Dr. Z's Presentations

Looking for an opportunity to get together?

I would love to have a chance to talk with you face-to-face and share your successes.  Sometimes it seems like this blog is too much one way.

Over the next few months, I will be speaking throughout Iowa and even visiting Philadelphia for the ISTE conference.   I decided to create a page on this blog where you can see my engagements (and more importantly, where I can see my own engagements.)  =-)

You can access this page by clicking on this phrase or by clicking the tab below our Dr. Z Reflects Blog heading.

Are You Looking for REAL Feedback as a Teacher? - TED TALKS

I just watched this TED Talk by Bill Gates.  He is talking about teachers recording themselves and receiving feedback on their teaching through placing a flip camera on a tripod in the back of their rooms and then just watching it themselves and beginning by being their own coaches.     You know, I am teaching all of my classes online this semester and am recording all of the sessions.  I have expected students to review the videos if they miss them, but maybe I should review them as well to see how well I am doing . . .

What do you do to get feedback on how you teach?

5 Word Clouds Reveal What ISTE Standards Emphasize

Recently I was preparing for teaching my course, Leading Change Through Instructional Technology. As I was reviewing the ISTE Standards, I became interested in looking for the emphases in each of the areas identified by these standards.  It was quite obvious that addressing the teacher standards would prepare Teachers for creating a learning environment where Students could learn in a 21st Century manner. The Administrators were envisioning and providing schools where teachers could create such learning environments. The Coaches were training Teachers to use the 21st Century Skills to create these learning environments.

While reading these standards, I took notice of the language used in each of them.  I decided that the best way to look for linguistic structure and commonalities was by drawing Word Clouds. I ran each of the standards through Wordle.net and they yielded the images below. Review them briefly and identify look for the dominant words in each of the clouds. Remember that the larger the word, the greater the number of times that word appeared in each standard. 

It is encouraging to see that Learning is the largest word in each of the first three clouds. The Teacher's second largest word is Students.  Technology is the second largest in the Administrator and Coach standards.  Look at these clouds identify the what's important in each of these standards.

ISTE Standards for Teachers

ISTE Standards for Administrators

ISTE Standards for Coaches

As I reviewed the Students cloud, it was interesting to see that Learning is not even included in their cloud. That is strange since the only thing the students are assigned to do is Learning. Information is the main word for the students. That is what the students need to manage. Look a little closer and you will see that the action verbs including Use, Analyze, Solve and Develop are some of the larger words in the cloud. These are the measurable behaviors that will indicate that learning has occurred. 

ISTE Standards for Students

The one set of standards that is unique is the ISTE Standards for Computer Science Educators. Inspecting the Word Cloud shows that the most important thing for these educators to do is demonstrate their mastery of the computer science content and pedagogy. These standards seem to be more directed towards evaluating the CS Educators' competence than preparing students for the field of Computer Science.  Hopefully this is just a difference in the authors' perspective and vocabulary than what was used for the other standards.

ISTE Standards for Computer Science Educators

The ISTE Standards provide important guidance for educators in preparing our students for the 21st Century.  

How do you use them to direct your teaching?  What are your ideas for the strengths and recommended areas of improvement for the ISTE Standards.

Z

Alan Kay - Invents the Future

Alan Kay is one of my heros.  He was one of the earliest pioneers in Object-Oriented Programming, personal computing and graphical user interface.  Dr. Kay has had a productive life where he was part of the Xerox PARC where they developed an entire genre of personal computing that was later used to create the Macintosh.

I have always tried to live by his motto:  

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It!

Here are a couple of videos done recorded by Bob Greenberg.  He has been recording leaders in the field and has more than 120 recordings at his Brainwaves site.

10 Ways to Get Teachers to Embrace Technology

BodyGuardCareers.com

Using Technology to support learning is a useful idea, but sometimes it is difficult to induce teachers to Embrace Change. Notice that I didn't say Embrace Technology.  Change will only happen when educators believe that there is a reason to change and that it will make a positive difference in their students' learning.  This applies to changes in using technology or pedagogy or subject matter - whatever.

I was pleased to see that ExitTicket's suggestion for 10 Ways to Get Teachers Using Tech. While this is ExitTicket's move to try to induce change in schools to use their product (and they include the disclaimer in their posting) I would suggest that you read and consider these ideas to bring about change in your schools.

I am listing these 10 ways, but I would suggest that you visit ExitTicket's original site to learn about the particulars for each of these ideas:

1. Ban Alternatives for a Week.
2. Devote Time to Adding Content.
3. Designate an Ambassador.
4. Share Student Voices.
5. Preserve Existing Routines. (at first)
6. Put Resources in a Clean Package.
7. Sync Your Account.
8. Separate Initial Goals from Long-Term Goals.
9. Tech Tuesday.
10. Make It Fun.

Read through these and try them out.  I can't wait to hear about your successes and challenges in making this happen.

Z

Goodbye Mr. Nimoy

I am sorry to hear that Leonard Nimoy has left this dimension to Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before.  You can see that my family and I played roles in an episode with Spock and Kirk.  (I am the vulcan on the left side.)

Using Technology vs Technology Integration - The Difference Defines Success

One of the toughest parts about leading educators toward using technology to engage   learning is getting past talking about using technology for the sake of using technology to using technology to engage learning.  

Click the table to enlarge it to read it.

I was intrigued when I found the table below on Clif Mims' paper.li publication, Clif's Notes on #Edtech.  (It was actually created by ADITI RAO and published on Teachbytes.com) The beauty of using the table below, is that it provides a vocabulary that we can use when we discuss how to use technology with our colleagues.

Where does your curriculum lie in this table?

Technology Integration Matrix

There are other important tools that provide vocabulary for using technology to engage learning.  There is the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) which provides a system of 25 cells that have 5 columns headed with terms identifying the Levels of Tech Integration (complexity of technology use/level of student centricity) across the top and down the left side are 5 Characteristics of a Learning Environment.  The beauty of this matrix is that provides a system that you can use to identify where you are in a lesson/activity you are teaching and then suggestions for how you can increase your level of Technology Integration.  Both the Original Florida version and the Arizona versions have videos and lesson plans for creating these learning environments.  I have included a more complete description of these tools in another posting, Building Learning Through Technology. Based upon the TIM matrix, I would say that most of the previous chart's activities in the left column involve Entry and Adoption while the right column describes Adaption, Infusion and Transformation.  What do you think?

Click the table to enlarge it to read it.

SAMR (Substitution-Augmentation-Modification-Redefinition)

You may not have heard about the TIM, but you have been using SAMR in your schools. This is another ?? for defining Technology Integration. Developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D. to describe a ladder of implementation, this four-stage hierarchy considers the bottom two levels to be forms of Enhancement and the top two levels in the class of Transformation. While the students' role in the learning process is implied in the SAMR, I must admit that I like the TIM better because it specifically defines the changing roles of the students in the pedagogical process.

JUST IN: As I was writing this, I discovered another relevant graphic on FaceBook (yes, sometimes I veer off into FaceBook when I am looking for inspiration ;-) This is another graphic that fits the role of identifying how we want students to use technology.  In this case, I would say that the Wrong column includes Adoption and Adaptation in the TIM matrix and the Right answers may fit in the Infusion and Transformation columns with some of them not even fitting on the matrix but including things that we want to see in education, (i.e., Start Conversations.)  What do you think?

The final quote, "Technology is a Tool, NOT a Learning Outcome," encapsulates this whole posting.  Technology is not an end unto itself - it is a means to an end that will hopefully lead to empowered and active learners.

BTW, This graphic is created by Bill Ferriter who writes a blog entitled The Tempered Radical. I am glad that I found this blog because it appears that Bill is an aware teacher who is interested in sharing what he sees and providing interested insight into how schools work and how they can be improved.  One of the things that I noticed throughout his blog is that Bill appears to be creating his graphics (like the one below) by drawing it on paper and then scanning it.  That is artistic and is not something that we see too much anymore.

So what do you think?  

Is this something that you can use when you are working with your teachers, administrators and students?  What do you see as you look around your curriculum?  Where does it fit on the TIM or SAMR?  

What can you do to "Take it Up a Notch?"

Z