The Edge of Tomorrow - Standing on the verge of a technologically educational revolution.

7 Things You Might Not (want to) Know About Me

Dec 30

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So I’ll take a quick break from the 21st Century Literacy discussion to indulge a much less academic call I’ve been given. I have a follow up post written and incubating clarifying my position on the 21st Century discussion. I’ll post that in the next couple days, but for now, I’ve been “tagged”. Angela Maiers was the tagger, and I must now write seven things that you probably don’t know about me and then pass the tag on to seven other people, and if I don’t do it I’ll have a lifetime of bad luck and none of my dreams will ever come true. Hmm, maybe I’m getting that last part confused with this one letter I got in high school. Anyway, here’s my list. Oh, and pardon the picture, it was the best I could find.

1. I was a painter. Not the cool kind who actually produces a piece of art upon a canvas, but rather the sweaty guy who stands on a ladder outside your house scraping, caulking, priming, and painting. On days you were lucky, I kept my shirt on. I did it for 13 years, and I’m glad I’ve moved on. The skill does come in handy, however. Especially since I might have had to repaint every room in our house at least once due to general color displeasure. Not my displeasure, mind you, but we don’t need to talk about that.

2. One time, I played in a legitimate wiffle ball tournament. It would be cool to say I did that when I was in middle school or something, but no, it was two years ago. I was 30. I was not the youngest one at the tournament. We honestly thought going in we had a shot at the title. My team didn’t make it past the first round. I’ve never played in two wiffle ball tournaments.

3. I have a bonafide addiction to coffee. If water could be coffee I could always be happy. It’s not, so neither am I. My current bean of choice is Trader Joe’s Smooth and Mellow. It is both of those things and more. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

4. I play guitar and sing for church. Well, it’s been a while, but I used to. I miss doing it, and my poor Taylor 414 sits so neglected in my office. I take it out periodically just to see if I’m as rusty as I remember. I am. I can strum for all of about five uninterrupted minutes before my fingers feel like they’re going to start bleeding. I’d like to get back into playing, and no, I won’t play Free Bird if you ask me to.

5. Of all the random, bet you never knew this types of facts that you’re not really sure if they are true or not, I really, really hate the one that goes, “the average person eats eight spiders a year.” That information I could have lived quite happily not knowing. Kind of makes me not like spiders all that much. Especially if I’m sleeping in someone’s basement, and I know I’m a bit congested, and I’m going to have to sleep with my mouth slightly agape so the spiders can…well, we don’t need to talk about that, either.

6. I keep stopping the starting of working out again. I’ve tried no less than 10 times this year. I bought the program, P90X, and it’s a great program, but I lack the gumption to really commit to it. I did it for three concurrent months last year, and you should have seen the results. Probably would have made you want to have me paint your house with my shirt off. Well, probably not, but I did notice a difference when I played golf and softball.

7. I am married to the best woman in the world. Seriously. Could anyone else put up with my consistent attempts at poor humor and persistent state of being on some sort of electronic device? If I’m not on my computer, I’m on my iPhone or Blackberry for work or looking to use someone else’s computer if I lack access to all those. She’s truly an amazing woman, and I’m not just saying that trying to kiss up. Honestly, she’s wisely never read my blog.

So that’s me. I hope I dutifully fulfilled the requirements of my task. I now exercise my power to tag,

21st Century Confusion

Dec 20

I don’t think I’m a fan of the whole 21st Century Literacies concept. I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with the entire approach. I did say “think”, so I’m still working through all this. Let me explain.

The traditional definition of the term “literacy” means to be literate. This comes from the most current version of Webster’s Dictionary. That begets the question, what does it mean to be literate? Again, according to Webster, being literate is being able to read and write. Typically, traditional literacy also includes speaking and listening as well. So, if this is the case, what’s the 21st Century distinction of the term?

I believe this is where the whole notion is lost on me. If we’re talking about literacy, let’s talk about literacy, as in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. If we’re talking about other skills that people need to be successful in the modern era, then we’re probably talking about skills rather than literacies. If we’re being specific about these skills applying uniquely to the 21st century, we should probably call them such. Although, are there really any skills that are being called 21st Century Skills that are new in the 21st century? Think about it. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills believes demonstrating originality, communicating, being open and responsive, acting on creative ideas, utilizing time efficiently, accessing information, etc. are all 21st Century Skills. I’d retort that in reality, these skills have always been in existence and of the utmost importance. They don’t need to have the 21st Century moniker on them to make them significant.

And I think that’s the heart of the issue for me. The whole idea of qualifying all of these skills, or even literacies if you want to adopt a broader sense of the term beyond the traditional, with 21st Century confuses what the real focus should be.

A perfect example of this is a discussion I heard recently on the “It’s Elementary” podcast. Angela Maiers was the guest, and at the beginning of the conversation, she established her working definition of 21st Century Literacies. She gave a definition that included the traditional aspects of literacy as well as collaborating, investigating, and communicating. A few minutes after stating her definition, she explained that all of this comes from research that is over 5 decades old. Again, if what we’re talking about is what we’ve been talking about for so long, why do we feel the need to throw the catchy buzzword in? Why can’t we just accept that we’re still talking about traditional literacy? Why this great sense of urgency to rename it?

Coincidentally, while I disagree with Maiers’ naming conventions, I do believe her approach to teaching literacy as she explains later in the show is dead on. She talks about teaching kids to inference and reach deeper levels of comprehension, and she advocates that we stop focusing so much on the oral fluency piece devoid of comprehension. Being one who has witnessed many assessments that only test students based on their oral fluency rate, and then places them in intervention groups based on that rate, I can say that I wholeheartedly agree with Maiers on this. I just really wish she wouldn’t call that type of instruction 21st Century Literacy instruction. Simply put, she should just call it excellent literacy instruction.

It’s rather self-evident that society has changed dramatically over the past 100 years, and the way we engage students has changed as well, but the fact remains that the primary vehicle we use to educate is still an iteration of communication. Technology is playing a vital role in the way we will hopefully shift from an industrial model of educating to a new learning-centric model that has yet to develop, but the technology itself isn’t the point. The 21st Century whatevers aren’t the point. The point is learning. I believe if people were more prone to discard the rhetoric and engage in true learning, the conversation about what we call it would be rendered rather moot.

Thanks to Ken-ichi for the Flickr image.

What It’s All About

Dec 10

Last month I had a compelling conversation with 21 educators in Moodle. I’m still rather reeling from the whole discussion.

I posed the question, “What is the goal of education?” Much as I did in this post. I received 21 profound, comprehensive, thought-provoking responses. I, in turn, crafted my response to the question. The following is what I replied to the teachers, and what I believe on the issue.

“First, an observation. This class is replete with incredible educators from all levels, experiences, and frames of reference. There isn’t one person in this class I wouldn’t hope and wish for my child to have the honor of having for a teacher. Yet, with all the experience, knowledge, and excellence, there is one fact that strikes me as indicative of the entire educational institution of today. So many people have so many different goals.

Yes, some are very related to others, but think of the implications of this fact. We all struggle and fight to give the very best to our students. We argue, advocate, rejoice, are brought to tears, and simply care beyond caring for our students. Yet, in what direction are we all pulling the rope? It’s as if we’ve entered a desperate game of tug of war, and we struggle against the rope, and we pull against what we believe to be that which stands in the way of our students’ progress, but I fear we might just be pulling destructively against each other.

How can we change that which needs changing if we aren’t all going in the same direction? Of course there will be some who push back against this notion. ‘We must retain academic freedom and the ability to adapt based on student needs,’ some will argue, and to that I would say, ‘absolutely correct.’ The problem is, those issues are tertiary. Those are subcategories belonging to the whole.

What is the goal in education? Simply put. Learning. That is our goal. Not teaching, not testing, not content, not citizenship. It’s all about learning. It has to be.

I know it seems too simple, but stop and think about this. How often do we fail to make it about learning? How often are we racing to cover content? Content that will be lost on a child far too quickly. Once the phrase, ‘I have to get through the content’ is uttered, it has become about the content and no longer about the learning. I know some will say, ‘but they need to know all this content, and by doing so, they’re learning.’ But in this given context, the content has become the focus, not the act of learning. We get caught up in performance, and competition to see how many kids can all perform at the same level, and whose class had the most kids meet standards, and we forget about learning. Really, we do.

Try this. This week as you engage in educating your students, gauge everything you do against this idea. Is the focus and goal of what you’re doing learning? I think you’ll be surprised at how often (frequently as a result of something out of your control) you have to answer no.

The way our grading system is built, the way our intervention system is built, even the way our grouping of students by age is built given what we know about the variance of development in children, it all loses focus on learning.

What if our true, absolute goal was simply learning? I do believe so many, many things would be different.

I’m completely open to discussion on this.”

I know it may seem rather simplistic and rather obvious that our absolute goal is learning, but is it really that simplistic? Is focusing entirely on learning really that easy? Could it be? I fear too often we take that which could be simple and add complexity to it thinking we’re making it better, but in the end, we simply ruin it. I think it’s time we change that.

Thanks to Steffe for the Flickr image.

The Power of a Conference

Nov 30

I believe attending conferences is one of the most dynamic ways for a professional to develop.

I recently attended the IETC conference in Springfield, IL, and I left, as I typically do from such a conference, with the indelible notion that there simply aren’t many better forms of professional development in existence. I find this of great interest, as typically, many school leaders do not seem to share my sentiment.

Perhaps one of the most oft cited criticisms of a conference by administration is the cost and potential lack of accountability for those in attendance. As opposed to sending people to conferences, the alternative is typically to bring in an expert to address the entire staff. Unfortunately, while in theory that allows more people access to the same information, in practice, it tends to be much less effective than planned due to a myriad of distracting issues. Hopefully, someday soon, people will start making this part of their normal inservice routine to facilitate greater results. Regardless, there are too many things working against the success of the mass inservice model (sitting everyone in terribly uncomfortable lunch tables or folding chairs, having speakers speak of the importance of allowing student movement and attention breaks while delivering said message in an uninterrupted 3 hour information marathon, really, really bad PowerPoints).

Seven years ago, a friend of mine won the Milken Educator Award. A few months after he won it, he was being interviewed for a journal, and the interviewer asked her first question. It was something to the effect of, “What has been the most instrumental factor in making you the excellent teacher you are today?” His answer came without pause. “Attending professional conferences.” My friend said at that point the interviewer smacked the table, turned off the recorder and said, “You know, I’ve now interviewed a number of Milken Award winners. Every single one had that same answer.” She went on to elaborate that the reason this bothered her so much was that she used to be a principal, and she refused to send any of her staff members to conferences because she felt it wasn’t a judicious use of time or money. I think that says it all.

Something significant happens when a person attends a conference. All the daily noise of the routine gets silenced, and there comes a great sense of focus. By being away from the classroom for a couple days, and away from the demands of everyday life, a person can truly become immersed in learning more about the profession to which they are so dedicated. Conversations take place, connections are made, and a great deal of thought is given to what it is that’s happening in their own professional practice. It’s incredibly refreshing, to be honest.

One interesting movement in the current conference model has taken form the past several years, and that’s the idea of a virtual conference. The K12 Online Conference is a good example of this. The idea is to encapsulate all the good that occurs during a conference and make that available to people anywhere at anytime. I think it’s a noble effort, and I think some very good content has arisen from this idea, but I don’t think it will ever really be what some hope it could be. While I know there are a great number of people who have gained excellent insight and value from the K12 Online Conference, I know there are a greater number who have never tapped into the potential learning opportunity the online conference presents. Which is rather unfortunate, because there are some excellent thoughts and ideas coming out of the conference that are not being heard by enough people. The problem with a conference format like this is that the attendees lack that away from the routine focus that occurs by leaving town and going to an event. I think it’s a rather difficult sell to get teachers to really buy into the virtual conference idea. I believe if you’re looking to try it, though, this is an excellent way to start.

I believe there’s one more element that a virtual conference misses. The face to face human element. There’s something so entirely unique about getting to sit down and talk with people in person, and the connection allows you to apply more accurate context to a person who you’ve only met virtually. I know that I can’t avoid adding my own interpretation of a person’s personality while reading their communications online. I’ve found that every time I meet someone I follow on Twitter, I end up paying closer attention to what they are saying, and I have a better context to apply when reading the words they write. And I think this is one of the greatest parts of attending a conference. The connections that are made. It touches such an important part of who we are as social beings, and so often, the connections turn into the most invaluable of resources.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to attend a professional conference, remedy that as quickly as possible. Take the time, be open to new ideas, be prepared to be somewhat to entirely overwhelmed at points, and don’t be surprised if it changes you in ways you never expected.

Thanks to supervillain for the Flickr image.