Reaction+-+Reflection

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 * 3. Reading/TED Video for Class:**
 * **Schools Kill Creativity - Sir Ken Robinson**
 * **Summary:** This video short was a reaffirmation of working with all children and allowing different types of completion of assignments in the classroom. Robinson states that he believes in three major points in terms of education. 1. Education is important - we all have a vested interest. 2. We have no idea what we will be educating these children for in five years - let alone sixty years. 3. All kids have potential. I appreciated the fact that he points out the obvious and reminds us all how education needs to work. Everyone does have a vested interest. Children of today are the doctors, lawyers, garbage collectors, computer analysts, etc. etc. of tomorrow. We will all need to rely on these kids to help our economy continue to grow. That is why we need to add or stress creativity in our education. We should "teach" students certain terms, ideas, facts. But more importantly we need to teach them how to approach learning. How to make it their own. How to creatively solve the world's problems as they arise. Things that I taught students only ten years ago, are now not even mentioned. There is no need. But, as Robinson suggests, creativity is just as important as traditional literacy. And that is an important idea. How should we define "literacy" today. Is it just the traditional reading and writing, or should we include media literacy? What about creative literacy? Should students learn how to stretch themselves creatively. Should they be taught that change is great - that you don't always have to do something the same way as everyone else? We really need to rethink how we send our students out into the world today, because it is changing so rapidly that we may be setting them up to fail. Creativeness is something to be inspired.
 * **Reaction:** Now I do appreciate Robinson's statements - in fact I agree whole-heartily with his premise. How do we go about implementing this in a day and age of testing? How do we basically stop the education machine of today and turn it around 180 degrees? I'm not saying that we shouldn't even try - the future is too important. But until businesses and universities, citizens and parents, teachers and administrators get together and can figure out a way to even make some minor changes to get us on the path that will lead us to a better future, I'm afraid of what will happen. Today we spent an entire day at school learning to look at data and then begin to change what and how we teach our students. The problem comes up as to when is all the analysis and change supposed to take place. Will we be able to make the changes in our curriculum and classroom to help the students be better prepared for the future? Or will we get just enough time to make the changes necessary for our students to do better on the state tests that we now have to take? I am very worried about what is going to happen even within the next year or so. I have friends who have taught in states where testing has been the norm for years and my friends have shared their frustrations about how bad it is for the students. We don't have time for creativity any more - it's not on the test.

**Reading Source:** Will Richardson at NJECC
 * Reading & Reflection for Class 3/9/2010**


 * Summary:** Will Richardson gave the keynote speech at the New Jersey Educational Computer Consortium (NJECC) this morning (3/16/10) and I watched it streamed on Ustream. He talked about how happy he was that as a country and community we are finally going to start talking because of the National Technology Plan. While many issues are still at stake (Funding? Policy? Access Points? etc.), he is thrilled that there is at least talk about how this will change education and allow for the individualization of curriculum for students. Another point Mr. Richardson talks about is the lack of leadership for students going out into the technology world. They are already connecting with people. As Richardson says students will connect, collaborate, cooperate, and change the world with people that they will never physically meet. But no one is leading the way and preparing students to participate in this "conversation of the future"? He quotes Michael West, a professor from Kansas, who says that is not a technology event, but a cultural event. Education needs to help students learn how to connect with others in a meaningful way. Richardson goes on to give examples of how politics, business, medicine, media and even religion are all being affected by this change and yet education is lagging behind. Richardson suggests that we need to be the ones leading the conversation and helping students learn how to affectively learn to navigate through this new world.


 * Reaction:** As usual this presentation begins asking all the questions that we should be discussing in education today. I even talked to one of the leaders of technology in our school district about this. The answer I seem to always get is we don't have the time or the money to do anything about this. Because we as a district and as a profession are more worried about testing and how it is being tied to funding, we don't have the time to sit and discuss within our community how it is that we can better serve our kids for the future. We don't have time to figure out the new curriculums that we should be sharing with students on how to function in this new world. We don't have time to provide them with opportunities to learn the right and wrong ways of sharing with others through technology. And we simply don't have the money to provide them all equally with the technology to learn how to be prepared for the new world. Maybe if we took all the money we used to buy the tests . ..

By the way, Richardson has a wikispace that looks really good. www.willrichardson.wikispaces.com

Reading Source: Supporting **//21st Century Learning// **Through Google Apps //Roger Nevin//. **[|Teacher Librarian]**. Seattle: [|Dec 2009]. Vol. 37, Iss. 2; pg. 35, 4 pgs**
 * Reading & Reflection for Class 3/23/10

This article caught my eye because it talks about something that we use in our class. It is an account of a school in Canada that has set up its technology system around Google Apps and how it has worked for the school. The author is the teacher-librarian at the school responsible for making sure that teachers and students all have access to the technology needed to provide a seem less educational community. Nevin points out problems that happened for both groups before the school went with Apps (application incompatibility, PC v. Mac, etc.) He talks about how Apps provides all the basics programming needed by staff and students in its "cloud" computing. As long as people have Internet, they have access to their information. He talks about how easy it was to set up an educational account and points out that even major universities are using Apps for their basic computing needs. He quotes one university official as saying that by using Google Apps, they have freed up money to use for specific classroom applications. He also addresses the possible negative aspects of the program and how their school has not experienced these issues.

I really liked this article because in simple terms it explained how "cloud" computing works. It shares how to set up the program for your school - not in great detail - but it made me feel comfortable enough that I think I would absolutely try it. I also appreciated that he talked about how Apps improves assessment because of the ease of use between teacher and student. Students don't have to wait until the final grade to see if they are working on the assignment correctly. It becomes a conversation between the two. He also talked about how some people don't like the fact that the information is off site - local control seems to be diminished. But Nevin points out how Google has set up Postini as a means of answering these questions. He doesn't say if that service is free or if there is a cost. However the fact that is helps control access to specific email addresses and monitors for inappropriate language and bullying seem to be an answer to some naysayers of application. I used to include myself in that group, but have found that this application is something we should consider at our school. We try to use Moodle as a "cloud" application - and it works to a point. However I see that Google Apps would be a better overall edition to our school.