Category Archives: Education

Five Tips for Keeping Up

Education, technology,

I worked with a team of great educators to present a session related to Digital Age Learning with a focus on ISTE NETS A, Standard 3 at the recent ISTE Leadership Forum:

Educational Administrators promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources.

My focus was on indicator d, which I think of as the “keeping up” indicator:

Stay abreast of educational research and emerging trends regarding effective use of technology and encourage evaluation of new technologies for their potential to improve student learning

I had 30 minutes to offer up ideas for how to meet this indicator so focused on five tips:

  1. Know Your Tools
  2. Make Time
  3. Read Critically
  4. Include Your Teachers
  5. Consider the Complete Context

Know Your Tools:

Since David had already covered Twitter as a tool for building professional learning networks, I focused on other tools including Google alerts, Google Reader and its accompanying bundles, Zite and Flipboard for mobile devices, and Diigo as a way to share web-based resources easily. One of my bundles includes the RSS feeds for the various publications and blogs followed by the Horizon K-12 report. And thanks to the attendee who showed me Diigo Quick Note.  I had an account but had not seen the potential power in the tool as I’ve been using Evernote.  I’ll be experimenting.

Make Time:

This was quick: I just showed Covey’s important/urgent framework and reminded us all that we need to make Quadrant Two time: preparation and learning that is important even if it doesn’t seem urgent. I think that writing this blog each day has been really valuable Quadrant Two time for me and I recommended some kind of daily practice to them as well.

Read Critically:

Links to two research studies to show the wide range of what passes for research these days. I reminded them of Michael Fullan’s idea that practice drives theory:

I have come to the conclusion that practice drives theory. That is, focusing on improving practice uncovers the best specific ideas. What you learn along the way can be tested in the light of broader research, but practice – not research – should be the driver.

 Include Your Teachers:

This comes from Larry Cuban’s blog in a post from the summer:

Were teachers to become part of the decision-making process in determining access and use of new technologies would they eventually integrate these new technologies into classroom lessons? Yes, far more than occurs now.
Why? Because teachers would have thought through and learned connections between curriculum knowledge and skills and software applications, how lessons could be taught that use and not use the new devices and software, and a pool of expertise would have emerged among teachers that could be shared.

What seems great on paper doesn’t always turn out that way and it is easy to blame teachers since they are the connection between the technology and the classroom.  But what if it really was the technology, chosen for all sorts of reasons except its instructional use, that was to blame? Or the system of support? Or the type of professional development? Respect teacher knowledge, says Cuban, and use it to inform decisions.  Don’t DO technology to teachers.

Consider the Complete Context:

I ended with the TPACK model as a way to be sure technology decisions consider how technology can intersect with pedagogy and content and emphasized the need to focus on pedagogical change that integrates technology since technology integration driving pedagogical change is notoriously unsuccessful.

Farming for the Future

Education

The public broadcasting show, Growing a Greener World, had an episode related to farming education this morning. They profiled a Farm School in New England where learners go for a year to learn all aspects of farming. It sounds tempting.

We have been very much learning on the job with help from books, the Internet and our local extension agent. We have informally partnered with a local man who worked with the former owner of our house. He helps out with our crops and uses some of the garden to plant his own. He has lots of knowledge about what to plant when and takes the vegetables up to road to the more urban areas to sell.

The idea of opening our farm to students is very appealing. It would be nice to work with local students who might want to use farming as a way to stay in an area where jobs are scarce. One of the powerful messages from the director of the Farm School was that it is now possible to make a living as a small local farmer. But there is a lot to learn about from running a business to growing crops to fixing the plumbing. Lots of opportunities to make practical applications of classroom learning including science and math along with business and marketing skills. Technology would be used in appropriate ways from bookkeeping to crop tracking to website development.

Is it possible that growing and selling food could really be coming back as an area of job development?  I was reminded of a segment I had seen about Braddock, Pennsylvania, a former manufacturing town trying to survive into the 21st century. They have a small scale urban organic farm as part of their revitalization plans. This video is worth a look to see how people are solving problems in creative, roll-up-your sleeves kinds of ways that don’t rely on government:

Watch A Town Revitalized? on PBS. See more from NOW on PBS.

When We See It As A Challenge

blogging, Education, gaming

My attention lately has turned to game design and notions of gamification.  Part of it stems from the discussion of Reality is Broken that I facilitated earlier this year and part from my own growing devotion to time management strategy games. It has led me to incorporate game language into my ed tech course for pre-service teachers.  They are moving into the gamification phase right now as they determine which areas they wish to pursue in more depth and they’ll level up, achieve mastery, and then choose one area in which they will get to the Boss level.  One of the engaging pieces of games is the notion of the challenge.  If a game is too easy, we tend to be less interested. It has to be just hard enough that we have a sense we can beat it but know that we may fail before we succeed by applying the lessons we have learned in our earlier attempts.

I read two different pieces today that seem to be using the challenge approach to encourage positive change in two very different groups of people.

Education Week profiles Haut Gap Middle School, a school that has used the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Suports (PBIS) approach to discipline. It has something of a game style approach as it seeks to reward positive behavior:

For example, once every quarter, Haut Gap students who have collected the right number of PRIDE coupons earn a special privilege. They also can cash in their coupons for prizes. They earn coupons for asking thoughtful questions in class, being prepared for a lesson, and asking for permission the right way. Coupons or not, when students behave the right way, they are told.

“You have your reading book out,” English teacher Brandon Bobart told his students during a recent class. “I can tell you’re committed to your learning.”

Earlier this month, 6th grader Saniyah King happily reported she had earned 10 PRIDE coupons. If she has 20 by month’s end, she’ll get to take part in a schoolwide dress-up day, when students swap school uniforms for business attire.

I can hear some of you sputtering: why should kids be rewarded for good behavior?  It should simply be what is expected of you as a citizen. But we see rewards in the real world: earning points for good driving, getting at least a small interest rate for saving money, and in San Antonio and Chicago  a wellness challenge that will reward municipal employees for getting healthier with cash prizes and penalize those who don’t by increasing their health benefit payment.

The second article was a reminder from Shelly Terrell about the 30 Goals Challenge for 2012. She has been focusing on one or two goals a week but I may at least get started on the list in anticipation of getting into the 2013 challenge at the beginning. Having specific goals for learning and growth can help guide us as students. When they are set as personal challenges, we may find them even more compelling.  And like a good game, Terrell builds in reflection: why did you learn by completing this challenge.

Of course, I’m already involved in a 30 day challenge of blogging every day.  It’s been a good journey: I find myself thinking about the blog entry throughout the day and then sitting down in the evening to pull it together. But sometimes, like yesterday, I will see a headline that just calls for comment. I’ve allowed myself a fairly wide net of subjects from poverty to technology to Neil Young with a blog entry about Bruce Springsteen is in the works.

I’m doing some reflecting on whether or not I can keep this up after the 30 days ends next week. I would like to very much as I’ve found the practice of writing to be very useful both in terms of codifying my ideas and beliefs but also in terms of making me keep up a bit more as I look for blog fodder. I’m considering ideas for how to streamline it a bit and will share them in a future entry.

Breaking News: Yet Another Revolution

Education, technology,

I was showing my grad students how to use Google alerts today and used education technology as my example query.  This story was the first one that showed up in the News section. My first thought was really? Are we still thinking that any technology is going to spur an education revolution?

Here’s the money quote:

A lot has to happen in education before tablets can reach their potential. Most important, the people who run schools have to overcome their deep-seated fear of students in possession of connected devices. Yes, they can facilitate cheating and distractions, but teachers have always had to deal with cheating and distraction in classrooms and this is a terrible reason to deny students the advantages to students of everything from a library at their fingertips to instructional materials enabled by the tablet.

He is right that a lot has to happen in education but I don’t have a sense that deep-seated fear is the biggest issue. After 3 days at ISTE’s Leadership Forum, the biggest issue I hear is concern with how to really make a powerful use of these tools, way beyond textbooks or apps. I use my iPad in so many ways beyond creating and reading ebooks, his two major examples of the education revolution wrought by iPads.

Then, I reread the article and it occurred to me that a non-education writer’s definition of revolution is probably just different than mine: it doesn’t have to do with pedagogy and a shift from traditional practices, it has to do with technical ubiquity:

There are many reasons why technology has been an educational disappointment for three decades. Probably the most significant is that the computer has never become students’ constant companion but remains instead an occasional tool.

That’s all the further he goes. If you aren’t going to change the way teaching and learning take place, then other than helping lighten the backpack, computers are only needed occasionally.

Schools, particularly K-12 education, is a sector that has lagged badly in the adoption and use of computer technology. The explosion of tablets may finally be about to change that.

So, tablets may change students’ access to digital technologies…if that’s your revolution, we are well on our way if the other headlines in my Google alerts are to be believed.  School after school are adopting mobile technologies, mostly iPads.  But it is still to be seen if a real revolution takes place.

 

On Writing

Education, writing

It is late. I am tired.  It has been a long but fun day of sharing and learning with educational leaders. But I made a commitment to blog every day and blog I will.  So, I’m going to write about writing.

As part of a recognition of National Day on Writing, on October 19, Steve J. Moore at Edutopia writes about why he writes with his students and the role writing plays in his own life:

Beginning to see myself as a writer, and coming to understand that this wasn’t some magical and unreachable status, was a crucial step on my journey in teaching. I encourage you to start writing for yourself and share what you do with your students. You won’t be disappointed.

Like many ideas, this idea is not new. As a young teacher, I read Nancie Atwell and was completely hooked on the idea of reading and writing workshops and loved spending time writing with my students. Ini 1985, Tom Gillespie suggested that writing himself makes him a better writing teacher:

Thus, as a writer paying attention to my own work, I learn to be more keenly attentive to my students’ work. My careful observation and listening to them is enriched by my careful observation and listening to myself as I write.

I don’t mind that a younger generation is adopting an old idea.  It’s a good one a worth refreshing in this era of online publishing.

And I was reminded of one of my favorite leadership writers: Warren Bennis.  In his classic, On Becoming a Leader, he describes the importance of writing to leaders:

Writing is the most profound way of codifying your thoughts, the best way of learning from yourself who you are and what you believe.

And here’s a short video interview of Bennis talking about writing his memoir.  He encourages others to do as, starting at an earlier age than he does.