More on what Matters…

J.D. Wilson commented on yesterday’s blog post, Should it Matter? and he got me thinking about several things. Here is the first paragraph of his comment.

What concerns me as a high school teacher is getting the content into the class. I think the tools the new technology offers are impressive and do enable me to expand the boundaries of my class room. But I have difficulty with those that think the technology by itself is going to make a subject interesting. It is like trying to get someone who does not like baseball to like baseball by changing the rules of baseball to make the game look more like football…

Ditto! Technology, by itself, will not help, and I think that his comparison with sports rules is very effective.

I often ask teachers who are seeing new excitement and increased learning gains, when they start using something like blogging, “What do you think is the reason that your students are doing so much better?” ..and I often (almost always) hear, “It’s because ‘It’s Technology.'”

Now I have not been in these classrooms and haven’t seen the students working, but I can’t help but feel that this is not the true reason.  First of all, it isn’t technology to our students. There’s nothing special about blogging or working with simulations to them.  Participating in large, ongoing, and nearly always available conversations, and playing with simulations is a part of their childhood.  It’s part of their culture.

We are just now starting to pay attention and to understand some of what our students are doing, but it still looks like technology to us.  We see the machines, because we’re looking in from the outside.  To them, it’s the information.

I think that it has a lot more to do with what they are doing with the technology — and more than that, it’s what they are doing with the information.

It is what it is and must be appreciated on its own terms. Students who dislike Chaucer (I am an English teacher) are not going to like Chaucer just because he is being studied using social networking tools. I struggle with maintaining the rigor while trying to make the material as interesting as I can.

I agree that Chaucer is not going to come to life just because students are using social networking tools.  However, he may come to life, become relevant to their world view, and even become enjoyable because of the conversations that are having in the social networking tools. 

For instance, you might ask them to share comebacks from the fellow travelers Chaucer wrote about (sometimes insultingly).  What might that lazy cook have said back to Chaucer, if he’d been able to read and write.  Show students the Where the Hell is Matt (2008) video and ask them how what Matthew Harding did is like what Chaucer was doing.  How might Matthew Express his travels without a video camera and with the Internet?  Find other traveling bloggers and find comparison, or ask students to find comparisons.

I can’t really give a good example, because I’ve never taught Chaucer.  But if reading his work was not useful or interesting to someone, we wouldn’t be teaching it.  I’m convinced that if we can include our students voices in the conversations, causing them to invest themselves in the study, then Chaucer becomes something else.

I agree that a teacher cannot do any more than the community in which she or he teaches will accept and most communities seem to be more interested in talking about reform than in doing the very hard work that reform requires. I think as a culture we have bought into the idea that there are simple solutions to every problem and that is rarely true.

This is so true.  It’s not that generating the big ideas is easy.  It isn’t.  It requires that we get out of our boxes and look back in with different lenses.  But we’ve become very good at saying things like, “Learning is conversation,” and “Students will learn better through networks of other learners.”  The question now is, “What does that look like?”  “What exactly are you seeing when when this is happening?”

Right now I’m sifting through the comments posted during a session I did at Educon, where I asked participants to share examples of information-rich learning activities, and many of the answers were brilliant.  But very few of them truly painted a picture of what students and teachers are actually doing.

We need to start doing a much better job of visualizing and describing what learning 2.0 actually looks like.

It is my experience that modern education is becoming more about documenting what we do than about doing anything. I think the definition of a public school teacher is becoming someone who documents in great detail what they would do if they had time to teach.

This is brilliantly said, J.D..  It reminds me of something that Yong Zhao said when I saw him speak a few weeks ago.  He said something like, “We seem much more interested in doing ‘it’ right, than doing the right thing.”

However, I do not think that simply getting rid of the documenting — the testing — is going to be enough.  We need to have something to replace it with, something that is complex, but can be described simply and compellingly.

Thanks!

Now I have to rush to the gate.  I’m in the Pittsburgh airport, and it’s a lively place!

17 thoughts on “More on what Matters…”

  1. Great post. I believe much of the resistance to reform rests with fear. It takes a pair to actually boldly step out from the pack and choose to be different. Administrators can help by creating a school climate that allows risk taking in terms of pedagogy and tech rich support.

  2. I enjoyed reading your post. I agree that when we discuss learning 2.0 we talk a lot about what we would do if we had the time. Teachers always feel pressed for time. Although, many would like to implement things such as blogs into their classroom time always becomes an issue. Also, I believe there is a huge gap in what people know about technology. If a school district is serious about implementing technology then they need to be sure training is given to all.

  3. I find your comments interesting… I recently enhanced my classroom by incorporating more technology-based tasks. The students did perk up a bit, but I too think it is more because we are adapting or bringing learning to their world. Internet, blogging, ipods, etc. are their world and most current education practices haven’t shifted that direction yet. I’m taking a class on using blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. and the ideas are flowing, but when I discuss it with my colleagues, I can sense their fear or reluctance to make the leap with me. “We must be the change we want to see.”

  4. Great post!

    I have to agree with a couple of things that are discussed here. First of all, the mere presence of technology does not increase performance. I read an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html), although somewhat old, and the first impression I got was that the schools felt that by having all this technology they would have higher test scores. It is not about having it – it is about how you use it. This ties me into the observation that Nicole mentioned – there needs to be training as well. Administrators cannot just throw 30 laptops at a teacher and expect increased scores on state tests. I somewhat cringe when I hear phrases like “I use technology in my classroom – I have the kids make powerpoints.” or “We use technology every day. The students use Word to make journal entries.” Indeed, the training needs to be there. I am often disheartened when I hear teachers say that they only have a tech guy that comes every other Friday or that the Keyboarding teacher does the tech stuff during their prep time. Not that the keyboarding teacher isn’t capable but a prep time each day isn’t exactly what the staff needs.

    So I think that technology does facilitate the excitement but there still needs to be proper usage, guidance, follow-up, connections, purpose, relevance, and a host of other things for the integration to be successful. It just doesn’t magically happen overnight.

    So much more to say on this…

    1. I agree that the heart of the problem is time and training (which also involves time). Over the last two years at my school, and that is what I know best, professional development time has been devoted to designing rubrics for what we already do and demonstrating how what we already do meets state mandated standards. Some time has been devoted to developing lessons and tests that will help students prepare for the state tests they must pass to graduate. There is nothing wrong with standards and rubrics, I think they can be valuable things used properly, but the focus is almost entirely on the past.

      How teachers spend their time is mandated by the administration, they set the priorities. Right now if a teacher wants to try to learn and incorporate technology in the classroom (not word and excel and powerpoint but the kind of technology that Mr. Warlick identifies as being part of our students daily lives) they must teach themselves on their own time. I was fortunate enough to participate in our school’s attempt to become part of Virtual High School (VHS) and learned much from that experience and was put in touch with others that could help me learn more about technology and stay up to date (sort of) with how it has changed. But neither of the two other teachers that went through this with me are doing anything with this because of time constraints. After a couple of years when the state funding dried up the school stopped participating.

      Administrators respond to the mandates that come from the federal and the state governments and to the pressure they feel from the community. And, at least where I teach, there is no one putting pressure on administrators to incorporate these technology tools in the curriculum and there is a lot of pressure to not use them at all. Training requires a commitment of time and resources. Implementation requires a commitment of time and resources. Both of these are in short supply and in the current economy the supply will probably get shorter. I use wikis, podcasts, Moodle, web pages, blogs, flikr, and VoiceThread in my class room (maybe a few others). But for all I know I am like the teachers Mr. Stager speaks of because there is not a lot of feedback one gets and most of what I do is self directed because there is so little training and support. The time I spend on these things is mostly my own time because it is not a priority right now with administration.

      Well this is devolving into more of a rant and a venting session, but, in my view, the issue is time and not even an act of congress can put more hours in the day. I do not see much changing until the priorities of those running the schools change.

      Cordially,
      J. D.

      1. Yes, I agree that time is a critical factor in all of this. Ironically though, while it takes some time to learn and develop these technologies for your specific course, I find that I actually have more time to teach when I employ them. There is more opportunity for conversations about the learning when I use the tools together. It is also great fun to see the engagement outside of the classroom as they use the tools for educational purposes.

        I would encourage all teachers to begin learning as much as they can because it can be a big help in the long run. We all have a lot on our plates but I am willing to push the potatoes over a bit in order to fit in a piece of apple pie even if it means getting a little gravy on it. 🙂

        1. I agree, the investment of time, once the stuff is learned is all up front, once the materials have been developed there is a time savings. I also find it ironic that most of the teachers I work with use these tools in their daily lives but do not know, nor have they been taught, how to use these tools in their classrooms.

          Cordially,
          J. D.

    2. I’m in the position of training the staff on certain technology programs and software and find your views very insightful. I agree that just having the technology does not make for great teachers or for better scores. However, the training must incorporate specific ideas for their classroom and not just ‘how-to’ use it. Coming from my viewpoint, time is an issue for us as well as how do we target all the different subjects, grade levels and different levels of technology expertise (digital natives vs. digital immigrants)? Then we have the dilemma of WHEN to train the teachers- planning time, after school? Some are very committed and will make the time while others still want to just ignore it and stick to their old ways of teaching. We can give screen shot after screen shot with step by step instructions and we still have teachers call and say ‘how do we do that’?

      Some ideas that we are trying in our school district is a TechDay as one of our Staff Development days. Where the staff gets to choose from an array of technology sessions (most taught by their peers). Another is a school TechForum where teachers can share and collaborate on the topic of technology. We have discussed things like cyber-bullying, cheating and sharing valuable websites found.
      I also hope to start doing podcasts with techtips on one particular function (ex: creating a link in a Notebook) to take baby steps rather than tons of information thrown to them all at once.

      I would love to hear other inventive ways to train the teachers from anyone out there.

      1. That sounds beaut idea Jean. 1 page for 1 task 1 period of time 1 day at a time.I perceive there’s a circuit that needs to connect. I’ve been at home recently with young child. Ive watched how my own interest in digital technology has been nurtured by the desire to understand and participate. And gradually as I’ve repeatedly read more and interacted my brain is making links.Teachers of all people are capable of connecting those neurons but not if fatigued. Also I find joy in the possibilities.

        How to impart that joy? Connecting with others of like mind! Could be any subject any network? Any medium but the sharing naturally leads to the next step-learning something new.

  5. I totally agree that technology is the reason, but it sure can increase interest. At least it does with the younger crowd. For the older students, I’m sure it is just like using paper and pencil, but I think the ability it mix text with video and/or sound helps liven up some lessons. I have to say though that I too feel that schools should include more training because it you are not sure how to create lessons using the technology you have it makes it scary and a lot more work. Anyone have suggestions on how to learn more (cost effectively) if schools do not provide the training? Any useful web sites or organizations? thanks.

  6. I very much agree with both David and J.D. Wilson’s comments about learning today. I was just having a conversation with one of my teachers today discussing accountability and I used the J.D.’s quote about documenting more than anything else. Now accountability has been around for a while but has it gotten worse with all of these new tools that many people don’t know how to implement? Is it harder for a principal to see that learning is going on in the room or for the teacher to prove that he/she is doing something better if the outsiders seeing it don’t really know what is going on in the room? Is it that there is just so much information now that we have to prove (through documentation) that we are teaching something (anything) and that takes even longer?

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