Archive for January, 2010

Technology as a Connection, not a Solution

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Face Book posting, January 25, 2010 – 2:45 p.m.

I saw a piece in last week ASCD’s SmartLinks about SmartBoards and their effectiveness in the classroom. Many of you have heard me give my 2 rules for them – 1) Because they are a sizable investment (up to $5000) I would want them in use at least 50% of the time; 2) No teacher could touch them. I know, sounds counter intuitive, but the thought was that having students help learning occur via the Smartboards would have many benefits. Besides saving tons of money on PD for teachers, it would ensure deep student understanding of the concept by the students responsible for causing learning to occur that day, etc.

I made a comment on my FB page after posting the link to the ASCD story today and got some interesting reactions. Then as luck would have it, I watched a short video by Zak George. Now you may not have heard of him, but he works with dogs. One of the reasons I like him is because he stresses over and over that it’s not about control, it’s about the connection with your dog that is important, the “bond” that you have heard me talk about in referring to one of the great secrets in The Little Prince.

Zak was talking about discontinuing rewards once a “trick” is learned (Dan Pink would love this). In fact, he used the example that when you were in 2nd or 3rd grade you might have gotten a piece of candy from the teacher for learning your multiplication tables. By the time you are in 6th grade, that was certainly no longer the case. He said the whole point of the reward is not the focus on the behavior that is learned, but instead it’s a way to establish the connection and signify praise, pride and accomplishment of something new. That was when it hit me.

You have perhaps picked up on my observation that it’s all about relationships in the learning process – that’s what teachers (should) do best. Unfortunately, the relationship we hold to be most valuable is the one between the teacher and the content, and we see how the student reacts to that relationship. In a learning environment, the most important relationship should be between the teacher and the student, and the learning of content and skills is enabled by that relationship. The deeper it is, the more the child can and will learn.

This answered the technology question for me. We have made the same mistake there – we believe the untruth that the most important relationship is between the teacher and the technology, and then we see how the student reacts. Witness the huge investment in PD to help teachers understand how to use the newest technology. What we need to realize is that technology should be seen as just one more way to connect the teacher and the student. What’s the best way to use technology to connect with kids? I sure don’t think the answer is for the teacher to be the “guardian” of the technology, like the Wizard of Oz behind the screen moving the levers to impress Dorothy and her friends. If we recognize that technology is just one more way to connect to students, then teachers no longer need to feel like they have to be the expert, the guru, or the Wizard. They have the freedom to do what I originally suggested, turn the technology over to the student to use in accomplishing the goals. Don’t forget, Dorothy and company were not helped by the Wizard’s “technology”. They came to understand that it had been about relationships all along.

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“Time Warp” thinking in Education

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Back in the days when we used to write checks, it was pretty common to get the year wrong in January. Force of habit. What amazes me is the way so many education leaders and thinkers seem to be stuck in a time warp and have trouble understanding that this isn’t 1970. We aren’t still writing checks by hand like we used to. Let me give you an example . . .

The headline “Rural Students” in the Report Roundup section of the January 6, 2010 edition of Education Week carries this pull quote immediately under it: “Students in Rural Schools Have Limited Access to Advanced Mathematics Courses.” Are you kidding? I mean, really, are you kidding? In the U.S. today there is ‘virtually’ no limit to access to any course.

What makes me angry is the real problem in 2010; namely, the unwillingness of teachers, schools, and districts to encourage and document learning when it occurs outside of their buildings or schedules. With internet access available at home, at school, at the public library, or elsewhere, the access is there! Why perpetuate the culture of dependence that has become so entrenched? Why do we hold onto the myth that the only learning that “counts” is what happens in 175 days from August to June – and only between 8 AM and 3 PM — and only from a “certified” teacher, and only when it occurs in a school building?

It is unacceptable that we continue to spread the myth that students lack access to opportunities for learning. This is 2010, not 1970, remember? It’s a bit like saying that students lack access to the latest video making the rounds on YouTube because the clip isn’t available on one of three channels that the student’s TV receives.

Students and parents need to begin demanding that schools understand that a new but important part of the educator’s role is to validate and document learning, no matter the time, the place or the source. While there may still be a few rare and isolated instances of pockets with no connection to the outside world, that is not the problem. The problem is systems that will not document learning when it occurs. We should be teaching students how to access the unbelievable learning resources available to them.

It’s 2010. The future’s ours, if we can free it!

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American Education — Race to the Top in a K-Car

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

This morning I was listening to a report on the opening of the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. You know the scene, every year the car manufacturers get together to roll out their latest models, and congratulate one another with prizes.

It made me think back to what earlier auto shows must have been like. I checked out the website and learned that this was the 21st anniversary of the event going international. Hmmm that would have made it about 1989 when they realized that the world was changing. A bit late, perhaps, considering that in 1979 90% of the cars in America were actually made in America, but by 1989 the transition to a world economy was in full swing.

By 2005 over 60% of the US car market belonged to the Japanese alone. We all lament that the auto industry couldn’t see it coming, or if they did, they didn’t know what to do. If the “Big 3” had realized how the world was fundamentally changing would it have made a difference, or would they still have been trying as hard as they could to bring out those old “new” models every year?

That brings me to the K-Car, the vehicle that defined Chrysler during the 80’s. Google “K-Car” and you will be amazed. Initial articles make you scratch your head in wonder that we aren’t all still driving them. The reports make them sound pretty fantastic. Too bad the company officials kept busy improving a product that was farther and farther out of touch with the world and that was becoming more and more irrelevant to the consumer.

It’s easy to rail against the auto companies and wonder how they could have been so blind. The rest of the world was increasing industrial capacity by leaps and bounds at the same time as they were increasing the available manufacturing work force. This was accompanied by rapid technological advances in the industry, along with global communication and supply networks that were rendering old auto manufacturing models obsolete. Why couldn’t they see? Why didn’t they think to apply a litmus test when roaring through production of the K-Car? If they had asked if their basic business model was the same as it had been twenty years before while the rest of the world was fundamentally changing, they might have at least had a chance. But they were too busy building cars that fewer and fewer people actually wanted while congratulating themselves and handing out awards at the annual NAAS.

So is American education in a ‘Race to the Top in a K-Car’? Try the litmus test – Is there anything in the fundamental nature of the proposals in Race to the Top that could not have been done 20 years ago? No. For instance, look at the four school reform models: Turnaround; Restart; School Closure and Transformation. You’d think we were Rip Van Winkle, waking up after 20 years and picking up like nothing in the world had changed. Any of those 4 could have been done 20 years ago. Every single “new” initiative is based on the notion that school will still be the only acceptable place to acknowledge as a learning environment. But the world has fundamentally changed. Students are wired to one another and to the rest of the world in ways that we didn’t imagine even ten years ago. While there is, of course, mention of the use of technology scattered throughout the administration’s plans, I have yet to hear of one element that would really pass the litmus test. Ignore the changing world; get the new education K-Cars built!

Suppose a student “aces“ the mandatory state assessment in mathematics, but then it is discovered that the student did all of her work on her own, using her iPhone and home computer, studying with teachers and content experts and other students from around the world. Could that happen today? Of course! Are student’s today learning amazing things and producing amazing products outside of school? Of course! Is this a trend that will decrease as learning apps proliferate at geometric rates? Not on your life The world has changed! Mr Duncan, it’s not 1989!! So tell me, should the school get credit for that student’s assessment scores? You tell me. Better yet, tell Arnie Duncan, if you can find him. He will probably be awarding a “Race to the Top” school a ribbon for “Highest Achievement in a 19th Century Institution”. Maybe the winners in the Race To The Top should be given the “Chrysler Award”, in honor of a vanishing but cherished institution!

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Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Jan 2 2010 Supercoolschool

Face it. We used to be dependent on schools (public, private, or charter) to bring together the people and the resources that would make it possible for large numbers of kids to learn things. As time went on, schools made sure they had certified teachers and then “certified” learning in a host of mysterious ways (like A-F grades). Finally, the schools were themselves “certified”, thus closing the loop in a very tight way.

The only real challenge to that was homeschooling but for many reasons, historically, that didn’t account for many students.

We have a new set of realities to face. Now we have entered the “What if” age of education.

What if . . . any individual or group could organize a virtual school? They could certainly provide the content necessary for learning; and provide it in an endless variety of ways to a seemingly unlimited number of learners.

What if . . . there were lots of ways that learners could demonstrate their knowledge and abilities? Frankly, watching a kid on a YouTube video analyze the mathematics and physics of a skate board park she had designed and built would give me a much better clue as to what she knows than if she shows me a report card where she has a single letter grade from a teacher I don’t know in a school I have never heard of.

What if . . . it were possible for kids to learn and not have limits put on their expectations by class syllabi and teachers?

What if all this were possible today?

Would we still “need” schools? Would the public still be willing to pour billions and billions of tax dollars into public school systems with mediocre results?

What scares me is that this IS possible and possible today. If you need proof, check out www.supercoolschool.com. “Get started within a couple of clicks and create your next generation online school – educating others has never been easier!” With a couple clicks of a mouse you can try it free for a 30 day trial!

While there is much that I think needs to be changed in schools (public, private and charter) today, I am truly afraid of schools letting themselves become obsolete because of their inability to change. I am afraid of the ramifications of losing millions of talented teachers and administrators.

Someone remind me why I shouldn’t be afraid of the presence of the wonderful possibilities for learning that I described.

We need to remember what Jarvis said in What Would Google Do? Do what you do best, and outsource the rest! If schools and teachers are no longer the best content resource for anything (and honestly they aren’t in the age of the Net), then where is the real value? I think it’s in the ability of teachers to form long term relationships with learners (at least 3 years) and to take the responsibility of guiding kids to learning opportunities and then documenting learning no matter when, where, or from whom it occurs.

Challenging and exhilarating opportunities!

What if . . . the future is here?

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