How we started and where we are........

It has been quite some time since Iroquois embarked upon truly using technology and the power of the Web. Over the course of time, I have come in contact with many professionals in the field that often ask, "How did you start?" This usually results in a lengthy conversation. Recently, I was asked to write a post for NECC 2009. I decided to write about our experience at Iroquois and cross-post here.

Several years ago, a team from our high school attended High Schools New Face Conference in Western New York. Will Richardson lit a spark in several of us teaching us a plethora of tools- blogs, wikis, podcasting, RSS feeds, etc... The notion of 'connecting with students' was at the forefront. Students today are 'connected' electronically more often than not, have access to information quicker than many of us could ever have imagined and share an enormous amount of information via social networks. We knew we wanted to harness the power of the internet and do so in hopes that students will begin to gather, learn and share information in a way different than the traditional 'sit-n-get' format found in many high school classes.

Our district had already begun to use some on-line learning and remedial programs for pre and post teaching which provided teachers (and the students) immediate feedback and monitoring of progress. Adults were well aware of the frequency of which students were on cell phones, iPods and connecting daily on MySpace and Facebook. Could they not be taught to use these same concepts for learning? Would they enjoy learning more and as a result, would they improve their achievement? Lets take one step further. Would teachers not become reignited about teaching and learning? Could teachers begin to collaborate on an entirely different level? Would students become more engaged? Obviously, a team of us believed the answer to all these questions and more to be 'Yes'! And so, we began our journey.

We started with a few extremely motivated teachers. Blogging was the start. Posting assignments, homework (being absent was not longer an excuse to not having homework done!) and even lecture notes. A student would volunteer to be 'scribe' for the day and post the day's lecture/class notes. Students will use a blog to have discussions and collaborate on projects. Students (and teachers) would embed videos, presentations, and resources in their blogs. This is about the time that some students began to experiment with podcasting.

The next step was for students and teachers to begin to collaborate: sharing information, building off of each other's contributions and creating a place to store resources. The Wiki became the platform. Use of the wiki expanded blogging to include a site for many courses in the high school. Syllabi, homework, project assignments and handouts can all be found on a virtual platform for students (and parents to monitor as well). Students would also post completed assignments and create team projects with the help of classmates. Teachers learn relatively fast, but students were learning faster. I knew that if teachers were going to use these tools, they would quickly need support. With the support of our Board of Education, I appointed a teacher on special assignment (Pat Aroune)to actually train and work with teachers directly in the classroom, assisting them with lesson development. An Action Planning Committee in our high school consisted of a group of teachers volunteering to meet early morning, before school to share their craft and changes in their teaching. The spark had been lit, the flame began to grow.

Throughout this process, I believed as a leader that I needed to be a role model. I began to use web 2.0 tools in my everyday work. I blogged about the changes in our high school, I blogged for our community, highlighting various achievements in our school districts as well as an upcoming capital project vote. I even attempted a blog for students to have yet one more vehicle to communicate with their Superintendent. I would embed resources, presentations and podcasts. The intent of my message was these tools are effective, can be time savers and a way to quickly and easily spread and share your work and ideas.

Resources, the 'storage' of resources, along with accessibility ( 'anywhere' and 'anytime' ) was needed and introduced. Tools such as googledocs, social bookmarking (del.icio.us) and various virtual platforms were taught and used by both students and teachers. This became a quick lesson: not everyone had to 'reinvent the wheel'. Friends could help each other. Find a resource that not only you need, but know of a friend that may be interested, store it and share it! As more teachers expressed interest in integrating technology within the classroom, accessibility to computers needed to be addressed. Instead of replacing stand alone computers, we began to purchase laptops on mobile carts. Teacher carts were also set up with a laptop, projector and audio amplification. Entire classes of students can be on-line at the same time and made dependence upon scheduling classes in computer labs a frustration of the past.

At the same time, our district had embarked upon a long-term relationship with Silver and Strong Associates providing professional development in "Thoughtful Education" pedagogy. As teacher developed units and lessons with more depth and differentiating for the different learning styles of students in a class, it became logical for us to have a platform for teachers to share their ideas, lessons and units. We introduced the social network Ning to our teachers. There they could combine all the learning of the past and integrate the various tools in one place: blogging, interactive collaboration, storing of resources, posting of presentations, etc... It is our hope that as time goes on, our entire faculty will engage in collaboration on a virtual platform in addition to face-to-face learning teams. At the same time, we know that good leaders need to be involved in side-by-side learning with teachers and to model the traits and behaviors expected of teachers. Our administrative team has also begun to use Ning for administrative collaboration as well as to interact with our teachers as they post to the social network.

As a school superintendent, the development of a true learning community across a K-12 district with 6 buildings has been exciting to observe. While at first, integration of technology seemed to be "extra" work, teachers and students now see that it becomes 'part' of the work. We are far from full implementation. Empirical evidence related to improved student achievement is difficult to isolate. What we do have is anecdotal information from both students and teachers that they are more engaged and interested. The assumption is made that if students are interested and engaged, they are more likely to achieve at high levels.


Before ending I would like to share a few examples of what I have seen both as a parent in the district and as the superintendent:

Podcast projects:
One elementary class had students write their parents a Valentine's Day Poem. Instead of just sending the poem home in written form, each student read their poem in podcast. The link for the podcast was sent to each parent. What a wonderful surprise parents had to 'hear' their Valentine's Day poem in their own child's voice!
For a European History project, a student created a radio show to have taken place during World War II demonstrating their understanding of the events of the decade. The radio show episodes were recorded in a podcast.

Social Bookmarking:
Students and teachers are sharing articles, videos, new articles and a variety of other resources using their del.icio.us account. Along with many teachers, I have a network of people I follow that I can view and find resources for projects we have in common.

Read/Write Web:
A plethora of information is available by reading blogs. I read blogs by students as young as third grade posting information about what they have learned studying the Titanic. I have followed a student blogging about his favorite sport (hockey) and another student blogging about family vacations. I have probably learned more from reading blogs these past three years as I have from any other source.
I can monitor many high school courses detailing what the content is, what assignments are due and view projects posted related to the course by students.

Social Networking:
As stated above, teachers are posting a variety of lessons and units in every subject across all grade levels. Our administrators are beginning to use Ning to post resources for each other, ask questions and get feedback from their colleagues as well as posting activities and questions for our book studies. This continues to be a work in progress.
The most important thing we have realized is that one thing we can be sure of is how fast technology changes. We planned early on that we needed to teach skills vs. the products available. While Blogger, PBwiki, Ning and Skype may all be popular, everyday there are new vendors improving sophistication and ease of use. Both our students and teachers are trained in skills (posting/commenting to the Read/Write web, collaboration, social bookmarking and networking). The platforms available will surely change. It is our belief that in order for students to be successful in the 21st Century, they will need to be proficient in many of these skills.

Steve Hargadon interviews Susan Patrick on Web 2.0

In reading Steve's recent post, I was so impressed with her interview and this quote. It is truly what we face on so many levels. Whether passing budgets and asking for "extras", increasing transportation routes (when parents have walked 2 miles, up hill, both ways), etc...
http://www.stevehargadon.com/
My only concern is that while many parents have this perspective, if leaders are still functioning in this mindset, they don't belong being leaders in the 21st century.


"Our biggest barrier is our memory of what schools look like. Those of us running the schools have a very strong memory of 'this is how a school looks, this is how it works.' And the system itself is designed to be very resistant to change. But the innovation and the change is going to come very naturally to our students, and if we are going to keep our students in school--which we have to--...we're going to have to make these jumps and these adaptations. And the thing is, if we don't make them, students will simply go around us. We really need to strengthen our public institutions by being open to new ways of doing things and having them adapt to the School 2.0 model.... I don't think those of us in the U.S. understand how stuck we are in the status quo, and how precarious the situation is for our kids to be successful in the new global economy."

Alex shares his blog

Alex is a student in Mr. Zybala's class. In an effort to show elementary students the power of blogging, I was invited to teach Mr. Zybala's class how to start a blog. Alex has just shared his blog with me. He is very excited and would love for people to check out his blog and leave him comments.
As you can see from the title of his blog, Alex really likes Lego's. I took a vacation with my family to Disney this past summer and took pictures of a lego display. I thought Alex would enjoy seeing some of the pictures so I told him I would post them and dedicate them to him.
http://legoman.learnerblogs.org

Here you go Alex..........these are for you. The little girl with the lego dogs is my daughter Madelyn. She will be five years old next month.

For those of you that read my blog, please check out Alex's blog cited above.

Silence is deafening

For some time now I have been blogging in an attempt to expose educators and leaders in education to the possibilities that exist if one were to change how we teach using the read/write web. Many people that I know have praised and encouraged me for the support I give to this initiative. Occasionally I will receive an e-mail from someone I don't know and we exchange some thoughts. The real conversation that I am hoping for has not been occurring through this blog. I can see from cluster maps that many people are in fact reading the blog......but they're silent. Why? I have always been a risk taker and I think that the teachers and administrators know that to me, no idea is a bad idea. That taking risks is something I encourage and admire. Is there something about putting ideas in "print" that scares people?

It's time for a challenge. Time for the dialogue to really begin without fear of criticism or retribution. What is is that people are thinking when we talk about changing our high schools and instruction? We are all aware and I think believe as educators that there needs to be more relevance and rigor (coined by Bill Daggett). How do we do it? IF you had the autonomy to change what you teach in your respective course, what would you change? What "content" are you teaching that you feel has little relevance to your subject area? In other words, what would you stop teaching? What would you replace it with? Why are you teaching it to begin with?

If we are to make fundamental changes we need to have the conversation. At the same time, I will continue to maintain the the read/write web has so much to offer our students. The amount of information they can be exposed to exceeds anything we can do in a 50 minute period. They need to read critically and determine if the information is reliable, useful, applicable to their learning. We also know that to be successful in life, in work, individuals need to be 'team players', collaborators......the read/write web offers many opportunities.

Lets see your thoughts. Never mind thinking 'out of the box'.......throw the box away!

Steve Hargadon Shares Interview with Will Richardson

As we continue to discuss the use of Web 2.0/Read/Write Web, there are a few main topics that should be addressed with students that are growing up and will work in a global economy. Students need to be taught at least how to;

~ Access Information

~ Determine Trusted Resources and Internet Sites

~ Collaborate/Network via the net

~ See the limitless value in what can be learned using the Web

Steve Hargadon was interested enough to respond to my last blog where I referenced his interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach . He had recently interviewed Will Richardson. Will was the “teacher” at last summer’s “High School’s New Face” that ignited a team here at Iroquois to see the value of blogs, wikis and podcasting as an instructional tool. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview and it has addressed a major question I am confronted with when asked, “So what’s the big deal about blogging and why do it?”

Why Blog with students?

First, blogging gives students a way to publish to a larger audience than the classroom. These opportunities can be a powerful motivator and an effective way for students to learn given the feedback they may get from other readers of their blog.

Second, gives students the opportunity to be a part of a “community” that network with each other discovering new tools and connect to people of similar thoughts and passions. Again, this has the potential to motivate students to be a part of this collaboration, to learn from each other and to “teach others” at times.

Will Richardson was a Journalism major prior to becoming a teacher. He was therefore immediately drawn to the internet for obvious reasons and integrated the use of the internet in his instruction. When he first saw a blog he became a ‘blogger’ and “got hooked”. The key motivation was that he could “publish” immediately have people read his work. He then felt that the potential was limitless for his journalism students. Will was then prompted to find other educators using blogs. At the time there were only 4 or 5 people using blogs actively. The community built itself but in 2003/2004 something began to happen: Will learned he was one of the first teachers using blogging for instruction. As people began to see how blogging impacted the media, the media began to look at what was out there for blogging in education. Will received some immediate publicity and the conversations “exploded”. At that point there were 20 or 30 people he was communicating with and that it was something that was not possible with face to face communication. There was no one in his school using blog. Blogging was then viewed as professional development.

To write a blog and realize that there are people around the world reading your work is “transformational”. People around the world have much to offer each other. Blogging is a way to bring people and ideas together that may never have been brought together.

Blogging is becoming a way for students to develop reading skills, critical thinking and writing in a way to attract, sustain and connect with audiences.

When Will was asked if a teacher is interested in blogging, and where should they start, his response was interesting. You may think he would say, “just start blogging”. His answer was to “just start reading blogs”. Whether it be blogs that address your hobbies such as knitting or photography or academics…….read, comment and observe the interaction.

Will is now advocating that teaching folks RSS (Real Simple Syndication) that enables you to easily keep track of blogs as a first step before actually teaching about Blogs and Wikis. This helps you to read and follow blogs you’re interested in (likened to having an on-line subscription to a blog). The next step is to recognize the "connections" that blogging can provide to students.

There is so much to read now, Steve asked Will about how many blogs he reads/follows now. It can be overwhelming to keep up with the amount of blogs on the web. Will has now filtered down to reading about 20 blogs that he follows to make it meaningful as it relates to education. He now would like to expand the audience outside of education as a means of spreading the word.

Bloglines is one of the biggest RSS feeds used. It does tell Will that somewhere between 5 and 10,000 people read his blog regularly. As one that blogs and has added a Clustrmap to my blog, to see that there are people in China, Japan, Australia, Egypt, England and various other countries not to mention throughout the United States is just amazing to me. To think that people have visited my blog and read it provides an audience that I would never imagine. What attracted them to my blog probably varies: a tag line that interested them, the mention of my blog by another blogger, to use my blog posts as a means of learning about the instructional value of blogging.

Will Richardson cautions that while you should be looking for an audience, of “teachers” or readers, you can’t assume that people will read your blog. However, the 'audience' aspect is important because if our students are “clickable” (found on the Web by the click of a mouse), anyone that responds is a potential “teacher” to our students.

A major question is how do you make sure that students are safe on the internet and are protected from predators? Will responds as I have to parents- our students are already reachable/clickable on the web. It happens through MySpace and other social networks. We need to educate people how to use the social tools safely and appropriately. Blocking their access is not the answer as many districts are doing.

One of the most interesting was a question that Steve posed to Will that I could relate to: What position does the use of this technology from a school leader's perspective in dealing with how to make such substantive changes in how we teach? Will believes that if we don’t change schools and the typical paradigm, students will go elsewhere to learn. Perhaps even homeschooling or on-line schooling.......Students need to learn how to build their own learning communities, students need to learn how to be creative, how to find reliable sources, to be “clickable” to be more responsible for their own learning as just a few changes that need to be made. This will require allowing teachers to be more flexible in how they teach, how they explore professional development opportunities and how they can model for students.

If you are interested in hearing Steve’s interview with Will Richardson, you can find all of Steve Hargadon’s interviews/podcasts at:

http://edtechlive.wikispaces.com/Recordings+List

Happy New Year To All!

Just a quick post to wish you all a happy, healthy 2007. I see 2007 as a year of change for schools and education. Technological advances, The Commission on Education and Economy's Recommendations and New York State's P-16 initiative is sure to change how, if not what we teach our students. We also look ahead to what Karl Fisch's school is planning for "Vision 2020"- the year in which this year's incoming kindergarteners will graduate high school. It is hard to even imagine what schools will look like by then but if what has begun with use of the read/write web is any indication, schools will certainly be much different than what they look like today.

Now that I have added ClustrMaps, it amazes me to actually see the power of the web. To think that there are people in Egypt, London, Australia, China and Japan viewing this blog is something that blows my mind. As Thomas Friedman professes, the world has certainly flattened!

To all those pioneers that have begun the journey, continued success in your persistence!

Steve Hargadon interviews Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach on 21st Century Learning

Steve Hargadon is a leader in the discussion of Web 2.0 Just before Christmas he interviewed Sheryl-Nussbaum-Beach posted to a podcast. Her insights are most useful for those of us interested in moving schools forward with the use of the read/write web as a necessary tool for student learning. You can follow this link to a list of podcasts related to some of the newest technology being used. Click on Sheryl's podcast of Decemeber 21st to hear the interview.

http://edtechlive.wikispaces.com/Recordings+List

Steve Hargadon does a great job of summarizing the key points of their interview:

* Sheryl is a technology and education consultant and adjunct
instructor in the School of Education at The College of William and
Mary.
* Right now, Sheryl believes, we are in a place where computing in
the classroom is really going to take off.
* She feels that it is a moral responsibility of teacher-leaders
in the school to figure out how to access the tools of the web and
help students to learn to use them in a safe environment. (Again, I'm
fascinated with the contrast of Larry Cuban's views here, and also
with the apparent difficulties that grass-roots technology efforts
face in school decision-making.)
* "You can't give away what you don't own." Until school
administrators are experiencing the benefits of the new technologies,
there cannot be more widespread adoption of them. (This touches on the
point above.)
* The students of today don't have a choice as to whether or not
they will master the skills of the read/write web (and being
collaborative and self-driven)--if they don't, they will be left
behind in the work world.
* The magic of Web 2.0 in schools is individual growth toward the
sense of being "self-actualized:" students can be transformed by being
able to write things that others are interested in reading, and by
being able to collaborate with others.
* The "Golden Question" right now is: can tie these new tools to
student achievement? She believes it they can be, but it's very hard
to measure because of all the other variables.
* Sheryl points out the need for balance: when you use any
pervasive educational strategy (not just the new computer
technologies), you need to make sure that there is a marriage between
the passion that is generated with a rigorous education. This should
be a deepening of learning, and be challenging. "Rigor and passion."
* Many students are going to be coming to school already well
versed in the read/write or participatory web. Her experience has been
that they are often motivated learners from these experiences.
* Sheryl talks about moving from the "Information Age" to the "Age
of Conceptualization." I'm not sure I know what the "Age of
Conceptualization" is...
* The most gifted students are good at the way school is played
right now, and they can have the hardest time adjusting to a learning
environment that is cooperative and self-directed. It is the kids who
have struggled previously that really benefit the most by being able
to use these technologies. (This goes along with Sheryl's desire to
bring computing resources to homeless youth, and her belief in how
important this will be for them. See below.)
* She sees more of the writing tools being used in the
classroom--blogs and wikis--but not as much podcasting.
* The real skill needed by teachers and students will be the
ability to be our own "digital age librarian," knowing how to access,
select, and synthesize all of the available information. We need to
tap into the power of "self-directed interest."
* On homeless or transient children: she is a living example of
breaking the cycle of generational poverty. If we don't empower these
children with the same technologies that the affluent child will get
at home, then we are trapping them in their poverty. Homeless children
move around a lot, and often the teachers are unaware of the true
situation at home. After the interview, Sheryl and I talked at length
about creating a program for teacher mentoring to homeless children,
and the providing of computing resources at homeless shelters (see
www.PublicWebStations.com).
* Her blog is 21stcenturylearning.typepad.com.
To join in a discussion of "School 2.0," please visit www.School20.net.

Steve has an excellent blog that can be found at:
Stevehargadon@blogspot.com