Patrick Coleman’s “learning studio” concept earned top honors in a statewide competition of science teachers and now he has a $7500 grant in make it happen.
Coleman, a 2009 EdTech graduate, was nominated by Euclid, Ohio, schools chief Joffery Jones as a reward for using his EdTech skills in teaching colleagues how to teach in a Moodle-based hybrid environment. Only later did Coleman realize the nomination honor came with a 14-page application that he had to fill out.
When he won the lauded Arthur Holden Jennings Excellence in Science Teaching Award—the first time ever for a Euclid teacher—school board member Kent Smith called him in a blog “the best science teacher in the state.”
Wow, that’s enough energy to make any chemistry teacher’s test tubes boil.
The vision that turned the heads of judges in the Arthur Holden Jennings grant awards included student-created pod- and vod-casts, tutorials, demonstrations, and other types of instructional videos that effectively broadcast artifacts of learning to the world.
“You can factor out chemistry and factor in any discipline,” he says. “Videos foster deep reflection on the content because it puts students into the shoes of the teacher. It’s easy to put your name on a paper seen only by the teacher, but YouTube is like the six o’clock news. If you knew your work was going to be on the six o’clock news, you’d put more into it.”
And they do, he says.
Ironically, all of this enthusiasm comes from a reluctant learner. The transformation started almost imperceptibly in the Fall of 2008 when a skeptical Patrick Coleman took Chareen Snelson’s YouTube for Educators class.
He was not convinced at first—for one thing, he was nervous about unblocking YouTube in the school district—but he said she never pushed her opinions on him; she just let him learn. A year or so later, after he’d completed the master’s program, he was reflecting on what he’d learned and—what do you know?—ideas began to congeal in his head, and so he started teaching those principles to his high school chemistry students, slowly at first and optionally, in case he encountered some skepticism.
Boy-oh-boy, did he!
Up to a third of his chemistry students wanted no part of it. They wanted to write lab reports the traditional way, the way their older siblings had, and perhaps their parents had, so he let them. But then something interesting happened. That number dwindled to perhaps 10 percent because many of the hold-outs liked the work their early-adapter classmates were doing and wanted to publish video lab reports on YouTube, as well. So, heave-ho to the old days of traditional lab reports.
Converting students and colleagues—and himself, as it turns out—to 21st century learning processes is something like “luring a scared rabbit out of a bush. You don’t want to make any sudden movements.”
“I am thrilled with the education I got at Boise State because it positioned me so well to what I’m doing now,” he said. “Dr. Snelson and Dr. Rice really had a major impact on me and on my teaching and tech integration practices.” And, he added, he would never have been considered for an honor like the Arthur Holden Jennings Award were it not for the Boise State EdTech program.
“I proudly preach the Boise State gospel way out here in northeast Ohio.”
Amen, brother.
NOTE: Some of Patrick’s students’ projects are posted at www.youtube.com/colemanchemistry and more will become available as he gets waivers from parents.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
State taps expertise of EdTech professor
The state of Idaho has again called on the EdTech Department for expertise and leadership.
Idaho Governor Butch Otter has asked former EdTech chair Lisa Dawley to serve on the Idaho Education Network’s Strategic Planning Committee.
The state has already spent millions of dollars on IEN infrastructure, which eventually expects to connect every school in Idaho with high-speed broadband services and increase instructional opportunities at even the smallest and most remote communities.
Dawley hopes to create a holistic plan that brings together a variety of stakeholders interested in “improving learning outcomes and re-engaging students, teachers, parents and the larger community in our educational evolution.”
This is the second major initiative in which the state of Idaho has called on Boise State’s EdTech Department for expertise and leadership. In 2010, department chair Kerry Rice completed two years of work on standards and an endorsement for K-12 online teachers in the state. The Idaho Legislature approved the endorsement and supporting standards last spring.
Dawley and other IEN committee members are expected to craft one-, three-, five- and seven-year plans to drive growth in educational opportunities and innovation through IEN.
Idaho Governor Butch Otter has asked former EdTech chair Lisa Dawley to serve on the Idaho Education Network’s Strategic Planning Committee.
The state has already spent millions of dollars on IEN infrastructure, which eventually expects to connect every school in Idaho with high-speed broadband services and increase instructional opportunities at even the smallest and most remote communities.
Dawley hopes to create a holistic plan that brings together a variety of stakeholders interested in “improving learning outcomes and re-engaging students, teachers, parents and the larger community in our educational evolution.”
This is the second major initiative in which the state of Idaho has called on Boise State’s EdTech Department for expertise and leadership. In 2010, department chair Kerry Rice completed two years of work on standards and an endorsement for K-12 online teachers in the state. The Idaho Legislature approved the endorsement and supporting standards last spring.
Dawley and other IEN committee members are expected to craft one-, three-, five- and seven-year plans to drive growth in educational opportunities and innovation through IEN.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Marie was Number 3
I turn my attention this week to Marie Lawrick, who graduated from the EdTech master’s program last May. There are two reasons why I’ve spotlighted her on center stage.
First, most of our online students live outside of Idaho and Marie lives just down the road, just a few miles west of Boise. Second but much more important is the revelation that Marie Lawrick is the third generation of her family to graduate from what is now Boise State University.
Number 2
Her mother, Jean Crumb, was Number 2. She graduated in the early ‘80s from what was then Boise State College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and has worked with special education students in the Boise School District for more than a decade.
Number 1
Marie’s grandmother, Mary Dixon, was Number 1. She married in 1929 and worked as a secretary and bookkeeper to put her husband through a master’s program in divinity and then, as so many women do, put herself on hold until her mid-fifties when the kids were in their teens and she had time on her hands. By then, the family had moved to Boise, so she attended education classes at what was then Boise Junior College until she qualified for a state teacher’s license. She started teaching at Cole School, which was then way out in the country. The old brick building with its iconic bell tower was razed a few years ago.
And so that’s how Marie Lawrick became Number 3. Unlike most other EdTech students, Marie is not a classroom teacher; instead, she uses her ed-tech skills as a program evaluator and grant writer for a couple of nonprofits, one working in the performing arts and the other with refugees.
“Everything I do, everything I write reflects what I learned (in EdTech) from John Thompson (in EDTECH 505) and Janet Worthington (EDTECH 551),” she said in a recent telephone conversation.
I’ll remember Marie Lawrick for quite another reason.
In more than a decade at Boise State, I have often been thanked for my help as an adviser, lavished with appreciative words, and often hugged at graduation, but only Marie Lawrick has demonstrated her appreciation (or was it simply joy for being finished?) with a quick kiss on the cheek.
Check out Marie’s short video on the three generations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCkK8nbodoA&feature=player_embedded >.
FYI
Boise Junior College was initially called Boise College when it became a four-year school in 1965; it became state-owned and was renamed Boise State College in 1969, and gained university status and renamed Boise State University in 1974.
The link below provides a picture of the Boise Junior College campus, circa 1950s. The campus then consisted of two buildings. The building in the lower center at the time was the classroom building but is now the Administration Building. The campus today is crowded with buildings. The land north of the river is still a city park, but University Drive is no longer the southern boundary of campus, which is now twice as long (left to right) as shown here. PHOTO courtesy of Albertson Library Digital Archive.
http://digital.boisestate.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/archives&CISOPTR=485&CISOBOX=1&REC=3
First, most of our online students live outside of Idaho and Marie lives just down the road, just a few miles west of Boise. Second but much more important is the revelation that Marie Lawrick is the third generation of her family to graduate from what is now Boise State University.
Number 2
Her mother, Jean Crumb, was Number 2. She graduated in the early ‘80s from what was then Boise State College with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and has worked with special education students in the Boise School District for more than a decade.
Number 1
Marie’s grandmother, Mary Dixon, was Number 1. She married in 1929 and worked as a secretary and bookkeeper to put her husband through a master’s program in divinity and then, as so many women do, put herself on hold until her mid-fifties when the kids were in their teens and she had time on her hands. By then, the family had moved to Boise, so she attended education classes at what was then Boise Junior College until she qualified for a state teacher’s license. She started teaching at Cole School, which was then way out in the country. The old brick building with its iconic bell tower was razed a few years ago.
And so that’s how Marie Lawrick became Number 3. Unlike most other EdTech students, Marie is not a classroom teacher; instead, she uses her ed-tech skills as a program evaluator and grant writer for a couple of nonprofits, one working in the performing arts and the other with refugees.
“Everything I do, everything I write reflects what I learned (in EdTech) from John Thompson (in EDTECH 505) and Janet Worthington (EDTECH 551),” she said in a recent telephone conversation.
I’ll remember Marie Lawrick for quite another reason.
In more than a decade at Boise State, I have often been thanked for my help as an adviser, lavished with appreciative words, and often hugged at graduation, but only Marie Lawrick has demonstrated her appreciation (or was it simply joy for being finished?) with a quick kiss on the cheek.
Check out Marie’s short video on the three generations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCkK8nbodoA&feature=player_embedded >.
FYI
Boise Junior College was initially called Boise College when it became a four-year school in 1965; it became state-owned and was renamed Boise State College in 1969, and gained university status and renamed Boise State University in 1974.
The link below provides a picture of the Boise Junior College campus, circa 1950s. The campus then consisted of two buildings. The building in the lower center at the time was the classroom building but is now the Administration Building. The campus today is crowded with buildings. The land north of the river is still a city park, but University Drive is no longer the southern boundary of campus, which is now twice as long (left to right) as shown here. PHOTO courtesy of Albertson Library Digital Archive.
http://digital.boisestate.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/archives&CISOPTR=485&CISOBOX=1&REC=3
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Look for our new web site, tell us what you think
The statement is ironic but true. About the only thing that’s consistent in technology is change, and so it is with the EdTech Department’s web site. It will change sometime today, though no man knows the hour.
But I can tell you WHAT will change.
Just about everything.
The new web site has some interesting new features. For example, when readers go to the Master of Educational Technology page, they’ll see a billboard of important benefits and features at a glance—things investigators want to know—such as:
• Accreditation,
• Number of credits,
• The no-GRE-requirement,
• Totally online, etc.
The billboard changes every few seconds. Readers can also click on tabs to move the messages across the screen more quickly. The page also has an on-demand video and the M.E.T.’s curriculum at a glance.
The first thing current students will notice is the absence of the three colored bars that trigger drop-down menus. The drop-down menus are gone, too. Instead, web users will find a nice, complete menu at the bottom of each page. Once we all get used to the newness, navigation should be fast and easy.
When the new web site is launched, we invite you to explore it and tell us what you think. What works well for you? What doesn’t? Projects of this size make perfection unlikely, so help us out and tell us what you think.
Send comments to jfoster@boisestate.edu and I'll pass them along. Thanks.
But I can tell you WHAT will change.
Just about everything.
The new web site has some interesting new features. For example, when readers go to the Master of Educational Technology page, they’ll see a billboard of important benefits and features at a glance—things investigators want to know—such as:
• Accreditation,
• Number of credits,
• The no-GRE-requirement,
• Totally online, etc.
The billboard changes every few seconds. Readers can also click on tabs to move the messages across the screen more quickly. The page also has an on-demand video and the M.E.T.’s curriculum at a glance.
The first thing current students will notice is the absence of the three colored bars that trigger drop-down menus. The drop-down menus are gone, too. Instead, web users will find a nice, complete menu at the bottom of each page. Once we all get used to the newness, navigation should be fast and easy.
When the new web site is launched, we invite you to explore it and tell us what you think. What works well for you? What doesn’t? Projects of this size make perfection unlikely, so help us out and tell us what you think.
Send comments to jfoster@boisestate.edu and I'll pass them along. Thanks.
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