Have you ever been to Kaohsiung?Do you even know where it is ?Well before this weekend I didn’t either. Kaohsiung is Taiwan’s second largest city and I have been flown here by SMARTBOARD to present at the 2007 Symposium on Development of Creative Intergration of ICT in Educationto. I am one of 5 keynote speakers who will be speaking to 200 Taiwanese teachers about technology, teching and learning. My presentation is titled - “Interactive Whiteboards: Their impact on teaching, learning and professional collaboration - Reflections on a 5 year study”.You can download the pdf version here: “Interactive Whiteboard Presentation Notes”So wow did I get here?Well it all started (like so many other connections this year) at the Learning 2.0 conference. I contributed the same presentation, the people from SMART seemed to like it, and so the invitation was extended.I have opportunity present quite a bit in my current job but this conference will provide me with lots of firsts.First time visiting Taiwan.First time being a keynote presenter.First time presenting with a Chinese translator.First time presenting to a non-english speaking audience.My talk is focused on how Interactive Whiteboards can change pedagogy, planning and promote collaboration in schools.The conference is at one of Microsoft’s schools of the future. This school (see below) is massive and hold over 3000 students. Factory style with a Feng Shui twist.I hope I can add some value.

This weekend I along with 49 other educators from around ASIA have been invited to attend the Apple Distinguished Educators institute in Bangkok, Thailand. It will be a chance to be indoctrinated immersed in all thing Apple through the lense of education.

What really excites me about the institute is that it is project based. All participants will be placed into groups and given themes and questions to explore using the variety of Apple products available to us. Lots of advanced workshops and new stuff to try out.

Some notable edu-bloggers (Kim, Clay) will be there along with MAC guru Steve Clark of Shanghai Community International School.

I’m psyched!

Check out all the action here

So how does google work?

This question comes up more and more as people marvel at how quickly the answers to their questions are given right back to them. Explaining how google gets those answers back to you so quickly is something few people are aware of.

Before you read on, check out this great visual answer to this complicated question.

I read the Google Story this summer and highly recommend it. It reveals really interesting insights into the minds and ideas that helped shape what is arguably the most innovative companies of our time. Google is always in the news and continues to shape the definition of “SEARCH” in new and exciting ways.

If you do nothing else, turn to the back of the book and just read through the google “entrance exam”. This test is given to all prospective job candidates and is unlike any test you will find in our schools today. Why?

It asks questions you cannot prepare for in advance.

It asks for original thought on the spot.

It asks for creativity on the spot.

It asks questions will many possible answers and possibly no answers.

You can find a sample here

When you hire creative, outside of the box thinkers and support them, great things can happen.

Well worth your weekend.

Big movements start with small steps……………..

A simple conversation with Scott last week started like most conversations at ISB, passing each other in the hall.

“Hey Justin! I’m looking to get a little deeper with peace day this year, got any ideas?”

Scott is always looking for meaningful ways to get his students engaged in the writing process and reflect on a deeper level. He has been using his classroom blog as a tool in process but up until now it did not really have an audience other than parents. It was time to change that. Together we came up with some questions for the post that we felt would stretch students to think about peace and what it means to them. You can see the post here.

Time was a factor here as Peace Day was the next day. As we know the read/write web is a powerful tool that can quickly and easily bring people from all over the world together to share and collaborate. The only barrier is knowing that each other exists. I decided to reach out to all my contacts and get the ball rolling. I put out call to teachers and coordinators to have their students stop by and share their perspective along with the country they came from. I also helped Scott embed a cluster map on his site so we could track where the hits were coming from. If you don’t have one on your site get one today! The goal of this little post was to get a few different perspectives from other students to create and opportunity for further conversation about peace.

The results…………..112 posts!!!!!

Mark Picketts at Carol Morgan School , Dominican Republic answered the call and got several of his teachers to involve their classes

Mark Dilworth at International School Manila, answered the call and also got his teachers involved.

Kim Cofino at International School Bangkok , answered the call and reached out to her global community to bring in some great comments from the U.S

Carolyn Foote - Librarian, Texas , answered the call and wrote a fantastic post about Scott’s experiment and featured some of her favorite student comments!

Maryland answered the call. Thank you!

Philadelphia answered the call. Thank you!

The list goes on…………….

One conversation…….led to one email………….led to 112 posts………..which led to a global audience and a conversation about peace!

That is what these tools are for. That is why they MUST be BLENDED into everything we do. Because the time invested reap rewards that keep on giving.

All it took was a teacher willing to ask “How can I go deeper?”

If you are reading this and interested in involving your class please drop by Scott’s Learning Blog and have your students post. We would love to read their thoughts!

One small step at a time.

Live from Shanghai - Learning 2.o conference

Here are my synthesized notes from the first conference session I attended.
Papert Matters - Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas

By Gary Stager

This session presents just a few of Professor Papert’s most powerful ideas about children, computers and learning through his own words and rarely seen video. The presenter worked closely for Dr. Papert and was the principal investigator on his most recent institutional learning project.

www.stager.org/learn2

MAIN IDEAS

If immerse students in math the same way immerse them in language.

Mastery over the machine on many levels - not just for access not just for connection

Information is one SMALL piece of the information puzzle. Largely computers are seen as the gateway to information but we should see them as much more than that.

For the general public, information mean information and so the role of information technology becomes more like, let’s say , listening, hearing the news than making it. It’s more like getting information passively.

Learning happens through experience.

“the best way to ensure that construction of knowledge happens is through active participation that can be shared with others”

Arrived in Shanghai yesterday to attend the Learning 2.0 conference at Concordia International School. The introductory round table was really interesting and the conference is shaping up to be a good one. I will post on each session I attend both here and on http://learning2cn.ning.com/.

Let the learning begin!

I am always amazed at the incredible pace at which new online applications and services get released. Each one seems to out do the other and provide a fantastic free service in exchange for your attention, and user information.

That was until I found Animoto.

Animoto takes the cake!

Click here to see what I created in less that 4 minutes!

Animoto.com is a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos, each a customized orchestration of your images and music.

Amazing!

What a great way to show off our new library in a new and easy way.

Back to school parent night is coming up this week at ISB and no doubt many teachers will rely on Powerpoint or iPhoto to tell their class story. Who will dare go with Animoto?

I’ll find someone

Big thanks to our new 21st century literacy specialist Kim Cofino for the photos.

Hat tip to Robin Good and his “Be Smart, Be Independent, Be Good” blog for this resource. A fantastic resource on the world of online publishing. If you are looking for a web 2.0 maven, he is mine.

ANIMOTO is…………………….

Did you know that as a city Toront0, Canada has one of the largest Facebook penetration rates in the world. In a recent count the number has been said to be close to 700,000 members. Much has been written about Facebook recently. Big business scorns it; too distracting. Parents don’t like it; too distracting. Schools block it; too distracting. No matter what side of the fence you sit on with regard to this network you may find it interesting that the first Facebook camp was held this summer in T.O.

From what I understand, it was packed!
What is FacebookCamp?

FacebookCamp is an unconference for everyone with an interest in building on the Facebook Platform. FacebookCamp brings together developers, marketers, strategists, technologists, and students, in an open and collaborative environment of sharing and learning.

So now I ask…………

What makes applications and communities like this so compelling?

Why has this social network taken off while dozens of others have failed?

Knowing that close to all high school students are a part of some sort of online social network, what responsibility do schools have to teach literacy around these new mediums and skills to safely navigate them?

What do you think?

As educators around the world slowly wake up to the possibilities and opportunities that many of the new web tools afford, the world gallops ahead. It is always the business community that seems to be the early adopters  of tools that can increase and enhance collaboration, communication and creative thought. The global work-space has shrunk but the hours in the day have not and as a result any tool that can allow for collaboration independent of time and space has many appealing merits. One recent site caught my eye as a emerging resource for business, economics and math teachers: Wiki Invest.  What better way to get skeptical teachers on board to the virtues of collaborative technologies than to expose them to resources that will not only enhance their classrooms but their portfolio’s as well :).  In all the in-services that I lead last year, the most well attended were for resources that helped teachers outside the classroom (itunes, iphoto, image editing, movie making etc.). Perhaps I should re-think our schedule of offerings this year?

This resource is new but gathering steam.  I especially like the concepts section of the site which at a quick glance provides an extensive resource of all of the current issues facing global business today.  Notice “sub prime lending” as one of the most popular?

Relevant, engaging and meaningful.  The way learning resources should be.

Another one!!!

This is getting silly.

The International Educator, a wildly circulated professional newspaper has made the editorial decision to put this article on it’s front page with the above title.

If you read the article you will come across lines like:

“The students were told at the beginning of the course that they could bring their laptops to class to take notes if they wanted to but they would never NEED their laptops”

“You’d sit and watch the students and wonder, “What are they doing with their laptops?” You’s walk by other classes and see everyone playing solitaire.. I wanted to know, ‘Is this a problem?,” said Fried, a psychology professor at Winona State.”

To its credit the article goes on to add: “It’s just good classroom management. If you’re a good professor moving around your classroom, engaging your students, you don’t have those issues. Our best professors don’t see those issues.”

It is clear that pedagogy and instructional practice is the villan here and NOT the laptop. However my big issue with this article lies with the fact that TIE decided to lead the article with “Study finds laptops in class hinder learning.” Like our students, adults just read headlines, and this headline  actually refers to a college study. TIE is largely read by K - 12 educators and this article which really should be focusing more on the poor teaching practices of the these college professors will actually just provide one more “See I told you so !!” moment for some teachers to latch on to.

But what do I know?

I know that:
1) Good teaching , instructional strategies, and pedagogy leads to learning.

2) Good classroom management contributes to effective learning environments which affect student learning.

3)Technology is a tool that can enhance student learning but on it’s own will not guarantee it.

When you take number 3 and apply some number 1 some number 2 you get a classroom that is engaging, relevant to the lives of our students and possibly fun. All of these things are essential elements to learning.

Articles like this one just cause people to stop thinking.

I have written about this before. Here and here.

The tipping point for all of this is near.

Keep writing and keep reading and DON’T STOP THINKING and in time it will all fall into place.

I can feel it!