TeacherTube Mashup

(cross-posted form Karen's Mashups)

Below is one of my favorite mashups of all time -- a compilation of different clips from TeacherTube. If you aren't familiar with TeacherTube, it's a video sharing service for educators that has all kinds of great content for a variety of subjects and grades and even professional development topics, produced by teachers, students, and professional organizations. I think this is a terrific resource for differentiating instruction (especially with mobile devices).




Full credits and links for this show here.

Please feel free to use this in any way you find useful. I plan to use it at professional development workshops to give folks a quick look at all the great free video resources available to them.

Throwing out the textbooks

I presented a keynote a couple weeks ago on Open Education. In talking about the reasons for open ed, I make the following points:

• We must differentiate instruction if we are going to engage and reach students who have increasingly diverse backgrounds, skills, and interests.
  
• Textbooks are not an effective tool for differentiating (or engaging) students.
• Technology can be a better tool, but high quality content is required for effective integration.
  
• There is a huge industry that has grown up around the development and adoption of textbooks. There is a lot of money invested in this industry, and it is not likely to change, regardless of the benefits to learning.
  
• Open educational resources (OER) provide a new approach to this challenge.
  

So after my presentation, a very excited teacher came up to me and said, "I've done just what you've said! I've thrown out our textbooks!" (He told me later that they actually sold their textbooks. Great idea for a fund-raiser!)

He then went out to his car and brought back the materials he's developed to share with me. He is a history teacher and has developed a very innovative system that he calls the "dynamic classroom." It involves binders that the kids construct over the course of the year, bringing together predictable learning routines, effective strategies, and hands on activities.

What most struck me in talking to this gentleman was 1.) his passion for his subject matter and for teaching, 2.) how much personal time and effort he's put into his teaching, and 3.) the results he's gotten with his students.

Then I started thinking about the potential of this approach. The materials appeared to be perfectly suited to building a wiki. I began imagining each kid with a $300 laptop building interactive web sites instead of binders. The possibilities are rich. Then I started thinking about this project built as an open-licensed curriculum. Everyone could benefit from the work this industrious teacher has done.

I know that there are teachers all over the world doing creative things like this, prompting their students to have rich learning experiences. These teachers know more about their content and engaging kids than most textbook publishers do. I think that most of these teachers are willing to share.

This is the potential of Open Education.
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Image courtesy of Alexander Baxevanis.

Take control of your own learning

Over the last year or so, I have been working on methods to differentiate professional development that I facilitate. Some things have worked better than others, and I'm refining my methods.

A lot of the impetus is on the participants, and I encourage them to take control of their own learning. Occasionally, I have a group, though, that just wont. If they don't understand something, they don't ask questions or use the various provided resources to help them. Worse yet, sometimes they just sit and do nothing. Others who may already know something I'm covering don't explore new areas as I encourage them to do; they instead do email or shop online. It's frustrating.

Over the past week, I have worked with a group that did a uniformly great job of making the most out of the PD time based on their own needs and abilities. People who were at a beginner level asked a lot of questions, used various resources provided, and learned at their own pace. People who were further along and more comfortable with what we were doing worked on advanced topics of interest to them, regardless of where we were as a group. They asked questions as needed, and everyone had a successful workshop.

After the workshop, a couple people who had asked me about something that had sent them on their own leaning course that was different from where we were as a "group" stopped to talk to me. They thanked me for letting them do their own thing and not being insistent that everyone in the group do the same activities. I thanked them for being assertive and independent about their own learning. I shared that sometimes people aren't willing or able to do that. They went on to say that many of the workshops they go to have facilitators who are very strict about everyone "being on the same screen." They said they've had bad experiences in the past with facilitators constantly looking over their shoulder and being intolerant of them working at their own pace or on their own interests.

That really got me thinking. Maybe the reason that some educators seem to have trouble taking control of their own learning in PD is that they aren't encouraged to do so. Even worse, they may be discouraged from this.

I know that it is not always comfortable as a PD facilitator to have a roomful of participants all working on different things, at different paces, and with different styles -- but that's what differentiation is all about! If we can't model and practice this ourselves with adult learners, how can we expect to accomplish it with kids?

The best learning practices are not always neat and orderly. We need to remember this for adults as well as kids.

MAHETC rocks!

Wow -- I had a great time at the Mid-Atlantic Handheld and Emerging Technology Conference again this year. It had all the elements of a great conference: small, high energy, interesting people, very hands on and interactive, and an intriguing mix of pedagogy and technology.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this together and who attended. Stay tuned for upcoming posts on some things that got me thinking there.

If you didn't get a chance to attend, check out the wiki. All the session and workshop materials are here.

And for those who did attend, I posted some follow-up things from my sessions that answer some questions raised or otherwise might be of interest. (This on-going communication is one of the things I love about PD wikis.)

Power-hungriness

If you are a gadget geek like me, you probably struggle with the whole battery issue. I love rechargeable batteries, but, over time, the juice seems to drain out of them. Pretty soon, it seems like you have to recharge them almost every day.

Then I found the La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger. This charger has a refresh mode that refreshes batteries so they hold a charge again like new. It also has some other nice features like automatically defaulting to the optimal setting for prolonging battery life and switching to trickle charge when charging is complete to ensure maximum battery capacity.

I don't know exactly how this all works, but it really seems to work.

(Thanks for Brad for this one.)

LOL - History of Mobile Technology

Each year at NECC, the team of Saul Rockman, Michael Jay, Heidi Rogers, and Elliot Soloway present a humorous session called "LOL @ NECC." This year's session was filled with many laughs.

Here is one of my favorites...a look at the history of ed tech and the beginnings of the Learning Company.

No more "Pimp your web site" - Ad-free Wikispaces for free

Wikispaces is now offering complimentary upgrades to ad-free spaces for K-12 educators!

If you're starting a new space, use this link to start as an ad free K-12 space. If you want to upgrade an existing site, go to Manage Spaces and and click Subscription. Then scroll to the bottom and request a complimentary upgrade.

I love Wikispaces, and this forward-thinking policy is one more plus. Their wikis are very easy for beginners to use. I'm using them as a basis for many of my workshops so that people have the information to access later and so that those who can't attend can participate virtually.

Thank you, Wikispaces!

(Thanks to Becky Hart for this info.)