Comments on: Measuring the right things

By: Clark

Clark — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:35:39 +0000

Jon, much appreciate the pointer, but not being a member of ISTE, it looks like I’m blocked from accessing it. And not in my local library. Sounds like a good story, however, so will see if I can track it down. Thanks!

By: Jon Aleckson

Jon Aleckson — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:17:29 +0000

Clark-
You may want to check out the Jan. issue of ISTE’s Learning & Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, No.4. There is a good article called All Aboard…how a new review process resulted in innovative uses of technology.

By: Virginia Yonkers

Virginia Yonkers — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:01:42 +0000

The standards in our state are written broadly, so the way to accomplish the standards are many fold. I find in k-12 especially, there is a tendency to teach and assess professional development the way they do the rest of elementary school–through standard training programs and tests that do not really meet the needs of the teachers. I have found that using the teacher’s strengths and interests (skills they already have) and having them create their own learning objectives within the standards they must teach is more empowering and allows for greater buy in.

For example, I googled the California technology proficiency standards for teachers which included: Considers the content to be taught and selects the best technological resources to support and manage learning. S10. By having faculty actually work through their own lesson plans and supporting them with technology that is relevant for their comfort level (rather than standardizing the way lessons look, plugging in content that may not fit, and ignoring the skills they come into the classroom with) they will still be able to meet this criteria and with a much deeper level of understanding on how to integrate and choose technology for the classroom. The tricky part is coming up with criteria for assessment that will demonstrate this proficiency (I found demonstration of a lesson plan or an online portfolio which other teachers can access and evaluate works well).

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Virigina, great story, great success. Hope I don’t have to break my foot to back out when my value’s gone ;). Of course, the problem is higher up, in the state and national standards for technology, but one battle at a time I reckon. If we can get the teachers using tech, they may get what’s important in the curriculum.

By: Virginia Yonkers

Virginia Yonkers — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:26:53 +0000

I too was on our school technology committee. Being a teacher and parent with a technology background, I found I was constantly mediating between the parents with technology background (but no teaching) and the teachers (with no or little technology background). Because of the resistance to taking the time out to integrate the technology into the classroom, we ended up taking the approach you have outlined. We started by having teachers identify an area they would like to investigate, then worked at coming up with a technology solution based on THEIR needs and teaching style. Because the idea was generated by the teacher, they were more open to it. On the other hand, by assessing their progress (through their own learning goals), there was also external motivation to follow through with the technology.

What we found was that teachers began to demonstrate their progress to other teachers, which made some of the technologies more in demand. The primary teachers (this was a K-8 school), became very interested in using laptops and LCD monitors. They liked being able to create something on the laptop which they could then show the class as a whole. They used them to access websites, video clips (online), and projects with other schools/off-site contacts, including a research scientist in Antarctica. Soon, they began to share different resources and started working with the technology teacher to integrate some of their projects into the technology class (i.e. online research for in-class project). Teachers that did not even use e-mail learned multiple technologies from other teachers.

Many of my students have put together distance learning modules for professional development that includes blogs, discussion forums, and online resources. Often they use these in conjunction with traditional face to face training. What often happens is that the tools are taught in context of a teaching problem (i.e. special ed, improving assessment, project based learning). They are more apt to learn the new technology if it meets the training needs for certification (200 hours in 2 years of continuing education in NY State). As they become more comfortable with the technology, they are more apt to try to adapt it to their own teaching.

BTW-the only way I got out of the committee was I broke my foot on the kick off day with the teachers. I liked acting the consulting role for a few years after, but enjoyed not having to go to the meetings that seemed to suck the life out of me!

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:33:36 +0000

Wendy, changes in the world are having little effect in the classroom, except idiosyncratically. And, yes, I deliberately put in the reference to the union.

As to what they’re assessing? If I recall correctly: word processing, email, internet, spreadsheet, database, presentation (the latter 3 are the weak areas). Self-assessment. Based on state and federal standards, of course, which are also no doubt out of date.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:03:16 +0000

What I find interesting / scary / sad is that we are still encountering the exact same issues with teaching and technology at the K-12 level as we did almost 10 years ago. The comment by the one teacher about “getting the union to agree” is telling.

I would also be curious to hear how current those computer courses (and the resulting “assessment”) are. Are they assessing on 5 year old applications?