Sentiments On Common Sense

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I don’t often get a chance to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger but I will today. This from an edweek.org article:

“How can kids compete in the global economy when the information the schools feed them is stale and is outdated and is old?

Then, while minding my own business at home on a lovely Saturday in Shanghai, one of the teachers at our school sent me this link to an article stating that 1:1 programs are only as good as their teachers. The article titled, “One to One computing programs only as effective as their teacher” by Meris Stansbury states that:

Not surprisingly, the researchers say the most important factor of all is the teaching practices of instructors—suggesting school laptop programs are only as effective as the teachers who apply them.

Let’s apply some common sense here:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.

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Again, not surprisingly The authors of the Texas study conclude:

“Respondents at higher implementing schools reported that committed leaders, thorough planning, teacher buy-in, preliminary professional development for teachers, and a commitment to the transformation of student learning were keys to their successful implementation” of the state’s Technology Immersion Project.

Let’s add another layer of common sense:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!

Another educator listed in the same article states:

“In our 1-to-1 program … we put a big emphasis on project-based learning; otherwise, the laptop is no more than an expensive notepad. … Research needs to show the effects of this different style of teaching in terms of student engagement, motivation, and so-called 21st-century skills. The subject matters themselves don’t have as much room for improvement,”

Ok…once again,some common sense here:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!
4.  STUDENT CENTERED learning approaches.

Then they state in the article:

Given the importance of teachers in the success of school laptop initiatives, it’s no surprise that “teacher preparation through [ongoing professional development] was important for successful implementation,” write Bebell and O’Dwyer. “As 1-to-1 programs become more popular, the quality and depth of preparation that teachers receive for implementation will become a central predictor of program success.”

They go on to say:

“Buying laptops is the easiest part of the process, but too often school districts neglect such fundamental items as providing initial and ongoing professional development for the teachers and providing sufficient tech support,” Thompson said. “Taking a true TCO [total cost of ownership] approach would avoid many of the mistakes, as schools often do not have a good grasp of the real costs of starting and continuing a 1-to-1 program. And part of the TCO approach should be setting measurable program objectives and then doing formative and summative program evaluations, whose results are made known to everyone to provide a feedback loop in the continuous planning and re-planning that characterizes successful programs.”

I probably will have to stop here but… some more common sense:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!
4.  STUDENT CENTERED learning approaches.
5. ONGOING Professional Development!

Schools moving to a 1:1 program needs to read this article. It is a great summary of issues. I believe I have only scratched the surface.

In closing, I draw your attention to a quote from Tammy Stephens, CEO of the Stephens Group LLC, a private investment firm, is working on a dissertation that focuses on the evolution of transformational communication patterns in 1-to-1 computing environments. She has been evaluating a 1-to-1 program in the Milwaukee Public Schools for the past three years.

According to Stephens, changing teaching practices to incorporate 21st-century skills with laptops “is definitely an evolution, and it takes time for teacher practices to evolve.”

Technorati Tags: 1:1, PD, Professional Development, resources, teachers, k-12, leadership, eschoolnews,

Having worked in two schools in the past 9 years that are behind significant firewalls run by the government, I feel I have enough experience to write this blog post…. at least from the educational leadership side of the conversation.  In surveying the countries around the world that filter and block the internet, Saudia Arabia and my current location here in Shanghai are near the top.  In Saudi it was a bit easier to operate as we were able to get some satellite systems put in place to speed our upload and download speeds, and provide our students with access to the information systems that were blocked. A well placed dish behind the A/C systems allowed us just the right amount of access for our little school. There is a different access issue in my current country.  But, no matter where you are and what the mission and vision of your school is, there is ways to give your students access to Web 2.0 tools that are now present on the read/write web.  Now that g0-0g-le has left the country of my residence, I am getting more and more questions about how we run our student services.

To me it is like playing on the beach with all of that sand, or in your own sandbox. The sandbox, while a bit confined, allows you to build castles, dig holes and feel the grit in your hands just like you do at the beach. That sand is just like that at the beach and people on the outside of the box can reach in and touch the sand too, but whatever is inside that sandbox cannot be blocked by those problematic firewalls. When I have spoken to my community about dealing with the firewall and access issues, I always say, “We are just going to build our own virtual web 2.0 sandbox and give our kids access to similar tools, and access to a global audience.

Thus we have done or are in the process of doing the the following:

• Student email: We established our own domain name which allows us to monitor, administer and maintain a email webpresence. The key is the domain name which, if monitored carefully will not be a problem for the firewall.
• A blog installation at a local level.  We currently use WordPressMU and have found great success with the installation. Our school built this from the beginning and now has hundreds of students and teachers blogging as a part of the educational process.
• Web publishing space for teachers and students will soon be the norm. As a Mac school, the students and teachers will begin using iWeb to create their own sites.  It is easy, fast and allows for a global audience.
• In place of Flickr and YouTube we have established our own installation to serve and share our own videos and photos. This customize installation was based on some opensource software.  The key here is having strong technical support.
• Moodle- by serving this installation on-site with strong technical and educational support has helped launch many classroom programs toward a blended learning environment.
• Social networking alternatives such as Elgg can provide schools with that all important methodology that engage students in an online social environment.
• Up next—our own wiki installation.  There a many alternatives out there, but this is something that you will likely want to spend somemoney on to make work well.
• Locally hosted academic databases are the norm, not the exception. This gives the student access to online data but without the challenge of slow or filtered access.
• Locally hosted student information systems and parent communications systems, we use PowerSchool, but there are many alternatives. With the exception of our school’s webpage, everything is hosted locally so we don’t deal with the issues of access and internet reliability. If there is a problem, generally we have only ourselves to blame.
• Calendar servers and internal email systems with more than ample storage. Again, strong technical support is important, but even more important is a vision based committment to providing resources to the professionals in the school.
• Off-site backup and mirroring setup. This seems so natural and important, but interestingly enough this sort of setup is not considered essential.

The key to the list above is targeted staff development with an adopted set of tools. With a variety of tools like you see above, it is about choices, continual support and technical expertise. Living in a firewalled country is a challenge, but I also feel like our students are getting a great educational experience that allows them to learn the skills of web use and practice digital citizenship in our sandbox of tools without the intervention of a government entity.

Technorati Tags: shanghai, Saudi Arabia, internet access, web 2.0, digital literacy, student learning

Photos courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/55934520@N00/32962238 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/55934520@N00/33546752

I finally got around to reading Scott McCleod’s blog post “Notes from India – I’m not sure you appreciate…” which he wrote on the 18th of March. As an non-international educator, poor Scott sometimes gets the usual push back from my colleagues and peers working in international schools around the world. His time at the American School of Bombay, it seems, is no different that most.  Many of the international school educators think we are ahead of the stateside schools or national schools from where we come from, and our friend and colleague Scott points out in his own way that it is really not about being ahead of the pack, but instead it is about where you are going. In his blog post he paraphrases his statement in his 3 minute wrap up presentation:

One of the participants in my morning session said that I didn’t appreciate how far along you all are and that you are way above average when it comes to integrating technology into your instruction. And yet, from my conversations with many of you over the past few days, it’s very clear to me that there still are many things you’re not doing. For example, most of you have yet to put a computer in every kid’s hands; that’s why you’re here at this 1:1 conference. Most of you have yet to incorporate online courses into your curricula in any kind of substantive way. Few of you are teaching students to be empowered – not just responsible – digital citizens in our new information landscape. Few of you have a staff full of educators that are modeling active participation in that landscape. As far as I can tell, none of you has robust student assessments at every grade level that target higher-level, more cognitively-complex thinking and doing and being. None of you has moved to a truly personalized learning environment for every student, one in which students’ progress is facilitated and perhaps assessed by technology and is organized around student competence and completion rather than age and grade level. So some of you are sitting there in the audience feeling pretty good about yourselves. And you should. You’re blessed with wonderful financial resources, fantastic facilities, and amazing faculty. But for those of you who think I don’t appreciate how far along you are, all I can say is that I’m not sure you appreciate how far you still have to go.

Good, strong, progressive leadership requires that we keep our eye ahead, with our mind filled with the lessons of the past.  To pause, revel or rest on our successes will send a clear message to our communities that there is an end to this educational journey, and once arrived, the work will be done. Those of you will a full ounce of common sense will know at a gut level that there is no end, only another step to further challenge ourselves and our students to learn, grow and engage in an ever changing landscape for learning.Thanks Scott for holding us accountable and providing us some thinking points for our road ahead. Here is Scott’s TedxASB speech. A good one if you ask me!

Technorati Tags: scott mcleod, Dangerously Irrelevant, Digital Learning environments, international schools, ASB Unplugged

Photo courtesy of www.zoo-m.com/flickrstorm seach keywords “road ahead” and http://www.flickr.com/photos/14438701@N00/3389991715

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Dispatch from the Road: Shanghai, Jin Qiao, January 13, 2010.  My first posting of the new year and new decade.
I have fallen a bit off the blogging wagon as of late, and need to step it up a bit more again.  This reflection habit keeps me a bit more balanced.  Shanghai winter is upon us and the dashboard says 30 degree F. / -1 C as I look over my driver’s shoulder.  Brrr….

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Ok… you have to admit. You have toys in your house.  No matter what you do. No matter how old you are, you have toys!

One of my colleagues has an unfortunate addiction to golf clubs.  He has about 5 sets in his garage right next to his motorcycle and beer fridge.  All of these items he refers to as his toys. Another colleague loves woodworking and has an admirable set of woodworking tools that he refers to has his toys.  My toys have, in recent years, been computers.  I practically wore out a Macbook Pro keyboard by using it for both my amusement and my work for two consecutive years.  Does the fact that I used the computer for fun and entertainment make it less valuable as a tool for work, for my own efficiency and my own learning?  Other “toys” I have are sharp knives in my kitchen, great bowls for cooking, a turkey rack (see photo) and even that cute little metal thingy that I use to lace my poultry for quality cooking results.  All “toys” that I use to create, and enjoy!

I sit in the car this afternoon reflecting (no stewing) over an email I received from a community member stating that some people believe that technology tools — computers — have provided students with toys but “many” wonder about the buy back in terms of student learning.  The fact is that the students are, in our 1:1 program, really enjoying having full, unfettered use of their computers.  I believe the same holds true with the teachers.  The students have loaded on their own music, began building their own photo libraries. They have added bookmarks, tabs and links to the multiple browsers they use on their machines.  The really like their computers and have “fun” using them to learn, to communicate (formally and informally). They use them to create artwork, movies, podcasts, reports and documents. They use them to research, learn, comprehend and create new understandings about their world.  In short, it is a great learning toy… er… tool.

Applying a measure of common sense here, I believe that any school worth its salt would certainly choose to have students use tools they like and can customize to be their own, or not.

Using the argument about the “return on the investment”, I would argue the schools that choose the tools that are usable, motivational, fun and engaging get far more return on their investment than those who choose tools that are arduous, annoying, hard to use, not engaging (read boring here!) and laborious. Are we not here to get kids to engage deeply, passionately and with great fervor?

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: students and computers, laptop programs, toys, tools, learning

I had a nice compliment this week from visiting consultants we had at school. In our debrief with them at the end of an intense week of embedded PD, they noted to me that they liked working at my school because I keep my job focused on the big picture. Hmm… I thought… the “big picture”.   What exactly does that mean?

After it is all said and done, my search for the view from 35000 feet continues to keep me up at night. I wake up suddenly with a start and realize that we had not thought of this or that, and I really need to hone in on that idea further.  One of those is the role of libraries in our effort to provide a balanced digital and print environment to our students.  Yes… that’s right.. BALANCED!  Seeing as how the idea of balance needs to be defined, I was glad to see that one of my favorite blogger authors Doug Johnson (note:this site is blocked in China) has co-authored an article with Joyce Kasman Valenza in the School Library Journal titled “Things That Keep Us Up at Night”. (SLJ, 10/1/09) The article is targeted at librarians, but really has hit home with our administrative team at my school this week as well.  They write…

The future of the school library as a relevant and viable institution is largely dependent on us and how quickly we respond to change.

Libraries are no different than the classroom environment in many ways. The library, like the classroom is beginning to face an identity crisis of sorts.  The role of the learning space is being stretched by always available, always accessible and always relevant resources at the fingertips of the students.  The people who run libraries and classrooms are facing a sea of changing faces, with our students being completely at home in the digital environment and engaged in what seems like so many, many things simultaneously. Some of it good, and some of it bad and some of it useless and some it needing the guiding hand of a

trained professional educator, while other parts of it can be easily mined, harvested and mashed-up and republished.  Johnson and Kasman Valenza note that the challenge of keeping up with these trends will keep us all busy. Again, speaking to librarians they state,

Look around your state conferences. How many of your colleagues graduated from library school more than 20 years ago? Remember what the landscape looked like in 1989? How do we stay one step ahead of our staff and students in information accessing, evaluation, use, and communication in order to be seen as experts and collaborators? Do we know more about current information strategies than our school’s technology coach? No excuses. We must! If we are truly information professionals, we need not only to keep up, but also be on the cutting edge of changes in the search and information landscapes.

My favorite part of the article though speaks to “Advocacy by nonlibrarians”.  Here they write:

Rather than creating a perfect library, we need to reshape our thinking and create the perfect library for our individual institution. We can do this by changing our mind-set from adopting best practices as defined by our own professional organization to adopting a “customer service/support” orientation by crafting goals that support the larger goals of the organization.

Should this not hold true for all parts of our schools?  The best part of this though is that this is librarians thinking about and discussing their craft knowledge and reapplying it to a potentially new setting with a focus on the goals of the larger organization.  This is big picture thinking in action!  No wonder they can’t sleep. This is exciting stuff!

The authors write at the end of their article a bit of a call to action for libraries and librarians.  The word apathy certainly is written here, but I that the gist of the message is that without urgent action educational change, technological change and the variety of political forces in schools will define the role of the library for us.  I agree with the authors when they state their clear warning that:

Our best librarians will evolve, adapt, and thrive in effective
schools. But will they be called librarians? And will they be in
sufficient numbers for the profession as a whole to survive?

From 35000 feet I know that some things will be changing soon.

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Flickrstorm Photo Tagged “38800 FT” on : http://www.flickr.com/photos/20420218@N04/3903688501

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I wrote on Friday for Leadertalk and here about my experiences with Thought Leadership and My Personal Professional Development.  I have received some great comments, one of which I followed the link to this gentleman’s blog.  Don Cowert notes at the top of his blogspot blog that,

I have been in Elementary Education for over ten years. In that time I have been a teacher of many grades and a Principal of Daniel D. Waterman Elementary School and Hope Highlands Elementary in Cranston, Rhode Island. In these 10+ years I have had thousands of conversations with teachers and parents about children and how they learn. I feel like I have helped a lot of people in this short time period. I decided to create this Blog as a forum for these kinds of conversations.

I want to draw your attention to Don’s post on “How We Learn- William Glasser”. His posting about his thoughts and experiences opens the door for some wonderful dialouge on an important educational leadership issue in our schools. His post begins with Glasser’s percentage listing on how we learn-

How We Learn
10% of what we READ
20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE and HEAR
70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% of what is EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% of what we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE
~William Glasser – http://principalcowart.blogspot.com

I encourage you to give Don’s blog a read and have it join your list of educational leaders blogs you might be reading.

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