Well, not totally. But most of my fresh, new content can be read at a new collaborative online magazine, EdReach.us. I will continue to use drezac.com as a place to host my personal thoughts, resources, notes, and presentations. However, my voice- will be housed at EdReach.us from now on.
What is EdReach? Well, it's an idea that together- we can do better. Together- we can have a stronger voice. Education needs a strong voice.
So check out EdReach.us. You are going to love it! It's more than just a blog, it's an education media network full of podcasts, blogs, media, and more.
Today is the official launch of EdReach.us, the educational media network, a collaboration by educators from all over the United States.
So, why EdReach?
Do we really need another Educational blog? There are so many others out there- aren’t there enough?
Well, that is true, there are a lot of voices out there. So many voices. So many, it seems that it’s getting harder and harder to hear them, harder to cut through the volume and rate of information, harder to even keep up with well-known colleagues, and harder to be heard.
The EdReach Educational Media Network (EdReach.us) aims to gather these voices together, and create one stream of educational news, blogs, commentary, and interactive media- that highlights the innovation, highlights the ideas, highlights the cutting-edge best practices that are happening in the world's schools every day.
There is fabulous and innovative teaching happening in American education, happening all over the world- yet we forget. Lately, these moments seem to get lost under the sea of politics, budgets, and policy. Education news is also in a state of disarray. Go to most news sites and look for the education section- it’s likely you won’t find it. Still. Education isn’t getting the place it deserves in the mainstream media outlets.
There are amazing new tools being used in the classroom every day- gadgets, Web tools, innovative pedagogy. There are companies that are leading the charge with innovative Web tools for teachers. There are devices that are transforming the way teachers teach, and learners learn. There are teachers that do amazing things with students every day.
Every day.
EdReach is made up of- not one person- but a network of educators from all over the United States- field reporters- some hosting podcasts in Connecticut, some contributing from San Diego, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan- from all over the country. And it’s expanding.
So, if you want to know what’s happening in innovative Education, if you want to know what innovative education looks like, if you want to see what education can be like for America’s students and students all over the world- keep following and listening to EdReach.us.
For years we dreamed of a day- where you said to your computer:
“Computer- tell me everything there is to know about ______________.”
And the computer would then show you all details, movies, pictures, related stories and text regarding that subject. The first thing I think of is the scene in Star Trek II (or many previous Star Trek episodes), where Kirk needs to get up to speed on some data or planet.
I also think of Wall E, where the Captain asks the computer (voiced by Sigourney Weaver)-
Captain: “Define Earth.”
Computer: “Earth, the surface of the World...”
So this type of computer search engine is light years away right? Well, no, actually. It’s available right now! If you go to www.qwiki.com right now- it’s right there! This is qwiki.com:
I thought that this might be a fad, but after playing a few of these videos, it becomes quite addictive. I showed a couple of them to my 5 year old daughter, and, what’s remarkable, is she and I stayed at the computer for an hour putting in new search terms.
She said:
“I want to learn about... the heart.”
“I want to learn about... carbon dioxide.”
“I want to learn about... the blood.”
And this just kept going on for about an hour until, finally I had to put the kid to bed.
This really is a remarkable new way to get information. I showed a class of fourth graders last week, and they bombarded me with search requests about the State of Illinois. Funny, but I’ve never heard kids screaming at me to do a Google search for them.
Anyhow, check out www.qwiki.com . It’s in alpha invite phase, but you should get your invite fairly quickly if not immediately. If not, ask me for an invite on Twitter @drezac, and I’ll send one your way. I have unlimited invites.
This is my Top 1 Search Tool for the unforeseeable future.
Looks like Mathademics has picked up a nomination for the Edublog Awards in the "Best Use of Educational Video/ Visual" category. How delightful! While we are clearly the "underdog" compared to the Khan Academy, which was also nominated, I think, as well as many teachers who have told me, that there is a marked difference.
While Khan has certainly received a lot of press (and has a three year head start), I hope voters out there will understand the differences between us.
Anatomy of a Math Tutorial
Let's show two similar videos, and let you, the educators, be the judge. Let's compare a video on subtracting decimals from Mathademics with Khan's own decimals video:
Mathademics: Adding and Subtracting Decimals
Khan Academy: Subtracting Decimals:
Okay- you're a sixth grader. Which video was more engaging?
Which video is more concise and to the point?
Which instructor felt more prepared for this lesson: Khan or Mathademics?
Which video do you feel was made for a younger audience?
Which video had the certified professional math teacher?
Which video was... more fun to watch?
Well, I hope you get my point. The Khan Academy is a good thing, a good movement, but we think that Mathademics is the next step in the evolution of math Online.
Mathademics is:
1. Highly trained certified math teachers.
2. Prepared.
3. Colorful and diverse with technology: we use SMART, ENO, other Interactive White Boards, and document cameras.
4. Concise: No video is ever over 5 minutes (for a reason).
5. We know our audience. Our videos are for a K-12 audience. We speak so our audience understands us.
So, if you're going to throw a vote for this Edublogs Awards, I hope you'll throw a vote our way.
Interactive White Boards are here, whether we like them or not. Golly, if your classroom doesn't have one by now, I'd be real surprised. And while tech educators often rail against them (because teachers hog them), I've decided to throw up the white flag of surrender- for the kids. It would seem teachers aren't going to give these things up and let the kids use them. Ever.
So we can either keep on fighting, or we can go with this, and just call this a "teacher" tool. If you're lucky enough to have a laptop cart for the students to use while you're on the IWB- then what is the difference?
Think of it: how often did teachers let students actually write on the chalk board? The overhead projector? The fact is, there's only one Interactive White Board per classroom, and there may be 25 or more students. There is never going to be enough time in one class period to let everyone have-at-it on the white board. Nobody ever heard of a 1-1 white board environment. That would be awfully expensive. Maybe we're going about this all wrong.
If you're still hogging it- and let's pretend for a second that you do- can we just accept that, and make it a useful classroom tool anyway? I think we can. I've been on a mission to make better use out of them, and I've discovered: they're not as bad as I thought they were.
What is the one of the biggest hindrances to learning when a teacher uses an IWB? Well, yes, they may hog it, but the bigger problem is that they're standing in front of it! Well, the solution to that is- screencasting.
Record your lesson using Jing, upload to a proprietary YouTube channel, like this Mathademics Channel, and your IWB has now become the absolute BEST screencasting tool out there.
When a teacher makes a screencast using an IWB, they know that their students will be able to see everything, so this gives them the opportunity to be:
1. More descriptive (you're recording this for an "at-home" audience, not in in-class one)
2. More colorful in their approach to the IWB tools (it's like you're John Madden on Monday Nights!)
3. More economical in their language. Make the limit 5 minutes, and you have to get to the point.
Take a look at this example:
The 6th grade teacher seems very comfortable to me. I think this is for a couple of reasons. First, she's not teaching to a traditional class, where she would be projecting her voice a lot more. Second, she's not worried about blocking the workspace. Third, she's also using a headset mic, so the learning is very intimate- it's as though the students can hear her thoughts. They're hearing the think-aloud- how powerful a tool when you can stop, pause, and rewind what the teacher is thinking!
The teacher in this example knows this is a screencast, and this gives her the freedom to point things out, highlight a little bit more, maybe draw an arrow or a circle to point something out. She has to do this because the mode of delivery is different than if students were in a classroom. It reads differently at home or on a laptop. I think it frees her up.
It's also visually interesting. It's a really great math lesson.
Here's another example:
This 3rd grade teacher makes use of all of the IWB board tools, making a visually interesting lesson. Now, he involves the students, but they don't actually write on the board. Are we okay with that?
He's engaged them in different ways. Well, first just listen to them- do they sound engaged? If he uploads quickly, the students can access the video almost immediately at the Mathademics Channel, and he can go around the classroom while they are working. He can be in 25 places at one time. Also since he's made it a screencast, they can access the recording at home later when they're doing homework. They can pause the video, rewind, and play it over and over again. This is engagement of a totally different kind, but it does something extremely important. It makes the IWB useful, just not in the way that we've been reaching these past few years.
The chalkboard has always been the teacher's "palette" so to speak. I'm okay with the IWB being the teacher's interactive palette, as long as they:
1. Make their lessons visually interesting.
2. Make them accessible online for students to see and learn outside of the classroom.
I believe that every lesson can be an artifact for student learning, if the teacher approaches their process as such. They can look at lessons as "episodes" or Acts of a large play. Shouldn't students should be able to access those episodes whenever they want to?
Heck, if I can subscribe to all four seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Hulu, then I think my teacher owes it to me, the student, to make their learning accessible online.
This is my presentation about Social Networking in schools. It is meant to be a conversation about the ideas, limits and the boundaries of using SN tools in the classroom. I presented this at IETC in Springfield, IL on November 19th, 2010. Being in Prezi format, it's image heavy, so it's not all "spelled out" for the average reader. If you have questions about it, feel free to comment and let me know! - DR
Here's the embed for my presentation about gaining teacher adoption of technology use in schools. Enjoy! It's image heavy, but if you'd like me to explain it to you, leave me a comment! I presented this at IETC in Springfield on November 18th, 2010. http://prezi.com/bfqwqoghalff/adapt-and-adopt-strategies-for-teacher-buy-in/
