Archive for the ‘Models’ Category

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eTextbooks: Blunder or Bonanza?

January 18th, 2012 by George Lieux

Providing students with eTextbooks could positively impact teaching and learning in ways we may have never thought possible.  However, broad-scale initiatives to do so could backfire and setback the use of technology in our schools for years to come.

The eTextbook blunder could occur if digital copies of traditional textbooks are purchased along with traditional ancillaries that are part of the textbook package.  With the same textbook in digital format and the same worksheets with the same approach to teaching, no improvements in learning are likely.  The cost for providing textbooks would increase because students would need some kind of a device to access the digital textbook content.  In this scenario, maintaining the status quo simply comes with a higher price tag. It would not take school board members long to notice that more money is being spent and nothing has improved.

On the other hand, if the personal learning device purchased to access eTextbooks also provides Internet access, students and their teachers could access a variety of free online learning tools.  With Internet access, a teacher could learn from an innovative educator like Naomi Harm, who has several excellent online publications that provide easy access to hundreds of tools and proven ideas. One of Naomi’s online publications that stands out for me is her Web 2.0 NETS Aligned Tools 2010. Here a teacher can easily connect content standards to ISTE’s technology standards with appropriate tools for achieving both content and technology standards.

Textbooks created by teachers

For those who are embracing standards-based approaches to learning, content standards could be the outline for a course’s content. The textbook could then be a digital document created by teachers.  A Moodle, or other learning management system, could become the “home” of the teacher-created textbooks.

While content standards provide an outline for a course’s content, the real lessons, activities, projects and assessments remain for the teacher to develop in lieu of a textbook.

Another educator who provides the best tech resources is Tony Vincent.  His Learning in Hand website consistently provides educators with the latest and greatest in the mobile education world. His detailed explanations about completing a specific project provides an excellent how-to book for any teacher focused on project-based learning.

Numerous online resources like Thinkfinity , teAchnology, TeachersFirst.com and Curriki provide thousands of  free  lesson plans, student interactives, games and tools.

Technology and the Internet have made it possible for teachers to create online textbooks that challenge students and provide learning possibilities that develop 21st Century Skills. Textbook money could be used to purchase personal learning devices for students to access their eTextbooks.  Everything is in place for dedicated teachers who are willing to embrace the challenge of creating textbooks collaboratively to positively impact teaching.  Students could come to love learning during their entire thirteen years in our classrooms!

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Posted in Integration, Models | 1 Comment »

Beware! Avoid Carmen Sandiego Syndrome

November 16th, 2011 by Susan Brooks-Young

Educators all over the country are exploring ways they can use iPads and other tablet technologies as tools for teaching and learning. Apps—free and low cost programs designed to be used on these devices—are a primary attraction. What better way to provide quick and easy access to instructional activities than by downloading and using some of the thousands of education apps? But I’m noticing a troubling trend.

Many of the apps labeled “educational” are developed by programmers with little or no background in education; use of these apps does not support student learning in any fashion. In addition, there are teachers who are spending a lot of time and energy figuring out ways to use apps that make no claim to be educational and do not support the curriculum in any obvious way, but that are fun to play. It reminds me of the days when desktop computers were initially introduced to classrooms.

The year was 1985. Good educational software was still difficult to come by. Once a teacher had run through the offerings from the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, (think Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand), there wasn’t much else available. Then Brøderbund Software released Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? The goal of this fast-paced game was for players to travel the world solving geography-based clues, track multiple villains, and finally arrest Carmen Sandiego herself. The software was a hit, becoming a staple in many computer labs, despite its limited applicability to the curriculum for a narrow range of grade levels.

This is what I call Carmen Sandiego Syndrome, the willingness to use a software program for instruction even when there is little or no educational value. For school leaders this becomes a problem because first use of a new technology often becomes entrenched use. It is critical that we help teachers avoid this pitfall.

One strategy for avoiding Carmen Sandiego Syndrome is to insist that teachers take time to carefully review new apps using tools that measure how well the objectives of an app align with the curriculum. There are three free tools I recommend that can be used for this purpose. The first is a rubric called Evaluation Rubric for iPod/iPad Apps created by Harry Walker (Johns Hopkins University) and modified by Kathy Schrock. The second is the Critical Evaluation of an iPad/iPod App checklist developed by Kathy Schrock. And finally, eSkills Learning’s Mobile App Selection Rubric. These resources and more are available in the iPod Touch & iPad Resources LiveBinder which Chris O’Neal and I developed and maintain.

This is not a time when more is necessarily better. Take the time now to insure that teachers are making well-grounded decisions about the apps they introduce into the classroom. Students will reap the benefits for the long term.

 

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Posted in Integration, Models | 9 Comments »

Launch Technology Projects During a Fiscal Crisis?

October 31st, 2011 by Kevin Silberberg

Most District administrators are aware of the service FCMAT (Fiscal Crisis Management Assessment Team) provides each day in the way of the top education related headlines throughout the state. If it involves schools, and was in the paper, you can be sure that FCMAT captures the link and makes it very easy to read how school districts up and down the state are making the news.  Usually, it is a good day when you don’t see your district as a link on this website.

That being said, an article caught my eye today that speaks to the dilemma we face in California better than anything I have seen in years.  The article, “What happens if city schools go insolvent?,” describes the San Diego Unified School District’s possible financial collapse that could require a state takeover to keep the district afloat.

As a district administrator, I know well what state takeover would mean.  It is a cliff you walk over and seldom fully recover.  Here are the first actions that you can look forward to.

  • The superintendent would be immediately fired and replaced by a state appointed administrator.
  • The school board would lose all powers and become an advisory panel.
  • The state administrator would essentially become the district’s new leader and have the power to unilaterally make decisions, such as which property to sell, what academic programs to cut, which schools to shutter and who to lay off. After labor contracts expire, the administrator could impose district-wide cuts to pay and benefits.

Very depressing!  But this doesn’t tell the entire story.  Earlier in my day of reading, I had read with great envy an eSchool News special report on a visionary technology program that was being implemented in—you guessed it—the San Diego Unified School District.

Two years ago, the district embarked on a five-year journey to transform its classrooms and completely revamp the way San Diego students learn.  Since that time, the Interactive Classroom Initiative (i21) has expanded into more than 1,300 classrooms and has distributed some 78,000 netbooks and other mobile devices to teachers and students.

I can only imagine the planning, effort and vision the district has into this project.  To get all the stakeholders together on the same page to move forward is amazing and should be applauded.  The professional development alone in this program would be the envy of school districts who dream of one day moving their teachers and administrators forward embracing the appropriate use of technology that helps teachers teach and students learn.

So here we have the problem facing most schools in California.  Schools have to live within their means to make it in this economy.  With triggers about to be pulled and mid-year cuts on their way, we can in no way pull off projects like the i21 program and expect to stay away from state takeover.

Would financial insolvency mean the end of the SDUSD i21 program?  I hope not.  Unfortunately, the lesson many district officials may read into the San Diego Unified School District financial problem is: don’t risk any new initiatives; fund highly traditional low-tech expenditures; and make it through the toughest times ever experienced in California public education.

The better lesson is: we can’t do it all, and sustaining is the name of the game.  We must strive to prepare students for the technology-rich world our kids will enter while managing to stay solvent in these turbulent and trying economic times.

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Posted in Financial Planning, Leadership, Models | 3 Comments »

Summer School: Lessons for the rest of the year?

August 10th, 2011 by Devin Vodicka

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over.  Like most districts in California, ours has been under intense fiscal pressure due to ongoing budget cuts.  This influence, coupled with increasing expectations for student achievement, led us to redesign our summer school options.  We now have an opportunity to reflect and evaluate the merits of our decisions.

The silver lining in the current financial crisis has been the relaxation of rules for programs like summer school.  In the past, our revenue would have been linked to the number of hours of attendance for students that qualified for varying rates of reimbursement.  Now that the supplemental hourly programs such as summer school are flexible, we asked ourselves what the needs of our students were and how we could best use existing resources to address those areas.  As a result, we decided to offer a distance learning program for students in need of credit recovery at the high school level and an English Learner academy for all grades.   Thanks to recent funding from the Education Technology K-12 Voucher Program, we had some iPads and iPod touch devices that we decided to deploy as part of our EL academy.

How did it work?

Our district sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean about 35 miles north of San Diego.  I mention this because the first thing we noticed was that attendance, which usually drops off during the summer, held steady in spite of the lure of our coastal diversions.  Student engagement, which typically is not at its peak during summer interventions, was remarkably different than in the past.  Teacher enthusiasm—also subject to variation during the summer—was off the charts in a positive direction.  Grades and local assessments also showed higher levels of success than we previously have seen in the summer.

Here are a few recommendations based on this experience:

  • Take advantage of the existing options to be creative with program design.
  • As always, consider multiple funding streams to support your plans.  We used Voucher funding for the hardware, Title III dollars for the EL academy instruction, and some Tier III revenues to provide for distance learning resources.  Much of the planning was supported by a one-time, ARRA Technology grant.
  • Remember that many technology resources—hardware and software—are unused during summer.  For us, having the iPads sit in storage would not have served our students.  The distance learning licenses we purchased earlier in the year were “annual” subscriptions that also were viable for use in the summer without any additional expenses.
  • Use student achievement data to guide your areas in need of attention.
  • Empower teachers and staff to best use the technology resources.  Our teachers discovered new and creative ways to motivate and instruct students that we would not have been able to anticipate had we provided too much of a script for their plans.

As educational leaders, my hope is that we find ways to turn our challenges into opportunities for improvement.  Strategic and novel deployment of existing technology resources is one strategy that will help us to best serve our students and communities.  If we can make it work during the summer, what is to stop us from doing the same throughout the year?

Learn more:

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Posted in Data-Driven Decision Making, Financial Planning, General, Integration, Models | 1 Comment »

Ignite—rapid fire presentations!

December 5th, 2010 by Phoebe Bailey

Bored by tedious PowerPoint presentations?    Recently, I learned about two alternatives worth your consideration.

I was working with a team to plan a technology conference for 100 technology teacher leaders in our state when our keynote speaker, Tony Vincent, introduced us to “Pecha Kucha.”  To me it sounded like a character from a video game, and my two technology geek friends were clueless as well.  In fact, Pecha Kucha is a presentation format that restricts each presenter to 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds.  The slides are set to advance automatically to ensure the time limit is honored.  Ultimately, each presenter has just 6 minutes 40 seconds to explain  ideas.

Yet even with that short time frame, we realized we would not have enough time for everyone to create and show a Pecha Kucha.  Mr. Vincent had an immediate answer: Ignite.  In this even briefer format, participants are given five minutes to speak accompanied by 20 slides. Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds, and slides are advanced automatically.  We agreed to give it a try and have an Ignite showcase the final day of the conference.  After all, how hard could this be, right?

We built time into the conference for participants to work on their presentations—either alone or with a group.  On showcase day we drew names to see who would have the opportunity to take the stage and share.  We allowed time for 18 presentations.  Sounds long until you do the math and see it’s only 90 minutes of total presentation time!    We had a variety of topics that ranged from parent involvement to Wikispaces in education to the impact your skin color has on others’ perceptions of you.  Using wiffiti, participants gave feedback on each presentation, which kept everyone engaged during transitions between speakers.

The overall feeling of the group was that preparing to give this type of presentation is not as easy as it looks!  It takes a lot of thoughtful planning to get the timing down and to get your message across in your allotted time.  However, the benefits are great.  (If fact, if teachers adopted this style of information sharing it might capture some of that the much-discussed shrinking attention span of students who are not being engaged in their learning and are bored in class!)

Take a look at the presentations created by our group!

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Posted in Models, Productivity, Professional development | 1 Comment »

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