Today is the Day

It's always trouble that makes you strong
Today is the day, today is the day
Today is the Day – Yo La Tengo

There are several reasons why this refrain from Yo La Tengo’s Today is the Day is appropriate for online learning and why it keeps running through the background music in my mind. One, if a student in distance education wants to stay caught up, there’s really no time to wait: there’s an assignment to do, and today is the day. Another reason is that today is the day could be a slogan for educators contemplating/integrating educational technology in their classrooms. Depending on the comfort level of the teacher, it could either mean today is the day to just try it or today is the day to do it differently or better. Finally, today is the day means exactly that: today is the day: technology integration is happening, not in the future, not even tomorrow, but right now – today is the day.

The Flat World is Better Off

I recently reread Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and found it reads differently now than it did before the global, debt fueled financial troubles began to surface. The implications of Thomas Friedman’s flat world on education in general and student preparedness in particular are real; however, in light of recent economic upheaval which can be blamed, in part, on forces that use globalization in pursuit of profit despite resultant cost to country or society, Friedman’s sometimes breathless promotion of a flat world can ring hollow to some readers today. Like the world of Friedman’s book, education is also “changing due to the advances in technology” and our society is undergoing change in response to these forces. Educational technology in the hands of teachers and students can change the traditional classroom from one that is hierarchical with clear lines of command-and-control to a much more open, unstructured, and non-hierarchical configuration. What are the ramifications of a flat classroom? Will the tools that we use in distance education lead to future outsourcing of teachers or open sourcing of education? A bill in the Florida legislature will allow for outsourcing of teachers. The bill's sponsor, state senator Anitere Flores (R-Miami), calls it "broadening the choices available to school children and their parents. Teachers call it "outsourcing."

In Mr. Friedman’s Flat World, the untouchables, those workers whose job or work cannot be outsourced, are special, specialized, anchored, or really adaptable. Educators can help students achieve untouchable status by imparting the knowledge and practicing the skills that will prove to be valuable; job requirements are becoming more complex. On the library shelf below The World is Flat, I found Better Off. It also demonstrates the need for critical reasoning, communication and collaboration skills; I found it to be a nice counter to Friedman's vision: " a plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country."

Google Sites

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites allows users to easily create free, custom, fully functional websites.

Google Sites began as JotSpot. Google purchased JotSpot in 2006, and Google Sites, using the JotSpot technology, was launched in 2008.

Features

Google Sites lets students work together to create webpages and edit content; this feature is especially attractive to educators in the 21st century classroom.

Information can be organized and stored in a central place (on the web) so that viewers and editors can access the site from any device and anywhere there’s an internet connection.

Access to view the website or pages can be restricted, and only collaborators who have been invited can make edits. Edits are recorded; this means editors can be identified and edits can be rolled back.

Google Sites works really well with the other Google Apps, and teachers and students can easily add documents, images, presentations, spreadsheets, calendars, forms, embedded media, and videos to the webpages they create.

25 GB of storage for Google Apps users (100 MB of storage for free account)

WYSIWYG editing; there are many templates to choose from.

How Google Sites can be used in the Language Arts classroom

Classroom webpage (communication, announcements, assignments, calendar, student work, links, etc.)

Project based learning

Platform for student products (see student created sites link below)

Classroom discussion and sharing of ideas

Responses to literature

Online newspaper, digital literary “magazine”

Collaborative writing projects and presentations

Group projects

Student portfolios

A platform for international collaboration

Provides a larger audience for students

Incorporate technology and give students anytime access to the classroom

Give students experience working in a collaborative, online environment

Battle of the Books team, clubs

Examples

Student created sites

More Google Sites for education

Classroom Site

Student Book Reviews

Internet Safety

More information

Google Sites for Educators Webinar

Intro to Google Sites

This Information in a Google Site

Edmodo - (if it's not )The One Tool to Rule Them All (at least it helps)

As students and teachers anxiously await the arrival of the protective cases which will finally free the laptops from the proximity of their classroom carts, the excitement continues to grow. Teachers with varying levels of experience and comfort have started using Edmodo as a way to organize and manage their classrooms and assignments. Students like it because it looks like Facebook and it helps with organization. Edmodo has a number of features that make it attractive to teachers. Foremost, it is private. Students create an account for which an email address is not required, and then users join classes using a code provided by individual teachers. The code is entered once and the student joins the class; each time the student logs in to Edmodo, their classes appear on a sidebar menu. Teachers post notes, links, announcements, alerts, assignments, polls, and quizzes. Teachers can communicate to the entire class, to small groups, or to individual students. Student posts are private to the teacher or to the group; there is no private chat between students. A code for each student is available that gives parents access to the Edmodo account of their student. In the class, students can read comments from their peers and add their own. If a student has trouble with this freedom, their status can be set by the teacher to "read only" until the student is ready to demonstrate a better understanding of cyber citizenship. The creators behind Edmodo are very receptive to the concerns of teachers and respond quickly and thoughtfully to suggestions for improvements. These are some of the reasons I advocate the use of Edmodo in the classroom, especially in 1:1 environments. I look forward to learning more about this useful tool and how it can be used to facilitate learning.

Should Students Be Using Technology in the Classroom?

Critics of a connected classroom correctly point out that attention spans, already shortened by TV, have been made even shorter by the point and click, sound bite content that dominates the Internet. It is true that the Internet lacks any quality control, and there is much that could be considered inappropriate for none but the most jaded or corrupt. While I understand the point made by David Gelenter when he answers an emphatic" No" in a 1998 Time magazine article entitled Should Schools Be Wired to The Internet?, and I agree that a large amount of information available to a populace doesn't necessarily correlate to a well-informed citizenry, the future seems to require, for better or for worse, the ability to navigate through an environment filled with information and rapidly changing technology. Therefore, if schools and educators intend to prepare students for the future, these students will have to learn to navigate this future and thrive using the tools that, in the words used by Vice President Al Gore to answer the question posed by the article in the affirmative, “dominate the economy and shape our society. “ Students are well-served by teachers who incorporate into their lessons instruction on how to navigate through this landscape of the present and future.

Anecdotal evidence from my own teaching practice concurs with the articles from Bread Loaf Teacher Network which point out the many benefits derived from collaboration facilitated through technology. Many students succeed when given the opportunity to create expressive products using technology. The students studying Beowulf in the connected classrooms grew in their abilities to express themselves through text, and other teachers describe the strides made by students in areas such as writing, critical thinking, communication skills, and even empathy through the types of online collaboration referred to in the Harris article, Curriculum-Based Telecollaboration. Of course, collaboration, especially with peers, opens both teacher and student up to criticism and judgment, and this can be uncomfortable.

There will always be technical problems, and there will be some teachers who use technology to pacify students. But there will be many more teachers who will use technology to enlighten and motivate, and there will be students whose lives will be enriched and whose education will be propelled through the use of technology in the classroom.

North Carolina's Education Numbers

This information will be of interest to many North Carolina citizens, especially parents, students, and educators. The Friday Report is published weekly by the Public School Forum of NC.

Education Cuts Highlighted in Fitzsimon File’s Numbers

Published: by Chris Fitzsimon

Fitzsimon File’s Monday’s Numbers

Monday, September 19, 2011

16,678—number of jobs eliminated in public schools in North Carolina in the last four years (“North Carolina’s Disappearing Educators,” N.C. Budget and Tax Center, September 2011)

8—number of school districts in North Carolina that have eliminated more than one in five positions compared to 2008 staffing levels (Ibid)

24—number of school districts in North Carolina have eliminated more than one in ten teacher positions compared to 2008 staffing levels (Ibid)

31—number of school districts in North Carolina have eliminated more than one in four teacher assistant positions compared to 2008 staffing levels (Ibid)

49—ranking in 2007-2008 of North Carolina among 50 states in administrative spending for public education (Ibid)

1,445,628—number of students enrolled in North Carolina public schools in 2008-2009 school year (N.C. Department of Public Instruction)

1,480,991—number of students expected to enroll in public schools in 2011-2012 (Senate Education Committee on Education Target Comparisons, Fiscal Research Division, N.C. General Assembly, May 11, 2011)

0—number of teacher and teacher and teacher assistant positions that House Speaker Thom Tillis said were cut by the General Assembly in the 2011-2012 budget (House Speaker Thom Tillis, June 15, 2011)

534—number of teachers laid off in public schools due to the cuts made in the 2011-2012 budget (“Public Schools Have Cut More than Eight Percent of Staff Since 2008-2009, N.C. Department of Public Instruction News Release, August 31, 2011)

1,260—number of teacher assistants laid off in public schools due to the cuts made in the 2011-2012 budget (Ibid)

2,418—total number of layoffs in public education in 2011-2012 due to budget cuts made by the General Assembly (Ibid)

6,307—total number of public school jobs that have been eliminated in 2011-2012 due to budget cuts made by the General Assembly (Ibid)

4,000—minimum number of current public school jobs funded by one-time federal stimulus dollars that will be gone in 2012-2013 (“North Carolina’s Disappearing Educators,” N.C. Budget and Tax Center, September 2011)

45—ranking in 2007-2008 of North Carolina among 50 states in per-pupil expenditures for education (Ibid)

49—ranking in 2010-2011 of North Carolina among 50 states in per-pupil expenditures for education (N.C. Department of Public Instruction)

Wikis in the Classroom

Wikis, a web-based document that can be quickly and easily edited, viewed, and shared by many people, are useful to both students and educators. I first used wikis as a format for student products. In one example, a small group of students worked independently to contribute to a group project. Each student was able to make contributions and corrections to the final product.

On My Way to Carolina
In this project, students imagined the trials and tribulations faced by early immigrants to our state. Along the way students answered the following questions for the fictional character they created: Where did the early settlers of our state come from? What compelled them to make such a treacherous journey? What hardships did they face? What did they find when they arrived? Through the use of historical fiction, students create stories for these intrepid emigrants who were the first immigrants to the new world called Carolina.

Through research, students gathered the sufficient background knowledge they needed to create the pages that make up this wiki. In addition, students selected images, practiced literacy skills, incorporated technology, demonstrated critical thinking, and worked cooperatively to solve problems.

The Blog as Classroom Tool

One of my earliest and most successful forays into using educational technology was Mr. Barber's Language Arts Classroom, the blog I created for my language arts classes. When I started the blog back in 2008, I was looking for a way to communicate with students and parents, record the content objectives, essential questions, and day-to-day activities of the students, and, importantly, provide for myself a place for reflection on the outcomes of lessons. I was afraid it would be something that could be easily begun but hard to faithfully maintain; however, I found that once I got into the routine, I looked forward to the daily posting. I promoted it to my peers, and the concept was nominated for a Bright Ideas award, a recognition from my school system for classroom practices and ideas with educational merit.