Future of Education

I always start professional development sessions with a video clip if I can find a good one that fits. I just saw this one and am wondering how teachers would react to it. What do you think?

About a week ago I asked my PLN on Twitter, “When a teacher says ‘I don’t have time for that’ do they mean, I don’t know how & I’m not willing to take the time to learn.” I will start by saying this is not my opinion, I was trying to start a discussion.

There was a great amount of wisdom in the responses.

@futureofedu It might just mean “I’m scared to try that!” from @kellyhines

I agree, many want to jump in, they are just scared of the water. In my district, there is me and the others in our educational technology department there to be their life jackets. Still, not all people are jumpping in.

@futureofedu means teacher doesn’t know how said thing fits w/curriculum therefore said thing is perceived as added on to curriculum. from @nancydevine

We must stress that it isn’t one more thing. When we talk about embedding technology and 21st century skills, it happens with the teaching of content, not separately.

@futureofedu Probably more like: “I’m being pulled in too many directions with stuff I already know to take on something else.” from @nlowell

@futureofedu Yes and no-My current workload exceeds my contractual liability.Should I feel pressured into even more with no allowance – no? from @sdisbury

@zemote @futureofedu re: teachers/time – I don’t even have time to do the things I know how to do and I desperately want to do. from @teacherc

Dear adminstrtors, please make time in your teachers schedule for them to learn and grow. Hire people in your district that can support this professional learning.

Dear Politician, Find a way for the above statement to be financially feasible for ALL schools.

Teachers need to shift their practices to embed 21st century skills and technology. This should not be an option. The problem is the lack of understanding and funding for this shift to happen at the speed it should be.  The question I am left to ponder, what do we do to change this?

A month or so ago our board of eduction asked me and my colleague’s to find some of the best schools in the country. The purpose was for us to visit the best and learn from them. I threw the question out to my twitter friends and here where the replies I received.

arvind@futureofedu 21st century school: Science Leadership Academy

jonbecker@futureofedu have you seen/read about High Tech High?

jonbecker@futureofedu they started in SD and have spread their wings: http://is.gd/kYrR

brueckj23@futureofedu Follow teacher @ this school on Plurk. Seem 2 b right there when it comes 2 things you are looking 4. http://bit.ly/CEaZq

Franki22@futureofedu I would say Center For Inquiry in SC is a model school–not sure what they do but questions and student thinking is key there

Here a few others I have found in my own searches:

Walter Payton HS (Illinois)

South Park Elementary

I’ll post more in the upcoming weeks as I continue my research. I hope to get a chance to visit the Science Learning Academy next year during the Educon conference.

It looks like the winner of this list for my travels will be High Tech High in San Diego. I am looking forward to the opportunity to go out there and see what they are doing. Hopefully we can go out there learn a few lessons and make our district one everyone wants to see in the future.

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.

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.

I am getting ready to create an online professional development class for the teachers in my district. It will be worth one semester hour college credit. I am currently trying to figure out what the content of the class will be.  I will be using Moodle to teach the class. In our district we use Moodle for our blogging, wikis, online classes, etc… Last year I taught a class that covered a wide range of topics (Inspiration, blogging, digital photography, photo editing, teacher webpages). It went well, but I want this class to have more of a focus. My thought was to center the class around “using web 2.0 tools in the classroom”My question is, with the numerous tools out there, what is best to focus on? Any opinions would be appreciated.

I will have to use this as my first Twitter question. I finally took the time a few nights ago to create an account. I now have to find a few more people to follow me. If you are a Twitter’er (what is the correct term?) my username is “futureofedu”