The story has everything I’ve come to expect in articles about education reform efforts: quotes from teachers who hate the idea, quotes from teachers who love it, and plenty of tired cliches that speak to a general misunderstanding about the current state of life in the classroom.

Among those cliches is the oft-repeated idea that teachers see technology as a threat to the authority they have in the classroom. Such phrasing irritates me to no end, first because it purports to depict teachers as people whose chief concern is ensuring that they are the center of attention at all times, rather than as people whose primary goal always is to educate their students in the most effective ways. Second, this classification also reveals a general lack of understanding about how teaching and learning occurs in the classroom of today. Take this bit, for example, from the article:

And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers.

*Big sigh*. Alright … first, most modern educators are being trained–and have been trained for at least the last fifteen years–to be facilitators of learning, rather than authorities who talk at students instead of engaging them in the work of discovery. And guess what? We’ve known about this theory of education for a long time. Check out the work of Lev Vygotsky, who died in 1934, but whose ideas about collaborative learning still guide teacher training programs today. Computers are not a threat to a teacher’s “place of authority” in part because a good number of teachers already adopt a style of learning coach rather than professor in the literal sense of that word.

I get that reporters might not know this. They might not have been in enough classrooms to see how often students are not sitting in tidy rows listening to the teacher, but rather are working in groups to discover answers, perform research, or wade through difficult concepts together. But it is concerning when school superintendents seem to lack such an understanding, as is the case with Idaho schools superintendent Tom Luna, who had this to say about the coming changes to Idaho schools:

The role of the teacher definitely does change in the 21st century. There’s no doubt. The teacher does become the guide and the coach and the educator in the room helping students to move at their own pace.

Again, this is not new to the “21st century.” Teachers have been playing the role of the “guide on the side” for years. And if Mr. Luna has teachers in his district who aren’t doing that, he should address that problem first before he worries about getting a laptop or tablet into the hands of every student at the school.

The frustrating thing here is how these kinds of articles so often play into an anti-teacher sentiment that appears to be creeping across the country. Once again, teachers are portrayed as merely lazy autocrats whose chief concern is for their own job, rather than for the educational well-being of their students. Are there some teachers who fit this description? Most certainly–just as every profession has people in it who appear to care little about being good at what they do. But the majority of teachers I know are people who are creative, innovative, passionate and dedicated, and who continually evolve their practice in order to serve their students better.

Obviously, as someone who is a huge champion of technology in the classroom, I think there is great potential here for Idaho’s schools to help their students become technologically literate as well as academically proficient. To me, this is not an either-or proposition. But the superintendent and others charged with implementing these changes seem to have made the classic mistake of forcing them on educators without a clear plan as to how they will help teachers make use of the new hardware and software with which they will soon be equipped. According to the Times, the details of how teachers will be trained in best practices for working with technology “were still being worked out.”

Hmmm … Well, if technology is Idaho’s number one priority going into the next academic year, my advice would be to start with focusing professional development days on technology. It’s clear some teachers have followed their own passion for these tools, and they could be the professional development leaders for their colleagues in their respective disciplines. Have a science teacher in your district who uses Google maps to chart sightings of native and non-native bird species? Great! Have her lead a session on that for the other science teachers in the district. Know an English teacher who uses Twitter to teach parody? Fantastic. Have him help colleagues learn how to use Twitter so they can then understand its implications for teaching.

Without good training, teachers who have not yet adopted technology and explored its uses in the classroom will continue to harbor fears that they won’t know how to use it or that it has no purpose. As educators, we should understand well what is at the root of people’s resistance to change–we see it all the time with our students, and we know at its core is often a simple fear of failure. If we empower educators to use technology well, they will do so.

I haven’t even addressed Idaho’s plan to require that all high school students take online courses for two of the 47 credits required for graduation. Perhaps they could begin with Code Academy, which provides free interactive lessons on coding for anyone, anywhere. High schools everywhere often lack the resources to offer coding classes, despite the fact that this skill is one that will likely seep into all manner of jobs in the years to come–not only those once referred to as “webmaster.”

The times, they are a-changin’–and they’ve been changing for quite some time. What hasn’t changed, sadly, are they myriad ways that those outside the classroom talk about change to those who work on the inside. Maybe Idaho’s superintendent Luna can find an online course somewhere in effective relationship-building and organizational management. From there he can lead by example, while also hopefully learning a few techniques to get teachers under his leadership to embrace technology rather than resist it.

“Think of the ingredients that make for a good school,” Jordan Weissmann, the post’s author, begins. Are you thinking of them, readers? OK. Well, hopefully “Small classes. Well-educated teachers. [And] plenty of funding,” weren’t  ingredients on that mental list you just made, because if they were, according to Weissmann, “your recipe would be horribly wrong.” Ruh-roh!

Weissmann draws this conclusion from the newly-published results of a study by economist (and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient) Roland Fryer, and his colleague Will Dobbie, whose determination after studying data from 35 charter schools in New York City is that far more important than money to a school is its culture–primarily one that supports teachers, allows for maximum instruction time and maintains “a relentless focus on academic goals.”

Does this information really turn “everything we know about education” on its head? I certainly don’t think so. A large part of the problem surrounding our nation’s conversation about education is how much it leaves out the voices of the people who know the most: the teachers who do the work of educating our youth, and the youth themselves, who know a decent school culture when they experience it. After ten years of teaching, I’ve come to know quite a few teachers, and none of them would find the conclusions of this study surprising. None would say that teachers would not benefit from more support and mentoring; in fact, nearly all of the teachers I know and have talked to have said that one of the great needs in education as a field is for newer teachers to have access to and continued interaction with more experienced educators over a longer period of time than is allotted during one’s student teaching days. Schools that do facilitate this kind of mentoring have vibrant departments in which all staff can learn from one another, making for a more cohesive department and a better-scaffolded learning experience for all students throughout their time at the school.

And do we really need to have a “genius grant” to figure out that more instruction time equals better academic results from our students? While they might have a reputation for watching the clock, students know when a class period is too short to allow for any mastery of the subject matter. If one of your aims is to make your students not simply know certain material but also have a degree of appreciation for it, you’re better off not zipping on through the course content at lightning speed with no time for reflection.

Perhaps the only surprising finding in this study is that schools wouldn’t need “plenty of funding” to be successful. I do wonder how schools could offer the “high-dosage tutoring” that Dobie and Fryer’s study concludes is a big factor in students’ academic success without some decent funding. Are these schools bringing on volunteer tutors who can spend hours of time after school with students without getting paid for it? That’s fine if they are, but that would be an impractical model at best if it’s one we should be trying to replicate in schools across the country.

I can’t speak for every teacher out there, but I know I personally would love a little less sensationalism when it comes to reporting on education and the changes we should or shouldn’t make to the institutions that provide it. Bringing in more voices from the teachers on the “front lines” and the students making their way through “the system” could go a long way toward providing a clearer look at what is and isn’t working in our nation’s schools. And maybe then “Everything You Know about Education” would be a lot more than what the major media outlets currently offer in their education reporting.

Thanks to this post from Mind/Shift KQED for the tip.

I think schools are probably three to four years behind the rest of the world in how we’re communicating.

Those are the words of Richard O’Malley, Superintendent for Edison Schools in New Jersey, as quoted in the article, Social media go from school ban to teacher’s tool. I can relate to this statement—the California schools I’ve worked in have often been at least “three to four years behind” in terms of the technology they use to communicate within the school and beyond. And this is not an issue that confines itself to how we communicate within our schools. That schools “are three to four years behind the rest of the world in how we’re communicating” is a symptom of a larger problem–a lack of available, up-to-date, working technology in schools. When I taught a group of New York City high school teachers this past summer, their concerns were the same. Their reasons for not making use of technology in their classrooms included that the technology available to them was either outdated or frequently broken. Or, in the cases in which they did have access to working technology, the resources were limited, making it difficult to share the few available computers amongst an entire department full of teachers and students.

Common frustrations that transcend departments and districts… How can we as teachers and administrators work to ensure that we don’t fall further behind as technology continues to advance?

Kids need to start establishing a positive digital impression of themselves. Without question, it will be the norm for these students to be Googled when they begin to look for jobs — even if it’s part time.

Yes!! Yes. Do read this post, via @MindShiftKQED.

This piece, by José Picardo, explores some barriers—both on the teacher side and the student side of the equation—to using social networks in the classroom. As Picardo points out: 

Loss of control is also an important factor for many teachers who might see the adoption of social media, not only as extremely disruptive, but also as a further erosion of academic rigour and, ultimately, of their traditional role and relevance. This may be because the tools that are familiar to our students are not so to teachers who might therefore feel unable to control their students online.

I definitely think one barrier to the adoption of various forms of technology is this lack of familiarity with the tools and platforms involved. The key to removing this barrier, from my perspective, is to help train teachers in a way that makes them feel empowered by and excited about the possibilities afforded by these various technologies. (Shameless plug: Read about my experience teaching New York City educators involved in school change to use social media and blogging platforms to aid their research and reform efforts.)

Picardo also notes that students may not be interested in using social networks in their classes. 

Anecdotal observations have led me to believe that secondary students see the internet as their territory and that they feel uncomfortable when this territory is encroached upon by their teachers. In my experience, teacher attempts to engage students using social networks can be seen by some students as initially intriguing but ultimately futile and, above all, uncool.

I have also experienced this pushback firsthand with my students, but have found that they can get past those issues if you integrate social media in a way that really has a purpose in your classroom.

Picardo’s piece is definitely worth a read, particularly if you are working to convince teachers in your school to begin incorporating new media into their classes. Those of you who have begun using social media in the classroom: What roadblocks have you encountered? How have you surmounted these obstacles?

Great tips for strategically developing a technology integration plan for your school or district.

Last week I taught a class for the New School’s Institute for Urban Education summer institute program. The class, called Rebooting Pedagogy: Digital Tools for School Change, provided hands-on instruction for teachers to learn how to use social media and blogging platforms to create a professional public presence for the work they are doing in their schools toward education reform. I turned the teachers on to free tools they can use to gather and then edit images on the web, so I thought I’d share those tools here as well.

First, one of the best free resources for fair-use images is Flickr’s “Creative Commons.” The link above takes you to Flickr’s “Advanced Search” page. From there, put in the key words you want to search for, then check the following box:

 Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content 

From there, you can also check either of the two boxes below:

  Find content to use commercially 

      Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon

Since you will likely not be using your image commercially, the only other box to think about is the second box—“Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon.” Checking this box will prompt Flickr to search for photos that users have uploaded and made available for use and adaptation by others. So if you wanted to modify the image in any way, checking “Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon,” ensures that you have permission to modify any of the images returned in that search.

Wondering how to modify images without paying for Photoshop? There are lots of great, free photo editors out there. Two favorites of mine are Aviary and Pixlr. There’s also Skitch, which I found out about from a student in class last week. One of the other students used it in a presentation and loved it:

Image editors can be extremely helpful for drafting instructions for students to follow, particularly if you are trying to show them how to do something online. They could also be a fun way for students to illustrate creative projects for various classes. So try them out! Experiment! It’s fun! 

Have favorite image editors not listed here? Let me know in the comments!

#NSIUE Earthquake, hurricane, and 2 weeks with you all...amazing forces of nature...

August 26, 2011 8:22 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@MsEllenBK

Ellen Brody-Kirmss

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to teach a class as part of a summer institute for the New School‘s Institute for Urban Education (IUE). My class, Rebooting Pedagogy: Digital Tools for School Change, was one of three graduate classes offered to teachers who have been working with the IUE for the past year on projects for implementing school reform. These teachers, working in school-specific groups, have each committed to drafting a research question that they will then explore throughout the next year to see if specific changes at their respective schools can lead to increased student engagement and achievement. More on those reforms in a minute.

My class focused on helping teachers understand a variety of tools and social media platforms through which they can work collaboratively and network with others outside of their respective schools, while publicly documenting their progress for everyone to see. Some of the teachers had some experience with social media–nearly everyone was already on Facebook, and a few had Twitter accounts. But some tools (like Typewith.me) were new to everyone. And even those who had experience with Twitter and Facebook found there were still features these platforms offered or ways of using these sites that the teachers had not yet explored. 

As the recent fight over whether educators should be able to “friend” their students on Facebook brought to light, educators and school administrators are still parsing out how much access students should have to the wide open Internet, and whether or not there’s a place for social media in the classroom. In hopes of keeping students focused on work and not play and to shield young people from potentially damaging, dangerous or inappropriate information,  public school campuses block sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and … well … pretty much any site that might be the slightest bit interesting. Obviously, these blocks then make it difficult for teachers to take full advantage of the Internet in their classes, and that leads to students having fewer opportunities to engage with the kinds of social media that will help them foster connections and communicate with others in a professional, responsible way. Many of the teachers in my class expressed frustration with these policies that are increasingly becoming major impediments in reducing the digital divide:

A5 the only question I would have about this is how can we make it accessible to the students without a computer or internet access? #nsiue

August 23, 2011 6:29 AM via TweetChatReplyRetweetFavorite

@CynthiaRejalaga

Cynthia Rejalaga

Indeed–social media sites are increasingly changing the way we communicate, both professionally and personally. More companies than ever are using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as tools for recruitment, and it’s doubtful that this number will decrease as our teens and tweens grow into adulthood. Our students, then, need to begin to learn to use these tools. They need to know how to secure their privacy while creating a public self in a world that allows anyone to reveal anything and everything online. But those without Internet access at home often won’t have the chance to engage with these platforms and to learn all the ways they can be used. So it is especially problematic that teachers seeking to provide students with the opportunity to engage with Internet resources often don’t have the chance to do so when those resources are blocked at school.

And across the board, the teachers I worked with felt that the potential for tools like Twitter to help them advance change in their own schools and beyond by connecting with other educators all over the world, made them that much more committed to working with these tools and thinking about how to use them in their classrooms. And in fact, social networking may well be a key factor in helping these educators unite and thereby reform the rules that restrict Internet access at school.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, though, my class was not focused on teaching the educators how to use social media in their classrooms. Here’s the course description, from my syllabus:

It is no secret that there is a national conversation going on about education in this country and what “should” or “should not” be happening in our schools. Unfortunately, the perspective that is often left out of the conversation that is happening in the media is that of the teachers—the very people who know the most about what issues our schools face, why those issues can be challenging to fix, and what is needed in order to implement effective reform. In this class, you will learn to use digital tools and platforms (all of which are FREE!) to not only participate in the national conversation around education reform, but to shape that conversation and thereby help advance the work you are doing in your action research plans.

In other words, the teachers would be learning about social media, blogging, and essentially “building a personal brand” as educators in order to have a greater, more influential “say” in the various public debates around education reform. After reading, How Twitter Has Changed My Life, by Arianna O’Dell, many of them were inspired by the doors social media could open to them in that process:

@verbalcupcake Have been thinking a lot about an ongoing community of education thinkers. Seemed distant before. Now closer. #nsiue

August 23, 2011 5:47 AM via TweetChatReplyRetweetFavorite

@davedallen

davedallen

Excited about this: RT @davedallen: @verbalcupcake @arianna virtual social interaction can lead to in-person social interaction. #NSIUE

August 23, 2011 5:41 AM via TweetChatReplyRetweetFavorite

@abrockhouse

Alison Brockhouse

A At our school, building a FB page will be a revolutionary act w/+ and - fallout. Definitely worth doing! #nsiue

August 23, 2011 6:19 AM via TweetChatReplyRetweetFavorite

@SueSusan11

Sue

The teachers also felt that documenting and sharing their work with others via their respective blogs could help those in their communities (as well as the general public) understand the challenges they face in the classroom and the triumphs they meet in the face of these challenges. Because of the ways they will be publicizing the work they are doing, these teachers will be allowing anyone who is interested to learn more about how and why they are undertaking these reforms in their respective schools. Some of the teachers are investigating the role of co-teaching and collaborative teaching, asking the question: If administrators make space for and encourage collaborative teaching, does student achievement increase? Another group is exploring whether student engagement and passing rates improve when students are involved in decision-making at the school. Still another seeks to understand how to help “over-aged, under-credited” students fulfill their requirements so that they can graduate from high school. And a fourth group will examine whether student learning is advanced when core academic classes incorporate arts education into their lessons.

To implement these reforms and then study their effects, the teachers will need to recruit their colleagues as helpers. Spaces like Facebook groups and tools like Typewith.me can help these educators collaborate and problem-solve in efficient and effective ways, without adding too much extra weight to the day-to-day intensity of managing up to 150 students, grading their papers and exams, meeting with colleagues, and reaching out to parents.

In addition to getting their colleagues on board with their projects, these awesome educators can use Twitter to engage with teachers at other school sites, for advice, guidance, and collaboration on best practices. And the teachers’ blogs will tie all of these things together, documenting their journeys and helping the public at large understand the complex and complicated nature of widespread school reform–because at the beginning, it is not “widespread” reform; it is small reforms that gain momentum and circle outward. As these teachers develop and cultivate an online professional identity for themselves and their projects, they will increase the circumferance of that circle. As one of my teacher/students put it: “It will be viral!”

It’s important not to merely stick children in front of a computer, education research now shows. Instead, good teachers matter a lot — and nothing improves student performance as much as one-on-one human tutoring.

Oh, hey…you mean *teachers* still matter even when new technology is involved? Oh wait—and you’re saying they matter *especially* when new technology is involved? Well, imagine that.

The above quote is from an article about a brand new elementary school opening this school year in San Jose, California. Read more about the school here.