Generation YES Blog

An announcement from HASTAC.org:

DIGITAL MEDIA AND LEARNING COMPETITION 2008

The second HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition is now open! The focus is participatory learning. Participatory Learning includes the many ways that learners (of any age) use new technologies to participate in virtual communities where they share ideas, comment upon one another’s projects, and plan, design, advance, implement, or simply discuss their goals and ideas together. Full information at: www.dmlcompetition.net

Awards will be made in two categories:

• Innovation in Participatory Learning Awards will support projects that demonstrate new modes of participatory learning, in which people take part in virtual communities, share ideas, comment on one another’s projects, and advance goals together. Successful projects will promote participatory learning in a variety of environments: through the creation of new digital tools, modification of existing ones, or use of digital media in some other novel way. Submissions will be accepted from applicants in Canada, People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries in which HASTAC or MacArthur have significant experience. Winners will receive between $30,000 and $250,000.
• Young Innovator Awards are designed to encourage young people aged 18-25 to think boldly about “what comes next” in participatory learning and to contribute to making it happen. Winners will receive funding to do an internship with a sponsor organization to help bring their most visionary ideas from the “garage” stage to implementation. For this competition cycle, submissions will only be accepted from applicants in the United States. Winners will receive between $5,000 and $30,000.

Application Deadline: October 15, 2008

Stage: A whole new world
You hear an inspiring keynote at a conference, read a book, or see a colleague use technology in their classroom. It clicks with something inside you.

Stage: Connection
You try to understand the role of technology in your life as an educator. Coincidently, you start to see this topic pop up all around you. It seems to be haunting you. You set up a blog reader and add a few feeds. You find a guru whose words help you make sense of the murky picture.

You read books, start your own blog, or change something in your everyday life. You go to an educational technology conference and attend every session.

Stage: Stepping into the void
You implement a project you never would have attempted before. You get more and more into the subject and are amazed that there is such a vast network out there. You add more blog feeds, listen to podcasts, buy books, start a wiki, subscribe to magazines, and join other networks and conversations. You wonder why grad school never felt like this.

You feel renewed as an educator and lifelong learner. Your colleagues wonder what’s gotten into you.

Stage: Firehose
You try too many new tools and join too many networks. You start to resent it when someone introduces something new. You hate your pile of unread stuff. Your blog feeds start to overwhelm you. No one comments on your best blog posts. It seems there is just too much to keep track of, and it never stops.

You get a bit depressed that you are so late coming to the party.

Stage: The big picture overwhelms
You wonder if what you are doing is just a waste of time. You find analogies to the failure of school in everyday occurrences. Your regular friends look at you funny when you start using words like “pedagogy” and railing about the “factory model of education” in everyday conversation.

You find that it’s not just technology-using educators who feel this way, that education reformers have been saying things like this for decades, even centuries.

You are sure that “school” cannot be fixed.

Stage: Ennui
You commiserate with your network about people who don’t “get it.” People who are coming late to the party annoy you. You tire of the clichés that seemed so fresh at first. You say things like, “If I hear about sage on the stage / guide on the side (or digital natives/immigrants, or anything 2.0, or insert your own pet peeve here) one more time, I’ll kill someone!” You meet your gurus and find out they are just human, and maybe really wrong about some things.

You stop going to conference sessions. Someone accuses you of being in the “in” group.

Stage: Renewal
You accept that you won’t ever be able to keep up with the hype machine and stop worrying about it. Your project goes well and your plans expand.

You start to narrow down your areas of interest and explore them deeper.

Stage: Building expertise
You attempt something on a wide scale, collaborating with other like-minded educators. You find renewed energy as you work with students or teachers and see things change. You find books, even some written decades or centuries ago that support your beliefs. You become better able to articulate the “why” of all this. You think about going back to school. You find experts outside of your newly constructed network.

People look to you for advice and expertise.

Stage: The circle of life
You connect with new people in their own early stages and give them guidance as they figure out what you have figured out. You mentor someone. A student says you’ve changed their life. You learn something new and feel that spark. You rededicate yourself to changing what you can. You think that if these ideas can take hold, even if it has to happen one person at a time, there is hope for the concept of school after all.

You use the phrase, “sage on the stage vs. guide on the side” - see someone’s eyes light up and forgive yourself.

Sylvia

PS Of course, this is not a recommendation, aimed at any person in particular, or suggests a linear path. Sometimes I feel like this all in one day! Hope you all take it in the spirit it’s intended and get a chuckle out of it.

We’ve all heard calls for various kinds of open curriculum wikis. Districts, states and foundations are designing portals, wikis and other online databases so that educators can upload their lesson plans and activities, learning modules, or other bits and pieces of what they do in their classrooms. The idea is that as more educators upload content, the collection becomes a free, shareable curriculum.

Sounds good, right? The problem is that this reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of curriculum.

Curriculum is a statement of opinion - it reflects the author’s beliefs about the nature of teaching and learning. Curriculum is pedagogy in action, the day-to-day plan for how to teach a subject, based on what we think students should learn and how we believe students learn best.

Curriculum is not just a collection of content. It is more than disconnected lesson plans attached to a list of standards. It reflects a person’s or group’s belief about what order to approach topics and what kinds of activities work best for most students. The pacing, depth, and order are all based on these beliefs, which can differ widely between authors. Curriculum authors have to think long and hard about their philosophy regarding the subject area and presentation of the material. Directions for the teacher reflect a belief of how much scripting a teacher needs to deliver the lesson as envisioned. They have to create consistent assessment plans that support and complement the lessons and activities. The pieces — lesson plans, activities, and assessment– hang on this superstructure. Without the structure of a consistent philosophy, these pieces are useless.

Unfortunately, beliefs and philosophy don’t make good subjects for open wikis, at least not the cast-of-thousands Wikipedia kind of success we all imagine. That’s why the calls for open curriculum wikis, free portals, and lesson plan collections that depend on large numbers of independent educators producing bits of curriculum are doomed to failure.

Without a guiding hand and point of view, anything added to a curriculum wiki will have no anchor in a common belief about the nature of teaching and learning. Even hiring editors doesn’t solve the problem. Sure, editors might be able to clean up things like grammar or level of detail. But how will editors collaboratively decide whether to favor student-centered teaching or direct instruction? It will be useless to a teacher who finds that one lesson calls for student collaboration on a long-term project and the next is a 30 minute lecture with downloadable worksheets for students to silently complete.

I’m all for breaking down the monopoly that textbook publishers have on schools worldwide. I’m completely in favor of people using the collaborative power of wikis to build reference and teaching materials that reflect their views about learning and teaching. I have nothing but praise for people who decide to freely share the results of their hard work in public, like the MIT Open Courseware.

But hoping random lesson plans can knit themselves into a coherent curriculum is just magical thinking. At best, teachers may find a few nuggets they can adapt for their own classrooms. At worst, these pipe dreams soak up time, energy and money.

Sylvia

I often hear tech-loving educators say that for teachers to really start using technology in their classroom, the teacher has to first have an experience with technology that is personal and meaningful. Often these educators have had a transformative experience themselves in which some aspect of technology, like blogging or Second Life, provided a professional re-awakening.

Because their own professional flame was rekindled in this way, they assume that all other teachers must have a similar experience to follow in that path. To me, however, professional development that requires a personal transformative experience seems unscalable.

Sylvia

It’s been two weeks since the Constructing Modern Knowledge 2008 summer institute in Manchester, NH, and I’m still processing it. CMK08 was an exhilarating learning experience, both as a participant, an observer, and as part of the team making it happen. You don’t often get to have all those experiences at once!

Preparation
The goal of the conference was to offer a way for educators to spend time being a learner and using technology in deep, rich, constructive ways. A way to “walk the talk” of taking off the teacher hat and exploring what makes learning with technology different. There was no way this could be another session-session-session conference, or even a typical “hands-on” workshop.

So participating in the planning of the event was an eye-opener. How do you create a climate where people feel supported, but will still take risks? What “stuff” do you need? How to structure a day with enough time for working on projects, learning new things, collegial interaction, and sleep. The man in charge, Gary Stager, has had plenty of experience planning these events, but I’ve had almost none. So listening to him talk about how this could work, drawing on 25 years of experience was informative. I learned a lot before the event even started. In the end, each day consisted of a short opening framework from Gary, one guest speaker, and the rest of the time spent working on individual and group projects. Plus evening social events!

The stuff
OK, we brought a lot of stuff. About 100 books that ranged from academic classics to books that are great for classrooms and students. Here’s the list. Lots of books about the Reggio Emilia philosophy of education - they are all beautiful, with amazing care taken to represent children’s work and discuss it thoughtfully. Two large suitcases of Lego and robotics materials. Lots of articles and how to guides. And then when we got to Manchester, we went to WalMart and Staples for more. We bought bubbles, marshmallows, bubble gum, a whiffle ball and bat, a printer, color pencils, crayons, art supplies, an a bunch of other stuff. What’s it all for? Read on…

More stuff
Once we got to the hotel to set up, we found 10 more boxes. Several companies had donated constructive, creative software and materials for our participants. Tech4Learning sent full suites of their creativity tools, including a whole Claymation Kit. LCSI sent MicroWorlds EX Robotics and Inspiration sent InspireData. Make magazine sent a case of Make and Craft magazines. Sibelius/M-Audio sent 3 keyboards and music composition software for us to use. By late Sunday night we had everything ready.

Sunday excursion
In the midst of all this, Gary took several early arrivals on a tour of Boston, his college home town (Berklee School of Music). They went to the MIT Museum and did a guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail. Once back from that, Gary had to rush back to WalMart to buy rice for some mysterious reason - more about that later.

Getting started
Monday morning started the institute. Everyone started to arrive and settle down, install new software and meeting and greeting. The introductions were amazing. People had come from all over the country, and two from Israel and Khartoum. We had kindergarten to high school teachers, math, science, art, administrators, public and private schools, tech coordinators, district — just about every combination of educators you could imagine. After some opening words, we brainstormed some ideas for projects - dancing clowns, musical sculptures, a video or simulation about the immigrant experience, a boat, a kaleidoscope and more. Then people grouped themselves on a project. My job was to float around and facilitate, connect people with resources, open boxes of stuff, find clay or eyeballs or pipe cleaners or debug programs or whatever.

Some groups took off right away. I spent a lot of time with a group doing a video using the Claymation kit and the Frames animation software. We set up the green screen and brainstormed ideas. Some of the ideas worked, some didn’t, and when we did a test with the software, we had our first AHA moment. Working with our test pictures and the software lead to another, wholly unexpected discovery and that lead to an even better idea. Our story took on a new and different shape before our eyes because we allowed it to and we had time. If we had rigidly stuck to the original plan and schedule, it wouldn’t have happened.

Someone started making turtles out of the clay. Why turtles? Not really sure how that happened. But suddenly they were the stars of the movie. Somebody said, “it’s hard to line the turtles up to the previous frame” and someone pointed to the onion-skinning button, and that knowledge was passed quickly around the table. Then someone else sat down with one of the keyboards and composed a song to go along with the movie. We didn’t have to sit through workshops on music software, frame animation techniques, or turtle carving. The idea of “collaboration through the air” that Gary had talked about that morning had just happened.

But I wasn’t supposed to just help one group! So I walked around and asked people what they were working on. Two or three groups were going strong. But I found some people just “playing” with software. Hmm…. that wasn’t supposed to happen, where were their groups? One of the groups had disbanded, some were sitting at the same table, but not working on the same thing. So, I asked our fearless leader, Gary, what to do - should I try to get people working in groups? No, he says, let people approach things in their own way. Offer them help but let them decide to participate. So although this is against my A-type to-do list mentality, I have to trust him.

A couple of people off in the corner are clearly not working on a project. I ask them what they are doing and they say they are doing lesson plans for fall. I encourage them to join a project and learn about some of these tools, to have the experience of learning. No, they say, this is a good time away from the office for them to work on these plans, but they promise they’ll start working on something later in the afternoon. They look at me and smile, clearly hoping I’ll go away and leave them alone. I do.

Some people are just doing amazing stuff right out of the box. What is the difference?

Sarah Sutter from Maine put it like this, “I figured someone would lead us through some exercises, show us some plans, maybe discuss how best to implement these new (to me) tools in the classroom, and I’d receive enough information to work with it later. Nope. Gary told us to take off our teacher hats, and he meant it. From what I observed, the quicker one transitioned from teacher to learner, the better things went.”

The Rice Sculpture and the Texas Boys
On Sunday, the two “boys” from Texas went on the tour of the MIT museum where they saw an exhibit of kinetic sculptures. They came back with an idea to recreate the moving rice sculpture in Lego, and even improve it by replacing the hand crank with motors. This was the cause of the late-night WalMart rice run. Be sure to read Paul Wood’s and Scott Floyd’s blog reflections with pictures and videos about their re-creation of this sculpture.

Scott Floyd - Drowning in rice and other deep subjects
Paul Wood - Constructing modern knowledge

By Monday afternoon, the first version was done - and it was fascinating. It had an organic movement to it that was both creepy and compelling to watch. This was more than a nice piece of engineering, it was beautiful. That was the first piece for me in what turned out to be my big takeaway from the week - the part that esthetics plays in construction of knowledge.

Closure
Each day ended with a circle where everyone could wrap up their impressions of the day. Typically I’m leery of anything that smacks of touchy-feely kumbayah theatrics. But it was important to bring the meta-analysis back to the day. People had allowed themselves to take their “teacher hats” off for a time, now it was time to step back and think about the meaning behind what was happening to them as learners and what it meant for how they might change their own management of student learning environments. More than a few people expressed how uncomfortable it felt to be “thrown off the deep end” and told to JUST DO something. But then almost all said that the feeling of moving past that discomfort and frustration was meaningful and necessary. Gary had mentioned watching for this “mouth-up frustration” as a good sign. But what’s the right balance of frustration and hand-holding? Obviously, in this group, there were as many answers as there were personalities. What does this imply for students?

What I learned
I know I’ll have more to say about this, but to wrap up this reflection, here’s some of what I learned from Constructing Modern Knowledge.

• A workshop plan needs a lot of space for people to adjust it to their own needs. Gary expressed this by not having a set agenda, but “appointments” - lunch was noonish, the speakers started only after they visited with the participants and saw the projects that were underway. The work was first priority, not the schedule.
• Some people walk in the door ready to hand their hearts and minds over to you, some have agendas you will never understand.
• Uncertainty and frustration signals growth and learning about to happen. On the teacher side, it’s tempting to step in right at that moment to “fix it” — which is exactly the wrong thing to do (assist, answer questions, yes… do it for them, no)
• Having more than enough “stuff” let people focus on what they wanted to do, not just what they could do. It became inspiration, not a recipe.
• You have to have enough time to let the process work. People are different, but I believe this unconventional experience worked for the vast majority of participants. It also signals the kinds of learning environments that work for kids.

There was so much more to talk about — the guest speakers, so many other very cool projects, the role of esthetics in learning, but this is enough for today!

To close, please enjoy a video by Michael Steinberg, shot, edited and presented at CMK08!

Sylvia

Hot off the presses - but online for your enjoyment!

Overcoming Technology Barriers: How to Innovate Without Extra Money or Support - Five easy, practical steps toward better digital integration in your classroom by Suzie Boss is in the current issue of Edutopia magazine.

I’m quoted, along with others including Gary Stager and Maria Knee, an innovative kindergarten teacher I had the pleasure of meeting at the Constructing Modern Knowledge 2008 conference last week.

Here are the steps:

• Step 1: Innovate with the Tools You Already Have
• Step 2: Seek Out Free, Easy-to-Use Digital Resources
• Step 3: Overcome Your Fear of the Unknown
• Step 4: Start with Small, Fast Projects That Enhance Learning

And Step 5 ——-Learn with Your Students - YES!!!

“We’ve been trying to talk teachers into integrating technology into the classroom for thirty, maybe forty years. It’s not working,” says Sylvia Martinez, president of Generation YES (Youth & Educators Succeeding). The company enlists students — whom Martinez calls “the other 92 percent of the population in schools” — as part of the solution. “Can we teach students to help teachers use technology more effectively in the classroom? We’ve got twelve years of data that says we can,” she says. (Read an Edutopia profile of GenYES founder Dennis Harper.)

GenYES encourages teachers to learn about technology in the context of their own classroom, side-by-side with their students. Professional development that’s embedded in the classroom has more staying power than one-shot workshops. More than 1,200 schools have participated in GenYES programs, which include training for students and on-site professional development for teachers. Martinez also advises sharing the vision of twenty-first-century learning with students. “Say to kids, ‘Here are the things we imagine could happen with this technology. What do you think?’

Be sure to read the rest of the article for more great practical tips about technology integration on a budget.

By the way, Suzie Boss is co-author with Jane Krauss of a book that’s on my reading list: Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age available from the ISTE Bookstore. It sounds like a real winner!

Sylvia

Wow, it’s been a busy summer!

Two weeks ago, Dennis Harper and Emily McCartan participated in two, week-long summer camps for middle school students in New York. The students learned about technology, but more than that, they learned how to be leaders and mentors. Starting this fall, they will become the first group of New York State Student Technology Leaders (NYSSTL) in their schools in 25 districts in New York.

HFM BOCES News: Leadership and Achievement through Technology Initiative - Camp prepares students to become technology mentors

NYSSTL students will mentor other students in technology literacy using the TechYES project-based approach, and will use the GenYES 2.0 tools to assist teachers to support technology integration in every classroom.

From the HFM BOCES article:

“The one-week camp was part of HFM BOCES’ Enhancing Education through Technology program, designed to create technology mentors among teachers and students in participating schools. These digitally-savvy students hope to tutor fellow students in technology-related projects, while assisting their teachers in learning and using new technology as a teaching tool. The program helps meet the federal goal that all students will demonstrate technology literacy by the end of eighth grade.”

The HFM and WSWHE BOCES already have a strong support system for technology integration, and we know that these NYSSTL students will be a welcome addition to the team of technology advocates and mentors at each school site!

Videos coming soon!

Sylvia

From the Techlearning blog - Where to find extra education tech bucks

This is a nice article with sources of funding for classroom projects, and profiles of what schools did with the awards.

Sylvia

From Innovations in Civic Participation:

Over the next year, through a cooperative effort, America’s Promise Alliance, Corporation for National & Community Service, and Innovations in Civic Participation will be presenting a variety of presentations and engaging people from all over the country in robust discussions that will leave participants with ideas for: best practices, drop out prevention strategies, tools & resources, corporate engagement, funding, and much more.

The first of this free webinar series will be July 25, 2008 at 1pm EST with Cathryn Berger Kaye, M.A. Cathy is an international service learning consultant who works with state departments of education, university faculty and students, school districts and classroom teachers. Cathy will provide a comprehensive overview and speak to creative ways for youth to take action in their communities through service learning.

CNCS Summer of Service grantees will present how Summer of Service has been conceived of as a new American ‘rite of passage’ for young teens.

This is for teachers, executive directors, school administrators, service providers, parents and students.

Company: AMERICA’S PROMISE
Host: Danielle Butler
Meeting Title: Service Learning Webinar
Meeting Date: July 25, 2008
Meeting Time: 01:00 PM [Eastern Time]
To Join Audio Conference
Primary Dial-In: 1 (877) 312-1755
Alternate Dial-In: 1 (630) 693-2190
Passcode: 7592102#

To Join Web Conference
IMPORTANT: PLEASE REVIEW PRIOR TO THE WEB CONFERENCE

To ensure your computer is properly updated, log on as if you were to start the meeting, per the instructions noted below. Prior to logging into the meeting, ensure the popup blocker is turned off on your browser.

1. Copy and paste the following URL in your web browser:
http://web.meetme.net/audience
2. Copy and paste the Meeting Key: 70542224891871
3. Click on the “Sign-in” button
4. On the Meeting Center page, enter your name and e-mail address.
5. Click on the “Sign-in” button.
6. Accept the Terms and Conditions and click “Join” to enter your conference

Perhaps the best commentary ever on how slideshow presentations all start to sound alike after a while: