Category: Reflections

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I give regular 20-minute technology presentations to the faculty at my school. These “Tech 20” presentations introduce people to (usually web based) applications and techniques, usually with a classroom emphasis. I am extremely gratified by the number of people who regularly make time to attend (though I can never tell if they come for me or for the cookies I serve).

The attendees are a true cross-section of the faculty population. New and experienced, older and young, and from all disciplines.

Recently, however, I have have been thinking about the ones who don’t come.

Now, I need to clarify this reaction. I’m not moping about people not coming to see me (at least I don’t think I am). Nor am I being moralistic that they should want to give up part of their lunches (at least I don’t think I am). Rather I’m wondering why a teacher wouldn’t come to sessions designed to expose and teach them about technology for their lives and for the classroom.

Am I covering stuff that they already know? Perhaps, but my discussions with individuals don’t seem to prove this out. Teachers as a whole seem somewhat unaware of the tools and techniques of web 2.0. Interestingly enough, there are many younger teachers who don’t attend. I had thought that they were too advanced for me, but their teaching doesn’t bear this out…nothing beyond PowerPoint. While I’m sure they are more conversant with tools of social networking than the veterans, I don’t see this affecting actual instruction.

I think that the reason is that many don’t see any of this as affecting them. These tools are great for those who use them, but there is no reason to integrate them into their already complete set of teaching tools. Teaching will be the same for the rest of their careers whether they are mature veterans or new to the profession. Technology is just one more fad that will pass, leading to another fad.

This is the tragedy of our profession. We are teaching in the last days of Pompeii, and we will be turned into sleeping statues of ash, monuments to persevering ignorance. Or maybe we are like the frog swimming in heated water that does not recognize the danger until he is cooked.

Perhaps neither of these metaphors is right. I think that many see that there are radical changes to the educational system coming, but they are paralyzed by inability to see where it is going and what they need to do. The variety of tools demonstrated in these sessions can excite people, but it can also make people feel unable to keep up.

So as I design workshops for the coming year, I’m going to think often about the people in the empty seats.

When I was posting the podcast in the last entry I stumbled into a familiar problem for me. I’ve made several different types of recordings and posted them in different ways, but never a podcast. So I did it the way I thought I should and it DIDN’T WORK. Tried another way with the same results.

OK, I’m a digitizen, I can Google directions. Great…let’s read this…huh? Well, I’ll try a different link…wait a second this is telling me to do something different…OK, I’ll try this…nope. OK this site just wants me to buy something. What do they mean by that? OK, here’s some free software…this should do it…what, this is harder than the directions…AAAAAAHHH DIE DIE DIE!!!!

Ultimately I posted the podcast, and it works, but not exactly the way I want it to.

The thing is I don’t think the direction pages were wrong. The problem is with me. I know a lot about technology, including some fairly advanced topics, but there are HUGE GAPS in my knowledge.
It’s like I understand tech from A to Z (that’s probably overstating it…more like A to Q), but I never learned C, F, H, I, M, and P. Like most in my generation I’ve learned by doing (and usually not reading directions), so there’s no system to my knowledge.

The problems with my “system” are many. Many times I am ultimately successful in doing what I want, but it’s not the best or more efficient way. Likewise my stumbling around approach often makes it hard for me to remember how I did it when I try the next time (too often someone asks me to show them how to do something and I can’t unless I sit at a machine and dither for a bit). By “bleeping” over the unknown terms and concepts, I’m also blocking my progress.

Sometimes I wish I could take a beginner’s class. I’d be the person in the back of the room continually muttering, “Doh, why didn’t I think of that!”

I don’t think I’m alone in this. The nature of the web has encouraged autodidacts. Many of the students we teach will be in the same boat. So while we will be able to assume a great deal of tech knowledge and proficiency in our students, we have to remember that they too probably learned the alphabet with some letters missing.

P.S. While I wrote this entry in a Starbucks, a man sat near me and took out his netbook. We looked at each other and nodded knowingly. This IS the future!

“How do we stop this?”

I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time.

Living in a changing time is scary, particularly for those of us who were grounded in the previous era. Every challenge to the status quo by new technologies immediately brings out the inner “grumpy old man.” I’m never sure which change will be the one which brings down Western civilizations and all that I hold dear, so my first reaction is to shout “Get off of my lawn!”

I am ashamed to report that about 20 years ago I went on a rant in a department meeting about how computers were going to ruin the whole nature of teaching, so we couldn’t let our students compose essays and papers on them. I was completely right and completely wrong at the same time. I was asking “How do we stop this?”

I still have this gut reaction as the classroom and school setting continues to evolve; however, I’ve tried to change the question. Instead of asking “How do we stop this?” I try to ask instead

“What does this mean?”

What does it mean, that students have cell phones with them all the time?

What does it mean, that we find so many examples of students copying material from web sources?

What does it mean, that students communicate via social networking sites?

What does it mean, that students send inappropriate instant and text messages?

“What does this mean?” is non-judgmental. It makes no value assumptions about the resources or the students who use them. The question opens me to information and allows me to address causes rather than effects.

No, I’m not talking about swordplay.  I’ve been thinking often recently about two contradictory forces that are affecting our decisions in the world of technology.

FORCE 1:  Expansion

The principle of web 2.0 is open communication.  It is hoped that these tools can help move us and our students from passive consumers to active participants and content producers.  The insular world of the office or classroom is passing and giving way to open models of digital communication.

As teachers we want to engage students in this brave new world.  A class is not limited to rooms of desks for five hours a week.  More than any time in history, education is available any time and any place.  I’m hearing exciting examples here and elsewhere of teachers conducting on-line discussions, encouraging student blogging, and even having students use tools like Twitter and instant messaging.  Some of these efforts are amazing.  Some are poorly devised and unsuccessful.  But all of them are important steps in expanding the definition and realities of education.

FORCE 2:  PROTECTION

Just as we have never had so many tools for communicating with students, we have never been as concerned with safety and liability.  The actions of the irresponsible and reprehensible have made schools and teachers rightly obsessed with safety and liability.  This force takes several forms including sheltering students from age inappropriate materials and giving them tools to avoid cyber-bullying.  However, it also relates to communication in social media.  When I hear about exciting examples of teachers using these tools, my teacher enthusiasm is always tempered by my administrator sense that this is a potential liability for the teacher and the school.

I’m not sure what the answer is to this.  I know that we can build some of these tools into our own servers so we will have greater oversight and teachers and students more protection.  But I’m not completely sure whether we do students good or harm by building up walled gardens when they will be spending their lives in a wilderness.

A student learning how to drive a car may spend a very short time working on a training course, but as soon as the basics are mastered, the student has to navigate city streets and freeways.  The reason for this is not that we want to put students at risk, but because there is no point in navigating a protected course…it’s not where they are going to drive.  Similarly, while we need to teach students skills and safety before they go out on the digital highway, this is going to be where they drive….uh, surf.

I welcome your comments.

At the end of the day yesterday, I suddenly realized that we now have three separate websites dedicated to tech communication and growth at MD. This vehicle, which allows me to yodel and you all to comment, has been joined this week by the new MDTech Wiki, which allows everyone in the tech think tank to develop their own ideas in a much more democratic fashion, and the MDTech20 blog, which logs the topics and key information from the weekly Tech20 workshops. In this list I purposely omit the MDTech site in the ning social community which never caught on…and that’s OK.

Added to these platforms, we’re using other production and productivity tools from the net. I upload my PowerPoint shows to slideshare.com an then embed them in one of these blogs. The videos of the Tech20 workshops are uploaded to TeacherTube.com and then linked into WordPress. I’ve had fun with Xtranormal.com as an attention-grabbing communication tool. Finally, I’m considering after the new year to start putting out a weekly podcast.

At this week’s meeting of the MDTTT, I was so excited by the creativity and enthusiasm in the room. I know we are facing immense growth and with that immense challenges ahead, but I also know that Mater Dei will continue to be a leader in the new frontiers of educational technology and education…which in many ways is the same thing.
Blessed Christmas to you all with gratitude and respect.

This morning I was looking at one of our textbooks with another teacher.  She pointed out to me some of the on-line resources available to students that are noted in the book.  There is a website including printable flashcards, study guides, and links to related material.  I was very impressed with this, as I’m sure was the department that selected it.

Thinking further, though, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What, if anything, of this fabulous guide will ever be used?”  This is not a criticism of the textbook or of its selection because both appear to be excellent, but sometimes I worry about dying of thirst in an ocean of resources.

I think we all feel this.  too many resources is no more helpful than too few, and it is easier to do nothing when we can’t do everything.  Like no time since the advent of the printing press has so much of the sum of human knowledge been readily available to us…so why do I feel dumber all the time?

This is not an answer post.  I know that the answer is not to avoid new resources and new technologies, but it seems impossible to wrap one’s mind (much less the minds of all of the students) around every latest technique and resource.  I spend a portion of my week both at school and at home reading about new tech resources for school and for life.  I could easily spend all my time doing this, and that would be just reading about them, not trying them out.

So I suppose this is one with which I, and all of you, will need to struggle.  I guess that recognizing the problem is the best we can do at the moment.

Continuing to think about practical applications for the technology we use, I was thinking about Skype the other day.  For any who don’t know, Skype is an Internet phone service providing computer to computer calling for free (and other phone services for cost).  One of the very nice features of Skype is the ability to send video as well as text.  This past summer, while my wife was away, she and I would converse with each other via Skype and webcams.  

All of the new netbooks (it appears that this is becoming the settled term for Eee PC’s etc.) have a built-in web camera, so this type of contact is possible with no extra software and no extra cost.  Since we have outfitted room 503 with Eee PC’s, I was wondering how this could be used.  

One application that I thought about was real-time access to outside resources.  A teacher could set up a call or interview with another teacher across the country or across the world.  The call could take place over Skype, and students could watch the speaker projected on the screen while asking questions.

Another thought I had was to mount a better video camera in the room and alloing a student who is ill to call in to a classroom Skype account and have audio visual access to the class.  Depending on how elaborate the setup is, this person could participate as well as watch.

I guess I’m talking about dabbling with distance learning.  We have all the tools to do this now.  The only thing missing is working out the logistics.

Does anyone else have ideas for use of cameras in the classroom or any other transformative program?

As we enter this new year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903.  Most of us have seen pictures and primative video of this and other early flights.  This first flight took all of 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.  By all standards of what we know is possible, this flight was an embarrassment.

However, we don’t look at this (or any other new frontier event) this way.  We see these brothers as willing to try something new and willing to fail repeatedly before a limited success.  Without those who try and fail, no one succeeds.

I think it is the same way with educational technology.  This is a transitional period in the history of education.  The brave souls who try new programs and techniques often fail, and often count succcesses by the inch, rather than by the mile.  This is very hard for educators.  We don’t like to fail or to be less than good, particularly in front of the stduents.

No one questions the value of the Wright brothers’ “pathetic” achievement.  Most of the field of aeronautics today can trace itself to this event. And (and this is probably the most important and) people the field grew as much through analysis of the mistakes made as copying what was done.

So perhaps we are the “mistake makers” who will pave the way for our students to soar.  Attempts in this new field are valuable when they succeed and when they define the boundaries of what won’t work.  Someday our students will say, “I remember how badly he did that…it would be so much better to do it this way.”

To use one other analogy, in Medieval times (not the restaurant), those who began building a cathedral knew that they, their children, and grandchildren would be dead before the edifice was completed.  In the same way we have to keep working on this new building, secure in the knowledge that we may not see it, but we will have been a part of it.