Authentic Doing in Education

I wrote this back in 2006 – just put a tweak or two on here — but others may be interested. As a full 1:1 laptop school for nearly 8 years now, the current transformation is now our use of interactive whiteboards. Armed with ubiquitous access via laptops, students are now accessing nearly every visual board lesson as the archiving of SmartBoard lessons has rapidly become a norm.

From 2006…..

Just a quick clarification for those of you exploring interactive white boards – there are at least two very different technologies to consider.

Analog-Resistive boards (such as SmartBoards) do not require any special pen therefore you can control with your finger. Slight pressure compresses the 2 layers creating contact point – and thus pixels are drawn. Pen color is activated when the pen is lifted from the tray – but the pens themselves are just dummy devices. The user can choose to write with the various color pens, or use one pen and switch colors from the floating menu, or use their finger and choose color using the menus.

Electromagnetic boards (such as the ACTIVEboard) require special “pens” and therefore are not human-touch sensitive. In some cases the pens are unique to specific colors and in others the user uses ONE pen and chooses color from the menus.

In watching teachers here using resistive boards – we use SmartBoards exclusively – they naturally use their finger for controls, movement, menu selection, etc, everything you would normally use a mouse for. They generally pick up a pen for most drawing. I like what I see because the use is “natural” – it’s hard to describe the impact of “finger touch” on learning, but there is a strong visual connection when manipulating images and general use of mouse commands. There is a bit of a delay, but this becomes almost imperceptible with practice.

Electromagnetic boards are considered much more durable since the solid surfaces contain an embedded electronic wire mesh. The board has no movement. They are also considered to have faster response times.

Hope this helps a tad bit.

BTW – I was extremely sceptical of interactive white boards having seen them demo’s at tech conferences for over 12 years. Our language teachers asked for them back in 2006 and I reluctantly installed a couple. Was I wrong! The teachers love them and in many ways they transformed practices in our language department within weeks – making instruction much more interactive – both visually and auditorially – entire board work is routinely posted for student use after class, teachers are able to instantly bring up yesterday’s, last week’s, or last month’s lesson for review, and much of their board preparation work now happens at home. We now have SmartBoards in nearly every classroom as use has spread to every department.

Yes, I should write more on this because our teacher’s practices are phenomenal. Someday!

The McComb, Mississippi local paper published a front-page story on the oral history project - click here.

I posted some images from today along with a couple snippets from the hand-held camera at:

http://web.me.com/howlevin11

This is just a quick “hack” to make this available.

The day started with the students all dressed in their “Sunday best.” I met the students in Vickie’s classroom and their excitement and nervousness was palpable. I was thrilled to see that Phylicia was there, dressed and ready to go. There was some strong resistance from some of her teachers since she has fallen far behind in school but I encouraged Vickie to let her go as this could be a pivotal experience for her. Vickie held this open only if Phylicia self-advocated for herself. She did. She came and I believe she thrived.

We arrived at Mrs. Butler’s home and Sarah, Phylicia and I set up the equipment while the rest of the group was “chatting ‘em up” in the other room with Mrs. Butler. After about 30 minutes, all was ready (lights, camera, mic, and other studio equipment) and the kids took their positions around Mrs. Butler’s kitchen table. Sarah, Rebecca and Keveyotta all took turns running the camera. Victoria took the lead with well organized questions with Ricky and Byron handling the key follow-up roles, but in reality, the whole class stepped up and asked questions throughout. This represents what we hope will be just the first in a long series of oral histories conducted by McComb students – I felt so damn proud of the kids and of Vickie for pulling this off. This was a moment of history in the making. I won’t go into the interview – this will speak for itself in the coming weeks when it is published at www.tellingstories.org, but suffice it to say that both the kids and Mrs. Patsy Ruth Butler shined bright.

Download

8:00 pm

Catching up from last night, I was steered to the “Sante Fe” steakhouse restaurante, just off the interstate across from the Walmart that has essentially sucked the city of McComb dry. Following along the theme of Therese Palmertree’s comment about “the stars are in alignment this week,” as I was making my way across the peanut-shell strewn floor, who appeared with a big smile on his face? It’s Ricky, the same junior from Vickie’s class who also spoke at the Kellogg meeting early in the day. “I had a feeling I was going to see you here tonight,” Ricky said. Ricky was waiting tables and just completed his shift so I invited him to watch me devour a 12oz steak and suck down a Sam Adams. His buddy — I forgot his name — also joined us. Ricky, who is essentially homeless, is staying with him these days. We talked for about an hour, a bit about high school sports, the car Ricky hopes to purchase with his earnings (and arranged support from Vickie), and even a bit about Presidential politics. The discussion eventually shifted to talking about the racial divide at McComb, the use – or lack thereoff – of technology in the school, and about the upcoming interview on Thursday morning. It felt great to have company and the opportunity to learn more about life in McComb from the perspective of two junior boys willing to chat with this 50-year old guy from California.

1:30pm

Vickie (teacher), and students Ricky and Byron, and I drove over to the middle school where we joined about 15 other McComb School District teachers and administrators, as well as some local pastors (one of which lives outside of McComb but pays to have his children attend McComb schools since his district is “not different friendly) for a 2-hour meeting with 12 traveling folks from the Kellogg Foundation <http://www.wkkf.org> – who have as their mission to improve the conditions of vulnerable children. The Kellogg folks were out from Michigan touring various places in Mississippi to learn first-hand about civil rights curriculum and what is happening in these schools. 

McComb’s passionate and inspiring Superintendent, Therese Palmertree, opened up the meeting recounting how “the stars are in alignment this week” as evidenced by a series of chance connections, including my visit — she called me “the young man from San Francisco” which was fitting because so many of the people introduced themselves as members of AARP – I failed to mention that even 50-year olds can join, but I am holding onto my youth. Various teachers and administrators stood to talk about how McComb is taking the lead in Mississippi to institute a developing history of civil rights curriculum. I am beginning to take in McComb’s huge role in the early civil rights movement as one teacher explained that it “all started right here in McComb,” and another calling McComb “Ground Zero” of the civil right struggle. Another recounted how over 100 black students led a protest walk-out in ‘62 from the then all-black high school – and how they refused to sign a document declaring they will “never again” participate in any form of protest, which led the school to effectively expel the students just weeks before their graduation. Vickie helped lead a ceremony in 2005 where all these folks were invited back to receive honorary diplomas. 

Another talked about how little the children of McComb know about the “heros” of their own neighbors. Students for years have learned about the same homogenized civil rights history of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Medgar Evers, and Rosa Parks, and in the process, have not explored the stories that happened right in their own neighborhoods, churches and schools. Another speaker really touched the heart of the importance of this upcoming oral history project by repeating that — unlike in South Africa — there has never been a “truth commission” of injustices in Mississippi, and therefore there has never been true reconciliation. Powerful stuff as the students set out to begin their first interviews.

Vickie’s students also spoke, with no notes and apparently unprompted, with great success and passion. Ricky expressed excitement over the upcoming interviews, expressing appreciation for my visit (they call me “Mr. Howard”) and looking forward to discovering his own history here in McComb, and with pride he said, “and the world will also learn about McComb.” Another student, who’s name escapes me, made what appeared to be a simple, but dramatic gesture by reaching over to shake hands with the leader of the Kellogg contingent, saying something like, “I could never have done this in the past.” A tall blonde white boy, shaking hands with a black man. simple, profound. But, at the tail end of this remarkable meeting, the bus driver who has been chauffeuring around the Kellogg folks piped in and said that that simple act, a white kid shaking hands with a black man, “would never happen today in Biloxi.” The room fell silent for a few seconds. The reality and the enormity of what all these folks in the room are fighting for and against seemed to momentarily stifle the spirit with sadness, only to be — shall I say it — “resurrected” with positive energy of the power of such a gathering.

Reflections:

I walked away from this meeting completely amazed at how appreciative this group was to just sit down and talk about civil rights curriculum and practices. The level of discussion in this somewhat mixed group of educators and foundation people was — to me — not profound. At Urban we are engaging in dialogue about race far, far more openly than what was discussed in this room. We (Urban) work hard on our multicultural initiatives, but it still shocks me how we are universes ahead (”ahead” is the wrong word, I know, just not coming up with something better) of the deep south in dealing with the racial issues of the south’s past AND present. There is vital work to be done down here and I am feeling incredibly privileged to be doing my part – as an extension of the Urban School of San Francisco – to help make a dent in the lives of the students and hopefully the larger community.

10:18 am

I met the students in Vickie Malone’s Local Cultures class this morning, a small mixed group of seniors including, Becca, Sarah, Byron, Kee, Felicia, Tai and Ricky. Vickie has shared with them prior to my visit the nature of the work they will be doing, i.e., interviewing local elders for this joint McComb High School and Urban School civil rights oral history project. They viewed Telling Their Stories earlier last week in their computer lab and have conducted background history on local civil rights history. I talked to them about the world-wide nature of the project, emphasizing that their work will be viewed across the world. We did a live Google search using projection, typing in “high school oral history” and sure enough, www.tellingstories.org came up FIRST. Their eyes widened as the reality began to set in. Also searched “oral history holocaust” and got a 2nd place hit. “My goal for you is that in the months ahead, someone searching ‘civil rights oral history’ will see McComb High School’s project appear on the first page.” More widened eyes.

We then brainstormed via Inspiration “purposes” of oral history including:

• capture stories before they pass
• Need to capture the perspectives of the victims
• Capture stories of perpetrators
• capture stories of bystanders
• Stories have importance to ????????? (did not complete this)
• flushing out these stories may help further understand racism of the past and LINGERING racism of today 
• flush history of those NOT in power
• raw data for historians as they continually write the history of the topic
• emotional impact of primary sources (oral history)
• capture images, documents, maps – with description

Vickie led a short discussion when responses were not naturally flowing about the importance and significance of these stories impacting the present and future – diving briefly into continued racism today, even within the school.

I shared my experience of that disconnect with adults when I “tell” them about Telling Their Stories versus when I “show” them the website. Adults generally nod in sort of a “this is cute” sense of this “high school” project, their eyes glaze over when I express my excitement because there is a built-in perception that high school students are NOT capable of serious productive work. But, I told them, when they SEE the site, the reaction invariably shifts to utter amazement. “How many of you have done anything in school that was viewed by a world-wide audience? National audience? Mississippi audience? Local McComb audience? McComb High School audience?” All looked at me with a big “never” on their faces. Part of our mission here is to help whittle away the stereotypes of BOTH adults and high school students about the nature of what a 16-18 year old is capable of. 

We then brainstormed via Inspiration the potential audiences of the project they are embarking on:

• other teachers and their students around the country
• accidental visitors
• future “subjects” of oral histories – demonstration to help encourage more to tell their stories
• information for others with similar stories
• researchers – historians
• racists – be prepared that opponents of this work will also view it

I concluded with a brief intro into the various roles of interviewers (camera person as a follow-up questioner, primary interviewer who follows the chronology and the all-important follow-up interviewee who focuses on listening and probing). We will practice these roles tomorrow. 

General Reactions: I am even more excited but concerned about how fast we are trying to pull this off. Tomorrow will be much more revealing as they now have some familiarity with me. I need to put them on the spot and force them to interact and ask questions. They have a lot of resistance thus far to jumping in, with a couple exceptions. I polled them at the end to gauge their anxiety. “Who is feeling pretty nervous about what you are about to do?” All immediately raised hands without taking prompts from each other. This is encouraging. The silent voices make it hard to gauge whether this is disinterest, shyness, lack of any clue how to react, or other. Their expressed anxiety is a good sign that they understand the bigger picture of all this. 

I recently read A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel H. Pink. It’s fascinating book that builds off of Freidman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century’s concerns about the changing nature of economic competition. But what prompts this self-reflection is a synthesis of my physical fatigue (reading, eye strain) and the desire to switch modes in input—on the fly—to listening and/or watching. This desire of flexibility to control how I choose to absorb new information—whether it be textual, auditory, or visual—is heartfelt, and in part results from a modern perception of frustration that all modes are not immediately available to me. This frustration is born out of my knowledge that there is very little standing in the way of making these options available, that is, there is no technical reason why information today can’t nearly always be delivered—simultaneously—in multiple forms. Yes, in growing numbers of cases one can purchase the audio-version of a book; the availability is rapidly increasing as cost continues to drop. However, I believe the choice one has to make—between text or audio—will eventually disappear; in the near future the “reader” will have the option to read, watch and listen, and to control this mode of information absorption dependent on a complex and ever changing interplay between, learning style, input fatigue, and the immediate nature of the information at the moment.

Our oral history project, Telling Their Stories: Oral History Archives Project is actually a wonderful model of this, right now! The user can choose to read, or to listen, or to read and listen, or listen and watch, paragraph by paragraph. Perhaps Telling Their Stories is a foreshadowing of the coming future in how one accesses new information.

The tactile book itself will not disappear, nor will the written word become any less important because text is still the most effective and efficient means for most of us. Text allows us to move much faster than the spoken word, and it allows us to move as slow as we want/need to absorb the subtleties, complexities, and beauty of the author’s words. But it also confines us to a single mode. And more importantly, information that is only available via text results in many students—for all sorts of reasons—to either prematurely stop, or inadequately skim, or even never attempt “the read” because, for them—at the moment—it is not the effective means of contact.

A letter I sent to Joan Ryan of the San Francisco Chronicle about today’s article.

Joan –

Thank you for helping to expose the hypocrisy of the College Board’s actions in limiting the opportunities of students to effectively convey their learning and understanding. As one who works with students everyday, as well as with the teachers who strive to find new ways to EXPAND opportunities for students to both learn and express their learning, I find it troubling that the nation’s effective monopolistic college sorting system continues to handicap students who do not fall within their defined traditional norm of textual learners.

The most troubling feature you mention is the Board’s refusal to allow this student—and thousands of others—to use technology to enhance their ability to be successful on the test. This extends beyond the irrefutable evidence that many of us think more clearly and process information more quickly when typing, or for that matter, speaking.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to those labeled as “learning disabled” is the reading section of the test. New technologies, such as text-to-voice capabilities, are helping our students choose the best form of “information absorption” to assure improved access to material. Tests, such as the SAT, attempt to measure reading comprehension. However, students who struggle with visual processing—and this extends far beyond just those with diagnosed dyslexia—are already at a huge disadvantage in simply acquiring the information. Comprehension should be a measure of understanding, context, and subtleties of the text, and NOT a measure of raw reading ability. All of us who work for and with students—from the classroom teacher to the College Board—should do everything in our power to help break down the barriers to learning. Technology plays a pivotal role in expanding the opportunities for students. Keyboarding, spelling and grammar prompts, text-to-speech, and speech-text are but a few tools that support both student learning and the measurement of student learning. It’s time for the College Board—and for that matter, all of us interested in supporting student learning—to do everything in their power to expand the opportunities for student success.

Thank you again for highlighting this in today’s article.

Howard

PS – my spell-check program helped me eliminate 6 misspelled words.

I’m often posed questions from teachers such as: “How can I use more technology in my teaching?” My response is always to leave “tech” out of the question and instead examine your own curricular needs and desires. What follows is a note I wrote to one of our English teachers responding to a similar question above.

Where are students struggling? In what areas can they be pushed further?
What are your own frustrations in the communication process with students and/or between students re: course-related discussions, sharing and dissemination of ideas?
If you could wave a magic wand engage your students in something you only dreamt about – what would that be?
Are you interested in strengthening (or overhauling) the way students analyze and evaluate each other’s work and ideas?
Do you have ideas of engaging them with other students in other areas/states/countries?
Are you interested in connecting your students with grad students as writing mentors? Engaging them with younger students?
Are you interested in having students construct knowledge that is meaningful to others?
What about creating a web of writing prompts via websites, sounds, images?
Student publishing of their creative work?
Team or whole class-based project creation—similar to Telling Their Stories?
Is there any interest/room in the curriculum to have students conducting interviews with local writers, playwrights, poets, artists, composers, etc?

The bottom line is not to think about tech but rather consider potentials unattempted or unperfected in your own teaching and curriculum development work, Then, perhaps, there is a solution that I can help direct you. To me, the two most powerful uses of technology are:

1. Everyday, ordinary reliance on the tool (writing, reading, and creating) becoming “normalized.”
2. Opportunities to do something powerful and meaningful that in earlier times would have been considered utopian, or at best, impossible, such as student conducted oral history that is then published to a world-wide audience as a primary source.