Jump ahead to the digital age. Now in the digital age, where schools issue laptops and even paper planners, they OWN the tool, not the students. This dramatic shift has created many jobs for additional IT people, by “keeping” track of everything the student does and every key stroke. The backing up of the data, the monitoring of the data, has created a nightmare and I feel has impeded learning. The focusing on catching students doing something wrong is more important than letting the students create and teach them to be responsible for their learning.

Teachers today want 100% of their students paying attention to them, 100% of the time.  This is completely unrealistic. Look at those same teachers at a teacher’s meeting or conference. They are checking their email, updating homework, and social networking, while the meeting/conference is being held. But, back in the classroom, the moment a student drifts away, draws something, or even has a different assignment up on their device  – ZAP! off the computer! ZAP! computer taken away. The answer is “you can use paper.” I have witnessed this over and over. It is time the students wise up and pony up to purchase their own devices, to own digital notebooks and calendars. It is time for the students take responsibility of their learning.

Of course, you will say “not everyone can afford this.” But with the lines blurring between school and personal use, cost of net books, iPads, and other devices, the cost is coming down. The students would own the data and the devices, it wouldn’t be taken away because they downloaded a program or added a personal item on the school’s device. The schools would get out of the business of purchasing the tools, monitoring the data, and downloading the software.  Yes, IT departments might be gone. The downside would be not all the students would have the same software or hardware. The teachers would focus of the learning, not using a specific program, but end product would be up to the student, using innovation and creativity.

This is a scary thought for administrators and teachers. But think back to the dark ages, teachers didn’t take away those notebooks because a note was written, they were interested in making sure the student had access to their notes and data. They didn’t give them a chalkboard to take home with all the notes on it  or did they?

I remember those “memos” I would get in my school snail-mail box. Many teachers would read in disgust in why the sender wouldn’t come and talk, instead of write a memo. I also remember those “Let’s Chat,” signed by my principal. He wanted to TALK to me in person, no email. Yes, he personalized his discussions.

Today we communicate more and talk less. We communicate daily with email, voice mail, and texting. It is almost at a point of spam with people we know professionally. We have really cut down on calling on the phone or talking personally to individual. Relationships are NOT developed on a one-way communication of email, voicemail and texting. They are enhanced. You must talk on the phone or in person to really develop a relationship. Talking is a give and take, sorta a series of emails all in one. After the point has been agreed upon, an email to remind or keep a digital file of the meeting is appropriate.

The more we personalize our discussions, the more others will listen. Yes, it takes time to talk to the individuals on a personal level. But, you can personalize the discussion to meet the needs of you and the individual. In all actuality, it might be faster. Those who have a hard time talking on the hard issues are the ones who have a problem with this. They like to “communicate” their viewpoints and really not “talk” about the issue. They want to “communicate” to the group in a “sit and get,”  model, with an “I’m in charge” mentality. Today’s education is interactive, collaborative, and one-to-one, not pushing the information on others.

Dates and events should be posted, not sent by email. There are calendars for that, Google cal and iCal are good examples of subscribing to calendar that is up-to-date.

If you are at a meeting or giving a presentation and no questions are asked, then no interaction is expected and you are not really talking to your audience. Yes, groups can be large, but the feedback from others is more important, so to personalize the message.

I make it a point to call or talk to parents and students whenever I can. If a parent or student does have a concern and emails or voicemails me, I talk to the parent and student about the concern, I personalize the discussion, because so many times it was communication issue.

The “sit and get” meeting is simple. You have a canned speech, a list of topics, and almost to the minute, the “chain of events.” There is no room for questioning the material, because all the major decisions have been made already. The list of topics are long because if there is a question or concern others just stare at you because you now have lengthened the meeting and they want to go home., This meeting or class is only there for getting information ONE way, information to you. It could have been done in a memo or email, however, the director likes to “teach” and this is his/her time of the month, the monthly meeting.

In the collaborative meeting, the guidelines or topics are mapped out, but a discussion about each topic is welcomed, not stared down. You actually have empowerment of decisions and how we are going to move forward. This takes planning and making sure all voices are heard. It can be scary, because the direction you want to go may or may not be the direction the group wants to go.

In the “sit and get” meeting there is a justification of keep the status quo, no real change, just making sure everything stays the same and “let’s go over the calendar.” Calendar events are in stone and cannot be changed or discussed.

In the collaborative meeting, current issues and how we are going to “change” and improve the situation are thought through. At the end of the meeting there is a feeling of movement, a movement of change and a feeling of accomplishment, that something actually got done. Yes, you mattered and the meeting was a success.

I hope all my students feel that they matter and that I run a collaborative classroom. That is what is important to me.

As you know the fifth graders are collaborating with another school downstate in Illinois in the Collaborative Composer Project. My girlfriend set up a voicethread for us to collaborate. My students took to voice thread really well, setting up their avatars and accounts. I only showed then how to record, they figured out how to text and draw by themselves. Then about two weeks ago, through my PLN (Personal Learning Network) I got a message from a technology director in Florida, Lee Kolbert, that she was looking for a fifth teacher to collaborate using voicethread. I immediately said, “I had just started, only made one thus far, but let’s collaborate.” She gave me David Fisher’s email address and we connected online.

We set up a skype call just to discuss the collaboration. David and I talked for about an hour and really connected. His school was in Palm Beach, Florida and we set out for find a cool project that both the schools could be excited about. I asked him if his fifth graders study American History and did he know that the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln is the February 12, 2009? I had already set up a wiki, Lincoln212.pbwiki.com and we were going to have an assembly. How about a simple voice thread concerning the facts and fiction of Abraham Lincoln? It sounded fabulous. He really only needed one class, I am teaching three, so it was decided that I would pick one class to collaborate with and the other classes would do other collaborative projects with each other.

Now the real fun begins, this is where you are not going to believe. It seems the owner and developer, Ben Papell, of voicethread is a parent in his class and looking for a teacher to use voice thread collaborating with other schools and wants to use our collaboration as a model. I had a conference call with Ben and Lee Kolbert about the project. They would be my tech support if I needed it and allowed me to ask as many questions as I wanted. Ben Papell would set up an educator account for FREE and see how it goes. I needed to re-register with the school’s email address. My students would have to redo their avatars, but all the material on the Composer Collaborative would still be there, they would just have two accounts. I didn’t think this would be a problem. Little Sunset Ridge School District of 520 students in two schools, (296 at Sunset Ridge and 224 at Middlefork School) is much different from Palm Beach Schools, they have 200 SCHOOLS in the district. Plus, I felt I could get all my music classes to use it.

I will be setting up all the teacher and student account over the vacation. I will keep to my motto – start small, I will start the fifth grade classes, then the fourth, moving to the sixth and finally the seventh and eighth grade classes.

I am so excited about this, my students being involved in new technologies on the cutting edge – let the collaboration begin. Thank you PLN, you are the reason I have moved so fast in this technology world.

I can’t wait to see how much the students will collaborate with the new site. So many of my students are digital students so, understanding the basic features of a wiki and formatting will be easy to teach. Of course, the more I personalize it the better. Sunset Ridge has gone WIKI!