Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Category: Tech

Digitally native? What about humanly native?

If you’ve read some of my older posts regarding the notion of ‘digital literacy’ or, gasp, ‘digital literacies‘ you may have an inkling as to where my mind may go when it reads the trendy, robot evoking, term ‘digital native’. It goes along the same path as Deven Black’s did in Where Are All the Digital Natives?

Note: this post was edited in 2019 to replace an image with this YouTube video.

Digital Natives. I imagine little robots with faces on computer screens gathered in a classroom, little beings educators have created in order to justify their own love of technology, and with the uncanny result of (sometimes) stripping learners of their humanness as labeling often does.

Personally, I’ve had enough of this talk of ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital literacies’ and ‘essential 21st century skills’ (I’ve had enough for a couple of years, even!). Lately and instead, I find myself rereading and remembering the words of Haim Ginott, Nel Noddings, and others and try to focus on curriculum within a framework of care and kindness as I teach my students both with and without technological tools, as I work with colleagues with different skill sets and comfort levels regarding technological tools as well.

October 24, 2010
Thanks for your help: learning more about tech (digital storytelling) in secondary classrooms

I’ve received quite a bit of response from my plea for help in organizing a workshop I’ve been asked to give on integrating technology into secondary classrooms (2 workshops, one in English one in French) – Thank you :)

I’ll be using Teaching is a Verb – Enseigner, C’est Agir to share information with the workshop participants. The workshops will mainly be centred around digital storytelling in the content areas – I figured this was the easiest way to address the task I was given, “Can you put together a workshop on integrating technology in the High School Language Arts, History, and Science classes? Oh, and can you do a second one for French teachers? Thanks.”

At this point I have a whole slew of online resources to offer the teachers and to help organize my thoughts on the matter. I found a great Firefox add-on called Send Tab URLs that helped me to make a list of the resources I’ve collected so far.

There are a few examples of teaching and student practice among these links so far. I’d love to find more! The more I can show my teachers the better. The teachers who will be participating are already interested in the topic so theory will be kept to a bare minimum, though I’ll be able to direct anyone who is interested to the blog I am creating for any theory they want (I love theory :)

What they want is to see what it looks like in a classroom. I can show them final products, I can show them where to go to find different applications, but what I need to show them is what it looks like. If anyone has any resources for that, I’ll love you forever :)

From Send Tab URLs (38 links)

– The View From Here: Teaching the New Writing – Book

http://kentmanning.blogspot.com/2009/07/teaching-new-writing-book.html

– Confessions of an Aca/Fan: Archives: How New Media is Transforming Storytelling: A New Video Series

http://henryjenkins.org/2010/08/how_new_media_is_transforming.html

– How to create …. – Digital Storytelling – Resources for assignments at University of Wollongong Library

http://uow.libguides.com/content.php?pid=82573&sid=612645

– Secondary Cycle Two

http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/programmeFormation/secondaire2/index_en.asp?page=math

– Technology Tools

http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=22880

– ecole

http://www.robertbibeau.ca/ecole.html

– Tutoriel pour créer un montage vidéo avec Windows Movie Maker – TIC@le: TIC, langues et formation des enseignant(e)s

http://ticale.canalblog.com/archives/2010/03/27/17379912.html

– Inuktic

http://inuktic.qc.ca/

– Carrefour éducation

http://carrefour-education.qc.ca/accueil_secondaire

– Voicethread – FrankTechCamp2010

http://sites.google.com/a/franklinvillecsd.org/franktechcamp2010/voicethread

– Web 2.0 @ School – DigitalStorytelling

http://mcneice.wikispaces.com/DigitalStorytelling

– CogDogRoo – 50 Ways

http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways

– USTREAM, You’re On. Free LIVE VIDEO Streaming, Online Broadcasts. Create webcasts, video chat, stream videos on the Internet. Live streaming videos, TV shows

http://www.ustream.tv/

– Your Brain on Computers – Studying the Brain Off the Grid, Professors Find Clarity – NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

– Professional blog | davidwees.com

http://davidwees.com/content/using-google-forms-choose-your-own-adventure-style-story

– Digital_storytelling_Kirsty_McGeoch_IATEFL_2009.pdf (application/pdf Object)

http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/sites/iatefl/files/session/documents/Digital_storytelling_Kirsty_McGeoch_IATEFL_2009.pdf

– Center for Digital Storytelling

http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html

– Technology integration

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6673

– What motivates us to do good?

https://leadingfromtheheart.org/2010/01/18/what-motivates-us-to-do-good/

– edbuzz.org » Teacher Resources

http://edbuzz.org/teacher-resources/

– Aberth Digital Storytelling — digital storytelling, participatory media and easing access to mass media for public expression

http://www.aberth.com/blog/

– Seven things to Avoid when making a digital story

http://www.aberth.com/blog/seven-things-to-avoid-when-making-a-digital-story.html

– YouTube – spmath’s Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/spmath#g/a

– What does exemplary technology infused Math instruction look like? (Middle & High School) | Welcome to NCS-Tech!

http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=5850&cpage=1#comment-27740

– Alternative Assessment with VoiceThread

http://alalearning.org/2010/08/26/alternative-assessment-with-voicethread/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20ALALearning%20(ALA%20Learning%20Round%20Table)

– Google Forms for Assessment, Evaluation, and Reflection

http://alalearning.org/2010/05/17/google-forms-for-assessment-evaluation-and-reflection/

– Technology

http://alalearning.org/category/technology/

– VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio « TeachingSagittarian

http://teachingsagittarian.com/2009/03/voicethread-as-a-digital-portfolio/

– Lightning Bug – Storyboarding

http://www.lightningbug.com.au/storyboarding/storyboarding.htm

– The Digital Narrative – Find your story

http://www.thedigitalnarrative.com/communityhp.htm

– N°482 – Le Web 2.0 et l’école – Le Cercle de Recherche et d’Action Pédagogiques et les Cahiers pédagogiques

http://www.cahiers-pedagogiques.com/spip.php?page=numero&id_article=6882

– Free Technology for Teachers: 140 New Things Being Tried In Classrooms This Fall

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/08/140-new-things-being-tried-in.html

– Free Technology for Teachers: Free Downloads

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/free-downloads.html

– Edmodo | Secure Social Learning Network for Teachers and Students

http://www.edmodo.com/

– Storytelling — It’s News!

http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/news/

– digitalstorytelling – home

http://digitalstorytelling.iste.wikispaces.net/

– digitalstoryca’s Bookmarks on Delicious

http://www.delicious.com/digitalstoryca

– monarchlibrary – digitalstorytelling

http://monarchlibrary.wikispaces.com/digitalstorytelling

August 27, 2010
Calling for help in high school tech workshop development in English and en français
I will be facilitating two workshops, essentially identical though different ;) , on integrating technology into secondary school classrooms. Specifically Language Arts, History, and Science.

When it comes to workshops, teachers want practical ideas that they can use in their classrooms so I will be organizing the workshops by practice first and then filling the theory in as we go, as it is needed.

Oh, they are identical but different because one is for English secondary teachers, one for French.

Ideas I have so far:

Digital Storytelling as the basis for integrating tech not only in the language classrooms but in the other classrooms as well

Demonstrating examples using:
- VoiceThread
- Video
- Blogging
- Collaborative creation (using googledocs kind of things)
Here are the workshop descriptions:

Technology as part of the learning process: Specific activities that integrate technology in the Secondary classroom.

In this workshop we will explore specific ways to integrate technology into Secondary Language Arts, History, and Science classrooms. It used to be that technology was an add on, something extra that many of us believed we did not have time for given the reality of rigorous curriculum and time constraints. Now, technology use is part of the curriculum, part of the learning process. We will look at specific ideas that can be used in the classroom – digital storytelling, blogging, voicethread, video, and other collaborative or individual activities – and how they are related to curricular competencies.

The material we cover, as well as ideas for further exploration, will be added to the website Teaching is a Verb – Enseigner, C’est Agir. The website is set up as a blog and I welcome your comments and questions as they can help me to design a workshop that best addresses your needs.

———————-

La technologie et le processus d’apprentissage: des activités spécifiques qui appuient l’intégration de technologie dans la salle de classe secondaire

Il était une fois que la technologie en salle de classe était une activité supplémentaire, quelque chose qu’on faisait si on avait le temps après le ‘vrai travail’ du curriculum. Maintenant, la technologie fait partie du curriculum, du processus de l’apprentissage. Durant cet atelier je vais vous présenter des activités spécifiques que vous pouvez utiliser dans vos salles de classes – le récit numérique, des blogs, VoiceThread, vidéo, et d’autres activités de collaboration et non – et comment ces activités sont liées aux compétences du curriculum.

Le contenu de l’atelier, en plus que des idées pour l’exploration supplémentaire, sera affiché au site web Enseigner, C’est Agir – Teaching is a Verb. En fait, ce site web est un blog alors je vous invite à me laisser vos commentaires ou vos questions, car ils pourraient m’aider à créer un atelier qui répondra plus précisément a vos besoins actuels.

Any ideas for me? Things you think are must haves? Things I should avoid?
August 23, 2010
New Media Literacies? Please.

This post began as a comment to The New Media Literacies by Susan Carter Morgan over at scmorgan: teacher, learner, which, by the way, is my addition to the One Comment Project (#OCP) for today.

I have a hard time with the term ‘media literacies’. These aren’t literacies. Plain and simple. They are tools and networks. So often literacy is confused with context and tools.

Why does this matter?
Because when people start to talk about tools and context as literacy they shift their focus to the tools rather than keeping their eyes on the big picture.

We see schools, teachers, districts seeking out technology for their schools and classrooms and then we end up with computer labs that aren’t used because many teachers don’t know how to manage learning in a computer lab yet. Or interactive white boards (big expensive smart boards) that are used to enhance lecture because teachers don’t know what else to do with them yet. Or professional development that advocates for the use of social networking in classrooms within schools whose IT departments ban social networking sites on the school’s network.

As Angela recently wrote in Needing a Framework to Facilitate Learning,

It’s impossible to make choices around tech tools until we understand where we need to support kids better as learners and create plans for accomplishing that. These plans have to be systemic in nature in order to effect change. This requires expertise in so much more than technology.

This is a theme I’ve been writing and talking about for a long time. What I am happy about is that lately I am seeing more and more blog posts, like Angela’s, around the same ideas. What ideas? That we need to focus on professional development. That we need to re-connect teachers with their passion for teaching in order to clear the path for change in how they teach. In order to re-connect teachers with the children in their classrooms and their needs and in order to teach teachers the skills they need to answer to these needs in a collaborative, systematic, systemic, mindful way.

Literacy is about understanding the world around us through symbols that are used to create meaning, mainly through text and the various ways text is presented. We can do that through a variety of hard and soft tools. But the big picture for us teachers is how we will use the tools at our disposal to help our students develop their literate selves.

Thoughts?

July 28, 2009
Do you add students as facebook friends?

I do.
I know teachers who absolutely refuse to as well. Where do you stand?

At the beginning of the year I tried different online techniques to give out information (homework, resources, etc…) and found more and more that students weren’t using the software or the applications. My facebook status updates usually looked like, “don’t forget to check the class site for homework”. Eventually I just put the homework reminder directly in the status update instead of sending them elsewhere.

I am happy that my students are comfortable enough with me to let me into their facebook worlds. I see their updates, photos, and videos and am able to celebrate or give a hug when needed.

I am the staff rep for our school’s lacrosse team and created a group for them where we talk about our practices and games and share pictures.

In the huddle, right before the winning goal was scored.

I absolutely love when I see status updates like

my house 8:00 to work on project or who is down for math group tomorrow?

I also love when students post links or videos to my wall as suggestions for classroom resources. ~~Even~~ especially when they ask questions about homework they are having trouble with.

At times, it is a convenient way for students to contact me about issues they are having, either with school work or socially.

At the beginning of the year I had my students on a limited profile list of some sort but I soon changed that as I realized that there was nothing that I posted on facebook that I needed to hide from them or anyone else.

So, where do you stand on maintaining a relationship with students outside of the classroom via facebook (or twitter or plurk or anything else)?

May 26, 2009