State of the Union Wordle

I really love how you can use wordle to analyze speeches. Here is the State of the Union by President Obama on January 24, 2012. Notice the words that are largest; America, American and JOBS. What else does this tell us about the state of the union?

Here in 60 Seconds

I have so much I would like to say about infographics, but I felt I needed to put this infographic on my blog ASAP. I have just returned home from ISTE 2011 and my head is spinning. I always hate going back to work the day after this conference, because I am in quite a daze (good daze, but a daze all the same). There are ideas, people, inspirations, future creations all running through my head, and I really need to sort them out. OK, with that, I have used 60 seconds to type these words, and in that same time, so much has happened! For better and for worse, the world is moving faster than ever, and educators need to teach to generations of children who are accustomed to moving at this pace.


Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers

Infographics

Infographics, digital presentations, digital storytelling and others are all names for the act of visually presenting data or information to make it more appealing. As a visual learner, this is something of interest to me on a personal and professional level. Recently I was shown a video on youtube of a visual representation done by Cognitive Media in a style called scribing. The example I will show is of Daniel Pink speaking about Motivation in regards to his book Drive.



This is a very professional and high level infographic, but there are many other types that can allow students and teachers to use this very powerful display method to share ideas and information. Not having access to a group like Cognitive Media, students and teachers alike will need to find other tools and strategies to make their information POP!

The Wild Apricot Blog has a great post on Making your own Infographic. This article has links to strategies, examples and How-To websites. The Wild Apricot Blog quotes Wikipedia,

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. With an information graphic, computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians develop and communicate concepts using a single symbol to process information.

Like much of the information we access in today's educational settings, students need to have information readily available and the ability to quickly present complex information is essential for teachers of these types of students.

One of the best guides to help anyone create an effective infographic is an article by Sneh Roy, The Anatomy of An Infographic: 5 Steps to Create a Powerful Visual. With a working knowledge of the 5 steps a student or a teacher could create an easy to navigate informational visual on almost any topic.

Two of my favorite tools for engaging info graphics (this is just two of many) are Wordle and Prezi. Wordle is a word cloud creator that is easy to use, customizable and allows the user to cut and paste any text into it. prezi is a unique presentation tool that instead of using traditional slides, allows the information to be placed on one single workspace and then the user can navigate, zoom and rotate the view from piece of information to piece of information to make an interactive visual presentation.

While this post only shows a few of the tools and resources for infographics, it is meant as an introduction to the topic and how it can be used more effectively in educational settings and in particular for those involved with Media and Technology within education.

20 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

This slideshare from Simon Ward is great little resource for teachers. While there are multiple references to New Zealand the tools themselves are worth looking at. I see things like this as great for informal professional development for teachers. Quick showcasing with the option to see more if desired. Kudos to Simon Ward.

On a side note, slideshare itself is a fantastic tool for finding and sharing resources.

Easy Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

View more presentations from pingable.

Moving toward Greatness

Last week I read a short Monograph by Jim Collins, titled Good to Great in the Social Sector, and the impact this 35 page booklet had on my view of the role I can have on any agency was profound.

The book starts out with a simple difference between businesses and social agencies speaking about ways to measure greatness. In business, profit is a great way to measure greatness, however in the social sector, greatness must be assessed relative to the mission! This made me ask myself, how does my current agency measure itself? When I read our mission what will be our measure of greatness.

Collins goes on to give five frames that an organization should use to become great:

1. Defining "great" - calibrating success without business metrics

2. level 5 leadership - getting things done within a diffuse power structure

3. First Who - Getting the right people on the bus within social sector constraints

4. The hedgehog concept - rethinking the economic engine without a profit motive

5. Turning the Flywheel - building the momentum by building the brand

Each of these five factors will help to shape an organization and help move it from being simply good to GREAT!

This Diagram illustrates how each of the five frames interact and work together to help move an organization through the "pivot point", the moment when an organization changes its path from good to great! Each of the different frames is an important element all to itself and requires thought and time. This is not an overnight fix, but one that can be used by any member of an organization regardless if they are the head or the maintenance person.

I highly recommend this read, whether or not you have read the original book Good to Great.

Library Transformation

Let me begin about 18 months ago. I took the position of Director of Educational Media and Technology at an Independent School. In plain English, that means that I am in charge of the technology and the library of the school. In the first 12 months, I have been working with teachers and faculty to transform the way that technology is used in the classroom, but in the last 6 I have changed my focus to the school's library.

To give a simple picture, our school library is in a new building (4+ years old) and we have a good sized collection of books, that include reference, fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels. Our librarian keeps our collection up to date. Over the summer we converted our catalog system to Follet Destiny, with the add-on of Destiny Quest.

Other than that, we were using the model that had been at the school for over 10 years. PK- grade 2 classes would have scheduled library time, the teacher would drop them off and leave them for the librarian to read a book to and maybe start a discussion. For grades 3-5 teachers still have scheduled time, but they stay with their classes and use the space as they see fit. Some use it as computer time, others as silent reading time, some use it for regular class time in a "new" location.

This signaled to me that there was a need for a transformation, a way to re-frame the library space and give people extended options for its use and the use of its print, electronic, and human resources. The beginning of the transformation was a meeting with the library staff to develop a shared vision of what a library should be. While our ultimate goal was to get to the library to a 21st century library model, we knew this would be a process. Our first step was to market the library as a HUB of learning. We needed both students and teachers to see that the library is more than a space with a lot of books.

Our first change was to show that the library was a home for all types of resources. Our librarians began to offer their skills as information gatherers. We shared with teachers that we would help gather resources for class projects and units. For this we use a handy web 2.o tool called fur.ly (http://fur.ly).

This tool allows multiple URLs to be compiled into one tiny url that gives access to all of these resources. The advantage of this for our library was to enable our librarian to research any number of websites on a given topic and return one single url to the teacher. The teacher can then publish this to their website or any other resource list for students.

As we add transformative practices to our school library, i will be adding them to this blog.

Teachers and Web 2.0

This great slideshow from Sacha Chua (www.livinganawesomelife.com) is a wonderfully simple way of looking at learning new technologies. She takes an easy look at some of the reasons teachers give for not learning the technology, and adds a retort that challenges their current paradigm. The bottom line that I took away from this is that teachers are the most important component and that we need to open ourselves up to learn and change!

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more documents from Sacha Chua.

interactive white boards: The Beginning

Interactive white boards are becoming standards in the classroom arsenal for teachers, but the question is; are teachers using these tools effectively with students. I am beginning my second year at a school, which had no interactive white boards when I arrived. During my first year I brought in two SMARTboards (I personally like these boards). The boards were located in the school's two computer labs, and received very little use. I needed to ask myself why? I sat back and had to take a mental inventory of what my teacher's opinions were in regards to interactive white boards, and how I could inspire them to use them.

Sparing you the boring details of what went on in my head, I decided that I would not take steps backwards and began to plan a strategy on how I could motivate teachers to move their practices from standard white boards onto interactive white boards.

I took the plunge and purchased 8 more SMARTboards, putting 7 in classrooms and 1 in a new computer lab! Teachers began to show interest when they found out that they were getting the boards. Questions about what books to read, what websites to look at, and most importantly...who to speak to!

This posed a challenge to me; how can I give my teachers the resources that they will need without overwhelming them and making those resources easily accessible? I needed to prioritize, so I began with a website. The SMART website is a great repository of information and lesson plans, tutorials and samples http://www.smarttech.com . The only other resource I am giving them off the bat is membership to a diigo group I have created specifically for SMARTboards. This is a grouping of sites, that we choose (myself and the smartboard users), that we will have easy access for. With these two resources at the start, I feel that my teachers will feel comfortable to begin the learning process.

Interactive white boards are, as I said, becoming standard tools in the teachers arsenal. However, it is becoming more and more obvious that teachers are not being trained to use the tools that are available. I have a school full of teachers and I would guess that 90% have never used a board! Some of them have just begun using a projector and I even have some that swear that technology in the classroom is unnecessary! The future is here and I need to begin guiding and leading my teachers to it. Interactive white boards are just the beginning, but you have to start by taking the first step. One step at a time is the motto for professional development at my school this year.

The New Face of Technology Professional Development

The days of one person teaching one thing for one session are gone! With technology professional development topics regularly changing and the need for teachers to grow at unprecedented rates, the trainers are faced with teaching skills that require repetition and practice. Teachers are in need of regularly scheduled professional development that will build upon prior knowledge and will allow them to practice and learn in a safe environment. The old method saw a single trainer, usually with one after-school session teaching a large group of teachers (either of varying grade levels or varying subject matter) sitting in a computer lab. While this training was going on, a percentage of the participants were grading papers, surfing the internet, checking e-mail or doing any one of a large number of tasks that they saw as being a priority over the training at hand. Having been a teacher, I not only understand this, but am quite guilty of it. This begs the question, how do we train teachers on the skills that are taking over education, yet allow them to feel that their already diminished time is being well spent?

I have looked at this and am trying to take the model of my PLN (Personal Learning Network) and transfer it into my school as a microcosm of what can be. The task at hand was to develop PLN's within the teacher community and find a platform that will allow them to develop and learn at their own pace, while having a focus and a level of safety that will allow for experimentation and growth. All of this needs to occur, without teachers feeling like administration is taking even more of their limited time away.

Here are the steps that I took to set up PLN's in my school and start my teachers on a path to create their own PLN's as well. I started by asking teachers to take a self assessment of technology skills. This was not a punitive task, but rather a way for me to gauge where on scale the technology skills of each teacher lie. Once this was done, teachers were roughly grouped into knowledge level groups of no more than 8. Now starts the hard part. Each group will be enrolled in a moodle class which I (the trainer) will help to facilitate. The PLN's held in moodle will be enriched with a diigo group. This will allow the PLN's to share links, as well as discussion, readings, and other resources in the moodle room. These groups will go on all school year. Each group will be required to meet a minimum of 3 times in person. New resources will be added weekly and each participant is asked to log in once a week at their own time and own pace. The hope is that teachers will feel comfortable to support and challenge each other and that as the year progresses, my role as facilitator will wane a bit and teachers will begin to branch out and grow their PLN's on their own. The following illustration is The Networked Teacher created by Alec Couros from the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina as part of his doctoral thesis to signify the different ways in which teachers network in the 21st century. This is also a good model to use for the new professional development model. As a trainer, my job now is not to teach one skill, at one time, once. Rather my new job it to consistently provide opportunities for teachers to grow and encourage them to do this on a regular basis. As a school we set proficiencies for teachers to attain, but it is up to them to embrace the opportunities at their pace and grow. I will blog about progress as it happens.