The Benefits of Teacher Collaboration

Nearly all teachers feel that they would benefit from collaboration with other teachers. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and the design of most schools, very few teachers have the opportunity to collaborate with other teachers. 

Occasionally the opportunity arises to work with teachers within the same discipline, which does have many benefits such as helping to develop new teaching strategies. Every teacher has their own teaching strategies, and it’s easy to get caught up in doing only what they're used to doing. Different teachers bring different teaching strength to the table. The teachers can learn from each other’s styles, and improve their learning techniques. In collaboration the teachers are able to talk over how to handle problems in the classroom, and that often lead themselves to reveal and rethink their teaching philosophies, as well as learn some handy tips and trick they may not have otherwise learned. (Rehling and Lindeman)

Collaboration can also serve as a great learning opportunity to for teachers. When teachers are able to collaborate across disciplines they are provided a great learning opportunity to gain a better understanding of another subject. When the teachers gain a better understanding of the relation between two subjects they can make those connections for their students as well. The connection between two different subjects will give the students a better understanding of each individual subject.

Collaboration also provides the opportunity to receive feedback on your teaching style. If the teacher you are collaborating with is able to sit in on the class they can provide you with instant feedback from the student's point of view (Breshnahan, Conderman, and Pedersen 2009.) This will allow you to determine if a lesson has been successful before the lesson is even over. Where a student might hesitate to ask a question during class, the collaborating teacher can interject and redirect a lesson.

As a student who has yet to have the chance to teach I think collaboration is a crucial component of first year teaching. Student teaching does provide collaboration before a first year teacher enters the classroom but I believe that collaboration should not stop after students teaching. Having a new teacher collaborate with an experienced teacher provides the new teacher with an opportunity to learn from a fellow colleague who could act as a mentor, and the experienced teacher has the opportunity to receive feedback from a colleague who still has the student mentality fresh in their mind (Roth and Tobin.)

Conderman, G., Bresnahan, V., & Pedersen, T. (2009). Purposeful Co-Teaching: Real case studies and effective strategies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press

   Rehling, L., & Lindeman, N. (2010). Vive la Difference: What We Learn from Each Other by Teaching Together. Business Communication Quarterly, 73(1), 91-96. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Roth, W., & Tobin, K. (2002). At the Elbow of Another: Learning to teach by co-teaching. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

My 1st Photo Story!!

Are the best things in life free?

This is the United States and if there is one thing that Americans hold near and dear to their heart it is their rights and the freedom to exercise those rights. Early on our hands were really tied when it came to software and how much of it we could change and share. As teachers when you find a great program you want to share it with other teachers. Sometimes just to show off  :) and other times to demonstrate how they could use it too, but unless the program or software is some kind of free software you don’t have the ability to truly share it. This kind of sharing between teachers is what makes free software so wonderful for a school setting.

I think Moodle and Sakai would be great tools especially if the teacher's Alma Matter offered them. Teachers should always be willing to learn and try new things but we can get stuck in a rut if we aren’t exposed to new tools. If colleges are sharing their BlackBoard or WebCT pages with the general public we could check the discussion board or course documents of classes that we really enjoyed and took a lot from.  As an example, in three years we could access Dave’s postings and get a glimpse of the latest and greatest things that are being shared with future teachers as potential classroom tools.

Creative Commons is another great tool for teachers to utilize, but the site itself also has potential to be a great teaching tool. Using Creative Commons provides a great opportunity to talk with students about copyright and explain when some things can be reused or changed and when some things can't. In this "we want it free" world its easy to forget the value of a dollar and to have a sense of entitlement to everything. Creative Commons can serve as the conversation starter for quick, but much needed copyright or patten lesson.

Since this chapter talked a lot about the pioneer of free software, Richard Stallman, I decided to look online to see what else was out there, and I was a bit surprised! Below is just a fun video of him singing a free software tune (he starts speaking in Spanish but the song is in English.)

There are also a couple of taped speeches and lectures. He’s a bit eccentric but he’s very interesting. I don’t recommend watching “Richard Stallman eats something off his foot,” it might just change the way you perceive the free software genius!

Equitable Access, the Digital Divide, and the Participation Gap!

   This article opens discussing the technology access that is available to many schools through their libraries. It mentions one particular administrator who did not want to to establish an online database for the library accessible to students due to the cost. This story exemplifies how schools within the same state or even the same district can have different access to technology since this particular administrator is actually located in a district where many schools have already established this kind of technology database.

   Another term that this article uses, almost hand-and-hand with equitable access is the participation gap. I like this term simply because it gives a short title to a problem that is often discussed in today’s education; the difference in the educational experiences of students with and without technology access. The importance of technology in education use to be a debate of yes or no, or with or without, but it has evolved into a debate of how much, what type, and how to use it effectively.

   Students without computer and Internet access in the home have fewer chances to gain the digital literacy needed to function in today's world which makes their access to computers in the classroom that much more important. I think the most interesting concept that I took from this article was the unrealized relationship between teachers and their treatment of students with little vs. extensive exposure to technology. “The student with 24/7 access can use the computer for school assignments and spend many extra hours surfing the Web. These students develop awareness and communication skills that may lead teachers to respond to them more positively than those without the same experiences.” The result of this positive attention from the teachers will be the advancement of students with technology access, while those without access are left to fall even further behind.

   For most schools, large changes in technology are scary and costly. This article suggests starting in the library. Starting with the library and the media center in the library allows schools to try new technology on a small scale but it also gives all classes the opportunity to use these new tools equally (ideally anyway) since they are not added to a single teacher’s classroom. Highlighted below are a couple of suggestions for making technology more accessible to the students and improving the technology currently available:

Look for opportunities to improve the library media center facility. No matter how small the changes are the students will benefit from the updates.

Create opportunities to educate. Increase efforts to collaborate with teachers to teach information skills to all students. Other ways may include starting a club with the goal of teaching students how to use common software to become effective technology users.

Embrace the teacher’s changing role! Invest the time and energy needed to meet the demands of being a 21st-century teacher. The available technology is constantly changing and it is up to the teacher to demonstrate to the student how to use these new tools effectively.

Don't wait for them to come to you -- get out there, go to them! Market the services made available through technology. Embrace new technologies such as pod-casting or blogging, and encourage students to experiment with these new technologies.

Grow professionally. Keeping up-to-date on new trends in teaching and learning will help incorporate the newest technologies so that everyone will benefit.

Franklin, P., & Stephens, C. (2009). Equitable Access, the Digital Divide, and the Participation Gap. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 25(5), 43-4. Retrieved from Education Full Text database.

My Prezi!

I played around with Prezi a bit more and figured I would share my little project. Here is the link to my Prezi. https://prezi.com/secure/e0fbb58d774d02abb4e22dbd23bbd83254ed0856/

Making a Contribution

When people first begin using the web it was mostly to seek out information and to ‘surf’ all the pages available on the web.  Now, with web 2.0, anyone with access to the Internet has the availability to share his or her knowledge or comments via text, audio, or video.

            YouTube is one of the most popular sites that allows people to share their personal videos with the world. I think that one reason YouTube is so popular is because of our desire for speedy information. Whether the information is educational or just a funny tid-bit, we want it fast and we want now. We can watch a 5 min video on a topic and then decide if we want to look into that topic further.  Watching a video is much quicker, and requires much less effort than doing basic research.

            Most of us are familiar with you tube and the educational potential it has.  I was, however, a bit uneasy when I read the comment about the US having no shortage of teachers because of the educational information available on YouTube!! Are you kidding? YouTube videos aren’t screened for accuracy, the teacher who plans on using them has to do the screening. If students were trusted to use YouTube for learning they would leave with more pop-culture knowledge than anything else.

            I love the idea of using YouTube to chronicle a journey or to share a lecture, like Fisch's Shift Happens, with people around the world. I have a friend who is currently traveling for two months across the Far East. She’s been posting her pictures on ShutterFly and using Skype to talk to family. I look forward to getting her picture links but after reading this chapter I wish she would be uploading video as well. I doubt I’ll ever get the chance to spend 2 months in China, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, ect. Who better to learn about this from that a friend who can share their experiences and stories at they experience them!?

            As for Wikipedia, I think it is a great tool to cure curiosity, but I still worry about the validity of the information. Since anyone can contribute you need to be very careful about monitoring when the information was added and by who, before you can truly trust anything. I guess the same goes for YouTube, and other Web 2.0 sites. Then again, what makes us think printed encyclopedias are so much more reliable than wikipedia? In a book I read last summer, a former contributor to World Book encyclopedia gave an interesting little endorsement for Wikipedia, which shows it may be just as reliable as anything else we use for research:

“Given how I cherished the World Book, one of my childhood dreams was to be a contributor. But it’s not like you can call World Book headquarters in Chicago and suggest yourself. The World Book has to find you.

A few years ago, believe it or not, the call finally came.

It turned out that somehow, my career up to that time had turned me into exactly the sort of expert that World Book felt comfortable badgering. They didn’t think I was the most important virtual reality expert in the world. That person was too busy for them to approach. But me, I was in that midrange level–just respectable enough . . . but not so famous that I’d turn them down.

“Would you like to write our new entry on virtual reality?” they asked.

I couldn’t tell them that I’d been waiting all my life for this call. All I could say was, “Yes, of course!” I wrote the entry. And I included a photo of my student Caitlin Kelleher wearing a virtual reality headset.

No editor ever questioned what I wrote, but I assume that’s the World Book way. They pick an expert and trust that the expert won’t abuse the privilege.

I have not bought the latest set of World Books. In fact, having been selected to be an author in the World Book, I now believe that Wikipedia is a perfectly fine source for your information, because I know what the quality control is for real encyclopedias. But sometimes when I’m in the library with the kids, I still can’t resist looking under “V” (“Virtual Reality” by yours truly) and letting them have a look.

– Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, p41-42

Jog your memory

I found this website; Ten Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology. Most of the information is things that we've encountered in MBE 640 & 641 but it doesn't hurt to refresh our memory. Plus there are little videos to accompany most of the tips on the list so its a welcome break from all the reading! :)