Vorsprung Durch Technik It Is Not

As a technology-friendly teacher in Germany I need newsletters and professional networks like a fish needs water. Some of these newsletters turn out to be a major disappointment and need to be put on the spamlist asap The German newsletter of Pro-Schule (Neue Medien) turned out to be one of those. Mostly identifying the problems and risks of the Internet and technology in general, they sit behind their Commodore 64 and produce headliners such as "Friends with the Teacher? This is What you Should Keep In Mind When You Share Social Networks With Your Students...." or "Does Your Principal Also Expect You Too Fix Your Own Computer?" This week they demonstrated just how avant-la-lettre they really are, when they presented the learning website of the week:

Derzeit stellen wir Ihnen interessante und sinnvolle Websites mit Lerneffekt für Ihre Schüler vor. Heute: Die Maus erklärt das Internet Die berühmte WDR-Sendung „Die Sendung mit der Maus“ bildet nun auch im Internet. Unter dem interessanten und vielfachen Angebot finden Sie auf der Internetseite www.wdrmaus.de die Sachgeschichten der Sendung als Video versammelt, z. B. die Sachgeschichte zum Thema Internet. Klicken Sie dazu auf der Navigationsleiste auf Sachgeschichten den Buchstaben „I“. Das 8-minütige Video erklärt jungen SchülerInnen anschaulich, wie Internet-Adressen funktionieren, was ein Provider ist und wie vernetzte Rechner zusammen arbeiten. Dieses Video eignet sich besonders als Einstieg in den ersten multimedialen Unterricht.

First of all Pro-Schule doesn't even manage to send the direct link to the show, which would have been http://www.wdrmaus.de/sachgeschichten/sachgeschichten/sachgeschichte.php5?id=84. Instead they mention that this video can be found under the I for Internet.... Secondly; this video about Internet stems from 1999, and is nearly 15 years old! As if nothing happened, no cloud, no Wlan, no social networks, no Web 2.0. But Die Maus; that is German culture, history - that is reliable!

Vorprung durch Technik - not when it comes to technology for the classroom....

Nelson Mandela School Wins Award for Use of Technology for Learning

Press Release 4.3.2013

 

 

 

Flex A from the Nelson Mandela School Berlin Wins International Award   Sharkie Awards Honor Organizations and Individuals That Inform and ‘Wow’Their Audiences With Outstanding Online Presentations

Berlin —April 4, 2013 — Class Flex A of the internationalNelson Mandela School in Berlin is a winner in the fifth annual Sharkie Awards. The awards program, hosted by Brainshark, Inc., honors organizations and individuals that have created standout video presentations – improving business communications with their audiences across industries. Teacher Annemieke Akkermans was named a winner in the “MyBrainshark”category. Her bilingual class, consisting of 26 first- and second-graders, used mixed media to create an illustrated audio-book, which can be found here.

More than 400 entries were submitted in this year’s Sharkie Awards. Judges from Brainshark and other presentation experts evaluated submissions based on presentation quality, clarity, organization and aesthetics. Entries had to demonstrate effective use of Brainshark’s technology – which lets users transform static documents, such as PowerPoints, into online and mobile video presentations.

“The competition in this year’s Sharkie Awards was especially fierce, with many organizations using online video presentations to communicate with impact,” said Irwin Hipsman, Brainshark’s director of customer community. “Class Flex A of the Nelson Mandela School in Berlin went above and beyond. At a time when it’s increasingly important to break through the deluge of communications, they used this online presentation format to inform, motivate and truly ‘wow’ its audiences. We commend them on the excellent use of Brainshark’s technology.”
Digital Skills teacher Annemieke Akkermans: “Our team is always on the lookout for exciting technologies for educational purposes. Appropriate use of digital tools and resources provides a vast array of opportunities for blended learning. Our bilingual class (German/English) really enjoyed bringing this story to life. After listening to it the kids first created then colored their illustrations in vivid crayon, which I photographed afterwards. Post-effects were done with www.befunky.com, another piece of free mobile technology which is great for educational use. Our current 2^nd-graders will be able to do all of it without help in a few years’ time. After the Power Point presentation was uploaded, the children recorded their voice-overs on www.brainshark.com. Winning this award has motivated them even more; following a workshop with a professional storyteller they wrote their own stories and now want to turn these into illustrated audiobooks as well… I guess we’ll be busy!”

About the Sharkie Awards

The Sharkie Awards are an annual program, hosted by Brainshark, Inc., the leading sales enablement platform provider. The awards recognize outstanding presentations –honoring organizations and individuals that have demonstrated excellence in their use of Brainshark’s online and mobile presentation technology. More information about the awards program, including a gallery of winning presentations, is now available at www.brainshark.com/campaigns/sharkie-awards-2013.

Berlin is hip, the school system is not

According to tourists and newly arrived expats, Berlin is hip. As soon as those same expats send their children to a Berlin school, the word 'hip' is quickly replaced by antiquated, backwards and bureaucratic - depending on personal experiences. Berlin schools are run by the Senat. The Senat employs two kinds of teachers; civil servants and employees. And then there is a third category; the international teachers; fully qualified in their own countries, with skills needed for their jobs in one of the European or International schools of Berlin, but merely paid between 50 and 80% of what their German counterparts make. Why? Because they haven't done their training in Berlin. 
Don't even try to make sense of it.

This is decided by the Berlin Senat, the same one that abandoned pre-school at a time when all other sane countries decided to lower the age for school-goers to 4. The Senat got rid of preschool, and started to send children to school when they were five years old. Do the Kindergartens prepare their pupils for this early 'Einschulung'? No, as Kindergarten educators are not trained to do so. They do have a lot more paperwork to fill out, having to keep a record of the toddlers' language acquisition progress. Is there remedial support in case the child doesn't speak proper German after 5 years? No, but at least it is registered. Are then at least teachers trained to deal with younger children who often still pee in their pants and can't tie their own shoe laces? No, but the Senat thought it would be a good idea to introduce FLEX, a flexible school entry phase, where grades 1 and 2learn together - that way the little ones can learn from the older children - neatly solving the problem of the teacher who has no idea how to deal with those younger kids.

Five years after the introduction of this system, the Senat decided that schools are allowed themselves to decide whether they want Flex or not. More than half of the schools immediately stopped this experiment, some saying they had never really put it in place anyway. Yes, something like this is possible in Berlin, as the school inspection only visits schools once every 6 years or so. It is also quite well known in advance when they visit, so there is plenty of time to polish the hallways, replace ancient art projects and to dust off the interactive whiteboards.

Interactive Whiteboards - progress after all? Well, after being confronted with another round of terrible PISA results, the Berlin Senat had another wonderful idea and decided to make 'Berlin Kreidefrei'. No more chalk in Berlin classrooms - as chalk is obviously really old-fashioned. Deals with Smart and Promethean were struck and the schools were filled with whiteboard after whiteboard.

This is what a lot of teachers thought when those whiteboards were introduced: why should you use an interactive whiteboard if the blackboard works perfectly well? What is wrong with a piece of chalk and a talking head in front of the classroom? Frontal teaching is what we teachers have been doing for centuries, and it seems to have worked. Politicians, bankers, and not in the least WE, have all been educated without technology - and see how far it got us.

For German-speakers I'd like to share a typical text from a site called Teacher News, in which one of the editors is fulminating against the use of interactive whiteboards:

"Aber sehen wir es einmal „ressourcenorientiert“: Wenn wir statt „Tafel“ künftig „Blackboard“ sagen würden, vielleicht ließe sich der unaufhaltsame Siegeszug der Smart- und Whiteboards wenigstens verlangsamen. Ist denn noch niemandem aufgefallen, dass ein Smartboard den Lernprozessbegleiter schnell zum antiquierten Frontalunterricht zurückführt, statt die Kompetenzen der noch nicht so starken Schülerinnen und Schüler im Gruppenpuzzle auszubilden? Wenn das Geld für die teure Wartung der teuren Smartboards demnächst fehlt, dann schlägt vielleicht wieder die Stunde der guten alten Tafel – Verzeihung, des „Blackboards“. "

True, for teacher training and technical support was no money, so the whiteboards were mostly used as chalk-free blackboards. 'Kreidefrei' - the name alone implies a frontal tool, something to write on in front of the classroom. As long as German publishers are keeping their interactive resources to a minimum, Berlin teachers choose paper books over interactive learning environments.

I can't wait for the next move of the Senat - it can only get better.

Literacy development & online training

 

Here is an overview of the different learning stages children go through, and the levels children work at in the English group. Included are suggestions for links to relevant learning games in case you would like to follow your child's progress up close:

BASIC LEVEL1: Learning the letter names; the basic ABC; how are the letters called? This is usually covered in Kindergarten, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries. We work with letter cubes, stamps and lots of hands-on games to teach or enhance this knowledge. Starfall is an Americanprogram which kids seem to like a lot. This link helps kids practice the letters and their sounds:http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f

BASIC LEVEL2: Knowing the sounds of the letters is the basis for all reading and writing. The letter is called 'E' (ee), but we say 'e' as in 'egg' - and so on. Jolly Phonics is the basic program we use to learn the sounds. More info: http://jollylearning.co.uk/

DECODING & BLENDING - Once the first letter sounds are known (S-A-T-I-P-N in Jolly Phonics), the decoding of simple words such as c-a-t and s-i-t is a small step. These words are called C-V-C words (consonant-vowel-consonant). A game to practice decoding skills is:http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/popup.shtml, orhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/cvc/index.shtml

READING: We use the Oxford Reading Tree books and a series called Jolly Readers (non-fiction books, three levels of non-fiction readers, from the publisher of Jolly Phonics. Oxford Reading Tree now offers more than 230 booklets featuring Biff, Chip and Kipper Stories (now joined by 36 brand new adventures). The books contain parent/teacher guidance notes in every book. More info: http://www.oup.com/oxed/primary/oxfordreadingtree/introduction

TRICKY WORDS: Once your child starts reading English, (s)he will quickly run intot words that are 'tricky' - they can't be sounded out, such as C-A-T. Words like bike, cake and hope have the 'magic e'(which hops over the consonant and makes the vowel say it's name) - such as the sound 'ay' as in cake. This game helps to get used to 'magic e':http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/tricky-words/five-prize-bikes

Other tricky words are the ones with long vowels, such as words with ay, oa, ee, oo, ea etc. The kids learn that 'when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking'. Learning to read these is easier than actually spelling those words correctly - but with practice also that will happen - usually not before third grade though! A fun exercise in the classroom (as one of very few 'frontal' instruction moments) is:http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/poems/fpoem.shtml

Email Standards for Teachers

Today I received an email from a colleague who teaches 10th grade. Her email, sent to all 100 staff members of our comprehensive school, is addressed to 'all those concerned' and goes on to describe the detailed mental and academical issues of four pupils in her class, including their names and surnames. Something is not quite right here, as sensitive digital data should only be shared with those directly involved. Another colleague prefers to write long rambling emails to make a point about one of his many grievances, simply to get it off his chest. His mails generally serve no other purpose than to annoy the living daylights out of all recipients.

I suggest this mental check before the send-button is hit:

 • Should this be sent?
• By me?
• Right now?
• Like this?
• To these recipients?
• Really??

Furthermore, read all relevant incoming emails on a daily basis and respond by the next day, even if it's with a simple ' thanks for your email. I will reply in more detail shortly.' Administrators ideally should also read  their emails in the weekend, and reply to urgent matters within 24 hours. Staff can read and reply to weekend emails by Monday end of play.

And last but not least: keep it brief but friendly! If necessary, use emoticons to soften the potentially perceived harshness of your words... A 'thumbs up' symbol beats an exclamation mark, whereas capital letters make it look as IF YOU ARE YELLING, and too many dot dot dots make you seem ..... rather insecure.

Of course some stone age colleagues will keep up the spamming; then just ignore or delete them from your digital life. Or both!

Listen to Me!!!!

Perhaps the four exclamation marks in the title will help. If I shout long enough and loud enough, someone will hear me. The web is full of swimmers, diving for pearls, looking for a place to land briefly, to read something which can be shared. The web is also riddled with opinionated egomaniacs. Especially comical are the graying and wrinkled pensionados, who believe they have nothing but interesting things to say. Surrounded by fellow graying loudmouths, they scribble away about the importance of connectvity, about how the Web changed the world. It certainly changed their world. Instead of having to listen to the yapping of his also graying  wife, the connected graybeard climbs the steps to his little home office and starts yapping  away himself. He fills a quick blog post about his latest digital purchase. This simply has to be shared, his experiences and insights might benefit thousands of followers. And attract new followers! He scans his Network and retweets similar insights. About the importance if being connected. Collaboration via the web. The upcoming webinar in which he will speak. The benefits of online conferencing - although he sure as hell misses the hotelbars and the cute little conference hostesses. No such things online. When his wife calls him down for coffee he counts the amount of re-retweets. Still only two. The lack of interest  leaves him with an open aching space where his stomach used to be. His pale bony fingers tap away on his iPhone: "Internet Ceases to be Efficient." His wife asks him something, but he is oblivious. Copies a quote from a fellow Internet Guru and comments on it, tweets it. The first reply shows up after 1 minute. Without reading it, he leans back, happily thinking about the 35.000 ego-yaps that he tweeted into digital space in the past years. A monumental  achievement. When he has his supper, he sees that 37 followers retweeted his latest ego yap. He is satisfied. Another useful day.

Cyberbullying in Holland: banga lists

Cyberbullying comes in many forms and shapes and the latest one is called a Banga list. Banga is street for slut. Girls with a certain reputation may find their names on one of those lists, gaining instantaneous and - potentially- eternal Internet notoriety - whether the slander is true or not. These Banga lists are similar to the German 'isharegossip' site, they are a platform for bullies. In Germany isharegossip was hacked, forcing its owners to shut itself down. In the UK and the US cyberbullying has become a punishable offense. In the Netherlands on the other hand cyberbullying seems to be taken with a large pinch of salt. A number of so-called pragmatic Dutch don't see the Banga lists as a cause for concern. Statistics show that 4% of teenagers are being cyberbullied. Even though this number seems low compared to some US studies where up to 68% of teens are reported to have been cyberbullied, 4% still represents 60.000 children. Peter Nikken, professor Media Education, is not impressed: "It's normal that kids bully one another, that's what they do." Media researcher Linda Duits shares his view: "It's not as if you'll never find a job again when your name is on such a list. Besides, bullying is part of youth culture." De Volkskrant presents these two expert views to conclude that the Banga lists are nothing but a media hype. Yet many girls will beg to differ. Finding themselves on a Banga list, their reputation is up for grabs. Does Ms Duits know for a fact that this digital sleeze will be removed from the Internet in a few year's time? What about the effect on the girls themselves? Cyberbullying has to be taken seriously. It is extremely harmful simply because social media multiply and accelerate its effects. One 13-year old's suicide last week coincided with the publication of her name on a Banga list. Still, the Volkskrant certainly won't jump to conclusions and is happy to leave this media hype where it belongs - on the world wide web. Let's hope it will not stay there forever.

Be careful what you LIKE

Just 'liked' MacDonalds so you could get that cheeseburger voucher? Now all your friends know it as well. Check your Facebook settings regularly, both the privacy and the account settings. There are quite a few settings under 'account' which have everything to do with your privacy - just check the elements on the left hand side of your screen. One of them is Facebook Ads. If you click on this, check your so-called social ads. If you don't want all your friends to know that you like Tchibo, Sony or MacDonalds, then set it to 'no one'. Often companies and organisations ask you to like them so you get some free deal, or unlimited access to their website resources. After you've liked them, your likes will be integrated in ads which can be shown on your friends' walls - unless you change your settings. Here is a screen grab from my own settings:

 

 

MAKE A POWERFUL POINT

Conferences... what use are these archaic events in this digital day and age where we can find all the information we want at the tip of out fingers? This question has been asked by both speakers and conference visitors in the past years, and usually the outcome was mixed. We've heard most of the input all before, we spend too much on entrance fees, overprized accomodation and bad food, get jetlagged and dramatically increase our carbon footprint.Yet, we are human beings in need of personal contact; we like a drink and a bit of lame gossip, so we keep attending conferences. O yes - and if you're lucky you get inspired. You listen to the likes of Michael Wesch and Sugata Mitra and know that learning has forever been transformed by technology - whether learners and teachers realise it or not - embrace it or not. They are the gems, those rare and wonderful speakers that make you increase your carbon footprint year after year. Certainly, more presenters have a good story to tell, but most spam their own message by putting up a slideshow with one million words and zero visual input. We are not only living in exponential times (as Michael Wesch puts it), we are living in visual times, and we require visual input, like it or not.... Creating powerful slides is not rocket science anyway; below is some visual support which may be useful when you find yourself going to the next conference. Go ahead, make your point: http://www.slideshare.net/Shelearner/make-a-point-presentation-annemieke-akkermans

13-year olds want to learn about Internet Safety

As media coach and teacher I also teach 7th graders at an international school in Berlin. A first questionnaire among ca. one hundred 12- and 13-year olds places Internet Safety as their number one concern, whereas this has not been part of the official curriculum so far.

The results of the September 2011 questionnaire:


• 99% have one or more computers at home

• 95% have Internet access, 5% doesn’t know.

• 40% use the pc daily, 25% use the pc only in weekends, 35% use the pc ‘sometimes’

• Ca. 10% of parents do not use computers. These children all have their own computers.


Asked what the 7th graders wanted to learn most of all, this is the top 3:

o Internet Safety (cookies, spam, viruses, digital identity)

o Typing skills (mostly for speed)

o Video editing



The 7th graders picked up basic digital skills from:

o A parent (36%)

o Older sibling (16%)

o Self (12%)

o Other family member (8%)

o School/ IT-course: 4%

o Without skills: 24%


First conclusions: More than half of all 7th graders have learned their basic digital skills from parents and siblings. The few students who mention school as the place where they learned digital skills, attended international schools abroad, such as Singapore and Australia. Only 4% mention 'school' as the place where they learned their digital skills. Internet Safety has so far not been included in the school curriculum, yet this is what most of the 7th graders mention as their nr. 1 priority. They wish to learn about cookies and spam, how to protect themselves against viruses, how to create and protect their digital identity and how to handle cybermobbing