Learning On The Job

I just finished Karl Fisch’s post about approaching homework differently. It is a much more detailed and cogent explanation to what I was saying here.

My plan is to deliver the traditional lecture portion of an Algebra class as the homework, thus freeing up class time to explore the mathematics and pursue some interesting problems, as well as provide time for guided practice and collaborative work.

Since Algebra is very much skill based, my hope is to provide short (less than 10 minutes), targeted instructional videos that students can watch (and rewatch if necessary) that focus solely on the skills, one skill at a time. Now I want to be clear that these videos typically will come after inquiry and exploration in class.

As I said in the comment of Karl’s post, I think this is a brilliant idea. I can’t think of one downside to this plan, other than it will challenge people’s existing beliefs of what education looks like. (That by itself is not a bad thing; the fallout of that challenge might cause some headaches though.)

Watching Karl’s ‘Proof of Concept‘ video, it’s pretty obvious that this is going to be a time-consuming effort. As is mentioned, there are tons of online resources already but they tend to have been created by individuals for their own use. I could use them in my classroom but they aren’t always at the right level or don’t always have enough practice or aren’t the right length.

So here’s my question: Is it possible for us, as  a community, to create an online open-source Algebra 1 skills-based video textbook? What would we need to do so? Here are some initial thoughts:

• We would need to come up with an agreed-upon structure for each video. (I like Karl’s Five Part Plan: Learning Goal, Explanation/Examples, Guided Practice, Self-Check, and Closing.)
• We would need to come up with a generic list of skills that are applicable to all, regardless of state or national standards.
• We would need people to volunteer to create a video for each skill on our list. If two or three people create a video for the same skill, that’s not a bad thing: more choice for our students.
• We would need to come up with a structure for displaying or publishing our textbook. I’m thinking create a YouTube channel and use a wiki as some sort of Table of Contents.

Can we work together to share the time-consuming aspects of this idea so that we all spend more time focused on the ‘heavy lifting’ aspect: supporting our students effectively with our time?

Anybody interested in trying?

Image: ‘soccer practice‘

For a math teacher, wikis and blogs are hard. There is no intuitive method for students (or teachers) to input proper mathematical symbols and equations without a learning LaTex or importing a whole bunch of graphics.

The power of the wiki comes from its collaborative opportunities – the ability for students to create a shared knowledge. In this paradigm, the teacher takes on the role of caretaker or shepherd, keeping her students on task and headed in the general direction of their goal. Like any large herd, there will be ramblings, amblings and detours, but these can be seen as necessary ‘distractions’ in order to give the students ownership.

Welker’s Wikinomics is a good example of this. Jason Welker uses his wiki as a content delivery platform, allowing students total access to the course material. The collaboration, however, comes mostly through the discussion forums, where students are constantly asking questions (perhaps prompted in class?) and their peers are constantly replying. It is through this exchange that understanding is created.

Economics is an example of a course where the concepts remain constant but the examples are ever-changing and ubiquitous. Mathematics is a bit different. Yes, the concepts are constant, but unlike econ there are not always new examples of that concept showing up in the news. (Perhaps this is a comment on me, but I think I’ve been using the same few examples of parabolas the last 10 years!) It is difficult to have engaging discussions about topics that have been answered ad infinitum the past 10 years. The focus of the math wiki must be different. The Small Stones wiki uses a collaborative note-taking approach (called scribe posts) championed by Darren Kuropatwa. Students are responsible, on rotation, for updating the wiki with the class notes. Other students can then add details or correct mistakes that they find. In the end, it is a peer-reviewed textbook. Unlike the economics wiki, this won’t work in perpetuity. The next round of students needs to start from scratch and build their own understanding from the ground up.

My main concern with the Small Stones wiki is that it is static. It reminds me of reading a notebook, albeit in electronic form. I started a wiki with my grade 10 and 11 students this year. The initial idea was that the students would create screencast movies (using their TabletPCs, OneNote, and Cam Studio) of themselves solving problems in every unit. By the end of the course there would be a dynamic record of how to solve problems of various type. It would also give me a chance to ‘watch’ them solve problems and to identify misconceptions.

As you can tell from the tone of the previous paragraph, things didn’t quite turn out the way I imagined. I had a hard time getting the buy-in from students that this was a useful idea. I like to think that my school is pretty progressive, but the teaching methodologies tend to be quite mainstream at this point. I do hope that my new position will help change that, however.

image: Shepherd by ingirogiro
image: Come in uno specchio 1 by Hedrok

I have a confession to make: When looking over the 23 Things, there are only a handful of things that I don’t already feel like I have some sort of comfort with. I blog, I tweet, I wiki, I have a Personal Learning Network that I am continuously cultivating to suit my needs and interests. And I have firsthand experience as to how the collaborative nature of the read/write web has changed me as a teacher.

As an L^3 (LifeLong Learner; I’m a math teacher, give me a break!), I harness the power of Web 2.0 on an hourly basis. If I have blog questions, I tweet an Edublogs guru. If want to talk politics or pedagogy or sports or the joys of international living, I connect with intrepidteacher or MsMichetti. And I’m constantly reading the thoughts and blogs of some of the most influential 21st C. educationalists around. To say that I learn more from the people in my computer than the people in my building would be a gross understatement.

As a teacher, wikis allow me to encourage collaboration and independence between my students. Creative Commons licensed photos allow my students to ethically find images to support their work. YouTube gives me a library of media that can be used for business or pleasure.

Web 2.0 is just awesome (boom de ya da, boom de ya da!).

image: idn_web_rots by Rodrigo Vera

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At some point, I was recounting our in-house PD session with Jeff Utecht, inspired by my time at Learning 2.008. Day 1 (in my opinion, at least) was all about our TabletPCs and what we could do with them. (Day 2 was more about Web 2.0 and bringing that power into our classrooms, but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

My second workshop focused on my experiences using the TabletPC, combined with Cam Studio, to create screencast movies. My goals were twofold: 1) to teach others how to set up Cam Studio (for some reason, this wasn’t/isn’t part of the standard ghost image) and 2) to give teachers of all disciplines a concrete example of how and why they can use these screencasts as authentic assessment, both in the formative and summative sense of the term.

Even with the predictable technical glitches, the session went well. In the ultimate measure of success, I’ve had a few teachers coming to me for questions after the PD days, so I guess that’s something!

Here’s an example of a screencast that I’ve made to help my students:

And here’s an example of a screencast that some of my grade 8s made last year in Korean:

Ultimately, I’m trying to get my students create and upload screencasts to a wiki so that all students can use these as revision resources. I don’t want it to be about assessment or other extrinsic motivations to create and post. But I need to promote the power of the community first. I’m not sure how to do that, though…

Photo Credit: Through a Child’s Eyes by Ray Lopez

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Morpheus came to UNIS last weekend…

You remember The Matrix, right? (If you don’t, maybe we shouldn’t be friends. It’s only one of the best movies ever.) Morpheus shows up in Mr. Anderson’s life, dazzles him with some crazy out-of-this world stuff, and then offers him a choice:

Neo, this is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Jeff Utecht dazzled the UNIS Middle School/High School staff with some pretty out-of-this-world stuff: wikis, podcasts, chatrooms used to take class notes, Chris Lehmann’s Ignite Philly presentation, interesting new brain research (and lots more) as well as, most importantly, a vision of what education can (must?) become in order to remain relevant.

I’m excited to see how many of my colleagues are taking the red pill. The Twitter population at UNIS has quintupled with people willing to give it a try. People are buzzing about external wikis and blogs (as opposed to our in-house SharePoint wikis and blogs). I don’t know how many have been created over the last 24 hours. I’m planning on hosting another “Tablet Support Group” meeting this week to allow people time to debrief and reflect. (While we did try to build in some reflection time in our days a la Learning 2.008, it just wasn’t enough!) There is a flame that has been lit and I’m hoping it turns into an uncontrolled Five Alarm Fire that consumes classrooms and students and teachers.

Of course, there will always be those content to take the blue pill and continue believing that what they are doing (which is the same thing they were doing 2, 5, 10, 20 years ago) is relevant and best-practice. What do we say to them? What can we say to them?

I wish, in this poor metaphorical exercise, I could say that I was Neo. I doubt that I am. I’m probably more like Tank or Dozer. But I’ve got my eye on a few who could be The One…

I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came to tell you how it’s going to begin. – Morpheus

(In future posts, I hope to dissect my role in presenting a few session at our PD weekend. I also reserve the right to use “Edu-Matrix” in the future, just in case. I just like the sound of it: Welcome to the Edu-Matrix.)