It has been a while since my last post, and man have I been busy. I was quite pleased with the reaction that, There’s No Such Thing As Virtual: It Is All Teaching, received, so I wanted to write a follow up on the progress we have made thus far this year.
Let me start by saying that we have been in school for nearly eight weeks now, but have only had three complete weeks without some sort of interruption. First we dealt with the Swine Flu closure, then we had a week holiday, then I was out for a few days since my wife had a baby, and now because of some government licensing issues we have been asked to teach at another campus. Needless to say, we have had a difficultly time establishing routines and consistency.
Having said that, the work my classes are doing online has been progressing very well. I was going through my spreadsheets today tracking who has done what, and I am pleased to announce that the majority of the students have:
1. Created a Blog
• Written and published their first post
• Created links
• Some have uploaded images and some video
• Learned the basics of Creative Commons images and citing
2. Created a Gmail account
• My 8th graders have been working with collaborative Google Doc assignements
• Completed online Google Forms
3. Begun work on note collection and group work on our class wiki
I have also invited parents to join our community and while it is still early, some of them shown interested and curiosity during our parent teacher conferences this week. So although we are still not operating in a comfortable reliable setting- poor internet connections, unreliable laptops, and overcrowding these kids are learning how to use these tools to extend their learning where they feel most comfortable.
It is strange because of the poor quality of the gadgets and tools at my disposable, I feel most of my best work is being done when the kids are at home. I physically cannot do the things I want in my classroom, so I train them to do them at home. Like I told the parents this week, I figure if their child is spending time online at home, I want that time to be productive and exciting, because they are using different tools to learn.
I want them doing research and posting the info on a wiki. I want them to be reading and reflecting on our blog. I want them to be commenting on each other’s work and really communicating instead of chatting on MSN. I want the first thing that they do when they log in and start their homework to be to see if they “missed” anything from our blog. I am realizing that the more comfortable they become, the more these contagious these interactions and excitement for our collective work becomes.
This is exciting because we are still learning how to interact within our own small community. I am looking forward to the time when they are ready to branch out and meet some of the schools we will work with this year.
Of course there are the stragglers. The students who still can’t log into their blog, or still only have the generic “Hello World” post from edublogs, or do not have a Gmail account, but I have identified those kids this week, and want to mandate that they come in during break or lunch, get help, and get connected. For most of them all of these tools are still only designed for school, but I can’t wait until they start to see that they can use these tools to explore, connect and create with a much larger world.
Feels great to be back in the Middle School and able to get back to the work I love.
While we want all of our students to be fantastic content producers on the internet, that just isn’t realistic. Some will be merely mostly proficient. All students have strengths and weakness, likes and dislikes and while we can reach a significant number of them using technology tools not all will embrace them or even show much interest. This is not our failing or theirs, it is the way we are made.
Take joy in those students that find their calling using tech and encourage those that are less interested. We are but a small part of the larger cog of education.
Great point! Thanks for putting things into perceptive; we assume that since kids are so “digitally native” that they all live and breathe tech, when really they don’t nor should they.
Sometimes we, I, let my own passion get out of control. It is okay to have some kids that just don’t get it or care to.
I am so glad we are interacting so often here in the Interwebs. I really appreciate your insight and what you have to offer.
I do understand your perspective, I just live with students that don’t show much interest. The ones that do have made become very adept using our tools.
I have learned much from you as well. Because our backgrounds are very different, I feel you help me to see another side of issues. While we may not always agree, the discussion is very valuable.
Bill
Haha, Mr. Jabiz– your use of the word “mandate” through up a red flag for me because it sounds so authoritarian.
I think your passion for technology is awesome, but I hope those few students who don’t seem to be connecting to the tech don’t discourage your efforts. Dr. Strange can attest that my own experience in his EDM class has come 180 since last semester, and I could not be more grateful! It took me a little longer to appreciate the open doors that being tech savvy and engaged has to offer, but I eventually came around and am more eager to learn than ever! I am sure your students will come around too.
On a mildly related note, I just got into Last Child in the Woods and I love the message thus far. Maybe you could incorporate some of the lessons you learned from reading that book into your classroom experience– especially for the students who just aren’t grasping the significance of the possibilities created by tech.
Thanks for the recommendation and keep up the good work!
Anthony
In Europe lifelong learning takes now has a different approach, we hope to see more development as a result of new legislation, good luck all teachers!
I hear you on so many of the points above. I, too, am having my students blog – something I always do. But the circumstances are very different for me this year. Rather than being a college instructor teaching 20 somethings with the latest apple notebooks (the context of the last few years) and access to all the latest tech at school – and the ability to communicate with students during non school hours, I’m now teaching in the public high school system, which means limited access to the kinds of resources I enjoyed at the college level. Shared dataprojectors, few macs and a few other contexts that just add to the challenge. Namely:
1) For socio-economic reasons, not all of my students have access to the same computer resources out of school.
2) I can’t give homework (not in this program, it doesn’t get done). Everything has to happen in class.
3) For many, the very small (but important) written elements are a turn off of using a blog. Yes, I’d love to have them switch to a podcast but uh … I’d need mics!! 🙂
So I’m trying to focus on the positive. How much did they achieve? They set up WordPress accounts, most got an about, FAQ and some resource links up about their topic – plus ONE post (the hardest challenge). Only two went beyond this (basic) expectation.
I have asked the students how I might improve this assignment for the next time – as clearly most of them were not interested in it (despite allowing them to write on virtually any topic of interest – from first person shooter video games and Ultimate Fighting Championship to “Being Muslim” and single parenthood). The topics were actually quite great, I just didn’t get them entirely completed.
Students said: “there’s too much writing.” This is a challenge in a school where traditional literacy is limited. So I have to think about the use of a blog but with far more visual media and video and audio.
Hello,
I am one of Dr. Strange’s students at The University of South Alabama in EDM 310. My blog can be found at http://www.arthurfarisedm310.blogspot.com. I will be commenting on three of your posts on this blog as part of our class-wide “comment for teachers” project. I am very impressed that you have such limited resources at your disposal, yet are able to provide your students with a technological education. I think that the shift toward for technologically based media for education is inevitable. It’s good that you have your students using gmail and collaborating online to become more knowledgeable. Many of the things that you have your students doing is exactly what we are doing in Dr. Strange’s class. Keep up the good work, and you’re right it is great to be doing something that you love.
Education, it sounds like you have undergone a difficult few months.