Technology in the Classroom

06. September 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

A lot of people are talking about the article that was in the NY Times that made the argument that millions of dollars spent on technology did not improve “learning.”  I put learning in quotes because as many people have pointed out, “learning” in this case equals test scores.  Test scores remained flat.  Whether real learning occurred might take a few years to figure out.

It’s part of my job to “integrate” technology into our curriculum.  Really, I’m just there to help teachers do that by pointing out possibilities and working with them to redevelop lessons, etc.  But I’m actually kind of down on technology for technology’s sake, which is what I’ve seen happening in many places, and what I’ve seen advocated by some of the people whose blogs and Twitter feeds I follow.  I teach the “technology” classes at our school, but I refuse to teach PowerPoint and Excel and all those applications.  I am application agnostic in my approach.  I’ve been shifting the curriculum gradually toward a computing/computer science curriculum.  This is a trend I’ve seen in other places, and one that I think is really important.

Instead what I encourage is for teachers to have students use presentation, spreadsheet, image editing, video editing, and other applications within the context of their classes.  And don’t focus on the tool!  Let students use whatever is at hand, while making sure the school also provides options.  So, for example, an English teacher has her students do a multimedia essay.  I come in and together we talk about strategies for putting together multimedia vs. a regular essay.  I also talk about what’s available to them in terms of tools.  There are free tools online, things the school provides, and many students have their own computers with things like iMovie.  The focus is on learning to compose differently, not to learn the ins and outs of an application that may or may not be around in 10 years.

I do the same with math and spreadsheets and special graphing software and even scale drawing tools.  Basically, teachers simply remain open to the possibilities that technology has to connect their students to the material.

We are in the process of evaluating several technology initiatives, and I have to say that I’m the cautious one for once.  I just want us to not throw money at something that might be better solved by a reevaluation of curriculum.  Or we should do things on a smaller scale.  And then there are other areas where I think even more money needs to go.

I’m very lucky in that I’m surrounded by really smart people who are completely open to incorporating technology into their curriculum.  They don’t have a knee-jerk anti-technology reaction either.  They’re very thoughtful about their use of technology.  It makes my job a little easier, and, I think, helps our students be thoughtful about their own use of technology.

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Higher Ed vs. K-12

26. May 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Over the last year, I’ve been quietly observing some of the differences and similarities between life in the K-12 world and life in higher ed.  I wasn’t a faculty member in higher ed, so my view may be skewed by that a little.  I do know what being a faculty member is like, of course.  Here, then, are my observations:

1. The kids are younger, but in some ways not that different.  I don’t see a huge difference between a high school senior and a college freshman.  The younger you go, the more differences there are, but I’ve found that treating them all with respect (and expecting respect in return) works regardless of the age.

2. You know the parents.  I met one or two parents in my days of college teaching.  Once, it was an angry parent.  Most of the time, it’s a brief encounter during graduation or visiting day.  Here, there are many opportunities to see them in a variety of contexts.  I find this really interesting.  It’s often a great insight into a kid to meet their parents.

3. The community is more cohesive and more consistent.  I see most of these kids every single day.  I will see them next year.  I will see many of them for the next 5 or 6 years.  There’s no having a kid in a class and never seeing them again.  Even if they don’t have class with you, you see them in a bunch of other contexts.

4. Summers “really” off.  Granted, I signed up for extra work this year, but I can see that summer can really be down time.

5. Your day is completely filled.  I worked from 9-5, but that time was spent in a variety of ways, often without my needing to be anywhere at any particular time.  In K-12, you’re in class most of the day, with very little time in-between.  Planning time gets filled quickly, either with actual planning or meetings.   College classes, by contrast, may only meet twice a week.  And many faculty routinely only show up for their classes, choosing to do other work at home or elsewhere.  That’s not really possible in K-12.

6. Your day does sometimes end at the end of the school day.  Which is a lovely thing.  Getting home before everyone else is fab.  But it happens less often than you might think.  Many, many days go on until 4 or 5 or even longer.

7.  Even if you go home at 3:30, you might have to come back at 7 for an event of some kind.  That happens in higher ed, too, but often it’s by choice.  For K-12, it’s sometimes an obligation.  I actually like going to these events.  It gives me a different perspective on the students and the school.

8. Everyone cares about teaching.  Nuff said.

Feel free to add your own, whether you’ve made the switch or not.

Even when it’s hard, it’s fun

10. March 2011 · 6 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I have had quite a few moments in my job where things are hard.  Dealing with the roller coaster of middle school emotions is one area that’s hard.  Figuring out that delicate balance between encouragement and discipline is also hard.  And, as I indicated a bit in my last post, dealing with society’s crazy gender expectations as they play out for my discipline is also hard.  I was starting to feel particularly discouraged by this until the last couple of days.  We have a special week just before spring break where each faculty member offers what is essentially a three-day-long course in an area they’re interested in–sometimes it’s a tangent to their actual subject area–a science teacher does infectious disease, for example.  And sometimes it’s completely unrelated–cooking.  I’m doing e-textiles.  And though I tried to make it sound as sexy as possible, I knew it couldn’t beat out the pastry making course.  I was hoping at least a couple of students ended up there, as their second choice.

And then, a student came up to me and said, “Ms. Blankenship, I hope I get into your course.  I put it as my first choice.”  And then later, another student told me she’d also put it first, but wondered if we could make horses instead of elephants.  Sure thing, I said.  To be fair, one of my homeroom students said it sounded cool, but she put it 4th.  At least she liked it.

The day before, a couple of rising seniors approached me to ask if there was any web design in my CS course.  Not really, I said.  They asked if I’d do it as an independent study.  Sure, I said.  Even though I knew that it would be extra work (It’s a course I’ll be offering after next year anyway.)

This morning, a student taking a Java course online sent me two programs she’d written that were failing to run.  My Java experience is 3 weeks sitting in on a class (it’s on my list of things to learn).  She’d come to me for help before and we talked in abstract terms about how to code the solutions–she needed nested loops.  I saw her programs and could tell they weren’t right, but couldn’t figure out exactly how because I didn’t know the Java syntax.  So I coded up how I would solve them in Python, went back to her Java, and figured out what was wrong (lack of initialized variables in one case and just a poor use of if statements in another).  I’m not sure yet if it helped her, but I was happy to provide some direction nonetheless.

As that last example clearly indicates, I’m often right at the edge of what I know when I’m teaching.  I haven’t been in this situation since my first couple of years of grad school.  Yes, it’s hard, but I like it.  I like having to push myself to figure something out, to learn something new.  Mr. Geeky said the other day after I was relating some other story to him, these girls will sure keep you on your toes.  Indeed they will.

Getting protective

17. February 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

I’m referring to students here.  Once, when I was interviewing for a job in admissions, the director asked me what kinds of students I’d have a soft spot for.  Because this was a fancy-pants liberal arts college in the Northeast, and I’m from the south, I said, Well, I’d be on the lookout for a kid from a small town in the South, who’s had to raise him or herself and 3 siblings and still made an A in AP Physics. Generally, I appreciate kids who’ve been through some stuff–a divorce, a death, an illness, a major job loss, a financially-strapped family, etc.  In my current job, I’m often on the lookout for kids who don’t fit perfectly.  I think there are clear paths for certain kids, kids who know they want to be a doctor or a lawyer.  They have a collection of classes and extracurricular activities they need to participate in and excel at.  And they often do.  But there are kids who aren’t necessarily bad at those things, but they aren’t at the top either.  Or they struggle more generally with “fitting in.”  They have friends, but not a lot.  They’re a little rough around the edges.

I really like those kids.  Often, those kids are really good at techie kinds of things.  They like to figure things out.  They like trying and failing.  And they keep trying.  They end up with some really great stuff.   I am, I must say, a bit protective of those kids.  On numerous occasions over the last couple of months, when someone has said of a student that they’re struggling in x subject, I’m able to say, You should see their technology skills. Often the response to that is, Great, how can we take advantage of that?

What’s kind of sad to me, though, is that many kids still see technology and Computer Science as odd. It’s not as acceptable as Biology or Chemistry or Math or even Drama.  It’s beyond the pale for some kids.  I’m hoping very much to change that, while still remaining protective of those kids who are drawn to this discipline because they don’t fit anywhere else.  At the very least, I’d like kids to see the power a little programming experience could give them as a Biologist, Chemist, even as a doctor.

Quick (unrelated) thoughts: curriculum and parental involvement

10. February 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I hope to write more in-depth about both of these, but for now, I want to ask/say:

1) How important is a fully fleshed out curriculum?  I mean pages and pages of “Students will be able to:” kind of curriculums.  I have a curriculum. It’s relatively detailed, but I think the whole thing, from 6-9th grade could fit on a couple of pages.  What happens in the classroom is so varied.  Some students go way beyond what I might expect, learning what they need to learn to get their projects done.  And some students do the bare minimum, perhaps not even meeting the minimum curriculum.

2) What does parental involvement really mean?  I was “involved” in my kids’ education only insofar as I generally knew what was going on with them in school.  Even when I joined the PTO, I didn’t feel like I was really doing anything to help reform the school or its curriculum.  It seems to me that all that decision-making happened at the school board level.  At my current school, there’s plenty of parental involvement, but it varies, and I don’t think of parents whom I don’t hear from as any less informed necessarily than those that are in constant contact.  For all I know, they talk about school all the time at home and just don’t see any need to communicate. On the other hand, from the standpoint of my son’s education, I feel like getting involved is a) really hard beyond conversations at home and b) somewhat intrusive.  I don’t know.  What do you think?

Planning, pre-planning

11. August 2010 · 5 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

This past week, I’ve begun planning my courses in earnest.  I’ve had ideas in my head, made some notes, etc.  Now I’m really in the thick of it.  I have four classes–6th, 7th, 8th & 9th grades.  The middle school classes meet once a week while the high school class meets twice a week.  The rest of my time will be spent doing professional development for the teachers and/or running tech-based classes for their students.  One thing I’ve been reading about in the K-12 world these last few weeks is the idea of paid pre-planning.  I get it.  Teachers should be paid for time they put into developing a class, or grading, or pretty much anything that counts as “work.”  Many schools and districts have apparently cut this time out so that teachers are expected to show up cold on the first day of class.  I haven’t been paid a dime yet and don’t really care that I’m not paid.  We do have the week before classes begin, but I suspect, like me, most of my colleagues need more than a week to get ready.  In higher ed, of course, there’s no nitpicking over whether prep time is paid for; professors just prep before the semester begins or not (most do a lot of prep).

Anyway, I’ve been excited about teaching the entire summer, so now that I’m starting to see some of my ideas solidify into web pages and lesson plans, I’m even more excited.  So here’s where I am so far.

In 6th grade, I’ve chosen a theme of communication as a way of organizing the different technological tools that we’re going to use.  The students will pick a topic (guided by me) on the first day of school and we’ll work with that topic to eventually end up with a web site and blog about the topic.  We’re starting with word processing and moving our way through images, charts and graphs, video, and web sites.  In each of these lessons, we’ll talk a little bit about what it means to communicate with words, words and images, video, etc. and a little about audience.  For our websites and blogs, we’re using Weebly for Education, which I’m very excited about.  I can create usernames and passwords for all my kids and it’s easy to use, so we can focus on the content, but then it has the ability to “get under the hood” and do a little html and css, which I’m planning to do a tiny bit of at the end.

In 7th grade, we’re focusing on digital storytelling, going through several different tools to create stories, ending with either Storytelling Alice (which I suspect won’t work, unfortunately) or Scratch.  So, we’ll use presentation tools like PowerPoint (or any number of more exciting tools on the web), video editing, image editing and whatever else the kids want to use for their stories.

8th grade is all about Scratch with an eye toward creating a group of students who all have been introduced to the basic concepts of computing.  I’m basically following the arc of the workshop I attended at MIT.  We’ll be doing some Art/Music projects, Storytelling projects, and some games.  I’m still working on the actual order of events and given that we only have 10 weeks, I may drop the storytelling or I may give them the option of doing any of these after spending a couple of weeks going of the basic concepts.  As I start to fill in the schedule, I’m sure I’ll start to morph my basic idea into something that will work within my constraints.

9th grade is an Art and Technology class.  Here, I don’t really know what I’m going to do yet.  The teacher who taught this last year is meeting with me in the next week to show me what she did last year.  Many art and technology classes focus on using Photoshop or Illustrator or CAD.  I am terrible at art, so I haven’t used any of these tools very much–well Photoshop for editing photographs, but not for creating my own art.  I’m very interested in the connection between art and technology, though, the way that some really cool art is coming out of programming, i.e. making programs that create art.  Because this class might change dramatically next year, morphing into a programming class, I’m not sure what to do with it.  I could also see keeping it and adding a programming class.  So it’s all up in the air.

So that’s where I am so far.  I’ve been putting everything up onto a web site, though the school does provide a content management system.  It’s pretty basic though, with no customization possible, so I will use it to point students to the main site.  At least that’s the plan.  I’ll link to it when it’s more finished.

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Update 9: Creative Computing

24. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
The mascot for the Scratch programming languag...
Image via Wikipedia

For the last 3 days, I’ve been at MIT at a Creative Computing workshop.  I applied for this a while back in hopes of getting some ideas for using Scratch in my classes.  I got a lot more than that.  You know how you go to a workshop on using technology a, and you end up going through a step by step walk-through of how to do things?  And you spend the whole time with your face staring at a computer screen?  Well this wasn’t like that at all.  The focus of this workshop was clearly on pedagogy and learning, thinking about how kids/people learn and then how the technology fits into that paradigm. When I use technology in my teaching, that’s how I approach it.  And I’ve always tried to do that when I teach others how to use technology, to a greater or lesser level of success.

The first a-ha moment I had was during the introduction and Mitch Resnick showed a chart that illustrated the decline in computer science majors.  Industry and others have bemoaned this fact.  As he talked about this decline, he noted that while it was real, it probably wasn’t the whole story, that perhaps people who study other topics go on into careers related to computer science.  He then connected computing to writing, suggesting that when we teach a writing class, we don’t expect those students to go on an become professional writers, but we do expect them to use writing in their schoolwork and jobs, and to have a reasonable understanding of the principles of writing.  The same should be true of computing.  We should expect that while a few students may go on to become computer scientists, everyone should have developed skills in computational thinking through a computing class.

There’s always been a real tension between those who espouse a “hard core” approach to teaching computing, and focus on students learning a particular programming language and those who are more interested in having students grasp computational principles.  The former approach tends to turn people off to computing, especially those in underrepresented groups, while the latter is interested in spreading computational thinking concepts more broadly as well as potentially attracting different kinds of people to the field of computer science.

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A second a-ha moment came during a storytelling talk by Kevin Brooks.  As he talked about telling a story to audiences that spoke different languages, I started thinking about the way that technology and computing are a foreign language to many people.  So there’s sometimes a disconnect between what we are talking about and what our audience (kids or teachers) hear.  We have to use different tactics to make the connection.  And we also have to be sympathetic to the learning curve.  No one learns Japanese in a day.

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My final a-ha moment came when Eric Klopfer started talking about games.  As someone who is a gamer and reads the literature on gaming and education, I had heard a lot of the ideas he was talking about.  To most people in the room, though, it was all new.  These ideas have been around for a long time, but they’re just barely out there and they’re certainly not filtering very well into our education system.  It struck me that it takes a very long time for ideas that come from research to get put into practice.  And sometimes that lag is seriously detrimental.  The kids are mostly already there, but they’re only there outside of school.  If we can apply these ideas in school and sooner, we might be able to better meet the kids where they are.

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Notice that none of my a-ha moments had anything to do with figuring out some specific aspect of Scratch, though I did figure some of those out, too.  And I got some great ideas for how to use it in my classes.  But mostly, I learned that my thinking about education and learning applies to computing as well as it does to writing and that gives me a really strong foundation to work from.

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