As a follow up to the series Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students, I would like to crowdsource more samples of blog posts and comments for teachers to practice recognizing, evaluating and assessing various levels of quality work.

A meme might be a good way to get the ball rolling.

Wikipedia defines a Meme as:

A meme  is “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.

Quality Blogging and Commenting Audit Meme

In order to gather more audit samples from a large variety of age groups and authors, I challenge you to publish a blog post with a post or comment audit.

1. Select a blog post or blog comment to audit (Professional or Student)
2. Take a screenshot or copy and past the post or comment into your blog post (be sensitive whether you want to reveal any names or references)
3. Include or link to the rubric you use to assess the quality of post or comment
4. Audit the post or comment by describing your train of thought regarding the level of quality you would assess your chosen post or comment
5. Suggest how you would coach the author of audited post or comment to improve
6. Tag (at least) three educators and challenge them to audit a post or comment
7. Leave a comment with the link to your audit post on Langwitches

If you have not been tagged, please feel free to jump in, write and link your own audit blog post.

I am tagging Andrea Hernandez, Maggie Hos-McGrane, Nancy von Wahlde, Edna Sackson, Linda Yollis, Kathleen Morris, Kim Cofino

Looking forward to their quality blogging audits

Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as

The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means “across; through”, so a transliterate person is one who is literate across multiple media.

Ryan Nadel, in an interview on Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, defines transliteracy even further:

“The most fundamental notion of transliteracy is the ability to adapt. It’s creating a literacy and fluidity between mediums that’s not tied to space or modality.”

I agree with Ryan: Transliteracy is closely related to “fluency“:

• the ability to know when to use one media over another
• the ability to move effortlessly between media
• the ability to comprehend, build upon, and remix different kind of media
• the ability to relate, communicate and connect via multiple forms of media
• moving between media feels: intuitive, unconscious and smooth

Let me share a transliterate learning opportunity with you that I created (Art, iPads, QR codes, Language Arts and Digital Storytelling)  in collaboration with our Art teacher, Mrs. Gutterman and the 4th grade classroom teacher, Mrs. Teitelbaum?

During Art class, fourth graders adapted Vincent van Gogh’s chairs and placed things on and  around them that were important to them.

In Language Arts, students wrote a script, explaining their choices of what they drew and why it was important to them.

We all gathered in the library to record their script as an audio file on the iPad. We used the AudioMemos app (free) to record. Students then emailed the wav file to me.

1. I then converted the .wav files to mp3 files with Garageband, since I did not know if all mobile devices would play .wav files easily.
2. These files were then uploaded via FTP to our school’s server
3. I inserted the URL of each mp3 file into http://goo.gl
4. Clicked on “Details” to get to the generated QR code
5. Saved the QR codes as an image file

I inserted the images into a page and then printed the QR codes out for the Art teacher to attach them to the original art work.

Now anyone with a QR scanner on their Smartphone, iTouch or iPad walking by the art work, can scan and listen to the student artist’s audio reflection. The next step was to create a poster to catch the attention of the visitors and parents walking by and give a short explanation of what to do with the QR code

Skyping with students is great! They are learning…There is no doubt in my mind…!

Skyping Hub- Learning Hub

• I know…I see motivation in their eyes… I feel excitement in the air…I hear them say: “How cool”, “That was awesome” or “When are we skyping again?”.
• I  know… all about the different skills students are exposed to and are practicing while skyping.
• I know… that I am helping them learn differently than from a textbook.
• I know… that I am preparing them for a work environment where they are expected to collaborate with colleagues and teams who do not live in the same country, nor continent and operate in a different time zone.
• I know… that I am exposing them to a world, people and cultures beyond their horizon.
• I know… that I am broadening their perspectives, tolerance and  for someone who is different

…but… what about formal assessment and documentation of this kind of learning.

I enjoy helping other teachers get excited and comfortable using Skype as a tool to connect with other classrooms or experts around the world. I want to make it explicit, once again, that it is NOT about the tool, but about the skills and the learning.

In order to streamline the process of converting a Skype Call into a Learning Call and to make it more visual, I created the following images and handouts. Please feel free to use them in your own classroom.

You can download all of them as a pdf file here.

Credit for middle image “experience” by tombodor

A Skype call should never be done in isolation. We should not treat a video conference any different than a field trip. The actual experience should be framed by pre-activities that activate prior knowledge and post-activites that give students the opportunity to reflect, create and connect these new experiences.

Pre-Activities include:

• Familiarize with geographic location, language, culture, age group, etc.
• KWL Chart
• Information Literacy (locate)
• Google Earth (distance)
• Google Maps (Street view)
• Formulate questions
• Distribute job responsibilities for actual video conference experience

Pre-Activities Job Description:

Have students prepare for a call by filling out the handout below. You can easily ask them to formulate and share questions on your classroom blog as well.

Depending on the geographic location, have students “orientate” themselves to WHERE they will be connecting to by answering the following questions.

During the Call Activities include:

• Interview
• Q & A
• Image & Video recording
• Blog (summarize)
• Backchannel
• Data Collection
• Present
• Share

During Skype Call Job Description:

I have written several times about engaging students during a Skype call by given them specific jobs and responsibilities. You can listen to my 5th graders explaining each job a little more.

Once the Skype call has ended, it is important to help your students debrief and reflect on their experience. As their teacher you will want to assess in one shape or form the learning that occurred. Is skyping making a difference in their learning? Have they learned something that could not have been taught via a textbook? What was the engagement and motivational level of your students?

Here are some ideas on how to help your students reflect on their Skype experience and help you assess their learning. Give students choices on how to debrief by offering or alternating using different media.

Post-Call Activities include:

• Informal assessment: debrief right after the Skype call. Have students talk about what just happened. Read the backchannel log out loud and collaboratively add anything that was not documented.
• Information Literacy (evaluate, analyze, categorize data collected)
• Create documentary (video clip) from video clips taken during the Skype call
• Create Photo Slideshow of images taken during the Skype call
• Write reflective blog posts
• (Paper & Pencil) Journal entries: Give students prompts
• Create a Video recording from your debriefing session
• Audio podcasting
• Embed images and video into blog post
• Share with parents (informal at home) or host a parent presentation session at school
• Present to larger audience (entire school, community, conference)

Post-Activities Job Description:

Take a  peek into a debriefing session after a Skype Call from a third grade class.

What are some of the activities you do to frame a video conference experience for your students? How do you document and assess the learning taking place with video conferencing?

IMPORTANT!

It is important that we start documenting and assessing student learning (formally and informally) from 21st Century tools.  Most assessments are not designed to take new forms of learning into consideration. The more data and documentation we have, the more we can move towards a new kind of “testing and assessing“.

Please contribute by asking your students to take the following survey about their learning via Skype. Once you have had your students take the survey, please e-mail me , so I can share the results with you.

Please disseminate the link to the survey in your own PLN by blogging or tweeting about it.

English ~ Español ~ Deutsch

image licensed under CC by "Boogies With Fish"

Digital Portfolios have intrigued me for a while. I had a preconceived notion about what a portfolio was, an accumulation of work that demonstrated accomplishments, an analogy to a photographer’s photo album which showcased his best images…

Here are two other blog posts I have written about Digital Portfolios:

• Moving to Digital Student Portfolios
• Digital Teaching Portfolios

Web 2.0 Cloud

The digital part of the term “Digital Portfolio” was the most interesting part for me, since it meant I could implement and use all the different technology tools to create, organize and embed these accomplishments in a central location somewhere  in the “cloud”.

Artifact Accumulation

The digital part was fascinating, because it meant a portfolio was accessible anytime and anywhere compared to the traditional paper portfolios that were more physical and static in nature.

What I had not wrapped my mind around yet was the “reflection” part of portfolio equation. A Digital portfolio is according to Dr. Helen Barrett a combination of

Process & Product

Part of that process includes the important reflection part.

David Niguidula, in his chapter “Digital Portfolios and Curriculum Maps” of the book Curriculum21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs (ASCD, 2010) says:

The process of collecting, selecting, and reflecting on the work in a portfolio is what makes it powerful. The portfolio is a representation of what students know and are able to do, and the opportunity to present that work to an audience of peers, parents, and teachers shows that the world can take the students’ work seriously.

Chrissy Hellyer, a 21st Century Learning Coach and former 5th grade teacher at the International School of Bangkok, is in my opinion one of the pioneers of digging deep into using digital portfolios with her elementary school students. Her blog posts Journey into the World of E-Portfolios and step-by-step guide to Using VoiceThread as a Digital Portfolio are an invaluable resource. I based the following visual on her Portfolio Prompts for Elementary School students.

Valuable resources I have looked at along the way:

• Dr. Helen Barrett’s Electronic Portfolio Site
• “Digital Portfolios and Curriculum Mapping” Chapter in Curriculum21 (Heidi Hayes Jacobs, ASCD, 2010) by David Niguidula
• EchicaELearning (Wiki)
• Jeff Utecht’s  Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios PDF (.pdf)
• Primary Reflection Forms (GoogleDocs Document)
• Chrissy Hellyer’s Portfolio Prompts (Elementary School)

Here are the visuals I created that help me make sense of what I am learning. They are based on the work, resources and presentations mentioned above who helped me construct my own understanding.

Digital Portfolios as a Story of Learning

A transcript shows letters & numbers, a portfolio shows knowledge and achievement.

There are three levels of Digital Portfolios:

Three Levels of Developing a Digital Portfolio

Tools to Create Digital Portfolios

Media used to create and include Artifacts

Dr. Helen Barrett, dubbed as the grandmother of E-Portfolios by some, gave an inspiring presentation at the American School of Bombay about the blending of Social Media and E-Portfolios (see video below) . You cannot conduct research about e-portfolios without running into Dr. Barrett’s name and work. Especially her Electronic Portfolio Site is a gold mine of resources and information.

Another audio recording of one of Dr. Barrett’s presentation on “Balancing The Two Faces of E-Portfolios.

Brian’s TRT Blog picked up one of my blog posts from Educon’s session Taking.Play.Seriously. Brian has only a very short response to this:

So, would more play produce more creativity which would result in higher test scores? Hmmmm………

That “Hmmmm” sparked the following comment from me:

That is exactly what I am pondering as well. How can we have the same assessments (standardized tests) to measure “learning” if we want to encourage creativity? Why would schools/teachers change the way they have taught for years, if they are seeing results in their test scores? Why would curriculum change to prepare students for THEIR future if the assessment of the present will not measure nor value these skills?

All this seems to connect well with the book “Curriculum21“  by Heidi Hayes Jacobs that I am currently reading. Heidi advocates that change growth in schools should start with upgrading assessment. Now this makes sense to me. We can’t ask teachers to change grow in their teaching, but continue to expect them to evaluate students with the same types of assessments as they did 50 years ago.

Wikipedia defines educational assessments as:

the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs.

Since we don’t want/can’t overwhelm teacher by asking them to CHANGE everything at once

Curriculum Decisions

Heidi challenges teachers to a 21st Century Pledge by taking one “traditional” assessment and replacing it with a new kind of assessment. Those new kinds of assessments include:

Documentaries

Podcast

CAD projections

Web sites

E-mail exchanges

Digital music compositions

Webcasts from live sites

Online Journals

Films

Online courses

Video podcasts

Screenplays

Quarterly e-reports

Video conferences

Second Life simulations

Blogs

Note: I am not sure of the difference between an online journal and a blog?

I would add the following to her list of possible assessment replacements:

• Wikis (information depository & collaborative work)
• VocieThreads
• Tutorials

What would YOU add to this list of assessments which could measure more accurately skills of the 21st century?

I am guest blogging on My Wonderful World Blog (National Geographic Education Foundation) in honor of Geography Awareness Week 2009 the week of November 15 – 21!

This year’s theme is “Get Lost in Mapping: Find Your Place in the World”.

I wanted to share a successful geography lesson that continues to grow throughout the school year.  I have blogged about the  News Events Assignments with a Twitst and The Logistics of creating a Current News Events Google Map previously.

The lesson was born out of a very traditional  “Current Events Assignment”, handed in to the teacher on paper, which had been part of the curriculum for years.

The Middle School Social Studies teacher at my school (Martin J.Gottlieb Day School) was not satisfied with the paper and pencil assignment and was looking to bring the old and tried task into the 21st century. She wanted students to not merely be looking up random and disconnected news events that were handed in to her on a weekly basis. She wanted students to be really making connections among these events by involving higher level thinking skills such as evaluating, analyzing and creating. The new assignment was to not only involve geography skills, but also bring into the lesson information literacy and global awareness.

We decided to create a collaborative map for each grade level (6th, 7th, and 8th grade) with Google Maps. Each student was assigned a different colored or shaped placemark within Google Maps . They were also given the class username and password to be able to log in from home.

Their weekly “Current News Events” assignment now consisted in:

• Logging into their grade level map
• Placing a placemark on the location the news event had taken place
• Entering the location’s country as the title of the placemark
• Using the description box to add a category the news article was falling under (Ex. politics, environment, entertainment, etc.)
• The source link to the original news article or citation if from a paper newspaper
• A summary of the article. Preferably in 140 characters or less.

Since the start of the assignment,  several weeks have passed and new lessons have been learned, input from educators around the world received and new dimensions to the lesson have crystallized themselves.

As more news events are added,  we are asking questions such as:

• In what category do most news events we added fall?
  
• In what continents and countries are these news items in?
  
• What area of the world do we know or hear the most or least about? Why?
  
• How can we expand our horizon to cover more areas of the globe?

It has been good to observe that students are branching out in their search for sources. They are reading newspapers from different locations around the world, such as the UK, Australia, and Japan.

They are realizing that:

• different sources bring different points of view, opinions and kinds of news items.
• not all perspectives are represented in one source
• to get a “fuller” picture of a news event, you have to look at more than one source
• location of a source influences the content and perspective of the article

We  are asking ourselves:

• What does it mean if the majority of our sources are US based by coming from CNN.com and Foxnews.com?
• How are other countries affected by events happening in different countries or continents?
• What is ( or is there) a difference in terms of validity of news when the source is BBC or Comedy Central?

Each week students, after they have entered their news event, present the location and summary of their placemark to the class on the SmartBoard.

As students present their news event, other students are working with their laptops at their desk and are editing their peer’s placemark. They are becoming collaborators and critical thinkers  by validating and cross-referencing sources, asking for clarifications if the summary was not understood and making suggestions to where to place the placemark best.  As Mrs. R., their teacher said:

In previous “Current News Events” assignment, there was never an element of self- and collaborative checking of their work. Students handed in their news event and summary on a paper. I was the only one reading it.  The collaborative web based map has brought a new dimension of deeper thinking.

Why are students motivated to go over and check their own and classmate’s work?

Students are aware that their Google Maps of Current Events have been viewed by over 10,000  people (all three maps combined). Over 20 comments have been left by others from far away countries such as Israel, Australia and Korea, leaving students with a sense of pride and that what they do in class matters. Other teachers are using their maps as examples to teach their students. Commenters have:

• asked students to add source links to the original articles
• requested that we double check location placemarks
• challenged students about the “worthiness” of adding articles in the entertainment category
• encouraged students to look for patterns about their news event locations
• shared links to images about a news event

As the Social Studies teacher and I reflect on this weekly task, we want to continue to add new elements and enter into additional phases of the assignment in order to prevent it from becoming routine or just another thing to do for the students.

We are contemplating:

• To give students a broad topic and asking them to find relevant news sources, representative of different countries? Is there a difference in the “facts” that are reported or omitted depending on location? What is their “take” on a specific event?
• Ask students to come up with a world news topic, add their opinion and take on the subject, then ask others around the world to contribute their unique perspective to that topic.
• Have students analyze responses from different locations around the world and consider responses on basis of geography.

What are your thoughts and ideas how to expand, develop and create even more facets to this assignment?

Take a look at the GoogleMaps at and leave a comment for our 6th graders, 7th graders and 8th graders.

Note: There is an email link embedded within this post, please visit this post to email it. Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Special thanks to

• Kim Cofino and her inspirational presentations http://www.slideshare.net/mscofino/
  • The 21st Century Classroom
  • The 21st Century Learner
• Professional Development Components for Change created from table found on Educational Origami Wiki
• Think about it…Willing to learn vs. waiting to be taught. Based on a Steven Kimmi’s blog post :”Taught versus learn, a distinguishing factor”
• The Networked Teacher based on Alec Courosa’s graphic

The more I try to re-focus my thoughts on the struggle of shifting schools and teaching in the 21st century, the more I examine EVERYTHING that has stayed the same in schools. What about classrooms? What about desks in rows? What about teachers at the front of the class? What about homework?

Whether to assign homework and HOW much homework is a controversial issue among teachers, parents AND  students that has been around for a long time.

The Canadian Report: A systematic review of literature examining the impact of homework on academic achievement states:

The impact of homework on students is a contested and polarizing issue. Gill and Schlossman (2004) examined the history of homework in the United States and found that a homework debate had begun as early as the 19th century.

I am not here to convince you to start assigning homework or to stop giving homework to your students.

I am wondering about the impact and benefit  homework has or does not have on student learning (not student achievement on high stakes testing) and  aiding them in becoming life long learners?

I want to make it clear that I do not mean the kind of homework where:

• students figure out content that teacher did not have time to “cover” during school hours
• students do busy work to demonstrate to their parents and school administration that they are doing “something”
• students hand in meaningless (to them) assignments that allow their teachers to have enough grades in their gradebook to “justify” a grade at the end of the quarter/semester/year.
• parents expect homework and see the lack of it as an a lack in academic instruction
• parents doing homework for their children in order to have a “better” project than their classmates.
• parents doing homework for their children because they are too frustrated or stressed out to complete it themselves.

An article Homework only Helps older Students from TheStar.com, a newspaper from Toronto, Canada talks about the above mentioned report from the Canadian Council on Learning  ( Full Report 2009). It mentions the relationship between homework AND learning:

• Homework is of little benefit to elementary school students but can be useful for older students as long as it is not simply rote learning
• Among the new rules: Homework should only cover materials taught in class and consist of “clear, purposeful and engaging activities

I send out a tweet to my Twitter network and received the following responses for links to posts, articles and books that deal with the issue.

While reading these articles, there is an overwhelming sentiment that homework assignments are mostly meaningless, busy work, and take time away from “just being a kid”.

Homework in the 21st century: the antiquated and ineffectual implementation of a time honored educational strategy by Joseph S.C. Simplicio

Although the practice of assigning homework on a daily basis has been deemed academically sound by most in the educational community, on the opposing side, many parents with children in grades ranging from kindergarten through college argue that students are expected to spend too much of their out of school time completing homework assignments that are often redundant and meaningless.

In a New York Times article, The Kindergarten Cram, the author Peggie Orenstein draws a connection to Daniel Pink (author of The Whole New Mind)  and his view on what kind of skills we really need to prepare ourselves for in order to succeed in the 21st century. The questions lingers, if traditional homework, that most often is assigned to “practice” and drill what was taught (covered) during classroom time, is really helpful to support skills that Pink is advocating.

Thinkers like Daniel Pink have proposed that this country’s continued viability hinges on what is known as the “imagination economy”: qualities like versatility, creativity, vision — and playfulness — that cannot be outsourced.

Alfie Kohn in The Truth about Homework makes the point that homework might be used for certain skills that need to be become automated, but not to create understanding.

The widely held belief that homework “reinforces” the skills that students have learned – or, rather, have been taught — in class.  But what exactly does this mean?  It wouldn’t make sense to say “Keep practicing until you understand” because practicing doesn’t create understanding – just as giving kids a deadline doesn’t teach time-management skills.  What might make sense is to say “Keep practicing until what you’re doing becomes automatic.

Alfie Kohn also notes that

Children cannot be made to acquire skills.  They aren’t vending machines such that we put in more homework and get out more learning.

Teachers and Homework by Stephen Carr talks about homework as enrichment and calls for a commitment to quality and time appropriate homework:

Think enrichment. Think if not loving, at least enjoying learning. Make homework a task that has some worth. Some value to a student’s life. Never, ever should it be busy work. Assigning 50 problems to complete at home is worthless.

So, after diving into some of the polemic involved with homework in our schools, I am curious to understand how schools and teachers individually are becoming aware, discuss, reflect and struggle with a shift in a homework policy that 21st century learning demands? Or is it a component that stands strong and unaltered by the winds of time?

Here are some questions that I feel would bring awareness and start a conversation among homework policy stakeholders  in our schools.

• Is homework an antiquated practice that has no place in the 21st century? Is it a practice that needs to evolve?
• Is homework an effective method for reinforcing educational learning goals?
• Is homework improving learning for students?
• Who is actually doing the homework?
• Is every homework assignment meaningful?

What would be some of your questions to stimulate discussion about homework policy in your next faculty meeting?

Image used with permission. Copyright K. Tuck at www.sxc.hu

I loved this image, as soon as I saw it. Does it not scream “REFLECTION” at you? In addition, it reminds me that in order to come full circle in a project, we can’t just let it fizzle out when the last word is written or the last sentence recorded. We need to give our students, the teachers and ourselves a moment to reflect on what was just created.

To come full circle is defined as an idiom in Wiktionary:

To make a complete change or reform.

I can’t forget to take the time to do that for my own learning too.

image by renedepaula

What have I learned from working with teachers and students on their Science podcast project?

• There needs to be an authentic reason for students to do the project.
• Make it age-appropriate real to students
  • In this project, telling students that they will be the voice coming from someone’s iPod into their ears, made the difference for them to understand that it was real. They were able to imagine that vision in their head.
• I was able to confirm that the technology tools takes the “least” amount of time and effort for students to learn.The academic skills and the content are the ones that they struggle with. The tools are helping them reinforce, practice and refine these skills.
• It shows in student work when the teacher has no invested interest in the project
• Some teacher are still viewing a “technology” project as something unrelated to their curriculum.
• The connection between the work done in the lab and preparation in the classroom is more important than ever. It is very apparent which students have been prepared ahead of time. There is a significant difference in the quality of work produced. A tremendous amount of time is spent in the precious few minutes a week in the lab by going over content instructions which could easily be accomplished in the classroom.
• Some students are natural “radio personalities”, by reigning them in and reminding them to concentrate on content, they are capable of producing INCREDIBLE work
• There have to be clear expectations for each student to complete a certain task each meeting…but…it is  important to not rush through recording and simply “getting it done”.
• It is even more important to give students a chance to listen to, reflect upon and see the completed project. Their recording is but a smaller piece of the whole podcast. They need to have the opportunity to see/hear it as such.
• There needs to be a continues connection made for students, not simply “let’s start a new project today”. Continue to connect to this experience and learning in future projects.