Reading

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Better

I haven’t been blogging of late, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing or reading. Much of my writing has been in other places and related to the work I am doing in my doctoral program. As I am driving or exercising, I have been listening to audiobooks lately. Granted, they are not like reading a book where you can re-read or easily refer back to something later. I just finished Atul Gawande’s Better.

In the Afterward he offers five suggestions for being a positive deviant:

  • Ask an unscripted question. This allows you to get to know the human side of who you are working with.
  • Don’t complain. This includes not blaming and taking ownership for things that aren’t the way you would like them. Do something about it instead.
  • Count something. This can inform where you should be focusing your efforts.
  • Write something. This forces you to clarify your thinking and it gives something back to your community.
  • Change. This means finding something new to try.

How many of these do we practice in education? Do we really get to know our student? Our teachers? Or are we so focused on that content? Or that test? Or that latest Initiative? When we offer criticism, do we offer a solution, or are we just complaining? Do we play the role of victim to the parts of the system we have little control over? Do we use our own research, no matter how informal, to inform our practice? Do we share what we learn with others? Do we use new tools and their affordances to communicate in ways that weren’t possible years ago? How do we respond to change? Are we early adopters? Late adopters? Or forever resistant?

Posted by Randy on 03/30 at 04:03 PM
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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

The Ripple Effect and Leadership

Another recent Brian Crosby post at Learning Is Messy got me thinking. His post was titled, Change—Start a Ripple. I do agree that change has to start with each of us. When we feel overwhelmed by mandates and politics, working on ourselves is the only way we can keep our sanity (and grow in the process).

Our schools have many people that are willing to start the process of changing themselves - using new technologies and teaching in new ways. This is evident in the pockets of effective technology use that we see in our schools. But what about the rest of the teachers and administrators? Why aren’t they catching on? This shouldn’t be a blame game; that won’t move us forward. But is it because the individuals are not motivated? Or is it because the system hasn’t encouraged and engaged us to begin the process of change. This is where I see leadership as so important. There is enough responsibility to be shared by both the institution and the individual. Good leaders encourage or discourage through their actions (even if they don’t intend to). Good leaders develop a culture where those ripples of change turn in to a wave of change. In what ways do school leaders allow those pockets of change, those ripples, to permeate throughout their school culture turning into waves?

Posted by Randy on 06/20 at 06:29 PM
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Sunday, November 06, 2005

Freakonomics

Although not related directly to technology at all, I think after reading this book, my desire to question things has been sparked. A few interesting bits:

“Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool?” Authors Levitt and Dubner discuss our poor record of assessing risk. And how effective risk management is often times clouded by fear. There are lots of emerging technologies in our midst and on the horizon. What risks are involved with each of these, and how much of that ‘risk’ is just plain over-exaggerated, false and driven by fear that our students will do something ‘wrong’ with them? I would tend to say we are probably just as bad at determining the sorts of risks involved here as we are in determining whether a gun or a swimming pool is more dangerous. (BTW…a swimming pool is more dangerous.)

The most interesting section of the book is the one on parenting. “What things make a child do better in school, and what things don’t?” After regression analysis of a study done by the government in 1990 (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), Levitt and Dubner find this:

Factors correlated (positively or negatively) with test scores:

  1. highly educated parents
  2. high socioeconomic status
  3. mother older than 30 when having first child
  4. child had low birth rate
  5. parents speak English
  6. child is adopted
  7. parents are involved in the PTA
  8. many books in the home

Factors not correlated with test scores:

  1. an intact family
  2. neighborhood
  3. mother working before child enters kindergarten
  4. child attended Head Start
  5. child regularly goes to museums
  6. child regularly spanked
  7. child frequently watches television
  8. child is read to every day

So what do they make of this? The things that matter most are what the parent IS. The things that don’t are what the parent DOES. Certainly interesting and thought provoking.

Posted by Randy on 11/06 at 06:37 PM
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