A Great Act of Hope

In prepping a discussion of first year teachers on Ignatian education, I am reading Kevin O’Brien, S. J.’s article “The Classroom as Holy Ground” (America, May 26, 2003 if you are so inclined to read).  In the article he writes:

“…the classroom – the vineyard to which we teachers are called.  There we build and plant, trusting that the harvest will be bountiful one day, even if we are not around to see it. 

Teaching is a great act of hope.”

I’ll admit that before the holiday break, I was feeling a little hopeless about education.  Everywhere I turned, education was villianized and marginalized.  Current educational analysis would have the casual reader questioning Fr. O’Brien’s observations.  Build and plant … trusting a bountiful return some day in the distant future?  Not when test scores are paramount, schools must compete to appease a consumer market of education and outside “experts” legislate from afar.  The seeds these days are low level recall data germinating in multiple test scores aggregated immediately into graphs and charts used to compare and judge.  Any potential for a bountiful harvest (see JD Ferries-Rowe’s post) is terminated by the next test, the next piece of legislation and the next 21^st century learning tool.

And then comes along Fr. O’Brien to remind me of the hope.  The hope I see in young faces every morning.  They are not caught up in the arguments of adults over how, when and in what format learning should take place… they are too busy germinating all the seeds sown in their environment.  I see my role in education to engage the conversations.  To cultivate ideas and cherish those which challenge mine. To unleash potential in all the many varied ways available today.  To understand that not everyone learns the same way or the same speed.  To be flexible in how learning is shared and articulated.  In short, to trust: myself, the educators I work with and our students.

I may not see the harvest… but today I am full of hope that it will be amazing!

Time to Play

As we reach the end of the semester… I hope all educators take a little time to play around with new tools.  And I mean PLAY… no agenda, no administration making you, no goal in mind.  Some of the best tools I’ve encountered were because I took the time to just play around to see what happens.  For example, this morning I was drinking coffee looking over my Twitter feed and saw this post

I had a moment… so I downloaded the app and tried it out.  No reason beyond it was free, I had 5 minutes and the iPad was charged.  And you know what – it’s a nice app.  I could see it being useful to some.  Maybe a little low power for high end screencasters… but for the new iPad user (perhaps one who has recently been given an iPad by their school IT department) it’s worth a look.   So, take some time to play and make your technology integration choices your own.  You'll be glad you did! 

 … and those of you at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School get ready!  I hear many students have personal electronic devices on their holiday wish lists… 

Library Space in a BYOT School

Four years ago, as faculty and students embraced the idea of collaborative experiences, I was part of a team of people trying to find space in a max’d out building for collaborative workspaces. The library was considered an ideal place to create some collaborative workspace: it was well lit, had seating conducive to collaborative work … and the necessary computers! Plus a local architectural firm analyzing our over-crowded, out-date space reported to us that a library as information commons should create “a comfortable environment where students like to meet, study and collaborate.”

Now, we are a few years in… the library is busier than ever. Two fantastic librarians are facilitating research experiences, supporting technology initiatives, constantly assessing resources in light of learning (electronic and print), experimenting with new hardware options (e-Readers, Chromebooks, tablets) and yes, checking out books. I witness students studying, collaborating or just sitting and reading. Environment where “students like to meet, study and collaborate” achieved.

Now on to the new challenges…130 high school students in one space (built for less than 100) effects both students and adults using the space. Many students prefer to work in the library because it is the one quiet space in the building dedicated to study. The library has a back wall of windows allowing for natural, soft light and a sense of natural space. The library has librarians… adults who can help navigate those days when you need a helping hand. But when so many students are in the space, the law of rising conversations applies. Table A must talk louder to be heard over Table B. Table B must then start talking a little louder to be heard over Table A. Table C talks even louder… and soon the din is comparable to the cafeteria. Students wishing for the quiet workspace are frustrated. This puts the librarians in “policing SHHHH” mode. And contrary to popular belief… no librarian really likes to spend their whole day shushing (really… I am speaking as a librarian here… I have more interesting things to do with my time).

The challenge of computer access is changing. Now, with the advent of BYOT, we are no longer tied to the library as THE space where students can access computers during the day. Wireless is throughout the building (even outside) and there are other spaces to work (cafeteria, Student Commons, lobby). Teachers and students are communicating more frequently via electronic means. This redefines the sense of a, one place to study and collaborate.

So what is the best use of the library space? This is how I have spent the last week… How to maintain a student focused workspace that respects those who need quiet space AND respects those more collaborative in nature? In what is essentially one big room! Suggestions welcome!

Oh the Marketing!

This weekend, I tweeted about a K-12 educational marketing white paper that floated past my desk. The more I pondered the report, the more I realized I had more than 140 characters to say about it. The “key takeaway” that stuck with me concerned the marketing tip to innovate disruptive technology in stages… the exact wording being


The interactive whiteboard segment offers a particularly instructive example of how disruption can happen slowly, in stages, and still fuel growth (meaning marketing/sales growth – not learning growth). At a time when schools are reluctant to invest in new technologies, this market has exploded, and one key reason for the rapid growth is that the technology need not disrupt traditional classroom practices: for a teacher standing in front of a classroom, and interactive whiteboard can be functionally similar to a blackboard. Ignoring the argument about whether this is pedagogically sound, one less derived from the success of interactive whiteboards is that technology succeeds best when it disrupts least.

Let me take this apart…

1. The interactive whiteboard first hit the market in 1991. So by slowly, they apparently mean over 20 years. That’s really slow folks. Too slow for our students.

2. Let us remember market value. While many of our vendors claim to be partners in education (and some may even believe it)… the bottom line is they are for profit companies. They need schools to buy their product. Period. According to the Association of American Publishers, in 2006 educational materials was a $8.1 billion industry for publishing. I appreciate everyone needs to make a living,.. this is not a rant about costs. However, we as educators need to remember educational products electronic, print or plastic are a for profit industry.

3. Educational resource companies do not teach your class. Bad pedagogy is on us.

4. The industry surrounding education is marketing to the lowest common denominator. If we sit back and allow manufactures to dictate our teaching by dictating our resources… then nothing is going to change. They do not think we want a disruptive force affecting daily classroom practices.

No one is creating magic in a box for $29.99, $599.99 or even $3999.99. The time, the talent and disruptive change is going to have to start with the classroom teacher. Daunting, yes… but rather exciting.

BYOT

JD has been more prolific at posting on the topic than I at http://geekreflection.blogspot.com/... but here's my two cents...

We began a voluntary BYOT program this semester in our private, 9-12 college preparatory school. I tend to use the term (or acronym as the case may be) BYOT as I see student choice evident not only in device, but in all the various tools student use.


Our goal in BYOT is critical in understanding why we chose this model:

Brebeuf Jesuit IT focuses on the learning needs of the students, creating an environment where students, faculty and staff:


• have the ACCESS to all the resources necessary for teaching and learning;


• develop EVALUATION literacies (skills) to discern appropriateness of their tools, their actions and their behavior;


and


• are supported in the USE of technology tools personalized to the learner.



I approached our faculty and staff with Marc Prensky’s “nouns vs verbs” argument. It’s not important to get hung up on the nouns (Mac, PC, tablet, desktop, Word, Pages) in education. What we need to focus on are the verbs – what we DO to illustrate mastery. For example, with BYOT, our teachers are still confident that they can teach persuasive writing techniques. How students evidence learning can be done on a Mac, PC, mobile tablet… heck a cell phone (which will happen once and lesson will be learned). What matters is not the device or word processing program used. What matters is the academic learning objective of the persuasive essay. We are finding that students are more engaged in determining the best tool for the job when they are held responsible for demonstrating the learning objective. Learning how to access, evaluate and use technology to meet one’s objective is critical and oh, so valuable for the future.

Why I Need to Stop Watching Educational YouTube Videos While Eating Lunch

Nothing like expanding one’s job scope to… I don’t know… Director of Faculty Development… to wipe out blogging time!  I am really going to try and get back on the wagon.

So I am watching a YouTube video from the Hunt Institute introducing the Common Core State Standards.  Seemed like something a Director of Faculty Development would do while she eats her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  About 17 seconds in, I put down my PB & J at the line “…our students need better knowledge and tools to compete in the global economy…” And there it is folks, the commoditization of education.  We no longer educate to create informed electorate, to create life-long learners, for the growth of humankind… we educate to compete.   We educate to make more money than our neighbor.  We have our commodity to create: men and women who compete in the global marketplace!  I guess this is why mainline educational arguments surround improving test scores, value-add accountability matrixes for teachers and the predilection of social media forming the bullies of tomorrow.  We can count those things!  We can make more, do more, score more than our neighbors.

Silly me – I thought it was about cultivating God-given talents to live in the fullness of creation.

Frustrations at the Curve

I find it annoying that I am thwarted at every turn this summer testing new tools. Not by my non-Digital Native status. Not by my lack of formal education in the computer sciences. Not by gender, age, ethnicity, location… or any of the other demographics usually surveyed to determine computer comfort and proficiency. No, I am thwarted by the fact that I update my browser.

Yes, I run IE9, Firefox 4.0.1 and Chrome. This is apparently odd amongst educators as currently I am 2 for 12 on web-based products working on my computer. I am not even going to start on my mobile devices (Blackberry and iPad). No, today’s rant is simply an open request to educational vendors. Contrary to what you appear to think, schools are not in the dark ages. We do upgrade our operating systems. We do upgrade our production tools. And we do upgrade our browsers. I will not buy your product if I have to wander the building looking for an old machine running an outdated browser (and now that re-imaging is complete I can’t even do that as every machine here is running either IE9 or Firefox 4.0.1).

I spend a great deal of time with curriculum and technology integration. The annoyance of having to roll back browsers in order to run outdated vendor created products does nothing for student learning. In fact, I would have to hinder student learning (Firefox 4.0.1 has some wicked web developer tools) in order to run web-based learning environments which refuse to keep up with the times. Brebeuf is going to a BYOT model. Our students will learn on a multitude of devices running all sorts of operating systems, apps, software and browsers. The days of platform uniformity are slowly but surely ending. I believe those vendors who embrace flexibility and fluidity will survive. The rest of you will not.

BTW: Firefox 5 is on the horizon... Just saying.