No Excuses! Teachers must implement technology in the Standard Course of Study!

  With the flow of so many technologies today, there is no excuse for any educator to remain ignorant of web 2.O tools. Furthermore, it is inacceptable that teachers do not implement internet based activities in their lesson plans. Classes need to be engaging, relevant and realistic. Students need to learn how to use the internet. Anyway, it is what they are going to use in real life for many purposes. They need, hence, to learn technologies for communicating content, for networking, consuming and for learning easier, faster and better. They need to know how to relate what they learn in the classroom to their real life.

   Personally, I have been implementing different internet based technologies in my class so students are more engaged. Lately, the use of voicethreads in my literacy classes has been in the spotlight, and the answer on behalf of my students has been greatly favorable. Though it takes time and tons of patience to get started ( some students in 6th grade, especially, are really new to computer applications and need extra support and attention) but once they learn what they can do, and the great potential technologies like this have to offer to them, they feel they are really applying what they are learning by doing something, and it makes them  feel happy because they can create and share something of their own!

   Now, according to the Horizon Project, schools of education must prepare teachers to assume a more proactive approach for the use of technlogy in their job. It is there were definitely, teachers must be trained to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance their teaching talents and power. The internet makes it much easier to students to share content, review concepts and relate information to greater pictures in real life. All teachers, in my opinion, must know and use any number or web 2.0 tools, any they feel comfortable with, but indeed, they must incorporate some to today's classrooms, no matter the subject they teach: From culinary to atomic science! However, technology should not be implemented just for its own sake, but rather it should be closely aligned with the standard course of study, and every community's specific needs. For more details click at: Technology in the classroom: Fad or foundation for learning? - Media and kids | GreatSchools.

   Now, is technology a priority for local boards of education when it comes to staff development planning? In some cases, it is, in some others, not really. I do believe some are doing a great job, while others are failing, falling behind. In my county, for instance, the emphasis is not there yet. The local board of education even struggles to get the necessary funding to just change very old computers ( 10 years old ). To make things even harder, internet access is still very limited and teachers, though trying to implement more technology in their teaching, lose interest when realizing the web is highly blocked,  sometimes just slow, or in the worst scenario: Off! I know this is not the same everywhere. However, nationally, it should be a priority that schools make an emphasis on a more massified use of technology incorporated to instruction. Students must be trained to use technologies for their own learning as well as to be good "cyber-citizens". “Besides just the usual classroom rules, we now have to start teaching children how to be good 'cyber-citizens' and that there is a right and wrong way to use technology,” “We have to prepare students for today's society, and if we are not using technology in the classroom, then we are not preparing them adequately,” said Linda Bennett, editor of the book and associate professor in the MU College of Education's Department of Learning, Teaching and Curriculum.

   Now, is technology literacy a responsibility for teachers on their own? Indeed! Teachers, as the word clearly states it, are people who teach! Teaching today means to guide students into a highly computarized world! In the past teachers would just teach how to read and write, today they do the same but going beyond and teaching also computer skills. Teachers must teach students how to learn, how to evaluate information, and how to use web 2.0 tools! Teachers must teach realistic, relevant contents, otherwise education will be just a waste of precious time! Educators, however need support and resources to make this possible. The world is a better place thanks to so many teachers that very often guide children better than parents! Let us ensure it keeps on like that or even help it get better!!

The 2010 Horizon Report, Interesting Facts!

   Have you ever wondered what  education is going to be like in 5 years? or in 10 or maybe 20 years? I guess you have, if you are an educator. Have you ever observed classrooms from the outside and thought: "God! It feels education is still the same as it was in the Middle Ages!!" Well, personally I have been through such an uncomfortable stream of thoughts! Uncomfortable because you, as an educator, judge yourself and others in terms of innovation, efficiency and intelectual atractiveness for our students.

    In a changing world, eduacation must change, indeed. However, it must change in  reasonable and practical ways. It must meet the needs of contemporary students in a contemporary world. We should not serve 21rst century students with educational practices and contexts from the XIX century! Such is the right state of mind and the motivation of many education intellectuals, and researchers that see the critical need for change in thousands of schools around the world. An example of such an effort and reflection on contemporary education is the Horizon report.

   The Horizon report is a project aimed at anouncing and documenting guidance and insights into the future thresholds education must go through, in order to keep competitive and adequate. Now , what is a competitive and adequate education? Well, what do you say about it, dear reader? what would be your answer?

   The Horizon report is a visionary document created by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE LearningInitiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program. The document points out at key trends in our time that call out for education change, and they are:

• Easy access to resources and relationships through the internet.
• Flexibility is required by people so they can study, learn and work whenever they want to.
• Easy access to information of our own and of others.
• Students are studying in a more collaborative fashion, and so are working schools and faculties in educational institutions.

Today, the world is just some "clicks" away!!

   The Horizon project also identifies the challenges to be met in the process of innovating education practices. Change will always come along with smooth or rough transitions. In order to make smooth transitions the clue is to know what is yet to come and get ready for it in time, physically and psychologically, for the changes expected to occur. In order for education to meet the new requirements smoothly, the project makes some recomendations as follows:

• Students must be prepared for their future life.
• New metrics for evaluation must be created or implemented. There are new educational experiences that need different evaluation models and scales.
• Digital media literacy has to be acquired in educational environments for a world that demands more and more of them from the new professionals and employees in general. 

The project also makes you pop eyes on new powerful emergent technologies that are changing the face of the world like no other. According to their research findings, the most infusing technologies in our time are:

• Mobile computing ( Smart phones and laptops with ulimited and universal internet access).
• Open contents ( MIT classes are streamed free on line for whoever that wants to learn!).
• Augmented reality ( like the maps in google earth and the virtual boutiques offered by google in its applications for laptops, desktops and mobilephones).
• Electronic books. ( I-pads, kindles and other readers)
• Gesture based computing, no physical but kinetic commands! ( Facial passwords, facial interactions between humans and computers and game or music consoles ) ( Kinect of Xbox is using this new technology to engage audiences in entertainment- I already tried that and was astonished!).
• Visual Data Analysis. ( The gate for unexpected capabilities and powerful aplications and implications in communications, and learning empowerment, like never before. The manipulation of visual data to manipulate data and predict outcomes in real, scientific settings).

   Will you let your students look through the future window? Will you take them for a walk on the virtual world and use the trends? Will you train them for success? Will you empowered them?

   See this moving video about "making the match" for our kids. I adore Adora! She is full of insights, listen to her, I will not blame you if she rips a happy tear from your eye...

The Role of School Boards in Technology Planning

A Plan that Makes Sense, will it have a real impact?

   In November, 2010, the Secretary of the US Department of Education, Arne Duncan,  presents the National Education Technology Plan. A compendium of recommendations from American Education Gurus. In his letter, he urges the whole nation to embrace a new perspective and a new set of practices in the education for millions of young souls around the country.

"The plan's development was led by the Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology and involved the most rigorous and inclusive process ever undertaken for a national education technology plan. It builds on the insights and recommendations of a technical working group of leading education researchers, learning and assessment experts, and practitioners."

 The set of guidelines is  heavily focused on "applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning, accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices, and use data and information for continuous improvement."( http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/letter-secretary )  It also advocates for the relevance of the "five essential components of learning powered by technology" and the need to pursue specific goals for every, so called, essential component.

  

   An explanation of how the essential components are treated is as follows( Taken from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/executive-summary ):

"Learning: Engage and Empower



The model of learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners. The model asks that we focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn, and who needs to learn. It brings state-of-the art technology into learning to enable, motivate, and inspire all students, regardless of background, languages, or disabilities, to achieve. It leverages the power of technology to provide personalized learning and to enable continuous and lifelong learning.

Many students' lives today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enables them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and allows them to participate in online social networks where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. Outside school, students are free to pursue their passions in their own way and at their own pace. The opportunities are limitless, borderless, and instantaneous.

The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.

A core set of standards-based concepts and competencies should form the basis of what all students should learn. Beyond that, students and educators should have options for engaging in learning: large groups, small groups, and work tailored to the individual goals, needs, interests, and prior experience of each learner. Technology should be leveraged to provide access to more learning resources than are available in classrooms and connections to a wider set of "educators," including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom. It also should be used to enable 24/7 and lifelong learning.

What and How People Need to Learn


Whether the domain is English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history, art, or music, 21st-century competencies and such expertise as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas. These competencies are necessary to become expert learners, which we all must be if we are to adapt to our rapidly changing world over the course of our lives. That involves developing deep understanding within specific content areas and making the connections among them.


How we need to learn includes using the technology that professionals in various disciplines use. Professionals routinely use the Web and tools, such as wikis, blogs, and digital content for the research, collaboration, and communication demanded in their jobs. They gather data and analyze the data using inquiry and visualization tools. They use graphical and 3D modeling tools for design. For students, using these real-world tools creates learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems—opportunities that prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce."


"Assessment: Measure What Matters


The model of learning requires new and better ways to measure what matters, diagnose strengths and weaknesses in the course of learning when there is still time to improve student performance, and involve multiple stakeholders in the process of designing, conducting, and using assessment. In all these activities, technology-based assessments can provide data to drive decisions on the basis of what is best for each and every student and that, in aggregate, will lead to continuous improvement across our entire education system.


The nation's governors and state education chiefs have begun to develop standards and assessments that measure 21st-century competencies and expertise in all content areas. Technology-based assessments that combine cognitive research and theory about how students think with multimedia, interactivity, and connectivity make it possible to directly assess these types of skills. This can be done within the context of relevant societal issues and problems that people care about in everyday life.


When combined with learning systems, technology-based assessments can be used formatively to diagnose and modify the conditions of learning and instructional practices while at the same time determining what students have learned for grading and accountability purposes. Both uses are important, but the former can improve student learning in the moment (Black and Wiliam 1998). Furthermore, systems can be designed to capture students' inputs and collect evidence of their knowledge and problem-solving abilities as they work. Over time, the system "learns" more about students' abilities and can provide increasingly appropriate support.

Using Data to Drive Continuous Improvement


With assessments in place that address the full range of expertise and competencies reflected in standards, student-learning data can be collected and used to continually improve learning outcomes and productivity. For example, such data could be used to create a system of interconnected feedback for students, educators, parents, school leaders, and district administrators.


For this to work, relevant data must be made available to the right people at the right time and in the right form. Educators and leaders at all levels of our education system also must be provided with support—tools and training—that can help them manage the assessment process, analyze relevant data, and take appropriate action."


"Teaching: Prepare and Connect


Just as leveraging technology can help us improve learning and assessment, the model of learning calls for using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. In such a teaching model, teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners, classrooms are fully connected to provide educators with 24/7 access to data and analytic tools, and educators have access to resources that help them act on the insights the data provide.

Professional educators are a critical component of transforming our education systems, and therefore strengthening and elevating the teaching profession is as important as effective teaching and accountability. All are necessary if we are to attract and retain the most effective educators and achieve the learning outcomes we seek. Just as leveraging technology can help us improve learning and assessment, it also can help us shift to a model of connected teaching.


In a connected teaching model, classroom educators are fully connected to learning data and tools for using the data; to content, resources, and systems that empower them to create, manage, and assess engaging and relevant learning experiences; and directly to their students in support of learning both in and out of school. The same connections give them access to resources and expertise that improve their own instructional practices and guide them in becoming facilitators and collaborators in their students' increasingly self-directed learning.


In connected teaching, teaching is a team activity. Individual educators build online learning communities consisting of their students and their students' peers; fellow educators in their schools, libraries, and after-school programs; professional experts in various disciplines around the world; members of community organizations that serve students in the hours they are not in school; and parents who desire greater participation in their children's education.


Episodic and ineffective professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration. For their part, the colleges of education and other institutions that prepare teachers play an ongoing role in the professional growth of their graduates throughout the entire course of their careers.


Connected teaching enables our education system to provide access to effective teaching and learning resources where they are not otherwise available and more options for all learners. This is accomplished by augmenting the expertise and competencies of specialized and exceptional educators with online and blended (online and offline) learning systems, on-demand courses, and other self-directed learning opportunities.

21st-Century Resources for Professional Educators


The technology that enables connected teaching is available now, but not all the conditions necessary to leverage it are. Many of our existing educators do not have the same understanding of and ease with using technology that is part of the daily lives of professionals in other sectors. The same can be said of many of the education leaders and policymakers in schools, districts, and states and of the higher education institutions that prepare new educators for the field.

This gap in technology understanding influences program and curriculum development, funding and purchasing decisions about educational and information technology in schools, and preservice and in-service professional learning. This gap prevents technology from being used in ways that would improve instructional practices and learning outcomes.


Still, we must introduce connected teaching into our education system rapidly, and therefore we need innovation in the organizations that support educators in their profession—schools and districts, colleges of education, professional learning providers, and professional organizations."


"Infrastructure: Access and Enable


An essential component of the learning model is a comprehensive infrastructure for learning that provides every student, educator, and level of our education system with the resources they need when and where they are needed. The underlying principle is that infrastructure includes people, processes, learning resources, policies, and sustainable models for continuous improvement in addition to broadband connectivity, servers, software, management systems, and administration tools. Building this infrastructure is a far-reaching project that will demand concerted and coordinated effort.


Although we have adopted technology in many aspects of education today, a comprehensive infrastructure for learning is necessary to move us beyond the traditional model of educators and students in classrooms to a learning model that brings together teaching teams and students in classrooms, labs, libraries, museums, workplaces, and homes—anywhere in the world where people have access devices and an adequate Internet connection.

Over the past 40 years, we have seen unprecedented advances in computing and communications that have led to powerful technology resources and tools for learning. Today, low-cost Internet access devices, easy-to-use digital authoring tools, and the Web facilitate access to information and multimedia learning content, communication, and collaboration. They provide the ability to participate in online learning communities that cross disciplines, organizations, international boundaries, and cultures.

Many of these technology resources and tools already are being used within our public education system. We are now, however, at an inflection point for a much bolder transformation of education powered by technology. This revolutionary opportunity for change is driven by the continuing push of emerging technology and the pull of the critical national need to radically improve our education system.


Always-on Learning


An infrastructure for learning is always on, available to students, educators, and administrators regardless of their location or the time of day. It supports not just access to information, but access to people and participation in online learning communities. It offers a platform on which developers can build and tailor applications.

An infrastructure for learning unleashes new ways of capturing and sharing knowledge based on multimedia that integrate text, still and moving images, audio, and applications that run on a variety of devices. It enables seamless integration of in- and out-of-school learning. It frees learning from a rigid information transfer model (from book or educator to students) and enables a much more motivating intertwinement of learning about, learning to do, and learning to be.


On a more operational level, an infrastructure for learning brings together and enables access to data from multiple sources while ensuring appropriate levels of security and privacy. The infrastructure integrates computer hardware, data and networks, information resources, interoperable software, middleware services and tools, and devices, and connects and supports interdisciplinary teams of professionals responsible for its development, maintenance, and management and its use in transformative approaches to teaching and learning."


"Productivity: Redesign and Transform


To achieve our goal of transforming American education, we must rethink basic assumptions and redesign our education system. We must apply technology to implement personalized learning and ensure that students are making appropriate progress through our P–16 system so they graduate. These and other initiatives require investment, but tight economic times and basic fiscal responsibility demand that we get more out of each dollar we spend. We must leverage technology to plan, manage, monitor, and report spending to provide decision-makers with a reliable, accurate, and complete view of the financial performance of our education system at all levels. Such visibility is essential to meeting our goals for educational attainment within the budgets we can afford.


Improving productivity is a daily focus of most American organizations in all sectors—both for-profit and nonprofit—and especially in tight economic times. Education has not, however, incorporated many of the practices other sectors regularly use to improve productivity and manage costs, nor has it leveraged technology to enable or enhance them. We can learn much from the experience in other sectors.

What education can learn from the experience of business is that we need to make the fundamental structural changes that technology enables if we are to see dramatic improvements in productivity. As we do so, we should recognize that although the fundamental purpose of our public education system is the same, the roles and processes of schools, educators, and the system itself should change to reflect the times we live in and our goals as a world leader. Such rethinking applies to learning, assessment, and teaching processes and to the infrastructure and operational and financial sides of running schools and school systems."

 The Federal Goverment of the USA, once more, is trying to reach out to every local board of education to ensure education is kept as competitive as possible. Throughout the nation, local education agencies must follow the requirements and guidelines dictated by the U.S Department of Education. Washington has been pushing education reform in every state. In spite of criticism from some states, it has not stopped from doing so. First, it started implementing different laws or Acts, such as IDEA, or the controversial "No Child Left Behind".

   This great nation has realized about the importance of having competitive National Education Standards or Regulations to ensure all its citizens, regardless of their state of origin, or social background are well educated and highly qualified for the new challenges of a global market, in a never-ending, more competitive economy. The Federal Government has also established, surprisingly, a National Technology Plan.

   What are the implications of this National Plan at the local board of education level? Though the plan is right there,  beautifully written, the whole plan has some major obstacles to be fully implemented. Throughout the nation, the terrible effects of a depressed economy have not passed inadvertedly. Teachers layoffs, reduction of funding, the disapperance of grants, the reduction in tax revenues for the nation, and the ever growing national debt, have hindered the fulfilment of a better national education selfprophecy. Some states have frozen teacher salaries for more than two years ( i.e. North Carolina ) and budget for resources for education have been badly cut. With this somber landscape, it is hard to believe this wonderful plan can be fully implemented.

   In spite of the great difficulties, local boards of educations are trying hard to handle resources wisely. Some counties and local education agencies are struggling and trying really hard to comply with the Federal requirements to receive vital funding for critical programs such as Titles I, II and III. Hard times call for hard decisions. If local boards of education value the new plan, they can, no matter what let their students benefit by being compliant and by following the Federal guidelines. This will gurantee the flow of precious scarce resources. 

   Local boards of education can also be innovative when looking for tangible funding, and look for new sources of financial support, for example, from the private sector ( business and commerce ) See this controversial piece of news that ROCKED me!! This is a good idea!!! Rock Hill district to put ads on school vehicles - CharlotteObserver.com

Learn to use it, not to block it! See also my previos blog on "To Block or not to Block?"

Are you Traditionalistic or Visionary

  Checking this video I got to understand why some school systems in the US have a more proactive view about the appropriate use of the internet. They have a visionary perspective about the kind of instruction students need today. Regarding social networks, they ironnically believe that the more you train them on their applicability, protocols and correct use, the BETTER! Kids should have an access to the internet, in general. Will students benefit from this "Liberal Approach"?

 Watch this video and leave your comments about it, and about those local agencies which are literally "against the general policy". If you were the principal of your school, would you have such an approach? What would happen to your students, your teachers and to you? Would you have a rather indifferent attitude towards it? Would you leave it to the total control of your board of education?

Choose your side!!!

To Block or not to Block, That is the Question!

  

To Block or not to Block Internet?

  Schools are closed forums and must, hence, be subject to control on language in all its forms, including the one used by educators, students and administrators. It is also a place where the Freedom of Speech is limited for disciplinary and pedagogical reasons ( Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 1969)This regulation or censorship on language influences heavily the use of the Internet at schools, as well. Internet, as a communication means, poses a series of challenges for School Administrators, teachers and parents.

  School Administrators need to make sure students are safe at school. This includes safety on line. Students are not to engage in any dangerous activities on line while using the computers and the internet provided at school. Dangerous activities are among others, browsing mature content, websites with incendiary content, being contacted by sexual predators, cyberbullying, slandering, libeling, porn watching, etc. As you may conclude, this should not solely be a principal's  concern but it should also matter to teachers and parents.

INTERNET BLOCKING:

YES!!NO!!

  Nevertheless, till what extent is appropriate for a school to block the internet? In 2001, the Children’s Internet Protection Act established new requirements for schools all over the US to create policies and safeguards for  Internet use as "a condition of receiving federal E-rate funding". Out of all of this, I believe social networks must be kept blocked. ( This is my opinion ) Students are in an ever growing race to the social top and will easily get distracted by using MySpace or Facebook, among a plathora of other socialnetworks, at school.

However, there are some communities throughout the country in which Boards of Education are pushing for expanding the access students have to the internet, and are putting little restrictions to their connectivity! (Trussville city schools in Alabama)http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/02/02filter_ep.h29.html?tkn=YROFnnFeJq%2Bs98YXo34k7G3%2B0whGwmv%2BeWs2&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cd0b4e9f95cc1b7,0. “We know kids use these tools, so we really feel obligated to help kids use them right and prepare them for what they face in the world every day,” said Superintendent Suzanne Freeman. They believe students need to focus on cyber-learning activities, and should be provided the training  that will prepare them for the correct use of these technologies not only at school but at home and, eventually, at work .

   In my county, on the other hand, many websites are blocked for no apparent reason, like jango.com, for instance ( music and mp3 streaming) or youtube ( video and mp3 streaming ).Why are those websites blocked? One reason for schools to block youtube is that there are certain contents that can be for a mature audience and kids might have access to it. Also, some schools block it because they fear students are going to upload defamatory, obsene, inapropriate or violent videos, too. I kind of agree with its blocking. But how about teachers? Should they also be limited in their access to youtube? How about blocking websites that have just music, just movie trailers? Well, the debate is open and encountering views are out there arm wrestling! 

  I definitely disagree with this indiscriminate internet-blocking race. I see this as an attempt to block anything that can be fun teaching! In my county there is no policy written in regards to the reasons, or rationale of their websites blocking campaign. The bad thing is that teachers have the same accessibility capabilities than a second grader! Teachers need to teach, and of course, whenever they show something to students, the educator will use their discretion so as to choose the appropriate content or material to be used in their class, I feel by  doing so they send a message that they don't believe in my professionalism and intelligence so as to choose the appropriateness of what I teach , and how I teach my students!

  It has been many times when at plannig my classes I discovered wonderful videos and resources on youtube or pbs and discovery but somehow they are all websites that are blocked. Part of our job as teachers is to teach students the ability to select, to choose appropriate resources or materials. We cannot teach students do so because the network administrator has just shut all learning posibilities in the mentioned websites from a room, hidden, in the building of the central office.

WHY IT IS ALWAYS: BLOCKED?!

   I know schools systems all over the US do this in order to comply with requirements of the Federal Government. I understand that if there is no control on the internet, students can engage in dangerous behaviours, and of course, parents will be filing law suits and slashing down at schools, looking for reparation and economic compensation. Nevertheless, internet should still be an informational and instructional tool to which teachers,specifically, could resort and have less restricted access capabilities.