Did You Know...

So I was doing some websurfing today and I came across this astonishing fact:

By the year 2049, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.

It was a part of this presentation, created by Karl Fisch, a high school technology teacher who was trying to get his teachers to think differently about what education should look like in today's classrooms.

How does this change the conversations that we're having about teaching and learning? Does our work change knowing that our world is changing drastically? Do the hours we spend in professional development seem short to anyone other than me?

What should the focus of our work become when we know that computers in the future will be so much more than they already are?

Has your school changed its focus?

Have you?

Building Digital Communication Skills

It's been a fun few months around my room---You see, I've started to use the tools of the Read/Write Web with my sixth grade students on a pretty regular basis. Our greatest accomplishment: We've started a blog and podcast program covering current events that my students are completely jazzed by!

This work wasn't easy, however. I spent several hours downloading software, reading about blogging, sharing sample podcasts with my students, and scaffolding their intial efforts. The majority of this time came after school and on the weekends---and were a result of my own personal interest in technology as an instructional tool.

What made it more difficult was that I've fallen behind in my pacing guides and curriculum maps for social studies and science. Investing classroom time into introducing digital communication to my students has taken time away from content coverage. I've found myself justifying the time that we spend on our digital projects because standardized reading and math tests are used to determine our school's standing in the eyes of the general public.

That's why I was relieved when I came across an interesting collection of resources put together by eSchool News today. It's introduction read:

Educators, economists, and forecasters all agree on the growing importance of so-called "21st-century skills" in the workplace. While reading, writing, and arithmetic will always form the foundation of any solid education, digital communication and media literacy are on the verge of being elevated to the same level of importance. In addition to requiring advanced skills in reading and math, the employers of tomorrow are going to require a high degree of digital and multimedia fluency.

While I'm confident that I'm developing a "high degree of digital and multimedia fluency" in my students, I worry about the children in the majority of America's classrooms.

I wonder how comfortable most teachers are at incorporating 21st Century skills into their instruction. Do teachers have a clear picture of the kinds of skills that 21st Century employers will be looking for? Do they have experience with the kinds of digital communication that will become common-place in the lives of their students? Do they have the support and job-embedded professional development necessary to take risks with technology in their classrooms and with their students?

How do we ensure that all teachers can help children to develop the digital literacies necessary for success in our rapidly changing world?

Insulting and Ignoring

I came across an interesting article on David Warlick's blog today that made me reflect on teaching for a moment. In it, the author--John Naughton--heckles newspaper executives who seem baffled that subscriber numbers are down. Another worry, he states is that the average age of newspaper subscribers has risen to an all-time high of 54.

The section of the article that resonated with me the most read:

But in any other industry, the discovery that your potential future customers weren't interested in buying your product would prompt an investigation into whether there was something wrong with the product. But what one hears - still - from the newspaper industry is that there's something wrong with the customers. And what one finds, on closer examination, is that the industry seems determined either to insult or to ignore them.

Does this remind you of education at all? Have we turned away from an understanding of who our "potential future customers" are, instead clinging to a vision of what we want them to be? Can we ever be truly successful as educators if we don't adapt to the changing nature of our "clientel?"

How many times have you heard another educator explain away struggling students by saying, "The kids of today just aren't what they used to be."

Unfortunately, those educators are right---the kids of today aren't what they used to be---but our schools haven't changed.

Is there a disconnect here?

What do accomplished teachers need to do in order to ensure that schools stay connected to their students? What kinds of professional development and training are necessary to ensure that our classrooms are engaging today's generation of students?

Staying Mute

Have you had a chance to see the comment that Mike Ford left in response to my recent rumblings about buzzwords in education?

It's got me thinking tonight.

In it, Mike writes:

We must collectively work to sustain our professional development/school improvement efforts. Only then will we be able to extinguish the "buzzword...this too shall pass thinking" that pervades our schools."

Do you ever struggle to figure out exactly what your role is in sustaining professional development efforts in your school?

I know that often times, I'm torn between trying to find a way to influence the decision making at our building level and just lying low---and it's the times that I decide to sit on the sidelines that I end up the most disappointed in myself.

You see, we have a responsibility as teacher leaders to advocate for the kinds of professional learning opportunities that are the most meaningful to us. So often, professional development dollars and energies are wasted on "one size fits all" approaches that miss the mark badly----and yet we rarely take a more active approach to ensuring that our own professional learning is valuable.

What message does that inaction send? Shouldn't we do everything within our power to push for PD that matters? Don't we cheapen ourselves somewhat when we sit through years of meaningless staff development without demanding---or helping to design---something better?

In a recent column, Jay Mathews asked a widely recognized teacher leader named Gardner why he had chosen to start speaking out on behalf of educators. Gardner's response:

"I decided I could no longer stay mute when so much was on the line."

What can you do to raise your voice in support of school improvement?