“DM: I have never met more people than NYC principals who are scared to death of making decisions. We talk about how principals are being empowered, but they are not.”

We often speak of the distrust that our school system has for teachers and students. There is also a great distrust for the administration. Their jobs are just as scripted as ours.

I recently wrote an editorial in a local newspaper to tell of my experience at EduCon 2.0. In the editorial, I mentioned that I was the only educator from my district that attended. The day after the Editorial was printed, I was bombarded with emails and the head of the Science Department was standing in my classroom at the end of the day. I was informed that I jumped over some people in the “Chain of Command”. I was supposed to reveal the writing to my Principal, who was in turn supposed to get it approved by the Superintendent before it went into the paper.

I am bringing this up at the next board meeting to light a fire that has a spark right now.

Does such a distinction matter?

I leave this question to “the keepers of the blogosphere.”

I largely agree with you. Seymour Papert and I used to discuss often the need to create an event in which great progressive educators who are not “techies,” spend time collaborating with the great progressive educators who view technology as a way of amplifying and expanding progressive learner-centered ideals.

I fear that only a person of Dr. Papert’s stature could have pulled this off, both logistically and on a thoughtful level that would have impressed our low-tech heroes. (I know for a fact that he knew Deborah Meier)

Since great educators, like Meier, Sizer, Donald Graves, Dennis Littky, Herb Kohl, Seymour Sarason and others are at the top of their careers, if might be a lot more practical if the edtech community would embrace their work and ideas, rather than the other way around.

There is a lot to learn from the people who have created great learning experiences for kids. The tech fits easily into environments that have done the tough work of making schools productive contexts for learning and more hospitable to the intentions of children.

My other take away here is that however we define or identify the members of those pushing for change in education that are not “techies” – those of us that are believers in educational technology should go out of our way to embrace and converse with them as allies in this whole change process. We will not agree on everything, but much more than not, and we will have enlarged and enriched our voices.

Also note that Ms. Meier and Ms. Ravitch are blogging … and I note more and more they are linking to other sources and resources … unless they have someone else doing that for them they are making steps, maybe unknowingly towards embracing technology as a communicative and educational lever. : )

Learning is messy!
Brian

Not to hijack this amazing thread but I was wondering (as was @ssandifer BTW) if you would elaborate (either here in a comment or via blog posting) on this statement:

“It’s been kind of scary to see how little understanding of social learning most of these folks have or practice.”

I have been wrestling with this very thought for a while now. We think social learning is important. We use it in our classrooms. We get results (hopefully). We evangelize. We drank the social learning/technology kool-aid.

But what about everyone else? The ones that don’t see what we see, share our passions, understand our message, or desire to leverage the tools we’re using? What about them, including the masses of people who are at http://www.thirteencelebration.org/ today?

No doubt many of these educators come from fantastic, innovative schools where they are getting results without social learning tools. And so, I wonder … does it all really matter? Do we matter?

-kj-

Anyway, this session was superb.

Dr. Ravitch worked for Bush 41 as Asst. Sect of Education and works for the Hoover and Brookings Institutes. Despite her right-wing background, she is rational and thoughtful. She has been smeared and attacked by the Bloomberg/Klein junta and has demonstrated courage, integrity and a capacity for growth. Her book, “The Language Police,” is a great read.

Those two women are the type of speakers every confrence should feature. Their expertise is awesome, accomplishments great and ideas are timeless’

Again, thanks for sharing this and for giving it greater visibility.

How much of what these two brilliant people are saying carries far outside of NYC schools? Remember, the NY State mandates carry to the suburban, and rural schools of NY as well as the other big cities within the state. Additionally, many of these mandates are the result of Federal mandates. Although NY City is a huge school district, it is not alone in many of the areas discussed.