Future of Education

I just came across this interview with David Sherman, the principal of South Park Elementary School in Deerfield, Illinois. I’m sure he gets plenty of cracks about “South Park”. One statement he made stood out to me;

…I believe that I must model the use of Web 2.0 tools for the staff and parents. I feel that it is my responsibility to keep learning about these tools, which I do mostly through RSS feeds. I am confident that the teachers now know enough about Web 2.0 tools to start using them, so I am starting to “push” a little harder at the individual teacher level whenever the time is right. I spend a lot of time talking with teachers about ways to incorporate these tools into their teaching. Often, these discussion come from my classroom visits and teacher observations.

I don’t expect all administrators to as tech savvy as David Sherman, or others such as Chris Lehmann. What I would like to see is all administrators to have a basic understanding of technology, specifically web 2.0. I want them to understand the role technology plays in an effective 21st century school. I want them to be able to employ these technologies to increase student achievement in their district/building . When I say administrators, I mean superintendents, principals, directors and any other personnel in a position of leadership.

Once the administrators take on this role as a technology user, then more teachers in their district will take steps to do the same. At that point we will be able to push the way David Sherman is. Getting his teachers to a new level. If the teachers are moving to a new level, just think about the places they must be taking their students. I hope I can play a role in helping my district reach these new levels.

I am very fortunate to have one of the largest technology conferences in the US only 15 minutes from my front door. The unfortunate part is the lack of technology available at this conference. We have some of the best minds in the country keynote every year. This year Wes Fryer was the opening keynote speaker. He brought a great message of bringing change into the educational world. With thousands of educators in the audience he tweeted a message that he was going to have a back channel open using chazzy. As the introductions were made, he chatted with those of use that were in the chat room. WOW, chatting with the keynote speaker 2 minutes before he walked on stage, this is cool use of technology. This could have been a powerful conversation, but!

There is no wireless Internet at this conference. Ok, there is a coffee shop with one small hotspot. The only people in this conversation were those of us with smart phones (as if I needed a reason to love my iPhone, it gave me another). What about all the people in the audience who could have benefited from the conversation?

So what does this mean? Every negative has a lesson. The lessons I learned are:
•    Make sure you have the connectivity to support your audience. In schools, the wires, servers and other network hardware are more important than the computers. Feed your funds into the backbone of your network!
•    It is productive to have a digital background conversation during a lecture. I was engaged in the lecture (which is what a keynote really is). Our students can text, chat, IM during class and be productive. There need to be rules and guidelines though. I need to ponder this one a bit more.
•    Even the tech people evolve. A year ago I would have never said “let them use their cell phones I class.” This showed me as a learner how it can be done productively.

Those are lessons I have the ability to affect. One lesson I can’t affect is regarding eTech Ohio. I’ve been told for years about the dysfunction of eTech. This conference displays the dysfunction. Hopefully new leadership in the state of Ohio will bring new life to the governing body of technology in the state.

As I prepare for my presentations over the next week (school board tomorrow and Ohio eTech Conference next week) I want to use this space to thank my personal learning network (PLN). In my preparations, the responses I have gotten from my twitter friends,  Diigo Groups, co-workers, and my wife (she is my co-presenter at eTech) have been an amazing resource. I would suggest to all teachers to create an online PLN to be an add on to your face-to-face contacts. You will become a better teacher in no time because of the ideas and resources that will come your way. So thank you PLN.

Every once in a while I put together short training. They are hands on, quick, easy learning events. Yesterday I did one on making your computer read a Microsoft Word document back to you.

Why would a teacher want to have a student do this? Here are few reasons:

1. Find mistakes in their writing. I hate when my porpoise doesn’t have a purpose in my writing.
2. Learn to edit…you write and make mistakes, let them listen and find the mistakes
3. Share your ideas by adding a comment

Click here to learn

(This tutorial was made for Word 04′ on the mac. You can do this with other versions of Word, but the steps may be a little different.)

I love Animoto. It is a fun and easy way to create a short slide show video and share it with the world. It is now available on the iphone (and I assume the iPod touch). I created this video while waiting in the drive through line at Wendy’s (No I didn’t add eat healthier to my news years resolution list). It was that easy. By the time I finished eating, I opened the link and watched it. I give the app. 5 stars. It gave me a reason to take even more pictures with my iPhone. My first Animoto iPhone Video

Anyone have any great ideas on how to use this is a classroom?

Today is the Sunday many educators dread. After two great weeks of celebrating the holidays and being with our loved ones, we must now cram in all the work we have been putting off the last two weeks. I am no different. I have four videos to create for a presentation to district administrators this Friday, I need to create a wiki for a central Ohio technology integration collaborative I am working to create, come up with a 15 minute how to session for elementary teacher centered around Word, update my materials for Ohio Etech Presentation, and reply to all the emails I have received the last two weeks. So, why am I writing this post?

One of my goals for 2009 is to blog consistently. This means I may have to force myself to procrastinate some of my other work in order to write (wish my high school teachers could read that line, they would pass out from the shock). I believe I have some great ideas to share, and it is time I put my thoughts out for the world to see.

I am going to start 2009 with a series of post about what a 21st century school should look like. Few of my ideas are going to be original, but I hope it to be another place to start a conversation. The first post later this week will be about assessment in the 21st century. It is time to end standardized testing and put the technology that is available to work. From there I will branch off and discuss; taking bells out of the school, integration across curricular areas, writing, research, the use of course management systems, web 2.0, etc. By the time I’m done, this may be a 30 part series.

I’m looking forward to doing the research and hope to see what the educational bloggers think and have to share.

Here is one of the few reasons I like my Mac better than the PC I used last year.

Photo Booth is a blast. The question I have for the education community is, what are the educational uses? Creative writing, science, art? Would love to hear how people are using this ‘fun’ tool in classrooms.

There is an article in todays Columbus Dispatch titled A-Twitter over youths.

Bob Evans is looking past the farm to bridge the digital divide between its traditional customer base and the tech-savvy younger crowd it also wants to reach.

To help, the Columbus-based restaurant and food-products company has entrusted a new marketing campaign to an Ohio University student-run public-relations firm. The students will help it create pages on Facebook and Twitter to reach younger consumers.

(If anyone is not familiar with Bob Evans, it is a large restaurant chain based out of Columbus, Ohio)

The business world is moving into social media. What about education? The question arises, does Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have a place in education? Should teachers have Facebook pages?

In Ohio, Ohio Education Association has made public statements to teachers to delete Facebook pages if they have them.  To me this is another example of a knee jerk reaction in education. Someone, somewhere has used it inappropriately, so instead of educating the masses how to use the tool properly, we are going to tell them to stop using it and use our filters to block it at school.

Students are going to use social networks no mater what we do. It is part of our society. So isn’t it the roll of schools, in conjunction with parents, to teach students how to use the tools responsibly and effectively? How can you teach a student to use a tool in which you don’t know how to use yourself. For me, I’m not going to stop using it. I see a huge benefit to my social network and my online professional network. I would say I gain as much knowledge from these groups as I ever have from any other source in my life. As important to the knowledge I gain, it the fun I have participating.

As you ponder my words and thoughts, you might follow it up with Will Richardson’s most recent post that talks about students use of social networks and their learning. It includes some interesting findings from a recent study by the MacAuthor Foundation.

I’ve watched kids listen to their Ipods, work on their computers with multiple windows open and IM all at the same time. I’ve watched this and wondered; how productive can this be?

A few minutes ago I looked at my desk and realized they can be very productive because “I am becoming one of them.” Right now I have my Iphone syncing, I’m following my twitter “friends” on my desktop using twitterific, I’m listening to some cool tunes using Pandora (Eye of the Tiger is currently playing. I feel like getting up and running some stairs), I have a spreadsheet and a word doc open, I have 6 tabs open in my browser (one being e-mail of course) and I have my ical up, all at the same time. With all this open, I’m getting a lot of work done. On top of getting work done, I’m learning because my twitter network is filled with great minds. Best of all, I’m enjoying myself. My foot taping to the beat tells me that. Now if I just force myself to create the 30 new Moodle courses for the teachers I trained yesterday.

What does this mean? I’m not sure, but it was one of those self awareness moments that we all need to have.

As I work toward the future (or catching teachers up to the present), I struggle with where to start. The day to day tasks of emails, meetings, etc… sometimes move my focus. I am now trying to refocus on the question, how do we get teachers into the 21st century. Some are already on their way. Those are the early adopters. Many are interested, they just don’t know what direction to take. Should I focus solely on these folks right now. There are enough of them to fill my days. The dilemma I run into is, what about the kids who don’t have these teachers? Is it fair? A student could luck out and get all the “21st century teachers” and live an engaged life. Another students could sit through 6 hours of lecture a day. The only engagement they would get would be lunch conversations.

My goal today is to figure out what the focus of my work is. Do I target groups? Do I fight the fight to change the entire system? Do I keep spending my time with the teachers who come to me (the good news is there are enough of these to fill the majority of my time)? Oh, my brain is already aching and I haven’t even started?