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A young girl in a striped school uniform uses a laptop at her desk while a boy in a black sweater sits in the foreground, both in a classroom setting.

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Seven Tips for Integrating Technology into the Classroom

by EdCircuit Staff September 19, 2017

written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Technology is not a substitute for quality instruction

by Howard Pitler, Ed.D.

Technology is a great tool to add to your teacher toolbox. There are an abundance of amazing resources available to both educators and students. If you are just beginning to integrate technology into your teaching here are a few tips to consider.

kids with computers Tip 1 – First and foremost, a quality teacher begins by selecting the most appropriate instructional strategies for the lesson being taught and the specific group of kids in the class. Just as “one size fits all” really doesn’t fit everyone, a good instructional strategy will work well for some students, but not for all. Combining quality instructional strategies with appropriate technology that enhance instruction is the key. Technology will not replace a good teacher, but a good teacher who uses technology to enhance her instruction will replace one who doesn’t.

Tip 2 – Avoid Google searching, especially for younger students! Asking students to Google something without pre-planning is a likely recipe for trouble. Want proof, just Google Martin Luther King. In the results window, one of the links is Martinlutherking.org. Go there at your own peril. At the elementary level consider Kidtopia.info. At the secondary, level look at Infotopia.info. Better yet, go to Google SafeSearch settings and turn on safe search. Better yet, preload sites you want your students to have easy access into a classroom Diigo site and even categorize them by themes or chapters correlated to the text.

abstract waves Tip 3 – Technology is only a tool, not an end in itself. While technology-based activities can be engaging and fun, begin your lesson planning by identifying the learning intentions/objectives you are planning on teaching. I like stating my learning objectives as what you expect students to know, understand, and be able to do. After you have unpacked the lesson into those declarative and procedural knowledge pieces, then and only then look for technologies that will enhance the lesson. Sometimes the best technology for a given lesson is no technology – and that’s ok.

Tip 4 – Room layout can make or break a technology-enhanced lesson. Be sure every screen is visible. This will enable you to effectively monitor learning by scanning the room to identify students who might be off task. I find it helpful to both monitor screens by scanning the room and then use physical proximity to adjust behaviors. If you see a learner at a site that clearly isn’t part of the lesson just quietly walk to the student and just put your hand on the back of the chair. When students know you are actively monitoring their screens, there will be much less straying.

kid with computer Tip 5 – Be sure your students know the “why” of the activity you have designed to support the learning objective. While you might have a great reason for students to create a presentation for example, sometimes students get wrapped up in the technology and lose sight of the objective. When creating a PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi on a topic, be sure the focus is on the topic. Students shouldn’t spend more time working on the cute factor of a presentation than on the content itself.

Tip 6 – Content is king! A really fun lesson using an interactive lesson can be really engaging for learners, but is there a clear link to the learning objectives within your school’s scope and sequence? Teachers tell me that one of the biggest barriers they face is time, and yet I often see students engaged in “fun” activities without a clear connection to content. Time is always an issue, but until we have figured out how to change the time-space continuum, be sure that every minute you have your students is spent intentionally on learning what’s within the scope and sequence.

abstract lights Tip 7 – Don’t wait to use technology until you are an expert. Some teachers avoid using technology because they are afraid that either the technology will crash on them during instruction or because they don’t feel expert enough and their students might see them mess up. First, the technology WILL crash. Trust me on this. I have been in front of hundreds of educators in a PD session and had the power go out (thank you, driver, who hit a transformer in front of the school).

Always have a viable backup plan you can quickly switch to. Also, kids know technology blows up on occasion. It happens to them as well, so accept it and keep going. Second, it is very likely you will have a number of students who know more about the technologies you are trying to use. They honestly will be willing to help. It is perfectly ok to tell the class, “I am just learning this and might need some help along the way.” Students need to see teachers as learners too. Waiting until you are the expert would be similar to waiting until you are an expert bike rider before actually getting on the bike to ride in a parade. Redefine failure in your to FAIL=First Attempt In Learning. The only people who haven’t failed are those who have never tried and never learned.

Technology is a wonderful enhancement. It is not a substitute for quality instruction. Learn and practice research-based instructional strategies and be sure you keep working on your pedagogy to become the best teacher you can. Even the master teachers I work with are constantly learning and growing. What was new technology last school year is now the baseline and new technologies will appear. It’s a challenging time to be an educator, and an exciting time as well.

Author

Howard Pitler is a dynamic facilitator, speaker, technologist, and instructional coach with a proven record of success spanning more than four decades. Pitler is an ASCD Faculty member and the author of several ASCD publications including Classroom Instruction That Works, 2nd edition, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works, and A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works, 2nd edition.

Contact Dr. Pitler at hpitler@gmail.com, on Twitter, or on his website.

Further Reading

WHO TV – Finding a Balance with Technology in the Classroom
Campus Technology – Smartwatches Deemed Least Valuable Technology in the Classroom
Moscow-Pullman Daily News – Embracing technology in the classroom

September 19, 2017 0 comments

A young child looks at an open book with a fascinated expression, surrounded by glowing, magical sparkles and light, creating a sense of wonder and imagination.

Community

Reading Wars and Teacher Self-Efficacy

by Ellen Hurst September 19, 2017

written by Ellen Hurst 7 minutes read

Students who are blessed with efficient processing of text will learn to read in spite of poor teaching. On the other side of the spectrum are those who require organized, systematic, efficient instruction by a highly qualified teacher trained in research-based sequential, multisensory instructional approaches to be successful. The chance of these students finding their way into the classroom of a teacher who is highly trained to teach reading is slim.

If people believe they have no power to produce results, they will not attempt to make things happen. (Bandura, 1997, p. 3).

The overriding expectation of the teacher is to produce observable and quantifiable gains of student reading achievement. Each teacher’s belief in his or her ability to produce this outcome will determine the instructional course of action selected. The belief in one’s capability to organize and execute a course of action to produce predetermined attainments represents the construct of perceived self-efficacy.

The level of perceived self-efficacy will determine the amount of effort put forth in the attainment of instructional goals as well as the level of the perseverance maintained in the face of adversity. Teachers with a high sense of professional efficacy believe in their abilities to motivate and educate even the most difficult student through extra effort and appropriate pedagogy. Conversely, teachers with a low sense of efficacy believe there is little they can do if students are underachieving, unmotivated, and economically challenged.

The responsibilities of the reading teacher require great skill and carry a high risk of negative consequences. Mastery of literacy as a process requires that reading teachers understand the overall system of language. Expertise in phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency provide the foundational components of a successful reading practice. In addition to providing instruction in these essential areas, the reading teacher must also address the confounding effects of motivation, attention deficit and linguistic diversity. The reading teacher’s perception of the severity of students’ reading difficulties, and confounding variables, will determine the reading teacher’s perceived level of efficacy and the subsequent intervention provided to that student.

The suggestion that a reading teacher’s instructional behavior is better predicted from his or her beliefs than from the actual consequences of his actions has tremendous implications for the ways in which reading teachers are prepared. At each subsequent grade level, the reading achievement gap widens. The question must be raised as to whether the expectations and beliefs concerning student achievement vary as result of teacher demographics and context of instruction. If expectations do vary, then the questions of when, where, and how the expectations and beliefs concerning student achievement must be considered. The answers to these questions have a potential impact on the design of preservice and in-service training for today’s K-12 teachers.

Although various reasons have been suggested for reading problems, inadequate teaching environment and poor reading instruction are rarely at the top of the list. Explanations of poor reading achievement include limited opportunities for adequate oral language development, lack of access to text material in the home, and few parental models of engagement in literacy activities. It is politically incorrect to suggest that higher education’s instructional focus on social justice rather than effective instructional methods has resulted in teachers lacking basic knowledge about the reading process.

The Dark Ages of Reading Instruction

The term ‘Whole Language’ describes a number of related teaching programs that swept the world in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Advocates of Whole Language share a common belief that learning to read is a natural process similar to learning to speak. If the child failed to read, parents were asked if they were reading to their child, implying that parental neglect was responsible for reading failure because of inadequate modeling. Whole Language encouraged children to use book illustrations as a basis for guessing the text or to read to the end of the sentence and then to try to guess any of the words that they couldn’t actually read. Publishers and book sellers then reacted by filling their shops with highly illustrated books rather than with books graded from easy-to-difficult text complexity.

Whole Language advocates also pointed out that when babies said words like ‘man,’ they spoke it as a single unit. They, therefore, jumped to the conclusion that the traditional ‘phonic’ teaching practices of teaching sounds, of accurately blending those sounds into syllables and of blending the syllables into longer words, were not essential to learning to read. Teachers were trained to encourage children to guess words as a whole unit rather than to break the words down into their isolated sounds. Whole Language advocates actively discouraged teachers from using any phonics instruction approaches. Teachers were told that if the guess made logical sense, it didn’t even matter if the word-guesses were inaccurate. Forgotten was a focus on the author’s meaning and the ultimate true comprehension of text.

Traditional phonic strategies were attacked and almost totally discarded by teacher trainers. This happened, not because of any supportive research, but merely to fit within their pre-occupation with word guessing and context cues. Researchers have never been able to demonstrate the efficacy of this guessing approach.

We now know that these Whole Language advocates were wrong; in fact, they have been wrong for three decades. They were only able to maintain their error because the philosophy that spawned Whole Language included opposition not only to teaching basic phonic skills, it also included opposition to testing those skills. By refusing to properly test the outcomes of their practices, educators thereby hid the failure of Whole Language.

The Whole Language assertion, that learning to read is the same process as learning to speak, has long been ridiculed by researchers. Speech is a universal, instinctive process, everyone can speak. But reading is not a natural process; it is a learned process. After 4000 years of learning to read, there are still peoples on earth who can speak but cannot read a word. The evidence of failure was there for all to see. Reading is an unnatural process which we challenge the mind to undertake.

One of the leading advocates of Whole Language guessing practices was Kenneth Goodman. He once described reading as a ‘psycholinguistic guessing game’ and yet, as far back as 1978, Goodman’s own university (Arizona) demonstrated, in one of the biggest literacy studies ever carried out, that Whole Language strategies failed in almost every aspect of literacy. The margin of defeat for the Whole Language method was fourteen times that necessary to prove statistical significance. And yet the Whole Language advocacy continued unabated, impervious to data, driven by belief. Until California, historically the most literate state in the USA tested outcomes.

Californians found that in the years during which Whole Language had been mandatory in California, the state had slipped from top to the bottom of the educational literacy league. Other states followed, including North Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts and Texas. Even Arizona, the birth place of modern Whole Language advocacy has since also officially abandoned Whole Language.

The Whole Language advocates’ in education departments of the universities of the United States still remain in place and in control of teacher training. They still refuse to accept any contrary evidence. Many introductory reading courses have gone to an online format and provide teachers with little more than busy work and an emphasis on critical literacy rather than reading instruction. They do this because this is all they know. University instructors were never taught how to teach a child to read because most are products of the philosophy of whole language instruction. Most left the classrooms themselves and have little hands-on knowledge of how difficult it is to teach a child to read. This is not mere hindsight; researchers had been issuing warnings right from the outset… the evidence and the science were simply ignored for almost three decades.

I meet many teachers-in-training and have yet to meet one trainee who has a working knowledge of the linguistic foundations of learning to read. They complain that their literacy classes focus on social justice rather than the improvement of literacy skills. It is up to parents to fill in the instruction gap with a strong knowledge of how children learn to read.

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September 19, 2017 0 comments

A teacher smiles and talks with two young students, a girl and a boy, as they sit at a classroom table holding pencils and working on assignments. The classroom background shows colorful decorations.

Keeping the Joy Alive in Teaching

by EdCircuit Staff September 18, 2017

written by EdCircuit Staff 5 minutes read

Being an educator is not for the faint of heart

By Matthew S. Howell

The profession of education can be frustrating. It can also be daunting, and it is full of challenges, both seen and unseen. The turnover rate for people entering the profession is among the highest of any field, not without logical reason. Between mandates, pressures, and a daily pace that can only be described as breakneck, being an educator is not for the faint of heart.

So I was not surprised to find myself speaking with a teacher recently who was experiencing a crisis of confidence. She confided in me, saying, “I am so worn out, and the year has just started. I don’t know if I can keep up.”

I assured her that she was doing an excellent job, but my encouragement fell on deaf ears. She went on to detail the trials she was experiencing – negative parent emails, disaffected students, struggling learners, a new curriculum, etc… “The list” she said, “is never ending.”

At a loss for what to say, I asked her, “So what parts of your work bring you joy?”

She paused, became reflective, and then shared a set of positive moments she had recently with her learners. I suggested that she focus on the areas where she is feeling success and let the other aspects of her work take a back seat for the time being.

I know that her experience is not unique, and in fact, it can be more the rule than the exception. With this in mind, I will share three ways to find joy amidst the trials of your work:

Stick with the Winners

Every school has them; those who are able to find positivity in every situation. These teachers find ways to make the mundane miraculous for their students and their colleagues. It starts with a mindset, one which refuses to allow the difficulties of teaching to outweigh the positive things going on around them. If you want to rise above the disconnected din of discord, develop relationships with these people. Making time for collaborative planning and informal discussions can be energizing. Sharing words of encouragement and cheering one another on can be exhilarating.

Conversely, every organization has people who seem to thrive on negativity. They lurk around corners, in hallways, standing sentinel at the copier; exasperated and proud of it, waiting to find a willing participant to join them in their griping. Of course, all of us need to vent from time to time, but these personality types have often developed habitual patterns of negativity and may be unaware of their own demeanor. While collegiality is important, do not value it over the heart of your work – making impactful decisions for your students.

Start a List

I am not talking about an Amazon wish list, rather a list of positive moments that take place throughout your day. Most educators leave a day of teaching exhausted. It is natural human inclination to recall moments of struggle more readily than moments of success, leading to the further depletion of valuable energy. As well actualized caring human beings, it is normal to focus on things that do not go according to plan in an effort to find ways to improve.

Unfortunately, the tendency to focus accordingly can set negative neural-pathways in motion. These habitual ways of thinking will continually yield similar results. To offset this tendency, begin to track the “wow” moments from your day. Write these moments down before leaving your classroom for home. This can be an ongoing list kept in a notebook or journal. Writing moments down is proven to reinforce them in our memories.

Keep in mind, these do not have to be monumental happenings. Look for joy amidst the ordinary. Maybe a struggling student finally solved an equation she had previously struggled with. You may witness a young person help a peer open their locker or pick up a dropped pencil off of the floor. There are good things happening all around you, it could simply be a matter of drawing these moments out into clear focus.

Consider the Long Game

We live in a world where instant gratification is treasured. Unfortunately, education is rarely about immediate outcomes. Behavioral changes, transference of understanding, synthesis of skills into application are all things that take form over extended periods of time. Growth points may need to be visited numerous times for the fruits of labor to form. Even then, it will likely be the bud and not the whole piece of fruit on display.

Educators have chosen to enter a profession that requires vast amounts of patience and care. It is important to keep in mind that your efforts may not ever come to light for you to see. This is not meant as note of despair, rather it is a thought that should bring solace and hope. Be mindful that the students you serve are helped greatly by your efforts, and this may never be acknowledged. Teaching is a selfless and courageous act. Take heart in knowing that you are helping those whose ultimate success you have aided but may never see.

With such a swirling rush of activity in education it can be difficult to avoid getting swept up in the changing tides. It is bound to happen in the best of circumstances, so go with the flow – just do so joyfully. Ultimately your students will benefit, and you will stay vital and energetic in the profession that you know, deep down inside, you love so well.

Author

Mr. Matthew Howell has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Montclair State University. He has also earned his Master of Arts Degree from Seton Hall University in Educational Leadership and Supervision. Mr. Howell is certified in English education and as a principal and school administrator.

Mr. Howell has served in the Oceanport School District since September of 2012. In addition to Oceanport School District, his 14 years in education include positions in Somerset, Ocean Township, Millstone and Hazlet. Mr. Howell’s professional experiences include classroom teaching, coaching, supervision, and administration. He has held positions at a number of age levels. Mr. Howell is passionate about education and he firmly believes that every child can succeed.

Further Reading

Education Dive – Changes in school models can create challenges for students

CT News Junkie – Through Challenging Times, Connecticut Teachers Teach – Always

BBC News – Job stress is ‘overwhelming’ teachers across the UK

September 18, 2017 0 comments

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EdTech Innovation

Future of AI in Education

by EdCircuit Staff September 17, 2017

written by EdCircuit Staff 3 minutes read

What if AI could scale personalized education?

Editor’s Note: This is Part Three in a Three-Part Series.

Part 1 & Part 2

By Edan Shahar

There are a lot of “what ifs” in education technology. What if we could connect students to qualified tutors all over the world? What if a tool existed that knew exactly where a student’s confusion stemmed from and perfectly illuminated the concept?

For the purpose of this series on AI in education, let’s ask the million-dollar question: what if AI could scale personalized education?

The need for personalized education as well as the major challenges to its success are the subject of intense debate and extensive research by some of the top education institutions in the world.

Today’s classroom forces teachers to aim for the middle of the class, which invariably means the majority of students do not get exactly what they need. What if instead, we could have a classroom of 40 students, each being taught a slightly different version of the same course, tailored to their specific strengths and weaknesses, while still empowering the students to collaborate?

The challenge in bringing AI into the classroom is creating a seamless collaboration between teacher and technology so that the teacher’s job becomes easier rather than more difficult. Imagine the ultimate teaching assistant, one who works with every student individually, determining their exact needs and guiding them as they work independently, as well as offering insights and recommendations for the entire class.

Suddenly, the teacher is able to spend her time most effectively. Rather than being bogged down with scoring tests and creating practice sets, teachers can focus on inspiring their students through dynamic lessons. Teachers are uniquely able to build strong relationships with their students, help them overcome challenges, build their curiosity, and engage them in an ongoing educational dialogue.

In the not-too-distant future, more and more teachers will partner with AI-powered platforms that help them see the impact of their classes with up-to-the-second feedback, show them how to customize lessons to assess specific skill or knowledge areas, and teach more students with completely personalized learning plans.

An effective implementation of this AI-teacher partnership requires solutions to three distinct problems to be solved:

Student data collection that doesn’t disrupt the classroom

Data analysis that takes into account millions of students’ data and the specific teacher’s abilities and skills

Delivery of actionable and relevant recommendations

None of these steps should interrupt the classroom, nor should they require additional work on the part of the teacher. Instead, the teacher should always have all the information she needs at her fingertips to run the most effective class possible, both in terms of individual student learning, and class-wide learning.

Education is the greatest force for change in the world and AI in education will allow us to achieve previously unimaginable goals. AI promises to give us a true understanding of every student and the exact tools they need to succeed; it should empower teachers to focus on inspiring students, and it finally makes quality education universal. Improving education for all students creates the best future for society, full of a new generation of curious and informed young minds.

Author

Edan Shahar is the founder and CEO of Test Innovators the leading ISEE and SSAT test prep company. He has extensive experience in technology companies and teaching.

He has founded several technology companies, including Utrip, Inc., which turn data into actionable-insights. In founding Test Innovators, Edan combines his love of education with a passion for using technology to create superior methods to improve student performance.

Further Reading

The Next Web – Waymo created its own driver’s ed course for AI

China Daily – BitTiger shows its stripes in IT educational field

Education Dive – New study points to benefits of personalized learning

September 17, 2017 0 comments

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Administrators edLeaders Interviews STEAM in Education

Teaching Enthusiastic Creation to the Next Generation

by Ian Egan September 15, 2017

written by Ian Egan 13 minutes read

https://vimeo.com/211511134

Using widely-available tech tools to get middle school students excited to learn

Shawn Patrick Higgins combines his enthusiasm for computer science with the creative arts to help his students learn and thrive as the Computer Science and Technology Teacher at Parkrose Middle School in Portland, Oregon. Even though computer science has established itself fairly well at the high-school level, middle school has not caught up to the level of secondary education. Shawn is determined to get middle school kids passionate about computer science through game making and coding.

Shawn focuses on using audio with his teaching. Many of his students are Title 1 and may not have the computer skills that other kids have from dealing with technology and computers in their everyday life like other more fortunate kids when coming into Shawn’s program. Shawn creates audio projects using collaborative Soundtrap software and uses tracks extracted from existing pop culture videos, making the projects relevant and exciting for his students. By removing the visual layer from the videos he uncomplicates the task, helping younger kids with little or no experience understand and jump into production with both feet.

By using cloud-based services, Shawn’s kids can access their projects from anywhere, including home, which boosts their enthusiasm level. Shawn’s energy is infectious, as demonstrated in the video and it comes through clearly in his interactions with his students.

Interview Transcript

Dr. Berger: Shawn, it’s nice to spend some time with you. You are in a much more comfortable environment than I am today. I’m jealous!

Shawn Patrick Higgins: I didn’t realize we’d have a video component to this, so don’t mind the unmade bed and the laundry on the floor.

DB: It just means you’re busy working hard. I like that.

SPH: Yes. I got home a second ago, and I was running a little late so I didn’t have time to properly clean up as much as I should but ─

DB: No! Look, you’re in education. There’s a lot going on. And I wanted to talk to you… I read a piece in EdScoop and the title was How a Cloud-Based Music App Adds New Energy to Computer Science Instruction.

I think of computer science back when I was in school ─ I’m 40 now; I’ve passed that threshold ─ but it was very different back then than what it is now.

Catch up the audience to computer science in teaching children. How has technology impacted your ability to add excitement with students when leading them in that fashion?

SPH: I think one of the main things if I’m talking to someone and introducing myself especially when I talk “I’m a middle school teacher” and they go, “Oh, what are you doing?” ─

“Computer Science.”

“What would that look like?”

I also say, “Creative technology,” and I combine those two aspects although from state to state and from district to district, there isn’t a unified vision of what that looks like. There’s CSTA ─ Computer Science Teacher Association and IFDE and their standards, but those standards are all over the place.

A big thing that is happening all over the country; and all over the world – there are a few select countries that are beating the United States out.

Surprisingly, Vietnam has one of the most comprehensive K-8 introduction to computer platforms. They do a lot of offline stuff which was kind of bizarre especially compared to the United States and where we should be at.

There have been a lot of changes, so there’s a kind of the original technology class. It’s typing and at this point, it’s in the Office Suites.

But what that has evolved to on a middle school level looks very different. Computer science is starting to thrive and doing well at the high school level. There are a lot of focused efforts to expand. They just introduced a different AP exam that incorporates Scratch and some of the intros to coding languages where they focus on concepts, instead of a specific language and syntax.

But at the middle school level and the elementary K-8 level, computer science is all over the place.

What we’re trying to do is get students passionate about using technology in creative ways, and it becomes game-making. There are partnerships with Minecraft and things like that.

Microsoft has had a big push as they picked up Minecraft two years ago. Code.org is also up in Seattle on the West Coast has been super huge and influential in building this entire idea and structure of what computer science looks like K-8 and in high school as well.

That’s a general update.

DB: I appreciate the update. I’m glad to know other people are like me in wondering exactly how computer science has evolved from a curriculum and how you interface with students in that way.

Tell me about the audio component because I know that that was one of the things that you discussed in the article. Tell me about the power of audio and technology in the way you have been looking to integrate it into the work you’re doing with your students.

SPH: Right! I think there are two different ways I focus on incorporating audio. One is with my students. I focus with students and I’ve been teaching in a school that’s over ninety percent Title 1. Many students don’t have a lot of access to technology at the middle school level and some students haven’t had hardly anything in elementary.

It’s trying to get them passionate about interfacing and making basic skills ─ all the workflow, how to save things even using a mouse in sixth grade. Some kids aren’t super comfortable saving a file, deleting a file, and things like that.

So, how to get students passionate is to get them involved. And that often is, if you talk about “Hey, we’re going to create a podcast and edit some audio” in the abstract – it doesn’t necessarily catch the kids. They’re like, “What do you mean?”

Most students have phones that are capable of recording mp3. So they can record on their phone and get that sense of email but even that is building very basic level skills; and on a sixth-grade level, that can work well.

But if you talk about “Okay, if Drake and Rihanna want to talk about their feelings for each other, what we can do is we can find conversations that they’re having and we’re going to chop them off and make them talk to each other. How about that?”

And kids will go, “Oh, yeah!”

Or Drake and Chris Brown need to fight. If you try to create, try to focus on social media and pop culture and use that then audio is just manifesting something that they’re interested in and creating a story with. We get that currency and that buy-in until they’re like “Alright, we’re interested in this project” and go from there.

Before, as we mentioned a little bit at the start, my background was actually in photo and video; my degree is in video before I came to teach. I’ve been here six years now; and the year before, I taught after-school photo and video classes with Portland Community Media, which is our local public access.

Almost all my audio projects are what used to be my video projects but we’ve taken out the visual layer, so it’s a lot easier for younger students and students who haven’t had a lot of experience. Jumping into Premiere Pro or something like that is kind of high level and pretty intimidating.

You try to strip out different pieces as technology. It’s been evolving to this kind of cloud base where students can access it from home or they can access it in the classroom, they can keep working on the same projects.

My classroom is where I have found the most success in that the students can keep going.

I used to have an entire Adobe CSx six years ago and I got some licenses. But the kids couldn’t use it at home.

Ultimately, I had to give that up in favor of the more cloud-based stuff and that was for the visual stuff; there’s Pixlr. And just last year was the first time I got to use Soundtrap.

I tried to use Audacity and some of the free stuff but they can’t access it from home. The easier you make it, the better. Make it cool and you make it easy. And that’s how you get kids interested in the beginning.

If it’s not either of those, you’ll lose kids on both sides.

DB: Even the adults – you’ll lose.

SPH: There’s that, too. I get so involved and I’ve been doing it for a while, especially in Scratch which is the intro to programming language out of MIT. Scratch and LEGO Mindstorms both came from the same place. There is this whole idea of visual block-based coding as an introduction for students.

I think those are the two big ones. There are a lot of startups and a lot of newer things the last two or three years, but I think the old dogs in Intro to Coding are Scratch and Mindstorms.

Also, in Scratch, there’s an audio tab, too. That’s kind of how I focus my class ─

You asked about this earlier. In Scratch, there are three tabs. Sprites which is visual; Sounds and you can import your Sounds tab, and then there’s the coding tab.

All the focus and I think rightfully so, has been on the coding ─ getting kids involved in coding. But in Scratch, there’s not just the coding tab; there are the other two. There’s the visual tab, the arts tab, and the audio tab.

How I sell what I do is “Okay, we’re going to build up this pyramid and Scratch is at the top. But underneath it, we need to think about game making; we need to think about logic; we need to think about our visuals, our posters, our visual design; and we need to think about our audio.

So those are the three building blocks, that’s how I visualize it.

DB: Shawn, let’s go into this. The folks who are listening to our interview, I’m sure that they can feel the energy that you have. Here’s what I think is interesting and exciting.

When we find professionals and, more importantly, people who are passionate about working in education ─ and if you go down the rabbit hole with me…I think we do not do a very good job in education of marketing all the fun, interesting, innovative things that you can do (depending upon your talent or the areas that you enjoy to pursue) that are challenging to you.

We see that in other industries. But we don’t often see it in education. The energy that you convey with what you’re able to do with students and that it changes all the time ─ where does that come from? Do you get the same sense that I’m getting or is it just that I’m experiencing you as your students do – which I would imagine they must adore you because you integrate things that are pop culture, things that they will experience when they get out that make it creative, challenging and fun?

SPH: Yes. I’m in a unique position. I’ve been in this for six years. For the first three years, I think I was the only middle school computer science teacher in Portland Public Schools District. I think that there are two others that have that title now.

So I’m in a rare position because of this focus. And then, I’m in an even rarer position because we’re a very small charter school. I teach all the kids.

Computer science as opposed to being this elective which is a very different class mindset ─ if it’s elective, it’s just the kids who are down that are like, “Yes, let’s do this; let’s focus on this.”

I’ve got everybody. So I think the focus and the passion are “I’ve got to make it interesting. I’ve got to be able to go where they’re going, ” or I will lose kids entirely.

You need to be passionate about it. A lot of the kids were not primed to be interested in technology. I mentor all the girls in the class; we have about a hundred students this year and I teach everybody every day. So that’s a unique position to be in on that kind of computer science coding model.

Being excited about is a product that I’m setting for the kids, if I can get excited about, we can kind keep that string around. When I’ve tried a couple of things that I didn’t know well and I wasn’t excited about, they fell totally flat.

DB: I think it’s wonderful. To your point there at the end, the fear of failure is something that I think we’re starting to embrace. It’s okay whether it’s at the building level, the district level, the teacher level, the student level, or the parent level.

I think that little small bit at the end is key to the whole thing to stay engaged.

It’s been so nice to catch up with you, Shawn. Continued success!

The kids in your school are very lucky to have you and I can imagine what my career would have been like if I had computer science in your classroom.

SPH: You would have probably got into podcast ─

DB: [laughs] Thanks, Shawn.

SPH: Absolutely! Thank you.

About Shawn Patrick Higgins:

Shawn Patrick Higgins has many years of experience teaching youth about video and creative technology, with more than 5 years experience teaching middle school computer science and managing educational technology. He specializes in project-based, collaborative learning in new media and fostering STEAM learning environments as a creative alternative pathway to student success.

Shawn is currently the Coordinator of Digital Literacy at Self Enhancement Inc, one of the oldest education and equity non-profits in Oregon. Self Enhancement is a charter school, after-school program and wrap-around family services organization focused on supporting high-needs youth of color in the Portland area.

Follow Sean Higgins on Twitter.

This article was originally published in the Huffington Post

AuthorDr. Berger is one of many industry education correspondents for the Mind Rocket Media Group, An educator and former school administrator. His video interview work and conversational podcasts have been featured in various media outlets. He often hosts education panel discussions and develops strategic content. As an academic Dr. Berger is a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. A former assistant principal, he has been an adjunct undergraduate professor and developer of online college courses. He is a passionate Detroit sports fan who has also adopted Nashville sports teams as his own.

Contact the Mind Rocket Media Group if you are interested in an industry interview and a placement on EdCircuit.
Further Reading

EdScoop – How a cloud-based music app adds new energy to computer science instruction

Westworld – Big Gigantic Donates Computer Lab to Youth on Record

Money Magazine – This Coding School Will Pay YOU to Attend

September 15, 2017 0 comments

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Educators K-12 Teachers

Every Learner Has a Story—Start There

by Kathleen McClaskey September 14, 2017

written by Kathleen McClaskey 6 minutes read

As we embark on a new era where we plan to transform education by creating learner-centered environments and have learners take ownership of their learning, we need to first empower all learners to tell their story and how they learn. Where do you begin?

Personalized Learning Always Starts with the Learner

It is the beginning of the school year and you have been handed a list of your learners along with a set of numerical data that has been collected based upon their standardized tests over the last few years. What does this data tell you? It probably contains information about the strengths and weaknesses the learner has in literacy and numeracy and it may include how they are performing at grade levels. In some cases, you may be able to locate in your school’s data system the specific competencies your learner has mastered. But does all this information tell you how this learner actually learns? Consider the personal learning data: the strengths, challenges, preferences and needs in learning, the social and emotional side to learning, the affective side of learning.

Would you like to know…

what they see their strengths are?

what they understand their challenges are in their learning?

how they prefer or need to access information?

how they prefer or need to engage with content?

how they prefer or need to express what they know and understand?

what they are interested in?

what they are passionate about?

how they would describe themselves?

how they may want to make a difference?

“Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests.” – Sir Ken Robinson

Learners Tell Their Story Using the UDL Lens (Not Learning Styles)

The first question you may have is why use the UDL (Universal Design for Learning®) Lens for learners to share and understand how they learn? UDL is grounded in neuroscience and provides an understanding about the what, how and why of learning and tells us that there is variability in how each learner learns. The three UDL principles are multiple means of representation, multiple means of engagement and multiple means of action and expression, and serve as a framework to personalize learning. For a more practical application, the UDL Lens of Access, Engage and Express™ was developed so that learners could use it first to tell their story; their strengths, challenges, preferences and needs in how:

to access and process information

to engage with content

to express what we know and understand

The next question you may be asking is why would you have learners use the UDL Lens instead of learning styles to share how they learn. The fact is that learning styles have no basis in research. For almost four decades the notion that teaching methods should match a learner’s particular learning style has had a powerful influence in education. However, a study published in the Psychological Science in the Public Interest challenged the concept of learning styles and their affect on performance. Four prominent cognitive psychologists found no evidence for validating educational applications of learning styles into general education practice. This was their conclusion: “Research conducted over 40 years has failed to show that individual attributes can be used to guide effective teaching practice. Rather than being a harmless fad, learning styles often perpetuates stereotyping and harmful teaching practices it is suppose to fight.” (Pashler et al, 2009).

Let’s take a closer look at the UDL Lens of Access, Engage and Express™ and how a learner can share how they learn by using a Learner Profile (LP) that also includes their interests, talents, passions, aspirations and the words that would describe them.

Words about me: curious, imaginative, artistic, friendly

Interests: soccer, baseball, history

Talents: storytelling, drawing, connecting the dots, mental math

Passionate about: fishing, having a business one day

Aspirations: forest ranger, comic book illustrator

The information in the Learner Profile (LP) helps each learner tell his story and how he learns with the teacher. This is the foundation from which conversations, relationships and partnerships in learning are built. What are the possible messages and outcomes from a learner using the Learner Profile?

It helps validate the learner and how they learn.

It tells the learner that you care about who they are.

It creates a community of learners based on trust and respect.

“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” – Dr. James Comer

Building Partnerships in Learning

As the partnership between teacher and learner grows, a collaboration evolves to design a Personal Learning Backpack (PLB) of tools and resources to help this learner develop the skills to support his own learning. From the Learner Profile (LP) described above, it is decided to work on an Access challenge this learner has around reading. It is decided that that the Voice Dream Reader app is a tool that can help this learner become more independent and support comprehension in his reading. The teacher and this learner also discuss a similar tool for reading online, the text Help Read & Write Google Chrome™ app. They collaborate in writing an Access learning goal that the learner can include in his Personal Learning Plan (PLP):

“I want to learn how to use text-to-speech apps to support my reading and comprehension of materials and texts.”

In the PLP learners establish learning goals and action steps along with a way to measure their own progress. Goal setting, action steps and progress monitoring is not usually intuitive for every learner so there needs to be instruction and modeling for learners to acquire these skills. The learning goals are designed for the learner to gain the skills and strategies they need to become more independent and self-directed in their learning, in other words, a learner with agency. As the learner monitors their own progress, they will reflect on their goals and set new ones based on regular review of the Learner Profile and Personal Learning Backpack. When new goals are set, teacher and learner can discuss, define, and plan skills and learning strategies together.

During this three-step process of reviewing the Learner Profile, deciding on the tools, apps, resources and skills in the Personal Learning Backpack and then indicating what learning goals to include in the Personal Learning Plan, the learner gains the skills that will develop agency. As the learner gains new skills and strategies, challenges may turn into strengths and the partnership with the teacher grows stronger. When this happens, the learner is on the path to becoming a self-directed learner with agency who can advocate for their own learning.

“A Learner with agency is a learner that is Future Ready!” – Kathleen McClaskey

Access, Engage, and Express is a trademark of Kathleen McClaskey (kathleenmcclaskey.com). Universal Design for Learning is a registered trademark of CAST (www.cast.org). Read & Write for Google Chrome is a trademark of Texthelp Ltd.. Voice Dream Reader is copyrighted by Voice Dream, LLC (https://www.voicedream.com/) .

To learn more about how to personalize learning and the three-step process of the Learner Profile, Personal Learning backpack and Personal Learning Plan, refer to How to Personalize Learning: A Practical Guide for Getting Started and Going Deeper by Bray and McClaskey (2016)

Reference: Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., and Bjork, R. (2010). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 105-119.

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September 14, 2017 0 comments

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