Last night I sat in the auditorium of my sons’ high school for orientation. The students had been dismissed to a scavenger hunt to learn their way around the building, and parents were left behind to visit with the principal. After a long day at work, my mind was beginning to wander, and every time I blinked my eyes, they opened a little more reluctantly. I was in one of those situations where folks asked questions that  you couldn’t hear, and the principal gave an answer that no one really cares about except the asker.

Then, I heard him say this, “Each class has a textbook, but if a teacher is only working from the text, she’s not doing it right. The text should be considered a resource, but the teacher is there to engage the students, use technology and even cell phones to teach the students.”

I sat up straight and considered the possibilities.

As educators, we are reluctant to change our ways. Honestly, if you’ve been teaching the same subject for 15 years, why would you rock the boat? But if we stop learning and trying new things, we become stagnant and obsolete. The children we teach today are fundamentally better at understanding technology than we are. They’ve been immersed in electronics every day of their lives. They eat it up. How can a textbook possibly compete with Youtube? And how can you and your chalkboard possibly compete with the text message buzzing wordlessly in their pocket?

We must embrace the technology that excites our students. The Tomorrow Group has recently conducted some research that may surprise you.

98% of high school students have a cell phone.
83% of middle school students have a cell phone
43% of 3rd through 5th graders have a cell phone
28% of K-2nd graders have a cell phone.

More than one-fourth of middle and high school students have mobile internet on their cell phones, but what can teachers DO with this technology in the classroom? Do your students have trouble with organization? They can begin to use a calendar to remind them of projects and assignments due, organize their school work, be reminded of school activities, communicate with the teacher, create and share documents, take notes, look up information on the internet, access classroom blogs, create their own blog about the work they are doing, work together with other students on projects, coordinate calendars with other students, share favorite web sites with you and other students and even take videos for class presentations.

Teachers can also use cell phone technology to better communicate with parents. There’s a really cool site called SendGM that lets you send out group messages to cell phones and email all at once. Teachers can sign up for a free account and include all your parents’ and students’ contact information…. there will be no escape from your reminders!

Aside from using cellphones, today’s teacher needs to be sure to integrate technology in their classrooms in other ways, as well. There is simply no excuse for today’s educator to not have a web cam and a free Skype account. There are professionals, like me, who visit classrooms AT NO CHARGE on a daily basis using Skype. How would your students benefit from asking questions of an expert or having an author teach them techniques for better creative writing? Skype with me and find out. There is no way I could possibly go into all the uses for web cams in the classroom. If you don’t have one, go to Walmart right now and shell out $20 to get one. You won’t regret it.
Another unusual technology for the classroom is the I-Pod. Most of your students study with music. It helps them focus and can help calm test anxiety. Allowing students to listen to I-Pods during tests or using them for audio books or podcasts can be effective strategies to meet your goals.

This blog is just the tip of the iceberg. The number of uses for technology in the classroom is only limited by your imagination. Below are a few web sites that might help. Good luck!

www.techsavvyed.net
www.ateachersguidetohappiness.com
www.edutopia.org
www.cellphonesinlearning.com

Read more from Mary Calhoun Brown at her blog: http://blog.marycalhounbrown.com

Also, check out her recent book, there are no words, available at http://www.amazon.com:

The Ad Council, the leading producer of public service announcements in the US, has been tackling the issue of adolescent relationship abuse with their campaign “That’s Not Cool.” With cell phones as ubiquitous as the nose on a student’s face, instant and constant communication can lead to major boundary issues for young people navigating the rough waters of young love.

Check out these videos from the campaign:

Textual Harassment:

Break-Ins:

Sexting:

Is textual harassment a problem in your school? What role can teachers and administrators play in helping students who are dealing with pressure in their relationships?

This week’s #edchat topic focused on how educators can teach critical thinking skills to their students. Two spirited discussions on the topic covered a huge range of ideas about what exactly critical thinking is and how it can be integrated with technology (see transcripts here). However, as young people get used to depending on Google for answers, many worry that critical thinking skills will suffer.

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled, “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?” by author Nicholas Carr argued that the constant distractions and interruptions of the Net are turning people into “scattered and superficial thinkers.” While there is certainly evidence that individuals do not retain as much information when they attempt to do several things at once, I believe equating a shift in learning priorities with a dumbing down of students is an example of focusing so much on the trees that one misses the forest.

I think it’s plausible that Google will eventually succeed in its bodacious quest to archive and make available all the world’s collected knowledge. Yes, that thought is a bit scary and tends to bring to mind images of an evil super villain, but there is no denying that Google has radically changed how information can be shared. I would much rather leave students with the knowledge of how to find answers to problems that have yet to surface than to train a bunch of parrots who are able to squawk memorized names and dates.

The type of learning that the Internet enables does not always translate well to standardized testing, but I believe encouraging students to use the nearly endless streams of data available online to build, discuss, create and collaborate to find new and creative solutions to issues and problems is far more effective at developing young people’s critical thinking skills.

I often start introductory level communications classes by showing the video Did You Know: Shift Happens. Produced by education bloggers Karl Fisch who writes The Fischbowl and Scott McLeod, author of Dangerously Irrelevant.

Public relations expert Carri Bugbee recently directed me to another popular video that shows the changes happening in the world. Social Media Revolution by Socialnomics provides a compelling argument for the continued integration of Web-based media in education.

By simply pointing out basic facts about the national and international shifts playing out today, these two short videos offer a powerful message to the graduates of the class of 2010 and the educators responsible for their academic preparation. It’s not enough to teach students the basics of how to use new media tools, they must also understand the way media shapes the global social, economic and political climates.

How are you helping graduates thrive in the flatter, more connected world?

Tweet these sample messages throughout the day, or create your own. Encourage your neighbors and colleagues to join the twitterfest, and if you have a blog, spread the word that way.
Here are some sample tweets, mostly under 100 characters so there’s room to retweet and personalize a bit.  Or, make up your own!

· @SenatorHarkin #EETT Support innovation in learning & teaching. Fund #edtech at $500m
· @DavidObey #EETT Support innovation in learning & teaching. Fund #edtech at $500m
· @ThadCochran #EETT Support innovation in learning & teaching. Fund #edtech at $500m
· @RepToddTiahrt #EETT Support innovation in learning & teaching. Fund #edtech at $500m
· Our schools need 21st century education, #EETT. Fund #edtech at $500 m
· No funding for #edtech? No prep for 21st century. Fund #EETT at $500m
· I support #edtech. I vote. Fund #EETT at $500m in 2011
· As a principal/teacher/parent I know our kids need #edtech skills. Fund #EETT at $500m

Thank you for joining the effort!  Together, we can make our voices heard!

In 2006, the state of West Virginia made headlines when they incorporated the popular video game Dance Dance Revolution in the physical education programs at all 765 of the state’s public schools. More recently, many schools have purchased Nintendo Wii systems and used programs like Wii Fit to engage previously lethargic students in physical education classes.

With the Apps for Healthy Kids competition recently launched by First Lady Michelle Obama, it looks like we’ll be seeing many more advances in technology aimed at improving the eating habits and exercise activities of this nation’s youths. There is $40,000 available through this program as incentive for software to encourage students to make more nutritious food choices and be more physically active.

Computers, television and the many kinds of portable communication devices are often blamed for creating a generation of sloth-like children, interested only in the glowing screens of their many electronic toys. But computer technology is a tool; it can be used toward many different ends. As we advance in the development of interactive technologies, we are going to see more ways to break away from the tether to a personal computer and more toward the incorporation of technologies into our physical activities.

As someone who has struggled with my own weight since childhood, I’ve found a multitude of programs that help me monitor my personal health. I use the iPhone app Lose It! to help count calories throughout the day and the I find new and interesting workout plans at Train With Me Online. After I had my first child, I used online networking groups in my town to find walking partners to help shed the post-pregnancy poundage. The abundance of free nutrition and exercise information available online has made it far easier to keep track of my eating habits and exercise activities.

Do you use technology as part of the physical education program in your school? In your personal life? How has the advancement of Web-based resources changed your health and exercise routine?

For educators and education in India, this is one of the most critical budgets ever.

The passage of the Free & Compulsory Right to Education Act of 2009 is perhaps two months from being notified. With implementation imminent, educators are asking is if India is to train 1-1.25 million teachers in the next five years, to maintain the 1:30 teacher to student ration, does the India 2010 budget provide the cash?

The funds have been promised by none other than the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The dynamic Union Minister for Education, Dr. Kapil Sibal, is also hard at work. So the first year’s funding will reflect if he is walking the walk.

What is the Free & Compulsory Right to Education Act of 2009 supposed to do? The act focuses on key elements of a child-centered education with values and pedagogy almost 180 degrees different than government schools in India today. These include values I personally endorse:

a)     all around development of the child;

b)    building up the child’s knowledge, potential and talent;

c)     development of physical and mental abilities of the child;

d)    learning through activities, discovery and exploration in a child friendly and child-centered manner;

e)     medium of instruction, as far as practical, in the child’s mother tongue;

f)     making the child free of fear, trauma, able to express views freely;

g)    comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the child’s understanding of knowledge.

This act will affect between 30 to 35 million children, not presently in India’s schools. The Right to Education Act 2009 specifies a new level of access for formerly unschooled children: “Every child from the age of six to fourteen year shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a neighborhood school until completion of elementary education.”

It also includes the further clause that:

“No child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.

Provided further that a child so admitted to elementary education shall be entitled to free education till completion of elementary education after fourteen years the appropriate Government and the local authority shall establish, within such area or limits of neighborhood, a school where it is not so established, within a period of three years from the commencement of this Act.”

Any educator with experience can immediately tell this is a holistic law that deals with the rights of children to education, the quality of the education, the availability of the education free and locally, the pedagogical development of the teachers involved and the use of brick and mortars as well as technology and transformative pedagogy to make it happen. A great leap forward? Indeed. Revolutionary? For individuals at the middle and bottom of India’s pyramid society, absolutely.

The SIGTE group visit Auckland, Rotorua, and Christchurch and will also attend and present at the Learning@Schools Conference, one of the largest education conferences in Australasia.

You can follow their adventures at http://blog.core-ed.net/tours/.

What if a school’s success hinged on its ability to prepare students for an evolving, global society that demanded openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally? The culture that created the Read/Write Web is the same culture that favors openness and sharing, and is best typified by the open-source software movement. Volunteer programmers that created the Linux operating system worked together, piece-by-piece — each volunteer with a different and varied experience, and each in a different location across the world. This culture would do well to find a home in today’s schools, in order for our students to find success today and in the future.

The Read/Write Web ought to have a place in schools for a variety of reasons. For one, the Read/Write Web is where both business and society have turned to grow and learn. Whether our tool of choice is Google, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org), or Ask Metafilter (http://ask.metafilter.com), we have access to a staggering amount of information online. The Read/Write Web is also a place where people make a living. “About one million of the most active traders on eBay have quit their day jobs and now make their living selling new and used goods full-time” (Tapscott & Williams, 2006, p. 100). “Lifelong learning” is frequently in the mission statements of schools and districts the country-over. During their school years and beyond, students will engage in endless opportunities to learn on their own. Teaching students how to self-educate using the Read/Write Web is an important new skill.

Students also deserve the experience of developing information and media literacies. The Center for Media Literacy (www.medialit.org) offers teachers resources for developing students’ media literacy, which now includes, among others, both traditional media (e.g., commercials on television) and the nontraditional Read/Write Web variety (bias in blog entries, YouTube videos, etc.). The American Association of School Librarians provides resources for addressing information literacy (www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslissues/aaslinfolit/informationliteracy1.htm), and AT&T provides information on “21st Century Literacies” (www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/21stcent/), broken into four areas: information, visual, cultural, and media.

Another reason to embrace the Read/Write Web? “Young People Urgently Need New Skills to Succeed in the Global Economy,” reads the title of a report from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.phpoption=com_content&task=view&id=276&Itemid=64). The report cites 70% of human resource officials feel that high school graduates fall short in critical-thinking skills, and 81% of human resource officials believe high school graduates are deficient in written communications. The good news is that by applying the Read/Write Web into the curriculum, teachers can provide students with opportunities to improve critical thinking, as well as both written and verbal communication. Beyond that, students can creatively explore other forms of communication, including film, music, and visual art. A podcast, for instance, requires planning, storyboarding, and writing before the podcast is published.

(pic from flickr.com/photos/dbdbrobot)

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills also calls for using “21st Century Assessments.” The Read/Write Web can make an excellent medium for assessing student learning beyond the now-popular standardized test. Student blogs can become student digital portfolios. Student video projects can reveal, among many things, the student’s attainment of critical-thinking skills. Collaborative, student-centered projects promote interaction with students from faraway schools, testing a student’s progress in working with peers.

I agree with John. It’s vital for our students to be able to use Web 2.0 if they want a successful future. I’d be interested in hearing other arguments for the Read/Write Web. Why do you find it critical that your students know how to use Web 2.0 tools and take part generating information through blogs, podcasts, wikis, and more?

Copyright 2008, ISTE ® (International Society for Technology in Education), RSS for Educators, John G. Hendron. 1.800.336.5191 or 1.541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved. Distribution and copying of this excerpt is allowed for educational purposes and use with full attribution to ISTE.

A vital element of 1-to-1 is that every teacher have a laptop, along with every student. In order for this to work well and be a transformative element in a school, district, or state, teachers need to embrace education technology in their practice. This means, even for the innovators and early adopters, continuous, varied, well-supported and adequately funded professional development.

Which brings up the topic of adult learners. The work of Malcolm Knowles continues to resonate even though he did not write about technology or the field of education per se – he wrote about andragogy – or adult learning. Knowles explains that adults have a wealth of knowledge, want involvement in learning, want hands-on experience, are practical, are motivated by their own needs, want their own learning styles maximized, and need time to think and reflect. The book I use most by Knowles is The Adult Learner which is now in its 6th edition.

When professional development is designed for an adult learner – it works. It’s important to keep in mind that adults need opportunities to be hands-on; that they have an average attention span of between 8 and 20 minutes; that they have a wealth of knowledge; that they are highly practical; that they need to see the value of the learning.

Here are some ideas that have worked for education technology working sessions:

• Getting participants hands-on as quickly as possible. Brief intros and a broad stroke of purpose and goals – possibly turning to participants for purpose and goals.
• Changing activities and approaches frequently.
• Adjusting as needed – paying attention to the body language of participants and having some activities ready should the session lag.
• Breaks. This may seem obvious but adults need to stretch, move, and walk away in order to return fresh.
• Getting feedback and participation different ways. Some will feel comfortable speaking out, others will prefer reflecting on paper, others will like an online survey or a back channel.
• Sparing use of Powerpoint – but – not so spare that there is nothing to follow or see for your visual learners.
• An electronic version of it all somewhere – a Wiki, a Ning, etc.
• Some type of paper handout. We don’t want to kill trees but we are in this interesting in-between stage right now involving adults who are “paper-trained” and those who are immersed and comfortable in the fully-electronic delivery of media. Give them something to hold in their hands and you will see relief on the faces of many participants.
• Reasonable times for all activities – not too long or too short – adjust if you start seeing people taking a break when it’s time for working hands-on.
• A reinforced theme – go back to that whenever possible.
• A “parking lot” for ideas or tangents that are brought up.
• A positive activity describing the intent of the session and asking people to buy in somehow – we posted a large smiley face, gave out star stickers, and asked people to post 2 things on how they will be ensuring that they stay positive at their schools while managing change.
• Participant sharing in different ways – not just talking – showing, demonstrating, sending out links, etc.
• A druther – 2 projectors in every room – one for the presenter/s with a screen and one for the participants with a screen/wall as well – speakers for both – jump drives if needed and a spare laptop.
• If PD is interesting, varied, practical, relevant and adheres to theories of adult learning, teachers will have the tools to transform teaching and learning through 1-to-1.

Note: This is a slightly rewritten piece from my blog which is available at http://www.1-to-1learning.blogspot.com

(pic from foundphotoslj’s)