Category Archives: technology

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.

Taking My Own Good Advice

technology, thinking out loud

I feel like I have been hurtling through life for the past several months…traveling, working, teaching. I love it all and that I can do it from the road. But lately it has also meant that I seem to be online all the time. Yesterday morning, I checked in on email, made a phone call or two, and reviewed the to do list to make sure there weren’t any live frogs and then…I took a digital day off.

I have written before about the notion of digital fasts and my advice then we find the Middle Way. One of my suggestions was to choose a day of the week when you would be digitally unavailable. After all, one of the reasons that all emails seem important is because we are obsessively checking in on our phones, iPads and laptops.

Yesterday was that day for me and I may be extending it through today as well. I cleaned my house, worked in the henhouse, baked bread and made a mostly homegrown spaghetti sauce for dinner. I read, rested, crocheted and talked with our house guest who is helping out with a construction project here on the farm. It was mostly non-digital as I did play My Kingdom for The Princess; I’m trying to beat another one of those bonus levels for which there doesn’t seem to be a walk through. The best part of the day was, after sweeping the front porch, sitting on the swing and watching the sunset.

It was refreshing but a bit disconcerting, too, with an inner voice sometimes nagging me…just check your email, it will only take a minute. Maybe I am a bit too addicted to being connected and need to look a little harder for the Middle Way.

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.

 

Can Technology Support a Rural Revival?

Rural Education, technology

The Winter ViewMy husband and I often joke with people that the town where we had lived for 18 years had outgrown us.  For people in urban areas, it sounds a bit silly since Williamsburg, Virginia, is still very small. But the change was real to us: our country road was now home to two large developments that made it difficult and dangerous to walk the dogs. Getting across town after 4 PM meant dealing with a rush hour. There wasn’t ever a time when you didn’t have to stand in a long line at the post office or the grocery store.

So, when we found a small farm across the river, we jumped at the chance to move to the country. We had our own land where we could walk the dogs, keep chickens legally, and really see the stars at night. Since I mostly work from home, it didn’t really matter where I lived as long as I had Internet access. At the beginning, that access was cellular but it worked OK even though the cost was somewhat surprising. Now, we have DSL, and I am hopeful that rural broadband will bring even better access in the near future.

Certainly, we aren’t the only crazy people in the world who like living outside the typical urban/suburban environment? But rural population is at an all time low in the United States.

As telecommuting becomes more entrenched in our society, people will have more flexibility with their choices of home. Bringing more people to rural counties would help bolster the tax base to support schools and bring economic support for local businesses. Perhaps rural areas need to start an advertising campaign to encourage people to move. Let them know that you don’t have to live off the grid on the edge of the Maine woods to have a rural experience. In fact, we live on the edge of a little town so there’s a pizza shop and public library within biking distance.

What would it take to get you to the country?

Friday Favorites

21st Century Skills, Education, technology

One of my online students wondered what a NETS school would look like.  I immediately thought of two of my favorite case studies from Edutopia.

The first profiles Newsome Park Elementary School, a science magnet school in Newport News, Virginia.

The second describes Eva LaMar’s 3rd graders who are engaging with local history in powerful ways.

Both these videos are old and so you’ll see bulky digital cameras and Alphasmart keyboards. But, it isn’t the technology that makes the difference here. It’s what the students and teachers are doing with that technology to support their learning. The pedagogical ideas are important.