How Do We Infuse Our Institutions, Networks and Relationships with Trust?

A previous blog post took a look at Ray Kurzweil’s vision of the future in which he believes a massive network of human and artificial intelligence will infuse the universe with intelligence and order and ultimately control it. The blog post also briefly examined “The Quantum Theory of Trust” developed by leading network theorist, Karen Stephenson. The post concluded with a mention of betrayal -- the opposite of trust (for Stephenson) and how betrayal seems to be endemic in so many of our institutions today (my perception). If Kurzweil’s vision of a future universe infused with both intelligence and order is to be realized, it seems that we need to make sure that trust is the basis of that universe.

One person who has dedicated his life to developing an interpersonal communication process that engenders trust, among other positive values, is Marshall Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s process is called Nonviolent Communication (NVC). At the core of NVC are honest self-expression and empathy. Rosenberg believes that everything we humans do is an attempt to meet our human needs. A central tenet of NVC is that when mutual understanding and compassion exist between two people the needs of both persons are more likely to be met.

NVC posits that if two people communicate in terms that are objective and free from judgment, then greater understanding and compassion are likely products of that communication. NVC self-expression has four components: A. neutral observations; B. expression of feelings; C. expression of needs; and D. making requests.

NVC communication: “I am feeling upset now (B.) because the last time I played with you, you broke my toys.” (A.) “When I play with you my need for respect is not met.” (C.) “Would you be willing to play with someone else?” (D.)

In NVC the listener can show empathy for the speaker by listening carefully and then repeating some of the speaker's words. NVC is motivated by compassion rather than blame, guilt or fear. Its aim is to increase compassion between two people who use it and to create a high quality of connection to self and to the other in the communications. "The ultimate goal of NVC processes is to increase the joy and well-being of everyone."

Wow! How would it be if we started teaching NVC to young school children and by the time they graduated high school they had developed a high level of proficiency in NVC motivated by honesty, compassion and empathy? It seems that we would have concurrently created enormous amounts of trust in our interpersonal communications, institutions and wider networks.

Sources:

· Wikipedia

· The Center for Nonviolent Communication http://www.cnvc.org/

Karen Stephenson’s Quantum Theory of Trust

In a previous blog, Networks of the Future, I described some of the predictions about the rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) that inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has made. In his book, “The Singularity is Near,” Kurzweil lays out his vision of how computers will become ever more powerful until a single laptop surpasses all the human brains put together. According to Kurzweil, at a certain level of power and performance the only possible way to increase the intelligence of the machines further will be to begin converting all of the matter of the universe into massive computers.

Kurzweil believes that the result of this process will be that the entire universe will be made into a giant supercomputer in which AI and humans will form hybrids that will have both supreme intelligence and physical control over the universe. If and when this result materializes, there will in essence be one vast, powerful network that controls the universe.

Humans, who have initiated this process, will, in Kurzweil’s words, have “infused the universe with intelligence and order.” One might well ask, is this the evolutionary imperative of Homo sapiens? If so, the result will be almost unimaginable as seen through our current lens on human behavior. If we as individuals want to help shape this evolutionary vision, we first need to think about what qualities beside intelligence we would like in this all-encompassing network of the future.

Karen Stephenson, a corporate anthropologist and leading social network theorist, has developed what she calls “the quantum theory of trust” in which she posits that trust is the most important quality in networks. According to Stephenson, “A network is a seamless and invisible web of entrusted connections.” Therefore, we need to ask, what is it that makes trust such an important quality of networks?

Stephenson tells us that any organization’s most precious asset is the knowledge and experience of the people in that organization. For her, much of this knowledge is “tacit knowledge” or “the knowledge that people have at their fingertips, at the tips of their brains.” Stephenson offers that this tacit knowledge is not found in computers but rather it “resides entirely within the people of the organization who are connected in invisible “informal” networks.” At the core of Stephenson’s thinking about networks is the belief that, “In organizations, trust is the utility through which tacit knowledge flows.” Thus, trust becomes the critical element because, “organizations with a high level of trust are better able to cultivate and increase collective cognitive capability.”

For Stephenson, the opposite of trust is betrayal, or the breaking of trust. She has written, “You can’t come back from betrayal. It takes you 20 years to build a reputation, it takes two seconds to have it destroyed.” During the last few years, we have only had to look at the headlines to see that betrayal is widespread: the collapse of Enron under its massive fraud; trillions of dollars of public money to bail out Wall Street banks from the toxic securities they had underwritten which were based on fraudulent mortgages or “liar loans”; the betrayal of long-time clients by Bernie Madoff; the betrayal a software engineer felt that led him to fly his small plane into an IRS building in Texas, “What is happening to me? I have done all the right things. I am a God-fearing Christian. I work hard for my family. I have a gun. I believe in the values of the country and my life is collapsing.” The latest news of betrayal is gushing out of a failed oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the face of such ubiquitous betrayal, an important question remains: How do we remake our government, financial institutions, and other networks so that they are based on trust instead of some short-term value that implodes?

Sources:

* The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil

*Karen Stephenson’s Quantum Theory of Trust by Art Kleiner, http://www.well.com/~art/s%2Bb42002cm.html

* http://www.netform.com/

Using Computers in the Classroom

As ISB moves to a one-to-one status for the sixth grade class next year, those students will have a powerful tool at their disposal 24/7. It remains to be seen how effectively the sixth grade students as well as the rest of the Middle School students take advantage of the laptops. I have noticed that many students in my seventh grade Humanities class waste a considerable amount of time when they use laptops for in-class assignments. Therefore, I need to develop stricter protocols for students who use laptops during class time.

Some questions come to mind for managing student laptop use in the classroom. For example, how does the teacher know what all the students are doing at a given time? In order to know how students are using their time, the first protocol guideline should be a time limit and a specific goal to accomplish during that time. Too often students appear to be at work on the laptop when in fact they are way off task. There can be a way to check on whether students have met the goal within the time limit. Students can print and hand in what they have accomplished, or they can post their work to GoogleDocs which will make it much easier for the teacher to check on the work.

Another guideline for written work should be the often-used audience and purpose: who are the students writing for and what is the purpose for their writing? Students should be required to go through all of the self-editing, peer- editing and teacher/student-editing steps that they now go through for non-blog writing.

If students are given concrete goals to accomplish within a specific time limit they will make better use of their computer time. A little bit of front loading on the teacher’s part will generate greater student accountability for their own learning.

Networking in the Future

Starting in the school year 2010/2011, ISB students in grade six will each be assigned a laptop that they can use in school and also take home. Students will use these computers for in-class work and, more importantly, to connect to networks of other students, teachers and adults outside the ISB community. Other ISB students who don’t have an assigned laptop will still be able to connect to numerous networks. These ISB students will be a small part of the increasingly expanding system of networks all connected by the Internet. We might ask, “What will the extent of these networks be in the future, and what kind of importance will they have?”

We only have to look at FaceBook today with over 400 million users to understand how quickly networks connected by the Internet will proliferate and expand in terms of number of members and importance to those users. And yet, the FaceBook of today is just a tiny and almost insignificant beginning. For a real understanding of the future power of networks we need to look at some of the predictions of one of the premier inventors and futurists of our time: Ray Kurzweil.

Ray Kurzweil has written several books in which he makes predictions of what the future holds for all of us in terms of the explosion of artificial intelligence and how it will change our lives. His predictions:

· Sometime after 2020 a computer will pass the “Turing Test” which means that in a “blindfold” test a person will not be able to tell if she is talking to a computer or a human. (From “The Singularity is Near.”)

· Not long after 2020, a $1,000 personal computer will be 1,000 times more powerful than the human brain. (From “The Age of Spiritual Machines.”)

· In 2045 the “Technological Singularity” arrives: $1000 will buy a computer a billion times more intelligent than every human combined. The Technological Singularity means that artificial intelligence will have surpassed humans as the smartest life forms on the planet. (From “The Singularity is Near.”)

Of course we need to keep in mind that each of these computers, which is a billion times more intelligent than the intelligence of all humans together, will be connected to a network of hundreds of millions or even billions of similarly intelligent computers. It’s truly difficult to comprehend the power of the networks of the future. Kurzweil’s story gets even better as the next step is truly mind-boggling:

Kurzweil has written that when the limit to how small transistors can be shrunk is reached, the only way that computers can become more powerful is to increase in size. Sometime post 2045 Kurzweil predicts that, “Artificial Intelligences will convert more and more of the Earth's matter into engineered, computational substrate capable of supporting more A.I.s. until the whole Earth is one, gigantic computer.” (The Singularity is Near)

Waking Up the Universe

The final step in this process is almost unimaginable for us today:

“At this point, the only possible way to increase the intelligence of the machines any farther is to begin converting all of the matter in the universe into similar massive computers. A.I.s radiate out into space in all directions from the Earth, breaking down whole planets, moons and meteoroids and reassembling them into giant computers. This, in effect, "wakes up" the universe as all the inanimate "dumb" matter (rocks, dust, gases, etc.) is converted into structured matter capable of supporting life (albeit synthetic life).” (The Singularity is Near)

Our students today occupy a small position just at the beginning of this massive, powerful, and intelligent network. The artificial intelligence advances described above will arrive sooner than we might expect since we are used to thinking, as Kurzweil says, “in a linear fashion” and technology advances are speeding up at an exponential rate. It would behoove teachers to help students understand their position at this historical moment so that they can better contribute to and benefit from the AI network.

GOOGLE DOCS

Google Docs is a revolutionary application that lends itself beautifully to promoting student learning both inside and outside the classroom. There are many ways that teachers and students can use Google Docs to facilitate learning. This blog-post will describe three obvious uses.

First, Google Docs can provide a collaborative record of classroom learning. Students and teachers can take notes on the daily activities and learning in their classrooms. Teachers can then monitor and correct the students’ notes so that a correct common understanding is established and agreed upon. This communal record of learning will be invaluable both for students who miss lessons as well as for all students as a study guide.

Second, Google Docs can serve as an active collaborative learning tool. In our 7^th grade Humanities class, Ms. Williams and I have had students choose a country and then do individual research about the food security/insecurity and hunger issues for that country. Then, in groups of four, the students set up a Google Doc and post a comment about their findings. Students then comment on the findings of the other students in their group. When each student uses a different color script for his/her comment, it is easy for the students and teacher to track and monitor each individual’s contribution or lack thereof. This method has generated a lot of discussion and understanding for our Humanities students.

Third, Google Docs is an invaluable tool for the writing process. When writing essays, students can post their first draft, the teacher can make corrections/comments in another color and then students can revise and correct for further teacher review. By using Google Docs for this process, the teacher can work at school or at home and the student can then immediately access the teacher’s comments. Google Docs makes the entire writing process much more efficient for both students and teachers.

In summary, Google Docs offers a platform available 24/7 for sharing individual or collaborative work. Students, teachers, and any and all collaborators are now free from geography and time constraints in having their work available for the widest possible audience. With Google Docs, today’s students are getting an introduction to a technology and real-time collaborative method of sharing work that will certainly be a hallmark of the future.

Final Project

The Final Project for Steve Guthrie, Robin Ulster, David Healy and Jean Williams can be found at:

http://www.coetail.asia/page/Connections+for+Change

How do you manage the use of technology peripherals with students? What are some things you’ve learned and hope to implement?

The technology peripherals that we currently use in seventh grade Humanities are Skype and student and teacher blogs. Both are powerful applications for connecting students to learning networks outside the classroom. In addition, I envision that very soon our students will all have their rss reader and their own personal web.

 Also, it seems that a device such as the iphone will become the choice of students instead of the laptop. This device will offer students unlimited portability and 24/7 access to the Web. Collaborative work, research, social networking, media sharing, notetaking – all would be available at one’s fingertips and would be backed up by the power of the cloud. In addition, smart objects will become ubiquitous allowing an amazing access to numerous objects and surroundings and their stored data.

 Technology advances are making it easier for all of us to connect to collaborative networks. In so doing, productivity gains whether in the classroom or in the workplace should be enormous.

 

How relevant are the NETS for teachers and administrators for being a good educator today?

The classroom of tomorrow is already here. In it, students are exploring real-world problems using digital tools and online resources. In many ways, the classrooms of today resemble current global networks. In the classroom and in the outside world, networks of informed and committed people are studying real-world issues and solving authentic problems. Thus, the NETS are highly relevant standards to preparing students for their lives once they leave the classroom and enter the world beyond.

One of the hallmarks of real-world networks is constructing knowledge in collaborative groups. Of course, that is also one of the NETS. In today’s NETS-based classrooms students are provided numerous opportunities to construct their knowledge working collaboratively with others. In fact, the power of many digital tools is that they are tailor made for people working collaboratively.

An important part of working with others in both in the classroom and the real-world is the safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology. Students need to understand copyright laws and fair use standards and follow and respect them in their work just as adults do in the real-world.

Finally, a critical element for members in global learning networks is trust. As network theorist Karen Stephenson has written, “It takes twenty years to build trust and two minutes to destroy it.” Therefore, students really need to learn how to be responsible in their social interactions while working in classroom collaborative groups and online networks. Thus, NETS standards are not only relevant to teachers and administrators, they are a critical element in delivering an education that prepares students for the world that they will enter after the classroom.

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What are ways you manage the use of laptops in your classroom and what additional best practice ways might you add?

One of the easiest ways to manage use of laptops in class is to have students put their lids down when the teacher is talking to them or when they should be doing anything other than working on the laptop. Another tool that we use in grade seven is to assign each student a specific cart and computer to use. This trick allows teachers to easily find out who has not plugged in their laptop when finished with it. A penalty could be given for chronic failure to plug in laptops.

 Another useful tool is to offer positive comments to students who are making good use of their laptop. Also, having students use their computer for group research projects and then having students share their results is a good motivator for proper laptop use. Using librarians to teach students to find online resources is a great way to give students more tools that help them in their projects. Finally, having students use Google Docs or Diigo for research and knowledge sharing is another powerful motivator for effective computer use in the classroom.

 

 

Whose job is it to teach the NETS and AASL standards to students?

It seems that the job of teaching NETS and ASSL standards to students falls on the shoulders of the teachers. They are the ones in daily contact with students and they have an understanding of how technology is to be embedded in the respective grade-level curriculums. By teachers, I mean all instructional staff including IA’s.

 Everyone would agree that the AASL Standards are desirable for all students to strive for and attain: using the inquiry process; thinking critically; gaining knowledge and understanding; making conclusions; making informed decisions; applying knowledge to new situations and creating new knowledge.

 The development of the above skills is desirable in all curricular areas including math, science, PE and the humanities. Therefore, all teachers would be responsible to teach the skills. The job of the tech coaches would be to help teachers implement just-in-time technology applications as needed by students in their inquiry learning. 

How can teachers and schools ensure that their students are learning what they need when it comes to technology and information literacy?

Excellent question – where to start? Let’s start with information literacy. In my opinion, the best way to ensure that our students are learning what they need in terms of information literacy is to offer all students truly differentiated instruction. No one would argue that ISB classrooms are not mixed ability classrooms. Just spend five minutes talking to students and it becomes apparent that each student is different from the others in terms of readiness, experience, interest, intelligences, language, culture and mode of learning.

 In the differentiated classroom teachers meet each student where s/he is at in order to ensure that each student maximizes learning. “The differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products." Carol Ann Tomlinson

In the differentiated classroom all students would be actively involved in the inquiry process anchored in a concept-based unit and would all be working toward answering the same essential questions and developing the same enduring understandings. The differentiated classroom would offer students both a classroom text set as well as a web-based text set. These text sets would provide each student many avenues to acquiring content that are appropriate in terms of each student’s readiness, experience, intelligence, interest, language background, culture and mode of learning.

In summary, teachers need to ask themselves whether they are meeting each student where s/he is at or are they insisting that students modify themselves to fit the curriculum. If students are provided with a truly differentiated classroom they are more likely to maximize their learning.

 

 

Digital Story

WRITING LEADS FOR YOUR ESSAYS

  I. Lead with a question.

 If there were a terrible war in your country and you knew that the 30,000 books in your town library were in danger of being burned, would you risk your life to save them? If you answered no, don’t feel badly; few would risk their life to save some books.

 This lead is meant to introduce a piece about a book titled, The Librarian of Basra, which is a true story of a librarian in Iraq who risked her life to save the books in her town library.

  II. Lead with an interesting fact.

 Imagine a composer of music who was so prolific that if you were to copy all of his music by hand it would take you 40 years to finish the job! That composer is Johan Sebastian Bach, a true musical genius if ever there was one.

 

 III. When you finish writing your lead, here are some questions to help you analyze its effectiveness:

 Did you learn what the piece is about?

What did the author do that grabbed you?

·      What made the lead boring?

·      What did the lead make you wonder?

·      What details does the lead include?

·      How could this lead be improved?

·      Which lead would you choose? Explain why.

 From: Nonfiction Writing From the Inside Out,  by Laura Robb p. 116

  See:    http://voicethread.com/?#u556664

 

Reflection on Improving a Past Presentation With Visual Images

A presentation that I have done in the past is one on the characteristics of a good essay. In this presentation I would use an exemplary essay to explain to students these important characteristics:

*    Momentum is built in the opening.

*   There is movement and flow throughout.

* It sticks to the topic.

* It brings you back to an earlier point in the essay.

*  It leaves you with something memorable.

However, the above procedure is top-heavy with teacher talk and could be vastly better with the addition of just the right video. An idea that I got from Dr. Roger Everett is to use various activities or sports as metaphors for a good essay. Some of these activities/sports are: a roller coaster ride; scuba diving; a small airplane ride; flying a kite; and car racing.

Dr. Everett shows his students a YouTube video of a good roller coaster ride. Coincidently, a good roller coaster ride has exactly the same qualities of a good essay given above. (For the third bullet point substitute the word tracks for the word topic.)

After having the class view the video twice, students in small groups can come up with their own examples of metaphors for good essays and present them to the class. The class can then read and analyze an essay to see if it has the above characteristics. Take a look at a video of a roller coaster ride to see if it demonstrates the characteristics of a good essay.

Final Reflection

This course has given us the opportunity to discover and experience using many visual tools that can be incorporated into our teaching. Everyone clearly understands the power of using visual images whether they be in  advertising, entertainment or the teaching field. We all know from experience that visual images have the power to capture our attention like no text can.

 As teachers, we also know that it is important to differentiate the content of our lessons so that they meet the varied interests, learning styles and readiness of our students. Visual images meet the needs of students in ways that text alone cannot. So many of our students have grown up surrounded by movies, DVD’s, and digital games that their brains readily receive and respond to the visual images contained therein.

 I have always loved words, reading, and language in general whether it is English, French, Spanish or Arabic. (Sorry, Thai is not there yet.) However, after seeing the Power Point from ISB (Brussels) I was struck by how much more powerful the right text is when accompanied by visuals. Again, I mention the example from the Power Point that sticks in my mind: One picture of a group of students from ISB and the words: Everyone included, Everyone challenged, Everyone succeeds. Anyone who can master the art of melding text and visuals the way David Willows of ISB Brussels has is truly a brilliant communicator.

 As teachers become proficient in using visual images in their work with students, and students in turn become more proficient, a really powerful connection to millions of others opens via the Web. This connection or network is ultimately very democratizing because individuals have the means to speak to a vast audience – or as Kevin Kelly says, “The fluid and fleeting symbols on a screen pull us away from the classical notions of monumental authors and authority.” Clay Shirkey, in his book Here Comes Everybody, made a similar observation that through the Web like-minded people now have the chance to organize without belonging to an organization. Lastly, using visual images and the Web is another powerful tool toward what Ray Kurzweil takes to be the evolutionary mandate of our species: infusing the universe with intelligence and order.

FINAL PROJECT REFLECTION

The team 7 final project involved students making a SmartMovie to help them learn 20 geography terms that they would subsequently need to know for the “Create an Island” Project. In the Create an Island Project students are meant to create an island community which involves positioning the island at a latitude and longitude that would support the crops and agriculture to sustain the size of the community - in part determined by the island’s area. Students will also need to place needed landforms on the island and have an understanding of its climate.

 The SmartMovies gave students the chance to learn and internalize the vocabulary needed for the Create an Island project. Students used audio, text and images to create their SmartMovies which were placed on the teacher’s blog. Thus, students learned vocabulary and concepts from creating their own movie as well as watching other students’ movies.

 We feel that the SmartMovie project was highly successful as it gave students the opportunity to participate in a hands-on project that was shared with other students. Students successfully learned the needed technology skills as well as the geography curricular content.

 

 

 

 

 

How could Screencast be used in your classroom/department?

In our Humanities 7 classroom we recently had the students learning geography and mapping concepts such as: latitude, longitude, locating a city using latitude and longitude, the Prime Meridian, the International Dateline, the tropics, the temperate zones, the eight cardinal points of the compass, the difference between weather and climate, the effect of elevation on temperature and climate.

 I think if we were to do this unit again, or a similar one, Screencast would be ideally suited to having the students learn the material in a “Circle of Experts” group and then film themselves so that other students can learn the material. There would be many benefits of having the students become experts in one or two of the topics from the unit and then teach the other students. Also, Screencast would enable a permanent video and audio to be created that could be accessed at any time by the students.

 Another application might be to use Screencast in literature circles wherein small groups of students film themselves discussing a book with each student taking different roles: literary luminary, discussion director, word wizard, symbol decoder etc. The possibilities for using Screencast in the classroom are almost endless as the teacher could make Screencasts that would explain assignments or model some aspect of the writing and reading processes.

 

How has the explosion of web-based video changed the teaching/learning landscape?

In a piece in the New York Times from November 23, 2008, Kevin Kelly writes, “When technology shifts, it bends the culture.” According to Kelly, a new “distribution-and-display technology is nudging aside the book and catapulting images, especially moving images to the center of the culture.” To make his point, Kelly mentions that there were over 10 billion views of YouTube in September, 2008!

So what is fueling this exploding technology of moving images? Kelly gives us the “great hive-mind of image creation” which has produced an enormous database of visual items for use in video. Flickr alone has three billion photos posted on the site. From these billions of existing images films are created image by image.

Once a film-maker has found the images s/he wants to use in the video, a “screen fluency” is needed to manipulate the individual images. The most proficient creators of video respond to other videos with their own new video using a Web site called Seesmic. The result of all of this video creation by millions of people who make up the hive mind is democratization of expression or as Kelly says, “The fluid and fleeting symbols on a screen pull us away from the classical notions of monumental authors and authority.”

 For students and teachers a new vernacular has been created by and for us. In addition to books and writing, we now have an enormously powerful vehicle for communication and expression. Students and teachers have just begun to take advantage of this new technology shift. However, much as our common culture has been bent by video technology, so too will the culture in the classroom bend in ways impossible for us to anticipate.

 

 

How can visual imagery support my curricular content?

In my EAP classes students are often reading two to four grades below the seventh grade reading level. In order to provide students with reading texts that are differentiated for reading readiness, I have students choose from among a wide variety of picture books. With thousands of titles available, it is not too difficult to build a class text set around the various units that we are studying. Such text sets offer students books that meet their different interests, learning profiles as well as reading readiness.

Flickr  Okinawa Soba

Visual images are indispensable for giving students the necessary background for many of the books that they read. For example, one popular book that my students read is Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine. This book is a true story about a slave who escaped from his master in the state of Virginia by mailing himself in a box to Pennsylvania. To introduce the book to students, I show them images taken from Creative Commons: an image of two slaves in Africa with chains around their necks, and a map tracing the triangular slave trade route from Europe to Africa, to the Americas and then back to Europe.

 http://www.vvgeocivtrenches.com/images/maps/map.slave.trade.jpg

In addition to serving as background to reading texts, students use images, graphs, and charts from the Internet for their blog posts. The result is a richer product that engages students at a deeper level. However, the trick to teaching students to use images is for them to be extremely selective in their choice of images and words.

 For me, the most memorable demonstration of the effectiveness of pairing visual images with text was the web page of the International School Brussels. The power of this web page is captured in one frame showing a few students of various ethnicities engaged in some activity. (I forget exactly what.) The impact of this frame comes from the pairing of the image with just six words: Everyone included; Everyone challenged; Everyone succeeds. Wow! Anyone wanting to use images should study this frame! The lesson learned is to be extremely selective and strive for just the right pairing of images and text.

 

 

How have the Ed Tech courses to date changed my classroom this year?

The courses to date have changed my teaching by taking my classroom from primarily paper-based texts to electronic texts sourced from the Internet. A large portion of student reading material is now from texts found on the Internet. In addition, student writing is now done on a computer and then posted to the Internet as opposed to being printed on paper as in the past. This change to an Internet-based classroom has brought numerous benefits to my students.

 This year the Team 7 Humanities has the theme of “Connected World” as a common thread running through all of the units. Each student has had to choose one country to research in order to develop a deep understanding of its people, culture, economy and political systems. Students have found current events articles on the Internet and have had to read and analyze the articles and then write a blog making connections to prior learning.

 When students write their blogs they are writing for a for a real world audience instead of just for the teacher. As a result, students are aware of a higher standard for written work in terms of content, organization, fluency and conventions. In addition, writing blogs offers students much more feedback to their writing from other students and from the real world audience.

 As a teacher who is always striving to have my students improve their reading and writing, the Internet offers an enormous number of reading texts at many different levels. Letting students choose texts matched to their interests, learning profiles and readiness, provides differentiation to student learning.

 In summary, I think that the biggest benefit of the educational technology courses to date has been to explode the limits that traditionally confined student learning. Students are no longer restricted to paper texts found in the classroom or library. Likewise, my students now write for a real audience that includes anyone with access to the Internet. My classroom, like thousands of other classrooms today, offers an enormous number of texts directly connected to real world issues for students to study and a vast audience for them to communicate their thinking.

 

Online Safety

Who's responsibility is it to teach students to be safe online?

 I think that this is an extremely important question because whether or not a student is safe online can make a tremendous difference in his/her life. It would be a shame for a student to pay a severe penalty for a youthful indiscretion in the use of the Internet. Likewise, it would be a tragedy for a student to meet someone through the Internet who harms the student. Indeed, I believe it is the responsibility of schools to teach students about safe online procedures.

 The teaching of online safety should be done at all grade levels by means of a course developed by the technology department along with a team of teachers who are tech leaders. Mastery of course skills and knowledge should be required for graduation/promotion to the next division. Online safety is too important of an issue to leave it to classroom teachers operating as private practitioners. This topic demands a well-developed team effort for the well being of our students.

Audio Books

A significant number of students in EAP classes in the MS are reading at least two grade levels below their grade. The purpose of this project was to provide these students with an audio recording of one of the novels that the whole class reads. The Little Prince, which is read in grade 8 humanities, was the novel chosen. Students participate in literature circle groups and are expected to take the following roles: Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Word Wizard and Symbol Decoder.

 Having an audio recording of the novel helps students better comprehend the novel and also helps them learn the pronunciation of sophisticated vocabulary that they rarely or never hear spoken. As a result, students are better prepared to take an active part in the literature circle discussions.

 An audio recording of the entire book was made and posted to Panthernet under Roger Everett’s class resources. EAP students listen to the recording as they read. Other books have also been recorded and posted to Panthernet. The use of audio books is a simple and effective way of using Internet technology to provide a learning tool tailored to each user’s personal needs.