Mr Bass Online

Last evening as I was writing my last post on cultural participation, my son came strolling in with a little handheld video camera he and his sister had received for their birthdays. He was wandering around the house with a stuffed animal and giving it a “tour” of the house. Every now and then he would turn the camera around and to face himself and his bear and “interview” it. I stopped writing and just watched him work the camera and began to think about his thinking process. What decisions was he making as he was creating this video and what made him decide that this was what he wanted to spend his Sunday night doing.

Trying to be as stealth as I could, I observed him out of the corner of my eye so he wouldn’t stop and I followed him through the rest of his home tour. Hysterically, he was talking about the colors of the walls and the “possibilities” for each room. Asking his bear questions about why he wanted to live here and what kind of work the bear did, it suddenly dawned on me where all this was coming from. On New Years Eve we were with some friends and HGTV was on with one of those shows where they take perspective buyers to different houses and they decide which one they were going to buy. In each home they take a tour of the house, talking about possibilities and the layout. While at the time he seemed far more interested in playing with his friends, this brief interaction with a TV show that was “on in the background” made an impression on him and inspired him to make his own creation.

We haven’t shared it or put it online and probably won’t, but simply the process of creating has changed his way of thinking just a little. When I put him to bed I asked him how his video went. He told me that it was fun to do and his bear learned a lot about the house, (The kid is seriously funny!!) but that next time he’d do it better. I didn’t push to find out what his version of “better” entails, but it was clear that he had learned about not only the technical side (he thought the video was too jumpy), but also about the creative process and he was thinking about what he would do next time.

The timing of this couldn’t have been better. Sometimes those mentor texts that we find aren’t even at the forefront of our thought processes. Of course we need to be meaningful in our choices as we model for students, but at the same time, I think we need to honor our students’ choices of where they find their own inspiration for the things they create.

More on mentor texts this week from:

Katie DiCesare at Creative Literacy
Troy Hicks at Digital Writing, Digital Teaching
Kevin Hodgson at Kevin’s Meandering Mind
Tony Keefer at Atychiphobia and
Franki Sibberson at A Year of Reading

All posts are being aggregated at Mentor Texts in the Digital Writing Workshop.

NEA – Turning the Page. — “Students live in a Digital World. Are schools ready to join them?

I just found this article via Twitter in which I’m quoted. It appears in the most current edition of NEA Today.

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

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/

I’m stuck in a routine. Some may even say that I’m addicted. Almost every day for a good portion of the day I sit in front of my computer. I have it set up the way I want it. My desktop is organized according to my tastes. My Firefox plugins anxiously await my use. Bottom line, my computer and I have a very special relationship because I have personalized it for my uses. My home row keys letters are slowly wearing away and there’s a shiny area on my space bar that shows the wear of my fingers. I know where to find my files and I know which programs will greet me upon startup. This is the very reason that, while I always like the boost in performance, I never truly look forward to getting a new machine. I always have to reconfigure everything. I hard drive failure not only runs away with my data, but it also causes me several hours of preparing my system for me to use meaningfully.

Last year, one of the biggest parts of my job was to hand out new laptops to teachers in my district. To make matters worse, we weren’t just handing out laptops, we were stripping these teachers of their beloved Macs. Over a year and a half later, I still hear comments about how much better the Macs were than these stupid HP laptops that we are now “stuck” with. We develop a personal connection with our tools. The problems, while frustrating, become somehow endearing over time. We know what to expect, we understand the challenges of these tools including their limitations and, however maddening, we get beyond it. Mac or PC, it’s simply a computer… a tool that we use to complete tasks. The passion that comes from these tools I don’t necessarily understand, but I find myself falling into passionate discussions over tools. My phone is one such tool. It’s not that it’s the best, but it certainly suits my needs and I’ve set it up exactly how I want it. They are very personal things and we become attached and fanatical about them. I use OSX, XP, Vista and now Windows 7 and, truly, don’t have a huge preference. My main machine is a PC because that’s what my district uses, but to me, they’re just tools.

What about the students that we teach? Does it really matter whether they’re sitting in front of an HP or an Apple when they’re typing a paper? They’re simply word processing. Even when it comes to video editing, there are tools on both platforms that students can use to create their movies. Is one easier than the other, maybe. But is the tool really that important? I say No. The skills that students (and adults) take away from any training or class is the important element in the equation. The logo doesn’t matter. The name of the software is immaterial. Do all secondary students need to be able to move through Excel or PowerPoint or is it more important that they understand and adapt their spreadsheet and presentation skills to any computer that is put in front of them? The classroom tools (SMART, Prometheon, Mac, PC, Web 2.0, etc) do not make for learning. Let’s start discussing skills instead of tools and end the argument over which one is better.

Even as I write this, I understand that there are tools that I would have a hard time living without. When Google announced that they were ending their support of Notebook, I was far from amused. However, there are other tools out there. Do they work the same way? No. Is their integration with other Google tools as seamless? No. Do I have the skills to use them effectively? Yes.

Yes, I’m attached to my computer and, yes, it’s a love/hate relationship. But the tools that I use in my daily routine as I work with teachers doesn’t make my work better; it makes it more convenient. I’m not interested in getting rid of my tools that I’ve grown so fond of, but I am interested in helping students acquire the skills to be able to move beyond a tool and still succeed in their tasks.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu/index.phtml

I just sat down to today’s newspaper and found that John Updike has passed away. A number of years ago, I read Rabbit Run as an English major and the book has always stayed with me.  Additionally, I have a signed copy of the book that I received as a gift from a colleague a few years ago that I treasure for two reasons, the fact t

hat Updike signed it and the memory of the school at which I was working when I received it.  Farewell Mr. Updike.

On February 15, 2008, the National Council of Teachers of English Executive Committee adopted document entitled NCTE Definition of 21^st Century Literacies. The purpose of this document was to create a working definition that educators could use as they struggle with what it means to teach in the changing landscape of education. With so many new technologies available to students in their educational settings, altering teaching practices is an important part of helping learners find success.

On Wednesday November 19, 2008 NCTE’s Executive Committee adopted another document entitled NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment. I had the privilege to work on this document and wanted to bring it to the attention of educators. The purpose behind this framework is to expand the definition and make it a usable tool for teachers while at the same time, not introducing another set of standards or a checklist. It was designed with teachers in mind to help them think about their practice and how it relates to 21^st century learning.

The document itself is organized into three basic parts: Context, Framework Elements and Implications for Assessment. In the context section, there is a brief statement about the purpose of the document itself as well as a reference to the actual definition.

As a part of the Framework Elements, each point that is part of the definition is expanded upon and explained more fully. Following the explanations are a set of questions that are designed to help teachers think about what this might look like in their classrooms. Each question is phrased as a yes/no question to help in the reflection of lesson plans and curriculum planning. While not every lesson will have all of these aspects and not all questions will be applicable, these explanations and examples are meant to help interpret and further define each point providing teachers with a better idea of activities that would engage students using inquiry-based, collaborative and ethical practices.

The final piece of the framework has to do with the changing assessments. The framework recognizes the validity of traditional assessments while also giving credence to some new assessment strategies that should be considered as practice changes.

The framework document in no way is the final authority on 21^st century skills, but is meant to be a tool that can be used by teachers as they plan lessons and coordinators as they design their content’s curricula. It is not a checklist, but a guideline. Not a set of standards but a model. Finally, it is not about technology but about teaching students in the 21^st century.

I’ve just posted the presentation that Melissa Pomerantz, Deb Baker and I did on Saturday afternoon. You can see the entire presentation at http://sites.google.com/site/extendingtheclassroom.  My part was on using RSS in the classroom.  I’ve tried to help a number of teachers use RSS in their classrooms but this is the first time I’ve presented on it in this way.

Here is the Google Presentation that I did for my part of it.

Today was a good day for me.  Students in my district were not in school and the entire day was committed to professional development.  While this is not a new thing in the world of education, one thing I liked about the structure of today was that this afternoon, all Communication Arts teachers came together in one of our buildings for a mini-conference of sorts.  There were two one-hour sessions, each with about 6 different choices for teachers to attend.  I led one of the sessions and focused my hour on the idea of student feedback and peer-review.  English teachers often find themselves with a mountain of papers in which they need to wade through.  We know that timely feedback is important, but when you’re staring at a pile of papers, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that you will actually be able to make meaningful comments on each and that students will take these comments to heart and that the feedback will ultimately improve writing over time.

In this post, I don’t want to write about the presentation itself, I really want to share a direction that I’m trying to take in all the classes I lead with teachers.  So many times in technology, I think we tell people what to click on and tell them how to use a specific tool.  This is sometimes appropriate, but I also think that we are missing an opportunity to show how these tools can be used for instructional purposes.  Today I wanted to show them Google Sites and Docs, however, I didn’t want this to be the focus of my presentation. Rather, I wanted them to see how these tools could be used for instructional purposes while at the same time keeping my focus on feedback.  By using the tools and telling them why I chose that tool as I was focusing on the content, I was able to capture and hold participants attention at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon.  They were exposed to the tools and shown where to find them and my focus stayed on the content I wanted to cover.

Not that this is a groundbreaking strategy, but it’s something that I’m working on so I can better help the teachers I work with. I know there are times that I will need to show what to click on, but in situations like today, my goal is to focus on the content and use the tools to help me.