Click here to make a donation to the ISTE Newbie Project to get Jerry to San Diego

Congratulations to Jerry Blumengarten who has been named the Newbie for ISTE12. Many of you know him by his Twitter handle, @cybraryman1.

I was not planning on doing the ISTE Newbie Project this year.  I had organized and managed this project for the last three years and I simply needed a break. There is a lot of work that goes into making this project work that happens behind the scenes and I did not have the time to do it this year. But last week all of that week when I received an email from Suzie Nestico. She had been contacted by Jeff Bradbury who runs TeacherCast and Ron Peck who is one of the co-founders of #sschat and the SSChat Ning. They were looking for a way to get Jerry to San Diego so he could attend his very first ISTE.

Jerry is one of those rare people who has found a way to give more than he takes from his personal learning network. He started out creating a website for his school in 1999, but by the next year had developed a site for all educators with hundreds of great resources and links. The website grew and now has over 500 pages and 30,000 links. It is considered the “go-to” website for information on just about anything. Many educators sing the praises of this wealth of information and sharing on a level that no one in education can come close to. In addition, this individual is an active member of several chats on Twitter. #Edchat, #ntchat, #gtchat, #elemchat, #engchat, #sschat and #ptchat are just a few of the chats he contributes to and moderates on a regular basis. This amazingly generous person deserves everything we can do for him and more.

Please thank Jerry for all he has done by making a donation to get him to San Diego.  A ChipIn donation widget is located on the ISTE Newbie Site.

In 2009, I started the ISTE Newbie Project to serve as an example of how people who are connected to one another on Twitter can work together to do great things. There were  a lot of people that discounted the value of Twitter and I was determined to show the naysayers that it really did have a valuable place in education. For three years in a row I tapped into my personal learning network to raise money to send three different Newbies to ISTE. (A Newbie is simply someone who has never attended ISTE.) Last summer I made the decision to take a break from the project to spend time with my family and pursue other projects, but all of that changed the other night.

I received an email from a person who was working with a couple of colleagues to figure out a way to send one of their friends to ISTE. Once I found out who the person was I made the decision on the spot to revive the ISTE Newbie Project. This person has given so much to so many people. This individual has spent years sharing and helping others. His hard work and dedication has definitely been noticed by others who want to thank him by helping him get to one of the most outstanding educational technology conferences in the country.

It is almost time to reveal who the ISTE12 Newbie is.  Stay tuned for the big announcement!

  ISTE Newbie Lounge Volunteer Doc

ISTE is just around the corner and one of the things I get to do again is organize the Newbie Lounge. ISTE is a HUGE conference and there are various cafes and lounges that cater to different groups of people. For example, the Bloggers’ Cafe is a place where lots of edubloggers like to hang out and visit with each other. The Social Butterfly Lounge is a place where attendees can go to find out about  how to use different types of social media. The Newbie Lounge is location where first-time conference attendees can go to connect with seasoned veterans. (A seasoned veteran is anyone who has attended ISTE/NECC at least once.)

In order for the lounge to be successful it needs to be staffed by volunteers who want to help newbies have an enjoyable conference experience. The job is pretty easy. Just meet and greet Newbies who are looking for a friendly face to help them feel not so overwhelmed. The volunteers in the lounge help conference attendees figure out the conference planner and might make suggestions for sessions. Volunteers need to commit to approximately 3 hours over the course of Sunday through Wednesday. Last year so many people wanted to volunteer in the lounge, but they also wanted to hang out in the Bloggers’ Cafe. The cafe and Newbie Lounge could not have been located further apart. I have been told that this year they are much closer together. There are no set hours when you have to be in the lounge. Volunteers can come and go when it is convenient for them. This worked great last year so it is the way I will handle it again.

About a dozen people have signed up to volunteer, but I would like about 20 more. Volunteers get all kinds of neat stuff including a T-shirt and other thank you items. I need all volunteers to be signed up no later than May 20 so I can get your information to ISTE so they can put you in their database. I will contact all volunteers with other information in early to mid June.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. My email is nebraskavirtualteacher@gmail.com.

  ISTE Newbie Lounge Volunteer Doc

For approximately 185 days a year from 7:45am until 4:15pm  I belong to my district. During that time I have a variety of duties including teaching students face-t0-face as well as teaching students online. When I am not engaged in either one of those activities I certainly have no problem figuring out things to keep me busy. Not just sitting behind a computer pretending to be busy, but really doing things that matter. I do things like work on future classes that I would like to teach, tweak my online classes, and plan training camps for teacher. I’m also the go to girl when people have tech questions. During my office hours I have Tweetdeck open and I spend time reading through the stream on the lookout for any tidbits of information that might help me. There are times when I work with other teachers on different projects. Typically we have a GoogleDoc open and work on these projects as we have time during the day. I also read various educational blogs and once in a while I manage to hammer out a post during the day. The conversations that I have with teachers online have taught me so much and have helped me grow.

I think it is safe to say that 80% of the people I am friends with on Facebook I’m also connect with on Twitter. They are also members of some of the Nings I frequent and they write many of the blogs that I read. The one place where I WILL NOT go while I am on the clock is Facebook. While almost 200 of my friends on Facebook are educators most of the are not terribly active during the school day. From time to time they hop on Twitter, but I rarely see them actively engaging on Facebook.

I cannot count how many times I have heard educators say that Twitter is the most amazing source for self-directed professional development they have ever experienced. When was the last time you heard someone say that about Facebook? Exactly. Do you see where I am going with this?

Twitter, Nings, blogs, Facebook as well as other sites give us the ability to connect and share on a personal level as well as a professional one. While there are many educational pages and people who post educational content on Facebook, I don’t find nearly as much professional content on there as I find on other channels. While I have conversations that stray off the educational path on Twitter, they help me build stronger relationships with people that I consider to be my greatest sources of information. I would define this as professional networking. When I’m on Twitter my intent is to learn and share. When I am on Facebook my purpose is to catch up with friends and family and socialize. I think it is perfectly acceptable to ask my employer to provide me with time to explore and learn with educators. However, I do not expect them to pay me to chat with my friends and family during the school day. I cannot help but wonder how many hours are squandered by teachers who are just as obsessed with Facebook as their students are.

What are your thoughts? How do you use these different networking tools?

A little over three weeks ago I was sitting around a room at Discovery Education’s headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland with nearly twenty of some of the most progressive and well-respected educators in North America. I have been struggling to write this post since then because I honestly felt like I was out of my league. I wasn’t sure what value I was able to add to the conversation that began on that day. But the more I think about it I think I was included in the mix because of my somewhat unique background. I want to provide some background, but I promise to tie it together at the end of this post.

I have taught at a very small alternative high school in Nebraska since 2005. I was hired to teach social studies. Then at the interview I was told that I would have to teach a “little bit of science.” After I was hired I found out that I would also be responsible for teaching “some English.” Keep in mind that this is an alternative program so there were not issues with teaching in areas where I was not certified. My first concern was what materials were available for me to use, namely a textbook. I was only a second year teacher and I felt like if I had a textbook then everything would be fine. Over the next three years I  created a number of courses using book-based materials as well as web based content. At some point in there I was introduced to Moodle. At first, it was a place for me to house my activities, lesson plans and resources. I voluntarily used it for over two years before I was forced to  dive in and use it with students.

In the summer of 2008 I was given the task to develop an online US History class and an online World History class. I searched and searched for resources. The classes were supposed to incorporate a variety of digital tools. The idea was to use engaging materials so that the classes did not look like traditional brick and mortar classes. (This was a complete disaster for a variety of reasons which aren’t terribly important to this post.) I was able to locate some descent resources for US History, but I found nothing that I felt comfortable with using as a framework for my World History class. I finally decided to base my course on a traditional textbook because I was running out of time.

I have learned some incredibly valuable lessons about creating courses from scratch. First, as much as many educators despise textbooks they serve a purpose. They provide a jumping in place for many teachers. As I have gained more experience and confidence I am able to use textbooks less and less, but I am willing to bet that many teachers, experienced or not, would not be willing to give up their textbooks. (For all of the data junkies who read this- I do not have stats to back this up. It is just based on the conversations I have had with the “average” teacher.) Another thing I learned is that it takes much more time to plan a course that it does to actually teach it. Seat time was a concern when designing the online classes. Since the typical student is in class for approximately 17 weeks and spends about 250 each week in class I had to plan about 70 hours work of work to cover the “seat time” requirement. This took approximately 3-5 times as long for me to create. People who have never developed an online course have no clue how time consuming it is. (Teaching it IS NOT the same thing!) My classes ended up being a mix of readings from the book, videos, activities based on websites, and different projects. Needless to say my family did not see me during the summer I was building my classes.

I shared my story because I think it sheds some light on why teachers react negatively to the idea of giving up textbooks. I enjoy the tedious work involved in creating courses, but most teachers are not interested in doing that type of work. One of the things that came up at the Beyond the Textbook forum was that the ideal “textbook” might have some familiar elements associated with a traditional textbook  such as reading passages, but it would include a variety of multimedia and lesson plans which were contributed by other educators. These ideas came out in our morning group discussions prior to Discovery revealing their Science Techbook to us in the afternoon.

When we got our first look at the “Techbook” I wanted to jump up and down because it was EXACTLY what I had been searching for ever since 2008 when I began creating my online courses. It provides the readings, lessons, multimedia, and project ideas all in one place. There are also various options to adapt the lessons to fit classrooms that are outfitted with different types of technology.  The techbook isn’t really a book at all, but calling it something completely different would only lead to confusion.

Many people have called for districts to abandon textbooks altogether, but what would replace them? While there are more and more teachers who are willing and able to do this many teachers are required to use specific books which have been adopted by their state. Most teachers simply don’t have the time to go out in search of resources to use to replace their textbooks. One of the points I was most interested in discussion further at the forum was the idea of gathering lesson plans in one central location. Angela Maiers shared a project out of Vail School District in Arizona called Beyond Textbooks. It is a project that allows teachers to find, create, and share standards based lesson plans. It is a simple yet brilliant idea.

My closing thought is something that has been bothering me ever since I started teaching. Very early in my career I was given more latitude in course development than most teachers can even dream about. I am concerned that if we force teachers into a position where we take away what many of them see as their most valuable resource they will be forced to start over. This, of course, could be a good thing. It would force teachers out of their comfort zone and it would require them to come up with fresh ideas. It could also be a very bad idea. When teachers are told to not use textbooks, where do they go? Google, right? What do you suppose they search for? Bingo! Worksheets! We aren’t really making any progress, are we?  I also don’t know if the average teacher is qualified to develop entire courses from the ground up. I certainly had no idea what I was doing when I started and I still feel like I have so much to learn. Maybe I am off the mark, but I don’t know if it is reasonable to expect the average teacher to have these skills.

This discussion about where the textbook is headed is just beginning. I am excited to see where it goes.