Educational Psychology and Educational Technology

Flipping Progress

2011-12-16T20:10:00.001-08:00

I thought I'd take a few minutes and reflect a little on the progress made in "flipping" my classroom. I began by following the advice of a fellow Michigan educator, John Sowash. In a presentation he created he suggested by starting with something simple and small -- a lesson you already have materials for. I thought this was good advice and I started organizing my lesson on "Consequences of Industrialization".

My first step past this was to create an introductory video that explained the process, purpose, and expectations. I thought it would be enough to post these videos to my class website, Mr. Bruce's History. However, it became obvious to me that the easiest way to manage these videos would be to upload them and manage them through a blog. So, knowing how functional, simple, and manageable Posterous is, I created a space and called it mrbruceshistory.posterous.com (what else!?).

Today I assigned the first true Vodcast, "Consequences of Industrialization" and I believe I got all my talking out in it. Students saw the blog for the first time today and found downloading the videos to be crazy easy, and students helped each other out, showing each other how to save them to iTunes and put them on iPods. They seem to to be generally welcoming to the idea of me not talking in class.

I'm Gonna Do It. I'm Flipping My Classroom

2011-12-07T20:32:00.001-08:00

After three months of painstakingly pushing students to complete assigned readings and other homework assignments prior to coming to class on a given date, I've decided that it is not worth my time to begin an in-class activity to a mixed bag of students. After writing that sentence, I realize that the frustration of getting that out has two effects: 1) I feel better after sharing it and 2) it probably makes little sense to my reader. Let me back up...

For those of you who don't know, I teach 2nd survey (1877-present) U.S. History to 9th grade students in a rural public school in southwest Michigan. It is my passion to provide history instruction that follows the "Thinking Like a Historian" model of historical inquiry to break the traditional view of what history education looks like in the classroom (see my Syllabus for more).

Our district is in its 4th year fully 1:1 with our students running around with MacBooks. Despite our growth, we still have great strides to make. As a district we have yet to make the paradigm shift that should be expected of a laptop program in its 4th year, and many of our teachers maintain old habits and expectations. Why does this matter in this post? Mostly because the issues I and other teachers try to deal with regarding the level of student-centered technology integration come very slowly to students who have not been taught to consider for themselves what the purpose of the tool is in their possession. Rather, they are told what to do, what not to do, and run from class to class learning the nuances of each teachers' system...

Back to U.S. History... I strongly desire to maximize the class time available for "history labs" where students take the content from their reading and apply it to primary and secondary document sets selected around an essential question or dispute. It is their task as an individual (or pair or small group) to analyze the documents following a texting protocol ("Text, Subtext, Context" -- from Bruce Lesh), and develop a conclusion based on what the evidence says to them. This is "doing" history.

However, if a majority (or at best a significant minority) of my class has failed to complete the assigned reading/homework, then my in-class activity -- however cool and authentic it may have been -- is an exercise in futility. It will never produce the intended results, and I'll be bashing my head against the wall shortly following 1st hour bellwork...

Some of you may be thinking that it may work to read in class and take notes as a group so that all students have the same base-line. This way they can complete some primary source analysis at home. Seems good, but any teacher knows that there are some assignments that you want to be present for. Math and science teachers know students who need support, encouragement, prompts, etc... History is no different when facilitated this way. I want to be there with my kids as they struggle to understand a letter, memo, picture, article, cartoon, etc., from an event so that I can put out fires, clear misconceptions, and challenge where necessary. I can't do that if they are at home.

But what if they weren't expected to read? What if it wasn't a worksheet? What if they just had to watch/listen to what they would normally have gotten the day before in class. What if they could watch/listen to me and pause to write notes down? What if I could have all of my class time devoted to the sourcing/texting analysis of my 15 year old historians are expected to do? Flip the classroom... School work at home, homework at school.

So long story short, reverse instruction, or "flipping" my classroom may serve as a catalyst for the change I expect to see in my students' outcomes. I look forward to sharing how it goes as I will attempt it next week. Wish me luck!

For more on the Flipped Model, see Vodcasting and the Flipped Classroom. For more about historical inquiry and "Thinking Like A Historian" see the Wisconsin Historical Society partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater website at wisconsinhistory.org. Also, see Why Won't You Just Tell Us The Answer? by Bruce Lesh at Amazon.

Some Changes Around Here

2011-12-07T20:15:00.001-08:00

So...I created this site and purchased the domain for the purposes of using this as my website and portfolio while I made my way through a PhD program in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology through Michigan State University. I've since made the decision to discontinue my pursuit of the degree program and focus on priorities that I believe fall inherently above that. See the letter I composed explaining withdrawal below.

Since then -- May 2011 -- I've not done much here. I like the site. I want to blog. I understand the benefits to me personally and professionally. But, the site needs to be retrofitted to accommodate the current me. All my previous posts will be maintained here and archived, but I'm looking for a change. I'm open to suggestions for a site name and for visual remodeling -- comment below. So pardon my dust while I fix it up real good.

Thanks again for visiting. I look forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Withdrawal.doc Download this file

Evolution and Technology

2011-12-03T21:42:00.001-08:00

Evolution and Technology.doc Download this file

Testing to see what it looks like when I mail a document from the Pages app in my iPhone or iPad to Posterous.

Welcome to Open Library (Open Library)

2011-10-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

Just used and browsed the "Open Library", a project of the Internet Archive (www.archive.org). This has been, and will continue to be, an invaluable resource for me as a U.S. History teacher seeking to provide relevant and meaningful primary and secondary sources to encourage and promote historical thinking in my classroom.

My favorite part of Epcot:

2011-08-15T18:39:00.001-07:00

movie.mov Watch on Posterous

Carmen's Gymnastics Class Comes To A Close

2011-06-05T15:02:00.001-07:00

Posting this entirely from my iPhone, I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see Carmen's gymnastics recital and "Olympics". It was a great year.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=gHqiBa96Ymc

Response to Jonathan Alter "Education Reform Works"

2011-06-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

So I finally read this Bloomberg Op-Ed article by Jonathan Alter bashing Diane Ravitch for her methods in challenging the Ed Reform movements stemming from No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top. Alter quotes Arne Duncan as saying “Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day."

Funny... I don't feel insulted. Should I? Or is Duncan insulting me by telling me I am too ignorant to know when I am. Below is what I wanted to post, but I don't feel like dignifying that article with extra efforts in signing up for a Disqus account. Besides, I'm too busy being ineffective.

Yes, Mr. Alter. How could I, a teacher working 40+ hours in school and at least 20 more out of school to provide the absolute best instruction and environment for my students for decreasing appreciation, listen to and respect Diane Ravitch? The real question is, how could I have been so mistaken? You are my new voice, Mr. Alter, I thank you for speaking on my behalf and defending myself and my students tirelessly and being conscious of our needs on a level fundamental to academic success. Your connection to public schools must be close for you to have developed such a solid and intimate understanding of what is best for our schools and education on a national level.

Where's everyone's sarcasm meter on this one...? Let me know if it needs to be tuned or adjusted, because it should have been reading pretty high.

Response to Jonathan Alter "Education Reform Works"

2011-06-03T20:11:00.001-07:00

Yes, Mr. Alter. How could I, a teacher working 40+ hours in school and at least 20 more out of school to provide the absolute best instruction and environment for my students for decreasing appreciation, listen to and respect Diane Ravitch? The real question is, how could I have been so mistaken? You are my new voice, Mr. Alter, I thank you for speaking on my behalf and defending myself and my students tirelessly and being conscious of our needs on a level fundamental to academic success. Your connection to public schools must be close for you to have developed such a solid and intimate understanding of what is best for our schools and education on a national level.

Where's everyone's sarcasm meter on this one...? Let me know if it needs to be tuned or adjusted, because it should have been reading pretty high.

Think-Aloud Clip - "All Statistics Things Considered"

2011-04-22T22:57:00.001-07:00

One of many course requirements for the EPET Hybrid PhD cohort is the following created for CEP 933 - Quantitative Methods in Educational Research II. Student groups were asked to create a clip highlighting, exposing, or empahsizing a course concept or question (or weakness). This is what Team Bernoulli came up with.

Team Bernoulli is comprised of Karen Bedell, Lawrence Bruce, and Jessica Wicks. During units two and three, conversations amongst the team focused on the mysteries of ANOVA and Multiple Comparisons. Of particular concern was the cloudiness with which we understood the complete difference between planned comparisons and post hoc analysis. What made this even more muddy was the similarities between the different test procedures shared between them.

We shared a comfortable understanding about the reason why multiple comparisons are necessary, as well as the concerns with testing multiple comparisons for Type I and Type II error rates. Thus we used what we did know as a basis for making clear what wasn’t. For us, the distinction between and amongst the several multiple comparison procedures and the appropriate application necessitated a TAC, with it’s foundation on what we do understand.

The resulting TAC is the product of our attempt to make clear multiple comparison using two key figures, A. Priori and Post Hoc. These characters will describe the rationale for multiple comparisons, definitions of statistical power and Type I and II error, and provide an overview of the different scenarios in which certain tests would be appropriate.

Our chosen format for this TAC allows for the leisurely listener to enjoy and appreciate the content within a respectable level of depth of understanding - not too deep so that I’m lost, but still accomplishing the explanatory goals. We believe that this format combined with appropriate and clear visuals offers more than a “how-to” or demonstration video, but rather one that is memorable and can serve as a reference.

Impromptu lesson on Movie Maker by hs student during session. Digital native??? Watch:

2011-03-17T12:01:00.001-07:00

movie.mov Watch on Posterous

Untitled

2011-03-15T21:15:00.001-07:00

What is the ideal school? If you could design a school, what would it look like? This past Sunday evening, the CBS "news magazine" 60 Minutes aired a segment by Katie Couric that brought to light a possible response to those questions. It also addressed questions regarding a very contemporary belief about what is wrong with schools. However, it left me questioning if we will ever come to a consensus on what the ideal school really is.

Titled "The $125,000 Question", Couric introduces us to The Equity Project Charter School (http://www.tepcharter.org/), a "New York City charter school founded on the idea of hiring the best teachers by paying them $125,000, while denying them tenure." (from 60 Minutes website) Seems like a good plan, right?

The Equity Project Charter School is based on the notion of paying teachers commensurate of their ability: find the absolute best teachers and pay them well. With a rigorous hiring process complete with an audition, regular evaluations by administration and colleagues, video lesson study, and termination if they fail to meet expectations, the teachers are pushed to be pursue perfection. A perfection that is based on one understanding of what good teaching is.

As I sat watching the 60 Minutes segment, I wanted to be supportive of the school's goals. I wanted to see how this school employed cutting edge instructional strategies to transform learning to meet the growing demands expected of 21st century citizens. However, that wasn't what we witnessed.

What we saw were traditional classrooms where these "best-of-the-best" teachers employed rote-and-drill practices with laser precision in order to achieve one hundred percent compliance from students. We saw students engaged in tasks that are based on what the multitude of Americans recall from their own time in the classroom, back when basic skills and literacy were enough to drive our economy. It looks good on national television to an ignorant public to witness one teacher with that kind of control over a group of students. What it was not was the classroom was evidence reflects the messy nature of constructive learning. Students were not working in cooperative settings with small group tasks.There was no substantive conversation. There was no shred of 21st Century Skills. Teachers and best practice were portrayed as the same old "sage on the stage" that we all remember.

Unfortunately, I was unable to support this school's practices. I became disappointed at what I witnessed. Giving a revolutionary idea the benefit of a doubt, I probed their website for evidence of instructional practices reflective of the kind of education our 21st century students need. As I thumbed through their website looking for evidence of breakthrough pedagogy, I was unable to identify practices resembling what I've seen from what I would consider "awesome" teaching. It seems as though the broadcast ignores the critical thinking and creative problem-solving that we expect from our students; as though creativity and innovation are unnecessary and that memorization and drilling are what make sound education. It should be noted that this school was unable to outperform their counterparts in NYC...

And then there's the bit at the end about the problem of teachers' unions and the protection of "bad teaching". The current mood in America is that teachers' unions are stripping America of it's education by promoting the tenure of educators that fail to meet the performance standards that are expected in other sectors of the workforce. This is reflected in the 60 Minutes segment, leading more to believe that the solution to the problem is eliminating the right to protect teachers from dismissal. Additionally, the situation in the legislature in the Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio over stripping teachers of their collective bargaining rights leaves people questioning the seemingly luxurious benefits packages and the lavish lifestyles of teachers. For a poke at this, I enjoyed a clip from the Daily Show over the national frenzy over Wisconsin, "Angry Curds", that highlights the growing movement against teachers' collective bargaining ability.

While I can agree with the notion that unions have perhaps focused more on the plight of educators rather than on protecting the sanctity of education, blaming unions and teachers for the state of our current educational crisis is an ignorant assessment of the problem. There are issues that we ignore that have a far greater impact on student learning and achievement than teacher quality. Poverty and home life rank as paramount in this list. Please take the time to view a Daily Show Interview with Diane Ravitch. I dare you to read her book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System".

If you ignore hype and media and allow yourself to see a larger picture, what you'll find is that our educational system has reached its breaking point and the controversy is a response to an upheaval that is yet without direction, a reaction to the collective sense that the system as it exists can no longer function to meet the needs of the 21st century. What the controversy lacks is the collective first step: identifying the PURPOSE of our educational system. Once purpose has been clearly established, defined, and has unanimous support of the civic body, then a clear plan can be designed for the innovative future America has in store.

Seems simple enough. Why make it any more complex than that?

The Ideal Classroom? (a reprise)

2011-02-13T22:14:00.001-08:00

I've grown to appreciate Twitter for many things. As a news feed, I am as in touch with world events as I have ever been without visiting any news sites. It eliminates my need for RSS feeds by following individuals and organizations that I would normally have subscribed to. I can also be places that I am not. Events such as #educon that are Tweeted and hash-tagged keep my in conversations about events even though I'm not there.

One of the most unexpected benefits of Twitter has been it's ability to spark my curiosity and serve as a groundswell of ideas from disconnected tweets. I trust that I share this with many of the people I follow.

One of the many things that caught my attention as I panned through my Twitter feed recently was a blog post by George Couros (@gcouros). His web site, "The Principal of Change" serves as his outlet for all the things he encounters as a K-12 administrator and his thoughts and reflections from the educational realm. Anyway, he posted "The Ideal Classroom?" on Thursday and essentially pondered whether or not his school's new 1:1 laptop program would facilitate the "ideal classroom" for his students and teachers and provide the personalized, passionate, creative learning that is promoted by educational reformers at all levels.

What is the ideal classroom? If you're an educator this question has crossed your mind. For some, this question has become a pursuit, a drive, a passion. I find myself in that category. Considering my educational pursuits in Educational Technology and Educational Psychology, this should be expected.

Two years ago, I started looking around my classroom, looking at my students, and looking at the resources at our disposal. With every student accessing a laptop whenever the need arises, it became clear that my instructional potential could go further. That last statement seems pretty obvious, I know. However, the overwhelming evidence is that technology and computing fails to produce the transformation in teaching and learning that should be expected. Larry Cuban set forward this argument in Oversold and Underused. His study in a pair of school districts in Silicon Valley, California made it clear that while the availability of computers in the hands of teachers and students has been increasingly available, instruction and pedagogy continues to remain largely unchanged.

So what is it then? What is the ideal classroom?

As the 2008-2009 school year came to a close, I cultivated several disparate ideas into one seemingly cohesive package and wrote "Mr. Bruce's Teaming Handbook". This was to serve as the basis for procedure, protocol, and convention of my 9th grade U.S. History classes. This was to be my first year in that curriculum after matriculating up with the 8th grade students with whom I was finishing the school year. I've shared it at the bottom of this post.

I hoped for a collaborative setting, where students took history class far beyond the walls of the classroom. A classroom that existed only as needed, sparking the engagement in historical inquiry that would drive student learning and discovery. Student groups would process and produce their learning as though they themselves were the owners of their education. That's the ideal situation.

After a few months into the school year, the enthusiasm began to fizzle. Class activities began to slump, groups started to disintegrate, and engagement waned. I urged students to recall how different this class was from the others they had, and how much more it offered them if they would just stay the course. But I was beginning to tire, as well. This classroom required a great deal of energy from me; much more than I had anticipated. Group blogs and wikis (see handbook) required more direction and instruction than I was expecting. Where did my ideal classroom go?

Since that school year ended, I decided to lay off that concept until I could put my finger on just what went wrong. Unfortunately, It has become clearer that what was wrong had nothing to do with the plan, or my execution of it. In fact, I may not have even been able to work out the bugs and launch my 2.0 version. The problem was rooted in the culture of teaching and learning itself.

When students left my classroom, they experienced a far different learning environment than I had hoped to foster. The left my classroom of digital storytelling to down the hall to worksheet's and packets. Taking notes in my class was a group expectation, not a graded assignment taken from a slideshow. Students who failed to meet deadlines were subject to group social pressure and were accountable to those with whom they worked, rather than being punished with an arbitrary point value deducted from the overall assigned value of the task. They would leave a place where they determined the value of their work and learning, and found that everywhere else, technology had been superimposed on the classroom and limited their educational opportunities.

Many of my students found the comfort of worksheets and handouts was easiest. Producing a music video for two 19th century songs was hard. Critical thinking is hard. Creative expression based on historical understanding is a challenge. But it's harder to sell the value in that kind of education to 15 year olds who are pushed by an archaic grading system to meet arbitrary deadlines for mindless tasks.

An ideal classroom cannot exist without the ideal school.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Ohler at a Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) Conference a few years ago in Detroit. He presented a few sessions that weekend, but his overall message was on the importance of Digital Citizenship. I fear that his sessions and what he had to offer were overlooked and undervalued that weekend. I may have even failed to completely understand the extent to which the following question needs to be addressed in contemporary education: "What does it mean to grow up and learn in the 21st century?"

Ohler recently published a book titled Digital Community, Digital Citizen, and has written articles to support it. His most recent appeared in Educational Leadership. "Character Education for the Digital Age" presents Ohler's "two-lives" perspective; that today's students "should live a traditional, digitally unplugged life at school and a second, digitally infused life outside school." Ohler follows this assertion with a description of why this is bogus and how it can be remedied. I particularly appreciated his perception of the "Ideal School Board".

The reason why I reference this article was to suggest that the failure of my ideal classroom was a product of this "two-lives" concept. Ohler suggests a character education based on redefining social values and principles such as respect, honesty, and empathy to reflect the changes in our digital communities and practices. This would promote the extension of technology into classrooms by naturally providing students with a greater sense of purpose for technology tools. So far electronic device manufacturers and social networking entrepreneurs have purposed technology for our students' lives, not education. The ideal school must take the lead in educating students in this manner so that the ideal classrooms can exist and thrive.

When George Couros asked about personalized instruction and ownership at the classroom level, the real question must be addressed higher first. While there are shining classrooms in every school building real, sustainable, and transformative education with integrated 21st century tools must begin at a larger degree.

Download now or preview on posterous

mr_bruce_s_teaming_handbook.pdf (2390 KB)

#SOTU

2011-01-25T21:42:00.001-08:00

If you don't know what the title of this post means, please continue reading. This is obviously not my first time witnessing the presidents annual* State of the Union address. As an informed citizen, I believe events such as these are critical to civic responsibility and action. There is nothing that will destroy this republic more surely than ignorant apathy. The true value and function of the State of the Union is debatable in that it is almost always filled with optimistic and promising rhetoric. But only the informed can see where rhetoric ends and action begins.

For several days, analysts and reporters have all made their predictions, judgements, and evaluations regarding Obama's speech. While I do hold opinions regarding the content of the message, I do not really intend on making any judgements or criticisms of the President's speech here. Why? Mostly because I'm tired of it for today. But also because I found this SOTU to be more enjoyable than any other I've ever watched.

Like anything else, this speech can be best enjoyed in the company of good friends. While I sat alone in our living room after my girls were asleep, I had the next best thing - Twitter.

Before you pass judgement on me, let me explain... My PLN has been a source of constant quality learning. Since Twitter, I've stopped subscribing to blogs, discontinued visiting my iGoogle page, and had built a system of utilizing Tweets from those I follow in order to keep me up on what I should be reading. Twitter, therefore, has served as a information aggregator for me based on the great people I follow.

This evening during the SOTU, I found comfort in the communication shared from friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Whenever Mr. President mentioned education, comments, points, jokes, and disappointments were Tweeted and fed to my desktop, updated in read time. The hashtag, #SOTU, was used to further delineate Tweets specifically pertaining to the address. By doing so, this impromptu informal response to the speech becomes more remarkable. No planning was necessary to facilitate such engagement.

While the White House had stepped up it's role toward increasing public engagement in his State of the Union, no planned, organized, and funded communication tool could have functioned as well as this did in providing me with the best State of the Union I've experienced.

* The Constitution states that the President must "from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union" (Art. II, Sec. 3). This has generally been interpreted as annually.

Halfway... Where are your students?

2011-01-23T22:02:00.001-08:00

Friday my students completed their last exam of the first semester. Tomorrow (today, I guess) we being semester 2. I don't know what other teachers do at this halfway point, but I've found it extremely valuable to take some time and evaluate what went right and wrong in the first two marking periods.

What growth have my students experienced? Their grades tell only part of the story. Is the growth I seek measurable? The growth I'm looking for comes from their ability to inquire, reason, explore, and draw conclusions. The essay's I had my students write as a part of their exam was intended to measure the growth that the mandated multiple choice test could not show.

While grading students' written work is no simple task and demands hours of patience and dedication, I can declare to have a greater insight into how my students are learning far beyond what most teachers are able to gather about what their students are learning. Which is more important?

As we begin semester two tomorrow, I need a gauge on how my students have grown.

Woah... I need more fiber in my writing diet.

2011-01-22T12:48:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the title, but I can't help but feel a bit "bound-up", so to speak, in terms of my written voice. If you look at my next most recent post, it's been a few months since I've posted anything. Punya Mishra, my doctoral advisor (see http://epetphd.ning.com/), has suggested on numerous occasions to blog daily for a period of time until you feel that "regularity" that we all desire. His own web site is updated regularly with posts from daily and weekly thoughts and musings, so he serves as a great example for me. What a good advisor.

Regular writing serves several functions. Writing is more than a task, it's a release. It provides opportunity for reflectivity. This can be simple and basic, or functional and elaborate. Larry Ferlazzo, educator extraordinaire, wrote a blog post this morning on how he used an thorough reflection from a class lesson and used it in class. His lengthy reflection-turned-article, became a source of conversation for his ELA class. Read it. It's awesome! Another great example of reflective writing comes from George Couros, a K-12 Principal in Alberta, Canada. His blog, "The Principal of Change" has almost daily reflections of thoughts and challenges from his perspective as an administrator. Very professional and progressive.

Daily writing can also help refine, define, or discover your voice. Thoughtful, written expression comes from deep within. As a teacher, I'm aware of my voice as it pertains to how I interact with adolescents. I am also aware of my voice as I relate to friends, family, and co-workers. However, as a student advancing in academics seeking scholarly acceptance, there is a need to develop a stronger, more declarative and authoritative voice. Regular writing can serve such a purpose. Hopefully, my writing can provide insight into classroom community and social capital in education for any readers.

It seems this is my year for commitments. About a month ago, I decided I was finished with pop. I consumed probably 100oz of Mt. Dew daily. I quit "cold turkey" - an expression I have never understood - and now consume about a gallon of water daily. Three weeks ago I began a strength and fitness program (P90-X) that is already working wonders in improving overall health and satisfaction. Such an endeavor would have been almost impossible if it were not for my wife. Karen had done the program more than a year ago, and now is working through it a second time with me. If you want to get to know your spouse better, spend an hour every day completing a brutal workout with her. Trust me, it must be better than marriage counseling.

Given those commitments, I suppose I can declare to undertake a new one. Hopefully my written expression can unclog the pipes and unleash the intellectual waste that has been building up and provide some clarity and productive thought.

What a disgusting-sounding way to end this... Sorry to anyone reading. :)

It's That Easy?

2010-10-25T20:31:00.001-07:00

I’ve been playing guitar for about fifteen years. It’s a hobby, if it can be even called that when I dust it off infrequently. My first guitar was a Christmas gift and rather than taking lessons I began with a self-teaching set of booklets and CD’s. After abandoning that mode once I got through the first booklet, I decided I could advance myself further by picking up a book of popular sheet music with the guitar tabs in it. I rapidly learned my first real song, comprised of chords I knew I could play - “No One Needs to Know” by Shania Twain.

Many who know me may laugh when they read that hidden gem of personal history, because, despite my eclectic personal music selection, I’m known favor classic rock. To justify my beginnings as a “musician” and restore my credibility, it should be stated that Twain used to be married to John “Mutt” Lange, the very producer of albums for The Cars, AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Foreigner (and Shania Twain).

The reason for my introduction as a “musician” and its following departure is due to a comparison I’d like to share. I have recently rekindled my engagement in playing by performing a few songs during worship services at our church. While practicing this week, I was strumming a few very simple chords in a pattern and noticed that it aligned with a Marshall Tucker Band song, so I began to sing “Can’t You See”. Personally, I believe that song to be one of the most appreciated and well-known songs ever recorded. While its expression and mood promote a deep sense of despair, loss of hope, resulting in a compelling musical performance, it can’t be ignored that “Can’t You See” is comprised of three simple chords in a simple pattern.

What’s more is that many of the “greats” are equally simple. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Simple Man” are only three chords, Zeppelin’s “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” has four, Aerosmith’s “Amazing” has four, and Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” is essentially two. In my limited experience, the songs I play that are most appreciated share this same characteristic (that’s why I play them). If they’re so simple what makes these songs so great?

Now the translation and the point to all this. Where do these songs become great? Hopefully we can all agree that their greatness comes from the artists that wrote/recorded them, with particular emphasis on the performers. It is no mistake that the concert performance of any musical work is more valuable than the recorded album version. Similarly, a cover of a song can be more riveting than the original. We thrive on the performance.

Lately, a significant emphasis has been placed on the perceived and debated value of the teacher in a classroom. Conversations are abuzz with talk of value-added evaluations and their role in the improvement of the system of education on state and federal scales as a ticket to promote good teachers and weed out bad. For many, the importance of the teacher is clear and needs no additional explanation. However, for others the individuals in front of students are deemed easily replaceable by technologies and individualized curricula.

And speaking of curriculum, there are administrators leading an ambush of micromanagement demanding that teachers co-write shared curriculum in order to ensure that they are teaching the exact same lessons at the exact same pace the exact same way in order to assess using the exact same tests. Although this practice may serve some practical purposes, I’d like to witness a “success” story - I can only imagine the automated droids reading from a scripted lesson. In fact, I can attest to an experience where a co-written, co-designed unit was taught in multiple classes in very different ways. Through a lesson-study experience funded and promoted through a Teaching American History Grant awarded to and administered by the Battle Creek Schools Consortium, I was able to see how different teaching styles executed a meticulously planned set of lessons very distinctively. The results were equally positive, but still quite different.

The performance is what makes the teacher a teacher. But it is also what makes a professional a professional. Just as the great musicians with simple tunes, even the most mundane lesson can be brought to life by a skilled professional who understands the content, their students, and the methods that can bring the two together (even more so with purposefully integrated technology).

This evaluation and comparison is not intended to promote the practices of an inept teacher. The performance is part of what makes teaching a thrill - taking the edge off of a stressful class period, dodging the monotony of teaching the same class three or more hours per day, or handling the constructive criticisms of the building administrator. Every performance has its share of critics. Musicians know this well. Skilled professionals know the difference between critiques that are valuable and those that are just noise and are able to adjust their practice accordingly. If you are not professional enough to handle the parameters of the job, perhaps this profession is not for you.

As for me, I still love going to school every day - rockin’ out the same three chords.

The Crime of Education

2010-10-07T05:09:00.001-07:00

As a U.S. History teacher I strive to produce lessons and procure content that stirs my students to feel history as much as possible. Historical empathy is not an easy thing to conjure up. For help I have often turned to Howard Zinn and his “Voices from a People’s History of the United States” and other sources that provide a voice for those whom were cast aside in the history books to make room for presidents and senators. While looking ahead to the consequences of the American Industrial Revolution, I came across a timeless reflection on the social roots of poverty and it got me thinking about the appropriation of technology today.

In 1885 Henry George addressed a crowd in Burlington, Iowa. As a 19^th century human rights activist, George worked to debunk the contention that poverty was the fault of the individual. His poignant message from last century floored me. In “The Crime of Poverty” George proclaimed that with all of the enormous powers of the human brain, people are still subject to toil and work all day, all week, and still fall short of the promise of humanity, or rather, they are being robbed of that promise. He states:

“Think how invention enables us to do with the power of one man what not long ago could not be done by the power of a thousand… We have not yet utilized all that has already been invented and discovered… In every direction as we look new resources seem to open. Man’s ability to produce wealth seems almost infinite -- we can set no bounds to it.”

Now, where George takes this is where paradigms diverge. George’s solution rested in the socialist view of an equal distribution of wealth and resources. However, we all can agree with the utter truth he speaks on the vastness of human potential. And yet there’s a problem. His message is 135 years old. Haven’t we continued to surpass great achievements and redefine society through innovation and technology? Every generation trumps the achievements of their parents. Americans have witnessed the greatest century technologically in human history, and yet we can’t seem to figure out how to proceed in educating our children for our future.

The problems and questions regarding the American educational system is complicated by multiple opposing parties and special interests that all claim to have the highest stake in education. All the while, the voices of those who fall victim to the poverty of education remain silenced. If we as an advanced society have learned anything it is that we can communicate. Students in our classrooms “deviantly” text, email, post and reply to status updates on Facebook, and network through multiple sources for a variety of reasons. They have been appropriating resources toward these ends naturally while academics and policymakers hash out theories of learning in the 21^st century. The ecology of the school system changes some when teachers fear about how they are referred to on Facebook. A student recently told me he advocated on my behalf in response to a Facebook post regarding my class. What surprised me most about this is that the student shared his behavior, not that those conversations exist, because they do more than we know.

I’d like to see what would happen if students became “self-aware” like SkyNet from The Terminator. We all know that the tools exist to allow them to launch a coordinated effort, yet this does not happen. What would it take to empower them to take control?

We all know we are better than what we’ve become, yet we can’t reach a consensus as to exactly what that is or how to proceed from here. As a result, a century later, we are still robbing individuals from the promise of humanity. It seems educating for our future has us all tied up.

I Predict That...

2010-09-30T03:55:00.001-07:00

Humans have been projecting into the future forever. Prophecy, fortune-telling, divination, and the like have been staples of every society in human history. Whether it has been divine intervention or simple prognostication, we seem to be enamored with people who claim to have a prediction of future events. Contemporarily, much of what has been expected of our futures have been related to the role technology plays in society.

Consider the innovations throughout recent history that have purported to “revolutionize” aspects of daily life. The automotive industry is ripe with examples of innovations that were way ahead of their time. Electric cars were made and sold as early as 1899 (PBS Nova, http://goo.gl/5Hh6), but never revolutionized automobiles, or travel. These technologies were “contextually constrained”, as coined by Larry Cuban. If we look into why these innovative designs for automobiles failed to make a lasting impact on the industry and our travel, we see factors of preference (speed, reliability, price, weight, function, technology, etc.) dynamically altering the innovation’s ability to establish a foothold in the market. Today, these innovations are making a comeback due to the contextual changes in society that allows for them to exist and be somewhat popular.

Similar statements of the purported impact of an innovation on a society have been made regarding learning and education. For instance, when motion pictures became mainstream through the 1920’s, documentaries were a fixture of the purposes for this new media. Moving images had a way of powerfully relating content to large audiences. Some claimed that these films would revolutionize education by removing the need for experts in the classrooms and thereby reducing the cost of education, allowing students to learn from a single, standard source. While making sense in theory, it never panned out (no pun intended) in practice. Again, a number of contextual factors disabled this innovation from revolutionizing a system of learning. The dynamic interaction of these forces continue to mar educational progress today.

This is not meant to state that educational film was indeed the best solution for streamlining education. Without it the system has been achieving some of the high marks that America has enjoyed intermittently since the 1920’s. Rather, it is meant to serve as an example that when experts insist a technology will transform education and learning, they have often been wrong. Extending this into the 21^st century, we see this same pattern emerging as a significant abundance of technology in classrooms failing to result in a transformation of teaching and learning.

Over ten years ago, Larry Cuban and a team of “investigators” looked into this issue to identify the impact that computers have had, locally and nationally, on teaching and learning. The thought driving the study was that with the rapid and expensive increase in available technology, education would be transformed through it and would result in deeper learning and higher achievement. The unanticipated finding was that this was not the case. With too few exceptions, technology, even where it was most pervasive (intentional use of the adjective), sustained traditionally held teaching and learning practices.

The outcomes and predictions that Cuban identified (Oversold and Underused, 2000) were in bitter contrast with popular movements then and are even more contrasting today. However, the idea that entrenched historical and contextual factors work to inhibit that which has potential to severely alter education in America is a complex matter. Cuban dismisses technophobia and teacher resistance as reasons why technological innovations don’t result in what is expected. Are we just not convinced that it works? Is it a lack of perception? A shallow near-sightedness? Regardless, technology continues to pour into schools at rates presumably unimaginable to Cuban ten years ago. It is anticipated that spending on educational technologies exceed $65 billion this year (THE Journal, http://goo.gl/33KI). If no marked change in teaching and learning exists through increased resources, what is all this for?

Really, that’s the question that should drive all educational spending. Perhaps it does. When money is spent, don’t you always have a purpose? However, external pressures have led to increases in technology spending, which in turn have reduced the focus of purpose. Public officials, corporate executives, marketing agencies, parents, and media all share in influencing schools to increase spending on technology. Pressures stemming from competitive marketing across districts lead to increased budget items for technology (and better resources in general). These amount to technology being acquired and provided without purpose. Cuban asserted that when considering whether or not to provide technologies, policy makers should ask “to what ends?”

There is a power in the purpose of a technology. I’ve often stated that it is not the tool that matters, but rather in the leveraging. What this means is that a tool’s effectiveness relies upon the human use of it. Despite our advancements in science technology depends upon the human. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke captivated audiences with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The theme that was challenged through the story was that of man’s battle with the technology he created. Similar themes have existed in contemporary film, such as iRobot, where assistive artificial intelligence determines that humans are endangering themselves, and must therefore be controlled, or the Terminator series, a war of man against machine after a defense system called SkyNet becomes self-aware.

Back on track, we can see that these fabrications exist only in imagination. Without the human the tool exists only as an artifact. Bringing this concept back into teaching and learning, technologies have powerful potential. But these can only be executed through the gatekeepers of the classroom: teachers. Reform movements of all kinds fail in large part due to lack of support or “buy-in” by these gatekeepers. This suggests that teachers have to be coerced, manipulated, bribed, or otherwise convinced that something is good for them. In a recent email conversation with Sean Nash, he said “making change by telling folks what to do is rather old and busted.” So true.

When people ask why is education policy at the forefront of national issues today, my response is typically the assertion that schools need to be told what to do, because for too long they have failed to do so on their own. Within a school, faculty often complain about increasing demands on their practice that is imposed by an administrator. Again, my response is that if they had been serving as a professional on their own, such top-down measures would not be needed. Regarding education and technology, a recent assertion from Will Richardson says it best: “We should all be innovating, testing new models, failing, reflecting, trying anew, sharing the learning with others who are working on the edges in their own classrooms and projects.” (http://goo.gl/7Si6) If we do not, we fail to progress.

This extends beyond the classroom, beyond the schools, and into communities. Clayton Christensen, in Disrupting Class (2008) identified his predictions for the future role of technology in learning. The feature element of his work was to prove that “head-on attacks almost never work.” Rather the true power for educational change lies within those whose individual stake is at risk through disruptive innovations that challenge the status quo and provide reasonable alternatives to non-consumption:

“...when disruptive innovators begin forming user networks through which professionals and amateurs -- students, parents, and teachers -- circumvent the existing value chain and instead market their product directly to each other as described above, the balance of power in education will shift.” (p. 142)

When schools fail to provide the learning that students demand, Christensen predicts, it will be a disruptive innovation, a user driven network, afforded by technology that will reform education. Is this already happening? Such networks already exist, such as the Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge (connect.downes.ca/index.html), which organizes Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). These inherently participatory networks are possibly at the forefront of what is yet to come.

Combining these somewhat disparate ideas offers a bit of a complexity. The true link between technology being ineffective in transforming education and technology being a driving force behind education is the idea of purpose. How can purpose be wrestled away from simply social, communicative, entertainment, and gaming devices back into a meaningful path of collective advancement? Can our youth learn to re-purpose innovations that they’ve already purposed for the aforementioned uses toward the ends of collaborative, collective advancement and problem-solving tools? Within these questions lay the foundation for prediction.

Crystal Castles, by Frogman

Evolution and Technology

2010-09-25T17:59:00.001-07:00

At what point does an idea, innovation, or action become technology? The simplicities within the question may rest upon one’s definition of technology. The term refers to the application of knowledge for some practical purpose (New Oxford American Dictionary). The reason for the question is to pursue a different path for seeking reasons why technology comes slow to education, fails to transform learning, and to propose new methods for integrating technology in the classroom.

Jared Diamond, in Guns, Germs, and Steel, examined technology’s role in human societies by addressing the maxim “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Diamond spun this notion that technology exists not simply as a matter of necessity, but rather as a product of innovation, trial-and-error, and the opportunity to do so; making invention the mother of necessity. When some innovation is applied to practice and alters the course of how that practice is done, things change, and needs arise. Diffusion occurs and the impact of the innovation ripples through society. Societies, Diamond claims, that offer the most opportunities for individual and group engagement in innovative exploration will be the most advanced societies.

As a society, for example, we’ve become enamored with the gadgetry behind electronic tools that some corporation has purposed for us. Technology as it is “seen” today generally exists in the mobile devices, e-readers, social- and multi-media consuming electronics that flood consumer markets. These devices are both the supply and demand of themselves. Marketing seems to be a very simple business for these products; people are told what they want, and then the are shown a product that is tailored to be everything they’re told they want. This perspective is quite ingenious, because to sell a new product, all companies have to do is either make a product that does those things better, or re-define what people want. But is that all we are? Are we really a society comprised of mindless, thoughtless consumers? Do people always jump on board with technologies for their transformative qualities?

Of course… Sometimes… Well, not really. Actually, its pretty rare that innovative concepts are employed, even though that their use may revolutionize current activities, behaviors, and practices. My daughter, Carmen, who is three years old, loves A Bug’s Life. This Disney/Pixar animation is one of my favorite as well, due to the masterful story and the messages that can be gleaned from the characters. A favorite scene is the opening harvest showing every ant in the colony (except the royal family) engaged in harvesting the way it had always been done, marching inline to deliver seeds to the collecting spot. Meanwhile, Flick (main character) is harvesting grass seeds at a rate that is obviously 10+ times greater than his fellow citizens of the colony using a homemade contraption constructed for this purpose. However, when his machine ejects the stem of the grass, it launches directly at the princess, knocking her down. Flick, unaware of his actions comes scurrying apologetically.

The lessons from this story are applicable to all audiences and consecutive viewings can be rewarded by discovery of new messages. This theme that technology is not always accepted and appreciated, regardless of the societal implications it may offer, catches us off guard. Flick was rebuked for being innovative, eventually being cast out of the colony. Humans (or ants) can be dumb, stubborn, and so rooted in the status quo or the powers that be, that the most obvious benefits to mankind can be overlooked for a change in practice. Is there evidence of innovators being cast out of society -- or worse -- because of an innovation? History abounds in examples!

It is possible that this definition has become something different; something less complex. Despite the sophistication that exists within the design of Web 2.0 applications, interactive whiteboards, and especially the hand-held supercomputers that many of us wave around, this is not technology. Even though the tools are complex, the definition has become too simple.

Without being overly critical of people’s use of technology, the reason for the statement is to reflect the underlying nature of technology and the role humans play in it’s deployment and employment. Presumably, if a product fails to meet expectations of consumers, it fails to establish a market, or even a share of a market. This process of consumer selection can be likened to Darwinian evolution, where the weak and poorly adaptable fall away and only the most fit technologies survive for the 2.0 version. But is the same true for speciation? Have new technologies arisen out of consumer demand for a certain attribute of technology?

Music has been central to society since societies began forming. In recent centuries, the value of musicians, composers, and concert performances arose out of the advancement of the value of music and its ability to create shared experiences. Since Edison’s phonograph, it has been the people’s demand for music that has driven the pursuit of more mobile forms of music availability. Technological innovation regarding people’s desire for music is an interwoven path of selection and speciation, with live performances fading away in preference for DJ’d music spun from records, to 8-track players in cars, to the Sony Walkman, to the iPod. Yes, there are several jumps within and across the stages that are missing, but the point is that people drove the rise and fall of innovation by adopting and dismissing technologies based on the purpose behind how they wanted to consume music. However, “I want to listen to Zeppelin anywhere I am” has not diminished the “I would love to see Zeppelin in concert”. People’s desire for music holds onto the social value of the availability of music. Music serves a purpose in society and culture.

The central idea here is that without purpose, there is no need for a tool. If there were no need to drive nails, there would be no need for a hammer, nor any other power implement that does that function. Similarly, without a desire for social networking, there would be no need for the vast array of electronic and web based devices that serve that purpose. So despite the seemingly mindless engagement in social media and consumption of devices that enable this, humans do still retain control over themselves in light of a technology-driven perception.

This perception, especially prevalent in high schools across the country, is that people (teenagers) are so connected to their technology and mobile devices that they cannot act on what is of highest importance: sleep is lost, family is discarded, school and academics are devalued. Instead the purpose that technology has imposed upon their socially-wired brains has consumed them. If this statement seems off, watch as a high school is being dismissed for the day, and every student clambers for their cell phones, iPods, smart phones, etc. There is something amiss regarding what is known to be true about technology and what is happening in reality: even though people determine the purpose of a tool, and therefore determine its value and success in the ecology of technology in a society people continue to instead be directed by technology.

Consider another avenue, the classroom. Despite the role technology plays in our culture, it has left learning intact. Technology has forever been shoo’d by school teachers, administrators, and experts who claimed that certain technologies would lead to a diminished academic experience. An example of this was the resistance to the ball-point pen resulting in decreased retention due to the reliance upon notes. However, even though most educators would agree that learning is much more than consumption of content and subsequent recall, the pedagogy has not progressed very far to meet that consensus.

Educators who recognized that the purpose of the pen could be for more than writing down things that should be remembered, began using it to allow for thought projection and development. Written thoughts are expressed thoughts. Expressed thoughts demonstrate growth of learning and understanding. The purpose of the tool transformed learning. The sea of examples containing implications of technology on learning is as vast as it is deep. As technology continues to develop down paths of strict market consumption, we must consider the role purpose plays.

As schools continue to resist innovations, technology is purposed based on the superficial desires of society. Students cannot fathom the ways in which cell phones can be used in the classroom. To them and most adults, their purpose is for texting, photo sharing, Facebook, and, to a lesser degree, talking. These things have been purposed by the culture in which they grew up in, and it is nearly irreversible. As tools become more available to schools and classrooms, the lack of a purpose centered on learning becomes the bulwark of integration -- for students, teachers, and parents.

A recent push for technology in learning is the concept of educational gaming. Researchers such as James Paul Gee have placed a significant emphasis on the potential for learning in an environment to which children so naturally ascribe their focus, attention, and energy. However, at its core, educational gaming is an effort to repurpose technology for something for which it was not intended. Young children recognize the superficiality of educational games and will not perform as well there as they would in HALO 4 (or whatever).

If purpose is the reason for the existence of technology, then it also determines the value of the technology. Not to be misconstrued for demand, purpose is simply how the technology is leveraged. Using this as a construct provides insight into that point at which technology takes it’s place in society, and therefore insight into the selection and speciation of technology. It is there that we can begin to unfold the layers of difficulty educators and administrators have had trying to transform learning through integration into the classroom. It seems many questions have gone unanswered at the conclusion of this critique. This is by design. The hope is that more questions arise and lead to academic pursuits which will hopefully lead to more directed approaches to technology integration and development within classrooms.

YouTube Search Stories

2010-09-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

Perhaps one of the neatest things I've seen Google/YouTube do recently. I'd like to see every teacher in my building create one of these for their introductions on Tuesday. I might make a few of these...

Obstacles to the 21st Century Education

2010-08-04T16:59:00.001-07:00

So I received a comment on a previous blog post. When I started to address the question it posed, the response kinda ran away from me. I’ve regained control and have provided the product here as a new post. I should be careful; if I address every comment like this 1) I’ll never get anything done and 2) I’ll never get another comment...

In response to posting a video introducing my research goals, a good friend of mine asked a very good question:

“So...What do you see as the biggest road blocks to giving the students of America this dynamic education. Funding? Pedagogy? Resistance to status quo (by adults of course?) Government interference? University teacher preparation? The technology gap?”

There are many very viable, substantial, and compounding obstacles in the way of providing an education fitting of the 21st century. No single road block stated can be taken alone. Additionally, the research base for drawing conclusions to these issues are underdeveloped. My response will be somewhat opinionated, but driven by what is available.

Funding is rarely not an issue. However, given the availability of free and very-low-cost tools such as Wikispaces (PBWorks and WetPaint are others), Google Docs, Ning, and others, the investment is not the major concern. The concern of funding is more appropriately directed to the equipment needed to facilitate these hybrid or completely online environments. Computers are expensive and districts are currently unable to structure budgets to account for technology tools. Renovation of education is inevitable, however. The way in which schools distribute money will change. How this occurs and how money is repurposed leads to the next road block.

Race to the Top, the new and improved form of No Child Left Behind, may not be well-received in the hearts of practicing educators. This interference certainly places restrictions on education that will be felt for years. Its implications are being felt quite heavily in New York City and New York State with the recent fiasco regarding the trumpeted-then-retracted success of mayoral control and assessment-based accountability (see here, here, and here). Truly, the concept of racing to the top with one (maybe a few) winners with everyone else being losers might not be the best model for education reform. However, this all ensures that schools reconsider where and how their dollars are spent. This does not occur in a vacuum, away from external influence. School government allows for voice and expression of community values as the school is a derivative of the community and responsible for the education and development of the community’s children. Whose voice will be heard, if any at all, when schools redefine spending?

This leads us to the next set of obstacles. There are three blocks mentioned that I’d like to take collectively: teacher preparation, pedagogy, and resistance of the status quo. I will assume that by “status quo”, this is referring to the held belief of many that technology was not used in their education, so it is unnecessary for the education of their children. This view employs a very narrow definition of the term technology (application of knowledge for practical purposes - New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd ed.) as technology has always been employed in instruction. There is, within this definition, a skepticism about the impact certain technologies have been assumed to have. Electronic textbooks are a recent “big deal” that haven’t had much influence, and the laptop initiatives are yet to produce a complete model of success. If that is the case, the status quo must have a source. Where does this skepticism originate?

I contend that the origin of this skepticism is in the deep-rooted practical nature of pedagogy. When concerning ourselves with the method and practice of teaching, is it assumed that pedagogy is static and unchanging? Is there a specific practice of teaching that has proven to ultimately lead to a set of “learned” students? The nature of diversity, especially seen when entering the classroom, assumes that pedagogy is dynamic and relative to the class of students such that the learner dictates the method with which they are taught. If this is a statement that can be agreed upon, then I shall proceed by applying it to the purpose of this comment reply.

Teachers are known to reluctantly and pertinaciously maintain the instructional methods that have sustained them throughout their career to the point of stereotype. Modifications are often made to accommodate district/state mandates (electronic grade-book or assessments). Consider that the teachers renowned for success are those whom emphasize order and procedure as opposed to learning (see “The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher”). Is this odd? The primary instruction found in schools today is an outdated pedagogy that fails to account for the technology and technological content knowledge necessary to educate 21st century students. When there is no impetus to change, no change will occur. In the video is a quote from Gary Stager that can’t be ignored, despite the generalization: “Teachers tend to become dependent on teacher-proof systems and stop exercising professional judgement” (“The Games Teachers Play”). The education of our preservice teachers is an area in which these needs can be addressed, and they are in institutions around the nation, but reliance upon this slow, generational transition of instruction cannot be the only place in which to hold hope.

Therefore, pedagogy is the major obstacle to the educational environments that best serve the needs of our students. The instructional methods of millions of teachers must be awakened to accurately reflect the term pedagogy: a changing, dynamic understanding of what it takes to educate, adequately accompanied by knowledge of content and technology in order to reach students where they are (www.tpack.org). In a school comprised of teachers that fit this model, the technology gap will cease to exist, administrators and community will no longer fuss about assessments and accountability, and students will exercise their full potential, becoming successful and responsible members of the civic body.

The teachers ultimately hold the balance of power to restore faith and trust in the institution of education through their oath as a professional in the art of pedagogy. If teachers continue to passively surrender the power over their profession to makers of policy - those that know little, if anything about education - who expects to be satisfied with the result? Not I.

Research Interests

2010-08-04T08:40:00.001-07:00

When I set out to begin a PhD in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology, my aim was to explore the educational and academic possibilites of online collaborative environments toward the development of a blueprint of sorts for their proper employment in classrooms. Education has been historically slow in realizing the potential that many tools have for classroom use and as a result, technology must be repurposed in order for it to be used effectively in schools. What I mean by this is technology has been received with skepticism, as being unnecessary, and an inhibitor to learning over the last several decades. In a technology-infused society, tools with the capability to bridge distances and connect people in ways never before possible, it is unwise and negligent to keep them out of the classroom. However, these technologies have already been purposed in society as a means of social networking for entertainment and correspondence. When the potential exists for them to be used for greater functions such as addressing academic and educational concerns, teachers, administrators, and parents, resist their ability to serve those capacities. The result is a generation of individuals who are unable to see how powerful technologies can be used differently.

If online collaborative tools are employed in younger grades and used during the formative years of education, children will develop an understanding of the full function and capabilities of powerful forms of networking, collaboration, cooperation, and collective abilities. Resistance to such simply extends the unfocused purposing of this technology and perpetuates the generational inability to realize the potential of online collaborative environments toward social, economic, and political issues plaguing our society.

How Do You Know What You Know?

2010-07-28T09:41:00.001-07:00

My daughter, almost three years, has reached the stage in her cognition where she is always asking "Why?" Sometimes, she's questioning authority or a statement or even a reality and I respond with an assertion such as "because that's the way it is". Often it's a good question, and I respond with what I can in order to take this simple question and produce a bit of true understanding for her. I want her to grow up curious about her world. I want her to explore it and build understanding that leads her toward an increasingly successful future. But it's what she says after I provide a response that leads me to the following: "Why?"

How do we know what we know? Seems like an odd question, but there is not a consensus about the answer. You're not likely to ever really consider what this question entails, or pursue it through to it's end. But follow me as I try to capture some of my thinking as I ponder the implications of this question, specifically related to educational technology.

Constructivism is a theory that states that the way we learn is through a process of building understanding as a result of an active cognitive encounter with a new learning experience. The understanding we have about our world changes, but it may or may not change significantly depending on how a learning experiences challenge the way we understand something to be. We we add into this process, the people with whom we learn, directly or indirectly, we have social constructivism - building or constructing knowledge together through our shared experiences and understandings.

Recently I was engaged in a conversation regarding the debate over how we know what we know. The other camp in opposition to constructivism asserts a very objective position. What this means is that scientific research and the scholars that have participated in building this body of knowledge we rely upon and teach to our children is truth, fact, and larger than humanity. This knowledge of the world is bigger than just "how we see it". They state that if we cease to exist, our understanding of the world would live on. This differs from the subjective camp in that constructivists claim that our knowledge is dependent upon culture and the people that have created that understanding.

The conversation I was engaged in was focused on educational technology. Regardless of where individuals stand, the way in which we employ technology has always had an impact on this debate. So, where does educational technology fit?

Educational technology is critical to the subjective camp - at least it is inherently associated. This is so because never before have participants to the construction of knowledge been so superfluous and involved. No longer is information so tightly controlled by aristocratic academics. Some may see this as decreasing the aggregated wealth of knowledge and understanding, but civilizations have known the cost of knowledge being too limited (Dark Ages). Society rests upon the accumulated wealth of understanding we all build every single day. Students are the future of this wealth and it is the station of educational technology to continue it's advance through investment in it rather than deposits from it.

We have the chance to become participants and to allow our students to become participants as well. Are we controlled by the body of knowledge or do we take part in controlling it? How do you know what you know?

Educational Technology and Constructivism

2010-07-28T09:40:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Stresses on Education - Learning Abilities, Culture, and the Brain

2010-07-23T10:37:00.001-07:00

I've been asked to describe the role of education on intelligence. It appears as though education may not have a “role” in any of the differing views on what intelligence is, how to measure it, or how to increase it. Considering the inability to generate a consensus as to what intelligence is or how to classify, categorize, and interpret different types of intelligences, this tells us that we may never understand it to the point of developing structures and environments to “produce” it. Intelligence is elusive. Unfortunately, so much pressure and stake is placed on that which we are unable to describe. Our institutionalized educational practices such as grading provides little to no insight into one’s intelligence. This could be a product of flawed grading methods used by the teacher, low motivation but high efficacy of the student, and many other alternatives. However, it still stands that education has long had a problem of identifying, producing, and increasing intelligence. That all sounds a bit paradoxical.

What then of the great push toward free, compulsory education? Our culture has developed from the simple melting pot into what has become a “mixing bowl”, consisting of a greater diversity than America has ever seen. The statistic that was striking was that by 2050 (within our lifetime) there will be no majority race or ethnicity. A nation that prides itself in the great maxim that “out of many, we are one” (E Pluribus Unum) has never been farther from it. We’re not one of anything. Since WWII, our society (I can’t even say “our culture”) has increasingly become more accepting of ethnic and cultural differences - almost, it seems, against our will. In the golden ages of public education, when the government first started funding millions of dollars to education in order to produce scientists and engineers to combat communism, the classroom was not diverse; at least the segregated schools weren’t diverse. SInce the Civil Rights Movement (and the subsequent spin-off equal rights movements) and through the 70s, American society has pushed public education to serve the greater needs of all demographics, no one is expected to assimilate. Johnson’s Great Society ushered in a wave of ideological reforms to close the income gap and increase the likelihood of a chance to succeed, putting American society on the path toward multiculturalism.

Since then, schools have grown into the provider of all things. It seems that every piece of educational legislation passed since has increased the demands of schools, and none of them have made teaching students any easier. While this all certainly makes a strong case for civic education, the effects of diversity on education is difficult to grasp. To do so involves conversations on motivation, expectations, stereotyping, gender differences and bias, and language acquisition and barriers. These effects exact a staggering toll on the teachers and students. Consider the perspective of a Hispanic girl, whose parents speak no English, and are unable to overcome unemployment - the odds stacked against her are seemingly insurmountable! What if she is labeled as having a learning disability, what then? This is not a far-fetched scenario. As we have been frighteningly unable to educate children out of poverty (meaning the cycle of poverty continues despite increased educational opportunities), how are we to educate the whole packages?

This makes us wonder, do we even stand a chance? Does education hold the promise for our future?

Final Thoughts on Motivation

2010-07-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

There are few things that are as perplexing and complex in the study of psychology as motivation. In the educational setting the factors that influence student learning behaviors are interwoven and dynamic, changing from classroom to classroom, hour to hour. A good question for the teacher, parent, administrator, or ed psych student may be “How can teachers possibly make a difference?” The first step to identifying an answer for that question is to look into the role schools play on affecting student motivation. Fortunately, as complex as motivation is, it is also well-studied. Learning environments play a significant role in the students’ ability to sustain efforts in the classroom. However, this role is too often negative. This is not likely to be intentional, therefore making understanding motivation even more important.

Students’ need to belong, defined by Maslow, generates a strong pull for students to become engaged intensely within a community of learners. The concept of legitimate peripheral participation suggests that even novices are motivated to participate in order to acquire and maintain their membership and identity. In this sense, online communities can effectively motivate learners to become involved in ways they may not be able to in face-to-face settings. Consider communities such as Classroom 2.0, or the MACULSpace, two Ning networks where teachers are encouraged to join to learn more about the role technologies play in learning. By creating an environment where learning is important, teachers can take great strides toward increasing students motivation. Additionally, self determination theory asserts that motivation is high among students who feel a sense of relatedness to teachers, peers, and parents.

Within the realm of learning, students’ personal needs are greatly overlooked, underestimated, and ignored. Often, parents and students alike tend to prefer teachers and classrooms that are controlling. These classrooms have the appearance of order and focus, but may instead be decreasing students’ need for autonomy. Rules, deadlines, schedules, orders, and limits are all external controls that students struggle against. Increasing the pressures beyond these elements may allow teachers and classrooms to increase students’ self determination.

Goals are a very common source of motivation. Regardless of size or scope, they can provide the necessary impetus to achieve. There are many aspects of the school setting that alter the kinds of goals students make. Although performance and competition are often very motivating forces, these kinds of activities can lead students to become ego-involved learners, setting goals that focuses on the performance rather than the learning. Additionally, teacher feedback can assist students to relate positively to goal achievement. By providing feedback appropriately and timely, student achievement toward that goal, and therefore their motivation in the task, can be greatly improved.

School has a significant influence in the self-efficacy of students. Every time a student receives feedback on work, tests and quizzes, comments, and other interactions, this feedback likely alters the student’s beliefs about his or her abilities. Taken together, these can create students who are empowered to achieve and students who believe that their abilities are fixed and uncontrollable. The differences between these are vast and generate the complex environment in which we teach.

Schools, therefore, are both the cause and the promise for creating and sustaining motivated learners. The solution is in the increased understanding of the impacts that teachers have on motivation and learning.

Be sure to read the post that came before this one: "Understanding Motivation"

Understanding Motivation

2010-07-22T19:28:00.009-07:00

If you were asked what motivated you, what would you say? My wife would say she is motivated by competition, which explains a lot of things; particularly it explains why I have never beaten her in a game of "Horse". Often, our motivations extend much deeper into our cognition and who we really are as an individual.

I sought out to explore this in response to an assignment called "Understanding Motivation" given this past week for my graduate proseminar. The task was to interview someone to seek what motivates them to learn. Funny how that assignment seems so simple, yet within it reside two of the broadest terms in all of psychology - motivate and learn. Truly, these provided for a vast amount of freedom within the task, but also made it nearly impossible to determine what I wanted to produce as a result of this activity. I decided to put a few notes on paper, but to really let my interview determine the outcome of my final product; perhaps as a journalist would proceed.

For my interview subject, I wanted a student whom I knew was available, but would also provide the best responses without worrying about the content of his/her answers. I teach freshman U.S. History in a public school, so finding an adolescent who fit this description isn't as easy as it sounds. However, I probably picked the best subject imaginable for this interview.

Chris is a fifteen year old who is as teenage male as it gets. I was able to secure a few hours with him between practices and games, as this is the intense part of his summer baseball schedule. I sent him a text message asking him if he'd honor me with his time, and, upon agreeing, I asked him to give me a call when he had the chance so I could relate to him a few of my questions and allow him a chance to prepare. This was on Sunday, and we agreed from the phone conversation to meet Tuesday. He sent a text Monday evening saying "Mr. Bruce, Is there anyway you can make that interview Wednesday? I won't be ready tomorrow. Thank you much :)" I knew then I had the right person.

We spoke for over two hours Wednesday afternoon, discussing his passions for math and physics, baseball, football, how those interests inspire him, the role that his passions affect his relationships with friends and family, etc. He related examples of times when he was particularly challenged, and how, after a test on which he did poorly over a topic that he could not comprehend, he pursued understanding because of the challenge. With no reward, the challenge motivated him. He explained the difference between loving something because you are good at it and being good at it because you love it. His drives to learn and achieve are powerful, deep, and intensely intrinsic.

I had over two hours of audio to sort through, but the experience was great. He shed light on aspects of motivation I had not considered. When the conversation moved into work - something he does almost strictly for money - he motivated himself by making it personal, to advance himself for his future by having this to refer to when applying for more rewarding work later on. However, once he was at work (cooking in a restaurant) his motivations had a very moral and ethical flavor. The desire to do his best at this task, one in which has consequences far greater than many occupations, Chris competes with himself to serve the best dish possible. And if he wouldn't eat it, he won't serve it.

Where else can morality and ethics play a role in motivation? In our conversation about sports, Chris related a situation where he was expected to play basketball, almost solely because he is good. He decided against it because his enjoyment for it did not exist and he would not allow himself to take the position of someone who really does enjoy it. By stating this, he provided insight into the question "can you love something because you're good at it?" However, his decision follows an unwritten social code. By not playing, his considerations for unknown, unaware classmates are unthanked. His decision to do what he felt was right is a profound motivator.

The study of motivation continues to explore the interplay between internal and external forces. As sure as we are about why we act or behave, a little digging can reveal hidden motivations. Aspects of personality, morality, social constructs, and situations all affect our behavior - all at once. On the surface, Chris may have been considered lazy by some classmates (potential teammates) by not playing basketball, but within, he made a decision that affected unknown others. He may mope his way to work, but once there, you'd never see it in the intensity of his efforts in the kitchen. On the field, he performs as though he has been coached from birth, but really it's the aspiration of overcoming greater talent. In the classroom, his teachers can revel in their success, but their PowerPoint is scratching the surface of what is possible.

Download now or listen on posterous

Understanding_Motivation.m4a (6080 KB)

Testing the Waters

2010-07-22T19:28:00.007-07:00

Below is a piece written as part of a debate regarding the "Bowling Alone" post from last week. In this particular step in the debate, I assume the position of the other side in this argument that technology will continue to drain our social capital. Essentially, "The way I understand your side is..."

By increasing the quantity of communication and reducing the substance of conversations that once challenged people’s beliefs and intellectual structures, technology has watered-down the interactions that once built and sustained the social capital necessary for a self-governed people.

Interactions among and between humans in a society is a necessary part of American political culture. The conversations, discussions, and arguments that occur as a result of gatherings, conferences, leagues, and church potlucks (a few of the many examples), create a social capital that exists within and among the civic body. This capital is comprised of the ideas, understandings, opinions, and debates that, taken collectively, drive engagement in civic responsibilities and allow a population to self-govern. When identifying the underlying factor to a significant, threatening decline in social capital, there is no need to look any further than television.

The ferocious rate at which Americans purchased televisions through the 1950s created a generation of children wired for the consumption of television. As this generation trickled into adulthood, comprising an increasing quantity of the population, their values began to impact and upset social capital. The consumption of television programming created a demand met by broadcasting corporations set in motion a vacuum of social capital, the impacts of which still resonate and will continue to do so.

The interaction and discourse necessary to increase or even sustain social capital cannot be achieved through technology-based communities. The connections that are created are often superficial and will not lead to the substantive exchanges as were commonplace in the pre-television bowling alley. Additionally, the political or cultural activism that sparks from time to time built in a social networking platform may seem hopeful. However, this is a collection of like-minded individuals who are uninterested in discourse that challenges them to defend a position and, therefore, perpetuates the decline.

As people disengage from social experiences, so goes with it the construction of our world as it were. As technology advances beyond the television into an era in which social communication and interaction has been relegated to vapid exchanges devoid of substance and worth, the reservoir of social capital will continue to drain.

So what's the verdict? Are there pieces to this controversy that have been neglected? From the "Bowling Alone" post to this one, have all considerations been made?

A.V. Undercover | The A.V. Club

2010-07-22T19:28:00.005-07:00

via avclub.com

If you know me, then you know I enjoy The Onion for it's socio-political satire. Disregarding this for a moment, I'd like to share a great break from whatever consumes you for a moment, coincidentally brought to us through The Onion.

As a music lover, I've sought a variety of resources that provides insight into music that breaks the mold, transcends the old, and serves as a refuge from the trash that often pollutes the radio waves and, too often, the inter-tubes. Enter A.V. Club.

This source is a great way to discover or uncover "new" music. My favorite thing they do is invite and challenge bands to cover songs that they've chosen for whatever reason that week. What is produced is remarkable and speaks to those of us studying the limits of creativity.

So for those of you in my EPET cohort: Take a break! That goes for the rest of you, too.

Bowling Alone

2010-07-22T19:28:00.003-07:00

It's warm. Our heat index is somewhere in the upper nineties and I's not even reached the hottest part of the day. A good thing to do on a day like today is to sit; relax, rest, do that which requires almost no physical movement at all. The best part about this is that while you sit, you can also read.

That's right. There's no better opportunity for some cognitive stimulation than when it's 90+ outside (and perhaps inside for those unfortunate souls without air conditioning).

I've taken this opportunity to read a 1995 work from Robert Putnam called "Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strage Disappearance of Social Capital in America". This lecture was actually a precursor to a book Putnam later wrote called Bowling Alone. His work seeks to identify the factors that are responsible for the significant decline in social capital in America.

He identifies social capital as the civic "engagement in community affairs" (p. 664), or the networks created by the engagement in groups or possibly created for specific purposes or to achieve a goal. This social interaction produces a civic efficacy that leads to a more productive civic body; Putnam concludes with a quote from his predecessor, Ithiel de Sola Pool, stating that the decline, caused by technology, "will promote individualism and will make it harder, not easier, to govern and organize a coherent society."

The question that struck me comes from his assertion that technology will reinforce a generational trend that has produced a society very detached from each other. I question, "How can the socially charged, connection-dependent technology of today - becoming increasingly ubiquitous - be responsible for continuing a trend toward individualism and a decline in social capital?"

First, some observations. Recent elections, national and state, have produced results that do not demonstrate a significant degree of disparity between candidates. Runoff elections, manually recounting ballots, and elections in which official's seats remain unfilled due to the prolonged nature of elections that are essentially 50-50 suggest a trend that Putnam was getting after. In teaching social studies to high school students, I have proposed this inquiry as a public policy issue. What does it mean when popular elections fail to choose a candidate? Is it because the candidates have attributes that are equally appealing across ideologies? Or, rather, is it suggestive of the apathetic nature of the civic body? With a population that has become disengaged civically, elections (regardless of how many people actually vote) become a coin-toss. See John Stossel's 20/20 report on why it may be unfruitful for some to vote.

The trend identified by Putnam pointed to the television as the single most responsible culprit in causing the loss of social capital. Television, as a technology, has forever changed society in many ways, particularly through the mass communication mode. It is responsible for delivering the realities of a distant war in Vietnam and for demonstrating the power of intellectual achievements when the approximately 600 million people around the world watched Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin dance on the Moon. Can television really have also caused the disengagement of citizens from their civic nature?

Putnam's arguments are compelling, specifically his assertions regarding the role of television on time displacement (time spent watching TV is irrevocably removed from the available 24 hours of the day) and the effects on children (TV consumes as much time as all other discretionary activities combined, effectively de-socializing youth).

However, the question remains, "What about the technologies we enjoy today?" Certainly these technologies cannot be compared to the "brain-drain" nature of the TV. Putnam suggested that the current social capital "low" is a generational effect caused by television. There is no way to alter or counter such a significant social change or development. This suggests that it will be a half century before the current generation imprinted with current socially-driven technologies can counter this effect. However, are we sure that this generation of youths, the Y-Generation (weird calling them that, because I don't get much inquiry from them in the classroom...) are using the technology in a way that will produce an increase in social capital? I am not so sure that the social nature of the technology they use is inherently creating a more engaged civic body.

This opens up opportunities for further research to see what conclusions, if any, have been made regarding a generational shift back toward civic engagement due in part to social technologies. Keith Hampton from MIT, along with Barry Wellman from the University of Toronto, has attempted to tackle this very question. In his publication, "Neighboring in Netville" (2003), Hampton concluded that a wired, "always-on" community demonstrated a reversal of the trend observed by Putnam and "intensified the volume and range of neighborly relations" (p.305).

Much has changed since 2003. A major shift in the community nature of social networking sites has exponentially increased the contacts we have. These may or may not be substantive affiliations, but they do speak to the work to be done in analyzing the impact of technology in society.

Order in Chaos

2010-07-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

My dad was a man who appreciated hobbies. He wasn’t the kind to collect stuff, but rather he was a man of construction. He knew what he could do with his hands. It seems that you never appreciate things until after it’s gone, and this knack that dad had I am only beginning to understand in the years since his passing.

Dad grew up as a logger. Timber was his trade, but in his late twenties, he took a job in the booming mining industry in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He would work at the Empire Mine excavating iron ore from what would become the world’s largest open iron ore pit. By the end of his career, he became the General Foreman of Pit Operations, overseeing everything that would come in and go out of this hole in the ground that measured two miles long, a mile wide, and a mile deep (a roughly 7.7 billion cubic meter hole - See it here).

Of the many things he was good at, I’ve come to recognize that masonry may have been his favorite craft. I believe that he recognized that masonry was more than a trade but rather an art. Our home began as a rather modest pre-manufactured log home, but grew with the family (my parents would have 8 children). At the front of the house, dad built a four-foot stone facade that served simply for aesthetics. This low wall was comprised of huge flat stones carefully selected to fit like puzzle pieces and held together with only enough mortar to keep them in place. For me, it was largely under-appreciated and taken for granted. His masonry work can be seen all over the small rural community in which I grew up; the most recent of which is the stone chimney in my brother's house.

In 1963, Bernard K. Forscher had a letter published in Science, titled “Chaos in the Brickyard”. In this letter, Forscher told a story about the relationship between builders and brickmaking and the consequences of building bricks without concern for the edifice. His story describes how “once upon a time” builders would design and build edifices using bricks they themselves made in order to specifically meet the needs of the edifice. In this story the builders were analogous to scientists, the bricks facts, and the edifices laws or explanations. The story falls apart when Forscher describes how, in the interest of efficiency and cost-effectiveness, the making of bricks was a task assigned to someone who could specialize in that area (junior scientists). Serving their own interests, the brickmakers created such a plethora of bricks of every different shape, size, color, and purpose, that the builders would have the flexibility to pick and choose from the multitude, rather than special-order kinds of brick.

As a result, the story concludes:

“Unfortunately, the builders were almost destroyed. It became difficult to find the proper bricks for a task because one had to hunt among so many. It became difficult to find a suitable plot for construction of an edifice because the ground was covered with loose bricks. It became difficult to complete a useful edifice because, as soon as the foundations were discernible, they were buried under an avalanche of random bricks. And, saddest of all, sometimes no effort was made even to maintain the distinction between a pile of bricks and a true edifice.”

It is understandable how this applies to science -- medical research in particular -- and the pitfalls of losing sight of what is important in the work of constructing “edifices”. However, I see a very contemporary relevance to a rather unrelated aspect of our society and culture.

Education in the 21st century is plagued with a barrage of challenges, each with it’s own army of activists working to affect change. When we consider the social, cultural, and ethical implications of an excessively dynamic technological surge, we must begin to see the need to carefully and intentionally include proper technology tools in our instruction.

A problem that hampers the push to more effectively integrate the right technology tools is that there seems to be a large contingency of educators interested in the tools. Conferences and conventions are bringing unneeded attention to the multitude of technologies that may or may have no or limited affordances on student learning and cognition. Topics and sessions like “Cool Tools for School!” and the “Top 20 Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom” are all about the glamour of 21st century education.

With the field of educational technologies (and tools not intended for technology working their way into the field) doubling at such an alarming rate, teachers in the classroom are incapacitated by an inability to integrate technologies already out-of-date. Similarly, schools are trying to meet the social demands of student technology use by employing some technologies and outright banning some. This uninformed policy-making is costly in both budget and in time lost, meaning that when student technology use has been limited so has the education that accompanies it - forever. It is no wonder why a large percentage of teachers in our schools are resistant to technology integration.

It seems like the rush to create - and the fool-hardy consumption of - technologies intended for education has trained us to respond too quickly to what is best for education. It pays to tread carefully and to intentionally explore what works best, not for someone over there, but for you and your students.

Let’s bring these analogies full-circle. I remember when I was young, my dad and I went for a ride out to a portion of our property where he had excavated a portion of a field to expose the bedrock below the surface. In my dad’s craft of stone-masonry, he never simply put stones into a wall. Stones were laid a few at a time, having been carefully selected for that spot in the wall. The stone itself had properties, however, when taken into the context of the wall was part of a greater whole, and dad was sensitive to this perspective an artist knows the whole mural even as she works on a small area. In that particular visit to the “quarry”, he would select only two.

I see the value in that contemplation; the deliberate nature of his efforts, and the design of the whole from individual pieces. I see a very practical application of this methodical process in our integration of technologies into education. I also see the contagion of “cool” tools crippling this at every turn. So what’s the answer?

Chris Lehmann, principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philidelphia, PA, wrote what he felt made a “great teacher”. Written in 2003, this blog post still strikes me as stunningly grounded on what’s important in any age. Among the twelve elements he thought were critical (see them all here), I identified two that are increasingly needed, but increasingly left out of training and professional development:

#5 - A willingness to change

#7 - A willingness to reflect

When taken in combination as a cycle, these are powerful elements that allow us as teachers to never be caught up in the hype of new tools, but to rather be mindful that there are things that can make instruction better, and after the employment of any aspect of a lesson/unit/or year, to reflect on how that could have been better and to seek that which may have been missing striving to make instruction better. Dan Maas recently tweeted (6/29/10) “The killer app for 21st century learning is a good teacher”. Prescient.

Take pride in being a “builder”.

Inaugural bonfire at the Bruce's.

2010-07-22T19:27:00.005-07:00

Looking Ahead

2010-07-22T19:27:00.003-07:00

"What are you going to school for?" While going to college, a student should prepare him/herself to answer this question at least a hundred times. My response was always "to teach", or "to become a teacher", or even to some, "I've always wanted to teach history". Of the many times that I had been asked that question, there's one particular dialogue I'll never forget.

I was working with a beverage distribution company and had finished up a stop and was in conversation with the owner when he asked me what I was doing in college. In reply I was quick and concise. He enthusiastically offered the following: "I have a friend who teaches. What a great gig! He works from 8 am to 3 pm nine months of the year; his vacations line up with his kids; and he never takes anything home, because the school's textbook gives him everything he needs to teach the class!"

That conversation left a mark on me. Granted that the dialogue may be misconstrued a word or two, but I retain literary license. Regardless, something kept me from going home and promptly discarding the extensive work I had accumulated to the practice and craft of teaching social studies. Perhaps it was the disdain in the stereotypical reference to the perception of teachers, or maybe that my "profession" was tarnished by the representation and reputation of others before I was even in the classroom. Whatever it was, I became determined to ensure that no one could say those things about me.

As I sit in my den and look up at the wall, I see the two diplomas earned. One is a BS in Education earned at Central Michigan University. This diploma marked the beginning of my professional career, transforming me from a student into someone certified to practice the craft of opening students minds to the world in which they live. The second is a MA in Educational Technology, a degree earned from the College of Educational Psychology and Special Education (CEPSE) at Michigan State University that was designed to challenge the personal and social assumptions of the role that technology plays in student learning and achievement.

These diplomas are symbols of academic achievement, representative of ground gained, progress made, and a shift that has occurred in my role as a professional and/or an academic. This shift has also been accompanied with a change in self-awareness and creates assumptions and expectations regarding the new knowledge. Both of the aforementioned degrees instilled a responsibility to become the greatest teacher I can be and to pursue methods and technologies to design instruction that transforms learning. This has become part of who I am. As a teacher, it is not enough to remain content in the curriculum, textbook, or classroom pedagogy that "worked". Rather I have been informed through the pursuit of the MA, as well as my experiences since then, that contentment in the classroom leads to complacency in the craft of teaching and ultimately the kind of teaching that is plaguing the system of education - the kind described above.

Recently I was accepted into a Educational Psychology and Educational Technology doctoral program through CEPSE at MSU (the same department that issued the MA in Ed Tech). This degree program is designed to explore the affordances and constraints of technology and to provide understanding to a field ripe for research given the rapid expansion of technology resources in social environments. Given the nature of the previous two diplomas, and the nature of the work ahead of me through this research degree, this diploma will not be another simple step in the academic ladder. Rather this diploma will place me in a position where I can advance a multitude of educators to see their profession for what it should be by allowing teachers to reach new levels and to take pride in their craft, transcending the constraints placed upon them by social and political pressure to perform.

This diploma will have a particular symbolic reference, one that is larger in magnitude and in meaning. I hope it's bigger.

My Study Companion

2010-07-22T19:27:00.001-07:00

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0002.mov (14223 KB)

As I sit in my den reading, writing, and completing coursework for my grad classes, I'm accompanied by my daughter Carmen. We have a good time talking about her pictures and what she likes about various things. She's a pal...

Wikispaces Blog - Hey, That's Us!

2010-03-18T14:50:00.001-07:00

via blog.wikispaces.com

Well, since creating my class wiki two years ago we have done some pretty cool things. It has since grown in size and value to become the online environment in which my 9th grade U.S. History classes work. When Wikispaces asked to do a profile on their blog, I immediately shared what I could, because I see a tremendous value in how we use our wiki in our classroom. Take a look for yourselves. Let me know what you think.

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Slow-Jam the News, Jimmy

2010-02-07T08:40:00.001-08:00

Jimmy Fallon has never made me laugh. Recently, I was directed to a clip by Gary Stager from Fallon's latenight show - it took NBC News' Brian Williams to do it though.

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Zinn Education Project

2010-01-04T19:56:00.001-08:00

via zinnedproject.org

Any teacher familiar with Howard Zinn and his "People's History of the United States" will find this very useful. Teachers unfamiliar with Zinn - find out now...

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

"Speak With Conviction" Taylor Mali (Def Poetry)

2009-12-10T20:39:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

From the guy who brought us the story about the impolite dinner guest who asked the teacher, "Be honest, what do you make?" I saw this video embedded on the American Rhetoric homepage, and I had to view it. Thumbs up, Taylor (right?).

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Timeless Message

2009-11-08T13:22:00.001-08:00

This was sent to me in an email and I thought it was patriotic in a nice welcoming way (not over-the-top) and is rather timeless.

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

A (not quite) Two-Year-Old and Her Puzzle

2009-07-17T08:53:00.001-07:00

Below is a video I recorded this morning of my daughter Carmen putting together a very old puzzle. Her mental representation of what the pieces create is solid and she is able to place them where they belong without error - she even makes a joke about one at about 2 minutes: "Does it fit there?" And then she giggles, "No!"

One thing I've learned is to never be too surprised at what Carmen is learning, because she amazes me every time. Here's a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILO7wYPE3Vc

As a side, I also missed a video/picture of another great moment from this morning. Carmen was sitting at the piano plunking the keys and singing her ABCs when she paused and turned the page of the music book above her. She looked at the page and turned to me to say in an apprehensive voice with a matching expression, "Oh, that's a toughie." It was a great moment and I am still chuckling at it.

Posted via email from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Skype an Author Into Your Library or Classroom - Skype An Author Network

2009-07-10T07:22:00.001-07:00

via skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com

Toward the close of this past school year, I had the pleasure of connecting my classroom with another U.S. History classroom in Liberty, MO, using Skype. The teacher, Eric Langhorst, and I configured two half-hour sessions in which our students could discuss recent topics of study.

The impact of that opportunity was amazing. Word spread instantly though the district about what my students did in class and I still hear from people how "cool" they thought that was.

"Cool", although it certainly was that, does not adequately describe the event in its entirety. The instructional implications were far greater. By helping to smash the barriers that enclose learning within the four walls of the classroom, students are able to see how technology should be used in the school and learning.

This wiki, the "Skype and Author Network", is a fantastic project that deserves attention. By allowing students to connect with an author and discuss their book as they are reading makes a lasting impression and solidifies learning that has taken place and opens unique opportunities for enhancement.

The technology required to facilitate this activity is within reach of nearly every classroom I have seen. All a classroom needs is a computer with high-speed Internet access and a web-cam (these can be purchased for $25). For a more enhanced experience, a LCD projector can be used for a larger display, but is not required.

Our students are surrounded by an increasing ubiquity of technology that is advancing at an increasing rate. Teachers do not need to know how to use it all and apply it seamlessly in their lessons for them to participate in the growing trend, they must simply seek simple applications with lasting effects and demonstrate for their students that technology is not just for entertainment and leisure, it is for learning, too.

Posted via web from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Next Year's To-Do List

2009-06-02T21:26:00.001-07:00

Recently, a colleague and Twitter-user, @icmcwaffle, Tweeted, "I'm ready for next Wed. when this school year will be complete...time to look at possibilities for next year..." How true!? Naturally (for me anyway), teachers reflect at a school year's close and wonder what improvements can be made to achieve more the following year... Given the parameters in which a teacher is placed and the continuity between past and future school years, this may differ. However, I believe it to be helpful to consider some change that will likely lead to facilitating a more successful school year than the one that is now at its close.

Personally, I see change forced upon me as I move from 8th grade U.S. History to our high school to teach 9th grade U.S. History -- teaching the same students I have just finished with and picking up after the Civil War where I am leaving off this year. There are apprehensions I have for such a move, and while I am not completely excited for it, I cannot help but recognize the amazing opportunities this provides for me and my students.

Given the level of mutual comfort that I will enjoy with my students and the ease of transition that will occur for them and me, I should be able to implement a greater degree of change and strategy for classroom function and technology use. The following is what I'd like to do next year.

Thinking Like a Historian

This framework was adopted and trademarked through a collaborative effort between the Wisconsin Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater under Nikki Mandell and Bobbie Malone. It develops the process of historical inquiry in students and utilizes five categories of historical thought. I was able to construct a "Beta" version of this process mid year with my 8th graders, but it failed to provide the substance I desired. Starting this at the beginning of the school year and creating a procedural knowledge will create the return-on-investment I desire. View the website for more.

"This Day in History" Classroom Homework Calendar

Begun during the course of the past school year, I'd like to emphasize and promote the use of a class calendar to which students create and contribute daily elements from class. On our class wiki in Wikispaces, I created a calendar structure where each day is a link to a new page. Students can post notes, reminders, handouts, etc, for anyone absent. Check it out here; remember - not fully implemented.

Student Pages in Wikispaces

Another thought popped in my head over winter break this school year and I had to get it started. Due to a recent push toward signifying which state grade level content expectations are being me by each assignment, I desired to include the students more. I create a template page with all of the GLCEs in a table with empty cells to the left of the GLCEs. Students can create a page for themselves at the beginning of the year to which they can post the work that demonstrates their understanding of that GLCE by putting a link to it in the empty cell to the left. We did this to a reasonable degree this year, but still many with nothing. Hopefully teaming (below) will help with this. Let me know what you think.

Fliggo

A a teacher who desires to spend more emphasis on media creation, the largest obstacle is what to do with the videos. Fliggo creates a YouTube-esque platform that users/members can post media to and share. That is an ideal situation for embedding these files within our wikipages or elsewhere. See it for yourself.

Teaming

Having spent so much time with my students will allow me to have an increased command of their personality, character, and preferences; what cliques exist, and who participates in various activities. Given this, I can deliberate over students and successfully generate teams of four into which the students will be responsible for all work, activities, and participation. Teams would be responsible for all work and participation of its members; all absences and attendance would be handled at the team level; competition can be commonplace, emphasizing quality and exhibition of academic performance; failure rate can be non-existent. As a result, I can emphasize the state high school content expectations rather than grades. Have a peek at my "Handbook"; it is a work in progress.

That seems like a good list. For now...

Posted via email from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

Nearly Two Hours I'll Never Regret

2009-05-14T08:34:00.001-07:00

As a teacher of American History, I am also, and always will be, a student of the same. I never tire of acquiring a greater understanding of our collective history. Whether it is reading an historical non-fiction text or articles from journals and periodicals such as Smithsonian, I am at leisure when expanding my conception of various topics in American History.

Over the past twelve months I have been working with a group of other teachers as benefactors of a Teaching American History grant through the Battle Creek Public Schools Consortium. We have been studying Emancipation as a turning point and the Civil War as the vehicle of emancipation and have become "plugged-in" to various readings and resources, both online and offline, to help develop a greater and deeper comprehension of the period.

Once such resource led me to the Teaching American History Podcast. Rather than a podcast in the traditional (is it too early to use that term?) sense, it is more a series of lectures by some of the great minds in historical research. The lectures range in lengths and topics, all intended to strengthen teacher understanding and therefore better history education.

The lecture/podcast that serves as the subject of this post is titled, "The Causes of the Civil War" and is given by James McPherson of Princeton University. He is the author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, a pulitzer-prize winning recollection of that crisis. The title of the lecture seems to be rather aggressive considering the scope of what caused the Civil War.

At well over 1.5 hours, this lecture clearly reinforced content I had previously known, but still was able to lift subtle nuances of my understanding working behind the scenes to generate new comprehension of the turmoil in Antebellum America. From the role of women, to the Constitutional argument of secession, McPherson paints a nearly perfect portrait allowing the listener to relate a greater understanding to his or her students.

This lecture, as mentioned above, is part of a series of podcasted lectures available on the Teaching American History website or through iTunes. Students and teachers alike will find anything they need for some summer refreshers in their content area.

Posted via email from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

What's Holding You Back

2009-05-13T20:16:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, while my students were working on a large-scale, collaborative project that involved publishing content to our class wiki. After some time into the project, I noticed that my students productivity tailing off regarding the content that was posted to the wiki pages for their chosen topic (see class wiki for more). I clicked through the their pages on the classroom computer (using a big screen TV as monitor) at the beginning of each class period and asked them, "What is holding you back?"

Although that is a specific story from a closed situation with limited global significance, I recalled that event after reading David Warlick's recent blog post, "The Containerless Learning Environment." I know his piece was about the traditional mindset that learning should take place in a classroom and how current social norms and technology are butting up against that paradigm. However, as I read, I was thinking about constraints somewhat differently.

When I asked my students what was keeping them from achieving at a level which they were capable, we were discussing our collaborative, cooperative environment -- "who is doing what?" and "I don't want to do more than anyone else." However, the question, "What is holding you back? and "What constraints are there that keep you from achieving more?"

There are always constraints present in education and teachers are constantly fighting to keep learning at the forefront. However, are we really doing all that we can? Take some time and look at your instruction reflectively and ask, "What is holding me back?"

I teach in an amazing building, within a great district. As a small school, we have been able to acquire the best technology and provide great opportunities for learning to take place anywhere our students are. One year after implementing a 7-12 one-to-one laptop program, I feel like our teachers have embraced the new technology remarkably well and have adapted to a culture unique to the learning environment that a one-to-one classroom creates.

This is not to say we can't expect more. The question "What's holding you back?" is one that I plan to use often as we move to year 2. It doesn't have to offensive, rude, or discourteous. It simply suggests that there is more that can be done in any classroom - with rookie teachers and seasoned vets. Most importantly, it suggests that we need to do this together.

Almost all educators will recognize and acknowledge that teaching is learning. Ironically, teachers too often opt not to engage in learning to employ and integrate new technologies that have the potential of making instruction easier or more enduring for students. Why this occurs is a varied phenomenon. Some fear lesson failure; some aren't sold on the benefits; others don't take the time to learn; still others don't like stepping out of a comfort zone.

For a long time school teachers, leaders and administrators all used those to justify their instruction. At what point do these turn from valid reasons to excuses? What was once an acceptable way to ignore the increasing ubiquity of 21st Century technology, is now becoming a negligent disservice to the students around which we are centered. Technology has become the 800-pound gorilla in everyone's classroom.

As this school year comes to a close and we look toward the next, start asking colleagues that question, and make sure to respond with, "How can I help you with that?"

Posted via email from Mr. Bruce's Musings...

New Things

2008-12-18T17:45:00.000-08:00

Whoa... I just realized that it has been almost a half-year since I last put something here. It's not like the time crept up on me and I realized that I forgot, or something. I have been kinda thinking about it recently and I wondered if I should even continue with it.

Now, I know I have no readers (yet), but I suppose one of the ways to gain readers is to post something valuable and useful. Lately I have been spending more time exploring Web 2.0 tools that have potential to be valuable to education. I haven't really done this much since finishing up my Master's coursework, and it is a bit more work now since there is no one (instructors, classmates, etc.) sharing their explorative finds.

Recently, I came across a web application/service called Tikatok while browsing an ed-tech wiki I am a member of, Classroom 2.0. This website fosters the collaborative creation of children's-style books. I thought it was the coolest thing! There's a neat, simple demo video on their homepage that explains the process (which is very intuitive - even for a 2nd-grader). I sent an email link to our elementary teachers and was hoping that they would explore a bit on their own. I haven't received any positive replies yet, but no negative ones, either.

Now, just this evening, I found another simple collaborative tool called Writeboard. And instead of emailing it, I'm blogging it - people can decide for themselves what to view, right? Anyhow...

Sometimes a teacher is suggested to use a wiki when they would like to have a collaborative writing session between 2 or more authors. But wikis require user accounts, membership, and learning a bit about web site design. Wikis are best when collaboration is asynchronous (everyone is working at a different time) because work can be lost in synchronous revision of wikis and it is confusing and cumbersome to see changes and revert if necessary. Sometimes we are constrained by time and want this done quickly and efficiently, and have a product that can be turned in as a Word document or something like that (or perhaps put into a web page of some sort).

Writeboard fosters that environment very simply. No user accounts, just an email address and an ability for your collaborators to access your url and that's about it. No changes are lost with writeboard so there's no need to worry about two or more people typing at the same time. And when you are finished, you can export it as a .txt (plain text) or .html to be placed on a web hosting server.

The only downside is the inability to edit rich text. There's no bold/italics/underline, no making font bigger or smaller, no bullets/numbering, etc. Finished work is raw text. And though there are positive sides to that, I feel it to be a drawback. If that is something you are in need of, take a peek at YourDraft. The principle is the same, but it does offer a WYSIWYG editor (in Firefox or Explorer), but no export options.

Check it out. I can see many possible uses for this in secondary and elementary classrooms. Let me know what you think - drop me a line either via email or comment below.

Big News on Social Networking - Not as bad as we think?

2008-07-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

The University of Minnesota released results from a recent study that looked at what students learn from frequent use of social networking platforms. A featured article by 21st Century Connections titled, "What Kids Learn from Social Networking," highlights the study and its findings. Check out the article at their website. I have also embedded the video from the University of Minnesota lead researcher interviewed regarding the results of the study.

A few big points that I found noteworthy, maybe to allow you to avoid reading the entire article, was that the number one item learned that students listed are technology skills, followed by creativity, open-mindedness, and communication skills. So we must ask ourselves, are Facebook and MySpace really harming our students, or are they preparing them for 21 century society in a way that we as educators are not providing (or cannot provide).

Understanding the restraints and limitations we face when striving to increase amount of technological self-efficacy of the students in our classrooms, we still cannot ignore the benefits that these heathenish web apps offer. The question regarding them may change. Rather than ask "How can we keep our students from accessing MySpace at school?" (because we all know how creative they are at navigating around firewalls and filters), we can now ask, "How do we employ these powerful web tools within the confines of maintaining a safe digital environment?" An analogy was made by the lead researcher, Christine Greenhow, relating educating teens on safe social networking and teaching them to drive. If driving is dangerous, why don't we push to keep kids from getting behind the wheel the same way we try to keep students from engaging in something that is proven to make a difference?

It is a tough question with no concrete answer. However, this research shows that educators must not hastily invalidate progress by ignoring the existence of such remarkable learning tools by only focusing on their negative aspects. Let's collectively resolve to find better solutions than an ultimate block of things that really do teach students good skills.

For more, visit: U of Minn News Service

Intro to Wikis

2008-06-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

Many of us you have heard of a wiki - maybe someone you know said they know someone who saw one... The truth is that they are an amazing way to create and publish web pages quickly and easily. Even more amazing is that anyone is capable of creating a wiki space (it's not that difficult). Even more amazing still is that they are 100 percent collaborative!

Wait, what are we talking about? How can I use one? And what do you mean collaborative? Take a look at the video below from CommonCraft, "Wikis in Plain English."

I feel that this video does what it says, it puts it in plain English. I feel that wikis, in a way, are perfectly designed for educational use. Wikis can be used in the classroom as a place teachers can post links, files, pictures, and other elements for students and/or parents to view and access. Teachers can also use wikis to display student work. If you're really clever and tech savvy, try having students create pages as an assignment. Incorporating student-created wiki pages and allowing them to work together hits several of the Michigan Educational Technology Standards (METS).

If you are a teacher and are interested in learning more about using wikis in the classroom view the following links to guide your research:

There are four large-scale wiki providers that offer educational solutions for wiki spaces:

Seek these solutions out and determine which may be best for you. I'll check the comments for questions.

Well, Irene, I'm Finished...

2008-06-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the title, it seemed odd to me also. However, as I have just officially completed the last requirement of my master's degree, I really don't care.

Yes it is true, but now the fun begins. Now I can begin posting all that I have experienced and share it with you. That, is, if you subscribe to the blog and read it as you feel compelled to, I suppose.

Recently I was directed to iCue (I cannot recall by source...). This is a result of the release of thousands of archived video resources by NBC. The took many of these and are currently building "classes" in which to lead students to incorporate authentic reading and writing skills based on current events. They have a great help feature for those that "just don't get it". I was the same way. Please consider how this may be used in your classrooms. Again, that is http://www.icue.com.