Left Lane Ends

The best part is when Paul is completely surprised that he actually fixed it!

Clay Burell has a post well worth reading. I’m lovin’ his ‘take’ on writing.

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but RadioLab is my all time favorite program on my local Public Radio station (KERA - which you can listen to/donate online). For me, it is the prime example of how to teach with audio, and I am now trying to replicate some of the strategies that they use in my own ways. Now, the trick is verbalizing my thoughts.
The final product will be four to five online modules on our district Blackboard servers that attempt to teach teachers how to teach using audio - specifically, using the free software - Audacity. My big question, though, is how to do this effectively. We have all seen the step-by-step paper handouts, but they don’t bring to life how to actually do something in a real, live classroom setting. Many of us have participated in online courses - ineffective and boring - where we are forced to discuss and respond twice to non-relevant concepts. And, sitting down to watch a video that simply feeds you information doesn’t get those neurons triggering to the point where the connections truly last and have an impact on teaching for more than a day or two. So, what does RadioLab do differently?

Darren Wilson pointed out how listening to a conversation (to learn a topic) is much more engaging than being fed information. I immediatley brought up RadioLab as the two hosts of the show are always in some form of dialogue about any given topic. However, it isn’t really an inteviewer vs. interviewee type of exchange. No, it is a teacher vs. learner dialogue… one of the hosts is clearly ‘trying’ to understand the topic at hand while the other has done research or interiviewed an expert that answers the learners questioning. THEN, the tables turn - the roles switch when the topic is tweaked and the learner has the greater knowledge and begins to teach his co-host. Finally, interspersed in-between this continual boucing back-and-forth are stories (well told stories!) that support the learning exchange. The stories always have more than one perspective (narrator, additional characters, topic experts) and always have multiple levels of audio (sound effects, music placed at the right times to allow the brain to pause and reflect).

So, now the trick is to figure out how this approach can benefit my online modules - how do I work in:

• Teaching/Learning Dialogue
• Storytelling
• Multi-Layered Audio

And how do I do that in an environment that feels like an online course/online learning module. The thoughts are rolling…

It has been a while since I have heard a really good keynote speaker and Marco Torres fit the bill. Digging around online revealed a popular phrase that he must use: Quit, Complain or Innovate (while he didn’t use it at TCEA, I love the line). Like most of the things that stimulate my writing mind, it has continued to pop up throughout the past couple of weeks. I have a hard time with negativity, and the conciseness of the quote gave me a humble smile with different encounters at work, in meetings and on campuses. We all have choices.

Angela Stevenshas written about our current revisioning of our one to one laptop program in Irving, leading to some nice discussion about what the Academy of Irving ISD will do to take the next steps with community funded bond monies. Additionally, each High School campus has been asked to think about how they can revision their programs to make what we do with students more powerful and more effective.

One High School campus is seriously talking about the option of ditching Microsoft Office and installing only Open Office (open source software) on their laptops next year. This has me wondering if this change could be a rallying point for the campus. ‘We do laptops, and we do them differently.’ I hear a lot of talk about moving to open source, but 2200 students using Open Office may make a big statement.

More than just looking at installing a different software package, plans being discussed include:

• Adding a week of staff development focused on lesson development/technology integration at the beginning of the school year
• Integrating quality one-to-one styled lessons into district curriculum
• Scheduling a class of students that can work on projects to benefit the technology integration at the school
• Developing once-a-week teach sessions that have two components: 1) skills/ step-by-step on how to use something, and 2) idea generation time or thinking about how to use something in context. Teachers could be allowed to choose not only the topic to attend once a six weeks, but also choose whether they wanted the skills or the think piece.

Innovating is not just about doing something new, it is about making a decision to change. This campus is in the initial phases of thinking through that change, and it will require administrator support and a lot of work. But, it is clear what they are going to choose - and that sure ain’t ‘quit’ or ‘complain’. Those two don’t get you very far when the left lane ends.

The Beirut Spring writes about controversy over a public school named after a Lebanese poet. This is a great example of an issue where students can take/argue sides and then also look at how both sides are spewing inaccuracies. Local connections immediately come to mind, curriculum connections are a-plenty.

This is yet another piece of reading provided by Global Voices, and yet another example of issues that I think would get our kids riled up about learning.

Because I am a full-out geek, I watch ‘How It’s Made’ on the Science channel (thank you, Chris, for getting me hooked).  So, I record it on the DVR and paruse the episodes when I watch the little TV that I do sit down for.

The other night, I came across an episode about how milk is produced. Being a born/raised Kansas boy, I though - hmph - I know THAT already. But, OH, how times have changed! You’ll see the episode below from YouTube (don’t know how long it will be there) and there are a few other episodes on the How It’s Made website.

It hit me last night, for one reason or another, that these cow’s actually have more choice and self management than what we give many of our students. AND, on top of that, it is entirely thanks to the technology involved. I’ll stop there and let you make the rest of the connections … let’s start treating our students less like kids and more like cows.

Being on a campus for the first day of school is flat out refreshing. There is so much excitement, anticipation, newness from students, parents and teachers alike. Sure, the daily rigor will set in as we progress through the first six weeks, but today is special. With most schools starting on the 27th in Texas, I wish you an exciting first day of school as well… This picture shows a glimpse into a classroom just shortly after the students settled into their new room for the first time this year.

Parents and students wait outside of this elementary campus for the doors to open at 7:30am. My next stop will be the Academy of Irving ISD where I plan to grab some footage of first day ‘classroom management’ in a 1:1 setting. Who said Monday’s aren’t great?!

Radio Lab is by FAR my favorite thing to listen to on our local public radio station. Unlike any other broadcasted program I have ever listened to, it comes off like a conversation might happen in my mind. Sounds are layered on top of the concepts that are being discussed, intriguing repetition is embedded into the show and my attention is simply captured (NOT an easy task). There is always an over arcing theme, but that constant is paralleled with a feeling of natural, random conversation. Detective Stories, show #201, was a favorite of mine with the following description giving you a glimpse at the design of the show:

Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this hour, we hear surprising stories of playing detective and finding that what really happened in the past is not at all what you’d expected. We start at a trash dump in Egypt, where we find Jesus, Satan, sissies, and porn. Next, the mystery of why hundreds of old letters written to the same woman were discovered on the side of Route 101. And lastly, a blood sampling tour of Asia reveals a prolific baby-maker and potentially a world conqueror.

Wrapping your mind around the concept of how mine functions is not the easiest thing for me to communicate/conceptualize. The best way to describe it, I guess, is through the example of this CMAP Mind Mapping software. You see, I HATE taking notes. The only time I have EVER taken notes is when I knew I’d get in trouble if I didn’t. So the first time I used this software, I was blown away. I could visually see the concepts and how they connected to one another, concepts were noted in brief and reviewing the content the next day/week actually helped. I realized that this visual representation of concepts and their connections was a pretty good parallel to how my mind (and conversations in my mind) work. For me, Radio Lab takes that visual and turns it into audio format.

As I tossed around what makes this broadcast so effective, I ran across a post on Crucial Thought (a while back) titled ‘Do we pay enough attention to conversation?’. A sixth grade language teacher, Christopher Craft reflects on his observation at a university campus:

Not only did students not talk to one another following class time, they all pulled out cell phones and began dialing. This blew me away!

They wanted familiar connections, not new ones.

They wanted connections made in the context of fun, not class.

They didn’t want to connect with me.

I’m a talker. I love to have long conversations where both parties get to wax rhetoric about deeply philosophical topics, ranging anywhere from existentialism to education. Nothing lights up my day like a conversation with someone who challenges my thinking. I like it when my thinking is rocked, because it either changes or is strengthened.

I, too, love conversation. Exchanging and interchanging ideas is just flat out fun and I think it can be a driving catalyst in our classrooms. Radio Lab models that conversation so well (and in a way that starts my mind rolling) - to the point that I want to continue the conversation with others. I guess while I see digital tools as having the potential to isolate, I also see the huge potential for them to open up doors, experiences and conversation for our students. Whether it is a lesson in class or pointing our students to a Radio Lab broadcast that strikes a small spark, we just have to trigger the conversation that opens the door for their engagement.

So, I took on the task of putting together some, for lack of a better description, ice breakers to use in a session that we offered for our brand new Instructional Technology Specialists. To start with, I did not want to make people get out of their seats, but did want to give them the opportunity to introduce themselves and be expressive in how they did that. Each person ended up creating their own ‘vanity license plate’ using some junk filing folders and markers. They had fun and really put personality into their creations/phrases they put on their plates.

I wouldn’t have even posted this, though, if a colleague hadn’t just shown me the ImageChef website. Nothing fancy, but you can create your own quick/easy personalized images. The license plate on their homepage jumped out at me, so I figured I’d share the one I created. Simple, no fancy graphics, bring it on. I like the digital version better…

I have been using Netvibes as my aggregator since it came available, and have loved it since day one. However, when Google rolled out iGoogle, I figured it required a look. So, I looked. Briefly.

First, you may or may not recall this post of mine about Google. Despite my continued wariness about their data mining, I still use them. But, I’m also still wary. Just be sure that you are aware of all the data they are collecting about you as you surf, read and aggregate.

Second, Netvibes’ preview interface beats iGoogle hands down. I love being able to read as little or as much as I want in a variety of different ways (mouse over, pop up, etc). Additionally, they just released an iPhone geared site. Very nice.

So, explore, compare, do as you please… I’ll be sticking with Netvibes for now. Until they get bought by Google, that is.