9 Dots
Three bloggers, 10 readers of blogs, 12 who had knowledge of RSS, 20 had seen Shift Happens, 2 had podcast, and 2 were del.icio.us users.
That’s out of 80 people at the recent Read/Write Web administrators workshop led by Will Richardson at the DuPage County Regional Office of Education, in Illinois.
I know you have seen numbers like these before, and I know you’re not surprised. But the numbers aren’t changing, are they? These numbers could have easily been from a post written last year.
When I was teaching, I worked for a great department chair that was fond of saying that we needed to go beyond the nine dots. I’m betting that most of you have heard of 9 dots, but if you haven’t, take the challenge. Connect nine dots with four lines without lifting the pen or pencil from the paper. You can see how the dots are organized below (ignore the black border).
Yeah, I know-thinking out of the box. Think different. We’ve all heard this before. But I continue to see more and more paralyzed thinking-more resistance-less moving forward-and in the process, the box, the comfort zone, or whatever you want to call it, is actually getting smaller when it should be getting bigger.
For example, when Will Richardson asks an audience if they teach MySpace, they laugh.
Loud.
Hey, that wasn’t a joke. It’s time to teach kids how to contribute content the right way, but that’s outside of the reality of what we're supposed to teach, isn't it?
When the audience is asked if they teach Wikipedia, the laughter is replaced by silence. Why aren't all the hands being raised? One lone hand in the wilderness was raised (no, it wasn’t mine).
When Apple challenged us to "Think Different" in the late 90’s, it was prophetic. Imagine!
Unfortunately, education has been late to the challenge, if up for it at all. Such is not the case with politics, journalism, and business, as Will pointed out in his introduction to the workshop.
But there’s hope.
Take Clarence Fisher, who writes:
“Creating a space where students become learners, communicators, creators, and innovators is no small task. In many ways it involves starting over and asking truly fundamental questions about the purpose of schools and learning. It requires us to empty everything from our classroom into the hallway and ask ourselves, "What do I want to happen in this space? How can this pile of stuff help that to happen?"
And then there is Jeff Utecht, who explores the fine line we walk in education between coherency and chaos, and how education in general behaves:
The problem is it’s [education] a large system that likes coherent, is comfortable with coherent, and looks at the line and really doesn’t want to go there [more towards the chaos].
Jeff continues:
“A little chaos is a good thing; it is where we learn to take risks, where perhaps our best learning occurs.”
But both these guys are comfortable on the edge. We know them as well known bloggers and outstanding educators. But what about the majority of educators? How many of them are risk-takers?
How many teachers would be willing to walk away from the way they currently practice their craft and rethink how they teach? Consider a slight revision of Clarence's quote. How many teachers would be willing to empty everything from themselves into the hallway and ask, "What do I want to do to change the process of how my kids learn? How can my stuff, my understandings, and the power that I possess as a teacher, help that to happen?
And how many administrators would be knowledgeable enough, and have enough spine to empower and support that, and passionately defend it, should they need to?
Read Steve Dembo's post from yesterday, entitled "When Students Have to Take Their Learning Underground" to get an idea what rethinking can get you.
The gap widens, the disconnect between reality and what happens in our schools continues to grow. Meanwhile, politicians ask potential voters to post videos to YouTube about what they can do to change America. And we miss the moment by not having every kid studying history or civics rise to meet that challenge. Mainstream media recognizes that the the voice of the citizen journalist is a valid voice, and appropriately asks everyone, anyone, with the tools and capability, and with the desire to participate, to contribute news content. And we miss the moment again by banning those very tools from our hallways and classrooms. Progressive companies like Google enable their engineers to to spend 20% of their workweek on ideas and projects not related to their job description (via Graham Wegner). Instead of pondering and pursuing what could be, what should be, American teachers grade worksheets and prepare students for high-stakes tests.
Where does all this leave education?
With a dire, immediate, and profound need to draw past the dots.
Comments
It all goes back to technology that is "sticky" as you put it. http://makingitstick.pbwiki.com/
The teachers that have been successful with walking the fine line have probably met the criteria for being "sticky" where others have not.
You state, "3. There must be a high degree of organizational readiness for the innovation." It seems that Steve Dembo's example was a case of not having organizatioanl readiness.
I am no longer willing to take a risk in class without having administrative backing... I like my career at this point too much to do otherwise. This doesn't mean I don't push for what I believe. Until they are ready to come on board, I can't walk the line!
Posted by: Scott Meech | May 17, 2007 1:48 PM
I think it’s interesting how you only quoted male teachers. Also, they are (were) technology teachers. Thus, technology is (was) their curriculum, but you do not quote female teachers who are subject area teachers. Why is this so?
Posted by: Mechelle De Craene | May 17, 2007 5:53 PM
Probably coincidence. I would assume from your comments that you believe I have some hidden agenda, which I certainly do not. Most of this I wrote at 5 am this morning, so please forgive me if I did not present a more wholistic treatment of the entire educational community. My response to you is out of courtesy; implications that are contained and perceived by me in your comment are not-warranted and are out of place. Be careful.
Posted by: David Jakes | May 17, 2007 7:20 PM
Scott: thanks for your comments. I think that stickiness is part of it, but I think it first goes back to something more fundamental, and that's the climate and culture of the school district, and how much risk is acceptable. I agree that admin support is critical, in fact, imperitive, however before you can have support, I believe that there must be a certain level of understanding about the risk(s). You have to understand it before you can support it. That is indeed part of organizational readiness. How many schools are really read to accept more risk?
Posted by: David Jakes | May 17, 2007 8:48 PM
Scott: thanks for your comments. I think that stickiness is part of it, but I think it first goes back to something more fundamental, and that's the climate and culture of the school district, and how much risk is acceptable. I agree that admin support is critical, in fact, imperitive, however before you can have support, I believe that there must be a certain level of understanding about the risk(s). You have to understand it before you can support it. That is indeed part of organizational readiness. How many schools are really read to accept more risk?
Posted by: David Jakes | May 17, 2007 8:49 PM
I’m confused by your response. I have been interested in gender differences for sometime. In elementary school I was the only girl chosen for a study on computers and mathematics in the early 80’s…so have always been intrigued with gender differences…especially with regard to leadership types, career choices, technology, etc.
Posted by: Mechelle De Craene | May 17, 2007 9:33 PM
David,
Great post. I like your response to Scott as well.
"How much risk is acceptable?"
Great question. How much are we willing to risk to try something new, something different in replace for what has always been done? A major problem is most educators (myself included) only know eduction. I went 13 year through the public system, straight into college to get my degree in education, and back into the classroom. We teach what we know, how we were taught...and that doesn't include taking risks, trying something new, or even experimenting with something different. I agree, it is a rare teacher/school/district that embraces risk, chaos, and changing learning environments...not the norm.
Posted by: Jeff Utecht | May 18, 2007 1:11 AM
Hey Dave...thanks for blogging about the workshop. Great to catch up. One note before I get into trouble...I hope I didn't say here's how we use MySpace the "right" way...I'm sure there are many right ways for that. What I was suggesting is that we at least make sure they are safe, that we model ethical uses, and that we get in the car so to speak and drive with them. But as you suggest, any of that might be too risky for most.
Posted by: Will Richardson | May 18, 2007 1:28 PM
Hey Dave...thanks for blogging about the workshop. Great to catch up. One note before I get into trouble...I hope I didn't say here's how we use MySpace the "right" way...I'm sure there are many right ways for that. What I was suggesting is that we at least make sure they are safe, that we model ethical uses, and that we get in the car so to speak and drive with them. But as you suggest, any of that might be too risky for most.
Posted by: Will Richardson | May 18, 2007 1:29 PM
Hey Will...no, you certainly didn't say that. The MySpace page you showed in the workshop illustrated what kids can do, and will do, when they do it on their own. My reference to the "right way" is in regards to providing kids with opportunities that help them understand how to contribute by creating content that is purposeful. Of course, this could be done in blogs, wikis, etc. and those skills could transfer to other venues such as MySpace. Great workshop by the way.
Posted by: David Jakes | May 19, 2007 12:31 AM
David,
Can you please expand on your point when you wrote be careful?
Mechelle
Posted by: Mechelle De Craene | May 19, 2007 1:01 AM
"My response to you is out of courtesy; implications that are contained and perceived by me in your comment are not-warranted and are out of place. Be careful."
Um, what the hell? Would you please explain what you mean by "be careful"? because it doesn't sound very friendly or dialogue-encouraging.
Posted by: Zuska | May 19, 2007 2:55 AM
You are right that we need to change but we cannot expect that this will take place quickly. We work in an environment that is totally different from all the others. Society is comfortable with change in most other areas but not so with education. If change in education was seen as positive, we'd see news reports of the great things technology is doing instead of the horror stories. We'd be exposed to the great things teachers are doing instead of the bizarre things that are caught on phone cameras. I'm not surprised by the response at the workshop or the comments left here. We seem to have become great at navel gazing and finger-pointing instead of celebrating the good that others are doing. We need to continue despite what is currently happening in many locations. It will get better!
Posted by: Kelly Christopherson | May 21, 2007 4:15 PM
Let's look at the big picture: most teachers are women, most live check to check, many are single moms, and the digital divide affects teachers too.
Posted by: Mechelle De Craene | May 21, 2007 11:49 PM