Use of audience response system in 7th grade class

Our use of technology at Dvorak is moving along much faster than this blog would suggest. I will try to update the blog more often!

Below is some text that accompanies a three minute rough video that I put on our website (dvoraktech.org) about the use of the Turning Technologies TurningPoint audience response system that we are using in some of our classes.

Link to audience response system video

This clip shows the use of the TurningPoint audience response system in Ms. Minter's 7th grade class. I think this clip is interesting for a couple reasons.

First, although the PowerPoint slides are pretty basic, they indicate the best practices of a master teacher: Ms. Minter took the initiative to see how the "clickers" (which is how the response system has come to be known) would work in her class. The slides only had A, B, C and D on them, but this worked because the students were given a text to refer to (last year's benchmark assessment test booklet). The students were given the question number; answering the question involved some reading and referring to the test text. It was exciting to see a teacher take up the new technology and play around with it to see how it would work in practice. Ms. Minter came up with a simple, workable -- and successful -- way of putting brand new technology to use.

Second, Ms. Minter and I were surprised to see how engaged students were with the clickers. This is evident in the clip when they start doing the New Year's Eve countdown, and their response when the correct answer is shown. I'm not sure why the clickers are so popular -- perhaps it is a combination of the instant feedback and recognizing oneself as being part of a group.

The entire clip is about 3-1/2 minutes long, and shows one complete question sequence. Ms. Minter set the timer at three minutes, which in practice turned out to be a bit long. But that's all part of good teaching practice -- design, try, reflect, revise, try again, and so on. The camera work is a bit shaky -- I didn't have a tripod at the time. And I haven't mastered editing with iMovie, so the ending is a bit messy; on the other hand maybe it adds to the authentic feel...

jd

Technology curriculum

I am still looking for an existent technology curriculum matched to the ISTE standards. I want something that shows performance descriptors for different grade levels -- i.e. much more detailed than what I could find on the ISTE site.

jd

Five weeks in...

It's hard to believe that school started here in Chicago five weeks ago. We (me and my co-Lead Teacher) have been busy working on several fronts to get the Technology Program going at Dvorak. We have our laptop cart set up with 30 MacBooks, and are going to the selected classes twice a week for about an hour at a time.

We have been focusing on basic computer skills and getting the students used to using FirstClass, the sprawling server-based application provided by CPS to its students. FirstClass provides not only a safe email client for the students, but also discussion areas, calendars, file storage, link libraries and more.

We are also working on getting the new website set up (dvoraktech.org), trying to get all of the existing equipment in a working state, working w/ the teachers on incorporating their laptops and LCD projectors into regular instruction, figuring out for ourselves how the new gizmos work, and more.

Open House is coming up in a few days, and we need to put together a little show to demonstrate what we have accomplished so far...

jd

Using technology to build community

Technology is a powerful tool for hooking people together -- for building community. I'm collecting ideas for projects that our students could do that will

(a) include talking to people in the neighborhood and/or investigating the Dvorak neighborhood's environment

(b) include reflecting on and analyzing the information collected

(c) include assembling the research and analysis into a presentation that can be shared via the Internet.

For example, the students could collect an oral history from our neighborhood's elders, and create a library of podcasts.

Or students can do a survey of plants and animals in the neighborhood and build a website of the natural history of North Lawndale.

Or...

Post your ideas!

jd

Ideas for using technology at Dvorak

Do you have ideas about how we can use new technologies at Dvorak? Computers in the classrooms, digital cameras and audio recorders, blogs and wikis, MySpace, websites...

The list of possibilities is long. I'd like to hear your ideas.

jd

My educational philosophy

I believe that everyone is capable of learning. We are human beings. Because we are human beings, we have a brain. Except is rare cases, because we have a brain we can think. Because we have a brain, we can think. Because we can think, we can learn, we can figure things out, we can create. And because we can do these things, we are all capable of doing great things.

I believe that education is both a right and a responsibility. We are social beings. Part of being social means educating our children. As part of the community, our children have a right to be educated. But with education also comes the responsibility to give back to the community. We have the responsibility to take our learning and apply it to making our communities and our planet better places.

While every child can learn, I also understand that each child is unique. Each child has his or her own way of learning. As an educator, it is my responsibility to help that child be successful in the classroom. Learning should be a joy.

I believe that technology has a place in the classroom, but it should never be more than just a tool. Technology should help the student learn, period. And so it is important to recognize where it has a proper place, and where it doesn't. It must never be an end in itself, and certainly never get in the way of learning. Technology is not a magic bullet that will solve all of our educational problems. It can, however, be a powerful tool to help children learn and think, to learn important new skills, and to help them express themselves in creative new ways.

Your comments will be appreciated...

jd

Six Degrees of Separation

Science Friday did an interesting program on January 25, 2008 on the validity of the "six degrees of separation" idea put forth by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. The program features skeptic Judith Kleinfeld and Steven Strogatz (author of Sync. The story was prompted by Discover magazine's story, If Osama's Only 6 Degrees Away, Why Can't We Find Him?". Kleinfeld is more interested in the human, anthropological dimension -- why do people sieze on the theory? Why do people want to believe the theory? Strogatz does an admirable job defending the math and the theory. Kleinfeld is good about reminding us that real world networks have certain constraints or laws or conventions that they obey, and when we are dealing w/ social connections that there are historical or political dimensions that we should be cognizant of.

The podcast of the program is available at http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200801256.

jd