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Tag: edtech coop

The Ed Tech Co-Op Podcast is Back!

I paused the podcast two years ago because I needed to be where new ideas and innovative teaching were taking place. So what did I do? I moved to a place of innovation where ideation, creativity, curiosity, and action abound. This new place is Saigon South International School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The new Ed Tech Co-Op will still offer practical ways to apply great ideas in your teaching. The difference will be that most of the episodes will be with teachers from just the elementary division of the Saigon South International School. The format of the shows will be the formal interview and a new short pedagogical focused approach that we call “shifted practices.” I say “we” because a new partner has joined me.

His name is Dave Curran, and he is one very sharp fella. Dave works as our instructional technology coach, and he models the attributes and skills of a true instructional technologist that we have spoken about many times on the podcast and in this blog.

I will miss working with Mark Hofer and Jeff Utecht, but we can work with multiple time zones to get them on the show from time to time.

Here is the link to the show if you still need to get it. The first new episode is Show 82: Pushing the Play Button. You can subscribe to the show on Android devices through the Android podcast app or Pocketcast. The Apple podcast app shows the show when you search for it, but it isn’t pulling the feed in. I am working on getting this fixed.

 

Edtech Co-Op Podcast with Jeff Utecht

Edtech

If you are not already a subscriber to our Edtech Co-Op podcast, do look to listen to the show via the Posthaven site or subscribe at iTunes. Jeff Utecht has joined the Edtech team bringing to our audience a great deal of information about what is happening worldwide in educational technology. I just posted the podcast, so take a listen.

Mark will be on in two weeks to chat about the hybrid course he is teaching his pre-service teachers at the College of William & Mary.

The Role of the Instructional Technologist in ICL Integration

I look forward to our Edtech podcast this afternoon when Mark will interview three instructional technologists, including myself. One of his questions will be, “what are some of your most effective strategies for connecting with teachers to find ways to integrate technology in their teaching?”. The focus at my school is a broader curriculum that includes technology while focusing on students and their interaction with information and their efforts to communicate their understanding using various literacies (e.g., media, visual, design, information, etc.). We call our curriculum the Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) program, which I will refer to below as I respond to Mark’s question. 

I am also broadening the question and my response to match the one I have prepared for in getting ready for job interviews over the past several years of international teaching. The question is, “how will you make a difference in our learning community?” which gets at the process of helping schools make the shift to the skills and student-empowered learning that so many of us write about. Do look to listen to the podcast, which will be posted later in the week, to hear what the other two instructional technologists have to say in responding to all of Mark’s questions.

In thinking about how an instructional technologist can impact a school, I approach this process from several perspectives. I look to find ways to support ICL integration from a broad, community-wide approach, looking to help shift the school and always being ready on an individual level to engage with members of our learning community to support their use of our ICL curriculum. The following is a mixture of both approaches. Many overlap as this post is a free flow of ideas with little editing and long sentences, as time is short before our podcast. 🙂

Strategies:

Community builder, “celebrator,” and problem-solver> getting out into the hallways, stopping by to connect with teachers during free periods, asking about what is being covered in class that day, helping with “how to” questions in using apps and software, taking care of the quick fix technical problems that come up. Problem solve on the spot: How you can help when a teacher is in a bind. Post comments to teachers’ and students’ blogs and get into teachers’ LMS forums to see what the students are doing. Look to join the discussions. Highlight and celebrate teaching, student projects, and assessment practices via the ICL Update (weekly email to staff) and possibly have a school blog on innovative practices as in our iPad Pilot blog and at the start of the week short faculty meetings and when presenting at regular faculty meetings, looking to have a school podcast/vodcast that shares innovative practices and engages students and teachers to share their stories of learning. I plan to start a student news program posted to the web like we did at a previous school, where students tell the learning stories from their perspective.

Support your risk takers and early adopters> Do whatever you can to support these teachers’ needs. Then, act like a busy bee and cross-pollinate their ideas wherever you can. Get into those grade level and department meetings to share what teachers might be too shy or uncomfortable to highlight from their shifted practices. The change process is a tough one involving various components, especially in dealing with teacher relationships, school culture, “that is the way we’ve always done it” (TWWADI), etc.

Be a learner, collaborator, and relationship builder> sending out emails and mentioning in the ICL Update email that I would love to see how our ICL curriculum can support upcoming lessons and units, then meeting with grade-level teams to collaborate where I then specifically teach ICL skills that support a regular classroom lesson/unit or I do a parallel activity like a WebQuest during the students’ weekly ICL classes with me, essential to be a real listener and learner to understand not only what the learning goals are for the teacher’s lesson/unit but also to understand the teacher’s concerns, worries, hopes in using ICL skills as to how much I might offer ideas for them to try in her teaching and assessment. It is so important to be a good listener!

Another part of my job is being a resource person to help teachers with specific requests for web resources to help support their curriculum. This involves having a full RSS feed of bloggers’ resources and a healthy Twitter listing. Often, the first step to help a teacher try new instructional and assessment strategies is to find resource sites for history, science, etc., the topic they are teaching. You then can make it like a farmer who has planted a seed that needs to be nourished and cared for. Return to see how the unit is going and look for further opportunities to support that can lead to meaningful sharing of ideas. With so much talk about textbooks online and iBooks, look to partner with teachers to help write these books. 

While it is helpful to find resources teachers are requesting, one has to be careful in sharing other seemingly helpful resources to avoid overwhelming teachers with a constant flow of websites to check out. Being selective and then touching base with the teacher as the expert to get feedback on the viability of resources is helpful. For example, I work closely with our math department chair to get her insights on what new resources I find that can be meaningful and worth sharing. Look to create your own school Web Resources site for students with a teacher toolkit section (be very selective so as not to overwhelm) so that teachers at their own pace have access to Web 2.0 tools, media subscription services, reading materials for initiatives, etc.

I used to organize Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT) sessions at previous schools as part of an ongoing professional development system that put teachers at center stage for sharing what works well in their classrooms. The lack of time was the problem, as so few teachers had time after school to meet. This is a universal problem for schools. But this is not to say that these sharing opportunities or book discussion groups are ineffective strategies for ICL integration and the shifting of one’s school. I am finding the “just in time” approach, the curriculum review system meetings and other strategies listed here are more effective at my current school. My eldest son’s school starts school late once a week, so teachers can attend early morning PD sessions. Building in the time and providing a system for weekly PD is an excellent way to support the learning community.

Model shifted practices, and you’re being a teacher– not a technician> work to model in your teaching the discovery, project, inquiry, etc. based strategies you are collaborating with teachers to try and use. Remember that as an instructional designer, you collaborate to create lessons that might not be improved using technology. Still, they shift the lessons’ focus to student-centered learning that helps move the classroom culture of students being more independent and active learners.

Whether one’s school has a set technology class schedule or you are doing some “just in time” instruction, look not just to teach the skills that the students will be using for lessons/units in their classes but look to facilitate the use of more project-based activities like WebQuests and Learning Pursuit research websites that you create and manage through your technology class curriculum. The process starts with the teacher not having to do any legwork in building the WebQuest or Learning Pursuit as they can watch and hopefully buy into a more inquiry and project-based way to do the unit in the future. The next step is co-teaching the unit in the following year. An example from my school is that last year, I asked our third-grade teachers if it would be OK for me to write up and post a RegionsQuest WebQuest that supported their year-long study of American geography and culture. This year, the teachers adapted it as part of their regular curriculum.

The offer to first teach the ICL aspect of any classroom unit with the teacher present during the lesson followed in the future by co-teaching the unit with the teacher eventually teaching the ICL portion, is a good strategy that works. A byproduct of these efforts is that the students experience more constructivist, student-centered, and fun learning activities. They then advocate for themselves, asking their teachers for more open-ended, collaborative, project-focused assessment options that draw on their research efforts. The students share their exciting learning activities with parents who are also reading about them in the school newsletter, blogs, podcasts, etc., which furthers their engagement to push for the shift that engages the ICL curriculum.

It demonstrates that you are a teacher and not a technician unless you are in the position of trying to provide both educational and technical support. If so, you will need help being a true instructional technologist. It is essential to take time at the start of each year’s faculty meetings to share with returning and new teachers what your role is. It is a branding experience getting your job title and skills out to your audience and a buy-in for the ICL curriculum where technology is in the background, supporting the students in learning how to use information and communicate their understanding. I see myself as a learning specialist who uses my understanding of technology and other skills to support teaching and learning in my school. Just as a GATE or learning support teacher would do, I start discussions by asking what the learning goals are– not what technology might be helpful. This is where I tend to think about one’s job title to keep it focused on teaching and learning while also keeping the title just a couple of words so folks will use it instead of falling back on “tech person.”

Leadership> Find ways to contribute to discussions and planning for the vision, mission, and strategic planning of the school, the skills/dispositions graduates of the school should have, how the community defines “learning,” and how it paints the picture of what teaching and learning should look like followed by being part of the effort to develop the action plans to make all the plans a reality. Look to provide the leadership to engage students, teachers, administrators, and parents to develop your three and five-year ICL plans and the community’s vision for what the learning should look like. Help provide and promote that vision. This builds excitement and leads to the further growth of the school learning community. This gets members of your community thinking, talking, and sharing ideas about teaching and learning that engage with your ICL curriculum. Partner with the administration to help design and promote professional development that builds on individual teachers and their expertise. Offer workshops and resources for your parents around their questions and needs and help them partner in guiding their children to be more independent and active learners who are guided to ask questions and seek answers.

When it comes to staff professional development, be persistent for systematic follow-through when either staff members go to conferences or your school brings the PD specialists in so that their new ideas are infused into the curriculum. Thus, having a systematic way to review the curriculum is very important.

Another avenue for leadership, as stated previously, is to highlight and celebrate the teaching and learning at one’s school. Weekly ICL Updates, blog postings, writing articles for the parent newsletter, and tweeting to one’s PLC are ways to demonstrate leadership by celebrating innovative practices and getting the word out. Another significant way to provide leadership is to write articles for various publications, print or online. This celebration also carries over to sharing instructional ideas with the greater educational community. Look to create a group in Curriki where you post lessons and units from your school. Another avenue to help your teachers and school stand out is to nominate your risk takers and leaders for awards, as in the Apple Distinguished Educators program or the editor of THE Journal, who recently requested the names of shifted administrators to be interviewed for an upcoming article.

Curriculum Review System> We did an Edtech podcast on this, and there is a Learning and Leading with Technology article about it, so I will only write a little here. This can be the primary driver for supporting the ICL curriculum and other school-wide learning initiatives, especially when using the Understanding by Design framework. An example of an initiative being supported by the curriculum review system in my school is we recently formalized our Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), where the learning specialists have a more active role in working with teachers to differentiate instruction and assessments. The next step comes in the spring when we use our curriculum review system to review our 6th-grade curriculum, and the TLC team will collaborate in those meetings, building the differentiation into the unit plans. If you want to develop a curriculum review process, this curriculum and collaboration site and its guiding questions might be helpful.

Take advantage of opportunities> When SARS struck Hong Kong in 2003, it looked like a disastrous event on many levels as our school closed and families either left Hong Kong or hunkered down in their homes. We saw a need to keep the school going not only for educational reasons but also for community reasons as well. The opportunity arose to run a virtual school for our elementary division, which pushed teachers to engage more with ICL to devise lessons that students would do individually and collaboratively through our school website and email. Once we all returned to school, we had a boost in teachers being more open to trying new strategies and more blended learning approaches. We did some planning, and each of the following years, we ran a “virtual learning week” in preparation for potential school closure. A further offshoot was for the ICL department to find new tools to deliver online instruction. It was Moodle, followed by our high school developing its own LMS called myDragonNet.

So whether you have some grant money or, like many schools, your administration is talking about blended learning and the possibility of needing to have a virtual school capability due to weather, widespread illness, etc., look to make the most of the opportunity to provide the leadership to expand your ICL program.

Partnerships> I mentioned the partnerships with students, teachers, and parents, but just as important is the partnership the instructional technologist and director of technology have with the librarian to form the ICL team. This unified approach to teaching the various literacies while engaging students in using information to communicate their understanding is so important. The partnership with the administration is significant as one can help shift instruction much easier when the administrators support and model the use of technology and the teaching of the ICL curriculum.

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Hopefully, these ideas can provide some discussion points as one looks at the role of the instructional technologist. If you want to write a job description, look at the mind map I used for a presentation a few years ago, where the participants helped expand on what the instructional technologist should be and not be expected to do for one’s learning community.

iBooks and One’s Personal Learning System

Mark and I discussed yesterday’s iBook textbook initiative on the Edtech Co-op podcast. The show will soon be posted to the blog and iTunes. Hopefully, it offers some new ideas and background information on textbooks to add to your thinking about teaching and learning using digital resources.

Here are some of my main takeaways from the talk:

We need to remember that the iBook creation tool is just one part of a learning system for our students that includes a huge array of apps for learning, connectivity to a world of resources, cameras, and a mic for recording, all in a mobile device thus allowing for personal learning both in and outside of school. The iPad offers a Leatherman-type learning platform and supports the connectivity of the “1 to Many” movement, so we must remember not to see iBooks in isolation.

As future iPads are introduced, the question arises of what a student’s interface is when working with the iBook while also wanting to access other apps simultaneously. For example, we spoke in the podcast about thinking and the note-taking tool embedded in the iBook. Wouldn’t it help learners even more if they could take notes in a mind map and audio record their thoughts while reading an iBook? These two tools may be included in future iBooks, but Mark pointed out that some apps do these two functions. The barrier is that the student would have to continuously hit the home button to get out of the iBook to access the learning tools she wants to access.

This leads me to wonder if Apple can make some productivity apps more widget-like, where they could float on the screen while the iBook is open. It would be nice if a calculator, mind mapper, voice recorder, specific subject/topic apps providing text and images like Britannica, or simply a video feed with a search engine could float on the screen so that a student can access these tools while he is reading in the iBook. Or Apple may offer the possibility of a split screen so that two apps can be opened simultaneously, or one can swipe to a second or third screen with opened apps, similar to Mission Control on the Mac. (Note: One can turn on “multitasking gestures” in Settings to hold a hand swipe between previously opened apps.)

This hope for access to apps to help the student learn beyond the iBook textbook connects to our discussion of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and our hope that Siri on future iPads will offer further supportive and adaptive structures to help all learners. Whether Apple will build in the UDL constructs to the iBook app or use Siri is not that important as long as the learning tools are added to the iPad. Many of our students would benefit if the text could be highlighted as the words are being read to them. Being able to voice record their ideas and thinking either into MP3 files or into text would be another helpful adaptive technology.

How about asking Siri to gather a listing of videos that explain the three branches of the Federal Government that could be watched in the corner of the screen while viewing one’s US Government iBook? The same goes for an art history iBook, which has a curious student wanting to see more images of Picasso’s Blue period and text from Britannica or other sources. It is only a few steps to make these events happen, but it would be nice if the student could be immersed in the learning process, only needing to swipe her finger and potentially make voice commands to access further information.

We also discussed teachers building their iBooks while wondering how classes could collaborate to create eTextbooks. Mark brought up several good points regarding current tools and having access to these eTextbooks on the web for collaboration. Listen to the podcast for further details, as there was much to that discussion.

A connected topic is how a teacher could design and publish an iBook that could include interactive modules, as demonstrated in the Apple iBook video. My interest in developing eTextbooks goes back to a post about “information brokers” who could represent the publishers, media providers, and interactive module creators like Explore Learning to provide a marketplace for iBook creators to purchase copyrighted material to add to the iBooks. While there is so much free and non-copyright material on the web, one really would benefit from including, for example, Discovery Learning video segments and text resources from the vast library Gale offers. Another point is how much of the media and interactive modules would be in each iBook, or would one need to be connected to the web to receive the feed? Again, listen to the podcast as Mark unpacks this topic.

We talk about students “making meaning” and “constructing understanding.” A portion of this learning process is having access to the information and then having the scaffolding to bring it together. What might this process look like for a student using an iPad and iBooks? I am picturing a humanities course with a student reading the assigned iBook historical novel, reviewing her iBook textbook, and using various apps to seek more information while pulling his thinking together in one place, say a mind map or simple interactive whiteboard app. The interactive whiteboard app would be populated over time with screen captures from various sources, notes from the iBooks, and audio files of ideas the student recorded. The building of understanding stage occurs with the help of essential and guiding questions the teacher lists in the iBook textbook or through the school Learning Management System (LMS).

By dragging notes, screen captures, etc., into groups of shared ideas and then using mind mapping lines to make connections between them, the student constructs her understanding by working to answer the questions while making further “brain pop” idea notes in the parking lot section of the IWB screen. Technology could support the learning process as students use technology literacy to choose the best tools/apps for their individual learning needs.

Mark brought up an additional point about this learning process of using all these tools: the students could export their notes or the entire learning document/mind map to be shared with the class for further collaboration and connection-making. Again, it’s pretty cool beyond just reading a digital textbook.

As we know, change starts with validating where you are and what you are doing (the familiar) and is usually most effective when we take small steps that shift us to new ideas and behaviors. The iBook, with its potential for interactivity via simulations, manipulative maps and charts, gaming activities, media, etc., and access to the web, can support the shifting process. We empower students to use their personal learning systems to access information, learning activities, and tools for building their understanding and for being creative to construct projects to communicate their learning. EBook competitors like Kno and Push Pop Press can work with Amazon, Android device makers, and Microsoft to compete with what Apple offers, thus giving our students even more choices for personalized learning systems.

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