PLN- (P)erhaps a (L)ittle (N)ovelty?

Cool MRI pic, huh? Thanks alles-schlumpf

You have to admit, there's a lot of acronyms in education. One of the biggest jokes in my training as a teacher was learning the plethora of abbreviations for initiatives and acts and organizations. We used to joke that we were going to SKOOL (or Some Knowledgeable Old Officiate of Learning) or that we were not that excited about LIFE (Lazy Inept Feeble Educators). Did you go to UCLA (or the University Closest to the Lakeland Area)? Think of all the acronyms that you've been acquainted with over the years. These are a few I know of just off the top of my head:





NCLB
ELL
RTI
ESL
EETT
RTTT
IDEA
IEP
SAT
ACT
PEP

There's a great list of education acronyms at this link. The fact that education needs all these acronyms is a testament to all the moving and shaking done in the name of education over the past 100 years. So we need acronyms, yes, but we need better acronyms and terms. The intuitive nature of our professions could be sabotaged by these unintuitive terms.

So PLN? P-L-N: Personal Learning Network ? This is the best we can do?

This is an acronym that sounds like it belongs in a marketing seminar, not education. A marketing seminar for insurance salesman.

Don't get me wrong, I love my "learning network", but I also love intuitive acronyms like SCUBA or TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). And this Personal Learning term is something that we all have to live and like every day because it's now a part of many educators' daily lives. Seeing that- shouldn't this acronym be one that we are in LOVE with (as in Lots Of Voracious Engagement). Shouldn't it be just as intuitive as the tools that we use, and the processes we transform using technology in education? I think it should.

When I reference my network of educators I call them my "brain trust" before I roll out the PLN term. This group of educators I engage with every day are a living, organic, knowledge base. They are real people with real experiences, and a wealth of knowledge. The letters PLN don't do them justice. They're too smart for that. However my BRAIN trust, my

(B)rilliant
(R)esources
(A)t
(I)nstant
(N)otice,

sounds to me much better than PLN. These people are part of my BRAIN, they've become part of my RAM, and without them I wouldn't be in the position I am today. I'd be SOL.

Educational technology is supposed to be all about being on the cutting edge- with tools, with pedagogy, and with implementation. But apparently not with acronyms. I mean SCUBA is an intuitive and innovative acronym, and we all know what that means. We all know what ACORN is, and although you may not like the organization, they had a really good name.

Can we think of something better? Here's a few that I came up with. Choose your favorite or add your own in the comments.

• Brilliant Resources At Instant Notice (BRAIN)
• Personal Education Network (PEN).  (seen this one used before)
• Brain Trust Online (BTO). or Online Brain Trust (OBT)
• Educational Knowledge Base (EKB) -blecch.  
• Educational Online War Chest (EOWC)

Are you satisfied with "PLN," or would you characterize your group in a more innovative and intuitive way? What would you choose? 

After completing this post, my Google Social Search came up with this post by Dean Shareski, so apparently I'm not alone in my disdain for this term. 

SCUBA: See? Intuitive. Thanks Wikimedia

Google Clears the Roadblocks with Google App Inventor: What Will Apple Do?

Thanks for the Image

You can blame me for drinking the Google juice all you want, but since last year I've been clamoring to help my Tech Club students learn App development.

Unfortunately, we've run into some snags. First thing we did is watch the free iPhone App class from Stanford University. Free  class from Stanford? Super! To actually participate in the class, this required downloading the iPhone SDK, which also required giving Apple $99. 

Roadblock: No money. My sixth graders seemed to have a problem coming up with the cash. I can't blame them. So, even without the SDK, my kids wanted to watch the iPhone class anyway. Okay...

Roadblock: Pre-requisite. Although this class is free, there's obviously some prior programming knowledge required. My students were lost after the second episode. Their programming knowledge from Scratch didn't cut it.

They've been bugging and asking how to make iPhone apps since the beginning of the year. Using Scratch has definitely helped develop their interest in programming, hands down. For app development, the Stanford class looked like a possible road, but it's clear that this free class was not designed for middle schoolers.

Create your own app? 
I've seen "create your own app" tools online, but I also heard that Apple was not allowing these apps into the App Store. That would have seemed like a neat solution, but it also required... more money. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an app program like Scratch, that allowed anyone to be a developer- anyone to write their own app?

Well now there is! But it's not for the iPhone. It's for the Android phone.

Yesterday, Google announced the roll-out of App Inventor, a web-based program that lets you create your own apps with a computer and your own Android phone.

This. Is. Awesome. For so many reasons.


Google is putting App development tools in the hands of students. And teachers. And anyone who wants to make a simple, functioning app for their own or public use. This is a profound gesture for the world of creativity. I'm sure Sir Ken Robinson would be ecstatic.

A couple of cool tidbits:
1. it's VERY close to Scratch with its visual-block programming, and
2. (this is very Googly): it runs in the browser!!!
3. Of course it's free.

It's Open vs. Closed.
This really throws an arrow across the bow of Apple.  Apple has claimed to be open in that they are "free from porn" and free from lots of spam apps, but there's a reason that the iPhone and the iPad is so sanitary; they're very closed.
To be honest, the open world is a little... messy. I'm okay with that. I think that the junk Apps will find their way to the junk pile once Google opens up the Market to other vendors (allowing them to create their own "stores" inside the Android Market), or Google uses Pagerank or something similar for the Android Market to clear the clutter.

I like the Apple user experience, but if Apple doesn't respond to this somehow, they will be sending many clear messages that say: 

"Leave it to the professionals."
"You have to pay to play."
"We don't want just anybody to make Apple apps."
"We are closed."

There's just no way around this. They can pretend that they're open, but we all know that's just a fallacy. 

Apple and Google vs. Education
Apple once built it's core business on education, and every day, Google seems to be taking that mantle. I hear more and more schools ditching Apple products for netbooks, whether for budget reasons, customer service reasons, and now there's rumblings that Apple is going to charge schools for every app downloaded to iPod and iPads (currently, one can image a handful of iPod touches with only one purchased app).

Does Apple give a hoot about education anymore?

Google seems to. Almost every time I have a need for a classroom tool, a browser function, or app, Google responds before I think of it. Already, my Google Certified Teachers' group received a message about getting App Inventor out to students- pronto. This Google Juice tastes so good right now; I can't wait to see what Google conjures up next.

This Apple Juice, on the other hand, is starting to taste a little sour.

Thanks for the Image

Audible for Android App- Learn on the Fly

I have to say- I love my Android phone. Sure, it doesn't have the best user interface, but that is changing. I bought it with integration and productivity in mind, and I love to listen to podcasts and audio books on it.  Recently, I found a gem of an app- the Audible.com beta app. Why is this significant? Because in the name of streamlining the learning process, listening to books is the next evolutionary step in content consumption. With audio books, you can simply consume more. I know that there are other audio book apps in the iPhone App Store, but there's really one name in audio books right now, and that's Audible, so I don't know why anyone would go anywhere else.

Image from: Android and Me

Now, this app is in Beta, so it's not totally ready for prime time yet, but it's close enough in my estimation. You can download the app for your Android (off Market) here: http://groups.google.com/group/audible-for-android-beta?msg=subscribe

I'll tell you 5 reasons you'll love it:

1. Streaming: It streams books, duh. Okay, it's not real streaming, but it does start playing audio as soon as you start downloading.
And you can download and then "remove from device" at your heart's content." That way you can save room on your device. For students who are forced to learn dry, heavy content this could be a Godsend. How often have you had to slog through a textbook wondering, "does this come in audio format? Ugh!"  Let's hope they start making more textbooks in audio format.

2. Syncing: It synced up all of my previous purchases on Audible.com. I've been a member for a few months, and it remembered my purchases so I can listen to any of them at any time- on the go. This is great for folks like me who don't like having to sync my iPod up to my computer before I go anywhere that I'm going to listen. Just make it available to me. And make it easy.

3. No iTunes: No offense to Apple, but iTunes is not in the cloud. You don't need iTunes or some other forced download media player to play your books like other book apps, or, as also found on Barnes and Noble.com.

4. No more burnin' CDs! The app downloads them to your Android, and if you have a car with an AUX jack (like my Prius) you can listen to your books on some sweet speakers.

5. Take notes: there's a neat feature that lets you take a note during a particular point in the book. Take as many as you like- then at a later time, you can check your notes and it will take you back to that exact point in the book. This is super for students who are doing research and want to use a quote. If you use APA style to cite, you're definitely not going to use page numbers (which is okay by me), so this helps solve that problem of citing audio formats. There's also a button (not working yet) that will let you "share" that note through Twitter or other social media outlet. I'm sure this feature is disabled until it's finally released, but I wonder if Audible will also share the snippet of the audio as well. That would be very cool.

Anyhow- I like my apps simple and intuitive, plus I like apps that streamline my productivity. For a life-long learner like myself, having an Audible app goes perfectly next to my Google Listen app (review coming soon). Listen on!

This was cross-posted at the Tech and Learning Advisors blog. 

Is Facebook a Learning Tool?

Photo from Franco Bouly

So far at ISTE10, I've been hearing a lot about social networking in education. It started at Edubloggercon on Saturday, where there were multiple discussions about learning spaces, PLNs, and then Web 3.0, which is a term I'm sure Ben Grey dislikes.

Here's my takeaway so far:

• If you ask Jeff Utecht, we should be integrating Facebook via the marketing departments at our schools to gain some leverage. His experience is that students asked to use Facebook as a user group tool. Whether his experience in an international school translates to American public schools remains to be seen.

• If you ask David Jakes, students say that they don't want Facebook at school. He says student's say, "stay out of my space."

• If you ask Will Richardson, inspiring students to leverage students to use Facebook, whether it's as group or fan pages, might be the most effective way to incorporate Facebook into learning at this point. He says, "we're in a disruptive phase right now," where everything is basically being sorted out.

I think social networking does have a place in education. But I think the biggest question is, should we be using Facebook?  Or should we be staying out of their space, using alternative tools like Buddy Press or Ning, to inform or shape student uses of Facebook?

What do you think?

I'm in love with the browser.

The browser is such a beautiful thing.

I'm struck by how much of a browser fanatic I am. Links, productivity, files- everything is just so much easier to find just by typing into that wonderful little address/search bar. Why can't everything just live in there? Can it store my car keys? Well, the darned thing can remotely turn on my Squeezebox Internet Radio from anywhere in the country, so it probably can.

So, today, it occurred to me that Google may yet solve all of the world's problems. Okay, maybe not all of them, but maybe just this one- the one most technology directors and facilitators struggle with every year: user logins.

Last week a colleague of mine was struggling with having all of these different user names and passwords for all of the different Web services like Edmodo, Wikispaces, Google Docs, Glogster- the list goes on for like 8 more tools. He wanted a tool that could merge them all.  I've heard folks use Moodle, but this doesn't solve a problem like Edmodo, which doesn't allow you to have your own unique URL, among some other ed sites.

After using Ubuntu for the past few weeks on my netbook, I checked out an education version of Ubuntu via Jim Klein, and it was very clear that the problem with all of these login problems I and other tech admins have had over the years isn't truly with the Web- it is with the operating systems that we use at our schools.  Mac, PC, even Linux- there's no perfect solution for multiple logins.  Log into the OS, then some of the services, then the rest, depending on the teacher- it's never truly solved. This is partly why I went toward Google Apps for Education- many good services- under one secure login (SSL- but that's another story).  Like the local food movement, every school has different OS needs, different students, and the OS and the district should tailor itself to those specific needs.  It should grow its own OS based on the technology appetite at its own district.

I've heard of folks using Moodle as a front door, which is fine- that's open source as well, but my guess is that soon, many of these problems are going to be solved by a new product that uses the Web as the OS. And I'm talking about Google Chrome OS.  And with Google cozying up with OAuth, I think that we are starting to see the light at the end of the security tunnel. I'd be interested is seeing how that could be integrated into an Education Version of Google Chrome OS, let's call it Google Chrome OS for Education Remix.


Logging into Apps for Ed? Solved! Logging into Voicethread? Done! Wikispaces or Glogster? Done and done! One click!

Ubuntu is a great solution right now, and I would recommend any district save itself $50,000 and dump all those extra software licenses and, you know, hire a teacher.

This post was cross-posted at Tech and Learning.

The Nature of Bullying

From Chesi - Fotos CC on Flickr

Bullying isn't an exact science. It's an organism that grows; it's like a weed. With every new technology and Web 2.0 tool, there are always new methods and processes adopted that may harm our students. We need for our students to understand cyber-bullying as a concept, as an organism that eats and breathes. As it stands now, too many students are learning bullying as a requirement for the EETT grant, and most likely with cracker jack curriculum materials that were designed strictly for compliance, not analyzation.

If you desire to have students do a bullying unit, perhaps have them create their own concept map of bullying. Start with resources such as:

• http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/serial.htm
• This pdf from Stop Bullying Now offers info on what to look for if a child is being bullied. 
• Digizen.org: Great movie on bullying. 

Have them use Dabbleboard.com or Mywebspiration.com to create a flow chart of the concept of bullying, showing what behaviors to look for in a bully, or the bullied child. Have them demonstrate the relationship between the types of bullying or cyberbulling, and the consequences for allowing bullying to happen. Make sure to incorporate the bystander's role and their consequences as well. Here's a version that I am working on:



Here's the direct link:
http://dabbleboard.com/draw/drezac/safetymodel

In this concept map, I offer bullying as an organic process, one that has beginnings, behaviors, and methods. The profile behaviors alone may not elicit abuse, but when combined with technology tools, they can have all sorts of consequences, such as suicide, expulsion from school, and depression. What's also important is how to prevent the consequences. If students create these maps, the aim is for them to know what the consequences are for all of the parties involved, as well as what are the possible solutions to prevention?

This concept map was created using Dabbleboard, a very accessible tool that any students can use without signing up. It's important to have tools available to kids that work right out of the box, so that the concept map is the lesson, not the tool.

Does the concept map work? I think that it's a good start, but, of course, the concept may change when new technologies emerge, as may the consequences.

If we can get students to understand the process of bullying and the systems in place to prevent it, then I think we'll have done our job as educators. Let's not work to just comply; let's work to create.

Creating a Problem Based Unit

This post is a requirement for my TIE program. Read at your own risk! 

Creating an effective problem-based unit can be like fitting a triangle into a trapezoid hole; it may fit, but it may not look pretty. Creating a mini-unit for PBL was quite an adventure. My adventure did stem from the first fact that I didn’t quite grasp what all of this conceptual modeling was about. Then, I began to comprehend modeling on a higher level during my first unit attempt, Creating a Fire Safety Plan. I didn’t quite get the “conceptual” part of the modeling issue. I struggled with getting sixth graders to understand what a concept was- a model of a concept. I don’t teach concepts or systems very much in the technology lab, but I did solve my own problem: what topic and problem could I have them solve? Internet safety was the topic to the rescue. We do teach Internet Safety at least one week out of the year (and every day), and it is conceptual, or at least, can be introduced that way.

For the first unit attempt, I actually did do the lesson with my students. Here’s an example of one of the final products:

So, yes it’s not conceptual, but some of them did turn out nicely. And I learned that students can actually create some interesting looking things in Dabbleboard.com. For my new unit: What is Online Safety?, I give them a lot of freedom and choice: they are to model the “Road to Online Safety,” and I give them lots of choices for completing the task. They can create a flow chart or create a game. Since many of my kids know Scratch, the programming software, they could use that, or use a printable game board, or use Dabbleboard for the flow chart.

Practice First
I focus on the process of teaching 99% of the time in my position. I think that to implement a proper problem based learning unit, students do have to have some experience solving heuristic problems. If all they have done is algorithmic problems, the tougher, right-brained problem could stump them. It might do me good to give them some sample problems to solve, give them some practice before I throw this unit at them.

When I created this unit, I made sure to follow the criteria set forth by John Barell on page 60 of his book, Problem Based Learning. Online Safety is a complex problem, that is always growing organically. The methods by which children can bully grows every day. Bullying is a concept that is relatable to all students at this age, and it has a lot of dynamic elements. Is it fascinating? Well, if you ask a kid outright, they would say not, but when you introduce them to the Digizen video, and some of the online interactives that come with this lesson (I’ve done different Internet Safety lessons with my students), you see that they get fascinated as they analyze more. The video is powerful. It is absolutely significant, considering recent media stories. The skills they learn in this unit follow them to any other subject, especially when they use technology in other classes, as well as at home.

Boundaries
Does it have too many boundaries? Well, I’ll bet that it might look that way in the beginning, but I’ve given them many different roads to complete the task. They have something like 6 different programs they could use to complete the task in so many considerations. I also give them a choice as to what they could create- a game or a flow chart. The game is extremely boundary-less. The flow chart is simply a “road” of the concept.

The lesson is effective because it’s aimed at all learning styles. There are multiple learning strategies, organizational charts, video, audio, and multiple choices of programs from the simple (MS Word) to the more complex (Scratch). There are no set guidelines as to what the game or chart should be other than to teach younger students what it’s like to be bullied, and what to do if it happens. Best of all, there is no set answer for how this problem should be solved, so students should come up with many different ideas and creative products.

A Model of Problem Based Learning (PBL)

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional technique that I'm becoming much more fond of these days. For those who haven't tried it on a class of students, I think that as an instructor you'll really enjoy watching your student's brains light on fire. Me- being in a technology lab, I don't teach my students concepts as much as I teach them applications and skill, so coming up with a unit for them that required them to use a previous concept was not quite as cut and dry as one might think.

My unit requires them to create a fire escape plan from my room. They could use Dabbleboard.com, Sketchup, or Google Earth to create the plan, but they also have to use research from the Firesafety.gov site.  For two groups of students I was not there to facilitate, because I had to step out of the room, but everyone seemed to go right to Dabbleboard to create the plan, because they told me- "it was easy."  It was a lot of fun for the kids and myself, and I highly recommend teachers give it a try. Here's a sample of the finished product from Dabbleboard.

PBL: A Concept:

To help myself and other instructors understand the history and concept of Problem Based Learning, I created this concept map below.  Please click on this link to get a better view:
http://mywebspiration.com/publish.php?i=448697a37

To explain what is happening here in this concept, I relate PBL to a light bulb (an efficient LED, of course). What gives the light bulb (or Problem Based Learning) its electricity or its energy, are the ideas and concepts of thinking- created by the greatest critical thinkers of all time. In this case, Socrates, who, with his method of Socratic questioning, actually got himself killed. Descarte, whose philosophy of thought ("I think, therefore, I am") and Darwin, and his aptitude for questioning life's origins, give PBL its roots.

That basically brings us into the 20th Century, when education as a standardized mode of learning, came into being. The theories of Howard Gardner, Piaget, Benjamin Bloom, JP Guilford, John Dewey, and Edward DeBono are the filaments whose theories of solving problems and critical thinking drive education to this very day. Any student teacher has read about Bloom's Taxonomy and Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences as part of their standard college curriculum. Their theories are what make the light bulb make the connections it needs to create light.

The four hovering concepts (in light blue) are the main goals of all their theories combined. Brought together in many combinations, our theories of problem based learning want to create people who think systematically, who solve heuristic problems (as opposed to algorithmic), who use models to illustrate ideas, and who make learning meaningful.

The final three "light" bubbles are the ultimate goals of problem based learning: to use authentic situations and processes that will help learning be more meaningful, to promote inquiry that's more than just Googling for an answer, and finally, to create people who think critically about the way that things are made, the systems that control our environment, and who question their very existence.

Dabbleboard.com and MyWebspiration.com
My students are very excited to use a tool like Dabbleboard to create maps and add to graphic organizers. Like Google Docs, it allows students to be able to share a screen and draw in real time. They worked on theirs for two days, saving the URL of the board, so they could go back later.

To create the concept map, I signed up for an account at MyWebspiration.com. It's the web version of Inspiration, but it's very free. I found it pretty easy to use, though it had a little trouble finding the layers when I tried to "send to back." I like tools like this that offer URLs where you can see the larger completed work, because I find the Web and the Cloud easy to organize my work.

I hope that this model can be useful to instructors interested in using PBL for their practices, or studying PBL further.