Anachronism

Just for laughs, I brought a typrewriter I found at a garage sale to our tech class. I jokingly called it "my 45 pound laptop" and "my 70 year-old word processor. I tried to take notes with it, but thing is obnoxiously loud, so I quit after a few lines of type. It's interesting to see the thing juxtaposed with a new Mac.

Final Project

A class full of netbooks!

Two colleagues of mine worked their tails off to write a grant proposal. After weeks of work, their tech dreams were granted: each student now has their own netbook. The netbooks have WiFi internet access, and built in webcams. As an added bonus, they have spill-proof keyboards, and should be drop proof with a system that detects falls and cuts power before impact. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A side note:

Just to try something new for this post, I first took pictures with my iPhone. I then uploaded them to my laptop and edited them in Picasa. After using Picasa to create a movie, I finally uploaded the movie to Blogger. Even with so many steps, this Rube Goldberg solution still only took 10 minutes.

"Ve have our vays of making you talk..."

A student of mine was balking at a writing assignment.

"Mr. Lesire, you're torturing me!"

"No," I replied.  "I'm teaching you.  The two are slightly different."

It really got me to think, though.  Does my instruction ever elicit "false confessions"?

Possibly the coolest use of a laptop and a cello

Zoe Keating uses her laptop during live performances to record samples of what she's just played, and then layers it onto something else she's playing presently. She talks about her self-collaborative process below.

In this video, she plays her song "Escape Artist".

Mayan Multiplication

This is amazing.  An aunt of mine from Belgium sent it to me.  I shared it with Chris Milliron, who has been playing with it with his high school math students, and it actually works.  More than one way to skin a cat, huh?

Was that so hard?

Thankfully, Silver Fall's techies are nothing like this.  I hope I'm not, either...

New Technology Standards and Requirements

One of the main ways I try to use tech in the classroom is to foster creativity. For instance, I've pretty much moved away from editing published papers in MS Word. I usually have my students type their handwritten papers straight into Blogger, and edit it there. We teachers can also leave suggestions for revisions in the comments section. Using this strategy, I hit both the creativity and collaboration goals.

I also like to point the students to the internet when they ask me a question. One site that is fun to use with a somewhat recalcitrant student is lmgtfy.com. It basically does Google searches for a person, and gives you a tinyurl link to send to that person. For an example, go to http://tinyurl.com/cgp5uv.

When searching, however, there is invariably a mountain of information to sift through. I try to model the critical thinking skills that enable me to separate the diamonds from the garbage.

Which, of course, leads me to the garbage. I also have frequent conversations about how to be a valuable contributor to human knowledge. I also call this, "How not to be an Internet troll." Again, by having frequent discussions and modeling appropriate Internet citizenship, I hope to (ever so slightly) improve the quality of the internet experience.

On the use of a digital camera

The consequences of swimming without a suit

Thomas Friedman has an excellent op-ed piece about the economic impact of raising education spending and increasing academic performance.  It takes money to make money, and education is an investment, a point Friedman clearly makes.  I highly recommend reading the article.

Well, it had to happen sometime

Instead of people crying into their beers, they appear to be crying into their computer keyboards. I could be wrong (a novel thought!) but this is one possible conclusion one may reach when confronted with the news that there are now more professional bloggers than bartenders.  Also, is it true that more five year olds are now saying, "I want to be a blogger when I grow up!" than those who exclaim, "I want to be a fireman!"?

I will say, though, that the temptation to start monetizing this blog has never been stronger.  Visit often, and link away, my friends!

Teh Facebook is for sucks

Oh noes!  According to new research and sited by a new article in Time, Facebook users generally earn lower gradepoint averages than their non-networking peers.

Dangit!  And I just posted this to my Facebook page...

Oh Noes!

My iPhone is broken.  It has really highlighted how much I rely on this device in my daily work schedule.  Yes, I'm bidding on a replacement as we speak.  

Even the CIA has gone Web 2.0

See?  Web 2.0's possibilties are endless.  And yes...I would like to take a peek at Intellipedia, but I'm not stupid enough to try.

The future of scientific discovery?

If this holds out, the name of our most important scientist may one day be named HAL.

Opportunity!

There is a silver lining, especially for new teachers.  It's never quite as bad as the doomsayers suggest...

Evernote

Evernote is another Web 2.0 service I've tried.  I even installed the iPhone app.  It's okay...I guess.  Perhaps I just don't know how to use the program to its full potential, or perhaps I simply don't forget enough stuff to require the use of an "external brain" (their marketing term, not mine).  For my purposes, I simply prefer DropBox.  

Want to see a quick rundown of the program?  See the link below:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dd4vs7jg_0hjftt6cd&hl=en

Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube

Most schools are blocking access to Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.  In fact, the NEA even recommends that teachers refrain from using Facebook and MySpace entirely.  While there may be some merit to such a decision, I think there are some possible educational uses for these nearly ubiquitous sites.

Here's a link to the presentation:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dggv4595_7dj8vg2cw&hl=en

DropBox

I've been using DropBox for a few weeks now.  It's been a great way for me to keep my data off of my computer, and make it accessible no matter what computer I'm using.  

For instance, I just had to have my computer's hard disk re-imaged because Windows was running rediculously slowly.  Despite the reassurances of my tech department that they would take a snapshot of my hard disk to "absolutely ensure nothing would be lost", I didn't want to leave anything to chance.  Anything I didn't want to lose, I simply dragged and dropped into my DropBox.  This way, the data was safe, and I could still access it while I was without my laptop for the day.

Below, you'll find a link to the presentation:

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=dhskvwvx_1g4gg7m7p&hl=en

Oh, the rewards of being a teacher...

A fourth grader just saw me walking out of the teacher's lounge while eating a donut.

"Mr Lesire!  I want a donut!  Can I have one?  CanIcanIcanIcanI?"

"Would you like to earn a donut?" I asked, in my most excited teacherly voice.

"Yes!" she replied.

"Alright, there are just a few easy steps.  Would you like to know what they are?"

"YES!"

"Okay!  Step one: finish high school!  Next, go to college for four years, and earn a teaching degree!  Then, land a teaching job, and you too can have a donut EVERY Friday!"

"Mr. Lesire, that seems like a lot of work, just for a donut."

"Hmm, you're right...  I may just have to spend some time rethinking my chosen profession."

The true reward, of course, was the chance to carry on a spirited, if somewhat sardonic, conversation with this student.  In truth, these kinds of exchanges are the ones I remember most as a student.  Quite frankly, they are a large part of why I chose to become a teacher.

More on the stratification of knowledge

Neil Liss has raised some interesting questions on my last post, and I will try to address them here. 

1. How stratified is knowledge and how educated is the general society as of now?

Well, the obvious answers can be found with a quick Google search of "education statistics".   There, you will find links that point you to sites that say 99% of Americans are literate.  That would seem to imply that a broad base of educated Americans exist.  Anecdotal reports would suggest that the higher one is on the socio-economic scale, the higher the level of education.  I'm sure statistics exist that could back up that claim...I simply haven't the time (or an impending doctoral thesis)  to compel me to find them at the moment.

I recently read about the "Matthew Effect", alluding to the concept in Matthew 25:29, "...the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer."  In some ways, I see the same thing happening in the general education of the populace.  Suffice to say, I feel that knowledge is somewhat stratified at the moment, and the real danger is the continuation of this trend.

2. What is lost when knowledge becomes too cheap?

My simple answer:

Really, though, I think a great deal would be lost if knowledge became cheap.  That depends entirely on your definition of cheap knowledge.  In my opinion, People Magazine is cheap.  The latest plot twists in "Kath and Kim" are cheap.  And the latest scores of the Beavers or Ducks are cheap.  They are easily accessible to even those of limited education, and they do have some entertainment value.  Do they serve an escapist purpose?  Of course they do, and they have their place as such.  

On the other hand, long lasting, worthwhile knowledge shouldn't become cheap.  That's why classic literature is sometimes described as those books you wish you had read, but don't actually want to read.  All things of value come with some struggle, and this is particularly true of knowledge, and more importantly, wisdom.

At the same time, I must say that while the pursuit should be difficult, the opportunity for such pursuits should be widely and readily available.  I think that is one of the most important accomplishments of the explosion of communication and information flow that is made possible by the internet revolution.  Yes, there is a LOT of crap out there.  But there is also a lot of solid, reliable information, and it is readily available to the masses, should they choose to seek it.  In my view, one of the teacher's most important jobs is to inspire them to try.

Will knowledge become stratified?

And will education in the digital age widen the gap between the have's and the have not's?  While much has been written about the impending demise of print editions of newspapers--usually by the reporters and editors who work for said newspapers--it will have an interesting effect on the daily education of society in general.  An interesting, if brief, take on the subject can be found here.

Still, I can't help but think of what Mark Twain said: "If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed.  If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."  All the more reason to stress critical thinking skills as a way to sift through the mass of information created about any single subject.

So much for the cushy job...

The times, they are a changin'.  Still, while big changes are coming to education and it will most likely make teachers' jobs more difficult, it will probably be of a huge benfit to students.  And that's why we teach, no?  Read much more here.

Twitter

Admittedly, I am a geek.  Still, I can't fathom the inanity of Twitter.  Neither can some of it's participants, as documented here and here.  Of course, John Stewart has put it best:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Everything You Need to Know

Everything you need to know has finally been conveniently boiled down into a single volume.  Read a review here.  Unfortunately, when you know "everything," you will still only know 0.000001% of anything.

What Would Google Do?

I heard a fascinating interview last night with Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?  He makes the strong case that businesses (and by extension, educational institutions) who continue to use a Web 1.0 model, or worse yet, a pre-internet model will ultimately fail and be replaced by stronger, more adaptable competitors.  To wit, he looks at the way Google has become the fastest growing business in the history of the world:

• Do what you do best and link to the rest
• Make mistakes well
• Free is a business model
• Don't be evil

These principles, among others, can be used by teachers as they look to provide the best education possible for their students.

Skype

My first experience with Skype was about a year ago, and it was simultaneously exhilarating and depressing.  My dad was using his webcam to talk with one of my cousins and her husband in Belgium, who had just had their first child.  

It was exciting, because I was talking with a cousin, face to face, that I hadn't seen for 4 years.  In fact, since my family moved to the States when I was a toddler, that's been the norm: we could only afford to visit Belgium every four or five years, which meant years would pass before we'd see each other's faces.  But now most of the family has Skype accounts, webcams, and high speed internet.  And here I was, speaking Flenglish (one of those crazy half-n-half hybrid languages, like Spanglish) with Sophie and Charly, and I was looking at their beautiful newborn son.

At the same time, however, I was acutely aware of the fact that this was a brand new technology that my dad had adopted before I had.  Now don't get me wrong.  My dad is brilliant, but this is also the same man who cannot for the life of him use any hand tool for its intended purpose, and who believes most objects can--and should--be fixed with duct tape and bent coat hangers.  Trust me, it stung...

The other day, I was having trouble posting to the Willamette Ed Tech blog.  I also happened to be logged into Skype.  Barry Jahn rang me up and asked how things were going.  After I explained my troubles in an instant message (my work laptop doesn't have a webcam), we tried a few things, and quickly solved the problem.  Score one for Skype!

In an educational setting, Skype can have a lot of uses.  I imagine that I will primarily use it to get the students to connect with people outside of the state, preferably out of the country.  In the afternoons, I could also leave Skype up and running, so students could contact me for help with their homework.  The simple idea of making our world smaller through the use of various communication technologies would go a long way to get kids prepared for the realities of today, while simultaneously preparing them for even greater capabilities in the future.  

a student's blog

I just helped a student of mine create his own blog.  Here's the link.  I help him with writing, so he may be posting some of his stories, in addition to whatever he wants to post from home.

Rethinking Our Schools, 2.0

I've had some interesting back and forth about a recent blog post already. See below, or click here for the post in question. Anyways, here's the conversation Neil and I had this morning:

Hey, Sheldon,

Barry pointed me to your Rethinking schools post. Thanks for a very interesting take on things. I wonder, though, if I have the exact opposite reaction that you do.

With the accessibility of knowledge so facile, you are dead right about validating what knowledge is worth knowing and why I think so. And yet, in working through the questions you wisely pose, I end with less faith to know what is what. I find myself more willing to admit "I can not really say." Well, I can say, but not because critical thinking has gotten me there.

To put it another way, critical thinking has gotten me to the point of questioning what I do know. Of course, what then does that do to my teaching?

Take care,
Neil


Neil,
You raise an interesting question, because it goes along with my personal mantra: education is the progressive realization of ignorance. If I then have ready and instant access to the majority of human knowledge, it only serves to underline the broad swaths of information that I do not know.

Don Rumsfeld is infamous for many deserved reasons, but I often think of a quote of his. "We don't know what we don't know." While it received some criticism (and a hilarious bit by John Stewart on The Daily Show), I think it was possibly the only prescient and humble thing Rumsfeld ever said. Which brings me to my point, which I feel I must stand by:

Given the overwhelming flood of information, the only thing that will keep me from drowning is the ability to know what to breathe in, what to exhale, and what to vomit out completely. I call this skill critical thinking.

Sheldon Lesire

Sure, why not?

Here's a mind blowing thought:

Super computing no longer has to be in the realm of massive universities or wealthy multi-national corporations.  A school can build its own super-computer (you know, the type that model supernova explosions, or calculate nuclear decay of weapons-grade uranium) for less than $4,000.  And what device do we have to thank for this enormous potential?  Why, the Sony Playstation 3, of course...

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=51668

Even Conan O'Brien appears to be learning at an exponential rate...

Web2.0 - Rethinking our Schools

In the videos "Shift Happens" and "Pay Attention", the basic premise is that we are educating kids for jobs that will be substantially changed from their current state, if indeed they have even been invented yet.

My initial reaction is...duh!  Is this supposed to be the shock that it seems to be?  When engineering students were entering college shortly after WWII did they have any inkling that they'd be designing jet aircraft for a completely revolutionized air travel industry?  Or that they could be designing components used in the Apollo moon shots, or, or, or?  It seems to me that this has been the state of things for quite some time...the only change recently is the proliferation of trade agreements and communication technology that has made this flow of information and development much more rapid.

The main focus of education should then be on developing critical thinking skills, rather than imparting a broad base of static knowledge.  For example, take my iPhone.  When I bought the thing shortly after its release two years ago, I simply lost the ability to say "I don't know."  (Much to the chagrin of my wife, I can assure you...)  Any information I could possibly want or need is literally seconds away, and with Google Maps, Google Search, and the whole internet in my pocket, I simply cannot offer that excuse anymore.  What it has forced me to do, however, is sharpen my critical thinking skills, and anything I pull up I must pre-screen: 

• Is this valid?
• Is it accurate?
• Is it biased?

Fortunately, I had incredible teachers and professors who took the time to hone this skill in me, so I do it automatically, instantly, without hesitation.  I don't need to know copious amounts of trivia (although, with my memory's penchant for it, this is lamentably unavoidable), but I do need to know what to do with the information I can get my eyes on.

This, then, is the primary way in which I feel education has changed with the advent of the internet.  No longer is knowledge static.  What students need to be able to survive in such a rapidly changing environment are the tools that enable ready adaptation.

My Favorite Web2.0 tools

As I understand it, Web 2.0 refers to the extensive use of user-generated content in web sites that began to become more popular a few years ago. This marked a change in the medium from the Internet using a more traditional model in which content was provided mainly by large corporations in a top-down fashion, to a system in which content is created and shared by large groups of online users...more "bottom-up", so to speak. I use Web 2.0 tools daily, and have a few favorites.

• iGoogle. It's basically a customizable homepage, with built in RSS readers. It allows me to get a quick overview of several websites, check my Gmail, check the weather, and even solve a few chess puzzles as a mental exercise. Maybe not technically Web 2.0, but I use it to link to several blogs, so I'll include it.
• YouTube. A phenomenal tool which can also be used as the world's most successful time-waster. A couple of my videos are on the site...mostly short films I made as Senior projects in high school.
• For good measure, I'll also include Facebook. This tool allows me to know mundane details of the daily goings-on about 300 of my closest friends and former classmates that I wouldn't otherwise know, find out 25 things about them, and then find out 25 more things about them.  I can even fill my day by perusing copious amounts of pictures from 21st birthday parties, much adored kittens, backyard barbeques, and places people went when I wasn't invited. How did I ever manage before the hourly onslaught of status updates? In all seriousness, though, I love that I can connect on Facebook with family in Belgium just as easily as with fellow teachers in my district. While it's not exactly a productivity tool in my case, I appreciate being able to make quick connections and small talk with friends and family around the globe.

the two most significant uses for a blog...

In my semi-informed opinion, the two most significant uses for a teacher's blog are to disseminate information, and to invite increased participation by my students.  It would be great to have a single, central location for my students to get anything they need from me, and frequent blog posts on my part would facilitate this.  With the comments section, students could contribute to the conversation, ask questions, and help each other.

As the resident bilingual half-Belgian in MAT Aspire 2010, I try to give things a certain Flemish perspective.  Mostly, that means smart remarks about the utility of knowing a language a full 20 million other people in the world speak.  You may well be surprised to know that Flemish is in fact a dialect of Dutch...a primary language in nearly 4 small countries.  In our own state, as many as 25 students may speak Dutch.  As you can see, the possibilities are endless, my utility limitless, and my job secured.

On a more serious note, I'm currently a special ed teacher in Silverton on a restricted transitional license.  I'd like to keep my job...hence the MAT program.  As one of the youngest teachers in the district, I find my self in the somewhat paradoxical situation of the neediest learner, and the most sought-after educator of my colleagues.  This has been a fantastic experience.  The teachers I need information from are more than happy to supply it if I will spend five or ten minutes helping them with their computer or acting as a sounding board for an idea that is new to them.

In my time away from work (which I attempt to maximize) I spend most of my time with my family.  I have two step-daughters aged 2 and 4, and a beautiful wife.  We had been high school sweethearts, went our own separate ways, and finally reunited after several years.  When I'm not playing games, cooking, changing diapers, and hugging my wife, I'm reading.  As a voracious reader, I'll read anything I can get my hands on.  In good times, that's a car magazine, or Time.  In lean times, it's the back of the shampoo bottle.  The one last thing that occupies my time is  tinkering in the garage.  I have an old BMW and love shade-tree mechanical work, especially on older German cars.  Call me an elitist, but it's difficult to top the mechanical elegance of a straight six engine and rear wheel drive.