E-Textbook Report

I had a wonderful moment last week.  I was able, really for the first time as a teacher, to assign a book report.  Now, I have taught English Literature and Composition for years, and have worked with countless students on reading, analyzing, responding to, synthesizing information - all of those higher-level reading skills which are so important to develop.  But I had never, until last week, assigned such a simplistic task: read a number of books and tell me about them.

Here's the best part: the assignment was for our teachers.

This is why: as I have mentioned in some earlier blogs, one of our goals is to increase the integration of technology in our small boarding school.  Remember that this goal came with its own, powerful external motivation: the accrediting body for our school district visited the school and made that "recommendation".  The recommendation had the same tone as when your dad used to say "I wouldn't do that if I were you".  In other words, there was an implied insistence to it. 

So, here we are, looking at how we can do that.  We have updated our computer lab with new laptops for student use.  We have a pilot program of Smart Board that we are beginning in August.  We are investigating the creation of a "digital campus" where students and teachers can post assignments, messages, rubrics and grades on student walls.  Next month, I will be presenting a proposal to the board that would make part of our enrollment the purchase of an I-pad for each student that comes pre-loaded with our software, apps, and - here's where the book reports come in to play - the needed digital textbooks.

This is the way I see it working, but I have neither I-pad to play with (coming in July) nor textbooks to cite, so correct me if I make an assumption about a technology's capabilities that is not possible.  When a student enrolls in our school, they have, because of the nature of our institution, had a rather untraditional high school career up to that point.  I am sent a pile of transcripts (the record is seven different schools by the end of tenth grade!) which I need to decipher.  I say "decipher" because the US credit system is like a national railroad system where each state uses a different gauge of track.  After that, I create an academic plan that allows students to fill holes in content and skill areas and either graduate high school or transition smoothly back to the States with a "cleaned up" transcript.  The next step I would like to see is handing that student an I-pad that has the textbooks they will need for that academic plan.  Need a semester of Biology?  180-day subscription already available.  Taking the SAT?  Access the prep course here.

Hence the book reports.  I want each teacher to investigate the offerings of digital textbooks out there and report back on their findings.  Are they interactive?  What will the costs be?  Is content complete, are they updated regularly, do they include teacher support, additional links, etc.?  So far, our best bet is from http://www.coursesmart.com/ which interfaces directly with mobile devices.  The reports are due next week, I'll keep you updated. . .

Is There an App for That and The Last Child in the Woods

Earlier this week, I read the article "Learning: Is There an App for That?" which presented a great deal of information on the current usage of mobile devices from both adult and children's points of view, an investigation of the "pass-back effect" (when an adult hands or lends a mobile device to a child for use), and, most importantly, presented a section on turning the research into practice, an area that I find many academic studies lack.  One concern in the practices section caught my eye, that of increased mobile learning and dependence on digital technology might lead to "both physical and academic lethargy. This concern was substantiated in the Parent Survey as the number-one reason that parents reported for restricting technology

use. They believed such use would prevent their child from getting physical activity or exercise." 

The article continued by assuaging those fears with the results of studies that showed that children spent an average of 20 minutes engaged with mobile learning devices, rather than the extended periods of time spent watching TV or playing video games.  While this explanation does mollify the concerns to some extent, it ignores the fact that the remainder of the article is calling for an increase in the use of mobile devices for education and meaningful play, which, if successful, will eventually make their point of 20 minute-averages moot.

At our boarding school, we have a required staff reading list for professional development.  Among the tomes on Multiple Intelligences, active learning, meaningful assessments, etc. is a book called The Last Child in the Woods which discusses the shift of late from children playing outside during their free time to sitting in front of a screen, be it TV, video game, computer monitor or, more recently, mobile device.  This has led to, what he calls "Nature Deficit Disorder."    See a review of this great book here: http://www.hookedonnature.org/lastchild.html

When I was a boy, my twin brother and I would leave the house after breakfast, dissapear into the woods and would not return until dusk for dinner.  We would get filthy, scratched up, bitten and bruised from rock climbing, running from bulls in pastures, holding epic battles with briar bushes and thistles, catching crayfish and frogs, and generally having a ball.  This is also where a great deal of my learning took place.  Not simply the Tom Brown Jr.-type of learning of  "If you eat that weed, you'll get sick" or "Pine knots make great tinder" (although a great deal of that learning took place) but more sophisticated learning of how to work together and get along with my brother and friends, how to problem-solve, and to reason spatially.

Enough waxing nostalgic.  My point is that mobile learning has the opportunity to enhance these types of activities with the right applications.  As a child, we searched for treasure and created sophisticated battle plans.  Couldn't an app lead children to engage in these activities, and actually enhance them with maps, augmented reality, history, biology and botany, among many other possibilities. 

I think so.  It may take the development of water proof I-pads, but I hope mobile learning and battling pirates in the forest aren't made to be mutually exclusive.

A Discussion of Mobile Photos and Videos and Some Goals

In my first blog post, I took stock of where I am in this tech-laced world, and took a bit of an inventory of my interfaces with that world, which did not take very long.  In this post, I would like to do two things: 1. talk briefly about the tool of the week (Mobile Photos and Video) and 2. Set some goals for myself both during and after this course. 

I am happy we are beginning with mobile photos and video, because these are the technologies I am most comfortable using as a teacher and feel like I take advantage of the opportunities they present.  In my English classes, we study photojournalism and photo techniques, and I am continually prompting my students to view their world through the lens and to write fiction and non-fiction as a series of well-composed Snapshots.  We actually do a project where students write stories, other students read those stories and "illustrate" them with a series of photos, and then a third set of students write stories based solely upon the photographs, a kind of visual and literary telephone game.

I became interested in documentary film making about four years ago.  Our school is lucky enough to take our students on an international trip each summer.  I am in charge of creating the curriculum so, when I was told our destination was the Galapagos islands, I thought "what better way to showcase student learning than through a documentary film?"  We (our students) shot, wrote, edited and premiered at a theater in down town San Jose a documentary about the islands and tourism's effects on them.  What an amazing experience!  It then became the expectation that each year we would do the same, so we have been adding to our repertoire of knowlege and have premiered documentaries about the Galapagos, the cultures of Peru and their Incan influences, the temples of Belize and Gualtemala, and are returning to Peru in a month to film again!

As far as goals for this class and beyond, I have some extra external motivation: our annual review for certification as a private boarding school identified the main area of need in our school as in increase in technological investment.  So, my very job depends on me reaching these goals:

1. We are looking into having an I-pad or other mobile device part of enrollment.  This will involve a virtual school community such as http://www.mybigcampus.com/ which allows teachers to post assignments and grades, students to communicate through an internal, Facebook-esque application, the community to use an internal email system as well as many other cool things.  I am currently researching the opportunities and have ordered an I-pad to check it out (it will come in July)!

2. I am planning on using the Facebook and Twitter requirements for this class to set up a long-overdue alumni follow-up site for our school.  Every one of my students promises, upon graduating, to contact me with detail of their journeys and then, when they hear I am not on Facebook, never do so. 

3. Our school is entering the SmartBoard pilot program in August.  I envision one in each of our classrooms, but I need to meet with our faculty to brainstorm ideas so that the boards become truly new tools for improving our pedagogy, and not simply fance projectors.

I am sure I will identify many other goals as we go along, and will update my list as the course continues.

So, it's my first blog.  Ever.  it's amazing because for a long time, my girlfriend actually supported herself partially with blogs about travel and living in Costa Rica, yet I never thought to write one, but here we go. . .

The first thing I would like to talk about is my situation with technology and mobile devices.  I am, I suppose, something of a technophobe, a luddite who threw the one cell phone he ever owned into the Sea of Japan because he was tired of being contacted.  I often will not even answer my house phone unless I am making plans or trying to get something done.  I have always said that I wouldn't get up and run to my hammer if it started to ring, why should I do that with any other tool.

I imagine that provides some insight into how i view mobile technology, a tool that should be there when needed, but I have yet to take the step into having it be ubiquitious in my life.  My students, however, have, and that means that, in order to reach them and prepare them for success outside of high school, it's time to make a few changes.  But first. . .

Inventory:

Smart phones: zero.

Cell phones: zero.

Laptops: two.

I-pads, pods, phones, anything "I-": zero.

Pictures on Facebook wall: zero.  Why, you ask.  Read on.

Facebook accounts: zero.

Number of tweets: zero.

Twitter accounts: zero.

It's obvious we are dealing with a relatively blank slate at this point, so let's set some goals.  As discussed in the article "Are We Wired for Mobile Learning", "Digital Natives" struggle with the traditional education system, with "chalk and talk".   My school is well aware of this, and has responded with a Multiple-Intelligences approach to teaching and learning.  But we need to look at the use of digital technology, not as simply a fancy way to deliver the same content, but as a totally new way of learning, where nobody is "master" of information because everyone can access the facts with the touch of a button (or a screen.)  I will talk about how this is changing education in later blogs, and in my next post, will discuss my goals for myself, our school, our students, and what is motivating these changes.