Thoughts Matter More than Topics

I have to say I've been really enjoying blogging for the past few weeks.  As a student, I've experienced the freedom of thought without restriction of topic.  As a teacher, I've realized that giving students more freedom actually pushes them beyond my and their own expectations.

But still...a teacher cannot simply say, go write!  Learners need some form of guidelines to begin their work.  I found good advise in Blogging in the 21st-Century Classroom.  Educator Michelle Lampinen posts her own blogging assignment guidelines which were so helpful for me. She wanted to make sure her assignment addressed the following: 

• Address multiple Common Core standards
• Hold students accountable while minimizing stress
• Be structured enough to provide clarity while giving freedom to experiment
• Be varied enough to keep students engaged
• Get students to write for multiple purposes.

Lampinen then reflects on her and her student's experience with the blogs.  It is an insightful article worth reading and duplicating its example in your own classroom. 

A comment in response to the article written by Brian Sztabnik drew my attention as well.  He writes about his own students' use of blogs, "They begin to realize that their thoughts -- not a prescribed topic's narrow confines -- are what matter. I can't begin to tell you what this does for a student's voice and intellectual confidence!"

And instilling that confidence should really be the ultimate goal of any educator.

Race in the Classroom

My good friend introduced me to Teaching Tolerance founded in 1991, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  It "is dedicated to reducing prejudice, improving intergroup relations and supporting equitable school experiences for our nation's children."  The organization "provides free educational materials to teachers and other school practitioners in the U.S. and Canada."

In light of the most recent racial tensions brought on by the Michael Brown & Eric Garner cases, it was refreshing to read an open and honest educator's self assessment of the topic of race in her own classroom written by Kathleen Melville.  In Talking With Students About Ferguson and Racism  Melville writes: 

It’s clear to me that my students have learned about race and racism in school. The primary lessons they have learned are that racism is over (with the exception of a few racist individuals) and that it’s impolite to call attention to race, especially at school. How did my students learn these lessons?

They learned from textbooks that treat racial justice as an inevitable result, a goal attained. They learned from media that skirt discussions of race and reinforce the idea that talking about racism only makes it worse. They learned from white teachers who, intentionally or not, communicated their own preference to avoid the issue.

 She concludes by asking educators to step up their role in promoting social justice and writes,

We need administrators who encourage teachers and students to work for social justice. And most of all, we need diverse networks of colleagues who support this work, people who share honest conversations, who help us to see our own blinders and who challenge us to think critically about race and pedagogy.

Two more good reads about race in schools are When Educators Understand Race and Racism as well as Defensive About Diversity Trainings.

Hello, Is Anybody Out There?

This class, along with the textbook, promises exciting opportunity for social learning through 'connective writing' - the sharing of ideas via blog posts and the conversational potential via reader comments.

Even a list like 100+ examples of use of social media for learning is full of teacher 'oh , ah' excitement over their own classroom uses of social media.

But am I really connecting with my fellow classmates? Yes & no.  I diligently read through my classmates' blog posts and comment on the ones which I feel I have a comment on.  I hope they appreciate my comments.

But is anyone finding my blog and commenting?   The answer is no, not enough! I have twelve posts thus far (not including this one) but only have comments on 3 of them.  That's only 25% of my posts.  Are the other posts being read?  Enjoyed?  Learned from?  I have no idea...not even one comment from the instructor...hmm...

Some may argue, as expressed in Reflections on Being a Blogger, that blogging is more of a self reflection, a way to be honest and expressive with your own thoughts.  But I still argue that receiving comments further clarify those personal reflections and help the writer re-examine what he/she has written.

As we wrap up with week six of the course and having received very little comment on my blog posts, I wonder how to better utilize blogs in my own classrooms so my students can truly benefit from social and connective writing?

Block Scheduling a Good Thing

I've always found it frustrating for myself as a teacher to run from one class to the other, get students settled down, take attendance, address or defer any hanging questions like "I wasn't here yesterday, did I miss something important?", getting the class rolling, only to be sidetracked with "I don't get it!" or "What page are we on?" 

It doesn't matter if you are a master teacher or a novice one, you will be faced with distractions that take away from your very precious little time as it is. I've long time been a supporter of block scheduling in schools.  I feel this gives both the students and the teachers enough time to settle into their work, have enough time to address/overcome questions above, have time to connect with students with "how was your weekend?", and finally feel enough comfort and continuity to finally focus on the content. 

Now with the implementation of common core across the US, teachers are asking for longer class times to accommodate the new subject standards while criticizing the 40 minute periods as insufficient for group work asked of common core.  Are American class periods too short for Common Core? gives some great examples of successful block scheduling being used in the classrooms.

Research Spotlight on Block Scheduling gives the pros & cons of block scheduling as well as links to additional research on the topic.

I've always appreciated the 3 hour work cycle proposed by Maria Montessori.  It advocates for extended periods of time so students don't lose their flow.  Within that time, "students are able to
freely choose work during this cycle and are able to develop better concentration skills and focus through this undisturbed work time...and allows the student the opportunity to engage in a work more thoroughly."  Students who complete this 3 hour cycle feel a "sense of accomplishment followed by
　
calm composure, along with the desire to do more work" (Schmidt).

Furthermore, Montessori writes in The Advanced Montessori Method "frequent change of work causes greater fatigue than continuous work of one kind, and that a sudden interruption is more fatiguing than persistence.”  In Montessori, The Science Behind the Genius, Dr. Angline Lillard writes, "“If we choose when to take breaks, then breaks work for us, but if the timing is externally imposed, breaks can be disruptive to concentration.”

 

 
　
 

Wikipedia: Unfair Bad Rap

Wikipedia is often banned on school and college campuses as an unreliable source of information.  The problem isn't so much that it is unreliable, but rather the problem is that Wikipedia is ever changing and therefore cannot really be cited!

Credible Source of Information

Data shows that, on average, Wikipedia entries had similar validity & error percentages as did more traditional encyclopedia such as Britannica.  This is actually a commendable statistic given that Britannica hires professional editors while Wikipedia are unpaid professional enthusiasts on given topic.

Addressing issues of accuracy and neutrality and with concerns about quality of content, Larry Sanger, Wikipdia cofounder, started "Citizendium" to "improve on the Wikipedia model by adding 'gentle expert oversight' and requiring contributors to use their real names."  Some university professors are even assigning their students Wikipedia editing projects as both a learning tool for the students and a public service to free online content.  "Some learning theorists contend that content creation and analysis is a necessary component of learning. Wikipedia can encourage students to analyze what they read, ask questions, and engage in reflective, creative learning.  Furthermore, some articles prone to high vandalism are protected and you can be assured that their content will remain credible.

Problem with Citation

Citation problem:  "Although Wikipedia's ability to evolve as information changes is beneficial on one level, it also means that even if an article is deemed reliable, citing it a source is problematic because it could change at any time." This can be problematic because a key principle of citation is that your reader can access the original content which you are referencing.  If Wikipedia is ever changing, a reader may or may not find the source information that you mentioned.  Although an issue, I don't feel this is enough of a case to not use Wikipedia.

With over 4 million web pages written in the English language and consistently ranked in top 10 most visited websites worldwide, educators cannot ignore the ease of accessibility, use, and influence of Wikipedia.  Harvard College  Writing Program even mentions Wikipedia as a 'low bets' resource but discourages students from using it for scholarly research.  Educators will be well advised to teach their students how to use Wikipedia only as a starting point in research but students must also dig deeper and read the original source materials.  Here are two good videos explaining this concept.*

*This paragraph, written by me, has previously appeared in class wiki assignment.
  




   




   

Sifting Through Internet Content

I am still trying to put together a lesson plan teaching students how to sift through vast internet content, assess authenticity of content, reliability of author, bias in writing, relevance and context of content. 

I ran into this interesting article as an example of the potential junk/jokes out there.  "Get Me Off Your Fucking Mailing List" is an actual science paper accepted by a journal.  This 'scholarly' paper contains the words "Get Me Off Your Fucking Mailing List"  repeated over and over again to fill 10 pages!  Appropriate with scholarly paper, it also includes a flow chart & scatter plot chart.  It is also in publishing format with an abstract, summary, and reference section.

The paper was written and submitted by Stanford Computer Science Associate Professor David Mazieres and Eddie Kohler, Associate Professor at Harvard Computer Science.  It was submitted to a bogus, profit-making online journal that accepted it on the spot and even gave it an 'excellent' rating.  The paper was submitted as a joke to test the reliability of predatory journal named above.

Internet content ranges the gamut of potential junk like to one above to 2nd graders creating class Prezi or glogster posters and everything in between.

It is an understatement to say it is daunting to sift through internet content.   I have a lot of work to do on this lesson plan.  Wish me luck!

Wandering off on the Internet

I am putting together a lesson plan on how to sift through the vast amount of content that is out there on the web.  This has been a daunting task for me to say the least.

I stumbled upon internet live stats that gives you live statistics on everything that is online.  At the time of writing this blog, there are:

• 3.1 billion internet users in the world
• 1.1 billion total number of websites
• 200 billion emails sent (today)
• 3.7 billion google searches (today)
• 7.4 billion Videos played (today)
• 1.3 billion active Facebook users

But my data above is very boring and static.  You have to view the live tab.  You can see the counter increase at great speed.  You get the idea...it counts everything that is happening on the internet, right now, live, in real time...did I say right now?  You have to check it out. 

There is also a '1 second' tab on the website which lists things like (at the time of writing this blog):

• 8,073 tweets posted (in one second!)
• 1499 instagram photos uploaded (in one second!)
• 1600 tumblr posts (in one second!)
• 1594 Skype calls (in one second!)
• 24,463 GB of web traffic (in one second!)
• 46,430 Google Searches (in one second!)

In the 'watch' tab, you can see the information listed above but represented visually.  It also lists interesting facts such as number of devices sold, number of websites hacked, electricity used, CO2 emissions caused by internet usage, and others.

And finally, there is a 'trends & more' tab that has interesting information such as internet users by country, google search market share, and others.

Why do I mention all this?  Because it is so easy to get lost in this big world wide web.  And with the staggering numbers above, we now know why! 

ps- I still haven't started my lesson plan on how to sift through the internet...I wandered off onto one of the 1.1 BILLION webpages.