Left Lane Ends

Darren Wilson and I recently presented a session on Inspired Classrooms at the Texas Computer Education Convention (see my post below about the conference and/or read a brief review of our session). Towards the end of the presentation and during the time for questions, it was asked if we had any research to prove that Inspired Classrooms is correlated with an increase in test scores. Oh, SNAP. No you di’n't!

Folks, a computer is just a tool. That’s it! It isn’t magical, it doesn’t make people smarter or dumber and it sure as hell does not, in and of itself, increase standardized test scores! Beyond that whole thorn in my side, I am FLAT OUT TIRED of the Potemkin village that is ‘research based decision making’. But, I get ahead of myself. (BTW, I first heard the phrase ‘Potemkin village’ from Bernie Dodge. It creates such great imagery, and you might enjoy his quick post that describes his application of the word)
Let’s come back to the pencil. The pencil, according to Wikipedia:

The archetypal pencil may have been the ancient Roman stylus, which was a thin metal stick, often made of lead and used for scratching on papyrus. The word pencil comes from the Latin word penicillus which means “little tail.”

Some time prior to 1565 (some sources say as early as 1500), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep.

WHAT?! Marking sheep? Ahh… the irony. But, let’s continue - lest I get sidetracked down a different road.
This is my standard response to those that go and throw the question of laptop/computer research in my face:

‘The pencil is a tool, just like the computer is a tool. Just because a student receives a pencil to use in class, does not mean that they will score higher on a standardized test. Granted, they will be able to TAKE the test, but their score will only be impacted by the learning processes that they undergo while at home and at school. The same holds true for a laptop. It has no ‘provable’ impact on student achievement, only the teacher and how he/she teaches will do that. The difference that the laptop/computer offers (as a tool in a classroom) is that a teacher can now design LESSONS where students can output products never before imaginable, where students can locate information never before accessible and where students can develop social networks of knowledge never before possible. BUT, it isn’t the laptop that does that - it all comes down to HOW the laptop is used. It all comes down to the teaching.’

If it all comes down to (imagine this)… …THE TEACHING, then surely there is research out there that shows that TEACHING BETTER equates to HIGHER TEST SCORES. Now, I know by this point that you are shaking in your boots with anticipation that such a revelation may be, well, REVEALED to you - and I do not plan on letting you down! There is actually a little bit of quality research out there that does support the notion that teaching better DOES increase test scores. Take this excerpt, for example:

In data validated unanimously by the Program Evaluation Panel of the National Diffusion Network, HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills Program) students achieved spring to spring gains on standardized test scores that were 67% higher in reading and 123% higher in mathematics than national averages. These results were generated with an earlier, less refined version of the model. Second-year gains were also greater than national averages. These continued gains indicate that the results were not Hawthorne effects. Since then, we have not been able to do another systematic study, but schools are now reporting results that substantially exceed the best gains reported in the earlier study. Students in one site gained 5.6 years on the Stanford Diagnostic Reading test (fall to spring) in the first year, and 20% of the 5th and 6th grade Chapter 1 students posttested beyond the high school level. Tapes of these students reveal them to be highly articulate and sophisticated learners, an indication that the extent of the gains was not a statistical fluke. (1992, p. 88)

By now, I expect that you are standing, applauding and nodding your head while you continue to read. Please keep doing so - the standing ovation, that is, and while you continue to applaude, I would like you to consider the major point of that excerpt - teaching ‘better‘ means teaching kids to THINK. Teaching kids to think, means designing lessons that move students up through ALL of the different levels of Blooms Taxonomy. Designing lessons at ALL levels in Blooms Taxonomy is what we believe Inspired Classrooms should be all about - and the computer as a tool in that environment is simply an enabler, or catalyst, for a teacher who is GOOD at teaching. So, stop asking the wrong questions, and start asking the right one. It is a simple question, really:

‘How do we teach more effectively?’

While there is a plethora of research out there on the topic above, I feel the need to make you aware of one final thorn in my side: ‘Research based decision making’ has been to the education world what ‘Inside Edition‘ or ‘E! TV‘ is to pop culture - a shallow way to justify popular fetishes at the state, regional and local levels. There, I said it. Growing up with a father who taught Statistics (picture me as a 4th grader getting upset with my teachers for not knowing what APA was), I feel comfortable looking at published research and making a decision as to what is good and what is not. Even with good research, it is more than easy to make it say what you want it to say (after all, I found the above research excerpt in just around a minute or so!). Far too often, I see decisions made, and then the research is found to support it, OR the ‘research’ that led to the decision is nothing close to valid (in the news, at the state/local educational levels, etc). Be wise in your quest and let us throw in the unimaginable as we make our selves better teachers in this world today: common sense. When we combine common sense with qualified and validated research, it is easy to realize what is best for kids - when are we going to do it?

I must say that I was pleased with my response to the person that posed the question at the end of our presentation. Darren told me that I did a nice job of withholding the sarcasm that you may/may not have felt from the above. I did, however, hold my ground and tell that person that asking for research to prove the effectiveness of computers in the classroom is the wrong question to ask. Next time, I’ll be sure to have an arsenal of research at the ready that does support quality teaching, which is what I want to see in both Inspired Classrooms and 1:1 laptop programs. Until then, I wait with baited breath…

Well, it appears that I am becoming all too familiar with the ‘rant’ writing style these days, which may be a clue to a variety of things. Never-the-less: DO NOT take the pop culture interstate as you journey through life and through teaching others. It is boring, filled with predictability and gives you no way of getting out into the exciting places where the left lane ends.

OH - AND DON’T GO THROWING LAPTOP RESEARCH IN MY FACE!!!

(are you looking for a good tool that cross references Bloom’s Taxonomy with Technology Integration? Check out LoTI.)

So, I ran a cynical Google search today (yes, I continue to add to Google’s growing data set and power) with the search terms: teaching, teachers, to, teach, real, life, connections. I NEVER search with so many ‘AND’ terms and was really just expecting a bunch of junk results that claimed to have the answers to teaching with real world connections. (in truth, I was planning to point out all the junk out there - jokes on me!)
Enter this website result: Rethinking Mathematics

While the result is promoting a published book, I quickly started to glean ideas from topics posted within. In fact, the quote that sucked me in was this:

I thought math was just a subject they implanted on us just because they felt like it, but now I realize that you could use math to defend your rights and realize the injustices around you.… [N]ow I think math is truly necessary and, I have to admit it, kinda cool. It’s sort of like a pass you could use to try to make the world a better place.

— Freida, ninth grade, Chicago Public Schools

Don’t'cha’ just love it?? Example classroom scenario titles got my brain churning:

• Mortgage OKs tougher for local blacks, Latinos
• The War in Iraq : How Much Does it Cost?
• Reading the World With Math
• Justice for Janitors

So, why don’t we stir up some trouble in our classrooms, engage our students in issues that really matter to them and help them to start changing the world? You know I’m gonna get this one to read…

Irving ISD is not an affluent district. We are, in fact, an entirely title 1 district and a really neat place to work. We’re an urban organization with over 33,000 students in our system. On top of that, all of our high school students have laptops along with one middle school and one elementary school that are 1:1. Our community and leadership has simply committed to a 1:1 program.

North Hills is a private, and prestigious, prep school here in Irving. You may be aware of the push towards privatization of education, and North Hills would typically be considered a ‘better’ environment by those who support the concept of privatization. If you are not aware of this, it is time to read.

Sebastian Bozas, principal at de Zavala Middle School (the middle school that is 1:1), reported earlier this week that he received an email from a parent stating that her daughter had been accepted into North Hills, but had been debating whether or not to go to de Zavala despite the ‘opportunity’ to attend a more prestigious prep school. Public schools won out - Mr. Bozas continued by telling us that the daughter had decided to attend Irving Public Schools!! What a smile that put on our faces!

Now, and this is important, I am sure it is NOT the fact that de Zavala has computers that influenced this student’s decision - it IS the fact that de Zavala teachers have embraced teaching with technology and that they have a leadership that pushes them to shift towards teaching at a higher LoTI level and higher thinking levels. Again, it is not the computer that is the independent variable in this equation, it is the quality of instruction and what is possible when technology is available as a tool within a better instructional environment.

Lovin’ it - this is where the left lane ends…

So, about 5-6 years ago, I started brewing this idea of how to use computers more effectively in my 4th grade classroom. Seeing a picture of a classroom setup of Paula Barnard’s classroom (a 4th grade teacher in Washington State) triggered me to start exploring the potential of students having access to computers throughout the day. Just as my excitement for my new classroom design (and how I was going to implement it at the beginning of the following year) was peaking, I moved out of the classroom and into a campus instructional technology position. But - that didn’t stop me from pressing forward. I found an eager teacher at my new campus who shared the same enthusiasm for this new design, and INspired Teaming was born. The whole premise for designing a classroom this way was to move the computers off of the wall (where they typically sat in a nice neat row), and in front of the students where they could use them throughout the day.

I put together an 8 minute video at least 4 years ago, so feel free to take a look at how the classroom design got started: Inspired Classrooms

You might be asking yourself ‘why are you bringing this up, Jerram, 6 years down the road?’. Well, the answer is that while we have seen a number of classrooms (mainly elementary) move forward with this physical setup, the tools have changed drastically in the past couple of years.

Darren Wilson, Instructional Technology Specialist at Hanes Elementary is bringing new life to this concept. While he is working with teachers to provide the necessary hardware for setting up the classroom environment (Inspired Classrooms!), he has also setup an Inspired Classroom Wiki to share the design.

While this blog entry is simply designed to introduce the concept, I would (and probably will in the near future) argue that this setup is close to being as effective as a 1:1 laptop environment. You see, what we have discovered in our 1:1 laptop program (and it makes perfect sense) is that it comes down to how you teach, not whether you have a computer or not. (This is backed up by the LoTI concept that we are working hard to bring to the fore of our 1:1 program.)

Inspired Classrooms prime the learning environment for a teacher that already knows how to engage students. I love the word ‘prime’. I always think about our 2-cycle Lawn Boy mower that I grew up with (with a 22″ deck), mowing 2 acres of grass every third week of the summer. I had to push that white, rubbery priming button to inject gas into the engine so that when I pulled the starter cord it would fire to life. THAT is how I think about technology. Just imagine what happens when we prime a good teacher with the right tools! I can picture them roaring to life in their classroom…somewhere out there where the left lane ends.

In our LoTI session this morning, Sebastian Bozas (Middle School Principal of a One-to-One laptop school) noted more than once that we are falling short if we do not provide opportunities for techers to dialogue in a meaningful way about the content of their instruction. We briefly discussed how LoTI can provide a framework for this dialogue, develop a common language (so we do not argue in place of dialoguing) and move toward a more reflective practice of teaching on campus.

Mr. Bozas has truly pushed for this environment at de Zavala Middle School by creating half day periods for his teams of teachers to reflect on what they are doing in their rooms. Interestingly enough, the technology (despite its invaluable place in his school) is not the primary focus - instruction is.

I’ll be interviewing Mr. Bozas next Tuesday about what he sees happening with one-to-one instruction as he has developed this practice with his teachers. Stay tuned for the first podcast…

We’re just searching for where the left lane ends…

We’re doing LoTI (Levels of Technology Implementation) Training. A large group of our ITS crew (Instructional Technology Specialists) are going through a LoTI trainer certification, mainly in an effort to broaden our knowledge systematically, as well as develop a common language as a professional learning community.So what is LoTI all about? Technology integration, right? Wrong. Sort of. We can NOT say that the technology is not important. It absolutley is - it is critical. Often times, however, we put too much focus on the technology itself. This is the key strength of the LoTI framework. It focuses on Bloom’s taxonomy, which directs us back to the value of the lesson and places the emphasis on content (and engagement, in my opinion). David Warlick says in a blog post entitled Contemporary Literacy: Who & When:

It’s confusing that this discussion usually happens among technology educators within the context of technology considerations, but the skills are about information.

While I am taking Warlick’s quote a little bit out of context (as his post focuses on new literacy skills), I fully believe that the concept is then same - we need to shift our dialogue to focus on the content, the engagment, the lessons and the informational skills.Now - let’s consider this in the context of a one-to-one laptop implementation, shall we? While Irving has made huge strides forward, the biggest change that we see happening is not in the students, but in teacher instruction. The shift from the ‘old’ way to the new is drastic, with some that catch on quickly and others that are still struggling with how to ‘use’ the laptops. I fully believe that if we promote more systematic dialogue that (and PLEASE, we MUST not forget the power of the technology) focuses on the content, instruction, engagement and literacy skills that need to be happening in our classrooms, we’ll see a more fluid shift in teaching practice. LoTI provides a framework that is right on target with this discussion. Moving on…

I love it when you see someone processing new content/information! We have a few administrators that are attending our LoTI session today, one of whom rephrased what he saw as the value in the LoTI framework. Moersch has developed a Palm based application that allows an administrator to do a quick walk-through with the ability to quantify (more or less) the LoTI level of any given lesson. While the focus of the application is for administrative purposes (walk-through evaluation), this particular principal noted that it would be twice as powerful for teachers to have the evaluation tool on their own so that they can do continuous self evaluation of their own lessons. Yes, yes, yes! This comment followed Chris’ statement that all of their research blatently shows that the building principal controls the LoTI level on campus. In other words, the Principal’s expectations for their teachers are what the campus will produce. This principal ‘got it’ and saw the value in integrating technology within the LoTI framework. Right on target, in my opinion.

THAT is heading towards where the left lane ends.

Links to check out:

LoTI Levels

Dr. Chris Moersch

David Warlick on LoTI (a little)

Podcast by Wesley Fryer w/ Dr. Chris Moersch

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Digital Literacy Bookmarks