Digital Language Arts

I went to a session at the ASCD conference entitled "Digital Language Arts". It was a Grade 5 teacher sharing a novel study she had done with her students. What I really liked about it was her understanding of what she was trying to get her students to understand and practice. She used technology to support their reflections and challenged them to think at a higher level. She then built into the structure a system for small group guided instruction, small group independent work, and small group collaborative work. She used ThinkQuest as a major support platform for her class. Here is the link to the site they created for the presentation. The multimedia button contains the powerpoint that gives an overview. http://digitallanguagearts.net/

Conference Exhibitions

I've have just returned from Orlando where I attended the ASCD Conference "Learning Without Boundaries". One of the most interesting things (I saw the space shuttle!) was the exhibition room. There were hundreds of booths, all trying very hard to sell their product. But here's what was interesting, I would say that a good 80% were computer focused. The products were either hardware (SMARTboards, etc.) online resources (Pearson PD) or software. It was a rare thing to see a booth with only books. Even though the delivery method has changed, we still have the challenge of what is based on solid practice and research or just a nicely packaged drill sheet.

More Information Literacy

You know, I thought I knew how to search and analyze websites. After working through Adventure 1 I realize I am on the right track, but am not efficient. The skill that I need to learn is to be more specific in my search and use the Boolean tools more.
I think that I have been relying on my experience and knowledge base to decide the validity of actual websites as well as the information given in a snippet without knowing what I am doing. Now that I recognize what I am doing, it makes me realize that not everyone will do that, especially kids. It the same with reading. Some kids just read the words, but don't think about what they are reading. With all the information and choices so readily avialable on the web, it sure is something necessary for students to develop the skill of evaluating information. It's pretty scary when they accept everything they see.
If I relate back to Glogowski's posting on education moving towards being interest base, learning from and with others who are like minded, students will need to be aware of who they are gaining information from and what kind of a filter that infomation needs to be put through. Opinions, ideas and facts are all part of learning together, but they need to be taken through different lenses. So the skills of Information Literacy become ever more crucial.

Information Literacy

I just read the resources regarding the importance of Information Literacy. I agree with the powerpoint and article that this should be a focus. We have so many students who accept what they read or hear as the gospel truth. Our system of education and traditional way of teaching reinforces students to give the expert or teacher what they want to hear. That also encourages them to accept what they are told. So challenging and verifying information is a foreign concept. If we want to move our students towards creating their own learning network they had better know how to discern the validity of their sources. I need to become more adept at it also.

Disruptive innovation

This is an interesting discussion that keeps coming up. Will techology and its tools change the way we teach, or just put a more modern twist on it? Our technology (Who's title is really Learnign rEsources Consultant) challenges the excitement over SMART boards. She is excited by them and what she sees many teachers doing with them, but she is afraid that they also influencing us back to teach directed instruction. The teacher is at the front directing students learning, rather than encouraging them to pursue their own self-selected goals. Reminds of Richardson's and Glogowski's thoughts on assigned blogging in a previous post.

Glogowski and assessment

Okay, I don't know if I missed something significant or not, but I don't really get what Glogowski is saying about assessment. I get what he means when he talks of being a co-learner and more experienced peer alongside the student learner. He advocates replacing traditional assesment with the the practice of journeying alongside each individual student as they pursue knowledge. I see that as an exciting dynamic with great possibilities for both teacher and student, but I don't see that as full well-rounded assessment. Certainly, when you journey with someone closely, you would encourage all kinds of assessment AS learning, and maybe even some assessment FOR learning, but in the real world, no matter how much we talk about assessment, somebody asks the question about grading and marks. Even though I don't fully see his point, I most certainly appreciate and support his call to rethink what assessment should look like when we change the way we teach and learn.

Assigned blogging

Glogowski uses Richardson's term assigned blogging to make a point that technology itself does not ensure collaboartive, creative learning. Instead of developing and nurturing student interest and talent, assigning topics regularly ends up being just another prompt driven exercise. That's not to say that we should never assign specific tasks or prompts but rather begs the question of what is the balance between assignments that do open new doors and those that encourage students to pursue their own passions? I believe that we need to always struggle to find that balance. In order for students to know what their true passions are and to be tolerant and even excited about others' interests, they do need a wide exposure to new ideas and information. It is our job to expand their horizons, just as it is our job to strengthen their skills and talents and help them develop those skills by encouraging contact with like-minded people.
We were having a similar discussion at our differentiation table around the topic of teaching to the multi-intelligence model. As we try to get to know our students well and teach to their styles and strengths, should we not also be exposing them to other ways of learning so they develop a repertoire or some amount of facility when in different situations that require different set of skills?
Funny, I just realized that even though I titled this post about a technology tool - a blog, I really didn't deal with it, but instead talked about what we do with the tool. I think I'm coming to like that term 'tool'. It does imply that you have to do something with the tool for it to be useful. A hammer is just a hammer until it's used to pound a nail to connect something together. A technology tool should be used in education to enhance and stimulate the learning process. The challenge, as Glogowski points out, is that technology can and should be used to encourage a different kind of learning than what occurs in a contained classroom. Most tools do allow us to be creative and analytical if we don't constrict them all the time.

Safety of the Self-contained classroom

Konrad Glogowski describes a kind of learning that is interest based, where students learn from and with people who share the same passion. He uses the phrase "cocooning in protected classrooms." It made me think of several different things.
We have a constant debate in our division about whether to block and control the websites available in schools. It seems to bring out strong opinions. I do think the debate comes from two different origins. One is that often it is the techie support people who argue for blocking, both for security reasons, but also because they are not into thinking about student capacity and thinking int he same way teachers do. Another reason I think there are different points of view is that this judgement call would be strongly influenced by a deep philosophical belief of how we run our classroom and what we believe about the student teacher relationship. Are teachers and students co-learners, facilitator and learner, teacher as information giver, etc.? How much we want to allow students to explore the world depends on what we believe.