This summer has been like no other… with various pushes and pulls in many directions. I have interacted with many entities this summer. There has been PD from Kenan-lead sessions, many on technology, all lead by excited educators who are going places and pushing us off our previous paths and pulling us on-board. Those sessions pulled me in many new directions and pushed me to up my game and to be mindful of many new educational forces. There are the connections to DPI that have introduced us more closely to this newest tool in town: Home Base. There has been the participation in the Summer Institute in which we explored the value of the NC version of the Open Educational Resources rubric to guide vetting resources for Home Base as well as future locally shared resources. We also interact with CUACS (Center for Urban Affairs and Community Service), a group of professionals who are highly invested in the input and the quality of the Home Base resources who check and double check our work and redirect us when off task. Like I said, there has been push and pull in many directions.

There is the computer screen I face daily and Ms. Google who spins me off into so many different directions. Then, there is “LOR and I” – my closest companion on this journey. LOR is the Learning Object Repository where I take the gold I find on the internet to market. I have spent MANY hours looking at LOR and typing, clicking, copying, pasting… If my gold is found worthy, it will be transferred to the “Bank” of Home Base.

Externship AHAs

• when I discovered a website with many good resources for Home Base.
• when I marvel at how savvy my mentor is.
• when hearing my Kenan Home Base fellows share how they analyzed the OER resources rubric.
• AHA when I heard Kenan Home Base fellow Jayne Stevens comment on the A for ART in STEAM resource thus connecting art to the sciences. Genius.
• When I note how my HomeBase Kenan fellows are so supportive and insightful.

Kenan Fellowship AHAs:

• when I saw the great tablet cases some of the Kenan Fellows have purchased.
• when Joni Allison taught me more about how to use my iphone.
• when Lisa Bolton explained how she is considering using the tech tool Classdojo with her elementary Spanish students to reward them for using Spanish in class.
• when I saw that my sail was not going anywhere on Jason O’s styrofoam boat.

AHA – there is still serious work to do… back to the keyboard, the internet searches and LOR.

AHA – when I tried to make a video on WeVideo about my LOR and I… with no success.

Crank Drive Belt Image from www.freepatentsonline.com 

Aha moment image from www.dreamstime.com

World Language teachers have historically focused on grammatical and vocabulary correctness rather than on the ability to communicate. The lack of technology has forced our discipline to focus on written communication while ignoring the importance of oral communication.

The North Carolina World Languages Essential Standards are MORE likely to be positively influenced by the implementation of digital tools than negatively influenced. The limits of technology have negatively influenced second language instruction and learning for centuries. Paper and pencil, worksheets and textbooks are not the ideal tools for learning a communication skill. Sending and receiving messages are two main ingredients in communication. (What to send and how to comprehend what is sent are other key ingredients.) The teaching of world languages has been limited by the lack of tools that extend beyond just paper, pencil, text book and workbook. Writing utensils enabled the student to provide an answer (output) in the target language (but not a spoken answer) for communication, practice and assessment. Writing utensils enabled the teacher and textbook creator to provide written examples of the language for student input but left him or her shackled with limited audio tools.

The ability to add photos and drawings to input for students was huge for world language instruction. Photos and drawings were a wonderful addition to the target language and native language reading materials because now the comprehension of meaning could be influenced by the photos and drawings.

The ability to harness audio is enormous in world language instruction. There can now be audio files of speakers of the target language other than just the teacher. Students can record themselves for assessment and practice. Like the addition of photos and drawings to written resources (texts, storybooks, encyclopedias, etc.), the addition of visuals to audio (videos) is very powerful. When teachers and students alike can combine audio recordings of the language with explanatory visuals the power of that communicated message increases a hundred fold.

Three of the North Carolina standards address communication, so bring on the technology! Permit, teach and require students to record audio and to listen to audio, to record video with audio and to watch video with audio, to capture images that represent meaning, to add and listen to music recordings. Permit technology to enable the classroom to reflect communication at its fullest.

The collaborative tech tools create a reason and method for communication. When students use a blog, a Voice Thread, an IM chat, a video camera, a Google doc shared presentation app, students have an increased ability to communicate with each other and to work together on communicating.

The fourth world language standard addresses culture. The arrival of the internet has shifted the paradigm away from the teacher, text and encyclopedia being the only sources to learn about the target culture and has catapulted the student into digital encounters with the target culture of today on a regular basis.

So, language learning and teaching SHOULD be evolving radically. Technology should be the fuel behind that revolution. These comments address technology and world language teaching but one could also ask how the arrival of audio and audio-visual tools will change the way we learn.

This is me, panning for gold.

In my summer externship, I am researching resources that are online that can be tagged as quality Spanish resources for Home Base’s World Language resources. Although click, copy and paste are not exciting activities for physical or mental challenges, the search for the resources is a benefit to me as a Spanish teacher and as a world languages curriculum coordinator. How often do you have the luxury to spend hours on end digging for great online resources?

I specifically am searching for resources that are intermediate low and above in terms of linguistic sophistication. The resources I find are expected to support the proficiency goals for world language teachers.

It is trite and an understatement to say that the internet is vast and rich in resources. For some of us going online to look for a teaching reference is a journey into the cyber void. We going looking for X and come home with alphabet soup. Sometimes X has been found. Other times X was forgotten as soon as we hit upon a great discovery. Given the obligation to search for valuable tools that are specific to Intermediate Spanish language learners forces me to focus and avoid the other enticing things out there for Chinese, French, German and novice level Spanish learners. Focus is good.

In essence, because I am not a classroom teacher,  don’t have a classroom curriculum but I do support teachers of Spanish 3 and above in my district. I know their curriculum and finding resources that can help them supports ‘my classroom’ of teachers. Entering resources in Home Base will hopefully benefit many teachers of Spanish 3 and above in North Carolina.

Sometimes hours go by mining for gold on the internet without finding but a few pebbles of gold. Then! Eureka! GOLD! I find four, six, ten resources to tag with ‘metadata’ so that they can be searched for, implemented, later rated by NC teachers, etc. What is good for Home Base is good for me and the teachers I support. Sometimes I tweet about the discovery (@PollyGlotPress). Other times, I enter a link into my next district digital newsletter for world language teachers (www.polyglotpress.blogspot.com).

So, as the educational listservs (eSchoolNews, ASCD, etc.) email regularly about teachers using technology to engage students and classes gradually becoming more and more ‘blended’, I am finding tangible intermediate level Spanish resources that will benefit that shift. And, the frosting on that cake is that this time being tied to a chair to click, copy and paste helps me dig deeper into national and international resources. Great discoveries have been made just from being able to mine deeper and for longer than ever before.

How about you? Finding any gold in them hills?

Access is obviously a challenge for empowering learning and technology in many classrooms and schools. Internet access is expensive for both the families of students, schools and teachers. “Fewer than 20 percent of teachers say their classroom’s Internet access is adequate, the White House said earlier Thursday.” http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/06/2941748/obama-to-lay-out-national-internet.html

Teachers don’t make much money and some do not have funds for the online access at home. When they have to pay for childcare by the hour, staying at school to access the internet eats into their income. If you don’t have access at home, there is little flexibility for teachers to access the internet after the kids go to sleep, at the local McDonald’s, at the local library, etc. The same is true of students who can’t count on transportation to places with internet access. I do believe that the Obama’s administration goals of increasing the speed of online connectivity and making online access more available will empower the US and its citizens.

• WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) — President Obama Thursday unveiled ConnectED, a plan to link 99 percent of America’s students to the Internet via high-speed connections within five year http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/06/06/Obama-announces-new-Internet-initiative-for-classrooms-educators/UPI-14591370545251/
• Obama announces new Internet initiative for classrooms, educators: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/06/06/Obama-announces-new-Internet-initiative-for-classrooms-educators/UPI-14591370545251/#ixzz2YDNPOore http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Technology/2013/06/06/Obama-announces-new-Internet-initiative-for-classrooms-educators/UPI-14591370545251/#ixzz2YDM3sB6Y
• Obama wants to transform U.S. schools through faster Internet http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/us-usa-obama-internet-idUSBRE9550FF20130606

Interestingly, in my visits to Chinese schools in 2006, 2010 and 2011, student access to the internet and computers was very limited even at the better high schools. High schools are not mandatory in China and are by invitation to those who qualify. I am sure there are comparative studies of internet access around the world that might be interesting for discussions (here or elsewhere) on the importance of internet access for students in the second decade of the 21^st century. It seems wise to be aware that internet access and addressing digital learners are not THE panacea and quick fix for US education. With every educational movement that embraces technology, there are many commercial entities that rush to promote that digital movement through buying their product: Camtasia software, Google Chromebooks, Apple tablets, etc.

The second challenge after access seems to be knowing what tool to use for what kind of instruction. My dad had a big garage with lots of tools. He and his father and brothers had lots of cupboards, drawers, walls and workbenches organized and labeled with many tools. I loved watching him and helping him. I would watch him trouble shoot various domestic issues (hot water heater installation, backed up drains, etc.) Part of his task was figuring out what tool could help him. As teachers, our garages of tools are growing, thankfully.

Like many of us, he probably liked buying tools just for the fun of it and for the excitement of dreaming of what they COULD do. Shopping (for household tools and digital tools) can have value as retail therapy but it can be time consuming and not always productive.

Even once my father started downsizing, he struggled with getting rid of his tools, worried that a need for them would arrive and he would not be prepared. We teachers are getting more organized with understanding how our tools work. Hurray. That is a first step. Nonetheless, we still do not always know which tool works best when. We may be using the hand screwdriver when an electric would work better. Worse yet, we may be using a screwdriver when we need a hammer. Even worse yet would be trying to use a digital tool for which a digital tool is not the best approach.

In my particular school district, we are in year three of rolling out a One-to-one laptop initiative. After bringing n Dell Netbooks into our middle schools and Lenovo Think Pads for all ninth graders, the district is switching to Lenovo Chromebooks for all students in grades 6 – 12. This will be very helpful at the high school level because bringing in laptops one year at a time is a slow turn around given that not all classes include students of a single grade level .Teachers have begun to switch their teaching styles when all students in their classes have laptops. That said, some teachers in the middle school have been so overwhelmed by the poor online behavior of students that they don’t let students bring out their computers. The slow boot up time and recharge time has been a deterrent at the middle school level. The 15 second boot-up time and battery life of Chromebooks are expected to conquer the latter two problems.  The maintenance issues of updating software and managing teacher requests for software approval and installation were staggering. It is hoped that the online nature of Chromebooks eliminates those issues. In addition, the collaborative nature of Google Apps for Education is considered to be a powerful learning tool.

The promises are promising but there will be certainly be a new learning curve as teachers learn how to integrate the appropriate online tool and the appropriate collaborative activity while managing a classroom of online students.

The most visual memories I will take away from NCCAT come from our day rafting. Our train of NOC rafts meandering through the fog along the Nantahala will stand out in my mind. That vision of exploration frames the week. Encompassed in the remembrance of that journey downstream is that sense of discovery… discovering new people, new views on education, new tech tools, new friendships. Unfortunately, there are no photos of jumping off the rock. THAT was exhilarating and a sense of accomplishing something new.

The curator activity with the NCCAT art pieces was the first chance to mentally relax and think outside my usual box. Like the jump from the rock, it was that refreshing chance to try something new.

The day sessions represent an exploration of tech tools and a chance to be updated on what leading educators are trying and experimenting with, feeling excited about, feeling accomplished with. Some tools were new to me, others I got to know better. There were more tools than I can remember without an exhaustive review of my notes: Animoto, Aurasma, Curriki (and the open source world language materials there), easel.ly; Edcanvas, Edmodo, Evernote (especially the scanning features for photos, Infogr.am, GoSoapBox, Padlet, Photopeach, piktochart.com, Scratch, Screencast-0-matic; Socrative, QRcode creator qrstuff, Weebly, Wix and Wordle. I was familiar with Animoto but not the phone app so it was good to learn how to quickly make a video there. I appreciated the in-depth examination of Evernote and tips on good blogging. The challenge to create our own infographic was useful and something to return to. I had never heard of tools like: Dipity for timelines, Canvas as an open source learning management system, Flubaroo, and Infuse Learning as a clicker tool. It looks like Omni Dazzle that Kirk Kennedy mentioned is only for MACs. Too bad. Perhaps I will have to stick to SmartNotebook 11 software to incorporate changes on the white board in videos (i.e. writing words or numbers, circling parts that are being discussed, etc.).  I don’t see presentations in Moodle on what Jason Lineburger or Vance Kite presented. It would be nice to see those uploaded.

The most concrete highlight was the evening session when Jason Lineburger offered his time and expertise to brainstorm. The challenge with tools is always choosing the right tool for the right job. I very much appreciated Jason’s suggestion that perhaps Edmodo, that I was familiar with but hadn’t used much, could be the vehicle I am looked for to best disseminate updates for the world language teachers that I work with. That platform might best encourage others to also share their discoveries. We’ll see. I will work on transitioning to Edmodo this summer.

It was wonderful to meet so many people in different fields, with different backgrounds and strengths. It is always invigorating to be surrounded by people that inspire. An unexpected plus came while waiting for Jason and talking with Christy Wilson. She listened to my questions about technology! How often does anyone give up their free time to brainstorm with you? In addition, she shared the really exciting things she has done with science and then connected them to language arts. Another perk came from comparing US and Indian education with Kalyani Tawade. With global competition, global trade and the internationalization of education, it was fund to analyze differences between trends in the US, China and India. In addition, she told me about a Bollywood film “3 Idiots” in which three students critique education in India.

In addition to stepping out of the norm and into a new river, this was a time to make new friends. It was also nice to stay connected with my Home Base team and deepen those relationships. They are a good group who share a mutual respect and enjoyment.

As a member of “Leading Educators to Home Base”, eight of us have been enlisted to find online resources to enter into the Resources that are part of the Instructional Improvement System of North Carolina’s Department of Education’s HomeBase. In addition to finding the resources, we ‘tag’ their features for the data base to later sort through when accessed by teachers who are in search of resources.

Many educators regularly look online for resources to support instruction. The power of the internet has surpassed what our textbooks can provide, what we can singularly create on our photocopier and what our colleague next door might have created. As 21^st century educators, we have already begun googling to find something for a unit this year or for tomorrow morning. It was easy to find YouTube and Wikipedia but now we are following our favorites on Twitter, joining Edmodo, reading our heroes blogs and trying to figure out how to remember and find again our great online treasures. Some of you may have even bought lessons from teacherspayteachers.com

Surely, many of you, like me, have gone online to look for that one thing we need and more than an hour later, emerged from the digital void with other great discoveries in hand, but not what we set out to find. Some of us got organized with digital bookmarks, Delicious and Diigo to help us organize our discoveries. Have you ever asked yourself, “Why can’t Google use a query string for grade levels, types of materials, free resources, quality materials AND resources that align with my NC state standards?” or simply, “How could I best search for resources I need?”

So, in our Kenan fellowship, eight of us have been tasked with finding useful resources that would “Lead Educators to Home Base” to find useful materials. It is a great idea, trying to harness the power of a digital search while connecting educators to useful resources that reflect our standards.  As you might imagine, finding online resources for English Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science is not a difficult task. So, you would not be surprised to hear that many people have found a multitude of resources for those subjects. There are instructional areas that are not as abundant online and that may require some expertise to decipher. So we were chosen to be the Ocho to fill some of the gaps. Angel and Joni are Establishing Several Lists of resources to assist the ESL teachers. Michael and Jayne are addressing the needs of The Arts – with Jayne drawing the visual arts resources together and Michael arranging resources for the music teachers to make their life more harmonious.  Lisa and I are trying to corral and lasso in the Spanish resources that might help our peers teaching Spanish.

There are more topics taught in North Carolina than can all be equitably supported but Beke is plowing through CTE and agriculture resources and Joyce is examining elementary Science resources. Others NC teachers were brought into DPI in March 2013 to be trained in this process. They represent ESL, PE and Healthful Living, The Arts and World Languages and are tagging resources every month.

So, is it just “Surf’s Up” all day for us as we surf the internet? Hopefully, not. We each bring some experience to the table that can help us more quickly begin to ‘tag’ useful resources. This includes finding resources that are quality resources, online, aligned to our standards and free. Into a data base, we enter a title and a description. We choose the approximate grade level K – 13 (can’t forget our early college students!) and name the type of resource (video, audio, lesson plan, chart, reading sample, etc.) We list the publisher, creator and copyright. Our entries are checked by staff at NCSU in the Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services. Our mentors come from DPI Learning Systems. We specifically have three mentors: Carmella Fair, NC Falcon Coordinator, Dan Gwaltney, an education consultant with SPI, and LaVerne Weldon, an education consultant with DPI.

So, do we only surf and play tag? There will definitely be some surfing once we have tagged our

favorite and most useful resources. Most of our time will be spent ’tagging the resources and identifying the various features of each to help when teachers search for useful resources.  We will also be participating in the various Summer Institutes across the state this summer. Some of us will attend a state Board of Education meeting to comment on this process and tool. For our projects, we need to document the uses of Home Base for specific purposes.

Do you have some great resources for our content areas? Please, DO share. Instead of running away as we see you approaching (as happens in the typical game of tag), we will happily be ‘tagged’ by  you so that we can ‘tag’ the resource and get it into Home Base.