Pencils are not sufficient
On Monday, I spent the day with educators in Irving, Texas. Irving ISD has been implementing a 1:1 laptop initiative for students and teachers for the past seven years. Currently, if I understand the situation correctly, ALL high school and junior high students in Irving have their own laptop computer to use both at school and at home. In the workshop I shared in the morning on digital storytelling, and the afternoon session on "Google and Yahoo Tools for Collaboration and Learning," EVERY teacher in my workshops participated on his/her own laptop computer. A digital divide of hardware and Internet access did NOT exist between the learners in our classroom: Everyone had the tools needed to extend their knowledge landscape and delve deeper into the topics as well as skills we discussed.
That technologically immersed professional development experience contrasted markedly with my afternoon presentation the following day, in a medium-sized, rural Oklahoma school district about three hours drive from my home north of Oklahoma City. My presentation on "Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Prevention" was the last of three mandatory presentations for the day. I followed a presenter who had discussed "Ag in the Classroom," as well as a judge who had reviewed school legal issues. All 98 K-12 teachers in the school district were gathered in the high school cafeteria, seated all along four long tables that extended out from the "front" of the room where my laptop was connected to a ceiling-mounted projector and room audio speakers.
I asked the teachers gathered in the cafeteria, already suspecting the answer, if anyone was currently connected online with a laptop computer? Several people laughed. Wireless Internet access was available in the room, and my laptop was connected, but no one else had a computer with them.
As we discussed Internet safety, security issues, the dangers of phishing, and the proactive steps schools can take to address cyberbullying by providing moderated environments for student digital social networking (by using free resources like Think.com, Imbee.com, and moderated blogging tools) I asked the teachers to complete a vocabulary activity. Before the workshop, I wrote down 25 different security and Internet safety terms on small pieces of paper. We divided into four groups, and teachers partnered-up with others to write the definition of their word on the back of their paper.
Before "turning the teachers loose" to complete this activity, however, since I knew dictionaries were not available in the cafeteria, I asked how many teachers brought cell phones with them and had a text messaging plan that would permit them to send and receive text messages without additional line charges. I then showed them quickly how to use the free Google SMS service to look up word definitions (using their cell phones like a glossary) and then gave them ten minutes to use any of the resources at their disposal to find the answers. After the time was up, teachers came to the front of the room and shared their definitions, and we discussed what the implications of some of their words were for Internet safety, security, and supporting a school environment that is intolerant of bullying behaviors.
Because the teachers in the cafeteria did NOT have their own laptop computers, we were sharply limited in the sorts of learning activities in we could engage that leveraged the power of digital technologies. I think it was, perhaps, a good step forward for many of the teachers to learn how a cell phone can be used as a tool for learning, even if it was in very limited ways. Compared to a laptop computer, which is truly a protean device, the cell phone seemed underpowered and relatively weak as a tool for engaged learning.
How can we kid ourselves, living as I am in the midwest of the United States of America, that we are providing equitable and ADEQUATE learning opportunities for the students in our classrooms when PENCILS and TEXTBOOKS remain the predominant learning technologies in our classrooms? We should not. Pencils are NOT sufficient for learning in the 21st century. Learners certainly still need to be able to write and communicate, but keyboarding has become a much more valuable skill than cursive handwriting.
Out of 98 people in the cafeteria on Tuesday in this Oklahoma school district, only one had heard of Tom Friedman's book "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century." No one had heard of the One Laptop Per Child Initiative. The idea that schools could provide a wireless, mobile computing device for EVERY learner in the classroom seemed to fall on ears which could not believe such an audacious proposal could ever be realistic in their context.
Yet that proposal is more realistic than ever before in the course of human history. Pencils are not sufficient for learning in 2007, and they will not be sufficient for learning in 2010. When will the school leaders in your community understand this, and adopt a vision for one-to-one computing which provides a laptop for EVERY learner?
I am not hopelessly naive, and I do NOT believe simply giving every teacher and student in our schools a laptop computer can or will revolutionize education and usher in our new era of School 2.0. It is wonderful that, thanks in large part to the highly successful eRate program, 99% of our schools and libraries in the United States are wired. "Being wired" and having an Internet-connected computer on every teacher's desk is just a start, however. This process has not changed education in fundamental ways, in my opinion, because in most cases the technologies have REMAINED IN THE HANDS OF THE TEACHER.
It is time to give the technologies to the students. Many of our students have cell phones, but comparatively few have their own laptop computers. The day of one-to-one learning with digital devices has dawned. The road to winning the hearts and minds of our school board members, our community parents, and our teachers is a long journey, but I am convinced it is one we must take. In very tangible ways, taking a message about engaged learning and pro-active digital conversations out into the rural areas of the U.S. Southwest, I do feel like the voice of one calling out of the wilderness. Who will heed the call?
The educational leaders and teachers of Irving ISD "get it." The need to help our students cultivate 21st century literacy skills alongside the traditional literacy skills historically emphasized in our schools is strong. Just look at the children in your own classroom, in your own home, and in your neighborhood. We don't have time to waste. Our students need access to the tools of the 21st century TODAY, not in ten or fifteen years when the teachers and other older adults in your community "are ready." The students are ready NOW, and their future begins TODAY.
In his opening comments at BLC, Alan November discussed the importance of schools recreating assessments for learning, so students could bring ALL their notes, textbooks, and digital resources to bear on the questions they needed to answer and the challenges they needed to address. Following those comments, former junior-high principal and Apple Distinguished Educator Tim Tyson asked a very challenging question, "When does meaningfulness and significance begin in our lives?" After high school graduation? After college graduation? Once we are married?
I agree with Dr. Tyson, that meaningfulness and significance begins TODAY. In fact, our capacity to make a significant contribution to the world in which we live started the day we each were born. How are you making the most of the heartbeats with which you have been blessed this day? It's up to each of us to BE THE CHANGE we want to see in the world.
One-to-one learning. It's not just a pipe dream, or a fantastic news story about a project taking place in a faraway land. It's a moral imperative for learning in the 21st century. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Let's spread the word and invite more conversations to take place with educational stakeholders in the communities in which we live. Only sustained conversations can meaningfully change our perceptions, especially about topics about which we each have strong views like education. If you are not the catalyst for these conversations in your community, who will be?
Accept the mantle of leadership to be a change agent in your own community. Be the change. The children all around you are counting on it.
Comments
Wesley,
I am in complete agreement. I would argue that the next important step is for schools to rethink the role that technology leadership plays within this School 2.0 model. It is not simply enough to equip students and teachers with the right tools. Strategic, mission-driven, decisions with regard to teaching and learning must involve a school's CIO or Technology Director. I would urge technology leaders to work toward finding ways to infuse themselves within the "educational fabric" of a school.
Posted by: Antonio Viva | August 10, 2007 4:30 PM
This is inspiring and I am in total agreement. I often imagine how poor my work and life and networking and socialising and learning experiences would be without my laptop. And the 'my' is important there (not 'cos I'm possesive) but because that laptop is set up for my personal connectivity to a host of rich experiences. And I want my learners to benefit in the same way. I think mobile technology will play a big part in a cultural shift towards 1-to-1, as phones and gaming devices and computers converge into one piece of technology.
Posted by: pete whitfield | August 10, 2007 4:42 PM
It's impossible to disagree but the challenges as I see them are 1) Teacher training and 2) Financial priorities which are out of order 3) Political thought that low income students need to learn to read before anything else...not taking into account that technology is a fantastic tool for motivating students to read and write.
Posted by: Mathew | August 10, 2007 9:01 PM
Wes, as one of the teachers at Irving, I have to say your workshops were fascinating and inspiring, and I certainly plan to make technology a central focus of my lessons. So much of teaching and teaching well today comes from getting away from old values and ideals, and those need to change at the top with legislators and school boards as much as with teachers. But technology is a great leveller, and it allows every one of my students to have a voice. Next year, I am looking forward to challenging students to think of their computers not just as a way to stay connected to the world, but as way to change the world as well.
Posted by: Todd | August 10, 2007 10:21 PM
We need to somehow connect the educators in Oklahoma with those in places like Irving. They don't need to hear from you, they need to hear from peers about the power and the potential...
(actually they need to hear from you too; you know what I mean here)
Posted by: Scott McLeod | August 11, 2007 6:17 AM
Terrific post Wes, top of your game!
Posted by: Kern Kelley | August 11, 2007 8:44 AM
When you say that the teachers in Irving get it? What do they get?
Are you talking about the fact that they know how to look up a word's definition online as opposed to in a dictionary?
What does knowing who Tom Friedman is do to make a teacher qualified?
How many journalists or CEOs know who John Dewey or Deborah Meier are?
Surely, an E.D. Hirsch view of computer cultural literacy is a meager justification for investing in every child in the world having a personal laptop computer.
For those unfamiliar with my work, I have been involved in 1:1 computing for 17 years and am a tireless champion of the rights of children to have a personal computer. My role in the history of 1:1 and creating new opportunities for learning is well-documented, but I don't find your arguments convincing.
Without much more imaginative and compelling models presented to the public, we will forever be confronted by the ridiculous models of laptops in desks (Pennsylvania) and laptop initiatives being killed (Cobb County, GA).
Posted by: Gary Stager | August 11, 2007 7:18 PM
I agree that we need to be using 21st century tools and teaching children for the world they live in. The problem for me is that I teach in a low-income school. If we had a 1-to-1 laptop initiative here, I would worry about sending laptops home with my students. And even if they had laptops, Internet access would be the next problem at home. I am encouraged though, when I started teaching computers in 1999 at my school, 7 out of 120 students had computers at home. In the spring, 84 of them did. We are getting there.
Posted by: Sherry Crofut | August 12, 2007 2:17 AM
Wesley,
Thanks you for your excellent post. Yomod.com is developing an Internet-based media ("new media") solution for teachers. We understand that for our technology solution to succeed it must be free, simple and teacher-controllable. We would love to hear from educators on the topic.
Cheers!
Brian, Yomod co-founder.
Posted by: Brian | August 13, 2007 4:23 PM
I am a teacher from that Oklahoma school who attended that seminar. I agree that technology in the classroom needs to be addressed, but as an English teacher, I also believe that taking text books and pencils away would take away the heart of the writer and reader. I have a master's degree in Library TECHNOLOGY and am familiar with and know how to use the technology discussed in this workshop. In all fairness, I will say that we were not told we needed our laptops for this seminar. We are asked rhetorical questions in every seminar and I believe we did not realize that we were supposed to respond verbally. I know how to look words up on my cell phone, and I do want to add that every teacher after being "turned loose" found the definition of the word they were asked about. WOO HOO for us! At the time, I was unsure about if I was being viewed in a "bumkin" sense, but after reading this blog, I am sure that this is exactly how I was viewed, along with my fellow teachers. I am just sorry that this blog is being read by others and that their view is being formed by this narrow narrative. How sad for them and for you, the author of this blog.
Posted by: Angel Flanagan | October 23, 2007 7:35 PM
I also was at that seminar. I was not told we needed a laptop either. I do agree with you, technology is great. But who is going to but these students laptops? Our school doesn't have the means, and most of our parents don't either. As a matter of fact we never even see the majority of our parents. We post our phone numbers, we try to call all parents of our students, and we have parent teacher conferences. But we very seldom get to see the ones we need to see. If you would like to tell me how to get the money to buy laptops for our studnets I'll get busy on it right now! I use what little I have left over at the end of the month to buy coats, clothing, and school supplies for students.
Posted by: Barbara Morton | October 23, 2007 8:04 PM
I think that his whole premise was similar to Bush's war on Iraq. The Weapons of Mass Destruction was the argument - unfounded and manipulative. Likewise, the premise of his article, while in some respects is correct, was grounded on inaccurate or non existent fact. He cast aspersions upon us and all rural schools with invalid assumptions. I don't know where or with whom the ball was dropped, but we weren't informed that we needed laptops available for the meeting. Many of our teachers have laptops and had had them in the meetings. At the table where I was sitting there had been about 5 different teachers at sometime during the day with their laptops out. We also could have had the portable lab ready and waiting. I won't accept the name calling of "bumpkins" when it isn't grounded. His entire article was supported by His assumptions including the fact that we didn't know how to use our cell phones. Too bad he assummed that we were inept rather than knowing the fact that we didn't have the freedom to use our phones at school.
Should we bring up the apples and oranges thing? Didn't think so.
No weapons of mass distruction. I guess he's in good company.
I know that when making a statement or assessment, one must have the facts. He didn't, therefore, any point he could have made that was valid was negated.
You know those old sayings are true and this one sure holds true. When you assume you make an ass of you and me.
Posted by: Gwyndol Hogan | October 24, 2007 3:41 PM
As a computer teacher at this school that you attended in rural Oklahoma I must inform you of the technology that we do offer. In our High School alone we have two computer labs with the top of the line graphic and web programs that are available. We have a wireless lab with 20 laptops that can be transported to any classroom in the high school using our wireless internet that is available in every classroom. I think we have a top of the line website that has been created by our own students, http://www.spiro.k12.ok.us.(I wonder who gets PAID to do Irving's award winning website) There is a smart board in almost every class room in the Middle School. We utilize a long distance learning lab. I could go on and on. To also say that nobody had a laptop is false also. I had my own laptop and was surfing the web during your presentation looking at the different tools that you where talking about. In fact I came up and talked to you about the way that kids today use Myspace and Facebook and how they have a responsibility about what they are posting. We are trying and succeeding in what we teach our students about technology with what we have available. I am disappointed that you wrote the article this way and I hope that maybe next time you can see the positive things we are doing and not have a preconceived notion about who we are by where we live and how we do things.
Posted by: Marshal Hurst | October 24, 2007 4:04 PM