Teaching With Technology in APS

A conversation came up during a recent team meeting about how YouTube is being used in our district. The whole issue began with a video that was posted by a student from a local high school. It was video of a fight between two female students at a nearby park. Here is the video in question.

The background information of exactly what was going on is still being researched, but the impact on how we might use YouTube is already a main part of many conversations. I’ve even heard that there’s a possibility that YouTube would no longer be accessible on any district computer. My question is, is YouTube the real problem here?

If you look at everything from its most basic level, we have technologically literate students using technology in an inappropriate way. That’s it. These kids did something that, I’d say, the majority of their teachers don’t know how to do. They captured video, uploaded it onto a computer, edited it, and then uploaded it onto YouTube. These are a few of the many technology skills we wish that all of our learners (and teachers) in the 21st Century had. All we need to do now is harness that energy (and knowledge) and focus it in a more positive way.

Here are a couple of examples of what I’m referring to. These are water cycle projects that kids produced.

There is obviously, in my view, an issue in school culture as well. Is this the only thing kids get excited about in school? Is this the only thing having to do with their school that they’d watch on YouTube? Is this how they want their school, their district, and most importantly themselves represented to the world? That would be an interesting conversation to have with the students that were involved in this process in one way or another. I’d be curious to hear their responses and where the conversation went from there. It might be pretty powerful and definitely a teachable moment if it’s approached in a tactful, logical, and thoughtful way.

So, I hope, through one means or another, that our leadership figures out that the issue here isn’t as much about the technology as they’d like to think. A website that had over 60,000,000 visitors during the 2006 year is a powerful tool, whether they’d like to think so or not, and it’s inevitable that some choose people use it in an inappropriate and/or embarrassing way. That’s just part of so many people having access to it. But how many of those 60,000,000 visitors are using it in a powerful way? Think of the power this tool has and what our students and teachers would be losing if it was blocked. Is that what we want to do for our students? Is limiting their access to the site really going to solve the issue here?

We can learn a great lesson from this experience. There are plenty of technology skills to build upon in this situation. What can we do to make sure resources like YouTube are used in an appropriate way in the future? And will blocking it really solve the bigger problem behind this whole unfortunate posting? I guess we’ll need to wait and see.

…That’s just my two cents, for what it’s worth.

I ran across a few more articles that drive my point home about my previous “Why not yes? (Or at least maybe)” entry. It just seems to me that the trust we once had with kids and their integrity is quickly going away and I’m not sure if it has to do as much with the technology as everyone is saying. Is the technology really the issue here? Maybe taking that out of the discussion and having more of a focus on integrity, honesty, and responsible use of technology is what needs to be brought up. Again, the role of educators is changing so quickly, it’s hard to keep up. That’s for sure.

Here’s an article against technology in schools from the Arizona Republic…

And here is the reply from Ian Jukes’ blog.

Last Friday and co-worker and me were scheduled for “tech training” at one of our schools in the district. When we got there we got a list of teachers that had signed up for the extra support. There were about 10 that were going to come throughout the day. We came at 7:15, I ended up leaving at 11:00; we had seen one teacher. Randy stayed for the afternoon group, that was supposed to have five people there; one teacher showed up. We had an entire day scheduled and ended up seeing two teachers in six and a half hours. It was obviously not the best use of our time and expertise. As I get deeper into my new job, I notice that respecting someone’s time is a big deal. I know I’d like my time to be respected and I really do try to respect, and be aware of, the time of others that I work with as well.

Here’s what we learned (and what we had feared from when it was scheduled). The more details school leadership representatives can include for teachers on the front end, the more effective the training will be. Just getting us scheduled is not near enough to have effective support from our end. That’s a very small part of the process and has absolutely nothing having to do with technology.  Those are simple effective planning and teaching practices. The teachers had no idea what they signed up for and therefore didn’t view it as valuable. The leader we worked with sent a reminder email, just in passing, at the beginning of the day. It doesn’t need to be stated how well that worked.

Accountability was the other issue. If you signed up and blew us off, what were the consequences? There were obviously none. I’m going to follow up on that with the school so something like that doesn’t happen again there or at any other schools.

So the day wasn’t a complete waste. We learned our lesson and passed it on to our colleagues. We’ll do a better job in the future to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m not really bitter or upset, I’m disappointed the school and/or teachers didn’t seem to view our time as an opportunity to enhance their instruction.

Everything we do is, or at least should be, all about our students. So when you choose to look at it from that perspective, the kids ended up losing out, and that’s never a good thing; I don’t care what kind of spin you put on it.

Our APS math district coaches recently approached a co-worker and me about some Promethean training.  We had a planning meeting with one of the leaders of the group before the training to see exactly how we want to set things up.  She warned us about a few of the “seasoned veterans” in the group who might have a hard time with learning some new technology.  We took that into account when it came to how we approached everything in the training.

We planned a small demo of the very basics of the program, we showed a video of one of our teachers using the board, had a guided lesson, and then gave them time to explore and create things within the software.  Everything went great.  No issues at all with the veterans and everyone seemed to see the power of the technology right away.  There were some great questions and there was a lot of energy in the room during the entire session.  They couldn’t seem to get enough, including our two math instructional coordinators for the district.

I was really excited for a lot of reasons.  One is, they approached us and let us know they were interested.  Usually it’s the other way around and the time is never quite “just right.”  This time the time was definitely right.  I can see this type of support growing in the future.  If there are people in the district that should know what’s possible when it comes to instructional technology, it should be our instructional leaders.  I can also see our support to them having a direct impact on our Promethean users in the classroom.  The coaches were interested in having a follow up session in the near future and many wanted to have the software on their laptops too.

Hopefully our literacy instructional leaders will approach us when the time is right to see the IT possibilities in APS.  That would be cool.
It was a great morning and a powerful example of trust and teamwork.  It know it really made my day.  I can’t wait to do it again soon.

Yesterday in our team meeting our boss brought up some interesting points. One was, why do kids need to go down the hall to the “tech lab” in order to learn about technology? With a department like ours we are trying to end this trend. Kids should be able to learn about, and with, technology all day, every day, in every classroom. The tech lab should be a place that reinforces what is going on in the classroom both instructionally and technologically, and in best case scenarios, both. It shouldn’t be the only place where kids gets excited about and get to experience instructional technology. We know that the more we can integrate in to classrooms, the more efficient and effective our teachers can be.

I ran across this article on 9news.com last night and knew that it needed to be included on my blog right away. It seems like the new Commissioner of Education for the state of Colorado, Dwight D. Jones, has the right idea. What we’re doing in education doesn’t seem to be working for many of our students so he is going to look at changing how the state department supports the state’s schools. This doesn’t involve extra money or resources, it just involves reorganizing what is already in place. What a concept! He also mentions the he’s going to look at the relationship between our state standardized test and how it relates to supporting our students in being successful in the 21st Century. He predicts big changes within the next three to five years. I’m not worried about when and how big the changes are, that’s really just a matter of time anyways; I’m just really happy that someone in a position like that is evaluating what is going on in a realistic way. It’s about time. Check out the article here.

As I was exploring iTunes the other night I ran across a lecture given by Mitchel Resnick. He is a professor at MIT and is a huge advocate for making kindergarten an every day thing in every school in every grade. He has done a lot of research and seen that kindergarten works pretty well in general, why not take the things that are working and incorporate them into every grade? I ended up looking on YouTube to see if there were any videos about him and the work he has done. It turns out that one of his lectures is posted. It’s almost an hour long, and he had me from the beginning. Check it out and see what you think. It sure makes sense to me.

I was walking the dog on Friday evening and walked by a man and a woman on a path near our house.  We all ended up doing that double take and trying to make the connection between where we’ve seen each other before.  I knew she worked in the district, but I couldn’t remember where off the top of my head.  After asking her where she worked it turned out that I have seen her a couple of times at one of our elementary schools.  We did some Promethean training there last school year.  I introduced myself after we made the connection and she said, “Oh yeah, you’re the Promethean guy!”

It always feels good when people know you for something positive.  I’m affectionately known as the “Promethean Man” around our office.

I don’t mind being called the Promethean “man” or “guy.”  It’s kind of fun.  Plus, I’m positive I’ve been called much worse in my lifetime.

This morning, during a meeting with a school, I once again realized how lucky I am to work for a boss like mine. He would not have liked this meeting too much. He doesn’t like to talk about or spend energy on “limitations.” Let me explain.

As the year gets going we meet with schools and discuss how we can best support them during this school year. This particular meeting began with several comments from the school that emphasized how limited their students are when it comes to computer access at home. One teacher viewed this a huge challenge. She also stated how frustrating it was to have no time to do anything with all of the new programs our district is implementing this year. She said that training the staff would be tough because of this fact. I really tried to diffuse this viewpoint by offering support in planning meetings that already existed on the schedule, rather than looking for time that wasn’t there to begin with. She didn’t seem to respond to that too well. In my judgment, she wasn’t hearing what she’d like to have heard in that situation. I’m not going to guess what that something was, but it wasn’t what I told her. She spent the rest of the meeting with her head resting on her hand and became pretty much detached for the main conversation. Interesting response.

I’ve been in her shoes. I know exactly how she feels and I don’t want to ever forget that feeling. That empathy allows me to be more effective in my new job. That’s where my boss comes in. He doesn’t want to talk about limitations and/or excuses. We don’t have enough time or energy for that. How about we take that energy and build a learning environment that’s not limited by that type of thinking? I really believe that if we think we’re limited, we are always going to be limited. I’m not saying all the world is yours when it comes to working in public schools, but I am saying we have a great opportunity to create some very powerful and dynamic learning environments today. You being a part of that future is your choice.

Let’s say I teach in a school where each and every student has computer/internet access. Does that mean I necessarily have a huge advantage? The way I have to look at it, because of my previous experiences in low income schools, is no. Just because kids have access to computers doesn’t mean they’ll be able to more easily incorporate them into a school setting. The “advantage” isn’t necessarily that clear. It can’t possibly be that easy.

As educators, especially in today’s schools, it’s that much more important (and essential) to see those “challenges” and “limitations” as huge opportunities. That sure does keep the frustration down, and that’s always a good thing. I know that helped me stay sane in my classroom during many teaching days. The last group I had was a tough tough group with all kinds of “challenges” and “limitations.” The range of learners in my class could not have gotten much wider. I had to work unbelievably hard to keep everyone moving in the right direction. They wore me out for sure. But they helped me become a better teacher, and I’m very appreciative to them for that.

So, obviously, going into meetings and having the main focus be how that learning environment is limited by income level, computer experience or computers themselves, internet access, money, time and/or schedule, facilities, or any other story or excuse can be a little frustrating to me and the people I work with. Why are we choosing to focus on those things? How much of that can we really control anyways? Why not focus on the impact we can have with the tools, resources, and funds we do have available? I find it just a bit less frustrating and much more efficient.

As a good teaching friend of mine and I used to say, “You’re probably right.” If you think your kids and teaching are “limited” and you, as their teacher, can only have minimal impact based on what is going on in your particular building, you’re probably right. But if you think that you’re doing the best with what you are given, making the most out of the resources that are available, you trust that, in time, all the time and money you need to be successful will eventually become available, your eyes are always pointing towards the future and what is possible, and you know that what you do every day has a positive impact on the students you teach, you’re probably right too.