Think Like a Teacher

Flashcards and sticky notes, and quizzes, oh my!

We see a lot of web tools at TeachersFirst. If a tool is free and we think it will be useful for students and teachers, we review it. Lately I have seen so many variations on sites to make quizzes, flashcards, and sticky notes, I am beginning to feel guilty even sharing them.  It’s almost as bad as passing out printable worksheets over and over and over.  I don’t want any teacher to think that “integrating technology” means nothing more than using an online quiz or flashcards for assessment or practice. Yes, these tools have a place (everyone needs to start somewhere), but they are no closer to harnessing the true power of technology than tying a horse to pull your car.
When cars first appeared, no one knew the impact they would have. No one thought of drive thrus or suburban sprawl or  minivans and carpools. Automobiles were “horseless carriages” that happened to go farther and faster,  replacing hay with gasoline. When user-creation tools on the web appeared, friendly and entrepreneurial folks found ways for web tools to simulate favorite classroom routines: flashcards, homework, quizzes, etc. Yes, they are more efficient, more easily shared, collaborative, and even “like” able. But they are still horseless carriages.

What gets me excited are the tools and resources that become activities I have never seen — and am itching to try! I want tools that make learning go, “Ooooooo!” As one of my colleagues said about today’s drill and kill environment, “We used to play more.” As we enter summer, I am on a mission to find more easy-to-use tools that go “Ooooooo” and are not simply electronic versions of what I did in school decades ago. I gravitate to the visual tools for creating and sharing, like Jux (once known as Jux.io). These tools take me, the creator,  into an edge-to-edge visual space where I can show what ideas look like, juxtapose things, contrast or relate images, text, and more. A more basic tool that fits the bill is this simple tool from Critical Layouts that creates virtual picture cubes. Imagine the higher level thinking of creating a six image cube and asking what these images have in common, a la Guess the Google. Or challenging students to build their own cube of  six images — including text — as a political ad or a depiction of the factors that lead to the Great Depression or today’s financial crisis. Or have them show what lures them into a their personal learning passion.

My learning passion is thinking of creative ways to use anything that I find and finding things that make me think in creative ways. Join me in making this the summer where learning goes, “Oooooo!”

My current obsession: infographics. So what’s fueling this?

Louise Maine (aka @hurricanemaine) and I have worked on our ISTE 2012 presentation since last fall, a year long journey using infographics in her ninth grade bio class. This is also evolving into several new pages of content for TeachersFirst (TBA).  I find myself grabbing more and more great infographic examples, tools, and discussions: what makes a “good” infographic, how they can structure and assess learning, and who is creating good ones out there in marketing land.

I have always liked infographics, and I don’t think it is because I am a visual/design person. I think it is more because infographics are like an all-you-can-eat hors d’oeuvres buffet. JP Rangaswami gave a terrific TED talk, Information is Food, where he explained his gustatory analogy. His question about whether information will start coming with nutritional labeling to indicate its “fact” ( fat?) percentage is particularly appropriate and witty. Funny how my mental analogy independently went to infographics also something edible. Imagine how validated I felt to find the TED video!

At the infographic hors d’oeuvre buffet,  you can sample small bits of information, take an extra serving of the stuff you like, and walk past the chicken livers. You can stop to savor one bit of data like a foodie or enjoy taking all of it in. None of the servings is so large that it fills you up,  but you might overstuff yourself if you try to absorb too many databits. (Try the Cool Infographics blog to overindulge.) I think we like infographics because they don’t commit us to a full meal, but we can satisfy our cravings.

I do wonder how many of us actually read everything in an infographic, especially the text-heavy ones like this. I much prefer the less textual ones like this. I would guess that the typical read-rate is about 20%. That’s about what we try at an appetizer buffet, right? It’s probably a good thing that none of us receives either a nutrition profile or a comprehension rating on what we ingest from infographics. We simply enjoy the tastes.

Ask a teacher about his/her parents, and quite often you hear about a family of teachers. I focus on one of my teacher-parents this Mothers Day.

What I learned from my mom the teacher:

1. “Proper” English. I still remember being corrected for using the word kids:  ” They are not baby goats.”  And I knew how to mentally “test” for subject vs object (I/me) before grade 3. My brother and me NEVER did anything, but my brother and I did.

2. Play with messy things. Even at age 87, she still finds new hobbies so she can play with messy stuff. Lately, it’s making bead jewelry, a true challenge for arthritic fingers. There was the homemade Easter egg phase which we politely called “chocolate turds.” If I introduced her to Pinterest, her small apartment would be buried in messy things she wants to try.

3. Dress with personality. Striped and polkadot socks together. Anything “wild.” If you dress with personality, even middle schoolers will look at you once in a while. After all, middle schoolers have no sense of taste yet, so this “wild” teacher fits in perfectly. If you can’t show personality with clothes, make/wear “wild” jewelry (See item 2 above).

Click to see source

4. Read what you hear about and tell others what you read about. After discussing The Help with her dermatologist, he recommended a 500 page book about African Americans in the U.S. She bought it the next day. Whatever she hears about or read most recently is prime conversation — with me, with her table mates at dinner in her senior community, with the people at the grocery store. She breathes social learning.

5. School matters. The teachers matter more. First grade and eighth grade matter most. Our entire lives revolved around school. Any wonder that I do what I do today? My only regret is that I do not know what it feels like to grow up in a family where  school is not the core. I work hard to envision how life feels in most households where this is not the case.

6. Have a dog. It better be a cocker spaniel, but some others are tolerable. Dogs give you a chance to talk things through without argument and an excuse to go outside. Every child age 10 and up should have a dog so he/she learns to put someone else’s needs first.

7. Sing. I worry that the cuts in school music programs will mean that kids don’t sing anymore. Singing can be simple expression– brash and loud — or the trained compromise of blending into a unison voice with others. Both are important.

8. Faces tell all. Learning to read faces is more important than making them. Her face always told us when we had gone too far, made her laugh inside even though she was outwardly stern, or hit a nerve. I find face-reading one of my most valuable skills as a teacher, a parent, and a person.

9. Be a mentor. Even as an octogenarian, she shares what she knows but also has an uncanny ability to realize that things are not the same now as they were ten or fifty years ago.  She guides many with her wisdom without telling them what to do or retro-recommending outdated ideas: teenagers, college students, candidates for the clergy, activity directors, parents, anyone in a role where she can contribute expertise. Those of us who have been teaching a long time relish the chance to play this role with young teachers, former students, and others. If I can mentor without adherence to “the old days” as well as she does, I will be proud.

10. Tell people what you think. Yeah, I know. I take after my mother.

Happy Mothers Day to all.

I learn something from every ten minute Twitter dose I allow myself. Our students can, too. This week Twitter is The Great Debunker.

Debunk 1: Find a debunking tool

Yesterday I saw an intriguing tweet about Million Short, a search engine that removes the first million, most popular results for your search terms (also can be set to remove 100, 1000, etc.) Why bother? In a world full of SEO (search engine optimization) pros, the sites with money and geeks-on-staff rise to the top of Google. In fact, they can clog the top. Google uses more than just popularity to generate results, so Million Short is not exactly Google Minus. No one knows precisely how Google’s algorithm decides the creme de la creme, but there are people who study it and do nothing but help web sites get there. (Full disclosure: Yes, TeachersFirst does our non-profit best to reach the pinnacle page of search results, too.) The idea of an anti-SEO search engine appeals to the defiant, creative side of me. Million Short just might reveal some lesser known treasures — as well as some real junk — that do not make it into the top million.  Adding to the intrigue is the display of the sites that Million Short removed from the results and the ability to customize results using that list.

Million Short debunks Google’s ownership of what we should and should not see on the web. It also invites us to explore or debunk the sites that fall so far down the results. (Beyond a million!?  That would be page  100,000+ of Google results at ten per page!). As a teacher, I want to challenge students to flip the Million Short results both ways:

1. Look for reputable, valuable, creative  but lesser-known sites that fall well below the bar but could perhaps bring something unexpected to our Google-mediated world. Are there any hidden treasures here, trapped by their lack of SEO expertise?
2. Compare Million Short results to those at the pinnacle of Google. What is better about Google Goodness? Can you find evidence that these are more reputable, have less bias, are more up to date, etc?

Talk about a lesson in information literacy for the 21st century! Thanks, Twitter, for Infolit lesson #1.

Debunk 2: Tweet out your doubts

This morning, I saw a trio of tweets from @ransomtech (shown in reverse order):

Twitter sent me on a mission to help. A few moments later, I had thousands of search results all quoting from the same article, one without citation for the factoid in question in paragraph three. Then I found this and replied: 

Twitter did not actually do the debunking, but it gave @ransomtech a stream to send the tweet below within 30 minutes of his initial inquiry. In the process, Twitter shared a major debunk of an unattributed, oft-cited factoid:

Twitter could do the same for our students. Let them use a class account to tweet out their critical thinking and ask for help finding evidence. Thanks, Twitter, for Infolit lesson #2.