Humanitas Unit first aftermath

In the brief time since the lessons described in the previous post, three teachers have come to me asking for copies of the Style Manual. This is the kind of grass-roots, bottom up proliferation we want to see happen.

Partnering with Humanitas Honors English/World History Team

Well, that was exciting! We just finished the Research Instruction component of this great collaborative unit that was designed by Aljean Ivory, Diana Lee, and Karen Magee.

I was just about ready to share two major resources with content-area teachers and their classes: the DMHS Research Process, and the DMHS Style Manual (not available on the Internet for copyright reasons).

And right at the point where I was looking for someone to collaborate with, all three of them came to see me after spending a day off-campus planning their Humanitas Unit on the Industrial Revolution. They wanted to know if I could quickly get them 200 copies of the DMHS Style Manual that I had just described to the English department.

They had decided they wanted me to teach the Research Process as part of this unit. Here's the Industrial Revolution Research Project assignment that Mrs. Lee gave in her Humanitas/Honors English 10A.

She also made extensive use of the DMHS Style Manual in her adaptation of the Research Project Steps.

Here are the PowerPoints of the three lessons I taught:

• How to Become a Google Expert
• Note Cards and Source Cards
• Web Site Evaluation

Identifying the Pieces of the Puzzle

I need to make a brief report to the faculty about how the Research Process is coming. It's a first introduction, and I've got about five or ten minutes. In all honesty, I'm just at the stage of defining the pieces of the puzzle. In this moment, there seem to be about eight or nine pieces that somehow interlock:

..

1. History of the project (Sept. 2002-present)
2. Choosing one Research Process Model
3. How to add skills each year
4. The skill lessons
5. Connecting with the standard curriculum
6. Collaboration (Classroom Teacher/Teacher Librarian)
7. 21st Century Learning Standards

8. Layering in Additional Levels

..

Briefly describing these pieces, and the first attempts to put them together, constitutes a snapshot of how the project is developing. What can I concretely offer the teachers I'm presenting to? Maybe I should just ask them before I start to be on the lookout for any piece of this puzzle that would be helpful to them, either now or in the future. Is there anything they would like to see delivered immediately that would make their life easier? Let me know so I can accelerate that piece, and also use the input to make the curriculum itself a truly collaborative project. Be sure they have the URL of the Wiki and this Blog, so they can access, print out, and/or use anything they see that they want to use immediately.

Splitting the Wikis

Hi! I think the presentation to the ILT went really well yesterday. One thing became clear to me -- the WASC Accreditation project and the Schoolwide Research Curriculum project needed to be split into two wikis, which I did today. The Research one is a public wiki. I made the WASC one private so we could conduct our business without publishing as we go. The separation was a little painful, and there is some recovery and repair to be done on both, but I think they will both grow to be more robust separately than they could have sharing the same space.

Update on the Research Process

Hi! I'm doing a brief presentation about the Research Process at 3:15 today, for the Instructional Leadership Team.

I'll show them the four elements I'm trying to weave together, spend a little time on the WASC Evidence Room, and then mainly focus on the Research Process, since this is the Instructional Leadership Team.

Marshall McLuhan used to make a distinction between Hot and Cool media. Hot media fill in all the dots and come at you strong, not leaving much space for user participation. Cool media leave a lot of space for the "audience's" imagination. I offer this project as a Cool Medium, leaving space for your imagination to fill in what's missing.

I'll let you know how it goes.

A Plunge into Web 2.0

It’s about seven weeks since the first post, below, and it’s about time to try the second. During the three week Winter Break (formerly known as Christmas vacation) that just ended I plunged into Web 2.0 with a vengeance. Some initial evidence can be seen in the margin of this Blog, under the heading “Ed’s Other Current Web Presence”. In addition to what's shown I also developed an iGoogle custom home page, as suggested in In Command by Williams and Loertscher.

But why? Beside the fact that it's fun to play, I try to keep it within a bigger picture.

As a reminder, the first posting was divided into four sections:
1. The Original Project
2. The Technology Dimension
3. Student Empowerment
4. Deep Learning

My plunge into Web 2.0 is within the domain of Section 2: The Technology Dimension. In playing with the technology I'm trying to make it work toward integration with the other three items: The Original Project, Student Empowerment, and Deep Learning.

The Original Project was to develop a school-wide research curriculum for DMHS. As I took this detour into Web 2.0, it quickly became apparent that the Wiki has great potential as a medium for collaborative effort. And with the help of Chris Hammer (see his comment to the previous post, below), I saw that there are really TWO major projects that could benefit from a tool for collaborative work. One is my original library project, and the other is the (much larger) project we face as a school: preparing for the WASC visiting team to return this year.

As the treasure to bring back from my three week "vacation", I offer this Wiki (click the DMHS Wiki link in the left margin, above). It's in a pretty early stage of development, but I consider it a prototype that embodies a vision that has huge practical potential for both projects. I'll be discussing it with colleagues over the next few days for input on how to maximize its usefulness. And the structure of the Wiki is the bridge to begin connecting all this to Student Empowerment and Deep Learning. Stay tuned.