Education and Technology

I strongly believe in technology as a tool in education. Of course I’m bias because I’m in IT in our school system, but today’s world is technology and multimedia. That being said, technology is not “THE ONE” solution to increasing our children’s knowledge or giving them the best education they can get. To the point, it takes a lot of things to make an education system work and here are my thoughts on what some of them are. These are in no particular order or a complete list, just some things to peak thoughts and discussion.

Parent involvement….This I believe, is crucial to the success of any child’s education. Active participation by parents creates a better view of school for a child, no matter the age of the child. Being in technology support I get to see all the classes, in all the elementary grades. I also get to see a lot of the parent involvement as I walk the campus and through classes. You wouldn’t believe what I hear as I walk by parents talking to their children; but I can tell you that the students that I see getting positive feedback are the one’s that I also see at the Student of the Month or Principal List awards presentations.

Teacher involvement….Boy this is a big can of worms because there are many different ways that a teacher can be involved and every teacher thinks their way is the right one. Well, I’m going to only give you one way that, in my opinion, is one of the best. At 8:20 am students are allowed into their classrooms at our school, which normally means the door is unlocked and the kids come in, the teacher says “hi” while directing the students in the daily start up routine. There is one teacher though, who stands at his door to greet each child by name, with a handshake, a “Good Morning” and a “How are you today?”. To me this shows the children that this teacher cares about them. It might take 10 minutes to do this, but he gets feedback and can take the extra time to work with or talk with anyone who might not be doing well or who has a problem.

Administration Involvement….Administration that walks the classrooms, sits in on a class, participates in lead teacher meetings helps with the students learning experience in more than one way. A principal that will go to a classroom to help teach a lesson is valuable. One that is able to lead, or more to the point to instill the want to follow by their staff is invaluable in shaping the way students learn. Our principal, Michelle Henderson made a deal with the students of her school that if they read enough books to earn 50,000 points she would jump out of a plane onto the PE field. Those points were earned through passing tests about those books they read. Well, those kids read a lot of books, over 2,500 and scored 57,000 points by passing those tests. Ms. Henderson jumped out of that plane last week to a cheering crowd of students.

I’ve purposely left technology off this list because there are a lot of things that don’t get noticed while we are pushing the technology. This post is meant to highlight some of the small things that happen that make our children want to learn, make them feel that someone cares.

The title of this post “It’s all about the kids” came from Ms. Henderson. I’ve heard her say it more than once and I know that she means it. It’s a joy to work at the school I do because the person at the top inspires her staff to keep their eye on the goal……the kids.

Technorati tags: K12, K12 Education, Elementary Education, Educational Technology, Education, PTO, PTA

Their is a test that our first and second graders take each year. During the math portion of the test the teacher is reading the question out loud to them. It is not written anywhere on the test and the teacher can only read the question once. Yes, you read that right, they can only read the question ONCE.

My question is the same as the topic of this blog, “Is this a math test or a listening test?”

How does this test a child’s knowledge of math? What if they don’t hear the question clearly, or they don’t understand it? Being able to read the question themselves after the teach reads it out loud isn’t cheating, it’s letting them understand the problem. These are first & second graders, they are 6 to 8 years old and we are expecting them to be able to understand a question read out loud only once. Who came up with this idea? Have they seen the attention span of this age group, or how they actually learn?

I know adults that can’t answer questions without asking for the question to be repeated or reading it themselves. Could we give these test writers a test commensurate with their ability, but only read them the question once, no exceptions. I don’t think they would do as well as they think.

Technorati tags: Math, K12 Education, Elementary Education, Standardized Testing, Education

Our school district has invested $14 million dollars into putting Promethean ActivBoards into every classroom and Media Center in the district. This ambitious project has been an ever changing work in progress. The first phase of installs has been 15% of the classrooms. The teachers that have gotten ActivBoards in there classrooms have primarily been receptive to their new teaching partner, while the kids have just loved it.

Let me explain what an ActivBoard is so you can better understand how it changes the way a teacher has to teach. Watch a Video Overview here or an Interactive Demonstration here to see it in action. The ActivBoard is a large “Interactive Whiteboard” that you don’t use dry erase markers on. But as you can see it is much more, it is a PC, a VCR, a flipchart, a PowerPoint, a DVD player, an interactive lesson with your students, a center during class, the Internet, a TV for special events and more. An ActivBoard can be attached to a PC, either a laptop or a desktop running ActivStudio Professional or ActivPrimary for Elementary Schools K-2. Also standard with our ActivBoards are speakers with an Amplifier and a DVD/VCR. Along the line we will be adding a document camera, but you can also attach an ELMO and other devices to the ActivBoard.

Can you imagine showing a video or DVD of Martin Luther King, pausing the DVD during “I Have a Dream”, changing to the PC in two clicks where you have flipchart or a web page showing something that you want to focus on at that point in the speech, then switching back to the DVD to continue where you stopped? You can even have the students use the ActivBoard to answer questions about the DVD and the Flipchart lesson afterwards using the ActiVote personal response system that captures student responses by asking students to make a choice on the hand held voters by clicking a button. A mini quiz without the students knowing it. The kids think it’s a game, answer the question right and be the first or get the most questions correct.

I want to stress how much the kids really love the ActivBoard. It’s interactive, it’s entertaining, they get to use it and most important, they listen to the lesson. From my life experiences, when someone enjoys doing something they tend to pay better attention, learn more and retain it better. I have no statistical proof, but this would lead me to think that the kids will improve in grade point average and to some degree on the standardized tests that the lawmakers seem to think are needed to show Yearly Progress. The ActivBoards are by no means the only way we should teach, not at all. We should be doing some things the old fashioned way, like writing and reading. We shouldn’t stop going on field trips just because the ActivBoard can go just about anywhere, while it doesn’t have to move from the room. We shouldn’t stop going outside, sitting at a set of lunch benches and reading out loud with our students.

ActivBoards are a good advancement in teaching methods, they should be used in conjunction with current teaching methods. Some day the ActivBoard will break, you’ll need a backup lesson plan to do it the old way. Don’t replace the car when you are just adding a new coat of paint.

I think the ActivBoards are a great addition, take a look at Promethean World and Promethean Planet.

Technorati tags: Education, Technology, Promethean, ActivBoard, WhiteBoard, Teaching, K12, Educational Technology

I wanted to take the time to point to some others who blog about education. I’ve either had these folks in my blogroll or have added them recently. They have either commented here did a trackback to my blog or I have found them in my wanderings of the blogosphere about education.

1. Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (History, accuracy and education) by Ed Darrell
2. JD2718 (Education, Math, Teaching, New York, Bronx, Union, Language, Travel) by JD2718
3. Happy Chyck Wonders by happychyck
4. Lets Play Math by Denise
5. 2 Cents Worth by David Warlick ~ David is a great source of information on Web 2.0 and blogging in the classroom
6. Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson ~ The best educational blogger I’ve read

Thanks for the commentary and words about something worthwhile……

Technorati tags: Education, k12 Education, Web 2.0