Chatological Ettiquette

Last f2f session I had my first exposure to the chat system, and I initially found the whole concept rather strange; a group of people, listening to a Silvia Tolisano, a well-known IT person, while simultaneously and furiously communicating to others in the group via our keyboards and onto the chat page......

Those others in the group included peers in the same room/same table, bed-ridden, hospital-bound peers, and our very own course instructors.......

Through it all, Silvia encouraged us to do what we were doing anyway. I was confused, at the start, what were we supposed to do? Was I to listen to Silvia, or thumb away at my keyboard? Others seemed equally unsure, many were commenting on finding it difficult to focus and follow on two difference sources of information at the same time.

The chat-ologue unfolded line-by-line in front of me, and try as I could to listen to Silvia, I was mesmerized by the unraveling streams of thought that spilled onto my page.....as I read each line, a new one would appear, asynchronously responding to a previous entry. Course members had many of the same thoughts ("this is distracting!"), and I wondered several times how this could ever be used effectively with a group of 6th graders.

But reflecting after the session, a couple of things went through my mind. How was using a chat system like this any different to other f2fsessions we have experienced where group members would have their laptop open with multiple windows open and tasks going on? Is that not just as distracting, as following live strands of thoughts? Don't both require some form of discipline, in terms of knowing when to sit back and disengage, collect thoughts, and then make sense of stuff?

My next thoughts went to how I could use this in grade 6 math/science. I understand that this kind of set-up is second nature to a lot of kids, and that they often spend time chatting in this format. I can see how this may certainly be a big advantage to kids who find speaking up in class very difficult. With this, they can find a voice and have time to compose their thoughts and make comments without the fear of "looking stupid".

The added incentive for kids to post thoughtful comments is that the entire chat-ologue can be looked at later, and further reflections can be drawn from the whole process. I believe that certain key questions (for example "is fire alive?") could elicit some wonderful thoughts and sharing of ideas, happening in real time, evolving and morphing as each new entry impacts upon the thinking of members in the group.

The best way for me to discover more about this process, will be to develop questions/ideas with plenty of power/inherent interest, introduce these to my students, combine them with this chat methodology and see what happens! Watch this space for results.

Final Reflection

This project has been a great chance to put into practice some of the methods that I have been exposed to during this course. As a learner who enjoys collaborating with others, this project was a joint effort between Martin Hermann and myself.

Our goal was to make a project that would allow our kids to have some important experiences. Their task would be to take a key reading that covered several important science standards, and then in small groups or pairs take sections of this reading and prepare a short movie clip. The clips would then be combined, to make a movie to be shown to the whole class (and ultimately the world!).

Martin and I wanted our students to have certain experiences during this project. We wanted them to be able to work together in a small groups, sharing ideas and using the vocabulary that many ESL learners struggle with.

We then wanted students to take on the technology piece by using an online video editor where segments could be uploaded and then stitched together into a whole class movie.

The final part would be the posting of their completed, collaborative end product into the world by using a platform such as YouTube. With this they could encounter the feeling of seeing their work "out there" and to be able to receive feedback from a much wider community, thereby reinforcing the idea of connectivity.

While Martin and I planned the project, our own experiences were mirroring the kinds of experiences we were hoping our students would have. Martin and I worked collaboratively, bouncing ideas around and sorting through all the steps we would need to achieve our goal. We had to come to grips with new terms and language.

Earlier, after posting our own project sketches, we had received timely feedback from an expert in Technology Projects. Having this feedback really brought home to me that once I had posted my work, it was definitely "out there" for all to see. Receiving feedback from someone completely unknown personally to me, was certainly a new experience.

Martin and I also embraced a new technology piece during planning. We needed to rewrite the text document (to make it more accessible to our ESL kids) and started to do so with one computer and two people. Realizing we could be more efficient, we split the text document, added another laptop and then used google docs to work at the same time. We could both see what the other was doing in real time, on the screen in front of us. Now we can also separately revisit the text for editing without he hassle of emailing updates and revised versions.


I hope that our students will get the same kind of enjoyment in doing this task, that i got while collaboratively designing it. Given the parallels between what we experienced while developing the project, and what we hope our kids will ultimately get out of its completion, it will be fascinating to observe their progress. Progress not just in terms of a deeper understanding of science, but also in the realization of the importance and power of technology and collaboration.

Project Sketch

The project sketch for my project is a leap into the unknown for me. In collaboration with my EAP teaching partner (Mr Martin Hermann), I am about to try and develop a project that will allow my students to pursue their learning in a style that is different to what I have promoted previously as a classroom teacher.

The students will be challenged to start to understand some of the basics of cell biology. This will be done however by meeting not just the prescribed science standards, but also the NETS (National Educational Technology Standards)

http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

from the International Society for Technology Education.

In a nut shell, the students will meet the science standards but within a framework that allows them to "Communicate and Collaborate" (NETS- for Students #2) using digital media.

The big picture is that students will work ( individually or in pairs) to prepare and present a digital "patch" of a larger concept. They will use digital media to add this "patch"to a class "quilt" that will then be shown to the whole class as the lesson.

The students will be working cooperatively (in real time) initially, but also at a distance (when not in class - for example at home) as they combine their pieces to put together. They will be able to make use of each other as resources, and also the teachers (or internet/books) as "experts" if and when needed.

As a result of this process, they are taking responsibility for the learning of not just themselves, but also all other members of the class. In addition, the finished product will be able to be posted on platforms such as YouTube, to allow students from around the world to make use of this resource.

The true test will be to see if this method can meet the science standards within a similar time-frame, and to the same degree of effectiveness, to that used by a more traditional approach. Reflections from both Mr Hermann and myself, as well as the students, will be necessary to determine the cost-benefit of this style of pedagogy.

Digital Immigrants

As educators we have come to technology as "digital immigrants" compared to the generation who have grown up with technology as a part of all areas of their life. Teachers will need to come to grips with the nature of this reality, even if we find it difficult, and take steps to look at how we can practically integrate the new technologies into our normal teaching routines.

As educators we are constantly working to deal with new initiatives that come down the pipeline. These are ever-changing, but they are always coming. Implementation of types of new technology is often one of these initiatives, and it is crucial that educators work to make these meaningful and worth the effort of putting into practice. This should only be done when it has been demonstrated that these make a difference with regard to student learning.

Digital Taxonomy

this is a critical piece as we move into the new age....Bloom's original taxonomy updated for our digital era

this will be essential for me as i work my way through these courses, to help me to determine where i am in my level of analysis, and also to help me to assist students in understanding where they are in regard to Bloom's Taxonomy

Principles of Connectivism

this stuff is great; learning to be recognize that the knowledge we had yesterday is now different....so much information available, at any time, forces us into a different mind set where we acknowledge that the most important thing is accurate, up to do information....and this affects us immediately and directly, every time we go online to book that vacation

its about connecting different information sources.......cross checking the lists of years best films to get a "meta-analysis" list from all the critics before i make my decision which films to view

ability to see connections between fields and ideas and concepts...getting kids to use technology to estimate their carbon footprint then use applications of data analysis in math to produce graphs then initiate change in their lifestyle, then revisit their footprint at a later date and look for change; look for growth and reflection, and see how our actions affect our environment and how this in turn affects our ecosystem...this idea connects math/science/environment/technology/ and also the skill of reflection

Messing Around

so it seems that having an untended MySpace was not "messing around" in the new vernacular......it appears that messing around involves the experimental playing around with new media, involving social exchanges, and capturing and modifying and sharing of images, music and videos

for a long time my only friend was "TOM" and he seemed to be quite popular, with several million other friends...

after that i stuttered into having a few other friends, but made no effort to "mess around" and add other applications

looking back, i can see that perhaps messing around isn't such a massive waste of time if it allows the development of skills, such as learning how to utilize media while upgrading and improving a profile

others use this messing around as a gateway into further creative pursuits; it appears that it is a relatively safe domain in which to practice new things and produce a body of work that others can view and give feedback