Education and Technology

Here’s a quote about the newly passed tax reform in Florida:

The cuts would also require up to $1.5 billion in cuts for 2008-09 education funding, though GOP lawmakers promised that they would use state revenue from the sales tax and other sources to make it up.

Source Sarasota HeraldTribune: Legislature OK’s tax-cut plan with choices

Do you really think that the Florida Legislators are going to make up the funds with promises? Lets get real, if it’s not written down, it’s not going to happen. Extrapolation give us, with the current property tax reform proposal, a reduction in public education’s tax base by more than $7.5 billion over 5 years.

So, the kids still need to pass the FCAT with $7.5 billion less in funds to help them learn with? Doesn’t sound like Florida cares about it’s youth.

Technorati tags: Education, Tax Reform, Florida

Are we creating cars or are we teaching are kids how to grow, learn, be inventors, or most importantly to think for themselves and be creative. As we have added a multitude of tests, mandated reading and writing blocks are we taking away from the creative process of teaching and learning? That’s what it looks like from my vantage point.

We are teaching to the tests because that is what the local school board, the state and the federal government are looking at for Adequate Yearly Progress. Our kids are being asked to learn the test, not be creative. They are becoming machines, clones, a car that knows the same thing, does the same thing. Where do you add podcasts, wiki’s, blogging, all forms of collaborate learning when you are restricted to blocks and what you are supposed to teach? Where do you fit the technology in when you have to teach to a test that leaves creativity out? David Warlick makes an interesting point along these lines in is 2 cents worth blog…

I frequently use a manufacturing model to describe our education system. Our students roll down the assembly line where we install math on them, and we install reading, and science, and social studies, and at the end of the line our quality control engineers measure each product to make sure that it complies with the blueprints — to make sure that every student knows exactly the same things. Source: 2 Cents Worth » Becoming the Machine

It might be nice that our kids should know the same things, but it doesn’t allow for the genius of creativity or expression of different ideas. Growth dies in a system that you standardize. The United States will never gain a place as one of the best educated nations by producing clones. Children are not machines that should be run down the assembly line of k-12 education. Teachers need the freedom to choose creative lessons within a loose framework of guidelines and expectations for student progress. We are going to lose more ground to other nations if we continue down the road of standardization in teaching and mandated testing.

That’s what I think….What about you?

Will Richardson had an interesting topic for his blog the other day and it caught my eye as some of the idea’s that I’m trying to get started at my elementary school. The five topics that Will asks about are:

1. Wikipedia–as in teaching kids about the collaborative construction of knowledge.
2. Cell phones–as in teaching how to use them effectively as tools for “just in time learning.”
3. MySpace–as in teaching the safe and effective use of the Internet to build networks and publish content.
4. Martinlutherking.org–as in teaching the skills necessary for navigating a world where editing occurs post publication.
5. Google–as in teaching the skills to find the information we want.

What other “basics” would you add?

Source: Weblogg-ed » What’s in Your Curriculum?

Now lets take these 5 items as I see them in our school district. These are in no particular order other than what I considered most important when I read them.

First of all MySpace is blocked by the websense filters as I believe it should be, but there is no reason to not teach Internet safety. I believe you can create a teaching situation that is behind the firewalls that you create a social networking site for the kids that teaches how to interact, publish and be safe at the same time.

Secondly, I see Google as a great source of information. We have already used it to research a 5th grade project called Heritage Day. The students Googled their family names, got relative background and coat of arms, came up with some background from their parents and put it all together on poster boards for an evening program for their parents. Teaching about Google as a media, new library source is the way to give children the step up into technology that they need.

Thirdly, I feel that cell phones have no place in the learning environment. With the latest technology kids have learned how to take pictures of answers, sent them to friends, text answers back and forth so well that it makes for too much of a temptation to cheat. “Just in Time Learning” is “Just in Time Temptation to Cheat”.

Fourth on this for me is Martinlutherking.org, which Will has pointed out to me in his comment below is a learning experience in what is not good in our society. This site rewrites history in an extremist view, and that this site even tries to influence our kids should be an example for us to teach that these views are the extreme minority of society. I can’t stress enough that after looking at this site any reasonable adult will see the hateful nature of the site and why we need to teach our kids why it is wrong to feel that way.

Lastly, Wikipedia and wiki’s as a whole are going to be one of the greatest tools in learning that has come to the front in technology. Wiki’s can be used by a class to create a complete lesson on any topic with everyone contributing what they have found in the course of studying. Wiki’s and blogs are where teaching can make great strides in a very short period of time.

It’s a lot to think about, but that’s what teaching is all about. Thinking, learning and adapting.

That’s what I think….What about you?

As I walk through classes to fix a computer I see a lot of teachers using CD’s to learn on the computer. After taking the time to look, the programs on these CD’s are written mostly for use with Windows 95 or 98. They only work with the CD in the drive or don’t work correctly with Windows XP. A lot of the teachers using these CD’s have been teaching for over 10 years, most 25 or more. I see this as an opportunity to educate our teachers that there are many more resources available on the web. These web based resources lead to more effective learning with the students. Let’s see how….

The first way is by letting a group or class of students use the same resource at the same time. When you are using a CD to teach, for example numbers, only one student can use it at a time in a classroom setting while working on the classroom computers. While on the other hand, in the classroom you can load the site on a teacher laptop, plug it into the video projector and put it up on a screen or an ActivBoard depending what you have available. You are then engaging a whole class at one time, seeing who is learning and who isn’t. You get to see a bigger picture than you see when each child has to wait to use a CD. Yes, you can load the CD on the teacher laptop, but these CD’s tend to run slow while having to access information versus a broadband connection of a web based application.

Another way web based activity is a better way to learn is when you have multiple computers in the classroom and the students are doing stations during a reading or writing block. the students on the computer station can all load the reading web site to work on the same assignment. This gives the teacher a more streamlined lesson plan that they can follow with the students on the computer station, the same as with a reading station at a round table. The teacher can discuss the same reading assignment with these students, instead of having to ask different questions for different CD’s.

To me this is just better use of time and learning material. At our school the Instructional Technology Coach, K1 lab instructor and myself have gotten together and found many sites that we have added to our Technology web page. The links are from a variety of teachers, but everyday we are looking for more. Please check out our links, maybe we have one you don’t. If you have one that you think would be helpful, please drop add a comment to this blog for me.

These are just two examples, there are so many more…Podcasts, blogs, Wiki’s, student online newsletters and the list goes on…..

That’s what I think….What about you?

With the new school year I’ve changed the image on the teacher stations in our 2 labs. After consulting with administration, and our Instructional Technology Coach we came up with a list of programs that should be installed on these 2 computers. One of the programs that we left off was district email and it was the first tech request for the teacher stations by the teachers. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t shocked.

If you’ve spent any time in a computer lab, it can get a little boring when your students are using the reading, writing and math programs. Although that is true, we are in the lab to increase the students knowledge, it’s another tool, it’s not the baby sitter, a substitute for the teacher. Walking around behind the students, giving them advice, seeing who is having problems is what a teacher is supposed to be doing. Yes, they can run reports on each students progress, but that is just a number, if you aren’t watching to see what they are doing, you can’t truly analyze a poor score.

So, sitting at a teacher station reading your email is not constructive use of time in a computer lab. Use it wisely and that time can actually help your students learn more. They will realistically improve on those program lessons they are doing, while they will score better on county and state mandated tests because they have had hands on training when they needed it. Being a teacher is not an easy job, but use the tools you have properly and read your email during planning, before school, or after school. Not when you can be helping your kids in a classroom setting that just happens to be a computer lab.

That’s what I think….What about you?

I have been setting up the computers in our reading rooms the last few days. Asking the Reading Resource teachers to brain storm with each other, they have come up with some suggestions for the image I’m creating for the computers. One of the web sites that they asked me to include is from the Woodlands Junior School in Tonbridge Kent UK.

The Educational Games and Activities Zone page is chalk full of interesting and useful games to help students read, learn math, help their memory, learn the use of logic and much more. I recommend that any educator check out this site.

That’s what I think…What about you?