District Administration - November 2009 - (Page 48)

The New Pedagogy West School of International Studies, which is part of the New Visions network of small schools in Flushing, N.Y., collaborate and build curriculum and wiki pages together on the Youth Voices site. And every Wednesday evening, through EdTechTalk (www.edtechtalk.com), teachers across the nation and in the East West School stay in touch via webcasting. They may hold a virtual staff meeting in which they interview software developers for upcoming programs they might want and hash out issues of online learning, says Allison, who is also the technology coordinator for the New York City Writing Project. The project’s goal is to improve the teaching and learning of language and literacy in New York City public schools by increasing teachers’ abilities to use writing as a tool for learning, thinking and communicating. Allison started using social networking in his classes about six years ago when he met two other educators in a summer workshop. They set up a blog site to get the three classes of students communicating with one another. They now use Drupal, which gives educators choices. The whole world can see and comment on writings from students, but educators can close or open any individual post they want. Allison can also determine if he only wants other teachers or administrators to see the site. “My students are writing things that they are passionate about and willing to stick with and do research on and talk to other students about,” he says. For example, one of his students wrote a blog post about abolishing school uniforms. “I don’t think he would have written it if he wrote for the school newspaper,” Allison explains. “So it’s like quasi-school. But it’s what he wants to write about. And he’ll get responses from kids in Boston and Utah.” The students can write about books they are reading and even make MP3 files—for example, recording four minutes of a synopsis of a book—that they post on their blog. They also post Twitter-like updates a few times a week. Grammar and spelling are not em48 November/December 2009 Writing A Pioneer of SociAl networking A California IT director leads his district in rethinking writing instruction and pedagogy. Jim KleiN, Director of iNformAtioN services AND techNology At the sAugus (calif.) union school District, is leading an ambitious plan to rethink how writing is taught in his schools. it’s centered not just on social tools but on planning for and executing writing in multimedia as well. “We use social media tools across the curriculum from as early as first grade,” Klein says, citing student use of blogs to write and publish podcasts and other presentations on slideshare. “Writing is at the center of all of their activities, regardless of the delivery mechanism, and the process is often structured to produce a collaborative result.” Klein started using social networking, specifically elgg, in his district in 2005. elgg is student-centered and “eliminates boundaries,” Klein says, which means students in any grade can read what other students are doing in other grades, and anyone can respond. But teachers have their own blogs and their own lessons under their own accounts, which keeps students focused. they also have their own separate social network, or “personal learning network,” in which to share and collaborate with other teachers. Any comments from anyone, including students and outsiders, are read first by the teacher to ensure they contain nothing inappropriate, threatening or vulgar, Klein says. he recalls a few instances where comments had to be blocked, but they were more from peers or a family member. for example, rude comments made by an “older brother being obnoxious to his little brother” would not be posted, he says. During the 2007-2008 school year, a graduate student conducted a study of student writing online that showed fifth-grade students “were more motivated to write and thought better of their own writing,” Klein says. in 2008-2009, the district also implemented sWAttec, or student Writing Achievement through technology enhanced collaboration, a program that targets fourth-grade writing, information literacy and internet skills in a technology-rich environment. every fourth-grader received as Asus eee netbook and used social media tools and vantage learning’s myAccess evaluation software for learning. As a result of a newfound motivation to write generated by increased access to 21st-century tools, test results showed a 24 percent increase in english language arts scores from 2008 to 2009, with 79 percent of fourth-graders scoring proficient. Now about half of the teachers in grades 1 through 6 use social networking in their classes. Not every teacher is comfortable or wants to use it, Klein says. Klein sees himself as a pioneer of sorts. “We always talked about it as a learning environment, not a social network,” he says. “We take advantage of teachable moments.” phasized, because the focus is on communicating with peers in fast microposts, but Allison says he works with students to self-assess and then eventually grades the bigger discussion pieces that include quotes from many different online resources and multimedia. In the Crossing to College group, senior students can communicate with college students, who can explain the difference between writing in high school and writing in college. “It’s about a real audience,” Allison says. Childers of the Academy for Civic and Entrepreneurial Leadership in California has a new plan to include writing in the school’s curriculum, with as much of it as possible online using tools such as Google Docs, student blogs and possibly Twitter. “I think that if we are going to live in a digital age, we have to reassess everything that we are teaching in schools to see if there is a digital component or vehicle that is available to utilize,” says Childers. Making Connections In these online spaces, students and educators write not just to communicate but to connect. Whereas publishing was once the end point in the writing process, it is now a midpoint, the place where the interaction with readers and subsequent conversations District Administration http://www.edtechtalk.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November 2009

District Administration - November 2009
Contents
Advertiser Index
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Facilities & Construction
Stimulus Monitor
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Mobile Learning Guide
The New Writing Pedagogy
Staying Ahead in Education
Tightening the Purchasing Process
Minding Your E-mail
New Books
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Problem Solution
New Products
Professional Opinion
Crisis Response

District Administration - November 2009