Why Students Need Access to Web 2.0 and Why Teachers Need to Master It!

A fellow LMS in my district shared some great news with me this week. The National Council for the Social Studies released a position statement on media literacy. Social Studies gets it. Will the other professional organizations be far behind?

Below are some key quotes from the statement. Below these quotes is a link to the site.
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“The 21st century world is media saturated, technologically dependent, and globally connected. We live in a multimedia age where the majority of information people receive comes less often from print sources and more typically from highly constructed visual images, complex sound arrangements, and multiple media formats. The multimedia age requires new skills for accessing, analyzing, evaluating, creating, and distributing messages within a digital, global, and democratic society. The acquisition and application of critical analysis and media production skills are part of what constitutes media literacy. The Internet and the everyday use of social networking technologies, together with the expansive growth of corporate entertainment media and the integration of popular culture, also require us as social studies educators to link participatory media literacy with civic education.”

“These changes in society and the experiences the students bring into the classroom challenge social studies teachers to change both how and what we teach. One reaction is to fear these changes and try to protect our students from things we don’t understand or appreciate. Such an approach is neither helpful nor pedagogically sound. Another response is to take advantage instructionally of the wealth of experiences that young people have making media choices by respecting those choices when consistent with democratic principles.”

“Since young people overly rely upon commercial venues for information, the 21st century social studies teacher should guide students to explore different sources of information such as independent blogs, open source sites, wikis, podcasts, and numerous new resources that offer alternatives to corporate media. Teaching students to think critically about the content and the form of mediated messages is an essential requirement for social studies education in this millennium.”

http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/medialiteracy

BEDA Buddy Episode 3 - Meet Karson

Yay, Yay, It is Karson's Day!!!

Karson is another BEDA Buddy that Maureen Johnson was so awesome in picking for me. MJ likes to do these match making blogs, and I thought they were kind of silly. But, I know now that she really does have a talent for this, at least for friends.

Here is my Top 10 of why Karson is Awesome!

10. Her name ends in the "n" sound. So do all my children. It really is an awesome name. I would like to know how she got it. If I was still having children, I would name my 4th child Karson. It would not matter if I had a boy or a girl (... must find a novena that covers me from having more children, might have jinxed myself).

9. She is on Twitter - @karsonreed - Follow Her Now!

8. She has a blog on a ning site - http://maureenjohnson.ning.com/profile/KarsonReed - Once again, Follow this NOW! You will learn why if you keep reading.

7. She is on Facebook, but you can't be her friend just because you read this, you have to be special like me. I am HER BEDA Buddy and I will only share her with Rafia and Cassandra, so no stalking!

6. Despite the aforementioned #'s 7, 8, and 9, Karson thinks that she is somehow behind the game on this Web 2.0 thing. I mean, seriously, she is a social networking diva! She even does all this stuff on her phone! Egads! woman, what else do you have to do to be high tech??? (wondering... if my iPhone and her Blackberry got together and had 2.0 babies, what would that look like? Thinking my iPhone is the guy, but I could be wrong?)

5. She is a teacher. Future of the world in her hands and what not. 'nuff said!

4. She is a Language Arts Teacher. She knows that reading and writing are the most important things in the world (obviously not money or job security considering her vocational calling).

3. She is a LA teacher for Middle School kids. I teach 10-12 grade. I do not have the cojones to teach students younger than this, especially middle school students. They scare me. Check out "You might teach middle school if..." My personal favorite - You believe "extremely annoying" should have its own box on the report card.

2. She is a Library Media Specialist! She says she "used" to be and is now in a smaller classroom, but really Karson, once you get the initial retina scan, undergo insertion of the "know it all" data chip in your brain, and learn the secret hand shake, there is no leaving. We are watching! And anyway, Batgirl was a librarian (wait a minute, Batgirl kind of looks like Karson... what if...?)



#1. She is a writer and can do the most amazing things with just 55 words. It should not be legal. And she blogs about it! Just puts it out there for the whole world to see. Really, you have got to see this! (I WILL answer your challenge Karson. I am just not as awesome as you with brevity. I have to tell all my dirty secrets in long hand.)

So, you have now met the gang. Twitter, Maureen Johnson, and Providence -- Thanks!


P.S. Karson. It is OK if you correct my grammatical errors. I can handle it.

BEDA #17 - It's Social AND It's Networking - Part One

If you wonder why I start most of my blogs with BEDA and a number, I will tell you why again. At the end of March 2009, YA Author Maureen Johnson started a little revolution via Twitter and Ning for people to Blog Every Day April.

Last I heard, there were around 400 folks who have decided to BEDA. It is a commitment, and can be tedious, but the benefits are outstanding. I decided to jump on board for two reasons. I need practice writing and a warm up for National Novel Writing Month. A group of readers/writers on Goodreads.com (look me up - Maureen Brunner) decided that we would participate in our own NaNoWriMo this summer because we are too busy during the other times of the year. Probably most of us are educators. So, BEDA has been my training. Now only if I could lose 100 calories for every word...

The second reason is that I am currently enrolled in a course on learning spaces at Butler University College of Education. I am pursuing my second masters degree as the first leg of my doctoral (I hope) journey. Through my blog I am documenting the process of finding that perfect thesis project and a niche for a doctoral speciality. I am leaning towards online learning environments but I am not giving up my love for YA lit. One of my dreams is to start my own school that is 100% student centered and structured around inquiry based learning, social awareness, and exploring relevant topics found in YA fiction and narrative non fiction.

My co-worker (see @libraryhipster on Twitter) talked to me about micro blogging earlier this year. Over Spring Break I joined up. In less than a month, I have been in contact through reading and sometimes messaging, with more than 100 people/groups. Over 60 of those folks follow my micro blogs as well. My fellow Tweeters include authors, librarians, educators, teens who love to read, gamers, professional associations, news organizations, some weird and freaky but very cool Zombie dude, Darth Vadar, comic book gurus, and many more. I hope I have contributed to Twitter and my followers information flow in some positive way because I have gotten so much in return.

Since I started Tweeting, I now feel I am on the cutting edge of information. I wonder how I was ever an effective librarian without Twitter. I am frequently the first in my school to read news that effects my profession. I am exploring other interests in depth that I only thought about vaguely before. I am keeping up with teens around the world and what interests them. This really helps me connect with the teens I serve. Conversations with my students are become more relevant and meaningful every day. I am networking with other academics who are interested in creating online learning environments for teens. I have learned about vlogs and created one. Really and truly, the world has opened up in less than a month. I sincerely hope my head doesn't explode with all this new stuff I am learning. I keep waiting for themes to just repeat themselves over and over again, but that is not happening. I know first hand what "Knowledge in Abundance" means and why schools are wrong to create learning environments that treat knowledge as a scarcity.

So, now that Oprah is Tweeting, I am sure more and more people will join up. I think this is wonderful. I hope that I, along with my fellow #educators, can find a way to use Twitter or other micro blogging sites in schools and halt the mass blocking of everything social networking. Just like living in the physical world, there are several scary things about living online. But as a society we work to keep the wolves at bay and our children and YA's safe. I foresee the online community become strongly self-monitored (like a neighborhood watch) as more and more people join up. I foresee schools becoming relevant by helping student navigate their way through this web while still having a safety net. I foresee my library regulars in school making like minded friends around the world without having to worry about the "fit in" or "look" factor. I see so much good. I hope more education power holders will start seeing it too.

Tomorrow I would like to introduce everyone to my BEDA buddies and demonstrate another way social networking can bring more of us together.

BEDA 16 - The Seekret to Gruwell's Success?

I read Freedom Writers Diary from the perspective of a teacher in a very large urban(ish) high school who very much desires school reform. I have still not seen the movie.

I can break down, into three categories, the reasons why the students in FWD overcame their often times unbearable living conditions, made education their main priority, learned more than their non-freedom writer peers (even in those in the advanced classes), and made such a splash in the world. Basically, they were given what every young adult needs and deserves from a public education.

#1 - The School Environment

They had a small school environment. Wilson High School could have been the largest school in America, but those students were able to stay with the same group of about 150 students (at least for one class period a day), one willing and able teacher, and several caring adults, for 4 years. Even those who transferred in at a later date benefited immensely from a diverse, socially active, and caring group of peers.

Scheduling like this in a large school is not necessarily an easy thing. Wilson High counselors and building administrators had to be willing to stretch outside of their day to day responsibilities and traditional ways of doing things to make this happen. This means that they had to care enough about those students, and belive in enough in the teacher, to break the status quo.

Field Trips, events, donations, and community involvement were allowed to take place without too much red tape. Public schools today are full of red tape and it can be a deterrent for many over burden teachers to tackle.

Given this type of environment, any student, from any background, with any type of personal hurdle (drug and alcohol addiction, gang involvement, prison record, abusive relationships, language barriers, terminal illness, rape, homelessness, poverty, starvation, etc...) has a very good chance of succeeding in school.


#2 - The Dedicated Educator(s)and other Adults

A teacher, who honestly cared about her students, who had the opportunity to have the same group of students for 4 years, became very much like a family to her. She invested herself in their educational growth and was willing to fight for her students right to an authentic academic and socially aware school experience. She was free of, or ignored, artificial "professional" pressures so that she could communicate with her students in a way they could respect and understand.

Other adults in the community, including parents, public speakers, and business leader, became active stakeholders and philanthropic activists for this group of young adults.

When local teachers and administrators were not supportive of the Ms. Gruwell's methods, or the plans and ideas of her students, district, state, and even national educators took up her cause.

#3 - The curriculum

Here is a very important piece of the equation. The teacher was allowed to decide, in many cases, what literature and writing skills to teach and how to teach her students. She could move away from the decided "norm" and make decisions based on her individual and collective student needs. If she needed to slow down, she could. If she needed to assess differently she was able. If she felt that some traditional lessons or skills were not inherently beneficial to the long term goals of her students, she dropped them.

It didn't appear to me that this teacher felt forced to be a slave to nationally or even state mandated standards, common standardized assessments, or other such academic nonsense. Unfortunately, I see standards treated as the holy grail every day where I teach, and woe to the teacher who does not at least pretend to agree.

Ms. Gruwell's class showed their learning through socially constructed projects, as well as through individual, private, and non assessed writing.

Textbooks were replaced by authentic and good literature that were explored through the students' viewpoint. This included a mix of contemporary YA literature as well as classics that were usually reserved for the AP curriculum.

Just a personal thought here - if more schools would ditch the textbooks and give teachers the time and support to create curriculum from authentic literature and primary sources, schools would save millions a year.

There were exams mentioned in the book, but students found themselves able to respond to the questions without much trouble and all the teens that were mentioned in the book appeared to succeeded in a traditional GPA scale.

** The criticisms of traditional public education.

Many criticisms of this books stem from the statement that this type of learning environment is not possible or (in some cases) not necessary for most high school students. I would disagree with both of these statements. All students can and whould benefit from small school environment, a caring and able teacher, and community support, and if local and state communities decide that this is imporant, it could happen more often.

A database or google search will show you comments from thousands of educators who get discouraged when they read about the personal sacrifices that Erin Gruwell had to make in order to fight for the autonomy to make sound decisions for the learning of her students. I have personally heard administrators, who are not currently in the classroom, and are making large sums of money every year, point to Erin Gruwell and the sacrifices she made as the model for how their educators should live and work. Their mind set seems to be: "why can't other teachers work two jobs, fight with their fellow peers, and sacrifice their family time to make this happen?" I think types of demands would be rare amoung other professionals outside of the classroom.

Would we ever think that a surgeon should work a job at a department store to be able to fund necessary instruments with which to do surgery? Would we ever ask a superintendent to bag groceries so that the senior class would go on college visits?

To these criticisms, I have several responses in the forms of questions:

Why can't our districts and states support a small school environment by hiring more teachers or making decisions for smaller schools?

Why must we have this trend of supermarket schools, where everyone has to know everything, and we as teachers feel forced or compelled to base our methods on political initiatives that require us to machine gun fire knowledge at students for 50 minutes, 7 times week?

Why do we track and move students who can't learn in this type of environment to lower level, "non essential" or sub-standard classes as if they, the students, are the problem and not the system we as a society have created?

Why is a lack of funding always the party line for the lack of consistency in good research based academic programs when we see more and more high paid administrators and consultants being hired?

Why do politicians force schools to adhere to an economic formula that allows for millions to be spent on on big gyms, sports stadiums, textbooks, non essential staffing, and fancy architecture while ensuring that teachers are cut every year, class sizes are larger, and school library and classroom budgets are slashed?

Why do we expect more out of our teachers in terms of professional education and licensing, class sizes, assessment, dicipline, and number of courses taught, when more and more local control over what is taught in the classroom is taken away?

Why do our professional associations fight for trivial things and not concentrate time and funding by encouraging and protecting teachers like Erin Gruwell (of which there are hundreds in every school district)?

Why are socially aware and responsible teachers (like Ms. Gruwell) forced to fight tooth and nail for the right to teach their students in a non traditional way, spend all of their personal and family time (to the determent of their own families), and spend so much of their own hard earned income to help their students succeed?

If classroom environments, and curriculum development, like I read about in Room 203 were the accepted "best practice", then wouldn't there be fewer personal hardships exptect out of teachers who demand the right to use better and more effective methods?

Why are the students in Advanced Placement or who are severally learning disabled permitted to be blessed with a small school environment when research and experience says this is the best way to educate all young people?

How can educators, politicians, and the American public except that 50% to 75% of students in any given school are not worthy of the benefits of a small school environment?

I would like to see these questions answered without one financial or economic excuse given. In real life, we as individuals and as a collective society find and spend money based on what is most important to us. Maybe we need to reassess our priorities?

BEDA 15 - The Social Reconstructionist

After you have been an educator for a while, you start to realize that teach and make content decisions based on an ideology. Last semester I put a name to my ideology. I became a Social Reconstructionist. Yep, that is me. A socialist soccer mom/librarian. My ideas of socialism are not however based on an economic structure. I would have to say I still camp in the capitalism tent, although, I would say on a higher ethical ground than many in our great nation. My socialist instincts are related to academic freedom and the view that education should better society through generous sharing, tolerance, empathy, and understanding.

I realized my ideology by studying a small book; Dare the School Build a New Social Order by George Counts.

I would not frequently use the term "fascinating" to describe a professional reading in curriculum/education theory, but this collection of three speeches delivered by Counts are more than fascinating. Add timeless, thought provoking, and at times, unsympathetically reproachful to those of us who consider ourselves progressive educators and parents.

The relevance to today's economic, political, and educational issues, which were first raised by Counts in 1932, then again in the 1978 preface of this edition, are uncanny, and a bit disturbing. The preface writer (Wayne J. Urban) does not believe, in 1978, that Counts should be labeled prophetic. However, we might want to reconsider this statement now that another 30 years have passed and, notwithstanding a few outdated terms circa the industrial revolution (i.e. replace "machinery" with "technology"), this book still reads fresh. If Counts was not a prophet, then I would definitely grant him the title of visionary.

In the 1930's Counts was actively denouncing the "evils" of the free market (i.e. a few very wealthy creating unwarranted recession for the masses) and how unregulated overindulgence and greed had lead to environmental destruction, energy crises, poor agricultural practices, hunger and starvation, mass unemployment, political corruption, and basically, the unraveling of the American Dream. His call to action was based on the need for educators to help prepare America's youth to combat these social injustices in an ever changing, technically advanced, and global society. Hmm, sound familiar?

Educators, he explained, must be professionally and powerfully organized so that they may demand the right and the autonomy to create appropriate curriculum for their students. Above all, educators must be willing to stand strong in the face of opposition by politicians, business leaders, and the few elite local decision makers, and be able to thoughtfully articulate and argue their positions. After all, Counts himself was accused repeatably of being a communist (which he was not) and a socialist (which he was) but continued to unabashedly defend the rights of the "masses" in a democracy.

At first I was a bit dismayed after finishing this book. I kept wondering "why after 70+ years are we still dealing with the same issues in our educational institutions and society as a whole" and "why can't the teaching profession secure the autonomy and power needed to effectively educate our students?"

However, Counts' message is also inspiring. For example, I found hope in idea that the truly "core" need of education, or the "why" we teach has not changed much, if at all, in the last 70 years; even when the content, or the "what" we teach can and should be organic and change continuously depending on cultural and technical needs of current society.

I found myself in line with Counts' belief that in the classroom teachers should not act as if they are unbiased, unfeeling, and unchanging members of society. Students, he said, should not be sheltered from adult situations and moreover teachers should in fact model how they make decisions based on their experiences, education, spiritual, and political beliefs. In this way, the teacher help create a socially and politically aware classroom where students learn (in one of many settings) how adults function productively, ethnically, and compassionately in the world outside the school.

To achieve such an environment, Counts believes that educators should not have to teach a dictated curriculum formulated by economists, business leaders, politicians, and the elite local "few", who do not have personal, in depth knowledge of the needs of their classroom community.

Textbooks Must Die

Good BEDA #9 Afternoon and Happy Thursday!

Today I received another timely link from edutopia.com about textbooks, so I am dragging this issue through the mud one more time.

From me to you for your reading pleasure: "the dysfunctional world of textbooks," a $4.3 BILLION per year industry.

Couldn't schools help stimulate the economy in other ways that are better for learning??? http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

My ideas: More authentic literature/media for libraries and classrooms, plus hardware, software and Internet connectivity for online learning environments. Add a healthy dollop of time for professional collaboration and development. Of course this one fix everything but would help get public schools on the right track.

Thoughts? Anyone out there (crickets chirping...) I would love to hear what you think.

Still Mucking Around

As I consider my discontent further, and try to find my road to research, I am thinking back on three pieces of advice I have gotten recently.

The first was from my husband (who clearly didn't coin this phrase, but I first heard it from him). He was not talking about public education, but investing in the stock market, which requires a good amount of research in order to be successful.

Invest in what you know.

I would also include ...what you love, and ...what most interests you. At this stage in my life I think all three pretty much connect in one form or another. Please just take my word for it and do NOT make me illustrate with a Venn Diagram. God I hate Venn Diagrams.

I would also argue that a person cannot really and truly "know" something unless they experience this "thing" first-hand on a daily basis (except of course on school vacations and other major holidays...).

This piece of advise is really common sense, but I guess I don't have a whole lot because I needed to hear it. Why would I spend time concentrating on anything else when I will be investing my time, money, and my soul (I think this is a requirement of admissions to a doctoral program) for this research.

So, by following my husband's advice and defining what "know" really means to me, I have narrowed my focus professionally (not personal, my family would be at the top every time) to the short list below (in random order).

High School Education
Library Science
Information Science (including web 2.0)
Literature
Writing (Probably what I know the least but it is more than a passing interest and I am actively involved)

I know a little about cooking, playing guitar and piano, and knitting, but not enough to warrant giving away too much of my time, money, and soul to further my investment. Maybe someday I will be a one woman band while whipping up a souffle and knitting sweater vests, not probably not in the next 100 years.

The second piece of advise was given to me, at different times, by two of my professors at Butler University (Shelly Furuness and Jody Britten).

Isolate the things about your work as a High School Teacher-Librarian that trouble you, that you feel are just not right, then decide if you want to change it.

Notice they didn't say "then decide if you can change it." As master teachers they did not limit my creative problem-based thinking by undermining my confidence. All learners can do that just fine on their own. What learners need is someone to believe in them. I digress...

So, how could I make change? I could stick around where I currently work and try to be a change agent at my school. Or, I could identify other educational environments that are more in-line with my academic ideology and have already implement changes, or are on their way. Regardless, I still need to narrow my focus on those things that rub me the wrong way.

Some people would say that I have another option: leaving the profession. Don't get me wrong, I do have those fantasies of leaving in early June and forgetting to come back in August. I could work at Starbucks (yummm, soy vanilla latte) or work in a Book Store (yummm, soy vanilla latte and that new book smell). I think all teachers AND librarians have at one time or another.

I didn't include leaving as an option because being a YA Teacher-Librarian is not a J.O.B. but a calling. Even if I didn't need the money (which is in no way lucrative or even desirable for most people with my level of education) I am not sure I would be happy doing anything else, at least not in this stage of my life.

The third piece of advise came from Dr. Britten about two months ago.

Articulate why these things are wrong and how you should make changes to the power holders in a way they could understand and not ignore.
Basically, beat them down with it. Leave no room for someone to come along and say, "Brunner does not know what she is talking about." One of my dreams is to start a free public charter school. When I look at research and learning strategies, I always see things through this lens. What would MY school do differently. Even if I was CEO and Principal of a new school, I would still have to answer to many people.

So, in short I am working on articulating what I think is wrong and then the why and how these things can be changed.

The what will come from mostly from my own organic experiences (invest in what you know).

The the why and how will come mostly from those who are much smarter than me and have hopefully done some of the work. (content area professionals, education researchers, master teachers, and proactive librarians) and those that will have the most to gain or to loose from my work.

Often times in education we forget ask the end users key questions: What do you want? What would make things better? What can we do for you? What are your goals?

In my case, the ultimate end users who could benefit or not from my work are are my students, current and future. Second on the list are high school educators including other YA teacher-librarians. Third, the community at large. Every citizen, domestic or global, has a stake in public education.

Tomorrow, what "I" think is wrong and should be changed in public high schools today.