Author Archives: Mark

Laura Veirs

I posted one of Laura Veirs videos before.

After that (and no connection) she became really cool and was posted as one of iTunes favored artists.

I’m loving her stuff. She is coming to the Washington area on February 18, the IOTA Club in Arlington.  I’m going to be there and I’m going to try and drag a bunch of folks from my school with me.

Laura Veirs has a new album called July Flame. Visit her blog and download the two free tracks from her web boutique.  Her record label,  Raven Marching Band Records, is where you can buy the album.

Central Office Fail! – Thinking They Are Experts

Disgusted 4th Grade Teacher

A disgusted 4th grade teacher in Massachusetts sent in this parable.

THE SETUP: It is easier to create one software configuration and copy it onto all the computers in a school, rather than loading all the separate software programs on each computer individually.

However, creating the master software configuration in this way is not an “out of the box” solution. Like teaching, one must know the technology, the ability of the staff, and the proclivities of the students.

And here begins our story in a small New England public school system…

THE STORY: In any school system there are maybe one or two people who really know how to create a software configuration and do it well. Folks are naturally drawn to and follow these thought leaders.

Then, in steps the central office.

It’s called “creating a process” or “defining best practices.” A noble intention when it is indeed the intention.

However, in this case the central office was trying to cast their influence.

This type of central office cube-troll had made their career by not saying anything to anyone that might mean anything, thereby ensuring they would not say anything objectionable to anyone.

When “thought leaders” raise their heads in this school system, this type of central office cube-troll runs around in front of the parade and starts tossing around a baton as though they know what’s going on behind them.

What came from this was a “best practices” document which was wrong. When the two people who knew what they were doing tried to correct the document, the central office dismissed them, because, well you know, the folks in the central office believe they got there because they know more than everyone else, right?

The result was the “best practices” document remains at best a factory second, a bastardized facsimile of the correct way to create a software configuration, and the central office has proceeded to train the whole county with their version.

Now nothing works well in this New England school system. Teachers are dismayed by technology and less of it is being used.

THE MORAL: Central office figures are at their best when they are pushing the thought leaders into the limelight rather than pretending they are experts.

Online Work-Flow For School Newspaper Defined

futuregethandsdirtyThe Challenge:
Our 4th and 5th grades (12 classrooms, 230+ some students and 17+ teachers and specialists) want to start a single school newspaper.  They are requesting an online work-flow allowing students to write but not publish, teachers to approve and publish.  The look and feel should be of a newspaper, not a blog.  They at first want to print the paper to distribute to students and families, rather than it being an online publication.

Draft Solution:
We can use the work flow process provided by the blogging software WordPress. Students would be given the role of “contributors” and 20 teachers and specialists “editors” or “administrators.” We could use a newspaper looking theme (14 different options can be perused here.) The newspaper could be viewed online or printed out and distributed.

To Publish Online or Not Online:
The 5th grade does a long-form research and publishing project each year which employs all sorts of social and publishing mediums such as blogs and wikis.

We have an Internet Security Protocol which has three components:

1)Don’t provide any personal details (name, school, county, state, country).
2)Don’t allow any incoming communication channels (no comments or text surveys) the only exception being radio button surveys.
3)And we tell students, “Never meet anyone in real life you only met online.”

Thus having students work in a “live” online environment is not a stretch.  Research two years ago found a majority of 4th grade students were actively publishing online (Facebook, MySpace) on their non-school time and equipment.

However, most of the teachers engaged in this project are viewing this as a traditional printed newspaper.  They seek to print the document and distribute a printed version.  This provides another layer of security because nothing will go out unless it is printed and copied multiple times.

Solution Pro/Con Considerations
Blackboard Pros Blackboard is relatively un-hackable from outside the school system, could be used to assemble newspaper for printing, available via home both for student editorial work and family viewing, it is completely backed up.
Blackboard Cons Blackboard provides no workflow for assembling such a large newspaper publishing venture, it is cumbersome and clunky to use, most families have a hard time navigating into blackboard, multimedia and publishing features limited.  Blogging and Wiki features disabled for family viewing.
WordPress Inside Firewall Pros WordPress provides solid online work-flow for supporting large newspaper publishing venture. Behind the firewall it would not be viewable to anyone allowing students to write freely using their names, school name and other identifying information.
WordPress Inside Firewall Cons WordPress behind the firewall, students could NOT access from home to add items, if in the future the requirements change this installation would never be able to be seen outside the firewall, backups would be dodgy.  Initial investment would include a high-end desktop and backup system.
WordPress Outside the Firewall Pros The service would be fully redundant and backed up on a nightly basis, it would provide robust work-flow and be accessible online for student editing and family viewing. Newspaper could be both printed and seen online.  No setup or ongoing maintenance costs.
WordPress Outside the Firewall Cons The online newspaper would be viewable to everyone requiring use of Internet Safety publishing protocol like the 5th grade uses for other publishing.

Summary:
1)Blackboard is difficult to use and has none of the work-flow needed for this large-scale project.  Blackboard forces students to have their name or student id number on everything they publish (which in violation of our safety practices).  The blog and wiki elements of Blackboard are not viewable by families.

2)Wordpress is a solid solution from a work-flow standpoint and allows teacher and different groups of students to have different roles in the editorial process.

3)Installing WordPress inside the firewall will make it more secure in the short-term to make sure nothing is published without being scrutinized by a teacher.  It gives teachers, especially those with no blogging experience, more comfort to know nothing will go out that is not printed first.

4)However WordPress inside the firewall is not future proof.  It doesn’t allow for a change of heart which would allow for the paper to be published online.  This option of online publishing is one all real newspapers are now engaged.  The backup of data on an internally running installation of WordPress would be dodgy.

5)Wordpress outside the firewall has all the benefits of WordPress inside the firewall and allows for future proofing in several ways:

a)It allows students to access the newspaper’s editorial features from anywhere.

b)It allows the published items to be viewed by anyone anywhere.

c)It requires students adhere to online safety publishing guidelines listed above.  Students could use pen names and the school’s nickname could be used in lieu of the school name.  Everything else could be open.

We will be thinking on this over the next few weeks with the teams in question.

Title One Heaven: When Technology and Teaching Take Off

Here’s yet another brag on our school.   Our school is what Title One should be modeled upon. We are like a Charter Title One school in many ways, because we take the money the government provides for low income learners and run with it past what many are doing in schools in more well-to-do areas.

A Title One Heaven.

DateLine:  At a small school in Virginia …

A 1st grade teacher here at Title One Heaven shows her class Mo Willems books.  She participates in an internet interview of Mo Willems her class watches.

The students decide (with our Librarian) to write a pigeon book in the style of Mo Willems.

After writing it with the Librarian, the 1st Grade teacher creates a voicethread (inserted below) of the book written, illustrated and voiced by the students.

But then she goes one step further, and goes social. She sends the voicethread to Mo Willems website and it is posted.

That’s what I’m talking about!!! Reading, Writing, Art and Technology fueled by social media.

Title One Heaven.