2zanne’s Weblog

I spent the last Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday officiating at a swim meet. The days were very long but they provided parents with an opportunity to catch up with what was going on with the kids. What struck me that weekend was the talk related to motivation and success. I had one parent ask if I thought kids were sometimes scared of success. We were of course talking about swimming but I believe it is relevant in other fields. I do think kids are sometimes afraid of success. I explained that with every achievement the bar is raised and for some the thought of having to work harder is unbearable. I know with my son’s swimming success this weekend he will now have to train harder to move beyond the times he got. Will he be motivated to improve on those times or will he find the expectations of the next level unattainable? Only time will tell.

To bring this back to this course and the issues we are dealing with I would say that one of the reasons teachers lag in computer technology might also be due to this fear of success. I have heard, here and there, a few teachers express concern regarding expectations placed on them. What else would be placed on their plates if the majority of teachers are competent in integrating computer usage into daily teaching and learning? What would be expected of them regarding programming and evaluation? These are questions that have been raised.

On Friday (Feb. 22) I presented our subject blog and Voicethread presentation to my grade 12 and adult ed. class and six out of nineteen students were somewhat excited about working on a blog and volunteered to complete the Voicethread. I was extremely disappointed. I asked the others why they didn’t want to participate and some said, “It looks like a lot of work!” I was hoping that integrating computers into daily learning would motivate the students. Not so! I am also learning that what would normally take a week to complete at another school takes about three to four weeks to complete here. I’m hoping that I have something to add to our course blog soon. You can check it out at “Voices at Cochrane”. Not much there but we are working on it.

Last night I participated in the WoW 2.0 session in Ed.Tech Talk. It was a great session. It was a little intimidating at first as there were a lot a people in the session who are quite knowledgeable in the technology sphere. It was nice to see other participants from our class. Of course every time I go into a new program or to a new site my stomach turns as I don’t know what to expect (Will I figure out how to turn on the audio?; Is there video?; Will I be able to keep up with the chat? Am I knowledgeable enough to participate?, etc.). It’s getting better as I get more comfortable with technology. I do realize that there are similarities between programs so really I shouldn’t panic every time.

This brings me to the issue of technology being embraced by teachers (discussed in last night’s session). These are the doubts and feelings that we have to deal with when talking about moving forward with technology. Last night we talked about PD and giving time to teachers to “play” with technology. I have organized many PD sessions in my twenty years of teaching and I can honestly tell you that in school-based PD sessions time for “playing” is not usually given to teachers. I’m afraid many would view this as a waste of time; and if a planned, structured PD session exploring new tools on the Web was presented, which tools would meet the needs of most teachers. In my school I’m not sure we would be able to convince the shop teachers of the value of learning about Voicethread, and others. We still have some that refuse to check their email because they don’t like working on the computer. Yeh, pretty sad!

I guess you start small. I’ve offered to show the English teachers how to integrate Voicethread and ComicLife into their units. I hope they find it useful. I’ve also forwarded Paul Hami’s blog to teachers as it has some useful information (especially in our school).

Well, I spent part of the day learning about WordPress blogs. There are still things I don’t understand but I will eventually figure it out. I have set up my class blog, Voices of Cochrane. I did manage to set up categories (not sure if I will keep them) and insert a picture of our school.

I also spent some time today putting together a Voicethread to present to my students- What we’re about!. I managed to get the pictures uploaded and organized. The next step will be to add audio and then present to my students. Some of my students have already starting working on a Voicethread presentation.

I did manage to spend some time with my family today. We all went to the gym to workout and then came home and prepared a very nice meal. It was a ,quiet family dinner. We don’t often have that luxury as we are very busy with competitive swimming and hockey.

It was nice to have the day to get caught up in readings and videos.

Yesterday was our first crack at using ComicLife in the computer lab. We’ve been studying Medieval Warfare (Grade 9 English-all boys) and one of the writing assignments is to create a comic/graphic story of their own. I demonstrated how to use the program and showed them what they could do (first time for me!). They’ve been paired up and each student must produce a page for their story. The rest of the hour was spent completing graphic organizers and finding pictures. Tomorrow the students actually get into using the program. Out of a group of 14 boys, there were only two that didn’t like what we were doing (but they don’t ever want to participate so…). I will post a sample when I can. It’s a fun program. Comiqs is a similar program. I will probably have a couple of students using this program due to limited supply of MACs in our lab.

For my project I had originally wanted to use Voicethread in my Eng. 31 class but I think I can go beyond that now. What I really want to do is start a class/English blog but I’m still figuring out how to do that with the students I am currently working with. I work in a vocational school and all students follow a modified curriculum. Most students aren’t even at the grade level that they are placed in. In this particular class the reading levels range from grade 1 to grade 10 (I completed informal reading inventories with each student). I have 26 students in that class and no assistant.

In my last curriculum class I presented a book written by Dennis Littky entitled “The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business”. It has some great ideas pertaining to curriculum, assessment and motivation of reluctant learners in alternative schools. In short, it talks about interest-based and project-based learning. If you have any spare time (ha!ha!), it’s a great book and an easy read. I am doing more of that type of learning and the students are buying into it. Technology is a great way to pique their interests. I’m wondering if I should just go with an English blog and ask students to volunteer to post items.

I have a couple of concerns: 1) What impact will a class/English blog have on students who can only complete the simplest of tasks?, 2) In my opinion (and Kim’s too), a class blog should be updated regularly, this would probably not happen with my students as it takes 2-3 times longer to get my students to produce any writing or complete assigned readings, 3) What would I include on the blog as students are following individualized programming?, 4) Those of you who have created class blogs do you evaluate student postings?

I have a pretty good idea what I’m going to do but I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or comments you might have?

Wow, what a week. Trying to keep up with semester turn around, reading, individualized project-based learning, reading inventories, interviews, video viewing, Elluminate, Skype, iGoogle, Voicethread, Animoto, ComicLife, and Blogging. Whew!! I’ve learned more in the last four weeks about computers than I have in the last twenty years.

I enjoyed both sessions this week. Wednesday’s session was a great overview of what’s available to us for use with students or for presentation purposes. Still learning computer lingo. My goal this week is to explore Jing and Twitter. I haven’t yet opened a Twitter account but with all of twittering going on I should probably check that out. I can’t believe how much is “out there”!

I’ve included a very short sample of Animoto. This is a great program that allows you to produce a short video accompanied by music. I can see this being used to promote your school, a pep rally or simply a video project for students. The program is limited in the sense that text can’t be added but it’s great for introducing ideas or simply entertaining your audience. I believe Dean used it to present a short video on the Roman Empire. Have a look, the students would love it. (Yeah, the link worked!!).

Cochrane Rocks!

George Siemens and Michael Wesch in the podcast entitled “Future Learning” state that the reason young people are able to successfully use Web tools, such as Facebook, Wikipedia, etc. is due to their willingness to experiment. I can attest to that. My boys have been playing/exploring WorldofWarcraft for awhile and they love it. Siemens makes reference to this game and 2ndLife. I have asked my youngest to show me the game. I’m not really interested in learning how to play but I figure I should see what the commotion is about. The point has been made several times throughout the course material that” the importance of a tool is not realized until it is used” (Siemens and Wesch). I don’t see how WofW can be useful but one can never tell.

Siemens (podcast) states that a core skill that educators will need to develop among students is how to function in a constantly changing environment. I agree, however, I think Boards of Education first need to assist teachers in how to function in this fluctuating environment, and then we can focus on teaching students. A class such as this one is a perfect Professional Development opportunity to assist educators in moving forward, into the 21st century. My participation in this class is due to a credit requirement for the completion of my Masters. I probably never would have taken such a class on my own. I’m glad I did. It has provided me with access to the world of our young; vital when working with youth. I’ve been sharing some of the tools, such as, YouTube, WordPress and Voicethread with colleagues. They are resistant, and yes, even afraid. Emotions felt by many!

How then do we get teachers to explore the various educational tools out there? Do we mandate it? Other professions do, why don’t we? Money, time, resources (computers)? I have a cousin who is a pilot for Westjet. When technology changes he has to be trained to use it otherwise he’s pretty much useless. How can we effectively do our jobs when we are not trained in the tools of today or the tools of the future, as “the future is already here” (Siemens, podcast)?

Well, I’m off to play World of Warcraft. Talk to you soon!