Tag Archives: Education

ITRT Mini Conference Keynote: Fred Scott

adult learning, Education, itrt, leadership, professional development, technology, vste, ,

Here are my notes from Fred’s excellent keynote.  (Now, I’m sitting in his breakout session.)

ITRT Mini Conference
Keynote Speaker: Fred Scott, Manager, Instructional Technology, Chesterfield County Public Schools
7/25/2008

Hardware? Software?  No…Let’s Connect With HUMANware

Humanware refers to people.  We have been investing in hardware, software and webware, but what about the people?  We need to invest in the people in order to improve instruction with technology.  We need to connect humanware to school goals, student goals, etc?  When our kids leave the school system there is a whole world out there.  They may not stay in their community…we have no idea where they will be and what they will be doing.  Fred’s framework asks how we connect IRTRs with the humanware: teaching, coaching, training, and learning.

Where does humanware fit in?  Alignment for success:  are you aware of your technology master plan in your district? professional development; curriculum blue prints; if teachers are only going to teach the SOLs, then we are still behind.  The last piece is school improvement so you should be aware of the school improvement plan.  How do we get connected with those people?

Data Wise from Harvard University includes 8 steps that begins with organizing for collaborative work and ends with acting and assessing.   He has a matrix of tools that will help the team be effective.  He aligned the school improvement process with technology tools.  The ITRTs need to understand the school data such as the report card.

Training:  Rich Allen, Train Smart, 2001  Five Pillars of Training:  Engage, Frame, Explore, Debrief, Reflect
Engage: Prepare the mind, you have 5 minutes to establish the connection with an adult; teach people NOT content; teach WITH people to understand the content
Frame: establish relevance, you have one minute to establish relevance, what are you going to help them learn, why is choice good?  Because then people can make connections, now you have the next 30 minutes to involve the key concepts
Explore: Learning + Enjoyment = Concepts; people remember the good and the ugly
Debrief: Consolidating learning: how are they going to apply it to the real world?
Reflect: Embed Learning: give them stories.

Quotes Confucious: I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.

Teaching:  connect the goals and objectives, what are we doing and trying to get across
The ABCD method of writing objectives
Audience
Behavior
Condition: how should they be able to do it?
Degree: how much should they be able to do it?

Be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant/Results
Time Dependancy

Discusses Marzano’s strategies:  we don’t see it as much as we should
The nine strategies are very powerful: the top three are reinforcing effort and providing recognition, summarizing and notetaking, similarities and differences

New book: Using Technology With Classroom Instruction the Works

He outlines planning question and instructional strategies.

He suggests applying the Madeleine Hunter model: from purpose to closer
Hal Portner, Workshops that Really Work

Showed the A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Coaching: NSDC says that effective coaching means you are with a person one on one.    In the coaching model, there is some risk.  There are three major levels of risk; are you going to be conservative, moderate or aggressive?

Kimberly Ketterer, “Coach, Nurture or Nudge?”  L&L

Coach:  there is a paradigm shift from a traditional classroom to one who integrates technology.  The adult is now a risk taker who trusts the coach.  They are willing to embrace the information and collaborate.

Nurture: The adult is not confident and are still learning skills and applications.  But they are willing to try.  this adult lacks the confidence and they want to watch you do it.  They will say that time is a major problem.  They like small achievements.

Nudge: This is the person that is satisfied with the way things are.  These people are uncertain and anxious.

Learning:  How do ITRTs connect to the learning process to get adults to learn?
Showed a graphic of the basic neuron types:  what does it take to help teachers understand the make up of the brain and what’s happening inside.  He talked about Howard Gardner and multiple intelligence theory.  http://literacyworks.org/mi/home.html  You can assess your learning style here.

Marcia Tate: Sit & Get Won’t Grow Dendrites:  she talks about adult learning and strategies and activities for how to work with adults.

How do we connect Humanware to Web 2.0 for professional development and learning?  He pointed to
•    http://www.wetpaint.com
•    http://talkingletter.com
•    http://www.wonderfile.net
•    Center for Learning & Performance Technologies http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

Here’s what ITRTs need to do:
•    We have to know the goals and objectives of the school.
•    We have to develop collegial relationships.
•    We have to recognize that the adults have the expertise.
•    We have to align activities with the curriculum.
•    We have to help them understand that technology can help improve instruction and delivery.

We must provide our children the best possible learning environments to foster critical thinking, innovations and problem solving to better our society.  Fred Scott

ITRTs Lead Out Loud: http://www.leadoutloud.ca

To get results with technology integration, we need to invest in people…nurture, cultivate and develop them to ensure that tools make a difference in learning.

Remember, FRED:
Facilitate
Resources
Educate and
Develop

They did a share fair at his school division for the school board so they could understand the ITRT position.

http://fredwscott.edublogs.com  for downloading the presentation

It’s Free, But That’s Not The Important Part

Education, Open Courseware, ,

This week’s Education Week featured the open content movement. (You can read the first couple paragraphs but you’ll need a subscription to see the rest. And, if you don’t have a subscription, you should get one.)  While the article suggests that the main reason for the interest in open content is that it is free and thus will save schools money, it also points to some of the other benefits of using this content.  One, in particular, struck me:

The process of content creation and sharing is also a way to build professional relationships between teachers, proponents of open content say.  And the more that teachers get their hands into content creation, the better they can teach that material.

The article goes on to quote Laura Petrides, president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knoweldge Management in Education, a group interested in open educational resources.  She talks about being able to “harness the knowledge base that already exists” among teachers.  That’s what got my attention this morning:  a movement that respects teachers for their knwoeldge and provides them a way to share it with others.

For everyone who is busy planning professional development for the beginning of school, you might consider doing a workshop on open education resources.  Give teachers a chance to look at some of the sites below, locating materials they can use but also places where they can make a contribution.  Then, throughout the year, provide them with time to work on those contributions.  You would be building community and knowledge at the same time.  I’m doing a session for admins in a few weeks and am going to incorporate these ideas.

The article also mentions that traditional textbook publishers aren’t all that worried.  I’m not surprised.  Their seeming strangle hold on education probably makes it tough for them to see past it to the future.  (Remember, Bill Gates didn’t see much future for the Internet either.)  The spokesperson for the textbook publishers points out that they have been offering digital materials for six or seven years now.  Wow…they just don’t get it.  The open content movement is so much more than providing digital materials.  Here’s what Samuel Donovan, head of Bioquest Curriculum Consortium, had to say:

Teachers can use that work not just in their own classroom, but repurpose them, organize them, customize them, and share them back to the educational community…it creates a very different kind of professional status for teachers.  They achieve ownership and professionalism.

Once again, we hear respect for teachers in this quote, something that often doesn’t form the foundation of contemporary movements in education.  I’ve been involved in several conversations this summer where the main point was that, if we’re going to make any real differences in education, we need to fire teachers who aren’t on board.  Here’s a movement that suggests that maybe we need to respect them instead and give them an opportunity to share what they know.  I think that’s a much better way to go.  After all, it’s not like we have a long line of people waiting to sign up to be teachers.  And, those that do enter the profession often only stay for a few years.  Could making them part of this kind of knowledge building community be a possible step in the direction of retention?  I’m in the midst of planning my course for pre-service teachers in the fall and will be getting them involved in this movement as part of that.

In Virginia, the Virginia Open Education Foundation is taking a proactive approach with the legislature to begin exploring this at a state level.   I blogged about my work in this area as part of my “best of NECC” post a few weeks ago if you’re interested in what we’re doing.

Meanwhile here’s a short list of open education resources to get you started:

A Microcosmic View of the Macrocosmic Debate

21st Century Skills, Education, leadership, technology, ,

Since I blogged about 21st century skills myself yesterday, I was interested in Scott McLeod’s post on the same topic.  Scott’s post is, of course, interesting in itself as he quotes a variety of reports that show a lack of student-centered instruction in today’s classrooms.  But, for me, the more interesting part of the post are the comments, which show the wide ranging nature of the debate about school reform and the appropriate use of technology in school.  I would encourage you to head over there and get involved yourself.  Here are a few of the topics that lead to the big questions about schooling in the 21st century:

  • Are 21st century skills and tools incompatible with the current system of schooling including the focus on content-based standards and the organization of students in stand-alone classrooms?
  • Do we need to teach kids technology skills at all?
  • How does school need to change to take advantage of the new social networking types of tools such as Twitter or blogs?
  • And then the big question, and I’ll borrow from Neil Postman here: What is the “end” of education?

I’m not going to suggest that I have the answers, and I would be wary of anyone who claims they do.  I am going to use these as a guide for my own thinking and writing in the next few weeks.  But, for now, it’s Sunday morning and my garden is calling.

Education Week Open House

Education, ,

Education Week is the newspaper of record for K-12 education.  I subscribe and try to at least browse each weekly issue when it arrives.  Much of the content on their site is reserved for subscribers so if you want to see what you’re missing, they are having an open house for the next week from today until June 10.  You can also sign up for a free 4-week subscription.  It is in celebration of their Diploma Counts report.  For ed tech folks, you’ll be interested in their Technology Count reports as well.

New Poll Has Parents Conflicted About the Web

21st Century Skills, Education, Media Literacy, ,

Just read an article in Education Week about this new poll from Common Sense Media that reports that parents are conflicted about the role of digital media in their kids’ lives, particularly in terms of how well it helps them learn to communicate and collaborate. Here’s a sample:

But parents expressed skepticism about the value of many digital media platforms, particularly when it came to whether digital media could teach kids how to communicate and collaborate, skills that are essential in a 21st-century workforce. For example:

• 67 percent of parents said they did not think the Web helped teach their kids how to communicate.
• 87 percent of parents said they did not believe the Web helped their kids learn how to work with others.
• Three out of four parents do not believe the Web can teach kids to be responsible in their communities.

I can’t help but wonder why we would think “the Web” would teach our kids anything. Indeed, the Web is a tool with potential for lots of different types of learning, but if we expect it to teach anything, we have to interact with it. For kids, that means parents and teachers need to help them learn to use the tools in appropriate and powerful ways.

The report suggests that organizations like Common Sense Media need to help educate parents about the risks and rewards of new media. And, I think it’s a reminder to people like me that we need to be careful about the claims we make about new media.

The poll was conducted by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and kids enjoy media sensibly. They have ten “common sense” beliefs about media that begin with the belief in media sanity not censorship.