See you all when I see you all.

Photo Credit: Alec Courosa - EduPunk Version 1 on Flickr

(and not this Hiatus for all you edupunks out there)

Technorati Tags: And that’s the way it was … and that’s the way it is … and it’s always changing … and it is always the same.

Over on the Principal’s Page there’s a well written post on school cell phone policies.

In relation: here’s the letter that my encompassing school district gave to all of the principals to send home to their student’s parents:

Dear Parent,

With the breathtaking pace of technology comes unanticipated consequences that can negatively impact the learning environment. One such example of this is the potential inappropriate use of cell phones. Inappropriate cell phone use impacting instruction may include:

1. Cheating on tests/class work via text messaging and cameras;
2. Circulation of inappropriate photos taken in restrooms and locker rooms;
3. Video game distractions;
4. Ringing/text messaging distractions during instructional time;
5. Signaling for leaving class/ditching;
6. Loss of instructional time to address cell phone interruptions;
7. Time spent investigating thefts of cell phones rather than focusing on student instruction.

Of greater concern is the use of the cell phone to compromise your child’s safety. Nationwide, incidents of this nature include:

1. Setting up fights and fight locations;
2. Electronic threats/harassment;
3. Making drug deals;
4. Impeding emergency efforts through rumors and incorrect information;
5. Overloading phone systems severely limiting emergency communication.

To address these issues, the SCHOOL DISTRICT NAME REMOVED is reminding parents/guardians of the following guidelines:

• Phones must be turned off and remain off during the instructional day and passing periods in compliance with SCHOOL DISTRICT NAME AND POLICY NUMBER REMOVED. Phones left on vibrate/silent modes are subject to seizure.

• Cellular phones may only be used prior to the first bell, after the final bell, or during scheduled nutrition breaks or lunch periods.

• Cellular phones should be stored in a non-visible location (backpacks, purses, pockets).

• Phones confiscated in violation of these guidelines will only be returned to a parent/guardian during non-instructional hours.

• Cellular phones must remain off during a school evacuation, lockdown, or drill. During these situations tell your child NOT to try to contact you by cell phone until given the okay by school staff, thus allowing emergency communication channels to remain open. The Parent Link communication system has the capability of contacting parents/guardians in an emergency.

• As a condition of possessing a device on campus, the student agrees to a search of the device’s content if reasonable suspicion of violating the cell phone use policy exists.

Additionally, parents are asked to silence their cellular phones while at the school. This ensures both compliance with the above guidelines and serves to set a positive example for students.

Communication regarding your child’s safety will in no way be hindered through these guidelines. Please be reminded that each school has intercoms and loudspeakers and the majority of our classrooms have hardwired telephones. Additionally, administrators and safety personnel are prepared with two-way radios and cell phones.

We understand how families have come to rely upon cell phones and other electronic devices to maintain the lines of communication; however, we have an ethical and legal responsibility to ensure that technology is used in a way that won’t be harmful to others or create unsafe conditions in our schools, or undermine our educational purpose. We seek your support and hope that you will speak with your children so they too fully understand the importance of following these guidelines. Thank you.uber-progressive district cell phone policy

Among a million other thoughts that I have (i.e. thank goodness they’re going to get rid of the cell phones. By doing that, in one fell swoop, they are apparently going to do away with cheating, distractions, ditching, drug deals, and overwhelming the the cellular networks for which I’m sure Verizon thanks them) my primary focus is this:

I couldn’t be happier that you have this policy. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that my charter school has the exact opposite policy because

1. I can’t imagine a single job that I want even one of my students to have where using their cell phone to it’s fullest potential isn’t a requirement, and
2. It will drive students, who realize that they are going to need these skills to survive, to my school.

It wouldn’t be appropriate to have a discussion about cellphones without plugging this video:

Because while SCHOOL DISTRICT NAME REMOVED wasn’t paying attention I was stealing your students. So, thanks. First person to make an lolcatz about this wins a prize.

and

Cell Phones as Classroom Learning Tools

While you’re mulling all of this over go read the best post I’ve read in a long, long, time over at Practical Theory, What I Want to Talk About and let me know if cell phones are a non-issue and that I’m, once again, paying attention to the wrong thing.

Technorati Tags: cell phones in schools, principal’s page, cell phone policy, Darren Draper, Pay Attention, K12 Online Conference, Chris Lehman, Practical Theory, how many tags can you have before it becomes its own blog post?

I’ve got my first American’s Who Tell the Truth portrait up in the office. It looks great and it’s getting just as many comments from students as it is from others in the school. In about two days the other three portraits will be up and I think the reaction is going to be fantastic.

In the other post I mentioned that I contacted the artist, Robert Shetterly, to see what I could do to get some of the prints that were not on sale. Like I said, he was great and got right back to me and the whole bit. Today, after seeing my principal’s reaction to the Zinn print I thought that I would order the Chomsky poster for him. This one’s available from the store, so I figured easy-in easy-out. Poster will be here in a few days and the boss man will be stoked.

When I got home the wife mentioned that there was a message from someone about an order I made today. It turns out I messed something up and the folks running the Americans Who Tell the Truth store had called to clarify the order. At least I think that’s what happened. About two seconds into the call I realized I was talking to the person running the online store, Joseph K. Labonte. The guy’s a spark-plug, to say the least. He had gone to my web-site, found that I was working in a school, and had a proposition for me.

He wants to help develop a curriculum for schools based around the portraits. More specifically he wants kids to develop a curriculum for schools. And even more specifically he’d like me to help. We talked for a good half-hour about how to make this happen (mind spinning with a American’s Who Tell the Truth Moodle) and how to get kids involved. (Mind further spinning about getting the artist involved with the kids from my school)

There’s going to be a lot more conversations and I think by the beginning of the school year a big chunk of my curriculum is going to be based around this. I’m going to see what I can do to get other teachers on board (k-12?) and go from here.

On top of all of this I’m getting a copy of each of the prints, for free. These guys may be the artsy-non-corporate types but they sure know how to go after the heart of a teacher. Nothing will buy you the undieing love of a teacher as much as free stuff will.

The more I think about it the more I’m still not sure if I messed up my order or if Joe just wanted to talk to me. Either way it’s amazing the things that come your way when your sharing what your doing and are passionate about it. In this case it’s on both side and I’m excited to see what comes of it.

Technorati Tags: americans who tell the truth, Joseph K. Labonte, Robert Sheterly

Around Christmas time I got into the G1G1 project that OLPC did and picked up an XO “for my daughter”. We did the whole Christmas thing with it and it took her all of about twenty minutes to rip the “k” key off. I packed the XO up for a little bit and thought to myself “we’ll give that a shot later” and then thought to myself “how my times and different ways can you use quotes in one post”. In fairness the daughter was just barely three at the time and ripping of keys, I’m sure, seemed like a natural thing to do.

About a month ago I got my daughter playing a few games on the PC. Just the ones that you can play online. You know the ones that are for kids. Good wholesome games, for example Defend Your Castle, Trogdor and of course The Impossible Quiz. Seriously we started at Nickjr. The daughter would use the space bar and I’d do the rest. Shortly she was clicking the mouse and about two weeks ago mom taught her to click and drag. From there it was game over.

Me: You want some help playing that game
Her: Nope, I got it

About two days later I walked into the computer room and she was in a chat room fending off predators and looking at porn. I mean as soon as I came it she was all alt-tabing and closing windows. It was really cute.

That never happened. But this did:

I walked into the room and she was playing a game a Nickjr that we hadn’t played together before. It was game that I hadn’t shown her. It was a game that involved selecting the correct puzzle pieces and clicking and dragging them to the correct part of the screen to create a robot that would do something. When I first walked in I just stood back and watched her. The puzzles had about 15 pieces, some large, some small, and she was just clicking and dragging and hitting the right spots and using deduction to find the right spots.

It was pretty amazing. I want to stress again that

1. she found this game on her own
2. she learned how to play this game on her own
3. she’s three

In fact it’s the game that she’s playing in this video:

Now I’ve just spent a lot of time setting this post up and I realize there’s very little chance that anyone’s made it this far. If you have here’s the point I’m trying to make:

I set that game up so she could play it on her own computer. Which she did, for about five minutes. A few minutes later she remembered taking pictures with the XO at Christmas-time before the “k” key debacle and wanted to do that again. So I showed her where that app was, showed her how to click the little circle to start the recording and away she went. Seriously.

She told 15 second stories about her blanket. Took the XO outside and made another one about her soccer ball. Tried to get her brother and cats into the act (both are about as easy to get to do what you want). And screamed and laughed, a lot. She did all of this on her own. She even unplugged and plugged in the mouse as she went from place to place in the house.

A short time later she had opened the paint program and after showing her where the pencil tool and the colors were she went after that too. Again, you know what I’m going to say here, but it was on her own. No prompting, very little showing, just her doing and creating.

She’s already asking about the little turtle, and I can’t wait to learn logo and turtle math again with her. Before long I’m sure she’ll be asking about the other things too and what she can do with this machine. This children’s machine. Her machine.

Here’s where this gets important (and I’m sorry it took me so long to get here): because of the design of the computer and the design of the Linux OS, Sugar, it’s created an environment where my daughter wants to create things, not just sit there and do things that have been created for her. She now wants to create her own things more than play the pre-built games at nickjr.

To the folks that bought an Asus or are going to buy the other alternatives out there, you’re missing the boat and missing the point. PCs have been created with some idea of what we’re supposed to do with these machines. Those machines, just like our PCs, tell us what to do with with them. The XO is built for kids to imagine what to do with it and then make that happen.

That’s the part of the discussion that’s been missing. Until I got a chance to watch a kid use one, I didn’t quite get it. Now it couldn’t be more clear.

Technorati Tags: olpc, xo, asus, intel, papert

I didn’t post this week. It’s been a strange one. Lots of heavy stuff in the personal life and at the exact same time there’s been so much good stuff going on in other areas of my life. Funny how that works. For my own mental health let’s go look at the good stuff.

The Good Stuff 1 - OpenPD Video

Daren was nice enough to include me in a video about his OpenPD project. It really is amazing and if you’re looking for the fast track to changing the way you teach and think about teaching this is a great place to be.

The Good Stuff 2 - NCCE Presentation

Okay, my presentation wasn’t really part of the good stuff. I felt like that one was about a C+. There was a podium, and a mic, which means I had to stand still which I’m not good at. But, for my presentation a group of students showed up. It turns out I had talked to them earlier in the conference. They showed up based on topic alone. They were there and they were vocal. They wanted to do an interview at the end of the presentation. Their participation and presence was, by far, the highlight of Seattle.

At the end of the presentation one of my staffers talked to the guy that runs my school and asked “why did have to go all the way to Seattle to hear Moses say that”. Short answer: if I thought my staff wanted to hear anything from the administration, anything at all, I’d be happy to present it. Otherwise I’m not doing it without the chickenwire in front of the stage ala the Blues Brothers.

The Good Stuff 3 - Schmap Photo

I got an email awhile back that a startup wanted to use one of my flickr cc photos for their tour map of Monterey, CA. They had a vetting process and said they were considering the photo for use. The other day they sent me an email letting me know that the photo had been selected. Cool.

The Good Stuff 4 - NASA Presentation

Not that NASA, this one. I got to keynote a presentation to about 50 assistant principals. In sharp contrast to NCCE this presentation was A+.

I can’t tell you how much I enjoy public speaking when it goes well. Afterwords I spoke with several of the APs about speaking at their schools (I got a little of this at Seattle too) but I also got an offer to turn this into a money making public speaking gig from the president of NASA. Maybe I’ll turn a buck off this thing yet.

The truth is that this was only part of the Good Stuff though. This presentation happened at the Northwest Career and Technical Academy. We got to tour the school, and like with all good school tours I tend to drift off and end up talking to kids. The students there were as amazing as their campus. Check out room 403 and you’ll get an idea of what the school was all about:

The Good Stuff 5 - Andrew Sloat and the Flat Classroom

Today I got an email from Andrew Sloat. Earlier this year I shared his 22nd Amendment video with my students and asked that they make their own. He was stoked about what my kids did and wanted to use their examples in some of his presentations. This is the second time this school year that my students and I have been contacted by content creators about what we’re doing in our class.

The Good Stuff 6 - Many Voices for Darfur or The Flat Classroom Continued

I was able to play my small part in the amazing Many Voices for Darfur project. My students put together some of the most sincere and deep posts. In fact one of my students is the very first post and another student put together this video:

Getting students to do things like that is why I got into the business.

And that’s it for the good stuff. Back to the other stuff.

Technorati Tags: the good stuff, great students, openpd, I need to get better at tagging

Over the weekend, Mr. Mayo, tweeted out that he needed to know how to get rid of the navigation bar at the top of Blogger blogs. As it turns out, this is something that I know how to do, or at least where to find the information to do this, so I tweeted him back and a little while later Mayo sent me message about this project:

Many Voices for Darfur

I milled this over for about a second and then started thinking about how to incorporate this in my Government class. The first fit was easy. I have a handful of students that are trying to earn honors credit for the class. And I needed to develop a new unit just for them. Yeah, instead of doing that, why not get them involved in this project? No reason why not. Okay, where else can this project go?

Right now my students are working on a unit about interest groups and in a few weeks they’ll be looking at international politics. Two perfect fits, right there. Awesome.

What else? Well, I’ve got a teacher working on a Contemporary Problems class. He’s been on the lookout for things for his class to do. Let’s get them invited. Oh, and a Survey of Social Studies class and a few other classes as well. Let’s get them going on it.

On top of this, this weekend was the official relaunch of the school’s social network. So, students across classes can meet and work together. I can’t take any credit for this, Cory can and should (thanks, Cory), but I’m going to exploit the heck out of this. How? Well, all of the teaching for this project is going to happen in the school’s social network. I’ve got a group going just for the project. With just a little luck it’ll have students that aren’t just in my Government class and I’ll get to work with a whole host of students.

Here’s how I introduced it to the class:

and that’s being used for other participants.

Closing Thoughts:

If you’re looking for a project that’s dead simple for your students to get involved with, this is it. Great job, Mr. Mayo.

As it turns out he wasn’t looking for people who knew how to get rid of the navigation-bar at the top of Blogger, he was looking for people to rope into the project. Thanks for casting out the line, Mayo.

Technorati Tags: Many Voices for Dafur, Mr. Mayo, global connections, Classroom 2.0

I had another good student moment today.

Background first: My government students are working on either joining (which is okay) or creating (yes, please pick that one) an interest group.

One of my student’s hit me up on the school’s IM (which is powered by Google Apps, more on that another time) and told me this to go check out the wikispace she’s using for her project:

She’s going to invite 10 people in to help her with the project and I can’t wait to be a part of this process and see where it ends up.

My kids are awesome.

Technorati Tags: wikispaces, school 2.0

This is just a quick note, maybe one I should set up a tumblr for, but here goes anyway:

A while back David Warlick talked about how students who have graduated from high school can stay in touch in ways his generation, and mine for that matter, never could (a better blogger would provide you a link to that post, sorry).

One of the things that’s happening for me, as an online teacher, is that my former students stay in touch with me. Something that I would have never imagined. This has ranged from students just dropping by to say “hi” (one, recently, when I set up my Adium to manage a very old Y!IM, was from a student I had as a Freshman four years ago when I was using that IM with my classes), to students asking for letters of recommendation and references, to getting help on college papers.

A student hit me up yesterday and I noticed that she was using eBuddy. It’s an IM manager for your cell phone. So instead of sending text messages you can chat with people who are online, from your phone. I have this set-up on my phone, but I never use it. Why? Because even with my QWERTY keyboard I still type painfully slow by phone and it just doesn’t feel functional for IM. Where I’m going with this is that this former-student was having a conversation with me blazingly fast. Her responses were just as fast as mine. I asked and she did have QWERTY keyboard on her phone, but you have to remember that she’s just using her thumbs to type about as fast as I was using all ten fingers on a full size keyboard.

Final Thoughts: In the past I felt that students would never do their work for online classes via cell-phone because the typing was too slow and the interface was too clunky. The more I see things like the iPhone (and now iPod Touch, with web-browser both of which I am coveting heavily and would blog about extensively should one show up on my door step) the more I am realizing that the new face of online learning has to be cell-phone accessible. First, because the students can handle it and second because many students are going to start demanding it.

Maybe this was a little more than I could have posted by tumblr after all. Thank goodness. How many web2.0 apps does a guy need?

Technorati Tags: online learning, relationships, David Warlick, iphone, ipod touch, cell-phones for classes

I was given my school’s technology plan to write. I had all of about 24 hours to put the thing together. I could be bummed out about this, but I’m not.

It wasn’t so long ago I was having a conversation with a principal that I love; he was bummed about paperwork he needed to do for his district. The advice I gave him was if what you’re doing is bureaucratic nonsense treat it as such. Fill out the paperwork, don’t put your heart into it, and get back to working for kids. The bureaucrats are happy and you can get back to what you got into the business to do.

I need to take my own advice on this one.

With that said, even in filling out government forms with grids and check boxes I was able to get a few things in there. I’d really like to upgrade my school’s wireless infrastructure (it’s in there), start officially working things like YouTube, TeacherTube, cell phones, ipods, and social networking tools into the curriculum (it’s in there too); but the thing that I’m happiest about about is working wikibooks into the text sections (yes, there’s a texts section in the technology plan. See, it is bureaucratic nonsense).

Here’s my favorite part of the experience though. Although I work in a charter school, separate from our encompassing district (check out this podcast featuring my boss), we still have some things that have to go through them. Putting together our technology plan gave me access to the larger school district’s Technology Vision Statement. Brace yourself:

It is the vision of the [insert district name here] that information and communication technologies are essential for improving student achievement..

Essential and blocked. Can’t think too hard about this. It’s just bureaucratic nonsense. Must get back to work, working for kids.

Technorati Tags: technology plan, school 2.0, administration

First I helped a teacher with voice thread. She’s working on her Ph. D. and getting her students to do some neat stuff:

Today was a pretty busy day, with my principal out of the office. As they day went on I realized that I still hadn’t created my weekly video announcement. At the exact moment I realized, and vocalized that, one of my students was in my office and wanted to jump in:

Finally, I was granted a bunch of free votes from Poll Everywhere…

to help figure out and show ways to use cell phones in the classroom. Now I just need to go set up Jott and Utterz accounts.

Finally, I left a barely legible comment at LeaderTalk. The person who makes blog commenting easier (no more little comment boxes, editable after posting, and maybe inline spelling and grammar check) wins my heart forever.

And that’s the kind of day it was today.

Technorati Tags: voicethread, poll everywhere, cell phones, leadertalk