Things We Learn From Our Students

Every year, in June, our school board has a special event called Staff Recognition Night. During this auspicious occasion, we honour those staff members who are retiring. Our retirees are asked if they would like to make a speech, and many of them do. I love hearing those speeches and listening to how our various staff members have been modelled and shaped by their careers in education. 

One of my favourite speeches this year was by a Secondary teacher named Mark Whinton. Mark taught Tech as a Department Head at one of our high schools for twenty years. In his speech, he shared how he was influenced and supported by his many colleagues. But what I really loved about his speech was how Mark shared what he has learned from his students over the years. 

I've asked Mark if I could share his comments here on my blog and he graciously agreed. 

CC licensed photo  shared by Flickr user DigitalRalph

From my students I've learned a few things over the years, primarily about technology;

            1. Be an early adopter of technology - while students were learning Facebook back in 2007 the             Board was busy blocking it on our intranet system so they couldn't use it but a                                         student showed me and others an easy way around it. - As of last August the Board now has its             own Facebook page and it can be accessed from school - who is teaching who here?

                       

2. Go to YouTube (now the third most visited place on the planet) was the “go to” place if you wanted to fix something.

3. What they were interested in was all self taught and they didn't do it for a credit or money but simply because they were interested in learning it. - texting, developing, editing and sharing images, videos and music. Creating and using social media sites developing websites and blogs etc. Amazingly I realized they had created nothing short of a new system of knowledge. This system is so prevalent and undeniable that in today’s society the primary source of knowledge comes from a system of digital news not a classroom, not a newspaper, not a book and not a teacher. It comes from everyone and anyone at anytime.

So in my retirement I see myself putting to good use the lessons I have been taught by my students by creating an HCDSB NEWS site for former students, and staff, something I hope that will keep me connected to my former students and my many friends at the HCDSB.

When I suggest to some teachers that they tear down their classroom walls by encouraging their students to connect to the world outside of the classroom, they tell me they are not yet comfortable with the technology. I think they need to learn from Mark Whinton's experience. Students are teaching themselves how to use social media to share, connect and learn from one another, not because they are being told to, just because they are interested in learning how. We need to jump on that bandwagon. We don't need to be comfortable to do so. Our students, even the youngest ones, will teach us! We can and should be learners together in the classroom. 

We need more teachers like Mark Whinton who recognize that in education we can't afford to be the last ones joining in the digital world. We need to be the early adopters, the trend setters, the ones willing to take the risks. That is what we need our students to become when they get out into the world to take care of us in our retirement, the innovators and problems solvers. We need to start promoting that now!

As you step into your classroom in the next few weeks, please think about technology. How will you make it available to your students? What would you like them to teach you about their digital worlds? How will you use the ability to connect with others outside the classroom to stimulate and empower your students this year?

Why Are We Doing This?

In my last post I mentioned that I used Google Docs for the first time ever with my students to create an on-line survey.  This may sound like an easy task, and in the end it was, but for my students and I, getting there was not so easy.

I love using technology.  I find all of the digital tools exciting, fun to use, and actually, in the end, they do make my life easier.  But I also find technology very intimidating.  I'm ashamed to admit this because the people in the etmooc are so tech savvy.  But I have decided to come clean because it dawns on me that I'm probably not alone.

When I look at a webpage, I'm still overwhelmed.  I grew up in a linear world where there were no hyperlinks.  Following the instructions on a webpage can be really challenging for me.  I've often read the instruction to "click on the tools icon from the settings menu" only to spend 10 minutes scanning the page unable to find the settings menu!  When this happens to me, and it happens at least once a week, I call my son Jordan over to help.

This is usually how the conversation goes:

ME:  Jordan, come help, PLEASE, I'm trying to add a widget to my blog but I can't find the settings button, and I'm getting REALLY FRUSTRATED!!!

JORDAN: Sorry Mom, can't help, don't blog.

ME:  I KNOW you don't blog!!!  But you will be able to understand these instructions.

JORDAN: Just do what it says on the page.

ME: PLEASE just help me find the **%&** button!!!

JORDAN (saunters over, glances at the screen, grabs the mouse, clicks the menu):  It's right there! How could you miss that?!?!?

So when I decided to create on-line surveys with my students to help them learn about Data Management, this was a daunting task.

First, I thought we would use Poll Everywhere which I found through a Google search.  This turned out to be a really handy tool and I thought it would be perfect because it included a VIDEO on how to use it!  We watched the video and created our polls, but discovered sharing the link was not easy. This seems to be a really great tool for a teacher to use in real-time with her students if they each have a device and can respond  in real-time.  I will definitely use this tool, but it was not helpful for what I wanted to do with my students at this time.  My students became frustrated, I became frustrated.

I quickly opened my Survey Monkey account.  I thought I could just have them create their surveys via my account; I'd used Survey Monkey once before.  But we were running out of time, the period was almost over, and I had forgotten how many steps it is to set up a survey on Survey Monkey.  It is an excellent tool, but I wanted something quick and easy - it takes me forever to navigate the steps of creating a survey!

My students started complaining... "Why are we even doing this?" "Why can't we just write our survey questions and go survey the kids in the other classes?" "Why can't we just collect our data by hand and draw our own graphs?"

I had a moment of doubt.  Why were we doing this?  Was it because I wanted to use technology for technology's sake?  Was this exercise in futility helping my students to learn about Data Management? 

I had to think - What were my goals?

• I wanted my students to see that an increased sample size really does make your data more meaningful
• I wanted my students to see that your population, (who you choose to survey), will impact your data

Yes, mucking through the technology was worth it, using on-line tools would be the best way to achieve those goals.

But now I had a new goal as well.  I wanted my students to see that sometimes, we have to go back to the drawing board.  I wanted my students to understand that sometimes learning is messy and bumpy.  Sometimes things don't go the way you plan.  So you have to re-assess, start over, and create a new plan.

I told my students we'd pause for the day, and start over tomorrow.  For homework, I found a Youtube video on how to use Google Docs to create an on-line survey.
This is the one I chose:

We watched it together as a class.  They caught on so quickly, thank goodness, because I couldn't find the button that lets you add a new question!!!!  (They told me he showed us how right in the video, but somehow I missed it!)

I can't wait until tomorrow, we are going to analyze the results of our survey together!

Two Weeks into ETMOOC; How Have I Changed?

I am two weeks into my first ever MOOC - Massive (Gargantuan, Humongous, Ginormous) Open On-line Course (Community?) and I'm looking for signs of learning.

I signed up for this course, a newbie on Twitter, to learn more about digital tools.  I wanted to learn about how to help my students become "connected learners".   I hoped that the mysterious Twitterverse would begin to make more sense to me; I wanted to learn about Digital Storytelling, VoiceThread and Google Docs.

I am getting SO MUCH MORE than I bargained for!

Yes, I have learned how to use Google Docs - today my students and I created our very first Google Survey  for our unit on Data Management (we tweeted it, we emailed it, I think I should probably post it on Facebook - we can't wait to start reading the results!) I am using Twitter regularly to connect with other educators, I have even been using TweetDeck to manage the lists and hashtags I am following! I'm getting in there and tweeting, no longer just a lurker.  Last week, I created a Twitter account for my class!  We are now looking for other mid-level classes to follow (@SixesRSuper).

I've got a Diigo account to collate, high-light and annotate my e-reading material, and I've signed on to Google Reader to help manage all of the amazing educational blogs I've been following - so much simpler!

But that is not what I'm excited about.  I'm excited because I've discovered there is a WHOLE BIG WORLD out there that has welcomed me, that I am a part of, a world of other passionate excited educators who want to collaborate with ME!  That amazes me...

After I clicked the submit button, and signed on for this MOOC, I went to Youtube to get an idea of what I had signed on for. I found this video by Dave Cormier.  At the time, I was doubtful that it could happen the way Dave portrayed in the video.

But much to my delight, it happened!  I have met wonderful and inspiring educators that I have connected with. Together, thanks to Sheri Edwards, we are a neighbourhood.

I have learned how to learn from other educators just like myself.  I wanted to learn how to "connect" my students, I learned also how to "connect" myself.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

I am not just learning HOW to connect by WHY connect.  I never anticipated how much THINKING I would be doing in this MOOC!

On his blog, Dave Cormier writes this about learning:

(It is) "Not a series of remembered ideas, reproduced for testing, and quickly forgotten. But something flexible that is already integrated with the other things a learner knows. Most things that we value ‘knowing’ are not things that are easily pointed to. Knowing is a long process of becoming (think of it in the sense of ‘becoming an expert’) where you actually change the way you perceive the world based on new understandings. You change and grow as new learning becomes part of the things you know."

As defined by Dave, I AM LEARNING.  

Last week, I was sent a link to a blog post entitled:
Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Teaching by Krista Moroder.
Basically, she reminds us that good pedagogy should always be our focus.  Technology is only the tool that helps good educators do their jobs even better.  I would now change the title of this post to:   Let's Stop Talking about Teaching with Technology, and Start Talking about Learning with Technology. 

I don't recall anyone actually using the term "pedagogy" in this MOOC, but really, all of the conversation that has taken place is NOT about technology but about pedagogy.  I've been thinking about pedagogy in ways I never thought about it before.  I have been examining why and how we get our students to collaborate.  I've been considering whether education should be a "bazaar or a cathedral", I've been thinking about whether we are growing "consumers or creators" and tonight my brain is on fire thinking about how a rhizome can be a metaphor for learning! "Learning is about preparing for uncertainty" - now really, that is a game changer, isn't it?

My "Ravenous Demand" - #etmooc

My husband is away in Texas tonight.  My kids are at a concert.  I have the house to myself, and that is a really good thing, because it meant I could spend the night at the computer reading, absorbing, collaborating, learning, reflecting.

Week #1 of my first-ever MOOC is not even over yet and I feel as though I have been pushed and pulled and stretched in every which direction.  I no longer remember who shared, posted, linked what; BUT, I remember all of the new things that I learned.  And I had a small epiphany this week that I shared with my students.

One of the themes this week was "How do you make your learning visible?" And it came to me today that learning = change.  If I haven't changed the way I think, feel, understand, then I haven't learned anything.  Tony Stead says it all the time, "I used to think.... But now I think...."  If you can fill in this statement you have made your learning visible. I explained to my students how important mistakes are because they help us to make our learning visible - they help us to see how we have changed.

In the past week, every time someone in the etmooc community posted a reflection or a question about making learning visible it left me wondering "How DO I make my learning visible to OTHERS?"  But tonight I participated in Sue Waters' Blackboard Discussion on Blogging and we talked about why we blog.  Many of the participants said they blog to reflect.  One brilliant person (wish I could remember the name) said "I write to create myself" (sorry if I misquoted).  I reflected on that a long time.

Tonight I realize that I don't need to make my learning visible to anyone else other than myself.  I need to look at myself and think - How have I changed? And if I can answer that question I will have made my learning visible to ME.

One of the things that impacted me most deeply this week was a shared youtube video of David Wiley on Openness in Education.  He talks about how we can give away knowledge freely without losing it; in this information age, "Digital expressions of expertise is nonrivalrous".  I am so thankful that all of my fellow-etmoocers are so willing to share their knowledge and expertise with me without rivalry  because I have a "ravenous demand" to learn and change and grow.