21st Century Skills

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21st Century Skills

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The Business Of Web 2.0 V6

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The Business Of Web 2.0 V6

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W Eb 2.0 Aps For Differentiated Instruction

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W Eb 2.0 Aps For Differentiated Instruction

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Twittered and Unsure...

Anyone who knows me and understands me as an educator knows that I love to be current and relevant in the classroom, and this includes bringing in as much technology as possible when and where appropriate and learning all the up-and-coming Web 2.0 applications when time permits. I recently decided to learn how to use Twitter and I'm not sure that I'm all the impressed - yet. Granted, it's easy to use and it forces you to be succinct - only 140 characters per "tweet".

Here is where I can see it useful:

1. Class discussions and/or online seminars

2. Creation of community in a digital space

3. Instant feedback

4. A public forum to share thoughts, challenges and ideas

5. Building networking skills

6. An alternative to email

I especially like that Twitter can be accessed from a number of devices apart from the computer: iPhones, cell phones, smart devices and any Internet-enabled device.

Here is where I am not so smitten. In "mucking around" the site, I found that it is mostly social. People's "tweets" are for the most part, incosequential and irrelevant to me. I admit, at the moment, I am following some of my favourite bands to keep up to speed with concert listings and album releases. I'm also following Time magazine and a friend of mine. So I suppose that I'm using Twitter to satisfy personal needs, in which case, Twitter can be whatever you want it to be.

I came across a blog, teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk. Doug Belshaw had this to say about using Twitter with students:

I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed.

Is this not just an updated version of the good ol' class website?

Carol Cooper-Taylor has some intersting ideas about using Twitter in education. She writes that Twitter is great for opinion polls. The first thing that comes to mind are anticipation guides. Why not throw out a question to gauge where students are at, how much they think they know and what they feel on a specific topic or issue? Another great idea she has is instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?" get students to answer "What has your attention?" This could be a terrific pre-writing activity - great for generating ideas (and the boys will certainly benefit from this). Finally, Twitter allows parents to see what's going on in the classroom. Everything is open and transparent - nothing wrong with that.

I think I'll muck around some more and wait to render my verdict. I'm all for using this in a classroom setting if it's effective and meaningful.

Television is NOT for the illiterate...

I admit,I'm a huge fan of Lost. If I wasn't such an Egyptomaniac, I don't know that I could follow as well. What I love (and sometimes hate) about this show is that it forces viewers to take careful account of all the seemingly unimportant details, largely in the form of symbols, and wonder why on earth they are there in the first place. For example, in the season finale, we see that Jacob is living at the base of a statue of what appears to be an Egyptian god who has a crocodile head. In Egyptian mythology, this is the god Set or Seth, who is know for having murdered the god Osiris (who became the god of the Underworld), and then cut his body into 13 pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Since Set is assoiciated with death, it was a natural assumption that Jacob was going to be murdered by way of some twisted conspiracy. I also love that a number of the characters names relate to famous names in Political Science: John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, Rousseau... How do these names relate to the plot of the series? I haven't quite figured that one out yet, and I have studied a lot of political philosophy in my time!

Our kids can't even watch television anymore without the demands of being able to apply their learning in a variety of contexts. Kids need to be able to read and interpret graphic texts if they want to follow some of the more up-and-coming shows that are getting a lot of hype. Have we taught our kids to think? Have we taught our kids what to do with what they've learned in real-life, unpredictable situations? The kids who can do this will be successful is 21st century institutions, and incidentally, will be the few who may very well be able to predict where the writers of Lost of going with the storyline...

Current Events is NOT a Thing of the Past...

Once upon a time, teachers used to compel students to bring in newspaper clippings and we'd all take turns summarizing the story. Some teachers kept bulletin boards of those clippings and others asked their students to keep journals or scrapbooks. There was always some sort of learning attached to this literacy event - summary writing, learning to recount or retell, or even simply writing a news report ourselves. I worry that students don't talk about what's going on in the world around them. I wonder if our kids could make sense of these editorial cartoons:

(Could our students understand the humour behind this cartoon? Can they articulate why this is relevant to them?)

(Do our kids really understand what's going on? Do they understand the meaning of words like "pandemic"? Do they possess the necessary health literacy to navigate the health care system?)

(When hasn't this issue been in the news? Do our students understand the implications of what the Pope is saying? What it means to the historical context of this story?)

Why rely so heavily on textbooks when the world itself is providing the content that we can use to teach our students necessary and relevant skills to live in it?

I'm not suggesting returning to the age-old practice of cutting and pasting. This is neither relevant to our students nor effective for our teaching. All I'm saying is that the news should play an active role in our programming and course work so that real-life connections can be made on a regular basis. Admittedly, I'm pretty disturbed that some teachers are STILL asking kids to cut and paste articles, summarize them and expect students to understand that they have just acquired some pretty important skills. Let's keep it real...

Three Day Road

A great book for a potential literature study, senior-level...

It is 1919, and Niska, the last Oji-Cree medicine woman to live off the land, has received word that one of the two boys she grudgingly saw off to war has returned. She leaves her home in the bush of Northern Ontario to retrieve him, only to discover that the one she expected is actually the other.

Xavier Bird, her sole living relation, gravely wounded and addicted to the army's morphine, hovers somewhere between the living world and that of the dead. As Niska paddles him the three days home, she realizes that all she can offer in her attempt to keep him alive is her words, the stories of her life.

In turn, Xavier relates the horrifying years of war in Europe: he and his best friend, Elijah Whiskeyjack, prowled the battlefields of France and Belgium as snipers of enormous skill. As their reputations grew, the two young men, with their hand-sewn moccasins and extraordinary marksmanship, became both the pride and fear of their regiment as they stalked the ripe killing fields of Ypres and the Somme.

But what happened to Elijah? As Niska paddles deeper into the wilderness, both she and Xavier confront the devastation that such great conflict leaves in its wake.

Inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwa hero Francis Pegahmagabow, Three Day Road reinvents the tradition of such Great War epics as Birdsong and All Quiet on the Western Front. Beautifully written and told with unblinking focus, it is a remarkable tale, one of brutality, survival, and rebirth.

Excerpt from: http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670063628,00.html#

It's a strong Canadian alternative. Makes for an intersting comparison to Timothy Findley's The Wars. A good read!

Just how fast are we moving?

In an in-service on teaching literacy across the curriculum, my partner Cathie shared this anology with the group, and I thought it was so relevant and terrific:



60 minutes = 5000 years that people have had access to writing systems

On this scale, there were few significant media changes until about 7.5 mins ago -printing press came into use in Western culture.

2 minutes ago - - - the telegraph, photograph, and locomotive

1.5 minutes ago - - - telephone, phonograph, rotary press, motion pictures, automobile, airplane and radio

1 minute ago - - - talking picture

In the last 40 seconds - - - the TV

In the last 6 sec - - - the computer

Last few - satellites, laser beams, translation machines, interactive telecommunications, Internet, video games

We're always playing catch-up...

The Good Path... More Inclusivity in our Schools

I was so fortunate to have been given the opportunity to attend an Aboriginal Education symposium at the Nottawasaga Inn called "The Good Path: Sharing the Journey". It is always a good thing when given the chance to dialogue with colleagues from other boards to see what's happening throughout the province among the 11 Barrie District school boards. Members of the Aboriginal community were in attendance as well.

We arrived on the evening of April 29 and were treated to a very moving keynote addressed delivered by Shelley Knott-Fife, Educational Officer from the Aboriginal Education Office of the Ministry of Education. I had heard the same address a couple weeks ago and yet the experience was different. Maybe it had something to do with the mood of the room. Let's face it, when the audience has already bought into the message, the enthusiasm is unmistakable. One of the points that Shelley made that really touched a nerve with me made reference to the point that for those people who belong to ethinic cultures that are not native to Canada can seek that culture out and in a specific place in the world find the very essence of what that culture is (i.e. Italians can seek their culture in Italy, Cubans in Cuba, Jamaicas in Jamaica, etc.). For First Nations, Canada is IT. It's the only home they have and have ever known. Holy smokes! The implications for education are ginormous. Would a student of Aboriginal ancestry feel "at home" in what they are learning? Does he or she see any sort of familiarity in the curriculum? I always found it so amazing that we invest so much time, energy and resources in promoting multiculturalism and yet we've done a dismal job at celebrating the FIRST cultural group. In education, or society in general, these conditions lend themselves to what I call the "flavour of the month" syndrome that we happily buy into because they appear to be solutions to the bigger problem. Take Black History Month for example... Is February the ONLY time it's important? Is black history not Canadian history? Of course it is! We have a civic obligation to know it. Aboriginal history IS Canadian history and it should be a natural, seemless part of what we do. I really think that the work being done with the Literacy Prism is going to begin to help with this.

We were also treated to a concert (and a stand-up routine of sorts) by Tom Jackson. I didn't realize how tall he was but it was great to be in the presence of such an accomplished Canadian. An interesting voice... Willy Nelson -ish...

My favourite part of the conference came the following morning on April 30 during the opening prayer and drum ceremony. A young man played his drum and sang. I have never seen so much understated passion and conviction in a person of his age in all my years of teaching. It was beautiful and I can't remember the last time I was moved by something as profounding as I was that morning.

The rest of the day was spent in workshop sessions and I learned quite a lot. I learned that this process isn't going to be easy, but it has to be done. Our Aboriginal kids and their families deserve to reclaim the voice that has been systemically silenced for too long. Educators have to take a long hard look at what they are teaching and how they are doing and honestly assessing if any of it is causing harm to any of their students. I am so looking forward to the journey our board is on to honour our students of Aboriginal ancestry. (By the way, the super-terrific graphic was a logo designed for our board by Todd Jamieson and Alfie Fishgap. We love it!)

Are You Ready?

I'm learning more and more about the emergence of what is being called SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology). It's the brainchild of Microsoft (no surprise there) to create software and hardware to personalize household electronics and everyday devices to make their uses more versatile. This includes everything from watches to coffee makers. Take a look:







Crazy, ain't it!! I just wonder how long before these sorts of gagets start appearing in our classrooms, and how ready we're going to be...