I had dinner last night with Ann Flynn, Director of Education Technology at the National School Boards Association, and her staff, Colleen O’Brien and Jason Assir. Joining us was Ken Kay, President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Ken and I will be keynoting the TLN Executive Briefing today.
Later in the afternoon, we’ll be hearing from a group of middle school children about the things that they care about and the kind of education the wish they were receiving. I hope that I can podcast that exchange. There will also be a culminating discussion of the board members and superintendents who are in attendance, and Apple will be podcasting that exchange.
The registration for this event is low, and there are probably several contributing factors. It would be unfair to say that there is a lack of interest in technology, among school board members. But generally speaking, the discussions last night were not all together optimistic about the prospects for modernizing classrooms in the near future. Added to this, I learned this morning that the 1:1 initiative in Illinois is no longer on a firm foundation because of a lack of funding and politics. I hope that it pulls through.
Since I’m sitting here in Chicago (gangsterland), looking onto the Chicago river from my hotel room, I can’t help but imagine a school student, sitting in her seat, and blandly listening to a lecture being recited monotonously by her teacher, who looks remarkably like George Bush — and the student’s feet are resting in a bucket. Small men and women are silently pouring wet cement into the bucket, snickering at each other, and whispering to the child, “It isn’t personal, honey. It’s business!” I can’t quite get to the point where they lower the child into the river, because I think there is still time. But not much!
Gangsterland? See if you get any more steaks!
OK Dave loved the visual of cement, but just to remind the world all of us in the Chicago area are not gangsters! Some of us work day in and day out trying to change school systems stuck as leadership teams in the cement that was poured years ago.
From my perspective as a school board member I agree with you there is very little discussion about educational technology during most board meetings. I think my colleagues gathered for NSBA from across the country would agree. In large part this is because we are so tied up with managing teaching and learning on shrinking state, and local, federal dollars.
Also from my perspective as an educational technology nut or whatever you would like to call me, I am frustrated with so many school board members that want to do school the way they did school. As we all lament these kids are different and decisions are made at the top that keep things the same.
It is rare to find that board with a true clear vision for systemic change. As I head to the conference tomorrow I will be seeking out those board members that plan to dramatically change the future and I will be back to share the insight and wisdom.
Meg Ormiston
One thing I see happening in our school district is that we have a large number of teachers with 30 plus years of teaching. They want to continue teaching the way they always have. As these teachers are retiring (way too slowly) and we replace them with brand new teachers out of college my hope is they will use the technology that is already available to them. My hope is these new teachers have been reading blogs and listening to podcasts and they will integrate them into use in the classroom. Do we need more technology? Yes.
Are we using what we already have to it’s potential and capacity? No.
David, I appreciated your presentation this morning, keep teaching educators the potential of the web as a learning and production tool. Thanks!
Pat Hatcher