BFTP: What gets tested, gets taught

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post January 10, 2006. This post was also turned into a column of the same name. The separate vs integrated controversy continues and IT/IL skills still are not given the importance in education they deserve. But then, it's only been 30 years or so ...

Does teaching technology skills as a separate curriculum mean they can't be integrated into the content areas as well? I've addressed this question before regarding information literacy skills in a column called Owning Our Curriculum. I'll try to make the same points about technology literacy here that I did about information literacy in the column. (I have a tough time separating info and tech literacy anymore anyway).

1. Info/tech literacy is a basic skill every student should master. It should be treated with the same importance as the other recognized basic skills  of reading, writing and math.
2. Teaching basic skills as a separate, non-integrated subject is viewed as good educational practice. We have reading, writing and math curricula, teaching materials, courses, teachers and tests.
3. Basic skills should be "integrated" (or perhaps a better word is applied) across the curriculum. We want social studies and science teachers to "teach" writing skills and practice writing, yes?
4. Integrating skills does not eliminate the need for basic skills curricula, teaching materials, courses, teachers and tests.
5. The public expects schools to be accountable for teaching basic skills. The current way of being accountable is through testing. (See more on this below in my response to David Warlick.)
6. What gets tested, gets taught.

I don't see that integration and viewing information/technology as a separate set of skills to be taught are exclusive. If such skills are only integrated, nobody has responsibility for student acquistion of such skills and everybody has the opportunity to pass the responsibility on to someone else.

David Warlick defends the messiness of authentic assessment in More Loose Change on his 2 Cents Worth blog (and in a reply to the Blue Skunk post Loose Change - follow-up):

...although performance/production based assessment is messy, messy is what teachers do. Certainly multiple-choice/true-false assessments have always been a convenient crutch to many teachers. But project-based/product-based teaching, learning, and assessment were much easier to implement before high-stakes testing. The critical change is that communities have lost confidence in their teachers (for no good reason), and education has begun to lose confidence in itself. I think that we need to empower teachers and then turn education back over to them, the experts.

I don't disagree with David, but I would also say there is a place and need for testing* as well as assessment when it comes to I/T skills if they are to me taken seriously by educators. I am huge fan of Rick Stiggins and his Assessment for Learning work. Hell, I offer workshops on authentic assessment of I/T skills myself. Good, messy assessments using well-designed tools are critical to the teaching and learning process. They are good for kids, promoting growth, not simply categorization.

The problem is that we live in a society that believes in testing. And quite honestly, a degree of accountability shown through testing is not all bad. (See Exposing Shameful Little Secrets.) Our problem is that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of testing and the results being used punatively. This is a problem with test expectations and result use, not testing in itself.  And hey, you want something taken seriously by teachers just put it on the next high-stakes test. That is the reality as much as we may not like it.

* I will admit that I have yet to see a very good "objective" test on basic IT skills.

Nominations for the ISTE board open

As a former member, I am always happy to encourage Blue Skunk readers to consider nominating themselves for the ISTE board. I always feel the organization's future is most secure when the board is comprised of a high percentage of librarians and Iowans. Even if you are disadvantaged by being neither, still consider a run for this very interesting voluntary position.

From ISTE on January 7, 2011:

We're building ISTE's next exceptional board of directors, and we need your help!

Board nominations are now open! What an exciting way to start 2011! Today through Monday, February 7, we are accepting nominations for the following open positions, each with a two-year term starting in June 2011:

• Three At-Large Representatives: General members involved in any area of educational technology
• One Computer Science Representative: General member who is a PK—12 or postsecondary education computer science instructor
• One International Representative: General member who is from a country other than the United States who is involved in any area of educational technology
• One PK-12 Schools Representative: General member who is a PK—12, school-based educator (either a classroom teacher or technology coordinator)
• One State Technology Director Representative: General member who is a director of technology for a state education agency

Today through Friday, January 21, we are accepting nominations for the following open positions, each with a two-year term starting in June 2011:

• One Affiliate Representative: A representative of the affiliate members
• One Corporate Member Representative: A representative of the corporate members

Consider nominating yourself or reach out to your ISTE member colleagues throughout the world, who have the leadership skills to serve and encourage them to run for a seat on the board. It is through you, our members who are committed to ISTE's mission of advancing excellence in the field of educational technology, that we can build an exceptional board.

Visit ISTE to view the details about the nomination process, the guiding questions, and board member responsibilities.

We encourage you to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to expand your leadership skills and to build the next exceptional ISTE Board of Directors. The online election begins in March 2011.

Respectfully,

Holly M. Jobe President-Elect, ISTE Chair, Nominations and Appointments Committee	Helen L. Padgett, PhD     President, ISTE

P.S. Don't delay! Nominations close February 7! www.iste.org/elections

Special Interest Group (SIG) Officer Elections are also open!
Check out www.iste.org/sig-elections for more information.

Steps to keeping your tech sanity

Janice Robertson left an interesting comment on the blog post about My TOC of the book on which I'm working.  She wrote:

Somewhere in there, do you have a section that addresses how not to get overwhelmed with the flood of tools and information that is out there? I find that many of the new technology users are initially protected from inundation because they have little or no knowledge of the vastness of the possibilities and how those choices and info bits can eat up an entire lifetime, but then, once you open the gate for them... they can get so consumed in "learning" that they actually end up accomplishing nothing of action because they don't know where to start. I hope your book includes some solid advice on surviving the technology tsunami.

I dug back through a presentation on personal learning networks where I address this issue, and spruced it up a bit below.

I'd love to hear your sanity keeping strategies. How do you, personally, survive a "technology tsunami" without dangerously turning your back on the wave?

If you are a classroom teacher who wants to take advantage of powerful technologies in both your classroom and for other professional tasks but still have time to talk to your own family, read a book or even get some sleep, consider the following strategies...

1. Start with the problem, not the tool. Rather than scan the flood of "new and recommended" programs, apps and websites for programs that look useful, start with two or three challenges you have in your work life. Do you have a unit that doesn't engage your students? Are you having a problem getting a project done with your curriculum team? Is it frustrating keeping files current among the multiple devices you use? What might help meet the objectives of your PLC? Scan for tools that help solve real problems.
2. Be selective about where you get your recommendations. Let's face it, there are folks who get excited about anything that is new, shiny and beeps. For those who want to make trying out new technology resources their avocation and forgo any attempt at normalcy, that's great. But I would select two or three trusted sources of new programs. These sources might be a websites or blogs, your librarian or tech integration specialist, or a fellow teacher. But let somebody else do a pre-screening of the new stuff.
3. Try just one new tool at a time. Trying to learn too many programs can be as destructive to your professional life as ignoring technology completely. Pick one interesting resource and use it for a month. Then try another one. Nobody has to be the master of every technology available.
4. One in, one out. When I buy a new pair of shoes, I throw an old pair away. (This drives the LWW nuts.) When I start to read a new blog, I unsubscribe from an old blog. If you create an online webpage for your parents, stop doing the printed one. Figuring out what to stop doing is probably the hardest, but most important thing you need to do to stay sane.
5. Don't try to fix that which is not broken. If you are happy with your webbrowser, your online bookmarking site, your cloud photo storage space, your blogging software, your e-mail system, stay with them. Change for the sake of change is unproductive.
6. Weigh the time/benefit ratio. Evaluate the new resource as objectively as possible. Will taking two hours to learn this program well either save me more than two hours in time in the immediate future or will it help me reach students who could not be reached before? Let's face it, some programs are too complex, too time-intensive to learn to ever offer a decent payback. Evaluate.
7. Give back and become part of a community of learners. Be your school's guru on one helpful tool. Join a group of other technology learning educators either F2F or online. Make learning new technologies social and make friends. After all, misery does love company.

I also encourage you to read Jeff Utecht's Stages of PLN (Personal Learning Network) Adoption. Reach for the Balance end of the curve.

Your insanity may be temporary.