April 2009 Archives

May has just started, and I'm already starting to hear more and more about the National Education Computing Conference coming up this summer. NECC, which is hosted by the International Society for Technology in Education, is taking place this year in Washington from June 28-July 1. And yes, I will be flying back to the East Coast to attend. In fact, all the DDers will be at the conference—covering the goings on and learning more about the latest trends in ed tech.

I've never been to NECC before, and I'm very excited to attend this year. For you veteran attendees, do you have any recommendations on what I should do or look for? I'd be curious to hear some of your experiences at this well-attended event.

If you can't make it, stay tuned to this blog or follow @digidirections or @kmanzo on Twitter for regular updates on conference sessions and events.

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No one should be surprised to learn that today's young people have a different sense of workplace behavior than, say, Baby Boomers. But this survey, which I learned about at the Read Write Web blog, shows just how vast is the divide between the kinds of work habits, skills, and tools people of various age groups find efficient and appropriate.

"The generation gap at work is really wide with vast discrepancies when it comes to what the appropriate use of technology is - a problem that leads to increasing tensions in the workplace," Sarah Perez writes in her blog post.

Boomers, or those 44 and older, for example, don't have much affection for some of the technologies/applications that have proliferated at the office and at home, such as laptops, PDAs, or blogs. Let's not even talk about social networking sites.

Yet younger workers see all those things as standard tools for doing their jobs efficiently, whether they are sitting at their desks or in meetings with their colleagues. As they take notes on their Blackberry or netbook, many of their veteran colleagues are cringing with every click of the keyboard.

There is also some discussion on the blog about the contradicting information out there about how hip, or unhip, boomers are when it comes to technology.

The article got me thinking about classrooms and how this same scenario plays out among teachers and students. Only difference is that students generally don't get to choose whether to use their favorite tools despite the preferences of the adults in the room.

This generational tension, of course, will slowly ease as technology seeps further into our professional and home lives, and boomers retire.

But does that mean that it makes sense to use technology 15 or 16 hours a day, as younger respondents say they do? Or that it's better to be connected to the office (or the classroom) every possible waking moment?

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Mary Ann Zehr, my colleague over at Curriculum Matters, has posted a reminder about today's Ed Week chat on International Comparison tests, and a bit of analysis about the issue. She also has a link to the McKinsey report everyone is talking about.

Mary Ann, Sean Cavanagh, and I have a series of stories in this week's paper about the growing interest among policymakers here in analyzing the successes of other countries, as related to the international assessments. We have reports on reform efforts in Australia, Slovenia, and South Korea.

Her report is here.

The OECD, which oversees the PISA, is currently studying ways to measure students' aptitude for 21st Century Skills—such as critical thinking and tech. savvy—on the assessment.

I'll be moderating the chat today at 2 p.m. with guests: Gary Phillips, a vice president and chief scientist at the American Institutes for Research, and Hal Salzman, a professor of public policy and a senior faculty fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

If you miss the chat, you can read the transcript, which will be posted minutes after the chat is over at 3 p.m.

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In case you needed a reminder about how far we've come in using technology in schools, I thought I'd send you to the Ed Week archives. Greg Chronister, our executive editor, passed along this story which ran in Education Week 25 years ago this week.

"Number of Computers in Schools Doubles," said the headline, above the lede, which read: "Microcomputers were added to thousands of public-school classrooms during the past year, according to a new survey."

The story goes on to describe how nearly 70 percent, or 55,765, of the nation's elementary and secondary schools reported using computers for instruction in fall 1983, up from just 30 percent a year earlier. I was in my senior year of high school in New York state the previous fall, albeit in a Catholic school, and I can't remember seeing a single computer in classrooms there.

By 1983, there was one computer for every 125 students enrolled in public schools. Apple brands dominated, according to the survey, representing about half those computers, followed by Radio Shack, Commodore, Atari, Texas Instruments, and IBM.

Fast forward to today. The data in 2009 Technology Counts show how far we've come. This trend story in Tech Counts, which came out last month, reports that for the 2005-06 school year, 3.8 students, on average, shared each instructional computer in the nation's public schools. In South Dakota, just two students shared each computer, while in Utah, Delaware, California, Mississippi, and Rhode Island, there was one machine for every five students.

No matter where a child lives in the country these days, computers are a standard classroom feature. That may be why I get that shocked look from my children, and even some of my younger colleagues, when I remind them that "back in the day, we didn't have computers in my school."

I may be sensitive, but that look seems to suggest: "Wow, you must really be old."

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In honor of Earth Day, I'd like to direct your attention to the resources on the Consortium for School Networking's Green Computing Initiative Web site. There, you can calculate your technology energy use and learn how you could save even more, find resources on where to buy green technologies and how to properly dispose of old technological equipment in an earth-friendly way, as well as tips on how to reduce waste and preserve the natural resources in your area.

In addition, the initiative has recently launched a new, free certification program for tech. administrators who are particularly interested in making healthy environmental choices with the technology in their district.

For more info on green computing and what you can do to reduce your district's carbon footprint, check out my colleague Michelle Davis' story on green computing and virtualization.

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A new report put out by the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University and the Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder asserts that virtual education is growing at a rapid pace throughout the nation and suggests steps for policymakers to support high-quality virtual education for students.

The first suggestion that the paper's author, Gene V. Glass, a regents' professor of education at Arizona State University, makes is to adopt new regulations to govern K-12 online learning. Policies should be set that define what certifications teachers should have, how much interaction they should have with students, how those certifications would translate from state to state, as well as a formula that could determine funding, among other recommendations.

His second recommendation is to audit the private providers of virtual education as well as the public school districts that provide virtual education to their students to pin down the actual cost of online ed.

Next, Glass suggests that an accrediting body should be created to look at the different public and private providers of education in order to avoid abuses. And lastly, he asks that legislators call for credible assessment and evaluation in online classes in order to track the progress of students as they work towards a high school diploma.

I think both legislators and online education advocates agree that there needs to be more policies in place to both evaluate and support virtual education, like Glass says. The tricky part will be to make those policies strict enough to hold online education providers accountable for high-quality education while keeping them flexible enough for educators to be able to take full advantage of the differences between brick-and-mortar and virtual classrooms.

There's a lot of information in this report, including sections on the growth of online education, research on achievement in virtual ed., the costs of online education, ensuring quality in online classes, and the push and pull between public education and private online education providers. This is a must-read for those who are following virtual education. Check it out here.

And for more information about online education, check out Technology Counts 2009, which examines recent developments in e-learning.

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It's getting increasingly complicated to keep students safe at school, especially as technology becomes more widely used in the classroom and for personal communication. Policies to keep students safe in the digital age are often crafted with painstaking detail to allow for a range of scenarios.

But as this commentary piece in Sunday's Washington Post describes, the rapid pace of technology and trends in how it is used among young people make it difficult to keep up. And there's always the potential that such policies will have unintended consequences.

Ting-Yi Oei, a school administrator in a Northern Virginia school district, describes his ordeal after being indicted on child pornography charges. While he was investigating a case of "sexting," in which cellphone users text nude photos of themselves to others, he had one teenager send the evidence, a provocative photo of another student, to his own cellphone so he could transfer it to his office computer as the principal instructed.

His problems started essentially because of his lack of tech savvy.

"I immediately took the picture to the principal, who instructed me to transfer it to my office computer in case we needed it later. Being unfamiliar with camera features on cellphones, I asked the school's technology resource teacher for help, but he didn't have an immediate solution. The student then said that he could text the picture to my cellphone. That left the problem of getting it to my computer, whereupon the boy said that I could send the picture to my school e-mail address."

All the charges in last year's incident were recently thrown out of court. But it is not likely to be erased from the educator's memory.

As more cases of sexting are coming to light, however, other serious consequences are arising. Some teens are being charged with crimes for sending each other nude photos. I've read of cases where the offending teens may be required to register as sex offenders.

Earlier this month, Vermont lawmakers proposed making sexting legal between consenting teens, according to this news story.

Are other state and local lawmakers giving school leaders guidance on this issue? How should these kinds of cases be handled by school administrators and teachers?

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 8:46 AM | Permalink | 4 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

This AP article points to a possible change in the way virtual education will be funded in Idaho. Although it still needs to go through the Senate, the measure, backed largely by Republicans, allows schools to shift 5 percent of the money they use to pay teachers, which they either "use or lose," and put it into virtual education.

One Republican asserted that this would be a big help to rural districts, which may not have the money to provide all the courses that larger, urban or suburban districts can offer their students.

It seems to me that simply having the option to use that money towards virtual education, especially in the districts that want it, could be a good thing. Forcing districts to sink 5 percent of the instructional budgets into virtual education is a different story, but giving them the flexibility to do it if it's a good fit for that particular district seems like a step in the right direction. We'll have to wait and see what the Idaho senators think.

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After 13 years at the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board, Bill Thomas, the director of the organization's technology cooperative, has retired. Myk Garn, previously the associate director of the cooperative, has now taken his place.

I am definitely excited to get to know Myk better, but I admit that it's hard to see Bill go. He was a great help for me when I first started digging into online education for Technology Counts, and on one of his last days as director of technology for SREB, he shared lots of information in a webinar hosted by edweek.org about online learning. Bill has been a great resource, and it's been a pleasure to work with him.

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Yesterday, Pearson announced that they had officially acquired the National Transcript Center, which is one of the largest national transcript and student record exchange providers. From the press release:

NTC’s comprehensive solution for securely exchanging electronic student transcripts and student records enhances Pearson’s ability to deliver integrated solutions to increase automation, digital workflow, and data quality in PK-20 education – enabling the development of longitudinal data systems to improve student success – a key element of President Obama’s education reform plan.

Indeed, creating electronic transcripts that can easily follow students from school to school and even from high school to college seems to fit right in with President Obama's plans. In fact, $250 million was added to the existing statewide longitudinal data system programs in the stimulus package. Read more about what's available for ed-tech in the stimulus package in Michelle Davis' story here.

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The 6th annual report on technology integration in U.S. schools, released by the State Educational Technology Directors Association last week, outlines some benefits of ed tech.
Five trends highlighted in the report, resulting from federal funding under the No Child Left Behind Act, Title II, Part D:

-- Integrating technology into education can lead to academic results, as reported by state directors.
-- Options for virtual learning are on the rise.
-- Professional development opportunities helped in integrating technology effectively in the classroom.
-- More states are coordinating research studies around ed tech.
-- More students can demonstrate tech literacy skills.

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Turning the Internet into a safe space for students is a topic that permeates almost all the stories I write about ed-tech, especially when we talk about emerging technologies which make use of the collaborative nature of the Web. I had an interesting discussion yesterday with Rachel Smith, the vice president of services for the New Media Consortium, a network of organizations that examines new technologies. The security topic apparently came up quite a bit during the writing of the consortium's Horizon Report, which analyzes emerging technologies, their impact on education, and the time until they are likely implemented.

Looking at the differences between the higher education edition of the report and the K-12 edition, it's clear that online safety plays a huge role in how quickly emerging technologies can be adopted in public schools.

We recently held an online chat edweek.org that covered some of these topics called Safeguarding Your School in Cyberspace. Our guests answered questions about how to safely navigate Web 2.0 tools, how to address Internet safety in class, how to deal with cyberbullying, and what teachers need to know in order to foster a safe online environment, among other topics. Check out the transcript for more useful information.

Coming up on April 23 at 4 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Pacific, the Consortium for School Networking will be hosting an online presentation that sounds like it will focus on the more technical aspects of online security. Linda Sharp, the project director for CoSN's Cyber Security initiative and Dwayne Alton, the technology director for Lee County schools in Florida will be discussing tips and techniques to keep districts cybersafe. Click here to register for that event.

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It seems like these days I can't get online without hearing something new about the many uses of Twitter. For example, yesterday I was forwarded this article from The Independent about a proposed change to curriculum that would require school children in the UK to learn about Twitter and blogging as part of their everyday instruction.

Advocates say that the focus on technology will both engage students and integrate technology in a meaningful way into all subject areas. But critics say that "tweeting" is a skill that only takes a short time to learn and doesn't have many other cross-over benefits. It could even make it more difficult for students to sit down with a book if they are used to only reading 140-character snippets, they say.

And the debate isn't just happening across the pond. It's here in the U.S., too. Check out this video created by the University of Minnesota about using Twitter and other Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

What do you think? Is using Twitter a useful skill for our students to have? Or is it just a fad that will likely die out?

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This post on the edweek.org blog LeaderTalk, which is a group blog written by school leaders, lays out an all-too-familiar scene in today's schools in which the author of the post, Dave Sherman, finds out that one of his fellow administrators, who he admires, knows very little about Web 2.0 tools and resources.

It starts with the principal asking what Skype is and after some digging, Dave finds out that the principal doesn't know about RSS, Google docs, Ning, del.icio.us, or other popular Web tools. Considering that in the past month I have explained and set up RSS feeds for several of my friends—who are, by the way, "digital natives"—that news isn't surprising to me.

Plus, it's hard for me to imagine a scenario in which principals have the time to keep up with all the latest tech trends, since the amount of new information available each day is indeed overwhelming. Unless keeping up with tech trends is made a high priority by the administrator, I can see how keeping up with it all would quickly fall by the wayside because of other, more important priorities.

But how important is it, really, for administrators to know the ins and outs of every single technological phenomenon that comes along? It seems to me like that might eat up almost all of their time and take away from some of the other important duties that administrators have.

Perhaps a better strategy would be fostering an environment which allows teachers who are looking for new techniques and teaching tools to be able to easily put those to use in their classrooms. As I've heard over and over, having an administrator who is open to, and supportive of, new technologies, even if he or she is not personally familiar with them, can make all the difference.

What do you think? How should administrators be keeping up with new technologies?

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It is widely assumed among education technology enthusiasts that as younger teachers enter the classroom ed tech will gain more of a footing in improving learning. Younger teachers, common wisdom dictates, are more comfortable with technology and have broad experience using it in their everyday lives.

Even so, it may take longer than we think for the teacher corps to be savvy and effective users of electronic and online instructional tools, according to an interesting study I came across on digital natives in teacher preparation programs.

In an article in the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education, Jing Lei, a researcher at Syracuse University, paints a somewhat less optimistic picture of digital natives' contributions to ed tech innovation.

While nearly all of the preservice teachers in her study have used computers and other technology since their pre-teen years and feel comfortable with gadgets and devices that are now becoming standard teaching tools, they may not have the skill to integrate them effectively into their instruction.

"Being able to use technology does not necessarily mean being able to use technology critically, wisely, or meaningfully," the article says. "The digital generation often falls short in demonstrating the fundamental understanding of digital media."

Students tend to use technology superficially, Lei adds, and in ways that may not enhance their inquiry skills. And while many of the preservice teachers in the study had confidence in the power of technology to improve learning, more than half were not as confident in their own skill in using tech tools.

"Although the digital-native preservice teachers reported strong positive beliefs about the potential of technology to help them teach and to help their students learn," the article states, "they had some reservations about using technology in classrooms."

They also believed that technology should be used in moderation and acknowledged there are challenges to integrating such tools into the curriculum.

The paper draws conclusions about the kind of preparation these aspiring teachers need to become effective users of technology in their classrooms.

Of course, the pool of inservice teachers in this study may not have been immersed in technology as early or as intensely as, say, students now in middle and high school. So maybe another study in a few years will have different results.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 10:05 AM | Permalink | 7 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

A couple weeks back, school officials in Maine announced that they would be expanding their 1-to-1 laptop program. Now local school officials are beginning to question assurances that the program will be paid for and will not require any extra funds.

Although schools would not have to pay extra for the laptops themselves, they are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of those computers, which may require hiring an extra staff member—a cost that the district will have to foot, say superintendents.

I'm sure experts would agree with the superintendents that it's essential to hire an extra person to deal with the sudden influx of technology. Without the proper support in place to help repair broken laptops and troubleshoot problems, having the laptops is going to be more of a hassle for students and teachers than a help, as anyone who works in school IT departments will tell you. And it does seem like someone from the governor's or state superintendent's office should have anticipated this "hidden" cost and let school districts know their responsibilities upfront.

While I'm sure those at the state level who are heading this program are well-intentioned, in difficult financial times like these, it's important to lay out all the potential costs and make those transparent to school leaders.

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Sean Cavanagh, my colleague over at Curriculum Matters, beat me to this story about a conference to help spread education throughout Africa with techology.

"Next month, an effort to improve students' access to education in the developing world will be taking place in Dakar, Senegal. It's a conference run by an organization called eLearning Africa, which supports the use and distribution of basic technologies in schools across the continent. The event seeks to bring together nonprofit leaders, university officials, and IT experts with the expertise and connections to get school technology where it's needed."

Sean reports that the eLearning Africa web site has a lot of background and info on last year's event. And there's a fundraising effort going on to give more educators throughout Africa the chance to attend.

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