Marsh's Musings

Malled!

I very rarely go to shoping malls. Yesterday I went to a large mall in a town near my house because I needed to go to a store I could only find in the mall. It had been several years since I'd been in that particular mall. While I was there I figured I might as well go to a bookstore and browse for something interesting to read during spring break.

But the two bookstores that were in that mall the last time I visited were gone. I checked the mall directory to see if they had moved to a different location, or if there was another bookstore. I learned a sad and scary fact: there are no bookstores in that mall. It's large mall with over a hundred shops. No bookstores.

Having made the effort to drive there, park, and enter the mall I decided to wander around a bit. I noticed a sad trend. Lot's of bling but no brains. The store for our local PBS station was gone, the nature store was gone, as were several other stores that catered to learning.  I was so depressed I visited the See's Candy store, loaded up on chocolate, and left!

It's Not the Hardware, It's How We Use It!

Today I came across two online articles that reinforce what I think about using technology in the classroom and in educational settings in general. Note: all the links open a new page, close it to return to this page.

Putting an End to Topical Research is posted in Jamie McKenzie's online tech ed journal from now on. He discusses putting an end to "smushing" where students simply gather a bunch of information, smush it, and regurgiate it without ever have really critically evaluated or used the information.

Major Study Questions Value of School Software, an article posted in eSchoolNews, review a study that showed that use of several reading and math programs did little or nothing to improve test scores in the student population studied.The actual report can be found at the US Department of Education's website at ies.

The eSchoolNews article points out that there are concerns about the study design, and the fact that the teachers involved in the study had limited training on the use of the software. However, I feel the bigger issue is the use of "practice" type software. There was a great study published (and now I can't find the reference) that demonstrated that it wasn't drill type software that improved scores but using the technology for project-based learning, such as WebQuests, that require students to use critical thinking skills.

All of us are smarter than one of us!

Right now I'm visiting the last session of an UPDATE (Uniting Professional Development andTechnology for Education) class. Teachers are sharing the projects they developed for their students. I am always amazed when a group of teachers gets together. We are such a smart and creative bunch. I wish the critics of our educational system would sit in on these workshops.

A couple of great websites were shared:

A Maths Dictionary for Kids

Kids Health

If you are a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District you can find information about signing up for face-to-face or online classes to help you integrate technology into your teaching. Go to the Learning Zone, log on, click on courses, and then click on "class offereings" to see which courses are open.

I Saw It On the Web So It's True, Right?

Note: all links on this page open new web pages, close them to return to this page.

My fourth grade class was discussing how to distinguish between fact and opinion. With elections looming next week, we started discussing the political ads they've seen. As we discussed the things we read in books and newspapers and watch on TV, I asked them how they know what is true or not; what is fact and what is someone's opinion.

As we discussed what they read both in print and on the Internet I found they  often accept what they read as fact, without questioning it. We visited www.dhmo.org and explored the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. Before the students could get too worried about this "dangerous substance" that has caused many deaths, I wrote out the chemical symbol for it on the board: h₂o.

The reaction was "But it looks like real website." With a little research we discovered that the site was set up as a joke. Here are a couple of other websites in the same vein. Conservation minded students might want to get involved with efforts to Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Others might be concerned about California's Velcro Crop under Challenge.

Alan November has a list of websites for students to evaluate. He has posted links to websites appropriate to various age groups. Additional discussion about the validity of websites is found in the October issue of Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation's magazine.

While we often provide students with a list of websites to visit and school district filters keep them from visiting inappropriate sites, we want to provide our students with the tools they need to evaluate websites. We won't always be there. They won't always be surfing behind a school district's filter.

Internet Safety

Friday I attended a presentation by i-SAFE, a non-profit organization to promote Internet safey with chldren and adolescents. In their own words,

"i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the online experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE incorporates classroom curriculum with dynamic community outreach to empower students, teachers, parents, law enforcement, and concerned adults to make the Internet a safer place."

They provide Internet safety materials targeted at elementary, middle school, and high school students. There are also materials for teachers, administrators, library personnel, and parents.

Our students are often more Internet savy than their parents and teachers. The statistics are scary.

Smaller is Better

Note: All the links open new pages, close them to return to this page.

On Wednesday I took my class to the Wells Fargo Museum in downtown Los Angeles. Getting there was a bit of an adventure. We took the Gold Line, then the Red Line (subway), and climbed the stairs beside the old Angel's Flight. We didn't lose anyone despite my fear of having the train pull out of the station, looking out the window and seeing some of my students still on the platform!

The museum itself is quite small. I was concerned that there might not be enough to hold my students' interest. But the exhibits were well planned and the docents were excellent. All in all I think they got much more from the experience than they have at some of the larger museums we have visited in the past.

The presentations were well focused with lots of chances for the students to ask questions and share what they knew about the subject: the California Gold Rush. The highlight was the simulated ride on a stagecoach. I wish I'd taken my video camera! I highly recommend this trip for classes studying California history and the gold rush era.

I started thinking about some of the other smaller museums I've visited or taken students to. The Aquarium of the Pacific and the Norton Simon Museum come to mind. You are have a chance to enjoy them rather than wandering through endless exhibits until your mind is overloaded and your feet have turned to lead.

Step "backward" to move forward?

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My school, like many others, is facing the need to replace aging computers, printers, and other technology. Much of the equipment came through government programs to wire classrooms and provide computers for classrooms. Where do we go from here? Where do we get the money to update our equipment?

Recently I came across an article from the George Lucas Educational Foundation's Edutopia magazine, "Tech Made Easy" subtitled "It's not all about gadgets and gear." The article's author, Todd Oppenheimer  quotes Tom Snyder, the author of The One Computer Classroom who states that if we had embraced technology in our schools in the 1980s we'd all be using Commodore 64s!

Mr. Oppenheimer makes the case for teaching more critical thinking and problem solving skills and less technology. He points out that most computer skills and software applications we teach our students will be long obsolete by the time they reach the workforce.

Several months ago I helped one of my nephews do some research on what college courses he needed to take to prepare him to work in the field of computer animation for a company such as Pixar or Dreamworks. We visited their web sites. Their advice for students: learn traditional drawing and design skills. Sure, they wanted people who had basic computer skills but more importantly they wanted problem solvers.

My aha! moment: instead of struggling to acquire banks of bottom-of-the-line computers for our classrooms, why not get one or two powerful computers for each classroom? They would run the programs our students need and, because we aren't buying computers with minimal features, last for a few years. Alphasmarts or similar input devices could supplement the classroom computer to allow students to input text (ideas) into a computer. Then spend less time teaching the technology and more working on critical thinking skills!

Getting started

I've been reading others' blogs for some time. I've decided to take the plunge and start my own. I am in the process of wrapping up another school year. We finished the state tests (whew!) and are getting our projects ready to share at open house.

With testing, state mandated curriculum, No Child Left Behind, and pacing plans it is difficult to get to the projects students enjoy and really learn from! Each school year seems more and more rushed!