I discovered some interesting things reading about copyright. For one, I was misinformed. Nearly all of the truths about copyright that I thought were simply accepted, like the 10% rule for educators, was bunk. I found that really interesting. I never bothered to really look that up because frankly, I didn't care. I always credited what I took, or take, and it never occurred to me to take an entire piece of anything. I always assumed that newspaper articles, short web clips, and pictures on the web were fair game. When they had a banner across them I figured I couldn't use them. And because I always used them in a different fashion it didn't even occur to me that I would have problems.

I am overly concerned with downloading movies or music, especially music for free. That is an absolute sin in my mind. And when I have discussed it with my students, none of them seem to be at all concerned that they are stealing. Ted Nugent, yeah, that guy, Cat Scratch Fever, bow hunting, right wing conservative, wrote a great piece about downloading songs. In effect he stated that you would not ever consider going into a grocery store, pulling stuff off the shelf, and selling it out on the street. I loved that. It really made things clear to me. And as a working musician in a previous life I know of the hard work that goes into creating stuff. To have it taken is just wrong.

That being said, I found the book a bit … dull. It really did not do much for me because it is not something I ever really worried about. That being said, I am more concerned with plagiarism than copyright infringement. My students don't have that much opportunity--at least so far--to really download stuff that would get them into trouble in regards to copyright--with the exception of music and movies; and I have been railing against that practice for years. Plagiarism, however, is becoming more and more of a problem. It isn't hard to catch. For one, there are usually words that I have to look up. Secondly, they forget to change the font or the color. And finally, the punctuation is perfect. I really don't miss much if they are cutting and pasting stuff. Sometimes it is done out of ignorance, sometimes out of laziness, but I try to use it as a teachable moment. The school's policy to give a student who commits plagiarism an F for the Advisory. I usually give a warning and an explanation and that seems to do the trick. If anything, my students become overly concerned and they cite birthdays (on occasion). Then I have to explain common knowledge, but that is a whole other story. I have only failed one student in 14 years and he was a jerk who got caught three straight times on three different assignments. He was nasty, lazy, and quite frankly, while not intellectually challenged in any way, stupid. He deserved the F. In fact, he earned it.

I know that as I move forward and incorporate more electronic assignments to my classes that I need to discuss these matters more fully. The only issue is time. They are required to take a course in computer application and one would like to think that this would be dealt with in that class. But it isn't and that leads me to the conundrum I find myself in. I can ask the teacher to include this in his class, but I am not sure he would react well to being told what to teach. The kids come from his class not even knowing how to set up the formatting on Word and it has been mentioned to me that I am stepping on people's toes when I offer after school sessions about stuff like that. Ahh, the adventure continues!

Information Diet--I ate too much today.

It's Sunday night, past 5 PM, but I have been reading and grading. All. Day. But I'm almost caught up. Anyway …

I found this book to be fascinating. I learned that I am the oldest man in the room. I mean, not only don't I use social media like Facebook and Twitter, but I can leave my phone at home and I just don't care. However, I spend time on my computer grading, reading, and working all the time. I don't know what I would do if I was involved in social media as well. I mean, I don't have the time to do what I have to now. I think that I don't fall down that rabbit hole because I have weaned myself off of it. When computers first came out, and the net was brand new, I spent hours surfing. But I actually grew bored after a while. Like, five years or so. And then I moved to Florida and was playing in a band and couldn't afford to go online. Then kids.

I often think that I am lucky not to be tied to my electronics as much as my students or my own kids. They seem to not have the ability to simply to spend any significant time without looking at their phones. My kids actually get antsy if 15 minutes go by and they can't check their messages. My wife is good for about 20 minutes. Even my 81 year old mother seems to be addicted. I guess dopamine knowns no age, huh?

I have to find a way to reach my students with the limited technology I have available to me. And the limited technology they have as well. Nearly all of them have a smart phone, but they cannot bring them into school. There are phone lockers for them to leave their phones until school is over. So using technology in class is sporadic, and I have had three different students lose their electricity already. Three more have had their computers fail because they are older machines. I am not sure where to go with it right now.

As you may well know, the best laid plans of mice and morons … I fully intended to sit down and write this post this morning after I completed checking my kids papers. I started at 8 am, broke at noon for lunch, walked the dog, and then saw that I had thirty more papers in my inbox. Then I lost track of time and before I knew it … well, here I am.

I read my peers posts and I am most impressed. You all seem so much more together and in control of this. I am having issue with separating design and planning. I have ideas for class that will work fabulously--I think--but how I got there, and what the real purpose of having the students do their work somehow escapes me. It's like driving your car a long distance, and suddenly realizing you are somewhere but you don't remember getting there. Not that that happens to me all that often.

I am waiting for my "aha" moment I suppose. I see the light, it just keeps dimming on occasion. What a lousy post. Sorry.

How Vygotsky Saved My Day

Teachers in DCPS are evaluated by both Administration and "Master Educators." For the most part, neither have a clue. However, one of my two M.E.'s is a former History Teacher who actually will take the time to listen and discuss the grades he has assigned.

FYI, an observation is an unannounced 30 minute slice of time that has a specific checklist that is supposed to be looked at, and in many ways it is a "gotcha tool" used by DCPS to keep teachers inline and keep costs down. If you don't achieve a score of 300 (out of 400) you can be dismissed. I truly hate the system. It is arbitrary and punitive, and if you are not on your the good side of your Administrator it can be used to get your fired. It can also be used to impact your pay.

In any event, I scored fairly well (a 3.44 out of 4), but I pointed out some of the issues I felt that my M.E. missed. For example, one of the line items reads: The instructor has "presented the opportunity for students to develop higher order thinking and understanding." My M.E. gave me a 3, and in his comments said that some of the students had not demonstrated higher order thinking or understanding. He agreed that I had presented them that opportunity, so I then asked if I was also responsible for getting them "through the zone." After all, I had presented them the opportunity, and to believe that students of any age or strip could immediately understand a concept was rather silly.  He immediately said, "Vygotsky?" Score! We spent ten minutes discussing this point and he told me that he would consider changing that particular score (and two others) because I had pointed out that what I was doing was directly related to moving students through the Zone! Thanks Doc, your choice of material has already paid off for me!

What an interesting and dense book. I am now on my second reading. Did I mention that it was dense? While I appreciate the difficulty in translating from the original Russian, I have a feeling that even if my Russian were still passable, I had a Russian Grandfather, I would still be struggling. It is a fascinating set of … assumptions about how children develop. I can understand the idea of language as a tool, or how pointing at first is a child reaching out and only later develops into actual pointing. A realization that a physical act can become something symbolic. Or how a child's mind begins to replace objects with symbols.

What I most appreciate though is the manner in which Dr. V. managed to break down the thought process into the most basic of components. The comparison to animal behavior, well, at least that of the great apes, really highlighted the difficulty in actually being able to differentiate the minute differences between animal and human behavior. It is an extraordinary look at how the mind works, how we move from the physical to the symbolic world … and just how dense this book is. Even after reading it a second time I have to admit that I am a bit fuzzy minded.

However, it also shows that the third design principle can be applied here. The simple steps towards understanding, of moving from the physical to the symbolic stage of tools is something that appeals to the workings of my mind. I know that I handicap myself by jumping from A-B -->Q, but after reading this I think I can work on that.

In my class I have taken to discussing the Reasons we Do what we Do in class with my students. By actually sitting down and thinking about the work I ask them to complete, and getting them to move from the concrete (doing the work because it was assigned) to the symbolic use of the work as a tool (understanding the reasoning behind the assignment and how it can be used in other classes and situations) has been immensely rewarding to both me and my kids. We have had a number of very intense discussions about the use of skimming and scanning, or the reasoning behind answering certain questions in the order in which we do (The students answer Reading Check questions before they take book notes and for that matter, before they have actually read a section of the chapter). Students have actually had AHA moments where they have actually said … "AHA. I get it now."

While I am sure this isn't a world breaking idea, it has turned on a lightbulb for both me and those I am working with in school, and that alone makes it worth the ride through NVA traffic every Thursday.

Good learning designs engage students in social play
activities at the edge of their knowledge and
understanding using symbolic tools to develop and
internalize meaningful thought . [Learning Principle #3]

Well, I have finally have a minute, albeit a late one, to sit down and write about The Victorian Internet. Interestingly, I felt as if I were reading something I had already taught. I have long used the idea of relating inventions of the past and communication into my lessons. In fact, one of the assignments I give my students towards the end of the year is to come up with a flow chart showing how some inventions lead to others, the impact they had on society, etc.

I often use the Telegraph to lead to the telephone, the idea of a telephone in every house, which I could say leads to fax machines, or computers, the internet, the cell phone, and on and on and on. I'm sure you get the idea. I really enjoyed the book, and I can see that reading it opens up questions relating to the second principle:

• Good learning designs reflect thoughtful considerations of technology(ies) chosen and consider cognitive, social, and societal consequences (The Means Principle).

If one considers the progress of the telegraph, from opening windows to the use of electricity, wires, etc., one can see the development of an idea that follows a thoughtful, although not always successful, approach. The idea that one can just sit down and design a thoughtful and consequential Education design just like that is rather foolish. It comes in fits and starts, it works sometimes, it doesn't others, and is surely frustrating. However, it also has its rewards. 

I get frustrated when I don't see immediate results in whatever it is I do. I don't necessarily think linearly and that is a handicap here. There is a necessity to slow down, think things out, and while trial and error is a laudable approach, one has to understand the impact of what one does. That said, just because you think something through does not mean that it is a finished product or that the results you assume will come about. There are a lot of factors to consider here, and where one may be served, another may be ignored. Is that acceptable? I suppose so, but one has to look at the consequences on both society and the individual, in this case the class and the student I suppose, and work forward from there. 

InfoGraphic Success

I'm always looking to try something new … immediately and before I quite know what I'm doing. In any event, I assigned infoGraphics to my students this week. And all in all, it was FANTASTIC. There was also a stark difference between my Freshman and Juniors and Seniors. The older kids immediately understood what they were doing, sat down, did some research, sketched out their plans, and produced a fairly thought out product.

The freshman … oh the freshman. A colleague pointed out that according to Piaget, they are concrete thinkers. I agree. They are as thick as a brick at times. But, after awhile, I was able to explain what I wanted and they actually did some nice stuff.

In addition to their infographic, they had to present it to the class in order to work on their public speaking skills. I asked them to write a narrative. It's still a work in progress.

While the presentations were being made, students had to take notes and then write a question for discussion that either followed changes over time or the Essential Question (How did Western Expansion fulfill and solidify the idea of American Exceptionalsim for USH and How does Egyptian society impact society today for World History). They turned in their questions at the end of the lesson.

The students really enjoyed the challenge of using images and were able to explain the purpose of their work to me (as I had explained it to them).

1. A person sees a visual and hears you speaking. They connect the visual to wha you said. 
2. They are taking notes, another way to learn, another part of the brain being used, and a way to remember stuff.
3. They are writing and then discussing two types of questions that allow them to expand the though process.

All in all, it has been a really good exercise for students.