Episode 81 – CES 2013 Report 1
#edtech On the road to CES 2013, an educator’s perspective on the largest electronics show in the world.
The Confusing World of Education Reform
#edtech #edchat #ties12
I thought I was going the right direction with the changes I had been making in my tech class, but now I am starting to doubt my changes.
I am sooo confused…
A few days ago while giving workshops at the TIES Conference in Minneapolis I attended the keynote address given by Tony Wagner. Dr. Wagner is the author of the book: Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. A book which I read this past summer; it changed how I am as an educator and a parent.
So you can imagine how exciting it was for me to be sitting on the front row, sometimes having press credentials really pays off, listening to one of my personal education reform heroes. I was taking notes and snapping photos when suddenly he said something that made me pause.
He said that we needed to get away from the traditional educational practice of rewarding our students for the work that they do. He was referring to the grades that we give students. He kept referring to the “culture of schooling” and said that we have got to stop with the idea of “reward compliance.” He continued that we need to stop relying on rewards as motivation for our students. This culture of schooling does not build innovators.
What the???
I have just spent the past year reworking my edtech lessons into a system of badges that does just that, it rewards my students with both physical and digital badges for the tech skills that they have earned. Had my hero just sucker-punched me?
I felt betrayed. I don’t remember much of the rest of his keynote, I did take notes, but I was in a fog. My mind spinning about the time I had wasted on trying to fix my technology class. I was four months into a live test of my edtech badges program and now I didn’t know what to do .
So I got on the plane back to Denver and started to re-read sections of his book, looking for a glimmer of hope that my work had not been in vain.
Finally at 36,000 feet I found what I was looking for and began to realize that I mis-understood his point.
If the only motivation a student has to do good work is to get an “A,” then we are doing a dis-service to education. Unfortunately, our schools are basically set up this way. However, if the “A” is just a result or measure of great understanding on the student’s part then a reward or symbol of accomplishment is okay.
Take for example my own daughter, when she was in high school, she would just look at the rubric for a project and check off everything in the far right column so she could get the A, all with little or no understanding of the subject. Every time she would write a paper it would be in the perfect 5-paragraph-style, another A. All she wanted were the A’s. Actually learning the material was not even on her radar. Now in university, she has to rethink her skills as a student as she works on really learning in her classes and not just trying to get an A.
My Edtech Badge Program is nothing like this, I use the badges to represent tech skills that the students have proven that they have. Tech skills that are vital for them to be the innovators that Dr. Wagner wants them to be.
Whew! My hard work in education technology reform was safe for now, but I am going to rethink about attending keynotes on subjects that might jeopardize the little box I like to live in
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Posted with BlogsyEducator Who Quits Over iPad Initiative Has a Change of Heart after Online Training
#edtech #mlearning #ipaded
I came across this post while cruising the usual edtech blogs…
Vacaville Christian Schools in Vacaville, CA recently embarked on a district-wide iPad initiative. While most of the educators grasped the transition to the tablets in their instruction, one teacher in particular struggled.“She was one of the best math teachers on the planet,” Middle School Principal Maylene Ripley said, “But she said she couldn’t do it and she resigned. ”Although the Middle School would miss the talented math teacher, Ripley didn’t want to force the transition on her.
Over the few months after her resignation, her colleagues kept in touch with her and encouraged her that the training and support they were getting through the school’s Atomic Learning subscription would help her through. She decided to return to the school and used the school’s online training solution to become proficient enough in using the tablet that she now teaches other educators how to use their mobile device effectively in their classrooms.
Being a great support system to the teachers as they transitioned was one of Ripley’s claims to a successful mobile implementation. “They needed to know we were there for them when they struggled,” Ripley said.Ripley also credits their mobile device implementation success to their online training partner, Atomic Learning. “One of the best things we did was partner with Atomic Learning,” Ripley stated. “With the on-demand, anytime, anywhere training, our staff could train when they wanted to, on what they needed.”
Ripley is thrilled with how the story of her staff ends. “She (teacher who resigned) could barely turn the iPad on and now she’s training others with it,” Ripley said.To learn more about how Atomic Learning’s Atomic Mobilize solution can help your school or district plan an effective mobile implementation, download a free mobile planning worksheet at http://al.atomiclearning.com/mobileplanning.
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The iPad mini and the Common Core Standards
#edtech #mlearning #ipaded
So unless you have been living under a rock (cue old GEICO ad), if you're an educator then you've been hearing a lot of fuss over the adoption of the Common Core Standards, and if you're connected to technology like myself, then you have been waiting for today for the launch of the yet un-named iPad Mini.
But what on earth do the two have in common?
This morning I started my daily churn of the edtech news by reading about Atomic Learning's new program for addressing tech components of the Common Core standards. Which comes on the heals of an article I read in Edudemic magazine on the same subject. Now you combine this with the news that Apple's introduction of the much-rumored iPad Mini press event today will focus on this new iPad and education then you might have some connections.
Although I believe that much of the iPad Mini and education connection today will focus on iBooks and pricing, I am holding on to the hope that the iPad Mini will be a great publishing tool, much like it's bigger brother.
You see, much to do to with Common Core standards and technology centers around students being able to publish their writings, through blogs, wikis, podcasts and such. But I also hope that today we see some changes with the iBooks Author. For example, I hope that students can publish directly from their iPads and not need to use a computer like with the current iBooks Author. Come on Apple let's publish iBooks from our iPads, computers are so pre-iPads.
So with fingers crossed and my breath held, I wait for today's Apple event.
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Connected Educator Month
#edtech #edchat #ce12
With today being the first of August, my reminder app popped up and told me that today was the start of Connected Educators Month. I must have put this into my iPhone when I heard about it at SocialEdCon that happened the day before ISTE got started in San Diego. I remember someone getting up and explaining how it is important for educators that we connect with one another and start to share ideas on how to move education forward.
When I checked out their website this evening, I found that they have over 80 online events scheduled for this month. 80!
I scrolled down the list and found 10 or 12 activities that interested me right off the bat.
Next, I downloaded the Getting Started Kit so that I wouldn’t miss a thing. Going through this guide reminded me of the Spotlight series that Atomic Learning did on Collaborating with a Global Community last year (full of great workshops too).
I am excited with the prospects of this coming month, I hope to find more educators to connect with that are just as crazy about elementary edtech as I am. I find myself getting more and more ideas from my PLN than from anything else in my life, so the more I can add to this the better I get.
So join me in supporting this cause and let’s get this ball rolling.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
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