why we learn

I came away from BLC 2008 with two notions of interest. One applies to procedural or systematic change and the other is more personal in nature. As I’ve stated in my previous posts, it seems that the presenters at this conference were a more progressive bunch as a whole, compared to those that I saw at ETech. It was also my sense that the overall level of knowledge was a little higher, and in general, the content was more theoretical in nature. My first take away is the idea that incremental change can be harmful. This wasn’t explicitly stated by any of the presenters, rather it sort of emerged from a synthesis of their disparate presentations. It seems that one of themes running through what I saw was the idea that technology should be viewed as a tool or a support for a new paradigm, new pedagogy if you will. My summation is that incremental change lends itself to assimilation and/or accommodation rather than transformation. That is to say that if we try to change our school “one step at a time” we may well end up with teachers using new technology as a replacement for old technology. More profound is the notion that at the end of this process we will have lost an opportunity to create real change. I think if you look at school reforms of the day, and the ways in which most new technology is used, you will find data that supports this postulate.

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I might get around to posting some reflection from today’s session, as I’m sitting through Mark Prensky’s final presentation as I type. However, I wanted to at least record the sessions that I have attended.

Wednesday

• Not All Native Wit: From Creativity to Ingenuity with Ewan McIntosh
• Keynote Followup with Ewan McIntosh
• Webplay, Creativity and 21^st Century Skills with Sidney Thornbury
• Practical Pedagogy: Web 2.0, Online Learning and Professional Development with Lauren Panton

Thursday

• Setting Learning Free: The Difference Engine Runs Again with John Davitt
• The Death of the Classroom and the Rebirth of Learning in the 21^st Century: How Technology Changes the MEaning of Teaching with Mark Prensky
• Leading Change in Kenya with Mr. Barnabus Sang & Dan Njiriri
• The True 21^st Century Literacy is Programming: What We Should Be Teaching Our Kids and How To Do It with Mark Prensky

Friday

• Leadership: Managing the Transition with Alan November
• Changing the Culture of Schools: Creating Conditions that Promote Student Achievement with Dr. Pedro Noguera
• Keynote Followup with Dr. Pedro Noguera
• The Rules of Engagement: Turning on the Lights with Mark Prensky

There is a distinct quality of the presenters at BLC, in that there is a progressive bent to most of what they do. It’s refreshing, but also slightly depressing as it seems that in order to make the points that they’ve been making, principally the idea of creating school environments and pedagogy focused on the cultivating of global building learning communities, they’ve had to put aside the problematic nature of legal and societal issues facing the administrators and school board members who would be charged with initiating, or at a minimum endorsing any requisite policy changes.

Two of the sessions I visited today were presented by Mark Prensky, the first entitled “The Death of the Classroom and the Rebirth of Learning in the 21^st Century: How Technology Changes the Meaning of Teaching”, and the second “The True 21^st Century Literacy is Programming: What We Should Be Teaching Our Kids and How To Do It”. They were both excellent, but some of what he says would be considered controversial by the masses. He questions the need for teaching written language, especially cursive. Why are we teaching long division when we have machines that can do these types of operations for us? Why aren’t we focusing on skills such as programming and the sharing of culture that he suggests are required.

Central to Mark’s argument, I think, are two contentions. First, the predicted exponential growth in the use and capacity of technology, which has just begun, renders the traditional classroom and pedagogy obsolete. And secondly, if we resist this reality and continue to teach the content that we’ve always taught using methodologies that we’ve always used, that we are essentially teaching backwards. That is to say that we are preparing our young people for the possibility of some sort of event that cripples the technological infrastructure that exists and is continuously expanded. Further, and most profound, is the question of what an adoption of this backward approach would say about us and our confidence in our own society.

I’m attending the Building Learning Communities 2008 conference for the next couple of days. Ewan Mcintosh kicked off the event with his keynote address this morning. I found his presentation was useful in that it initiated a change in they way I look at my use of technology as a personal tool. Specifically, to this point I have shunned the use of popular sites such as Twitter, del.icio.us, and social networking sites such as Facebook. The reason? I have software that allows me to do the same sort of things on my own using my own web space.

And, suddenly I feel out of place, as though I’ve been complacent in using these tools for too long and I’ve not got work to do immersing myself in this new way of sharing this information. That is to say that I haven’t been participating or sharing, but documenting. The great lesson I take away from this experience is that there is no down time, there is only the continual assimilation and accommodation of new information, new technologies, and the ways in which they are utilized by the younger generations.

Second Life

Ohio University has purchased their own “island” on the teen grid within Second Life. The program is also working with Flash and Open GL. Lastly, the group is working on a new environment called STEAMiE, which has much in common with Second Life, but in which the laws of physics are more accurately represented. Universities and corporations are looking at these virtual environments as ways of teaching (distance learning) and training. Of course, vendors are also showing up.

This program is based on a federal grant, and therefore a lot of research is being completed. Qualitative and quantitative forms of research are being utilized. Some of their findings from the first year of research are summarized below.

• Students love Second Life
• Teachers are interested but less enthusiastic
• Games improve engagement
• Some improvement in achievement (10%)

One interesting finding from their second year of research is that the Flash games don’t seem to have the same type of (positive) effect. Qualitatively, findings suggest that the experience peeks student interest in technology, and many are now actively pursuing ways of increasing their knowledge related to science and technology. For example, the presenter mentions a student having their parents take them to the library.

Open Source – Michael Korcuska

Korcuska talks about Sakai, specifically focusing on the the community in general. He then transitions into talking about the merits of using open-source software in education today. He mentions budget cuts and the fact that open source software is ready. He uses a quote from and newly employed leader of Blackboard talking about how the creators or open source software are going to be targeting K-12 starting today.

Why has the community been slow to embrace open source software? The reality is that much of the underlying structure is open source. The slower movement is being seen at the end user level. The disconnect between the individual that creates the end user application, and the qualities that the end user needs to be incorporated within the software is a contributing factor to this phenomena.

Near the end of his presentation, Korcuska begins to draw parallels between the open source philosophy and the philosophy of public education. He states the openness, a willingness to share, a search for quality (regardless of wealth), and meritocracy of both. He also identifies the typical “business model” (paying more for more features) as running counter to the fundamental principles of public education. Conversely, the Sakai model focuses on less centralized control and reducing the distance between the end user and the product developer.

Korcuska envisions e-Portfolios to be the vehicle that allows for collaboration and an amalgamation of higher education and K-12 public school. These would be a way of documenting skills in addition to other educational data, such as transcripts. Additionally, e-Portfolios serve as an alternative to standardized exams, a way of illustrating what the student has done rather than how they’ve scored on an exam. A balancing mechanism, if you will.

–
andrew