Today our team was examining the new SONY E.Reader and we were discussing all the logistical issues related to bringing such devices into schools….for example, how to legally purchase and manage content…..how to determine if the content can be on a host server and made available on-demand…..and so on.

Lilly, David. mvc-007.jpg. "Nov. 11, 1999". Pics4Learning. 19 Feb 2010

In doing my homework for this I stumbled upon a fascinating debate in the New York Times Opinion section called “Does the brain like e-books?” There were short, well written opnions from five “experts” who weighed in on this question.  In particular I found Marianne Wolf’s piece most interesting.  Her proposition is that the human brain can only process so much information in a finite amount of time and the distractive allure to “read on” or “”click on” of ebooks will draw young readers onward before they have been able to process the information in at the refelctive layer of comprehension within the time allotted by young readers between clicks.  Many of the experts wrote about the medium of ebooks potentially allowing readers to move more quickly through the material than they are able to process at the deeper layers….similar to how Socarates feared for the loss of the oral tradition to the written medium as preferred by Aristotle, this new medium presents both exciting and potentially scary propositions.  It is a good reminder for us as educators, that as we make more content available to students, we must be even more diligent to teaching comprehension and synthesis regardless of the medium.

I was catching up on my reading this week and in the ISTE publication Learning & Leading with Technology Nov. 2009 issue I was drawn to the section on new multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). I have long felt very strongly that these settings held enormous potential for advancing student learning. It was three years ago, as part of my doctoral studies at the University of Rochester, that my good friend Jeremiah Frink and I conducted an ethnography study at a popular gaming parlor in Rochester called Arena 51. During this study I had the opportunity to see first hand the sophisticated complexities of games that took place in MUVEs.  I was also struck by the types of kids who were playing…..they were not the loner, quiet, friendless,  introverted type kid that I envisioned.  In fact it was just the opposite, the people were all very social.  I really questioned my paradigm about gaming being all about shoot/kill and involving social misfits.  In fact what I learned was these MUVEs hold the potential to illustrate and actively engage students in a social atmosphere that takes on very sophisticated concepts.  Imagine a true MUVE through a human body with cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure……or the brain…

In 2008 the Pew Internet & American Life reported on a study that found

• Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.
• 97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game.
• 99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.

Gaming is a ubiquitous part of this generation.  So I was excited to read that the World of Warcraft, arguably one of the most popular MUVE game of kids is being used by schools to explore literacy, math, writing, digital citizenship, and 21st century skills.  Suffren Middle School in Suffren NY is a leader in this endeavor and it is exciting to see them engaging students in a learning medium that will continue to have a growing presence in their lives.

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to meet with the IB teachers of Fairport.  I really enjoyed this meeting and the great questions posed by the group.   The theme of the presentation was providing real time access to real world resources 24/7.

The presentation slides above contain links to some of the sites that they will be able to utilize once their network infrastructure is completed this summer.

Imagine having your students watching a video on the Amazon River, from the perspective of being on a boat on the Amazon. They explore the diverse geological and cultural surroundings as the camera moves down the river…yet in this video format the students can move their view 360 degrees as the boat floats down the river. Check out the interactive video below from Yellowbird and mess around with the views as you watch it….it can be a paradigm shifter for how we make videos for kids.

Friday we met with IBM & VPN to review the final verifications of the newly installed 802.11n network at JP. They did an excellent job and we now have a wireless environment that will enable students to access technology in every instructional space in this building.  On Friday we had data throughputs over 155 MPS in the library.

This new network does have important caveats that we all need to be cognizant of.  This network is met to maximize bandwidth and connectivity for teachers and students.  This is not meant to be a public wireless network, like one might find at a coffeehouse.

• We are ONLY running 802.11N over “A” 5ghz . We have turned off all 2.4Ghz B and G radios.
• We have one Wireless Network called “Fairport Schools”
• We have only allowed the X200 teacher laptops and Mobile Labs access to the network at this time.
• We have no guest Wireless enabled anywhere, nor have we let any other piece of hardware other than and X200 on this network.
• We  see a LIVE view of every connected wireless device. This provides a high level of technical detail that will be beneficial in troubleshooting and maintaining quality wireless services.
• We will  bring up guest services after we have a proven, successful district wide structure that fully supports the difficult demands of the high density mobile classroom.

Major kudos to Ross Ciulla, Tom Devitt, John Poland, Jason Scott, and Brett Provenzano for their significant contributions to this project.

Photo by C Haglund

Earlier this year Google Wave got a lot of attention when it was introduced to the web.  There was quite a but of buzz and speculation about this being a “really big deal”, but after using it for a few months I understand why this excitement has cooled off as it is nothing more than a portal type dashboard to existing technologies.

While somewhat disappointed with Google Wave, I am very excited about the new paradigm that Google Chrome OS presents.  This is a operating system that allows someone to be on the Internet in 7 seconds from pressing the “on” button of a computer.  This OS goes right to the cloud and does not go through the laborious and lengthy start-up that Apples and PCs put their users through.  There is a good YouTube video on this OS

An important part of our visionary framework is to have technology that is web accessible.  This places an emphasis of putting our instructional resources in the cloud for students so that they can access their resources on any web accessible device.  Today it takes about 75 seconds for a student to turn on a computer and access the Internet.  Using Google Chrome OS students could shave 68 seconds off this time.  Assume a student does this 100 times in the year, that fress-up  6800 seconds for the student that other would have been spent staring at a screen waiting for the computer to startup.

From November 22-24 I attended the annual NYSCATE conference at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. The conference brings together educators from all across New York to share and discuss technology in education.

The conference featured some amazing keynote presenters, Sir Ken Robinson (of TED Talks) and David Jakes stick out in my mind. I left both keynotes excited for what is to come for education, but also a bit concerned how the education community at large will be able to reform. The paradigm shift is large and scary and who will lead us through the shift?

Sir Ken Robinson gave an inspiring and engaging speech that revolved around the need to reinvent an education system that promotes creativity.  He pointed out that we are born creative and are educated out of our creativity. Take a minute to think about that. When students enter Kindergarten they are full of creativity, easily able to create a visual of what they are learning; project based learning. But by the time those Kindergartners are Seniors in high school, can they do the same thing? Can they create a project to show what they have learned? What can you do to promote creativity in your students? I am still trying to get obtain video or audio of the keynote, but in the meantime, check out Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talks on schools killing creativity.

David Jakes spoke of the future of education and how we need to nurture the 21st century learner, our students don’t see web 2.0 technology as web 2.0, they see it simply as the internet. Why discourage the use of social media when our students are already using it (webkinz, hotwheels, poptropica, etc)? Jakes really pushed the envelope of how education can changing when he demonstrated GE’s Augemented Reality and questioned what this type of technology could do for textbooks. Watch the video on the GE site and then ask yourself how learning could evolve if students could bring their textbook up to the computer and visualize scenes from history.

Over the next month I will be posting more reflections from the NYSCATE conference and the sessions I attended. If you are interested, some presenters posted resources from their presentations on the NYSCATE wiki.

One dimension of our technology work that is often overlooked is developing data systems that provides teachers and educational leaders with timely information that helps inform our actions to improve student learning.  This year we have been developing an articulated RTI K-12 strategy that will be very helpful for teachers who are already feeling very stretched.  A keystone to this strategy is using a new program called EXCEED by Spectrum K-12.  This work has included identifying all the assessments that are utilized with students K-12.  We have identified over 240 assessments used by teachers, most of which is New York State required assessments.  This product will allow teachers to easily access the vertical and horizontal data required to make informed decisions on the IST plans they create for students.  This software will then track the progress of the student, alerting teachers when the student falls off their desired levels of improvement.

In other words, we are trying to provide powerful tools that empower teachers with important student data in a time efficient manner which will also equate into improving student learning.

I was searching for a comprehensive list of Web 2.0 tools to share with our staff and students when I happened upon a matrix organized by Jane Hart.  This matrix presents a nicely organized array of tools that can be used by anyone with Internet access.  I am sharing this with the TVT group also as they filter out some of these tools which may be worthwhile to offer on an enterprise level.  This is important for us to offer such tools that are ad-free.  Almost all “free” tools comes with ads, and ad-free alternatives cane be offered for a fee.  Take a look and share on the ones that you feel are worthwhile for our district.

Dr. Brigid Barron and Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, in an article from the 2008 book Powerful Learning: What We Know About Teaching For Understanding, they compile research arguing of the positive impact of authentic real-world learning scenarios and projects upon student learning.   They contend that authentic learning is an essential ingredient in order for students to succeed in a world that is, and will continue to be, exponentially changing.  They write

…learning by doing” has a somewhat checkered track record, in part because teachers often lack the information, support, and tools necessary to fully integrate and support this alternative approach to teaching and learning.

At Fairport, our students and teachers are becoming equipped with the resources to improve this track record.  A powerful group of tools to assist us has entered our district through the back door, if you will, via our participation in the WBER service.  WBER is a student run FM radio station of Monroe #1 BOCES.  Historically FCSD has had excellent media communications classes, but they never had an audience.  This year Fairport students are learning the techniques and skills required to broadcast in the 21st century by broadcasting both over the FM airwaves to listeners around Monroe County, but also to listeners around the world via Internet broadcasting.

Gets better….WBER engineers enabled us to broadcast over the web from any class… to any building… to anyone…to closed audiences….to open audiences….this is critically important because it provided a much more affordable vehicle to bring real audiences to all our students versus trying to fund having such solutions devised on a building by building basis.

They did this by helping set up our computer network with the capability to broadcast WBER from FHS...marry this to our new infrastructure, we can replicate this availability from any classroom in the district.

What I have for our admin group to examine is one of the following real world tools that the TVT is exploring for the 2010-11 school year.

Below are the links to the groups of technology I want you to check out:

digital books

• E Readers cheat sheet
  

• Gutenberg

• Top 100 books

• audio books

web broadcasting-Ustream

• Tower Bridge in London
• All Live
  

podcasts

• Podium (Steve & Bret Demo)
• 25 top educational podcasts
• iTunes store search via iTunes on your laptop
  

peer to peer

• Skype on your computer
• Fairport apps
  

And if your are interested in the presentation I did today on using Prezi, check out http://prezi.com/gbiochiedxlw/

Afterward post a comment on this blog as to what you think all this