IT Summit 2010

I really enjoyed IT Summit this year - especially Will Richardson's talks.  In some cases this conference was preaching to the crowd and other times I learned genuine new things.  The conference reaffirmed my beliefs that we need to do something different.  We need to start teaching a little bit differently.

Here are my notes from some of my favorite sessions - at least the ones that I took good notes for.  Keep in mind that I wrote these notes for myself and they may not always make sense to you.  There may also be some off topic ramblings in them as well.  Other people may also have collaborated with me on those notes so I can't take full credit for them (I love Google Docs!).

Will Richardson's Sessions (Check out Dean Shareski's notes at the bottom of the page.  His are awesome.)
  - Rob Wall recorded his keynote.  The link to watch it is in my notes.

Bernajean Porter's Keynote

Dean Shareski's 10 Worst Things to do with Educational Technology

Will Richardson's and Dean Shareski's Duel for the Top Tools (This was on happy little linkfest.  Hey but isn't not supposed to be about the tools anymore?)

My apologies if I went to your session but did not make good enough notes to post them up here.

Change the Term

Don't use the word mastery.  We don't deal with mastery in Education.  (I have ranted about this before.)  The right word is competence.  If we do our job right then the student becomes competent.

Maybe later when they put the required 10,000 hours of work in then they really will achieve mastery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizadaly/ / CC BY 2.0

Wasting Money of Whiteboards? Maybe a bit.

Donna just linked a post by Bill Ferriter (a principal) titled Wasting Money on Whiteboards.  In it Bill talks about how interactive white boards (IWB's) don't really change student learning.  They just allow teachers to do a better job of teaching they way they always have.  An IWB usually does not lead to a pedagogical change en education.  He is probably right (and his rant takes a familiar tone.)  One of my favorite comments talk about how the IWB is a great PR tool that a teacher can use without every really having to move their teaching out of traditional methods.

Here is the comment I posted there (I just felt like sharing it.)

I have used both a DIY interactive whiteboard and a genuine SMARTboard. While I love using both of them I would hesitate to call to use the word interactive for either of them. My students really don't use them any differently than they would a traditional chalkboard. The hardest lesson I had to learn was to hand off the pen to the students.

That being said was the IWB a waste of money for my classroom? No I don't think so. It has not fundamentally changed the way that I teach. It HAS changed how students can access what I have taught. I now record and publish (to the internet) much of what I teach. Take a look at my section of our school website athttp://www.cando.lskysd.ca/node/69 . The IWB allows me to capture the lessons and make them available to our chronically absent students. The IWB allows me to create content that I could not easily do otherwise. It allows me to do a better job of a traditional method of teaching. (Yes I know traditional methods are not always the best).

That being said, I moved classrooms this year and my SMARTboard took over a month to follow me. Really, my teaching style never changed with or without it. I just was unable to record more content.

Mastery

!!!!!DISCLAIMER!!!!!

I am sorry to have to do it but this post is not a informative, instructional post. It is a rant. If you are here to learn how to use the internet and technology, good. But ignore this post. If you are interested in reading the opinion of somebody who is completely and utterly right then read on. 

Definition of Mastery

great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity
(wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)


Very great skill or knowledge
(World Book Dictionary)


Possession or display of great skill or knowledge
(Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)


Great skill, expert knowledge
(Gage Canadian Dictionary)


Can do the skill, twice.
(the standard teacher's definition)




Anybody see a problem?  As teachers we throw the word mastery around like a dirty dishrag at a community supper.  "Yes, they have mastered the skill."  Has the student?  Or can they merely do the skill (at least we have seen them do it - twice if we are good teachers).  We use the term way too loosely.  Is this just another symptom in our declining expectations?  Master means that they have amazing skill and or knowledge.  Wayne Gretzky mastered hockey.  Arnold Palmer mastered golf.  Steven Spielberg  mastered moviemaking.  A concert soloist has mastered their music.  Any olympic athlete has mastered their sport.  Many of my university professors mastered their content area (some even learned how to teach it).


Malcom Gladwell talks about mastery in his book Outliers.  "10,000 hours is the magic number of greatness."  That is how long it takes to truly achieve mastery.  In studies that ranged from musicians, to professional hockey players, to amazing computer programmers, the common factor was that they ALL worked for roughly 10,000 hours before becoming very good, before achieving mastery.  Skill is not what made them great - skill and working much, much harder than everyone else made them masters.


And here we go as teachers using the word.  We have watered it down and ruined it.  I don't even want to say it again.  It has become meaningless.  How many of our students have spent those kind of hours on any skill we teach them?  A student with perfect attendance would take until grade 11 to reach 10,000 hours of school (not counting homework).  Without a heck of a lot of homework do you really think they can achieve the M-word in any subject area?  


I have already heard the argument "But they have achieved mastery for their level."  (Yes I have gone off on this rant before.)  Really?  Have they?  Are they great?  Are they showing expert knowledge?  Or can they merely do it consistently.  I can drive down the road and consistently stay between the ditches.  Have I mastered driving?  No, I am merely good enough.  


And when has good enough ever been good enough?

Push Me, Come on You Know You Want To.........

"Find some peers and push each other."
            Seth Godin

Interesting quote. Seth makes a good point (and I am going to use it a little out of context - just letting you know). It is easier to improve when you work with other people. When was the last time a peer walked into your classroom and challenged you on something that you did? I mean truly and constructively challenged you. I am not talking about administrators either. Conversations with local and division administrators are often fairly one sided. They are your bosses. Enough about them. I want to talk about peers - the people we work with. There is nothing better than to have a group of people who can offer critisizm without having some sort of private agenda. Critisizm aimed at making you better - not at improving their position.  Praise for a good lesson is also easy to get.  We hesitate to say anything negative.  Remember though, it is all about student learning - not about pride.  So stop worrying about whether you will look bad and accept the critisizm.

Right now I am team teaching a math class with two other teachers.  I love it.  I get to watch how other people teach.  I also have other professionals who are watching me teach.  We help each other out and ask for advice.  I use them to let me know when I did not quite get the ideas across.  Sometimes it is easier to notice these things when you are not actually the one teaching, when you don't have personal investment in the lesson.

Critisizm aimed at collaboration.  I like the sound of that.  Push me.  I can take it.

No, I'm Not Dead

by Paul & Aline

Like the title says. I am not dead - just moving. No not this blog. First I moved my classroom and now I am moving house. Needless to say I have been quite busy. Once everything is all cleared up I will get back into posting here.

I am actually going through a little withdrawal.

On another note, the counter on the bottom of my website seems to have picked up about an extra 10,000 hits. Google analytics only recorded about 350 hits. No, I am not as popular as my counter shows. I don't know what happened.

Let me just leave you with a little question that came up from some time with my son.

Does anybody ever worry about the little piggy that ate roast beef?

Lights, Camera, Documentary?

Ok before you go on watch this video.

No - I mean it.  Watch the video.

(Sorry I did not embed it but there were no embed codes).

Ok - done?  Pretty good huh?  This is the kind of thing that Marco Torres and his students are putting out.  I was impressed.  A group of ex-students of his put together a company named Alas Media they also put on some really good sessions (and where a big part of Marco's sessions as well.)

Marco taught film making through documentaries.  Documentaries are a rapidly increasing genre in the film industry.  Keep in mind that these are not the boring old documentaries that we all have seen (and probably shown) in class - these are interesting, modern, and hip.  The best part about documentaries is that you don't need actors.

The good people at Alas Media talked about what they liked best about Marco's methods.  He started them off close to home.  They talked about themselves, and then their community.  Their assignments were stories that had personal connections.  The assignments worked in the order of:

1. Us
   
2. Our family
   
3. Our community
   
4. The world

Marco made some good points about teaching film.  Don't teach the tech.  When it comes to a new skill teach one student - then have that student teach the rest.  That frees up the teacher to focus on important things like composition and storyline.

Ok - now some of the meat and potatoes of what I learned.

The four P's of film making.

1. Plan
2. Produce
3. Present
4. Pheedback

Apparently 75% of the work lies in the planning section.  If you just shoot and hope to get something then you just have a jumble of cool shots but no cohesive story.  Remember - unless you are making the movie Twister then it is ALL about the story.  (Also - anything that takes away from the story - like unnecessary animation - has no place in the video).

Remember the Rule of Thirds.

How to Make a Simple Documentary Film

A Roll 

Start with the A roll.  The A roll is the interview itself.  It is the camera on the subject.  Marco described the A roll as talking heads - not much action - just talking.  One of the key's to this part is to get good quality audio.  Use a secondary recorder if your camera doesn't do the best job of recording.

B Roll

The B roll is the other shots that get mixed into the video.  They provide the context for the interview.  B roll shots are not different shots of the subject talking - they are everything else.  The key is variety.  Get lots of different shots - closeups, objects, even just the person staring off into the distace (especially if they are remembering a past story).

Cutaway

In this step you start putting things together.  Your A roll is the backbone of the piece.  Start there.  Then start splicing in parts of your B roll.  Leave in the audio from the A roll but show shots from the B roll.  Go back and forth from the subject to the context.

Audio

The key to a good interview is being able to hear what is being said.  This is why I suggested a secondary recorder.  Then you have two audio tracks to choose from.  Check out some of Marco's how to videos to find out how to sync up audio.  (You did remember to start with a clap didn't you?)

As you can see I walked away from these two sessions with a lot of information.  This is only part of it and already this post is way too long.  I guess I will have to end it with some links to more information.

Here are a bunch of how to videos they put together.

FlickSchool - more how to's

Marco Torres

Alas Media    (Here is their YouTube channel)

And Finally my rough notes from the sessions are here and here (not that you really want to read them.  I place lots of emphasis on rough.)