Roll Your Own LMS/CMS

I am presenting tomorrow morning at the TIES Key Instructional Contacts meeting. My topic is, "Rolling Your Own LMS/CMS." This was a last minute thing so tonight I am burning the midnight oil trying to put it together. No time to proofread or polish this presentation. But, thought I would share it with you anyway.



Examples:

FLIP Online
Goodhue Teacher Online Technology Training
WETC-Digital Media
WETC-Web Design
Web 2.0 & Connectivist Learning

#ties2009 Mike Horn Keynote

Michael Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class and founder of the think tank @InnosightInstit kicked things off at the TIES conference on Monday with a great speech about disruptive innovation and it's impact on education. I was excited to hear him speak. I have been following his work for quite some time. It was exactly the right message to be delivered at this conference at this time and set the stage for great conversations the whole conference.

Rather than blog my notes, this year I tweeted them. The following are some key points from his keynote via Twitter:



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Interview with Michael Horn on EdTechTalk:

2009 TIES Conference

For the past three years I have attended and presented at the TIES Conference in Minneapolis, MN. This year is no exception. I have been working hard in my spare time to get ready for this event. This year I am presenting one weekend workshop, and presenting/co-presenting three general sessions. I look forward to this time every year. It is a fantastic place to network with other teachers and edtech people from around the state as well as a great source for new learning. The itinerary for this year's conference is impressive. Sessions appear to dig deeper than in past years beyond the tools toward the application, research, and effect. I hope TIES is planning on recording a lot of these sessions this year because there are many I would like to attend but won't get to. After careful consideration I have decided which sessions I will be trying to attend (although as things usually go I will invariably get pulled in different directions once I am there (For instance, I don't know where I am going to fit lunch into this schedule). I will be live blogging these sessions on Twitter using the tag #ties2009. I most likely will also be posting my notes for some of these session here on this blog.

Here is the list:

Saturday, December 12

12:30pm - 3:30pm

• Social Networking Tsunami: Averting Disaster with a Plan of Action
  Aimee Bissonette, Lawyer, Teacher and Writer, Little Buffalo Law & Consulting [Session Wiki]

Sunday, December 13

8:30am - 3:30pm

• Get a Second Life!
• Carl Anderson, Technology Integration Specialist, Goodhue Public Schools [Session Wiki]
• I am presenting this session.
  

Monday, December 14

8:00am - 9:30am

• Monday Opening Keynote Presentation
• Michael Horn, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Education, Innosight Institute

ties - 2009 Speakers via kwout

10:30am - 11:30am

• Professional Leadership Through Personal Learning: A Teacher Leadership Model
• Scott Schwister, Program Administrator, Hamline University
• Carl Anderson, Technology Integration Specialist, Goodhue Public Schools [Session Wiki]
• I am co-presenting this session
  

11:45am - 12:45pm

• Machinima
  Carl Anderson, Technology Integration Specialist, Goodhue Public Schools [Session Wiki]
• I am presenting this session

1:00pm - 2:00pm

• Building a Community of Learners: Scaffolding with Technology
• Vivian Johnson, Associate Professor, Hamline University School of Education 
• Scott Schwister, Program Administrator, Hamline University [Session Wiki]

2:15pm - 3:15pm

• WebQuesting with GPS
• Bernie Dodge, Professor - Educational Technology, QuestGarden Inc

ties - 2009 Speakers via kwout

Tuesday, December 15

8:00am - 9:30am

• Tuesday Opening Keynote Presentation
• Robert Marzano, Co-Founder & CEO, Marzano Research Laboratory

ties - 2009 Speakers via kwout

10:30am - 11:30am

• Challenge-Based Learning
• Jill Burdo, Apple Distinguished Educator, Fergus Falls ISD [Session Wiki]

11:45am - 12:45pm

• iTeach Mobile: Exploring Mobile Technologies for Learning, Instruction and Professional Development
• Carl Anderson, Technology Integration Specialist, Goodhue Public Schools
• Ed Stern, High School Math Teacher, Goodhue Public Schools
  
• Jennifer Doerhoefer, First Grade Teacher, Goodhue Public Schools
• Michelle Rehder, High School Social Studies Teacher, Goodhue Public Schools[Session Wiki]
• I am co-presenting this session

1:00pm - 2:00pm

• Engagement: What Is It and Where Can I Get Some?
• Bernie Dodge, Professor - Educational Technology, QuestGarden Inc

ties - 2009 Speakers via kwout

2:15pm - 3:15pm

• The End of Techno-Critique: The Naked Truth About 1:1 Computing Initiatives and Education Change
• Mark Weston

ties - 2009 Speakers via kwout

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

It has been a long time since I posted to my blog. I have to admit that this spring I have largely neglected this blog. So, here is a rundown of what I have been up to that has taken my time away from writing here:

1. I spent much of the past month putting the finishing touches on a Charter School Planning Year Grant for Wasioja Valley School, presenting to school boards about the idea (if you have been following my blog this year you should know what I am talking about). --I will be writing about this in another post--

2. I have been involved this past year with a great project cosponsored by Hamline University and Northeast Intermediate ISD 916 that concluded June 16th & 17th with a Technology Integration Institute at Hamline University. --I will be writing about this in another post--

New Tools & Schools - Hamline University Technology Integration Institute Closing Video from Carl Anderson on Vimeo.

3. I have been teaching two summer school courses, Digital Photography & Business Systems Technology, for National Connections Academy.

4. I presented two sessions at the SEMTEC Techspo on June 8th

5. I have been meeting with Goodhue teachers periodically over the past month to work on curriculum alignment and technology training.

So, what is on my to do list for the rest of the summer:

1. Hamline University assigned me as instructor of record for the technology integration institute so for the next couple weeks I will keep busy reading reflection papers, action plans, and mini-lessons.

2. I have three different dates with TIES for workshops I will be facilitating:

• July 16th I will present sessions on "web 2.0 photo tools" and "web 2.0 portfolio tools" at their Technology Integration in K-8 Visual and Performing Arts Seminar
• July 20th I will facilitate an all day workshop on "Utilizing Social Media"
• August 7th I will facilitate two workshops: "Build Your Own Custom Search Engine" & "Cloud Computing—A Survey of Free Online Applications"

3. I will continue meeting with Goodhue teachers throughout the summer to work on curriculum alignment and technology training.

4. I need to start work on developing two hybrid courses I will be teaching over ITV in the fall: Digital Media & Web Design.

5. I need to start gearing up for a graduate course I will be offering at Hamline in the fall called, "Digital Fluency."

6. On August 3rd I am presenting a session at Byron Public School's teacher academy on Project-Based Learning. August 2nd David Warlick will be giving their keynote address and I am excited to finally get a chance to meet him in person.

7. I fully intend on posting to my blog at least once a week for the rest of the summer. I have also let my aggregator overflow and have not devoted my usual time to participating there. I also believe I promised Clay Burell at least a couple more posts on Change.org in my series about charter schools.

TIES Hangover

I have a mental hangover following this year's TIES conference. It will take some time for me to fully digest all the great ideas, conversations, and feedback from the past three days. First, I want to say thank you to everyone who attended my sessions. I think I learned more as a presenter from your feedback than you may have taken away from attending. My favorite thing about any edtech conference is meeting people. I met face-to-face for the first time many people I learn from in my personal learning network including Glenn Wiebe, Doug Johnson, and Marianne Malmstrom as well as reconnect with educators I already had a face-to-face relationship with including Scott Schwister, Michael White, Mike Walker, Chris Turnbull, Marcia A. Rockwood, Greg Berg, Cara Hagen, many teachers from NEMEN, Kathy Ames, teachers from Z-M Schools, Fridley, St. Francis, and Columbia Heights. I know I am forgetting some.

Some new and interesting ideas I came away with:

1. Instead of the school buying laptops for 1:1 initiatives they could give vouchers so teachers and students can buy their own. This could alleviate some terms of use issues and allow those who want better computers to spend a little more.
2. Use Twitter as a writing prompt.
3. Use machinema in a media class to produce films based on what students in a writing class write. (asynchronous collaboration that mimics how work is done in the professional world)

Some observations:

1. In the exhibit hall I saw a guy doing a price comparison using his iPhone while the vendor was giving him quotes. I don't envy these sales people.
   
2. You could go to this conference and have whatever bias about technology, pedagogy, and learning reinforced because at each session time there were sessions addressing each view. (Ex. Internet filter Nazi types could safely retreat to sessions about network schematics, firewalls, filters, etc. while us constructivist teachers could gorge ourselves on web 2.0 bonanzas).
3. While meeting people was great and presenting was extremely valuable from a participant standpoint I probably learn more participating in my PLN on a daily basis than attending a conference.
4. For the past three years this conference has started with a highly inspirational and thought provoking keynote but ended with a dull-dry business oriented keynote and message from the Gov's office. Why don't we end this on a high note. It would be great if the highlight of the closing session was not the door prizes. Some suggestions for next year's speakers: Clayton Christensen, Clay Shirky, or Michael Welsh.
5. The communities of interest sessions are what give this conference depth. They should be given more emphasis. (less General Sessions, more Communities of Interest).
6. It would be real nice to see an online version of this conference in the future, maybe in the Spring.
   

Daniel Pink TIES Conference Keynote

RSS Feeds for Educators: Growing Your Own Personal Learning Network (Feedback)

We (participants at TIES session on Sunday) have spent the past 2 1/2 hours exploring elements of a personal learning network. I ask that you take a moment to reflect on this session by posting a comment to this blog post. I am interested in what you think regarding any topic brought up during our time together today. I am also interested in which tools and/or services you think you will find most useful. What went well and what didn't go so well.

Thanks,

Carl

Looking Forward to TIES Conference

I am looking forward to this week's TIES Conference. Last spring, with hopes that one might be accepted, I submitted three session proposals and convinced one of the teachers I work with to submit a proposal by agreeing to be a co-presenter. All of our sessions were accepted. In addition TIES asked me to facilitate a community of interest discussion about MUVEs (or virtual worlds) in education. So, I guess for this conference I will be working. Here is a schedule of when I will be presenting:

Sunday, Dec 7 from 8:30 - 11:30

• RSS for Educators: Growing Your Own Personal Learning Network

Monday, Dec 8 from 10:00 - 10:50

• Virtual World WebQuests

Tuesday, Dec 9 from 8:30 - 9:20

• VoiceThread: A Picture Has Many Stories

• Co-presenting with Chris Heitman & Jennifer Doerhoefer

Tuesday, Dec 9 from 10:00 - 10:50 -

• MUVEs - Community of Interest

Tuesday, Dec 9 from 11:20 -12:10

• Digital Backpack: Killer Online Apps for Education

Aside from three days in a row of nothing but Edtech and getting to play with all the new toys in the exhibit hall I always look forward to conferences like this one to network with people. Last year I ran in to some teachers and administrators I had not seen in quite some time. I also usually run into people I only know from the blogosphere. This year I hope to put a face to a few more people in my PLN. For instance, I have been reading Doug Johnson's blog for almost two years now and commenting for at least half that time. Doug happens to live in Minnesota so I hope to get a chance to meet him at TIES. I am also excited that I get to hear Daniel Pink.

Building Your Own Personal Learning Network

Here is a new video I just finished meant to show teachers how a personal learning network can work and illustrate some tools that can be utilized to build one.

Enjoy!


Building Your Own Personal Learning Network from Carl Anderson on Vimeo.

Gary Prest: What It Takes (closing session keynote) - notes

TIES Wiki
It is more important to put the student needs fist and empower the student than just manage the situation.

MPLS - lets idenity the students we don't know, put a sticker by the names of students they knew, those students who had no stickers the teachers focused on and made an effort to meet and get to know

There is no way a single teacher by themselves can get a child to achieve their full potential. We need collaboration. People working together achieve a lot more.

Teaching is a public activity. Students learn early how to draw lessons from a teacher's character.

There is very little literature on what motivates teachers.

Teaching is intensly personal.

It is our responsibility to act as tallent scouts with our students and identify their strengths.

TIES 2007 - Kristin Straumann: Using Scratch in the Science Classroom - notes

Kristin Straumann
Science Instructor
ACGC Public Schools

How I use ScratchScience Explanation Stories
- Naming Compounds
- Balancing Chemical Equations
- Element Stories
- Earthquakes
- Collisions

This session is basically an introduction to Scratch. A lot of time was spent demonstrating how to do simple things in Scratch. I am not blogging about it because I already have used Scratch and all this information can be fund on Kristin's presenter handout page.

One thing she showed us that I did not know was that you can download Scratch programs that are published and see how they were programmed or even edit them.

TIES 2007 - Brock Dubbels: Teaching Literacy and Composition Using Video Games, Six Traits and Collins Writing - notes

Brock Dubbels website
https://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/Brock+Dubbels
Brock's Slideshare
Video Games as Learning Tools Ning
Video Games as Learning Tools Wiki

Started with yoga exercises. -followed complex instructions

game theory comes out of a combination of literary theory and math

use machinima to tell stories

Worksheet culture - teacher gives students a worksheet, students know they will have 15 minutes to do whatever they want because there are 4 students in the room who will do it and let them copy while the teacher surfs the web, possibly for their nest job.

Established reading Friday - one day a week devoted to reading whatever they want.
-assessment -10 pts if you bring a book, 5 pts if you read one of mine, points for other things as well
-walked around the room and discussed the books with students giving students a rating on a fluency scale (not for a grade, students know this is about identifying performance, scale could be different for different books for different students, a ph.d. could get a low score depending on what they are reading).

Comprehension can be achieved even by those with low fluency depending on their prior experience. Inversely, a high fluency student can have poor comprehension.

Many of the same literary elements are present in games that are present in literature and film.

Structural organization and format - micro level: decoding text, translating, etc macro level: genre, themes, ideas, communication

Games have storyboards

comprehension comes from making sense of the world, talking about it with others...reading is not just decoding

Games are built upon the idea of assessment because each move is evaluated.

A game offers a complexity that a novel cant.

You know playing a game that it is built so that you can win it.

Replicate
You are a virus and your job is to go into the body and replicate. To do so you have to learn about the human body.

Global Conflicts Pallestine
You are a journalist in the mideast.

"You don't understand. It's just like the Odyssey. Sonic has to find his way home just like Odysseus."

Chris Dede - Community of Interest Discussion: Role-Playing Games and Simulations in K-12 Classrooms - notes

https://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/Chris+Dede

What if we did this without the media?

-the control in the River City experiment used a traditional lab instruction
-these paper based control curriculum, they believe, are better than average instruction
-Kids liked the technology/media complimented approach better

Are we doing kids a disservice by banning cell phones?

-At Harvard they have invested a lot of $ in making each seat tech ready with power outlets, Internet access, etc.
-Instructors are saying, "put the cell phone away, turn off the laptop"
-We are not going to integrate these things fully in the short term
-We can find activities for students to use cell phones sometimes.

How are you assessing that learning is taking place? (with the augmented reality project)

-have pre and post measures that measure the high stakes tests
-have diagnostic information from the handhelds to show what functions the kids are using
-include things like attendance records
-look for things beyond the test that show evidence of real learning

Jigsaw pedagogy - collaborative learning where each student must find and contribute a piece to the problem for the success of the entire group.

What professional development?

-smallest part is how to use the technology (kid can learn in 5 min, adult in 15 min.)
-Rivercity - 8 hours of professional development
-biggest part of 8 hours is how to have a collaborative discussion
-Rivercity already takes care of classroom management and engagement and allows teachers to dive right in to a collaborative discussion. (I suspect this is true of nearly all virtual world based instruction)

It looks like you have applied a progressive movement of education to technology. How does this stem from prior educational movements like progressive education movement?

-it stems from progressive education, Montessori, and Dewey
-technology making three things possible
1. society is valuing higher order skills that cannot be taught through traditional instruciton
2. technology helps standardize the learning process
3.

How does something like this scale?

-There are a couple things that will happen over time that will help
-we have a bad sense of first generation curriculum and assessments
-hope the next group of stakeholders takes a look at second generation curriculum and assessments
-argues with colleagues that say school is too hard to change and that we need to focus on informal learning

How do you see a students day evolving to blend the old and new?

-I would be horrified by a school that uses only immersive technologies for instruction
-I would like to see these immersive technologies three times in a course. First in the beginning and students would be lost and see the relevance of the learning. Second, midway as a diagnostic tool. Finally in the end as a summative experience.
-This is a nice blend of the old and the new.
-We must be much more nible in learning how to use web 2.0

What can we expect the web 3.0 to look like?

-unresolved contradiction between 1.0 and 2.0
-Web 1.0 gives you a way to listen to an expert at any time
-Web 2.0 is bottom up giving users the ability to tell us what they want
-Web 3.0 recognizes that both sides have merit
-building a social tagging project with students -www.edtags.org- looks like other social tagging systems - goes beyond by giving a concept map that shows how other people's tags are related- ranks users from top to bottom showing users whose tags are most like yours to those whose tags are least like yours

How might this stuff migrate down to the primary grades?

-would rather see students in the elementary schools learning the classic literacies
-we know that kids need real world sensory stimuli when kids are young - we don't want students to learn how to look up and down by having their avatar look up and down

How does ESL apply to your work with Rivercity?

My hypothesis with River city was students who were dyslexic and ESL would not do as well.
-All studies prove this wrong
-All students with these disabilities do as well because students collaborate as a team.

What about chronic behavior problems?

-We see increases in attendance.
-Teachers report that behavior issues go way down.
-Problem is kids who are engaged but not learning, kids are fooling around but not learning.

TIES 2007 Chris Dede: Immersive, Collaborative Simulations and Neomillennial Learning Styles: Implications for Education - notes

https://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/Chris+Dede

Today's information is to vast and coming at us too fast for anyone to keep up with alone.

Rapid advances in information Technologies

Worries about whether our children are being prepared for the new information environment.

Division of Labor - which jobs are done by machines, which jobs are done by people

2 skills people are better at than machines
1. Expert Decision Making
2. Complex communication

Why teach something you can look up on Google in 15 seconds or less?

Learning Styles
-Sensory-based
-Personality-based
-Attitude-based
-Media-based

It is the media you use today that shapes your learning styles.
Some kids today do not act or learn like "digital natives" because of how they use digital media.

Juggling between digital media devices is not necessarily good or bad but it is characteristic of 21st century work.

Thinking has become distributed.

Cognition is distributed across human minds.

Showed video illustrating how necessary it is to be connected and be fluent with new communication technologies (cell phone, text messaging, IM, videoconferencing, etc).

New literacies are evolving as technology evolves.

The challenge is not to solve the problem but to understand the problem.

Multi-user Virtual Environments and wearable devices are next generation tools.

Most people see Muve's through the lens of video games.

Content in most online games are garbage.

We want to build things that are game-like because we want to harness the engagement of games.

Rivercity.

Fire is a wonderful technology because just by being near it you get a benefit from it.

Computers unfortunately you have to use to benefit from it.

The pedagogy is important.

Situated Learning - powerful in life but classrooms are removed from the real world
-can we have situated learning with muve's?

Ubiquitous Computing
-Augmented Reality
-Today no one really knows how many motors or microprocessors they own.
-Not necessarily good - Minority Report
-We now have the ability to create intelligent objects
-Handheld Augmented Reality - Alien Contact -Aliens landed outside of school and students work in teams to figure out why the aliens are there and what they should do about it. They have to work in teams to connect the information to get a clear picture.

Students are inside some sort of collaborative simulation and are using it to develop some sort of 21st century skill.

Soon cell phones will be capable of doing augmented reality.

Your students are struggling...lets give them something harder.

Neomillennial Learning Styles-Learning based on experience
-Students in the web 2.0 environment like to co-design their learning experience. They like to co-teach.
-They like to work together to construct knowledge

Unlearning is much harder than to learn

Changing adult behavior patterns is emotional - exactly the single biggest challenge in my role as technology curriculum integration specialist

media shape their messages
media shape their participants
infrastructures shape civilization

Solution to dark future is education

We need to avoid a world where an avatar world thrives while the real world rots away.

TIES 2007Opening Session Notes

Dr. Kurt Steinhaus, Ph. D. - Keynote Speaker
session wiki

School administrators

...a lone amateur built the ark while a group of professionals built the Titanic.

Take Action On:
1. 21st Century Skills
2. Robust Support Systems - needs to be "just in time"
3. Innovative Teaching and Learning

What is T time?
from STEM to STTTETMT
T-Using technology as an essential part of learning science, engineering, mathematics...

Music educators in Minnesota have put more on YouTube than anyone else

1:1 program - Oakland Jr High
"If our curriculum continues to be about information, our kids don't need us. If it's about personal development, they need us desperately." -Milt Dougherty

Spoke with a teacher at Stillwater High School who said he was not a tech guy and that he only uses technology to teach Science but when he visited his class he noticed he had 3 computers running with motion detection field cameras.....

Even poor schools in MN are using technology to connect to the world.

Talked about New Country School. I personally wish there were more schools like this in MN. I like the idea of teachers in private practice who act as learning coaches and let the students mainly guide their own learning through a technology enriched environment.

See about our science teachers visiting Mahtomedi High School to watch Scot Hovan teach AP Physics. He is doing great things with the SMARTboard.

What are PenPalls?

Overall Trends in MN Schools:
1. Relentless Intense PAssion
2. Support System
a. Technical
b. Teaching and LEarning
3. More Schoolwide Integration

Moving from:
-a distributed model to a participatory model (purchase licens to "free" open source)
-Application-based to Web-based, mLearning
-Isolated & Offline to Colalborative & Online
-Copywrited Content to Shared Content
-Submitting Reports to Blogs and Web Publishing

Strategies for Moving forward:-identify decision makers
-locate those who have had success convincing decision makers
-are there potential champions? (is there a school board member who has a lot of influence?)
-Who is connected to the potential champion?
-Start small
It is important to note that this speaker has a political background. It makes sense that he speaks about change as a political action.

Where are we? Formulate a vision or goal. Meet stakeholders where they are and use "bag of tricks" toward achieving the vision.

Stresses the importance of giving praise to those who you are trying to influence.

Seek first to understand - triangulate your data, look at history

It is important to have stories and data.

Pick a name.

Communication tools:

One-pager - "Your Best Friend"
1. name
2. Compelling Vision
3. Brief Overview or History
4. Rational
5. Funding Request - recurring - non-recurring
6. Research Base - Put on the back of the "One-Pager"

Elevator Pitch - "2nd Best Friend"
1. Once clear message
2. Be passionate and concise

Letters to the editor can be powerful

Educational Technology Act - In New Mexico - MN Doesn't have one
-Recurring $
-Equipment and Connectivity
-Professional Development
-Educational and Administrative

When big things get done in the Gov. office it is usually one person

We scored badly on our capacity to use technology.

Technology Deficiencies Act In New Mexico
-Vision of Equity
-ISTE Nets
-Based Upon Clear Standards
-5-year Phase-in

Students have incredible power in grabbing attention when preseniting to adult decision makers and stakeholders.

"It doesn't matter who gets credit as long as you acheive your objective."

Had success in convincing Bill Richardson that technology is important by giving him tools that he found usefull.

TIES 2007 Conference

I have been feverishly getting ready for next week's TIES conference. Cara Hagen and I are presenting a workshop Sunday, December 9th and a session on Tuesday, December 11th on Virtual Worlds titled, "Online Virtual Environments in Education." In this session we will explore virtual worlds such as Second Life and Active Worlds and their potential for professional development and integration in the classroom. I have prepared a wiki for this session at http://ties2007vles.pbwiki.com/. I invite anyone interested in virtual worlds and education to edit this wiki.



Information on these and other sessions offered at TIES 2007 can be found at https://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/Conference+2007.