel prepared to teach 21st-century skills or use technology in instruction. Many believe advanced teacher-to-teacher training would help.

Tech Quiz
What Kind of User Are You?
Researchers used the following criteria to assess teachers' technology use. Where do you match up?

Frequent user: You've got a whiteboard and you're not afraid to use it. When it comes to classroom instruction, tech is on your radar. Approximately one third or more of your class time involves some type of technology use.

Moderate user: If the technology is available and fairly easy to implement, you'll use it on a consistent basis. You've made sure that 21-30 percent of your class time involves the use of technology.

Sporadic user: Tech isn't a major priority in your lessons. If you can get a laptop on loan, great! If not, no big deal. Approximately 15 percent of class time uses technology.

Infrequent user: Maybe technology isn't readily available, or you prefer more traditional teaching tools, but less than 10 percent of your class time involves technology.

Source: Educators, Technology and 21st-Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths, Walden University
Read the report online.

Sticks and Stones...

2010-10-05T09:47:00.000-04:00

Words may or may not hurt, but pictures and videos posted on the Internet sure can. On September 22, a Rutgers University student, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge after a secretly recorded video of his sexual activities with another man was released on the Internet. This has stirred intense discussions on the news and web regarding cyber-bullying, invasion of privacy issues, hate crimes, over-sharing on social networking sites, and the real-world impacts it has on people and families. If you or someone you know is being bullied, there are people you can talk to and sites that can help. Talk to your parents, a teacher, a guidance counselor, and check out the following sites for more information. If someone is bullying you, you CAN get help.

StopCyberBullying.org
National Crime Prevention Council (Cyberbullying)
Teen Advice on Cyber Bullies
8 First Steps to Fight Cyberbullying
There's at Least One Way to Combat Cyberbullying

What's So "21st Century" About "21st Century Skills"?

2010-09-10T18:33:00.003-04:00

Ask 10 different scholars, "What 21st Century Skills students should learn before graduating from an American high school?" and, chances are, you'll get ten different answers. While I agree that students need to acquire many cognitive, analytical, and technical skills to be productive and competitive in our digital age, I will argue that many of the new educational fads promoting 21st Century Skills are just redressed programs from the past.

According to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, their "Framework presents a holistic view of 21st century teaching and learning that combines a discrete focus on 21st century student outcomes (a blending of specific skills, content knowledge, expertise and literacies) with innovative support systems to help students master the multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the 21st century." Upon closer inspection, the Student Outcomes include:

Life and Career Skills,
Learning and Innovation Skills,
Information, Media, and Technology Skills, and
Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes

Life and Career Skills. Nothing new or surprising here. Man has been working at these since the beginning. Remember the stories of the homo hablis that roamed the Olduvai Gorge? If they hadn't mastered life skills, modern man most certainly wouldn't be around today. Specialization of labor has been around long before the Egyptians built the pyramids. The Greeks and Romans had career military and political figures long before the 1st Century.

Learning and Innovation Skills. Again, humans learned to make pottery, weave cloth, design complex tools, develop agriculture, domesticate animals, write, battle with one another, etc., long before the pedagogues of ancient Greece taught their trustees the importance of seeking the truth. While I agree that students need to acquire new knowledge and be innovative, this isn't just a "21st Century" skill -- it's an all-time, classic skill that humans have had and will continue to need well into the 121st Century.

Information, Media, and Technology Skills. Humans have always needed and sought information. The Egyptians properly predicted the flooding cycles of the Nile to protect people and plan their agricultural calendar. The Phoenicians figured out how to navigate the seas using the stars to trade with far away lands. In 1860, French chemist Louis Pasteur discovered that bacteria causes illnesses and developed a way to heat products to reduce the amount of harmful bacteria so it was less likely people would get sick. So again, the idea of gathering information is nothing new.

As for media, the Sumerians were dabbling in cuneiform on clay tablets in 8000 BC. Egyptians kept records of business transactions with beads and on papyrus. Around 1439, Gutenberg developed the printing press to mass produce inexpensive Bibles. Media has been around for a long time. The medium and speed at which media travels has vastly increased and that is something I'd like to address in a future blog (kids are OK with on-demand learning, but are schools prepared to teach that way?).

The term "technology skills" is so vague that it is difficult to define, let alone measure. Iron tools, paper, pencils, magnifying glasses, chopsticks, etc. are all forms of technology. I believe that P21 authors allude to digital technology (hardware, software, etc.), but there is little specificity. I believe we need to be more specific when trying to define exactly what skills our children need to master before graduating from high school and attempting to become productive and competitive citizens in a global economy.

Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes Of the "Student Outcomes" in the Framework, this seems to be the least imaginative or innovative. Core subjects, I'm assuming, are those age-old favorites the kids love to hear about -- reading, writing, and arithmetic. Add history, science, and perhaps a foreign language (for those going on to college) and you have the "core subjects." This is how schools have been run since the Industrial Revolution. I do agree that every student should have a basic understanding of the core subjects, but many schools simply skill-and-drill their students for twelve years with the same information, preparing them for "higher learning" where they will experience S&D of the SAME (or similar) subjects for ANOTHER 4-5 years. Where's the creativity? Where is the innovation?

I'm not sure what 21st Century Themes or patterns have emerged as we're only 10 years into the new century, but social networking, biometrics, mobile computing, open content, e-books, augmented reality, gesture-based computing, and visual data analysis all seem to show some promise to marketing, entertainment, security, business, etc. in the near future. How many of these things are we teaching/practicing in schools right now? Three, at most. To be truly innovative, creative, and forward-thinking, we need to stop practicing the old model of teaching, and start embracing new ways of experimenting, collaborating, analyzing, and synthesizing information and products. In order to attain any kind of change, teachers AND students need to get used to doing what they're not used to doing.

Why Can't We Be Friends?

2010-08-22T16:07:00.001-04:00

Is student-teacher "friending" on social networking sites appropriate?

Last week, it was reported on MSNBC that a school district in Florida has advised teachers not to "friend" students on social networking sites, claiming that teacher-student communication through this medium is "inappropriate." The guidelines for the 2010-2011 academic year also warned teachers to be careful when using communication to prevent legal or workplace issues that could surface.

Joseph Donzelli, director of communications and printing services at Lee County Public Schools, told the TechNewsDaily, "We’ve heard stories from across the country about people posting things on Facebook that have come back to haunt them. We aren’t the Internet police or Big Brother, we just want our teachers and students to make good decisions — and these guidelines will help them do so." The guidelines are not mandatory by the Lee County School District, but rather suggestions for teachers to follow.

While I understand these very valid concerns, I believe discouraging teachers from establishing a strong online presence is the exact OPPOSITE to what we need to be doing for our students. Facebook can be a powerful educational tool to not only communicate TO students, but also to receive feedback FROM students, gain student insight, and create dialogue on a variety of school-related/educational issues. Adults need to maintain a strong online presence to model proper behavior, safe Internet practices, and monitor for unacceptable behavior. My fear is that if tech-savvy teachers and parents shy away from FB (or simply do not "friend" kids), the online community of young people will have a much stronger chance of deteriorating to resemble William Golding's island from The Lord of the Flies. Young people will be left to their own devices to govern themselves, knowing that adults aren't going to witness, and therefore abate, their sophomoric pranks and inappropriate behavior (e.g. MySpace).

In most of the cases I've read where teachers are admonished for inappropriate online actions or postings, it's usually the teacher's ignorance or ineptitude at fault. Inappropriate comments that weren't intended for students, inappropriate pictures and language posted by the teacher, or teachers not understanding the privacy settings are all lamentable, albeit preventable, mistakes. The key here is having teachers who understand and follow appropriate online security/privacy/ethical practices. The bottom line: teachers shouldn't be discouraged from participating in social networking sites, but ENCOURAGED to learn how social networking works and exhibit appropriate online behavior to be models for our posterity.

Want more info? There are some suggestions in this:
Teacher's Guide to Using Facebook

I'd like to hear your opinion on this subject. Please feel free to comment below.

25 Tech Skills Every Teacher Should Possess

2010-08-14T11:46:00.068-04:00

Below is a list of 25 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Possess based on my experience as well as articles by Laura Turner and Bernie Poole.

Word processing skills (MS Word 2007 tutorial, WP tutorial for PC and Mac)
Spreadsheet/database skills (Excel tutorial , Spreadsheet tutorial for PC and Mac, Database tutorial)
Electronic presentation skills (PowerPoint, KeyNote, Notebook)
Web navigation/search skills (Internet basics)
Basic hardware setup/connectivity knowledge and skills (Hardware tutorial)
Website design skills (Blogger, WordPress, Google Sites, Advanced web design)
E-mail management skills (Gmail tutorial & tips)
Digital cameras (still & video) (Basic digital photography)
Basic multimedia design skills (Movie Maker tutorial, iMovie)
Computer network knowledge applicable to your school system (Network basics)
File management (basic concepts & tutorial)
Downloading software from the Internet (Step-by-step instructions)
Installing computer software onto a computer system (Here come da bootstrapper)
Knowledge of virtual/e-learning environments (Overview of VLEs)
Videoconferencing skills (Overview, Skype)
Computer-related storage devices (CD/DVDs, USB drives, server storage, online storage, etc.)
Knowledge of scanners (Tips from scanning guru Wayne Fulton)
Knowledge of PDAs, smartphones, etc. (PDA vs. smartphone, smartphone history & overview)
Custom Internet search knowledge (Google custom search)
Educational copyright knowledge (Video, slideshow, or crib sheet)
Computer security knowledge and safe practices (Best practices from IU)
Basic troubleshooting skills (Is it plugged in? Did you reboot? Yes? Then try this.)
Interest in technology (Delete technophobia)
Flexibility
Patience