An Annotation by Jeffery Ayer

Funds are difficult to acquire in districts these days, with budget cutting, economic downturn, and political strife all part of the equation. In this article, Fontaine argues that using new technologies like wikis and blogs can significantly save school districts money, if and when they begin to take advantage of what they have to offer. “Training teachers in differentiated learning – also called differentiated instruction – has helped alleviate some of the issues, but the educational community then found another major obstacle to instruction. The lessons in schools had changed, but the textbooks they used had not,” claims Fontaine. For one, Web 2.0 can become a new resource (and free at that), and it can easily fit into the confines of any district’s differentiated instruction initiatives. Fontaine later writes, “By embedding audio, video, interactive tutorials, simulations, and edu-games, the students will have almost limitless depth on curriculum topics. If you add screencasts, podcasts, and text-to-speech widgets, you’ll have the potential to differentiate instruction to reach every student across the entire intellectual spectrum.”

Fontaine later cites Will Richardson, who wrote Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, who said, “Teaching is a collective effort, not an individual accomplishment.” There are budgetary arguments to be made, but as Fontaine says, “If we are to prepare young minds for the creative thinking of their futures will certainly require, then it is our obligation to use every tool in our toolbox to effectively impart that knowledge.”

He also points out that Web 2.0 shows that the role of teachers is no longer just to share information; rather, teachers need to “given [students] the skills to evaluate, organize, and apply” the information they gather from the internet and various online resources, including collaborative sites like Wikipedia. Most importantly, perhaps, Fontaine says that by nature, this process is student-centered and information literacy!

And as if his arguments weren’t thorough enough, he also points out the strength of constructivist/inquiry-based learning, where questions students pose drive the curriculum. By using wikis in particular, this is exactly what is happening in and outside of the classroom.

The big caveat, however, is the digital divide (access for all students). “As long as the digital divide separates students from accessing the internet at home, a wikitext will probably remain a supplement rather than the primary text.” Still, Fontaine recognizes the power (and weightlessness) of a potential online textbook, and a significant way, if districts truly invest, in saving a lot of money (the investment comes in the form of staff development using the aforementioned technologies).

In closing, Fontaine lists four online samples of what he calls wikitexts, and he outlines the three educational areas a collaboratively built wikitext would address, including “multiple means of representation (by giving learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge); multiple means of expression (by providing learners with alternatives for demonstrating what they know); and multiple means of engagement (by tapping into learners’ interests, offering appropriate challenges, and increasing motivation).”

Related posts:

1. The grades that vanished, and some other threats to students’ data. Gnatek, T.
2. Wikis and literacy development.
3. Wiki, blog, or moodle? Fryer, W.

“The brain immediately begins a filtering process to determine which data are relevant and need our conscious attention and which are irrelevant and need to be discarded.”

This quote from Westwater and Wolfe (2007) really speaks to the importance of brain-based learning to me.  Our students’ brains do not take in all that they are given each day, and their brains immediately decide what they need to know and what can be thrown out.  If we don’t make our curriculum meaningful, they’re going to remember very little, if any, of what we’re trying to teach them.

One way to make the learning stand out more for our students’ brains is teaching with their emotions in mind.  “Creating learning activities that purposely evoke the emotions of risk, excitement, urgency and pleasure are effective brain-based strategies” (Hileman, 2006).

Now purposely just throwing in a statement that will upset students will have little benefit in the classroom.  If emotions are used as part of a lesson, students will have a more activated and chemically stimulated brain.  If you think about it, emotions drive what we do on a daily basis.  We choose to teach because we have a passion for it; we clean the house because we get so irritated with it looking messy.  If we use these sorts of emotions to encourage students to learn what we’re teaching, they are going to get much more meaning out of it then by simply telling them, “work on this because I said so.”  Eric Jensen (1998) said that emotions help us recall things better, and the more intense the emotion, the stronger the imprint will be for that student.  Just a few of the suggestions Jensen provided were positive role modeling, giving small celebrations by high-fiving or sharing work with others, debating over a controversial topic, and allowing students to be introspective through journaling, discussion, reflection, etc.

Another way to make learning more enriched and meaningful is through problem solving.  Jensen (1998) said, “The single best way to grow a better brain is through challenging problem solving.  This creates new dendritic connections that allow us to make even more connections.”  The statement that really blew me away was what he said a little later,

“Surprisingly, it doesn’t matter to the brain whether it ever comes up with an answer.  The neural growth happens because of the process, not the solution.”

It doesn’t matter if they ever get the right answer!?!  Let’s make sure the students don’t find that out!  But the idea here is that students’ brains work very hard and make incredible connections by simply brainstorming and trying to come up with an answer to a challenging problem.  So instead of asking students to continually fill in the blanks on a worksheet, they will find a lot more meaning and brain growth if they’re given a problem that requires many steps to solve, or a project that has to be created.

One activity that I’ve done in the past is to ask students what’s wrong with our country, and then have them, as groups, try to solve their problems.  Though many answers are very impossible to implement, the students spend many days discussing ideas with their partners, and coming up with the pros and cons of different possibilities.  Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was making their brains work very hard, though many of them did not come up with a reasonable solution.  It’s great to realize that it didn’t matter that they didn’t actually solve the problem; it was the process that mattered!

Have you checked out the previous parts of this series?  If not, the beginning is a great place to start.  Or, stick around for part 6: Memory.

Related posts:

1. The Teen Brain Pt 2: Feedback
2. The Teen Brain Pt 3: Relevance and Experience
3. The Teen Brain Pt 6: Memory

Related posts:

1. Creativity Lives! Halleluiah!!
2. Relationship-driven teaching. Rogers, S., Renard, L.
3. The Teen Brain Pt. 4: Movement

But I couldn’t do that. There is so much more to say!! I am so excited about Voice Thread and its possibilities for teaching and learning! As a result of this over exuberance, I’ve decided to forgo all the quality checks and balances we have here at We Teach We Learn, and just toss this out there. I’ve got a devil may care attitude tonight.

So, if you haven’t already done so, check out the video above for a brief 3 minute example/introduction.

Okay. Back with me? Great. If that’s your first exposure to Voice Thread, let me show you something else. See, I don’t want to spend a lot of time telling you about this. As a teacher, you really need to see it and experience it and then let your imagination run with the possibilities.

What you’re looking at just below, is an actual Voice Thread I’ve embedded here explaining what a Voice Thread is. So go ahead. Click play. You know you want to:

Alright, so maybe you watched the whole thing, or maybe you didn’t. Regardless, can you start to see the potential here? I’ve been playing around with this application for about a week now and have made a few Voice Threads of my own. One of my first was actually for this blog as I shared some information about gender differentiation. You can see that post here.

So there I am stumbling around. You liked it, you didn’t like it–whatever. That’s not the point here. Stay with me.

At the time of this writing, I hadn’t yet found anyone else to play with me. I mean, nobody has participated on the voice thread. I hope that will change soon. But it may not. Still, the point is it opens up all kinds of possibilities for presentations. The slides I used were taken directly from a handout I gave to people that attended my session at a conference. I also prepared a powerpoint that I used during my talk to inform and help stimulate discussion among the participants.

I was a bit rushed for time. Still, I thought it went reasonably well. But here’s the thing: When we all left the room that day–it was over. I haven’t heard from a single one since to further the discussion.

Not that this would be ideal, but with a Voice Thread, I could have prepared and presented everything on-line. People could have been able to access it as many times as they liked, whenever they liked. And not only that, but we could have also continued the discussion–OUTSIDE OF THE ROOM!

Okay. So to me, that’s pretty cool. But the other thing is, this application is so ridiculously easy to use! I’ve explored podcasting, and uploading slide shows using slideshare and trying to add voice and video into powerpoints–but it’s all so cumbersome for me. Sure, I suppose I could figure it out. But like I said when I started this post–I’m busy!

I promise you, Voice Thread took less than 5 minutes to figure out. It really is as easy to use as it looks.

So, naturally, I wanted to start using it in my classroom.

Now let me say right off the bat that, while my ideal is to get the kids involved in discussion by using the Voice Thread as a launch point, I have to temper my enthusiasm because I don’t have a solid, secure way to manage their accounts. You need an email to get your own free account. Not all my kids have that. I wish we could get them all secure accounts here at school, but we’re just not quite there yet as a district. So, I’m willing to start small.

Here’s what I did. This is a link to a wiki I’m developing to manage my–you know–class, curriculum, units. It’s a place kids can go to get what they need for 8th grade language arts. Please don’t be critical–I’m just getting it started. I don’t have any interaction built in yet–or even many units.

Anyway, we just started a Treasure Island novel unit. The way I run it is, typically, students are responsible for two chapters a day, one of which I read to them in class. The other, they’re on their own–which is fine for most. But, you know, there are always those that are going to struggle mightily with the text. I mean, after all, Treasure Island was originally published in 1883. The language has changed a bit. Plus there’s dialect and weird vocabulary and spellings and all kinds of other complexities.

So, if you check out this wiki page, you’ll see that I’m slowly but surely recording the even numbered chapters (those I typically don’t read in class), along with slides that support the text. Now these struggling readers can read along as they listen. We don’t have to have a library of audio tapes or CD’s to keep track of. They can just hop on a computer with internet access– either here at school, or home, or the library, or where ever–and away they go!

But this is just one (very limited I might add) application of how Voice Thread can be used. Soon, I’d like to secure a few email addresses for some of my struggling writers so that they can leave voice comments in response to slides I develop prompting them to–you know, all that language arts stuff–summarize, predict, analyze, interpret and extend the text of the story by responding ORALLY!!!

Who knows where we can go from there. Maybe even responding to each other, offering opinions (on our opinions), capturing discussions and learning on line. Maybe kids who are low energy during class will be able to engage at a later time of day. I don’t mean to imply that voice Thread can totally replace a good quality classroom discussion. But I think it can certainly be a tool we can use to enhance teaching and learning.

Lots of possibilities.

And the cool thing is–there seems to be no limit. It’s totally up to you. Now imagine how it might fit into your curriculum. Let your creative juices flow.

Next, invite your students.

For a list of examples of how other teachers have used Voice Thread, check out this page of educational Voice Thread examples to get ideas for your own classes. This page contains examples created by real teachers, for real K-12 students in all curricular areas.

Check out this link to explore Voice Thread logistics related to education. Complete with a discussion about privacy.

So there you have it. The bottom line: Voice Thread takes presentations and collaborations and discussions and media to the next level. Add it to your arsinal.

Related posts:

1. Making PowerPoint Possible: Slideshare Works
2. Gender Differentiation: The big picture
3. Wordle: The Anti-Muddle

It’s difficult to do, isn’t it? However, once you do it, you’ll never turn back.

I recently used a Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) quadrant activity as a beginning for a good and evil unit. I typically use the introduction found in the textbook as an in-class read for the students, followed by discussion of the main points. This activity was much more stimulating than reading the intro – which I don’t actually even like!

I had the following options listed on the board when the students came in the room.

The students had 30 minutes to create a product. When they were finished, the students each shared their work, performed their role play (which was a partner option), or argued both sides of their situation (also a partner option).

I was not prepared for the depth of thought my students conveyed. Several students illustrated the good and evil present in all humans. (One drew a face with a beautiful woman on one side and Medusa on the other). Other students looked at antithetical companies (the Red Cross and Wal mart, which this student believes caused the closing of our town’s local Ben Franklin store). Students also looked at technology (including cell phones and computers).

Two partners chose the role play option. One role play, created by two girls, illustrated that everyone has some evil, but good will ultimately prevail. The other role play, created by two boys, was about the evil and the good of smoking pot, with one young man trying to convince the other one to stop smoking. They assured me afterwards, without me asking, that this was not a real concern. One girl argued both sides of a case where a murdered woman’s husband in turn kills the murderer; another girl expounded on the good and evil of sex. One group argued both sides of an abortion scenario. Several students created collages, and one categorized good and evil.

Undoubtedly, this took time (a full 80 minute block), and the content was not nearly as “safe” as the textbook. Were the students engaged? Absolutely. Were they thinking critically? Most definitely. Did we have content to refer to as we progressed through the unit? Yes.

The emphasis was off my beliefs (or worse, the textbook editor’s beliefs) about good and evil. The students were forced to consider their own ideas, and they had the opportunity to chose how to convey those ideas to their peers. The results reinforced the importance of acknowledging learning styles and personality types when creating lesson plans.

So, do it! Energize your classroom; step away from the textbook and let your students explore their own ideas. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Related posts:

1. “Put Up a Parking Lot” – On Your Board!
2. Study reveals new magic word
3. The Power of the Human Voice (Thread)

by Jeffrey Ayer, WTWL Writer

Wordle might be the next best thing to sliced bread, and the possibilities for implementation in the classroom are literally endless.  Heck, we could look at the word frequency in the posting I’m writing now.  In fact, we will, and I will create a link at the end.  Sure hope I avoid using “I” too often – uh, oh.  And that’s just one of the many potential uses.  The New York Times has been using word clouds to identify word frequency in significant speeches (most prominent, the speeches of Barack Obama toward the end of his campaign, and again for the inaugural address in January; click here to see his and every president’s inaugural address analyzed since George Washington).

How does it work?  Go to the Wordle site and simply click on “Create.”  Before you do so, take a look at some of the examples hanging out on the homepage.  You will notice that the style, color, and overall design is far more artistic than that of what The New York Times did with the inaugural addresses (and yes, you get to make this magic happen in seconds).

Click on “Create” at the top of the homepage.  The next window prompts you to paste a selection of text (this could be a compilation of student work, an article you assign in class for students to read, and so on), or, if you were more advanced, you could enter the URL for a web page where you might be storing student writing, and so on.  For simplicity’s sake, try copying and pasting something into the field. 

When you’ve pasted the text, click on the “Go” button, located just beneath where you pasted the text.  The next screen that pops up will be a “first” Wordle.  From there, you will see there is a small tool bar where you can select different functions to change the look of your Wordle creation.  You can change the language, font, layout, and color scheme.  You can also remove words by right clicking on one, or even add a maximum number of words (Wordle selects the most frequent).  In my case, with wanting to identify the frequency of my use of that dreaded pronoun I mentioned earlier, you would also want to click on “Language” and drag to “Do Not Remove Common Words.”  This will keep common pronouns and articles included in the Wordle.

It’s also worth noting that you can “Show Word Counts” under language as well.  Obviously, most word processing software does this already, but the word processing gurus aren’t doing anything as visually stimulating and telling as Wordle right now.  And of course, there’s no end to the possible looks you can give this.

Now, what would a teacher do with the product?  Wordle effectively identifies the most commonly used words, so if it’s student writing, a student could use Wordle to identify word frequency (like, dare I use “I”?), or overuse of prepositional phrases, to name just a few possibilities.  On the other end, when reading something new, the teacher (or student) could identify key concepts, new vocabulary, and so on.

If nothing else, creating a piece of artwork with words is just pretty cool, don’t you think?  Give it a try!  Visit http://www.wordle.net/ right now.  Oh, and here is a link to the Wordle for this blog entry (let’s see how “you” did – there I avoided using “I” – ugh!).  Click here to see the results (this sentence is not included, so I I I I I I am abusing the pronoun for fun).

Related posts:

1. Making PowerPoint Possible: Slideshare Works
2. The Library of Congress is Using Flickr: Shouldn’t Teachers?
3. The Power of the Human Voice (Thread)

by Jeffrey Ayer, WTWL Writer

Ever wanted an easier way to share your PowerPoint presentations, either with colleagues on a professional level, or with students as a teacher in the classroom?  Now there’s an easy way to share without the need to have the software on the viewer’s computer.  If you haven’t tried slideshare.com, try it now.  Not only can you post, add music, and then invite visitors for a look (and listen), but you can also get an original imbed code for your wiki page, blog page, or website, which could potentially make your amazing work as a teacher more visible to more people, and more efficient to access as well.  And if you have a Google account, you’re almost there already.  Just go to Slideshare to get started!

Related posts:

1. The Library of Congress is Using Flickr: Shouldn’t Teachers?
2. The Power of the Human Voice (Thread)
3. Simple Pleasures: Using Technology, Using Google Scholar