Notes from day 2 of TASA's Leadership for the Digital Age with Alan November. For my notes on Day 1 of this academy, which took place January 15, 2014, click here.
Notes from the Discussion
We no longer have to go to school if we want to learn.
edX -
www.edex.org - MOOC site, courses are all free, people who teach the courses are from Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, University of Texas, etc. (Click
here to see all of them.)
Coursera is another option for higher ed MOOCS.
November's son is taking courses through edX and will get an
associate's degree from Harvard. Student needs 32 credits from another university, and 32 credits from Harvard. More info on
Harvard online degree programs and certificates.
Students can graduate from high school with dual credit then get the rest of their college experience entirely online.
Swivl - Apparatus that lets you use an iPad to video record a lecture or presentation. Moves the camera to follow presenter around the room. (Use for teachers and students! Imagine sharing student presentations to the world!)
High school library prediction - Librarians will become resources to help students find online courses. Part of function of library will be to become an online learning center.
Close to 10% of students got into MIT by excelling in a MOOC. Did not go through traditional admissions process as we know it. For example,
this young man from Mongolia.
Are we going to prevent, ignore, or encourage students getting college credit for nothing?
We should be advertising these opportunities to students!
Number one skill for being successful in learning: the ability to self-assess.
Number one skill for being successful in teaching: ability to give quality feedback on student work.
When focusing on 1:1, iPads, etc: Focus on teaching teachers to give better feedback and students to self-assess instead of the technology. A participant in the room shared about an 8th grade Engilsh teacher using Google docs and going paperless - students walk in and go immediately to their Chromebooks because they want to see the feedback the teacher has given them. Now it is spreading because of the quality of teacher feedback.
Districts Sharing Ideas
Be positive with feedback! What you can say:
- I like that because...
- Have you thought about...
- I have a resource for you...
Distict #1: Principal of an elementary school shared that as part of their 1:1 initiative, they want to create a bank of lessons created by students based on
http://clubacademia.org/ which Alan shared last time.
Speaking of, the 17 year old creator of http://clubacademia.org/ wants to give away her shell to any school that wants to use it, and then will link all of the shells together to make a global network of student lessons.
Good apps for creating tutorials: Explain Everything, Screen Chomp, Educreations
District #2: Revisiting their BYOD initiative. They brought in a panel of students to ask about their experience with BYOD. They videoed the students responses so they can use it in further PD with their administrators and teachers. Some students did not know that they were allowed to bring devices even three years after the initiative began. In other places it's off and running. It was found they were using it more at the middle schools than at the high schools.
Lessons learned from above district: Don't jump in to quickly. Pick teachers who are already strong in their content. If you push teachers to do things before they are ready, it can be detrimental to them and their students. Also, realize teachers who have been successful in the current system, with high test scores, etc, may be more resistant.
District #3: Next Generation Digital Classroom - moving away from laptops and desktops. Have narrowed down to four vendors to try iPads, Android tablets, Windows 8 tablets, Chromebooks. Teachers are applying to be the one teacher per school who pilots the devices at their campus, plus 8 librarians across the district. Goals based on Project Red and SAMR. Pilot will be evaluated for what tech works and doesn't, learning environment/classroom space to incorporate best instructional practice, and PD needs, all of which will be approached from an action research standpoint. Teachers will write their own questions and goals that they want to meet each fall and spring. They will complete video showcases at the end of each year to use as a resource for curating best practices through the project and informing future steps across the district.
- November suggests Stratosphere which talks about how to evaluate technology projects.
District #4: Instituting a technology apps elective for middle school students next year. (Have only had fine arts electives up to this point.) In individual classrooms, teachers are working with students who are ahead of the rest of the class to create a library of tutorials for other students. In library they are using stop motion technology to develop stories. Doing cross-curricular projects with students in other grades. Also starting a middle school coding class.
- Another participant suggested code.org which has a middle school coding curriculum
- November suggested Scratch; you can start with other kids' created programs and tweak them instead of starting from scratch (ha ha no pun intended!)
- November's podcast of an interview with Dr. Mitch Resnik, creator of Scratch.
District #5: Kindergarten teachers started class Twitter accounts! Here is
Mrs. Cook's Twitter. They follow other Kinder classes and have connected with a class in Korea.
More Discussion Notes
November suggests
no more technology workshops. Integrate the technology into core content PD. Also tell teachers principal will show up 30, 60, and 90 days after PD to look for specific strategies that were communicated in the workshop. Example: Working toward self assessment of math. Are teachers using Wolfram Alpha, Khan Academy, Think Through Math, etc when principal observes. Then assess if the staff development paid off based on student achievement data. Workshop needs measurable goals, follow-up, and results based on data.
The key is the principal holding teachers accountable.
Often, the technology coordinator/director is reporting to the WRONG person. Org charts need to change.
November advises superintendents to have a student advisory panel that they meet with them once a month. Ask them things like:
- What's the best thing technology has done for your learning?
- Is there anything you've learned with technology that you could have done without technology?
- What are you doing outside of school on your own that helps you learn?
Are we showing kids how to do really good searching? Ask them to find an image representing American History. They will get
this. But with a tweak, we can show them how to get
this or
this.
Key to getting workshops/PD to have effect in classroom: Have the workshop presenter/leader come and teach an actual class with actual students. All teachers watch the workshop leader run the class. Important for modeling classroom management. Make sure to debrief afterwards. (Can also use
Swivl or something like it to record and archive master teachers.)
Here's an idea to empower kids: Let them lead workshops for their peers. For example, an after-school club for using
Minecraft to create virtual environments. Check out this
Egyptian Pyramid! (NOTE: Teacher does not need to know how to use Minecraft to let kids use it for producing a project.)
November says
if he could teach teachers ONE thing, it would be how to be life-long learners with today's tools.
Twitter is his favorite tool for professional learning. Every teacher should be following teachers who are sharing what they are doing. Then, if you are lucky, all of your teachers will have a blog. Use every bit of social media that you can. Pinterest. Instagram. Diigo.
November makes his doctoral students join Diigo and participate in a Diigo group he created for them. Now he can see what they are researching and reading and the students can see what each other is reading and they can converse about it. Can set it to email you when people add bookmarks. (Great way to build community among faculty.) Here is November's
Diigo library. (And here is
mine. I LOVE Diigo!)
Leaders should be creating community using tools like Diigo groups!
PD Tip - Start with something teachers love to teach instead of a tool the presenter thinks is cool. Example: Tweak one of their favorite lessons. Hint: Look for hashtags that will help them get more info for the assignment. You can teach people the mechanics of a tool, but you also need to help them make connections to their curriculum. Give it context. Start with the question: "What's your favorite assignment? Let's redo it."
Principals need to make heroes out of their teachers. Start a podcast where you interview them and get them to tell their stories!
Homework Before Day 3 in May
The First Five Days -
What would you do in the first five days of school to teach kids how to learn to learn?
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