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At the NSBA T+L Conference in Seattle, I joined Bailey Mitchell, Kathy Rains, and Steve Hargadon on a CoSN CTO Forum panel on the topic of “Banned Technologies and Ubiquitous Access to Computing in Schools.” Meris Stansbury did a nice job of summarizing our remarks for eSchool News “Banning School Technology: A bad idea?“.
I presented three models that I have seen in school districts across the country.
1. Ban It: This is the scenario where the IT department always says “No” to teachers and students. It’s not secure, it’s too expensive, we haven’t tested it yet…there are lots of reasons to say no. But when IT always says no, the technology just goes underground. If it is useful or fills a need, then students and teachers will find a way to use it.
2. The Walled Garden: IT says “yes, but”. This is by far the most popular approach. Using filters, firewalls, policies and other methods, schools have clearly defined boundaries. You may have a cell phone or a personal laptop, but you can’t use it on the school network. It is more secure, but often costs more in time and resources to manage and maintain. In the end, it might also provide a false sense of security. Hardware and software barriers can be overcome by young people with the time, talent, and tools to do it.
3. The Jungle: IT says “when and how”. This approach recognizes the importance of being open to innovation and embraces early adopters. Keys to this approach include a process for reviewing and prioritizing technologies, consensus building with parents and the school, and finally a strong partnership between IT and instruction.
Kathy Rains provided a great example of this, describing their approach at Madison City Schools in Alabama. Their district decided to allow students to bring devices to class and connect to the school network. Everyone chooses what tools are most helpful to them to get their work done.
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I just returned from the National School Boards Association Technology + Learning Conference in Seattle, WA, where I was very honored to be named one of NSBA’s “20 to Watch“. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the other winners including:
Amber Rowland, Project Leader, ALTEC, University of Kansas, a former classroom teacher who is now training pre-service teachers to use technology and working on her PhD.
Jim Klein, Director Information Services and Technology, Saugus Union School District, California, a blogger, who recently received a $1.4 million grant to study the impact on 4th grade student achievement when each child has an ultra mobile device. He spoke about making sure that we do not define technology projects by the technology used, but the achievement objective: helping students become better writers.
Paul Sanfrancesco, Director of Technology, Garnet Valley School District, Pennsylvania, who has created a summer academy for teachers that infuses technology into instruction. He is certainly passionate about the project and teachers are eager to go through the training.
I hope to meet the other leaders online soon so that we can help each other change the world!
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eCampus News has an article exploring the Atlantic Monthly article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” by Nicholas Carr. If we keep our assignments the same: pick a topic, research it, write up your findings, submit the paper, then we shouldn’t expect research methods to change much. Maybe the reality is that Google is revealing how lazy we are about seeking out good information. The process hasn’t changed, it’s just more quantifiable.
“Rethinking Research in the Google Era,” by Meris Stansbury takes on the issue and what it means for education. It seems that the range of professionals she spoke with shared my take on the topic, having vastly more information (high and low quality) at our finger tips gives us the potential to be better informed and more thoughtful. We just have to figure out good ways of making the most of that potential. This is like saying that cars made us lazy. Doesn’t the ability to get where we are going faster have value?
Libraries struggle tremendously with the Long Tail. They often have deep rich collections that most patrons barely skim through. We have to figure out how to harness the power of those few who do go deep to bring more of us into their niches.
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“Apart from making sure the walls aren’t peeling, I can’t think of a more pressing infrastructure issue that really does address what can happen in the classroom,” says Christopher R. Brown, a senior vice president at the Upper Saddle River, N.J.-based Pearson Education’s curriculum group.
I love this quote from Chris Brown from Katie Ash’s excellent article: Schools’ Broadband Needs Grow as Ed-Tech Evolves, in Education Week’s Digital Directions. Chris and I are on the CoSN Emerging Technologies Committee together. We are also part of a small group concerned about the network infrastructure needs for our schools. See our CoSN Broadband Knowledge Center site for more details about the problem and solutions.
We can talk about all of the exciting things students and teachers will do in the classroom, connecting with each other and with people and resources worldwide. But you can’t drive a semi on a dirt road. Meaning, you can’t deliver powerful, high capacity integrated online experiences on low-speed, low-reliability networks. This should be a national issue with a national solution. Another great quote from Tom Rolfes, Education I.T. Manager, Office of the Chief Information Officer and Nebraska Information Technology Commission, co-chair of the ETC:
“In order to make the jump from older infrastructure to modern high-capacity fiber-optic infrastructure, it often requires a bold initiative with a compelling case to be built by a charismatic leader who is willing to ask for increased expenditures in tough economic times,” says Rolfes.
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Project Tomorrow just announced the release of a report I wrote with their staff using data from the Speak Up Administrators survey of 2007. Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator will be released at the NSBA Technology + Learning Conference in Seattle, WA, at a breakfast on Wednesday, October 29 at 7:30am. In addition to comparing administrator views on technology to the views of students, the report includes interviews of principals, tech managers and district administrators from 8 school districts. We found some very interesting ways that “tech visionary” leaders are deploying technology within their organizations to help students develop 21st century skills. I’ll share more when the report goes public! Register for the breakfast at T+L.
