What a Week!

I spent last week at the ILE Ohio Conference. You could go wide and far and not find the heavy hitters at this conference. I learned a lot, had my thoughts reinforced, participated in a back channel (thank you Will Richardson) and will reflect on what I saw, heard and did for many months to come. This was very powerful.

While there are many hands in the pot to make something like this go--thank you to Dr. Teresa Dempsey, Director of Professional Development at the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio; Linda Ramano, Director of PD at Hilliard City Schools; Ohio Department of Education, OECD and many, many others. 

Outstanding week!

Problem Solving

I have been reading a lot about problem solving and how problem solving can be particular to a given area--the example given is a chess player being presented with various chess layouts and because of experience they know what the outcome will be--the problem solving becomes automatic.  I think of myself as a problem solver--I do it in the world of technology.  People call me with a problem and my job is to locate a solution or to develop a solution either out of something we already have--by repurposing it or by creating something completely new.  However, I do not play/solve crossword puzzles or sudoko puzzles, I find them an exercise in frustrustration.  Given enough time and energy, just like the chess player I could find and see the pattern and solve the puzzles. 

I believe I solve problems that I may or may not have ever seen before--do you know what a 6th grader can do to a piece of software?  How did I become a problem solver--is it training?  is it nature?  is it experience?  I don't know--it seems like a talent I have always had--I always have the question in my mind--how did they do that?  And if my interest is peeked enough I figure it out--usually working backwards.  So the question  becomes can we teach problem solving skills or are we presenting students with experience so the "pattern" of the problem becomes familiar?  Pondering.

New Chapters

It is amazing to me how often I feel as if a new chapter is beginning.  I have finished my last class, taken my last exam and am now ready to be fully engaged in the dissertation process.  I read, I write and I continue to learn. The world is an amazing place.

This summer I will create a few online learning resources for the classes that I am teaching, finish the international online learning project that I have been privileged to be a part of, but mostly I will work on the last phase of this degree.  I start a new job in August, but I don't know that will be my last stop as for now it seems very temporary, just a stop along the way to where it is I truly belong professionally speaking. 

I began to pull apart some of the research I have been gathering and even though I thought I had changed direction it looks as though most of it will work for my research. Life is good. 

21st Century Learning Skills

So everyone talks about 21st Century Learning Skills, but do you have a clear definition of what it is or what looks like?  I sincerely believe that education must embrace the technological world that our children live in--we must incorporate email, wiki's, blogs, journal writing of all types, and social networking if we are going to truly have an educational environment that reaches the skills needed for the 21st Century.

I read blogs about what are core subjects...just one aspect of 21st Century Learning.  Everyone has their own agenda.  If I am an art teacher or a p.e. teacher then I want my subject to be a "core" subject.  If we embrace this dialog, we miss the bigger picture.  All curriculum, all content is "core".  Let's put an end to the discussion so we can begin to build the 21st Century Learning environment that our children so desperately need.

Busy, but moving

This quarter is a busy quarter, between work and school there is hardly a minute to breathe. I am reading several books, including Research Design by Creswell, What Works in K-12 online Learning, Facilitating Online Learning, as well as various research chapters and papers. All of it leading me toward my end goal of graduation.

I am very excited that things are moving forward. I just finished posting work on Inquiry Based Instruction. I will present it this week through my site.

On a personal note, I know that the anniversary of mom's passing is coming up and I feel the tension. I miss her so much but I believe she know that I am close to finishing. She will be walking across the stage with me.

Dear State of Ohio

Dee wrote:

Dear State of Ohio

Re: Education and the burning of money

I have been an educator for 20 years. I continue to watch as the Ohio Department of Education and the State of Ohio throw money into a bottomless pit called Ohio Schools Facilities Commission (OSFC). My understanding of this commission is to assist districts in financing renovations and/or building new buildings. There is an algorithm that districts must go through to secure this funding. Once buildings have been inspected and the district has gone to the community to ask for a "bond" levy to secure approximately half of the funding by raising home owners property tax, the building process/renovations begins. While it is great Public Relations to tell the public that the state government is going to pay for half of the building projects around the state, it is just that PR. Isn't the money that is being funneled through the OSFC taxpayers money? If so, then they are footing the entire bill, not just half as the PR suggests.

Having been involved, at least on the fringes of the buildings projects there are some questions that beg to be asked. If your algorithm works, why in the midst of building projects or following their conclusion are districts closing buildings? The community has ponied up money to building the buildings, but there is no requirement for demonstrating the ability to open or use the building once it is finished. How is that a good use of taxpayers' money?

While, there are buildings that are in disrepair and there are children attending class in buildings that should be closed; the current system, much like the funding of schools needs a complete overhaul. Buildings are renovated and built with top of the line infrastructure for heating, electrical, plumbing and internet networks, yet teachers and students do not see the result of the upgraded infrastructure because they are still using machines that are 10 to 12 years old, machines that are running Windows 98--this is 2010! I have personally seen a 30 year roof that had been on a building for less than 15 years replaced with another 30 year roof. I have seen working sidewalk lighting replaced with the exact product that had been removed. I have seen renovations so completely out of whack that electrical and internet receptacles were placed on the outside of workspaces making the space unusable by staff. Unfortunately there has been little or no input from the technology people, teachers, students or building support people as to current and future needs of the building. As result, in these newly renovated/newly built buildings students, teachers and staff have to make do with what they are given and smile brightly when the public shows up to see the beautiful newly renovation or the see the extraordinary building that their money has funded. Staff feel obligated the put a on good face on the white elephant so parents will continue to support their educational efforts. Staff know that it is not the building that makes education, it is what happens inside.

The most powerful force in the classroom is the classroom teacher, it boils down to that simple statement and research supports it. Students who receive instruction from poor teachers for two consecutive years, will never catch up to their peers. How can the State of Ohio, the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Schools Facility Commission justify the expenditure of this level of monies when buildings are being closed, programs (art, music, PE, and Advanced Placement) are being cut left and right? Professional development for teachers is at an all time low. Support for technology use and the obligation we have in getting our children ready to compete in a global economy is non-existent. At one time in the state of Ohio there was an organization called Ohio SchoolNet, which then morphed into e-Tech. Funding for e-Tech, for the Educational Service Centers, and the Ed-Tech organizations around the state of Ohio have all taken a serious financial reduction in turn reducing the opportunities for teachers to get the much needed technology training that they need. Instead of building buildings, we should be looking to more innovative ways to deliver education, cutting these organization is the exact opposite direction we need to be moving for our children.

21st Century Skills

From TechLearning

What's New Here?
Many of the themes explored in Learning for the 21st Century will be familiar to educators who have read the 1991 SCANS Report (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) or subsequent reports issued by the CEO Forum. Both groups outlined a variety of skills-including higher-order thinking, personal abilities, and technology literacy-essential for preparing students for a knowledge-based economy.
So what is new about the recommendations being made by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills? "To some degree, the recommendations are not all that new," says Chris Dede, professor of learning technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an education advisor to the partnership, "and that, in itself, is newsworthy. The fact that educators and business leaders keep returning to many of the same findings means we have a lot of confidence in them-that they're not part of a temporary fad."
Another partnership advisor, Paul Resta, director of the Learning Technology Center at the University of Texas at Austin, agrees that the consensus arrived at by the partnership is noteworthy-especially because of the large number of stakeholders from business, K-12 schools, higher education, and government who participated in its creation. In addition, he points out that it delves deeper into the how of delivering 21st century skills than its predecessors.
John Wilson, vice chair for the 21st Century Skills partnership and executive director of the National Education Association adds that, "While previous works have focused on technology, this goes beyond that to what we need to do to prepare students for a world that is vastly transformed by technology, making it necessary to constantly learn and adapt."

As stated there is NOTHING new here, this has been the goal for a very long time...unfortunately, it has only been given lip service. The question that begs answering is that while there are lots of grants and a money train now following the 21st Century Movement, will it still be just lip service for the money or will teaching practice really change. It is on the shoulders of administration, what gets counted, gets changed. If teaching practice is going to change that it has to be evaluated with the embedded practice as part of the evaluation.