Information Overindulgence

I am not an Infovegan. Not because I have anything against veganism per se, I just don’t have that kind of willpower. InfoPaleo is probably a better way to describe my information consumption. I follow a  Paleo diet in my eating life, and while the focus is similarly on eating whole foods (mostly fruit and veggies) and avoiding factory-farmed meats and processed junk, there still room for indulgences like bacon and butter.

This diet is analogous to how I approach my information consumption. I still get the Washington Post delivered to my door. I listen to NPR on the radio every morning on my drive into work. And while these news sources are documented to lean left-of-center, they are still considerably more reliable than the sensationalized entertainment “news” on cable nowadays. As Joan Cusack so wisely argues in one of my favorite movies (Say Anything), "There's no food in your food!"

On the other hand, I do love a good Daily Show snark fest every now and again (FYI they just did a great segment called “Polarized Media: Consuming News from Inside Your Bubble”).

So how does all of this effect my students? Well, we model the behavior we want to see in our classrooms. It would be a hard sell trying to convince my students to eat carrots while I stuff my face with Cheez-Its.

We need to make sure our students have the skills and strategies necessary to navigate a world of misinformation, not just so they become better researchers, but so they can also become informed citizens. And the best place to start is with ourselves.

Passing the Torch

When I first read the description of what the “creative spirit of design” was, I couldn’t help but think on one of my favorite TED Talks by conductor Benjamin Zander. In his talk he discusses the power of classical music, but also his life’s goal: leave your audience “with their eyes shining.”

His is a powerful message. As teachers, we aren’t simply deliverers of information, just as our students aren’t simply receptacles for it. We are all dynamic human beings with our own perspectives and ideas. Letting our students become designers allows all of us to tap into our creativity and enrich not only our minds but our spirits as well. Our goal is for our students to leave our classrooms with their eyes shining, excited about what’s to come.

In the reality of day to day teaching, that is a tall order. It’s tough to get some of our kids to consistently bring a pencil to class, let alone get them to create a high-quality website/blog/promo video, etc. But with some carefully designed scaffolding, we can guide our students to an end product that they can be proud of, while also helping them strongly grasp our learning goals.

The term “scaffolding” comes from construction; the supports around a structure that is in the process of being built or renovated. The problem with scaffolding, however, is that it’s very obviously present and can be a real eyesore. I like to think of the structure and support we give our students more as an invisible fence. The boundaries are there, but they aren’t so obvious or imposing. Students know not to wander off too far, but the view of their product isn’t obstructed, nor is their creativity staunched by rules and regulations.

A good “invisible fence” needs three things: clear expectations/outcomes, solid background knowledge, and regular checkpoints for feedback. These are all elements of lesson design, and can be achieved through rubrics, examples/modeling of the final product, and opportunities for evaluation and reflection before the final product is due.

As a middle school teacher, laying a reliable invisible fence is so important. My kids are at one of the most creative points in their lives. They have more knowledge about the world than when they were in elementary school, but they haven’t yet grown out of the magic and imagination of early childhood. Without a good fence, they are destined to wander all over the place and never get to where they need to go. But with a good one, they can design their way to an end idea that aligns with my learning goals.

Justifying the Means

The biggest lesson I took from our fifth design principle (The Means Principle) is that it is not about technology so much as it is about good lesson design. Technology should only be implemented into a design after “mindful consideration” in regards to both the “cognitive and social” aspects of your lesson as well as your “content and learning activities.”

A technology may encourage creativity and collaboration and be really engaging to students, but that doesn’t mean it is right for your learning goals.

The biggest paradigm shift for me was understanding where to start. You don’t pick a technology you like and then work backwards to build a lesson around it. You have to start all the way at the beginning, with your design ABCS. Once you have your lesson design - your authentic problem, learning goals and activities, etc. then you can analyze what needs you and your students will have based on those goals. After you know what your students need, you can then begin vetting technologies that satisfy those needs.

The technologies that you choose for your Background Building activities may be completely different than the technologies necessary for your Construction activities. But because you started with a design, all technologies serve a purpose: to meet the needs of your learners.

Teaching with technology is, after all, still teaching. And good teaching always starts with a strong design.

Lessons from the Victorian "Dot-Comers"

Without new technologies, there would be no progress. No agriculture, no modern medicine, no Twitter at 3 am. So much of the world has changed so quickly since the turn of the century when the invention wheel really began spinning in the Victorian era. The invention and widespread use of the telegraph was just the beginning of a massive waterfall of discovery.

The the 1990s, with the start of the Internet Era, we experienced a very similar technological boom - and all of its classic consequences. Suspicion, criminal abuse, economic boom and following sudden decline, and an emerging community of jargon-speaking "insiders." How were we to guess that not even 20 years in the future people would be walking around with entire computer systems attached to their wrists (Apple Watch, fans, anyone?). It sounded like science fiction. I remember the first time I saw an iMac and looked everywhere for the computer tower (where it it?! in a desk drawer?!). It's really amazing what today's technology can do.

But one lesson still rings true no matter what: just because it's the Next Big Thing doesn't mean it needs to be in our classrooms right away. I know, I sound like one of the early skeptics, right? And it's true! For example, I didn't have a smart phone until last December. But it's not because I'm not progressive! I just didn't want to buy into the gimmick. I didn't see the value in spending hundreds of dollars on a piece of machinery that was likely to break within 2 years of its use. I couldn't imagine shelling out thousands of dollars every year in addition to pay for the data plan necessary to use the thing, either. So I waited. I did some research, and now I am super happy with my GoogleFi phone and pay-as-you-go style data plan.

The same rules apply to technology in the classroom. There are certain vetting processes that need to be gone through before a technology is introduced. Just because your colleague uses a certain app doesn't mean it will be useful to your students. Just because your principal put "Classroom Technology Use" on the staff evaluation form doesn't mean you need to incorporate Kahoot into your lessons everyday. Technology is a tool, and as such it should fit the job for which it is needed.

Another important idea to remember from The Victorian Internet is that no matter what, humans will be humans. As teachers we work hard to build positive and trusting relationships with our students, but we also have to teach them how to navigate our new (and very public) technological world. It is important to anticipate constraints and human nature, and to have expectations already in place to guide our students to make appropriate choices, and help them when they make mistakes.

"Krashen" Vygotsky's Party

Despite the density of Vygotsky’s writings, I really relate to his discoveries and ideas (once I understood them, of course!). As a German teacher, even with students aged 12-14, so much of what I do in class looks a lot like preschool or Kindergarten: Telling stories (like the one I told based on this Pixar short), teaching the German equivalent to “1, 2, Buckle my Shoe” (1, 2, Polizei) to help students learn their numbers and practice pronunciation through rhyming, or giving students hand gestures to help them remember their vocabulary.

Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is also very closely linked to Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis. This fantastic presentation from ESOL in Higher Ed’s website does a fantastic job of analyzing Piaget, Vygotsky, and Krashen’s ideas and comparing and contrasting them to each other.

Krashen explains his theory through a simple formula of i + 1. The i represents what a student already knows or can understand (cognates, for example), whereas the +1 stands for “a little bit more.” This “little bit” usually means new vocabulary, new structures (like tense) or a known word used in a new way which changes its meaning. These new concepts are embedded within language that students already understand. Students use their i to negotiate and construct meaning around the unfamiliar +1.

It’s important to note, however, that without a society in which to learn or use it, language would be completely useless. Vygotsky’s emphasis on socialization is also essential in language acquisition. One cannot learn a language in isolation, and even if given an instructor from whom to learn, one is prone to misunderstandings and misconceptions if one only interacts with that sole instructor. It takes multiple exposures in various scenarios from all sorts of people in order to fully construct the meanings of certain words or ideas (such as the concept of “roundness,” for example).

In short, symbols and society are essential tools in my classroom. Without them, my students would not learn a lick of German. It would be impossible for them the link German words to the objects or concepts they represent. It would be impossible for me to communicate with them in any comprehensible sense without symbols, images, gestures, etc. My students would not be able to grow in their language without a society in which to practice, or a zone in which they can use their previous knowledge to discover new meanings and patterns.