Classroom Tech

We all know technology is just one pitch we can lob at students in hopes they connect with learning.  But as cool and enticing as laptops, the Internet and cell phones may be, they will have little effect in the classroom if students do not feel like they are a part of the school.

So I’d like to tell you this week about a simple magical formula that gives students instant gratification and connection to school.

My son Stephen (that’s him to the left) started kindergarten this year at St. Anne’s Catholic School in Bethlehem. My son has always had confidence, but on his first day of kindergarten, I could see sense his nervousness as he searched the crowd for a familiar face from preschool. Mostly, I think, he saw kneecaps and bellies because the older children towered over him as they all waited for the doors to open.

At 8:10 a.m., three eighth-grade students, two boys and one girl, opened the doors and the surge of little bodies began. I stood on the sidewalk, worrying Stephen would either be trampled or suffer the worse fate of being swept away to become just another nameless body in the flotsam of education, whether private or public.

Then I notice the magic. One of the door holders reached through the crowd to give my son and other little tikes like him a Hi-5. In the days that followed, I realized they just were not holding the door; they were greeting students by names. Somehow, they had memorized each student’s name.  It is amazing.

I chuckle every morning because if the greeters fail to look down, my son holds up traffic by standing in the doorway until they cheer “Ste—phen” and give him his morning Hi-5. Then Stephen bounces into school more confident than ever.

In Stephen’s mind, they are his friends even if they are much older than him.  In the greeters’ eyes, they are probably just doing the same old morning routine to appease the teachers. But they are performing the magical power bestowed upon mentors. 

I hear and read so often that children need mentors because so many of them are growing up without the support of a traditional mother-father household. Then the next thing I hear is it is too hard for teachers to try to mentor all students; the school day is not long enough and it will be too costly because teacher overtime must be factored. Both statements are true. But what is the solution? The costs to society are too high not to try.

One solution, according to my eyes, appears to be student-on-student mentoring. It is a simple free concept that can be adapted any where.

In public school, fifth-graders greet younger students and learn their names. In middle school, eighth-graders greet sixth-graders. In high school, seniors greet freshmen. When it comes to athletics and other extra-curricular activities, coaches and teachers need to instill this concept of peer mentoring into the game plan or curriculum to build teamwork and leadership skills. It scaffolds itself. As students age, they turn into the mentors. It’s all so natural.

Children mentoring children makes everyone feel trusted, worthy and loved. That is not a bad combination at the start of any day.

Last month my wife and I upgraded our cell phones. We got cameras and nice flat designs to help us look a little more hip as we struggle to learn how to text. Now we are only about five steps behind everyone else who has an iPhone or Blackberry.

So why am I telling you this? It’s because as slow as I am at age 35 to embrace mobile technology, I realize that I must to survive in this new mobile world. As an aspiring teacher, I also think cell phones can be great classroom tools if only school boards, administrators and mayors did not treat cell phones like a Puritan book burn. Most school districts have policies banning student possession of cell phones. Here are two banning examples: Bethlehem Area School District and Allentown School District. I ask why? It is a losing battle.

About 79 percent (17 million) of teens in America have a mobile device, a 36 percent increase since 2005, according to a recent survey by CTIA, the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunication Industry. These teenagers would not have these phones if their parents did not want them to. So if parents trust their children, shouldn’t schools? Please do not give me the tired “cheating” excuse. If students want to teach, they will find a way by either writing on their palms, texting on their phones, or diving into a Dumpster like Bluto and D-Day in “Animal House.”

I was telling our teacher, Randy Ziegenfuss, about my belief in cell phones being an untapped tool, and he agreed, even though his school district bans them too. Mr. Ziegenfuss then sent me this fascinating webinar, “From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning,” by Michigan educator, Liz Kolb, who likens a cell phone’s versatility to a Swiss Army Knife. Ms. Kolb admits she had an epiphany about cell phones after she wrote her school district’s policy banning them. It She talks about how cell phones, no matter how advanced or primitive, can be used for podcasts, field trip research tools, and even how students can sum up Shakespeare in 160 typed characters or less.

If you do not have time to listen, here are Ms. Kolb’s cell phone tips to keep teachers out of trouble: First teach students that they have no right to privacy when using a cell phone because what they say, text and send can be accessed by law enforcement and lead to embarrassment. Next, don’t break your school’s policy on using cell phones; try to create podcasts and other mobile assignments students can do on their phones outside of school. Get parental permission because “standard fees for text messaging apply.”

There is one important piece of information Ms Kolb did not talk about: price. Parents, not taxpayers, pay for these phones. So in this bad economy, cash-strapped schools need to tap this free technology instead of forcing students to hide it. 

The title of this class is “Technology in the Classroom.” When I signed up for it, I thought it would focus on building web pages and getting “creative” by putting chalk-and-talk notes on PowerPoint. These two skills I thought were the cornerstone of the catchphrase “21st century skills.”

As the weeks have passed and I have been introduced to Sir Ken Robinson, I have realized that technology in the classroom is more than computers. It is about revolutionizing education by adding – and emphasizing – creativity in our lessons so students walk away with a skill that will carry them into an unknown future.

“Everybody has an interest in education,” Robinson said in his 2006 speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference. “It’s education that is meant to take us into this future we cannot grasp.”

The last time the world was changing this quickly was during the Industrial Revolution, of 1790 to 1860.

“In less than a century, new machines, new sources of power, and new ways of organizing work had transformed the United States from an agricultural nation to an industrial power,” states the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

At the same time, public education was the purview of local and state governments. The U.S. Department of Education was not born until 1867, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Yet here we are, 142 years later, still trying to prepare students for an industrial world that no longer exists. Why? I think it is the fear of the unknown and politics. It is easier and safer for elected and appointed officials at every level to tell taxpayers that they are focusing on the basics. People can grasp the basics –reading, writing, arithmetic – because that is what they had in school. The public cannot grasp “creativity,” which Robinson says in the current technology revolution is as important as reading.  So instead of worrying about “leaving a child behind,” shouldn’t teachers and policy makers worry about “pushing them forward.”

“All kids have tremendous talents and we squander them – pretty ruthlessly,” Robinson said in the TED conference. “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

Computers can serve as the portal to this creative world where the art of communication will surely be important. Computers and the ever changing technology they harness can help kinesthetic, visual, auditory learners navigate through the unknown. Yet for all the magic of computers, it is still teachers who will inspire their students to greatness.

Randy Pausch and YouTube taught us that.

(P.S. I would have embedded a Robinson photo and Pausch video if my PC would have let me. Technology!)

In the last couple weeks, I have read and watched commentary, news articles, research papers and videos touting “21^st century skills” as the future of education and the future of the workplace. I am formulating a  view that “21^st century skills” is nothing more than a catch phrase. You know what 21^st century skills sounds like to me? People skills with, not in place of, computer skills.

Employers want employees with the 21^st century skill of knowing how to research, gather, and decipher the reams of relevant information that is posted on the Internet. Technology is changing everyday and individuals will post 12,000 gigabytes of information this year on the Web, cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch said in his June 17 podcast at Manitoba University.

After you correlate all this information, what do you have to do? You have to tell someone about it and as Wesch says “create something out of it.”

The “ability to communicate new ideas to others” is the number 1 job skill employers want, according to a “Ready to Innovate“ survey published in The Christian Science Monitor.

Communication is all about people skills, whether you are talking face-to-face, on the phone, e-mail or Webcasts. You have to communicate maturely, wisely and quickly. You need to sell yourself to sell your ideas to stand out in a crowd. As the cliche states, time is money.  Time and money are now global commodities.

For students to become successful adults, teachers need to teach students proper and strong communication skills. We need to teach them how to give an oral presentation, highlighted and punctuated by technology. We need to teach them that in the classroom and the office you do not write in all lowercase or in  “new literacy” acronyms because the boss, especially if he or she is in India or China, will lol at their childish antics, ignore their ideas and then fire them.

The same job survey lists “tolerance of ambiguity” as another important job skill. In plain English, that means the ability to listen and to work with others. The classroom is an ideal place to hone students’ listening and communication skills. The classroom remains an American melting pot. If students cannot learn to get along in the classroom, how can they compete with their peers who are now a mouse click instead of a flight away? The classroom must be a place where students learn the value of communication, the strength of individuality and the tolerance of diversity. If we can teach students those three steps we will be communicating a strong foundation for their success in the 21^st century.

So until those skills are ingrained in students, I believe that “new media literacies” is a lot of hot, pompous air. The Internet, for all its wonderful capabilities, still remains an addictive place filled with a lot of busted dreams, dashed hopes, and wasted time.  The ability to type simple, benign personal comments into facebook does not mean you are changing the world for the better.

With proper leadership, teachers can show students how classroom computers and Internet access can help foster their creative learning and boost their communication skills in a Web 2.0 world where people skills matter.

Students make me laugh with their honesty. Check out this student’s great post on the Students 2.0 link under the Jan. 27 date of the syllabus. She deflates the 21st century skills push as just another gimmick. She challenges teachers to prove to her that it is important to the classroom. It appears 21st century skills is not a cure all for 21st century students. Students no matter what generation they are from are as cynical as the rest of us. 

Then after you read this look how the student opens up in the next link. Her writing skills and grammar are superior for a high schooler. As an English teacher, I can see how a blog will allow students to explore the skill and craft of writing. 

1. How have the purposes of schooling shifted and expanded from the 20th century to the 21st century?

4. How might you apply your knowledge to lesson design for a 21st century classroom teaching and learning environment?

I read and watched a lot of the links on this site. I saw a lot of cool stuff and a lot of pie in the sky ideal for literacy in the 21st century. The purposes of schooling in the 21st century may have changed, but the structure of it and reality of it has not. First, the school day is not long enough and the school schedule is not conducive to 21st century learning. School days are still built on farming and industrial societies. The emphasis on testing students for knowledge also seems out of whack for what the workplace wants — innovation.

 The second part that makes 21st century learning hard, if not impossible is the standards movement. Standards are good to a point; it has focused on disadvantaged learners.  But at the same time, it is slowing everyone down. Schools cannot prepare students for the 21st century workplace if they are focused on tests. The 21st century workplace needs innovation, according to Tony Wagner who interviewed a lot of business leaders in his article, “Rigor Redefined: The Seven Survival Skills for Careers, College, and Citizenship.” The business leaders stated they need workers who are innovative and brave. They need people willing to take a risk and make a mistake for the sake of innovation. Current education policy is not conducive to that type of learning. So until the federal government comes around to loosing the testing requirements.

On a side note, Wagner has better stick to his day job. His article, centered around a book he is writing, has been written already. New York times columnist Thomas Friedman already tackled this issue and quite well in his book “The World is Flat.”  If you have not read it, I suggest it.

 Now, how would I implement technology in my high school English classroom. As much as possible I would turn it into “The Future is Now,” the Web seminar from Rutgers University’s English Department. The presentation is fabulous and right on. It details how society has moved beyond the printing press to the network world, “the most significant change in human expression in human history.” The presentation on Web 2.0 explains how the Humanities is wrongly focused on criticism and not multi-media presentation. Students need to compose mesh words and images to tell stories and make connections to their audiences in the greater outside world. This needs to be the future of English education.