Educator, Thinker, Consultant
Just a quick reminder that today is “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” Day.
While the Temptations version is the classic, I also really like the Was (Not Was) version. (Quick note, the Temptations was not the original. The Undisputed Truth put out the first version.)
It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
‘Cause that was the day that my daddy died
Original Version:
Temptations Version:
Was (Not Was) version:
Well, I guess that I’m officially retired now. School has started and I’m still sleeping in. No alarm clock. No worries about security. No concerns about “did I tell so and so to do such and such”.
However, I still feel more like I’m on vacation rather than retirement. I’m still working through exactly what the days should look like.
I did apply for a couple of jobs. I applied to be a substitute at the beginning of August. I followed up a couple of weeks later. I was informed that “they’ll be looking at substitute applications in the middle of September”. I then looked at a different school district to sub. That district had a job for a “Technology Analyst”. Seemed vague in the job description. I followed up. I ended up going for an interview. The job is a basic computer tech. I would’ve loved helping teachers and students, but decided not to return to full time work.
So, I’m getting stuff done around the house. I’m learning more about photography. I’m taking more pictures.
I’m still looking for a part time gig. Or, some volunteer opportunities.
Columbia House to cease operations after 71 years.
Another “rite of passage” from my teenage years is hitting the dustbin. Columbia House’s Subscription Program is ending. (To be fair, I would’ve thought that this service died long, long ago.)
Columbia House regularly sent out free opportunities to join (actually, I think that joining cost a penny). Essentially, you would purchase a membership and receive some albums (in my case on cassette). For some reason, it seems that I got 3 or 5 albums free. The membership included the agreement to purchase a number of albums in the future. Every month, one received Columbia’s offers to purchase albums. This was the precursor to the AOL CD’s that would be arriving later on.
As a side note, I’m fascinated by the URL on this article (which has now been fixed. Originally it was this: (https://www.pastemagazine.com/article/cameron-winter-to-release-his-first-live-album)
I took a quick trip to Portland (Maine, USA) to take some pictures. The mail boat also offers a sunset cruise. Below are some of the sunset pictures.
This is a terrific write up about the state of email addresses. Specifically, this addresses email lists. Some nice history stuff:
Many years ago, people put their email addresses on web pages, personal or departmental. But then came along SPAM email lists, built from bots scraping valid email addresses across the web. In an ever escalating war, email addresses were scrambled and obfuscated with different methods, some using clever highlight and paste tricks tied to the web browser. If I try to paste directly into Apple Mail, I sometimes get scrambled garbage.
If you’ve been using email for any length of time, you’ll get a smile and may even say an audible “Amen”.
A free, open-source application for downloading and managing your Audible audiobooks
I’ve used this to gather up my Audible books, from, er, let me check here, 2014. I long ago left audible for other options.
I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, yes, it can time consuming to find documents in Google Drive (or your local storage, or any other online repository). It can be especially frustrating when Google Drive search fails to find a document (especially when you had all the right words of the title, but in a different order). It has always been amazing to me that Google Drive search stinks as much as it does (and Apple Mail search, WOW is that bad).
Anyway, Dr. Bruce Ellis makes the case that workers spend an inordinate amount of time looking for “stuff”. Again that frustration and time wasting is real.
This is not limited to Google Drive though. Email is also addressed.
Dr. Ellis provides some specific, tangible steps to get you started. This will still take time, but he does provide a system. If the system works for you, great. In real life, I think everyone has a “system”, but not a repeatable one. The “system” changes frequently and is dependent upon the day/mood/environment/etc. So if this inspires you to adopt a system, it is definitely worthwhile.
AI is going to be with us. It has already had profound impact on us (and our students). Educators are going to have a address the cognitive issues and underlying impact of AI.
Thus, educators are going to need to think deeply about AI and how to use it. This paper provides a touch point to think about.
Knowing when to say “I don’t know” is fundamental to human judgment, yet AI assistants offer a fluent answer to almost any question. In five experiments (N = 3,132; four preregistered, one direct replication), participants answered difficult questions and could always decline to respond. We engineered the questions so that AI advice was wrong, separating AI use from its accuracy. Merely having access to AI nearly eliminated participants’ willingness to suspend judgment, and this held whether the advice was actively requested or simply displayed. Consequently, participants answered more questions but were correct about a third as often as when AI was unavailable—yet their confidence nearly doubled. Incentivizing accuracy and penalizing inaccuracy led participants to seek and follow AI advice less, answer more accurately, and suspend judgment more often, though still far less than when AI was unavailable. As AI suggestions grow ubiquitous and unsolicited, they may not simply affect answer accuracy; they may even alter the metacognitive threshold at which people decide whether they know enough to answer.
Students are very much buying into AI as being personified.
Back to school time is going to bring lots of “screen time ban” discussions. Personally, I believe that this is a slightly misplaced discussion. The focus seems to be on schools and screen time. The major focus is on banning cell phones for students during the school day. Roughly 30 states , including Maine and Michigan, now have bell to bell bans for cell phones. Personally, I can fully support that.
However, I believe that the issue is much bigger than just schools. Yes, schools are a part of the argument. And sure, there are teachers and schools that are using screen time inappropriately. However, the bigger issue is parenting. I say this not sarcastically, but pragmatically, Parenting is Hard. Parenting has always been hard, and it’s not getting any easier.
A.J. Juliani makes points based on the Learning 3.0 framework. (I have mixed feelings about Learning 3.0.)
The arguments here again return to AI and the impact that it will have on students. This is worth a read and some pondering time.
This one is from McSweeney, so sarcasm is back on the table.
Every serious legal mind must inevitably face a fundamental choice: Read the Constitution and apply its words as the bedrock laws of the land, or transcend its tired text and interpret the super-secret invisible version that tells you exactly what you want to hear.
That will get you started.
When I was a kid, the magazine “Highlights” was pretty popular. These were often seen in schools and in doctors offices. One of the best features was a “Spot the Difference” called “Check…And Double Check”. Essentially, there were two nearly identical illustrations placed side by side. Your job was to find all of the differences between the two illustrations.
Who knew that Highlights would prepare us for AI in the future? The “find the differences” skill, now between what should actually exist and what makes an AI image is a great skill to have.
Here is an example:
Here are a few of the links that struck me recently (special shout out to Ben Werdmuller for the thought of posting links).
Almost two hours long, but it’s Trevor Noah and Cory Doctorow. Lot’s of interesting conversation. Yes, there is discussion about enshittification. But there is also lots of discussion about how we got there and what is the impact of lots of the technology trends.
Repetitor really only makes sense if the repetition is truly spaced. That’s why you should activate the “save content state” on your platform which will enforce a waiting period in between rounds (that you define).
Well, and then you can tweak more things to your liking:
This seems like a truly awesome development. Spaced repetition is a powerful learning strategy. This allows for spaced repetition to be used just about anywhere.
Just as a reminder, one could set this up in Moodle and allow the students to create their own.
Looking for an overview of the Fediverse? Want to know what the Fediverse is?
Instead of using a social media site run by one company, the Fediverse
is composed of lots of individual sites (Think email: a Gmail account can write to an Outlook one and nobody thinks twice. Same idea, just for posting and following.)
This is the fediverse: social media run by the people on it. Thousands of independent apps and communities that all talk to each other.
Corporations can join the network. They can’t own it.
No fine print. This is the whole print.
| Big social | The fediverse | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns your account | The platform | You do |
| Your timeline | Ranked by an algorithm | Chronological, your follows |
| Ads & tracking | The business model | None |
| Switching is… | Start over from zero | Move, keep your followers |
| The code | Closed, proprietary | Open source |
I can strongly recommend reviewing this article. There are specific, actionable thoughts here.
To frame the problem, imagine your students involved in a Canva Edu project. Everything is going great:
TCEA has an interesting article entitled: Should Districts Block Canva? The K-12 Control Question – TCEA TechNotes Blog? This brings up a great question and perspective.
Whether it’s Google Slides, or other popular tools, anything with un-monitored chat or comment features is now a potential student attack vector.
Can your district supervise student use at the level you claim to parents, principals, and your board?
| District question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Can students share designs with other students without teacher approval? | This creates a private communication path |
| Can students comment on shared designs? | Comments can become messaging |
| Can admins view, search, export, and retain comment history? | Investigations require records |
| Can controls differ by grade, campus, group, or device type? | Younger students may need stricter limits |
| Can Gen AI tools and apps be restricted by role? | Canva now includes many Gen AI-connected features |
| Do controls work the same on iPad app and browser? | Monitoring may differ by device |
Before you decide, put these questions in front of Canva and your monitoring vendor:
This is a wonderful write up with great, specific action points.
Everything hits an expiration date. Sometimes we know when that it is, sometimes we don’t.
I’ve long known that my time at Cape Elizabeth was coming to a close. As of June 30th, I will be moving on my next phase. Careful readers may note that this is not the first time that I’ve done this. Last time, I was moving to Maine to be closer to my kids, and I still intended to work. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d be doing, but I was applying to Technology Director positions. This time is different though. This time, I’m going to take time to “work” for me.
So, what’s next? Well, I’ll be taking time to explore, learn, and practice photography. I’ve been enjoying my photography experiences more and more. I have so much to learn. One thing that I’m sure of is that photography takes time. Not rushing and actually seeing what is there is a crucial part of the process (for me).
In a couple of months, I’ll be signing up for substituting. I still like working with kids. Subbing will allow me to control my schedule, stay in touch with education, and learn more about my local community.
I’ve also looked into an opportunity to provide support for a Moodle installation. Currently, it looks like that is on hold, but that is something that I would enjoy. I may be reaching out to some previous contacts to let them know that I’m available to provide some support and resources if it would be helpful to them. I’ve got a couple of Annual Training Courses that are pretty much ready to go and can be customized to a particular school.
We’re really fortunate that a lifetime of hard work, careful planning, and saving have led to a situation where we should be financially solvent.
We are also looking forward to some traveling and experiencing other places.
Anyway, here’s to expiration dates and new experiences.
We took time to visit Scotland and Ireland. It is always terrific to travel.
We took advantage of the planning through CIE Tours – specifically, we chose the Scottish & Irish Sampler. We added a day at the beginning, and at the end, of the trip. This allowed us to get a chance to get our bearings. The trip includes a five hour time shift. We left at around 10:00 a.m. (our time) and arrived at 8:00 a.m. Edinburgh time.
The trip involved a bus, two airplanes, and a taxi. However, we arrived safely and ready to go. It’s also interesting as to how much time one needs to adjust.
I booked The World Famous Underground Ghost Tour for a first night activity. Sorry to say that this didn’t live up to the billing. There was a good bit of history, and a little bit of mention of ghosts, but much more history than ghosts.
The trip was quite nice and enjoyable. We visited several castles, and a few pubs.
Our bus driver, David Martin, is an accomplished tenor. It was quite a treat to hear him sing in a small room of the CrossKeys Pub. This was an experience that will last a lifetime. (He was also a good bus driver and human.) He took time to show us additional spots. For example, he took us to additional parts of Belfast to show us the dividing point between the Protestant and Catholic portions.
As mentioned above, the experience at the CrossKeys Pub was definitely a highlight.
The Inn is a stone built cottage which was once a coaching stop on the route between Belfast and Derry. The building until recently was thought to have dated back to the 1740’s. In 2010 Queens University Belfast completed the dating process of dendrochronology and confirmed that the building was actually much older and in fact dated back to pre-1654.
The Royal Mile was interesting. Definitely a tourist area, but still fun. We found a good bakery. Some of the buildings were really cool. The Royal Mile also has lots of “Close”‘s, which are kind of like alleys leading off the Royal Mile. The World’s End was a great spot to visit as well.
The World’s End is a pub bursting with history, with its exterior walls forming part of the Flodden Wall, a 16th-century fort that protected Edinburgh’s historic old town. Once upon a time, the people of Edinburgh thought the world outside this wall was no longer theirs, which gave us our name.
David suggested Bowes Pub. This was another great experience. A pub with no TV’s. Just a smaller, wood paneled bar with lots of conversation going on around us. They also had a good selection of beers and whiskeys.
Just off Fleet Street, Bowes is the real deal. No gimmicks, no blaring TVs — just a proper Dublin pub that’s been pouring pints and serving up serious whiskey since the 1800s.
Known as one of the city’s top whiskey bars, we stock shelves with everything from local legends to rare bottles you won’t find elsewhere. Whether you’re here to talk shop over a single malt or just escape the chaos for a quiet pint, Bowes delivers — straight up.
A nice little excursion to Leith Distillery. Naturally, a whisky tasting was part of the program.
Seeing the remnants of the division of Belfast, and hearing the stories of what it was like, was another highlight.
This was an interesting natural phenomena to see. It was a nice walk with great views (plus Rm found some cows).
There were several highlights in Dublin. Just walking around and seeing the city is always good for me. George’s Street Arcade was neat.
The castles are naturally a neat highlight. Just seeing the buildings and hearing the stories of what used to be is interesting. Some of the architecture is just incredible.
Apple Maps dies a better job of getting us around than the local app. The local bus application was a bit confusing, but Apple Maps was explicit.
I’ve been in education for over 35 years. One constant has been the “move away from worksheets”. I found the graphic (see below) about using AI as a mirror instead of a slot machine.
*Image from: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/phillipalcock_if-you-use-ai-with-purpose-it-stops-being-activity-7456689277100535808-B556/
This has caused me to reflect on education. I thought to myself, “Self, we’ve been talking about moving away from worksheets since you were a young pup”. Now, first of all, there is nothing wrong with worksheets. Worksheets have their place. However, worksheets frequently become the go to, overused, and misused. In many cases, educators would be hard pressed to explain why a worksheet is being distributed.
Here are a few of the “movements” that I’ve lived through that were designed to move us away from worksheets.
Project-based learning (PBL) was one movement that was designed to move away from the worksheet. Project based was heralded as a way to teach that aligns with how students learn. The Buck Institute is probably the most famous support for PBL. The Buck Institute had tons of resources that I’ve used in the classroom.
Designing project-based learning opportunities can be challenging. There is a lot of background work necessary. The educator really needs to be well versed in curriculum (not just curriculum resources), pedagogy, and knowing the students.
While Understanding by Design (UbD) isn’t specifically targeted at worksheets, it is focused on “authentic performance”. UbD is sometimes called “Beginning with the End in Mind”. Essentially, UbD focuses on clearly identifying the end result (desired learning), developing assessment evidence, and then planning instruction.
UbD sounds easy enough. However, it requires a good bit of work. UbD means that there is a really clear, concrete expression of what is to be learned. This is much harder than most people think. It seems like it should be obvious, but I’ll point out that standards and benchmarks are contested and debated by the most expert curriculum experts.
Assessment is always tricky as well. Our gold standard right now is the multiple choice test (which is a very close relative to the worksheet). With multiple choice answers, you can have one definitely “correct” answer. The real world is frequently NOT a multiple choice answer. In fact, what can seem correct at one point may change as society changes. In school, assessment can be contentious. Writing good assessment is a skilled that has be be developed.
Problem-based learning (confusingly also known as PBL) is a process where students work in groups to solve open-ended problems. While this definitely leads away from worksheets, it comes with many challenges of it’s own.
Real World Learning (RWL) means basing learning in real world situations and experiences. Much of this work is related to experiential learning. While this also moves away from worksheets, it can also be difficult to develop and implement. Frequently, RWL needs to be supplemented by other strategies, as it can be extremely limited in scope.
Someday, maybe, I’ll write a ton about technology in education. Let’s look at worksheets though. Frequently, technology is used to “replace” worksheets with, well, worksheets. Instead of a paper worksheet, the student completes a worksheet on the computer. If you follow the SAMR model, this is an example of Substitution. Naturally, this can be more complex. Teachers could add differentiation into the mix. This is a start to something more powerful. However, in talking and working with teachers around the country, it is clear that many teachers are still at the Substitution level.
Education is hard. There is no one strategy, no one skill that will reach every student the same way. There is nothing wrong with worksheets if those worksheets are intentional, well thought out, and used to help students. The problem lies when worksheets become time-fillers or “well, the book provider gave me a worksheet”, or is an AI generated resource with no understanding by the teacher why it is being used.
Educators work extremely hard. The work that they do is powerful and helps so many students succeed. The United States as a whole has invested very little in Professional Development and support.
Troy Patterson
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