But Not Least... Spinning a Software Web

But Not Least...

Spinning a Software Web

Does your software web support and extend teacher learning?

Software is essential to a school's technology program. The software web, the installed "software toolkit" and the use made of it by teachers, defines and controls the program as much as anything else. Most schools have taken advantage of the local, state and federal funds supporting per pupil software purchases. Many schools have taken advantage of software toolkits shipped with generations of new computers. Many classroom computers contain applications gathered at conventions and trade shows or purchased at the local outlet store. No matter what the hardware profile, the software profile of many schools is fairly solid.

Solid - as in the feeling a has after a too-large midday meal of .

Schools and faculty can sit comfortably at the technology table when they know that "tools for any task" are readily available. Is this, however, a false confidence? The current and recurring outcry for more professional development often boils down to a desire for tools training. Aware that the teachers are not, in fact, using the often extensive software toolkit available to them, technology departments and department heads are bemoaning a lack of interest and the lack of incentive and time for effective training sessions.

Putting aside the cart-before-the-horse nature of this plea (the learning task before the tool, please), let's take a look at the root of the real problem: the makeup and use of the software toolkit itself. Large or small, a software web is only as useful as it is used to improve learning and instruction.

Guiding Principles of the The Software Web:

Toolkits contain both Required and Optional tools.

Teachers are confident with software they use repeatedly.

Tools can not be separated from use of tools: software tools are used Actively or Passively.

Teachers who become confident Active users teach other teachers.

Confident users envision new uses of Active tools.

Active software tools gain in value when they "connect" to other tools.

New uses of Active software are followed by a search for new tools; students are often the impetus.

The new tools are not necessarily better tools; their value lies in being different tools for different goals.

New tools require new methods.

Connect to the Internet and Intranet.

Assessment of the software web needs to be ongoing.

Let's take a closer look.

Mrs.J. has been a popular and successful English teacher for 25 years. Her school has just converted to digital grade reporting, e-mail for internal communications, (voice mail for external communications), and Microsoft Office as a standard on all desktop and laptop computers. Her students are in the new laptop program and she has had a school laptop since January of the previous year. She has used it to write an occasional letter, to explore her passion (quilting) on the Internet at school, and to communicate with her teaching team and administrators. She now must login to the school network to access all internal information and to submit her grade report forms.

I. Toolkits contain both Required and Optional tools.

Schools require teachers to use a set of software (or online) tools in order to manage the non-instructional business of teaching: assessment, planning, communication. Specific examples would include a grade report writing system (word processing, database, online template, client-side software), e-mail, attendance, lesson planners, possibly web page templates for posting assignments. Because these tools are required, they are used repeatedly, and failure to develop the skills necessary for their use is not an option. All of the Required tools develop:

Do It Skills: "How to use a specific software tool" skills

See It - Read It - Classify It - Name It : Generic skills that are cross platform and useful in multiple applications. This is the key.

The teacher is given a powerful leg-up on the ladder to integration by being Required to use these tools.

Teachers have the option of using these and other software and web-based tools for instruction. Optional tools are often purchased by the school or district, suggesting that their use is, if not required, at least recommended. However, it is exactly this toolkit that teachers (as many as 70%) report not using for instruction. On the other hand, it is this optional toolkit that propels the novice technology integrator toward the Mindset for Adventure.

Take a look at our visualization of a contemporary school Software Web. Optional tools play an increasingly large role in the classroom of the creative teacher, forming the core of instructional technology. Skills developed by Required tools are transferred to and enhanced by use of Optional tools, resulting in new uses of new tools.

Note also the two Required tools on the outside level of the web. These are a very real factor in the future of k-12 education and, although they are a high-tech solution to information and content delivery, they represent not growth of skills, but an end of skills development. As they become powerful players in the toolkit, the Mindset for Adventure will decline.

That warning aside, how does a teacher move along the web toward the Mindset for Adventure? And what can be done to make this happen more often?

Mrs.J. enjoys writing grade reports with the new system. She has always keyboarded well, so entering comments is not a problem. The reports look good and are easily edited. She worries, however, about her colleagues who never learned to type. Entering lesson plans into the new curriculum planner is also a concern - it takes time that she did not spend when she entered her plans in a dog-eared plan book. She has noticed that her students keyboard eagerly (most of them); they have urged her to allow them to send her their essays over the school network.

II. Teachers are confident with software they use repeatedly.

Confidence with software is developed by learning the ins and outs of the tools. We have written about this in But not Least...The Mindset for Adventure, where we identify four levels of skill-building, the last being the Mindset for Adventure. We have also identified 9 Essential Skills for the computer using teacher, which we underscore in our workshop called "The Rule of 3 x 3". Confidence is built as users move through our 4-step progression. At every step (and every step is important), repeated use of the same application and frequent use of related applications underscores skills and nudges the user toward success at the next level. The teacher will move through the four levels with repeated use of software applications with which she feels confident, as long as the tool is up to the task. (Note: we are not using the word comfortable. For our discussion of the difference, see But not Least...Dis What?).

What this suggests for the school is that the size and use made of the Required and Optional toolkits are critical to their value. A weak, or no, Required toolkit will set the teacher afloat, with no base for the first, repetitive learning steps. Too many and disparate Optional tools results in disparate learning experiences. Teachers will not return to a core of tools often enough to gain confidence. Nor will they advance to levels two and three by transferring skills and understanding from the Required to the Optional tools. Too few challenging Optional tools blocks the teacher's desire to move forward toward integration skills - towards the Mindset for Adventure.

How does a school determine the optimum size of its toolkit and select the best tools? It is important for a school to analyze the software tools available to the teacher with this question in mind:

Is the tool used actively or passively?

Microsoft Word intrigues Mrs.J. At her students' urging, she explores the editing and comment tools. When a workshop is offered locally, she attends. Although she has misgivings, she works with IT to enable students to submit essays to her through the network. Sometimes she prints the essays, sometimes she edits them digitally. She has signed up for a workshop in using Word with e-Texts. A colleague noticed her work recently and commented upon the new skills Mrs.J. had learned. Can you do this...? he asked. Mrs.J. had not reflected upon her new skills.

III. Tools can not be separated from use of tools; software tools are used Actively or Passively

Passive use of software requires only a minimum of skill. At most, the 9 Essential Skills are required. Generally, only 2 skills are required: The Click and the Click-and-Drag. Examples of software tools that require only passive use are "click to enter" grade book or checklist grade reporting applications and most curricular software used for reinforcement, drill, or tutorial learning (the teacher literally "watches and records" student use). Many Teacher Tools software applications offer templates that make it possible to use the tools passively as well, allowing the teacher to translate old worksheets into digital form. Passively used tools are technological dead ends.

Active use not only requires all Essential Do It skills, but also the reinforcement of See It - Read It - Classify It - Name It skills and the development of Think About It - Problem Solving Skills.

Basically, teachers need to generate, evaluate and plan in order to use Active tools. These are confidence building activities in and of themselves. Notice that most of the basic "suite" tools are Active tools: word processing, databasing, spreadsheeting, draw/paint. Additionally, a school-provided web page template requires Active use (which is why many schools are making these Required tools).

Aside: You might wonder why we do not include Presentation tools (eg. PowerPoint) at this level. The reason is this: PowerPoint (and Hyperstudio, AW Presentation, KidPix...) are aggregate tools. They assume and require basic skills learned at an inner level of the web. The same argument could be made for the Graphical Organizer, but Inspiration (for example) contains an independent toolkit that can be used with little knowledge of multimedia or presentation ware.

What is interesting to us is that most of the Required Software toolkit (as is indicated on our focus visualization - Required Tools) also requires Active use by teachers. Moreover, the skills developed by all of these Required tools extend into Optional tools that teachers use Actively. The energy contained in the red links, the bouncing of ideas represented by those lines, is learning. This then, is key to the bridging process - Require teachers to use Active tools and supply Active tools for them to use instructionally.

We draw your attention again to the Required Tools diagram. Note the dead ends - the one-way arrows. Software that feeds only out is not only Passive, it is contributing nothing to the technology learning process of the teacher or the student.

Mrs.J. learns to use Word more actively. She uses it with her English class to teach and explore poetry, prepare outlines, and collaborate on a close reading of Faulkner. She uses tables for assignments, makes web pages with the Save to Web feature, inserts clip art images and uses Word Art to spice up her assignment sheets. She has begun to teach her curious colleague how to do these things. Together they create a web-based study guide for their Shakespeare play. He connects her with a colleague who has become an expert with the scanner and OCR. She begins to convert her old materials into digital documents.

IV. Teachers who become confident Active users teach other teachers.

This is not a discussion of this phenomenon, which has been observed so often that it does not need to be documented here. The point is that confidence leads to more use of an Active software toolkit, beginning with the Required tools and extending to the Optional tools. As teachers teach others, the use of the software toolkit grows. Individually and often in groups, teachers move out of the center of the web.

Note, however, that one of the precipitating factors in the case of Mrs.J. was attendance at an external workshop. Learning from and with colleagues from other schools is an important "jump start" for many teachers. For many, being in the position of student is uncomfortable. They would rather do this with strangers than with close colleagues. Returning, they take on the role of "teacher" with renewed confidence. This is an important thing for a school to take advantage of. As the school supports this fluid growth model, by encouraging both the learning and the teaching, their software web will become populated by curious and confident teachers.

A rip in the web can occur when a teacher returns from a workshop confident to use and teach a specific application or skill - but finds that it is not in the school's toolkit. In order to avoid "computer frustration," a school must be able to expand the toolkit during the course of the school year. A school that has successfully engaged teachers in the learning process is, like Charlotte, casting babies into and even beyond the software web. This is a powerful process, and underscores the fact that the software web itself must be:

easily navigated in all directions

strong enough to accept new users

dynamic - able to grow and shrink as need arises

Mrs.J. is now using Word to create web-supported lessons for her English class. One day she notices a template for a newsletter. She begins to plan a lesson in which her students will create a class newsletter centered around the plot, themes and historical background of novel she is teaching. She enlists the help of the IT staff in setting up the logistics of the project. She uses her experience with in-class drama and other group work to help her structure the cooperative project; she uses her existing assignment sheets and study questions as a guide, but she expands this with a web page of resources.

V. Confident users envision new uses of Active tools.

Teacher use begins with templates and lesson plans (hard copies or "found lesson plans"). This is to be encouraged; most good educational software packages come with lesson plan templates. However, as the teacher grows in confidence, she begins to envision uses of the software that are beyond lesson templates, uses driven not by last year's lesson plans but by the curricular content and goals of this year's class. The teacher is moving into the third level of skill, Think About It - Problem Solving.

Mrs. J has learned to use the Comment and other editing features in Word. She understands that digital text is a powerful tool in the classroom. She has learned the power of tables, an essential lesson. She can import and manipulate clip art, another powerful lesson. In exploring templates, she is envisioning new uses for the tool - student-centered uses.

Mrs. J. is using an Active tool very actively. She is using her school supported network (even if it is a floppy disk network) effectively. She is ready for the next step - guiding the educational use of the tool by her students.

The newsletter is a great success. For the current reading, a more complex novel, her students are required to use Inspiration for character analysis and essay planning. One day she notices that Inspiration also can save in HTML format. Intrigued, she creates a simple plot web and exports it - as a web site. She uses this to structure a take-home lesson on the relationship between character, plot, tone and theme. Mrs.J. realizes suddenly that she has discovered an alternate format for students to demonstrate understanding. She redesigns her final assessment for the current novel; students no longer write an essay, but create, using Inspiration, a website reflecting their understanding of the growth of one of the main characters over the course of the novel. She uses Word to design a rubric to guide and assess them. The final projects and the rubrics are posted to the school's Intranet.

VI. Active software tools gain in value when they "connect" to other tools.

What does it mean for one software tool to "connect to" another? Software has a process use or a product use. Learning tasks contain both process and product components. If the learning task flow moves from one software tool with a process strength to another with a product strength, the software learning component is underscored. Furthermore, the process task, although often intellectually challenging, is seldom creative in nature. Mrs.J. is herself learning that creating is a powerful element of learning. Often, the best creating requires that more than one software tool be brought into the product toolkit.

Mrs. J. is using other tools when she uses Word Art and Tables from within Word. She is actually using a web editor when she uses the Save to Html option. Several tools are built into an "integrated" application such as Word or AppleWorks, making them powerful tools for the classroom.

Life beyond Word is going to be essential if Mrs.J. is going to continue to integrate technology into her English class. She will not desert her old friend, but she needs new friends.

Mrs.J's students, and their parents, are thrilled by the new website. This is a medium in which the students feel very comfortable; they are proud of their work. Why, they ask, can they not demonstrate their individual understanding of the personal essay form, the next unit, with music, video, photography, artwork and creative writing? How can Mrs.J. make this happen and maintain the integrity and high academic standards of the English program? A colleague suggests that she try one of the Microsoft tools she has not yet explored on her own: PowerPoint. Her students point her toward the world of MyJournal.com and show her sites that contain student videos.

VII. New uses of Active tools are followed by a search for new tools. Students are often the impetus.

Mrs.J's student are quicker to find new applications and digital tools on their own, especially online tools. These will probably be Internet-based tools - web pages, blogs, WIKI's, chat rooms, tag boards. Moreover, they are still watching TV, listening to (and downloading some) music files, and going to movies. Their medium of communication is changing - it is much less static and much more visual than the world of print.

Mrs. J. can choose to stay with print, she can repeat a successful excursion into a Word or web page project, or she can explore new tools.

If Mrs. J. is being urged forward by her students, the school needs to listen. This may mean extending her web to expose her to tools new to the school, or it may mean providing her with learning opportunities to extend her knowledge of existing tools.

Mrs.J. asks her IT staff to help her to use digital still and video cameras and video editing equipment. Her students storyboard "personal media essays" in Inspiration, then use the cameras, microphones, and scanners to gather content. They use Word to write content, which Mrs.J. edits. Some student use PowerPoint to create presentations. Others use iMovie, available in the media lab. Some create web pages; some do this in school, others at home. Two students create blogs. Mrs.J. has an overwhelming job of evaluation and assessment. Some of the projects are way off base; others are unacceptable in content; one is lacking. A few projects are excellent. The range is surprising to Mrs.J. She feels that the learning element, although affirming for the students, is weak in terms of the personal essay.

VIII. New tools are not necessarily better tools - their value lies in being different tools for different goals.

Mrs.J., if called upon to evaluate the success of this last learning experience, might well say that the new tools were not as good as the old tool - the word processed essay. However, in evaluating the entire experience, she may also find that the affirmation of learning is in the product and in exactly those qualities of the product that she found overwhelming: its possibilities for creativity and individualization. The flaw is not in the students' expression, but in her control of the project; not in the tool, but in her understanding of the limitations and strengths of the tool.

It is most likely that Mrs.J. will hunker down at this point. She needs to draw from her earlier successes some powerful lessons about how to structure a successful learning experience that employs new technology tools. In evaluating her earlier successes, she will find that she has employed new teaching methods - methods that should have been applied to this last assignment.

She also needs to gain some personal experience with iMovie, PowerPoint, blogs and web page design.

Following these projects, Mrs.J. and her school come face to face with some new questions:

The move from print to media is requiring that media creation and editing applications be available to her students, preferably during her class time - this will require a software and a hardware review

The 45 minute class period itself seems rather small - she raises the question of weekly extended class meetings in every department

The strong parental support and approval of the latest projects suggest to the school that it needs to reevaluate school-wide use of the Internet and the web server

Mrs.J. is approached by Arts and History teachers - is interdisciplinary work an option? What additional tools will be needed?

IX. New tools require new methods.

Mrs.J. has learned some powerful teaching lessons for the 21st century. In releasing her students from the confines of hard copies, word processed prints, and standard essay forms, she has moved them toward using technology to create learning. Were she to take a minute to evaluate and review her successful teaching methods, she would find that:

1. The assignment was structured by her (using a rubric); the goal was clear to all;
2. The most effective tools, hardware and software, were available to all.
3. Student planning was an important and very guided step.
4. Collaboration was encouraged, but also guided.
5. Content and presentation options were also guided - nothing was last minute on the student-side.
6. Written content was pre-edited, in class.
7. Non-written responses by students were give value, but quality was required.
8 . She, the teacher, knew what the product applications could do: she could guide the project process with this knowledge.
9. Students and parents are the audience for these projects.

The largest method change is the most profound. Mrs.J. is moving away from the teacher-centered and toward the more student-centered learning experience. She will not abandon print and word processing, but she has expanded her personal teaching model immensely through the use of technology.

How does this affect the school as a whole? Many ways. Mrs.J. may be required to file lesson plans. The format and content of these plans will change with new methods. This may surprise colleagues, administrators and parents. Many teachers adapting new methods may challenge the scheduling and course structure paradigms. Lastly, new methods mean new training. They are the primary and most important reason that professional development must be ongoing and well funded.

Of all tools used by students, Mrs.J. is most intrigued by blogging. She sets up her own blog to reflect upon the daily Shakespeare lesson and invites her students to comment. Most of them do. Grammar, however, is perplexing to Mrs.J. Her students are just not responding to either "write for grammar" or Warner's exercises. She explores the grammar and writing software available in the school, but finds it either too immature or too easy for her high school students. She decides to search the web. Here she finds many challenging exercises - enough for every level of student in her classes. She makes a web page pointing them to the URL's and providing specific instructions. One of the sites she finds is called Quia, where she learns she can make her own online exercises. She registers for the trial membership and creates three grammar quizzes, using her file of print tests as a guide. Her history teacher friend shows her a WebQuest he is using with his class. Mrs. J. finds a good quest to introduce students to Shakespeare's England - it is too late for this year, but she Bookmarks it to use next year.

X. Connect to the Internet and Intranet

Schools need to recognize that the Internet is a more than a huge web of information and computers. It is a part of every school's software toolkit. Mrs.J. learns, through exploration guided by a curricular ideas, that it is a powerful learning tool for grammar. Not only are the learning opportunities varied in scope, but at all levels her students are motivated to use the tool. Her job as a grammar teacher shifts from Assessment to Construction and Guide; in doing this job she extends and reinforces her web page development skills. Students assume the responsibility for exercise completion and repetition - self-assessment tasks.

Equally important is Mrs.J's extension of the software toolkit to include blogging, an online journal form, and the large library of WebQuests available on the Internet. In doing so, she is moving closer to a collaborative distance-learning model, one which she and other teachers will explore further should she be successful.

Quests that Mrs.J. builds herself and blogging software can be housed on the school Intranet server. This becomes a powerful tool for Mrs.J., who will eventually be encouraged to pursue web-based media distribution, file distribution and testing. Like other teachers, Mrs.J. has modified her understanding of technology's use in the classroom.

Mrs.J's evaluation of the grammar software did not go unnoticed. Her department undertook a thorough review of all software purchased to support the teaching of English. Most of it was found to be out of date, no longer supported by the new hardware, or just plain bad. At their urging, an evaluation form was created and the entire software toolkit was reviewed before the end of the teaching year. It did not surprise Mrs.J. that most of the tools had been removed from the computers over the summer. In their place were expanded tools and hardware for multi-media production, website design, and safe Internet access. She learned that some departments, such as French and Chemistry, had invested software funds in new technologies that would enable students to learn in ways previously not possible. These funds were made available when the English department reduced its application purchases to almost nothing.

XI. Assessment of the software web needs to be ongoing.

The software revolution in Mrs.J's school would not have been possible without three things:

a working program of evaluation, both of old and new purchases

input from the classroom teacher, both in evaluation and in purchase decisions

an administrative overview

In creating the evaluation tool, it is important to include websites and web-based tools as well as software applications. The evaluation must cover two levels: specific instructional/learning value AND value to the overall school toolkit. Practical questions, such as durability and compatibility, must be asked in addition to forward-looking questions, such as connectivity with other applications and export options. Lastly, the real or potential active use of the application must be measured. It goes without saying that software tools must be previewed or otherwise used as part of the evaluation.

This is a general guide:

Has it proved useful in the classroom? (get recommendations if possible)

Does it answer a specific curricular need? (name it)

Has it been used across the curriculum at one grade level? (which?)

Has it been used vertically (across grade levels)? (which?)

It is useful for both teachers and students?

Does its use encourage Discussion, Collaboration, Creativity, Discovery? (ask for specifics)

It is open-ended? Does it encourage the Mindset for Adventure? Does it encourage creativity?

Are tutorial or training materials readily available? (if web-based, include URL's) Is the Help menu indexed and can it be searched?

Does it print? (alas, necessary)

Can it generate .html, web-ready files or export to other applications in the schools software web?

Are the menus, windows and icons and work-flow consistent with patterns found in other software packages and web activities?

Does it do something easier, quicker, or better than any other application? (name and eliminate alternatives)

Is it cross platform (Mac and PC)?

Will it continue to run when hardware and operating systems are upgraded?

Will upgrades be available or, if not, will application skills be easily transferable?

Is the focus of the application education - not entertainment? If educational, is the pedagogy sound?

If web-based,

is a free alternative available?

is the home site "safe and appropriate" for students?

is an in-house installation possible?

is there a student record-keeping function?

if students must register, are COPPA restrictions and guidelines met?

is there an option to make student input "private" or by invitation only?

is the activity or lesson curricularly sound?

is collaboration or communication part of the activity or encouraged by it? Is it secure?

is the site developer sound in terms of educational interest? will the site be available for the entire school year?

Summary:

Mrs.J. is a mythical teacher and her growth is greatly compressed. Most teachers will take two or three years to grow in this way. However, they will grow - as long as the software web supports this growth. I am bothered by the blue tools at the outer level of the web. Return again to our visualization of the software web. These represent a very real trend in school-wide software management, brought about largely in response to NCLB, but also by the desire to centralize learning in response to state standards-based assessments. These are Required tools, but, unlike the "old fashioned" required tools, their use and implementation require little creativity or problem-solving on behalf of the teacher. These are powerful dead ends in terms of the Mindset for Adventure.

If you think about it, our model does suggest that less is more. But it also insists that Active software use can not happen without active learning. Not all teachers will be comfortable with this; but if a school or district becomes uncomfortable with Active learning, it is student learning (as well as teacher learning) that will suffer in the long run.

Click this spider to see Active teachers exploring the web - some get hopelessly turned around, some leave the web all together, but there is no doubt that learning, communication and individual extension are happening. This would be an exciting school in which to work!

E. Sky-McIlvain 3/14/04