21st Century Educators

21st Century is a term that is used a lot, particularly in education. Along with this term there is often debate and conversation revolving around exactly what this means. Kim Cofino's article, 5 Tips to Becoming a 21st Century Educator, highlights the importance of not just doing things differently in the classroom, but also outside of the classroom.

Being a 21st century educator means utilizing the available technology to engage and collaborate with professionals from around the world, not just the ones within your school walls. Learning with and from colleagues who are dedicated to educational best practice is stimulating and inspiring - your professional learning network (PLN) may just turn out to be the best professional development you have participated in for a long while. I justify this statement with 3 reasons:

1. It's ongoing - your PLN is not a 2 day conference that invigorates you for a week or two, it invigorates, inspires, and challenges everyday!
2. It's ready when you are - the PLN is ongoing and does not require you to miss classes or school days to participate (it doesn't even penalize you if you miss a couple of days)
   
3. It's Just In Time (JIT) - when you have a specific question that needs to be answered, or some help with a particular issue or problem, your PLN is there ready to offer advice, answers, and solutions

Being a 21st century educator isn't about technology, it's about being connected and engaged with professionals from all over the world. Today's technology simply makes it a lot easier to do this.

The Apple iPad

I am not what you would call an 'early adopter' of new technology, that is if by technology you mean gadgets and tools - I don't have an iPhone....in fact I have never owned an iPod. I am very interested in the latest technology - I have been listening to music in MP3 format since 1999, that's probably why I prefer a simple MP3 player over an iPod.

I have read (with great interest) all about the Apple iPad that was unveiled today and it sounds pretty cool. I must admit that for a few moments I even thought, "I should get one of those." That was until I started to read a little more about it and came across this article:

What's Missing from the Apple iPad

The questions I have now are:

• Is it just an oversized iPhone?
• Is a touch screen/tablet computer?
• Is it a Kindle/Nook with a lot more features?

If the answer to the last question is yes, then the people at Apple are simply brilliant. It certainly tops other ebook readers in terms of features and it will be a great companion for the iBook store, just like the Kindle is for Amazon.

Now I begin to wonder.....do I "need" an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook? I have little doubt that MS students around the world will be telling their parents that they deifinitely need an iPad. This is a great opportunity to research this product together and weigh up its pros and cons, while at the same time strengthening the parent/child relationship. Your kids may be impressed that you even know what an iPad is!

Setting Laptop Boundaries at Home

Working in a 1:1 environment is a fantastic experience! Utilizing the available technologies really helps to open up the world of learning and extend education beyond the confines of our school walls.

Of course along with opportunity comes challenge - one of the major ones being how students use their laptops in the home. Having a middle school aged child can be a challenging time for parents in itself, then when you add in a tool that enables students to be connected 24/7 it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain and develop family relationships. Parents need encouragement, support, and education on how to establish effective boundaries at home that will empower students to become responsible and balanced users of technology.

Tim Bray offers the following 5 tips for parenting in a 1:1 world:

1. Never allow the computer to be in the bedroom
2. Set reasonable time limits for computer use
3. Open communication about everything
4. Responsible computer use
5. Help your child with homework

(You can read a further explanation of each point at Tim's blog)

In a 1:1 environment our goal should be to help parents (and teachers and administrators) move from a fear driven control mindset to one where responsible and authentic use of technology can be role modeled and supported. Utilizing the 5 steps above in the home may be a good starting point in this paradigm shift.

The change isn't coming - it's here!

I watched this video on Jeff Utecht's blog and thought it was too good not to share:



It is timely reminder that school's are not just about student learning - they are just as much as about developing professional learning communities where teachers and administrators model life long learning.

Are you Balanced

At yesterday's MS assembly Ms Postema's homeroom explored the IB Learner Profile Balanced and encouraged us to think about our lifestyle and ways that we can ensure balance in our lives. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish, but it is certainly something that we should always be aware of and constantly strive for.

If you do a Google search for "balanced lifestyle" you will find in excess of 1, 790, 000 sites that offer all sorts of advice on how to live a balanced life and the benefits of being balanced. It is harder to find ways to determine whether or not your current lifestyle is balanced. One of the sites (http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Balanced-Lifestyle) contained the following quote:

If you live a balanced life you will find joy in almost everything you do. Some a bit more than others but your happiness will originate from inside of you and not from external sources.

I think this is a pretty good indicator of a balanced lifestyle - your are happy and content rather than searching for happiness from external sources.

One of the major benefits of leading a balanced lifestyle is that when challenges arise we are better equipped to deal with them - we have the physical energy and stamina to take on the challenge, we have the emotional stability to handle the challenge in a calm and rational way, we have the social skills and network to seek help from peers and friends, we have the spiritual grounding to pause and reflect before acting, and we have the academic knowledge to approach the challenge in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.

Students face just as many, although different, challenges than we adults, so it vital that we help students to lead a balanced lifestyle to better equip them to deal with these challenges when they arise. Holistic Education is so much more than academics and is imperative as we collaborate with our students and help them develop the skills necessary for success in the 21st century.

The Finished Product

Yesterday I posted about my 3rd grade son making a Prezi for his pen pal in the US. Well here is the finished product:

Merry Christmas

Pretty good for his first attempt. The great thing about learning is that although this particular product may be finished, the learning will continue. I will reflect with my son about his prezi and what he thinks is good about it, as well as what he might do differently next time. We will also talk about communication and how it comes in many different forms - we might even venture into the message he was trying to communicate and whether or not he actually communicated his intended message.

This simple activity will lead to many days of spontaneous and impromptu conversations - I can't wait to hear what we will talk about!

I'm Ready to Learn!

About 3 weeks ago I was working on a Prezi at home when my son, who is in 3rd grade, came into the study and asked what I was doing. I showed him what I was working on and explained to him how a Prezi differs from a Power Point presentation. He said he thought it was pretty cool and off he went to continue playing.

Today I saw him in the hall with one of his classmates taking photos of different parts of the school. He explained to me that they were taking photos to send to their pen pal in the US so he could see what our school looked like. I thought this was a great idea and was impressed by his creative thinking.

On the was home this afternoon he asked me if I would show him how to make a Prezi - he had decided that rather than do a Power Point to send to his pen pal he would do a Prezi. I was very surprised that he remembered something I had shown him only briefly a few weeks earlier - I was even more surprised that he remembered enough about it that he thought this would be a good way to share some information and photos about our school with someone on the other side of the world. We discussed what he planned to do and he asked me if you could draw arrows in Prezi - I replied that I didn't think so and that I had never really tried before.

When we got home from school we created a free account for him and then I showed him some of the basics to get him started. I then left him to play around and explore this new program. After about 10 minutes he came into the kitchen and said, "I know more than you now!" He went on to explain that he had found how to draw arrows - so I sat down as he explained to me how to do this.

This was a wonderful learning experience for us both - we both got to teach and we both got to learn. It was clear that his interest was high in learning how to use this program, therefore he was fully engaged in what we were doing and his ability to learn and apply his new skills and knowledge was outstanding.

It is amazing what people, especially children and adolescents are capable of when they are ready to learn. As educators we need to be aware of these teachable moments and be ready and willing to capitalise on them - when students are interested in what they are doing and see a practical application for it then don't need to be extrinsically motivated, they are ready and willing to learn because they want to and because they see value in what they are learning.

1:1 Requires a Management Pardigm Shift

Working with students in a 1:1 laptop environment opens up many doors and opportunities for students and teachers to engage in meaningful and collaborative learning experiences. It also creates some challenges in terms of how we manage our own use, as well as student uses of the technology.

The following Blog entry and Slideshare offer some challenging questions to help us shift from a 'control' approach to more of a 'behavior management' approach:

Classroom Management in a 1:1 Enviroment Draft

Students making inappropriate choices has been something that teachers have had to deal with long before the introduction of computers in classrooms. To develop and support effective and powerful technology environments in schools we need to focus on laptop misuse as a student behavior rather than a result of having laptops in classrooms. Setting clearly defined boundaries that are applied consistently and fairly is one of the first steps to effective classroom management - this applies to using technology as well.

Just in Time Technology

One of our MS initiatives for faculty this year has been the introduction of the JIT (Just in Time) technology training sessions. These optional sessions are offered every Wednesday for those faculty and administrators who are interested in the week's topic, and whose schedules will allow them to attend. Sessions are run by faculty who volunteer (or who are approached) to share how they have been using technology to improve learning, communication, collaboration, and sharing.

These sessions have been growing in popularity and have been attended by faculty from all 3 divisions - we have also had presenters from all 3 divisions deliver and share a range of topics. The goal is that those who attend a session will go out and share what they learned with 1 or 2 of their colleagues, creating an organic growth of tech skills and knowledge amongst the faculty.

Today I had the opportunity to share some of the tech tools I have been using over the past couple of months - Prezi, Chatzy, Evernote, Diigo, Wordle, Twitter, and Commoncraft. The real value of this session came from the discussion that was generated amongst the participants who willingly shared their knowledge of the different applications and how they have found them useful in the classroom, as well as in their professional and personal lives.

Professional growth occurs when opportunities are provided for professional discussions and sharing of practice. The JIT Tech sessions are one way that we are providing these opportunities.

Who's the Audience?

Tomorrow we will work with our first group of students, 6th grade, to introduce them to their digital portfolio. This is something that we have been discussing for some time and I am very thankful to our MYP Coordinator, Mr Fambro, for his determination and hours spent making this a reality.

One of the major discussion points that has come out of our conversations has been the concept of audience. This is a very interesting issue and it has been intriguing to listen to the different view points. I found this blog post by Jeff Utecht - Audience as Community - very timely and I would encourage anybody who has doubts about the value of audience to student engagement to read this post and the associated blog posts mentioned within.

I have seen first hand how powerful it can be when the students know that their product is going to be shared with an audience wider than the teacher. I know that adding a Clustr map to this blog and seeing that there are readers outside of the GSIS community has prompted renewed energy in my posting. This same sort of engagement and enthusiasm for writing can be passed onto our students through the use of audience.

The digitial portfolios in the MS will be very beneficial for providing a place where our students can store work and reflect on what they have been learning. The real value of these portfolios will be realized when our students can share them with a world wide audience and receive feedback and comments from people all around the world, thus helping them to create their online presence.

EARCOS Administrators' Conference - Manila

Well the EARCOS conference is over - what a wonderful 4 days! I really enjoyed engaging with educational leaders from all over the world who are currently working in international schools throughout Asia.

The workshops that I participated in allowed me to share some of the great things that we are doing at GSIS while at the same time hearing from other schools and some of the great things that they are doing. This time of professional collaboration and sharing really helps to invigorate and inspire all involved - offering great ideas and initiatives that can be taken back to our respective schools for the betterment of our students.

During the conference I was introduced to many new technological tools and had the opportunity to apply them practically while I was participating. Some of these tools really helped to enhance my conference experience and I feel that I was more engaged and learned more by combining the use of technology within this conference context. This first hand experience with the power of technology to enhance my learning, engagement, and understanding really affirms our use of technology at GSIS and our effort to ensure that our students are responsible and effective users of these technologies.

As parents and educators we sometimes feel a little daunted and fearful when it comes to education and technology. My experiences with the potential of technology to increase engagment and understanding for our students assures me that infusing technology into our learning experiences is something we should embrace, not fear.