Work With Hope

At the end of the day yesterday, I suddenly realized that we now have three separate websites dedicated to tech communication and growth at MD. This vehicle, which allows me to yodel and you all to comment, has been joined this week by the new MDTech Wiki, which allows everyone in the tech think tank to develop their own ideas in a much more democratic fashion, and the MDTech20 blog, which logs the topics and key information from the weekly Tech20 workshops. In this list I purposely omit the MDTech site in the ning social community which never caught on…and that’s OK.

Added to these platforms, we’re using other production and productivity tools from the net. I upload my PowerPoint shows to slideshare.com an then embed them in one of these blogs. The videos of the Tech20 workshops are uploaded to TeacherTube.com and then linked into WordPress. I’ve had fun with Xtranormal.com as an attention-grabbing communication tool. Finally, I’m considering after the new year to start putting out a weekly podcast.

At this week’s meeting of the MDTTT, I was so excited by the creativity and enthusiasm in the room. I know we are facing immense growth and with that immense challenges ahead, but I also know that Mater Dei will continue to be a leader in the new frontiers of educational technology and education…which in many ways is the same thing.
Blessed Christmas to you all with gratitude and respect.

This morning I was looking at one of our textbooks with another teacher.  She pointed out to me some of the on-line resources available to students that are noted in the book.  There is a website including printable flashcards, study guides, and links to related material.  I was very impressed with this, as I’m sure was the department that selected it.

Thinking further, though, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What, if anything, of this fabulous guide will ever be used?”  This is not a criticism of the textbook or of its selection because both appear to be excellent, but sometimes I worry about dying of thirst in an ocean of resources.

I think we all feel this.  too many resources is no more helpful than too few, and it is easier to do nothing when we can’t do everything.  Like no time since the advent of the printing press has so much of the sum of human knowledge been readily available to us…so why do I feel dumber all the time?

This is not an answer post.  I know that the answer is not to avoid new resources and new technologies, but it seems impossible to wrap one’s mind (much less the minds of all of the students) around every latest technique and resource.  I spend a portion of my week both at school and at home reading about new tech resources for school and for life.  I could easily spend all my time doing this, and that would be just reading about them, not trying them out.

So I suppose this is one with which I, and all of you, will need to struggle.  I guess that recognizing the problem is the best we can do at the moment.

Continuing to think about practical applications for the technology we use, I was thinking about Skype the other day.  For any who don’t know, Skype is an Internet phone service providing computer to computer calling for free (and other phone services for cost).  One of the very nice features of Skype is the ability to send video as well as text.  This past summer, while my wife was away, she and I would converse with each other via Skype and webcams.  

All of the new netbooks (it appears that this is becoming the settled term for Eee PC’s etc.) have a built-in web camera, so this type of contact is possible with no extra software and no extra cost.  Since we have outfitted room 503 with Eee PC’s, I was wondering how this could be used.  

One application that I thought about was real-time access to outside resources.  A teacher could set up a call or interview with another teacher across the country or across the world.  The call could take place over Skype, and students could watch the speaker projected on the screen while asking questions.

Another thought I had was to mount a better video camera in the room and alloing a student who is ill to call in to a classroom Skype account and have audio visual access to the class.  Depending on how elaborate the setup is, this person could participate as well as watch.

I guess I’m talking about dabbling with distance learning.  We have all the tools to do this now.  The only thing missing is working out the logistics.

Does anyone else have ideas for use of cameras in the classroom or any other transformative program?

As we enter this new year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903.  Most of us have seen pictures and primative video of this and other early flights.  This first flight took all of 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.  By all standards of what we know is possible, this flight was an embarrassment.

However, we don’t look at this (or any other new frontier event) this way.  We see these brothers as willing to try something new and willing to fail repeatedly before a limited success.  Without those who try and fail, no one succeeds.

I think it is the same way with educational technology.  This is a transitional period in the history of education.  The brave souls who try new programs and techniques often fail, and often count succcesses by the inch, rather than by the mile.  This is very hard for educators.  We don’t like to fail or to be less than good, particularly in front of the stduents.

No one questions the value of the Wright brothers’ “pathetic” achievement.  Most of the field of aeronautics today can trace itself to this event. And (and this is probably the most important and) people the field grew as much through analysis of the mistakes made as copying what was done.

So perhaps we are the “mistake makers” who will pave the way for our students to soar.  Attempts in this new field are valuable when they succeed and when they define the boundaries of what won’t work.  Someday our students will say, “I remember how badly he did that…it would be so much better to do it this way.”

To use one other analogy, in Medieval times (not the restaurant), those who began building a cathedral knew that they, their children, and grandchildren would be dead before the edifice was completed.  In the same way we have to keep working on this new building, secure in the knowledge that we may not see it, but we will have been a part of it.

Hey everyone, it’s finally summer, time to relax a bit and let our minds run free.  So that’s the assignment.

If you could get any type of technology into a classroom, how would it change your teaching?  School’s out, so we don’t need to worry right now about our fears.  Fear is the easiest response when it comes to technology; talk instead about your dreams.

I’ll probably write more blogposts (I’m expecting three new UMPCs in the next few weeks and I’ll talk about each), but feel free to take this one over.

Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for writing!

Take care.