Hardware vs. Software

Sitting through technology budget meetings where the topic of conversation always focusses on hardware is frustrating. While it is obvious that we can't do anything without the right hardware, to expect that just by giving teachers the right hardware they will be able to improve instruction is misguided. We have been putting computers in the classroom for 20 years now with little significant improvement in student scores. The problem has been that the software has been just a reflection of how teachers traditionally taught. We need to develop software that is student-centered and that has the ability to modify instruction based upon the user. Google Docs is a great start in this direction but we need more content specific material. In order to make the hardware work for us, we need to give it the tools that make sense for the kids. Let's change the conversation and force the fragmented educational software industry to create tools that will force change.

Google Teacher Academy

Just finished GTA in NYC. What a day - my brain still cannot comprehend all that went on there. I will try to synthesize some of the ideas that I have and will use as time passes. The two things that I really got out of it in general were: 1. I now belong to a group of wildly talented and innovative educators and 2. Google has the right idea when it comes to a work model. The day began with the ten things that Google has found to be true:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.

If we take this, as Mark Wagner did in the intro and implemented that into education, revolution would follow.

More to come.

Google Teacher Academy Video

Blackboard Training

Today I ran a faculty professional development module on Blackboard. The more time I spend working with the software the more I realize it is too much of a walled garden to be a game changer. The teachers and kids are working on too many different platforms in such creative and native ways that forcing them to follow one set of guidelines is too prescriptive for them. Students and teachers need freedom. Change requires freedom. Imagine a school instituting a Google like approach to education. Allow students at the high school level to spend 20% of their time working on a project that interests them and has relevance to their lives. Wouldn't they get so much more out of their other classes? Blackboard, like many things in education, miss the point of what kids need. Let's stop telling them what they HAVE to do and allow them to be a part of the process. At my school there is a science research course that let's kids work for three years on research of their choosing. Seeing what these kids produce at the end of the process is mind blowing. Why not expand this idea to every student? Revolution, not evolution!!!

Google Teacher Academy

I can't tell you how excited I am to have been chosen to attend the Google Teacher Academy on November 18th. I have been in contact with teachers who have been in previous cohorts and they can't stop talking about it. The application process was a lot of fun. Creating my video with some student volunteers was a blast. The essay portion of the application was painless and enjoyable. I'll be sure to post my thoughts as I go through the process.

Day one

So I've created and still maintain countless blogs on a number of different topics and they have all lead me to this point. I've spent the better part of the last decade in education and the most important lesson that I've learned is I have no idea what I'm doing. I do know that the way we teach kids today can't be the best possible way. Our current system does a great job of sapping most of the creativity from our kids. We teach the kids that it is more important to memorize information than it is to come up with something new and imaginative. There are obvious exceptions to the rule, but generally this is what we have done. Why do we group kids based upon their date of manufacture? Why do all kids have to learn the same concepts at the same pace? Does our curriculum even address concepts or are we just teaching content? For me, the key to change is technology. Technology is nothing in and of itself but if it can be combined with great teachers who are willing to take risks and are backed by administrators who believe in them it can be a paradigm shift. So this blog is going to be my memoirs of my experiences. I've been motivated by countless other educators who have rang a call to arms for change. If change is ever going to happen, we as teachers need to change what we do at the most basic level. We need revolution, not evolution!!