ZZZ and The Honest Reflection Post - Response to Comments

Question ( you will be required to answer this on the accompanying questionnaire)
In your opinion was ZZZ
a real person in EDM 310?
a real person serving as a proxy or avitar for many other students in EDM310?
a composite made from several students in EDM310?
a purely fictional character whom I constructed to make a point I felt was important?

Summary of Comments (Required) on the post Honest Reflection is Required (the ZZZ Post)
112 people left comments before the deadline, three of whom are not students in the class. Four students replied after the deadline. Ms. Dorothy Burt of Pt. England School and Mr. Chamberlain both left very important comments following the conclusion of the open period. If you have not read those comments, read them.

46 (41%) said ZZZ should not have lied, or something to that effect.
Only 4 respondents made the point I was hoping to drive home: when you reflect on your own work you absolutely MUST be honest with yourself! In the syllabus the Midterm Reflection is listed as an examination. And that is exactly what it was - an examination of what you had accomplished so far in the course. I want you to be aware of how well you are accomplishing your assignments. When (if) you become a professional educator, you will need to regularly evaluate your performance. You have watched one example of that: Mr. McClung's year end reflection at the end of his first year in the classroom.

I hope that you will never be surprised by an evaluation of you done by others. It happened once to me. My first writing assignment in graduate school came back with more red ink on it than the black ink from my typewriter. I thought I was a good writer. I quickly learned that I had much to learn. You will be regularly evaluated by supervisors, peers, students, parents, evaluation bodies, and even sometimes by the public. Be prepared by being a good self-evaluator.

I also hope that you will teach your students to evaluate themselves.

Here are some other topics addressed in the comments left on the post:

There were several comments that were actually comments on the course (which was not part of my post). As you read these remember that these are not responses to questions I raised in the post and therefore cannot be assumed to reflect the opinions of anyone other than the voluntary respondent.
5 said they did not feel that the course took too much time; 1 person said it did.
10 said they used the questionnaire to check to make sure they had done all of the assignments.
9 described the course as overwhelming, challenging, difficult, demanding, time consuming, hard
2 wanted more feedback from the staff
1 would not have taken the course if that person had known “what the course was like”
1 reported being tired of surveys
3 said they had learned something.

I did raise two questions regarding ZZZ as a teacher: Would you want ZZZ as a colleague or as the teacher of your child or grandchild?
9 said No to the colleague question
14 said No to the teacher of my child/grandchild question
10 said it was wrong to judge ZZZ on these questions
4 said “it is none of my business”
10 explicitly said they would not comment on these two questions

Several respondents replied indicating their feelings about ZZZ
11 (10%) of those who left comments indicated they were not surprised that a student would intentionally lie about the work they had done or not done.
4 said they were shocked or surprised at this behavior.
5 said they thought I was being hustled by the student (I had suggested this as a possibility).

9 said that ZZZ should not get a good grade (at least at midterm).

9 said they had no sympathy for ZZZ
4 felt bad for ZZZ
4 said I should not have publicly criticized ZZZ, 2 going on to say that I might cause ZZZ to harm ZZZ
3 said I should help ZZZ, not throw ZZZ “under the bus.”

No one made any comment about the name ZZZ. I created that name based on the letters used in comic strips to denote sleeping. I thought at least one person would recognize and comment on this reference.

I thought long and hard about this post before writing it, and once having written it, about posting it.

Why did I do it? Whether or not ZZZ is a real person, an unusually large number of students this semester did not appear to have the key characteristic I sought to develop through the self reflection that served as the midterm exam: an ability to engage in an honest self-reflection. As some of you later learned, I already had the answers to most of the questions I asked for every student in the class. I was NOT asking you to tell me what I already knew. What I hoped would result was that you would reflect on what you had done so far in the course and if your work and/or attitudes needed adjustment that you would make those necessary adjustments. For some people it happened immediately, for others it happened near the end of the semester, and for more than usual it never happened. Of course, for the majority of students in EDM310 there was no major adjustment necessary, just a bit of tweaking or no adjustment at all.

As teachers (if you become teachers), you will have lots of students over the course of your teaching career. I have probably had over 4000 students in my classes. My goal has always been to develop the ability to evaluate oneself, accurately and honestly, in those students. I have that goal for you, too. But I feel it is incumbent upon me to tell you if you are not measuring up, especially if you can’t see that for yourself. As a teacher you will have to make judgements about every student that enters your classroom. And if you are unwilling or unable to make those decisions about yourself, you do not have the necessary skills, abilities and attitudes to be a teacher. At least that is what I firmly believe.

Now if I believe it is important to tell you if you are not “measuring up”, what techniques should I use? Maybe I should ask what a coach would do since I consider myself a coach more than a teacher. Any of the student athletes want to tell me what the coach would have done to a person like ZZZ? Here are some possibilities:

The coach would have, quite likely, publicly identified ZZZ by name (I have not said that ZZZ is a single real person). Then ZZZ would have run laps until totally exhausted or the coach would have benched ZZZ for violating team rules or or even dismissed ZZZ from the team and have held a press conference to notify the adoring public that beloved ZZZ would no longer be playing for the mighty Jaguars. Oh yes, what is the penalty for lying to a coach? Or lying on an examination? Or lying to your principal? Just guess!

I had a lot of ZZZs for whom I had a message. So I delivered that message. No names were revealed (although many of you told me, or emailed me, that you thought you were ZZZ). It is probably still unclear to most of you (maybe all of you) whether ZZZ is a real person, a composite of many individuals, or a fictional character with characteristics that I want to identify as unbecoming to a teaching candidate. I was especially concerned because I felt, before the semester started, that there would be lot of students (25% was my guess) who would not have the skills or experiences to manage their time and do the work required in the new EDM310. I was correct. Actually, it was about 35% of students at midterm that fit this bill.

My hope was that students would assess themselves, learn and apply appropriate organizational and time management skills, and successfully complete the course. That happened for some students. But others took up the cry that the time demands of EDM310 were too great and that they should not be required to work so hard on EDM310 because of all the other things going on in their lives. If I remember correctly (check the first movie for the course) I stressed three things:
You could expect to work a total of 9 hours per week in EDM310
You must manage your time effectively
You could not afford to get behind in EDM310

And here we are, at the end of the semester. Some ZZZs dropped the course, some are still enrolled but have submitted no work in a long time, some are madly dashing to “catch up” if that is really a possibility.

But the majority of students have done quite well, thank you. They have demonstrated the knowledge, skills and aptitudes necessary for an excellent teaching professional. In fact, several students have performed as well as any students I have ever had. Ever! And a huge bunch have demonstrated that we do have excellent teachers in the pipeline, even in Alabama! I am proud of you! And if my grandchildren lived nearby (the ones not already in college), I would be delighted if you were their teacher!

Honest Reflection is Required

I have several objectives in this class that have nothing to do with technology. One is to get all of my students to reflect on their practice, as a student and later as a professional. When you have your own classes you will not be getting a report card with grades on it. You will have to supply your own evaluations of yourself. That is why I have you do reflective questionnaires a number of times during the semester. I want you to practice doing this so that when you are a professional it will come naturally.

Today I have to add another word to that objective: honestly. Let me share with you the response to the midterm questionnaire from a real student in EDM310 this semester. I will call that student ZZZ.

Dear ZZZ:
In your midterm reflection you report that you have completed 9 (all) of your blog posts, 6 of your comments4kids, 5 of your comments4classmates, 2 comments4teachers. You also report that you did the reflective questionnaire within a week of 2/15. You say that you have done 2 of the extra assignments made on the class blog, that you add pictures to your blog regularly, that they comply with accessibility standards, that the link on your blog to the class blog works, that the link to your email works, that you regularly add links to your blog posts, that you have tried Vocaroo, that you are using Delicious and Twitter, that you are just starting your PLN, that you have an RSS feed that works and that your A is a bit shaky.

I find something quite different than you do.

You have not posted to your blog since February 28 and that was for the assignment due January 31. You have not completed any blog assignments for February, March or any of the added assignments.

You have not added pictures or links to any of your posts.

You do have an RSS feed for the class blog on your blog and that feed will take you to the class blog (so a link could be considered redundant).

There is no evidence on your blog that you have used Vocaroo or that you have developed a PLN (which you admit).

You have not made any posts on your blog that address the additional assignments made in the blog itself.

You did complete the 2/15 questionnaire on 2/18.

The email link on your blog does work.

I cannot find you on Twitter. What is your name on Twitter?

Please send me your Delicious name so that I can see how you are using Delicious.

The teacher assigned to you is AAA. She has made the following posts since I started the comments4teachers assignment on Feb 22:
March 8
March 7
March 6
Feb 28
Feb 26
and she made this post before the assignment started:
Feb 6

You have no comments on any of these posts.

You have only left one comment on a fellow student's blog (on January 24). You have not notified me of any instances in which you have tried to leave a comment but were not able to do so because the student had not done a post.

You have made no posts relative to your comments4kids assignments. Several kids somewhere in the world did not get a comment because you did not do your assignments.

You say that your A is "a bit shaky."

Why does your report of what you have done in this class vary so widely from mine? Why does your evaluation of the condition of the A with which your started this class disagree so widely from mine?

So class, here are some questions that come to mind:
1. Does ZZZ think I am asking for information about how much work ZZZ has done? No. I already have that. All of it. And most of those data I get automatically. I want ZZZ to think about what ZZZ is or is not doing!
2. Does ZZZ really think that ZZZ has done all of the work that I cannot find or see?
3. Is this an attempt to hustle me?
4. If ZZZ is so inaccurate with ZZZ's own evaluation, what will ZZZ's evaluations of ZZZ's students be like?
5. Would you like to have ZZZ as a colleague?
6. Would I want my children or grandchildren to be in ZZZ's class?
7. Would you want your children or grandchildren to be in ZZZ's class?

Comments welcome. If you have nothing to say, just say "I have read the post and the associated comments and have nothing to add." Note that I also want you to read the associated comments. That is always important when you participate in a conversation. When you leave a comment I will know that you came to the post and probably read it (or at least this sentence) since you will have left me a message - possibly this one. And remember, every comment I get on the blog is sent immediately to my gmail account where I can automatically sort by sender!

Honesty in our own self assessments is critical to our improvement in whatever we do!

Is Blogging Important or Not?

Cliff Barnes (Class E) left this comment on Carlo Freda's post Blog Assignments: 7 February

I do not think blogging is that important honestly. It may be useful at times, but when you are teaching in a classroom why should the students have to get on your blog to learn. You should focus more on interaction with the students, not expect them to just read your blog.

In college, and in K-12, you do not just learn in a classroom. In college we expect students to spend 9 hours per week working on the class, including time in class. The University of South Alabama is experimenting with fewer hours in class, partly to save money but also to meet a demand from students for more flexible schedules and to make use of technologies that can open new opportunities for teaching and learning. As a result, "the interaction with students" in a classroom will be reduced. But even if that were not the case, there is often almost zero true interaction with students in a class. This is not always the case, but the videos you have watched including A Vision of Students Today demonstrate that the "sage on the stage" is still alive and well in American higher education.

I, however, believe that blogging is an extremely important tool for teaching and learning. Here are a few reasons:
1. Blogs provide a means for an audience for a student's work.
2. Blogs encourage writing. Even in a world where writing is disdained by students I can get students to write and pay attention to their writing. This is in part because they have an audience beyond me. They are, as Anthony Capp said, "leaving their intellectual trail."
3. Blogs provide a vehicle for "writing with multimedia." Students now listen and watch instead of reading and writing. My goal is to get them to contribute to the creation of new media products. Blogs provide an excellent method for distributing those kinds of media and for combing text with the new media.
4. In EDM310 we now do not focus on teaching some specific lesson in class. Instead we have labs where students can ask for assistance on any part of the course. When this occurs students do get direct interaction with the teacher. But the responsibility for learning is squarely on the shoulders of the learner. You learn by doing, not by listening.
5. I attempted to make my best case for blogs and commenting on blogs by telling of two important and exciting events that happened in EDM310 in the Fall 2009 semester because of blogs and commenting on blogs. I call this post Kaia and Room 10 - Why Blogs and Commenting on Blogs Are So Important. The essence of that argument is that the evidence I have is that blogs and commenting on blogs are the most powerful tools available to a teacher to bring people from all over the world together in a common conversation. I believe that common conversation among the peoples of the world is our highest calling. You may not agree. But that is where I stand.
6. Ultimately, however, you can make your own decisions as to what is important. Steven Anderson's post Why Do I Have to Learn This? concludes with this statement: "Why do we have to learn this? Not because we have to, but because we want to..." And if you do not want to learn what blogs, blogging and commenting on blogs can teach you, then that is your decision. A teacher can only provide an opportunity to learn. We cannot force anyone to learn. And we make choices about what we think students should learn. Many time students disagree with our choices and even challenge us to clearly state the reasons for our selections of what we think students should learn and do as Cliff has done here. And those challenges, when they come, are most appropriate. But I can ask, and I do, for Cliff to make his best case as to why he has concluded that he does not "think blogging is that important..."

Go for it Cliff. Make your case. We can have an interesting debate!

It Depends Upon Whom You Are Around

I have asked my students to think about two questions all semester: Should all teachers be technologically literate - or be willing to learn? What do we mean by technological illiteracy?

Dina Tillman, in her post on January 24, 2010, suggested that technological literacy "depends on who you are around."

That got me to thinking and I agree that the context does matter. I think I am technologically literate, and probably most of my colleagues and quite a few of my students would agree. But if I were visiting Pt. England School in Auckland, N.Z. or Noel Elementary School in Noel, Missouri I would not be ranked as highly in technological literacy as I am in the College of Education at the University of South Alabama.

So what? Well, here's the important point that I took from Dina's post. Who will be around my students when they have their own classroom? Here are some possibilities:

First Graders:


Third Graders:
Click to play when the page appears.
Room 10, Pt. England School

Sixth Graders:
Room 18, Pt. England School

Seventh Graders:
Seventh Grade Ning, Noel Missouri

High School:
This is one of many films on the Cinema Owls YouTube Channel. Check out the others after you watch this one:
Cinema Owls, Kelowna Secondary School, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

So if these will be the students of my students, what do we mean by technological literacy if it is determined by whom "you are around"?

Are Our Students Our Customers?

Ninety percent of EDM310 students have purchased a textbook which was never used in class. Eighty-nine percent say this has happened at least once at the University of South Alabama. Forty-two percent report that this has happened three or more times at the University of South Alabama.

The cost to students? Fifty-two percent said the total costs to them for buying unnecessary textbooks was over $ 300 and almost half of those (25% of all students) reckoned that the total cost was $500 or more. Eighty-two percent of the students consider this a serious, very serious, or extremely serious problem.

Students (72%) also complained that they were often not able to return books or to resell them. Eighty-three percent were told the book would no longer be used and 76% were denied a buy back because the book had been replaced by "a new edition". Eighty-three percent of the students consider this a serious, very serious, or extremely serious problem.

I asked our bookstore about their return policy. Students have 2 weeks after classes start to return unopened books. They must have a receipt and the plastic wrapping on books must not have been removed. For books purchased in the next three weeks, the student has 2 days to return an unopened book. Returns are not accepted under any other conditions.

For approximately three weeks after finals the bookstore will buyback books for "up to 50% of their face value" as long as the book will be used the next semester and an order has been placed by the professor for that same edition of the book. If the book is damaged or if a "book comes with a computer diskette" (even if the diskette is returned) or if it is a "workbook with pages missing" or if it is an "old edition" it will not be bought back. The book store limits their used purchases to the number they estimate they will sell. Eighty-six percent of EDM310 students this semester consider the inability to return or sell textbooks a serious, very serious, or extremely serious problem.

Students tell me they prefer to use free information from the internet where that is possible such as in EDM310; e-books, either rented or much less expensive versions than the books they are currently forced to buy; or reasonably priced text books that can be returned or resold like other goods they purchase.

So maybe students aren't customers after all. If they were, these attitudes, policies and practices of the bookstore and the faculty would have changed long ago.

The iPad: So Easy to Use Even a Technologically Illiterate Teacher Can Use It

My friends and fellow Twitters, Bill Chamberlain and Russ Georend, were Tweeting fast and furiously about the iPad the day after its unveiling a week ago. Informed only with a few details and no experience, we nevertheless offered our pronouncements about the iPad and its future use in our hands and by our schools and students. I suggested that we should have a debate and offer it as a podcast, but then I got busy and did not follow up with my suggestion. Russ and Bill did, however, each posting on his blog. Russ went first with Please don’t buy your students iPads and, of course became the target for Bill and me. With a podcast, there would have been more debate, and we might have changed each others minds, or at least changed sides from time to time just to enliven the debate. But stuck with print (well, electronic print), our debate is much more serial in nature. Bill went second with Why iPads Are a Good Choice for Students and I get to take dead aim at both of them in The iPad: So Easy to Use Even a Technologically Illiterate Teacher Can Use It which follows below. After we all have the iPad in our hands I will try and arrange a real debate and record it for posterity as a podcast. Until then, you are stuck reading these three commentaries.

Here is the Strange commentary:

It's rather early, I think, to make pronouncements and comparisons when I haven't seen an iPad, much less held one in my hand or used it. But here are a few Strange thoughts on the subject.

1. Several commentators, including Scott Bourne, Andy Ihnatko and Steven Frank suggest that the iPad is a new instrument, not a phone, not a computer, but a new device that could revolutionize the way we consume, and perhaps produce, information. If this is true, and I am convinced enough by the arguments put forth to consider it quite likely to be correct, then comparisons are out at the moment and may be completely inappropriate after the iPad has seen the light of day among the people. And I am speaking of the masses here, not the geeks. If it is a new device then it is certainly for the masses, not the geeks!

2. Whether or not it is a new instrument of information, it will certainly have a place in our pantheon of teaching and learning tools. Anything that will move us from our unfortunate addiction to “sage on the stage” and “burp back” education will be a welcome addition to our tool set.

3. There are already debates about whether the iPad will be “useful”, “appropriate” or “good” for students to have. How absurd. Anything that connects our students to the cloud of information known as the Internet is useful, appropriate and good for our students.

4. The most important impact may be on teachers. The vast majority of teachers currently practicing their profession are not geeks, not even “technologically literate” in the sense that I would use that term. All of the pundits that have written about the iPad, after even a brief time with it, make two points: it is lightning fast in what it does and it is drop dead easy to use. This is fantastic news. The easier it is to use, the more likely current teachers who are not "technologically literate" are to use it and to connect to the information cloud. If that is correct, then maybe we can see teachers move from a memorize and "burp-back" approach to hands on, project based, problem solving teaching. So the most important impact could on teachers rather than its impact on students.

5. Russ Goerend complains that the iPad is not a full fledged computer. It is missing a multi tasking operating system, will not display Flash “videos”, and does not have a camera for video input. Again, reports are that people who know what a “multi tasking operating system” is will say, when they use the iPad, that it is barely noticeable that it is not actually multi-tasking because of the speed of the device (Andy Ihnatko). All of trusted experts on web 2.0 celebrate the fact that Apple has drawn a line in the sand about Flash and has said html 5 or nothing. On the iPhone and iPod Touch there is no Flash and the millions who use them and have bought them do not care. Only Adobe cares. Flash is power hungry, open to exploitation by hackers, and an inappropriate tool for the next generation of the net. Now the camera part. I wish it had a camera. But that is just a desire on my part with no direct knowledge of the instrument itself. I think it inappropriate of me to make a judgement about the device, even if it does not meet my idealized specs, until I have seen it and tried it in the real world.

7. I consider Russ Goerend my friend, but to start a debate between iPads and tablet computers (if you had money to buy a lot) seems ludicrous to me! Where are schools spending money these days? Not on tools which can be put into the hands of students, but on smartboards and the like. That is the real argument we should have. I would be overjoyed with the ability to put any tool in the hands of a user, iPad or tablet. If I had the choice I might make a uniform choice, I might leave it up to the student, or I might make different choices for different age groups and different curricula. What a wonderful day that would be to actually put real tools in the hands of learners!

Claiming to Be Tech Literate

79% of my students this semester claim that they are already "tech literate." I did not explain what I meant by that term and you can view my various musings about that elsewhere on this blog, in my TechLiterateTeacher wiki, and on my class blog.

Bill Genereux @billgx tweeted me and asked "Of those that claim to be tech literate already, how many have blogs?"

An interesting question. Of the 102 respondents that think (at the start of the class) that they are already "technologically literate", here are some things they have done. Of course several of them are repeating this course and would have done some of these things but not well enough to pass the course.
Blogged 41%
Participate in podcast or videocast 18% (could all be EDM310 repeats since no podcasts that I know of in other classes)
Chat (text only, audio only, or video) 84%
Used Skype 41%
Made a movie on a computer 20% (again many EDM310 repeaters)
Have uploaded movie to computer 31%

These figures are higher than I thought. But combined they are not how I would define tech literacy. I'll add additional links to where I am musing about this later. This is a quick response for Bill, but he has lit a fire under me to think more about these things.

One bad thing about Google Forms is that you have to use a workaround to publish results. I have not done that yet. And I still have 6-8 students that have not taken the survey yet (Late starting class and then miss MLK Day).

More later.