Casting with iLife

The new iLife arrived and my children (age 12 & 9) and I tested it out. We created a family website. Using garage band I had them each make a podcast, really a message to Grandma. In iPhoto they created a photocast, this caused some heated debate about what to include, one wants grandma to see the entire collection of 1579 photos the other wants just shots of herself. We compromised on just last months photos. We then tackled iWeb to put it together. We created an "about us" page, a photo page, and a blog page that included the podcast. We worked just with the templates, dragged and dropped things into place and replaced the place holding text. We did not try to alter the templates though later experiments showed this is possible. Finally we password protected it and sent it to my .MAC account. It worked. The whole affair took two hours, would be less except for sibling squabbles.
I have not kept the site up tough because I'd like to correct their spelling and add better captions to the photos - Grandma will have to wait another week or two.

I was also interested in seeing if I could post this to another site. So I saved it to a folder as iWeb suggests and followed the directions and was able to upload it to my host space, temporarily my homepage was replaced by my family site. This took a bit to have it view properly, I needed to rename a page or two but it was possible.

There is a lot of potential for a true multimedia experience, so many ways to express yourself, photos, audio, video, the written word. I have been thinking of the possibilities - scanning in a students artwork and having the student use a podcast to describe their inspiration. A class can comment on current events using the blog. A high school student can create an online portfolio that can be viewed by potential colleges. From a Universal Design perspective this can help a teacher/student interact with content from a number of perspectives. Really we are just limited by our imaginations.

Casting

I work in a Windows world, but at home I am a very loyal Mac user. I was watching the MacWorld keynote address given by Steve Jobs. I was amazed at all the casting going on; podcasting, photocasting, videocasting. Using the software that comes on a Mac you are ready to create. You can use Garage Band to record a podcast and drag photos from iPhoto to accompany the podcast. You can work in iMovie to make a videocast and in iPhoto to create a photocast. Using iWeb, the newest member of the iLife suite, you can create a website to display all your casts. Your iWeb project can then be hosted on your .Mac account. You can blog, post casts and allow people to subscribe to your casts. It seems like you can create an almost instant website. I have ordered iLife 6 and will soon try it out, I'll see how easy it really is. I do have some questions though. Can you take the website you created in iWeb and use it with another host, other then .Mac? Can the casts created in Garage Band, iMovie and iPhoto be easily posted to websites outside the .Mac world?

As an educator I need to look at how casting in general can influence the learning experience. Can it be used to support certain types of learners? I see so many possibilities, where to begin? My district has been struggling with how to reach a particular group of students. We have students who return to their country of origin for a month or two each winter. In MA this means they are absent and this affects our districts annual yearly progress, also their absent prevents the students from achieving the state standards. Is there a way we can continue to offer instruction while they are away? The internet offers many possibilities, could we use Moodle to create a rich learning experience for these students? Can we make podcasts and videocasts to keep them connected to their schools? This leads to so many other questions. Do they have access to computers and the internet in their home country? Who will create these courses, who will maintain them? What type of content do you include? Any good instruction requires good planning, implementing new technology requires even more.

Supporting the Spark

I met with an English teacher, earlier today, who is a bit of a hero of mine. We used to team teach, she knows so much about kids. I admire her for a host of reasons. She is passionate about what she does. She wants her kids to succeed and will work within the system or around the system if necessary to get it done. But most importantly to me is she sees the possibilities. She sees the possibilities in her kids and her colleagues. She also see the possibilities with technology. She is willing to go out on a limb, try new things, experiment. She knows the old saying "if you do not succeed try try again." She is realistic and knows that a new technology or program will not be instantly mastered, you need to practice and revise. But she sees the potential, the promise.

I am very fortunate to work with people like her everyday, they make the job easy. Many teachers express this willingness to try new things, to see the potential. They catch a spark of inspiration and go with it. Returning to an earlier post this is where support for teachers needs to be given before the spark goes out and the inspiration dies and the technology or program sits unused. There needs to be support to learn, experiment and to try again. We need to encourage this spark and spirit. We need to support the teachers who know their students best, and strive for their success.

Thoughts on UDL, Differentiated Instruction and Assistive Technology

In my role as K-12 technology integration specialist I support technology integration in the classroom and the special education department with some of their assistive technology needs. I have often found myself trying to explain the difference between Differentiated Instruction (DI), Assistive Technology (AT) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). I do not see them so much as different but related. All three are about providing options for learners. It is all about choosing the right tools for the job.

If the job is to read (decode or read for meaning) then screen reading programs or audio books are the wrong choice. If the goal is to improve handwriting skills or increase endurance and hand strength then a speech to text program or a scribe are detrimental to the goals. Certain tools can hurt a student's progress and academic success if not used correctly. Access to information is not learning. What you do with the information affects learning. Before you set out to meet a learning objective you need to focus on the objective, then choose the methods or tools needed to meet the objective for each student.

Silverware Drawer Analogy
You have some meat you need to cut. If you are given a well prepare filet mignon you could probably cut your meat with a butter knife, if you are given an over cooked pot roast you might need a saw. Same goal, cut the meat, but each task requiring a variation of the tool. If you think about the silverware draw in your kitchen there are lots of tools that you may never use and some you are not even sure of what they do. There are others you use once in awhile. But the tools are there if you need them. Some of you may even have a favorite knife or fork that you hunt for in the drawer when you need them. We are given options, we make choices about what to use. Some students and adults have their favorite ways to accomplish tasks in their life and in learning. UDL is about options, it is about providing alternative means/tools to achieve a goal. You do not put everything from the silverware drawer out on the dinner table. You choose what you need depending on the meal.

UDL is about starting with a goal/objective for the learners, looking at the learners and providing alternative learning methods. By considering their varied skills, strengths and weakness, learners will have improved chances of meeting the objectives. Is this not also differentiated instruction? Currently in my mind DI is what a teacher actually does in the classroom and UDL is provided as part of the infrastructure of the curriculum. For example, UDL may include textbooks that come in various formats (such as text, audio and video).

AT provides tools to allow students access to the curriculum, if the curriculum is inflexible and can not be adapted to learner. For example a blind student who can not read printed text uses Braille books. Or the student who can not move their hands will need a switch to operate a computer. AT is very specific to an individual. AT is used when UDL does not provide alternative ways to meet the learning objectives.

UDL provides alternatives/options for the learner to work towards achieving the learning objectives. UDL recognizes all learners are unique and have different strengths, weakness and learning styles. It is a planned approach using curricular items that offer inherent flexibility for interaction and learning.

Supporting Teachers

I once had a principal who would begin his weekly meetings with individual teachers with "How are things going? What do you need, how can I help?" His focus, as well as, that of the school(Seoul Foreign School, Seoul, Korea) was helping teachers, teach.

Education/learning is about what happens within a student. The person in a school system who has the greatest influence on a child's learning is the classroom teacher. All of a school district's attention should be focused here at the classroom, supporting the teacher/student relationship. The focus should be on how can we as a district support and encourage our teachers. To provide them with resources and options to create varied and rich learning experiences.

This support can come in a variety of ways. A simple encouraging word can do wonders. These are few and far between these days. "Good Job." "Nice lesson." "Good insight" at a meeting. These can make a difference at a seemingly thankless job. Support can also include infrastructure: working phones, good computer labs, computers that are up to date, a variety of software and services that provide teachers and students with options, enough desks and unbroken chairs, good texts. This list could go on. Another valuable support is the gift of time. Time to plan, time to talk to other teachers, time to pursue professional development and time to look for resources and try them out.

We have to remember that in education the student/teacher relation comes first and foremost. It is here where all attention must be focused. The frequent question floating around the halls should be "What do you need, how can I help?"

More on Differentiated Instruction

So what is differentiated instruction (DI)? It is an instructional method that adjusts the curriculum to meet students where they are. It is a method that does not expect all students to learn the same material from same presentation. The method takes into account that students approach each lesson differently. DI provides options for students to interact with the content/curriculum from their strengths and current knowledge base. There are three areas that can be modified to allow for options; content, process and products.

Ideally it would be great to modify content to meet each child's needs. But in our reality the content is decided by state departments of education in the form of frameworks or standards. We can only modify the content to go beyond the frameworks, this is good for our more advanced students. For our weaker students we can not add to or change the content we must teach what is mandated.

In the classroom what can be modified the most is the process. How material is presented, the activities that occur in the classroom, the projects, group or individual work. This is were we as teachers get to shine. I'll get in to this more later.

In a classroom where DI takes place students have options to express what they have learned, to produce products that demonstrate their successes. They can use traditional testing, presentations, models or reports to name a few. In the state of Massachusetts, where I teach, the ultimate products are the MCAS exams. These are not differentiated, there are no options here. All students must be able to show what they know through these tests. Students need to be able to answer multiple choice, short answer and open response questions. This has caused a second stream in the curriculum to develop, how to take these tests, it is a skill all students must master.

As classroom teachers there is much that we can not control about the learning process. But we can control what happens in our rooms each day. I have worked with some terrific teachers who are masters of their craft. They create wonderful learning experiences for their students with lots of options, and varied assigned that take into account learner differences. I hope in the future to share some of their successes.

DI is for all students, everyone should be challenged in the classroom from the weakest and the strongest student. Developing these lessons can take a lot of time and resources. Sometimes it might be best to take it a lesson at a time. It is also good to share success with each other, no point recreating the wheel if you neighbor down the hall has some great activities or the neighbor your meet in cyber space.