“Our greatest fear, in bringing computers into the classroom, is that we teachers and instructors and lecturers will lose control of the classroom, lose touch with the students, lose the ability to make a difference. The computer is ultimately disruptive.” Mark Pesce “Fluid Learning”
When I first read this about a week ago, I thought that Mark did a nice job representing the rest of the world, but it no way spoke for my school who was just finishing our first semester of 1:1. We were cruising our way into exams and everyone was feeling fine and then, disaster struck. On our first exam on the computer we had chaos with the exam login, monitoring software and, to hear some tell the tale, keys just started flying off of computers. Tablets were abandoned and we reverted to paper. Despite this return to an old stand bye, chaos continued. Scantrons were handed out; scantrons were aborted; questions were clarified; clarifications were altered. Things never really settled down for this doomed exam and our first semester of smooth sailing crumbled into distant memory. And then it was time to ask if we were willing to do it all again in just 48 hours on the next exam scheduled on tablets. The debate raged and fear took strong hold. Since our students test in their advisories, there were 28 rooms which could not simply be controlled without sending out an e-mail entitled “URGENT” and there was no question that we would be out of touch with our own students. But all of this forced us to look at a few things, primarily, if we walk the walk on exams. We state that our best classes in English are the ones dedicated to exam preparation when we pull everything together and watch the synapses fire in heads we long thought were lost to our passion.
Which brings me to my primary purpose in this post, what really is our roll if we give control and knowledge over to the computer? My answer: feedback. It is clear from Mark Pesce’s piece that education is changing and he makes a good argument for whether or not students should just outsource their collegiate education, picking and choosing the best opportunities and creating their own unique experience. Outside of the joys of dorm life (and dorm food) and the vast array of trouble one can get into on a college campus, I don’t know that you would miss anything going about it this way and you may end up with a superior education. But on the high school level, this answer is easy enough, feedback.
Malcom Gladwell’s article in a recent New Yorker entitled, “Most Likely to Succeed” discusses strategies for identifying individuals who will become exceptional teachers. He explains the amount of material that can be covered by a poor teacher compared to a strong teacher and suggests that students can lose almost one year of learning under the tutelage of a sub-par educator. Identifying, along with our President-elect, that our future in this world economically, geo-politically and environmentally, is directly linked to the improvement of our nation’s education system, Gladwell points out the vital nature of this search for strong teachers.
Discussing an educational talent scouting session, Gladwell examines the commentary by the dean of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, Bob Pianta who points out the positive attributes of successful teachers. According to Gladwell, “Of all the teacher elements analyzed by the Virgina group, feedback—a direct, personal response by a teacher to a specific statement by a student—seems to be most closely linked to academic success.” So no matter the new information that students are able to collect at lightning speed, they still need us to offer them the feedback and direction: To help them know they are going in the right direction, to redirect them when necessary and to simply provide them with the universal human need of acknowledgment. Despite the number of messages in their inboxes or comments on their Facebook walls, nothing replaces another human being affirming their value each day.
So maybe the first exam was a disaster, but our best work was achieved in the days that led up to that exam where we looked at each student and affirmed the connections and insights he came to over the past 14 weeks. And I am grateful that our school decided to try again. As I mentioned to one colleague, if people didn’t try a second time after crashing the first, we would never have the pleasure of airplane food. So far, so good on this exam, by the way. My friends are happily typing away dreaming of two weeks of video games and instant messaging and Facebook and soon as they turn in this last exam.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Lights, Camera, Original Title?
Several years ago when I started having students take scenes from Hamlet and reinvent them in their own forms (inspired by the Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliette), my project seemed pretty forward-looking and progressive. Nowadays, it is a run-of-the-mill tech project, but I continue to be pleased with the results. I come from a fairly traditional school of teaching English and when I first started, the thought of giving the students so many “unstructured” days of class almost made me hyperventilate. The chaos of having to help with so many projects where students could get themselves into tech binds that I could never reproduce if I tried, was enough to keep me up at night. But we did it. And it worked. Students who were only remotely engaged in our study of Hamlet, were now rehearsing lines, arguing about their meaning and creating visual concepts that reinforced the themes of their scenes. Additionally, it provided the opportunities for collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity which were almost completely overlooked in my classroom. I know that the students enjoy having a final product they can be proud of and many come back and ask if I have shown their film to the new classes.
Every year I tweak the project, but here are this year’s set of observations:
1. This year we attempted to use Final Cut Express rather than iMovie. While our students have tablets, their work on these films would be limited to the iMacs in my room. We had to add time to the project to instruct the students on the software and there were turf wars over computer time when groups who were sharing a machine both wanted to work on it. With Adobe Premiere on their tablets, is it better for them to be mobile in their film making or does the power of Final Cut Express trump mobility? Also, is there any benefit to the “studio” atmosphere that was created in my room over the past two weeks. The place is trashed, but good work was done.
2. I added a story board/preproduction report component this year. I wanted them to do more work on the front end and really think about what they were doing and why before they got their hands on a camera. I think this paid off with better shot selection and creativity, but I am still not happy with the amount of planning. Many of the students would not stick to the production schedule they created and still got behind. I also toyed with the idea of using storyboard software.
3. Production and post-production report: I have always had this writing component because I think it is vital for them to explain their choices, but some are better than others. I am thinking I need to give a more formalize rubric for this rather than just telling them the topics I want them to cover. Highlights from the reports are below.
4. Film education: I would love to find time to add some education on the influence of text, audio and visual tracks in film and how all of these combine to create meaning. While many of the students did some of these things intuitively, I think they could have benefitted from a closer look. I was pleased, however, with their cooperation and relative ease with my enforcement of proper copyright use of music. Once we actually figured out that since you own it on your ipod, it isn’t really yours to use however you want and worked through the complicated math of 10% of a song that is 3:20 isn’t really 32 seconds, things went pretty well.
Student comments from Production reports:
“Animal behavior is extremely different from human nature, humans are more developed and have a better understanding of common sense whereas wild animals are harsh and live under the precept of survival of the fittest. Therefore animals are almost desperate to survive that they will do anything to succeed. This idea connects with the play Hamlet because the characters in it are reckless enough to do whatever it takes to achieve what they want.”
“Darth Vader (Laertes): We decided to cast Laertes as a parallel to Vader because in many ways, Vader’s character mimics Laertes’. Both begin as generally “good” characters but allow their anger to overcome them, and both become minions of their respective leaders. Also, in the end, both turn “good” again, and confess their sins and try to repent. Playing into this, we decided to use Vader’s clothing to show his change of heart. During the duel and wounding of Hamlet, this character wears his signature mask, and talks in a deep, almost robotic voice. However, once he is mortally wounded, he takes off his evil helmet to signify his change of allegiances and talks with his normal voice.”
“Although we initially didn’t want music, we took Ms. Mittler’s suggestion that we could find appropriate pieces to enhance the mood. We choose part of the opening movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica.’ It is in a minor key, which gives a more negative and suspicious feeling, and it is classical. To reinforce Hamlet’s emo style, we chose some hard-core ‘screamo’ from a song by Slayer called ‘Raining Blood.’”
Every year I tweak the project, but here are this year’s set of observations:
1. This year we attempted to use Final Cut Express rather than iMovie. While our students have tablets, their work on these films would be limited to the iMacs in my room. We had to add time to the project to instruct the students on the software and there were turf wars over computer time when groups who were sharing a machine both wanted to work on it. With Adobe Premiere on their tablets, is it better for them to be mobile in their film making or does the power of Final Cut Express trump mobility? Also, is there any benefit to the “studio” atmosphere that was created in my room over the past two weeks. The place is trashed, but good work was done.
2. I added a story board/preproduction report component this year. I wanted them to do more work on the front end and really think about what they were doing and why before they got their hands on a camera. I think this paid off with better shot selection and creativity, but I am still not happy with the amount of planning. Many of the students would not stick to the production schedule they created and still got behind. I also toyed with the idea of using storyboard software.
3. Production and post-production report: I have always had this writing component because I think it is vital for them to explain their choices, but some are better than others. I am thinking I need to give a more formalize rubric for this rather than just telling them the topics I want them to cover. Highlights from the reports are below.
4. Film education: I would love to find time to add some education on the influence of text, audio and visual tracks in film and how all of these combine to create meaning. While many of the students did some of these things intuitively, I think they could have benefitted from a closer look. I was pleased, however, with their cooperation and relative ease with my enforcement of proper copyright use of music. Once we actually figured out that since you own it on your ipod, it isn’t really yours to use however you want and worked through the complicated math of 10% of a song that is 3:20 isn’t really 32 seconds, things went pretty well.
Student comments from Production reports:
“Animal behavior is extremely different from human nature, humans are more developed and have a better understanding of common sense whereas wild animals are harsh and live under the precept of survival of the fittest. Therefore animals are almost desperate to survive that they will do anything to succeed. This idea connects with the play Hamlet because the characters in it are reckless enough to do whatever it takes to achieve what they want.”
“Darth Vader (Laertes): We decided to cast Laertes as a parallel to Vader because in many ways, Vader’s character mimics Laertes’. Both begin as generally “good” characters but allow their anger to overcome them, and both become minions of their respective leaders. Also, in the end, both turn “good” again, and confess their sins and try to repent. Playing into this, we decided to use Vader’s clothing to show his change of heart. During the duel and wounding of Hamlet, this character wears his signature mask, and talks in a deep, almost robotic voice. However, once he is mortally wounded, he takes off his evil helmet to signify his change of allegiances and talks with his normal voice.”
“Although we initially didn’t want music, we took Ms. Mittler’s suggestion that we could find appropriate pieces to enhance the mood. We choose part of the opening movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica.’ It is in a minor key, which gives a more negative and suspicious feeling, and it is classical. To reinforce Hamlet’s emo style, we chose some hard-core ‘screamo’ from a song by Slayer called ‘Raining Blood.’”
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Just what the world needs, another blogger!
As I am in my nascent stages of being environmentally conscious (I call that recylcing, but I am really serious about it!), the last thing I wanted to do is clog up the "internets" with one more blog. But Steve Dembo's words of wisdom about blogging elicited from some of the best in the biz, inspired me to give piecing something together a chance. This is also inspired from an election season of being glued to the blogs monitoring every twitch of every canidate, but now facing some type of withdrawal. Thank God Sarah Palin isn't camera shy! Most importanly, this is fueled by a need to sort out this "Brave New World" of technology in the classroom and the 21st Century Skills Map for English. Our school recently went 1:1, which some of my students still think refers to a basketball defense and not how they learn, and I have been seeking ways to make sense of the changes. So I am going to try to take the advice of some of the experts, throw in some links, add some visuals here and there and try to develop a voice.
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