Bruce Summers :: Blog

Talking to a number of American teachers last evening as we debriefed about NECC, I was interested in knowing whether or not school boards in the United States have the same difficulty encouraging teachers to use technology in their classroom.  Bingo!  Despite weaker unions in certain cases where there may be more pressure to toe the line, many in the profession remain recalcetrant to embed technology in their teaching.  So this conversation with American colleauges centred around the question WHY?

There was a concensus that integrating technology can often be extremely time consuming.  We know that good prep of any kind can often call on several hours of work.  In the ccase of technology, the time reqirements may be much higher. For example, debutants would need to become more comfortable with the interface and how to use it, understand how the school board's network functions, learn the basics of software they wanted to use, plan out how to create an enriching, meaningful learning experience for kids that is solidly linked to the curriculum.  Then there is the actual preparation of the lesson and assessment.  This a,ll takes time and not all teachers are willing to invest the  time to integrate technology.  ArcView GiS is an excellent example.  It takes many hours to be comfortable with the program.  ESRI does provide great lessons, but it does not mean that they always fit in with  the curriculum. 

So the $100 question is how to convince colleagues, often with many years of experience under their belt, that the time investment is worth it?  No easy answer.  Should we tell them that they are selling kids short?  Should we encourage them to take baby steps?  Should we somehow get them to read some literature on the imperative of digital fluency in the 21st century?  Should we petitions teacher training institutions to add more meaningful content and courses that will prepare them to teach in the 21st century?  Should a tech ABQ become mandatory for all teachers already in the profession?  Should we offer more inservice?  Should we set up mentoring partnerships between colleagues?  Should we just go ahead and purchase more computers and place them in classes so that students can lead teachers to technology? (ironic eh?)   All of these are viable solutions to a certain degree.  None is a panacea.  The truth is that it is a complex issue that will probably only be resolved as the digital world itself continues to evolve.  Time is obviously not the only factor limiting tech integration in schools, but it is not our friend in 2008!

I did not know what to expect from Ian Jukes who presented three different sessions. I came away energized from two of those sessions.  In his first session, Literacy Isn't Enough: Digital Fluency in the Age of InfoWhelm, Ian presented compelling arguments for "digital natives" having a brain that is wired differently than 'digital immigrants".   As he predicted, my assumptions about education were severely challenged.  Mr. Jukes basically explained why our education system does not meet the needs of 21st Century students.  Sobering stuff.

Ian's second presentation was a follow-up of the first where he indicated seven things that need to be changed in education.  Instead of going into detail, I encourage teachers and administrators to visit Ian's blog.  (http://www.ianjukes.com)  The site includes an 83 paage handout on these two presentations.  All I can say is that his blog is one that I will follow quite closely.  You too can be a committed sardine!

I recently read in Monitor magazine (local Ottawa computer mag) that a 1.5 million dollar study of 1200 children by Harvard researchers revealed no link between violent video games like Grand Theft Auto and children acting out violently.  They found that parental education and awareness were paramount in importance.  I  would be interested in reading their book entitled Grand Theft Childhood:  The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games.  I am not sure that life is as cut and dry as the results proclaim.

On another note, but also in the light of children and media , I have always looked for studies that show that students can learn effectively while listening to music in the classroom.  Personally, I find it distracting, but most students insist that it is not so... love to see an in-depth study or two to prove me wrong.  Lots of anecdotal comments, but I would like to see quantifiable results where students were using headphones and listening to a variety of music.  I would loved to be proven wrong and am curious to hear what other educators believe on this topic.

 As the semester is winding down, I visited four classrooms where we piloted the use of memory sticks with students since the month of February.  We wanted to see if the thumb drives were widely used and whether they could replace paper planners in the long run.  As such, we ran a survey via Google Forms to gather student responses.  I also visited each of these classes to collect anecdotal information on the use of the digital planners.  Here are some of the hi-lites:

 

1.  By a score of more than 2:1, students chose to stay with Paperback school planners.  The most academic of the four classes voted 100% to remain with cellulose fiber.   Those who wanted to maintain the paper trail sited the lack of access to computers throughout the school day and that one lab period was just not enough.  One student aptly pointed out that PDA’s would do the trick if we really wanted to go digital!  Several students made reference to our in-house network system where they are able to view, upload and download schools files while at home or elsewhere.  As such, they did not need to carry files from one location to another.

 

2.  Almost 70% of students surveyed said that they used the memory stick for more than school, especially for music and image storage.  A few said that they would have liked flash drives with larger storing capacity, but there was no clear trend regarding the gigabyte of space on the drives.  Some found 1 GB more than enough, others wanted 4 GB drives.

 

3.  The Mozilla Sunbird Calendar on the portable drive was only used by one student in the whole study group.

 

4.  One group of students clearly had no preference for digital or paper planner.  It was clear that many of them did not use a recording device of any kind for homework.  (What is homework?)

 

5.  Certain students evoked the environmental issue of saving paper, but this did not seem to be a major factor with the pupils either.  

 

Conclusion?  We may be somewhat premature wanting to go paperless for a school planner.

 

The question of privacy has been raised by University of Ottawa law students who have asked the Privacy Commissioner to investigate Facebook.  The students allege that Facebook has numerous violations under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.  The violations include failing to destroy the personal information of users who shutdown their Facebook accounts, failing to safeguard personal information from unauthorized access and limiting the collection of personal information necessary for its stated purposes. (Ottawa Citizen) 

The team of law students, many dedicated Facebook users, analyzed the company's policies and practices. "We're concerned that Facebook is deceiving its users," said complainant Lisa Feinberg.  "Facebook purports to provide users with a high level of control over their data," added law student Harley Finkelstein.  "But our investigation found that this is not entirely true.

It will be interesting to see how this will play out. 

What are the implications for students in schools?  Facebook's information dissemination practices could have a huge impact on students, well beyond the realm of social networking.  It is incumbent on us to teach students about the dangers of publishing in a public domain.  We have all heard about businesses not hiring students who display their party antics on Facebook.  However, this only scratches the surface of the issue.

I believe that we do not do enough along these lines.  I also feel that all computer courses in the province of Ontario should include approximately five hours on ethics and the dangers of the digital world.  It should include the "permanence" of email and images, cyber-stalking, cyber-bullying, copyright law, computer protection, plagiarism, information protection, encryption, phishing, malware, spyware, etc.  I know that it sounds like a lot, and it is covered to a certain degree in some of Ontario's curriculum, (like BTT and BTA) but certainly not with the thoroughness that the subject deserves.

 

Sometimes teachers can feel intimidated when faced with new technology, especially at workshops with others who seem to know more.  This video clip should at least put smiles on their faces and hopefully allow them to feel more at ease.  Could be a great icebreaker.

Yesterday, I attended a very good presentation on SmartBoards by a gentleman from SmartTechnologies.  I was impressed with the number of participants and the high level of enthusiasm... it was great to see such hunger for technology.  The notebook software that comes with the hardware was as much "star of the show" as the board itself.  We also got to try Senteo interactive response units for a general quiz.  It was a lot of fun and I was astounded by the variety of questions that did not require recognition.  If only some of their products were less expensive...

What really impressed me was actually a new (for me) video capture plugin for Firefox.  So I do not need to go out and purchase ScreenVirtuoso or Camtasia or other such software.  As well, I do not even need to login.  A great little tool.

The presenter also had an interesting story of a conference where there were students and teachers... all the teachers on one side of the room, the kids on the other.  He asked who had viewed videos on YouTube... almost all the hands in the room go up.  He then asked who had uploaded a video to YouTube... once again all the hands went up... but only on one side of the room... not hard to guess which side.

The English Catholic School Board in Ottawa put on a very good conference yesterday, called SummIT VI.  It was good to see the number of teachers willing to give up their sunny Saturday to learn more about technology and how it can be used in the classroom. 

I came away with a number of interesting things... wikis... an introduction to WetPaint.  The interface is really easy to use and threads super easy to create.  I also downloaded Picasa this weekend.  I always thought that it was not free to post albums on the web... I should have known better being from Google. 

I had a great interchange with colleagues about Google Apps/Docs and using them with students.  I look forward to a pilot project that we will try in the coming weeks with Business teachers.

I also attended a session on media sharing.  The session was interesting, but no real connections were made to curriculum.  I did hear about a piece of software that I will be interested in trying for 30 days.  It is called Screen Virtuoso.  One of the hassles with Zamzar.com is the wait time and the twenty-four hour limit to retrieve. 

All said, it was a good day and the OCCSB put on a very good, well organized summIT. 

I had already heard of the Google Lit Trips website and it is quite impressive.  All Grade levels are covered and there are a large number of kmz and kml files that open in Google Earth. 

A friend of mine recently pointed me to kml files for The da Vinci Code and this lead me to a similar site for Angels and Demons.  I would have enjoyed A&D more as the reader traipsed around Rome.  There is no shortage of possibilities with this application.  I also found kml files for the six wives of Henry VIII.

One of the best I found however was a mashup using country information from the CIA World Factbook portrayed visually in Google Earth.  I wish I had this tool a few years ago when teaching World Issues. 

I am sure that in the coming years we will see more and more literary works and historical events displayed in GE.  However, the real key in education may not be the visualization of work by others, but the employing of students to make their own KML files of their trips, places they have studied and books they have read.  Students will obviously retain much more when they do it for themselves. 

As for trips, digital cameras with GPS antenna have been on the market for a couple of years.  A great tool to use with GE.  I wonder what is next?

For several months, I had been following the battle for supremacy between the Blu-ray Disc consortium and their counterparts backing HD DVD.  Why the interest?  In my last school, we still had a beta video player with many beta tapes that had been made many years ago.  It finally went in the garbage, but the machine stayed in the Social Science department for eons, echoing the need for two formats in the school until VHS won out.

I work for a school board that is phasing out the use of Macintosh computers, thus championing one platform.  No one disputes the quality or usefulness of Macs, but it came down to dollars and cents.  I used Macs for several years and actually learned to use a PC starting with Virtual PC.  Eventually, I could not get the software that I wanted on the Macintosh and was forced to make the switch.

 And now Blu-ray and HD DVD... I am just glad that Toshiba pulled out, paving the way for Blu-ray to move ahead.  It would have been unfortunate to see a protracted battle that could have been more costly and confusing for all concerned.