Notes from Millie D

Today I surprised my wife and got her a Nintendo DS web browser to thank her for her support this summer while dealing with my accident. Earlier in the week I had watched a session for the K12 Online Conference from Steve Dembo called Mobile Learning. Steve mentioned that in Japan children were using Nintendo DS’s as a wifi web browser and he stated that is was coming to the states in 2007. After the session was over I did a Google search and found out that it was available. I went down to BestBuy and purchased a card about the size of normal GameBoy Advance cartridge. In a short amount of time my wife (not me) got the machine up and running. She let me borrow it for a couple of minutes to put it through the paces. Here are some pictures for your review…

I’ve try to give you some different things to look at: Picture 1-Gmail Picture 2-My School’s Website Picture 3-Wikipedia entry on the State of Maine Picture 4-Showing the Keyboard Picture 5-flickr pictures. The browser is an open-source title called Opera. I’ve haven’t tried it on a desktop but it resized things on a mobile device pretty well.

For about $30 you can turn a personal entertainment device into a personal web device. Will it be useful as a 1-to-1 solution? NO, but if you need something to look up this better than nothing. The speed wasn’t too bad either.

Who knew a disruptive device could be this educational?

Technorati Tags: NintendoDS opera teach42 k12onlineconference

I just read the K12 Online Conference 2007 listing of presenters and there will be a “Maine” presence.  The folks at Seedlings at Bit by Bit (Bob, Alice, and Cheryl) will be presenting a session on “Flat Agents of Change”, Cheryl will also be presenting with the WOW2, and Sharon Betts will be presenting a session called “Oodles of Googles”.  Congrats to them and all of the other presentators at this year’s conference.  

It was refreshing to listen to this vodcast from the Red Bank Elementary School as my final reflection session of the K12 Online Conference.  Refreshing because I listened to people in the trenches who not only had the vision of how technology could change their teaching but actually put it together.  One of the pieces that I thought that helped their project was the fact that the resources were well thought out and planned out.  Issues were not dealt with in a knee jerk reaction and their impact went beyond their classroom to include their school, district, and now on a global stage.
 

Staff development versus the equipment which one comes first, boy this sounds like the chicken and egg debate.  I agree with the folks from Red Bank Elementary that it has to happen simultaneously.  The two items are not in isolation of each other but work in conjunction with each other.  Strong staff development will always pay dividends for everyone involved.

I enjoyed hearing that their goal was not to do all of the old things in their teaching with new equipment but to change what they do as well as how they do it.  Putting a new paint job on a junk car doesn’t change the issues with the car that made it junk in the first place.  These teachers get the concept of 21^st Century teaching. Now if we could bottle up their experiences and spread it around the globe then we might have something that Dewey might be proud of within education.

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I just completed listening to the session entitled Internet Access with Minimal Filtering by Shawn Nutting for the K12 Online Conference.  Shawn’s presentation covered the obstacles of Internet content filtering from the network administration side. Shawn made it very clear that content filtering is not something they take lightly.

Delivering digital content in a safe environment is the commonality for all teachers who utilize the Internet in their classroom.  The idea of filtering seems to be a hot button topic in a battle between network managers and classroom teachers.  Each group feels that it is working for the best interest of children but often the two parties don’t understand the perspective of the other one.

I would love to work in an environment that allows filtering to be done on a teacher-by-teacher basis where based on a criteria the potential to be able to unlock.  Accountability and professional development I feel are keys to this kind of digital environment.  Teachers need to know that if they are going to be held accountable for their actions, as they are entrusted with the well being of children.  The professional development would help teachers in the decision making process and provide a greater understanding of what network administrators go through.  Unfortunately this may be a pipe dream as two factors get in the way:  1. the product-is it out there   2.  the cost- if it is over there it certainly won’t be inexpensive to implement.  Hey, we can dream can’t we!

Parent education is a big part of content filtering.  Often parents think we’re able to block everything for everyone but unfortunately that is not the case but I agree with Shawn that if you can educate parents on the steps that schools put in place to keep children safe parents can be forgiving when holes are exposed.  I like all of the community relations work that Shawn and staff does to keep everyone up to date with the goings on at the school with technology.  We’re all in this together and we’re only as strong as the weakest link in overcoming this obstacle.

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I just finished watching Brandi Caldwell’s session for the K12 Online Conference, Trash to Treasures:  Creating Your Own Computer Lab.  I could sympathize with her situation.  When I first came to my classroom I had 9 year old desktop computers and other “donated” computers that were in some cases being held together with duct tape running on 4 different operating systems.  I spent more time troubleshooting that educating.  I laid the line with my principal and fortunately I asked at the right time and district leased a new lab of computers.  If that hadn’t occurred I probably would have faced the same situation as Brandi of piecing together a new computer lab.

I feel that we are on the verge of a Linux revolution in education.  The licensing costs that go with Microsoft and Apple are strangling IT budgets in schools.  With Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs and Spreadsheet, Zoho, and other Open Source software out there things are becoming less platform specific leading people to the discovery of operating systems like Edubuntu.  Especially when as Brandi found out can run on “older” equipment.  I look how the last 2 years Linux systems starting to show up in schools as well as the OLPC project adopting Linux as their operating system that it will become a real solution for schools who can’t or don’t want to pay for Microsoft’s or Apple’s operating systems.

If you haven’t given Linux a try I strongly suggest you try a Live CD (to test it out without installing anything) from Edubuntu or OLPC.  Who knows you might like enough to consider switching.

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John Pearce’s session of K12 Online Conference was one that I went into blindly but I really enjoyed it on many different levels.  I could really relate to the process he went through because I’ve gone through some of the same struggles that he did this year trying to establish Web 2.0 tools in an elementary classroom setting.  I found that setting up the system was like aligning the stars, difficult because of all of the little pieces involved some of which I could control but other parts we out of my control and I had to put faith in others delivering but the end results was going to be worth it.  There are so many small but very important details that you run into that don’t come out in the idea stage.  I appreciated hearing how John didn’t let the challenges or obstacles get in the way of the overall goal.

It certainly sounds like John spent a lot of time getting all of this set up but the documentation of the process is excellent.  If anyone I know who is thinking about adopting these tools in their classroom I will point them to this presentation to show what they will go through so they can be realistic about the process.

I love the concept of Terry the Tennis Ball!  I’ve got to use this in my classroom, what a simple but effective concept. 

I’m curious what did service did John use for email for his students. 

One of the unique features that I got from this session is the idea of seeking the students’ input or reflection on the learning process using the technology.  This is one of those ways we can document the learning process and student achievement without using testing results.  The survey that John used was very simple and could be very adaptable for students in many different elementary grade levels..  Very often the children can be the best sounding board about what works in the classroom.

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Anne’s keynote address during the K12 Online Conference definitely wasn’t preaching to the choir or what I call a “teachers’ room mentality” where we spin our wheels talking about the obstacles and how we should overcome them but nobody does anything to solve.  I liked the fact that Anne took those obstacles and remixed them into action steps for people follow.  I need to take some time to potential look at the obstacles I face at work and try to remix them into opportunities because change is good thing.

I know that I need to do a better job putting together the action side to overcoming obstacles because I can make a difference.  Earlier this year I put together an innovative teaching group in my school (voluntary basis) with the hook that they would get their own laptop.  One of the goals of the group was to use technology to change what they do in their classroom.  I got 90% of the teachers involved, even the ones I would have considered technophobic.  Now I’m working with teachers who are more receptive because I got around the barrier of modern technology in their hands.  I’ve got to take that success and expand on it.

I’ve struggled in what to do with the technophobic who don’t want to take on technology in their classroom.  My struggles probably have to do with the idea that my investment of time probably would yield the greatest results when compared to the time spent with those who “get it” and “want to get it”.  I haven’t thought about trying to remix the obstacle to yield results.

It seems that we can get caught up in the negative mode to never see the opportunities when they present themselves.  We need to take the time to step back and attempt to look objectively at the obstacles to see how we can remix them into opportunities.  Thank you Anne for making me look at work from a different perspective.

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This was an interested session as it highlighted the development of lesson sharing towards a system for online curriculum sharing.  I will admit I’ve used many of the sources that Rob and Kevin highlight during their session.  I’ve faced a lot of the same frustration that there wasn’t a system as simple to use as Google but offer the all of the Web 2.0 goodness that YouTube contains when it comes to lesson plans.  I hope teachforward.org provides the right mixture.

I would have to agree with the challenges that go into developing this type of environment.  They’ve definitely put a lot of thought and insight into coming up for solutions for these challenges.  I particularly like the concept that licensing could be an issue (aka teachers pay teachers) but if we could adopt the creative common licensing we can adapt lesson and move forward where the children we work with win!  Isn’t that what the purpose of having lesson available online anyway?

It would be interesting, if there were a tool that combines all of the features that Rob and Kevin were looking for, to see if it would be blocked in schools.  Initially TeacherTube was blocked because of the “video” nature of the site and it was too similar to YouTube.    I understand the administrators’ perspective that they’re CYA (that would be calling your attorney) by blocking it and having people prove the worthiness of the site being unblocked but our students are being taught that something new is considered dangerous.  Unfortunately by the time these sites get unblocked the educational value can be lost and unrecoverable.

Update:  I just went to check out their site and noticed that it links to curriki.org.  I would be curious what happened or how their work evolved.

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This was an interested session as it highlighted the development of lesson sharing towards a system for online curriculum sharing.  I will admit I’ve used many of the sources that Rob and Kevin highlight during their session.  I’ve faced a lot of the same frustration that there wasn’t a system as simple to use as Google but offer the all of the Web 2.0 goodness that YouTube contains when it comes to lesson plans.  I hope teachforward.org provides the right mixture.

I would have to agree with the challenges that go into developing this type of environment.  They’ve definitely put a lot of thought and insight into coming up for solutions for these challenges.  I particularly like the concept that licensing could be an issue (aka teachers pay teachers) but if we could adopt the creative common licensing we can adapt lesson and move forward where the children we work with win!  Isn’t that what the purpose of having lesson available online anyway?

It would be interesting, if there were a tool that combines all of the features that Rob and Kevin were looking for, to see if it would be blocked in schools.  Initially TeacherTube was blocked because of the “video” nature of the site and it was too similar to YouTube.    I understand the administrators’ perspective that they’re CYA (that would be calling your attorney) by blocking it and having people prove the worthiness of the site being unblocked but our students are being taught that something new is considered dangerous.  Unfortunately by the time these sites get unblocked the educational value can be lost and unrecoverable.

Update:  I just went to check out their site and noticed that it links to curriki.org.  I would be curious what happened or how their work evolved.

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This is one of the more forward thinking sessions that I’ve listened/watched/or read in this K12 Online Conference because it addresses this concept “School 2.0″ that some people have heard but it hasn’t trickled down to the mainstream within education.  I was struck by the fact that when the folks at SLA were asked to define “School 2.0″ no one had the same basic definition.  None of the definitions were wrong but address a common theme, the need for change.  The Industrial Age version of technology is not going to cut it any more.  To me “School 2.0” is a developing theory that will eventually produce the type of citizens we need in the 21^st Century or flattened world (depending on your outlook). 

I totally agree that “School 2.0” does not mean more technology in the classroom.  I feel “School 2.0” means a more effective use of technology to push student achievement.  As Chris mentions in the vodcast, there are certain skills that are necessary to become literate like critically evaluating content for bias and validity.  This is a skill set that needs to be reinforced in all classrooms just like writing skills.

One concept that I felt that was missing in the presentation was the role of teachers as learners and letting the students becoming “content experts”.  One of the things that I’ve seen in middle school education in Maine is the idea of teachers checking their egos and allow the children to teach the teacher.  This mentality has truly changed the way teachers teach, students learn, and how the technology becomes ubiquitous. 

This is definitely a conversation that is not going away anytime soon.  We just need people to get in conversation and stay to help make the change.  Our future is going to need it! 

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