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The Model of a Modern Technology Classroom By Virginia Richard
from Educators' eZine In 2002, the Polk County School District received the "Enhancing Education through Technology Grant" (EETT) and started the Model Technology Classroom in which an exemplary teacher would integrate technology into his/her teaching strategies and model for other teachers a learning environment based upon the P21 Framework. Each year the program would recruit about 10 to 15 teachers, who would receive technology equipment for their classroom plus training on how to use the equipment and, most importantly, how to integrate technology use into the learning process. The district also provides infrastructure for the program to succeed. This is the fifth year of the program, and we have made tremendous progress on reaching our goal of a model technology classroom in 80 schools out of 156. The 2003-04 school year results are listed below. The program's goals are to:
To accomplish these goals, School Technology Services took the following steps:
We assessed the program by:
A standard Model Technology Classroom includes hardware, software, training and infrastructure � all critical in providing the opportunity for model technology teachers and students to become effective users of technology for teaching and learning. The technology tools consisted of 1 laptop, 1 LCD projector, 3 desktop computers, 1 printer, 1 screen, several headsets, and an AV cart. Administrators and teachers participated in specific technology training and curriculum integration modules that are part of the district technology training certification program before receiving this hardware and software. In 2003-04 we created Best Practices, and required model technology teachers to implement and follow these Best Practices in the classroom. The Best Practices are used as a guide to help teachers increase technology use in the classroom. They are also featured at teacher trainings and parent meetings to make them aware of their children's technology use. Best practices for model technology classrooms are defined as "a set of strategies that can be used to promote the ongoing use of technology in the classroom and increase student technology literacy skills."
Each one of the above Best Practices requires that the model teacher take an action to meet the goal, namely, that all administrators, teachers, and students will be technology literate by 2006. For example, research reveals that ongoing professional development must be there to help teachers utilize technology in the classroom. 2003-04 Project ResultsThe data of the assessment are presented in detail in another formal report; however, the highlights of these results are:
The data clearly shows improvement in the ability of teachers to integrate technology in the classroom and that student technology literacy increased. The implications are that the program was successful in meeting its goals. Teachers received resources which they are actively using and the classroom environment has changed. There are many more classrooms that reflect 21st century learning environments, in which students use technology to learn from one another, collaborate with peers and experts in the fields. RecommendationsSchool Technology Services hopes that they can continue to replicate this program after the end of the EETT grant so as to involve more teachers and therefore more students. We are trying to address the issues of lack of time and scheduling problems for teachers to attend training through another program called Technology Coaching. Some additional recommendations include:
If districts are interested in more information about Polk County's Model Technology Teacher Program, please visit our website, Model Technology Teachers |
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
SOMETHING on DIGITAL RELEVANCE!
When we talk about technology in education, today we are no longer just discussing the best way to use PowerPoint for a classroom discussion or how to convince students to type their papers and conduct online research.
Today the issue of integrating technology into education has taken a much more serious turn. It is no longer just our students’ test scores that are at stake if we do not get ahead of their expertise in the connected world of Web 2.0. Now our students’ safety and social well-being is at stake. As educators we must not only become proficient at integrating technology into our classrooms, we must also become educated about the social networking and other online communities our students are frequenting outside our classrooms. We must then convince local school boards that, instead of shutting down access to these sites that we fear, we have a duty to un-block access at school so that we can get out there to guide and protect our students.
Would any of us let our daughter take a picture of herself with wet tendrils of her hair dangling provocatively across her innocent face made up with smoky black eye shadow, then allow her to submit it to the world’s most circulated newspaper with a caption below welcoming anyone who reads it to stop by her address any hour of the day or night? She’s already doing that electronically with her MySpace profile.
Would we allow our nephew to go to a neighbor’s party of more than 100,000 guests who were all supposed to be teenagers but who included any number of flirtatious 35-year-old women, 50-year-old male executives oddly with nothing better to do than hang out with teenagers, and a 28-year-old ex-con gang recruiter? That’s who could be playing tag with him on Tagged.com.
Would we allow a 14-year-old to bring home unlimited numbers of DVDs featuring porn or solicitations to buy and sell sex? Go out to any of the social networking sites and that’s exactly what is available up until members report the inappropriate content and the overworked site administrators get around to taking them down.
School districts across the globe are scrambling to keep up with blocking the newest social networking sites that pop up online seemingly overnight so as to safeguard our children while at school. Why then, like any other educator who cares about the well-being of our children, would I advocate un-blocking these potentially dangerous sites? Simply put, because when we block our portals, we close our eyes and leave millions of our kids out there alone, vulnerable, and unprotected. We have a duty to un-block access to social networking sites and get in there to help them understand this new connectedness, make informed choices, and lead the transformation toward a greater good.
Imagine if all we did was to not allow students to drink alcohol on campus and we assumed that we’d done enough to keep them safe. Of course, we’ve learned that we need to get out in front and teach them about the physical, emotional, and societal impact of alcohol abuse. We also show them graphic movies about gruesome possibilities of drinking and driving. We form on-campus Students Against Drunk Driving groups as alternatives to the peer pressure and ready availability of alcohol. Likewise, we don’t just create strongly worded rules and consequences for having, using, and selling drugs on campus and sit back believing that we’ve done all that we can to stem drug use among teens. We organize drug awareness programs, teach them about the biology of addiction, and role-play how to handle situations when peers pressure them to join in.
There are federal dollars, state grants, and private funds available for all schools to make sure we do everything we can to help our students understand risks, make good choices, and pick up the pieces if they find themselves in trouble with drugs, alcohol, sex, gangs, harassment, and crime. So why, then, are we not doing more when it comes to the newest life-threatening danger, the dozens of teen and adult online social networks, that our tech-savvy young people whisper about, spend hours on, and don’t ever intend to stop using?
For educators, technology skills are no longer a simple matter of knowing how to pull in interesting videos or images for in-class presentations. Now, at nano-speeds, becoming technologically competent is a matter of competing against compelling negative influences to ensure our children’s safety, well-being, and futures. We’ve got to get out there into cyber space and start showing our young people how to define the nature of this new social interaction instead of letting those who would exploit them for their own agendas determine how the power of the internet will be used.
We need to start podcasting (seewww.epnweb.org/index.php?view_mode=what) lessons and lectures and literature to those MP3 players they’ve got plugged into their ears every moment they can get away with it. We could start text messaging (see http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?printable=1&resID=2762) homework reminders to their cell phones we know they are checking every five minutes whether they are allowed to or not.
We ought to allow instant messaging on our classroom computers to encourage absent students to sign in and participate in class from home or from their cell phones. Instant messengers can be left open by teachers on their home computers so students can see that homework help (see www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/11/inservice.php) is also available each night when they log in to chat with their friends and whoever else is out there.
Yahoo groups (see http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Schools___Education/K-12) or class MySpaces can be included out in our students’ cyber neighborhoods where we can post class materials, questions and answers, help with assignments, and reminders that there’s more for them to do online than just surf and chat. Class MySpaces can be used to invite students from around the world to meet with our students and participate in productive projects instead of just strangers who comment on their personal spaces about the latest CD or party or worse.
Parents, teachers from other disciplines, and experts out in the “real world” can join in class blogs created by students or teachers to show them that interaction online can be about legitimate subjects any time and anywhere. As limitless as are the possibilities for negative encounters out in Web 2.0 (see www.shambles.net/pages/learning/ict/web2edu/) so too are the opportunities for connecting with the world, ideas, information, and creativity in positive ways if only we will un-block our own imaginations and our school portals and get into the game our students play at every day.
Our interests in creating a presence out in cyber space is not just to guide our young charges away from dangerous or negative influences. We have much more than that to learn and to teach.We can join with them in the new genre of writing text messages and instant messages, show them how they are different in structure, content, and form from formal email and letter writing, and tap into their creativity by inspiring them to connect this new way of communicating with formal or classic modes.
Just what might a text messaging poem (see http://books.guardian.co.uk/games/mobilepoems/0,9405,450649,00.html) poem look like?
What kind of concise and compact story might they be inspired to create that does not exceed the maximum number of characters in a Yahoo message or a Twitter.com entry?
How could they incorporate the dialogue of an audible (see http://messenger.yahoo.com/intl/audibles.php (pre-programmed audio quips) into a narrative to help bring it to life and inspire more creativity? We should also be teaching them how to incorporate that resume that every English or Business class requires them to write into their MySpace or FaceBook profiles to impress scholarship committees, college recruiters, and employers.
We could show them how the videos they love to include on their spaces might help them promote their community service projects and attract financial contributors or volunteers.
We could, however, just continue sitting behind blocked content warnings and let the next generation stumble in the middle of the information highway without so much as warning them to look both ways before crossing into a new digital neighborhood. Or we can get logged in, lead the dialogue and the content, and guide them in building social networks that will benefit their lives and our increasingly interconnected world. If we don’t, the headlines are full of terrifying stories of who might.
NEXT CREATIVITY!
Do schools quash students' enthusiasm for learning?
Here’s a quick task for you… Look up your local school or district’s vision statement. Chances are it looks something like this:
- Barker Road Middle School is an educationally progressive student-centered learning community committed to excellence through an integrated educational program, with focus on excitement for life-long learning and a responsibility to provide a caring and harmonious multi-cultural environment.
- The mission of the Goldendale School District, in partnership with the family and community, is to provide an educational foundation that promotes integrity, self-worth, and lifelong learning, while developing healthy, productive, responsible members of society.
- The purpose of the [Chatfield Senior High] community is to create, with our students, an atmosphere of academic excellence and respect by providing educational and extra-curricular opportunities, encouraging life-long learning and responsibility, while promoting diversity and school pride.
I’d venture to say that 90 to 95 percent of school and school districts’ vision/mission statements probably have something in them about lifelong learning, lifelong learners, etc.
Now, let’s contrast this widespread phenomena with the fact that most students generally leave K-12 education with less enthusiasm for learning than when they entered. For example, most kindergarteners and first graders entering the system are excited, energized, engaged, and happy. Does this describe your district’s high school seniors? Do twelfth-graders exhibit the same love of learning - the same thrill of engagement with academic material - as when they entered the district 12 years previous? Probably not.
So what’s happening? An occasional inspiring teacher aside, why do students become more apathetic about formal learning the more time they spend in our schools? What is it about our educational system that (dare I say it?) beats the academic enthusiasm out of our children? We have good, caring, dedicated people serving as teachers and administrators. Most of them have training in effective pedagogy and child/adolescent development. So what’s going on?
In his work on learning organizations, Peter Senge notes that
Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.
Presumably this is what a school system is striving for when it says that its vision - its ultimate mission - is to foster lifelong learning and nurture lifelong learners. And yet these lofty, inspiring words are increasingly inapplicable as we go up the grades. I think that’s both sad and a damning indictment.
What would it take for your local school or district to come closer to its own rhetoric?
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
From Organic Creativity EMERGES Innovation!
In this ground-breaking book, Otto Scharmer invites us to see the world in new ways. Fundamental problems, as Einstein once noted, cannot be solved at the same level of thought that created them. What we pay attention to, and how we pay attention - both individually and collectively - is key to what we create. What often prevents us from "attending" is what Scharmer calls our "blind spot," the inner place from which each of us operates. Learning to become aware of our blind spot is critical to bringing forth the profound systemic changes so needed in business and society today.
First introduced in Presence, the "U" methodology of leading profound change is expanded and deepened in Theory U. By moving through the "U" process we learn to connect to our essential Self in the realm of presencing - a term coined by Scharmer that combines the present with sensing. Here we are able to see our own blind spot and pay attention in a way that allows us to experience the opening of our minds, our hearts, and our wills. This wholistic opening constitutes a shift in awareness that allows us to learn from the future as it emerges, and to realize that future in the world.
Theory U explores a new territory of scientific research and personal leadership, one that is grounded in real life experience and shared practices. Scharmer shares much from his own personal and professional development, and draws from a rich diversity of compelling stories and examples. Readers will find themselves drawn to new ways of thinking and acting as they read, completing a parallel journey of exploration and discovery. The final chapters lay out principles and practices that allow everyone to participate fully in co-creating and bringing forth the desired future that is working to emerge through us.
http://www.solonline.org/theoryu/excerpt/
Frontpiece Foreward PDF
http://www.solonline.org/repository/download/TUfrontmatter.pdf?item_id=9241151
Intorduction PDF
http://www.solonline.org/repository/download/TUch00intro.pdf?item_id=9241149
Thursday, March 29, 2007
CUBE Report on Schools "Where We Teach": And we don't mean "Ice Cube"
More teachers than administrators agree or strongly agree with the statement:
"Most students at this school would not be successful at a community college or university."
Strongly disagree/disagree
• Teachers: 58.1%
• Administrators: 85.2%
Agree/strongly agree
• Teachers: 23.6%
• Administrators: 7%
Not sure
• Teachers: 18.4%
• Administrators: 7.4%
Source: National School Boards Association
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Ask a teacher whether her students are on track to earn a college degree, and she'll probably say "Sure."
Grant her anonymity, and you may get a different point of view.
In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university."
Even more say students "are not motivated to learn."
In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% say they aren't sure.
The results were surprising even to the study's author, Brian Perkins, a professor of education law and policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn.
"I anticipated that there would be some teachers who feel that way," he says. "What I did not anticipate was the number who responded that they didn't think students would be successful."
White teachers seem to have the bleakest view: 24.5% predict failure in college, higher than among black (22.1%) or Hispanic (17.6%) teachers.
Administrators paint a rosier picture: Only 7% predict the same for their students. But 15.6% say their students "are not motivated to learn."
Part of the problem could be a perceived lack of support from parents: 57% of teachers say parents "are supportive" of the school and its activities; 28% say parents aren't supportive.
John Mitchell, director of educational issues for the American Federation of Teachers, says the findings could be largely the result of events that happened in the day or so before the survey.
"You go through a lot in a day, and you have days when you feel optimistic and days when you don't," he says.
But he says the results shouldn't be considered "a statement of (teachers') aspirations for the kids — it may very well be a statement that these kids aren't getting enough to make it through college."
Other findings:
•One in eight teachers say their school is not a safe place.
•65.8% of black administrators say children are bullied regularly at their school; only 49.3% of white administrators and 29.7% of Hispanic administrators say the same.
The survey on school climate is among the largest teacher surveys ever. Sponsored by the National School Boards Association, it queried 4,700 educators from 127 schools in 12 urban districts. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 3 percentage points.
To see the full survey, visit www.nsba.org/cube/whereweteach.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Take a little off the TOP!
POLITICALLY SPEAKING: School boss tries a new look
March 28, 2007
State schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan brought an electric razor on stage when he spoke at the Governor's Education Summit in Lansing Monday.
Then, in front of several hundred school officials gathered for lunch, he began to trim his beard.
BZZZZ!
Twice during his 20-minute presentation, he took the razor to his gray foliage to illustrate his theme that school officials must transform themselves to educate kids in an increasingly competitive global economy.
When he removed a little more mustache than he wanted, he joked, "I'm going for the Pennsylvania Dutch look." (Apparently, Flanagan decided later for aesthetic reasons to take it all off, and he showed up for work Tuesday clean-shaven.)
He told the crowd Monday, "I want to burn into your brains that this is about our decisions ... All kids can do it if we're willing to transform."
Tell that to Britney Spears.
The FUTURE is NOW!
Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a "Classrooms for the Future" grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
By News Staff
In September 2006, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced "Classrooms for the Future," an initiative to transform the high school learning experience. The program will put a laptop computer on every high school English, math, science and social studies desk and provide teachers with a multimedia workstation and intensive training to enhance education. The governor's 2006-07 budget provided $20 million for the first year of the initiative, with plans to expand the program statewide.
An additional $6 million in state and federal resources will be used to train teachers and administrators on how to best harness the power of technology to enhance classroom discussions, lessons and projects.
In addition to the laptops, each classroom will be equipped with an interactive whiteboard and projector, Web cams and other video cameras. Teachers and students will also have access to imaging software.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Web site, Classrooms for the Future "is designed to ensure there is a laptop on every high school classroom desk in English, Math, Science and Social Studies in all public high schools and career and technical centers in Pennsylvania ... High school students are poised to enter the global marketplace or to continue their education beyond preK-12 and it is our obligation to prepare them within a short window of opportunity." Seventy-nine school districts were selected to participate in the first year of the program.
The Colonial School District is among the first districts to receive a Classrooms for the Future grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The $202,539 grant is among the largest issued to a single school and will be used to purchase 192 wireless student laptops for classroom use the Plymouth Whitemarsh High School (PWHS) Social Studies Department, as well as provide staff development and training.
The entire PWHS campus was equipped with wireless capability as part of an extensive upgrade of technology resources. Interactive whiteboards and high-powered digital overhead presenters connected directly to a video/data projector for real-time viewing were installed in 52 classrooms in time for the start of the school year. There are presently 90 of these classrooms engaging students in the Colonial School District this fall. An additional 32 classrooms are scheduled to be online for the 2007-08 school year thanks to the ongoing support of the community and the school board of directors.
"This grant confirms that the Colonial School District has been on the cutting edge of technology and the use of technology to deliver curriculum for the past three years," said Superintendent Dr. Vincent F. Cotter. "From extensive use of data analysis to interactive classrooms, Colonial has been a leader in utilizing technology to educate our students. This grant gives us the impetus to accelerate our technology implementation schedule."
As part of its Classrooms of the Future Grant, Colonial uses a server-based digital video delivery system, a pre-screened academic content search engine, Internet2 and conferencing solutions. In spring 2006, middle school students learned about Australia's Great Barrier Reef through a video conference with instructors from down under.
The district Web site is an integral portal for students, teachers, parents, community members and school board members to stay informed on major developments taking place in the district. The K-12 social studies curriculum is online and available to all stakeholders. Resources aligned with the curriculum are also available via the Web site. Teachers have created best practice lessons that can be implemented and shared using all of the technologies available; this model is currently being applied to other content areas such as language arts, science and math. The district continues to expand the framework, moving to a portal solution to provide all the instructional tools necessary for the 21st century classroom.
Laptop equipment from the Classrooms for the Future grant is expected to be released to the district first as one of selected pilot schools ready for implementation into the classroom instructional program. The 192 wireless laptops are just the first phase in the Classrooms for the Future grant from PDE. Approximately 720 additional laptops will be brought online in the next two years, pending finding approval by the Pennsylvania Legislature. Those laptops will support the language arts, math and science curriculum.
Classrooms for the Future is a $250 million, three-year comprehensive high school reform project that leverages all of Pennsylvania's education efforts. The program recognizes and embraces the need for high school reform, enables teachers to use technology as an effective tool for educating students and prepares students to enter and successfully compete in the ever-expanding high-tech global marketplace.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
School Begins "Long-Slog" into Digital Irrelevance!
Parents back school's MySpace ban
March 24, 2007
On the first day of a strict policy banning students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School from using social networking Web sites, administrators and parents were online ferreting out those who had yet to comply.
"You get to know their code names," Judy Martinek, the school's office manager, said Friday.
Sister Margaret Van Velzen, principal of the Bloomfield Hills school, said the policy took effect Friday in response to concerns about students posting "nasty things on the Internet," and as an attempt to keep the children safe.
Van Velzen said Friday she does not know of any other school with such a policy, nor had she received complaints about it.
"I have not had one parent who is opposed to this," she said.
Still, as technology becomes more accessible, St. Hugo's new policy raises questions for educators. How, for example, will schools control Internet access when free wireless access becomes available through all of Oakland County in 2008? Or, as prices drop for handheld phones that connect to the Web and more students get them, what then?
"There are so many changes in technology," said Marcia Wilkinson, director of community relations for the Birmingham public schools. "A lot of issues are coming up that people were not dealing with even a year ago."
Social networking sites, such as MySpace, market themselves as places in cyberspace for people to meet and communicate, often connecting using clever aliases. But, law enforcement officials say, children who join these sites may be putting themselves in harm's way -- especially from sexual predators.
St. Hugo, which runs from kindergarten through eighth grade, also enacted the policy because it wanted to eliminate unhealthy competition among young students who were comparing the number of people in their network, Van Velzen said. One student, she said, bragged of linking with as many as 800 others.
The school's policy also raises the question: How much control can a school exert beyond the classroom?
Officials in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne County public schools -- and University Liggett School, a private pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school in Grosse Pointe Woods -- said they leave it up to parents to decide whether students can use MySpace, or other similar sites, at home.
"Schools have to be responsible for students when they're at school, but with the blurring of the lines of virtual and real-world education, where are the lines?" said Linda Wacky, director of communications for the Michigan Association of School Administrators in Lansing. Melodye Bush, a researcher with the Education Commission of the States, said she has never heard of another school enacting such a policy and has doubts about whether it is constitutional. The commission is a Denver-based think-tank that tracks education trends nationwide.
St. Hugo has had a policy prohibiting its 773 students from posting offensive or inappropriate comments and pictures on the Web for years, Van Velzen said. But the new policy went a step further by banning students from using MySpace and other similar sites all together. Under the policy, students who refuse to delete their accounts will be suspended.
"People know the difference between using social networking for a good reason and for things that would be hurtful," Van Velzen said.
Under MySpace rules, children 14 years and younger should not have a presence on the site anyway, but, Van Velzen said, the company does not adequately enforce that, and many students simply lie about their age. St. Hugo students with sites who were caught Friday were told to dismantle them.
Contact FRANK WITSIL at 248-351-3690 or witsil@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
RESPONSE: Mosaic Ghana Africa / Offer to Participate and Endorse
Hi Joe:
CONGRATULATIONS on the continuing development of a "meaningful conversation" regarding the various opportunities and possibilities represented by the identified constituents namely Ghana, West Africa and the United States of America.
As you and I have discussed on many occasions this is truly a mission which is dear to our organizations hearts, minds and endeavors. Over the last several years we have crossed paths several times on this "purity of purpose" undertaking. Witness, our seminal discussions and interactions with our Detroit community partners at the "Friends of Detroit & Tri-County" community learning center and mutual efforts on behalf of the "Gateway to West Africa Project" orchestrated by Chief, Nana Kwaku Yiadom. Additionally, we have participated in and supported from its inception the annual Oakland Schools "Global Trade Mission" efforts under the leadership and tutelage of Dr. Marlana Krolicki, Oakland Schools ISD, by providing real-world, subject-matter experts, leadership-speakers from the Sub-Saharan Continent of Africa namely Mr. Edo Mansaluca (2 years) of Angola, West Africa and The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chief Nana Kwaku Yiadom (2 years) of Ghana, West Africa. Clearly, as you and I will agree these are not merely co-incidences but rather may indeed be guided by a much higher-ordered hand.
Your invitation to participate and/or endorse these continuing efforts via Mosaic Ghana Africa is well received by our organization and we wish to affirm our continuing commitment and support to this shared alignment of purpose. Of course as they say, "the devil is in the details" and without a thorough understanding of those details on our part we are unable to define the potential depths of our contributions and involvement. Perhaps a "meeting of the minds" is in order to further our base-understanding of this undertaking and to "plumb the depths" of the various possibilities this truly collaborative opportunity represents? Additionally, if you would kindly forward the Mosaic Ghana Africa Information/Media Kit (address below) as you proposed it would be much appreciated and serve to facilitate our deeper understanding.
Although I can not speak for Kent Roberts and his organization (Civility Center), nor would I assume to, I'm sure he would resonate with this collaborative missions intentions. His organization and his personal message, mission and mind would be a great addition and complement to this endeavor.
Finally, as you may or may not know "21st Century Digital Learning Environments" has been deeply embedded in the Detroit Public Schools system via Northwestern High School and the AIM Program (Achievement In Motion) for much of the last year. This is a "stellar" leading-edge technological K-12 Education Model Program under the visionary direction and leadership of Dr. Shedrick Ward, Director, Detroit Public Schools, Science Math and Technology Resource Center. Dr. Ward is also the sole-author of the Detroit Public Schools Technology Plan (2006) which in my humble opinion, is the finest example of an K-12 Education Technology Plan in this country. Perhaps there are some cross-pollination opportunities to "share the wealth" through this undertaking.
Please let us know what your thoughts might be. Much continued success!
Kind regards,
Jim
Jim Ross, president
21st Century Digital Learning Environments
41810 Huntington Ct.
Clinton Township, MI 48038
586-228-0608
Friday, March 23, 2007
Ghana, West Africa, Trade Mission
Hi John, Jim and Kent,
I trust all is well and sincerely wish you are getting everything out of life that you desire. I am sending this to you based on our previous discussions on ways to potentially develop and expand
The main purpose for contacting you is to ask you to consider participating and/or endorsing this mission, known as Mosaic Ghana Africa™. As a Participant, you would experience the cultural and business aspects of
I look forward to your thoughts and comments regarding Mosaic Ghana Africa™. An informational/media kit is available and can be sent upon request. Please feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues. . As a note, it is my intention to make a pre-Tour trip and I have permission from the House of Chiefs to videotape many aspects of my pre-Tour trip including spending overnight in a local village like I did in
Best regards and have a great week.
Joe
Joseph P. Cool
President
Cool & Associates, Inc.
248 683 1130
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| The Future of Learning The Future of Learning is the topic of the next in a series of MacArthur Foundation regional public events on digital media and learning issues. This panel discussion will take place on Saturday, April 21 at 9:00 a.m. in the Peter and Ginny Nicholas Auditorium at Duke University's School of Nursing. The event is organized by HASTAC, a consortium of humanists, artists, scientists, social scientists, and engineers from universities and other civic institutions. Panelists will discuss how the digital age is changing learning. Video of the event will be available the following week on MacArthur's website. | ||||||
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| When Where | Julia Stasch, Vice President of the Program on Human and Community Development at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, will provide an overview of MacArthur’s new digital media and learning initiative and how it is helping to build the field. Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg , Co-Directors of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory), a virtual university, will discuss the future of learning institutions in the digital age. Carl Harris, Superintendent of Durham Public Schools, will discuss the future of learning from the perspective of public schools. The program will be moderated by Connie Yowell, Director for Digital Media, Learning and Education at the MacArthur Foundation. | |||||
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
"Sticky-Thinking" vs. The Swift-boat of Unknowing
Published: March 20, 2007
Commentary
The New Anti-Intellectualism in America
When Curricular Rigor and ‘Pedagogical Fraud’ Go Hand in Hand
It seems odd to accuse the schools of anti-intellectualism when they are engaged in a relentless drive for higher test scores, and students are required to take more difficult academic courses. Passing rates on some state and local tests show small increases, but there has been little if any improvement on well-established national tests. The small gains we’ve seen may be the result of concentrated instruction on narrowly defined objectives. But we are not promoting intellectual habits of mind. Indeed, we may be reducing intellectual life to mental labor. What are the signs that this is happening?
First, there is a proliferation of fake academic courses. These courses are instigated by the demand that almost all children now take academic courses such as algebra and geometry. The decision for this requirement has not been supported by strong, well-informed debate. Is it true, for example, that all students need more mathematics today than people did in previous generations? If the answer is yes (but there are powerful arguments in favor of a negative reply), then it is reasonable to ask, What sort of mathematics? Must it be traditional algebra and geometry? Why?
Instead of debating these questions, policymakers have mandated—in the name of equality—that all children, regardless of their talents and interests, should have the “opportunity” once reserved for relatively few. Hardworking teachers then must try to get unwilling, unprepared students through material they have no interest in learning. Many youngsters have alternative, genuine talents, but these are disregarded. To give such students a chance to pass the required courses, teachers concentrate on a few discrete skills that can be gained through a steady routine of drill.
I’ve observed such classes. In some, no word problems or applications are even attempted. In a bow to analytic geometry, the distance formula is memorized, but with no mention of the Pythagorean theorem. In many geometry classes, no proofs at all are done. (Reducing the emphasis on proof is justified, but eliminating it entirely casts doubt on whether the course should be called geometry.) The end result is that many students have “algebra” and “geometry” on their transcripts, but they can’t pass state tests in math, and they need remedial courses in college. They have had pseudo-algebra and pseudo-geometry. This is pedagogical fraud, and such students are doubly cheated. They do poorly in the required courses, and they are deprived of courses in which they might have done well.
I am not arguing that the traditional academic courses are properly “intellectual” and other courses are not. On the contrary, I believe that intellectually exciting topics and challenging problems can and should arise in all well-taught classes—in cooking, chemistry, photography, mechanics, and everything else the schools offer. My objection is to the virtual elimination of intellectual content in many of today’s academic courses.
A second signal is that the overuse of specific learning objectives in all subjects works against the development of intellectual habits of mind. Superficially, it seems fair to tell students exactly what they must learn and be able to do as a result of instruction. This is instructionally sound when we are teaching a narrowly defined skill, but it is a poor way to encourage problem-solving, critical thinking, and the habits of mind that support further, deeper learning. Too often the result of such instruction is students who can add when told to add, or solve quadratic equations when told to “solve the following quadratic equations,” but cannot decide when to use these techniques in solving problems. In the interest of intellectual habits of mind, students must be asked to identify for themselves the important points in every unit of study, construct their own summaries, attempt problems that have no obvious solution, engage in interpretation, and evaluate conflicting explanations and points of view.
Providing a complete structure of what is to be learned and a detailed list of outcomes expected of all students facilitates quick, shallow learning and swift forgetting. The little actually remembered is very like a collection of meaningless bits for Trivial Pursuit. Students come to expect that they should have answers at their fingertips instead of developing an attitude of inquiry—one of willingness to figure things out.
The insistence on precisely stated learning objectives, moreover, also drastically reduces the number of classroom sessions designed to expose students to new, interesting ideas that may or may not result in specific learning. It is right to pay continuous, careful attention to whether students are learning certain specific material. But there should also be sessions devoted to intellectual “inputs”—topics teachers choose to present or offer—leaving open what students might do as a result.
Many intellectually exciting and socially significant lessons conducted by creative teachers are designed to induce awareness, not specific learning. It is a shame to sacrifice such sessions in our zeal to achieve a pre-specified learning objective for every lesson, every day. In addition to asking the question, Has Johnny learned X? we should also ask, What has Johnny learned? In a class of 25 students, we might get 25 different answers to this—some disheartening (from which we should learn), and some quite thrilling.
To support intellectual life and the joy of learning, we should expand the possibilities, not narrow them. Part of our job as educators is to offer opportunities, to open the door to a world of intellectual possibilities. Another part is to encourage our students to think and to take responsibility for their own expanded learning. It is important, therefore, to consider intellectual inputs as well as pre-specified student outcomes.
Students do not come to us as standard raw material, and we should not expect to produce standard academic products. Intellectual life is challenging, enormously diverse, and rewarding. It requires initiative and independent thinking, not the tedious following of orders. It should not be reduced to mental drudgery.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Detroit AIM Program Rises to Prominence!
AIM "Makes it's Indelible Mark" for Educational Excellence!
HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF!
http://www.wwj.com
Kilpatrick tells Detroit: Let's tackle crime, grime together
'Nobody's coming to save us'
March 14, 2007
Saying it's time for Detroiters to stop blaming outsiders for the city's ills, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick called on residents Tuesday to take personal responsibility and promised a more focused government that would reduce crime by adding 200 police officers, establish job centers and restore six neighborhoods with an aggressive, five-year plan.
He said he wants to do that and more without raising taxes. In fact, the mayor said he'll cut both property and income taxes, though he would not say how the city, already facing a $96-million deficit, would make up the money.
Kilpatrick made the comments in his sixth State of the City speech at Orchestra Hall with much of his administration and City Council in attendance.
Residents besieged by crime in some of the city's forgotten neighborhoods hope the mayor can make good on his promises.
Mary Abner, 49, who lives on the east side near Davison and 6 Mile, wants to take the mayor's message to heart and hopes her neighbors will, too.
"If he holds up to all that he's talking about, we're rolling," Abner said. "I liked everything about it, especially the part on the neighborhoods and the crime and the kids."
Touching on a tried-and-true mayoral theme hit hard during the administration of Dennis Archer, the mayor strongly took Detroiters to task for the crime ravaging the city. He called on parents to become active in their children's lives, pastors to engage in the neighborhoods where they preach and residents to clean their sidewalks, fix up their homes and reclaim their streets.
"My beloved community, I truly understand the history of African-American people in this country," he said. "But we have come to a point in our community where this is no outside conspiracy doing this to us. This is us killing us. ... And we, as a community, have to stop it now. Nobody's coming to save us."
The more than 2,000 people, including state Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Detroit Democrat; city appointees, community activists, residents, pastors and business leaders who packed the hall for the invitation-only event cheered the loudest when he called for personal action and laid out his plan to fight crime. They gave him several standing ovations.
Citing that 70% of homicides are narcotics-related, Kilpatrick called on parents to warn their children about the dangers of the thug life.
"We need to help them understand that the so-called glamorous life that they see in some of these videos is not reality," he said.
"We need to help our children understand that, when you get involved in drugs and sitting in a drug house, there's no high-priced champagne, there's no dancing pretty girls, no nice clothes. There's no bling bling. You can get killed."
The number of homicides in the city increased by almost 10% from 2005 and 2006, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, which tracks crime trends in the country.
A significant portion of the mayor's speech focused on an anticrime strategy that calls for hiring 200 police officers to complement the city's 3,100-member force. The mayor said he will augment the force by deploying a SWAT team to patrol areas where there is significant drug dealing or high incidence of robberies and shootings, as well as creating rapid-response units for priority 911 calls.
Patrol officers will be joined by desk officers and commanders, including Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who will be deployed during weekend nights to hot-spot areas, such as nightclubs, party stores and all-night restaurants.
Thomas Wilson Jr., a west-side resident who is president of the Northwestern District Police Community Relations Organization, said the mayor's crime fighting plan did not go far enough to beef up a police department that at its height had more than 5,000 members.
"He's saying he's going to put 200 officers on the street, but you have so many police officers retiring or leaving," Wilson said. "You've got people leaving out the back door of the house and people walking in the front. Does the house ever get full? No.
"It's one thing to tell the chief to take the streets back. It's another to have the manpower to do it," he said.
For all the rhetoric in the mayor's speech, it was still light on the specifics of how he plans to accomplish many of his promises. He has said he will unveil more specifics on funding in coming weeks.
The money issue is critical. Last week, the mayor mentioned a bond initiative he said would fund some of his ideas.
Kilpatrick also announced Tuesday some financial assistance for his Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative from several foundations and agencies, including the Knight and Skillman foundations.
The mayor said he would address the deficit and the city's fiscal state when he presents his budget plan to the City Council on April 12. He said the current year would end in the black, but he has made that pledge before, and the year-end deficits have always been higher than the mayor estimates.
The mayor also pledged to make workforce development a critical component of his administration, creating programs to help Detroiters in all aspects of job hunting, from preparing resumes and developing employable skills to finding jobs with growth potential.
He said, by year's end, the city's Workforce Development Center will create career centers to help people find jobs in such high-demand industries as health, information technology, construction and retail.
"The only thing this process requires of each participant is personal commitment to be ready to learn and to prepare themselves to work," Kilpatrick said. "That means going to class. That means developing the skills that will make you employable. That means good work habits. And, yes, it means passing the drug test."
He also outlined his plan to transform six city neighborhoods but offered few specifics since announcing the initiative in December.
Meanwhile, he said, the city is working with the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, to develop a strategy over the next three years to assess the buying power in Detroit's neighborhoods in order to attract more businesses.
"They have been very successful in convincing retailers who once said no to a community to actually change their decision and locate in the that community," Kilpatrick said.
"We know Detroiters can shop with the best of them," he said. "And we deserve and have the right to have the best retail in our communities."
At least one mayoral critic, Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins, liked what she heard about revitalizing the neighborhoods and even pledged to help him find the funding.
"I thought he was right on target," she said. "I'll do my part to help him find the money."
Contact MARISOL BELLO at 313- 222-6678 or bello@freepress.com. Staff writers Kathleen Gray and Suzette Hackney contributed.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Friday, March 09, 2007
CHANGE the current Pedagogical Process!
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Contents Copyright 2007 eSchool News. All rights reserved.
Change arrives at FETC 2007
Speakers at Florida's venerable ed-tech event urged attendees to 'change the world,' adapt to changing technologies, and respond to the changing needs of students
From eSchool Newsstaff reports
March 1, 2007 Barely more than a week after business-to-business information company 1105 Media Inc. of Chatsworth, Calif., announced that it had acquired Florida Educational Technology Corp.--the long-time producer of the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC)--this year's FETC kicked off at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando Jan. 24.
Despite the announced change in ownership, it was business as usual for the teachers, administrators, and ed-tech experts who attended this year's conference. FETC 2007 featured eight keynote speeches; more than 200 concurrent sessions demonstrating how ed-tech applications and best practices can be used in the classroom; and an exhibit hall showcasing the products of more than 400 companies.
Though FETC's change in ownership might not have registered with attendees, the theme of change itself--changing the world, changing technologies, and changing expectations for today's students--resonated throughout the three-day event.
Science Guy to educators: 'Change the world'
FETC 2007 began with an ambitious challenge from keynote speaker Bill Nye to conference participants: "Change the world."
Best known for his work on the television program Bill Nye the Science Guy, which earned him seven Emmy Awards, Nye also has written four books. He is the host of two currently running television series: The 100 Greatest Discoveries, which airs on the Science Channel, and The Eyes of Nye, which airs on PBS stations.
"The next decade is going to change the world, and we're all going to be here for it," Nye said, addressing the audience in his trademark blazer and bowtie.
Nye discussed how his father's fascination with sundials inspired his own interest in how science affects everyday phenomena, then linked his personal interests and experiences with FETC's mission--to promote educational technology.
Calling the essence of science "the joy of discovery," Nye discussed recent discoveries on the planet Mars and related them to today's science education. He also discussed the issue of global warming and the fact that some influential political activists and others in leadership roles do not believe it to be a problem.
"We are facing a serious business here on Earth; we are facing a very serious future unless we get on it," he warned. "This is where we, as educators, must change the world."
President Bush's American Competitive-ness Initiative, designed to increase the number of scientists, technical workers, and qualified math and science teachers in the United States, should be a motivation to educators, Nye said.
He described several scientific problems and their potential solutions, emphasizing that through education, the nation's students might come up with the answers to some of today's most pressing questions.
"One hundred years ago we were riding horses to work, but now we've changed and we have cars," he said. "In another hundred years we can change again, and that is up to us as educators, to make our students realize that [science] is a worthy pursuit."
Three skills students need to be globally competitive
Day Two of the conference opened with several simultaneous keynote sessions. One of these, from Alan November, an internationally recognized ed-tech leader and consultant, focused on how to prepare U.S. students to compete and succeed in an increasingly global economy.
"Are we producing children who are globally competitive?" November asked the audience. "The answer is no. Until we sort out what it means to be globally competitive ... [we] will fail."
The key to using technology in the classroom, November said, is not to train teachers how to use it, but to train them on how to incorporate technology creatively into lessons in engaging and stimulating ways. Additionally, students should be able to connect with classrooms around the world, to boost a global perspective on learning.
"The real staff development problem in K-12 is not teaching teachers technology, it's teaching them to redesign the assignments they give students to be more rigorous and demanding," November said. He added: "Our standards are too low."
November emphasized three skills needed to turn the nation's classrooms into places of effective digital learning. The first, he said, is to teach students to deal with massive amounts of information.
"We tend not to do this, and tend to give children only a little bit of information at a time, in the right order, to take the next test," he said.
The second essential skill requires every classroom to become a global communication center, with a more globalized curriculum.
"Teach children to work with people around the world, and establish a network of people you tap to make your students' learning experiences more effective," he urged attendees. "If every classroom were to connect students around the world, not only will we teach content, but [also] social protocol and how to work in teams, and [how to respect] other viewpoints. We're spending too much time teaching teachers technical stuff and not enough on the creative application of the technical stuff."
The third skill today's students need is self-direction.
"The real change in the global economy isn't that you get a laptop or an MP3 [player], it's that you don't have a boss telling you what to do," he said. "If one person freezes up when they don't know what to do and someone else is self-directed, that self-directed person is more valuable. We here have a culture that creates dependency; we teach kids how to be taught, and we need to teach them how to organize their own learning."
November suggested ridding schools of planning committees, and turning those groups into global competitiveness committees. The real focus should not be to plan for technology, he said, but to plan for students who can contribute something to the world. Teachers can reach students creatively by tapping into technologies they already use. Use podcasts to teach algebra, or use MySpace to teach social responsibility and implications, November suggested.
"We must teach our teachers to think globally, to connect content from other countries across the curriculum," he said. "Everyone in the world does not love us--they don't. If we don't teach empathy to understand the position of other people, I don't think it's going to get better. We have got to teach empathy."
He concluded: "The real revolution's not technology, it's the fantastic management of information and relationships. That's why we've got to stop planning for technology."
Comments
I had a great conversation, f2f, with a parent today who has a child not enthusiastic about school. The parent was looking for a way to put some excitement into the student day. This student has a laptop, so I suggested iTunes and listening to podcasts from the University podcast selections or from Math podcasts.The parent asked why this hadn't been brought up as an option. The lightbulb came on, we techno people love this stuff, and no matter how much we talk and gather great sites, we, I , need to post this information for parents and teachers in a more explicit way. Off to make another blog! Thanks Scott.
Posted by: Cheryl Oakes | March 29, 2007 1:18 AM
I believe a major contributing factor is that teachers teach within a learning style that is closest to what they would want and/or enjoy. This is not necessarily the case of the students themselves.
I have worked with a librarian flat refuse to add e-books to a library collection because she doesn't understand how someone could read a book without having the feel of the book while she is doing it...
Additionally... We have some faculty that do not want students writing essays on computers because the Illinois Standard Assessment Tests have a writing portion. Our scores might be compromised if they are not well prepared to hand-write their essays.
Students are not as tech savvy as many people believe, but they are savvy enough to realize how much of their time is wasted writing one on paper.
Posted by: Scott Meech | March 29, 2007 4:06 AM
Scott, interesting that you bring this up. Here's a study you might be interested in, which notes that students who are used to using the computer underperform on handwritten state writing assessments:
http://tinyurl.com/22gh7o
"de-emphasizing computers in schools to better prepare students for low-tech tests – may be pragmatic, given the high stakes attached to many state tests. But they may be shortsighted in light of students’ entry into an increasingly high tech
world."
Posted by: Scott McLeod | March 29, 2007 2:37 PM
Until teachers get away from being a sage on the stage things aren't going to change. They've got to give up control, a terrifying prospect for most, and give control back to the students. Use different types of media to engage different types of learners, and give them responsibility for their own learning. What would make you more interested in history... reading a 20 year old textbook or walking thru history in 2nd life? 2nd life hands down.
Posted by: Jennifer J | April 2, 2007 3:34 PM
Life-long learning is just one of the platitudes that appear in vision statements. "Including all stakeholders" is another, and that rarely means students, the largest stakeholder group of all. Student enthusiasm, engagement, life-long learning and empowerment are all pieces of the same puzzle.
Vision without a corresponding action plan is meaningless. This whitepaper gives districts a path to add student leadership to technology plans to better support the district vision. http://tinyurl.com/2eve7g
Posted by: sylvia martinez | April 3, 2007 6:04 PM
This discussion reminds me of one I participated in as a Science teacher several years ago. The title of that workshop session was "How to Instill Curiosity in Your Students", or some such thing.
It was a really weak session, with lots of platitudes, until a research physicist, who was not a Teacher in the common sense, told the crowd that the premise of the discussion was absurd- students come to us with way more curiosity than is healthy, and our goal should be to stifle enough of it so that they could survive until adulthood. The art, of course, was in stifling only that much, and no more.
That comment changed the discussion completely, and for the better.
Posted by: Brian Scholin | April 3, 2007 6:27 PM
I teach in an alternative high school were students are placed because they either have attendance problems, a lack of credit, safe school violations, and many other reasons. I find that these students are, for the most part, intelligent, creative, good kids who have made some mistakes.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that many of these students have a preferred learning style that probably was not addressed in the regular high school. They are hands-on, visual, or aural learners and did not do well. After a while of not being successful or not getting the one-on-one help they needed they lost their desire to learn.
Once they receive instruction that is interesting and geared toward their personal learning preferences, and they are supplied with strategies to help them in situations when lessons are not presented in their personal learning style these students begin to turn around and become successful. Using projects, cooperative learning, multimedia lessons, and other creative learning strategies teachers are able to show these students that they can learn.
When this happens they understand that they can learn and they do become lifelong learners.
Yet another thing that helps students to gain a desire to learn is if the teacher can at least tell the students why the teacher himself likes the discipline he is teaching. Share with the student his/her passion for their subject. Then the student won’t say, “When am I ever going to use this?” Share the passion, if the teacher likes to learn, the student might catch on too!
Posted by: Grant Harkness | April 3, 2007 9:44 PM
Absolutely love the Peter Senge reference of whom I have been a devote and advocate for years.
It has been said that "curiosity killed the cat" but I would add that "creativity gave it nine lives."
Perhaps a more fitting contextual question would read "Do Schools Quash Creativity?" Therein, we may discover the problem and solution.
Posted by: Jim Ross | April 4, 2007 11:45 AM