Remove teachers from our schools and the value, standard and worth of education will be depleted.

It’s so easy to take teachers for granted.  The days are full on.  Commitments are never ending.  Demands are high.  Walk through the corridors of our schools and you see teachers involved in every facet of the school day, the school organization.  The clockwork of routines so familiar to us all hinge around teachers.  Students depend on teachers for a myriad of support, instruction and direction.  Teachers offer so much to their school community:

• inspiration for students to learn, strive and achieve
• role models for students to emulate
• recognition that not all students learn at the same pace
• quality control to ensure that students deliver
• guidance to improve students’ performance
• care of the ‘whole’ student
• structure to ensure educational goals are identified and achieved
• innovations to the development and delivery of curriculum
• shared responsibility with parents for student’s educational, social and emotional growth
• direction on how technology can be harnessed by students to better their learning goals

School administrators would be lost without the support and dedication of their teachers. That’s why I’m thrilled when the efforts of teachers are acknowledged and recognized.

The 2012 school year began just three weeks ago for us at this end of the world, but already I feel the warmth and appreciation swirling between colleagues, administrators and members of the school community.  The strong sense of support, collegiality and recognition of worth openly shared is a sure way to generate teachers’ increased commitment, performance and drive.

It’s incumbent on school administrations to constantly express their appreciation of their teaching staff, to laud them and ensure they know they are of value in the day to day running of the school and the overall achievements and recognition for which the school strives.  Schools that treat their teachers well are sure to reap the dividends!

Many would-be educational innovators treat technology as an end-all and be-all, making no effort to figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. “Computers, in and of themselves, do very little to aid learning,” Gavriel Salomon of the University of Haifa and David Perkins of Harvard observed in 1996. Placing them in the classroom “does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning.”

So wrote Michael Hilzik in in a recent Los Angeles Times article Who really benefits from putting high-tech gadgets in the classroom?  More than once I’ve expressed my thinking on this topic.   No way can technology replace teachers.  No way can Google replace teachers.

It is without a doubt, I feel, that the role of teachers will continue to retain relevancy in our schools.   Indeed, it will be teachers who guide students in how technology can be successfully harnessed.  It will be teachers who will seize technology, adapting and innovating it as a tool for improved learning opportunities in our schools.   Integrating technology into the classroom and into the school curriculum is the domain of teachers, not the inventors of the technology.

My thoughts concur totally with Salomon’s words.  Placing computers in the classroom

does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning.”

A number of schools in Victoria are enjoying the recent bulk purchase of iPads.   They’ve been put into the hands of teachers with the intention of rolling them out to students in a couple of months.   The expectation, of course, is that teachers will use iPads to successfully engage students in the learning process.

Most definitely the approach is ambitious.  But then, aren’t all revolutions?

Hanging back, waiting for time to tick by, hoping that the latest new fad will pass us by, is a technique employed by many of us.   We’re all human, aren’t we?  Fear of failure is real.   Feeling intimidated by technology is understandable.  Changing teaching methods is threatening.  And with all the demands placed on teachers ….. well ….. it’s just plain inconceivable to find more hours in the day to take on more professional learning.

There’s not one of us who doesn’t employ the ‘tomorrow’ syndrome.

So the scenario that we’re seeing in many schools today can really be regarded as a clever ploy by our school administrators.   Give teachers the tools, give them a time frame, provide in house learning opportunities and re-shape the learning environment to include students as teachers really is a great way to inspire an educational revolution.

How great will it be to see the levelling of the playing field between teachers and students?   How great will it be when we all accept the fact that our ‘teacher’ title does not mean that we know it all?   How great will it be to have the confidence to walk into a classroom and ask our students for help and guidance?   How empowering will it be to both teachers and students to feel the joy of learning?     How great will it be for teachers to be role models to students, to show them – first hand – the joy that can be derived from lifelong learning!

Ensuring that teachers learn new skills and feel confident and competent to use these new tools in the classroom is a key to the successful integration of iPads into our schools.  Adopting some of these ideas may assit the process:

1. Provide teachers with ‘chunks’ of time to sit down and play.  A snatched hour here or there, a staff meeting, or a short professional learning session on day one of the year, is simply not enough time for anyone, let alone the novice user, to embrace, learn and master the intricacies of a new tool such as the iPad.
2. Don’t expect teachers to only pick up skills after hours.  While some teachers will embrace this opportunity, others will rightly throw up their hands saying the obvious: “I’ve got a life outside of work!”
3. Create opportunities for teachers to meet and share.   Innovate, re-think and re-imagine previously tried professional learning formats.  Try introducing an AppChat in which teachers can share and chat about new apps discovered.
4. Breakdown the barriers.  Put a call out to students asking who among them is an experienced iPad user and would like to work with a teacher to develop skills.
5. Utilize the train the trainer model so that a teacher who has mastered a new app can train another teacher on how to use it as well as how it can be used in the classroom.
6. Have teachers meet in small clusters either within subject departments or across subject departments so that they can chat and share.
7. While using iPads in the classroom won’t change the content of what is taught in the classroom, it will change the way content is presented and the way students engage with the subject matter.  Set up brainstorming sessions in which teachers can look at an app and together come up with ways it can be employed in the classroom.
8. Mix and match skills.  Have teachers rate their own skill and use this as the basis to provide staff with mentors or buddies with whom they can partner in their learning.
9. Recognize that the process of learning in teachers echoes that of students.  Some learn more quickly, others more slowly.  Some are confident to play with the unknown, others are reticent.  Provide professional learning sessions that ensure teachers don’t feel like failures.
10. Create situations in which all teachers feel empowered and excited by what they are learning.  Never forget that learning begets learning: the more you learn the more you want to learn.  If this is what we aim for among our students, why shouldn’t it be what we aim for among our teachers?

Produced by Microsoft, it was originally intended for internal use only to spur Microsoft employees on in their efforts of promoting and marketing Office 365.  The opening disclaimer at the start of the video states that Gmail is everything that Office 365 is not.

Take a minute to have a look:

It’s a parody – quite humorous in parts I thought.  We’re all familiar with the ‘big brother’ accusations levelled at Google, the accusations that Google claims are baseless.  It is automated machines, not humans, who scan our mail they say and, they are quick to point out, the process is in place for our own benefit.

The process is lost on me though.   Google’s attempt to lure me to specific websites or to explore products they suggest may be of interest or value to me totally fails!  Not only don’t I go there, I literally don’t see the ads.

You have to wonder about the impact of targeted advertising.   I have at least one friend who admitted that she was totally discouraged about the barrage of ads and emails that were targetted at her.  Being bombarded with ads best suited to a ‘middle age’ woman, were not for her.

Sometimes you feel like screaming – “Hey give us a break!”

Ah ….. but where would be without advertising?  Interesting thought isn’t it?!

Not all that long ago, I felt like I was in charge of using my time.   Nowadays though, I feel like I’m constantly taken on journeys I never contemplated!  Having stepped out of my usual routine, most of my online forays have been of the hour here, hour there variety.   This of course has resulted in some frustration, as I’ve found my thinking time reduced as its competed with the joys of living the life!

As I’ve traversed the web though, looking here and there at different articles, blogs, posts and tweets, I find myself pondering new processes that have encroached upon us all.   Happening upon an article – 15 big ways the Internet is changing our brain – fed into my thoughts.   Some of the points run parallel to my own thinking.  So that you can follow my thinking, my thoughts are preceded by italicized quotes from this post.

“We hardly ever give tasks our full attention:  Have you ever updated your Facebook while listening to music and texting a friend? If so, you’ve experienced the phenomenon of continuous partial attention and its impact on your brain. It remains to be seen if partial attention is a distraction as most believe, or an adaptation of the brain to the constant flow of stimuli.“

I credit Judith Way for alerting me to the term Continuous Partial Attention which I wrote about in a previous post.  While some say that CPA is akin to multi-tasking, it’s really far more than that.    It’s those times when I am deeply engaged with a task – reading, watching a video or blogging – that another external input comes into range – such as my husband asking a question, the phone or doorbell ringing or even visitors walking in the front door while I’m tied to my desk.   With my concentration so deeply focused on the task at hand, it feels like other stimuli hover, like a shadow, somewhere close to me.   I’m fully aware of the outside stimuli and am aware I’m not processing the two equally.  My response to the other stimuli is often delayed by a few seconds or even minutes.  Sometimes I get caught out by not responding appropriately!  The reality is that my brain is trying to process two very different inputs simultaneously – and just can’t do it!!    I’m yet to figure out how to conquer this issue and wonder whether I ever will!   Is it bad?  I’m not sure it is.  Is this a phenomena that can be levelled at the ‘digital age’.  Hmm….  I’m not sure of that either.   What of the ‘absent minded professor’ syndrome.   Are the same issues going on there?

“Our concentration is suffering: In an article for The Atlantic, Nicholas Carr relates his growing difficulty in deep reading. Like so many others, he finds that “deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.”….. Our time online is often spent scanning headlines and posts and quickly surfing links, never spending much time on any one thing. So of course, when it comes to reading more than a few minutes, or even moments, of information, your mind will often begin to wander……“

Have scanning headlines, posts and surfing links really impacted on our ability to successfully engage in “deep reading” – engaging, processing and reflecting on what we are reading – as alluded to by OnlineCollege.org! authors of the 15 big ways the Internet is changing our brain post which has triggered this blog post?  Are processes adopted by us as we traverse the web really turning good readers into bad ones so that we are unable to concentrate for lengthy stretches of time?  While the lengthy article by Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic, Is Google making us stupid? is interesting and raises lots of points, I’m not yet convinced that our ability to engage with reading at a deep level is really, as he suggests, “chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.”   I think two different issues are going on here.   Previously, access to information was only via the spoken or printed word.   The web has expanded access to information immensely.   With the immense amount of information available online, time rather than content is, I feel, the issue.  As a result scanning headlines and saving posts, articles, videos, podcasts and links to access another time has increased tremendously.   But is darting from website to website impacting negatively on our “deep reading” ability?  While this must vary from person to person, I personally think that my comprehension, processing and reflection on what I am reading has improved greatly with my online forays.  I find that when I ‘engage’ I am probing a topic rather than skirting from one link to another.   My concentration on articles, whether they are long or short,  has, I think, been sharpened.

“We’ve become power browsers: Online browsing has created a new form of “reading,” in which users aren’t really reading online, but rather power browsing through sites. Instead of left to right, up to down reading, we seem to scan through titles, bullet points, and information that stands out. Comprehension and attention are certainly at risk here.”

Yes, I can identify with these words.   When I first started looking at websites, I was very conscious of my eyes darting all over the screen.  I found that I no longer applied the left to right, up down scanning methods that were drilled into me as a young child.  I remember forcing myself to slow down and work through a webpage in a logical sequence.   Webpages can have so many dominant visually stimulating materials on them making it difficult to ‘read’ everything on the page.  Sometimes I’ve wondered about the need to teach our students ‘web page reading’ skills.

But I don’t think that these thoughts are what OnlineCollege.org! is referring to.  Instead, they are implying that our habit of scanning titles, bullet points, and information that stands out is turning us into “power browsers” who are intent on reading lots, quickly and that as a result comprehension of what we are reading is being impacted negatively.   Is this the case though?  Is our tendency to scan titles, bullet points and dominant information on a webpage any different to when we pick up a newspaper, a magazine or a book?  Scanning a page for content is an important and valid part of the reading process.  Scanning is a technique that helps us find information that is relevant to our needs or interests.   If scanning were the only engagement with the text on a webpage, then yes, comprehension would be negatively impacted.   But I’m not convinced scanning is the only process we engage in when we surf the net.

“Online thinking persists even offline: When you’re online, you’re frequently attacked by bursts of information, which is highly stimulating and even overwhelming. Too much, and you can become extremely distracted and unfocused. Even after you log off (if you ever do), your brain remains rewired. A lack of focus and fractured thinking can persist, interrupting work, family, and offline time.”

Ah yes ….. I can’t quibble with the first sentence here!  Unfortunately most of my online time seems to be of an evening.  I am sure that I do most of my processing at night and that this could well be why I find it hard to get to sleep!  The stimulation I gain online often overwhelms me.  I do find I think lots about what I’ve read, seen or taken in during my online jaunts.   My online time though powers me up.  It has shown me the joy of learning and how learning and discovery truly is a lifelong journey.  My blogging is a release – a way of reflecting on all that I’ve read, seen and taken in.  Taking time off, regularly, once a week for 24 hours is a great antidote against the kind of distraction and lack of focus referred to here.  When I get back online after this break, I feel rejuvenated and ready to explore more!

Words really aren’t necessary for this post.  Just take a look at the video then go to the Bondi website choose a colour or two ….. or three ….. or four …..  and place your order!   This just has to be something that everyone needs!!

Hot on the heels of Apple’s iBooks2 launch last week was a report by textbook publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, of a pilot study of an iPad based algebra textbook app known as HMH Fuse: Algebra 1**.  The aim of the study, which involved 1000 students in the Riverside Unified School District in California, was to measure the impact of the iPad algebra app on students’ performance.  The results?  The iPad algebra textbook app worked wonders for students’ maths scores.  Students using the app scored 20% higher on the state maths exams.

More than just a textbook inside an iPad, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt had this algebra app specifically designed to fully utilize the multimedia, multi-touch functionality of the iPad so as to provide students with a comprehensive educational experience.  Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one that used the HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app on the iPad and the other that used a textbook version of the same program.

The HMH Press Release reporting on this study concluded that those

who used Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s HMH Fuse™: Algebra 1 app were also more motivated, attentive, and engaged than traditionally educated peers.”

These two articles reporting on the program may be of interest:

iPad Textbook App for Algebra Boosts Student Math Scores 20%
Study: Algebra iPad app garners higher math scores over traditional textbooks

**Unfortuantely the HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app is not yet available in Australia.

BioBook, created by Jed Macosko and Dan Johnson of Wake Forest University under a grant from the Gates Foundation’s Next Generation Learning Challenge – a site well worth the couple of minutes it will take to read about initiatives being promoted – is an interactive tool aiming to spark the interest of college students in their pursuit of knowledge.   Recognizing that the “one size fits all” model of education no longer holds true, the aim was to break the mould of the “one textbook for all, chapter by chapter, topic by topic” approach to teaching and learning.  Instead, the BioBook, an interactive iPad biology college textbook, allows students and professors to create their own customized learning experience.  Brett Eaton, of the Office of Communications and External Relations of Wake Forest University, says:

With a traditional book, content is read in the order prescribed by the publisher.  With BioBook, readers can personalize the order in which information is absorbed. In BioBook, Learning “Nodes,” or connection points, let student’s accomplish one or two well-defined learning outcomes with links to supplementary material and challenge questions. Students can read and complete Learning Nodes in any order that engages them and strikes them as logical. Students can create Connection Nodes to link topics, make notes or aggregate and annotate information. Instructors can use Organizational Nodes to connect information and create explanations of larger concepts and principles, and to ask higher-level assessment questions. Unifying Principle Nodes connect multiple areas within a subject for novice learners.

Another article on FastCompany describes how BioBook as an iPad, web-enabled interactive biology textbook, has created a fully customizable experience for both students and educators.

While BioBook seems to approach interactive textbooks from a different angle to recent Apple initiatives, it is clear that Apple’s launch, late last week, of iBooks 2, a new version of its digital books format which includes new features to make textbooks interactive, is set to revolutionize education, reignite student engagement and fire a new passion for learning.  Features such as videos, 3D modelling and multi-touch functionality, as demonstrated in this Apple video are very exciting.

Partnering with publishers Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and DK Publishing, who already dominate the textbook industry, Apple also announced that it is making an iBook textbook authoring app available for free – an action which will no doubt kick start the availability of interactive textbooks around the world.

I was taken by the closing words of the teacher at the end of this video.  They ring true to me.

Learning opens eyes, opens minds, and it opens windows into places that you never dreamed of before …..”

Focused as I am upon the power of reading, I have to say that ‘reading’ can easily be interchanged with learning in this quote!

Having just spent the last little while downloading iBooks 2 and playing with the free intreractive textbook Life on Earth, I can vouch for the appeal of this new development!

For those schools hesitating to get onto the bandwagon of introducing iPads into their schools, Apple’s latest launch may certainly act as a trigger.  It’s an exciting and challenging time to be either a teacher or a student.   Education is about to dramatically change!

Time to potter, time to drift and time to share with family and friends has overtaken virtually every day of the last month.   It’s been nice.   An inner calm prevails.  I feel no guilt or regret of time wasted.   I am however conscious of having lost my way along the path of my online journey!

Instead, I’ve been treading water!

While I’ve been busy blogging – or at least reading, researching, writing and scheduling posts – for my other blog – BevsBookBlog -  my posts here on NovaNews, a blog I’ve dedicated to reflections about my learning journey, seem to have come to a screaming halt!

I’ve been so busy ‘living’ that I’ve spent little time extending, developing, growing and expanding my online journey.  I should be feeling cross with myself for not moving ahead.  But I don’t.   I should be feeling frustrated that I’ve wasted the luxurious work free time I’ve been afforded.  But I dont!

Perhaps a return to the work-a-day routine will give me that extra impetus to explore.  Maybe it won’t though.  Perhaps the many extra demands on my time will make me flounder and lose my way even more!

Trying to stay focused is a constant battle for me.

With so many excellent posts, I often find that my online reading takes me in directions I’d never considered exploring.   Reading one post invariably leads to the exploration of a link which leads me to another post and another and ….. well ….. on it goes.  Before I know it a few hours have passed and I’m no further along the path I’d been aiming to explore.

Please, please, please – let me know if you’ve got any ideas on how I can get back on track.   Share your thoughts on how you stay focused, manage the reading load, manage your online learning.  I feel like I need someone to take me in hand and get me organized!!

Who dares to teach, must never cease to learn”

As a passionate believer in the joy of lifelong learning and as an even more passionate believer that teachers in our schools need to not only maintain their own professional learning but act as role models to their students, this quote really speaks to me.

I came across the quote quite by accident when I literally bumped into this video.   While it’s not a new one and uses the silent flip card technique that has been floating around for some time, it’s the first time I’ve seen teachers used as the presenters of  21st century education models and ….. pleasingly ….. a range of older to younger teachers are included.

The video speaks to me as I suspect it might to you.

Just recently I came across these two great videos which are both informative and enjoyable! 

Firstly – curation.   Joyce Valenza is behind the creation of this wonderful musical parody – Curation, the musical – which explains all the pertinent details anyone would need to know about curation.  Without a doubt, it will bring a smile to your face as you listen!   But, in case you don’t catch all the words, read them here.   If however, you are after a lengthier explanation about curation,  you can’t go past the post Curation is the new search tool on Joyce Valenza’s blog ‘NeverendingSearch’

For a concise explanation of Scoop.it! the tool that seems to have taken curators by storm, have a look at this video which I found on the Scoop.it! blog.  Learning to use Scoop.it! won’t take you more than ten minutes, so have a go and see why people are getting hooked on this great new tool.