Podcasting in the classroom

Wesley Fryer (via Stephen's Web via Miguel Guhlin who speaks of the urgency in corporating technology in the classroom) has an excellent introductory article on integrating podcasts into the classroom. He concludes,

We need to get serious about educating today’s digital natives for the digital knowledge landscape of the twenty-first century. In many ways, the traditional, “transmission-based” educational model of the past is insufficient for the needs of today’s learners and employers. Classroom podcasts can provide engaging opportunities for students to develop desirable skills as digital storytellers and cutting-edge communicators. The price is right, and the benefits are plentiful. Isn’t it time you and your students started a classroom podcast?

For language learning, podcasts are a good tool for students to practice and revise a presentation.

Wikis in a middle school classroom

Clarence Fisher (of Remote Access), a middle school teacher, writes about how his class is "Wikifying Knowledge" about ancient history. He writes,

As we return to our study of Egypt this week, our wiki will become an active space again. Over the previous unit, as students used this tool for the first time, we learned a great deal about collecting and shaping knowledge. Students learned that they had to be active researchers, collectors, and designers of knowledge. They were interested in the fact that something written by one of their classmates could be added to, edited, and re - shaped by others. This was a new revelation for many of them. Starting to use this tool again this week, it first of all will be interesting to see if the kids still retain this understanding of using a wiki as a learning tool.

But he wonders:

But there is no original information that goes in to this space, it all comes from other spaces. So the question rises: is there any reason to use a wiki if we are using it only to collect information? Is it any different from taking regular notes on paper?

He responds affirmatively that there are some differences, differences of 24-hour accessibility, a public audience, and:

because the wiki is a space that anyone in our classroom can contribute to, it becomes much more then a single set of notes, it becomes an evolving, communal collection of our knowledge and understanding that grows in depth as our understanding does.

Using a wiki in this way also forces students to determine the importance and validity of information. Over the last unit of study, students were forced several times to confront the fact that they had posted information online that was not completely correct. They were forced to revise what they had written and re - think their understandings. Sorting, validating, and exposing overwhelming amounts of information is a skill that simply cannot be demonstrated or practiced using text that is not electronic.

I can't improve on what Clarence has already said, but I'd like to rephrase it. It is the interactions among the students and the recursive nature of re-visiting information that confronts them with contradictions between an individual's understanding and that of others, contradictions that lead them to reflect and re-construct their understanding, which in turn leads to a better understanding that is retained much longer.

It's important to realize that the teacher is a crucial element in wikis being used as more than a collection of information. As Clarence concludes,

although using a wiki to collect information can seem to be simply taking electronic notes, it can be a lot more.

NCLB vs. ESL

Michael Winerip of the NY Times reports on the problems Somali children are having learning English in Massachusetts schools, which have only English immersion classes. The children sit in class lost without translators, and no help seems to be forthcoming. Because there are only two translators, and they spend much of their time traveling from school to school by bus, one proposed solution was to cluster Somali children to ease the translation problem; however

Springfield officials have given a variety of reasons for not doing so. Last spring, according to Mrs. Caldwell, school officials said that clustering too many Somalis at one school would bring down its scores on state tests and the school could be labeled failing under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Mrs. Caldwell, a retiree who does volunteer work for several Somalian families, has filed a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights.

Principles of learning

Bob Reynolds (via Stephen's Web) writes about "Parables on learning -- the basic principles." Reynolds writes,

There are ten basic Principles of Learning that, when practiced, help us grow in understanding and make us successful in whatever we attempt to do. These ten basic Principles of Learning are really a series of actions that successful people people can take in their daily lives. In fact, since learning is such an integral part of living, these rules might more appropriately be called the basic principles of a good life.

What makes it interesting is how he contrasts the examples he gives for the principles with what happens in education.

Successful High Tech Charter School

Dale MezzaCappa (The Philadelphia Inquirer) writes about High Tech Hi, a charter school in San Diego that successfully integrates education and technology.

It is "high tech" not because it trains students to fix computers and write software, although some do, but because technology is infused throughout the curriculum. Students work on networked laptops and maintain digital portfolios.

Some travel; this year, 12 seniors went to Baja California for eight weeks to study marine life, including plankton, whale sharks and sea turtles, as well as the area's history and culture. They not only collected specimens but also created poetry, a documentary, a mural, and a novel.

In the last two years, Jay Vavra's junior biotechnology classes designed, wrote and photographed a field guide to wildlife in San Diego Bay, with a foreword by anthropologist Jane Goodall.

It's encouraging to see a school that engages the students in real "work" as opposed to "learning" alone.

Crash course in learning theory

The blog "Creating Passionate Users" has a "Crash course in learning theory." Nicely done and useful in planning course activities.

Tech Tools for Learning

Will Richardson has an article, Tech Tools for Learning, published in Access Learning, which you can download from his recent posting here. His opening paragraph reads:

Over the last few years, our relationship with the Web has been changing dramatically. Simple new technologies like weblogs and podcasts are allowing us to not only create content like text, audio, and video more easily, they are also allowing us to publish and share that content on the Web with very little effort. Instead of a “read only” Web, we’re entering the age of the Read/Write Web, where contributing knowledge is as easy as consuming it. Being able to publish worldwide this easily does raise legal and ethical issues for educators to be aware of, but it also facilitates a whole range of new learning potentials for students and teachers in the classroom. Here is a quick look at some of the technologies that are changing the way educators think about and deliver instruction.

He has quite a bit of information on technology tools for education (RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasting, and streaming video with links) packed into 4 pages. Recommended.

Goal-setting, motivation, and achievement

Susan Nash, the e-learning queen, has a short summary of the role of goal-setting in facilitating achievement (i.e., learning), along with a good bibliography. As she writes,

Goal-setting, which is an aspect of self-regulation, can be a vital part of an adult student's success in online learning. It increases motivation dramatically, not only by building in rewards, but also by increasing skill levels and perceived self-efficacy.

Collaborative learning

Barbara Davis (via Cyberdash) has posted online a chapter on collaborative learning from her book Tools for Teaching. It includes general strategies for designing, organizing, and evaluating group work, plus a bibliography.

Handbook of Enquiry and Problem-based Learning

The All Ireland Society for Higher Education (via EduResources Weblog) has a free online book: Handbook of Enquiry and Problem-based Learning. From the foreword:

The purpose of this book is fourfold. F'irstly, drawing on Irish case studies and international perspectives, it seeks to encourage the enhancement of the student experience of learning, through the development of problem and Enquiry-based Learning. Secondly, it aims to share success stories while painting a realistic picture of the processes involved ...

It does this by discussing progress with initiatives and exploring difficulties, barriers, “mistakes,” improvements, alongside the strategies used to tackle these real emerging challenges. Thirdly, by drawing on many contributions from Ireland, it places Irish problem and enquiry-based practice in the international context. There are case studies from the seven Irish universities and the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Writely for collaborative online writing

Brian Lamb at Abject Learning (via Educational Weblogs) recommends using Writely, an online collaborative writing environment, instead of Word 2004 for collaborative word processing.

Learning English via repetition

Success according to the "Kageyama method" works through repetition, and now it's being applied to learning English at Tsuchido Primary School (Midori Matsuzawa, Daily Yomiuri via TESOL Connections). The method reminds me of the audio-lingual method, which fell out of favor due to learners' inability to make the transition to new contexts. One difference is that it is being applied in a way that makes it fun for young children. Perhaps in Japan's context, it will be a good starting point for learning a language. Kageyama notes,

"I hope their parents don't expect too much from the book, such as hoping that it will suddenly make their kids fluent in English," he said. "More important than that, I'd like the drills to be used as props to help children enjoy time at home with their parents."

Jail the governor and legislators?

Arizona has not complied for more than five years with federal guidelines to help children learn English (Howard Fischer, East Valley Tribune.com via TESOL Connections).

Frustrated by a lack of resolution, a federal judge on Monday suggested he might have to jail the governor and legislative leaders to finally secure proper funding for students learning to speak English.

That would be appropriate.

Koreans learning English in the U.S.

In The Korea Times, Semoon Chang, professor of econcomics and Director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of South Alabama, writes about the many Korean students who go to the U.S. to learn English in ESL programs, stating that many obstacles hinder that learning process, all centering around seeking out other Koreans and thus speaking Korean much of their time in the U.S. instead of English:

Sorry about discouraging you a little bit, but it is true that in order to learn how to speak English properly, you have to live in it, sleep in it, dream in it, and learn to love the culture of the place the language is spoken in. Remember that nothing worthy is easy. There is no such thing as free lunch.

First day with editme

Yesterday in class, we adjusted to the new wiki site, learning how to edit documents, how not to edit the wrong document, and how not to rename documents when simply adding new information to an existing document.

And there were glitches. Some computers in the classroom apparently stopped students from logging in. When registering students a few days ago, I assumed wrongly that the default user permissions included editing pages. And I hadn't considered how to identify individual students' work.

Technology in the classroom

Will Richardson reports on a teacher creatively using a tablet PC, photos, video, and Powerpoint in a Spanish language classroom:

it was clear what was happening. Students were creating and sharing and loving the process. The teacher was using the technology to connect their learning, and it was their learning, not his. They were in charge.

Technology in the classroom

Will Richardson reports on a teacher creatively using a tablet PC, photos, video, and Powerpoint in a Spanish language classroom:

it was clear what was happening. Students were creating and sharing and loving the process. The teacher was using the technology to connect their learning, and it was their learning, not his. They were in charge.

Isn't this what learning is all about?

Posting on a wiki

Last night, the class submitted article summaries, individual and group, on our wiki space. Somehow, work was being deleted, and so, we had to go to earlier versions to copy the deleted work and paste it back into the current version. In fact, my home page document was replaced by another document! In the process, although I helped a little, much of the learning occurred through students assisting each other.

Working with schtuff.com

Tonight, my class experimented with posting on our wiki, learning a few tags and how to make a link. After the class ended, I learned how to delete items. It's easy to delete an entire document, but if it's only part of a document, you need to simply erase that part, because "delete" applies to the whole document.

Composition & Rhetoric Wiki textbook

(From Kairos News) Matt Barton has started a Composition and Rhetoric Wiki book for first-year composition and is going to involve an upper level composition course in helping. He writes:

I've decided to conduct a rather risky experiment in my Computers and English course this semester: A semester-long class project whose goal is to create a free wikitext for use as a first-year composition textbook. The course is cross-listed, with about 13 seniors and juniors and 2 (maybe 3) English graduate students with teaching experience at the college and high school level. Some of the students are English majors, but others have mass comm and IT backgrounds. In other words, this is in many ways my ideal mix for a project like this. I started working on the Rhetoric and Composition Wikitext nearly a year ago, but development has been slow. The project is hosted at wikibooks, a project specifically devoted to the purpose of creating and distributing free educational materials. I think this is a valuable service learning project that will help the class reach several of its goals--gain experience with writing technologies, develop good collaboration skills, and learn about writing and writing instruction all at the same time. I think it's going to be a fun project, and so far the class morale is extremely high. Everyone is excited about the project, especially me!

Smackdown learning

Although not related to ESL or technology, Kathy Sierra (via Learning Circuits) discusses the smackdown learning model, presenting different perspectives that forces students to make a choice.

Ethics camps for science teachers

"Hello Justice, Hello Fairness: Teachers Discover Ethics Camp" by Michael Werner covers how science teachers "learn nifty teaching exercises" to use in their classes. Learning new strategies for lessons is good, but nothing was said about teachers discovering ethics in their own lives. I wonder why it's assumed that students need ethical training but not teachers.

"Study great ideas, but teach to the test"

It appears that the five-paragraph essay is more important than learning great ideas. A NY Times article shows the pressures on teachers to teach to the test rather than to teach good writing. This summer, Becky Karnes, a high school English teacher, finished a graduate-level writing course on learning "better ways to teach writing to kids." Will she use what she learned when she returns to class?

"Oh, no," said Ms. Karnes. "There's no time to do creative writing and develop authentic voice. That would take weeks and weeks. There are three essays on the state test and we start prepping right at the start of the year. We have to teach to the state test."

For an excellent book on how high stakes testing and accountability dumb down the curriculum, read George Hillocks' book, The testing trap: How state writing assessments control learning.

Technology: bane and boon

Technology is both bane and boon. It's great for communicating widely and quickly, but the learning curve is steep and takes time. I spent 6 hours learning to use iBlog, a fairly simple program, and now I'm spending even more learning to use Tinderbox, even with the aid of templates. I have to admit, however, that much of the steepness is due to not reading slowly and carefully. Regardless, isn't learning a major part of the reason I'm a professor: I like to learn--at least if time is available after preparing for classes, looking at students' work and giving them feedback, and attending committee meetings.

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