What is an Internet Meme?

Recently while in Adelaide, Australia for an IB workshop, I was introduced to internet memes.  While I have seen many internet memes, I now know what they are called.  If you are interested, take a look at the following website:

http://knowyourmeme.com/

 

Aesthetics are Changing in a 1-to-1 Environment

The school I work in is changing.  Technology is playing a considerable role.  Laptops have been a part of the school culture since the beginning, but a change to Apple over the last 2 years has changed things even more dramatically.  One of the significant changes I’ve seen is that faculty and students are creating much more digital media.  Now that curriculum is “catching up” with the skills of faculty and students, there are more digital media products being developed than physical media products.  While there are many reasons that this is terrific, one of the implications is that there are less examples of student work to be displayed throughout the building (there are exceptions such as visual arts).

The result of the changing school culture is that our display boards (bulletin boards) are left lacking.

• Faculty are having to reconsider how to create physical representations of digital work so that they can be displayed and celebrated
• The school needs to consider the support/products that are available to create physical representation
• The school needs to investigate and implement various forms of digital signage to effectively display digital products

What is your school doing to present and celebrate digital student work?

Tech Teams – Students Changing the School Culture

Two weeks ago our high school student tech team met for the first time this school year. I was surprised that so many students wanted to participate. The group will keep the same president as last year, but will be adding either 2 or 3 additional leadership positions. We will be building on the reasonable momentum that was started last year and there is a lot of potential to utilize technology positively to change our school community.

Last week four students from middle school met to begin planning for the launch of our 2010-2011 middle school student tech team (SWATms). I spent about 20 minutes vision casting to them and then listened to their ideas for the team. This week we will hold our first full meeting and I am expecting around 12 to 15 students.

Our student written mission is to lead and serve a modern GSIS community by integrating technology into our learning and environment inside and outside of the classroom, connecting to each other and the world.

Throughout the short time that the high school SWAT team (Students Working to Advance Technology) has been operating, I can already see its influence on the school culture. I am looking forward to seeing that continue and thrive this year.

Facebook Groups … Improved?

One of my professional goals for this school year is to become aware of who my students are “virtually” and to build a relationship of trust with them online.  The online social media space that I am focusing on is Facebook.  I have created a separate Facebook account and am “friending” students.  Thus far it has been a positive, enlightening experience.

This week I started Facebook Groups to use with students.  I created a group for our high school student tech team and a group for our middle school tech team.  And then today came the “new” Facebook Groups!  So I re-made my student tech team Facebook groups using the new feature.

A couple of the features that I really like about the new Facebook Groups features are:

• Group Chat  – s simple, easy-to-use chat feature for the group.  I am not sure exactly why, but it reminds me of Google Wave.
• Docs – you can  now create a simple document that anyone in the group can edit
• Email address – your Facebook Group can have an email address and members can post to the group wall by sending an email to the address even when they are not on Facebook

Students are already starting to post to the groups…

Can Technology Make Us Better Listeners?

I am trying to improve my listening skills.  Earlier this year I noticed that during school leadership team meetings (and other meetings), I could hardly wait to get my point across to someone that I would speak over them.  Sometimes it would seem that they had completed their sentence and I would begin, but they hadn’t truly finished what they needed to say.  Anyways, I’ve been working on this and have discovered that it is related to respect.

People listen to the people they respect.  Listening is an indicator of the respect one holds for another person.  Ask students who they ask for advice to find out who they respect.  Show me someone who is well respected and they will likely be someone who is listened to often.

As I was considering this yesterday, I thought of some questions:

- As teachers, do we really listen to our students?  Students are people, too.  Is their mutual respect in the student/teacher relationship?
- Many people believe that technology (computers specifically) causes us to disengage and not interact with others… however, how can/does technology help us become better listeners?

Six Negative Listening Habits:

1. Rebuttal Maker – Listening long enough to formulate a rebuttal
2. Advice Giver – Jumping too quickly to give unsolicited advice
3. Interrupter – More anxious to speak his words than to listen
4. Logical Listener – Rarely asking about feelings/emotions
5. Happy Hooker – Using speaker’s words to shift to own message
6. Faker – Pretends to listen

(Adele B. Lynn / Emotional Intelligence Workbook via Bruna Martinuzzi / Ghandi’s Neurons: Practice of Empathy)

Apple ADE

It has been a personal and professional goal for some time to become an Apple Distinguished Educator.  This opportunity became available this year as our school has transitioned from a Microsoft 1:1 environment to a Mac 1:1 environment.  The transition is logical.  ”Going Apple” matches our educational philosophy, especially in light of 21st century learning.

This morning I received an acceptance email to the 2010 ADE Asia Institute.  In March I’ll be traveling to Singapore to meet with approximately 70 educators in the region to attend this exciting event.  I am thrilled to receive this opportunity and hope to make every effort to learn, create, and collaborate.

Here is the self-introduction video that I made to accompany my application:

Inquiry – is it different now?

Coffee is something that I really enjoy.  While I’ve been drinking coffee for a long time, it has only been in the past year that I’ve really learning about it with rigor.  Almost without fail, I consume some information about making coffee.  Had I tried to develop this level of understanding 10 years ago, it would have been much different.

When people find something that they are curious about, the processes, tools, and environments that they can go to inquire about it are enormously different than just a short time ago.  It is a very interesting time to be alive.

In light of all the information and globalization, how is inquiry different in your classroom than it was 10 years ago?  When your student or class finds something that they are interested in, how do they inquire?  How do they discover?  As teachers, do we engage and empower our students inquire in the same way that happens in everyday life?  Are students stifled by our classrooms?

Things I learned at my first Barcamp

A little more than a week ago I attended my first Barcamp.  Prior to the event I was filled with anticipation because I had heard from others how much they learned from and enjoyed the “unconference” venue.  Additionally, the rules of the event require those in attendance to be participants (not just spectators), usually by giving a presentation.  While I am used to giving presentations, I was anxious to present in an environment where I had no context of the type or topic of presentations.  Looking back now, I can say that my experience at BarcampSeou4 was very positive.

A few things that I learned about Barcamps:

1. The Right People – The people who show up to a particular barcamp ARE the right people.  There really are no “wrong” people at a barcamp.  BarcampSeoul4 was the first international barcamp in Korea.  The people in attendance had very different backgrounds.  Some were from Korea, but many countries were represented.  Some were from a business background, other were from K-12 education and others from higher education.  It was exhilarating to interact and share with people from very diverse backgrounds.
2. No Expectations - One of the most powerful parts of a barcamp is that you do not arrive with specific expectations because you have no idea of the topics that will be presented until you arrive and set the schedule for the day.
3. Bring an Inquiring Mind – When you put people from various backgrounds into a room and they begin to present on topics that they are passionate about, you can’t help but have rich discussion.  Be prepared to ask questions, connect the experiences and ideas of other people with your own experiences, and to learn.

A few things that I took away from BarcampSeoul4:

1. As an educator in a K-12 school, I often think about preparing students for university.  However, I rarely interact with university educators.  At BarcampSeoul4 a large portion of those in attendance were university professors.  Listening to their presentations and interacting with them made me think about how much K-12 schools need to spend time on university campuses and research current trends in higher education.
2. Virtualization is here to stay.  The physical world is something we are familiar with and comfortable with… however, the cross-over between the physical and the virtual worlds and the ways the virtual world will be governed are very interesting topics.  As much as many educators would like to protect students from the virtual world, it is here to stay and students must be able to navigate it successfully.  This presentation was particularly interesting to me:
3. Don’t prepare for your presentation at the last minute…  my presentation was put together early on the morning of the Barcamp.  I wish that argument and presentation would have been much more cohesive, but it wasn’t.  On the other hand, I am tremendously glad that I did present.  The discussion was interesting and I’ve had a number of follow-up conversations with faculty at my school since the barcamp.  Here is my presentation:

Digital Portfolios – Positive Feedback

This week I have given two presentations concerning the digital portfolios that are being launched in our middle school.  My expectation was that there would be some resistance to both the launching of portfolios and that they would be digital (online).  It has been surprising to experience positive reactions from both groups that experienced the presentations.

On Monday, during our middle school faculty professional development meeting, faculty reflected on the value of portfolios from different perspectives (students, parents & faculty), discussed an overview of the implementation of the digital portfolios at our school, and began to build common expectations for the portfolios.  On Wednesday I was able to introduce the digital portfolio idea to a group of middle school parents during our Middle School Principal’s Coffee meeting.  Both groups were very receptive and were overwhelmingly in agreement that making the portfolios digital was the best choice.

I am looking forward to meeting with small groups of middle school students to introduce them to their portfolio (a Google Site Wiki) and teach them how to use it.  We still have considerable work to do so that we all agree on the responsibilities and expectations that each group in the community should fulfill, but we are off to a good start.

Further, I am confident that our digital portfolio initiative will enhance student learning and lead us to hold successful student led conferences in spring.

950 Attempts to Pass an Exam? How many times is too many times?

I believe that students should have the opportunity to evaluate, re-draft, improve and review their work many times.  Most situations in real life allow for “do-overs”.  Often faculty will ask…, “How many times is too many times?”  Faculty also ask, “Is there ever a final deadline?”  Whereas I have ideas on how these questions and principles operate in schools, here is one real-life example of a lady who tried again and again and again to demonstrate that she could meet the goal…

Click the graphic to read the article

While I admire her perseverance, one question that seems obvious is whether or not the woman demonstrated her inability to meet the learning goal(s) by failing the exam so many times.  How many times is too many times?