Leader Talk

Our last article had to do with the new kind of assessment that we are starting to see in education and how this could really be a harbinger of things to come where the US starts to catch up with more appropriate assessment for the 21st century.

This article will deal with another major obstacle in US education, which is summer vacation. Funny enough, Time magazine had an article from David Von Drehle on summer vacation.. It lays out many good points about why summer vacation needs to be changed. It even directs users to a great YouTube video to do a dramatic visualization of what happens with reading levels during the summer based on SES.

However, we would like to talk about why summer vacation will never go away. The main reason is business. There are many businesses that rely on the long summer vacation. In the Time article, Mr. Von Drehle talks about amusement parks but this is only industry that benefits. There are also many other including summer camps. Especially in the Northeast, summer sleep away camps are a right of passage for many middle to high income families. Thiis industry would have to transform or go away if we actually changed our school year.

The issue, though, is that we know that summer vacation, in it's current configuration, harms low income students as well as other students in other economic groups if they are not engaged during this time period. Many magnet schools as well as other schools systems in other countries have gone away from the long 9 week summer vacation and have gone to short 3 week vacations divided throughout the year and usually occurring at the end of a trimester.

As we start to move away from antiquated assessment, is it not also time to get rid of antiquated ways of scheduling the school year? Perhaps looking at compaison data from schools in the US who have no summer vacations and schools that do have summer vacations could help answer this question.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEkIkdHwvso&feature=related)

James Yap and Teresa Ivey

"It's these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane"

Jimmy's (yes, I feel like we are on a first name basis though the courts disagree) words Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes hung on the wall of our classroom and represented my take on teaching and learning.

Students often wanted to know what it meant though I would answer "it is better you see than I tell". By the end of our time together, it was clear why I lived by those words in my approach to teaching.

My principal had a clear understanding of it, too. She knew my beliefs about learning and how teens learn. She understood why my instructional and assessment practices were tied directly to those beliefs. She challenged me to continue triangulating learning theory, motivation theory, and assessment theory to change as a teacher, to inform my pedagogy.

She explored and challenged my beliefs about how people learn (as well as our entire faculty) and how this informed my pedagogy. This, in turn, personalized my growth and impacted both the learning environment and my practices.

She understood professional development could not focus on instruction disconnected from learning. She knew that too often professional development attempted to enhance or change instructional practice without changing perspectives on how people learn.

Little did I know she was unique in that regard.

Our Lens

This is why I've been studying and engaging in research on how professional development is done compared to her approach (understand how people learn and what is motivation in efforts to understand how this informs professional development for enhanced pedagogy). What has been abundantly clear is our almost obsessive focus in professional development that jumps directly to instruction without considering foundations of learning and motivation, without considering the diverse perspectives, beliefs, and values of the teachers.

How do people learn? Does this generation of students learn and approach learning differently than past generations? What does it mean and look like to be engaged for learning? How are we considering motivation in the design of our learning environment? How are we taking into account learning theory and student motivation when designing and reviewing assessments for learning? How are your perspectives on these questions informing pedagogy?

I'm often asked about how do we get teachers to change their instructional practices, buy-in to systemic ideas, adopt technology, and other notions of "change".

We know the whole concept of change is enough to send many into a state of paralysis:

"We did this twenty years ago and I hated it then. Now it's back and you expect me to do what?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE! We're doing fine!"
"This is just a fad... by the way, my ditto machine is broken. Can you fix it?"
"Learning communities? Why don't you call it what it is -- a meaningless meeting"
"I'll just close my door!"
"You want me to do what?"
"So help me... if you say Vision, just turn around and run... run as fast as you can."

This utter fear of and resistance to change use to frustrate me to no end until I began to take note of our lens, a lens that sees everyone sharing the same beliefs about how people learn so the instructional strategy or learning space should be clear.

The reality is that these instructional strategies do not always match a teacher's belief about how people learn, which leads to one of two things in my observations:

1. The teacher resists and does not progress no matter the degree of professional development.


2. The teacher feels pressure to adopt and does so by radically modifying it to fit within their framework of how people learn (thus, depreciating the value of the strategy tremendously)

There is no better way to look at this then with web 2.0 and social media. There are many great PD programs working to enhance the learning environment with these technologies.

Yet, much of what we see with social and networked media is rooted in a belief system about learning: constructivism, social constructivism, or connectivism.

For teachers with pedagogy rooted in these beliefs on learning, professional development and change is not as challenging. It seems a natural fit. It just makes sense.

But what about those who belief students learn differently than what constructivist or connectivist believe? How are we exploring their beliefs systems to help make sense of the afforded by social and networked media?

A theme emerging from a small research piece that I've done is that without a focus on how people learn, no professional development model will succeed with the educators whose belief system on learning is not rooted in one of the three aforementioned theories.

So, What are You Saying?

I'm becoming more convinced that we have to understand and help teachers to understand their beliefs about learning.  After all, our beliefs about how people learn inform our practice, our pedagogy. When we fail to address the former, we will never alter the latter. In other words, we have to change the attitude that prevail about how people learn before we can change the direction of how teachers are getting there.

If we don't, we'll continue to accept that it is okay to only focus on the innovators. We'll be okay with labels such as innovator and laggards. We'll be okay with haves and have nots. We'll be okay with some students having better opportunities than others.

As a leader, I can't accept any of those.

There is much to clean up and much research to be done here so criticism, questions, challenges, and concerns as always are welcome.

Ryan Bretag
Glenbrook North High School
Coordinator of Instructional Technology

cc licensed flickr photo by Today is a good day: http://flickr.com/photos/good_day/59482378/

"It's these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes Nothing remains quite the same With all of our running and all of our cunning If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane" Jimmy's (yes, I feel like we are... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

Here's a story: In my earlier years, I did all of my papers on an IBM Selectric Typewriter. I wrote all of my papers in longhand and then typed them up on the trusty IBM Selectric. For those of you who are digital natives, here is a link to what it looked like and how it operated—IBM Selectric. I thought it was quite effective—I could change fonts, simply by changing the type ball. It was powerful and it didn't have many technical issues. On those rare occasions, I would take it to a person who could repair it—the IBM Selectric Repairman.

Five years later, I learned of this really cool thing called the computer. I did my graduate papers on a word processor and thought that it was a REALLY big deal to have my work stored on 3.5 inch discs. It was beyond my means to think of something like a hard drive, much less those that we have today with voice recognition software, mobile computing, and more power in our smart phones than we had less than 10 years ago.

I sometimes think of the lonely (and now likely extinct) IBM Selectric Repairman. The repairman did a terrific job—he repaired the typewriter quickly and efficiently. He was good at customer service, he charged a reasonable price, and he did everything that he could internally to ensure that he was helpful to all who needed their Selectrics repaired. Yet, the IBM Selectric was obsolete due to external changes. Trends outside of his business made shifts to what people needed. Even though he looked internally, the demise of the Selectric was due in large part, I think, to the outside environment changing.

Are there trends we need to be aware of and act upon to ensure that we do not end up like the IBM Selectric Repairman?

Here's a story: In my earlier years, I did all of my papers on an IBM Selectric Typewriter. I wrote all of my papers in longhand and then typed them up on the trusty IBM Selectric. For those of you... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

I've had the pleasure of getting to know and work with the great people at the Principals' Partnership. To support their mission of strong educational leadership, I have compiled a list of resources that school leaders can share with their teachers and community members.

I call it the List for Leaders as it compiles the top ten blogs, books, videos, and presentations recommended and organized by leading groups on the web. Please feel free to add your favorites in the comments section or connect with me on Twitter @angelamaiers to share any additions. Please take a look and take in all you can!

Each category takes you to a separate Top Ten List. You can get back to the main menu at any time by clicking the "Back to Top Ten" link at the bottom of each list.  

TOP TEN LISTS

TECH

TOOLS    BLOGS    VIDEOS

SOCIAL MEDIA

BOOKS    PRESENTATIONS

 

GENERAL RESOURCES

READINGS    VIDEOS

 

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

BOOKS    BLOGS   PODCASTS

I've had the pleasure of getting to know and work with the great people at the Principals' Partnership. To support their mission of strong educational leadership, I have compiled a list of resources that school leaders can share with their... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

I recently accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies at the University of Kentucky. What excited me about the position is that the University of Kentucky is in the middle of some big changes. It recently invested $1.5 million over three years on the P20 Innovation Lab. The goal?

Figure out ways to incorporate new technology in teaching; help bridge gaps between what students know when they graduate from high school and what universities and employers expect them to know; and shake up conventional teaching and classroom formats (read more here).

The P20 Innovation Lab is led by Dean Mary John O'Hair who headed up a similar initiative in Oklahoma. This one however seems to be much bigger and much more focused on disrupting the status quo. In a weekly web show called Lab Gab, in episode 7 Justin Bathon posed the question "How do we build an elementary school for a digital era?" Here are some of my thoughts for starters:

- Revise the goal of elementary schools. Is this the 6 years kids learn to memorize, socialize to school norms, and in essence experience status quo or are these the building blocks to innovative thinking, learning to learn, and learning to navigate digital technologies in a way that fosters innovative thinking?

-Reframe the role of the teacher. Folks worry when you talk of technology because they fear it will replace the teacher. Teachers will not be replaced with technology....BUT the role of the teacher will change. Teachers need to be comfortable with ambiguity and essentially navigating learning experiences that are foreign to them.

-Schools need to honor and thank teachers who fail when being innovative. Our current system rewards maintaining status quo (i.e., doing well on standardized tests which, by the way, I maintain does have value). How do we reward those teachers who shake things up?

-Give students access to 21st Century digital technologies. One-to-one laptop initiatives are a great start, but the expectation that laptops should increase achievement is too narrow of an expectation. Laptops give many more benefits that simply are not currently measured.

So the question remains....How do we build an elementary school for a digital era?

Jayson W. Richardson

This Mother's Day, in the midst of familial conversation, my sister suddenly remembered that her 2nd grade son had a project due the following day. Within minutes, she had the directions out and all the materials to go along with it-- the paper plate, numerous magazines, and tape. My nephew joined her at the table and started to flip through the magazines, looking for pictures to tape to the paper plate. It was at that point that I asked what the assignment was, only to learn that the students had to pick an animal and tape it to a paper plate and then tape pictures of things the animal eats, around the plate. I asked to see the directions, where I learned that students had to use magazine pictures or pictures from the computer, only, and were told not to draw any pictures themselves. When I asked my nephew what the purpose of the assignment was, he shrugged his shoulders. My sister said she thought it was because the children just read a book about an animal and were learning about what different animals eat. However, she added that the animal from the book did not have to be the same animal that went on the plate. So, I was left asking again, What is the purpose of the assignment?

Two days later I was asked by a parent why more homework is not given at the middle school level. When I asked her what kind of homework she wanted to see, she replied "more." Another parent said that her child gets enough homework and would not want "more."

Finally, another homework case was brought to my attention at the end of this same week. This one was a concern from a parent whose child received a lower grade for not coloring an assignment, even though all the material was presented accurately. The argument was simple and understandable-- Why did my child get penalized for not coloring when all the information was correct? Good question.

Homework is, in many cases, a taboo topic to discuss. What should it look like? How should it be graded? Should it be graded at all? What is the purpose? Why is it being assigned in the first place? What can administrators do to ensure that teachers are assigning quality homework that is being used to assess student learning and inform instruction?

There are several myths surrounding homework including: 1) Teachers who give lots of homework are more challenging, 2) assigning homework makes a course rigorous, 3) homework has to be given to be taken seriously as a teacher, 4) children need homework because it makes them smarter, etc. etc. etc. The truth is homework does not benefit anyone unless it is purposeful and meaningful to the student. This year, our middle school introduced a concept called "Never No Homework" that was created by on of the AVID elective and health teachers, Diane Whiting. The thinking behind this concept is that students will work "smarter" instead of working "harder" and the learning benefits are long-lasting; if students invest in small amounts of time every evening reflecting on their daily coursework, the end result will be greater success. The list below identifies some ideas for "Never No Homework" for students, teachers and parents. Obviously, this list can be expanded and would look different at each grade level; however, the concept is the same... students always have homework, but it is relevant to what they are studying in class and requires them to reflect on what they know or need to know in order to understand the content being taught.

"Never No Homework"
· highlight important information in notes
· create vocabulary cards from the day's lesson
· organize binder
· read (independent reading book, magazine, newspaper article)
· summarize notes in 3 - 5 sentences.
· describe today's main idea in 3 sentences
· create 3 questions based on your notes
· list 3 things you learned today
· list 3 things you still need to know about today's topic
· write down one thing you wanted to contribute to the class today but didn't

Lastly, we need to look at the assignments themselves and ask, Are we really preparing our children for their future? It personally makes me upset when I walk down a hall and see poster board up with glued on pictures from magazines and the Internet. Although technology is not everything, I would argue that there there can be a richer understanding of material by infusing technology. There are sites like Glogster where you take the traditional poster that you see in most hallways and move it into the 21st century. It allows for collages of pictures (self drawn and on the Internet), movies, and songs to represent what the student knows. In our high school we have a student who decided to do a Glogster montage instead of a poster. He then linked to many different sites and then created a wiki all about the Holocaust. So the next time you see a teacher asking their students to pull out the glue stick and scissors to make a mobile in a shoe box, ask the question, What is the purpose? and Who and how is this helping the student and the teacher?

Teresa Ivey and James Yap

The end of this school year is more difficult than most because over the last 4 weeks I have decided to leave my current position as principal and accept a principal position in another school. As part of the process, I have been busy sorting through both digital and physical files accumulated over the last 11 years. I am excited about my new job but I also want to make sure I take the lesson I have learned and build on those in my new setting. This means identifying the principles and foundations of leadership that I have come to embrace and clarifying my own strengths and weaknesses.

Two things that I rediscovered in my Evernote files were an article on building vision and an article on the educational theory of enactivism. These articles point to two key aspects of leadership, which need to be grappled with in defining an approach to educational leadership. Understanding your concept of building a vision and identifying the educational theories that drive your ideas of learning and teaching are essential to self-realization .The article "Vision, Leadership, Change" by Sylvia Méndez-Morse discusses the role of a clear vision in effecting change in an organization or school. Defining vision, she reminds us "vision not only describes an organization's direction or goal, but also the means of accomplishing it. It guides the work of the organization." In this case, vision is not simply about a picture of the future but it is about moving us to action. It is noteworthy that while discussing the necessity of building a shared vision that the article acknowledges one cannot always wait on that process. The article states that, "the collaborative process required to develop shared vision did not help in meeting urgent needs for change or demands for quick action." There is a balance to find with regard to change and visionary leadership. In my opinion, the effective leader has a strong personal vision that allows for action and a strong commitment to the process to build a shared vision that is reflective of and responsive to the needs and culture of the community.

Another significant concept presented in the article was the relationship between a principal's vision and a teachers' vision. While the principal usually focuses on the big picture and schoolwide instructional issue the "teachers' visions are more likely to address teacher roles and student outcomes... (as well as) more participatory and decision-making roles for teachers." The organizational focus of the principal and the more specific and individual focus of the teachers are in essence a matter of perspective and responsibility. Understanding these, differing perspectives underscore the importance of building a shared vision and provides a platform for discussion.

As the school year draws to a close and in preparation for next year, I encourage you to read this article in its entirety and join me in reflecting on your own successes and failures in building a shared vision. As part of my own reflective practice, I have found that thinking about educational theory is also part of the vision building process.

Many dissertations have been written on competing educational theories and many great minds have entered the debates about the most effective models for teaching and learning today. It is not my purpose to replicate this discussion but rather to highlight things I have been thinking about and to point you to some resources for your own research and thinking. Within the framework of a digitally connected world, education has struggled with its definition of teaching and learning. Information resources have multiplied exponentially as has our sense of global connectedness and our ability to interact with and participate in the creation of knowledge. Instructional leaders need to consider this context in building a vision for teaching and learning. Currently constructivism is one of the most discussed theories it has many variations in educational practice. A kind of generic description is found on Concept to Classroom site and states:
"... that teachers help students to construct knowledge rather than to reproduce a series of facts. The constructivist teacher provides tools such as problem-solving and inquiry-based learning activities with which students formulate and test their ideas, draw conclusions and inferences, and pool and convey their knowledge in a collaborative learning environment. Constructivism transforms the student from a passive recipient of information to an active participant in the learning process. Always guided by the teacher, students construct their knowledge actively rather than just mechanically ingesting knowledge from the teacher or the textbook."

There is much in the constructivist approach, which resonates with best practice in today's classroom, but there is another learning theory called enactivism that has some compelling components. This perhaps is not as well known and so I point you to a recently presented paper called "Instructional Design and Technology grounded in Enactivism: A Paradigm Shift?" which has also been published in the British Journal of Educational Technology.(Note: link will take you to a list of articles and this article is about a third of the way down the page) Please take the time to read the whole paper, which discusses the relationship between constructivism and enactivism in depth. What intrigued me about this theory was the relationship described between the teacher and student. At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex idea, part of the key to enactivism is that it is not about knowledge but rather about knowing. Furthermore, "Enactivism views that cognition is a complex co-evolving process of systems interacting and affecting each other and their environments." To my understanding, it is the interaction of the learner, the teacher and the world that produces knowledge and meaning and this gives support to the idea of all members of the school are learners and authors of knowledge.

Educational theories are theoretical underpinnings, which shape our visions for teaching and learning, to revisit and reflect on them can stretch our thinking. Vision however must also be built on praxis. There is no better time than the end of the year to reflect on lessons learned and to plan for the future with a new sense of purpose and vision.

Barbara Barreda

What has changed in 6 years? This summer I am changing jobs and will be exploring with a new staff pedagogical shifts, technology integration, and the NETs for students, which are key components in a rigorous, relevant curriculum. These discussions of course do not only happen once and they must be collaborative and collegial in order to develop a common vision and language. But in considering the starting point for this conversation it seems important to consider where the conversation began before and what is different now. It was just a little over 5 years ago that the story of the red paper clip was a hot topic and it was something that I shared with the faculty where I worked. It helped us understand the power of living in a connected world. At the same time we watched the video of Thomas Friedman's lecture at MIT on his then relatively new book The World is Flat. Both of these helped us discuss change. What should be done to help students understand and participate in this changing world? Knowing how and what to do was where things became difficult.

At that time the move toward global collaboration, student blogs, and adopting web 2.0 tools was still somewhat uncharted territory. The potential and importance were clear but the best practice and the details were still being worked out. It required someone to step up and take on the responsibility for paving the way, making connections with global educators, teaching the faculty tools and modeling lessons. Systemic change requires strong initiative and leadership. Even when the faculty shared the vision they were often truly digital immigrants and lack of adequate time-(time to learn, time to find resources, time to figure out what was important) was always an issue. Time will always be a finite but now almost six years later things have changed. There are structures and resources in place that may make the transitions much easier.

Looking ahead to my new position and attending ISTE with the principal who has taken on my former school gave focus to our conversations and to the sessions we attended. While building a collaborative vision is and always will be the place change begins it became clear that the next steps were much more clearly defined. It is no longer necessary "to invent the wheel" many of the pioneers and great minds are giving away freely their models, wisdom and experience. In addition it seems that there is a much clearer vision of the pedagogy and model of education that will empower the students to become effective and productive citizens in a digitally connected world.* Certainly there are differing opinions about the details but it is not the unpaved path it was 6 years ago.

Global collaboration, digital citizenship, digital literacy, innovative and creative problem solving, connecting with information and experts, and making real content contributions are all reflective of the kinds of learning that are empowered by technology. They are all reflective of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy and NETs and they are all keys to creating empowered and productive citizens. Addressing these concepts was a daunting task 6 years ago. Today there are models of global collaboration like the Flat World project which provides a framework and a model. Meaning we do not have to work in a vacuum and struggle with questions like these-
What does global collaboration look like?
How do you manage it?
How do you connect it with your standards and curriculum?

Ensuring access to up to date information in a world where knowledge and information has far outpaced our textbooks has also been streamlined to help teachers find a door in with Google advanced search, Google custom search and products like netTreker. If creativity and innovation are hard concepts to grasp the Constructivist Consortium provides lots of resources and ideas.

What has changed? Maybe it is my perspective but I think the road to change is smoother now. The focus is not on the tools but on where we are going and what we are doing. My focus will be on global and expert collaboration, accessing information, creativity and real content creation. What are you doing?

By Barbara Barreda

* You might want to watch this talk by Chris Lehman and read this report to better understand how the vision of the pedagogy and model of education that will empower the students to become effective and productive citizens in a digitally connected world is being expressed now

[Warning: this is a long post.]

I’ve been playing around with digital document annotation on various portable computing devices. Here is an overview of where I am right now…

The old way!

First of all, just as a reminder, the image below is the way that we’ve traditionally annotated ink on paper. Some of you like to use pencils or pens to underline, write notes in the margins, etc. In my life I’ve spent a small fortune on yellow highlighters.

Kindle App for the iPad

Will Richardson got me thinking with his post on using the Kindle app, his iPhone, and Evernote together for document annotation and sharing. So I decided to try it myself with the Kindle app. I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have an iPad and two iPod Touches.

Here is what it looks like when you press and hold on a word to begin your highlight (or note) in the Kindle app for the iPad:

Once the word is selected, you can push and drag on either of the dots to resize the selection and cover more text. Note that the magnifying box helps you see where you are.

Once you’ve got your text selected, you click on Highlight or Note and it gets saved with your document. Repeat as desired.

Kindle App for the iPod Touch (or iPhone)

The process is the same for the Kindle App for the iPod Touch (or iPhone). Here are two images that show you what it looks like on the smaller screen. Again, note the draggable dots as well as the magnifying box.

Kindle App for the PC

The Kindle App for the PC essentially works the same way. Use your mouse to click and drag, selecting the text you want in a highlight or note. When you’re done, select the option you want from the popup box. The gray text background then turns to yellow. See in the image below that the Notes & Marks button is selected at the top right, allowing me to see all of my notes and highlights in a scrollable list on the right.

Note: The text you select in the Kindle App for the PC is NOT copyable for future pasting into another document.

Your notes online: Why this is better than marking up ink on paper

So far, so good. The process basically works like a traditional highlighter. Every time I sync the Kindle app with Amazon’s server, my notes and highlights show up on all of my other devices too. I don’t have to lug multiple, heavy books around. I can just carry my ultralight laptop, my svelte iPad, or my pocket-size iPod Touch and have access to my reading and the accompanying highlights / notes.

As Will noted in his post, the beauty of all of this, however, is that Amazon also makes available a web site where you can see all of your Kindle notes and highlights. I can even see an aggregation of others’ highlights if I wish (which is pretty cool).

The text on the web site is selectable, which means you can copy and paste it into other applications. For example, you could put all of your highlights into a Word document, a blog post, or a note in Evernote. Will did the latter, and I’ll walk you through that process…

Using Evernote to publicly share your notes

Here’s what it looks like in Evernote if you just copy-and-paste directly into a new note:

If you clean it up first – using some judicious search-and-replace – then it can look more like this:

You can share your notes and highlights with others by making a public notebook (or tag) in Evernote. In the image below, I’ve right-clicked on the notebook I want to share and then selected Properties.

A popup box appears. Click on Sharing and collaboration options:

The Web version of Evernote launches and you get to choose if you want to share with individuals or the world at large:

If you start sharing with the world, you get a personalized URL to which you can send others (e.g., www.evernote.com/pub/scottmcleod/shared). They can click on the appropriate note and see everything you’ve put in the now-public notebook. Pretty nifty!

Another alternative: iAnnotate PDF

In addition to doing what Will did, I’ve also been experimenting with the iAnnotate PDF app for the iPad. I wanted a way to edit dissertation drafts, online reports and white papers, and other documents in PDF format. Although the GoodReader app (and, maybe soon, the iBooks app?) works great for viewing PDF files, you can’t edit them within the app. I read good things about iAnnotate and decided to try it.

I had some initial trouble getting documents into iAnnotate. I finally figured out, however, that the best way to do it is to synchronize it with a DropBox folder. That works pretty well (for GoodReader too!). Once you open a PDF file within iAnnotate, you have a number of tools at your disposal, including the ability to highlight, underline, strike out text, draw freehand, and leave yourself a pop-up note:

Although iAnnotate doesn’t give you the option of synchronizing to a web page like the Kindle app does, it does let you e-mail your annotations (with or without the document). When the annotation summary is received as an e-mail, it looks like this:

That text is then selectable, which means you can cut and paste it into other applications. Managing documents within iAnnotate is very easy, just as it is for the Kindle apps.

Reflections and implications

Here are a few thoughts:

• The possibilities of all of this for academic work are endless. I will use the Kindle app to read nonfiction books like Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus and capture the quotes and notes that I think are important. I’ll use iAnnotate PDF to do the same for those documents and research reports that I’m always digging up online. When my students send me their writing, I’ll quickly convert those documents to PDF and then be able to comfortably annotate anywhere on my iPad, without being tethered to my laptop or desktop computers. And so on…
• I love having all of the text from a book or report that I think is important – and ONLY that text – in one place. It’s searchable, it’s editable, it’s MINE. No more flipping through pages trying to find something. No more using multiple bookmarks and Post-It flags. A quick search and the text I want is there.
• It would be nice if you could cut and paste from the Kindle App (particularly the one for the PC) into other applications.
• The Pogo Sketchup Stylus - a special stylus for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch - is worth every penny when it comes to annotation. Highlighting text - particularly on the iPad - is a breeze compared to using my (apparently too fat) finger because the stylus has a smaller surface area and thus is more precise.

• As digital annotation and sharing tools continue to become more robust, it becomes much more feasible to use iPads and other mobile computing devices as replacements for books and textbooks.
• Like Will, I may never buy a nonfiction book on paper again (unless I have to).
• I like Will’s idea of getting notes off of the Amazon web page and into Evernote. If iAnnote or the iBooks app or other e-book readers and annotation tools also make available online or e-mail versions of highlights and notes, I’ll do the same for those too. That way I won’t have to worry about particular proprietary formats becoming obsolete. Now, if Evernote ever goes out of style, I’m in big trouble!

So this is where I am right now with all of this. Although digital annotation using these tools is not yet as smooth as I would like, I’m deriving a lot of benefit from the new capabilities that I do have.

How about you? How are you annotating digital documents on portable computing devices? Got any tips or suggestions?

Scott McLeod, Dangerously Irrelevant

The structure of many professional development opportunities focuses heavily on instructional strategies. The notion of learning and motivation that inform these sometimes is lacking or even worse, non-existent.

The jump directly to instruction puts the focal point on teacher practice and what the teacher needs to do to and for students. A review of professional development that includes technology shows this more times than not: a focus on how to enhance areas of a teacher's pedagogy, how to use a specific tool to instruct, or how to leverage technology for management pieces.

While surely needed, I continue to see a big piece that is missing: the need to focus on helping teachers to rethink their mindsets about how students learn and how they design, create, and display that learning in ways they determine.

Social media and technology can play a central role here, but we must remove the notion that the focus should be solely on the use of these technologies as directed or in isolation by the teacher.

Instead of focusing solely on pedagogy or a specific tech tool controlled by the teacher, there needs to be a balance of guiding teachers to understand the power of choice in how students express their learning, their growth. Instead of just focusing on helping teachers to rethink the delivery of content, there needs to be a balance of guiding teachers to power of choice in how students select from multiple channels to understand deeply foundational content.

It is time to empower students with the technology and let them drive the use. It is time to empower students in their learning and let them drive the process.

Starting Point

A starting point is the following rough equation that focuses on how students can leverage social media to learn: challenge + empowerment + engagement x choice = enhanced motivation for learning.

1. Empower students with a choice of path, creation, and display of learning


2. Create flexibility in homework (if you must assign formal homework)


3. Provide students with a wealth of opportunities and tools to guide their process of and for learning (and allow students to infuse foreign tools into the learning environment)


4. Stretch students to take control of their education as both a teacher and learner within a community


5. Provide opportunities for students to select digital tools that they feel best allows them to showcase their learning


6. Focus on proposals and conferencing with students to teach them how to think, how to select tools, and how to gauge progress


7. Encourage multiple sources of support both internally and externally, local and global


8. Develop multiple channels of content resources for students developed by teacher and students


9. Design frequent opportunities for meta-cognition


10. Allow students to showcase to the class and beyond their thinking and their processes including the digital tools they opted to use.

This is not revolutionary. A simple reading of the great thinkers in education speaks to this clearly. Still, the knowing-doing gap remains as we continue to lump the concept of teaching and learning into one. This leads to failure in addressing how our understanding of what it means to be well-educated informs not only teaching but also how we see and understand learning.

The time has come that professional development puts just as much if not more focus on empowering students with the tools for learning as we do on improving teacher instruction.

Ryan Bretag
Glenbrook North High School

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Fruit Balance by Pickersgill Reef

What has changed in 6 years? This summer I am changing jobs and will be exploring with a new staff pedagogical shifts, technology integration, and the NETs for students, which are key components in a rigorous, relevant curriculum. These discussions... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

The structure of many professional development opportunities focuses heavily on instructional strategies. The notion of learning and motivation that inform these sometimes is lacking or even worse, non-existent. The jump directly to instruction puts the focal point on teacher... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

Education is always evolving; however, recently there have been some major changes that will radically shape education for the upcoming decade and potentially for generations to come.

First and foremost is the idea of changing assessment design to be more aligned with the 21st century, which is being funded and spurred on by the federal Race to the Top Grant. Ed Week did a great job of laying out what most states are considering in a recent article. In New York, where we are from, is part of the PARCC group. If we do get the funds, in two years time, our assessment plan will look much different. Next year, we would institute a more rigorous exam than what we currently have. The following year in grades 3-8, at least, we would implement a national assessement, which would be aligned to national standards. In addition to those changes, we also might adopt short performance-based assessments two or three times a year.

Another piece that would be affected is the New York State Regents at the 9-12 level. Currently, in grades 9-12 (and some accelerated 8th graders) take Regents exams at the end of the school year. The Regents exam is an end of course assessment and graduation requirement. It is a challenging exam that is in several subject areas: Science (4 different exams), Mathematics (4 different exams), ELA (1 Exam) Social Studies (2 exams) and Foreign Language (1 exam for each language NYS recognizes). Each exam is administered every year with new questions which costs tax payers millions of dollars due to the psychometrics involved. The state , however, may also be drastically cut these to ELA and Math only. This would be a radical shift for NYS and might create opportunities for curriculum change.

This change in assessment may be the canary in the coal mine that would allow us to re-examine several areas in education. We could look at 21st century skills and build them into the performance based assessment that is coming. People refer to these skills as 21st century, but what it really comes down to is assessing the higher levels of Blooms taxonomy with a dash of technology skills thrown in.

So why would this all potentially change a generation? The reasons are numerous, but the one I find most intriguing is that we would actually be able to reverse the stigma of "teaching to the test." The tests would be seen as something that proves what a child really needs to know. We would fall into line with a lot the educational theory of giving a child more than one shot at proving what they know and are able to do. Also with the performance based assessments, we can honestly say that they are just not good "bubblers" but can demonstrate content knowledge.

A great side effect as well is that we might be able to investigate other changes that need to be address in every state like the way the school year is calendered. ---Look for this to be written about more next month.

James Yap and Teresa Ivey

Education is always evolving; however, recently there have been some major changes that will radically shape education for the upcoming decade and potentially for generations to come. LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

Some people have it. Others want it. Still others want to know the recipe or secret of it. It's influence, and I'm learning more and more about parts of how people use influence in an ethical manner. Each time we exert leadership, we exert influence. All too frequently, however, people revert to the command authority model of influence. Think of a variation of "Because I said so," or "Because I'm the boss." There may be instances where you need to use this tool, but I'll suggest that there are issues with using a variation of that phrase with with any frequency. Why?

1-It's overused. You may or may not be the boss, but if this is the only tool you have, you will run headlong into a wall when you are working with people who do not report to you.

2-It's not effective. You may get passive compliance, but that is about all you can expect.

So what seems to work? I have come across four ideas and themes that have come from both watching and listening to people who are effective influencers, as well as reading some books and articles from some VERY smart people. Here is an incomplete list of four points that can help deepen your influence as an ethical leader.

A-Determine what you want to achieve. I've written on this before, but it bears repeating. If you know what you want to achieve, you have the end result in mind. You can then look for ways to move toward that goal.

B-Seek opportunities to advance your goals. The verb "seek" is important. You are actively looking for ways, large and small, to move your agenda forward.

C-Give frequently. Bob Cialdini, an expert in influence, outlines the principle of reciprocity. People repay what you give. So find ways to give, give, and give even more. Giving makes you feel good, helps those to whom you give (assuming that what you give is something they want), and it deepens the relationship.

D-Relationships matter (a LOT). I learned this from a senior leader who told me, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." If you come in each meeting with an alpha dog mentality, you will turn off a large number of potential allies who can help you move your agenda forward.

What have you seen effective leaders do who are effective at influencing others?

Chris

Some people have it. Others want it. Still others want to know the recipe or secret of it. It's influence, and I'm learning more and more about parts of how people use influence in an ethical manner. Each time we... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/

[Warning: this is a long post.] I’ve been playing around with digital document annotation on various portable computing devices. Here is an overview of where I am right now… The old way! First of all, just as a reminder, the image... LeaderTalk Contributor http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/