I was excited to receive a media invite from ASCD to be a “guest blogger” at their upcoming conference in San Antonio TX (March 6-8, 2010). To get started, I’ve posted this Wiffiti screen which is coded to gather Tweets marked with the hashtag #ascd10. It’s a great way to keep up with the latest comments via Twitter. Click in lower right for full screen view.
I was excited to receive a media invite from ASCD to be a “guest blogger” at their upcoming conference in San Antonio TX (March 6-8, 2010). To get started, I’ve posted this Twitter StreamGraphs visualization that displays a flowing graph of the words most frequently used in the latest 1000 tweets marked with the hashtag #ascd10.
Check out my other Twitter visualizer – a Wiffiti screen which gathers Tweets marked with the hashtag #ascd10. It’s a great way to read the latest comments about the conference. Check back at my blog for my ASCD posts and follow me at Twitter / edteck. And see you at #ASCD10.
Navigation tips:
Scroll to right for the latest keywords. Scroll down to see the full Tweet.
If you see a large spike in one time period that hides the detail in all the other periods, click in the area to the left of the y-axis to change the vertical scale.
The latest episode of “The Simpsons” (Oct 5, 2009) nicely satirizes the debate over the role of social media in the classroom. Watch this episode and you’ll see the debate framed as “Social Media as Classroom Distraction vs. Social Media Instructional Gimmick.”
Much of the debate over the role of technology in the classroom is clouded by stereotypes of Luddites vs. Techies. What’s often missed is the point that it’s not about the technology, but the level thinking that technology can support. A PowerPoint can easily dumb down information into a series of shallow bullets, while a Wordle can help us to visualize text to support revealing insights.
Schools should be thoughtfully-designed learning environments where students can investigate information and be given a chance to reflect (with their peers) on what they learned and how they see themselves progressing as learners. That can be done with a variety of technologies – even pencil and paper. A social network is already sitting in the classroom that can interact with information and each other without the need to go online. But at the same time, handheld technology can support a level of investigation and teamwork that far exceeds the traditional classroom discussion group.
I’m always looking for the cheapest, most dependable, and accessible instructional tool to get the job done – depending on the situation – chalk or Twitter may fill the bill.
Recently I posted about trying out Wiffiti in my professional development sessions. "Use Wiffiti to Engage Your Audience." Since then I've used it a few more times with great success. I thought I'd share a live Wiffiti screen with my readers. This is from my most recent training session at Pomperaug High School in Southbury CT.
Wiffiti accounts are free and it's very easy to use. I created a new Wiffti screen using the school logo and set it to gather the tag #R88. The evening before the presentation (and again that morning), I posted a Tweet asking for greetings – “Say hi to Monday's teacher workshop at Pomperaug HS. (Southbury CT) Go Panthers! Tell us where you're from & why you Tweet. Add tag #R88” As participants arrived in the workshop, they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world.
During breakouts I switched back to projecting the Wiffiti screen and invited workshop participant to text message into the screen. They had fun with shoutouts to their friends and comments about the workshop. Pretty impressive when you're talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning!
Many thanks to my Twitter PLN who took the time to send us a greeting. You made this possible!
I recently saw this video clip from an old Abbott and Costello film (thanks to my Twitter network). It reminds us that math isn’t simply about learning a computational process, or getting the right answer. It’s pretty clear that Lou Costello has learned the wrong algorithm, and he defends his approach it with great determination. See the same mathematical thinking by Ma and Pa Kettle.
We learn math skills so that we can apply mathematical thinking to the problem solving we will need in our lives. Thus, much can be learned from the procedures we use to generate both the “correct” and the “incorrect” answer. Sharing our thinking with others allows us to negotiate a deeper understanding of algorithms and their application in the real world.
The video clip neatly “illustrates” a teaching strategy from Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire by Rafe Esquith. The book details Esquith’s fifth grade teaching methods in a rough LA neighborhood. Esquith shows us what students can learn from the wrong answer and his process can be easily applied across the curriculum. While it makes for an excellent test taking strategy, its real power is that gives students an engaging perspective to think more deeply about teaching and learning.
Esquith writes, “Let’s say I’m teaching addition. Just before I give the kids their own problems, I put one more problem on the board:
63 + 28 =
Rafe: All right, everybody. Let’s pretend this is a question on your Stanford 9 test, which as we all know will determine your future happiness, success, and the amount of money you will have in the bank. (Giggling from the kids) Who can tell me the answer?
All: 91.
Rafe: Very good Let’s place that 91 by the letter C Would someone like to tell me what will go by the letter A?
Isel: 35.
Rafe: Fantastic! Why 35, Isel?
Isel: That’s for the kid who subtracts instead of adds.
Rafe: Exactly. Who has a wrong answer for B?
Kevin: 81. That’s for the kid who forgets to carry the 1.
Rafe: Right again. Do 1 have a very sharp detective who can come up with an answer for D?
Paul: How about 811? That’s for the kid who adds everything but doesn’t carry anything.
In Room 56, the kids come to learn that multiple-choice questions are carefully designed. It is rarely a matter of one correct answer and three randomly chosen incorrect ones. The people who create the questions are experts at anticipating where students will go wrong. When a kid makes a mistake somewhere in the course of doing a problem and then sees his (incorrect) answer listed as a potential solution, he assumes he must be correct. My kids love to play detective. They enjoy spotting-and sidestepping-potential traps.
When students in Room 56 take a multiple-choice math test with twenty problems, they see it as an eighty-problem test. Their job is to discover twenty correct answers and sixty incorrect ones. It is hysterical to listen to the sounds of the class when the students take a standardized math test. The most common sound is a quiet giggle of recognition. The kids love to outsmart the test and can’t help laughing as they discover one trap after another.”
