Category: In the news

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Ed in 08 Bloggers Summit

Ed in 08Last week I had a last minute opportunity to be in Washington DC for a day. It happened to be a day that Ed in 08 was having a Blogger Summit “…to discuss how the Internet is changing the discourse of education reform, and how those changes are affecting the 2008 presidential election.”

Before this event, I’d read a little about Ed in 08 – it seemed to me to be a lot of money to promote very little. They use a lot of vague words — “strong” schools, the need for “reform” without explaining what that means, “fixing” schools, and lots of scary statistics about kids, jobs and the economy.

What is Ed in 08?
Ed in 08 is a campaign run by an organization called “Strong American Schools” as an advocacy effort aimed at elevating discussion during the presidential election about the need for education reform. According to their site, “Strong American Schools is a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, two of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world, have provided grant funding for Strong American Schools. Our budget is estimated to be up to $60 million.”

Newt Gingrich
I was interested to hear Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as the lunch keynote. I’d heard him speak before, and even though his politics run more conservative than mine, he is a good speaker, and has interesting ideas that don’t come out of the usual political mill.

He actually seems to have spoken to teachers and children and thought about the consequences of policies. It was refreshing to hear a conservative who does more than spout scary statistics, “get tough” rhetoric and vague feel-good slogans. He talked about how top-down mandated curriculum stops creativity and relevance in the classroom. He made some good observations about the need for authentic assessment. Although there were some silly parts about how anyone involved with education can’t be part of the solution, his speech was the highlight of the day for me.

Ed in 08 – Missing in Action
What I did expect was to hear more about the Ed in 08 agenda, but that didn’t happen. The organizers seemed to have been so concerned that the audience would hate a hard sell that they decided to have no sell at all. They also seemed to have forgotten that if their aim was to get education bloggers talking and writing about Ed in 08, they needed to give us something to write about.

What I would have liked is to have a panel where the ideas were really discussed. If they really believe that teacher merit pay works to improve schools, where is the plan, the support, the research, or anything substantive? How would you solve the problems of what to base it on and how do you stop people from gaming the system? And more importantly, teachers consistently report that money is not a motivating factor in their career choice. Why is merit pay even being discussed as a solution? Is this just another rich-guy sound bite?

If they were worried about being fair and balanced, they could have brought in people on both sides of the issue and had a real discussion.

But instead, there was a string of panel discussions and presentations, none of them about Ed in 08. The oddest one was a panel of journalist bloggers who talked about blogging. I guess we were then supposed to blog about the bloggers blogging.

Less Talk About More Time, Please
The lamest speaker was an author who has written a book about how schools need a longer school day. His speech was about how he’s written a book about how schools need a longer school day. It needs to be longer because children will learn more. In their longer day. Because we need more time. To do more things. In a longer day. (This went on for quite a while, but you get the picture.)

There was precious little detail about what exactly happened during the extra time, but plenty of scary facts and statistics about how far behind American schools are and how dumb American children are. It’s amazing how much time there is for research meant to scare and how little time there is for research that supports the foregone conclusions.

Then, he showed a video and lo and behold, teachers and students talked about projects, hand-on learning, teachers discussing student work, teachers planning together, and administrators talking about all the fabulous things they do in their schools. Huh? Where did that come from!

Apparently, all that’s needed to improve schools is a couple of extra minutes, and then, lo and behold, everyone starts doing everything differently. 42 minutes – you get test prep, 43 minutes and **ding** everyone turns into a constructivist. I just found it completely naïve to assert that schools that can’t find the time during a normal school day to even attempt hands-on project-based learning, or can’t arrange for teachers to talk about lesson planning for 5 minutes will suddenly start doing these things for no other reason than there’s more time.

Teacher Bloggers in the Trenches
Anyway, a good part of the day was a a “teacher/bloggers in the trenches” panel. They talked about what their blogging has meant to them, their students, and the community, and showed how complex the subject of education is. There were no simple answers or feel-good slogans coming from these teachers. It was a terrific discussion that actually belied much of the rhetoric about kids that had gone before. By the way, please check out these great blogs (those that still exist!)

What I Learned at Ed in 08 Bloggers Summit
At the end of the day, I have to say that I know nothing new about Ed in 08 that I can share with you. But so it’s not a complete waste of time, here’s what I learned:

  • The Palomar Hotel in Washington DC is really nice.
  • The food was much better than most education events. Thanks, Gates and Broad Foundation.
  • Newt Gingrich is not just another right wing crackpot and I’ll pay more attention to what he has to say from now on.
  • Alexeander Russo of This Week in Education is a really big guy, much larger in life than his blog profile photo. Here’s what he said about me in his blog, “They’re [sic] a woman here Sylvia Martinez with her laptop pointed towards the podium — she’s ustreaming the event (live streaming video). Very cool.” I guess that’s my 15 minutes of fame 🙂

More about the Ed in 08 agenda tomorrow…

Sylvia

P.S. I’m 0 for 2 this week with ustream.tv, a combination of pilot error and lack of a good mic/camera. Apparently there are good videos of the Ed in 08 events that will be posted soon. The Gingrich speech is worth listening to.

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What message does your AUP send home?

Scott McLeod’s recent post at Dangerously Irrelevant, My not-so-friendly library, boring teachers, and other marketing interactions, talks about the negative impact of the draconian, punitive language his public library uses, and points to marketing expert Seth Godin, who “…reminds us that every interaction with a customer / client / patron / stakeholder / visitor is a marketing interaction. It’s an opportunity for us to build or erode our brand, a chance to increase or decrease the trust and goodwill of the people with whom we are interacting.”

It made me think about the messages that schools send out about technology.

Scott goes on to say:

Schools do a host of wonderful things. But they also engage in a number of individual and organizational behaviors that chip away at the trust and goodwill of their internal and external communities.

So, here’s my question – what message does your technology AUP send home?

The AUP, short for Acceptable Use Policy, is typically part of the packet that goes home with students every fall. Parents know the drill. You fish through emergency cards in triplicate, imponderable policies that need your signature on every page, the new dress code, the skateboarding rules, offers for SAT prep and parenting classes, PTA dues, and who knows what else. You sign the pages, sign the checks, and hope that you’ve filled it all out right and that you never have to do it again (until next year.)

The technology AUP is in there too. It’s likely the only thing a parent will see all year long that has to do with computers and technology at the school.

So does your AUP:

  • focus on punishment, or opportunity?
  • contain only legalese or is easy to read and understand?
  • communicate a vision of students as would-be hackers and criminals, or your vision of students as active participants in the 21st century?
  • portray students as potential victims of predators and bullies, or show parents how and why students are safely learning how to navigate this brave new world?
  • hint that computers are an afterthought and a “reward” that can be taken away as punishment, or explain why computers are essential tools in every classroom?

The AUP could be an opportunity to involve parents in your vision of technology, it could be a way to communicate the passion and importance of building a learning community that values 21st century thinking, and it could be a way to help parents understand that despite “To Catch a Predator”, your school is thoughtfully using technology to benefit their child.

So, which message is going home this fall?

Sylvia

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Grand Theft Auto 4 and other thoughts about video games in education

Back when Halo 3 released, I wrote a blog post about how the massive sales of this product would dwarf any kind of educational video game sales. I didn’t even tackle whether video games in schools are a good idea or might help students learn academic subjects. But that doesn’t matter. No matter what you believe, it’s an idea whose time will never come.

In short, simple math and economics points out the predictable failure of creating top quality educational video games for the classroom that can compete in this market.

Here were my points:

  • In one week, more people bought a copy of Halo 3 than there are teachers in the United States.
  • Every public school in the U.S. would have to purchase 100 copies of a game to match the sales of Halo 3.
  • Back then, Halo 3 was reported to have cost $30 million dollars just to develop the game.

Now let’s pretend you are a video game company…
Let’s say you believe that video games can revolutionize education. You know the market is small, so you run the numbers. As an advocate, you are insanely optimistic about your chances to sell an educational video game to schools in the United States. To make the most of your chances to make a sale, let’s pretend you could design it so that it covers all subjects and grade levels, and correlates to content standards of all 50 states. You do your best to make sure that it is fun to play no matter if you are 5 years old or 18. Even knowing that 2% is a pretty good market penetration, you might gamble that you could get 10% of all schools in the US to purchase your game. And maybe you’d decide that your game is so educational that they will pay $100 for it, double or triple what normal games sell for. And hey, you won’t need to pay a sales force or buy advertising for your game because it’s so good that it will sell itself!

What do you get? Even with these wild claims and ridiculously optimistic estimates, the BEST you could do is generate sales of about a million dollars, not even enough to pay the production costs of one mediocre game.

Now here comes Grand Theft Auto 4 to blow those numbers even further out of the water. According to Wired News (GTAIV Budget Tops Gaming Records), “Grand Theft Auto IV’s meticulously designed, nuanced world required almost 1,000 people to craft, and final costs for the production were around $100 million…” That’s at least three times as much as Halo 3 and doesn’t even count the cost of marketing and sales.

So the next time someone says, “hey, I hear kids like the video games, why don’t they make an educational one” look them straight in the eye and ask them what they are smoking.

Sylvia

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Students say filtering hurts their learning opportunities

SpeakUp logoProject Tomorrow has just released the Speak Up 2007 National Findings.

Over 319,223 students, 25,544 teachers, 19,726 parents and 3,263 school leaders shared their ideas through Speak Up 2007 surveys.

From their website: Speak Up 2007 revealed a growing “digital disconnect” between students and their teachers and parents about the role of technology for learning, and how well schools are preparing students for the jobs of the future. This disconnect is evident in the fact that school administrators (66%), teachers (47%), and parents (43%) say “local schools are doing a good job preparing students for the jobs and careers of the future,” but over 40% of middle and high school students stated that teachers limit their use of technology in schools. Forty-five percent of middle and high school students indicated that tools meant to protect them, such as firewalls and filters are inhibiting their learning.

“Students continue to be on the leading edge in terms of adopting, modifying and re-using digital content and technology tools to enrich both their personal and educational lives. The students in many ways are far ahead of their teachers and parents not only in the sophistication of their technology use, but in the adoption of emerging technologies for learning purposes,” said Project Tomorrow CEO Julie Evans. “It is in our nation’s best interest that we support and facilitate student usage of technology for learning.”

Other findings:

  • 54% of students are interested in STEM careers
  • One-third of teachers say they would like to teach an online class
  • 84% of administrators say educational technology enhances student achievement
  • 63% of parents say they know more about child’s schoolwork and grades because of school technology

 

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11-year old network administrator

Via Steve Hargadon:

When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager.

Eleven? Yes, eleven.

Jon not only runs the network, he fixed the virus and filtering problems, upgraded the computers to run faster and better, and helped write the school’s web policy.

The lesson here is not that Jon is a one-of-a-kind special kid. Of course he is. But he’s not THAT uncommon. The uncommon thing is that someone let him have this opportunity. Many, many schools have students with this potential. Given the opportunity, students can provide reliable, thoughtful help with school technology.

Suffering with a school network that lacks resources? The answer may literally be right under your nose.

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Preteen steps in to install security gateway, grudgingly agrees to MySpace blocking.

Jon Penn

When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Sherwood, Ark., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager.

Slideshow: He’s 11…and it’s his network!

Penn did it to help his mother, Paula, the school librarian who had computer support added to her workload a week before the school year started when the existing IT systems overseer suddenly departed. For Jon — who says his favorite reading material is computer trade magazines — it’s been the experience of a lifetime, even getting to select and install a gateway security appliance largely by himself.

“This is kind of a small school, and I’m known as the computer whiz,” the sixth grader says.  “We spent $2,158,” says young Penn, describing how he picked out the McAfee Secure Internet Gateway Appliance after evaluating it in a 30-day trial. He also looked at the Barracuda box — a tad more costly — and tried the Untangle open source product, which he said didn’t meet the school’s needs as well.

His school needed a gateway to protect against attacks, filter viruses and spam, and block inappropriate sites. Keeping costs down is important since the school is operating on a shoestring budget to keep its 60 aging computers, a donation from years ago, working for the roughly 200 students permitted to use them, along with the teachers.

The first thing Jon found as he leapt into the role of network manager was that he had to map out the network to find out what was on it. He bought some tools for this at CompUSA and realized there was an ungodly amount of computer viruses and spam, so he pressed the school to invest in filtering and antivirus protection.

“These computers are so old they don’t support all antivirus programs,” Penn says. The school took advantage of a Microsoft effort called Fresh Start that offers free software upgrades for schools with donated computers, switching from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.

One reason to do this was the hope of one day centrally managing the school’s computers so Jon doesn’t have to change them individually. To install Windows 2000, he removed obsolete network interface cards, Ethernet, video, print and sound drivers with the intent of having a better computer base by next fall.

While Jon says he spent some time evaluating antivirus products — he admires Kaspersky Lab’s software especially because it’s “lightweight running.” In the end the decision was made to get a gateway appliance to filter and block viruses and spam.

For his technical recommendations, Jon has had to present his suggestions to the school’s management for approval (“Because he’s not an adult, I’ve been hovering around,” his mother says.)

Along with school staff, the younger Penn has gotten involved in contributing to school policy on Web access. While blocking access to social networking sites such as MySpace wasn’t popular with many fellow students, he had to agree the school really didn’t need it.

Penn is now the technical support much of the time on everything from printer jams to setting up an external drive to backing up the school’s most important server. He was allowed to give a few lessons to his class about basic computers, having his classmates pull out a few components from old machines.

His father, Dave, a civil engineer, says: “I knew when Jon was three and could boot up my laptop, sign in and open Paint, that he had a knack for computers. But I never dreamed he’d be a network administrator at the age of 11.”

Penn’s parents both believe that technical people must have “integrity and character,” and should use their skills for beneficial, not malicious purposes.

Her son is precocious when it comes to computers but Paula says in the final analysis she hopes the experience with the school’s network helps him realize, “It’s his job to fight the bad guys.”

As for Jon, he says he loves testing virtualization software like VMware and wants to obtain “A+ certification” by passing the computer-technician exam by that name developed by trade group CompTIA. “Hopefully, I can do that this summer,” he says.

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This just in…

Stop the presses – having just one teacher who cares about them can stop a high school student from dropping out.

Obvious? Sure. But how many obvious things aren’t we doing in schools?

Among the conclusions:

  • Students generally like school and want to graduate.
  • Some feel financial pressure to drop out and get a job.
  • Some are driven out of school by a fear of violence.
  • Students believe that some of the challenges they face are caused by a lack of resources in their school.
  • Students who believe a teacher or coach cares about them are more inclined to stay in school.

Here’s the full report from the California Dropout Research Project. You can download the entire report or a condensed version there, and see a series of video clips of student interviews here.

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“I’m the luckiest teacher in Philadelphia”

SLA Teachers Rock!Last month I attended Educon 2.0 in Philadelphia, an “unconference” that grew out of a grass roots movement by many educators who blog and work with Web 2.0 tools. In my opinion, it was a spectacular success, not just because 250 educators showed up on a wintery weekend in Philadelphia, most on their own dime, but because of the showcase it provided for the Science Leadership Academy – especially the teachers and students.

While it was terrific to meet the people behind the avatars and screen names, it was even more impressive to get a chance to see what a well-designed, well-executed progressive school looks like up close.

It looks like teachers.

Sure, I could go on and on about how the principal, Chris Lehmann, has shaped this school based on an “ethic of care” — meaning you teach kids before you teach subjects. The idea is so simple it’s almost startling. Brilliant leaders excel at making the simple, powerful truths concrete. Of course, caring about kids is not a secret, and Chris would be the first to admit that he stands on the shoulders of giants as he guides this school.

And the kids, of course, the kids were fabulous. Smart, friendly, look-you-in-the-eye teens who got up early on a weekend morning to make this event work. And not just help, but participate. SLA studentThese teens waded into discussions and spoke their minds. They facilitated discussions of diverse educational issues, sharing their opinions and experiences with people they’d never met before. It’s obvious these young adults are being listened to and know they can share their voice.

But when I get discouraged about the future of this thing we call school, and whether it can make systemic changes needed to survive and serve our society well, I’m going to have a new vision to call on. And it will be these SLA teachers who painted this picture for me more clearly than ever.

In one session in particular, four SLA teachers presented their experience of their first year. Learning to Teach: First Year Teaching in a Progressive School – SLA teachersJillian Gierke, Melissa Yarborough, Matt Kay, and Kenneth Rochester. They discussed what they learned, what they tried, what worked and what didn’t. It was a fabulous session. There is a video and handouts online, but there would be no way to capture the energy of the room as we moved to various centers, each run by one teacher who shared their classroom experiences with us. We tried our hand at designing a lesson using the Understanding by Design method, and found that 1) it was hard fun and 2) different groups came up with some really interesting yet completely different approaches.

SLA sessionOne teacher shared the lesson he learned over the year – “less is more,” he quietly said. And you could see the conviction in his eyes that this wasn’t the third bullet on a list of rules he’d been handed. He’d lived it and learned it. Another teacher shared how her ongoing discussions with other faculty shaped her classroom style, and how she planned to continue this as new faculty joined the SLA.

But finally, one teacher wrapped it up for me, “I’m the luckiest teacher in Philadelphia,” she said with a smile. She looked around at the chaos of voices, papers, computers, backpacks and jackets littering the room and continued, “I can’t small group discussionimagine being anywhere else.” The ethic of care at this school obviously includes the teachers, and that makes all the difference.

The truth is, great leaders have to do more than lead, they have to transfer their leadership abilities to everyone in their sphere of influence. And everyone has to accept that gift. Kids can, and will do it easily, given encouragement and consistent support. Adults are harder. Their habits are set, their expectations are lower, and their life lessons ring in their ears, drowning out the voice of hope. But it is possible.

Sometimes, when I visit a great school, I wish I was a student there. At SLA, I wished I was a teacher.

 

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Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn

Teens in Boston have the opportunity to join Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn.

This program teaches teens (14-19) how to teach others in their community about technology. Run out of the South End Technology Center @ Tent City and started by Mel King, the program has a mission to enable people to become producers of knowledge and sharers of ideas and information. They provide free or low-cost access and training in most aspects of computer-related technology.

Teens can learn how to work with others, learn to teach, and improve their community. More details and the application are on the website.

Sylvia

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Teenagers lead lessons in technology

Student teaching technology lessonKen Schaffer recently bought a professional-quality camera. The Ellicott City business owner and amateur photographer wanted to learn the computer program Photoshop so he could play around with his pictures. That is why he spent a recent Thursday at Marriotts Ridge High School – where his daughter is a ninth-grader – doctoring a photo of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Schaffer followed along as two Marriotts Ridge students, juniors Patrick Talcott and Thomas Conchie, guided him through drawing a dotted line around Gates’ head, then dragging the head off Gates’ body. Five other students practiced with Photoshop techniques. One was working on a buck-toothed Bill Gates. Another gave Gates a mustache and goatee.

They were at the high school for Technology Thursdays. These after-school classes feature high school students teaching courses in Photoshop, game design, Web design and popular programs like MS Office. The classes are free and open to Marriotts Ridge students and community residents like Schaffer.

This article from the Baltimore Sun – Teenagers lead lessons in technology: Students become the teachers at after-school program profiles Marriotts Ridge High School in Marriottsville, MD. Run by teacher Reg Hahne, students at the high school plan lessons and then teach technology to students and community members.

“It’s a neat opportunity to have our students, our staff and the greater community working together,” said Pat Saunderson, Marriotts Ridge principal. “Some afternoons, I’ll walk down the halls and see our students giving workshops for middle-schoolers through senior citizens. It’s just impressive that our students are able to take on that leadership role.”

Why is this idea so rare? Students have so much to offer, and schools and communities have so much to gain if we just let students take on authentic tasks and projects. One teacher with a vision of students as competent, responsible contributors has changed a whole community for the better. Students can’t learn to be leaders, teachers, and citizens in a vacuum. We must seize every opportunity to break down the walls that segregate students from the real world, both through virtual networks and local collaborations. Teaching students these skills benefits everyone.

Technology just happens to be in that magic sweet spot of youth interest and ownership, perfectly matched with the needs of schools and communities to integrate technology use. It’s time to stop thinking that the only way technology will make its way into school is for teachers to learn it first, then hope it trickles into the classroom. We must look at other options, other combinations, and experiment with every available avenue.

Congratulations to the students, teachers, and administrators in Marriottsville, MD for getting the recognition you deserve!

Sylvia

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Oh, there’s so much gone wrong in this story

Patrick Welsh has taught English at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia for more than 30 years. Last week, he wrote an editorial for the Washington Post called A School That’s Too High on Gizmos. Patrick relates his view of T.C. Williams as a school run by an administration consumed with…

“…technolust- a disorder affecting publicity-obsessed school administrators nationwide that manifests itself in an insatiable need to acquire the latest, fastest, most exotic computer gadgets, whether teachers and students need them or want them. Technolust is in its advanced stages at T.C., where our administrators have made such a fetish of technology that some of my colleagues are referring to us as “Gizmo High.”

As Patrick provides examples of technology gone wild, the story comes to life. Valiant teachers resisting miseducative practices, hints of collusion with hardware and software vendors, administrators seeking glory and headlines, teachers marginalized and ridiculed for not falling in line. Something is definitely wrong here. This sounds like a war between administration and teachers, with technology used as a weapon.

But read on. That’s not all that’s wrong with this picture…

Of course, the big question isn’t whether teachers like spending their time learning one new gizmo after another, but whether a parade of new technologies will help kids learn. From what I can see, that’s not the case. Says one math teacher: “Math grows out of the end of a pencil. You don’t want the quick answer; you want students to be able to develop the answer, to discover the why of it. The administration seems to think that computers will make math easy, but it has to be a painful, step-by-step process.”

Math grows out of the end of a pencil? It has to be painful? Did a math teacher actually say that? Have they noticed it’s not the 19th century anymore? Maybe there’s something else going on here.

I see the same thing in my classes, especially when it comes to writing essays. Many students send their papers in over the Internet, and while the margins are correct and the fonts attractive, the writing is worse than ever. It’s as if the rule is: Write one draft, run spell check, hit “send” and pray.

OK, now the point comes clear. For these teachers, the computers are not just a symptom, they are the problem. But the computer isn’t making students worse writers or setting these “rules”. Do the teachers have any responsibility for standards, for requiring excellent writing. Are the computers to blame for this too?

It seems that technology is a convenient scapegoat for problems faced by this school. Technology doesn’t solve problems, but it doesn’t cause them either. Yes, technology is supposed to make teaching more effective. The students should be using them for authentic activities, not for online worksheets. It should have been a collaborative effort with teachers to decide what to purchase and how to use it. The professional development should have been more than edu-jargon. Yes, yes, yes–many wrongs here.

But that’s not all that’s wrong. To wrap up his editorial, Patrick finds an example of how technology “should” be used.

North Point High School for Science, Technology and Industry in Waldorf went with ceiling-mounted LCD projectors but nixed the idea of laptops for all students. “Our philosophy is to have whatever technology our teachers want to do their jobs better available to them,” Principal Kim Hill told me. “Technology is just a tool, not an end in itself. It will never replace good teaching.”

Of course, LCD projectors are the more comfortable way, the way that ensures that teaching or learning doesn’t change, but gives the illusion of progress. Notice the false choice set up here. “Technology…will never replace good teaching.” Who is claiming that technology replaces good teaching? By the way, did you notice this is the North Point High School for Science, Technology and Industry!

It’s hard to know the truth of a situation based on one article from one point of view. It certainly sounds bad, and possibly is such a poisoned environment that it will take years to undo the damage. But from my point of view, blaming technology, even extreme “technolust” for the problems described here is only half the story. The other half of the story is how many ways school reform efforts can go wrong, and how fragile and rare it is when it goes right.

So much money, so much potential, so much waste, so much time lost, so much gone wrong.

Sylvia