Taking A Step Back And Thinking Critically About Technology

I am probably going to take a lot of heat for this post. But maybe that's a good thing. Perhaps more conversation is needed...


I remember where I was when I heard the iPad announced. I was sitting in my office when I was still working at a school. I had the live blog from Techcrunch on one screen and Twitter on the other. Tweets were flying by with all sorts of comments about the name (both good and bad) and what the device could do. I admit. I had to have one. I was in love. Not long after the announcement I had one and at that time it was all I hoped for. This was going to replace my laptop. I was going to be super productive and only have to carry my iPad.

And I did just that to my first conference. But by the end of the weekend I was frustrated. I couldn't move through programs as fluidly as I hoped. It was a little difficult to take quick notes. I chalked it up to being new and the fact I was still learning.

As time went by my iPad went from being a productivity tool to a consumption tool. Reading blogs and articles,  checking Tweets when I was away from a computer and playing games. My 2 year old was the same way. While she wasn't reading blogs or sending Tweets she was learning letters and making matches.

Sure, I thought, there is a real advantage here for a child to learn with with this tool. It's pretty engaging. Its flashy (pardon the pun). And its was around the same time that many schools saw the iPad as "The Device." It happened in my district too. We got several requests less than 3 months out of the box to buy some.

This is a trend that continues to grow and grow and grow. And frankly it's a little frightening to me. A lot of schools have put all their eggs in the iPad basket or hope to put them there. When maybe we should be slowing down and thinking about what we are doing.

No doubt the tablet trend is on the rise and will continue to rise. I have 2 of them. Lots of the folks reading this post might be doing it on a tablet. I forsee a future classroom that has tablets as one tool for kids to use but this jump to replace or forgo purchases of laptops or desktops for tablets instead has me a bit concerned.

I was recently reading over some proposals for a project to give grant money to classrooms. Of the 20 or so I read 18 of them involved wanting iPads. Not tablets, but specifically the iPad. Many were wanting iPads to say they had iPads. What they wanted to do would not have been more enhanced through the use of the iPad and frankly more money could have been spent putting a netbook or even laptop or Chromebook in the hands of more kids than buying a few iPads.

There are lots of great programs out there that demonstrate these devices do have a positive impact on the classroom and learning. Look at Patrick Larkin at Burlington High School or Kelly Tenkely and her school in Colorado. 2 great examples of doing it right. They thought about it, talked about it, investigated it, and most importantly, worked tirelessly on PD so that it works.

And now there is a large push for digital texts because of the release of the iBooks author that will allow anyone to make their own book. I was online for that announcement too and, like the first iPad announcement there were the voices that said this was the ultimate. Finally textbooks are in control of the teacher. (When the first 5 available for sale were from one of the major textbook manufactures in the world.) But, you had to have a Mac, oh and you had to have a pretty recent version of the OS. Oh and you had to have the iPad to get the end product. So the 57,000 students in my district are locked out of those because we don't use Apple products. I can't even build one if I wanted too.

Look, the iPad here is just an example. I am not anti-iPad or anti-Apple. (Quite the contrary. I have written loads of posts and have lots of resources for apps and how to get the most out of these devices for learning.) I think they can do wonders to help engage kids. Like I said, I have seen it with my own daughter. My concern, as it is with any technology is buying something because it is new or flashy or has the perception to make change.

Technology exclusively can't change learning. You can't put 30 iPads (or Chromebooks, laptops, IWB, or whatever type of technology you can think of) in a classroom and in an instant learning gets better. It just does not happen that way. It takes a lot of stepping back, looking at the why's and the how's and deciding on the direction to go. And even before devices hit the hands of kids, there has to be lots and lots and lots of PD on how access to these tools in the classroom changes the way we teach.

Lets just slow down, and think, is buying this the best decision for me? Or for my students?

 photo credit: waferbaby via photopin cc

The Technology Scapegoat...

A teacher recently told me they did not use technology in their classroom. Taken aback I asked why. The teacher simply said they did not trust the technology and they did not want to look like a fool in front of the students. I think to myself; so you are are afraid to look human in front of students?

Last night on #edchat we had an engaging discussion about why some teachers and administrators place the blame on lack of student engagement and failing curriculums on technology. There are teachers just like the one here, every where, who continue to not use technology. Not because they don't see the benefits (most of the time they do) but for other, more trivial reasons. Here is what some participants had to say:

• As an administrator I need to provide support for teachers to help them seamlessly integrate the tech into their instruction. We need to push them and provide them with the research based tools to make the integration successful. Tech is not a method or approach anymore than paper and pencil would be considered.
• Engaging students is difficult if we don't really know them (ability and learning style) and what interests them. There is no one magic silver bullet strategy if we don't know the kids. And that means taking risks as teachers - sharing our failures as learning lessons, modeling that we are learners as well as teachers and taking risks. Technology is not to blame - it may sometimes help to engage but it can also help to distract. We can be good teachers with or without technology - we just need to define good teaching.
• I think it is the lack of knowledge of teachers on how to use technology that is the problem and their unwillingness to learn it thinking it will all go away. I use technology in my classes everyday with gen ed kids and ELL kids, my students are comfortable with the technology because that is their world.
• Well, as a parent and someone who's back in school to become a teacher, I find that fostering critical thinking skills is way more important than having them memorizing. Once they are given a good foundation with critical thinking skills they can then look at things with an abstract view which is lost when a child has to memorize something. If children does not have critical thinking tech can and will be a very dangerous tool. If a child understands that all things can be question in a rational manner, such as why, or what may make one article more credible then the other on the same subject, yet different view, then and only then will tech reach it's fullest potential in the school system.
• We need to educate parents, school boards and administrators on how the new technology can be used effectively in classrooms. Schools of Education have to train and model their students in the proper use of technology in all subject areas. Technology needs to be infused in all subject areas across all grade levels. Each school should have a technology leader who can model and show teachers how to get the best use of the new technology that is available to them. Students should be used to help promote the use of technology and in many cases they are more versed than their teachers.
  

There were more great comments and you can read them here.

It is so frustrating to me when I have a very qualified teacher, who understands student learning, who understands that we need to be integrating technology in the classroom, that refuses to use technology in their classroom because they are scared.

Granted, the use of technology can be scary. Smartboards, handhelds, Minis, Tablets, all these expensive hardware options placed in the hands of teachers can be overwhelming. But again, I ask, why are teachers afraid of looking human in front of their students?

News Flash! Technology is going to fail you at some point. A website is not going to work. The You Tube video that worked yesterday is blocked today. You just cant get that Smartboard (or ActivBoard) to work the way it's supposed to. It's going to happen. And you know, that's alright!

Is it ok that your students know more than you when it comes to technology? Heck yeah! That is a power that few have tapped into. I love it when I go into a class and I see a teacher who just can't remember how to pull up the drawing tools in Smart Notebook or how to get the laptop connected to the projector. Instead of just giving up or moving on (What does that teach kids anyway?), he/she turns to the class and asks if anyone can figure it for them. I have never seen so many hands go up at once! Kids are eager to share what they know! Did the teacher really not remember where the tools were? Maybe? Only they know. The point is, all the kids know is they have the opportunity to teach the teacher. That is powerful! We need to harness that and leverage it to our advantage as educators.

One of the other underlying problems that was exposed last night was it is not the fault of the teacher. The fault goes higher than that. Some administrators do not foster an environment where technology is a key component. Some administrators are willing to buy the technology and put it in the hands of the teachers but are unwilling or unable to provide the time to train in their use. I agree, those are big problems, sometimes the direct fault of the local administrator, sometimes not.

The point of all this is, lets stop the blame all together. Teachers, stop blaming the technology and use it already! Administrators, its time to provide support to the teachers so they can feel comfortable using these tools with their students. Blaming is not moving the conversation forward or changing anything for the better. So instead of placing the blame somewhere else, lets all work together because its about the kids, isn't it?

What do you think? Is it just easy to blame the technology or is it something else that is the root cause? Is it the teachers, administrators, or some other entity that is holding us back? I welcome your comments.ed

Image from Google CC Image Search. View the original here.

What Makes A Great Objectve?

On Twitter this evening I participated in the weekly #edchat. (You might remember my reference from my previous post. If not, check this out.) This weeks topic: What Objectives Are Necessary For Effective Technology Integration?

What I love about these sessions is that while we have a topic that we talk about, the conversation ultimately expands in to something totally different. And that is precisely what happened tonight.

It started with a tweet:

Then there was a response:


And the conversation from that point changed to what makes great objectives. While there was still a focus on tech, the conversation revolved around what each of these education innovators thought. It was amazing! I created a Google Form to capture a summary of the conversation. Here are a sample of the responses:

-I work as a medical school clerkship director. Good objectives for me have to have to have must be clear, and focused with an implicitly measurable outcome. It should have flexibility for the learner to be able to attain it in their own unique fashion, and be able to apply their own unique educational needs in achieving the objective. (i.e. a future ear/nose/throat doctor will need to focus more on head and neck neuroanatomy than a future obstetrician).

-Great learning objectives must focus on content, not on individual tools that may or may not even be viable in a few years.

-Demonstrate understanding of concepts and be able to apply them to different and new situations. Be able to discern and communicate how concepts differ and / or are similar. Be able to communicate how concepts fit together in hierarchy - with bigger things and smaller things.

-I teach HS English and my most frequent objectives include thinking processes like "synthesizing" info (from multiple texts/genres - can include visual/audio materials) and making connections to external ideas/materials (students find own connections and bring in) to keep things relevant. Also analyzing/questioning as these are life skills and critical to actually understanding these materials.

-For us it has to be measurable. If it can't be evaluated and measured by the end of the lesson it is not a good objective. By the end of the lesson the student will be able to answer 4 out of 5 answers of a quiz correctly about such and such. By the end of a lesson the students will be able to identify 95%... By the end of the lesson the students will be able to compare and contrast in written form with 3 comparisons...

-I use the ABCD model: Audience, Behavior, Conditions, Degree. This format requires verbs such as generate, analyze, explain, estimate, produce, solve, indicate, design, compare......in the Behavior section & a percentage or range of accuracy in the Degree section.

-The demonstration of multiple tasks and skills on a student requested project where the incorrect use or omission of any(skill)assures limited success and a revisit by the choice of the students until they are successful. Verbs-Build, Fabricate, Calculate, Design, Redesign.

-I encourage teachers to include the skills (know and be able to do) elements rather than the specific content knowledge and point them toward the verbs that promote application, analysis, evaluation and creativity.

These are just a few of the amazing comments that were made. You can see the entire list here.

My summary- These educators get it! Objectives have to be clear. There as to be a specific goal in mind, not something general or abstract. The other thing that these posts and other comments made was that the tech is not the objective. The tech is the tool to reach the goal of the objective. For me, that was the most important realization that came out of the conversation.

If you didn't know, I was a Middle School Science teacher for 6 years before leaving the classroom. I have had my fair share of technology staff developments. The vast majority of these were about the tool. How to use X tool. All the in's and out's. Ok, for someone like me, who lives, eats, and breathes this stuff, that is awesome. I want to know EVERYTHING I can do with a tech tool. But for your average teacher, it was way too much information. I (and most edtech innovators I talk to) know that the true way to get tech in our classrooms and in the hands of our students is to show the tool, but more importantly, how is that too used to teach. If I am doing some PD on using an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) I focus on basics, because for most of the teachers that are there the IWB is a completely different way of teaching than what they are used to. I want to give them just enough to use the basics of the board but spend the majority of the time on talking about and brainstorming easy ways to use it in their teaching. Now that is not to say there is not follow-up PD on more advanced features. The goal is to get the tech in the hands of the teachers and students and show them how it enhances learning.

Stepping away from my soapbox....

Back to objectives, many people also said that there should also be choices in the completion of the objective. During the course of the conversation one innovator posted a sample objective using a specific type of tool. Others added that there were other tools that were equally as good that could also show learning. This is a great point. We know about the Multiple Intelligences and we know that each students learns differently. So why not let them demonstrate their learning in different ways?

It was an amazing conversation! I wish I could post the entire conversation. At last check there were over 900 tweets in just about 3 hours. If you didn't join us this week remember, we are on every Tuesday at 7pm EST. Oh and you can read the archive, tweet by tweet here. You can also check out previous edchats by visiting my Delicious Page.

5 Tiers of e-Communication and e-Collaboration for Innovative Education Solutions

The North Carolina Virtual Public School is lucky to have Bryan Setser as CEO. He has an incredible vision for education and technology. In a recent blog post he lays out how education leaders can make decisions on what technologies to use and how to use them and at what cost they can be used. It is an amazing post that I am going to re-post here because you need to read the whole thing in context. While some of the links are specific to NC, I am sure you can substitute your states' or districts' equivalent organization.

...

How do you keep up with all of the emerging Web 2.0 tools out there? How do school leaders make decisions on which ones to use and which ones to abandon due to cost, usage, and/or http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cipa.html issues out in school districts? Check out the blog this week about how these decisions can be made across tiers of user groups in your school districts.

Tier 1: Your school district has a website, uses email, blogs, and does a great job with paper mailers and flyers home to the community. You advertise in the local paper, and you have conducted some virtual meetings using http://www.gotomeeting.com/ and http://www.elluminate.com/ . You may have even used http://www.skype.com/ for a few lesson plans and/or to video conference. You know you are using some of the tools, but you feel like you just don’t have time to learn all of them, and it is just easier to pick up a phone and/or go see someone in person. In short, you need a plan to communicate and collaborate that moves your organization into the 21st Century.

Tier 2: Your school district uses all of the Tier 1 tools, but you also use http://docs.google.com/#all , http://www.facebook.com/ , and http://www.twitter.com/ . You are trying every new Web 2.0 tool out there to micro-blog, and your district is investing money in collaborative tools like http://www.webex.com/ and/or http://www.wimba.com/ . You even have purchased a learning management system like http://www.blackboard.com/ and/or may even be trying to use your own http://www.moodle.com/ sites across your district. You are all over the place, but you are trying to keep up with collaborative tools to communicate and connect with all of your stakeholders. In short, you need a strategy to accomplish your key meetings, conferences, and professional development opportunities while striking a balance between innovation and security with your technology director.


Tier 3: You have looked at all of the tools in both tiers, and you are starting to think about how to strategically use them. You have seen the recent branding sites on http://www.twitter.com/ of the North Carolina Virtual Public School - http://twitter.com/ncvps ; The North Carolina School Board’s Association - http://twitter.com/NCSBA ; The North Carolina Association of Educators - http://twitter.com/ncae ; and the North Carolina Association of School Administrators - http://twitter.com/_NCASA . You have also read the recent time magazine article on How Twitter will Change the World http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html , and you realize that you need a “tweet deck”- http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ , a file social application -http://filesocial.com/ , and a strategy built around key events, meetings, and projects. In addition, you realize that you don’t just want to upload your twitter icon to your website, you want to integrate your twitter strategy with key board meetings, following experts in the field, promotions, and parent sign ups to provide instant access to school events and proceedings. Your organization also realizes it needs internal messaging and file sharing. You have looked at Wimba’s collaborative suite http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/collaboration_suite_for_k_12/ , and you realize that you can have instant messaging on their pronto tool http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/wimba_pronto_for_k_12/ and have the ability to chat, talk, videoconference, and share applications desktop to desktop. Someone on your team is also recommending www.dimdim.com for a similar experience to http://www.wimba.com/ and you are weighing a cost, benefit analysis as we speak. Can’t afford Wimba yet? Your district has a strategic team and you’ve also decided to pilot some applications in Google under http://www.google.com/talk/ where you can also use these feeds to make your strategy more robust and still keep costs down: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100173&hl=en. And you have formed a team to look out for products like this one http://wave.google.com/ to integrate the very best features of http://www.twitter.com/ and http://www.google.com/talk/ into your sites like http://www.blackboard.com/ and http://www.moodle.com/ where you can manage all of the communications and collaborative content as well as conduct formative learning assessments with students. Meanwhile your district’s technology team is making tiered list of which ports and places to pilot innovation and how such efforts will be monitored and leveraged to impact student learning. A robust discussion is also beginning on the appropriate levels of http://www.youtube.com/ , http://www.teachertube.com/ , and http://www.schooltube.com/ for targeted, focused use across the district.

Tier 4: You are incorporating all strategies in the three tiers above, but you also want live classrooms that you can archive for anytime, anywhere professional development. http://www.wimba.com/solutions/k-12/wimba_pronto_for_k_12/ does this process through its live classroom component as does http://www.elluminate.com/ . and http://vyew.com/site/ , a free tool for live classroom use in a virtual world. You then decide that these live classrooms need a place to reside, and you archive them inside of free e-learning communities like http://www.ning.com/ and/or http://www.gather.com/ . These are your first moves towards e-learning communities where learners and leaders can interact inside of an e-portal in order to use free open source tools and share closed source tools to certain groups of users: community, teachers, etc. A tier four district is starting to build capacity for anytime, anywhere learning, and it is starting to create succession planning with learning objects, decisions, charts, and 2.0 feedback objects that allow for training, re-induction, and archiving of important processes and documents beyond a Web 1.0 level. Moreover, this organization is becoming a learning organization. It looks at security breaches, usage levels, and value-add applications for student learning to track progress and success of slowly, yet strategically opening the networks. In addition, the district is starting to look strategically at 1:1 devices across tiers of users to make your students more mobile and accessible to content.

Tier 5: A tier five organization incorporates all of the previous tiers but now adds mobile applications for learning such as http://www.apple.com/mobileme/ , http://www.android.com/ http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/appstore/ , and http://www.projectknect.org/Project%20K-Nect/Home.html that they build through the k-12 iTunes portal here http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/07/itunes-k-12-launches-with-resources-for-students-parents.ars where teachers, students, and parents can access a host of resources. This district is also investing in wireless hot spots and paying close attention to the construction and re-construction of facilities to make learning more portable. Gaming http://www.flvs.net/areas/flvscourses/ConspiracyCode/Pages/default.aspx and virtual worlds http://www.poweru.net/demos/poweru-1st-demo.php are also becoming part of the bandwidth discussion at the strategic level as this district seeks to make learning more immersive and engaging. Sites like http://www.qwaq.com/ allows users to immerse themselves in the learning experience and still collaborate over all of the web browsers and related Web 2.0 tools inside of a virtual space. This particular district is also leveraging the 1:1 devices to make learning portable through the http://www.ncvps.org/ and http://www.nclearnandearn.gov/ classes that the state provides to all of North Carolina students.


Which tier are you?

NCVPS Blog-5 Tiers of e-Communication and e-Collaboration for Innovative Education Solutions

7 Habits of Hightly Effective Internet-Using Educators

Yesterday I had one of those rare moments where I was able to go through my Inbox and attempt to read my email that has been gathering for months. There was the usual stuff; companies wanting to sell me products, questions about workshops and presentations, and junk. But one email caught my eye. If was from a friend of mine who I used to teach with. He had come across an article/posting/manifesto about what it means to be a Internet-Using Educator. Built upon Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the author (a classroom teacher in Florida) relates Covey's habits to what it means to be a "technology wise" teacher. I won't re-post the whole thing (you can visit the site to read for yourself) but I will give you a taste.

Habit One: Be Proactive
"Sometimes the way we see the problem is the problem. Educators wanting to learn how to effectively use the internet need to believe in themselves and look at their teaching situation from every angle in order to decide what action will head them in the right direction. Don't wait to find the perfect unit or lesson plan for using the internet. Begin by making a list of internet resources you can start with now..."

Habit Two: Begin With The End In Mind
"All effective teachers plan and plan well, creating different scenarios to cover the ways that lessons might go. Utilizing the internet and its resources means planning and being prepared in the same way that you would plan for using a new text or video or science experiment. This type of planning is nothing new for a good teacher. Know what your objectives are for your lessons and seek out the resources to help you meet them. Make sure the students also know their objectives for using the internet..."

Habit Three: Put First Things First
"For teachers their students are the number one priority. If you believe that using the internet can bring the real world issues, up-to-date information, rich primary source material and all of the other benefits you have heard that using the internet can bring to a classroom, then focus on its use as a professional goal. This will help you set aside the time to prepare and schedule the class time needed..."

Habit Four: Think Win/Win
"In school settings where interactions with students and colleagues are paramount, "win/win" is a most important philosophy. Don't be afraid to learn side-by-side with your students. Seeing how they react and interact with online resources can help you revamp your teaching strategies and restructure your lessons..."

Habit Five: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood
"Listen empathically. Get inside the other person's frame of reference so you listen with one purpose - to understand. Then work on ensuring that you clearly communicate your thoughts and ideas. Open the door to the potential that exists in students by finding out what it is that will make a win/win situation for them..."

Habit Six: Synergize
Synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The essence or key is to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses. Synergistic communication means opening your mind to new possibilities and realizing that your new creative endeavors may be somewhat unpredictable. Become a team player with your students. Build a safe environment which encourages risk-taking, experimentation, creative endeavor and use of the information available online..."

Habit Seven: Sharpen The Saw
Sharpening the saw refers to a commitment to continuous improvement in each of the four aspects of human existence: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Social-Emotional. The process of continuous improvement is essential for schools and also for those who work inside of them. Educators must continually renew themselves, moving upward in the spiral of growth and change. Affirm the proactive nature of your students by treating them as responsible people. Support them, appreciate them and help them become confident, independent learners. Let them develop research questions and projects to investigate. Help them to design products to demonstrate their learning..."

Again, this is just a taste of what is written. Head on over to read the rest and then come back here and tell me what you think? Do you agree with her assessment? Is there anything you would add or change? What habits do you think demonstrate these kinds of teachers?

7 Habits of Highly Effective Internet-Using Educators

Image Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons