Flexibility is a thinly veiled synonym for change

Flexibility is a thinly veiled synonym for change. Through the use of technology, we are asking our teachers and students to accept change, constantly.  Being comfortable with change is an evolutionary process. If, however, we embrace the curriculum and slowly embed the technology, we can allow the participants to become comfortable. Using interactive assessment is ideal.  As a music teacher, I have the good fortune of having alternative assessments, specifically, performance assessments.  Yet, I must still provide flexibility. Often, I have a student who can play by themselves, but not with a group, or vice versa.  Early on, I allow them to test in the manner they feel most comfortable. As things progress, I push them out of their comfort zone. If the student is completely unsuccessful outside their comfort zone, I allow them to retest in the original setting. This is all we are asking of technology. Allow our students to interact with us and others, as well as the curriculum, in a variety of ways. It could be considered a numbers game. The more variety in learning approaches, the more likely we are to address all learning style, therefore, successfully teaching more students.  

How do we get teachers to enjoy technology?

While looking at different tools, I could see why teachers balk at adding technology. A sense of perfectionism haunts every good teacher I have met, both as a colleague and as an administrator. If there are so many options, the next one may be better. Teachers, more than many, hate to be wrong. If what they are currently doing is right, why would they want to mess it up? We must have more timely professional development for our teachers to explore, evaluate and just play with technology. During this time, we need to provide a limited number of options. One session every six weeks that provides three similar tools, (e.g. animation, pod-casts, etc.) would ease them into technology. Then, I believe the administration should require the addition of one of these tools into at least one unit every six weeks. Over a period of three to five years, we would have a campus addressing technology in a thoughtful, stress-reduced environment.

This could really matter!

"Our understanding of learning and teaching is constantly reshaped by theory, applied research, and changing media. As our knowledge of the distributed processing in the brain grows, we know that students do not have one kind of intelligence or one way of learning; they have many. To accommodate these many ways of learning, we can use what we know about how each brain network operates to make our teaching methods and curriculum materials flexible in specific ways."

This really could matter. In the past, I heard educators talking about the latest trend in education. Even though I was very excited to find out about these new theories, they could tell me the names of several other theories based on the same information. I thought they were just being negative. As time passes, I see the same thing. Cross-curricular learning has become grade-level PLC’s, with a twist, admittedly. We cannot blame anyone for trying to rejuvenate the theories of education.  

As we continue with brain-based research, we cannot help but find quantitative ways to measure learning, and therefore, measure teaching. As a teacher, I have always tried to present information through all of the senses. Usually, I could hit every sense but smell, if you consider speaking as tasting. This approach has been very successful. My students, if I access all of the senses, learn to recognize new information in one-fifth the time it would otherwise take. With the identification of three areas, Recognition, Strategic, and Affective, we have more direct access to successful teaching. I anticipate the information to become far more specific in the near future. Intuitively, good teachers know, and can then prove a student’s best mode of learning. The brain-based research can validate that information and allow us to pinpoint instruction. 

Rose, D., & Myer A. (2002) Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Science Technology Website. Retrieved on March 18, 2012 from: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Focus.

A very important lesson was driven home this week. Our group project is to design a lesson using technology. This lesson is to be delivered to a diverse group of learners - blind, hearing-impaired, gifted and talented, as well as on-level students. When we started the process, much was said about the technology that could be used and the TEKS that could be addressed. What wasn't discussed first, was the lesson. It took a while for the discussion to return to "what are we going to teach?" With all the new technology, it easy to distracted from what is important, the lesson. While we learn to adapt our teaching styles and skills to our students different learning styles and skills, we must still focus on good curriculum writing. I am very interested in exploring the use of a Universal Design for Learning.

Guide on the side? Can we do that?

Can we, as educators, learn to let go of the reign 

Can we, as educators, learn to let go of the reigns? Can we let go and remain in control of the class? The following is quote from Rose and Meyers' Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age:

In his book Avatars of the Word, James Joseph O'Donnell speculates on what the real roles of educators will be in an information-rich world:

[It will be] to advise, guide, and encourage students wading through the deep waters of the information flood. [Educators] will thrive as mentors, tutors, backseat drivers, and coaches. They will use the best skill they have . . . to nudge, push, and sometimes pull students through the educationally crucial tasks of processing information: analysis, problem solving, and synthesis of ideas. These are the heart of education, and these are the activities on which our time can best be spent. (O'Donnell, 1998, p. 156)

This is the vision that connects Universal Design for Learning to other educational reform. Instead of being "just one more thing," the UDL framework provides a way to make various approaches to educational change more feasible by incorporating new insights on learning and new applications of technology.(Rose, D & Meyer M, 2002)

As educators, we are have to manage classroom behavior. Some teachers have different tools. Some maintain classroom management by using strict schedules and order. Some require undivided attention from the students. We have been taught to "lead the classroom". Much has been said about overcoming teachers' objections to technology. I think one of our fears is loss of classroom management. As we accept that times are changing, we have to accept that we are not in control. This is difficult. I would be interested to hear from younger teachers, how this is being addressed in education courses being taught in colleges, now. Are new teachers being groomed to stand on the side? How are they taught to maintain classroom management from the "back seat?.

Tetrad of Media Effects

While taking one of my first courses in education and pedagogy, I was given a list of objections to current technology. It included statements such as "It is too much of a distraction" or "It will numb their minds and they won't be able to think". To us, these statements were directed at the ubiquitous nature of television. After all, it was 1982. How shocked we were when told the list referred to the advent of the telephone. Granted, this sort of bait and switch is an old trick played by teachers on students since the beginning of time - and it worked.

After completing some assigned readings, I decided to try and find a copy of the above mentioned list. I failed. Google let me down. Google sent me on a wild goose chase through even more articles and Wikipedia posts. While in this maze of 'cool stuff', I found this image:






Some know this from the works of Marshall McLuhan. As an educator and philosopher in the mid-twentieth century, he coined phrases such as "the media is the message". Well, I didn't find the list I was looking for, but this image is more than an adequate replacement.

In education, technology acts as the medium in the above graphic. This week we read about constuctivism and connectivism. Constructivism builds, or enhances knowledge based on information we retrieve. This concept is simple and straight forward. Connectivism requires a network of information woven together to form a strong web (if you will) of information. Our connections and interactions with others creates a level of understanding considered somewhat greater than pure construction of knowledge. If social networking is the medium in the equation, what happens next?

I have more to say about this, however, I am currently a chaperone for 26 senior AP students staying in the heart of midtown Manhattan, and it is almost time for dinner. Thank goodness for technology, we text everything, including pictures of where the students are, and when. Tomorrow, I will be using Facetime to check on my students in Houston. I wish you could have seen their faces when I told them the substitute would facilitate for us. Priceless.