Time for Change

With just this short introduction, I know my instructional methodologies would need to change greatly. Usually, I am able to survive, well more than survive, THRIVE, on a skeletal outline then using teachable moments. That would never work for online learning. Everything has to be spelled out so much. One of the first videos talked about that. The music teacher said everything had to be really explicit.

It seems to me that success in an online environment actually adds a bit of staleness, which is ironic. As teacher, everything has to be planned out ahead. I guess the interaction amongst the students and teachers can offer the spontaneity. 

Skills and strategies that I would have to improve or expand is planning all the details completely with references and everything; making a full-on presentation packet and regularly checking in online and responding. That's tough for me.

Blended Learning

[writing this because I cannot get on the discussion board] I'm reading about blending learning.  This term encompasses such a wide array of scenarios, they hardly to be in the same genre outside of "education". For example, Carpe Diem Schools and Big Picture Schools seem like opposite ends of the universe to me.

I read through Innosight's description and like the way they name the styles: face-to-face driver; rotation; flex; online lab; self-blend, and; online driver. These labels kind of mix styles, but at least it helps the reader name some common styles and compare their features.

Click here for my Venn diagram comparing online with face-to-face.

I saw Dennis Littky at TedxNYED, so that profile interested me the most today.  Littky rejected all things typical of public education, yet I find him in this document. I like the idea of having a personal plan, and advisor and a mentor. Incredibly, Littky pulls this structure off with high risk students. Important elements, but not easy to find amongst struggling students and families.

Some critical questions I have are about sustainability: financial and emotional. Gates Foundation infused dollars but how long will that last? Similarly, Littky is a dynamo, but how scalable is a school designed based on atypical features of a charismatic leader?

Learning Goals

Well, now that I have taken the plunge to enroll in a course to learn how to teach online, the work begins.   At my own peril, and maybe against better judgement, I am going to be honest. My main goal is to get the certificate, honestly.  I am very accustomed to Haiku and have posted may resources on Haiku. I have read a great deal about online courses. I have researched them and MOOCs for a while.  I have a separate, professional blog that I have lost interest in....I use Twitter for an online PLN, and I have research OERs and more. No matter what, though I know that for anyone to take me seriously, I have to get a certificate.  

I do have to say that when I took the self-assessment, some things were true, but still surprising. I can learn a ton, and fast, but I'm old-school. Audio and video are not my best modes. Reading (skimming, scanning, glancing) is my preferred receptive mode. Also, the more I do online, the more I realize that I expect a class to have a time and the physical attendance to keep me focused on being there, so that will be an unplanned learning outcome of this course for me. 

There ARE a couple things about online learning I would like to know more about. I am intrigued by hearing about Screencast-o-matic.  Also while I was researching classes before, a friend of mine learned how to use Jing and I did not, so that would be something to pursue. The final one is VoiceThread, I guess. I like cheap, widely-used, easy to use, light applications, and I don't see VoiceThread fitting that description, but learning some facts about it might be good. 

Let the Games Begin!

The twitterverse is telling us that several winners for Race to the Top applications will be announced next week even though the official announcement date was April. In California, some legislation had to be passed in order to make it possible for the state to commit to the four assurances:
- Adopting standards and assessments
- building data systems that are based on individual student data
- teacher and principal quality, recruitment, alternative certification and performance-based compensation
-turning around a percentage of the lowest achieving schools
California State Board Association published an outstanding overview of the impacts and delineated the impacts would happen tied to CA's RacettT application and which would happen no matter what. click here

Why don't we do what we know?

Twice this week, I had two separate conversations with colleagues who clearly described a list of actions that would produce improved achievement in our schools. In both situations, after we had talked a while, they each looked at me and said, "We know what to do, why don't we do it?"

After thinking about it a while, here is my preliminary answer is that we need courage, alignment, persistence. Courage to admit when we are not actually implementing the good ideas. One of my friends said, "Knowing about an idea and starting it passes as good work." We need courage to complete the implementation and followthrough. We need alignment between best practices and what teachers are actually doing every day. Great if we know what research says, but we have to design materials and systems so that they seamlessly incorporate those features rather than placing the burden upon the teacher to make the match. Finally, we need persistence to see good ideas through. Too often, the teacher changes, the principal moves, the fill-in-the-blank and we give up on the idea.

How do we close the knowing doing gap?

Effective or Not? Know the Difference.

On my Friday freeway trip, returning from a great Thanksgiving celebration, I caught an interview on KPCC. An LAUSD teacher from Jefferson high along with a charter school advocate and a couple high school students. The most appalling thing is that no one was willing to say that we could tell effective from ineffective teachers.

I had a similar experience with a group of school administrators recently. We viewed the Meet the Press episode where Gingrich, Sharpton, and Duncan were giving their views. Once the segment concluded, I asked, "What makes a teacher effective?" No one answered. I don't know if they were unwilling or unable.

Here's what. The structure of education is changing right now. Those of us in public education often complain that one of our constraints is the inability to remove bad teachers from the classroom. Well, that constraint might be changing. We BETTER be willing and able at time to say which teachers are effective and what makes them so.

common standards are out for commenthttp://www.corestandards.org/

View and comment on the common standards.