Ed Tech Emu

The Joy of Connections

2011-02-23T17:37:00.000-08:00

Here is our latest video production project thanks to the power of the network. After you watch the video, read the process of how it came about and why I love having Dean Shareski in my network.

So one of the things I love about Twitter and Google Reader is the wealth of ideas that it brings. I can't recall whether I saw Dean Shareski's post via Twitter or his blog on Thursday night but I know it led to a great Friday morning.

Dean poses the question "What does Joy have to with Learning" and shares a video by some students at Wartburg College. He then poses the following questions about doing a similar video in your school.

So please complete my mulitple choice question in the comments and add any insights you have because I need your help in understanding what to do with joy in schools.

With regards to creating a video like the one above do you:

Do it because it's not only fun but likely does address some cirriculuar outcomes but you might have to look them up later. Fingers crossed.
Do it and to heck with the outcomes, doing joyful things with students is important.
Do it but perhaps as an extra-curricular activity because you're not sure where it fits with a robust curriculum but still think it's important.
Not do it at all.

If I had to answer my motivation behind doing the video it would fall under #2 although it did address curricular objectives in our case. To be honest, I really just got caught up in how much fun the kids were having in the video. We have a couple video production classes so we could easily incorporate this into the class and add value. So that night I emailed our video teacher and said we needed to have some fun on Friday and learn a new skill.

We spent the half hour before the students came into first period trying to pick a song that was appropriate and the kids would know the words to (much more difficult than it would seem). We also tested how we would record each student, which turned out to be very easy in our iMac lab even though we hadn't used the cameras in this way yet. We came up with a couple song options and then waited to see if the kids would think it was as much fun as we did.

As they started to file in, we told them to sit down and get iMovie going. They were curious because typically they are in charge of working on whatever project they are working on so we don't spend much time telling them where to go as they walk in. Next we showed them the Wartburg video and the excitement rose. We then presented our song ideas and they didn't hate them but one student suggested another song which everyone liked better so we went with it. Then with no other instructions than to have a good time with it we had them start capturing and played the song.

Pure joy and hilarity ensued for three and a half minutes. Then after we finished the song and the laughter died down, we exported and moved the movies to one computer for the editing. Over the next several days we synced all the feeds, imported the mp3, edited the different cameras together while trying to get as many people in as possible, exported the video and uploaded to our YouTube channel. During this process students came in during study hall, before and after school to work on the cut, comment on its progress and often just laugh.

So while we did learn some new editing and camera skills, more than anything we just had fun as a class. Sometimes that's as important as anything else to keep progressing.

Thanks for a great couple days Dean.

Reflections on our Flipped Econ Class

2011-02-13T12:43:00.000-08:00

So we are about six weeks into our flipped economics class and I thought I would post some honest reflections. For the most part the class has gone very well. We have students listening to the podcasts, taking notes in the Google Doc, posting to their blogs and interacting in the discussions in the comments. So here are some thoughts thus far on the process.

Podcasts
Good - The students seem to be listening and "enjoying" the podcasts. Several have downloaded them to their phones and I have even caught some listening to them at school (kind of a serial experience to be honest). Others have even admitted to listening to them on their drive to school in the morning. These also really came in handy during our snow days to keep the class moving.

Realizations - As expected you can tell a few have not listened to the podcast when you engage them in class discussion but this is no different than when I asked them to read prior to coming to class before. we really have bounced around as much as I would have thought but that just may be because we were covering the basics which are needed for other topics.
I think keeping them to under 20 minutes is the best length for a night's homework as the couple we have over that have not been received as well. I am also considering going back and added some video for examples for next semester as there are things that need visuals that we don't cover as well presently in podcast form. Although those that listen in the car or on non-screen based devices will not get the full experience I think it would help many.

In class discussions
Good - we have had some really good in class discussions that have gone much deeper than previous in class discussions teaching a more
traditional way. We have hit upon some advanced topics that we never got to in the past. Some students that I would not really have expected have become extremely valuable contributors to the class discussion.

Bad/Realization - This isn't really bad per say but it is so much more difficult to teach this way. You have to make sure you have some good stuff before you walk into class to spark the discussion. I have found I really like audio (been using npr quite a bit) to kick off the discussions. Then you really have to step back and throw questions at them and try to guide the discussion in the way you want it to go without stepping in and just telling them what you want them to know. Some days we do this better than others. The days it works its brilliant, the other days its only slightly worse than a the old method so I take that as a win.

Notes/Researchers
Good - The task of having a scribe takes notes everyday has worked out well. Each person has done a pretty good job of taking the job seriously and getting some content. When we use the Researchers they do a good job of finding information to help explain things we didn't understand or were wrong about.

Realization - We need to find a better way to get them to go back afterward and add to the notes. I honestly don't know how many of them actually use them that much but how is that truly different from before. Still we need to encourage a better collection of the information. We need to ask more proving questions sometimes and use the Researchers in class more.

Blogs and Comments
Good - some of the blog posts and comments have been really inspired. I love the fact that these students are related so many economic topics to things they are passionate about. Get such a wide variety of posts and it allows us to get to know the students on a different level. Overall this along with the great class discussion days have been my favorite parts. It is also good to see some of the students who don't speak in class as much demonstrate their learning here.

Realization - It's more obvious when some of the students don't do their work. I guess it makes me feel like more of a failure when a student doesn't post to their blog than when they simply didn't turn in their homework. Also need to keep pushing them to put more economic analysis into the posts since some mostly summarize the article. Finally making them proofread their posts is also a struggle (note: of course I just realized I posted without proofreading this so I need to work on that as well).

Overall this has been a great experience thus far and it will only get better the more we are able to refine it. The things I think we need to work on the most going forward is getting more outside voices into the classroom through the blog and skype. We had our first guest speakers last weekend it went well but it is hard to get them to be questioners instead of lecturers as it is for us as well.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions and stop by the blogs at http://oakridge-Econ.blogspot.com.

The Daily - What it means to our students' writing

2011-02-04T07:13:00.000-08:00

News Corporation has just launched The Daily, a digital only newspaper. Please read the article from the New York Times.

While as the article points out this particular version of a digital-only newspaper may not succeed, it is apparent that it is the beginning of a significant shift in publishing. So as an educator this brings a couple of questions to the forefront for me.

By the time our students graduate college how much of their writing will be for the screen instead of the page?

Are we teaching our students the skills necessary to compete in this environment?

How young should we be teaching digital writing?

While I'm not sure The Daily will be successful in this iteration, I am sure something similar will be in the near future. Will our students be prepared?

Flipped Econ Week 2

2011-01-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Due to some unforseen circumstances I was unable to be in class this week but fortunately I could follow along virtually. Another benefit to the current class structure. It does limit however how much I can summarize about the week here. Next weeks summary should be more informative.

This week the class covered the different economic systems and started in on supply and demand. You can now subscribe to the podcasts from the class on iTunes as well. There is a link on the right side of the main blog. The process of getting on iTunes is surprisingly simple and I hope to write a post about it in the near future.

This week the students blogged about such varying topics as the iPhone on Verizon, whether the incarceration of a rapper helps their bottom line, lunar mining and many other topics. Please stop by their blogs and weigh in with your opinion.

Flipping the Economics Classroom

2011-01-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

After reading and thinking about what Karl Fisch is doing with his Algebra class as well as many others across the nation, I decided to go back into the classroom and help teach a section of Economics that I used to teach before becoming an administrator. Going back into the classroom has been great for me to reconnect with more students as well as try out a lot of the philosophies of teaching I have come to believe in the last couple years.

Up and Running
So in the last week we have kicked off 6 blog sites, a collaborative note taking system in Google Docs, a tracking system in Google Spreadsheets and podcasts in iTunes. You can check out our main blog site where we will be highlighting a post a day as well as links to the group blogs. In the last week students have listened to 2 podcasts, written 22 posts which have amassed 123 comments.

Here is a brief synopsis of what Brad Smith (he is the real teacher/leader of the course as I am just another participant), myself and 22 seniors are doing this semester.

Flipping When You Hear The Lecture
A lot of the ideas I used to design the semester came from our experience in Powerful Learning Practice (PLP) with Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum Beach. Brad and I also bounced ideas of PLPeeps Cary Harrod from Ohio and Dave Ostroff from Dallas. They were all a great help in pushing our thinking in designing the class. However, I still haven't fully embraced the idea that everything should be self-guided. I believe that there are still times for lecture and conveying the basic economic theories and vocabulary that are necessary to have class discussions. I just think that spending valuable time together to decimate that information is not the best way to accomplish getting this information. So Brad and I spent some of our Winter break podcasting many of the lectures we would typically do during the semester. We stripped the content down to the bare essentials because we new the real learning would occur during the class time discussions of current events, blog post and comments.

Class Time
So if we are not lecturing in the classroom, what are we doing? Well for homework we assign a podcast explaining some economic concept and then the next day in class we discuss some current event and how it relates to the concepts. We also have someone different assigned each day to take notes in the Google Doc for everyone to share and contribute to. We then assign two researchers to Google anything that comes up in the discussion that we need more information about. We proceed with the discussion until they got the information and then they would report back with their findings and add it to the Google Doc notes.

So for example this week we learned about the four factors of production, scarcity, value judgements and utility to name a few concepts from the podcasts. Then Brad and I would bring in something from the news and use that to start a discussion about how those concepts explain what we are reading or listening to. I have found the NPR app on my iPad to be a great place to find 4 or 5 minute kick starts to our discussions. We listened to a segment related to the oil price increases and discussed scarcity and the four factors of production. It also brought up the France Austerity Package which our researchers Googled and explained. We then listened to a piece on the Alaskan Petroleum Reserve and how each person's individual value judgements affect their own cost-benefit analysis. On another day we talked about the changing production demands in China from tea to coffee because of the associated utility. In a lot of ways it mirrored what I thought it would, including a significantly more in depth discussion of the economic topics in a significantly more meaningful way. However, it also showed me how quickly we touched on much more advanced topics that we will soon explore in more depth. The beauty of having the podcasts already there is once we make it through the basics we did last week and supply and demand this week we can jump to wherever the class leads us and reach the advanced topics they are interested in. The students in essence are making the roadmap for what we learn through what they are interested in. Hopefully they will start bringing in the starters for the class discussions as well.

Blogs and Comments
As part of the class structure, each student is required to find their own article, podcast, political cartoon etc. and analyze it in economic terms. The article can be anything that interests them and therefore they are learning economics through what they are passionate about. We have had posts about digital distribution of games, the falsification of the Wakefield study, MIT's use of iPads and even Oregon's bold uniform choice. So it is obvious that they are starting to see the concepts in the things that interest them.

The even bigger thing we are seeing is that they are asking each other great questions. Things like

"Also, do you think that this museum could hurt the beach based businesses by pulling people so far inland and if so, how much would it effect them?"

when discussing the new St. Pete museum.
OR

"The coaching slots on the show are scarce, and that is why they are in such high demand by so many fighters, but why would Lesnar take this job?"

when discussing an MMA fighter's decision.

I know in the traditional model we didn't get people asking these types of questions even towards the end of the semester and now we are getting them in the first week.

Next Steps
So where are we going? We are looking now to hopefully expand out and get more outside comments. Hopefully some of the people who read this will stop by and comment and tell a friend or an economics class from another school will stop by and toss in their two cents. We are also looking forward to other teachers and administrators in our school leading some of the class discussions in the coming weeks, showing the students that these topics affect everyone. We will be looking for people to Skype into the class to discuss topics.

I will blog much shorter weekly updates of our progress and welcome any suggestions you may have to improving this class.

DS106 Assignment1

2011-01-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

So I saw multiple posts from my PLN about a MOOC on Digital Storytelling. I figured what a better way to try an open online course and have a creative outlet. So here is my first assignment. It is an iMovie template for a specific reason even though it isn't real creative.

The reason I used the iMovie template was because although I like doing most of my stuff in Final Cut Pro I have been wanting to play with the new iMovie and the trailer templates. All I had at home tonight was the photos from my trip to Brazil in November since I haven't gotten the video back from my dad.

So my first attempt was to use the still photos in the iMovie trailer template. Unfortunately it does not appear that you can use anything but video in the templates so I had to scrap that idea.

My second attempt was to use TubeChop to take parts of some YouTube videos and use them in the template. I just heard about TubeChop and wanted to try it out. While it is very cool and I am looking forward to showing it to my teachers, there doesn't seem to be a way to download the chopped video or MacTube it, only share it as a URL or through embed code. So once again I had to scrap that idea.

Then I started MacTubing an Amazon video from YouTube and some Brad Pitt to use as myself but I couldn't make myself do that since it was so cheesy (not sure why I thought I was above it tonight). I also decided I didn't want to use any copyrighted video so I scrapped that idea.

So then I realized I could make a video from the still photos. So I took them into iMovie and did a simple video of the stills out from there. Then I inputted the finished video back into iMovie and used the Adventure template to make the finished video. Then I shared the video to YouTube from iMovie which was remarkably simple.

So while the finished video wasn't overly creative, I did learn quite a bit tonight about some different processes that I can share with my faculty and students so it was successful. More importantly I got to spend the evening making something fun thanks to DS106. I'm looking forward to the next several weeks on the journey of storytelling.

Views on the iPad

2010-04-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

First let me say that I share custody of my iPad with my wife so it doesn't travel everywhere with me although that is becoming more of a difficult decision as I use it more. Still not sure I can rationalize spending more of my money on a second one in one household.

As far as a consumption device, I think I would trade in my computer today. The battery life is amazing actually and the graphics and videos are simply "sick" as a student explained when seeing it. If all I needed to do was surf the web, check email, run my calendar, watch videos, blog and listen to music, it would be my only device. However, the things that I have to do for the rest of my job, it is not designed to do which is totally understandable I guess.

Now as far as a classroom tool, I think it will begin the development of a very good 1:1 solution that will become available in 2 years whether it is from Apple or another company. These ease of use, size, weight and clarity are all there. I could see them being a great solution for @christianlong's TedxProject since it is centered around watching Ted videos (amazing on the iPad), researching information from the Internet (very slick and fast on the iPad) and blogging (doing now easily on the iPad). However, it still does not have the capability of operating a lot of the web 2.0 tools yet (or maybe it does and I just haven't figured out how to do it). For example, I cannot edit a google doc although I can view it. I cannot figure out how to edit a wiki even though it seems like it wants to let me. If you could even just solve those two issues, I may push to get them in the hands of my students. Then I would use the computer labs for the video editing and other more substantial tools that students need to be utilizing.

I'm still more fascinated in how this device will change how we teach. I'm convinced it will change the publishing industry and thus how the majority of people distributed their writing to the world. It will make multimedia and hyperlink writing even more important and in my opinion push the 'tipping point'.

Well those are one man's opinion of the iPad in education to toss into the sea of those much more intelligent than I so take it for what it's worth.

Progress Slowly Happening

2010-04-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share the successes happening at school and how I think as minor as they may appear on the surface that they are hopefully a sign of a more substantial change.

There seems to be a lot of discussion going on about ways to extend the classroom. A third grade classroom is going to do their upcoming biomes project as a wiki. I sat and watched 4th graders do PowerPoint presentations and even though it was the definitive death by.. I came away impressed with their presence and excited to talk to the teacher about how we can make the presentations better. They had the choice to do it digitally or old school poster style and 90% were going digital. Now just to teach them how to do it well. I definitely need to spend more time in Lower School classrooms.

Our Middle School is getting in the act as well. An English teacher was going to make photocopies of their poetry unit and send it home as a book but she came to me and asked how we could do it digitally. Now she will be using StoryJumper to create an online compilation and simply send the link home. Our head has been playing with podcasting via iPadio and will hopefully be creating weekly preview/reviews in the future.

In Upper School we have a collaborative Ning all in Spanish with Lovett in Atlanta, the TedxProject as well a new teacher trying blogging in Economics. Our choir teacher is posting podcasts from their trip to sing at Carnegie Hall.

With the new wireless going in and the website revamp on pace for a June release, the potential is steadily increasing. The best part is the conversations that are organically taking place around school about better and more innovative teaching. While none of the things are necessarily huge by themselves the collective feeling is moving towards a different feeling which seems very positive. Hopefully the upcoming SummerSpark will only enhance and ignite more conversation.

GTAdmin Video

2010-02-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

So I thought I would post my Google Teacher application video. I still really like the idea of the video but the execution was not what I would have liked. However, in the spirit of sharing, here it is. Hopefully, I will eventually go back when I have more time and do a better version.

Sharing

2010-02-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

I am still reeling from the incredible four days I got to spend in Philadelphia at Educon 2.2. The administration, teachers and students at SLA are a wonderful example of how transparency and collaboration can create a vibrant school culture. They say Educon is not a technology conference and that was certainly evidenced the entire weekend. The conversations were deep, thoughtful and empowering but what caught me the most was that technology was always present but never the point. The point was how to be better educators and while technology is integral it always remained in the background. If we want to make our students ready for the world ahead of them they have to be comfortable leveraging all the collaborative tools to communicate but most importantly we have to teach them to be self directed, inquisitive, mindful citizens.

The other big thing I took away from my weekend was that there are a ton of great things happening in classrooms across the country and they need to be shared. The more success stories that are demonstrated the more people will be able to see the practical applications of good learning. So I hope to continue to encourage my teachers to find innovative way to learn with our students and then share them here. I am convinced that the more we are transparent in our learning the better education can become.

In that spirit, we presented The Alice Project at Educon. We took two students who did the majority of the presentation. It was great to see them speak confidently and honestly about their learning experience. If you get a chance please check out the project as it now contains everything from initial setup through reflection.

Here are a couple articles that mention Educon and the project as well.
Green.tmcnet

christian-long-and-the-alice-project-falling-down-the-virtual-rabbit-hole

Shared Smarts: The Wisdom of EduCon

Aggregate, Filter and Connect

2010-01-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

I was reading Networks and the Information Glut and this quote really hit me.

"The fundamentals of innovative thought haven’t changed since the 18th Century – it’s always been aggregate, filter and connect."

I thought back to how I learned in school. I aggregated information by listening to my teachers, reading the textbook and taking notes in my notebook. I filtered information by making or answering review sheets from my notes or by re-reading my textbook. I then connected with my friends to study at somebody's house or asking my teacher questions if I had them while I was in class. I would then answer the questions on tests or projects that I would never look at again.

Research was very similar. I would go to the library and find some books. Write the information down on some notecards and then maybe talk to my friends or teacher about what to write. Finally I would write or type a paper that only my teacher would ever see.

That was late 80s early 90s (I graduated high school in 1991). How much has the world changed since then? How do I aggregate, filter and connect now? Yet as I look in the classroom, many of the same ways I did things are still being done.

It's still aggregate, filter and connect. We just need to update what it means to do those things.

What does the Tablet mean TO education not IN education

2010-01-03T12:39:00.001-08:00

As I was reading David Jakes' Tablet Schmablet Redux post, I realized that there are a ton of people talking about how Tablets can be used in the classroom to make education better. While I won't deny I would love to have sets of those to put into classrooms, I don't think that is the most important part of this new evolution.

As David notes the Tablet technology is coming, there is no denying that. "There appears to be new technologies emerging from Apple, OLPC, Dell, NotionInk , and yes, even Google. There’s even the Mag+, which seems to be more reader than anything else." And yes it has the potential to eventually change textbooks as well as book reading as it pertains to the classroom, but I think we can agree that as with everything else it will take a while for it to penetrate education.

What I think is harder to argue with is the fact that it will change reading, especially newspapers and magazines. And there is a good chance that it will change it dramatically within two to three years. Look at how the iPhone has changed the mobile phone market, I expect a similar change from the Tablet. When it does, hyperlinked writing, photo slideshows and video journalism will become what we expect.

So even if we don't use them in the classroom as quickly as people are predicting, normal consumers will be using them. It will change how we deliver news and how we write professionally.

So when today's ninth graders graduate, news decimation and writing will look significantly different.

Doesn't that mean we should be taking a hard look at how we are teaching these students to write?

Or do we continue to teach them to write the current way because that's how they will write in college because as we know education will be the last to change?

The Tablet (or whatever you want to call it) will be a game-changer but maybe not IN education. Should it be one TO education?

2010 - A Personal Forecast

2009-12-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

Ok after reading all the "End of Year" and "2010 Prediction" posts, I realize I don't have a lot of things I would like to review or global predictions or questions to add. What I do have as I look forward to is a year of possibilities and expectations. Definitely more than any other time in my professional life.

So I will model my post after @mbteach's 2009: Reflections on a Transformative Year in hopes that I have a Transformative 2010.

2010: My Year in Forecast

January 4 - Continue helping PLP group design professional development project
January 14 - Finish design of new marketing piece for school
January 15 - Choose a new phone system and wireless campus for our school
January 23 - Finish application for Google Administrators Academy
January 24 - Present new printed marketing piece at Admissions Program
January 28-Feb 1 - Attend and co-present at Educon 2.2 (meet and learn from some wonderful educators making my PLN a little more personal)
February 2 -Choose new website developer and begin process of designing
February 4-5 - Attend ISAS conference
February 28 - Submit proposal to present at TCEA 2011 conference
March 5 - Attend GTAdmin in San Antonio (good to have goals, right?)
March 8 - Roll out new phone system and wireless campus
April 12 - PLP group presents year end professional development project
June 4-11 - Help run first Teacher Boot Camp (or whatever PLP group decides on)
June 15 - Roll out new website and begin training administrators
June 27-30 - Attend first ISTE in Denver
July - August - Training for teachers, students and parents for use of new website

That's as far as I can think so far as it appears pretty daunting when you write it all down. Well at least I have a check list of goals for the first part of the year. Please let me know if you have any suggestions of things to add to my goals.

Google Teacher Academy for Admins - Why I'll apply

2009-12-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the GTAdmin conference in San Antonio in March. Soon after it was announced David Jakes posted a list of concerns about the Academy. His concerns included whether it would be different enough that the admins would benefit from it, is it just about 'the badge' and that it needs to be about more than just the tools. Many other people got into the conversation both for and against but this evening I read Mark Gardner's response to the debate. He addresses the fact that it will be geared toward administrators but it is about the tools.

I will let you go and read those if you haven't already since I won't be able summarize them well enough.

What I wanted to do with this post is to explain (mostly to myself) why I will apply to GTAdmin.

While I agree that it needs to be different than the teacher academy, I still think we are all teachers and knowing how it can be used in the classroom is the most important part. It's about the students and how we can find ways to help make their education more innovative. While knowing how to set up and administer Google Docs would be beneficial to the Tech Directors it would mean nothing to the other administrators while the features of the Google Apps would mean something to everyone. I would assume they would give examples of how to use them for teacher/administrator collaboration as well as classroom use. I know I would walk away with a better knowledge of what Google Apps (and other Google products - since I just discovered Alerts, I'm sure I'm missing out on many things) would do as for our school.

The next thing that I appreciate is that this Academy is all about the tools. In another portion of my PLN, we have had a lot of conversation about it not being about the tools. While I agree it is much more about the pedagogy than it is about the tools, I think you have to be exposed to the possibilities and then apply them to your particular part of education. I appreciate that they are focussing on the tools and then allowing the people to discuss the pedagogy in their new and existing networks.

And finally the network is the real reason I am applying. While I don't care about 'the badge', I do care about the new network of people I would be exposed to. My ever expanding PLN is what gives me the opportunity to become a better educator and more importantly help my teachers, students and school be the best it can be.

So while I don't know that I will get the opportunity to go to GTAdmin, after the debate in the edublogosphere I now am clear on why I want to apply.

...Now to think about what @courosa said on Twitter about not having corporate advertising in schools and how Google Certified Teachers and Apple Distinguished Educators fall into that category. Definitely too much for my brain tonight. Another post, another day.

Tell me writing is not changing - Dare Ya

2009-12-08T18:34:00.000-08:00

I LOVE the idea of Sports Illustrated on a Tablet seen below.

2010?! Are you kidding me?

And if that is what magazines and newspapers are going to look like, how much longer is traditional writing going to be useful outside an academic arena?

Tell me that a new writing pedagogy is not needed. Double Dog Dare Ya. [smiles]

'Educational Networking' - Lightbulb

2009-12-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've been struggling for a while with the idea that we should be using social networking because that is what the "kids are doing these days." I have totally bought into the idea that we should be communicating and collaborating with social networking and teaching students how to leverage those platforms but I was still struggling with saying that we needed to teach social networking.

I don't think that making Facebook a school content management system is the way to go. But did that mean I wasn't supporting the "get the kids where they're at" mentality? I want to tap into the desire of the students to share online but in different spaces. Then I read something by @mrchase about how we need to respect Facebook.

"If my teachers had started trying to teach me to diagram sentences whilst I was hanging out in my clubhouse when I was a kid, I would have built a new clubhouse."

I totally agree. So, I knew I wanted to use social networking to help engage and encourage students to share their ideas and learn from people around the world but I still felt uncomfortable saying I wanted to teach social networking.

I had heard the term social learning before but that wasn't doing it for me. It wasn't the head-fake I was looking for. I like to trick kids into learning. Make them think they are just enjoying what they are doing, having a discussion and then at the end walk out and realize "dang it, he tricked me into learning something again."

Then this morning, I read Chris Lehmann's wonderful article on the National Association of Secondary Principal's site. And he nailed it for me with this quote.

Social networking has changed the landscape of society. High school reunions are being planned on Facebook, so this is no longer simply a “kid” thing. But it is not enough for educators to simply be aware of social networking; they have an obligation to teach students the difference between social networking and academic networking. Students can be known for more than just photos they took on their latest vacations; they can be known as serious evolving scholars. Educators can help them understand how to paint a digital portrait of themselves online that includes the work they do in school and help them network, both locally and globally, to enrich themselves as students.

Lightbulb goes off in my head. The clouds part and I have clarity. That's it, "academic networking (I may prefer educational networking, still pondering). That's what I want my teachers to be doing.

My next thought was "I wonder if my wife would move to Philly." Then I shortly realized, no I don't need to move to Philly (nor would they hire me at SLA), I have wonderful educators here and I just need to keep moving towards teaching educational networking. The more schools out there doing it the better off we will be. So, thanks for the clarity Chris and the rest of my educational network for helping me to a little more clarity.

It's not about the Tech

2009-12-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have really been enjoying Dean Shareski, David Warlick and others latest blogging about audience and traction. Warlick's latest post got me thinking again about the fact that we should not be focusing on the tech.

I think we need to focus on what we can do to make our students better today. To me that means teaching them to communicate and collaborate because those are the skills that often lead to success. So how do we teach them to achieve those things? We can teach them how to present themselves well through multiple mediums. Whether its on paper, a blog, a video, a slidedeck, a podcast etc. They need to be able to communicate well but they need to be able to do it well in all of those mediums. No longer is being able to write enough to impress a college admissions officer or potential employer. We expect more. We expect them to collaborate, to be a ‘team player’. That now means not only within their classroom, their division, their company, their industry but globally to all competitors, colleagues and consumers. If our students don't feel comfortable collaborating with people not only across the room who they are somewhat comfortable with but with people they have never met. If they are not comfortable with the idea of being transparent with their ideas and willing to engage with others and defend their opinions then we are doing them a disservice.

Fortune 500 companies are on Twitter, Facebook, they are blogging and posting videos on YouTube. Why are they doing all that? So they can communicate and collaborate.

So no, we don’t want to use tech for the sake of tech. We want to teach our students to communicate and collaborate and it just so happens that a portion of that now involves technology.

Leap of Faith

2009-11-21T13:36:00.001-08:00

Ok so I'm taking the plunge and starting my own blog. I've been reading more and more about the future of writing and how it is evolving to the web and I sit nodding my head in agreement. That made me step back and realize if I think that this is the way students need to be writing, it is awfully hypercritical of me to nod my head while I'm still not doing it. So this will be the place where I practice what I hope to preach to my teachers and students.

Here is a little about what I do in the education world. I have been an educator for 13 years at The Oakridge School in Arlington, Texas. I started teaching in the Lower School lab and coaching volleyball, soccer and tennis. After two years, I moved to the MIddle School computer lab and dropped tennis from my coaching responsibilities. After two more years, I moved to the Upper School where I developed my own curriculum in what we call Digital Production. In the one section of Digital Production we covered web design, photo manipulation, flash animation and video production. After seven years the program had developed into one section of Digital Production, one section of Honors Digital Production (students work on the school website and other promotional/marketing material for the school) and two sections of Video Production (students work on a once a week 'news show' that is broadcast to the student body). I also picked up a couple of sections of Economics which is what my degree is in. A year and a half ago I made the decision to leave the classroom and become the Director of Technology. My goal is to help inspire teachers to improve their craft and include some of the technology skills that our students will need in their lives. This year I am involved with five of my teachers through a journey of 21st learning investigation through PLP with Will Richardson and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach.

The name of the blog comes from my interest in educational technology as well as a homage to my father's nickname. My dad played professional baseball for 18 years and his nickname was the "Amazing Emu" so I have stolen that for my blog monicker. I just thought I would explain the name of the blog in case anyone was curious.

This blog will mostly be just a place for me to flesh out my journey of learning. I don't expect a lot of people to read it but maybe somebody will find something interesting in it and hopefully it will be a good place for me to explore my ideas. So here's my first step in my public, transparent journey.