There a few processes students love learning more about than deconstructing the reliability of online content. It is the perfect example of something that is enhanced through collaborative learning, and it is inherently stimulating for kids. This is not to mention the inarguable necessity of it as a literacy skill. As a class, we have discovered that the thinking skills required to discern ‘not truth’ from ‘more truthful’ entails both science and art. Perhaps an appropriate analogy is to compare it to a detective solving a crime: there is protocol to follow and converge upon, but some crimes require you to diverge from normal strategies and delve into unknown terrain. With that in mind, here is our current list:

I’ve created this resource to help people who are interested in using Personal Internet Devices (PIDs) in their schools or classrooms. Please leave comments below. School-Based Assumptions that Support Implementation of Portable Internet Devices Mistake making and failure are not just tolerated, but essential to learning. Students and teachers are co-learners. Time commitment extends beyond the school day. Social Media has a place in the school. Pedagogical Benefits Most of the benefits of Mobile Learning below only occur through high level curriculum design and instruction, others occur by default. For instance, student voice is not enhanced simply by the introduction of these devices. Of course it isn’t. On the other hand, something such as the devaluation of rote memorization may occur simply because the presence of the devices themselves negates it. 1. Student Voice and Leadership Traditionally, we have had two main avenues for students to share with the group: by putting up one’s hand and speaking, or by completing an assignment (usually written). Mobile devices open up an exponentially greater number of doors for getting one’s voice to the crowd. Student ideas, questions, and responses are more easily collected and seen. 2. Differentiated Communication of Understandings Students can receive and share knowledge/understandings easily through different means: audio, video, print, image. For example, no longer is the student discriminated against for preferring to communicate through speaking rather than writing. 3. Collaborative Learning A common myth is that mobile devices drive individuals into themselves, and away from the group. In fact, mobile device use accomplishes the opposite in the classroom: greater connection, increased reliance on the group for learning, and more (not less) conversation. 4. Higher Order Thinking When facts and information are at one’s fingertips, it means it is a complete waste of time to memorize and test for them. The classroom focus changes to critical and metacognitive thinking skills. 5. Teacher as Expert of Learning, not Content With mobile devices in the classroom, it is ineffectual, sometimes impossible, for the teacher to act as the expert of content. Instructional design, thus, moves in a different direction. 6. Assessment for Learning and Descriptive Feedback Because of the ability to collect large amounts of quantitative and qualitative data from mobile devices, every second of the classroom becomes an assessment moment that can not only occur, but also be archived. 7. Multiple and More Fluid Definition of ‘Text’ E-reading is the future. Period. Mobile devices allow for a far more realistic and representative conceptualization of what it means to read and write. 8.  Teaching Digital Citizenship and managing our Digital Footprint This is becoming increasingly important and can no longer be assumed that students understand the long-term ramifications of having an online presence.  It’s our responsibility as educators to help our students understand and manage their footprint.  Great opportunity for higher order thinking here. 9. Learning Discipline Mobile devices are not going away. They are ubiquitous in most of our lives. Students need to learn to be disciplined with these devices because they can otherwise be used strictly for escapist endeavours. Practice makes perfect. Like this:Be the first to like this post.

Like a lot of people, I am supremely inspired by Neil Pasricha’s perspective on life. Wouldn’t it be great if we could leave the politics of education out of the process of learning and focus on what we can do to ensure that our children have an awesome Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity? What are you doing in your learning environments to foster the 3 A’s of Awesome?

The students in my class have a plethora of apps and tools for digital collaboration, mind mapping, and brainstorming. From Google Docs to iThoughts to Smart Ideas, any and all are available with the swipe of a screen or a touch of a mouse. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how awesome good old fashioned chart paper and markers are for collaboration and idea generation. When you get groups working with these tools, their behaviour is physical and social, a great combination for learning. I feel so blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to try a wide variety of tools with the learners in my classes over the years. It reminds me which ones are lasters and which are flashes in the pan.

YORK REGION NEWS: http://bit.ly/eadJQb CTV NEWS: ROGERS TV: TORONTO STAR: http://www.thestar.com/article/861864-debate-rages-over-cellphones-in-ontario-classrooms  

Report cards were handed out at our school yesterday. If you’ve read my blog before, follow me on Twitter, or have ever had a glass of wine with me, you can probably infer how I feel about these days. It seems to me that no matter how we frame them, report cards have a perplexing, if not devastating effect on the way our learners approach collaboration. Never mind the other ways it impacts self-efficacy and motivation (see Joe Bower’s For the Love of Learning blog). I stood aghast watching a school full of little people play the wadjyaget game. I threw up in my mouth a little. In Ontario, we are supposed to assess and evaluate something we call Learning Skills. These are broken down into the following: Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Self-Regulation, Initiative, and Collaboration (see @benhazzard and others’ great resource which clarifies what these concepts mean). I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the latter skill, collaboration. Or, rather, collaborative environments. Here’s where I see the distinction. Collaboration occurs when two or more parties join powers in an effort to solve a problem or accomplish a goal. For true collaboration to be taking place, all members of the team need to be equally invested in the result. In classrooms and schools around the world, situations that demand collaboration are normal if not pervasive. Of course, the extent to which the advanced skills required to be successful collaborators are being fostered is another question altogether. Collaboration is the most wonderful thing in the world. When you’re in that team zone where members are clear about their roles, communicate with ease, and have an intrinsic impulse to succeed, there really is no pharmaceutical to match it. The thing about collaboration though is that it can still be just an event. As in, Man, that project we did together was so awesome! I wish we could do it again. What is more, we often associate these times as ones shared with relatively like minded people. For instance, I love working with friends like @techieang and @slouca11 (just to name a couple) because we share certain foundational world views. I see the creation and fostering of collaborative environments or spaces as a little bit of a different animal. Collaborative spaces don’t necessarily have a clear end in mind. Or, rather, it is an end in itself. A collaborative environment means that every single person says this: I cannot be who I want to be without these other people. My number one goal as a teacher is to do everything in my power to remove barriers to this process. I am in no way implying that I have actually managed to achieve this ideal, nor am I suggesting that it does not ebb and flow (there’s no finish line). What I am saying is that I am trying as hard as I can. Forget words and rhetoric. No need to tell people, let alone kids, to be nice to one another, share ideas, and to put group interests above selfish concerns. It’s not about what you preach, it’s about what you do. It’s about the structure. So what are the barriers? I don’t have all the answers. Still, I think there are two big areas we selectively ignore on a regular basis. Literally Practicing What We Preach If you want to create a collaborative learning space with kids, try your best to learn in one yourself. For instance, until I personally experienced collaborative teacher moderation of student work samples, I had no conscious idea of how to transfer that model to the classroom. It completely dumbfounds me, for instance, that I am frequently meeting educators asking me for assistance on leveraging social media in their classrooms while not participating in a professional learning network themselves. If you want to explore how social media fosters collaborative attitudes and practices in your group of learners, I would engage in one yourself. Assessment and Evaluation The way we assess progress and evaluate quality has to match what we say is important. So, if you are telling your kids that goal setting means to strive for ten more percentage points, then by all means, use those functions in Excel or Markbook and put a percentage mark on everything that happens in the room (I am fully aware that some of us are mandated to use these tools). But I might also suggest that you should perhaps avoid simultaneously clumping kids together in group work and projects as well, for there exists a paradox of sorts here. On the other hand, if you are telling kids that everyone is an expert at something, and that leveraging of individual differences in a group results in larger, wider reaching, and sustainable success, then you should probably put that gradebook with the millions of tiny boxes in the recycling bin. Sometimes it’s not what you ‘teach’, say, or even do. Sometimes collaborative spaces are created and maintained by simply stopping certain processes that are directly in conflict with them. And now for a somewhat apt but mostly gratuitous Voltron analogy:

Is there anything more satisfying than an awesome conversation? (I know you’re thinking about that other thing, but you know what I mean.) Today I had a spontaneous conversation with a parent at my school. I noticed she had a unique accent so it lead us into a discussion about Brazilian economics and politics. I felt so good after that casual talk. There was so much humanity and honesty in a simple little repartee. Or what about the crazily fascinating discussion going on right now at George Couros’ blog? Just compelling is what that is. Many people who are blinded by the technology in our class may not notice that it’s all about conversation. Much of my practice involves invoking structured discussion to help kids arrive at some point of convergence. It just so happens we have some toys that sometimes helps us to do that more inclusively and efficiently. Having serious and guided talk is almost a physical need. Your brain feels better when you’re talking your thinking out. It makes learning extremely personalized yet collaborative, loud yet quiet. I really think I’m a novice at doing this, but I’m trying my best. It seems to be a wicked way to learn.

The first month of having a (near) class set of iPods and iPads in my English class has been rewarding in so many ways and challenging in many others (mostly logistic). Here are some lessons from my classroom. What’s Tough Syncing is a you-know-what Syncing multiple iDevices sucks. Big time. Personal is better This is stating the obvious, I know, but the students in my class who are bringing their personal iPods to my class are establishing a much stronger ‘relationship’ with their devices. It’s like I’ve given the others a scintillating book to read, and have to wrench it from their hands when the bell goes. The ones who own one get to take it home and continue learning. Not enough Flash I don’t care what Steve says. Flash is good, or at the very least useful. They ain’t laptops See above. They are the ultimate polarizer No one bats an eyelid if you suggest students need laptops for learning anymore. Few people have a problem with the almighty interactive whiteboard. But, if you want facial expressions from adults that exemplify shock and horrow, then bring iPods and iPads into the classroom. Many cannot fathom what you could possibly be using them for other than simple entertainment. Even the ones that try appear to be getting a migraine. It’s expensive You can buy, let’s see, at least two, perhaps three, netbooks for the price of one iPad? Moreover, remember that the device isn’t enough. You need apps, cases, a place to secure them, and interior design to make it work. What’s Terrific It’s Social The laptop is a solitary device. In my class, the students using netbooks or laptops appear to be in their own world. On the other hand, the iPad in particular was meant to be shared. It’s, well, more polite. Because I run a near-paperless class where devices are in students hands even during direct instruction, students are (or at least appear to be) more attentive. IWB Bye Bye Anything I show on my projector can now be seen very quickly on an iPad. It makes my moments of whole class instruction far less teacher-centred. Gaming to Learn Because of these devices, I feel like it’s the first time I can really use games as learning centres and workstations. I’ve been using many of the available word games for word study. Learning about them has never been so tactile. The Future Now Touchscreens and tablets are unquestionably the future. My students are lucky enough to use the most relevant tool available today. Do my students love learning, and do I love teaching, with iDevices? Yes. Is it for everyone? Not unless your pedagogy is ready for it. And on another note, I think The Simpsons are making fun of me …

First, let me admit something. I’m not a fan of most traditions. In fact, sometimes I am unreasonably reactionary about traditions. Usually, my thinking tends to be, "Why is it a tradition? And what’s the best way we can change it?" It’s not your problem, it’s mine. There may have been a time in history when they locked people like me in the crazy house. I also know that there is a place for tradition, and that it is absurd to forsake tradition for the sake of it. I know that I am not a better person than someone who appreciates the beauty and historical relevance of some traditions. But. Sometimes certain traditions act as metaphors for stagnation and a fear of change. Today, for instance, was our school’s picture day. I have a funny feeling our picture day is the same as yours across town, or hers in another province, or your niece’s in the other country, or your sister’s across the ocean, or … You get the picture, so to speak. Here are a few rhetorical questions I have about picture day. Why have we never changed one iota about picture day since the advent of the camera? Why must we group everyone the exact same way, in the precise order, with the irrevocable sitting positions? Why can’t we have students taking the photos? Portrait photography is an unendingly artistic endeavour. Why must we strip this away and depict it as a mechanistic act? I don’t really expect answers to these questions. Nor is picture day something I’m passionate about and interested in leading change against. I just can’t help notice the symbolism of it all.

I’ve been interviewed by the awesome @jessebrown for TVO’s Search Engine podcast. Here’s the link: Class, turn on your cellphones!