Sugata Mitra's TED talk about child-driven education is a video worth taking the time to watch. In his talk he highlights some of the experiments that he has conducted over the past ten years. His research analyzes how students are able to learn technology on their own with very little guidance from adults. When I say little guidance, I mean zero guidance for the most part. Some of you may be familiar with his "hole in the wall" experiments which placed computers in brick walls in public places in India. The students in these Minimally Invasive Education experiments produced amazing results on their own. I have paraphrased a couple of quotes from the video that reinforce his message.
Children will learn to do what they want to learn to do.
A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be.
If children have interest, then education happens.
So what can we learn from an experiment in a country half way around the world that is very different than our own?
Students learn amazing things if we can peak their curiosity! (inquiry based learning)
Frequently we "teach" too much. We let students off the hook by lecturing and giving them too much guidance. (Check out this video of Dan Meyer's TED talk about math)
Teachers need to realize their role needs to change (No, I'm not calling for eliminating teachers!).
Students are great teachers for one another.
Students respond well to learning "challenges".
Educators in technology rich environments must embrace these changes in our paradigm of what schools are. Making the shift to these five examples from Mitra's work would be a change for most schools, and I challenge you to make that transformation!
Last month the Digital Directions team and EdWeek videographers interviewed five speakers from their "Unleashing Technology to Personalize Learning" event in Washington, DC. The five individuals included were:
• Florida Virtual School CEO Julie Young • Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy Principal Chris Lehmann • North Carolina Virtual School CEO Bryan Setser • New Milford (N.J.) High School Principal Eric Sheninger • U.S. Department of Education Director of Educational Technology Karen Cator on Professional Development and Cyberbullying (see below)
Chris Lehmann's chat resonated strongly with me because of my work with one-to-one schools. His message, which targets online learning, is applicable to every technology rich school. In his short interview Chris stresses that schools really need to change their way of thinking and doing things. He focuses on the pedagocial shifts that need to occur and the potential transformation than can occur with project and inquiry based lessons. The following quote from Chris is something all one-to-one educators need to constantly consider.
"Those conversations can happen now but it has to have a pedagogical backbone or we're just going to replicate what we've always had only with shiny tools"
Eric Sheninger, who recently visited many of our one-to-one schools here in Iowa, does an excellent job talking about the use of social media in schools. He stresses modeling and demonstrating how powerful many of these social networking tools can be for schools.
This past summer we ran a fabulous student tech leader bootcamp for Grace Wilday Jr. High School (See post: GenYES students assist in laptop rollout in New Jersey). Grace Widay is in Roselle, New Jersey, and a new program called TALENT21 will start up this year funded by federal stimulus dollars (ARRA EETT). This year, every sixth grader will get a laptop, plus other classroom technology and lots of professional development.
The GenYES student tech leaders at Grace Wilday are a big part of this project. They are learning the new technology and also how to assist teachers and other students. These student tech leaders mean more support and more student ownership as everyone at Grace Wilday takes a big step forward into the 21st century.
The student who says the teachers will “TAP” the student tech team for help is talking about the GenYES online tool called the Technology Assistance Project (TAP) system. This is a Web 2.0 tool that schools use to track projects from start to finish. It also tracks help requests from teachers and offers blogs and wikis to make sure that all projects are documented and that all teachers are satisfied with the results.
Most laptop programs talk about students as "key stakeholders" in the process, but rarely does it mean something like this. This is concrete action that creates new resources and empowers students to be part of the solution, not just passive recipients of education.
Just as laptops literally puts "power" in student hands, making them responsible for part of the project creates empowered digital citizens who know that their work matters and their voice is valued.
Last evening I attended Spirit Lake, Iowa's one-to-one deployment of nearly 1000 computers to students in grades 5-12. The kickoff began in the high school gym with a crowd of nearly 3000 excited students, parents, staff, community members and other special guests. The event was a true celebration!
Moving a school to one-to-one is a huge change for schools when properly implemented. It can and should change the ways that teachers teach and students learn. The technology allows for lessons to be enhanced in ways that are nearly impossible without the use of it. When a school community makes that giant leap, there really should be a celebration. In Kotter's book Leading Change, he writes about the importance of generating short- term wins. This is an extremly important step in successful change initiatives, but it is often one that is overlooked.
Spirit Lake certainly did not overlook that step. Check out the videos of the celebration.
This first video was the kickoff to the celebration, and it set the tone for the evening. The countdown on the scoreboard was a nice touch!
Jason Harrington who is a parent as well as a local businessman talks about what having a one-to-one school will mean for parents, business, and community members in this video.
Middle school principal Kevin Range continues the excitement with his "fire-up" speech. Kevin quoted a board member in his presentation, and this quote highlights the progressive thinking of the district. I consider this quote to be right on the money!
"This is not about technology, it is about giving our kids every opportunity to be successful learners in the 21st century."
Mike Muir talks about some of his experiences with 1:1 programs.
We wish we could call it a "learning initiative" instead of a technology initiative.
What expectations do
teachers need to come with? How do you support teachers going into 1:1?
Get rid of network Nazi's who don't have any business making curriculum decisions for teachers. (This comment received lots of applause!)
Invest in staff development. That includes instructional and technical support.
"Just in time training" available for teachers.
Do not center professional development around software or hardware. The research is clear that teachers who are taught technology integrated with something else are more likely to use it that way with their students.
Teacher prep programs need to forget doing a separate course and embed the training in all courses.
Educators should have an openness to try something new and a willingness to fail.
What leadership
strategies are necessary for 1 :1?
Administrators need to understand what the possibilities of 1:1 are.
They also need to model 1:1 for their teachers.
Everything should not be
top down.
Leadership is everything!
Four things we saw effective leaders do.
Build common vision together with the staff.
Apply positive pressure and support.....set expectations.
Provide opportunities for professional development.
As I was reading my Google Reader, I came across a post by Ta-Nehisi Coates who is a senior editor for The Atlantic. In the post he describes his experiences at school, which were anything but perfect. He attended a typical school, but was turned off by the "mass production" model in his school. Ta-Nehisi's post compares his school experience to the School of One in the South Bronx. The School of One operates in the following way:
"Together they created an algorithm capable of weighing a student’s
academic needs, his or her learning preference, and the classroom
resources. Here’s how it works: first, the student and his parents and
teachers are surveyed about his classroom habits. Then the student takes
a diagnostic test to see how well he understands basic math. Those data
are then sent to the New York Department of Education’s headquarters in
Lower Manhattan, where School of One’s algorithm produces a tentative
lesson plan. That lesson plan is then e-mailed to the student’s
teachers, who revise it as they see fit. At the end of every day, the
student takes another short diagnostic, which is used to create another
tentative lesson plan that appears in the teachers’ inboxes by eight
o’clock that evening."
Even after reading about the school and watching the video, I still can't quite wrap my head around the concept (I'm still hoping to get out to New York to check it out!) There is one huge piece about the program that is clear, and that is the fact that the program has an educational plan designed specifically for each student. The technology is used in a way that enables teachers to indivividualize instruction for each student. I'll end this post with an excerpt from the Ta-Nehisi's post and a video describing the School of One. It is interesting that even in the 80's he noted how the technology was used in the same ways as pen and paper. This continues to be a challenge even for some educators who embrace technology, but the School of One is certainly a model of something very unique.
"As for the classroom of the past—of my past—I entered school just as
educators began grappling with the computer’s potential to help teachers
and students. By the time I was in high school, we were using the
computer lab once a week for math. But we were using it the same way we
used pen and paper—a teacher at the front of the class and all of us
following along. The computer lab bored me as much as the chalkboard. By
then, I knew that I wasn’t taking to education-as-mass-production. I
thought I was lazy (and maybe I was) and lacking the will to learn. But
as I watched the kids at I.S. 339 working at their own pace and in their
own way, I wondered if all I had ever really needed was the equivalent
of a warm hug from a cold algorithm."
As a continuation of yesterday’s post, I’m going to share a
short (2 minute) video about one school that has embraced social media.Students at Roosevelt High School in
Minneapolis, Minnesota use social media at school.Their school has partnered with the University of
Minnesota’s DigMe program, which brings the Universities expertise in
technology, literacy, and learning into the school in an effort to increase
engagement and achievement.The
video calls attention to the connection between digital media, student engagement,
and achievement.As schools use
digital media more effectively, student engagement increases which results in
higher achievement.
As I visit 1:1 laptop classrooms I have been trying to put myself into the shoes of a classroom teacher who has just had their world turned upside down with the introduction of these new 21st century tools. I'm learning that it's not easy for educators to make the transition and that it is very easy to continue old habits. We are definitely creatures of habit and the most simple example is of the teacher who tends to rely on lecture and class discussion. In this case the teacher will use the technology to make presentations and the students will take notes (hopefully by using the computer).
Those of you in schools that have already taken the plunge can relate to that initial feeling of, "Now what do I do with this machine?" I plan to explore this over the next several posts but would like to introduce it with this great video, 'The Class' DU innovation Class. It's a parody of The Office and it shows a teacher who is struggling to change his habits.
In Wednesday's post I highlighted some findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation about todays students and their use of media. Information from that report are included in Digital Nation's website and TV series. Their website takes a look at the effects of technology on our digital natives. This site is extremely user friendly and you can point on a particular body part to view impacts technology has had on each part. Here are some of the interesting pieces of information from the site.
Video gaming in moderation can help develop improved pattern recognition, more systematic thinking and better executive skills
Digital Natives aged 13 to 17 average 1,742 text messages a month
The more abbreviations pre-teens use in their text messages, the higher they score on tests of vocabulary and reading
Playing action video games one hour a day for just 10 days improves and widens visual attention
19 percent of Digital Natives 13 to 19 say they've sent nude or
semi-nude photos of themselves via text or e-mail -- this is called
"sexting"
More information about digital nation.....
"Digital Nation is a new, open source PBS project that explores what it
means to be human in an entirely new world -- a digital world." It
consists of this site as well as a major FRONTLINE documentary which aired on Feb. 2, 2010.
You'll want to take 10-15 minutes to visit their site and view their series from PBS. This is a great way to start a conversation about what todays learners look like.
Today I was in a workshop in Cedar Falls, Iowa with approximately 50 administrators. Much of our conversation centered around teaching, and how technology could enhance learning. Throughout the day we watched videos of three different classrooms, and discussed how the use of technology had impacted learning in each of them. One guide we used to evaluate the lessons was a form adapted from Technology and Learning Magazine. This guide is an excellent way to discuss and evaluate lessons, and it can serve as a way to truly determine if technology is actually enhancing learning in the classroom. Here are the eight questions posed on the guide.
Does technology advance student learning?
Are students working toward a lesson-relevant goal?
Does the technology give students a deeper understanding of the content?
Are students using technology to solve a problem?
Are all students benefiting from the incorporation of technology?
Is learning improved by the use of technology in the lesson?
Are students motivated by the technology, does this increase their learning?
Can teachers easily explain the benefit the technology brings to the lesson?
All three videos had some form of technology use, but two of the three lessons didn't use technology to enhance learning. One of the participants made a comment that accurately described what we saw in the final video.
"This was the first lesson that enhanced learning. It couldn't have been done without the technology."
That statements sums up one of the most important things that we all should know and understand as we use technology. Technology must be used as a tool to enhance learning. When used appropriately, that tool will drastically change teaching rather than just doing the same thing in a flashy new way.
Steve Dembo recently posted what he considered to be some of the top educational videos on YouTube on his Teach42 blog. Take a couple minutes to look at his recommended videos. If you haven't seen them all, I think you would find them very interesting. I've embedded one video about an individual's digital dossier.
Karen Cator, the new Director of Technology in Education for the Department of Education, will be sharing the first draft of the Administration's National Education Technology Plan next month. An article posted in eSchoool News highlighted some of Cator's views along with some guidelines as to what the national ed-tech plan will look like.
There were a couple of key comments Karen Cator made that struck me from the article.
"Technology will be in play in every aspect of the education-reform agenda."
It will focus on "seamlessly bridging the gap between the wide array of technology students use outside of school and the more limited technology available to them in the classroom."
Prior to assuming her current role, Cator chaired the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and worked with Apple Computer. I was able to find an interesting classroom video that Karen
viewed as "what can be done in schools today." I think it may look
very similar to classrooms in schools that have moved to 1:1.
Hopefully Cator will be able to use her role to effectively change American schools. It would be extremely exciting if all classrooms looked like the one from this video!
Today I spent the day at the SAIBoot Camp in Ames, Iowa. The Boot Camp is intended to give administrators a chance to learn technology skills that they can take back to their district. School Administrators of Iowa (SAI) have partnered with CASTLE to offer the training.
The skills that are taught at the Boot Camp should be skills that all administrators possess. Unfortunately, too many of our schools' leaders lack these skills and yet they are expected to lead change in their schools. Today was the third session of Boot Camp and there has been a very positive reaction from the participants. Hopefully, those participants will be able to apply this new learning to help their schools move forward into the digital era.
This video from TeacherTube is worth sharing with individuals who are a little leary about the changes involved with the one to one initiative. It includes some interesting statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Only 28 percent of 12th graders believe their work is meaningful.
21 percent believe their courses are interesting.
Only 39 percent believe school work will have any bearing on their success in later life.
......and those are the opinions of those students who graduated! Those numbers alone should be a call for schools to do something different.
Many policy makers have been hesitant to move to one to one because they haven't seen any concrete data about how technology improves student achievement. Unfortunately, that data isn't yet available on a large scale because so few schools have implemented one to one at this time.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say there are more important things than student achievement as measured by standardized tests. Yes, it would be great if the data once compiled revealed that students had made big gains with student achievement. But if the data doesn't reveal those gains, should we assume that ubiquitous technology has no place in education.
Technology is a tool that allows students to create, collaborate, problem solve, and think critically in ways that are extremely difficult without technology. Those are the skills our employers are looking for, although those aren't the skills that are tested on our standardized tests.
Since September, students have created videos explaining why education is important to their futures for a Federal Education Department contest. Ten of those videos have now been selected as finalists, and the public is being encouraged to help select the top three videos.
You may be asking yourself how this student video competition relates to one to one schools. I probably can't effectively answer that question until you watch the videos. The technology students used in their videos allowed them to create in a way that would be extremely difficult without technology. Students used music, various media, acting, animation, and collaboration in their videos.
The revised Bloom's Taxonomy was published in 2001 and one of the biggest changes was the addition of creating as the highest level of cognitive complexity. The ten short videos these students published are excellent examples of students creating with technology as a tool. It is also interesting to note how different each one of the videos were. I wonder what the quality of work for the students would have been if they were asked to make a poster or write a 1000 word essay.
The videos are only about two minutes each, and I think you would find it worth your time to take a look. Here is one of the videos.
On Tuesday I was able to visit with Flint, Michigan Community Schools Instructional Technology Coordinator Shawn Massey. Flint is an urban school district with approximately 75% of their students on the free and reduced lunch program. Shawn presented at the Great Lakes 1:1 Computing Conference with Flint teacher Wynn Draper-Bryant. During their first session, the focus was on leadership. Shawn listed the "three C's" which are roles administrators must play when moving to one to one.
Cheerleader-Celebrate every step of the one to one journey!
Change agent-Focus on and continually encourage learning.
Critical friend-Encourage collegiality, distributed leadership, and challenge staff with new ideas.
When I asked Shawn what impact one to one has had on her school, she replied, "The culture of teaching and learning has changed drastically." She went on to explain that she has seen an increase in creativity and cross-curriculum instruction. Increased collaboration between teachers was another benefit that Shawn listed.
Wynn Draper-Bryant, who has been teaching for 36 years, made a very powerful statement at the end of her presentation. She said, "If you take away my laptops, I’ll have to retire. I can’t imagine going back to the old way of teaching and learning.”
I spent the last couple of days at the Great Lakes 1:1 Computing Conference in Chicago. This was the first year of the conference, and it was fairly small. I would imagine it will grow larger next year because of the quality of the conference. The conference was designed for three separate tracks which allowed participants to focus on their area of interest. Those areas were:
Leadership
Classroom Practice
Infrastructure and Management
Because of the different strands, this would be an appropriate professional growth opportunity for an entire team from a school to attend. Administrators, teachers, and technology staff would all have sessions of interest to them.
On my way out of the conference, I pulled out my flip camera and shot this short video as a reflection.
The United Community School District in Iowa has implemented a one to one program for students in grades four and five. I recently toured the school and visited with students, teachers, and administration. As a former elementary school principal and teacher, I was very excited to see the impact of one to one on an elementary school.
In one of my classroom visits, students were asked to share some things that they were doing on the laptops. Wow! I could have stayed in that classroom for hours. Students were excited to share, and they had lots of information they were able to demonstrate. It was apparent that even in the short time these students have had laptops, they had developed lots of skills.
I also had the opportunity to visit with teachers. A couple of comments stick out in my mind as I look back on those conversations. When I asked one teacher about the impact of one to one, she said that she has really seen a decline in discipline issues. Students who would typically get done with an assignment, and then get off task were finding other meaningful things to do on the laptops. Another teacher had a great response when I asked her if laptops had an impact on student engagement. She answered immediately without hesitation, "Oh, God yes!"
My interview with United Superintendent Sara Keehn can be seen below. Sara talked about how the laptops had helped level the playing field for all students. She also shared that laptops have helped with student engagement and the school has seen a decline in behavior issues.
Last Thursday, I spent the afternoon touring Van Meter Schools and visiting with teachers and administrators. Van Meter Schools are in their first year of the one to one initiative. What I saw while touring the school totally reinforced my beliefs about the impact technology can have on schools.
Upon walking into the first classroom on my visit, it became apparent immediately that this wasn't a typical high school classroom. Students were spread out in the classroom and they were working on numerous different tasks for a project that they were creating. The thing that jumped out at me most in this room and the others that I toured was the engagement level of students. Students looked as if they really wanted to be in the class. The teacher shared a story about one student who wasn't able to attend school due to illness. Rather that miss class that day, the student used her laptop from home and had a video conference with students she was working with on her group project. Amazing, a high school student who really wanted to be at school!
When I walked out of that first room, I spoke with the small group of administrators and two other guests who were on the tour with me. I remember saying that, "everyone needs to see this". If other boards, teachers, parents, policy makers and students could see these technology rich classrooms, it would become evident very quickly the direction our schools need to go.
As I continued my tour that day, I saw the same thing over and over again. Students who were using their laptops were extremely engaged. In another classroom students were using their laptops to work on summaries of the books that they were reading. The teacher in that middle school classroom also shared an example with me how he had used Ning to facilitate book studies with the students. I was amazed to see the number of comments students had posted on the site. These students had become extremely involved with the on-line conversation. I also visited with a teacher who had created a moodle for his students and posted his lessons on-line. Students who had difficulty with the lesson were able to listen to the lesson a second time if they wanted to do so, and many students had done exactly that. In another classroom, students were using flash cards from BrainFlip that allowed them to receive immediate feedback.
These classes were only a portion of what I saw on my visit, but I did see many common themes in the rooms where students were using their laptop. Students were creating, collaborating, and searching for knowledge. The teachers served as facilitators of knowledge as opposed to the gate keepers of knowledge. The tour of Van Meter Schools gave me a glimpse of what I believe schools can become. Even though they are only a couple of months into the one to one initiative, the classes in the school had an atmosphere that was so different than our traditional schools. Many educators talk about changing schools, but few actually take a leap that does truly change the way schools look. I commend Van Meter for their work and commitment to their students.
For more information on Van Meter Schools, you can check out this article from the Des Moines Register. I also was able to interview Van Meter Principal Deron Durflinger and Jen Sigrist who is the School Improvement Coordinator. See their videos below or check them out on YouTube. You can also see my interview of Superintendent John Carver from my September 23 blog entry.
Today I had the opportunity to spend the day at the Iowa Technology Education Connection Annual Conference. There have been various speakers at the conference focusing on a variety of topics with technology themes. The keynote speaker today was Daniel Pink who is the author of A Whole New Mind. Daniel spent much of his presentation talking about the changes and the advances that have occurred in the business world that have not taken place in schools. For more information from the presentation, take a look at the group notes on Dangerously Irrelevant. I have also embedded a short clip of Daniel speaking about the three "A's" that are reasons education needs to change. Those things are Asia (outsourcing), automation, and abundance. Take a look at the clip to hear what Daniel means when referring to the three A's.
In yesterday's post I wrote about an opportunity for students to share their views on education on a Facebook video contest. Today I spent some time looking for videos on YouTube where students express their views on education. The video No Future Left Behind is a five minute video with middle school students sharing some of their perspectives about what they want to see happen with education. The students do a great job talking about things our schools need to do differently. Enjoy!
This YouTube video has 10 tips for using technology in the classroom. Although the list doesn't encompass everything, there are some great recommendations.
As I was recently browsing Teacher Tube, I found a very humorous and insightful presentation by Don McMillan about PowerPoint presentations. Many presenters and teachers assume that simply because they use PowerPoint their presentations will improve. As all of us can attest, that simply isn't true. Everyone has sat through countless presentations in which PowerPoint actually hurts the presentation. I have recently read PresentationZen, and I would strongly recommend that read to anyone who would like to improve their presentations.
I recently had the chance to interview Van Meter superintendent John Carver. John was asked why his school became a 1 to 1 school, and also about the effect that laptops have had on his students thus far. If you have an interest in becoming a 1 to 1 school, John is a great resource and he would be happy to speak with you! Take a look at the video!
On Monday I had the chance to interview Justin Bathon who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky and an Associate Director for CASTLE. Justin's blog The Edjurist is a very popular educational law blog.
I asked Justin what he sees as the top legal issues facing 1 to 1 schools today. Please take a minute to view his response, and I would also recommend taking a look at his blog. As we continue to confront legal issues as educational leaders, this is hopefully another resource that you will find valuable.
As we try to move forward in education, many educators have difficulty "turning the page" on the past. The ways that they learned and have taught have been extremely successful for them. This hurdle has been difficult to get past, and may be a major reason that education has been relatively unchanged for decades. Our classrooms, schools, and schedules today look almost identical to the way they looked 50 years ago. The problem with that approach is that our students and our world have changed drastically in the past 50 years.
In order to move forward, we have got to teach educators a better way. Many educators are very eager and willing to use technology when they are provided with adequate support and time to learn. On the other hand, when we throw things at teachers too quickly the push back is quite strong. I can speak from experience on that one! This video is a great example of the push back that we see too often when an individual is provided with new technology and no training. Enjoy!
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