How do we get 21st century learners?

This week’s essential question is, “Whose job is it to teach the NETs and AASL standards to students?”

Reading the technology standards from ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards for students and AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner was very interesting. Although they approach the standards from different angles, with ISTE focusing on specific types of technological experiences and skills by developmental level and AASL centering on overall skills and dispositions of the ideal learner, they both emphasize the importance of developing judgment in students. This applies to the content of their work as well as their use of technology, in selecting tools and using them ethically.

Many of the ideals promoted by these documents are in no way limited to technology, and it is certainly our job as educators to provide these types of experiences and instruction. Young people (at least, those with a privileged background such as attend our school) are working with information technology from very early ages. They know many ways to approach innovations in technology, but this does not guarantee the development of good judgement, or even competence in skills. Even in the exploration of the simple capacities of IT, students may only consistently develop proficiency in those areas that interest them. They know endless details of Warcraft and iPhone applications, but using a subscript for a chemical formula in Word can stump them.

As we have said repeatedly, it is not the programs themselves that we need to teach. These will evolve and be replaced continually. Rather, it is the exposure to engaging and challenging experiences that will encourage them to explore and take the fullest use of the powerful tools available.

Finally, we must consider the educator's role in developing judgement. This may be the greatest single ability we try to foster, and it is a very broad one. Judgement includes a scientific disposition, such as distinguishing reliable sources from those that are flawed or biased. It includes a social dimension, such as when to listen and when to participate, when to share and when to show caution and restraint. Finally, it includes an ethical side. Students have increasing power - to make their opinions known, to reach a large audience, to use all the technological tools at their disposal to create, collaborate, and communicate. Yet this increased power can cause as much devastation (as in cases of online bullying, etc) as it can be used as a positive, creative force.

Therefore, our job in creating 21st century learners is, yes, to show them the myriad possibilities provided by IT, but also and even more importantly, to guide them as they practice and begin to develop sound judgement.

Course 3 Final Project Reflection

For our final project, we had several options. I chose to edit video clips that we had taken in a previous class but hadn't had time to work with into a short video on proper microscope use that could be shown to students.

The whole process was very interesting and full of little bumps, so it was gratifying to finally achieve a product at the end.

Before we began recording, Karen, Harvey and I made a storyboard for what our video would look like. There are dozens of issues that arise every year when students begin working with microscopes, but we decided to choose only a few. It seemed a better plan to do tackle a few issues and have time to edit them effectievly rather than try to do everything and end up with nothing, especially since we originally intended to complete it in a single class.

Karen played the responsible student, I played the careless one, and Harvey was the teacher and the videographer. We tried to be a little silly so that movie would have some humor for the students - that was fun. We used one of these little video cameras (flip?) - they look like still cameras and have only a few buttons. We found out that it doesn't take still images and has a very limited zoom, so we had to zoom by actually moving forward. Also, the camera wasn't charged so it was very alarming to see the red battery light flashing every time we filmed a clip. We got the footage we had planned for and attempted to begin editing.

We tried to import the clips into MovieMaker, and it went through the process which took a few minutes, and then said "There was an error with 36 of 36 clips." We tried again, and then we tried in iMovie. Again, no luck. Finally we realized that the format of the clips (mpeg-4) is not supported by either program (in its current incarnation, anyway.) We had begun researching the fastest way to convert all of the clips when class time ran out. That's when I picked up the idea for my final project.

Luckily, I still have the old version of iMovie on my personal computer at home, which I knew supported mpeg-4. It's a lovely, comfortable program that we've used to edit many a family video. Unfortunately, the computer is now over 5 years old - it took the better part of an hour to complete the import, but hey, it worked.

The footage was limited, but it was fun trying to make it fit together. I made stills from the clips and reused some footage that was too short. I used captions rather than audio, with red for poor choices, green for good, and an orange for neutral information. I used creative commons to find background music. I searched for classical and on the first page found some piano and guitar (among my favorite instruments) that fit in well with the timing of the film. I downloaded a few audio effects, as well.

It took a few hours to get the audio and fit everything together. When I finally converted the video and posted it on youtube, I was satisfied with the product. I showed it to a few colleagues, and they think it's clear enough to show to students. We'll see!

The Explosion of Digital Video

This week's essential question was, "How has the explosion of web based video changed the teaching and learning landscape?"

With the explosion of web based video, many things can be visualized that could only be described previously. Here is a video showing the surface tension of water in a fascinating example:



Further, advances in video technology can show, including time lapse, pinhole cameras, and so on can show all sorts of processes never before possible. Here is a clip from the outstanding video series "The Private Life of Plants" with Sir David Attenborough.




All of these videos no longer have to be sourced long in advance as part of the school or department library. Rather, they can be found and streamed so quickly that they can be used to demonstrate a phenomenon as it comes up in discussion, or at latest, in the following class (because of course one sometimes wishes to sort through the options to find the most effective videos).

In biology, there are few things as powerful as vivid imagery as seen in photo and video. They can express clearly and memorably very complex ideas. In that way, they are a great advantage in the biology classroom.

Digital Storytelling

This week's assignment was, "Upload your group's completed digital story & embed into your blog post. Reflect on the process of creating the digital story. How could digital storytelling be used in your classroom/subject area?"



We had a fantastic time working on creating a visual story to go along with a story told by Utah Phillips, a labor activist and folk musician.

One interesting facet was effectively dividing the workload so that four people could be productive at the same time. This worked well during the image-gathering stage but was less effective when we began editing. Also, when we were searching for images, some people got distracted and ended up watching videos of people getting kicked in the testes (let me use the biological term since I do teach biology) for quite awhile on youtube.

I edited the original image times to match up with the story on iMovie. This version and some of the images we collected were later lost, so John was nice enough to put something similar back together for us. Since we had limited time, we were only able to get the pictures to align with the story about two-thirds of the way through. It was very obvious when the pictures and words became out of synch, and it was therefore very interesting to see how much information was conveyed and how powerful it was when the images and audio did work together.

Another interesting point was that different people felt that very different images were key to conveying an idea. Some people were more literalist, wanting images of strongmen and martial arts to represent a powerful blow, while others tended to more abstract representations of power like lightning and tornadoes. It was a good way of bringing into focus the important of knowing an audience, what associations different images are likely to have, and to what extent these assocations can be considered common or "universal" within an audience.

This storytelling approach could be taken in some of the more creative projects in biology. For example, some students benefit from taking a complex process like photosynthesis and making the parts into characters, and the steps into a story. Narrative is of course very powerful, and a digital story could be made along those lines.

Visual Presentation Techniques

This week's assignment was, "Reflect on a presentation you have created in the past looking at how you would implement new visual presentations techniques to better communicate your message to your audience."

I use a large number of powerpoint presentations for my IB Biology classes. I started making them when I came to ISB and had a projector in the classroom. Before that, I used a variety of other presentation strategies, but the powerpoints were very popular with the students.

By student demand, I now have powerpoints for every bit of syllabus content. At first the presentations consisted primarily of images and some animations. The students, however, wanted to use the powerpoints as review tools and without the discussion that surrounds each idea and slide, were unable to effectively use them in that way.

I therefore began adding explanatory text, primarily for when they are using the powerpoints on their own. In fact, I sometimes skip slides in class, telling them that they can read them on their own time. For the majority of students this is a workable solution, allowing them the freedom to ask questions and discuss details without worrying about copying everything into their notes. Other students struggle, either because they try to copy down every word on the powerpoint anyway or because they lose focus knowing that they have a copy and can look at it later.

In the first case, the students do not engage in discussion because they are busy copying and also tend not to put ideas into their own words. This can prevent incorrect or imprecise wording in the short run, but reduced the depth and retention of important ideas in the long run. In the second case, valuable class time for sharing and actively learning is lost.

When I was redoing one of my powerpoints, I tried to further limit the text that I put on one slide. There is tension between keeping a process coherent and breaking it into small enough pieces to be presentable. The powerpoint ended up being much longer, with more repetitive images (part 1 of process A, part 2 of process A, part 3 of process A, summary slide showing parts 1-3 of process A, etc.) I'm not sure if it turned out better, but it was an interesting process.

Another idea was to put the text into the presenter's notes so the students can't see it during class but have access to it during review. I know this would make some students uncomfortable, but I plan to give it a try in a later lesson.

This week's assignment is: Use Creative Commons image search to find an appropriate image to use in at least one of the classes you teach. Include this image in a blog post and share how you plan to use it in the classroom. How can visual imagery support your curricular content?

I used the Creative Commons image search to find the following image of an ant sipping from a drop of sugar-water:

This lovely macro can be useful in the biology classroom in many ways. Firstly, the picture can be used as an entry into the nature of pollination. The sugar-water the ant is sipping was placed there by the photographer, but it brings to mind nectar and the "exchange of services" between plants and their pollinators. The true nectar (or enticing scent) is likely to be located at the base of the flower, ensuring that the ant brushes the pollen-laden strands on its way to a sugary reward.

Secondly, it shows the surface tension of a water droplet and gives a sense of water's cohesion. At the scale of an ant, the three dimensional nature of water droplets in more vivid and real than what students ordinarily experience. The immediacy and reality of biological events can be conveyed very powerfully with images, and this is especially effective when they demonstrate things that students can't observe without the help of special technologies. This could be something on a small scale, such as the gorgeous diversity of diatom shells, or a large scale, like deforestation. It could be processes slowed down in time, like a basilisk lizard running across the surface of the water, or it could be processes speeded up, such as the amazing time-lapse movies seen in David Attenborough's "The Private Life of Plants".

Finally, these ways of improving our perceptions, seeing the detail and intricacy and "big picture" of life and living systems increase student interest and often instill a sense of wonder and respect for the things normally 'beneath' our notice, or beyond it. For students, this can translate into a greater overall connectedness to the world around them and the ability to think more creatively, from a broader perspective, and with greater insight.

Thus visual imagery is an indispensible support for my curricular content.

Another Spice in the Pot: CoETaIL's Influence on My Methods of Instruction

The assignment this week is: Write a reflective blog post on how the courses to date in this program have changed your teaching for the new year.

As educators, we incorporate countless sources of information into our instruction and make myriad choices about instruction.

Some of the sources of information we sift through each day in creating a coherent lesson include curricular goals, current news in our discipline, student and class dynamics including language proficiency and learning styles, and even the time of day or energy level when the students walk into the room.

Some of the choices we face daily include when to provide direct instruction and let students learn through exploration, when to encourage or rein in discussion that may meander interestingly off course, when to assess with "points" and when to take the pressure off, when to have student in groups and when they should work alone, when to bouy up students and when to have them take responsibility for themselves, and of most relevance here, when to incorporate the varied technologies at our disposal.

These choices read like Ecclesiastes - to everything there is a season. No one choice is right for all situations. A good educator must make judicious use of all this information and make effective, balanced, and compassionate choices that will help students learn content, become more self-sufficient learners, nurture their inherent interest, and also (I feel) make them more caring, competent citizens.

What CoETaIL has offered me is the chance to explore emerging technologies in a deliberate fashion and to improve lessons that are already good, even great, but which can now have a new enriching dimension that was not easily available when I started teaching 10 years ago. As a particular example, I am interested in students abilities to continue their discussion and explorations with each other outside of the class setting. Online communication among classmates offers many advantages, especially for reaching students uncomfortable with public speaking, or asking questions with everyone's attention on them, or who need longer to process and come up with good questions than they have during face-to-face classroom time, or who develop a sense of confidence from helping their peers; the list goes on.

I say adding ideas from CoETaIL to my teaching is like adding another spice to the pot. This is a better analogy than, let's say, adding another tool to the toolbox, because I can do more than simply solve one problem or complete a specific type of task. Incorporating new types of imagery, new methods of communication, new avenues of expression add richness and depth to the diverse and already-established methods of instruction. A teacher's bag of tricks is more than the sum of its parts; just as the flavour of a dish is more than the sum of its spices.