Timeliner/Sabertooth Activity 
 

The book: With respect to public education policy in America, not much has changed since the book,  The Saber tooth Curriculum, was published.  One might conclude that this constant agitation is healthy as it keeps us thinking about “WHAT” American education should look like.  It is unfortunate that the educators and practitioners have little power in determining the curriculum, but educators are partly to blame.  Over the years, educators accepted that the decision making responsibility take place at state and national levels. With education historically used as a political platform, the  GOAL of education is subject to the whims of politicians. The reality is that public education is currently at the mercy of politicians who are more focused on their own popularity than the good of society. 

I agree with Peddiwell that  the real goal of education is  “to meet the cultural and education needs of the society & prepare the youth to participate in the society”.    I also believe that educators can regain control of education if  Universities and Professional license programs should require that pre service teachers understand the education political system and become more involved at a local level in policy making as part of professional development. 

Learning Activity:  Vicki Surface and I created the timeline.  To sum up,  “two heads are better than one”.  I have always enjoyed in-class cooperative learning experiences, especially when the groups are limited to partners.  My partner absorbed aspects of the book that I disregarded as extraneous content.  In working together on the time liner activity, I was able to gain a sense of understanding that far exceeded my original summation and interpretation. For teachers looking for a different approach to reviewing course readings (perfect for secondary school-age students), see the product 'a timeline" produced at the left ...For more ideas on how to use technology to review reading materials, click here

Integration : The exposure to this book confirms that teachers must be well trained, confident, and committed to the “goal” despite political trends and policies.  As trainers/leaders in a graduate program, we must do a better job of making teachers/leaders. Since I am  no longer in the classroom, I have the responsibility to prepare teachers to become educational leaders in the professional community. 

Practitioners can no longer become overwhelmed by these societal demands and should learn to use their own common sense in how they satisfy school division curriculum policy and the “real” goal of education. My experience as a first grade teacher supports my thinking on the issue. I never allowed educational trends and practice to negatively impact what I believe to be the goal of education. 

While teaching first grade in California, I believed in my own personal approach to teaching children to read. My approach included practices from both fields of phonics and whole language.. Despite my track record in producing “readers”, I was told to “throw out” my Basal readers in 1988 and adopt “whole language.  After investigating “American” whole language (which was a bastard, watered down version of the authentic approach developed in New Zealand), I rejected the notion of not teaching specific language rules and functional literacy skills (phonics). During that time, I continued to teach children to read and incorporated both approaches. No one ever checked if I ever throw those basal readers out! Three years later, California reformed its original approach to “whole language” and moved towards “Balanced Literacy” (which includes both phonics and whole language). Eureka! I was right afterall..Readers need phonic rules! 

This experience confirmed my belief that most teachers KNOW how to educate children, but must be assertive in defending their approach to reaching the “goal”.  I was able to placate an educational trend and still reach the goal - literacy.  I believe that this is possible for all teachers as long as they are assertive and their practice can be defended as supporting the “goal” of education. If I had only packaged my approach and sold it to a textbook publisher as “balanced literacy”, I could be retired and living well at the beach! 
 

The book: This is one book that will remain on my bookcase. Just when I thought that my generation of adults were unique in that we were taken by surprise by the Internet, I learned how Victorian society had to adjust and adapt to an earlier form of telecommunication technology; the telegraph.  Long ago,  I learned in a college history course that history repeats itself . 

Standage draws the parallels between the Internet and the telegraph effectively.   It is apparent that the same challenges that faced the pioneers of the telegraph technology are repeated as our society learns more about the Internet.   The Internet's benefits and risks are being realized on a daily basis and those that keep up with the pace of change are those members of society that will reap the most reward from the technology. Relative to education, teachers that appreciate the history of telecommunications may be better able to predict what skills students must have to remain productive members of the 21st century society. 

Learning Activity:  Based on the popular  "Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten", cooperative groups were tasked with creating their own "Everything that I need to Know I learned from the Victorian Internet". (see link at left). RAther than summarize the book as an entire class, cooperative groups created a bulleted list of the important points the author makes in the book.  For K-12 students, this activity could be easily managed in a lab setting or in a classroom using AlphaSmarts. Interested in anther creative way to review text with your students? click here. 

Integration: Students need only have basic mechanical skills in Word processing to participate fully in this activity.  Members of each group took turns keyboarding key points made in the Victorian Internet that our group believed to be important.  I can't help but think about the numerous high school classrooms that I observe as part of my work in Stafford County Public Schools.  It is common to observe teachers reviewing the previous night's reading's using direct "question/answer" approach.  This approach to reviewing assignments makes every classroom member accountable for a contribution since they must contribute to the final product.  This is a simple idea and a nice change for many teachers to try out with their students. 
 

The book: I realized early on in the text that this is classic reading for any student interested in a historical perspective on civilization's encounter with technology. Toffler identified three technological waves in human history.  The age of agriculture began, and its significance was that people moved away from nomadic wandering and hunting and began to cluster
into villages and develop culture. The second wave was an expression of machine muscle, the Industrial Revolution that began in the 18th century and gathered steam after America's Civil War. People began to leave the peasant culture of farming to come to work in city factories. It culminated in the Second World War. It is what we variously call the information or
the knowledge age, and while it is powerfully driven by information technology, it has co-drivers as well, among them social demands worldwide for greater freedom and individuation. In an attempt to "stay afloat" on understanding the Third Wave,  I researched Avin  Toffler and found a brief biography on the author. Click on the link below to learn more about this author.  About Toffler.

Learning Activity: As the ITS Cohort headed into its fourth week with Priscilla as the instructional designer, I anticipated a learning activity that would provide the group with a summary of Toffler's Third Wave.  I would have never guessed that we would be engaged in authoring a Reader’s Theater in cooperative groups.  Not feeling of imaginative mind that Saturday, I depended on Kathy Mason and John Barr for generating the concept of “Dick and Jane do the Wave”.  In an attempt to develop a historical commentary on Technology and Civilization, we chose characters that all educators know from their    education or practice. For a glance at our script, click on the link entitled “Reader’s Theater”.  As different groups shared their Reader’s Theater productions with the class, key points in Toffler’s book were emphasized.  Click here to see how Powerpoint can be used to review novels or reading assignments.

 Technology Integration:  In this activity, a word processor, desktop computer, and working printer was all that was needed to create scripts. The editing tools available in the word processor such as cut, copy paste and delete make the word processor the tool of choice for this activity. As I work with teachers in schools that lack in updated hardware, I am reminded to encourage staff to make the most of the technology that they have in their classroom.   Word processing activities are easy to do and meet the needs of many lesson plans. 

The book:  Cuban exposes us to another historical perspective on technology and society in Teachers and Machines.  In this book, we are introduced to a niche that we, as educators know well; the classroom.  I found Cuban’s exploration into earlier classroom technologies, such as film use in the classroom very familiar.  As Cuban described some of the frustrations dealing with “machines” in the classroom, I could recall my elementary school teachers’ numerous failed attempts to show a movie as part of instruction.  If it wasn't the projector, it was damaged film that they had to fix.  I also recall several classmates who possessed the mechanical skill to troubleshoot the problems.  These students maintained a high standing among the rest of us since they were considered “technical assistants” to our excitement about “watching movies in school”.  Times have changed as network engineers and certified computer technicians run around school buildings attempting to maintain access to learning via machines, but I agree with Cuban that many of our instructional facilitators have a long way to go in truly understanding how technology and teaching can work together to improve learning. 

Learning Activity:  As a member of an all female “design group” that included Vicki Surface and Lynette Lewis, we worked at developing a Power Point slide show that summarized key points in Cuban’s book.  The presentation can be perused by clicking on the link at the left. For more lesson plan ideas, click here...

Technology Integration: As a member of the IT Team in Stafford County Public Schools, I am often asked to offer professional development classes in Power Point. In fact, our school division's TLTs offer 5 hour Professional Development Classes in learning the application.  With a ten-minute demonstration of Power Point essentials and Norton’s two page guide to developing a presentation as a resource, two new users to Power Point were able to create slides and participate in the activity.  I found this observation powerful as teachers throughout the Commonwealth scramble to complete mandated technology competencies by July 2003.  Based on Priscilla’s quick and easy approach to teaching ONLY the essential parts of a presentation application, I question whether teachers really need all of  “training” that we deliver in out Professional Development Program. Perhaps we should be concentrating more on integration and less on training

The activity:  Taking me back to creating projects in the classroom, Vicki Surface, Robin Weaver and I developed a product that provided all of tools needed for students to become “digitally literate”  in an information Age. The DIGIWISE device is a backpack size organizer of information complete with Assistants to help students become good users of information. 

In this activity, we were at tables cutting, pasting, and coloring.  An odd sight for graduate students?  Perhaps, but the activity is one of my favorite so far this semester as the products produced by the SC Cohort provided a unique way to review reading material.  The photo at the left provides a “snapshot” of the product that DIGIGALS, Inc. is marketing this year (I am the oldest  petite one).

Technology Integration: No tech, traditional classroom tools were used in this activity.  This activity is a reminder to all educators not to abandon those traditional classroom tools.  The computer was not accessed but it use implied in everyone's product. As groups presented their product samples, the teacher gained a sense of their understanding of the required reading for the week. 

Book: Shocked by the statistics presented in the first pages of  Tapscott's work, this reader is concerned about access and new inequalities emerging in our society for many youngsters. Tapscott concentrates on the "N Gener" that emerges from the Third Wave.  The “N Gener” desires to interact with technology and sees the Internet’s Multimedia interface a part of growing up. Although television allows for visual stimulation, the Internet fosters interaction with the world that goes far beyond “watching the tube”.  There is email communication available to a teenager with anyone in the world, movie tickets to buy “on-line”, and thousands of stores and shopping malls to “hang out” in right from one’s bedroom! This "new Thinker" is very a very different thinker than his "Baby Boomer" parents and teachers!

The Activity: Our cooperative group consisting of Andy, Vicki and me were tasked with creating a Poster of an “N Gener”.  Andy came up with the creative idea of making the “N Gener’s” Closet, which included various “hats or heads” that the “N Gener” wears at any given time.  The bedroom closet concept evolved as we brainstormed ways to make the connection between the Baby Boomer world and the new world of the “N Gener”. Since they both have a bedroom in common, it seemed appropriate to use the bedroom closet as a commonality between the two generations.  The “N Gener’s” Closet departs from the traditional teenager’s bedroom closet as we created hats that represented “global awareness and sensitivity”, “Risk taker caps”, and my favorite, the “Explorer helmet”. The picture of our poster appears at the left. 

Technology Integration/Implications: This reading is a must for any pre-service or veteran teacher today.  In fact, the issues that arise from discussion about how we deliver instruction to a “N Gener” would make for an excellent Professional Development seminar. I found the implications for the classroom startling and disconcerting for several reasons. In a climate when education politics is concentrating on “making the mark” with high test scores on standardized tests and SOLs, a new kind of learner, the “N Gen” learner is coming into our schools expecting intellectual stimulation and learning that reflects his/her world.  We are not even close to meeting the “N Gener’s” needs in today’s classroom.  One has to ask if this is why many teachers are dealing with “behavior and classroom management problems”.  Norton’s commentary on ADD and whether it REALLY is the student’s condition is worth thinking about! Ironically, old fashioned tools (crayons, markers, and glue sticks) were used for this project. See our poster in the left-hand column

The Activity & Classroom Discussion: Throughout this semester, Norton minimized discussions on the hardware and the software that drives Instructional Technology. I concluded that this was a required reading as it was intended to heighten our awareness about the industry and inventors that are behind the “machine”. During our classroom discussion, Priscilla revealed that this was only part of why this book is part of this semester’s reading list.  Readers gain a sense of what kind of thinking, research, and risk-taking are involved in the work place as one sifts through the evolution of the machine.  As the reader thinks about the workplace and the environment where this type of thinking and invention takes place, it looks very different from the work environment of the Industrial Revolution. 

Understanding that the present school model is based on the Industrial Age work environment, the reader begins to realize that more than instruction may need to change as we adjust to the Technological Age in education. 

Technology Integration/Implications: If the educator’s job is to prepare our students for the real world, the same kind of learning, risk-taking, and invention that one reads about in this book should be available for students to experience in school. This way, we can responsibly prepare our students for the technological work place. Readers distinctly recall the R&D approach to creating  the computer.  Can students learn in an R&D school environment?   I wonder if Kidder appreciates how this book can be used as evidence for a change in education leadership and policy? 

The book:  A favorite reading for the semester and I am not a fan of science fiction.  I enjoyed the questions and issues that were raised in this book by the author, Orson Scott Card.   Whether readers are students of instructional technology, educators, or parents, this novel presents age-old questions about  personal responsibility, the ends and means, and what really matters in life are presented. 

As a special educator, Ender's character is not one that I know well. Yet, I could relate to him. He is a genius among geniuses. Like some of my special education students, he doesn't appear to fit in anywhere on the planet, but is forced to save it. 

I found several biblical parallels throughout the story and it didn't surprise me to find that the author was educated as a minister.