Video Killed the Middle School Star

I've known that feeling. The same kind of feeling I have when I press "publish post," or when I have to present in front of a large group of teachers, or when my wife drags me out to an empty dance floor, or when I had poison ivy on my face on the first day of middle school...

I hadn't considered that sensation would be something the students would have felt, too. Nothing like a Skype video conference to stir the pot.

For the past few weeks, my classes have been reading Red Scarf Girl, a memoir of the Cultural Revolution in China that began in 1966. During that time I set up many different activities to help them comprehend the novel and make meaning from it. Students read and discussed in small groups -- both student led and teacher directed. They used reflective writing exercises to ask questions and explore themes, and they connected the story's events and ideas to experiences in their own lives and to other novels.

Along the way we hooked up with another 6th grade teacher (thank you Twitter) and her classes from Cary, NC for a project in which we uploaded new content to the book's page on Wikipedia. For the most part our classes worked indpendently from each other and never really interacted. Certainly, the students were aware they were writing for a larger, more public audience, but the activity didn't seem much different than anything else we had done throughout the year. Probably the greatest amount of collaboration and interaction between the schools was between us teachers who were setting it up.

Skype changed all that.

As a culminating activity we set up a video class discussion via Skype. That morning things started our as planned. At 8:15am we popped up the feeds, and instantly our classes, one in Massachusetts and one in North Carolina, were staring face to face.

Without warning, my kids froze.

One of the most talkative students couldn't say the name of our school or where we are located. Another student, one of the most boisterous, reverted to speech so babyish, it would have made my toddler blush. The best adjective that another student could come up with to describe our community was "ghetto." Not what I would have ever dreamed would come out of the mouth of the one student in class who's done missionary work overseas. There was nervous chatter and laughter from some, while others simply became silent. It was as if my entire class had been reborn from giant alien space pods straight out of a 1950s B movie.



Now, of course looking back at the video, I'll admit that in general things went really well. Several of my students stepped up with some very thoughtful and interesting points, carrying our side of the discussion, and making it more than a worthwhile endeavor. And, I guess in the bigger picture, I'd go so far as to say it was wildly successful. We were able to do many of those things we always talk about -- use the web to remove classroom walls, engage in meaningful discussion across great distances, participate in authentic learning experiences. Still though, I had much higher expectations for my students' participation, and I couldn't help but wonder why such academic stars failed to shine as I know they can.

It was that nervousness. They didn't want to look silly. They thought that the other class used "big words" and was really smart. They didn't want to be perceived as not knowing what they were talking about, and so they clung tightly to old adage, "better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Really? Is that all it takes to shake a student's confidence? A video feed?

It makes me believe that these kinds of authentic interactions are even more important than ever. Students need opportunities to practice communicating not only with their peers, not only in publishable writing activities, but in ways that foster discussion, collaboration, and communication that stretches students into unfamiliar territory to places where their status quo might be disrupted. They need to become comfortable with the consquenses of publishing their posts, to speak their minds in face to face conversations, and to be the first ones out on the dance floor.

Rewriting the Plan

Today was one of those days when technology threatened to undermine a whole lot of thinking and planning.

"What are we going to do now, Mr. Olivo?" one student whined predictably.

"Everyone back to the classroom. We'll rearrange the room and set up our conversations in groups," I responded while quickly rewriting my lesson plans in my head.

"You mean like the old way?"

Exactly.

I've been thinking and reading a lot lately about teaching and learning - well, more than usual, that is, and with everything I've come across, there is one common thread. We are in the middle of a shift from an old way of doing things to a new way of delivering instruction and providing access to the curriculum for students. And, clearly technology is an important component.

I think many teachers and principals, and schools and districts are more than aware of the need to start including more current technology in their schools. However, many seem to be caught up in a frenzy to upgrade our classrooms and schools by latching on to the latest technological trends without really understanding exactly how things will be different or better.

Think about this statement from Will Richardson in his blog post "So What is the Future of Schools?".

"We have to first change our understanding of what it means to teach in this moment. That doesn’t mean than we throw out all of the good pedagogy that we’ve developed over the years and make everything about technology. But it does mean, I think, that technology has to be a part of the way we do our learning business these days."

Read Evan Abby's post about common pitfalls with technology professional development, the 21st century schools report from the Ontario Public Schools, or the many comments from a host of blog posts out there -- "Open Letter to a 21st Century School" and Scott McLeod's "Help Wanted - Building a New Secondary School" to name a few. There is a common theme to all of them.

It's about changing the way that we teach rather than adding technology to what we do.

Schools not only believe that they need the latest and greatest instructional technology, but they also believe that it must be distributed equitably among the classrooms. This is another trap. Wes Fryer writes:

As educational leaders, we often want and strive for systemic, scalable change across entire organizations. Educational technology innovation generally tends to take place in isolated pockets, however...
ISTEConnects.org "Focusing on Classrooms Rather Than Schools"

His article also cites a post from Clarence Fisher about the dangers of spending thousands of dollars on technology to create uniform classrooms where teachers are forced to adapt to the new technology that is available to them rather than allow teachers to individualize their own presentation styles and methods. The majority of comments in a Ben Grey post support this idea, as well.

Again, it's about changing the way that we teach rather than adding technology to what we do.

It's a Really Expensive Piece of Equipment, Fred

Since the end of the election season last fall, I've been missing the SNL political sketches. In a word -- hysterical. Amy Poehler shooting a moose dead in front of the real Sarah Palin? Fred Armisen as Barack Obama engaging a miniature, imaginary Joe the Plumber during one of the debates? Tina Fey? Are you kidding me? As the kids say, "lol!"

One particular episode highlighted a segment that made fun of the growing trend of using Smartboards as part of network and cable news coverage. It pointed out how mesmerized everyone has become by the technology, and how we seem to have forgotten that it's the content that matters. It made me think about how we use technology here in schools.



Lately, just like the news networks, we've also been installing Smartboards to enhance our deliveries, but I have to say, I'm not a big fan. It's not because I don't think they're a great tool - they are. It's just that in a school setting, they're often not really used to their potential. In fact, I'd bet in most cases, teachers are using their Smartboards as fancy $3000 screens to project a PowerPoint, show a video clip, or surf through a few web sites. That's not Smartboard technology - that's projector technology. What are people doing with their Smartboards that they can't already do with a notebook computer and a projector?

In my classroom, I opted to go with an Avervision 280 document camera and an NEC projector. Pointed down at my teaching table, the document camera shows whatever I put underneath - text from a handout or a book, notes that I write, student work that I want to share, or demonstrations that students make. In that sense it works like a combination of an overhead and an opaque projector. It also has VGA inputs so I can plug in my laptop and show what's on my screen - the Internet, Word documents, pictures, video - what have you. I have a VCR and a DVD connected to the projector so that I can show film clips, instructional videos, live television, and video feeds from the library. I can easily move between all of these with the press of a button, and I can do it at roughly one quarter of the cost of a Smartboard. Tell me I can't do anything with this setup that someone can do with a Smartboard - except maybe draw a green cat on the screen with my finger.