Mar
3
2010
Pat Basset forwarded a link to ISED-L about the research article about 1:1 programs:
It’s an interesting article on several levels. It addresses criticism of 1:1 laptop program, but it also defines laptops as cognitive tools that should be part of larger whole school change initiatives in pedagogy and curriculum. This is something I’ve advocated for many years.
Of particular interest to me is the final third of the report, which makes suggestions as to how “embedded design” is needed when schools change or adopt new objectives.
Here are two paragraphs from page 12.
One, the community comprising the school – students, teachers, school leaders, and parents – must have an explicit set of simple rules (Bain, 2007; Seel, 2000) that defines what the community believes about teaching and learning. The rules and the process of building consensus about them, assign value to what the community believes (e.g. cooperation, curriculum, feedback, time). The rules are not a mission statement; instead, they are the drivers for the overall design of the school and the schooling that occurs therein (Weston & Bain, 2009).
Two, the school community deliberately and systematically uses its rules to embed its big ideas, values, aspirations, and commitments in the day-to-day actions and processes of the school (e.g., physical space, classroom organization, equipment, job descriptions, career paths, salary scales, curriculum documents, classroom practice, performance evaluation, technology, professional development). Embedded design yields a complete picture, absent of the broad, loosely coupled (Weick, 1976) brush strokes and sweeping references to “best practice” (Daniels et al., 2001) or “excellence” (Peters, 2009) that characterize techno-critique and are common in most approaches to educational change, innovation, and reform.
The following sections discuss building community involvement in this process, so that new embedded tools or objectives are requested as part of the overall change, instead of layered on top with unclear objectives.
It’s a good article– check it out.
Feb
25
2010
First Draft of a unified learning spaces theory
I wasn’t able to fly to San Francisco this week to attend the annual NAIS conference, but I’m still doing my best to follow the blog posts from Demetri and others about the events. I’ve been impressed by the ideas and quotes from the sessions so far.
Back here in cloudy and wet London, however, I’m thinking about learning spaces. We worked last week on a new open air lab (photos to follow), and also how to improve the environments of existing classrooms. At the same time, we’re working on the Veracross migration that will have a strong online space, to complement our Moodle system, yet that hasn’t stopped us from building a pilot project for blogging in Drupal. Geez.
Anyway, in looking for a common thread for all this work, it’s learning spaces. In fact, I’m curious about a unified learning spaces theory. How does a classroom relate to a campus relate to online networked learning relate to home learning. Maybe this too big picture, but some of the decisions we’re trying to make deal with at-home academic work as much as (or more than) in-classroom work, and that is interesting.
As seen in the post below about the Khan Academy, even pure academic learning does not only exist in the classroom, and it’s time to try and understand how students become self-sufficient learners, or expert learners. Much of this happens outside of the classroom, but all of the features of a school (from lunch room, to gyms, to art workshops, to the front steps) contribute to a larger learning space.
Here’s a copy of the draft idea above:
Comprehensive Learning Environment
Feel free to comment– obviously, I’m only at the start of this work.
Feb
23
2010
It’s worth watching this short video about the Microsoft Education Award winner this year:
http://www.youtube.com/khanacademy
He was also featured on the PBS News Hour last night.
Inspiring.
Feb
19
2010
It was February break, and I worked about half of the week, but earlier this week we took off to the boat and sailed to the Isle of Wight for an overnight on the Medina River.
That may sound great, but it was just a few degrees above freezing, it rained frequently, we have no heat on the boat, and our favorite pub and restaurant on the island was closed. No food, and no water taxi to get to it.
So, we spent the afternoon and night in a very cold boat, trying to heat it with candles, a lantern and the stove. Good dinner, but seriously cold overnight. The next morning we sailed for home– proud of a winter sail, but ready to warm up again back in London.
Full photo gallery from the trip at
Feb
19
2010
Okay, if you read this blog and others, it will seem like new technologies like Zimbra and Drupal are set and forget. Five minute installs followed by months of enjoyment and feet on the desk.
Most untrue.
Here’s one that plagued us for almost a month– the main log in screen to Zimbra (for the web clients) would stall. Not all the time, but maybe one out of ten times. A typical log in is around 20 seconds. When stalled, it may be 2-5 minutes, or not at all. Users were unhappy.
So, we tore our hair out– the server looked fine, nothing in the logs, so it had to be the clients. The problem was occurring on Macs and PCs, Firefox and IE and Safari and Chrome. We tried turning off plug-ins, rolling back JIT Java compilers, the works. Nothing seemed to prevent the problem. Some felt we were just overloading the server, but nothing indicated that server-side. In fact, the stalls could occur with very few users on.
About the same time, our Zimbra Admin noticed that he had lost login access to a key shared account– one that shared out briefcases, RSS feeds and a mailbox with sub folders to all users. No go on login– we were cut off from accessing the account.
The reason– when we deleted student accounts from last school year, there were still shares in their accounts from the master account, and they may have been renamed or altered. By deleting them, we corrupted the main account.
On that issue, we worked out complicated processes to change to a new shared account, but then our Zimbra admin found a way to remove the corrupted shares from the account, and we go access back to it. Then he built a script to remove all corrupted share.
At that moment, the stalled logins stopped. Apparently, they were related to the semi-corrupted shared account (for mailbox, RSS feed folder, briefcases) to most users. Once it was cleaned up, the loading at login for users returned to normal.
Supposedly, the bug in Zimbra regarding shared account corruption when accounts are deleted with existing shares is still around. We have a script now that removes all shares before accounts are taken out. However, we lucky to have such a strong Zimbra admin who can write these scripts and get us out of trouble. Cheers to him.
We like Zimbra a lot, but we are using it at a high level of complexity, and it runs at a relatively high level of complexity. If you are considering it, proceed with growth in a careful way, and have a lead admin who understand the Command Line Interface and can write scripts.
Meanwhile, I’ll put my feet up.
Feb
13
2010
February break has started. We head to a cold boat on a train.
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13
2010
We worked on Drupal most of the week. Actually, I started the week before with a simple Drupal installation on my bluehost.com account. This week, we built a proper Redhad Linux server and installed Drupal to start building it as a production server.
Our goal is a pilot project for the rest of the year with three or four middle school classrooms. They are looking for better ways for students to post writing and other creative work and media online to each other, and to allow commenting on it. Our Moodle system can do some of that, but it’s not great with the commenting and broader sharing with students outside of the class groups. (Moodle could be enhanced to be better at this, but it’s our main homework delivery and listing system for dozens of classes, so we are very hesitant to start trying out add-in modules in the middle of a school year.)
So far, we’ve been following Bill Fitzgerald’s book (noted in last post) and trying to upgrade the file management system. We had one scare when we lost all admin access, but we found the solution the next day. Now that we have over a dozen modules installed, we’re finding the system to be a bit fragile. (Views module can crash repeatedly and need to be reinstalled, etc.)
However, we are excited about getting Organic Groups working, so that teachers can create their own class groups as desired (instead of us locking everything down with student information class list exports). We also like the idea of the portfolios having many publication options (private, teacher only, class only, grade level only, division only, school only, and possibly public in the future).
It’s good work, and we’ll continue next week with a hopeful launch the following week (once students are back from February break). We are also building an open air lab in the MS/HS library next week, and I really like the idea of students using paper and digital resources at the same time.
Feb
7
2010
Although I missed Bill Fitzgerald’s Educon 2.2 presentation about online portfolios in Drupal, I’ve been studying his demo site for that presentation:
http://educon20.com/posts/4/user
I need to overlay his recent work with his book about the educational development of Drupal (http://www.funnymonkey.com/), but he’s stating some very intriguing ideas about a more simplified portfolio structure that servers several purposes at once.
We normally think of portfolios as a way to students to select and share work for assessment, but his approach is to build the portfolio concept right into the development of units by teachers. Thus, they are building and sharing multi-year teaching portfolios with each other, while also using the units with students, who develop their own portfolios in response.
He speaks of this as possibly creating more openness and searchable examples between faculty, much in the way that curriculum mapping has attempted in the past. We are spending next week building and revising a pilot Drupal system for middle school students to use for blogging (using ideas from his book), but at the same time we’ll try to think about larger issues like this as we map out the information and access design of the site.
Should be fun.
Feb
6
2010
Always nice to visit Ray’s Jazz Club at Foyles. Worked on Drupal today.
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1
2010
A very simple comment: the iPad is a step forward to larger computers becoming more like mobile phones. Many people will like that, given that there is nostalgia for land-line phones because of their simplicity and durability. (The black rotary in my parents home has been working about as long as I’ve been alive.)
If we move into a realm where more of our users (faculty and students) use their own computer hardware for school work, then the more reliable it is the better. Even the lack of multitasking could be a benefit, since it prevents users from overloading system resources with a pile of background widgets.
Maybe the biggest lost is a definite shift from laptops being creative tools to iPads being information access tools. I’ve already seen that with iPhones– why carry a laptop when you can do email, calendars, contacts with the phone. It’s not that iPads can’t create content, but…
I think we’re going to lose a lot of related to computing becomes a sealed environment, and you toss it if it stops working (like a mobile phone). At the same time, it will make computers boring in a technical way, which Clay Shirky believes is the key for them becoming socially interesting (and trans-formative).
So it goes.
Feb
1
2010
Okay, let’s conclude my notes about Educon 2.2.
School Policy Panel Discussion: I listed to some, but the parts I heard were very general– “we all make policies all the time” sort of thing. I won’t comment more, since I switched to working online.
Invitation to Inquiry: This was a relatively fun session, because different groups got different inquiry materials for a project design. We had science, and articles about the earthquakes in California and Haiti. Members of my group did a great job of discussing different inquiry project designs for the material. My only wish was that the leaders were a little clearer about scaffolding inquiry learning. How much focusing do students need to stay on topic? For example, our content could have been used for social/political inquiry projects, but could you allow that to happen in the same classroom (and probably not if you are a science teacher).
Lunch Meeting: fun discussion with an open source developer and planner. We shared a lot of views about truths and misconceptions about open source software for schools. Perhaps like Veracross, the goal of open source is to become a service more than a product. Getting started may be “free” in a few respects, but sustainability is only achieved with support (for both upgrades, modifications, new modules and new ideas). It is fun to think of multi-school collaborations for new open source modules or tools– curriculum mapping for Drupal or Moodle, anyone? (I should also note that Zimbra benefits from an open source version and community, and a paid-support contract.)
On the Development of Learning Spaces: it was fun to hear David Jakes leads conversations and share ideas about changing physical learning spaces, and actively integrating virtual learning spaces with the physical. Some basic ideas: move your desks into a fish-bowl design (inner facing circle inside a larger inner facing circle of desks). Bring in floor lamps from Oxfam, Goodwill or Walmart, and turn off the in-ceiling fluorescent lights. In fact, in one classroom he removed all the ceiling tiles and went for an industrial look, changing the eye lines of his students by raising the ceiling by four feet (and then using that space creatively). Ask the students what they think should be changed. Create a Genius Bar for the school. Create a Starbucks space in the library. I need to get the book he referenced: Learning Space Design. I also liked how Jakes was using Etherpad.
After that session, I took public transport to the Philadelphia airport (getting there far too quickly) and then flew over the Atlantic, over-night. I’ll be processing more ideas from Educon over the next few days, and I may post a bit more. Good conversational conference– my main request would be for a bit more focus instead of too many major ideas mixed together too briefly.
Jan
31
2010
Here’s some observations so far from Educon 2.2
“What is Smart” Panel discussion: many attendees felt that the discussion was too broad and focused too much on trying to decide what “smart” meant. Some general ideas about areas of affinity, finding a passion, differentiated learning, inquiry-based learning, project-based learning and memorization were tossed in, but the conversation seemed to go in a lot of directions at once. Last year’s topic about “what is a school” sounded more interesting.
Friday Night Independent School get-together: Great people, but the Public House music was way too loud and it was hard to have conversations even in the private room. Leaving the place, the music was almost making people bounce out of chairs…
Many to Many Session: I greatly enjoyed the conversations and points brought up, and I hope the Prezi I had didn’t take too long to get through. There was some debate about open source– the ideas behind it should be part of what we define digital citizenship to be (doing things for love, collaboration, contributing to many helping many) and there are open source solutions schools should consider (as we use Moodle and Zimnbra, and others use Drupal and more). There was also very good conversation about social networking initiatives that have failed (bulletin boards, wikis, threaded discussions, more). As Shirky notes, we have to be careful about the Promise, the Tool and the Bargain. If one fails, the project fails. Also, scaffolding is needed to push contribution and collaboration– it does not happen automatically out of the goodness of the hearts of users.
Managing your digital lifestyle session: Wow, that was a group of serious list-makers, calendar makers, tweeters, Evernote users, Google Apps users, etc. I actually felt a little left brained in the session, because I don’t use 800 tools to help organize myself or tweet my life or Facebook my family. (Not that I don’t have a blog, a twitter account, photo galleries online). I am much less connected than some– which is okay by me! One tool that was recommend, and I intend to look into, is Evernote.
Leadership 2.0 by Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy (hosting school). Chris has a great personality and can definitely talk to teachers. Hearing more about the story of the creation of SLA over the last four years was very good, as well as hearing about the cross disciplinary Inquiry philosophy they have, and the creation of a Caring Community. All good stuff, but again a bit scattered. So many topics (tech, inquiry, caring, collaborative decision-making) were handled at once. I would have enjoyed a little more focus on the changes in leadership that all schools are considering or engaged in as a new generation of administrators step up to the challenge.
Last night I took myself on a walk downtown to Rittenhouse Square. It was snowing and 17 degrees, but it was great to walk by the places where I once taught night courses to adults for Temple University. That was a good time, back in the late 1980s.
Okay, time to participate in an Inquiry session.
Jan
30
2010
So far, I’ve survied the trip to Philadelphia, survived the “What is Smart” Panel discussion, had a great time with a group of ISED-L types at dinner last night, and now I have the final version of my Prezi done for my “Many to Many” conversation this morning at 10:00:
http://prezi.com/8ypptizb10k7/
Now, for six blocks of 20 degree weather to walk to the converfence area.
Jan
25
2010
Okay, I’m using Prezi for the first time to create an opening presentation for a conversation at Educon 2.2. Here’s a link to draft six:
http://prezi.com/8ypptizb10k7/
Earlier drafts are linked at that URL. This draft is about 80 percent done. Feel free to comment.
I only learned about Prezi at a conference presentation last Friday by a colleague. I’m ready for a break from PowerPoint, and I also like how Prezi is a combination of Mind Mapping and Presentation.
Jan
23
2010
My parents died in an Alpine climbing accident when I was eleven.
They were in the bathroom of our flat in Hampstead, shaving and showering for another day of work, when Alpine climbers fell out of a plane that had recently taken off from Stansted Airport en route to the Eiger. The climbers crashed through the roof, landing on my mom and dad, who where killed instantly. The climbers apologized, brushed off plaster dust, picked up their gear, and called a cab to return to Stansted for the next flight to the Eiger.
So began the adventure of my childhood in which I alone would face great challenges and learn great things, parent-free.