innovation3

Here’s a glimpse of my K12 Online Conference 2009 presentation, Slippery Rocks & Hard Places. You can view the whole presentation on Thursday, December 10, 2009. Enjoy!

Teaser ~ Slippery Rocks & Hard Places: Twelve Bridges and Learning Matters from Dennis Richards on Vimeo.

I have been in a number of forums where the subject of backchanneling for learning in the classroom has been mentioned. I personally use it all the time in exactly the same way Dana Boyd does. It has dramatically increased my learning power. See the excerpt from her blog post below. I also Scott Snyder’s presentation at K12OnlineConference.org 2008. Hope this helps you move beyond confusion.

Backchannel

Backchannel is the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks. The term was coined in the field of Linguistics to describe listeners’ behaviours during verbal communication, Victor Yngve 1970.
The term “backchannel” generally refers to online conversation about the topic or the speaker. Occasionally backchannel provides audience members a chance to fact-check the presentation.
First growing in popularity at technology conferences, backchannel is increasingly a factor in education where WiFi connections and laptop computers allow students to use ordinary chat like IRC or AIM to actively communicate during class.

Blog Post on Backchanneling

Dana Boyd’s Blog apophenia :: making connections where none previously existed

I want my cyborg life
Excerpt: There’s no doubt that I barely understood what the speaker was talking about. But during the talk, I had looked up six different concepts he had introduced (thank you Wikipedia), scanned two of the speakers’ papers to try to grok what on earth he was talking about, and used Babelfish to translate the Italian conversations taking place on Twitter and FriendFeed in attempt to understand what was being said. Of course, I had also looked up half the people in the room (including the condescending man next to me) and posted a tweet of my own.
But, of course, the attack was not actually about the reality of my internet habits but the perception of them. There’s no doubt that, when given a laptop in a lecture setting, most people surf the web, check email, or play video games. Their attention is lost and they’ve checked out. Of course, there’s an assumption that technology is to blame. The only thing that I really blame said technology for is limiting doodling practice for the potential future artist (and for those of us who still can’t sketch to save our lives). Y’see – I don’t think that people were paying that much attention before. Daydreaming and sketching (aka “taking notes”) are not particularly new practices. Now the daydreamer might just be blogging instead.

K12OnlineConference.org 2008 Presentation

Back-channels in the Classroom

Scott H. Snyder Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, USA
Blog: http://thespian70.blogspot.com/
Bio: http://k12online08presenters.wikispaces.com/Scott+Snyder
Bio: Scott, a graduate of Bowling Green State University (Ohio) with a B.S. in Education, has been teaching for 15 years. A member of the English
Department at Cedar Cliff High School, Camp Hill, PA, USA, Scott teaches Theater, American Literature, and AP Language and Composition.
Presentation Description: Backchanneling, traditionally an online discussion running alongside a live presentation, is a way to engage all students in classroom activities, including students who are normally non-participants. Issues and student needs that lead me to the technique, the educational
relevance of the process, backchanneling services (including possibilities and limitations of several), and example activities will all be addressed in this presentation.
Post By Dean Shareski ⋅ on K12OnlineConference.org 2008 October 29, 2008

Looking to improve my authority. I’ve written 106 posts (this is 107). And there are a total of 103 comments. Seems to me my ranking on somebody’s list will drop in proportion to the PCR (posts/comments ratio). So I’m looking for lots of one word comments to boost my authority. Comments like Funny! or Awesome! maybe Humorous! Of course, if you want to write different words or phrases or more, go for it. To encourage engagement, I thought I’d present something light and funny. So here goes…  Don’t forget to comment.

Thanks to Dilbert.com for the comic.

Our humanity gets lost in the hubbub of life. Thank you to Marco Antonio Torres for bringing this video to my attention. Engage, challenge and inspire students by allowing this art into their lives.

James “Little Man” Presley

To all the educators across the world:  What does this September mean to you?

In September 1970 I began my career as an educator in Massachusetts as a high school English teacher in a parochial (Catholic) school for girls in South Boston, Cardinal Cushing High School. Subsequently, I started school in September over the years in a variety of other places.

• North Andover, MA as a High School English Teacher
• Wayland, MA as a High School English Teacher
• Hopkinton, MA as a Junior-Senior High School English Department Head
• Harvard University Graduate School of Education as a Teacher on Sabbatical and graduate student
• Andover-Lawrence, MA as Director of the Collaborative School Project
• Nashua, NH as Educational Supervisor
• Reading, MA as Assistant Superintendent
• Reading, MA as Associate Superintendent
• Falmouth, MA as Superintendent

Today, September 1, 2008, thirty-eight years after my first September as an educator, I will am not be starting school. For a variety of reasons I have decided to leave full-time employment as a public school educator in Massachusetts. The loss I feel is palpable. I will miss my colleagues. Good friends in Falmouth need to focus on the new school year, not me. I will miss the students and their families. They will be busy this week adjusting to the new school year after a beautiful Cape Cod summer. I will miss the people of the community. They have generous hearts and I will never forget their spirit of community.

What the future holds remains to be seen. My professional life feels like a puzzle right now. All the pieces are scattered about. Over the next 12 months I will continue to learn and teach as I always have, but now I have to discover new spaces where that can take place. So far five themes seem to be emerging: Technology Enhanced Learning; Family; Poetry; Skillful Teaching and Learning; Influence and Advocacy. We’ll see.

Tomorrow I will publish my first post of the new school year. True, I am not going to be associated with a school district this year, but since my heart and mind will always be devoted to working with educators to understand what we do well and how we can do better, I will continue to organize my life around the school year.

In the coming months I am going to work on finding ways to have conversations and establish connections with educators who have interests similar to mine. To that end, I plan to write more, using this blog to publish, and I hope to expand the number of people who subscribe to and comment on my posts. I want to nurture a community of like-minded educators using all the tools Web 2.0 provides. This is going to be an adventure that I will share with you at innovation3 and other spaces I will introduce you to over the year. I hope you will visit often and participate in what I hope will become a community of learners.

So until tomorrow…. Learn. Communicate. Collaborate. Create. Share.

Retirement Announcement (Click to read.)

Farewell Letter (Click to read.)

Essential Question: How would classrooms be different if students were asked by teachers to create and publish on the web videos similar to those done by Common Craft? If you know of a classroom any place in the world (regardless of the language) were this is happening, please share your story in the comments below this post.

Lee LeFever & Sachi LeFever have produced another Google How-To video. Today, August 26, 2008, they released Google Reader in Plain English (1:05 minutes).

I think this video is a nice complement to another production Lee & Sachi did for Google: Google Docs in Plain English (2:50 minutes).

After watching these two In Plain English videos (only 4:00 minutes of your time!), a student should be able to experiment with these free, useful, online tools. (I suspect a teacher could tap student curiosity and inventiveness by inviting students to produce similar explanatory videos.)

But that’s not all…

Lee and Sachi have created many other videos. Here’s one that many teachers and others interested in the presidential election process should watch and share with students, colleagues and friends: Electing a US President in Plain English (3:43 minutes). If you are trying to challenge and engage students in the elections, this video will help kick start the conversation in your classroom.

You can find other Common Craft videos here.

Administrators, teachers, parents, students, tap into the power of learning and doing on the internet.