Thread: Fite - Divide Post: RE: Fite - Divide Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 7:12 PM Status: Published

One thing that I have seen that has been very effective is a Technology Night at school in which various student projects were on display in some form of a multimedia presentation.  We had parents and grandparents pack the multi-purpose room to watch the educational creations (using technology) created by their child being showcased.  Our school had an awards presentation for the projects at the end of the showing (ex. best video project or most creative project).  It was a big hit and it emphasized the importance of technology in education while getting family members to show up and support the kids. 

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Thread: acheivement gap Post: RE: acheivement gap Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 6:47 PM Status: Published

We have the librarian available and usually one or two technology facilitators who are in the general area to assist when needed.

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Thread: Flemmer-Digital Divide Post: RE: Flemmer-Digital Divide Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 6:46 PM Status: Published

You are right in that each school has its own unique challenges to help bridge the gap.  The school I was at first that was very low socio-economically had a late bus which was very helpful.  My current school is pretty much a walking school (we really don't have very many students who live beyond a two mile radius) which is also helpful.

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Thread: Flemmer-Digital Divide Post: Flemmer-Digital Divide Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 6:06 AM Status: Published

I always ask my students each year how many have access to the internet and it has been amazing during the past twelve years to watch the percentage of students go from maybe 20-25% (a very poor school from 1997-1999) to close to 100% in my current school which is composed of students from upper-middle class families.  If I have a student without internet access it is usually either because their computer has gone to its heavenly cyberspace and they just haven't bought a new one yet or there is a home situation in which the student is bouncing around from one parent to the next and the one they are staying with doesn't have access.

I really think the best way to offset that gap is for schools to open-up computer labs before and/or after school in which students can access for research, etc.  My current school does that and it is amazing how many students we have taking advantage of the lab.  My first schools (the very poor one) did that back in the late-90's and we always had a lot of students stay after school to work on the computers in the lab. 

I am not saying that this will eliminate the achievement gap; but I think a great starting point is by providing all students with access to the technologies that can help them get the best education possible.

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Thread: Fite - Divide Post: RE: Fite - Divide Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 6:01 AM Status: Published

Those statistics show an obvious correlation between having an education and having internet access.  I think with education comes a desire for knowledge (and the internet is great for quick information like stock reports, sports scores, weather, etc.) and generally with an education comes a job that pays well enough to afford the DSL service. 

You are right, we need to emphasize the importance of education and then hopefully the gap in the digital divide will lessen.

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Thread: acheivement gap Post: RE: acheivement gap Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 28, 2009 5:49 AM Status: Published

Keith,

I have found that the students who don't have access to the internet can be divided into two groups; 1) the ones that hope not having access will allow them a loophole not to have to do the assignment or 2) the ones that know it is inconvenient and frustrating not having the internet; but they either stay after school, go to the library, or work from a friend's computer to get the job done.

We have computers open and available to students for about 45 minutes to an hour after school each day and student's take advantage of it and put them to good use.

Chip

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Thread: Key gaps Post: RE: Key gaps Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 25, 2009 6:31 AM Status: Published

Thinking back about the different districts I have worked for in the past twelve years it seems to me that the ones that loved buying new technology had a lot of "technology" unused and in boxes.  I taught for six years in a small California district that didn't have spare money for dental floss and they worked hard to find grant money, tech-friendly citizens, or anyone else willing to help boost our school's technology and we had what seemed to be a higher percentage of teachers that really utilized what we had effectively.  I don't know if the reason was because the teachers worked so hard to acquire the technology that they were determined to put it to use or not. 

I think the training is important for all districts to have in helping teachers become more comfortable; but I feel what lacks is the follow-up.  I would love to see technology personnel or anyone else who is "qualified" come around a week or month after the trainings to check on how the teachers are progressing and to answer any questions while making sure that the training is being put to proper use.  This wouldn't be to rat-out those not using the training, but rather to help those who really want to apply what they learned effectively.  We have all been to day or week trainings and when it was all finished we placed all of the worksheets, info, brochures, note, books, and anything else we received from the training on Shelf N (N = never to be seen again).  If everyone knew that someone was coming back to check on their progress in applying what they learned I would hope that more effective use would be the result, but maybe I am delusional.

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Thread: student-centered learning environments Post: RE: student-centered learning environments Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 23, 2009 7:13 AM Status: Published

Ongoing professional development is important in helping transition teachers to be more student-centered in their learning environments.  As time goes on many teachers get set in their ways and don't want to do things differently.  I don't believe that every teacher needs to completely overhaul their approach because many teachers have several things that they are doing in the classroom that is highly effective and student-centered.  I do believe that all teachers need to want to continue improving their skills as a teacher while being willing to adjust or modify their approach if their is a better way to do things.

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Thread: How will I make the greatest impact? Post: How will I make the greatest impact? Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 23, 2009 7:05 AM Status: Published

I hope that through my role of being the lead teacher for sixth grade social studies and with our brainstorming sessions and lesson-planning that I can make the strongest impact for promoting student-centered learning at my school and in my district.

It is hard to change something that has been the rule (teacher-centered) more often than it has been the exception (student-centered).  When you have teachers in place that are not only able to lead by example, but will help, train, and mentor others coming into the profession then maybe we will see a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered. 

I had a great student-teaching experience in 1995 with a strong SCLE guy.  He was ahead of his time and ahead of the curve; however, prior to my student-teaching experience, I had a quarter-long observational experience in 1994 in which my mentor teacher was the definition of teacher-centered.  It makes we wonder if I would be a different teacher today had my student-teaching experience been with the teacher-centered instructor instead of the student-centered instructor.  I can't answer that for sure, but it really helped me to work with a strong SCLE teacher who promoted authentic learning and higher-level thinking skills with a tough group of low socio-economic kids.

I believe that my greatest impact will come with helping our new teachers through a strong example on what student-centered learning should look like.  My school has a lot of new teachers each year because we are growing so fast and I don't want to manipulate them; but rather demonstrate to them that the SCLE approach is better for the kids and as teachers we should all want to be doing what is best for the kids.

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Thread: Key Gaps Post: RE: Key Gaps Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 23, 2009 6:39 AM Status: Published

Lynne,

You hit the nail on the head by saying that you are "quite displeased with the amount of investments sitting around collecting dust."  Not only as a teacher and parent am I displeased; but as a tax payer it is frustrating considering all of the economic hardships many people in our country are facing.  I have an average house in McKinney, TX and pay around $4500 each year on property taxes.  I am not against paying taxes; but I am against tax dollars being spent only to collect dust and not going toward its intended purpose to help improve learning in the classroom.

You also bring out a great point that technology use is on the low-end of the scale.  I think that is true in most districts.  At this point I don't have a lot of answers, but it causes me to think of a lot of questions that need to be brought to the table.

Great post, Lynne.

Chip

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Thread: The Gaps Post: The Gaps Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 23, 2009 6:28 AM Status: Published

My district's plans (yes, plural) have gaps that I have assigned the acronym O.C.D.  This doesn't stand for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; but rather involves the lack of Ownership, Communication, and Differentiation.

My district is very good at posting information online for the public to see and I didn't think technology would be any different.  To make a long story short, my district has an easy-to-find technology "plan" available online, but the "real" plan seems to be hidden in a secret chamber  with some troll guarding the content. 

I feel that with the lack of availability of the real technology plan (not only the certified teachers, but also those in the technology department who had no idea a real plan existed) it is nearly impossible for our district's dedicated staff to feel ownership of our vision and direction. 

The way to fix the lack of ownership in a staff  is through better communication.  If the real technology plan was easily accessible and available to all of the stakeholders then you would see in increase in the first gap which is the lack of ownership.  It is hard to get on board with something that you can't find or didn't know even existed.  We are a great district for communicating sports schedules, staph infection incidents, state test score accomplishments, and anything else except our technology plan which is ironic since our district feels that they are very tech savvy. 

Finally, when I looked at our publicly accessible plan I noticed a severe gap with differentiation.  We are a very high-performing district with mostly college-bound students, but I know that our clientele are not all cut from the same mold.  I trust that the gap from a lack of differentiation attention is going to be narrowed in the very near future because our administrators either had the term "differentiation" on their calendars as the word-of-the-day or the superintendent and curriculum directors are doing a better job trying to get that focus passed down to the entire staff.

From this class I have a better understanding that my district is great a obtaining the gadgets (projectors in every class, etc.), but we are not all operating on the same page with a common vision.  We had a email go out this past year offering an iWrite Mobi Boards to any teacher on our staff who was willing to take a 20-30 minute training from our tech facilitator and only three or four of us showed-up from a large staff.  One could see that this was very frustrating for our tech facilitator who couldn't believe that there was such little interest in a great device to help learning in the classroom. 

O-C-D would be the starting point for me in trying to fix our technology plan and usage in my district.

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Thread: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Post: RE: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 20, 2009 2:10 PM Status: Published

The website is http://pbl-online.org/ .  I have some experience with creating and delivering lessons that had a lot of PBL characteristics.  The lessons about PBL should help me tremendously this upcoming school year in leading our sixth grade social studies teachers in lesson planning, etc.

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Thread: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Post: RE: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 17, 2009 9:55 AM Status: Published

Keith,

I really do like project based learning and how we can utilize technology in way to improve learning for all students regardless of academic level.  That is a great point made about the fact that just because a teacher assigns a project doesn't necessarily ensure a rich learning experience will take place.  There are a lot of fluff projects out there that really don't challenge and don't really seem to provide for a great learning experience.

I really thought the five points were a nice road map for making sure that one is getting the most out of their project.  I think that project based learning is like anything else; experience, trial and error, evaluating what is working and what isn't, and being flexible to changing your course action is essential to having a successful project.

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Thread: Fite - PBL Article Post: RE: Fite - PBL Article Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 17, 2009 9:45 AM Status: Published

Phil,

I have always enjoyed reading, studying, and analyzing statistics, but it is important to always remember that if one has a real bias then it is easy to manipulate and use numbers to promote a specific position (like you said the many "creative" interpretations). 

I do like the list of reasons to use PBL.  I guess the moral of reading these studies is to keep an open mind, but don't drink the Kool-Aid without doing a diligent investigation over the information in the study.

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Thread: Fite - PBL Post: RE: Fite - PBL Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 17, 2009 9:35 AM Status: Published

Good point, I worked for a principal who wanted everything to be research-based. There are a lot of situations where common-sense based is the best approach since each school and class has its own special circumstances and dynamics.

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Thread: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Post: Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 7:09 PM Status: Published

I read the article, Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement for my summary. This is a great article that features an online resource for Project Based Learning that appears to be extremely innovating and useful for any educator who wants to maximize how they utilize projects for learning. 

Boise State’s department of educational technology is in the thick of creating a one-stop shopping for Project Based Learning called PBL-Online whose foundation is the BIE Project Based Learning Handbook. The goal is to provide resources to help teachers design projects and ensure that they are academically rigorous, focused on standards, engaging, and authentic learning activities.  The online resource provides the ability to view other contributors as well as collaborate with peers. Teachers can enroll in a three-credit online course that focuses strictly on project based learning.  The website and online course are built around five steps to help plan, implement, and assess for effective projects in the classroom:

1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Craft the driving question.
3. Plan the assessment.
4. Map the project.
5. Manage the process.

Projects are not new to classrooms; however, it tends to be more common to have teachers assigning a project in addition to other activities and tests to teach a concept. The article refers to those kinds of projects as “a dessert” which follows the main course of learning. That main course of learning is typically a traditional teacher-centered lesson.

If projects are done according to the Project Based Learning method, research shows that it can lead to deep and meaningful thinking like problem solving, self-assessment and self-reflection. The problem is that there were very few resources available for to help teachers become experts at developing and using projects in their classes and that is why PBL-Online came on the scene.

The article states that successful projects require much more time on the part of the teachers in the designing stage because they tend to involve real-world contemporary issues. How deep the students take the learning is directly related to how skillful the teacher is in project planning and implementation since there usually isn’t a text for the teacher to fall back on.  So planning and design are key.

The PBL-Online is a project library and virtual community that is available worldwide to advance scientifically-based PBL research and practice. There are overviews of the website, planning methods available, research data, expert opinions and something that I think is really useful, video segments to help.  This is a great resource for educators to take advantage of in improving how we create and use projects.

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Thread: Enhancing the Lesson Post: Enhancing the Lesson Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 6:34 PM Status: Published

I think that the checklist is useful for helping someone to identify areas that need to be enhanced in the lesson.  When you look at the What's for Lunch lesson prior to the revision, it is clear that there are numerous gaps.  A lot of people could look at the lesson and state that it really is a great topic with a really poor way of being taught.  To go from just knowing that the lesson is below par to specifically identifying what was lacking and what could be fixed often takes something like a checklist.  I noticed several areas of concern from the checklist, but I will focus on the statement 

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Thread: What's For Lunch? Improvements Post: What's For Lunch? Improvements Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 6:18 PM Status: Published

After reading the lesson, What’s for Lunch?, share how you would enhance this lesson with technology?

Even without thinking about how technology could help this lesson, I really didn't feel that the lesson objectives were addressed.  It said that

As a result of this lesson, the student will:

Know and be able to identify the nutrients provided by a variety of foods.

Describe how bodily function and physical performance are affected by food consumption.

Be able to use library resources to locate, evaluate, and collect information.

I didn't see where or how the students would be identifying the nutrients provided by a wide variety of foods in this lesson.  I also didn't see how bodily function and physical performance that are affected by food consumption could be addressed with the info from the worksheet other than one simple question seeking a list of health risks.

The lesson is just looking for basic facts and there is no opportunity to dig deeper on the subject.

Some enhancements I would recommend would include:

• Students could calculate the calories or grams of fat from their favorite fast food meal and create a class graph (Excel) showing the results.
• Students could collaborate with peers to create a healthy menu (ex. Publisher) from fast food restaurants and present their findings with any variety of presentation software.
• Students could be split into a variety of small groups (each with a specific focus dealing with health and nutrition of fast food) and compile a class e-book.  One could use PowerPoint for this or even a movie making program which would include images, graphs, and audio.

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Thread: Big6 Post: Big6 Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 5:30 PM Status: Published

I had never heard of the Big6 prior to this encounter.  I had heard of Motel 6, Sixth Sense, Six Flags, and even six feet under; but not the Big6.  I was almost beginning to feel out of the loop, especially since the website states that it is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world. Now that I am out of my cave and aware of the Big6, I really like the idea that there is an approach in which students are able to handle problems, assignments, decisions or tasks.  I agree with the fact that there is just too much “stuff” out there. It is difficult to keep up with all of the latest information and as educators many of us pride ourselves in staying on top of what is deemed important to learning, etc. We live in a society that wants to have questions answered immediately and I really like how the site said that we need to think about helping students work smarter and not just faster. Teaching students how to problem-solve is very important for not only school, but throughout life. The Big6 approach has a nice checklist feel in my opinion which can be very beneficial in helping us keep our focus to accomplish a said task or solve a problem.

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Thread: Learning Activites Checklist Post: Learning Activites Checklist Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 5:04 PM Status: Published

Share your thoughts about the Learning Activities Checklist.

I really like the Learning Activities Checklist. It is always nice for me to have an easy-to-follow list of items that I can access to help keep the focus on whether the students are doing what I intending to be done. It is great for teachers or evaluators to have the checklist because a lot of times we can get caught-up in looking at one or two things that we neglect to see the big picture.  Many teachers also have special lessons that they use year in and year out; but when they critically think about the purpose of that lesson or what they truly are hoping that students gain from it, they fumble around for a solid reason other than, “I have always done this lesson and the kids love it.” 

If for no other reason, having a checklist is great for helping someone like me who has been known to lose focus and stray off on an occasional tangent. 

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Thread: Project Based Learning Post: Project Based Learning Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 12, 2009 4:58 PM Status: Published

How familiar are you with Project Based Learning? Share any experience you’ve had with this teaching approach.

I am fairly familiar with Project Based Learning and it is something that my social studies team of teachers tries to incorporate into our lessons frequently. I have also been to numerous trainings which in one aspect or another have demonstrated Project Based Learning activities. 

In Texas we are on a six-week grading schedule and each six-week period we try to have at least three major grades for our students. We try to use one test (with various types of questions ranging from multiple choice, true/false, short answer, essay, mapping, etc.) for a major grade and we also like to use one or two projects for major grades. These projects which are intended as the main means of assessment for learning the concepts for our unit are generally time-consuming; but are great to use. The projects are typically open-ended in which the students can be creative as long as they are meeting a generally set of criteria predetermined in a rubric and information sheet. We either have the students present their projects to the class or we display them for a museum-like showing in which all of the students can walk around the “gallery” to learn from their peer’s project.

I know that there is a lot more that I need to learn about Project Based Learning; but my experience with it so far has been very positive and the students seem to really enjoy it. Students love things that are related to the real world, fun and engaging while still being highly educational, and I feel that these projects can help take learning to another level; being challenging yet rewarding.

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Thread: NETS Standards Post: RE: NETS Standards Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 10, 2009 6:41 AM Status: Published

Those are all great questions.  I completely agree that with high-stakes exams that many teachers are very apprehensive about exploring and using technology because they feel that they don't have time because every second in class is so precious in preparing the students for the big test.

As far as teaching students (or even our own children) to use technology safely is concerned, I think that being clear with expectations and being an active monitor as the teacher/parent is vital.   

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Thread: NETS Post: RE: NETS Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 10, 2009 6:33 AM Status: Published

I don't have a magic formula to help move resistant teachers forward; but I have found that when technology leaders are approachable and wanting to help then you are more likely to see good results.  Last year we had a 38-year teaching veteran come to our school from Louisiana and he was very uncomfortable with all of the technology that we use and have access to in our district.  I sat down with him at the beginning of the year and helped him make a "First Day of School Introduction" PowerPoint featuring Cajun music to help his students get to know him and he loved it.  From that point on, anytime he had a technology question he was comfortable asking me because he knew I wanted to help him and not try to make him feel dumb just because he hadn't been exposed to all of the new gadgets.

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Thread: NETS Standards Post: NETS Standards Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 9, 2009 1:25 PM Status: Published

I enjoyed reading the standards for both students and teachers.  I feel that the document is clear, concise, and a nice guide for educators (no matter how well they feel they are with technology in the classroom) to take a look at and make sure that we are not neglecting to implement and important factor.

The first section about facilitating and inspiring student learning and creativity I believe is so important.  I think we all can think of specific educators who are experts at inspiring and motivating students.  On the other end of the spectrum, I think that we all can identify educators who seem to cringe at an original thought and seem to stifle creativity from students.  

I also like the section about promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility.  Promoting acceptable practices and behavior is important because we want students to get the most out of the positive uses for technology and not to fall victim to some of the pitfalls that are out there in cyberspace.

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Thread: NETS standards Post: RE: NETS standards Author: Chip Flemmer

Posted Date: July 9, 2009 1:14 PM Status: Published

Keith, I also found the standards to be very clear and precise.  I completely agree with your statement that teachers should already be inspiring student learning.  I think that having just six key statements (each with sub-statements) for students and five key statements for teachers, that the National Educational Technology Standards are more likely to be read and followed by teachers rather than if they were some fifty page document.