Repost: The Tip of the Iceburg

What a cliche to begin with… the reason I chose that particular phrase is because in this blog I am hoping to find some of the best ways to integrate technology (let it be gadgets, software or technique) into the secondary level English classes.  This first post will hopefully start to shed some light.

I am a technology enthusiast; some may even go as far to label me as a geek.  As a future educator, I am looking for ways to combine the new technologies that students have access to and the more traditional curriculum that the students face.  In particular, I will explore new writing technology, which includes the gadgets that are being used, the software that is constantly changing, as well as, but not limited to, the techniques used to teach such technology.

To help me learn more I have set up my Google Reader to follow a number of different sites as follows:

Education:

The BBC: Education; I follow this in order to stay on top of what is going on in the global education world rather than the US alone

Google News: Education; The ease of receiving all of the major newspapers, plus many others, was the main attraction.

Educational Technology Resources and Tips: A Blog By Ann Bell; This is a blog that covers and explores Web 2.0 and some of the ways that educators can integrate technology.

MSNBC.com: Education; This is another way to get broader headlines.  I am really just hoping to catch some interesting news in education that might not be in the Google News section.

Google News: New Writing Technology; This is a more specific search that should return articles and headlines that are much closer to the topic that I am looking to cover.

New York Times: Education; This is yet another source for major headlines.  What I am hoping to achieve with a large number of feeds from more prominent sources is a large number of headlines that will contain some reliable variety.

EBSCO; My last edition to the education part of my feed is a search on the EBSCO database.  It is a search for all articles about new writing technology.
Technology:

Chris Pirillo; The feed for Chris Pirillo is not directly related to education, but it does help to create a large awareness of what is happening in the world of technology.  I am a faithful follower of his so this choice was a no brainer.

Geekbrief.tv; If I recall correctly, this is where I first learned of Chris Pirillo.  Geekbrief is really known for their video podcasts with their host Cali Lewis.  If you aren’t sure about technology and need to know about any gadgets, I would absolutely check out Geekbrief.  These are the people that sold me on spending the extra money to purchase my MacBookPro.

MSNBC.com: Internet/Gadgets; I am subscribed to both the feeds in order to hear not only about trendy things, as I might hear about on Geekbrief, but to hear about other technology that may relate more closely to education

To check out these different areas you can check out the links below:

MSNBC: Education

MSNBC: Internet

MSNBC: Gadgets

BBC: Education

Google News: Education

New York Times: Education

Chris Pirillo

Geekbrief.tv

We All Knew the Time Would Come…

So as the semester begins to wind down, and by wind down I mean get crazy, so does this blog.  Over the past three or so months I have been blogging with an educational technology focus and using Google Reader.  Here are some closing thoughts:

1. I don’t love Google Reader.  It is great if you can remember to log in to it everyday.  I tried adding the widget for Mac OS X, but it just told me I had a number of new updates.  I didn’t see headlines or anything.  I will personally continue to use plug-ins via FireFox.

2. I’m not meant for educational blogging.  My topic was a little bit hard to find good articles for.  Often I went searching for articles that I thought might pertain to technology and education.  Lots of my feeds gave me noneducational or nontechnology related articles.  I didn’t love remaining in such a narrow topic.  If you know me, this really should be a suprise.

3. This might be my most important point (which means this is the part I actually will take away from this educational blog).  This point is best described by the following quote:

“We are 20th-century teachers using 19th-century methods to reach 21st-century students.”

As a future educator, I must learn how to use technology in order to enhance my students’ learning.  The population around us often suggests that we teach students as they have always been taught, but looking at the research, it is clear a change must be made in this country’s educational system.  Why do Chinese students who have less formal education learn and comprehend mathematics better than the American students?  Could it be that our 19th centry methods are failing us?  My guess is absolutely.  It’s time to use the technology that we have created in order to give our students a chance at learning more and more deeply. Let’s find ways to make it affordable or at least reasonable.  Let’s teach our students the skills that they will find themselves using in their future.  Let’s teach our students how to use technology to further themselves in life.

So, is this really the last blog post I will write?  Certainly not.  Will I be writing in this blog again?  Not any time soon.  But I will be moving an old blog to be linked to this one.  If you are interested, the new blog will be “The old, the new and the in-between,” which you may recognize.  This was my blog name from tvguide.com.  I will move that and discuss more than the entertainment business.  So, mark this down on your to-do list:  Check out Jessi’s Blog in the next week or so.  If you have any questions about this blog, my other blog or any old (and coming soon) podcasts feel free to email me at jlgpodcasting@gmail.com.

Comments made by me

http://thebore4.wordpress.com/2008/09/17/how-young-is-too-young/

http://makeitepic.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/standarized-testing-for-kindergarten/

http://kennedad77.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/using-hip-hop-within-the-classroom/

http://diezwiebel.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/the-necessity-of-religion-in-education/

http://ghannaml.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/young-dreaming-of-living-abroad/

http://carreli.edublogs.org/2008/09/21/how-can-teens-remember-literary-texts/#comments

http://ehaveman05.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/language-is-power-power-is-white/#comment-16

http://vanbeckj.wordpress.com/2008/10/21/those-who-cant-spell-teach/

http://mwalimu23.edublogs.org/2008/11/30/esl-activities/#comment-25

http://laurensibula.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/naked-snowboarding/#comment-21

I’m All About Tweeting in the Classroom!

Well… this article did not manage to find its way to my feed.  But I’m telling you I love it.  I am probably showing my bias a bit, but who wouldn’t loving tweeting?  Now obviously I’m not talking about making bird noises by myself… weird.  The tweeting I’m talking about is leaving messages on Twitter.

For those of you who don’t know Twitter let me explain.  Twitter is a social networking site in which you are given 140 characters (just like a text message) to send what ever message or link you want to the cyberland subspace of Twitter.  You can let people know what you are doing or give them a link to a recent blog post or upload.  The messages you leave are tweets.  You can follow your friends and receive their updates on your homepage.  Here is a picture of my homepage:

This next picture is of CaliLewis of geekbrief.tv’s profile.  It is all of her tweets on the page.  This is a great example of using links and the @username feature.  If you want to reply to someone’s tween in your own tweet you just type @username to refer to them and they will be notified of the tweet.

Anyways, I found this blog post from ZDNet by Christopher Dawson on Twitter.  Dawson does make use of Twitter in the educational setting.  Specifically he says:

I have let high school students use it for group projects and class work time, throwing out ideas, thoughts, and questions for their classmates. Even now, the students I’ve introduced to Twitter use it for crowdsourcing.

I think it is a great place for students to brainstorm ideas.  They can use it to share ideas for paper topics or to see if other students have any suggestions.  The students will also be able to share links to useful sites and articles as well. If students do want to share links I would suggest showing them a website that makes links shorter.  Personally, I use TinyURL.com.  You can take a long link and turn it into something that doesn’t use all 140 characters of your tweet.

Another great feature for the instructor is that if the teacher requires all students to set up a Twitter account they will be able to monitor the students.  They can see how they interact with one another.  Also, the teacher might pose an open ended question that doesn’t really require a correct answer, just some thinking, and get students’ responses outside of class time.  I’m the kind of person who always thinks of something better later, and it’s best if I can tell people right away or I forget.  Twitter or something of the sort would provide a place for students to be heard and archived at all hours.

If you have never used Twitter set up an account today at twitter.com. Oh yeah, and feel free to add me!

California’s Integrated Language Arts

As of November 7, 2008 the California State Board of Education has approved a new integrated curriculum by Pearson for reading.  This vote was unanimous as reported by PR Web (Press Release Newswire).  This new curriculum is specially designed for the state of California.  Since there are approximately 1.5 million English language learners speaking over 300 languages, this curriculum is designed to help the ELL students learn English and not hinder their learning in other subjects.

Something else that interested me in this new curriculum is the inclusion of technology.  I think that subjects based heavily in literature are often denied the use of technology because educators are unsure of how to incorporate it.  However, the press release about the new curriculum states

The Pearson programs also recognize the reality that the state’s students are reading and writing on computers, surfing the Internet, gaming, and texting on cell phones many hours every day. Bush said, “If we are to engage our more than six million California students effectively, we need to meet these digital natives on their own turf and ensure that teaching and learning embraces the technologies that are such a pervasive part of the world they live in. This component is one of the key differentiators of our Pearson programs.”

Although I have looked into the curriculum some, I am unsure of exactly how technology is used to enhance the students’ learning.  The press release sort of describes the use of technology as:

Pearson’s programs are complemented by SuccessMaker Enterprise, digital courseware providing a diagnostic and individualized 21st Century approach toward learning to meet the needs of different learning styles – including students who are gifted, at-risk, or English language learners and those served by special education. With a proven record of improving student success for California students, SuccessMaker Enterprise addresses the full range of learner abilities through standards-based, targeted curriculum.

However, this to me, does not explain how the technology is used.  I’m a little skeptical on how technology will do all the above.  But I do have faith that this is a step in the right direction.

As a Mathematics and English major I know in math that there is a slow movement towards integrated math.  Instead of teaching Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry as seperate courses the students learn all three subjects at the same time over the course of three years.  This helps students as the information becomes more coherent.  So, I think that Pearson’s inclusion of integrated language arts skills in their curriculum is a very good idea, in particular for ELL students.

As Dr. Diane August, one of the authors of the curriculum, points out an integrated curriculum can help ELL students by:

– Scaffolding techniques that make content concepts clear.

– Additional practice to reinforce key words, skills, ideas, and concepts.

– In-line curriculum support for teachers to help ELs master the same content as their English proficient peers.

– Videos demonstrating these various techniques in action provided as part of the Professional Development Reading Video library.

– Opportunities for interaction with English proficient peers, which is instrumental to developing a second language.

I don’t have a lot to say about this and how technology enhances the learning yet.  But I would suspect in the next year or so if this goes well, many states will adopt many of these new ideas.  Hopefully more states will follow suit anyways and include more technology since the students today are the children of the computer and cell phone.

Here is the link to the press release.

California State Board of Education. “California State Board of Education Approves Pearson’s Breakthrough Reading Programs for State’s Students.” Press release. 9 Nov. 2008. 16 Nov. 2008 <http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1588274.htm>.

Here is the link to the article on Dr. Diane August

“Glencoe Literature California Author Provides Insight for Developing English Learners.” Press release. 10 Nov. 2008. Glencoe/McGraw Hill. 16 Nov. 2008 <http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/glencoe-literature-california-author-provides/story.aspx?guid={ba99470b-3050-4c27-a111-f15a08ebc4b5}>.

Can the Kindle be used in a classroom?

There are some people who believe that a product like the Kindle is unnecessary or excessive.  I will admit, reluctantly, that at one time I belonged to this camp.  But the more I read and hear about the Kindle, the more I get excited.  There are so many ways that this could become a staple to every English classroom.  But, of course, before this gadget can become an integral part of a classroom, we are going to need to see a few adjustments.

For instance, let’s talk price.  $359.  Now, I know that people pay this much for mp3 players and iPods, but this isn’t even including the price of purchasing books.  I think that if Amazon is interested in being the pioneers into the classroom the price will need to come down considerably.  Or at least we need to give the schools a nice discount.  As Jason Perlow mentions in his Tech Broiler blog, this is not a product for mass consumer adoption.

However, for an English class it might allow teachers the opportunity to teach more books if they had such a gadget.  I think that it would be necessary to allow schools to also get books at a cheaper price seeing as they don’t just buy one book.  As Perlow says in his blog the average college text book on Kindle is cheaper than the average price for a used text.  Seeing as this saves quite a bit of money over time, we can see that the same would be for many Kindle books.  This would allow teachers and administration to allocate some of the money elsewhere or even to purchase new books more often.

I’m not going to sugar coat this and pretend I think this is the best idea ever.  You have a few downsides.

One: You are allowing students to handle expensive technology, and now you have to decide if they can only read when they are in class.  Are you going to let them take this home?

Two: It is a big investment.  Although I am thoroughly convinced that over time a school could save a lot of money (assuming the price of a Kindle becomes economical for mass adoption), it is a huge start up cost.  It falls under the “you have to spend money to save money” category.

Three: Technology is changing really quickly.  If technology is changing this quickly now, imagine how fast technology will change over the next two or three years!  It is possible that by the time you have saved enough money to make it worth your while there will be much better technology available.  (Which is a good reason to look into renting technology for your school)

Overall, I think that the Kindle could be a good addition to the English classroom.  However, I might hold out and see how long such technology will last.  If it makes it to the point where Kindle reduces greatly in price, I would definitely suggest looking into this gadget.

I first learned about the Kindle from Geekbrief.  If you want to know more check out Geekbrief.tv.  Also, for more on the Kindle Economics check out Jason Perlow’s blog entry here.

Kids really do know how to spell “you”

As somewhat of a technology enthusiast, I love hearing about new gadgets and technologies from Geekbrief.tv and others.  This isn’t necessarily about wonderful new gadgets, but Chris Pirillo discussed the necessity for basic spelling and grammar on the internet on October 13, 2008.  There is a link to Chris Pirillo’s blog entry at the end of this entry, but note that going to his website is a great idea.  He has corresponding video to the blog entry.

I feel like there are so many teachers and parents concerned that instant messaging and text messaging will corrupt the students.  They fear that the students won’t remember “proper English” or how to spell simple words like you.  I would definitely argue that the children know how to spell “you” they just choose not to. However, as a future English teacher I would agree that students need to maintain the basic spelling and grammatical skills in the internet.

If I am going to ask my students to type their papers or maintain a blog, I think that it is necessary for me to supply them with resources to make their blog more polished.  Chris suggests an acronym PUGS, which stands for Punctuation, Usage, Grammar and Spelling.  I think that in a blog this would be important for students to remember, but if they can’t remember all of that or miss some of the mistakes in their review of it they may need some extra help.

This is where Chris suggests Spellcheck.  It is simple enough that grade school children learning to type paragraphs could use it.  All you have to do is copy the text that you want to have reviewed and paste it in the text box provided on the page.  You could also start by typing your work in the box as you go.  Then you press the spell check button and a box pops up.  There are three tabs, spelling, grammar and thesaurus.  You click on the one you would like to have the program check for you and you have options to change things or leave them as is.

I wouldn’t suggest to students that they take everything the program suggests to change, but at least students now have the option of finding some synonyms to use or a way to find some grammatical mistakes.  They can use this with email, papers or a blog.  I would also want to emphasize to students that this does not mean that they do not need to know how to spell or correct grammar, but this is a tool to help you become a better writer.

Link to Chris Pirillo’s website

Link to the specific blog post: Are Punctuation, Usage, Spelling and Grammar Important?

$5000 per classroom…

So I was looking for ways to include new technology that is emerging in classrooms today.  I had heard that tablets were making their way into classrooms more and more.  I know that these cost a lot of money, more specifically to the tune of $10,000.  So I was interested in seeing how some schools are allocating their money to this new technology.

In the article “Gadgets help make classroom lectures more interactive” I was reading about some other new technology.  They discuss document cameras and interactive whiteboards.  So, I think that these two gadgets are something that I will be aspiring to attain for my classroom in the future.  How amazing it would be to write on the board and have it read what I have written back to me.  It will save the documents and show movies as well as slideshows.  If a student is sick I still have our exact notes of what we discussed.  Then the document cameras can also hold documents and images so that I don’t have to carry around and keep track of lots of papers.  There are so many amazing features for both document cameras and interactive whiteboards.

But after Dana M. Nichols spends three quarters of the article selling me on the fabulous aspects of the new gadgets, she brings me back to reality:

Fully equipping a classroom with a whiteboard, its projector and a computer can cost $5,000 or more once installation and training are included

I’m sorry… did you say $5000 per classroom?  I suppose it isn’t per classroom because you wouldn’t pay to train just one person for the classroom; I would hope that you would train a number of people at one time.  Regardless of that minor discrepancy… think of what you could do with even a fraction of that cost?  In one class you could purchase 33 TI-89 Calculators, hundreds of novels, around 5,000 boxes of pencils with 12 pencils in each, so 60,000 pencils, 710,000 sheets of paper… the list goes on.  I want this technology, but how could I justify spending that large amount of money?

Well, I think that the article brings up a really interesting idea:

Some schools are coping with that problem by leasing the new equipment rather than buying it, or by pairing the equipment with maintenance and training contracts to ensure that classrooms stay up to date.

So, if a school is worried about how quickly their technology will become out of date they can choose to rent it?  I think that is a good idea.  So long as it is more cost effective I think that is a fabulous idea.

I understand that there are so many schools who don’t even have the technology that was big 10 years ago, but I believe where it can be implemented the students will only benefit.  Even with the budget issues, I still aspire to provide my students with the technology that will assist their learning.

Nichols, Dana M. “Gadgets help make classroom lectures more interactive.” Recordnet.com 20 Oct. 2008.

Article Link

From the Mouth of a Scholar

I was extremely priveledged to attend a lecture on Grand Valley State University’s Pew campus by Stephen Greenblatt.  If you don’t know who he is, he has written “Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare” and is a pioneer of New Historicism.

I was really interested in this speaker coming to Grand Valley for a few reasons:

1)    I loved the Shakespeare festival speaker last year
2)    I am extremely interested in Stephen Greenblatt’s vast amount of work
3)    I am an ivy league addict—it is a dream of mine to attend Harvard, Yale or MIT
4)    It isn’t your typical Shakespeare topic
So I was very interested in Greenblatt’s work at Harvard and his new book.  Going in to the lecture I was excited to hear about his latest endeavor revolving around the lost Shakespeare play.

At first, I was extremely confused while the speaker was giving some background information on cultural mobility.  He was using words that I assume are from the Latin language.  I was unable to keep up with what he was saying since he was moving so quickly through the background information.  For about 15 or 20 minutes I struggled to keep up with his power point presentation.

However, as soon as he passed through the background information I was able to again understand and become interested in his lecture.  I won’t go in to extreme detail of his speech but he was discussing the idea of the lost play of Shakespeare.  He gave a little history on Cardenio, what is possibly a play by Shakespeare that was never published.  He went over the general plot as well as how it was founded.  If you are interested in becoming familiar with the background of Cardenio follow this link.

The next part of Stephen Greenblatt’s lecture is the part that I find most relatable to teaching.  In discussing cultural mobility I think on of the most important issues that comes to light is interpretation and diversity.  In the public schools for certain, and probably some private schools, classrooms are filled with children from different cultures, races and ethnicity.  As Greenblatt points out, our diversity in the world leads to different stereotypes and different views of the world.  We all see the world from separate eyes, but our culture, society and family shape how we view our surroundings.

By exploring how one story is interpreted in many languages and cultures, we as educators are better able to see that different interpretations cannot be wrong.  When reading if one student believes ina different meaning than the rest of the class, are they wrong? I would say no.  I think a lot of us would.  But if we look at cultural mobility, maybe it is more important to explore less “popular” or less “accepted” ideas.  Instead of telling our students that what the mainstream says is correct is right, let’s let them tell us.  We should listen and allow them to feel free to explore different thought.  We should allow others to critique them and give student’s the opportunites to defend their beliefs.  We should not shut a student’s idea down because it is new or different.

I think that this is the biggest concept that I took away from Greenblatt’s lecture.  I want to listen to my students but moreso, I want my students to explore a lot of different ideas and not only their own.

the fight to bring back newspaper and yearbook classes

Well, I suppose that I am extraordinarily biased on this specific suject, but it is only because I am so passionate about yearbook.  I was on the yearbook staff at Holland High School for the three years I was eligible.  My first year I was a general staffer choosing photos, writing captions and writing articles.  I then progressed the next year to the Advertising Editor and later yet to the Design Editor.  If I am ever offered the opportunity to teach a yearbook class, I would love to.  But let’s discuss how the yearbook is helpful in weaving technology through writing.

Unfortunately, over the past five or so years there has been a great decline in the number of journalism classes offered at the high school level.  According to a journalism teacher Paul Kandell

Journalism ends up being an enrichment class… It’s listed as an elective, not a core English course that’s used to rate schools

Although journalism isn’t a class that is part of the core English classes, I think that it holds a great importance.  As the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) has shown in a study, the benefits of a journalism class reach beyond the high school

Students who work on high school newspapers and yearbooks score higher on the ACT in addition to receiving better grades in high school and as college freshman.

I truly believe that newspaper and yearbook courses are important to a variety of study areas.  Of course a student of English will find that their journalism skills are exercised in these courses, but I also find that students that are interested in business and marketing, art and technology play an extremely important role in the publication

In my time on the Boomerang staff I sold a number of ads to local businesses.  All general staffers were given a $400 quota to meet.  They spoke with businesses and learned how to sell advertising space.  Further, as the Advertising editor, I was required to follow up with the businesses on artwork as well as payment.  I also spent a lot of time designing the book, cover and other spreads as well as taking photographs.  The art involved in the book was also very important.

Besides the publication being a real world situation for students to explore, the students had to employ their journalistic skills, artistic ideas as well as the business side of the book.  But most important, the students used technology to display all of their work.  The students must use word processors and typing skills to insert their stories.  They may use film cameras or digital, but either way the students must format pictures properly and place them in a spread.  Students use databases to keep track of the students in the school and organize information such as who purchased a book or how often they appear in the book.  Also, programs such as Adobe InDesign and Adobe Page Maker are used to create documents that the publisher can use to print the book.

I believe that this incorporation of technology is the most effective use I have seen thus far.  The students are held to the same standards as any major publication and journalists.  They have real deadlines to meet for the publication companies.  The editorial staff must learn to budget as well as how to sell their product.  This publication is something real and tangible that the students must work to produce for their peers.  Most importantly, the yearbook class requires students to incorporate parts of their core curriculum (i.e. English class) and expand upon them.  To reiterate the study by the NAA, students that take part in a journalism class generally receive better grades even beyond high school.  The student is increasing their grades and learning the skills of many different areas within one class.

King, Jamilah. “Turning Pages: High School Journalism in Transition.” The Nation 18 Sept. 2008.

Link to Article