Parenting in the Digital World

A Few Educational Experiences I Wish My Kids Didn’t Have – Now

The Blue Skunk Blog by Doug Johnson is one of my favorite blogs to read. He’s done it again (although I somehow missed this when it was first published.) 15 Educational Experiences My Granddaughter Won’t Have is an amusing list of changes that need to happen to education. Doug is hoping his new granddaughter won’t experience them.

I don’t disagree with any of them. They are spot on: no textbooks, real-time communication, personally differentiated curriculum, no desk time in rows, worksheets, standardized tests, etc.

I just wish we didn’t need to wait so long. My kids are in school now.Here are some things I’ve seen this year that I would like to have disappear from their experience:

  1. Pre-printed worksheets straight from the publisher
  2. Computer graded bubble tests (seriously? bubble tests still exist in classrooms? I thought those were LONG gone.)
  3. Textbooks that are 10+ years old.
  4. Classes that rely on text and include very little for the visual learner – who now make up over 60% of the generation born with the internet.
  5. Classes that teach current events using only newspapers. (Don’t get me wrong – we get 2 print papers delivered to our house every day. But geez… you can’t just read the newspaper!)
  6. Punishment for “copying” a worksheet. Have you ever heard of collaboration? Oh – how about ditching the worksheet and going for something a little more interesting.
  7. Phones kept off during the day. Kids can’t use the computers in their pockets, such as a $1.99 graphing calculator on a phone – instead have to carry around a separate $100 calculator.
  8. Computer labs. Come on, people, it’s time to let the kids have access. Every teacher I’ve talked to who works in a school with 1:1 access says it has CHANGED their teacher dramatically for the better.
  9. Online textbooks that really are just pdfs online. Please – come on you techies (and I am one) let’s get more creative. That’s what I’m working on.
  10. Refusal to acknowledge and work with varied learning styles. Just because you learn one way doesn’t mean your kids have to learn that way. Some kids really do need to move. Some need it visually. Assessments should also reflect various learning styles, not just yours.
  11. Google Apps but no tools. How do you expect the kids to take advantage of the great things Google Apps can do if they don’t have access to a computer?
  12. Being afraid of change. Many of the classes, texts, curriculum look eerily similar to what I had back in the 70s. If I did my job like I did even in the 90s (heck, my job didn’t even exist 5 years ago!) I’d be in big trouble.
  13. Not talking to parents. Just because I’m a parent and not in the classroom doesn’t mean I know nothing. First of all, I was in a classroom — and 20 years ago, I was doing many of the things I strive for now (differentiating teaching, project based learning, no computerized tests, and more.) Yet, often when I ask a question about using technology or meeting different learning styles, I’m given a polite “You’re just a parent and you obviously have no idea what your’e talking about” look and dismissed. (Thank goodness this isn’t always the case. For the teachers who do not treat me that way, thank you from the bottom of my heart.)
  14. Thinking it’s someone else’s job to teach digital literacy and responsibility. It’s all of our jobs. I’m doing it as a parent. Why isn’t the school doing it’s part?
  15. The line, “We’re preparing them for college.” Really? Shouldn’t we really be preparing them for life?

Phew. Sorry. Got on a bit of a rant. My apologies to the wonderful teachers that my kids have who do not exemplify the things above. I just wish the system could change so this things could go away.

Kids are Test Data

I’ve blogged before about my strong dislike for standardized testing and treating kids as numbers. But, since I am just a parent, my voice doesn’t seem to count for much. District staff dismiss my concerns because I don’t know enough (they think) and tell me not to worry about my kids’ scores. But they sure do worry about the scores!  Everything is seen through the lens of test scores: the achievement gap, funding, class placement, graduation rates, curriculum, etc.

Thank goodness for teacher bloggers like Pernille Ripp and Larry Ferlazzo who reacted to a recently posted video by Alfie Kohn in which a high school student is “prepped” for a high stakes standardized test.  (I am not going to post the video here. You can see it by linking to either of the posts linked above.)

The comments have eloquently stated their feelings about these tests, and I agree. My son attends a school where they do very little testing — only one test a year starting in 6th grade. I can so readily see the difference when the teachers don’t have to teach to the test.

In a recent meeting with World Language teachers (I’m a parent rep on a district curriculum committee), they discussed how they’d like to incorporate online learning more, but the labs are so frequently booked with testing. (The obvious solution is a 1:1 or BYOD set up.) At my daughter’s high school, the kids who aren’t taking the tests don’t go to school during testing time. Something is also wrong with that picture….

Numbers and data shouldn’t drive education. Students should.

Another Texting Tale

Today, my son was fortunate to spend the entire school day out in a park on the river. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather. They spent the entire day searching for snakes, frogs, bugs. They identified plants. They climbed around in the woods. I was jealous!

The bus back to school was late. That’s not the problem. The problem was that when I texted him to find out where he was (because he wasn’t at our usual meeting spot…) I didn’t hear back. Two texts, nothing back.

Long story short: I finally found out the bus was late, and they finally showed up. When we were driving away, he apologized for not texting me telling me where they were. He was afraid to text me back because he thought he’d get in trouble.

Whoa. I was furious. His school has a blanket no phones policy. If a teacher sees a phone, they can take it. Since he was sitting by some teachers on the bus, he was too scared of getting in trouble to text me back.

This is crazy. Guess what the kids do? Most of them have phones, of course. They go into the bathroom to text. Great. That’s a super healthy way of teaching kids appropriate behavior.

I popped off another email to the principal explaining my position. I was clear that by banning the phones, adults are not taking responsibility for teaching students responsible use of phones and communication. It is essential that teachers and adults teach kids appropriate use of phones and devices, and you can’t do that when they are forbidden.

I’m sure it won’t make a bit of difference, and I’ll get that same old line back…. we can’t allow phones because it’s not equitable because not everyone has them. The kids will cheat. The kids might text in class. The kids will bully each other.

Get real. Kids already cheat – without phones. Kids bully each other now. And yes, they might text in class. That’s exactly why it is our responsibility – -the adults — to teach them how to use these tools appropriately.

I’ll keep being a broken record. Someday……

Plant a Seed

I’ve been attending a large museum conference all week. I presented earlier in the week about my project on how museums teach 21st century skills — but more on that in a separate post.

I attended a session today about how to present technology issues to your board. The session was of interest because we often have to explain to people (boards and others) about technology budget requests, why we want to move to a new system, etc.  I knew or knew of a number of the presenters, and I knew it would be an interesting and provocative session.

Plant a Seed

There were a number of good points made during the session, but one really stuck out:

Plant a Seed.

The presenter that talked about this concept related a story about a project he proposed once. The group he proposed it to dismissed it immediately, without any discussion or thought. Four years later, that same group proposed the exact same concept and it passed readily! He related this to planting the seed, tending the garden and making it a rich environment in which these ideas grow.

This seems to be my experience working with the schools my kids attend. For the last year, I have been knocking at their doors, asking questions, suggesting ideas, and generally letting them know I think they need to pay more attention to technology and 21st century learning.

It has been frustrating, as I’ve stated in past blog posts. Often, they are too busy to talk. They are dismissive, as if I’m just another annoying parent with issues. They infer that they are the educators, thus know more than I do about this. Or, there is no way I, as a parent, could possibly know what it is like in the classroom. I offer to volunteer, to train, to help out — and I am turned away. And more. It’s been frustrating.

However, I have to admit — I see signs of the seeds taking hold, and maybe starting to sprout. One school rolled out Google Apps for the students fairly quickly. At another place, an administrator asked to meet with me about my work.

Like the presenter today, I have to give it time. As he said, the time between his idea and the adoption was long, but he worked to make people understand his idea — slowly, one step at a time. He was far ahead of them the first time. They needed time to catch up.

While I want the schools to move faster, I have to realize that they have other issues to deal with, and they need to get their thinking to the point where they see the advantages of moving ahead — and disadvantages of the current set-up. They have to be at a point where staying put is no longer an option, where it’s not a threat when their day-to-day work needs to change.

Planting a seed. Maybe if I have that as my goal, rather than full-blown tech integration and teaching of 21st century skills, I’ll feel more successful. Maybe there’s hope. I just hope it doesn’t take four years.

Questioning My Qualifications

Another post today has me questioning my qualifications to talk about the My Wired Life main topic: technology integration in education.

This post is from a tech director as a letter to Will Richardson. Read the full post for the whole story, but my main takeaway from the post is that anyone not currently in the classroom shouldn’t say anything about education and classrooms.

I gotta admit, this one punches me in the gut — HARD.

I am a former teacher, but it has been years. I’ve been out of formal education for a long time. How can I possibly even think about opening my mouth about what I think about the role of technology in the classroom?

I worry about this – a lot. It really bothers me, and I know I’m not taken seriously, being a parent, and not a current classroom teacher. I know it means I have little “cred” when I talk to teachers and administrators. I know that’s why I get the door politely shut in my face. Even in my work (where I have been studying educational technology fulltime for almost two years) I know I have little “cred” because I’m not teaching.

I often wonder I keep doing this. Something keeps propelling me to be so passionate about moving schools to teach 21st century skills, to integrate technology, to make changes. Why? Because I’ve been motivated by amazing teachers. I’ve seen their work, I’ve seen their success. They’ve motivated me to keep going.

I am convinced that my employer needs to keep moving in the direction to provide digital content. It’s where schools need to move. I am lucky – I have the time to do all this research. I have time to communicate with teachers all over the country through social media, blogs, conferences and more. My ideas come from integrating what all these amazing people talk about.

These amazing teachers that have convinced me to keep going on this have given me what I need to know I’m qualified — they made ME think outside the box. Everyone needs someone to push them a little to think differently. No matter what job we have, we need to keep learning, keep looking for new ideas and new answers. We need someone to keep pushing us to move outside our comfort zone. If I only listened to people who work in my specific field, or  in my department, I’d be stuck in a rut. It would be boring, I’d be bored and never learn new things.

While I’m not in the classroom, I can still respect the struggles and constraints placed on teachers. I think anyone who sticks with teaching is an amazing, dedicated person. The job is relentless and unforgiving. The demands are unrealistic. I see that – it’s obvious, even from a parent point of view.

While I know  that in the eyes of those who think only teachers can have any thoughts about teaching my qualifications are limited and my credibility is zilch, I will still keep talking. As a parent and an informal educator, I, too, have a stake in education. We all do.

Engaging Parents is a Good Idea

Interesting blog post from The Fischbowl about getting parents involved. He’s following up on a post he saw on Will Richardson’s blog where a superintendent talks about needing to engage parents in the conversations.

I have to say that that my experience at my kids’ schools has been the opposite: I’ve been kept at arms length. I’ve been trying hard to respectfully engage school leaders in conversation about 21st century skills, including integrating technology, allowing students more flexibility in assignments and learning opportunities, empowering students using the tools they use 18/7 (outside the school day),etc. I have never been rudely shut out, but I certainly haven’t been taken seriously or given more than cursory answers. Usually, I am treated as one more complaining parent with smiles, but that vacant look that tells me they are really thinking about something else while we’re talking. I’m not sure what I’m doing that is getting the door gently shut in my face.

It is a totally different story when I approach schools as a part of my work. I have talked to school superintendents, technology directors, teachers, curriculum directors. I have been welcomed into their schools, classrooms, conferences and conversations. We have engaged in serious, thoughtful conversation about the same topics: 21st century skills, technology integration, digital literacy and responsibility, flexibility, testing (amazing how they universally dislike testing!). The conversations have been energetic (watch for flying coffee!), passionate, and invigorating for all involved. We mutually bemoan the fact that there is little quantitative data about success, yet the observed and anecdotal data is overwhelming. Not that this is about me, but in those settings, I am treated professionally; my thoughts, opinions and work is treated professionally and taken seriously. We are partners.

Why aren’t I taken seriously when I approach the schools as a parent? Am I a threat? Am I complaining? I admit I am complaining when my daughter can’t use her iPhone graphing calculator. I only want what’s best for the kids — and not just my kids. I see such overwhelming success in the schools I visit that are ahead of the curve: those that incorporate 21st century skills, those that have thoughtfully integrated technology into all classes. I started out just asking what the schools are doing about these topics. It is no secret I think they need to do more, but I have tried to offer support for whatever steps they are taking. My offers to help have for the most part (with a few notable exceptions) been ignored.

To get back to my main point: I’d like to be engaged by my child’s schools. I will be your strongest advocate and supporter. I know this is a big step, and I applaud and support all the steps you’re taking. I’ve got your back. I’ll do whatever I can to help, and I do know what I’m doing — even if I’m not currently teaching in a classroom. Please don’t shut me out.

Teaching Parents about 21st Century Learning

How do schools help parents understand 21st century skills? There are definitely parents who don’t agree and don’t understand why a school would be actively using social media to foster global communication, encouraging collaboration over memorization, and assigning creative projects instead of long tests.

I ran across two great examples yesterday.

First,  Eric Sheninger has a blog post, “How can schools engage parents in 21st Century Skills.”  His points are simple: the school administration needs to be a role model for using the tools, and invite parents in. Be transparent. Use the tools. Demonstrate why schools need to do this. His school regularly uses open houses and conferences to demonstrate areas of learning that are incorporating these skills. If you follow Sheninger at all, you know he is a champion of 21st century learning.

Second, A little closer to home, I see that the Edina Public Schools are taking a similar approach. They have a morning workshop devoted to showing parents “…how technology unleashes students’ passion for learning….” Knowing a bit about their district, I’m sure there will be many kids there demonstrating how they learn 21st century skills in schools.

Edina is also doing something I’ve strongly encouraged my kids’ schools to do. They are doing a survey of families to learn about the technology at home. This is an essential step schools need to take in order to go to the next level, and also to start getting parents on board understanding 21st century learning.  I often hear that the district can’t do tech in schools because kids don’t have tech at home. I think they’d be surprised…. and if kids don’t, what better reason to have schools using 21st century skills at school and support it however they can.

I’m so impressed by these approaches to teach parents and include parents as part of their childrens’ education. There are definitely schools and districts that aren’t at this place yet — in that case, I’d love to see those teachers and administrators attending these sessions.

Maybe Google is ok?

I have posted about the fact that my daughter, a freshman in high school, isn’t allowed to use the graphing calculator on her iPhone. We paid $1.99 for this app, and as you would imagine, she has it with her all the time.

Instead, she has to tote around a second $100 device. I had to buy this device last year. If I had had to buy it this year, when she had an iPhone, I would have refused. This is crazy.

Just saw an article about Google working as a graphing calculator. I wonder what the math teachers would say about using Google!!!  HAHA!  I can only imagine!

Seriously, though, should kids pay for and carry around a device that has one function: a graphing calculator. (OK, I realize that has many functions!!) Or, would it be better to teach kids to use the tools they already know and have? Teach them how to use Google to their advantage.

However, this won’t happen. I just found out that they reuse the tests. My daughter didn’t do very well on a quiz, so she had the chance to fix her mistakes (this is something I do like.) She couldn’t take the test out of the classroom  — because they use these same tests in all the geometry classes every year!! So, what did she do? She took a picture of a problem so she could work on it at home. While I commend her for her resourcefulness, this is NOT a good idea in the current culture. (Picture was deleted.)

While I understand that this provides consistency because all kids are tested on the same material and it saves the teacher time, is it really the best option? Does it teach the kids how to solve problems using the tools at hand? Does it teach thinking and problem solving? Are the problems related to the real world, or do they come straight from the textbook??

No wonder she struggles with geometry homework. It has absolutely no relation to her day-to-day life. I know many kids do find motivation in the academic exercise (I did, but only to keep my straight-A average), I doubt most kids do. Go check out Dan Meyer’s blog and TED talk. Then tell me if it’s a good thing that the tests are repeated every year and she’s can’t use her iPhone app.

Digital Marketing of Opera

Activities in our house revolve around theater and music. There’s always a play rehearsal, choir practice, voice lesson, dance class, etc., on our schedules.

A current project for our family revolves around an opera about Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver. The Minnesota Opera and the Kansas City Opera commissioned an opera written for young voices. It’s an ambitious project. The content isn’t easy, nor is the music.

How does this relate to anything techie? The Minnesota Opera is currently doing fundraising for the project. Besides the regular types of fundraising, they are using a newish tool called Kickstarter. Kickstarter is an amazing idea that makes use of social media and grass roots efforts. The point of Kickstarter is to raise a large sum of money by reaching out to people – often people not included in major fundraising efforts. This money will be raised through donations of $10, $25 and $50. The project is spread on social media – via Facebook, word of mouth, etc. The hope is to have projects go viral so lots of people pitch in money for great projects.  (Here’s the Opera’s Kickstarter project. Kick in a few bucks!)

This project even demonstrates the power of visual storytelling. Check out a few of the videos – you get to hear the voices of the kids, the director, the composer, and more. The images, the voices, the music. These all tell the story in a way not possible in just words. To top it off, kids did much of the editing and storyboarding of these videos! (They’re really good, too!)

Project 365

20120321-212805.jpgWhile on vacation last week, I grabbed a few of those MacWeek magazines in the airport…. a little geeky light reading for the plane. One of them mentioned an app I’ve seen discussed in the education circles: Project 365.

My daughter (an avid photographer and teen-age iPhone user) and I both downloaded the app and got started. I found it to be an interesting exercise while on vacation. Some days I took lots of photos, so the choice of one was difficult. Other days, I had to remind myself to stop, think, and take a picture of something that summed up the day.

Now that I am home, it’s even harder. What is it about my day-to-day life that is photo worthy? What do I do that sums up the day? It’s only been a couple of days, but so far I seem to be looking for outdoor shots to capture the change in seasons (an unseasonably early spring.)

Both my daughter and I are finding this a fun experiment. We each find very different things to document, which in itself makes this a worthy experience. We enjoy sharing our choices and talking about why we selected something. It is making both of us look at things in new ways, and to seek out the “special” in the humdrum of daily life.

Why post about this here? As a parent, I am happy to have found something to share with my daughter that we both enjoy and allows us to talk about something. I enjoy looking at her photography, which is far better than mine.

How could you do something like this in a classroom setting? Is it educational? I can see many ways this could be used in a specific class or as a bigger assignment. Most kids have some way they could photograph some moment of their day. What a great opportunity to teach about responsible photography (no pictures of anyone else w/o permission, etc.) It could lead to writing assignments, blogs and more.

I know I’ve seen Project 365 on other education technology websites, so just looked. Sure enough, Richard Byrne just posted about it with the awesome idea of this being a way for kids to build up a copyright free library of images to use. EAR.org posted a bunch of ways to use it.

I’ll check back with you in a year to see how it went!