As Bill notes in his introduction of the book on The Tempered Radical, ” While you’ll find plenty of handouts detailing best practices for introducing new digital tools to your students, the focus of each chapter—and the strategies that I recommend—stands squarely on the characteristics of good teaching.  Readers will learn about the characteristics of effective persuasion and information management practices.  They’ll explore the characteristics of collaborative dialogue—a communication practice that has been essential for centuries—and take a closer look at the types of problems that students need to solve.”

Although iGeneration is available in hardcover and paperback (and well worth the nominal investment), for a very limited time Solution Tree is making the book available FREE OF CHARGE when you sign up for a complimentary Solution Tree account.    In addition, Meg Ormiston, author of Creating a Digital Rich Classroom, and Adam Garry,  iGeneration co-author, will be joining Bill for a  focused three-day Voicethread conversation, August 26-28, on the characteristics of effective teaching.  Details will be forthcoming and I would encourage you to participate in this exciting endeavor.  In the meantime, grab a copy of iGeneration and enjoy.

Happy Reading!

Does Gender Matter in Education?

The current issue of ASCD Express explores the role gender plays in the learning environment.  Administrators, teachers, and researchers share how gender can affect teaching and learning and what public, private, and charter schools are doing to deal with these issues.  For those in coeducational settings, this video segment provides an  introductory glimpse into the single-gender classroom:

Having spent the majority of my career teaching males and females separately, I found the success stories, tips, and research summaries in ASCD Express invaluable and refreshing.  Regardless of your teaching environment, gender does matter and makes for engaging reading.

Fostering Sustainable Behavior

Beyond being a major component of our school’s Strategic Plan, sustainability is an issue of global importance.  Fostering Sustainable Behavior is a free online book that, “details how to uncover the barriers that inhibit individuals from engaging in sustainable behaviors. Further, it provides a set of “tools” that social science research has demonstrated to be effective in fostering and maintaining behavior change. Each of these tools in and of its own right is capable of having a substantial impact upon the adoption of more sustainable behaviors. Collectively, they provide a powerful set of instruments with which to encourage and maintain behavior change.”

Written with the intent of fostering programmatic change under the guise of “community-based social marketing”, the lessons in Fostering Sustainable Behavior can be incorporated into curriculum and instruction and applied at various scales (individual, classroom, school-wide).  For more information and resources, visit author and Environmental Psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr’s website.

Happy Reading!

State of Ethics, Safety, and Security

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) recently published the results of the 2010 State of K-12 Cyberethics, Cybersafety and Cybersecurity Curriculum in the U.S. Survey.  The survey,  an extension of the 2008 National Cyberethics, Cybersafety, and Cybersecurity Baseline Study, is an effort to understand current online safety and security education attitudes and practices of U.S. teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators.   In general, America’s young people aren’t receiving adequate instruction to use digital technology and navigate cyberspace in a safe, secure and responsible manner and are ill-prepared to address these subjects.

The results, while disappointing, are certainly not surprising.  Across all constituencies, appropriate use of technology and the Internet is typically addressed via web filters, blocking social networking sites, and requiring students to sign an acceptable use policy.  Students and educators are informed about specific laws, policies and guidelines related to the ethical use of resources through student and staff handbooks, presentations at faculty meetings, and student information sessions.  Schools clearly need to adopt a more engaging and effective approach to teaching ethics, safety, and security; I’ll share strategies for that in an upcoming post.

Web 2.0 Projects Book

The The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book, edited by Terry Freedman, contains 87 projects for incorporating technology into the curriculum.  The projects range from art to zoology, span all grade levels, and utilize more than 50 different web tools.  Each project includes a detailed description, suggested age range/grade level, list of Web 2.0 applications used, a synopsis of the challenges to be overcome, recommendations for implementing the project, and student responses and outcomes.

This truly amazing (and totally free) book is available from Terry’s website or can be downloaded directly from here.

Happy reading!

The impact of great teaching is well documented if not well understood.  A decade ago, Robert Marzano found that school-level and teacher-level factors account for approximately 20 percent of the variance in student achievement.  While this  may not seem significant, a student scoring at the 50th percentile who spends two years in an average school, with an average teacher, is likely to continue scoring at the 50th achievement percentile.  Spending two years in a highly effective classroom with a highly effective teacher, however, can raise achievement to the 96th percentile (Marzano, 2003).

What, then, makes for a great teacher?  In reviewing student achievement data, Teach for America found that highly effective teachers “constantly reevaluate what they are doing, avidly recruited students and their families into the process,  maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning, planned exhaustively and purposefully by working backward from the desired outcome, and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls.”

In evaluating which traits would best predict teacher effectiveness, Teach for America found that long-regarded qualities such as reflection and self-awareness did not matter nearly as much as a high degree of “life satisfaction” and a track record of perseverance.  Recognizing these characteristics is but one step toward school improvement; current practitioners must be evaluated in terms of their effectiveness as well.  And while test scores should not be the only yardstick for success, charisma, ambitious lesson objectives, and communication skills are not sufficient benchmarks unto themselves.

Whether you are a pre-service educator or a seasoned veteran, I hope you’ll find time to read Ripley’s article and learn more about what separates good from great teachers; the answers, which I’ve only briefly touched on here, may surprise you.

N.B.  As background reading, you may wish to consider School, Teacher, and Leadership Impacts on Student Achievement by Kirsten Miller.

Engaging the Eye Generation

In a recent post, I shared the news that  Stenhouse Publishers have invited readers of Technology in the Middle to participate in a book blog tour for Johanna Riddle’s Engaging the Eye Generation: Visual Literacy Strategies for the K-5 Classroom.  The entire book is free to browse online and offers practical suggestions, based on Johanna’s extensive classroom experience, for incorporating visual literacy into the curriculum.  Visual literacy, or the ability to make meaning from images, is one of several important and emerging literacies:

• Basic Literacy: The language and mathematics skills needed to function successfully on the job.
• Scientific Literacy: The ability to understand scientific concepts and processes to make good personal and social decisions.
• Economic Literacy: The ability to identify and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of public policies and economic conditions.
• Technological Literacy: The ability to understand and use the tools of technology to reach identified objectives.
• Visual Literacy: The ability to interpret, use, and create visual media in ways that advance thinking, decision making, communication, and learning.
• Information Literacy: The knowledge and skills necessary to find, analyze, and synthesize information using technology.
• Mulicultural Literacy: The ability to understand and respect differences among cultures.
• Global Awareness: The ability to understand the world’s interconnections.

*NCREL/Metri Group

Johanna’s book also touches on information literacy and the research process, and the scope of her work can be applied far beyond the elementary classroom.  I would invite you to read Engaging the Eye Generation and then submit questions for her either by leaving a comment or via e-mail. On March 9, Johanna’s responses will be posted at Technology in the Middle; check this space as the date approaches for more information.

Time Spent Online

Last week, Dr. Aric Sigman published The Biological Implications of Social Networking in the journal Biologist.  The report generated a considerable amount of media attention, including the article Is Social Networking Killing You from the New York Times, and this clip in which Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, shares some of her thoughts on the study with Britian’s Channel Five:

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Her fear that “these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment” stands in contrast to the MacArthur Foundation’s Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project.  Released in November of 2008 after a three year study, the report suggests that “spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”

Opinions (and research) on the issue of social networking are sharply divided, but regardless of where you may stand it’s important to see multiple perspectives.  These two studies form a nice framework for understanding the many facets of life in the digital age.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning, which PBL Online defines as “an inquiry based process for teaching and learning [in which] students focus on a complex question or problem, then answer the question or solve the problem through a collaborative process of investigation over an extended period of time” can be an effective pedagogical technique.   As noted in the eSchool News report,

“What’s more, project-based learning can help students develop the same kinds of 21st-century skills–such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity–that today’s employers covet. Tackling long-term, student-led projects can help students build real-world skills and knowledge.”

As we work to refine our curriculum,  project-based learning can provide a vehicle for incorporating emerging skills/literacies and broaden our methods of assessment.  Although designing and implementing a successful project-based experience can be time-intensive, the learning that can result makes the effort well worthwhile.

Professional Learning

Written by Linda Darling-Hammond and a team of researchers from Stanford University, the NSDC study on professional development examines “what research has revealed about professional learning that improves teachers’ practice and student learning.”  Acknowledging that professional development that is “short, episodic, and disconnected from practice has little impact”, the study compares approaches to PD in the United States with high-performing nations in Europe and Asia.  Perhaps not surprisingly, as a country we have room for growth.

Although the lengthy full report is densely packed with data, those wanting a lighter overview should consult the NSDC Press Release and/or Darling-Hammonds’ presentation of the study findings.  Professional learning is our professional obligation, and with an intentional, research-based approached, we too can translate our practice into improved student achievement.

Hosted by Chris Lehmann and the Science Leadership Academy, Educon 2.1 is a “conference and a conversation” that begins today and runs through Sunday, January 25.  As described on the Educon 2.1 homepage,

“[Educon] is not a technology conference. It is an education conference.  It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.”

Each of the conference sessions will include a “conversation website” with session notes and a session recording.  Although you may not be attending in person, you can engage in any/all of the presentations from afar.  Whether you join a live session or view archived content, I would encourage you to spend a little this weekend enjoying all that Educon 2.1 has to offer.

Readicide

In case you missed Bill Ferriter’s news earlier this month over at The Tempered Radical, Stenhouse Publishing is offering an online sneak peak of Kelly’s new book, Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.  The complete text, available here, offers an insightful and refreshing look at the state of reading in light of a culture of standardized testing.

Those interested in exploring Readicide in more detail are encouraged to join Bill and Kelly beginning January 18th for a four day asynchronous discussion of the book using VoiceThread.  I plan to participate and hope to get some teachers and administrators here engaged in conversations regarding what we can do to keep reading alive for our students.

Enhancing Online Safety and Online Technologies

As described on their site, “The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was created in February 2008 in accordance with the Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety announced in January 2008 by the Attorneys General Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking and MySpace. The scope of the Task Force’s inquiry was to consider those technologies that industry and end users – including parents – can use to help keep minors safer on the Internet.”

Their final report, available here, discusses the extent to which today’s technologies could help address online safety risks, with a primary focus on social network sites in the United States.  Those seeking an abridged view into the issue would be well served to consult the Executive Summary and Submissions from Social Networking Sites sections of the full text.

Enjoy your weekend, and happy reading!