Resolution for 2011

Image via WikipediaI've been an outlaw since my education career started in 1995. That means I don't quite fit into the system even if I am a part of it. Often I feel a need to work at cross-purposes with the administration. I'm getting tired of it really. I would much rather work in a healthy team-oriented environment where we talk about provoking student learning, rather than dragging students over the finish line of passing the state test and getting them to comply with policies.

Barry Schwartz provides the basis for my New Year's resolution, which is to be more of a "system changer" rather than an outlaw. He points out that outlaws eventually tire of fighting and that the world can't rely on them for change. What we need are more "system changers." These are the ones that actively work to change the culture of their work. I still don't know how to do this in practice, but I think it means starting the discussion with colleagues and administrators. Let the emphasis be on learning strategies. Roll the video

Project Based Learning

I've been following the news regarding Project Based Learning for some time now. Naturally, I think it is a great idea. Then I saw this video from Edutopia, and the line that jumped out at me was "First you need to get rid of this idea called curriculum." For me this is an exciting idea, but this reality for the education bureaucracy is quite scary. I wonder how long it will take the education establishment to give up its command and control structures that stifle innovation such as PBL. Now roll the video!

Trying to retire the overhead projectors

I only have so much storage space for outdated equipment. Overhead projectors take up a lot of space, but I can't seem to get rid of them because so many teachers think they're essential. Let's face it, Overheads were great in their time, but now they're a symbol of a backwards classroom. Outside of schools, I doubt one would find any overheads in active use.

So, I tried to be gentle and humorous as I presented to the faculty this year. I brought out an old Polaroid camera and suggested that the Overhead is similarly obsolete. Boy did I get some howls of protest. At least I said what needed to be said and maybe a few will take the message to heart. My Prezi is available for anyone to use or comment.

Technology SolvingTeacher's Problems on Prezi

My First Prezi for Librarians Summit

At the point of this writing, I am 2 days away from presenting at the Dallas ISD Librarians Summit. I'm really stretching myself for this one. It's the first time I am using Prezi instead of Power Point. I'm a little nervous about it, but I've prepared a good rough draft I think. Take a look and send me any corrections/suggestions.

Technology Tuesdays: Become a Technology Leader on Campus on Prezi

If Schools ran like Google

I just finished reading Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain by Richard Brandt. It's an breezy and thought provoking book that isn't really about education technology, but it brought up some things I think are relevant to schools. Here's my half-serious list of items entitled, "If schools were run like Google":

1. The primary driving value of schools would be the experience of the end-user, aka the students.
2. Mediocre education software and textbook oligopolies would be very afraid.
3. Administration would truly value the ideas of its employees and encourage problem-solving collaboration across the organization.
4. Pragmatic idealism, the idea that all students can learn would be actively pursued and all solutions would be considered.
5. School technology would be run by people that know how to get the most for the money we would never endure network outages that stop productivity.
6. At every decision point, the discussion of ethics would center on the question, "is this good for students."
7. All cell phones would work with school tech systems and students would be busy using them for productive purposes.

Any other ideas or criticisms are welcome.

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• Google Apps Education Training Center (edutraining.googleapps.com)

What really is the problem we are trying to solve?

Nothing like a good conference to revive my professional soul, not to mention this blog! ISTE 2010 was wonderful, not just for the stimulating sessions, but just to be in rooms filled with hundreds of kindred spirits. I'm now motivated to begin anew.

So, what is the problem we (Ed Tech proponents) are trying to solve? As much as I loved ISTE, I don't know if we really know the answer or the question. Technology is only effective if applied strategically towards a very specific objective. Can technology simultaneously solve the problems of bored, under-achieving students, over-burdened teachers, test-obsessed administrators, and a stagnant culture in public education? My guess is we are not going to see progress by leaps and bounds this year or next year, or in any year unless we clearly identify the problem and plot a way forward using the appropriate technologies.

I see the big question as "Can technology transform education the way it has transformed virtually all other industries and sectors of government?" Think of such specific industries such as journalism, advertising and entertainment. Each of these fields has been turned up-side-down by technology, yet education continues along with its tremendous inertia. Heck, even the Post Office has been dramatically changed by technology.

So what will be the killer App that induces some good old American creative destruction on the education establishment? One thing I know for certain, is that hardware initiatives such as 1-1 Laptops don't in themselves change education. If the basic workflow and teaching practices endure after the technology is implemented, then we aren't much further ahead. Worse yet, if progressive administrators that pursue these costly programs can't show measurable results, we end up taking more steps backward then forward.

It seems to me that the main purpose of technology is to make things dramatically more efficient and dynamic. This means that technology has to liberate teachers from the stifling drudgery of having to manage attendance, discipline, parental contacts, assessment and instructional preparation on a daily basis. Technology has to make all of this easier. Today, online curricula seem to make preparing for daily lessons more difficult. Let's start with this so that the online curriculum is merged with everything else, including video, e-texts, online collaborative research assignments and even video-conferencing. It goes without saying that attendance, discipline, photocopying, transparency making and all the other administrivia should be made effortless by technology, but the technology really needs to free up the teachers so they can be expected to put everything into student relationships, coaching and motivation. Now let's get busy and make it happen.

Customer focused Web site

I have seen school districts adopt all sorts of technology systems including grade books, online curricula, learning modules, and other information systems. Most of the time, the selection of these tools is based on the administrator's need of the moment and little thought is given to the usability of the system and how well it will adapt to changes elsewhere in the system. Countless hours of teacher time are wasted training them to use horrible software and millions of dollars are thrown away on systems ill-suited to the needs of teachers and students. On top of that administrators' dictates that require teachers to use these systems create enormous amounts of stress for teachers for little benefit. What is needed is a new approach that focuses on designing flexible systems, run by knowledgeable administrators who's primary mission is to meet the needs of busy teachers and students.

This brings me to my new big idea. My new Web site, www.wildcatlearning.org is focused on quickly building a learning portal for our school that grows organically while giving teachers many options and making their lives easier. My dream is to harness all of the creative energy of the most tech-savvy teachers in the school toward building a "one-stop" destination for information and learning technology. I'm offering these teachers not just a technology platform but the necessary support and training that helps them get the job done.

I'm not going to do any training or staff-development train users for this Web site, but I do hope to steer teachers here because it makes implementing technology in their class much easier. It must be my crazy idealism, butI think it's better to try to entice teachers by offering them help and point-of-need training and easy implementation rather than trying to bribe them to attend tech trainings with food or without the administration mandating anything. We'll see if it works.