Loyalty and goodness

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

As a shepherd leader, I know that my journey as a Masters student in ETAD will stay with me forever.  Coming to the end of my journey, I feel a twinge of sadness and loss.  What will I fill my time with, if not reading textbooks, participating in discussions and writing papers?  But I know that the knowledge and experiences I have gained have solidified and validated my educational practice.  They will form a backbone in my future decisions and colour the path that I pursue.  

I think of Oprah, who says “when you know better, you do better.”  Entering my ETAD program, I had my own conceptions, my own methodology, and my own beliefs.  I am amazed, reflecting back on my learning, to see how far I have come personally in less than two years.  I have gained so much, and in large part due to the online community I am a part of.  Just the other night, in presenting our research proposals for a Research in Education course, there were three people, including myself, from my division here in Calgary.  How interesting it was to discuss their ideas with them, people in my own division, who I have never met in real life and who I may never have come across professionally.  We now have a connectedness based in our scholarly work together.  I will definitely seek them out the next chance I get. 

McCormick & Davenport talk about a shepherd leader who fosters loyalty.  I can’t help but feel that I will be loyal to the Educational Technology and Design program at the University of Saskatchewan.  The program met my needs in a profound way, and brought so much more into my professional understanding than I imagined.  

This exercise of reflection on my graduate experience and using it to look to the future has been a very worthwhile experience.  Looking at the whole of what I learned, a few themes pop out.  Firstly, I gained a real appreciation for the rigors of academic study.  Relying on the structures that exist help me to understand and frame my decisions and practice.  Second, I learned about leadership in a roundabout sort of way.  We all had our role to play in the leadership within our courses.  With the professors, each had a unique way of guiding us through our studies.  As an adult learner, I could pick out what I liked and what I didn’t and how I could use these observations in finding my own leadership path.  The shepherd leader concept was also evident in the leadership of my colleagues.  In each online community, we all voiced our opinions and thoughts, but a few in each course inevitably fell into the roll of leader, based in their passion for the subject.  That type of “along side” leadership showed me how I could bring my ideas back to my professional community in a non threatening way.  Finally, the collaboration and community in this program was phenomenal.  Sharing clearly outline thoughts and opinions with others was such an important step in my learning process.  I learned so much about education, issues and ideas though my peers.  We all come from our own experience, and I got to get up close to over fifty colleagues in this journey.  Learning from the varied experience and ideas was beyond what I thought I would get in this program.  It has been invaluable.  

I will take what I learned, and the networking and community I experienced even more so, into my own practice and my shepherd leadership.  I am constantly forming and reshaping a positive vision for my educational practice.  I will live in the house of Educational Technology and Design.  

Abundance in ideas

My cup runneth over.

When I think of abundance in light of my masters journey, I think about the create supply of ideas we as educators have access to.  Never before have so many ideas and reflections been publicly available.  

Social media is a real treasure trove for the educator in today’s world.  In a few of my ETAD courses, we used Twitter as an informal tool to stay connected with each other.  Twitter, with it’s 140 character limit, is truly a transformative tool in education. Following classmates and collegues, and following the “tweeps” they followed, brought an abundance of ideas to my fingertips, in digestible bite sized pieces.  I would log in a few times a day, see what people were talking about, follow threads and join conversations.  It made me feel connected to world of educators, with their wealths of information.  

I teach in elementary school, where using Twitter is not feasible yet, but I can see the possibilities in older students to comment and respond in real time.  Like my experience with the discussion boards in Blackboard, Twitter allows for a richness of conversation beyond the walls of the classroom, where everyone can share their two cents, and pursue what interests them the most.

With Twitter as a starting point, I began to consider social media as an essential component of my professional practice.  Daily, I follow links to read blogs and articles that are relevant to my teaching.  I use Facebook to stay connected with the educators I know, who have moved on to other sites.  I trawl Pinterest for ideas and activities for my classroom.  The cup of knowledge and idea truly runneth over.  I am part of the global world of education. 

One way that I brought this world into my class was through pen pals.  Pen pals in education is not a new idea, but with technology we were able to modernize it, and teach new skills along the way.  In grade 2, we study different communities in Canada.  I used a website to connect with some Acadian students in Nova Scotia.  We created secure email addressees (used only for this purpose), and communicated throughout the year with our Acadian buddies.  Not only did my students learn about Acadie from the perspective of a peer, we also worked a lot with writing, creating digital text, courtesy and digital citizenship.  

Social media, used properly, is a transformative tool for students, teachers and leaders.  It can bring the world outside into the classroom, to foster understanding and respect for others.

Removing irritants and conflict

Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou annointest my head with oil.

Shepherd leaders transform conflict and remove irritants.  Working in the education sector, we are often faced with conflicts, with others, with ideas and with policy.  We can become bogged down and irritated by the seemingly endless information that we receive.  

Working though my ETAD program, I have come to a place of deeper understanding, where I know what I believe in my core as an educator.  Relying on the ideas and structures I have explored in my courses, I can stand firm in what I believe.  This sureness help me to listen and discern the information I come across in my practice.  Some of my beliefs have changed and some have been solidified by what I have learned.  An important aha moment that I had was surrounding technology in the classroom.  As I said, I had worked with several teachers trying to bring their teaching and learning in line with 21st century realities.  It was a struggle, for them and for myself as I went back into my own classroom. It was a place of discomfort, trying to match the old with the new.  Personally, I get really excited by the possibilities that new technologies afford in teaching and learning.  I can be a quick shooter when it comes to trying new things.  Sometimes the new ideas and activities would go off without a hitch.  Other times, it just didn’t work, and I couldn’t really pinpoint why things didn’t turn out.  In my Masters journey, I was really able to explore different epistemologies, ways of knowing and doing.  Many of us learn about learning theory, about behaviorist, cognitive and constructivist theory in our undergrad. I had a basic understanding, and in the Foundations of Educational Technology course I really dug into these understanding of how we learn.  I was able to draw clear parallels to how I, and my students operated in the classroom.  It helped clarify for me how my presentation and use of new technologies in the classroom wasn’t quite aligned with understanding how we learn.  Returning to the basics of learning theory, I was better able to outline my strategies innovating with technology.  Framing my lessons based on these theories explicitly led to cleaner and more effective teaching.  

Trying to find the sweet spot, and not quite getting there can be especially irritating.  I know moving forward, as a shepherd leader, I will refer back to the basic structures of education I explored though my program to better manage irritants and conflicts around me.  

The right tools for the job

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

The tools of any trade are paramount to success.  The shepherd carries a rod, to discipline and control the sheep, and the staff to protect the flock and to support the shepherd.  The tools for a modern shepherd leader are obviously more modern and universal, but still essential for success. 
 McCormick & Davenport identify two metaphoric tools they see as the rod and staff of the contemporary shepherd leader, the compass and the frame.  The compass is a guidance tool, but beyond step by step directions, or even a map, it empowers the leader and the followers to chart a course.  The shepherd leader should define the bearing, but allow the followers to use the compass as a tool in their own journey.  When I translate the compass as a leadership tool in my own life, I liken educational research as the compass that will guide me as an informed leader.  The wealth of knowledge that exists in the body of educational research is staggering.  As teachers, we often talk about always reinventing the wheel. A significant learning that I take away from my ETAD journey is that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  We, as teachers, can access the academic articles that are published, to validate our practice, to inform different teaching and learning methodologies, and to spark our own creativity.  We can even access research conducted close to home, I was delighted to find research produced by our own Alberta government and Teachers Association that reflect realities in our classrooms.  I am truly passionate about sharing scholarly articles, as they will makes us better educators.  Even in my B.Ed program, we didn’t access educational research,  and not many teachers know how much is out there, so I think it is a hidden gem that we can mine.  As a shepherd leader in education, I know that current educational research and scholarly articles will be the compass that guides my practice.

The second essential tool for the shepherd leader is the frame, a framework in which we operate, the boundaries we respect to stay on the right path.  The reason that this tool is so indispensable is that we live in an economy of knowledge.  Long gone are the days of anyone, a king, a leader, a teacher, a father, knowing best.  With the abundant availability of knowledge and ideas, no one person know best about anything.  In my experience, the gifts and talents of each individual are honoured and utilized in a school. The frame is so important because we know great things can happen when people have freedom to experiment and think outside the box.  While the room to create is essential,  a shepherd leader must set out the boundaries, name important priorities and set the playing field for ideas and innovation.  Relating back to ETAD, I think of instructional design and program evaluation.  These two frameworks are the beginning and the end of instruction.The theories of instructional design inform us to make a well planned design, considering the needs for the instruction, the learner and the context.  We must be guided by sound instructional strategies, as well as proper  visual composition.  Usability testing, and program assessment than allow us to gauge the success of the design.   Program evaluation, at the tail end, gives structure to ask the right questions for assessment and improvement.  The practice of reflection, evaluation success and identifying areas for growth is essential for framing leadership in education.  

Walk with me

I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me.

Being with someone is sometimes the best support we can offer.  The shepherd leader is with the people, in times of normal times and times of crisis.  This verse reminds me of an online discussion I participated in about action research.  Action research is really what teachers are doing on a daily basis, collecting real time data, informally in a natural setting, like assessing students on an ongoing basis in the classroom, and using the data to inform decisions,  areas for growth and possible improvements, in short assessment for learning.  Many in the discussion acknowledged that we as teachers do the first steps of action research.  Where we stop short is reporting the data we collect, and to formalize the actions we take.  

A shepherd leader is active in normal times, and can act decisively in times of trouble.  The example I shared was when the Provincial Achievement Test results of my school were lower than was acceptable to us.  We formed a professional action group, we looked at the results, identified tangible areas for growth, for example the skill of using inferencing to answer questions.  We then set about teaching that skill explicitly in our classrooms, but without a unified strategy.  What we didn’t do, in terms of an action research methodology, was articulate our process, or re-assess after we took action, to identify our successes and failures.  We didn’t actually report our action research.

What I take away from this example, in light of what I have learned in ETAD, especially in the course on Educational Research, is that the leadership was there, but it wasn’t seen through to the end.  The leadership wasn’t present enough in the normal time, and so decisions weren’t as decisive in the time of trouble.  

As controversial as Provincial Achievement Test are in our province, the students are required to write them, and they do provide a snapshot of data.  Knowing what I know now, I would actively encourage using an action research methodology in normal times to set a baseline for practice.  Then, in the years where there is trouble with the scores, the precedents are in place, and real action can occur to make improvements.  

Knowing the valley

Yea, though I walk thought the valley of the shadow of death.

The valley.  Education often feels like a valley of doubt that we, as teachers, need to navigate.  We are often in the darkness of uncertainty, financial constraints, program changes and challenging interpersonal relationships.  Educational technology and design sounds like a program about gadgets and flashing things, thats actually what I thought it was to begin with.  It is really about the structures needed to construct the best educational experiences possible.  Curriculum studies focus on the what, ETAD focuses on how we get there.  

The shepherd leader, while in the valley, is focused on how to emerge from the valley safe, but changed.  The shepherd leader needs to recognize the lessons learned in the valley, and must use the lessons to make improvements.  

As I said before, I don’t know if other professions experience the doubt and re-imagining that educators do.  Teachers definitely travel the valleys and peaks regularly.  I held a position for 2 years where I worked in various schools to achieve goals set by the schools, often relating to technology and pedagogy.  Working with over fifty teachers and hundreds of students, I heard their concerns and expectations, their challenges and their achievements.  I had to respond and do my best to lead them to a better understanding of educational technology and a more confidence practice using the technology. It was the biggest valley in my career so far, but as the deepest valley, it is also the greatest peak in terms of what I know about myself and teaching and learning.  As an aspiring shepherd leader, I will always carry this experience with me.

Again, my ETAD experience would have greatly benefitted me at the time.  I have taken comfort in the planning and structures outlined in the practices of Foundations of Educational Technology, Instructional Design, Distance Education, Program Evaluation and Research in Education.  I recognized the instructional need in these schools, and I muddled my way though creating sessions to build competence and confidence.  If only I had already taken the Instructional Design course.  My session would have been better organized and structured to ensure maximum success.  You can’t change the past, but I will carry that knowledge with me forever.  The learning from my ETAD program will help guide me ( and my flock) out of the inevitable valleys we encounter in the future.  

Another characteristic of a shepherd leader according to McCormick & Davenport is being present in the valley AND to be proactive with the flock in navigating the valley.  I’ve said it already and I will reiterate it again.  My path through the ETAD program illuminated valleys in education, through course readings and with the experience sharing of my colleagues.  Each one of the courses I took showed both tangible and abstract strategies to negotiate the challenges in education.  The program has filled my tool box with diverse strategies and ideas.   

Knowing the right path

He leads me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake.

The shepherd always endeavors to lead her flock on the right path.  She uses her knowledge of the needs of her flock, her understanding of the terrain, and her vision of what she desires for her sheep. I see so many parallels I between this ancient shepherd and my own role as a leader among a flock.  As a teacher, I am always searching for the right path, for my students’ in their inquiries, and for myself as I try to constantly bring my best to my job.  Being a scholar in ETAD has not shown me the path, but it has done something much more significant.  It has shown me how to find the path.  I didn’t only learn about the whats and hows of technologies and designs in education, I discovered so much of the underlying reasoning for what we do, and where to look for currents trends and issues.  

McCormick & Davenport explain that the shepherd leader depends on the relationship with their flock for the mutual benefit of all.  The shepherd employs his voice as an essential tool in his leadership.  His flock listens and trusts his voice. 

Finding my voice was one of the biggest challenges I faced as an ETAD scholar.  As I already mentioned, the online community was a major advantage in my learning, but the sense of belonging, accomplishment and worthiness was not instant.  Far from it. I struggled a great deal in the beginning to find my voice and share my knowledge with others.  I believe that I am on the cusp of the generation who puts everything online.  I am a regular user of social networking sites and I like to share and see what the people in my extending community are up to.  In fact, being far away from my large extended family, social networking is a key way that we share big life moments and tender memories with each other.  But, I am not of the mind that I should post every detail of my life, or that my thoughts are witty enough or worthy enough for the wide world to care.  I read a lot on online material, from blogs that relate to my professional life, to inane thoughts and pictures to entertain myself.  

The move from consumer to producer of online content was not easy.  I felt that there were so many other more inspired and insightful educators out there sharing.  What did I, as a veteran teacher of just 7 years, have to contribute?

The change came as I was writing on this blog as part of an assignment.  To that point, I had been writing just to fulfill my course requirement.  I posted my blog on my Facebook site to get some traffic to the site, which was a requirement.  I didn’t think anyone would actually want to read what I was writing, except for those close to me, as a favour.  To my surprise, a student in a B.Ed program reposted my link, and encouraged her classmates to check it out. From then on, the purpose of my writing changed.  I knew I did have something to say to those in preservice education.  My struggles and learnings were relevant to what they were about to face as new teachers.  From then on, I realized that I could share some insight and that someone might find a kernel of inspiration in what I was saying.

Finding my voice in the ETAD program has brought me the confidence to share all the knowledge and insights I have gained from my professors and colleagues with those I work closely with.  My shepherd voice is not an authoritative shout, but a comforting invitation along the journey.  The journey I take is informed and guided by the tools and knowledge I have encountered along my ETAD path. 

Leading immortals

He restoreth my soul.

People are divine creations, bestowed with an immortal soul.  Dealing with people then requires us to operate in that knowledge.  

This chapter made me think of distance education.  When I took the course in Distance Education, it was somewhat surreal, because I was learning about education at a distance, while learning at a distance.  

Learning at a distance was one of the most significant pieces of my experience as a Masters student.  I have literally never been to Saskachewan, other than driving through on my way to a wedding in Minnesota.  All of my interactions have been online, via Blackboard, Collaborate, Skype, email and discussion boards.  It has given me such a different perspective on the power and the challenges of online learning. 

In planning my distance education course, and in following all my courses online, I had to remember that people are not just names on a screen, that there are indeed real live breathing souls on the other end.  Learning at a distance made me feel apart at first, but upon reflection, I see the richness that it has brought to my life.  I learned a lot about not only what people were posting for their assignments, but who they were professionally and as scholars.  The footprint of the learning is so much more lasting when it is online.  Firstly, in a real time face to face situation, there would never have been enough time to get into the depths of thoughts and learning that exist online.  Each post was considered, edited and formulated to best express one’s thinking.  As a consumer, I could choose the moments when I was most open to learning from others, and as opposed to an oral comment in a classroom setting, I could reread, ponder and respond at my own speed.  In an exercise in my last course, I reviewed the mountain of posts that had occurred over the course of the semester.  I was able to enrich my own understandings in reading what others thought.  I believe that in participating in the rich online environments fostered in the courses, I thought much more in-depthly than I could have imagined.  

The online experience of my Masters showed me the possibilities of using online environment in my professional communities.  When teachers get together to collaborate in person, they bring with them the realities of their life at the moment.  A tough day at work or a long stressful commute can negatively colour a discussion, and make the precious time together less productive than desired.  

In my Distance Education course, I imagined and planned a professional development community for French Immersion educators.  Because we are so few within our district, collaboration can be further hindered by location in the city, and out of school commitments.  Going back to a vision of a shepherd leader who leads immortal souls, the possibility of a professional community of learning that honours the teacher participants, that allows them to learn and share when it is best for them, was truly exciting.  I don’t think that I can accurately capture how connected I felt to my University of Saskatchewan learning community.  It is probably the most significant aha moment I felt in my program.  I will work hard to bring the spirit of learning and belonging back into my professional practice as I walk along side those I work with.  

The Shepherd leader meets needs

I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters.

The issue of “needs” is so pertinent to society today.  Over the last ten years, we have seen the massive shift from “what I do for the company?” to “what can the company do for me?”.  I have to admit, I fall into the group who have some sense of entitlement, although I do strongly value hard work and earning what you get.  

Teaching is the only profession I have ever been in, so I can’t say that teachers are the worst complainers, but we definitely do our share of grumbling.  To be fair, we have a lot to accomplish, with increasing challenges and dwindling resources.  Even in one of the richest provinces, we still ache for more.  How easy it is to get caught up the negativity that can surround education.  

Last year at my school, there was a program delivered by an outside  agency that made my blood boil.  To me, the goals of the program were great, but the execution was very much lacking.  The delivery of this program ate into my instructional time, disrupted my class, required my intervention when the lesson didn’t go well and I had to give up my own time to attend professional development sessions.  It really got under my skin, and I don’t think I was the only one.  

Well, just then I was taking a course in program evaluation, looking at the steps and structures required to perform an evaluation of programming.  We were asked to design a realistic evaluation plan. Hallelujah!  I felt like I regained some power and perspective.  I based my plan around this program that I didn’t feel was working well in our school. I identified the issues my colleagues and I had been discussing. 

Even though I never actually conducted the program evaluation, just planning and imagining it allowed me to be more patient with the program staff because I had more clarity about the actual aims of the rpogram and the challenges they may have been facing.  It helped me provide more clear feedback to the program.  

The most meaningful component of this experience was feeling like I had better tools to deal with similar situations in the future.  I know now which questions to ask  and how to provide feedback that can be collected to make meaning for a program.  

Back to the shepherd leader who meets the needs of his flock.  I really think that teachers can feel that they can get lost in the education system, and that various different programs are thrown at them.  I have sometimes felt like a complainer.  My experience in ETAD allow me to constructively provide feedback.  I also feel confident to listen attentively to those around me, and really hear what their needs are in their education practice.   

The Shepherd Leader

"The Lord is my shepherd."

The image of the shepherd as a leader is such a rich metaphor for leadership in today’s world.  Above all, I envision a a shepherd as humble, of the earth and loving, all the while being a protector and guide.  This is definitely how I imagine the best case scenario of myself as leader.  Not much to live up to.... :)

In Shepherd Leadership, McCormick and Davenport compare the shepherd leader to a great tour guide.  They say a tour guide can “without directly trying to control your every move, a good guide nevertheless empowers you to see more and learn more than would ever be possible on your own”.  What a powerful statement of what leadership can really mean!  This sentence struck me because it relates so easily to my reflection on my scholarly experience, and my vision moving forward.

                                                                   Listening to a tour guide explain a Roman ruin.

As a student in the Educational Technology and Design program, I really felt like I was being guided along my journey, not directed but not left to my own devices either.  The program is actually rather small, with three professors leading us in our learning.  I feel I really got to know them as instructional leaders, understand their teaching styles and their expectations of us as scholars.  Through the curriculum set out in the program, I was given the chance to broadly cover psychology of learning, to getting deeper into instructional design and distance education, to choosing my own topics to research and report on.  All of the prescribed courses and activities enriched me professionally, and often personally.  

Moving forward, this image of a great tour guide is resonating in me.  I want to not only help steer my colleagues towards great teaching and learning.  I want to discover and share the secret passageways rich with information, the works of art full of ideas and ideals.  As teachers, we can live in the isolation that is our classroom.  My own experience in ETAD has brought me into community with the scholars who have gone before me, and the great minds that are exploring and working in education today.  Entering into the world of educational research can be intimidating and take time, and working in ETAD has given me confidence to use the larger community of educators in my practice.  The knowledge that exists out there is so vast and so rich, and I want to bring that richness back into the schools I work in and back to my colleagues.  

The shepherd leader is characterized as being “with” the flock.  Immersing myself into the world of professional scholarship, and the ideas in Educational technology and design has re- energized my own sprit of inquiry, a quality I can bring back to my students and my colleagues.  

A reflection journey

In the next series of blog posts I will be reflecting on my experiences as a student in an Educational Technology and Design Masters program.  Since the end of my undergrad and Education program, I knew that I wanted to pursue a Masters, I just wasn’t sure where my passion lay and what I wanted to study.  In my fifth year of teaching, I was fortunate to get an amazing position working in various schools, working with teachers and students to implement technology in teaching and learning.  The position was a challenge, but I was working with an inspired groups of educators and we worked together to explore technology in elementary education.  It was there that I was really inspired to learn more about educational technology. A colleague shared her own experience in the ETAD program, and my journey began.  

I have always considered myself a leader, and while some people in my life might call it bossiness, I am drawn towards being a forward thinker and to inspire people around me.  My choice to pursue my Masters is about learning more about the profession of teaching, and also about gaining knowledge and skills to guide my leadership goals.  I want to have a solid foundation upon which to build my own practice.

After obsessing for weeks about how to frame my learning in the ETAD program, I woke in the middle of the night thinking about a book that I had received a few years ago.  Working in a Catholic school district, our professional practice centers around our faith.  Our district leaders were studying a book at the time, and a principal had passed the book on to me. I realized that the book is a perfect way to reflect on my experience as an ETAD scholar and to explore my leadership style and how I will bring my learning into my future.

The book is called Shepherd Leadership: Wisdom for Leaders from Psalm 23, by Blaine McCormick and David Davenport. The book explains the role of the Biblical shepherd as a strong leader and explains how modern day leaders can base leadership style and decisions on the Shepherd lauded by King David in the Bible. This psalm is often used in times of grief as a comfort, but looking at it differently reveals the strength and trust within it. I will follow the style of the book, using verses from the psalm to frame my own thinking. The book is not about educational leadership per se, but fits well with my faith based, ethical whole person vision of a leader.  

Here is the psalm from the King James version of the Bible.

    The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
            He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
            He leadeth me beside the still waters.
            He restoreth my soul:
5         He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.°
            Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
            I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
            Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
            Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
10        Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
            Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
            And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. 

How much connection is too much?

I have been struggling with the question of is there a limit to how much technology we should have in our classroom.  Kids and adults alike live connected to the world through computers, mobile devices and gaming consoles.  Most of us rely on the instant connectivity,  except that many elementary students must disconnect when they get to school.  Teenagers and adults often struggle to find a balance between being connected, and being present in the real world.  In a recent discussion, some colleagues shared some funny stories about that need to get bars of connection and participate in the online world.  Even at our Father’s day dinner, all 5 adults, including my Dad who is new to the smartphone addiction, had out phones on the table. It was hard for each of us to forsake all else and devote all our attention to each other, even though there was nothing important enough to actually take me away from a wonderful meal with my family.  

So are we feeding this unfortunate struggle between being connected to the world and connected with those around us in the classroom?  I often hear teachers say that they avoid “screen time” in their teaching and learning practice because kids get so much as it is.  While I understand that, I still feel unsettled by the fact that we take away such a natural tool from our students.  Fifty years ago, the world today would have been impossible to imagine.  I can’t even fathom what the technological realities will be in 20 years.  Who am I to remove such an important aspect of my students’ life, one that I can’t even part with for more than an hour?  Students, even in a very young age, rely on and effectively utilize technology.  Recently, as a teacher working in my second language, with my second language student, were working with the names of less common animals.  I have no shame in admitting that I don’t know the French word for wolverine, and so “we searched it up” online.  What a disadvantage we all would have been at, teacher included, if we couldn’t have associated the word “ un carcajou” with the uncommon image of a wolverine.  Through our connection, we all learned something that day.  

I don’t know how to balance the old world practice of pen and paper tasks with the more technology focused activities in my class.  In my life, and as an individual in my classroom, I model that connection that is an extra appendage through my mobile device.  I hear what some colleagues say about too much screen time, especially for the little guys.  But the idea of removing the students from the context in which they learn everyday makes me too uncomfortable. I can’t in good conscience limit my students’ connectivity and remove those connections that engrain their learning.  As with everything, blocking students from the world teaches them very little.  I think we need to open up the connections, but teach and model the best ways and times to access those connections.  

Digital citizenship

Digital citizenship is such an important concept in our world today.  Our Social Studies curriculum, at least in Alberta, focuses on citizenship, from kindergarten to grade 12, centers around citizenship and identity.  Here a the program foundation graphic from Alberta Education.  

And yet, the most emergent and arguably most important aspect of our 21st century citizenship, who we are and how we act in the digital world, is almost absent from our curriculum.  

As a member of Generation Y, I have experienced a change in my own view of my digital responsibility.  I finished high school in the late 1990s and entered university in the early 2000s.  The internet for me was a place where I could communicate with friends on ICQ (remember that!) and MSN, illegally download as much music as I wanted, and where I could look for information I needed for school, but then had to back up with a reference from an actual book because the internet was not an appropriate place to find information.  Flash forward just 10 years, and I am a discerning internet consumer and producer.  I search and use information on the internet every hour of the day, for my studies, in my classroom, and to settle debates with friends, I add content to the web with Facebook, Twitter and a blog, and I now pay for media content that I download.   My digital citizenship has developed over the years based on my own sense of morality ( not to be a thief), professional learning and conversations and cautionary digital (fairy) tales I have heard about digital mishaps that have taught me to be careful online.  We as educators have a responsibility to teach students how to be good digital citizens.  

Teachers, schools, divisions and governments must put the time and effort into fostering digital citizenship among out iGeneration students.   So how do we do it?  At the grassroots level in our classroom, we have to model it always.  It is never too early to cite your sources.  My grade ones and twos know that if they copy an image or video into their work, they also must copy the link to the image.  We use “talk-aloud” strategies on Math and Literacy, we also need to model our thought processes as we explore websites or programs with students.  A teacher must set the expectation for her students as to what is appropriate online behavior.   

A classmate, Janelle, has a blog about Digital Citizenship at the Elementary level  . 

Here are some of the resources for teaching digital citizenship that she suggests.  

Netsmartz kids

Common Sense Media

Media Smarts

All of these sites provide great resources for students, teachers, and parents.  As educators in the 21st century, it is essential to teach kids how to be responsible online, and also above all else, how to be smart and protect themselves.  

Social Media in my classroom?

I have been thinking about social networking in the classroom.  I have watched my students become engrossed in an online environment called Animal Jam, from National Geographic.  Essentially the site is an online environment where a child signs on, and interacts with others as animals, moving though various habitats and playing challenges to gain point.  The animal avatars can connect with others they know, or with whoever is in the environment. I have observed their enthusiasm, engagement and passion for this game, and I have seen the readiness of my students to be part of virtual learning communities.  Imagine if there was a kid (ages 5-10) friendly environment where teachers could input content, and student could, like in a flipped classroom model, interact and learn the content with their peers, on their own time!  

In the past week I have come across two other articles that have solidified my thoughts on the need for social networking in the division one classroom.  I was reading a study done by the Media Awareness Network, a Canadian not for profit organization which focuses on providing resources to children, teachers and parents about media, and media literacy.  In the study, a Canadian kindergarten teach was discussing how her students blog on a regular basis.  This comment surprised me, as there are many primary level blogs, but they are written by the teacher.  It really got me thinking about the literacy and media learning that would be taking place.  You can read the study here.    Young Canadians in a Wired World- Teachers' Perspectives

I also read an article in the paper about how successful young people and companies are moving away from email, which I found shocking, and moving towards communicating through social media and instant messaging.Calgary Herald article I clearly am the generation of email dependents as I can’t see a corporate world without it, and this article really surprised me.  But it is often said that many of the jobs our students will be doing don’t even exist yet, and our job as educators is to prepare them for the world they will enter. I think that this article is giving us a clue that social media will only gain importance in the world, and that we should be modeling it’s effective use as early as we can.  

These three observations, as well as my own use of social media, has encouraged me to break down another wall that exists between my classroom and the world my students live in.  While I know that the curriculum is the keystone to what happens in my classroom, exploring concepts through social media can be just the ticket to balancing what must be taught and what will not only engage students, but encourage them to move higher on Bloom’s taxonomy from simply knowledge of the concept to analysis and synthesis, in their seven year old minds.  

As I think about how I will set up an online environment for my future class, I reflect on a wiki that I set up for a grade 6 class who wanted a space to share and communicate.  I read somewhere about a continuum for adopting new technology, that goes from adoption through appropriation and invention, where at first one simply uses a technology similarly to how they have worked in the past, like sending chain letters through the mail, to now sending them via email to inventing new ways to use a technology to meet one’s needs.  Looking back on that grade 6 wiki, the students and teacher adopted the technology to meet their needs.  As I think about it, the teachers and students could have gone far beyond the way they initially used it, and used it as a space that was an extension of the classroom to discuss ideas and share their expertise.

Social networking in the classroom is an exciting new(ish) idea for teachers and students to explore!

The nuts and bolts of digital storytelling

Digital Storytelling is a hugely worthwhile activity to use in your classroom.  I have discussed the benefits and some resources for digital storytelling. Beyond theory, a practical guide to actually implementing an idea in your classroom is essential, so here it is! I mentioned that planning and preparation are key and I want to share my thoughts about the methods and steps that I have use for digital storytelling.  Before I ventured back into the classroom this year, I worked with 6 different schools, and worked with students and teachers on digital stories.  My process is tested and is based on reflection on my experience.  

A quick note- the benefits of digital storytelling are far reaching.  Working in a second language classroom, visuals are an essential tool for teaching and learning.  Digital storytelling allows second language learners to express imagery, tone and even content.  Students in my class have the advantage of reverting to their first language to clarify their thoughts, but many English Language Learners do not have that luxury.  Imagine the richness!s in communication that an ELL can share and not even speaking the same language!

The procedure that I follow when leading a digital story project are based on Bernajean Porter’s steps and my own experience.  The Digitales steps can be found here:

 http://storykeepers.wikispaces.com/StoryMaking+Steps 

1.   Write a Script- 

An essential step.  At this stage, teachers and students should write like they normally would, following grade level expectations and writing based on whatever program you have been using.  We have been using Barbara Mariconda’s work called Empowering Writers, which is a student friendly guide to writing.  This step is is worth investing time, to get the best product from your students.

2.  Time to Storyboard!  

This is the most important step!  Take the time and effort with the students to develop the storyboard.  Properly completing this step will make the process much, much easier in the subsequent steps.  You can use any format that you like.  I found the ones on the Digitales Wiki to be student friendly and effective.  At first, I didn’t think the elementary storyboard was especially valuable, but my grade 1 and 2 students took the template and ran with it.  Clearly, the Digitales team did some user testing, because they work well for students.  

           http://storykeepers.wikispaces.com/StoryBoarding  

Now that the hard work is done, it’s time to create.  The Digitales resources suggests five more steps, but I think this is where the path diverges according to what you choose to create.

 3.  Collect your media

• Take digital photos 
• Select photos from past events
• Collect images from the web
• Produce other images like illustrations or clay representations
• record or download sounds needed
• record or download music needed

 4.  Build the story digitally.

You can use whatever program is available to you and your students.  Software and online tools all have advantages and disadvantages.  Take the time to experiment before you set your students at it. Here are a couple of programs that I have tried.

Microsoft Photostory-- a free download from Microsoft.  This program is very simple, and guides the user step-by-step through images upload to voiceover and conversion to a video file.  The downfall is the simplicity, as it can limit the user and does not accommodate video. 

Moviemaker for Windows- Usually on most standard Windows based machines, the user can mix photos, video, sound and music to weave their story.  This program can be very glitchy and can cause a level of frustration with students and teachers. 

iMovie- A great program if you are fortunate enough to have access to Apple machines.  

 5.  Add your voice over.

The voice of the creator brings the magic to the digital story.  Encourage your storytellers to develop the voice in their writing, and their physical voice in telling their story. 

6.  Add music, sounds, text and effects to enhance the story.

7.  Edit.

8.  Produce the final cut.

Now it is time to share the stories!  The creations that come out will be beautiful insights into the souls of your students.  They will burst with pride at their work.  Celebrate and share the stories within the classroom,and share the stories out within the school, to parents and within reason, share the stories out to the world.

Enjoy!

The magic of digital storytelling

I love digital storytelling.  Love it!  Digital stories are a great entry point  to technology for students and teachers alike.  Story telling is such a central part of being human, and has been since ancient times.  We have a need to learn the stories of those around and before us, and a desire to share our own stories.  What people used to draw on cave walls is now posted to Facebook walls.  Digital storytelling refers to short (less than 8 minutes) productions, including various media like photographs, music, personal narrative voice,and video woven together to tell a story.  The story can be fiction, non- fiction, a personal narrative or an imaginative tale. Not only do digital stories nourish our human souls, they also encourage 21st century literacies skills like collaboration, creative thinking, technical ability, visual literacy and effective communication. 

Digital stories are both a great presentation tool, as students love to see and hear themselves in “video” and a great support for student’s story development.  Sometimes, students can get lost in their own writing.  They can ramble on, muddy the story progression and in the end not really tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.  But give a student a storyboard, and ask them to pick relevant images, music and sounds to compliment their story, and very quickly students recognize the clarity or lack thereof, in their story, and can edit and revise to improve their ideas.  

Digital story telling is also very motivating.  Naturally, in any classroom, you will have students who are reluctant writers.  The allure of publishing writing in an unconventional way often draws these reluctant in and often reveals an amazing creativity that got lost in words.  Students of any age are inspired to tell their story.

I have created digital stories with students from kindergarten to grade nine.  The results are always wonderfully beyond expectation.  Another great aspect of digital stories is that they can be as teacher supported as needed.  It is a great whole class modeled writing and creating activity, great for small group writing, and a worthwhile individual project as well.

The MOST important component to successfully crating digital stories in your classroom is teacher planning and preparation.  As the guide, the teacher needs to walk through the process and ensure that everything will move smoothly.  A teacher must consider the level of her students, and plan for interventions and supports accordingly.  Also, a teacher should test out each step of the production process, making sure all cameras work, the software is ready, microphones are compatible and the network can handle the projects.  If not, chaos will ensue!

To help guide my own process, the book Digitales by Bernajean Porter (an ISTE Award recipient by the way).  The book provides background and context to our story telling nature as well as practical steps about how to make digital storytelling happen.  Her website, http://www.DigiTales.us/ is a treasure trove of information.  Bernajean catogorizes different types of “digitales”, such as “Itza Wrap” to showcase a personal experience and “docudramas” which use storytelling to explain a fact based concept, and on her site, there are many examples of different digital stories.  The website also includes a wiki with ideas, examples, research and step by step instructions.  On top of all that, there is a well developed rubric making tool to guide your assessment.  

If you are thinking of creating digital stories, check out this site!

Assessment and technology

Using technology as an assessment tool is a great way to usher the use of technology into the classroom.  I once worked in a school in a lower income area, with a very high English Language Learner (ESL) population.  Gaps in education, literacy and numeracy learning sometimes made it difficult to accurately assess a student’s ability.  It pushed me to consider alternate forms of assessment. In my view, assessment is based on the outcomes, not on how the student can express their knowledge of the outcomes.  Using technology is a great way to understand what a student knows.  

Recently, a colleague was telling me how overrun she was trying to accommodate students in grade 3 and 6 writing their provincial English and French writing examinations.  Instead of attempting to split herself into a hundred pieces, she decided to use simple technology to help the students and herself.  She used a voice recording application, recorded the instructions to the students then the students recorded their story.  The students could go back and review their stories and make edits orally, then the teacher sat down and scribed the story that the students had expressed.  

 Even in the last 3 years, the accessibility of tools to assist in assessment is much better.  Here is a list of how I have used technology to assess students.

• Using a word processing program for all students to write text, especially those with fine motor difficulties, difficulties with letter formation and spelling

• Using a simple text to speech app for students to record their thinking.

• Using voice recorder in phones, ipods and laptops to record student thinking

• Recording a students steps and thinking in solving a mathematical problem using Smart Notebook Recorder which records the screen and audio.  With the new direction of the Mathematics curriculum, it is important for students to explain their thinking.  Recoding their writing and audio provides not only the teacher with a snapshot of students thinking, but it can also be used to in instruction to use the thoughts of students to teach other students.

• Put readers onto a Smart Notebook file (or PowerPoint), including the text and images, and have students record their voices reading.  Again the teacher gets an assessment snapshot, and other students can use the file again to practice reading with peers voice.

• Using video cameras, cameras, phones etc to record student thinking and process in group work.  Teachers can’t always observe every group so students can create recordings of their process that can be included in the assessment.   This is especially valuable in math and science where the process and skills are very important.  \

• Using various programs and media to complete projects in any subject area.

• Digital stories (more to come...)

The possibilities are endless with using technology to assess students.  Of course, there are the possibilities of completing projects with curricular goals with various tools, programs and online spaces.  Even simpler, is using the things we have in the classroom to maximize our abilities to observe students, and for them to show us what they know!

The importance of professional learning

In a previous post, I may have made it seem like the teacher is not an important factor in the integration of technology in the classroom.  In fact, I believe the complete opposite.  Teachers, in elementary especially, are the gatekeepers to the technology that enters their classroom.  The most important factor in teachers opening their doors to new technology is professional development.  

When I commented on what teachers want, I wasn’t diminishing their vital role in the classroom and the need to be supported by well planned and well structured professional development.  What I do think needs to change is the culture of closed door teaching and learning, where the teacher shows little interest in being a lifelong learner, to improve and advance the education they offer to students.  

Someone recently commented on the term professional development versus the term professional learning.  While professional development is the prevalent term, many jurisdictions are moving away from PD to PLC.  I have struggled to understand the difference between PD and PLC, but the concept becomes clearer to me as I consider how teachers best learn to integrate technology into their practice.  The idea of professional development is a one shot, short session, where a teacher’s skills will be “developed”. A simple formula of adding something new to a teacher’s already existing skills, and presto, 2 hours later the teacher is better developed.  Somehow this doesn’t work, and when we look at  how we teach, by scaffolding, differentiating and supporting students, it’s clear why this model of professional development doesn’t work. 

To meaningfully use technology in the classrooms, teachers need to engage in professional learning, and preferably a professional learning community, or PLC. A teacher will not meaningfully and consistently use technology in the classroom without the time to learn and experiment, especially with peers.   For example, consider a jurisdiction that is creating Google accounts for all students and teachers.  The best case scenario for teachers to learn how to implement the wealth of tools offered by Google is not a one-time two hour session. It is several sessions, focussed not on the tools themselves but on using the tools to meet curricular objectives.  The focus of professional learning around technology should be to model the use of the technology as a tool for teaching or demonstrating an outcome, and not a “how to” of the tool itself.  

Learning about Google is a good example for best practice of technology professional learning because Google has built in collaboration tools.  Just as important as buy in, technical know how and identifying curricular links is the communal aspect of professional learning.  The concept of PLC, the model which many jurisdictions have gravitated towards, has embedded in it the importance of social learning and support.  The PLC model mirrors the idea of student centered classroom, where the learners explore and direct their learning to meet their needs.

At the personal, school and jurisdictional level, teachers, administrators and district level personnel need to look at not only the technology that they plunk into classrooms, but how to effectively support the meaningful use of the tools.  

Rats in the Computer Lab

I had a real “AHA” moment in the computer lab this week with my students.  I had spent the week reading about Radical Behaviorism based on the work of Thorndike and Skinner and was struggling to understand how these theories translated to learning in a classroom.  As I watched my grade one and two students complete a task in the computer lab that some people may think is too challenging for students at that level, I saw how I had employed behavior management principles without even realizing it.

First, I am not made to be a teacher of young children, and I am more suited and accustomed to upper elementary children who are more independent.  But this year I teach a combined 2\1 class, so I have had to adapt.  I, like many elementary teachers, am quite particular, like order and structure, and I like for things to go as planned.  If you have ever been in a computer lab with 7 year olds of varying ability, you know that order and structure are quickly replaced with chaos and noise.  It’s enough to turn your hair grey. 

 But this week, as my students sat down to complete as task of typing 10 sentences in their second language in a word processing program, including special characters (accents in French) correct marked errors, include and cite a picture from the internet, and print the work on the correct printer in a 60 minute period, I reveled in the order and structure of it all.  It did not start out that way.  I include this post to encourage teachers to overcome their fear of the computer room with young students, by simply employing behavior management strategies in the dreaded computer room.  

Referring to Chapter 2 Psychology of Learning for Instruction by Marcy Driscoll

, here is how I have compared my teaching in the computer lab to Behaviorist theory.  

Strengthening and Weakening Operant behavior in the elementary computer lab

Behaviors	Reinforced	Stimulus
Proper login	Positively	Praise and moving to the next step quickly
Troubleshooting login	Negatively	Removal of the error screen
Opening the correct program	Positively	Praise and success
Focusing on task at hand	Positively  and with the Premack Principle	Praise Completing a low frequency behavior(completing task)  so I can play a game online (high frequency behavior)
Seeking help from peers	Positively and negatively	Praise and not encountering a grumpy teacher
Seeking teacher’s help inappropriately	Punishment	Adverse stimulus of the annoyed teacher
Overcoming learned helplessness in any procedure	Positively	Praise and success
Navigating different drives (c drive, personal drive, shared drive) on the network	Positively	Accessing fun activities stored on various drives
Ability to complete complex tasks	Positively and through punishment	Praise and success comes with accomplishment,  Punishment of using recess or home time to complete tasks.

While some of this might seem a bit silly, I cannot stress enough the value of using a simple behavior-reward (stimulus) system with students.  Like rats in a Skinner box, students can confidently push a lever (ex. complete a successful login) and expect their satisfying conditioned stimulus of praise, feeling success and free time. Things work so much more smoothly now than they did seven months ago and I hope that the learning they have will stay with them.  When I think about Behaviorism vs. Cognitive theories, I always think of behaviorism as cut and dry, no thinking about how the learner gets there.  My behavior and training of my students in the context of the computer room is just that, simple.  You do this, you get this.  And it has worked beautifully.  I have taken a big step back, and allowed the behavior training and learning guide the students to great success.  And I have less grey hairs.  

¹ Driscoll, M.P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed). Toronto: Allyn and Bacon. p.36-44