Barack Obama: The Education President? Not necessarily

(Part V in a series on education in the 21st century.) I voted for President Obama. Filled with the excitement and hope represented by his progressive ideas, I looked forward to what he had to offer the American people. Tempering that enthusiasm, however, was the realization that campaign promises often run into that nefarious obstacle called “governing.” I did not expect Mr. Obama to reveal red and blue tights under his suit come Inauguration Day, and I realized that many of his goals would take time to accomplish. I was disappointed in his choice for Tom Vilsack to lead the Department of Agriculture,  and was struck by the irony of that appointment when juxtaposed with the organic garden in the White House lawn. I became less enthusiastic when Arne Duncan took the reigns as Secretary of Education. Once again, the person who was given the responsibility for education in our country had never spent a day in the classroom as an educator. (The very fact that his Department of Education biography describes his position with the Chicago Public Schools as “CEO” instead of “superintendent” is telling.)

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A Vision of K-12 Students Today

I don't think I posted this before, but it's a spinoff/variant of the original "Vision of K-12 Students Today" done by the KSU students. It's a GREAT video and very worth watching.

Global issues and language, and a dog report

Today was a rather interesting day for me. Today was the first day I've ever had one of my children in my class. At first, I hesitated at the thought, but I think there will be some real advantages to it.

Today I gave my students their cd with Plan B 3.0 on it as well as various pdf files of IB MYP info. We discussed the long term plan for using the book and did a general overview of the course this term. Over dinner my son asked me: "Dad, if we spend all of our time dicussing global issues, when will we learn English stuff?" FANTASTIC!!! A totally appropriate and the perfect question to ask me. At that point we got into a discussion about analyzing the book as a text (Brown's use of language, vocabulary, etc.), but the question showed me that he is thinking about the class material and connecting it to what he knows his needs are as a student and as a person. I was pretty excited about the conversation.

It's been almost three weeks since we got the dog, and I couldn't be happier with the way things are going with him. He's an amazing animal, and I'm glad we made him a part of our lives. My day begins with an early morning walk under the stars; after work we go out and run and play and generally be hyperactive and silly (if you ask me, no one does this enough, regardless of age or pet ownership status), followed by endless hours of generally spoiling him with attention by both my son and me, ending the day with another walk under the stars. Yes, he is an incredibly spoiled dog, and he knows it (and loves it). Kyle's been taking on the responsibility well and helps out quite a lot, which makes my life easier and makes me pretty proud of him in general.

I once mentioned that going out for coffee or tea with a good friend or two was one of the simplest yet most profound pleasures of life... add to that the simple joy and peace found in taking a dog out for a walk (regardless of time of day) and the sheer wonder of having someone intensely happy to see you, even if you've only just gone out to the car to retrieve your coffee mug.

More implications of technology

The other night I received a text message from an alumni attending one of the state colleges asking me to sign on to my Yahoo Messenger because he needed help with an essay; I let him know that I would do so after dinner. Shortly after I'd finished eating, I signed on and sent him a text telling him that I had gotten online. He joined me a few minutes later, and we began to work on his essay. He would send it to me over Yahoo Messenger, I'd look it over, make my comments, then send it back. We continued like this for some time until I'd gone from my intial 60+ comments and suggestions down to two.

There are a number of ways we could have done this same thing, including Google Docs and so forth, but more importantly was what this represented. Z is about an hour's drive away, so not too long ago, he would have been pretty much on his own when it came to his essay, or at least his access to me would have been all but cut off, especially since I'm a visual learner and need to see it in front of me in order to work on it; additionally, unless he were to read the punctuation marks to me, I'd have no way to assess that unless I saw it.

This only reinforces the importance that the internet and technology in general has gained to both educators and students. An exchange of text messages, then the sending back and forth of an essay with comments added and subtracted from it, and a student is able to access a resource and get help with an essay.

While this may seem like no big deal, at the same time, these changes have occurred within the span of half of my teaching career, which is pretty remarkable, really. It wasn't a problem to help him, though I kept "geeking out" over the ability to work with him as if he was next to me in spite of being an hour away. It brings me back to an observation made by a student in my epistemology class that it wouldn't be long before he might not have to show up to class at all... that it would all eventually be online. And while this is certainly a possibility, at the same time, I hope that it doesn't come to pass; there is too much to be gained from human interaction and too much to be lost by the lack of it.

Education in the 21st century, pt. 2

I just posted part two in my series on education in the 21st century to the Elephant Journal website. In case you missed it, here is part one, and there is more to come. Feel free to link to it and pass it along!

Link and new geekiness

I published an article about the digital classroom on Elephant Journal a couple of days ago that I'm rather proud of, and it's gotten some nice feedback. If you're interested in reading/commenting on it, you can find it here.

I've also found a new and cool way to get info to my students without paper. I found an excerpt from a book that I wanted to use with my students, and so I asked the publisher of the book if I could copy it to use. I got permission, scanned it, and saved it as a pdf to a flash drive... but then couldn't decide what to do with it. I wanted them to read it tomorrow in class, but then there was the whole digital vs paper thing that has become something of a block for me now. I ended up emailing them the excerpt. (Yeah, I know.... obvious solution. I really do need to apply Occam's Razor much more often than I do.) Nonetheless, I am still rather pleased with the idea that each of the students in the class already has the excerpt waiting for them in their inboxes. Tomorrow in class, I am going to have them log into their email accounts and read the excerpt. We have the laptop cart tomorrow, so each can use their own, but this still wouldn't be that much of an issue if I have them do this same task in their Learning Teams of three, one team per computer; the principle is the same.

I definitely want to use this as often as possible. Best part is that a student can't claim to have lost the handout or leave it in class... all they need to do is log in at home and there it is! I can and will still print it out for students without internet access, unless they have a flash drive and a computer at home, in which case they can simply load it onto their flash drive, again saving paper.

I so love this whole technology thing. :-)



Oh! Speaking of technology, it's possible to search the 'net and be eco-friendly at the same time! I recently came across Ecoogler, a search engine that uses Yahoo technology and for every 10,000 searches done, they will plant a tree in the Amazon rainforest. To date, they've planted 2,290 trees and counting. So.... bookmark 'em and use it frequently! (Click on their logo or the link to get to their site.)
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Super-nerd Extraordinaire

I took the big leap today and incorporated not only my Smart Board, but also the podcasting into my lessons today. A few of the students had a few laughs at my self-professed nerd-dom, and there was a brief discussion as to whether I was a nerd or a geek, but since I took ownership of both titles, it worked out great. (ha ha!)

The goal of using the technology is that if a student is absent or needs to revisit the class for whatever reason, they will be able to go to the class website and from there watch the PowerPoint notes for the day and listen to the corresponding podcast. That way a student that is absent for any reason whatsoever can easily stay caught up with the work in class. I think it could also be a great way for parents or anyone else interested in what is going on in class to check it out at their leisure- the walls of my classroom are disappearing for sure!

I'm also hoping that other teachers will check it out and share their thoughts and ideas with me. This new technology represents an amazing potential for (literal) global collaboration... can you tell I'm excited?

I felt a little nervous about using the technology, and I've realized that from a practical point of view, I am likely to only use one of the recordings of my freshmen classes, rather than all four- I simply won't have time to edit and upload five different recordings (four freshmen classes and one junior/senior class). The best of the day will be the one that gets featured. At least, that's the thought for now... perhaps I'll just post the entries "as is" since a listener could just as easily fast-forward through; we'll see, I guess.

Hm. Yes. Well, then. I just gave a listen to one of the podcasts and realized that I had forgotten to switch the Audacity software setting from the computer's microphone to the wireless mic I was wearing. As a result, there is a ridiculous amount of background noise. Woops. I'm sure errors like these will at least lessen somewhat once I get used to using the equipment and no longer have any real anxiety about using it.

Still.. an exciting day in the room for sure!

Found Will Richardson's blog tonight (he's the author of the book we were given at training, just in case you forgot: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom). The link to it is here. His entry from a couple of days ago resonates with me a bit... he makes the point that education is fairly slow to respond to the changing technology, and I think that for the most part, that statement is true, and it's a real problem. Education should be on the forefront of these changes, not bringing up the rear and only because we are being dragged kicking and screaming into doing so. I can think of more than a few of my colleagues (and not just teachers within the district) who are downright Luddite when it comes to the most basic technology, even email. We are in a society where that is no longer acceptable. Ultimately, I feel that our job is to prepare young people for successful lives beyond high school, regardless of how that looks, and if we do not do so, then we are failing our students, their parents, and ourselves. The world of the 21st century is technology based and technology driven. If we don't embrace it, we are dooming our children to be left far, far behind.

(Cross posted to the Global Learner blog.)