A few months ago I talked about exploring knowledge management for teachers. Essentially, how we personally capture our resources, lessons, and reflections. I have used a variety of methods over the years, none of them too effective. The last two methods (binders and then file folders for unit master copies, readings, etc.) were completely paper-based. I also have directories/folders on my hard drive labeled by class and unit that are filled with files I have found or created over the years. When I create a test or quiz, I usually add the year, but other then that, I have years of documents all together. I occasionally add some notes or reflections to a lesson for the following year, but often times I just try and remember. As you can imagine, I have had mixed success with this.

Teaching AP World History this year has complicated my limited organizational capacity. I have bought numerous resources, but the real overload has come from files I have downloaded from other teachers with web pages (thanks by the way). PowerPoints, worksheets, DBQs, etc. Hundreds of files. Actually, probably a couple thousand. Now what?

So here's my question to all the teachers who read this blog, how do you organize your educational resources? From books to lesson plans to worksheets to digital files? Did you purchase a program, print everything out, or use a file cabinet? How do you keep track of lessons from year-to-year, noting what went well, what didn't? If it is complicated or simple please explain by commenting (or e-mail me at danmcdowell@cox.net).

I am writing an article with one of my former Educational Technology professors about this and want some "real life" examples beyond myself and the teachers at my school. I will also summarize the results later.

Thanks and I appreciate your help!

Yesterday I walked in what will probably be my last graduation ceremony. I had decided not to do it - my undergraduate graduation was a pivotal experience and this just wasn't the same (I'm 34, 10 years into my career, etc.). Then I was selected as the "honor graduate" for the department and discovered I was actually going to be sitting on stage during the ceremony. It was quite an honor. Afterwards, the Educational Technology department had a reception where I had to say a few words. Below is the speech I wrote, however, I am not one to read a speech. I did it so I didn't ramble on - the gist was the same, but the verbage was a bit different.

Thank you. I am honored to be here. I took a bit longer then most to get through this program - five years - and I have met so many talented and wonder students and faculty members.

Three major words have defined my stay in the North Education.

1. Let’s start with Diversity - When I started, I thought I would be taking classes with other teachers. I was surprised to find nurses, instructional designers, elementary school teachers, corporate trainers, and people from the navy and coast guard. Some were just out of college, some changing careers after 20 years. My interaction with those people in the ed tech department widened my world view and strengthened my experience.

Then you get to the faculty. Where else could Bernie and Allison be in the same department and sit around the same table?

2. Word number 2 - Dedication - In order for you to be here today, you had to have been dedicated. This was not an easy program. Most of us worked our day jobs, before heading off to class at night. We shuffled appointments and time with our friends and family to meet with groups to finish class projects or study for the comps. We spent endless hours tinkering with Dreamweaver or iMovie so our finished projects were just right - even if we were the only ones who noticed it. We digested learning theories and spent. And we spent a very long weekend trying to bring it altogether in no more then 3500 words each.

3. Finally we have Evolution - This department isn’t just teaching us the cutting edge technologies and theories, they are helping to define it. And we are helping. All over the Internet, people link to projects we have created. We not only learned the fundamentals of instructional design, but I think we have the tools and the know how to keep up with the changes.

So now it is finally time for us to reintroduce ourselves to our families. Wow, my boys have really grown. Family members, welcome them back. If they start saying words like Blogs and wikis know those are real words, and ADDIE is one of our central instructional design models – no it isn’t the department mascot. Fellow graduates, thank them. Thank you.

If you are looking to get a MA in Educational Technology, then SDSU is the place (Here's a great look at the program). They offer campus and online programs.

It involved Shrek, Haiku, Van Gogh, Buddha, virtually no LA traffic, seven daring parents, and 89 teenagers.

Of my ten years teaching, I have taken six groups of students on a field trip up to Los Angeles. Previous destinations include the Museum of Tolerance, the LA Museum of the Holocaust, the Norton Simon Museum, and the Huntington Library and Gardens. All of the trips were generally received well by the students, making it easy to go through the hassle of organizing it again the next year. However, last three trips involved a lot of traffic. And when I say a lot of traffic, I mean two or three times more time on the bus then off the bus. Two years ago it took almost four hours to get to the Norton Simon Museum – almost twice as long as it takes without traffic. Then, on the way home, one bus got stuck behind a big rig that had decided to jack knife, adding another hour and a half to their trip home (I was on the first bus and missed it).

Last year we went to the LA Museum of the Holocaust. While nice, the exhibit did not include as many artifacts as I had hoped and hardly seemed worth the six hours on the bus. This year I decided to pair up the Norton Simon and Huntington.

After this year I should quit. It was the perfect field trip.

The buses arrived on time and were bigger then I was told, giving us a little room and some flexibility to let students change buses to be with their friends. The only traffic we faced was local. No LA traffic. Now, I live just outside San Diego and of the dozens of trips I’ve made through or to the City of Angels, I can only remember one where there was no traffic. It was almost midnight and even then we slowed near LAX. I couldn’t even mumble a curse about how much I hate Los Angeles. Just quiet awe.

Unlike two years ago, we made our tour at the Norton Simon. All the tour guides were outstanding and the students seem to really appreciate the art. There are few places in the world where you can see ancient Indian and Chinese art AND Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet, and Degas.

For lunch we stopped at Pasadena Central Park and walked up to downtown Pasadena. I had some of the best orange chicken at a small restaurant. Most of the students avoided the Cheese Cake Factory and Subway and tried something a little different.

Our next stop was the Huntington. The weather was a little warm, but definitely bearable. In large groups they students wandered through the art galleries, the library (with an authentic Guttenberg Bible and early copy of Canterbury Tales), and the beautiful gardens. In the Japanese Gardens, I had the students write Haikus. Most had fun with it. I’ll have to post a few.

Then we headed home. Stopped for dinner at a mall. Again very little traffic. Weird. We were in LA, right? Not some parallel universe?

For the first time, I didn’t feel like the day was never going to end. In fact, it went far too fast.

Throughout the day the students thanked me and said they were having a great time. One of the biggest reasons I do this each year is that I love to get the students out of their comfort zone and into a place that they probably wouldn’t go on their own or with their parents. Now I can’t show my students the world (that would be fun though), but I can show them some culture in Pasadena. When they love it, it’s icing on the cake.

By the way, we watched Shrek on the ride home. The other bus watched Nightmare Before Christmas.

Another great edition. Gotta love this whole Internet as community thing.

As I sit here, my 108 AP World History students are taking The Exam. After 34 weeks, 40 chapters, multiple essays, hours and hours of prep, nine after school and spring break review sessions, practice exams, dozens of readings, and too many lectures, it all comes down to a three and a half hour exam.

In some ways, I feel like an old-time expectant father, pacing in the hallway. I have done all I can, I sat with those who showed up for their morning classes, joked around with them, trying to lighten the mood. I answered last minute frantic questions all the way up to the time they entered the rooms to take the exam. Most worked hard for this and they deserve to do well. Now I sit in the library, then my office, waiting.

For me, here's the scary part: what if I didn't emphasize the right topics? 10,000 years of history. There is no way I can hit every relevant topic, explore every comparison. It all comes down to 70 multiple choice questions and three essays. Most of what we discussed will not be on the test. We, technically, are not judged by pass rates, but we all want high ones.

Doesn't matter at this point. They are already almost done with the multiple choice section.

This has been an amazing teaching year. 10,000 years in 34 weeks is impressive. I have never been so intellectually stimulated, between having a majority of the students genuinely interested in the content and learning much of the earlier history (my historical emphasis has been on last three hundred years, anything before that is totally Euro-centric).

Now it wasn't always so rosy. 10,000 years in 34 weeks is a tremendous burden. Another teacher described it to me as a forced march. We could never stop and explore a topic in any real depth - I did very few projects, barely used the Internet (other then my Moodle portal), and was always being buried by paper.

Next year will be even better. Another teacher is taking one of the three sections (down from four) and we will closely collaborate on lesson development - strengthening the curriculum.

Better take a few weeks off first.

Overall the project (see the last post) was a success. Student groups were assigned a topic, they researched it, wrote a short article that was posted on a wiki, and then they validated each other's articles. During the validation process, if there were mistakes, from factual errors to typos, they were fixed immediately. I did some review of the changes (under the recent changes link that comes with MediaWiki) and was overall impressed with what they changed. I was afraid that most groups would gloss over the articles they were to review. This is a group of Advanced Placement kids though; I know the validation process would be more difficult with college prep students. With the AP test now just two days away, they have another very specific resource to review.

There are two aspects to this project worth noting. First, conceptually, it is basic. The students research (mostly with their notes and textbook), and then write it up. The cool twist is the ability for students then to edit each other's work, without having to share word documents (a nightmare!).

Second, it is easy. Yes, I have a tech side to me, but there are plenty of free resources that are actually easier to set up and use then the method I chose. I pay about $80 a year for my own domain and server space. I do have access to my district's server and still host a majority of my materials there, but I have found having this personal space important (for one, I would have been foolish to post union related blog entries). Plus, it gives me access to features not available to me through the school.

The wiki engine I used, MediaWiki, practically self-installs. All I had to do is provide access to a MySQL database. This was easily done through an interface provided by the server company. Then I uploaded the wiki files, initialized it, and then it worked.

There were a couple changes I had to make to the config.php file in order to make sure only my students were able to edit, add, and change information. Then I had a TA enter the user accounts by hand (I could have allowed the students to do it, but I like to control their user names - let them choose and who knows what you will get).

On the first day in the computer lab, I give a basic tutorial (5-10 minutes) on how to change their password, make changes, configure the text, and save. Then they start working. Like I mentioned in the last post, this project could easily be done in Seedwiki or Wikispaces.

Any questions - let me know.