The guy has a point.
It's not that technology isn't a worthwhile thing to talk about or teach to. Far from it. Technology is one of the factors that is defining our world today, if not the primary factor. The power, potential and limitations of technology are shaping our modern age.
But a lot of the time, we just stop there. We have the workshop. It's great. We learn some cool new tricks for the classroom.
"Hey kids, we're gonna do fake Twitter profiles and updates for characters."
Is there anything wrong with this? Not at all. But sometimes, we make the critical mistake of divorcing technology from pedagogy. If we are not integrating technology into our teaching practice and putting it to work, then it really is just a trick. We're in the business of educating, not distracting or entertaining per se. It's a trap I've seen other teachers fall into and it's one that I've probably tripped over myself.
It is very, very easy to miss the forest for the trees.
It seems odd that we would have a guest speaker come in for a two hour class and spend perhaps a quarter of it actively discussing technology. Setting aside about ten percent of the time or so that was spent discussing donuts, you're left with a conversation that was mostly about pedagogy and the inquiry method of teaching.
What is the lesson to be drawn here? Here is the technology expert, talking mostly about pedagogical method and being very honest about his frustration in that there isn't more conversation about how technology and pedagogy intersect.
It's something to think about. I know I'll be doing quite a bit of thinking about it.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Thursday, 30 January 2014
Excuse Me, But Do You Have SMART Boards, School Division?
I came to an interesting conclusion today.
I don't know if I would ever feel entirely right teaching in a school division where there weren't SMART Boards. Have I ever talked about how awesome SMART Boards are and how much I want one in my personal residence? I feel like this is a potential blog topic that has not been delved into much before, and I don't really care to troll through my archives and discover the truth of it.
I first encountered SMART Boards here at Brandon University in my first term of classes here and thought they were intimidating as all heck. I was extremely wary to try it out at first. I tried writing something on it, and it somehow came out even more illegibly than my usual handwriting. Very odd indeed, for anyone who knows what my usual horrid chicken scratch looks like. But I persevered a little and started using it in a basic way in my first placement. Hey, it sure beat an overhead!
But I wasn't using it all that deeply.
In my second placement, I was placed with a teacher who was the 'tech expert' at his school, a man who could actually teach me things about using technology, as opposed to looking mildly apologetic as they asked me for help. SMART Boards were used quite heavily in that class, both for teacher presentation and student work. I got to run SMART Board quizzes, which were fun, even if they were a little technically demanding (and sometimes fussy as to whether they worked or not).
In my third placement, not all the software options that were present in the first class were actually there, but I still found plenty of uses for the SMART Board. There was actually one little tool that hadn't been present in my second placement, a document camera, which I found a pretty handy little device. Sometimes it's just nice to directly interface with an print document and the document camera filled that need quite nicely.
I've got very used to SMART Boards in my educational life.
Would I work in a teaching job without one? Well, yes. Of course. But you bet that I'd be pushing for it when budget time came around each year ...
"What's Mr. Keen want in his classroom this year?"
"A SMART Board, Mr. Chalmers*."
"Ughhh. Not again. Give him some more of those weird dice. Maybe that'll keep him quiet for another term."
I'm sorry, Mr. Chalmers, but I want my SMART Board, and I want it now.
*= Not a real person.
I don't know if I would ever feel entirely right teaching in a school division where there weren't SMART Boards. Have I ever talked about how awesome SMART Boards are and how much I want one in my personal residence? I feel like this is a potential blog topic that has not been delved into much before, and I don't really care to troll through my archives and discover the truth of it.
I first encountered SMART Boards here at Brandon University in my first term of classes here and thought they were intimidating as all heck. I was extremely wary to try it out at first. I tried writing something on it, and it somehow came out even more illegibly than my usual handwriting. Very odd indeed, for anyone who knows what my usual horrid chicken scratch looks like. But I persevered a little and started using it in a basic way in my first placement. Hey, it sure beat an overhead!
But I wasn't using it all that deeply.
In my second placement, I was placed with a teacher who was the 'tech expert' at his school, a man who could actually teach me things about using technology, as opposed to looking mildly apologetic as they asked me for help. SMART Boards were used quite heavily in that class, both for teacher presentation and student work. I got to run SMART Board quizzes, which were fun, even if they were a little technically demanding (and sometimes fussy as to whether they worked or not).
In my third placement, not all the software options that were present in the first class were actually there, but I still found plenty of uses for the SMART Board. There was actually one little tool that hadn't been present in my second placement, a document camera, which I found a pretty handy little device. Sometimes it's just nice to directly interface with an print document and the document camera filled that need quite nicely.
I've got very used to SMART Boards in my educational life.
Would I work in a teaching job without one? Well, yes. Of course. But you bet that I'd be pushing for it when budget time came around each year ...
"What's Mr. Keen want in his classroom this year?"
"A SMART Board, Mr. Chalmers*."
"Ughhh. Not again. Give him some more of those weird dice. Maybe that'll keep him quiet for another term."
I'm sorry, Mr. Chalmers, but I want my SMART Board, and I want it now.
*= Not a real person.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Big Hairy Questions
In his presentation to us on Thursday, Dean Shareski asked us three Big Hairy Questions:
1.) If your entire class can be captured and delivered online, why should anyone come?
2.) What changes with ubiquitous access?
3.) What are we going to ask on our tests, with all students having Google in their pockets? Are they going to be better questions than we ask today?
I'd like to offer a few thoughts in response to these questions.
In response to the first question, while it is entirely possible to capture a class and deliver it online, the interactivity of the experience is diminished. This showed for me with the discussion with Dean himself, while Skype is a useful medium for many things, there is no substitute for face-to-face experience. Additionally, it is important for teachers to be able to see and directly interact with students in real time.
It's true that if your class is largely composed of lectures, you could deliver it online with fairly minimal loss. But then again, if your class in 2013 is mostly lectures, you could stay at home and catch up on Game of Thrones (the new season begins in April, can't wait) and your students wouldn't miss much for watching an empty room for an hour. This is not the 19th century and very few people have the ability to actually get a substantial amount out of a straight lecture. This is not a good or a bad thing directly, it is simply a fact. We live in a digital, interactive world. Class needs to be interactive.
What about question two? What changes with ubiquitous access? I think we need to have a stricter definition of ubiquitous access here. If it means access to technology, we're not there yet, even though it must seem so for people who teach in primarily middle-class or wealthy districts. It isn't yet realistic for school divisions to provide every student with a device (the closest are experiments in mandating devices for particular grade groups) and a large number of students don't possess devices of their own. In fact, I'd argue that it's not appropriate for young children to have their own personal devices in any case.
But were we to achieve it, what would change? I think there would have to be a very serious effort to shape a classroom culture where appropriate technology use is encouraged and inappropriate use discouraged- not just by teachers but by students themselves. I think it also requires, though, a sense of proportion in classroom management- the student who traditionally zoned out by sitting with their head down might be playing Candy Crush today. It's not a positive behaviour, but if they're not being disruptive, is it really any worse? And could it be a symptom of insufficiently engaging instruction on the part of the teacher more than any fault of the student?
It would become more and more difficult to convince students of the benefit of learning a lot of the 'by hand' skills, such as handwriting (print or cursive), mental mathematics and learning any sort of content by memory. We've become essentially a 'flashdrive' rather than a 'hard drive' culture- we keep most of our memory in external sources. Memory is much like a muscle, the failure to use it can result in a loss of ability. It's worth remembering that in traditional Muslim societies, imams memorize the entire Quran by heart and that illiterate hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea can memorize and distinguish between thousands of different plant types. Memory is a powerful thing. Convincing students of its value will be harder and harder in the future, though. It already is.
The third question ties into the memory question somewhat. In some subjects, it is completely appropriate to occasionally mandate that all devices be off and students rely on their memory and learned skills. In mathematics, it is imperative that students have an idea of how to do things in their head, if for no other reason, than to recognize an input error when they use a calculator in future life. Memorization gets a bad rap in our culture, but it's necessary for some things.
Another element is the ability to take data and make meaningful context out of it. In a history test, should I decide to have one, I might not be overly concerned about whether students have memorized dates and places, but I want them to be able to create a context or a narrative for historical events. If we are doing a unit on human rights and social development, I'm not particularly worried if they've memorized which countries have the death penalty and which countries have not, I'm far more interested in their ability to integrate knowledge into a worldview. It is certainly possible, of course, to plagarize if students have access to technology. But teachers have a pretty good sense of what students 'sound' like in their writing after a few months, and if they are suspicious, they can always Google material from a test and see what comes up.
The third and final question in this vein is about the necessity of tests at all. I think tests are useful in some contexts- especially in subjects like math, but product-based learning is a far more substantial means of achieving engagement than tests. Most students who do well on tests are only demonstrating strategic compliance at best. Tests are not engaging. I'm not saying we should never have tests, but I'm saying that they should not be the mainstay of assessment in any subject today.
It's certainly a lot of material to think about, and I'll keep it in mind as I move on into active practice. For now, however, I'll huddle desperately for warmth and go read some other people's blogs.
Kris
1.) If your entire class can be captured and delivered online, why should anyone come?
2.) What changes with ubiquitous access?
3.) What are we going to ask on our tests, with all students having Google in their pockets? Are they going to be better questions than we ask today?
I'd like to offer a few thoughts in response to these questions.
In response to the first question, while it is entirely possible to capture a class and deliver it online, the interactivity of the experience is diminished. This showed for me with the discussion with Dean himself, while Skype is a useful medium for many things, there is no substitute for face-to-face experience. Additionally, it is important for teachers to be able to see and directly interact with students in real time.
It's true that if your class is largely composed of lectures, you could deliver it online with fairly minimal loss. But then again, if your class in 2013 is mostly lectures, you could stay at home and catch up on Game of Thrones (the new season begins in April, can't wait) and your students wouldn't miss much for watching an empty room for an hour. This is not the 19th century and very few people have the ability to actually get a substantial amount out of a straight lecture. This is not a good or a bad thing directly, it is simply a fact. We live in a digital, interactive world. Class needs to be interactive.
What about question two? What changes with ubiquitous access? I think we need to have a stricter definition of ubiquitous access here. If it means access to technology, we're not there yet, even though it must seem so for people who teach in primarily middle-class or wealthy districts. It isn't yet realistic for school divisions to provide every student with a device (the closest are experiments in mandating devices for particular grade groups) and a large number of students don't possess devices of their own. In fact, I'd argue that it's not appropriate for young children to have their own personal devices in any case.
But were we to achieve it, what would change? I think there would have to be a very serious effort to shape a classroom culture where appropriate technology use is encouraged and inappropriate use discouraged- not just by teachers but by students themselves. I think it also requires, though, a sense of proportion in classroom management- the student who traditionally zoned out by sitting with their head down might be playing Candy Crush today. It's not a positive behaviour, but if they're not being disruptive, is it really any worse? And could it be a symptom of insufficiently engaging instruction on the part of the teacher more than any fault of the student?
It would become more and more difficult to convince students of the benefit of learning a lot of the 'by hand' skills, such as handwriting (print or cursive), mental mathematics and learning any sort of content by memory. We've become essentially a 'flashdrive' rather than a 'hard drive' culture- we keep most of our memory in external sources. Memory is much like a muscle, the failure to use it can result in a loss of ability. It's worth remembering that in traditional Muslim societies, imams memorize the entire Quran by heart and that illiterate hunter-gatherers in Papua New Guinea can memorize and distinguish between thousands of different plant types. Memory is a powerful thing. Convincing students of its value will be harder and harder in the future, though. It already is.
The third question ties into the memory question somewhat. In some subjects, it is completely appropriate to occasionally mandate that all devices be off and students rely on their memory and learned skills. In mathematics, it is imperative that students have an idea of how to do things in their head, if for no other reason, than to recognize an input error when they use a calculator in future life. Memorization gets a bad rap in our culture, but it's necessary for some things.
Another element is the ability to take data and make meaningful context out of it. In a history test, should I decide to have one, I might not be overly concerned about whether students have memorized dates and places, but I want them to be able to create a context or a narrative for historical events. If we are doing a unit on human rights and social development, I'm not particularly worried if they've memorized which countries have the death penalty and which countries have not, I'm far more interested in their ability to integrate knowledge into a worldview. It is certainly possible, of course, to plagarize if students have access to technology. But teachers have a pretty good sense of what students 'sound' like in their writing after a few months, and if they are suspicious, they can always Google material from a test and see what comes up.
The third and final question in this vein is about the necessity of tests at all. I think tests are useful in some contexts- especially in subjects like math, but product-based learning is a far more substantial means of achieving engagement than tests. Most students who do well on tests are only demonstrating strategic compliance at best. Tests are not engaging. I'm not saying we should never have tests, but I'm saying that they should not be the mainstay of assessment in any subject today.
It's certainly a lot of material to think about, and I'll keep it in mind as I move on into active practice. For now, however, I'll huddle desperately for warmth and go read some other people's blogs.
Kris
Monday, 20 January 2014
Revenge of the Wiki?
There was a time when I had essentially sworn never to do another wiki. My first experience with making a wiki was kind of awful. Crowded together in class as we were, it was virtually impossible to meaningfully juggle edits from different people. Unlike the simple, useful Google Doc, it was incredibly frustrating to do even the simplest task.
Naturally, this is when I signed up for an optional course dealing with the Internet. And of course, a wiki would be a mandatory part of the course.
Naturally.
What was a surprise this time was that the wiki was actually manageable. Since it was foisted upon us during an asynchronous class period, there was not the same pressure of having multiple people working together. Freed from that headache, I had only to contend with the actual wiki interface itself in order to create a page.
It's not bad, actually. I still think it could be more user friendly than it is, but it's certainly something that would be manageable for a lot of our older students and is certainly within the realm of potential for we teacher candidates. Provided that one does not have everyone trying to edit the same page all at once, it turns out that wikis aren't that hard. And indeed, one even gets a glimpse of their potential value.
I could see myself creating a wiki in a classroom context. Imagine a one-stop compendium of information, sources and solutions for my middle/high-school students. Assignments could become wiki articles. Eventually, a valuable resource is being created, not just for the students themselves but future generations of student and possibly students from other schools. It is sometimes difficult to find quality sources of research information for students on the Internet.
Why not create one instead?
My second go at wikis has been a lot more valuable than the first one. Instead of something I kind of despise, it's something I can genuinely see the merit of in the classroom.
Well played, Mike. Well played ...
Naturally, this is when I signed up for an optional course dealing with the Internet. And of course, a wiki would be a mandatory part of the course.
Naturally.
What was a surprise this time was that the wiki was actually manageable. Since it was foisted upon us during an asynchronous class period, there was not the same pressure of having multiple people working together. Freed from that headache, I had only to contend with the actual wiki interface itself in order to create a page.
It's not bad, actually. I still think it could be more user friendly than it is, but it's certainly something that would be manageable for a lot of our older students and is certainly within the realm of potential for we teacher candidates. Provided that one does not have everyone trying to edit the same page all at once, it turns out that wikis aren't that hard. And indeed, one even gets a glimpse of their potential value.
I could see myself creating a wiki in a classroom context. Imagine a one-stop compendium of information, sources and solutions for my middle/high-school students. Assignments could become wiki articles. Eventually, a valuable resource is being created, not just for the students themselves but future generations of student and possibly students from other schools. It is sometimes difficult to find quality sources of research information for students on the Internet.
Why not create one instead?
My second go at wikis has been a lot more valuable than the first one. Instead of something I kind of despise, it's something I can genuinely see the merit of in the classroom.
Well played, Mike. Well played ...
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Internet for Educators: Some Opening Thoughts
The Revolution is Here:
I entered into the public education system in September 1989. It's safe to say, then, that the bulk of my educational years were spent in the 1990s, with my high school graduation happening in 2002. I can safely say that in the ten years between the time that I left the public education system and the time that I reentered it as a teacher candidate, a revolution has happened in the use of technology in the classroom.
In 2002, teachers were still primarily using chalkboards in order to interface with students, though a handful of whiteboards had started cropping up. Most classrooms did have a computer or two, but these are almost entirely for the use of the teacher. Computers in the school were usually clustered in a 'computer lab' or a library. Crocus Plains, where I went to school, had two computer labs and about six computers in the library. They were used primarily for the computer science classes or in the case of the library, for research purposes.
I remember designing a wretched website in Grade 10 computer science using something called FrontPage, as well as doing basic programming in a few different languages. This was all in an era where the average website could be measured in kilobytes, where the definition of cutting-edge were animated .gifs or the odd grainy 10-second video. The Internet primarily existed for surfing or e-mail. Few people bought anything online and hardly anyone used the Internet as a primary interface tool.
In 2012, we have students who do most of their schoolwork and social interaction online, who are already purchasing many of the items they want or need online. The computer labs have largely been dismantled and are now replaced with laptops or iPads, though most rooms now have 4-5 desktop computers as well. The SmartBoard is rapidly replacing many of the traditional uses of the chalkboard or whiteboard, as well as adding functionality that would be impossible with the older technology. Students are now not only browsing websites for research, but they are making their own websites, blogs and SmartBoard presentations for classroom purposes. It is possible for students in a class to make content viewable by millions, or only by a small invited circle if they so choose.
Whether we like technology or not, it has come into the classroom and not giving students the tools- both the technical skills required to navigate and use technology, but also the ethical and moral tools needed to deal with a rapidly changing culture, would be a serious abrogation of our responsibility as teachers. Most of the technological changes that we hail, unfortuantely, have their dark sides. Social media has led to cyberbullying, the Web offers the same free access to hate literature and pornography as it does to cutting-edge research and up-to-date information.
Teachers are not simple technicians and even in the use of technology, we cannot limit ourselves to this technical approach. We must also be philosophers and guardians. The revolution is here and we can't turn the clock back, but we can prepare students for the new technological age.
It's a pretty heavy responsibility, yes, but it's also potentially a lot of fun. Technology is exciting and we need to demonstrate that to students.
I'm looking forward to seeing what tools this class provides me to help do just that.
Sincerely,
Mr. Keen
I entered into the public education system in September 1989. It's safe to say, then, that the bulk of my educational years were spent in the 1990s, with my high school graduation happening in 2002. I can safely say that in the ten years between the time that I left the public education system and the time that I reentered it as a teacher candidate, a revolution has happened in the use of technology in the classroom.
In 2002, teachers were still primarily using chalkboards in order to interface with students, though a handful of whiteboards had started cropping up. Most classrooms did have a computer or two, but these are almost entirely for the use of the teacher. Computers in the school were usually clustered in a 'computer lab' or a library. Crocus Plains, where I went to school, had two computer labs and about six computers in the library. They were used primarily for the computer science classes or in the case of the library, for research purposes.
I remember designing a wretched website in Grade 10 computer science using something called FrontPage, as well as doing basic programming in a few different languages. This was all in an era where the average website could be measured in kilobytes, where the definition of cutting-edge were animated .gifs or the odd grainy 10-second video. The Internet primarily existed for surfing or e-mail. Few people bought anything online and hardly anyone used the Internet as a primary interface tool.
In 2012, we have students who do most of their schoolwork and social interaction online, who are already purchasing many of the items they want or need online. The computer labs have largely been dismantled and are now replaced with laptops or iPads, though most rooms now have 4-5 desktop computers as well. The SmartBoard is rapidly replacing many of the traditional uses of the chalkboard or whiteboard, as well as adding functionality that would be impossible with the older technology. Students are now not only browsing websites for research, but they are making their own websites, blogs and SmartBoard presentations for classroom purposes. It is possible for students in a class to make content viewable by millions, or only by a small invited circle if they so choose.
Whether we like technology or not, it has come into the classroom and not giving students the tools- both the technical skills required to navigate and use technology, but also the ethical and moral tools needed to deal with a rapidly changing culture, would be a serious abrogation of our responsibility as teachers. Most of the technological changes that we hail, unfortuantely, have their dark sides. Social media has led to cyberbullying, the Web offers the same free access to hate literature and pornography as it does to cutting-edge research and up-to-date information.
Teachers are not simple technicians and even in the use of technology, we cannot limit ourselves to this technical approach. We must also be philosophers and guardians. The revolution is here and we can't turn the clock back, but we can prepare students for the new technological age.
It's a pretty heavy responsibility, yes, but it's also potentially a lot of fun. Technology is exciting and we need to demonstrate that to students.
I'm looking forward to seeing what tools this class provides me to help do just that.
Sincerely,
Mr. Keen
Friday, 8 March 2013
Final Reflection: ICT In Review (Plus Arbitrary Lists)
ICT in the Classroom:
On Wednesday this week, I went to talk to my cooperating teacher, about issues as timeless and mundane as when to show up at the school on a given day, or what he expects from the students and any student teachers in his classroom, but what I also ended up hearing a lot about was technology in the classroom and multimedia, not only as a tool that the teacher used, but one that students used on a regular basis, as an integral part of their education. Their current English project is a whole-class long presentation that must involve technological as well as non-technological methods, and it is regularly expected that they use classroom technology in order to conduct research for projects and do assignments.
I didn't really doubt the value of the class before hearing all this, but if I had, any of those doubts would have been laid to rest. My development as a technology-user has only begun, and it's unlikely to end, at least before we all end up with the technology directly wired into our brains (it's coming, there's already experimental neural interfaces in testing).
Five Best Things I Did/learned in ICT: (Arbitrary List #1)
1.) Horrible Students- the video, the epic
2.) Topical Website- I'll have to edit it a bit for classroom use, but I'm using it.
3.) Google Docs- Holy Moly, I actually know something about ICT!
4.) Animoto
5.) E-Portfolio
Five Most Frustrating Things That I Experienced/Did in ICT: (Arbitrary List #2)
1.) Why The Heck Won't The Darned School Give Us Some Goshdarned Disk Space (The PG version)
2.) Wikis- Surprisingly useless in a collaborative context
3.) Connection Problems with Group Presentation- GRRRR
4.) Why Are There So Many Tools That I Can't Learn Them All
5.) Google Isn't Working In Google Chrome What Is That Even About
Overall, I would say that I have learned a lot and enjoyed a lot in my journey learning about ICT, but perhaps the real benefit is that I'm a little less afraid of just leaping in and trying something new, monkeying around with it until I get something that works. It's that same spirit of bold innovation which spurred explorers to discover and map the New World, one that I need to cultivate in myself before I can cultivate it in my students. I was around to see the transition from the analog world to the digital world, my students will be entirely creatures of the digital age in all of its promise and problematic implications.
As I begin my second placement, I look forward to putting in practice some of the things I have learned in this classroom and perhaps coming up with some new tricks and tools that I can share with students, coworkers and others. It has been a true pleasure to learn with Mike and perhaps I will be able to have another class with him in the future.
Farewell and Goodnight (for now),
Kris Keen
On Wednesday this week, I went to talk to my cooperating teacher, about issues as timeless and mundane as when to show up at the school on a given day, or what he expects from the students and any student teachers in his classroom, but what I also ended up hearing a lot about was technology in the classroom and multimedia, not only as a tool that the teacher used, but one that students used on a regular basis, as an integral part of their education. Their current English project is a whole-class long presentation that must involve technological as well as non-technological methods, and it is regularly expected that they use classroom technology in order to conduct research for projects and do assignments.
I didn't really doubt the value of the class before hearing all this, but if I had, any of those doubts would have been laid to rest. My development as a technology-user has only begun, and it's unlikely to end, at least before we all end up with the technology directly wired into our brains (it's coming, there's already experimental neural interfaces in testing).
Five Best Things I Did/learned in ICT: (Arbitrary List #1)
1.) Horrible Students- the video, the epic
2.) Topical Website- I'll have to edit it a bit for classroom use, but I'm using it.
3.) Google Docs- Holy Moly, I actually know something about ICT!
4.) Animoto
5.) E-Portfolio
Five Most Frustrating Things That I Experienced/Did in ICT: (Arbitrary List #2)
1.) Why The Heck Won't The Darned School Give Us Some Goshdarned Disk Space (The PG version)
2.) Wikis- Surprisingly useless in a collaborative context
3.) Connection Problems with Group Presentation- GRRRR
4.) Why Are There So Many Tools That I Can't Learn Them All
5.) Google Isn't Working In Google Chrome What Is That Even About
Overall, I would say that I have learned a lot and enjoyed a lot in my journey learning about ICT, but perhaps the real benefit is that I'm a little less afraid of just leaping in and trying something new, monkeying around with it until I get something that works. It's that same spirit of bold innovation which spurred explorers to discover and map the New World, one that I need to cultivate in myself before I can cultivate it in my students. I was around to see the transition from the analog world to the digital world, my students will be entirely creatures of the digital age in all of its promise and problematic implications.
As I begin my second placement, I look forward to putting in practice some of the things I have learned in this classroom and perhaps coming up with some new tricks and tools that I can share with students, coworkers and others. It has been a true pleasure to learn with Mike and perhaps I will be able to have another class with him in the future.
Farewell and Goodnight (for now),
Kris Keen
Sunday, 3 March 2013
Week Eight: The Fine Art of Presentation
Week Eight: The Fine Art of Presentation
One of the first things that any aspiring technologist should realize about technology is that sometimes it doesn't work out very well. This is what our enterprising group discovered on Wednesday, as the presentation we had intended to do was somewhat derailed by the lack of cooperation of the components involved. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate that difficulty somewhat and show everyone the wonder and amazement of Remind101 through a more interactive method, but it would have been nice if things had worked out a little better with the smartboard.
How can you prevent such things from happening in the future? The first thing is to make sure that you are familiar with the technology or application that you are using with your classroom, that you've used it a few times, and if at all possible, with all the specific equipment you will be using in the actual classroom demonstration. If you are intending to hook something up to a Smartboard, do it after class sometime, so you know what to expect. Knowledge is your first and last line of defence.
Secondly, it never hurts to have a backup plan in case something doesn't go right. Perhaps you can scale down what you'd intended to do into a form that would be more viable, or perhaps you can simply do what you'd intended to do in a low-tech form if necessary. Perhaps there's another activity that can keep them busy while you figure out what went wrong. While it's always ideal if your Plan A works out perfectly, you should always be ready to employ a Plan B. We thought of one somewhat on the fly, which worked out all right in the end, but a prepared plan would have been better.
Remind101:
Now that I've discussed several of the potential issues with presenting technology, I'd like to spend some time to briefly discuss Remind101 itself. I think this could be an extremely useful app for classroom purposes, neatly solving some of the most intractable problems of having teacher e-mail addresses and texting numbers in the hands of parents, students or others. It's useful for the teacher to have a service which can instantly send reminders and brief notes to people in defined groups and the confidentiality and inability of others to reply to the messages means that it can stay on task, as a professional tool, rather than a socializing one.
I don't think I would use this with actual students in an Early Years context, though it may be useful with their parents and between teachers. With older kids, it may be a different story, though it would require a certain degree of sensitivity about the nature of the school you were in. In a school in a privileged area, virtually everyone might have a phone that can take advantage of this, in a poorer district, it might be a source of undesired conflict between "have" and "have-not" students. This could be especially tense in an area where there is a mixed demographic (I tend to think of Vincent Massey, which contains some of the richest as well as some of the poorest kids in the city) and some caution may be in order before introducing it to students. It might be easier on something like an extracurricular club or sports team than in a general classroom.
Overall, I thought Remind101 was a useful app and I was happy to show it to the classroom. It's crazy to contemplate this, but my next blog entry will be the course wrapup, where I reflect on some of what has happened in the class, what I have learned, and what I would like to learn more about as I start my second placement of student teaching.
One of the first things that any aspiring technologist should realize about technology is that sometimes it doesn't work out very well. This is what our enterprising group discovered on Wednesday, as the presentation we had intended to do was somewhat derailed by the lack of cooperation of the components involved. Fortunately, we were able to negotiate that difficulty somewhat and show everyone the wonder and amazement of Remind101 through a more interactive method, but it would have been nice if things had worked out a little better with the smartboard.
How can you prevent such things from happening in the future? The first thing is to make sure that you are familiar with the technology or application that you are using with your classroom, that you've used it a few times, and if at all possible, with all the specific equipment you will be using in the actual classroom demonstration. If you are intending to hook something up to a Smartboard, do it after class sometime, so you know what to expect. Knowledge is your first and last line of defence.
Secondly, it never hurts to have a backup plan in case something doesn't go right. Perhaps you can scale down what you'd intended to do into a form that would be more viable, or perhaps you can simply do what you'd intended to do in a low-tech form if necessary. Perhaps there's another activity that can keep them busy while you figure out what went wrong. While it's always ideal if your Plan A works out perfectly, you should always be ready to employ a Plan B. We thought of one somewhat on the fly, which worked out all right in the end, but a prepared plan would have been better.
Remind101:
Now that I've discussed several of the potential issues with presenting technology, I'd like to spend some time to briefly discuss Remind101 itself. I think this could be an extremely useful app for classroom purposes, neatly solving some of the most intractable problems of having teacher e-mail addresses and texting numbers in the hands of parents, students or others. It's useful for the teacher to have a service which can instantly send reminders and brief notes to people in defined groups and the confidentiality and inability of others to reply to the messages means that it can stay on task, as a professional tool, rather than a socializing one.
I don't think I would use this with actual students in an Early Years context, though it may be useful with their parents and between teachers. With older kids, it may be a different story, though it would require a certain degree of sensitivity about the nature of the school you were in. In a school in a privileged area, virtually everyone might have a phone that can take advantage of this, in a poorer district, it might be a source of undesired conflict between "have" and "have-not" students. This could be especially tense in an area where there is a mixed demographic (I tend to think of Vincent Massey, which contains some of the richest as well as some of the poorest kids in the city) and some caution may be in order before introducing it to students. It might be easier on something like an extracurricular club or sports team than in a general classroom.
Overall, I thought Remind101 was a useful app and I was happy to show it to the classroom. It's crazy to contemplate this, but my next blog entry will be the course wrapup, where I reflect on some of what has happened in the class, what I have learned, and what I would like to learn more about as I start my second placement of student teaching.
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