Weemooseus

Ok, so I will admit it – I am being forced to use Blackboard. In fact, everyone in our district that wants to create a blended learning environment will be trained on using Blackboard as an instructor. From a teacher’s viewpoint, this version is much improved over the old one. Menu items are easier to create, rearrange, delete, hide, etc. However, as a teacher, I miss having my own themes and students will certainly miss being able to choose theirs. And I miss having the ability to move items to the right sidebar as one can do in Moodle. There are other subtle differences that, to me, make Moodle a more inviting learning area. I would think that Moodle 2.1 would be even better.

But, that is not the reason I am writing this post. What distresses me most is the administration of Blackboard. I have been given the ability to create courses for my school’s staff. However, what normally takes me five minutes, (to create a course in Moodle and assign an instructor to it), has taken me the better part of the day, tied up a district employee for at least part of the day and we are no closer to adding an instructor to a class. In all likelihood, it may only a setting that keeps me from doing so, (I can’t even get to the course shells).

All of this has me thinking… If I, (being older than most of the school staff I know), can set up a Moodle server, design and modify themes, add users, maintain upgrades… Why does anyone choose Blackboard for a school, district, or state? When I talk to someone choosing an LMS, I hear, “Oh, we looked at Moodle, but we were told it would be too expensive to maintain”.  The next time someone says that to me, I am going to whack them on the head with financial bat. Blackboard is large, clunky, and probablly far more expensive than Moodle.

Salesmen earn a commission, most of the ones selling to education don’t care what they say to make a sale, its OPM.

Many of us in New Mexico have been waiting for the release of StarLogo TNG 1.5. We use TNG as a primary programming language for Project GUTS clubs and some of the teams in the Supercomputing Challenge use it to create their models.

Most of us had grown used to version 1.2, but wanted more from the language, particularly in its ability to import 3D agents that more closely related to the programming task at hand and the ability to import images to use for backgrounds in students’ models. Having grown used to Scratch’s ability to import sounds, I wanted to see if we would be able to import .wav and/or .mp3 files.

As I am part of the group working on helping educators learn how to create and manage Project Guts clubs, I have been working on adapting to the changes from version 1.2 to 1.5 in our Summer Roundups. I have been pleased with most of the changes to the programming environment with some reservations and a few bugs.

Importing 3D agents has become somewhat easier. The easiest way is to use the Google 3D Warehouse and Sketchup to import a  model  or create one. There are other ways to import agents which are listed on the Learn tutorial page and the Game Design and Programming page. The most important thing is to remember that you will need to carry your newly imported agents from computer to computer if you are working on several different computers.

Unfortunately, sounds may not be added to the existing library, perhaps in a later version this will be a feature. Of course, this may be a blessing in disguise to some as it keeps students from creating/discovering projects that could be considered annoying such as the Put a Bannana In Your Ear.

Changes in editing Spaceland are puzzling. On the one hand, it is easy to use the simple drawing tools to color the terrain, but on the other hand this creates programming problems as the created terrain’s colors may not work with the colors in blockland’s color pallet choices. This means that one might have to use the color chart with an invisible agent to color patch areas correctly or to set the color sliders. Referring to various color charts on the web is not always helpful, however the values for agents/patches are given in a doc file down loadable from the Game area mentioned above. An addition of these basic colors in a small row of selectable icons above the color sliders would have been very helpful.

There are a few added blocks in Blockland, such as Transparency in the color area, one will have to play with them to see how they could be used to enhance a particular project, (projects = programs in StarLogo).

The ability to upload and download projects from the website is an added bonus that will only spread StarLogo’s popularity. Although it is missing some of the features of Scratch’s social connections, its a move in the right direction. It is very easy to click on Online in Blockland and download a project.

StarLogo is now more stable, but it is still common for it to freeze or not accept block locking without saving and restarting. some of this is neutralized when using a computer with a good graphics card.

Unfortunately, a bug was introduced in the upgrade. Agents now seem to have a size value. When modifying the fish and plankton project, (it is included in the sample projects folder installed with StarLogo), to include a predator, the size of the predator and other agents conflict with the  initial setup values. This bug can be controlled somewhat by adjusting the agents’ sizes. An email reporting this bug was answered within 15 minutes – yes, it is a bug and it will be corrected in version 1.6 coming out this fall.

Despite problems, the improvements in version 1.5 are generally worthwhile and the development team is working to improve this easy to learn/use programming environment. I am looking forward to future versions.

Next Season on Survivor

Have you heard about the next planned " Survivor " show ?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 1 school year.  Each business person will be provided with a copy of his / her school district’s curriculum, and a class of 20 – 35 students.

Each class will have a minimum of five learning – disabled children, three with A.D.H.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.

Each business person must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences.

They must also stand in their doorway between class changes to monitor the hallways.

In addition, they will complete fire drills, tornado drills, and [ Code Red ] drills for shooting attacks each month.

They must attend workshops, faculty meetings, and attend curriculum development meetings.

They must also tutor students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non – English speaking children proficient enough to take the state tests. 

If they are sick or having a bad day they must not let it show.

Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science, and social studies into the program.

They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment to motivate students at all times.

If all students do not wish to cooperate, work, or learn, the teacher will be held responsible.

The business people will only have access to the public golf course on the weekends, but with their new salary, they will not be able to afford it. 

There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to thirty minutes, which is not counted as part of their work day. 

The business people will be permitted to use a student restroom, as long as another survival candidate can supervise their class.

If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials before, or after, school.

However, they cannot surpass their monthly limit of copies. 

The business people must continually advance their education, at their expense, and on their own time.

The winner of this Season of Survivor will be allowed to return to their job.

(Ok, I will admit it, I copied this from a spam letter sent out to teachers by a friend of mine, I liked it so much, I cleaned it up for your approval or disapproval.)

By 1986, my fifth grade students had access to six computers in my classroom and I had converted to an digital gradebook, (of course, I still had to turn in a regular gradebook at the end of the year – I ended up stapling my printed grades inside). All of them were orphaned computers, abandoned by their owners for various reasons. A friend of mine in a CUG volunteered to fix them and find monitors, (old TV sets), if I would use them in my classroom. My discovery of the book, “Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas”by Papert,  had already thrown what I thought I knew about teaching into chaos and a revolution of sort was occurring in my classroom.

The response by my fellow teachers was interesting. One teacher came in my room and asked where I got all of the computers, when I explained and asked if she would like one or more, she said no. When I excitedly explained to my carpool how my students were learning to use the computers as tools to improve their learning, one of my carpool buddies said, “If they put one of those in my classroom and expect me to use it, I am going to retire”, which she did.

Unfortunately, I am having the same conversation with fellow educators that I did a quarter of century ago – using technology to change education from 19th century to 21st, students and teachers still needing digital literacy, lack of progress in integrating basic technology in the classroom, and the absence of appropriate technology.

While my fellow carpooler retired, others came and took her place, same attitude, same resistance to change. I still find them being created today, (yes, I watch young teachers busy copying reams of worksheets). While I see some change, its not enough, there is still a great amount on inertia that is really frustrating.

Then, I opened the latest issue of “T.H.E. JOURNAL” and read the editorial by Therese Mageau. It is simply titled, “August 14, 2012” in which she goes through some of her background and tells how Karen Cator, the director of the Office of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education, came up with the date in response to a challenge from a fellow panel member. Ms Mageau challenges the readers of T.H.E. to adopt the date as the switch from print to digital as a way to provide a better learning environment.

So, yes, I am making that date both an ending and a beginning for my school, a day when most printing and use of print material ceases to be used as it is now and a day when teachers forge ahead digitally.

There, my gauntlet thrown, please join us, remember August 14, 2012.

(PS – Yes TM, I had one of those traffic-cone-orange binders)

Although I have mentioned it briefly, I am a big proponent of the use of open source and/or free programs in schools and for students to use in their work, especially when near commercial functioning is obtained. There is no need to deny student access to learning new skills or have a tool for lab/classroom teacher to use because the school cannot afford a commercial product.

“But the tech department won’t let me install them” is a refrain often said. If your tech department says that to you, there could be several reasons, some very good, however, I would get them explained to you in an official document, ie, an email from the tech director. Don’t let them get away with saying “Its in the AUP you signed” when you have sound educational reasons to use an alternative when the school/district cannot afford to purchase a commercial product.

After you have your official explanation from the tech department, take your plea to the school administration, they are the ones that know about money available for your situation, they are able to apply pressure on the tech department. One way around restrictions is to ask for approval of a test period on a limited number of computers, or involve the tech department in the testing for your lab/classroom. You, as responsible for the computers being tested, need the tech skills to restore the computers to functioning units if your test subjects malfunction.

Being dependable, (and seen as so), is a big part of the administration and tech people trusting you and your decisions, this may take some time in some schools and quite possible involve improving your tech skills beyond as what is seen as necessary for a teacher. Because this software is free, it does not come with support other than the occasional blog or forum – if you are not capable, (or willing), to become the tech support for this software, don’t even try it, (remember, I said there were several good reasons for the tech department to deny your plea to install non-supported software). The last thing you want to happen on a regular basis is to be submitting work orders for something that is your responsibility, most school tech departments do not have the time.

Here is a list of free software that are currently installed on lab’s computers:

• Kompozer (Linux, Mac, and PC)
• Paint.net (PC only)
• Scratch (Linux, Mac, and PC)
• Starlogo TNG (Linux, Mac, and PC)
• XaoS (Linux, Mac, and PC)
• Google Earth (Linux, Mac, and PC)
• Windows Live Writer (PC – for student blogging next year)
• Italc (PC – watch for post on this tool later, its being tested on the full lab)

Although I had reservations about it, I have used Windows Live Writer for several posts and would like to let everyone know how it is as a blogging tool. Live Writer presents the author with a fairly simple, easy to use interface. I had no trouble configuring it so that it would post to my Edublog account. The controls for the text in the posting are fairly simple a mixture of standard word processing controls mixed in with a limited amount of standard HTML controls, mostly those dealing with headings. See screen shot:

first image of Live Writer

It is easy to paste photos, screen shots, etc. into Live Writer, just treat it like a word processor. When the post is sent to blog, (either as a draft or as published), the images are put in the proper place, this saves a lot of time editing photos, uploading them, and then linking to the correct one.

The Insert Tab allows a few more basic text/blog commands plus some additional commands that are interesting,

the ability to add a map from Bing

Insert Tags,

Technorati Tags: blogging,composing,editing, adding cute Emoticons , are fun and could be helpful depending upon the blog topic. However the real power of Live Writer will probably come from the ability to add numerous plug-ins, some developed by Microsoft, the majority developed by others. I have already picked two, one to insert files with the blog, the other to Tweet about the posting of the blog, (which doesn’t seem to work on Edublogs – although that may  be my fault).

So, after my initial skepticism, I will continue to explore Live Writer, its ease of use is commendable and the price is right, Free!

Students, especially early teens, often have trouble thinking of themselves in a positive light. As an activity to introduce them to publishing software, I make them put a list of positive words on a page along with a photo and an avatar they have either drawn or chosen to represent themselves online. This is one activity I like everyone to print and post on the wall, (I only print two more projects a year, and then only the best of those). When done in MS-Publisher, I let them use Word Art, they get very creative, (and learn more about publisher while working with it). Another variation would be to use a sub-set of the words and have them make several Wordle graphics to insert in their document.

I have included a Wordle of the English words below, but I also have a PDF of POSITIVE WORDS, both English and Spanish. Feel free to edit, add, or change the words to your liking.

As always, comments are welcome and have fun!

That’s right, goodbye! I have officially unsubscribed from all of your newsletters and will no longer recommend you to my friends that are in the beginner’s phase of computer knowledge. Hopefully, this will mean no more advertisements mailed separately from the newsletters.

So,  what does this have to do with education? Recently I received one of Kim’s newsletters which contained little news tips about computing, dealing with computer problems, etc. One of the links said, “Get all the dirt on your child’s teacher”. No where in any of the newsletters has any hint been posted, such as “Help your child’s school” or “Improve your child’s education by supporting his teacher”. Or, “How testing hurts your child’s education”?

What am I to presume from this posting other than taking it at face value? Kim Komando is only interested in her readers being able to get the “dirt” on their children’s teachers. So, what is the reader supposed to do with the “dirt”, throw it in the teacher’s face? Does Kim expect every teacher to be an angel or saint? Or does Kim think that every teacher is hiding enough “dirt” that they aren’t suitable to be teachers? Maybe its blackmail fodder?

Questions about this single post are enough to make sure that I lend no more support to her organization or her posts.

Carl

Just so you know, I have never really cared for Zombie movies, having lived this long, I figured that I was past having Zombiedom affect me in any form, shape, or fashion. However, my wife, (who was also never a real zombie fan), and I have watched the first two “The Walking Dead” installments as created by AMCTV. Needless to say, we will probably watch the next one.

So far, I have learned a great deal about zombies, (please remember I have only watched two shows):

1. Other zombies create more zombies by catching and feeding on helpless humans who then die and become zombies.
2. There is no cure other than a bullet through the head or smashing the head.
3. Zombies smell of death
4. Zombies can track humans by several means: A. smell B. movement C. unnatural light and D. noise
5. Zombies shuffle everywhere, even when trying to run.
6. Zombies seem to have lost any semblance of reason, other than the need eat living flesh and to create more zombies.
7. Zombieism is a dead movement, after everyone is a zombie, there will be no more living flesh to eat, as far as I could tell, there is no other way for them to reproduce.

Of course, the show features humans, (the few who are left). Although they are of varying intelligence, they all realize that the outcome of the Zombie movement is of a dire consequence to them – that is the basis of the show’s  intrigue. What will happen to them over this first season is anyone’s guess, will some become zombies, probably!

So, what does this have to do with education? Today, during one of the passing periods, I was watching one of my students trudge to my classroom as slowly as he could, when it struck me. I went across the hall to explain the show to another teacher and ask her opinion, she agreed with me…. We have zombie students! Zombie students exist for no reason other than to create more like themselves, they are attracted by loud noises, disturbances in classroom, talking/making noises during instruction, and do what they can to spread student zombieism in my and other teachers’ classrooms.

This started me thinking, (a dangerous activity), if we have zombie students who shuffle from class to class doing nothing but trying to create more zombie students, where did they come from? That is when the terrible realization came over me, it was that we, as a profession, are creating these zombies or are allowing them to be created by the so-called process of education. Indeed, some of us are zombies and even those of us that aren’t sometimes exhibit practices that create student zombies. Of course, I will admit that a tendency to be a zombie student might come from home, but that is only a tendency, (remember, I have only watched two shows about zombies in my whole life).

What practices create zombie students? I know of at least one, I see zombie practices at the copy machines – when a student has had a mind-numbing seven to eight year exposure to worksheets, that would tend to create a zombie out of anyone. Can you name other zombie student creating practices in education?

My final question is: What can we do about the zombie students, is there any cure? Surely we don’t have to ship them off to alternative schools or school withing a school for treatment, or do we?

So says the latest report released to congressmen and senators by businessmen and leading scientists. Should we, as U.S. educators, be surprised? IMHO, no, as we all know where the focus has been for the past 10 years, (with Bush’s NCLB and O’Bama’s continuation of the same policies). Only reading and math have been a focus, even in my state where the yearly test has a science component, we are told it “doesn’t count”.

As a result, what is done in the 6-7 years a student spends in elementary is wrapped around two subjects, science is never taught, (along with social studies, the arts, the increasing need to integrate technical skills, etc). Science teachers virtually start with a blank slate in middle school, students have no idea as to what science is – it is a wonder that we have any teachers that wish to teach science.

We are saddled with a very narrowly focused curriculum that ignores what a truly well-rounded education should be. A next headline might be “Because of lack of social studies education, our society doesn’t know how to deal with increasing complicated social issues”, (bet there is already data out there, what do you think?). Or, how about a headline that states, “Music and arts education are found to be critical elements in the drive to increase students’ success in math and reading”. Even one that says, “Non-structured play time increases focus and study skills”, (noting  the loss of recess in the elementary). Maybe even one that says, “U.S. students decreasing use of technology skills leads to shortage of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists that are able to deal with the use of technology in their fields”

What is to be done when we in education have become tools of the “Bean Counters”, all part of the so called “Data Driven Classroom”? What I think is that we need to be focused on the student driven classroom, our system needs to be concerned with the whole child, not little bits of data. We are venturing down a road that leads nowhere except to increasingly disinterested students.

Comments anyone? What do you think? Or do you even care?

Carl