Tech Tips for Teachers

I’m positing a monthly “Tech Tips for Teachers” and I thought I might begin here. You can look for these at the beginning of each month.

T3: Tech Tips for Teachers

Open courseware classes. offer a free opportunity for you to increase your knowledge while working at your own pace. Learn new, creative approaches to teaching other disciplines, bring burgeoning technology into your classroom, and strengthen your teaching skills.

Create your own customized motivational posters. Turn a simple photograph into a humorous or sobering message. Make your own funny, parodied, or sport-related poster. Perfect for the office, classroom, teachers’ lounge, or church.

Student motivation: The discussion of new 21st-century skills seems to generate debate among people who are either for the concept or against it. Although that argument has merit, this presentation helps us beyond that particular debate and toward an inclusive discussion that improves instruction.

Assessment of wikis in classroom 2.0. With its underpinnings in constructivism as pedagogy, the “Currwikulum process” moves beyond the static blog to inform the writing process at various stages. For more about wikis, view here: http://hosting2.epresence.tv/JVLA/1/watch/53.aspx

Classroom game templates and clips. Who wouldn’t want to be a Millionaire or the center-square on “Hollywood Squares?” Incorporate sounds for the shows as well as the question format. Use clips from these shows: “The Price is Right,” “The Weakest Link,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader,” and “Survivor,” among others.

June, 2009

Dealing with AP

I have had an interesting experience dealing with the AP College Board. It seems that for the online institution I move two steps forward and then a step back. Last night, I received an e-mail that because our teachers have undergone the AP course audit, they should be able to transfer those courses online without difficulty.

So today I attempted to create a “new school,” only to find I did not have the necessary (and all-important six-digit code). So I call the AP College Board audit number and learn that I need to speak with a special person who handles online providers. When I ask if I can get her direct number, in case I’m cut off or the person does not return my call, the person from AP says he does not know that number and thus can’t give it to me. Right, and I’m Batman!

best things

Friends often ask what I like best about being the virtual administrator, working from my home office. Here’s my list:
1) Lack of interruptions: In my former position, my phone was ringing all the time. I’d be in the middle of something and some contingency would arise. These interruptions resulted in disrupted thinking and gave rise to spelling errors (thinking, I’d already done that!). Here, I jump when it rings because it happens so seldom. Also I have very few stop by my home office: the meter man once a month has not been a huge issue.
2) Appearance: I haven’t worn a tie in six months. I’m not sure I could ever wear one again. I’ve grown comfortable with my mock t-neck and jeans. Steve Jobs is my hero! Think of all the money I’m saving at the dry cleaner. Likewise, I shave when I feel like it, or have to meet someone. Here’s the big insight: my performance has not suffered at all; I’d like to think that it has improved.
3) Lack of Driving: In my former position as a district supervisor, I would say I spent @20% of my time in my car, motoring from school to school. So I’m saving energy and following Tom Friedman’s advice in “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America,” the scariest book I have ever read. Again, more time on production or play.
4) Affordable lunch: Whatever is upstairs. Probably do not eat as much. Certainly I drink less soft drinks. Today is snowy and too much trouble to go outside.

hitting the books

The Christmas break gave me a more prolonged time to read. I finally finished Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. Once again, I was reminded of the power of Web 2.0 thinking in our business model: We’re trying to establish a value-added site where teachers can go and have conversations and also find materials that will be useful in their classroom presentations. To that end, I’ve established a sandbox on the site for both teachers and students to play with a variety of tools, like Ging and Gong. What I haven’t done well is publicize it.

Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide had much of the same message, but a closer look at the business plans of both Flickr and Netflix yielded some insight. Netflix had a longer “burn rate” before moving up the J-Curve to profitability. Facebook also drew the attention of the author; the site is so ubiquitous now that I had forgotten that its infancy was at the university. Moreover, I added about twenty new friends to my Facebook page, a victim of my own success.

In Being and Time, Heidegger rails against “Durchschnittlichkeit” or mediocrity, claiming that the “mass mind” wars against or tries to oppress anything outstanding. In much the same way, vis-a-vis online work, some educators do not put forth an open mind toward the initiative, dismissing it offhandedly despite the research to the contrary. In this example, Dasein works as a leveling agent.

Heidegger at rest

American Dream Deferred Introduction

Here’s the introduction to the transdisciplinary course I’m teaching this semester. The talent looks at the paper too much and the ending is cut off.

Tournament Completed

Over the Christmas break JVLA sponsored an online tournament for Jesuit Prep students.  Players were able to register for free on chess.com and then complete their games on that site.  While we were hoping to have 36 of the 52 Jesuit prep schools in the United States complete, we ended up with an even 8.  Congratulations to Steven Rand of Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, who was crowned the first JVLA Jesuit Grandmaster!*  For winning, Steven will receive a JVLA polo shirt in his size.

The work of the administrator:  contacting principals, most of whom forwarded it to their respective chess advisors or put the missive in the “never-to-do” pile; finding a suitable chess link (I joined chess.com myself as a member in order to facilitate the event online at their site, where I added the JVLA logo and a link to our website); making the brackets; and contacting the players before, during, and after the tournament.

JVLA hopes to sponsor more general competitions for all Jesuit high school students over the next year.  Many online games I found too violent, or too pink.  As someone well-versed in foreign language learning, I was impressed with Sushi-Go-Round, but could not discern how would players submit their scores.  Also I liked a site called, “Third World Farmer,” for its realistic, if not dismal Weltanschauung.  In the latter game, famine or disease killed me off quickly.

*Editor’s note:  I am also a graduate of Rockhurst High School.

New beginnings

I’m the chief academic officer for the Jesuit Virtual Learning Academy (JVLA), an enterprise employing the interactive power of the Internet to harness the collaborative capacity of the network of Jesuit secondary schools to make each Jesuit secondary school better than it could be alone. JVLA provides credit bearing course work, workshops, lectures, and other learning opportunities for students, as well as professional development and collaboration opportunities for faculty.

I’ve been in the position about seven month and I thought 2009 would be a good opportunity for me to post on educational issues, especially those facing administrators of virtual schools.  I have found many of the issues dealing with staff to be similar, but unexpected issues do arise frequently.

My background:  Foreign language acquisition, so you’ll probably read a bit about that also.  I chair the Central States Conference for Teachers of Foreign Languages, and in January, I will begin also observing a few student teachers for a university where I am an adjunct.

This week I have been facilatating an on-line chess tournament for Jesuit prep school students. I created a page for JVLA to use on their site.   I used chess.com, but ran into some issues I hadn’t anticipated in terms of scheduling.  Those seem to have been resolved, or at least, the students are busy with Xmas and not writing me.  ;-0

This morning I thought I’d devote some time to social networking as I am in the virtual school business.  Reviewed and added a bit on Facebook and Linkedin, before moving onto Gather and Delicious.  Gather strikes me as the older generations Facebook for cat lovers–I’m not sure I’ll return.  Especially as I have the UrEnglish Bulldog at my feet, Mr. Gladstone.  Mr. Gladstone (jpeg)

 

 

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!