The process of preparing and sharing my remarks gave me fresh insight into the role of passion in learning and the importance of providing students passion-based learning experiences.  Although the slideshow and accompanying resource page discuss these in more detail, I think a few points are worth featuring in this space:

Invisible Expertise

Students possess incredible knowledge and skills that we may never see because we never take the time to ask.  All children have deep-seeded interests that motivate them but our hectic daily schedules, over-stuffed curricula, and focus on assessment data often precludes us from engaging them on anything not related to the course syllabus.  How can we profess to inspire life-long learning when nearly the whole of our emphasis is on the short-term acquisition of “core content”?

Students First

If we expect students to explore and understand our passions (i.e. our subject matter) they must first come to explore and understand theirs.  The relevance and  meaning that we strive to create/attach to our lessons cannot be fully appreciated by learners if they have never experienced them before in a truly personal context.  Intellectual empathy cannot be taught, it must be discovered.

Context –> Mastery

The knowledge and skills acquired in a passion-based learning experience are mastered more completely and thus can be more readily applied to new situations.  Research has clearly demonstrated that motivation influences learning, yet we consistently expect students to transfer concepts and processes that were “learned” in less than optimal settings.  Students don’t care if it will “be on the test” as much as whether they can actually use what they’ve learned in real life.

Expression Styles

Utilizing different learning styles can help students learn but they do not help them demonstrate what they know.  Essays and oral presentations are not the only measures of cognition.  The concept of Expression Styles, as described by Kettle, Renzulli and Rizza, provides students options for sharing knowledge in a format that best suits them.  What is the purpose of trying to “reach all learners” in terms of input but then limiting the methods by which we assess their understanding?

Thanks for Coming…

I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who attended the session in person today (what a fun and thoughtful group!) and hope that readers find these materials useful.  As always, please dive in and use whatever you like to your benefit; sharing it what it’s all about!

Throughout the course of the morning, our small, diverse, and dedicated group explored some of the pedagogical benefits of wikis (cooperative learning, project-based learning, and authentic assessment), explored a variety of wiki examples that spanned all grade levels and disciplines, experimented with several wiki tools, including Wikispaces, Mediawiki, and PBworks, and discussed strategies for effectively assessing student work. Whether you are new to wikis or simply looking to enhance your skills, all session notes and resources are available here; please use and reuse to your benefit.

Each week offers a selection of half, full, and multi-day sessions that will engage participants and provide strategies for effectively utilizing technology in the service of teaching and learning.  Whatever your background, needs, or interests, our Summer Teacher Institute can provide you with the knowledge and skills to transform your classroom into a truly innovative learning environment.

These sessions are open to anyone (although space is limited) and we’re looking forward to an exciting summer of learning.  If you or someone from your school is interested in attending, you contact us for more information.  Online registration will begin early next week; we hope you can join us this summer!

To keep up with all the activities and help spread the word about this terrific (and free) conference, you can now become a fan of K12 Online on our official Facebook Page.

Please share the K12 Online Conference with others by adding the following HTML code to your blog, wiki, or other webpage:

<code><a href=”http://k12onlineconference.org/”><img src=”http://k12onlineconference.org/wp-content/themes/default/images/k12badge.jpg” alt=”Participate in the free K12 Online Conference” width=”120″ height=”60″ /></a></code>

This code should display the following badge with a link to our main conference blog:

Look for more updates on the conference soon; it’s right around the corner and we hope you’ll join us!

As Chair of the K12 Online Public Relations Committee, it is my pleasure to announce that this Saturday, September 26, we will host a LAN party from 2:00PM to 5:00PM EDT and encourage everyone to get together with colleagues to engage in lively discussions. Past presentations will be shown and you are invited to participate in live conversations about the presentations with the featured presenters. A K12 Online Conference overview will be posted at the EdTechTalk website 30 minutes prior to the LAN party.

Here is the schedule for this event (all times EST):

2:00 – 2:45 Film School
Mathew Needleman, Apple Distinguished Educator, has been integrating video in the classroom for seven years as a teacher of kindergarten, first, and second grade. Make better classroom movies with simple tips that will help elevate your vodcast to the next level in terms of artistic and technical merit. Learn how to storyboard like a pro, choose shots that support the telling of your story, and capture better lighting and sound.

2:45 – 3:30 Open, Social, Connected
Dr. Alec Couros is a professor of educational technology and media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. This presentation unravels a recent open graduate course offering titled “Open, Connected, Social” that was offered at the University of Regina, Winter 2008. The presentation describes the theories influencing the course, types of open practice, reflections and outcomes, and goes on to describe the emergence of “open teaching”.

3:30 – 4:15 Wiki While You Work (Basic)
A former high school English teacher, Mark Wagner has since served as an educational technology coordinator at Estancia High School, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, and the Orange County Department of Education. His session briefly introduces participants to the Read/Write Web, and to wikis in particular. A live demonstration of wikispaces.org and wikipedia.org will illustrate that… “If you can use a word processor, you can use a wiki.”

4:15 – 5:00 We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff w/Mentors
Kathy Cassidy is a grade one teacher at Westmount School in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. In the winter of 2008, Patrick Lewis’s university class of pre-service teachers were blogging mentors for Kathy’s grade one students. This presentation talks about that collaboration and the results of the research that was conducted about the effect this mentorship had on the students’ writing.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Briding the Divide”, and the EdTechTalk community will host this event at http://www.edtechtalk.com.  If you’d like to get  involved and help close the gap, join us on Septermber 26 and feel free to distribute this flyer to your colleagues:

Sept 26 LAN Party Invite

For questions or more information, contact Susan Van Gelder, K12Online Conference Live Events Committee, at susanvg@mac.com or on Twitter at @k12online.

Hope to see you on Saturday!

As I noted during my session, there is no one “right way” to approach citizenship, but there are several keys points to consider:

• Understand Today’s Student: students today learn and socialize differently than previous generations
• Maintain Perspective: generational fears/concerns regarding change are nothing new
• Embrace Social Media: if we are to educate, we must engage and understand
• Establish a Framework: citizenship is more than internet safety and cyber-bullying
• Reflect and Revise: the program and participants must evolve and adapt

Additional resources that accompany the presentation are available here and I would encourage you to use/reuse them to your benefit.  Next week I will be expanding this topic  for a full-day workshop on social media and digital citizenship at the MICDS Summer Teacher Institute.  If you’d like to join us in person or via UStream, drop me a line and add your thoughts to the conversation.

One-to-One Technology Project Planning: Christine Tomasino

One of METC’s featured speakers, Christine explored the issues/questions surrounding the adoption of 1:1 computing.  Drawing from her extensive experience as a classroom teacher, administrator, consultant, and trainer, she shared her “Big 6″ ideas for developing a successful program:

• Professional Development
  • Instructional Practices with Digital Tools
  • Instructional Management for Classrooms with Digital Tools
  • Learning Communities (reflection and feedback)
• Technology Support
  • Orientation and Deployment for all stakeholders
  • Expectation and Service Guidelines
  • User support
• Engagement for All Stakeholders
  • Leadership, visioning, learning expectations, “walking the talk”
  • Students in an active role
  • Parents in an active role
• Sustainable Funding
• Learning Expectations, Policies and Procedures
• Evaluation and Continuous Feedback
  • What’s working? What Needs to Work Better?

As we are in the first year of our 1:1 program, I found her insight quite validating; we followed much of her model without realizing it existed!  For those beginning the 1:1 journey and/or wanting more ideas and information regarding ubiquitous computing, Christine’s webpage is a great resource and worth a visit.

Impacting Student Achievement Through the Use of Web 2.0 Tools: Henry Thiele

Henry is the Director of Technology at Maine Township High School District 207 and a self-described “geek interested in learning about everything.”  Using Marzano’s top three “school level” factors in student achievement as a guide (curriculum, goals and feedback, and parent and community involvement), his district is using a variety of resources to meet their needs:

• Google Apps for Education
  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Docs
• Organizational Tools
  • Parent Portal
  • Website
  • My207
• Other Tools
  • Wikis
  • Ning
  • USTREAM TV
  • YouTube

These tools, which range in scale and cost, are most effective when deployed purposefully as Henry and his staff have done.  His complete presentation is available to METC attendees, but many of the aforementioned resources are free and can readily be explored.

Information Literacy: Will Richardson

One of two keynote speakers at this year’s conference, Will is well known within the education community.  His session on information literacy explored strategies for finding, managing, and sharing the over-abundance of information at our disposal.  From simple approaches such as using an RSS reader to developing a customized homepage via PageFlakes, Will’s practical advice should resonate with anyone who utilizes the Read-Write Web.

Will’s session (as well as much of his other work) is available on his Weblogged wiki, and if you haven’t done so already, I would encourage you to read his Weblogg-ed blog.  The definition and nature of literacy have changed, and Will’s insight and resources bring clarity to this timely and important topic.

Strong Vertical Axis

In their session An Educational Vision Worth Sustaining, Bruce Dixon and Charlie Clark discussed how “a strong vertical axis” of leadership is essential for the success of any 1:1 computing program.   Although we typically think of “leadership” at an administrative level (i.e. administrators “lead” and the rest of us follow), Bruce and Charlie rightfully pointed out that everyone from the Board of Trustees to the classroom teachers must be truly knowledgeable about and vested in instructional technology.   In short, we all have the obligation and capacity to lead because we are all part of that vertical axis of support.

Image Courtesy of Kankie: Flickr Creative Commons

Support a Climate and Culture for Change

Paul Fochtman, Andrew Hoover, and Shabbi Luthra from the American School of Bombay presented a Tech Integration Landscape session that included their “essential conditions” for sustaining a laptop program.  Among their points on leadership was the call to support a climate and culture for change.  As I’ve said before, the world is rapidly changing, and teachers (in general) are averse to risk and change.  With a strong axis, however, we can foster an environment that embraces changes that enhance student learning.

Be Visionary

Blair Peterson, from the Mont’Kiara International School, directly addressed leadership in his session, Leadership for the 21st Century: Awakening to School 2.0.  Blair’s wiki, Principals of the Future, details his five main themes, the first of which is a call to be visionary.  As he states, leaders “must have a picture of what teaching, learning and administrating schools will look like in the future which requires knowledge of information trends, emerging technologies and the impact that information technology has on our global society.”

Leadership Matters

There is certainly more to effective leadership than the points I’ve highlighted here, but I think it’s imperative that schools consider the effectiveness and composition of their vertical axes, their culture and climate for change, and the depth of their vision.  A successful laptop program is not built on the strength of the technology but rather on the strength of the people, at every level, who understand its role in teaching and learning.

When it comes to technology in schools, the question is not about the hardware; it’s about how to make school relevant.

To illustrate his point, Greg shared this clip comparing the MacBook Air and the ultraportable Lenovo X300:

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The video is certainly a cleaver bit of marketing (this is a Lenovo conference after all), and Greg’s point is well taken in that when it comes to traditional laptop computers, it really doesn’t matter whether you prefer a Mac or a PC. What he didn’t address, however, is that neither tool can do as much to “make schooling relevant” as a Tablet. We chose Tablets over all other options because the ability to annotate documents, utilize OneNote with the stylus and keyboard, and engage students with tools like DyKnow helps make learning (i.e. schooling) authentic, meaningful, and relevant. Thin and light is great, but ink and interactivity are priceless.

We must de-privatize teachers and teaching.

Teaching has long been described as a lonely profession, and while a certain degree of teacher autonomy is important and necessary, for schools to change and become more relevant requires that we make the teaching-learning process more “public.” Our daily practice should reflect sound pedagogical theory, and our professional learning networks must extend beyond face-to-face interaction with peers. In short, we must be open and intentional in our approach, draw upon the collective knowledge of the profession, and not simply “build the plane as we fly it”:

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I would encourage you to visit Greg’s site and learn more about the important work he is doing for Australian education.  He has some incredible ideas and resources that can be of benefit to anyone in the classroom.