When I was growing up, we never once heard the word ‘autism’ in our household. It wasn’t a banned word or anything. It was simply that my immigrant Korean parents had neither heard it before nor understood it (people who work in ASD advocacy know all too well about the important role that language and culture plays in whether a child gets help or not). It wasn’t until I myself grew to be an educated (in education no less) adult that my world opened up to what special education really meant, and, specifically, what autism spectrum disorder was. Guess what my first ever teaching position was? I believe the exact title was ‘Behaviour/MID/Autism’. Ah, an eclectic mix for a first year teacher. Genius, our education system is at times. I digress. One of the copious things I learned on my way up this steep learning curve was the role graphical representations of messages played in communicating with autistic individuals. At first, I remember thinking how absurd and airy-fairy the concept of storyboards were. Even as someone who lauds graphical representations of everything, I just didn’t comprehend how it could make such a difference to someone like my ‘weird’ brother. It did. It made a canyon of a difference. I was shocked by the effect that an iconic image of, say, how to sit properly at a desk, could actually, with no trouble, explain and have my brother/students comply. Needless to say, this experience made a profound impact on me as a person, let alone an educator, brother, or parent. And now, what have I discovered? Twitter. This tool that has seemingly encompassed a portion of my personal and professional existence has also proven to be something of a magic bullet for communication with my brother. When I have a verbal discussion with him, there is no way for me to ever know what or how much he has taken in of the interaction. He might block me out entirely, demonstrate what I call sly compliance listening, or just hyper focus on one word I said, taking it completely out of context. Through DM tweets, however, we have clear, succinct, coherent conversations. What is more, it is fast, instantaneous, and allows me access to my brother which transcends simple behavior modifications. I don’t need to develop a social story and wait for him to do the same in response. It’s utterly mesmerizing to me. It’s like the ASD wall that is ever-present has a secret door whose key is possessed by Twitter. Imagine being blind and then someone giving you a pair of cool glasses that let you see; that’s what it’s like. These days what I do is have a verbal conversation with him (How’s work? Damn them Blue Jays eh? Please remember not to give ‘props’ to every single stranger you meet on the street!) and then let him know that I will send him tweets about it as well. It’s been a godsend for us. The obvious next question is why. Why is it such an appealing mode of communication for him? Why does the noise of his world seemingly get quieted through 140 characters? There are greater experts than myself who would better answer these queries. The only thing I will firmly attest to is this: Never, ever, underestimate the visual and graphic aspect of social networking. Forget what you’ve been told about Learning Styles. Every kid that walks into your class is a visual learner. You are automatically differentiating instruction in your class by making social media a part of it because, if nothing else, it makes communication visual, graphical, and, in a sense, kinesthetic.

This is a screenshot from my iPhone of my daughter’s favourite game, Pocket Chef. She was begging me to let her play it today while I was trying to read Collins and Halverson’s Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology for our www.edbookclub.com. As I fended off her pleas while ironically reading the book’s section on the potential of video games in education, I wondered about a couple of things. What is it about video games that seemingly make kids more resilient to challenges and adversity than in real life classroom problem solving situations? What makes them persevere through tasks even though it can be as difficult not to burn the virtual burgers as it is to figure out ‘how much money was left in Sabrina’s wallet after going to the store at the mall’? Why don’t we necessarily see the same resolve and self-efficacy when solving a math story problem as we do when needing to conquer, say, a virtual WWII setting? If there are any answers to these questions, I have a feeling they are connected to Dan Meyer’s awesome TED talk on 21st Century Math Educational Reform: As it stands right now, I am less interested in the potential for video games to deliver curriculum than I am in the secrets to motivation, feedback, and intellectual rigour they seem to conceal. So, a couple of weeks after writing this post, I ran into Jane McGonigal’s TED talk on this very subject! Check it out:

I am frightened by @joebower‘s recent post on the Cooperative Catalyst where he pleads with us to abolish grading in schools. I’m petrified because I feel that he must have used some kind of X-Filian supernatural power to inhabit my mind, and then plagiarize its thoughts. Collective consciousness doesn’t even cover it. Whether you agree with his stance or not, it is definitely a must-consider topic for any stakeholder involved in the education of our 21st Century students. With the support of our awesome school board’s movement towards contemporary assessment theory and practice, I, like Joe, have been finding as many ways as possible to diminish grading in my classroom. I have certainly encountered the same challenges he speaks of, but many more rewards. This passage particularly resounded with me: My fears are almost too many to count. I’ve feared being different from my colleagues. I’ve feared being challenged by a parent or administrator. These fears still nag at me despite my confidence and research - I routinely have to tell my amygdala to shut-the-hell-up. Interestingly enough, my fears have never been about the kids. I thought one way I could contribute to Joe’s post is by quickly playing the self-interview game myself, focusing particularly on common myths about gradeless or near-gradeless classrooms that need to be debunked. Aren’t you abandoning/copping-out of one of your main responsibilities as a teacher? I don’t regard the act of handing a letter grade to a student for non-mandated moments as a fundamental responsibility of the teacher. Saying that grading is an important part of teaching is kind of like saying writing speeding tickets is what makes a good cop. So you’re afraid of hurting your students’ feelings? Well, yes and no. I do believe that self-efficacy is at the core of learning, and that constantly making authoritative evaluations of students work and progress is destructive in the development and nurturing of it, but this has nothing to do with hurting anyone’s feelings. Focusing on student self-efficacy is not the same thing as preserving anyone’s feelings. Don’t confuse the two. In fact, I’m more concerned about my students’ feelings being enhanced by the artificial experience of a ‘good’ grade. I remember a time in my life where I wasn’t very good at a subject, but worked incredibly hard at it and received an amazing grade/award which just legitimized everything. Aren’t you taking away this possibility from your students? Yes, actually, I am. I don’t like that school game. I played it as a kid too. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. It is somewhat repellant to me. Don’t confuse Hollywood story arcs with real learning. Academic rigour is important in education. Doesn’t your class lack it? If you want to see intellectual rigour, try telling a student who is used to being graded on all their work that it ain’t happening no more. Try telling them that we are going to use exemplars of quality work, collaboratively develop success criteria, provide and receive feedback in multiple ways, and reflect on our learning as a process instead of an end product. Then you will see rigour, not transactions. But aren’t you doing a disservice to kids who will eventually enter the harsh realities of the real world? This is one of the main questions I hear when the topic of grading comes up. My response is usually to answer it with my own questions: When was the last time you as an adult were graded on something? Maybe once or twice on a performance evaluation or something? And wasn’t that just a pass-or-fail anyway? Isn’t it true that your life is instead packed to the hilt with instances where you either have to seek, provide, or look within yourself for feedback on your project/work/parenting/etc.? Do you have the ever-evolving skills to do this? Do you think it is important that your own child does? The only ‘harsh reality’ our grade-filled classrooms will prepare our students for is the one that doesn’t require critical thinking, communication skills, creativity, or collaboration.

Everywhere I turn I see a lot of time and money being consumed warning parents, children, and teachers about the dangers on the internet. It’s getting to the point of absurdity. The problem with most of these initiatives and campaigns is they usually implicitly suggest that proverbial abstinence is the best policy. Actually, it’s the worst one. The less we work with students on being critically literate online, and the more we avoid social media and networking as an authentic part of the classroom experience, the more danger our students will be in. The internet is the most complex text ever imagined in the history of the world. Students are not just going to learn to be socially responsible, proactive, critically literate readers and users of it through exposure alone. No one with an ounce of knowledge and experience in literacy instruction would suggest that explicit instruction and practice isn’t the best policy for teaching reading and writing. Then why is it alright for us to ignore http://www.elephantinroom.com, and act like kids are going to OK if we just pretend they’re not reading and writing on it almost every waking moment of their day? Sorry about the soapboxing. My main reason for writing this post was actually to say one thing: Let’s start early. Let’s not wait until high school when they are perceived to be old enough. If we wait until then, we will have to do more untraining of bad habits students have picked up Facebooking etc. Moreover, it is likely that anything we do with them in the classroom will pale in comparison to the far more intriguing drama happening in their personal social networking. In my work with teachers, I have noticed a lack of resiliency when working with web 2.0 tools precisely because they tend to wait until the intermediate years. From my experience, although I don’t think any age is too early, I have noticed that ages 8-10 are the perfect time to start. Students at these ages tend to be at a reading and writing levels that can more easily traverse the internet. By starting early, we get a chance to establish good habits about positive content on the internet for consumption, as well as positive posting habits. I dare anyone to argue or demonstrate evidence that continued work online in the safe environment of a classroom program is not the best preparation for the Facebook and texting years. Explicit modeled, shared, and guided instruction; independent practice; descriptive feedback; and continual mistake making! Literacy instruction hasn’t changed all that much. There’s just a whole world of texts that shouldn’t be ignored.

The year has come to an end. My students are very worried about the prospect of not being able to use their personal technology next year, so I had them blog it out. Here’s what they wrote: When kids are allowed electronic devices in the classroom they are able to communicate through technology.  This is called a back channel discussion. It can help kids communicate and get help from each other without making a huge discussion. When students have a test there’s no talking allowed because it can disturb others, with electronic devices we are able to communicate no matter what the situations. We use things like twitter and Gmail and other to communicate. A student might be using the device to escape not expand. Which means using it for other things, not using it for school work. There are always going to be negatives with this but as we go along we learn what’s right and wrong and it’s better if we get a chance at least. It really helps me get organized too. It can be annoying sometimes having to shove all different sorts of paper into your desk, and you’re going to be throwing it out later anyway. When you’re using electronics for work, it’s not just about communicating and sharing ideas but it can also help with reduce the amount of paper use and help keep your desk cleaner. By A.K. One of the great things of acquiring electronic devices such as iPods, Laptops, and cell phones  is that you have the Internet in the palm of your hands. You don’t have to get on that old school laptop that is snail-slow! Also, if you have the Internet in your hands, students can easily do their work. It’s like the perfect idea so far for schools! Plus, when you have these devices in hand, you can talk to a person across the room, or even other class, without disturbing other classmates. To include the final fact, with these Personal Electronic Devices (A.K.A. PEDs) you can easily grab it and go on the Internet within 1 minute, when those slow laptops usually take 5 minutes. A big change, huh? By S.A. At first it seemed like it was unfair that some people had parents that buyed them stuff. But we noticed that it just meant that everyone could just do what they needed, and plus more of our classroom devices became available to the kids that didn’t have iPods and netbooks. By E.M. There are amazing tools to use for student’s learning. For example there are, calendar, clock, notes, calculator, and mail, is a great tools to use on an iPod. Won’t that be better than having students ask you for a calculator and you having to look for one? You can always download apps to help you read or extend your learning. Their personal devices can help access information from the internet. You have the power in your hands to search and do what you want to do. I know for a fact that there are some students who hate talking but have great ideas. Well this is a lucky day for you! This is your opportunity to share your ideas. I can understand that adults think that children are not responsible, but you know what, you have to try it. Taking a risk can lead you a perfect class, or a horrible thing. Students can may EXTAND their learning. Extending students’ learning is the whole point. Well in my class we are allowed to use our personal devices. That helped our class get better marks. In our class we are allowed to use Twitter to back channel. For math tests, we back channel to work as a team to finish the test. We don’t even make a peep. So have you made up your mind? Why not give it a try? That’s why I think we should be allowed to bring electronics to school. By S.S. Yes, personal technology should be allowed in the classroom. I see valid arguements for both sides, but I am will be the first person to jump on the PED boat. First of all, this gives a chance for everyone with a device to be on the net at once. As a result, whoever is without a device can use class or school technology to be on the interweb, so nobody is left out. Second reason: PEDs in school are like our hopes of the Leafs of the future: took a long time to get here, but they’re amazing! Ok, back to seriousness, this allowed students to communicate with not only students in the class without talking, but students in other cities! Other countries! Other continents! Other planets! There is intelligent life out there after all! (me!) Another reason to jump on my PED boat is because of all the useful applications (apps for short) that can be minipulated for learning. Yes, Mwuhahahahaha! Again I go with the jokes. Back to the realm of seriousness! There actually are many apps that can be minipulated for learning. My favorites are iGmail, tweetdeck, notes, and iTunes. Yes, iTunes. This is because I can buy my favorite songs to help me to concentrate , as well as to get me engaged in the realm of learning in all of my favorite subjects. My final reason is (yay! This garbage is finally over!) is that the use of these PEDs is a change of pace for students in these techie classrooms (those nerds!). I have loved this experience over the few months that I have experienced this experience, (I love to experience the experience of the term experience) I have to say I have been very intrested in coming to class. This is a very fun experience to use PEDs, and I have been graced wih an idea better than me! By N.M. PED’s ( personal, eductional, device) has been I geuss under thought and mocked but really if you try it you would think it is like a pencil to paper, chalk to a chalk board a word to …. well you get the point, it is a good thing and if you don’t beileve other people than you may beileve me. One of the many reasons I agree that PED’s in the classroom is good is because you can express your sel in more ways than just writing like a summary where as if yo use PED’s you can make your own blog about what you read. And I know some people think that they would fool around on them but that’s only true if you don’t trust them. in my class we will use them even if there is a presentation going on because we are most likley talking about the presentation. So if you understand why these devices are so great then maybe this will happen in many schools around the world. By K.L. Alot of adults say that children are not mature enough and have no self disipline towards personal devices. In some cases that is true, but not all. Our class is fortunate enough to be allowed to have our personal devices at school and in the class. I actually wrote this blogpost on my ipod Touch. Alot of children around the world can handle the responsibility of carrying their technology. Besides, if we’re not even allowed, how can we prove it? By D.N. Gotcha cellphone! Kit Ramsy says as he screams at the ailien tower. I think that students should be allowed to bring in peds to the class. I think this because if I was in class and I ask the teacher what am I doing there and why I can’t skip it. At this point the teacher could either say because you have to or they could say because you have to learn in order to get a job. This time round the kid might say well why can’t I bring my cellphone will I not be able to use it when I get older.this is where the contraversy begins. For a few examples, if I was feeling a bit naughty and lazy one night with a load of homework I might just go to a computer to get the answer. However if I was allowed to I might not feel as compelled to go to that computer. Even though our homework is to use the computer you might feel less driven to use it for "evil." For any kid that thinks he’s being left out of the circle because he doesn’t have a ped, well that’s so sad for them. But wait what’s that it’s a bird no a plane it’s extra computers for everyone. In our class if your left out you can get one of our school or class MacBooks to work on. Surprisingly nobody seems to mind if they have to use the school MacBooks. And if your the type of person that has trouble figuring things out just tweet a friend on Twitter to ask them. It also helps kids that have problems communicating with others because they don’t have to talk. In conclusion, oh I don’t think you need to hear this, I think we all get the picture! But ok I guess I’ll wrap it up. Basicly as you can see we are now able to give the power of a voice to the "shy people." And at the same time help everyone else with their potential. By C.K.

Customer service is one of the most underrated qualities in a person, business, or organization. This is odd considering there are few things more intrinsically gratifying than both giving and receiving it. It is no secret that this education biz is a challenging one, fraught with multiple practical and theoretical pot holes which constantly make you re-evaluate your interest in staying in the game (or ‘the dip’, as Seth Godin might call it). It’s not surprising then that the drop-out rate of teachers in their first five years is mind-chillingly high. I think one of the main reasons for this frightening retention rate is the way we have the tendency to over-complicate the profession. We exaggerate theory and implicitly or explicitly prescribe practice. We make teachers feel like they suck. I worry that we often drive away the best ones. What if we simplified things and just reminded our new teachers to look for and assess student need, and do everything they can to support the student in fulfilling it? Now I don’t mean customer service in the pandering, incentive-driven, commercially-interested sense. Don’t be a used car salesperson selling a lemon. Don’t super-size your class. There’s a difference between selling and serving. Nor do I think we should confuse student want with student need. I’ve made this mistake about a million times. On the contrary, we should realize that, although you are just pretending to understand that grade 6 geometry unit, and even though you don’t give a rat’s ass what the difference between a orthopod and an arthropod is, you might still be good at assessing student need, and opening up doors that allow them to explore it. From my experience, if you approach the classroom in service of the students, rather than expecting them to serve your interests, your work becomes exponentially easier. Moreover, the following ‘big’ things just seem to fall into place: Student voice Differentiated instruction Assessment for and as learning Technology and arts integration Literacy Self-efficacy Character Higher-order thinking I think it’s a lot easier if you just look at your teaching gig as matter of customer service. Your students are the customers; you’re there to serve them. Sometimes the customers behave badly and are rude. But your response to this shouldn’t be to go all domestic-auto-industry on them.

As a teacher who either owns an Apple handheld device or uses them in the classroom, you’ve probably perused the ‘Education’ section of the App Store. There are a kazillion apps on it. I’ve bought many of them for use in the classroom, as well as for my own children. The problem with the Education Store is that most of the apps are not educational and many are just plain boring and dumb. Worst of all, they tend to be uber-focused on gimmicky content memorization. In other words, they are prettier, animated worksheets. In my view, you pass through the novelty stage in using handhelds in your class when you initiate the use of apps that connect students to one another and content on the internet. To put it another way, if you see a button(s) in the app called either SHARE, POST, COMMENT, SEND, you’re probably on the right track. I also think it is important that we think of apps for education by type, rather than too specifically. There are few things as subjective in technology use as what app to use for a particular purpose. Just look at the myriad of tools people are using to post to Twitter! Determining the quality of an app is extremely personal. What is more, the current changes so quickly in Appville that it is nearly impossible to keep an exhaustive list. With this in mind, I’ve created a list below (one which I will continually update and invite contributions to through my comments) of App types that you should be looking for to thoroughly engage your students in creation, collaboration, and shared critical thinking. In italics you will see my own personal up-to-date favourites (most of them apply to both the iPod Touch and the iPad). Every student/teacher should have at least one of these types of apps on their device: A Social Networking app: Twitter for iPhone, Echofon, Edmodo, Facebook A Google Apps app: Office2, G-Whizz! Google A Task Management app: Things, Bento, Today A Blogging app: Blogpress, WordPress A Password Management app: 1Password A Photo Sharing app: Flickit, FlickStackr An RSS Reader: Reeder A Notetaking app: Evernote Books/Magazines/News (for students): Marvel, DC Comics, iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, Archie Comics MindMapping: iThoughts A Wikipedia App: Wikipanion A Drawing or Doodling app: iDraft, Glow Doodle, Chalkboard, Whiteboard, Omnisketch, Kineo And don’t forget about the apps that come loaded on your iPod, iPhone, and iPad: Safari, Calendar, Contacts, Maps, Notes, YouTube, Mail, iPod are all essential tools as well. If you’re starting to hate me right now for being an Apple Fanboy, keep in mind that the same policy applies to Android, Blackberry, etc. Remember: it’s the purpose of the tool; not the particular tool/device/app itself.

In our family, our morning routine on a work day includes flipping on CP24 to sip our first cup of java while we contemplate saving the world in the classroom. I wanted to share a little conversation we had with our daughter as she lay splayed on the sofa with morning hair and pyjamas. An ad came on for Tango Condominiums. The tv spot was one of those where you can’t tell what is being advertised until the last second. A gorgeous woman and handsome man are seen dancing the tango in a romantic and elegant way. At the end comes the alluring tag-line spoken by a sensual voice: Tango Condominiums. As Janet and I sat somewhat zombified in our morning state, our daughter suddenly piped in without provocation. "I know why they call those apartments Tango, daddy." "Why, honey," I responded, with the tone of a cynical parent who no longer finds it novel to converse with a 7-year-old. "It’s cuz they don’t want just anyone living there." Janet and I suddenly stared at one another in that way that couples do when the child they created no longer seems like their own. "What do you mean?" "I mean, like, you’re supposed to be fancy if you wanna live there." "What do you mean by fancy?" "You know, fancy." "Are mummy and daddy fancy?" She responded without hesitation: "No. That apartment’s not supposed to be for you. That commercial wants you to think that only special, fancy people deserve to live there." There are two things I reflected on after this little morning snippet: 1. Media literacy is not a strand of literacy. It is Reading and Writing - period. 2. When parents of my students ask me, "Mr. Lee, what can I do to help my son?" I wish most of them wouldn’t look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them to a) talk to their kids frequently, and b) talk about what they are thinking and how it helps them make sense of the world around them.