I Speak of Dreams

Blogging in School

blogging and school administrators is a new (to me)  blog set up to comment on emerging technology issues in schools.

The Girls' Middle School is moving forward with our technology plan.  We're in Year Zero: getting set to roll out the three year plan.  We are fortunate to have Michelle Friend Hutton as the computer science teacher and lead faculty on the plan.

New York: A Computer in Every Child's Hand

Computers for Youth is a New York City charity that aims for a computer in the home of every school-aged child.

More on Maine Experiment

Can Maine gather enough interested district superintendants to make this a state-wide program at high school level?

Laptops in Middle Schools

Why GMS is contemplating a one-to-one (one student, one laptop) program

• The technology array at The Girls' Middle School is aging and needs to be replaced in the relatively near future


• Given the technology array at GMS, it is not easy for teachers to use technology in a transformative way for teaching (not all classrooms have computers because not all doors can be locked; some of the display technology is incompatible in some classrooms; glare/light control in some classrooms


• GMS now tacitly require families to have a computer at home (we provide one for families that can't afford one)


• There is now a reasonable choice between desktop computers (as we have now pretty much) and portable computers (laptops)

Well, we need to do something. But I have some reservations about further integrating computers into the classroom.

Myths of Technology in Education

I started this category as a way of keeping track of what other people had thought and written about educational technology, specifically a one-student, one-laptop program. I'm way behind. The school I am interested in, The Girls' Middle School, has put off implementing the program until the fall of 2005 (at the earliest). None the less, there's interesting stuff out there I need to round up:

Seven Myths of Educational Technology or If You Want to Know How to Use Technology in Teaching, Ask a Teacher!

Bill Scroggins, March 1998

Frankly, I'm getting tired of every non-educational (read business, political) organization telling us how to use technology and citing technology as the savior of education. Yes, technology is a valuable tool, but it must be used appropriately, coupled with other needed tools of education, and provided by a trained, supported, empowered faculty. Here are some of the myths others are propagating and how we should respond.

The seven mythsare in the areas of access, cost, development of technology applications, and the focus on learning.

read the rest here

Distance Learning, Pro and Con

One of the promises of one-laptop/one-kid programs is the opportunity for distance learning. Here's a good article on the pros and cons of distance learning at the collegiate level.

Christian Science Monitor Learning Section, from the February 03, 2004 edition; Campus on a Keyboard by Nicholas Slabbert and Mirlea Saks

But Mark Smith, director of government relations for the American Association of University Professors, is unconvinced.

"In many ways, there is no substitute for the give-and-take of the classroom," he says. "A good higher education doesn't require only the transmission of facts, but the development of critical thinking skills."

Distance learning can be useful in more limited applications, Mr. Smith agrees. "We're not against distance learning and online education in and of themselves," he says. "Some of our members use these as supplementary tools to add to the educational experience. But we're concerned about the quality of education that results when electronic media become the only ones used."

Digital disconnect

Joanne Jacobs wrote an article surveying computer use in schools;.

For Johnny, J'Hani and Juanita, using the Internet is like using a TV or a microwave or a telephone. It's normal.

But when they're in school, it's a problem. They can't get to net-linked computers locked in the lab. Their searches are blocked by intrusive anti-porn filters. Some teachers don't give Internet-based assignments; others don't know how to design an engaging, useful assignment using the Internet.

The "digital divide" between highly wired middle-class students and computerless minorities is narrowing rapidly. But a "digital disconnect" still yawns between tech-savvy kids and their tech-fuddled elders.

Wired on Maine Initiative Jan 09 2002

I am slapping this up without comment or analysis right now because I am busy elsewhere. It's kind of an electronic sticky note to remind me to get back to this subject soon.

2002 Jan 09 article, wired, on Maine laptop initiative

01:15 PM Jan. 09, 2002 PT

While Maine educators look forward to the day when students and teachers will integrate one-to-one computing into their courses, they are realistic about the patience, time and training that this ambitious project will take.

No one knows that better than technology coordinator Crystal Priest. All eighth graders in her district have been working with laptops for over a year.
"

Project SOAR

This isn't in middle school, it is the Oakland Unified School District's project with Cal State Hayward, designed to get kids who are now in 11th grade into college. This is more like a note to myself to follow up on. SOAR started with 9th graders 2 years ago, and is designed to get the class of 2005 into college at a higher rate than they do now.

Project SOAR Take Home Computer Program
The Take Home Computer Program (THCP) ensures that every SOAR student has the opportunity to earn a free take home computer complete with an educational software package that includes word processing,

15 myths

September 1, 2003 Fifteen Computing Misconceptions By Jerry Galloway

Today's educational initiatives strive to achieve integration of computer technology in the classroom. Teachers are expected to utilize technology productively with their students and there is often little if any support. Those programs that are provided are typically hampered by misdirection and misconceptions (Galloway, 1990). We have, for more than a generation, been in pursuit of essentially the same thing. Our attempt for 20 years to change educators into computer-using, computer literate professionals has essentially failed. Many will argue the point as clearly there are countless success stories. But, with the exception of the techies and innovative pioneers, teachers everywhere have not changed their basic approach to using technology.

[snip]

For real change to occur, for educators to be leaders rather than followers, it is necessary to have an understanding and a perspective of how technology is used and learned. What we do and what we don't do is inevitably determined by what we think and what we believe. There has always been a wide range of technology and computing misconceptions. For example, the notion that one can execute a data file as compared to a computer application is a common misunderstanding furthered by today's user-friendly icon based environments. Users often overlook the fact that a computer will find and execute the appropriate program to support a clicked data file icon.

Here are 15 erroneous ideas about computing — ideas that impact today's teachers.
Misconception 1: Online documents lack privacy.
Misconception 2: Students should be able to complete all assignments at home.
Misconception 3: Computing is inevitably harder and more time consuming than using paper.
Misconception 4: Learning computing doesn't require a personal and fundamental change.
Misconception 5: Teaching with technology can be done by non-computer-using teachers.
Misconception 6: Teachers do not need to use technology in their personal lives.
Misconception 7: Teachers of technology know how to use technology across the curriculum.
Misconception 8: Teachers of technology have software for disciplines across the curriculum.
Misconception 9: Technical tasks should be something done quickly and easily.
Misconception 10: Computing should be free of mistakes, error, conflict and frustration.
Misconception 11: Computing no longer requires programming.
Misconception 12: Being a part time user is enough to meet professional needs.
Misconception 13: To learn computing, one needs to take a computer class.
Misconception 14: The computer is a tool.
Misconception 15: Teachers need to be trained to use technology.

Misunderstanding how we learn and the role of skills and competencies in being computer literate contribute to the failure of professional development programs.

Far too often, computing is thought to be little more than procedural rituals written into a simple lists of do's and don'ts. Many seem to behave as if learning computing is a matter of acquiring such lists. Critical thinking skills and a kind of discipline-specific intuition would serve teachers better than mere list acquisition. The bottom line is that teachers need to make a personal commitment to change — to becoming full-time computer users — and not wait for more user-friendly software or the next full-service workshop

Go read the original, he has cogent explications of each of the myths.