Service Learning - Where does this fall in education

As a graduate assistant for the Center for Instructional Excellence at Purdue University, I am currently attending Dr. Bob Bringle's presentation on Service Learning. It's really piqued my interest. I see extreme implications for education students. For the future, at IU, Dr. Reigeluth actually does service learning with Decatur Township. It's very interesting that faculty volunteer their services to attempt to redesign education. For me as well, I'm incredibly interested in engaging in service learning projects with IUPUI and giving our preservice teachers an opportunity to experience diverse learning experiences. Also, having our preservice teachers work with inservice teachers to help them design technology-enhanced lessons. This is a great opportunity for preservice teachers to learn how to design lessons, work with a teacher, gain feedback, and prepare instructional materials teachers need and can use. Perhaps even seeing the implementation of their instruction would be a great way to gain knowledge and skills. Reflection would be outstanding in this regard!

One thing he emphasized was that service learning has to be:
1. In the community.
2. In a course. Partnered with a course that students read material, engage in discussions, meet weekly (or more).
3. Connection between the two. This is often accomplished through reflections. Make sure that you directly draw on this experience and focus on it.
4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND TYPICALLY OVERLOOKED: Do you have educational objectives/goals for the course to develop civicly responsible and involved graduates?

Also, what's your definition of Service Learning? Is it co-curricular (including student activities) or just in courses? We really need to make an institutional decision. We can learn from Student Services on organizing, managing, etc... Alternative Spring Break tips are great opportunities - but this isn't necessarily service learning. There is no course or specific educational goals. OR a hybrid method of the idea, to tie this in with a course of some kind.

Different Types of Journals
Three-part = How's it relative to them as a person, community, professional growth?
Double sided = description on one side, reflections on other.
Highlighter = they have to highlight all the incidents they've learned about from the course.
Critical incident = focus on the critical incidents
Key words = tell them what "key words" they feel should be included

Service Learning is more work for the Faculty. More faculty-student and student-student interactions than typical courses. Set up community placements. It's additional work. You get evolution in the course.

Use the concepts to put on worksheets so they can relate these to their experiences. A consistent list of communities sources. They are let known that these students are not just there for volunteering - it's more.

Also, see his chart on management of placements. We need to see what the students' needs, activities, key persons, time table, etc....

For more information about this, see Campus Compact.

Service Learning - Where does this fall in education

EDCI 270 - Large Lecture Technology Solutions

Yesterday, I gave a brief presentation on the different types of software that future teachers could consider using. Based on many of my free demo from MACUL, I was able to consider some of the more pertinent software for these students. A PodCast of the lecture is available via BoilerCast (March 20). I felt it went rather smoothly, although we did have one quick problem when accessing Google Earth and the computer went down. Luckily, Dr. Newby was able to tell a story about Google Earth, and I was able to call on one of my students from another class (Laura Goldin in EDCI 271) and we discussed how she used Google Earth in one of her practicums when students were studying Geology. The other software items I presented were Scholastic Keys, Online Frog Dissection, BrainPOP, and we briefly talked about software evaluation. One of the interesting things I love about this large lecture is the opportunity to reach so many potential teachers and therefore so many K12 students in the future. If I can change their minds about technology, think of how many more K12 students may be affected - and that's the entire purpose after all: to change and improve K12 education. At least that's why I went into this business. Large lectures (contrary to popular belief) do not have to always utilize the "Sage on Stage" approach. However, with 465 students in our large lecture each semester, it becomes difficult to be a "Guide on the Side". Here are some ways we've tried to solve that:

1. Lab Pockets in Lecture. We organize students in their lab sections in lecture so they have a smaller community within the large lecture. The lab TA sits with these students and uses a sign (mine is bright pink with sparkles) to let the students know where they are sitting. Students feel more comfortable asking questions, and we can have active small group discussions/activities with the lab TA and a smaller more manageable number of students.

2. Email Students. When a student participates in lecture, the TA sends Dr. Newby their name, email, and comment. Dr. Newby then emails the student to thank them and offer additional information on their comment. You wouldn't believe the impact - they act like someone famous has emailed them and they brag about it in their lab!

3. Videos on Basic Materials Ahead of Time. In order to engage in more applied knowledge (the whole point of education), Dr. Newby goes over his basic knowledge from the book in his "From The Author" video presentations. Students watch these before lecture and come prepared to discuss the material from the book and those videos. We apply that knowledge with some type of classroom activity.

4. Clickers. We use the clickers for more student interaction, polls, attendance, all sorts of things! Still technical problems, but we're working through them. We like to model as much technology integration as possible, as well as show them to have a back-up plan and be flexible. :)

I found a few other good ideas for technology integration in large lecture courses:

EDCI 270 - Large Lecture Technology Solutions

Convince Teachers: Notes for Future Presentation and Teaching

One very interesting tactic from a presenter at MACUL, he asked "Does anyone have a problem in your school?" I love this idea for me in terms of working with teachers. I feel that by asking teachers for their problems and showing them the possibilities of technology, it establishes me as a more credible source and shows them how to begin brainstorming about technology integration. Ideally, I would like to analyze the brainstorming process. What makes exemplary technology-using teachers figure out ways to use technology? A lot of it has to deal with their pedagogical creativity. From my own opinion, a lot of quality is directly correlated to creativity and it can be taught.

In my own teaching with preservice teachers, I typically ask them to have a SEMESTER LONG THEME which aligns with their topic area. This gives them more focus, and they begin to establish technology-enhanced learning resources as a unit. It also helps them really investigate one topic and see how many great resources are out there and begin the brainstorming process of "I could use that software in this way" and they begin to bounce ideas of each other and draw ideas from each other.

One of the limiting factors is pairing them up with similar interests. Although the trend is to move towards interdisciplinary, by at least pairing up grade levels (i.e., all elementary together) then we could work on the interdisciplinary push much easier.




Turn wired jack into wireless (3COM - XJack/XJAX).
APC Travel Power.
Digital Paper.

Convince Teachers: Notes for Future Presentation and Teaching

WOW - What a district!

At MACUL, one of the neatest things I heard was about this school that has THE technology set-up, that just makes your arms get goosebumps. The presenter first gave an overview of some of the "newer" technologies and then gave a case study example of THE tech school.

Ideas for new technologies:
Polycom Interactive Whiteboard (more than just a smartboard)
ThinClients - ClearCube.
Extended Batteries
Acer - Tablet PC (no swivel heads)
Biometric encryptions
GoSpeak - portable presenter, self contained, little personal A/V system, fairly big classroom, wireless mics, not mounts, portable, cafeteria, school play, teacher to teacher.
Bretford Cart - portable laptop system, secure laptop cabinet, wheel from room to room
Proxim - wireless access point, mesh wireless capabilities, use different points as a transport
NEC Projector - projection systems, carry with me, portable, 2.2 lbs, highest display, industries brightest display, remote control
KEYBOARDS: Keyboards, Trackballs, Keyboards on the smallest size

CASE STUDIES. Doctor's Charter School. IT Admin 3 months to prep an entire IT infrastructure. Building a school with a blank check and a blank slate. What are some of the new stuff they did?
Walk through the door, first thing you see is a series of LCD displays for announcements (parents, teachers, students). Interactive. Principals can type in and change the display. Lunch schedule, announcements, teacher location.
Classrooms. Interactive whiteboards, connected printer, and projector. PC for every student. ClearCube. Every single student has the device under their desk with a swing away monitor.
Wireless throughout the entire district. Teachers and students are set-up on different networks. You can ride on a public (students and parents) or private (teachers and staff) network. The network scans the computer before allowing it to access the network. Looks for viruses, content, etc... on the computer asking to connect.

Entire building. Wired for audio/video. Send streaming content to student desks. The principal comes through the video on each classroom.

Voice over IP in every single office. It extends through the district. They can ring your desk. As they build more charter, it seamlessly integrates as well.

Able to pull some of the best technology to this school district. EVERYTHING IS GOING WIRELESS. We're in a different age - don't rely on wires anymore.

WOW - What a district!

Simple Themes - KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

So interesting theme I've noticed throughout this conference: Making things simplier. Teachers won't use technology if it's not simple. How do we keep things simple? Well, first it means not being able to necessarily introduce the "bleeding edge" technologies right away.

It seems like anything we can do as educational technologists that's easy, free, or allows us to do something exciting for K12 students, we'll do it. I've also

Simple Themes - KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

NTeQ Lesson

Still at MACUL, these Freedom to Learn teachers utilized a 10 step aproach to designing a better lesson.


Their website handout is...
They specify that you need to be flexible. Always have a back-up plan.

They had some very broad overview ideas on their handout.
Computer Functions:
Spreadsheet:
Convert, Modify, Analyze, Calculate, Compare of Contrast, Estimate, Predict
Database:

Note to self- check out the 1:00 session on WORD. Mom would like this one.

STEP 1: Specify all your lesson objectives. (technology and not technology). Match your objectives to computer functions.

STEP 2: Computer functions that support your objectives. Make sure that you match these.

STEP 3: Specify the Problem. MAke it authentic, realistic, real-world events, from the students' world and let them suggest the problem.
STEP 4: Data Manipulation. Supply the data or help them find it. How will they manipulate. Perhaps job aids, or think sheets (questions and ideas for students - I love this term!). Make it as easy as possible to find the data. They really need to be able to identify the data. Searching is not the most important thing.

STEP 5: Results Presentation. How will they share/present the results. Printed reports, etc...

STEP 6: What activities while at the computer? entering the data manipulating, creating a report, grou7p?

STEP 7: Activities prior to comptuers. What do they need to do ahead of time? For teachers, the computer lab is limited. Key words for searching, collecting data, etc... Waste of your lab time. They should be prepared even if they have laptops.

STEP 8: After computers. Kids that finish early, how will you wrap it up? Closure? Next step?

STEP 9: Supporting activities? Addtional activities that support. MEaningful learning, etc...

STEP 10: Assessment. How will you know they've achieved the objectives?

It seems that they are using the Morrison and Lowther model which has specific lesson plan elements and even an online lesson planner. Which coordinates with their model. They also have links to their presentations. This model emphasized, student centered environment, use computer as a tool, solve real-world problems, learn content while solving problem. EMPHASIZE STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING.

It seems like we need to take the emphasis off the technology. The technology is a way to enhance the education. This was a great presentation on thinking about HOW to think/brainstorm about

One teacher emphasized using "Job Aids" which will answer any technology problems. Another teacher has the "reader" and the "doer" so one person reads and the other drives the mouse. These teachers emphasize the "job aid" and giving it to the students as you go over it. They debated on "Should the students have written plans?" They typically have something on paper.

I think more people need to think about the planning that goes into a technology lesson. It's not just go into the computers.


They came up with some more ideas:
M&M - Check this handout because it's got a great think sheet!
Tissue Comparisons

Unfortunately, I need to go meet up with my lunch crew, so I have to leave half-way through this presentation. I think they had some great ideas of lessons. I would recommend checking out the teacher's websites/their posts on the NTeQ lessons?

I’m back.

One of the teachers did a really nice presentation on using a map background and use the grids in order to place stars.

Use Microsoft Word to compare genres of literature by highlighting different nouns,

Use Microsoft Word for peer editing, topic sentences, comparing details, etc.. Help students think about details more. Give them a story and they need to think about adding details. Do a “Track Changes” in order to see the changes.

Again, I got to chime in and add my thoughts. I recommended thinking about “hidden text” for giving directions. This is a really great way to provide students with a “template” with

Another teacher used the preamble to put it into a chart. The phrase is then matched with a picture and the students needed to give a rationale about why it applied. Also, use the readability tool to highlight different areas. It comes across as a 12th grade level. Give them the goal to lower the readability to make it easier for others to understand. Think about using the thesaurus. This would be great for a student project where teachers would ask the students to make it easier for immigrants to understand information. How would people who have difficulties with English be able to understand our laws and democracy. Or have them help younger students who need to know it for the MEAP.

NTeQ Lesson

Podcasting, Vodcasting, and Screencasting

Visiting Will Richardson's Wiki with the rww to edit.

Blogging supplies conversation. You need to find a way to make it more interactive.

This changes from students as students TO students as teachers They are now teaching about history - they become a teacher like when they mke a video - it becomes more internalized.

RSS - extremely powerful technology to pull information to you - a subscription. Regular programming schedule.

Loved his format - black background with white font. This is not just for iPods.

iTunes (there are other places to go, but it's the best place to find out what's out there. A listing of all the different podcasts.

Check out on iTunes, but there are more. There are students teaching with audio.

Radio WillowWeb - podcasting about your place (where you live).

Bob Sprinkle - Room 208. Very elementary. There is a blog, museum guide, etc...

Podcast with audio and other files (pdfs). The French PodClass. The Podcast includes pdfs.

(EDUTOPIA - with art. Virtual tour. Online site with the audio. The art museum did links. They could also listen to the students.) Great idea.

EPN The Education Podcast Network - WOW! All education podcasts.

Tim Wilson also has an excellent podcast.

Things you need:
1. Digital Recorder
2. Audacity
3. FeedBurner (server)

Dave Cormier - 1pm Eastern Time - World bridges.com

Skype - use skype to interview people, record it, and publish. It's not hard. WOW!

PowerGramo (add-on, allows you to record it).

Audacity fades, cut, audio, get the screencast. Export as mp3. Add meta data if you want.

Turn around time is about 15 minutes. Skype it up. ;) You can get 5 people.

Ed Tech Coast to Coast. Chatting while talking to prep. Garage Band.

Vidcasting...The next step up. The most popular vidcast is Rocket Boom.

Mash-Up - taking audio and putting it together.

Chapters of a book, news shows,


OURMEDIA.ORG - SERVER SPACE!!!

RSS Feed - FeedBurner.

iLife has server space too.

Copyright Issues: Creative Commons.org (creators of content can assign their own copyright) You can use this an way you want, but give me credit. Lawrence Lessig? Wrote

free culture

. Fair use will cover a lot, but GET SCHOOLED!

For video, save it as an mp4 file. Camtasia.

SCREENCASTING********************************
The best way to learn something is to teach it. If we can get the kids to teach what we're trying to teach them, they will understand the process. Taking a movie of everything that's happening on your movie screen.

Look into captivate.

How cool! I got to talk in Will Richardson's lecture.

Wikipedia Screencast. Check out this screencast of John Udell. He's teaching about Wikipedia. He's thought about it.

For me, I use screencasts to explain projects so I can show examples, how to use specific peices of software, and to teach about specific concepts. It's not a bad way to integrate Powerpoint, Internet, etc...

My students in EDCI 271 used Camtasia to explain how to use different pieces of software. It was great for problem solving as Will indicated.

Windows Media Encoder is free. However, I MUST have Camtastia, the newest version. You can do a video of yourself and do a

picture in picture

effect which is really good. Camtasia lets me export as a vidcast. I can use this program to transfer all of my video files. However, Will talks about thinking about it ahead of time. You need to script it. It's very important. However, I use it as a casual piece of software.

Will Richardson focuses on tools are not conversation pieces. How can we use this to ENGAGE our students.

as opportunities to TEACH

. When we have our students teach the material, they understand it better.

Podcasting, Vodcasting, and Screencasting

Storybook Online

Super cool site. Think about having students just write one paragraph and allow other students to post and comment. (SImilar to merry-go-round stories where you have students get up and move to another student's computer to add to their story). Check on the tech savvy educator's blog for links to all this stuff.

Marvel.com (Comic books)

Storybook Online

MACUL 2006 - For the novice

One of the most interesting things is to observe my mother (who is a second grade teacher that doesn't necessarily feel comfortable with technology, but WOW you should see her in the classroom! I have never seen a more passionate, and compassionate teacher.). I use her as my inspiration. What are teachers really looking for? How can we make it more applicable for teachers to show them the possibilities for technology to take them beyond where they want to go?

Some of my thoughts are really becoming focused on connecting it directly to their classroom. After reading Dr. Peg Ertmer's most recent paper on Teacher Beliefs (in Educational Technology Research and Development), it really seems that we need the teachers to "buy-into" the innovation. I want to come back to this, because I've found some really great ideas by coming here. One of the more interesting sessions I went to was with a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan. Back for more later.

Free Blogging Tools: I think.
Another great search engine for technology: Technorati
The TechSavvy Educator mentions free and non-comerical as important for educators to accept technology sites or use it. Otherwise, they don't have education in mind. MY thoughts? Even though there is profit behind it, sometimes profit drives it: Think Microsoft and Apple. Some of their developed materials and supprt are fantastic even though profit drives it.

Sky - Constellation Searches
Stellarium
Celestia - virtual tour.
Heavens-Above.com (Doesn't spam)
Possible uses with mimio board.

MACUL - Battle Creek Folks

MACUL 2006 - For the novice

TechSavvy Educator - MACUL 2006

I'm here at the MACUL conference and I'm in the TechSavvy Educator. It's fairly interesting. I'm getting some new ideas. He's talking about blogs as a great way to show that the material is up-to-date. He also stresses that the material needs to be easy for teachers to use. I completely agree. It needs to be easy. However, for anyone to use it should be easy - that's the trend of technology. Why use something that will make things more difficult. We need to make sure as we're using technology as a means to improve, enhance, or make things easier.

TechSavvy Educator - MACUL 2006