Work With Hope

As I started to plan for this post, I became painfully aware that I might be part of the problem that I am describing. So I hope that this will be instructive to me, if no one else.

Recently I participated in an office discussion regarding the number of hours of professional development we would provide for/require of teachers in my diocese. In a moment of pique, I said, “I wish we could hold teachers accountable for development instead of professional development.” This exasperated comment spoke to a more substantial frustration that I've been feeing for a while. We take such a shotgun approach to the ongoing development of teachers, and we have so few outcome demands. In our current system (and the system in most places) we require physical hours of attendance in workshops, classes, or observations. In some cases we might ask for written documentation on what was presented, but there is little concrete accountability that the teacher successfully integrate what was learned into her or his classroom teaching.

In many ways, the entire system of professional development has become the ultimate class audit, pass/fail based on attendance alone. So for many teachers, workshops and classes are like a river rushing over rocks…a few might be pushed on, all are very slowly eroded, but there is very little real movement. Imagine if we handled student assessment in the same way, “Johnny attended 180 hours of class, during which he graded papers and answered emails, therefore he is prepared to move to the next level.”

As I started this piece, my second profession as a PD speaker rightfully comes under criticism in this area. I speak to a large group, usually too large to directly involve individuals in any way, and though I work to provide useful content, I know that I can't alone bring the change that I'm encouraging. In defense, I see my role not really as professional skills development, but as motivational and philosophical direction. I'm saying, “Here's a way to look at this or approach that…now go to it.” I think (and hope) that there is a place for this in the big picture, but there must be more.

True change will only come when we break the paradigm (-5 points for using the term paradigm). Professional development has to stop being about time and start being about skills. Just as with students, we need to define the specific skills and body of knowledge (dare I say, standards) that we want in our teachers. Then we need to say to teachers, “Here are some skills I want you to develop, here are some resources, show me when you're done.” Isn't this the direction of owning the learning that we are all saying we need to go with students? Why do we think that adults should learn differently? Standards, resources, accountability…this is how we move away from “doing professional development,” and actually developing.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'pocket of rocks' http://www.flickr.com/photos/25258377@N03/4793735094 Found on flickrcc.net

 

I'm playing a new game recently, it's called “Did I just say that?” I have found myself in the middle of conversations or presentations to groups saying things that even five years ago I would have argued against, and I certainly would never had said myself. Usually these are not complete about faces like my opinion about the ipad, most often they are more extreme views about subjects I've been talking about for some time. However, my former timid language of accomodation (“Even as technology rich world, there will be a need for non-tech teachers.”) is replaced with more extreme versions or absolutes.

One area I have waffled (like the good Belgian I am) for some time has been on the subject of books and libraries. Conscious of the immense store of assigned value and nostalgia for traditional paper books, I've always tried to carve out a position that expressed my views while allowing “safety space” for those in the audience. “Electronic books will improve and grow and will take their place alongside traditional forms, creating the best of all worlds for all types of readers,” was my safe position, designed to invite but not offend, not threaten. This always received shaky nods, applause, and invitations to speak again.

So I've been as surprised as anyone else when I have recently heard a differnt position coming out of my mouth in private and public. My message of comfort and accomodation no longer resonates as true for me. I do not see parallel survival of the paper book and the electronic book; the ebook is going to win, and faster than I ever thought. There will be few general uses for “retro books,” and as these uses become fewer and fewer, publishers will no longer invest the capital of the expensive publication process which will speed the spiral. I can't pretend that I'm not announcing the death of formerly vital school features, the textbook, the bookstore, the book sale, the library…

What about libraries? These dens of learning and refuge have been the launching pad for academic careers and the interior life of most who read this today. Our nostalgia for the look, the smell, and the feel of these havens chimes at our deepest core, yet this nostalgia often flies in the face of reality. I remember how troubled I was when the card catalog was removed from my college library, yet today I couldn't picture myself thumbing through cards and copying Dewey Decimal codes on to slips of paper. The digital data base catalog gives me more information more quickly…including whether the book is there or not.

But what if books were always “there”? One of the advantages (and challenges) of digital resources is that they can be infinitely replicated. Barring financial concerns (a topic for another post) there is no longer any reason why everything should not be available to everyone everywhere. Even legacy material eventually will be available in digital form. The greatest library in the world will be in my iPad…and yours…and yours.

So back to the question about libraries. Should schools simply convert them into classrooms? rent them out to local businesses? turn them into museums? Before we move too quickly on this, we need to consider a larger definition of library, what is has been and what it can be.

I recently visited a school with a beautiful library, a huge space with an enormous collection. Just as an experiment, I visited that library at three different times during the day. Each time I visited there were between fifty and a hundred students there, a few socializing, but most seriously at work. The only thing they all had in common: not one was touching a paper book or a magazine. The school had implemented an iPad program for all students, and they had quickly switched their model of research and reading. “Books” were out everywhere, but they were on digital screens.

This experience made me pause, not in surprise over the digital shift, but in the fact that they were still there. This school had beautiful student gathering spaces both inside and out, classrooms open for student use, and a huge cafeteria, but students still went to the library as if by some vestigial muscle memory of this being the place to study.

I think it's more than that, which speaks to the future of these vital (yes, vital) school spaces. I think the future remodeled library (or whatever we call it…just please, for the love of all that's holy, let's not call it a Cybrary) can be the moden commons, a multiple use area available to all joined by a few agreed rules of etiquette. The library does not belong to any student or class, but to all. It's mission is to provide a space that supports the academic mission of the school. Resources can be picked and designed to serve this purpose: group study rooms, tech training and support, higher level computing and production tools.

The library doesn't have to be a storage space for unused books, nor does it have to disappear. It can become the embodiment of a schools mission and identity.

I'll talk about what to do with public libraries in another posts…I need to get this one posted before the web starts floating obituaries of me.

As always, I invite your comments.

Image: 'I Can Gather All the News I+Need+on+the+Weather+Report' http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/2671536366 Found on flickrcc.net

 

Just a quick observation today. I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to San Jose where I am going for a meeting tomorrow in Cupertino, Apple's world headquarters. The purpose of this meeting is to explore future 1:1 programs in my schools using iPads and other devices. You reading this today see nothing unusual about this. However, you know who would find this inconceivable? Former me.

Only about 4 years ago, I matched the passion of every Apple fanboy in my distain for the company and its products. I scoffed at the locked-down nature of products, and I mocked the “Apple tax.” They would take my PC when they pried the double-button mouse from my cold, dead hands.

Today I am writing this blogpost on an ipad, the second that I've owned, while I'm going into the heart of darkness, making plans to put iPads, rather than PC's into school 1:1 programs. Former me would hate today me.

Perhaps the message here is that in tech, and probably most everything else, you never know what the future will do to your today convictions, and whatever you crow loudly today you may eat crow tomorrow. It also reinforces Emerson's advice “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.” If we hold strong beliefs, we must admit the possibility…and grant ourselves the space to believe something different and better in the future.

More tomorrow, when I'll write about my experience in Apple-land.

As always, I welcome your comments

Image: 'Wild' http://www.flickr.com/photos/55497864@N00/2348054384 Found on flickrcc.net

 

I know it's crazy, but I'm thinking of taking up with an old flame again. The voices of my friends and colleagues warn me, “You weren't happy. You were excited at first, we all got sick of you talking about it, but soon you felt unfulfilled and alone. We were just as sick of hearing about your disappointment afterward.” However, despite these well-intentioned warnings and the cautioning voices in my head, I feel myself being drawn back in, convinced it won't be the same, certain that I see real change, positive that we can make it work this time.

I'm seriously considering inviting Google+ back into my life.

Long time friends and readers of this blog will remember my excitement at the launch of Google's social network (I believe in my zeal I may have used the words, “Changed the world”). The ability to put contacts into “circles” and to carry on many levels of communication, seemed a perfect solution for the complicated communication graph of so many of us. I remember describing it as “Facebook with work clothes on,” as I promoted this service with friends and work associates with the desperate enthusiasm of an Amway distributer. I was forming circles with all my different groups of colleagues, and thinking about replacing other types of communication with the principals in my diocese with a huge Google+ circle.

But it didn't last. Ultimately three things soured me on my new love. First, the circles metaphor of choosing who could see individual posts and who you could see, which I found so attractive, proved impossible to explain to the casual user. I ended up setting up accounts for many of my friends and colleagues and handing it over never to be touched again. Second, the apps on iPhone and iPad were horrible, hard to follow and lacking essential functionality (for the longest time, the iPad app was simply a larger version of the iPhone app). As I moved away more and more from using a desktop machine, particularly for social networking, I was hampered with these tools and fell into Facebook and Twitter, both of which worked so well. Finally, despite the millions of users, there was a sense that no one was there. The platform seemed dedicated to technology focused individuals. Eventually I logged on less and less…drifting away with nothing but an icon on my screen to remind me of those heady days when I was completely smitten.

Recently, however, I've heard the siren song. G+ has changed it's functionality, benefits, and community. The metaphor of circles remains, but there is now an opportunity to create public or private communities. This allows me to invite and create a group easily without doing all the work myself. The iPhone/iPad apps are significantly better and beautifully support all the functions of the platform, including video conferencing. This video conferencing with up to 9 people has been improved to where it could be a real option for meetings and conferences. Probably because of these advancements, I've noticed more and more of my friends are adding G+ to their social media graph.

So, with a wary eye I'm binding up my heart and beating my way back to the Google+ door. I know that I might get burned again, but when it comes to a global social network, I wear my heart on my sleeve.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Broken Heart' http://www.flickr.com/photos/15923063@N00/132922595 Found on flickrcc.net

 

Welcome to 2013! A year with an ominous number and endless possibilities! It's also one year closer to 2015, my stated goal year for 1:1 technology programs in all schools. As I look forward to this goal, I can't help but think of a comic from many years ago in which two professors stare at a board covered with a complex equation. The senior professor remarks that he has a question about the middle step where it is written THEN A MIRACLE HAPPENS. I know where we are today; I know where I want to be. The middle steps are still very blurry in my mind.

First among these “miracles” is faculty instruction and formation. In order to justify the cost of these devices as well as demonstrate their value, students must use their devices regularly for real purposes. Electronic textbooks will go a long way in this area. A good e-text should be self-explanatory and should provide established value at a competitive price. There are few effective arguments for staying with paper texts if an electronic reader is available. However, if electronic texts are the only use of the student machines, the value is greatly limited. This is a clear case of new wine into old wineskins, new technology used to perpetuate an old model.

No, if 1:1 is to be transformative, rather than iterative, it has to be part of a blended learning model. Blended Learning is a term describing a classroom or school where learning takes place using a combination of instruction strategies, including the use of technology. Though I'm not the largest fan of on-line courses (probably because I was never good at them) a technology based system can supplement other types of classroom instruction and provide adaptive, leveled instruction in ways that a single teacher never could. Students need to work with a teacher, with other students, and with a computer, all during the course of a school day.

However, in order to have an effective blended learning environment, we need teachers to guide it. How we give our current labor force the ability (not to mention the drive) to develop and present lessons using technology has been our mission and, to a great extent, our failure through the past decade. Imagining a time when the majority of teachers prepare live, collaborative, and on-line content is like dreaming of snow in the Bahamas.

But I'm tired of waiting, and our students can't wait any longer.

Maybe the problem is me (usually is); maybe I and other tech instructors have been approaching it the wrong way. For me, technology use is a function of a fully-integrated understanding and immersion in digital tools and options. To some extent, much professional development has been trying to create the same awareness and orientation in teachers. We've been teaching them how to build a radio, when all they want to do is play the radio.

One of the most formative books of my childhood was Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. When I was thinking about this topic earlier, I pictured two illustrations from my 1960’s edition of the book. A quick Google search found them. I'm not certain about the legality of using these images, but I'll cite and hope for the best.

The images were used to illustrate travel by using the concept of the Tesseract, a way of compacting space as is seen below:

 

To move to an effective, widespread blended classroom model, we will need content providers to create products that comprehensively address the need for direct leveled student instruction and assessment. We can't wait for teachers to develop the tools for those students who are working at computers, nor can we rely on(or expect most teachers to understand) a kluge of free and unrelated apps and resources. There are many excellent teachers who can create this environment, but there are far more excellent teachers who cannot and will not. However, all teachers can be taught to guide students in the use of a well-developed program. We have to stop trying to urge the ant across the divide and put our fingers together to be there now!

The world of education business is a testing-obsessed culture. The amount of resources and money poured by publishers into the creation of the “perfect” standardized exams is wildly disproportionate to their educational value. Might I suggest that some of these resources be rerouted into the creation of integrated levelled instruction systems that can be used as part of a blended instructional program? My teachers do not have the ability or time to do this effectively. I don't have the time to do this effectively. Why, when I ask publishers for something like this, am I greeted with blank stares? I can describe exactly what we need…someone come and ask me!

I'm certain there will be some reaction that a structure like this would kill teacher creativity and create robot classrooms. I would argue quite the opposite. I am a strong proponent for the teacher led classroom, with teachers curating the tools that they are given, but I don't ask teachers to whittle their own quills or write their own textbooks (ignoring for the moment the arguments against traditional textbooks). Using technology to assist in student learning, particularly if the products (deliberately avoiding the overused apps) use proven methods of instruction, assessment, and reporting, can be a vital tool and essential component in a 21st century classroom.

21st century? We are THIRTEEN YEARS in already…it's time for us to stop seeing the goal from afar and to get there…now!

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image Credits:

• Tesseract. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kowalskirsflickr/3158702666/in/photostream/. Cc
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine D'Engle, Scholastic, 1962

 

I was going to write this earlier in the week, but decided to wait and see if the world was going to end…that kind of thing could really hurt my hit count

We are now in the final run up to Christmas. I remember thinking that Thanksgiving was early, so we had lots of time before Christmas this year. There would be plenty of time to do everything and do it well. No rush, no cut corners, no regrets…

Four lovely Advent candles yet to be lit.

So what happened? Why am I running around like crazy to complete some semblance of an organized celebration? The doors of my Advent calendar have been ripped off their hinges as if hit by a time tornado. Three Advent candles are burning, and from the looks of Church decorations already, the fourth is just an afterthought to be lit and pushed to the side by the Christmas monster.

So my wish today is for one more week of Advent. That's all it would take, one more week. I could get everything done. How do we go about making this happen? Do I DM @pontifex with a request? Do we need to reshape the Advent wreath to accommodate an extra candle? Rewrite old songs

O come O come, Emmanuel!

Just one week later, that would be just swell.

Of course I know that this wouldn't solve things. Parkinson's law states that a task fills up the amount of time that we have to complete this task, and I know that a week from now I would be in the same position. The illusion that there is a perfect path to a perfect Christmas celebration is one of the most maddening holiday myths, right up there with Santa Claus and good-tasting egg nog. The Christmas story starts with the Holy Family arriving to Bethlehem unprepared and without a reservation (clearly no one took the time to go to hotels.com), and in this they provided a model for the many years to come.

In this yearly failure of will over time, there are larger lessons, because we never have enough time to make it perfect, to get it just right. Whether it be a lesson or a school program or a life itself, there is always a sense that more could have been done if we just had a little more time. We always arrive at Christmas or anything with no reservations for the inn.

So my real wish for today is that I learn to accept incompletion and imperfection in my holiday celebration and in my life.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Candelabra' http://www.flickr.com/photos/27550543@N02/3192361637 Found on flickrcc.net

 

I have a half-written post responding to a discussion I read about the flipped classroom, but somehow it doesn't seem right to talk about the flipped classroom today.

Nothing seems right today.

I am no poet or philosopher, or counselor, or theologian who can say words that will help anybody or help the conversation move further. Within the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School we witnessed evil and innocence, terror and heroism, excruciating loss and consolation. For those of us who work daily in education, the murders hit even closer to home in the halls we walk and to the faces we see. The numbness and shock waiver between our recognition that this could have happened anywhere and our anguished remembering that it did happen there.

Yesterday was the third Sunday of Advent, a Sunday always called “Gaudete” or “rejoice” in which we recognize the joy of the Lord's coming.

Joy?

Has there ever been a Christmas season more antithetical to joy? Can one have a “holly, jolly” Christmas after this modern slaughter of innocents? Do we “jingle all the way” in the face of devastated families? It seems the most callous of joviality to celebrate while others mourn. In addition how do we celebrate while our own hearts feel like breaking?

However,one finds wisdom in the most unexpected places. I was listening to Tracey Thorn's song “Joy” from her new Christmas Album Tinsel and Lights. Here is the video of the song:

Though not a traditionally sacred song, the lyrics framed this moment better than anything else. Joy in this song is not as much a reaction to a perfect world as it is positive defiance of the world we face daily:

So light the winter fire, and watch as the flames grow higher

We'll gather up our fears, and face down all the coming years

…all that they destroy

And in their face we'll throw out

Joy

Joy

Joy

Joy

I've been lucky in my life to have met several defiantly joyful people, people whose circumstances would seem to call for resentment or regret but who instead “throw out joy.” This is not a sappy Pollyanna approach to life but a boldly defiant spark in the darkness, a hopeful choice in full recognition of all the doubts and fears.

So my wish for all of us today as we mourn is that we might also embrace the defiant joy that sustains us through our pain and helps us to reach out to others in need.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Licht / Light' http://www.flickr.com/photos/48801602@N07/5264174408 Found on flickrcc.net

 

I could be easily accused of technology ingratitude. Hardware and software developers make amazing products for me, and consistently they are just short of what I want them to be. I have a technology utopian, and every step brings me closer, but makes me more frustrated with the narrowing gap between myself and paradise.

My current unreasonable expectation relates to group presentations. Presentation apps on the iPad (Slideshark for PowerPoint and the Prezi Viewer) have made it possible for me to leave my laptop alone. With these apps I am able to show presentations completely without any major concessions to the device (both still have some trouble with embedded video, but that isn't my concern…today). Combining this ability with the ability to edit my presentations (Cloud-on for PPT and Prezi Viewer for Prezi) and I have completely cut the cord (and cut about 6 pounds from my luggage). What more could I want?

What I want is the ability to walk around the room while presenting a Prezi. When I used a laptop, I could carry a remote and hook the machine up to the projector. Now I have to hook my iPad to the projector, and run up to the projector any time I want to forward the presentation. When I use Slideshark for a PowerPoint, I have an app on my phone that works like a bluetooth remote, but with Prezi there is no app for this. Unfortunately, most of my presentations any more, you guessed it, are Prezis. So unless and until the Prezi company develops a remote app, I'm tethered to the projector.

I talked to my (very nice and very patient) Apple reps about this today. There is a way around my problem, and that is through Apple TV. An Apple TV can hook up to the projector and then through AirPlay technology I could mirror my iPad or iPhone to the projector and voila, “I got no strings on me…”

OK, but there are two drawbacks to this solution. First, I'd need to buy an Apple TV, not a huge investment at $99 (though I would also need to buy an adapter to the projector for another $50). Secret, I did buy an Apple TV for this use earlier this fall; however, I made the mistake of hooking it up to my home TV and now I never want to take it away. The other more substantial issue is that this would mean one more device and one more set of cables on every trip (and one more thing that might be forgotten or left behind). I keep moving toward device freedom, but minor complications keep getting in my way. Like Moses I stand on Mt Nebo, viewing the promised land but certain I will never arrive (a bit much?).

So my wish today has two options. Either Prezi needs to put a Bluetooth remote function in their iPhone app, or Apple needs to make it possible to mirror my iPhone to my iPad (or vice versa). Once I get that, I'll be satisfied, except…

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Mirror, mirror ;)' http://www.flickr.com/photos/21404006@N00/118207084 Found on flickrcc.net

 

OK, took a week off after the 30 Blogposts of Summer slogfest, but I’m ready now to push on to the end of the year. Since I enjoy having an overarching theme, I’ll call these December posts my Christmas list. The (as of yet indeterminate number) posts will talk about something I would like to see in the year (or years) ahead.

I’ve said it before here, but I love The Innovative Educator blog. Lisa Nielsen, who writes the blog is one of the most revolutionary thinkers in the area of education, particularly at the nexus of education and technology. What I like most about her blog and related Twitter posts is her ability to shout out what others a afraid to say. Her scalding criticism of the intransigence of the education establishment at the cost of authentic learning often shakes me (as deep within the belly of the beast of an education establishment) to the core. I often don’t agree with her, and we have had more than one Twitterspat about an issue, but I am always better for having read her articles.

However, it is not her, but another story related in her blog last week. Under the title, “Microsoft big says stop doing 1:1 technology programs.” I encourage you to read the entire article here, but the opening paragraph is as follows:

Continue reading My (Not So Grownup) Christmas List #1: Tidings of Comfort and Joy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, here we are (or here I am, don't know how many have gone the distance). Our long national nightmare is over. This whole ill-conceived enterprise is proudly limping over the finish line (I'd make a tortoise and hare reference here, but I lack both the speed of the hare and the plodding tenacity of the tortoise). 30 blogposts have been completed in just under two months more than I proposed, a failure for intention, but a victory for good old American Puritan guilt (the Thanksgiving connection is not lost).

So today I am grateful for this blog. Like a dear, but exhausting friend (not that I have any of those) it tolerates my time away, but when I'm willing to put in the time and effort, it sends me away a better person. My reflections here, whether they are professional, practical, or personal (I hope not too personal, never intended this as a chart of my feelings) always are better focused (and sometimes changed) by putting them in public writing. Though many of the posts are not good by any standards (particularly mine…for example, I overuse parentheses) there are some of which I am quite proud either for the writing itself or for the realizations they awakened in the process.

I am also grateful for the literally threes to fives of people who read these regularly and take the time to comment. As I wrote a long long time ago, a blog does not have to be about public discourse, and there is value for the writer whether anyone reads or not. However, the time others spend reading and commenting is a gift that I see and appreciate.

Finally I am grateful to the many (unknown to me) artists who have created the images that have headed these posts. I have found most of these images at the site flickrcc.com, a site that makes available images protected by a Creative Commons license, which requires only acknowledgement, which I gratefully give. I applaud creators who understand the need for a new set of rules for sharing in the Internet which respects the rights of creators while encouraging continued and expanded use of their work.

Next week (I expect) I start again, not in a weird self-motivating race against time and numbers, but in the continued saga of a boy and his blog.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Is there anything at the end of+the+tunnel?' http://www.flickr.com/photos/46922409@N00/1419504712 Found on flickrcc.net