Cytochrome C

I just recently setup up Google Apps + Moodle single sign on. Now that we can provide email to all students, should we?

Why Student Email?

• Students need email in order to practice electronic communication.
• Our tech plan says we will teach students about electronic communication.
• Almost all modern workers have a work email.
• All universities provide a student email (Most require students to use the student email for school business and require the student to check the official student email with a certain frequency).
• Almost all students get personal email at some point (some classes require students to have an email address).

Why Not Student Email?

• Students could misuse the email (bullying, attaching malicious files)
• Students could get SPAM
• Concern about liability (proving nexus becomes easier when it is a school provided system)
• Parental choice (we might consider opting out kids, just as we have certain parents opt out of student work/photos online)

How I Think We Should Approach The Issue

• We know kids are sometimes misusing electronic communication now outside of school.
• Instead of saying “Whew, glad that is not our problem because it’s not on our system” we should be looking to educate the kids.
• We have an “educational nexus” with electronic communication.
• However, just because we provide it and expect it to be used does not mean we need to monitor all messages (we don’t not screen every note children write in their binder paper).
• We need to teach kids to report cyber bullying and save copies of emails that disturb/threaten them.
• We need to talk to parents about the role electronic communication plays in education (think about the importance of parent-teacher email, shouldn’t students start learning about self advocacy via email?)
• We need to create an AUP that says very clearly that if an incident does happen using our email system we are not responsible (we are responsible for educating about email use but not for monitoring student email messages).
• The alternative is to be hypocritical-to expect students to have email and to use it in instruction, but to not provide it out of fear.
• The other alternative is to not provide email and not push the use of student email in instruction, which means our students miss out on a chance to use these tools in an academic setting.

This week our school Moodle has undergone some major changes. Our friendly Moodle partner host (Remote-Learner) installed Mahara and connected the two installations together with single sign on (SSO). I then got inspired and used the instructions here to install SSO between our Moodle and Google Apps (Gapps?). I then got further inspired and hacked together a new theme with the YUI menus of Afterburner, the profile block of Aardvark, and the Moodlebar.  (Trying to meld the greatness of New School Learning, Shaun Daubney, and Lewis Carr into one theme!).

You can download the theme here. (named Burnt Aardvark Bar).

So now, once students log into Moodle, they will be able to migrate to Mahara’s e-portfolio system and Google’s email and docs as well as participate in the activities on Moodle itself.

I plan to really push teachers to use the portfolio system as an end of the year assessment tool and chance for student reflection this year. Hopefully the e-portfolio process can become part of the way-we-do-things-here. I have heard that Mahara isn’t the most intuitive tool and so I am really interested in working with some students and teachers to run it through the paces. I talked with Open Source web guru Chris Kenniburg who gave up on Mahara in favor of Buddypress so I have doubts before I even begin that is Mahara is the best tool for the job. Mahara seems to be a more robust e-portfolio tool, while WordPress MU/Buddypress seems to be more intuitive. I like Mahara’s ability to have multiple layouts and its drag and drop module based page creation. However, I love WordPress’ thousands of themes. We will see.

The google apps piece is a nice way for us to move more into the cloud. I am not sure how we will use the email feature (will it be required for school communication, will it be monitored). Right now it is just available and slightly unofficial. As for the docs, hopefully some teachers will be willing to use it with their students this spring and we can make our push to get rid of MS Office and go Open Office+Apps for productivity software.

The most important piece about this week for me is that it gives me a taste of what Moodle 2.0 will be like. I see the vision of Moodle 2.0 as Moodle as a hub in a webby world. We have the key pieces in place and the single sign on works. However, in Moodle 2.0 students will be able to pull docs from Google into Moodle and then out to Mahara in one seamless flow from creation/collaboration to sharing/assessment to reflection/documentation.

It is also a reminder of how awesome Moodle 1.9 is.

An outline of information about Open Office I prepared to present to school teachers and administrators.

Facts About Open Office

• Contains word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool (also drawing, math editor, and database)

• Looks a lot like Microsoft Office 2003 (same features, but some options are in different menus)

• Is free (can be installed on ∞ computers)

• Is open source (like Firefox, Moodle, and Android phones) extensions and modifications are allowed (democratic community guides the path of the software instead of dictatorial corporation).

• Is lightweight and runs on any operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux & new/old hardware)

• Can open files created by Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .docx, .xlsx, .pptx)

  • Some issues with converting files with complex layout (lots of images embedded in a word document)

• Can save files in Microsoft Office 2003 format (also has its own file format)

• Can save files as .pdf (don’t need to have cute pdf installed)

• Is popular (10⁸ downloads of Open Office 3 in one year)

Who uses it?

• Some examples from a company that installs open software http://bit.ly/9q9WLV

• http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Major_OpenOffice.org_Deployments

• All high schools in Indiana http://www.doe.in.gov/olt/InACCESS/about_inaccess.html

Why Are We Considering Open Office?

• We will need to upgrade software eventually

  • We are currently using Microsoft Office 2003

  • This is software that was released 7 years ago and will eventually be phased out

• Microsoft Office 2007 is available (MS Office 2010 is in beta testing

  • The interface is quite different from MS Office 2003 and will require extensive training

• Since training is going to be required, why not invest money we would use on buying software into training people?

  • To buy MS Office every 5-7 years is enough money to pay every teacher for 3 hours of training every year!

• You can keep using MS Office 2003 during the transition (since we already purchased it)

• If we choose MS Office 2007 we will have new computers with 2007 and old computers with 2003. (mixed environment)

• If we choose Open Office we can install open office on all computers right away (free to install, consistent environment).

• Makes a $400 netbook a $350 netbook (12% savings)

• Can be installed for free at home (on Windows, Mac, and Linux-a $150 savings per student

• Google Docs is free and complements any office suite we choose.

• Ideology – Public education and open source have similar goals

Arguments for Microsoft Office 2007

• The presentation software has more templates

• Microsoft Office has a large market share so we should expose students to the dominant brand

• Some features on MS Office 2007 work better

• Looks slicker

• Complex MS 2003 documents (lots of tables) might open more consistently

One school going open source not to save money but for the ideology (they also save money)

http://theopensourceschool.blogspot.com/2010/01/free-as-in-freedom-not-as-in-free-beer.html

When students walk into your classroom what do they see around the room and on the walls?

• Posters about classroom procedures?
• Posters about important concepts or future careers?
• The daily/weekly schedule?
• Examples of excellent student work?
• Pictures from classroom field trips?
• Learning objectives/standards?
• Extra handouts in a file folder?
• Books?
• Your desk with a few photos of your family?
• You?

I hope you answered yes to a few of the above (at least you are there right?).

When students visit your website, what do they see?

For many teachers, the answer to this question is quite different. However I believe that if we see our website as an extension of our classroom, we stop seeing the website as extra. It is just like moving from a class that had only three walls to four walls. There is now more space for you to hang stuff up, but it doesn’t mean you have to change all that much. The kinds of things you can do in a physical classroom you can do on/in your website. Your website gives you a chance to connect to students, provide information,  set expectations, and communicate with parents.

Why do you hang stuff on your walls?

Classroom walls have been recognized as important to educators for a long time You usually have a central focus which is a board or a screen to write/display information like schedules or the days instruction.  However, the other areas of the walls are not ignored. They are decorated to create a sense of place, to give students a sense of pride and belonging, and to set the tone of the learning that you know will happen inside those walls. We decorate them because we know students will be in our rooms looking around.

Kids are online looking around

Many of your students and parents are active online. They use the web to find information (like restaurant/movie reviews), do work, and socialize. Your website is a chance to provide them with important messages and give them an impression about you and the class. Additionally if your website is interactive (Moodle, Blog, Wiki, Ning) then your website can be more than just a wall but an extension of the entire classroom.

You have a 5th classroom wall. Is it getting less attention than your other 4?

It is easy to fall into false dichotomies: mind vs body, teacher vs administrator, Coke vs Pepsi (maybe not). One of the most prevalent false dichotomies in education is facts vs concepts, often meant to mean multiple choice test vs performance based assessment, rote memorization versus understanding, book learning versus real world learning. (an important side note that could be a whole discussion in and of itself is that these groups of dichotomies are not synonymous)  Painting these ideas as in opposition goes against how knowledge works in practice, the current understanding of the brain,  and is an impediment for people who want to reform schools.

How knowledge works: One of the loudest arguments against learning facts these days is “You can look up anything on the internet.” This statment has value when it is used to encourage teaching kids how to do good research and how to synthesize multiple sources into a cohesive understanding. When used to argue that facts themselves have no value and do not assist in the process of analysis, however, that argument is misleading.

Hypothetical situation: Pick 2 topics, one you know a lot about and one you know very little about. I will pick botany and accounting. Now you have to perform some research to answer a fairly complex question on each of these topics (Compare the different groups of gymnosperms and compare absorption costing to asset turnover) . You have 10 minutes for each question. Go.

I don’t have the aspects of the different gymnosperms memorized. However, I know what a gymnosperm is, I remember that there are different groups, and I understand the basics of plant structure so that when I read articles about the topic I can more easily filter the information.

I couldn’t even think of a question to ask in accounting, so I first had to search for a glossary of terms and then look around until I found two terms that seemed comparable (I don’t know if they are actually comparable). I don’t even know what I don’t know. As I try to learn more about accounting, I keep having to stop and look up basic ideas used in articles because I lack the background information. The words themselves seem to “stick less” in my head than the botany terms.

I am the same person, with the same research and synthesis skills, the same ability to pick up new ideas, and yet presented with a similar problem in two different factual areas I yield two different results. Why? Because facts matter. My prior knowledge about plants made it easier for me to understand new knowledge about plants. I had mental structures in place for categorizing information about plants, that were built when I was first asked to learn botany. I know how roots, stems, and leaves work ( I know that all plant structures can be classified as a root, stem or leaf), and so I can more easily compare the roots of the groups of gymnosperms because my brain groups that information together for me.

These mental structures are not helping me remember the things I read about accounting. I find myself wanting someone to explain the basics of accounting from an expert perspective so that I can frame my mind around ideas. Then I might be able to sift through all of the terms. I want someone to teach me the facts about accounting, so that I can approach the sea of information with some guidance.

Obviously facts matter or we wouldn’t have specialists. Specialists were not created merely due to the fact that only a few people had access to pieces of information. Specialists are still needed in an open information world, because information is really hard to understand without a lot of background.

Modern understanding of the brain? Well we don’t have a perfect understanding of memory, but we do know a few things that help break this dichotomy. There are no isolated facts in the brain. There are only connections. Your brain is a network of billions of neurons and every time you experience anything new, your brain changes those connections. That is learning. The more your brain is exposed to a certain language as a child the more the connections in the brain match the patterns of the language and the better the brain is at that language. When you are trying to learn specific details (your mother’s face, a phone number, the capital of France), your brain must change to emphasize a certain pathway and then be able to activate that pathway at some other time (recall). Your brain seems to store similar ideas together (apparently when you put an electrode in a brain and stimulate one area ideas of cars and predatory animals are activated) The more an idea is connected to other ideas in the brain (due to similarity) the easier it is to reactivate. This is why progressive educators are right in moving teaching towards contextualizing knowledge. No matter how hard you try to cram an idea into a person’s head as an isolated fact, the brain will store that idea as a connection to other ideas.

So, what we call facts are really just parts of concepts, and what we call concepts are just a bunch of facts. No fact can exist on its own in the brain, and no concept can exist on its own in the brain independent of the specific facts that gave rise to the concept.

OK, so hopefully you are willing to consider that facts and concepts aren’t antithetical, and maybe content knowledge is useful, but why is the dichotomy bad for reform? If we put the choice to administrators, teachers, and the public: the children will learn EITHER facts or concepts, facts will win. We shouldn’t be saying that the only way to teach a fact is to be as boring as a test. Teach the children the content through engaging problem based activities that activate their brains and allows them to create multiple connections. If you give the kid only one connection to an idea and isolate from the world because it is a hated fact, then the kid won’t learn that fact. We should teach facts the same way we teach concepts, because they are no different.

Teaching Example: The parts of the cell are a collection of facts that are often on the standardized tests. I have used some form of the following lessons at some time in my time as a teacher.

Bad Lesson: Give the kids a sheet with the list of cell parts and definitions and tell them they need to learn them.

OK Lesson: Have kids make flashcards for each cell part by looking up the definition and spend 10 minutes a day quizzing themselves and others on the definition of the cell part.

Good Lesson: Have the kids make a poster of the cell parts with the definitions, pictures, examples of the cell part doing its job, and a metaphor for each cell part (as a factory or town)

Great Lesson: Have the kids debate which cell part is the best. Each group defends two cell parts in a single elimination tournament. Each side presents an opening statement with facts about what the cell part does and why that is important to life (and the audience). Then there is a cross examination/rebuttal period for the two teams to interact. The winner is decided by secret ballot (the teacher gets extra votes) and moves on until a “Most Important Cell Part” is crowned (during the debate students realize that every part is important for life and the parts of the cell are interconnected).

Theoretically  Awesome Lessons (never actually tried these): What about having students contact researchers who spend their whole lives studying one cell part to reveal how a single vocab word has a huge existence in the real world? What about a game/simulation where the students manage a cell to reveal the dynamic nature of these parts?

In all of these lessons, the students are learning factual content that will help them perform well on multiple choice tests. However the more the students connect those facts to other ideas (the metaphors, the social memory of the debate) the better they will learn. Also the standardized test is a pretty good measure of how well the students learned about cell parts and how engaging the class was.