mccluska on 2009-10-01
This is my sticky!
This link has been bookmarked by 562 people . It was first bookmarked on 12 Apr 2006, by Al delgado.
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As much as people talk of change, the only stories that really get over the “transform” bar are what’s happening at my old school and from a superintendent in Iowa who told me he was in the process of “Napsterizing” education in his district. (I’m going to write more about both of those after the first of the year.)
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But more on my mind for this space right now is what’s
changed in terms of the larger conversation in 2009. And I mean changed, not
just talked about. I’m in the midst of a great book by Allan Collins and Richard
Halverson titled Rethinking Education in the Age of
Technology, and they spend about 20 pages writing about why the
system is so resistant to change. The bottom line, they say, is that “teaching
is an inevitably conservative practice.”When embedded in institutions that protect instruction from systemic change,
a conservative practice is reinforced by a conserving institution. It is
difficult for teachers to implement substantially changed programs when they
already have dedicated years adapting to what the traditional system of school
offers (36).They discuss three ways that schools deal with innovative technologies.
First, they condemn them (see your local AUP), they co-opt
them to support tried and true methods and curriculum, and, finally, they
marginalize them, creating all of those “tinkering on the edges”
initiatives to keep the reform minded happy. All of that resonates in the
conversations I’ve had with folks this year. As much as people talk of change,
the only stories that really get over the “transform” bar are what’s happening
at my old school and from a superintendent in Iowa who told me he was in the
process of “Napsterizing” education in his district. (I’m going to write more
about both of those after the first of the year.)So, as a way of taking stock, I’m asking, what’s
changed?I mean really changed in your school? What stories are there of moving
wholesale to an inquiry-based curriculum, of real reinvention of assessments, of
students participating in global learning networks, learning how to create their
own personal networks around their own passions? Or even moving off of paper
into a digital reading and writing space? Or moving from a teaching community to
a learning community? Or other changes? My sense is that once again, there’s not
all that much different today than a year ago.
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- a device that connects to the Internet, how much longer can we ask them to stuff it in their lockers at the beginning of the day?
- How are we going to have to rethink the idea that we have to provide our kids a connection? Can we even somewhat ge
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Myhia GroveWeblogg-ed
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If at some point in the fairly near future just about every high school kid is going to have a device that connects to the Internet, how much longer can we ask them to stuff it in their lockers at the beginning of the day?
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Sherrin BullI’ve been thinking a lot again about phones and about the disruption they are already creating for most schools (high schools at least) and about the huge brain shift we’re going to have to through collectively to capture the potential for learning in our kids’ pockets. A few particular items have kind of come together of late that have been pushing the conversation in my head pretty hard.
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Beth CullinanWill Richardson's blog about the Read/Write Web and education
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Now I’ll be the first to admit that
it’s not a perfect question in terms of
trying to get some sense of the
personal learning lives from the teachers who
were participating. But in the
context of a discussion we’d been having about
the passion-based learning
opportunities that the Web now affords, I was hoping
to learn what they wanted to think
more deeply about when it came to their own
interests and their own learning.
Unfortunately, most of what I got back (on the
first go round at least; I asked
them to do it again) was about how to use the
tools in the classroom, and very
little about what they wanted to learn about
learining around their own passions
with others who share them. -
Now I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not a perfect question in terms of
trying to get some sense of the personal learning lives from the teachers who
were participating. But in the context of a discussion we’d been having about
the passion-based learning opportunities that the Web now affords, I was hoping
to learn what they wanted to think more deeply about when it came to their own
interests and their own learning. Unfortunately, most of what I got back (on the
first go round at least; I asked them to do it again) was about how to use the
tools in the classroom, and very little about what they wanted to learn about
learining around their own passions with others who share them. - 1 more annotations...
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kyree bronsonWeblogg-ed
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Tyrel CrawfordWeblogg-ed
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ayana mcclennanWeblogg-ed
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Jodi TateWeblogg-ed
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nadine redichttp://weblogg-ed.com/
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leaka simonWeblogg-ed
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shaniqua murphyWeblogg-ed
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joel LoflandWeblogg-ed
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Jennay OvertonWeblogg-ed
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jinai hardwick-mooreWeblogg-ed
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uniquee walkerWeblogg-ed
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Claude SmithWeblogg-ed
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sabriyah mccaffertyWeblogg-ed
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errol barnabyWeblogg-ed
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charda jonesWeblogg-ed
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lisa johnsonWeblogg-ed
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Amber AustinWeblogg-ed
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Jason SymesWill Richardson edblog
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jstrumWill Richardson
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Jørn EllingsenWill Richardson Blog
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was an 8-page Acceptable Use P
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ksteingrWill Richardson - educator blog
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kelly wardWill Richardson - this guy is smart!!!
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Michele Ballietblogging, technology, learning
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Joy ShawThe blog for our book's author, Will Richardson
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Marie CurranWill Richardson - author of Blogs, Wikis and Podcast. Great book used it for LIS568.
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of all of the “uproar” over the President’s planned speech to school kids on Tuesday, I keep thinking about what
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and debate can flourish. Where the adults in the room lead my kids to dig deeper, to validate facts, and c
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I keep thinking about what kids are learning by the way their schools are reacting, what it says to them about what school is and its value in their lives.
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Michelle Ohanian on 2009-09-16
Well does the general public value what our students have to say? When do we hear what students value in their lives. In the schools, it means at least one teacher is asking the question of what they value in their lives and how school fits. Why didn't we hear more about what students thought of the speech. After all, they were the intended audience.
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C ClausenEducation Speech
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In the midst of all of the “uproar” over the President’s planned speech to school kids on Tuesday, I keep thinking about what all of this says about schools, about what they are for, and about the perception that a lot of people in this country have of them.
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no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish. Where the adults in the room lead my kids to dig deeper, to validate facts, and consider the many levels of context in which every speech and every debate takes place. Where the discussion around it is such that it lays to rest the concern that many seem to have about this particular speech in general, that in some way the President will be able to “indoctrinate” our kids into some socialist mindset. If schools are the fully functioning learning communities that we hope they are, they should be the place where our kids learn to make sense of ideas, not to fear them. That, however, is not the message we are sending.
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It would seem to me that there should be no better place for my children to watch that speech (or any other, for that matter) than in a place where ideas are encouraged, where critical thinking about those ideas is a natural part of the conversation, and where appropriate response and debate can flourish. Where the adults in the room lead my kids to dig deeper, to validate facts, and consider the many levels of context in which every speech and every debate takes place. Where the discussion around it is such that it lays to rest the concern that many seem to have about this particular speech in general, that in some way the President will be able to “indoctrinate” our kids into some socialist mindset. If schools are the fully functioning learning communities that we hope they are, they should be the place where our kids learn to make sense of ideas, not to fear them. That, however, is not the message we are sending.
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and then engage my kids in conversation about its merits, its flaws and its omissions.
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Ben Locke on 2009-09-09
This is an excellent way for kids to learn these skills. That's how I learned. It was modeled at home and at school.
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whether it’s a paean to Stalin
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Courageous? You’re kidding me, right? Courageous? Try “helpless.”
I expected better.
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Courageous? You’re kidding me, right? Courageous? Try “helpless.”
I expected better.
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What did you make today that was meaningful?
What did you learn about the world?
Who are you working with?
What surprised you?
What did your teachers make with you?
What did you teach others?
What unanswered questions are you struggling with?
How did you change the world in some small (or big) way?
What’s something your teachers learned today?
What did you share with the world?
What do you want to know more about?
What did you love about today?
What made you laugh?
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For the last two years, 99% of teachers at Central (3,200 students 9-12, btw)
have had their own Tablet PC (for personal and professional use) with wireless
connection to an LCD and wireless Internet in every classroom, part of the
teacher model that Rob and I started before I left. I would defy anyone to show
me a school that has a better customer service oriented technology support plan
for teachers and classrooms to make sure everything works. The school has made a
fairly substantial financial commitment to the work (with the support of the
community…budgets pass). And, 99% of kids in the district have Internet access
at home.
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What’s something your teachers learned today?
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What I’m most hopeful for, however, is that their stories about school will
change. Last year, far too much of the reporting about their days started with
“I got a ___ on my ___ test!” or “Yes, I’ve got homework” (said in the same
voice as one might say “Yes, I’ve got ringworm.”) School was something that
rarely sparked a conversation about learning. Usually, it was a topic to be
avoided or ignored. I hope to hear more excitement this year, more passion about
learning, more thinking and doing. To that end, I’ve been coming up with a
mental list of the types of questions I’m hoping they might answer:What did you make today that was meaningful?
What did you learn about the world?
Who are you working with?
What surprised you?
What did your teachers make with you?
What did you teach others?
What unanswered questions are you struggling with?
How did you change the world in some small (or big) way?
What’s something your teachers learned today?
What did you share with the world?
What do you want to know more about?
What did you love about today?
What made you laugh?
I think their answers to those questions (and others that I’m hoping you
might add below) would tell me more about what they learned than any test or
quiz or worksheet that they brought home for me to sign. And here’s the deal; I
expect them to be talking answers to these types of questions every day. As a
parent, I think I have every right to expect that my kids are immersed in spaces
where learning is loved and enjoyed and shared every single day. Classrooms
where they are engaged in meaningful work that makes them think, a majority of
time doing stuff that can’t be measured by some impersoanl state test. (I can
give them software to do much of that.) Where the adults that surround them are
models for that learning work themselves. Is that too much to ask?New schools, new opportunities, renewed expectations. We’ll see how it
goes…
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Stephanie ManesA blog that covers the subject of media in the classroom. Topics such as social networking, attitudes toward web media, policies regarding multimedia, cloud computing, NECC, online learning, and the role of technology in the classroom. Also follow him on Twitter: @willrich45. Will Richardson.
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Karen ArringtonWill Richardson's blog
Public Stiky Notes
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