Habits for Highly Visual Teachers

Main stage, Teaching & learning, Technology No Responses »
Sep 052010

School has started. New classes are underway, new names and faces are starting to become familiar. New routines are being established. As we teach with more technology and as we consider how to make use of more visual images to help students learn, (because we know they are effective for visual learners), what might be some good habits to establish?

My students frequently search for images for a variety of reasons and so spending time exploring the ethics of using images, is the flip side to knowing where to find them. I explore the similarities and differences between text and images as intellectual property. Most students have been taught at some point about how to use and reference text. Why would images be different?

Two sites I recommend that search images posted on Flickr but allow students to narrow the selection to images with a ‘Creative Common’ designation are:

Compfight
“Search engine for visual inspiration and free stock photos for the advertising community including images of creative commons and public domain.”















Flickr-storm
“FlickrStorm is a better search for Flickr! It works by looking for more than what you enter to find related and more relevant images… Be suprised! …” This site also allows you to collect a series of images in a ‘bucket’ and download a thumbnail with the URL to make it easy for students to cite sources.












Richard Byrne at Free technology for Teachers also has a couple of great posts on visual images; 7 Places and ways to Find Copyright-friendly images, and one about resources for Teaching Copyright.

Whether for inspiration, reference or remixing, we need to teach students to think and act with integrity when using images.

Posted by Glen at 2:24 am Tagged with: , ,

What's my standard?

Main stage, Teaching & learning, Technology No Responses »
Aug 042010

I’ve been working on updating my Blackboard courses in preparation for the start of school. As I have been considering what I might do differently and how I can ‘update’ my curriculum units to personalize and differientiate learning, technology has been much on my mind.

So the piece in Education Week on the new draft  Teacher Standards put out by CCSSO was nice confirmation of my pondering.

…they’re meant to guide teachers at all levels of their career, with more-experienced teachers exhibiting the practices in more-sophisticated ways.

In addition, the standards put more emphasis on teachers’ ability to use assessment data to support instruction, to address cultural and linguistic diversity in the student population, and to harness technology as a tool to support learning.

Continue reading »

Posted by Glen at 12:29 am Tagged with: ,

Personalizing and differientiating learning in AP Art

Main stage, Teaching & learning, Technology No Responses »
Jul 292010

Here is my challenge:

  • 2 classes of AP Studio Art.
  • 4 variations of the three exam types offered in AP Studio Art (Drawing, 3D Design, and 2D Design, 2D Design-Photography.)
  • the exam requires a large body of work to be produced specific to the exam type so at ASIJ students have the opportunity to take the class over 2 years and submit the exam in the second year. (16 pieces of work for 3D Design, and 24 pieces of work for 2D and Drawing.)

This means there are potentially up to eight different groups of students for me to teach in 1 class period. Here is a diagram created in Gliffy to illustrate.

Call me crazy but I am actually quite excited about the problem this creates. It compels me to find new ways to help personalize Continue reading »

Posted by Glen at 6:37 am Tagged with: , ,

Curriculum 21

Main stage, Teaching & learning, Technology No Responses »
Jul 102010

I’m reading Curriculum 21 in between holiday ficition. It’s a collection of writers led by Heidi Hayes Jacobs on preparing students for our times…and their future.

Here is a snipit I read this morning over breakfast in Chapter 7 Making Learning Irresistible by Tim Tyson from Mabry Middle School in Georgia, USA.

If digitial technology is used in low-level ways–to do the same things we have always been doing in schools, just doing them now with computers–then we have failed to grasp the metamorphosis this technological ecosystem offers.

After a week in London thinking, talking and exploring ways to integrate ‘Technology in the International Classroom’ at the Teacher Training Center this sounds like very useful and inspiring revision.

Posted by Glen at 11:31 pm Tagged with: , ,

Technology in the International Classroom

Main stage, Teaching & learning, Technology, Technology & Web 2.0 Things No Responses »
Jul 042010

I’m in London with three other ASIJ high school folk at a course on technology. My assignment is to plan a unit that uses technology to address a content standard and tech standard which I will teach next year. I have revised the Critiquing unit for the AP Studio Art classes.


Content Standard: Critical Thinkers and Problem Solvers – reflect upon and assess the characteristics and merit of your work and the work of others.

Tech, Media & Info Standard: Communication, Collaboration, and Ethical Use: Students use TMI tools to communicate and work collaboratively and ethically, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

My next job is to gather other tools,  ideas and strategies that might be useful as we move toward 1:1 next year.

Posted by Glen at 1:29 pm Tagged with: , ,

Here comes everbody...

Main stage, Technology No Responses »
Jun 162010

http://www.domesticatingit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/HereComesEverybody.png

The iPad has entered my life…and what a life it has become. I am a ‘paddy’ convert. I was contemplating buying a Kindle but held off because I had a hunch that the iPad with its wifi, email, internet capabilites would be worth having. When I heard I could load the Kindle app I was set on it.

It seems quite appropriate then that I am reading Here Comes Everybody on my iPad via the Kindle app. My browsing for the book on the iPad included previewing  Clay Shirky on Youtube…oh how book shopping as changed.

Posted by Glen at 12:40 am Tagged with: ,

FLE - Understanding the Digital Generation: teaching and learning in the new digial landscape.

Main stage, PLE [Personal Learning Environment], Technology No Responses »
May 292010

I read this book several months ago however it is one I keep coming back to. Understanding the Digital Generation: teaching and learning in the new digital landscape by Dukes, McCain and Crockett does a great job of providing evidence of what is changing, and also casting a vision of how and why technology can impact student learning.  Chapter 4 outlines ‘A shift to Whole-mind Instruction’ and includes an explanation of what the authors call 21st Century Flencies. They consider these six categories part of the basic literacy skills students need to thrive in the new world of technology. (Dukes, McCain, Crocket. p. 64.)

Check out their site: understandingthedigitalgeneration.com

This is the promo video for the book – a very slick and polished piece of marketing. Then watch Ian Dukes talking about some of the characteristics of digital natives. (I saw his presentation at Learning 2.0 a couple of years ago in Shanghai.) I am obviously a fan of what these guys have to say – you may have noticed my post on Ted McCain’s book ‘Teaching for Tomorrow’ which I looked up after reading Understanding the Digital Generation.

Posted by Glen at 4:47 am Tagged with: ,

FLE - Problems solving approach

PLE [Personal Learning Environment], Teaching & learning, Technology 1 Response »
May 212010

Teaching for Tomorrow: teaching content and problem solving by Ted McCain has a simple and challenging message. Help students develop independence and the ability to define, design, do and debrief problems that mimic real world situations. McCain is clearly an advocate for technology in the classroom however technology is a means to an end rather than the ultimate panacea. In his closing paragraphs he gets to the heart of it:

In my view, the use of technology in the classroom is not the critical issue facing us in education in the 21st Century. The issue of foremost importance is to develop thinking skills in our students so that they will be able to utilize the power of technological tools to solve problems and to do useful work.

I have been so inspired by McCains teaching strategy I made my first attempt at using a role play with one of my classes yesterday. I have to say I was pretty nervous and my hands were visibly shaking when I re-entered the room as ‘Rebecca Winters from Reuters’ and launched into my presentation. The kids blinked a bit and then entered into the spirit of the simulation, asking clarifying questions about the task, and later when I returned as ‘me’, they started to grapple with defining the problem. Because ‘Ms Winers’ was no longer in the room the kids had to help each other (if they didn’t take sufficient notes), and my role was to help mediate their thinking about the problem. Voila – engagement in a different way than I have seen.

Posted by Glen at 11:06 pm Tagged with: ,

AP College Board Article on technology

Main stage, PLE [Personal Learning Environment], Technology No Responses »
May 192010

As a teacher of AP Studio Art I get all the College Board articles and up-dates. This came through this morning: Teachers are the center of Education: Writing, Learning and leading in the digital age. I particularly liked seeing the recommendations that came from the study. One caution though, an assumption you could make is that Language Arts is the domain that students should develop digital literacy in. I would advocate that all disciplines should be embracing digital forms of expression and communication. Some areas – like the visual and media arts – have significant contributions to make in regard to conventions of design. Likewise, we all need to be teaching and reinforcing good writing since it is a skill used right through life. Anyway, here’s the recommendations:

Recommendations

Effective teaching with technology requires far more than just adequate hardware and software. It takes commitment, trained personnel, planning, resources and ongoing evaluation. To meet the challenges of teaching and learning in the digital age:

• Every student, at all levels of education, needs one-to-one access to computers and other mobile devices in the classroom.

• Every teacher, at all levels of education, needs professional development in the effective use of digital tools for teaching and learning, including the use of digital tools to promote writing.

• All schools and districts need a comprehensive information technology policy to ensure that the infrastructure, technical support and resources are available for teaching and learning.

Posted by Glen at 11:45 pm Tagged with: , ,

Liberating Learning

PLE [Personal Learning Environment], Technology No Responses »
Apr 172010

I have just started reading ‘Liberating Learning’, by Terry Moe and John Chubb (2009). They propose that teaching and learning will undergo dramatic changes due to the massive social force of technology.  They get right down to business and talk about the politics of reform and blockages to change including our teaching establishments themselves. I can’t wait to get to the chapter titled ‘A New Era’ – and wonder when I’ll see ‘it’ face-to-face.

The link above takes you to the Liberating Learning site with an interview with Terry Moe.

Posted by Glen at 6:18 am Tagged with: ,
© 2010 Glenda Baker Suffusion WordPress theme by Sayontan Sinha