Category: General

I have been exploring common interests for the last six months or so with Elliot Solloway from the University of Michigan’s Digital Curricula Project and I thought it about time I offer a post to describe what they are working on.

The Center has created both tools and curricula for the K12 environment and I am certain they would welcome your interest. I will include a recent pdf they have generated to explain the resources they offer.

I first became interested in a specific tool the Center had created. This tool was developed as a simplified writing tool I thought was perfect for a strategy for digital argumentation I have written about previously.

This writing tool is based on a “block” approach I now see in several different authoring environments (e.g., this WordPress blog platform). In a block approach, you add blocks that serve a specific function and build something more complex from these blocks.

In the Collabrify Writer, you add one of a simple set of blocks (second image), add content to a block, and then combine blocks if the combination of blocks would produce a more desirable product. The application of this approach to argumentation (based on a texting strategy developed by Kuhn) would involve teams (usually two-person debate teams) connecting to the same Writer page and then taking turns to enter the elements of their argument as alternating blocks.

The Michigan Center has created multiple tools serving the functions of popular productivity suites (Google, MicroSoft 365), but is focused on how educators can tie content the application of these tools together in instructional activities they describe as RoadMaps. The teacher creates a sequence of instructions, content, and activities presented to students as one of these Maps.

The following images show the full complement of tools, my simple map to launch the Collabrify Writer task, and a more typical map.

The Center has been working with K12 teachers to create curricula based on this online environment and is not ready to offer these tools and the curricula content to other schools. The following pdf explains their program.

The concept of collaborative writing as a method both for developing writing skills and for accomplishing professional writing tasks is not new (e.g., see citations below). Those advocated for this approach suggest both strategies for composition and for working collaboratively to accomplish a common task. The approach ends up resembling a combination of the writing process approach and some of the skills we describe in our description of cooperative learning (Projects for learning: Authoring and tutoring to learn). For example, suggestions from the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin suggest the writing process be conceptualized as the stages of planning, drafting, and editing and the Center offers ideas for how individual and small teams might function to accomplish each stage. An individual approach to the editing stage is described as person A writes a section, the team meets to offer suggestions for improvements, and person B uses these suggestions to improve the draft. The same source suggests multiple interpersonal strategies for working collaboratively. For example, arguments are suggested to be useful because they bring strong beliefs into the open. When you believe strongly about a point, offer it respectfully and encourage others to share in a similar manner. 

I have become interested in the role of collaboration in professional writing after discussions with our friend Stanley Trollip who writes crime novels set in southern Africa with a partner (see Michael Stanley). The way they have organized their collaboration improves the quality of their writing, but also the creativity they generate by the way they work together.

Like several educational strategies that have been developed and not really caught on, collaborative writing seems much more practical when reconsidered as based in an online writing environment. Online writing tools allow simultaneous construction or storage for asynchronous comment and editing.

Lunsford, A. A., & Ede, L. S. (2012). Writing together: Collaboration in theory and practice, a critical sourcebook. Bedford/St. Martins.

Dale, H. (1996). The influence of coauthoring on the writing process. Journal of Teaching Writing, 15(1), 65-80. (work with 9th graders)

Listening to podcasts has grown in popularity and there are podcasts for every taste. To subscribe to a podcast most of us use a “pod catcher”, this is software that allows users to subscribe to the RSS for a podcast and keeps a designated number of episodes until we can get to them.

This post describes an app that I don’t use on a regular basis, but I discovered it has one advantage over other pod listening apps. Because it is provided by Google, it takes advantage of Google search to locate podcasts you might miss on your own. You can search for the name of a podcast or you can search by topic and see what you can find.

The Google podcast service can be used from a desktop computer or from an app. The following description is based on the use of the iOS app.

You populate your app with the feeds from the podcasts you want to follow. The Google app offers multiple ways to do this. The explore option (bottom of image) provides multiple opportunities – a search box, popular categories, and popular podcasts and episodes.

However you want to follow, you go through the same sequence to subscribe and then play. In the following image, I have used the search box to find a podcast called “Check this out.” The Google app has located this podcast and I then use the subscribe button.

Once subscribed, episodes begin to appear. I can either play a specific episode or add an episode to my cue.

The capability of the Google pod listening app I find most powerful is the opportunity to search for phrases I generate rather than relying on the system provided by the app. In this case, I searched for the phrase “educational technology” and located several podcasts I could explore.

I thought I should make an effort to offer a resource for Earth Day. I have concluded that the most important step for any average citizen is to become informed enough to realize the seriousness of this problem as an initial step to promoting and supporting the political will to take the steps necessary to address the multiple interrelated problems. I have read several sources on climate challenge and recommend a book by Bill Gates as both readable and I believe realistic.

Some important arguments:

1. This is a global challenge and it would be unfair if the wealthy countries that have had the major role in creating the climate crisis expected the same commitments from poorer countries in addressing the problem. The wealthy countries have built their wealth partly being doing the things that used cheap energy and should not expect those attempting to build a better economy to ignore these same energy sources (e.g., coal, oil) and construction materials (e.g., concrete) as they attempt to do better.
   1. Quote from book – To have any hope of staving off disaster, the world’s biggest emitters—the richest countries—have to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.
2. Addressing climate change at this point must involve more than reducing doing more damage as the damage done takes so long to dissipate. For example, slowing down carbon dioxide and methane production will not be enough. We need to remove these gases from the atmosphere.
   1. Quote from book – to avoid the worst climate scenarios, at some point we’ll not only need to stop adding more gases but actually need to start removing some of the gases we have already emitted.
3. Innovation and research are the only ways to solve the problem. These activities require investment and many attempts will not be successful. This means we cannot rely on companies worried about their bottom lines to solve the problem.
   1. Quote from book – When it comes to climate change, I know innovation isn’t the only thing we need. But we cannot keep the earth livable without it. Techno-fixes are not sufficient, but they are necessary.
   2. engaging in the political process is the most important single step that people from every walk of life can take to help avoid a climate disaster.
4. The cost of better energy sources must be lower than the cost of old energy sources. This may require determining the full cost of old energy sources and adding fees so that cost to the environment can be addressed.
   1. Quote from book – oil is cheaper than a soft drink. I could hardly believe this the first time I heard it, but it’s true. Here’s the math: A barrel of oil contains 42 gallons; the average price in the second half of 2020 was around $42 per barrel, so that comes to about $1 per gallon. Meanwhile, Costco sells 8 liters of soda for $6, a price that amounts to $2.85 a gallon. 
   2. Today, when businesses make products or consumers buy things, they don’t bear any extra cost for the carbon involved, even though that carbon imposes a very real cost on society.
5. Many are frustrated with wealthy tech entrepreneurs proposing and even funding solutions to problems in other areas (e.g., education, climate). Gates recognizes this reaction and admits many proposals have not been successful. However, Gates works hard at becoming knowledgeable and relies on experts who guide the areas explores and invests his money. 
   1. The world is not exactly lacking in rich men with big ideas about what other people should do, or who think technology can fix any problem. I think more like an engineer than a political scientist, and I don’t have a solution to the politics of climate change.

Gates offers a data-based and realistic analysis. He begins by providing data that summarizes the sectors responsible for greenhouse gas emissions arguing all of these sectors must be considered rather than attending only to the the traditional targets (e.g., self driving cars, solar panels). His approach is surprisingly optimistic given the many changes he argues must occur, but he argues that governments must encourage and support the scientific community to develop methods to address these multiple challenges. This is the only way he sees the world taking on what he sees as the massive challenge we face.

My last post regarding the practicality of the use of Google docs to individualize student learning was probably a bit harsh. The core of my position was that to individualize instruction Google forms makes more sense as actions taken within a form (student-constructed responses to tasks and competency checks) are automatically forwarded to a Google spreadsheet making tracking and evaluation by a teacher more practical. While docs are more flexible than forms, student additions to a doc require copies of the doc when it comes to tasks such as competency checks.

After reviewing sections of the Hyperdoc handbook again, I did come across a strategy the authors recommended to solve this problem. The authors propose that students open a shared Google doc, make a copy that they work on, and then share a link to this copy back to the teacher for feedback and evaluation.