Beware of the Protectors of Technology

With the nation spending an estimated 7.5B, that’s billion with a B, (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2011/11/prek-12_ed-_tech_market_estima.html ) in preK-12 edtech  it is time to ask what we are getting for our money.  Are we getting 7.5B worth of improved student learning?  I bet not.  One of the reasons we might not be getting our money’s worth are the protectors of technology (POT).  As individuals, schools and districts invest in educational technology they inevitably invest in hiring technicians that take care of the investment.  We forget that these people are not educators, and after a while they tend to forget that the purpose of educational technology is student learning.  For these individuals it is all about protecting the technology from the students and often from their teacher.  Their priorities are the technology and keeping their jobs simple.  Student learning isn’t even on their radar as a goal.

Why do I bring this up?  I am currently sitting in a classroom that has 20 student laptops but only 5 of them can currently talk to the Internet.  A problem my students or I could easily solve by assigning the correct wireless router but we are not given access.  Students cannot save any work on these computers and the computers are so locked down they will not even recognize a flash drive.  So here am I with a MS in instructional technology, student log-ins set up for Edmodo, Glogster, Animoto, Mangahigh and many others.  I have curriculum designed around Web 2.0 tools and ready to go.  I have access to a commercial online curriculum.  None of it I can use.  I can’t even access, on the teacher computer, the teacher CD that comes with our text books.  I can on and on.  I have a Smartboard but I can’t update the software because I don’t have access on the laptop that came with it.  The list is long.  A POT stopped by my classroom today but told me “I don’t have time to fix the student computers,  update the teacher computers, or install the requested software.”  When I asked for access to the teacher computer so that I could do what’s necessary (I really am technically capable in a past life I ran software engineering groups) I was told that “There is only three of us and we don’t have time to run around fixing things.” Implying that it I wasn’t capable or trustworthy enough to download and install updates on my computer.

This is the problem.  POTs do not care if the technology is being used by the students.  They do not care about the students learning.  In their fiefdom technology is purchased to be kept safe and provide them easy jobs.  Somehow the goal for technology acquisition-student learning- has been lost in the process of buying, distributing, enabling and maintaining the technology.  In the minds of the POTs the purpose of school s and school districts has been twisted to goals centered on technology not students.

What would happen if students were given administrator access to the student computers?  Yes they would get messed up.  What if we required them to fix the computers?  The students might actually learn something.  But wait that’s, as far as the POTs are concerned, that is not the reason the technology was bought.  Hard earned tax payer money was spent on the technology to be locked up and protected from teachers and students.  Technology’s purpose in classrooms is to ensure the POTs have cushy jobs.

What are we getting for our 7.5B?  How much student learning does 7.5B buy?  I believe the answer is inversely related to the number of POTs hired.

Elevator Speach

My elevator speech is a 3 minute video in which I try and "convince" our superintendent that we need to introduce a blended learning approach to our school system.  It is pretty basic.  I am still learning how to make simple videos. Hope everyone likes it.

Pink's Drive and SDT

Back to Pink
     I am reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. I know I have posted a comment about Pink’s motivation writing and interviews being eerily similar to Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Well, he does give reference to Deci’s early work. But at least so far he hasn’t mentioned the large research knowledge base that has been built up since Deci & Ryan (2000) conceptualized SDT. I can’t believe he is not aware of the hundreds of empirical studies so I really hope that I’m just jumping the gun here. Anyone who is interested in the research behind Pink’s autonomy, mastery, and purpose (SDT calls them autonomy, competency, relatedness) you can find it at http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org/ where Deci, Ryan and many others at the University of Rochester and beyond have compiled an impressive body of research. At this site they also make available many of the instruments used in the research.

What is SDT?
      SDT posits that humans have three basic psychological needs, whose satisfaction is critical to well being, health, and personal growth. These needs are innate and universal. Human beings strive consciously or unconsciously toward situations that support the satisfaction of these needs. The three needs are: autonomy – feeling ownership for choices and behaviors, competence- feeling effective, and relatedness – feeling connected to others. To the extent an environment satisfies these needs, it supports engagement in and mastery of skills and concepts within it (Deci & Ryan, 2000). 

SDT & Education
     Substantial research has linked basic needs satisfaction to student behavior in the classroom, academic achievement, cognitive learning, and persistence in school (Brokelman, 2009; Hardre & Reeve, 2003; Ryzin, Gravely, & Roseth, 2007). This is true across gender, age, and cultures (Chirkov, 2009; Guay, Ratelle, & Chanal, 2008; Jang, Reeve, Ryan, & Kim, 2009; Sheldon, Abad, & Omolie, 2009; Shih, 2008). Support of these basic psychological needs has been correlated to intrinsic motivation, which in turn has been linked to student engagement and academic achievement (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009; Ryzin, Gravely, & Roseth, 2007). Particular emphasis has been placed on support for autonomy. Specific teacher and administrator behaviors have been shown to either support or hinder student perceived autonomy satisfaction and intrinsic motivation (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). Teacher support for student autonomy has been correlated to the autonomy support they receive (Roth, Assor, Kanat-Maymon, & Kaplan, 2007) providing an avenue for improving instructional environments.

References Cited:

Brokelman, K. F. (2009). The interrelationship of self-determination, mental illness, and grades among university students. Journal of College Student Development, 50(3), 271-286.

Chirkov, V. I. (2009). A cross-cultural analysis of autonomy in education: A self-determination theory perspective.  Theory and Research in Education, 7(2), 253-262. doi:10.1177/1477878509104330

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits:  Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_0

Guay, F., Ratelle, C. F., & Chanal, J. (2008). Optimal learning in optimal contexts: The role of self-determination in education. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, 49(3), 233-240. doi:10.1037/a0012758

Hardre, P. L., & Reeve, J. (2003). A motivational model of rural students' intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(2), 347-356. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.95.2.347

Jang, H., Reeve, J., Ryan, R. M., & Kim, A. (2009). Can self-determination theory explain what underlies the productive, satisfying learning experiences of collectivistically oriented Korean students? Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 644-661. doi:10.1037/a0014241

Niemiec, C. P., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice. Theory and Research in Education, 7(2), 133-144. doi:10.1177/1477878509104318

Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Autonomous motivation for teaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(4), 761-774. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.4.761

Ryzin, M. J., Gravely, A. A., & Roseth, C. J. (2007). Autonomy, belongingness, and engagement in school as contributors to adolescent psychological well-being. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38(1), 1-12doi:10.1007/s10964-007-9257-4

Sheldon K M Abad N Omoile J 2009 Testing self-determination theory via Nigerian and Indian adolescents.Sheldon, K. M., Abad, N., & Omoile, J. (2009). Testing self-determination theory via Nigerian and Indian adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 33(5), 451-459.

Shih, S. (2008). The relation of self- determination and achievement goals to Taiwanese eighth graders. The Elementary School Journal, 108(4), 313-334. doi:10.1086/528974

Still exploring the usefullness of chat

OK, so I think I may have found a version of chatting that might actually provide some opportunity for learning. Below is the  link to the transcript of a webinar on training hybrid educators.  People sign up and list questions then the moderator asks the questions and, in this case, two individuals with experience answer the questions.  It is not really a chat since it is heavily moderated and is not really a dialogue between people.  Still, the format provides limited participation and leaves a very readable and understandable transcript that allows for non participants to learn from the event.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/events/chats/2011/11/02/index.html

The Power of Twitter

OK, I am finally convinced.  I put together a livebinder on screencasting for my cue presentation tomorrow rather than build an actual presentation I thought I would just walk through the binder and do a demonstration on the smartboard.  As a side note - I realize that this is not a very exciting presentation.  Anyway, I thought in addition to listing the url on the first screen (so everyone could follow along and didn't have to take notes) I would also  create a twitter hashtag so that I could just tweet the link.  I also thought people could just tweet questions and comments.

So to test the hashtag and link out I tweeted out the link using only the hashtag for my presentation.  Within minutes my tweet was RTed by people who do not, or at least didn't, follow me.  How did it come up on people's radar?  I do not get it.  I am a little embarrassed because it really isn't all that great of a binder.  I was just trying to leave the SDCUE attendees with some reference links.  There must be people who do keyword searches continuously.

Twitter (minus the chats) is really growing on me.

To chat or not to chat - I have my answer

Ok, I have come to the conclusion that I will not “ace” my PLN assignment, at least according to Jeff’s rubric - although it is very slick.  I have tried over a dozen times but I do not like, enjoy, or benefit from n-way synchronized communication.  When I think back I realize that whenever I built on-line training I always avoided the everyone-get-online-at-the-same-time-and-chat assignments.  I find it too difficult to listen, reflect and respond effectively.  In my way of thinking the dialogue that an online asynchronous discussion, blog, or even twitter provides is far more meaningful and allows for much deeper learning.  When we meet together we do not all talk at once for good reason.  Good listening requires time for processing that chatting doesn’t allow.  Maybe its me.  Maybe I have a slow visual processor.

Anyway, I intend to grow and use my PLN without the chat sorry @jheil65.

Update on Futurist Senario

Step 1: Identify Implications (SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats analysis).

Strengths – I am sure it would better engage and prepare students.  The technology is here today to implement this.  Its proven, other schools are doing it and having success with it.

Weaknesses- It can be implemented poorly and not achieve its goals.  Doing it right requires an investment in hardware, software, planning, and training and resources are tight.  Due to California’s attendance credit requirements it must be accounted for as Independent Study

Opportunities -  Engaging students, keeping students in school, helping students catch up on credits.  Building necessary 21stCentury skills

Threats – Current Independent study teachers lack specific content knowledge, Current union rules, and administrator domains would not necessarily be applicable. No motivation to change

Step 2: Develop Options (List the things you could do and the things you should do to prepare)

The following activities are things I could do and should do to prepare :

• Research is needed into current California attendance reporting laws and pending legislation.  Research is also needed into online teacher certification and its applicability to blended learning environments.
• It is important to understand current JCCS technology plans.
• Literature review of empirical studies done of blended learning environments and students labeled “at-risk”

Step 3: Monitor Trends (How do you currently monitor trends? How might you need to adjust your radar?

I currently monitor trends through daily and weekly updates in educational technology and the blogs of NCBTs.  I should probably start to expand my PLN to explicitly try to track blended learning environments.  Perhaps there is an edchat, daily or weekly paper or Diigo group

Inequities in educational settings

“What are the inequities in your educational setting?”  This is a very hard question for me to answer because the existence of my educational setting is inequitable.  I am sure that my colleagues are tired of hearing and reading about this from me.  The number of alternative schools, and enrollment in alternative schools is increasing, due in large part to excessive use of zero tolerance policies.  Students of color, those with low socioeconomic status, or those with disabilities are disproportionately disciplined and disenfranchised.  Many of these students end up in alternative schools.  In my “educational setting” a quick look a the demographics verifies that this is true for north San Diego county.

Tonight I was really touched by the two young men from the Digital Connectors Program.  I spend a couple evenings a year conducting workshops for our parents on internet safety.  Jeff and I have taught basic computer skill workshops for our parents on the occasional Sunday.  I now know we’ve been doing this all wrong.  We should be selecting and training a few motivated students who could then teach not only our parents but others in the community as well.

In fact my student voice research and this evenings session has me returning to a couple of questions tonight.  Fullan asked in 1991 , “What would happen if we treated the student as someone whose opinion matters?” I would like to extend that sediment and ask “What would happen if students were responsible for educating themselves and other students and we were just facilitators?” 

PLN update First Twitter Mention

Hey @jheil65 do I get points for my first twitter mention from someone I don't know?
So I have to admit it is kinda cool

Futurist Senario

I would like to implement a blended environment composed of online mastery based classes where students would receive credit based on demonstration of mastery.  The courses would be web-based and administered as independent study / credit recovery for attendance purposes.  It would be conducted in a one room computer lab with 25 computers manned by a minimum of one teaching assistant and one teacher at all times of operation.  It would operate from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and have three teams of teacher-teaching assistant pairs that operated it in three 4 hour shifts.  Each Teacher would be responsible for administration of a maximum of 40 students.  Therefore, the capacity of this lab would be 120 students.  Students would attend the at assigned times ranging from 1 two hour session a week to daily two hour sessions depending on their progress.  Students and their parents would also be able to check out netbooks so that they could work at home.

1.  If you were to implement this practice, strategy, idea today, what specialized skills, resources, and dispositions would you need to obtain for yourself, your colleagues and staff?

If implemented today at JCCS this would have to be an autonomous unit established as a pilot in one region.  Technology resources (student computers and curriculum) would have to be acquired.  I believe a few JCCS teachers could be found with the necessary skill set.  If not then, some technical training of the selected teacher-teaching assistant teams might be necessary in addition to training on the curriculum.  The biggest hurdle would be the established attendance reporting system,  JCCS leadership mindset about attendance reporting and by far the teachers union.  This arrangement would require some exceptions or flexibility to current teacher contract.  The union leadership is intently interested in maintaining the existing Independent Study system, which is woefully out dated and inadequate, because of the freedom and flexibility it provides the teachers.

2.  What skills will your colleagues and those you supervise need in order to be successful in this scenario? Of those skills, which ones are currently being supported through resources such as professional development in your setting? Which ones are missing or minimal? What is currently being supported in your setting that would likely be obsolete in 2020.

JCCS is currently encouraging and supporting teachers obtaining the technical skills necessary to teach in this environment.  As eluded to in the answer to question #1 our current way of conducting Independent Study is currently outdated.  It does not serve our students well.  They need the scheduling flexibility but the instructional pedagogy is less than inadequate and it is a totally paper based system.  I believe if Independent Study continues to be offered the way it is today it will not exist in our organization in 2020.  In fact the Community School part of our system may cease to exist.

In what ways are we unprepared, lacking in resources and staffing, or to what degree are our strategies and underlying values unable to respond effectively to the conditions this scenario represents?

JCCS educational offerings outside of the institutions are to a large degree determined by what the teachers union will approve.  As with most teachers unions they are run by long time teachers committed to a seniority system, and intent in maximizing their retirement payments.  In California, these payments are determined to some degree on the earnings a teacher has in their last 3 years.

3.  What could we be doing now to leverage this trend to our advantage?

I think this a baby step toward JCCS leveraging the online instruction trend to its advantage or survival.

4.  What would need to happen internally and in the external environment for preparing yourself and those you lead to navigate in this strategic vision? What changes should your organization begin to make? What should it start doing? What should it stop doing?

Internally JCCS needs to become aware of the research surrounding effective instruction.  What students want in their educational environment and what’s working in other alternative schools in San Diego County.  A select group of people are doing some of this but it is not disseminated.  JCCS very rarely brings teachers and administrators in from outside the organization.  It needs to build a model for the future free of what is being done now and what has always been done.  According to Christensen this may require a new autonomous unit that creates a new school – perhaps a charter school.

Proposal Defense

For anyone who is interested my Dissertation Proposal Defense it can be viewed at the following link

http://prawn.csusm.edu/Mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=010aa3157baa45f08c18a89836f017001d

Reccomendation from Project Tomorrow

 It is time we built an online school that could reach into every institution, every community classroom and replace textbooks and worksheets for Independent study.  If we do not address the demand gap for online learning someone else will.  It is not for every student, and it is not all or nothing.  It is a way to address our free agent learners.  Providing them “Learning that is enabled, engaged and empowered.” Learners can be in charge of their own learning, taking the time and effort to master the content in a way that they find meaning and propose

Take a look at the following presentations that present both the demand for online learning and the ROI  for implementing an online learning program.

The Demand Gap for Online Learning: Latest Trends from the Speak Up Research

Online Learning ROI: Building the case for your online learning program 

JCCS and Disruptive Innovation

Christensen’s theory of Disruptive Innovation essentially states that institutions (companies, organizations) will tend to innovate to serve current customer perceived current or future needs.  A disruptive innovation enters the picture by serving a population that is not currently served.  As that product continues to innovate it increases its functionality while maintaining the advantage that allowed it to serve the unserved eventually pulling in customers served by other institutions.

Horn, Christensen’s coauthor in “Disrupting Class”, predicts that online learning could be a disruptive innovation for education initially serving students who are not currently served.  Among the students he lists as potential entry points are students who are not served well currently.  His list includes drop outs, incarcerated students, students behind in credits (credit recovery), and expelled students.  These are the students JCCS serves.  If he is right we should be getting out in front of this disruption.

Horn also mentions that when an existing institution wants to embrace a disrupting technology it needs to create an autonomous organization because the disruption, by definition, requires a different perspective often in conflict with the current culture of the existing organization.

As JCCS struggles to bring online instruction on board there are countless examples of this.  I feel that unless JCCS spins off a separate online "school" it will meet the fate of DEC.  Someone else will enter into what JCCS has always assumed was a protected market and before JCCS can adapt it will become irrelavant.

Visitor or Resident?

For me this is not a simple question.  Before I can tackle Visitors and Residents I need to tackle Immigrants and Natives.  The later article which I have been handed no less than 15 times [Prensky M., (2001) "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1", On the Horizon, Vol. 9 Iss: 5, pp.1 – 6] is a faulty distinction.

However, even though as White  indicates, to equate Digital Immigrants as old and Digital Natives as younger is a flawed, there is some truth to it.  By definition I, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, have to be classified as Digital Immigrants.  We were born before the technology, before the Internet, before the microprocessor, before the Hewlett-Packard calculator.  It makes no difference that I was programming (and getting paid for it) at the age of 12 and Gates and Jobs would mold and bring the technology to the world.  We were not born “into the technology”.  We, well that’s really presumptuous, they would help give birth to the technology.  We were/are not characteristic of what is meant when people refer to Digital Immigrants. We did not migrate as adults.  We are more like infants brought to this world by our parents. As such, we had no discernible accent so could sometimes pass for natives but in the truest sense were not.  In many ways we were digital parents.

So it is true for my classification as a visitor or a resident.    From the picture painted in the video I would have to be classified as a visitor.  However, I am really a damaged resident.  The only metaphor I can conjure up is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  I, in no way, mean to be little, or equate my issues to, what many of our incredibly dedicated arm services personnel suffer.  It is simply the only metaphor I have come up with to describe my situation.  I lived in this world when it was a wild frontier.  We didn’t reside in an established place.  We lived off the land as we explored, fought over, mapped and built places.  My personal journey, as I told my cohort in our first quarter together, is not one I am comfortable elaborating on.  Somewhere along the way I sideswiped an IUD and have never been able to fully integrate back into the digital society.  It is not because I am unable to master the technology or am afraid of identity theft.  Anyone who knows me knows it is not because I lack opinions, informed or otherwise, or am reticent to share them.  Something broke or became disconnected. 

For me, the Web is not a tool box although it is full of tools.  It is not a space to mill around in.  It is a place always under construction.   A place I was one of the first to enter, stake a claim and build.  The only memory of working with Steve Jobs I am willing to share right now is when  a lot of us were sitting around  (I think it was a break room at one of Apple’s early offices by Xerox Parc but it might have been at Xerox Parc)  commenting on how we never wanted to be those old timers saying “remember when….” We would rather hang out on the edge even if it meant we may go over the cliff.  Steve Jobs died building brilliantly on the edge.  Sadly I think I am an old timer who fell off the cliff and survived but was never the same.

The Visitor – Resident categorization is also not a continuum as described in the video.  I can make a case that I am at each end of the extreme.  To make this point I’ll simply match my dissertation methodology to the words in the brackets on White’s Prezi.  I am performing a very sophisticated statistical cluster analysis (quantitative end of quantitative research) to help select participants for a narrative inquiry (qualitative end of qualitative research). 

All classification schemes are simply a way of helping us explain observed phenomenon. Boundaries and edges are often hard to classify.

I am too depressed over personal setbacks and Steve Job’s death to delve into the issue any deeper at this time.