Mr Bass Online

Yesterday, a few of my colleagues and I took a trip to Effingham, Illinois to see the 6th Annual AHA Film Festival.  This festival has grown over the years from 150 to around 1500 attendees and incorporates two different school districts.  Essentially, two English teachers, Joe Fatheree and Craig Lindvahl, have collaborated on a multimedia class and decided to recognize their student’s work in a public forum.  As Joe described his classroom, it reminded me of the project based classroom that I had a few years ago.  Just as in Joe’s class, my students created films and told their story.  We talked about and studied cinematic techniques and tried to create an avenue in which students who weren’t strong writers could still tell their stories.  They wrote, rewrote, filmed, refilmed, edited and reedited before they came away with a product that they could be proud of.

We went so that we could get some pointers and ideas on how to run our own festival happening in about one month.  While our scope is different (ours is grades K-12 and district wide, while AHA encompasses two high school classes) and we are not awarding prizes for our festival, the meaning is still the same, we want to celebrate student work through video.  I learned a lot yesterday and, as I was driving home (and laying in bed awake thinking about the day) I began to think about the quality of the films that the students in Effingham had created.  To be frank… they were outstanding.  They were still student films and they are definitely still learning, but as I thought about many of the student films that I’ve seen in my years teaching, I think these are among the best.  Not because of the equipment that they used, nor because of the fact that Joe and Craig are both film makers. No, these students understood that film making is really storytelling.  They were telling a story and that was the focus of the entire class.

The technical capacity to make films is getting significantly lower.  With cell phones capable of capturing video to Flip cameras to more traditional video cameras, the equipment is getting cheaper.  Nearly every computer out there has a video editing application built into the operating system and now there are even online video creation tools that can be used.  The rules have changed when it comes to the tools.  However, the methods of storytelling remains very much unchanged.  So that makes me wonder (yet again) do the tools really matter?  There will always be technical obstacles that must be addressed, but does learning what to click on in Movie Maker, iMovie, Premiere or Final Cut Pro really what we should be teaching, or should we be more focused on the process of storytelling?  Yes, learning the program has it’s place, but when you’re telling a story, what do you focus on, the tool or the process?  For me it’s always been process.  Technical details can be worked out and many times, I’m not the one to figure it out.  If I can teach the process, regardless of what tool is chosen, the story can be told.  It just makes me wonder, how many districts are teaching the tool rather than the process when it comes to digital storytelling?  And for those that are, how can that mindset be changed?

Additional information about the AHA Film Festival can be found here:

• Online Student Film Festival
• AHA YouTube Channel
• Main AHA Film Festival Page

21st Century Education, Education, English, Film Festival, Reflections, Technology

I just found out that Google added a new feature in Google Docs. You can now create drawings that may just simulate graphic organizers. I don’t think that it will replace tools like Inspiration, but it will create another option for those teachers using Google Docs with their students. It’s as simple as selecting “Insert” –> “Drawing”. For more information, visit the Google Docs Blog.

21st Century Education, Education, Google Tools, Online Apps, Technology

I was surprised, excited and a little disappointed when I found out that Malcolm Gladwell was going to be a keynote speaker for NECC this year in Washington D.C.  Surprised because I was just finishing his book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference; excited because I was becoming more familiar with his work and disappointed because I don’t think I will be fortunate enough to be able to attend NECC this year.

Lately I have been thinking, planning and attending meetings concerning teacher development in regards to technology.  How can we most effectively help teachers consider their practice and try to use technology to enhance their classrooms.  We have multiple solutions and are still very much at the thinking, talking and planning stages.  However, after reading Gladwell’s book, I think that one of the things we might want to consider is how might we most effectively use the people who are most directly impacting kids — teachers who are in the classroom.  So, as a part of our planning process, maybe we need to look at the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen so that we might create our own “epidemic” of technology integration.  According to Gladwell, each of the groups has their own strengths and roles in the spreading of an idea or concept.  If we could identify and harness the potential of these people, would an epidemic follow?  I’m not sure.  However, from my time in the classroom, I do know a few things when it comes to teachers.

1. Connectors are vital to spreading the word.  Teachers talk to each other about practice, about students, about challenges and about successes.  As educators, we come to our classrooms to help students.  That help takes on many forms, but overall, we have the same goal.  We spend countless hours being developed but until a connection is made and it’s something that has been proven to work, we are reluctant to change our approach.  If Connectors can see results in their own practice, the word will spread about what is happening in their classes.

2. Mavens are also vital to spreading the word, but they look for ways to help their colleagues.  When Maven teachers finds something that works, they will learn as much about it so that they might help others.  I would consider myself a Maven in that aspect.  As a classroom teacher I was often called upon by my fellow teachers, administrators in my building and at the district level and even parents and students to help them work through technology problems that they might be having.  I wanted to help make their lives easier and knew enough about technology to help them.  What this prompted was a learning revolution for me as I attempted to solve their technological woes.  It was fun for me but it also had a greater purpose in that I was helping others for the betterment of education.  There are Mavens all over the district that want to help just as I did, but I think we need a method in which to identify them so that we can give them the support they need as they help their colleagues.

3.  Finally, we need Salespeople to help “sell it” to our teachers.  To create an “epidemic”, we need to have buy-in from those who are reluctant.

We are all at different places in our learning and have different needs, but I have made a commitment to help teachers (not just in my district) use technology in their classrooms.  I just wonder what the little things are that can help us reach that tipping point and where can we find them.  Do we want an instructional technology epidemic?  Is that even feasible with the amount of content that is crammed into the curricular offerings of our public schools?  Can we afford not to have technology in the hands of our students?

As I continue to think about the plans in my own district, I will continue to think back to and make connections with this book and Gladwell’s ideas.  Is there something there?  I’m not sure, but maybe as I follow my Twitter friends and find a backchannel for the keynote, I’ll find some clarity.

21st Century Education, Education, Reflections, Technology, authors, leadership, projects

For a number of years, I posted Bloom’s Taxonomy on the wall of my classroom as a discussion point for my students and I as we began our CyberEnglish journey.  It became part of our studies and really set the tone for the semester.  Because we started talking about learning from day one, we had a basis for talking about their education and the work that we would be doing that semester.

Today on Twitter I ran across A Visual Representation of Bloom’s Taxonomic Hierarchy with a 21st Century Skills Frame.  I think it offers a good starting point for those who may not be familiar with all of the tools and gives a common frame of reference as to how some of these tools might be used in the classroom.

Image from http://csessums.tumblr.com/

21st Century Education, Education, English, Technology 21st Century Education, blooms taxonomy

I woke up this morning at 3:30 unable to sleep.  Tossing and turning for about 45 minutes, I finally got up to check on my kids which always calms me down.  In my son’s room I began to think about the day we found out we were having twins and how at that moment, everything changed for me.  Suddenly, my wife nor I were the most important people in our lives.  It was a sobering experience.

I had just finished my Master’s degree and was doing corporate training for Executrain of St. Louis.  I enjoyed the job but something didn’t seem right and, after lots of discussion and fretting over what to do, I reentered the educational arena and went back to the high school I had left a few years earlier to teach kids.  This wasn’t an altruistic type of career change and it wasn’t because I thought that I’d enjoy it more.  My return to the classroom was for purely selfish reasons.  I wanted more time with my kids and I wanted make education better for them.  Since then, every move that I make has been dictated by that goal.  My involvement on the NCTE Executive Committee, my work with NotK12Online, my move to my current school district (where my kids will also attend) was all based on my desire for their educational experience to be as rich and productive as possible.

Five years ago that seemed like a great reason, but it was a reason that I couldn’t really see and actually picture.  I can see it now.  This fall my children will be starting Kindergarten.  They will be starting on their edcuational experience.  It makes me wonder whether, in the last year and a half, I’ve made enough of an impact on the teachers in my district.  Will their creativity be stifled by walking in single file lines or will they thrive in an environment in which they have choice and are taught to question?  Unfortunately I can’t say for sure.  But I now have a different lens.  One through which I look at every teacher I work with and ask myself whether I would be satisfied with my kids in their classroom.

My reasons for being in education today are selfish.  I want the best for my kids.  I recognize that and have come to terms with it because if it’s good enough for my kids, then, in my mind, it’s good enough for everyone else’s kids.  Would I have approached the classroom differently if I had had kids when I began my career?  Absolutely.  Now, as I work with teachers, I have a completely different (and I think better) approach than I would have had before my kids were born.  It’s a perspective that keeps me up at night, but one that makes me work harder.  Hopefully, my work is making a difference, not just for my kids, but for all kids.

21st Century Education, Education, NCTE, Notk12onlineconference, Reflections, kids SIUE