Archive for category online tools

2011

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, personal, reflections on January 17, 2011

Back from San Francisco and trying to muster a direction for blogging…is it too late to flag closure of 2010?  I thought this Facebook app was pretty cool:

*sigh* I’m expecting to need a different approach to online communication this year as email and social networking become more closely aligned with my ‘work’ than with reflection and dialogue.  What that means in reality…stay tuned!

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Australian Children’s Literature

Posted by kmcg2375 in books, english, online tools, university on September 17, 2010

I have recently joined a team of people at QUT who are starting to develop some English teaching resources for the digital Australian Children’s Literature resource on the Austlit website.

AustLit is currently available at “almost all universities and research libraries around Australia, many municipal libraries and at some universities and research libraries internationally.”

As I started to look into the area today, I became more and more interested in the idea of exploring Australian children’s literature.  I wonder how many old books are lying around out there, in Op shops or Trash and Treasure stalls, waiting to be found…and collected.

I found an interesting site with a bibliography of Australian childrens’ literature authors.  When you click on the names of the listed authors and illustrators, images of their work are often displayed, and these are fascinating.  They make me want to read some books like this one by Pixie O’Harris:

Next time I am at my Nan’s I’m going to raid her bookshelf – hopefully she hasn’t thrown away the picture books she used to read to me as a kid.  They will make an excellent start to my collection!

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4 Comments

Collaborating with the Boss

Posted by kmcg2375 in education, online tools, school, social media on July 20, 2010

My budding questions around how power operates in social networks and how networking constructs our identity are still on my mind.

I suggested in one post that the reality of using social media (“If you’re going to be a big boy and swim, and benefit from, these waters you have to be able to take it.”) means that teachers, who are often not in positions of power, need to be mindful of how they construct their identity online, and stop being naive about the ‘glorious, open sharing’ promised by social media being consequence-free.

These ideas were not met well by some.   I suspect that such comments sound like an attack on ‘the boss class’.  But this is an exact example of the very thing I’m talking about.  It’s hard to discuss online practices without taking it personally if you think you are being criticised, because we invest our identities in what we do and say online.

So, I tried to take my thinking in a different direction, and came up with some generative ideas about how school leaders can better support teacher change by more specifically ‘diagnosing’ the reasons for resistance.  People liked this.  I liked this.  And it’s a line of thinking that I know I’ll follow up.

But it doesn’t really speak to the original issue.

That’s why I’ve gone for a nice, clear, provocative title for this post.  And I hope people will not take it personally (as so many people in my PLN are bosses!) when I say that there are real problems with inviting staff collaboration if you don’t have a plan for how to cope with dissent.

We can say that we ‘encourage dissent’ until the cows come home.  We can say that disagreement is generative.  Sometimes these things hold true.

But what support structures, what strategies, need to be in place for this to succeed, for all involved? (<– this is the generative part that I hope people will think about and engage with)

And what are the costs of making your identity known online if you are a dissenter?

When I write online, I do so in good faith – in the spirit of sharing my ideas and resources.  I’d like to think I’m open to criticism, and change.  But can someone like the NSWDET Director General afford to do so?  Surely not – he is limited in what he can share because of his role, and so it should be.  What about a school principal?  As the most powerful ambassador for their school, there are limitations on what they can say too.  What about classroom teachers?  They are incredibly vulnerable to misinterpretation and misrepresentation, and as the lowest on the professional pecking order, the easiest to impose consequences on.

Please don’t misunderstand this post as undermining social networks – that’s not what I’m trying to do.  And please don’t take the absence of all the usual ‘good news’ stories about how developing an online PLN increases professional development and sense of contentedness as a sign that I don’t fully support all of the wonderful work that is going on out there on Twitter, Yammer etc.

But I think we need to come clean about the need to tighten up our approach to professional discussion in the online world.

Because at the end of the day, if you are a ‘boss’ and you ask people to share ideas and collaborate with you (online or in real life), you are giving up some of your power.  And things are going to get complicated if/when you find yourself having to reign that in.

NB: anonymous comments are welcome.

9 Comments

Reframing Change

Posted by kmcg2375 in education, online tools, reflections, school, social media, technology on July 12, 2010

  • Why do some people embrace change quickly, while others are slower to make changes to their practices or perspectives?
  • What comfort (and convenience) is there in sticking with the known, the familiar, the expected?
  • Can leaders of change persuade people who are slow, and even resistant to change, through enthusiasm alone?
  • Is it enough to lead by example?

I want to suggest that, as educational leaders, if we want to help people come to terms with change and embrace it, then we need to recognise and validate their desire to stick with ‘the known’.  Roger Pryor’s latest post makes some excellent points about ‘leading from behind’ and developing the leadership capacity of others.  I think this is one of the significant hurdles – just as we find in our classrooms it is sometimes necessary to hang back while the students discover things for themselves, people can be empowered by discovering their capacity to change.  Recognising that people are resisting change because they feel disempowered helps us to employ methods that give power back.  This is a win-win solution.

But what other barriers are there to change that could similarly be ‘diagnosed’ and therefore turned around?

When a teacher tells me that they don’t want to use any online teaching tools because they are ‘too tired’ or ‘too busy’, one reaction I feel is frustration.  Does this teacher think that I don’t get tired?  That I am not busy??  I manage to find time to change my practice because I see it as a high priority.

The problem with this line of thinking is twofold.  Firstly, I’m expecting someone else to have the same energy levels as me, without really questioning whether they do.  Secondly, I’m asking someone to accept a shift to online teaching as a priority, when perhaps their professional priorities lie elsewhere.  Perhaps they are really struggling with face-to-face classroom management.  Perhaps they are consumed by essay marking.

So, one way forward is to find ways to align our priorities.

By this I don’t mean that other teachers should change their priorities to match mine!  But, I might set aside my initial frustration to consider ways in which I can create professional learning that satisfies both of our priorities.  One teacher I worked with gained confidence in marking essays after I showed her how to use track changes and commenting in Word…this also served the purpose of increasing her confidence with technology.  Our priorities were aligned!

However is it also possible that sometimes, just sometimes, we are expecting too much?  We also need to recognise that people only have so much energy to give.

Another way forward then, is to find ways of giving people the energy to change.

Teacher burnout is an increasingly widespread phenomenon.  And yet, when I expect others to adopt new practices on the grounds that ‘I was able to do it’, I am refusing to validate them as a human being outside of the world of work.  This might fly in the corporate world, but in the education system I would like to think this is outside of our philosophical remit.

One way that I generate energy to learn more about technology and the online world is to engage in digital practices that nourish me, personally.  For me it’s sharing my (budding) artwork, making digital collages, reading with my Kindle, and connecting with friends in a purely social capacity via Facebook.  I get professional nourishment from a lot of places too, but I’m not talking about that.

For some people getting a thirst for technology comes when they make their first Skype call, or make photo albums on iPhoto.  For many people, the social connection provided by Facebook has been the big thing to ‘draw them in’ and increase their digital literacy (one of the reasons why, although Facebook has turned evil, I have a real problem with the tech elite bagging it out unreservedly).

Fun generates energy.  Fun lures people into engagement.

So, if the diagnosis is a lack of energy, it might be worthwhile exploring how to restore people’s capacity to engage through play.

These are just a couple of example that I have been forming up. Aligning (not replacing) priorities, and restoring energy through fun and play.

As we continue to make new inroads with people who have typically resisted change, I really believe it is time to develop more sophisticated models than ‘lead by example’.  That was phase one. Now we are getting a critical mass of people out there willing to lead by example…where can we move to next to stimulate change and support the changers?

7 Comments

How Real Media Misses The Point Of Social Media

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, reflections, social media, technology on July 11, 2010

As you could glean from my last post, I’ve become a little sensitive to social media zealots who seem determined to paint everyone who is wary/concerned/resistant to social media as merely being scared, whimpy individuals.

This is not to say that very good points do not continue to be made in favour of using social media.

Consider this article reproduced for Business Insider: How “Real” Media Misses the Point of Social Media written by Lisa Barone from Outspoken Media.

Barone makes a point that many of us using social media tools would make:

“The risks to exposing yourself to your customers and community aren’t nearly as severe as you may think; and the rewards are huge.”

However, she also sums up one of the best pieces of advice I would give about using social media:

“If you’re going to be a big boy and swim, and benefit from, these waters you have to be able to take it.”

These two mantras pretty much sum up the bulk of what I have seen going around in terms of the pros and cons of harnessing social media (in my context, to develop my PLN, as opposed to using it as a marketing tool etc.)  However, the rhetoric that I often see invoked when a social media convert comes across a social media resistor is that the resistor is just ‘too old-fashioned’, ‘afraid of computers’, ‘non-reflective’, ‘too scared to share’ (and by extension, even ‘selfish’), or ‘a luddite’.

In my last post I suggested some other issues that, in my mind, are not currently being considered in enough depth, and which the ‘social media resistors’ are perhaps finding it hard to articulate because of their lack of familiarity with the technology.  Interestingly, most people I would have expected to drop a comment were nowhere to be found…although it is school holidays, to be fair 😉

I suspect that discussions around how power is wielded within an identity-rich online PLE (Personal Learning Environment, consisting in part of social networking spaces like Twitter and Facebook) are difficult to have without putting noses out of joint.  However, I also think that being open about how we construct and project our identities will be a test of whether we are ‘for real’ about connecting and collaborating in a democratic and generative way.

We can’t afford to be blind to reproductions of unhealthy practice in this brave new (connected, public) world.


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3 Comments

Some ‘big’ questions we might have to ask

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, reflections, research, social media, technology on July 2, 2010

Well, it is Friday afternoon, and for many teachers holidays are in session, so we might as well get this reflection party started eh?

Seriously, I have been having some possibly paradigm altering thoughts, about social networking in particular.  If you dig this scene, please read on!

  • Networks that are ‘free and open’ (i.e. Twitter, Facebook) seem democratic, because everyone can ‘have their say’.  But what power plays are still at work?  What NEW power plays are we constructing that we’re going to have to undo/amend/atone for later?
  • Social networks enable fast and efficient communication.  But if you can publish your thoughts too fast, without reflection, is the noise that this generates worth the pay off?  We are evangelistic about the benefits…but are we ignoring the costs (the drain on our own limited energy and focus in particular as we act as information filters)?
  • Networks are being constructed (thinking especially of the Facebook issue here…but anything with an avatar and a bio could be seen to go down this road) that invite identity construction.  We post photos, preferences, ideas, affiliations…identity capital (?)  But are we muddying the waters of constructing a generative PLN when our communications are so entwined with our personal identity construction?
  • Are the ‘big players’ – the people with many followers – throwing around their identity capital?  Or are they using a cutting edge technology to be leaders?
  • Are ‘great minds’ being devoured as they try to stay on top of the network (with the best of intentions – wanting to share and be open with others) and lead others?  At what point are we no longer ‘paying it forward’, and just ‘forwarding’…or, ‘paying it back’.  My online PLN has helped me to develop in so many ways…am I indebted to it?  Am I obliged to stay and lead it?  How can I nourish my own development?
  • As a reflective practitioner, am I generating too much out put, and not getting enough input?  Am I making/hearing thoughts…or just noise?

Honestly folks, I don’t know where this is all going.  But yes, after some consideration, I decided to write a blog post about it.  Because no matter where this line of thinking ends up, I highly doubt it will dull my appreciation of irony.

*grins*

Happy holidays!

7 Comments

The conversation continueth…

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, personal, school, social media, technology on March 21, 2010

I love it when Hiba says a few quick things!

I encourage you to read Hiba’s comment, and Troy and Melissa’s, in response to my last post. It is so important IMHO for us to be talking frankly, reflectively and supportively about the difficulties and fears that we/others have in regards to using technology in our teaching.  Ignoring the problems will not make them go away!

I totally agree Hiba – using technology for the sake of it does not lead to effective teaching. And I think you’re right – this is bound to be the thing that Shaun has experienced. And yes, ‘too much of anything IS too much’. But…who decides what is too much?

“Just a few quick things” from me 😉

The end of your comment Hiba is very telling – you love and can see a clear use for OHPs, digital stories, twitter and youtube. Ok, but what about other teachers who don’t like these things? When they are told they ‘have to’ use them, won’t they have the same feelings as you expressed about other technology?
So: (1) teachers will best use what they know about and can see a use for, and (like all other pedagogical tools) each teacher will have their own style and ‘favourites’. I think this is OK, and a natural product of how we work.

BUT…
What do you do with teachers who are refusing/reluctant to learn new things? New tools? New ways of doing things? Is it good enough to just say ‘blogging is not a preferred teaching tool of mine’? Well, perhaps…but is it good enough to go wider than this and say ‘online learning is not a preferred teaching tool of mine.’?   Er, NO.   IMO this is tantamount to saying ‘I just don’t like doing group work’. Unlucky mate. Because:
(2) there are things that we know, for sure, things that are like fully researched and proven and everything about how collaborative learning enhances the learning experience, and about how online tools can facilitate this better than pen and paper work. This is not a matter of opinion, or personal style (though whether you use a wiki or a blog or a Ning or Moodle etc. certainly is).

AND…
I hear you about being too immersed in technology. I am a screen junkie, and have to constantly remind myself that not everyone is. I DO prefer to mark essays using track changes and comments in Word (it takes more time for me to negotiate the margins of someone’s handwritten essay than it does for me to just TYPE), but that’s just me. I don’t think that everyone needs to work this way. But I do think, at some point, you have a (dare I say) duty to expose students to this method of editing. This is especially important because:
(3) the distinction between ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ has been helpful, but is is not that black and white. Fact: not all kids have the kind of access to technology that you describe yourself as having – this is a class/SES/cultural issues that we MUST remain aware of. Another Fact: just because you use a lot of technology doesn’t mean that you can think critically about it, or apply it to new knowledge. Case in point – students’ PowerPoint presentations are generally REALLY AWFUL until they are taught how to apply skills of good public speaking, visual presentation, summarising, metalanguage/metathinking etc. How do you explain this phenomenon if it is true that ‘all young people already know about technology’?  There’s a reason why English teachers teach novels, and don’t just say ‘go read it at home kids’.

FINALLY…
Back to the concept of ‘too much’. You know what else I think we use too much of? Workbooks. And writing notes off the board. And teacher talk. And homework (when it is not project and passion based, which I do like). But these practices are never questioned, never challenged, never stopped because people find them comfortable and familiar. And no-one notices when they are overdone because they are part of the traditional landscape of schooling, and because (most importantly I think) because this is how parents, and politicians, were taught and what they expect to see from kids’ classrooms.

My Head Teacher will get me in trouble if my kids don’t have a workbook, but no-one else gets in trouble for not having a blog!

So: (4) Let’s make sure we’re applying the ‘too much is too much’ rule across the board, and not just as an excuse/a reason for neglecting the new. If what we mean is ‘we haven’t had enough PD to use this right’ then by all means say that. But there are some things that would be good to drop out of our current practice to make room for the new.

One thing that we know about teaching is that no matter what you are taught to do, as a teacher you will instinctively model your practice on the teaching you received at school.  Fighting against this instinct takes concentration, and learning about new practices and tools takes a lot of work. Because of this, teachers who are embracing technology are feeling increasingly overloaded and burnt out – this is the real problem that needs managing.  In Hiba’s post I felt a real sense of fatigue, and I know how she feels because I have felt that way too.  We teachers have to look after ourselves personally and adjust our level of change commitment as our energy ebbs and flows.  People who yell and scream and try and force everyone to use technology all lesson, every lesson need to be more sensitive to change fatigue…but in return, teachers need to ‘man up’ when the energy does flow, and explore these new tools for refining their craft.

Without understanding and effort on both sides, the student will be the one who misses out.

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A personal response to technology hating

Posted by kmcg2375 in english, online tools, personal, social media, technology on March 17, 2010

This is a post for my friend Shaun, but I hope it’s something you all can use.

Shaun is a top bloke.  He’s an English teacher who has a deep passion for literature and from what I can tell a real knack for sharing this with his students.  His students get great results at assessment time.  He’s warm, funny, relatable and engaging.

But, in a brief chat about another blogger’s controversial anti-technology post, it was clear that Shaun was not enthusiastic about digital learning.

In fact, he despises it.  And also has had such bad experiences that he now doesn’t trust teachers who use it.

So…what to say to my friend who is in the position of already being a great teacher getting great results?

How to convince him that digital learning is more than fancy icing on his otherwise tasty, filling and nutritional educational cake?

I thought that this task might call for a personal story.

ABOUT ME: I am an English teacher who has always loved English.  As a child and teenager, reading was like breathing to me – not just ‘part of life’, but an urgent necessity.  In school I excelled at debating, and public speaking.  For my HSC I studied as much English as I could – 2 unit Related plus 3 unit English.  I loved essay writing, adored my English teachers, and was in my element during teacher lectures that were accompanied by class discussion. My UAI was in the mid 90s.  I was a successful English student.

MY CONFESSION: While all of the above is true, it is also true that in year 9, for the first time, I did not read our class novel The Wizard of Earthsea.  The teacher never knew, and my grades were stellar.  Same again in Year 11 with The Scarlet Letter.  Same again in HSC 3 unit English with Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  And…same again with about a third of the books I was supposed to read for my University English courses, though in that arena my grades weren’t stellar…just above average.

Why do I make these confessions, horrible as they are for an English teacher?

Because when Shaun tells me that his students are all engaged with their learning without the use of technology, I can tell you from experience that they aren’t.  Not authentically.  Sure, they may gaze up in awe as he speaks passionately about the wonder of Hamlet, and they might have the skill to assemble good essays by aping the points brought up in class discussion.  But I guarantee you Shaun, you are teaching at least some people just like me – people who slip under the radar due to their genuine love of English and their skill in using language, but who have the potential to be far more active in their learning.

The other reason I make these confessions is because arguments trying to promote the adoption of technology are often made with reference to engaging low-ability or disinterested students.  And I support those arguments whole-heartedly – I have seen students, especially in the junior years, really turn their attitude around (especially in regard to writing) because the fun side and familiarity of using computers gave them the confidence and motivation to complete some work.

It is so much harder to convince teachers of ‘successful’ students that anything needs to change.

But (and Shaun this is my final point I swear!) not only does digital learning have the potential to increase student engagement at all levels due to its inclination toward communicative and collaborative learning practices, but I truly believe that neglecting the development of students’ digital literacy means that as teachers we are neglecting one of our key roles – the preparation of students to participate and engage fully with society, present and future.  Technology isn’t going away.  And English teachers that say ‘digital literacy is not my job’ would do well to remind themselves of the times when English teachers used to say ‘visual literacy is not my job’.

Times change.  Media changes.  Language changes.  We must make sure our students are equipped to cope with this.

I would be most grateful if people could add comments to this post with their own personal success stories from English classrooms that have embraced technology, either in content, pedagogy or assessment.

We will not convince technology haters to change by telling them they are wrong, when their experience is to the contrary.  We must do it by showing that we know about some amazing, engaging and powerful tools for achieving the outcomes they value and desire

…and that not all teachers using technology are merely doing so to look cool and get promoted 😉

8 Comments

NSW DET teachers and web2.0

Posted by kmcg2375 in online tools, technology on February 10, 2010

Teachers in NSW public schools are invited to add a profile of themselves and share online resources with other teachers in a new wiki, NSW DET Staff 2.0 created by Sydney Region’s Stu Hasic.

What a great way for NSW teachers to find each other, network and share expertise.  I love the way that you can search the wiki for the tool you are trying to use (e.g. edublogs, ning, twitter) and find like-minded professionals who have used it before.  Networks like these are becoming increasingly important as we learn new pedagogies required to bring on the Digital Education Revolution in our classrooms.

Thanks for bringing us together Stu!

PLN Wordle (used on the staff wiki) by Cobannon – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobannon/2983755525/

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3 Comments

Hit Refresh!

Posted by kmcg2375 in conferences, english, online tools, social media, technology on December 4, 2009

Last weekend I attended the English Teachers’ Association Annual Conference in NSW, which was held at the University of NSW on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th of November.  The conference theme was ‘Hit Refresh!’, so it was apt that this was the first conference we have run that had an officially constructed online aspect, using both Ning and Twitter to engage presenters and participants in discussion and networking before, after, and behind the scenes of the conference.

This (longish) post is a report I wrote on the success of these online tools at the conference.

Many educators by now have heard of ‘blogs’, ‘wikis’, and learning management systems such as Moodle, and hopefully we are fast approaching a time where the these strange names and terms are accepted as useful (rather than childish) jargon.  In the meantime, jokes about the ‘Ning-nang-nong’ and Twitter users being ‘twits’ will abound.  But while these tools might sound goofy, they are anything but.

Ning.com is an online tool that is fast gaining popularity with educators.  It combines many other features for writing and connecting online – such as being able to have a personal profile page, make ‘friends’ with other members of the Ning, write blog entries, add to discussion forums, and join sub-groups – and for that reason the term Ning was coined to describe the NetworkING that occurs on the site.  For our conference we created a Ning a few months ahead of the conference (http://etaconf09.ning.com/), set up all of our conference workshops, presentation, keynotes and plenaries as ‘events’, invited presenters (first, then later, people who had registered for the conference)…and waited.

The response was slow but sure.  Before the conference had even started we had 70 people who had joined as members of the Ning.  ETA committee members and presenters who were keen to explore the Ning started adding discussions and material right away.  New presenters felt welcomed and included in the lead up to conference, and could ask questions and establish contacts with others before arriving on the big day.  On the Thursday before the conference, the number of members had grown to 130.  Many more joined up during and following the conference, and the count currently stands at 230 members.  Some presenters used the Ning directly in their workshops, getting participants to add their own questions, ideas and resources.  Many people were glad to have an easy way of contacting and keeping in contact with other members, and as many people did upload information about themselves, including a photo to their profile, there was a definite sense of familiarity and closeness at the ‘real life’ conference between Ning users.

As well as establishing a conference Ning, the micro-blogging service Twitter.com was used to ‘tweet’ short, 140 character updates from the conference, in particular from the Saturday morning panel on National Curriculum.  This allowed attendees to create a ‘backchannel’ at the conference, communicating with others from around the globe, as well as other members at the conference, about events as they happened.  Before the conference I blogged a description of a backchannel, which was used at the conference to explain the concept.

As this was our first attempt at using a backchannel, we decided not to display the tweets live on a big screen behind the speakers – though this is something that is occurring frequently now at many conferences that use a backchannel.  For our own, and the speakers’ peace of mind, Darcy Moore and I fielded questions and comments that came in via Twitter at the same time as chairing the panel and the real-life questions from bodies inside the auditorium, and integrated these into the plenary.  The response was very positive, and people (speakers included) only seemed disappointed that we didn’t display the tweets on the big screen!

So, next year we are bound to do this again, with the screen on live display.  Using technology this way can be risky of course, as there is far less control being exercised when members can publish their unfettered thoughts for all to see.  But the benefits of this far outweigh the risk, and the message from members was ‘bring it on!’

Increasingly, educators are connecting online in very powerful ways.  This includes English teachers.  As online tools become easier to use to connect, communicate and collaborate with colleagues they are being seen as more of a joy (and a time saver) than a chore.  I heartily encourage other professional associations to consider adopting online elements for future conferences and events, and would be happy to share ideas and advice with anyone who is going in that direction.

Anyone else care to share their experiences or tips?

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5 Comments