Monthly Archives: October 2010

Reports From Cyberspace – An Invitation

Posted on by
4

Last year at NCTE, we began a conversation, Three Reports from Cyberspace. We thank Jeff Golub and Jim Strickland for organizing the session, and Helen Wierenga for being our responder. And, we thank all of you, because what happened during the session was, quite simply, amazing1.

Bud, Troy, and the entire audience were engaged in a continual conversation that moved from notes appearing on the screen, to questions from the audience, back to one of one of them answering on stage, and out to the wider world through Twitter and Etherpad. Sara’s thinking was with us in the room, even though she wasn’t physically present.  Over the course of the hour, we shared a number of examples from our own teaching and research that helped illuminate issues related to filtering, curriculum, assessment, and teaching in digital spaces. We were, in short, completely engaged in the conversation, in “multitasking” at its best. And that brings us to where we are now, preparing to offer more reports from cyberspace.

So, why write about that here, three weeks from the next session/conversation?

We do so as an invitation.

A conference session is a waypoint, a time and place to check in on where we’ve been, but more important, where we’re going.  So before we get to that waypoint, let’s take a moment to share our own reports from cyberspace as a way of starting this conversation.  Here is a link to an open Google Doc where we’ve left space for you to jot some thoughts as we move into our time together.  If you can join us for the session at NCTE, great.  But if not, and you’d still like to report or check in, feel free to do so.

Here are some prompts that will take us into our session.  Help yourself to whichever one(s) will be the most useful in your thinking and reporting:

  • What’s the state of your educational cyberspace at this moment in November 2010?  What’s good?  What’s scary?  What’s working?  What’s not?
  • What needs doing?  Fixing?  Raising up?
  • Where are you focusing your attention?
  • Where are we going with all of this Internet stuff?  What’s new?  What’s good?
  • Finally, what do you hope to leave our session with?  What’s next?  So what?

Please take a few minutes and share your reports from cyberspace. We suspect you have something to teach us, and we’re ready to learn.

If the reporting ends at the session, then we’ve failed. Conferences are notorious spaces, in that we all get together and get excited, but then the momentum seems to die. Help us figure out where to go and what to do next. In a time of increased standards and assessments, when everyone is an expert on matters of teaching and learning, and reading and writing, we need to tell our stories. It’s never been more important to be thoughtful out loud.

Troy Hicks, Bud Hunt, and Sara Kajder

PS – If you can’t make the session, but will be at NCTE, you’ll have another chance to join us immediately after this session at the Middle Level Get Together.  We’d love to see you, and hear your report(s), wherever you’ll choose to join us.

  1. I don’t use this word often.  But it was a really interesting conversation, both in content and in process. [↩]
Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

The Week in Tweets for 2010-10-25

Posted on by
Reply

Powered by Twitter Tools

Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

It’s Blurry. But It’s Still a Vision

Posted on by
6

Lately, I’ve found myself, quite by accident, thinking a great deal about what an “online school” might look like, were I to have the opportunity to be involved in the creation of one.  I’m watching this process unfold in my school district, and it’s started some wheels a’turning.

And this is thinking that, while I’ve done peripherally off and on over the last several years1, has been persistently in my head these last few weeks.  So it seems reasonable to try to write some of it down before it slips away, or as an opportunity to bettter understand what’s going on in my head.  So I imagine this will be a few posts over the next few days, as I flesh out various ideas.  If you don’t want to head down this road with me, here are some links to other distractions that you might enjoy.

First draft thinking.  But thinking I like and find useful.

To begin with, any online school that’s worth building won’t be a district-branded school in a box.  You know what I mean when I talk school in a box, right?  One purchases the curriculum and coursework and so on2 and replaces the curriculum company’s logo with their district logo. This is relatively easy to do, and results in the ability of a school board to say “Hey.  Look.  We have an online school.” But doesn’t really result in a change to, well, pretty much anything, or any advantage to the home school district other than a slight financial one.3
So that’s not good enough.  And it feels, well, funky.  At least to me.  So that’s not doable, in my mind.  Not in totality.  But there are other ways.

In our school district, in the face of a change in state standards4, the curriculum team has been working with select teachers to map our standards into a curriculum framework.  The next step is to begin to map out what new common district assessments might look like and then to give examples of what exemplary work looks like and to build all of those standards, assessments and exemplars into a curriculum map that makes it pretty transparent about what’s up with teaching and learning in the district.5

That’s good.  But let’s try to tie in a few other district projects.  For one thing, there’s a real sense of excitement about the possibility of digital and/or open source textbooks here in the district.  Both the board and the curriculum team and others are beginning to realize that there’s a big opportunity to save some money and to create better materials at the same time through the curation of digital texts.6

I imagine that we could double our curriculum expertise here in St. Vrain, have folks work regularly on curating resources by hanging the good stuff from elsewhere on our curriculum map and writing the rest, and save money in the process.  The distribution model for what folks produce is a bit muddled7, but it’s doable.

Let’s suppose, though, that the aims of creating digital textbooks that are mapped to curriculum and building an online school weren’t disparate.  In fact, I think they’re complimentary.

Suppose, instead of going after a school in a box, you took the opportunity to think of an online school as a lab school, a place of possibility and “what if-edness” that you might use for R&D into new methods, practices, and opportunities for partnership.  Suppose the goal of such a school included being the development and testing ground for the digital resources that you wanted to build?  And furthermore, suppose that you hired teachers to both teach and curate curriculum, so rather than teach full time, or curate full time, they did both things together.

This would give you a space in which to create resources and to, with the aid of students, who would be partners in the work, fieldtest and improve them?

Hmm.

Doesn’t that have a nice sound to it?  I think such a school would need to be a high school to begin with, but that might be an irrational bias8.

And now that we’ve opened the door to cross-purposes, I’d like to explore a few other ones.  There are plenty more.  What might an office of professional development as a partner in an online school look like?  How might an online school be a school-within-a-school that lives across a school district?  What are the essential physical spaces in an online school?  How do you build community in such spaces?

But those’re posts for other evenings.  For now – might something like this make sense?  What places do you see that look like this – online schools with experimental purposes?  Lab schools?  Online?9

I’ve not yet mentioned that, as I wrote and wondered a little while back, it would be essential that there were democratic structures built into the school.  And, although I’m not sure I’ve said so, it would be essential in any online school, that there be advisors in place and an advisory period of some kind that made sense for all students.  Students are less likely to get lost when there’re always folks looking out for you.

More soon.  Let me know what you think in the comments.

  1. “You know,” I say to friends, smart ones, “We should really build a school.”  And then we explore the idea. [↩]
  2. and in some cases, the staff and even the administration [↩]
  3. I say slight because you’re looking to split the revenue returned to the district between a curriculum company and the operating costs of such a program. [↩]
  4. Twice.  Colorado adopted new ones recently, and then adopted Common Core over the summer.  It’s been a bit standards crazy lately, and the state is still figuring out what it’s done, as are many others. [↩]
  5. I really like the idea that the curriculum map, up to and including activities and common assessments, is available to anyone who wants to take a look.  Particularly for a public school district.  Here’s one that a district to the south is doing interesting things with. [↩]
  6. Folks like Bill are doing some good thinking in this area, so take a link break and head over to his post.  Go ahead.  I’ll be here when you’re done. [↩]
  7. Do we go all digital?  Print on demand?  Allow for folks to bring their own devices?  Some combination of the above? [↩]
  8. I was a high school teacher before I went to work as an educational geek full time [↩]
  9. I suspect that many of you have answers to some of the questions I’ve outlined, as well as a couple that I’m reserving for future posts.  I can’t say this more clearly – I’m very interested in hearing from you.  Would love to hear how you’ve answered some or all of these questions in your own online spaces and places.  Or maybe you have better questions.  I’ll take those, too.  Please. [↩]
Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

Secretary Duncan Honors Favorite Teacher

Posted on by
4

UPDATE – Tim points out in the comments that this video first went online back in April.  Which is cool.  I sometimes reuse my good work, too.

Over the weekend, I asked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan how he would be honoring the National Day on Writing.  This morning, the ED.gov blog had a short video mentioning the Day on Writing.  It was a visit with the Secretary and a favorite teacher.  Here it is:

So that’s good.  I appreciate English teachers who work hard to ensure that writing happens in their classrooms.

I hope I’m not being too difficult, though, as I ask, again, gently, if the Secretary will take the time today to do any writing.  What does his writing process look like, I wonder?

Because I still think students need to see our top educational official engaged in the work that we ask students to do every day.

You’re with me on that, right?

Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

#NDOW: Prompt 1

Posted on by
3

I’ll try to post a prompt or two today, on this National Day of Writing, just in case you need an idea or two to get you started.  Here’s one:

r☼sita
Creative Commons License photo credit: schaaflicht

It’s a day to wear purple, a day to say “no more.”  But more important, it’s a day to make change.  The good kind.  Write about the change you’d like to see, or the change you’re making, or the change you will make.  Or, write about who you’re hoping to make change for.

The gallery I’ve created is here in case you’d like to submit what you write.

Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

You Can Write If You Want To

Posted on by
9

Tomorrow is the second annual National Day on Writing, a day all about, in the words of NCTE:

In light of the significance of writing in our national life, to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in, and to help writers from all walks of life recognize how important writing is to their lives,October 20, 2010, will be celebrated as The National Day on Writing. The National Day on Writing will

  • celebrate the foundational place of writing in Americans’ personal, professional, and civic lives.
  • point to the importance of writing instruction and practice at every grade level, for every student and in every subject area from preschool through university. (See The Genteel Unteaching of America’s Poor.)
  • emphasize the lifelong process of learning to write and composing for different audiences, purposes, and occasions.
  • recognize the scope and range of writing done by the American people and others.
    honor the use of the full range of media for composing.
  • encourage Americans to write and enjoy and learn from the writing of others.

And, while I’m curious about how others will be spending their time in recognition of the importance of writing, I’m also thinking that maybe, just maybe, you might like to write with me.

So, because anyone can create a gallery at the National Gallery of Writing, and since I figured that many of you, when you write, are writing about education and technology, I thought that it might be a nice opportunity1 to write together about, well, something else. It’s good to mix it up a little, at least from time to time.

So I’ve made a gallery called EduBloggers Not Eduing, Teching, or Blogging that’s for edubloggers2 to use for sharing writing about NOT education or technology for a change. If you’d like.

Here’s the submission guideline for my gallery. It’s not very helpful, but I think it does what it needs to:

This space is open to any edublogger (self-identified) who wants to contribute a piece of writing. One rule – You can’t write about technology in education. That’s it. Otherwise, whatever you want to write is fair game.

Feel free to spend a few minutes on Wednesday (or another time, if you’d rather) writing about anything other than those two things. And consider submitting what you write about as a way of honoring the importance of writing in your life.

If folks’d find it useful, I’d be happy to put a few prompts out during the day tomorrow. But I’m thinking you don’t need me to. You’ve things to say, or describe, or define, or explore, with words.

Right?

So I’ll look forward to seeing your submissions there to honor the National Day on Writing, no matter where you call home. How are you otherwise celebrating the National Day onWriting?

  1. or excuse, if you prefer [↩]
  2. You are one if you think you are. [↩]
Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

The Week in Tweets for 2010-10-18

Posted on by
Reply

Powered by Twitter Tools

Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare

An Open Letter to My Favorite Educational Publisher

Posted on by
3

Dear Teachers College Press:

I’m an awful big fan of your work.  I mean a really, really big fan.  Of the five or six books on my desk at work right now, three of them are yours.  I made arrangements to order another of your titles just before I headed home for the weekend.1  Paper.  Texts.  Books.

Here’s the thing – I don’t really do most of my reading on paper anymore.  Nor will I be in the foreseeable future.  See, I’ve gotten rather used to the idea of having my books with me all the time.  All of them, be they in my nook or my iPad or available to me in a moment’s notice via one of a number2 of cloud services that I employ.

The problem is – you don’t publish books in etext formats.  Like, at all.  And that’s beginning to get in the way of me wanting to learn from and with your authors.   Who are wicked smart people.  I mean, seriously, they’re writing the books that today’s teachers, and tomorrow’s, need to be reading.  And you’re publishing them in the finest 20th Century style.

But you’re not publishing in formats that they’re likely to pick up.  So I’m beginning to find myself in a pickle when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

And, frankly, it’s getting harder and harder for me to carry your titles in my digital world.  My bag is so big.  Your books are pretty thick.  My devices take up lots of space.

I so want to take your texts with me into the digital world that is my library’s future.  But I can’t until you start offering them to me in a format that I can use.

So please.  Please.  Would you consider offering your titles as ebooks?  Soon?

Time is short.  There’s good stuff in your catalog.  Could you work on getting it into the digital reading ecosystem?

Soon?

Respectfully, a reader and a fan,

Bud

  1. And in searching your catalog as I was writing this piece, I saw several more books that have influenced my career and thinking.  Or that I want to read.  Soon. [↩]
  2. That’s a referral link for Dropbox – you get extra space if you create an account.  And so do I.  I wonder if that means I’ve just put a commercial into a blog post.  Uh oh. [↩]
Google+EvernoteEmailWordPressRead It LaterInstapaperShare