Troy Patterson

Educator, Thinker, Consultant

Category: Thoughts (Page 6 of 18)

Week Note

November 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

ACTEM

ACTEM went pretty well. My presentation was a bit too broad for the group. However, a couple of attendees were inspired to work on creating some materials.

Mostly, it was nice to meet some people and make some connections. It’ll be interesting to see if conferences go “back” to what they were before.

I was also intrigued by the keynote speakers. Personally, I wonder how they ended up with the gig. (This is not a criticism of them, just wondering.)

PixelFed

PixelFed is an open-source site designed to share photos. It is very much like Instagram, without Facebook, sorry Meta, owning it.

The neat thing is that it is very easy to use, very graphically pleasing. The negative is that there aren’t as many as your friends (most likely) on it.

There is no tracking. There is no algorithm to determine what you’ll see. There is no advertising.

There are three basic feeds, Home, Local, and Global. Home is the one of people you follow. Local is all the people on this instance, and Global is, well everyone.

If you are on PixelFed, connect up with me.

PrePandemic Weekend

This weekend was kind of a “pre-pandemic” weekend. Rm and I were able to attend several events. Of course, we masked up for each and every one of these, but still is was wonderful.

Paul Reiser

Paul Reiser may be best known (at least by us) for “Mad About You”. This was one of our favorite TV comedies.

Paul Reiser does observational comedy. He is funny and family friendly. The show included several bits about “getting older”, and was funny and enjoyable.

The venue Waterville Opera House is a nice theater.

Amsterdam

On Saturday, we headed off to see the movie Amsterdam. This was an interesting movie with a few major flaws (like a couple of alternative reality sequences). I would say the movie was good, but not great.

What the movie really brings up is how important knowing history really is. The movie is loosely based on history of a plot to replace Roosevelt. It also brings up the past belief of creating a nation centered on the “right” people. Here it is really important to understand the rise of eugentics.

Violins of Hope

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to the Portland Symphony Orchestra for the Violins of Hope Maine concert. The Violins of Hope Maine is a month long residency program that focuse on playing violins from the Holocaust. The centerpiece of concert is Verdi’s Requim of Hope.

The Violins of Hope Project centers around a private collection of violins, violas, and cellos all collected since the end of World War II. Many of the instruments belonged to Jews during the war. The instruments have been reconditioned and travel the world to share the story with people everywhere.

The Death of Twitter? (And the move to Mastodon)?

The Death of Twitter? (And the move to Mastodon)?

November 1, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Some thoughts about moving to Mastodon from Twitter.

Now that Elon Musk has purchased Twitter, there is a bit of a hue and cry to leave Twitter. I totally get that. Musk’s recent tweet (since deleted) responding to Hillary Clinton’s tweet about the attack on Paul Pelosi was nothing short of abdominal. Essentially, Musk helps spread offensive, inaccurate lies. He is legitimizing absolute lies. He is pushing for more attacks on people. The tweet reinforces the fears of Musk running Twitter.

However, I’m not yet convinced that people will leave Twitter in massive numbers. There are lots of people who believe and support exactly that kind of thinking. There are even more people who don’t consider that kind of speech “My problem”.

I’ve never seen tons of hate speech on Twitter. I follow a bunch of educators. Mostly, my Twitter feed has been K-12 educators and a few parody or comedy accounts.

I’ve researched leaving Twitter several times. The biggest alternative is Mastodon. However, Mastodon isn’t Twitter. It is different. It has a different intent. It functions differently.

Mastodon

Mastodon is not owned by a specific company. There is no algorithm to provide you content. Rather, it can be what the community wants it to be. That’s the first difference, Mastodon isn’t a single site, but a connection of sites. Each user joins a Mastodon instance (server, community) that fits their perspective. There are a wide range of Mastodon instances (sites) available. Generally, one starts with the Mastodon instance (site) that fits their interest. Instances (sites) centered on things like Art, Music, LGBTQ+ issues, Programming, and much more are available. Here is a quick link to some site listings. However, just because you join one instance, doesn’t mean that you can’t see things from other instances. So, if you join a community focused on Art, you can still follow people from other communities. Thus, you can create a feed of people that you are interested in. Those people can be on any community at all (pretty much, communities can block other whole communities – which is actually a good thing, very few communities get blocked).

Mastodon seems to be seeing a huge influx of users. Some have closed registrations (new accounts).

Why Scholar Social registrations are closed

We’ve spent 5 years developing a culture at Scholar that is intentionally different from Twitter and even from academic Twitter (with varying degrees of success)

We’re more chill, we’re in academia but intensely critical of academia, we’re anti-racist and pro-queer; we’re “the teacher’s break room of the Fediverse”

I’m not going to throw that all away, trampled by an influx of users who think that this space is just “different Twitter”

Mastodon is comprised of three basic feeds, whereas Twitter only has one. Those three feeds are:

  • Home – those people you have chosen to follow
  • Local timeline – those people in the same community (server) as you
  • Federated timeline – Pretty much lots of things from different communities

Coming from Twitter, these changes are definitely different. It took me a while to understand the differences. Once you understand that the second column is the instance (community feed), things can make more sense. Following people is easy, but there isn’t a company-wide algorithm to direct you to users. You have to find them.

Here are a couple of guides:

Mastodon is not new. Mastodon has been around for quite a long time. Please don’t join an instance and start requesting changes. The community has debated, and decided, how Mastodon should look, work, and feel. If you are passionate about wanting some changes, please be part of the community for a while BEFORE you start asking for things to be changed.

The biggest issue may be a bit ironical. There are fewer users on Mastodon than on Twitter. The same network effect really isn’t in place. One of my frustrations has long been that there isn’t really a Mastodon targetted for K-12 educators. Maybe Twitter will get so screwed up that people will leave and look for something similar, but different.

I’m not yet convinced that Mastodon will replace Twitter. I still think that it’s too early. It is an interesting time though. I’ve tried to make the change a few times. If enough people do try out Mastodon and stick around for a bit, it really could be a better experience.

I remain an open-source advocate. I hope that more and more people will realize the advantages of open-source. Having control is a good thing.

Another resource:

If you have issues with your Mastodon account and are on mastodon.social, take these steps:

  1. Go to https://instances.social/ & do the wizard
  2. Select any instance that pops up that looks nice to you
  3. Create an account there
  4. Set up an account alias by going to Settings -> Account -> Account Settings -> Moving from a different account
  5. Move your account by going to https://mastodon.social/settings/migration

The #Fediverse is distributed, you don’t need to be on the most popular instance to participate.

https://chaos.social/@pludikovsky

Weekly Review

Weekly Review

October 21, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Breakfast with a Beauty

Rm (who is definitely the beauty here) and I had breakfast at a new local coffee shop. Breakfast was terrific (we both had Eggs Benedict) and the coffee was good. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, one other diner with a dog arrived, which was nice.

I’m reminded just how special and enjoyable these moments are. I’m extremely blessed that I get to spend my life with her. I’m also blessed that we get to have moments like this.

Moodle Cross State

I’m lucky to be part of the Moodle Cross State group. This is a terrific group.

StudentQuiz

I’m working with the wonderful plug-in for Moodle called StudentQuiz. Essentially, the plug-in allows students to create quiz questions. These questions can then be answered by the students (for points). The students can also rank the questions.

MAMLE

The Maine Association of Middle Level Educators held its annual conference this past week and I got to go. It was very refreshing to chat with middle school people and look at things from a middle school learning perspective.

I also had an opportunity to chat with the wonderful Dr. Monte Selby. Surprisingly, he even remembered me from an interview that Shawn and I did with him many years ago. He really did remember me, beyond just being polite. Shawn and I interviewed Dr. Selby back in 2012 at NMSA (National Middle School Association) Annual Conference. It really does feel pretty special when someone of Dr. Selby’s ilk remembers you.

Sync

Keeping things in sync is nearly magical. The ability to do something in one place and have it magically show up in another is terrific. When this works, it is great. It doesn’t always work though. When it doesn’t, it is time to troubleshoot.

Joplin

I love Joplin. I’ve used it for quite a while. However, it seems as though one device got a bit out of sync with the others. My working belief is that one of the encryption passwords is out of sync with the others.

NetNewsWire

I’ve been using NetNewsWire for years and years. It has a long history, but it is an open-source RSS reader. It is by far the best RSS reader around. I know that not many people use RSS, but I love it. I get control over what I want to read. Basically, RSS is like my social media site. It’s also like my own personal newspaper. I get to follow the blogs and postings that I want to follow. I have my feeds sectioned off into categories, and things mostly work great.

Recently, I noticed that reading things on one device wasn’t always syncing with the others. A quick trip to the support forums (done via Slack) and the developer answers the questions. He asks for a file to be shared. Bing, he answers the question with instructions on how to fix the issue. He also notes that an upcoming update will fix this issue.

So, I get better support from an open-source software solution than I do with most products that I pay for.

Logseq

Logseq syncing is still a project for me. It doesn’t seem to sync reliably. I have realized that the sync is only really assured (happens?) when closing the program. This is not the way most syncing works. So, maybe it’s my fault?

I haven’t had time to fully investigate this issue, but I hope to at some point.

Weekly Update 38

September 18, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Producing the Podcast

Every week I do a podcast, well, almost every week. This past week, I made a major oopsie (yep, that is the official term). While putting the show together, which is recorded in a couple of segments, I copied in a segment from the previous week.

Acadia

On Sunday, Rm and I headed to Acadia National Park to meet up with daughter #1 and a friend of hers who is here to visit. We had a wonderful hike together. Rm and I stuck around to watch the ocean for a bit. As the ocean came in, we were close, but safe, that we got sprayed a bit.

York

Our continuing participation in the Maine Yarn Cruise, ok, mostly Rm, but I get to go along frequently to see new places. One of the spots to visit was in York. We explored a bit of York as well. Specifically, we visited the Nubble Lighthouse. The Nubble Lighthouse was a nice visit. Afterward, we headed out for dinner. We stopped at a restaurant with outside seating. The restaurant was technically what you would call a “hole in the wall”. Our expectations weren’t high, but we ordered. The food turned out to be excellent (only surpassed by the company). I had a fried haddock sandwich that was marvelous.

Ari Hest

Rm and I went to see Ari Hest at the The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth, NH. If you aren’t familiar with Ari Hest, check out his music. While he gets some fame for working with Judy Collins, his music stands on its’ own.

The venue was really nice. It’s a really small space, very intimate. We sat about ten feet away. No opening act, just Ari Hest. We had two lovely table mates as well.

I really prefer these shows over the stadium-sized shows. Smaller venue artists connect with the audience in a way that is impossible in large venues. Rather than spectacle, you get connection. Many of these artists, and Ari Hest certainly qualifies, are the modern-day philosophers, poets, and guides.

Portsmouth also has a wonderfully cute downtown. Rm and I will have to go back when more things are open and we can explore.

Matt Mullenweg

Matt Mullenweg was on This Week in Google recently. I was fascinated by many parts of the show. Specifically, I was interested in some of his views on open-source and usability. I need to relisten with specific attention. But here are a couple of things that struck me:

  • Social networks have to find what makes them special. Matt recently purchased Tumblr. There was discussion about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more social networks.
  • Conversation versus connection. This was interesting as well. Are we looking for connection (Facebook’s default value) or communication?

So, I’ll need to go back and listen again with purpose.

One of the other things that Matt talked about was making the canvases, and brushes of the internet.

Millionaire Dollar Idea

ig Nobel Awards of 2022. The Applied Cardiology Prize is about blind dating and how their heart rate becomes synchronized. Develop a device with a Green, Yellow, and Red light. Each dater wears a finger clip, the box sits in the middle of the table.

Weekly Review

May 9, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Educational Technology

I’ve been thinking a ton about educational technology (to be fair, this is pretty much a constant). Educational technology is different from consumer technology. This leads to interesting practices, beliefs, and practices.

I had an interesting discussion with one of the smartest people I know (my wonderful wife). The discussion revolved around how much teachers develop materials and skills. Technology is now one of those skills. Whereas when we were trained as teachers, we learned to create materials that weren’t technology related, those same skills/ideas are now necessary around technology use.

Open Source

Logseq

Logseq is an open-source, privacy-first, knowledge base. It works on Markdown, which is what I normally write in. (Markdown is plain text that leverages a couple of special characters to create stylized text). I first installed Logseq a couple months ago. However, I had issues with it syncing correctly across devices. Syncing across devices is crucial for me. However, there was an update, so I took a couple of minutes and tried the sync again. It now works. Syncing is handled through iCloud, so nothing extra is needed. iCloud is encrypted, so the data stays with me. Plus, since everything is written in Markdown, the data can be moved from one place to another without loss. No proprietary formats to worry about.

The thing that attracted me about Logseq is the Journaling feature. Essentially, Logseq has a built-in journal feature where a daily entry is automatically created. This makes it super easy to do a daily journal.

There are lots of other features that I haven’t explored yet. Flashcards are another built-in feature (I don’t really have a current use case for Flashcards though). The other concept noted is Personal Knowledge Management (PMK). PMK is defined as a way of “collecting information that a person uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve and share knowledge in their daily activities” It is easy to link things together.

Currently, I use Joplin for collecting thoughts, writing blog posts (like this one), and keeping track of things. Joplin has been a favorite of mine for a while. Joplin also utilizes Markdown. If you are looking for a comparison, Evernote is a good comparison. I actually switched from Evernote to Joplin when Evernote began charging for syncing to devices. I’m actually much happier with Joplin than I was with Evernote. Plus, if Joplin stops being developed, I don’t have to worry about losing anything.

So, currently, I think that I’ll try using both of these with specific purpose. Logseq will be a daily journal. Joplin will continue to be my thought collector.

Wick Editor

  • The Wick Editor is a free, open-source tool for creating games, animations, and everything in-between!

I’ve played around a bit with Wick Editor and it seems very easy to use. I’d love to have a kid start playing around with it.

MOOSE

We have started the process for creating out module.
Our driving question is:

How can I improve the impact my community makes on the environment?

Currently, we’re working on creating the Product that the students will design.

Students may want to utilize one of the following to communicate their learnings with the community.

  • Presentation
  • PSA
  • Video
  • App (Code.org, Scratch, Swift, etc)
  • Model
  • Infographic
  • Create website

I did some work on the site to learn how the site works, and the work got lost.

I’m a bit frustrated by the MOOSE process. I’ll continue on.

Weekly Update (April 4, 2022)

April 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Workflows

I had a neat conversation about things that we can do. One example that I shared was when I had overheard a teacher state “This week is going to be tough. I’ve got to read the test all week”. I asked “Why is that?” (I knew the answer, but I really wanted the teacher to process this.).
“Well, lots of kids have an IEP or accommodation where they have the test read to them.”
So, I asked, “Why not read the test once?”
The teacher, “That would be awesome.”
Me: “In Moodle, you can read it once, record it and be done.”
Teacher: “Tell me more.”
So I showed the teacher how it would work. The teacher went and recorded everything (the test was already in Moodle, so it was even more streamlined).
The teacher, who was a Special Education teacher by the way, then showed the cooperating teacher. The cooperating teacher was a bit hesitant. “Would all the students be able to listen to the test?”
Me: “Yep”
Teacher 2: “Hm. I’m not sure about that.”
Me: “How come? What is your concern? Look, honestly, the students who don’t need the test read aren’t going to listen. Also, do you have students who could use the test to be read, but don’t have anything officially documented?”
Teacher 2: “Yea. I’ve got quite a few. Let me think about it and get back to you.”
The teacher got back to me and stated that we were good to go. See, this was just a change. This leveled the playing field. The students who needed the test read didn’t have to be pulled out of class. All the students were told that they could listen to the test.
End result: All of the students were treated with grace. Those that needed the test read, could listen. They didn’t have to be pulled aside, they could stay with their peers. Those that really didn’t need the test read, didn’t have to listen. Plus, we reduced the unconscious bias in reading the test out loud. The Special Education teacher could do work that was more in line with their skills and talents rather than reading a test over and over for a week. The cooperating teacher ended up wanting to read the test. We set him up with the very little bit of training needed and now he reads all the tests for the kids.

There was some interest in this process in my new position. I’m not sure that everyone is ready for the yet, but once they are….

Moose

I’m still working on the MOOSE project. I have a few things that need to get done, but we are still working through the background parts of the project.

House of Cards

I was a fan of House of Cards on Netflix. Who knew just how accurate the show really was. It is now apparent that we have lots of legislators who only care about staying in power. They don’t care about the citizens, what is right, democracy, or justice. They just want to stay in power.

Flow charts

So, this week I learned that you can do flowcharts in markdown. Well, technically, not markdown, but markdown like. Even better, flowcharts are built-in to Joplin through Mermaid integration. I was able to create a quick flowchart, but I need to learn how to style them a bit.


This chart is created with the following code:

” ““`mermaid
graph TD
A[Flowchart] –>|Learn| B(Types)
B –> C{Graphs}
C –>|Possibility| D[Gantt]
C –>|Possibility| E[Flowchart]
C –>|Possibility| F[Left to Right]

Mermaid actually does quite a few different diagrams. You can play around with a live online editor

## Photo Group

I got to attend this weeks photo group. This week was sharing member photos. I’m enjoying listening to the rating and thoughts of others about pictures. I need to develop my eye.

Student Data Sheet

February 10, 2022 / / 0 Comments

*Warning, what follows may not be the most efficient or elegant solution to the problem noted. However, it is a solution.

In education, we frequently want to look at multiple data points for a single student. Often these are standardized tests. Looking at the data from a single vendor for a single assessment is usually quite easy. The vendor creates tons of reports. However, combining different results is usually a bit harder.

My first “go-to” is usually a pivot table. Pivot tables will provide great flexibility. However, the end-users (here administrators and teachers) aren’t always comfortable manipulating pivot tables. It can be more confusing rather than enlightening.

So, let’s take a look at what the educators are looking for. Basically, a sheet with a student name, then different assessment results on one line.

I started by exporting a copy of student data with the fields that I need (Student State ID, Student Number, Student Last, Student First Name, Teacher, Grade Level). (This is the information identified as necessary by the school as the end-user. They want teachers to be able to see their students. I added the Student State ID field as an identifier that was common amongst the reporting spreadsheets). I named this Student Data Example. Then I renamed the tab DataView (skipping spaces makes formulas easier).

Next, I added the assessments that we are going to look at (as determined by the school). I also color-coded the assessments.

Now we’re ready for some data.

I’ve exported the NWEA data as a csv file (spreadsheet). Then I looked at the NWEA data. I moved the State ID field to be the first field on the spreadsheet. This is necessary to match the records through a VLOOKUP.

I copied the data to a new tab on the Student Data Example spreadsheet. (*I could’ve done an IMPORTRANGE – which would automatically copy the data, but maybe later). Now I’ve got a spreadsheet with two tabs: DataView (the tab that users will look at) and Fall_NWEA (where I’ve copied the NWEA results for Fall).

Normally, this would be a simple VLOOKUP. However, NWEA has multiple tests per student. That is, a student has probably taken three tests. Each one is a row. Using VLOOKUP would grab the first result and move on. Thus, I couldn’t get the reading score in the reading box for sure. What I need is just the Reading (just the Math, and just the Language) scores on one table.

I created a new tab on the spreadsheet and titled it Fall_NWEA_Reading. I copied the header row (only A through N as those are the columns with data that I need). Then in cell A2 I wrote the following formula:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Reading”)

What this formula does is to copy the data from the Fall_NWEA tab where the information in Column G is “Reading”. This means that I get one result per student that is their Reading score. This is exactly what I need.

Next I duplicate that tab, change the name to Fall_NWEA_Math. Then I click in cell A2 and change the formula from:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Reading”)
To:

=FILTER(Fall_NWEA!A1:N, Fall_NWEA!G1:G=”Math”)

Now this tab will pull all the data from the Fall_NWEA tab that has the word Math in column G.

Then I repeat that process (duplicate the tab, rename to Fall_NWEA_Language, and change “Reading” to “Language”). Now I have a discrete cell that I can reference on the Student Data sheet.

Back to DataView tab. Under each of the tests, I can now reference a specific cell through VLOOKUP. For example, in the Fall NWEA Math Test Percentile column, I can add the following formula:

=VLOOKUP(A2,Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$M,13, FALSE)

Here are the guts:

  • VLOOKUP is the command.
  • A2 references the cell to compare
  • Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$M- this is the tab to look at (remember it will use the first column on the tab to compare – the $ signs are necessary to lock the formula so that it will search all the way down
  • Column 13 is the column (M) with the data that I want.

Essentially, this looks at the information in cell A2 on the DataView sheet. Then it looks through the first column of the tab Fall_NWEA_Math for a matching result. If it finds one, it can use the data from that row (A through M because that is where I told it look). The next part of the formula (13) says put the data in the cell here. The FALSE means look for an exact match.

Now you can fill that formula down to all the rest of the rows.

Next we’ll grab the Fall NWEA Math Test AchievementQuartile. In the next column, we’ll pretty much copy that formula, but adjust for the appropriate column were the results that we want are. Since I want the data that is in column N, I have to expand two parts – I need to pull data from A-N and I want column 14. Thus:

=VLOOKUP(A2,Fall_NWEA_Math!$A$2:$N,14, FALSE)

That’s it. Now that I have clean usable data, I can repeat this basic process.
Next, we’ll use conditional formatting to highlight the scores per colum, but that’s another post.

Pragmatism vs Possibilities

Pragmatism vs Possibilities

February 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Now that technology purchasing season is upon us, I’ve been thinking a lot about pragmatism and possibilities.

Pragmatism – “an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.”

I’m using pragmatism to stand for how something will really, actually, in the real world be used.

Technology purchases (and really, lots of purchases) will be made based on the possibilities of the product. The salesforce will highlight the wonderful things that the product can do. Purchasers will focus in the possibilities that a product provides. Decisions will be generated on the great possibilities of the products. Comparisons will be made. The fact that one product can (at least theoretically) do something may tip the balance and cause that product to be purchased.

Once the products are purchased, the real issue becomes how it is actually used. No matter the best intention, rarely is anything used to its maximum. I would argue that technology in education is a prime example of that. Educators are kind, optimistic, wonderful people. They truly want kids to learn. They have the world’s greatest intention. But, you know what they say about good intentions….

One example of this, which isn’t super contentious, is the Swivl. The Swivl is a base device into which a teacher places an iPad or iPhone (technically an Android phone would work too, but come on 😀 ). The teacher then can wear a pendant, and the iPad would follow the teacher. This system allows for the teacher to record what is going on in class. This could be used to spotlight the students as well. The idea being that the teacher could record instruction, small group work, student responses, etc.

I remember seeing this making the rounds. I ended up purchasing one, trying it out, and giving it to my Tech Coaches, and having them try it out. Our verdict: Cool, but ultimately no one is going to use it. Oh, we had some additional teachers try it out as well. Specifically, we had some instructional coaches try it with teachers that they were working in. Their verdict, “no thank you”.

See, the idea was fine enough. In reality, though, few teachers want to be recorded. Even those that do, don’t want to put a lot of time, energy, or effort into the process. Let’s be honest, dealing with video requires editing. Anyway, no one really wanted to work with the Swivl.

Then….

A couple of my bosses went to a gee-whiz, bang-up presentation at our ISD (Intermediate School District – the level between the local district and the State). They came back excited!

Them: “Have you seen the Swivl”?
Me: Yes.
Them: We need to buy a bunch of them.
Me: We have one. How about I let you try it out?
Them: How much are they? When can we get more?
Me: I’ll loan you the one that we have. Try it out. Have some teachers try it out.

So, I sent them off with the Swivl to try it out with some teachers.
(Hint: we didn’t buy any more.)

There’s no blame here. The sales pitch was solid. The possibilities were terrific. The shiny factor is high. Who doesn’t want to be able to review their teaching? Who doesn’t want the coaches to have deep discussions with the teachers that working with? Heck, one of my teacher friends even spent his/her/their very own money to purchase one. Again, the possibilities were terrific. However, pragmatically? Pragmatically, these end up in the closet. ( *Side note, time to create the Closet of Great Intentions?)

Another example of possibilities versus pragmatic selection seems to be the adoption of a Learning Management System (LMS). I’ve seen the selection of an LMS (by several districts) end up being decided upon by a good sales pitch. In reality, much of the use of an LMS is extremely limited. So, districts end up deciding whether to adopt LMS A or LMS B based on a sales pitch of possibilities (almost none of which educators will use).

One final example. I was chatting about this with a friend from another district. He smiled stated that they ended up selecting an EL program based on 27 things, but they only end up using 1% of the program. (The conversation was also about the money that districts spend for curriculum resources (and how those come to be viewed as the curriculum), but that’s another post.)

This seems to be deeply ingrained into the technology and technology selection. I’ve heard this from a plethora of people in technology.

What’s your possibility vs pragmatic example?

Performative Arts

October 19, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Today’s thought revolves around “performative arts” and how that may impact education.

What does teaching look like? I’m wondering if when we think of teaching, we think of a teacher doing “performative arts”. That is, we think of what the teacher is doing. This fits well with the model of lecture (or worksheets, the teacher has created the “performance” that students will complete).

I’m wondering how much of teacher evaluation relates back to “performative arts” of the teacher.

The real power in learning comes from the learner doing the work and reflecting on what they are doing (and why).

It can be harder to assess and quantify students doing and reflecting. It is far easier to assess what a teacher is “performing”.

As with most things, this thought came from outside of education. I was listening to a discussion about Zoom and why conversation is different when we aren’t in the same room (i.e. missing physical cues, bad lighting, bad sound, delayed sound, etc.)

Just the thought for the day.

Continuing the Work

Continuing the Work

April 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

This is an open letter. I’ve been hearing of a couple of potential state-wide committees (or task forces) to look at continuing the work of learning online. (I’ve even been asked to participate in a couple of them.) Essentially, they want to look at several things:

  • OER
  • Effectiveness of Online Learning
  • Success of students
  • District sharing

These are all things that I’ve been advocating for years. I understand that these are changes that are hard, require vision, and lots of work. The payoff (increased student learning) is definitely worth the work.

Although I’ll be leaving the State of Michigan soon, I hope to continue this work (with a renewed focus, perspective, and connections). Thus, my work will move to another state and/or nation-wide.

Here though is my request. Please take up the mantle. Someone will be replacing me in my current position. I’m hoping that that person will continue on with the work. But, we need a real movement. We need lots of educators participating.

There are a variety of steps that you can take. Learn about OER (Open Education Resources). Learn about effective teaching on-line (this is very different than using “shiny” tools.) Ask how your district is sharing materials (hopefully OER) with other districts. Once you are ready, advocate!

I appreciate all the work that so many educators have undertaken. We have a unique opportunity to make some real changes. These are changes that were appropriate before COVID changed things. These are things that will be appropriate after we return from the COVID restrictions.

*Image from the The U.S. National Archives: https://catalog.archives.gov/ (Link to original image).

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