Name: Kim

Web Site: http://mscofino.edublogs.org

Bio: Born in the US, Kim has been teaching overseas since August 2000, first in Munich, Germany then in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and now in Bangkok, Thailand. Currently, Kim is the 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the International School Bangkok. Her role bridges the gap between technology and the library by helping core subject teachers utilize web 2.0 technologies in the classroom, creating a global and collaborative approach to learning. Over the past two years Kim has worked with classroom teachers to develop internationally collaborative projects that authentically engage students from all around the world, helping them become effective 21st century learners, collaborators and creators. Kim is an Apple Distinguished Educator, has recently begun consulting with international schools, and regularly presents at regional and international technology and learning conferences. Kim reflects on her experiences as a teacher and a learner on her professional blog: Always Learning.

Posts by Kim Cofino:

    The Seeds of a Good Project

    June 7th, 2009
    0

    Cross-posted on Always Learning

    One of my first tips for any teacher wishing to authentically embed technology into their classroom experience is always to start small. It’s easier to build on a simple, achievable idea, than it is to trim down an all-consuming tech monstrosity.

    So, with that in mind, one of our amazing grade three teachers, Rebecca (who is also a member of our SUNY CoETaIL cohort), began a small, achievable project for the FOSS Science unit Structures of Life with her students in early April. Rebecca’s goals were to:

    • have her students experience tracking and sharing their developing understanding about their hands-on science experiments in a way that would be easy to manage and very student focused.
    • visually document the stages of growth in the life cycle of a seed.
    • utilize student “class experts” to ensure that the project was completed as independently as possible by the students.

    In order to meet these goals, and provide a very simple start, we decided to use VoiceThread. Because this was the first time Rebecca had done a project like this, she wanted to make sure that the technology portion of the project was manageable. So, we decided to create class experts who would be responsible for different aspects of the project, which would allow Rebecca to focus on the science, instead of the technology.

    Here’s what we did:

    • First, we selected a group of 4 (volunteer) student photographers to be responsible for documenting the daily changes in their seeds, over a period of 7 – 10 days (to capture the full life cycle). These students would take pictures of their own seeds, as well as help other students use the cameras to photograph their seeds. Once all of the pictures for the day were taken, the camera experts were responsible for uploading all of the pictures onto Rebecca’s computer.
    • When all of the pictures were taken, Rebecca and I chose which ones to put on the class VoiceThread. When had all of the pictures in a VT, we then showed the class and had them choose which ones they wanted to describe in partners. They spent some time working with their partners to write a script for their selected picture.
    • Once they were ready to record, I worked with 2 groups at a time to record their scripts. Each student had their own identity in Rebecca’s VoiceThread account with a hand-drawn self-portrait scanned and uploaded to VT as their avatar.
    • After the students completed their recordings, I shared the completed VT with my PLN via Twitter to show the students how many people would be enjoying their work.
    • Finally, we had a class discussion about what we’d done well and what could be improved. Among the things the students noticed were the need to speak loudly and clearly, to sound professional, and how drawing and labeling the photo really helped the viewer understand the topic. They were amazed and thrilled to see comments from so many other teachers around the world, thanks to you!

    Here’s the completed VoiceThread:

    After we reflected with the students, Rebecca and I realized that students learn best from seeing their own work (as opposed to samples) after having experienced the entire process from beginning to end. They are then able to focus on sharing their learning, instead of the ins and outs of the technology tools. So, we decided to repeat the basic process of the project with the next part of the unit, studying crayfish.

    We also wanted to add more opportunity for student input, so this time around, we asked the class to choose which pictures to include in the VoiceThread, to select which picture they would describe and give it a title, and to agree on a title for the entire VT.

    Here is our second completed VoiceThread:

    As you can see, the students applied all of the ideas they generated during the first reflection: improved clarity and volume in their speaking, and increased use of the drawing tool to label the photographs.

    Ideally, if we had more time in the school year, we would have repeated this process once more, this time with each student (or partnership) completing their very own VT from beginning to end.

    Teacher Feedback

    After the success of these two projects, I asked Rebecca to share her experiences in our SpeedGeeking faculty meeting. Here’s what she had to say to our 4 prompts:

    What was the impact on student learning?

    • The most valuable impact was the gain I saw in students’ use of specific language to describe their observations.
    • Observing students’ initial attempts to tell what was happening in the picture was a formative assessment.
    • When the words “stuff” and “thing” were banned and students had to generate the description using the scientific vocabulary taught in the FOSS investigation, it became clear where they were lacking understanding. This gave me the opportunity to clarify or re-teach points.
    • When students later wrote an assessment response about what was happening with a sprouting seed, I could see more exact language and explanations.
    • Having to express themselves orally and fluently was also a learning experience for most students.

    What was easy?

    • Once Kim met with the classroom “photo experts” and taught them a few pointers about using the camera and how to download the pictures to iPhoto, the picture taking was easy. Now the students are teaching each other and helping each other become better photographers.
    • Kim orchestrated the recording for the voice thread, but this seemed easy since the students had worked out their scripts in advance.
    • Uploading the photos and individual student identification portraits took time but was also easy to do.

    What was challenging?

    • Making detailed observations and clearly using the correct words in the descriptions was challenging for many students.
    • Careful planning was needed to keep students on task on recording days.

    Steps to complete the project:

    1. Students viewed a sample of a voice thread. (Kim)
    2. Photo/Camera experts (4 students) were taught camera basics: photo tips and downloading pictures. (Kim)
    3. Student online identity pictures (self-portraits from the beginning of the year) were scanned and uploaded to voice thread. (Khun Kob, Rebecca, Kim)
    4. Students photographed the sprouting process while making their daily observations. (Students)
    5. Photos were selected for this project. (Rebecca)
    6. Students picked a picture to describe and worked with a partner to write a script describing the picture. (Students)
    7. Students recorded scripts for their respective pictures. (Students & Kim)
    8. Students viewed and critiqued the final project.

    Total classroom time: 4-5 class periods (not counting the picture taking during seed observations). While recording was being done outside the class with Kim (2 periods), other class work could continue in the classroom.

    Final Thoughts

    It would have been easy to develop a large-scale project using a variety of tools for this unit (I’m seeing a wiki, with the life cycle of a seed mapped out, VTs, pictures, and videos embedded on each page, links to external sources and global partners collaborating), but starting small enabled both Rebecca and her class to enjoy the project, see the potential of the technology, and build the confidence to try it again only a few weeks later. Establishing a successful and positive first experience with technology is a surefire way to encourage teachers, students and parents to keep building those skills and to continue using new tools to enhance learning.

    All too often, teachers think that they should use a tool only once and then move on to something else. On the contrary, I have found that using the same tool a number of times not only helps deepen student understanding of both the power and limitations of that specific tool, but it also helps them focus on their learning instead of just the technology. The first time students use a tool, they are focused on all of the bells and whistles, the second time they’re more focused on sharing or presenting their learning using the new tools, the third time they’re “old pros” at the tool and can focus entirely on the information they’re sharing.

    What do you think? What are the pro’s and con’s of using the same tool more than once (if it’s the right tool for the task)?

    4 Comments "

    Moving a Community Forward

    May 31st, 2009
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    Cross-posted on Always Learning

    Last week Jeff and I presented one of the final keynotes, entitled Moving A Community Forward, for the 2009 Webheads in Action Online Convergence. Not only was it a blast doing the presentation with Jeff, but it turned out to be a great reflection on what we’ve accomplished at ISB this year and what some of our next steps could be for the 2009-10 school year.

    The goal of our presentation was to address the needs of the various stakeholders in a typical school community when attempting to effect change.

    We covered 4 groups: Parents, Teachers, Students and Admin. As we looked at each group, we shared strategies we’ve been using here at ISB (both successful and unsuccessful) and also brainstormed some new initiatives we are thinking about for the next school year.

    Although you can watch the whole presentation here (and below), I thought it would be worthwhile to post some of our key points here on the blog just in case you don’t want to watch the entire, hour-long, session. Hopefully this overview of what’s worked for us will also be helpful for others!

    Moving a Community Forward Presentation Notes:

    Parent Community:

    Over the last two years, we’ve been working on building a strong home-school partnership around 21st century learning. We are making a concerted effort to involve more and more parents in both formal and informal events to support the exciting changes their children are experiencing in the classroom.

    Parent Technology Coffee Mornings

    We started with our Parent Technology Coffee Mornings early last school year. These are monthly meetings open to all elementary school parents, facilitated by me, Jeff and Tara. We usually show an engaging, short video about changes in society (I’ll put up a list of all the videos we’ve shown this year soon) and then spend about an hour discussing the impact on education. We have a group of dedicated parents who show up every month and we post the most interesting points of our discussion (along with a link to the video) on our Connect 2.0 blog.

    Although these started out very informally last year, we’ve had requests to share the topics in advance and have started promoting the monthly sessions well in advance to encourage more parents to attend. We’ve already outlined all of our sessions for next year and have shared an overview with our parent community.

    Inside.ISB Communication Portal

    More and more of our teachers are choosing to share classroom events via a blog (instead of a Friday newsletter), and in order to make that communication as streamlined as possible, we’ve created a parent communication portal using WordPress MultiUser (WPMU). All of our teacher blogs can now be found on Inside.ISB for easy parent access.

    Parent Trainings

    Over this past school year, we’ve implemented PantherNet (our Moodle), PowerSchool, My.ISB (Elgg), and Inside.ISB. In order to help parents cope with the influx of digital environments that their students are regularly involved in, we’ve started running more formal parent trainings.

    So far these have been scheduled during the school day with parents signing up in advance, but we’re hoping to also offer some in the evenings next school year. Considering that our school is in the suburbs, we’re also thinking of offering some sessions downtown so that parents don’t have to wrestle with Bangkok traffic in the evening.

    Next Steps: Advisory Committee

    During our Main Library External Audit visit by Doug Johnson and Ann Krembs, they recommended that we develop a Technology Advisory Committee comprised of several members of our ISB21 team, teachers, parents, students and administrators in order to ensure that all stakeholders have a say in the decision making process. There is no way we can truly meet the needs of our entire community without involving them at the ground level.

    Student Community:

    We’ve been working hard for the last few years to ensure that our students have the opportunity to interact with their peers both within school and around the world in a variety of authentic and engaging ways.

    Developing a Global Audience

    At almost every grade level (PK-12), our students are involved in projects that connect them with the wider world. Although both Jeff and I work at the elementary level, innovative teachers at all grade levels are incorporating global projects into their classroom curriculum.

    Student Authored Blogs

    Beginning with fifth grade, all students at ISB will be part of our student-blogging portal through Inside.ISB. With our new grade 5 Digital Literacy unit of study, blogging will become an integral part of our language arts curriculum. We’re hoping to use these student blogs as learning portfolios that can be continued from one grade to the next, as well as a forum to share, reflect, and communicate with a global audience.

    YouTube Channel & Facebook Alumni Group

    In order to take advantage of two of the most popular social media platforms, we have created both a YouTube channel and collaborated with the creators of the FB Alumni group.

    Next Steps: Student Tech Team

    Along with our parent community, we are looking to involve students more directly in our decision making process. We would also love to develop a student tech team to help support the entire school community in their technology needs.

    Teacher Community:

    LAN Parties

    Earlier this year, Chrissy and I started hosting Local Area Network parties around the K12Online08 presentations. We held several of these sessions in various teacher’s homes throughout the city, watching one or two presentations each time, along with hosting a special guest via Skype for each session. At each session we had about 10 – 12 ISB teachers excited to learn something new about technology.

    Early Adopter Group & Elgg Network

    After seeing the sucess of the LAN parties, we decided to create an Early Adopter Group for our super “techie” teachers at ISB. We wanted to provide a place for those teachers to collaborate and communicate across divisions (somewhat difficult at a school as big as ISB), and offer them the support they need to continue to innovate and assist their colleagues in each division. As part of this team, we created an Elgg group to encourage the networked learning to continue beyond school hours.

    Regular PD

    As part of our professional development opportunities for all teachers at ISB, we offer informal tech support sessions 2 – 3 days a week, after school. We’ve tried a number of formats, from discussion-based Wired Wednesday, to walk-in/walk-out Personal Tech Support, and are always willing to adapt to the needs of our teachers. We have also worked hard to ensure that each of our grade level teams (in the elementary) includes a member of the ISB21 team.

    Faculty Meetings

    We’ve been extremely lucky to facilitate 2 ES faculty meetings this school year. One of our main goals at each meeting was to highlight and showcase the fantastic work of our amazing ES teachers. Both meetings featured a structured rotation, including Speed Geeking, for teachers to experience a sneak peak into some of the exciting projects our teachers and students are working on. Although these meetings are short (around an hour), they’ve been a great way to promote success and to spread new ideas throughout the faculty in a viral way.

    SUNY Course

    In another amazing stroke of luck, we have been able to offer a 15-credit, 5-course Certificate in Educational Technology and Information Literacy (CoETaIL) to our faculty as part of a longer (30-credit) Master’s degree through SUNY Buffalo. We have over 40 teachers involved in the certificate program, including 4 teachers newly recruited to ISB in January. Considering the extensive time commitment, we are so proud to have such a large percentage of our faculty dedicated to learning together.

    Next Steps: IETPs for Teachers

    In order to build on the groundswell that we have started in the last few years, and to formalize the changes we’re implementing, our next step is to develop Individual Educational Technology Plans for our teachers. We will start with all of our new teachers, as well as a group of volunteers (as part of the final course in our CoETaIL program) in the next school year.

    Admin Community:

    Present at Leadership Team (LT) Meetings

    Over the past two years, we have been invited to present formally at the ISB Leadership Team meetings. These presentations are our change to share our learning and recommendations with the higher school administration.

    Continued Conversations

    Outside of formal meeting times, we make an effort to continue the process of relationship building through casual and frequent conversation with our school leaders.

    Sharing Resources

    We regularly share blog posts, articles, websites, videos, and a whole host of resources with our admin team. Often these items prompt further discussion in meetings or casual conversation. The goal is always to keep learning.

    Present to School Board

    As a result of our successful LT meeting presentations, we were asked to present to the school board this year, which ended up in a decision to modify our school vision to reflect our ISB21 philosophy.

    Next Steps: Tie Parent Community to Admin Community

    In order to continue moving forward we know that we will need more than just teacher voices promoting change. We would like to work closely with our parent community to enlist their help in pushing our school community forward. It is the voices of the parents that most often and most successfully bring about change in schools.

    Final Thoughts

    Of course, not everything we’ve done has gone perfectly, or according to plan. We are always revising, re-thinking, and reflecting as the year progresses. These are just a few of our favorite initiatives in order to give us something to think about as we begin to plan for the 2009-10 school year.

    What has worked well in your school in your efforts to move your community forward?

    Full Presentation:

    Moving a Community Forward by jutecht on Flickr

    4 Comments "

    Update: International School Teachers Roundup!

    May 11th, 2009
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    Cross posted on Always Learning

    In January, I shared a list of international school teachers (those teaching outside of their home country in a school catering to expatriate families) on Twitter (or blogging). In the last few months, even more teachers have added themselves to the Google Form, so I thought I would do a recap with all of the names currently on the spreadsheet, organized by country.

    If you’re not on the list yet and you’re teaching outside of your home country in a school for expatriate children, please feel free to add yourself! I’ll do another recap soon!

    Note: I linked the names of teachers to their blogs (if listed) and their Twitter @username to their profiles (if listed):

    Asia

    China

    Korea

    • Greg Israel, @israelgreg, Korea International School
    • Jason Crewe, @jcrewe, Busan Foreign School

    Vietnam

    Japan

    Thailand

    Singapore

    Malaysia

    India

    Indonesia

    Taiwan

    • Leanne Rainbow, @rainbowl, Taipei American School

    The Philippines

    Middle East/Central Asia

    Qatar

    Oman

    Khazakhstan

    Morocco

    Latin America

    Mexico

    Brazil

    Argentina

    Peru

    Europe

    Spain

    Switzerland

    Austria

    • Chris Rolfe, @cmrolfe, American International School Vienna

    Serbia

    • Jennie Scott-McKenzie, @jennieteacher, International School of Belgrade

    Looking at this list, it’s interesting to see where most of the teachers are working. Can we make the assumption that those schools are the ones that are really moving forward with technology? Or is this list more representative of schools in Asia because that’s where I’m currently working?

    Either way, if you’re considering going overseas, or moving on to a new school these are the people that can give you the greatest insight into life in a new country and working at a new school. There’s nothing better than actually knowing people at the schools you’re interested in to make an informed decision about where to go.

    Please spread the word! I know there are many more international school teachers on Twitter and blogging!

    3 Comments "

    Tech Train 2010: Get on Board!

    May 9th, 2009
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    Cross posted on Always Learning

    Over the last two years I’ve been fortunate to attend quite a few conferences (thanks to my wonderfully supportive admin at ISB). One of the things I’ve noticed at these conferences is that the attendees seem to be almost the same group of people over and over again, which I love, because it gives me a chance to connect with my virtual colleagues in person on a fairly regular basis. It feels like we are really building a community of learners among the various international schools in the Asia region, and I know the group is continuing to grow year by year.

    However, as I realized last year, that group of techies is actually few and far between. We’re well connected online, but are often only a very small number in our own individual schools. And of course, it’s usually our job to help our colleagues learn with technology. So we come together, get new ideas, and then head back to our individual schools to spread the exciting news. It’s up to us to move our colleagues forward, to meet them where they’re at and help them take the next step.

    What this usually means is that tech conferences tend to cater to those that are already knowledgeable about technology in education. Again, great for us, but not so great for our colleagues in our individual schools that may want to learn but don’t know where to start.

    So, my lovely colleague, Tara and I, were brainstorming a few weeks ago about what we could do to help our teachers here at ISB (and elsewhere in the region) that might not be ready to attend a very tech-savvy conference.

    We know that many schools in this region are making technology a priority. We know that there are plenty of teachers who want to learn, but might be intimidated by a big technology conference. We know that there are lots of teachers who would be willing to try something new if it were presented at their level. We know a tech-focused conference wouldn’t really be able to meet their needs as well as the needs of the educational technologists they work with.

    And, thus, the idea of TechTrain 2010 was born! TechTrain 2010 is an EARCOS weekend workshop hosted at the Interantional School Bangkok, Thailand on January 30 – 31, 2010. The goal is to bring together beginning technology users to help build their understanding of digital tools and how they can be used to enhance the learning experience in the classroom. We are hoping a workshop at the beginning level will appeal to those teachers that want to get started using technology in their classroom, but don’t really know where to start. We want to make sure that the weekend is focused on actually producing something that can be used in the classroom on Monday, and that most of the sessions are hands on, allowing teachers to actually use these digital tools with support.

    We’re just in the beginning planning stages, but we’re pretty excited. We really want to make the workshop a comfortable, safe and open environment where everyone can learn together and we can all walk away with something concrete and tangible to give participants a specific next step to take in the classroom.

    Tara and I passionately believe that everyone can be successful using technology in the classroom. This is a place for those that consider themselves to be beginners with technology can start!

    I know that pretty much everyone reading this blog is already tech savvy, but I’m hoping that you can pass on this post, and the workshop wiki, to anyone you think might be interested in attending. We have a short Google form for interested participants to complete so we can get an idea of what people would be interested in learning about in an effort to tailor the sessions to our participants needs. We know that the workshop is many months away, but we also know that sometimes PD expenditures need to be planned well in advance, so we wanted to get the word out early!

    Of course, we’re open to any ideas and suggestions too! What do you think a beginner technology conference should include? Any thoughts or advice on how to organize and run a weekend workshop like this?

    Original Image by Dan Kamminga, Creative Commons License

    4 Comments "

    Apple Does it Again!

    May 3rd, 2009
    0

    Cross posted on Always Learning

    Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending, and presenting at, the Apple Global Leadership Summit in Hong Kong. I knew it was going to be great after presenting at the Think Ahead Roadshow here in Bangkok in February, but I don’t think I realized just how great it was going to be. Of course, there are some things I would have changed (more on that in my next post), but thinking back to all of the educational events I have attended this year (and I’ve been to quite a few), I think this one was the best! And I think I’ve figured out why.

    BanquetLast month I attended the EARCOS Teacher’s Conference (ETC) and left feeling a little disappointed. It was great for networking (and relaxing, given the stunning location), but it wasn’t really what I was looking for in a conference, content-wise.

    To be honest, I was starting to feel a little disillusioned with conferences in general this year. The effort it takes to get to the conference location, the costs involved, the exhaustion coming back to work after a full weekend of conferencing. It was starting to seem a little too much for me, considering how much I can learn relaxing on my couch, at home, in my PJs, thanks to my PLN.

    But, last weekend changed my mind. While reflecting on my two very different conference experiences over the last month, I realized there are a few things conferences need to have in order to make the expense and the effort worth the trip:

    Focused Content

    John Couch Presents

    Maybe this is just an international school thing, but I find so many conferences try to be everything to everyone (and so do schools, for that matter). They want to have sessions specifically for every discipline area, every educational trend, leadership, third culture kids, global issues, etc, etc.

    In doing so, it can be hard for one person to fill up each day with directly relevant sessions – there are only so many presenters on in each given session, chances are there won’t be one directly related to my area of interest in every session. By stretching the topics so thin, in order to meet everyone’s needs, the conference often ends up meeting no-one’s needs. Sure, one presentation a day, maybe, but is that really worth the trip?

    The Apple Leadership Summit was so clearly focused on the way that learning has changed, and the ways we need to prepare for the future, that I was engaged from the first moment until the last. All keynote speakers had specific experience that directly related to the changes we need to make in education – even though they all approached the topic from different perspectives, it was immediately clear how all of their expertise was directly related to the future of education. None of the sessions during the entire 3-day event strayed from the topic.

    Stephen HeppellStephen Heppell’s keynote during the (sumptuous) banquet set the tone for the weekend by sharing specific examples (and so many pictures) of schools that are changing with the times and embracing non-traditional school infrastructure (physical structure and well as curriculum design).

    His emphasis on adaptability, flexibility, openness, and learning communities (instead of “schools”) brought the challenges of education in the 21st century to the forefront, along with visual, practical ideas for moving towards solutions.

    His vision and passion for learning, in all forms and contexts, was an inspiring way to begin the conference. Having seen Learning to Change, Changing to Learn dozens of times, it was such a privilege to hear him speak directly about his experiences and to see the full range of his work and to begin to get a picture of what kinds of changes are next for education.

    Tom Kelly PresentsThe following day, Tom Kelley brought his extensive experience with innovation to the field of education. His focus on risk-taking, seeing with new eyes (“vuja de,” in his words), prioritizing innovation, and recognizing the rate of change gave solid, real-world examples, which directly illuminated and enriched Stephen’s more philosophical presentation the day before.

    Being able to see with such clarity the way innovation and different modes of thinking (from his new book The 10 Faces of Innovation) can impact pretty much every field (from advertising, to hospital care, to product design, to kids toothbrushes!) helped create more concrete understandings of how critical risk taking is for education. He made it so clear that we can spend forever improving what we’ve already got, but what we really need to do is look at the whole experience of learning with fresh eyes.

    PanelAfter a presentation on developing a global mindset from Vivien Stewart (much of which is already happening in many international schools), we had a choice of 3 breakout sessions with each of the keynote speakers – a great way to go more in depth with the content presented in their first sessions.

    Next, was a panel discussion from all keynote speakers plus a few special guests including Greg Whitby, John Couch, Daniel McCormak, Richard Swart, and John Wray (thanks to @mrdinhk for that final name!). This was a good time to ask those burning questions that came up during the keynotes and breakout sessions earlier that day. It was very interesting to get several perspectives on the same topic, especially because each panel speaker was coming from such different backgrounds. For me the highlight was hearing Richard Swart, principal of Nanjing International School, speak so passionately about the need international schools to move forward with the ideas presented at the Summit without delay, to stop wasting time worrying about the way we’ve always done it, but to envision the future and create it, now.

    John Couch PresentsFinally, at the end of a long day of plenary sessions (by the way, most of my ideas for improvement spring from being seated the entire day in pretty much the same room, more to come in my next post), John Couch shared Apple’s vision for education in the 21st Century.

    I had seen some of his slides before, but it amazed me, yet again, how ironic it is to be hearing from a vendor the most relevant, forward-thinking, pedagogically sound ideas for education. It hit home for me (again) that if these are the people making the computers, these are the computers we should be using in our schools. This vision for education, which I so passionately believe in, is so clearly wrapped up in the package that is Apple.

    Marco Torres PresentsOn the last day, we had one final keynote from Macro Torres, after all of the fantastic ADE-led break-out sessions. His extensive experience in the classroom, combined with his fresh perspective and boundless creative energy definitely ended the weekend on a high note.

    Marco so clearly understands how important it is that our students become innovative, creative, creators of content, and how critcal it is to change the classroom environment from our traditional factory model to that of an engaging and empowering studio experience.

    Conference Size

    DSC_0111I guess because it is so difficult to actually run (and finance) a conference, the organizers prefer to have as many attendees as possible. Unfortunately, this only ends up watering down the event – trying to appeal to all interests, abilities, needs, and levels of understanding.

    Having a limited number of participants (in the case of the HK Summit, it was 500 people), helped create a much more personal and intimate feel. With a few small changes in the agenda, I probably would have been able to meet and speak to pretty much every single person at the Summit. How often can you say that about a conference?

    For example, Alex (my husband) and I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Kelley at the banquet dinner, and he was amazed at how close our community of learners is, given that we are spread out throughout the region. Personally, I was on a little bit of a geeked-out high because I knew someone (or a few someones) at almost every table. It was like a geeky international school teacher reunion for me!

    Shared Vision

    iMovie Hands-on Session

    Limiting the number of participants, and sending out direct invitations, also helped create an environment where most (if not all) of the attendees shared the same vision for education. Therefore, the purpose of our coming together was not so much to learn what has changed, or decide what we think, but more what we can do about it.

    We came approaching these ideas presented from the same perspective and the Summit was about how we can continue to move forward, not just about taking the first step. Talk about an important opportunity to network! These are clearly the people that will lead the charge in international schools to change our educational system.

    Stimulating Content

    Marco Torres PresentsHaving focused content, with a smaller group of people who shared a similar vision for education, directly influenced the level of information shared. No need to focus on introducing the changes the 21st century has brought to society, time wasn’t wasted convincing the participants that technology is crucial to learning, no one needed to be convinced that education needs to change to meet the demands of today’s learner and today’s society. Not that I don’t enjoy hearing all those things explained, helping reinforce my own ideas and clarify my thinking. But, I much prefer to have my thinking pushed to a new level, to hear new ideas that build on my current understandings, and to interact with others who are at a similar place in their learning.

    Location, Location, Location

    CDNIS Year of Information LiteracyOne of the most subtle, yet powerful, ways that the Summit was successful was the choice of location: Canadian International School of Hong Kong. This school exemplifies everything that the Summit was about. From the staff training room, to the 1:1 Apple laptop program, to the prominent signage, to their Year of Information Literacy focus, CDNIS clearly demonstrated a school that shares and practices a 21st century vision for education.

    Every time I turned a corner (or hiked up another flight of stairs), I saw evidence of inquiry-based learning, the IB PYP, MYP and DP in action, 1:1 learning, and most importantly: a clear, visible, tangible, achievable vision for the school being implemented every day. A vision that represents the most important aspects of the Hong Kong summit in action. This is what we need to see from a conference: what the ideas look like in practice.

    Final Thoughts

    So, once again, Apple hits a home run. (Oh, did I mention the conference itself was free?) I hope it becomes an annual event!

    In your opinion, what are the factors that make a conference worth the effort, time and expense?

    3 Comments "

    Podcasting Power

    March 11th, 2009
    0

    Cross posted on Always Learning

    Three of our wonderful grade 5 classrooms (Chrissy, Robin and Ali) have been collaborating all year on a Reader’s and Writer’s workshop project with 4 other schools around the world.

    We initially made the connection because we were looking for a meaningful, year-long, collaboration based on our curricular focus for the year (Reader’s Workshop). Luckily, we were able to find four schools using the same curriculum structure to teach reading and writing.

    We started the year (and the project) by sharing student writing and reading and commenting on each other’s blog posts. However, one of our major goals for the project was to develop a weekly, entirely student-produced, podcast focused on reading strategies called Students Teaching Students.

    Considering none of us here at ISB have ever done a regular podcast with students, we knew it might take a while to get it off the ground, but we wanted to make sure it was meaningful, appropriate, and authentic use of the technology to enhance our curricular goals.

    Over the last few weeks, we’ve finally gotten the podcasting part of the project off the ground. It was surprisingly easy!

    Here’s what we did to get started:

    Chrissy, Robin, Ali and I spent some time brainstorming the steps that students would need to go through to produce a thoughtful podcast on a weekly basis – and how to make it practical within our laptop cart teaching environment.

    We decided that we would use our student book club groups for the current Historical Fiction unit as the podcasting groups. Each week one group would produce a podcast during Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop time. To help ensure they are able to produce their podcast independently, we provided a checklist of steps.

    Once we had the process organized, we introduced the idea to the students over two lessons.

    During the first lesson we listened to a sample podcast (I chose a language-learning podcast so that students would be able to focus on the introduction and the features of the podcast instead of the content).

    As we listened, students were asked to think about the different features of the podcast. They then brainstormed in teams what makes a good podcast. We came up with this list:

    • Exciting, catchy, but short, musical introduction.
    • Music is quiet while speaking.
    • Clear introduction of each speaker, all guests, the “big idea” of the podcast, this episode number & title, and the topic of this episode.
    • The speaker uses enthusiasm and excitement in their loud, clear voice.
    • Use first names only.
    • The show should sound like a conversation between podcasters.
    • Keep it interesting for the listener.
    • Stay focused (when writing your script & when recording).
    • Everyone in the group needs to have a speaking part in the script.

    Once we had an idea of what a good podcast sounds like, we talked about the quality of the intro and outro music. Students were given the challenge of creating their own intro and outro music for the entire class’ podcast based on the criteria we brainstormed:

    • catchy
    • calm – not distracting
    • not too loud
    • fades out at the end
    • fast-ish to get listeners excited
    • include a catch phrase (optional)
    • relate to our topic – gives a feeling for our topic
    • less than 30 seconds (including any catch phrases)

    They spent about 30 minutes using Garage Band (which they had previously learned about in music class thanks to another fantastic teacher, Vince) creating either an intro or an outro (in small teams or individually). At the end of the lesson, we voted on which songs would be used for the entire class.

    Once we had our music for our class podcast, we were ready to practice creating a podcast to learn how the different tools work and to go through the process of brainstorming an idea, writing a script, producing a podcast, and exporting the file into proper format.

    We spent an entire language arts block (1.5 hours) going through the process, following the checklist. Here’s how we broke it down:

    15 minutes to brainstorm an idea for the podcast. All groups had to create a podcast for students learning how to be a better reader using the different Reader’s Workshop Strategies they had learned that week. Once they chose a strategy, they had to be able to explain it and share how it helped them read their current book.

    45 minutes to write a script following this basic outline which we brainstormed and agreed upon at the beginning of the lesson:

    • Welcome to Room 229’s Historical Fiction Podcast Series
    • Episode Title: This is Episode 1
    • This episode is brought to you by:
    • Introduction of podcast (what is this podcast about for first time listeners)
    • Introduction of cast (speakers)
    • Introduce the book (or series of books) you’re reading
    • Introduce the Reader’s Strategy that you’re going to be talking about
    • Describe the strategy
    • Explain how you used the strategy to help you read this book
    • Share examples
    • Closing
    • Looking forward to learning with you next week

    20 minutes to record their podcast (no editing due to time constraints).

    At the end of the lesson, we listened to all the trial podcasts to share constructive feedback for each group.

    I was very impressed with the quality of podcasts that the students were able to produce in such a short time frame, especially for their very first experience!

    Since this trial run, student podcasts have been produced in small groups, one group per week, during the Reader’s Workshop time. We even decided to create our own channel on iTunes to share our podcasts with our global partners (and anyone else who’s interested in Reader’s Workshop strategies)!

    Overall, this was a surprisingly easy project to put into place. I’m always a little intimidated and nervous when I try something new, but this ended up being even easier than I expected. Garage Band is so easy to use, the students were so excited to share their learning, the book groups were such a natural fit for creating podcasts, and uploading the files to a podcasting host (G-cast) and then creating the iTunes channel were a breeze!

    Although we’ve only really just gotten started, I can already see how powerful this process will be for our students. Since I’m a newbie at podcasting, what else should we be doing?

    4 Comments "

    Less is More: Making Your Presentations Zen-tastic!

    March 2nd, 2009
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    Cross posted on Always Learning

    Waaay back in September, I read the book Presentation Zen, thanks to Jeff (who insisted I read it before designing my presentations for Learning 2.008). Since then I’ve created and delivered six presentations.

    After each one, I received compliments about the style and lots of questions about how I found the right pictures. So, I thought I’d share my steps here (apologies to Garr Reynolds for any misinterpretation of his work – this is only meant to be a reflection of how I’ve used his ideas).

    Finding Great Pictures: Kim’s Secrets

    OK, here’s the deal. It’s not really a secret. I spend a long time looking for pictures.

    First, I flesh out my presentation ideas on paper, following Garr’s suggestions. I start with the big picture, then break it down into 3 sections, then each section gets broken down into individual slides that tell a story.

    Each image needs to represent an important aspect of this story. So I start thinking about exactly what type (or types) of images will creatively represent each idea and leave a lasting memory for the audience. Something that might resonate with a bigger concept and not just directly represent the words on the screen. Usually I have a few ideas to fall back on if I can’t find one that works within a reasonable amount of time.

    Once I have my picture ideas (one for each slide, I seem to usually have around 40 slides), I head to Creative Commons Search to find pictures that have been licensed for sharing (there are tons of other options for searching CC photos, but I like this one the best). If you haven’t heard of Creative Commons, check this out!

    On the search bar, I always make sure to check off “Search for works I can modify, adapt or build upon” to ensure that I’m following the licensing for the images I use.

    Next, I click on the Flickr tab, and once the pictures have loaded, I click on the “most interesting” link under the number of results found. This will find me the pictures that have been favorited by flickr viewers the most.

    And, that’s when the fun begins. I almost always have to look through several pages. I’m looking for images that:

    • represent my idea clearly and interestingly
    • are creatively shot
    • fill the shot so the image can fill the slide
    • are properly in or out of focus, depending on what I’m looking for
    • provide enough space to write the words I’m planning to show on screen (usually this means a solid background or appropriate depth of field)
    • are unique

    Once I find the picture I like, I head straight over to that Flickr image page, download the photo and copy and paste the source URL for proper citation at the end of my presentation.

    A Few Little Extras

    Along with finding the right pictures, I have also found a few other extras that have improved my presentations:

    I almost always include at least one video, usually two. Videos are great conversation starters and can give the presentation relevance in the wider world. They’re also a great way to get background information across without having to cover everything yourself. Feel free to check out my video bookmarks too!

    I try to provide ample amount for participants to talk to each other. I add a little stop sign image at the bottom of the screen when I plan to ask participants to “turn and talk” so I don’t forget. I always start with one of these talking breaks at the begining of my presentation, usually inspired by an image or short video. I hope this is helping the audience engage with the content instead of just passively watching.

    I always provide a wiki with the full presentation, all resources I used to create the presentation, and recommended resources for the teachers to utilize the information presented. I make sure to share this at the very begining of each presentation so that no one feels like they must take notes. I would much rather have people engaged in a dialogue than writing down what I’m saying.

    Thanks to (I think) Scott McLeod Dean Shareski (thanks for the correction, Scott) I’ve started using quotes from the Flickr pool: Great Quotes About Learning and Change. What an amazing and powerful resource – talk about inspiring conversation starters!

    And that’s about it! What other strategies or advice do you have for creating eye-popping presentations?

    5 Comments "

    Worth Watching

    March 1st, 2009
    0

    Cross posted on Always Learning

    Last week, Jeff, Tara and I were on a mission to find a video for our elementary faculty meeting next week, so I sent out a Twitter plea for great videos:

    And thanks to all the wonderful folks on Twitter, we found quite a few excellent videos! I thought I’d share a few of them here combined with a few others I’ve bookmarked over the last few weeks (and a few from an older post, Viral Video):

    A Nokia ad: The 4th Screen Revolution:

    The Essay:

    An elevator temporarily becomes stairs:

    Cathy Fiorina on the Dynamics of Change and Fear:

    This one, called Truth Happens, was actually shared by one of our CoETaIL participants, Jim Fitzgerald. Although it’s an ad for Linux, the message is clear and definitely relevant for those of us advocating for change in our schools:

    I think we found this Kaplan University ad a few weeks ago – it’s absolutely perfect for starting conversations about our current school-system model:

    Julie and the team of 21st Century Learners in Doha, Qatar made this video (modeled after the Learning to Change, Changing to Learn video I showed the faculty the day before) while I was visiting QA last week:

    And an old favorite, Epic 2015:

    Looking at my Delicious account, it looks like I have 229 bookmarks tagged video! It amazes me just how much material is available and how easy it is to find!

    Do you have any favorite videos you’d like to share?

    5 Comments "

    Third Annual 1001 Flat World Tales Project Begins in March!

    February 23rd, 2009
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    Cross posted on Always Learning

    One of my favorite projects of the year is beginning soon!

    The 1001 Flat World Tales project was initiated by Clay Burell in Korea over three years ago and has been going strong ever since. I first started working on this project at the middle school level, but this will be my second year working with elementary school students. No matter what grade level you’re working with, this is a great, easy to implement, collaborative writing project that students love!

    This year the wonderful Jeff Whipple is helping me coordinate the Elementary School section and he’s also coordinating the Middle School section. Anyone interested in taking on a High School workshop?

    We are looking for elementary classrooms at all levels to participate in this writing workshop. The project will last about a month and we’ll set up small grade-level based groups to create collaborative groups for our peer editing process (following the planning process we started last year). If the suggested time frame doesn’t work for you, feel free to start your own workshop later or earlier in the year – our goal is to bring together teachers that would like to embed collaborative writing and authentic audience into their classroom experiences.

    As part of the project, students will:

    • experience writing for an authentic audience
    • work collaboratively with peer reviewers around the world
    • follow the writing process to build an understanding of your selected style of writing
    • utilize a wiki for writing, editing, forum discussion, and revision history
    • understand how to connect information through hyperlinks
    • create and embed multimedia elements to bring a story to life

    Here in Bangkok, I’ll be working with one of our fantastic grade 4 teachers, Sonja Merrell, and we’ll be using the workshop to build our understanding of persuasive writing. Sonja and I worked together last year as well and found the project to be a great venue for establishing authentic audience and for really grounding students in the writing process.

    One of the best things about doing this project for the second time with the same teacher is that we’re able to make the improvements we thought about during our reflections last year. Looking back at our reflective conversation, I’m pleased to note that we do have a class blog up and running and students are very familiar with the web 2.0 world: writing for a global audience, commenting on others’ work, and looking for connections within our network of learners.

    Our plans are to ensure that we have a clear and consistent focus on the concept of persuasive writing through a slightly revised layout of our pages and by providing a checklist for students to follow. Hopefully the improvements we make this year will lead us to other ideas for next year’s project! I love the fact that the learning is never done and these projects are so easy to evolve and revise that we can keep making them better and better.

    We would absolutely love to have you join this project with your class! Fill out the online form and you’re in! All materials, resources, rubrics and related information can be found on the wiki. Feel free to leave questions here or on the discussion tab of the wiki.

    3 Comments "

    International School Teachers Roundup!

    January 24th, 2009
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    Cross posted on Always Learning

    A few weeks before our semester break, I wrote a post called International School Teachers Connect! in the hopes of discovering more international school teachers (those teaching outside of their home country in a school catering to expatriate families) on Twitter (or blogging).

    Amazingly, within just a few days dozens of teachers had joined the Twitter group I created and left their contact details via this Google Form (please feel free to add yourself if you haven’t already). As of today, there are 65 teachers listed! Wow!

    As promised, here is an organized list of all of the teachers in international schools who responded. Please add yourself in the comments or on the Google Form if you’re teaching outside of your home country in a school for expatriate children!

    Note: I linked the names of teachers to their blogs (if listed) and their Twitter @username to their profiles (if listed):

    Asia

    China

    Korea

    Vietnam

    Japan

    Thailand

    Singapore

    Malaysia

    India

    Indonesia

    Taiwan

    Middle East/Central Asia

    Qatar

    Oman

    Khazakhstan

    Latin America

    Mexico

    Brazil

    Argentina

    Europe

    Spain

    Switzerland

    It’s certainly interesting to see how many of these teachers are in the Asia region. I wonder if that’s because that’s where I am, and I was the one who sent the request, or if schools in Asia are more tech-savvy than those in other regions of the world?

    With recruiting season upon us, it seems like a great time to connect with other international school teachers around the world! These are the people that can give you the greatest insight into life in a new country and working at a new school. There’s nothing better than actually knowing people at the schools you’re interested in to make an informed decision about where to go.

    Having said that, I know there are loads more international school teachers on Twitter and maintaining a blog, so please, add yourself in the comments or to the Google Form!

    4 Comments "

    International School Teachers Connect!

    December 10th, 2008
    0

    Cross-posted on Always Learning

    This weekend I discovered TweetDeck and I am totally in love! (Yes, I am late to the party with this one @JavaJive, Jeff showed it to me ages ago, but better late than never, right?).

    As you may know, I am obsessively organized (often mocked for the obscene amount of folders I have for storing old e-mails) so the fact that I can actually organize my twitter friends is just about the best thing since sliced bread. All weekend, I’ve been categorizing and organizing all my twitter friends into convenient groupings – so much easier to follow what I want to follow, instead of just what rises to the top!

    One of my fun new groups is “International Teachers.” I had been following quite a few teachers that I know personally, but being able to categorize them in TweetDeck has helped me find dozens more just this weekend – and now they’re all nicely organized into my “International Teachers” group, so when they post something new, I notice right away.

    I love connecting with international school teachers, because even though our day-to-day experiences may be very different, we all share the common bond of teaching overseas, our schools are often very similar, and it’s amazing the number of times we will cross paths during our careers – despite the fact that we may currently be on opposite sides of the planet!

    In an amazing coincidence, I woke up this morning (far too early, I might add), to see that Lucy and Vicki had found TwittGroups, a way to create groups of Twitterers with a common interest (Lucy started one for Apple Distinguished Educators Worldwide and Vicki started one for Teachers).

    I figured this would be a great way to find even more international school teachers, so I created a group for us! I’m not so sure how this works yet, but even if it just ends up being an opt-in listing of international school teachers, this would be a great way to connect and find more international colleagues in one central place. Please, join!

    I’m also curious about international school teachers that are blogging. I’ve been organizing (of course) my Google Reader account as well, and I have an “international teachers” folder that I’d love to add more feeds to – I just need to find them!

    It’s amazing to see how we’re all connected – despite being so widely spread across the globe – connecting with one international school teacher in one city begins an amazing chain reaction of so many others in that city, and then their connections around the world. I love it!

    Is there a central place where I can find a listing of international school teachers who are blogging? If not, anyone want to share some links in the comments here? I’ll be sure to write a follow up post with links to all the bloggers and twitterers that share! What a great way to connect with our fellow international school teachers!

    Update: I just had a brainwave! I’ve been wanting to try out Google Forms for a while, so I just made one for international school teachers to share their blog and twitter info. If you’d like to be listed, please fill out the form here and check for the results here. (Update 2: There are already over 40 international school teachers listed!) Looking forward to connecting with even more international school teachers!

    Amongst the Flags by thadman

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