Marc Aronson and the Common Core State Standards and Nonfiction

Aronson via Weston HS Global Ctr

EDCO Nonfiction and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
June 6, 2014
Weston High School Global Center, MA
Twitter hashtag #edcolibrary #msla
Presentation Notes

Presenters:
Marc Aronson, Rutgers University
Mary Ann Cappiello, Lesley University

In addition to their faculty positions and other professional activities, Aronson and Cappiello are members of the writing team that produces the Uncommon Corps blog.

What is the definition of nonfiction? Informational text, factual information, narrative nonfiction - how do we discuss nonfiction in our schools and libraries? The tendency ti to focus on what it isn't (nonfiction), and the implied assumption that reading is a fictional experience.

How do we define nonfiction?

It is NOT about being factual, truthful, or about the informational format v the narrative format. It is a modeling of a process of seeking truth using an agreed upon methodology of ascertaining that which may be true, in distinct ways, and distinct fields (Aronson).

There are many languages of nonfiction: history, math, engineering, sociology, multi-disciplinary areas etc. Instead of seeing of subjects as facts, or as settled pieces of information, consider approaching nonfiction from a different angle. Teach nonfiction as a language of subject specific conventions so students can learn the literacies of the pursuit of truth, using those accepted conventions within the various fields of knowledge. Nonfiction offers students the opportunity to read and to engage in reading as critical thinkers and active participants in assessing knowledge, and not just read as passive receptors of accepted information.

The best CCSS resource for teachers is Major League Baseball because for every game that is played, they provide a report from the point of view of each team. This provides two contrasting narratives of an event that happened yesterday.

The same baseball game can be described in 4 ways:

1. survey article of all games from yesterday
2. story of a rookie up at bat first time
3. box score- raw data
4. investigative reporting on an aspect of the game

Librarians need to "move away from our Dewey orientation", and move toward the ways various media are treating a topic (Aronson). We need to understand how topics are addressed throughout various genres and sub-genres of various disciplinary topics and rethink the idea of subject v treatment of a topic.

CCSS emphasizes reading like a writer, and writing like a reader. Through nonfiction students can begin to experience writing in authentic ways with a knowledge-base of writer's craft using comparison/contrast, writers choices, and treatment.  Conflicting information between texts is a valuable opportunity for students to witness how knowledge is not static but evolving.

Young people should see books disagreeing or coming to different conclusions (an example is Pluto, and the changing recognition of what constitutes a planet or star). Librarians are there to show the process of knowing, not to provide the answers for students. Demonstrate that experts disagree, and welcome students to participate in the debate by teaching them the basis of how people think, compare/contrast, make and build arguments. "Librarians as referees, not the ones who have all the answers" (Aronson). How do school librarians become support networks for teachers within our schools? How do we reposition as school librarians as agents of change and experts within our buildings.

Consider a new model for school librarians and as the people who support and collaborate with teachers and students who:

• provide a voice for nonfiction
• build a sense of community around nonfiction with the library as a central hub for those collaborative discussions
• facilitate nonfiction discussions within a social context

Mission - Increasing the participation of girls in computer science

Culturally, we do a terrible job of interesting girls in computer science. 99.6% of women entering college do not go into computer science. This is a travesty that must be addressed, and we can leverage nonfiction to engage girls and young women in exploring computer science and other technology related fields. We need to use our book displays to pique interest, and combat the US cultural assumption that computer science is for males. Through exposure, we can expand areas of passion to make sure all students feel math, science, physics, belong to them as an interest, and an area they can explore with creativity and passion. Read Turning the Ship Around for Aronson's response to a New York Times op-ed piece on this topic.

CCSS and PARCC

The goal of school to prepare students for life after school. It is better that they struggle and fail during their K-12 education, than when they struggle at the college level. Remediation rates at colleges are very high. Schools must absorb the challenge presented by this transition because this is what will help our students when they leave K-12 education. CCSS and PARCC are for years13+.
The standards are creative, engaging, and open opportunities to broaden curriculum, rather than narrow it. Use CCSS to re-think curriculum and view test results as an analytical tool to evaluate curriculum.

The NYC Lab School is an example of a school the successfully adapted CCSS and has improved test scores as a result. Find schools that have succeeded, and determine how they define success.

Collection Development

A starting point for school library collection development to enhance trade nonfiction.These are books that are driven by the author's passion, not created to teach specific content. Review the 5-7 annual prizes for best nonfiction K-12, make a list of past 5 year winners, publicize and circulate the list. Print out the list and post it in the faculty room, and invite teachers to highlight the titles that meet their curricular needs. Last minute budget money can go towards these purchases.

Nonfiction sections of libraries need to be regularly weeded to learn what is actually on the shelves, make sure it is current, attractive, and easily accessible to students. Assemble course packs using digital collections of chapters. Database articles can be managed in this way. Trade nonfiction is not as well integrated into the ebook world as is fiction. Weed nonfiction! Save some of the outdated books to help teachers and students understand what is happening today in nonfiction, and see the changing representation of difficult topics.

Pre-Internet the library was the place to find authoritative information. Shelf nonfiction should not be about hunting for facts, but about compelling writing. Also, the niche interests of students should drive nonfiction curriculum development. Database needs v print needs are very different, and the format should meet that need. Nonfiction for curriculum means students are under-exposed to the wide range on nonfiction formats and sources. Increased narrative nonfiction exposes them to new formats as well as increased and diverse reading experiences. Narrative nonfiction means that the author has placed emphasis on setting, plot, description, dialog, and evolving plot. Pleasure reading should reflect the diverse interests and passions of students, including the kids who like to read math texts, programming texts, and topics we have not included in our cultural perceptions and definitions of pleasure reading.

Textbooks are often equated with nonfiction in schools. This discussion is about books with voice, point of view, a single author, and narrative nonfiction should now be considered school nonfiction. Librarians should both use and recommend nonfiction as a read-aloud with great voice and narrative quality that promotes critical thinking, and demonstrates that we place value on nonfiction. Focus on pre-service teacher education with a world view that centers nonfiction literacy at the heart of practice, and the seeking out of the library as a central partner in the success of the CC standards.

School librarians need to make themselves visible in this transitional period via self-advocacy based on the importance of our skills at this moment in time. What are we offering our students that will provide reading challenge, and that also build knowledge?

Text Sets

Text sets address this need, and librarians are uniquely skilled in knowing the various formats, sources, genres, primary sources, media sources, video, and diverse digital resources that can be assembled in the form of curated materials (Cappiello). The three types of texts in the texts sets:

• scaffold texts
• content texts
• extension texts

For greater detail, consider purchasing Cappiello's  Teaching with Text Sets.

What is needed as we move ahead? Greater crossover between school library programs with educational programs in order to build realization of the value of the role of school librarians. Advocacy from within gets you so far, but perceptions will begin to transition towards the librarian as  central to curriculum planning and critical support partners for teachers. 

Aronson is eager to hear from the field and invites school librarians to visit his website, email him with comments and questions so that he can continue his learning from authentic voices in the field. Cappiello feels like a teacher who has infiltrated the library world, and is looking for greater collaboration between organizations to build partnerships and greater visions.

Stale bread

After a month long hiatus from blogging I was feeling really out of it. I was tagging things in my RSS feed to potentially blog about later. Things that made my think, new information, practices I might want to try - but I wasn't making time for the next step of synthesizing my thoughts in a blog post.


It wasn't a good feeling.

And October was such a great month for new information! eBooks Libraries at the Tipping Point, the virtual summit hosted by SLJ and Library Journal on September 29, 2010, was a flood of challenging and inspiring blogs, tweets and Facebook posts. I was tagging things but not deeply focusing on them and working to make connections. Now, when I revist links I feel as if some of the spark has dissipated. Not from the conference and the great information, but from me and my process. By waiting so long my initial excitement turned a little stale. It is as if that by not participating, I dropped out of the conversation.

October also saw the Massachusetts School Library Association and MassCue educational technology conferences in Massachusetts. Even more good stuff!

So I am walking away from things I tagged to think about later. Tired of stale bread. Ready for a fresh loaf.

Day 4 NaNoWriMo
(Not writing a novel. Using this as a prompt to blog daily for a month.)

Photo credit:

Flickr Creative Commons
Stale Bread
By Faith Durand

BLC

The BLC 2010 Conference starts tomorrow, and I am raring to go!  Passionate teachers gathering to discuss/share/collaborate/plan to deliver a cutting edge, student-centered education for their students; it is an electric environment that charges me for the entire year. I will be part of a team of 20  K-12 educators attending from our schools, and am deeply grateful to work for a district that supports teachers in attending learning opportunities like this.

Usually conference going entails my laptop and a mad scramble for a seat by the LCD projector. Where there is a projector there is electricity, and there will also be people digging around under the table cloth looking for an outlet. I tend to live blog my notes, inserting links as I go, and then posting, errors and all. This really works for me, keeps me hyper-engaged in the speaker, and captures all the resources highlighted during the session. My conference posts support me all year as I cycle back for ideas and clarification from the conference.

This year I'll be bringing my iPad, and am a little nervous. Embedding links on the fly might be a little tougher. As much as I have explored the iPad, this might require me to do more in the way of post-production editing for posts. This will be akin to jumping off the dock.

Oddly, my trusty laptop died yesterday. I can't count the conferences, meetings, countries and digital adventures we went through together. It was actually tough to say goodbye. The white palm plate was grey and cracked. The keys as well. But the toolbar, bookmarks and Firefox extensions were perfection. I spent today with my new, pristine, shiny white laptop, rebuilding, reloading.  I switched from Firefox to Google Chrome. The changes have me a little less sure-footed, but that is OK. It was time to shake things up a little.

Feeling good, and ready to learn. Can't ask for more than that!

BLC Conference | November Learning

Phot credit:
Flickr Creative Commons
Cannonball!
Uploaded on July 20, 2007
by luna.nik

Footprints in the Digital Realm: A journey of becoming a 21st century teacher

MassCue Session 7 – 2:00 – 2:50
Footprints in the Digital Realm: A journey of becoming a 21st century teacher
Fred Haas, English Teacher, Hopkinton HS

Blog:
haaslearning.wordpress.com
akh003@Twitter & Slideshare

21st Century Skills? Tech is ubiquitous, and this is te change. Kids have more time to spend on learning apps.
Catching up or Leading the Way - This remarkable book will forever change the debate about what's wrong and what's right with American education and where it should be going. Based on his own experience as a student in China and as a parent of children attending school in the United States, Zhao skewers conventional wisdom while setting straight the recent history and current state of US schools.

3Cs - communication, collaboration, cultural understanding - always the business of education, but today these are premium skills for global success.
Flattened social hierarchy - people more accessible.
The smartest person in the room is the room.
Adaptability
Complex does not have to be complicated. Goal is complex thinking, complex application of skills.

Expand notion of what you call a text. Graphic images - need skills to decode multiple visual formats: spreadsheets, image, data sources, graphic sources etc.

Convergence is already here delivering multiple formats > evolution

Live> print > analog > digital > media evolution
Core literacy > expanded literacy
text is anything that is "readable" - from which you can extract information

Good resources:
Confronting the challenges of participatory culture, Henry Jenkins. Seminal work on 21st century skills.

College Board AP Central - English & History

Moving at the Speed of Creativity, Wes Fryer.

Empowering Students Through Multimedia, Marco Torres.

It's not about technology as much as it is about how technology impacts the way we think.

Personal Learning Environment - bigger than a community, a range of skills, knowledge and people. Have to take the time to play with these new tools. Application of these tools is a creative enterprise. You control the speed - go slow, go fast, just GO!

Big Tools:

• RSS feed - required (really simple syndication) (1999)
  
• Pageflakes
  
• podcast - iTunes, Odeo, Podomatic (2000)
  
• Ning - Classrom 2.0, James Burke - English Companion, MIT - Project New Media Literacies, Connie Weber - Fireside Learning (small, intimate) (2004)
  
• YouTube (2005)
  
• Twitter (2006)
  

Tools: YouTube - good stuff, keeps getting better all the time.

• channels
• Michael Wesch: GREAT VIDEO The Machine is Using Us
  
• Stephen Heppell
• Google Talks
• Universities

Tools: Twitter
You can follow an event from a distance and get great information.

• real-time short messaging
• following - establishes network and value of network
  
• being followed
• 3rd party extensions

Everything is changing so fast, it is all new, we are all novices.

Age of Meta Data

FlatClassroom Project
Classrooms from around the world participating.
2 big componenet:
kids develop collaborative wiki space - inspired by Friedman and Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind - collectively collect and edit about these topics.
Kids make video related to their topic, POV

Wiki:
FlatClassroom.org

"The thing about working on the bleeding edge is sometimes you bleed." - V. Davis

Organize, Analyze, Synthesize & Respond: Using Diigo & Voicethread to Support Online Reading Comprehension

MassCue Session 6 – 11:15 – 12:10
Organize, Analyze, Synthesize & Respond: Using Diigo & Voicethread to Support Online Reading Comprehension
Donald J. Leu, Prof and Director, New Literacies Research Lab, U of Conn
Lisa Zawilinski, Heidi Everett-Cacopardo, U of Conn and the New Literacies Research Lab

New Literacies of the 21st Century - portal for New Literacies Research Lab
http://sites.google.com/site/newliteracies421st/

Diigo - Digest of Internet Information Groups and Other Stuff
Helps organize Internet activity. Use FIREFOX for browser.

Premium educator accounts - create student/class groups, helps management, assessment, insight into their information process and skill level.

Collaborative and powerful - extract annotations make it very powerful for evaluating critical thinking

• *Online Notebooks - access to groups Diigo account
• *Online Notebook - has link to apply for Diigo educator account (upgrade)

VoiceThread - tool for commenting
(New Literacies - VoiceThread webpage)
VoiceThread for Education - New Lit - VoiceThread wiki for educators, good resources
VoiceThread Digital Library - great for examples of educational VoiceThreads!

Educator VoiceThread - manuals - very helpful. You can have multiple identities. Free educator accounts!

Classroom Twittering

MassCue Session 5 – 10:00 – 10:55
Classroom Twittering
Michael Purdy, Director of Technology, Hanover Public Schools
(also good resource to discuss Google Apps for Schools)

Twitter creator on Iran: "I never intended for Twitter to be useful." Jack Dorsey - The Onion (6.24.09)

25-40 year olds are most active on Twitter.

Twitter is micro-blogging (140 characters).

Lifeblogging: Is a virtual brain good for the real one?

Proof! Mobile microbloggers are boring...

Lifebloggers track their every move, every word, every document with computers to create a personalized and machine-readable memory archive. Skeptics argue that no one wants to remember this much.

Why tweet?

• instantaneous
• direct
• feels personal
• searchable
• available and flexible

Terminology / How-to:

• delete your account (it is a consumable product, can delete easily)
  
• direct message (D)
  
• @message
• Retweet (RT)
• Hashtag (#)
• URL shorteners

Block unwanted followers - porn trawlers will follow you.

Issues:

• email addresses: get a gmail acccount and use "aliases" to have more than one account to mail to
• student email - huge issue in Web 2.0 world

Hanover PS uses Twitter for:

• job postings
• each school has an account for easy notification of parents who follow the school

(note to self: set up Twitter acct for library)

Teacher as Professional Learner

• self-reflection on teaching process
• member of prof learning community

General Education

• student poses question regarding class
  
• students consult one another about homework or other issues (student experts)
• create a review space for quizzes, tests that can accumulate as students head towards midterms or finals

Precis Writing
Condense "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson into 140 characters - good use of Twitter. Teaches incisive writing and thinking, main idea, key points, sentence combining.

Grammar / Vocabulary

• have students punctuate a paragraph that has punctuation removed
• have students write a sentence that properly illustrates the meaning of a vocabulary words

Literature

• students microblog as characters from within a literary work; they must reveal the motivation of character as it relates to plot
• students create online lexicon of literary terms covered in class with examples from the reading
• Twitter book club
• rewrite a play capturing its essence

Newsroom

• follow tweets of historical occurrences
• journalism classes can report on school-based news events as they happen
• journalism report events outside school

Debate

• debate assigned topics within twitter forum

Social Studies

• explain main point of great speeches
• create a study site of these speeches with interpretation
• students microblog in real time from an historical event ex the Kennedy assassination or Gettysburg, or Normandy

Science

• report science experiments

Math

• first student to solve problem
• students challenge each other
• daily math fluency

Foreign Language

• discussions in foreign language
• teach phrases
• outreach to ELL

Film/TV Study

• Students watch films/programs looking for specific instances of ex irony, symblism etc. they can tweet as the recognize occurences inwhat they watch

Sports

• tweet during sports event - reporting
• pictures can be included in tweets
• create a sports network within school

Lots of ideas!

Photo Credit:
"Meet Mr. Twitters"
Roz Chast
The New Yorker, 8.31.09
The CartoonBank

The Changing Face of Literacy and Learning in 1-1 Laptop Csasrooms: The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension

MassCue Session 5 -

Keynote: The Changing Face of Literacy and Learning in 1-1 Laptop Classrooms: The New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension
Donald J. Leu, Prof and Director, New Literacies Research Lab, U of Conn
J. Gregory McVerry, W. Ian O’Byrne, Lisa Zawilinski, U of Conn and the New Literacies Research Lab

Internet is a reading comprehension and learning issue – not a technology issue.
Internet is this generations defining technology for reading and learning and requires new literacies. Where are the standards?

1 out of 4 people, nearly 25% of world’s population has internet connectivity. Projection is that in 10 years every erson will be covered.

Internet World Stats - Internet World Stats is an International website that features up to date world Internet Usage, Population Statistics and Internet Market Research Data, for over 233 individual countries and world regions.

We are small potatoes compared to saturation in other areas of the world. This is a global phenomenon.
2005 was the tipping point year when students spent more time reading online than in books. Updated data not yet available.

• Ireland re-tooled their education system 10 years ago and now have a highly trained workforce, are the number 1 global creator of software, and are importing workers. A boom economy in Ireland right now.
• Mexico has a national plan for integrating the Internet into every home and school. 15 year systematic plan. e-Mexico details the plan.
• Japan provides Internet connections for all households 16x faster, at $22/month to support Internet integration at national level.
• How many states in the US measure student ability to read search engine results on state reading assessments? 0. Our students use a click strategy.
• 0 states allow students to perform assessments using a word processor, despite the data that shows that students would preform better if they were allowed to use a word processor. Boston College did this research.
• 0 states assess online reading comprehension in state assessments. This is an important reading task. (Extend info literacy skills to source evaluation.)

LMS are central to schools as we shift from page to screen. These will be school leaders and these positions should be protected.

Internet is defining technology for this generation, and other nations are adapting policy and education systems. They see it, and the US does not. NCLB assessments do not include new literacies.

Achievement Gap - our policies are increasing these gaps. Poor students have less access, and come to poor school districts. These schools are under pressure to improve NCLB reading scores without access to technology. Pressure to get students ready to pass an irrelevant test. The poor are left further and further behind in developing Internet reading comprehension skills. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.

The Internet requires new literacies - focus on online reading comprehension. 10% lowest performing readers are actually quite good at reading on the Internet. They are more functionaly in online environments - text units are very short. When they get to info the text expands but they have skills in plave (controlF) to manage their content. They get to choose what they read based on links they follow - and this builds engagement.
Also very good at reading pictures - strong visual skills and they can exploit this extra info to build their comprehension.

Their data shows no corelation between assessed reading skills and online reading skills. New literacies are Internet skills.

• reading to define problem
• reading to locate information
• reading to evaluate information
  
• reading to synthesize information
  
• reading and writing to communicate information

Kids are great at certain technologies, but not good with information skills. Use semantic skills and ".com" strategy. They don't incorporate search engines in their inquiry process.

Model for teaching online reading comprehension in 1:1 latptop classrooms
Predict within 10 years we will have total shift to 1:1 environment - Maine already made this shift. May need to be a decsiion at state or federal level.
Everything changes in content when you make this shift.

(Apple Remote desktop for in class space so thumbnail allows oversite of student activity)

Phase I - Teacher-led Basic Skills
(nuts and bolts - 2 weeks)

• teacher-led deomontsrations of basic Internet use skills and cooperative learning strategies
• explicit modeling by teacher
• largely whole class instruction
• mini-lessons as transition to Phase II.

Phase II - Collabortaive modeling of online reading strategies
(reading skills of evaluating sources)

• students presented with information problem to solve
• work in small groups to solve problem
• exchange strategies as they do so
• debrief at end of lesson
• initally: location and critical evaluation
  
• later: synthesis and communication

Phase III of IRT (Internet Reciprocal Teaching)

• inquiry - initially within class
• then with others around the world (ePals - good child-safe digital environment)

"Help the last become first." - Make them the leaders, privilege them in powerful ways.
Include email in your curriculum. It is the primary method of communication in the business world.

Emerging Technologies Every Administrator Should Know in the Next 5 Years

MassCue Session 4
Emerging Technologies Every Administrator Should Know in the Next 5 Years
Joseph Mastrocola, Assistant Superintendent, Peabody PS

ppt download:
www.teacherweb.com/ma/eea/educationenlightenment

Important Links:

• Horizon Report - good data on emerging technologies
• Fool's Gold - Alliance for Childhood - critical about computers and tech for children
  

• Edutopia.org - The Digital Generation

• Digi Teen - digital citizenship

• Flat Classroom Project - connecting to the world, empowering students to connect globally

• Tim Berners Lee on the Semantic Web - vision of Web 3.0 and the changes that are coming.

Educational tech has been most effective in assistive technology. Ed tech has made a difference in developing 21st century skills for students.

Skills important in hiring a high school graduate:
• Work ethic 80%
• Collaboration 75%
• Good communication 70%
• Social responsibility 63%
• Critical thinking 58%

What skills will be important for HS grads in 5 years?
• Critical thinking 78%
• Health and wellness 76%
• I.T. 77%
• Collaboration 74%

• Innovation 74%
• Personal financial responsibility 72%

5 Emerging Technologies

1. Cloud computing – create and store content on web. Free up resources that used to be spent archiving. Web is infrastructure.

Applications: gmail, googlewave (interdisciplinary Google)
Creating & Presenting: Prezi, Vuvox, Slideshare
New Apps: splashup, jaycut

2. Increased mobile devices
Note: need to update policies, procedures and protocols

School district doing this well highlighted:
Edutopia.org
“The Digital Generation” – empowering students to be thinkers.

Digi Teen – study digital citizenship
Flat Classroom Project – empowering students to connect globally

3. Assistive Technology – continues to be one of the brightest stars of technology integration.
www.cast.org
www.landmark.edu/institut/assistive_technology/index.html
www.ataccess.org

Hospital and clinic partnerships coming to 9-12 high schools.
Neuroscience and artificial intelligence – big academic growth area that are tech rich and will help special needs students.

4. Using technology to be entrepreneurial
School is a one-person circus – administrators have to do everything.
• Storefronts for raising big amounts of money to generate income to support work in classrooms.
• Ads – “this mid-term sponsored by Walmart” – this is HAPPENING! Field Day sponsored by companies
• Ebay for educational materials – trade ed supplies for school districts
• Selling on professional development materials – create it for you district and sell it on.

5. Personal web
• Personal coaching for kids – virtual counselor
• Developing and organizing online content
• 8,8,8 initiative – virtual contact outside school
• Virtual backpack (in addition to print material)
• Tools for tagging, aggregating, updating and tracking – aka formative assessment. (He mentioned the ALA and school libraries here – go us!)

Translation to the classroom
• Smart boards
• Internet drive research and web apps
• Web based admin activities
• Wireless networks
• Heavy graphics and convergence

Other technologies to watch
• Semantic-aware applications, tools designed for making meaning
• Smart Objects – link virtual to real world. Link it to student management systems.
• Data mash-ups – new ways of looking at information
• Web 2.0 to 3.0
• Desktop videoconferencing – Skype, Oovoo
• Instant messaging – Meebo
• Microblogging platforms – Twitter, Plurk
• Virtual workplaces
• LMS – Moodle
• Social networking – Nings, Pageflakes
• 3D Virtual Worlds – ActiveWorlds, Second Life, HiFives

Key Trends:
Technology isn’t going away, so teach skills that will help students, empower them, teach innovation, creativity, critical thinking, citizenship.

School Libraries: Learning4Life

MassCue Session 3 – 2:00 – 2:50
School Libraries: Learning4Life
Katherine Lowe, Exec. Director, MSLA

Handouts:
Session 3 School Libraries: Learning4Life
(materials in zipped file for easy download)

Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action

MSLA Information Literacy Standards (pdf download)

Conference handouts: http://masscue.org/Conference2009/handouts.html

Learning 4Life (L4L) – comes from AASL standards


SHIFT – old ways to find/manage info to new ways/formats/locations. NEW skills – info no longer in central phycical space.
• OLD - how to find stuff in rigid, fixed way, taught in isolation
• NEW – diverse formats and locations for information, literacy skills, flexible access to info as well as educational support and instruction. Attitudes, responsibilities of the learner in 21st century. All taught collaboratively, at the point of need.

Common Beliefs:
• Reading is a window to the world.
• Inquiry provides a framework for learning.
• Ethical behavior in the use of information must be taught.
• Technology skills are crucial for future employment needs.
• Equitable access is a key component for education.
• The definition of information literacy has become more complex as resources and technologies have changed.
• The continuing expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.
• Learning has a social context.
• School libraries are essential to the development of learning skills.

The Standards: a 4x4 Approach

SKILLS surrounded by learner attributes:
Dispositions
Responsibilities
Self-assessment

4 Standards:
• Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge
• Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
• Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.
• Pursue personal and aesthetic growth
Each standard has 4 strands:
• Skills
• Dispositions in actions
• Responsibilities
• Self-assessment strategies

Dispositions in Action (most controversial) – ongoing beliefs ad attitudes that guide thinking and intellectual behavior that can be measured through actions taken: Habits of mind, attitudes, learning behaviors - all these need to be taught.


Common behaviors used by independent learners used by independent learners in research etc.
Reflection – time is short, this often gets short changed.

How do we begin?
Indicators
Benchmarks
Assessments
Sample lessons

Book: Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action
Available from ALA Online Bookstore
Example lessons for every grade with standards integrated with content area curriculum. Collaboration key.

Report: MSLA Information Literacy Standards

Start with lessons you already do and match to standards. Review opportunities to incorporate indicators for disposition, responsibilities and/or self-assessment strategies.

Planting Seeds: How to Create Sustainable Technology Professional Development

MassCue Session 2 – 11:15 – 12:10
III. Planting Seeds: How to Create Sustainable Technology Professional Development
John Doherty, Asst. Superintendent, Reading PS

(PD= Professional Development)

Students and teachers are the same – now more stuff is free.

Why the change? Quick pace of technology change. Teachers are freaking out. Reading is in a time of transformational change right now.
Global changes in world or work, information, increased impact of media.
MEDIA CENTERS HAVE CHANGED and are hearts of technology and training for LMS – kids go to libraries first to look for something.

Voluntary 6 credit class:
Expanding the Boundaries of Teaching and Learning
Teachers who take this get tech infusion and laptop. Started the “buzz” in Reading. Initiated culture change because people are developing new language, staff are reading the same books.

Lots of blogging for staff and students to share thoughts. Info in new books being disseiminated and talked about.

Partnership for 21st century skills – keeps learning standards as always but incorporates new unique skills.
Wagner’s 7 Survival Skills – what works best for kids?
Keep PD central when considering learning needs of students.

What is at stake?
• Future of our economy
• Strength of our democracy
• Health of planets ecosystem
• Is it sustainable?

Kaplan University / Talent - good inspirational video advocating for educational change

How do we reach these new learners?
Transformational Leadership
(need energy, accept risks, don’t stop student learning)
• Realize the vision at all costs
• Organization is a moral system
• Reflects core values
• Leaders must walk the walk
• Action consistent with vision
• Risk taking encouraged and welcomed
• Symbolic communication important
• Leaders actions are beyond normal and outside the rules of self interest
• Look at educational change systemically
• Lot of work to organize path forward

Setting directions
• Vision
• Goals
• Practices
• Expectations

Developing people
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualize support
• Modeling professional practices
• Values

Redesigning Organization
• Developing collaborative culture
• Creating structures to foster participation in school decisions
• Creating productive community relationships
• Get the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus
o The wrong people are the ones you need to actively watch

Reading is under-staffed, like everyone else. Moving forward the best way possible, keeping positive, and support as much as possible.
Collaborative culture is helping save time and moving training forward.

Maintenance costs very high so keep reserves to keep tools available for teachers.
Reading has 5 year plan of growth and success to validate their plan.

The key is changing the culture – it won’t happen overnight. Talk about technology all the time. Keep up the mantra. Talk about positives to highlight and keep from getting bogged down in the problems, important to culture.

1. Work with community to develop/change mission and vision – these may/will change.

• i. Develop the process, working with stakeholders – ongoing evaluation and course correction.

2. Develop and maintain infrastructure – budgets make this tough. Might have to choose spending on network above other instructional tools (ex textbooks) but the network gave more bang for the buck.
3. Identify tech gurus in district and develop a plan. Make your plan a working document. Don’t print it and put it on the shelf. Use Google doc.
4. Identify resources to upgrade and maintain.

• Outreach to parents/community highlighting student work.

• http://donorschoose.org/

5. Put tech tools in hands of right people (Concord already did this for everybody)
6. Provide access outside of school time

• Community/Parents – classes for community

• Teachers

• Students

7. District leaders model use of technology – the whole shebang. Use it anticipating that it will always be changing. Need to learn new apps all the time, teach the skills/conventions that are portable.

• Use tech in admin meetings

• Start discussion of 1:1 computing in school

• See how other districts are using technology

8. Get Administration on board – Already on board in Concord!

• Run admin only trainings

• Run admin book group

• Visit districts that use tech effectively

What should learning look like?
Change the classroom – Alan November – build teams

GoogleDocs/NetBooks/Moodle

MassCue Session 1 – 10:00-10:55
GoogleDocs/NetBooks/Moodle
Lee McCanne, Director of IT and School Libraries, Weston

The cloud follows and supports students and teachers.

Google docs link - presentation ppt

Google Enterprise Account – protected, free
Lots of ways to go – picked one and went for it.

• Anytime anywhere access 24/7 – Google, free.
• Collaboration tools for students – multiple users
• Moodle – a place where teachers can build, manage, pace curriculum. Free. Provides academic sequencing of content. 24/7 access.
• Differentiates instruction – a course site allows richer content for those ready and more support structures for those who need it.
• Can re-brand Googledocs and Moodle.

Weston Teacher Web – professional learning Moodle for staff. Intranet for Weston. Can’t be published to the world, secure online environment for staff and student collaborations.

Google Apps – docs, spreadsheet, forms, presentation, calendars (iCal compliant, layer multiple calendars)and file storage (10gig video storage). Weston has not picked up Gmail. Goal was 24/7 access and collaboration. Run it as a secure intranet.

Google apps in Weston Schools grades 4-12 and all staff.
• Hired SADA Systems (California)– auto account sync process with their Active Directory and Single Sign-On (SSO).
o This uses LDAP for authentication.
o Accounts synched every night, reduces management. Not free.
o Authentication bounces to Weston server – need stable Internet connection to maintain authentication access.
o Single sign-on keeps things simple for staff and students.
o $15,000 set up / $3,000 per year to maintain. Don’t need backup, virus, management costs for all these accounts.
o Don’t need Microsoft Office licenses.
o Big cost savings off set initial costs.

Review of Google docs to see what platform looks like. Organized, searchable – Weston is very pleased with the interface.
• Can’t upload specialized file types (ex. Inspiration)
• Sharing capabilities is the important thing and where real power of app lies
• Limited by lack of email – can’t form groups. But if you need to give wider access you can publish the doc and send the link, but is available to the world. “Share” is not crawled by Google. Can set edit/collaboration levels. Safe and secure collaborative process inside and outside organization.

Sites – can create websites for organization. View of Weston HS site.
• Sites is a global function. Any student can create their own website. It is an intranet so it is not visible to the world. There is an invitation function so there is some control. Sites can be a closed community or open, depending on who is invited or sent “share”.
o Can invite parents to class site as a way to share student work and give access. Site is for classroom community, and not the world. Allays privacy fears.
o Can allocate site ownership to share management access/responsibility.
o Super easy to create a site.
o Students can create sites – so what? Get out of their way and let them. Potential problems are learning opportunities. Good citizenship lessons.
o Bandwidth – must build infrastructure to support this. Only an issue in school, not when kids are at home.

Student Landing Page
Template with embeddable Google docs and widgets. No instance on kids playing with widgets. Personalized homepage.
Look and feel of site can be developed using templates and personalized. All fonts/banners/etc posted and available for use as people develop their own landing page.

Site management > done through mail tab > manage this domain. As director of tech some concern over level of control, but good ability to control/ turn things on and off.

Domain mapping to create logical scheme and develop brand.

Publishing – can’t publish websites to world, but can invite via share.

Limitations
Pros – free, easy to use, easy to manage, nearly unlimited storage (number of files), size limit on file size, can run intranet with it, collaboration tools powerful.
• Students can create own internal website
• Can synch for students who do not have home access

Cons – 3rd party management tools some cost, applications not as rich or have fancy bells and whistles – do we really needs these?
• Students can create own internal website

Moodle – made for education
• Free, aside from cost of server.
• Tied to Active Directory same as Google docs.
• Zero account management

Implementation
Create video tutorials for basic access info.
Google also has support materials to facilitate people getting online. Lots of nice basic support structures to help roll out an implementation.
Weston used Woopid to create their video tutorials.

Netbooks
Weston has netbook carts running windows, but goal is to move towards the cloud for apps. Some licensing costs, but moving there.

Concord should do this.

MassCue Keynote: Tony Wagner

Raw notes:

MassCue: Tackling 21st Century Learning
The 2009 Technology Conference

Wednesday, October 28
Keynote: The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner
Co-Director Change Leadership Group, Harvard Grad School of Education

Reformulate the educational challenges that underlie 21st century learning – reframe the problem. All students need new skills for successful work, continuous learning, active and informed citizenship – these are all the same skills and we don’t know how to teach them or test them.
This generation is differently motivated to learn and work.
This is not about educational reform (punative language that blames educators). Problem is our system of public education is obsolete – it needs reinvention, re-imagination.
Thomas Friedman – The New Untouchables
– any job that can be turned into a routine will be automated or off-shored. What skills will kids need in this new economy/world? Wagner did a new type of research – interviewed leaders and developed new competencies needed for work and citizenship.

Seven Survival Skills:
1. Critical thinking and problem solving – ability to ask the right questions. School isn’t about questions, it is about the right answers.
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence – teams no longer led from top down, but led by those who ask good questions and lead collaboration.
3. Agility and adaptability.
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism – stretch goals
5. Effective oral and written communication – single biggest criticism of education. Kids can’t write because they can’t think, and they don’t write with voice.
6. Accessing and analyzing information.
7. Curiosity and imagination – in a commoditized world “plain” won’t do it anymore, need creativity, imagination and elegance. Right brain skills now as important as left brain skills in new world.

Our economy is based on spending money people do not have for things they do not need, harming the environment in the process. What if spending doesn’t come back? What will create jobs? Innovation. (Next book on innovation.) How do you mentor innovation?

Helping educators become change leaders. Do kids become less curious as they pass through their K-12 education?

U.S. curriculum is now one of test prep. This is accountability on the cheap. These tests do not assess the skills that matter most. AP tests are too content driven. We can succeed on these tests and fail our kids – they don’t tell if our students are college ready, work ready, citizenship ready, or if they can think. Research papers, oral presentations, projects – time needs to be spent on this type of work to build necessary skills.

How do we stack up? Not well compared to the rest of the world. We haven’t necessarily gotten worse, other countries have gotten better and our college completion rate has gone down.

What motivates the “net” generation”? Need to engage them in their learning.
• 24/7 access, instant gratification
• Social networking, self-expression (play) in multiple formats.
• Always connected, multitasking, creating, multimedia everywhere except school.
• Less fear and respect for authority, yet hungry from mentoring and coaching – want authentic relationship with adults.
• Want to make a difference and do interesting and worthwhile work.

How are schools responding to these challenges? New pedagogy. Harvard has brand new requirements for students starting this year. A new kind of college experience.

Education 2.0 to Education 3.0
2.0
• Timeless Learning – academic content
• Rigor
• Learn by disciple
• Work alone or in competition
• Rewards system
• Isolated content

3.0
• Just-in-Time Learning (based on dynamic problem solving to create new knowledge that is disseminated through network)
• Rigor is about asking questions
• Works across discipline
• Intrinsic rewards
• Teachers are coaches first, content experts second
• Diverse assessment system (digital portfolios, exhibitions, mastery)

3 Cornerstones of School Re-Invention
1. Hold ourselves accountable for data that matters most – what is real graduation rate? Are kids graduating college, career, citizenship ready? – National Student Clearing House (http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/)
has data to track student success after kids leave. Good way to assess HS success – only about $400/year.
2. Doing the new work – teaching and testing skills that matter most
3. Doing the new work in new ways – end teacher isolation. Teachers need to work in collaborative teams, video take supervision and teaching, make work transparent. Students need powerful adult advocate.

• Gather baseline data
• Consider strategic planning process to identify critical outcomes for all students
• Create voluntary teams of teachers to develop and video lessons for critical thinking/ communication skills,
• Pilot digital portfolios to exhibit mastery
• Develop administrator skills for helpful feedback/supervision

www.schoolchange.org
ppt and articles, web links

School Library Journal Leadership Summit 09

Processing the School Library Journal Leadership Summit is going to take some time. I have so many notes, links, new products, tools and ideas zooming around my head it is hard to know where to start.

A highlight for me was the opening keynote given by Bernie Trilling, the Global Director for the Oracle Education Foundation, and Board Member Partnership for 21st Century Skills. This is a very smart guy who participates in the educational discussion at a global level. He is also a very generous guy who gave every conference participant a copy of his new book (co-authored with Charles Fadel) 21st Century Skills: Learning for life in our times.

Bernie spoke about the power of books, and the role of reading and technology to change lives and the course of education. However, the key 21st Century Skill? Learning. Teaching students that every single day learning will be their central goal. This is a good time to be educators.

Bernie asked the summit to join him in this 21st Century Learning Promise:

I promise to do all I can
To keep the spark of curiosity, creativity and learning
Alive in every child
To help all children
Discover their talents
Develop their passions
Deepen their understanding
And apply all this to helping others
And to creating a better world
For us all.

The other really big take-away for me was the evolution on the textbook. A panel comprised of the presidents and publishers of the biggest reference, database and information technology companies in the United States assembled to talk about the current research and development, and the challenge of predicting trends in such a dynamic information environment. This was a discussion about the academic information industry at the highest level. A few points:

• Gale – move away from highly structured data and aggregating products and indexes – moving to social tagging, full text searching and powerful media rich retrievals that are now possible because of growth in bandwidth.
• Scholastic – scaffolding information to support student reading skills, clickable vocab and definitions, presenting info to facilitate instruction and use. Personalized learning tools kids will need (executive function, goal setting, etc.)
• Rosen – greater interactivity, multimedia, community sharing user-created content. Distinction between authoritative and user created content. Html5 will be a big force in the viability of mashups.
• Facebook groups embedded in database to create virtual classrooms.
• Scholastic – Online resources as digital curriculum supplement or textbook replacement in social studies and science. Reading scaffolds embedded. Bring information and make the content accessible, scaffolded, multi-media, multi-modal and embracing 21st century skills. Equity issues as play with technology.
• Follett – reading is the key to achievement, and it doesn’t matter the format for reading. Reading is still a core skill. Databases are part of the product mix to promote reading and literacy. Expanding product line to include board games that support curriculum goals and standards.

Information technology is evolving to mirror the social network methodology and but must retain the focus on authoritative sources. Good information needs to be in the same virtual spaces as students and teachers. It is clear that information publishers need to make sure their products work well with 3rd party social media platforms (think Facebook type models). There was a great discussion about creating Facebook groups for school libraries. Given the excitement in the room I think more and more schools are going to investigate this type of student outreach.

As Bernie Trilling said, learning every day is the single most important skill of the 21st century. I am very fortunate to work for a school district that supports my continued professional learning.

An Open Letter to the Concord Education Fund

Dear Concord Education Fund,

Today was the final day of the Building Learning Communities '09 conference. I want to thank you for funding our eight person team, and one of the most profound learning experiences of my professional life.

For three days our team was immersed in an extraordinary journey of challenge, discussion, and vision. I felt like my head was going to explode with fresh ideas, new digital tools, links, collaborative groups, and new ways of looking at familiar concepts. Each night I returned home beaten to a pulp by the best thinkers in education. Awesome!

The generosity of this grant enabled a group of teachers and administrators to gather for three days, and learn about the possibilities of education fueled by new technologies. Ways to engage students in their learning and prepare them for a global economy that seeks innovation, flexibility, creative thinking, collaboration, extraordinary communication and presentation skills, and authentic opportunities. It is incredibly exciting!

Our team would gather and fire ideas, questions and proposal at one another. "Did you hear this..." "What if we tried something like..." "Would you partner with me in trying this out..." "I get it now..." "Wait, you have to hear this...""This app is so cool you have to download it - now!"

Our vocabulary changed as we were introduced to the evolving educational practice of this new age. Informate, Fantastic!, radiating possibilities, Twitter Fall, cloud computing, Bump, back channel, project based learning, Rule #6 - the list goes on.

Good work is already underway in our schools, and our task is to build upon our strong base to form a fresh path for the students of Concord, Carlisle and Boston. We can accomplish so much in guiding our students toward learning about their global community, giving them the skills to become fluent in the new ways of the digital future, partnering with students and their families in looking forward and embracing the changes that are upon us.

There is much work ahead, and it is a privilege to be a part of it. My conference notes (rough as they are) can be found on this blog. Search the tag BLC09 for all notes, all with links, if you care to take a peek at this journey.

Thank you again for supporting this grant. Have a wonderful August, take a trip to the library to pick up some books, join CCHS One School One Book in reading Three Cups of Tea, and don't forget the sunscreen!

Robin

Restructuring Schools Through Design - Think CCHS Library!

Raw Notes
Session #9
Alan November, Restructuring Schools Through Design

Washington International School
Student News ActionNetwork - example of publishing facilitated by librarian - a global Ning

Future University, Hakodate, Japan

Build libraries to:

• big presentation space (big screen)
• internet capabilities for presentations
  
• social and engaging space
• global communication center
• librarian - global communication facilitator - get beyond the limits of paper, connecting children to the real world, design to build connection to authentic audience around the world. Cameras, high speed, big bandwidth pipe, projecting people out to the world from the library.
  
• role of educator is global communication facilitator
• library on first floor, own entrance, accessible at all times by students and communities
• library open on weekends, open at night, equity issues so kids can stay late. Flex time for librarians to have flexible hours and support.
  

"Don't build a new, old building."
Build different kinds of spaces in library.

1. global communication center
   
2. online learning center - kids can go there to take courses from all over the world. Facilitate whole courses in the library. Librarian as course-broker.
3. smaller spaces for small group work - (multi-media design center, noisy and messy) studios for creating content. Studios for 12/8/4/4 group sizes. Each space should have its own story/purpose.

Emerging use of library - place for students to create. Revolution of the Internet - everyone learns to publish. Kids need to make added value, make the world better, smarter. Library should be center for where this happens. Small, intimate design labs - really great idea! Collaborative spaces. Glass walls for social kids as well as supervision. Noisy environment. Mix of mediums needed to make these global connections (books, web, tech tools, e-tools, projectors, diverse spaces). Make sure technology infrastructure is easy to use and not easy to screw up.

Learning Commons - all IT people have offices in library. IT people out of labs and into classrooms to work with teachers. "Easier to build a computer lab than take one apart." - Alan November.

High Tech High, San Diego - examples of beautiful design
Learning.com - design examples - give every kid their own computer and cubicle to personalize
3 years and millions to build this space. Kids were not self-disciplined enough to work at their own space and get things done. Role of teacher was to move and kids sits still. Kids didn't want to work on their own in their own space. Didn't work. Tore it down and started again. Reverted back to classrooms and it is going well. Built glass walls so maintained some transparency, HUGE hallways, student art, murals. Moral: whatever school you build won't work.

What does work in good design? Good space planning for community. Daily get-togethers by grade level. Kids take big leadership roles. Games, team and community building, based on responsive classrooms.

Chairs - pilates balls aka Swiss balls
Teacher designed standing desk

Family / Community
Scotland - abolished Education Dept, merged with Health & Family Services. One organization serves the entire family, and education is a sub-set of family services.
MET School, Providence RI - poverty stricken area, high test scores, school every other day, because they are in the community working. Campus divided by roads, so community drives through the campus. Campus not cut off from community. Embedded in school are offices for health and human services to encourage families to incorporate into their life.

Big Picture Company - Architect / educational consultant that also supports school for future years. "Transforming education - one student at a time." Architect understands curriculum.

Merging family service - put public library in school (!) - don't like this idea. Pedophiles and oddballs would love this idea. Different missions.

Knowledge in the Age of the Internet

Raw Notes
Friday Keynote

Dr. David Weinberger, Knowledge in the Age of the Internet
(self@evident.com)
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
Joho the Blog
Twitter: dweinberger

We are beyond the Information Age and entered the Age of Internet/Connection/Differences characterized by the differences between us and our children. Nature of knowledge has changed.

What knowledge in the West has been: Ancient Greece to present > one knowledge is the same for everyone > simple, beyond the confusion of the world > universal truths, extract personal > scarce, many voices in the marketplace, many voices, a few voices worth of belief > settled, once you know it you can move on > ordered and orderly, single correct order > knowledge has been transgenerational thing based on ordered truth, correct way, stable, same for everyone. This is also a description of libraries because books have been the medium for the storage of knowledge. Has knowledge been limited because of the limitations of books/the medium?

Problem - our knowledge storage is limited by what we can store in our brain. System of authorities (paper) credentialling function: diplomas, editors > good process when there is too much to know. Gives us a stopping point for our inquiry and defer to the authority on the subject. Opposite of transparency, and settle for opacity (?) which is a hack of the lousy paper system. Paper sucks as a means of knowledge - footnotes and bibs required for acquiring deeper knowledge.

Age of hyperlinks: new type of punctuation that links you to the next thing. Network becomes a rich system of differences.

Remove paper and you get the Age of Abundance - great stuff and "crap of every sort" (his word, not mine). We handle "crap" better than the good stuff. Institutions are premised on the idea that there is a small amount of good stuff that they will find and manage for us, but this is no longer true. Now there is no longer a single correct answer but many answers, some better than the other.Wolfram|Alpa referenced.

Usually but not always "good enough is good enough." s educators our job is guide student toward when knowing when perfection and rightness are the correct response/goal.

TOPIC: Philosophy
Britannica - 180,000 words
Wikipedia - 9,000 words + millions of links
Apples to apples word count doesn't work. Totally different straegy to each topic. No longer apples to apples, we have a new entity. Topics don' start and end, but that is how paper works. Hyperlink approach is a better expression of topics than print was. Paper is a mis-conception of how topics work.

Change in the nature of topics/knowledge/expertise.
Hedghog and the Fox - Isaiaha Berlin - story a popular reference for learning today.
The network / internet becomes more expert with use, as it grows from learning communities.

Flickr Library of Congress - utilized social network to get WWII photos tagged. Tagging allows access to these perviously "unfindable" photos. Comments - boxes are discussions on aspects of photos, and proof that humans will argue over anything OR engage in conversation of anything ;) The NETWORK and SOCIALIZING of KNOWLEDGE ois where expertise is emerging.

The smartest person in the room is the room. How do we build smart community/better rooms?

Transparent data - can get past old system of authority. Links are invitations to continue. (Wikipedia - show Talk page in lessons - debate and decisions behind the article.)

Meta-data incredibly important. Drowning in tsunami of information was the fear. In fact, we are managing pretty well and information is continuing to grow via management from meta-data. Meta-data is changing is important ways.

• search a piece of meta-data (ex. author name) and get back a book
• refine seach data and get back everything and topic
• meta-data is key to the world of the topic
• meta-data is the thing you know to get data , which is what you don't know.
• meta-data is the tool to pry up the information for what you need/data
• meta-data age is now for everyone
• knowledge now has its own ecology

Arxiv.org - not peer reviewed, but collection of all submitted scientific data. PASS THIS ALONG TO SCIENCE DEPT! Don't have to wait 2 years to appear in professional journal.
We are fallible. Wikipedia is non-credentialled, but is highly credible in many areas. Britiannica is a credentialled system so we can rely n it. Where does wikipedia get its credibility? Meta-data notices list how it can go wrong, and encourages reader to contribute comments/judgements. This increases the credibility because it doesn't try to impress you with its authority, but works to give you valuable data. Fallibility is acknowledged and encourages the contribution of different opinions. Differences.

Networks and Difference (fallible) - uncomfortable for institutions (authority)

The web is fundamentally different because it reflects our fundamental moral and intellectual self. However - there are (of course) drawbacks. Division between people can be reinforced on the web and breaks down the hopefullness of the web. Big discussion not pursued. Started with Jefferson/Hamilton. Lost the thread. Summary: the web is diverse and a pretty good place, but it doesn't matter.

Educating for Difference

• media literacy - why limit number of internet sources you can use in an assignment?? Teach kids how to use web effectively. EVALUATION!
• meta-literacy (meta-data around information)
• engagement with information - learning is social, be OK with this
• public learning
  
• constructive learning - leave a place better than you found it, build stuff, share, do something with your learning
• model ignorance
• reward civil disagreement

The main thing the web is teaching our children:

• the world is far more interesting then they were ever told
  

Developing Digital Learning Spaces from Vision to Reality

Session #8
Raw Notes

David Jakes, Developing Digital Learning Spaces from Vision to Reality
(slide deck and resources available from this link)

Educause eBook - book resource w/ pdf chapters on online spaces

Poptropica - 26 million kids are registered on this virtual world website. Mostly used by 14 year olds.
Online activities - friendship and interest based. We need educational intervention with their online activities so they can transfer their skills to academic and professional tasks. What happens when networked kids come into the classroom - is there a disconnect when they hit the classroom?

kZero - online data/consultancy: K Zero is a virtual worlds consultancy. "We are specialists in connecting real worlds brands and companies with the residents and environments of virtual worlds. Since 2006 we have been examining and assessing the drivers affecting virtual world adoption and the marketing opportunities presented by the metaverse." Growth of virtual worlds for kids is staggering and we have to adapt. Toy manufacturers recognize the value and extend toys to virtual worlds, targeting kids. They are tapping into it, so should education. GREAT DATA with graphical representation!
PEW Report online use data - social network websites

How can we utilize informal learning opportunities in non-classroom spaces? Can we empower informal learning opportunities like Stanford iTunes courses (ex. programming call pone apps). Enlarge the boundaries of what learning can be.

Core components to a multi-dimensional learning space? Systemic approach based on suite of tools that support digital learning.

• teacher space
• student space - content should travel w/ and belong to student
• knowledge commons (library) - peer tutoring area, adult reading support specialists, professional development area w/ cafe, social bookmarking (teach tags). Supports teacher and student spaces.

Critical stakeholders

• need equitable access to 21st century skills / sets of experiences for every student
• parents
• support staff - ask their opinions about learning
• teachers

Technology & Literacy Goals

• articulate these Jake's docs link including by disciplines!

New Literacies - new context of old literacies: read, write, communicate, listen, speak
Different from skills, but need to develop new skills to achieve evolved literacies.

Fluency - Closing the Fluency Gap, Mitch Resnick
Beyond literacy is fluency. Ex. digital reading is different from paper reading - new skills needed to gain fluency.

The Internet (Web 2.0) is "acontext in which to read, write and communicate?" Leu
VAlues" research, collaborate, create, network, present
assign core platforms for each value

• research: RSS feed, delicious, Google, wikipedia
• collaborate: wikis, google docs, moodle
• create: blog, drupal, film, podcasting
• network: Twitter, Skype, FB IM email
• present: uStream, Flickr, iTunes, Voicethread

SPACE

• knowledge commons
  
• students learning space - Google apps / student blog - students can take their accounts with them after graduation. Blogfolio
  
• physical learning space
• course learning space

• Google apps integrated w/ Moodle - ths is a great idea. Seamless integration of teacher and student space.

David Kirkpatrick - A World Without Story

Thursday Afternoon Special Guest Keynote David Kirkpatrick
Plymouth Rock Studios - breaking ground 10-09

Raw notes

We relate to the combination of sound, music, and movement in an almost mystical way.

Homer, Shakespeare, Spielberg - hierarchical storytelling
Spielberg's next novel Lincoln, based on Kearns Goodwins' Team of Rivals.

What is mass media/TV goes away? What will the business model look like?
Sound stages needed to "protect the story" during production.

Story
Last 100 years people driven together by story.

Mass Media & Pop Culture L
Last 100 years of sound and motion. Majesty of anarchy, commonality, adds to our definition of who we are.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs


Creative Destruction - nature of economics in America.
agricultural > industrialization > information > flat world
"The end of the affair." - Wall St. Journal - end of the car. All old platform we grew up on are disappearing. TV networks, music distribution, etc. One solid entry, the screen, broadcast is now narrow-cast, to bring the networks down. Redefining pop culture hits- the hit has changed. Erosion of mass media in exchange for participatory culture. Social media is a new level of participatory media culture.
Watching online culture grow PEW reports exponential growth. Broadband the same.
64% of online teens are content creators.

Movies coming from new mediums - books, cartoons, toys. Ultimate re-mix. Shows level of popular acceptance. Hollywood no longer manufactures original dreams but reconstitutes popular choices. Story is vibrating across multiple platforms, but nobody has figured out how to bring them all together. Hierarchy of mass media has changed. People on web are influencing storytelling. Participatory culture a co-team in creative process, no longer slapped away but encouraged to be involved in crafting story.

Marketing
Smaller niches, needs to get out into the space, no longer just through the regular screens. Kids today see brand, not product. Creative expression is the key to success. Ex. Coke is now an entertainment company, not just beverage. brand i red & white. What if kids of future see things differently? What if kids see red and "see" Coke brand instead?
Decreasing attention span of the human 1970 - 125,000 / 2006 - 9,000,000

Is Google Making Us Stupid? (Atlantic Monthly July/Aug 2008) It is our search response. People are no longer reading deeply. 75% of college grads will never finish another book after graduating. Are we losing ability to read deeply?

Trends
Immersive experience. Old way of movie viewing will become interactive, showplace because of availability of large screens in homes less need to go out for movie. Production increasingly geared toward young audiences because they are the only ones going out to movie theaters.

Cloud Storage - ownership not required, just access. No longer ownership culture moving toward access culture.

Open Loop Creativity - not hierarchical. Big studios not nimble enough to respond to quick market changes.

Artist - it is us. Collaborative.
Renaissance 2.0 - new age of creativity.

Availaility of creative resources is crusial for children.
Where have all our muses gone? (Wall St. Journal, 5/09) They are our students.
Harris Poll - America's Favorite Books 2008
The hierarchical storyteller is us.

Alan November - Managing the Transition

Session #7 - Alan November
Leadership: Managing the Transition
alan@anovember.com

Raw Notes
Age of the Smart Machine, by Shoshanna Zuboff (1989) - study on technology and the return on investment, very poor in education. Technology has not increased productivity in schools or improved test scores.

Technology

• Automating research shows incremental improvement with no real increase in productivity. Critical thinking on decline because of distraction of technology. Zuboff would make this case. Train teachers to understand assessment, and design of assignments. Stop training which button to push.
• "Informating" - 3 things:
  

1. Give people access toinfo they havent had before. Info is life blood of solving problems.
   
2. New ways of people working together - more powerful than giving indivuduals tools. The power is the network not individual.
   
3. Depends on first 2. Empower people to take more responsibility for quality of their own work. The ultimate organizational goal is that everyone feels responsible for quality. Culture of schools based on teachers owning the learning. The longer you stay in school the more dependent on teacher managing learning for you, and you lose self direction, self initiation.

The systems that manage the organization needs to change. Ex. role of teacher - classes limited by children learning what the teacher already knows. Teacher evaluation - industrial model looks at ability to control behavior and manage classroom. What if teacher is asked to leave room and students given a problem they should have learned, and evaluate capacity of students to initiate and perform independently. Zuboff's research says systems/processes need to be changed in order to use technology effectively. This is classroom level, the closed loop. Open the loop and break the capacity to stay the same.

Family - schools aren't designed to help but keep family out of school. UK much more concerned with all-family services (and are now one system in Scotland). How do we help parent's get info they never had. Ex. Skype parents in and watch a student during a classroom presentation.

Automation means you are not shfting the locus on control. It does shift when you informate. This is a lever to get better quality. Ex. Japanese tolets gives them access to their own medical analysis - raw data. They can take more ownershp of their own body because they have better data. In education kids will have access to more info than we can control. How much are we automating and how much are we informating at CCHS?

Key leadership point - make sure technology is aligned to curriculum. Give students new role - redefining job description is a system change. Pioneering educators give students new jobs and are more in charge of their own learning.

IDEAS

Suggestion Google Custom Search to engage parents and open loop. DO THIS FOR CCHS LIBRARY! Builds capacity in the home to support learning. This is where we need to pay attention. Invite faculty to same search engine and add all favorite websites. Right now teacher websites look like individual classrooms. Need collective wisdom to be available to all students at all times. Ex. post all vocab for all grades for all students for instant feedback via free online sites - this is a shift of control. When you build one search engine everyone needs to be in the same room. Do this by department/content area. Custom search generates unique URL, invite (99 limit)> collaboration > email to contribute BEST resources to search engine. Harness team to work well together. Embed code as widget > get the code > insert in textbox / html box.

Cloud Computing - tools, content all moving toward web, end of hard drive. Business demands this because collaboration is more powerful than individual word processors. Collaboraton is the power. Microsoft betting the company on this. New Office will be collaborative. NOW is the time to teach students collaboration.
GoogleDocs - example of cloud computing. Try this with Chairs. Also create Ning.

High Tech High - students own learning, highest minority test scores in USA. At start of school kids asked to tell teachers how to teach 10 most difficult concepts.

Sub-Committee on Globalizing Curriculum - Students need to learn to play nicely with the world.
site:ac.uk "general gage" "american revolution" universities in UK for results, get UK perspective. Find out how UK teachers teach American Revolution.
Way Back Machine http:web.archive.org to find dead URLs
Use internation domains for searching

SUGGESTIONS:
Get to Informate - organizations fight this shift in control because they want to survive they way they are.
Teach children to work with people around the world, teaching them collaboration, the number 1 global skill. Every classroom a global communication center.
Change job description of kids to become responsible for own learning, custom search engine and collabortaive platforms are examples.

Teacher Observations: family involvement and engagement with new technologies, teacher evaluation in class with students and teacher out of the room