Why Every Educator (and Student) Should Know HTML (and 5 Free Ways to Learn It If You Don't Already)

written by Andrew Coy.


Every educator and student should know HTML.

To me, this is the digital equivalent of saying: "Every student should be able to write an essay." And in truth, their are a lot more similarities between these two than differences. An essay is nothing more than a mode of communication -- an attempt to convince, prove, or at least argue a point of view. A blog post (in many ways) is an abbreviated, relaxed, at times more personal, and more interactive younger brother to the essay. Interestingly enough, however, whereas an essay has an audience of 1 (the teacher) -- a blog post has an audience of potentially millions physically anywhere.

And blog posts are written in HTML, which makes using HTML the equivalent of knowing how to use Microsoft Word (or OpenOffice, or Pages, etc.). HTML is how you put your thoughts on digital paper. And as this blog suggests, teaching is possible without paper -- a fact society is demonstrating every day in more areas than just teaching.

But if you have missed opportunities, have yet to get around to it, or simply haven't know where to start learning HTML, then now is a good time to change that.

HTML has been around since the web -- in fact, HTML is the web. Tim Bernes-Lee proposed the idea in 1989, created the framework shortly thereafter and over the past 20+ years it has proved to be the most flexible, simple, and enduring means of organizing the web. As Wikipedia puts it, "HTML elements form the building blocks of all websites."

The good thing about HTML is that everyone who uses it, puts things out on the web -- which means there are nearly endless amounts of resources at your disposal. I have highlighted 5 ways you can start learning HTML for free.

W3Schools.com

W3Schools.com is how I started learning HTML. Their site is a bit cluttered with advertisements perhaps, but nothing outdoes their Try it yourself » feature. They understand that there really is no better way to learn than by doing. And at each step of learning HTML W3Schools does a great job of breaking it down with "Try It Yourself" examples. Similarly, their reference section is also excellent. I still find myself there on a regular basis when I have a question. And if you get into more coding, their CSS, PHP, JAVASCRIPT, ASP, and SQL tutorials are also worth a visit.

WYSIWYG

If you have a blog (such as Blogger, WordPress, or the like) than you know that they have typically made it is easy to bold or underline text with a simple button. You may have also noticed there is usually a tab to toggle between "Compose" mode and "HTML" mode. The great thing about this is that you can learn HTML simply by going back and forth -- changing one thing in the "Compose" (WYSIWYG) mode and and then looking to see the HTML code behind it.

Online Books

If you are the type that just wants it spelled-out in a book, there are plenty of options for you. You don't even have to leave your computer or spend any money. Simply use something like Google Books to find one that is free. I found this "Basic Guide To HTML" by Jesse Dallas without much trouble at all (just limit your search to those with "full view only" to narrow your results). is a very simple to follow, thorough, and surprisingly not outdated option.

YouTube It

Put the power of YouTube to work teaching you how to code HTML. It's easy; is great for the visual learners; and will make sometimes complex steps much simpler to understand. While there is certainly a lot more out there in text, and the text is much easier to search and use as a quick reference, sometimes there is nothing better than watching someone else walk you through the steps while explaining them to you in plain english.
(another example video)

Friend / Library Finally, if nothing I've suggested works for you, find a friend, check out your local library, or see if there are classes near where you live. Maybe you just need someone right there explaining it, or a book to hold, or a class to make you accountable to someone.

Conclusion

The great thing about learning HTML is that it empowers you to put your ideas out there in front of the world while simultaneously freeing you from the confines of the little buttons on any given website. You can resize images, add tables, change font colors, and do whatever else you want all with simple commands that don't take too much to learn. Once you have learned HTML, your ideas do not need to be confined to the single-space Times New Roman with 1.25 inch margin defaults that the essay was before you learned how to use Word/OpenOffice/Pages.

The Email I Never Thought I'd Send

by Mary Beth Hertz

First of all, thanks to Shelly for inviting me to join the conversation here on his blog. It know it will prove to be a powerful experience. 

As the title of this blog is TeachPaperless, I figured I'd start things off with a post about my effort to cut down on the use of worksheets and paper at my school.

You might think that this would include things like document cameras, Google Docs, e-readers and iPods/iPads, but my first step involves getting my staff to use...wait for it....an overhead projector.

My school has desktops from 2002, no wireless, no laptops, only one projector between two buildings and no library. While we are paving a path toward a technology-infused school, I know that if my teachers aren't using a simple overhead projector, putting any other technology in their classroom will not change the way they teach.

I sent this email to my staff:

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I have noticed recently that many of you have overhead projectors, but not everyone is using them.  This is a great piece of technology that can create some fun and engaging lessons and activities for your students.

If you are not using the projector because the bulb is broken, please let me know and we can get you a new one.  If you are not using it because you don't have any transparencies, let me know. I have a box of transparency paper that can be fed into a copier like regular paper.

If you are not sure how to incorporate an overhead projector into your lessons, here are some ideas:

1) use a blank transparency to have students complete math problems in front of the class. The larger screen will ensure that each student can see his/her process
2) project a piece of writing and have the students come up and add editing marks/make changes
3) project a piece of writing and have the students grade it according to the PSSA Writing rubric
4) teaching time? Use a transparency of a blank clock and have students come up and add hands to show what time it is
5) teaching money? Use inexpensive transparency coins
http://www.shopbecker.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ItemNumber=LER4281
6) Teaching addition, subtraction? Use manipulatives on a blank transparency and have students show how to add two numbers, subtract, etc....
7) create a graphic organizer as a class using a blank Venn Diagram, etc...  Keep the transparency so you can pull it up whenever the students need it
8) Create a cloze activity and have students come up and write in the missing words
9) Instead of a worksheet, do an activity together as a class
10) If you have info/vocab you need the kids to have, project it while they are working

Let me know if you have any questions, and let me know if you need help making transparencies or would like to borrow an overhead.

Before I clicked 'send,' I sighed. I never thought I'd ever send an email like that.

So why do I want to share this experience? I think that with all of the talk of integrating technology and using less paper in the classroom, we need to remember that there is a huge digital divide that affects these kinds of changes.  While we have plans to bring in more technology, we have to work with what we have for now.  We are not alone.  There are schools all over the country and all over Philadelphia, I'm sure, who face the same challenges. School looks to my students the same way it looked to me when I was their age over 15 years ago. (and we had overhead projectors!) Many of my teachers borrow the projector to use once a week or so, but that does not change what they are doing every day all day in their classrooms.  It also does not change the fact that, for my students, school is like an entirely different world than the world they leave when they enter the school doors.

Another thing this email brings to light is that a tool is a tool, it's how you use it that counts. Many of the activities listed above would also be found on a list of recommended activities for an Interactive Whiteboard, which costs thousands of dollars more. Putting tech in the classroom will not necessarily change what teachers are doing in their classrooms.  Teachers who are expected to teach test prep will not find the time to create podcasts or allow students to explore ideas as a class or on their own, even if the classroom is fitted with a projector and laptop.  They will use it the same way they would use an overhead projector.

Still, I hope that my teachers do begin using their overhead projectors....and then crave more. I pray that we are able to purchase LCD projectors for each classroom. I dream that my teachers will be able to open up their classrooms to the world and that worksheets will become a thing of the past.

For now, we'll work with what we've got.

Tragedy and Social Media

by John T. Spencer

I first heard about the tragedy in Tucson, not from the CNN or Fox News, but from a direct message sent by a politically-active friend who was attending the Giffords gathering.  While the television news sputtered around trying to offer details (first claiming that she was already dead, because, you know, you have to be the first at something, right?), I found myself reading Google News, piecing together Facebook posts, e-mailing friends and reading Twitter updates.

I turned the television off when they kept repeating the same information, circling the same grocery store in their helicopter and all with the same peppy intonation they would use to announce the final score of the Suns game.  While I couldn't see the "expert witnesses," I could keep up on NPR's website and then ask medical questions to a friend of mine who is a trauma surgeon.

Meanwhile, I engaged in philosophical conversations about speech and freedom and safety.  I watched the tone turn ugly at times and I found myself caught up in it for awhile as well.  Yet, when we learned of the nine year old girl, it all changed.  It became sad, really sad.

So, I blogged.  I probably put things up too fast, but it's where I went.

Students messaged me asking if that was the same Gabrielle Giffords we had interviewed in class.  Others asked whether this was all part of the same racist, anti-government, white supremacist movement that seems to be growing in our state.  The minute they announced the suspect, I began searching Twitter (nothing there) and then YouTube, where I was able to see each of Loughner's videos.

Then I turned it off.  All of it.  I took a break from Twitter and from Facebook and from YouTube and Google News and Blogger and I walked outside and played baseball with my sons and we had dinner as a family and unlike the tragedy of the news, today felt real.  It didn't feel like I had simply watched a movie.

The process was messy, but I was a participant (albeit interspersed between games of Hide and Seek or water coloring).  Perhaps it's simply a throwback to the back porch.  However, I felt empowered to find sources, sift through information, ask questions and piece together a more complex story than the cyclical loop of CNN.  I made mistakes along the way (shaking my fist at Palin), but at least I had a voice.

So, how would I handle that in the classroom?

I wouldn't handle it.  I would grieve with the students and ask questions and we would blend social media and face-to-face conversation.  We would share - share our emotions, our thoughts, the information we find, the bias we see and together we would try to piece together the story and how it relates to our own.

Still, it's not something I could organize.  It's not something I could plan in advance.

Every child is social in different ways and every child will choose different methods of maneuvering social media.  What's important is that we have netbooks and access to social media.  My students are learning, not only how to maneuver it, but how to think critically about information as they use social media.

Time for Non-Exams

It's that time of year again.

This year, I've designed non-exams for my Human Geo students that will assess their ability to apply what they've learned over the course of the year to real-world problems using full open access to the Net as well as collaboration with their peers during "exam time".

Here's the note I sent out to them today briefly explaining what they'd be doing while other kids are pouring over Scantrons and writing five-paragraph essays.

 Let's not call it an 'exam'.

Instead, let's call it your final projects in Human Geography.

Basically what you'll be doing is choosing from among a menu of options of mini-projects related to each of the topics we covered in class. You will complete several mini-projects and you may choose the assignments that appeal to you the most. For each mini-project, you will write a short explanation of why the subject matter resonates with you.

Here's a list of the topics:

1. The Post-9-11 World

2. Regionalism and Language

3. Forced Migration: War, Famine, Natural Disasters

4. The Changing Environment
5. Food and Us

6. Regional Conflict and Cultural Effects: Israel & Palestine / Afghanistan / India & Pakistan / Tibet

7. AIDS in Africa

8. The Rwandan Genocide

9. South Africa and the History of Apartheid

10. The G-20

11. US / Mexico Relations

12. Immigration in Western Europe

13. What is a Country?

14. Religion and Geography

Some of these mini-projects will be individual and some will be collaborative with other students. Everything will be done online and you will have full-access to the Web.

To prepare, go back over each of the topics we covered this semester and re-read your blogposts. Get together with friends and talk about the topics and help one another think about them. If you don't have time during the day, Skype is a great option.

Cat's Out of the Bag

Dearest Readers, 

I am happy to announce the following folks as the first round of new contributing writers to TeachPaperless: Steven W. Anderson, David Andrade, Andrew Coy, Michael Grzelak, Mary Beth Hertz, Mike Kaechele, Steve Katz, John Spencer, Shelly Terrell, and Jose Vilson. 

This group brings a wide range of expertise in tech, teaching, and learning as well as a variety of perspectives and experiences. I'm thrilled they've agreed to sign onto the new team and I'm excited about what sorts of conversations will develop here and beyond. Give a shout out to the new writing crew and be sure to follow each of them on Twitter as well as on their own blogs.

Towards new conversations,

Shelly

New Collaborative Format!

A little news on changes at TeachPaperless.com...

I started this blog back in February of 2009 for the purpose of writing about what life was like working as a teacher in a paperless classroom. But swiftly, this blog surpassed my capacity as a single writer to produce articles, let alone keep up with comments and conversations. And so, starting next week, TeachPaperless will become a collaborative blog.

I've got a small team comprised of some of the most engaging minds in education and educational technology, and our plan is to share, learn, debate, and keep this conversation moving. I think we're in for some exciting times in terms of the purposes, practicalities, competing philosophies, and pedagogical punditry of and about education in these times and I'm going to be happy to introduce you to the folks who soon will be sharing their thoughts here at TeachPaperless.

- Shelly

2010 Edublog Awards

Just wanted to thank folks for nominating my post Why Teachers Should Blog for the 2010 Edublog Award for 'Most Influential Blog Post'.

Personally, I'm not that into awards. Actually, I take that back. I do watch the Oscars telecast every year. But that's more a habit than anything else; I like production numbers, what can I say? But as far as awards themselves go, I'm relatively ambivalent.

What I like about the annual Edublogs Awards, however, is not so much the awards themselves, but rather the nomination lists. Those nomination lists serve as a compendium of a lot of good writing and a lot of the most positive activity to have occurred over the course of the year. That's not to say that the lists represent everything, nor is it to say that everything in the lists is uniformally of the highest quality. But it's nice to see what our peers have nominated -- and it's nice to see that our peers have nominated. In other words, in these busy times, it's nice to see folks actually taking the time to offer up props to edubloggers where ever they may be and what ever they may be writing.

Check out those lists. The grab-bag starts here. Take a bit of time to look over all of the blogs. It's striking to see just how much quality thinking and serious debate is going on. Kudos to all you bloggers out there.

Teaching Paperless Means Not Paying For Things You Don't Have To

Thanks to the hard work and research of folks like Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers, you have more free resources at your disposal than you could possibly imagine and you really don't have to pay for stuff like what's pictured in the screenshots below just to 'teach paperless':

[Subscribers: visit teachpaperless.com if you can't see the pics.]

Stop Teaching

A reader comments:

I'm of the opinion that technology is hurting education more than enabling it. Yes, access to the collected knowledge of mankind is a good resource, but students still need a guide and interpretor of that knowledge, a guide, a teacher! I am trying to envision my students asking me about how an fission occurs, and I say go look it up. What I am there for then? Could I be replaced by a sign that says, "Turn on computer and don't bother anyone."? 

Thank you for writing. Your comment really got me thinking.

After all: yes, what are you/we there for?

I tend to think that yes, if you or I could be replaced by a computer, we should be. After all, if all you are doing as a teacher is explaining 'how-to', I am sure that there are videos on You Tube that do a much better job. But I suspect that you are actually doing a lot more than that.

You are a teacher. Which means that you spend a little time each day teaching someone how to do something. But you probably spend a lot more time discussing why things happen. Because you are a discusser. And you probably spend a lot of time discussing what it all means. Because you are a philosopher. And you probably spend a lot of time helping frustrated students. Because you are a saint.

Students don't need guides. Kids need folks who can facilitate their being able to explore. Kids are natural explorers. And if you really want to ruin an explorers day, put 'em in a tour group led by a professional guide. Where's the adventure in that? Where's the sense of personal accomplishment? Teachers shouldn't be guides; they should be travel agents. Teachers should set up the trip, but ultimately each student has to take the trip on his or her own.

Kids don't need an interpretor. They don't need someone to interpret knowledge for them. What kids need is an interlocutor. They need some one to argue with. They need someone who can help them figure out how to interpret life's problems on their own. They don't need a translation; they need a conversation.

I've stopped teaching. That is, if teaching implies the hierarchical management and distribution of content for the purpose of assessing whether the content was understood. Instead, I've become a travel agent. I assess success by whether or not a student learned something about the world and about themselves out there on their trip. When they come back from their journey, I'm an interlocutor. I listen to what they have to say. I let them talk to me and I hit them up with some questions and I let them talk some more because I want them to understand what (and how) they think.

I respectfully submit that technology is not hurting education. More often than not, 'teaching' is hurting education.

Holiday Reading

If you are reading up on ed lit this holiday, start here.

#latlang

Haven't posted in a while. Long story. And you'll hear all about it soon enough.

In the meantime, I did want to take just a moment while I've got it to dash off a note about a project my Latin II students are pretty excited about.

Two days ago, they started their own Twitter group all about the Latin language and the Ancient World in general. Their goal is to form a Twitter conversation/resource for Latin students, Latin teachers, and folks interested in all things ancient.

You can join their group on Twibes and follow the conversation at #latlang.

I'm pretty thrilled about this as well. I like the idea of kids creating their own hashtags. I like letting them loose to do their own thing. We'll see where it goes. They want to pick up 1,000 followers on the Twibe. They're also talking about starting a weekly discussion for Latin students at #latlang. So, I've agreed to give them classtime to facilitate that discussion and we'll see what happens.

If you could pass this info on to Latin teachers in your schools/districts, that would be a huge help. Let's do what we can in leveraging our networks to allow the kids to establish theirs.

The Implications of Distance Learning on Teaching: a Conversation

As part of my course on paperless classrooms and social media at Hopkins, the students and I discuss the pedagogy of distance teaching/learning and the implications of distance learning on the teaching profession. This semester, I am opening up the conversation on Wiziq; you are invited to join us at 6:45PM EST tomorrow, Oct 28th, for great conversation and debate.

Go to http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/397322-jhu-paperless-classroom-2010 to sign up. It's free.

Please tag #jhusmed on Twitter with questions/comments on the conversation.

We look forward to chatting.

Tech and International Students

PD today on the topic of working with a growing population of international students.

Would love to get some ideas here in relation to how you all are using tech to engage and empower these students. In my own classes, some of the things we do include letting international students use browsers in their primary language, encouraging them to use Google Translate to read the Web in their primary language (easiest to run through Chrome), and using primary and target languages on Google Maps. We also use all of the different language versions of Wikipedia, regularly translate and read news media in different languages, and use search engines from the 'country of origin'.

Another thing that I've found really enlightening is allowing international students to turn in work in their primary language. It's easy enough to use Translate to, well, translate. So let students turn in essays written in German, Korean, Urdu, or whathaveyou; of course the translation is not perfect, but it sure gives you a better idea of what's going on in a student's head than trying to make guesses based on the trouble they have writing in a target language.

This doesn't mean that English-language instruction in a US school isn't important -- of course it is for all sorts of practical reasons; all I'm saying is that we don't have to let language skills always get in the way of a student's ability to express understanding.

Getting past that language issue allows students to demonstrate their understanding of and engagement with content and concepts. And in most classes -- particularly in high school -- that's what we're going for. Furthermore, sharing primary language documents between students can help break down a lot of preconceptions students may have of one another based on language differences.

Would love to hear more ideas from all of you.

Advising the Advisor

This is the first year we're using an advisory system. Basically, instead of teachers having a morning homeroom, we meet later in the day with a small group of about a dozen students. The advisory groups are made up of students from ninth through twelfth grade. We meet to talk about school, classes, grades, and life in general. I've taken my kids out to exercise and @schickbob and I organized a tug-of-war between our groups which was covered by the yearbook photographers.

So, now I'm looking for things to do on a daily basis. Just today we began a TED-talk series. Right now, we're watching Pranav Mistry's recent talk about augmented reality. And we're actively taking suggestions on what you all think are the best TED-talks.

We also see this as a potential chance to reach out to classrooms in other parts of the world. And so, I would like to invite teachers from -- well, everywhere really -- who'd like to share classroom experiences via Skype to get in touch. I think it would be an excellent opportunity to spend a few minutes each day engaging with the classrooms beyond our classroom.

So I'm turning to all of you to advise this advisor. What sort of things would you do if you and your students had ten minutes a day to engage with the world however you liked?

Perspective

We were putting the finishing touches on the letters to our Senators and several students had just finished sealing and stamping. That's when one 14 year old boy asked me: "Where do I put the stamp?"

Sending Snail Mail from a Paperless Classroom

My kids are using paper this week. Two sheets per kid, actually.

This week's unit in Freshman Human Geography was on forced migration. As our case study, we looked at the events of the Sudanese Civil Wars and the Darfur Genocide.

We watched two striking films: God Grew Tired of Us and The Devil Came on Horseback. The first is about the plight of the Lost Boys of Sudan, the second about the situation in Darfur that arose out of the Civil Wars.

Then we looked deeper, using the resources of Google Maps, Radio Dabanga, PRI's The World, New York Times, and the BBC. Students looked at survivor accounts and explored the resources of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on genocide, violence, and witness.

And we blogged and discussed what we had learned.

All of this was done paperlessly. And most of it could never have been done in a pre-digital classroom. But now we come to the stage where we must put pen to paper. Because there are somethings that the digital medium does better than the analog, but there are somethings that pen and paper can still do that you just can't do with an email or a Tweet.

Things like getting noticed by a US Senator.

And so my students are taking everything they have learned and all the stories, discussions, resources, and realities we have digested over this unit, and they are sitting down, putting pen to paper, and they are writing letters to their Senators. They are writing about what they've learned and they are writing about their own personal reactions to the genocide in their own words. They are asking the Senators what they've done, what they are doing, and what they propose doing to assist and empower the victims and to bring the perpetrators to justice. They are learning what it means to play an active role in democracy and they are learning about the limits and realities of one nation's influence over the destiny of another.

And they are writing letters. Not because they don't have access to digital means, but because they do have the ability to produce what in these days of massive digital issue campaigns might be more effective in being something that gets noticed: a handwritten letter.

This has not been an easy unit. I've seen kids cry. I've also seen them smile along with John Dau and his Sudanese compatriots. I've heard them ask why they didn't know this was going on. And I've heard their questions and their frustration that something like this could happen.

As for 'Teaching Paperless'? Well, two sheets of paper per kid and a handwritten and heartfelt query is well worth it to engage them in that kind of learning.

Because, as I've said from the beginning: this paperless thing isn't about the dogma of paperlessness; it's about dynamism. It's about change. It's about using the connections to create situations where learning can take place. And sometimes the best way to do your part to effect change -- or to see the limits confronting it -- is to send a bit of snail mail.

Saying No

"No, I will not tell you the definition of 'austere'."

"No, I will not tell you where Laos is."

"No, I will not translate that for you."

"Do it yourself."



Been thinking about this recent TED talk by Sugata Mitra ever since catching it over at Will Richardson's blog. And over the last week or so, I've really been putting into action many of the ideas inherent in the talk. Most important I think -- and this is on top of a ton of important realizations in the presentation -- is the idea that if we want students to engage with learning, we won't tell them the answers.

Now, I work in a 1:1 environment. Which means that every single student in this school has a machine sitting in front of them that gives them access to the collected knowledge of recorded human history. So why would I treat them as if they do not wield such immense power?

And as an experiment, the way I've chosen to get them to realize the potential of what happens when they combine the power of their brains with the power of that access is to just say "no".

"No, I'm not going to define that for you."

"No, I'm not going to spell that for you."

"No, I'm not going to find that for you."

"No, I'm not going to repeat myself five times slowly for you."

You want to succeed in learning? Then learn to activate your own capacity to learn. Figure it out. Use that thing sitting on your lap and the connection to the world that it represents. And stop leaning on me; because soon enough I won't be here. And it will just be you and the world.

I asked a student yesterday if that made sense to her. And her response was simple, elegant, and telling. She said:

"Yes."

Homework: From Chills to Thrills

So there's this debate that goes on in my head. It's about homework. And whether/how and what/when to give it. I think about how I've handled assigning homework over the years, and it's chilling for me to think just how lousy I used to be.

Because I used to be a homework freak. In my early years teaching, I was that guy who insisted students do problems #1, 3, 4-6 and then I'd check 'em the next day. I'd give homework before even reading the questions myself. And I felt fine with that. Because I really thought that so long as the students were 'working' they were 'learning'. So I piled it on.

And while I certainly learned a lot about the mechanics of grading homework, I'm not sure I did much more for my students than increase their stress and decrease their sleep.

So, I've sort of come around. I still give homework -- or more properly titled 'work that needs to get done on your own time' -- but these days I like to think that I've replaced the arbitrary with the essential and the busy-for-busy's-sake with something the students can actually 'use'.

These days, the homework I give isn't based on some arbitrary idea of how much work a kid should do 'at home' to reinforce something we did in class, but rather it's a matter of asking the students to do something necessary to prepare themselves for the next class. Homework becomes an act of preparation -- and hopefully sparks some anticipation not for seeing what you 'got right or wrong', not for seeing if you can jump through that next hoop, but anticipation for taking part in the next day's discussion, activities, and learning.

I want homework to be a cliffhanger. I want it to be the device at the end of the chapter of every thriller that won't let you put the book down until you've read the whole thing.

The key is that it has to make you want to continue.

It's like in life: if you have a meeting with a really interesting character, you prepare for the meeting -- you might review material and jot down notes, maybe talk to an associate beforehand to make sure you've got your bases covered, and hit the Web to make sure you understand both the material and the objective of the meeting. Your preparation is done in anticipation for the meeting and because you care about the meeting and genuinely want to talk about the matter at hand, you prepare out of a sense of thrill.

Yes, I said 'thrill'.

I want homework -- or work done beyond the limited time that I've got 'em in my classroom -- to come with a sense of thrill. I want it to accompany a sense that it's really helping one get in the right frame of mind to engage with what we're talking about in class.

Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the most complex thing on paper turns out a dud and sometimes the most simple thing turns out to have some real teeth. One way or the other, the trick in preparing kids to prepare is to more often than not get the teeth rather than the dud.

And it usually comes down to simple choices.

Consider a photography class. Is it a better use of my time and my students' time to have them go home and read a photography manual or is it a better use of time to ask them to take pictures? Sort of depends on a lot of factors, but I know which one is more 'thrilling'.

Consider English class. Is  it a better use of time to go home and answer questions out of a textbook or is it better to read a poem, jot down some notes about it, and discuss it with friends on Twitter or Skype? Again, in 'real-life' does anyone actually get a thrill out of answering canned questions? Yet there are bookclubs everywhere. And why is that? It's because people love to talk about what they are reading. They don't love to be graded on how they answer questions, they just love to talk. And in talking and discussing, they learn. And in this social media rich environment, it's downright backwards to refrain from tapping in to that.

What's a better use of time in history class: practicing the 'proper' way to write a DBQ or listening to the news and current events for 10 minutes each evening so that the next day when you come into class we can actually talk about what's happening in the world and why it's important to understand that what's happening now has a history behind it? Anyone can learn the format of a standardized answer. So who cares what anyone has to say in a standardized answer? It's a mystery to me that we allow random readers on an AP exam to tell us how well the children we engage with everyday understand a subject. That, my friends, is an affront to our professionalism. Furthermore, it makes for really boring and life-draining homework.

So I ask myself: why in the world would I do this to my kids?

And that question is the one that as a history teacher, I've most been mulling over endlessly.

A few days ago, we were talking about 'conflict' in one of my Freshman classes. I put a handful of place names up on the screen -- Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Tibet -- and asked the students if they could tell me anything about recent or past conflict in these places. And the one that really got me was Afghanistan: out of 35 or so Freshmen in two different sections, only two or three kids had any idea what conflict was currently going on in Afghanistan.

And it makes me wonder what kind of homework they had in middle school. It makes me wonder how a 14 year old -- living during wartime -- doesn't realize they are living during wartime.

I don't know. Maybe the two are not related. But maybe they are. Maybe we get so fixated upon the kids knowing what's in the book that we neglect what's in the world.

One way or the other, I'm thinking about what homework means and I'm thinking about how not to give it just out of a sense of obligation, and about how not to refuse to give it out of a sense of dissatisfaction with it's results, but to fundamentally change the way the kids and I approach it.

In that history class, for example, we're going to spend the year learning and discussing history in class, but as for homework I want them listening to daily podcasts from around the world about events going on right now. I want them to understand the history in every living event. I want the world -- in real-time and live -- to replace their textbook.

Because we don't live in a textbook world.

And we wouldn't want to.

This year, I'm gonna try to use a bit of chance to create asymmetrical understanding. That is, I'm not going to plan the questions -- and I'm certainly not going to plan any solutions -- before we sit down and listen to what's actually going on. I'm going to let current history lead my history class; and I, of course, as a person living in that history have no idea where this all leads, but like a researcher employing grounded theory, I really don't mind looking at something and examining it before deciding according to my own varied theories what the thing is. I'm going to use my own confusion and sense of wanting to understand -- I'm gonna use this stuff to my advantage.

Because I myself don't learn anything when I just spit out what I think it is that I am supposed to know.

Having read the arguments both for and against homework I can't help but try to think of it not from the teacher's point of view, but from the student's. If I were 15 years-old taking a class, I know that I'd have a better time understanding what was going on if I were prepared. I also know that completing boring (even worse -- patronizing) textbook work every night would drive me insane. So, if the teacher asked me -- given my busy 15 year-old student schedule of school plays, sports, band, family commitments, etc --  I'd pretty much say that I'd want to be prepared for class and that if that meant doing some prep at home, that would be fine. But don't give me homework out of a sense of obligation. And don't give it to me just as a way to get a 'grade'. Give me homework because it's going to help us get stuff done. And let's get stuff done that's going to thrill me.

Question of the Day: Accepting Change

And the question of the day is:

Do you teach your students how to accept change?

All 'hows', 'whys', and 'what-fors' graciously appreciated. Would love to hear how this applies to different subjects and different ages. Share your thoughts.

A Peek Into What We're Doing in Class

Just giving you a peek into the kinds of stuff we're doing this year in Human Geography class. Right now we're working on a unit about language and migration. Here are the last two posts from my class blog -- I think you can get an idea about some of the stuff we're talking about as well as see some of the resources we're using.

Recap of Indo-European Language Discussion

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

What we did in Section 2:

1. Listened to the Urdu story here: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/

2. Played a game where we had to give directions in Urdu to a blindfolded friend.

3. Looked at the history of Indo-European language; (Here's a link to the Indo-European language map.)

4. Used Google Maps Streetview to explore places where Indo-European languages are spoken.

5. Discussed how English and Urdu are related.

Tonight, please finish up the Language Region Google maps. We'll use those next class. And remember to check our Twitter feed for announcements/updates. Thanks.

Language and Humans

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

What we did today:


1) Review of how a human geographer can use the "Soda Pop" map to analyse migration patterns. Here's a link to the map: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HkWRP9OjFgDJ6QOv2Hz-fbOxTCKbgBbuOVk4jTiQJ5Z6m_Ce3vRaA_S3smSKuGaUvgjzKa1IB9cdK2WHAd9VYlTIS1zqrKvGHftZRErhEfsyYdaKu5A1AXOingc_4IXyHYdqpmv4iSw/s1600/Pop_vs_Soda.gif


2) Listened to a podcast about Dual-Language Schools: http://www.theworld.org/2010/09/08/learning-in-two-languages/


3) Debated whether immigrants to the USA should have to learn English.


4) Used Google Translate to read news in German and Korean.


Here's the podcast to listen to and summarize for homework: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/ (20 minute program -- spend about ten minutes writing brief three or four sentence summaries of each part of the program).

Guest Post on Dangerously Irrelevant: 'A Simple Request'

Thanks to Scott McLeod for spotting me a guest post on his blog today; go check it out, it's titled 'A Simple Request'.

Making Connections: A Little Soda-Pop Story

Generic Names for Soft Drinks by County
http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

A note here to folks getting this via a reader, you definitely want to check this out on the site: www.teachpaperless.com so that you are sure to get all of the pictures; this just won't make sense without the pics. 

The map here is pretty amazing. Color-coded, it shows the national distribution of terminology used to describe soft drinks. You'll notice some telling facts. For example, the thin swath of yellow running down an otherwise red Florida's coast. That's East Coast migrants (aka retirees) bringing their slang to Florida. And notice which state seems most pluralistic? Yup, that's all those military folks from across the country huddled together in New Mexico.

Maps tell a story. And that's what my Human Geography students and I talked about today. We talked about how you could lay a map of something as seemingly innocuous as how people describe soft drinks over the context of patterns of human habitation and find a telling correlation.

They were pretty blown away.

Until somebody said, "But how do we know that's accurate?"

So we decided to do a little informal test. The 9th graders and I tweeted out the following:

Question from Freshman class: Hey world, what is the generic name you use for a softdrink? Please give name & yr location. THX! #JCHUMANGEO

And then we started chatting about the accents and dialects of different folks in different parts of the country. Had a nice discussion. And then I remembered to check to see what had come in via Twitter.

And I saw this:

Tweets 9/9/10

How's that for a little confirmation?

In real-time, sitting in a classroom in semi-rural Maryland, my 9th grade Human Geography students reached out to the world, asked it a question, and got a response.

We looked through the responses -- many of which included little stories of people's own lives and migrations -- and compared them to the map. The map proved most accurate.

Now that's what I call 21st century education: analyse information, check it against the real world in real time, and evaluate what it all means.

A Paperless Survival Guide to Managing the Occasional Tech Snafu

Things go wrong. So it's always best to be prepared when they do.

One of the things I've found, especially with teachers new to working in a live social tech environment, is the fear of the tech breaking down and said teacher being stuck twiddling the proverbial thumbs.

So here's a shortlist of things you can do (or should think about) when broken tech brings the pain.

1. Prepare tabs of all sites you plan to lead students through in advance; this way, should your network go down, you can still manage through the majority of your web content. Students should also save offline syncs of info-style pages regularly accessed -- like e-books, encyclopedia entries, etc. In fact, tab-prep can suffice as a pre-classtime requirement for students.

2. If you have both wired and wi-fi networks available, consider setting up a small local hub in your room to connect computers should the latter go down. Or if you have your own portable 3G hotspot, share it.

3. Should the network fail while using Google Docs or while writing blog posts, have students dump their work into a word program and work there until the connection is re-established (this is what Gears should have been able to do). Anyway, make sure that your students know to do this from day one, it will save a lot of headaches.

4. I realize this could be considered a controversial one, so I won't tell you what to do, but I'll make a suggestion that you think about making "educational fair use" temp downloads of those YouTube videos you want to show. While I don't publicly condone hacking, there are plenty of easy-to-use and easily-Google-able resources that will help you do what you need to in a pinch.

5. Find alts. If you need a backchannel and Twitter gets scrambled, try TodaysMeet. There are plenty of Web 2.0 sites made specifically for education, as well; search through Richard Byrne's site for ideas.

6. Design assessments based on students both collaborating and playing to their individual strengths. If your network is shaky, you might be able to have a few kids online while others are working offline. Rotate it up, let kids share tech, for the sake of argument consider the parameters of a shaky network an opportunity to experiment with group dynamics and new forms of collaboration.

7. Let kids access the Net via their phones and personal Internet devices.

8. Have students create any and all new accounts -- i.e. Twitter, Google, YouTube, Jing -- from home or from the library. All new account registrations basically work the same these days, so just give the students the info they need and have them set up their resources as homework. This gets rid of the problem you often encounter in a classroom when trying to make multiple accounts simultaneously under the same IP address. There's nothing more frustrating than having an entire classroom of kids fail at trying to set up online accounts just because of security and redirect issues. It's a waste of time; so save time and have them do it on their own time.

9. Be prepared to improvise. And I'm not talking about flying by the seat of your pants. I'm talking jazz. You've got to practice the skill and hone the craft of improvisation everyday in every class so that when things do go haywire you're not completely screwed. If it were up to me, I'd make "Authentic Improvisation" -- as opposed to "B.S. Improvisation" -- a required class in ed school.

10. Know your students. I'm convinced that at least part of the fear of tech going down in flames in one's classroom is really a manifestation of a deeper issue: teachers not really getting to know their students and therefore not having the trust, conversational faculties, and mutual understanding of learning goals to get past a rough spot. If you and your students trust one another, you should be able to teach each other using nothing more than voices and gestures. And that's not some newfangled idea: that's what teachers have/had done for thousands of years.

11. Take a nature walk. Every classroom community benefits from mutual engaged experience. So you lose the wireless and your lesson is shot? Use it as an opportunity to go out and experience something with your students. Take 'em out for fresh air and conversation. Take 'em to the cafe for a snack and a chit-chat. See if the gym is open and shoot a few baskets with 'em. Don't dwell on what didn't work; rather, use the opportunity presented by a snafu to look at the world in a different way.

Now, if that wi-fi keeps going out or those computer batteries keep drying up after a half-hour of use, you're obviously going to have to deal with that problem. No one can integrate tech and education in those conditions. But with a good network in place, on those relatively rare occasions when things do fall apart, you should be able to manage without losing your hair. Consider the tips I've offered (all of which I've used at one time or another) and please leave some of your own ideas in the comments. Good luck!

Easy

Decided to take a break from blogging with the plan to get started again the day after Labor Day.

Looks like that day has come.

And so, I offer this humble post -- which is really just a reflection on something that's been running mantra-like through my mind recently. Namely: this paperless thing is easy.

Really.

You don't need a guru to lead you through this mess. It's not even a mess.

I remember when I quit smoking. I'd started back in high school and got up to two packs a day by the time I was 23 years old. Then a serious case of bronchitis hit and I was put on my back for a few days with nary a smoke. Coming out of that, I decided to see how long I could go without a cigarette. And I wound up quitting.

I think about this now, because as I've said before, the number one reaction I had to quitting smoking was that I became furious at the cigarette companies. And I grew furious at myself. I was so angry because I felt like I'd completely been put on and because I'd wasted so much time and money on smokes.

And that's the same way I felt years ago when I went paperless.

I felt like for so long I'd been at the mercy of paper companies and printers and publishers. And I realize how that can sound silly; but as any teacher sitting under five sections of research papers knows, it's anything but silly.

These days, instead of waiting for all of my students to meet a deadline, I just have them share a Google Doc with me and I follow along -- popping in now and then to give advice and see what they are doing as they are doing it.

And that's a paperless move that changes the feel of teaching. It's an empowering thing. It's a formative thing. It's a thing that suggests what the future might be like rather than a thing that insists on dragging the past along out of some sense of perceived comfort.

And it's easy to do.

Easy.

And that's why in this -- what I guess you'd call the third season of TeachPaperless -- I am questioning whether or not I need to write this blog. Because so long as you can get computers and access, you can do this stuff. You don't need to pay me to come teach you. You don't need me to write a book to sell you. This stuff is easy; all you have to do is experiment a bit and find what works for you.

As for those of you -- many of you, in fact -- who don't have computers and access: make this your year. Make this your year to organize parents, students, and teachers together to figure out how to get real tech in your building. Make this your year to petition your admins, their supers, and all the rest to get what you want going on in your school.

Because it's 2010.

And if you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? And if you don't do it, who will?

So bring your A-game. Do some research and argue for the reallocation of funds from textbooks and printers to internet devices and wi-fi. Find grants. Find alternate funding. Get your parents on board. Get your tech thing worked out.

And then you'll have the chance to try out this paperless thing with your students. You'll have the chance to learn and to teach and to blog and to share. And you'll have the chance to realize that this stuff is easy.

And then, come one summertime soon, you'll have the chance to sit back and reflect on what you've done. And you'll think to yourself: this paperless thing is easy.

Easy.

TeachBookless

NPR ran a feature today on the future of books. Here's the part that most perked my interest (beings that many of us have been talking about this for some time now)...

Long the building blocks of academia, textbooks are seen more as albatross and less as asset these days. They are expensive — some costing more than $300. They are quickly outdated. They can be so heavy that students and teachers are forced to tote them around in wheeled luggage carts.

Students, professors and universities are rebelling against the weighty — and wasteful — tomes. Stanford University's brand new physics and engineering library is advertised as "bookless"; relying almost solely on digital material. Free and downloadable textbooks are at the heart of the growing "open educational resources" movement that seeks to make education more available and more affordable. Groups such as Connexions at Rice University and the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources in Silicon Valley are supporting free online textbook initiatives.

Question of the Day: Hey Kid... Got Tech?

Some interesting conversations on Twitter this morning got me thinking about the following question:


Does your school have any tech hardware/access requirements for students that are NOT provided for by the school?


Flashdrives? Laptops? MP3 players? 


Are you requiring students without home access to access after school via public libraries?


Are you in a 1:1 school allowing machines that students choose on their own as opposed to machines recommended by the school? 


Are there technologies your school is uniformly BANNING?


I'm interested in both public and private schools and whether (and how) you've seen expectations change over the last few years.

Just a Quick Note...

Ed Open Mic sessions will pick back up in September once the school year is again running full throttle. Will and I look forward to more chats and hearing what all of you have to say about redefining education.

For those interested, here's the audio of the last chat we had.

Guest Post at Edutopia: Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks

Guest post published today at Edutopia. Came out of a recent #edchat and the comments many of you all made here about the pros and cons of textbooks.

Follow this link, head on over to Edutopia, and dig it: Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks.

And thanks to Elana and Betty for the guest gig.

2010 Reform Symposium

The 2010 Reform Symposium starts today. Many exciting presenters on today's schedule including George Couros, Steve Hargadon, Mary Beth Hertz, Kevin Jarrett, and Sue Waters. There will also be a panel on Effective Leadership featuring moderator Lisa Dabbs along with Patrick Larkin, John Carver, and Janet Avery.

I'm happy to have been asked to present today. I'll be stepping to the plate at 10PM EST to offer what's billed as a keynote, but I hope will turn into more of a conversation:

Keynote: What We Do
Description: A view from the classroom and a conversation about what 21C learning looks like on the ground level. There will be many examples of the practical and everyday use of Twitter, Jing, Wave, Blogs, Wikis, and more as used by students and teachers alike as well as a look at how to transform the physical space of the classroom into a 21C learning environment conducive to collaboration, mobile computing, and tech-integrated differentiated instruction.

Date & Times: Fri. July 30th 7pm-8pm LA/ 10pm NYC/ 3am, Sat. 7/31, London/ 4am, Sat. Paris/ 12noon, Sat., Sydney/ 11am, Sat., Tokyo
Click here for more time zones!

Click here to join the Keynote: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.3A2AF29E985C9DD57501D645EE19D0

Click here to see today's schedule, and see you there!

Rethinking Leadership

Join Will Richardson and I this evening at 8PM EST for the weekly Ed Open Mic!
 
On the heels of last week's discussion on redefining teaching, tonight's topic is: "Rethinking Leadership". Join in the conversation -- it's sure to be lively this eve! Click here to enter the Elluminate room at 8 EDT.
 
Ed Open Mic: No talking heads... just you talking.

To Textbook or Not to Textbook?

Nice conversation today on #edchat got me thinking about what (if any) textbooks teachers are deciding on for this year.

Are you using what's been your standard for a while? Looking for online alternatives? Are you mixing it up? Nixing textbooks altogether?

Comment away, I'd love to hear what's going on in your mind.

Tonight at 8PM EST: Ed Open Mic -- "Redefining the Profession"

Join Will Richardson and I tonight at 8PM EST for this week's Ed Open Mic!

Tonight's topic will be "Redefining the Profession". We'll be talking about how the teaching profession has changed and is changing, and we'll be asking the question: "What can/should/must a teacher do to help redefine both her or his practice in the classroom as well as to redefine the teaching profession at-large in the digital age?"

Bring your big thinking hats and join us in our Elluminate room at 8PM EST. No talking heads, just you talking. 

Ed Open Mic Elluminate room: http://bit.ly/975gMR
Hashtag #edopenmic on Twitter.

Ed Open Mic: Thurs 8PM EST

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. Been insanely busy using what hours the dog days of summer offer me to write a novel. Kid-sitting every day (which means a lot of field-tripping) all day and pouring sweat over a laptop in a public library carrel writing the book every evening all evening.

I need to finish this thing as I've got just a bit of writing time available; thus efforts at blogging have waned and I figure they will continue to be relatively slack until school picks up again. Will keep you posted.

In the meantime, we have another Ed Open Mic session scheduled for this Thursday at 8PM EST and we're looking for great topics. Do comment here and tell us what you'd like to chat about.

Change at the Grassroots: Open Mic Tonight in Elluminate

Join Will Richardson and I this evening online for an Ed Open Mic tonight at 7 EDT. Here's the link to the Elluminate room where we'll be chatting. The hashtag is #edopenmic

This evening's discussion will be on the theme "Change at the Grassroots". We'll be talking about how teachers can effect 21C change in their own classrooms and beyond.

No talking heads... just you talking.

Interview at ThinkSocial

Been out in the wilderness for a spell and have come back with some exciting news about a project we're about to embark on. I'll be posting info soon.

In the meantime... had a little Q&A with the Paley Center's ThinkSocial project recently. Here's a link to the interview.