Blogging from eTech

I will be checking in throughout the day with updates and information from the 2011 eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference.  Our group is about 15 minutes away from presenting the work we've done with lhs 2.0.  8 o'clock in the a.m., hopefully a few people wake up and wander in.


More later, 

Give a man a fish, etc. - 5 days into a 1:1

When I was student teaching, Dan Leary, a great Cleveland public school teacher, said to me, "When you teach something, you learn it twice."  Since then, I've continued to find his statement to be true.  I love the learning experience that I have when I teach.  I find out so much from the questions of my students, and I am forced to confront new perspectives on the texts that we study. 

In the last few days, I've stumbled on what I think is a pretty good new learning practice for my classroom.  I shouldn't say that this is a new idea.  I'm surround by teachers that have found this out a long time before I came along.  Now, though, the questions come at a furious pace.  With 25 students, each with the ability to access and create anything that is imaginable, the classroom atmosphere is one of equal parts discovery and frustration.  The students are learning how to set up their Google Reader accounts, they are learning how to create and maintain a blog that displays their learning, and they are running into all kinds of obstacles on their paths to achieving our class goals.  So I thought up this "new" thing...

When any student in my class has encountered some kind of barrier to their access or creative capabilities, they are not allowed to raise their hand.  Instead, the student with the question has to ask everyone at their table for help.  If the team cannot come up with a solution to the student's problem, the whole table has to raise their hands in unison.  At this point, the class has to give the group its' attention, during which the questioning group solicits help from anyone in the room (including me, though as simply another member of the class).  If nobody can solve the issue, I learn how to overcome the problem in front of the whole class, with their input along the way.  I tried an early version of this today, and it was great to see a community develop around issues of learning.  I didn't have to answer a single whole class question, therefore providing me with more time to circulate around the room and devote myself to individual guidance, support, and feedback.  All the while, the room was buzzing with the sounds of students helping each other learn.

Input

I've spent the last year following a few blogs and have found some amazing stuff. As I continue to learn, I am going to frequently post what I'm finding. This section will always be titled "Input" in honor of Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit".

And here's my most recent input...

• Here's a great one to start, by Shelly Blake-Plock of the TeachPaperless blog.
  

• And here are a few simple tools from Alan November's blog.

• The there's Diana Laufenberg's TedTalk

• The obligatory Sir Ken.
  

• qwiki.com. It's cool.

• And the Wolphram Alpha Algebra App for the iPod.
  

Two days into a 1:1

Our lhs2.0 group has just deployed 180 netbooks (hp mini) to our students. Here's what I've encountered so far...

- -> We can pull off a deadline!: - The entire extended team, from administration to instructional coaches, a dedicated IT department, and especially the teachers, worked hard to get this thing in on time. The word of the week was "patience" and I think we've all weathered it quite well.

--> Framing a shift to 1:1 education needed to be better: Though we are inevitably learning as we go at the moment, perhaps we could have handled things a bit better. If your district is thinking about switching to 1:1, be sure to take a good deal of time in discussion with parents, take the time to meet and anticipate as a cohort, and share your influences and discoveries a whole lot. If there's one thing that I wish we had done differently, it was to better share the vision and research that has led us to this point. This blog is the first step in trying to rectify that error.

--> I have more time: Wow. By having every student able to access anything that we want to know or create, and engaging them in learning about and setting up their new tools, I am finding that I have more valuable time freed up in the classroom. I have time to meet with students one on one, I can take a second to edit my instructions and repost them online, I can fix the broken hyperlink or confusing instructions. It's not like I've freed up time for grading or taking care of paperwork and emails, it's that I've shifted my use of the time towards more student-directed engagement.

--> The "Others": The classes that I teach that don't have access to the netbooks already feel antiquated and overly stifling. I teach the same "prep", or course curriculum, in two entirely different ways each day. My first and last classes of the day do not have access to netbooks, and most of the course is centered around some form of whole group instruction. Today I found myself really wishing that every kid had access to what my lhs2.0 kids are using in class. I don't think it will be too long before the inequity becomes a talking point in our district. I am hoping that this will push our community towards a discussion about the need for a major shift towards providing every student the opportunity to access and create digital information. The sooner that conversation starts, the better. And those of us who are in this right now, have to be ready to share what we are finding out as we move forward so that the conversation is informed by our experiences.

--> Prep time: When I take the time to set up a good experience for the students, they learn more. I am hoping to spend a bit more time carefully setting up the process by which the students engage information and develop skills. I'm not sure that I can "wing it" in the classroom at the moment. The planning is crucial right now.

--> Have a project leader that isn't teaching in the classroom: It has really helped to have instructional coaches to this point. While the classroom instructors and students work away in their separate classroom, the instructional coaches provide an important overview and support role that allows our cohort the ability to proceed. Shifting to a 1:1 initiative is a massive institutional upheaval and it helps to have instructional coaches as advocates and partners.

--> A leap: This whole initiative is based on the solid belief that teachers want to help students learn, and that students want to learn. I am sold on the notion that education is more different, and more exciting, than it ever was before. We have an unprecedented ability to access, share, and create information. Our students are entering a world that we could not have imagined when most of us learned to teach. And it is through the vision, caring, and dedication of teachers that recognize this unique opportunity to aid in transforming education to match the tremendous shift that has occurred in this digital age, that we will have any hope of meeting the needs of this most unique generation of students.

Maybe this is the place?

There's a growing need to rapidly share what we are learning. I hope this can be a place in which I can contribute to the conversation.