Education's New Slippery Slope

This past Friday, I was fortunate enough to have had a dinner with a friend who happens to be the I.T. guy for a M & A Firm in Buffalo, New York. After several brief minutes of catch-up, we found ourselves exchanging ideas about the future and technology (I would only begin to realize later how much of a geek I have become). Now, I have read Friedman's book, The World is Flat, and have been teaching the concepts of outsourcing to my economics classes for several years. Remarkably, I was taken by surprise when my friend informed me that as a corporation, they are finding it more economically efficient to outsource the use of technologies. Having lost several I.Q. points from the classroom to the dinner, I asked him why? He explained that the software and hardware services being provided in the private sector are in a constant state of innovation. Simply, it would be ill-advised for a corporation to invest human resources as well as financial resources into certain systems , knowing very well that another company will be launching a beta version within months. Remarkably, this struck me like a bolt of lighting and I began to see what I viewed as a serious hurdle education will have to overcome.

Being a part of the public sector, we often find ourselves chasing the private sector. In this particular case, I began to see educational technology in a different light. If the private sector is finding it difficult to keep up with the ever changing world of technology, how is education, with it's limited resources, going to provide students with a cutting edge learning environment? From there, I began to question how teachers, who are immigrants in this era of technology, are going to be able to take these technologies and bring them into their classrooms for their students? How are educators, with limited knowledge of the capabilities of these technologies, and limited time, going to buy into their uses, knowing very well, the energies they expend on learning these new tools, will only lead to a continuous struggle to stay on top of the ever changing world of technology? Furthermore, from a management end, how can administrators within a district, looking to optimize their instructional staff, avoid waisting their financial and human resources learning technologies that are quickly becoming antiquated?

I have recently been experimenting with Web 2.0 technologies in my own classes, and have had positive feedback from the students. I am seeing first hand, the value these tools add to the learning environment and student motivation. However, having had these results, and recognizing the need to continuously stay on top of the technology coming into the market, thanks to blogs such as techcrunch, I have developed a fear that we have opened up an institutional Pandora's box. My fear is the diligent teacher, seeking to provide their students with cutting edge tools, will fight a never ending battle. Currently, there is no systematic means in which to learn these technologies. There is no mechanism in place that filters out the new technologies in a manner that efficiently determines what should and should not be used. What is current and effective today, will soon be outdated, as new generations of technologies change the web. This has created a very slippery slope for the classroom teacher and the district administrator.

This structural flaw may actually become the biggest priority districts tackle in their plans to implement these tools. Like the private sector, the I.T. structure in education may need to redesign itself, to include a technology manager with significant instructional background, whose role is to study the market, and marry the technological innovations with pedagogy. This job may play as important a role in the future of education, as the I.T. specialist plays in private sector technology management. I also believe the market will need to develop a service for education that creates a short cut in this process. Whether it is google, microsoft, or some twenty-something techno-superfreak, there needs to be service providers that allow districts to outsource these very difficult questions.

Student Reflections

This post goes out to those students who have developed their individual online communities using blogs, wikis, skype, and vyew. As we, both teacher and student, begin our long journey into Web 2.0 technologies, there will often be times when we should reflect upon this journey. In particular, we should look at the value added and the distractions occurring to our educational experience. One of the most powerful tools of learning, and unfortunately one of the most under utilized tools is individual and group reflection. With the future still a large unknown, we must continuously work on the quality control aspect of these technologies. We must ask ourselves, "is there value in what we are doing?"

Online Collaboration:
The Positive Social Dynamics

In a recent discussion at the beginning of class, students began to share with me the story of a recent online study group that was created using Skype and Vyew. The conversation they shared focused on how much fun these technologies enabled students to have when studying for a simple document based essay. As the conversation progressed, it became apparent that 85% of this particular class participated in this online endeavor. That alone should have been enough for any classroom teacher to jump up on a desk and shout "Carpe Diem". However, what followed that discovery was something even more powerful and enlightening. It became apparent the class I was having this conversation with was developing a very positive and powerful relationship. They were laughing, joking, and recalling bits of their online interaction with ease. The back and forth banter was illustrating for me, the true social power such an online platform can have for the social dynamics of a class. Students who may have found it initially difficult to engage in meaningful academic conversation, were sharing thoughts and ideas.
Having been a coach for many years, I can state with confidence that a team's chemistry is in direct proportion to the success of that team on the playing field. I have always struggled to take that formula for success and apply that to the academic environment. However, there were always the traditional stumbling blocks of social dynamics. In a face to face environment of a classroom, traditional social stigmas rule the day. Whether it is looks, cliques, or other teenage social inhibitors, melding the class into a learning team has often been the one obstacle I struggled with. This may be on the verge of changing.
Web 2.0 technologies foster a platform where individuals can work together without typical stereotypes. Shy students, who may not be confident, can voice there ideas and opinions without the looks or stares that may exist in a traditional classroom setting. Gender based chauvinism may fall to the way side, in search for the answer. An individual's personality can thrive in this environment, allowing both the introvert and extrovert, or the class clown and the black sheep to work together. This particular class, produced an incredible intellectual exchange that put a smile on my face, and may have even put a smile on the faces of the makers of Monty Pythons flying circus.
Now there will always be the examples of power and ego gone amuck. With that said, we began to lay the foundation for a series of rules.

Rule 1: Everyone is entitled to a voice.
Rule 2: No one individual should monopolize the air waves (chat lines).
Rule 3: There must exist a mutual respect for all participants.
Rule 4: There is no such thing as a bad idea.
Rule 5: The group must clearly define the objective of every online collaboration.
Rule 6: Recognize everyone is participating in an intellectual exercise, humor and individual personality aside, there should be some level of discretion.
Rule 7: All participants are to avoid profanity.
Rule 8: Anyone who violates these simple rules, may be kicked out of the discussion.

We are still in the early stages of this online environment, and I anticipate hurdles will need to be overcome. However, the social benefits for a classroom may be as powerful as the technologies themselves.

The Dawn of a New Day
Real World Meets the Classroom

Will Richardson published a blog titled "Passion Based Learning", where he comments on a CNET review. The web and the 2.0 technologies are fostering the development of a passion and energy that promotes collaboration beyond anything previously available. Don't get me wrong, we have all been a part of some educational experience that has peeked our individual excitement and forced student collaboration. However, these technologies have enabled students to experience a more comfortable and user friendly platform unlike ever before. Over the course of the past two weeks, I have experienced this energy as a teacher from the sidelines. Having introduced students to blogs and wikis in the early part of the school year, I thought I would extend their understanding of the potential of these technologies by introducing them to Skype and an online whiteboard called vyew. What has transpired over these past two weeks has not only reinforce my own personal belief in these web 2.0 technologies, but more importantly, they have opened the eyes of the students to their value. During the course of these past two weeks, students in my classes have initiated online study groups on their own. They have begun to utilize these technologies to collaborate and prepare for tests, essays, and reading assignments on a nightly basis. Entering class each day, I would hear a new tale of the previous night's online happenings. I actually heard a student make the comment that studying is FUN! To further understand the phenomena that was occurring, I opened up this blog to parent comments. This only furthered my excitement, as parents began to engage in the process, and began to comment on their child's enthusiasm. Parents began to recognize these learning experiences and how these experiences were providing real world applications. One parent comments

I am delighted to see her enthusiasm each time you have introduced her to a new form of technology. "Social Studies", I'm showing my age, has never been my strong point and I find it difficult to help her. Your class has changed that.

I work for a company that was recently bought by a company in MA. My boss works there. We have created wikis to communicate and compile information regarding projects we are working on. We also use Skype to keep in contact. This is a real world example of how what you're teaching them can be used productively!

As long as I have been in education (16 years), educators have often claimed the value of parental involvement in learning. These technologies are beginning to cross the generational barriers that have often been a difficult obstacle to overcome. Imagine, teenagers and their parents, sitting in front of the family computer, working together to construct a wiki or a blog, while Skyping other teens and parents. Katie bar the door! What could be next, teens sitting with parents, helping mom with her company's wiki?