Can planning and technology end student ambivalence?

Students, or children and adolescents in general, possess the amazing ability to summon the dark lord of ambivalence on a whim. This evil spirit has been responsible for the downfall of some of the most well planned, inspiring lessons in the history of education. Well-scaffolded units, tied to prior knowledge and student interests, that offer student choice, and various levels of collaboration and interactivity, are not even immune to the powers of this curricular succubus.

In much of what is written about on the internet, it might seem that technology is here to banish the paralyzing poltergeist of inner contradiction from classrooms for eternity; however, personal experience is proving that the potential is there, but without methodical planning the reality is often wishful thinking.

Technology is evolving at an unfathomable speed. Since the dawn of MTV-style editing, the brains of children have been trained to expect information, and the systems that deliver it to them, to evolve (some may say devolve) into compelling, ever-changing, ever-quickening formats. As a result, educators are under increasing pressure to adapt to the dynamic cognitive conditioning of each year's new batch of students.

With that understanding it is important to accept that the inclusion of technology in the classroom is not nearly enough to keep ambivalence at bay. In fact, ill-planned activities that employ technology can often increase ambivalence as it confuses students by forcing them to choose between what they know they need to do and what they want to do. As a result, many students end up doing next to nothing.

Consequently, it is essential to have a planned evolution for integrating technology into teaching units, individual lessons, and daily activities. An effective example to examine is student blogging. Having students blog, on say a weekly basis, will initially be interesting and exciting for many students as it might be their first exposure to publishing ideas online. (Kidblog.org is a free blogging site that provides various levels of teacher control essential to ensuring safe respectful online interactions)

Nevertheless, within several weeks most students will find it routine, just as they have previously done throughout their academic careers with activities such as worksheets, essays, PowerPoints, and Jeopardy review games. And once routine enters the room, so does its sidekick ambivalence. That is where technology integration offers significant benefits, as it provides a wide variety of authentic evolutionary pathways for a given project.

In the case of blogging, it is advisable to plan a growth process such as the one outlined below. For the sake of simplicity, assume the duration of each step to be two weeks.

• Have students simply blog in "free-write" form in order to become comfortable with blogging
• Begin requiring students to comment on the blogs of at least two of their classmates
• Have students individually commit to an ongoing theme for their respective blog
• Begin requiring at least one relevant visual per blog post
• Begin requiring at least one relevant link (embedded within the text) to supporting information
• Develop a partner classroom at another school and connect with their blogs for commenting 
• Work with the partner teacher to facilitate connections between individual students or student groups
• Develop a digital collaborative project between student pairs or student groups between partnered classrooms.

In planning the evolution of a project such as this, students will be regularly challenged with a well-scaffolded routine, that is more likely to keep them engaged as they see the path of the project heading toward an authentic product that reaches beyond traditional classroom walls, and is probably quite different than what they have experienced in most of their previous academic environments.

Additionally, establishing a preliminary understanding of desired progress, creates an environment in which time frames and activities can be easily adjusted, adapted, or embellished, as the learning environment dictates. 

With the current pace of edtech ideas, strategies, platforms, apps, and websites overwhelming teachers, administrators, and districts alike, it is often tempting to try too much too soon, or in some cases nothing at all. In order to avoid both ends of that spectrum and to begin developing successful technology driven curriculum, some good old fashioned planning can simplify the process and help teachers begin the exorcism of ambivalence from their respective classrooms.

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Tips on technology integration for apprehensive educators (Re-post from Smartblog)

In my new role this year as a technology coach for the high school in which I work, I have found myself primarily involved in two separate but equally important activities: reflecting on and learning from my past challenges and successes with technology in my classroom and trying to motivate skeptical teachers to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Consequently, the following suggestions garnered from my recent experiences will hopefully provide some general ideas and guidelines to clarify the process for reluctant teachers, so they will be motivated to embrace educational technology and all of its inherent benefits.

• Attitude: Approach the process as if you were a brand new teacher. Use year one as a time to figure out how technology can be used in your curriculum, implement a few baby steps and begin accepting the fact that this is your new reality.

Use year two to begin expanding on what worked during year one, discarding the abysmal failures — of which there will probably be several — and possibly experimenting with one or two new technologies — be it a website, a strategy, an app, a means of assessment, or a style of presentation.

During year three, expect to gain some clarity on how you and your students can accelerate learning as you begin to see the forest through the trees. You may even have a minor epiphany or two.

• Pragmatism: In keeping with the “new teacher” analogy, beware of the inundation of ideas and suggestions from veteran teachers who may misguidedly try to ease your transition. Tech-savvy colleagues will be more than willing to share an inordinate amount of amazing lesson plans, ideas, strategies and technologies that have proven effective in their own classrooms

While the suggestions probably are amazing, innovative and engaging, as promised, understand your strengths and limitations. Along with every new aspect of technology comes a learning curve which needs to be balanced with the day-to-day teaching activities that have always existed.

With that in mind, catalogue the suggestions that are intriguing but unrealistic for immediate use. I would suggest using a site such as Diigo in order to organize and tag easily searchable resources for potential use in the future.

• Humility: With the ever-changing landscape of technology, and the daily demands of working in education, you will rarely — if ever — be ahead of the technology learning curve. By allowing students to use technology, they will have access to innumerable sources of information as well as formats in which to formulate and present information.

Furthermore, if you were to attempt to master as many presentation formats as humanly possible, better ones will soon emerge and previous mainstays will just as quickly become obsolete. With that in mind, try and be aware of what is available, let your students introduce new resources and formats to you, and join in the learning process side-by-side with your students.

• Adaptation: Just as it takes years of experience before most teachers feel as if they are even competent in the classroom, expect to experience similar feelings in regards to using technology as a tool for increasing student engagement, creating dynamic lessons, accessing more efficient and accurate assessment tools, and providing more timely, and meaningful feedback.

In order to ease the transition, make a plan and adapt as necessary. For instance, about two and a half years ago, I realized the amazing potential of using Twitter as an instructional tool that had the capability to expand student learning beyond my classroom walls. Due to a wide variety of circumstances, not until this current semester did I feel I could implement it as I had originally envisioned, so I am now just beginning to use Twitter with my students.

• Self-scaffolding: Understand the SAMR model of technology integration and use it to guide you as you increase the complexity of technology integration in your curriculum. Don’t be afraid to begin simply substituting with technology in your classroom simply to adapt to the concept of allowing students access to what was previously forbidden.

• If you try to jump straight to modification or re-definition, you will most likely create significant frustration for both yourself and your students, and will be reluctant to continue with a transition that offers significant promise.

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Is edtech the horse, the cart, the tail, or the dog?

In trying to focus my ideas for this posting, I attempted to link technology to one of several tried and true metaphors including: "don't put the cart before the horse", and "don't let the tail wag the dog". In regards to the horse and the cart, it could be argued that technology could be either one. As far as the tail and the dog, that metaphor seems more apropos but I do not feel like extending a cliched metaphor throughout this post so I will just get to the point.

Technology integration in education is currently at a ridiculous level of inconsistency for reasons including:

• Some schools and districts do not have the funding to purchase the necessary technology
• Schools and districts that have the funding have no precedent from which to guide them on what to purchase or how to implement what is purchased.
• Schools are making individual site decisions about implementing BYOD, and when they do, it takes on differing forms when it is executed site-to-site.
• Professional development regarding technology often times seems to be guesswork, at best, due to the infancy of the widespread use of edtech.
• Individual teachers have varying degrees of competency, willingness, time and confidence regarding technology integration.
• School and district policies revolving around edtech are often being made by district personnel and administrators that have not been in the classroom recently, and thus institute misguided policies and purchases related to technology.

To those on the forefront of the edtech movement, these situations come as no surprise. The surprise will come; however, when the reality of common core hits next year in forty-five states. As it is, teachers administering the Smarter Balanced practice test in California, are coming to realizations such as: 4th graders do not know how to type, 6th graders struggle with clicking and dragging, and navigating an online test for three hours on a Chromebook without a mouse and less than optimal screen resolution is a task in and of itself 

Additionally, addressing the elephant in the room as to whether most schools will have the proper technology and data infrastructure to support the transition to online testing, how might teachers' own uncertainties exacerbate test anxiety that already plagues far too many students?

Aside from the mandated testing aspect, the day-to-day reality of meaningful technology implementation is equally as concerning. A simple example to illustrate this issue is the reliance, usually out of necessity, on traditional paper and pen assignments. The vast majority of professionals, and probably people in general, do not read or write with pen and paper, yet that still seems to be the standard format in high school classrooms, based on personal anecdotal information and observations.

Information is now dynamic and intertwined. At this point, when students are not creating digital works of writing with engaging visuals, and relevant links to additional resources then we are preparing them for the past more so than the future.

With that being said, the job of a technology coach is much more pressing and of significantly greater scope than it initially appears. Coaching peers on technology integration and preparing them for the future of education can only truly happen if we can find effective ways to become facilitators in getting all stakeholders to buy into a common vision and realization of what lies ominously ahead. 

In revisiting my initial idea, and in the spirit of a good old-fashioned mixed metaphor, edtech appears to be a dog being wagged by its tail while chasing a horse behind its cart in the Wild Wild West with a tornado fast approaching. With that understanding it is the duty of technology coaches to play the part of Paul Revere in sounding the warning far and wide, so that educators and the personnel that supports them from above can at the very least have the storm on their respective radars.

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Don't Be Imprisoned by Technology's What If's

Every concern teachers have about implementing technology in the classroom will inevitably come to fruition. Some of the common concerns I have heard and personally encountered are:

• "What if the internet fails when my entire lesson plan hinges upon it?"

• "What if the updated web filter blocks the site I am depending on for my presentation, even though I  just accessed it this morning?"

• "What if my students post something inappropriate during an online class discussion?"

• "What if a student encounters a technology issue that I do not know how to solve?"

The list could continue with countless, similar, justifiable fears, but that is unnecessary, because if someone can think of it, then it will most likely happen, and probably at the most inopportune time imaginable.

Uncertainty centered on technology's shortcomings is one of, if not the most common reason I hear from teachers that are slow to embrace technology as a significant part of their day-to-day teaching. While understandable, it is important to understand that this attitude is hindering teachers and the students of those teachers from experiencing some of the most important lessons that need to be learned as we collectively blaze the edtech trail.

Understanding that technology is laden with glitches, failures, and untimely shortcomings is a given. With that in mind, it is essential that educators learn to adapt to these difficulties. If teachers can do so, in real time, in front of students, then the teachers are essentially modeling, for their students, productive strategies and attitudes regarding technology.

As our students move on to higher grade levels, higher education, and careers, they will most certainly encounter the technological hurdles that many educators are unwilling to face. By shielding students from technology's challenges due to personal fears, instructors are preventing students from learning coping skills that will be essential for success.

How to deal with these situations when they occur is an issue unto itself and boils down to the inherent strengths of each individual teacher. Just as their are innumerable problems that will complicate the day, there are just as many creative solutions.

Most teachers have years, if not decades of teaching without technology. That fact alone indicates that most educators are equipped with a vast arsenal of curriculum ideas, and classroom management strategies that can right the ship when a technology tornado wreaks havoc on their respective classroom. Stepping outside one's comfort zone is rarely an easy task. Doing so in front of an audience of students can certainly compound the discomfort. But until teachers can confront their apprehensions, they will only be prolonging the inevitable.

In a simple statement, Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth sums it up perfectly when he states, "Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens."

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EdTechers - A Call to Service

 With Digital Learning Day coming this Wednesday, I imagine PBS Learning will provide an updated snapshot of how technology is being used in the classroom. While last years numbers were promising, I am concerned that they are painting a misleading picture, and thus creating a professional divide as we move to a crucial point in implementing technology and the common core.

Those of us blogging, reading blogs, attending edtech conferences, and creating personal learning networks (PLN's) are mostly early adopters. With that being the case, we have a duty that I am not sure is being addressed. In the process of understanding, exploring, and implementing technology in the classroom, it is readily apparent that students in technology-based classrooms with enthusiastic, and innovative teachers are reaping rewards that are:

• expanding the classroom beyond its traditional walls 
• connecting previously compartmentalized subject areas to one another through authentic project based learning (PBL)
• providing real-time, relevant connections between students and the world around them
• creating students that are intrinsically motivated to learn as opposed to students that are only trying to "get a good grade"

Seeing students inspired in such ways is instantaneously invigorating and leaves the educators facilitating these learning environments with a voracious desire to further develop, enhance, and expand the scope of what is happening.

This is where I have found myself in my roll of technology coach, as well as witnessed in various blog posts and conference presentations, what I perceive to be an oversight in our desire to spread our enthusiasm. In our eagerness and excitement to enrich the practices of our colleagues, we are often times overlooking the reality that many of our peers:

• do not have access to the level of technology that many early adopters do
• are overwhelmed by the amount of options available in regards to platforms, websites, apps, strategies, and assessment tools
• view technology as another intrusion on their already impacted time
• feel "talked over" as confusing acronyms and edtech jargon are casually used as if they were common knowledge
• feel that they have not had sufficient professional development to successfully implement technology in the classroom
• do not want to appear vulnerable in front of students who may or may not have more experience with any given technology
• simply have a deep seeded aversion to technology

I imagine the list could go on and on. In any case, acknowledging and addressing these concerns is one of our greatest challenges and priorities at this transitional moment. 

My students ability to grasp digital mediums and concepts is significantly hindered by the lack of saturation, and thus lack of consistency within my greater school site. Understanding that my students desire to learn and ability to produce quality work will exponentially increase their acquisition of all the skills associated with a properly function, technology-driven classroom with widespread, willing implementation of said practices, it is in all of our best interests to find pragmatic, accessible approaches toward colleagues that fit any of the bulleted descriptions above.

It is with that closing idea that I hope to open a discussion about how that can happen. Any suggestions, successful past-practices, or proven strategies would be greatly appreciated so that I could compile them for a posting in the near future.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @mrtessier33