Computer Club

The summer before my school went 1 to 1, we tried to prepare for any foreseeable problems our students, parents, or teachers might encounter.  One issue was Internet access. There are many in our community who suffer from unemployment or underemployment and roughly 70% of our students receive free or reduced lunch.  What are students supposed to do if they have homework and they need the Internet to complete their work?  While they likely have local hotspots, friends, or relatives who have Internet, as a school we can't ask them to "just figure it out" without a reasonable option.  My experience has been that students are efficient excuse machines, and if given any legitimacy, they, and their parents, will overrun you.

Thus, the creation of Computer Club.  Computer club is an after school, supervised place for students to  work on homework or just hangout and use the school's Internet access.  This is also a place to get help with computers.  Teachers often send student to me in Computer Club to learn how to use iMovie, iPhoto, or some web tool.  Teachers themselves regularly drop in to get tech advice or troubleshoot a problem.

To be fair, lots of kids come to Computer Club to play non-educational games like Minecraft, and hang out with their friends. However, one could argue this is a great alternative to having them walking around town getting into trouble or returning to an empty house because their parents are at work.  Last week I sat up and surveyed the kids in Computer Club.  There were several athletes using it as a pre-practice study hall, there were 2 kids discussing their new blog and how to promote it, our APAX News Team was planning their next broadcast, about 12 hardcore Minecraft builders hunched over their computer, and another 6 or 7 kids floating from group to group socializing and casually working on homework.  It was exciting to see kids engaged in what they were doing and having fun in school.  Computer Club has been an integral part of our 1:1 plan, it has also become a time for clubs to assemble like APAX News Team and the new upstart SWAT Team (Students Working to Assist Technology).  Great things are happening in little Wabash, Indiana, and like our announcements regularly say, "its a great day to be an Apache".

Failure and Success in Learning

Failure is bad.  Failure is rejection.  Failure is the end.  These are the messages we sometimes receive from society.  This is how we often feel when we "fail".  Carol Dweck recently wrote a book called Mindset.  In her book she explores two divergent mindsets that often define learners: fixed and growth mindsets.  Obviously, there is enough detailed theory and data behind this concept for an entire book, but one major theme she touches on is our response to failure.

A person with a fixed mindset sees failure as I describe it above--a final judgement of inadequacy.  A growth mindset takes failure in stride--a bump in the road on the way to their destination.  For a growth mindset, failure is not an end but a minor learning experience that guides them in a different direction. Edison is a perfect example of a growth mindset. 

I found this information to be so powerful that I wanted to share it with my kids.  I made a How We Learn activity to start our year off.  I want my kids to embrace "failure" as a guidepost to redirect their learning.  Today, I gained the final piece of the puzzle. 

About a month ago, I applied to the Google Teacher Academy.  I wanted in.  I really wanted in.  I love Google--their technology runs my classroom and they inspire me.  Me applying to Google is like Rudy applying to Notre Dame.  I really, really wanted to be a part of the team.  I filled out the lengthy application including a 1 minute video that I made about motivation.  I learned today that I failed.  I didn't get in. 

Initially, I was pretty disappointed--I really thought I would be chosen.  My family was quick to console me.  As I reflected on my feelings, I was reminded of my How We Learn activity.  I took a shot and failed, but this is not the end, and I certainly wouldn't want my students to be devastated and give up.  I'm going to share this experience with my students.  I'm going to tell them how I plan on learning more and applying the next time the Google Teacher Academy is geographically near where I live.  I will be a Google Certified Teacher.

What's Bad About Education Technology

I want to start by saying that I am a huge advocate of technology in education.  I work in a one-to-one school and infuse technology into every activity and project in my class.  That being said, all great power can be wielded positively or negatively There are definitely some negative outcomes that can occur as technology floods into education.  Here are a few that a can lead educators and districts down a bad path.

Sorry Apple, but tablets that don't have full computer capabilities are are mistake as a one-to-one device.  You can try to make this square peg fit into the round hole of education, but you will have to jam it in to make it work.  I love my iPad, but I find it increasingly difficult to use compared to my Macbook when I do school work.  Problems with typing, moving from app to app, file management, compadibility, etc. can doom a one-to-one initiative if it becomes more cumbersome than paper and pencil.  I understand the cost prohibitive of a Macbook, but by the time you buy an iPad, accessories, apps, and other required equipment, you can nearly afford Macbooks, considering Apply will knock down the price on a large education purchase.  Don't go one-to-one because all the cool kids are doing it--with some device that "is good enough"--it will end up costing you more in the long run.

While we are talking about technology devices.  I have to get in a few shots at SMART Boards (SINO--smart in name only).  Spending valuable tech-dollars on SMART Boards is not a good investment of money or pedagogy.  These are a gargantuan waste of money for most classroom applications.  I can see the usefulness in a small elementary or special needs classroom, but in a classroom of 20+ students from middle school up--the only real purpose SMART Boards serve is a $8,000 projection screen.  Technology needs to be used for creation--student creation--not content delivery.  This leads me to my next point.

Using technology to replace or support traditional methods of direct instruction is a misuse of technology.  Computers are tools of creativity.  Schools are not going one-to-one to save paper.  Running worksheets through the Xerox machine to turn them into PDF's and digitizing multiple choice quizzes, based on a boring lecture are tech-crimes that should be met with corporal punishment at the very least.  This is bad and students will know it right away.  This stale method is not engaging to say the least, and it will lead to cheating and other discipline issues.   

Webinars are the absolute worst form of professional development and should be avoided at all costs.  If the video and audio feeds actually work, which is rare in my experience, a webinar is one of the most disengaging forms of learning I have experienced.  Short tutorials are useful, but a 5-person, conference-call-styled presentation is awkward and borderline absurd as a learning methods.  I understand if it is the last possible option, but it too closely resembles traditional direct instruction, only you're not in the same room--a method most effective teachers would laugh at.

21st Century School Culture

In Changing Education Paradigms, Sir Ken Robinson discusses the habits of institutions and the habitats they occupy.  While his intelligence exceeds mine by a factor of 10, I think what he is talking about is creating a collaborative culture of learning among all stakeholders of a school or institution.  Among other things, this culture must be truly collaborative--from top to bottom, or better yet, from bottom to top.  There are so many aspects to explore within this thought, but one that struck me recently is the general disjunction of professional development between administration and staff.

Office Space (1999)

It seems administrators attend one type of professional development and teachers a completely separate type.  There is rarely a crossover and it leads to groups moving in new directions separately.  This leads to a disjunction in collaboration, learning, and general sense of community within a school's culture.  This is a bad habit of many schools.

The trigger of a new direction may be out of the hands of some administrators, or it may be a choice, but it can come from many places.  A conference they attended, choices of a rival school, a recent book they read, an article in a publication only they receive, etc.  Either way--the problem is not a new direction.  The problem is a lack of collective community learning.  This problem is facilitated by a lack of communication.  Even in the best schools, communication between administration and teachers can usually be vastly improved.  

So how do we bridge this disjunction?  How do we foster a better school culture?  I think it can start with two simple habits.  Teachers and administrators attend the same professional development and fully participate (obviously not everyone, but at least representatives).  They don't sit in the back and play with their phone (teachers and administrators), they model the engaged participation they generally expect.  The second habit is weekly idea sharing among the entire community in one way or another.  An exchange and discussion of meeting notes, a shared digital "wall" online, regular staff meetings--something where new ideas are shared, reflections by the above mentioned representatives are shared, and new paths are chosen or at least discussed by the entire group of professionals.

Its about collaboration, its about community, its about buy-in.  If the soldiers don't buy-in to the battle plan of the generals, they won't execute it properly--then we are wasting time on enforcement and discipline.  This analogy applies to whole schools and individual classrooms.  Schools and educational institutions are really encouraging 21st Century skills, but it starts at "home".  A school's culture must employ 21st Century skills, build collaborative learning habits, and create the cultural habitat Sir Ken Robinson mentions--a model of what we expect in the classroom.

The Next New Thing in Education

It seems like every time a new thing is introduced in education you hear one of the following:  "No. not another new thing to learn... its always something".  "We just learned (insert thing), now we have to learn this"?  "TTSP--this too shall pass".  We have all heard it.  I have said these things myself in the past.  I understand the feeling, but we have to change our attitude as educators in the Digital Age.  From the time of John Dewey until the Digital Age, changes in education were relatively small and incremental.  The Digital Age has caused an explosion of exponential change that is rippling chaotically through all facets of education--often from the bottom up.  Progressive educators now have a voice and an ability to assemble---digitally.

Content, pedagogy, assessment, professional development, classroom management, communication, administration--everything is rapidly changing.  The tremors of change have not shaken public education uniformly, but its only a matter of time.  The question is, are you going to do the shaking, or will you be shook?  I would rather do the shaking.  With an expectation of change on the horizon, I want to be a part of the changing, not sit idle and wait for someone to change me.

Our school has used Moodle in the past, then Google sites was introduced this year along with a few other web hosts, now Edmodo is becoming popular.  Some people are just now getting really comfortable with Moodle, and we are off to a new thing.  Fear not; this is a good thing, and its something that will never go away--change.  Do we need to radically shift our class with every new shake in education--of course not.  We should all maintain a general style, but we can never stop.

In fact, education is very similar to our wardrobe.  We all have a general style.  New fads are always springing up--we don't buy everything, but we must buy something.  We can't be afraid to change out of what is comfortable.  We risk the metaphorical style of cousin Eddie.  Is this how you want your teaching to look?

It never stops.  We are never "there".  We ask our kids to keep learning more, push themselves, go farther, sharping their skills--shouldn't we?  Our classrooms are learning laboratories, and we must be educational scientists, lest we find ourselves in a leisure suit.