Crucial Thought

I learned a lot today. We had a typical lecture followed by CPS (Einstruction) remote game time. Once that was done we had about 15 minutes left. I decided to let the kids try out their shiny new blogs. For the most part the kids were able to follow the logical directions of how to log in, since the information they use is information they should already know. I see now that I should force them to write it down and carry it with them. I have to remember that on average, they are only 11 years old, some 10, some 12. Once they got logged in, though, they did very well. I only gave one class this chance, sort of a canary-in-the-mines experiment and I did it with my class that I thought would have the most trouble. Truth is, they did very well, and I am pleased with how easy Drupal was for them once they got logged in.

So the experiment continues, I will give all my classes time to do this tomorrow, and since I only have 3 computers that are internet-connected (they won’t let me connect anything running Edubuntu to the school network) they will have to be gracious and rotate nicely. This also will allow them to help each other.

So I am more pleased today than I have been so far about my experiment, tempered only by the fact that I only see these kids 16 more times, total. Frustrating to think I may have to start this all over again in a month and a half.

So, bottom line, so far so good.

So today brought a new crop of students. I get different kids each day since my class is done on an A/B schedule. So I had yesterday to go crazy, and today to fix it. What I ended up doing is what is listed towards the end of the previous post, I had to register them for all threes sites myself.

I am finding my kids not as tech-saavy as I thought.

Neither are the parents, for the most part, but boy do they love it. Last night was open house…

So I end up with a packed house for open house, and it was standing room only for a couple of classes. My kids had talked up my class and the technological level of things so much that their parents percolated to a point of curiosity to come and see what the buzz was all about.

I showed them computers that were headed for the surplus warehouse to be sold for pennies that are refurbished and running Edubuntu. I showed them the Drupal blog site, I showed them my php Nuke sites, and I wowed them with educational jargon about my pedagogical principles. Ok, maybe not so much of the latter.

What I did do was hit the nerve of what these parents want for their kids. I was expecting to meet tough resistance to my little revolution, and in fact I met overwhelming support. I was approached towards the end of the evening by a powerful woman in my school, the president of the PTO, and she said “My daughter LOVES your class, and if you ever need supplies or anything, you just say the word, we’ve got money”.

What more could I ask for? My kids are pumped about learning in a web 2.0 fashion, I am teaching using almost entirely web 2.0 tools, and my kids may have a slightly better shot at being competitive in a flattening world.

I want to expand this further. The question I continually ask myself in a sort of self-development way is “What more can I do to help further the revolution?”

The day I stop asking myself that is the day our country no longer has a fighting chance.

Viva la revolucion!

Oh, and by the way, what should I ask the PTO for? They didn’t specify how much money they had, so assuming their budget is nominal (I’d say $2000 or less) and knowing that I have a decent yet slightly older laptop, a mediocre DLP projector that works fine, a set of CPS Remotes that are on loan until someone asks for them (which no one has or did even once last year) and a good internet connection.

So for what do I beg and plead?

Today began my blogging experiment with my students. I thought this through carefully to try and make it as smooth as possible, especially considering I am dealing with sixth graders. Here is how it went…

1. Most of my sixth graders do not have email addresses. If they do, they don’t understand the syntax of an email address to remember it correctly. I got a lot of www.myemail@hotmail.com type entries. So to combat this, I enlisted in Hosted Gmail‘s then-Beta test and they gave me 2500 email addresses at christophercraft.com. Email problem solved.

2. So today, I had kids working in groups on a podcast radio commercial they will record and we’ll publish down the line. Then I individually called kids up and gave them email addresses that match the login they use here at school. When they enroll here they are given a permanent number, the last six of which are their login. So now I have nearly 100 emails at christophercraft.com that read like this… 123456@christophercraft.com. No personally identifiable information whatsoever. COPPA happy.

3. Then I sent them to my Spanish website to register there using the brand new email address. Most made it through with no problem, since it was so easy.

4. I then sent them to the Drupal site to register there. More confusion than I was expecting, but they muddled through.

5. The hang ups were typically handled by other group members, especially if I enlisted help from someone who had successfully navigated the process.

So so far, so good. They are all registered on three websites with the same information that they theoretically cannot forget since it isn’t arbitary like a username. This is info I can pull up if they have trouble.

I have to be honest, this was exhausting. I have to do this again tomorrow for my second day of kids. I am beginning to wonder how worth it this is. I say that because I get new kids every nine weeks!! That means another day of this in a litlte over a month and a half.

Four times a year? This would be a no-brainer if my kids stayed with me for the entire year, but that’s not the way it works with my subjects (Spanish and Latin).

I have been surprised at the number of kids that don’t know what a blog is. I tell them it’s like a diary that you publish. Bad explanation since you typically put personal information in a diary.

I don’t mind training them, but they only have me a few more times. Literally I think they come back to me 19 more times total.

Sometimes trying to be revolutionary is draining on the energy levels. I hope this thrives. That would make it worth it.

The day they realize they don’t have to be consumers of the Internet, but rather that they can be contributors will be the day I chock this up as a success.

UPDATE: Fixed a link or two.