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Exploring the ‘why’ behind 1-1 Learning

Over the past week or so, I’ve kept myself busy, among other things, reading Pamela Livingstone’s 1-1 Learning – Laptop Programs that Work (link to the book on the Hawker Brownlow website) and thinking fairly carefully about how 1-1 is going to look for my school in 2012. As much as I enjoy reading this highly-detailed and frank account of the pitfalls and pinnacles of a 1-1 rollout, with each new page, alarm bells ringing in my head about a new piece of I’ll have to try, another conversation I’ll have to have with my school’s executive and another report I’ll have to put together in framing my advice.

Still, I find myself starting to answer some of the most fundamental questions around the use of technology in teaching and learning. Most importantly, I’m getting better at articulating why we should be using technology in the first place. Sounds ridiculous, I know – but unless we fully explore the WHY behind technology use and a 1-1 program, there’s every chance that such use will remain, at best, superficial, hit-and-miss and a “bag of tricks” to keep students busy.

Perhaps best of all, reading Livingstone’s work has given me a tidy arsenal of research weaponry to fire at many of the technology skeptics that point to limited correlation between the use of technology and the improvement of student outcomes. In my opinion, what’s the problem with such assertions? Well, both the technology and the outcomes – two of the most bandied-about concepts in education – are often defined as needed, by adherents to basic arguments on both sides of the debate (for instance, those for and against the use of Wikipedia for research). If we define the terms more accurately, however – say, outcomes in reference to high-stakes testing like the HSC and technology in reference to collaboration webs – well then, things start to get a little more interesting (answer: no such study has yet been done to show the effect of web-based collaboration on HSC scores). In other words, in the process of investigating the ‘why’ of technology use in the classroom, we need to be clear about the ‘what’ and the ‘how.’ It’s only in putting the three together that the research and how it is used in framing an argument becomes more meaningful.

I know there’s a million other questions in my head. For now, though, if I know why I’m doing what I’m doing (and how I’m going to do it), I’ll have a reason to turn up to work in 2011. That’s a start, isn’t it?

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Teaching How to Think

Yesterday, I received an email from a Year 12 student I have been teaching for the last two years before she finished her HSC in November:

Our classes were always a pleasure but most of all a privilege, [and] I’m very proud that every argument I used was my own in some little way, which you helped me articulate and develop. Teaching us how to think was priceless, and will never be forgotten.

While these are words that I am unlikely to forget for many years to come, it’s the message that is most heartening. In a climate where success is all-too-often measured in Band 6s (which is the highest performance band a student can achieve in a standard NSW HSC subject), I’ve often grappled with the overwhelming disparity between high-stakes exam success and real learning.

While I remain, at heart, a pragmatist who believes it’s possible to think for oneself and achieve excellent results, I do often question my principles as an English teacher who steadfastly teaches students how to think and how to write, NOT what to write. As an HSC marker, I often see that the highest scoring papers are the most ‘prepared’ – with clear evidence of someone (the teacher, the parent, the tutor, the studyguide…) coaching the student in what to say.

How I reconcile this disparity is the ultimate challenge – one with both ethical and practical dimensions. For now, I think I’ll be grateful that students appreciate me helping them in any way I can to think for themselves, and that it’s this kind of help that best prepares them for life beyond the classroom.

Merry Christmas and New Year, everyone. I’d really like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the time you take to read these posts, for your support, links and comments.

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Trust Them

A few days ago, I had a welcome lesson of my own as I sat frantically marking late submitted work for a colleague in my Year 7 Connected Learning class. Not being able to ‘control’ the lesson, I wrote a list of activities on the board and explained to my kids that I’d be unable to answer any questions or look at their work.

At the end of the lesson, two girls handed me a USB stick with this video on it – their perspective on the importance of child sponsorship. Needless to say, for an hour’s work, I was fairly impressed. The whole experience taught me a lot about stepping back and giving the students control more often. How many times have I sabotaged a potential learning opportunity by thinking that my way is the best way?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8EkeCw8WVI]

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Leadership and Learning with Web 2.0

I just finished my final Masters coursework paper for the year. As a blogger, I frequently struggle with adjusting back and forth between my casual blogger’s if-you-feel-it-write-it approach and the academic vet-everything-before-you-even-think-about-it approach. It’s frustrating when you finish a post only to realise that you’ve made an ordinarily accessible topic overly academic, just as it is when you’ve completely missed the mark by writing a piece better suited to the blogosphere than the lofty halls of academia.

Nonetheless, I’ve been very privileged this semester to be able to explore my capacity as an ICT leader in building a Web 2.0-enabled learning design for my school and evaluate our recent efforts with Google Apps for Education and Moodle. The sum total is the following paper I wrote, which argues that where my system falls short is in compromising the leadership potential of e-learning teacher innovators with increasing managerial demands much better suited to professional IT managers than teachers like myself.

I’m a lucky one. Schools like mine have employed full-time IT managers for at least the last few years, letting me get on with the business of leading my staff and students to critically select and implement technologies in a way that creatively empowers the user to construct their own learning. The biggest challenge is asking teachers to re-think what it means to learn in the first place. Ultimately there’s little place for didacticism and teacher-centred transmission in my vision. Just as well I have the time and patience to work on making this vision a reality, eh?

[scribd id=41375173 key=key-u6q4bggvxzj81x4w61t mode=list]

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Open Source is the Answer

I’ve been in the lucky position of being able to trial a couple of iPads over the last term with some of the teachers and students at my school. At the same time, I was in the unlucky position of not being able to attend an ICT network meeting last week (thanks, HSC marking!) where technology leaders from schools in my diocese gathered to share ideas about the viability of iPads as learning tools.

It’s funny to see so much education buzz around the use of these devices so relatively soon after their launch just a few months ago. Perhaps it’s not really that funny, though. After all, Apple really have a knack for creating hype around their products and with the iPhone a runaway success, what’s not to love about its new big brother?

For my part, I was keen to explore the affordances of iPads (and tablets generally), noting that where the iPad really shines is as an e-reader and instructional tool. My stand-out app remains MobileRSS, a tidy little RSS app that integrates Google Reader subscriptions and keeps me up to date. I’m also very pleased at the way the iPad nicely converges multiple proprietary e-book formats into the one device – all with a nice-sized screen.

Open and Closed: the Eternal Question

While it’s all well and good to pay Apple due attention for yet another game-changer, I remain resolute in thinking that teachers need to be well aware of the dangers of closed technologies, especially ones like the iPad that lock the user experience into the restricted functionalities of proprietary apps. Don’t get me wrong, apps are great (well, once you get past the thousands of ‘fart’ apps that have made relatively instant millionaires). Apple has shown us, too, that when you take proprietary software combined with proprietary hardware, things have a strange tendency to ‘just work.’ But with HTML5 around the corner and so much innovation happening with Web 2.0, I think our real attention should remain on the learning affordances of the open web and open source.

 

I had to do a bit of a technology double-take when I set up a netbook for a colleague this afternoon with Edubuntu, an open source operating system with a completely free suite of pre-installed literacy and numeracy apps. After only a few clicks of the mouse, I had three menus full of apps that rivalled – and dare I say, beat – many of the apps that I’ve spent the last few weeks sourcing, downloading, installing (not to mention paying for) on the iPads. Gobsmacked for choice, I’ve decided to set up a few machines at school with this operating system, knowing that kids can use the apps freely and safely to hone their typing, memory, vocab, grammar, spelling and maths skills. Apart from being free, Edubuntu runs very nicely on older gear – a great way to recycle some old laptops which have become otherwise unusable.

Funny how with no money, a few clicks and a lot less fuss I can have access to some excellent education tools supported by a community of developers who believe in donating their time and talent to education all around the world. Shouldn’t that be what good teaching is about?

Perhaps the real freedom is in knowing that at the end of the day, very little in technology has to be either/or thinking – both/and thinking works just fine for me. Maybe open source is just the thing for an open mind? 😉

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On Cloud-Computing 9…

For quite a while now, I’ve been keen to explore some of the ways that I could train teachers to move beyond the static online portal view of e-learning (the space where files are uploaded for students to later download). A long-time advocate of Web 2.0 for its emphasis on creativity, collaboration and lateral re-thinking of traditional media, I’ve tried to promote technologies that enable collaborative
writing, incorporate social networking and ‘remix’ information all in the name of learning that is fun.

At the same time, I’ve seen many a frustrated teacher give up on Web 2.0, having to juggle usernames, forgotten passwords and third-party email addresses – leaving aside the often steep learning curbs for what is, at the end of the day, just one more technology tool. This is why I’ve been interested in the idea of how enterprise cloud-computing technologies like Google Apps for education help to create scalable Web 2.0.

Re-thinking the Word Processor

At the staff PD day that we ran last week, I looked at how teachers can get started with Google Docs, canvassing some of the possibilities for using it in the classroom and providing the tangible example of the class set of topic notes. For many teachers struggling with the concept of collaborative writing, it’s a good idea to discuss the importance of structure when setting the parameters for collaboration
on a particular document. I use the example of topic notes on a novel and asked my students to think about the headings and sub-headings that might go into the document to organize ideas effectively as new stuff gets added.

Understandably, teachers and students get quite excited by this technology!

Tackling the Big Challenge – The Online Spreadsheet

I hate to admit it, I’m a recent convert when it comes spreadsheets. For most of my life, I’ve never really thought to organize information into cells, much preferring to think and write in sentences. Perhaps most people out there agree, which also might explain why the vast majority of teachers shy away from using spreadsheets in subjects other than Maths. Still – if we stop and think about it, spreadsheets can be used to organize, process and analyze data on practically anything – the trick is just thinking about situations in which we might actually want to generate some data.

Google Docs does a good job here precisely because it shifts the whole focus away from spreadsheets by letting users generate forms which can be emailed to users, filled out and automatically populate an automatically-generated spreadsheet. Could it get much easier?! Of course, if you do know a spreadsheet trick or two, you can always impress a few friends with some simple formulae.

It was exciting to see teachers exploring this through the vehicle of the unit evaluation, a feedback tool that many schools and teachers have moonlighted with over the years. I particularly liked the
observing the collective realization that beyond creating the form and sending the email, very little work is required by teachers who want an easy and effective set of feedback on their own teaching and on a unit they have taught recently.

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When the smartphone gets a little smarter…

I guess you know you’re a real nerd when you start counting down the days towards a smartphone firmware update. While I’m no Apple fan-boy, I have been an avid iPhone user for the past year, and I find that with each new month I’m discovering new applications for my work as a teacher, blogger, traveler and musician.

Anyway – one of the most exciting technology experiences for me these past two weeks on holiday in New York has been the new bluetooth keyboard functionality of iOS version 4. Having purchased a compact bluetooth keyboard at the start of my trip, I’ve been amazed at just how many occasions the combination of this little contraption and my iPhone effectively replaces a laptop.

Sure – web browsing on a mobile phone has never been my penchant. A tiny screen really does limit what one can take in, and I definitely see the merits of light-weight tablet devices for consuming and creating web content. But it is hard to go past the basics on the iPhone – notes, email, calendars, contacts and so on. What is really exciting is that by using a bluetooth keyboard, many of these processes become so streamlined that it’s possible to park oneself on a park bench for a few minutes and quickly flick off a handful of emails to colleagues, type a page or so of a blog draft, add some addresses to existing contacts and even write a lengthier update to one’s Facebook status! Of course, this is the point where I say something cliched like “I happen to be typing this whole blog entry on my iPhone with my new bluetooth keyboard.” Well – I happen to be typing this whole blog entry on my iPhone with my new bluetooth keyboard (yes – it does text selection, cursor keys and copy-and-paste all with the same shortcuts that you know and love).

In terms of school, I see real applications for this with the so-called “dumb” terminals (where an internet-ready computing device is connected to a monitor and keyboard which may or may not be also connected to a network). As smartphones become more a part of the landscape for everyday people, it’s possible to imagine a school where device convergence means that the computer that is – among many other things – the video camera, currency converter, textbook, music library and link and connection to online learning network of teachers and students across traditional boundaries; this computer fits in the pocket so easily. At the same time, with the focus on cloud computing and device agnosticism – such a device may enhance learning but there are many others that can and will be used in its place.

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On Tipping Points and Working Collaboratively

I’m lucky to be an English teacher working in such a dynamic and vibrant time for the English language. Having obtained my English degree more than ten years ago, I’ve seen the way we read, respond and write change so much in so short a time. However, I suspect that like many of early (and now obsolete) IT degrees, my degree no longer says a whole lot about my ability to interpret the texts of the twenty-first century. Sure – it says that I’m a relatively astute reader and reasonably well-read. But is that enough to cut the mustard nowadays?

Web 2.0 – also dubbed the ‘read/write web’ – is powerful, not really because anyone can publish anything on a whim, but because the ways that we read, critique and write have all transformed, relatively speaking, overnight. Looking at texts like Wikipedia is a process that demands a completely new approach. The fact that so many teachers simply criticise websites like this as ‘unscholarly’ or ‘inaccurate’ misses the point, and says much more about their unwillingness to understand the way in which these texts are constructed, the values they represent and the potential they hold for the future. Perhaps this is why the illusive Web 3.0 is dubbed ‘the semantic web’? In the coming years, the focus will move beyond basic access to the information on the internet and much more towards how meaning is made, inferred and understood.

In my very small way, I’ve been gently pushing my school towards understanding the collaborative power of Web 2.0 through Google Docs as part of Google Apps Education Edition. We seem to have come a long way, too.

On Monday I ran a staff inservice on the potential of teacher-student shared documents to streamline study processes through the example of collaborative class topic notes. The following day, my English Coordinator launched full-force into using Google Docs with her Standard English class and became an instant convert. Less than two days later, she was teaching the rest of the English Department all about it and in my free periods before lunch, I had a steady stream of teachers coming to ask me how to edit tables, publish links, check revision histories and change text formatting.

Such lessons are probably still beyond me for the time being. Other teachers who take an idea, run with it and transform it into something their own will add immeasurable value to any basic explanation or demonstration I offer. They are my real teachers, and from whom I still have a lot to learn.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPjJK6LZdM]

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Thoughts on Google Earth in the Classroom

Google EarthSince Google took over the Earth project from Keyhole, inc. several years back, I’ve been interested in how this technology can be more effectively used in the classroom. Google themselves have done a decent job of this in their Google for Educators pages, pooling information from teachers all around the world in a literally global piece of technology (excuse the pun – I had to!)

Despite making fairly extensive use of overlays such as Ancient Rome 3D and 360 Cities, I’ve struggled with planning lessons which consistently build higher-order thinking. Much of the time, students fly different places pan around and easily get off-task very quickly! It can be a real headache when trying to re-enforce the purpose of the lesson and the specific activities which need to be done.

With some help from my Connected Learning colleagues this week, however, I seem to have finally understood the kinds of ways in which Google Earth can be used to really challenge students to think. Specifically, I’ve approached using this technology in relation to:

  1. immersive learning in which students simulate an actual experience movement in time and space
  2. contextual learning – where students understand space relationally
  3. strategic thinking – using points on maps to formulate strategies to real problems
  4. broadening awareness – using the discovery ‘moment’ as the basis of key learning points

This term in a thematic unit entitled Expressions of the Human Spirit, our students use Google Earth to travel from the Waling Wall to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, retracing the steps of Jesus Christ and exploring the relationship between old and new. Later in the term, they also develop guided tours of key Roman architecture and build geographic skills at the same time. The biggest learning curb is my own – not being a trained Geography teacher, I’m learning on the job (again, with the help of some very gifted colleagues).

What an exciting time to be able to experience what is perhaps the next best thing to being in a place you’ve never visited!

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Thoughts on One-to-One Laptops in Schools

My school is in the exciting (and somewhat daunting) position of now investigating possible ways of achieving a learning environment in which every child has their own laptop for daily use. The desire to move towards this particular model is highlighted by the current National Secondary Schools Computer Fund and by the proposed pilot for completion of some School Certificate subjects (and eventually HSC subjects), with specific recourse to using computers in examinations.

Certainly, exams that need to be typed are a good reason to start looking in this direction, right? We think that a one-to-one environment would definitely be a suitable goal within the next few years (and our school is not the oozing-cash-private-variety where such a goal has long been a reality!)

At the same time, I have a number of real misgivings about current approaches taken by other schools – where the computer fund is solely or largely used to directly provide a computer to year 9 students. You could summarise these misgivings as follows:

  1. Current 1:1 ratio calculations occur on the basis of including existing desktop and laptop machines (up to four years old), as well as recently-purchased laptops.
  2. Many schools have designated these for general school use. This designation recognises the need for students in all years to have reasonable access to new technology.
  3. The model of directly providing students with laptops may not be sustainable given these calculations.
  4. It is also unclear as to whether the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund may continue over the long-term. If it is not continued at any time, this would unduly disadvantage any students who have not received a computer as part of the grant.
  5. Giving laptops unconditionally to students may not ensure accountability and a sense of responsible ownership in relation to the care and use of the machine.

In light of these issues, I’ve now argued for a while that the National Secondary Schools Computer Fund grant is, for many schools, best spent in the continued designation of machines for general school use and KLA-specific use, and that access to the machines is most equitable when they are stored and maintained in the school concerned.

At the same time, schools need to explore ways that an environment where students own and bring laptops to school for daily use might be achieved over the long term. To this end, I’ve been interested in netbooks (and similar low-cost, light-weight laptops) viable options for students to purchase, and it is reasonable to expect that this technology could complement the current technology infrastructure in the school concerned. The specific advantages of complementing currently existing technology with student-owned netbooks can be summarised as follows:

  1. Netbooks are light-weight and have sufficient battery power to last extended periods.
  2. They are also very low-cost when compared with other machines.
  3. Recent software developments (for example, Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows 7 Starter Edition) recognise the need to develop light-weight operating systems that boot quickly and enable basic productivity and internet use.
  4. By using netbooks for basic functionality (for example, typing essays, managing spreadsheets and internet research), existing technology can then be maximised for the type of use that requires higher powered machines (such as when editing videos, recording music or manipulating images).

Perhaps many schools need to consider models through which the bulk purchase of netbooks might be negotiated to the benefit of interested parents and students. Possible parameters in which such purchases might be made could include any of the following:

  1. Partially-subsidised machines, where parents and the college co-contribute to the machine’s purchase, either as a one-off cost or in instalments.
  2. The negotiation of three or five-year warranties to ensure that repairs are possible and will be low-cost in nature.
  3. Site licenses of favourable operating systems and/or basic productivity software.
  4. Assistance with developing adequate technical support.
  5. Well-negotiated arrangements for purchases from reputable and reliable suppliers.

What are your experiences in advising on the purchase of machines in your school as part of moves towards one-to-one computing? I’d love to hear your thoughts!