In the lovely little Acadian village of Tracadie, New Brunswick today with the couple of dozen provincial technology mentors for our regular get together. This day will be spent training on SMART products, primarily SMART Boards and Notebook Software.

This morning we were given a brief splash of SMART’s newest product, the Senteo Interactive Response System by SMART rep Michael Ward. While SMART Boards continue to take schools by storm, SMART is also quickly developing a number of other tools that can have an impact in the classroom.

The Senteo system is certainly easy enough. It allows for teachers to manage their classroom, with the primary purpose to receive fedback from students on learning as instruction progresses. Quizzes can be pre-designed and developed or quickly done on the fly.

It certainly does look like an interesting tool, although I do have some concerns about the lower-level understandings it tends towards. Multiple choice and true/false quizzes may give a quick and dirty measure of group capture, but the trick will be to get teachers to move beyond this level of assessment.

Success in the 21st century will demand that students know more than content. Some of SMART’s other products lend themselves much more to higher level, creativity-based learning. All in all, a nice tool as a start, but we really need to move teachers and students into more higher-level learning.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology, Senteo, SMART Technologies

Will Richardson reports on Thursday’s sweep for phones and other electronic devices at a New York City middle school. As reported by the NY Times, police and school administrators set up metal detectors and confiscated “404 cellphones, 69 iPods, 23 other electronic devices, two knives and one imitation gun”.

I have so many ideas here I am not even sure where to start. First of all, with the recent events at the high school I work with, guns and knives (even imitation ones) have absolutely NO place in our schools. Any attempts to remove them receive nothing but applause from this corner. However, are we to include iPods and cell phones in the same category with these dangerous weapons?

As Will writes

What does this teach those kids? First, it teaches them that they don’t deserve to be empowered with technology the same way adults are. Second, that the tools that adults use all the time in their everyday lives to communicate are not relevant to their own communication needs. Third, that they can’t be trusted (or taught, for that matter) to use phones appropriately in school.

These devices ca, and are, used for pedagogical value by innovative teachers. In Japan and Europe (where cell phones are even more prevalent that here!), many secondary schools are using cell technology to communicate and share between students and teachers, mainly through texting and phone-based blogging.

And many universities are also in on the gig. Duke University issues every student an iPod, where lecture notes, podcasts and other information is available – anytime, anywhere.

I understand that a few students have used this technology irresponsibly. Baiting teachers until they react and then posting the result on YouTube is certainly not acceptable behavior, but the key here is education, not filters. How do we expect young people to not to use this technology in innappropriate ways in the adult workplace if they don’t learn as young people.

As educators, we have accepted the challenge of preparing our students not just to be the workers of tomorrow, but citizens of a changing, and increasingly transparent, society. This is part of the deal we signed up for.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology

A couple of teachers have recently been starting some conversations about the role that video games might play in the future of learning. In fact, our shop teacher has been in discussions with a game designer at a local military training base to design a game to virtually (and safely) teach students about using some of the finger-chomping machines in our woodshop. The military is increasingly using virtual worlds to train soldiers.

Now comes Canada – The New World. I read about it last week in our local newspaper, and saw it again in David Warlick‘s blog. It’s a new video game based on award-winning, best-seller Sid Meier’s Civilization III game.

The game allows participants to play their way through Canadian history as the English, the French or as a mamber of the First Nations. The real catch is that the game allows participants to make decisions of who to join forces with, where to fight or retreat or where to explore next. This is real partipatory history!

The game can be downloaded for free for those who already have Civilization III.
Add this to the growing list of virtual spaces that are emerging that hold huge potential as engaging learning tools…Just think where this could fit in our “softer” schools.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology, HistoriCanada, Canada

I sometimes hear from educators and parents who argue that technology is little more than a distraction and that the cyber world is simply not “real”. Well, another nail in the coffin of their arguments as Sweden announced this week that they are opening a virtual embassy in Second Life.

Many commercial entities, including car companies, lawyers and various other professionals and other enterprises have set up operations in the virtual world run by Linden Labs out of San Francisco, which now counts almost 7 million residents – each represented by a virtual entity called an avitar. For a basic introduction to Second Life see here.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/b72CvvMuD6Q" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Sweden’s announcement brings yet another level of legitimacy to the worlds of cyberspace. While the Second House of Sweden will not initially issue passports or other documentation, can those services be far behind?

Now that both the private and public sectors have bought in to the shift, how long can education hold out? What could virtual spaces offer to our schools? Virtual, collaborative workspaces? How might these tools further the development of distance education? The possibilities are almost unimaginable.

With the virtual delivery in Second Life of a section of a law course at Harvard University already completed, what might be next? Are we ready and open to the possibilities to “soften” the walls of our classrooms?

Bring it on!

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology, secondlife

I really like the discussions taking place on Jeff Utecht’s and Clarence Fisher‘s blogs where they (and others) are discussing the value of teaching how to use specific proprietary software packages versus allowing students to find whatever works for their specific need.

I am a technology mentor, but consider myself a “classroom” teacher (although I am beginning to redefine the word classroom). My role is to help teachers find ways to utilize the technology to benefit student learning. This may seem simple, but it often involves nudging (forcing?) change in the way teacher’s “teach” and student “learn”.

A recent example of what Jeff and Clarence are discussing. I had a classroom teacher who wanted to do a Social Studies project in French who asked me for some advice/assistance. She wanted to use PowerPoint as a platform for a final project presentation. Frankly, I have been PowerPointed to death the past three years. In fact, I think most of this type of software is limiting and stifles creativity.

Instead, I encouraged her to give her students the opportunity to use whatever tools they might choose. These might include on board software or web 2.0 tools. I gave them a few examples. What is resulting (the project is still underway) is nothing short of amazing. Some students are staying with traditional platforms, others are blowing me away! SIMS movies, web pages (piczo et al), videos edited on-line…you name it! It’s been amazing to see the variety (an education for the students in and of itself) and quality (the result of student choice and buy-in).

So…do we need proprietary software. No. If it’s available, allow students to use it, if not, no biggie!

What students really need is permission. Permission to create. Permission to step out. Permission to learn.

As you may recall, students in two of our Grade 8 classes were engaged with students from Grand Manan Community School in an blog-based novel study last fall of Flu Shot, the first offering from local author Dr. Kendrick Lacey. Dr. Lacey was an active participant in the study, engaging the students in an on-going conversation that tore down the walls of the classroom.

The original encounter was so engaging for the students and the author alike that they both clamoured for more. Well…more is underway.

Last week the classes began Dr. Lacey’s second book, Two Island Light. Again, the author has been kind to offer of his time to share with the students. This is a different book, more complex. It is, however, capturing the interest of the students – the first chapter opens with a violent prison fight! It is also set on Grand Manan Island, of particular interest to the students at GMCS.

It also gives me a connection back to the classroom. For a couple of reasons (availability of copies of the book and to filter some of the adult language on the fly) I am reading the book to the kids – even Grade 8 students love to be read to! To be able to get into a class – even for a few minutes a day – on a regular basis and connect with the kids is refreshing.

You can check out the Two Island Light blog.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology

It’s early…I am sitting in the cafeteria at the high school I work with. Teachers are beginning to arrive, but it’s not the familiar faces I am used to seeing. Also, there will be no students here today, except for those few who have volunteered to be gophers and tech crew.

Today is Middle Level Council, where all the middle school teachers in the province (over 1500 of them!) gather together for a professional development day. They will share stories and attend a variety of sessions. The high school teachers meet in another location, the elementary teachers yet another. It is all kind of exciting, but I am still a bit disappointed.

Despite the resounding success and buzz surrounding the Literacy and Learning Conference just over a month ago, the sessions planned for today lack a real focus on 21st century visions. A quick perusal of the program shows only a handful of the almost 100 sessions with any focus on technology, and only three have a focus on web 2.0 – and two of those are led my me!

It is slightly disappointing that – in a province where every teacher has been given a laptop, over 30 schools are piloting 1:1 and most schools have wireless – the role of technology in redefining the way we learn has not been highlighted more. I can’t blame the organizers because teachers defined the agenda by offering their expertise.

I guess we still have a ways to go to refocus the conversations. Maybe I’ll be suprised today and other conversations will erupt.

Technorati tags: education, teaching, technology