I’ve been working on this one for a few days. So it’s a long article.
Several weeks ago, I published two podcasts that featured the amazing work of elementary school teacher, Bob Sprankle, in Wells, Maine. Bob hasn’t had a vacation yet. Since school dismissed, Mr. Sprankle has begun two new podcast programs: The Bobby Bucket Show, for children, and Bit by Bit, a more professional commentary on technology and education. I must admit that I could only take about three minutes of Bobby Bucket. Well, 30 seconds to be honest. (Sorry, Bob. If I were six years old, I’d love it.) But Bit by Bit is much more to my liking, and he’s already posted five shows. The topics mostly orbit around technology in the classroom, and more specifically, podcasting, about which, Bob has much to share with us.
But for his latest episode, Sprankle attended the keynote address for the ending finale of Maine’s SEED (Spreading Educator to Educator Developments) project, at outstanding program and ending conference, for which I had been asked about keynoting. Alas, they informed me that they would not need me after all, and I’m not too unhappy, because they got Angus King. I can’t feel bad when they choose the former Governor of the state, and the master mind behind Maine’s 1:1 initiative.
And, yes, Bob Sprankle recorded the address, and got permission to podcast it. It is an amazing speech, that I highly recommend your listening to. It’s the Bit by Bit, Show 05, July 13, 2005.
Governor King talked a great deal about flatism and urged his audience to read Thomas Friedman’s book before the beginning of the school year. He made a compelling and humorous case, and explained that the legislature of Maine is extraordinarily accessible (“Five letters is an avalanche.”).
But he said one thing that I would like to take exception with, as a way of clarifying something that I talked about in my last podcast. At one point, in talking about an X-factor, Governor Kind said, “the kids (must become) totally comfortable with the technology itself. It’s how the solve problems. It’s the first thing they think of to solve a problem to, work together, to collaborate, to gather data, to present data…”
I am very glad that he said this, and he said it very well. ..and I’m especially impressed that King tied the use of technology in with teaching students to be innovative. But the idea that I want to explore and talk about, and have been talking about for a few years, is what goes between the technology and the curriculum.
Computers are hard. They have sharp edges. The Internet is mysterious. It’s difficult for many of us to wrap our minds around technology. We know curriculum. Many of us have taught it for many years, and the rest of learned it for half of our lives. The place where they come together is not obvious, and it’s slippery. Some ed techers say we need to blog. Other say, collect and analyze data. Others say that instructional management systems are the way to integrate. Where and how does it fit together?
I have often said that we should stop integrating technology and instead, integrate literacy. If you hear this in my keynote address, then you may get the picture of what I’m trying to say. If not, and technology scares you, then you’ve got a big smile on your face because you can forget the computers and get back to reading instruction, something you are comfortable with.
Let me try to clarify here. We have technology, coming up against currculum, and the scraping is irritating not only to us, but to those who pay for it. We need a gasket in there. We need something that smoothes the friction and eases the connections. That gasket is information.
For educators, information means a lot of things. What I’m talking about is its shape. There’s all kinds of information around us. We live in an information environment. But more than anything else, the shape of that information has changed — dramatically.
There are three ways that the shape of information has changed. It is:
- Networked,
- Digital, and
- Overwhelming.
Each of these changes has had a dramatic impact on how we access, use, and communicate information.
- When information is networked, then its direction becomes an issue. During most of my life, information traveled in one direction, from points of assumed authority to the consumer. Now it travels in all directions, from millions of sources — from points where we cannot assume authority.
- Digital information doesn’t sit still. It glows, grows, shrinks, travels at the speed of light, and in its abundance, information is simultaneously diverse, and at its roots, very much the same. Digital information is also gloriously malleable. With the skills and tools, we can shape information into almost anything we want — or need.
- Information is also overwhelming, where managing that information is not a biggest problem. It is having your message compete for attention amongst a growing glut of other messages.
This new information environment is much better. There’s more of it, there’s more that we can do with it, and we can have access to most of it while enjoying a coffee at Panera Bread.
Rather than trying to master technology skills, I believe that teachers should be working to understand this new information environment and the new literacies that it requires. As they seek to understand and harness it, they should teach from that information environment and its literacies. Integrating that literacy will get us further toward making classrooms more relevant to today’s students, than efforts to integrate technology.
This requires an enormous investment. It requires:
- Visionary leadership,
- Access to the information environment (appropriate and reliable technology), and
- Time to reflect and retool.
Exactly 2¢ Worth!
2663
Great thoughts here Dave. My 2 bobs worth (Aussie thing)… I have been thinking through many of these issues and have heard so many different arguments… I would say that the curriculum and technology seem to be these two things that sunddenly need to be squeezed in together. However, I believe we have missed the point. Curriculum is always going to be central, and we don’t need to continue stressing about how much technology is being integrated into each key curriculum area. I think it becomes much more benificial if our schools begin integrating the learner into the curriculum. Why are we so often stuck with curriculum that is not relavent to our students? As we start to develop curriculum with the learner in mind we will begin to integrate effective uses of technology and cover many of the issues you addressed.
Just my 2 bobs worth!! 🙂 Thoughts?!?!?!
Lots of thoughts going round from this posting. One is that it seems that words are important and what words we choose for “technology” are important. Is “technology” in schools falling into the unfortunate connotations of “liberal” or “feminist”, e.g., “I’m not a feminist, but …” (cringe.) I am posting from the Lausanne Collegiate Institute where Gail Braddock has given a terrific presentation on blogging and recommends classblogmeister.com – and yesterday several of us were talking previously about the “technology” word and what to replace it with when what we are really aiming for is literacy, or perhaps fluency, and not separation of technology from curriculum but transparency of technology. Because schools as institutions, not all, some, but perhaps the majority, don’t really understand how technology can enhance learning.
So what’s the new word or phrase? If it’s literacy or fluency, does that leave out creating a technology-infused physics project? Does that leave out using iMovie to tell the stories of Holocaust survivors (as Howard Levin has done so well with The Urban School in San Francisco.)
— Pamela
Yes, yes, yes!! The issue is literacy. One more example: I just watched a movie called Toxic Sludge is Good for You based on a book by the same title. The movie points out that with shrinkiing budgets local TV stations are turning to “free” footage and prepackaged special interest pieces because they don’t have the staff, time or money to create their own features. What happens is that they use prepared pieces sent to them by public relations offices of the drug, oil and other industries which are really infomercials. These infomercials show “experts” talking about whatever they are trying to advertize. People see them and think that they are factual news! They are being reported by the local heros from the news channel. The same people who go to their kid’s ball games, etc…. They wouldn’t try to fool anyone.
One commentator in the movie I saw suggested that people go to a search engine and type in the name of the “expert” in order to decide about what they are saying. They also pointed out that if there is footage from another country or location that would be tough for a local channel to make themselves it is probably prepackaged reporting.
This is a literacy issue that is SO important because of the changes in all types of technology in our world!
Janice
Pamela,
I’ve often used a term that I borrowed from Janice Friesen (above), “contemporary literacy”. It distinguishes from the notions of literacy (just the three Rs), but also focuses on the point that we are still talking about the BASICS.
I suspect that the questions we should be asking, to determine if a lesson is integrating contemporary literacy are:
Another 2¢ worth.
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