Remixing 1:1

A week ago I didn't even know what they were called. I had seen one or two before, but I had no idea how big they had become. In fact, many people now consider remixing, or taking an existing work and adding your own take on it, an art form. As I sat there last week discussing the power of a "remix" at the Beyond Laptops Conference at Yokohama International School (YIS), I thought, yeah, they're cool, but how can I use them in the classroom?  Little did I know that my own students had been making one for me for the past month.  

On Wednesday morning, our team of 100 students filed into the grouproom for a "surprise" group homebase.  It was my birthday, so I suspected that something was up.  Ryan and AJ got up and stood in front of the group and said,  "We made this video for Mr. Riley's birthday. We hope you enjoy it."  



I was floored.  It's amazing that they were able to gather all those students and teachers, record the exact phrases they needed, and use nothing but a smartphone and a flip camera.  But that's not the point. The point is these kids spent all that time, energy, and effort to create something totally unique for me.   And while I'm still trying to figure out why those boys picked "Back in Black" by AC/DC, I was truly touched because it was a gift from the heart. 

It got me thinking about what a 1:1 laptop program is really about. We're in the midst of implementing one right now in the Middle School.  The 7th grade roll out is complete, and there's much to celebrate.  Our tech team designed a thoughtful and thorough "boot camp," and core teachers led subject-related modules with their students.  Their collective work and experience will help guide the rest of the school's roll out in August.  

In teams and in classes, it seems that many of our conversations are about the device.  At this point, they should be.  After all, when there are hundreds of laptops around the school, we all need to have common expectations.  Not only that, as teachers, we need to think about how we can use them in the classroom.  

When we get caught up focusing on the device though, we forget that a 1:1 program has to do with so much more.  With my birthday video, for example, it wasn't about Ryan and AJ's phone or camera features.  It was about how they used them to connect with others and tell a story.  It was about how they used them to connect with me.  In the end, "1:1" isn't between an individual and a device, "1:1" is between one individual and another individual.  And when they connect, ideas are shared, and learning grows.

Just by chance, on the very same day, I "met" Jabiz Raisdana, a colleague at UWC via Twitter.  Here's his take on technology and 1:1 that he posted on his must-read blog, Intrepid Teacher:

Technology shouldn’t be a gimmicky lure we use to “engage” kids.  We use it when we can, when we must, when it makes sense. Otherwise we talk about writing. We write. We explore. Engagement is about passion and love for what we do. It is about getting on the floor and talking to kids about their ideas and giving them immediate feedback. 1-1 means that we try to spend time with each student discussing their work, not speaking at a class about what they all should be doing. No amount of technology will motivate kids, if the pedagogy and the content and the teachers love for the material is not there.

Ryan, AJ, and their friends were motivated to create their video not because of technology.  It was because of story, a way to tell it, and an audience to share it with.  With the remixed 1:1, we'll have many more opportunities to communicate through a wider range of formats with a much greater audience.  Here's how my students and I were motivated to communicate this week through 1:1:

Confessions of a Nincomtweet

• My students wrote introductory "cover letters" to their 21st century pen pals at YIS, inviting them to read their blogs.  They have since exchanged back and forth emails and commented on each others' blogs.
• I tweeted out a picture of them blogging along with a thanks to the tech coaches for connecting our classes. Hours later, I heard back from all of the coaches thanking us instead.
• Grade 8 teachers responded to a Google survey providing critical questions and inspiring ideas for our upcoming labsites.
• I continued building my virtual PLC on Twitter by following colleagues near and far.
• Grade 6 teachers started crafting a sample persuasive essay on why bottled water is all washed up on a shared Google doc.

Sure, with each of these interactions, there are devices involved and software to learn.  As we learn them, I'm sure we'll stumble along the way, or we may even end up learning them from our students.   That's okay, because when we do, we'll be connecting with others, sharing ideas, and learning every step of the way.

Designing a Complete Curriculum

The crowd hushed while the orchestra pit came to life this past Thursday at Radio City Music Hall.  In no time at all, actors and dancers hit the stage to perform their vignettes.  It seemed like another typical day in the life of this iconic theatre, but this time the song and dance wasn't the most recent interpretation of an old musical.  Instead it was the launch of Samsung's new answer to the iPhone, the Galaxy 4S.

It's odd that a company would go to such lengths to announce a product to the world, but why shouldn't it?  After all, it has designed something amazing worth celebrating.  Tired of swiping your smartphone with your finger?  Well now you can use your eye.

You're probably wondering how this is relevant to teaching RLA.  Here's the thing. We're so busy teaching and assessing academic, discipline-based standards, we're forgetting one key component that enables the people at Samsung or any other innovative company to work their magic.  Design.  

There are lots of reasons why we should add design standards to our curriculum and teach to them more directly in our classes.  Here are just a few:

"Design" and "Create" are at Level Four on the DOK

• There's a lot more to design than meets the eye.  Steve Jobs, one of the most famous designers of all time, said, "Design is a not just what it looks like and feels like.  Design is how it works." His definition isn't just limited to the IKEA desk or iPhone.  It applies to meaning and understanding as well.  When we teach design and offer our students to use it when expressing their ideas, their learning is much deeper as a result.

• To design is to create.  When we create, we think across disciplines and take all of the learning into consideration before we put paint to canvas.

• By engaging in design, we practice and enhance other essential skills.  According to Frank Nuovo, former Vice President and Chief of Design at Nokia, design is about solving problems and creating solutions.  Not only that, good designers don't work in isolation.  Relying on sound interpersonal skills, designers collaborate with others which leads them to even better ideas.  

Quiz:  Match the Font

• Design is more crucial now than ever before.  As Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, puts it, there has been a "democratization of design." What was once reserved only for the financial elite or the highly skilled, design tools are now readily used by a larger population.  Just take a look at laptops, digital SLRs, smartphones, and the growing list of software and applications that run them.  Still not convinced?  Try out the quiz that Pink put out to his readers.  He claims that twenty-five years ago only the experts would've been right.  Now, most of us are (scroll down for the answers). As a result, the marketplace is increasingly more competitive, and design elements have become a game changer.

• Design elements enable us to communicate in ways that go well beyond words alone.  Sure, as RLA teachers, we focus on words as our medium, but in today's world, we understand the power of images.  But there are additional elements in design tools that enhance communication such as color, fonts, music, and layout.   

Simply put, if we choose not to include design in our teaching, we're missing the boat.  And when we miss the boat, our students are stranded as well.  With that in mind, here are some possibilities for our classrooms:

• Teach a design mini-lesson:  Take a design element and see how it might fit as a teaching point for a mini-lesson.  For example, as a reading response students can use color and shapes instead of words to capture the mood of a chapter.  They may also sketch objects from the text to represent symbols. 

• Evaluate real world design samples:  Have students become design critics when viewing a youtube clip, a trailer, a visual ad, Blog themes,  etc.  Students can explain what works and what doesn't work in terms of design elements.

• Use design-based tools with fixed templates:  Many tools offer preset templates that include effective design elements such as iMovie trailers, Prezis, Blogs, Pic Collage, Glogster, Keynote, even Microsoft Word and Powerpoint.  When students select templates have them explain their choices based on how the design elements enhance the meaning they are trying to convey.

• Teach toward design-based extension projects:  When students complete a Literature Circle book, extend their learning with projects that require purposefully-chosen design elements.  It could be a bumper sticker, a commemorative stamp, a monument, a theme quilt patch, you name (click here for a list of great ones).  Again have students explain their choices in terms of design as well as literary analysis.

Before you get started though, I have to warn you.  Many of our students have lost their innate willingness to design.  Gordon MacKenzie, a former creative director at Hallmark Cards, tells of his countless school visits where he asks students, "How many artists are there in the room?"  The responses are nearly always the same.  The kindergartners all raise their hands while by sixth grade, not a single student raises his hand.  

Here's why.  To design means to risk, and along with risk comes failure.  Many students are more concerned with "getting it right" than "trying it out."  It's not entirely their fault.  That's the way we've taught them. 

So why don't we model it by taking a risk and trying out some of these design ideas in our classrooms?  Who knows, we may be surprised with what we and our students create.  Whatever it'll be, it'll certainly be cause for celebration.  In the meantime, I'll check for availability at Radio City Music Hall.

Answers to the quiz:  1. b, 2. c, 3. a

The Art of a Duct Tape Tutorial

When Isabelle proclaimed that her 10th birthday party was going to be a duct tape party, I thought, What in the world? The last time I used duct tape was to put together cardboard boxes.  And with images of 4th grade girls taping together box after box in my head, I sat there shaking my head until Isabelle told me about all of the things you can make like wallets, belts, purses, and more just by using duct tape.

With time ticking away, and the party looming,  I had to go right to the experts to learn how to make duct tape essentials for Isabelle's party.   I went to YouTube.  My teacher was Ducttapecreations808, a girl whom I've never met nor ever will.  I don't even know her real name.  But with nearly 1 million hits and over 5,000 subscribers for her 78 videos, Ducttapecreations808 clearly knows what she's doing.  

Pressing play and pause over and over, I picked up each sticky step and tricky move in making a duct tape purse.  I replayed parts that I didn't understand, and in no time at all, I finished my first creation.  So that's how it went.  Purse after purse, I relied on Ducttapecreations808's reliable guidance.  My eventual success was a direct result of the upclose video, personal instruction, and ability to work at my own pace.

Video tutorials are nothing new for learning. They've been around for years, and they're my go to genre when trying to figure something out from how to use a Google function to choosing the right kind of kitchen knife.  Video tutorials have also made an impact on our profession as the idea of the flipped classroom has transformed some classes, albeit with mixed results.

This whole experience got me thinking.  Why don't we add the video tutorial to our list of 21st century genres to teach?  One obvious possibility is to have students choose something they're good at or something they love and have them make a tutorial on it.  This would replace the old "How to" presentation and raise it to a new level as students apply effective tutorial techniques (camera angles, introductions, conclusions, etc.) to make it stand out.

This idea is okay, but I think there's something even better.  At the end of a unit, students could pick their one technique "take away" to focus on in a tutorial.  They could show a before and after of their work and explain practical steps on how to incorporate the technique into the viewer's craft.   Not only would this reinforce their learning, they would also be sharing it out in a much more meaningful way than answering a question on a reflection sheet that only their teacher or parents end up reading.  Eventually, with a running list of tutorials, we can use them with students who are still struggling with concepts and techniques.  

Maybe I'm an idealist, but who knows, teaching students how to make video tutorials could lead them to having their own YouTube channels with loads of reading and writing tutorials and hundreds of subscribers just like Ducttapecreations808.

Teaching 21st Century "Genres"

"Just as we would rarely [teach] a unit or a lesson in any subject 

without incorporating some reading, we should also rarely do anything in school 

without incorporating technology—used powerfully and not trivially. 

If we do not do this, our kids will not be getting what they need from our education.”

--Marc Prensky

Blogs, tweets, text messages, status updates, Skype, Youtube, let's face it, people today are communicating in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago. In fact, we'd be hard-pressed to find another time in human history when there was such an explosion of new communication tools, and it doesn't seem like it will let up any time soon.

While many experts refer to these as Web 2.0 or 21st century "tools," I like to think of them as 21st century "genres." Like the more traditional genres we know and love, these genres have specific features, characteristics and rules that authors know and use to make their ideas stand out. As teachers of reading and writing, we must consider teaching to these genres in our classrooms. After all, our students are far more likely to become avid authors in these genres than they are in the traditional ones. 

With a quick Google search, you can find tons of "tools" out there that can help jazz up an idea or message (just check out the magic 8 ball message or the "cool links" geogreeting and the ninja message below), but these aren't really genres. According to Merriam-Webster, a genre is a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.


One genre that some of us are currently using with our students is the blog. With mini-lessons on commenting, adding videos and images, labeling posts, and ensuring that everything we publish passes through the POST Filter (Purpose, Offer new insight, Skillful writing, and The Core Values), we've added it to our Personal Essay unit in Grade 6.

With that model of teaching into a 21st century genre in mind, some of us recently sought out other genres that require students to apply effective conventions and communication techniques that emulate real-world 21st century genres. We didn't need to look far as our counterparts in the Intermediate School have used Fakebook, and we came across others like fake Twitter feeds, iPhone chats and Google stories. They were just what we were looking for as we asked our students to respond to their Greek mythology reading.

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Many of us use Facebook to connect with friends and family both near and far and share what's going on in our lives. And while students need to wait to create their own accounts, they can become familiar with the genre through Fakebook, a site where students can create a fake profile, friend list and string of status updates.

When we asked our students to pick a Greek mythology character and retell the myth from his/her point of view, we were impressed with what they came up with. Check out Bryanna E.'s sample on Pandora (click View Full Screen to remove the ads):

View Fullscreen | Create your own

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Twitter is another genre that has taken the world by storm. I have to admit that I'm more of a novice with this one, but every loyal user I know swears by it. Through Twitter, users are able to follow others (i.e. experts in their field) as they tweet out messages and announcements in 140 characters or less. There are also specific features with user names and hashtags that help users manage their tweets.

While the fake Twitter feed seemed to be a bit trickier than Fakebook, it worked for Claire R.:

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If you don't think students need to learn Twitter quite yet, how about iPhone chats? Chances are if they don't own an iPhone, they may know someone who does.

By focusing on how to write succinct messages with the abbreviated text language, they learn how this genre is unique from the rest (and how these conventions don't work in other forms of communication).

Here is AJ K's chat from Perseus to Persephone:

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Finally, with Google Story Builder, students can capture a group of characters' collaboration on a Google Doc.  Our students found this option to be the trickiest, but it is also one that leaves a lasting impression.  Here's my sample: 

Prometheus' Plan

I'm sure we'll come across more genres like this in the future, but for now, I know one thing is for sure: when our students sat down to try them out, they were engaging with the content like never before. Not only did they enjoy taking on the voices of the mythical characters, they knew the skills they were practicing would be useful to them. In short, the learning was relevant, purposeful, and, according to them, "fun."

So, consider trying one of these out. Add it to the possible repertoire of reader responses. Alternatively, if you know of another genre/site, leave a comment. One word of caution though. As with any technological project, be prepared for some unexpected hiccups along the way. Whatever you do, try it out yourself beforehand, and be sure to have a tech guru on speed dial. Thanks, Heather!

Common Craft Explanations
Web Tools 4U2 Use
Cool Tools for Schools
The Daring Librarian









Images from:

• http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/
• http://www.abcnews.go.com
• http://www.pressplay.co.ke/
• http://www.tusconsentinel.com
• http://www.geogreeting.com/
• http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/ninjatext.asp