Using YouTube for Education- Online Resources

Mar 22, 2011 by Whitney Hoffman

Here’s a great video of Salman Khan from this year’s TED conference, on how Khan Academy started, and how the YouTube lessons have taken off to help students everywhere.

Learning to Communicate

Mar 5, 2011 by Whitney Hoffman

An important part of personalizing learning is helping students learn to communicate what they know to you, the teacher, demonstrating their true depth of understanding beyond filling in a bubble sheet or taking a multiple choice (guess) assessment, where all they have to do is recognize the right answer rather than truly understand WHY it’s correct.

The Infographic below is a great example of how combining information and pictures conveys more information and meaning than the words alone would have in a list or paragraph. It’s also why it’s going to become more important than ever to make sure kids understand aspects of good design, “user interface” and other aspects of their projects. Good design and layout of information enhances understanding; bad presentation clouds and confuses meaning. Rather than cutting things like art and music from schools, we need to find ways to teach these subjects, not only for the joy of creation and imagination, but because these tools are becoming increasingly important to use alongside the deluge of information we have coming at us, to frame, inform and advocate ideas. And for those of us who are constantly concerned about students taking short cuts or plagiarism, there are very few short cuts available in an infographics project.

Here’s a basic “lesson plan” you could use for an infographic:

1. Select a subject where there’s a lot of information, or a hypothesis, like in science.
2. Collect information, reference materials, and collect links and make an interactive bibliography if possible.
3. Think how to make all of these facts and evidence tell a story. How can you show people how big a problem is? Can you find something to compare it to? Past numbers? Number of times the book would wrap around the world? How can you make this data create a picture in someone’s mind?
4. Illustrate your data. Find or draw pictures to make your point. You can use screen shots, photos from flickr, take your own pictures, whatever.
5. Present your infographic. It can be a poster, a glogster, a keynote/powerpoint presentation, a movie- you name it.

Let us know if you put this to work in your classroom, and how it works out!

Via: Voxy Blog

Cell Phones in Education

Mar 1, 2011 by Whitney Hoffman

Here a a few facts from The Pew Research Center about teens and cell phones:

• One in three teens send over 100 text messages a day- that’s 3,000 a month!
• 72% of all teens (that’s also 88% of teen cell phone users) text message.
• 75% of all teens ages 12 – 17 have their own cell phone, up from 45% in 2004.
• While some teens are avid texters, a full 22% are not, sending only between 1 – 10 text messages a day.

You can take a look at one of their recent slide presentation on Teens and Cell phones below:

Given the largely ubiquitous nature of the cell phone,  it’s natural that educators would start thinking about them as a potential learning tool.  And even for teens without cell phones, many have adopted devices like iPod touches, which have texting capability, as well as access to apps, which provide yet another window to try to leverage existing technology to squeeze in a little more learning around the edges.
Liz Kolb has written a book called From Toy to Tool: Cellphones in Learning for ISTE. She is an instructor at the University of Michigan, and has a PhD in Learning technologies, and her website, From Toy to Tool, has fantastic resources about the potential of using cell phones for true learning.

One of the interesting things I learned about from Liz’s site was a new web based service called Studyboost.com, where students can essentially create study questions, share questions with classmates, teachers and more, and have questions texted to them at different intervals, to give them additional practice or prompts. I’m going to give this one a go with my own kids, to see if this additional prompt helps them use their long bus ride a little more effectively. While I see this as basically a “flash card meets texting” app, for vocabulary and math facts, it may be really useful, but time will tell.

Overall, I’m intrigued by the creative ways folks are finding to make use of technology already in the hands of many students. Recently, I was at a presentation and SMART has a beta trial of software that would let you use almost any internet-capable device- cell phone, ipod, etc. as an audience response “clicker” device in the classroom, allowing for on the fly assessments and interactive quizzes, using devices already in the hands of most students. This could be a real benefit for school districts all over, feeling the financial pressures growing, and not sure where to get the most for every dollar spent on tech. This would help leverage the devices a majority of students already have in their pockets for something more than entertainment.

The days of every handheld device being a mere toy or distraction are ending, and instead, we’re finding ways of using the available tech in innovative ways to enhance student learning, which is exciting.

Have you thought about where the cell phone fits into education? What do you think are the pros and cons? What would you like to try?

A Simple Video to Explain Project Based Learning

Feb 10, 2011 by Whitney Hoffman

A great part of differentiated instruction is project based learning- things that help kids integrate knowledge and think creatively. The folks at Common Craft have a great way of making complex subjects easier to understand, and this video on project based learning is a great example:

Educon- Educators on a Mission

Feb 3, 2011 by Whitney Hoffman

Every year since it started, I have attended Educon.  Educon, the only education conference held in an actual school, grew out of EduBloggerCon as a way to continue the conversations started there, and to make sure the conversations between educators about teaching and education had another place to be voiced and heard.  It’s a place where teachers, administrators,  parents and others in the education world can get together and have conversations about how to change and evolve education, how to improve the craft of teaching, and brainstorm solutions for some of the stickier problems everyone in these worlds face.

The Science Leadership Academy (SLA),  a Philadelphia special admission public school, is an example of what every school can be- student centered, inquiry-driven, and an amazing environment where learning and community come together.  On the Friday the conference was supposed to start, Philadelphia schools were closed due to snow.  Yet the students, who are an integral part of  running and planning the conference, took it upon themselves to start sending messages via Facebook and Twitter, and over a hundred students still came to school on a snow day, to make sure the visitors and guests would be able to see THEIR school in action, even under somewhat unusual circumstances.  You know a school is a special place for kids if they come there even on a snow day, where the hurdles of even getting to school are more challenging than normal.

But I’m not surprised by this.  Because at the first Educon, I was speaking to one of the teachers, Mr. Rochester, who spoke about the kids regularly coming to school early, and that the faculty would have to chase them out of school at 6pm when the building was being locked for the evening.  He said they couldn’t figure out why the kids wouldn’t leave.  I knew why from the moment I got there- the people who cared about the students, the students  who cared about their learning, and the electricity in the air of “How can we change the world today?” was palpable.  Of course kids would do this- school is the most exciting place to be- better than video games, better than just about anything.  School has become their place, their home, their club.  And while the fact every student has a laptop is nice, it’s the fact that this enhances their communication and collaboration that really makes a difference.  The tech is secondary to the people- the teachers and students who have a sense of school and community that transcends anything I had ever seen before.

SLA is a special school that totally changed my perspective on what school can be, and I’d give my right arm to get to be there as a student.  But it also sets a shining example of what schools can be, and makes me want to do whatever is necessary to help my school district emulate some of what SLA has.  I want to help inspire our teachers to want more, to care more, and to realize it’s not all about the external things, but it’s as much about who you are as a teacher and whether or not you are personally invested in your students and their success.

The teachers at SLA are excellent not only because of what they know, but moreover, because they care so much about their students.  They care about their own learning.  The faculty meets and works as a team, and they don;t leave a meeting until their is consensus.  Not everyone wins, but there’s a sense of setting a common agenda that everyone can live with and try, and knowing that if Plan A doesn’t work, they’ll go to Plan B just as willingly, without a sense of defeat, but just a sense of there may be a new and better way to tweek what’s happening.

It all starts with Inquiry.

I look at Differentiated Instruction as having many parts- Inquiry, project-based learning, personalized learning for students, and more- all of it together creating a learning atmosphere where students are valued and known as individuals, and are challenged to know themselves and push themselves, as much as be guided and mentored by the teachers.  SLA embodies this every day, so I know it’s not a myth, a silver unicorn, but it can be done.  Moreover, the change is not about tech (although it helps) or location- it’s largely one of attitude and a willingness to do things differently.  And that is free- all it takes is a belief that change is truly possible.

Places like SLA where the kids have a sense of place and ownership in their school don’t have to be rare gems- but it does take leadership, culture and support- a willingness to be different and do different.  And all of that starts inside each individual.  Places like SLA just set an example and let you know it’s not a utopian dream.