If you want to see the original infographic, click this link: http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
Created by Knewton and Column Five Media
Removing barriers to MEANINGFUL technology use!
The Flipped Classroom: An Infographic
Want to know what a “flipped classroom” is, where it came from, and why it matters? Check out this incredible infographic!
Professional Development: Preparing Attendees to Re-awaken the Inner Drive
Somehow they re-awaken in me to the possibilities and opportunities that present themselves in my professional life. They lend a rush of enthusiasm as I unplug from the day-to-day realities of my job and look more broadly at the scope of my profession and the challenges that I face in it.
I'm talking about the meaningful professional learning opportunities and conferences I am able to attend from time to time as a part of my professional responsibility and growth. Each time I am able to truly engage in a meaningful conference or pd event, I walk away with a flood of valuable and "innovative" ideas that offer options and solutions that were somehow beyond the realm of imagination or possibility for me/my organization before the event. To me, and to the people that I "represent" each time I attend those events, that matters. It provides new ideas and options, new perspectives and valuable considerations, and a re-invigorated colleague that can offer new energy to the organization.
What strikes me in this reflection, though, is the unfortunate reality that most of my colleagues don't have the same experience or perception of conferences. I struggle to suggest that this is entirely their fault. Good professional development sessions and conferences (or should I say good professional learning experiences) -- I mean the really valuable meaningful kind that you wish were longer so you could absorb just a little bit more -- are rare. Sometimes this is the fault of the organizers, and they should take the blame squarely on the chin for wasting an incredible opportunity to impact meaningful change in education. More often, though, this is the result of the inability of those attending the session/conference to prepare in a meaningful way for the experience. Whether it is a classroom teacher who is busily pulling together sub plans at the last minute and making phone calls to parents while on the way to the conference, or administrators who are able to focus only part of their attention on the presenters/sessions because their attention is being "beckoned" back to the district/building, the attendee isn't able to focus fully on what they hope to make of and take from the conference experience before, during, and after the event. This is even more true when we consider in-district professional development that happens before, during, or after a day with students.
We know that meaningful learning happens when learners are personally "available" and open to the concept of having a meaninful experience. That doesn't happen when our professional educators are struggling to even maintain focus on the experience they are having -- when they can't pull away from the details that draw us into the "rut" of our daily professional lives. That doesn't happen when they can't converse with their team, administrator, or PLC prior to attending. That doesn't happen when they cannot take a moment to reflect on the experience and share their take-aways from the experience.
It's a lesson those who structure, develop, and authorize the attendance of professional learning need to remember and consider when we put precious financial resources into developing and/or sending our staff to these events. As much as professional development and conference attendance can cost, considering the greater cost of not allowing these people to ready themselves to have a great, meaningful experience is just as, or even more, costly! Those responsible for allowing staff members to attend these events must find ways to allow and encourage them to be more available to make every professional learning opportunity a transformative and invigorating one. Those buiding and offering those opportunities for professional growth need to be cognizant of this essential element of the learning process.
Downloading and Using Video in the Classroom
There is little doubt that video engages kids. The evidence of that reality stares me in the face each time I watch my three-year-old daughter become slack-jaw while watching her favorite television show. As an educator, I know that we need to harness that kind of power in our efforts to engage students.
However, video is a difficult world to deal with when it comes to the Internet. The quality and size of video files causes it to suck up a lot of network resources (meaning that other people cannot access what they may need to teach or learn). If you have ever suffered through a “choppy” video that plays faster than it streams to the computer, you’ve dealt with this frustration. It becomes especially difficult to justify that constraint on resources when you walk into the neighboring room of people crowded around a computer, all laughing uncontrollably at the latest viral video.
Of course, there is also the issue of the appropriateness of content. You understand that if you have ever shown a YouTube video (that you’ve previewed and decided is appropriate) to a class and then had a host of “suggested” videos appear on the sidebar with less than appropriate subject matter. In my case it was a video on “mob mentality” that returned pictures of scantily clad people dancing and a video on a dog breeding program (you can imagine what the images for that one looked like). Needless to say, I lost my audience before the intended video even started.
With that said, there are ways to get the upper hand on Internet video to maximize its power and limit its distractions. Below are several ways that you can capture Internet videos in order to share them with your students.
*Disclaimer: The world of Internet video is peppered with lots of technical jargon and elements. Downloading Internet video is more of an “art” than a science at this point. Patience is critical! Also, having a few “methods” to fall back on is helpful.
Internet Overrides
YouTube and other sites are often filtered at school. However, there is little doubt that some educationally valuable content is available on these sites. For this reason, any staff member in my district can use an override code to access these filtered resources. This allows him/her to access any content that he/she may need while at school simply by using the override code whenever he/she encounters filtered material.
If you do not presently have access to these resources at school, perhaps its a conversation starter with your Director of Technology to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
Zamzar.com
Of course, without that option in place, it's nice to be able to "collect" or download Internet video content directly from the web BEFORE going to a filtered environment. If that option speaks to you, you can utilize Zamzar.com to download videos from several Internet video streaming sites.
- First you will need to locate the video you want to download.
- Then, copy the URL and open another browser window to http://www.zamzar.com .
- On the green box in the center of the page, click the second tab, which reads “Download Videos”
- Under “Step 1” paste the URL of the video into the text box
- Under “Step 2” choose one of the following formats:
- FLV – if you want to place the video directly into a SMART Notebook file
- WMV – if you want to play the video with Windows Media Player
- Under “Step 3” enter your school email address and then click “Convert”
- Zamzar will send a link to your email inbox. This is not an immediate process, but if you have not received the link within 24 hours, check your “Junk Email” folder.
- Click the link emailed to you, click “Download Now” on the web page, and save the file to your computer.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| -Reliable download of videos | -Slow process; may take hours to receive email from Zamzar |
| -Lots of file formats available | -Small video files only; 100 mb limit |
ClipNabber.com
Another reliable source that is a bit more streamlined is http://www.clipnabber.com .
- First you will need to locate the video you want to download.
- Then, copy the URL and open another browser window to http://www.clipnabber.com
- In the “URL” box in the middle of the page, paste the address of the video you want to download
- Click “Nab” just to the right of the URL box
- Wait a few seconds, and several buttons will appear below the “URL” box that will indicate the preferred file format and quality of the video for the video you want to download (FLV medium, FLV high, WMV low, etc.). Click on the preferred format and quality.
- Wait a few more seconds and a “Save” dialogue box will appear. Click “Save” and identify where you want the video to go.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| -Faster download process | -Video files formats limited to what is available; not all formats available |
| -Reliable download of videos | -May have to use another service to convert video file formats |
*Not all video players are made equal. If you’ve got a file that won’t play with a standard media player (like Windows Media Player), you may want to download and install another media player – VLC Media Player. You can download VLC at this site: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Alternative Video Sites
There are lots of great video sites out there to pull resources from. Here are just a few worthy of mentioning.
School Tube and Teacher Tube
While no comparison to the expansive library of YouTube, School Tube and Teacher Tube are vetted content sources that have systems in place to monitor the content hosted on the site. There is a wide array of educational resources available on both sites.
Find them at: http://www.schooltube.com and http://www.teachertube.com
YouTube Edu
About a year ago YouTube launched YouTube Edu (http://www.youtube.com/edu). Partnering with academics and universities the world over, there is an expansive list of lectures and resources available for free on the site. Hosted on YouTube, you’ll have to access the site using the Internet override you were given, but it has lots of great content that may just fit your classroom needs.
The most important element to remember is that video engages students in a wide variety of ways. Although showing video from YouTube isn't an option that is presently available for every teacher, it is definitely worth the extra effort to pre-plan, download in advance of the class period, and show the video to students using some of the techniques and tools mentioned here.
What should come first: the technology, or the need for it?
I have been kicking this question around in my head lately, but I'm not sure that there is a correct answer. Instead, what I'm really searching for is the logical response that I can buy into and support when I propose ideas or help to make decisions about technology purchases in my district. Understand that what I'm really looking for is a space to flesh out my own thinking in order to find a logical response to a question that requires an answer.
The question is simply this: Does the availability of technology in schools encourage the end users to put the technology to use (if you buy it, they will come), or is the purchase-upon-request model more likely to yield the greatest use of educationally focused tech?
Questions like this feel heavily philosophical, and they aren't often taken seriously by people who have the luxury of pondering the question and then flushing it from their minds. However, the moment my philosophical pondering of this question was faced with the reality of a financial purchasing decision that was influenced by the way I answered it, I found out that sometimes philosophy has palpable implications.
At the core of this question is really the issue of human motivation. Are educators, a collectively resourceful group by both nature and training, likely to utilize the technological tools if we provide access and adequate training (the latter of the two is the key, and often the most heavily overlooked element of any technology purchase)? Is access enough to motivate their curiosity or to spark their internal motivation to explore in the hopes of finding a more efficient or engaging way to teach? Can we "buy and train" our way to more engaging classroom instruction? The "buy it and they will come" model of purchasing educational technology is built upon a foundational belief that teachers will gravitate to and adopt the most effective and efficient educational tools if they are given access and exposure to them. It also leans heavily upon the belief that when hurdles, pitfalls, or perceived limitations are removed, people are more likely to explore, learn, and grow.
Alternatively, we can take the road more commonly traveled (well, I guess that depends where you teach). In this model, teachers make requests for some technological marvel that they believe can support learning in their classroom. The district accommodates and often leaves the teacher (or the small pod of teachers who requested the tech) to their own devices to put the technology to work. While the initial purchase may include some professional development dollars, these teachers are often left to fend for themselves, and to promote the "good word" to their colleagues if the grand experiment succeeds. This model subscribes to the belief that people are requesting due to an already present intrinsic motivation. Relevance is key here; the technology they request is somehow more relevant to their role as a classroom teacher, thus they are more likely to put the purchase to use immediately, appropriately, and for a longer duration of time. Of course, there are obvious procedural limitations placed upon staff members in this model. The "exploration" of the tech that exists is forced to take place outside of the school day (for most teachers), and those who are uninterested in participating in the exploration are far less likely to issue requests for technology.
By now, the downfalls to each should be fairly apparent.
In the open access model of tech purchasing, there is no guarantee of any return on investment. The purchases could become the next hot item at the school. It could also become another one of the dust collectors in the technology graveyard at your school. For this reason, visionary leadership and a sensitive pulse on the curriculum, teaching styles, and attitudes of the staff are essential qualities of the lead person making the purchasing decisions. Obviously, those aren't qualities that are easy standard in most people, especially many of the technologically savvy people that tend to head into the computer science field.
The other major issue with the model is the issue of justifying the funding. Many tech purchases are heavy financial decisions that need to be weighed (often by a panel of board members). Advocating for the purchase of expensive laptops or wireless infrastructure or the latest gadget is a tough sell when the proposal is littered with phrases like "we think," "we hope," and "ideally they will." This kind of blind faith in the sanity and vision of a district's technology leader takes time to develop between the board, the staff, the techies, the families, and the community. Without that kind of trusting relationship, this model of equipping our schools becomes a much tougher financial sell.
Even more apparent are the downfalls of the purchase-upon-request model. The statement, "You don't know what you don't know," has been made to me far too many times this year as I lead professional development sessions (I bristle at the statement; we live in a period where our surplus commodity is accessible information). This comment suggests to me that many educators feel victimized by the pace of change that accompanies the advancement of technology. In a time where cash flow is limited in schools, the logic of these teachers may go something like this: "Even if I'd like to try out that tool I heard about at the conference, the reality is that I don't know enough about it. With all that I'm expected to do to perform my job well, I don't have time to learn a whole lot about it, and I would hate to waste funds to buy something I'm really not sure about. I know I could use those funds to buy something for my classroom that I am sure about." The resulting action is inaction. They fail to make the request for new technology. In this model, there are no anecdotal stories and experiences from colleagues they trust to sell them on the value of an element of technology (and let's be honest...those anecdotal pieces are often the impetus for many of the technology purchases made in school districts; look to the interactive whiteboard craze for evidence of this).
Of course, this leads to the other major issue with this model: pockets of excellence and pockets of despair. Educators who are capable of identifying tech that will assist them or their students in the classroom are likely to be more dynamic teachers to begin with. This assertion stems from this group's general awareness of the technology that actually exists in the first place. That may be a result of their ability to research and sift through information, or their ability to network, connect with, and learn from others, but those educators with these skills are likely to be the ones advocating for themselves and their students regarding the request of technology. Any way we slice it, those submitting requests for technology are likely those who are motivated enough to put the technology to use. The other educators (those unwilling to submit requests for new technology) are not. This results in a greater disparity between the teachers who teach effectively with technology the teachers who avoid technology.
My underlying assumption here is that technology provides something to any learning environment that cannot be achieved without that technology. I understand all of the arguments that can be made suggesting that effective teaching and learning can happen without technology. I understand that meaningful education happens with or without technology. What I also understand, though, is that technology offers opportunities that are not present without the technology. Conversing with (and seeing) a group of students across the country during the regularly scheduled school day didn't regularly happen before Skype existed. Collaborating and collectively crafting presentations, articles, and projects without planning a face-to-face meeting time didn't happen before the days of wikis and learning management systems. For this reason, teachers that request and put technology to use in their classroom create opportunities for their students that other students lack as a result of lacking access to that same technology.
Perhaps the higher ground is to take a diversified approach to the technology purchasing strategy at any school. By maintaining a pulse on the wave of widely adopted/accepted technology, we can make reasonable predications about the technologies that have caught on and the technologies that are still kept at arms length by the general public. For instance, A crystal ball isn't necessary to see the trend in wireless technology. The expectation for most tech users is open access to the Internet. Outfitting our buildings and learning environments with the wireless infrastructure (complete with a guest network) is certainly a justifiable cost with most school boards. Providing a laptop/net book/tablet for each teacher is also one of those increasingly obvious purchases, primarily because the public has generally accepted these technologies as an element of workplace productivity. These are wise "infrastructural" investments because they open up possibilities for experimental adoption/trials of other less accepted technologies.
However, more controversial purchases, such as a 1:1 laptop initiative for each student, perhaps should be reserved, at least at first, to a per request purchase process. That kind of significant financial investment needs to see a legitimate return on investment. That means that teachers with the intrinsic motivation to use that technology regularly should be the ones to trial it first. First impressions matter, and when a school outfits its students with hundreds of iPads or net books, only to have many of them vastly under utilized, it becomes a tough pill for parents, taxpayers, and board members to swallow when the question of continued support of the program rears its head.
Non-negotiables exist in this conversation, though. Regardless of the model that any organization adopts, honesty, trust, and open communication must exist between those who purchase and support the technology, and those who put that technology to use. Tech departments that do not listen to and address the needs of classroom teachers and students invalidate the value of either purchasing model. When end users do not feel adequately supported, they are less likely to take risks in using new technologies. When end users don't feel trusted, they are less likely to form a working relationship with their tech department, thus decreasing the likelihood will engage in the meaningful communication that must exist between the two groups. Until both sides feel that they are working toward the same goals, meaningful experimentation cannot take place.
The last non-negotiable element is having a rock solid, consistently reliable technology infrastructure in place from the beginning. It is the foundation on which any technological advancements take place, so there is simply no room for inconsistent or unreliable performance. I equate this to the infrastructure of roads and bridges. Due to the reliability and consistency of this infrastructure, most Americans can focus on the type of vehicle that suits their personality or lifestyle, not on the type of vehicle that will allow them to travel through the terrain of their daily commute. End users should be able to depend on their tech infrastructure in the same way, allowing them to make decisions based upon goals or purpose, not based upon access or reliability.
I hope this rant has helped you think through the question I posed at the beginning. While a correct answer doesn't exist, a logical rationale in a district's tech purchasing model is an essential starting point.
Evidence of Moore's Law Right Under My Tree
If you don't know what Moore's Law is, it's time to figure it out. I'll save you the extra steps of going to Wikipedia yourself to learn about it...here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law
Understanding that Moore's Law relates to exponential growth of technology as time advances is one thing. Seeing your own children open Christmas gifts that truly display the effect of Moore's Law on our lives shifts it to a whole different level of importance for me.
I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Admittedly, these kids are both already playing with the iPad and both are getting more screen time than I did as a child at their age. They are not going to be technological misfits -- of that I am fairly certain! However, this Christmas I saw them open gifts that seem to be absolute game changers in the way of personal learning. And then to think about the gifts they received last year and to compare them completely demonstrated for me the true impact of exponential change in our lifetime.
Last year my older daughter received a Leap Frog device that had a keyboard and a mouse and software cartridges that plugged in. When it worked properly she learned some basic skills, such as the hand/eye coordination needed to maneuver the mouse, along with participating in some basic shape and color learning activities. It was impressive to see her work and adapt to the technology, but the technology wasn't mind blowing or even surprising. It was what I would have expected it to be.
This year, my younger daughter (only one) got an age-appropriate stuffed toy from Leap Frog, and it is completely knocking my socks off with possibilities. This little pooch plugs in to the computer via USB cable and customizes itself to say her name, play some music of our choosing, and do some other basic customizations. However, it is tied to her name and an email account. Every month, with a reconnect of the USB cable, the dog will upload information to the Leap Frog website, and I (and the grandma that was responsible for the purchase) will be getting an email that tracks what she is doing and learning in her interactions with the plush canine friend. Just think of the possibility of that kind of personalized learning and tracking. Just imagine what next year's toy for two and three-year-old children may be able to do.
My older daughter, now three, received Kinectimals, an interactive game for the Xbox Kinect platform where she interacts with her tiger cub, Atro (don't ask me where that name came from...when your three any sound that comes out of your mouth seems to be a perfectly suitable name for a pet, doll, or digital tiger cub...although I question why her dolly is named panther and her tiger cub is the one named Atro, but again, the logic will fail me every time). What amazed me was that she adapted to the onscreen interactions so quickly and so easily that I felt a bit embarrassed that my own onscreen interaction is so jumpy and unnatural. Only a year before she struggled for some time with the concepts of mouse and keyboard. This year she naturally saw the connection between the movement of her hand (without any additional sensor) to the movement of the onscreen hands that allowed her to interact with a digital creature. I know that developmentally this makes sense (she is far more ready for this kind of interaction at this age), but think about the impact of that kind of exposure at such a young age. I recently watched (with an audience full of adults) a video from Microsoft that demonstrated their vision of how we would work and interact with technology in the future. I know I was moved but questioned the possibility of some of the technologies displayed in the video. However, the reality is that my daughter (and all the other little ones exposed to this kind of technology during their lives) will expect the technology to be seamless and ever-present. My three-year-old is already reaching for my laptop screen and the television screen from time to time and trying to swipe icons or change channels by pressing the screen. Her exposure is minimal, but it is developing an expectation of the way we interact with these devices. It seems that the paradigm paralysis that so many of the adults struggle with in adopting the new technologies (the paralysis that has kept some of the technology at bay due to lack of serious adoption by a large percentage of the population) is also shifting to a period of exponential change as young people not only accept but expect this technology to be a part of their working and educational worlds.
I have long argued that the failure of our educational system to adapt and change to a model that holds relevance to our customers (the students that attend our schools and the parents that expect the best from our schools) places us in a position where one innovation may entirely invalidate the need for a public educational system. For several nights now I've laid in bed and marveled at the concept that my children received gifts that may be one or two generations away from being the tools that make public education entirely irrelevant, primarily because these tools are entirely customizable to the individual and because they can be accessed at any time or any place. These are the things we know our public schools need to do to advance, but it is the paradigm paralysis of the adults that forces us closer and closer to the edge of extinction, while young, innocent children are introduced to the tools that will educate them in the future. It is almost eerie to consider!
Hopefully some key players in education also had a similar experience this holiday season and are starting to see the writing on the wall. Perhaps we'll come back to 2011 invigorated and motivated to actually do something about making our educational system once again relevant.
A message to my current and former students (from Mr. Yearling)
Dear students and former students,
I needed to make everything official before I passed this on to anyone, but I wanted to let you know that I won't be returning to Fort Atkinson in the fall. I've accepted a position in the Waukesha School District as an Instructional Technology Coordinator. Put simply, I'll become a mentor of teachers, encouraging and coaching them to utilize technology to improve the quality of their instruction. Ultimately, I hope this leads to a meaningful change in the way teachers educate students on a greater scale than I could ever have had in my own classroom.
So, there it is -- my big announcement.
My time in Fort has been nothing but positive and I truly have enjoyed working with all of you. I want to thank you for allowing me to connect with so many of you in such unique ways. I feel fortunate to have been a part of your lives. I have learned much from my time spent with you, and I carry those lessons and memories with me. The hardest part of this change is knowing that I won't have the opportunity to work with students on a daily basis in the same way I worked with so many of you. That is what makes teaching such a special job. I will miss that and I will miss so many of you!
Feel free to contact me any time with updates on life, questions about this change or what I'm up to, or just a request for advice. You know that I am always up for a thoughtful response to even life's toughest challenges. :) Reach me at brianyearling@gmail.com if you want to be assured of reaching me (I like technology, but this Facebook thing freaks me out a bit...you kids and your zany technology).
Thank you to all of you for being such an important of my life. It has been an incredible journey.
Mr. Y (or B.Y. depending on your era, or Y-dawg for those less formal students, or The Mighty Lumberjack for Dalton and those he has influenced).
I needed to make everything official before I passed this on to anyone, but I wanted to let you know that I won't be returning to Fort Atkinson in the fall. I've accepted a position in the Waukesha School District as an Instructional Technology Coordinator. Put simply, I'll become a mentor of teachers, encouraging and coaching them to utilize technology to improve the quality of their instruction. Ultimately, I hope this leads to a meaningful change in the way teachers educate students on a greater scale than I could ever have had in my own classroom.
So, there it is -- my big announcement.
My time in Fort has been nothing but positive and I truly have enjoyed working with all of you. I want to thank you for allowing me to connect with so many of you in such unique ways. I feel fortunate to have been a part of your lives. I have learned much from my time spent with you, and I carry those lessons and memories with me. The hardest part of this change is knowing that I won't have the opportunity to work with students on a daily basis in the same way I worked with so many of you. That is what makes teaching such a special job. I will miss that and I will miss so many of you!
Feel free to contact me any time with updates on life, questions about this change or what I'm up to, or just a request for advice. You know that I am always up for a thoughtful response to even life's toughest challenges. :) Reach me at brianyearling@gmail.com if you want to be assured of reaching me (I like technology, but this Facebook thing freaks me out a bit...you kids and your zany technology).
Thank you to all of you for being such an important of my life. It has been an incredible journey.
Mr. Y (or B.Y. depending on your era, or Y-dawg for those less formal students, or The Mighty Lumberjack for Dalton and those he has influenced).