Tips by Tony

Here are just a few of the articles I found interesting over the past several weeks. Yes, I’m still getting caught up. Not sure it’ll ever happen at this point…

• Marge Beatty, Nebraska ESU 16, talks about 1:1 laptop programs

  Scott McLeod interviews Marge Beatty, chief administrator for the ESU 16 in Nebraska, about their 1:1 laptop programs. Eight of the sixteen districts in ESU 16 have 1:1 laptop programs. This is a great video interview that talks about the hows and whys of their implementation. Definitely worth a watch.

• Google Translate & Julius Caesar

  Andrew B. Watt used Google Translate to help his international students read Julius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Civil Wars.

  Thanks to Google Translate, we’ve gone around the problem of the English being too difficult for the international students in our school. The original text is a public-domain text from the English version of Project Gutenberg. We stripped the carriage returns, and loaded it into a wiki page. Then we ran blocks of text through Google Translate. That produced our text in four languages now, and we’re working on a fifth — Simplified Chinese, Korean, Spanish and English (with Japanese on the way). I’m even thinking that by next year, I want to have a parallel Latin translation.

• Job Security No More

  Jen Wagner talks about how she’s shifted her focus from hoarding knowledge to striving to put herself out of a job. I have the same focus…

  You see – for many many (too many) years …I was the holder of all tech wisdom. (100% mostly for my gratification and my ego). The false sense of pride of being the “techie know it all” not only alienated and limited my staff but also was selfish to myself and the burden I placed upon myself…because of my unwillingness to share the information.

  So now I am consciously striving to put myself out of a job.

  Jen goes on to list some things she’s doing or no longer doing to help achieve her goal. I can relate to most all of her listed items. Here are just a few samples:

  • Refusing to touch the mouse when I am called in to help a teacher but letting them drive.
  • Writing up “HOW TO “ worksheets and placing them on the server and no longer hoping staff will read them, but directing staff to read them before jumping in to trouble shoot something they could troubleshoot on their own.
  • When receiving emails of “Jen, do you think this is a hoax” returning the email with “what does snopes say about it”? and other various ways of not always being the know it all.
  • No longer saying “Yes, I can” but saying “Yes, you can.”

  I’ve been trying hard to teach our teachers and staff how to fish instead of continually giving them handouts. It’s working for some, while others are struggling to get past the antiquated idea that everything should be done for them because they’re “not a techie.” Sorry folks, that excuse doesn’t cut it anymore (if it ever really did.) I will provide all the help and support you should ever need, but I’m not going continually do things for you, over and over. My goal is to teach you how to figure things out for yourself.

• Schools Can’t Change

  Michael Smith pens a brilliant piece of satire on school change. This rings so very true, but sadly some who read it will miss the satire (and the point.)

  In my estimation, progress is way overrated. Schools were good enough for my grandparents (if they attended, and some did — at least until the 6th grade), so they should be good enough for today’s students. Progress is for the next generation. It’s for the person who takes my job. (I know you’re out there.)

• How To Connect Your Students Globally

  Kim Cofino lists some good ways to get started using globally collaborative projects in your classroom, along with links to some great resources.

  The key component for me was connecting students, both face to face and virtually, from a variety of backgrounds to work together to solve a common problem. Although we might not have the luxury of bringing together diverse groups of students every day, we certainly have the capability to connect them using technology. No matter what subject you teach, I truly believe adding a global component is not only possible, but necessary to prepare students for our increasingly connected world.

• 
  Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head

  Leo Babauta gives his thoughts on our current educational system, and how/why it should be turned on its head.

  People often grow up to be competent learners, and achieve great things, after going through the traditional school system. But this is in spite of the system, not because of it. We are pretty adaptable people, inherently curious, and we can learn without an authority, but the current school system tries to beat this down. It usually fails to some degree, but to the degree it succeeds, it harms people.

  This was certainly true of my schooling. Luckily I had a couple really great teachers that did things differently and were able to light a fire in me, enabling me to become a lifelong learner. Those teachers were the exception, though, and without them I doubt I would have become so passionate about learning new things.

  The way we need to be taught to learn is completely different. It’s this: learn about what interests you, gets you curious, gets you excited. Figure out where to get the information you need. Read about it, talk to someone about it, find out about it. Try it. Do it, make mistakes. Figure out how to correct the mistakes. Figure out how to solve the problems you encounter. Repeat.

  That’s precisely how we, as adults, learn. (At least it should be…I know plenty of adults that seem to lack this ability.) Why not help guide students down this same path?

  Three, also realize that we don’t need to be hands-off. We can be hands-on, if we’re facilitators instead of directors or dictators. We can help kids find things they’re interested in, expose them to worlds of fun (like science and math), teach them games that they might like, help them solve problems so they’ll learn how to do it on their own, guide them to resources and people who will give them mountains of information. Be there for them, as guides.

Who/What I’m Following on Twitter

Added in the last week: @djainslie, @readinator, @jstephengy

Related posts:

1. Monday Morning Roundup (07/27/2009)
2. Monday Morning Roundup (5/4/2009)
3. Monday Morning Roundup (8/31/2009)
4. Monday Morning Roundup (8/24/2009)
5. Monday Morning Roundup (08/17/2009)
6. Monday Morning Roundup (08/10/2009)
7. Monday Morning Roundup (6/8/2009)
8. Monday Morning Roundup (06/01/2009)
9. Monday Morning Roundup (5/11/2009)
10. Monday Morning Roundup (10/19/2009)