Posts Tagged ‘support’

View teaching through a new lens—literally!

March 31st, 2010 by Stephen Vaughn

What’s quality teaching?  Depends on your point of view.  When you ask a teacher, “Are you doing a good job?” they answer, naturally, through their filter of reality.  Ask me the same question and I’ll do the same thing: answer through my own filter.  We all do this; that is the point.  To determine the true answer to the quality question for teaching, or any performance-oriented occupation, we need another point of view, a different perspective.

A video camera is the best different perspective.  Historically, we have depended on other humans—principals, supervisors, peer coaches and the like—to provide the different perspective.  One problem with this solution is that our perspectives are filtered by past experience and prejudice.  Research has proven that eye witnesses are not very reliable because everyone “sees” what they have been trained to see.

Another problem with human observers is that their presence has an effect on the environment in which they are observing. It is hard for an outside observer to become unobtrusive, let along invisible.  The small, digital cameras of today, however, can disappear quite easily.

Wait a minute!  Am I suggesting we put cameras in classrooms? The answer is yes, but not in the Vegas camera-in-the ceiling, pervasive manner (though that’s an interesting topic for another blog!).   I’m suggesting that teachers will be better teachers if they can see themselves teach through the unfiltered lens of a video camera. Think about it. Just about every other performance-oriented occupation uses video to improve effectiveness.  For example, a benchmark behavior of professional athletes is their ability to consistently and critically evaluate their performance as recorded on a video.

Here is how I suggest a teacher get started.

  1. Be sure to communicate with the parents and the students that you are recording your class and the reasons you are doing it.
  2. Place the camera in a location where both you and the students are in the picture. (Sometimes the most important learning for a teacher is what the students are doing or not doing.)
  3. Videotape a lesson.
  4. Watch the video tape alone and take notes of things you “see” that are new.
  5. Watch the video with someone you respect as a teacher and listen to what they say they see and compare it with what you saw.
  6. Develop a plan to adapt your teaching to what you saw.
  7. Implement the plan and video tape a new lesson.
  8. Watch the video to see if you have made an effective change.

From my personal experience, I can guarantee that if a teacher follows these steps, better teaching will result.  Since the most effective way to improve student learning is to provide good teaching, why not? It’s inexpensive.  It’s easy.  Pair the process with a comprehensive, research-based instructional strategy training program and you’ve got an even more effective way to improve teaching.  Try it.

Don’t Just Say No

October 26th, 2009 by Bob Blackney

Should we allow students to bring electronic files to school?  Every district faces this question.  What’s more, it’s an issue that does not warrant a simple yes or no answer because it pits two foundational goals against one another.

On one hand, we are educational institutions.  Our base purpose is to foster our students’ learning.  There is certainly educational benefit to students being able to move their files from home to school and back again.    Preventing access to external files makes learning more difficult for students and teaching more difficult for staff.

On the other hand, we have a mandate to provide a safe and secure environment for learning.  Free file exchange between home and school comes with serious risks.  Some students may bring inappropriate videos or photos.  Disgruntled students or pranksters may introduce viruses  or other malicious software.  Even the most responsible students may, by opening an innocent looking email attachment, spread malware that brings down networks and takes an already overworked technical staff weeks to locate and eradicate.

Districts have sought a secure, effortless and cost effective method to allow students to safely transfer appropriate files to and from school.  Unfortunately, most approaches are less than ideal.  Yet, without a secure technological solution, how do you balance the need for educational support and technological security?

In Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, we rely on the professional judgment of our site technology leaders.  They work with staff to analyze each situation thoughtfully and make daily decisions on student safety.  To maintain a balanced policy, site leaders work with teachers and other staff to consider factors such as:

  • Is there a compelling educational need to transfer files?
  • Are the students likely to use the resources well?
  • Can accessing district servers from home provide the needed resource?
  • Does the staff member making the request have the technical skills to assure it is used safely?
  • Is the educational pay off on the proposed activity worth the risk?

Weighing the nuances of the potential rewards and mitigating the district’s exposure to risk requires information, assistance and judgment.  Such deliberation is not unique to technology; the same process applies when considering the value of other proposals such as field trips, school assembly programs, or even tuning in to the President’s speech to students!

It is incumbent on technology leaders to help all staff members understand complicated technological issues as well as to be open to the needs of staff members.   We have relied on site staff for a number of years and have not had any serious issues to this point.  We trust, communicate, and partner with all staff to keep our network safe and our students learning.

Staying afloat—and on course!

July 16th, 2009 by Tim Landeck
Queen Mary 2

Queen Mary 2

Times are hard.  According to a recent report, 48 of the 50 states are grappling with $166 billion in budget deficits for the coming year.  California’s share of that is at least $26 billion.  Districts are cutting librarians, music programs, sports, counselors, assistant principals, nurses, buses, and increasingly, teachers.  In California alone, over 26,000 teachers received pink slips this past spring.  With all of these cuts, how can the cost of supporting the technology infrastructure be justified?

Times may be hard, but times have also changed.  Today’s school district is nothing like it was 10 years ago.  In our district, for example, all of our computers are connected to the network and use the network to function.  People are saving and retrieving files constantly; network servers are hosting the programs that we access for student software, financial records, attendance, assessment, payroll—you name it, technology handles it.

Today it is virtually impossible for an office worker to accomplish anything without the use of a functioning, network-connected computer.  If the network connection goes down, it’s time to take an early lunch.  Imagine a bank today without access to its network.  It is the same in a typical school district office: everything comes to a screeching halt when the network goes down.

How can we not fund the positions that keep this technology functioning?  Is it realistic to think we can just hope the technology keeps working long enough to ride out the tough times?  I don’t think so.  I liken technology support to an ocean liner.  Cut the engines and for awhile, the ship will keep pointing in the right direction and moving quite quickly.  All too soon, however, even the QM2 will find itself adrift and out of control.

Let’s insist that technology in the schools be a high priority as we struggle to keep the engines running and our educational enterprise on course.