Big risks = big rewards as a class website is launched

In my Media Literacy class the students recently launched a class website called positive-planet.net. The project was a complete leap of faith in response to the curriculum covered the previous semester, the growing use of technology in the classroom, the desire to create authentic learning beyond the classroom, as well as the ambition to help students understand and learn real-world workplace skills.

The first semester of the class was a time for the students to understand the role media has in shaping gender roles, ethnic identities, political beliefs and societal norms, while also learning about how the corporate media is tied into the larger corporate and political structure of the United States and global society. We also discussed the current state of media and how social media, blogging, and alternative news outlets are re-shaping the media landscape.

In our studies the students quickly became aware of the overwhelmingly negative tone of mainstream media through not only news reporting, but also through reality shows, crime dramas, music videos, video games, and blockbuster films. As a result we began to understand the immense pressure students are inadvertently placed under as they are raised learning about war in history class, studying environmental degradation in science class, and reading discouraging current events and novels of struggle and hardship in English classes, while simultaneously being bombarded with negativity through virtually all their leisure time activities.

After all of that, they are left with the age old adage we all heard when we were in school: "You are the future of this planet and it is up to you to become the future problem solvers." I don't think I need to explain how that sentiment has played out over time.

With those concepts in mind we began creating a positive, alternative news outlet, to be completely managed by the students. We created five departments and the students voluntarily chose which department to join. The different options were art/webdesign, content creation, editorial, local marketing, and national marketing. With the new class structure in place we began treating the classroom environment like an authentic workplace in which accountability is reflected in the success of the project as a whole, instead of individual students receiving individual grades based on isolated individual assignments.

The initial plan was to become a positive media aggregation site and then branch out into creating our own content through student journalism from our community. Consequently, we created four categories of content and began our journey into the unknown. The types of content we settled upon were positive news stories, uplifting songs and music videos, inspirational/motivational videos, and student created content focusing on positive events on campus and in the community.

Out of this model, in conjunction with the intentional outcomes, an abundance of amazing unintentional lessons have been learned.

Some of the intended student outcomes included:

• understanding and practicing how to evaluate sources for credibility
• understand and detecting information bias
• improving writing and journalism skills
• improving reading comprehension skills
• expanding student knowledge of global society
• using technology tools to collaborate and create
• understanding the intense collaborative environment of a modern workplace

Some of the unintended student benefits have included:

• having the ability to find their place as they explore the different jobs/departments available
• finding an undiscovered passion for media creation
• taking extreme pride in their writing with an understanding that it is being published for a global audience
• understanding that their activity or inactivity severely affects the overall performance of a group
• understanding how to use social media in order to network and customize the flow of information 
• expanding their perspective in relation to future careers and opportunities
• emerging into self-directed, intrinsically motivated collaborative partners
• realizing the nature and power of global information and connectivity
• gaining a passion for positive activism and social change
• motivating students to read without having to officially assign reading

As the website and project continue to grow, I am learning just as much if not more than the students in relation to re-assessing my overall concept of what a classroom can and should be. My purpose in writing this is to hopefully encourage teachers to follow their hearts and take the risks that are bubbling below the surface. Hopefully, teachers have administration that is willing and able to allow teachers some freedom in re-designing their classrooms and curriculum, as global collaborative projects and authentic learning are the two greatest opportunities available in the drastically changing educational landscape.

Enjoy the journey!

With that in mind, if you are or know of an educator that would like to collaborate on the project outlined above, or has other collaborative projects in mind, I would love to hear from you. The media class is specifically looking for student corespondents from around the country to write articles about positivity in their local communities, but any and all ideas are welcome. I can be contacted via e-mail at mrtessier33@gmail.com. Also, feel free to follow me on twitter @mrtessier33.

The real (really big) hidden bully in the classroom

Technology, in addition to being a learning tool, is and always has been a portal into the world of consumerism. Unfortunately, much of modern consumer culture is fueled by a corporate/media oligopoly designed to create insecurities within the general population so that money can be made assuaging the false needs created by the same corporate/media machine. With that understanding, it should be expected that by using its ubiquity, the corporate/media partnership is making meticulous plans on how they can best exploit their corporate partnerships and the education technology movement in order to more effectively bully our nation's youth into consumerist submission.

The situation is already dire at best. With research claiming that the average person sees upwards of 5000 ads a day, and understanding that many of these ads continue to disseminate and reinforce ideas of female objectification and dismemberment, physical male dominance and aggression, unattainable male and female body images, sexualization of increasingly younger subjects, along with ethnic stereotypes and under-representation, it is imperative that teachers and students comprehend the uninvited influences entering the classroom so those teachers and students can effectively combat the media messages and all of their negative effects that increasingly plague our youth every year.

To potentially compound the problem, the Common Core State Standards explicitly include the creation of media as an assessment tool. In most classrooms, it would be a safe guess to say that neither the teacher nor the vast majority of students have a great deal of experience in media literacy, let alone media creation. After all, the students and most teachers have been raised as products of the misogynistic, corporate mainstream media that has only increased its stronghold over public discourse and ideology during the past twenty years of media deregulation.

Consequently, if as a nation of educators, we are going to expect our classroom stakeholders to consume and create media, then we need to do a much better job at training teachers, students, and administrators as to exactly what that means. Otherwise, much of what gets created stands the chance of mimicking the toxic values that already permeate society and youth culture in particular.

This situation is also an important reason that classroom stakeholders need to openly understand and embrace social media in the classroom. For instance, too many teachers and students still view Twitter as simply a gossip or texting site. In doing so, they are missing the fact that social networks are vital in today's world for activities including personal and professional networking, collaborating with like-minded individuals around the globe, fostering and spreading social activism, and combating the mainstream corporate/media  machine by offering massive networks of smaller alternative news sources.

Understanding that allowing and embracing social media in the classroom also opens the door to the dreaded mainstream media machine, makes it all the more apparent that the media literacy piece of the equation be implemented and expanded as quickly as possible. So, if you are reading this blog, let's continue to use the voice that the internet and social networking has given us, so that we can spread ideas to continue making important educational reforms and combat the ignorance, apathy, fear, and negativity that is the bread and butter of the corporate/media machine.

And let's do it quickly because if you know anything about net neutrality, it's pretty obvious that they're on to us.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Expanding technology integration - Prove it, don't preach it

In order to celebrate Digital Learning Day on February 5th, I racked my brain to come up with something that would be both manageable and meaningful for me and my colleagues. The staff where I teach and am technology coach spans the spectrum when it comes to technology integration in the classroom.

There are roughly seventy teachers at my site and due to the nature of our campus, student population, master schedule and limited prep time, it is virtually impossible to arrange time for meaningful, authentic collaboration, outside of various mandated monthly meetings. Additionally, our monthly staff meetings are at the end of a long workday and generally filled with administrative news and general housekeeping items, which does not typically promote a captive audience, willing or able to engage in what I think is an amazing classroom tool.

With these challenges in mind I arranged for three activities that are teacher centered, encourage collaboration, foster a sense of community, are simple enough to be used by technology novices, and highlight technology applications that can be easily used with students in the classroom.

The first activity was a TodaysMeet session which ran throughout the teaching day. A week prior, all teachers received an e-mail explaining what we were going to do. Two days before the event, they were e-mailed a reminder with a link to an article titled "20 useful ways to use TodaysMeet in schools". The morning of the event teachers received an e-mail with the link to the specific session, as well as simple instructions for those that had not previously used the site.

Throughout the day many teachers shared ideas, websites, classroom practices, and answered each others questions and concerns about certain struggles they were encountering. Other teachers simply chose to view the conversations as they familiarized themselves with the concept of the online meeting process. As a follow up, I sent an e-mail to the staff highlighting the strategies and resources that were discussed online.

The next collaborative process I introduced was a "Craig's List" of sorts for our campus. I created a Google spreadsheet on which teachers can list items they want or have available. Items can include classroom supplies, strategies, or curriculum.

I envision it will be a place where art teachers can request egg crates to be used as paint cups, History teachers will be able to find a film they need for an upcoming unit, or a new teacher may request classroom management strategies for an overly chatty group of students. In order to encourage regular usage and familiarize staff with the idea, I will be sending out weekly e-mail reminders with newly listed items until teachers incorporate use of the list into their regular routines.

Lastly, I am creating a padlet wall on which teachers are encouraged to post notes detailing what they are working on currently, as well as units they have planned for the near future. In doing so, as a staff we can begin realizing more authentic collaborative opportunities that had been previously missed due to the fractured nature of our school design.

The thought process behind these activities is to enrich the school's professional environment by introducing teachers to authentic technology driven solutions that can also be used in the classroom. Many teachers in the midst of their day-to-day teaching lives are reluctant to introduce new technology because:

• it might not work as intended
• it might encroach on valuable class time that has already been meticulously planned
• the time it takes to learn might infringe upon impacted prep time
• their lack of experience with it might negatively impact the student experience   

With that in mind, by highlighting these technologies in a way that showcases the collaborative benefits of specific technology solutions, technology coaches can simultaneously strengthen the teaching community at their site and introduce their colleagues to classroom technology in a way that is specifically targeted, and far less intrusive than the "you should use this in your classroom" approach.

How professional sports sabotages students' futures

Taking a break from the technology focus this week:

I teach high school to an under-served almost exclusively Latino community in which a great deal of my students have ambitions of becoming professional soccer players. In fact, many of them are so convinced of their impending stardom that they ignore serious academic pursuits, as well as the warnings of their teachers. Unfortunately, due to their socioeconomic situation and the overall lack of formal education within the community, unbeknownst to them, my students have little to no actual hope of achieving their dream.

Now, this is by no means an indictment of my students' abilities, ambitions, or desires. It is more so a result of the illusion created by sports media and the culture of idolatry deeply embedded in modern sports culture. Mainstream media is masterful at glamorizing hardship while spinning the tale of the downtrodden youth that beat all the odds and made it to the top. It is the drama that sells the championship match-ups, gets made into feel-good movies, and gives us all hope in our mundane lives.

Consequently, many of the platitudes and cliches associated with sports culture permeate society, including the classroom. Analogizing athletic practice with writing practice is certainly one of my staple motivational starting points. However, in doing so, I am starting to question its effectiveness. I am beginning to understand that by casting life in such a simple light I am doing my students a disservice by failing to provide a larger context for these simple motivational one-liners.

This realization started taking shape when my students began developing personal inquiries for a research project and ten of my male students, in two different classes, chose to research "What are the different pathways to becoming a professional soccer player and which pathway provides me the best chance of success?"

In an attempt to provide my freshmen with some context for their dream I looked to the local Major League Soccer team, the San Jose Earthquakes, and focused on one player in particular: Sam Garza. As a youth and college player he was highly decorated at the highest levels of the game. Last year as a pro, he played in five games and averaged just over eighteen minutes of playing time in those games. My point in showing this to my students was to illustrate the level of dedication and commitment they would need to develop instantly, in order to have realistic hopes of just becoming a professional bench-warmer.

In order to make the example even more authentic for my students, I attempted to get someone from the Earthquakes organization (even a teenager from their developmental academy) to Skype into the classroom for a brief session regarding the demands and competitive nature of pursuing such a pathway. As a fan, I was incredibly disappointed by the Earthquakes' response that as an organization, they have chosen to decline such requests.

As far as I am concerned, flatly declining and choosing not to even entertain a simple Skype, so some students can obtain a realistic perspective and save four years of aimless academic endeavors, makes the Earthquakes complicit in the future struggles of not just my students, but students all around the greater San Francisco Bay Area that are under the same illusion.

Keeping in mind, this is a professional team that plays a relatively minor level sport in a college stadium, this problem becomes exponentially greater when applied to the more popular sports in the U.S. The question for me ultimately becomes, how can I support a team, a sport, or an industry, that is unwilling to find authentic and meaningful ways to help younger members of their fan base gain a pragmatic perspective and improve their chances for the future?

Understanding all the positive aspects that school athletics brings to the lives of high school students and campus culture, it is important to make sure we are balancing those benefits with the hidden false promises that are derailing our students as the sports media machine grows stronger every year.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Can planning and technology end student ambivalence?

Students, or children and adolescents in general, possess the amazing ability to summon the dark lord of ambivalence on a whim. This evil spirit has been responsible for the downfall of some of the most well planned, inspiring lessons in the history of education. Well-scaffolded units, tied to prior knowledge and student interests, that offer student choice, and various levels of collaboration and interactivity, are not even immune to the powers of this curricular succubus.

In much of what is written about on the internet, it might seem that technology is here to banish the paralyzing poltergeist of inner contradiction from classrooms for eternity; however, personal experience is proving that the potential is there, but without methodical planning the reality is often wishful thinking.

Technology is evolving at an unfathomable speed. Since the dawn of MTV-style editing, the brains of children have been trained to expect information, and the systems that deliver it to them, to evolve (some may say devolve) into compelling, ever-changing, ever-quickening formats. As a result, educators are under increasing pressure to adapt to the dynamic cognitive conditioning of each year's new batch of students.

With that understanding it is important to accept that the inclusion of technology in the classroom is not nearly enough to keep ambivalence at bay. In fact, ill-planned activities that employ technology can often increase ambivalence as it confuses students by forcing them to choose between what they know they need to do and what they want to do. As a result, many students end up doing next to nothing.

Consequently, it is essential to have a planned evolution for integrating technology into teaching units, individual lessons, and daily activities. An effective example to examine is student blogging. Having students blog, on say a weekly basis, will initially be interesting and exciting for many students as it might be their first exposure to publishing ideas online. (Kidblog.org is a free blogging site that provides various levels of teacher control essential to ensuring safe respectful online interactions)

Nevertheless, within several weeks most students will find it routine, just as they have previously done throughout their academic careers with activities such as worksheets, essays, PowerPoints, and Jeopardy review games. And once routine enters the room, so does its sidekick ambivalence. That is where technology integration offers significant benefits, as it provides a wide variety of authentic evolutionary pathways for a given project.

In the case of blogging, it is advisable to plan a growth process such as the one outlined below. For the sake of simplicity, assume the duration of each step to be two weeks.

• Have students simply blog in "free-write" form in order to become comfortable with blogging
• Begin requiring students to comment on the blogs of at least two of their classmates
• Have students individually commit to an ongoing theme for their respective blog
• Begin requiring at least one relevant visual per blog post
• Begin requiring at least one relevant link (embedded within the text) to supporting information
• Develop a partner classroom at another school and connect with their blogs for commenting 
• Work with the partner teacher to facilitate connections between individual students or student groups
• Develop a digital collaborative project between student pairs or student groups between partnered classrooms.

In planning the evolution of a project such as this, students will be regularly challenged with a well-scaffolded routine, that is more likely to keep them engaged as they see the path of the project heading toward an authentic product that reaches beyond traditional classroom walls, and is probably quite different than what they have experienced in most of their previous academic environments.

Additionally, establishing a preliminary understanding of desired progress, creates an environment in which time frames and activities can be easily adjusted, adapted, or embellished, as the learning environment dictates. 

With the current pace of edtech ideas, strategies, platforms, apps, and websites overwhelming teachers, administrators, and districts alike, it is often tempting to try too much too soon, or in some cases nothing at all. In order to avoid both ends of that spectrum and to begin developing successful technology driven curriculum, some good old fashioned planning can simplify the process and help teachers begin the exorcism of ambivalence from their respective classrooms.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Tips on technology integration for apprehensive educators (Re-post from Smartblog)

In my new role this year as a technology coach for the high school in which I work, I have found myself primarily involved in two separate but equally important activities: reflecting on and learning from my past challenges and successes with technology in my classroom and trying to motivate skeptical teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Consequently, the following suggestions garnered from my recent experiences will hopefully provide some general ideas and guidelines to clarify the process for reluctant teachers, so they will be motivated to embrace educational technology and all of its inherent benefits.

• Attitude: Approach the process as if you were a brand new teacher. Use year one as a time to figure out how technology can be used in your curriculum, implement a few baby steps and begin accepting the fact that this is your new reality.

Use year two to begin expanding on what worked during year one, discarding the abysmal failures — of which there will probably be several — and possibly experimenting with one or two new technologies — be it a website, a strategy, an app, a means of assessment, or a style of presentation.

During year three, expect to gain some clarity on how you and your students can accelerate learning as you begin to see the forest through the trees. You may even have a minor epiphany or two.

• Pragmatism: In keeping with the “new teacher” analogy, beware of the inundation of ideas and suggestions from veteran teachers who may misguidedly try to ease your transition. Tech-savvy colleagues will be more than willing to share an inordinate amount of amazing lesson plans, ideas, strategies and technologies that have proven effective in their own classrooms

While the suggestions probably are amazing, innovative and engaging, as promised, understand your strengths and limitations. Along with every new aspect of technology comes a learning curve which needs to be balanced with the day-to-day teaching activities that have always existed.

With that in mind, catalogue the suggestions that are intriguing but unrealistic for immediate use. I would suggest using a site such as Diigo in order to organize and tag easily searchable resources for potential use in the future.

• Humility: With the ever-changing landscape of technology, and the daily demands of working in education, you will rarely — if ever — be ahead of the technology learning curve. By allowing students to use technology, they will have access to innumerable sources of information as well as formats in which to formulate and present information.

Furthermore, if you were to attempt to master as many presentation formats as humanly possible, better ones will soon emerge and previous mainstays will just as quickly become obsolete. With that in mind, try and be aware of what is available, let your students introduce new resources and formats to you, and join in the learning process side-by-side with your students.

• Adaptation: Just as it takes years of experience before most teachers feel as if they are even competent in the classroom, expect to experience similar feelings in regards to using technology as a tool for increasing student engagement, creating dynamic lessons, accessing more efficient and accurate assessment tools, and providing more timely, and meaningful feedback.

In order to ease the transition, make a plan and adapt as necessary. For instance, about two and a half years ago, I realized the amazing potential of using Twitter as an instructional tool that had the capability to expand student learning beyond my classroom walls. Due to a wide variety of circumstances, not until this current semester did I feel I could implement it as I had originally envisioned, so I am now just beginning to use Twitter with my students.

• Self-scaffolding: Understand the SAMR model of technology integration and use it to guide you as you increase the complexity of technology integration in your curriculum. Don’t be afraid to begin simply substituting with technology in your classroom simply to adapt to the concept of allowing students access to what was previously forbidden.

• If you try to jump straight to modification or re-definition, you will most likely create significant frustration for both yourself and your students, and will be reluctant to continue with a transition that offers significant promise.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Is edtech the horse, the cart, the tail, or the dog?

In trying to focus my ideas for this posting, I attempted to link technology to one of several tried and true metaphors including: "don't put the cart before the horse", and "don't let the tail wag the dog". In regards to the horse and the cart, it could be argued that technology could be either one. As far as the tail and the dog, that metaphor seems more apropos but I do not feel like extending a cliched metaphor throughout this post so I will just get to the point.

Technology integration in education is currently at a ridiculous level of inconsistency for reasons including:

• Some schools and districts do not have the funding to purchase the necessary technology
• Schools and districts that have the funding have no precedent from which to guide them on what to purchase or how to implement what is purchased.
• Schools are making individual site decisions about implementing BYOD, and when they do, it takes on differing forms when it is executed site-to-site.
• Professional development regarding technology often times seems to be guesswork, at best, due to the infancy of the widespread use of edtech.
• Individual teachers have varying degrees of competency, willingness, time and confidence regarding technology integration.
• School and district policies revolving around edtech are often being made by district personnel and administrators that have not been in the classroom recently, and thus institute misguided policies and purchases related to technology.

To those on the forefront of the edtech movement, these situations come as no surprise. The surprise will come; however, when the reality of common core hits next year in forty-five states. As it is, teachers administering the Smarter Balanced practice test in California, are coming to realizations such as: 4th graders do not know how to type, 6th graders struggle with clicking and dragging, and navigating an online test for three hours on a Chromebook without a mouse and less than optimal screen resolution is a task in and of itself 

Additionally, addressing the elephant in the room as to whether most schools will have the proper technology and data infrastructure to support the transition to online testing, how might teachers' own uncertainties exacerbate test anxiety that already plagues far too many students?

Aside from the mandated testing aspect, the day-to-day reality of meaningful technology implementation is equally as concerning. A simple example to illustrate this issue is the reliance, usually out of necessity, on traditional paper and pen assignments. The vast majority of professionals, and probably people in general, do not read or write with pen and paper, yet that still seems to be the standard format in high school classrooms, based on personal anecdotal information and observations.

Information is now dynamic and intertwined. At this point, when students are not creating digital works of writing with engaging visuals, and relevant links to additional resources then we are preparing them for the past more so than the future.

With that being said, the job of a technology coach is much more pressing and of significantly greater scope than it initially appears. Coaching peers on technology integration and preparing them for the future of education can only truly happen if we can find effective ways to become facilitators in getting all stakeholders to buy into a common vision and realization of what lies ominously ahead. 

In revisiting my initial idea, and in the spirit of a good old-fashioned mixed metaphor, edtech appears to be a dog being wagged by its tail while chasing a horse behind its cart in the Wild Wild West with a tornado fast approaching. With that understanding it is the duty of technology coaches to play the part of Paul Revere in sounding the warning far and wide, so that educators and the personnel that supports them from above can at the very least have the storm on their respective radars.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Don't Be Imprisoned by Technology's What If's

Every concern teachers have about implementing technology in the classroom will inevitably come to fruition. Some of the common concerns I have heard and personally encountered are:

• "What if the internet fails when my entire lesson plan hinges upon it?"

• "What if the updated web filter blocks the site I am depending on for my presentation, even though I  just accessed it this morning?"

• "What if my students post something inappropriate during an online class discussion?"

• "What if a student encounters a technology issue that I do not know how to solve?"

The list could continue with countless, similar, justifiable fears, but that is unnecessary, because if someone can think of it, then it will most likely happen, and probably at the most inopportune time imaginable.

Uncertainty centered on technology's shortcomings is one of, if not the most common reason I hear from teachers that are slow to embrace technology as a significant part of their day-to-day teaching. While understandable, it is important to understand that this attitude is hindering teachers and the students of those teachers from experiencing some of the most important lessons that need to be learned as we collectively blaze the edtech trail.

Understanding that technology is laden with glitches, failures, and untimely shortcomings is a given. With that in mind, it is essential that educators learn to adapt to these difficulties. If teachers can do so, in real time, in front of students, then the teachers are essentially modeling, for their students, productive strategies and attitudes regarding technology.

As our students move on to higher grade levels, higher education, and careers, they will most certainly encounter the technological hurdles that many educators are unwilling to face. By shielding students from technology's challenges due to personal fears, instructors are preventing students from learning coping skills that will be essential for success.

How to deal with these situations when they occur is an issue unto itself and boils down to the inherent strengths of each individual teacher. Just as their are innumerable problems that will complicate the day, there are just as many creative solutions.

Most teachers have years, if not decades of teaching without technology. That fact alone indicates that most educators are equipped with a vast arsenal of curriculum ideas, and classroom management strategies that can right the ship when a technology tornado wreaks havoc on their respective classroom. Stepping outside one's comfort zone is rarely an easy task. Doing so in front of an audience of students can certainly compound the discomfort. But until teachers can confront their apprehensions, they will only be prolonging the inevitable.

In a simple statement, Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth sums it up perfectly when he states, "Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens."

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

EdTechers - A Call to Service

 With Digital Learning Day coming this Wednesday, I imagine PBS Learning will provide an updated snapshot of how technology is being used in the classroom. While last years numbers were promising, I am concerned that they are painting a misleading picture, and thus creating a professional divide as we move to a crucial point in implementing technology and the common core.

Those of us blogging, reading blogs, attending edtech conferences, and creating personal learning networks (PLN's) are mostly early adopters. With that being the case, we have a duty that I am not sure is being addressed. In the process of understanding, exploring, and implementing technology in the classroom, it is readily apparent that students in technology-based classrooms with enthusiastic, and innovative teachers are reaping rewards that are:

• expanding the classroom beyond its traditional walls 
• connecting previously compartmentalized subject areas to one another through authentic project based learning (PBL)
• providing real-time, relevant connections between students and the world around them
• creating students that are intrinsically motivated to learn as opposed to students that are only trying to "get a good grade"

Seeing students inspired in such ways is instantaneously invigorating and leaves the educators facilitating these learning environments with a voracious desire to further develop, enhance, and expand the scope of what is happening.

This is where I have found myself in my roll of technology coach, as well as witnessed in various blog posts and conference presentations, what I perceive to be an oversight in our desire to spread our enthusiasm. In our eagerness and excitement to enrich the practices of our colleagues, we are often times overlooking the reality that many of our peers:

• do not have access to the level of technology that many early adopters do
• are overwhelmed by the amount of options available in regards to platforms, websites, apps, strategies, and assessment tools
• view technology as another intrusion on their already impacted time
• feel "talked over" as confusing acronyms and edtech jargon are casually used as if they were common knowledge
• feel that they have not had sufficient professional development to successfully implement technology in the classroom
• do not want to appear vulnerable in front of students who may or may not have more experience with any given technology
• simply have a deep seeded aversion to technology

I imagine the list could go on and on. In any case, acknowledging and addressing these concerns is one of our greatest challenges and priorities at this transitional moment. 

My students ability to grasp digital mediums and concepts is significantly hindered by the lack of saturation, and thus lack of consistency within my greater school site. Understanding that my students desire to learn and ability to produce quality work will exponentially increase their acquisition of all the skills associated with a properly function, technology-driven classroom with widespread, willing implementation of said practices, it is in all of our best interests to find pragmatic, accessible approaches toward colleagues that fit any of the bulleted descriptions above.

It is with that closing idea that I hope to open a discussion about how that can happen. Any suggestions, successful past-practices, or proven strategies would be greatly appreciated so that I could compile them for a posting in the near future.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Just Make a Movie About It (Not really)

There seems to be an exorbitant amount of excitement about the abundance of new presentation formats, apps, and websites that are being made readily available for educators to use in the classroom. Not a week goes by without news of a new, simple, free, online resource in which students and teachers can create movies, photo stories, interactive whiteboard presentations, digital puppet shows, or online posters.

While these digital presentation tools offer a variety of benefits, including increased student engagement, differentiated lesson planning options, multiple forms of assessment, authentic peer-to-peer collaboration and the opportunity for students to access material in a way that better suits particular learning styles, I am not convinced that those outcomes are being realized.

One issue is that many teachers do not have the time, experience or expertise to know how to make quality films or other digital media presentations, outside of the tried and true PowerPoint or Prezi. Consequently, asking teachers to begin implementing digital media into their curriculum as a presentation tool and encouraging students to use the same formats as a way to demonstrate learning would be akin to asking a film director or editor to adapt his or her film into a polished novel, and to do so in a week and a half's time without the help of a professional editor. It is a recipe for confusion, frustration, and some pretty painful presentations.

A second issue is that often times teachers seem to be unclear as to the purpose of assigning a multimedia presentation other than they have been encouraged to begin using technology in their practice because it is highly engaging for students. Their approach lacks purpose and therefore fosters an ineffective learning environment and misguided student products.

Creating media within an educational setting is much like consuming media in an educational setting. When showing a film to a class, teachers can either simply show the film, or guide students through the film with a series of well planned activities and a clearly communicated, purposeful set of desired learning outcomes. In the former scenario, students may or may not gain any knowledge, benefit or insight from the experience, while in the latter situation students enter the experience with a clearly defined purpose and are thus much more likely to benefit from the subject matter as it relates to the curriculum to which it is linked.

Having students create digital media requires a similar approach. Too often, teachers use digital media as simply a substitution for a traditional assessment. The thought is "instead of having my students write an essay, I will have them make a film about the topic". Students are not guided through the process in a way that allows them to identify and reflect upon the material they are working with or the learning process in which they are engaged. They are often being asked to simply use a digital format to summarize or prove that they accessed and understood specific information.

In this instance, teachers are allotting a much greater amount of class time, energy, and effort into a project that will produce an equivalent or possibly lower level of leaning than what traditionally occurs with a writing task.

Making an effective film or multimedia presentation takes time, planning, organization, collaboration, and a clear direction. All skills that our students need. With that understanding, if teachers are looking to incorporate complex technology driven projects into their curriculum, they need to allow themselves and their students the necessary time to benefit from all the facets that can be learned from such ambitious endeavors.

Additionally, if the future of academic and professional communication is going to be technology driven, then teachers need to create the expectation of well-planned, quality digital products and provide students with the time and skills necessary to be successful within that framework. Likewise, administrators and school districts need to provide teachers with the technology, training, and time to effectively make the transition to technology driven assessment.

A more deliberate approach to digital presentations will certainly extend the learning curve and the amount of time it takes to fully integrate technology into most teachers' practice, but it is essential to student success that while educators learn to adapt to technology, they also learn to adapt their expectations and standards of acceptable student work.

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Redefining Cheating as "Accessing Knowledge"

A comment on one of my previous posts brought up the notion of cheating in a technology based classroom, which is not a topic I have seen widely discussed in edtech circles, yet certainly needs to be explored. Since the whole edtech concept is still in its infancy, my attempts to personally address that topic have led to a few concrete answers awash in a seemingly unending list of questions.

One fairly simple aspect of cheating, as far as classroom policy is concerned, is plagiarism. Technology does not change its definition, and while technology makes it easier for students to commit, it also makes it simpler for teachers to detect through Google phrase searches or fee based plagiarism detection services such as turnitin.com.

The lines become blurred; however, when considering other forms of what traditionally have been considered cheating. Considering that education is experiencing a paradigm shift regarding planning, instructional strategies, curricular focus, and overall philosophical approaches, it would seem appropriate to seriously reconsider, and possibly redefine the idea of cheating.

Our students now live in a world where virtually every piece of information is literally at their fingertips. Whereas in the past an English teacher might provide students with a list of vocabulary words with the assessment being a quiz at the end of the week, the teacher would expect students to memorize the list and answer the quiz items from memory, without the help of any reference materials. With that being the case, finding the definition by using a smartphone or tablet to access a dictionary website would be considered a form of cheating.

Realistically speaking, that memorization situation would be incredibly unlikely in the modern world for which we are supposed to be preparing our students. A more likely situation would be that students are consuming information (be it written, oral, or through a multimedia format), and they encounter a word that they do not understand. They would then immediately acquire the answer by accessing information on the internet.

Subsequently, if they find the information and can assign relevance to it within their daily lives, then they will remember it for potential future use. If the word seems wholly irrelevant outside of their life's context, then they will dispose of it until they encounter it again in a situation with more personal meaning. This method of processing information is much more consistent with what happens in the life of a professional.

I envision similar situations in other subject areas as well. In a history class, inspiring students with a passion for history and an understanding of how today's world is inextricably linked to the past can ultimately fuel a desire within students to seek that information on their own, which far surpasses rote memorization of facts and figures that are forgotten as quickly as they were learned. In this type of authentic learning environment, students are developing a much deeper understanding of events, creating personal and cultural relevance, and being coached on how to be a learner, instead of simply being scrutinized for possible cheating as they regurgitate seemingly meaningless information.

Similarly, math and science teachers have a significantly greater ability to connect concepts and ideas to the real world through technological means such as computer modelling, virtual field trips, Skype in the classroom, as well as a growing variety of STEM initiatives, grants and collaborative opportunities. Consequently, students accessing online information is done to gain knowledge and understanding in an applicable context as opposed to accessing information for cheating on an isolated assessment.

Essentially, what needs to be instilled in today's youth is the desire to find answers when faced with a challenge. When encountering an idea or concept that is confusing or unknown, the students that have the intrinsic motivation to seek the answers and see the solution through are the ones that will be more likely to experience success in the future. It would be a great disservice to our students (and ironically hypocritical) to prevent them from accessing information that they willingly seek.

From an educator's standpoint, teachers need to embrace the idea that continues to pop up in edtech discussions, that teachers are no longer the experts. While that concept makes many teachers anxious, it can and should be seen as an exciting opportunity. Since we are no longer the "gatekeepers of knowledge", we can shift much of our energy into getting our students excited about learning. In doing so, we can return to an ideal that originally guided many of us into the profession.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33

Getting Education Stakeholders on the Same Page

After just returning from a conference organized by the California League of High School on technology and the common core I am a bit conflicted with excitement and motivation from newly learned ideas and applications, mixed with confusion and frustration by the seemingly contradictory messages many educators are receiving.

As you may or may not know, the new common core standards are linked explicitly to technology in relation to how students access and present information. In doing so, the upcoming standards repeatedly task students with analyzing and evaluating information “presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally” in order to “evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric.”

While these are excellent and absolutely essential skills in today’s world, many teachers are being sabotaged by non-classroom policymakers ranging from school administration, to local superintendents, and school boards. Fortunately, I am not one of those teachers but I read about their struggles daily and this past week spoke with many frustrated peers.

As it is, teachers are undergoing a monumental shift as we:

• struggle to learn, understand, and internalize an entirely new set of standards
• adapt years of proven strategies and unit plans to meet those standards
• understand pedagogical shifts in educational mainstays, such as Bloom’s taxonomy, as they are reinterpreted for a technology driven world
• learn and practice a wide-variety of technology based presentation methods so we can  teach students to “Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express  information and enhance understanding of presentations”
• develop meaningful ways to assess media-based presentations, so we can provide timely and meaningful feedback to our students
• attempt to understand the ever evolving social media landscape so we can prepare our students’ to be responsible digital citizens leading a safe and productive digital life.

           

Essentially, in addition to teaching our subject matter, we are now also being asked to teach technology, media literacy, and online awareness. Let’s also not forget that the common core standards are requiring teachers of non-English disciplines to teach reading and writing as well as their subject matter and the skills outlined above.

Couple this with the fact that often times outdated and overly-cautious district and school policies are forcing many teachers to teach without technology, and it is easy to understand why many teachers are experiencing feelings of futility and animosity.

According to a 2011 study by the National Center for Education, 78% of teachers in the U.S. are 30 years of age or older. Understanding that most current teachers entered the profession before the invention of the Smartphone, and some before the internet, it is not surprising that there is a great deal of uncertainty, skepticism, and sometimes mild resentment within educators’ circles as they are expected to do a job that did not exist when they began their careers, and are not being provided with the time or the tools to realistically adapt, even if they are excited to do so.

This is not by any means meant to be a rant about the difficulties of being a modern day teacher or to justify the actions and attitudes of recalcitrant educators. Instead, I hope it serves to: help parents understand some of the modern day struggles teachers are currently encountering, assist administrators in understanding the level of support and advocacy teachers might need within their districts, and allow teachers to accept the overwhelming demands being placed on us so all stakeholders can start working together on implementing the educational reforms we all know are necessary.