Authentic Tech

Here's the link to the Google Doc I presented on Tuesday, May 24. Since then, I've filled in more of the data and the references list, but I believe in its finished state, I'll also include additional resources such as al the surveys, scoring indices, and rubrics referenced throughout the ARP.

Google Docs also does quite a number on the APA formatting of the tables and hanging indents. Suffice to say that in the APA formatted paper, they don't look quite the same - the tables are without the cell borders where they are now inappropriately placed.

The .docx version of the paper, may be downloaded here:  Word Format.

In the Wimba session, I used a quick PowerPoint presentation to enlighten my classmates in the Wimba audience as to the requirements of Language Learning and Technology, an online repository of research specifically geared towards second language acquisition, and the only one that I would seriously pursue.

As it is a requirement to have chosen two publications, I shall also list AACE, the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Which differs from LL&T not only in topic, but by purpose as well. It would appear the AACE is more geared to networking to research, while LL&T is simply a repository of information.

You can find a copy of the PowerPoint I used in Wimba here. Again, not to obfuscate the purpose - it is a simple presentation regarding the requirements to publish at LL&T.

Think Aloud 1: Week 1 (Edited)
Think Aloud 2: Week 3

And why is there a peony on this post?! Why do I add images of nature in all my posts?

Because I can.

As previously mentioned, it didn’t take me long to realize the power of the message in our current required reading “The Art of Possibility”. Once I hit page four, I purchased multiple copies and gifted them to all our academic administrators and deans. I also purchased the audiobook for myself.

On a recent softball scouting trip, I had the good fortune of listening to the ninth practice. One of my favorite images - and one that I share frequently - is that as a teacher I see myself as lighting the match and inspire the students to fan to flames. Needless to say, I was pleased to hear the title of the ninth practice - “Lighting a Spark”.

I was rapt with the message of this practice as much for the message as for the delivery. When Ben Zander speaks about the eight voices of Beethoven’s Fifth, the audiobook escorts each of the voice intros with musical accompaniment. I felt like one of his students straining to hear the cello in the final piece.

I would recommend the audiobook to everyone. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that after completing the assigned reading with the eBook, I listened to the audiobook to hear what I missed. It was more than accompaniment – it gave voice, breath and life to an already spirited message.

The tenth practice, “Being the Board”, reminded me of one of the sayings I use with my softball team as well. “If you’re going to play the game, you must graciously accept both outcomes – winning and losing”. Surely, we would prefer to win – it’s a lot more fun. But losing is a part of the game as well. It’s what you do with that losing that really matters. Does it enrage you? Do you lash out at circumstances? Umpires? Teammates? The sun? The cold? Or can you take something good out of something unpleasant? Can you grow from it? Despite the loss, are we a better team for having played the game? Are you not only a better player, but person as well? If so, then you have won, despite the score.
Page 148 sums up my life in my current high school and the approach I have adopted for my future sanity in it.

I told my boss what I thought and he did not take my advice…It is up to me to light the spark of possibility.

Throughout my long years journey, I have discovered one of my biggest flaws as a teacher of adults: I do not treat them as students. I assume they are all like me. In a recent conversation with one of my very dear friends, she put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Sue, what I am about to tell you is going to be very hurtful, but I think you really need to hear it.”

I braced for the worst.

“There are many people who do not embrace technology with your same passion. In fact, there are some who don’t even like it – like me, for example.”

Blasphemy!

We both chuckled. But there – in a nutshell – is my dilemma. It never occurred to me that a person involved in education today would not see the immediate benefits of embracing technology. It never occurred to me that I should teach my colleagues as somewhat resistant learners.

And suddenly the clouds parted and the sun streaked downward.

So I’ve knocked myself out creating buy-in opportunities, upgrading technologies, soliciting software and hardware requests, soliciting training requests. So that I enter next year more prepared to prepare my colleagues to prepare their students for a world that does not yet exist.
Marianne Williamson’s words…

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
...
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
Give other people permission to do the same.

Should be emblazoned on every teacher’s door. We are a co-dependent lot. We give a test and everyone get’s an A – what’s the first thought? The test was too easy.

Conversely, we give a test and everyone fails. The first thought? I didn’t reach them.

Williamson’s quote reminds us that the power - not the blame - lies within each of us. Tap into it. Let it flow. And be not afraid of the results.



The final practice, “Telling the WE Story” at first glance contains no new news. But upon the second pass, the second step is noteworthy:

Listen and look for the emerging entity.

I never really thought of it quite in those terms - the combination of anyone and I make an entirely new entity – I talk about synergy all the time, yet never recognized that each time two people join forces that something new emerges. Viewing things in this light makes for new energy and endless possibilities.

And, after all, isn’t that the point?

Last fall, my Blackboard Regional Representative encouraged me to apply to present at Bboard World 2011 in Las Vegas July 12-14. This was well in advance of knowing about this Publishing/Presentation Project.  I applied. My use of the Blackboard platform was too narrow in scope to present a full 45 minutes, so I was offered the opportunity to combine with one or two other presenters to create a unified presentation.

Given the volume of work I was facing at Full Sail, the last thing I could imagine was being responsible to another cohort. So I graciously declined the opportunity. In retrospect, had I thought ahead, much, if not all of my Month 11 and 12 Full Sail work would have been long done by now.  Darn that bird in the hand - I should have gone for the two in the bush.

So I've pondered long on whether I should work on a presentation for next year's Bboard World or publish. My natural inclination leaned toward presenting. Then I read through Dr. Bedard's list of publication possibilities - Language Learning and Technology.  Here's one of the concluding lines of my Literature Review:

In addition, the Language Learning and Technology website, a refereed journal for second and foreign language scholars and educators, provides a repository of ideas to incorporate technology into language study, but again, it does not host scholarly research.

 So, I should put my money where my mouth is and publish - specifically to Language Learning and Technology. The good thing is that they have an 8500-word limit - and a 200-word abstract. Although I try hard to not obfuscate, and I make every attempt to be precise; concise I am not.

So after thinking about it for two and a half weeks, I choose to publish. Whew.

Image licensed by Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furryscalyman/

Meghan Bassett: http://meghanbassett.blogspot.com/2011/05/wk3-reading-art-of-possibility-chapters.html

In the first chapter Leading From Any Chair, I couldn’t help think about my mother. She works in a school as the secretary to the principal. The principal received an email last week that a report needed to be ran. He never told my mother or the person that was supposed to run the report, but my mom found out from another school. When she brought it up that he may have missed an email, he said he never received it. A few hours later, after going back to him again, he forwarded the email and said he had just gotten it (which we all know, emails are time stamped). Instead of admitting his own mistake, he, like the conductors, tried to let it slide and hoped no one noticed.

The mere act of kindness and acknowledging that other people help you do a job is severely under-used. If you give ANY kind of praise to people who are helping you, or even say thank you to them, it brings up esteem and also encourages people to continue to work hard for you. I guess we could all work on this in different ways. I personally could work on always encouraging my students in ways that they are doing well. I can be sarcastic, which doesn’t work well with all of my students.

The next Chapter, the Rule number 6, took a more person attack on a way I’ve been feeling for a week now. I was very betrayed by someone I thought I could trust. A friend of mine told another friend of mine something very personal, and very atomic. I knew that the word had spread, and I wasn’t sure of where it had started. I found out and instead of confronting the issue, I recoiled and hid from everyone. Here, I need to follow Rule number 6, and stop taking myself so seriously. People talk, and say things that aren’t theirs to say, and sometimes there are things that get said that we don’t want said. It’s a part of human nature, and if I really didn’t want anyone to know, I wouldn’t have said it in the first place. I’m still hurt, but I’m letting it go in my own time.

The Way Things Are…I’ve always tried to see the cloud with a silver lining, and look on the bright side of things. A much easier said than done thing to accomplish. I’m one of those people, once I start feeling negative, everything that’s negative seems to find me. I’m sure that has everything to do with the way I am looking at things, rather than the world being out to get me. If we can laugh and play with the bad things that happen to us, a much more light hearted attitude would be had by everyone around us!

I would love to give way to passion more. Sometimes we are so stuck in living life day to day we forget to give in to the natural flow of life an energy. I try to recognize the energy around me, but I’ll be honest…the only real times I feel a surge of energy run through me are when I’m by the ocean watching the waves, or listening to music and painting. Then I can truly let passion run through me and I feel at one with everything around me.

Anne Alsup: http://annealsupsanecdotes.blogspot.com/

The teacher, like the conductor of an orchestra is not the true power in the classroom. The teacher derives their power from the success of the student. Some teachers may see their role as enlightening their students with their vast knowledge, but I disagree. Perhaps more can be learned from the conductor.

One of the most difficult issues that I faced during my action research project as I moved my classes from the traditional teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered model was the role of the instructor. Almost universally, students perceive the role of the teacher as supplying knowledge and answering questions, a notion that has been perpetuated by an arena of high-stakes testing. While this methodology has merit for the conveyance of basic facts and principles, it falls short of moving the student to transference of the principles at higher levels of intellectual and cognitive application.

It is not the conductor's role to play the violin, only to direct the violinist. Like the conductor, it is not the teacher's role to answer the question, but to ask the question and point the student in the direction of knowledge. My research indicated that the teacher should literally say nothing that would interfere with the students' thought process. Students should be encouraged to develop the ideas, based on their previous knowledge and define the concepts for themselves. This approach transcends the power of the conductor and empowers learning to take place from any chair. Through this collaborative orchestra of thought, knowledge is generated beyond the scope of any individual effort.

Is it necessary that every student masters the laws of physics, understand Shakespearean literature or solve a quadratic equation? I think we know better. Our world would be a better place if each child could discover and develop their passion. Establishing graduation requirements and competency testing does little to promote passion for learning. It is time to apply Rule #6 to the educational arena. Yes, we should have some basic requirements and children should be exposed to wide variety of educational opportunities, but the sooner we help children develop areas of interest, the better chance we have lessening the control of the calculating self and free the child to find the central self. Imagine a universe of possibility where each person is able to express their inner desires in a positive direction by contributing to their world. A world in which each person participates in the part that they were born to play and plays it with unbridled passion.

 

“…his true power comes from making other people more powerful.”


As a softball coach, I often use the orchestra conductor metaphor to create an image that I can explain to others. I realize that my team is a collection of highly talented athletes (metaphorically, musicians); and my job is to make them play in perfect harmony – each feeling comfortable enough with her own contribution to be able to praise the skills of another. In so doing, I can see tangible evidence of engagement; through which we can achieve tangible evidence of progress in terms of better play. Wins and losses are never a barometer of our greatness – simply ask the question, “Are we a better team after the game, than we were when we started?” If so – we win, regardless of the score.


Because of their comfort in contributions to the team, I often have players step up and lead. Rarely is it the same player twice in a row. They lead by example and by words. Rarely is it the best player – it is simply one who perceives a need and steps in to fill it. They do not usurp my position as coach – they empower it.


That being said, the fifth principle, “Lead from any Chair” presents a conundrum. The book is written from the perspective of the leader. What if I’m in some other chair? Other than presenting him with the gift of this book, how do I get my leader to shed his/her calculating self? How do I draw him from his competitive measurement world and allow others to lead? Hmmm… ‘tis a puzzlement.


I gave him the book.


With regard to the seventh principle, “Be present to the way things are”, since I started at Full Sail last June, I have made this a practical goal. I have much to do and much in my head. But I owe it to those in front of me at that precise moment to be present to and with them. The glass half full metaphor crystalized this even more for me; as the full portion of the glass is the only thing tangible – real. Do not waste energy on the imagined – too much energy is already required in the real world, so be present to it.
Last Sunday, a friend of mine and I went to a farm – 32 acres of beautiful flowers, trees, gardens, and animals. It was a dismal day – gray and damp, with an occasional downpour. When we made the decision to go, we both said the worst that could happen is that we’d get wet, so what.


I adore nature. If I had to narrow it down to a single passion, I would say that the outdoors tops the list. I invest every Sunday morning in reconnecting with nature. I have often said that if I had my life to live over again, I’d be a Landscape Architect.


I walked around those gardens, jumping puddles, for two hours. Then we stopped at a little rustic deli for a good country lunch and headed home. It was a glorious Sunday.


Then I revisited my “If I had my life to live over” thought. Why live it over? I am who I am today by virtue of every experience I’ve had up to this point. I’m still here living. And I can pinpoint my passion. So I made a choice. Once I have finished the program at Full Sail, I’ll be returning to school once more – for Landscape Design. I’ve put in inquiries to several local schools and several online schools. I’m excited to see what develops.


Then I sat down on Sunday afternoon and read chapters 5 and 6 of the “Art of Possibility”. Imagine my surprise Monday night when I reached Chapter 8 – Give Way to Passion.


Serendipitous, wouldn’t you say?

The Iliad and the Odyssey. The epic works of Homer. Or were they? The works of Albert Lord suggest that Homer may have "borrowed" the works of other bards - although those works became those of Homer when he uniquely performed them. Smacks of re-mixing to me.

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel - a mashup of the stories of Genesis, the ancestors of Christ, and twelve prophets.

Alice in Wonderland's author Lewis Carroll, may well be considered one of the world's first and most famous parodist. He loved telling stories to children and often would parody those that they already knew.

Titus Maccius Plautus - rolls right off the tip of your tongue, no? Well, it did for William Shakespeare who borrowed from Plautus, as did many of his contemporaries.

No where do we ever question the genius of Homer, Michelangelo, Carroll, or Shakespeare.

So, perhaps it's time for schools to tone-down the hostility towards mashups and remixes and recognize them for what they are -- creative expression. Our kids have the extended capabilities of technologies such as digital recording mixers and Photoshop to re-purpose the original works. Engage them in doing so. Encourage them to do so. These skills may lead to completely original creative expression. And while we encourage and hone their skills, perhaps we can teach our kids the responsibility of attribution as well.

Speaking of which, the image above is that of a marble called a "Masher". Only those of us over 50 would probably have understood the reference. And under the Creative Commons license, I gratefully acknowledge its originator: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vvvracer/4573612840