Category Archives: technology

From the News: Technology Leads a Literacy Revolution

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My colleagues and I often shake our heads over headlines touting the next technology that is going to lead the education revolution. It simply isn’t historically accurate. Technology doesn’t change education; instead, education changes technology, adapting it to current classroom practices.

But, in today’s google alert related to mobile technology, a headline caught my attention precisely because it goes against history. It seems that, in an effort to increase literacy among women, Afghanistan is harnessing mobile technology:

Afghanistan has launched a new literacy programme that enables Afghan women deprived of a basic education during decades of war to learn to read and write using a mobile phone.

In a country where women were forbidden from going to school and the literacy rate for women is about 13%, mobile technology may just foster a revolution in learning. Software developed by an Afghani company and distributed on free phones is making this revolution possible.

Maybe we have finally seen an example of technology sparking a revolution…

 

From the Twitterverse: How to Be Less Distracted

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I am sitting in the living room, laptop on lap with 10 tabs open in Chrome, American Masters program about Woody Guthrie on the television, husband streaming a local government meeting. One of the tabs is TweetDeck…it’s Tuesday and so the blog post is about something I find on Twitter. This article form Edudemic seemed perfect: How To Be Less Distracted by Technology.

It includes 25 suggestions for how to reduce distraction, many of which include technologies. Interestingly enough, TweetDeck is one suggestion as it helps make Twitter a more efficient time killer.

The two suggestions that I need to practice are setting a limit on email checking and not opening up more than 3 or 4 tabs. I always have email open in a tab and watch the count, immediately clicking on the tab when the number changes. As for the tabs, I’m not sure how I end up with all those tabs…quick searches, clicking on Twitter, email and Facebook links, doing Google searches. I’ll look up to find 15 tabs open, some of them repeats. The article links to this great graphic from the Googley Gooeys, featuring five signs that you’ve opened too many tabs. All five signs apply to me, especially the ones about forgetting what you were doing in the first place and closing the important tab.

The suggestion for email is to only check it twice a day…I’m honestly not sure I could do that. If I were going to try, I feel like I should announce it since my colleagues have gotten used to often getting immediate responses from me, using email almost like chat.

Meanwhile, I can recommend the Woody Guthrie episode of American Masters…

 

 

 

Name Change?

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Justin Reich’s title for his blog post caught my attention: If You Meet An iPad on the Way, Smash It. It is a play on a well-known Zen koan that advises you to kill the Buddha if you meet him on the road.

Reich’s post describes the EdTeach Teacher iPad Summit, which ended today. Despite its name, Reich insists that the iPad is not the focus on the conference:

The way we are seeking is one where we prepare young people for a life of civic commitment, of self-reflection, and of meaningful work and contributions to community. The way is about unlocking student talent, compassion, and humanity. If the iPad distracts us from defining the way, then we have to smash it.

Reich’s “way” is admirable and his idea that we can’t let technology get in the way is also admirable.  My simple question is this: if your goal is not related to iPads, then why is this called an iPad summit? Why not call it “unlocking student potential”? Or “developing 21st century citizenship”? Or “creating powerful learning environments”?

 

 

Writing Obama’s Technology Agenda (Hint…it includes STEM)

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From today’s educational technology Google alert: concerns for Obama’s technology agenda.

The 8 Missions that Should Dominate Obama’s Technology Agenda from Michael Copeland at Wired: Concerns from tech startup leaders including Kevin Hartz from Everbrite, Chad Dickerson from eBay and Matt Mullenweg from WordPress. They focus on everything from immigration reform to STEM education to privacy and business concerns. But the conclusion comes from Brian Helmig, co-founder Zapier:

I’m a bit of a cynic, but at least for me, politics tends to be a bit of a distraction. Of course, I understand that many of the issues are incredibly important, but my disinterest is purely practical and not ideological. When customers need support, code needs written, and servers need upgrading, the political process seems far removed from my daily reality. So, like most of us, I watched the spectacle with a detached curiosity and then got back to work.

Eric Lundquist at Information Week has 5 items that should top the technology agenda. His article considers how government can make better use of technology from defense to voting. He intersects with Copeland is a need for technology education:

We can’t afford to waste the opportunity to train the workforce to take advantage of the jobs being created as mobility, big data, cloud computing and digital manufacturing transforms the technology landscape.

Gregory Ferenstein at TechCrunch uses Obama’s own words to suggest what the agenda might be. Again, STEM education is mentioned as an important area for development and government support.

Just for reference, President Elect Obama had an extensive technology agenda in 2009. Here’s the current White House technology agenda.

Day 30! Well, actually Day 31 ;-)

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NB: I realized that it is Halloween and that is October 31st.  (Thirty days hath September and so forth.) I reached my goal YESTERDAY so today is the first blog post in the next 30 days but I’m not starting another challenge until tomorrow.)

I have reached the 30th 31st day of my challenge! I posted a substantive blog post every day for the past 30 31 days. Writing is part of my daily routine and I have put a plan in place to continue to incorporate writing, along with the reading and research that I do to prepare each entry.  I feel more connected to the larger educational world through the work I’ve done this past month. I am more thoughtful about spending Quadrant Two time and am finding the Google Alerts to be a helpful way to get news headlines.  It is interesting to see the trends across various publications. On Wednesdays, I’m going to highlight some of those headlines.

One of my alerts is ipads in education and I’ve been seeing lots of links to local news stories about their local school’s adoption of iPads. Today was no exception:

School board candidates share views
From the Powell Tribune, Powell, Wyoming
The first question asked the candidates to give their views on the use of technology in education, specifically the increased use of iPads. Candidates expressed mixed feelings about iPads, with some questioning their printing-compatibility with …

This one is worth a read.  The candidates are concerned about some very interesting things: the inability to print, a desire to throttle access to “outside interfaces” and the ability to save money on textbooks with a side of concern for students’ backs.  One member did look to the future for students:

“They’re probably pretty handy to have because as people grow up and go to college they’re going to have to have them with their businesses too,” he said.

Not much vision for how these devices might support student learning in the short term and really not any real enthusiasm for them.

Meanwhile, from Park City, UT:

One-to-one initiative to take off
From the Park Record
Following board approval earlier this month, the North Summit School District is moving forward to implement a new program which students in the high school will receive iPads. Using capital funds, the school district will invest $150,000 in providing …

The article gives a few examples of the uses of the iPads but I worry a bit about the focus on comparing them to textbooks:

From education applications to online textbooks, teachers have already been figuring out the best way to use the new technology. It could be a biology class using an app in which students can rotate a three-dimensional diagram of a heart. It could be easier to distribute in-class quizzes. Either way, getting iPads distributed to students will serve as a launching point to bring classrooms that added technological edge.

“These are basically textbooks,” Holmes said, “but each one is a textbook that has video or 3D imaging. When you open a textbook, you just see the picture. Pictures on the iPad come to life, and that’s the point. It is interactive.”

Certainly, interactivity is an important feature of digital devices but interactive textbook ties the device to traditional methods.

Finally, from the Charlton County Herald in Folkston, George:

iPads for everybody — FES gets new technology
From the Charlton County Herald
Every classroom at Folkston Elementary School will have its own iPad this year after 35-40 of the devices were purchased by the Charlton County school system using federal education dollars. “This is the first of our schools to be completely outfitted …

Am I reading this correctly?  One iPad per classroom? An interesting approach…the article doesn’t give much details related to professional development plan or integration ideas.

These all suffer from the same lack of vision. Vague reasons for making large expenditures. No conversations about student learning or instructional support. No discussion of school vision or mission statements and how buying iPads might fulfill them.

Five Tips for Keeping Up

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I worked with a team of great educators to present a session related to Digital Age Learning with a focus on ISTE NETS A, Standard 3 at the recent ISTE Leadership Forum:

Educational Administrators promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources.

My focus was on indicator d, which I think of as the “keeping up” indicator:

Stay abreast of educational research and emerging trends regarding effective use of technology and encourage evaluation of new technologies for their potential to improve student learning

I had 30 minutes to offer up ideas for how to meet this indicator so focused on five tips:

  1. Know Your Tools
  2. Make Time
  3. Read Critically
  4. Include Your Teachers
  5. Consider the Complete Context

Know Your Tools:

Since David had already covered Twitter as a tool for building professional learning networks, I focused on other tools including Google alerts, Google Reader and its accompanying bundles, Zite and Flipboard for mobile devices, and Diigo as a way to share web-based resources easily. One of my bundles includes the RSS feeds for the various publications and blogs followed by the Horizon K-12 report. And thanks to the attendee who showed me Diigo Quick Note.  I had an account but had not seen the potential power in the tool as I’ve been using Evernote.  I’ll be experimenting.

Make Time:

This was quick: I just showed Covey’s important/urgent framework and reminded us all that we need to make Quadrant Two time: preparation and learning that is important even if it doesn’t seem urgent. I think that writing this blog each day has been really valuable Quadrant Two time for me and I recommended some kind of daily practice to them as well.

Read Critically:

Links to two research studies to show the wide range of what passes for research these days. I reminded them of Michael Fullan’s idea that practice drives theory:

I have come to the conclusion that practice drives theory. That is, focusing on improving practice uncovers the best specific ideas. What you learn along the way can be tested in the light of broader research, but practice – not research – should be the driver.

 Include Your Teachers:

This comes from Larry Cuban’s blog in a post from the summer:

Were teachers to become part of the decision-making process in determining access and use of new technologies would they eventually integrate these new technologies into classroom lessons? Yes, far more than occurs now.
Why? Because teachers would have thought through and learned connections between curriculum knowledge and skills and software applications, how lessons could be taught that use and not use the new devices and software, and a pool of expertise would have emerged among teachers that could be shared.

What seems great on paper doesn’t always turn out that way and it is easy to blame teachers since they are the connection between the technology and the classroom.  But what if it really was the technology, chosen for all sorts of reasons except its instructional use, that was to blame? Or the system of support? Or the type of professional development? Respect teacher knowledge, says Cuban, and use it to inform decisions.  Don’t DO technology to teachers.

Consider the Complete Context:

I ended with the TPACK model as a way to be sure technology decisions consider how technology can intersect with pedagogy and content and emphasized the need to focus on pedagogical change that integrates technology since technology integration driving pedagogical change is notoriously unsuccessful.

Taking My Own Good Advice

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I feel like I have been hurtling through life for the past several months…traveling, working, teaching. I love it all and that I can do it from the road. But lately it has also meant that I seem to be online all the time. Yesterday morning, I checked in on email, made a phone call or two, and reviewed the to do list to make sure there weren’t any live frogs and then…I took a digital day off.

I have written before about the notion of digital fasts and my advice then we find the Middle Way. One of my suggestions was to choose a day of the week when you would be digitally unavailable. After all, one of the reasons that all emails seem important is because we are obsessively checking in on our phones, iPads and laptops.

Yesterday was that day for me and I may be extending it through today as well. I cleaned my house, worked in the henhouse, baked bread and made a mostly homegrown spaghetti sauce for dinner. I read, rested, crocheted and talked with our house guest who is helping out with a construction project here on the farm. It was mostly non-digital as I did play My Kingdom for The Princess; I’m trying to beat another one of those bonus levels for which there doesn’t seem to be a walk through. The best part of the day was, after sweeping the front porch, sitting on the swing and watching the sunset.

It was refreshing but a bit disconcerting, too, with an inner voice sometimes nagging me…just check your email, it will only take a minute. Maybe I am a bit too addicted to being connected and need to look a little harder for the Middle Way.

Breaking News: Yet Another Revolution

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I was showing my grad students how to use Google alerts today and used education technology as my example query.  This story was the first one that showed up in the News section. My first thought was really? Are we still thinking that any technology is going to spur an education revolution?

Here’s the money quote:

A lot has to happen in education before tablets can reach their potential. Most important, the people who run schools have to overcome their deep-seated fear of students in possession of connected devices. Yes, they can facilitate cheating and distractions, but teachers have always had to deal with cheating and distraction in classrooms and this is a terrible reason to deny students the advantages to students of everything from a library at their fingertips to instructional materials enabled by the tablet.

He is right that a lot has to happen in education but I don’t have a sense that deep-seated fear is the biggest issue. After 3 days at ISTE’s Leadership Forum, the biggest issue I hear is concern with how to really make a powerful use of these tools, way beyond textbooks or apps. I use my iPad in so many ways beyond creating and reading ebooks, his two major examples of the education revolution wrought by iPads.

Then, I reread the article and it occurred to me that a non-education writer’s definition of revolution is probably just different than mine: it doesn’t have to do with pedagogy and a shift from traditional practices, it has to do with technical ubiquity:

There are many reasons why technology has been an educational disappointment for three decades. Probably the most significant is that the computer has never become students’ constant companion but remains instead an occasional tool.

That’s all the further he goes. If you aren’t going to change the way teaching and learning take place, then other than helping lighten the backpack, computers are only needed occasionally.

Schools, particularly K-12 education, is a sector that has lagged badly in the adoption and use of computer technology. The explosion of tablets may finally be about to change that.

So, tablets may change students’ access to digital technologies…if that’s your revolution, we are well on our way if the other headlines in my Google alerts are to be believed.  School after school are adopting mobile technologies, mostly iPads.  But it is still to be seen if a real revolution takes place.

 

Can Technology Support a Rural Revival?

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The Winter ViewMy husband and I often joke with people that the town where we had lived for 18 years had outgrown us.  For people in urban areas, it sounds a bit silly since Williamsburg, Virginia, is still very small. But the change was real to us: our country road was now home to two large developments that made it difficult and dangerous to walk the dogs. Getting across town after 4 PM meant dealing with a rush hour. There wasn’t ever a time when you didn’t have to stand in a long line at the post office or the grocery store.

So, when we found a small farm across the river, we jumped at the chance to move to the country. We had our own land where we could walk the dogs, keep chickens legally, and really see the stars at night. Since I mostly work from home, it didn’t really matter where I lived as long as I had Internet access. At the beginning, that access was cellular but it worked OK even though the cost was somewhat surprising. Now, we have DSL, and I am hopeful that rural broadband will bring even better access in the near future.

Certainly, we aren’t the only crazy people in the world who like living outside the typical urban/suburban environment? But rural population is at an all time low in the United States.

As telecommuting becomes more entrenched in our society, people will have more flexibility with their choices of home. Bringing more people to rural counties would help bolster the tax base to support schools and bring economic support for local businesses. Perhaps rural areas need to start an advertising campaign to encourage people to move. Let them know that you don’t have to live off the grid on the edge of the Maine woods to have a rural experience. In fact, we live on the edge of a little town so there’s a pizza shop and public library within biking distance.

What would it take to get you to the country?

Friday Favorites

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One of my online students wondered what a NETS school would look like.  I immediately thought of two of my favorite case studies from Edutopia.

The first profiles Newsome Park Elementary School, a science magnet school in Newport News, Virginia.

The second describes Eva LaMar’s 3rd graders who are engaging with local history in powerful ways.

Both these videos are old and so you’ll see bulky digital cameras and Alphasmart keyboards. But, it isn’t the technology that makes the difference here. It’s what the students and teachers are doing with that technology to support their learning. The pedagogical ideas are important.