What is a connected educator?

A variety of posts around the blogosphere about Connected Educators Month got me thinking about how we evaluate connectedness. Is there a widely-accepted definition?

I went in search of this answer by typing the question into a Google search (does that act alone make me connected?). Most of what comes back on that search is only related to the phrase, "connected educator." I did find this article at EdWeek, providing some specific details on the subject.

Photo credit: Principalj.net

EdWeek says the connected educator has a Personal Learning Network, or PLN, embraces blogging and the Bring Your Own Device movement. Although I tend to agree on most points, I'm not sure we've reached a definition yet.

The recent Bammy Awards, honoring connected educators, in many cases, focused on those who have a massive following on Twitter and Facebook, at least in terms of people who aren't celebrities. Admittedly, I used to be enamored with a large Twitter following, envying others in the profession who have 10,000, 50,000 followers or more in some cases.

Upon closer look, though, I realized that some of these people also follow tens of thousands of people, and if you understand Twitter, you likely know that many people have systems in place for automatically following back someone who follows them. You don't have to be a math guru to see how this system might multiply your followers rapidly. So, does having a ton of followers make you connected?

I have written widely on technology use in the classroom. I have a modest 4,500 or so followers on Twitter. I tweet, post to Facebook and LinkedIn and blog regularly about education. I even teach an online course called, Plugged-In. So, am I a connected educator?

I'm still not sure, and I really do want an acceptable definition. So, are you connected? What makes you think so?

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com and Mark's new book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom

ASCD announces new short book format, Arias

ASCD's new Arias format

I am so proud to be part of the launch of ASCD's new short format books, called Arias. The Arias are available as both eBooks and on-demand hard copies, and are limited to 9,000-11,000 words (40-50 pages). These are quick reads that are built around a central question, written in the first person.

The idea behind Arias is to give educators something they can read in one sitting and apply immediately to their classroom, school or their school district.

My book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom, demonstrates how teachers can create brief, student-centered teaching and learning segments that make learning interactive and fun.The 5-Minute Teacher takes some of the concepts from Role Reversal and zeroes in on what they look like in actual lessons and activities.

To learn more about ASCD's new Arias, read today's press release. Oh, and don't forget to reserve your copy of The 5-Minute Teacher today.



Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Slide Rocket has really angered me

Boy, am I angry at Slide Rocket!

I've written widely on the web-based presentation tool and advocated for its use in education circles. I even produced a how-to video on Slide Rocket here. I created further content and video about effectively using Slide Rocket, at this Learn it in 5 page. When I wanted to teach educators how to effectively use the online writing tool, KidBlog, where did I turn? You guessed it, Slide Rocket.

What was great about Slide Rocket was teaching students how to use it and watching their eyes light up, when their old boring PowerPoints came to life with Slide Rocket's innovative animations, templates and plugins. Best of all, Slide Rocket was free.

Now, Slide Rocket has been taken over (they call it a merger) by ClearSlide -- a corporate giant, seemingly interested only in business. By its own admission, the new company will cater to the private sector. This was posted to the Slide Rocket blog in March:

"Clearslide is revolutionizing the relationship between sales teams and customers. . . . By acquiring SlideRocket, ClearSlide will expand its rich presentation capabilities for sales teams to engage customers more effectively and close more business."

You can't fool me

I was so angered by this move that I contacted SlideRocket/Clearslide to ask what this merger/takeover meant to educators like me and to my students, who have come to depend on Slide Rocket for many of their projects. First, some Clearslide salesperson, who had no idea how the merger/takeover would effect Slide Rocket, foisted me off on another sharp talker, obviously schooled on how to handle inquisitive teachers.

Not to worry, I was told, everything is being considered. Oh, and should it come to pass that I'll lose my Slide Rocket membership, Clearslide will make sure I have plenty of help downloading my presentations to PowerPoint. Hmm., I thought, if I wanted to use PowerPoint, I wouldn't have spent the past four years, using Slide Rocket!

This spin doctor double-talk couldn't fool me.

It's very clear at this point that Slide Rocket will soon look nothing like, well, Slide Rocket. More likely, it will become just another piece of Clearslide which, by the way, is a very clunky product that feels more like an amped up e-mail program than the slick presentation tool that Slide Rocket used to be.

Boy, this makes me angry! Keynote, here I come.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com

Use the app, Evernote, for formative assessment

The web site and mobile app, Evernote, is a powerful collaboration, content management and formative assessment tool. Check out how one school uses Evernote in a 1:1 computer environment. 

Evernote offers the sort of technology integration that helps create a Results Only Learning Environment. 

You can learn more about Evernote here.

Don't miss Mark's book ROLE Reversal: How Results Only Learning Will Change Education as We Know It, due in early 2013 by world education leader, ASCD

Progressive, collaborative, dynamic social learning

Why haven't the traditionalists figured this out?

Are you making the most of Google Docs?

Although there are many ways to provide students with detailed narrative feedback, web-based tools, like Google Docs, are often the most useful for two-way feedback that facilitates 21st-century learning, without the penalty of a number or letter grade.

This brief video demonstrates how Google Docs can be used to provide specific feedback on an ongoing writing activity, including a link to a presentation that immediately reinforces a prior lesson that the student can apply to his writing.



Are you using Google Docs, or other web-based tools, to provide meaningful narrative feedback to your students?

Engaging reluctant learners with Diigo

I have some reluctant learners, and I've spent much of the year helping them evolve into results-only learners. Since we read all of the time in my language arts class, I'm constantly looking for ways to inspire the reluctant students to read and write.

Technology is always useful in this area. Recently, I discovered the power of Diigo for educators. I created some class groups, and soon my students were surfing the Internet for articles of interest, bookmarking them on our class Diigo group and annotating the sites for their peers.

This video demonstrates how to get students started on Diigo. Stay tuned for more on this powerful social media tool and how it's helping me engage reluctant learners.

Results-only learning with Facebook

By Jan Pierce, Guest Blogger

While Facebook was once discouraged and even banned from many classrooms and schools, educators are beginning to embrace the social networking tool as a way to enhance students’ learning experience.So how can teachers use Facebook in the classroom as a tool for results-only learning? Here are some ideas.

1. Classroom Groups – This is one of the most popular ways that teachers are using Facebook. Teachers can give students Facebook-related assignments such as posting what they learned or questions they might have on the group “wall.” As students respond to one another, this encourages collaborative learning through discussion. The teacher can also post relevant links with additional material for the students to view and respond to.

Courtesy: uisjournal.com

The key to using a classroom group on Facebook is to make it private. Teachers should create separate profiles with strict privacy settings that they only use for school. Students can also create separate accounts or they can simply adjust their privacy settings to limit what content the teacher sees. The classroom group should also be private so that only the teacher, students, school administrators, and parents can view it.

2. Messages – Facebook is a great way to keep everyone informed. Teachers and students can send messages to everyone in the classroom group about unexpected absences, upcoming events, or project updates.

Teachers can also send a private message to an individual student or parent – these days, many people will be more likely to respond to Facebook than to an email. Students may also be more honest and open in a Facebook message than they would be in a private meeting with the teacher.

3. Sharing Content – Teachers can post a link to an interesting webpage, article, or video that they want their students to view. They could also add photos from a recent class trip or project. They can even post notes about daily or weekly classroom activities for students who miss class or parents who want to stay informed. Even students can get involved and post related links or photos to enhance the learning experience.

4. Keep Everyone Updated – If a parent has a Facebook account, it’s easy for them to stay updated on classroom happenings. All they have to do is check the class group page. If they have a specific concern, they can also send a private message to the teacher.

5. Class Project – Facebook itself can turn into a class project. Have students make Facebook profiles for fictional characters or historical figures and have them interact with each other the way the characters would. The students will get into the role-playing aspect and will embrace this chance to check Facebook as part of their learning experience, rather than use it as a distraction when they get home from school.

Jan Pierce is a 4th grade teacher who has over 20 years of experience in the classroom. Her interests include educational technology and online learning. She also owns the site ElementaryEducation Degree, for students interested in earning a degree in elementary education.

How would you spend 71 billion dollars?

Congress recently approved more than $71 billion for education for the fiscal year ending September of 2012. Of course, hundreds of millions are set aside for Race to the Top and other useless organizations like Teach for America.

I did some quick math and learned that if the government simply divided the money equally by the number of public school students, it would mean schools would have roughly $1,400 per student. Granted, this isn't a huge amount, but if we knew there would be at least this much yearly, imagine what schools could do to improve education.

Just spitballing, my first thought was to put an iPad, loaded with powerful applications, in the hands of every student. These would last a long time, so in subsequent years, the $1,400 per student could go for other useful education materials.

Keep in mind, this is in addition to the millions districts get each year from tax dollars and existing government funds.

The way this gigantic pile of cash is currently dispersed, though, most of the nearly 50 million K-12 public school students are left penniless.

So, how would you spend 71 billions dollars?

Texting and teachable moments

This video from WRAL.com got my attention. The teachable moment comments are spot on. State educators getting involved scares me, though.

How are you using texting and other forms of social media in your class?

Fun lessons with Voki

I've written widely about using Web 2.0 and social media tools to introduce and teach mini lessons. Here is an example of using the podcasting application Voki to launch a strategic reading activity.

After the brief podcast, I place simple, short step-by-step instructions for GIST on the Interactive White Board, and the students are soon working the strategy in small groups.

There is no more than three minutes of direct instruction, not including the Voki. So, as I always tell the students, it's less from me and more from them.

Of course, they love it this way, and they learn a lot more.

On Smartboards and the like

My good friend, Pernille Ripp, kicked up some dust, when she asked for feedback about Smartboards. There is a long-standing debate about the value of Interactive White Boards (IWBs) around the blogosphere and Twitterverse.

Ripp was on a fact-finding mission, since a Smartboard was deposited into her classroom, even though she didn't ask for it. Soon, her quest for information turned into quite a heated debate between those for and against Smartboards.

I usually avoid the IWB argument, the same way I do politics. (I just figure you can't convince people with staunch beliefs on certain subjects to chnge.) I did weigh in on Ripp's post, mainly because I admire her as a colleague and she asked for feedback.

Pulled into the tornado
It wasn't long before the debate spilled into my Twitter stream, and another educator I greatly admire, Lisa Nielsen, shared her hardline opinion that Smartboards are, in effect, useless.

Since Lisa and I have conversed on IWBs in the past, I was not immediately compelled to respond. After a few tweets, though, I found myself so intrigued by the debate that I scurried off to this blog, so I'd have more than 140 characters to share my opinion.

Thoughts on IWBs
It's important to note that I have a Smartboard. I got it five years ago with federal funds that were supplied by my district. In all honesty, back then I wasn't informed enough to ask that the money be spent on laptops or netbooks which, admittedly, would have been much more useful.

Like Nielsen and many of my peers, I believe that any IWB is a waste of money. I would always recommend anything that gets the classroom closer to a 1:1 computer/student ratio. It's better to have all students interacting than one at a time.

In all fairness to people like me, who already have an IWB or are told they will be given one at no choice of their own, like Pernille Ripp was, it's important to make the best use of what you have. Many educators who constantly bash the use of IWBs contend that they make bad teachers. This might be true, but it might be untrue; it depends on the teacher.

Innovative educators can inspire learning with a toothbrush and a rock. Conversely, some teachers could have access to a space shuttle and make students feel like they are watching paint dry.

Summarizing
I think classrooms need to go digital as quickly as possible. The best way is through mobile learning, iPads, Web 2.0, social media and anything that gets kids to love learning. Do I recommend spending $2,500 on a Smartboard? No.

But if one is dropped in your lap, turn that sucker on and make the most of it.

Diving into the deep end of mobile learning

Thanks to a marvelous Personal Learning Network, I recently stumbled upon the web-based text application, Celly.

For roughly a year, I've been casually searching for a way to have my students use text messaging for class discussions -- an easy way to introduce mobile learning. Celly is definitely the answer, as it allows administrators (or curators, as Celly calls them) to create private text rooms (cells), where students must acquire access from the teacher.

My zeal sometimes gets the best of me, when it comes to integrating new technology into the classroom; I'm not one to test something for weeks, prior to using it. So, only a few short days after discovering Celly and setting up the cells for each of my five classes, out came the mobile devices.

The most shocking discovery was that in some classes, less than half of the students had cell phones. (Some reported that they simply weren't allowed to bring them to school.) Those who did participate were genuinely excited about the experience. After a few insignificant texts -- "This is cool," "Let's do this all the time," "Wassup" -- the conversation soon turned to a spirited discussion of books and their impact on the readers.

As is the case with most new technology, there were a few glitches. Some wireless service providers did not interface with Celly. Some students had phones set to block texting, and they didn't know how to disable this security measure. Plus, like a Twitter chat, the Celly discussion moves very fast, and some students complained that it was hard to keep up.

Still, in the long run, our first experience with texting was a major success and a true example of results-only learning. I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Feedback toolkit: web-based grade book

So, how does someone who never puts points or a letter on any activity and who never assigns homework use a web-based grade book -- a program designed explicitly for these purposes? The single-word answer is a familiar one by not, I hope – feedback.

When I created the results-only classroom, I knew I’d have to show students something tangible, upon which they could base their progress. Parents, accustomed to seeing assignments, points and grades on our online grade book, would not be satisfied if their children’s language arts page was blank. No problem. Instead of points, grades, or the word “missing” for incomplete assignments, I would use the comment field, which is available for every student, adjacent to any activity that the teacher creates.

Online comments improve learning
So, instead of seeing a grade, students and parents could click the Language Arts link on our web-based grade book, and they would see a categorized list of activities, diagnostics and projects. Next to a single activity, I provide the type of narrative feedback that specifies what was done right and what needs to be changed or improved. It took some time to get students and parents used to the idea that there was no grade, but by our Open House (roughly one month into the school year), students understood and most parents were quickly on board.

Does your online grade book allow for this type of narrative feedback?

Don't miss the rest of the articles in this series.