TIES is off to a great start! As usual, I’m both exhausted and invigorated by being at an edtech conference. Here’s a brief summary of what I learned today:

Connecting

I fully intended to go to a session right off the bat, but ran into my co-presenter for tomorrow’s poster session. We had a great conversation about the session and about other ways of delivering content using iTunesU. This is what TIES is about – the connecting and sharing ideas.

I also connected with a few other folks that I’ve been meaning to contact. It’s always easier to send that email after seeing them at TIES. I missed a few too, so hope to connect with them tomorrow.

Inspiration

The keynotes are usually more inspiring that full of new things. This was a bit of both. Marc Prensky introduced his new idea, “Future-cation” as opposed to “Past-ication.” He talked about the need to teach to the future – not the past. “While we need to honor the past, we do not need to repeat it.” Even though I am a historian, I agree! We need to learn about  the past, but we do not need to learn as if it were the past. We need to learn for the future. Prensky argues that content areas (math, science, English, etc., even social studies!) aren’t necessary if we teach “verbs.” (Details on this were in a later session I wasn’t able to attend, sadly.) I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from Marc about this.

Research

I talked to a few vendors about the project I have at work. Seems we’re still seeing the same issues in delivering digital content that is beyond a pdf…..  I did see a booth about an interesting site, facts4me.com, that was built by a couple of early elementary teachers who were frustrated that they couldn’t find safe, appropriate, leveled content online. They built curated content with images and information about a number of subjects. I was intrigued because it’s exactly what we’ve been hearing from teachers!\

Confirming

My favorite session today was by Scott Barry Kaufman talking about redefining how we measure intelligence. As he talked, I had a feeling I’d heard some of it before… turns out I had seen an article about his book and had blogged about it. Must read his book!

Overwhelming

One session today went through 50 websites to try! I wrote down a few that I’ll test, including Google Tour Builder, a couple of free image sources.

 

Just ran across a great blog post: Do kids have a voice? The power of choice | Connected Principals by Sam LeDeaux.

Mr. LeDeaux recently attended an EdCamp and experienced the power of choice learning. I applaud him for doing this training with the staff at his school!

I further applaud him for this thought:

Do we provide our kids these same learning opportunities?  Do we allow our kids to have a voice?  Do we grant our kids the power and responsibility of choice?  Do we empower them to take ownership of their learning and be active participants?

 

That sure isn’t what I see happening in my daughter’s experience. She’s funneled through a system with some choice of classes, but not much. Classes are structured for what sometimes seems the ease of teaching (multiple choice, machine graded exams that are reused every trimester), not for student exploration of content or student directed learning. There’s more rote memorization than content creation. It’s not engaging to her, it’s suffocating and defeating. She does not feel successful and by this age, she and her peers totally see through the game and the test score hamster wheel. They deserve more.

 

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I dread the start of school. For example:

That’s a rather light-hearted look at why I dread school. I dread the schedule, getting kids up way too early, needing to be places on a strict schedule. I far prefer the less intense, self-driven schedule and “program” of summer. My kids are always super busy no matter what we do, but in the summer it’s doing things they love.

That’s the key. School isn’t something they love. It’s something they endure because they are supposed to. Yes, yes, I know. They need to learn how to do school to go to college, to work, etc., etc. They need to learn to “get along with people” and it exposes them to new things. Guess what. All this happens in the summer, too, when they’re doing things they love.

My concern with school is that I see them learning to do what they’re told. They learn that they are supposed to ingest content and spit it back in the way the system wants them to. Often (at least for my daughter) it’s in the form of a multiple choice test. I see very little evidence of the buzzwords that should be obvious: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication.

One of my favorite bloggers wrote about this same feeling this week (My Summer of Confusion). He is much more eloquent than I am. He is also a former teacher and a leader in the education reform thinking, so he carries much more weight than I do. Here are his thoughts as his kids start school this year:

I’m less and less confident that the emphasis of their time in school will be dedicated to inquiry, to exploring their passions, to helping them create real, meaningful work that lives in the world and just maybe changes it for the better. As much as their teachers might want that, the reality is as a system, we’ve hunkered down against any real innovation, cut budgets and vision regarding technology, and decided to pursue the more traditional paths for “excellence” as in number of AP tests taken, high state test scores, SAT scores.

He acknowledges that he is the outlier, that most parents seem to want more AP classes, “rigor” and high test scores. I, too, have acknowledged many times on this blog that I know I’m the outlier. I don’t want more tests, I don’t want more AP classes. I want my kids to create art to communicate, produce videos to express their thoughts, create solutions to problems in their communities. It doesn’t matter one bit to me if they can get a 4 or 5 on an AP test. Richardson has the same experience I do:

…whenever I say that some of the most important learning that our kids can do in school is almost impossible to quantify and fold into a list, there’s little response. The subject gets changed.

The emphasis in the quote is mine.

I run into the need for “quantifiable results” all the time. I just reviewed a short report on an iPad pilot project in our district. One of the main indicators of a successful pilot was “increasing test scores.” There were a few other indicators, such as increased engagement, but the main measure was these test scores. It is exceedingly disappointing to know that that is how they are measuring success. Technology is a tool that increases our ability to move away from needing “testable” knowledge. Yet, that is how they measure success. Tragic.

Interestingly, though, I’m not so sure I’m the outlier. I’m not sure I’m the only one who doesn’t want more tests, more moving away from the arts and creativity. I think, i’m just the only one willing to speak up. At a recent meeting with a number of parents, I brought up my concerns about the over-reliance on testing. I expected to be ignored, as usual. But instead, the parents agreed with me! We had a short, but powerful, conversation that made it very clear to me that others feel the same way. Now, we just have to speak up and make them listen.

We have a lot of work to do.

Definitely worth a read: “Self-Regulation: American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids | New Republic” by Elizabeth Weil.

When my daughter was in kindergarten (she starts 11th grade tomorrow), my husband and I were horrified by the expectation that all these 5 and 6 year olds were expected to sit still. Too bad we didn’t act on our impulses and start thinking more critically about the education system at the point – our daughter would’ve been better served. Instead, she learned how to sit still, look like she was learning, and how to play the game.

My daughter isn’t one of those kids who had trouble sitting still when she was supposed to. We never had issues with her behavior. I wish we would have. I’m not sure that knowing how to tow the line, sit in a circle and listen passively to an adult is what she needs to develop life skills. Even more, she has mastered the skill of looking like she’s paying attention when she really isn’t. That’s not a good skill to learn. Thanks for teaching her that one.