Loose Ends

The last leg of the personal inquiry journey includes Dr. Lamb's Wrapping, Waving and Wishing.  I chose a technical project because I had previously tried to install an operating system that was not a Microsoft product without any success.  I was still interested but just did not take the time to investigate why the installation was not successful.  This project provided the opportunity to take the time and  to be more systematic in my approach to gathering information.  I have made more use of my Google account and done more with Google docs than with any other assignment.  I used an Open Office document to list questions to explore and an activity planner to help me get done before deadline.  I was able to load some documents from the web to my Google documents So they would be accessible from my iPhone.  (Reading document from the iPhone will take some getting use to.)

I think this project was important to do for at least two reasons.  First, I am bothered by the fact that any new computer being sold today comes with a Microsoft bundle included.  As I have gotten to know computers and the multitude of tasks they can perform, I realize that I am not a power user.  I cannot afford top of the line mulitmedia software and if I could, there would be more bells and whistles than I could use without lots of opportunity to practice.  Too much to spend for something that would not be used to capacity.  I have used an open source audio editing program called Audacity that has worked very well for me.  Using Audacity did not make me wish I could go back to a professional audio software whose capabilities were substantial when my need was minimal.  Installing an operating system and software that are open source is an opportunity to try more things without the expense (or the regret) of purchasing more than I need.  Open source software allows me to have tools available for occasional use, tools that will be regularly updated and will not need to be purchased again when it is no longer supported.

A second reason this project was important is that I will be able to advise students about this alternative to Microsoft products.  Our youngest daughter now a college senior has used open source software for every paper she has had to do as an English major.

I have posted a power point presentation to communicate what Ubuntu is, what it does, what an operating system is and what an operating system does.  What I had to do to get the software installed, the resources that were used and what remains to be done.  (I am completely amazed that I was able to move the power point into Picasa and get it into my blog,  I think it was magic.)

The remaining steps of the information inquiry process are Wrapping: choosing, planning and creating a product.  Waving: communicating with an audience and Wishing: assessing the project and reflecting on the process of information inquiry.  Posting the power point presentation to my blog demonstrates the Wrapping and the Waving part of the inquiry process.  The assessment of the project and the process (Wishing) will occur in the morning edition of this blog.

I am going to try to get my activity planner to post as an example of an organizational resource Google makes available.  My attempt was not successful which means that I need more information to get from Google docs to the blog.  I thought I would be able to address all the loose ends in this blog but there are a few left to address.  I will do that in the morning post.

Ubuntu Project

An adventure with a cross-country klunker

This project I am about to describe and reflect on was about the experience of using a process of information inquiry to learn something that was personally interesting to me.  The process I was to engage was developed by IU professor Dr. Annette Lamb called the 8Ws.  The process involves watching, wondering, webbing, wiggling, weaving, wrapping, and waving.

For information to be important there has to be a need for information.  Watching is about exploring, "becoming more in tune with the world" through observation, reading, listening, discussing etc.  Wondering is about asking questions.  It's about taking inventory of the things you know and have observed as a way to define a topic for exploration.  Choosing a topic was difficult because I came to realize that I was not really interested in anything that was going to take time if there was not a real and personally significant and practical purpose for whatever I was going to investigate.  I discussed ideas with my wife and brother who offered possibilities.  The ideas we discussed were significant but not ones I was ready to commit time to at present nor did I want to deal with the emotional issues that would be involved.

I finally decided to find a solution to a problem I encountered while trying unsuccessfully to install a new operating system on a retired but functional laptop.  From a discussion of  computer operating systems I had had with the school's IT, I learned of an open source operating system called Ubuntu Studio that was said to be developed especially for those interested in multimedia production.  I downloaded the software, burned a disk and began the installation process.  The software loaded and nothing looked familiar and nothing would work until an Internet connection could be made.  The computer could not access my home wireless system.  After repeated and unsuccessful efforts to get connected to my network, I just abandoned the project because there was no real need or urgency.  Just an experiment that failed.  That was nearly two years ago. 

As I noted in an earlier post to this blog, I had to get serious about what I knew and what I didn't know in order to be able to find a solution for an unsuccessful installation.  Finding information was not difficult.  Ubuntu's website was well organized and easily navigated.  However it took a lot of searching, reading of explanations and looking up definitions of terms.  Webbing (reading, viewing, listening, searching, identifying useful information), Wiggling (accepting, incorporating, rejecting information, evaluating information resources) and Weaving (synthesizing, processing information)  became time consuming activities but because I knew I was in the right place and finding relevent information, it took time not so much to find the information as in trying to decide what I needed.  The instructions said to download the software and burn a disk for installation.  Over all five attempts were made to get a successful download of the software.  (4 gigs takes a long time to download even with a cable connection to the Internet)  Instructions said the computer would boot and install the new software directly from the disk if the boot sequence were immediately interrupted when the computer was powered on and the optical disk drive was entered as the primary boot source.  Three disks and three attempts were made to boot the computer from the burned disks.  None worked.  I went back to the Ubuntu website looking for what to look for and what to do to determine if the burned disk was without error.  There were a couple of programs offered to check the burned disk for error.  They sounded complicated and confusing and I wasn't sure that pursuing those options would be successful.  I did discover a Ubuntu webpage that offered screen shots of what the files should look like if the optical drive were opened.  That test revealed that three burned disks were defective.  I made a fourth try to download the latest release of an Ubuntu operating system that was not specifically the "Studio" version I was wanting.  The computer must have run the download most of the night.  After reaching school the next day, I immediately burned a disk and opened the drive to view the written files.  Success at last.  Not the operating system I wanted but at this point I was wanting to see if anything could be successfully installed on the waiting computer.

Arriving home that evening, I was able to boot and install directly from the disk as the instructions said I could.  I began to test the software that was included in the download.  Every program opened successfully except Foxfire, the web browser.  I discovered the wireless radio in the computer did not seem to be functioning,  hardwiring the computer to my network allowed me to connect to the Internet where I discovered there were 292 updates to the April 2010 version that had just been installed.  I instructed the computer to execute a download and I went to bed.  Not until I came home from school did I discover that the program had been successfully updated.  While I have a successful installation of an open source operating system and opensource software that to this point opens all my Windows creations, it is not the Studio version that I want.  I have a "Studio" disk that burned successfully.  I have not attempted to install the contents of that disk because the information I have read leads me to believe that installing from that disk requires more attention from me than just interrupting the boot sequence.

What remains of the inquiry process according to Dr.Lamb is Wrapping (applying information for a solution or for meaning, creating a product), Waving (communicating, sharing ideas with an audience) finally, Wishing (adjusting for additional questioning, assessing the product and reflecting on the process).  These will be discussed in the next post.

Reflecting on a personal journey of exploration

For the last month I have been challenged to engage in "a personal journey of exploration".  Something I was "truly interested in learning".  As I embarked on this "journey", I was to keep a journal of my experiences.  So, this blog became the place to document and reflect on this journey.  This journey can best be described as a cross-country trek in a klunker.

Sadly, one of he most difficult parts of  this project was getting started.  Selecting a topic.  This was discussed in an earlier blog but as I continue to think about the process of acquiring and using information,  I am recognizing as a professional educator that I have let the profession take control of my life such that I feel that I have no life at all.  I recognize that I am really the only one to blame, buuuuut.... it is really frustrating to come face to face with the fact that while there are hobbies and activities I enjoy, I have let my profession consume not only my life but my energy as well.  Professor Lamb in her article Strong Nests, Successful Students: Skills and Strategies for 21st Century Learning suggests as a new strategy for learning that teachers should "shift your focus from designing instruction, to creating learning environments that immerse young people in information and technology".  I have spent a lot of energy designing instruction because administrators in my experience want lesson plans designed to accommodate the academic standards for a discipline and a classroom schedule that shows what specific standard is being "taught" and when.

NCLB is noble in it's purpose.  While the concern is for every child to be proficient in reading, writing and 'rithmatic, in my opinion, it has become a major obstacle to the implementation of "learning environments that immerse young people in information and technology".  Carol Ann Tomlinson in writing about the goals of differentiated instruction says, "Real learners understand how learning works.  They know how to make sense of text, how to listen, and how to ask questions.  They know how to gauge their work based on criteria for success.  They understand how to capitalize on their strengths and how to compensate for their weaknesses.  They know how to plan, follow through with plans, modify plans when necessary, and evaluate the effectiveness of their planning.  Through those avenues, they come to believe that they are captains of their own fate as learners.  Teachers who differentiate for student ownership of learning guide each student in developing these abilities."

From my observations of students and classrooms where I am employed, I would say there are no "real learners"  either among students or faculty, myself included.  (This is not a judgement, just an observation.  In defense of staff, everyone works hard, is well intentioned and tries to do what they perceive is best for the students.)  It is frustrating to know the potential is there, to believe in the ability of every student to learn and the ability of teachers to teach but see students in every classroom starring off into space, or  having their heads on their desks while the teacher attempts to communicate the facts and stimulate discussion (and this in a "private school").  Students are bored, teachers are dissatisfied with student response in class and on assignments.

As a library media specialist I would love to think I am "strategically positioned", "a key team member" "working together with teaching colleagues to examine curriculum from the perspective of thinking processes:" (Violet Harada, Empowered Learning: Fostering Thinking Across the Curriculum.)  I would like to think I can truly make a significant difference in a school's learning atmosphere but I really have my doubts.  Teachers are driven to produce students that perform well on standardized tests.  The academic agenda is governed by "academic standards".  Student's don't feel they have freedom to pursue things that really interest them and teachers feel they don't have the time to teach anything more than the standards set for the discipline.  Students are bored.  Teachers are exhausted.  Administrators in my school don't stay long.  (In nine years I have worked under five principals.)  We are constantly charting new direction. Nothing is consistent.

So you are asking and I am thinking, "what's the point?".  I am trying to get there.  The focus of all my formal education has been on content.  Facts.  I realize that it is only in recent years that educational research has shown that teaching content alone is not enough.  However, I am a product of that era of instruction.  I am presently in a situation where that kind of instruction continues.  Several experiences have made indelible impressions on me and have shaped my attitudes as a teacher.  First, an eighth grade teacher on the first day of class having never laid eyes on me before and after everyone in class had introduced themselves looked at me and said in front of the entire class, "You look like a troublemaker to me."  Needless to say we had our problems.  I have always preferred science courses over arts and humanities.  It was not until I was a junior in college that I was given an assignment to design, execute and report the results of an original experiment in a physics class.  I had plenty of laboratory experience but each lab exercise was prescribed.  Then, as now, we were warned "follow instructions".  "Do not attempt any experimentation without express permission from your instructor."  I had no clue what to do for an experiment, much less how to design one.  While still an undergrad, I worked one year as a newspaper photographer and another year as a lab tech in a bacteriology lab.  After completing one photo assignment, I gave my film to the editor, told him I was done, he said I  wasn't and I was to follow him.  In 30 minutes he showed me how to process film and make prints.  I was hooked.  I sold my amateur radio equipment and began to buy cameras. 

At the bacteriology lab, I would often come to work with my camera over my shoulder.  The head of the lab took an interest in my interest in photography.  He was a veteran photographer.  He would look at my pictures and we would discuss each picture.  He would show me his photographs, share photo magazines and invite me to meetings of the photographic division of the Kentucky Natural History Society.  Not long thereafter, I was drafted.  I joined the Air Force.  A training instructor advised against my choice of a military medical career and suggested I take a "by-pass specialist" test in photography.  I would be dismissed from a few hours of basic training.  I agreed.  I passed the test and became a military photographer.  The military did not send me for additional training.  I had never had formal training in photography, just the conversations with and the examples shown to me by Mr. Williams at the bacteriology lab and my brief newspaper experience.

From these experiences, I learned how the words of a teacher could impact a student's attitude and behavior, how little I knew about how science worked and how important it was to have or to  be a mentor.  This is the bottom line.  No formal school experience taught me how to learn.  Nothing focused on techniques to acquire and process information.  No skills for critical thinking were taught directly.  Yes, I did the research papers for English classes and for education classes but I was not required to pursue a topic of interest.  Topics were assigned.  I did not have to interact on a personal level with any topic assigned.  In the military I worked for the Aero-Space Audio-Visual Service.  I worked for a short while with a team that developed audiovisual instructional materials used in the training of pilots for the largest transport plane in the Air Force inventory.  Here I got to use my photography for the noble purpose of advancing the knowledge of others.  I loved it.  I decided education was where I wanted to be.  There is more to the story but for the purpose of this blog there is no need to go further.  I did not learn the skills of questioning, reading critically, observing and being aware of the world around me, analyzing, synthesizing, and constructing knowledge during the formative years of school.  For me formal education was about career -- collecting facts that would make me proficient in my profession.  As I began to teach science, I soon learned that my students like me years earlier had no understanding of how science worked.  As I came to understand the process and approached my teaching from the point of raising questions in young minds and teaching them the process instead of drilling content, I was soon at odds with administrators because I could never successfully bridge the gap between process and content.  I knew I didn't remember facts that I had only heard and never used in an "authentic" situation.  I knew that the process was more critical than the facts because I felt (before research confirmed) that good process would produce good and significant content. 

The skills for information inquiry require time and repeated practice.  Though I know and understand the process of information inquiry, it has been quite a different matter for me to implement personally.  One reason being that I have slipped into a survival mode, failing to make and take the time to feed and nourish personal interests outside of  the classroom.  Old habits are hard to break.  Students in the high school where I am employed do not have the skills of information inquiry because they are not being taught when they enter pre-school, kindergarten and first grade to build on their natural ability to learn.  They come to school with questions.  They come eager to learn.  But learning comes today just as it did for me "back in the day" from the teacher's agenda to get the three Rs underway, not from the context of the questions that students brought with them when they came to school.  Formal education in more cases than not in my experience has not done any favors for the students education believes it is serving because formal education while it talks about students first are focused on academic standards and standardized test performance.  As teachers we recognize that students are struggling, we implement remedial programs but we fail to recognize that teaching and reinforcing the skills of learning as a means to academic content is what gives the student confidence to pursue knowledge.  Without teaching the skills in an authentic context, we encourage boredom, mediocrity and often failure in our students.  An occasional experience in inquiry learning is not enough to instill the skills necessary for life-long learning.  I will address the specifics of my experience in the next posting.

Neither Dead Nor Slumbering (Just Learning New Tricks)

There was and maybe still is a slogan for a particular brand of salt that said,"When it rains, it pours".  May be you can relate.  As I was working on adding a new operating system to a retired but functional laptop, my principal came to me, reminded me of a conversation we had months earlier and wanted to know what we needed to do to get rolling with the idea we had discussed -- a student run TV news program.  I had not given it another thought past the original conversation.  So the steady drizzle of things to do became a hurricane not only of things to do but things that needed to be done yesterday.  So, while I have not posted in recent days it has not been procrastination or lack of interest.  I have been learning new things.

As a result of the assignment to create a blog and post project progress and reflections on the process of information inquiry, I have (with the help of our IT) added a page to the school's website where students who have expressed interest in being part of the "TV News Experiment" can share ideas and work out details for developing a student run TV news program.  No one in our school has attempted such a thing.  I am the first.  They think I am really innovative and a real techno-gooroo.  To this point only the IT and I know better ( and you of course.)  It is an inhouse blog.  It took a whole day to work out the wrinkles and bugs that kept students from logging in and participating in the exchange of ideas.  We are only 24 hours into this blogging part of our website.  It will be interesting to see how students respond to this method of meeting since so many students have other obligations that make a physical meeting difficult.  We did meet together and the web page was shown to them.  I suspect that they will need to be reminded to use the webpage to make their enthusiasm for this project a reality.  Stay tuned.

Just a brief update on the inquiry project.  I have spent two days searching for information to solve a problem that keeps me from loading a new program from a disk as the download website says I should be able to do and I have not been able to get an older version to update to a version that can be made current nor can I seem to get the older version uninstalled so I can do a fresh install of the newest operating system.  Being truthful, I did not keep track of the websites I visited.  Having neglected to do that, I now see the need for some means of organization.  I did spend sometime looking at some organizers offered by Google.  Frankly, the principal's urgency for this TV news project and a few other major disasters have preempted all other activities and I have managed to sleep since then (but not much) so I haven't remembered what I looked at nor have I been able to think about where I need to go from here.

I have the principal satisfied for the moment, so the next item on my priority list is catching up on this project assignment and I will come back tomorrow and update the project particulars.  Take it from one who knows, the candle cannot be burned from both ends.  Later.

WOW! Could this be progress?

In the last post I was contemplating installing a new operating system in a retired laptop.  Having decided that the project is worth returning to, I have been conducting some web searches.  It should be noted that to make progress in a search for information you need to be honest with yourself.  I have more computer skills than most on staff here at school but in trying to define a topic to inquire about, I was coming up blank.  When I decided that I was really interested in computers, I had to determine what I wanted to know or do.  When I thought about the Ubuntu project I abandoned, I had to ask why.  The reason was because I acted impulsively.  Downloaded the software, did the install and discovered that nothing was familiar.  Being extremely visual in the way I learn and navigate, I was lost with nothing to reference as an anchor.

It was in desperation that I began to look at what I really knew about computers and what I didn't know.  Computer components were not an issue.  So I began with a Google search: What is an operating system.  I was  surprised to learn that there are many operating systems in computer land.  A Wikipedia link gave me a working definition for an operating system, while other sites provided history and development of various operating systems.

I have confirmed what Carol Kuhlthau has discovered in her research of the affective domain of the research process.  She discovered that at the outset of a research project feelings of uncertainty and apprehension would be experienced.  For me that was definitely true to the point of almost being incapacitated with frustration over the pressure to accomplish and move on and not coming up with an idea that appealed.  Procrastination was very easy.  As I began to brainstorm, I talked with my wife, the school's IT and myself (self-talk).  I began to make a list of things we talked about, ultimately listing computer issues I have encountered. Once I decided "computer", I began to surf the web as I noted above.  As I began to gather information, more questions came to mind until I felt I had a good place to go with my inquiry.

Since the purpose of this blog is to document and reflect on the process of information inquiry, what has happened to this point is what Dr. Lamb describes in her 8Ws as Watching that includes brainstorming, journaling (the notes I made as I pursued ideas) Wondering: asking questions, connecting prior knowledge, Webbing: searching for information to answer the questions being posed.  The process now continues with Wiggling and Weaving.  Now its time to evaluate sources for usefulness of content and begin to use the information acquired to answer questions.  As more information is acquired about operating systems and Ubuntu, more questions arise that need answers in order to make a successful installation and beyond that make it useable.

In concluding this post, I will mention that as I have selected my topic for inquiry, Kuhlthau's research continues to be accurate regarding the feelings encountered as the information search process progresses.  Selection of a topic  begins with some confusion and anxiety but elation after topic selection and anticipation.  Once I had confirmed my topic, I felt relief that a major hurdle had been cleared.  Indeed there is anticipation as useful information has been acquired but it only began to happen when I was able to be honest with myself so I could admit that I knew OF operating systems but knew nothing about what they were or what they did.  That was a major turning point.  A hurdle cleared.

Now on the next hurdle.  Until the next time.

NEW TRICKS AND PROJECT PROGRESS

Project update.  I have been thinking about computers.  There's the idea of care and maintenance, safety and security, external storage and computer operating systems.  I have a laptop that was retired from school use but functional.  I decided quite awhile ago to install a new operating system.  I installed Ubuntu Studio but never got it working.  So it sits collecting dust.  I have decided to return to this project and start all over again.  I have been researching operating systems for computers.  I am particularly interested in open source systems and software.  As I have been browsing through websites and wikipedia entries I am beginning to compile questions.  Here's what I have to this point: Questions for project: What is an operating system?  What do operating systems do?  Can I install Ubuntu successfully on old IBM laptop?  Can I make it work with my music player and photographs?  Can I work with out MS software?  Can I use it with my Iphone?  How do I delete old OS?  How do I access the BIOS?  How do I install new OS?

So while I have contemplated my project, I have tried some new tricks.  I was able to reformat a thumbdrive that had been rendered inaccessible and use it to download Ubuntu desktop.  I was able to transfer an assignment done in Word for my Information Inquiry course to Google Docs and read it from my iPhone.  I learned that docs read from the iPhone can't be edited from the iPhone.  I was able to add blogs of classmates to my iGoogle page and access them from my iPhone.  (I can read them discretely in staff meetings when I am bored.)

I have found some information about the applications included in Ubuntu Studio so I will not be completely as lost as I have been with the first attempt to install a new operating system.  Besides, I would like to see if life can be survived without Microsoft.  Well, we will see.  Keep ya posted.  Stay tuned.

Report on New Project

Weeeelllllllll ...  This is to be a personal information inquiry that really interests me.  Engage the process using Dr. Lamb's 8 Ws.  Watching, Wondering, Webbing, Wiggling, Weaving, Wrapping, Waving, Wishing.  Step One.  Watching: observing, be in tune with the world that surrounds me.  Brainstorm ideas, look at examples of the work of others etc. 

Over the weekend I discussed project ideas with my wife.  There were several ideas suggested.  New puppies arrived at our house but not without complications for the mother.  What should we have known before breeding?  My wife is adopted but adoption records have been inaccessible.  We would like to have any medical history available from biological parents (who may be dead by now) but red tape and bureaucracy have been insurmountable since adoption was in another state.  Local lawyers have been unsuccessful in attempts to access records.  What do we need to know about the California system to get the information we need?  My mother is 85, not an invalid, but not able to properly care for herself alone and is being cared for by my younger brother.  We have concerns about insuring her care yet protecting her estate.  How do we do that?  What are the options?  The latter are extremely personal and emotional, and while important and of interest, not explorations I am willing to do in a public forum.

Kuhlthau's ISP begins with initiation.  She describes the emotions that accompany the start of an inquiry project as apprehension and uncertainty.  I'm there.  I browsed the on-line catalog for the local public library for their resources about computers.  I have a laptop that takes forever to boot up.  I would like to fix that problem.  The solution is backup the hard drive and reinstall the OS, defrag, install software, etc.  Thought about the topic of computer care and maintenance.  Not something I have paid any attention too yet I understand is important to attend to.  I just haven't taken the time to learn the ins and outs.  So that is an appealing possibility.

I have read the blogs of classmates but need to look at on-line aids for fleshing out ideas: concept maps, organizers etc.  So, that's the current state of this sad affair and the clock is ticking.  I am supposed to be commenting on the blogs of colleagues but sharing constructive ideas, collaborating, is difficult when I can't define and refine a topic for myself.  Preoccupation doesn't do much for collaboration does it?

Ever onward.  'till next time.

New Project Under Way

This project is about a personal inquiry of my choice where I am to blog about my experience with the process of information inquiry.  The first step in information inquiry is selecting a topic of interest.  Now that's the first problem.  What am I truly, personally interested in?  Something that I have a real interest in or concern about?  I have interests in digital photography, I dabble in video and audio recording some, and I do some woodworking but not much of any of these things lately because of time pressures.  Now that I have an opportunity to learn something of personal interest, I discover that my curiosity and my desire to learn new things for the sake of new things is not just overcome with the schedules and tasks of work and family, its gone.  Isn't that really sad to say.  I have gotten accustomed to researching and learning what I need to know to do my job or to accomplish a task at home.  I feel guilty to go off on a tangent when I am on a quest for information that's job or family related because whether right or wrong, personal interests have not been given high priority because it would require time that could be used to get the more pressing tasks of job and home accomplished.  So I will take some time to brainstorm some ideas, "surf the 'net", read the blogs of classmates and I'll let you know what the possibilities were and what was decided on.  'Till next time.