It took awhile for teachers in this program to adjust their thinking about what an effective learning environment looks like…and believe me…some still don’t see it – but I do have teachers who are teaching in a different way.

They are cognizant of our students as 21st century learners…that traditional approaches to teaching are just not cutting it. They are willing to try many different tools and approaches.

I have teachers using video chat software to collaborate between classes (one group is 2nd & 3rd grade!), I have teachers creating podcasts (themselves & with students), and I have teachers blogging!

None of this would be possible if I didn’t have a district that stands behind my program! That has made all the difference.

Great Post!!

Desiree

Thanks!
Julie
http://www.nfib.org/eitc.html

As you know from one of the comments I made a few months back, I am in my first month of being a high school administrator after spending the last 20 in the classroom and 10 of those as a Tech Coordinator. There have been some changes for me, but this post resonates for me because of what my new district instructed us to do with teacher evaluation. When we walk in a room, instead of being in the back of the room, they want us in the front… so we can see what the students are doing. Our comments are to be focused on what the students are doing and their level of engagement. A paradigm shift for sure, but my goal is to see it create critical mass for the types of change and conversations that need to occur if the system is going to fundamentally change.

Like many of the people who have responded to this blog, I was brought into the school both as a teacher and a change agent. What has astounded me most, is the complete lack of motivation among my peers to teach themselves. They look for professional development to be spoon fed to them in sweet -tasting, you’re on the right track, portions. I have been in several other schools prior to this one, and realize that the main issue continues to be a lack of self-learning and self-teaching. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with this one.

Thanks for letting me know I’m not the only one fighting the battle.

Why are many teachers apparently unaware of how technology is changing the world around them?

I am no expert on this subject but I have a few hunches about what factors contribute to this.

Change in established systems is slow by design. There are numerable checks and balances in place to ensure that one new wild idea does not just sweep through and wreck havoc. Unfortunately, these checks and balances also prevent positive change from happening. I will try to lay out the role of some of these actors:

1. Leadership
Most administrators were teachers once….Before the 21st century. Teacher performances are evaluated by their administrators. If the administrator’s conceptual model of good teaching is within a 20th century context then teachers have to fall back on that mindset and pedagogy to keep their jobs.

2. The Association
Tenure and the teachers unions are exceptional at maintaining the status quo. For as long as I know the status quo was a teacher behind a podium, with a chalk board, the door shut, in front of students in rows. These teachers took their directives from a textbook and faithfully delivered the lessons the publisher provided. Prep time was break time. Many teachers are extremely comfortable with this scenario and work together to maintain it. Change for them means not only more work but greater accountability. Tenure assures that teacher working with a status quo mindset are secure in their positions which works to reinforce apathetic professional behavior.

3. Policy
We block websites and ban certain forms of technology in schools on a level akin to the burning of books in Nazi Germany. Teachers are told NOT TO, and DO NOT by network administrators and school policy makers constantly with regard to new technologies. Why does censorship exist for print media? It is not the book that is banned but the ideas in the book, ideas that might upset the status quo or make us reflect or change. Why is it blogs and wikis are blocked in many schools? It is because of fear. Supporters of these forms of censorship will state that they are blocking them to protect students. Protect from what? What they are really saying either is that they don’t yet understand what this all means yet or, far more frightening, that it is not the students they are protecting but the system from the ideas that these new communication tools make possible.

My 3 year old builds elaborate environments in her sandbox. She goes out into the field next door and picks wildflowers which she brings back to her sandbox to serve as flowers in her sandbox garden. She digs tunnels and makes bridges. She often asks me to help her build castles. More than anything she takes protective measures to try to preserve her creations for the next day. She makes sure the dog toys are not in the sandbox so the dogs are not tempted to walk all over her microworld. She puts sticks up around the borders to act as a protective fence for small critters, and she will sometimes cover up her creations so they don’t get rained on. Inevitably, no matter how much she tries to preserve what she has built in sand it always falls down. The castles dry up and loose their shape, the wild flowers wilt and dry up, and the rain washes everything away.

Systems, just like sand castles, eventual fall or are reshaped by forces larger than their defenses. What are those forces for schools? What do school systems depend on for their survival? The answer is enrollment. When enrollment drops below fiscally acceptable levels the system will, just like my daughters sand castle when the moisture dries out, crumble. What could cause such an exodus? Students will leave school when they don’t see it serving the purpose it is intended to serve or when a superior vehicle to drive that purpose is available.

Exodus scenario 1: School no longer serves its intended purpose:
This could eventually happen if resources (human and/or capital) are shifted to the systems defenses in response to new technologies (both mechanical and ideological). If we spend too much time and energy maintaining the status quo we are not focusing that attention on students and learning. When the focus is on keeping the system unchanged and not on students and learning students will seek alternatives.

Exodus scenario 2: Disruptive Innovation
I think we are already starting to see this. If you had the choice of sending your kid to one school that is hell bent on protecting the status quo or another school that is flexible enough to put student and learning needs first wouldn’t you choose the latter? The charter school movement is perhaps this disruptive innovation. It is much easier to build a new sand castle than it is to try and change the one we already have.

struck me most at this moment. When I began teaching, teachers were charged with ‘minding the kids’ during the day, teaching them skills and information, and training them to follow rules. During ‘planning’ time, teachers smoked their cigarettes, read the newspaper, and played cards (we had a smoker’s teachers’ lounge and non-smokers one). Then, came the ‘age of accountability’ and NCLB – to which many have great objections. Yet, one of the goals I believe, of the accountability movement, was to change education and the culture of educators, so that we would realize our roles in education must go far beyond training children and developing basic skills. Yet, if you look beneath the surface of the changes in many schools – beneath the glitz of technological tools and gadgets – the broad-based change I have not seen is in the (a) belief that the role of educators is to develop critical thinkers, engaged learners (both student and adult), change agents (both student and adult), and 21st century global citizens and (b) the rigid structures and systems of K – 12 education that no longer meet those purposes and the needs of students. By and large, our school systems still revolve around age-based grouping and content separated into subject areas in a somewhat arbitrary fashion. What individual schools can do is restricted by such things as – LUNCH, BUSES, and ATHLETICS. Until we begin to challenge that paradigm, I think we will see limited changes. We keep trying to fit new thinking (and in all honesty, not new thinking; John Dewey is certainly not new) into a very old box. Tweaking will not get us there; baby steps will never get us there before we all become too old to share coherent thoughts. Although I know we do not want to throw out the baby with the bath water, and I am not saying there are no benefits from some of the things I mention (I do have a child who went to college on an athletic scholarship, but I do not believe that is the school’s mission) – we must determine what are the priorities that make the most sense for education. And then, we must build a system based on those priorities. How we get there? I think we need school leaders, district leaders, and state education leaders to be willing to lead the charge OR critical masses of people who opt for a different system that challenges public education’s stranglehold on education dollars – and I NEVER thought I would say those words!! What those of you who have the expertise, the reputation, the contact with those leaders can do – spend some time and energy there, perhaps. Last thought – if you want to see how much education HAS NOT changed – check out some of the videos our HS students post from their classes (taken, I am sure, on their cellphones, which are forbidden in school). And not the videos that take things out of context – little snippets – but those that show a full-length class. I KNOW there are many teachers doing wonderful things. I have several dedicated professionals in my school that are spending unbelievable amounts of time and energy trying to make their teaching as effective as possible, trying to learn and improve their craft WHILE they are working full time with a large class load (over 100 students). But there are far too many others who are teaching the same types of lessons that were taught 20 years ago – and were just as ineffective then. The quality of a child’s education should not rest in the luck of the draw . . . whose class they end up in!

With a focus on using the tools and on being different, I have found that there is more acceptance

Overall, as a student, I have to say Will is right; some teachers aren’t willing to learn about their students or about new ways of distributing information. Because if they were really interested in us succeeding, they would do some research to keep the information interesting based on what our generation like; technology!

And this isn’t focused towards all teachers because I have had many who really were focused on us actually learning and were taking in what things worked for us and what didn’t. But there are still others who are stuck in the golden days, where no one is to talk type of deal.