Nate Kogan and #Comments4Sophs

Nate Kogan is a friend of mine on Twitter. He took a liking to the #comments4kids project I talked about in my recent projects post and blogged about what he's doing with his sophomores. He has some great thoughts and questions and I'd appreciate it if any readers here would add their input for him.

Here's the comment I left for him:

Hey, Nate,
I'll echo what Bill said about the "Great post!" style comments. I have a teacher in my building who advised me not to "allow" (in the moderation sense) those types of comments. I smiled and moved the conversation along, knowing that I want my students communicating with each other, not leaving NYT-worthy commentary. Sure, if a student leaves a few too many "Great post!" comments (whatever that number may be) I pull the student aside and ask her to "step it up" but I don't discourage back-patting comments from the start.

I've found that not putting points on comments was the smartest thing I could do. It took a lot of unlearning for my kids plus one come-to-Jesus class discussion, but they now fully believe me when I say that the conversations they have on our blog are for their learning, and that's it. "What do I get for commenting?" Learning. "What happens if I don't leave any comments?" You don't get to learn as much as you would have. Basically, my advice is not to steal the authenticity.

To attempt an analogy, I can't imagine I'd be as active on Twitter and commenting/sharing blogs if I had a quota I had to hit. Or possibly a better way to think about it: if I had a quota of sites to share on Twitter every day, I would bet that my sharing would be right around that number, rarely much more.

The other place I'll give a big "Heck yeah!" to Bill is in "giving to receive." We have access to computers once a week or so. The only requirements I have at that time is that they leave more comments on other blogs than on our own blog (for each other.) No set numbers, just more for others than for ourselves.

Without turning this comment into a blog post, what I've attempted to do with our class blog is give the kids their own blogs inside our blog. On the far right sidebar of our blog you'll the kids names listed. Those are links to their labels. Click on a student's name and you're at "her blog." We use the labels extensively to keep things organized. Next year, I plan on expanding on that even further. We just don't write enough for kids to have their own blogs. At this point in the year, each student would have only 4 posts. Personally, I don't do well following blogs that post once every other month. If your kids are posting more often, their own blogs should work fine.

Something else I'll say is to get them involved with getting readers. My kids have an easy-to-remember URL for our "student writing" label. http://tr.im/mrgkids. I've preached to them on Fridays and before holidays to tell their friends and families about their blogs.

I agree that making it easy for commenters is key. You're on the right track. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

(Special thanks to Bill @wmchamberlain for being the catalyst behind #comments4kids. My kids are eternally grateful.)

Russ

So much for not turning that comment into a blog post.

If you have any ideas for Nate or about class blogs in general, please leave him a comment on his site. I don't want to steal his conversation.

The force is strong with the shiny one

This idea came about in a conversation I had the other night with my wife and Mike Sansone. I want to apologize in advance for any possible misrepresentation of the TPACK framework. I understand that feeling the need to apologize in advance means I should probably research more before posting, so consider this acknowledgment that this is an idea-in-progress. I'm posting these thoughts to learn more.

My brother-in-law and fellow edublogger Matt Townsley introduced me to the TPACK (formerly TPCK) framework a while ago. While I haven't taken the time to study it in depth, from what I do understand about it, its simplicity appeals to me. From TPCK.org:

image via http://tpck.org

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK). See Figure above. As must be clear, the TPACK framework builds on Shulman's idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

I don't want to simplify it too much, but my takeaway has been that to be the quality teacher I want to be, I need to be in the middle of the diagram.

.....

I've been thinking lately about the allure of digital technology. I love it. Too much, most of the time. I spend a disproportional amount of time thinking about, reading up on, and lusting after gadgets.

I'm trying not to let it affect my teaching, though. I'm trying to start with the purpose in mind when figuring out what tools will best help my students learn. This post from Evan Abbey illustrates what I mean.

Now that I'm able to see this technology infatuation of my own, I'm noticing it in others, too. As I said, I've been thinking about why.

At this point, I have no answer for why, but I do have a theory based on personal experience I want to throw out there. When I think of the TPACK diagram, I picture horseshoe magnets on the outside of each circle, pointed into the middle. Those magnets are what keep the quality teacher balanced in the center, each magnet pulling and building a feeling of equilibrium. This is obviously best-case scenario.

What I see happening in conversations of big change in education is a super-powered magnet on the Technology circle. That magnet pulls people to the technology. It's what keeps us searching for that silver bullet, that one "thing" that will fix everything.

I'm not here to say we need to "teach naked" and forgo technology altogether. I just have an idea to keep us grounded while we add the Technology circle to our knowledge Venn diagrams.

As I said earlier, I think about the TPACK diagram with the idea that the goal is to be in the center. I see schools working on getting to that center by going on a path through the three circles. I'm being metaphorical. They need to start their journey through one of the circles.

There's the conundrum: through which circle do we start our journey to the center of the Venn? I should capitalize that. Journey to the Center of the Venn. 

My fear is that if we start our journey by attempting to walk through the Technology circle, the pull of that super-strong magnet won't let us get to the center.
 

.....

So, if you agree about the big technology magnet, where should schools start their journey?

If you don't agree about digital technology's pull on our collective psyche -- it's fine if you don't, by the way -- does that change where we should start our journey?

Do schools need to walk through the circles, or can they drop right down into the middle? 

Let's talk about this journey. Let's talk about TPACK.

Please don't buy your students iPads

I thought this was going to be a really fun post to write. It started with a little back-and-forth with my buddy Bill Chamberlain on Twitter. I think the iPad would be a total waste of money for schools (not to mention the precedent it sets) and he thinks it would be a good purchase. I'm paraphrasing him.

The more I've thought about it and the more I've read the opinions of others, the less fun this is turning into, though. I really don't like the idea of schools spending money on iPads.

Here's the gist: the iPad is a big iPod Touch. Yes, it's the slam du jour, but it's true. It runs the iPod Touch OS. There have been no functional updates to the OS. It still doesn't multitask. It still doesn't run Flash on the internet. The only hardware updates are held back by those software limitations. The faster processor adds little to the experience as the iPad still only runs one 3rd-part app at a time. The big screen is great for surfing the "internet." Engadget has coined a term for what you'll get used to seeing on your iPad: The Blue Lego Block of Ambiguity™.

This isn't a post about the downfalls of the iPad, though. It's about why schools in particular would be foolish to spend their precious dollars on iPads.

.....

The iPad looks sweet. I'm still a gadget geek. I have a first-generation iPhone plugged into a first-generation MacBook right now. I'm a sucker for shiny Apple products. I'd be happy to have an iPad around, but that's because I already have those other gadgets I just listed.

The problem for schools starts there: the iPad is so marginally better than an iPod Touch and so much worse than a netbook that schools would be foolish to buy iPads. While I already have an iPhone and a MacBook, schools don't. Do I really have to write about why schools that are already 1:1 with laptops or iPod Touches shouldn't buy iPads?

.....

So here's my context. I'll go with two scenarios.

1. A school has funds enough to go 1:1 with iPads.
2. A school has funds enough to buy 1 classroom set of 30 iPads.

1. It's a pretty simple argument from here. If you can afford to go 1:1 with iPads ($500), do your students a favor and buy them each a $300 netbook and a $200 iPod Touch. The netbook has a real OS (I'd go with Linux, personally) and a webcam (important for networking with the world). The iPod Touch is their instant-on, ubiquitous access to content.

2. If a school can afford a set of 30 iPads, that means they can afford 75 iPod Touches. Outfitting 2.5 times more students with iPod Touches is....it's 2.5 times more students!

.....

Now, Bill hasn't written his post yet, but I can anticipate some of his possible arguments. One is that students can't just be creators of content, they also need to consume. Agreed. But I can get students a creation tool (netbook) and a consumption tool (iPod Touch) for the same price as an iPad. Another is that the next version of the iPad might have a webcam. The next iPad OS might have multitasking. Apple might allow Flash in Mobile Safari at some point. These things might come true, but they aren't true yet. 

Schools cannot be beta testers for Apple's newest projects. Not when there are better alternatives already out there.

Different (blogging) tools for different purposes

Joel asked how I decide when to use posterous and when to use this blog. Here goes:

Much of the method I use to share something depends on the conversation I'm hoping comes from what's shared. 

Take the last few things I've shared on each of the blogging platforms I use: Twitter, posterous, and Blogger.

The last link I shared on Twitter was a link to a YouTube video of miniature ninjas unboxing the new Google Nexus One. It was just a fun link to share. I wasn't really hoping to have a conversation about it. There's already a conversation about the video on YouTube.

When I share a link to someone else's blog on Twitter -- as opposed to posterous -- I'm also trying to direct conversation to that person's blog. Of course, there could be a conversation on Twitter, but if I share it on posterous, I open up the chance that I'll be the one hosting the conversation instead of the person who wrote the post. There are times when I share something from someone's blog on posterous, but it doesn't happen very often.

With posterous, the most recent item I shared was a picture I took with my iPhone. That's my favorite use for posterous, sharing photos and videos. It's too easy not to. I take a picture, send it to post@posterous.com and it goes to posterous, Twitter, Facebook, and Picasaweb. Posterous also does a nice job of sending comments written in posterous to other networks.

Before the image, I shared an excerpt from a book I'm reading, They Still Can't Spell? I think this is the use Joel was asking about. The reason I chose posterous instead of my blog at RussGoerend.com was because I was sharing someone else's work, without any summary or reflection by me. I try to keep my RussGoerend.com blog for things I've at least somewhat thought through. When I finish reading this book, I'll probably write a blog post about it. I posted an excerpt from the book on posterous today to test the water, so to speak. 

Another example of this is when I shared an excerpt from a recent Seth Godin blog post. Sharing with posterous's bookmarklet gives readers a selection of what I think is interesting about the post, while also providing a link back to Seth's original post. 

I share on this blog when I've got something I've come up with. I don't mean "come up with" as in "on my own" because I'm a believer that all knowledge is socially constructed. Everything I think is influenced by someone else. Conversations, media, etc. That's material for another post, though.

One other thing that plays a role, but is totally based on my gut, is length. When I started writing this, I was going to post it to posterous, but at some point I realized it just felt more natural on my blog.

The point is that there are different uses for different tools -- shocker, I know. 

I'm interested in how you see yourselves using these different tools. 

Letting students communicate

I get an email every time anyone leaves a comment on our blog. It's interesting watching the conversations develop that way.

I can whitelist users so their comments are posted instantly, which I do if teachers leave comments. I've also whitelisted two students. One reason is because they've earned that whitelist with both their quality and quantity of comments. The other reason is because they have their own email addresses they use when commenting, so I can whitelist them.

My two whitelisted students have been going back and forth in one of the comment threads on our classroom blog for going on a couple of weeks. The comments are threaded so it's actually a bit hard to read. Basically, Ian and Molly started off talking about Molly's Historical Interview "The Life Changing Terrorist Attack." Their back-and-forth revolved around 9/11 for a while, but the conversation ground to a halt.

At that point, Ian wrote:

So yeah... Where should our conversation go next?

 To which Molly replied:

 I don't know......you decide!

Don't forget: these are 6th graders. Getting nervous, parents and teachers??

Ian: "Let's talk about the Christmas Day bomber. Does that sound okay?"

Molly: "yes...that sounds great! You mean the guy that got on the plane with bombs in his pockets????"

Ian: "He actually put them in his underwear I think."

Remember, I saw this all happening in email Inbox. I thought to myself, This is getting off the original topic. I might push them a bit. So I left a comment:

Why don't you guys find some links to news articles or reactions to the Christmas Day bomber story?

You're welcome to create a new blog *post* about it if you'd rather discuss it under a new thread.

The next two comments are from Ian:

"So could we title it Christmas Day Bomber and make it like an open thread?"

"Molly,
Lets move the conversation to open thread #7.

Thanks!!"

Here's Open Thread #7 if you'd like to join their conversation.

What's been keeping me busy

I want to take this post to share with you some of the projects I've been working on around the Internet with the hope that some may interest you.

These would not be possible without teachers who are always looking to learn.

First up is #Comments4Kids. This is a project started by a few dedicated teachers on Twitter: Wm Chamberlain, Carey Pohanka, Derek Smith, and Jarrod Lamshed. Here's how it works: students write blog posts and teachers tweet out links to the posts and tag those tweets with the hashtag  #comments4kids. The hashtag makes it easier to search for all links about a specific topic.

Piggybacking off of #Comments4Kids is my classroom blog. Our blog would have floundered this year if it wasn't for #Comments4Kids. That sounds dramatic, but it's true. As I've told my kids from the start of the year, the purpose for them posting their essays on our blog is to get their writing out to an authentic audience. Without #Comments4Kids and all of the generous people who have left comments we would not have had an audience. As of today, we have two comments from members of my students families. (I know because I authorize every comment that gets posted.) That is 2 out of more than 500. I'd estimate that around a quarter of the 500 are from my students commenting to their classmates. The other 350+ are from other students, teachers, and college students who only know us from our blog! If you have time, my kids love getting comments.

I've also started podcasting with my brother-in-law and fellow edublogger Matt Townsley. We call our podcast With Students In Mind. We've only published one podcast so far, but the we plan on having a specific structure for each ~30 minute adventure. We'll start by discussing one thing you can learn. The first podcast we talked about URL shorteners. Next time it's Diigo. Then, we'll take one a topic in education from two perspectives. We're still working the kinks out on that segment. We'll be looking at the issue of student responsibility and at what age do we up the ante on autonomy. We end each podcast with three minute gut checks. Matt and I each get three minutes to answer a previously unknown question from the other person. We have fun, and we hope you'll take a listen.

The last project is something I'm doing on my own, but it was inspired by a bunch of other learners in my PLN. Dean Shareski wrote a blog post titled "The year in Photography." Dean is one of many teachers who do some spin on a "365" project. Dean showcases one picture each day of the year of the many he takes. I've always wanted to do something to push my creativity, but I don't have a camera that I trust. Luckily, my parents just bought us a Kodak Zi8 pocket camcorder for our baby that's coming in a few weeks. I decided to do my own spin on the 365 project: 365vids. I'm taking 1 video each day. The creative part is that the length of the video (in seconds) will match up with the date of the month. The first day of the month, the video will be one second long and so on. You can find those on my posterous blog under the tag 365vids.

I hope you've been inspired to join in or start up a project of your own. It can be as easy as leaving some #comments4kids or as challenging as a 365 project.