21st Century as I See It

21st Century Skills and Cheese Steaks

As I write this, I am in Philadelphia at the NCTE National Convention.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is the National Council of Teachers of English and is the largest professional organization for English teachers in the country.  Relax, this is not a sales pitch; I'm simply setting a context for my blog.  This is my fourth time coming to this conference, and in my previous trips I have not thought much about technology or the 21st century.  I've always enjoyed coming for the free books, lesson plans, strategies, ideas, networking, etc.  It wasn't until I came here this year, while taking this course, that I got to thinking about how this can relate to 21st century skills and technologies.  I walked around the exhibit hall yesterday and today for a few hours just checking out what kinds of things were being offered (when I usually would just be grabbing free books and running), and I saw some cool things.  Several textbook publishing companies are here pushing their material and products.  I got to talking with some of their representatives about services they offer.  Now, I knew most of this, but it is still relevant.  No longer do we have to buy textbooks (hard copies), but we can purchase books on disk or rights to view copies on their web site.  That is kind of interesting.  Not only is it going green by saving paper, but students are able to get more familiar with computers by finding and reading everything online or on a disk.

There are also a number of companies here that offer technology for teachers and classrooms.  They are selling everything from huge LCD projectors to keyboards that store what you type, which is neat because they are mobile and can be hooked up to a computer to download the text later.  I signed up for a chance to win one, which means someone else will get it.  

There are over 600 presenters here from Thursday through Sunday, with many of them speaking about technology or relating technology to specific classroom material.  I'm going to try to get to see some of them.  There are endless ways to apply what we get here in the classroom.  I've met a number of authors of Young Adult literature books here, who signed books for me and asked me to have my students email or blog to them about their book, and they would respond with comments.  That is great 21st century learning in my opinion, and I think my students will love it.  To get a chance to really connect with an author and have a conversation with them about what they have written can make a world of difference to their meaning making and comprehension of a text.

I could go on for hours, but I'll leave it at that.  I am one of the 600 presenting.  Unfortunately, mine is not on technology but on using Young Adult World literature to allow students to find commonalites between themselves and other teens from around the world.  I have to speak tomorrow, so I must go get my ramblings together.  If you are ever given the opportunity to attend the NCTE National Convention, it is worth every cent.

I would be remiss if I ended without sharing with you my Cheese Steak story.  I found a little place that claimed to have one of the best cheese steaks in Philly, so I ordered one and brought it back to my hotel room.  When I say it was a beast and was the largest sandwhich I have ever seen, I am not using hyperbole.  If there were a god of cheese steaks, I would imagine this was his sandwhich.  Anyway, it took everything I had to eat the whole thing.  When I finished I fell into a deep, coma-like sleep for about four hours.  I feel like I should have gotten paid; it was some of the hardest work I have ever done.  Sorry, I just wanted to share.  No trip to Philadelphia is complete without a cheese steak and an epic cheese steak story. 

e(lectronic;ducational;ngaging)Portfolios

The idea of using ePortfolios has interested me more than anything else I have read about this semester.  After reading the texts and viewing some examples, I truly believe ePortfolios can benefit students, specifically my English students.  I spoke with my principal about the possibility of using these to collect student work in my English I classes.  Since we are already required to keep a paper portfolio on students to demonstrate understanding and mastery of specific goals, I think I can replace these, and the students can get more out of it.

Greenberg's article provides an interesting look at electronic portfolios.  He suggests that they are an excellent way for students to revisit prior work and reflect on it in the process of improving and growing.  They also promote peer-to-peer interaction, as they can read, view, and comment on one another's work.  Teachers can involve themselves in this process as well, leading to a more collaborative classroom.  Students are in charge of their own work and demonstrating what they know and have learned.  By taking ownership of their education, students can be more willing to produce quality artifacts and engage themselves in classroom (and out of classroom) learning.  Building and working with ePortfolios can also help students develop the 21st century skills needed to thrive in the global business world they will inhabit in a few short years. 

I understand that these same 21st century skills can be a caveat to ePortfolios, but as it is our responsibility to teach students to work with and effectively use these tools, ePortfolios may be a great place to start.  Students perform better for an audience and take more pride in their work.  That is essentially what ePortfolios are all about, performing for an audience.  But the audience can be broad.  As our readings pointed out, students can use these portfolios to demonstrate understanding of standards and learning objectives, to demonstrate potential in job interviews, and to demonstrate learning for post secondary institutions. 

As I've mentioned, I do plan to give ePortfolios a trial run in my classes and see if the effect will be as I expect.  That will give me the opportunity to reflect on my own teaching and adjust (or get rid of) as necessary.

The U.S. is Divided Digitally

As I've spent some time thinking about the idea of a Digital Divide, I've come to see how much of an issue it really is in the U.S.  It is true that we continue to place more computers in classrooms and schools, but I'm unsure as to whether or not we are really moving towards solving the problem.  I was amazed to find out that the U.S. falls sixth in the list of countries most "connected."  And I fear that we will only fall farther behind as more time passes.  Is is possible to help students and young people to acquire the skills to succeed with technology and in a global world faster than other countries are pushing forward?  I'm not so sure that it is possible.  If this country is going to continue to compete in the global market and countinue to be a power in business and industry, we need our students to pick up the skills necessary.  This is going to require, I think, teachers, administrators, school officials, and legislators to change their way of thinking about education.  I realize that money is tight in this economic down time, but we must find ways to provide the tools required to be completely literate in all new literacies. 

There is but so much teachers can do towards this effort.  I feel like if we can find ways to allow all students the opportunity to use and work with these technologies outside of school, we can begin to move in the direction we would like to see.  But the divide may be widening. 

I hope this is not seen as a knock on our education system, but it is what was on my mind.  I'd love to hear what others think about how we can start to close the digital divide and prepare students for the world that will be theirs.

STREAMing Education

What is streaming video?  Are teachers using it?  Is it educational?  Are 21st century skills being developed?  Would MY students benefit?  These are all questions I asked myself as I read about and viewed streaming videos.

The answer I came up with is that YES, streaming video can have a positive effect on students' educations.  There are more sites out there, sharing these valuable teaching tools, than I knew existed.  Science students can go to NASA, The Archaeology Channel, PBS Nature, and countless others to gain access to concepts they would otherwise only hear or read about in traditional classrooms.  They can take digital trips to anywhere on Earth and study anything  they want to with their own eyes and ears.  This is a great way to supplement classroom learning.  Classroom walls, distance, and other barriers are broken down with streaming video.  Access is immediate, relevant, and exciting to students.  I'm excited just writing about it.

Students can even create and stream their own videos, demonstrating 21st century skills and allowing them to become teachers of class material.  A teacher's use of streaming video can enhance student engagement and meaning making, expand communication both in and out of the classroom, and help students to learn 21st century skills and work with technology.

While there are a few drawbacks to using streaming video in education, I believe the pros completely outweigh them.  All students can benefit, and all classes can be enhanced.  I hope the use of this supplemental teaching tool catches on.

An Emerging Technology That Intrigued Me

This week, I researched an emerging technology that I found really interesting: HTC Touch Pro-Phone and Project K-Nect.  This project was developed for use in Math classes with at-risk students, but I truly feel it would work well in any class and with anyone.  Basically, each student receives an HTC Touch Pro-Phone and a monthly data package.  If I were a student, that would be enough to get me willing to give it a shot.  

Each student will check out a phone at the beginning of the semester and keep it for the entire semester.  Students can IM one another during class for help with questions and problems related to class material.  This initiative also allows students to collaborate and receive tutoring after the school day has ended.  The phones will elleviate the need for students to have a computer and internet access at home, which is awesome because many students do not have either  available to them outside of school.  

Teachers can send students homework questions and study materials at any time anywhere.  There are question sets students can download to complete and send to the teacher.  Group work can be videoed and sent to other classmates as a video message.  Anything completed in the class can be shared digitally.  The upside seems endless.

I'm excited to see this technology in action.  My LEA has purchased about 1,500 of these for use in Math classes, so I'll have the opportunity to sit in on a few classes and see how they are being used.  My understanding is they are beginning with the Math classes and then moving to other content areas. 

A Flat and Not-So-Flat World

While reading Friedman's book, "The World is Flat," I found myself thinking about the U.S. education system.  Is education in the United States flat?  That's the question I've spent time pondering.  And I think I have found the answer: both yes and no.  Our education system is most definitely more flat than it has been in the past.  As more technology is integrated, it continues to flatten out gradually.  However, in the grand scheme of things, anyone working in the education system in this country can tell you it is not flat.  The global business world may have become flat, but our schools remain relatively round.  The good news is that we have technologies available to us, but the bad news is that I don't believe they are being implemented as they should.  Until we can total buy-in from teachers and administrators, these new technologies will never benefit us and our students as strongly as they are capable of.  Do I believe these technologies will by themselves flatten school systems and allow us to become completely globalized educationally?  No.  But they can definitely help us move in a new and forward direction.  Teachers can use tools such as blogs, pod- and vodcasts, wikis, videos, and online forums to allow students to begin communicating in new and global ways.  The education can move out of the classroom across the nation and world.  This is a good start and ties in with Friedman's ideas of globilization.  It also teaches students many of the 21st century skill they need to become literate in many new ways.  

All this being said, many teachers, myself included, are new to these new tools and technologies and are still learning both how to work with them and their capabilities.  We require training and support from those above us in the educational food chain in order to even begin properly utilizing these things.  While I do admit we have worked out way to being more flat than the education system has been in the past, we have a long way to go to achieve what I would like to see and what Friedman defines as flat.  As he suggests, business has moved worldwide and become globalized with its own new technologies and communication tools.  Education should be somewhat of a mirror of business and help students to learn the skills they need to succeed and compete in the business world they will soon be a part of. 

Educational Gaming

This is an interesting topic for me.  I have to admit up front that I do not know much about using games in the classroom to promote learning.  I will say, however, that as I have reflected on this issue, games can have an positive impact on students and many skills they need to learn.  

I don't feel that a game necessarily has to teach students to learn the table of elements or to solve an algebra equation for it to be considered educational.  There are many skills that we strive to teach our students before they go out into the world that will be their futures.  Games can teach hand-eye coordination and problem solving skills.  Games can also help students to develop communication skills and how to think abstractly.  These are important skills for students to master in order to be fully functional members of the 21st century.  As classmates pointed out, even older games such as Oregon Trail, Tetris, and Monopoly can be educational.  Oregon Trail helps students to understand life as a pioneer moving across the country by allowing them to become one of these characters.  Tetris helps students to develop spacial awareness.  Monopoly can be a good way to learn to interact with money and to make intelligent purchases.  These are games we played as kids and might not have given any thought to, but they were helping us develop the skills we needed to grow as learners and to become the adults we are today.  Newer games, such as role-playing games, I would argue, can be looked at as educational as well.  Kids are learning to solve problems, interact with other online players, and to use technology.  These are skills needed for 21st century success, and while we may not bring some of these games into our classrooms, kids are picking these skills up at home, which is a good thing.  If learning is taking place after the bell rings, students will be in a better place to succeed in the classroom.

This is one of those topics that is a bit controversial, and I understand the reasoning for both sides of the argument.  But if we are looking for ways to better educate students and to promote essential 21st century skills, we need to consider all options available to us in order to help us do our jobs more effectively. 

A Hybrid Course For My Students: The Best of Both Worlds

As I move further in my exploration of technology and 21st century learning, I continue to find myself evolving into a new person, a new learner, and a new teacher.  What is it about technology that can open up our eyes to endless possibilities?

This school year is still young, but I have already incorporated more technology into my class this year than I have my other years of teaching combined.  I thought I would use this blog to talk about some of the things I've tried and a few successes my students and I have found along the way.

I constructed a site on Ning this summer for my classes to use this semester; trust me, that was a giant leap.  The first week of school we dove in head first.  I post forums every week, and they respond and reply to one another, which was cool.  When the time came to take our first test, I talked to my students about trying something new.  I wanted to post all the questions as forums and allow them the freedom of a certain window of time to log-in, write their responses, and reply to several classmates' posts.  They thought it sounded interesting, so we tried it.  We debriefed in two ways.  They had to reflect on the test experience online, as a forum post, and we also had a round-table discussion in class.  I was amazed at the responses I received.  Not only did they say they liked it, but they went into detail about why they liked it and what made the online environment so much better than an in-class test.  Let me digress for a second.  Please don't get me wrong; I'm not sharing this to make myself sound like an outstanding teacher or even one who had this all planned out.  I fight to keep my head above water many days.  This was really dumb luck for me, and I think it's nice to hear about things going well in classrooms from time to time.  And we, at my school, do not have much opportunity to interact with technology, so we all felt a sense of accomplishment.  Returning to where I was, the point is it went well, and the students showed excitement.  We have stuck with it.  I continue to add assignments, now with podcasts as the directions.  Students are even getting on the site on their own and starting class discussions.  It's truly a lot of fun to watch.  Just yesterday, they began their second test on the site.  This time I added several other technology elements to assess 21st century skills and to hopefully make it more interactive.  But I won't belabor the topic any more.

I began thinking about this as I was reading the texts for this week.  My idea was to set up a kind of hybrid class where students can get some of the best of both worlds.  Burke (2005) makes a couple of interesting points that I believe tie in my my thought process: 1) when planning an online course, focus on who you can most effectively and efficiently serve; and 2) the degree of student interactivity is important to consider.  I see my students in class daily, and I know them, so I feel I can set up an environment and activities that tailor directly to them.  Also, because my main job is to be their teacher in the classroom, we can not be considered a true online course, which is fine.  I, however, have at least thus far been able to provide them with enough interactivity online that they get a fair sense of the online element I have tried to create for my course.

I'm going to be interested to see where we can take it and what we can achieve throughout the remainder of the semester.

Please, share your thoughts and opinions. 

The 21st Century and Blogging

The deeper I get into this course, and my program in general, I find myself realizing how much technology there is out there that I was ignorant to.  I feel like I am playing catch up, which is not necessarily a bad thing because these are the 21st century skills that I need to be passing on to my students.  If I were not in school, working on an advanced degree, I would be in a position that I believe many teachers find themselves in today--not knowledgeable enough with technology to teach their students the things they need to know to be successful in this new global world and with today's new literacies.  What do we do in order to teach our teachers so that they can then teach their students?  I think it's a real problem, one that I see at work every day.  

Perhaps working with blogs can be a good way to begin to bridge some of the technology gap in both students and teachers today.  Using blogs in schools can have a more lasting effect than simply teaching students to work with technology and communicate, although that is extremely important and is at the heart of all 21st century skills.  The reading for this week pointed out that weblogs have myriad of uses in society, and judging by how quickly they have gained popularity, we might assume that they will continue to grow exponentially in the future.  As the reading stated, those students who go to college may use blogging to share information and collaborate with peers.  In the business world, blogging has picked up a head of steam and is being used by companies to discuss, store, and organize content.  Blogging has even become an alternative form of journalism to the more common newspaper and television news mediums.  Blogs are everywhere around us.  Learning to be well versed in how to communicate through and with them, as well as to evaluate biases and as the texts termed warbloggers, will help them in the future as they are likely to be inundated with blog-texts in many aspects of their lives.  

Through the readings for this week, I learned more about blogs and the history behind them than I have ever known or even thought of.  It is interesting that what may be considered the first blog is connected with the start of the internet and the first online site.  I was also interested to see how many blog sites are out there in cyberspace today.  The estimates were a little crazy.  Depending on the definition, it looks like the number could be between 2.1 million and just over 30 million.  To me, there is a small discrepancy there, but with what can be termed a blog being as broad as it is, I guess I'm not surprised.  The three things that were the most intriguing to me were the ideas of self-publication, blogs as alternative journalism, and the IP ownership question.  So few people are published in the old fashioned sense of the word that blogging and online self-publication gives a feeling of credibility to a person.  That is one reason I love the idea of using blogs with students, so they can feel empowered with their writing and their thoughts.  As more and more blogs have begun to discuss current societal issues, mass media has changed.  People are beginning to read their news and get their ideas from blogs, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on where the information is coming from.  This is another good reason to use blogs in classrooms and to tie them in with teaching about evaluating sites, angles, and biases.  We want the people of this country to have their own opinions, but we want them to form them from the right kind of information.  And finally, the IP ownership question is interesting.  Who gets credit as the "author?"  The concept of author almost goes away when there are multiple people sharing multiple ideas on any given topic.  I'll be honest and say I don't have the answer to this one.  I know that at the root of people and their writing, they are bound to still have a feeling of ownership over their words and thoughts.  So this concept gets a little tricky in the realm of the blog.  I'd love to hear what others think about this.  Maybe everything I just wrote is not mine anymore once someone else adds a comment or two.  Does that make it a waste of my time to have to share it with others?  Wow, that's getting too philosophical for me.

I hope you found something useful in my ramblings, and please let me know what you think. 

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