Creative Feedback Matters

Beyond Bloom, there are other ways of assessing the effectiveness of an argument or idea. Sometimes the only way to move forward from that point is to think 'outside of the bag'!

In my work in gifted education, we used a number of Edward de Bono's thinking models. Here's how the '6 Thinking Hats' might apply to responding to blog posts (or to solving a problem, or to planning an event...).

The White Hat is cold, neutral, and objective, like the lone ranger or a construction foreman. Take time to look at the facts.
• How do the ideas stack up against the realities of today's classrooms?
• Can our networks, computers, teachers handle things?
• Are policies impacted? Are new guidelines needed?

The Red Hat represents passion. Take time to listen to your emotions, your intuition.
• Why must we worry about? Why can't we do it?
• What effect will funding realities have on the project?
• Will past experiences have a positive or negative impact?

The Black Hat is gloomy and negative. Take time to look at why this will fail. Think like Darth Vader, or the calculating police officer.
• What are the barriers to consider?
• What technological gaps need to be filled?
• Why will teachers respond negatively?

The Yellow Hat is sunny and positive. Take time to be hopeful and optimistic, like Curious George's man in the yellow hat…
• How will this idea make things better?
• Who will be engaged by the project/plan/idea?
• What are the short and long term benefits?

The Green Hat is grass, fertile and growing. Take time to be creative and cultivate new ideas.
• Where might this take us in 5 years?
• What tools do we need to get there?
• What supports will be needed to ensure teachers and students are successful?

The Blue Hat is the color of the sky, high above us all. Take time to look from a higher and wider perspective to see whether you are on the right path.
• Think globally, nationally, provincially, locally...
• Think of where this fits in the 'big picture' or 'system plan'.
• Is there a fit with guiding policies and vision statements?

From my experience, there are a few keys in making effective use of this thinking tool:
1] Everyone is more comfortable thinking from one common colour/style/hat... forcing yourself to think in new ways is good for personal growth.
2] All members of a team should consider things from the same perspective at any on time (i.e., "We are all now thinking from the sunny perspective of the yellow hat.").
3] In considering any big question or issue, group members should rotate through all six perspectives.

Feedback Matters

How is your voice heard in the blogosphere?

Of the millions of people learning about technology in education through blogs, there are relatively few voices actually being heard. If we consider Bloom's Taxonomy, at what level of thinking is the participation of most netizens?


Think about the classes you may have taught. Is one way communication the preferred end result? Are you content voices heard in one direction? I'd rather see reflections or counter-arguments that challenge, confirm or contradict my own sensibilities, than be left to see my words hover alone on a page.

Is that a fact? Are most of those who are contributing their voices to the discussion, doing so in affirming ways? Are there even more productive ways to participate?

Suggestions for responding to Blog posts, according to Bloom:

1] Knowledge: Read; Bookmark; Annotate; Restate;

2] Understanding: Reflect; Question for Clarification; Translate; Add to list; Discuss;

3] Application: Provide an example; Share a pertinent experience; Respond to a request;

4] Analysis: Share an opinion; Link to a new resource; Question; Challenge;

5] Analysis: Probe more deeply; Compare work to another's; Correct inaccuracies;

7] Synthesis: Connect to related posts/ideas; write something new; Digest and reinterpret;

8] Evaluation: Make a judgement; Appraise; Argue; Judge;

Coincidentally, Kim Cofino has issued a 'comment challenge', encouraging us to become better blog citizens.

Photo Credit: AJC1

Cell Phones in the Classroom

How is your school leveraging cell phone technology for student learning?

In the schools my children attend, mobile phones are not welcome. The regional district school board is jamming the genie back into the lamp, even though the use of handheld technology is ubiquitous in the real world. Rather than restrict the use of this technology, educators (and their students) would be better served, if they were actually to be encouraged to use this technology in their classrooms.


How can cell phones be used for education?

First, we have to realize that many cell phones have the many embedded tools: clock, calendar, camera, voice recorder, text messaging. Some cell phones also include access to the World Wide Web and GPS technology.

Recognizing that relatively few educators already leverage tools likeGooglemaps, Wikipedia, and today's Front page news.... How will we handle it when "all of the information in the world" arrives in student backpacks on a daily basis?

The inclination is to think of the Web as one way communication, but teachers need to recognize that handheld devices encourage participation in content creation as much as content consumption. The mobile phone provides the potential to teach about copyright; content creation; protection of privacy; ethical use and much more. So how do we go about teaching students about appropriate online participation?

Documenting Learning

Field trips, experiments, and other learning experiences can be shared with a global audience with camera phones (audio and/or video). Many ideas for using mobile phones can be found at The Mobile Learner, Wes Fryer's wiki, or Thinking Machine. Evolving tools like Jott and Utterz allow automatic voice to text posting to blogs, wikis, or social networks. If you already use Voicethread, you may be interested in the untethered use of this tool:



Liberty Science Centre in New Jersey, actually has exhibits that provide audio commenting through recordings available by phone call. Can students create such content? Can you see the day when road signs, historic markers, and public buildings include phone numbers to access information? What about copying such information to GoogleMaps?

Large Scale Mobile Learning

Abiline Christian University in Texas, provides students with iPhone technology. Many other post-secondary institutions like Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, Penn State, Texas A&M, Duke, Queens, MIT... are leveraging iTunes U. Will this soon be the norm? What about iTunes HS, or iTunes Elementary?!

What are we worried about?

Students filming lessons? Students Googling to correct teacher errors? Students communicating with one another for social reasons? Whatever the concerns, the appropriate use of handheld computing technology needs to be modeled in the classroom. In preparing students for the real world, is teaching handheld technology skills more relevant than cursive writing; long division; spelling tests, the memorization of world capitals...?

More to follow on Monday's Teacher 2.0 Podcast.

Photo credit: Benjamin Golub

5 Visual Search Tools + 1

The Web has been text oriented for so long, that many may not realize that it can be searched visually. Google's efficiency in search is due in large part to the fact its menu is simple, and almost exclusively text-based. Can searches that rely on eye-candy compete? You be the judge.

1] Search Me: A graphical search that emulates the Apple scrolling image interface, complete with reflections. Are the results more relevant? This site makes the claim.

2] Boolify: A graphical representation of the boolean search. This could be a good tool for teaching simple search skills.

3] Viewzi: Although I'm not crazy about their expanatory video that borrows it's format from CommonCraft, this viewable search allows you to select a page style based on the content you're after.

4] Kartoo: Using this search engine is an interactive experience. Hovering on search results leads you to refine your search by highlighting relationships among results with links and keywords.

5] ManagedQ: Screenshot previews allow the visually oriented to quickly locate relevant search results from a menu of pages.

The extra visual search tool I'd like to share, is Quintura, uses interactive 'keyword clouds' to help users narrow their search. As a bonus, this search tool can be embedded on your site. Try it out by hovering on a keyword below...

Get a 'Second' Life

You may have heard about Second Life, you may even have entered Second Life, but are you aware that this virtual world is now host to conferences, seminars and professional workshops? Having first entered this world out of curiosity a few years ago, it is very clear that the world of Second Life continues to evolve at a rapid pace... not only in graphical experience, but in the way global users are harnessing its power... for good!

The International Society for Technology in Education is one of many groups that are hosting seminars and presentations in the virtual realms of Second Life. For those who are unfamiliar with this world, I've created a brief screen capture that gives a taste of what it is like to attend a technology in education workshop on ITSE Island. The session is with Konrad Glogowski, who coincidentally is working on a Virtual Classroom Project within Second Life.



After downloading the free Second Life application and creating an identity, users have the opportunity to learn about the space, and to customize their avatars through a self-guided orientation.

The hard core virtual lifer, can even choose to spend Linden dollars bought with real money. It's this money that allows real people to buy virtual items like clothing or plots of land. Though you need not spend any money, it's this virtual economy of non-essentials that is allowing some people to make a real living in a virtual world.

Gladly, learning in Second Life is still free!

Uncommonly Creative Craftsmanship

Educators can learn a lot from the messages crafted by Lee and Sachi Lefever at Common Craft. This team is very effective at explaining the hows and whys of evolving web technologies, through the manipulation of simple hand-drawn paper cutouts, choreographed to a 'plain English' voiceover. The power of the explanations, lies in the fact that the hosts use common real world situations in order to make the tools relevant for the audience.

Here is an explanation I've been waiting for: Podcasting in Plain English:



I'd love to see similar videos produced specifically for teacher and student audiences, and I think this chore is best left to the learners themselves. While most would be prone to mimicking the Common Craft technique, I'd recommend that students develop and implement their own styles using live action, animation, or photography. Tune in to 'Learning in Virtual Worlds, 'today's Teacher 2.0 podcast for ideas about how to engage students in this type of work.

If you'd like to see more Common Craft explanations in Plain English, or if you or your students would like to contribute your own explanations, take time to visit the Web 2.0 Wiki-Dictionary.

Two Million Minutes to a Flat World

Does creativity trump work ethic in the global economy? When it comes learning in science and technology, will our young people come to realize that they are in competition with (more highly motivated?) students from around the world? Whose responsibility is it to let them know?

Although it's been around for a number of months, this is the first I've seen the trailer for the documentary 'Two Million Minutes". My first take is that this 'mirror on the wall' is unlikely to give our young people the answers they expect.

The web site encapsulates the story:

"Regardless of nationality, as soon as a student completes the 8th grade, the clock starts ticking. From that very moment the child has approximately -

…Two Million Minutes until high school graduation…Two Million Minutes to build their intellectual foundation…Two Million Minutes to prepare for college and ultimately career…Two Million Minutes to go from a teenager to an adult

How a student spends their Two Million Minutes - in class, at home studying, playing sports, working, sleeping, socializing or just goofing off -- will affect their economic prospects for the rest of their lives."



The film-makers are teachers who are telling the stories of six selected students, 2 each from India, China and the United States. Is it worthy of 54 of a high schoolers 2 million minutes?

The Balloon Tree

This afternoon, my five year old and I buried a fully inflated balloon at the base of the tree in our front yard. A warm spring evening; a full moon; and a 24 hour grocery store; should make for a magical morning!

"Moon balloon, moon balloon, tickle the tree. Four balloons, more balloons, blossom for me."

Photo Credit: Rodd Lucier

5 Facts about 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch'

Admittedly, this list is a bit depressing... I find it hard to believe that I'd never heard of this until very recently!

1] Due to inevitable exposure, every person on the planet may have plastic in them?! Although the language in Part 1 of 12 is vulgar at times, Garbage Island is a compelling documentary and includes commentary by Charles Moore. As of today, nine of the twelve segments are currently available.

2] Bisphenol A (a non-recyclable plastic) is gathering in The North Pacific Gyre

3] Here's how the oceanic trash vortex works; and an alternate explanation from 'How Stuff Works'!

4] The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is real, and like Cheerios in a bowl of milk, is collecting all sorts of plastic.

5] More and more mainstream news stories are bringing 'bisphenol A' into our vocabulary.

Photo Credits: Wikipedia, Daniel R. Blume

Google Docs, Great for Surveys!

Have you seen how simple it is to use Google to create an online survey?

Google Documents, the free online document creator has been available for a few years, and though still in 'beta', now boasts documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Even so, new treats continue to be added...

Whether or not you have a Gmail account, you may be very interested in this video tutorial that demonstrates how to harness the new survey tool to gather data that will automatically populate a Google spreadsheet.



If you're new to Google Documents, you'll appreciate the explanation below, courtesy of the folks at CommonCraft:

The EDUTWEET Project

Educators... I have a mission for you!

Many educators are struggling with ways to develop their Twitter accounts, and I have an idea that can help us leverage the power of the global educator network. Join in the EDUTWEET Project!

If we agree as Robert Scoble put it in a recent blogpost "The Secret to Twitter", that real learning happens when we follow interesting people, then we need to have a good way of finding these interesting folks. The project below helps educators to do just that, and as a secondary benefit, will provide global educators with a way to observe the expanse of the Twitterverse in education.

Here's how it works:

1] Join Twitter
2] Send a tweet using the following form: "city, country; teaching assignment; EDUTWEET"
3] Visit www.tweetscan.com and search for EDUTWEET
4] Find educators teaching what you teach, or what you're interested in learning about, and follow them!

The podcast outline of this social networking project called 'TWEETSCAN' is now online at Teacher 2.0.

Twitter in the News

The micro-blogging tool, Twitter, has become a key social networking tool for educators. It's become so popular, that even Google has created a Twitter plug-in.

Seemingly to justify the many tools that are evolving in support of twitterers, this tiny but mighty application continues to make headlines. To help tell a few recent stories (Rocketboom-Twitter-eBay anyone?), and to give an overview of this tool, I've created a twitter-sized (280 second) screencast video:

Wired for Inattention

At one time, I used to worry about students who couldn't focus on one vertical speaking human at the front of the classroom. Now I'm afraid I've turned into one of those beings that is 'wired for inattention'.

Rather than having deficits in attention, learners today seem to have surpluses of attention, in that we are constantly in search of compelling input. With our minds becoming accustomed to multi-sensory content, our brains seem unwilling to accept input on just one channel.

Not that I'm the only one multitasking. More and more, my 'always on' brain has shared it's impatience with the computer. Rendering while downloading; installing while editing; burning while browsing... maybe more efficient computers are contributing to my rewiring? Remember when we had to have patience when installing from tape drives, or floppy disks?

Replay is only a click away in the random access world wide web; in my ipod's synchronous memory; in the auto-recording live feed of my personal video recorder. In relying on these technologies, I've even found myself pausing to rewind my own 'linear life' to the interesting bits.

A sad consequence of this multi-attentional state, is that I always feel like I'm missing out on something; when in fact, I'm missing out on everything! Trawling for captivating input through multiple 'channels', and relying upon 'rewind' as a form of memory, has limited my ability to be fully present to any singular experience.

Only the most engaging conversation or the most intellectually stimulating task, seem able to capture my full attention. Knowing that it is in attending to the nuances, that one truly captures the richness of life, I'm coming to realize that I'll have to make a more conscious effort to give my fullest attention to each individual person/event/task in order to appreciate its majesty!

Photo Credit: Gregory Marton

A Rival to iTunes?!

Adobe has just launched its new Media Player and it looks like quite an impressive Air application. This is a self-contained application that allows you to subscribe to a wide variety of media feeds, and no doubt will be a key RSS delivery mechanism for many content producers.

Finally, we may have an HD alternative to low resolution Google Video and YouTube. Will it soon rival iTunes in popularity? If you have Adobe Air pre-installed, the ease of download/installation indicates that Adobe is off to a running start!

I'm thinking it might be worth a teacher's time to set up a site for hosting media content that could be subscribed through this media player. Whether posting professional development content, self-produced teacher media, or exemplars of student work, this medium could take electronic portfolios to a whole new level. Then again, how long might it take for schools to make available applications for publishing or subscribing to media content?

The screencast below is a real-time, first visit installation that was almost too easy!

5 Workshops I'd Love to Attend

My low quality list modeled on Merlin Mann's 5ives. Thanks to Chris Brogan for the topic idea.

5 Workshops I'd love to Attend:

1] The Bank is Open: Open source that is... Come post, tag, and share all of your rich tasks, presentations, lessons, group tests... in our new 'Open Source Teacher's Document Bank'...'

2] Teaching with your Cell Phone: Ten surefire cell-phone-camera lessons...

3] Desks be Gone!: How to 'edit' your classroom into an comfortable, adaptable, student-friendly learning environment...

4] For Whom the Bell Rings?: How modifying our high schools to open from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. will allow staff and students to create custom timetables...

5] Harnessing your Built-in Multi-Screen Data Projector: Who needs chalk when each classroom in your school is simulcasting live video events; hosting student-led software tutorials; partnering on global collaborative projects...

Photo Credits: JISC infoNet; Jeramey Jannene

Google Earth and Refugees

Google Earth has partnered with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, to add a graphical layer to Google Earth raising awareness about the plight of refugees.

I made a short video in lieu of breakfast to show how you can leverage this tool:



Did you catch the last bit of the video about Google Sky?

Recording Skype Calls with Audacity

In followup to Clay Burell's question on my previous post: Audacity can be leveraged to record Skype calls. To do so, you'll need to download and run a third piece of free software: Soundflower.


"Let me 'splain..." Inigo Montoya

Audio from Skype has to be channelled to Audacity in order to be recorded. Soundflower acts as the conduit.

On my Mac, the settings that work for me can be enlarged by clicking the images below:

1] Audacity: The settings for Audio I/O need to channel sound from the Skype call, through Soundflower. Though I'm not sure that I need to, I set the computer to 'playthrough' the audio to my speakers so that I can hear the caller.



2] Skype: I send the audio out of Skype to Soundflower. The Snowball is my microphone (input); and I like to hear my speakers ring if a call is coming through.



3] Soundflower: Setting Soundflower to listen to the Built-in Output, ensures my Microphone and the incoming audio from the Skype call are both received.



If there is an easier way to record Skype calls (with free software), feel free to add directions to the comments below.

Audacity... Free and Simple Audio Recording

My introduction to audio recording, came when I was in 9 years old and attended school on a 'snow day'. The teachers wanted to keep me occupied, and they turned me loose with a reel-to-reel audio recorder. It seemed like magic that I could make my grade four voice sound like chipmunks or giants by simply playing with the tape speed. Although that event took place for me some 35 years ago, the experience is still vibrant in my mind.

Will your students have similar memories? Today's tools are far more powerful, inexpensive and easy to use, yet most 9 year olds rarely get the chance to do creative work with audio. This post is intended to provide support to those who may be willing to take a creative leap with their students.

There are plenty of professional style audio tools you could use, and while I love to use Garageband, I realize that most educators need a simple, free solution. You may be interested to know that free software is available that you and your students can use to create MP3 audio files! Audacity is an easy-to-use tool that is easily mastered... if you can get past the installation!

Here is how get the software:



If this software is not available on your school network, I recommend sending a polite request to your I-T department. It's difficult to argue with free and easy, especially when such tools open the door for all sorts of creative output by students. Limited options include:

1] create book reviews on audio that can be stored in the library;
2] narrate primary picture books that can be borrowed along with the book by primary students;
3] record old-time radio dramas complete with authentic sound effects;
4] in lieu of public speaking, create audio editorials;
5] broadcast 'rich' school announcements to publicize special events;
6] produce your own original music;
7] challenge students to be foley artists for a given piece of silent video;
8] dramatize poetry or other creative writing...

Beyond sharing audio to live local audiences, MP3 files are easliy shared, and can be published online with little effort. In order to get there, you'll have to take the leap and grab a microphone! If you get any cool projects done, feel free to share your results; I'll be happy to give you or your students airtime on the Teacher 2.0 podcast.

Go for it! Your students will love it, and you'll be meeting multiple curriculum expectations to boot!

Photo credit: Andy Ihnatko

Diigo is more Filling than Delicious

Social bookmarking favourite Del.icio.us is finally getting strong competition from Diigo, as the edu-blogosphere turns its attention to the 'newer' kid on the block.

Never heard of Diigo?



Diigo is great for highlighting content on pages and for creating and sharing 'notes' on a given web page. For research, or collaborative information gathering and annotation, the highlight features are promising. The fact that you can search for notes recorded by others, and that you can share 'highlights' may take collaborative learning to a new level; but in reflecting on my 'hardcover' past, I've found that the one with the highlighter often brightens information that I'd rather skim past!

I suspect that librarians would be eager to share Diigo to students, if for no other reason than to teach the effective annotation of web resources. Educators looking to combat plagiarism might even call for students to share their web research by requiring the tagging, highlighting and annotating of sources with this tool. Advanced users will make use of the embedded 'webslide' tool, to include their research in automated slideshows.



It remains to be seen whether or not Diigo will make advances on the traction its gained of late, but this beta tool is so feature-rich that many educators are sure to become active 'diigers'. The fact that the site embeds a number of social networking tools (i.e., comment wall; friends' activities; groups...) will likely work against this tool's use within elementary and secondary schools, as filters work overtime to block such interactivity.

Will scholarly university students move to this space to avoid the distractions running amock in Facebook?

For links that you want to find and share easily, Delicious is the most accessible and efficient tool: bookmarking with tags takes only a moment, and the interface is uncomplicated. For higher-level thinking and public reflection about web content including the sharing of more complete meta-information - Diigo may well be the ticket!

The genesis of this topic is explained on today's Teacher 2.0 Podcast... 9 minutes of inspiration.

Motivation through 'Discipline'?!

When did learning stop being engaging?

Learning has always been engaging; School on the other hand...

Does this New York Times article really need a response?

First Five... or Six!

Fridays were made for Five... or six!

I was first introduced to Merlin Mann's hobby site '5ives' a few years ago, and any time I've visited the site, I've clicked back to reality with a smile on my face. The 'mann' behind 'Inbox Zero' and '43 Folders' regularly lets the right side of his brain take over, and I thought I'd begin launching a new habit... short lists.

This Friday: Six Signs of Spring in Spectator Sports (Why six? Alliteration!)

1] Master's television commercials lead me to take the head covers off of my clubs to see if they're clean

2] The boys of summer bring unbridled hope to major league cities across North America. My rumpled Detroit Tigers cap comes out of the closet.

3] In the National Hockey League, the top teams get ready to grow their playoff beards, while those missing the playoffs get ready for golf;

4] The NCAA Mens Basketball tournament takes centre stage as amateurs play for that 'one shining moment'. It doesn't matter that my brackets are in shambles, there is always a Cinderella to root for.

5] The Olympic torch relay ignites passion about far more than sport!

6] "Gentlemen, Start your engines!" at the Daytona 500. It has to be spring somewhere in February!

What are your signs of spring in spectator sports?

Photo Credits: Andy Simonds; TequilaMike

Cheating the Test

How rapidly can a topic of discussion take over the consciousness of the Blogosphere!

Tony Vincent at Learning in Hand may have started it by gathering YouTube 'How-to-Cheat' videos. But it didn't take long for edu-bloggers with huge audiences to follow suit.

Steve Dembo at Teach 42 joined the discussion:

"On a typical test, in a typical classroom, does anybody reading this honestly think they can prevent a highly determined student from cheating?"

And when Will Richardson at Weblogg-ed joined the discussion, he did so with a 'twitteresque' title: "When Are We Going to Stop Giving Kids Tests That They Can Cheat On?" and without contributing content, left the commentary to his network. Tongue-in-cheek I'm wondering: "Is this way of engaging teacher-learners to write your blog 'cheating'?" Like Pooh Bear to Hunny, educators are chiming in... 30+ comments in only 6 hours!

For the record, this topic is near and dear to my heart as someone working to assist teachers in leveraging e-learning solutions. With online courses now being shared province-wide, the customization of tests and assignments is necessary in order to validly assess the learning of online students.

"What types of tests are relevant?

If a test is going to be similar to a real world experience, then the most relevant test should have the following characteristics:

1] The test should allow students access to any information system available (the Internet; Wikipedia; news sources; personal networks…).

2] The test should demand that students ‘apply information’ to a context or situation, rather than simply restate ‘learned’ facts.

3] The test should offer students a range of ways to respond (the written word; audio recording; product dev’t; physical demonstration…).

A ‘test’ of this type is more likely a ‘performance task’; and although this type of test wouldn’t be easy to administer, it would provide the truest test of one’s learning. Thank goodness we don’t provide driver’s licenses, pilot’s licenses, or dental licenses on the basis of the written test!"



Photo Credit: dcJohn

Massive Multiplayer e-Learning

At lunchtime yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with Peter Purgathofer from the Informatics Faculty at the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology in Vienna Austria. After some evening editing, I pared our conversation down to this 22 minute 'lesson' on Slidecasting 2.0, an interactive technology in its infancy, that encourages lecture audiences to be active learners, by engaging attaching comments, links, references, and questions to the presenter's slides. The resulting 'rich notes' are then available online for further editing and sharing. If this open source project goes global, PowerPoint lectures may soon be recognized as interactive events!



Peter is truly an engaging teacher, and this while this video is narrow in scope, it was my great pleasure to participate in a conversation with such an enthusiastic teacher-learner. I've included an additional snippet of our conversation on the most recent Teacher 2.0 podcast.