Follow-up on IWB entry

Wes Fryer, being the great guy he is, wrote a long, thoughtful reply to my snip at him for one of his recent posts on IWBs. I hate it when I get "out-niced" and Wes gave me a better reply than I deserved. Humbled.

Jim, the teacherninja, asked a good question:

What about your district, Doug? Are there IWBs in every class or just a number in each school or what?

We now have installed about 200 or so IWBs (Smartboards) along with mounted LCD projectors in our 7200 student district. This is the third year of a seven year plan to so equip all classrooms and teaching areas in our schools.

I've written about (and defended) this project a few times in the Blue Skunk. IWBs seem to draw a good deal of criticism from constructivism fundamentalists like Gary Stager (who I also recognize as a true child advocate).

These are among the observations I've made about SmartBoards. Oh, be sure to read the comments - they are often more informative than the posts themselves. And notice how most of the writers who like IWBs are actual teachers; those who don't like them are pundits.

• Why IWBs? Survey results
• How to get an IWB in our district
• The technology glass
• Why I love tech-using kids
• (If anyone is interested in a more generic description of my school district and its technology use, it can be found here: What would Karl see?.

While it can seem frustrating, not having the funds to do all-at-once, top-down technology projects is a good thing. Most technologies we roll out over a number of years. Because of this the early adapters and enthusiasts get them first, suffer the problems of being on the bleeding-edge, and truly create a teacher-led, teacher-changed school culture. (You are now odder if you don't use an IWB in most schools in our district than if you do.)

And as with all technology implementations, we do our best with staff training given the resources at our disposal. Each teacher who gets a SmartBoard is required to participate in eight hours of direct instruction on its use, has the benefit of a shared pool of resources for SmartBoard, and the services of an excellent in-house trainer (a media specialist who has 20% of her time dedicated to the IWB project.)

OK, let the arrows fly - again.

"And" not "or" redux

Several bloggers have pointed to this picture and commentary on Wes Fryer's blog:

This should be subtitled, “A great way to waste your school district’s financial investments in technology and the cause of 21st century skills.” Can you think of other appropriate taglines?

I have tremendous respect for Wes, but this is myopic thinking. Can't drills and games - even quizzes - be interactive, engaging, and involving whether used with an IWB or not? I certainly remember them being fun when I was a student. A steady diet of them? No, probably not. But every teacher needs an assortment of tools in their instructional tool belt.

This is a great example of the need to get past the "or" mentality in thinking about educational technology. It's not "Do we use technology for constructivist activities? or "Do we use technology for teacher-led activities and presentations?"

The answer is yes.

Kid and teachers alike were having fun and learning playing Bus Safety Bingo when I was visiting one of our elementary building last week. A waste of education resources? Not in my book.

Wesley! Lighten up on those of us who like lots of kinds of learning activities.

21st Century Upton Sinclairs

 

There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity. -Tom Peters
 

 

Scott McLeod's post, Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism? on LeaderTalk is well worth spending some time reading, viewing and contemplating. On the post he has embedded seven videos taken covertly by students in classrooms when teachers are, to put it mildly, behaving badly. Scott poses the questions:

Do we want students bringing to public attention these types of classroom incidents? Should students be punished or applauded for filming and posting these?

These are great questions. While plenty of Scott's readers felt otherwise (read the comments!), my first thought was that this just may be the 21st century equivalent of muckraking. Upton Sinclair cleaned up the meat packing industry with the publication of The Jungle in the early 20th century. Is this the classroom's version of The Jungle? Might such citizen journalism result in educational reform?

(And no, I am not so naive to think these students are consciously emulating Ida Tarbell. My guess is that they are just being little buttheads. I see any positive fallout as being more in the realm of unintended consequences.)

However, as a result of enough student-produced hard evidence of teacher incompetence, might we see:

• Anger management classes for teachers who need it?
• An increased emphasis in staff development on creating engaging classrooms and using better classroom management techniques?
  
• Alternative placements for students who are chronically disruptive or non-productive? (Let's let the cameras roll on the other students too.)
  
• More empowered principals who can remove or take steps to improve incompetent teachers?
  

My thoughts on this are colored by some very personal considerations:

1. As a student, I got more than one teacher and administrator to lose his/her cool. And thought it was pretty funny watching some old person turn red and bellow.
   
2. As a young teacher, I had classroom moments similar to what I saw in these videos when the kids got to me. (It's tough to look in the mirror at times.) I needed and should have received help in keeping this from happening. I still feel I need to offer apologies to those poor students I had in my classes early in my teaching career.
3. I do NOT want my grandsons experiencing moments in the classroom like those shown in the videos.

Yes, students have been driving teachers nuts and teachers have been losing their cool since... well, probably since there have been students and teachers. But are we now ready to actually DO something about it?

________________________ 

In terms of the issues raised about teacher privacy rights: I am guessing the meat packing plants, insane asylums and other targets of the 20th century muckrakers all shouted "This is private!" as well. I think one could argue that classrooms are public, not private spaces. (We put cameras on school buses, yes?)  I would hope students take any evidence of teacher malfeasance to their parents and principals first,  and use YouTube only as a last resort for publicizing - and ending - the problem.