Teacher in Development

Fantastic post over at gsiemens’ Connectivism Blog. Very timely for me as I’ve just been asked to set up a series of workshops for one of our heavy hitting clients. Mission: help their higher-ups with a few areas of opportunity in English.

Our client works deeply with tax law and international tax treaties. They want help with developing their e-mail and contract writing skills, as well as support in dealing with English conference calls.

The more I delve into the prep phase of these workshops, the more I realize that gsiemens is right about all this: If you want to be an up-to-date worker, the content is not nearly as important as the connections you have to relevant information sources.

“Employees can’t stay current by taking a course periodically. Content distribution models (books and courses) can’t keep pace with information and knowledge growth. Problems are becoming so complex that they cannot be contained in the mind of one individual - problems are held in a distributed manner across networks, with each node holding a part of the entire puzzle.

How do we separate the learner from the knowledge? By focusing not on the content they need to know (content changes constantly and requires continual updating), but on the connections to nodes which continually filter and update content. Instead of buying a book on elearning, subscribe to Stephen’s site, Maish’s or Jay’s blog (or elearnspace ). Read a few wikipedia articles (and contribute), join discussion forums, a list serv, follow tags on technorati or del.icio.us, attend a virtual conference, take a few workshops…you get the idea. When we stop seeing knowledge as an entity that is possessed within a person and start to cast it as a function of elements distributed across a system, we notice a dramatic impact on the education process: the educator becomes a supporter (not the center), the content is not as critical as the connections, learners find value in their aggregated perspectives, learners become content creators, and learning is continuous, exploratory and sustained (not controlled or filtered by only one agent).” (gsiemens, 2006

To me, as I prep for these workshops, I see my role not as the knowledge source or gateway - cus I really know squat about tax law, but I do know about making connections.

My job will not be to create a “come to me” type workshop model, but a “graze here, here, and here” type model. “You have trouble with this? Check this site out…” “You have trouble writing an English e-mail…why not check this list serv out and contribute…”

The focus shouldn’t be on how much content, but how many meaningful connections can be made.

Interesting.

Read Barbara Ganley’s post today around “What we do during classtime…” and later found myself listening to this fascinating podcast which I had downloaded a few days ago…Edupodder Weblog: Emerging Technology & Mass Communications

Really worth your listen, and really worth your read!

I think this plays very well into the last string of posts around “reality in the classroom.”

Reality in the ESL classroom is shocking, scary, and beautiful. By reality I mean what happens when you step out of that enclosed, safe, course book enslaved meeting room where your class happens each day.

Students who spend years bottled up in the classroom, who rip through course books, and easily listen to the scripted audio that comes with their course book, pale and freeze when reality strikes.

An English only client walks into the office reception and the secretary (your fearless classroom student) blocks up, forgetting everything English other than “One moment please.” or “Hello.” Or the phone rings, again an English only moment, and your “fearless” classroom student quickly passes the buck onto someone who really speaks English.

Or what about the students you’ve had for a year or so who keep making the same mistakes, no matter how many times you correct them.

What’s going on?

We’re missing out on reality. Experience really does make the best teacher. AJ, over at Effortless Acquisition really slams the point home: Real Work, Real Language

“A growing body of research indicates that for students to apply knowledge in real situations, they need to learn in those situations. Abstract knowledge gained inside schools is poorly applied by students in real situations outside of school.” (Dennis Littky via AJ)

Classrooms must stop being a safe bubble.

I had an interesting experience this week with a few of my students. We’ve been working on passive voice - where all you care about is that the action is done, not who is doing/did it.

I’m a passionate opponent to having students memorize grammar. It’s boring. It’s joyless. It rarely works. My mantra: Use it! Use it! Use it! The more you use it, the faster you own it. I’d rather own something over memorize something any day!

So that’s what we did. We lightly examined the passive tense, with a focus on what it’s good for (what it will help them do.) One of those “usefull” things is when you need to leave a list of “To do’s”

Since all of my students love to travel, we decided to pretend that they were about to leave on a trip, but had a few unfinished projects that had to be left for someone else to take care of.

In class, the bubble, we worked out their lists on paper: The bosses’ credit card needs to be paid, annual reports need to be delivered, etc.

We worked these through a few times and then we moved it up a notch. E-mail. What if you had to e-mail this to a co-worker? Could you do it?

Again, we did it on paper. Then a little bit of reality, a sanitized version I admit, but definately a step closer to the real thing: I told them that I would take their paper-mails to my office and send out real e-mail replies to their work accounts, which they would have to reply to.

Five shocked, fearful faces starred back at me as the classroom bubble went “POP!”

Reality is also beautiful. We finished the entire exercise in less than a day. (I e-mailed a response, and they replied in real time.) The e-mails were very well done, and after minimal tweaking, became really cool examples of passive tense in reality.

In the classroom, after we reviewed it in the book, there were still a few questions and “Hmmm…I don’t really get this yet’s”

After our e-mail exercise, all wrote back saying that it had become crystal clear - and their mails were evidence to prove it.

Reality makes a difference. The more we open classroom doors wide and welcome it in, the easier our jobs as “teachers” will become.

Brilliant post over at Dekita.org by Aaron Campbell. Start with Student Passion

I would say this is a must read for ESL teachers who want to tap into flow and inate student passion.

The most exciting classes I have taught (if you could say it that way) have not been beautifully delivered by yours truely. Nor have they been because of the best or most expensive course books or audio.

The best classes - the ones where both myself and my students forget they were in English class because of the fun we were having - have always been the ones that grew around my student’s passions, interests, hobbies, and work requirements.

A good curriculum should bend around the student, not the student around the curriculum. The more we embrace that, the more passionate and EFFECTIVE our classes will become.

“He might even forget he is learning English altogether. (Campbell)”

A painless, FUN English classroom. What a novel idea!

Listened to and watched a brilliant Web 2.0 in Education presentation thismorning. Via David Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth I once again found myself at Ewan McIntosh’s edublogs site - a place I am really enjoying return visits to.

What I really liked about his presentation was how well and CLEARLY he explains the difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 - and how he connects 2.0 into education and the classroom.

I’m already thinking about how I can pass this presentation along to our team of teachers, and invite them to wonder what it means for their ESL classrooms.

Go ahead and listen/watch this presentation. If you’re learning about web 2.0, blogging, podcasting and what they mean for your classroom, you’ll find this is time well invested.

As I write this I’m keenly aware that I have an unfinished bunny trail that I need to backtrack to. I find it interesting how “trail-like” blogging is, for me as a writer and a reader.

You start down one fascinating trail, reading somone else’s post, which gets you thinking about their topic. You investigate further, and write a post of your own. Your post is just opening the topic, you know you have more to read, think, and write about and so you leave the post open (Part I) and promise further exploration.

Next day, or next net session, you open bloglines and you’re faced with a new volly of targeted, engaging content that reveals a whole new set of really interesting trails to follow and ponder.

Your part I post is momentarily forgotten as you begin interacting with the new content.

This whole scenario just happened to me. Back on January 10, I started researching/reading/reflecting about portfolios, community, and professional development. Next day I found myself on an entirely different path.

Is this little story significant? To me, yes. To you - if you’re involved in web and teaching in a 2.0 environment - what do you think?

James over at Palimpsest redux explores this very issue and relates it to students. He says:

“My concern presents itself in the example of students interacting with texts and asking questions as to where the answer is without following through on reading the chapter or section in which the answer lies. The irony comes when students are not only interacting with text based materials, but when they are also used net-based materials. There seems to be a lack of follow through or engagement with the text (be it net or text based) in terms of reading for information. Students ask quickly for instruction, guidance, ‘the answer’, when the answer to their question lies within the text they are looking. I often find that my job is to point students back to the text/ web after glancing through myself and finding that, yes, the answer is there. Is this a reflection of the ‘digital native’s ’ compressed attention span? It seems that if some students don’t find the answer they seek within less than the time it takes for mtv to run a video (I would say more within the time of a typical commercial, approx. 30 sec.), they seem to give up.

The ‘hyperlink’ style of reading also seems to bring with it cognitive gaps , as students jump from skimming one topic to the next, in a style similar to ‘free association.’ The problem is, only students who are self motivated will come back on their own initiative to fill in those gaps. As a teacher, I find I am constantly pointing students back to topics or areas on the web/text that they should’ve covered in the first place. Hyperlink-style reading is great for keeping interest and for ‘specialised reading’ (read: reading only for what interests you personally), but seems to produce a pastiche style of understanding with a lot of gaps to fill in. Unfortunately, students who are not self motivated seem to turn to the teacher for the answers, instead of backtracking and filling in those cognitive gaps on their own.” (The risk of ‘tech savvy’ thinking and danger of opposing it…, James 2005)

“Hyperlink style reading.” I really like James’ take on this. How easy it is to just skim and not go deep. Or to leave some important stones unturned, and you as teacher needing to encourage your class to go back and fill in the blanks.

I wonder if there is a “hyperlink style learning” spin to this - both for students and teachers. Where what I was sharing above happens: getting hooked into following other lines of thought without first deeply exploring your first one.

Maybe there’s nothing wrong with getting lost in the jungle. Professional development is afterall done by the teacher, not TO them.

That “by the teacher” really should leave the door open for chaos - where the only goal is the “upgrading of one’s mindset” (Dirty Business, Bright Ideas. Gina Imperato, 1997)

But what about the gaps? Learning should never have a period after it in the sense that it is an ongoing experience. However, as James points out, hypertext often invites gap leaving - both for students and teachers. In my case, I left a gap in my exploration around portfolios and community which I really want to double back to.

James also points out the importance of learning the art of the double back. Of being disciplined enough, and passionate enough to actually return to check under those key stones that were left unturned in our excited passing.

“Unfortunately, students who are not self motivated seem to turn to the teacher for the answers, instead of backtracking and filling in those cognitive gaps on their own.” (The risk of ‘tech savvy’ thinking and danger of opposing it…, James 2005)

The self motivated backtrack, be they students or teachers. I must be purposefull as I wade through the bit of the blogsphere that touches me, or I risk an incomplete picture - a knee deep experience when I could go for full submersion.

Just listened to a very thought provoking podcast by Wesley Fryer entitled The Case for Digital Storytelling

As a quick aside, I’ve been following Wesley’s blog - Moving at the Speed of Creativity for a few months and I highly suggest you follow it to. Well worth your time.

Now back to the post…

So after listening to this podcast, I leave wondering to myself how digital story telling could fit into the ESL classroom. Wesley really nails home the uselessness of the typical classroom - where the teacher is the sage on the stage, where the teacher moves facts and information from the textbook over to students brains, and students respond by throwing those same facts up on exams at the end of the semester.

Ok, very simplified summary of his talk, but I think I capture his case for story telling as a means of upping student engagement with content - and therefore how well they adopt it into their lives.

The old school - teacher dumps out, students suck in and dump back out on tests. Very little engagement happens, and learning is minimal.

Story telling invites deeper interaction with the “facts.” This interaction and involvement promotes understanding and retention - and in many cases, influences on a far deeper level, the lives of the students involved.

So I was wondering to myself the whole way through the podcast…how would this fit into ESL? Wouldn’t it be cool to invite students to share a story of some sort which works towards helping them become more proficient in English?

What if you’re working with a crew of basic level students and you’re focus is talking about the present tense. What if they told their own personal story of what they do each day?

This is half-backed, and time constrained, but I wanted to throw the idea and question out to all of you…do you see a fit between story telling and the classroom? ESL or otherwise? How so? How are you doing it?

I have recently found (can’t remember where exactly) Doug Noon’s Borderland blog. Fascinating and thought provoking, a true story teller.

Yesterday Doug sounded off on a test that I’ve never heard of, but I think his post is relevant for many of us today:
DIBELS and the Seductive Lure of Snake Oil

“…if it’s taught because it’s tested, what typically gets taught is not the skills or content, but test-taking itself.” (Borderland, 2006.)

I see the crossover into ESL. The TOEIC, TOEFL etc. How often do our prep classes turn into TEST TAKING classes. Where we focus on how to hack the test and shortcut to success.

Students can score high on the test, but has anything really useful happened to their English skills? I’ve said it before: I know people who have scored high on the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) but cannot hold their own in a conversation.

Blogging and podcasts (for listening and content creation), have very obvious applications for intermediate and advanced level English learners. What happens when you have a room full of true beginners? Can 2.0 help you?

Aaron Campbell has a really useful post around this that I really appreciated.

Flickr for “Low Level” EFL Students

“Students can begin by constructing their own galleries and profiles, while adding short descriptions and ‘notes’ to their own photos. This can be coupled with tag searches for themes of interest, followed by building a contact list and making simple comments on interesting photos. It doesn’t take a linguistic expert to carry out these tasks, and they are fun to do, too.” (Campbell, 2006 par. 2)

What I really liked about Aaron’s idea was how well this type of work would lend itself to learner autonomy.

Flickr’s growing picture bank is mind numbingly huge, and that means finding things that are personally relevant or interesting to students will be quite easy. That ups the probability of them getting hooked, of doing it themselves, of connecting with somoeone else {an English speaker}- OUTSIDE of the classroom.

“Placing [english learners] in a Web 2.0 environment and showing them how to use its tools to meet people and express themselves, is far more likely to motivate them to want to learn further than sitting in a traditional classroom with their peers doing pair work - they’ve already been exposed to that and it has obviously failed to do the trick.”(Campbell, 2006. Par. 3)

Isn’t that the truth? 2.0 classrooms, be they ESL or other, up their level of interestingness the more they merge with relevance to STUDENTS.

I teach business English in companies around Mexico City. I’ve never had a group where computers where available in class and students never seem to have time to seriously delve into blogging or podcasting etc.

So I become the web. It’s a slow beginning, but at least I can leverage some 2.0 power. Adopting me as the net approach to Aaron’s idea:
1. I pay careful attention to my student’s hobbies, passions, interests etc.
2. I go to flickr and find pictures of interest. I print them off - and include the comment space under the picture.
3. Students write their comments on paper.

You could stop there, or go a little further. What if you took those same pictures, with the student’s comments, and handed them around the room, or even to other English groups. Other students could post their comments as well, and then return the pictures back to the original commenters.

It’s not instantaneous, but it follows the principal of interaction. Of communicating for and with an audience. Best of all, it’s PERSONAL.

One reason I am totally sold out on blogging for purposes of professional development, is that it is incredibly easy to connect with others who are thinking about, and doing, the same things as you are - or are attempting to do.

Their experieinces, ideas, ponderings, failings, are all at my fingertips helping me along on my own journey. Instantly, I have models to follow. Mistakes I was about to make, can now be avoided because someone went on ahead and took the time to honestly reflect on what happened. (The good, the bad, and the ugly.) Most of all though, I now have connections. A community of fellow practitioners. There is no more isolation. There is no more trying to figure things out on your own. We figure things out in community.

Case in point:
jamesmatthew, over at Palimpsest Redux, is also exploring around portfolios as the BC ministry of Education has implemented a mandatory graduation portfolio.

Fascinating stuff:Palimpsest redux » Blogs as a Potential Portfolio Delivery Format…

Using the tools of blogging (internal and external linking, categories, comments), the portfolio would take on a fluid, evolving appearance…isn’t that more representative of who we are as individuals? If we are actively engaged in learning /reflecting/ experiencing the world around us, then we will be fluid organisms, changing and evolving as we learn/reflect/experience more.

The blog-portfolio also provides a great forum for a multi-faceted portfolio.” (jamesmatthew, 2006)

Portfolios of today, in my humble opinion, are not static and therefore lifeless things. They are organic. They grow. The develop. The reinvent along with their owner. They are, to borrow from James, “fluidly evolving.”

Noone remains the same. Experiences shape us. Blogfolios, ePortfolios, and paper based solutions must actively follow this evolution.

Reading James’ entry then led me to the comments, where Ewan McIntosh (Very interesting blog.) explores portfolios and their static vs. evolving nature. He also goes on to make a really fine point:

“I think the realist in me, though, says that most educators and, particularly, examination bodies do not see a portfolio as something that should be changed. We speak of ‘final drafts’, ‘final exams’ or simply ‘finals’. Of course, this is ridiculous. The most ridiculous ‘final exam’ I ever sat was for my Honours year when I sat European Law. Two weeks afterwards, and I knew this was going to happen as I sat the exam, all the Treaty numbers of the EU were changed as part of the Amsterdam Treaty. ‘Final exam’? My eye! But those attitudes haven’t changed at any stage in the education system.”

Ouch. Painfully true. In today’s world, most everything that comes out as a “final version” is outdated the next day. Change or die.

Follow the comments to Ewan McIntosh’s site. The conversation is very interesting. Should portfolios demonstrate a “finished product” or specimens of ongoing growth?