Rural School December Wrap-up

Preparing to take eggs from a salmon

The week before winter break is always a little crazy at school. Definitely a time to change up the routine and focus on short bursts of high interest activities. At present I am working with a small group of kids who are creating a series of videos. They have completed two so far, Christmas News and Environmental Kidz. With the clock ticking we are trying to squeeze out one last video of the year on a mystery theme. If you are interested in our latest offerings you can view them at www.cayooshkidz.net . Just go to the top of the video page.

Last week we finished the first cycle of Connected Classroom sessions. As teachers we are getting faster and more confident. The students are now demanding to be more engaged in the delivery of the lessons. We need to design our next series of meetings in a way that will allow the children to have a direct hand in the presentation and outcome of the experience. I don’t remember them teaching me this back in university.

This past weekend, vigils were held across Canada in support of the Copenhagen Climate talks. Lillooet was well represented and had a per capita turnout head and shoulders above main centres anywhere else in the country. It was a pleasant candle light affair, for which the weather more-or-less co-operated. Following the vigil there was a screening of the video Fierce Light, by Velcro Ripper. It deals with the topic of environmental and social justice. It was delightful to see students past, present, and possibly future in attendance. Concern about climate change and the future of the planet may not yet be at the forefront of the minds of everyone, but there are a few who are willing to raise their voices to make a difference.

And with the holiday only five sleeps away I have a stack of books to read about video editing and multimedia integration. I need to pick up some more gear and there will be lots of time spent with family. Another major project is to rewrite the web page Multimedia Stories www.multimediastories.net . Multimedia Stories is a resource site for creating multimedia content. Unfortunately the technology of multimedia changes so quickly that every six months the site needs to have a major update. As my mother would say there is no rest for the wicked. Have a great holiday.

Asking questions about the environment – a kids perspective.

Where have the salmon gone?

Teaching young students about environmental sustainability is a tricky thing. Students need to be knowledgeable about the forces that are shaping their world, but the process of instruction needs to be done in such a way as to not frighten them, or leave them feeling guilty about choices they had no part in making. Children need to be given the right amount of information so that they can increasingly begin to make constructive decisions about living responsibly on this limited and sometimes fragile planet.

Socrates was put to death for asking questions, but I don’t believe that any of his students were. So it seems like a safe strategy to encourage kids to ask questions about the current state of the earth’s ecosystem. Just the process of asking questions engages learners on a path of discovery. I think that the more questions a child can generate the better and if they can’t think up one of their own they should borrow one from a partner. Often before a learner can ask a deep question they need some background information.

This past week we have been exploring the concepts of ‘ The Ecological Footprint’ and ‘Carbon Footprint’.  We have been using two excellent resources to look at these complex phenomena. The ecological footprint calculator http://www.ecovoyageurs.ca/en/page.cgi?stage=footprint/footprint shows how many earths would be needed if everyone used the same amount of the earth’s resources. Because the kids live a Canadian lifestyle typically they require four planets to maintain their current standard of living. Kids have a heap of questions after this activity. The website has a variety of other activities and games to support environmental learning as well. To investigate the amount of carbon students produce in a year we go to http://www.meetthegreens.org/features/carbon-calculator.html . Here they find out the number of tonnes of carbon they produce in a year among other activities.

As a follow-up research project kids trace their own feet and fill in some of the factors they have learned about that create these two footprints. To fulfil our mandate to be a connected classroom, in the near future we will generate a list of questions about the environment and turn that into a video to post on the internet.

As a teacher it is exciting to be part of a process of discovery where students are engaged in learning about things that matter to them and that they want to understand. After all they are the ones who will soon inherit this planet from us. They will need all the wisdom and perspective they can get to deal with the environmental challenges in their future.

Technology, Teaching, Change, and the Big Picture

 

Wildfire changes day to night over Lillooet.

 

Human civilization is entering a period of change, caused by technology among other things, that will fundamentally disrupt the basic assumptions and social patterns we have experienced over the past century. Education too is going to be radically altered over the next few decades. The first tremors of this ground swell can now be discerned.

 

Our daily lives in the western world are being shaken by the rumblings of financial instability at the very core of our capitalist system. The shock of the recent global economic disaster is a harsh example of this. These are times of change where past assumptions can’t always be counted on.

 

We are numbed by the range of crises that loom around and before us. The proliferation of nuclear weapons, the radicalization of religious fundamentalism, the disintegration of time honoured social institutions, the inevitability of peak oil, and of course the accelerating collapse of the earth’s ecosystem that sustains us. We live in times of change, times of challenge and, for some, times of despair.

 

As educators we need to be informed, engaged, and most of all confident that humanity is capable of rising to the challenge, because those students who we teach will look to us for reassurance and direction. And yes things will change, and that transition will be uncomfortable, but we, as a species, have the abilities and resources to create a just and sustainable world, rich in biodiversity. A large part of the solution will be found in the emerging technological capacities that are at the moment seemingly so disruptive.

 

 

A Voice in the Wilderness – The Copenhagen Conference

 

 

Global warming will change the world we live in and love.

 

 

As the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference unfolds I wonder about my professional responsibility to translate the global importance of this event into concepts that my students will understand. Especially when I am not totally sure I understand the ramifications myself. I have been increasingly turning to the Manchester Guardian newspaper http://www.guardian.co.uk/ for information and unbiased clarification. The Manchester Guardian has long held a reputation for quality news reporting and a fair examination of the topics. It is also one of the few major newspapers that has a designated Environment section.

 

Copenhagen is about global warming and global warming is about the increase of CO2

in the atmosphere. A two degree increase over the next century would cause international disruption and dislocation. Four degrees would be disastrous. According to a number of peer reviewed studies http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/17/global-temperature-rise , if humanity remains on the present accelerated course of fossil fuel consumption we could see a six degree increase in earth’s temperature − devastating.

 

The stakes are high and the future possibly grim for this present generation of elementary students. So, what am I going to do as a teacher? Well, I certainly don’t want to traumatize ten year olds with a cataclysmic view of the future, although I will show them Al Gore’s, An Inconvenient Truth http://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthefilm/ . This is a long video so I’ll abridge it. The film always stimulates interesting discussion. We will also watch a video created by local kids that describe the immediate impact of global warming on their lives http://teachertube.com/members/viewVideo.php?video_id=32896&title=Pine_Beetles_and_Global_Warming .

The concept of one’s carbon footprint is key to understanding the goals of the Copenhagen conference. This site http://www.dbcca.com/dbcca/EN/what-you-can-do/1245.jsp provides a calculator that kids can fill out to get a sense of how consumer decisions affect their personal footprint and therefore the health of the planet. Hopefully, this will lead to some positive discussion around the dinner table.

 

As for practical steps in the classroom we will be looking at ways to reduce our footprint by 10 %. This is both a realistic and meaningful goal based on the 10:10 Project. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/10-10 . And what if the whole climate change discussion is a hoax or a conspiracy? Well, we will be well on our way to cleaning up a badly polluted world and creating a sustainable civilization before we run out of oil. And that makes sense! Unless you don’t believe we are going to run out of oil.

Born Digital – The Seventh Wave

Technology is a wave crashing over us all.

Cayoosh Kidz were asked to create a video about how we use technology in the Connected Classroom. We started, as we always do with a storyboard. As we brainstormed themes and content for the video, I became amazed at the quantity and quality of digital experiences these kids have already been exposed to. These kids were born digital and have no memory of a world that wasn’t.

Jill is ten, she got her first cell phone at six. Today she has a Blackberry. Tassy started using social media at six, four years later she has her own Facebook account. Jessie lives in a home where there have always been computers, there are four now. She has had a laptop since she was six. Almost half the kids have a cell phone that they can use when they want. One quarter have their own cell phones. The biggest Christmas present this year is going to be netbooks. These children are different from past generations.

In the Connected Classroom kids have their own netbooks, participate in online virtual conferences, and classroom video conferencing. They easily create, manage and share multimedia files. I often ask students to solve technological problems. The kids are faster than me. They think outside the box when looking for a solution. They definitely are not afraid of making a mistake or breaking something. For them buttons are meant to be pushed; there are no boundaries to possible solutions.

These kids cheerfully state that they are the smartest generation that has ever lived. Don’t believe them, just ask one something and they will Google it for you. Smarter or not this generation, with their technical devices and constant access to the internet, will require a different education from those of the past. The kids who were born digital are ready for the future now. Is their educational program ready?

Photo Paul White

Elluminate a Virtual Environment

 

 

Technological Challenges

 

 

We experimented this week using Elluminate http://www.elluminate.com/ . We used it to connect kids together, in groups both large (50 students) and small (4). We found that our internet bandwidth was barely sufficient to handle 50 individuals and in one of our conferences connections were constantly dropping making meaningful communication difficult. Even in the session where bandwidth was not such an issue it became clear that the medium required very focused educational outcomes with clearly defined and simple tasks. Despite the problems the students were extremely motivated and took the technological glitches in stride. They were patient and attempted to complete the assignments to the best of their abilities.

 

The experience with Elluminate left us feeling confident in our plans to use it as a tool to facilitate online literature circles. Groups of 12 participants should work well. We will continue to practice with small groups in our own schools so we become proficient working and sharing in the virtual environment. Having someone in the same physical room as you makes is much easier to trouble shoot if something unexpected happens.

Photo: Paul White

Beyond the Bricks and Mortar

 

Cayoosh Kidz record an News episode.

 

 

I’ve taken a break from writing report cards. Why don’t the people that design report card writing software ever think to ask a classroom teacher what they need? It drives me crazy when software developers produce substandard products that are less useful and more time consuming than paper and pen. People, we have the technology, get it right. However, all is not darkness and doom.

 

An interesting product that has just come out is the Owle http://www.wantowle.com/Welcome.html . It is an adapter for the iPhone and markedly improves the video quality. While this product is designed for the iPhone, the principle could be applied to any smartphone. A smartphone can become a useful information gathering and sharing tool. With online video editing such as Movie Masher http://www.moviemasher.com/ you can take decent video clips, edit, and share them on the web, in minutes. If you want to brush up on your video skills try Video 101 http://www.video101course.com/Editing/e_50.html

 

Copyright is always a thorny issue when you are trying to illustrate a blog or some other work you want to share with a public audience. There is always creative commons which allows certain uses of images. Flickr  http://www.flickr.com/photos/grade5/ offers such a service. I recently found a site that claims no copyright and has a selection of excellent photos http://aksinya.wordpress.com/ .

 

The connected classroom project has started to use Moodle http://moodle.org/ . Moodle is the FaceBook of education. It is part of an emerging class of social media that has the potential to change the way children are educated.  Moodle offers a way to manage all the tasks that teachers and students need to accomplish in a totally digital format. Moodle is not perfect but it is functional. Colleagues at my school are beginning to transfer all their assignments onto Moodle. With Moodle, a Smartboard, Bridgit and Elluminate we can provide a powerful educational experience without paper and possibly without a bricks and mortar classroom.

 

Well I guess it is time to get back to the report cards. Writing the blog has reminded me of all the great technology available and has restored my faith in the web 2.0 future. Hopefully, by this time next year I can report that report card writing has left the dark ages behind.

U2, Youtube and the real world.

 

A parent teacher meeting in the digital age.

 

 

 

Sunday night I was doing a little work when a tweet came in from twitter.com/NewMediaDude about a U2 concert being streamed live from LA  http://www.youtube.com/user/U2official#p/u/ . The word used to describe the event was historic. I had a look and was amazed! It was a spectacle of sight and sound. The quality was amazing and it was being streamed live around the world. It marked a shift in how we can participate in cultural events around the globe. That brings me back to the real world of the connected classroom. We have been battling glitches in our video conferencing system and our Bridgit connection. When you are working at the edge of your ability and the capacity of the technology even a minor drop in system performance can spell disaster for your lesson. Kids can be patient only so long.

 

We are coming to an end of a series of Connected Classroom lessons. Aislinn is doing one on Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power – Quality of Connecting. Aislin is using the book Those Shoes http://storypockets.blogspot.com/2008/04/book-review-those-shoes.html

She has the 75 students riveted by her presentation. The other ongoing lesson is called the Revenge of the Tree Octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ . In this lesson students were asked to help save the endangered Tree Octopus and have been sent off to make posters, octopus feeders, and do research. Tomorrow a small group of skeptics will take over the lesson and assert that this octopus is a fake. Students will be sent off into cyberspace to find out more information and decide for themselves. Our third collaborator Brooke will pick up the thread next week and teach a series of lessons on research skills for the internet.

 

Finally the real world is about falling flat on your face. Being part of Connecting Classrooms is like being a first year teacher again. Ever day we are trying to do something that we have never done before and maybe don’t understand very well. Most of the time we manage, but we do stumble and take a spill. This usually occurs when someone we wanted to impress is watching. Tonight after finishing this post I am going to study SMART Boards – very intensely. I have a few nasty cuts, scrapes and bruises to nurse.

The Dichotomous Teacher

Students explore the Web 2.0

I am caught between two worlds. I have a functioning traditional classroom with most of the things you would expect in a progressive learning environment. But I step next door into the connected classroom and I am met with a shadowy vision of what the future will look like, only it isn’t the future. It is where I teach half the time. It is like half my brain is analog and half is digital. I feel disconnected.

I don’t know how to teach in this web 2.0 world. It is cold comfort to realize that nobody does! There are pioneers out there doing amazing things, but no consensus exists about which is the right way to go about this digital adventure. The technology, medium, and philosophy are new and evolving. The netbooks we use are more powerful than the laptops of 4 years ago. The flow of information through email, Elluminate, Bridgit, and video conferencing is different to traditional classroom interaction. With internet search engines, such as Google, students have instant access to a vast knowledge base. We don’t need to teach knowledge; we need to teach process. But what does that mean?

And so everyday I take those two steps to the connected classroom and leave the familiarity of a 150 year old traditional classroom and move into the future. A future where I struggle to create a scope and sequence of skills and experiences to shepherd the students. I flounder setting multimedia assignments for them to create. And I am perplexed as to the best way of collecting and grading those assignments.

But I do wake up in the morning excited about the day’s challenges and opportunities. The kids are enthusiastic, parents are supportive and administration is confident about the program. A measure of academic success is discipline issues requiring attention. There has been no discipline issues in the connected classroom. Even when dealing with 75 students in a virtual conference the kids are engaged. Parents have had nothing but positive things to say about the program. They openly express their gratitude for the opportunities that the students are receiving.  Administration has bent over backwards to make this program a success. There has been no pressure, only encouragement and support. So why do I feel like my right and left brain are heading off in different directions?

Connected classrooms places the connected team somewhere that we haven’t been before. It forces us far beyond our comfort zones and asks us to learn new skills and invent others. It makes us reflect and question everything we do in the traditional classroom. We ask ourselves constantly, does this need to be done and if so, could it be done better in a digital format? We see the future and it challenges our assumptions of who we are as teachers and what we do. It is both uncomfortable and exhilarating. And some days it makes me feel a little crazy.

Cayoosh Kidz at the Restoration Site

Learning by teaching others in a teaching train

This week Cayoosh Kidz walked down to the restoration site for a field day.  Part of the educational component was a teaching train – where two students at each station were taught something about local animals, plants or the restoration work done by the team.  They then in turn taught their classmates as they moved through the “train”.  It was fun and a great way for students to learn from each other.

Kim North and Odin Scholz along with the dedicated restoration team showed the kids what they did at the site and then taught them how they could help out too. Students volunteered to do a number of jobs including planting over 56 native shrub species.

It was rewarding to hear students saying “this was one of our best days yet!” as they laboured to restore the site.

The Power House Restoration Project is a partnership between BC Hydro’s Bridge Coastal Restoration Program, the Lillooet Naturalist Society and Cayoosh Creek Band.

If you would like to see a short video of the day’s activities go to www.cayooshkidz.net and select video, then click on “Foreshore Restoration Day”.