21st+Century+Learning

Dowling College

EDE 6633

Video & Telecom For the Classroom Professor Dr. George Maurer Position Paper – Assignment #1 Linda J. Tillinghast 1 Education in American Schools Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow Shift Happens What was school like for my parents? What was school like for me? What is school like for children today? What will school be like or what should it be like ten years from now? These are very interesting questions. Michael Keany, in his sometimes-humorous article to high school principles, entitled How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century, makes a compelling argument for educators to “wake up and smell the coffee.” We have waffled long enough concerning the shift to technology integration into curricula and it’s going to have huge consequences on our children’s futures. Keany contends that “Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed. A yawning chasm (with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside the schoolhouse. Yes, I am sure that is how my grand parents learned, my parents learned, and how I learned. However, at this point in time, I respectfully begin to slightly disagree with Mr. Keany whom I hold in extremely high regard. He wrote that article back in 2006, six years ago. I have the fortunate experience to work district-wide in a district that has “managed” through these difficult economic times since then. There is a variety of staff development that goes on and there has been technology upgrading throughout the district, so I see a variety of teaching and learning going on. For the most part, I would say that Mr. Keany’s description does not describe elementary instruction. Many teachers work in groups with children, one on one with children, sit in morning meetings with children on a carpet, and children do work in collaborative group activities. Furthermore, chalkboards have given way to interactive white boards. Teachers develop lessons in math with visual manipulatives and students have the opportunity to interact with the white board. Teachers develop lessons for writing on the interactive white board and students develop shared writing pieces and go through the writing process together. Teachers develop graphic organizers as students read novels and students can work together to fill in the graphic organizer on the interactive white board. Students go to a computer lab on a regular 2

basis where they learn various applications. However, as we move to the secondary level, you begin to see a shift. The junior high school teachers still engage students in group, and collaborative work. There is not a reliance on textbook reading and assignments. There are fewer tables and more rows, so when there are groups working, you can see desks being moved and students sprawled out on the floors inside and outside the classroom. Junior high teachers use the interactive white boards to develop poetry together with students, to cooperatively solve math equations, to fill in time lines in history, and the list can go on. Moving up further into the high school level (9th through 12th grade), I see a cacophony of styles. Chalk and talk of course still is favored among a percentage of teachers that I believe either just don’t know any other way to deliver instruction or unfortunately don’t care enough to try something new. Conversely, I do see power point presentations with animations, streaming videos, class notes being supplied to students from the power points, songs to the periodic table being played from a You Tube video and the class singing along. Yet, in all the good that I have described, what is still missing at every level is technology in the hands of the students. My Beliefs, Their Beliefs, Bringing Beliefs Together is Key In the You Tube Video, Learning to Change – Changing to Learn, one of the individuals to speak noted that education ranked 55 out of 55 in its informational technology use as compared to other sectors or institutions. Of course, this is a very sad commentary regarding how slow change comes to education, which in my 21 years in public school education has been the trend, be it the change from self-contained special education classes to integrated co-teaching models where special education students were included in the general education classes. That change caused quite the uproar among teachers and parents alike. Change is like that. It causes people to become unsettled, even angry. On the subject of change, when it is instituted, it is critical that all of the stakeholders are ready for it. By this I mean, the stakeholders have to desire it, be trained for it, and have all the necessary resources for it, or it is pointless. It does not matter if I believe students in every 3 American school today should have a Google Chrome book or an iPad, if I cannot convince the stakeholders (parents, boards of education, teachers, state and federal government, even students!), what I think does not matter one bit. Trying to push my agenda would be like trying to push a boulder up Mount Rushmore, alone. You need everyone on board. I want to point out in the “Change” video a student held up a sign that read something to the effect I bring my laptop to class, but I don’t use it for class. I spend class time on Face Book. I have also been part of an administrative program where the cohort was given laptops so that we could “collaborate” and use the computer, of course, in our classes. I have to be honest. The computers were never set up for social networking, printing was a problem, and so the only thing they were used for was note taking during class. These are perfect examples where not all the stakeholders were prepared and/or on board, the resources were not really what they should have been, and so the outcomes were not materialized. In the New York Times article, In a Digital Future, Textbooks are History, published in August of 2009, by Tamira Lewin, she discusses various school districts across the country where technology is taking hold, but it is important to note that in each case there are high-ranking district and/or government officials leading the initiatives. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all I am not going to even enter into the discussion about the current teacher evaluation process and student assessments being mandated by states (really coming down from the federal government) that will have a significant impact on pedagogy in the United States. In essence further halting change in education that government claims to want and demand. Interestingly, I did come across an online article in Education Week where government appears to be on the right track. The article is entitled ‘League of Innovative Schools’ Seeks new Ideas, Solutions, which was published on March 22, 2012 by Jason Tomassini. The Digital Promise is a non-for-profit organization created by Congress during the presidency of George W. Bush to bring people together, expedite, streamline, and scale up technological innovation in education. The article talks about one school’s efforts, the progress, and the long road yet to go. I did not know something like that even existed. 4

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/22/26league.h31.html?tkn=TOWFdCodhHC0uVtO TpxMxeYkS30dsnLbAaTJ&cmp=clp-edweek In My Opinion. . . The best examples of 21st century learning are offered through the You Tube videos linked below and are done and said far better than I can write in black and white. The first video is entitled The Networked Student and the second is entitled the 21st Century Learner. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw&feature=related 5

References: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html?_r=1&pagewant ed=all http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/22/26league.h31.html?tkn=TOWFdC odhHC0uVtOTpxMxeYkS30dsnLbAaTJ&cmp=clp-edweek http://www.k12.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Leveraging-Technology-white-paper- 092911.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tahTKdEUAPk&feature=player_embedded http://www.delicious.com/search?p=networked+student