Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Same Song, Second Verse

April 29th, 2013 by Susan Brooks-Young

Image of The Prune Song sheet music 1928Do you remember The Prune Song? A camp classic, this silly ditty reviews the travails of life as a prune. The pleasure in singing the song comes from repeating over and over its first verse —“a little bit louder and a little bit worse!” A fun way for nine-year-olds to wile away the time perhaps, but not so amusing when adults persist in this same behavior.

Two decades ago Apple Inc. hired independent researchers to evaluate the impact of the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project. One important outcome of this report was the recognition that when technology use is limited to supporting traditional instruction or increasing student productivity, any improvements in student performance cannot be attributed to the technology. Subsequent studies and models (e.g., the Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition (SAMR) model) draw similar conclusions.

What kinds of technology-supported activities actually make a difference? The research is clear on this as well. When students engage in project-based learning experiences or solve authentic problems using technology as one of several available tools, increases in achievement can be attributed—at least in part—to technology use. How does this information impact classrooms today?

In their eagerness to incorporate use of mobile tablet devices into classrooms, some educators are taking the same-song-second-verse approach instead of taking time to think through how this technology could be used to significantly change classroom instruction. As has been the pattern with earlier technologies, it’s not uncommon to hear about schools and districts that have purchased equipment with minimal planning for actual classroom use. Or to run across teachers who envision primary use of tablets consisting of apps that cover discrete Common Core performance indicators. The upshot of this is teachers spending their time searching for and deploying stand-alone apps that have a limited shelf-life and use minimally effective instructional strategies to teach or review very basic concepts.

What can school leaders do to reverse this trend? Here are a few simple suggestions:

  1. Resist the temptation to deploy mobile tablet devices to ‘see what will happen.’ Take time to plan thoroughly. The College of William & Mary School of Education Learning Activity Types wiki offers a variety of technology-supported activities based on the TPACK model.
  2. Work with staff to revisit Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Several talented educators have posted work online designed to help teachers rethink classroom use of touch technology. Check out Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and Bloomin’ Apps for ideas.
  3. Think beyond drill and practice or task automation. The most effective use of tablets is for content creation, not content consumption. Encourage teachers to explore ways students can use tablets for project-based learning and to solve authentic problems.

 

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Posted in Integration, Technology Planning | 2 Comments »

Blips not to overlook

January 31st, 2013 by Butch Owens

Radar screenAs we venture forth into 2013, I thought it might be a good time to take a look at some items that should be on every administrator’s radar.  We all need to be developing a plan on how we will incorporate each into our schools.

Learning Management Systems

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application or Web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific learning process. Typically, a learning management system provides an instructor with a way to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, and assess student performance. A learning management system may also provide students with the ability to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, video conferencing, and discussion forums.  Read more.

Flipped Classrooms

Flip teaching (or flipped classroom) is a form of blended learning which encompasses any use of technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher-created videos that students view outside of class time. It is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom, and reverse teaching.  Read more.

BYOD

Bring your own device (also referred to as Bring your own technology (BYOT), Bring your own phone (BYOP), and Bring your own PC (BYOPC)) is a term that is frequently used to describe the policy of permitting employees to bring personally owned mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their place of work and use those devices to access privileged company information and applications.[1] The term is also used to describe the same practice applied to students using personally owned devices in education settings.  Read more.

MOOC

A massive open online course (MOOC) is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web. MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education and a progression of the kind of open education ideals suggested by open educational resources. Examples include Khan Academy and free offerings from Stanford and MIT.  Read more.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free web-based office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service. It also was a storage service but has since been replaced by the before-mentioned Google Drive. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Google Docs combines the features of Writely and Spreadsheets with a presentation program incorporating technology designed by Tonic Systems.  Learn more.

California Student Bill of Rights Initiative

The California Student Bill of Rights Initiative did not make the ballot last November, but had it qualified for the ballot and been approved by the state’s voters, it would have:

  • Authorized school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to claim average daily attendance funding for student participation in approved online courses.
  • Authorized school districts to contract with public and private providers to deliver online courses taught by credentialed teachers.
  • Allowed students to take online courses offered by any school district, regardless of student’s residence.
  • Provided students access to courses required for admission to state universities.
  • Established the “California Diploma”, which would have demonstrated completion of courses required for University of California and California State University admission.

If students need flexibility in their schedule or a teacher in another district has a great online course, students will definitely seek out that option if available—and the ADA would follow the student for that course. Students will no longer be held hostage to what their local district, school or individual teacher of a course is offering.

Huffington article on California online bill of rights

Click image above to read this Huffington post article.

Personal Learning Networks

A personal learning network (PLN) is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection.  Read more.

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Educational Paradigms

This is a great 11 minute video by Sir Ken Robinson to open up the dialog about the need to change and adapt our schools to meet the needs of students today and into the future. Pay particular attention to the section on divergent thinking. As Sir Ken points out this is one of the most important traits students will need to be successful in our changing world.  Learn more.

A Question

Let me finish by posing a question. If students truly have a choice about what courses they take and where they take them, will they choose to stay enrolled in a course that is textbook-driven and without access to technology or any expectation to use technology to produce evidence of their learning? Or would they choose a hybrid or blended course with online,24/7, access to highly interactive threaded discussions, media rich resources, and the ability to schedule the class around other commitments and activities?

Take for example this brief blog post.  It starts with a brief description and includes links to other resources for those looking to explore a topic in depth.  Compare this to a one page article with definitions of each trend. Which would provide a better understanding of the topic? Which would lead to a deeper understanding? Which is more engaging?

If you are looking to continue this conversation you should consider attending the Leadership 3.0 Symposium sponsored by TICAL, ACSA and CUE.  It takes place April 11–13, 2013 at the Hyatt Regency, Irvine, California.  Learn more.

 

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Posted in Leadership, Pondering, Technology Planning | 3 Comments »

The binder lives on.

July 14th, 2011 by Lisa Marie Gonzales

Ever have one of those nights when a friend sends you a “resource you might be interested in” and before you know it, an hour has passed and it’s after your bedtime? I did recently, courtesy of Dr. John White, fellow TICAL and ACSA compadre from Los Angeles USD.  (Thanks, John!)

In all seriousness, John recommended I consider a site called “Live Binders” in my review of sites for an article on the “Top 12 Internet Resources for 2012.”  My work as a coordinator in curriculum & instruction at the Santa Clara County Office of Education focuses on the visual and performing arts.  I took a look at Live Binders from the arts perspective. Hundreds of educational searches are possible on this site where random individuals have created and share online resources organized in digital “binders.”

I started with art and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this website!  More than 7,000 people had viewed specific binders of interest to me.  For example,  in one called “Art: Paint/Draw/Create Online,” organized by a teacher from the Chicago Public Schools, I quickly found enough content for a daylong workshop I was preparing on “the arts and technology.”

For an arts person, the options are endless!  Dozens and dozens of sites are shared where students, using only keyboard and mouse, can quickly get started in that kid-kind-of-way—without reading instructions.   Crayola Digi-Color is a great starting place, and Crayola is known for its kid/family/educator/everyone friendly website and resources so even the youngest of young can get onto this site and start drawing.  ScribbleTown and Magic Paint are easy to use sites that also let you print your creations.

The “More Ways to Create” section is fabulous and allows you to start into the realm of portraits, mosaics, tessellations, and more. PicassoHead provides great opportunities for using imagination and creativity, particularly for English learners.  Looking at LiteBrite, I longed to return to my childhood!   Matisse is another of my favorites, along with ThinkDraw, one that showcases recent student work and prompts thinking for those who need to see a concept before comfortably venturing out on their own.

What can I say? All this in just one binder.  Not looking for art resources?  Dozens of other binders exist.  In fact my next task is to check out the Live Binders on “common core.”  There are 74 of them!  What topic will you explore?

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Posted in Integration, Productivity, Professional development | 1 Comment »

What path innovation?”

October 12th, 2010 by Butch Owens

Are common standards and national tests the panacea for our nation’s woes?  Some seem to think so, but I’m not so sure.    Just last April I had the opportunity to hear Yong Zhao, author of Catching up or Leading the Way,  speak at our annual Leadership 3.0 Symposium.   He argues that while for years, politicians and the public have been looking for what is wrong with American education by constantly comparing the test scores of American students to those of students in such places as Russia, Japan, Singapore, and China, test scores don’t measure how well a country itself is doing. One striking example is how far America is ahead of all other countries in the number of patents issued; China, by contrast, is ahead in toy production.

The irony is that while we are busy trying to catch up with countries that have better test scores, those very countries are trying to emulate our educational system—or at least the one we used to have.  China, Korea, Japan and Singapore, for example, all have national initiatives to move their educational systems toward more local control, more autonomy, less emphasis on test scores determining a student’s or school’s future, and greater choices for the individual.  These are traditional characteristics of our system which have contributed to our success in turning out well rounded and innovative citizens.  And all of the latest literature argues that the ability to innovate is what we need in the future.

How would you judge an effective school?  Here are some top criteria on my list:

  • The number of  varied opportunities a student has beyond the core academics
  • The degree that students enjoy their school and feel they are important
  • Teacher behaviors that convey the expectation that all students can learn
  • Opportunities for students to progress at their own rate
  • Strong art and music programs and curricular activities that connect students to school

When you look back on your school days, is it the test scores that really motivated you to excel, or all of the opportunities you had to be an individual and find your own purpose and passion?

Take away those things that have enabled our system to produce the inventors and innovators of today and what will be left?  At best, a technically capable American engineer competing for the same job as an equally capable engineer from India who will do the job for $7500 a year.  A better alternative is an educational system that creates an American engineer with not only the technical skills but the imagination, innovation and creativity to design the new ideas that will need the $7500 a year engineer in India to help develop.

In an earlier post I wrote about what students really need to know and learn in school in this 21st century and ended with  the comment, “If it’s easy to test, it’s easy to digitize, and if it’s easy to digitize it can be done easily by a computer.”  What we really want are well rounded, innovative students prepared for a lifetime as productive, innovative citizens.  Will common standards and national tests ensure that outcome?

As you ponder that question, listen to Harry Chapin’s “Flowers Are Red“; how common do we want our standards to be?

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Mentoring for Creativity

July 18th, 2010 by Sandra Miller

21st century learning is exciting!  I feel like the chains of No Child Left Behind are beginning to loosen.   Hopefully, testing will begin to take a more appropriate role, and teachers will be free to teach in ways they know will serve their students well in the future.  Now, for those of us who are principals, a part of our job is to help teachers move toward new ways of working with students.

We know 21st century learning covers a wide list of skills, but one area that is particularly challenging is “creativity.” How do you explain to teachers what it means to  “mentor students to be creative” when you really aren’t sure yourself?

Daniel Pink has two books that focus on the 21st century.  A Whole New Mind (2005) is thought-provoking, a fast read, and could easily be used with teachers to learn about creativity.  Pink explains creativity, presents tools and exercises to examine our own creativity, and talks about developing “creativity skills.”

Pink also discusses the skills needed for jobs in the 21st century.  He says high paying jobs will require that workers use their creativeness.  Much traditional work—accounting is a typical example—will be taken over by computers or outsourced.  Creativity will be the requirement for better jobs.

In his newest book, Drive (2009), Pink predicts tomorrow’s workers will be motivated by autonomy, mastery, and purpose; workplace rewards that may have worked in the past are outdated.  As educators, we have known for years that these are powerful motivators for learning, as well.  And, in fact, much of the work of the future will be all about learning.

David Kelly offers a complementary perspective.  While his research has been in technology design, his current focus is design thinking in K-12 education.   He believes students need to learn skills, but that for 21st century work, the creative side of the brain needs intentional development, too.  “Design thinking is basically a methodology that allows people to have confidence in their creative ability,” states Kelly.  “Design thinking is ‘intuitive’ thinking, it unlocks the other side of the brain.”  Sharing Kelly’s ideas with teachers can help them become better “mentors of creativity” to their students.

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, and constraints lessen, it’s an exciting time share new ideas with your staff.  Pink and Kelly are a great place to start.

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Posted in Leadership, Pondering | No Comments »