Our district has developed a very impressive 5 year technology plan based on technology bond money. By the end of 5 years, all high schools will be involved in 1:1 computing, middles schools will be 3:1, and all classes in grades 4 and 5 will be 5:1. The 5th grade 5:1 roll-out is scheduled for next year, 2010-2011. As a Technology Integration Specialist, I find this plan exciting and highly ambitious. My question is this: “Will receiving 5 laptops per class do anything to change the way teachers teach?” That was actually a rhetorical question, because the answer is so obviously “no.” So the real question becomes, “What can I do to help my teachers make the necessary shift in pedagogy to enable them to embrace a 21st Century Learning model?” I’ve been researching, but I’m not easily finding a road map.
There are lots of motivating videos about 21st Century Learning, such as “Engage Me.” There are certainly more flashy ones, but I like this one because it features elementary-aged students.
I am now on a quest to discover the answer to my question. My first step is to think about some key ingredients in a 21st Century Learning environment. Here are 5 that I’ve adopted so far.
1) NETS: All curriculum should be framed by the National Educational Technology Standards. The 6 strands are: Creativity and Innovation; Communication and Collaboration; Research and Information Literacy; Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making; Digital Citizenship; and Technology Operations and Concepts. All content areas should be taught within the context of these standards. The NETS-S 2007 Implementation Wiki contains some great resources for the application of these standards.
2) Student-centered learning: Teachers need to gain a new vision of their role in the classroom as they shift their focus from “teaching” to becoming “facilitators of learning.” Students need to take greater responsibility for their learning and become more self-directed. This will only happen as they have greater freedom to make choices within their learning environment.
3) Differentiation: This is really just an extension of student-centered learning. We have long known that students learn at different rates in different ways. The use of technology tools is a fabulous way to provide differentiation. Tracey Hall’s research about Differentiated Instruction provides a very informative overview, including a diagram of the learning/planning cycle.
4) Problem-based learning: In this type of learning, students explore possible solutions to “real” problems and work collaboratively to determine the best solution. Through this process students learn “how to learn” by focusing on authentic issues. This approach is very student-centered and open-ended. IMSA’s PBLNetwork is a fabulous resource.
5) Online collaboration: To establish a 21st Century learning model, it’s important to base it on the foundational understanding that classrooms today are not contained within 4 walls or even within a single building. Today our classroom is the entire world, and we can learn from and with people around the globe. Cultivating collaborative partners from various corners of the world will broaden our educational resources and will help our students learn what it means to be a global citizen.
I’m still searching for a road map! Obviously Alan November has done ground-breaking work in this area, but his resources are all commercial products. By far the best “grass roots” resource that I have seen is Kim Cofino’s work at the International School Bangkok. The ISB 21st Century Literacy wiki sets forth a clear vision of the 21st Century Learner and a framework for planning instruction. An ability to translate theory into practice is crucial! I hope that as my district moves further into this ambitious technology roll-out plan, that our leaders will develop a similar framework that will provide structure and guidance in empowering our teachers to make the pedagogical shift necessary to prepare our students for the unknown world that awaits them. These are exciting times to be an educator!
Several weeks ago the Washington Post reported that 46 states have agreed to the establishment of common core standards. I knew before I even finished reading that my state, SC, would be one of the states not participating. Our governor has a history of grandstanding in an effort to make his name well-known before the next presidential election, and this was another opportunity for him. Outrage at Gov. Sanford is nothing new for me! He has never been a supporter of public education, as evidenced by his push for tax-dollar vouchers for private schools. His last big grandstand was his refusal to accept stimulus money for schools, and I participated in a protest rally at the state house over that issue. Now he doesn’t want the federal government telling us what our students should learn. Okay, it might be different if our state was leading the pack in achievement, but it seems like a no-brainer to me that we could benefit from some collaboration. Common standards could raise the bar nationally for what students are expected to learn. In order for our students to be globally competitive, it’s imperative that we raise the bar.
After reading Clay Burell’s post about Secretary of Education Duncan, I’ve been questioning the methodology for determining these standards. Burell identified the groups that have been selected to write the standards from an article from Education Week:
Achieve, a Washington-based group made up of state policymakers and business leaders; act Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based nonprofit organization that runs the college-entrance exam of the same name; and the College Board, the New York City-based sponsor of the sat admissions exam and the Advanced Placement program.
State policymakers, business leaders, and college entrance exam creators…hmmm, there is no mention whatsoever of educators participating in this process. The same article reveals that subject-matter groups such as the NCTE and NCTM have expressed concern about being excluded from the “Common Core” process. I, too, have some major concerns about this. It would be so disheartening to have such a much-needed initiative go awry due to standards being determined by non-educators. With ACT and the College Board writing the standards, it’s easy to see the next step could be that they would create (and profit from) a national test. It’s not that I’m opposed to a national test. I just don’t think that the same entities should determine the standards and write the test.
States have already poured lots of money into developing standards and tests. Although SC is still at the bottom of the barrel in performance, we have some of the most rigorous standards and testing in the nation. That’s one reason we rank so low nationally. Our tests more accurately demonstrate student proficiency (or lack of) than other states. The same Washington Post article I referenced earlier said:
In Mississippi, for instance, 90 percent of fourth-graders passed the state reading exam in 2007, according to U.S. Department of Education data. But only 51 percent had at least “basic” or “partial mastery” on the test known as the Nation’s Report Card.
SC has many obstacles to improving student achievement. A large number of our students live in poverty, and our current level of unemployment has reached 12.1%, one of the highest in the nation. We have a state legislature that is satisfied with only mandating that each child in our state has the opportunity to receive a “minimally adequate education.” Our governor has demonstrated at every turn that he disdains public education. We have school buildings in the Corridor of Shame that are a hundred years old and would not be seen fit as a prison facility, but our state has been unwilling to take action. President Obama raised awareness of the situation in his inaugural speech when he invited Ty’sheoma Bethea, an 8th grader from J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, S.C., to sit with his wife and then told her story. Even still, help for her school did not come from within our state, but from a furniture supply company in Chicago.
I recount these educational and political woes as evidence that we are in desperate need of change. Common core standards won’t solve the above mentioned problems, but could at least put us on a more level playing field for measuring academic success. I was encouraged to read our state Superintendent of Education, Jim Rex’s, comments in the Spartanburg Herald Journal about the movement towards common core standards:
Although South Carolina is prevented from being an “official” participant due to Gov. Mark Sanford’s refusal to sign on, I have been assured by the effort’s leaders — including the National Governors Association — that we can participate unofficially.
That’s good news! The people of SC continue to fight for progress, in spite of a governor who spits in our faces at every turn. We have a long way to go, but as an educator, I’ll never give up hope all of our students will one day receive the kind of quality education they deserve.
Research shows that collaborative planning and the use of common formative and summative assessments are key factors in improving instruction and achievement. I observed this first-hand in my own school this year as my principal led change to transform our faculty into a professional learning community, based on the concepts in DeFour’s On Common Ground. Our students made a dramatic improvement in achievement due to this culture change, so much so that we were specially recognized by our district office. Since collaboration is so effective within a school, it only makes sense that national collaboration for the development of a core curriculum has the potential to yield great results. If the development of national standards is handled correctly and if educators are given the opportunity to participate in the process, this initiative could be a first step in molding our educational system into one that will prepare our students to be globally competitive.
I recently had a conversation with my district Director of Technology, a TIS friend, and my former Global Horizons teacher partner about the merits of Twitter and the possibilities for the educational use of Twitter. Here are some of the links that have helped shape my perspective:
Here’s a link to all of my DIIgo bookmarks about Twitter. The list includes Twitter apps, news articles about Twitter, lists of Twittering teachers, and Twitter in education. This doesn’t even scratch the surface!
It’s amazing how something so simple as a 140 character reply to the question, “What are you doing?” could have such a huge global impact on society. Tech Crunch reports,
Worldwide visitors to Twitter.com increased 95 percent in the month of March from 9.8 million to 19.1 million.
Businesses use Twitter as a source for free advertising. Politicians use Twitter for campaigning. Celebrities use Twitter to increase their celebrity status. (Can anyone explain why Oprah felt a need for this?) Twitter is having such an impact on the corporate world that according to BusinessWeek, some companies are developing social media codes of conduct for employees:
To prevent sensitive information leaks, blemishes on a reputation, and other potential liabilities of a Twittering workforce, companies are drafting new employee codes of conduct and educating workers about what they should and shouldn’t say on the site. The basic rule: Don’t be stupid.
Why is Twitter taking the world by storm? Clive Thompson sums it up:
Individually, most Twitter messages are stupefyingly trivial. But the true value of Twitter … is cumulative. The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse. And this, as it turns out, suggests where the Web is heading.
So why has Twitter been so misunderstood? Because it’s experiential. Scrolling through random Twitter messages can’t explain the appeal. You have to do it — and, more important, do it with friends… It’s practically collectivist — you’re creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.
I love the phrase, “creating a shared understanding larger than yourself.” I have been Twittering for about a year and a half, and I only follow educators. My primary purpose is personal professional learning. Twitter is my best source for professional development. I’ve been slow and selective about choosing people to follow, but I have developed a wonderful network of like-minded professionals around the world. As I interact with these people in ongoing short phrases, we have a shared understanding of what it means to be passionate about the role of technology in education. We share great ideas, our successes, our frustrations, and things we’ve learned in the midst of the sprinkled tidbits of our personal lives. Teacher collaboration has been identified as a key factor in raising student achievement, and through social networking tools like Twitter, I can collaborate and learn from the best around the world.
So my question is this: since Twitter is such a powerful learning tool, how do we go about harnessing that collective learning energy for use in schools? Great Britain is considering recommendations for updating the primary curriculum, suggesting that children should be familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter by the time they go to secondary school. They may consider dropping traditional content in favor of emphasizing informational technology, according to the Times. Although my district is very proactive in the area of providing technology equipment for schools, it still has a very conservative stance on blocking many useful social networking tools like Twitter that enhance learning.
Imagine a classroom where differentiated instruction results in students using MP3 players, cell phones, laptops, and gaming devices to pursue individual learning goals. They interact with students around the world via Twitter, Ning, or other social networking vehicles to ask questions, collaborate, share resources, and share learning in real time. Immediate response, immediate feedback, immediate dialogue about learning. Twitter is changing the way the world communicates. Why should our students be the last to benefit?
Finally! Scientific research from a reliable, respected source about the effect of technology on student achievement! I have been heavily engaged with educational technology for more than 6 years. For 4 years I taught fifth grade in a technology-infused classroom, and I’ve been a technology integration specialist for the past 2 years. I knew from the beginning that the use of technology had a positive impact on student learning, but most of the benefits I observed were non-measurable with a test: higher motivation, increased engagement, improved student focus, development of problem-solving skills, more collaborative learning, improved student behavior with fewer office referrals, growth in digital literacy, and increased student efficacy. While all of these effects are significant gains for 21st Century learners, the bottom line comes down to student achievement, and up until this time, I knew of no data-rich research that documented the impact of technology on student achievement.
Dr. Robert Marzano, one of our nation’s leading scholars in the field of educational research, has begun studying this issue and recently presented his findings in the keynote speech at CUE. Using 85 teachers across the nation who taught one class using an interactive whiteboard and another “control” class without the technology, he examined the effect of the use of an interactive whiteboard on student achievement. He discovered 4 variables that affected results: overall years of teaching experience, length of time in months of experience in using a whiteboard, percentage of time the whiteboard is used in the classroom, and teacher’s confidence level in ability to use the technology effectively. The research showed that optimal student achievement gains (the “sweet spot” according to Marzano) are possible with these conditions: a very experienced teacher who has at least 2 years of experience using an interactive whiteboard, uses it about 75% of the time, and is confident in his/her ability to effectively use the technology. According to Marzano, such a teacher may expect up to 30 percentile point gains in student achievement. Marzano admitted that all research is equivocal, and that ultimately the most significant factor in student achievement, with or without technology, is teacher quality.
His suggestion for effective use of technology was to focus on content, not the bells and whistles. He also gave a reminder of the importance of keeping track of which students are getting it and which are not. That point led Marzano into commentary about formative assessment and the use of technology for record-keeping. He asserted that assessment should be an instructional technique, not a labeling technique. It’s important to examine lots of data over time to get the best picture of a student’s progress. The most significant acievement gains came from tracking student progress over time using a rigorous rubric-based model. The implications are that teachers need professional development in both effective teaching and the effective use of technology to maximize growth in student achievement.
My friend, John Geanangel, shared this original quote yesterday: “Give a child an answer – you have solved their immediate problem.
Teach a child to Google – you‘ve taught them to solve their own problems.”
I think this phrase beautifully sums up the necessary shift in pedagogy that needs to take place in our thinking, in our planning, and in our classrooms. When I was a child, the focus of education was simply memorizing math facts, memorizing sight words, or memorizing important dates in history. Now, there is simply too much information available to memorize it all.
IDC offered a report in 2007 on information growth, and now provides 2008 edition (.pdf): “In this companion to last year’s EMC-sponsored white paper, IDC again calibrates the size (bigger than first thought) and the growth (faster than expected) of the digital universe through 2011″. The main website also allows people to calculate their digital footprint.
The field of informatics (i.e. study of information) is not very developed. We are all impacted by information growth and development – in fact this is one of the areas that most impacts us – and yet we have at best a rudimentary understanding of the nature of information. Sure, we have people telling us information is exploding…that it’s overwhelming…and so on. But that’s a bit like saying the patient has a fever. I’d like to know more. I’m surprised at how little we actually understand of information itself, especially when considering the tremendous impact on our lives.
The study, The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, predicts that between 2006 and 2011, digital information will grow ten-fold in five years, from under 200 exabytes to 1800 exabytes. So what does this mean for educators? There’s already so much information available that I can’t take it all in, and neither can our students. Our focus as educators must strongly shift to teaching our students how to research, explore, and find the informational resources they need. We need a greater emphasis on conceptual learning and application of learning strategies.
All of the second graders in my school learned the definition of the word research this year, and they have continued to learn throughout the year through research projects. They understand that research is finding needed information and that sometimes they have to search again and again to find what they need. They have made connections to see that finding the location and time of the movie they want to see is research. One little girl came up to me in the hall one morning and proudly told me that she had done “research” at home last night to find out about her baby sister’s rash. She has begun her journey to become information literate.
Yes, John has it right…“Teach a child to Google – you‘ve taught them to solve their own problems.”
As I have been catching up on my professional development blog reading, I have noticed a common thread. First I read David Warlick’s excellent post, “A Path to Becoming a Literate Educator.” It was affirming to realize that my own personal professional growth matched up well with his suggestions. As I continued to read through my Google Reader, I noticed a transition from personal growth to a collective consciousness.
Weblogg-ed » Changing Ourselves, Changing our Culture
I think Will hit it right on the head. For several years, the question for me has been, “How can I get more teachers interested in using Web 2.0 tools with their students?” Now I’m beginning to see that the question needs to be much larger. In order for real change to occur, there needs to be a buy-in from a larger audience such as a school or district.
My friend, Ron, recently attended 2008 Learning Summit: Learning By Doing. In his latest blog post, A Real Shift is Happening, he says, “Since that time as a school we have started to have some really good conversations about the purpose of our school and the direction we want the school to go and some action has started to take place. One of the best things that has happened is that teachers are starting to truly collaborate and use each other as a valuable resource….It is funny how all of us have come to the realization (it seems so obvious now!) that working together makes us more effective teachers and holds great potential for impacting the learning of ALL students.”
As I sort through all these thoughts, I have come to the conclusion that it will take both components: a personal commitment to continued professional development and a collaborative environment where teachers hold a common vision, share, grow together, and support one another. We CAN make a difference, and I think it’s well worth a long-term investment.
Last night was PTO Literacy night. Teachers from each grade were conducting sessions on different aspects of balanced literacy. I had been asked to share some online literacy activities that parents could access at home. After a little thought, I decided to take the opportunity to do a little educating about the changing definition of literacy. I went back and revisited David Warlick’s awesome Redefining Literacy presentation and also read “The New Literacies” from District Administration. I also found some great TeacherTube videos on Internet safety from Mike King. Ultimately I ended up doing a brief overview of digital literacy, cyber safety, the value of blogging and social bookmarking. We had a small parent turnout, but my sessions went well…20 minutes of exposure to digital literacy and 20 minutes to explore the literacy games bookmarked on our school Diigo page. Very basic stuff, but I think it was just what my audience needed.
In the midst of my personal PD in preparing for Literacy Night, I came across a really cool global writing project. I first heard it mentioned on twitter!
Curriculum Connections:
Literacy: 1001 Tales is a global writing project. Students work online together to tell stories, edit, and improve their writing skills. I would love to get a class involved with this!
I had the privilege Friday of attending a Panel of Peers workshop sponsored by NCR. It was a gathering of people from the business world who share and discuss best practices for eCommerce. As an educator, I was interested to see how the business world is utilizing Web 2.0 tools. I have concerns about the fact that the education establishment is not changing quickly enough to keep up the the rapidly changing digital world. NCLB has reduced the educational focus of lawmakers to test results and national rankings. This narrowness generally precludes a creative educational environment with an ability to adapt itself to the challenges of a global digital market.
I believe that the only way this will change is for there to be a stronger partnership between businesses and schools. Let’s face it…money talks. Lawmakers don’t listen to teachers about what’s best for education, but the business world has the clout to be heard. Business leaders need to see first-hand what’s going on in our schools. In spite of our poor reputation in this state, some amazing things are happening. But are we doing enough to prepare our students for this century?
Some benefits of a stronger bond between businesses and schools:
Two-way communication about the skills future workers need and what is being taught would strengthen the curriculum.
The presence of business leaders in schools provides good role models for students and illustrates the value of a good education.
As business leaders become informed about the needs of schools and students, they will be better prepared to communicate with lawmakers as a supportive voice for education and the changes that need to be made.
Career education can be greatly enhanced by a variety of business partners regularly interacting with schools.
Businesses have resources to meet some of the needs of students and teachers. (I currently need a digital video camera to use for a variety of purposes at school.)
As businesses invest in schools with both human and capital resources, the return that will be reaped will be a stronger educational system and a better-prepared workforce.
Curriculum Connections:
Uses of digital video: record Readers’ Theater presentations to share online, record oral student presentations to enable students to do self-evaluations of communication skills, record book talks for vodcasts, record students demonstrating math processes to post online for students to access at home, record “You Were There” news reports of events studied in social studies, record student skits acting out favorite scenes from books.
Entries (RSS)