Educon Part 1 -Student Voice

Educon 2.0 is an event that will take a number of posts for me to truly express what I learned and experienced. I absolutely must begin by thanking Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy for his hospitality and vision in hosting this conference and allowing us to see the incredible school that he leads.

One of the initial differences I noticed at this conference was the "student voice". I attended an excellent session by Sylvia Martinez of GenYes on the subject. We spent a good amount of time talking about how student voice is tokenized in many of our schools and what truly allowing students to have voice means in terms of integrating them into the decision making processes in schools.

The Science Leadership Academy served as an excellent place to have this discussion. Students in this school sit on the hiring committees that interview new teachers. This is an amazing amount of "voice" to give students. One of the teachers (I apologize for not remembering your name) at SLA expressed his concern and asked the group if it was appropriate to allow a 15 year old high school student to make decisions that will effect a teacher's career and life. I found him afterward to continue the discussion.

More and more, adulthood has been delayed. Responsibility, maturity, discretion, and professionalism have been put off until "kids" are in their mid-twenties. My argument was that we need to give kids the opportunities to learn these adult skills. I think the teacher began to agree. We cannot expect kids to use their "voice" maturely if we do not teach them how in REAL situations. This is an incredible way to do that. Much more powerful than letting them decide if they can have french fries during lunch, don't you think?

"We're All Student Teachers" was another presentation that illustrated the power of student voice. It was conducted by Arthus Erea, an amazing young man of 15, an edublogger instrumental in the creation of Students2.0, and a learner. He led a discussion around the following 5 questions:

1. How can a wrinkled model of education be created
2. How can students be authentic leaders?
3. How can students direct their own learning?
4. How can students become teachers?
5. How will our perceptions of students and teachers change?
   

The last question was the one that seemed to spark the most discussion and we were all talking about it before we even "got to it" in the sequence of the questions. What became apparent to me is that teacher and student are poor terms. We are all learners in the classroom. Although usually it is the teacher that should be facilitating the learning, it does not always need to be.

This realization came from a discussion led by a 15 year old "student". Arthus, you are truly a learner and a teacher. I would also like to thank the SLA students and Meg Peters (daughter of Sharon Peters) for sharing your voices with the rest of us during the session. If Megan has a blog someone please let me know! This was truly an example of a group of learners in a room, not students and teachers.

As powerful as student voice was here, I am sad to say that the incredible panel of Sylvia Martinez, Joyce Valenza, Dr. Gary Stager, David Jakes, Chris Lehmann, and Will Richardson. Although I agree there is a place for experts and research, this particular discussion could have used that voice.


Students at this conference were not showpieces. They were not tokens. They had voices. People were listening to them. They were participants in the conversation. It is amazing to me that this is unusual in education. Thanks for reminding me that school is where we learn together, not where we just teach kids stuff.

More to come on Educon soon........

Social Networking - Is there a place in school?

Written for our school district newsletter, 12/15/7

The National School Boards Association released a report this past summer urging schools to re-examine policies regarding social networking. The media, for the most part, has portrayed these tools as dangerous and unsafe for kids. Statistics however, do not support this perception. There are dangers, but they may not be as prominent as many of us think.

Recently, Auburn Enlarged City School District has been engaged in conversations regarding social networking tools and whether or not there is a place for them in our schools. The technology planning team has been discussing the pros and cons to allowing students to access tools such as email, instant messaging, and other tools that, although relatively new to most adults, are central to how our students communicate.

After initial discussions, the technology planning team felt it needed a student perspective and conducted a panel interview of students from Auburn High School. Our goal was to learn what students how our students were using social networks. Five students were asked a series of questions on social networking using video conferencing tools connecting the High School to the Harriet Tubman Administration Building where the Technology Planning Team meets.

Some of the responses from our students came as a surprise to the group. We found our students had anywhere from 60 to 600 contacts on their “friends” lists. They are spending upwards of two hours a day communicating using these tools. More importantly, students said they would like to be able to contact teachers using these tools.

Cyberbullying and harassment online are serious concerns of social networking tools. Students responded to these concerns, telling the group of the precautions they take to protect their online identities. They keep their profiles hidden and are very cautious with personal information. These are skills they have learned on their own. They deny access to anyone who is not on their contact lists and delete those they no longer wish to communicate with.

The NSBA Report suggests students may learn online safety lessons better while they are actually using these tools. Most of these tools are currently blocked in our schools and teachers know little about them. The report asks schools to consider using social networks for staff communication and professional development. Increasing teachers’ comfort level and understanding of these types of tools will help them to understand the educational possibilities associated with these tools.

No, AECSD is not allowing access to MySpace just yet. The district is exploring the tools that our current generation students are using and looking at how we may use them to an educational advantage while keeping our students safe and teaching them to keep themselves safe outside of school. We will continue to explore these tools, pilot small projects, and re-examine our policies in order to use the best tools we can to prepare our students to live and learn in the 21st Century.

A night to settle.

After talking with others and spending some more time thinking instead of just blathering out loud I have more questions than answers as usual. Gary Stager has done what he intended. He has made me question what our curriculum is and challenge my beliefs about learning. Question what school is in America today and what it should be tomorrow. Still however, I have no answers. All that I do know is that our current system is not great. It is not awful, but it is not great.

I am still not sure what needs to be done to create a better system. How do you create a system of learning when you do not know what you want everyone to learn? We cannot predict the world of tomorrow well enough to know exactly what needs to be learned. So we must do more to teach the learning process to our kids. If we can create learners that can thrive well beyond any content we offer, then we are successful.

How to do this in the confine of our current system of accountability and high stakes testing? I have no idea. How to do it in an age when students are using tools to communicate and learn that teachers do not understand? That one I can work on.

Overall I have come to the realization that I have to stop looking to others for all the answers and just start listening to them to make sure the right questions are being asked. I have to make sure I keep learning. Gary is doing the right thing by not spitting out what he thinks the answer "might be". He is also not regurgitating information we all have already. He is thinking. He is forcing me to challenge my beliefs. I cannot thank Dr. Stager enough for that.

I am not sure that those who I feel understand this big picture thinking have the right audience though. The ed-tech community in general is its own audience right now. Others need to hear it. The educational policy makers are the people who need to understand. Again the question, how do we begin to get them to challenge their thinking? One thing is for sure, the future can and will be a learning experience for all of us, if we are willing to learn.

NYSCATE Closing Keynote

NYSCATE’s closing keynote this year featured two very well know speakers on Educational Technology. I was a fan of both coming into the keynote. I am not coming out, although I do still highly respect them both and will continue to follow both online.

Will Richardson and Gary Stager took to the stage with a moderator and a series of questions. Will is well known for his blog and book on Blogs and Wikis. Gary is a nationally recognized speaker and has been a visionary in ed-tech for some time.

The questions were designed to put them at odds, focusing on issues that the two were known to disagree on. Everyone was expecting a bit of rough and tumble in the conversation.

It was played by both, although I heard “I agree with… but” way too many times from both of these gentlemen. Gary is very passionate and was compelling to listen to. Will was reflective and appeared a very good listener.

I can’t help but express that I disagree with Gary on a number of his points. He stated that “all curriculum is bad”, suggesting we operate our schools without curriculum. He was clear in his belief that we should give all kids computers without any consideration to the readiness of the teacher. I cannot state how strongly I feel that we cannot provide any guaranteed quality of education without a core curriculum. I do feel that curriculum contains too much content and should be more skill based, but to suggest that teachers work with no curriculum and teach what kids might be interested in, might be current, might work, or what might spark the teacher’s passion with no clear path is irresponsible.

Will talked about teachers effectively modeling good use of technology and be comfortable in an understanding of how a particular technology works before implementing it in a classroom. Gary doesn’t care if the teacher even has a computer. Gary’s thinking can only lead to inconsistent education for our kids, lack of alignment, and the schools with the most money and resources getting the best teachers and giving kids more opportunities.

Will’s approach is more cautious. I agree with him that school needs to expand beyond the when and where we have kids in front of us and that time may even be able to shrink. Yet we still need to be their guide. Teachers need to know a clear path of what it is they want their students to be capable of accomplishing and guide them in the process to learn the skills they need. Teachers need to create the opportunities for learning and discovery and a place where they can make “safe mistakes”. If teachers do not understand the way students are doing their work, they cannot teach them safe, effective, ethical, enjoyable ways to learn. We need to stop worrying about the content, and allow students to discover and create the content while learning skills. Teachers cannot do this if they cannot model and guide the students. They cannot come close if they have no clue as to the environment they expect kids to do accomplish things in.

I also did not agree with Gary that all kids need to learn more about how the computers they use work. He made it clear that he feels they all need to understand how the computers were programmed. Personally, I do not think this is at all essential. Just as many of us have no idea why our cars run when we turn the key, why our televisions show us pictures, or why our refrigerators keep our food cold; we do not all need to understand how to create a word processor that will allow us to move text the way we want.

The conversation between Gary, Will and the moderator was civil and ended peacefully. It did what it needed to do, and that was to make me think. This was a great end to a conference and the fact that I am home writing this less than 3 hours after arriving home is testament to that. Thanks to both Gary and Will and the NYSCATE organizers as well.

See the Keynote at:
http://weblogged-tv.wikispaces.com/NYSCATE

NYSCATE

Another NYSCATE and as usual I still cannot believe how badly PowerPoint is used. Gary Marx, one of the Keynote speakers had one of the worst presentations I have seen in a long time. Slide after slide of bullet after bullet. He presented his “Sixteen Trends” which is more than can be absorbed in an hour and I could have read the book more easily than trying to keep up with his slides. His talk was good, just his use of multimedia slideshows was awful.

There were many sessions on the use of MUVE’s (Multi-User Virtual Environments) and a playground featuring Twitter, Ning, and Second Life to expose teachers to some of these cutting edge uses of technology. These social networking tools are enabling teachers to explore and get comfortable with Social Networking. I believe they need to be comfortable before they can even explore how they might use them in schools.

I had the great pleasure of meeting a number of people I have been networking with online and spent a good deal of time with Catherine Parsons (Victoria Gloucester) and Nancy Sharoff (Laelia Laval), as well as going to sessions presented by Sylvia Martinez, David Jakes, and Will Richardson. Brian Smith and Andrew Wheelock were both involved with the conference organization and found the time to chat with me as well. I had the opportunity to chat with David in person for a bit as opposed to online, which is a rare treat. He is a real gentleman, a very smart guy, and great to chat with. His sessions along with Will’s Q and A session were the highlights. Thanks for the conversations David!

Keyloggers?

A school nearby has just uncovered the use of keyloggers to record passwords that they suspect has been going on for a long time. Students have used the passwords to access grades and change them.

This is not anything shockingly new, but the newspapers have made it highly public and printed a full page article on what keyloggers are, how they work, and even where to get them. Brilliant!

It looks like I need to get a memo out to everyone and possibly have my tech staff do some physical inspections. What a great use of our time and resources. *sigh*