Moving at the Speed of Creativity

THESE ARE MY NOTES FROM FROM DR. PEDRO NOGUERA’S KEYNOTE AT ALAN NOVEMBER’S 2008 BUILDING LEARNING COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE. THE TITLE OF THE SESSION WAS “CHANGING THE CULTURE OF SCHOOLS: CREATING CONDITIONS THAT PROMOTE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT.” I DID NOT ATTEND BLC08 IN PERSON, BUT THANKS TO BOB SPRANKLE MAKING THIS AMAZING PRESENTATION AVAILABLE VIA PODCAST I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO LISTEN TO THIS ENTIRE 77 MINUTE TALK TWICE THIS WEEK IN THE CAR DURING MY COMMUTES. THIS IS PART 1 OF MY NOTES FOCUSING ON THE FIRST 26 MINUTES OF HIS PRESENTATION. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST PRESENTATIONS I’VE HEARD TO DATE ABOUT SCHOOL REFORM, WHICH I RANK AT THE TOP OF MY LIST WITH PRESENTATIONS FROM DR. DAVID BERLINER, DR. STEPHEN KRASHEN, DR. ROGER SHANK, AND DR. STEVE WYCOFF. PRACTICAL, TO THE POINT, AND SPECIFIC, THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING PRESENTATION FOR ANYONE TO HEAR INTERESTED IN THE ISSUES OF SCHOOL REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.

When employees of Apple are designing a new product, they don’t just look at existing products and their functionality
- they strive to imagine something completely new and different and don’t want to be bound by existing models and ways of thinking
- we need to apply this same idea to schools as we reimagine schools for the 21st century

We know many children today do not benefit from access to a high quality education
- NCLB does provide transparency, schools can’t hide subgroups of underperforming or underachieving kids now like they might have done in the past
- all kids must learn, and this is good

The real measure of how good schools are is how we/they do with the kids who actually need help (not just the affluent kids with educated parents, who really can do most of the learning on their own)
- metaphor: Lots of our schools today are like doctors who are only good with healthy people
- the problem is not the kids, it is the way we treat kids
- the problem is the way we often limit kids based on our inability to see their potential and cultivate their talents

We are 25 years out from “Nation at Risk” now

Read the 2006 Gates report “The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives on High School Dropouts” about our real dropout rates in the United States

International school testing comparisons show the U.S. is lagging behind in math, science, and basic literacy compared to many nations

MY THOUGHTS: I’M QUITE SURPRISED DR. NOGUERA REPEATED THESE HEADLINES WITHOUT EXPLAINING THAT ONE THING OUR NATION DOES DO DIFFERENTLY FROM MANY COUNTRIES IS EDUCATE EVERYONE. WE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THESE INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON STATISTICS BUT WE ALSO NEED TO UNDERSTAND THEM IN CONTEXT, NOT TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS AND KIDS THAT CAN’T READ, BUT TO REALIZE THEY OFTEN PORTRAY A VERY SLATED STORY (A PARTIAL STORY) BECAUSE WE EDUCATE EVERYWHERE WHILE MANY COUNTRIES STILL JUST EDUCATE THE ELITE.

Sick kids don’t do well in school
- we keep ignoring the fact that conditions outside of schools have a great deal to do with conditions inside of schools

The adult literacy rate in Barbados is 95%, in the US it is close to 80% (that is a 6th grade reading level)

Problems with our educational system go back to basics and the way we attract or do NOT attract the best into the teaching profession
- typically we attract the lower one-third of college graduates into the teaching field
- this is a function of money and dollars
- Linda Darling Hammond says correctly that we don’t have a shortage of teachers, we have a shortage of people who want to work in these schools (the poor, often low-performing schools)
- we have an allocation gap when it comes to finances and school funding: we continue to spend the most money to educate the wealthiest children who need the least help from our schools
- those who say money doesn’t matter usually have a lot of money

Challenges we face
- changing demographics due to immigration and backlash against immigration in many communities
- when you treat people like fugitives you make it harder for their children to get an education
- when you do this, you create a permanent underclass
- Latinos have the highest employment rate of an ethnic group in the United States and the highest poverty rate
- they are disproportionally stuck in the lowest wage jobs

We have an illogical debate going on in our country today with respect to immigration

we have an unfortunate history in our nation’s schools and in our country of believing that the primary function of schools is to rank and sort kids based on their genetic gifts

funding for public education in our nation is at risk right now
- if you don’t realize that, you are or have been asleep
- there are more people than ever clamoring for vouchers, for home schooling, and for not supporting public education

I AGREE WITH THIS VIEW, I HAVE CONCLUDED (ALONG WITH OTHERS) THAT A PRIMARY STRATEGIC FOCUS OF NCLB AND ACCOUNTABILITY REFORM IS TO DISCREDIT PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES SO THE COFFERS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION DOLLARS CAN BE OPENED UP TO PRIVATE, COMMERCIAL INTERESTS– TO DISMANTLE OUR PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM BY PROVIDING STANDARDS OF ACHIEVEMENT WHICH ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH. SEE MY FEBRUARY 2008 RESPONSE TO THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, “A CONTRARY VIEW OF EDUCATION AND NCLB” FOR MORE ON THIS.

Despite all its faults, we must support public education
- public education is the only group in our entire society which accepts all children: even undocumented, homeless children

I AGREE WITH THIS 100%

If we lose our public education system in the United States, our democracy would truly be at risk

Seymour Sarason’s 1972 book “The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change” was a very important work
- he pointed out that many times we’ve run into problems with proposed school reforms because we have viewed reform as something that could be like a cookbook: simply follow the prescribed recipe and everything will turn out great
- we often fail to contextualize solutions
- we must change beliefs, attitudes, expectations and relationships in our schools for meaningful reform to take place
- this is a complex challenge

My father who was a policeman for many years was fond of saying “Common sense is really not that common”
- certainly we see that is often the case with school reform movements
- it is never 1 thing
- it is always a complex set of issues and needs
- it is never a silver bullet: vouchers, testing, phonics
- we need good leadership, good teaching, parent support, and student engagement

We do see signs of good news in both Atlanta and Miami showing when you empower and support local campus leaders, provide extra incentive funding for teachers and focus on small class sizes, you can change the culture of low SES urban schools and move them forward positively
- Kipp Schools are right at the top of those top performers in these places

Technorati Tags:
school, education, reform, blc08

I love railroads.

Had I lived in a bygone era, I feel certain I would have been drawn to work around or on railroads when they were the primary “connecting technology” which brought people together and made geographic places seem far closer. I’ve reflected several times in the past on the similarities between physical railroads and the virtual connections which we ride and build to connect our thoughts together in the Internet aether. My 4th podcast in August 2005 titled “Trails, Trains, and T-1s,” my November 2005 post “The flat world is real,” and my May 2007 video “Roads of Learning in the 21st Century” are all past examples of this metaphor in my thinking about education, learning, technology and change. I uploaded that May 2007 15 minute video to blip.tv this evening, since I had not uploaded it to any video sharing websites at the time I created it.

Two weeks ago our family had an opportunity to attend the XIT Rodeo and Reunion in Dalhart, Texas. The father of my father-in-law (I’m not sure what official family title that should give him) was a pipe fitter with the Union Pacific Railroad in Dalhart.

Dalhart was a major railroad hub as two different lines met there, and a roundhouse was in Dalhart where trains were repaired. Interestingly, the current WikiPedia article for Dalhart does not make any mention of its railroading past. We found the original location of the Dalhart roundhouse when we were there visiting.

The building is gone and some rails remain. Evidently as train technology switched from coal burning to diesel engines, the repair house at Dalhart was no longer needed and trains were fixed in Chicago.

Whether you are teaching in the northern hemisphere and either starting or preparing to start a new school year, or teaching in the southern hemisphere and already in the midst of your winter term, I think it is worthwhile to consider how many different pathways of learning our students have today in our classrooms. Like the following photo of railroad lines in Dalhart, I believe our students should have many choices for their “learning tracks” in school.

In traditional classrooms, as David Warlick pointed out in his pre-conference keynote for the 2006 K-12 Online Conference “Derailing Education: Taking Sidetrips for Learning,” teachers don’t give students many choices. Students tend to all be seated in identical desks, facing the same direction, and doing the same thing. My oldest two children started the 2008-2009 school year today here in Oklahoma public schools, and to a large extent their learning experiences tend to follow the same, traditional models of the past. Here are a few questions I’m asking myself as I prepare curriculum and work with both teachers and students in Oklahoma this year on oral history and digital storytelling projects, which relate to these ideas about railroads and learning.

1. THE ROUNDHOUSE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The roundhouse was a place where trains could be repaired, obtain new equipment, get turned around if necessary, and undergo other preparations for the grueling challenges of cross-country rail lines. How are we providing REGULAR and SUSTAINED opportunities for our teachers to come into a “learning roundhouse” for new ideas, recharged enthusiasm, and encouragement from peers? Consider utilizing content and connection opportunities from the free October 2008 K-12 Online Conference in your local “roundhouse of professional development.”

2. MULTIPLE TRACKS OF DIFFERENTIATED ASSESSMENT

Here in the United States, our policymakers continue to focus our attention on end-of-year summative assessments as well as end-of-course examinations. The purposes of the time we spend in formal educational classroom settings go far beyond simple test preparation, however. As Dr. Pedro Noguera stated in his BLC08 keynote, if special education worked as it was designed every parent would want their child in a special education program with an individualized education plan designed to meet the specific needs of their child. Each learner IS different, and to the greatest degree possible as educators we should strive to provide differentiated learning experiences for our students. Differentiated learning does not simply mean different ways to explore and consume content, it also means DIFFERENTIATED ASSESSMENT as learners are provided with choices about the ways they demonstrate their mastery and understanding of knowledge and skills. Technology tools like voice recorders as well as websites permitting audio recording over the phone (like Gabcast and Gcast) can be used in powerful ways to provide learners with multiple “tracks” of assessment choices.

3. BUILD VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS TO OTHER LEARNERS

Every lesson you teach this year cannot necessarily have a digitally interactive component, but set goals now to build virtual connections to other learners in other places which you’ll be able to “ride” and on which you can make multiple connections during the coming months. Utilize online learning communities for educators like Classroom 2.0, the Global Education Collaborative, ePals, the CILC, the K-12 Online Conference, and StoryChasers to make safe, asynchronous initial connections with other teachers via email and later synchronous connections via videoconferencing.

It’s a big world out there, and it’s always been a big world, but the virtual connections we build to each other with digital tools can and do make it seem like a much smaller world all the time.

Last piece of advice for this post: Add a free ClustrMap to your classroom website this year if you have not already. As you make virtual connections with other learners across the country and around the world, invite your students to watch the digital footprint of your classroom learning community grow. It’s a small world after all.

Technorati Tags:
railroad, classroom, connection, learning, collaboration, technology, digital, advice, virtual, videoconferencing, k12online08

If you have not recently created a spreadsheet in Google Documents and used the free option to create a form, you should give it a try. I still subscribe to Surveymonkey and use it for some web surveys, but increasingly I find myself using Google Documents for web forms. Why?

1. It is free so when I show it to someone and they say, “Boy that’s cool, I’d like to do that” my answer can be, “You can! Just use your Google Account and go to Google Documents.”
2. It is easy to share access with others, whether you want to collaborate or just provide read-only access.
3. Data in the spreadsheet is easy to aggregate, analyze and graph either online or in a downloadable Excel or Open Office Spreadsheet formatted file. We want students to understand the power and possibilities latent in data-driven decision making– There is no better way to do this than empowering students to become data gatherers and utilizers with a tool like Google Forms.
4. Asking even a small number of people to email in responses to a series of questions can quickly become cumbersome. It is so much easier to ask folks to submit a quick online form. (Lee Lefever’s “Google Docs in Plain English” video is a good visual explanation of how this can get complex and unwieldy fast with a newsletter, but the same applies for other bits of info you need to collect from others.)
5. You feel VERY powerful and uber-connected when you realize you have the power at your fingertips to share links to customized online forms anytime, anywhere.

Google forms now allows you to REQUIRE that folks enter certain fields before submitting the form:

As before, you can have text fields, text area fields, multiple choice, and other field types. I LOVE the language at the top of the page when you start creating a Google spreadsheet form: “Results will be magically entered into this spreadsheet!”

Isn’t that so true! All technology at some level is “magical.” Some people have more words to describe what is happening and how it works, but there is still an aura of magic and mystery around many technologies which can be at times hidden, and at other times very overt.

I love Google Documents, and especially the fact that access to them is free!

Welcome to episode seven of the Technology Shopping Cart podcast where educational innovation thrives on the food of creative ideas! This episode was recorded on July 1, 2008, in San Antonio, Texas, at the National Educational Computing Conference. Karen Montgomery and Wesley Fryer were joined by Brad Gessler of Poll Everywhere to discuss mobile applications for learning: Specifically Poll Everywhere and iPhone Web Apps. This is part two in our Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning podcast series. (We apologize it has taken so long to get this second part recorded and posted!) Refer to our podcast shownotes for links to the resources and websites we discuss in this show.

 

 Podcast263: Technology Shopping Cart Podcast07 - iPhone Web Apps and Poll Everywhere in Education (Part 2 of 3 in our Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning series) [41:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (753)

Show Notes:

1. Referenced links from this episode on our wiki
2. Poll Everywhere: Easy Audience Polling (via cell phone text messaging / SMS)
3. Poll Everywhere Mobile
4. HomeWork Web App
5. JustUpdate Web App
6. Phishing (WikiPedia)
7. AntiPhishing Working Group
8. iWeather Web App
9. Google Reader for the iPhone version 2
10. LatLong iPhone for GeoCaching
11. iGeoCacher Web App
12. Podcaster 2.0 Web App
13. Posterous (the place to post everything)
14. Mobile pics posted from the top of Eagle’s Peak (Colorado) by Wesley in 2005
15. iPhone Web Apps
16. Podcast248: Technology Shopping Cart Podcast06 - Cell Phones and Mobile Devices for Learning (Part 1 of 3)
17. Homepage of Brad Gessler (co-founder of Poll Everywhere)
18. Informatics (WikiPedia)
19. Gomeric Hill: Blog of Karen Montgomery
20. Thinking Machine: Presentation and Workshop Curriculum of Karen Montgomery
21. Follow Karen Montgomery on Twitter
22. Follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter
23. Top 25 Web Apps for iPhone (Rev2)
24. Top 10 iPhone Web-Apps (IntoMobile)
25. Wesley’s iPhone webapp links on del.icio.us
26. Karen’s iPhone links on del.icio.us

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Remember the ENIAC computer? (Well, I guess I’m not actually asking if you REMEMBER it– as in you SAW it in person– more if you read and learned about it in the past.)

According to the current WikiPedia entry, it was unveiled in 1946 and cost approximately $500,000.

ENIAC was designed and built to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory… ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints. It weighed 30 short tons (27 t), was roughly 8.5 feet by 3 feet by 80 feet (2.6 m by 0.9 m by 26 m), took up 680 square feet (63 m²), and consumed 150 kW of power… The ENIAC used four of the accumulators controlled by a special Multiplier unit and could perform 385 multiplication operations per second…..

I remember the ENIAC mainly for its size and relatively paltry computing capabilities compared to personal computers and supercomputers today. It was in “continuous operation” until 1955. When I think of the early days of computing, I immediately think of the ENIAC.

I mentioned in my post “The benefits of unplugging” that our family visited Los Alamos, New Mexico, last week. Los Alamos is home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Each time we’ve driven through Los Alamos, I’ve wondered what millions of our tax dollars are up to there– paying scientists and engineers to continue developing new technologies for the US military and our weapons systems. This evening, reading the news on our Wii as I waited for my son to teach me how to play “Rayman Raving Rabbids,” I read today’s AP article “Scientists develop fastest computer.” For a total cost of $100 million, scientists and engineers worked six years to create a supercomputer reminiscent of the ENIAC but vastly greater in its physical size as well as computing capabilities. For the first time the computer has:

…performed 1,000 trillion calculations per second in a sustained exercise… To put the computer’s speed in perspective, it has roughly the computing power of 100,000 of today’s most powerful laptops stacked 1.5 miles high, according to IBM. Or, if each of the world’s 6 billion people worked on hand-held computers for 24 hours a day, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner computer can do in a single day.

So if everyone on the planet was using an iPhone 24/7, how many years would it take us to replicate a day’s work of “the Roadrunner?”

The size specifications of the Roadrunner dwarf the ENIAC as well. According to the same article:

The interconnecting system occupies 6,000 square feet with 57 miles of fiber optics and weighs 500,000 pounds. Although made from commercial parts, the computer consists of 6,948 dual-core computer chips and 12,960 cell engines, and it has 80 terabytes of memory housed in 288 connected refrigerator-sized racks.

80 terabytes of memory… Is that all? Will my kids have that much storage capacity in their handheld computers when they start attending college in about a decade? Quite possibly.

I don’t intend to trivialize this computing achievement with attempted levity. On a more serious note, I recognize the pivotal role funding by the US government for military computing applications continues to play in the development of computing and supercomputing capabilities. The ENIAC was originally designed to make more accurate and thorough calculations for the US Army’s artillery units. The Roadrunner is ostensibly being used “to assure the safety and security of our (weapons) stockpile.” Do we really need a supercomputer with petaflop performance capabilities to do that? I thought the nuclear football, developed during the administration of Eisenhower, did that for us? I think it’s fair to hypothesize the actual military uses of the Roadrunner are barely touched on in today’s AP article.

A petaflop is 10 to the 15th power “flops: FLoating point Operations Per Second.” Can I begin to comprehend a number that large? That challenge is similar to trying to understand the distance the Andromeda Galaxy (our closest neighbor galaxy) is away from our own Milky Way galaxy: Approximately 2.5 million light-years away. I can say that number, but I can I really comprehend it? I don’t think so.

The speed of change we are witnessing today, in our lifetimes, when it comes to information technologies and telecommunications truly IS staggering. An SR-71 was fast (when it was operational) but blog-powered communication is faster. At the speed of light, packets of data traverse our planet and magically permit our ideas and thoughts to interact and influence each other. Who could have dreamed of such a day?

$100 million for a petaflop of performance. Wow. What does that mean? Are we approaching the moment of technological singularity? We’re certainly moving in that direction.

Amidst such change, it is ludicrous and sad to see our political leaders in the United States continuing to emphasize a 19th century approach to education via standardized assessments which place zero value on digital literacy or 21st century skills. We can be frustrated with NCLB, we can be mad about high stakes testing, but more than anything else, I think we can justifiably be sad at the glaring lack of vision and understanding for the dynamic communications landscape of the 21st century which it reflects.

In a few months, citizens of the United States will have an opportunity to cast votes for a new chief executive. When the reins of power are transferred, I hope we’ll be pleased with new educational vision in the White House which supports the development of both traditional as well as digital literacies in the classrooms and homes of our nation. If we’re paying $100 million for a petaflop of performance today, we’ll probably be paying $1000 for that same performance capacity in a decade. Are we equipping our current generations of learners to thrive in an environment replete with such computational capacity? No. Sadly, we’re still arguing about whether or not cell phones should be permitted in schools at all. Are people of all ages going to continue making poor choices with the tools at their fingertips, including cell phones? Of course. The solution is not banning them and condemning students and teachers to a 19th century learning environment devoid of opportunities for digital interaction.

Is this “glass” half empty or half full? I prefer to see it as half full. We live in a day ripe with opportunity for visionary and inspired leadership. Let’s hope our next chief executive signs landmark educational legislation framed by an electronic whiteboard or at least a laptop computer, rather than a chalkboard.

Perhaps such an image will inspire educators around the world to stand up and cheer, rather than fall to their knees and weep.

Technorati Tags:
eniac, petaflop, computer, supercomputer, losalamos, election, obama, mccain, politics, school, education, reform

If you and your students think you face “high stakes” for standardized tests taken at school this year, consider the case of Daryl Atkins, whose life was literally on the line based on his repeated test performances. His story is instructive not only because of the heavy weight it shows our society sometimes places on test scores, but also because of what it suggests about intelligence and the ways we measure as well as cultivate its development.

Stephen Murdoch is the author of “IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea” and shared a presentation about IQ at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on April 16th, 2008. The complete video of his presentation is available from FORA.tv. I listened to a brief excerpt of it on my iPhone while driving in the car today, and several things Stephen said piqued my interest. (I subscribe to the free FORA.tv - Daily FORAcast (short form) podcast.)

According to WikiPedia:

An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests attempting to measure intelligence.

We’ve all heard of IQ tests and many of us have likely taken them, and/or had our students or our own children take them. As an aside, I remember that my mother (who was an educational diagnostician) would never tell me what my own IQ test score was. As I recall, I think that is because she didn’t want my perception of that score to shape my own ideas of my capabilities and intelligence. I’ve always been glad she made that decision, because I resonate with the idea that as a human being I can exceed the performance expectations and valuations which others may attempt to place upon me. This podcast reinforced that view, to a degree.

In his presentation, Stephen discussed the criminal law case of Daryl R. Atkins, which was ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002. During the series of trials which led to a ruling by the highest court in our land, Atkins repeatedly took IQ tests and his scores increased seventeen points over a period of several years. From a criminal defense and prosecution standpoint, this was very significant, since Atkins’ IQ score went from a 59 (below 70, which was considered “mildly mentally retarded”) to 76. With that score, Atkins was “competent to be put to death under Virginia law.” He was eventually sentenced to life in prison (rather than executed) for reasons other than his IQ test scores, but the stakes of his IQ tests could not have been higher.

Why did the IQ test scores of Daryl R. Atkins increase over time, when educational diagnosticians (at least those who are fervent disciples of IQ test integrity and value) might argue they should not have done so? Stephen Murdoch suggests that perhaps:

1. The more times Atkins took the IQ test, the better he got at the test, because he become more experienced and used to the test. (Does this sound familiar in states which have been subjecting students to high stakes testing for years?)
2. Atkins may have actually received a better and more worthwhile (authentic) education during the years of his trials and trial preparation than he received in formal school environments, and those experiences actually helped him to become smarter.

I find both these suggestions worth pondering. I had a conversation this past weekend with someone who staunchly defended the regime of high stakes testing in Texas and now across the United States thanks to NCLB, because “clearly they have raised test scores.” My response was, even if the test scores have improved, what does that really MEAN? Have the drop out rates gone down? What can the students who are graduating from our schools actually DO in terms of their skills? How can we place faith in aggregate test scores, when the tests themselves are highly variable state-to-state and are regularly changing even within most states?

Conclusions about aggregate test scores are different than conclusions about an individual’s test scores, however, and this case DOES seem to suggest that something significant had taken place cognitively with Atkins over the course of his criminal trials. I found Murdoch’s second suggestion quite thought provoking as well. Perhaps a criminal trial procedure provided Atkins with more opportunities to develop his vocabulary and capacity to both understand and communicate in our world than his years of formal educational had. What expectations did Atkins’ teachers have of him, being “the student in the room with a 59 IQ?” When I taught fourth grade, one year I taught a student who also had an officially measured IQ of less than 70. I was told, “He is too low to qualify for special education.” It was a real challenge to help him stay engaged and focused in class, but I think the fact that he had regular opportunities to learn with and interact with other students his age was a great benefit. Mainstreaming is not always beneficial for every child with special needs, but often (as the law prescribes) the “least restrictive environment” for children is the one with the most educational opportunities. Whether in a mainstreamed or pullout classroom setting, however, I think the EXPECTATIONS of the teacher are critical in shaping the sorts of learning and interactive opportunities to which students are given access. I am a big fan of real-world problems solving contexts and project-based learning environments for students. Whether classified as “gifted and talented,” “special needs,” or “too low to qualify,” I think all people learn best in real-world contexts where the relevance of learning tasks is immediately apparent rather than elusive and simply theoretical. This is a key element of constructionist learning, as I understand it. Let’s not just talk about things in theoretical terms, let’s actually make things. Let’s make stuff. In making “stuff” together, particularly in engineering solutions to problems and challenges which learners can readily understand and relate, learning becomes much more situated and therefore impactful.

The final issue raised in this presentation excerpt from Stephen Murdoch regards the issue of “cognitive development.” For years, from what I understand, scientists and doctors believed that the number neurons in our brains was finite, and as we grew older we we progressively lost more and more brain capacity. This is a pretty depressing conclusion, but it is one most scientists and doctors held for years.

Today, however, we understand that neuroplasticity means our brains are far more flexible than we had previously believed to adapt and change. Even when we are very old, our brains still have the capacity to make new neural connections as we are exposed to novel experiences and have opportunities to experience growth via different experiences, especially cognitive dissonance. In his presentation, Stephen Murdoch stated that it is ridiculous for elite private schools to use IQ tests on young children to measure their actual and potential intelligence, because those young people are still experiencing “cognitive development.” If I am understanding current brain research and ideas like neuroplasticity correct, however, it seems that none of us are ever entirely “finished” with our cognitive development unless we choose to stop learning, or we are placed in such a controlling and limiting environment that continuing cognitive development is impossible. (Solitary confinement in prison for years might qualify.)

I have read and heard that average IQ scores have been rising around the world for many years, but the jury is out about “why?” Perhaps our access to greater levels of information and new ideas is permitting us, as adults, to continue our cognitive development beyond the levels which were “normal” for the everyday citizen (as opposed to a cultural elite) in previous eras? I’m not sure. In any event, I certainly found Stephen Murdoch’s presentation excerpt to be thought provoking, and I look forward to hopefully hearing his entire presentation online or on my portable audio and video player sometime soon.

As the recently released North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) report “Blended Learning: The Convergence of Online and Face-to-Face Education” concludes, blended learning is one of the only instructional reform proposals which can genuinely help educators reclaim the #1 most precious resource in their day today: TIME. I was not in San Francisco in April to hear Stephen Murdoch share this presentation, but I was able to hear part of his message today in my car as I drove across the plains of central Oklahoma. It is a blessing and a gift to live in our present age of digitally-powered blended learning experiences. The educational and learning opportunities which lie before us are astounding to both contemplate and personally experience. Armed with content like this lecture from FORA.tv, I’m sure my own cognitive development can continue indefinitely as long as my physical body cooperates. The web is empowering new opportunities for distributed learning which prior generations of educators, learners, and leaders likely never imagined were possible. This environment is ours to both enjoy and to shape.

It is no understatement to say we’re on an incredible journey.

Technorati Tags:
iq, intelligence, court, atkins, murdoch, stephenmurdoch, learning, expectations, distributed, FORA, foratv, distributedlearning

One of the paradoxical results of our politically-imposed focus on high stakes accountability and test scores in U.S. K-12 public schools is that many teachers and students have their eyes on minimum standards rather than exceptionally high expectations for each student’s learning and growth. Arnold Toynbee’s quotation of the day from my iGoogle portal resonates with me in this context:

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.

High expectations are essential for high levels of student achievement, which most educators as well as parents would agree is a desirable outcome of a student’s years in K-12 education. NCLB has failed miserably to inspire students and teachers to have high expectations, however, because the initiative is all about minimum standards. (See my February 2008 post, “A contrary view of education and NCLB” for more of my thoughts along these lines.)

As I continue my work as a 21st century educator, I grow increasingly convinced that the fundamentally coercive nature of our public education system in the United States must change in basic ways. We, as a society, have grown accustomed to an educational system which is compulsory and therefore fundamentally coercive in its nature. This coercive side of education becomes most clearly unmasked in May, as we draw closer to the end of school. Students sitting in class a week from the end of school may understandably ask, “Why are we here?” After my presentation about safe online social networking and Internet safety today in an Oklahoma elementary school just south of Oklahoma City, I walked by a classroom of silent students watching a video on the television while the teacher sat at her desk and worked on paperwork. I am certainly not averse to teachers working on paperwork while students are working and learning in school, but the scene struck me as absurd because of the learning and fiscal dynamics at work before me. Although teachers, students and parents are ostensibly focused on test scores and minimum performance standards, state legislatures like ours in Oklahoma continue to pay schools for SEAT TIME. How many days have you had students warm seats in their classroom? Based on this formula, state funding dollars are allocated to our schools. If an adult was honest with the students sitting quietly watching a video in that Oklahoma classroom today, in response to the question “Why are we here?” that person might respond:

We are here so our school gets paid for you sitting in your chair and warming your seat. It really doesn’t matter what you do or do not do, as long as you are not disruptive or hurtful to others in our classroom. Since it doesn’t matter what you do, we are going to do the easiest thing possible from a teacher and administrator perspective today: We are simply going to show you full length videos. No matter that we are violating both the spirit and letter of US intellectual property law in showing you full-length commercial movies which we have obtained under the auspices of private, home-only viewing or limited uses for purposes of critiquing excerpts of the film for authentically educational purposes under fair use provisions of copyright law. We are not showing these films to inspire you to think critically or analyze the more poignant issues raised in the movies, we are simply trying to keep you quiet and happy like cattle or pigs in a feed pen. If you are entertained, that is fine, but our main goal is to keep you here and keep you quiet. Since our state tests are over, we are not focused on helping you become more educated or literate. Like prisoners in a prison, we are all here “doing time” until the clock and the calendar says we can all go home. Our school will not receive the money we need unless you are here, and we are focused on minimum standards. So: Please stop asking questions, please stop thinking critically, please stop talking and thinking AT ALL and go back to sitting quietly, watching the movies we are showing you like the good, passive, compliant students we have done our best to condition you to be this year at our school.

I haven’t ever heard an adult actually share that answer with students, because the harsh truth in those sentences is possibly even more cynical than some educators are willing to voluntarily acknowledge. Of course this generalization is NOT appropriate or fitting for all classrooms, in all educational contexts. It IS accurate in many settings, however, and I find the prevalence of this situation both disturbing and personally motivating from an educational advocacy perspective.

Coercive schooling is quite often BAD schooling. Let me be clear: I am NOT advocating that we abandon all rules and boundaries in our schools, or that we let every student do exactly as he or she pleases inside or outside of school. That would be anarchy. Advocates for more student-centered approaches to learning are too often mistaken for social anarchists, I think. Last week when I presented at ESC10 in Richardson, Texas, I talked with a technology director about his perceptions of the video, “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn” from COSN. He responded by saying he was really “old school” and “traditional,” and thought that kids needed to be MADE to learn and follow rigid rules in the school. I had just watched the same video as this technology director, and I did not understand the authors to in any way imply or suggest that schools should abandon their rules. What I DID hear the contributors say, again and again, is that schools must become more truly learner-centered and empower students to develop the type of independence and initiative which is both valued and expected by employers in the 21st century workforce. Schools need to help students develop and cultivate relevant skills, and stop focusing so much attention and coercive effort on making students memorize and regurgitate facts.

Coercive school culture is revealed clearly at the end of the school year in other ways besides teachers simply showing students full-length commercial movies in class. In one nearby school district, students are being required to attend class the Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday. The enticement to get students to school that day? Report cards are being withheld unless students come to class.

Another recent example of coercive school culture involves “AR.” The Accelerated Reader (AR) program from Renaissance Learning has been used well but also used poorly by teachers in many different schools since its inception in the 1990s. The formula for helping students join “the literacy club” and become lifelong learners who love reading and literacy is well established in educational research focused on student literacy, according to Dr. Stephen Krashen, and does NOT have anything to do with computer technology or book quizzes. The formula for lifelong readers is: Provide students with robust access to diverse types of literature, and provide them with lots of TIME to read. As students self-select texts and select texts with the assistance of peers and teachers, they will grow in their abilities to not only read but also to write– because the research supports the contention that we learn to write better mostly be reading. The AR program, which involves students taking a computerized comprehension test after they read a book successfully, by its very nature encourages an instrumentalist attitude toward reading which focuses on extrinsic rewards. It is true some students are motivated by these extrinsic AR rewards, but it is misleading to suggest that students are best served by giving them carrots for reading– which is an experience that INTRINSICALLY holds and provides its own rewards. After students leave a coercive classroom environment where they are given toys, prizes and even parties including jumping castles for reading books, they will rarely (if ever) encounter a similar environment again. In the world of business and work, being literate and well-read certainly has its rewards, but they do NOT come in the form of shiny prizes or food bribes.

I was recently in an Oklahoma elementary school where students who have not earned “enough” AR points at school are not allowed to go outside and play for recess. Instead of going outside to play (being afforded the precious gift of unstructured time in a natural environment) students are PUNISHED by being forced to read. Some educators claim “this is not punishment” since the kids are being allowed to read books of their choice, but the perception of the children in this case is the key determinant. The kids perceive this forced reading as “punishment” since they would rather be playing at recess. I think we all should be encouraging people of all ages to read more and more often, but the last thing we should do in our schools is use READING as a punishment. This is as stupid and ill-founded from an educational research standpoint as using WRITING as a punishment, which is also still sadly common in some of our schools. Yes, we are living in the 21st century, but in some of our classrooms, the methods employed to ostensibly MAKE students learn and “get what they need” for life success is coercively medieval.

I deeply desire change in these sorts of coercive and harmful educational environments. Rather than being forced to sit quietly and watch movies in class the last week of May, like every other week of the school year teachers should be inviting and challenging students to engage in meaningful work for an audience which extends far beyond the four physical walls of the classroom. Rather than acting like prisoners and prison guards, students and teachers in our schools in May and every other month of the year should fulfill the role of this wonderful sign, which I blogged about last year in August:

We must move beyond our current school finance systems which pay school districts based on seat time. We must embrace political leaders who inspire learners of all ages to strive for high expectations, appropriately differentiated to the interests and abilities of individual students. We must find ways to completely transcend the coercive nature of public education, and replace that culture with one where innovation, creativity, and inspired excellence can thrive. To fail in this task is to fail our children, their future and our own. We simply must do better than we are in many cases in our U.S. public schools.

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education, school, reform, change, web2, learning, leadership, coercion, punishment, acceleratedreader, krashen, stephenkrashen, literacy, research, politics, nclb

Both my keynote address and the session I co-presented with Vicki Allen were broadcast live over the web this morning from Richardson, Texas, and are available as archived videos. If you watched either or both of these videos “live” or view the archived versions, please leave comments and feedback here! Unfortunately the chat feature of Ustream wouldn’t work on the ESC10 network, but I am grateful the bandwidth was great and the firewall was friendly to these broadcasts!

Keynote: The Assessment Menu in our Web 2.0 World
- Slides (PDF) (3.9 MB)
- Wiki links
- Video

Breakout session: “Web 2.0 Tools Which Can Be Used For Assessing Student Learning”
- Wiki links
- Video

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assessment, learning, education, web2, school, wiki, wikis, voicethread, googlenotebook

This podcast is a recording of a conversation on December 5, 2007 with Judy Beaver, director of instructional technology at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, about their 1:1 laptop learning initiative. Judy discusses how she utilized research findings from Dr. Robert Marzano’s noted book “Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement” when she made the case to the Punahou leaders for their 1:1 project nine years ago. She also discusses how they have effectively utilized those learning strategies in a digitally immersed environment, empowering key teachers to serve as coaches and models for other teachers as exemplary digital learning facilitators. Project based learning has been a key instructional focus of educators at the Punahou School. Many thanks to both Judy as well as Chris Watson for facilitating this conversation! I was able to meet Judy and Chris when I was in Hawaii last December for our USS Oklahoma Memorial Videoconferencing and Digital Learning Project.

 

 Podcast247: Transformative Project Based Learning in a 1:1 Laptop Initiative: 10 Years of Lessons and Best Practices at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii [56:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1554)

Show Notes:

1. Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii
2. “Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement” by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane E. Pollock
3. Chris Watson’s blog: Watson Common
4. USS Oklahoma Memorial Videoconference (6 Dec 2007)
5. Oklahoma World War II Digital Learning Project
6. Wes Fryer: The Case for 1:1 Computing in Schools (TCEA 2006)

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Technorati Tags: laptop, learning, onetoone, punahou, hawaii, podcast, ibook, apple, marzano

In his article “Teaching To A Test Worth Teaching To In College And High School” Dr. Richard H. Hersh makes the case that in our era of high-stakes testing, in many schools expectations for student learning have been LOWERED to a lowest common denominator. Rather than expecting students to master not only content area knowledge but also the ability to synthesize, evaluate, and utilize that knowledge in complex scenarios challenging their abilities to process and use information critically we have dumbed-down the curriculum through the vehicle of simplistic assessments. He writes:

Put bluntly, we have asked too little of our students and ourselves and we have reaped what we have sown. The increasing public lament about high school and college graduates is that they cannot write or speak well (thinking made public), cannot think critically, and that they graduate with a sense of entitlement with little self-discipline or the humility of knowing that there is so much one does not know. We are not doing justice to the enabling of our human capital, the most precious civic and economic resource in meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

Part of the answer to this situation, Hersh writes, is empowering and supporting teachers to construct NEW assessments which both require content knowledge as well as the critical application of that knowledge in authentic contexts. He continues:

The answer, of course, is for teachers to develop learning objectives and assessments that simultaneously require the mastery of appropriate content and the ability to reason–to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate data in cogent and coherent ways.

While the College And Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA) (Which Hersh helps coordinate) is currently available for schools commercially at $40 per student, I would love to see a state government embrace this assessment in lieu of the battery of multiple-choice, high-stakes (and simplistically graded) evaluations now mandated for students at many levels. How much money is your local school district and state government spending on summative assessment for students today? I’d like to know that figure for Oklahoma students, but I don’t. Are we spending more than $40 per student now on summative assessment? What is our real return on that investment?

Federal guidelines for assessment of learning outcomes should provide leaders at local and state levels with a menu of choices, rather than a script of steps which must be followed. Our nation already has “report card” assessments like the NAEP, which are more valuable tools for comparing traditionally measured academic achievement across the nation than the various types of state assessments now in place across the country. Our current crop of high stakes academic assessments do NOT meet the requirements to prepare students for our 21st century workforce, IMHO. I will admit I have not personally taken the released PASS tests here in Oklahoma, but I probably should to be able to address this issue with more knowledge and credibility. Unlike Texas, which has released the full versions of past state mandated tests in different content areas and grade levels (as a result of litigation by parents, I think) Oklahoma does not seem to be publishing full copies of past tests. So, even if I wanted to take the time to take an entire “exit level” battery of exams which Oklahoma students have to take to graduate from high school, it does not appear I could readily do so today.
In some ways, I think many of the materials and statistics we see which relate to state and federally mandated testing are a smokescreen for a broad failure to change educational practices. Many people will agree with the idea that “Our schools should be changing to help prepare students with the skills they need for success today and in the future,” but most of what I’ve seen with respect to mandated assessment (by federal and state governments) indicates we’re still focused on preparing students for the 19th century, not the 21st century. A framework for skills required in the 21st century is VERY important, and that is an important role fulfilled by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the framework of the partnership.

As I mentioned in the introduction to my podcast recording of Dr. Hersh’s keynote at COSN last week, simply replacing current assessments with new ones is not a “magical fix” that will solve all the problems we face in our schools. We do, however, need to think differently (in many areas) about assessments. Rather than look to the “elites on high” to write and send out the assessments our students have to take, I like Dr. Hersh’s contention that we should empower TEACHERS to create and develop these assessments locally. This meshes well with Phil Schlechty’s central thesis in his book, “Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents.” The proper role of the teacher in the 21st century classroom should be properly understood NOT as merely a conduit of content and information, but rather a designer and architect of engaging work for students. If we understand and utilize assessments properly, as Dr. Hersh explains as he describes what we know about excellent educational assessment practices, we can more readily support this redefinition of the teacher’s role as well as the role of assessments:

[We know that]…learning assessment is crucial in providing appropriate and timely feedback to students and teachers; that the most effective teaching requires tight coupling of objectives, curricular materials, pedagogy and assessment. In short, testing is most powerful when it serves a diagnostic instructional function in the context of everyone understanding what is expected to be learned, linked to appropriate curricula and pedagogy, and linked to learning assessment that does justice to the complexity of the learning required. Put another way, a good assessment measure ought to give both students and teachers an adequate and accurate sense of learning objectives, standards of excellence, and achievement.

Assessments which fit this mold cannot be bestowed upon the plebeian masses by the academic elites filling the hallowed halls of commercial companies now profiting handsomely from our myopic focus on summative, simplistic, high-stakes assessments. Teachers need to be empowered to construct and administer these assessments at a local level. To ignore or oppose this need is to deny the professional capabilities and capacities of certified educators in the classroom. Unfortunately, I agree with others who have noted the agenda of NCLB seems to be focused intentionally on discrediting professional educators. I oppose that agenda, however, and support the formal redefinition of the teacher’s role in the 21st century classroom. Changing our perceptions of and implemention strategies for assessments is a key element of that sea change.

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testing, assessment, cosn, cosn08, cosn2008, nclb, politics, education, school, workforce, skills, 21stcenturyskills, partnership, schlechty, hersch

This podcast features a recording of Dr. Richard Hersh’s comments on March 10, 2008, at the COSN Conference in Washington D.C. in the opening keynote panel discussion. Dr. Hersh currently serves as the Co-Director of the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) the College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA.) He is focused on encouraging educators (as well as the legislators who write policy which dictates many of the roles and tasks of the 21st century U.S. classroom) to embrace assessments which move far beyond the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, at the knowledge and comprehension level, and instead assess critical thinking skills. This is a challenging task, but an extremely important one. Of all the presenters I heard at COSN 2008 this year, Dr. Hersh stood out as the most thought provoking and challenging speaker. This recording also includes some commentary from Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard University, who was also on the opening keynote panel. The description of this session in the conference program was: There is a growing awareness that students need new skills to succeed in our global economy. In addition to traditional core subjects, students need critical thinking, creativity and collaboration skills. Yet how do we embed these new skills in student’s education? How can these new skills be assessed? What role might technology play to enable and support this new learning environment? Hear from a leading large scale global assessment expert and U.S. educational researcher and practitioner as they explore this critical issue.

 

 Podcast239: 21st Century Learning: Embedding New Skills and Assessments by Dr. Richard Hersh (COSN 2008 Keynote) [39:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1318)

Show Notes:

1. The College And Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA)
2. Teaching To A Test Worth Teaching To In College And High School (PDF) by Richard H. Hersh
3. Assessing Cricital Thinking, Analytical Reasoning, Problem-Solving And Writing In High School (PDF) by Richard H. Hersh
4. The Consortium for School Networking Conference (COSN)

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Technorati Tags: education, learning, assessment, testing, highstakes, accountability, test, tests, thinking, criticalthinking, richardhersh, cosn, cosn08, cosn2008

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs indicates the perception of a safe environment, along with basic physiological needs, are pre-requisites for the development of higher order needs eventually culminating in self-actualization. This podcast focuses on our ethical obligations as moral educators to speak out and take action when pedagogic crimes are taking place in our schools against students. The specific pedagogic crimes I address in this podcast include verbally threating elementary school children with the loss of their entire summer vacation if they don’t work harder and score better on high stakes tests, and the departmentalization of students in first grade. Neither of these actions are supported by educational research as ways to enhance student achievement or promote the sort of school culture in which learners of any age can thrive. Both of these actions have been and are being taken in a Texas elementary school, whose identity I am not disclosing for reasons I explain in the podcast. These reprehensible actions are NOT taking place everywhere in all our schools, and I am not wanting to further erode public perceptions of teachers and our schools in general by sharing these stories and ideas. I do believe, however, that cultures of fear are more prevalent than ever in many of our public schools today because of NCLB and our predominant, destructive political culture emphasizing high stakes accountability. As moral human beings in our communities, we have obligations to speak out when children are being harmed both physically and verbally, even if those actions are being taken in the name of “raising student achievement,” “improving test scores,” or “getting our kids ready for high school.”

 

 Podcast228: Pedagogic Crimes Against Students [36:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2657)

Show Notes:

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on WikiPedia
2. Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse on WikiPedia
3. Enron article on WikiPedia
4. Whistleblower article on WikiPedia
5. “The Power of Reading, Second Edition: Insights from the Research” by Stephen Krashen
6. Website of Dr. Stephen Krashen
7. “Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement” by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, Jane E. Pollock
8. “Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents” by Phillip Schlechty
9. Leadership Applied: Building Powerful Learning Communities by Dr. Tim Tyson @ Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference 2007
10. The Blogging School by Dr. Tim Tyson @ Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference 2007
11. Website of Dr. Tim Tyson
12. Podcast of Dr. David Berliner’s 2006 presentation: “High Stakes Testing is the Enemy”
13. “The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards”" by Alfie Kohn
14. Podcast of Dr. Allan L. Beane’s 2007 presentation: How to Create Bully Free Classrooms and Schools

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Technorati Tags: learning, school, education, nclb, reform, schoolreform, classrooms, research, bullying, alfiekohn, timtyson, marzano, robertmarzano, schlechty, maslow, safety, berliner, politics

I listened to the second part of David Warlick’s interview with Holly Jobe as a podcast this morning driving into work. What an inspiring and thought provoking message! Here are a few key takeaways:

Our focus as educators and learners should be helping students become LITERATE and actual practitioners, not simply pretenders, of the content area expertise we require them to study. Learning tasks should help students authentically demonstrate their own knowledge and skills as mathematicians, scientists, writers, readers, oral communicators, and historians. Rather than completing study guides and seatwork which bores everyone, students should be challenged to work in teams (as part of project-based learning tasks) and create authentic, creative knowledge products which reflect their understandings of content and ideas in novel ways.

When we measure “success” of educational reform initiatives, we have to pay attention to the anecdotes. Teachers who self-reported that they remained in the classroom, rather than retiring from the profession as they had previously planned, to participate in their Pennsylvania school’s innovative learning initiative is a HUGE flag of impact.

Technology does not offer a panacea for the challenges which face education, but a forward looking pedagogical vision focusing on student COLLABORATION and CREATION of knowledge products WEDDED TO appropriate technologies is often transformative. When synergy develops around students’ expectations of engaging learning tasks along with teacher expectations of student learning and behavior, the results can be exciting and positive.Give a listen to what Holly shared with David. I’m inspired!

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education, school, change, reform, educationreform, school2, davidwarlick, hollyjobe, pennsylvania