Generation YES Blog

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

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

Pay It Forward Mini-Grants go to one-time-only, service-oriented activities that young people would like to perform to benefit their school, neighborhood, or greater community. Projects must contain a “pay it forward” focus, which is based on the concept of having one person do a favor for others, who in turn do favors for others, and so on, so the results grow exponentially. Maximum Award: $500. Eligibility: K-12 youths. Deadline: applications accepted starting September 15, 2008. More information.

Note: The website doesn’t say “U.S. only” but the website implies it.

One of the best things about going to conferences like NECC is meeting up with old friends and finding out they are still doing the same awesome things that made them friends in the first place.

Here are a couple of really old friends… Dennis is going to kill me for that, especially since he is looking all svelte these days…

Pictured here are (from left) Dennis Harper, founder of Generation YES, Scott Parker, teacher and tech coordinator from Hill City, Kansas, and Ed Gragert, executive director of the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN.)

Scott uses both GenYES and iEARN in his schools. His GenYES students teach students and teachers how to access iEARN global projects and use them in every classroom and in every subject. I’ve written about Scott before - Longfellow Middle School wins Kansas in the World Award for Excellence in International Education is just one example.

Ed Gragert and Dennis Harper were both named to the 2008 Edutopia’s Daring Dozen list, which has their images staring at each other across the page as if they were plotting to change the world! How did the Edutopia art director know that’s EXACTLY what happens when you get the two of them together?

iEARN was also prominently featured in the NECC Tuesday morning keynote by Jim Carleton And Mali Bickley. We heard that people really enjoyed seeing the variety of student projects that they showcased. Real work by real students and real teachers - what a concept! (You can get the webcast of the keynote here. Note: I have not tried to watch it myself, and I did hear that the site is very slow. Maybe the traffic has eased somewhat.)

Another treat - a podcast interview with Ed Gragert from The Teachers’ Podcast — The New Generation of Ed Tech PD blog. If you’ve never heard of iEARN, take a listen to this. In 20 years, over 20,000 schools and organizations, over 1 million students in 115 countries have participated in iEARN global collaboration projects. Students connecting, collaborating, and changing the world, one person at a time.

Here’s to good friends, old and new!

Sylvia

Well, in what may be the understatement of the year, this has been a busy couple of months! The intrepid Generation YES staff has been working on two major projects with a deadline to have both of them done for NECC this month in San Antonio. NECC is a great place to show off new stuff, and we have a lot to show this year!

I blogged about TechYES Science (Announcing TechYES Science) last week, our latest addition to the TechYES - Student Technology Literacy Certification family.

But now the REALLY big news. The exemplary GenYES model is undergoing a major update to make it easier to use and even more aligned with the needs of 21st century learning communities. If you haven’t heard of GenYES (!) — GenYES students learn technology skills and apply those skills to real life issues — teaching teachers technology, building classroom resources, and doing tech support.

GenYES 2.0 is a proven way to help K-12 schools leverage students’ tech-savvy passion to integrate technology in every classroom. Empowered GenYES students inspire teachers to use technology and provide help when and where they need it.

• All resources online for ease of use
• New student-powered online help desk for the whole school
• New student project tools and teacher class management tools
• New blog and wiki tools
• Activity guides, project starters, and 20+ units of curriculum teach technology skills, multimedia, media literacy, audio, video, Web 2.0 tools, level 1 tech support, and more. Advanced units cover student leadership, community service, careers and more advanced tech support.
• Student certificates
• GenYES students learn collaboration skills, project planning, teaching, mentoring and troubleshooting skills.
• Club or class; upper elementary, middle and high school.

Read more about GenYES 2.0 online or in this downloadable flyer (PDF).

Note: There is a really big change to the way GenYES 2.0 is priced. For the first time, there are NO RENEWAL FEES - GenYES 2.0 is a one-time only site license. This is a pretty big change for us, and I plan to blog about why we’ve made this decision.

Another note: GenYES 2.0 includes all the resources from our Generation TECH student tech support program, which is being retired and integrated into GenYES 2.0. We kept hearing from customers that they wanted students to learn to collaborate with teachers on technology integration projects AND do tech support. So we finally figured out how to incorporate all of these in one easy to use tool.

OK, one more note: For GenYES 2.0, we’ve invented a Web 2.0 application we call the GenYES Technology Assistance Project (TAP) Manager. The TAP manager acts a bit like a help desk combined with a student-friendly project management tool. Any teacher in a GenYES school can request help or tech support by clicking a link. The GenYES teacher acts as a traffic manager, assigning TAPs to GenYES students. And like Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools, the web application gives GenYES students and their teacher a running report of what’s going on in their learning community as they work on their projects.

If you are coming to NECC, come by our booth (7148) and we’d be happy to give you a demo. Soon after NECC, we’ll have an online demo available.

Sylvia

We’re pleased to announce the winners of our first “Go Green” contest. Generation YES students were asked to create a video showcasing their school’s efforts to help the environment.

Our two grand prize winners are:

• Winston Churchill Middle School near Sacramento, California
• Heim Middle School in Williamsville, New York

See both videos here!

Bonus - just got word of another Green contest:
Do Something is inviting America’s middle and high schools to reduce their carbon footprint this fall through the “Increase Your Green” competition. All initiatives must be youth-designed and -led. The competition opens October 13 and closes December 8. Visit the Do Something Web site for complete program guidelines and application procedures.

Sylvia

In 1995, Dr. Dennis Harper was the technology director of the Olympia School District in Washington State. This video was shot then and shows some pretty forward thinking, collaborative learning going on with technology. In Olympia, students were in charge of teaching everyone, teachers, staff and students how to use computers and the Internet. Students built and ran the school website, did tech support, installation and training for peers and staff. You’ll see students from 3rd grade to high school showing how they use technology to improve learning throughout the whole school.

This was the beginning of the GenYES model, just before Dennis proposed the idea to the USDOE, who funded it as a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant. The technology being used may appear outdated, but the idea is timeless — to see youth as agents of change rather than objects to be changed.

For you DH fans out there, Dr. Harper appears about 6 minutes in. (If you can’t see the embedded video, use this link.)

Unfortunately, in many schools today, computers and technology are unused and under-utilized. Ignoring the passion and talent of this digital generation, who make up 92% of the population at any school, is overlooking a solution that works and has worked in many schools across the country.

This video was cut down from the original by Andy Baio of Waxy.org, who collects video and other artifacts about early Internet days. He says, “…it’s clear this public school district was way ahead of their time.” You can read his take on it here.

We put this link in our email newsletter and heard from several of these students (now twenty-somethings) who loved remembering their experiences, but hated seeing their teenage selves. Guess that never changes either!

Sylvia

The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) will be in San Antonio, Texas in less than two weeks, June 28 - July 3, 2008. Sponsored by ISTE, this is the “big” national conference of the year for technology in education.

Every year, we plan our booth with a fun theme (fun = cheap!) and this year our theme is “Go Green.” We ran a contest for our schools to share student-made videos about their school’s green efforts, we have a new booth that’s lighter (takes less energy to ship,) and we’ll be doing what we can to reuse and recycle!

Generation YES will be in booth 7148 in the exhibit hall, with GenYES teachers and students from Texas and Kansas on hand. We will also be participating in several events and panels. Be sure to stop by and say “HOWDY!”

FREE STUFF! We will be handing out samples of our new TechYES Science Student Guide. (I talked a bit about this new product and our STEM initiatives in a previous post.) TechYES Science guides students to a technology literacy certification through science projects. Come by and get one!

Events (link to NECC schedule)
Bridging the Digital Divide in Texas
Dennis Harper, with Trina Davis, Susanna Garza and Martha Peet
Monday, 6/30/2008, 12:30pm-1:30pm

Student-Centered Laptop Integration into the Classroom
Ron Canuel, Eastern Townships School Board (Canada) with Susan Einhorn, Sylvia Martinez, Scott Parker and Gary Stager
Monday, 6/30/2008, 2:00pm-3:00pm

Assessing Student Technology Literacy
Agnes Zaorski, Eatontown Public Schools with Cathy Higgins, Ashanti Jefferson and Sylvia Martinez
Tuesday, 7/1/2008, 3:30pm-4:30pm

Transforming Technology Projects from Good to Great
Melinda Kolk, Tech4Learning, Inc. with Sylvia Martinez, Peter Reynolds, Adam Smith and Gary Stager
Wednesday, 7/2/2008, 12:00pm-1:00pm

Constructivist Celebration - Sunday, June 28. Join colleagues in a day-long celebration of creativity, computing & constructivist learning. Sponsored by the Constructivist Consortium. (Sorry, this event is sold out!)

I’ll also be at the EdubloggerCon pre-NECC event on Saturday. This should be a fun, informal event and a perfect (free!) way to meet virtual friends and like-minded educators. It’s not just for bloggers, by the way, it’s for all tech-loving educators interested in new applications, online projects, collaboration, and Web 2.0. Hope to see Twitter-friends and Classroom 2.0′rs there!

Sylvia

Scott McLeod of the Dangerously Irrelevant blog does a semi-annual round-up of edu-blogs, based on Technorati ranking. For the first time, the Generation YES blog made the list of top 50, coming in (drumroll…) dead last in spot number 54. Yes, we are number 54 of the top 50. (I can hear the crowd chanting in the distance… we’re number 54! … we’re number 54!)

Actually, I kind of like the irony of being beyond last. Because as Scott acknowledges, there is precious little on which to base a list like this. Scott looks for blogs with specific tags related to education. Technorati gives a “rank” based on far your blog is from the top of the list, and “authority” based on how many unique blogs link to yours. (Read how Technorati calculates authority) There’s not much else to measure, except of course which blog you personally like to read.

But doesn’t this seem awfully familiar in education - measuring what’s easy instead of what counts? Technorati rankings are the standardized testing of the blog world. And just as misleading.

For one thing, after I finished admiring my unique list position, I quickly scanned it for my favorite education blog - Bridging Differences. It’s NOT THERE. How could this be? I checked their Technorati authority and sure enough, it’s less than this blog. Impossible. That’s simply insane.

This blog is a back and forth conversation between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch. These women write beautiful, thoughtful pieces that show respect for the other while standing up for what they believe. They both have long and distinguished careers creating real change in education, and yet they stand on opposite, equally principled sides on many important issues. In my mind, it’s the best education blog, BY FAR. If you aren’t reading this blog, you are missing something special and important.

It’s so good, I often DON’T read it. What I mean is, when I see the “new post” indication for this blog, I save it until I have the time I know it deserves. I’m never disappointed.

So why doesn’t their blog have a higher Technorati authority? Probably because Deborah and Diane are not consciously part of the blogosphere. They don’t link much to others, they don’t announce new cool things, they don’t jump into the latest who-said-what-first discussion, and they don’t blog about blogging. Their blog is simply a vehicle for a substantive conversation about the most important issue of all — how will we make the world a better place for children.

Essentially, Bridging Differences is not making AYP. Bad, bad blog.

So here’s my thought for the day. Everybody link to Bridging Differences. Read it too. Go ahead, make my day, push me off the list!

Sylvia