We are influenced by so many things in our lives. Identifying what has a significant influence on us can be difficult. Here are two things that I believe can be categorized as most influential… and they both happened Monday.

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1. Fifteen year old Kristine wrote a very influential blog post last May. It coincided with a lesson I was doing in my class for our school’s Renaissance Fair. The post, “How to Prevent Another Leonardo da Vinci“, has made the finals for the Edublog Awards ‘Most Influential Post ‘. She is the only student to make the finals in this category. Furthermore, the post has had an impact on me, and many teachers that I have shared it with. Thinking back now, as I write this, I realize that Kris has influenced my blog posts, time and again. (The student as teacher, or at least as an influential node in my learning network:-)

As I told Kris in my comment months ago: “You are, and always will be, a lifelong learner who engages in a quest to meaningfully exploring your world, (dare I say like da Vinci)… I guess one would argue despite your education rather than because of it… so there is hope, and there is potential for us to find our next da Vinci… perhaps SHE is within our midst today:-)”

As edubloggers I think that it is great to recognize students like Kris who deserve more recognition than they usually get at school. We should also recognize that although we strive to give students the best possible experience in our classrooms, Kris’ message holds more truths than most would like to admit. May her blog influence many learning discussions in the months to come.

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2. Two good friends, Dave Sands and Gary Kern came to my school Monday night and did a presentation with me on: Technology, Your Child, and You. Twenty seven parents braved the threat of the first snowfall of the year to participate in the presentation. On a personal note, I felt a little like a rookie called up to the majors to help out with this presentation. Dave and Gary have given it many times, and they had a ‘flow’ about them that I lacked. Overall I think it was great to be part of the presentation and it was fun to see my Batman/Borg metaphor being used (though they use the more recognized Terminator rather than the Borg).

Dave was very impressed with the parent’s involvement and interest. The most vocal of them wanted answers about what to do about Facebook and all the screen time kids have. This presentation however was much more about asking questions than giving answers.

The presentation delivers a number of key ideas: Technology feeds student needs. Technology isn’t going away. Parents need to figure out what they value, and they need to understand and engage with the technology their kids are using. If parents want influence with their children, they are far more likely to get it engaging from the inside rather than policing from the outside.

A simple example: a kid that won’t phone a parent from a friend’s house to say they are changing locations, might not think twice about texting a parent while in the back seat of a car heading to the new location… if text is a mode of communication that the kid already uses with their parent.

The presentation is very well designed and parent feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with several of them wishing more parents showed up, “Parents need to hear this!”

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It was a most influential Monday!

Originally posted: November 29th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: A look at some amazing students and teachers. Kris is now my blog-hosting techie, I provide her with free hosting (Bluehost gives me more space than I’ll ever use), and I get step-by-step help with things like upgrading to the newest WordPress version. She has also been invited to post on Students 2oh, although she hasn’t done so yet. Another student, Raj, got wind of the fact that our computer teacher, Mr. Yuen, and I were going to create a Wiimote smartboard and he took the idea and ran with it! He also took this programming passion into his classroom and is co-creating this page in Mr. Mak’s 1-1 room. Mr. Mak was the second of two teachers at our school to get the computers for his 1-1 class, so he had to wait until late February to have them passed on to his students. I arrived at the school in February, showed Mr. Mak Wikispaces and gave him some suggestions about how he could use it. Since then he has blown me away with his fearlessness. Check out Mr. Mak’s Class Novel or his ToonDoo Anti-Bullying cartoons (note that Raj helped with the instructions), or his Career Research assignment (where 1 person from each of 3 different classes shares a page). Discussions get posted by students late at night, and I see students in the computer room at lunch working on their wikipages. This isn’t a wiki, it is a learning hub! Also, our computer teacher, Mr. Yuen, jumped onto wikispaces too! His students aren’t just using wiki’s, they are also using tools like: Slideshare, Screencast-o-matic, Dvolver, Jing, Flickr and Audacity, (links to these are on his wiki’s navigation bar). This is a teacher who asked me “What is a wiki?” when I got to the school! Since then he has leaped into the world of web2.0 and has not looked back. I’ve had skype conversations with him well past midnight: I suggest some tools and links and then he shows me some fantastic things he has tried out. Next year Mr. Yuen will be our afternoon librarian and we are revamping the Library’s outdated computer lab. I can’t wait to see how influential this amazing teacher will be when he starts collaborating with teachers coming to the library to do projects! So there you have it: Two amazing students and two amazing teachers that are lifelong learners. Four ‘most influential’ people that inspire me with their passion for learning and sharing with others. - – - – - Comment from the original post: David, what a way to start the week! I just finished reading Kristine’s post, and I absolutely agree! I think every educator needs to read and talk about this post. We have young DaVinci’s sitting in our classrooms ready to be developed. Let’s hope her well deserved recognition for this post will influence many! Angela Maiers on Thursday, 29 November 2007, 23:58 CET

After my last post I went to hear Alan November speak at an afternoon Pro-D session. I then read Brian Kuhn‘s blog post and added a comment, which I have edited slightly and included below. In the process of writing this comment I realized a valuable lesson, which I will discuss below the comment:

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The afternoon session With Alan November was great!

It was wonderful to hear Alan November again. His webcast for the district was one of the things that lit a fire under me and encouraged my to explore technology as a means for students to learn ‘new things in new ways’.
This weekend I was listening to some of his podcasts and I wrote a blog post about them : Looking back at it, my reflections were somewhat sarcastic and negative… A product of feeling like things just haven’t been moving fast enough.

Tuesday afternoon changed that for me. There are a lot of great teachers out there doing wonderful things, and there are many more teachers out there feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to learn, who are still willing to take the next step forward. On a more personal note, the world of web2.0 has given me wings , but I realized that I too have a long way to go before I am doing all the things that I can to give my students wings too!

Thanks to Jill Reid for the invitation, to all the leaders who helped make a day like today possible, and to Alan November… I am refueled and ready to continue my journey of learning along with my students.

Here are some notes about today e-mailed to me from Joni, a true leader in our school. She may not be tech savvy (yet), but teachers like her who offer their leadership, guidance and support are what will help ‘us’ move forward using technology ‘for learning’ rather than just using technology to teach!

Great tool: webcast site ‘Jingproject‘.

Suggestions: Kid jobs for the class

1) Answer questions from class. This kid needs to answer all questions, if he can’t, he needs to find the answer on the web, then post the answer.
2) Continuous researcher through class
3) Official scribe: takes notes for the class every day. Post them to the site.
4) Create a Wiki site. Allows children make a contribution to the world. wikipedia, or your own space like www.wikispaces.com [My attempt - ScienceAlive.]
5) Contributing any source that they find on he web to the class: use a social networking site. eg. www.diigo.com create a diigo account for the class or every student has their own account and then “share to group”. [I used delicious and am now moving to diigo]

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Reflect and Learn

Here is the sentence from above that has hit home with me over the past few days, “the world of web2.0 has given me wings , but I realized that I too have a long way to go before I am doing all the things that I can to give my students wings too!”

I currently have a private Ning network for my students, but it is really driven by me! The blog posts, the groups, the forums… all initiated by me! Yesterday I read a post by Konrad Glogowski. The post, “Conversation with Pre-Service Teachers – The Set Curriculum“, was about just that, ‘the set curriculum’ (something I have written about a few times) but a specific section struck a chord with me:

“It seemed logical to me that my responsibility as an educator was to prepare a collection of texts, resources, diagnostic and assessment/evaluation tools in order to achieve specific learning outcomes. I saw myself as a subject expert whose primary responsibility in the classroom was to teach a very specific set of skills and competencies. I saw myself as someone who possessed knowledge and perceived my students as individuals who needed to acquire it.”

I am new to teaching planning 10, and I am trying to launch a specific program, YPI , that I am learning about with the students. So, I did what many teachers do when they are unfamiliar with the curriculum… I teach to it.

In the last little while my posts have been peppered with negative undertones about things not moving fast enough and technology limitations that I have found frustrating. Well, although those things are legitimate concerns, they are things that are for the most part beyond my control. What I can do is create an engaging classroom environment that actually gives my students wings.

Another thoughtful lesson inspired by Alan November , and realized through my blogging/web2.0 experience.

Originally posted: November 23rd, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: After reading Konrad’s post, I went into my classroom and wrote a forum post for my ning networks titled, “You lead the way“, and this is what it said: Here is your chance to be the teacher today. What do you want to learn more about? What questions do you have? What interests you? This can be about Planning 10 or anything else. It can be questions that you often wonder about or just a thought in your head. You have 2 choices. 1. Respond to this forum 2. Create your own forum discussion Feel free to link to other websites. It can be really small ideas or really big ideas. Then I would like you to read what others have written and join in the conversation. Some of the student discussion choices were (in my opinion) silly. Others good, and still others were heated, including a thoughtful discussion on the Death Penalty, where I had to bite my digital tongue…and sure enough a student came up with a perspective that I thought needed to be shared. These ‘free’ conversations gave the students some ownership of the site and encouraged a greater amount of online conversations afterwards.

I started this post sitting in a waiting room at the auto shop waiting for my car: No WiFi, pay-for coffee and snacks available. It had an outlet if my laptop battery didn’t hold out, comfortable seats and, if I was interested, a tv to make the experience a little more comfortable. But I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I am a fan of Alan November and I just downloaded, to my iTunes, his November Learning Podcast Series. With ear plugs in and a word doc open, (I would have preferred Google docs), I began listening to Alan November interview Dan Pink.

A little history here…
My first classroom blogging experience was inspired by an Alan November webcast that launched me into my web2.0 experiences… (My teaching2.0? What do you call this transformation?
…And a question on the side…
What do you call a digital ‘immigrant’ that is fully immersed in a digital world? I am an immigrant to Canada, but truly consider myself a Canadian, though I will never be a ‘native’. Perhaps I am a Digital Citizen, or more aptly a Digital Denizen!

den•i•zen noun formal or humorous an inhabitant or occupant of a particular place : denizens of field and forest. • Brit., historical a foreigner allowed certain rights in the adopted country.

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Here are the highlights of the interviews with my two-dimes worth added in!

Interview 1: With Dan Pink

Pink Re: Standardized Testing as a measure of a school. “What ultimately I care about is the individual kids, that’s what parents care about and obviously that what the kids themselves care about… if I had a magic wand I would do a very serious, very radical overhaul of the entire education system”.

We have to be willing to measure these: (From Wikipedia on Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind )

1. Design – Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
2. Story – Narrative added to products and services – not just argument.
3. Symphony – Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
4. Empathy – Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
5. Play – Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
6. Meaning – Immaterial feelings and values of products.

As long as we measure schools and measure students with tests that do not appreciate and include measuring a student’s ability to express these senses, we are measuring the wrong things.

I have an idea: First we will measure a poem with a word count… Then we will measure compassion with a ruler… And finally we will measure the making of a work of art with a stop watch. Then we will add the numbers together and tell you how well your child is doing in school.

From a previous post , “there is a dichotomy here: Our ‘educational language’ around standardization and accountability juxtaposed with differentiation and flexibility… we seem to have two mutually exclusive camps, yet there seems to be a move to embrace both. To embrace both is to accomplish neither.”

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Interview 2: Dan Pink

School architects use a 35-year-old formula, with teachers left out of the conversation… “Appalling that a Starbucks is a more appealing place to be than a classroom.

It doesn’t have to be more expensive, just smarter. If you built cabinets and shelving units for picture-tube tv’s or carrying cases for Sony Walkman’s and you didn’t adapt your designs, where would you be now?

Pink: People are opting out of the public/formal education system… “Our education establishment, which we pay lip service to as the most important element of our society, are probably the most out of sync with the realities of 21 century life than any other institution in American society.

‘This is important! We need to change… pass the chalk’.

November: Emerging models – Schools… “should be much more embedded in the community, where kids are adding value and making a difference, much more action based.”

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Interview 3: Dan Pink
(The last podcast (#2) ended a discussion about Design: Creating things in context, ideally cross-curricular. This theme continued here.)

Pink: The two most important things in professional success & personal fulfillment are “intrinsic motivation & persistence.”

I wonder how much schools pay attention to these two things? Even when we praise, we don’t inspire intrinsic motivation, and although in some ways we promote persistence, we also give students a grade of ‘C’ and move on.

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Interview: Dr. Mitchel Resnick (MIT)
Topics: Creativity and Innovation to the Digital Divide
Research group name: Lifelong Kindergarten Group (kindergarten-like exploration and play)

Many of the best learning opportunities come when people are engaged in creating and designing things.

Check out http://scratch.mit.edu/ (I’ve been here a few times, but need to explore the possibilities)

Sharing… building on other’s ideas… ‘borrowing’ not copying. Give proper credit and acknowledgement and then adapt and go further, and then putting your ideas out there for others to add to.

This reminds me of the Larry Lessig’s TED Video I recently watched on ‘(Re)-creativity’.

If you give credit, it isn’t ‘appropriates’ but rather ‘appropriate’!

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Reinforcing the thoughts of Resnick I recently found this post on the blog of none other than Dan Pink:

Re: a pop artists exhibit , “The show celebrates the fizzy remixing typical of Pop Art and is replete with “cut up magazines, copied comic books, . . trademarked cartoon characters like Minnie Mouse… But in a bizarre move, the curators have banned photographs — not to protect the physical integrity of the works, but to avoid infringing on the copyright of the creators.”

The irony is not lost on me.

Originally posted: November 20th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: My italicized comments in this post are seeping with sarcasm… which I note and reflect on in my next post. In truth, I’m not a huge fan of podcasts, primarily because I am a very visual learner and also because I have not had a commute longer than 3.5km in the last 9 years. I’m either in the car with others or I’m in the car for 5-7 minutes. So, usually when I’m trying to listen to a podcast is when I have my computer in front of me, (in which case I tend to start reading something else and the podcast becomes background noise). Listening to these podcasts with a word document open for note-taking made them worthwhile to listen to since I could ‘see’ what I was learning from listening.

Here is a great thing to do with your online students: Donate Free Rice to help end world hunger… (and improve their vocabulary while you are at it!)

Here is a news article about it, in case you would like to use it for current events.

Advertising at the bottom of the screen changes with every question to promote the companies that donate the rice.

Level 50 is all but impossible to get to without a dictionary, which I encourage… After all, what is the harm in having students looking up words in the dictionary? This is also a good time to introduce using Google as a dictionary.

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On a similar (Social Responsibility) topic, check this out:

“Make Your Difference is a contest to empower youth to impact the world through creating a new possibility in their school, community, city and beyond into positively impacting the world.”

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We really can make a difference, especially if we help our students recognize that they can make a difference!

Originally posted: November 14th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: Stephen Downes ‘burst my bubble’ on this activity with his post about it… However in the end, I agree with the commenter after me who said that it is still a worthwhile activity, perhaps with students doing the math (after the fact) If you really want to make a difference, check out kiva or do what I did with my school last year and help Free the Children. (Details) Comments on the original post: Thank you! I’ll have a 7th grade doing this next week before Thanksgiving!! mrsdurff on Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 12:32 CET Hey Mr. Truss!Having spent the past 5 years looking into youth empowerment in the field of global humanitarian and social justice issues, it is truly encouraging to see that teachers are bringing these important themes into the classroom! I would suggest challenging the students to look into how FreeRice is helping, and whether it is a “one-time band-aid” or a sustainable system (linked to the Socials 11 current events component). cheers, James Liu on Saturday, 29 December 2007, 01:14 CET

The LCD

In Math, the Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) is a good thing…
it allows you to simplify an equation and usually makes the work easier. (If you were looking for a Math post go here or here.)

For the sake of this post the LCD is not good.
Here, the LCD is when you reduce things to in order to oversimplify a problem, to avoid it or make it go away, (rather than to make an effort to resolve it). It is about taking an easy way out instead of choosing a smart way forward.

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They Both Get Dirty

Doug Belshaw does NOT want you to vote for his blog in the upcoming Edublog Awards. I’m not a regular reader of Doug, but the size of his audience suggests that he is a noteworthy edublogger. I ended up finding his Please don’t vote for this blog! post since I read Kelly Christopherson who wrote about it twice, and so I did venture over there. The worst of the comment spat that ensues comes from Dan Meyer who I first read when he wrote a brilliant post on How Math Must Asses and then later on Why I don’t Assign Homework, but he isn’t in my quite limited RSS feed either.
To put my 2 dimes worth into this I will quote my grandfather, “Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it!”
What I don’t like about the comments in this post is that they get personal and neither of these two bloggers have any intent to resolve things, they just want to get the next jab in. I am a fan of healthy discourse, but this is unhealthy, vindictive, and I would even add cheap. LCD.

My suggestion to Josie Fraser and the Edublog Awards team: After a blog gets nominated, ask the bog author(s) if they accept the nomination… problem solved.

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Easier Isn’t Better

When I took this job as Graduation Transition Coordinator, I adopted a few other responsibilities too. One such obligation was organizing the Take Our Kids to Work Day (TOKTWD) event for our Grade 9′s. Apparently our school could not coordinate the Grade 10′s Junior Achievement event on the National TOKTWD so we held this Grade 9 event one day early. This saved us from turning our entire schedule up-side-down for 2 days rather than just one… but this was an LCD solution. I didn’t make this decision, but I dealt with the upset parents whose work places had created special activities for their children on the National day (one day later). Our response, let your child miss the next day of school, so teachers had to settle for a number of absent students the day after our event.

Next year: Either the two dates fall on the same day, (I’m already in the process of booking it), or we move them completely apart and keep the TOKTWD on the designated National day. If it needs to turn our timetable upside down on two different days – so be it!

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Build it and they will come…

I first blogged about the idea for FieldFindr here. I created a mock-up wiki for that post which has now been viewed over 2,500 times. Later I wrote about it in the Ning in Education network:
“…I think that perhaps a social networking site such as Ning could be a great launching point for teachers to connect with ‘resources’ in their, or the global, community. What do others think?”
… and got positive responses from Nancy Bosch and Steve Hargadon. So I launched a Ning version of FieldFindr. I then asked for help in my other Ning (Educational) Networks, and I also ‘nudged’ my Ex.plode.us friends… only to get a very small response. It’s kind of funny that I took this personally at first. I thought to myself that I had network issues… but I think the main problem is that I went to the easiest audience I could find… I went to the LCD… the wrong audience! If I really wanted to make Fieldfindr work, I would need to promote it with potential volunteers, not educators. I did what was easy, not what was necessary. Build the volunteer network and teachers will come… but we need to start with the volunteers!

I don’t feel that I personally need to start such a network, but I do believe in the idea. If by this summer I can’t find a network, or group, or website that does what I think FieldFindr can, then I will start seeking out networks of potential volunteers to sign up… For now I won’t do that because I can’t offer the commitment needed to make it work.

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Busier Isn’t Better

I shared this quote with staff in a staff meeting last Monday afternoon.
“The task of organizing and operating a huge and complex educational machinery has left us scant leisure for calm reflection.”
The quote is by Irving Babbitt, and it seemed very appropriate for me to mention before discussing the plans for the heavily reflection-based program I was presenting to students the next day. The interesting thing about this quote is that Irving Babbitt died in 1933, and I think few could disagree that education has gotten much more complex since then!
In our school there is an International Baccalaureate (IB) program. In order to run the programs in sync with the rest of the school, our Grade 12 IB students are now doing 5 straight classes in a row for this semester. They start their day at 8:30 and end at 3:15, eating in classes and not getting more than a 5 min. break unless a class ends early. They also have to work on their Final IB paper as well. It is not uncommon to hear a Grade 12 IB student say they have between 3 and 5 hours of homework when they are leaving the school for the day- this would be ok if they weren’t saying and doing the exact same thing the next day, and the next day too…
As a new staff member coming in and observing this I have to wonder about subjecting students to this. I don’t doubt that there are some wonderful learning opportunities that happen in their classes, but how much is too much? The idea that these kids are bright, and that they can handle this pressure is nothing more than an acceptance of a LCD.

We are taking some of the brightest students in our district and working them so much that they can’t think, reflect, or for that matter even care about learning. It is their final year in the public education system and they are wasting it away being busy-bodies. I’ve learned so much from reflection, from taking my time to think things through, and from asking myself what I want to learn… we need to give this students a bit more time to reflect and explore their own interests in their final year… they prove themselves capable of the busy work enough in Grades 10 & 11.

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Is Ping Pong a Sport?

To meet one of the requirements of the Graduation Transitions program, students are required to do 80 hours of physical activity after Grade 10. Last year as part of the Portfolio program the hours had to be considered either Moderate or Intense for the activity to count, but working definitions of those two terms were difficult. This year that language has been removed, but many school have kept it. LCD.

I was recently asked in an e-mail, “Is ping pong a sport?”
This was to figure out if time playing Ping Pong could be ‘counted‘ towards the 80 required hours. This is what I had to say:
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I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this.

Our judgments and values don’t matter.
Get students active, have them think about that activity, and if it is enough to keep them healthy or not… that’s the best we can do. Trying to tell students that an activity of their choice does not count accomplishes nothing. LCD.
(Oh, and Ping Pong is definitely a fun and exciting sport.)

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I am a Hypocrite!

Tuesday Nov. 6th, 2007 was going to be tough for me to get to, and through. I knew that when I accepted this job.
When someone asked me in August, “So, is this going to be a good move for you?”
I replied, “Ask me on Nov. 7th”. Well the 6th has come and gone now. I never want to repeat the hours that went into this event- sleeping 19 hours in 5 nights the week before. Getting 2 hours sleep before doing two big presentations, and doing more paperwork that I care to do in any given year… The end result is that feedback has been very positive from teachers, secretaries, admin., support staff and students. Part of me wants to talk about this, and part of me wants to be happy with how positive the day was and just move forward… The fact is that the hard work came from getting all the background paperwork for the program fully developed to present to students, (such as the section of the 80hr Physical Activity Reflection seen above).

Three really positive things about that event that I would like to mention:
1. Students understood the value of the day and did not skip the assemblies in droves, which could easily have happened after their disgruntle attitude for the Portfolio program it replaced. Their feedback to me was very positive and I’ve had a number of the absent students come in on their own accord, or by suggestion of their peers, to find out what they missed.
2. My PowerPoint was pretty slick, I broke it up with a few good videos, and kept people’s attention with great images and subtle transitions. For someone who has used it very little (beyond my presentation week this year) I have become pretty good at creating engaging PowerPoint presentations.
3. I brought in a Bike Trails Champion, Steve Baia, to do a demonstration for us and promote Healthy Living. Not only was this a fantastic addition to the presentation, but he and his dad, Mike, were also wonderful role models of a great father-son relationship. Furthermore Mike watched my presentation and made sure to reference things that I said while he commentated Steve’s performance… very classy!
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Up until now this section is all about really good stuff. So where is the LCD and why the hypocrite title of this section?
Well, here I am developing a program for which one third of the outcomes are related to Healthy Living, and what do I do? I deprive myself of sleep, I completely stop exercising, and I put myself through tremendous stress… Some role model I am:-(
Whenever I get busy my healthy lifestyle takes a back seat. I turn 40 in a couple weeks and I am, without a doubt, in the absolute worst shape of my life. For me physical activity is the LCD, the one thing that I can always drop from my schedule to make more time for other things… and that is wrong.

So here is my plan- and it started yesterday! Three treadmill runs a week and one other activity during the week- Every Week! I’m also going to sign up for the Vancouver Half Marathon in the spring. I had students create one Healthy Living SMART Goals this week, and to practice what I preach, I’m going to create 2 SMART goals to help me live healthier, (one around weekly exercise and one specifically to build my endurance and speed for the half marathon).
By the way, for you SMART Goal fans: The ‘A’ should stand for Action-oriented not Achievable or Attainable. If you think about it, the ‘R’ stands for Realistic and if it is Realistic it is already Achievable but without Action your goal gets nowhere.

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The Greatest Common Factor

None of my LCD‘s above are things that can’t be ‘fixed’. The common factor in each of the sections above is that the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Sometimes big ideas need to be challenged. Sometimes we need to question what we do, and why we do it… and we need to be willing to make a difficult change because it is the right thing to do!

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Images:
ARGUMENT by Shaun.numb/ Shaun Morrison on Flickr
Work in Progress… by Spike 55151 on Flickr
Influence Ning profile image for FieldFindr
Perfect Blue by Netean/ Iain Alexander on Flickr
Steve Baia by Mike Baia

Originally posted: November 12th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: They Both Get Dirty: I was tempted not to republish this as I don’t like to sling old ‘mud’… but I think I want to keep the integrity of my original posts as I have done so far. Easier Isn’t Better: Although I’m no longer there, I’ve just recently confirmed next year’s dates for these events will coincide at my previous school. Build it and they will come: We need an educational leader with the right resources and contacts to do this! Busier isn’t Better: Read Alfie Kohn on Homework! Is Ping Pong a Sport: Sometimes we confuse the activity with the goal we intend by the activity. Do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon. I am a Hypocrite: I wrote this in November and I’m finally getting back into shape… it was a bathroom scale that gave me the push I needed. I’ve often been a person motivated by the stick rather than the carrot, (moving away from pain rather than towards a reward). The comments below add to the conversation. Comments on the original post: Well, after a bit of time off, it seems you’re back with a flourish. Great title. Great insights. As always, you get to the point and, as always, you are right on the mark. I’ll not dwell on your first part except to say you’re right. As for Busier isn’t better – I agree. It’s amazing how schools look to give students more work believing that, by doing so, they are making them learn more. Yet, when we examine what really helps one learn, it isn’t doing more work but thinking and reflecting on what we are doing in relation to what we know. “An unexamined life isn’t worth living” – stands to reason that this would hold true for our students as well. As for being a hypocrite – I’m not sure that is true. There are times during our lives when life’s decisions don’t allow us to always do as we say. Responsibilities that are new sometimes require us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. I say this as I turn 42. I’m not in the worst shape I’ve been in but it’s close. However, as I reflect on my decisions, I realize that in order to reconstruct that part of my life, I will need to make certain decisions about other areas. One of them is career. I’ve finally entered a point in my job where I’m more comfortable with my work and my respoinsibilities and they don’t take the time they use to take. This means that I can do some of the other things that I have put off for some time like exercising, eating right and spending time with my family on weekends. However, if I do decide to make the move and enter senior administration, I will again be required to spend a great deal of time learning which will probably affect these areas again. Now, I’ve learned a few things in the last few years so I won’t completely give up these things but they will be affected. As you say -  the easiest way of coping with a problem is most definitely not the best way of dealing with these issues or concerns. Sometimes it is difficult to do what is best. Good luck with your goals. Keep us posted. Your “reminders” are always welcome. Now, I guess I have an apology to make. Kelly Christopherson on Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 08:29 CET  I should add that if an IB student doesn’t take a Language 12 course in grade 11, they’re taking SIX courses in one semester in grade 12… start around 7:15 am and end at 3:15 pm.  But the second semester of IB 12 has fewer classes, I think some every second day, and ends a month earlier than regular grade 12 classes.  That said, some of my friends in IB 12 right now actually skip entire days of school just to do their homework from dawn till dusk, but then again the people in question are just plain crazy (running 2 clubs this year in addition to IB 12 courseload).  It’s not actually that unheard of for IB students to skip class to do homework for another class; in fact, it’s pretty common. Kris on Wednesday, 21 November 2007, 08:49 CET  Hi David – if only life were that simple. James and I are both already working stupid hours on the awards around our paying jobs – both of us would love the luxury of signing off on all of the nominations. People are more than welcome to contact us and ask us to withdraw their blog: we will be quick to take entries down. Best, J. Josie Fraser on Monday, 26 November 2007, 11:00 CET

A colleague and good friend sent this review of The Flickering Mind to me, wanting to hear my rebuttal. Here it is!

This outdated book, The Flickering Mind, is based on very poor research, it lacks any meaningful data, and it seeks out the worst of the worst in order to prove a point. How about I come into your class and very selectively choose lessons/examples to give someone a poor impression of you? It can be done, but why?

I’ve got better things to do than waste my time on this “drivel”, however an e-mail of this article is circulating in different departments within different schools in our district, so I’ll take a moment to highlight and comment on 4 parts of the article sent to me:

1. a) Note this line in “About the Author”:  “His lack of exploration of both sides of the issue does an injustice to the educational technology debate as comparison of both effective and ineffective examples of technology use in schools might help shed light on the specific stumbling blocks to making it an appropriate tool for schools.“

b) Later on in the article we find this: “For as anyone dealing with research in education knows, quantitative study does not apply itself well to the field, yet qualitative/anecdotal research like Oppenheimer’s leaves little room for generalizability and conclusion-drawing—a point which Oppenheimer may or may not be cognizant of.“

2. From the article again:

    “To highlight one, on page 211 Oppenheimer parallels Maslow’s Life Pyramid to education. Maslow’s pyramid outlined the levels of existence: lower levels being physical needs and relationship, the higher ones being more superficial, such as exploring curiosities and aesthetic desires). His theory was that the upper levels could not be achieved until the base levels had been fulfilled. On Oppenheimer’s education pyramid, the lower levels represent a student’s ability to observe, listen and reflect in a stable environment, with the upper levels representing learning factual knowledge and using learning tools.“

Forget about BLOOMS we have Oppenheimer measuring “factual knowledge and using learning tools” as upper levels of ‘existence’! I’d call this a load of manure, but manure at least has some redeeming qualities. Oppenheimer puts education on a scale going from ‘needs’ to superficial, aesthetic desires… and this is supposed to be some sort of educational continuum??? Where is knowledge construction? Evaluation? Synthesis? Where is there learning how to learn?

3. And I saved the best for last: “He cites several psychologists who demonstrate how young children are not developmentally capable of grappling with a complex machine like a computer, and therefore should not be exposed to it until later in life.“

Tell that to this kid, or to this student in Grade 7 who is writing code to help run an under-$100-wiimote-controlled-Smartbooard that he built. He has also designed a Pressure Sensitive Pen for it… Oh, and in 9 days he has had 676 visitors from around the globe! You can talk all you want about writing for an audience… but new tools actually give students an authentic audience!

Here is an alternate review of the book, or just look at the excerpt below. Some people call this research, some people call it checking source reliability, and I call it using my network. Why? Because I didn’t find this article with an alternative view, I asked my network of educators for help and Art Gelwicks, an educator I have never met, sent it to me on Twitter… within minutes of my asking. He also offers some more insight:

Networked learning… think our students could benefit from it? Hyperlinking? Do you think what I’ve said has been enriched by the links provided? Again, do you think our students could benefit from this? My final thoughts are after the review excerpt…

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The Flickering Mind:

The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom

Todd Oppenhemier. New York: Random House, 2003. 512 pages.

Review by Steven D. Krause, Eastern Michigan University

Computer and composition folks tend to be an optimistic bunch. The “techno-evangelism” common a decade ago has calmed, but I suspect that most of the target audience for Computers and Composition Online believe that, on the whole, computers and related technologies are good for teaching. We’re still “glass half full” kinds of people, and deep down inside, most computer and composition specialists, optimists that we are, believe that the real answer to the question “are computers beneficial in the classroom?” is “yes.”

Todd Oppenheimer is not an optimist. His glass, if he has one at all, is completely empty.

False Promises

…The Flickering Mind is clearly relevant to computers and writing specialists working in college classrooms because of its relentless focus on the ways in which computers in the classroom have failed our students.

…Those of us who know better will spot these omissions, but the majority of Oppenheimer’s audience won’t, and these readers will be left with an overwhelmingly one-sided, negative, and ultimately unfair perspective on the role of technology in schools.

In his first chapter, “Education’s History of Technotopia,” Oppenheimer reminds us of a series of failed attempted uses of technology to solve the problems of teaching. Besides discussing the early history of the personal computer, the early role of the computer industry in getting computers in the classroom, and the reoccurring nature of the “digital divide,” Oppenheimer also describes technological failures such as early film, radio, and even the telephone. In each case, Oppenheimer reminds us of the all-too common cycle of technological solutions in the classroom: initial enthusiasm, followed by unmet expectations, followed by doubt, and concluded with a dismissal of the technology.

…After five years of research and travel to schools all over the country, Oppenheimer has few good things to say about computers in the classroom. And after reading what’s wrong for 200 or so pages, I began to doubt Oppenheimer’s impressions because they seem so completely different from my own experiences with computers in classrooms. Granted, I was aware first or second hand of all of the problems that Oppenheimer reports; but in these same settings, I was also aware of at least some successes as well. For me, the effect of Oppenheimer’s polemic approach and his failure to acknowledge the fact that it is possible to teach well with computers casts some doubt on his perspective and credibility.

Conclusions

Ultimately, Oppenheimer’s book tells us something most who study the use of technology in classrooms already know. He concludes that computers are here to stay and that “The challenge for schools, therefore, is to be smarter about how and when they use technology, and how they separate its wheat from its chaff” (393). Oppenheimer does an admirable job showing us what’s wrong with the way schools use computers in teaching, and it is a useful book for curbing the enthusiasm for well-intentioned, albeit misguided, uses of computers in elementary and secondary schools. But that’s the easy part. The hard part is finding those smarter uses of computers. For that, perhaps Oppenheimer should observe and interview the optimists among us.

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So there is my rant! 

The truth is, it is not easy to use technology well in the classroom. It takes good teaching, good classroom management, and good use of the appropriate tools for the appropriate learning outcomes. However, when it is used well, in order to teach new things in new ways, technology use offers opportunities that a pencil and a piece of paper don’t.

I wonder if the same people who sent the first e-mail around are open to this view and willing to pass it on as well? 

Below is a Halloween Scavenger Hunt I did on a (private) Ning Network that I created for a class Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) project I am doing in my two Planning 10 classes.

The scavenger hunt does the following:

1. Introduces students to flickr and , and;
2. It teaches them to insert and site a photo appropriately.
3. Points them to my YPI delicious links that I am starting to collect.
4. Has them re-watch an amazing video I linked to in the video section, (Here is the youtube link for you – I highly recommend that you watch it!)
5. Revisits a meaningful link from yesterday’s lesson.
6. Has students find and quote another student on the site.
7. Has them start looking for charities that they may eventually present on.
8. Looks at a local grassroots shelter.
9. Teaches them more about YPI
10. Some spooky Halloween-ish/PhotoShop kind of fun.
11. Makes them do something silly at the end.

Some fun in the classroom, with a little learning going on in the background.

Here is the post:

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Happy Halloween – Time to go on a scavenger hunt… For treats of course!

Make sure you number all your items!

Create a blog post with the title “Scavenger Hunt” and answer/do the following…

1. Go to this site:
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-nc-sa-2.0/
What does “by-nc-sa” mean?

2. Find a “by-nc-sa” photo that you consider spooky/scary and put it on your blog. Link to the actual photo AND give the photographer credit like I did below (I linked to his profile).

Halloween Moon Over Kamadan by FlipSide3 / Adam Eakins
(You aren’t allowed to use one of his photos for this challenge)

3. Create a link to one of the “Truss’ YPI del.icio.us links” found on the Main Page.

4. In the World on Fire video, how much did Sarah McLachlan spend on a Mobile Medical Unit in India?

5. For yesterday’s assignment you looked at Stories in pdf files. Name one story title from each of the two pdf files that were linked to. (One story title from each file, that’s two story titles.)

6. Find one blog post here on our site about the Spirit of Giving (that is not your own). Quote something nice/interesting from that post and give the person credit. For example, if my post was about the Spirit of Giving instead of Empathy, you could have done something like this:

“In the service of others we learn meaningful lessons ourselves. Mark spoke of developing empathy in kids. In so doing, he wondered if standardized testing ‘taught’ our kids anything meaningful? When do they learn about empathy and love?” David Truss

Put the person’s words in quotes and italicize them.

7. Find and link to 5 charity home pages. In one sentence tell me what the charity does. Make sure that the link is the title of the charity. At least one charity must be local (in the lower mainland).
Your links should look like this:
The Terry Fox Foundation: Raises money for cancer research.

8. Go HERE. What is the title of this page?
Find the link to the ‘Tri Cities Mat Program — Port Coquitlam, BC’. (It is not on the first page) Clink on the link and find out if this caters to Men or Women. Tell me this in a sentence so that I know what you are talking about.

9. Go to the Toskan Casale Foundation web site. Copy and paste these questions into your blog with the answers.
How many schools were involved in 2006/2007?
So, how much money was donated?
Find and name one BC school that was involved last year, (besides ours).
What are the Granting Guidelines?

10. Here is a creepy (or is it cute?) photo.

It gives credit right on the image to Worth1000.com and so you don’t need to link to it, as I did anyway. Go to this link and add a photo of your choice. Tell me the actual title and make one up yourself.
This is called ‘Spider Squirrel” and my title is ‘Chipmunkula’ (I think that this was photoshop-ed with a chipmunk, not a squirrel).

11. If you have finished all 10 tasks and posted your blog, then all you have to do now is sing the alphabet backwards and you get a treat.

Congratulations!

Originally posted: October 31st, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: The best part of doing this was going around and trouble-shooting for students. They were all able to embed and credit a Creative Commons Flicker image properly. Unfortunately a few of them learned the ‘save-as-you-go’ mantra the hard way, losing information (and time) when their work was lost. Overall, students got to play with Ning, a new tool, and they learned some background information as well as citation expectations along the way. Ning, blogs, wikis, flickr, del.icio.us… many students need to learn how to use the tools as well as get the project done. They are not all ‘digital natives’ that know this stuff, some of our students lack the digital exposure to use these tools effectively without being taught. - – - – - Visit Sarah McLachlan’s World on Fire page and see the detailed donations page. Amazing! Think of what the entire music or movie industry could do!

Well, I’ve been at school for just over 14 hours and my mind is officially mush. I’m creating the paperwork needed for the new Grad Transisions Program so that I can give the Grade 11′s and 12′s in my school all the new documents for this year. I plan to be paperless for the Grade 10′s but time and technology constraints won’t allow it right now. A quick post and I’m home to bed!

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This is a pdf I am including in the package going out to the Grade 12′s: Employability Skills 2000+

“The skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress in the world of work—whether you work on your own or as a part of a team.”

Is it just me or is this a very Web1.0 / behind-the-times document? Where is the emphasis on Collaboration, or Synthesis, or even perhaps Re-mixing Information?

I noticed under Communicate:

• share information using a range of
information and communications technologies
(e.g., voice, e-mail, computers)

…and under Think & Solve Problems:

• readily use science, technology and
mathematics as ways to think, gain and
share knowledge, solve problems and
make decisions

But the document seems lacking… and now my tired eyes see why! In the brochure I just noticed that the print date was May of 2000. No document made for back then is going to hit on many of the Employability Skills for 2007+… which in turn will be outdated for Employability Skills for 2010+…

However, the document will have to do for next Tuesday. Please point me to an updated resource if you can find the time- Thanks.

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Back to work

(A post in under 20 minutes- a record for a slow blogger like me!)

Originally posted: October 30th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: As much as I have enjoyed this process of reflecting and reposting, I must admit to being terribly slow. I should have been done with this process weeks ago! However, posts like Two ’stuck’ posts, a borrowed post with an added rant, and a few questions result in me spending over 2 hours following links and links on those links, reading and really reflecting on what I and others have said. - – - – - I’m tempted to dig deeper on the subject of this post, but won’t. I will just say this: How far away are we from future employers saying in an interview, “Show me what you have learned recently.” or “Show me your network.” or “I’ve checked out your network.” Collaboration, Community, Creativity & Communication: All measurable or at least examinable in some way online, and publicly displayed for anyone and everyone to see and, if they so choose, judge.

To put it simply… there is something here for everyone!

Description
This presentation takes participants along my journey into integrating 2.0 applications and “21st Century Learning” into my pedagogy. The presentation will show how teacher driven assignments and projects teach students some of the skills they need to use these new technologies to enhance their learning. Scribe Posts, Growing Posts and E-Portfolios will provide participants with three different activities to do with their students. The final part of my presentation takes participants into “unprojects”. Participants will learn how to create “unprojects”. For the veteran teacher who is using 2.0 in their classroom this is for you. See how students are more creative and show more enthusiasm towards assignments when they are in charge of their learning.

This is where the future of education should be heading… Kudos to Chris Harbeck!

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Unfortunately I will not be participating in the CUEBC Conference with Will Richardson. He comes all the way to my neighbourhood and I have to miss him! Fortunately I am missing this so that I can help out at a Student Leadership Retreat with my school. I have run these camps for many years (and have resources to share). This year I am helping out rather than leading. I look forward to this, and I hope to learn a lot with the advantage of a different (less stressful) perspective. Joni, is a great leader who truly lives by the mantra I borrowed from Dave Sands, “I teach leadership not followship”. I wish I could do both events, but at least I am doing something that I will enjoy and learn from. You can do the same by heading to one of Chris’ links above.

Originally posted: October 18th, 2006 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: It’s all about empowering students to be responsible for their own learning… whether teaching them content in a class, having them explore an area of interest, or having them run a school-wide activity as part of a leadership program. Chris’s comment on this post said, Thanks for visiting the presentation. I hope you can use the tools with your students. You will find that when students have creative control over how they present information they rise to new levels of learning. Have fun. Chris make it interesting Here is his unprojects presentation: | View | Upload your own

One is on Digital Citizenship which looks at a post by Vicky A. Davis. The concepts I am formulating are in need of some more deep thought, and I don’t know when I will get to it?

The second post is on a 1-1 project in our district. I invited myself to a presentation for parents of students receiving computers for the project. Although the post is almost done, (and sitting in a Google document), I’m feeling bitter about my lack of availability of computers to teach my Planning 10 classes and so I don’t think I can complete the post until my frame of mind is one that can frame the post in the positive light I feel it deserves. (I feel childish admitting that, but that’s where I’m at right now.)

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A third post has been looming in my head, but my feedreader fed it to me in the form of someone else’s post: It’s time for some perspective here by Kelly Christopherson.

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Here is a little more perspective: I am attempting to fully engage, but still can’t keep up… I’ve been to Second Life, but can’t find anything useful there… I don’t Twitter (yet?)… and to me Ustream seems like nothing more than a car accident that everyone is slowing down to look at…

All these tools are technological with only the potential to be pedagogical… but they aren’t designed with pedagogy in mind. And so with regards to education, I wonder if those in the lead are actually worth following? Will Richardson has a great blog, but I’m not going to give him and his buddy 45 minutes of my time to get information that a 4 paragraph summary of their talk could give me!

…And as for the big hype around backchannels… why do people think this is something worth having transcribed? If a backchannel is used correctly -in my humble, ‘perspective from the outside looking in’, opinion- then it would influence the presenters, and so the meaningful components would be integrated into the presentation. As for any ‘interesting sidebar conversations’ that happen- they are mostly relevant in context with the presentation and if they are worth expanding on and investigating… great, investigate them and blog them for me, just don’t ask me to read 200+ comments to find a gem in the rough. Backchannels have tremendous value in the ‘here-and-now’, during a presentation, but what’s with all the analysis after the fact? My point is that not only do I not have time for all these new tools, these new tools are time consumers that don’t add to my learning experience in a meaningful way.

Looking at Kelly’s post, he states:

“Primarily, little has changed with education despite all the tools. I firmly believe that until we examine the curricula, change some of those objectives and rework others, making it relevant to the students, no amount of cool tool is going to create change.”

I couldn’t have said it better!

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[Pink Floyd tune in my head... clocks ticking/bells chiming] The coordination of the Graduation Transitions Program at our school is consuming so much of my time. I have to be realistic about what else I can do!

• How much of the K12Online07 conference will I participate in?
• Is FieldFindr worth spending time on?
• Am I Ning-ing for my Planning 10 class project or blogging?
• When will I finish my other posts?

I could go on but I think my point is made, and I want to turn my questions outward…

• Am I the only one who feels like a 30 hour day would still be too short?
• Are there others out there who wonder what kind of commitment it will take for a teacher to be technologically savvy enough to meaningfully engage students with all these new tools?
• Are we focusing too much on the tools and not enough on pedagogy?
• Will educational structures change fast enough to provide our students with a relevant education?
• … and for that matter… What would an ideal education look like today?

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*Update: What technology should do for us…

Learning Authentically in the Language Arts Classroom by Jamie McKenzie

Here are the bulleted criteria under 1. Rationale …

“authentic teaching” that involves students in “authentic intellectual work” outside school.

…pass the test of authenticity because they meet the following criteria:

• They are rooted in issues, challenges or decisions that people face in the world.
• They are genuine.
• The act of wrestling with these challenges is purposive – saturated with meaning and significance.
• A student can see a payoff in the future for work well done and skills acquired.

In short, authentic intellectual work passes the test of “so what?” It is meaningful, worthy and generative – in the sense of provoking ongoing growth and development.

I think that if the use of technology is authentic in this way, then the technology is being used appropriately in education. (Rather than just to play with the newest toys, as I seem to be noticing with Ustream- more on this misguided ‘use of technology in education’ in my next post). Also noteworthy, the author’s Anti-Prensky article.

Originally posted: October 15th, 2007 Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting: In his post, Kelly linked to Stephanie Sander’s post over at Change Agency, which fits well with the quote above that asks (in the last sentence) “so what?” Stephanie’s post asks “What?, So What? and Now What?” and is well worth the read! - – - – - An interesting aside… the 1-1 presentation I invited myself to in October, ended up being at the school I was promoted to in February. I introduced Mr. Mak to wiki’s and this amazing teacher has made the class wiki into a class portal for almost every subject for his class and in some cases his team. Hard to believe that he just got the laptops in February! More thoughts after the comments… - – - – - Comments on the original post: We must always be willing to innovate. I have found that the backchannel is very useful in my classroom and at conferences. It is not a transcript but a place where people may become involved in the conference — see Diane’s post today about the experience.Yes, there are a lot of things to try out and learn. I think that ustream gives us a couple of capabilities — #1 a live view into a live presentation — sit in if you wish — or check the 4 paragraph blog post later (but does the blog post really contain everything — probably not and #2 instead of an incredible speaker skype videoing into my classroom — why not connect to 10-15 classrooms or more — why should I horde those opportunities.Yes, we’re playing with some of these new tools, but that is what happens on the bleeding edge. I am using backchannelling in my classroom as well as twitter for flat classroom.And no, there isn’t enough time in the day. Just don’t let it overwhelm you and make you cynical about it all. There is a time and place for innovation and it rests squarely where there is room for improvement in the classroom… students need to be a part — not just receivers. That is what the backchannel offers. I’d love to answer your questions and share thoughts about these emerging fields. But don’t forget a great teacher will be a great teacher anyway — we all have to do the best we can with where we are — and if you join twitter — let me know. Would love to make your acquaintance. Vicki Davis on Tuesday, 16 October 2007, 00:48 CEST I too share your need for more time. I am a dabbler with these tools and thus my full understanding is stunted by the lack of depth. If backchanneling is similar or actually like the chat that went on as people downloaded and watched Warlick’s pre-conference keynote, then I am in agreement with you Dave. The nonsensical chatter that went on instead of real discussion of the issues being presented drove me bonkers. In fact, it became apparent that few people had actually watched the presentation and were using the conversation like a kiss and hug chat room. Very annoying. Another example was the fireside chat with Warlick…I felt like a kid with ADHD trying to listen to David, watch the whiteboard while being distracted by the chat box. I know that the digital natives are able to multitask, but that was ridiculous. Multi-tasking is another way of saying – hit them with as many mediums as possible and hope one holds their attention long enough to give them information. I say….say something worth saying and you will hold their attention. Just my “2cents”… Dave MacLean on Wednesday, 17 October 2007, 06:15 CEST What appears to be opposing views of the last two comments is something that interests me.I see the value in a backchannel! There are many times, as a student, that I wished I had a way to ask questions or clarify my perspective, without interrupting the patter of the teacher. A backchannel could also be used as Vicki is using it, to share what she is teaching with others along with a video stream so that they too have a part in the presentation rather than just receiving it one-way.I also see the caution of throwing more ‘information’ out without it having any pedagogical merit. That was my rant. However, in hindsight, I was to quick to pounce. Educators are now experimenting with tools like Ustream… it is a new boundary teachers are playing with. As I said above, “Backchannels have tremendous value in the ‘here-and-now’”, what I don’t understand is the transcribing of the backchannel. The overanalysis of an unstructured stream of information… it seems like too much. Also, as Dave says above, “say something worth saying and you will hold their attention.” But these are NOT two sides of the same coin. They are two different coins all together. One is about tools, and exploring their potential. The other is about information, and its’ ability to overload a learner. Together these two perspectives offer opportunity and suggest caution. Both are needed.There’s my pair-a-dimes worth! David Truss on Thursday, 18 October 2007, 08:40 CEST - – - – - In my comment above I mentioned ‘pedagogical merit’ and to be honest, I have been on a bit of a focus in that direction recently. What I really mean by that is finding the right tools and structures for the right job in order to meaningfully enhance learning and engage learners. That said, I think that it is important to read George Siemens post: Pedagogy First? Whatever. …Pedagogy is not the starting point of planning to teach with technology. Context is. …Pedagogy should not even be a consideration during the planning stages of technology use. Harsh statement? Perhaps, but it’s a reality. Few Utopian situations exist where our decisions on how to teach can be based exclusively on pedagogy. Resources, expertise, technology, needs (of learners, educators, society), and funds impact what we choose to do. In a world: context. The mix of multiple, mutually influencing factors determine what we types of technology we select. …Let’s abandon the somewhat silly notion of pedagogy first and recognize that the choice of technology is driven by many contextual factors and therefore context is what we are evaluating and considering when we first start talking about possible technology to use. Then, after we have selected technology, we can start talking about pedagogy. Pedagogy is just not a practical starting point for deciding the technology we should use. So the context is more important than the pedagogy. It is more important to design the learning space, to create a learning environment that is friendly, useful and meaningful to the learners, than it is to focus on the content or intended outcomes. In a recent presentation I did to teachers in our district with 1-1 Laptops, I talked a lot about Scaffolding. Creating structures in your technology/web-based projects that supported student learning and engagement. (I’m reworking this to be in one of my presentations at BLC08.) So, now this is what I think: ‘Context‘ is where you start. ‘Scaffolding‘ is the structure(s) we build in order to increase the effectiveness of the technology use. ‘Pedagogy’ is the artful things we do to enhance learning regardless of technology use. I’m not sure if scaffolding as described is fundamentally different than ‘good pedagogy’, but the term scaffolding suggests that we build something onto the context, rather than just add something ‘pedagogically sound’ to it… whatever that means!