TECSIG – Spring 2003 Meeting
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TECSIG Business
Meeting (election outcome) |
DAY ONE –
Introduction of Guest Speaker
– Alan November
He has traveled and spoken all over the world. He says he does not have all the answers. The presentation was interactive and the outlined followed was:
1) Impact of Technology in the Economy – Where do our kids end up?
2) Impact of Technology on Schools – What planning issues do we need to consider?
a. What is the trend of young adults living with their parents? In 2003 60% of young adults live with their parents. This generation is called the BOOMERANG generation – they come back.
b. Why do we have BOOMERANGS? What happened? We had more technology and the economy was booming so WHY did this happen? (Discuss in your group.)
i. Credit Card Debt – Combined debt (1990 was $3,500 last year at $20,000)
ii. We do not equip kids to leave the home.
iii. Teach self-responsibility to the kids – Do they really know what it means to work for what they have?
iv. #1 employer in 1990 = General Motors. Today #1 employer is Wal-Mart.
v. On the corporate side, we ended the idea of a “lifetime guaranteed” job.
vi. Globalization – the incredible communication center we have built has made the world smaller. Students think nothing of “talking” to someone in a foreign country. This allows students differing perspectives.
c. What
does the
d. Schools
were designed when the Industrial Economy was at its height. Schools were designed within the same
structure as assembly lines. They still
are but the industry in the
i. Therefore – we need to teach kids to be self directed. That is why we have BOOMERANG kids.
e. What skills we teach today in schools will outlast any changes in the area of technology? (Discuss in your group.)
i.
Learning how to evaluate their own work
ii. Global Communication Skills / Effective Communication (Douglas Reeves is a good reference here. He asks “What is the one skill that predicts high scores on tests? It is writing. Therefore, each district should put together a writing teaching program.)
iii.
Information
retrieval and literacy
iv.
Ability to
work well as a team
v.
Acceptance
of diversity
vi. Adaptability and adoption of new ideas. (Here is an idea….. Alan November believes we should not have technology committees in schools. We should give more attention to what flows through the computers than acquiring them. Instead of technology planning, we need learning results planning.)
vii. Problem Solving
viii. Flexibility
ix. Time Management
f. The one room school house was a great idea but Fredrick Taylor came up with the idea that kids needed to be separated by grades.
i. What we know now is that we need to rid ourselves of these boundaries.
ii. The structure of education is the same as it was in 1920. So – we have boxes in classrooms where they will not be used.
iii. What is great about computers? Information retrieval. So anything that is repetitively delivering information should be on a website. While the student is in the classroom, we should be focused on the human / people skills of collaboration. Every teacher should have a web site.
g.
3) Classrooms are often technology rich and information poor. SO – ask this….
a. What information should all students have?
b. What information should all teachers have?
c. What information should all parents have?
4) Quote from Alan November: “We cannot wait for the very last kid to own a computer at home. When we look at equity…the concern over equity prevents people from launching new services. Don’t let it! Do it anyway! If you wait for equity, we will never have good access to instructional data. Every home should have full capacity to support learning.”
5) What does the research show in the area of reading with respect to technology?
a. Parents who read 20 minutes a day with children have kids that score higher in tests. To support this research with technology, the number one technology in the home is VCR and color TV. Teachers can make a video of the child being read to, and send that video home to the parent. The parent will watch the tape because their child is the star. The parent will learn to read with the child from this observation. (This is done in Indianapolis, IN.) Fifth grade teachers can then access their students’ first grade reading tapes.
b. Each teacher should video himself/herself to learn how to teach better. This is very powerful in helping the teacher to evaluate and improve their own teaching.
c. Logon to Benton.org – This company is researching where 40 billion dollars went in the area of technology and have found nothing. Test scores do not reflect this expenditure. Therefore, we need to be more researched based. Lets do what we KNOW works.
d. Research online shows – If you only teach Face to Face or only online, the research shows that the combination of the two is the best. Therefore we should be using Instant Messenger to allow students to submit anonymous questions. Students will ask questions in this format that would not ask for help in the face to face classroom. The audience replied that the main reasons the schools do not allow IM are Control and Liability.
6) If you use Microsoft Net Meeting you can segment the computers in that room in such a way as to allow only the students in that room to communicate. This is a great way to use IM. Every student should have IM.
7) Be information literate
8) SO – What do kids need?
a. Teach students to think globally – how to make friends and work with people around the world
b. Be self disciplined – teach kids to design their own homework – they need to have portfolios of their work If kids can’t see where they have come from (work from 2-3 years ago)
c. Teachers are paper trained – we are digital immigrants. Kids are not immigrants.
9) There is a white supremacist that runs a website www.martinlutherking.org. Technology will change but as educators we need to KNOW how to sift through the information. The search engine, www.alltheweb.com . If you go to this site it will help you to validate information on the internet. If kids can’t think critically, There are two kind of links on a site. External links (invisible) and internal links (from the website out). You can see a pattern of the links that connect to the Martin Luther King site referenced above. If you go to www.register.com you can see that it owned by a white supremacist group. Type in the name of the website and its extension. You can get all types of information on the site. Type in the owner of martinluterking.org and you will see that the owner, Stormfront, is a “White Pride” group.
10) www.alltheweb.com From alltheweb hit the search button for external links, etc. Goes to WHOis data base and then click on the “used to look” button. You can trace what was on the web at a certain point in time. Therefore, you can track the development of a website. It shows how information changes over time. THIS IS HOW WEBSITES CAN BE VALIDATED! It would be a good idea to have this procedure online for all teachers, students, and parents to use. These skills should be taught to young students!
11) Go to learning.com and access Easy Tech. This shows and teaches technology use to kids. Curriculum is designed for second graders.
12) Go to www.alltheweb.com and search for Innovation and Learning. This will return about 2.5 million results. If you hit the picture button in alltheweb, it will pull out every picture and video in the entire group.
13) On the web go to altavista.com and search with link:http://acns.nwu.edu/~abutz/di/dc/camps.html and you will see that since this address contains a “tilde” (~) – Kids should learn the “vocabulary / grammar” of the internet. If you add + host k12 you will only get 25 websites and you will be getting the ones that are already attached to a k12 school. Example: In the search box type in frogs: + host k12 – this search will return all sites on frogs which only apply to education in K12.
14) If you go to overture.com to see exactly what an advertiser pays for a link. If it shows they pay $1.19 it is paid the number of times a person clicks on it in the search engine page.
15) If we do technology planning – What technology do we teach kids? We should have an information and communication planning meeting, not a technology planning meeting.
16) Go to VIVISIMO (www.vivisimo.com). This divides all links by folders.
17) www.teoma.com } Go to this website and search on website evaluation. You will get thousands of hits but you will also get rubrics and checklists and uniquely, Teoma finds website with the most link s going out to web evaluation
18) www.fanfiction.net is a web site where kids publish their work. Every student makes up a name under which to publish. Kids feel “safer” if they do not use their own name because reviews are appended to these reviews. Kids that want to be writers, publish their stuff on this page and get solid reviews from readers. Students who publish these stories rewrite them and rewrite them. This gives each student a global voice. You can even read their portfolios on line.
19) We don’t want to teach “spray and pray” – right? We want to KNOW what works. Use portfolios and teach kids to write! Help kids publish!
20) Impact of staff development is often ZERO! Why?
a. Staff Development people were designing workshops without checking with the Principal. There was no “follow-on” after the workshop. SO – before the workshop is designed ask the Principal what he/she wants and get them to set the goals for the staff development. GET THE PRINCIPAL’S VISION – Technology must be in alignment with what the organization does.
b. After the workshop, implementation was optional. So, the Principal was asked to visit the classroom and see that the information is implemented and integrated into the curriculum.
c. One way to sidestep this lack of adoption (b above) is to ask teacher to bring two students with them to the staff development. The focus of the workshop was changed from technical training to observational teaching. For example, we ask these teachers to watch the students and observe differences in learning styles.
21) In groups, see what behaviors (as you observe students) that you will see in students as they work. If we do not specifically teach our teachers how to observe in the electronic environment, we are shooting blind in the staff development session.
a. Look for the approach the student uses to learn. i.e. Are they asking questions of one another? Are the working together as a team or are they just watching each other?
b. Are they multitasking? i.e. Are they doing more than just their assignment? Are they listening to music? Are they using more than one window at a time?
c. Frustration level: Including keyboarding, spelling and grammar. (pre-requisite skills)
d. How are they saving the information from the web? What do they know how to do? Are they saving as they should? Are they on task?
e. What strategy does the student have for “getting back” if they are lost? For example, the “back” button.
f. All workshops should have an observation list as a part of their classroom management. This should be built into our workshops.
g. Teachers need a specifically described list of observations to be successful teaching with technology in their classrooms
22) Pedagogy:
a. Socratic Method – Every school/district should teach teachers this method. We moved to teacher delivery to all and less thinking on the part of the student.
i. We should teach students this method.
ii. Go to www.archives.gov Search for Jackie Robinson. Richard Nixon campaigned on Civil Rights and lost the election. Kennedy did not have to talk about civil rights – he had LBJ. It is not politically correct to criticize assassinated presidents.
iii. What did the Pilgrims really do? Did they invite the Indians? Did they really wear black? They were colorful! They had no food and died. 90% died including all the women. Thanksgiving was “made up”! Do you want you students to access the original documents? If you do have them do that it will challenge what they THINK they know. SO – every student should read the letters from Jackie Robinson to FOUR different presidents. Share your hypothesis with each other on IM. GOAL: Find evidence to support and refute the hypothesis they design. Which is more valid? Base it on evidence. EVERY teacher should do this! Be careful - this will be bumpy! BUT this is OK! Let them use their own intelligence to be better analyzers of data.
b. Global Communication – Teach teachers to build community. Expand the boundaries of the classroom in time and space.
c. Research based: “Project zero” believes it is necessary for teachers to understand the misconceptions in their class. Teachers do not test for misconceptions.
i. Activity: Pinewood derby: Put the weight anywhere you want. If you add it, will it make your car go faster? Does it matter where your weight is placed?
ii. Answer: (We will add up all the results) –
1. more weight in middle – even it out
2. in the front to drag it down
3. makes no difference – falling objects fall at the same speed. (32 ft. per second squared)
4. If I drop this object, how far will it fall? 32 feet? 32 feet squared? Until it hits the ground.
5. There is a part of the palm pilot that will measure velocity over time. Give students tools to measure the REAL WORLD!! This tests for misconceptions. With a palm you can see graphs and the results in real time. Therefore pedagogy is more important than the technical training.
d. Teachers do not understand the role of the family and that the family should be the center of learning.
e. A Challenge for this Group: Make a list of pedagogies to help with the use of technology.
f. Ways to think about technology
i.
Automating – no change in the environment, just add
technology. (Benton.org) The research
from the Benton Foundation says this
is the reason for failure of technology in the
ii. Informating – Give people access to information they really need and have never had before. Give people greater access to technology. Give people greater access to other people. Over the next 5-10 years, we will wear a t-shirt 24 hours a day to make sure we are healthy. We will have access to technology we can not even dream about today.
iii. Toilet represents a shift of control from the doctor to the patient. People have access to information equal to what professionals have.
g. How does this apply to teaching? Stanford and Texas Tech takes the entire HS Curriculum and put it online for kids. This is competition! Universities want our K-12 business. http://epgy.stanford.edu – All teachers should take time to view their classes online. Therefore, 5-year olds can take classes at Stanford! Every school district should promote home school! Because – the entire curriculum is moving to the web. The worst thing that could happen is if ONLY SOME of the people get access to Stanford. Therefore, every school should have their learning all posted online. And – there is really no choice?!?! Everything is moving to the web. Every teacher and student should be now taking an online course. We need to get used to this idea!
23) SO – we must work in formation literacy, writing and communication. Communities will be built by teachers beyond class time. The social interaction of kids will be expanded.
The floor was opened for the officer elections to begin. Marcia Proctor and Helen Robinson both ran for Vice President.
Diane Case ran for Treasurer.
***OUTCOME OF ELECTION***
New Vice President – Marcia
Proctor
Treasurer – Diane Case
Linda Bowers – encouraged
people to come to a technology meeting in Grapevine,
1) Masters Across Technology (½ online and ½ FTF) – will be going to all online for this curriculum.
2) STARgate – from TCET and is set up with three main pieces (http://txstargate.net )
a.
Announcements
b. Community – has discussion boards for everyone using the tool – the whole state can funnel discussion to community bb’s. It contains a discussion section and a project gallery (to share a project within the community)
c. Professional Development – online courses are self paced and encompass the five classes that Classroom Connect has created.
i. Getting Started with HTML
ii. Selecting K-12 Software
iii.
21st
iv. The Constructivist Classroom
v. Troubleshooting School Technology
3) TCET Classes are created to have FTF meetings but are backed up by online instruction.
4) As students go through these classes they have a project they actually create and later utilize it in the classroom.
5) All classes are linked together and there is a 5-Star Certificate that teachers can earn.
6) When you complete the assignments, they are posted on the portal on the web and evaluated. Then a certificate is issued by UNT.
7) Eventually they are moving towards a master technology course.
8) There is a large assortment of activities the guides (teachers) will use to teach the class.
9) They give the guide the resources and they teach the class.
Words of Wisdom – James, “Don’t grow old. Grow up but don’t grow old.”
1) Whatever we see – it will be a different kind of TIF. Will be more competitive and will not just be given to all.
2) The next round of grants starts with s 50% or lower socioeconomic group schools.
3) Hopefully there will be opportunities to share the money with all districts, not just the poor.
4) For fiscal year 03 – the PS12 cycle – there will be no money. (Hopefully that there will be money in 04)
5) Will be a targeted grant and will begin at all campuses at 50% or more economically disadvantaged.
6) Be attentive to what you put in the grant. What you ask for must be in the budget.
7) Look at grants carefully before submitting a Request for Funds (be sure you are not on “hold”)
8) Steve Johnson came to TIF as an evaluator and has good insight into what is happening.
9) Steve Johnson: Three quick things about where TIF is:
a) 02 funds – these are gone
b) 04/05 Budget Negotiations – House proposed $2M to close existing grants and close the TIF offices. The Senate envisions keeping the allotment at $30 per student. (all money is on the table right now and no decisions have been made – there is essentially $90M that has not been assigned)
c) Reauthorization of TIF? This is tied to the 04/05 budget. There is a financial crunch and TIF is seen as a revenue source.
d) The floor was opened to questions.
i) Audience: How can the State take money that is previously earmarked for TIF? It is argued that the money is being used as intended since it is used for technology.
ii) Audience: Has there been any discussion on how the technology allotment will be funded in the future? No – not currently. It is believed that the State will move away from formula funding.
iii) Audience: What can we do to get the word out that we need TIF? Call your congress person!
iv) Audience: Are they in favor of doing away with TIF (the governor and the representatives)? The problem is that we are one among many programs being cut.
10) Richard Brown – A hope we might have is that the change will take place when we elect people that are FOR education. There is not money this year but maybe we will get attitudes swayed to go through sunset. Ron pumps information out through TCEA all of the time. The organizations that represent the needs of educators in the state do not go together to get their point across. We must get the message out and get organizations involved. Get superintendents involved!
11) Ron Cravey - Talk to whoever provides your internet. Get them to talk to the legislators.
12) Steve Johnson – “This was not meant to be a long term program” say the “telcos”
13) Richard Brown – “A deal is a deal, and TIF was supposed to be funded for ten years or until the money was gone.” Phone companies are opposed to the charge and say they pay it directly from their bottom line.
14) Steve Johnson – Senator Bivens is looking for a way to extend TIF. When the fund was moved from OUTSIDE general revenue to INSIDE the general revenue.
15) TIF is here
today and will be for at least another year.
Grants will be smaller and more targeted. Hopefully, we can survive all this and come
back reorganized and continue to make a difference with technology in
classrooms in
Howard Computers, a Division of Howard Industries. He comes from the field of education as a
Superintendent in
1) Founded in 1998 and manufactures desktops, laptops, servers and mobile carts.
2) 58.1% of computer business is made up of independent computer manufacturers.
3) The manufacture transformers and ballasts. They began making computers to support these two industries.
4) In 1998 they began manufacturing computers for retail sale. Can manufacture 6,000 computers per week
5)
a) Will
open Spring, 2004 – State of
b) Offer a Technical Partnership and will allow an on site person to do repair (can certify people as warranty repair centers)
6) Service is important and they will provide a centralized inventory for repairs.
7) They do compatibility tests
8) Offer shortened deployment cycles. (even for 10-15 computers)
9) They will load all software at no charge
10) Pre-configuration of the systems is always possible.
11) Offer PC disposal service as well as asset recovery
12) Customer support is a strong point (24X7) – Within 42-38 seconds you will be talking to a techie to help with a problem.
DAY TWO –
Ron Cravey - Ron opened today’s session with a new song! He played his guitar and took us back to “sandlots and playgrounds and baseball fields”.
And sang “Playing Right Field” (watching the dandelions grow….) “Playing Right Field is IMPORTANT, you know!”
Ron
reminded us that the point of the song is that whatever we do, our jobs are important.
1. Introduction of the TCEA Staff:
a. Kathy Sergeant – Does all of the correspondence
b. Rusty Sinclair – Training Director
c. Angela Crowder – Administrative Assistant
d. Doris Roach – Conference Manager
e. Rachael Zamora – Accounts Manager
f. Sam Wettling – Web Master
2. Janice Trompler – TCEA This year had over 8,000 registered attendees, 2,000 related to robotics.
a. Looking Towards TCEA 2004 for this year…..
a. Click
here to see the PowerPoint from Janice!
(This will open in a new window – Close the window to return to this page)
b. To submit a proposal for this year’s conference, go to http://www.tcea.org
c. Deadline
for submissions is May 31st
3. Rusty Sinclair – Overview of Training Opportunities for the Coming Year at TCEA
a. K-12 Handhelds
b.
c. New Horizons.com – They give TCEA members ½ off on classes
d. CHIPS Training June 18th - Build Your Own PC in this innovative training class
e.
f.
g. Tool Factory
h. MarcoPolo – TCEA will provide free training (only cost is materials) – Lesson planning directly applied to TEKS
1) Legislative Update
a) &nb