The Beauty of Connections

The beauty of connection. I'm a techie by nature and if you haven't noticed, techie people tend to be introverts instead of extroverts. It doesn't bother me to connect with people via technology. To be honest, I could say I even prefer it at times. Often times. I mean I do extroverting well (I think I just made a word), but the conciseness of text and email fulfills my efficiency loving heart in big ways. And yet...

Over the past few weeks I find myself really realizing what face to face does for me that technology does not. I'm reading a book called "Technology vs Humanity" and it's really made me stop and question much of who I am and who I want to be. There are no challenges for the reader to change in the book but it has caused me to want to do an experiment on myself to see where I am regarding where I start and technology ends or vice versa. Do I even know?

I have had the honor of presenting at TETC this past week with my friend Greg Bagby. We've worked together to share things we've learned in our prospective roles in education with others. As the three days went along I grew connections that began online (some at the convention, some in previous years) to stronger face to face relationships. I have "go to people" that I can seek out when trying to make edtech decisions. I have voices that helps me think beyond the echo chamber in my head and my close friends.

I can say the same about coffeeEDU that happens once a month in Chattanooga (usually on the second Saturday of the month). I talk, I listen, I hear the worries, angst, and successes of other educators and I grow from that. It's always a well spent hour each month for me.

Face to face relationships connect us with those we enjoy being with and those we don't. But regardless, they grow us to think outside our own thoughts- beyond our comfort zone. Some days I feel like it's against my will-that I force myself to be social- but I always walk away with a fuller heart from connecting with others.

The transparency of allowing someone into your inner thoughts is quite beautiful. Twice this past week I was left with two face to face conversations that I keep rehashing and growing in my mind...

1. I always enjoy talking with Chris Tenbarge because he drops nuggets of wisdom on me in his quiet demeanor. He said something to the effect that we as educators protect and value "knowledge" much more than today's students because they see knowledge as being in their back pocket (their phone) available whenever they need it. After mulling around on this idea myself and during coffeeEDU I came away with the question "how do we get students to understand information isn't knowledge?" The magnitude of that question seems huge to me.

2. Leaving coffeeEDU at GPS in Chattanooga on Saturday I was walking to my car with Niki Ellis (director of upper school curriculum and instruction at CCS) and she said something to the effect that "technology is no longer a tool in the classroom but a medium." I had this AHA! moment as I drove away. I agree that it is definitely a means to educating in today's world but I also see it just being used as a tool as well. Is one way better than the other? Are both acceptable uses of technology in education? 

As I listened to the keynotes speaking at TETC I found myself jealous that they could "get away with" saying the things they said to the crowd- admonishing closed mindedness regarding tech usage. I did appreciate Steven Anderson's mention that he doesn't think flipped classrooms are a good thing but he continues to go to sessions regarding flipped learning so that he can keep learning and processing regarding it.

May I never find myself closed minded enough to not listen to the views and needs of others. May I always value and respect those with different views than my own in a positive and honoring way. May I be willing to have face to face conversations with others even when they are hard. May I continue to grow in who I am as an educator and a leader from those far and near. 

Why Not Personalization? Why not blend?

As technology creates opportunities for us to be more aware of the cracks that individual students are falling through, the question remains...why aren't we personalizing the education of our students more? Why aren't we using blended learning to better meet the needs of our students?

In a world where intuitive software is becoming smarter and smarter and less expensive, we have the ability to allow students to "practice" problem solving without feeling overwhelmed. What does that mean? When I was in school I remember melting down when I didn't understand a math concept at home but my homework was "do the odd problems on page 82." Everyone knew the answers to the even problems were in the back of the book so even if I had to show my work, I knew I could at least see if I got the right answer when I was done. But what about those nights when I didn't have a clue where to start? I would go to school the next day having done 20 problems all wrong. I would get a zero on my homework and I had done enough problems that I had created a "habit" of how to do it in my head, albeit the wrong way. Intuitive software changes that. It gives students a practice question and if they get it wrong it often shows them the correct way and also gives them an easier question to get back to what they do know and work forward again.

In some classes this is easier than others- math, sciences, anything that can be learned one way can be learned with this method. We all know that there is more to real teaching than this though. The beauty of technology today is this type of environment allows more time for the teachers to dig deeper with their students and help them to think more critically about the subject matter.

Personalized learning starts putting the onus on the student. Students begin to learn how they learn. They see that they can't just skim through things and take a quiz. They start learning how much time it typically takes for them to get a concept. And if students are learning from different modalities (differentiated modes of instruction), they also start to understand which forms of instruction best meet their learning styles. Owning this isn't easy for a student. We have conditioned students to "sit and get." "Tell me what I need to know so I can regurgitate it back to you." But what value it is to show a student how to learn! 

According to NEA, by 1930 multiple-choice tests were firmly entrenched in the education world. The reason being there needed to be efficiency and objectivity (http://www.nea.org/home/66139.htm). And I agree that both are highly valued in the education arena. But as we see a way to have those efficiencies and yet still meet the needs of the individual student, why are we not moving towards this more rapidly? One reason is the time and prep it takes on the teacher's side for this to be effectively managed from their viewpoint. Another reason is no major shift in education happens overnight.

For three years I have been watching personalization on some level start to happen at our school. I hear students learning more about themselves, seeing themselves as having potential when they didn't in the past. I see teachers seeing the value of personalization because they would have never have noticed the gaps in individual student's learning in a traditional classroom setting.

It is my desire to work to find solutions to make this process more mainstream for the educator. It is my desire to create efficiencies using innovation to better meet the needs of the teacher and the student so that personalization can be more of a realtime advantage for our students. I literally lay in bed at night trying to think of ways to do this. Call it passion if you want to but once you see the benefits in action, it's hard to ignore the fact that all students don't learn on the same timeline nor in the same way. Technology has the ability for us to work inside new boundaries...broader boundaries...in ways we have never been able to do before.

Time Management of Devices

Do you ever wonder just how much of a slave you are to your smartphone? How much time do you actually spend on it? I'm fairly guilty of checking my phone out of habit as much as need.
So recently I downloaded the app "Moment," you leave it open on your phone and it tracks how much time you spend actively using your phone. For me it was an eye-opening experience to see how much time I seek my phone out of habit and not need.

After testing and also ACKNOWLEDGING that I might be tied to my phone more than I want to be, I decided to take advantage of the built-in helps on my iPhone at Settings>Do Not Disturb. There is a variety of ways you can use this to your advantage while working, studying, sleeping, or investing in others. 

How does this relate to others? We can all be slaves to multi-tasking. As educators we have a responsibility to show students the pitfalls of multi-tasking and becoming too connected. One of my favorite ways to show students that they probably aren't as good at multi-tasking as they think is to show this video: 

                  

And then I have the students test themselves http://davecrenshaw.com/multitasking-exercise-v2.pdf. We talk a lot about digital citizenship with our students but I believe we sometimes lack in modeling and explaining the need to put the device down. We need to show them the value of plugging into the day not just taking photos of it for social media purposes. If you haven't seen someone in weeks, isn't having two arms open to get that first hug more important that videoing the look on their face? 

This year I plan to spend more time helping my teachers and students see the value of technology used efficiently and timely.