Anything New?

Three years later, and what's new in education with technology? Nothing. Or everything. In the one hand, I have a fist full of change rattling around creating a bunch of noise. And that is exactly what the other hand notices, a lot of noise, just like three years ago. So, nothing changed while everything has changed.
Our platforms have changed from Nings and Wikis and websites to Schoology. Gradebooks are now portals. Students and parents are ever concerned about what they can access, but is too much access happening? Are too many resources and platforms confusing?  Just like three years ago, there is confusion with technology for all that content and communication opportunity that it brings. Good with the bad, that has not changed.
Nothing new there.
Still, there is a significant change with technology: the effect on society and how that then determines how the community drives the school system. As technology has evolved, we socially have changed. Numerous articles expose human weaknesses supported by technology including bullying, falsely presenting one's self, dependency and addiction, and a loss of social aptitude in immediate face:face interactions. Others support our exponential growth in achievement and communication development. As always, there are the extremes, the norm, and the truth somewhere in the middle.
To be certain, society has changed dramatically, as have expectations on school systems' communication and opportunities. More, devices have driven education as a tool, at least in part, as any tool would and has. These two pieces together drive the school now, making individual independence a bit more questionable.
As teachers, we still fight for attention, just that we now fight the parents texting their student on the cell phone. As teachers, we still incorporate the newest and greatest, just that we now have to keep up with more, more, more. As teachers, we still put the student as a human individual above the "data" that drives much of educational sciences, just that no we have more data to see past to get to the individual.
So, what's new? Nothing. Everything. People...society...politics...same old, same old.

Catching Up With Twitter

Born in March 2006, Twitter was not as welcomed as it is today. Used and sometimes abused, twitter has quickly connected everyone: real people, fake people, people pretending to be other people, people just pretending, etc. Twitter also provides information sharing as a personally designed “news feed”, quick blips of reactions to tweets, and mini-meetings.

Defined as "a short burst of inconsequential information" or "the sound a bird makes", twitter now can be much more consequential. Can. For about eight years, twitter has grown from finger chatter making noise to spinning off into its own company in April of 2007, growing into mass use (and I’d argue from mass creation from demand), until reaching 2011 and functioning more as the twitter sphere machine we fondly follow.

I first learned of twitter in February 2009 while attending the Illinois Computing Educators conference and recently stumbled upon my old blog here. I wrote in my March 17, 2009 post, “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!”: Much like Dorothy dancing down the trail toward the Emerald city, representing all possibilities realized, I find myself fearfully excited as I pace down my own path of realizing technology idealizations for the classroom. Rather than stepping time to, “lions, and tigers, and bears,” I tune to, “websites, and blog space, and Nings, Oh, My!” Throw in a “twitter” and those dang Flying Monkeys appear in my mind’s eye.

Not much has changed in my epic quest since then, but now there are many more flying monkeys dog-fighting for my attention, swooping in at all hours to tell me what I need to know RIGHT NOW. If I’m not careful, the Wicked Witch of the West, will find me, will catch me, will threaten to destroy me with circuitry overload.

Over the past six years of my twitter use, I have stalked information more than I’ve tweeted. Maybe I’m quietly sneaking by the monkeys in my search for “the best” for education, or something. Maybe I observe well. Maybe I should share more. Maybe I know the WWW can easily be doused with a simple bucket of water, and I marvel at all that flies through the air today.

Maybe tweets are focused flying monkeys or maybe they are some short bursts of consequential, versus inconsequential, information that a user can grab onto to soar and fly about with a monkey or two. What is sure, though, is that the quest continues either way, no matter what is flying around us.

Student Navigation Requires a GPS

Interestingly, this year's juniors in my classes struggle with navigating the web, and more specifically, our class wiki. Today, I had students complete two tasks on the wiki; they have performed these tasks several times already in class. First, each group was to post content on a wiki page; however, some tried doing threads or couldn't find the page despite looking directly at from the projected screen (and having been there before). Now, these are students who already created pages in addition to editing pages, and we as a class have used the wiki in some fashion every day.
Another GPS need came when individually students finished a web simulation and wrote a paragraph on it. They had already done part of the simulation in class six days ago. Still, more than half had no idea where to find the assignment; furthermore, they did not problem to get there. Simply looking at the table of contents could help direct them. Instead, they stared blankly and cried, "Wait," followed by the hollow pause of sucking breath.
They can't/don't/won't find their way this year. This is the first I've witnessed such dire incompetence and lack of exploration to problem solve.
For now, this is just an observation that I am problem solving through, which takes time, which bumps content. They need a GPS.

Getting Ning-ed

1. Intro ning movie
http://prezi.com/nbuzsh10kv6r/using-ning-as-a-school-social-network/


2. Different ning uses for classroom
a. http://web20school.wetpaint.com/page/Ning
b. Idea discussion = Gary Anderson’s Am. Studies Ning example http://fremdamericanstudies.ning.com/ also linked from ‘a’
c. http://englishcompanion.ning.com/?xg_source=ningcom
d. Sharing site = my ning example, http://my1englishclass.ning.com nlabeau@yahoo.com password is 1visitor also linked from ‘a’
e. Anything you want to post and teach WW posting and interactive http://fremdwritersweek.ning.com/


3. Ning.com
a. Browse examples by selecting, perhaps, education types and then select and view
b. Make account
c. Make a ning site
d. Decide on permissions for site
e. Rules for the ning, establish and instruct
f. How do you want to use it?
4. Purpose vs. just to do it.
Time to play

Lions and Tiger and Bears, Oh My!

Much like Dorothy dancing down the trail toward the Emerald city, representing all possibilities realized, I find myself fearfully excited as I pace down my own path of realizing technology idealizations for the classroom. Rather than stepping time to ,"Lions, and tigers, and bears," I tune to, "Websites, and Blog Space, and Nings, Oh, My!" Throw in a "twitter" and those dang Flying Monkeys appear in my mind's eye.
In recent weeks, I began creating a class ning, a social network arena on which my students can play "Facebook," but with content aimed toward English. I don't know how well that will work out. I have blogged and had students blog, but not having required posts/comments, only a few posts truly elicited remarks. On night's before due dates, my frosh. blog lit up with students asking questions and truly interacted with one another, as I hoped from day one.
Now, as a tech. coach, I am working with teachers on developing blogs, nings, OneNote notebooks, and more. Mostly, helping colleagues to create something with technology to use in their classrooms. I'm liking it much because I get to work with colleagues I might not ordinarily, have time to work, and think in other areas that then encourages more from me. I like that.
As for the rest, I have discussed much to many about technology uses. After the tech. conference out in St. Charles, the biggest topic I took away was Twitter and social networking, hence the amount of time into it lately.

Time to Give Thanks...

Okay, I'm thankful for technology.

Not just because I'm a tech. coach.
Not just because this blog I host.
Not just because it saves me time.
Not just because I make it mine.

I'm thankful for the time I save.
I'm thankful for the org. I crave.
I'm thanful for the speed and ease
of communiation tracks it leaves.

Teaching has changed more than I thought
Teaching could change the older I got.
Which leaves me to wonder how much more
Technology will push me through yet another door.

So, with all this time I now call mine
I work on my tablet instead of dine
on turkey and fixins, but that's fine.
More time, more work: where do I sign?

Techno's BEST of times and WORST of times:

= my feelings on technology.
I have to admit it: I'm in a dysfunctional love-hate relationship with technology. I'd ask for a cure, but believe I'd be better off with some one -stop fix-it pill, or so society tells me (a pill for all cures). I'll leave the lovin' for last , so will start with what the worst is.
WORST: When your computer stops working. We've all been there, from "the network's down" to "why won't this ___(fill in the blank)___" to "this is stupid" to "I can't insert" to "it's not doing what I want", etc. But how about this one: my home computer won't even power up. I broke it. Badly. Can't even turn it on to fix it. Or back it up. For six months (because I'm avoiding the confrontation of dealing with broken technology), it has made a spectacular paper weight. I find I have many of those now in life. See my home laptop's battery and power supply no longer function; theory is that the motherboard needs some soldering or replacement. I killed my mother(board), how wrong is that? And I have to mail it out to Texas with all my data for an exorbitant fee for a couple of weeks. It is the worst time ever when you can't even turn your computer on, and fixing it is just plain scary.
BEST: Karen Clindaniel's in-district OneNote Class. I took Palatine's Media specialist, Elizabeth Broemmelsiek's OneNote class this past summer. She was spectacular for introducing some tablet features, adapting to the needs of the class, and sharing her OneNote applications and how-to's. Karen takes OneNote further with applications in the classroom. I learned to love OneNote over the summer as my personal assistant, and now Karen is teaching how radically OneNote can affect my teaching. There's the organizational stand point, which is divine. I just need the time to create the notebooks for, well, everything. I have my club, team, classes, PLC, and more on OneNote. It is saving my life with retaining simple data that I used to keep, sometimes, on slips of paper jammed into one folder that sometimes fell to the floor and spatter about as though a grenade hit it. AND to beat the worst case scenario I currently suffer, each is backed up automatically as it sync's to the H drive. No inaccessible data for me ever again (I can dream).
But really, Karen's presentation is perfect for where I am at, and for many with me just beginning to truly explore the tablet as a tablet. Little "a-ha" and "wow" moments float about the room each class evening. And with time to work, and use her for problem solving and ideas, it's great. Soon(ish), I will have a complete notebook with all my materials properly organized for one course. Okay, maybe just close to complete; much of material sits in manila envelopes rather than on the computer, and while some of it can be made electronic, others can't. I have to scan them, and maybe I will. I know I plan to do so, but am locked by time constraints, which always seems to be the kicker when learning and using the new technology. It's as though, our profession now has a sixth prep for all teachers, one we have to take rather than teach, one that takes our time with the promise of giving time back.
See, now we're back to that dysfunctional relationship. It's a promise from technology that I have to trust to utilize, and I have trust issues. But with little leaps of faith and greater patience than any saint, I'm loving it!