Knowledge is power

Facts:

• The Internet is the major source of information in the 21st Century.
• Information leads to knowledge.
• Knowledge is power.
• Therefore, technology integration in our classrooms is no longer optional.

Our students need us. Are we up to the challenge?

Technology for students is not optional

How does one get across the importance of technology--for providing access to information for students--to those who still look at tech as an expensive add on? Since we all went to school, too many have the tendency to look back at their education and what it looked like and theorize that it should still work for today’s students. This is flawed reasoning. I always like the analogy that has been drawn many times before that compares modern medicine with what was done medically in the past. Would you go to a doctor who still practiced medicine like it was practiced 50 years ago, just because that medical practice produced cures back then? Of course you wouldn’t. You want your doctor to use all the advancements of modern medicine to diagnose and cure you. We owe the same to our students in classrooms.

I remember learning history from ten year old textbooks that were probably outdated the day they arrived in the classroom. I remember working from five year old workbooks that we couldn’t write in, because they had to be reused year after year. I remember typing papers with typewriters that even with the correction ribbon ended up too messy to use, requiring typing over again. I remember filing index cards of information for debate in file boxes we could hardly carry. Did I learn? You better believe it. I amassed a spectacular foundation of learning that made me an ardent (perhaps obsessive!) lifelong learner. Is it the way I want my children educated? Absolutely not. It’s not the way we do things in today's world.

The point is that information is available from the Internet now. Why would we ever think there’s an alternative to that? Sure, books are great, and I still buy books, but I would never think books could stand alone anymore. Information needs to be gathered, evaluated, analyzed, synthesized, organized, and used to create new products and new thoughts. How do we do that? We do that with technology now. A school is unfair to its students if the people in it or around it think you can learn to your highest capacity without the greatest source of information in the world today, the Internet. Individuals buying insurance, shopping for merchandise, evaluating health options, hiring employees, researching the law, finding recipes, picking cell phones, collaborating with others, working in all industries, all industries. The work place has changed. Homes have changed. Education must continue to change.

We would never put our students behind the wheel of a car without teaching them behind the wheel of a car. Why would we ever think it’s OK to educate without putting the source of information in the hands of our students and teaching them to use it wisely? Technology will never replace teachers. Never. I believe that adamantly, and I’ve posted about it before. However, that doesn’t make technology optional. From PreK through advanced degrees, technology in the hands of students is imperative. We need people and connected technology, and we better continue to figure out how to make that happen financially in our schools.

Temptations of the Internet: Personal Responsibility

Have you ever stood behind a room full of teachers or administrators at meetings or professional development? What do you see on their computer screens? Let’s see—Email to keep track of what’s going on at work; Twitter to provide a back channel for communicating with others near and far; web sites that are the topic of the gathering and web sites that clearly aren’t; calendars to see what’s coming up tomorrow; blogs of favorite authors; consumer retail sites, and that’s just to name a few distractions. Add to that the cell phones, and the neighbor we’re chatting with, and it’s a wonder that we ever hear a word that’s said on the topic of the gathering or accomplish the tasks at hand. Are we surprised that we see the same thing in our classrooms, and by the way, what is the solution?

The truth of the matter is that we can only focus on one thing at a time. While we can cruise between lots of tasks in tiny bursts of concentration, we truly can’t be processing two thoughts on two different topics at the same time. How many times have you heard what a moderator said, taken off on that tangent in some way on your laptop (or on some other completely off task tangent) and then had to ask for the next part of the presentation to be repeated? I’ve never been to a gathering of professionals where this didn’t happen, and many times it’s me who got lost by my wandering fingers on the keyboard or phone.

I know what the canned responses are:

“Whose fault is it if students are running around on Facebook when they should be on task in the classroom?”

“Chat should be open for back channel conversations, and students who are engaged won’t talk about anything but the current topic."

“Stand and deliver presentations deserve the lack of engagement.”

“Find something students care about, and they’ll pay attention.”

“Show students how the topic applies to them in real life, and they won’t even think of socializing with their peers.”

Are you serious? Do you really believe that students, young and old, can use their interpretation of the quality of the class or meeting as their cop out for not paying attention? Who’s to judge that quality? I have one daughter who hates small group work. I have a son who would rather shovel snow than listen to a lecture. I have another daughter who thinks online classes are the best way to learn and another daughter who can’t stand not having other people physically present when learning. Do we really think that depending on each student's learning style or preference, an excuse can be made for not paying attention?

The truth of the matter is that despite the best intentions of presenters or moderators, whether with lessons for classrooms of students, or with PD or meetings for teachers and administrators, the temptations for participants’ forging ahead on their own, whether on or off topic, is enormous. We pick and choose what we care about, and we focus on what our priorities are at the time. In so doing, the entire purpose of the class or the gathering can be lost. Whose fault is that?

I’m going to go out on a limb here, and assert that the locus of control does not rest with the teacher or moderator alone, although they certainly share responsibility. The responsibility also has to lie with those who came to the class or session. Just because laptops or cell phones present huge temptations to wander off mentally, we owe it to ourselves and our peers to stay on task. I don’t care if the class or session isn’t perfect. I don’t care if there’s too much stand and deliver. I don’t care if the small group work seems ill defined. I don’t even care if someone is waiting for an important email to arrive. There comes a point when one has to take responsibility for his/her own learning. Students, young and old, who don’t are cheating themselves and their cohorts. Surely part of our job as educators, in addition to creating the best learning tasks we can, is to clearly define our behavioral expectations in our classrooms or meeting rooms, and surely our job as students is to follow the rules, pay attention, and learn. No excuses.

Tornado Victory!

Nice win over Algona Monday, boys!

The Platform Wars

I don’t understand why conversations about technology for education so often digress into conversations about platform. The decision for my school district to standardize with PCs several years ago was a financial decision based on the belief that we could offer quality technology for learning, and for working, with PCs at a significantly lower cost than we could with Macs. It was a financial decision based on the reality that a technology department can be much more productive if they focus on one platform with as few different hardware parts and operating system versions as possible. It was an educational decision based on the belief that we are deluding ourselves if we think we are teaching today’s students specific hardware and software for use in their future jobs. Technology changes too fast for that. In addition, in a world where most of what we do on computers is web-based, PC or Mac becomes largely irrelevant.

I can honestly say if someone asked me which platform I wanted for my work computer, I would respond, “I want the newest, most powerful computer you have to offer. I don’t care what the platform is.” I guess that’s why I find the often warring PC versus Mac camps perplexing. I’ve worked with both over the years, and I think they’re both great.

Course Content is only the Beginning

I’ve been thinking a lot about education lately. While I get entrenched in technology and its value for education, I also think about what was the most valuable to me when I was a student. I have strong opinions about that.  Here’s what I know for sure:

1.       Music taught me to think in a different language. It taught me to collaborate with others. It taught me the value of working hard to accomplish a goal. It taught me that progress isn’t always apparent until you look back. It taught me to tune into my heart. It taught me to get up in front of an audience and share my talents.

2.       Debate taught me to gather information, to evaluate, to synthesize, and to organize that information to build opinions based on facts. It taught me to see both sides of an issue and realize there can be merits both ways. It taught me to collaborate. It taught me to disagree without being disagreeable. It taught me to share. It gave me the confidence to speak in public.

3.       Literature taught me to feel. It taught me to look at the big picture. It taught me that writing can be therapeutic. It taught me that humans are humans, and when it comes right down to it, we have more in common than we have differences. It taught me that if one has a book, one never has to feel alone.

4.       Sports taught me that competition can be entertaining. It taught me sportsmanship. It taught me to deal with both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I was a fan. Had I been an athlete as my children have been, it would have taught me in addition to the above, teamwork, the value of hard work, the importance of physical fitness.

5.       Relationships with my teachers taught me self-confidence. It taught me that there are lots of people out there who care whether I succeed or fail and who will help me on that journey if I only ask.

6.       Leadership opportunities in school taught me to work for consensus. It taught me to build others up to motivate them long term rather than to rule with the threat of sanctions, which only works in the short run.

All these things taught me problem-solving skills. They taught me to create. They taught me to collaborate. They taught me to take charge when others are thirsting for leadership and to follow when what’s needed is someone to get the work done. They taught me to set goals, and they gave me the self-confidence to work towards those goals even when there are significant setbacks that require a change of course.

Yes, reading, math, and science are important. Yes, I did very well on standardized tests when I was a student. Yet, I have no doubt in my own mind that the importance of even these subjects is not in the answers one gives on some standardized test. I’ve no doubt that I would do very poorly on that same test today, but that’s because the tests don’t measure what’s important. The value in those subjects over time is the same as the value in what I’ve listed above. The value is in the skills for thinking and learning and working with others that those subjects offer.

Let us not get so caught up in standards and assessments and data that we lose sight of the other things we learn in school. It’s true, that “smart” students could run through the information in courses in a tenth of the time we offer courses in now, and they could perform very well on the standardized tests, but what else in education would they be missing? Sometimes the time spent is an important variable, because it isn’t just the “information” one is learning. It’s so much more.

Student-Centered Learning is not Teacher-less Learning

There’s a lot of discussion out there about what 21^st Century education should look like, and I’ve been a part of those conversations many times over the past fifteen years. I could rattle off the perils of continuing with education that was designed for the Industrial Age. I could recite the importance of scope and sequence, of differentiated instruction, of instructional strategies infused with technology, and of standards-based curriculum. I would be the first to advocate for student-centered classrooms. I would sing the praises of collaboration and project-based learning and of moving learning outside the four walls. I would talk about the possibilities that technology offers to education to improve student learning. I would explain the importance of students creating. I would talk about the massive amount of information available on the Internet and the need for our students to learn to manage, analyze, synthesize, and organize that information.

Yet, while all these things are important, and all these things must be hashed out and incorporated into a viable model of 21^st Century learning, we must be very careful not to lose sight of the importance of the teacher. In my opinion, the teacher is the most important ingredient in the classroom, no questions asked. The teacher develops relationships with both students and their families. The teacher recognizes the needs of the individual students and makes sure those needs—social, instructional, physical, etc.—are being met. The teacher chooses what instructional strategies to use in the classroom based on the makeup of the class and what tools are available. The teacher disciplines with love. The teacher accepts the fact that student achievement rests heavily on the shoulders of the school and knows that the excuse that students and families aren’t meeting us halfway is irrelevant. The teacher puts in the hours necessary to get the job done. The teacher motivates students to work hard and to do their very best.

If teachers weren’t the most important ingredient, all kids who have access to libraries would check out books and learn on their own. All students who have access to the Internet would find the important information and learn on their own. Every informed parent would offer educational tools to their students and sit back and watch the learning take place. Obviously, access to books and the Internet are important. Obviously, dedicated, well-informed parents are important. And, the truth is, many students are learning a great deal on their own, but the question is, "Are our students learning everything they need to know?" And, if our students aren't learning everything they need to know on their own, which I absolutely believe, the teacher becomes the most important variable in the learning equation.

The caution that I offer is this: While we must give our students laptops to make sure they have the tools necessary to access and use information, while we must buy programs that offer credit recovery, while we must offer courses long distance through the Internet, while we must make use of iPods and cell phones in the classroom, . . . we must not expect that these things alone will improve student achievement. It’s the teachers in the classrooms who make the difference. I received my Master’s Degree in Educational Technology in a totally online program from Boise State University. It was an excellent program. It offered current information about education. It was focused entirely on project-based learning. It required thoughtful discussion and collaboration among classmates and instructors. It provided educational tools for our classrooms and schools. What it also offered, though, was a cadre of teachers, who, although long distance, took the time to develop relationship, who monitored student progress, who communicated with students regularly, who stayed current with instructional strategies, and who took charge of knowing what information was out there and regularly led us to excellent sources of information. The importance of this is no different than if I had worked on my degree face-to-face in a classroom.

I worry that with our emphasis on new ways of educating that we will lose sight of the importance of teachers. If just providing the information was enough, we wouldn’t need schools at all in this day and age. What we all know, though, is that we all have books on the shelf we haven’t found time to read, and courses we took that we didn’t put much effort into, and resources we’ve heard about on the Internet that we haven’t researched fully. What we already know is that great teachers help us to read those books, give our best in classes, and find and analyze the information available on the Internet. Good teachers give us the time to experiment, to create, to collaborate, and to find our passion. It isn’t enough to give the tools, offer the course, or talk about student-centered learning. Student-centered does not mean teacher-less.