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Jul 31

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Most Influential people of all time

A recent Time magazine article lists what it calls the 20 most influential Americans of all time. It’s an interesting list. Four presidents, two social activists, two women, assorted scientists and inventors, a couple of explorers, and an athlete and musician thrown in for good measure. Many famous, a few not so much.

And like the 100 most important American documents, open for debate. Why Steve Jobs and not that Microsoft guy? Why only two women? A boxer? Really?

But what a great way to start a school year. Or end one for that matter.

A week or so ago, I spent a day talking about ways to integrate the Common Core ELA literacy standards into Social Studies instruction. The basic idea? Give kids intriguing and difficult problems to solve rather than the answers to Friday’s multiple choice quiz. And the list seems like one of those very cool problems that can engage emotions and create great arguments / debates among your students.

Maybe start with this list as a hook. Then tailor it more specifically to your class and grade level. World History? Obviously include folks from Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe. Kansas or local history? Well, you got some pretty interesting people from Kansas. Who would be the most important?

Or take the list and rank it from most important to least important rather than chronologically as the Time people did. Assign groups to research certain people on the list. The groups than have to argue for their person, perhaps earning extra credit for how high their person rises on the list. (See Josh Hoekstra’s great idea for merging March Madness with historical figures.)

You could obviously start from scratch and have kids create their own list. I think you could use this sort of thing throughout your course, with lists driving the discussion and research. The lists could be most important inventions, ideas, leaders, events, documents, really just about anything.

Heck. Do the whole thing. Who are the most influential people of all time?

I once watched a middle school teacher herd his kids through a great center-based end of the year discussion about which events of the 1800s have had the most impact on the the US and their lives specifically. Lots of yelling, arguing, researching, thinking, campaigning, discussing, politicking, writing, reading . . . you know, what a good social studies classroom should sound and look like.

How would I change the list?

Subtract Ali, Watson, and Bell. Add Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall, and Marc Andreesen.

Go ahead, prove me wrong.

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Jul 27

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Tip of the week – Teaching with the Olympics

Today is the official first day of the 2012 London Olympics. And I know you are probably not at school today. You may not be there for weeks. But . . . I also know that many of you will be incorporating Olympic sorts of stuff into your instruction once school kicks back in.

I also know some of you are in summer school or year-round schools so here ya go. A list of resources to help you plan the integration of the Olympics into your classroom.

Have fun!

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Jul 24

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Social studies teachers as subversives

I stepped back into the office this morning after being on the road for a week and got hit with this question:

What should the new state social studies document look like like?

No coffee. No danish. No prep. Just straight to educational theories.

During the conversation that followed and after I woke up a bit, another question popped up:

How willing should we be to create a standards document that makes teachers very uncomfortable?

(If you’ve been following our state standards saga, you’ll already know that the document is designed to be different than our current set of standards. With a focus on history / social studies “doing” skills rather than content, the still-in-process revision is already stimulating . . . hmm . . . discussion.)

We never really settled the question of whether making teachers uncomfortable is a good or bad idea but it did lead to a little bit of deja vu. I’ve had similar conversations in the past. And more than just a few of them seem to revolve around the writings of Neil Postman. His Teaching as a Subversive Activity in particular.

After some time to reflect, I started a bit of browsing on the Interwebs and ran across some stuff that, if not completely relevant, was at least interesting.

The best thing?

A very recent article by Peter Pappas over at Copy / Paste titled 13 Subversive Questions for the Classroom.

At the end of my recent keynote on the power of reflection at TechitU, I closed by saying something to the effect “… as a teacher you get to reinvent yourselves every year … if you want to change the status quo at school, know that everything is conspiring against you … testing, parent expectations, curriculum mandates, etc … so perhaps you’ll need to be a bit subversive.”

Since I made that “subversive” comment, I’ve been thinking about reflective questions that would challenge the status quo in school.

And that reminded me of a similar discussion that I was a part of several years ago led by tech ed guru Marco Torres. After asking teachers to describe their curriculum, he asked:

If I can Google everything you just said, what value are you adding to the learning that takes place in your classroom?

So . . . finally to today’s topic. What sort of subversive questions should history / social studies teachers be asking as they “think about their approach to instruction?” With a bit of help from Peter, here’s what I got:

What’s the difference between teaching and learning?

Do you ever ask your students questions you don’t know the answers to?

Do athletic coaches (and art teachers, drama teachers, shop teachers) know more about authentic learning than history teachers?

Should we ever ask kids to answer questions that have correct answers?

Should students learn more content information or skills in how to critically evaluate the information that surrounds them?

What would your classroom look like if there were no state social studies standards or state assessments?

Why should every history class be required to have textbooks available? Why should all textbooks be banned from history classes?

What “homework” should we assign?

What foundational knowledge is absolutely essential for social studies / history students to know backwards and forwards?

What place should movies and books like The Hunger Games and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter play in our classrooms?

What subversive questions are you asking?

Jul 20

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Tip of the Week – Pinterest

I’ve had the invite in the Inbox for several months and I just never seemed to get around to activating it.

And depending on who you talk to, 58 percent to 97 percent of Pinterest users are female. So I may not be the only guy who’s been sitting on the fence with the social bookmarking site. But I’m becoming convinced that Pinterest might be a handy thing to have available.

More and more teachers are using the tool to find, share, and integrate resources. The visual look of Pinterest can be a great hook for students. A very cool infographic shares 16 ways that educators can use Pinterest:

Doing a search, middle school social studies for example, will give you a ton of links. And there are more things out there that can help you begin to understand and use Pinterest. Just a few to get you started:

Social Pinboard – National History Education Clearinghouse’s nice article on Pinterest

Teaching History – an example of a history teacher’s channel

Teaching History / Social Studies – another example from the Teaching Channel

Middle Ages – another example

Six Pinners to Follow

Five More to Follow

Pinterest Resources for Teachers – CoolCatTeacher’s Pinterest stuff

Pinterest for Education – a Livebinder with lots of stuff

——

Update July 21

Great friend, tech guru, and K-State prof Cindy Danner-Kuhn has some sweet Pinterest boards including a generic Education board as well as Social Studies, iPads, and Pinterest in Ed boards.

Have fun!

Jul 19

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Tradigital History – Jim Beeghley at Podstock

I’m live blogging Dr. Jim Beeghley’s preso at Podstock 2012. Keep your shirt on – will fix mistakes and update links later.

Jim starts off by suggesting that:

History doesn’t have to be a 40 minute block.

Biggest problems with using tech in history? Time and resources

using one computer, one image, good questions can engage kids

Ask kids what do we know from looking at photo?

use KWL idea. what we think the picture tells us. what the image does tell us. what other questions come to mind after looking at the image (he says this KWL idea follows the layout of the LOC primary source analysis worksheets)

then use GIMP to zoom in. Ask the same question. Be sure to use TIFF – very large image files from NARA and LOC. be sure to use right version for right use. If you want to zoom in close, need big TIFF

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003000207/PP/

tin cups

thin

carrying everything they own

no knapsacks / only bedrolls

suspenders

one guy has “tape” around his fingers

http://www.blueandgraymarching.com/articles/three-rebel-prisoners-at-ge.html

Another image:

How many people in image? (10)

Why two people dressed differently?

http://www.loyolachicagotps.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=128101612

another example:

http://prezi.com/pflvxcboiscm/primary-source-analysis/

need to teach history as an argument

compare/contrast different perspectives

conduct research / using google effectivily

This session will show attendees how to engage students in “doing history” while getting them to act like historians. The presentation will include practical classroom examples, using technology to promote historical inquiry, Web 2.0 applications and data from the presenter’s doctoral research.

teachthecivilwar.com/podstock

SCIM-C

summarize

contextulize

infer

monitoring

corraborating

Dr. Hicks

—-

why Web 2.0 with our kids?

allows kids to engage themselves in new literacy and express themselves in new ways

stimulates modes of new inquiry

encourages proficient publication creation

opportunities for collaborative learning

he shared his favorite 10 web 2.0 tools for teaching history & suggestions (get from his Prezi)

“teach our kids to be information literate”

then and now images using GIMP with two layers

Jul 16

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Are we creating tech rich crazy people?

Have you ever been sitting in a meeting and felt your phone vibrate, take it out and discover that, in fact, it hadn’t actually vibrated?

Yeah. Me too.

There’s a name for it. Researchers are calling it “phantom vibration syndrome,” the sensation and false belief that you hear your phone ringing or feel it vibrating, when in fact the phone is not. And it’s not necessarily a good thing.

It means you’re hooked. It means your brain has been re-wired based on your use of technology. You have been “dragged to (technology) by the potential of short term rewards. Every ping can be social, sexual, or professional opportunity, and we get a mini-reward, a squirt of dopamine, for answering the call.”

According to two recent Chinese studies, excessive technology and internet use result in changes in areas of the brain charged with attention, control, and executive function. These “structural abnormalities in gray matter” mean a 10-20 percent shrinkage of those parts of the brain. These changes are eerily similar to changes observed in the brains of drug addicts and alcoholics. People can’t focus, can’t pay attention, can’t think critically.

Research published within the last month by Missouri State University documents the high levels of depression among heavy internet users. One of the study’s subjects maintains four avatars, keeping each virtual world open on his computer, along with his school work, email, and favorite videogames. He told researchers:

My real life is just another window and it’s usually not my best one.

But this goes beyond just issues of personal use. As educators, we need to be asking some serious questions about the current research concerning technology’s impact on attention, deep thinking, reflection, and concentration.

And I’m part of the problem. I mean, just look at the title and tagline of this website. The whole point of History Tech is to talk about ways to integrate technology into the teaching of history and social studies.

I’ve been pushing the use of technology in schools for years. Now? I’ll admit it. I’ve got concerns.

Not concerns about the appropriate use of technology in schools. I truly believe that a healthy balance of technology can improve and encourage high levels of learning. What I’m becoming more concerned about is the research documenting what can happen when the balance is not healthy.

I’ve written about this before here, here, and here.

But a recent Newsweek article highlights a whole boatload of new research. And what it’s telling me is that we need to have more conversations about what appropriate use of technology looks like in schools and, if we’re not careful, we may be adding to the problem that many of our students have with technology overdose.

I push the idea of mobile devices such as iPads as learning tools but I also push the idea that schools should not be buying them (or any other sort of technology) if they’re not really sure how the devices are going to be used. I had a recent conversation with a school administrator who was planning to purchase a large number of interactive white boards simply because

everyone else has them.

If the only reason you plan to use technology is because “everyone else is doing it,” we’re part of the problem. We need to be clear about how, when, and how much technology will be used in our buildings. We need to plan to balance tech use with deep reflection activities and group conversations that happen face-to-face. We need to understand that tech use does not always equal higher levels of thinking.

We need to be aware that technology use is not the silver bullet for improving learning. Appropriate use by trained teachers is.

A few quick suggestions:

  • Be intentional about the use of technology and the web as part of your instruction. Clearly understand what your goal is for its use.
  • Institute tech breaks as part of your normal teaching routine. Allow kids one minute to two minutes to check texts, etc at the start of class and then require devices to be turned off and upside down in front of you. Every 15-20 minutes, allow another one to two minute tech break. Use this method to train your kids that the downside of not checking in every five seconds isn’t as bad as they thought. Eventually you can lengthen the time without breaks to 30 minutes.

A recent article over at Edudemic also seems useful. They’ve put together a handy infographic that provides suggestions and ideas of how to stay focused “in an age of distraction.” The infographic breaks up your day into six categories:

  • Managing your space
  • How to work
  • Create rituals and habits
  • Managing email
  • Take time to reflect and review
  • Help for addicts
  • Take a digital technology detox

 

It seems like the balance I’m looking for – acknowledging the fact that technology is necessary but understanding that we have to be careful how we use it.

And it can help us start to have more intentional discussions about the appropriate use of technology in our classrooms.

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