2008 MACUL Conference Blog

I’m starting off today’s activities at Gary Stager’s presentation Ten things to Do With a Laptop. I’ve listening to Gary a number of times at various conferences…never the headliner, but as a quiet featured speaker. Some of the time I don’t agree with him, but I continue to listen to what he says because after the show is over and I’m sitting quietly by myself I can hear my brain changing, shifting, and growing. Gary Stager pushes…he kicks you out of your box.

So what are 10 Things to Do with a Laptop? Well, here are two questions…What will the world be like for your students 20 years from now? Perhaps even more importantly, what is the world like for the children who have not yet entered your school?

There are three types of laptop schools:

1. Pioneers…they want to shake things up.
2. Marketeers…they want their school in the newspaper.
3. Their neighbors…the school up the street is doing it so…

Top Ten List

1. Write a Novel
   When students have laptops they write more and better. In addition, they can write for other forms of media like podcasts.
2. What Your Knowledge
   Use sites such as Wikipedia because the information is current/instant.
3. Answer Tough Questions
   For example, “Who should I vote for?“
4. Make Sense Data
   Use software like Google Earth, GIS, Inspire Data, Tinkerplots, and Fathom
5. Design a Video Game
   Use Microworlds…Gary is very into student programming.
6. Build a Killer Robot
   Gary likes to use Legos to build and invent.
7. Lose Weight
   Keeping track of exercise…that’s not the point, but using the tools kids have to solve problems.
8. Direct a Blockbuster
   Make a movie…writing, editing, shortening is the process that matters.
9. Compose a Symphony
   Using Finale Notepad or GarageBand.
10. Change the World
    Can we aim any higher?

Thanks, Gary, for setting the bar high for using the tech that’s in our schools!

This afternoon I’m participating in David Grapka’s workshop titled Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is Like Differentiated Instruction (DI) on Steroids!

Notes caveat: I didn’t really know anything about UDL before this workshop, so my notes probably reflect that!

What makes a UDL classroom? Having a welcoming environment. How do we advocate for all children? The way he modeled that is giving us his cell phone so we could text him questions!

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible”. Theodore Roethke

A vision of students today (scroll down) from Kansas State University. Look at their other videos too. What resonated with you most as an educator and consumer?

For the rookies on UDL: Center for Applied Special Technology is THE place to learn about UDL. These videos explain UDL. After each video, David asked us what resonated with us.

Books mentioned:

• Shaking up the Schoolhouse
• Working on the Work
• Creating Great Schools

UDL principle: Creating environments that work well for students with disabilities makes the environments work for everyone. Teachers rethink goals, methods and assessments.

From my seatmate, Cathy: Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age.

Example - a curb cut started out as an accommodation for wheelchairs, but skateboarders use it, people with strollers, luggage, etc. It helps everyone.

The handouts have a PowerPoint that compares UDL and assistive technology.

RTI: Regular Teacher Involvement; a whole school initiative

Brain Research video - three networks for learning - recognition networks (what), strategic networks (how), affective networks (why). Everybody learns differently.

UDL curriculum: multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, multiple means of engagement, flexible tools, teaching methods and assessment.

He played each video twice! It was great because you got something new the next time around.

There’s a serious disconnect between mandated state testing and new research on student learning and teaching. Tomorrow David is addressing this in his 4 p.m. session.

——

After the break we looked at TRECenter.org Practices. This is what David does in New York. These materials can help you design your own UDL lesson plans.

How is a UDL lesson different than any other lesson plan? What I noticed includes:

• The planning pyramid has “all students will…” “most students will…” “some students will…” “some other students will”
• The unit includes modifications for meeting academic diversity.

This is a template for a UDL lesson/unit plan.

We did an activity using these sites:

• UDL Solutions
• Supports List
• Learning Styles
• Windows to the Universe

Finally, look at Balancing Your Work and Play.

The last presentation that I gave at MACUL back in 2006 was a dud. I’ll admit it. I was trying to help empower educators with a sense that they could control their own professional development on a daily basis by networking via the Internet on forums, blogs, and what not. It ended up turning into a session that was more like “look at my nifty site, isn’t it great?!”Needless to say, the reviews were not great.

Which is why this year I’ve tried to focus my presentation on what teachers want. Specifically, little tools and tricks that they can take back and use in the classroom the very next week. Since Google Earth (GE) has become synonymous with the idea of a “digital globe” in the classroom, I thought other educators’ experiences with is. I haven’t talked with a teacher or administrator yet that hasn’t seen how powerful GE is. I hear about how great it was to find their houses, places of work, and their favorite restaurant. Some teachers even have their students mapping out and navigating their local community. However, Google’s digital globe is capable of so much more. So I decided to put together a presentation that would give teachers from every subject area a few simple ideas to get them started exploring how the application could be used in Science, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts. There are even applications for using Google Earth in other areas of education like Music, Visual Arts, and more. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look, and how to use all of Google Earth’s bells and whistles.

In fact, there are others with the same idea, as Norm Hoekstra will be presenting on Google Earth as well, and I know that GE will be talked about in other “Best of the Web” presentations throughout the conference. In case you can’t make any of them, or you’re interested in finding just more than where you live, try checking out Sundials around the world or find out how superdelegates will be voting using an interactive Google Earth map.

Image: ‘The Great Sushi Race3‘
www.flickr.com/photos/45581782@N00/103357578

There are no words that can properly describe the joy, giggles, and unbridled learning that takes place during a videoconference. You just have to experience it, and that’s exactly what I had the opportunity to do this morning. On my way to Advanced Googlology, I met Janine Lim in the hallway on the way to my session (fully decked out in her Cat in the Hat outfit) and couldn’t resist sitting in on her TWICE session. I’m glad I made the switch, because I got to see a videoconference between a fourth grade class from St. Joseph, MI and a Year 7 class in UK, Wales.

It was a special videoconference for the classroom in Wales as it was there very first experience with videoconferencing. The class from St. Joseph shared pictures from their lake-side town and included information about Michigan’s fruit-growing regions. They also performed several short poems for the kids in Wales. The classroom from Wales shared a very special song about rugby that they recently won a cultural competition with during an annual celebration.

The children then had time to ask questions of each other, share a few interesting facts about where they lived, and the Head Master in Wales even “crashed” the session so he could say hi to all of the kids in St. Joseph. Towards the end of the presentation questions were opened up to those of us sitting in on the session watching. Janine Lim asked the students in St. Joseph what they liked about videoconferencing (since they’ve done many of them). One of the students replied that they enjoyed being able to talk with other kids around the country and the world.

And that’s what videoconferencing is all about; showing learners the wider world. Talking about other places in textbooks and pointing out locations on a map will never garner the engagement or inspire like the live video and audio interaction that videoconferencing provides. Today those students will go home and be able to tell their parents “we learned from kids in the UK today” instead of just, we learned about kids in the UK today. A much more powerful learning experience was witnessed today, and I’m personally inspired to begin pursuing grants and/or money to startup videoconferencing in my district.

WebQuests have been around for a while and are recognized as effective, web-based activities that teachers should use.  Elizabeth Horner, Amy Boone, and Ryan Collins from Kenton City Schools (What state is high in the middle and round at both ends?) feel that they’re a perfect match for Moodle, the free, open-source content management system.

First we’ll talk about Moodle.  Moodle is a content management system that’s a free, open-source package that can be installed and run on OS X, Linux, and Windows.  Ryan recommends that for Windows users, they use the XAMPP package from Apache Friends.  This package installs the web server, PHP, and database applications that Moodle requires to run.  As far as installations go, it’s a pretty straightforward procedure.  Here’s a link to Kenton City Schools’ Moodle page.

Ryan shows us some of the behind the scenes Moodle administration controls.  There is a lot of flexibility in how an instructor can set up their course…what types of information is available, how much of it is available, and how information is arranged on the page.  Besides the look and feel of the course, instructors are able to add a ton of resources and activities.

Moodle makes it easy for less-than-technical-teachers to add content by providing an online editor.  It looks very much like MS Word or other word processors that most teachers already use.  Content can include web pages that teachers create or files which they would like to upload, like docs, pdf, ppt, etc.

To more easily meet Ohio’s research standards, teachers at Kenton City Schools use WebQuests.  They’re an organized activity that allows students to complete many types of online research and discovery.  Elizabeth shows us her Moodle course where she has created various activities including her WebQuest.  In order to set up the structure for the WebQuest, she is using various types of what Moodle calls Resources.  You may know that most WebQuest templates include the following components:

• Introduction
• Task
• Resources
• Process
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

Each of these components were set up as a separate resources…meaning that instead of all the components being on a single web page, they’re separated into individual links.  That’s a nice feature that allows students to access the component they need right away.

Moodle gives teachers a useful “place” to create and host their WebQuests.  It’s a breeze to create links, upload images, post information, etc.  The technical expertise required is minimal so teachers have the ability to fly on their own.  Thanks, Ohioans, for sharing your experiences with the rest of us!

Did you know that the most of us use universal design and don’t necessarily have a disability? We use these tools to help us adapt.
•    Captions on the TV (too noisy use captions, or if you want to watch  TV and not annoy anyone else use captions)
•    Curbs designed differently so that we can wheel our suitcases, computers or strollers
It is so important that we help those who cannot read due to a disability.
Put all books into electronic form  (turning pages by people is not always physically possible)

WiggleWorks- scholastic program that reads to children

He showed some neat graphics of Pet Scans- where is the bran active- where it burns glucose. This helps us first understand what learning is, and what kinds of learner there are.

Memory is very different because we can watch it through scans now. The brain scans show that when people are passively viewing words or listening to words different parts of the brains are working.

He feels that Books:
Are not good about teaching process
Don’t necessarily prepare students for their futures.

The Options:
We can either dumb the books down
Or Smarten the books up
Smartening up through Technology

By using the power and flexibility of modern technology

•    Represent the information so everyone knows the information is there
•    Make it as big as you want
•    Play the book so you can hear it
•    Or have the words highlighted and pronounced

NIMAS  National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
Textbooks companies are now required to create a Print and
HTML copy for students with print disabilities  (blind or other students with print disabilities in elementary and secondary schools)

Check out the CAST website- Bookbuilder  Create your own Digital books

Thursday’s Keynote Speaker is Peter Reynolds (he’s Canadian, Janine), author and entrepreneur…he used to be with Tom Snyder Productions, but is currently the CEO of Fablevision, a “media company dedicated to helping ALL learners discover their true potential. The keynote is entitled “Make a Mark and See Where It Takes You.” My comments are in italics.

One of his opening comments talked about how the Internet is a wonderful zigzag world…for creative and non-linear thinkers. It’s not a Point A to Point B sort of place. A challenge I’ll throw out is to take advantage of that, because it’s one of the strengths of our connected world. Students need choices…some control over what they’re learning. Where will they go?

Peter has challenged us to walk out of his session less of a grown-up adult and more of a grown-up kid.

In order to take care of the “lost” children, we have to think creatively. Technology is a creativity machine-in-a-box. Unfortunately, it’s not being creatively all the time, but for assessment and and drill and kill. When you go to the vendor area, find the booths where their presentation screens are blank. That’s a good place to start…to fill that screen takes quite a bit thinking. Run and get yourself a graphics tablet, like Wacom makes, it’s the “one idea” that you should take away from the conference.

It’s awesome to watch as Peter uses the tablet to draw a cartoon boy in Flash…he makes it seem effortless. He shows how to animate his drawing with three frames…very cool.

If there’s any opportunity you have to allow kids to create things…take it. Ask them what their “mission” is. “What’s the mission of your project?”

Peter reads his book, The Dot, while he shows us a Flash animation of the story…I can’t tell you the story, but it’s about making your mark, a Dot in this case, that took over the imagination of a young student who “couldn’t draw.”

Peter was inspired by his 7th grade math teacher who challenged him to use his gifts to teach other students a math concept. He did something powerful…he noticed him. There are countless students “out there” waiting to be noticed. We need the time, creativity, and resources in order to take care of them.

I don’t believe you can’t draw…shock your class by drawing a picture, make your mark, and put it in a gold swirly frame and hang it in your classroom. Tell your kids that your favorite book is “the blank book.” It’s a blank tablet. Kids will fill those pages with their story if you allow them to. My wish is for everyone to have a more creative life. Be active in making the world a better place.

Great session, very inspiring! So, everyone, are you a more of a grown-up adult or a grown-up child?

I am really looking forward to hearing David Rose speak on Universal Design for Learning at MACUL07. I spent the last couple of days on a bus to Chicago with my daughter’s Interior Design field trip and listened to parent’s concerns about their student’s educational experiences. I heard so many horror stories and even had my own kid’s experiences to share as teachers do not know their student’s needs or even when they do don’t address them so that the student has success. I heard about one student who worked hours on a project and when they were tardy a minute or so to class (as the student was putting the finishing touches to the project) in another classroom, the teacher threw the project in the student’s face and would not accept it. The student has a learning disability and her self esteem just went down the tubes when the teacher did this. I don’t understand why teachers do this. To me the whole point is to learn and it was not as though the student was days late on her assignment. What did this teach the student?

I knew English teachers who would not let students listen to books on tape as they wanted the students to read the book. I fought that battle and won as a HS Librarian when the teacher realized that the student could participate in the class discussion as he had listened to the book. After purchasing most of the books on tape and the book that went along with it, I saw book circulation rise when these same students started coming to check other books out once they realized reading was fun.

I look forward to hearing ways that teachers can accommodate all students and make sure that they succeed in the classroom. Sometimes it can be as simple as putting a screen reader on a computer or issuing a laptop or word processor to a student so they can keep up in the classroom. Other students have benefited when they receive a handheld device and are able to keep themselves organized with the calendar.

I think teachers need to start letting students utilize the tools that they own themselves such as their cell phone or iPod. They can listen to books or lectures and keep a calendar on either tool. The students can tape lectures or videotape them with their digital camera if they want to listen to the lecture again.

I will post more thoughts once I have gone to David’s session.