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I am not sure why I always wake up early when I’m presenting at a conference or for a school. Today, it’s the James River School in Lynchburg. I’ll be talking about literacy and professional literacy as a way of refining our lifelong learning skills. But that’s not the reason I woke, other than thinking that Phrase Net would be a fantastic addition to my basic literacy presentation.
Nope, this morning it was the Living and Learning with New Media report that was published back in November, and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation — which I reviewed yesterday for a presentation later on tonight for parents and school community.
One of the stated implications of the report was that the peer-based and interest-driven learning that our students do through their new media (not new to them) is highly personal. The report said that this was partly due to the diversity of media tools and their constant evolutions and refinements. I think that it is also the nature of the learning that it is largely self-directed, personal in its intended outcomes, and it doesn’t look like learning as they usually think of it.
The report states that this diversity makes it,
..problematic to develop a standardized set of benchmarks against which to measure young people’s technical and new media literacy.
Personally, I do not see this as a problem, which shouldn’t surprise many of my readers. But I have to confess some surprise at how much momentum has built up around standardized testing and the whole standards movement. They have become a defining element of the American education industry, and this disappoints me, disturbs me, and this is problematic.
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In so much that I hear today in conversations about new information and communication technologies in our school, it seems to be about improving the business of education, rather than making our children better prepared for their future. Our business is about improving data. To quote an article forwarded to me by a Facebook friend (Tina Steele), in one of those Celestine moments,
..we now talk about “performance indicators” as a substitute for assessing the quality of teaching. Learning has to be measured by an “audit” of the qualifications achieved rather than a more qualitative judgement of what students have learned. (( Baker, Mike. ” Lesson one: no Orwellian language.” BBC News 16 Feb 2008 Web.20 Apr 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7247160.stm>. ))
I’ve used this analogy before, though not in a long time. I think that we have come (or been made) to think of ourselves as teacher-technicians. The job involves our managing our classrooms with white lab jackets on, ticking off indicators and benchmarks, molding our students learning to government-mapped blueprints.
We’re trying to restructure education to improve the job, when teaching is not a job in the traditional sense. Teaching is a mission to make the world a better place, by making our students the best people they can be. Rather than teacher-technicians, we should be teacher-philosophers.
Caught your comment on Twitter. Went looking for Orwell and education but found nothing really. Finally came and saw your blog. Any chance of you sending links to what your reading when in Twitter. Just a thought. Keep up your interesting thoughts.
Barely related to your post, but thanks for the Phrase Net link– looks like a much more interesting step up to analyzing text then making pretty wurdles!
Teaching is a mission to make the world a better place, by making our students the best people they can be. Rather than teacher-technicians, we should be teacher-philosophers.
This really made me think…Currently I am in my 13th year of teaching (this being one of my most difficult years) I think I have truly come to the realization that the reason I LOVE teaching so much is that I am one person who can really “be the change I wish to see in the world”. I can do this because I teach! I teach because I have passion for teaching my students to be responsible, empathetic, respectful citizens. Hopefully they will take the lessons that I teach them and become the great citizens of tomorrow.
David, Doctors in our country practice the medical arts. That is because each patient comes in with their own set of individual needs. A good doctor has to assess all of the factors related to the patients’ state of health and then prescribe a therapy that works for that individual patient. All of the good teachers I know practice the teaching arts. They know that each child in their classroom walks in with individual needs. These teacher-artists have been bombarded with new systems, products and pressures to make their individual children into a data set. Instead of telling these exemplary teachers what they are doing wrong we should be learning from them how to be better practitioners of the teaching arts.
How do we get more teachers to be artists rather than teacher-technicians? Data analysis shouldn’t be what’s to blame for this…good educators shine in spite of it. I don’t see many new teachers fresh out of college with mindsets such as these either. How can we get more people to “think different?” Many from the “net generation” aren’t leading the way to implement new media into the curriculum. Good teachers are…people that can teach the heck out of kids with just a good discussion as their guide are the ones most effectively using technology for learning.
How do we get the others over? Lots of PowerPointlessness still out there that is accepted as “technology integration.”
Interesting that you should mention “Powerpointlessness.” Yesterday, I was talking with teachers in Lynchburg about how so many times, when students are working with Powerpoint (or other presentation software), it is part of a Powerpoint activity, rather than a communication activity.
My sister-in-law, who is grad school for public policy, commented to me the other day that her tenured professor shows PowerPoint presentations, then reads them verbatim to the students. Its too bad that even at the highest levels of education technology is misused.
We used to talk a lot more about interest-driven learning, especially in alternative schools, but you’re right, the focus has shifted to performance data culled from standardized tests. So-called “reform” legislation, at least in Washington State, is all about making teachers jump through more hoops in lock step. Lab coats may not be too far off.
David, when you open a school….please call me! I’m ready!
Gifted Educator-philosopher……how long has it been since we all revised our own philosophy of education and helping our students develop their own paradigms instead of gathering and disaggregating data.
“We’re trying to restructure education to improve the job, when teaching is not a job in the traditional sense. Teaching is a mission to make the world a better place, by making our students the best people they can be. Rather than teacher-technicians, we should be teacher-philosophers.” YES! Students are not widgets. Students are the future problem recognizers and solvers of the world — and they are waiting for us to get it.