Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning

[Learning 2.008 Conference]

Alan November

A powerful new culture of empowered teaching and fearless learning is emerging. Access to more timely
information and communication tools can empower educators to focus on the individual learning needs of
their students. These same tools can lead to more collegiality, build stronger community relationships, and
empower students to be more self-directed. This workshop presents clear examples of how this new culture
has been achieved.
Room: M-259
Session 4
Leadership

[Kimberli Gertz]

My core value as a teacher: children have great potential and should be treated with faith, fairness, and high expectations for their potentials as learners and citizens.

[Renee Stewart]

RSS Feeds - Which blog sites are open for those in CHINA. Currently lots of government blocking.

[Daniel Churchill]

Alan is a great presenter… Web 2 ideas are fantastic! Yes, practitioners will tell you that this often really works. Enthusiasts will go further and claim that actually this is the only way to go in education today… What has been a challenge for me personally is in general, there lack of empirical evidences and formal studies investigating use of Web 2 in education. Anybody knows some good reports, other sources, etc. Do I really sound like saying that my core value is to “remain objective”

[David Navis]

Alan and others ... I have a 5th grade student with a 2nd grade reading level. His math is fine. Yet with his reading he runs into problems with story problems etc. He can problem salve fairly well when working with others. He will not write unless pushed, he will not read unless pushed. What's a teacher to do?

[jack garstka]

paradigm for education - teacher is boss/front/bigger desk etc.
model should change - how do you do it?
Sit at a desk with the kids
kids teach - jobs - things to do
american high school online
nlcommunities.com/communities/setonhall/default.aspx - november philosophy blog
blog blog blog!!!

podcasters
research resources
moving data - rubicon?
high tech high in san diego
epgy.stanford.edu

[dianemongno]

Grammar Girl - podcast - go to iTunes Store - podcasts - Download all of Grammar Girland and subscribe - covers all the grammar on the SATs.
Kids should take an online course to graduate from HS
Stanford online school - check it out!
Empower kids to own their learning
Teachers:
Find a blog in their subject and comment
Take an online course
flickr
myspace
blogs to have RSS feeds
Do things with parents to build capacity in the homes
Bloglines is free - Explore it!
Every student must understand and know how to use RSS!

[Kent Peterson]

Frederick Taylor Dependency Model based on Henry Ford's model of assembly.
Stanford American High School online- new model (gives 3 years college credit for 4 years of high school)
Schools should require an online course for all students to graduate.

Only face to face is not as powerful as online + face to face.
Face to face may impede students and they will contribute less.

Kids accept criticism from anonymous people more readily than from a teacher in the same room.

Cisco gives 3000 exams online every day. Data goes to be evaluated, measures if person did not study, question poorly worded, staff development is not effective.

Courses in a system can look for activities that will better instruct students who did not do well and deliver them.

Recognition software available today is mind boggling.

Woods Hole 100 global warming researchers will be interviewed by students and these will be available as podcasts.

RSS is the killer app.

Every family should have own website, blog. Every teacher should provide RSS feeds so that all of the students work flows into the blog.
Example 5 year old missing grandmother in India, teacher emailed grandmother to download Skype to video conference, then other students

Teachers set up teams to free themselves up is to personalize education.
podcasting team
moving resources to the web team
curriculum team
set expectations
set standards
students create own community and audience around the world with whom they want to share.
Students interview people around the world and make them podcasts (via skype).

HiTech High in San Diego is doing this well.

Education Program for Gifted Youth
www.epgy.stanford.edu K-2 on the web (Stanford University)
Kids online get results instantly

Average child who takes the course goes through k-2 ($400.00) takes these 3 years in 6 months.

Dan Pink A Whole New Mind- We need more art and music.
Achoe School in Orlando: all curriculum is online.

Flow Mihhalyi's book looked at successful learners, feedback loop time is very fast.

1. Play video games with kids

2. Have research teams go to iTunes to find podcasts for the curriculum. ex. students should subscribe to Grammar Girl.

3. Find a blog in your subject and comment.

4. Do more things informing parents this year using RSS feeds.
Every student must know RSS.

[Renee Stewart]

Some technology is value added and some is destructive. Our schools are at risk. We need to know our core values as they will be under attack.

Traditional Education
Learner dependent on the teacher, teacher is the leader, designer and determiner. Henry Ford and Taylor model of compartmentalise schools and learning. Based on the industrial revolution. Accept social copnditions of a boss telling you what to do each moment.

New Learning
Interactive, not dependent. Online and uses online courses and technology. The skillset of being self-directed.
Combination of technologies, face to face as well as on line. Online increases participation, anonymity and contribution without social fear. Kids accept criticism better over the web, than by a face to face teacher in the classroom. Explosion of assessment available.

Socrates deplored books. Did not want books as they would destroy education, however his pupil Plato rejected his teachers philosophy and loved and used books.

Understanding the whole child. Personalising learning. Freedom
Not one or the other - face to face AND online

Require every teacher to take on on-line course.

RSS is essential - News Reader ?????

less is more, blogs should be set up so that the classroom is learning when I am not in there. Have to create a sense of learning, of ownership. Teach them the courage to create their owm community around the world have their own selected audience. No Fear. Engage. Set requirements like podcasts.I have to empower them to have a global voice.High Tech High - San Diego.

www.epgy.stanford.edu

Online university school starting at K. Can do Kindergarten Mathematics online etc.. Courses K-2, 3-4, 5-6. $400 a course.

Tablets
Ocohe High School. Own their learning. Book - Flow: The phychology of optimal experience by Csikszentmihalyi

Authentic assessment, instant assessment.

Play video games with kids. Understand their games, teach them about the ethics, find hooks in the curriculum. Have students come and analyse curriculum and find their own hooks. Find itunes research team that link to curriculum.i.e grammar girl a podcast.

Use all online tools - get with the program. Flickr, Youtube, facebook, myspace

Capture RSS feeds to connect to parents.

China - Bloglines, create leads . Bookmark is static, Feed is dynamic. MUST learn RSS, all students, cliping artist, indp. researcher.

People who know how to control and synthesis information will control the text generation.

[Kim Cofino]

Session Notes:

Alan November

Schools are at risk: what are you core values that are non-negotiable?

Power - desk is bigger, teacher puts things on the wall, locus of control where the teacher sits - this is the teacher's classroom.

Culture of education is a culture of dependency. Learner is dependent on the teacher to be managed. Locus of control sits with the teacher. Fredrick Taylor model of education, based on industrial revolution. Worked for the industrial age.

Stanford online American High School online

schools should make these requirements:
one online course to graduate
get rid of libraries - reference section is outdated - get rid of it, becomes an online learning center (starting in 6th grade)
need a teacher who can teach students how to learn online - without an adult feeding you face to face
reading is non f2f time - we currently value non f2f time, why is online learning centers different (with starbucks and food to provide social interaction)
blended learning - online and f2f
only f2f is actually not as powerful a learning environment as the combination of online and f2f
f2f actually shuts people down - literally paralyzes some people from raising their hand - kids are more willing to accept criticism from anonymous commenter than their teacher. RETHINK f2f - not a good learning environment for asking a question
people who are engaged socially are healthier
socrates never wrote because he believed in debate, thought it would destroy learning, destroy the core values. Plato denied this and wrote books.
you are hanging on to what you believe is the essence of education. one of your students will be plato, because they will not be burdened by your filters.
raise to a higher level of understanding for each and every child - within the context of their family
free yourself of the administrivia that burden your every day roles

BLENDED learning
kindergardener's video skyping with their grandparents, soon grandparents are reading books to kids from all over the world.

online tools deepen the f2f relationship because you can connect kids when they're not f2f

students should create online resources for other kids - learners teaching learners

learning objects developed by kids

we need a directory in iTunes

the technology is relatively insignificant to your ability to apply and solve problems

every teacher should be required to take an online course, should be done in clusters so everyone can reflect on how it went

launch kids to be lifelong learners

menu of learning : teachers as learning navigators - finding online courses for students so that they can design a menu of learning

old things new ways: we do the same thing with the classroom wall on the blog = classroom blog

new things new ways: all students have blogs = all students are creating classroom walls: RSS feed from student blogs feed into his blog

writing, reflecting and commenting on each other's work from last year

every school should have a blogging platform, every parent should have their own blog, every parent should have the RSS feed of their kids feeding into their blog

give parents their own learning portal on the web that they can build

not about the loss of f2f - it's the shift of control

students MUST learn how to build their own community - PLN

in every class there should be learning teams - students have jobs : podcasting, curriculum research, tutorial design, moving resources to the web: empower children to do some of the things that teachers do - gives teachers more time to personalize the curriculum

my goal is to walk out of my classroom and my classroom is learning without me

i would rather teach my students the courage to create their own community around the world for presenting their work to an authentic audience than for me to correct their work

i believe my students should walk out of my classroom with relationships all over the world

students should have no fear - read a book and like it? interview the author

we all have to

i have to empower my students to have a global voice

everyone in socrates' camp had to die before the shift to books...

there's too much to unlearn

If you can't unlearn DON'T GET IN THE WAY

Stanford Online Learning: http://epgy.stanford.edu
- all online classes on the same page

by the time kids get to high school they should be applying these skills, not still learning them. we have lots of huge problems to solve. kids should be done with learning calculus by age 14, so they can solve these problems.

kids are so engaged that they own their learning - "can you please come back later, we're busy": http://www.orlando-schools.net/Ocoee_Middle_School.htm

Read: FLOW : The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow requires fast feedback time - delay in feedback plummets capacity to flow and learn

Project based learning is the key

Prescription #1: Play video games with kids - it's dangerous for adults not to understand the games that kids play, we shouldn't let them go on their own, also to find hooks in their curriculum - have children analyze the content and make hooks
ex: no sound in space - teach kids during the day, then they go home and unlearn playing games

Prescription #2: have students go to iTunes and find podcasts that link to the curriculum (for ex: grammar girl)

Prescription #3: find a blog in your subject area and comment - even Presidential candidates have all web 2.0 tools

get parents to RSS teacher blogs

every student must learn RSS
every student needs to be their own editor in chief of news coming across to them on various disciplines, managing feeds from around the world

f2f time: after kids reading each other's blogs: teacher facilitates conversations: "What's the pattern?"

being overwhelmed is part of the deal - you have to learn how to manage information

people who understand how to manage information and deconstruct it, will have more power than those who don't

myth: information is being democratized

[Struan Robertson]

Visible thinking needs to be more of our culture of thinking. Why is the teacher's desk always bigger than the kids? Why is it always at the front of the room??? WHo owns the classroom? Dependency model- teacher owns the classroom and the learning.
All schools should REQUIRE that all HS students required to take on-line course to graduate. We need an on-line learning center and an educator that can teacher on-line learners. Self- directed learners. WHOA!!!!! We need on-line learning with face to face interaction.

LET GO of face-to-face interaction!!! Self-directed learning.

we need and-and-and-and-and..... tech mingles along with everything!

Broaden your horizons outside the classroom. You can connect kids when they are not face-to-face.

"Let's just agree!!!" A classic Alan November line..... we need this more often when people are arguing about the need for tech in classrooms and daily interactions. When people are asking what's in it for me?? They need to know that shift happens.

All teachers should be required to take an on-line course. That would alleviate the fear. Courses should be in anything they are interested in.... cooking, drinking, biking etc. Teachers should get together to do this in small clusters... then they can share their experiences.

We need tio launch kids into life as life-long learners..... how many of us are doing that??? Really?

We need to go "outside the school" for VISION!!!!

3 teachers need to do:

1. We need to play video games with kids this year.

2. Create an iTunes podcast link and down load lots of stuff.

3. comment on a blog on a regular basis and use tool such as my space, facebook, linked in, you tube, flickr, wikis etc.

Next -we need to do more stuff with parents to get them into technology