My ideal Library

I had an experience the other day! I was asked what I think the library of the future would look like. WOW! If I could design the ideal library what would it include? Well, that is a big question.

Ideally, some of the physical needs would include:

• Tables and chairs, but not just the standard square tables with student chairs, but some cool and fun arrangements of bistro style tall stools and tables.
  
• Sofa's and comfortable reading spaces.
• BOOKS!!!!! Duh, but with an identical emphasis on non-fiction as on fiction. Literature is the joy of our lives, the enrichment. Non-fiction/Information reading is the meat and veggies.
• Computers! but not just computers! I would love to see collaboritive spaces. It is often nice to have the one laptop per child model, but there are times when it is much more successful to have one computer per group. I would like to see large desks with plenty of space for other media, like books, posters, videos and dvds alongside the computer.
• Conference rooms/cubicles where students can collaborate without disturbing others.
• 
  

Blended Learning

What does it take to learn today? What does it take to teach today? I would argue that it takes a blender.

Students are growing up in an environment that is saturated with online interactions. Younger and younger students are adopting interactive online media as a way to connect to the people they know face to face. Schools need that same blending. Schools were designed years ago for a factory worker model. The structure of school was designed to cultivate a good factory worker. This model no longer fits. Students want to interact in online ways.

In face to face interactions there are strategies a teacher can use to engage students. Questioning techniques, Project based learning, collaborative work. Each of these strategies takes skill, experience and often support and training to be able to pull off successfully. Students achievement both in terms of testing scores, inherent self-concept, and marketable skills are improved when teachers effectively weave different authentic learning experiences into their students face to face interactions. In the past few years, there has been an increased emphasis on the effectiveness of multi-media, well, that is true, but the reason we need a blender is that we need to blend these face to face skills into an online environment.

In the online or distance environment, whether it be the online presence of an individual teacher, a library, district, or a specific course or class ideally, there would be a connection to the real world face to face environment. There are a set of skills for interacting online. There are skills to moderating online discussions, to creating a paperless classroom, and to processing multimedia. These skills need skill, experience and often support. These skills are the greatest challenge for many teachers.

The ideal teaching and learning experience is the experience that best facilitates the learning by the student and the teaching by the teacher or facilitator. Sometimes the ideal is entirely online, sometimes it is entirely face to face, but increasingly it will be blended. Whether we are talking about Algebra 2, Biology, 4th grade reading time, or Professional development. Learners will be looking for a face to face experience and an online connection.

See the text here: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dcvrd8qb_29hrw9pdgm

Assessment again!

I've been bumping around my RSS feeds and reading some of the great blog posts out there and I stubbed my toe on two valuable posts.

First on Kelly Hines blog: Or is it about the technology? Deven Black made a very cogent comment about the inappropriateness of our current testing regime. Or maybe it's really about the ineffectiveness of the current testing regime, but it all boils down peanuts.

Another post pointed out the very real, and accurate points a 15 year old has about the troubling nature of trying to prevent kids from failing. I just can't believe that artificially inflating their grades and ego is helpful. Shouldn't they do good useful things and then they get to feel good about themselves? (Yes, I know I am quoting the old Bill Gates chain email but hey the sentiment was right)

My response to the post was:

Hey, Sorry, I am with the 15 year old on this one. This make almost no sense. Especially considering a 50% is still a failing grade. Is this move just to stroke the ego of the kids? I structured my classes and grading such that any kid who made a modest effort could pass. Legitimately without someone artificially forcing a minimum grade. Did I have kids fail. Yes, Miserably but it was due to their absolute refusal to put in any effort. We need to get away from grading kids. A term which means we are literally ‘grading’ them. Putting them into categories based on subjective value we place on their abilities. It would be so nice to actually evaluate their competencies, including their willingness and motivation to, as your 15 year old friend points out, how much they try to learn!

I just find it aggravating that we throw our efforts into testing, measuring, evaluating, and planning instead of just helping the struggling kids who want to succed find the areas they can succeed in. We spend so much time trying to motivate the unmotivated that the highly motivated are left to navigate the oceans of learning on their own.

W =F x D; T = (L + R + C)Ch

I was reading Kelly Hines blog today and ran across this from an older post

2. Learning and Teaching are not the same thing. How many times have we heard a colleague say, “I don’t know why these kids don’t get it. I’ve taught it a hundred times.” I equate teaching and learning to a basic physics principle. If an object does not move, no matter how much force has been applied, no work has been done. Therefore, if a student has not learned, not matter how much effort has been exerted, no teaching has been done. Teaching in the 21st century is going to be about working smarter and not harder. It is not about adding to our proverbial plates. We must look at learning as the product of a successful day. Learning will not look the same to all students or all teachers, but it must be the goal.

This was part of a complete list, but it struck me as unique and the physics reference hit home for me. So adding my own 2 cents into the conversation here's my formula for teaching

T = (L + R + C)Ch
Teaching equals Learning plus Retention plus connections multiplied by change. If what I do doesn't cause people to change the way they behave I haven't really taught them anything. It doesn't have to have a life altering effect on them, but maybe a slight course correction that sends them into a new direction. Everything valuable I have every learned has caused me to change, and I hope it has caused me to change for the better, to improve.

Kelly's Post reminded me of that! Thanks!

Creating threads of understanding

Our education doesn't need to be changed, but our assessment does. There is certainly a place and quite probably quite a central place for multiple choice tests within the framework of assessment.
I admit that multiple choice questions are the simplest to deal with. They have the very friendly trait of being simple to analyze. It's easy to count up the number of correct answers and give percentage score and plot that on a chart. The problem is that it so rarely reflects all the learner has learned and rarely shows the nuances of understanding that can exist.

Might I suggest an alternative approach, Allow students to create multiple lines of evidence for learning. Consider 3 or more lines of evidence and make at least some of the lines be chosen by Learners. If quizzes or tests are part of the assessment plans or requirements, make some of the other lines of evidence different methods, and not just essays or other traditional approaches. Consider:

• videos
• multimedia presentations
• journals or notes (as an assessment tool not just as a study tool)
• drawings, artwork, or artistic representations of processes.
• animations or 3-D diagrams
• In Class presentations
  
• Collaborations

Visit www.edutopia.org specifically http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-immersion-enota-how-to for ideas related to Multiple Intelligences and Project based learning.

Response to Jeff Utecht: When do we start teaching self-branding

No, it is self-branding not self branding. See his thoughts here His post brings up an interesting dynamic. Below is my response:

Self branding and identity protection create a unique tension in the online world. On the one hand I as a person want to protect myself from identity theft, on the other hand I am trying to carve out a piece of online territory that is ME! This becomes even trickier because our students are doing the same thing. They want to be recognized and heard and be noticed, but what if they are recognized and noticed?

Thanks for a thoughtful post

It makes me wonder though, do we really teach the technology? Kids get the branding idea already. That's why they myspace and facebook. They are defining who they are by in a sense advertising who they are. I don't know all the answers but the questions sure keep things interesting.