CODE77 rubrics 2008

One of the most interesting and perhaps important questions I have been trying to answer for the past 15 years or so is -

What should a "technologically-literate" teacher know and be able to do?

I always believed it was patently unfair to ask teachers to become "computer-literate" and then not be able to describe what that means in fairly specific terms. Since I was one the people advocating for computer literate teachers back in the early 90s, I wrote a set of rubrics for our district - the Beginning CODE 77 rubrics. These later became the backbone for my book, The Indispensable Teacher's Guide to Computer Skills published in 1998. I also wrote two additional sets of rubrics - Internet rubrics and advanced rubrics in the mid 90s.

I revised all these rubrics in 2002 to bring them into alignment with the ISTE NETS for Teachers standards and to reflect changes in technology at that time. I also added a set of leadership rubrics for the second edition of The Indispensable Teacher's Guide in 2002.

Guess what? The 2002 rubrics are looking pretty dusty. I used them in a workshop last month and asked participants what things teachers now need to know about and be able to do that weren't reflected in the 2002 rubrics. Here is just a partial list: 

• Interactive white boards
• Audio systems
• Podcasting
• Web 2.0 - wikis, blogs, social networking, RSS, media sharing
• Safety
• Video streaming - online content
• Graphic tools for planning and brain storming
• Webquests
• Online learning environments
• Distance learning
• Virtual worlds

So, over the next few weeks (or months - whatever), I am going to be using the Blue Skunk to get feedback on an updated set of CODE 77 rubrics. I will be looking at just one rubric at a time, beginning with each of the beginning rubrics then moving to the Internet rubrics, advanced rubrics and leadership rubrics. I'll categorize each entry as CODE77 and rubrics. We'll also discuss whether some additional rubrics need to be added or if some can be dropped.

I have defined each set as follows:

Beginning: These rubrics primarily address professional productivity. They are the foundation on which more complex technology and technology-related professional skills are built. Teachers who have mastered these skills are able to use the computer to improve their traditional instructional tasks such as writing, record-keeping, designing student materials, and presenting lessons. These skills also build the confidence teachers need to use technology to restructure the educational process.

Advanced: These rubrics below are designed to help teachers move to a second (and final?) level of professional computer use. Rather than the computer simply being a tool which allows a common task to be done more efficiently, these skills fundamentally change how instruction is delivered, how student performance is measured, and how teachers view themselves as professionals. The technology is used to actually restructure the educational process to allow it to do things it has never been able to do before.  

Internet: These rubrics focus on using the Internet skillfully and purposely for educational purposes.

Leadership:  These rubrics are designed to help superintendents, principals and directors determine how well they use technology to improve administrative effectiveness through efficient communication, planning, and record keeping.

Looking forward to reading your ideas for improvements. 

Is the magic gone?

If you were a teacher in the Mankato schools, you'd have a one in five chance of coming in to see me (or one of my staff) this month. We'd be sitting down for about an hour unpacking, putting together, configuring and exploring your brand new computer. Had you been with the district since 1992, this might be the 4th new computer of your career with us. (Nearly half of the 40 teachers who got computers in 1992 are still employed by the district.)

That first year you teachers would have received a Mac Classic II computer (9" B&W screen, 16MGz CPU, 2Mg RAM, 40Mg hard drive), a StyleWriter inkjet printer, a 14.4 baud modem, ClarisWorks and CODE 77 training.

In 1997, you'd have gotten a PowerMac 5400. In 2002, an eMac. Today's teachers get the choice of an iMac (17" LCD color screen, 1.83GHz CPU, 1 Gig RAM, 80 GB hard drive, wi-fi, Bluetooth, built-in camera...) or MacBook laptop, both running OSX and Windows XP with Parallels and Microsoft Offfice. Just amazing to consider the improvements in the hardware.

A new computer in our district has always been accompanied by required formal, hands-on training, ranging from 30 hours the first go-round (this is how you use a mouse) to 12 hours more recently. Not enough, of course, but something.

The early days were really exciting. A lab of teachers would collectively gasp when when learning word processing when they changed the font of an entire document using Open Apple A. Sort of cool. Getting a computer was a competitive process when there were more teachers wanting one than funds available (enough for 20% of the faculty) and it was thrilling to be "up" for a new computer.

It's a different group coming in to pick up their computers this summer of 2007. Participation is no longer competitive, an honor, or even optional. The computer for too many is not about creativity, but only about work - grades, attendance, data analysis for NCLB, online testing, IEPs, parent communication, and website updates. A teacher cannot do his/her job without a networked comptuer. Who'd have thought that giving up an hour (but being paid for it) in the summer to learn about and pick up a brand-new computer would be resented by so many teachers today. Maybe I'm just naive. Is this is like expecting a convict in a chain gang to be excited about his new shovel?

But most teachers are very happy to get the new machines - and some are just as excited today about them as they were in 1992. And that is cool. I showed one teacher how to use the built in camera and ComicLife and you'd a thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She could not wait to show "her" students. Pretty easy to pick which teachers I'd want for my own kids.

Can you instill a love of life-long learning in others if you aren't an enthusiastic life-long learner yourself?

____________________________________

On a side note: I had a depressing thought that after 16 years, I am still learning my job - and most days feeling about as competent as the first day I started. Time to revisit the Peter Principle??? 

Teaching the way we learn the best

An off hand comment by Miguel Guhlin has been niggling at me for the past week or so. In response to my blog entry about using Web 2.0 tools to foster Professional Learning Communities, he suggested: I like your list, but I think you need to be more subversive about it.

I thought I was being subversive by embedding these new technologies into staff development activities in non-technology related areas. Here's why...

The old adage says that teachers teach the way they've been taught. But I believe it is more accurate to say that teachers teach the way they themselves learn. And unless teachers have had the opportunity to learn in new ways, it is unlikely they will teach in new ways.

So by helping teachers learn with the help of technology, the likelihood of them using it with students increases. My real goal is not to help teachers themselves learn by using technology, but to get them to use it with their students after they realize the benefit as learners themselves. (Real goal does not equal stated goal = subversion.)

It's my perception that learning opportunities for practicing teachers still primarily take the form of classes where lecture, or at best lecture/discussion, is the primary means of teaching. Too often staff development opportunities still resemble boot camps of a week of summer classes. Too often there is but a single method that is acceptable of how teachers can learn and narrow range of what is considered acceptable to learn. Too often technology skills are taught in isolation. All the same traditional methods we use with kids, we also use with adults.

Here are my modest suggestions for improving staff development in all areas, not just technology training:

• Clearly articulated expectation of teacher competencies. We have worked on clear, high standards for students. Why not for adults as well? The ISTE NETS for Teachers standards are a good start, but they need to be made more concrete, more readily assessed. The CODE 77 rubrics do this. (These will undergo revision this summer to reflect new Web 2.0 skills.)
  
• IEPs for teachers to meet those competencies. Every teacher is different both in learning styles and in the skills that need to be acquired. Therefore every individual teacher needs his or her own learning plan - or professional growth plan. One model can be found in the second half of this article from Leading and Learning.
  
• Project-based learning activities. Teachers need to experience project-based learning, learning by creating an actual useful product, if they are going to ask students to do this.
  
• Authentic assessments of teacher work. In the past, we have asked teachers to create portfolios that contain examples of the work they have produced using technology along with reflections about their experiences. Which leads to greater self-assessment, recognition of growth and other nice things.
  
• Accountability. The principal or other supervisor needs to take staff development seriously and hold all teachers accountable for the successful completion of what ever plan they've designed. We've designed our program so that teachers do not get new computers unless they agree to complete training. Simple as that.
  
• Work in teams. Professional growth plans should be able to be not just individual efforts, but reflect group goals. All good strategies that go into designing successful classroom group work need to be used here as well.
  
• A chance for reflection. This may be the most exciting thing about professional learning communities when they are set up correctly - that they encourage constructive reflection about educational practices. (As well as a venue for group work.) This is where blogging seems to fit so well.

We can talk about constructivist-based education, inquiry and information literacy units, 21st century skills, problem-based learning, formative and authentic assessments, etc. ad infinitum. But until we give teachers a means to experience these methodologies to increase their own learning, I don't anticipate much change in the their classrooms.