Introductions

Kim Cofino and Julie Lindsay joined David and Jeff for this start of the second season of Shifting Our Schools podcast.

Essential Question

What Were the Big Picture and Practical Classroom “take aways” from the Learning 2.008 Conference?
Some take aways from the discussion>

• The need to prepare teachers for progressive conferences like Learning 2.008. Scaffold the process so they will take time for the networking, unconferencing and reflection portions of conferences like Learning 2.008.
• Look to have regular presentation sessions that lead out into and scaffold into unconference sessions
• Look to shift our regular presentations in the way we organize the rooms and work to make them more discussion focused
• Need to differentiate for the “shiftedness” continuum of the participants
• Jan 24-26 Flat Classroom Conference in Qatar

Blog Posts of the Week

David> GenTech podcast by Steve Whitaker, Mark Hofer and Michael Kelly
Jeff> Video by Chris Lehmann   |   Connectivism Blog by George Siemens
Kim> Slideshow of Brain Rules for Presenters
Julie> The Educational Technology Site by Terry Friedman

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• Next show is Thursday October 23 at 7 PM Bangkok time.
• Our guest will be Clay Burell.
• Essential Question for the show: Where do you start the shift?
• Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Diigo bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.

Chris O’Neal, educational leader and consultant, joined David and Jeff for tonight’s show.

Essential Question

Your Standards or Mine?

David> See his blog post.

Jeff> We don’t have standards for paper and pencils so why would we need them for technology? Aren’t we working with teachers to help them reach their subject area standards with the help of technology?

Take away from the discussion> The higher order rich NETS are helping frame the conversation with administrators as they talk about learning in their buildings. What is another name for “standards” when we talk about the NETS as learning outcomes we want integrated across the curriculum.

Blog Posts of the Week

Jeff: See his 3 posts on having standards for technology: 1 2 3
Chris: Bionic Teaching
David: Practical Theory

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* Next show is Thursday June 12th at 7 PM Shanghai time.
* Our guest will be Rick Pierce of Rising Sun Consultants, Andy Torris from Shanghai American School and Struan Robinson from International School Bangkok.
* Essential Question for the show: What stalls the shift?
* Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Del.icio.us bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.

Kim Cofino, Justin Medved and Dennis Harter joined Jeff and David for tonight’s show.

Essential Question

How do we connect technology and classroom instruction seemlessly?
David: See his blog post.

Jeff:

Take away from the discussion-

-Big move in their library in the elementary now called the Learning Hub at ISB. Merging and bringing together many ideas and strategies for what libraries will be in the future.
-They fully integrate the technology skills into the curriculum. No stand alone technology classes in elementary and one in MS.
-Just in Time support.
-New Literacy Wiki
-21st ISB Literacy

Blog Posts of the Week:

Jeff: Connectivism Sentiments on Common Sense

David: Transliteracy: The Digital Hub

Kim: Educational Origami

Justin: Moving at the Speed of Creativity Thinking Allowed

Dennis: Always Learning

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* Next show is Monday May 26th at 7:00 PM Shanghai time.
* Our guest will be Chris O’Neal of Edutopia’s Spiral Notebook.
* Essential Question for the show: Your standards or mine?
* Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Del.icio.us bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.

Dave Navis, a 5th grade teacher from Hong Kong International School joined Jeff and David for tonight’s show.

Essential Question

When not to use technology?

David: See his post.

Jeff: See his recent post on his screen free week.

Dave Navis: See his post.

Blog Posts of the Week:

Jeff: Turn TV Off

David C: Jamie McKenzie’s FNO 500 Mile Project Leader Talk: Shift Happens- Now What?

Dave N: Alan November

Note: Don’t forget to register for the Learning 2.008 Conference. A new EdubloggerCon segment has been added to the program.

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* Next show is Thursday May 16th at 7:00 PM Shanghai time.
* Our guests will be Dennis Harter, Justin Medved & Kim Cofino of the International School Bangkok.
* Essential Question for the show: How do we connect technology and classroom instruction seamlessly?
* Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Del.icio.us bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.

Michael Lambert, a Middle School teacher from Concordia International School in Shanghai joined Jeff and David for tonight’s show.

Essential Question

How to go deeper in student learning? Why go deeper?

David: See his blog post.

Jeff: Engage student and allow them to be nodes of information.

Take away from the discussion-

Mike’s 5 Strategies for Deeper Learning:

1. Go one to one with laptops so students have access to information to answer their questions. Let’s students “rewind”, go back to information when they need to further their understanding.
2. Project-based Learning: cross discipline the learning in real world applications. Example: Mike’s class visited a bike shop which connected economics, science, math and community building. They also went to a landfill, about learned alternative fuels and made further connections to being better citizens of the Earth.
3. Visuals- let the images tell the story. Strong connection to student brains. Evokes the emotion which brings attention which drives learning. Using graphs. How to filer the information, make meaning of it. Media Literacy.
4. Build in multi-sensory experiences. Get the kids outside the classroom and engage in field trips, real world–new brain experiences. These are deeper. Sometimes means making mistakes, being uncomfortable which leads to learning.
5. Teachers need to let go. Let the kids be more in control. We need to be the coach. We can be co-learners.

Inquiry. Everyone provides questions. Help students take their passions and questions to design question to research and then come up with more questions that they want to answer.

Make connections across the curriculum then lead to questions and further applications that combine subject areas. Cannot be narrow with our curriculum. Ready to go in different directions.

We need to really focus on teaching students to be learners. If they are truly going to be independent life long learners, they have to have the skills to be active learners.

What does a shifted school look like?

Jeff: What is a Shifted School? A school that understands that learning is a 24/7 activity and engages students in THEIR spaces to learn. A school that instead of forcing student to come to them to learn, they go to them and create learning opportunities where the students are. They use tools that are familiar to the students, that engage them in the learning process and allow them to not only connect nodes of information, but also always them and teaches them to be a node as well.

David: What shifted looks like see 21st Century Schools & his post on the topic. School 2.0 wiki by Steve Hargadon as a place to read opinions on what shifted schools look like and add your opinion. And listen to episode 8 where Brent Loken talks about Hsinchu International School.

Mike: If you are using strategies for deeper learning and helping kids make connections, you are really focusing on learning which is what shifted schools are all about. We need to look at our pre-service teacher programs to shift them where teachers learn teaching 2.0 strategies while taking part in mentoring programs to get them up to speed.

Blog Posts of the Week:

Jeff: Remote Access A Difference Mark’s EdTech Learning is Messy

David: See Margaret’s comment for SOS episode 3.

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* Next show is Wednesday April 30th at 8:00 PM Shanghai time. Note: This is a different day and time than our usual show.
* Our guest will be David Navis of Hong Kong International School.
* Essential Question for the show: When not to use technology?
* Don’t forget to post Web sites/blogs to the SOS Del.icio.us bookmarking site that support our upcoming EQ.