Shelley Rossitto » Education

BYOT or BYOD c’mon man!

Shelley — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:18:29 +0000

I have been following the articles surrounding the new Bring your own Device initiatives. It has been compelling as schools grapple with do I move down this road, will it work, how do we keep up and is it safe? I have begun a BYOD program in my school and it is important to do this strategically not just jump in. I sometimes feel that decisions are based on fear and not knowledge and real planning. With a thorough and well thought out plan that includes feedback from district employees and students it can work. I would begin with a school and meet with parents to discuss what this will look like. Initially there will be some concern as students responsibility is questioned by parents. Will they lose it, ruin it, or forget it someplace. These are very real issues. My recommendation is to “work with it.” What can we do – perhaps brainstorm leaving devices at school for a few days locked up, or have special days where devices are brought in. Do we need to adjust what and how students carry their work and can students be a part of the process to figure out this issue. I truly believe that eventually everyone will get used to the idea and come up with their own solutions. As I took a poll most of the students do have cellphones but parents said they were to call them. None had been taken or lost. From there we need to work with teachers to create web-based environments for work. The devices used will be great on the Internet, be used for textbooks and so on but we want them to be relevant and have a purpose in class. If the device becomes very important in terms of a students education then they will be more careful and follow the AUP. It needs to be an integral part of school and not an add on for it to be treated with respect. In Digital Directions this month they highlight some of the issues schools are facing as they try and get technology into the hands of students. They are also trying to leverage what is out there rather than replicate what students already have.

I am going for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bookshare! iPads! Nooks! Kindles! oh my

Shelley — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:32:42 +0000

http://www.bookshare.org/ is a site that encourages the sharing of books for our students. We use it in Monticello but I would like to take this Napster invention a step further. Should our students all have a digital reading device that all of their books reside on? I was at a tech meeting yesterday and thanks to a colleague I have a new way to look at this. There are many many books that are available that are free to down. http://www.gutenberg.org/ offers free books to students to be downloaded to these devices and there a Chemistry applications that are flash based (cannot run on the iPad) that Kindles and Nooks can accommodate. We are constantly trying to find a device that does everything when perhaps we need to focus on devices that are indeed “focused.” With a ereader there is a specific purpose that can be used in the classroom. What do you think? We can use textbook aide to offset the cost. I see a pilot brewing……………..

How does education relate to real life????????

Shelley — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:13:15 +0000

I have recently been in a position where it is necessary for me to research and find medical care that has taken me on a long rode of networking, medications, jargon jargon jargon and knowing people…. I have been down this journey before with my husband when he had open heart surgery.

At that time I was very concerned about how our medical system works for those in real need, might be of “average” education and resources – not to mention those living in poverty and those that are alone.

Most the doctors that happened to be the higher end specialists do not take medical insurance. It is up to you to negotiate with them to make sure you can be within a window of affordability. I was told by one of the nurses that “they don’t have to.” Those are the “top notch” specialists. Most of them are fair and reasonable but how would you know that when you enter into these agreements. Ahh but it doesn’t end there – the insurance mumbo jumbo – if you are an inpatient then this if you are outpatient and then are all of sudden needing to be admitted you have 48 hours to let the insurance co. know. So if you are really in pain or maybe unconscious you need to let your insurance company know or you pay a penalty. Alas how do you do it if you are alone. I haven’t mentioned the reason why I have the privilege of seeing a great doctor – who I know…… But then the aftercare and meds. I had to build a spreadsheet to decipher what my husbands medical needs were. Take this pill three times a day only in the morning, take this one every other day in the afternoon, take the next one only at night for 2 weeks, etc. It was so confusing. On top of it all the pharmacy gives you the generic without telling you so you can’t match up the name of the Rx the doctor gives you with what it is.

Need I go on and on. So as educators. How do we even begin to prepare our young people to work through this system. We feel it is important to fill out a job application or even taxes. My concern is those that have more get more. We perpetuate the system as we take advantage of the services we can afford and leave others out. It isn’t because they aren’t eligible it is because they can’t figure it out.

Problem solving and project based learning in the context of the core subjects does not teach us this. It is another argument to think more deeply about a social curriculum based on actual life experiences where students integrate the core subjects into advocacy, negotiation, knowing your rights, inquiry and finding the resources you need to have what is going to keep you healthy. We can’t do it by teaching about the Korean war but we can if we connect with those outside of our own society, become more global and perhaps take on an actual case of someone that was victimized by the war and weaving in reading, writing and social studies into learning about the time period and having a cause.

Facebook Safety

Shelley — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:00:46 +0000

I saw this video as I was informing others about the dangers of the Internet. I am mixed about who is more at risk – those that are my age or young people. It has become so normal for young people that they don’t think about the consequences. The world is diffferent for them. Should they have fears as we do. Of course but wow they are expected to make important choices about their lives at a much younger age than we did. They are expected to mistrust and be so very very cautious before they even grow up. During our formative years we were allowed to be naive and that is probably what kept us watching Disney and being slightly innocent. So when I was 12 would I want to think about the whole world not just my street and how my actions impact me and everyone else? I think it is too much. Internet safety is critical to teach and keep in our minds as we work through all content areas in school.

Students create rather than consume

Shelley — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:08:10 +0000

There was such a response to Gary Stager that I thought I would post something a little lighter but to the point. As we discuss our faculty and students it is critical to keep in mind the questions about the “getting there.” We still talk about collaboration and empowering students but we still call their work “assignments”. Gary calls them learning adventures. It sets the stage for a learning community within our schools.

In many of the articles in this blog I discuss the ability for students to create their own content, be active participants in learning, drive what they need to know. This is a life long skill that should be instilled everywhere so our students leave our schools with actual skills to learn not just rote memorization. If we give them too much they won’t know what to do when we aren’t there.

Have you seen the amount of organized sports our kids are in. They aren’t even given the freedom to make their own decisions.

We need to let go and we aren’t! What are we afraid of????

Bankrupcy of our imaginations..Dr. Gary Stager

Shelley — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:29:35 +0000

I am constantly struggling with what I actually do in education and what we can all do. I sometimes feel very isolated in feelings of worth and contribution when it comes to the very expensive resource of technology. As you listen to Gary listen carefully to hear his message. It is not about technology, it is about everything we are to our children.

Gary Stager Excerpts from NECC ’09 Keynote Debate from Gary Stager on Vimeo.

Have we made much progress? Why do we constantly hear quotes and keynotes from educators that quote those that are from the early part of the century or even the 1970′s to tell us we are stifling our students imagination and not providing them with the spaces and opportunities to reach their full potential. Do we think we “have it” when a new gadget or piece of technology arrives that might change it all. Is it the same as another sweeping initiative, like open classrooms, that will get us there? I think we need to think deeply about our practices and leave the tools aside. We have to believe.

I am so distracted!!!

Shelley — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:30:17 +0000

As we read through the article entitled “Multi-tasking” it is clear that many of us aren’t aware of the constant bombardment of information most of us have become engaged in and how that has incrased our need to be “connected.”Mastering_Multitasking. Communication channels are growing and the question is “how do we manage it all?” My question is do we need it??? I belong to over 10 social networking sites and oftentimes the task becomes daunting as I try and figure out who gets me tonight? It has opened up so many more opportunities for me personally and as a professional but I can’t find the time. When I sit in the car (as I did for 4 hours coming home from Boston) I am wondering how I can get online to at least “catch up.” There is no idle time. It is filled with “I wonder what facebook is up to, or are the 5 conversations I am having in Ning all straight in my head and am I a contributor or only the one that “nudges” it along. I am not sure we can really communicate deeply or with meaning when the audiences and venues have increased. We are becoming a society of speaking in sound bytes!

The article talks about how much our brain can actually handle. It is clinically telling us we can only handle so much. So are we really staying in touch or just scratching the surface where conversations occur more often but not as intensely? We have been critized for teaching a curriculum that is a mile wide and inch deep. It appears our communication strategies have followed suit.

Does this have an impact on indepth analysis and the ability to actually synthesize information (Blooms)? The article outlines strategies to teach our students so we can embrace what is currently the rage and help it become manageable. But how do we teach it if we don’t use it? I can honestly say I do but can most teachers say that. And again how it is impacting teaching our students to think, be patient, and have conversations that are meaningful.

We have spent a lot of time working with our students that are ADHD. Somehow society and its communication opportunities have pulled the rug from under us! Oh well I am ranting but actually I love the social networking atmosphere. It has been great but overwhelming at best. Am I physically gardening or blogging about it, am I actually using that treadmill or joining an exercise group in second life, am I improving my diet or spending time researching new immune system fighters on the web???? I guess my archair and carpel tunnel will be the judge of that!

Web 2.0, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 again!

Shelley — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:49:22 +0000

Has the term gotten familiar to you yet? Web 2.0 describes the way this generation behaves. Web 2.0 is people creating content socially and intuitively. Creators and consumers meet in online communities where content creation and feedback occur. Consumers become active participants, and the roles of consumers and creators overlap. Traditional publishers are no longer the sole distributors of content, and readers are no longer exclusively consumers. Rather, authors and readers engage in an active relationship.

This change has been transformative of our society and the creative process. The classroom is no longer the sole learning environment. It is not another superficial revelation. For 30 years the research has supported project based constructivist classrooms. Web 2.0 technology embodies this philosophy. Leveraging this technology for learning gives us the tools to act.

The research is now “active” – done by our clients – our kids, students, children, pupils, etc. To create content collaboratively and to distribute their work sets the stage for authentic and relevant reflection and revision. In the article lets_talk_2.0 the authors talk to us about the current tools students are using and that they are moving ahead as they write creatively and share that work with others. They continue to tell us that this activity is occurring whether it is integrated into our classrooms or not. Our students are writers and publishers and they are experiencing success and loving it. We should embrace what they know to enhance what we want them to practice.

Writing globally will also increase their confidence as collaborators and broaden their experiences so they can tackle the data that says our students will have 15 different careers before they retire. School will be long gone and collaborative and social networking environments will provide them with the growth they need to succeed. Access is not widespread which makes it increasingly more critical that schools provide the structure for students to work within. If we want all of our students to compete on a level playing field, no matter what the vocation, we can work alongside the business model discussed in this article and parallel the current environment our students live in by leveraging technology for learning.

This article was written collaboratively using Google Docs (allowed us to share and edit the document at the same time, live) with my 28 year old son, architect, working in Boston.

PCD

Shelley — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:53:25 +0000

There have been many articles referring to the need to have students participate, collaborate, and distribute. We have spent hours talking and teaching but it really requires a full paradigm shift to really accomplish. Think in these terms – our students need to be equipped with the tools early on to create their own content, find resources for anything they need, and research what they want to know about. I say this with a note of caution as I make sure it is well understood. Our students lack experiential learning and the wherewithall to know how to connect outside of what they see and know allday. Their world revolves around the teacher in the classroom, peers and their homelife. They are only surrounded by those factors. As research tells us students will have at least 15 jobs in their lifetimes preparing them to seek out others worldwide is critical. They need the confidence and skill to network, change careers, find opportunities that might be out of their comfort area, and to prepare for those opportunities. We are quick to deny students cellphones, ipods, and other wireless devices. In our attempts to keep schools “secure” we are stripping our students of the tools they use on a daily basis and not giving our students the opportunites to grow with these new technologies. Read the Day in the Life of a Web 2.0 Student. I am suggesting we educate, educate, educate, embrace, and embellish. We don’t want to drive our decision making by fear and the unknown.

JayWalking with Jay Leno

Shelley — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:50:37 +0000

As I watched this great video I was reminded of what we do to our students as educators on a daily basis. (Do a search for Jaywalking with Jay Leno and there are quite a few videos) I laughed as I heard the crazy answers people gave but also realized the information they were being asked for was part of a textbook in MS or HS. Was it on some state assessment. Did I care when I learned it or did I have any connection to the material at all when it was learned so I would have a need to remember it. The first person was unable to make a connection between the leading questions by Jay between China and Panama. Was it really the information or not making connections.? Is Louis Armstrong the first thing to come to mind because of his fame, marketing, rhythm? Why did she remember that? The young man that made the comment about the “founding fathers of what” was a perfect example of thinking within his world and his immediate surroundings because that is where he is at. He is not a “global” thinker and why should he be. He is probably working long hours to make ends meet and none of any info beyond his daily grind is really going to benefit him. The young lady who actually finished the “4 score” with “who are in heaven was a result of constant drill in catholic masses where the words just roll off her tongue with no meaning just memorization. Think about the connection the young man made between the acorn and the squirrel. Was that incorrect? It was based on the question but he was definitely interpreting this in his own way. No comment on BYOB.

It has been time and will continue to be time to give what we want students to know and be able to do when they leave our system a hard look. It isn’t just looking anymore though it requires action. Learning should be meaningful and purposeful, students should develop and define their own content and the structure of education should pave the way to a challenged based environment full of a need to know. It is not an idea but a need.