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I was completely blown away with Doug this evening.  I was anticipating that this evening would be mostly teaching about Google tools and how they work, of which I do know most of them.  Hearing Doug speak into about how important it is to having students be creating material during their learning venture.  Creation is the most difficult part of Bloom’s.  A lot of teachers do not really spend a lot of time using that upper-end Bloom’s because they find it very time consuming and difficult.  It is suppose to be difficult.  Most of the learning that we experience in our lives comes from difficult tasks.  Even if we were not able to accomplish it the first try, once we did we never forgot how we succeeded in that.  It is time for more teachers to be innovative with their kids and get them creating authentic content.  I can totally see how Google Apps can help with this.  

In order for me to really start diving into this with my iPads in my classrooms I really need to have more access to technology.  Students do not have email and are not allowed email access while at school.  Seems a little bit backwards for me to have such a rule but then give them an iPad to use everyday.

With a very difficult and busy week, it was nice to take some time and sit down and watch some motivational videos.  With the first video on motivation, I tried very hard to view the rewards system from a teacher-student standpoint rather than an administrator-teacher.  It is easy to see how this would apply from employer to an employee, but how do we get kids to use those difficult cognitive abilities without performance taking a hit?

It is very interesting that the second video that was presented by Salman Khan talked about “Flipping the Classroom”.  Just this week I was reading Eric Sheninger’s blog “A Principal’s Reflection” on that very topic.  You can read that article here.  In the article he talks about some chemistry teachers from Colorado who have completely “flipped” their classroom by recording their lectures and direct instruction and using those recordings as homework while using class time to work on projects that help support the videos.

The vast majority of classrooms, especially at the secondary level, expect all students within a class to learn the given material in one set, standard amount of time.  1:1 technology, combined with the power of the flipped classroom, frees us to allow students to complete material at a more individualized pace. 

While I do agree that a “flipped” classroom like this can allow for more flexibility and individualized pace for students who need it, it is important to always remember that technology is only a tool and not a complete answer to solve all problems.  While I am very big on using educational technology, I recognize that it is very important to have staff that is well trained in order to effectively use that technology in their classrooms.  It is also important to have staff that are willing to take the risk and try something new.  Others will follow when they see its benefits.  Shoving it down teachers throats will get you no where.  There must be buy-in in order to create an effective “flipped” classroom.  If the teacher does not believe that it would help their students, then it won’t.

Are we living in the 21st century?  Yesterday it was apparent to me that we wern’t.  Saturday I took my Administrative ORELA exam.  You would think that the test would be online and the results would be instant.  That is something that we want our students to do to give them instant feedback on how they are doing, but when it comes to having adults get those instant results, testing facilities who determine Oregon’s highly qualified status of teachers and administrators are against this type of testing.  This really made me think about what is an “optimal learning environment”.  For me it is more than just the learning aspect but the assessment aspect as well.  Students use new media on a regular basis and are almost given instant feedback without having to ask for it.  In regards Sugata Mitra’s talk on TED, kids want to absorb information at an alarming rate.  They will do almost anything too get that knowledge through technologic devices and social media.  I do believe that we need to be teaching kids to create media rather than just being consumers of it.  They have already gotten that skill down and it puts most of us adults to shame.  At a recent conference I was at I ran into a science teacher whose entire school website is made up of every child’s blog.  Every bit of their work was created online for everyone to see, share, and collaborate.  They were creating and consuming on a daily basis.  This is where I would like to see more school headed with getting kids to use those 21^st century skills that will be required of them. 

I really do love the entire “Did you know?” series.  If you have not had a chance to see them all I have posted them below.  With “Did you know? 4.0″ it really does put a lot of things into perspective as does the entire series.  Times are changing and they are very exponential.  Things that use to take us hours to do now we can do in minutes due to technology, and sometimes we take that technology for granted.  I am sure there are some educators out there that remember the wonderful mimeograph machines.  I am not of that era but I have heard tons of talk about them.  I was once in a conversation with another teacher who was part of the mimeograph era where the district had ordered pallets of the duplicator fluid because it went on such a good sale that they wanted to take advantage of the savings.  The very next school year the first Xerox machine was released and the mimeograph was obsolete.  Now that fluid is useless and I am sure by now has been disposed of or sits in a warehouse collecting dust.

There is lots of talk about what education should have taken advantage of when a particular edtech tool was around but is now obsolete as well as on the other side of things, education waiting for the newest tool to integrate into classrooms so they can get more bang for their buck.  Note to the districts on the latter, you will ALWAYS be waiting.  I don’t like to use the terms never and always because they are absolutes, but in this case it is fitting.  Technology moves so fast with its changes and education does not move fast enough.  The minute our district purchased classroom sets of iPads for their science departments, news of the iPad 2 was officially released, so instantly we were behind.  Now if we had waited six more months and purchased them, rumors of the iPad 3 started rolling out.  So no matter what there is always going to be something better on the horizon and we shouldn’t as educators stay behind in this technology world waiting for the best tool for our students.  Use the best tool for your students that is available to you today.  Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Here is the “Did you know?” series.  These videos are created by Scott McLeod (@mcleod) from the University of Kentucky CASTLE.  

I really do love the entire “Did you know?” series.  If you have not had a chance to see them all I have posted them below.  With “Did you know? 4.0″ it really does put a lot of things into perspective as does the entire series.  Times are changing and they are very exponential.  Things that use to take us hours to do now we can do in minutes due to technology, and sometimes we take that technology for granted.  I am sure there are some educators out there that remember the wonderful mimeograph machines.  I am not of that era but I have heard tons of talk about them.  I was once in a conversation with another teacher who was part of the mimeograph era where the district had ordered pallets of the duplicator fluid because it went on such a good sale that they wanted to take advantage of the savings.  The very next school year the first Xerox machine was released and the mimeograph was obsolete.  Now that fluid is useless and I am sure by now has been disposed of or sits in a warehouse collecting dust.

There is lots of talk about what education should have taken advantage of when a particular edtech tool was around but is now obsolete as well as on the other side of things, education waiting for the newest tool to integrate into classrooms so they can get more bang for their buck.  Note to the districts on the latter, you will ALWAYS be waiting.  I don’t like to use the terms never and always because they are absolutes, but in this case it is fitting.  Technology moves so fast with its changes and education does not move fast enough.  The minute our district purchased classroom sets of iPads for their science departments, news of the iPad 2 was officially released, so instantly we were behind.  Now if we had waited six more months and purchased them, rumors of the iPad 3 started rolling out.  So no matter what there is always going to be something better on the horizon and we shouldn’t as educators stay behind in this technology world waiting for the best tool for our students.  Use the best tool for your students that is available to you today.  Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Here is the “Did you know?” series.  These videos are created by Scott McLeod (@mcleod) from the University of Kentucky CASTLE.  

Thursday was a very profound evening for me.  It started with meeting some great new people in educational leadership, all with different skill sets in technology but how no matter how different our skill set, we all have the same thing set as our first priority, what is best for kids.

Watching the video Learning to Change-Changing to Learn really echoed some thoughts and reflections that I have had about 21st century skills that kids really need to be learning in schools today.  I am a firm believer that students are learning more on their social networks, smart phones, and online video games than they are in some of our traditional bricks and mortar schools that we have around the country.  Skills that our students need in order to be 21st century ready are currently not being introduced in many parts of the country.  Having kids turn off their devices that connect them with the world is like shutting down the kid themselves.  Students get up early to text message friends, check their Facebook, and learn something new all before breakfast and heading out the door to school, only to be unconnected from 8am to 3pm.  Notice I didn’t say that kids were checking their email, email is outdated to this generation.  If you are like me and can’t live with out your email then we are the generation that is behind the students we are educating, because those students can’t live without their Facebook pages.  I go many days without checking my Facebook page, but I do not leave home without my phone that instantly lets me know when I have email waiting for me.

Careers that our current students will be employed at for the most part have not even been created yet.  These careers do not require our students to be able to rattle off facts that are just stored in their head.  These will require them to have a completely different skill set in order to be successful.  Do our kids know where to look for answers?  Do they know how to synthesis data?  Communicate?  Collaborate with a team to solve tomorrows problems?  Thinking of these questions really brings me back to a core concept that every teacher has been exposed to, Bloom’s Taxonomy.  These skills are really centralized around Bloom’s analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  These are the three classifications that are the hardest for kids when working on school work in the traditional sense because they are not use to doing it, but you give them a tech tool like an iPad, it almost becomes second nature.

This responsibility of making sure that our kids are 21st century ready with a different skill set than most of us were raised with is not something that I personally lay on teachers.  I lay this responsibility on the leaders of today schools. Leaders need to provide teachers with the appropriate professional development and time to use the tools that will help them educate their students with 21st century skills.  Many times leaders give professional development to their staff for the sake of professional development without much follow up or further direction.  If we want our students to collaborate outside the traditional classroom, then we need to give teachers the training and time to collaborate outside the classroom as well.

Recently I saw a video on TED about creating a movement that was eye opening.  Creating a movement to help our kids attain 21st century skills is what is needed.  Leaders need to be the first ones “out in the crowd” to be ridiculed, but it doesn’t mean they are wrong.  These leaders are not the ones that help start a movement, the first follower does.  They help transform the leader and create the movement.  So what does this mean for me?  If I am not leading people into the movement, then I need to be the first follower and show others how to follow.  

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

These five themes are taken from ISTE NETS•A. For those of you that are not familiar with ISTE, they are the International Society for Technology in Education, which is the home for the National Educational Technology Standards for Administration (NETS•A).

Visionary Leadership: Educational administrators inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization. Key ideas: all stakeholders; purposeful change; maximize digital resources; exceed learning goals; support effective instructional practices; develop and implement technology-infused strategic plans; advocate for this vision at the local, state, and national levels.

Digital Age Learning Culture: Educational Administrators create, promote, and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for all students. Key ideas: ensure instructional innovation; model and promote effective use of technology for learning; provide learner-centered environments to meet the individual needs of students; ensure effective practice in the study of technology and infusion across curriculum; promote and participate in learning communities that allow for global, digital-age collaboration.

Excellence in Professional Practice: Educational Administrators promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources. Key ideas: allocate time, resource and access to ensure ongoing professional growth in technology fluency and integration; facilitate and participate in learning communities to nurture administrators, teachers, and staff; promote and model effective communication and collaboration using digital tools; stay current on the latest educational research and emerging trends in educational technology to improve student learning.

Systemic Improvement: Educational Administrators provide digital-age leadership and management to continuously improve the organization through the effective use of information and technology resources. Key ideas: lead purposeful change to maximize achievement of learning goals through appropriate use of technology and media-rich resources; collaborate to collect, analyze, and share data to improve staff performance and student learning; recruit highly competent personnel who use technology creatively and proficiently; leverage strategic partnership to support systemic improvement; manage and maintain a robust infrastructure for technology.

Digital Citizenship: Educational Administrators model and facilitate understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to an evolving digital culture. Key ideas: ensure equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources to meet the needs of all learners; model and establish policies for safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information/technology; promote and model responsible social media interactions; model and facilitate a shared cultural understanding and involvement in global issues through the use of communication and collaboration tools. (ISTE, NETS-A, 2009)