The Future of Educational Job Security:
Many of you may have heard about CNN's use of holograms to report on Tuesday's Presidential campaign. Simply, reporter’s 3-D images were arrayed in studio utilizing cutting edge technology. I thought it was pretty cool, although at this point, it amounts to little more than that which networks have been able to be do since the 1960's, via satellite. However, it got me thinking about our very own industry, education.

I recently stumbled upon a video clip from the Cisco Corporation. This video clip illustrates several of the potentials that exist in the information dissemination field in the future. Take a look into a future where we have available a technology that potentially displaces the classroom teacher. I can see it now, in the year 20??, some school district, say in the Rocky Mountain region, opening its doors in September to students, who stream in with new wardrobes, to rooms filled with holographic portals, projecting private sector educational facilitators, who recently graduated from an educational IT program that marries pedagogy with information management systems, social networking platforms, and information dissemination devices. The economic implications may be extraordinary. Take a private contractor, who pays for their own insurance, developing a unique problem solving, experiential curriculum that caters to public school electives, charter and private school programs, or adult educational services. The individual would perform services across a large geographic region, utilizing tools such as Google apps, ning, delicious, online interactive whiteboards, and other digital tools available at the time. District's can begin to transfer financial resources into infrastructure, rather than salary. Health care, rising salaries, and qualitative instructional limitations would be replaced by a market driven by the surplus of teachers due to budgetary limitations as a result of our current global economic conditions. The tsunami effect such technology could have, would ripple into the very design of education, creating a bi-polar world within education. On the one side, those individuals who stand behind the standardization of students learning, and those who believe in "non-traditional" curriculums and environments.

Or maybe, it simply leads to

A Beautiful Morning!

I am glad to be writing again. I have spent the better part of the last eighteen months avoiding the writing portion of the blogosphere. I have a previous blog called classroom change, which I was very proud of and spent the better part of a year writing and contributing to the educational conversation that was occurring online. I feel I had a modest audience, and was interacting with what may be termed as some of the world's preeminent educational technologist. However, I have let that blog go dormant, where I will let it remain. It has served its purpose in providing me a great start into the read/write web. Since then, I have continued to develop a greater personal understanding of what is occurring and how the future may be impacted. Like some twenty something, needing to go see the Grand Canyon, or a trappist monk seeking peace and understanding in the solitude of Kentucky, I decided to take a break, and travel the educational technologist highway, hitch hiking across the internet in search of some greater enlightenment. I always loved the discussion occurring online regarding the transformative influence technology was having on our world; however, I felt the personal need to provide something of substance and reason.
Thus, I am brought to this moment, in the hopes of compiling a meaningful, thought provoking, dialogue about the future of our world’s educational environment. I am fully anticipating this dialogue crossing over into social, economic, political, technological, pedagogical, and cultural realms of society. In the end, I hold a tremendous amount of hope that any and all conversation will

An Inspiration For All


A young girl named Laura was looking for a way to remember the wonderful qualities of a grandfather she had recently lost. Laura's grandfather was very important in her life, sharing ideas about generosity, love and kindness. As a way to remember her grandfather, she decided to begin a blog titled Twenty Five Days to Make a Difference, that would chronicle her adventures throughout this holiday season. Well, this young girl has begun something truly powerful, expanding upon the blog to create a contest that shares the stories of kindness.



What would our classrooms and schools look like if we as educators, learned how to harness these technologies to create a character education class based on these same ideas?

Great job Laura, I will be following!

Collaboration: Enjoying the Art of Powerpoint

I can imagine that many of us feel it is impossible to keep up with all of the new technologies out there. I know for a fact I am having difficulty trying to stay on the "cutting edge", if there is even such a thing anymore. Everyday, the blog tech crunch posts anywhere from ten to twenty new post, discussing new ideas and technologies hitting the cyberspace. It’s enough to make your head spin. Couple the technology initiative currently underway in our district with the thoughtful education initiative, and we begin to recognize time is quickly becoming the greatest commodity in our professional development. Therefore, I have a suggestion; collaboration. I admit, this is not a new concept; however, professional collaboration is becoming much more readily accessible due in large part to several power tools now available on the internet. Our community of practice wiki is an example and alone can become the very hub of professional growth in the district, if we as a staff are willing to make this a part of our individual professional learning.

So how can we as a staff understand the power of collaboration and begin to leverage what is available on the internet. I thought it would behoove readers to start with a collaborative platform on the internet called slide share. Slide share is a free online community, where individuals join, download, and post powerpoint presentations. Imagine, you are searching for a quick presentation on Life on the Ocean 500 Years Ago and you search slide share. Low and behold, after a couple clicks, you have in front of you a down loadable presentation that can be customized. Such platforms are not merely used by teachers either. Students can save powerpoints online and share them with the class, or the world. Take a look at this global warming presentation posted by several students this past summer. On the day of this post, more than 1600 individuals viewed this presentation, and it was produced by our very own students.

Joining is simple:

1. click on the sign-up link at the top right hand corner of the slideshare.net site.

2. fill in the proper fields with the appropriate information.

3. hit enter and you are now a member of one of the most powerful multimedia collaboration groups out there.

Enjoy!

Let's Try Cartoons

Everyone loves the Sunday comics. I can remember back to my childhood, on those cold winter days, during the weekly family pilgrimage to visit grandmother after Sunday church, how reading the Peanuts, Garfield, Dagwood, Family Circus, and Prince Valiant would pass the time. These days, I have to wrestle the comics from my three children and our dog. Mind you, I read the comics to revel in the nostalgia of my youth more than anything else.

As a young man in high school, I have fond memories of many lectures that began with a comic strip from the previous Sunday paper. As a classroom teacher, I see the same practice used by colleagues to this very day. Recently, I found a neat little cartoon strip creator called ToonDoo. I cannot help but think of the incredible potential this has in the classroom. As educators look to continuously increase the student voice in class, I am finding technology can become the greatest accelerate for that idea. Imagine, instead of a teacher utilizing a comic that coincidentially ties into the topic of the day, why not have the students produce a comic strip of their own, as a form of assessment, as a hook for a discussion, as a means to reinforce content, or as a start for some piece of writing.

As usual, I grabbed one of my technology guinea pigs, my children, and try out my idea. My oldest daughter who is currently in fifth grade, loves to tell stories, but has had very little opportunity to develop a visual story board. I sat her down in front of the computer, asked her what she learned that day in class, gave her the website, and let her go. Without any directions as to how the program works, she was able to produce a three frame comic strip on the concept of supply and demand, in under 60 minutes. "You gotta love them net-geners"!

Imagine an entire class producing comics for each other, reinforcing concepts and ideas learned in class that day. Think of the rich possibilities with writing math, and science. Imagine, students developing their own publishing contests, developing a criteria for student judging, putting together a "how to manual", the possibilities are endless.

The nice thing about this technology is, "it's FREE"! It is also very user friendly, with click and drag construction. Simply review the backgrounds, the characters, and get going.

Wax-On, Wax-Off

Last night while performing the nightly parental juggling of homework, baths, and reading, my second daughter asked if she could play Webkinz. I really do not have a problem with my children playing Webkinz, provided they limit their time to 20 - 30 minutes, and it does not become an issue with their siblings. It does force the player into decision making and problem solving and I feel it is worth their time. Unfortunately for her, my oldest daughter was already playing. With her the indomitable spirit like "Molly Brown", my second oldest daughter's eyes lite up and she asked, "can we play some math games on your computer?" As proud as any nerdly father, whose child just figured out a rubric cube, I looked down at my little cherub, patted her head, and said "of course". Now mind you, she had played a flashcard game the previous day on the a-plus math site, and enjoyed the simplicity of its interactivity. I thought it was time to test another site called cool math 4 kids. Jackpot!!! Cool math 4 kids is not unlike many math sites out there, except, it has a terrific game called lemonade stand.

The goal in this game will be to make as much money as you can within 30 days. To do this, you've decided to open your own business -- a Lemonade Stand! You'll have complete control over almost every part of your business, including pricing, quality control, inventory control, and purchasing supplies. You'll also have to deal with the weather, which can be unpredictable, which will play a big part when customers are deciding whether or not to buy your product.
Other factors which will make or break your business is the price you charge and customer's satisfaction. As you sell your product, people will decide whether or not they like it, and how much they like or dislike it. As time goes on, they'll start to tell their friends, neighbors, and relatives (hence, your 'popularity'). Sell a good product for a good price, and you'll build business over time; overcharge for inferior products, and you'll be out of business sooner than you'd think.

As I sat and watch my second grade daughter pick up on the process and concept of this game, I was reminded of a very famous scene from the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, where the main character Danny Larruso (Ralph Macchio) was told by Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to wax a car using clockwise motions to apply the wax, and counter-clockwise motions to remove the wax. After hours of waxing, he confronted Mr. Miyagi about was educated on how waxing a car was teaching him martial arts. The Lemonade Stand was like waxing the car. My daughter played the game for 25 minutes and completed the entire 30 day simulation. In the end, she actually lost money, but it gave me an opportunity to watch how my daughter learns. She was completely engaged by the experential nature of the task, continuously asking questions and making decisions. On one particular day during the simulation, the weather was 59 degrees with over cast. I commented, "phew, its pretty cold, what do you think?" She immediately responded, "people were not going to be very thirsty on such a bad day." I helped her understand that when people want to buy something, they usually call that demand, and when you want to sell lemonade, you call that supply. She slowly began to pick up an elementary understanding of supply and demand. She was learning economics and all she knew was she was playing a game (Wax-on, Wax-off).

I then began to think of how such a game could become a wonderful part of a classroom math or economics lesson at any level. Imagine, teams of students begin the simulation and blog about their teams decision making process. Maybe teams blog about why they choose the price, the quantity of supplies, or the ingredients? Then, students could create a graph, and plot the demand curves and the supply curves. Students could read each others blogs and make comments or suggestions from their own experiences. Furthermore, the class could create a wiki, and begin to collaborate as a class, identifying the 10, or 20, or 50 best ways to make money selling lemonade. Teams could construct a "how to book" for lemonade stands. Finally, teams of students could present their findings to a class, simulating a presentation to a ficticous board of directors. The possibilities for such fun is endless.

Change - Time - Knowledge

Our High School Action Planning Committee has spent the 2006 - 2007 school year organizing and familiarizing themselves with the authentic applications of technology in our classroom instruction. It would be irresponsible of me to avoid mentioning several key obstacles we as a district face, when trying to build on the momentum of change so many of us have begun throughout this past school year; however, I have given it much thought and wanted to share with the readers of this community of practice, several important points that must be identified and addressed, in order for our work to continue down a positive and productive path. The hope and intention of this comment is to begin an open discussion, that would search for a solution to the problems of change.

• Educational change, and the pace of change, is driven by technological innovation and the pedagogical demand to accommodate individual learning styles (thoughtful education), and a growing need to engage students, amidst growing cultural awareness of global competition. Failure to maintain a pace in one area, creates a ricochet effect.

• One often misunderstood element of change that convolutes progress is the concept of synchronization and horizons of time. Districts that pursue multiple initiatives cannot expect a complete synchronization when the pace of change is inherently based on desynchronization. The culture of change that our community of practice is striving for, cannot sacrifice research and development, experimentation, trial and error, to meet imposed deadlines, which are often imposed by outside forces, whether political or economic. The culture of change becomes more complicated when change involves multiple levels of the organization, each with its own ecology of time. In a nut shell, fights over synchronization disrupts operations, especially the most important partnership necessary in educational change, the partnership between administration and the teaching staff.

• The reality of any culture of change rest on the facts that educational change traditionally responds on a ten or twenty year schedule, affixed to industrial time tables (bus schedule, bells, periods, yearly budgets, standards, etc). The emergent economy driving much of the change within education, operates on radically different temporal principles. Personalized markets and products create personalized time tables.

• So what does this all mean beside the now famous phrase "shift happens"? Our greatest challenge for the 2007 - 2008 school year lies with the need to come to some understanding that desynchronization is quickly becoming a part of the educational evolution of the Iroquois School District. How we as a group, committed to providing the most authentic, engaging, fulfilling educational experience for the students of the district, manage the manner in which we as a group, building level, department, and individual, approach our role in this effort of change. This will more than likely thrust many of us outside our comfort zone, inherent to our industry. Teachers and administrators will need to focus on engaging in revolutionary instructional practices, that move beyond traditional roles, and focus on a more student-centered learning environment.

• Furthermore, we are operating in an era where knowledge is not longer finite; rather knowledge is configured into broader and higher levels. The economics of knowledge in the 21st century cannot be looked at as it were in the industrial age, where knowledge was perceived as a scarce resource. Essentially, with digital technologies, knowledge has become inexhaustible. The industry of education must move beyond the mass production and consumption of knowledge, and begin to leverage the technologies to administer differentiated instruction with an understanding that the knowledge supply is expanding exponentially.
  

The Ramblings of Potential Insanity:


Over the past eight months, I have personally and professionally come to embrace the relevance and rigor that on line, web-based technologies afford the learner, in both an classroom setting, as well as a individual learning experience. I want to qualify myself at this point as a convert, a person who truly believes that my professional involvement in education has seamlessly adopted these new tools and the pedagogy that accompanies them. However, I am still struggling with where all of this is going, and I would like to share with you several thoughts (more like ramblings) and questions that have come about as a result of my participation in this educational revolution.

First: As I read about the revolutionary capabilities of these technologies, and the push to promote the adoption of these technologies, I cannot help but think that the movement for change may be unrealistic in the near future. In may own classroom experience these past eight months, I have battled with the lack of technologies both in the home, and in the classroom. As a member of a group of teachers within the district I teach, pursuing the proliferation of these wonderful tools, I cannot help but dwell on the issue of finances, availability, and the cultural dilemma we all are confronted with. Example: As the first member of the staff pushing the use of blogs, wikis, and online tools of collaboration, I had little difficulty in securing the means within the school, to educate the students, and promote the growth and usage of these technologies. However, as time passes, more and more teachers are beginning to adopt these strategies, and we are developing a situation where the current quantity, and foreseeable technologies available, may begin to fall short of the necessary needs of both the staff and the students. Now, I would like to point out that we have at Iroquois, possibly the greatest amount of support from our administration, and no one would like to see this educational revolution occur more than our very own superintendent, who himself has embraced these technologies in a very unique and successful manner. However, there is the reality of finances. No community, nor state, can expect to meet the growing demands of this type of technological change occurring within classrooms, without incurring the rath of taxpayers on a local, state, or even national level. Furthermore, many of the districts I have looked at, do not have in place ample infrastructure to accommodate the technologies being discussed. What compounds my concern is the cultural view of technology within the family. I can honestly state that my fourth grade daughter will have her own tablet within two years, as I plan on replacing the current model I am blogging with tonight. We also plan on affording the same opportunity to our other three children. This is a financial choice my family has made because we see the value in raising our children with these tools. I would also like to add that we have wireless, and four computers in our household. However, what about the family that cannot afford such luxuries, or fail to recognize the value in buying computers instead of T.V.s or SUVs. As more and more teachers within the district adopt these technologies, how does a family with multiple children, receiving multiple assignments that use these tools, logistically support that type of academic environment. What about the parents, whose mortgage payments depend on seat time in front of the family computer? How are they going to adjust to their children's academic work load when multiple teachers begin assigning on line collaborative projects, similar to the ones I currently assign? Are we looking at the end of reasonable bedtimes, in order to met the family schedule for computer time? Are we looking for government to afford tax-breaks, similar to fuel efficient automobiles, to anyone who purchases a computer for academic or home business use? How can we expect those families, not in-tune with the changing global approach to education to throw hard earned cash at something that may very well be low on the priority list?

Secondly: In a recent hour-long conversation with a twenty-something employee from Microsoft, we began to discuss the future of the traditional school as we know it today. Now I realize there exists many new platforms such as Second Life, and other virtual learning communities out there, but I think that it would not be prudent on the part of educational leaders, to think that the traditional forces of supply and demand will catapult these platforms ahead of the traditional institution of education that exists in our current model, especially when you combine this thought with the first point made previous in this blog. That being said, how can a school, bombarded with quickly evolving technologies, and a growing sense of urgency, construct an environment that meets the technological needs of the immediate transformation occurring in education. Wireless is great, and I know for a fact that there are several model districts out there who have adopted this approach. I also recognize the value in a laptop rich academic environment that affords, not only teachers, but also the students a of district, the opportunity to develop a truly exploratory and collaborative form of education. But I get the sense out there that we are becoming a technological bull in a china shop. With the growing pressure to transform education, we are beginning to allocate financial resources toward an immediate adoption of technology, without addressing some real hard questions, in particular, security, funding, training, and longevity. No one wants to commit financial resources that will be viewed five years from now as a band aid.

Which brings me to several observations, and please recognize I am not a naysayer. I believe this is the future of not only our educational system, but our world. Currently, many teachers, schools, and nations for that matter, are running the race of the hare. There does not seem to be any consensus as to what a 21st century student will need. Yes, we can clarify that much of traditional taxonomy still holds true; however, we have not yet dealt with the value of content. How can our math and sciences, so badly in need of attention, accomplish the necessary outcomes while diminishing the value of content. What about liberal arts? Where do the arts and history fit in? Why is it that overarching frameworks of content, such as the need for individuals to understand the importance of political, economic, social, religious, intellectual, and artistic institutions on a historical level, lose out to higher order thinking. I realize that most knowledge is just a keystroke away, but wouldn't our civilization be better off with well-rounded individuals who have a foundation of knowledge, similar to that of the 20th century educational model?

Thirdly: Young people, in particular the youth of America, need intellectual and social discipline. Are we preparing a generation of individuals, who will be educated with such intellectual freedoms that are so unique to this point in history, that they might not be able to appropriately function within the demands of the "real" world? How will the generational gap be addressed in the real world. How does a forty-something, who has been a part of a defined business world, function next to an individual who is being educated in a virtual world, that has greater flexibility of time and schedule, than any previous generation? Are we on the verge of seeing the tail wag the dog?

The more I read from the educational community in this blogosphere, the more I question the radicalization of schooling. The discussion of academic change, from all observations, may be at an inappropriate and irresponsible pace. We know the positive impact that these technologies have on individual learning, and that digitizing and globalizing the academic environment may have the greatest influence of knowledge since Gutenberg's press; however, shouldn't prudence and planning precede such radical evolution. With teachers screaming for administration to "tear down the walls" and all of these technologies being used by a growing number of the world educators, wouldn't it serve our interests if we used these technologies to develop a national, or international congress of education (forgive the verbage).

The irony of this post lies in the fact that I will be participating in a classroom environment over the next two days, that has my very own students, addressing a problem solving issue of World War II. Each community of practice within each class, will have utilized digital text, formed a group in diigo and social bookmark their topic, collaborate on line using skype and vyew, to produce a portion of the class wiki, and a fifteen minute power point presentation or podcast, discussing their findings. I will then take this example and present it to a group of teachers at a regional conference called "Riding the Digital Wave", in the hopes of convincing others to take the righteous path that appears to be more frequently taken these days. Talk about insanity!

Community of Participation
Practicing and Preaching Collaboration

I am enjoying a professional rebirth here in the Iroquois Central School District. I, along with several teachers and administrators, have been able to develop a Community of Practice. This is nothing new, professional communities have been a part of mainstream change in industry forever. However, I have never been a part of one, let alone one of the facilitators.

The objective of this community is to promote change within our high school, with the hope that this will spin out towards the other levels within the district. I cannot help but be excited with the potential this community presents to the staff and students at Iroquois. I am meeting tomorrow with two curriculum specialists from the regional Board of Cooperative Educational Services and hope that this community comes up in our discussion.

The concept I enjoy throwing around most is the potential gravitational pull this community can have on those teachers who are reluctant to dip their toe into the instructional world of technology. With a collective community of hundreds of years of expertise and online tools of collaboration so readily available, no better way to share ideas and best practices. This is our way of changing our own little corner of the world.

Wow!!! It Has Been A Long Time:


Did you ever wonder what makes an individual lose interest in something? Is it laziness, boredom, apathy, or exhaustion? Recently, a light bulb burned out in a stairwell in my house. Now, if you knew the layout of my house, that particular light bulb plays a very important role in illuminating a safe passage down a flight of stairs. I don't know what it was, but that bulb took several days to change. I was a pretty big light bulb but I am a pretty handy guy. I can't help but feel my absence as a blogger for nearly a month, has somehow diminished my worthiness to participate in this community. I almost feel like the athlete who struggles back to a comfort zone with their teammates, after having experienced an injury. I know it sound ridiculous, after all, no one is out there keeping track. But I just feel odd and cannot quite put my finger on it. Maybe it is the pace of change, or it's that I am finding the echo chamber reverberating back the same message, and I sometimes feels like I am back in a faculty lounge.

There has been a great deal of discussion regarding what to call this educational shift and how slow it seems change is occurring. Maybe I am reading this incorrectly, but that is what I've discovered. I cannot begin to describe the personal and professional transformation I have experienced as a result of having been introduced to all of these technologies last July. I share with many of you the observations as to how my individual learning styles and capacities have changed, all for the better, since discovering the power of web based tools. I cannot help but feel transformed. But I've stopped writing and I am not quite sure why. I don't believe that it's from a decline in my enthusiasm. Anyone looking for me between the hours of 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., can easily find me reading my bloglines, and discovering new ideas, in the comfort of my family room. Maybe I am becoming absorbed in transforming my own little world (room 208), or that I am avoiding the grand fight of transforming the educational culture. For what ever reason, I have stopped writing and wonder if something is broken. I have missed it tremendously, but I feel like there may not be anything of significance to say. I thought that getting back into the game a little, and shacking off the dust, may be all I need.

On one particular night, around 11:30 p.m., I read a post by Clay Burell, a neat and creative idea regarding students developing podcasts for history. I went to bed, and tossed and turned for nearly an hour. I had a freight train of ideas running through my head, and there's not a lot of room up there. My wife nearly asked me to sleep in the family room. The other day, while washing the dishes in my kitchen, I began to become so absorbed with the development of a collaborative project using diigo, I washed the same glass for nearly five minutes. In preparing for an upcoming conference, I realized the irony of the 41 slide power point presentation I had developed to inform the participants of these tools. I feel like I am turning into the Richard Dreyfus character in the 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. You know the guy who builds the model of Devil's Tower in his living room.

Why do we begin to complicate our lives by taking on the challenges such as educational reform Why should a 39 year old married father of four begin a professional transformation that redefines priorities and diminishes time on the ski slopes? In a skype conversation with another blogger, I explained the sleepless nights, the obsessive hunger to clear my bloglines, and the hypnotic control these technologies have over my creative energies. He laughed and stated "you appear to be headed on to bigger and better things." I don't know if that is necessarily true, I don't have my administration degree, and I have some pretty deep roots in the district I teach.

What I began to realize was, I, like so many of you, have the opportunity to be a part of something truly historical, and much bigger than any one of us. When I graduated from St. Bonaventure University in the spring of 1989, I never envisioned a world like the one we live in today. I never envisioned the profession of education, being as much in a state of future flux as it is today. No one knows for the first time, what the future holds for education. Will the institution of education as we know it today, still be in existence 5, 10, 20 years from now? Will the school two miles from my home, remain the heart of the community I live in, or will that change as well. I don't know what the future holds, but I know that I am very excited to be a part of it. When I was ten, I got a chance to be one of the first guys from my neighborhood to ride a new roller coaster at the regional amusement park. I didn't sit in the front seat, nor was I in the back. I probably sat about four rows from the front. I definitely enjoyed the ride, and took a little pride in being so far toward the front and one of the first to ride.

Maybe, as a teacher, I am experiencing a close encounter of the professional kind, riding an educational roller coaster of change. All I need to do is figure out where to sit, and what to build.

Our superintendent, Neil Rochelle shares with us several thoughts on a daily basis. His emails usually includes this poem from Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow."

Maybe it's as simple as that.