Life is Organic, Not a Production Line

I'm a huge fan of Sir Ken Robinson. I've watched his presentations in TED Talks - Bring on the Learning Revolution & Schools Kill Creativity - and RSA Animate about education, creativity, our educational systems and transformation.

In this video, Ken Robinson talks about pursuing our passions and the unpredictability and non-linearity of our lives.

via GenConnect

Random Thoughts on Ed Tech Mass Debate

In reply to what Gavin Dudeney posted and the feedback he got, I'll register here what I've written as a reminder of my own thoughts on the topic:

Gavin, you mentioned in one of your replies "You’d like to think – wouldn’t you – that teachers ask themselves these questions on a daily basis – not just about technology, but also about anything else they bring to the classroom, or do in the classroom?" I think that's exactly the point we should make. It is not about ed tech, but simply about the kind of our pedagogical approaches to what we do nowadays. Good teaching hasn't changed at all, the tools we have at our disposal now just make it easier to let students' output be more personal, reflective, engaging. And this will certainly depend directly on how the lesson was conducted. It is not about ed tech, the debate is really about teaching/learning. For me unplugged doesn't mean being disconnected from the tech we have to promote critical thinking, engagement, willingness to go beyond the few classroom hours we have. I'm a teacher in Brazil, a developing country. However, my students are totally wired, though they don't know how to use what they have at the tip of their fingers for learning. Our main challenge as educators, then, is to help them find their way to optimize the learning opportunities they have.

Just yesterday, a friend of mine was reporting how interactive, reflective class she had with the lesson plan I posted on my blog about "beauty". The tech there was just a springboard for students' own production. I've been trying out the different uses of technology not for the bells and whistles it provides, but for the meaningfulness it can bring with it depending on what and how we do with our students. I've been intensely grateful for what technology is doing to my students and they've reported how they've been learning for the past months because of it. The results? Productions like this: http://primelearner.pbworks.com/w/page/37678475/Ivan And I have to point out that these adult students are not graded for the written production. But the interactions, the input I've been able to provide have been explored in such a way that the students feel the urge to express themselves, to share, to keep learning...

In my view, there shouldn't be such a debate on ed tech or not, but how teachers could make the best use of what's out there. Pencil, notebooks, the black board were once technology, and we simply take them for granted now and we don't question if we should use them or not. I agree with Sue Lyon-Jones that one of the main issues is how teacher training is being done by institutions and if, at least, some of the teachers are looking for their own professional development beyond the institutionalized versions of it, for it makes a difference in the final result in terms of tech use (going beyond the obvious, using it for critical thinking, student production, etc, or not).

Another thing that has got me thinking after IATEFL and while I get prepared to attend other conferences is that fact that there's a tendency for us to stick to the same old views of presenters as there's a whole deal with publishers. I see the same old list of presenters in all the mainstream TEFL conferences. Hardly ever do we see new names with fresh perspective. I wonder if this model shouldn't be rethought. Well, for me it is not a big problem, in fact, for because of technology I can make my own informed decisions on who I want to listen to in online conferences, debates, network, right?

Great debate, Gavin. Thanks! 

Excellence Lesson Plan

The topic is one that can inspire anyone and re-enligthen our understanding of what makes us unique, special, excellent human beings. It is a reminder of not just doing average, but really excelling and being thankful for the ones who helped us succeed. It is an opportunity to inspire our students and ourselves to go beyond, to step forward and show the world the best of us.

Warm-up Ideas

• What are the main characteristics of good leaders?
• What do you do well? Explore "I am good at/ I have a special talent for/ I excel in"
• Students make a digital poster of people who excelled/excel in their fields (sports, arts, education, science...) and have a show and tell explaining why they chose those people
• Discuss quotes related to excellence and leadership
  http://thinkexist.com/quotations/excellence/ 
• Ask students to complete the sentence: "Excellence is.../Being excellent means..."

Then, explore some famous sportsmen/sportswomen in students' country and what they all have in common.

Video Activity
Show an image of the NBA player Derrick Rose and ask them if they know something about the basketball player and why he is famous.
Remember to use Creative Commons photos!

More Creative Commons photos here.


Show the students the video of Derrick receiving KIA Award of most Valuable Player 2010-2011
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/award_nominees/2011/05/03/20110502_kia_rose_mvp_presser.nba

Explore with students

What the presenter/coach mentioned about Derrick
Who Derrick was thankful for and why
Why they think he got the prize

Then, compare their initial list/sentences/images from the warm-up part (whatever you decide to do with the group) with what people thought made Derrick an excellent/most valuable player in the NBA season.

Personalizing

Tell students that they got an Excellence Award
They imagine why they were receiving it (The Most... in...of (year)...)
They create their certificates (paper or digital) and share with the class
The students can make their speech to receive the award

Any other ideas to make this classroom activity even more meaningful?

IATEFL Bits - Beauty Lesson

Two weeks in modern life is almost a past life. I've read wonderful accounts of the IATEFL conference in Brighton, some which I experienced myself, mainly related to the interconnectedness during the days and nights there, and to the inspiring sessions I've attended. Because of a whirlwind of events and things to do just after I came back to Brazil, I've decided that instead of trying to excel in what others from my educators' network have done with such care (see here the reports), I'll go bit by bit, trying to blog about what I saw and experienced, but with a more practical approach to it. I have no idea how long I will take, but with my digital notes, which are an extension of my memory, I'm sure there will be a lot of ideas to share starting now.

Here's the first one. Inspired by Ceri Jones' presentation "Unleashing the Power of Images", I've created this Animoto about Beauty with my own Flickr photos to use it with my students, but also in the hope to inspire other educators.

In my classroom, we've already explored the concept of beauty using the quote "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Students have decided for their own concept of beauty and have chosen an object, place or person to express its beauty. In a very relaxed, informal way, they showed pictures and talked about beautiful aspects of our lives after we had explored some vocabulary beyond the usual beautiful/pretty words. With their cell phones in hand, they looked for more powerful adjectives to express beauty and came up with this list:

Amazing student written and oral production and they were consciously trying to use the new vocabulary.

During her presentation, Ceri gave many ideas to use still images, which I love. However, I decided to use Animoto to add a bit of movement and personal touch to my own idea of beauty, but having Ceri's own words in mind of using images to "trigger our students' minds", to make English as part of "the students' identity, not external learning", to help them develop a sense of "being a user of English, not a learner". So, as a second part of the lesson, I intend to send the video to my students and ask them to make their own definitions of beauty.

One approach that could be used to develop students' Critical Literacies - a topic Lindsay Clanfield explored during his presentation -  is to ask students to watch the presentation and start a discussion:

• Where do you think this person comes from? Why?

• Is the producer of this video a man or woman? How old?

• What are the key concepts of beauty for this person? What truly matters for him/her? How do you know?

• Check the photos the person used for the video production, choose one to represent your own concept of beauty. Write your beauty definition on the photo comment area. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlaarena/sets/72157626637445448/

For further exploration: The producer didn't use some of the images in the set in the slideshow presentation. Why? 

From there, students can make their own digital creations to express beauty.

Any other suggestions?

Animal Zooburst

I've just seen my 8-year-old son spend a long time focused, enjoying himself and practicing a lot of English. He found out how to search for the animals he wanted to include in his digital 3D book, he asked questions, he wrote, he made choices, he practiced, he enjoyed himself, he learned. And it was a very simple activity of creating a 3D book with Zooburst.

His English teacher knows how to explore the little ones' interests in engaging ways. It doesn't take much, but simply eyes wide open on the part of the educator and the willingness to keep learning and finding exciting resources for our digital kids.

Here's the result of our forest creation with wild animals:

Exciting 19th Literature with 21st Century Web Tools

Using 21st century tools to explore 19th century literature

View more presentations from Mary Hillis.

I could be here telling you how a session and some ideas can be taken to the next level by a team of creative educators. However, no words are needed when all the details and web tools are there for you to explore. Two dear friends and co-moderators of our EVO Digital Storytelling session in Jan/Feb 2011 used some of the ideas explored in our online session to explore 19th literature with their students in a fun, meaningful, digitally comprehensive way.

With you, Jane Petring's and Mary Hilli's

Using 21st Century Tools to Explore 19th Century Literature

By accessing their wiki page, you'll understand why I don't have to say much here...Be inspired and take some action!

Design Series - eLearning Design

When we work in the eLearning area, we have the regular instructional design issues, plus some others related to technology and interaction in an arena in which we rely on hypertext in its many forms and shapes and the human interactions for a successful learning program.

eLearningnetwork.org is one place I go for inspiration and the latest elearning trends. Just today I was browsing the site and came across this 24tips series that is a wonderful resources for anybody interested in the area:

24tips - http://24tips.elearningnetwork.org/

Don't miss it! You will certainly find inspiration and very practical tips for your elearning session.

Beyond the 4th Wall - In the Classroom with NO Technology

Interesting process has been occurring with me. I work with technology, I breathe, dream and think about it, but not just for the sake of it, but because I want to find ways to connect with my students and with peers around the globe. Undoubtedly I see its connective value.

However, I can feel a twist, those moments of change coming...Last year, I spent my teaching time being an online facilitator for educators, as well as for my online students. I had no face2face classes. Now, I am back to that physical space of magic, gestures and heartfelt laughs. That area in which you connect every second with eye contact, body language, the tone of your voice. You feel if things are working or not, you see if there is a question mark on students' faces, if they are relaxed, tense or bored. If they are worried about time or if they don't even notice the minutes ticking. This is the space that I'm back and totally excited about it. I spend my time preparing my lessons, talking to peers, planning our classes together. It is always a reminder of why you decided to be an educator. And for the past decade I've been an advocate of the power of technology in the classroom, I've been training teachers to integrate technology in the classroom, to be sensible decision-makers on to choose when to use it in a pedagogically-sound way. I still believe in all that.

But, with my adults class, I'm a much more careful user of technology in the classroom, for what they really want is to have you there, entirely focused to help them, to listen to them, to talk to them, and not worried if this video will work, or the file on the computer will open, or if they will be able to do the craziest projects using a computer. NO. They need us as human beings and not machine operators. So, that's why my approach has been much less tech in the classroom, but much more beyond the physical classroom boundaries. Now, I realize how powerful it is what Salman Khan has been piloting with his incredible open learning platform and open-minded ideas about education. In his TED Talk, he mentions the shift that has occurred in some math classes in which teachers have been using his videos as homework assignment and have used class time to do what was once homework - working on solving math problems. By doing that, teachers have become true learning facilitators and students have been working collaboratively in the classroom for a common goal, to succeed. Success as a collective endeavor and not as a lonely journey. Teachers have realized that by adding the youtube videos beyond the classroom, students have control of their learning, can playback explanations, can go back or move forward on a concept. And the classroom becomes that liquid, fluid network of wonderful minds achieving their academic goals with the helping hand of an educator.

So, back to my own adult class, I've realized that, in this case, technology is of a much broader reach if I encourage my students to work on our class wiki, if we connect through emails (Yes, they are heavy email users and not so much in the realm of social media), if we share with one another videos, texts, stories of our interest. In fact, just yesterday two of my students were saying that because of our contact beyond the classroom through email and wiki, they've been pushed to do more in their English practice than they generally do, they've been sharing with friends the videos I share with the group. They've been discussing the concepts they watch on the videos and they've even surprised their kids by knowing about the latest music hits and pop stars in the billboards. Isn't this exactly what we need and preach for? Students who are engaged, challenged and willing to move forward through the constant contact with the language? That's what we can get by using more technology beyond class time and more humanly connections in class. All of this doesn't mean I'm not using at all Tech tools in class. I am! But as a much more sensible user and educator.

Warm-up or Follow-up? Just Do it!

Mission Amy is a blog I follow for inspiration. It makes me want to do things. It makes me feel like moving, taking action.


One of Amy's questions to her community of readers was the following?

What are your Do's, Don'ts and Duhs?

Here is the result she compiled and the present she gave back to the community: a blog to whomever wants to feed it. Motivational, as always, reading all the life statements the readers wrote.

Now, what if we did this in class with our students? A simple question, just some minutes in class to write their answers. Afterwards, students might create a class poster, a collage, a scrapbook page to become a class album, a digital collage in Glogster, post-its on Wallwisher or Squareleaf, a video...Let you and your students go wild!

Design Series - Learning Design

In my last post, I talked about the importance of thinking about design in two different levels in our classrooms. The first and essential one, instructional design - planning our classes to convey meaning and to arise interest, engagement. Another aspect of design that we should be more aware of is adding elements that are visually-appealing to the eyes and all the senses. One example I just had in my class was simply adding a wonderful music clip of Adele. First, my students didn't know her, then the video is an example of an upbeat well-designed videoclip. Plus, the music itself was an activation for learning. My students were glued.



Add to design the learner himself. The third level. Many times, we simply take for granted how the learner is dealing with his learning process. We, as educators, need to make them aware of learning strategies that might work for them, that might help them take their language production to the next level. It is all about helping them design their own learning paths through tips, suggestions and constant support.

This is an example of what I generally do. I take a picture of our collective work on the board and post it on our class wiki. However, my handwriting is not a masterpiece on the board. It might be helpful for students, but not that visually-appealing:



Let's turn this option more student-centered and well-designed to help students explore class content more effectively.

Take, for example, a site like http://squareleaf.net/. It is very simple to register, students can add their class entries in a color-coded fashion. It is a clean, straightforward, ad-free online space. Students gain in mobility as they can access their notes wherever they are. Plus, they are the ones creating their language lists in any way they feel might be more profitable for them, including editing the colors for each box. So, here's the twist from my previous image:

What do you think? How might this affect the whole learning process? Isn't it going to help in our students' own learning design?