The Benefits of an Online Education and How it’s Changing the Way We Learn

This is a guest post written by Lindsey Wright.
College students all over America are taking advantage of the online revolution in college. They no longer have to sit in class to learn, but can learn via online classes at home with their computers. However, many parents are not aware that their preschool and elementary school-aged children have many online learning opportunities as well.
In the past, rote memorization has been key to success in school. If a child struggled with memorizing math facts, historical dates or spelling words, they were doomed to failure in school. Yet, nowadays, multitudes of sites exist solely to turn learning into a game that a child cannot wait to play.
For instance, English grammar can be a confusing subject for a student to conquer, but the makers of Mingoville hope to help make it easy for children to learn. Mingoville is mainly designed for ESL students, to enhance their fluency and help familiarize them with the language, but could benefit early elementary students as well. All of the prompts on this site are audio, as well as visual, so that students don’t need to have an adult sitting at the computer next to them. This allows them to become comfortable with English on their own.
Math is another subject that many students dread Ironically, many parents often also experience the same exact feelings when it comes to math, causing them to fear hearing the words “I need help with my homework.” However, by using the many tutorials that are available online, parents and children can begin to understand those tricky concepts, such as fractions and percents. Tutorials are fabulous because students who need repetition to learn are able to repeat a lesson as many times as needed. Better yet, they no longer have to feel embarrassed in class for raising their hands once again to have a concept re-explained.
Additionally, using various historical and scientific websites can make formerly tedious subjects come to life. No longer does a student have to rely on memorizing lists of names and dates, or properties of scientific laws. By watching online videos and historical reenactments it can be much easier to put to memory what the student has read about in a textbook.
The beauty of using online learning is that parents no longer have to accept that being in a mediocre school district means that their children won’t get a decent education and struggle to get into college. By simply playing a few interesting, fun, educational games, their children can master the subject matter presented and go on to explore even more fascinating topics. Children who have formerly struggled with school will gain confidence and self-esteem, as they become proficient learners. These children will also gain insights about how they learn best, a skill that is quite valuable in college. It seems that simply logging on to a computer can change a child’s school career forever.
The author of this article, Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

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Why Can't We All Just Get Along...

So, I just realized this is my 400th post. Neat! Thanks for reading and all your support over the past 2 years!




This is a post that has been brewing for a while now....


But after a conversation I had this weekend I think it's time to get some of my thoughts out there for reflection. 


I totally get passion in education. And really can you be an educator and not have passion for education? Perhaps that is a post for another time. 


But the way I see it, many have moved passed passion and moved to anger. 


Again, I totally get that. I am upset with many things in our current system. Sure, if asked, I would give a lot of the "reformers" a piece of my mind. 


But...


It seems like if  you disagree with one side or the other you are perceived as dumb, stupid, or much, much worse. 


My conversation started out with a Tweet that (to paraphrase) asked if a certain, central figure in the reform debate, that many admire and look up to actually had any ideas or if she just ran around the country telling us what is wrong without actually offering up any ideas. I follow this "reformer" on Twitter and her stream is filled with what comes across in 140 characters as anger. Again, I get that. (Remember, I am angry too.) But my point was that when you had the audience she did last week why not give them something tangible to take back to their districts to try or do? Seems reasonable, right?


Normally I don't tweet things like that. I don't. I like the discussion but there are people out there in ol' Twitter land that use the screen as one of anonymity and they believe because they are behind this screen they can say and do whatever they like. Don't get me wrong. Again, I love the conversations. I totally enjoy for my thinking to be pushed. However I have limits....


So after my tweet, which I figured would draw some comments I got plenty of, "I agrees," and a few people who disagreed, which was great. I had fun engaging and talking to them. Then there was one who, has passion, but that passion has grow to anger. And if you cross them, say anything negative about the reformer  whom I mentioned earlier, well, you might as well pack up and go home. 


This tweeter had solid arguments for certain types of reform and the direction we should be going, many I agreed with. However, it was the personal attacks and just general poor language that really made me loose respect for this tweeter. 


Disagreement is cool. Makes us think differently and see other sides, but to move from disagreement to creative hashtags, none appropriate to even write here, really just make your arguments look weak. 


This isn't the first time I have written about this or even encountered it. In a post from late last year I wrote about Education Nation project from NBC and how it was getting all sorts of negative attention from the Twittevers and blogsphere. Again, there I tried to say we needed to move from talk to action. 


In my most popular post ever on this blog I wrote about why we should all think before we Tweet. 


For me I keep coming back to this idea that I believe people who use social media or tools like it feel some level of anonymity and they can say, really what ever. What if we were having a face-to-face conversation? Would the person who I had my conversation with this past weekend behaved the same and said the same things? I am doubtful. 


I am not the only one to notice this trend. My friend Michelle, just wrote a post today about the exact same issue. In it she says; 

What do we tell kids about comments on blogs, online articles, Facebook status updates?

1. PLAY NICELY.
2. If you disagree, you can do so without attacking another person’s character.
3. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t type it online.
4. Remember, there are human beings on the other end.
5. Remember, you are also a human being.
6. Rule #1 is really all you need.

So why so much animosity amongst educators in online spaces lately? I would say that the current turmoil in which we find ourselves (perhaps related to education reform discussions) is part of it. But are we practicing what we preach? I don’t think so.

Couldn't agree more Michelle. And Seth Godin had a piece this weekend where this last line says simply, "Anger, on the other hand, makes us smaller." 

We are going to disagree. And you know, that makes us smarter, pushes our thinking and helps us see all sides. But is it possible to do it without anger? Passion, sure. But anger?

What do you think? Is this a problem today? Is it a result of the anonymity I say the screen provides or is it something else? Leave some comments below.

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#Edtech Over The Pond

On Friday, Ken Royal had me back on his BlogTalkRadio show, this time to talk to Joe Dale, an educational technology consultant, living on the south English coast. I was thrilled to be able to exchange ideas with Joe and the conversation did not disappoint. We talked about the importance of educators getting connected, how they can do that and even had a chance to do a mini smackdown where we shared some of our favorite tools.

I think for me the conversation affirmed that the same issues we face in the US are similar else where in the world. Joe and I both struggle with helping educators see the value of getting connected in these online spaces and getting them to understand how they can grow as an educator using something simple like Twitter.

Below is the player with the interview. Take some time and listen, not to me but the exchange of ideas. And listen some of the other great interviews Ken has done with some of the great thinkers in the edtech world.

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When We Will Start Our Egyptian Revolution In The Classroom?

It has been an interesting past few weeks around the world. First the govenerment in Tunisia was brought down. Then a similar situation in Egypt. And now people are taking to the streets in Bahrain, Iran and other places. For whatever the reason the people in these countries were upset with their government and protest to the point where they brought down governments, some that had been in place for 30+ years.

Now, I am not a political expert. I don't know each situation and why the people where unhappy. I have some knowledge but I don't want to speculate. But I do know that there is one common thread in each of these situations that is worth taking a look at.

Social Media

On Sunday 60 Minutes profiled the man credited with starting the revolution in Egypt. Wael Ghorim works for Google and started a Facebook page for Egyptians to post their experiences with police. And it is from that Facebook page and from Twitter posts organize protests that topiled a government. It was a great interview and you can watch it below.



The events in Tunisia, Iran, Bahrain, and other places and trace their beginnings to the use of social media by the residents in those countries. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites allowed residents to organize in non-traditional ways to get their message out. Many of the governments don't know how to handle these new voices, so they knee-jerk react, send out the military to quiet the crowds. But they just get louder and louder and larger and larger. And in the case of Egypt and Iran, they attempted to keep control by shutting down Internet traffic for several days.

Any of this sound familiar?

Leadership is afraid of a new medium and how powerful it is. So they put up blocks, downplay it's effectiveness, and bury their heads in the proverbial sand.

When is our revolution in education when it comes to Social Media and the use of these tools in the classroom? Think about how powerful it could be if students in a high school social studies class in Nebraska could look at the Facebook page started by Wael. But, they can't because the district feels Facebook is a time suck, provides no educational value and they block it.

Or what about being able to look at the Tweets organizing the protests and have a discussion about why the people in these places feel the way they do and how their situations compare to those locally and nationally.

Those of us who know the power of Social Media and the value it can provide to learning are, sometimes, seen in the same way as many of the organizers of these revolutions. We are disruptive. We want to destroy the current system. Really? We just want change. We understand how these tools can be used to enhance, change and ultimately make learning better for students.

Maybe it is wrong of me to compare these events in these countries where many of the citizens have been mistreated for many, many years. But again, isn't the same true for our kids? Sitting in rows, drill and kill, teaching in isolation. Maybe that is mistreatment....

What do you think? When is our education revolution? Are their parallels? Or are the situations different? Leave some comments below.

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Get Your Search On!

Over the weekend my good friend Gwyneth Jones tweeted about an interesting search engine called Heapr. I am all about search engines so of course I had give it a go.

Basically Heapr is a quad search engine. With one search you get results for 4 different searches all on one screen. While built using Google search you also get returned results from Wikipeda related searches, WolframAlpha search and Twitter instant results.

So I just did a basic search for "Super Bowl" since it was the most watched program in the history of television over the weekend.

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Why Diigo Rocks!

Recently, I was asked why do I use Diigo for my social bookmarking tool. The more I thought about it the more I needed to write about all the great features Diigo is not just for regular ol' users but has some great features for educators too.

First, what the heck is Social Bookmarking? Most people are familar with favorites or bookmarks in their browser. Basically, when you come across a website you want to make sure you come back to later or want to visit a lot, you bookmark it (or for you Internet Explorer users you favorite it). But there is a flaw. Unless you have some add-on installed or special program, your saves don't travel with you from computer to computer and device to device.

Enter Diigo. When you save to Diigo your saves go anywhere because they are saved to the cloud. Sounds mystical doesn't it? The social part is because you can make your saves public and share the wealth of knowledge with others. Say you are a science teacher. Your fellow science colleagues can go and view your saves because you have made them public.

There are loads of other features as well, like highlighting on a webpage, adding sticky notes to pages, saving pages to read later without actually adding them to your collection and so much more.

One of the most powerful features is the tagging. Basically, if I save Google.com and don't tag it, I will have to remember the name of the site or something in the address. That can be tough when you start to get 1000-2000 saves like I do. Trying to remember exactly the name of a site I want to share just isn't going to happen. Instead I use tags. With tags I can categorize my saves. So, looking at Google.com I might tag that as "Search" or "Search Engine." So this way I look at my tags and find what I need. Now, I do at this point have too many tags but its super easy to go back in and reorganize things.

Another feature I love is the ability to auto-post to my blog. If you look at the post previous to this one you will see 10 of my favorite saves from last week. I set that up through my preferences. I tell Diigo what saves I want to post (either everything I save or specific tags) and what time I want it to post. And presto! A fresh blog post of resources to share.

And the groups are great too. Have a special interest or area that you want to find resources for and share with? Maybe you have an Interactive Whiteboard or you are interested in Pre-K education. Or perhaps you are in a 1:1 school. There are groups for all these where members can share their saves to not only their inventory but to the group as well. Diigo will email you once a week with all the new content. Pretty neat, huh?

Anyone can do any of those things. Joe Smith off the street can sign up for a Diigo account and do all of those things. But if you are an educator, watch out! So many more features await you.

First thing to do is get a regular Diigo account. Then visit the Educator Area and apply for the Educator upgrade. Once you get upgraded you can access all the new features in the Teacher Console. You can create class groups and student accounts.

The next step is to create a group. This could be one group for all your students or individual groups for individual projects. You give the group a name and it gets a unique URL. And one of the best features is you can make the group private, meaning only who you want to see the information will be able to.

Once the group is created you can create student accounts. No email addresses needed. You create the username and password. Then you can add those created accounts to the group. If you have already created accounts you have the option to just add those accounts then.

The advantage here is that anything the students save goes to the group. So if students are

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Can Passion Cross The Line?

Today I spent some time talking to a education related company, offering feedback on their various products and their social media presence. First, kudos to them for bringing in teachers and other educational professionals to have open and honest feedback about what they are doing right and a little about how they could be better.

And here is where I am at a crossroads...

Those who know me or read regularly know I love reflection. Taking that time to think each day about what we have done, what to do or just to think is so important to our personal growth and learning. Open reflection is even better. That is what I truly enjoy about this space is that I can openly reflect here and have folks help me stretch my thinking. 

So what we were doing here with this company was the same. We were asked to reflect on products and services and offer ideas to make them better or how they could be changed or what needs to be different. Yet every time we talked about something new the conversation instantly turned to attacking various parts of products or services.

Believe me, I love constructive criticism. I want to be better and I believe this company wants the same. But is there a line that can be crossed when we turn from constructive criticism in to complaining or just flat out whining?

(Maybe I am whining in this post...)

Angela Maiers is one of my most favorite bloggers/tweeters/people. She speaks a lot about passion and why we need to have passion for what we do. There was a lot of passion in the room we were in today but is their a point where passion crosses the line? 

What do you think? Help me work through this one.

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Bring On The Text Messages With @ClassParrot

Cell phones and other mobile devices are beginning to take whole in classrooms around the county. And let's face it, even if our schools or districts haven't embraced the technology for learning, kids are still using phones whether we know it or not. According to Pew Research the cell phone "has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens."

I am not sure any of us would argue. Many kids, if not most, have a phone. And according to the same Pew Research poll, text messaging far out weighs any other type of use of the phone. And the average teen sends 3000 texts per month. My sister (12 years old) got a cell phone for Christmas last year. With in 8 days she racked up over 1500. So needless to say, text message in an important form of communication for school-aged kids.

Keeping all that in mind....

Being able to quickly and effectively communicate with students is important. And there are lots of ways to do it. I have advocated Twitter and Facebook in the past. But maybe there is an even easier way? Maybe we can take what we know about text messaging and use that to our advantage somehow?

Enter ClassParrot

ClassParrot is a relatively new service that allows teachers and students/parents exchange text messages without exchanging numbers. Here is how it works. You as the teacher create a free account. Once you have the account you create a class. Now, the class name is important because it was will be attached to every text so it is important to choose something everyone will recognize.

Then you have to decide if Parents/Students will be able to reply. That is what sets ClassParrot apart. If you allow this anyone who subscribes can reply. But, what is great is you can turn it off if you don't want this feature but you can only set it up when you create your class.

Anyway, now that you have a class you will get a unique number and code to text too. This is what you give to students. The number they will be texting to is not your phone number, rather it is a number that is generated by ClassParrot and assigned to your class. When the students reply they then follow the series of texts they get to give their name so the teacher knows who they are. In your class account you can see who is subscribed by name and if need be you can delete someone. But again, no other information is there. No phone number, email address, anything.

Once all the set up is over then you can begin sending messages. Everytime you want to send a message you log into your ClassParrot dashboard and send your message. But you can also send a poll. You decide the question and what responses you want to get back. The default is yes/no but you can change this to anything and have more than 2 responses. They have to respond with one of the choices and you can see those responses come in under your History. That is also where you can read replies to your messages (if you set that up.)

Ok, so yes, ClassParrot is free. But...it works on credits. When you sign up you get 500 credits. And each month you get 200 more. It costs 1 credit to send a message or a poll. And it costs 1 credit each time someone replies. An unlimited plan is $9 bucks so not too bad but I know budgets are tight. If you simply turned off the reply feature and just used it to broadcast you would probably never need to pay. You have to decide what is going to work best for you.

ClassParrot could be a great service if you want to help classes keep up with assignments or dates. Or for coaches/sponsors who have afterschool activities where it might be great to keep parents informed of schedule changes or what have you.

Overall I like ClassParrot for the privacy aspect and ease of use. And I think it has the potential there to open up communication with your parents/students in a familiar and easy way.

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What Is Innovation Anyway?

What we need is more innovation in schools.

Hum...

Over the past few days I have been tossing around the idea of innovation, especially when it comes to schools and learning. And the more I think about it, the more I just don't like that word.

In its simplest form, the word innovation means "the introduction of something new." But when it is tied to learning I believe folks that want more "innovation" want something more than just something new. Innovations are supposed to be life changing and ground breaking. Take Steve Jobs. Most would agree he was an innovator. The products and vision he created at Apple were true innovations. Cell phones are the way they are because of him. Personal computers, the way we listen to music and more are the results of his innovations.

But what happens when we want that of everyone?

We should be pushing kids to think differently and to be creative in the classroom. No doubt we need much, much more of that. But when it is said that we need schools and kids to be more innovative I wonder, what happens after? Let's assume we get to a point where folks can proclaim schools and kids are now innovative. Ok. What next? Where do we go from there? After everyone and every classroom is seen as an innovator or innovative what happens?

What we need in schools is more creativity. We need to create environments where kids can explore and learn and grow together and on their own and especially environments where they can fail and feel good about that failure and learn from that failure.

I understand where the want for more innovation comes from. Many schools and classrooms have remained static for more than a century, with only a few changes in thinking here or there. So an "introduction of something new" is definitely needed in some places. But as pointed out in this piece, we have to be careful with the words we use because many of what is called "innovation" is just smoke and mirrors for failed initiatives already in place now in many schools and districts.

I think the best part of this week was the feedback I got about my questioning innovation on Twitter. There were a wide variety of opinions and ideas on what is needed. But it seemed even through all those conversations it came back to fostering a community of creative thinkers and doers.

Lets just choose our words carefully. Forget about buzzwords and words to just get a rise or reaction out of people. Kids are more than buzzwords. Learning is more than buzzwords. Let's create communities of learners where they can feel like they can do and try and be anything.

What do you think about innovation in schools? Or that word in general? Should we be using it when it comes to kids and learning? What does that word really mean when it comes to kids and learning and schools? Leave some comments below.

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Authorspeak Gets It

Last week I had the honor and privilege of attending Authorspeak.This was an event put on by the educational book publisher Solution Tree.Over the course of 3 days, all of the authors presented sessions on their books. But there was something different about this event. I felt a deeper connection to it then in other events that I have attended in the past. And after reflecting upon it for a few days I think I know why.

It all started when I began to look at the schedule. While I had my favorite sessions picked out (mainly so I could meet some heavyweights in the publishing world and old friends too) I noticed there was something different about the list. What they had done was I had not seen anyone else do before. Themes. Many of their books follow themes and the sessions where arranged that way as well. There was Leadership, 21st Century Learning, Professional Learning Communities and several others. My goal was to see a variety of sessions. However, if I had been with a group we could have broken out and tracked through a theme. Powerful stuff. ISTE should take note. They ask in the session proposals who the intended audience is for and what NETs the sessions is related to but I don't recall strands like that in the sessions. And it would be easy for them or any other conference organizer to say here are some common themes among proposals. If you are interested in mobile learning, here are the sessions 1-2 per slot that you can go to. Or maybe you want to know more about Leadership in the Digital Age, here are all the sessions on that topic. It was a handy way for someone to organize their session list with ease.

The sessions themselves were something to be modeled. Each was 45 minutes. Now, as a presenter, I know how little time 45 minutes is. But as a conference goer I know how good 45 minutes is. It all came down to how that time was used. There were only a few sessions that felt like 45 mins. was too much. And I am sure the authors have wonderful books but they just weren't the presenter type. The vast majority of sessions were highly engaging. Several presenters started out with intended outcomes of their presentation.What a great idea! I think all who present at some level go into it with the idea they have some outcomes but rarely do we see those communicated to the audience. What a no-brainer. That is something I am definitely going incorporate into my future presentations. Beyond that one of the best features was even though the sessions were 45 minutes, many built in time to talk to the folks around us. It was great to reflect with those around us to gauge their feedback on the thoughts from the session. Again, something I am going to incorporate into my sessions.There was also 30 minutes between each session. You didn't feel rushed to get to the next one (even if it was on the other side of the building.) There was time that allowed after the session to talk with the presenter or have small group networking before and after.

One of the most refreshing aspects was even though this event was sponsored by publishing house, there was no pressure to buy the books (even though I owned many of them already.) Most of the sessions I attended, while related to the topic the books covered, the material was updated and new. Or it was an opportunity to reflect and remix the content from the books. It really was a unique to think out loud right along with the author. It didn't feel like a pitch to buy the books or the accompanying materials. While ultimately that is the goal, it wasn't the purpose. And many of the materials anyway were and still are available to those that couldn't be there.So it truly felt like a learning experience and not a commercial event.

I really did enjoy attending and hope I get the opportunity to return. And hope that more conference organizers take some of the ideas that Authorspeak instituted and incorporate them in to future events. It truly was one of the best conferences I have attended.

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