Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Marc Prensky’s digital native metaphor has made the rounds of every educational conference imaginable.  While it’s provided a base line for discussion, it quickly moves to polarizing groups. 

We found that our students could not be usefully categorised as Digital Natives or Digital Immigrants. I.e. This distinction does not help guide the implementation of technologies it simply provides the excuse that some people ‘just don’t get it’ which is why your new approach has failed so badly

I discovered this link today from Alice who led me to a post that uses the terms “resident” and “visitor” rather than immigrant and native.  Native implies born and raised, you can’t become a native. You either are or you are not. Anyone can become a resident. It’s a choice.

This Visitor, Resident distinction is useful when considering which technologies to provide for online learners. For example if your learners are mainly Visitors they are unlikely to take advantage of any feed based system for aggregated information you may put in place. They are also unlikely to blog or comment as part of a course.

As I read this, I thought of my class of pre-service teachers. I’m definitely trying to turn them into residents. But I hear that when you visit a new country, it’s best to learn to live like the locals. Who knows, you might even decide to stay. I hope some of my students will become permanent residents.

Photo by:mattdesmond
http://flickr.com/photos/mattdesmond/244961875/

marcprensky, digitalnative, ecmp355, davewhite

I created this from a recent article in the New York Times as part of my continuing development of an interesting quotes set.  Reading the article fully illustrates the value of creating web presence. It may not be for everyone, but it does have value.

Is this a new literacy? Do we need to understand this form or communication? Or is this just pure fluff?

Did you ever start telling a story and part way through you are trying to remember if you’ve told the story before?  I feel that way a lot when I blog and wonder if maybe it’s a sign to shut up but I’ll likely just repeat the story. But I digress…

Yesterday’s blog post was eerily similar to the one I wrote about the same conference a year earlier. Even the title was the same. I’m starting to steal from myself.  After a conversation with a disgruntled principal I realized I had had the same thought a year earlier. I still basically feel the same way.

If they’re just achieving better grades, better study habits and better test taking skills, it doesn’t seem all that important to me.  Now I realize that none of these speakers would say that’s what this does and they even reference rigorous standards and I think I heard the term 21st century learning (whatever that really is), I’m still fearful that the zeal to improve scores and test results leads to the perpetuation of school as we knew it and still know it.  The strategies of PLC’s and assessment, if not combined with a real understanding of what kids ought to be doing in school leave use just doing a better job of the schools of the 1950’s.

There are around 800 leaders from around the province and again, I just think the big picture of student engagement in authentic, relevant learning isn’t being emphasized.  Every example of effective assessment seems to focus on Math. Why? Is it because Math is linear and easily reduced to a numerical value of learning?  Ken Robinson videos keep playing in my mind.  Our province’s best work was released in 1989 called Common Essential Learnings or CELs. These things matter.  I’m sure I’m just in one of those moods but I just think we have to talk about what matters most. As I say above (is it bad when you start to quote yourself?), are we just getting better at what we’ve been doing for the past 50 years?  

aheadofthecurve, assessment, kenrobinson

The Ahead of the Curve conference features some major players in educational research. Thomas Guskey and Doug Reeves to name a few.

For me, it’s more of the same in the area of assessment and learning and change. All good but really nothing new. As a leader in a school division I’m reminded of what is needed for change to occur.  Reeves sites these 4 as the main strategies:

1. Compelling Questions…trust teachers to ask good questions about what needs to be done. Answers need to address, “What’s in it for me?”
2. Action Research…teacher practice improves when you implement and reflect
3. Public Exposition…sharing successes
4. Evidence-Based Decisions….use your own data and successes to inform next steps

The glaring omission was the referencing of technology to achieve this change. While each of these strategies lend themselves to some obvious uses of technology, I was particularly focused on number 3. Reeves talked about the power of celebration and recognition for achievement. He talked about filling trophy cases with more than athletic trophies and including science projects or other student work. I thought of this:

There’s no question that technology, when used correctly amplifies these change strategies. This is the place where digital learning concepts ought to be shared and  leveraged to teachers and teacher leaders. These leaders don’t attend NECC or your local technology conference. Technology conferences have a tendency to be so tool focused that they leave out some of the powerful teaching and learning practices that are intregal for success. We need to get these two together. Dennis Richards is trying.  These are great places for conversations and captive audiences. Too bad there’s a piece missing.

thomasguskey, dougreeves, kathycassidy, dennisrichards, aheadofthecurve

If you haven’t already, download this poster and either send it to every teacher you know and/or print it off and place it in every school you visit or work in.  Beginning today, watch for the teasers for upcoming presentations. For those who have participated in this conference, you know its value, for those who have not, buckle up, you’re in for a treat.

Oh, and did I mention is was completely free?

K12 Online Downloadable Flyer

It’s always interesting to hear from others how they promote and support learning in their school district. Here’s my story.

My district is 3 years old, an amalgamation of 7 small districts into 1. Building culture, unity and morale has been challenging but in many ways is going really well. The big challenge I have is that I’m the only person really focusing on technology, outside of our online classes, supporting 35 schools and 7,000 students. I’m good, but I’m not that good. We previously had some level of instructional support at the school level but staff cuts have pretty much reduced to zero at most schools. So how can I possibly help teachers make the shifts necessary to develop rich, relevant learning for students?

Although I’d love more support, I recognize that’s not likely to happen. What I do have is a group of administrators who for the most part want to push the envelope and provide teachers with everything they can to make them better.

We have a number of administrators committed to changing schools to providing authentic, relevant and connected classrooms. They challenge their teachers to become better, and are truly instructional leaders as opposed to paper pushers. They allow their teachers to try and explore. I’ve begun many great conversations with them and sense their desire for change.

These folks are the real key to the change. So every 6 weeks when they meet, I get some time to plant seeds of change and they’re taking root. The overall plan for our division likely doesn’t look like many strategic plans. We’ve resisted trying to get to specific but rather employ principles of learning that will last.  We are using the new ISTE standards as a guide and specifically this year we’ll pay attention to the second student standard of Communication and Collaboration.

Today I brought in 5 teachers who are on the right track, specifically in the area of social learning.  I asked administrators to move from station to station allowing teachers to share, for them to ask questions and try to learn more about what they do in their classrooms. I then invited any administrators to share with their schools and contact me about developing some ongoing support both face to face and online.

I immediately had some great conversations afterwards from a number of principals as they either enter into social learning or enhance what they have. I have no illusions in knowing there will be some who just don’t buy in, but I’m not worried about those as much as I am glad to have the vast majority looking forward and supporting teachers.

So our model has been to share, invite, support and learn together.  We don’t typically run workshops for blogging, or any other of the latest software. We count on teachers to make the changes and they are. If there is an interest in learning a new tool, we’ll try and find someone or I’ll do the work but we want to focus on big ideas of teaching and learning, “what are the shifts we need to make?” We are building capacity by holding up our champions and doing what we can to allow them to flourish and encourage others. Slow at times but it’s the model we’re sticking with.

prairiesouth, administrators

Maybe it’s the beginning of the school year but I seem to get especially idealistic about the possibilities of new learning opportunities for students. First beauty, now joy.

This month’s issue of Educational Leadership features a great article by Steven Wolk (someone get him a blog) on Joy in School. Wolk finds 11 things schools need to do to create joy in learning.

According to my Random House dictionary, joy means, “The emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something good or satisfying.” Surely our schools can do some of that. Joy and learning—including school content—are not mutually exclusive. Many of our greatest joys in life are related to our learning. Unfortunately, most of that joyful learning takes place outside school.

Each one of the 11 ideas are worth doing. Of particular interest to me is Joy 10: Transform Assessment. The damage of poor and inappropriate assessments have done more to create joyless learners than just about anything. Reading Kathy Cassidy’s blog it’s not hard to see how understanding what good assessment looks likes can create confident, excited learners who already are experiencing joy.

Huge grins all around. The child who told me, “I don’t know how to write” and “I don’t know what to say” visibly sat up straighter in his chair when he saw that he had eighteen reads. He is now beginning to think of himself as a writer.

Why do we always have to point to Kindergarten and primary grades as examples where joy is present in learning? Why does it seem like the further we go in school, the more we lose this joy? I experience this joy daily because I am a learner first. I still think there are great examples of joyful learning in our schools and I’m going to pay attention and document them as much as possible. I’d suggest you do the same.

Photo: Pezzettino Pictures by Mrs. Cassidy’s Class
http://flickr.com/photos/57634636@N00/2556405647/

I’m testing Scribe Fire. This is a test with the updated version. It was wasn’t working before. Hopefully it works now. I quite like Scribe Fire.

scribefire