Thursday, January 13, 2005

National Education Technology Plan

Last week The National Education Technology Plan was made public. I’ve read through it twice, and although it isn’t a long document, there are a few catch-terms that appear throughout: transform and systemic change. The plan looks at technology in the context of educational transformation and systemic change. The focus is no longer on the hardware, software and infrastructure (although those things are very imporatant). We are entering what is referred to as a Golden Age in American Education - a time when things are ripe for the transformation and systemic change called for in the document.

The document also emphasizes the importance of the student voice. The students of today are digital natives—having been born into a world where technology is woven into the fabric of their lives. Schools, along with the leaders and visionaries in these institutions, have not kept up with the ways that students use technology outside of school. In fact, two of the report’s concluding statements offers this: “This ‘digital disconnect’ is a major cause of frustration among today’s students.” And, “Public schools that do not adapt to the technology needs of students risk becoming increasingly irrelevant.”

From this document, every school and district should ponder the question What are we doing to achieve the seven recommendations?

1. strengthen leadership
2. consider innovative budgeting
3. improve teacher training
4. support e-learning and virtual schools
5. encourage broadband access
6. move toward digital content
7. integrate data systems

Some of the suggestions could be viewed as a bit radical, such as phasing out the textbook in favor of more flexible and timely digital content. This is an important and timely document. Finally, a government document supports what we know needs to be done within the structure of our educational system. The National Education Technology Plan can be downloaded online.

Posted by Randy on 01/13 at 12:02 PM
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Thinking

I have had some good conversations with teachers the last few days discussing the question, “Well, how do I integrate technology so I’m just not teaching the same way as I always have?” My response has been to reference one of my recent posts on the Flow of Information. To restate quickly and simply, the Flow of Information goes like this: Finding Information, Evaluating Information, Acquiring Information, Analyzing Information, Presenting Information and Attributing Information. As an example, an English class is studying Shakespeare. First, look through the curriculum to view the objectives. After combining multiple objectives, determine what evidence would show that the students have met the objectives. From that ending, create a student-centered environment that allows students to apply their skills as they move through the steps in the model, meeting the objectives, and providing evidence of their learning.

All along the way, the teacher needs to guide students through the process with good questions. The teacher also has to prompt students to ask their own questions, developing their own understanding of the material and information. This is particularly important in the analyzing information stage, but is relevant to all the stages.

In Jamie McKenzie’s book Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School, he proposes a questioning toolkit. These questions are tools that can be used depending on the task at hand. Students and teachers can develop more tools (types of questions) if the situation warrants it.

What question is most suitable to the task at hand?

Essential Questions - big, complex; cannot be answered simply; probe issues such as: life, death, identity, purpose, invention, inspiration

Subsidiary Questions - smaller questions that grow out of essential questions; these questions can often be grouped in families

Hypothetical Questions - what might happen if...?; project a theory into the future

Telling Questions - pointed questions that provide some sort of fact to support or refute an idea or thought

Planning Questions - what are the sources, sequence and pacing to complete the task?

Organizing Questions - how will we organize our finding so that they make sense

Probing Questions - questions that get below the surface information

Sorting and Sifting Questions - evaluating data; cutting through useless information

Clarification Questions - defining words and meanings; examining article, essay or argument for coherence and logic; determining underlying assumptions

Strategic Questions - similar to planning questions; what path do I follow to achieve meaning

Elaborating Questions - what does this really mean?

Unanswerable Questions - related to essential questions; questions that may have no definative answer - just light shed on them

Inventive Questions - questions that turn things upside down to create something new

Provocative Questions - focus on doubt, disbelief and skepticism; designed to challenge conventional wisodm

Irrelevant Questions - questions that force us into the unknown

Divergent Questions - questions that focus on the opposite of the main target

Irreverant Questions - questions that look into areas that are off-limits; usually unwelcomed

If we use the Flow of Information model, along with the questioning toolkit, we transform the classroom into a student-centered, inquiry-centered place, the structure of which has been carefully planned by the teacher, proving that the teacher is still the decisive element in the classroom. It also puts the spotlight on learning and not technology - a flaw all too common in the technology integration process.

How can we develop the questioning ability of students and teachers? How do we encourage more essential, strategic and elaborating questions, rather than the all-too-common telling questions? 

Posted by Randy on 01/12 at 08:40 AM
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Research: Assessment and Evaluation

I am doing some reading for the Assessing Technology class I am going to take this semester. The book is Evaluating Educational Technology: Effective Research Designs for Improving Learning. It is a collection of ‘articles’ on research methods as applied to technology. Over the weekend I read the 3rd chapter: Achieving Local Relevance and Broader Influence. Did you ever read something and just come across so many statements that were true and relevant? Well, this was one of those readings - chock full of unbelievable quotes. The writers worked for something called the Center for Children and Technology. I looked for it on the web, but couldn’t find much. Wonder why… What I want to do is pull some of the things from the chapter that struck me, and then comment on them down the road in a later post. So here goes…

We have learned that when student learning does improve in schools that become technology rich, those gains are not caused solely by the presence of technology or by isolated technology - learner interactions. Rather, such changes are the result of an ecological shift and are grounded in a set of changes in the learning environment that prioritize and focus a district’s or school’s core educational objectives.

...technology enhances the communicative, expressive, analytic, and logistical capabilities of the teaching and learning environment.

Past research has made it clear that technologies by themselves have little scalable or sustained impact on learning in schools.

...to be effective, innovative and robust technological resources must be used to support systematic changes in educational environments. This equates to...administrative procedures, curricula, time and space constraints, school-community relationships, and a range of other logistical and social factors. Our approach to evaluation must respond to, rather than control, these complex aspects of schooling.

...numerous factors influence a school’s ability to use technology effectively for student learning: (1) leadership and vision; (2) expectations for the use of technology in the classroom; (3) school culture and climate; (4) teacher beliefs about students and their potential for learning; (5) professional development; (6) teachers’ prior experience with technology; (7) availability of resources (infrastructure and human).

And my favorite from the whole chapter: A set of beliefs about how learning occurs and about how technology can support learning: learning is understood broadly, as the ability to use one’s mind well in framing and solving open-ended problems in original ways and in coordinating complex activities with others. Collaboration among students is privileged; students help each other to learn, and they share data and knowledge in ways that model the work of real scientists and other communities of learners. Teachers play crucial roles in selecting goals and materials and act as guides and intellectual coaches to students. Teachers make broad subject-matter decisions, but students, who also play a role in determining performance criteria, make more local decisions. Technology’s role in this context is to serve as a catalyst and support for an extended classroom inquiry that is open ended and “messy,” involving guessing, debate, and multiple materials. It is integrated with other tools and media, as students learn using many different resources—including books, libraries, museums, videos, and adult experts—in the school and beyond.

Wow...much food for thought. Comments to follow in future posts.

Posted by Randy on 01/11 at 12:06 PM
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