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Sharing isn’t simple II

June 13, 2010 in open knowledge, open source, presentations, Technology | No comments

Copyright issues are not the only obstacles to sharing content with others. Some of the obstacles are my choice of software and platform.

Although I am an advocate of open source software, my focus in this area has been server based applications. When it comes to desktop computing, I run a Mac. I like the Macintosh for its ease of use, stability, and reliability. Ubuntu has come along. I run it on my Mac. We have several Ubuntu laptops and an Ubuntu netbook running Jim Klein’s excellent Ubuntu Remix distro. I am still confronted with upset children with malfunctioning computers more often than I want. It is often time consuming fix these bugs. I do not have the time for that on my production computer. This, however, is not about platforms.

The problem is access. It’s no problem for those running a Mac with iWork. I spend a lot of time making presentations and, I find Keynote has a better look and workflow than the alternatives. Unfortunately, exporting to PowerPoint, usable by MS Office and OpenOffice, is not reliable. PDF exports can be difficult to edit. QuickTime exports play fine in Windows, but not Linux.

Ideally, I could share slideshow with which people could do more than use my presentation, or grab and remix slides from it. They would be able to edit each slide itself–down to the character level.

Now I have hundreds of instructional presentations that cannot be easily shared because of my software choice. Not only do I need to screen my presentations for copyright issues, but I also have to go over exports slide by slide to make sure they are reasonably true to the original.

Keynote has arguably saved time in creating content. I honestly believe that hadn’t I used Keynote I never would have produced such a large body of work in so little time. Further, I never could have so quickly produced attractive content using the alternatives. This has come at a cost now that I want to share.

If I continue to use Keynote, I will probably need to avoid many of the great features that do not translate well into other formats. If I leave Keynote, I will need to relearn software and workflow and give up many features I love. Further, it will be more difficult to make the attractive presentations that I am accustomed to and that my students have come to expect.

Interestingly, my previous blog post on sharing presentations yielded a response from Professor Nathan Garrett of Woodbury University in San Diego who is working on a presentation sharing platform. This poses a new option engineered from the beginning for sharing. Further it is being designed to allow users to alter or annotate the slides easily. I am excited to explore this new possibility and look forward to its development. You may see posts about this in the future.

At the moment. I am not sure how I will create future presentations. One thing is clear though: whatever I create will be done with sharing in mind from the beginning. I have realized that decisions made in the creation of presentations has a significant impact on how they can be shared.

Digitizing Math Instruction

May 22, 2010 in presentations, Technology | No comments

A few months ago, I decided to deliver math lessons to my fifth grade digitally. It was the last subject area that I brought into this form. I was reluctant because typesetting needed for math was confusing and frustrating. Beyond that, I was quite pleased with how I conducted math lessons, and my results have been positive.

There is a lot of direct instruction in my math lessons. I make no apology for this. My school and community expect it. The demands of state curriculum and standardized testing demand we cover a lot of material. However, I have long approached math differently from many others. Rather than worksheets or exercises from the book, students in my class have done their work and respond using 9×12 dry erase boards. I have been presenting mini lessons on the chalkboard and putting up problems one by one for students to do. If they grasp it, I continue to new material. If they have not, I reteach and practice more.

While still largely direct instruction, I have found this approach significantly different in that it is social. Instead of students receiving direct instruction, guided, and independent practice, there is constant interaction with rapid shifts in lessons because of the feedback given by the students. I have been better able to scaffold my lessons by starting with simpler work, checking for understanding, then moving on to more complex as appropriate.

OpenOffice Impress is a capable open source presentation application available on all platforms. Windows users may have PowerPoint. I use Keynote along with a multimedia projector and project onto a screen or my chalkboard.

Unfortunately, iWork applications, unlike those in Microsoft Office, do not have an integrated equation editor. I made a brief attempt to get LaTeXiT to work on my computer, but I just did not have the time to fiddle with it and learn the markup language. I ended up buying MathType (also available in Windows) because it integrates with iWork. It was pricey and has an interface that leaves much to be desired, but it does the job. For the amount of time saved, it has been worth it. Bottom line is that you need an equation editor to digitize math instruction. If you use MS Office, you have a tool set sufficient for intermediate mathematics. I found the Open Office tools too limited (unless you learn LaTeX). Grapher, which comes with Mac OSX, has about the same features as Open Office’s Formula. Outside of MS Office, you need third-party party software. If you are willing to learn LaTeX, there are many free options. If you run a Mac, I recommend the MacTeX distribution. It takes care of all the dependent software in one easy installation. Now LaTeXiT and related software run on my computer.

Presentation software packages include capable graphics and charting tools. Learning accompanying spreadsheet software extends the range. Nonetheless, you will need to create graphics beyond the on board tools. Windows users may have MS Visio. ConceptDraw is a premium choice on Mac or Windows. I use OmniGraffle, a less expensive Mac alternative. Dia, an open source diagram tool, is available for Linux and Windows.

While exploring math resources, I was shocked to find Mathematica for $49 in a special offer for K-12 and community college educators. Mathematica is an advanced mathematics and scientific programming environment. I use Mathematica, but I just scratch the surface. I have done some basic formulas and graphing; however, I usually used it with the huge library of Mathematica demonstrations. They can be downloaded freely and played using the software or a free player. Using Mathematica allows me to hack or modify the demonstrations to customize them to my needs. It is also a capable math typesetting application.

Committing lessons to slides, I have focused on the structure and sequence of my lesson in more detail than I had. Laying out the minute details slide by slide makes it clear if anything is missing. Having the lesson laid out as such also has kept the structure and sequence within a lesson tighter. I reflect upon my work more closely.

I have also learned a lot about math. Searching for materials, I have discovered different approaches to teaching a given concept. I have seen many educators’ lessons on YouTube. They have given me deeper understanding and innovative ideas about both mathematics and pedagogy. Beyond that, the Internet provides access to diverse cultures that sometimes use methods different from those prevalent here.

Students are more focused. Delivery of lessons is faster and more efficient. While I interact with the projected material upon the chalkboard, time spent writing is significantly diminished. I work easily with grids, graphics, and multimedia. We have more time for extension, exploration, and review.

The downside has been the substantial time investment. It takes time to become efficient with the applications and develop a work flow. Time is lost in trial and error. Creating problem sets is tedious. Now and then time constraints have forced me to compromise quality or take shortcuts such as copying unaltered problem sets from textbooks.

As the year draws to an end, I now have half a year of math instruction presentations created. I have implemented many shortcuts and efficiencies, so completing the rest will be easier. I think that my teaching has improved dramatically as a result of this work.The next step is to share these lessons with others which brings up another set of issues to be addressed in another blog post.

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NYSED Tech Plan up for comments

November 1, 2009 in Policies, Technology | 1 comment

Last April, the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) embarked on an outreach campaign seeking input on their new draft technology plan. They started with a meeting leaders of major professional organizations. They set up a survey on their website and met with educational technology leaders at the NYSCATE leadership summit this summer. As planned they have been holding community forums throughout the state this fall.

As a practicing educator in New York State with a keen interest in education and technology, I applaud NYSED in creating such a plan and seeking input. The problem is that I have  no notification of the plan and their outreach efforts through my school. I found out about the plan and survey though Twitter. I learned of the  NYSED discussion at the NYSCATE Leadership Summit though NYSCATE and attended. I missed the community forums because I never received notification.

I, like others, feel that we need to further broaden the conversation and  widen the avenues for input. To that end, I have created another blog based on the digressit WordPress plugin. The blog features the NYSED draft technology plan and is set up so that readers can comment upon it on a paragraph by paragraph level.

Please visit the blog and add your feedback. I will contact Larry Pasca the NYSED Technology Policy Coordinator once feedback begins to come in. Please pass the word to others that may be interested.

NYSED Goal 1: Accessible Digital Content

July 29, 2009 in Policies, Technology | 3 comments

The NYSED Technology Plan’s first goal addresses digital content:

Standards-based, accessible digital content supports all curricula for all learners.

Accessible is defined as: content available anywhere, easy to retrieve using multiple technology devices, and content is universally designed. Aligning digital content to the New York State learning standards is how we will ensure quality and relevance in the PreK-12 environment.

Learners and practitioners both need access to rich digital media. Alignment with standards help make appropriate content more easily accessed by all.

New York has moved in this direction already through the auspices of state public broadcasting stations. EDVideoOnline is a portal to PowerMediaPlus which provides teachers with access to downloadable video, audio, and images for use with their students. They also include worksheets and quizzes.

Unfortunately, this is a subset of what was available in the past. When I started using this program, it included full access to the Discovery Education library. Public stations scaled back the program to the current offerings. They said too few were using it to justify the expense. I didn’t see a lot of teachers using it either, but those who did were excited about it.

Beyond PowerMediaPlus and Discovery Education, New York needs go further in digitizing and providing access to its own holdings. New York museums and libraries hold a treasure trove of material. Some institutions have done a great job digitizing materials and providing access, while others have done little.

I hope this means access to more content in the future. Access to a broader audience is also essential. While everyone can access some of the material, students are shut out of PowerMediaPlus. This repository could provided a wealth of content for independent study, exploration, and working on assignments.

Access to digital content also encompasses licensing. Let me relate my own experience. I have spent countless hours creating media rich presentations for delivering engaging social studies lessons for my class. They include historical documents, images, maps, and embedded digital video. Under fair use, there is no question that I was legally using these materials for my own classroom.

I thought it would be great to share these materials with other practitioners throughout the state (and ideally beyond), so I contacted PowerMediaPlus about doing such. In essence, they replied that there was no way I could do such legally.

We need to be able share what we create with this digital media with other learners and practitioners. They need to be able to reuse and remix that work to adapt it to their individual needs. NYSED should explore Creative Commons Licensing for content that is state owned and that of state funded institutions. They need to negotiate for means to more broadly share the content they pay for through entities such as PowerMediaPlus. Further, it needs to create a platform to facilitate such sharing.

In conclusion, there is more to digital content than availability. There needs to be access and the ability to remix it and share with others.

I will continue a discussion of New York State’s Educational Technology Plan in future posts, including a discussion of each of the six broad goals. I look forward to hearing your comments.

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Will NYSED Tweet?

July 27, 2009 in Policies, Social Networking, Technology | 3 comments

While I attended the NYSCATE Leadership Summit last week for a variety of reasons, the main motivation was to hear the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) presentation on their proposed state technology plan. Beyond the presentation there were roundtable discussions to provide input and feedback followed by an opportunity to ask questions.

When the opportunity to ask questions arrived, I raised my hand. I told the them that I hadn’t heard about the proposed tech plan through regular channels, rather through Twitter. Then came the question: Would they consider setting up an account and using Twitter?

The answer: We’ll have to check with our counsel.

Let’s juxtapose this with Goal Two of the Statewide Technology Plan:

Learners, teachers, and administrators are proficient in the use of technology for learning.

Proficiency is defined, in large measure, by standards for desired levels of skills, knowledge and performance. Proficiency encompasses such areas as social networks and internet safety.

Apparently, while NYSED wants students, teachers, and administrators to use social networks, they fear doing so themselves. They seem flummoxed by the same issues that technology pioneering districts and practitioners have been wrestling with for years. The message is that NYSED regards the very activities in which they wish us to engage as legally questionable.

Educators know that good leadership involves modeling the desired behaviors. NYSED knows that and should do the same. Using social networking tools shows that they understand them. They could model what they regard as best practices.

To succeed NYSED needs to help cut through the systemic fear and uncertainty that runs from practitioner to district to BOCES and beyond. Hesitation is the enemy of change and innovation. We need some degree of guidance in what are acceptable practices.

Twitter is a simple tool. It’s a good place to start. The US Department of Education, Centers for Disease Control, and President Obama tweet. NYSED needs to tweet too.

I plan on a number of posts on aspects of the NYS Tech Plan soon. I’m eager to hear comments.

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